The column that says imagine the electric bill of businesses in this 90-degree heat that seems like it never wants to end, especially those with massive freezers and everybody wanting you to shop comfortably with good air conditioning, and we mention this because Mama Mia’s in Salem had a tremendous Monday night and ween’t doing badly tonight, but don’t ask us to pay the electric bill.
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By Jack Hummel
Radio: 92.1 WVLT Saturdays noon to 2 p.m.
Email: jhummel9794@gmail.com
Phone: 856-237-6645
U.S. Army: RA13815980
Google all columns at jackhummelblog
Good evening!
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If you can get a better value than a half-size apple pecan chicken salad from Wendy’s, email us, because it cost us — us and the 132-pound Chessie — $4.80 tonight, and we got a wave from the cashier when we left, who also was concerned that we didn’t order our usual full-size, and who gets that at a fast-food eatery where everybody wants to be elsewhere during the summer months?
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While filling in for Steve Tatz on 92.1 FM Monday night, former Bridgeton big-time landlord Clair Miller called in, and he has a lot of ideas to make the city better, but the problem is getting him on the air around his schedule.
He sends us this …
“Jack, thanks for your effort. Midget Football is necessary for Bridgeton. Many things could be done in Bridgeton if city government and people got together and worked on problems, stopped belying one group versus another ,using our immigrant population in a positive way to improve our city. Will want to see how our city spends $23 million and what results they get for all this money. Youth sports is very important to our city.”
— Clair Miller
We will know on Thursday if he will call in Saturday at noon. We have been promised Sgt. George Linen, of BHS JROTC fame and not only the most charismatic teacher we have ever met, but one who also grew up in the projects of Newark and was encouraged by his uncles to get sent to juvie to get the feel of it.
Linen did it all in his teens, including getting married and today he’s the brightest star in the high school, bar none. We always try to get him on to lift our spirits.
John Fuqua has stiffed us at least three times, but says he can come on any Saturday but Sept. 16, so maybe we can find out what is happening on the Bridgeton PAL front.
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Why isn’t city council holding community meetings to get input from the three cultures?
Why do the residents have to come to them in a setting that more resembles a court than a meeting where ideas can be exchanged?
Don’t use the excuse that it wouldn’t make any difference anyway because the mayor controls everything. Public opinion can weigh mighty heavy on situations, especially if the meeting is not dominated by city and county officials espousing the same line of tired rhetoric as if it’s their platform.
Do you have any idea how many new programs are coming big-time to Bridgeton? Do you have any idea what the biggest problem might be for residents in Milltown, in Maple Gardens, on Cottage Avenue?
Are we spending too much time running around plugging up perceived major problems and not listening anymore?
You don’t have to walk the town anymore, but can you at least visit each section to better be able to govern your town?
Why is it only the ministers seem to know, yet one heads a group that wants to charge over $1,000 per game to use Jim Hursey Stadium — kids who live in the city. Kids who will own guns at early as maybe 14. Kids who can’t wait to prove themselves in a gang.
Where do we draw the line?
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Debbie Savigliano, of Bianca’s Kids, who gave Fuqua $1,000 on our program to pay for a place for kids to play basketball, just got out of the hospital, and we want Fuqua and Bridgeton PAL to know that.
Maybe she could use a little give-back in donated time, like a charity basketball game in Gloucester County.
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It takes 2 minutes, 30 seconds to brew a fresh pot of decaf coffee at Dunkin’, which almost has to happen to us because who drinks hot coffee in the afternoon in this weather?
You just keep looping around the drive-thru if someone orders behind you. Three loops will do it.
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Ran into baseball and softball legend Mike DiMucci without Skip Maloney at Mama Mia’s, and George Pfeffer was there, too, one of the latest members of the Salem County Sports Hall of Fame.
Pfeffer is waiting for a call-back from the All Sports Museum of Southern New Jersey, in Bridgeton, after they reached out to him a couple of years ago.
DiMucci pitched against Pfeffer in the last high school game for both as Penns Grove defeated Bridgeton, and, here, over 50 years later, they were breaking bread at the same table.
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We finally figured out what runs the country.
