2024 NATIONAL MEDAL
for Museum and Library Service Finalist

Adults

Natural Wonders of NJ

Some of New Jersey's most exciting history can be found in our more than two dozen State Parks. Old names such as Wawayanda and Hopatcong remind us of the Lenni Lenape, or "Original People." Historic battlefields recall New Jersey's perilous years as "the Crossroads of the American Revolution." Abandoned forges still speak of our first great industry, and we can trace the beginnings of our transportation network in the paths of the Morris and the Delaware & Raritan Canals. 

Time Makes You Bolder

In my seventies, apprehensive, determined to go into Home Depot, not leave until I got everything on my list.
Miles later I pushed cart into checkout lane.
"I think if I shall ever die, it will be in a Home Depot!"
Alarmed, cashier replied, "Oh, please, don't die here. I don't want to find you. Oh, please!"
"You don't have to worry about that, you can't find a darn thing in this place!"

A Day I Will Not Forget

I was eating lunch at my desk. I heard and felt a loud rumble. Had a transformer blown up? There was smoke and we evacuated. We put scarves or ripped shirt sleeves around our soot-covered faces. It was both scary, yet calm. The lights went out. We walked down 86 floors in the dark. Six people died that day. The rest were safe. I don’t like the dark anymore.