Two Swarthmoreans

An unofficial theme has emerged in this Thanksgiving week issue of The Swarthmorean: community. We talked with two Swarthmoreans who recently moved back to the borough about what this place means to them, and both of them cited a sense of community as a special quality of the town. 

Abby Dawes grew up in Swarthmore, on Benjamin West Ave., in the same house her father grew up in, and his father before him. She went away to college at Susquehanna University where she majored in theater. Now back in town, she is working at Burlap and Bean in Newtown Square, has started her own art enterprise, and is volunteering widely as she reconnects with the town as an adult.

Louise Coffin first moved to Swarthmore when she was ten. She worked mostly as a writer and teacher in Atlanta; Wallingford, Connecticut; and elsewhere. After nearly 50 years away, Louise moved back to town with her husband David four years ago. Both women talked with us about their thoughts on Swarthmore and what drew them back.

We are eager to hear from you about why you live here, whether you live in Swarthmore proper or in the broader area. What does community mean to you? What local institutions or qualities or experiences embody it?

Also, if you know others—either long-time residents or newcomers—that you think your neighbors should know too, drop us a note. Maybe we’ll feature them in an upcoming issue of The Swarthmorean.

A Slice of Home

Q&A with Abby Dawes

Abby Dawes

Abby: It’s cool to be an adult in Swarthmore. For a long time I was Jodi and Bob’s daughter. But now that I’ve come back, I can be my own person and have relationships with people who were my parents’ friends. No matter what kind of thing I’m interested in being involved in, someone knows me. Big fish, small town kind of thing.

Swarthmorean: What are you interested in being involved in?

I care a lot about the environment and wildlife preservation. I like Young Life and other Christian ministry groups, and anything in the theater world. It’s that weird, post-grad stage where I can do anything, but what do I want to do? 

Right now I work at Burlap and Bean in Newtown Square, and I love it there. One of my long-term goals has always been to own a coffee shop and to have a creative space for people who don’t get a chance to do theater or to paint or whatever. I told [Swarthmore Farmers Market Manager] Andy Rosen I’d help with the farmers market. You know their food stamp program? They’re hoping more people will use it. My job will be to reach out to homeless shelters, women’s shelters, food pantries, churches, synagogues, and so on.

Swarthmorean: Tell us about the art you’re doing.

[Pointing out the kitchen window] The tree used to live right there. It was a more than 100-year-old maple. We all loved that tree. It had a zip line on it, and a swing on it, and when it came down, it was sad. I wanted to give a couple of slices that said Dawes, 20 Benj West, as Christmas gifts for the people who have lived here. And then I kept joking that I could sell them for ten dollars, and I posted it on my Instagram account. Then I started selling them at H.O.M. and got into the [Swarthmore] Makers Market. People like them. I think the story is a big part of it. My business is called A Slice of Home, and what you’re getting is literally part of a tree I loved. There’s still moss on the bark, and every so often you see a hole from the bugs that killed the tree. 

Swarthmorean: Does the town seem different to you as an adult?

I’ve always loved the sense of community in Swarthmore. You can walk down the street and know at least four people. Everyone genuinely cares, and everyone has a sense of home deeply rooted. Especially the fact that so many people come back. We lived in West Chester for the first five years of my life, and then we moved back into this house. My dad grew up here, and my grandpa grew up here: all in these four walls. 

Swarthmore to me is being in my kitchen doing something, and suddenly Andy Shelter from across the street is also in my kitchen. There’s been no knock, there’s been no announcement. He’s just here, saying “Where are your parents? I have to borrow your lawn mower.” Or he might be in the garage already borrowing the lawn mower! That’s something I value and want in my life regardless of where I’m living: to know my neighbors, and to love them well enough to say that we’re all going to sit on the porch and play guitar and hang out. To be comfortable enough with each other that we just walk into each other’s houses and take what we need.

Almost a Perfect Town

Q&A with Louise Coffin

Louise Coffin

Louise: I moved away after graduating from Swarthmore College in ’67, spent a year in New York and then got married. Through a variety of different circumstances--including divorce and remarriage, and a nine-year stint in Wallingford, Connecticut, and then back to Atlanta--my husband and I always knew that we wanted to come back to the Northeast. So I lived on Zillow for about three years looking for places in Delaware and other parts of Pennsylvania. Because I had grown up here, I put Swarthmore into the mix, but I knew I didn’t want a big six-bedroom Victorian—well, I won’t say horror—but that would have been too much house for us as impending retirees.

Onto the market came one of those townhouses on Dartmouth right next to the Recycling Center. Or the dump, as some people call it. And that just suited our needs perfectly. Yes, there have been changes. Some delightful ones, including the roundabout, and what has been done with the old borough hall parking lot: the amphitheater, the farmers market, town center events. I don’t know that anything of that ilk went on when I was a girl. As an adult, and as an older adult, this is almost the perfect town. I miss Michael’s drugstore on the corner. If that were there, I’d never have to leave.

Swarthmorean: What made you think about coming back?

We wanted to be in a town that had either a college or a good private school. Things we could walk to and things that were free. We wanted sidewalks. We wanted trees. We wanted access to public transportation. We wanted to be near a big city. We wanted to be able to drive to other urban areas, or to get out into the country fairly easily. We wanted, and this is interesting—when I was growing up in Swarthmore it was a very conservative Republican town politically. And, my: the 180 degree difference! And that suits us too, the political leanings of Swarthmore these days. So it fit our criteria.

Swarthmorean: Where did you live when you were growing up?

I lived on South Swarthmore Avenue. So I rode my bike to Rutgers Avenue School, down Yale, and of course walked to Swarthmore High School. I still don’t know what to call the borough [town center]. I don’t call it downtown: I call it either uptown, which is the term we used in high school, or the ville, which is the term we used in college.

Swarthmorean: Can you share a memory of your girlhood that gives us a sense of what Swarthmore was like then?

I think I always felt safe here. Even riding my bike on Yale Avenue. I remember, if you had a bicycle, you got a little metal license tag. You had to be registered with the police department. Until you were 12 you could ride on the sidewalks, but after the age of 12 you had to ride on the streets. Even as a high school student I took advantage of things the college had to offer—art shows and movies--so the transition to being a college student was not difficult, and I could walk home for Sunday dinner. 

My freshman year, Mother worked in the alumni office, so I could see her any time I wanted to. And they were all of seven-tenths of a mile away from my dorm, which meant that at Thanksgiving and Christmas and spring I would take practically everything I had in my dorm room home, because supposing I needed something?

[Going to Swarthmore College] ran in my family. My brother, who’s eight years older than I, is a Swarthmore grad. My mother went to Swarthmore. Her parents and various aunts went to Swarthmore. And I can still remember standing at the top of our stairs in our house when my brother had come home. It was senior year, and it was in the spring, and I had been accepted by all four colleges to which I had applied. I said, “Should I go to Swarthmore?” Because I knew I was not going to be an “A” student at Swarthmore. And he said, “Go to Swarthmore, because you’ll get as good an education outside the classroom as you will inside.” So I did.