Days Gone By

100 YEARS AGO, 1924 » A Bible that is undoubtedly as old as any found in private possession in the county it was learned yesterday, was in possession of Doctor Harry Cohen, the Rabbi of the Jewish Community of this city. The Bible is a large folio Schew Bible published in Venice by Daniel Bomberg in 1518, and is the third of four volumes known as the first Rabbinical bible. Dr. Cohen purchased the bible several years ago from a book dealer in Philadelphia, while a student at Columbia University.

75 YEARS AGO, 1949 » The campaign to stop the practice of smuggling cigarettes into Pennsylvania from neighboring states continued Wednesday with two men fined heavily before Magistrate Joseph O. Garrity, of Lennox Park. Nabbed by state troopers in Linwood, just north of the Delaware border, were a Sharon Hill man and a Philadelphia man. The Sharon Hill man was fined $85 and costs for bringing in 17 cartons; the Philadelphia man was fined $95 and costs for 19 cartons.

50 YEARS AGO, 1974 » After more than 22 years of battling and some construction, the state is now going to study what would happen to the area if the Midcounty Expressway (Blue Route) is never completed. The study will be made as part of an Environmental Impact statement the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has been ordered to prepare on sections of the controversial expressway. While neither Douglas May, Blue Route design engineer in the Radnor office of PennDOT, nor any other PennDOT official said so, it appears likely the do-nothing study is a move to drum up support to counter opposition now coming mainly from environmentalists and affected property owners.

25 YEARS AGO, 1999 » Joseph Batory, Upper Darby School District Superintendent

for the past 14 years, officially tendered his resignation at last night’s board meeting. Batory, who taught school for 12 years prior to joining the district, was hired by U. D. in March, 1975 as community relations director and was promoted in July, 1981 to asst. to superintendent for personnel and public information under then Supt. Michael Maines.

10 YEARS AGO, 2014 » Val Shively thought he was going to be an accountant, but he knows he never would have made it. Lucky for him, after hearing doo-wop as a teenager he found his passion. Shively, now 70, still owns and operates R&B Records in Upper Darby. He has been in business for 50 years, including more than two decades at the shop’s current Garrett Road location, where he houses more than 4 million 45s and 500,000 LPs.