Hometown

Papa’s World -My family while growing up!

/ Tom / Leave a comment

My parents’ grave –

Up Barden Brook just outside of the Boro of Eldred, Pa.

My brother-in-law Bill –

And my sister Donna’s grave.

Just a few feet from my parents’ grave.

My brother Roger shortly before he passed away.

My younger brother Mike’s grave is just a few feet from the rest of my family!

All are now gone.

My niece Terri, my brother Mike, and I are in the middle.

Terri is no longer with us.

Not here is my nephew Rick, who passed away, and Kelli, who still lives in Donna and Bill’s house.

So, almost everyone I grew up with has passed away.

Jamie and Brandi – my niece Terri’s daughters – my great nieces!!!

Jamie lives in Portville, and Brandi lives in the home I was raised in.

This home has been in the family for, I guess, 82 years!

My oldest son, Troy, and his partner, Andrea, still live back where they were raised in Pa.

Next is Sherry.

Then Trisha, my youngest son Shawn, and Trisha’s daughter Autumn.

They all still live back in Pa.

The day Sherry and I were married – 6-25-1982.

While my family is mostly still in the area I grew up in-

Sherry is all alone here in the Carolinas with the exception of her one sister, Debbie.

Most of the family she grew up with remains in Pa.

Her daughters are back in NVA, where we transferred to.

As are the six grandkids.

Sherry – Bonnie and Debbie.

Her mother, Barb, and her father, Bill.

Today, we are scattered, or most have passed away.

But our roots still remain in Pa.

This blog is a journal for the generations to come.

To know us, our families, and who we were.

For more of PAPA’S WORLD –

Just Google and go to: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog

Papa – Troy and Shawn-

Sherry – Tammy and Debby!

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Papa’s World – A look at the past!

/ Tom / Leave a comment

Although we did not have a wooden screen door-

We had a porch where we could sit and watch the world go by on our main street house.

Our little town is called Eldred.

Had a main highway for a main street, and it went right by my front bedroom.

Often at night –

I would fall asleep with the window opened and one of those sliding screens in place.

The traffic would slow down after dark –

But it still was the main way to come-

From NYS to PA. and beyond.

My mother, after she was older –

And lost her second husband to heart problems-

My own father died of cancer when I was nineteen –

She would sit on that porch every day in good weather.

Folks would drive by and honk their horns –

And yell a “HELLO MARY” as they went by after rolling down their car windows!

That front porch –

I had countless times of sleeping out with friends –

I had an old Korean War sleeping bag that belonged to my brother-in-law Bill.

It was not warm and had no padding!

Pa., back there was cool in the evenings-

A dense fog would roll up and over the railroad tracks from the Alleghany River!

The grass was always wet in the mornings,

And the sleeping bag was damp with moisture.

We had and still do a 10 o’clock curfew –

All kids off the streets.

Part of sleeping out was raiding the many gardens all over town.

Eating apples from the trees.

Upon the hill, across the street from our house-

Was a hill covered in blueberries!

Summertimes – we would take broken down large cardboard boxes and slide down that hill!

That porch has held its secret for countless years of the conversations that were said there.

Now today –

A new front porch of our own.

A place I go to sit and wave or greet neighbors going by.

No screen door – no childhood memories here.

No curfew – no sleeping out at night.

Still, a bedroom for guests sits right there.

Now we have Deer alerts with motion detectors.

They go off when the deer approach the flowers.

They also go off if it is windy or if someone is walking by on the road in the dark. LOL

This front porch is what I wanted when we selected the model for our home.

I guess it might reflect back to my youth.

All those years ago –

And now today aging to our 80s.

Both were raised in small towns with COUNTRY all around.

For me, today is having that place where I am comfortable-

Waving and saying hello to those passing by.

FRONT PORCHES have a way of doing that to me.

Thanks for reading –

PAPA’S WORLD-

My site: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog

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Papa’s World – Raised in a little town – Eldred, Pa.

/ Tom / Leave a comment

In a valley with a river – The Alleghany – railroad tracks and a main road – sits a little town –

800 to 1000 souls. Been around for a couple hundred years.

The main street is perhaps a mile long – with side streets and one that goes away and through the hills

known as Barden Brook- you can go for miles on that road into the hills and countryside.

