This week we learned that writer, advocate and our friend, Karen Riley passed away.

Karen was one of the first people who reached out to me when we first started this project.  While not a native of the Pines, it became a mission of hers to tell stories of the Pine Barrens community.  She was a healer and had a huge heart as you can read in her obituary.  As someone open and willing to help whomever she could, in whatever ways were within her means, she became our biggest advocate.  Her introduction of us into the Pines community as well as her own writing gave us new directions and a new appreciation for the richness and magic that could be found in the stories found in the Pines.  We are deeply grateful for the short time we got to spend with her and how much of an influence she had on us in that time.

On behalf of everyone working on this film, she will be missed and we sincerely hope that our attempts here will make her proud.

I’m pleased to announce an evening of three perspectives on the New Jersey Pine Barrens. at the Morven Museum & Garden in Princeton, NJ.

Illustrator/writer Allen Crawford will give an overview of the botanical wonders of the Pine Barrens, and a brief personal slideshow of the native Pine Barrens plants and wildlife that he’s encountered over the years. He will also be reading short excerpts from his book-in-progress about the Pine Barrens.

Horticulturalist Bill Smith of Rarefind Nursery will share some images of his famous bog garden, and discuss the care and culture of native Pine Barrens plants. He will also bring a “container bog garden.”

Myself, an admitted newcomer to the Pine Barrens, will discuss the impetus for wanting to explore the Pines through film as an “outsider” and present a selection of sequences from the film.

Please contact the museum to reseve your seat as space is very limited.

There weren’t too many Pines updates in the last several months.  That’s partially because I was waist deep in a bunch of other projects.  I directed a music video for Nightlands and then helped Philadelphia win a million dollars in the Bloomberg Challenge with an animation that I directed – and then I was in Iceland for a month working on a video installation that will take place next year in a projected entitled Due North.  But now I’m back! and I really want to get moving on this film.

I’m starting to reach out to people whom I’ve met or have known about for the last couple of years, since I started this, who I think would be great characters to be featured in the film.  I’ll be scheduling many expeditions in the next couple of months.  Some will be for shots of locations but mainly I want to focus on the things that happen and the stories that are told in the woods and in the communities.  I’ll be happy to hear any suggestions you might have for places I should be or people I should talk to.  Use the contact form here to get in touch.

My closest goal is to have enough samples of the kinds of footage and stories that I am hoping for to create a great video to go on kickstarter so that I can raise enough money to complete the film – hopefully this year (but I’ve said that before).  So far, this has all been self funded but recently I’ve had some technological difficulties – that I might get into in a later post – which will make it essencial to raise some money to get this out in the world to be enjoyed.  Keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, keep submitting stories through the story submission form.  They are all extremely valuable in piecing together a complete and varied perspective on the Pines.

It’s always great to read what details stick out in people’s memories of their childhood and how they become relevant to who those people became.

Diane Downer Anderson writes:

In the 1950s & 60s, when my sisters and I were children and then in our teens, our dad entertained us by taking us for long drives through the silver-white sand roads in the barrens. He knew where the Jersey Devil was buried, and knew his name and the details of his horrid birth. He knew where Martha Furnace was buried. He knew where a paper manufacturing company had stood. He knew where the glass shards from an old factory lay beneath the water on the Mullica River. He knew the best places to swim, fish, canoe, jump off a bridge, and float down a river. We thought he knew everything!

In the 1960s dad owned a Chevy truck, red and white, the truck with the snub nose front. On a ninety-degree day we would all pile in the back (recall this was before mandatory seat belts) excited to cool down in a tannin-rich stream. On one of those days, during a summer of drought, we headed into the woods. Although a few minor streams were empty, we found Hawkins Bridge and jumped and swam. On our way home the truck got stuck in the sand, deep in the sand. Dad tried hard to get her out, but the wheels dug deeper and dad seemed frustrated and embarrassed. Obviously there were no cell phones to call for help. It looked like a long & hot walk home.

For some strange reason we kids covered ourselves in sand, perhaps going feral since we anticipated a longish stay in the woods. Perhaps we decided to swim in the sand.But somehow we ended up covered in sand, walking in the direction of home,

As we walked, sand crusted in uncomfortable places on our tender bodies, a Model A Ford truck came along. The small driver looked at least as old as his 1920s era truck. We alerted him to our predicament and led him to our truck. Without saying a word he hooked his truck to ours and pulled our modern Chevy out of the sand, with my father laughing generously at the irony of the situation.

On the ride home we were crusty with sand but joyous in our retro-rescue and our father’s cheer.

Post-script: In the mid-1980s, as a curriculum specialist, I was project director on the development of the Pinelands Curriculum of the NJ Pinelands Commission. This curriculum is still in use and can be found in an online version. I am presently an Associate Professor of Educational Studies and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA.

My family still owns a small property on the Mullica River.

What so you remember vividly from your childhood in the Pines?
Submit your story here

I live in Philadelphia so when I try to explain this project to people, I often get this response, “Yeah, the Pine Barrens.  I drive through them on the way to the shore.”  While I do encourage everyone to make the Pines a destination one day, in the meantime, our most recent submitted story writer has a recommendation for those just driving through.

