Delaware County Daily Times from Chester, Pennsylvania • Page 11

Circling the Square Garage Man Makes Fulltime Job of Winning Friends vith wi bWCriminal Court nun tcrrh Twisting Lions Tad BYER easy you stop WHADDYA DO? You leave the office planning to spend an afternoon up around 14th and Walnut talking to people and taking a few pictures. You hope maybe you'll get finished in time to hustle on back; downtown and get started at the typewriter ing out this wee k's Circling the Square. Just to break in first at a place where you know the guy and the clock keeps unwinding and pretty soon it's 4,30 In the afternoon and you're already half an hour overdue for quitting time. So you figure, "Well, this makes me Johnny-One-Spot today," on account of having stopped at just one place. Then you look at your notes and you wonder how you can do justice to this one guy in a whole book, let alone a single story.

That's the kind of a guy Tom Ridington is. 'You stop in to say 6ello and you end up wondering j'hat you're going to use for an excuse for getting home late. You I pit in his little two-by-four office and watch people traipsing in and out until the mob makes 30th Street Station look like a Sunday School room on Monday morning. Ridington draws friends like a I clover patch draws hungry bees. His garage is unofficial headquarters for anybody in Chester that has five minutes on his hands.

He's a Great Talker Tom isn't' what you'd call I maybe around five feet eight or he isn't fat, even if his belt is a couple of sizes bigger now than it used to be. He's a great talker. He's done enough things and heard enough things in his 58 years on this earth that you can't stump him when it comes to conversation. He'll get in his two cents worth somewhere, and you don't figure he's gabby or a show-off. He just happens to know a little something efttra about whatever it is you're talking about and when he tells it, you want to sit right there and listen and then try to come back and top what he said.

Mostly you can't. He's a kind of a mechanic that lean take the guts out of a motpr and put 'em back without getting I any mess on his shirt sleeves. And jwhen he says your car is fixed, I you can take off on a trip to the I moon if you want to. Both of you jknow there going to be any lepgine trouble. I To College at 17 When he was a kid out in Lans- ile, Montgomery C6unty, Tom 3as one of a dozen offspring in I the family.

Their father was a 1 Methodist minister, which seems to I be a pertinent item, but -Tom doesn't have a lot to say about his I boyhood. You can rush right past lit by saying that he grew up and I took off for college when he was In. You hit another blank here. Tom (started, or tried to start, his college career at Johns Hopkins at Baltimore; something went sour and he quit that after a brief tussle to enroll, instead, at Temple University. At Temple Tom studied engineer- Ing.

"It wasn't the same then as it Is now," he says. "We went to school for two years, then we went out.and got jobs and learned more bout machines and engines right on the job." Circling the Square This week shouli. have been a normal week fnr Circling the Square, since I started out to visit a normal number of homes in the vicinity of 14th and Potter. As it turned out, the visit was limited to one stop, the garage operated by Thomas W. Ridington.

What he had to say and what he had done in the course of his lifetime made more than enough material for this feature story. Appearing every Saturday in the Chester Times, this column is a report on your neighbors and their homes or the report of a to points of interest in Chester and around the county. Next week, perhaps, yo.ur home will be visited and be used for a subject in Circling the Square. SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 1952 CHESTER (I'A.) TIMES Thomas Wright Ridington Master Mechanic and Busy Man Be that as it may, Tom did leave done is satisfactory and the prices Temple after two years, but he reasonable, a distinction it 'shares still was ahead of the coming of I with a great many other garages age of the gasoline engine; in the years before World War the auto- mobife was a toy and a rich man's toy at that. Begins Wandering: Career So when Ridington left Temple, he got himself a job at the Baldwin Locomotive works back when the place still, was just Baldwin.

Incidentally, Tom also worked, somewhat later, for the Lima locomotive firm out in Lima, before the consolidation of the two outfits. At Baldwin, Tom learned to be a moulder. He stayed there two years rounding off his knowledge of the trade, then away he went on a peripatetic career that sent him on a wide sweep through the mid- west and even up into Canada. "You want to remember," Tom says, "that this was a pretty good trade. We got six, maybe eight dollars a day when the average pay was around two bucks." So it went in Tom's youth.

He drifted back to Delaware County eventually and worked a little while for Westinghouse, a little while for Sun Ship. His wanderings ended rather abruptly in 1918, when he was married and shortly thereafter bought his first home, located at llth and Potter. Within a few years the new Ridinglon was a daughter by then, Martha to a second house.in Sun Hill at 910 E. 15th st. He and his daughter live there still; Mrs.

