The Sixties, The Heat, and the Plymouth Swim Club
May 18, 2014Talkin’ Music with Jack – Miss Ya Mary
June 8, 2014Saying Goodbye is Always the Hardest Part – By Jack Coll
Saying Goodbye Is Always The Hardest Part
Can We Get An Amen!
By Jack Coll
6-1-14
Over the years I’ve worked them all, Cosmas, St. Mary’s, St. Gert’s, and St. Matt’s, Gulf Christian, St. Augustine, hell I got married at Mother of Divine Providence and wrote a book on Mount Carmel in Bridgeport, and on the occasion of the fiftieth Anniversary of Mount Carmel in Norristown I helped them write and photograph their anniversary book. I’m not bragging here but I’ve also been in every other church in this town and many of the surrounding towns, I happen to know a little bit about our churches. As a former newspaper photographer I was assigned to cover many, many events at churches throughout Montgomery County, can I get an amen!
Let’s start with the words of Dave Mason, sort-of, Dave Mason was a former member of the rock groups Traffic, Delaney & Bonnie, and for a short time a member of Fleetwood Mac, but it was his solo work we’re referring to, in the song, “We Just Disagree”, Mason belts out, “There ain’t no good guys, there ain’t no bad guys, there’s only you and me and we just disagree.” Well in the same vein as Mason’s lyrics when it comes to the closings of our Catholic Churches can we just hold off on the name calling and finger pointing and say, Hey, “There ain’t no good guys, there ain’t no bad guys, and somehow, I don’t know how this all started but it certainly isn’t US against THEM.”
In my thirty years of traveling to area churches including Conshohocken’s Churches, I was always there for a happy occasion, a festive event, a joyous celebration, never did I cover arguments, or fights, or for that matter never did I cover or photograph a funeral in a church, every event I ever covered in a church was a happy event.
Then May 31, 2014 rolls around, “Black Saturday,” The dreaded “List”, who’s staying open, what churches are closing, and for Conshohocken/West Conshohocken, it didn’t go down easy. This is what it looked like in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
St. Gertrude’s: West Conshohocken: CLOSED
SS Cosmas and Damian: Conshohocken: CLOSED
St. Mary’s: Conshohocken: CLOSED
(Bridgeport got kicked in the teeth, hard)
Our Lady Of Mount Carmel: Bridgeport: CLOSED
St. Augustine: CLOSED
I can’t speak for Bridgeport, but I’ve written enough history on the borough of Conshohocken and West Conshohocken, to point a few things out. These former steel towns have been down and out before, and when I say down and out that’s exactly what I mean and anyone who has lived a life in these borough’s know exactly what I’m talking about. Somehow, fate has taken our steel mills from us, that meant a loss of jobs, a loss of families in our communities, a loss of retail, and for all intent purposes left our communities without tax dollars, meaning we struggled to fix our roads, collect trash, and collect tax dollars from families who didn’t have the money due to the lack of employment available.
When the hundreds of evections started in the 1970’s for something the politicians called “Urban Redevelopment,” we struggled watching our family members, friends and brother employees from the mills that we worked with side by side being put out on the street, YES, it really was that bad.
But the residents of our boroughs bounced, we bounced higher than any ball with more pride than one today could imagine. As stated in the book “Tales Of Conshohocken And Beyond,” and you can believe it, I researched it, and I wrote the book, in 1960, the borough of Conshohocken had six schools with 2700 students, today we have one Elementary school with close to 170 students, not counting pre-school, this borough lost five Schools including Conshohocken High school, St. Matthew’s/Archbishop Kennedy High schools, St. Mary’s Grade school grades 1-8, we lost SS Cosmas Grade school, we lost St. Matthew’s Grade School, and in the end we lost Conshohocken Catholic School. But some years ago, (sorry, I’m not stopping to look up the year) but some years ago the Colonial School board made the decision to close Conshohocken Elementary School, they weren’t thinking about it, no, the decision was made. That decision brought out the fight in all our residents, and we fought, and we fought a little harder, and we fought with every ounce of pride we had, and for every child who passes through Conshohocken Elementary school to this day can thank the group of residents who wouldn’t accept the decision to close the school.
