In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
I had recently been at a series of special events at the Bergen County Historical Society both for Christmas in 2022 and for more recent events as the Harvest Festival and a walking tour of the property in 2023. Although the events were interesting and the Christmas event with the period live music and the Pub set up in the Christie House, the attendance seemed rather low.
When I Googled the Historical Society, their social media and digital marketing were not as prominent as they should be either in describing their events or with a series of current pictures or videos. Their digital footprint needed some work. Also, their events never changed year after year. They had the exact same events with the same theme for each season.
This I could see was a problem as people want to have different experiences when they visit a place. These sites do not have to alter the events but do need to update and ‘freshen up’ their offerings with a different twist to keep people coming. Others wise, it it the same thing year after year. Also, they were not marketing the site for people outside of Bergen County let alone for foreign tourism. This is where the idea for “Tourism for the Bergen County Historical Society” project for Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. came into creation.
The Project “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Tourism at the Bergen County Historical Society”:
As a member of the Bergen County Historical Society for about five years I had to say the Society does have a tendency to run the same events over and over again and the attendance, especially when it came time for the weather, could really damper the attendance since most events were held outdoors. Plus they attracted the same crowd of older patrons and needed a new clientele to attend to give a fresh perspective to these events.
This is where I wanted to challenge both the students to look at the site from the idea of what would bring them to the Bergen County Historical Society and how the Society could look at making updates to bring that younger, family friendly crowd who was interested in the history of Bergen County but still wanted to have a good time and be engaged by the event. That can be a delicate balancing act in the age of social media and cellphone distraction.
It took some convincing from both sides to get this project off the ground. The Society kept thinking we were a real consulting firm and were hesitant to do the project. The none of my students had ever been to the Bergen County Historical Society let alone want to go there. The schools in Bergen County no longer even studied American history the way we did when I was in junior high or high school nor did they take the field trips to Trenton or Washington DC that we did back in the 1970’s. This is when I knew this would be a learning experience for both parties.
The goal was to bring more tourists both domestic and international to the Bergen County Historical Society with a series of new events for both Halloween and Spring/Easter that were both inclusive and family friendly that had a contemporary but historical twist to them. I asked the students to look at the history of both holidays and what the meaning of the Fall festivals and Spring Festivals meant to people through the ages. The third event the students had to create was a fundraiser for the Society that would raise $25,000 to raise money for the new museum on the Society’s property. I saw some shocked looks on the students faces but I knew they could do it.
There were some major challenges logistics wise for the project as well. I had to arrange a visit to the site because the students would never go out on their own to see it, plus the site was not open on a Thursday night so that would take some coordination. Also, being the Fall semester we always worried about the problem with the weather and the night of the tour it threatened to rain (it didn’t Thank God). Lastly, I only had four weeks to put this project together and get it presented to the Historical Society before I had to give the final exam and post grades by the end of the semester. This on top of all the projects and papers I myself had to do for Graduate school gave me many stressful nights. Somehow, we pulled it all off to a huge success.
The week after I presented the project to the students with a few groans, we were off the next Thursday night to a mandatory (and I mean mandatory!) field trip to the Bergen County Historical Society in River Edge, NJ to see all the buildings and learn about the history of the site and the importance of it during the Revolutionary War. The time change after Halloween meant we would be having the tour in the dark with not a lot of light to shine the way.
Parking at the site needed to worked on as well as their parking lot was hard to maneuver if you did not know the area and had some sharp turns to get to when parking your car. Still I got all the students there and basically on time (except one) and we got the tour underway with the former and current Presidents of the Society. I could not believe how well it worked out for everyone.
First I had to make sure that everyone was there the night of the tour which was difficult because people were coming from work and the traffic being what is was at 6:30pm at night but again everyone was ready to go. We started at the Campbell-Christie House, which was used as the pub for the Christmas event I had been at the year earlier. It had also been used as the gathering place for the tree lighting ceremony when COVID hit in Christmas 2020.
Starting our class tour of the Bergen County Historical Society at the Campbell-Christi House
Starting the tour at twilight. It was really dark on the Bergen County Historical Society site.
Entering the Campbell-Christie House for the tour.
The Campbell-Christie House during the day.
We toured the house and talked about its history and how it was moved to this location to save it from demolishment. Also the uses of the house in different programs.
We then moved onto the Demarest House which is the next house over. The home is much smaller but its significance in Bergen County history is the same as the Campbell-Christie. This type of Dutch style architecture is unique to this part the country where the Dutch had to adapt to weather conditions and building materials that could be found.
The Demarest House during the day.
Its ownership to one of the most prominent families gave it even more importance. We were able to see the loft space and how the family lived on a daily basis in the two rooms.
Our class touring the Steuben House toward the end of the tour.
Then it was on to the Steuben House which was the home of the Zabriskie family but given to General Steuben by the patriots for his assistance during the Revolutionary War. This is the main house that most activities take place in including lectures and musical performances. In each of the homes,.
Ex-President of the Society Deborah Powell lead the students on a very engaging tour of the Steuben House. It has an interesting and intriguing past.
The two Presidents of the Society who joined us told me later how impressed they were that the students were so engaged in the conversation and wanted to learn so much about the site. For all of my students this was the first time any of them had been to the Bergen County Historical Society, so it was a treat for them as well. I could see that they all learned so much from ‘being in the field’.
My student consultants from Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. with former President Deborah Powell in our group shot at the main room at the Steuben House. It was at the end of the tour.
The Steuben House during the day.
After the tour was over and the questions were answered, our group left for dinner. I can always tell the success of these projects when we all have dinner together. I chose a pizzeria around the corner from the Historical Society that I had never been to before but plan on returning to, Napolimania at 450 Hackensack Avenue in the Home Depot mall. It had the perfect amount of space for our group of 30 students, who were both hungry and cold. Both the pizza and the pizzeria were wonderful and we had such a good time.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. student consultants enjoying dinner.
Dinner at Napolimania Pizzeria for dinner after the tour.
Napolimania at 450 Hackensack Avenue in Hackensack, NJ TripAdvisor review:
I think one of the most important aspects about this project is that the Team “breaks bread” with each other (have a business meal). It is one of the biggest parts of Team Building and a way for strangers to get to know one another. I have seen more friendships formed over these meals and a transition of how the students treat this project. Most of them start taking it more seriously and then the work begins. By the way, the pizza was excellent that night and I highly recommend the restaurant for the food and service.
The next week, I started to give more time in the classroom for the students to work on their project as it was crunch time and they only had three weeks to complete it and present it to me. This is when the stress levels of the Teams start because then you see the people who will really work and the ones that put in the minimum and trust me, they make their feelings known. I had my share of headaches before this presentation but for the other 95% of the class, I saw some major transformations in the students, their attitudes towards the project and a lot of creativity.
We had the presentation in the fifth floor conference room at the Lyndhurst campus of Bergen Community College and this is only the second time I have used this room but it is the best one to present the project in.
The Presentation welcome:
CEO Watrel’s welcome
President Beqo welcome:
President Sorak Beqo opening the program for “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Tourism at the Bergen County Historical Society” on the night of December 7th, 2023.
The Executive welcome and headquarters plan.
Our honored guests that night were the President of the Bergen County Historical Society, the former President of the Society and one of the Board members. I would have hoped we would have had a better turn out from the Society but I understood that it was the holiday season and everyone had so many commitments plus it was later in the evening and down in Lyndhurst. Still, it was nice to have the ladies attend for feedback on the Presentation.
Each group gave their Presentation along with creating two commercials, one promoting their events on the Society grounds and then one promoting the Society for tourism.
Team One Presentation:
Team One presenting their ideas for events and fundraising at the Bergen County Historical Society.
Team One presenting their ideas to raise money for the new museum.
Team One’s Presentation on YouTube.
Team Two Presentation:
Team Two pitching their ideas for the Bergen County Historical Society.
The ideas for fundraising for the new Museum at the Bergen County Historical Society.
The extra credit project that Team Two created was one of the reasons they won the contest.
Team Two Presentation on YouTube.
Team Three Presentation:
Team Three making their pitch for new events at the Bergen County Historical Society. They gave one of the most professional presentations that I had seen in a long time.
Team Three making their pitch on their ideas for fundraising for the new Museum.
