(From the Monthly Progress in 2005)
In 1922, 5 months after I was born, our family moved from Hancock and Thompson Streets to the Northeast, to a little community called Marburg. The greater majority of people living in this area were Germans.
Getting to the club at Second and Norris Streets from this area was a long trolley ride. We used the 50 Trolley which ran from Fox Chase south to Fourth and Reed Streets. Since this was a long way especially coming home, my grandfather bought a 1923 Model “T” Ford.
In the summer time, the club would have picnics on Schneider’s Farm located in what is now called, Rydal, Huntingdon Valley. Since this farm was in a non transportation public area, the club would hire a farmer with a horse and wagon to transport our members from the Fox Chase trolley loop to the farm.
At the club’s picnic at Schneider’s Farm, the young men would play a makeshift game of soccer. The women would have their “Kaffee Klatsches” and the men would play cards,
There was a small enclosed dance floor and along the side of this place was a dirt bowling alley. The men would go “Kegel Scheibley”. The alley consisted of a ten to twelve foot long area where you would roll the ball. The ball was made of metal and was four inches round and had no finger holes. Their were nine pins which were placed like a diamond beginning with one at front, then two, then three, then two and finally one.
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F.P.W.
(to be continued)
EDITOR’S NOTE: this was written and originally published in Monthly Progress, Volume 60, No. 1– January 2005 and No. 2-February 2005. It has been re-published here in 2026 with minor edits. Misspellings of names, capitalization and punctuation have been preserved as originally published.
