Delanco Landmarks
The recent flurry of content about the neighbors has got me thinking about specific places in Delanco which may or may not exist any longer. (Specifically what got me thinking about it was the Babe Ruth ballfield/real Babe Ruth story, which I continue to have a hard time swallowing. :)
Here are a couple to get things rolling:
(1) Mickey's (?) pool hall: This was that building on the inside part of the bend in Burlington Avenue, right next to what used to be Harper's "food mart" or whatever Mrs. Harper called it. And it was a real pool hall, too. My memories of it are kind of dim (never was inside, obviously), but I do remember seeing the interior through open doors in the summertime. Presumably no a/c. And because as far as I know Delanco has always been "dry," Mickey's didn't I think dispense beer etc. to cool off the heated patrons.
You may remember the story about me hitching a secret ride on the rear bumper of one of our numerous station wagons. I explicitly remember seeing the inside of Mickey's as we rounded the bend, headed towards Riverside or wherever it was; a guy lounging in a doorway looked a little startled to see a small boy apparently mounted on an station wagon's tailgate.
(2) Hickory Street School: This place continues to live inside my head (and, I suspect, the heads of many others who grew up in Delanco -- especially pre-Burlington Ave. [i.e. Pearson] school), although I spent only four years there. The floor plan was basically a cube of four blocks placed atop four blocks, one room in each corner of the two-story building. On the first floor were... Mrs. Burkolder (1st grade); the room where my 2nd grade class was held (don't remember the teacher's name); Mrs. Oakerson (2nd grade); and, umm, Miss Quigg maybe (3rd grade)? Second floor I remember only Mrs. Roche (3rd grade; I think she died sometime in 2004) and Miss Denneler (4th grade). I remember all the tongue-and-groove wainscoting on the walls, and the "coat rooms" outside each classroom, and the wooden floors, and of course the fire escape on both sides of the building. In that Jean Shepherd-based movie, "A Christmas Story," I always thought the school which Ralph etc. attend is a lot like Hickory St. School (without the fire escapes) used to be, right down to the location of the flagpole. (As far as I know, no one ever got his tongue stuck to it, though.)
Others?
Here are a couple to get things rolling:
(1) Mickey's (?) pool hall: This was that building on the inside part of the bend in Burlington Avenue, right next to what used to be Harper's "food mart" or whatever Mrs. Harper called it. And it was a real pool hall, too. My memories of it are kind of dim (never was inside, obviously), but I do remember seeing the interior through open doors in the summertime. Presumably no a/c. And because as far as I know Delanco has always been "dry," Mickey's didn't I think dispense beer etc. to cool off the heated patrons.
You may remember the story about me hitching a secret ride on the rear bumper of one of our numerous station wagons. I explicitly remember seeing the inside of Mickey's as we rounded the bend, headed towards Riverside or wherever it was; a guy lounging in a doorway looked a little startled to see a small boy apparently mounted on an station wagon's tailgate.
(2) Hickory Street School: This place continues to live inside my head (and, I suspect, the heads of many others who grew up in Delanco -- especially pre-Burlington Ave. [i.e. Pearson] school), although I spent only four years there. The floor plan was basically a cube of four blocks placed atop four blocks, one room in each corner of the two-story building. On the first floor were... Mrs. Burkolder (1st grade); the room where my 2nd grade class was held (don't remember the teacher's name); Mrs. Oakerson (2nd grade); and, umm, Miss Quigg maybe (3rd grade)? Second floor I remember only Mrs. Roche (3rd grade; I think she died sometime in 2004) and Miss Denneler (4th grade). I remember all the tongue-and-groove wainscoting on the walls, and the "coat rooms" outside each classroom, and the wooden floors, and of course the fire escape on both sides of the building. In that Jean Shepherd-based movie, "A Christmas Story," I always thought the school which Ralph etc. attend is a lot like Hickory St. School (without the fire escapes) used to be, right down to the location of the flagpole. (As far as I know, no one ever got his tongue stuck to it, though.)
Others?
posted by JES | 11:28 AM
1 Comments:
Jeez, I knew you of all people would go for the buildings, but I didn't expect a freaking street-by-street catalogue... :) You did, however, do an excellent job of reminding me of places I hadn't thought about in years!
The Camera Clock Shop was owned/managed (whichever) by, I think, an uncle of Dean's. Might've been some other relation -- great-uncle, 2nd cousin, whatever -- but he was definitely related. Despite the Osmond connection, I think I might've bought something there no more than once. A roll of film maybe.
Another thing I remembered about the corner there: that used to be the, er, hangout for a couple of young ladies of murky reputation. The biggest one, and she was BIG, Jimmy dubbed "Sh!tty Shirley." (I think he also came up with the more generic "The Bank Girls" to describe her counterparts who frequented the corner of Scott & Pavilion in Riverside.)
Sub shop -- home of big orange-white-and-brown "Wing Ding"-sized cups of soda or Boost as well as hoagies and burgers and such -- was called Gibe's, pronounced in two syllables like "guy-bees." I never knew a real Mr. or Mrs. Gibe, though; all the orders were prepared by Al Girta(s?) and Herta Jonys (she of the famous "I mocked it viss a toosepick" line for the sub which didn't have onions, or peppers, or whatever).
As for Delanco Market (which had the best damn cold cuts -- kind of the deli counterpart of L&M bakery in the doughnuts-and-buns world), that was a kind of belated name for it (youngster). Before that it was called PJ's or Pete J's, and I vaguely remember the guy behind the counter (presumably either Pete or PJ)... he wore a long butcher's apron, had thinning hair, and wore wire-rimmed glasses.
I think you're right about the dry cleaner. Next to the Sunoco station maybe? Later a real estate office, maybe for Isolda.
The plumbing supply place, of course! Was it... Roberts? C.J. Roberts? something like that anyhow. It was just the Delanco branch; they also had that place in Riverside, just across the bridge, which was always the first place to get hit when the creek overflowed. (Or WAS that the same company? Now that I'm thinking of it, I think the latter might've had a lumber yard...) The post office shared the same building. The postmaster's name I remember only as Mr. Eisen-something but I'm not even sure of that. I remember thinking it sounded like President Eisenhower's name. (It wasn't Mr. Eisele; he was the sexton, whatever the hell that was -- janitor? -- at ZLC.)
My fondest memories of the Camp Meeting Ground are: (1) Attending some kind of Brownie initiation or upgrade or whatever ceremony, where the girls had to cross a little white wooden bridge. No idea if this would have been for Connie or Cindy, neither of them seem to really have fit the Brownie mold. (2) Acorn fights in the fall. Damn those things hurt when they hit your face, neck, arms, or hands!
Now that you got me thinking about all those outlying places, yeah, it really was like a microcosm Kansas or someplace in the midwest. Without the tornadoes of course. God knows what the citizens of Delanco would have done with tornadoes.
To say that I'm dazzled by your historic connection to the Joseph P. Phile ballfield just wouldn't do justice to my reaction.
P.S. Bill Lewis's wife, I forget her name, used to be one of the two main librarians. There was another woman who worked there, too... was it Mrs. Yardumian? (Man, THAT name came out of left field!)
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