Off to Pennsylvania!! We tried to contact Mom's cousin Edwin but he never answered his phone. We also decided not to take the GSP north and instead took a more rural, scenic drive. While Vicki drives, I crochet, and before we knew it we were crossing the Delaware River on the Ben Franklin Bridge into Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia skyline was stunning but I was unable to snap a shot. The Garmin I gave Vicki was directing us quite nicely and we ended up in Line Lexington for lunch at Zoto's which is across the street from where our Dad's place, The Line Lexington Diner and Dining Room used to be. It's now a gas station. We both had really good grilled cheese sandwiches which is nearly compulsory in a diner, with yummy cole slaw on the side.
We checked out our old [and I DO mean old] house and our Grandmom Roeder's house and then went up to Hilltown. I went to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart from first through fourth grades. It's a two-room schoolhouse. The parish was established in 1919. The church is downstairs and the two schoolrooms and the nuns' convent were on the second floor. I could hardly believe it's still there. It's still a church [chapel] as you can see from the sign. The large rectory is next door.
Isn't that just amazing!
The new Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church held its first Mass in September of 2000. My Aunt Myrtle Roeder, who is 95, also attended OLSH and was asked to make a presentation during this event. You'll see her later.
We moved "to town" [Perkasie] in the early '50s and we attended St. Agnes [Sellersville], which was a four-room schoolhouse with two grades in each room. I was there from fifth through eight grades. St. Agnes and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart merged in 1978 or 1979 and it's now called [drum roll, please] SASH School. It's set up to have first through third grades in Sellersville and fourth through eighth in Hilltown. I saw this sign and felt very honored.
Off to Perkasie! We saw our old home, the places where we played and the schools we attended. There was a covered bridge a few blocks from our home where we played in the creek under the bridge. It was moved to a park several years ago.
I had a friend who lived on the other side of town and I used to walk to her house through this tunnel. It's much nicer now. When I was a kid, it was kind of scary and I'd trot through the tunnel.
We found the site where our Dad had his Penn Jersey Auto Supply Store, but it's now a place that sells handmade soaps. This is the Perkasie Fire House which was catty-corner across the street.
Our Dad also had a luncheonette and bar in Perkasie. Vicki thinks it was called The Mayflower but can neither confirm nor deny. Maybe I can do some digging to try to find out.
We did more driving around - went to Lansdale where I went to Lansdale Catholic High School one year and Vicki went to St. Stanislaus.
Vicki was The A#1 driver of the world and gets major kudos for that.
We found a spot to spend the night in Montgomeryville and turned in pretty early. We're Old Broads, after all.
On Tuesday, we went to see Aunt Myrtle in Warminster. She lives in a beautiful Erickson facility which we'd been to a few years ago. She's 95 and has the spirit of a 25 year old! Kathleen, her daughter, met us and we all went in together. My cousin, Lee, was there as well and believe it or not, I'd not seen him since I was 10 or 12, when we moved away from Pennsylvania. He lives in Maine / Massachusetts in the warmer months and in Sanibel when it's cold. He and his Partner, Betsy, were on their way to Florida. It was SO nice to see him and to meet her.
Here are the four cousins: Lee, Me, Kathleen and Vicki.
And here we all are with Aunt Myrtle.
After chatting for quite a while, we went to the dining room and had a lovely lunch. Here are Kathleen and Aunt Myrtle.
Then, back to Aunt Myrtle's apartment for more chatting and some of Aunt Myrtle's DELISH homemade chocolate covered pretzels and yes, I had two and they were wonderful! I'm on vacation. We hated to leave but Lee and Betsy had some errands to run before continuing on to Florida on Wednesday, and we needed to get back to Hackensack before it got too dark.
Kathleen is also interested in doing The Walk in Spain. I saw the movie and became interested as well, but I sort of put it on the way back burner. I'm going to reignite my interest and check it out again. I think it would be an amazing thing to do. We'll see if I'm able to do all that walking. She has fairly new knees and I don't!!!
So, that's it so far. We have a movie planned for tomorrow with a friend; dinner with Lorraine on Friday and getting ready for Vicki's pre-play brunch on Sunday. I'll sign off for now but don't expect another posting for at least a week, as we're probably not going to be doing too much note-worthy stuff! If anything earth-shattering occurs, I'll let you know.
Ciao!
No comments:
Post a Comment