Team Three Presentation on YouTube
Closing Remarks on YouTube:
Being only given four weeks to pull this project off, the student consultants did an excellent job on this project. The projects were creative, inventive and showed that they had studied and visited the historical site more than once. They used all the buildings on the property for different events coming up with new ideas on old events and creating new ones.
I liked the ideas of the Easter Egg hunts and Bunny visits as well as how to approach Easter as a secular event taking its Pagan roots and putting a new twist on it. For Halloween, the students incorporated old ideas such as apple bobbing and hayrides around the property with utilizing the historic homes as haunted houses. The winning group even used a haunted maze and a petting zoo to the mix.
For the museum fundraiser, the student consultants had some creative ideas to raise money for the museum. One group used a food truck event, another used a full day event and for their extra credit event was a “Revolutionary Dance” that I thought was really interesting. It always amazes me the way that students give such a fresh perspective to a project. I could tell that the Board members of the Society were blown away by the ideas that the students came up with to bring more people to the site.
After the Q & A for the project, we took our Corporate shot for Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. headquarters. I was impressed with what a sharp group we made.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Corporate shot-Lyndhurst “Tourism at Bergen County Historical Society” Team December 2023.
All three Teams were given the task by one of the founding members of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. to create ideas for the Corporate Christmas Party. The students were tasked with creating a menu with one appetizer, a main dish and a dessert with a signature drink and then had to create a corporate message in both English and Spanish. It is always fun to see the results on this:
In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees
In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.
Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.
To continue the tradition of marketing small Bergen County towns for foreign and domestic tourism, I had been eyeing Glen Rock, NJ as the next town to promote. A small upper middle class town in the northern part of Bergen County, Glen Rock is rich in history. Known for the famous “Rock” just off the southern part of the downtown that the town is named for and a small but vibrant downtown and a small historical museum that was in need of some social media attention, I thought this was the best town to choose this time around.
I spent a couple of days exploring the downtown to get some inspiration and ate lunch in a local pizzeria that I was not thrilled with. I made some adjustments to the project when I looked at the town’s Facebook page to see what types of activities that they hold. I saw that they needed more detailed events at all the holidays, a stronger downtown presence and a new town logo. This is when these projects become fun. You want to show a town its potential for tourism in the future both domestic and foreign. There was so much to show off in the town of Glen Rock, NJ.
The Project “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock, NJ: Be a Tourist in your own Town”:
These projects take about six to seven weeks to pull together. I had seen my class roster several weeks earlier and I knew most of the students who were in my class had taken my Introduction to Business class so I knew where to plug in most of this semester’s executives of the company.
The “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock” Team on our tour of the Town of Glen Rock, NJ for our project with the Honorable Councilwoman Jill Orlich.
Glen Rock does not the historic downtown that Paterson, Rutherford or Westwood have but they do have a wonderful museum with the “Museum at the Station”, their small historical society at the Glen Rock Train Station and of course “The Rock”, a famous Lenape tribe marker located south of the downtown. There was a lot of history in the town and many places that tourists would like to visit.
I built on some of the ideas that I had used in the Rutherford and Westwood projects, creating new Christmas, Halloween and Summer events based on what we did for the other towns. I knew there were some problems with the Tree Lighting ceremony in town so we created the “Snowflake Festival” with Mr. and Mrs. Snowflake as the ‘grand marshals’ of the event as opposed to Santa Claus.
For Halloween, we created the “Pumpkin Festival” with the theme around the movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, which was a series of tents with all sorts of activities from face painting, pumpkin decorating and watching the film that evening.
For the Summer, I saw that Glen Rock does a lot for their Senior residents. This is not the “Big Band” era group but the “Disco Era” group of seniors so I wanted to create something special for them as well. So I created a “Seniors and the 70’s” event where bands that played 1970’s music would be featured for a full month in their bandstand in Veteran’s Park.
For our Historical Team, they were tasked with creating a Lenape tribe event in honor of the long history with the town’s origins, a historical tour of the town starting in the downtown area and creating an ad campaign and commercial to promote the “Museum at the Station”. It is such a great museum so why weren’t people visiting it? Plus the group’s each had to come up with a series of new logos for the town.
The new Lenape Indian logo by the Historical Team
It was an ambitious group of events.
I knew the students were up for the challenge. Still it was a challenge for me to get some of the students to buy into the concept. Every semester it is the same thing. Eighty percent of the students buy into the group project and then there are the few who do nothing. I could see that this semester as well.
The Lenape Event created by The Historical Team
We started the project myself introducing the project to the students four weeks into the course and explaining the project and how I wanted to approach it. Since a third of the class had taken my course in Introduction to Business, they had all worked on similar projects in the past and understood what was expected of them.
Our fifth week into class, I took the students on a walking tour and lunch in Glen Rock, NJ’s downtown and parks so that they would know what the town was all about and its attributes. On a sunny but really cold day, we met at “The Rock” to start the tour of downtown. We started with the history of “The Rock” and the part it played in Lenape life. We were joined on the tour by the Honorable Councilwoman Jill Orlich.
Myself with my student consultants in Veteran’s Park in Glen Rock, NJ where most of the proposed special events would take place.
We then moved on to the Museum at the Station which was closed for the day. I had taken the students here Halloween weekend on the only Sunday afternoon that they were open and gave them extra credit for coming. We filled the museum to capacity for the entire afternoon and the students were able to see what the history of the town was about. We just took pictures and noted parking for the events that would be planned here.
The Museum by the Station-The Glen Rock Historical Society at
We then did a loop of the Downtown, stopping in stores and visiting parks and the train stations to see how people from the community commute to jobs in Newark, Jersey City and New York City. This is also how outside tourism can be attained and people can commute into the town to attend anyone of the festivities.
We ended the tour with a Team lunch at Francesca’s Brick Oven Pizza and Pasta at 234 Rock Road in Downtown Glen Rock. The food and the service were excellent. It gave the student consultants as chance to ‘break bread’ and get to know one another better. This is a good Team building exercise plus a chance to experience their first business lunch with a company.
The Marketing Team Dining with each other at Francesca’s.
The Talent Team dining together at Francesca’s.
By our last Board Meeting, I thought we were ready and on December 6th, we made the formal presentation to the ladies at the Museum by the Station and a few invited guests. Being an afternoon class, I could not force people to change their schedule’s but it would have been nice to see more people at the Presentation.
The Presentation went by well and it was handled very professionally but we had some problems in the Marketing Division on what should have been included and what should not. They gave a whole presentation on the attributes of Marketing and that was not what was asked of them. I later found out they were doing project at the last minute and that did not thrill me. I could see this in the slides, menus and concepts. Still they created some memorable commercials promoting the town and the new Town Song. The logos they created for Glen Rock were excellent. All of this was changed and reorganized when we went to present the project to the Mayor and Council at Glen Rock City Hall on December 19th.
The newly created town logo for Glen Rock, NJ.
The Marketing Team proposals:
The Marketing Commercial:
The Glen Rock Town Song:
Welcome to Glen Rock commercial (the old commercial):
The Presentation of “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock, NJ-Be a Tourist in your own Town” in the classroom on December 6th, 2023. The Presentation went by very well and I was really impressed with the way the students handled themselves:
The PowerPoint presentation of “I’m Glad I’m in Glen Rock, NJ:
After the Presentation was over, I hosted a light reception for the students, our invited guests and family members. The ladies from the Museum by the Station/Glen Rock Historical Society had a lot of nice praise for the project and some interesting questions.
On December 19th, 2023 at the request of the Mayor, we presented a revamped version of the project with new ideas from the Marketing Team along with the selection of bands that would be used for the “Seniors and the 70’s” series of concerts. By the end of the Presentation, I could see that the Mayor and Councilwoman who showed up for the evening. They had a lot of intriguing questions from the stance of budgeting and attainment of volunteers and how to run the events.
The Presentation in Glen Rock City Hall in Glen Rock, NJ:
Part One:
Part Two:
Part Three:
This was filmed at Glen Rock City Hall in Glen Rock, NJ.
I treated the project as a real proposal and informed the Mayor and Council that Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. would try to obtain things like Corporate sponsorship for the big events and that we could work with the local colleges and the high school for volunteerism to help out to help defer costs.
We were also joined that evening by many parents of the student consultants who could not attend the first Presentation due to work commitments. It was a nice evening out for everyone and productive in giving the town some fresh ideas with an international prospective (at no cost to them) to tourists visiting the town.