Situated maybe 4 or 5 miles to the NYS border and over the hill fourteen miles away in Bradford-

home to Pennsoil-Kendall and nearby Quakerstate.

Here the oil boom in the 1800s fueled the rich along with oil derricks.
To the NW beyond the NYS lines are Portville Olean and Alleghany.

Here below is an early picture of my hometown in the 1800s – ELDRED, PA.

Dirt street on the main street and up on the far left – many years after this picture was taken and the streets were paved – is where I was raised.

The house is not in this picture but many buildings here I remember and some are still there!

The trees up there were huge as I was growing up!

The wooden sidewalks were replaced with concrete and I would rollerskate on them.

Growing up on North Main Street – we had a lot of kids there back then and would play –

KICK THE CAN! I knew them all and we would walk to school at the other end of the main street.

We had a bowling alley – a Theater – a grocery store – a gas station – a ballpark with lights –

and tennis and basketball courts.

A barbershop – a tastee-freeze, A doctor and a dentist’s office as well as the Odd Fellows.

A fire department – a H.S. and elementary combined.

A furniture store and several other stores that sold clothes and other things.

A drugstore and bank and many bars and a diner!

You knew everyone and they knew you!

We had a ten o’clock curfew – I think it is still that way today!

We would sled ride on the hills in winter – and in summer pick blueberries.

Sleeping outside on porches – playing tackle football at the park –

watching the baseball teams play and the Town Team.

I think it was like Mayberry and Stand By Me all wrapped up in one!

Today – a lot of that way of life is gone along with the stores – bowling alleys – theaters –

There still is a bank – and an elementary school and the ballpark is still there.

What is now there is a WWII museum – a huge one that tour buses come to see!

This is but a small fraction of what it is today – a tank bursting out the wall of the original building-

Beyond this are multiple areas and buildings – all hosing WWII artifacts and history –

This little town is big in the eyes of this museum.

Worth a trip to just tour it!

This was “MY TOWN” growing up!

Small town – small population – but BIG in what is offered here in the WWII Museum!

Thanks for reading PAPA’S WORLD – my site: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog

Papa’s World – growing up – ELDRED PA.

/ Tom / Leave a comment

Sitting on the front porch of North Main Street –

It was a wide and deep porch –

The kind to sit through a rain storm –

and not get wet !

GOOD MORNING
Welcome to Papa’s World

I guess that is why now when I look at houses –

The very first TWO THINGS I look at are –

Front porches and screened in back three seasons rooms with views !

My childhood had the first but not the last !

Memories – some you just can not duplicate

My grand ma – siting out there on her lap –

I somehow do remember that –

which would make me 3 or 4 years old.

Roller skates – the kind that had a key –

I would strap them on and down the street I would go.

The street on both sides was lined with huge old trees –

The kind that six kids holding hands could not encircle the trunks !

Much – much bigger than this one

The roots had made the side walks uneven –

and to navigate them did not seem to slow me down !

I would turn around at Slavins – furniture store –

Back then it was also a service station –

And I remember Jack – he worked there.

There was a Coke machine that sat outside between the bays

Sometimes he would buy me a coke that came in a glass bottle !

Main Street in the late 1800’s

I lived all the way to the top of this old picture on the left –

some of those buildings still existed when i was growingup

And a few are still there today.

You can see the beginning of those trees even back then.

Then – I got my bicycle –

A red WESTERN FLYER !

The mountains or hills where I lived

That bike – I had those streamers coming out of the rubber handle grips

And a clothes pin with a card on the spokes –

both front and back.

I rode it everywhere – to the park –

across the tracks –

Up Barden Brook –

And just making it home when the street lights came on !

The streets I rode on

The park – my second home away –

base ball diamond – tennis and basketball courts –

But – the outfield of grass –

beneath the huge telephone poles with lights on them !

Where we choose up teams

and played football for hours !

Back home playing golf in the mountains – hills

Papa’s World – Growing up ELDRED PA.

Part two to follow

after all –

to much to see and tell !

If you would like to read more – just type in

livinglifedoingitmyway.blog

email fitztdf@aol.co

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For HEALTH & NUTRITION

http://www.sf.juiceplus.com

email

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Thank you for reading Papa’s World

Part two coming