HEY HOW ABOUT HEARING THE CALCO WHISTLES DURING THE DAY AND WHEN THERE WAS A FIRE IN TOWN THEY WOULD BLOW..............OR WHEN THE WIND WAS RIGHT YOU'D GET THAT NICE SMELL COMING FROM THE PLANT.....
AND HOW ABOUT DURING THE SUMMER ALL THE PICNICS THEY USE RUN UP WHERE NOW THE COSTCO, HOMEDEPOT IS TODAY
Gia I remember going to Calco Park for our school picnic from St. Josephs. They had the outdoor grill's and the dance pavillion plus swings & seesaw and a horseshoe pit. Remember those ponds around the plant with red/blue water??? or what turns out now to have been some sort of contamination !! Calco & Bakelite were the two most popular places for many of our Parents worked. I guess Johns Manville too.
Gia I remember going to Calco Park for our school picnic from St. Josephs. They had the outdoor grill's and the dance pavillion plus swings & seesaw and a horseshoe pit. Remember those ponds around the plant with red/blue water??? or what turns out now to have been some sort of contamination !! Calco & Bakelite were the two most popular places for many of our Parents worked. I guess Johns Manville too.
Those ponds we use to iceskate on in the winter. I remember many a time someone having a leg fall threw the ice and coming up a purple color
I never skated on the ponds in the back of Calco but remember them well. The place stunk back there so bad. I remember hunting as a teenager behind the tracks starting out by Silver Ray and walking all the way down the dirt road by the river across the Brook to the back of Calco during the 60's. The stuff you saw back there was unbelievable. Right where the Brook met the river Calco was dumping a water based formula of different colors right into the river. It was disgusting looking even looked foamy when it hit the river water. They were definitely poluting the Raritan River back then. The stink stayed in the River from there going east toward Middlesex. No sign of fish life was in the River from there on. Scares me when I see people fishing out in the river from the Queens Bridge today of what may still be in that river in the sediment
Gia there were a couple of ponds right behind Silver Ray where we Ice Skated. We always made a nice fire and brought some potatoes wrapped in Aluminum Foil to throw in the fire. On a freezing cold day that Hot Potato warmed you up and tasted pretty darn good.
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To Believe In Legal Immigration And Not Illegal Immigration Does Not Make One A Racist (Quote: Lou Dobbs CNN)
Anyone remember the explosion at Calco in the late sixties? Right after a huge ear-popping bang occurred purple specks started falling from the sky for about a half hour in the west end of town.
The factory specialized in making aniline dyes and had done so since WWI when shipping of plant dyes to North America was cut off by Germany. Skin or breathing exposure to aniline is toxic to the blood, causing temporary anemia and numbness if mild, seizures, coma and death if severe. It is also classified as a carcinogen in humans, potentially causing liver or blood cancers although the evidence is not definitive. The effects, however, are not cumulative and it's breakdown products in soil or water are non-toxic.
No wonder the Raritan fish disappeared downstream from Cyanamid until well after it closed in the 80s. Those caught now shouldn't be contaminated by aniline dyes but I still wouldn't eat them with Johns Manville waste still draining in a little farther upstream.
Heh, how about living in Middlesex and whichever way the wind was blowing, we'd get that smell from Calco or Bakelite..I remember it well!! Geesh, and we survived it all!! Lol.
I was on the Cross Country team from 67-69. I also worked at the BB Post Office before school and carried mail in the summer. When were you at the Post Office? Lots of other memories of both parks. SBB Fire Co., Our Lady of Mercy Church both had their picnics at one park or the other. All the burgers and birch beer you could drink. Remember the "dry ice" they used to keep everything cold?
HEARING THE CALCO WHISTLES
DURING THE DAY AND WHEN THERE WAS A FIRE IN TOWN THEY WOULD BLOW..............OR WHEN THE WIND WAS RIGHT YOU'D GET THAT NICE SMELL
THEY USE RUN UP WHERE NOW THE COSTCO, HOMEDEPOT IS TODAY 
