Early Childhood Places

     Hello! Although I was technically born in Audubon (Camden County), New Jersey, in a small hospital, my family and I lived in Clementon, NJ. Recently, I visited some places my parents used to take me often during my childhood in the 1960s: Clementon Park, Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge, and Berlin Farmers’ Market. Therefore, this will not be so much as a travelogue as it will be a comparison of then and now.  

     Saturday, June 18, 2022: I haven’t been to Clementon Park, 144 Berlin Road, Clementon (Camden County)(856-783-0263) since the 1980s, and it, as well as the downtown, had changed a lot! I grew up in Clementon. Back then, in the 1960s, Clementon had a lively downtown with several retail and other businesses along Berlin Road and an art deco cinema. In addition, there was Clementon Amusement Park. This park, founded in 1907, was one of the few end-of-the-trolley (tram) line parks that the local transit company built to increase ridership on weekends. Of course, by the 1960s, those in power removed the trolley (tram) line and people arrived either by bus or car. Back then, I remember the admission being free because you paid by the tickets. My favorite rides then were the large carousel, the roller coaster called the “Jack Rabbit,” and the Flying Saucers—cars suspended by cable that circled around, and others. The park also included carnival games, fun houses, and miniature golf, as well as an arcade, a beach for swimming in Clementon Lake, and entertainment by way of a circus on certain days. Nowadays, there has been an admission price to enter the park, and the park has been completely remodeled. Where the main midway was, has now been a water park called Splash World. (No more swimming in the lake.) Here, I noticed different water attractions and rides that I’ve seen in other water parks: slides, inner-tube rides, wave pool, and areas where one could be dumped with water, etc. The main midway has been relocated to another area, and I noticed that there were less rides. While they did keep a few of the older rides, most of the other rides were either new rides or newer versions of older rides. They also had carnival-styled games and an arcade with mostly computerized games. (No more pinball machines.) Overall, this park and downtown Clementon has been a work in progress. Back in the 1970s, those in power tore down most of Clementon’s downtown in the name of “Urban Renewal”--that never came about. The result was mostly an empty downtown until the 1990s when a more modern shopping strip plaza got built on one side of Berlin Road. In time a few other businesses arrived downtown, but the town has still been lacking something. (There are plenty of websites about what happened to Clementon.) I did enjoy seeing this park on a recent visit, and hopefully, another generation will build memories about this place. 

      Tuesday, June 21, 2022: Unlike Clementon Park, I did visit Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge, 4 Sawmill Road, Medford (Burlington County), NJ (856-983-3329) last year. (I have a report about it on the My Blog section on my website from August 2021.) Nevertheless, last year’s visit was not my first visit to here. Before 1997, this center was strictly owned by the Woodford family. In 1997, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection offered Woodland Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge a “Green Acres” grant to help preserve its land and buildings. My visit this year wasn’t too different from last year, except I saw a different video in the Visitors Center. Anyway, since I was a child, the NJ Pinelands, especially in Burlington County, was almost a second home to me! We used to camp almost every year—sometimes a few times in a year—at Bass River State Forest, and take day trips to other areas of the Pinelands throughout the year. Some of these places included Batsto Village, a village dating as far back as the 1700s in Wharton State Forest; Atsion Lake, a lake I used to swim in located in another section of Wharton State Forest; and the former Lebanon State Forest—nowadays renamed Brendan Byrne State Forest, and especially Whitesbog Village, a company town founded by the White family in 1870s that the state restored to its early 20th century look. I have revisited many Pinelands places last year, and I wrote about them in My Blog. There has been so much to the NJ Pinelands, and my family and I have been to many places there in the 1960s and ‘70s. I would suggest you Google “NJ Pinelands” for more information.

     Thursday, June 23, 2022: From as far as I remembered, my parents shopped and browsed at Berlin Farmers’ Market and took me along! We also did other stuff in Berlin (Camden County), NJ because it was next to Clementon, NJ. We used to eat at the Berlin Diner which remained but currently owned by different people. Sometimes we shopped in downtown Berlin. Nowadays, their downtown hasn’t been as lively as it used to be in the 1960s, but it has had more to it than Clementon’s downtown. Because they didn’t get the “Urban Renewal” treatment like Clementon, several of the original buildings downtown have still been standing. Then once-in-a-while, we visited Berlin park, a park run by Camden County that contained nature trails, tennis courts, and a playground. Later, during the mid-1970s, we moved to Berlin. I lived there for about five years, and my parents lived there until 1988. On the date above, I visited Berlin Farmers’ Market, 41 Clementon Road, Berlin (856-767-1246) for the first time since 2019. This farmers’ market has been one of the oldest (founded in 1940) and one of the largest markets of its kind in Southern NJ. The market started by selling livestock and produce. By the time I started going here in the 1960s, this market no longer sold livestock, but they still sold produce and other merchandise, both edible and non-edible inside the building and outside. I also remember watching the auctions both inside and outside. Although the auctions have been gone along with the asphalt floors inside (They are tile now.), the stores selling different kinds of merchandise have still been here. While some stores have remained for years, plenty of others have changed. On some weekends, as many as around 700 outside vendors sold a multitude of merchandise. A few years ago, the owners of Columbus Farmers’ Market in Burlington County bought the Berlin Farmers’ Market, and in my opinion, the interior of the indoor market lost its rustic look, but I still found walking through here interesting.