Ridington died four years ago. Martha Ann, who pretty much runs the Ridington family when she's around, is a 25-year-old school teacher with a top rating. She works in Tinicum Township, where she is music supervisor. Buys Share of Garage In 1923, by which time the citizenry had stopped yelling "Get a horse" whenever a motorcar put- putted by, Tom Ridington and a partner 'named Bauer bought an already-established general garage at 1416 Walnut st. They called it then, as it is called now, The Walnut Garage.

This tale isn't intended as a free- for-all endorsement of The Walnut in Chester and Delaware County. But the garage is important to this story, for most of Tom Ridington's life has been wrapped up in it. Tom tried to put together a list of the cars he has worked on during the 29 years he has been at the garage; the list reads like a 'Who's Who" or a "Who Used to Be Who" of the automotive business. Business Starts at 5 p.m. First car of all to stop at his new garage was an ancient Studebaker touring car that followed Tom through the doors when he stepped in to take over the business.

"It was," recalls Ridington, "about 5 o'clock in the afternoon and I'd just come down here to take over the place. I turned around and there was this car. The driver was a fellow named Wilmer Swain, who lived in New York. You know, he retired and moved down near here after awhile and we used to visit back and forth all the time until he died." "There it is again. You just can't get away from the fact that Tom peddles more friendship than he does axle grease.

His first customer turned into a lifelong friend and a followed the same pattern. Well, then Tom started naming off the cars he has worked on. Premier, Mormon, Fierce-Arrow, Star, Durant, Stutz, Monroe, Roosevelt, Kisselcar, EMF, Norway, Appei'son Jackrabbit, Stephens-Duryea, Roamer, Lozier, Lo- comobile, Winton, Maxwell, Auburn, Jordan, Chandler, Chalmers, Scripps-Booth, Metz, Gray, Pennsylvania, Keystone, Cord, duPont. Hupmobile, Willis-St. Clair, Reo, Overland, Packard, the White Steamer, the Stanley Steamer and the Dobbins Steamer.

He even puzzled over the innards of a few old electrics back in the early '20's. Don't Shelter Cars Now Included in the purchase of the business were 16 private garages, which sold for $8,000. "They used to be pretty good business," says Tom, "but not anymore. People just let their cars sit out in front Garage. It is, so far as appear-'of the house now." ances go, a place where the work Twelve years ago Ridington You can't.

bought his partner out, an event that came two years after the building housing the garage had been purchased by Tom, a deal in which the partner did not figure. You want to know what's happened to cars in the last 30 years. "Used to be," said Tom, "that anybody who could get his car to run for more than 5,000 miles without grinding the valves really had something to brag about. Still have to grind valves once in awhile, but if you take care of a late model car, I guess it'll run indefinitely." Finally you have to cut Ridington off. He could talk for a day and a half about cars and never repeat himself.

So you ask, "What else?" Begins Masonic Career "I joined the Masons in 1916," he says. Nice move, you figure, but so have a lot of other people. Then he reels off the honors that came his way. He started in the L. H.

Scott Blue Lodge in Chester. He's held every chair there, which makes him a Past Master; he's Past High Priest of the Chester Chapter, he's Past Commander of the Chester Commandry, he's Thrice Illustrious Master of Riblah Council at Media, he's president of the Chester Masonic Association, a member of the Benjamin Franklin Consistory, a member of the Shrine's Lulu Temple, a member of Penn Forest, Tall Cedars of Lebanon; and representative for the Masonic Home in Philadelphia. Currently lie holds an office in the Grand Commandery and he has held offices in the Grand Chapter and the Grand Lodge. It's almost 4.30 p.m. by now and you want to get'home.

You're a little numb, anyway, from trying to figure how one man can do so many things. 'Anything else," you ask, eyeing your watch. Santa at Christmas One of the onlookers chimes in. 'Tell 'im about playing Santa Glaus at Christmas, Tom." Tom says no, you're in a hurry. The onlooker won't be put off.

"He does," he says. "He suits up for about five organizations every year." "Yeah," says Tom. "One of 'em is the Madison Street Methodist Church. My daughter's pretty active there, but I sorta settle for playing Santa." The onlooker again: "He used to be president of the Exchange Club, too. He's treasurer of the Sportsmen's Club now." duly note these things down.

