Referendum

About the Book

Life can be surprising. From this point on my life’s journey, I look back, and it almost seems surreal. As I gaze through that long traveled pathway of time, I can honestly say that had I had a chance at the beginning to glimpse forward to see where this traveled road would take me, I wouldn’t have believed it. And so, this is probably true for a lot of us in my generation. We were born into a time of change, significant change. The kind of change that would set our lives and those of the following generations apart from those of just one generation ahead of us. The previous generations secured our future. They paid for it with their personal sacrifice and unrivaled bravery. That future has also served to make the world a smaller place, whether it be by audio and video communications, computers, or the commonplace of jet travel. As part of this “new” world, I have gone on to see and do things that seemed to be out of reach from that generational point where I entered this life. As I have reached the more “senior” years of my life, I have found the temptation to document a lot of life’s little adventures, or “misadventures” as they may be. I am also responding to those many people who have said “you should write a book”. The technology of today has also made this temptation easy and practical to implement. This book is my first pass at this endeavor, at least in the non-technical realm. The subject matter was an easy choice. The events covered in this book affected many things in many ways. These effects include both future generations and the geographical aspects of the regions involved. More importantly, this story, at least in part, shares common elements with many other people and communities. In some cases, these same things are occurring right now, in probably very similar circumstances. This book just may provide helpful insight to others who now stand where we once stood. Bob Strauss

About the Author

Robert “Bob” Strauss was born in New York City on Christmas Eve in 1944. He’s second of three children, and the only son. His mother was a highly successful fashion model, and his father was a marine engineer. Bob and his family lived in a middle-class neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan. As a child, Bob did the usual things such as attending public schools, church, and having many escapes to the country. (This often would be the small community of Belle Mead, NJ.) By the mid-1950s, the family determined it was time to move out of the city. By early 1957, they became part of the middle-class urban exodus. Now, as a Bridgewater, NJ, hick, Bob made his personal contribution to the local school’s overcrowding problem. During this period, Bob and his classmates struggled with many of the repercussions of this now nationwide problem. The years after high school were a mix of continued college education, military service, and even included a period of working in a mental hospital. Through this time, Bob managed to do things such as customize cars and chase girls. Bob seemed to have developed a habit of finding Catholic girls of Polish descent who were born on the seventeenth of August! By the time Bob reached the third one, he knew that the fix was in, so marriage it was. Over the next few years, Bob and his wife, Joan, raised three sons as a close-knit family. The young family covered the gamut of Sunday school, Little League, Boy Scouts, school projects, often with Bob and his wife serving as coaches, leaders, etc. There were also the rituals of trips to Disney World and many lazy summers on the west coast of Florida. While all of these were going on, Bob found his way into the pollution control business. This turned out to be rewarding career for him in which he has a great sense of accomplishment. It includes a lot of worldwide business travel, plenty of hard work, and some very interesting challenges. After a few decades, lots of system designs, and some patented inventions, Bob will tell you this career choice was no mistake. Bob’s job includes a lot of writing, mostly technical material. Over the last few years, he has found that nontechnical writing can be a great way to fill those waiting periods in airports and a superalternative to a TV in hotel rooms all those many, many nights! There was another, often suppressed, aspect of Bob’s life. Since his younger years, there always seemed to be a call toward community activism. When educational issues began to arise in Bob’s old school district, the sounds of its callings found its way to his ears. This book is a result of a long-burning desire to document this experience.