Other Times
100 Years Ago – 1917:
Accused of selling intoxicants at 110 W. Third St., Chester, without a license, the proprietor of a lunch counter was arraigned in Municipal Court and given a preliminary hearing, after which was held in default of $500 bail. Principal witness John A. Lickes of Coatesville claimed the man kept a stock of beer on hand at all times, having purchased it at different times over the last two months for 10 cents a bottle.
75 Years Ago – 1942:
On the home front, men of labor celebrated their annual holiday this year by pitching to a little harder in the fight to turn out the weapons of war that will put an end to the forward march of the Axis.
50 Years Ago – 1967:
Poor Delaware County, which didn’t have a beauty queen to call its own, went to the Miss American Pageant and came away rich with applause. As more than 50,000 persons watched the 1967 Miss American Pageant parade in near 90-degree heat, the Chester High School Band interrupted a flow of traditional marches with an upbeat jazz tune that nearly uprooted a few planks of the famed Atlantic City Boardwalk. Middletown’s Susan Alice Levens, competing as Miss Delaware, boosted the sun-soaked spirits for the viewers with an infectious smiles and friendly waves. Miss Levens is a student at Wesley College in Dover.
25 Years Ago – 1992: Helduser’s Bakery, a mainstay on State Road, Upper Darby, for 59 years, is up for sale. The penny candy, crumb buns and cookies selected by three generations of children will no longer be an after-school option. Marie Helduser, widow of founder John Helduser, closed the business after her late husband became ill last October and died this April. Illness was the only thing that prevented Helduser, who never took a vacation, from baking since opening the store in 1933. 10 Years Ago – 2007: “I told the students they made history today,” said Drexel Neumann Academy Principal Sister Cathy McGowan. The first day of school at the Chester academy marks two milestones. It is the first independent Catholic school within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of which the archdiocese is a sponsor, noted academy President Sister Maggie Gannon. The academy also signifies the survival of Catholic education in this financially beleaguered city, a little more than a year after it was on the brink of demise.