This one comes from loyal reader Jo, a devoted member of the Greater Dover Historical Society.
What is this item?
It was found in a barn in the Dover area and donated to the society. It's fairly small, but very heavy for its size.
Any ideas? Leave us a comment. I'm at a loss; someone earlier had suggested a harness of some sort and while I could see that (with the chain at the one end), it seems odd that you'd use something so heavy.
Help!
It's been a LONG time coming, but work has begun in earnest on the property along Route 74 in Dover Township across from McDonald's - which was long ago home to a Jay's supermarket, plus a bunch of other odds and ends since - that is slated to become a Royal Farms convenience store.
While driving by today, I got a couple of shots on my cell camera of the demolition of the old building there.
Take a look:
This is a view from the rear of the store, taken from along Grenway Road. You can see that a lot of the building has already been demolished.
This is the view from along Fox Run Road to the side. Action shot, of the heavy equipment knocking stuff down! Yes, don't laugh at my photo skills, that cell phone camera is pretty hard to use.
So anyway, does anyone remember the Jay's at this site? And even better, does anyone know what it was before it was Jay's?
WOW! I can't believe how many responses my post about Hess's last week drew.
I'd love to compile a thorough archive of "stores that used to be but aren't any more" in York County. I have posted about a few; if you're a newer reader to the blog, please check these out and let me know what you remember about these locations.
And for everyone - please comment and let me know what other stores you miss. I'll try to round up some info on them and post about them in the coming weeks!
Ghost stores:
- Hess's
- The North Mall (not a "store," exactly, but still.)
- J.M. Fields (at the North Mall, my sister and brother-in-law say)
- The York Mall (commenter Joe reminded me of that one) - I do remember that; wasn't there a free-standing Sears there?
- Best
- Hills
- ... and its neighbor Pathmark
- Gee Bee's
- Zaire's (which was at the same location as Hills, if I remember right??)
- I hear we had Mailman's, too, though I need some more guidance on where and when that might have been!
- Same with Two Guys - where was that?
- People's Drug (commenters Mark and Melanie mentioned all three of these last ones; do you guys have any locations?)
- From the Remember When topic on the Exchange, I learned about Bear's Department Store, which is what the picture above is of, and Stillman's Department store, as well as a place called Jack's store in York.
Ghost restaurants:
- Rax
- Rutter's (former employer of commenter friend Mark!)
- Ponderosa
- Spurg's Drive-In
- Gino's
- Bury's Hamburgers
Let's keep the list growing!
Here's a blast from the past: Does anyone remember Hess's, the department store that used to be at one end of the (then-new) West Manchester Mall? I believe it was at the end that they expanded out and built the Wal-Mart at, but I could be wrong - I was pretty little.
Anyway, I was looking that up today and didn't realize until now that the Hess's chain, when it went out of business, was bought out by several other retailers, and among them was The Bon-Ton. Our location wasn't included in that, of course; it just closed, but still. While I had been sitting around today thinking it's a shame that Hess's is gone, I'm now sort of happy to know that it lives on through another York County retailer.
Anyone else remember Hess's? I think if SOMEONE IN MY FAMILY is reading this blog, they might have some memories to share, say of working there for a good bit of my childhood??
Subtle, aren't I?
Sad news today, folks, in the world of local and food-related items. (Mark, I know you'll especially not like this one.)
The York Peppermint Pattie, which used to be made in York but was most recently made in Reading at a Hershey plant, will soon be made in Mexico.
I'm definitely disappointed. I am not someone who is categorically against production moves if they keep a company afloat economically, but this one hits pretty close to home.
It's been a while since I posted about Showbiz Pizza and other former York County pizza places, like Pappy's.
But while doing this week's promised clean-out of e-mail, I found a couple of Showbiz comments, both of which were too good not to share.
New commenter Kevin said he was a huge fan of places like Showbiz. He wrote: "In Minnesota, we had Circus Pizza, which I'm almost positive was from the same company. Same band, same games, everything." Despite liking the pizza, he said the band "still haunts my nightmares to this day." Now, here's the scary part. He wrote a very interesting blog post on the most awful bears - and the Showbiz Pizza band makes up a lot of it.
He's right, they ARE kind of creepy.
Now, that brings me to another first-time commenter, Chris. Now Chris is a lifelong Yorker like me, it looks like, judging from his comments and his bio on his Web site.
He remembers Roll R Way burning down, and also Pappy's Pizza and Showbiz. He said he's still friends with the former manager of Showbiz and also with Aaron Fechter, the co-founder of Showbiz in the 80s.
Now, this is where he really got me. He wrote: "I loved Showbiz pizza so much, I even bought the animatronic band off eBay! Too bad kids these days don't have cool places like that to hang out at."
OK. Animatronic band purchase on eBay. That definitely makes you a fan. Interestingly, if you check out Chris's site, he's very into making Halloween displays. Now, I'm editorializing here, but I happen to think that creepy band would be MUCH more suited for a scary Halloween display than it would be for a fun kids' amusement. Creepy!
New commenter Craig checked in with me recently on my post about the pizza shop that used to be where Moonlight Cafe is now, in Dover.
The shop was Salvo's Pizza, and Craig provided me some new info I didn't have before - he says the Moonlight's owners are relatives of the folks who owned Salvo's - whose original owner has since passed away.
Craig reminded me of something super-good about Salvo's... they had a fabulous pizza steak sandwich.
He describes it: "The bread that he used for the steak sandwiched was actually like a pizza crust folded in half, baked, sliced and filled. I loved those sandwiches! I haven't found another place that makes them like that since."
Anyone know a place to get a pizza steak like that? I'd forgotten about these, but reading Craig's comment brought back some really delicious memories!
