River Vale, New Jersey in the Pascack Valley - So what's all the fuss about?  Recently Money Magazine named one of our Pascack Valley towns on a list of top 100 places to live in America.  Ranked number 29 on this year's list was my very own hometown of River Vale.  The article uses criteria such as economic opportunity, good schools, safe streets, things to do and a sense of community.  In addition to these points is proximity to everything one can hope for in a quiet Suburban setting.   Of course this was no great surprise to me since I experienced it first hand. 

As a girl growing up in River Vale, New Jersey back in the 60's I was too young to know anything special about the small town.  Attending the Roberge Grammar School on the South side of town was pretty uneventful to me but then I was but a child.  The world might have been  smaller but the town had an unassuming charm of rural Americana much like it does today.  I remember walking to School at a time when the main roads were much less travelled.  My best friend's Mom drove an old fashioned station wagon and we never heard of an SUV.   When we got to be pre-teens, we would walk to the Four Corners to buy a slice of pizza or a snack. 
                    

My very first job was babysitting for my Mother's best friend's children who lived across the street.  The youngest child is the current River Vale Mayor Joe Blundo .  He was a cute tyke and we all knew he would be a politian someday.  After graduating the fifth grade, it was on to Holdrum Middle School.  Walking down River Vale Road to Holdrum was easy because there are sidewalks leading right to the School.  My Mother always said that one of the nicest things about the town was the fact that it only had one traffic light.  The town only recently added a light on the north side of town at Tappan & River Vale Road.

Once I graduated the eighth grade, I travelled on the school bus to Pascack Valley High School on Piermont Avenue in Hillsdale where I met my husband, Bob.  My next job was working at the Four Corner's A&H Drug Store as a clerk.  It was a family owned business run by two brothers named Al & Herb (thus the A & H).  In it's place now is a small Toy store amongst other stores in the strip of businesses on Westwood Avenue in River Vale.  The strip of stores offers a convenience to the local residents.

Once I was driving age, I worked at the Valley Fair which is now the Shop Rite of Hillsdale.  Valley Fair was a small department store that housed everything you could imagine from Records to clothing to a soda shop where I worked serving egg creams! 

Although this small town of less than 10,000 residents has been named amongst the top 100 in CNN's Money Magazine, the town of River Vale will always be my hometown.  So what's all the fuss about River Vale, New Jersey?  You might say the best kept secret is out - but I knew all along it was another great place to live in the Pascack Valley. 

For more local information about the town of River Vale as well as the Pascack Valley area of Bergen County, New Jersey, visit us online at www.HammersTeam.com or call Lisa & Bob direct at (201)218-6802.  We're your Pascack Valley Real Estate Resource - the Team that's on "Your Side"!