The communities of South Orange and West Orange are not Cities. They, however, border the two "Oranges" that are Cities so, it is appropriate to write about them while covering my "City Collection."
In New Jersey all the Oranges are linked, and since I have badges from each municipality, it makes further sense to cover them.
These badges bring forth some nice, but unrelated, memories regarding this town of 15,000. Actually South Orange was incorporated as a Village in 1861. I am told that my Great Uncle (Fred Helmlinger) was Chief of Police there. I haven't verified that. I sure don't have his badge, but I am looking for it.
The Village is probably best known as the home of Seton Hall University. Many if its' students have made my acquaintance. The basketball team, however, has put the school, and Village, on the national map. And YES the University has its' own police department. Naturally I have one of their old badges, but not enough room to picture with this article.
In the late 1980's I was working as a probation officer in charge of the electronic monitoring system or house arrest program. We were quite successful with this operation. Out of the blue The Prime Time News Show contacted us. They wanted to do a segment of their TV show featuring our officers on the job - "live." I gave this a lot of thought, before immediately saying "OK."
This was a great opportunity for officers. We placed a TV crew at the home of a real bad criminal (driving on suspended list)who was under house arrest supervision. We also had a TV crew at our office. I was to do a manual call to the "bad guy's" house, and simultaneously have dialog with Hugh Downs and Diane Sawyer.
Just before "show time" my guys rushed into the "monitoring office" to place a huge banner on the wall. It read SETON HALL. Even the TV guys had an interest in the National Championship Game. Everything seemed good. We were ready, and so was "The Hall."
Midway through the TV show, during a commercial break, Hugh Downs called me. He gave me the bad news: They had to cancel our portion of the show as they ran over the time limit in earlier segment. At least I got to talk to Hugh and suggested he arrange time for me to demonstrate an ankle device on Diane Sawyer's leg. He thought that might be interesting, but never called back.
The night went further downhill from that point. Seton Hall lost to Michigan, by one point, 80-79. Now, twenty years later, these moments are more of the fond memories i have that are associated with my badge collection.
There are six badges from South Orange in my collection. The are all fairly old. As the pictures reveal there is: a traditional shape chrome plated "Special Officer" badge with the number 11 in the lower panel. This one is in the best shape of those that I have. Next are Lieutenant and Captain Badges. They are in average condition, with the Captain's Badge being newer. It has a multi-color seal that was added to an old style shield. Following these two are wallet shields marked "Patrolman" and "Chief." The last is from the Police Reserve and is also marked "Chief." Neither of the Chief' badges belonged to my Great Uncle, but I sure wish one did.
Next to South Orange is the larger Town of West Orange. I had relatives all over that place, but the closest I ever got to a police connection is my wife's Grandmother. She lived in a two family house and the "boy" on the second floor became a cop in West Orange. Now his badge is in excellent condition, but the picture of it will have to wait. It too adds to a great collection of memories.
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