Ye Olde Faire Days

Have you ever been to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire?

We first went in the late 1990s when the kids were still in school. Noelle had been to it on a field trip and came home raving. She was very much into those things in those days. She drew the dragon on the left.

She talked about it so that we took all the kids there that year and it became a regular family outing. Actually, went beyond just a family trip, because Lois and I still visited the faire in New Hope for a few years after the kids had grown.

Here is a compilation of my pictures over a few faire. My son shows up a few times, especially near the end. The guy with the very long hair.

We haven't been for years. With my present condition it would be difficult, but I would like to go get a Scotch Egg for lunch again.

Moving On

I've come a mile, I'm not turning back. The morning is comfortable. My pains are not disruptive, although I can feel slight tinges in my feet now.  I continue down Green Street, passing peaceful cross streets at each end of block.

There are no sounds other than an occasional bird tweet. It is still early for a week day. It won't be long before the work day will be calling people out of bed and house.

For now little stirs.

This walk began behind the old high school. There was some solemnity to it, the disappearance of what was the past. It began on a down note, on a minor chord, perhaps it played to the theme of our times, to the economic sourness touching so many. I move on looking for something to rise above all this negativity.

The next marker on my journey isn't it. Does anything point to the depreciation of our society than a church for sale?

I wonder where its congregation went?

But I am a Christian and been a church goer. I've seen the empty pews, the dwindling attendance in long established shrines of worship, watched the attendees grow old and die.

And then there it is, the hope, the up tick for the future.

What, you say? A dead-end beyond which sits mounds of dirt and rubble, can you call this hope?

Yes, I can.

I love this town. Many times in my living here I have heard it slandered. But I have been here nearly three decades and I've seen the community here, the people here and the diversity here. There is a heart to this place as well as a history and as an old song said, "To Know her is To Love Her". I love this town.

There had been a blight here on this spot. The dirt and rubble are what is left of it. I don't know when what was there had been built, but do know they existed in the 1950s and at one time were very nice and considered luxurious. But time has a way at whittling away at things and by the time we arrived on the scene these had become sickly yellow eyesores. Oh, one last gasp was made at resurrecting them, a new paint job that turned them white, but it was too late. The government had done programs, started I'm sure with good intensions, which too often lead to unexpected and unwanted consequences. It brought some sorrows to this place.

Now all that was gone. A new start was beginning on the far horizons. What now was barren fields spotted with mounds of dirt and plowed over rubble had a greater future, hopefully, ahead.

If my batteries hold up enough by the time we arrive at what is coming, I will capture it and show it to you.

For now we will wait.

We turn back toward where we have come to leave the dead end and find a cross street to take us deeper into town.

We pause on a side street to smell the flowers.
















And then we continue on.

Down the quiet morning streets.

There is a certain loveliness and tranquility here, a charm of old small towns among the homes of the blue collar families of my town.

We reach this dog salon and soon will turn onto a main street of America and I wonder what we will find ahead?

Main Street, USA

It isn't the prettiest main street I've ever been on in my life, but somehow it seems a quintessential one. Maybe it connects time between the station of my old age with that of my youth. The road is called The Philadelphia Pike.

When I was a boy I lived along Route 30. That highway had many names- the Lincoln Highway, Lancaster Pike - and it was also called The Philadelphia Pike.

How the ends of our life so often connect.

This is only one small section as it runs straight through town. The brick building with the awnings was an aquarium when we first came here. I bought the kids two salamanders and a frog here when they were little. The frog was named Nixon, because it looked like Tricky Dick throwing his arms up with the V-signs he would make. Nixon had a habit of hopping out of the tank and the cats got him. His fate was worse than his namesake.

They told me at the fish store that salamanders only lived two years, but one lived more than four. When it did die, it dissolved away to a slimy goo when we removed it for burial much like the girl at the end of "Lost Horizons".

Not far down the road from this photo is the Pennsylvania border and beyond it the storage tanks of the Sunoco oil refinery. Across the street just ahead is a branch of the big bank where once I worked until they tossed me out for the sin of growing old, the _ _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _! (Game time, have fun, fill in the blanks, use your imagination.)

Next to that bank branch is an institution of this place, the steak shop. They redid the frontage a few years ago. I think it use to be pretty much that white surface all the way down, but could be wrong.

The memory isn't what it use to be.

I learned how to cook steak sandwiches properly watching the cooks in this place many years ago.









This is one of those roads with a number of fast food and comfort food eateries. Lot of good stuff to nosh that the food police would lock us up for or take away along with salt, sugar and spice and everything nice. They tell us its healthy and we'll live long. What fools! No sense in living long if you can't savor the delicious things of life. That's what makes those people so mean and nasty, they think they know what is good for everyone, but they really don't know what is good. They should be boiled in their own unsaturated cooking oil, the _ _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!  (Game time again, have fun, fill in the blanks, use your imagination.)

