Delco tradition: Pandemic can’t stop holiday at Booths Corner
No Easter Bunny, but life goes on at Booths Corner
GARNET VALLEY » The annual Easter Bunny visit at Booths Corner was another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.
A Pennsylvania stay-athome order through the end of April interrupted the tradition enjoyed by young and old almost as much as the old-school shopping experience at the historic market on Naaman’s Creek Road.
Judging by business Friday, what COVID-19 and its hideous health consequences have been unable to do is crush the spirit of Booths Corner.
Though only a fifth of the businesses were open and operating due to state-mandated regulations, customers stepped up to fill their Easter needs.
“Things have changed a lot,” said Cindy Hamilton, who with her sister Bonnie Fryer and brother Benjie Cohen have owned or operated the Booths Corner market since the 1950’s. “Right now, we only have 20 merchants open of over 100. Only the places selling essential food items are allowed to be open. No Easter Bunny this year. So, it’s just not quite the same as it’s always been.”
What is encouraging is that the doors are open, because it wouldn’t be Easter in this part of Delaware County without Booths Corner.
From Ken and Karen Stoltzfus of Stoltzfus Meats, to Chris Fisher and Fisher’s Deli, to Linda’s Bakery, among other vendors, pure guts and faithful customers have made it worth stocking the shelves, filling the grocery bags and urging all to enjoy the rest of the day.
“We have very loyal customers,” Karen Stoltzfus said of patrons who in some cases date back 25 years. “They’re here every week. Usually you would see people everywhere here at Easter. All the stands would be flourishing. So, it’s very challenging. We’re thankful we’re open, but we feel really bad for the stands that had to close. I just hope, and I’m trusting that it’s all going to open again soon. It’s a great market. All the stands do a great job.”
The Stoltzfus’s have been making the scenic earlymorning drive from Intercourse in Lancaster County to operate Fridays and Saturday for much of the 60 years the family has sold meats here.
Easter is snyonymous with ham. The Stotltzfus ham is popular, and for good reason. It’s tweaked by techniques you won’t see on a cooking show.
“My dad’s ham recipes, bacon recipes, sausage recipes, it goes way back,” Ken Stoltzfus said. “And it’s a German origin. We’re very authentic. It doesn’t have the commercial flair. It’s more of a homestyle. Ham is cured in a maple sugar cure and smoked with true hickory chips. That’s very, very important because a lot of your hams now are smoked with a liquid smoke. This is true hickory chips.”
While that sounds like more than enough to whet the Easter appetite, you can always try another vendor and stay in the family. Four Stoltzfus sons operate at Booths Corner, three in the food market. Even in this difficult environment, the meat vendor alone employs
13 people.
“We’ve been down,” Ken Stoltzfus said of business. “We’ll be down this weekend. But we have been holding very steady.”
In another area of Booths Corner, Fisher’s Deli was doing business. Chris Fisher reckons his father has been on the job here 20 years, and that’s he’s been behind his pop’s counter for about
11. His grandfather got the business started. The current work force is around eight to 10 people.
“Business has definitely been off, but we’re blessed to be open and we’re going to take that as it comes right now,” Fisher said. “There’s not much we can do about it.”
For many of Fisher’s customers, it wouldn’t be Easter without the old-time breakfast of champions. And that’s not cereal.
“A lot of people liked the smoked dried beef,” Fisher said. “They make creamed, dried beef out of that and serve that for breakfast on Easter morning. There are a lot of breakfast specialties they shop for here.”
Meats aren’t the only fare available at Booths Corner, which is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.
Baked bread, pies, cookies and produce can be found. Just not the usual assortment of specialty products.
“We worked closely with the township and fought hard to at least keep the market open because we’re serving the community with our meats and produce and baked goods and things like that,” said Hamilton, who grew up in
Havertown. “But we have a lot of vendors who aren’t here that we feel really terrible for. We’re just waiting for the state of Pennsylvania to let us know when the non-essential business can open. We have no idea. But we hope soon.”
A simple walk in Booths Corner is a sign of these pandemic times. Customers clad in protective masks navigate the aisles.
Ron Latini and his wife, Dot, of Garnet Valley, were masked and searching for items to round out what will be a virtual Easter dinner with their children and grandchildren.
Ron Latini, retired now, has an appreciation for farmer’s markets dating back to the Bazaar of All Nations on Baltimore Pike in Clifton Heights. It was almost withing walking distance when he resided in Springfield.
“Certainly, it’s not going to be our traditional Easter,” Latini said. “But we have plans with all the kids cooking, and we’re going to transfer meals. So, we won’t get to see them, we’ll just leave them on the doorstep or something and then we’ll have a teleconference and then have dinner.”
Whether it’s the Easter season or just a sign of humanity, there’s an encouraging sense of togetherness
at Booths Corner above and beyond the cash register.
Customers aren’t afraid to hold the door open for people behind them. Pedestrians don’t risk getting run over in the parking lot. There’s some kind of spirit bonding them.
“I have seen a lot more customers
being patient,” Fisher said. “A lot more people willing to just work with what we’ve got. There are items that we’re sometimes out of and the customers are very easy about going with another
item we have. It seems people are OK to work with what we’ve got and that’s really, really nice to see. … The coronavirus, on the outside, we can’t control that. But we can control what’s on the inside.”
Booths Corner, tucked away in western Delaware County, is a place where customers, from the late Ernest Borgnine to Bill Bergey of the Eagles and Phillies color commentator
Ben Davis, vendors and owners have been in it together on some level since the Great Depression.
And no dout will be, whatever the challenge, for years to come.