Me, a Swing, and a Sunset

Me, a Swing, and a Sunset

Just Reminiscing, Ah, The Memories

By Jack Coll

It’s a beautiful summer August  evening and I’m just sitting on a swing on my rooftop gondola watching the sun drop out of the sky, man the colors are just unbelievable, in a way kinda hard to describe, orange, baby blue, and this burning red, the sun of course a bright yellow and orange.  Nothing to do but sit back, enjoy the sunset, and reminisce.

With the passing of Bill Donovan I started thinking about Mickey Dennis and Bob Burt, former Conshohocken Soap Box Derby Directors, along with Barney Rodenbaugh and Whitey Nasielski who for many years could be found at the starting gates at the Soap Box Derby Fourth of July race.  Ain’t it funny I can close my eyes and still hear both of them counting down, “three, two, one, the cars are on the track,” for the racers they could hear that gate clang and the adrenaline would be flowing as their heart raced a mile a minute.

My mind drifts to the days when Dave Bowe called the race from the announcers booth, his voice could be heard up and down Fayette Street, the cars might have been 20 feet apart as they neared the finish line and Bowe would be screaming out over the PA system, “Here they come, they are “Nip and Tuck, neck and neck, it’s a close one.”  One of the things I enjoyed for many years at the derby race was this little inside joke, throughout the day Dave Bowe would constantly announce in his big booming voice, “Will Joe Delbuno PLEASE, Report to the Announcer’s Booth,” and five minutes later it would be followed by “Has Anybody Seen Joe Delbuno.”  The joke was that Joe Delbuno wasn’t even at the race most of the time, he might have been in Sea Isle City or some other Jersey shore resort, but thanks to Bowe’s announcements people would be looking for Joe throughout the day.

The bottom of the sun starts to disappear below the horizon and a think wouldn’t it be great to see a double feature one last time at the Riant Theatre.  Thinking back to the mid 1950’s I really don’t remember many movies of that era but I think about “From Here to Eternity,” “The War of the Worlds,” “Shane,” and that Marilyn Monroe movie I think was called “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”  There were a couple of scary movies I remember, I think were from the 1950’s “Rear Window,” and “Dial M for Murder.”  But we had some good ones that would have stacked up well for a Saturday afternoon double feature, you could walk through the front doors of the Riant at 1:00 p.m. and settle in for an afternoon watching “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “White Christmas”,  “ Peter Pan”, or “Shane”.  If you attended the theatre in the winter time you would be getting out of the Riant at just about dark and had to run home. I’m much more familiar with movies from the 1960’s like “Cool Hand Luke”, “Bonnie and Clyde”, “Batman”, “In the Heat of the Night” and “You Only Live Twice”.  I wonder how many people remembering going to a movie at Plymouth Square Shopping Center, man it just wasn’t the same as seeing a movie at the Riant Theatre.

Just thinking about the Riant makes me reminisce about a number of other stores that are long buried in our memories, I remember stopping in at Pete’s Hardware Store on many a Saturday morning’s needing hardware for projects I was working on, somehow it seemed to me that Pete had everything these big box stores have today, you just didn’t have to buy 1600 pieces for the one you needed.  Ya know what? It wasn’t that long ago but I miss driving past E. F. Moore’s Car Dealership seeing residents shop for cars, I couldn’t help but smile when I noticed a father walking the lot with his 16 year old daughter, just thinking about his sleepless nights is enough to keep me up at night.  Ain’t it funny how so many residents complained about the Acme Market once located at Seventh Avenue and Fayette Street, (Pronounced Ack-a-me)  you know, they didn’t have this or ran out of that, and now that it’s gone, what-da-ya say… be careful about what we complain about.

My mind wanders, am I wrong or was the First National Bank of Conshohocken once located at First Avenue and Fayette Street the final building demolished during the urban redevelopment era when they demolished hundreds of buildings in the borough’s lower twenty five acres?  I can’t help but wonder if anyone alive today remembers bowling at the Second Avenue bowling alleys when Charlie Lutter operated it.

As the sun is more than halfway gone and the sky is burning up providing me with a spectacular view of an August evening my mind wanders to sports, man it seems to me that this town was built on sports.  I was just thinking back to the “A” Field days, Conshy and St. Matt’s High Schools, Archbishop Kennedy, hundreds of football games run through my head like a movie running ten times too fast.  Was it just my observation or did anyone else notice, it seemed that there was always this group of old guys standing beyond the end zone at every football game I ever attended.  There was this little group of old guys and with every play they would all turn to each other and discuss the rights and wrong of the play.  It seemed to me they knew something that we didn’t, and that’s why they would huddle in the end zone, they didn’t want anyone else to hear them discuss the game, and I always felt that the head coach of the team should report to them at half time to discuss the team’s second half moves.

