October Camden County History Month and the Quaker Store

If you have driven down the White Horse Pike towards the seashore, you can't have missed seeing The Quaker Store in Stratford on the north side of the road, perched on a patch of green in front of a spreading modern shopping center.  I have always wanted to visit the Quaker Store but it was rarely open, staffed by history volunteers as are most of the historic sites that have somehow managed to be saved from the wrecker's ball.  I LOVE the past in its remaining evidence of lives lived and the Quaker store was stocked with all manner of interesting items and a delightful band of volunteer tour guides.

Our guide, Rosey, told us that the store was in operation until early 1990's which was a surprise to me.  It's neighbor to the west had been the White Horse Tavern, which was demolished by developers who also had their eye on the Quaker Store, but it was rescued.  Sadly, I didn't have a chance to inquire further into the rescue story as just when we got there, a number of other visitors were arriving and my history trekking pal, Barb Solem and I wandered around on our own admiring things like the wringer washers, which my mother used when we lived in Philadelphia in the last 4 years of the 1940's and the first five of 1950's.  I remember it well, sitting in the basement.  It was quite a process, doing the laundry then.  My mother would pre-soak in a chloral and water washtub, then into the 'agitator' and through the wringer into a rinse tub, then back through the wringer and most went into a starch bath, then onto the clothes line in the backyard.  

I am going to call my brother Joe, who lives in West Virginia and ask him if he remembers our old Wringer washer.

Anyhow, the old ice box was in the back of the store - a very big one since it served a store, a handsome actual size white wooden horse which had once stood outside  but had been brought indoors to protect it from weather wear, and shelves of old bottles and tins - things I adore!  I have a few at home in a cabinet in the living room and I though "Now I know who to donate them to if I ever move or downsize (UNLIKELY)."

I was supposed to visit the Newton Meeting House and the New York Shipyard and Maritime Museum today, but I am felled by a head cold and on the sofa with tissues. tea. and an old afghan crocheted by my Grandmother Mabel for comfort and warmth.

The efforts to publicize and popularize the Camden County History Alliance offerings but using a History Month strategy is Marvelous!  I have enjoyed several of the open houses and events and a few of my other friends have visited ones I didn't get to.

Happy Trails!
Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com