“This family, whether it was Kathleen and Bernie, Kathleen, Bernie and Jay, or now just Kathleen, is the best. They are a family that has supported every aspect of Jersey City. They don’t support just the police. Or the firemen. They support everything that is right for Jersey City. They do the same down here. We can’t walk away from Kathleen. She’s the best. She’s generous, she’s part of us. She takes care of us.”
And that is only a handful of the compliments and praise the hundred or so retired detectives and police of the Jersey City Department for generations paid to Kathleen Sweeney this week as they overflowed the Galleon Room at the Shore Casino for their 35th annual Christmas Party.
It’s an event that has been happening for 35 years, always at the Casino, always with the Sweeneys.
And it started in a car with a couple of detectives talking.
They all worked together as detectives in the Jersey City Police Department…There were Bernie Kachran, Jim Healy, Ray Waknor and Jack Healy. They worked hard, they played hard. They liked each other’s company. So why not get together around Christmas and celebrate together, they said, sitting in that car that night.
So the tradition began. Nobody thought it could be any place else except the Casino in the Park. The Sweeneys were there, Kathleen in ….yes, indeed a mini skirt, white boots, and a great Irish smile. There was the best food and entertainment any restaurant could offer and it was all there in the Casino in the Park.
And so it went on. The first year of the detectives getting together for a holiday celebration was so popular and talked about that the rest of the department, the patrolmen, the specialists in other fields, everybody in the department…they all wanted to be included.
So 34 years ago, the little party that started in a parked car exploded into a big event that included the entire department. Always at the Casino in the Park. Always because the Sweeneys ran the place.
It continued to happen every year, all the retired men in blue wanted to meet. When the Casino in the Park changed hands eight or so years ago, and the Sweeneys were no longer the owners, the Jersey City gang moved it on to the Shore Casino. “How or why would we ever go anyplace else?” John Foy said. “You couldn’t get a better welcome from anyone like we get from the Sweeneys!”
And on the first Wednesday of 2023, just like on the first Wednesday in December of every other year, it was Kathleen Sweeney who welcomed and flashed that great Irish smile to the hundred or so retirees who crowded into the Galleon Room to reunite, share stories, banter with each other, thank Kathleen and enjoy their time together, enjoy Chicken Marsala, compliment Steve the bartender for his concoctions and joke with happy waiters and waitresses Pedro, Michael and Euphilia for an afternoon of unabashed fun and joy.
Thirty-five years. Any of the retirees could wax eloquent on why the Casino…be it in the Park or Shore…is so important to them. It’s the Sweeneys that made it so. And Kathleen who keeps it alive.
They started their get-together this week, after the initial hellos from retirees who came from all parts of New Jersey near and far as well as from as far south as Florida, offering a moment of silence and happy memories of those who have passed. They included both Bernie Sweeney and Jay Strebb in their memorial, because the two were as much a part of the police department as if they were on the force themselves.
They joked with each other, shared memories. They remembered Steve Stansifer, who has since died, , and others who made their mark on Jersey City history. They talked about the “great run” they had as police officers, those with sons are carrying on generational dedication to protecting others, Middletown’s John Foy was proud his own son was marking his first year as a patrolman on the township police force this week.
The afternoon could not have been more festive, more happy, more fun or more genuine, friendship among men who had faced dangerous situations together during busy years, but could now look back and know they had done their best. And they loved their work.
Sal Frascino lives in Lakewood now and first got on the Jersey City department in 1981. Four years later he was a detective, and five years ago, he retired after a long and productive career. Now he’s fascinated about the history of Lakewood, the town where he now lives in Kettle Creek Heights, a section of Lakewood he’s working hard to be designated as a section on its own to show its personality of its population. Sal put it precisely when asked why the Shore Casino is a must as the location for the annual get together of these men who have done so much for their communities. “It’s because this family does the same thing they did in Jersey City…they knew the pulse of Jersey City and they know the pulse of Atlantic Highlands..They are part of us.”
The retired detectives were honest and effusive with their praise for Kathleen Sweeney….and only one of dozens of organizations that can boast of years of having their annual, or weekly, or monthly meetings at the Casino. Then there are their personal experiences…the weddings, the engagement parties, the birthday parties, the baptisms, confirmations, and anniversaries. And even the repast after funerals.
The Shore Casino. The place with a soft touch for those who put their lives on the line for others, the place that’s a part of the important dates in everyone’s life.
Ask the Jersey City retired police. They’ll talk to you forever about the kindness and generosity of the Sweeneys.