Ya know, if I could just go back for a play or two I would love to set my camera up in the far end zone at the “A” Field during a chilly Friday night game with Archbishop Kennedy on the field, whipping up on someone like Lansdale Catholic, I’d focus on Jimmy Borkowski coming off the left end, I’d wait for Borkowski to do a little shake and break free from the defender and race down the left sideline towards the end zone, I knew what was coming, John Catania would let it fly towards the corner of the end zone, I’d watch it thinking man Jimmy’s never gonna catch up to this one, but he does, the ball drops just inside the end zone and Jimmy makes the catch look easy.  Sitting on my roof watching the sun drop lower and lower I’m thinking I snap the camera just at that moment and capture a great shot, but in reality I remember watching that Catania to Borkowski routine several times at the “A” Field and yet I got so hung up in the moment that I forgot to focus, or even snap a picture, $#!+.  I’d still like to go back and witness that play one more time even if I didn’t get the shot.  If I could, I’d love to travel to Bristol High School on a warm fall Saturday afternoon to watch the Saints take on Bristol, and hold my breath for the final two minutes of the game as Bristol makes a last minute charge towards the goal line with Kennedy holding onto a three point lead.  I like watching the Eagles on Sunday’s, but man I loved traveling to the high school football games on Saturday’s in the fall.

Ah man, sports have provided me, and I’m sure hundreds of other residents with a lot of memories. Plymouth Whitemarsh High School throughout the 1990’s was just a great sports scene.  They had a number of incredible football teams, they had a state championship in both basketball and baseball, and (I’ve written about all of this in past blogs, you can look them up on this site.)

Ya know just once more I’d like to be standing along the third base line at Miles Park watching Ronnie Keaser haul ass around third base on his way to scoring another run for Archbishop Kennedy.  I’d like to see Chris Speca take one of his mighty swings at the plate, although he didn’t always hit the ball I’d watch with great anticipation because when he did hit the ball it was hit hard, and long, Speca didn’t run real fast but opposing catchers never wanted to block the plate when Speca rumbled around third.

One of the things I enjoyed about watching the Archbishop Kennedy girls basketball team, (and they had a lot of great players over the years) but I always enjoyed watching Kristen Hale score a bucket, it seemed to me that when she hit net it seemed to come as a surprise to her, the ball would fall through the net, a momentary blank stare, and a soft smile as to say “wow,” that went in.  The Kennedy boys’ basketball team had a lot of hard working players throughout the years, I mean hard working, they worked for every move every point every rebound.  Two very good ball players who, when you watched them they never seemed to work hard, I’m not saying they didn’t work hard but their appearance was very smooth on the court, I mean I don’t recall them ever breaking a sweat, Dave Coupe and Josh Dugas were just smooth, they never seemed to work hard or battle to make a pass, it was like the rebounds came right to them, it looked as though they made very little effort taking shots and when they ran up and down the court their hair never moved, I mean these guys were excellent ball players, just very smooth.  I remember watching guys like Duda, Lawler, Kaufmann, Hildebrand, Catania, and Borkowski, these guys worked hard for everything, they weren’t very smooth but they fought to get the job done, Dugas and Coupe were just cool, calm, and smooth.

I never witnessed St. Matthew’s or Conshy High play football at the “A” Field but I would have liked to have seen a few games where the schools marching bands took the field on a crisp fall afternoon, the Indian summer sun providing a 65 degree day, with refreshments at Jack’s, The Spot, or Bolero’s Pizza waiting for band members, cheerleaders and players after the game, yeah, I would have enjoyed being part of that scene.

I’m not sure I would have wanted to live back in the days when trolley cars rumbled up and down Fayette Street, but I would have liked to take a trolley ride down Fayette Street, just to cast my eyes on all the mansions that once graced our main street, looking like a scene out of some old movie.

The sun’s gone and the sky is now just a bright orange and red and I’m sitting in my swing trying to visualize what a 12 story hotel is gonna look like coming off the bridge at Elm and Fayette Street, the lousy thing is I know what the traffic is going to look like with people sitting in all three lanes coming off the bridge sitting still at the green light trying to figure out the best way to get into the hotel.  You can all relax because I’m sure a traffic study says that the new traffic will have zero impact on our borough.

As I climb out of my rooftop swing and the evening sets in, I realize that I’ll never ride the trolley down Fayette Street, I’ll never walk into Pete’s Hardware Store on a Saturday morning again, or rush into the Acme Store just as they’re closing to grab a gallon of milk, and I’ll never drive past E. F. Moore’s with a full lot and the latest model’s in the window.  No, it’s kind of a lousy feeling that I’ll never walk up Forrest Street on my way to a Kennedy basketball game, or load my camera up on a Saturday morning to chase a Kennedy football away game.

You come to realize that the Riant Theatre is gone and has been for nearly four decades, a lobby we’ll never walk through again.

But we have our memories, and we still have our future, a future that might have us excited about Plymouth Whitemarsh High school sports, and a future of our never ending changing town.  Conshohocken is constantly changing, constantly on the move.  It’s like I have always said, Conshohocken is a town of the future, we have to change with it or get the hell out of the way, because it’s gonna change with or without us.

It’s damn near dark out here now, the bugs are starting to bite, as I move inside I’ve decided I’m going to the first Plymouth Whitemarsh High School football game this fall, I’m not taking the camera, I’m just gonna go sit in the bleachers somewhere and enjoy the game.  I’ve got my memories and they’re good memories, but I’ve still got a lot of memories to make, see ya at the game.

Thanks for spending the Conshohocken sunset with me!