It’s not the government. It’s not the special interest groups. What dictates everything in this country “is the small print below” in ALL the advertising, the print that even baseball’s best hitter, Ted Williams, said to be able to read a license plate a block away, couldn’t read, and, besides, it doesn’t stay on the TV screen long to read, even if you’re a speedreader from the Evelyn Wood school.
Forget what the spoken words are. The only thing that counts in the small print at the bottom, including in periodicals. It’s all in the small print.
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From the Mayo Clinic …
“Who says you have to wait until the weekend to enjoy pizza? Skip the greasy, cheesy pies and have fun making your own, healthier versions at home.
“If you’re making two pizzas, try one version with a pile of veggies and add a sprinkle of mozzarella and a protein (think rotisserie chicken without the skin).
“Then try a mango-salsa pizza for a sweet, lighter option. Put away the takeout menus and have fun with this DIY kitchen project!”
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A diet completed without an imperfection, a slip, a setback is impossible, so why let it ruin your quest for more than a day?
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Bridgeton Main Street wants to feed you …
“Let’s get some fitness in the beautiful Bridgeton park! Calling all runners! Can’t run? You can walk. Let’s support our town. That mean everyone that has 08302 zip code, AKA Hopewell, Upper Deerfield, etc. The Greater Bridgeton area.
“We are all one here in Western Cumberland county! Bridgeton is the hub for this side of the county. It needs everyone’s support!
“So let’s have a great run to start off Crabfest/Riverfest. If you work for the City of Bridgeton, you should be here all day unless your on the job. So I’m calling out the Bridgeton Police, Bridgeton Fire Department, Rec Department, water/sewer works, the Bridgeton Courthouse, CompleteCare, Gateway, etc.”
— Bridgeton Crabfest
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In case you were wondering about how Mikiah Kreps is doing in Buffalo after coming down here to box Basimah “Boom Boom” Baker, of Tri City Boxing, at Fairfield School, the same night Mayor Albert Kelly fought three men one round each and darn nar collapsed in his corner.
“Hello, my friend,
“Wanting to touch base since last month..Mikiah did win the Ringside World Championship title at 119 weight class. Did not contact our local paper yet. Will do tomorrow actually so it will get published in Niagara Falls Gazette & the Buffalo News.
“She won July 30. Just turned 21 years on July 26.
“We do not fight out of any specific gym, Unattached. She fights for herself with her mother by her side, in her corner… always got her back.
“Mmmmm … nice story. Sounds like a movie one day.”
— Deborah Fields,
Mikiah Kreps’ mother, trainer
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Spread the word near and far …
“I have something to say (it’s not directed at anyone specific, it just keeps coming into my head, so I’m saying it after mulling it over for a while).
“Whenever I see posts or comments about my animals who left and read “they finally know love” or “they finally knew comfort” or something along those lines, I feel a little knife in my heart. Yes, a rescue or an adopter provides an animal with something the shelter cannot- a home, in depth medical diagnosis, full, undivided attention. I fully recognize and so deeply appreciate that. We would be lost without that.
“But while they are here, in my shelter, they are cared for. We give them the bed that is most comfy for them. We make sure everything is clean and that they have toys to occupy them. We provide the medical treatment the veterinarian recommends. How much time we must spend checking to make sure they are okay and giving one more cuddle, one more time out of cage, one more whisper to know they matter, one more chance… We LOVE them, we truly do. How these animals hurt our hearts because of how we love them… we don’t get to not love one because we know he will break our hearts. Those are the ones we have to love the most. We have to love them even when there are so many we don’t know which way to turn. We never get to take a break when it becomes too much. We don’t get to freeze intake or freeze caring.
“When it becomes too much is when we just swallow it down and keep going, because this shelter is their bridge between their past the future and none of them would get anywhere without the bridge. I may not be the future, but I’m making sure that the animals have the strongest bridge to the best future I can find for them.”
— Maria D. Stoerlle,
Cumberland County SPCA
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And who goes back to the shelter late at night and takes treats to the dogs that are most likely to go next?
The investigative agent — Charlene Rosenbaum!
You got a problem? Don’t take it north! You don’t want to know about north because you couldn’t handle it!
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YOU CAN BOOK IT: You complainers couldn’t fit in the shoes working at the SPCA.
THE FUQUAS
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