LAKEHURST – It’s the time after Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (he took the world’s first photograph with a camera in 1826) but before the Nokia 7650 (reportedly one of the first smartphones with a camera), when memories were caught on 35mm film and not pixels, printed on paper and not stored on the cloud.
If you live in or around Lakehurst and Manchester, or used to, or know someone who does or did, it’s the time to raid the family scrapbooks or attic storage trunk and share those memories for a picture book project.
Lifelong Lakehurst resident Cedric Derecho, a recent Manchester High School graduate and current research student at Rutgers University, “is fascinated with the history of my hometown.”
He, along with fellow local Eric San Juan, is authoring an Images of America book through Arcadia Publishing. You know the books. Their sepia-toned covers feature the name of a beloved local town and old-time photographs.
“Images of America is an ambitious collection of chronicles that accurately capture the essence of what gives each American small town, neighborhood, and downtown its unique flavor. Each one is penned by a seasoned local expert and features hundreds of vintage images, local memories, personal stories, and unique points of view in regards to a variety of iconic events. At present, the series encompasses thousands of volumes and counting,” Arcadia Publishing touts on its website.
Lakehurst is getting its own book. But Derecho needs help.
“This book aims to showcase the seldom told history of Lakehurst/Manchester/Whiting with over 150 rarely seen photographs. To obtain this quota, I must seek additional submissions from private collections. This is why I am asking anyone who may have old photos to please come forward, in an opportunity to showcase these rare photos in this book,” Derecho told The Manchester Times via email.
He’s looking for vintage and antique photographs and postcards of Lakehurst, Manchester and Whiting. Basically, photos and postcards from the 1960s or earlier. Derecho’s asking that crisp, clear photos be scanned at 300 dpi and emailed to him at cedriccoinsd@gmail.com.
Blurry photos, and those with great-grandma’s head chopped off, are unneeded. But thanks.
He’s taking submissions until September.
Derecho is the author of two self-published books on his hometown, A Small Town Life, a novel told through the eyes of resident William Foulks, and Fact or Fiction? A Small Town Life Revealed, a nonfiction account of Foulks and Lakehurst. Both books are available at https://www.thebookpatch.com/.
Derecho was featured in The Manchester Times back in March 2018. He was selling his books at the Lakehurst Elementary School book fair.
“Everybody knows about the Hindenburg,” Derecho said that night. “But there are so many more fascinating stories.”