Trust me, I was just as blown away by the project as the Mayor and Council were that evening, I would not have believed a group of students put all of this together but they did.
I really was “Glad I was in Glen Rock, NJ”.
The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.-Glen Rock Team Corporate picture on December 6th, 2023.
The website for the Glen Rock Team of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.:
As part of Quiz Four for the class, I have the students create a Corporate Holiday Party for the Glen Rock Division for Corporate New Brunswick. Here are their ideas:
9:00am we started the for the arrival for 400 Christmas trees arriving the day after Thanksgiving.
I swear time is really zooming by now. I just was finishing some of my Halloween activities with visiting the Blaze a week ago and now we just set up the stands for the Christmas trees that will be arriving next week, the day after Thanksgiving.
Arriving at the site with the new shed.
We all got to the site early to see our new trailer that will be replacing the Christmas shed that seriously got a lot of use over the last decade. It was time to replace it and this was a really good idea. It is better for storage, energy use and just looks better.
Getting the stands set up for the next week delivery.
It took all of us about three hours to clean the site, set up the stands, do the logistics for the site and get things ready for next Friday’s Christmas tree drop off. It is always a hectic day and a lot of work. Some of us have been doing this for years so it goes by fast. I just hold things and try to stay out of the way. There are drills and hammers all over the place.
We had the move the stands around several times to get them right.
This is where teamwork really comes into play. It was a lot of coordination and things got done smoothly. We are all ready to go.
Working on the shed set up and finishing the Christmas tree stands.
The finished site awaiting the trees.
Putting the last touches on the site before Thanksgiving 2023.
Now we wait for the trees to arrive and the sales to begin. Santa’s helpers are not this efficient.
We will be selling trees starting November 24th, 2023 until they sell out (which we are taking bets will be in less than two weeks). The best thing to do is get there early.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
My commercial from a few years ago:
I think I am a great salesman. We are getting more people from Manhattan every year. We also are getting Hoboken, Brooklyn and from all the surrounding towns.
Christmas Tree Drop Off on November 24th, 2023:
We gathered again with several high school volunteers for the Christmas tree drop off on Saturday November 24th, 2023. The truck delivering the trees of course arrived at 7:15am in the morning when he should have been there at 8:00am. I had just gotten out of the shower when I received the text so I got dressed as quickly as possible, ate a quick breakfast and off I went to the Christmas Tree stand site. Four hundred trees were waiting for us on the truck.
Four Hundred Christmas trees needed to be unloaded that morning.
Getting the game plan together that morning.
Getting to work that morning.
Our President Steve Palladino leading the troops that morning.
The unloading of the trees.
We unloaded the trees in forty-five minutes another record for us. We had the help of a half dozen high school volunteers from Hasbrouck Heights High School and we appreciated them very much. They really helped get the trees to the piles.
Unloading the Christmas trees that morning.
Kyle leading the unloading in 2023.
Moving the trees in record time.
Finished unloading the truck in forty-five minutes. New record!
We had a new sales record. We had our first customer buy a tree at 9:30am in the morning. People want to get a head start in decorating and get the best selection of trees by buying the first weekend.
The first Christmas tree sale was at 9:30am, a new record!
President Steve Palladino of the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association helping sell the first few trees that morning.
The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association 2023 Christmas Tree group shot. Let the sales begin.
We gathered for a group shot at 10:00am. All the trees were unloaded, tagged and ready to be sold. Another record for us. This was the quickest year for getting the job done.
The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Christmas Tree sale has begun on the corner of Franklin Avenue and Terrace Avenue November 24th, 2023.
The Christmas tree site on December 8th, 2023. 75 more trees to go!
The new shed makes things so easy!
Only 75 more trees to go!
*Note: When the blogger left at 3:00pm that afternoon after a seven hour shift, we had already sold 27 trees and five stands.
On December 10th, on a gloomy morning and afternoon, I worked the morning shift with the two Stephens and we only had nine trees left at the opening shift. We had to work the 9:00am-1:00pm shift and were not sure if we would sell out before the end of the shift. We had a major storm coming up the coast and the Midwest had gotten hit hard by it.
The last shift of the season was on December 10th, 2023 from 9:00am-1:00pm.
It was funny though as it was warm for most of the morning and the sun kept peeking out of the clouds. We had shoppers who had tried to come to the site during the week but could not make it. For the most part the weather cooperated and was pleasant until about 11:45am and then it was a light rain. We had already sold seven trees at that point.
Us with two trees left at 12:45pm.
The last tree sold at 1:00pm as our shift ended. One tree was being donated and then we were done. The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Christmas Tree sales officially ended at 1:00pm on December 10th, 2023. 400 trees sold in two weeks and three days. Great Season!
We are now done!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
On a warm January 27th, 2024 right after my return from Abu Dhabi, we met on a 50 degree day and took the stands down and cleaned the site. Thirty-five members got together and got the job done. It was another great season and we will see everyone in another ten months.
The Christmas tree clean up start. It is amazing that they say get here by 9:00am and it is half done.
Cleaning up the lot.
Almost done!
The last leaf blowing of the lot.
Done by 11:00am! We will see everyone again on November 22nd, 2024.
Exploring Hasbrouck Heights to find the best ghosts, ghouls, witches and things that go bump in the night took up much of my last two weeks as I finished my papers at NYU and then as the weather started to finally cool go searching for the best decorated house for our Men’s Association’s Third Annual Best Halloween Decorated House Contest.
That meant al lot of driving around town looking at lawns for the best decorations and for the most creativity. Hasbrouck Heights, NJ is the perfect place to come haunting for a good time with our Window Painting Contest downtown, decorated dollhouse and the Circle and the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Third Annual Halloween House Decorating Contest.
The Historic Dollhouse on the Circle in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ.
The Hasbrouck Heights Annual Halloween Window Painting Contest.
As I told the guys on the committee, anyone can put up inflatables but to really decorate a home similar to the caliber as Christmas takes some talent. There may have been a bit less than last year but the people who did decorate went all out. It took about a week and a half but we announced our winners for both the House Decorating Contest and the Merchant Decorating Contest.
Heights Flower Shoppe in Downtown Hasbrouck Heights was the winner for a second year in a row.
Here is our press release on the event:
The Third Annual Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Halloween House Decorating Contest 2023
By Justin Watrel
Halloween has come to Hasbrouck Heights and the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association has picked the winners in the Third Annual Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Halloween House Decorating Contest. We traveled every road in town both during the day and at night to find the best ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night on people’s lawns and houses, showing off the creativity of the residents of Hasbrouck Heights on Halloween night. The contest was under the direction of Chairman and Executive Board member Justin Watrel.
Justin Watrel, Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Executive Board Member and Chairman of the Halloween House Decorating Contest.
The winners of the House Decorating Contest were Frank and Mary Rose Blunda at 510 Henry Street.
Frank Blunda with Chairman Justin Watrel, Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association.
The Blunda’s have been runner-up for the last two years and had ‘upped their game’ with new decorations and designing their lawn to be more of an ‘open haunted house.’
This year’s winner was 510 Henry Street. The Blunda’s upped their game this year after being runners up for the last two years.
The Blunda’s do not just decorate, their decorations invite you into the the display to admire and enjoy it.
When told they had won, Mrs. Blunda said, “I thought you were going to tell us we were runners up again” but the committee informed her and her husband, Frank, the master mind behind each year’s creative show, that they had won. “I added some extra things this year,” Frank Blunda said. “You should see the way we have lit the house at night. We have a lot of fun with this.” The Blunda’s have done an excellent job with decorating each year and have made the town proud with their creativity. It is an award well earned.
510 Henry Street at night
510 Henry Street in Hasbrouck Heights at night.
The Blunda’s decorations at night.
The two runners up this year were 36 Hamilton Avenue and 42 Central Avenue. The boarded-up windows and Mad Scientist display of the lawn at 36 Hamilton Avenue is the creative genius of residents Alex and Laura Pena.
Alex Pena in front of 26 Hamilton Avenue
“I love decorating the house for Halloween,” Alex Pena said. “This year I added more things to give it the look it has. I try to find a creative way to display all the skeletons and pieces I have.”
36 Hamilton Avenue was runner up in 2023.
36 Hamilton Avenue was looked like a haunted house.
The house has the appearance of a home abandoned except for the ghoulish residents on the lawn getting their final goodbyes. The walkways, roof and door awning were covered with skeletons welcoming you to this haunted abode.
