A Stroll Down Memory Lane

I thought I would take a break from all of the tension and angst surrounding the flooding and other politically tinged issues leading up to Monday’s township committee meeting, and follow the lead of some recent Patch comments on a stroll down memory lane. I encourage everyone to chime in with their own particular reminiscences – let’s make each other smile for a couple of minutes instead of jacking up our blood pressure!

So…  I’ll go first. Here’s a sampling of some of my recollections. I hope they’ll jog your memory and inspire you to comment or post other tidbits you look back on nostalgically. (I’ll save my tales from more than 20 years in the music business in and around Philadelphia for another time.)

Yes, Robert Flynn, I remember the cows being walked across Rt. 130 from Millside Farms to graze where the Target is now – back when there was a grass median strip on the length of the highway. I also remember getting ice cream, in the shiny metal bowl with a little character on a tooth pick stuck in it, at Millside Dairy. Before changing its name, Hunter’s Glen was called Millside Manor, named for the farm it replaced.

How about these?

The now vacant antique store on Broad Street was Keating’s Tavern;  The aroma of fresh pastry wafting from Klipple’s Bakery at 4:00AM on Sunday mornings; The paintings of the Mouse King from “The Nutcracker” in the dance studio window at Broad and Main Streets; The first floor of the dance studio building was originally an American Store (predecessor to A&P); The corner apartment above the dance studio was a doctor’s office; The 5 & 10 and the Sharon Shoppe on Main Street in Riverton;

The movie theater in Palmyra-Red pin bowling at midnight every Saturday at Riverside Lanes; The skating rink in Riverside; The nail salon at Cinnaminson St and Broad Street was a Cumberland Farms; The building where Riverton Fitness is located was J.S. Collins, and their lumber yard was across Main Street, where the office complex is now; The bank turned residence next to the Riverton Post Office was Captain Drew’s Imports; Smyth’s Landscaping was the East Riverton fire station; The train stations, later just platforms, in Riverton and Palmyra; Sledding down “Double Bunker” at the golf course, and thinking it was a big hill; 4th of July fireworks at the riverbank in Riverton, then at Taylor’s Lane and then the Riverton Park before they were gone for good; There was an actual fountain at Andover Road and Rt.130 to mark the entrance to Fountain Farms; Asbury Methodist Church was moved from its original site, facing Rt.130; Getting a season pass to Holiday Lake – for $6.00!; Elephant keys, the Elephant tram and the pony rides at the Philadelphia Zoo-

The #9 Public Service bus on River Road – with bus driver Dorsey Van Bibber, my grandfather (before my little brother became a hot shot executive at New Jersey Transit, he was a bus driver, too, on the same route and the older drivers called him “Mini-Van”); Driving from Beverly to PHS with only 2 traffic lights, one in Riverton and one in Palmyra; There was a gas station where the Palmyra Wawa is now; The Rivers Edge Hayride (I was the witch who lost her head in the guillotine dozens of times each night!); Gino’s in Cinnaminson and Duke’s in Florence; The pond that ran down the center of the Moorestown Mall, complete with little foot bridges and live ducks, and the parrot in the garden at the Haddonfield Road end of the Cherry Hill Mall; The old draw bridge on Rt.130 over the Rancocas at Bridgeboro Road, with the sharp turn at the bottom of the hill heading northbound, and the steep hill on Bridgeboro Road at the traffic light when you were coming from Moorestown (it once took me 10 minutes to make the turn there when I was just learning to drive a van with a manual transmission)

I think that should be more than enough to get us started. I hope you'll post your own memories and any photos you might have!