Main Street – just above the white truck to the left – is a brick-red building – with a huge Army Tank coming out the side – this is the ELDRED WWII MUSEUM!
When I was growing up – this was Fisbees Insurance and the Electric Company in the Cellar –
and right next to it was Slavin’s Furniture store and gas station.
I would roller skate down to the bays and Jack would sometimes buy me a glass coke out of the machine that stood there between the bays.
I do not remember his last name – but he was a really nice man and lived in Bullis Mills.
We also would come down here and ask for old cardboard boxes –
they all had a heavy layer of wax on them and were perfect for grass riding down the hill opposite of our front porch.
WWII MUSEUM
Today – both buildings are joined and form this fantastic museum – dedicated to WWII
and the munitions plant that made explosives for the war.
It has a full-size ARMY TANK that looks like it is busting right out the wall of the side of the building!
My stepfather – John Soules – who was decorated FIVE times with Purple Hearts and Bronze Stars
Once gave me a revolver he was given permission to bring back to the states
He had all the signed documents from the government –
Before he passed away – he asked for it back so he could donate it here!
A few years ago – I walked down and asked to see it once again.
They had it in a safe – and was told it was worth 30 to 40 thousand dollars!
He took that handheld automatic machine pistol off a NAZI OFFICER he had captured who was dressed as a civilian trying to escape.
I was told this pistol was not from WWII but from WWI and was very rare –
one of the first automatic machine guns ever manufactured by the Germans for WWI!
I got to once again hold it!
A reenactment of women working at the munitions plant outside Eldred during WWII is part of the museum.
As you walk through you come upon room after room of scenes such as this.
This MUSEUM is like something you would find in Washinton DC. yet it is here in the very small town
of ELDRED PA. in the mountains of the ALLEGHANY FOREST in WPA!
I do not know the full story of why it is here – but I do know before the PANDEMIC
regular busloads of people would stop every day.
It sits on North Main Street right across from the old fire hall.
A must-see!
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Memories of my life growing up in a small town in NWPA called ELDRED!
WHERE EVERYONE KNEW YOUR NAME – the ’50’s ’60’s and ’70’s.
Once again we came back to where we lived for nine months – North Myrtle Beach and all the decorations for Christmas – along with a full moon and beautiful sunset.
Looking at the moon coming up over the buildings on Beach Blvd.
We stood just outside of 94.9 the SURF – Beach and Classic music!
The arch near the beach entrance – here they have live music during the Summer season.
A look at main – street in all its glory lit up for Christmas.
We were here during the Pandemic and no one was on the street or in the shops – so sad!
On the beach looking up the beach at the full moon rising!
And then turning around a seeing the sunset in the beginning of an evening sky – the best of both worlds!
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PAPA’S WORLD – BACK TO NORTH MYRTLE BEACH – WHERE WE LIVED FOR NINE MONTHS!
My very early years were growing up in a little town in NWPA known as Eldred.
Not big – about 800 to 1000 in a good year!
My youth was spent roller skating – playing Kick the Can with neighborhood kids.
Throwing apples at the train cars as they sped past.
Smoking corn silk in a corncob pipe.
Playing in the sawdust hill up the street and sleeping out on the front porch in an old army bag of my brothers-in-law.
I had to walk from our home on North Main Street all the way across town to South Main Street and the High School – grades 1 through 12!
Often I would walk the tracks until the creek and then along the sidewalk.
One day – I was wearing my Davy Crockett Coon Skin hat – I stopped and put it on the bridge railing and then stuck my head through to look down at the water.
And there I was stuck!
My ears popped out and I could not pull my head back through.
Needless to say, the fire department came to the rescue – embarrassing my older brother by ten years who was in H.S. then.
Pictured here is the OLD HIGH SCHOOL where I attended until the end of grade four!
They built a brand new Elementary school for grades K thru 6 –
And combined three communities – Eldred – Duke Center and Rixford and Eldred Township.
The front windows were first grade – taught by Mrs. Shields.
It was a grand old building – I think built in the late 1800s.
In the winter we would sled ride down the hill to the right which also was a large cemetery.
Eldred, Pa. was before the movie “STAND BY ME”!
What you saw in that movie was exactly as it was in our little town where everyone knew your name –
and if you did anything wrong – your parents knew all about it before you got home!