The Mad Scientist display at 36 Hamilton Avenue.
The Chief of the Hasbrouck Heights Police Department Chief Joseph Rinke and his wife Lisa at 42 Central Avenue were the other runners-up in the contest. The roof and sides of the house have skeletons climbing and crawling their way into the house.
42 Central Avenue was another Runner up for the House decorating contest.
Ghosts and ghouls greet you from the walkway to the entrance of the house. When you enter, the entire house is decorated to the hilt with decorations in every room and even a spider display in the bathtub.
“Our daughter was born on Halloween so we like to entertain and have the house decorated for Halloween,” Lisa Rinke said of all the wonderful decorations around the house. “My husband spent a lot of time clasping skeletons around the house.” It showed in the way the skeleton army wanted to enter the home.
Joe and Lisa Rinke’s house at 42 Central Avenue had a skeleton army all over the house.
Chairman Justin Watrel with Joe and Lisa Rinke the Runners Up at 42 Central Avenue.
The Rinke family with their award.
The Merchants did their share of decorating along the Boulevard. This year’s winner for the Merchant category is the winner for the second year, Heights Flower Shoppe owner Ray Vorisek. Heights Flower Shoppe always does an excellent job not just with their windows but inside and outside the store as well.
Heights Flower Shoppe at 209 Boulevard won for the Second year in row.
Shoppers are greeted at 209 Boulevard with Mr. Pumpkin Head and various ghosts welcoming you into the story which was decorated to the hilt with interesting Halloween decorations, candy, and beautiful flowers to welcome guests to a Halloween feast.
Two time Merchant Division winner Ray Vorisek with Chairman Justin Watrel at Heights Flower Shoppe at 209 Boulevard.
“I love decorating the store for the holidays,” Ray Vorisek said. “The staff and I have a lot of fun during the holidays.” We are so proud of Mr. Vorisek and his staff for the excellent job they do each year with all the holidays especially between Halloween and Christmas.
Owner of Heights Flower Shoppe owner Ray Vorisek in front of his award winning windows.
The inside of Heights Flower Shop at Halloween
The Runner Up this year was Mimi and Jose Rodriguez at Mimi’s VIP Pet Salon & Boutique at 444 Boulevard. Their creative display of a skeleton girl walking her skeleton dog was pure genius and built on the logo of the store.
Mimi’s VIP Pet Salon & Boutique at 444 Boulevard was the Runner up for the Merchant Window Decorating Contest.
“The logo is my wife walking her dog,” Jose Rodriguez said. “My wife built on that.” Mimi Rodriguez was just as surprised by being runner up. “We thought this was a great way to decorate the store for Halloween and we had fun with it.” It was a clever way to incorporate the logo of the store with the design of the windows.
Owner Mimi Rodriguez with Chairman Justin Watrel in front of her windows.
There were many great houses with Halloween decorations to choose from but we awarded Honorary Mention to 115 Ottawa Avenue for their continued creative decorations including the madman being electrocuted in the front yard and lavish displays by 82 Woodside Avenue and 253 Henry Street, both previous winners of the contest in 2022 and 2021 respectively.
Chairman Justin Watrel with Mimi’s VIP Pet Salon & Boutique owners Jose and Mimi Rodriguez in front of the their award winning window.
Winners Jose and Mimi Rodriguez in front of their business.
Owner Scott Varicario decorates to the hilt every year with ghosts, ghouls and witches and things that go bump in the night all over the lawn at 253 Henry Street. Things crawl, reach and grab while they climb up trees and cover the yard.
253 Henry Street was the winner in 2021 and Runner up in 2022 and 2023.
Owner Scott Varicario always does an excellent job with decorating his house.
253 Henry Street is an excellent display that shows the spirit of Halloween.
“I love decorating for Halloween,” Scott Varicario said when we handed him the Honorary Mention to his creative efforts.
253 Henry Street
Last year’s winners, Matt and Lisa Fiduccia at 82 Woodside Avenue also showed off their creative efforts with a display on their front yard that always changes and has creatures popping out from here and there. There is always a rivalry between these two winners to show their love of the Halloween spirit.
82 Woodside Avenue was the winner in 2022 and the Runner up in 2023.
82 Woodside Avenue in all it gory!
A special Honorary Runner Up was given to 115 Ottawa Avenue owner Dennis Hall for his excellent displays over the last two years. Mr. Hall was very touched by the Honorary Award and said, “I didn’t even finish decorating this year. There is a lot more I will add in the future.”
115 Ottawa Avenue (Special Honorary award)
Honorary Runners-Up and Honorary Mention to Dennis and Aidan Hall of 115 Ottawa Avenue.
The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association wants to congratulate all the winners and the many homes that we visited. A special Honorary Mention to the following:
446 Burton Avenue
108 Central Avenue
237 Madison Avenue
417 Madison Avenue
308 Lawrence Avenue
84 Lawrence Avenue
116 Bell Avenue
123 Washington Place
103 Hamilton Avenue
103 Hamilton Avenue trees
94 Wood Street
143 Kipp Avenue
Bill O’Shea’s at 231 Boulevard windows at Halloween.
It has been hard since the Summer ended. I have a full load of classes at my college and being a full time student at NYU, it does not allow for much time to explore the City the way I want to on a daily basis. My walks now extend to and from Port Authority to the NYU campus on West 4th Street. I see a lot trust me and I have some of the most fantastic pictures of the brownstone neighborhoods of Chelsea and Greenwich Village but finishing the Theater District and Times Square is where I want to go to finish up that part of the City.
I will get back to my walk in Times Square soon.
It has been hard on Times Square with all the immigration coming into Manhattan and asylum seekers being housed in hotels in this area puts the police on guard again in this section of Manhattan and its tough to walk around and take pictures. I will probably have to wait until the Christmas break to walk this section of the City.
Halloween decorations in Greenwich Village.
Meanwhile, Halloween is here and it means all the running around from the City to the Hudson River Valley for events such as festivals, cemetery walks and haunted house visits. It also means all the Halloween events in Hasbrouck Heights including me running around town for the Third Annual “Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Halloween House Decorating Contest” which has been growing every year. All of this happening while I am giving Midterms for my students and taking Midterms at NYU. I do not get much sleep in both October and December.
The Hasbrouck Heights Merchant Window Painting Contest was even delayed because of rain in 2023.
I had rained most every weekend of the month of October so that put a damper into the football games up at Yale in New Have with Cornell and Rutgers in New Brunswick with Michigan State. Cornell won the game in a torrent of rain and managed to break a six year drought against Yale. I missed not going up but the whole weekend was a washout. Rutgers was a complete disaster for Michigan State which is having one of its worst seasons on record. We lost our coach and it has been a spiral of lost opportunities and disappointments. Welcome to my sophomore year at Michigan State. We lost by three touchdowns in the fourth quarter in another rain storm. It keeps raining all the time.
The beginnings of Halloween in the Village the second week of October.
As the month has progressed the leaves finally started to change colors and we finally started to see the signs of Fall. As I walked through the brownstone blocks on my way to class at NYU, I started to see the beginnings of Halloween. People are really decorating this year in the Village. There is a real beauty to the Village when the Fall arrives and the homes are adorned with skeletons, ghosts and pumpkins. There are things that go bump in the night as well. It is really a thing of beauty.
Halloween means running around too. From place to another I like to experience different sites in the City, the Hudson River Valley and in New Jersey. As the leaves changed colors it made it even more spectacular but it much later in the month than usual. All that rain changed everything.
Store windows got very creative in Manhattan.
I went to Blairstown and Hope, New Jersey for Friday the 13th for the afternoon on October 13th and that is an experience. The weather finally broke and it was a sunny, spectacular day and the moment my online class was over, I bolted out of the house and headed to Blairstown where the original 1980 film was shot over forty years ago. Only the first twenty minutes of the opening of the film was shot in both Blairstown and Hope but people would be elbowing each other to get the picture in.
Downtown Blairstown, NJ on Friday the 13th
My blog on visiting Blairstown and Hope, NJ on Friday the 13th:
I got to Blairstown around 11:00am and I thought I would never get a parking spot. I parked at the edge of the downtown and walked around. Talk about perfect timing as people really had not arrived in town yet so it was perfect for picture taking. That would not be the case later in the afternoon when it really got busy. People were taking walking tours and there were two sold out showings of the original “Friday the 13th” film.
