Morristown Memory

   I can't remember why I was thinking of Morristown the other day.  I think I had read something about the public library there, which, by the way is infamous for having been the first homeless- man-decides-to-live-in-a-library case in America..
   I had a relationship with this1715 northern New Jersey town for over thirty years and remember its pre- Interstate 287 days when it was a picture perfect Colonial town with a charming 1700s  town square and really good shopping.
   We actually lived in Whippany about five miles north of Morristown on a road  that George Washington and his army had marched along on their way to Morristown where he spent the winter of 1779-80. He in a mansion and the troops out in the cold in the woods.
   At the age of 10 I rode the DeCamp lines New York bus to its last stop in front of the movie theater on the square in Morristown before it went back into the city.  Then I would walk ten minutes or so to St. Margaret School located in the Italian section of  town while passing two or three parmesan perfumed Italian groceries. I loved the smell of parmesan in the morning!
   But back to Whippany for a moment.  Whippany was a small village on a Whippanong Indian site before Bell Labs came to town and precipitated the building of several hundred '50's ranch and split level homes. Years later, thanks to Google, I discovered that the Labs had been working on, among other projects, SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) behind its secured gates.  How exciting it would have been to have known that at the time!
   Anyway, one of Whippany's early residents was The Seeing Eye, housed on a former estate.  The Seeing Eye, still in operation but now located in the beautiful hills just outside Morristown, trained dogs for the blind.  In fact, they trained guide dogs for about 300 blind persons a year. The dogs used to do their on-the-job-training  on the streets of Morristown with their trainers or with trainers and their new proud owners.
   The citizenry of the area needed training, too, and we all learned fast.  We learned not to stop and pet the dogs, just to let them do their thing alerting the blind to stop or start at crosswalks, etc.  It was a beautiful sight that we took for granted as on any one day there were many dogs getting their education, on the Green and in the restaurants and shops of the town.
   I think now what a unique experience it was to be part of this training, even in a very passive way and the people of Morristown are still enjoying this opportunity to serve.