Claire V. Bogdanos

THIS A.M., I wakened early to visions of streets trod by nodding smiling people, assorted ages, sizes and in various shades of color, now that’s Hoboken !  Frankly even if you are a stranger, almost all seem to nod or greet in some mild fashion both with the familiar and occasional “homeless” .  Here we are more than three and a half centuries after our initial encounter with resident Native American Indians.  Can you imagine such camaraderie ?  We have gone from  Ho-Ho-Hoboken to a town where the cost of living space has tumbled to a low of $ 500.  per finished square footage due to struggling economic times !  For those of us who have survived the Great Depression the dichotomy is astounding, not to mention, overwhelming !  Yet the homeless are with us still.  I have become  convinced that they may be the last extension of our society that remains impervious to the color GREEN !  HaHa !  But I digress, this is a place of many languages and dialects since it’s inception but grows even more divers daily and all in one friendly mile, which we happily share with the Cake Boss !!  On that sweet note I wish to remind you that Hoboken WAS the home of Hostess Cake and Tootsie Roll when I was a little girl !                                         Sincerely,                                              Claire B.