Traveling around Hudson County
Local author talks about nearby scene

The Secaucus Reporter 
Al Sullivan
Reporter senior staff writer 
October 06, 2002 
 

If you're lucky, you might catch sight of Anthony Buccino stepping off the light rail at Exchange Place or walking along the shore near the mouth of the Morris Canal. Although he works in Jersey City for a financial publishing company, in his off-hours, he's a roving essayist, studying the landscape - all of which suggests ideas. 

Don't let his mild-mannered appearance fool you. Buccino, a Nutley resident, has a knife-edge wit, rich veins of which permeate many of his essays and astute observations. 

Over the years, he has written about nearly everything under the sun, from peaches he remembers eating wild as a kid to what he felt like growing up in New Jersey. Although his latest book, "Rambling Round - Inside and Outside at the Same Time," covers numerous areas of the state, many of the essays in it deal with his observations of Jersey City. 
 

"I'm writing about what's around me, about what I see, about how it strikes me," he said during a recent interview. "Lunchtime on the Hudson River can be not only a break from a madhouse office, but a time to see the world, from the icebergs that look like crackers in my soup, to the seagulls sailing so high above they look like little planes." 

For all of his adventures in the big city, Buccino is a small town boy at heart, with many of his stories recounting the small everyday events of life. 

"If you asked me four years ago if I'd ever be working in a big-city environment such as Jersey City," he said, "I would have not seen that play in the Magic Eight Ball. But here I am." 

While making a living day to day in Jersey City, he inadvertently captured an innocence of the river. 

"My 'Rambling 'Round Harborside' [one of the essays] mentions the view across the river sparklingly," he said. "The story is about what's here, the walkway and the people around me, the ladybug, the seagull and the returning ducks. I think a lot of people at lunch walk right passed that." 

Garrison and Dave

Buccino's style is a cross between Garrison Keillor and Dave Barry, his stories full of heartfelt observations that inevitably have an edge of humor. 

"My rides on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail exposed a view of Jersey City I would never have imagined," he said. "There are plains and the view from West Side Avenue is really something else. You don't feel you're in a big city. Maybe somewhere out west." 

His travels through Hudson County surprised him with streets full of vitality, and also, strange sights. 

"My very first trip to find the Hudson River - when we crossed the Wittpenn Bridge, I dubbed it the Scary Bridge," he said. "It was so spooky. I had never seen a bridge that curved before. And the clearance on either side - watch your sideview mirrors, pal!" 

Discovering public transportation in Hudson County delighted him. He loves to ride the light rail to the end at West Side or Bayonne during his lunch hour. He also loves the PATH. 

"I used to sit through traffic lights on Newark Avenue just after the circle and watch the crowed PATH cars go by, and wondered how could those people do that?" he said. "[The] next thing you know, the traffic lights started to get to me [and] I'm in the PATH cars looking at the people sitting through the traffic lights, wondering, how could those people do that?" 

Each new experience provides him material for his essays, although he admits he's quick to draw on his upbringing in a punch. 

"I've written about getting strip-searched by a nun in third grade," he said. He has also written about escorting Ginger Rogers around Las Vegas during a trip there in the late 1980s. 

Buccino has published other books through small New Jersey publishers, although the new one is self-published. Many of the readers who send him comments talk about how much they've laughed over his tales. He generally doesn't write about his contemporary family, except in a general way, or about a job until after he has left it. 

Some of his tales of Hudson County came as a result of his PATH rides from Newark to the Grove Street station. 

"I wanted to know what I was looking at," he said. "To the north you see Fraternity Rock [in Secaucus]. To the south you see airplanes and the back of that Breyer's sign. But I wanted to know what's what." 

He wanted to know if the rail yards he sees now the former pig farms of the past. He pondered the great pale towers of the Jersey City Medical Center and wondered about the bridge between the buildings. 

Always writing

Raised in Belleville, Buccino currently lives in Nutley. He began his writing career in the sixth grade when he was named editor of his school's student newspaper. From 1989 to 1990, Buccino served as editor to the town's newspaper, The Belleville Times. In 1996 to 1998, he worked as managing editor of the Belleville Post, the Nutley Journal, the Independent Press of Bloomfield and The Glen Ridge Paper - in which many of his essays were published as columns and now appear in his book. 

Buccino's previous essay collections include A Father's Place, An Eclectic Collection and Sister Dressed Me Funny. All are available through Amazon.com. 

Two of his heroes were his father and his editor, both of who taught him a great deal, one about life, the other about writing. 

New project

His current project has a more personal touch. 

"My wife calls it an unusual hobby," he said. 

This is to gather up the names of the young men from his town who died while in service and write a few paragraphs about each one. 

"There are about 130 of them from my small town who have died in service," he said. "I didn't want them to be merely names on a plaque to future generations. I want their stories to be handily readable. I'd like to see writers or historians across the country do the same thing for their soldiers who died in service." 

While he wanted to have it ready for the town's 100th anniversary this year, he found the project much bigger than he expected. While writing it, however, he has put the tales on the web so others might read it, and families or friends might contact him with more information. 

"I've already started to receive more info about these Nutley sons," he said. 

The Secaucus Reporter