People of Conshohocken – Alex Piermani

People of Conshohocken – Alex Piermani

8/7/2018

by Brian Coll

This is part of our People of Conshohocken series…
We have close to 10,000 people in our borough, add in the residents of West Conshohocken, Plymouth, Whitemarsh and Lafayette Hill and we have a large community. Some of the people that will be featured will be well known in the area, some will have just moved into the area, some will have been here their entire lives. Some of them may be business owners, or people who walk around the area, or maybe work in the area. Maybe you know them, maybe you don’t. Everyone has a story. While we are only going to take their picture and maybe ask a question or two, we want to share these stories with you.

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This is Alex Piermani, part of our People of Conshohocken series.

I’m not even sure I asked if I could take his photo… he’s been a fixture in Conshohocken for his lifetime as well as about 99 percent of our lifetimes, because he is getting up there in years as one of the oldest people in Conshohocken. I’ve really known Mr. Piermani since I was right around 21 years old, no joke there. I’m not saying I was a saint when I was under the age of 21, I just knew not to try to buy beer there.  Mr. Piermani or his son Alex (may he rest in peace) would have eyed me up, asked if my parents knew I was here trying to buy beer and I would have had to tuck my tail and walk away…. Now I have a great relationship with the Piermani’s. They have recently expanded their store as well as their selection. David Piermani does most of the work now and they have a great staff. Back to Alex Piermani our person of Conshohocken.

I took Alex’s photo (like I have done many times before) and just started talking to him and after a minute or two I started taking notes. I knew they opened down on Maple street between 5th and 6th Avenues back in 40’s, I just wasn’t sure if it was during the time this Alex Piermani served our country over seas. As it turns out, he was over seas immediately after World War 2 and served in France and Austria while the countries were still recovering from the war. His father started the business while worked at Lee Tires ( at least I seem to remember that from a previous conversation with him. Alex started helping out while in high school, went and served his country and came back to help grow the family business.

We got talking about Conshohocken and some of the good ole days if you will, he talked about sneaking in the back door at the Riant to watch the movies, he remembered more than the Riant, at one point there were multiple movies houses here and he snuck into a couple of them. He remembered the wagon train here in 1976 and David joked that his dad was actually here for 1776…… Of course when we were talking about Conshohocken not everything rests in the good ole days. He’s hay to see Floccos still in business and is happy to see the restaurant boom in recent years. He still has a few friends here from his days growing up on 6th Ave….

Normally when we do these People of Conshohocken stories we stick to the current photo, but we had this gem from a book titled Conshohocken Then and Now from 2004 and we thought it would fit in right here.

Alex, thank you. Thank you for your service to our country, thank you for chatting with me today and in reality every time I see you we have a pleasant conversation. I miss your son Alex, and I look forward to what the next 70 some years of business has in store for your son David.