Some Memories of the 800 Block of Bailey Street
My family lived at 830 Bailey St from 1953 (I was 8 yrs old and in the third grade at Read Elementary School) until 1968. My parents were Herbert and Helen Sampson and have 6 daughters: Anne (me), Helen, Stella, Carol, Michelle and Mary. My father drove oil rigs for Matlack Trucking which was later bought out by Hess Oil. After my family left 830 Bailey a Hispanic person bought it.
My Father (upright Bass), Al Bush (drums), Al Davidson (guitar) and Ed Bowles (guitar and piano) had a band and they would set up on our porch at Christmas and play music for the neighbors and everyone drank and had a good time. My dad and other guys, Calvin and Carlton “Cush” Krause, David Gladney would get together and set up block parties with beer kegs and music. One time the adults on the block gathered with their lawn chairs up on the corner of 9th and Bailey and one of the kids on the block called the cops reporting a bunch of kids partying on the corner. The cops came and saw all the adults and left.
Another time the young guys on the block lifted Robert Morris’s Volkswagen onto his porch and when Robert opened his door to go to work or school, his car was there.
When the great north eastern blackout happened everyone on the block was watching the first showing of Outer Limits on TV. It just said “We control your TV” and all the lights went out. The Krause’s and us and others on the block ran out on our porches and freaked out.
I remember the man going down the back alley way yelling “Clothes props, come and buy your clothes props.”
The kids on the block played in the alley ways a lot and on Pyne Poynt by the river. On Halloween we soaped windows and rang doorbells and ran. On Christmas Eve I remember walking down York Street in the snow to go to midnight mass at Holy Name Catholic Church and on the way there was a little shop that was all lit up for Christmas.
Next door to us 832 Bailey were the Krause family, Calvin, Mary (she worked for Sears) and their children Calvin Jr., Maryann, Paul, Billie, Joseph and Stephen. On the other side of us was David and Ruth Gladney and son. He played piano by ear and he and my dad always played jokes on each other. Next to Mr. Gladney was the Murphy family, Mr & Mrs. Murphy and their children Joe (who died a young man in a car accident), Agnes, Margaret, Donna and Louise. Margaret lives at the shore somewhere with I think her 5 children.
At 834 Bailey lived Carlton Krause and wife with son Robert lived next door to Calvin. Carlton Krause had a son named Carlton Jr. and a son named Phillip. My sister told me that Robert Krause, Carlton Krause Jr., Margaret Murphy and Donna Murphy all live in Cape May, New Jersey. Louise Murphy lives in Delaware and Calvin Krause in Collingswood.
At 836 Bailey was Mr. & Mrs. Reibel and sons Danny and ?. 838 Bailey Street was Mr. & Mrs. Morris and son Robert. 846 Bailey had John and Lulu Reppert and son Jack, who married Agnes Murphy. 848 Bailey was the home of Mr. & Mrs. Burkhardt and sons Billy, Richard (married Linda Taylor from York Street), Robert and daughter Mary Ellen. 847 Bailey had Flexitallic Gasket Company at one end and the paper factory at the other.
818 Bailey: James J. Owens, his mother lived there and her Granddaughter Suzanne Owens would visit and we would play with her and she had so many toys we thought she was a rich girl. She lived in Pennsylvania. Suzanne’s parents were divorced. 824 Bailey Mrs. Beckett with her disabled brother Richard, and her son George. 812 Bailey was Mr. Shoemaker. 814 Bailey Mr. & Mrs. Baker and son ? and daughter Margaret.
Anne Sampson Harrison, September 2013