Other Times
100Years Ago – 1919: The pent-up feelings that Chester folk have been gathering for more than a week will break with a typical enthusiasm and wholesome merriment tonight, as it finds expression in all the old forms and traditions connected with the celebration of Halloween and All Saints Day. Masqueraders by scores and tens of scores will meander along the main thoroughfares of the city, with horn and trumpet and without all signs fail, a great squadron of merrymakers and will come into their own and the old town will ring. Persons of nervous dispositions are slipped the timely admonition to avoid the main thoroughfares from sunset on to midnight.
75Years Ago – 1944: Chester children did quite a job with the soap last night – and Chester merchants were in a lather today. From one end of town to the other, store fronts this morning bore evidence of the handiwork of mischievous youngsters – weird designs, political advice and words that their parents never taught them. But all in all, Mischief Night, 1944, was a comparatively quiet.
50Years Ago – 1969: Twelve civic and community leaders, including the Chester mayor’s wife, Mrs. John H. Nacrelli, will be honored at the fourth annual Chester Scholarship Fund banquet Saturday. The dinner and fashion show will be held at the Alpine Inn on Baltimore Bike, Springfield. The scholarship fund, started by Miss Mary Smith, was formed in 1967to help under-privileged, deserving black and white Chester High School students.
25Years Ago – 1994: “”Mischief Night’’ lived up to its name in Delaware County last night, with local police departments kept busy dealing with pranksters. Offenses ranging from egg-throwing and spray-painting incidents to more serious reports of assaults and brush fires occurred on the infamous night before Halloween. “”We have somewhere between 20 and 25officers on patrol tonight and we’re still up to our ears in work,’’ said Chester Police Lt. Robert Blythe. It was the same in Upper Darby, where a car fire was the most serious of a myriad of minor disturbances.
10Years Ago – 2009: A sea of roaring red covered Drexel Neumann Academy’s gymnasium floor as the Chester school held a Phillies pep rally in honor of five donated Game 4World Series tickets, which brought in $11,000for the academy. Marty Burman, owner of Burman’s Health Foods in Brookhaven, and his friend donated the five Diamond Club tickets. The school’s president, Sister Maggie Gannon OSF, said the donation was evidence that Divine Providence has blessed the school.