whistlers in NJ

[jimr]

Well, we're starting to get settled in. Lots of work with a new building (new for us anyway) getting simple things like heat and lights, leaky roofs fixed, Internet access, etc.

Great to have more space though! Not to mention less than a mile from home for both Mike and myself.

Jim

[Cyfiawnder]

Easton PA here right on the NJ boarder, but I spend most of my free time in Phillipsburg. Even played for Phillipsburg Ice Hockey Club when I was in high school.

[mamakash]

Paul Anderson wrote . . .
"Isn't Flagtown in Somerset County?"

Yep, you found me out. I guess more people have heard of it by now . . . used to be that everyone would ask "Where the hell is FLAGTOWN?"
Since we're sharing in New Jersey small town bonding, here's a story run in the Courier News over a year ago about the closing of Farley's Bar.

Tears in their beer -- A small-town institution gets ready to shutter its
doors 06/07/01BY PETER GENOVESESTAR-LEDGER STAFFLast call at Cheese's bar,
corner of Equator and Third in a town that development and time forgot.
Cheese -- glasses perched atop wavy white hair, blue polo shirt, white
shorts, black socks -- is standing behind his bar, furnished with an ancient
Schaefer sign, a faded Budweiser clock, a merely old Rolling Rock
thermometer, two fairly recent Miller Lite lamps, a wooden phone booth and
Christmas lights that stay up all year long. Cheese, also known as George
Farley, is the third generation to run Farley's Tavern. There's no sign in
front of the log cabin-like building, just a lonely neon beer sign. The bar
is in Flagtown, which is part of Hillsborough, although no true-blue
Flagtowner would ever say he or she lives in Hillsborough. Flagtown --
hundred or so homes, one gas station, one auto repair business, one deli,
one tavern -- is the kind of place where residents fought to keep their tiny
post office open because it was a symbol of their identity and independence,
the kind of place fast disappearing from the New Jersey landscape, the kind
of place where a bar -- Cheese's bar -- could serve as the social hub.
"Thanks for spending the afternoon," Cheese cheerily tells one regular as
she heads for the door. "I won't tell Frank." Farley's Hall opened here in
1929; George Marshall Farley, Cheese's grandfather, obtained a liquor
license in 1934. A robber fired a gun at Cheese's grandmother in the
blizzard of 1938. She was unhurt; the villain, who had made off with $12,
the day's receipts, was collared by state troopers minutes later. Three
years later, the building was hit by lightning; the bar went up in smoke. In
1937, after someone Cheese describes as a "firebug" set fire to 10 houses in
Flagtown, Cheese's grandfather formed the Flagtown Fire Department. Calls
came in to the bar. The old switch box is still there. Lots of memories
here, lots of friendly conversations and heated arguments, messy breakups
and spilled beer. "Ninety-nine percent of the stories are good," Cheese
says. "The rest are not worth talking about. You get a bad apple, the first
thing you do is clean out the basket." See the two guys in the corner? Local
cops, here on their day off. The guy at the end of the bar? Works for the
township municipal utilities authority. "I've been coming here since I was a
little --," says MUA inspector Jeff Riehl, using a word unsuitable for mixed
company. "It's a place where all the locals come to, have a good laugh,
sneak away from the wife for a while. Everyone's going to be sad." Last call
at Cheese's bar, Equator and Third. Farley is closing the place sometime
this month or early next. Flagtown won't ever be the same. "Here we are, 70
years old, worn out," Cheese says with a smile. "Times have changed. With
all the rules and regulations, you can't do nothing no more. And people
don't sing in taverns anymore." They used to, at Farley's. Every Friday
night in the '30s, '40s and '50s, there was a hoe-down in the bar.
Authentic, down-home, country-western music. "We had a guy come in with a
washtub and washboard, somebody would take out a harmonica, somebody would
sing, and there'd be a hoe-down," Cheese recalled. The Farley Entertainers
-- Cheese, his father, mother and sister -- were the house band. Dad played
the piano, his mom played the guitar, sis sang and tap-danced. Cheese
"yodeled" and played the harmonica. The Farley Entertainers often hit the
road, playing with groups like the Georgia Crackers and the Corn Cobblers.
"In the '30s, we used to panhandle," Cheese said. "We'd hit the clubs along
Route 22. Ask the manager if we could play between acts. My uncle would be
in the audience. He'd flick nickels up on the stage to encourage other
people to do it." George Newton Farley, Cheese's father, started working at
the bar in 1941, when beers were a nickel and shots a dime. Cheese went into
the service in 1951 -- he was a flight mechanic for the Strategic Air
Command. His mother died in a car accident in 1956, and Cheese started
helping his dad at the bar. "In 1956, I came down to give him a hand,"
Cheese said. "Forty-five years, I'm still here." Many of the regulars don't
know Farley's is about to close. Those who do wish Cheese would wait until
next year, or the year after that, or after they die. "I can't throw a guy
out just because I don't know him or don't want him; I have to wait for him
to make a move," Cheese says of the bar policy, which has served him well
over the years. He has been a member of the Flagtown Fire Department 53
years. Served on the school board three years, the zoning board five years.
Ran for township committee in the 1960s. His opponent: All-American
Princeton running back Cosmo Iacavazzi. Cheese lost. In 1985, Cheese was
named Hillsborough mayor for a day, second prize in a raffle. What did he do
as mayor? Actually, nothing; he forgot what day it was and went fishing.
Local lore has it that Flagtown was named for a guy named Flagg who lived up
on the mountain. Bull, says Cheese. The train used to run from Flemington to
Somerville. "You wanted that train to stop, you flagged it down," Cheese
explained. "If you didn't flag it down, it didn't stop. That's how Flagtown
got its name." The year-round Christmas lights in the bar? Several customers
complained that Cheese never decorated the bar for Christmas, so Cheese put
up lights 15 years ago -- and kept them up. "They wanted lights, they got
lights," he cracks. The origin of his nickname? Cheese has no idea. "It was
pegged on me in 1937 by Bill Musa (who would later serve as mayor of
Hillsborough). Carried it through high school, the service, and now it's on
my shirt." End of an era Cheese says he's going to sell the liquor license,
turn the building over to his son and grandson. "If these four walls could
talk, boy, it would be a scary thing," Riehl says, laughing. His mother,
Dottie Schultz, once was Flagtown postmaster. Asked where he'll go when
Farley's closes, Riehl replies, "Over the bridge." Meaning Neshanic,
Crocodile Murphy's, the old Neshanic Inn. Good place, but it's not Farley's.
"Going to be a lot of sad people here, even those who hate me," Cheese says,
laughing. "I've been blamed for divorces, inebriations, everything. But I'm
70 years old. I've got to move on. I'm going fishing." Last call at Cheese's
bar, Equator and Third, Flagtown. Stop in, pull up a stool. Pop a quarter in
the jukebox. Punch up some Johnny Cash or Hank Williams. "I Walk the Line"
or "Your Cheatin' Heart" sounds about right. Play a game of pool. Admire the
Christmas lights. And wish Cheese Happy Birthday. It's not until Aug. 5, but
by the time the day rolls around, his bar, and a considerable slice of
Flagtown history, will be no more. © 2001 The Star-Ledger.

[Caj]

Hello from lovely Princeton NJ. Not much of a whistler, tho, but if you want to play with a concertinist just drop me a line.

There's also a session in Lambertville, on the river---search on "Mitchell's Famous Irish Session" in Google.