Then cautiously you remember another item. Tom Ridington is harbormaster for the Port of Chester. "Guess I am," Tom says cheerfully. "Much work to it?" you ask. He grins.

"Just say I work a little every day." 'You pick up your pencil and go home. How can you get all that stuff in one story. Jurors Listed For Sept. Term Jurors have been selected at Media to serve in the. September term of criminal court, which will iopen Monday, Sept.

29. The list: 'courtroom 1 (Judge Krvin) Chester: Elizabeth Beagle, Mary Dougherty, WilUpm Haser, Cnthe- Lynch, Dorothy R. Pintof and Prances E. Witkowski. Aldan: Irene McKay.

Clifton Heights: Gertrude V. Dufy and Armond Reynolds. Eddystone: Percy H. Hardy. Glenolden: Naomi E.

Reynolds and Hazel A. Stephens. Haverford: Florence L. Johjison and Evelyn P. Spohn.

Lansdowne: Mary Morrison. Media: John P. Lcamy Sr. Middletown: Walter D. Corneliu.s,j Harriet L.

Gibson and James R. Pennell. Radnor: Myrtle Newpher. Ridley Park: Louise R. Jones.

Ridley Township: Nathan Ladley and Josephine List. Sharon Hill: Eileen C. Doran and Madeline C. Moran. Springfield: Anna M.

Campbell. Swarthmore: Phebe L. Miller. Thornbury: Jeanette E. Marz.

Trainer: Laura R. Bronson. Upland: Dorothy Brinker. Upper Darby: Evelyn A. Anderson, Prank S.

Baker, Blanche Fugant, Helen N. Hanson, Mary A. Hering, Norma E. Hudson, Mabel G. Jaeger, Helen V.

Jennings, Bella Master, Claire Pescatore, Bea- WASHJNGTON Souc'ck, age 7, hasn't bearded a lion in its den. But he has done the next most daring thing. He was caught twisting a lion's tail. Richard's safari came to light yesterday when his father, V. H.

Soucek, brought a simple assault charge against Major 1 Brown, 39-year-old Negro handyman. The youngster told Municipal Judge Mary Barlow that he and Brown went to the Washington zoo last Wednesday. Brown, he si id, encouraged him to pull the tdil of three-year-old Amvct, a 350-pound lion. At first, Richard demurred. "I wanted to see him pull the lion's tail first," he said.

"Then I leaned over the rail the first time and I hit the lion's tail," he added. "Then I climbed over the rail and pulled his tail." The big cat didn't even roar, Richard said, and it made no attempt to claw him. Paul Holup, keeper in charge of the lion's house, testified that he saw Brown holding the boy's hand next to the lion's tail. He said he rushed to the cage and pulled Richard over the rail. In the meantime, Brown disappeared.

He was picker; up by police a few hours later. Judge''Barlow ordered Brown sent to Gallinger Hospital for 30 days for mental observation. By MR. and MRS SMITH THE SMITH FAMILY ATT NICE TOOK Cars Like These Started Ridington's Business Dodge (left) and Chevrolet Were Classy Models Then Youth Is Held In Slaying of (Marines' Clerk WASHINGTON husky, 117-year-old youth was held today (for the brutal murder of a Marine Corps clerk in a rain-soaked alley off Washington's 'skid row" early Friday. The victim was Ralph Blake, 46, who, police said, was stabbed 14 times and was savagely beaten and kicked by his assailant shortly after they had met outside a tavern.

Detectives picked up the con- ONE DOLLAR AN HOUR If you earn $1.00 an hour then each dollar represents an hour of your life, If you lose or waste il then you have lost just thai much of your life. All talk about human rights and property rights nonsense. All properly is just so many hours of someone's life. You would not risk your life needlessly so do not risk your money. Put it in the Vint tcdvrul where Its if insured utirf where you can ultvuyn get buck in full when yon need It.

All accounts are insured up to $10,000.00 by the Federal Savlnfi and Loan Insurance Corporation (an instrumentality of the United States Government.) You pay no entrance or withdrawal fee or any other charfei, are declared twice a year, FIRST FEDERAL SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION OF CHESTER 519 WELSH STREET fessed slayer, William R. White, a fugitive from a Delaware reformatory, at his sister's home less than 12 hours Blake's blood- spattered corpse was found at 1.30 a.m. edt Friday. The tall, good-looking youth admitted that the robbery netted him 30 cents, a watch, a and Blake's shoes "because my own were bloody." White, an orphan at birth with a long record of juvenile crimes, had been arrested in June for a beating-robbery in the same area. His case is still pending.