A little further down this very American main street is this small stone building. On first gaze one might guess it is a church or possibly even an old fire house.

Actually it is a school.

It is build of stone.

It is called the Stone School, duh!

It might look new, but it isn't. It was build around 1805. If me math is right that is 205 years ago. And it doesn't look a day over 100.


This wonderful town,  and it is a wonderful, has a lot of history. It used to be a place for millionaires (when a million dollars was real money) and famous writers. There is a lot of community pride and activity and great people.

Just beyond this school you may notice a white house. This building is the Darley House and has its own history. It was the home of Felix Darley.

The home of world-renowned illustrator Felix O. C. Darley (1822-1888). Built in the late 18th century and enlarged several times during the first half of the 19th century, the house was purchased by Darley in 1863 and renamed “The Wren’s Nest.” During his career, Darley illustrated books for Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, and James Fenimore Cooper. Two of his most notable works were Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Charles Dickens visited here for two weeks during his triumphant tour of America in 1867. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

This house reminds me somewhat of a house I lived in as a boy just off that other Philadelphia Pike.



There is much of the past to examine and enjoy in this region, but then there is that old I said was torn down and meant the hope for the future.

Just a bit before we reach the Stone School we can stop and contemplate the future .

What is it we look for on this site?

What indeed.

We'll take a look next time.

Hope

It felt good to be out walking again. I've come a ways now and I'm not tired and I'm not hurting badly.

You want to know where I have wandered?

Look at the photo to the left. I started out somewhere in the middle of all those trees in the upper right hand corner. I crossed over I-95 up in that same corner before that large curve just down from the top of the picture. Can you see that small patch of lighter treeless green that parallels that curve? I wandered through there going toward the top then turned straight toward the river on the far left.

That's the Delaware River, by the way. I've lived near that waterway most my life. It's why I wasn't impressed with the Mississippi (seen in my photo on the right). I know Old Man River is longer and has had the benefit of song and story, but Daddy Delaware is wider and since you can only peer at a piece of any river at a time, plenty inspiring in its own right.

Now back to the walk. Halfway between those trees in the upper right and the river you see most of the town. We walked through the homes to the far edge of the great brown desert that takes up the entire center of the view. We backtracked and went through this area of homes until we reached the main street of town.

You can pick up the main street easily if you go to the lower left where you see a lot of loops of highway. The Philadelphia Pike is the straight road running off the left edge.

I have come along that road past the great brown desert and am now where that large clump of trees begin in the lower left, just turning the corner and heading straight across between the big brown desert and the big green swatch where the letters are giving a website.

I'm starting between the Stone School and the Darley House.

Here is where the great brown desert begins its revival that they call the Renaissance around here. It seemed to have taken years to come about, but now it is happening.

Hopefully it will work out well.

There is a whole village, with stores and homes and parks and ponds planned for this great brown desert. Here is news photo from the ribbon cutting or first shovel dig or some such ceremony.

You can see most of the plan on the easel. Yes, that is one of our senators at the microphone doing what politicians do best, stand in the way of something (the diagram) or if it is going well, stand in front and take credit for it.

Of course if it goes bad they will be standing out front pointing fingers of blame at everyone but themselves, usually a politician of the opposing party.

The short bald-headed guy on the left, whose suit looks like he slept in it, is the current county executive. He's running for the U. S. Senate so he can join the guy on the right. I once had a job interview with the one on the left and breakfast with the one on the right (actually they are both on the left being Democrats). Both came across as pretty nice guys, but in the end one must remember they are politicians for what that is worth.

How many politicians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Are you kidding me, the only things politicians know how to screw are the voters.

In case you haven't noticed, I don't like politicians.

Enough about politicians before it spoils my mood and my walk and what I think is a great thing for the people of my area, Darley Green.

"The first thing you will notice about Darley Green is that we build more than houses. We develop homes and neighborhoods together... to create fuller, richer living environments. Our lifestyle experts, landscape planners and architects have completely re-envisioned the age-old concept of the neighborhood to be more inclusive of everything you want and need. Here, you will find a seamless integration of lifestyle and landscape elements... a home that meets your needs... lush parkland and a community Town Centre... tree-lined streets... conveniences in walking distance... all in a peaceful, close-in location... Parkland, walking trails, jogging paths, open space, a natural stream, Town Centre to feature dining, retail, commercial opportunities, Walking distance of Brandywine schools, train station and DART stop on-site, Located 5 minutes from I-95, 2 minutes from I-495, 15 minutes from Philadelphia International Airport" -- Darley Green - Commonwealth Group

Okay, I don't mean to sound like a shill for this, but I am hoping it will be all it claims to be because I think it will do a lot for this town.

Here are some photos I took of the progress so far and it is my understanding these homes are sold before they are built.

There is a long way to go, a lot of empty field to fill with village.

I continue on my way with belief they will pull it off.