The Water Building on October 13th, 2023 is the most popular place to take pictures.
The famous walkway under the Water Building where Annie walked through.
The scenes where the towns of Blairstown and Hope, NJ were shot.
It is a fascinating experience to see all these fans of the original film running around to the locations where the opening scenes had taken place. All of the merchants had Friday the 13th merchandise and were also stocked for Halloween and Christmas. It was such a beautiful day outside it looked it was going to be a busy afternoon for everyone.
The Blairstown Diner was much easier to get into on January 13th early this year but on October 13th the lines were out the door all day. The food is really good here.
The Blairstown Diner at 55 NJ Route 94 is always busy on Friday the 13th
I was looking for a late morning snack having gotten up so early for class and then getting on the road after class was over for the long drive. The Blairstown Diner was packed and had a line twenty deep as well as the coffee shop in the downtown area was also extremely busy that morning. So I walked around the downtown area and Blairstown does not have a lot of options for dining or at least a lot at that time of the morning.
Dale’s Market at 66 NJ 94 is a great place for breakfast and lunch to go.
While I was walking around I found Dale’s Market at 66 NJ 94 and they have an amazing prepared food section with hot food and sandwiches to go. I got their ‘Deputy’ breakfast sandwich with eggs, bacon, hash browns and hot sauce and took it to the park across the street for a morning picnic by the river. That was better than any restaurant.
That amazing breakfast sandwich “The Deputy” at Dale’s Market
Footbridge Park in Downtown Blairstown, NJ is a great place to have a picnic and relax from the crowds on Friday the 13th.
After walking around the downtown and seeing that the crowds were getting larger in Blairstown, I drove over to Hope, NJ to visit the Hope Historical Society Museum. I made an appointment at 1:30pm to see the inside of the museum and take pictures. The museum is rarely open so I had to take that opportunity when it came. It is a nice little museum that you should not miss.
The unique Hope Historical Society at 323 High Street in Downtown Hope, NJ
The museum was open for a tour that afternoon so I got in to take some interior shots. The museum misses out without having a special ‘Friday the 13th’ exhibition inside the museum but they do have private tours by appointment.
The inside of the Hope Historical Society
The inside of the Hope Historical Society
After visiting the museum, I headed off the to the Moravian Cemetery, which was really busy that afternoon with people traveling from all distances to take pictures in front the sign made famous by ‘Friday the 13th”.
The famous sign from the film “Friday the 13th”.
What I got a kick out of was that the man who ran the cemetery was outside making himself available for picture taking and was selling cemetery dirt for $10.00 a jar. The irony is that people were buying it and making donations to help renovate the church. I thought that was very clever.
Selling cemetery dirt on Friday the 13th was a brilliant idea.
Before I Ieft Hope for the afternoon, I stopped for some dessert at Humpty Juniors in Colombia, NJ right down the road from Hope and had a sundae. It was a nice way to end the day of touring. As I drove through Hope on my way back to Route 80 to go home, the town got a lot more crowded with people taking pictures and stopping to film the town. It really amazed me how serious some of these fans took these shots of the town.
Humpty Juniors at 72 Route 46 West in Colombia, NJ
The Banana Cream Pie sundae at Humpty Juniors is outstanding.
The next weekend brought even more scares and delights when after finishing an extremely busy week of classes lead to me the Merchant’s House in New York City for a haunted house walking tour and back up to the Hudson River Valley to explore the Clermont Estate for their haunted house tour. Both were sold out and the crowds coming in and out at that time of the evening were pretty amazing.
The week before both of these tours was extremely stressful with three papers and two presentations at NYU and then at Bergen Community College I had to give three quizzes and two major projects. I was burnt out by the end of the week and needed to see a ghost or something that bumped in the night to distract me. I have never had so much coming at me at once.
On a rather gloomy Friday night, I headed into the City for a Candlelight (more of a flashlight) tour of the Merchant House at 29 East 4th Street for a tour of the house in the dark hoping to see a ghost. I had already toured the entire house on my own over the summer so I knew the house quite well and I had not seen or heard anything.
The Merchant House at 29 East 4th Street does look a little creepy at night.
We met in the main parlor of the house at 8:00pm for our tour where they had an exhibition on spiritualism and death during the Victorian Age. That was very interesting the view that the Victorians had of handling death. It was very proper and ritualistic.
The exhibition on death and spiritualism
The darkened Parlor the night of the tour.
We walked through all the floors of the house and I did not see one ghost. There were actors dressed as various characters throughout the home (I did not know why they would want to be alone in the dark in a house that was known to be haunted but that was there deal) but with the exception with one woman coming to grab us, they kept still.
The Merchant House I have felt in the three times I have visited had a very welcoming feel to it. Like the family was happy so many people wanted to visit it. I never heard or saw anything and even at the end of the tour we were asked if we felt anything but no one answered. I guess we did not more than have a good time walking through the dark with a flash light and have a good time listening to the docent talk about the family history.
Trust me when I say that these tours sell out fast both last year and this year so book early. It is really worth the trip to walk through an old house on a gloomy night with safety in numbers. If we HAD seen something, we would have had each other to protect ourselves.
The Treadwell family supposedly haunts the floors of the Merchant House.
Later that weekend, I visited Downtown Boonton, NJ after a Bergen County Firemen’s Home Meeting and Entertainment Afternoon event and walked the downtown to see what was going on for Halloween.
The Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association October Event:
The downtown was decorated with all sorts of characters, ghosts, ghouls, monsters and things that went bump in the night. The Boonton Downtown Association always does a great job decorating for the Halloween holidays.
Downtown Boonton, NJ has a unique and funky vibe to it as it as the creative types are moving into town.
One of the creepy downtown figures.
This looked like a cross between Jason and the Phantom of the Opera.
This friendly welcomed me in Downtown Boonton, NJ.
This alien creature greeted me near the library.
Downtown Boonton, NJ is so beautiful during any season.
After a long week of classes and my online Hotel Sales & Marketing class on Friday morning by Zoom were finally over and papers done, up I went to the Hudson River Valley to visit my next ‘haunted house’ tour at the Clermont Estate in Germantown, NY, the home of the Livingston family.
I have visited the Clermont Estate many times before COVID but now that it has finally reopened they are having all the special events that were once extremely popular including the Halloween tour which they had not hosted since 2019. The house was amazing and decorated for a Victorian Halloween.
I was able to get up to Germantown while it was still light out after morning classes and was able to explore Downtown Germantown before the tour of Clermont. It is such a pretty little town but I can tell getting more expensive by the quality of shopping, restaurants and little inns that are in the downtown. I could tell that the sonic boom of COVID (people moving up from the city and changing all these little Hudson River towns), changed this town from a localized front to a quirky and expensive little community. Even the local grocery store was very nice in quality but very expensive.
The downtown Germantown shopping area.
The historical section of Germantown, NY.
The historic home just off Downtown Germantown.
After I toured Germantown, I had enough time once I got to the Clermont estate to tour the grounds and take pictures to update my blog. Things really did change from summer to fall. Most of the gardens were all dead now, the leaves were turning golden brown, yellow and red and it was a bit chiller outside. It was still fun to explore the grounds and watch the parks people lit the pumpkins. I had plenty of time to explore the estate before it got dark.
I walked along the river paths and passed groups of people taking pictures, past the ruins of the old Robert Livingston home that was destroyed by fire and then toured the gardens that were now in their fall transition. The estate was no less elegant and it looked beautiful in the autumn.
I made my way to the Visitors Center where the staff had fresh apple cider and cider doughnuts for all the people touring the estate that night and classic candies like tootsie rolls and Mary Janes for us to enjoy for early ‘trick or treating’. We all had a nice time watching the videos of the house and looking at the displays in what was once the old stables. Then our tour took place and we were led to the mansion.
The Ghost Tour took us on a tour through the house to meet the costumed characters throughout the mansion. The mansion was decorated for the Halloween and with the lights dimmed, it gave the house an eerie appearance to it.
When I arrived at the Clermont Estate, the house loomed in the distance in its it glories with the golden colors of autumn. It was so breathtaking along the Hudson River Valley with hues of gold, red and orange.
Jack-a Lanterns lined the pathways and lit the way to the house when it got dark. The tours started at dusk with pumpkins lit giving it a spooky start to the evening.