This clue led to his arrest yesterday. The youth told police he first HOME IMPROVEMENTS APARTMENT CONVERSIONS ALTERATIONS' ADDITIONS NO DOWN PAYMENT $1.25 Per Week CALL FOR FREE ESTIMATE Clpbe U. ttuilbiiiQ Corporation ESTABLISHED 1886 PHw OH 4-3116 saw Blake in fornt of a tavern and said to himself, "that guy's drunk and will be easy." He said he lured Blake to an alley where he slabbed him with a pocket knife. Blake fell unconscious under a deluge of blows and kicks, Alarmed lest the noise attract attention, White ran to a nearby tavern and bought a beer. He said he returned and heard Blake moaning.

White said he stabbed him seven more times and then removed the loot from the body. Police asked the youth why he administered such a vicious beating. He replied, candidly: "When I beat someone, I always beat them badly." When his 27-year-old sister confronted him at police headquarters, White broke into tears. "Don't worry about me, sis," he told her. "I'm going away for a long; time and I won't be a bother to you anymore." Blake came to Washington from Amarillo, about five months ago.

His body was identified by his sister, Mrs! Roy Hageman, of Rockville, Md. trice M. Printz, Sylvia Semple, Letty Speer, Elizabeth Spencer, Edwina L. Welsh and Gardetta Willits. Yeadon: Marion M.

Earth, Helen Corriston and Jessie A. Haines. Courtroom (Judge Toal) Chester: Thomas J. Battle, Mary C. Briscoe, Ellen J.

Greenhalgh, Katie Hannum, Anna May Harvey, Anne I. MacDonald, Isaac L. McKinney, William H. Mekenney, Mary O'Malley, John Schatz and Emma Wright. Aston: Susan R.

Kitzmiller. Birmingham: William D. Teate and Marise F. vanTrump. Chester Township: Blanch Patterson.

Clifton Heights: Walter Boncek and Irene Manuel. Colwyn: Marie 'W. Renner. Darby: Gertrude E. Fry, Marian A.

Gibson and John L. Kelly. Glenolden: Eleanor M. Morrow. Haverford: Eleanor F.

Freas and Josephine Laverell. Lansdowne: Agnes B. Brown and Mary T. Lang. Media: Doris P.

Boucher. Nether Providence: S. Hillis McFadden. Norwood: J. Preston Shannon.

Prospect Park: Marguerite B. Roddy. Ridley Park: James W. Harshaw and Marian E. Kalbach.

Ridley Township: Edward R. Sibole Sr. Rose Valley: Dorothy E. Seltzer. Tinicum: George J.

Crane Jr. and Carl J. Jecmionka. Upper Darby: Loraine S. Anderson, Mary Cliff, Mary R.

Coleman, Clara E. Crawford, Charles J. Gallagher, Charles H. Hanford, J. Osborne Hopwood, Anna G.

McHugh, Gladys V. Shuman, Helen I. Smith, Sdith R. Solenberger, Robert O. Unglaub, Christinria Warner and Arthur Wiltshire.

Courtroom 3 (Judge Bretherick) Chester: Dorothy Brown, Ida Hay Brown, Margaret Brusenhan, Fred Cornell, Sarah L. Fritz and Delia McKinney. Aldan: Jean Laskey. Chester Township: Marion Gry- cznski. Clifton Heights: Nellie M.

Fischer. Collingdale; William M. Joyce Jr. Jennie M. Liuzzi and Helen E.

Segui. Darby: Ruth S. Shuebrook. Darby Township: Mary E. Watkins.

Glenolden: Joseph Donaldson. Haverford: a S. Greene, Grace O'Connor, Mabel M. Rens- and, Rachel A. Wiley and Hilda Womelsdorf.

Lansdowne: Rose E. Andrews, Effie'M. Baud'cr, Oscar V. Bigham and Elizabeth S. Ruff.

Lower Chichester: Patrick J. Walsh. Media: Maurice Glass. Millbourne: Harry W. Smith.

Morton: Florence M. Lawn. Nether Providence: William E. Seidelmann. Norwood: Edwin F.

Dempsey. Prospect Park: Regina Eppehimer, Harry E. Snyder. Ridley Township: B. Goff.

Sharon Hill: Gertrude Kelly. Springfield: Adrain M. Aikman Alan W. Hobensack and Mary E. Rebmann.

