Days of Yore
.
as recounted by

Bill Day

 

Random Thoughts...
Abe Shapiro was the proprietor of the grocery store that once stood on the point were Kresson road and the Berlin road began in Batesville just across the old iron bridge.  At the rear of the store in an old barn Abe kept a cow.  The boys in the neighborhood earned a nickel every day that they took turns leading the cow out the Berlin road to the fine meadow on Peacock's farm.  Winner's Ford Agency is there now.

The animal grazed there all day and a dusk the boys took it back home.  Imagine leading a cow on the Berlin road with the traffic what is now.

***
There were once many places in Haddonfield that needed some fill.  Once, for quite a while, the town's dump was at the field at the dead end of Estaugh avenue.

***
At the Pennsylvania railroad station the outside board platform needed repair so a brick platform was installed.  When the boards were ripped up this proved to be a bonanza for the boys who were watching.  For years purchasers of train tickers had dropped change that fell between the slats to the earth four inches below.  One boy dug out the top amount, sixteen cents, and Schlecht's Bakery down on the corner declared a dividend that day.  Those little round pies and cream puffs were delicious.

***
A favorite drink in hot weather, before ice cold sodas, was a homemade raspberry concoction.  The berries were gathered in season and were boiled in a cooking pan until they were falling apart.  They were then strained and the thick syrup that was obtained was stored in Mason jars.  When a refreshing drink was desired an inch of syrup was poured into a glass that then was filled with good cold water and a fine treat resulted.

***
In many cellars once there was to be found a three or four gallon earthenware crock.  It was kept in the cold, dirt floor basement, filled with water glass.  This was water to which had been added sodium silicate, or soluble glass.  Three or four dozen fresh eggs could put in the pot that would be kept fresh for month until they were used.  So water glass was not merely a drinking glass; once it meant a blue green, glassy compound the was used as an adhesive.

***
Only neighborhood boys and girls remember when Bill Hunter's father kept a horse and a cow grazing in the big empty field on the corner of Mt Vernon avenue and Estaugh avenue.  That section looks as if it were always full of houses.

***
Pert Tatem remembers that every year with the arrival of fall his father, J Fithian, would order for B.F. Fowler's General Store one barrel of flour and one barrel of sugar.  This would be sufficient for the winter's baking and it save many a trip up town for supplies during the cold winter months.  Times surely have changes.

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