Volunteers with the West Milford First Aid Squad, shown in 1959, assisted young victims in the many weekend accidents in the days when the drinking age was 21 in New Jersey and 18 in New York. (File photo by Ann Genader)
Too often in the 1950s and ’60s, police had the gruesome task of notifying parents about the serious injury or death of their child in a alcohol-related crash when youths were driving home after a night of drinking at Greenwood Lake, N.Y.
The age requirement to purchase drinks containing alcohol was 21 in New Jersey and 18 in New York. The temptation was too great for many New Jersey youths to resist.
They threw caution to the wind and enthusiastically headed across the state line for weekend relaxation and good times after a rough week at school or working at a job.
Morbid newspaper reports and graphic photographs of motor vehicle accidents at the state border upset some readers but did not end young people’s indifference.
Many of those who were too young to drink in New Jersey continued weekend partying on the New York side of the lake.
West Milford Police Chief John Moeller and police officials at other border towns responded to the problem by announcing plans for roadblocks to stop vehicles and check drivers to determine if they were driving under the influence.
State Attorney General Arthur Sills called for the New Jersey State Police to also hold roadblock checks of drivers crossing the state line.
“Moeller’s Boys,” as West Milford’s police force of about 16 officers was affectionately and generally referred to 60 or 70 years ago, planned the first of what were to be ongoing driver sobriety checks.
No surprises
Roadblocks were not going to be a surprise. In April 1962, announcements were made in area newspapers. The designated weekend came but police did not set up any roadblocks.
Later when asked why the plan was not carried out, a police spokesman said there had been constant drizzle on Saturday night so the roadblock was postponed. Unannounced roadblocks and driver checks followed frequently.
The drizzle posed no problem for the teenage drinkers, who as usual went to Greenwood Lake, N.Y., for drinking and a night of fun. News reporters who showed up that night counted as many as 52 cars with New Jersey license plates heading home late in the evening or early morning hours. The press reports said many cars on the road or parked at bars were late models, and many of the people coming out of the bars were unable to walk without swaying.
If the situation were not so tragic, some of the things that happened that night might have been described as slapstick comedy, such a barmaid running out of her tavern screaming at a news photographer and demanding that the picture-taking of her patrons and establishment stop.
“Go back to New Jersey where you belong,” she yelled, shaking her fists. “No photos will be taken inside this bar!”
The weary photographers and reporters, along with dozens of young drivers who could have been drinking alcohol for a number of hours, headed back home to New Jersey. A news photographer’s car was almost hit by another vehicle on Jersey Avenue at 2:30 a.m. After sounds of screeching tires and brakes, a young male driver pulled alongside a reporter’s car, then sped off into the night and out of sight - without headlights.
Another group of press people, parked a short distance from a tavern, saw two cars abruptly stop in the middle of the road and became aware they could be facing trouble. There may have been as many as eight youths in the car. “You happy with those pictures?” someone growled. From there on, what else they said is not appropriate to print.
The message the press got was that the youths considered “playing games” with the reporters and photographers as great sport. They said they would drink all the booze they wanted.
’Only one beer’
Sills proposed spot checks at known trouble areas along the border, A new phrase - “only one beer” - seemed to have been established by the young drivers.
One evening the New Jersey State Police, led by Lt. Albert Pepe, commander of the Newfoundland barracks, and Traffic Officer Sgt. Harold Monsees, stopped what seemed to be hundreds of drivers between midnight Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday morning.
Even though the roadblock that night was meant as a deterrent to young people from becoming intoxicated, troopers issued nine summonses ranging from reckless driving to driving while under the influence while on the revoked driver list. Several of the teenagers were given sobriety tests but were not found to be intoxicated to a point recognized by the courts for prosecution.
Every young driver who was stopped by police was required to show a driver’s license and vehicle registration and answer questions that included, “Where are you coming from?” followed by “How many drinks did you have?” They usually answered giving the name(s) of five or six popular taverns on the New York side of Greenwood Lake. The answer to the second question was usually, “One beer.”
A young driver had red eyes and flushed face as he peered out of the car window when stopped by Pepe. “You know something,” the trooper said with a smile. “If all of you had just one beer, I cannot understand how those places up there can afford to stay open.” Responding, the kid shot his head back into the car as if propelled.
In June 1966, when a check was being performed at Vogel’s Corner (the Hewitt location where Route 511/Greenwood Lake Turnpike, Union Valley Road and Jersey Avenue meet at the recently installed traffic light), several vehicles nearly became involved in serious accidents near the police roadblock. Two drivers flew down the road past the troopers and across Greenwood Lake Turnpike into an empty lot. Both drivers were charged with reckless driving.
Pepe and Moeller agreed that if a car on the turnpike had been crossing the intersection when the cars shot through the corner stop sign, there could have been a disastrous crash causing injuries or even deaths.
Injuries and deaths
During a check on another weekend, police roadblocks across New Jersey’s northern border stopped a total of 2,400 cars. One vehicle carrying four teenagers and a case of beer purchased in Greenwood Lake, N.Y., overturned on Route 23 in West Milford. Two of the passengers, both 16, were injured.
One boy, thrown from the vehicle onto the road, required hospitalization and was taken by ambulance to Chilton Memorial Hospital. The other boy was released after treatment at the hospital. The injured were from Butler and Kinnelon.
Police said the driver, a Bloomingdale resident, was issued a summons for careless driving. His passenger from West Milford was charged with possession of an alcoholic beverage. The driver, aware of the roadblock, had taken an alternate route to avoid it. The accident happened about eight miles past the Vogel’s Corner roadblock in Hewitt. Police said the roadblock in Hewitt was not being monitored that night.
On another weekend, one of two accidents involving fatalities illustrated why there had been so much concern about teenage drinking with continued urging that New York raise its drinking age. One young driver who had been reported to be speeding along Union Valley Road crashed into several trees and died.
A factor that hampered roadblock checks before that time was that teenagers. aware of a roadblock took another route home. They wanted to alert their friends who were still out drinking of the police roadblocks. This was a time before cell phones.
However, there were pay phones along the roads. One such phone was outside Rocky’s Open Kitchen on Greenwood Lake Turnpike. That phone got a great deal of use on roadblock nights.
New Jersey’s minimum drinking age went from 19 to 21 effective Dec. 1, 1985. The change was a direct response to the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which withheld federal highway funds from states that did not have a drinking age at 21.
The New York Legislature raised the state drinking age from 19 to 21 on Dec. 4, 1982, for the same reason. If they didn’t comply, states could have lost up to 10 percent of their federal highway aid.
Death of Kate Stahl
After my column titled “Bakery store memories,” published in the July 4-10 issue, I received information that Kathleen “Kate” Stahl died peacefully at home at Remsen, N.Y., on Aug. 15, 2024. She was 89.
She and her husband, Karl, moved there from Ringwood in 1993. After they closed their bakery in the ShopRite complex, they opened Fraconia Farm Tack and Gift Shop.
Stahl had actively supported their children throughout her life, traveling to equestrian events supporting U.S. troops abroad with fundraising activities, and she participated in many community events in New Jersey and New York.
She devoted herself to helping people who had cerebral palsy and worked for a long time at the UCP home in Boonville, N.Y.
She is survived by her husband, Karl. They were married 64 years.
Along with her husband, she left a son, Michael (Carolyn); a daughter, Karleen; and grandchildren. Her sister Olive continues to live in New Jersey.
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Dec. 10, 1934, she was one of 12 children born to William and Ellen Montgomery.
To contact Ann Genader, send email to anngenader@gmail.com