Tinicum: Daniel Devaco. Trainer: Richard A. Stebner. Upland: Doris Metz and Charles Newton. Upper Darby: Violet K.

Alexander, Prank M. Ash Constance H. Glaus, Edith H. Heisler, John J. Kelly, Frank J.

Nicholl, Mabel M. Rensland, Mary E. Shipley and Barbara L. Swensen. Courtroom 5 (Judge Sweney) Chester: Erline C.

Aldridge, Ralph E. Bosworth, John T. Cohen, John McDonough, Hayes Pennington Aloysius J. Taylor and Elizabeth L. Trainer.

Chester Township: Harvey R. Hynson. Concord: Elsie M. Schwartz. Darby: Gertrude Cornish, Anna B.

Gibbs and Catherine Sharkey. Darby Township: Elizabeth K. Kerstetter. East Lansdowne: Elizabeth F. Garner.

Edgmont: Edna Arnsdorf. Glenolden: Ruthanna Harmon and Haverford: Thomas Hetherington and Frank D. Hall. Lansdowne: M. Barton, Margaret A.

Landram, Margaret A. Mercer and Eugene A. Schaal. Nether Providence: Edith W. Bradfield, John J.

Coslett and Katherine E. West. Norwood: Thurza S. Bonsall, Esther F. Hill and Edward E.

Niederriter. Radnor: Elaine R. Hart. Ridley Township: Joseph Bissinger and Geraldine K. Scott.

Rutledge: Maurice W. O'Connell. Sharon Hill: Margaret B. Foster. Springfield: Henry H.

Gildner Ida V. Sharp and Meta D. Skow. Upper Chichester: James N. Conaway.

Upper Darby: Edward Adams, Elva K. Burke, Mildred S. Burton, Francis P. Corbett, Gwendolyn Guest, Marion H. Lucas, William J.

Sinnott William W. Stewart, Elizabeth Sunner and Anne M. Tighe. Yeadon: Jean D. Carlon and Mildrith Sanny.

It's Soap Box Derby Time Again AKRON (UP) entry list of 154 starry-eyed boys from all over the nation and from Alaska, Canada and Western Germany went through final preliminaries today before the 15th running of the annualAll-American Soap Box Derby here tomorrow. First round heat assignments have already been drawn, racers inspected and all was set for tomorrow's spectacle. An estimated 60,000 persons are expected at Derby Downs where the race has been run since 1935. The 975.4 foot course especially built for the final race was festooned with flags and bunting and lined with stands. The first prize for the "Champ of Champions" is a $5,000 four-year college scholarship.

Fred Ross, 15, of Juneau, Alaska, and Peter Kalinowsky, 14, from West Berlin, are the two entries farthest from home. The rest of the boys represent 148 Canadian and U. S. cities. The boys have been escorted, partied, fed, entertained and made.

generally hapuy by the Rubber City which turned itself inside-out for the benefit of the youngsters. The entire city Is decked with flags, streamers and signs announcing to the world that this one week a year is for the "gravity gamblers." The racers, which must meet weight and size specifications, must have been hand made and cannot contain any sort of propulsion mechanism only roller-bearing wheels and the boy's ability to coax an extra ounce of speed from his racer. As in the past, Wilbur ShaW, famed race driver who suffered a heart attack while acting as starter last year, will officiate. Tonight, the youngsters will retire at their special camp Derby- town in preparation for row a day of days for the boys. Weight of massive objects too heavy to be weighed by ordinary devices now is being determined with electronic crane scales, which utilize a resistance wire strain gage, an electrical current, and an electronic indicator.

WORD-A-DAY By BACH circuitous ROUNDABOUT; INDIRECT FROM NINE TO FIVE JO FISCHER Most salt obtained from deep in the crust of the earth in America is captured and brought to the surface by high pressure water forced down one pipe which comes back through another laden with the mineral, in many parts of the world salt is mined by pick-aml-shovel workers who work deep under the surface of the earth. ATWEINBERG'S SALE MONDAY NOON-TO-9 BHrare Orion and nylon blouse by of 3. Exclusive with Weinberg's and very 'specially priced! Featherweight textured checks in brown, green, red or blue or all white. Convertible collar easily washed, sheds wrinkles, needs no ironing. Perfect for back-to-school wardrobes.

Sizes 32 to 38. WKINHEIUi'K Itttor Our television saves me a lot of work at home. 1 don't have to clean up because my husband always keeps it dark, FOR BETTER.