Villadom Times Weekly Newpaper Online-May 6, 2009 Issue

�� Page 10 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • May 6, 2009 �� What news is there for us to celebrate? The 100th Anniversary of the Ridgewood Woman’s Club. While I may not add up to Ridgewood Woman’s Club in terms of elegance and general deportment, I have followed the club’s operations for a significant part of the century, and am glad this group is still around. My first contact with the Ridgewood Woman’s Club was in the early 1970s, when I was working for a daily newspaper in the vicinity. Knowing that my wife was Japanese and that I understood a little of that arduous language, the city editor sent me to the Ridgewood Woman’s Club to cover a speech that was being given by the Japanese consul to New York City. The guest of honor arrived in a limousine and made a brief speech. His English was better than my Japanese, but the Japanese admit that the Koreans are the great linguists of Asia. My wife, Countess Obo, was once approached by the father of one of my tutorial students who asked her permission to converse in Japanese after she had given a lecture about her book, “Hachi-Ko, The Samurai Dog.” She nodded her assent and they spoke, rapid-fire, for about two minutes. I understood about two words. “How long did you live in Japan?” my wife asked. “About two years,” the Korean man replied. “You Koreans are really the linguists. Your Japanese is better than my English!” she said laughing. Well, her English was a lot better than the consul’s. The Japanese consul showed a beautifully photographed Technicolor movie called “Japanese Women,” which was just the opposite of what one would expect if one did one’s traveling at the expense of the U.S. Department of Defense. The three women depicted were a grade-school teacher who was in her 20s but looked about 15 and acted that way at recess, a female executive who wore tailored suits and worked 14-hour days, and a mature woman who wore a kimono and lived in a traditional Japanese house with pine trees in the background. Reiko Dan, the cute tomboy of Japanese feature films in that era, could always get her female fans to shriek “Banzai!” when she shouted, “I’ve never worn a kimono in my life!” It’s sort of a badge of traditionalist whatever. The consul was making the point that most Japanese women were quite respectable if you avoided certain sections of Tokyo by night, and in this he was quite correct. The members of the woman’s club enjoyed the film, and were split over whether they identified with the executive or the elegant mature woman who still wore a kimono. The teacher in the baseball hat and shorts was out of the loop. My next visit to the club came when the city editor discovered that a Jesuit priest who was also an expert in determining character by handwriting – graphoanalysis -would be speaking. I know something about forensics and parapsychology, where the standards of evidence are absolutely Draconian because mainstream scientists tend to dismiss the topic as a hoax. I prepared a control test: I got three of my colleagues who had well-defined personalities -- the Shy Guy, the Scoundrel, the Control Freak -- to write a few words and a signature, and took these with me. After A century of service and a beacon to everyone the graphologist offered his speech, I took him aside and $38,000. The club has also sponsored a local Boy Scout troop, asked for his verdict on the four signatures. “This one indicates a really troubled personality – a helped in the formation of Ridgewood’s Red Cross chapter, walking time bomb,” he said. I folded up my own signature, and supported Ridgewood Social Services, which provides tucked it back in my pocket, and decided he knew what he emergency help for families in need. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, which hit Ridgewood particularly hard, the was talking about. I next attended a club meeting as a speaker when I was Ridgewood Woman’s Club formed the Ridgewood Emerproducing my own newspaper in the 1980s. The topics gency Relief Foundation to help people stay afloat when that had made me famous were not those that would have their world seemed to be falling apart. appealed to club’s membership. My first big story was During World War II, the club joined churches and to chronicle the life and times of a heroin addict and to other groups to form a War Emergency Committee to help report that smack had made it over the river and was into provide housing for refugee children. The club sponsored the woods of Northwest Bergen County. Other featured the Family Counseling Service from its outset, and has attractions included a story on outlaw motorcycle gangs, provided significant donations both to Valley Hospital in the rise and fall of the American Indian Movement, and a Ridgewood and Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson. The meticulous study of how a Passaic County official had been donations to various local groups, not counting the sizframed, and later murdered, as a Nazi war criminal when able scholarship program, are generally in the vicinity of he wasn’t one. I spoke about the sinking of the “Titanic,” $60,000, subsidized in part by a house tour that generates which had an anniversary coming up. My talk also sank, funds for the charities and the scholarships. but the women were gracious enough not to tell me so. Beyond a doubt, the Ridgewood Woman’s Club does a The Ridgewood Woman’s Club has provided a kaleido- tremendous amount of good for the entire community, not scope of excellent programs. More to the point, the club has just for its own membership. There is a lesson to be learned provided a number of other activities that went far beyond from all this. Scoundrels sometimes succeed for a short time, but people who build successful and prosperous lives genteel entertainment. �� generally do �� The club’s first project was to fit�� a�� after generation �� so because they out room at Ridgewood generation High School for the teaching of domestic �� values straight. Once they are�� science. Sewing have their �� okay themselves, classes for young girls were offered on Saturday mornings. they reach out to help others, not as an insurance against �� because is �� possible catastrophes, but ��it�� the right thing to do. This service is perhaps underrated. Even before women officially got the vote, the The cultural activities were enjoyable, but the Ridgewood Ridgewood Woman’s Club has championed the right of Woman’s Club’s humane activities during the Depression women to serve on the Ridgewood Board of Education. and World War II show the kind of resolution and concern With voting by women finally legalized by Constitutional that may help us all get through the present mess. Above all these women raise the money they give away amendment in 1920, victory was at hand, and in 1921 Club Member Henrietta Hawes became the first woman member and don’t expect the government or the people who are being crushed with property taxes to come up with it. The of the board. The club has sponsored a girl from Ridgewood to attend Ridgewood Woman’s Club isn’t just a nice building; it’s a �� group beacon showing us how to do the right thing. Here’s hoping the Girls Career Institute since 1949. In 1959, the� � � � � �� established the Scholarship Trust Fund with a bequest for another 100 years of service and compassion from a �� reached a � � � � classy organization. of $1,000. Last year the scholarships �� total� of �� Advertise in the YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER JOE ORDINI 63 YEAR Visit Our Indoor Pool Park • All Sizes & Styles On Display �� rd �� ALWAYS� BEST�� AND HIGHEST �� PRICES �� QUALITY �� NJ 745 River Street • Paterson, OUR 63 973-684-4647 YEAR rd �� Open 7 Days • 10 am - 4 pm 3½% SALES TAX ANOTHER EXCLUSIVE CONCEPT FROM JOE ORDINI E-Z Panel Pool �� The Easy Lock System �� No pool is easier, faster or less �� • So easy to install any homeowner can do it expensive to install thanks to EZ Lock system. Aluminum rods are • No hardware • All Aluminum inserted into the hinge to lock the �� • 60 year warranty panels together. The panel is then �� locked into place by our Diameter �� • Installs above ground, or semi in ground, Lock system. All fasteners are �� or in ground made from aluminum for superior �� • Virtually Indestructible performance. �� Above Ground Semi In Ground 54” Panels Our panels give you a deeper swimming pool. Each panel is made from extra-heavy duty 100% aluminum extrusions that are welded for superior strength and rigidness. �� • Round and Oval sizes available �� broad 7” aluminum top ledges are powder coated and baked to a durable, resilient pearl finish that � �� keeps its good looks. Where ledge �� sections meet, elastomer cover ledges snap on for a quality finish �� Premium Top Ledges �� Substantial in both look and feel, �� 201-652-0744 �� The Finishing Touch* �� In Ground Handsome decorative panels hook onto the pool exterior. All corners and junctions are covered to complete the pool’s beautiful appearance. �� *For above ground and semi in ground �� models only. ��