In the end they took our jobs/industry, our homes, the hundreds who were displaced and forced out of their homes for redevelopment, they took our schools, and when our brother and sister, Conshohockenites, questioned the authority, we were made to feel small; our questions were referred to as insignificant. Add to that in the past 25 years, three bridges have detoured us for more than five years, the river has flooded the lower part of our town what seems like every six months, and fires have burned our churches and hundreds of homes that belonged to our newer residents along Washington Street.
And now the mighty Archdiocese shows up in our town and cuts its parishioners, while dropping a little salt on the wounds, thanks for nothing! But does anyone living in Conshohocken or West Conshohocken really believe that this will break our spirits, we’ve been knocked down way too many times to let this bury us. Guess what, you can take our buildings, you can take all the hard work, sweat, and money our parents and grandparents who not only worked to build these churches but worked to keep them in place for their children and grandchildren to worship and enjoy. That’s right, you can take ‘em, we don’t need ‘em, we will always have our faith, we will always have our memories of the good times celebrated at these churches, our communions, and our kids communions, we’ll always have the gone but not forgotten history of the churches, this is Conshohocken and West Conshohocken and we have our pride.
Going back to Dave Mason, we’re not ticked off at the church, or the Archdiocese, no, “there ain’t no good guys, there ain’t no bad guys,” we just wish we could have had a little longer to figure this thing out. Just business, that’s what everyone’s saying, just business, makes it sound like the parishioners have made a bad investment over the past couple of years.
Aside from the business end of the facility’s, I was at St. Mary’s Feast last year, as I have been every years since the early 1980’s when they would close off Maple Street and pitch tents over the event, ya wanna know what I saw at the fest, I saw proud Conshohockenites, proud parishioners, parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren, passing the St. Mary’s tradition from one generation to the next, ya know what, we don’t need a church building to continue that. No St. Mary’s feast was never about a building, it was about proud families gathering, warm smiles, children dancing.
I visited SS Cosmas and Damiens annual Feast last September, it was somewhat somber, and feared that the 100th Anniversary of the Feast would be the final one. A century of celebration, I wrote about the Conshohocken Italian community in the “Tales Of Conshohocken and Beyond,” book. (No, I’m not promoting the book, but for the sake of some of you who might be saying I’ve heard this before, well I’m repeating from the book) Some of the greatest stories to ever come out of this town involve the Italians. I think I’ve written about every ethnic group to ever show up in these two towns, the Italians seem to carry the pride flag a little higher than most, the colors seem to be a little brighter, and the Conshohocken Italians seem to stand a little taller, and hold their heads up a little higher. The same could be said for the Polish, Irish, Germans and African Americans as well, it’s about pride, Conshohocken pride.
The closing of our churches is just a sign of the times, no need to point a finger, we have too much pride for that, we’ll be alright, we’ve been down before, we will figure it out.
What a great run these churches have had, St. Mary’s founded in 1905, more than a century ago. SS Cosmas and Damien, founded at Little’s Opera House once located on First Avenue and Fayette Street, (current site of Light Parker Furniture) in 1911, before chartering in 1912, first feast in 1913, what an event. St. Gertrude’s Church founded in 1888, less than fifteen years after the borough of West Conshohocken’s incorporation, is now closed. Gone is West Conshohocken High School, West Conshohocken’s Elementary School, and St. Gertrude’s Grade school built in 1954, the former school property is currently a community park.
Our parishioners are now ONE, whether they all chose to worship at the same facility we’re still one, we still believe in God, our spiritual lives are all still connected in Conshohocken and West Conshohocken. Time will pass, I don’t know if time will heal, but we’ll be one, our children will be one and our grandchildren will be one, it’s about Conshy pride.
There ain’t no good guys, there ain’t no bad guys, it’s just us and them, and perhaps for now we just disagree.
God Bless all of us, and God Bless the individuals who had to make these life changing decisions.
