Every so often, I get the pleasure of being engaged in a conversation with people with a passion and when you talk to West Pittston Historical Society’s President Mary Portelli, her passion is just that … it’s all about the “Garden Village” of West Pittston.
Mary has been president of the historical society for quite a while now and even when she lived and worked in New Jersey before retiring back to her hometown, she has been a bit of a historian.
Her mother’s family owned and operated the one-time popular and now defunct Grablick’s Ice Cream Dairy with two locations at Pittston and West Pittston.
She and her two siblings John and Joe worked at the dairy bar growing up where I’m sure it was all in the family.
Mary is always on the look out for collecting Grablick’s memorabilia whenever she can as well as any photos or mementos regarding West Pittston for either herself or for the West Pittston Historical Society.
Grablick’s was an institution in West Pittston and people far and wide would drive to the West Pittston location adorned with huge windows that surrounded the building on the corner of Wyoming and Delaware Avenues.
The great thing about Grablick’s was it was a true dairy bar being open 12-months out of the year selling their own brand of ice cream and milk products.
Many of the older readers probably recall the Grablick’s milk trucks out on the road delivering milk. Yes kids, people used to have fresh milk delivered to their homes and often times there would be an insulated “ice box” located on a porch for the delivery man to pick up the empty milk glass bottles and replace them with fresh milk.
Yes kids, milk was in a glass bottle and not a carton.
Growing up in West Pittston, we would stop often and even daily during the summer months for a soft ice cream at a rear window behind the building or if we wanted to be fancy, we would go in and sit at the counter for a flavored phosphate.
If you were rich enough, you would get a sundae and an iced cold glass of water served and placed on top of a paper doily coaster.
Friday nights, post home football games were jammed. There was always a waiting line to get in and the dairy bar sat a lot of people.
It was such a great landmark in the borough and I for one loved going as often as possible. Naturally when it was decided to close their doors for good, I was extremely disappointed.
So now all we have a great memories and memorabilia to get us by.
Today Miller Rosentel Associates, Inc., an architectural firm owned by my friend Kimberly Rosentel, occupies the building.
Prior to moving in the space, Kimberly suggested she might make a corner of the interior a display area with Grablick’s artifacts paying homage to the dairy bar. I am not sure if that happened, but it would be a great idea even is she borrowed some of the historical society’s memorabilia.
As an organization, the West Pittston Historical Society holds a few events a year and most recently held the second annual First to Fall ceremony at the Jenkins-Harding Cemetery at the corner of Wyoming Ave. and Linden St.
This year’s event was well-attended upping audience numbers over last year’s effort. At the event, descendants from the Harding or Jenkins families or historians as guest speakers.
For the second year members of the 24th Connecticut Militia Regiment, Inc., reenacted a burial ceremony over the graves of brothers Benjamin and Stuckley Harding, who were massacred by the Indians in 1778.
The West Pittston Historical Society usually holds a few events at the West Pittston Library.
When I phoned Mary this past week, I wanted to get info on the upcoming Marion Lorne Film Festival slated for Friday and Saturday, Aug. 11 and Aug. 12.
Nearly two hours later, I was getting off the phone with her where we spoke about our growing up in West Pittston and comparing notes. It was nice to reminisce going back as many as five decades when the borough was the site of the West Pittston Little League carnival, church bazaars, the (now defunct) Goodwill Hose Co. picnic or the West Pittston Hose Co. No. 1’s pie and ice cream social.
The West Pittston Community Pool also hosted a pie and ice cream social and later on would hold Christmas in July.
The town was always filled with social events and activities and Mary and I both agreed the children of today are not as fortunate as we were decades ago.
The community pool and Little League kept everyone busy all summer long when Little League games would start after Memorial Day and conclude just before school started in Sept.
The pool, which was owned by the Little League, kept the same summer schedule as the Little League.
My parents always new were I was all summer long and it was at the Little League/pool area, a very safe place to be growing up.
I would never ever trade growing up in the Garden Village.
Thought of the Week
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” — John Lubbock
Quote of the Week
“Everything good, everything magical, happens between the months of June and August.” — Jenny Han
Bumper Sticker
“Keep your face up to the sun and you will never see the shadows.” — Helen Keller