Today – we live in the South – near the border of N.C. and S.C. – by the beaches!
My childhood memories have followed me here along with contact with friends I grew up with.
I do not get back there often – staying in touch with the few relatives I have left.
My family I grew up with are all gone and are in the cemetery up in Barden Brook.
We are 12 to 15 hours away – a long drive and no close airport other than Buffalo which still requires over a two-hour drive and a rental car.
Sherry – Papa – Pam – wife of my childhood buddy – grade school until graduation – Bobby!
We had many adventures that I can not put on here and today see each other about once a year.
We played sports together all those years – and now we have memories we talk about!
We are seniors in our sunset years yet living life to the plus – they RVing and us living our dream of the Salt Life.
My other best buddy along with Bobby – Jimmy – played years and years of softball and now golf!
Staying in touch – sharing good times in the NOW of my life!
Jimmy is also from that same little town!
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The “THEN” of the start of our life together – 6-25-1982!
The “NOW” of our life together – on the ICW off OIB in N.C. living life to the plus one day at a time!
Funny how that remains in my mind after all these years – that home has been in our family since around 1944!
I grew up there and my mother was almost 98 years old when she passed away.
My mother Mary – everyone knew her – everyone honked their horn to her as she sat on the front porch.
Many – many people would stop just to sit down and talk to her,
That old front porch with the family I grew up with – sister Donna and her husband Bill – my mother and my brother Roger to the right.
When he left to go to college – I moved into his front bedroom when I was eight years old.
There were railroad tracks behind the house and the trains at night with their clack-clack sound would make me sleepy.
Out front was the main street and I could hear the traffic at night.
And to this day I still know the phone number and the post office box number.
Somewhere in the deep recess of my mind is the combination of that P.O. Box!
I left that house in 1967 and in 1982 married Sherry – now here we are 41 years later.
My memories of NWPA and WNY where we spent the first 50 years of our lives – remains in my memories to this day – just like that house and phone number!
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Main Street and Beach Blvd intersection of North Myrtle Beach – during our nine-month condo stay here – we walked this almost every day – heading for the beach – you can see the stage at the entrance to the beach.
The radio station 94.9 THE SURF is on the left along with HODO’S Beach Club and the Old Arcade on the right.
The parking lot on Friday nights is full of beach chairs and the streets are closed off for concerts on the stage.
Turning around from the intersection is Main Street and you can see Sherry walking up the street.
We were here at the beginning of the Pandemic and this was a ghost town – although the stores were open.
Our favorite nightclub to go to where we finally learned what THE SHAG was!
A dance that came from the Rythem and Blues of the 40s and became a cross-over called Carolina Beach music.
And has become the state dance!
This scene has been ongoing for 80 years!!!!
“ENTER THROUGH THE JUKEBOX DOORS” so goes the advertisement heard on the radio.
This club is full of history – pictures and items from the past 80 years!
The dance is like the STROLL-JITTER BUG – SWING where you never lose contact with your dance partner.
Yearly competitions are held here and every four months SHAG comes to town –
Bands – music- dancing in the streets!
Like the Hollywood Walk of Fame – the sidewalks are full of plaques from all through the years of people and dancers and dates!
The big water tower that overlooks the town has a picture of a couple dancing THE SHAG!
On the beach from the beach entrance – we walked this every day while we lived here!
Sherry walking North Myrtle Beach – one of the widest beaches at low tide I have ever been on!
Exiting the sixth street beach entrance and looking up the street to where we stayed at the back entrance to Ocean Keyes.
Over 700 condos and a huge lake with six water fountains.
Six pools – tennis courts and a workout room.
Loved living there but no garage and no storage space – or else we might have stayed there.
Looking back from sixth street beach parking to the main town of North Myrtle Beach – our old neighborhood.
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PAPA’S WORLD – REVISITED OUR OLD NEIGHBORHOOD – NORTH MYRTLE BEACH! livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
My very first memory of school – sitting on my grandma’s lap on the front porch –
“Grandma – when can I go to school”? I asked.
We had just watched a neighborhood boy walk past on the other side of the road –
His name was Denny and I later found out he was two years older than me!
So – I am thinking I was about four years old and I can still see him in my mind and me asking her.
The old Eldred school
I attended this old school until the fourth grade!
It was at that time – we merged with Duke Center – Rixford and Eldred to form OTTO-ELDRED.
