Greetings from Belleville, New Jersey - Collected writings

by Anthony Buccino

You don't have to be from New Jersey to enjoy this book, you just need an inclination to remember when chasing the mosquito man and his big blue DDT cloud was a great thrill for kids on their bikes or running in Keds!

Anthony Buccino created a time machine through words and stories of growing up the 1950s, 1960s and beyond based on life and growing up in Belleville, New Jersey. 

You don't have to be from New Jersey to enjoy this book, you just need an inclination to remember when chasing the mosquito man and his big blue DDT cloud was a great thrill for kids on their bikes or running in their Keds!

And who can forget the excitement on hearing the bells of the approaching ice cream truck to the neighborhood?

If you remember defrosting refrigerators or the simpler things of times past, you'll enjoy Buccino's essay collection.

More than forty essays and reflections on everything from junior high school bullies to selling pretzels for Ed Strat at Belleville High School football games at Municipal Stadium. This collection includes the Excellence in Journalism award-winning Don the TV man.

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Greetings From Belleville, New Jersey - Collected writings

Buccino writes about those duck-and-cover drills in elementary school, junior high school bullies, and high school joy rides to Monk's Castle and Albino Village. Spanning six decades, this collection shares the bitter and the sweet, all in an ultimate tribute to growing up in this middle class township in northern New Jersey.

This is Buccino's fourth collection of essays but the first wholly dedicated to his collected writings about Belleville. The author attended Holy Family School in Nutley while living down the street in Belleville. He also attended School 10, Belleville Junior High School and was graduated from Belleville High School where he also wrote for the student page in The Belleville Times.

In 1990, he served as editor of The Belleville Times and in the mid-1990s he was the managing editor of The Belleville Post. That experience provided a deeper insight into his home town along with the opportunity to write about growing up in the ever-evolving town.

Buccino writes with clarity and humor about growing up in the second half of the 20th century. He has been called “New Jersey’s Garrison Keillor or something to that effect.” His writing about life in northern New Jersey has been published in area newspapers, Belleville Patch, NJ Voices, Baristanet and other publications.

On “Greetings”

"The cover design is attractive, though I wish there was more information as to the book’s content, as this book would have appeal for stores, museums, and the like in Nutley as well as throughout New Jersey, I would like to see some copy on the back cover that shows potential buyers what’s inside and why they would enjoy this book. This would make a great gift book. You have compiled a diverse collection of mini-biographies here; it certainly is interesting to see how many famous and noteworthy people were born or lived in your town. You have clearly done a lot of research in putting this book together; I would prefer to see more usage of authoritative books, newspapers, etc., and less reliance on web sites like Wikipedia. Good job with grammar and proofreading, though I did catch occasional errors. The formatting and layout of the interior of the book is excellent. I appreciated the many photographs you included, though I wish a few of them could be reproduced a bit more clearly. You have a good web site to market this and your other work; you might want to hire a designer to give it more visual appeal."

-- Judge, 23rd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.

"I’m thankful for growing up in old Belleville. New Jersey, that is, not Belleville, Ontario, or Belleville, Illinois, or Belleville, Michigan, or Belleville, Kansas or even Belleville, Paris. I’m thankful for growing up in good old Belleville, New Jersey."

You don't have to be from Belleville, New Jersey, to enjoy this book!

You'll just wish you were ... after you've read it.

Table of Contents

Waiting for Jerry the ice cream man

Don the TV man

The pipeline under the power lines

Rainy day children of the summer

Gary's English Racer vs. My Schwinn

Chasing the mosquito man

Air Raid Drill Memories

Penny candy from the corner store

After the Titanic

Moving down Meacham hill

Pizza for dinner, so very rare

The first robin of spring

Bellwood Crier has-been

Summer peaches in the Rambler

Billy Newtner's bus rides

Yellow cracker school days

Selling pretzels at high school football

Job rock in prose

Peter Pan Revisited, again

Back to school, institutional green

Just another day on Police Beat

Memories of Brookdale soda

Brown bagging lunch through the years

Scouts seek nudist camp over the mountain

Bob Dylan in Belleville

Flashback, summers and Suntan Lake

No Christmas

How many hammers is enough?

A father's place

My generation

On outliving two classmates

Monk's castle joyrides

Do we ever stop missing our folks?

Married to a Christmas nut

Of Taylor ham, skorpers and Ashtabula

Who is Brother, who is Uncle Bim?

At Spatola's Home for funerals

Strangers in old photos

Counting change

Editor imprisoned in Town Hall

School 10 students surprise Belleville scribe

Remembering Belleville 'Red Tail' pilot

Italian American roots in Belleville, Nutley

Thankful for growing up in old Belleville

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