Former township councilman believes in old-fashioned thrift’ government, By Ginny Raue In 1938 a future councilman was born to West Milford residents Marian and Peter J. Gillen Sr. Peter Gillen Jr., now age 70, is a bonafide native with sharp recall of days gone by and a great deal of pride in his hometown. The house where Gillen grew up, known in the family as the Gillen compound’, was a five-acre tract located off Macopin Road. “My Dad was a part-time farmer,” Gillen said, and the property was home to pigs, ducks, chickens, geese, and a pony. As a youngster, Gillen sold eggs and chickens from his front yard. He also took a job delivering newspapers, on horseback, for the Paterson Evening News and a weekly township paper, The Mountaineer, earning four-cents per paper for his efforts. Gillen began his formal education under the tutelage of Verina Genader in a Germantown Road two-room school house, located where Saint Joseph Church parish center now stands. He completed elementary school at St. Anthony’s School in Butler, receiving his very own horse as a graduation gift. Gillen went on to Butler High School, the only high school in the area at the time. He graduated in 1957 in a class of 358 students, representing sixteen sending districts. Recalling childhood days, Gillen said they didn’t have many games or organized sports, but they played baseball in a field in Apshawa. If they were lucky, they may have had the opportunity to bang together an old bike. After-school hours were more often dedicated to taking care of their animals. But Friday nights were different. For the price of a fifty-cent round trip, Henry Vreeland, the school bus driver for the area, would pick up the local kids in the big Chevy school bus and transport them to see a twenty-cent movie in the Butler theater. “That was our big entertainment,” Gillen said. TV comes to the Gillen house In 1947, the Gillens became the proud owners of a Philco television, the first household in the area to have a TV. “There were only three stations, CBS, NBC, and WABD, and it didn’t come on until six at night. All the rest of the time there was only a test pattern,” he said. The house was soon filled with neighborhood kids coming by to watch Howdy Doody, Gene Autry, and Hopalong Cassidy. Gillen is a lifelong parishioner of Saint Joseph Church, beginning with his baptism there in 1938. When he was eighteen-years-old, Rev. Cornelius Kelly, OFM, was pastor and Gillen became an usher, a ministry he continues to this day. A family friendship began with the priest and continued until Fr. Kelly passed away in 2004. Gillen served in the United States Army, stationed in Korea. It was right after the war, he said, and there were still skirmishes on the border. He went on to build his career as an operating engineer, running a crane in New York City for the next 50 years, retiring in 2005. He traveled to the city each day with his father and a West Milford friend, Joe Portman. Pete meets Pat Joe Portman, as it happened, had a niece, Patricia Ryan of Brooklyn, who often visited her uncle. Speaking of his first meetings with Pat, Gillen said, “I was a confirmed bachelor but, when I started seeing her up here on the weekends, I figured it was time to get married.” After eight short years of dating, Gillen popped the question at the Castle Tavern on Greenwood Lake. This romantic crane operator made sure his intentions were clear that evening by also writing his proposal on a place mat - a piece of Gillen memorabilia that holds its place in their home today. The Gillens were married in 1968 in Pat’s Brooklyn church, with Fr. Kelly officiating. They bought a house on a lot abutting the original Gillen homestead and live there still. They have three adult children, Peter Gillen III, Mary Ellen, and Ryan. Gillen served as a West Milford town councilman and on various boards through the 1970’s and 1980’s. “I believed in old-fashioned thrift in government and attempted to save the taxpayers money during that time,” he said. He fought and won, he said, to save the watershed from development. He also fought to keep Jungle Habitat in West Milford. “They were going to bring in the largest Ferris wheel in the world, imported from Germany,” he said. The park was thought to be too close to the airport and the roads were inadequate and so Jungle Habitat eventually closed, with a loss of 250 jobs, he reported. Gillen is still concerned about the township’s high taxes, especially worried for those on fixed incomes. “It’s sad, but that’s what you get when you’re a bedroom community,” he said. “But it’s a great town and I’m going to live here for the rest of my life,” he added. Reverting to childhood, Gillen handles the eggs in his current household, but his culinary expertise involves only breakfast. Pat submitted her recipe for Irish soda bread, often served with Pete’s eggs. Pat’s Irish Soda Bread 3 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour ½ cup sugar 1 tsp. salt 1 tbsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1 cup seedless raisins 1 tbsp. caraway seeds 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1 ½ cups buttermilk 2 tbsp. melted butter or margarine Preheat oven to 375 degrees Melt butter or margarine in the oven Grease pan In mixing bowl sift together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda Add raisins and caraway seeds, mix to coat the raisins with flour Remove melted butter from oven and combine with eggs and buttermilk-add to dry ingredients Mix lightly and turn batter into pan Bake for about one hour