I will be honest in that I forgot yesterday was Earth Day until I heard something on the radio in the morning.

First celebrated in 1970 as a peaceful demonstration in favor of environmental reform it brought back instant memories of how we marked the occasion while I was a student at Central Regional.  A group of us who lived in Seaside Heights and Seaside Park rode our bikes to the high school in Bayville in both 1972 & 73, a distance of about 13 miles.

Times were very different then and the one thing we really didn’t have to deal with was traffic. The J. Stanley Tunney Bridge has just opened in 1972 and I honestly don’t remember even facing much traffic on Route 37.  I know we rode down 37 to Washington Street and remember stopping for a break at Huddy Park.

What I also remember was we were on split sessions at that time with the school day actually ending around 12:20 so needless to say we were quite late.  I don’t think school administrators bought into our motivation of trying to reduce engine emissions while celebrating “Mother Earth” but I did make for a great memory.  If only we had a picture of two but nobody remembered to bring a camera.

Toms River’s Todd Frazier made his season debut with the Mets last night and singled in his very first at-bat as part of a 1-for-4 night.  Frazier suffered an oblique strain at the start of spring training and stayed in Florida when the season began. He did rehab stints with a pair of the Mets minor league affiliates before returning to New York on Monday and getting the start at third base.

How much time the 33-year old former Toms River South and Rutgers University standout will get is the big question but for now I’m sure he’s just grateful to be healthy and playing again.

The injury he had is the same one that Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is now dealing with and is common today.  I don’t ever remember hearing of a strained oblique until the last decade or so. I guess back in the day they just called it an abdominal strain or pulled muscle of some kind.

 

 

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