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City to host first Prop Swap Yard Sale By JOe eMANSKi Bordentown has earned its well-deserved reputation as a place where people are into Halloween. There is the city’s annual Halloween parade, and of course the tradition of Halloween house decorating that is not just fun, but growing every year. The parade marked its 50th anniversary in 2023. It makes sense that a small town where the streets are narrow and the houses close together would be the sort of place where people can really make the most of the occasion. Each year, it seems, the bar is raised in terms of who can outdo whom in the department of spooky, over-the-top decorating. For some residents, there is no Halloween off season. They are planning for and budgeting for next year’s theme practically from the day the last year’s Halloween ends. It’s not just in Bordentown where Halloween traditions are big and getting bigger. “Halloween stuff is in the stores already,” says Katy McGowan, who spoke to the Current last month. “It’s July.” McGowan is an important person on Bordentown’s Halloween scene. The all-volunteer Bordentown Consolidated Fire
Association is the sponsor for the parade and many other Halloween-themed events in town, and McGowan is chair of the parade. She has been involved with it since 2009, and her father, Steve, who died that year, was one of the first chairs of the parade. Starting this month, McGowan and the Consolidated Fire Association will be bringing another of what they hope is an annual Halloween tradition: The first ever Bordentown “Prop Swap Yard Sale.” The sale event is set to take place on Aug. 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Crosswicks Street. Vendors and neighbors from Bordentown and beyond will have Halloween decorations for sale, and members of the community are invited to stop by to see if there is anything they would like to be able to use to decorate their homes this October. The event committee made 20 tables available for the inaugural event. McGowan said that they originally envisioned it as an opportunity for members of the Bordentown community to sell and/or exchange their decorations. But Bordentown is not the only community where Halloween home decorating is a big thing, and some of the tables See SWAP, Page 14
Sue and Rich Bender sit at a family get-together with their family. Rich Bender died on July 4 at the age of 74.
Bender remembered as family man, legendary baseball coach By JuStiN FeiL Rich Bender’s coaching success put him among the top 10 winningest baseball coaches in New Jersey high school state history. And while he became a household name over 43 seasons after starting the Delran program, the longtime Bordentown resident was much more than just a
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great coach. He was a beloved father, grandfather, friend, mentor and teacher. “He really did separate it pretty well,” said Bender’s wife, Sue. “We knew what was going on and all that, but he really did separate it. When he came home, he was home pretty much.” Bender passed away on July 4.
He would have been 75 on Aug. 2. Hundreds of former students, players, neighbors, classmates and family paid their respects at his viewing and funeral. “He was a legend,” said Lawrence High baseball coach Jim Maher, a rival coach who became a good friend. “He was a legend as a coach. He was a great family man, a great See BeNder, Page 12
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