Ant guy. . .

[bayonnebirdie]

The ant guy, Jack, came by and sprayed those giant ants, plus those awful, awful millipedes. I asked about rats in Bayonne, and he said that they live near the bay and that there used to be tons in the park but that the opossums that they brought in cleaned them up. Now the park is overrun with opossums. Go figure. He said that the rats by the

Comments

[tuningfork]

Bayonne has opossums? Which park, the one by the bridge? My friend Pat used to work at the Wesson cooking oil factory in bayonne and he said that he saw a lot of rats fall into the boiling vats of cooking oil. So I'm sure people are cooking with rat in their oil.

[bayonnebirdie]

I know. I saw an opossum on my porch in JC. We also had a young chicken on the porch once. Crazy. The opossums are in Hudson County Park (uptown off Kennedy). Rats in the vats--great. I remember hearing as a kid that rat hairs are found throughout peanut butter. I didn't eat peanut butter for a long time. I also remember coming to the conclusion that Velveeta cheese was made from goat's milk and, therefore, would not eat it. My mother thought I would starve.

[msvader]

I can attest to the bay rats. When I was growing up on 49th street, the rats used to come up from the bay occasionally. I only remember actually seeing one once. I didn't get a good idea of how big it was because it ran under a car, so the shadows made it tough to judge. All I know is that there were some older kids out there with hockey sticks trying to chase it away (or kill it).

I'm actually suprised I didn't see more of them. Every once in a while, my friends and I would venture "down the bay" (even though we were all forbidden to go down there). We saw almost no signs of life. We did see plenty of beer bottles and cans and other trash. We only went down there during the day, so I imagine that there would have been a lot more rats about at night. Thinking back - we were damn lucky that we didn't end up with rabies. Or worse.

[bayonnebirdie]

Aww, such beautiful Hudson County memories. Good times, indeed.

[beamishgirl]

bonjour, my name is tine and i'm friends with tom and allison... just thought i'd give ya a shout out and say hello....

tom tells me you're originally from jersey city... my parents grew up there in the 30s and 40s.

mind if i friend you?

[bayonnebirdie]

Hey, tine, nice to greet you! Please friend me and I'll do the same.

Yep, I'm from JC (Greenville). Hudson County is the damn Fertile Crescent!