At this time a brand new elementary school had been built right across the street from the ballpark!
I would not have to walk a mile to school in the mornings!
But – I remember that old school and my teachers and the classrooms.
The very first class was in the front and face the main street and I had Mrs. Shields.
We started off spelling the normal way – sounding out the words –
but soon after – we switched to the new way – MEMORY!
That went on for a couple years but it left me and others I know – very poor spellers.
The Alleghany River
The floodwaters of 1972
Across the main street and the railroad tracks – lays what we called THE FLATS!
And just beyond that the Alleghany River!
It seemed growing up part of life in the Spring were floods!
In 1954 or 1955 or thereabouts –
I was told not to go near the water flooded on the main street – I was maybe 6 years old.
But – I had made a raft and was sailing it on the main street – standing up and poling my way around
in about two feet of floodwater.
Unbeknown to me – a photographer from the local Bradford Era Newspaper – took my picture!
I was caught – standing on my homemade raft – poling my way around the main street –
ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE BRADFORD ERA!
But – I also shared that front page later in life with my dad!
He made a bet on the heavyweight champion of the world fight and picked
FLOYD PATTERSON – the bet – the loser would wheelbarrow the winner down Mainstreet
To Slavin’s Bar – my dad won and made that same newspaper front page being pushed by HERKY!
A WWII bomber pilot who had been shot down and made it to the allies’ lines!
The brand new Eldred Elementary School
This sits right across from the ballpark and tennis courts –
I was the first class in there in the fifth grade – Miss Cawley!
Mr. Harrington was my sixth-grade teacher and Principle!
Many games of RED ROVER RED ROVER please send ???? over!
Was played right there on that circle drive in front of the doors.
Later in life – I walked my youngest son down to those front doors and inside to enroll him in Kindergarten – and standing in the lobby with all those parents he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a bunch of dirt and worms!
He had stopped on our walk and without me knowing – stuffed his pocket with dirt and worms!
THAT I shall always remember!
OTTO – ELDRED H.S.
We were bussed every day from the seventh grade on seven miles to school in Duke Center, Pa.
Three communities combined to have one single H.S. but each community had its own
grade schools and one township grade school.
We had to find our own way home after sports practices if we did not ride the bus.
My good buddy and I – later in H.S. road with his dad to school.
We had a science teacher called CB SAWYER – who had his own music system in his lab.
He would play up to date 45 records of music between classes all day long.
His favorite back then was PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS – “GLAD ALL OVER”
and it was everywhere in the hallways – piped through the loudspeaker system!
OTTO-ELDRED H.S.
I have always said someday I would like to go back and rewalk those halls to that blast of music!
It was across from here I watched a fight between two seniors – and I was one of a hundred people!
I still see it in my mind and they were about three years older than us.
Their names were Ron and Jim!
My senior picture
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In the midst of the Alleghany hills – amongst the green and lush valleys – sits a little community-
Population – around 800 souls – and back then – I knew almost every one of them!
Eldred Pa.
The town sits on the Alleghany river which eventually flowed into Pittsburg – but – it flowed North first!
Yes – it left Pa. and flowed into NYS before flowing once again South through Pa.
It ends up in Pittsburg some three-plus hours away.
We would be considered the snow belt – some 80 miles south of Lake Erie and Buffalo N.Y.
I helped a friend of mine growing up with his paper route – his name was Brent – and we hung out.
He bought a go-cart with his money and he would let me ride on it.
He was two years older than I and eventually married my cousin.
Funny how that worked out – he graduated and I lost track of him.
The town nestled in the hills.
I would ride my bike everywhere – I had to be home each night for dinner and before the street
lights came on. Every night at 10 o’clock sharp – the siren from the firehouse would blow-
You could hear it all over the town – that was “CURFEW” for the streets –
I think no one under 18 could be out and about!
My first friend I can remember is the girl next door – her name was Sharon – and she had a big brother whom everyone called Sonny “KING” – and he dressed in a black leather motorcycle jacket and slicked his hair back like Elvis!
Sharon and I were like brother and sister – we would watch Lassie together – play on the front porch –
sneak a corncob pipe and gather silk from the corn and smoke –
puff it – in the big red barn behind the house.
We would walk to school together – and our route always was behind the main street along the tracks.