Hal Sirowitz writes:

The closest I got to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey was when I was on a public bus from the Port Authority Station to Cape May. We hit heavy traffic, and took two hours longer than I had expected. The bus had a bathroom you couldn’t use. The door was locked. I made my way to the front of the bus where I explained my situation to the driver. He said the only two remedies he could think of was to pull to the side of the road and have me urinate behind a pine tree, or he could clear the bus and have me urinate in a jar. I took what I thought was the least embarrassing option. At least, I was giving a chipmunk something new to smell and ponder over. There were a lot of women on the bus and I wasn’t sure if at the end of my ride one of them might ask that I get arrested for indecent exposure. So I was very careful to find the thickest pine tree to obstruct the passengers’ views. It was like looking for the biggest Christmas tree. I got some pine needles stuck in my hair and down my back. While I was urinating I was afraid the driver would pull the bus away as a practical joke. He was revving his engine the whole time. He wasn’t very nice about it, accusing me of taking too much time. But to tell the truth, it was the most glorious piss I ever took, minus the anxiety. I could smell the pine needles. Except for the mad looks on the faces of the passengers, I’d recommend that you do it, too.

Thanks Hal!  I’m not ashamed to admit it, Hal’s right!

Submit your Pine Barrens story here

Today’s theme is “found”.  Head over to the submission page and tell us your story

submission page 

This world is unforgiving    Case in point:  put a blindfold over your eyes and attempt to navigate through the cedar swamps of the New Jersey pines without your primary navigational equipment (the eyes).  The muck will attempt to suck your body downward, and the greenback flies will bite and draw blood from you.  If you struggle against the ebb and flow of this place, you will perish.
However, if you have the patience to surrender to the tea-colored waters, and accept their fate as your own, a new consciousness arises.  If you become one with the water, it awakens something deeply rooted within every creature that walks,swims, crawls, gallops, slithers or hops through this bountiful world.  The waters will share a secret with you that seems to have been long forgotten:  ’we are one.’
There are many places I have traveled to in this lifetime, but I have never felt the feeling of ‘home’ so much, as in the pines.  There is an ancient rhythm, subtle, yet profound, that can be heard in the gentle breeze that whispers through the scrub-oak, the blueberry bushes, and the ancient solemn presence of those majestic evergreens.
Though I have not set foot in this sacred forest for a decade, I carry the memories of this place in a sacred space in my heart.

Thanks Ross.

Submit you own stories here.  We will film all our favorite storytellers.

Here’s the first story submitted through the new story submission form.

John writes:

“This past winter, I was riding my bike on a sand road which was also a portion of the Batona trail in the pine barrens.  I intentionally wore a red baseball cap in order to clearly identify myself as not a deer but also not a hunter (as it was not the blaze orange color hunters wear).  I stopped to take a drink of water from my water bottle, when I heard gunshots in the distance.  It sounded like multiple guns going off at once so I assumed it was a rifle range as I know there are several in the area.  I didn’t think much of it, but then a minute or so later, I heard a high pitched whistling sound as that of a bullet whizzing past my head.  At that moment I got back on my bike and rode as fast as I could back to my car and drove straight to Dick’s Sporting Goods and bought a blaze orange hat and vest.  I am thankful that I escaped with my life!  I have since learned that this section of the Batona trail has been re-routed through the Franklin Parker preserve so that it does not go near any private land.

I can only think of a few possibilities of why this happened.  Either it was a rifle range, and in that case the owners of the range were irresponsible to not erect a wall to stop any stray bullets.  The other possibility is that these were hunters who mistook me for an animal, which is unlikely given the red hat I was wearing (maybe they were color-blind, in which case they shouldn’t be hunting).  And, the last possibility I can think of is that they were TRYING to shoot me.  None of these possibilities paints the residents of the Pine Barrens in a positive light, unfortunately.  I’d like to see the old stereotypes of the crazy “pineys” proven wrong, but sadly this experience has only confirmed them.

Looking forward to your film as I hope to find out more positive things about both the people of the pine barrens and the land itself.”

Thanks John.  I’m sure being almost shot would effect anyone’s opinion.  Of course there will always be bad apples but I hope we can help you see the people in the Pines in a better light over time.

Keep the stories coming.  I want this one to be the first of many.  We’ll shoot the best storytellers for the film.  Remember to include a bit about yourself and send me a link to a photo if you want one to be included in with your story

Storytelling has been a Pine Barrens tradition.  Storytelling, tall tales, folklore, ghost stories, adventures, myth and legends all keep the mystic and character of the Pine Barrens alive.   Stories shape our perception and experience of the Pine Barrens and we want to hear yours.

go the the Story Submissions page and tell us yours.  Something that happened to you or someone you know or someone you know that knows someone that it happened to.  Make it as short or as long as you want and include a bit about yourself.  The stories will be featured here on the blog and for the ones we like, we will ask if we can film you telling the story in the Pines to be included in the film.