Re: (erielack) 1978 Morris County (NJ) Station Inventory

[Erielack1_@_aol.com]

Patty Russo was the agent at Murray Hill for a number of years. He bid Morris 
Plains in December 1972 when the agent their retired. I bid Murry Hill and 
got Patty's job. I was assigned to Port Morris Tower at that time and Port 
Morris 3rd Trick had come up for bid. I got Murry Hill with only 3 months senority. 
Come spring, when the weather was warm and I did not have to depend upon the 
two pot belly coal stoves that heated Murray Hill I got bumped. Once I got 
their I knew why no one else bid the job. They did not want to freeze all winter. 
From Morris Plains, Patty later went to Morristown. 

John Bissell was always a good friend. We moved from Great Meadows to 
Hackettstown when I was in the 5th grade. I spent my summers off from school in Johns 
office when he was the agent at Hackettstown. I would ride my bike and spend 
a good part of the day at the station. John would let me sit in the bay window 
and listen on the dispatcher wire as Howard Oakly dispached the M&E. John 
also taught me how to type up waybills, freight bills and miscellanous bills. He 
learned a lot about station work from John before I ever went to work for the 
EL. 
At that time the P'burger would come into town. The crew would cut off 
outside of town clear of the crossing and pull down to the station with the 3 Geeps 
and any cars in their train for downtown Hackettstown. I remember John Winters 
was engineer, Gene Osterman Condr and Jim Wills brakeman. Everyday they would 
pick me up and I would ride the Geep with Mr Winters while they switched 
Tickeners Feed, Bergen Tool, Williams & Hibler Coal & Lumber, Cooke Color and 
Chemical. When they where done they would pull the units back to the station 
platform to let me off before returning back to their train and pull out of town to 
switch M&M candy. 
       When Hackettstown closed John went to Washington. During my senior 
year in high school I lived with my grand parents in Washington and would stop by 
and visit John most days on my way to school. I got my very first EL paycheck 
from John at the Netcong depot. 
When I was in high school I worked after school and Saturdays at the JJ 
Newberry store in Hackettstown. On Friday nights John and his wife would come to 
town shopping and we would visit. John and Clara Grafton, who was the agent at 
Morristown at that time would often have coffee together at the Newberrys lunch 
counter on Friday nights while their wifes shopped. 
Later when I was the agent at Bangor I lived a half a block from Gene 
Osterman, we lived on the same street. I used to go down and sit on his front porch 
and visit with him and his wife Betty. I used to give Betty Gene's paychecks 
and Jim Wills would stop and pick up his paychecks from me or call me and ask me 
to give it to his bother Fred. When I was in grade school and riding those 
Geeps with these men, I never dreamed that one day I would be passing out their 
pay checks to them. The EL really was a interconnected family. 
Bob Stafford

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