To the Editor,
Thanks so much for your continuing warm and engaging articles about Swarthmore. We moved there in 1960—Dad got a job at what was then Bartol Research, as a stockroom manager, and liked the Ville so much (it reminded him of his home in Bolton, England) that we moved there—and never looked back.
I went to junior high and high school there, graduating on 6/6/66. I turned 19 the next day and was off to boot camp on Monday the 13th. During my years in the military, I was stationed at Great Lakes, Millington, Tennessee, Naval Air Station North Island, on the USS Yorktown in the western Pacific, Naval Air Station Lemoore (got married for the first time in 1969), and on the USS Ranger in the western Pacific, and I was honorably discharged after two additional years in the Navy Reserve. Throughout those four years it was always so incredible to return “home” to Swarthmore and get reacquainted with many — however briefly.
Ultimately, I went through a divorce and was able to start life anew. I worked at Swarthmore College in the maintenance department. I met a lady in the Gift Records Department (Diane Brown — the boss — that hasn’t changed!) and 30 years ago we got married. We eventually moved from northeast Philadelphia to Broomall, where we live now in a nice twin in a great neighborhood.
Even though I lived in Swarthmore for only six years, so many fond and warm memories continue to come to the front of my mind as I look through the time telescope into the past. Even though it has been many years, I still see a name or two that ring a bell (in my rather damp and musty memory) and that warms the cockles of this old sailor’s heart.
Again, thanks and warm regards,
Gordon Crompton
Broomall
P.S. My mother (Margaret Crompton) used to be borough secretary and tax collector for many years in the old Ville. She and my dad lived at 511 Yale Avenue.
