Borough residents sure like to party as evidenced at last week’s “Pop-Up Party in the Glen,” a totally appreciated community activity along Toney Brook.
The get-together drew a fairly sizable family crowd Wednesday, July 24, for the first time-event. It featured kid-related activities, knockwurst and franks from Fitzgerald’s 1928, beer from the NJ Beer Co. and music by the Fumos, a rousing Brooklyn-based band playing from the gazebo.
The notion to throw a party for no apparent reason came to former Mayor Peter Hughes and his wife, Susan, after visiting their son in the Philadelphia area this summer.
While in the City of Brotherly Love, the couple visited a pop-up beer garden along the Schuylkill River. Hughes said beer pop-ups, called “Parks on Tap,’ appear all summer long in Philly’s public parks. Naturally, the couple thought — eureka.
“I figured we had a great location in Glen Ridge, in the Glen,” Hughes said. “I texted pictures to Jim Cowan, the recreation director, Mike Zichelli, the administrator and Mayor Debbie Mans.”
Hughes gave Cowan credit for taking the idea and lifting it off the ground.
That said, Cowan also deserves kudos for recruiting the Fumos, a horn-driven septet focusing on music from the ‘70s.
Jack Walsh, the band leader and guitarist, said the group’s name was a riff on Funk Brothers, a Motown-backing session group which performed on many classics from the late ‘50s to the early ‘70s.
“Fumo also means ‘smoke’ in Italian, so it can mean other things to other people,” he added cryptically.
The group, he said, plays mostly ‘70s soul, funk, rock and jazz standards with plenty of horns. They have two trumpets, a saxophone, two guitars, a keyboard and drums.
The group got together in 2018 and will be playing at the Montclair Brewery, 101 Walnut St., Aug. 10.
Parked in the Glen during the party was the public library’s “Ike.” Similar to a hotdog vendor’s wagon, Ike showcased surprising but useful things available to library card holders including battery packs, bike pumps, cassette-to-MP3 file converters and the like.
The items are cataloged under “Library of Things.”
Ike also has a solar attachment which provides electric assistance when moving the vehicle uphill.
Tina Marie Doody, the library director, said Ike is an acronym for Inspire Knowledge Everyday. She added that on Aug. 14, anyone with a library card can go to the community pool for free.
Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Hughes, pleased with the turnout for a maiden endeavor, said another party might pop up in September.
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