Behind the Eldred Garage and then on the tracks themselves.
Just before the creek – Lynches lived and behind their house was a tree –
like a little island raised up on a piece of land.
We would sit there and play our Kazoo’s together –
“THREE BLIND MICE”
That was all I knew how to play! LOL
She moved away and my sister and her husband moved in right next door!
Bill Luce – on the left – my brother-in-law.
Over his shoulder is the greenhouse I grew up in – my bedroom was the two windows on the second floor –
after my older brother Roger left for college.
Every morning I would wake up to the birds singing in the tree outside that window –
the Sunlight would come streaming in –
There was the main street – highway right out front –
and I would sleep and hear the sound of cars – trucks rolling by –
and then – the accidents that happen right there –
crashes would hit the cars parked there.
Some – I sept right through – others – would jolt me right out of bed.
That curb was where my best friend and I were sitting one early morning after midnight –
he was sleeping over and my parents had gone somewhere –
we got into the hootch under the sink.
My sister came out and grilled us –
“ARE YOU GUYS DRUNK”?
No I said and right at that time a car came
and the lights showed right on my friend – and he got sick –
and threw up all over the place!
” HE IS,” I said! LOL,
my sister always laughed at that and would tell the story many times over and over!
My friend and drinking buddy – lower right-hand corner!
We have reconnected about fifteen years ago at a class reunion –
he spent about a week here last October –
and we played golf once again – after some 55 years have gone by since we last played together!
My brother Roger and Sherry – a few years before he passed away – gone but not forgotten.
He was my hero growing up – ten years older than I –
named WHOS WHO in American colleges
OFFICERS TRAINING SCHOOL and a Lt. in the navy.
His bedroom became mine – when he came back I would sleep on the floor.
Thanks for reading Papa’s World – to be continued in livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
They were here early – starting just back from the entrance to Fat Harold’s Beach Club where we go and watch them do the Shag dance!
There are a lot of golf carts in North Myrtle Beach – and they actually block off this portion of Main Street –
and make it into one big tail gate lot for golf cars – and there is no one way they park.
The are front to back – sides – going in different directions and by the start of the music – jammed in there!
Sherry with her chair on her back as we walk down the side walk toward the beach – this was early – about one hour before they were scheduled to begin the music!
Some carts parked facing away from the beach – when we walked by here later – they were almost all touching each other – just enough room to walk about – chat up your neighbor and sip a drink – somehow they had set up speakers in the middle divide and the band could be heard through those speakers – actually sounded better than where we sat.Looking back up main street across Ocean Blvd. Now these carts are all facing front but behind them – they are in different directions – I think at the end the police help them get out – we did not hang around as lightening was coming from upo the street behind these carts! The rain did hold off – later in the night.
Part of the crowd in chairs they set up – we were to the left and not as crowded and easy to get in and out.
The stage at the arch on main street entrance to the beach.
It is here that the OD PAVILION – before it was destroyed in the ’50’s from a hurricane –
The SHAG DANCE started!
HOTO’s also is here as well as the OD TIKI HUT and radio station 94.9 the SURF!
HOTO’s behind the red sign and THE SURF RADIO STATION 94.9 – and the OD TIKI BAR.
The music was good – although in different areas as we walked about – it was better – must be where we sat!
The crowd was big and this the second concert of the season which goes every Thursday night –
till the end of October!
I am happy for the merchants as it has been a long 15 months of the pandemic.
I think the vaccinations plus the number of people who already have had covid19
has brought us closer to herd immunity.
The clouds were moving in – we both had rain alerts on our phones and behind us toward rte. 17 – thunder and lightening! TIME TO GO HOME!
I have wanted to stop in here and have lunch ever since we got here on 10-1-20!
It is a local place right on the beach in North Myrtle Beach!
These places always catch my eye – I just get a feeling about them!
They generally have good food and live music –
and this day – the food was great – a salad with grilled fish – and the music?
Well – right across the street is a block long and a block wide vacant lot –
And it was packed with tents – you could rent – and thousand of people!
A huge stage and three bands playing for six hours!
WE WERE RIGHT ACROSS FROM THE OPENING OF NORTH MYRTLE BEACH MUSIC FESTIVAL!
Our view from our table while eating lunch!
It is the first major event sanctioned by the town government since the start of the pandemic 14 months ago!