Before the tour started, we were greeted in the Visitors Center with fresh Apple Cider Doughnuts and Apple Cider from a local farm in Kingston, NY.
We were also treated to old fashioned Halloween candy with Mary Janes, Tootsie Rolls and other treats.
We started our tour at 7:00pm at twilight just as it was getting dark with the lanterns lit and the house waiting in the distance. It gave the start of the tour an eerie look to it and the affect brought out the best of Halloween.
The hallway was decorated for Halloween.
First we met an embittered Robert Livingston (who over acted) and acted like a jerk when I filmed him performing.
We stopped in the haunted Living Room to talk to the maid.
We met the ghost of Janet Livingston Montgomery in the Parlor. She talked about her time in the house and how life was back then.
Then it was off to the Dining Room to meet the last inhabitant of the house, Janet Livingston.
Margaret Beekman Livingston guarding the Dining Room.
On the way to the kitchen, we met Captain Kidd, the Livingston children and the last owners of the house on the way out the back door to end the tour. The whole tour took less than an hour.
We exited the house through the kitchen and out the door to a moon lit night with jack-a-lanterns taking us back to the Visitors Center. I loved this picture because it really did look like we were leaving a haunted house. We made it back up to the Visitors Center before the last group left on their tour. I got to go to the bathroom before they closed for the evening. The parking lot was pitch black and I had to use my cellphone to find my car. It was a two hour trip home that evening.
The week in between the Haunted House tours and pre-Halloween weekend was sheer insanity with papers due, midterms at both colleges, grading and a lot of running around. I swear for the entire month of October I never sat still. It was long nights where I was up until 2:00am every night barely getting five hours of sleep. I know that is the life of the graduation student but it got to be too much for me. Work and school were getting to me.
Halloween on West 10th Street.
That week I had to judge the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Halloween House Decorating Contest which is in its third successful year. I had to drive every street in Hasbrouck Heights trying to find the most perfectly decorated house. I did not want to see access more than I wanted to see creativity. Having inflatables to me is cheating. It does not take much to inflate something. It was the people with the decorations on the house, the lighting and the props that make up how a house stands out in the contest. People who have fun and show other residents the true spirit of the holidays.
In the Merchant category that created the previous year, I look to the whole package of the business. Is it decorated inside and out? Does it have a window that is more than just props but a theme to it? How creative is the approach to the windows? I have to say that there was not many choices this year as many merchants did not decorate their windows this year. Most wait until Christmas to show their creativity. I am hoping the more exposure of this contest gets the more people will be more competitive at Halloween as well.
While that was going on and I walked the Boulevard looking for the perfect windows, the elementary school kids were painting the downtown merchants windows for the Annual Halloween Window Painting Contest. Those kids were really creative and here are some of the artworks I saw that afternoon:
HH Annual Window Painting Contest
HH Annual Window Painting Contest
HH Annual Window Painting Contest
Some of them were just fun.
Ghosts and Ghouls scare and delight.
Many spooky returns
The one on the right was my personal favorite.
Spooky creatures.
Spooky trees.
Ghosts haunting the way to Hasbrouck Heights.
A Halloween surprise.
More Ghost and ghouls
Chucky returns.
The rains returned on Sunday and through most of the week until the weekend before Halloween where we had a eighty one degree day that Saturday. Talk about brilliant weather and everyone really freaked out and ran around in shorts. The Saturday morning before Halloween I presented the winners of the Third Annual Hasbrouck Heights. I have never seen people so excited to receive an award which was well deserved. Here is the press release that we sent to the papers:
My blog on the ‘Third Annual Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Halloween House Decorating Contest’:
The Third Annual Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Halloween House Decorating Contest 2023
By Justin Watrel
Halloween has come to Hasbrouck Heights and the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association has picked the winners in the Third Annual Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Halloween House Decorating Contest. We traveled every road in town both during the day and at night to find the best ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night on people’s lawns and houses, showing off the creativity of the residents of Hasbrouck Heights on Halloween night. The contest was under the direction of Chairman and Executive Board member Justin Watrel.
Justin Watrel, Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Executive Board Member and Chairman of the Halloween House Decorating Contest.
The winners of the House Decorating Contest were Frank and Mary Rose Blunda at 510 Henry Street.
Frank Blunda with Chairman Justin Watrel, Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association.
The Blunda’s have been runner-up for the last two years and had ‘upped their game’ with new decorations and designing their lawn to be more of an ‘open haunted house.’
This year’s winner was 510 Henry Street. The Blunda’s upped their game this year after being runners up for the last two years.
The Blunda’s do not just decorate, their decorations invite you into the the display to admire and enjoy it.
When told they had won, Mrs. Blunda said, “I thought you were going to tell us we were runners up again” but the committee informed her and her husband, Frank, the master mind behind each year’s creative show, that they had won. “I added some extra things this year,” Frank Blunda said. “You should see the way we have lit the house at night. We have a lot of fun with this.” The Blunda’s have done an excellent job with decorating each year and have made the town proud with their creativity. It is an award well earned.
510 Henry Street at night
510 Henry Street in Hasbrouck Heights at night.
The Blunda’s decorations at night.
The two runners up this year were 36 Hamilton Avenue and 42 Central Avenue. The boarded-up windows and Mad Scientist display of the lawn at 36 Hamilton Avenue is the creative genius of residents Alex and Laura Pena.
Alex Pena in front of 26 Hamilton Avenue
“I love decorating the house for Halloween,” Alex Pena said. “This year I added more things to give it the look it has. I try to find a creative way to display all the skeletons and pieces I have.”
36 Hamilton Avenue was runner up in 2023.
36 Hamilton Avenue was looked like a haunted house.
The house has the appearance of a home abandoned except for the ghoulish residents on the lawn getting their final goodbyes. The walkways, roof and door awning were covered with skeletons welcoming you to this haunted abode.
The Mad Scientist display at 36 Hamilton Avenue.
The Chief of the Hasbrouck Heights Police Department Chief Joseph Rinke and his wife Lisa at 42 Central Avenue were the other runners-up in the contest. The roof and sides of the house have skeletons climbing and crawling their way into the house.
42 Central Avenue was another Runner up for the House decorating contest.
Ghosts and ghouls greet you from the walkway to the entrance of the house. When you enter, the entire house is decorated to the hilt with decorations in every room and even a spider display in the bathtub.
“Our daughter was born on Halloween so we like to entertain and have the house decorated for Halloween,” Lisa Rinke said of all the wonderful decorations around the house. “My husband spent a lot of time clasping skeletons around the house.” It showed in the way the skeleton army wanted to enter the home.
Joe and Lisa Rinke’s house at 42 Central Avenue had a skeleton army all over the house.
Chairman Justin Watrel with Joe and Lisa Rinke the Runners Up at 42 Central Avenue.
The Rinke family with their award.
The Merchants did their share of decorating along the Boulevard. This year’s winner for the Merchant category is the winner for the second year, Heights Flower Shoppe owner Ray Vorisek. Heights Flower Shoppe always does an excellent job not just with their windows but inside and outside the store as well.
Heights Flower Shoppe at 209 Boulevard won for the Second year in row.
Shoppers are greeted at 209 Boulevard with Mr. Pumpkin Head and various ghosts welcoming you into the story which was decorated to the hilt with interesting Halloween decorations, candy, and beautiful flowers to welcome guests to a Halloween feast.
Two time Merchant Division winner Ray Vorisek with Chairman Justin Watrel at Heights Flower Shoppe at 209 Boulevard.
“I love decorating the store for the holidays,” Ray Vorisek said. “The staff and I have a lot of fun during the holidays.” We are so proud of Mr. Vorisek and his staff for the excellent job they do each year with all the holidays especially between Halloween and Christmas.
Owner of Heights Flower Shoppe owner Ray Vorisek in front of his award winning windows.
The inside of Heights Flower Shop at Halloween
The Runner Up this year was Mimi and Jose Rodriguez at Mimi’s VIP Pet Salon & Boutique at 444 Boulevard. Their creative display of a skeleton girl walking her skeleton dog was pure genius and built on the logo of the store.
Mimi’s VIP Pet Salon & Boutique at 444 Boulevard was the Runner up for the Merchant Window Decorating Contest.
“The logo is my wife walking her dog,” Jose Rodriguez said. “My wife built on that.” Mimi Rodriguez was just as surprised by being runner up. “We thought this was a great way to decorate the store for Halloween and we had fun with it.” It was a clever way to incorporate the logo of the store with the design of the windows.
