 AM THE second son of Marijan Kolich, Sr.,
and Agnes Verkey. Father was born on
July 12, 1911. The name of the long sliver of an island where he was born is
Dugi Otok, or Long Island in Croatian. Dugi
Otok is off the Dalmatian coast
of Croatia, near the port city of Zadar. Back then, the area was included in the
Austria-Hungarian Empire. Mother was born in the United States, in NJ, on
September 4, 1913. Her parents came to the US from Southeastern Poland. I was born
on July 17, 1945, In Rockaway, New Jersey - actually, in Dover General Hospital,
in Dover, the next town west in Morris County. Rockaway was named for the river
that runs through it. The name comes from the Leni
Lenapi name for that river. (Which is "Rechouwakie" or "place of sands"). I learned these geographic details early in my life - I was
trusted to my older brother John's care, and by the time I was five, we would walk
to the small public library. John was a "galavanter" and I was his
tag-along.Here's a historical account of Rockaway Beach in Long Island, NY. Note the slightly different spelling of the Canarsie name. I don't know if the Leni Lenapi were related to the Mohawk Nation...  I discovered I could read maps as
well as he did when I was 6 or 7. Then, we
discovered the history of our area, especially that involving the European
settlement in the 17th century. During the War for Independence, General
Washington visited the local Captain in the state militia, Stephen Jackson, for an
overnite stay. Washington was interested in Jackson's Iron forge. The area
including Rockaway Township began Iron production in 1710, with the last mine
closing in 1959. My brother John, who would become a Zinc miner later in his life,
tells me the hematite ore deposit that the numerous shaft mines worked, is quite
extensive (surpassed however, by the much richer Mesabi Range in Minnesota).
My mother's father came over from Poland in 1902 and took work in one of those
mines, in Hibernia, NJ.  TRIP TO Rockaway and
Franklin, NJMay 1, 1999. The modest dwelling on the right
was the house my Grandfather Julian Verkey bought
back early in this century. When he died, it went to his son-in-law, who rented it
to my uncle and my father. I spent the first five years of my life in this house.
If you wish to see a larger image of the house and to see some more of what
Rockaway, NJ, looked like on May 1, 1999, click the house...Below is the Jackson House, built
in its present shape by Joseph Jackson, nearly
two hundred years ago. The original house in this place was built by his father,
Stephen Jackson. The direct descendents of the Jacksons no longer live in
Rockaway. The dwelling currently serves as a convent for some Catholic nuns who
teach at the elementary school adjacent to the house. Back to Early Years S WE GREW older, my brother and I explored the
trails that we found in the woods near our home. We followed the streams down to
the Rockaway River and up to their spring sources, crawled the rain drains and
cycled the abandoned railroad right-of-ways that we found in our wanderings. As I
have reflected on this childhood of mine, I've enjoyed the parallels to Huck Finn
and Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain's unforgettable fictional youths. While other kids were
watching TV, playing board games, or backyard and sandlot baseball and football,
brother John and I would be traipsing those wooded spaces nearby. Now, most of
those same woods are what we learned to call tract homes in the 1950's. Like
Gertrude Stein said when she returned to the site of her childhood playground in
Oakland, California, "There's no `there' there," anymore -
least-ways, not for the Kolich boys...Steam was still in use on the
Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western RR, until 1953.
A spur of the DL&W ran though Rockaway, near the house where my family lived. I
distinctly remember holding my mother's hand as a fast manifest freight roared
through the grade crossing on East Main Street. I was not much more than 3 years
old, since the last service on that original Morris & Essex RR right of way was
October 5, 1948. Most people who see or hear any working steam locomotive know how
its chuffing sounds plays on the imagination - giving off that "Chattanooga
Choo-Choo" rhythmn...The first X-15 experimental rocket
motor was developed and tested by Reaction
Motors, near Rockaway. I still remember that roar as the engine was "static"
tested, mounted on a stand, in Rockaway Township. this was done ten miles from
our house on Mt. Pleasant Avenue. Naturally, when that rocket/plane flew, I was
watching the news. Later, I would find out what most rockets got used
for...Dad bought his first home at the
age of 39. It had no city water or sewer hook-up.
The well was polluted. All this was only 40 miles from Manhattan, in 1950.
Progress came soon after. The Borough of Rockaway built its first water tank
tower, on top of the ridge line our street climbed over. We got "city" water and
sewer service. Dad paid a neighbor to dig a trench 6 feet deep for that. (175 feet
long! Pick and shovel, no less!!). A housing tract went into what my brother and I
considered our woods. We didn't like that, being the benders of birches
that we were. Little did we know we were learning how "property" and "real estate"
works...By 1953, a new regional high school, Morris Hills, was built on the
grounds of a huge estate once owned by a fellow who got rich setting up a knitting
factory - the carriage shed became the auto shop.Here's an on-line map of Rockaway. By using the zoom feature next to the map, you can get the street names, or go out to the larger map of the area... It will take you to a site devoted to 
the Boro of Rockaway. (Not an official home page Click history on the menu in the frame Then click brief history at the top of that menu) |
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