And people were out and about in golf carts – cars – trucks and just walking!
This was roped off and a charge to enter – you could rent out a canopy – and carry in drinks and food!
We did not go inside the ropes – instead after we ate – we walked around and around the whole roped off area as did many other people – they had chairs set up outside the ropes and golf carts – the police were there and ticketing anyone not parked legal.
I would say – inside – a thousand people – or more – I guess this is the fourth one they have had like this over the years – and the radio station was there and it also was broadcasting from the beach which was just as crowded!
Sherry entering the beach on main street!
We tried to walk the beach – but it was really crowed and full of young people – all right next to each other!
A look back toward sixth street where we usually go – and the other direction had even more people!
This area is pretty much not locked down – and you could tell the tourist season has begun!
I am happy for the the store owners who have suffered so much – many shut the doors and will not return.
But – we decided this was way too crowed for us – so we returned to the music and walked toward our condo.
Pausing once again outside the ropes to listen to a band – really good singing all the classics of summer of the 60’s and 70’s!
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It was here or close to here that THE SHAG started!
It was a beach dance created in the ’40’s along this beach.
The first I believe was in Cherry Grove – but that club was wiped out
by a hurricane in the ’50’s!
Other clubs had formed over the years and along main street
in North Myrtle Beach was the hot spot for SHAGGING!
It grew so popular it spread all across the country and became the state dance!
Clubs were formed and it went worldwide.
Competitions were held and champions crowned!
It reminds me of the Jitter bug – Strolling – Swing – Dirty dancing – all rolled into one –
where you have contact almost 100 % of the time with your dance partner!
And – from what I could see – the age group was 40 to 80 years plus old!
CUTTING THE RUG!
It did not matter how old you were – they still danced and they were good!Sherry and I have walked by this building dozens of times – it was closed up – deserted looking!
Wondering what it was and if it was empty?
Then – listening to the radio station – 94.9 THE SURF – we found out!
On TV we found out!
FAT HAROLDS was reopening after being closed of over a year –
because of Covid19 and the Pandemic.
Which I found out hit this establishment really hard.
I was told that early on – a half dozen people passed away – having caught the virus here.
And – I could see why as it was the older generations who were dancing.
It caught them by surprise and they -the owners – shut it down.
But now it was back after the state reopened – and it was I learned a national landmark.
This is the third location – and has been here for twenty plus years – since the ’40’s!
World competitions – nationwide competitions – local – all held here or across main street
on the beach in a big stage and dance floor.
A view of one of two dance floors – four bars – one at the entrance – one on the main dance floor and two on the second dance floor in the rear.
There are hundreds of these signs of dance shag clubs all over the nation. And a tribute to the man who brought it to the forefront – FAT HAROLD! Who sadly passed away in 2015.The main bar on the dance floor number one – Fat Harold – was known all over the country and many pictures of him and famous performers hang from the walls. This was the spot where you came to dance for all these years!
On this single wall – dozens of pictures dedicated over the many – many years to DJ’s – radio – who spun the records to the SHAG! And radio hosts still do to this day.
It is a true living museum to the past 80 plus years!
Pictures – a Hollywood walk of fame throughout the sidewalks of main street honoring dancers from the past 60 years! With there names and year of dancing!
Fat Harold – known to the music world – and now the tradition continues with the reopening!
PAPA’S WORLD: livinglifedoingitmyway fitztdf@aol.com A day to remember – a visit to the reopening
OF FAT HAROLDS on Main Street – North Myrtle beach!
Sherry – Cindy and Buck sitting near the dance floor of Fat Harold’s – the first few Shagger’s starting to dance.
We had eaten dinner at HOTO’s ( Harold’s On The Beach) and then walked through the OD Arcade ( Ocean Drive)Seeing all the pictures and people were dancing there already.
Even saw a picture of all people the Pro Golfer Sam Snead who had been there
Within a half hour – it picked up and became more and more crowded with very good dancers!
We then walked over to Fat Harold’s Dance Club!
And found this table beside the wall of mirrors so we could watch the dancing!
Cindy and Buck loved it just as we had when we first came here!
Retirement – one of the benefits – going on eight years for me and nine years for Sherry!
Watching the dance floor of the Shag!
Best friends for 35 years!
Now it was getting really crowed and there is a second dance floor and bar that had the same number of people dancing!
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