Owner Mimi Rodriguez with Chairman Justin Watrel in front of her windows.
There were many great houses with Halloween decorations to choose from but we awarded Honorary Mention to 115 Ottawa Avenue for their continued creative decorations including the madman being electrocuted in the front yard and lavish displays by 82 Woodside Avenue and 253 Henry Street, both previous winners of the contest in 2022 and 2021 respectively.
Chairman Justin Watrel with Mimi’s VIP Pet Salon & Boutique owners Jose and Mimi Rodriguez in front of the their award winning window.
Winners Jose and Mimi Rodriguez in front of their business.
Owner Scott Varicario decorates to the hilt every year with ghosts, ghouls and witches and things that go bump in the night all over the lawn at 253 Henry Street. Things crawl, reach and grab while they climb up trees and cover the yard.
253 Henry Street was the winner in 2021 and Runner up in 2022 and 2023.
Owner Scott Varicario always does an excellent job with decorating his house.
253 Henry Street is an excellent display that shows the spirit of Halloween.
“I love decorating for Halloween,” Scott Varicario said when we handed him the Honorary Mention to his creative efforts.
253 Henry Street
Last year’s winners, Matt and Lisa Fiduccia at 82 Woodside Avenue also showed off their creative efforts with a display on their front yard that always changes and has creatures popping out from here and there. There is always a rivalry between these two winners to show their love of the Halloween spirit.
82 Woodside Avenue was the winner in 2022 and the Runner up in 2023.
82 Woodside Avenue in all it gory!
A special Honorary Runner Up was given to 115 Ottawa Avenue owner Dennis Hall for his excellent displays over the last two years. Mr. Hall was very touched by the Honorary Award and said, “I didn’t even finish decorating this year. There is a lot more I will add in the future.”
115 Ottawa Avenue (Special Honorary award)
Honorary Runners-Up and Honorary Mention to Dennis and Aidan Hall of 115 Ottawa Avenue.
Everyone was so happy to win their awards and even to be mentioned that it made all the hard work worth. I never worked so hard on an event before but the people who won were really touched by the whole event and I could tell put a lot of hard work into creating the ‘works of art’ on their lawns and I was so proud of their work.
After I handed out all the awards and took pictures for the papers, I was off to Coney Island to go to Luna Park for a class project on experiencing the park as a tourist for my Customer Relationship Management class. No one could believe the weather that Saturday. It was clear and sunny and 81 degrees. It felt like a summer day on the Boardwalk.
Luna Park in Coney Island on a strange 80 degree day.
Our Research Paper for our Customer Relationship Management class:
We rode the Cyclone roller coaster, road the historic Carousel and then had lunch in the park at Luna Park’s pizzeria. The pizza was good but not the best I had ever eaten. They did a nice job with it and the service was very friendly. We got to spend most of the afternoon touring the park and talking with the staff getting their take on the park.
The Harvest Festival at Luna Park
The Halloween Harvest Festival
Luna Park was packed on this sunny warm late October afternoon.
We enjoyed lunch at the pizzeria.
The Luna Park Midway.
Our first ride was the Cyclone which I had not been on in years.
Our next ride that we experienced was the historic carousel which went around four times.
After we rode the only real ‘adult’ rides, we talked with the staff about the upcoming “Frost Festival” for the holidays when the park would be open through Christmas. This was a first for the amusement park and would extend tourism through Coney Island into the holiday season. The park staff seemed to like the fact that they had employment through the holiday season.
The Luna Park Boardwalk entrance.
After our walk through both Luna Park and Geno’s Wonderwheel Park, we went off to explore the Boardwalk. The Boardwalk was packed with people riding bikes and scooters, dancing on the Boardwalk and people were sunbathing all over the beach. Some people were swimming which I thought was crazy. The water must have been too cold.
The Boardwalk in Coney Island on that late October day.
We walked from the amusement section of Coney Island down to Brighton and Manhattan Beaches where the demographics and mood of the Boardwalk change immediately once you pass the Aquarium. It is more families and locals sitting the on Boardwalk in their chairs socializing with one another.
The amazing sunset on the Boardwalk that everyone stopped for to watch.
Even though it was eighty degrees out and getting darker it never fell below seventy degrees while we were there exploring the island and I was perfectly comfortable walking around in shorts and a sweatshirt. I was even hot with this and had gotten a tan that afternoon. The sunset was amazing on the beach and people just stopped to look.
The Boardwalk at twilight
The full moon at the end of the Boardwalk.
The parks lit at night.
Luna Park at 7:00pm at night was like a fantasy land of lights.
The amusements were busy when we finally left the parks around 7:30pm and I said good bye to my classmate and headed into Chinatown in Manhattan for a snack. I was getting hungry after all that walking and even Chinatown was busy on this warm evening. I just think the weather had people grasping onto what was left of the summer and enjoying it while they could.
I headed to Wonton Noodle Garden again for dinner. As the evening cooled, there was nothing better than a Cantonese Wonton Soup with Barbecue Pork, Wontons and Egg Noodles with a side of Fried Wontons. That was the best dinner and a great way to end the evening and a wonderful day. This is what a research paper should be all about. Being in the trenches and exploring it as a group.
The delicious ‘cure all’ Cantonese Wonton Soup with Barbecue Pork, Wontons and Egg Noodles.
The Fried Wontons here are delicious.
I had taken my students the next day to the Glen Rock Historical & Preservation Society for a extra credit field trip for an afternoon of exploring the museum. Talk about a change in weather in one day. We went from sunny, clear and warm to gloomy, raining and a drop of about twenty degrees. It was still warm but seasonally warm at sixty degrees. I was not sure how the students would react to the museum but it seemed to be an eye opener to most of them. They had never been here before.
The Glen Rock Historical & Preservation Society “Museum at the Station” at 176 Rock Road during a nice day in Glen Rock, NJ.
We spent about two hours at the museum on a very rainy afternoon. The historical society ladies explained the museum and its collection to the students and the Mayor of Glen Rock joined us after the town’s Trunk or Treat event was over. Mayor Kristine Morieko spent time with my students getting to know them and supporting a project I was doing to create a Marketing plan for tourism to the town. It was a great afternoon of networking for the students and getting to know the town of Glen Rock. I got to see the museum on one of the rare days it was open and got to see the George Wolfe exhibition of the local cartoonist’s work.
The “George Wolfe” exhibition at the Glen Rock Historical & Preservation Society Museum.
On the night before Halloween, I got to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a Private Members Night. It was after a very long day of classes and running around over the weekend so it was a welcome distraction. I love these Private Members Nights. It is fun to wander around the galleries and just take my time with visiting.
The Met logo for the ‘Halloween at the Met-Private Members Night’
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Private Members Night was the night before Halloween, known as ‘Mischief Night’, where more tricks than treats are part of the fun. The museum has these private nights so that members can enjoy the museum on their without the huge crowds that come during the day. These events are so popular now and they have adjusted the hours to 7:00pm-10:00pm where working people can now enjoy the evening.
The Met lit at night for the Private Members Night did look a little spooky but a festive environment was inside waiting for us. A giant house of mystery awaiting us with treasures inside.
The lines started to fill as we entered the museum at 7:30pm. I got there after my Digital Marketing class at NYU was over. All the tricks and treats of the museum were open to members who entered the front door if they dared!
The very festive entrance of The Met at the information booth represented the coming of fall and the Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays.
The beautiful Fall arrangements in The Met’s nooks. It really made the night festive.
The first exhibition that I visited was “The Northern Renaissance European Sculpture and Decorative Arts 1520-1630” and the exhibition held some of the most exquisite art of the collection. Beautiful decorative objects with the detailed work in the permanent collection. These treasures were gathered in one spot to show their true beauty.
The sign for ‘The Northern Renaissance European Sculpture and Decorative Arts 1520-1630’ exhibition
The craftsmanship of these objects were some of the most sophisticated of the era and royals competed to have the most beautiful objects adorn their homes. Some of the objects were pulled from the permanent collection and are different parts of the museum but when housed together they really make a statement of the quality and precise workmanship. These objects made a statement of the owners and who they were in society.
One of the most detailed pieces of the show was “Diana and the Stag”. The craftsmanship of the piece was amazing and it is such a beautiful piece.
The silver Diana and the Stag art object.
