In the mid 1950’s, Union, the town I grew up in had many farms. A woman named Hazel Headly owned one of them and sold some of her farmland to a developer named Fenster. My parents were looking for a place to purchase a home where they could raise a child. My parent’s relatives lived in Newark and Irvington NJ and the adjacent town was Union.  My parents ended up purchasing a new home from Mr. Fenster in an area of Union that was to become known as “Collegiate Estates” not because any college actually existed there, but because the street names all were prominent college names.  “Down the hill” from where I lived (2 blocks actually) were two tremendous broadcast towers that locals called “The Beam Lights” because of the lights atop them warning planes on approach to Newark Airport. My pediatrician and allergy MD were located in Newark NJ and my parents always took local streets (rather than the Garden State Parkway) to save the 25 cent toll at the Union Toll Plaza. When we drove down Union Ave, I noticed a small tiny “shack” adjacent to the “Beam Lights” that had a tiny parking lot adjacent to it. When I expressed an interest in the shack, my parents warned me that it was “off limits” and was “dangerous”. Naturally, like any kid, when something is “off limits” and “dangerous” I wanted to find out more. So, thankfully, my parents gave me the freedom to ride my bicycle wherever I wanted to and several days I rode my bike to the entrance to the driveway to the “shack” that was adjacent to the “Beam Lights”.  I decided not to defy my parents’ commands, but stayed on my bike on the sidewalk of Union Ave. One day, a limo drove up, and a very professional looking black woman stepped out of the limo and entered the “shack”. On another occasion, a professional looking black man entered “The Shack”. That day, I got lucky because the limo driver walked over to me and started to converse with me. He said that I seemed curious and I told him that “The Shack” was off limits to me but I was intrigued by the fact that limos kept arriving and well dressed black people stepped out of the limos and entered “The Shack”. That’s when I learned about WNJR. WNJR was a radio station broadcasting on the AM band. The station at the time was a black radio station. The station’s broadcast towers and studios were located in my home town of Union. However, because of an agreement that the town had with Union Township, WNJR agreed to say that they were broadcasting from Newark NJ. Union, at the town, was a very segregated town and the black people in Union lived in the Vauxhall section and in a small section adjaced to Vaux Hall Road between Route 22 and Salem Road. So, WNJR couldn’t say that it was broadcasting from where it was really broadcasting from, for several reasons. When I continued to speak with the limo driver, I asked who he had brought to “The Shack” and he told me “Sammy Davis Jr.” . He told me that his colleagues had brought Leontyne Price and Martin Luthur King Jr to the studios. He explained to me that WNJR was a black talk radio station and prominent individuals in the entertainment world would visit to be interviewed on radio. It was getting late so I went back home. I was convinced that my parents must have gotten word because the next day my mom said, “remember, dont you EVER go near that shack on Union Ave!  Today I look back on those days and think about how much my life might have been different if I had met with Leontyne Price, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dr. Martin Luthur King Jr. I had a wonderful piece of history two blocks away from where I lived but irrational fear prevented me from being a part of it. For some reason, it reminds me of the movie The Shape of Water where the unknown is considered the enemy and the aggressor because nobody ever took the time to communicate. Today, the “Beam Lights” are gone as is the “shack”. But the memory lingers…