The next room I went to was the Wrightman Wing down the stairs to see Vertigo of Color” Matisse, Derain and the Origins of Fauvism. All these beautiful and bright colors in paintings from the French coastline.
The Vertigo of Color Exhibition in the Wrightman Wing of the Met.
My favorite piece and the painting that stood out the most was ‘Open Window Collioure’ by Henri Matisse. It was the most beautiful painting of the show.
“Open Window Collioure” is one of the most vibrant paintings in the show.
The other painting that really stood out in the exhibition was by artist Andre Derain.
The Andre Derain Painting “The Faubourg of Collioure”
The sign for the painting.
My next stop was the “Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200-400 CE” exhibition on the second floor. The display of Indian art was from all over the world and displayed some of the most unusual icons. The exhibition the immense craftsmanship of these early artists.
The entrance to the “Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India 200 BCE-400 CE” exhibition.
The Railroad Panels of the exhibition
The Railing pillars of the exhibition.
The Railing pillar sign.
Statuary from the exhibition.
The Pillar Abacus with elephants venerating the Ramagrama stupa.
The Elephant Pillar sign.
When we left the museum that night into the darkness that would become Halloween the next day, the museum employees wished us a good evening and gave us this sweet treat, a chocolate pumpkin that we were all munching on as we left the museum. It was the perfect way to end the evening. This is why I love the Met and have been coming here since 1973 and a member since 1993. It is a place of magic!
The delicious “Treat” we got when we left The Met that evening. The museum knows how to treat its members!
After the haunted night at the museum was over, I walked along the streets of the Upper East Side of Manhattan enjoying the decorations in preparation for Halloween the next day. Families really decorated their homes and the stores and brownstones were decked out for the Halloween holidays. This is becoming just as big as Christmas. Here are some of the great decorations that I saw that night.
Most of the these pictures were taken in the East 80’s and 70’s along the side streets between Madison Avenue and Third Avenue as I explored the neighborhood looking for the best haunts. People were really creative this Halloween.
Walking around the Upper East Side on Halloween week.
Halloween windows at a Park Avenue Florist during Halloween week.
Halloween decorations on the Upper East Side in the East 80’s.
Halloween on the Upper East Side in the East 80’s.
Halloween on the Upper East Side.
The haunting of the Upper East Side.
The haunting of the Upper East Side.
The next night was Halloween night and the Annual Halloween Parade that was celebrating its 50th Anniversary. My professor called class that night because she was sick and that meant getting to the parade route at 4:00pm. This meant meeting up with ‘cousin’ Mark Schuyler (our families married into one another 150 years ago so it makes us tenth cousins by marriage) and guarding the performers gate. I swear we hear every excuse from people trying to sneak in to watch the parade from they live here to they have reservations to a restaurant inside.
Guarding the gate: “Cousins” Mark Schuyler and Justin Watrel
The parade went by really well. The weather cooperated and it was in the high 50’s so it was a crisp but warm night at the parade. It was nice to see the crowds coming back to the parade again. COVID really effected the parade and in 2020 there was no parade. When it came back in 2021 (finally), it was nice to see people again.
Puppet rehearsal on Dominick Street and Sixth Avenue.
We stood at the gate, talked to tourists visiting the City for the parade and directing them to where they could march in it (it is at Canal Street where you will stand with hundreds of other costumed revelers ready to march up Sixth Avenue. People were having a ball. The parade is always exciting.
Excitement builds as the Ghostbusters enter the parade.
When we closed the gate at 8:00pm, I got to watch the parade from where it begins at Dominick Street and Sixth Avenue. This is where the magic is created and you see all the floats go uptown. I am not sure why people keep trying to sneak into the parade from here because it is not the greatest place to see the parade. You can see all the performers but it is better to go uptown on Sixth Avenue and enjoy it from there.
Patrons ready to enter the parade.
One of the best marshal costumes at the parade.
I watched the parade floats pass by me and now I could see why people fight to get onto the floats. Everyone on the floats looked like they were having a blast. People in costume were dancing and singing to mostly disco music on the floats as they passed by to head up Sixth Avenue. In between, hundreds of people marched in costume uptown. It made for an exciting parade.
The floats prepare to head up Sixth Avenue.
Floats heading uptown with everyone having a good time.
The bees entering the parade.
The floats entering the parade.
People getting ready to enter the parade to head uptown.
I left the parade around 9:30pm as it got cooler to head to dinner with other members of the parade staff. I could not believe how crazy busy the City was below 23rd Street. Every fast food, pizzeria and bar was packed with people. All the way to the restaurant, costumed people filled all the restaurants and bars much to the delight of every business owner around the parade route.
The irony of the whole evening was that when I left the restaurant that evening for home I passed a West Elm that was completely decorated for Christmas! As I looked at the Christmas trees, ghost, ghouls and things that bump in the night passed me drunk. God, these holidays are getting blurred. They are not even waiting until Thanksgiving to get the Christmas displays up. That was an interesting way to end Halloween night. That was until I got back to Hasbrouck Heights and the bus passed a house with a Christmas tree up.
Halloween would not be complete without a trip to the Pumpkin Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor at Croton-on-the-Hudson. I lucked out and it was another mild night in the 50’s when I arrived at 7:00pm.
I stopped for dinner at Dong Happy Garden at 440 Riverside Avenue #440 for dinner like I usually do before I go to the Blaze. Their food is always delicious. I swear that I have never had a bad meal there. As it cooled, I was in the mood for some Wonton Soup. The chicken broth was rich in chicken and ginger flavor and the wontons were plentiful. It was the perfect start to dinner.
The Wonton Soup at Dong Happy Garden at 440 Riverside Avenue #440 is excellent.
For dinner I am trying to lay off the fried foods and had the Beef with Broccoli, which is excellent here. The beef is plentiful and very tender, marinading in Hunan and Soy sauce and loaded with fresh broccoli. They have a nice place to sit while you are eating here, better than most take out places I go to and I highly recommend it before heading in for the grand show of hundreds of pumpkins.
My dinner on a cool night, Beef and Broccoli with Pork Fried Rice and an egg roll and a Coke.
The Beef and Broccoli is so good here!
After a good dinner it was off to the Blaze. For some reason, I did not see as many pumpkins as I normally do. It might have been because it was the second to last weekend of the show and they have been gearing the show down for the end of the season.
The entrance to the Pumpkin Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor.
The Van Cortland Manor at 500 South Riverside Avenue is always packed this time of the year. The night I went it was not different. I had never come to the show at 7:00pm and it was busier than usual. When you go to the 8:00pm, you have the estate to yourself.
The entrance to the Pumpkin Blaze in 2023.
There were a lot of the same displays in years past with pumpkin Ferris wheels, a pumpkin carousel, a pumpkin art gallery and city scenes. This year there were a series of pumpkin characters in a circus scene, flying through the air and acting silly. There were headless horseman displays and wondering through the maze. The illuminated Albany Post Road at night is really amazing at night.
You are greeted by Pumpkin Ghouls when you enter the Blaze.
Greeted by creatively carved pumpkins.
Some of the carvers did an amazing job with it.
My favorite group of pumpkins.
Passing the Pumpkin Church
Entering the Pumpkin Blaze that evening is like entering a surreal Halloweenland with lights and decorations all over the place. You really have to take your time to walk through the displays and see the details that are being shown.
Walking through the Pumpkin Art Museum.
Walking through the maze of the Blaze.
The decorated old Albany Post Road with pumpkins called the ‘Infinity Road”. The eerie road leads to no where but is actually the road that once led to Albany and where the Van Cortlandts had their pub and ferry building.
The Haunted Jellyfish as I entered the Tappan Boo Bridge
Walking through the lit tunnel with other patrons.
Crossing the bridge near the jellyfish.
The Van Cortlandt Manor lightshow. The manor will be closed for another year for renovations but still the light show is amazing.
Walking through the pumpkin cemetery across from the mansion.
Exiting the Blaze for the evening.
The spider web towards the entrance.
The Pumpkin figure as I left the Blaze that evening.
I was at the Blaze that evening for about an hour. It really was a nice walk. The crowds were not as heavy as they normally are but once Halloween is over, the place is busy but not as busy are before. Still it was another enjoyable way to end the Halloween season.
Again the irony was as I was driving home that night as I passed through Tarrytown and Sleepy Hallow, I saw the Christmas lights and decorations up. Goodbye Halloween and Hello Christmas!
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