Artie Potts was the owner of the Olney Pet Shop along with his mother. Kresges with the wood floors was great..especially the counter to the left that served the hotdog / coffee, etc.

Dont forget Colony Deli..back in the day was great for sandwiches..right next to the Kresges..barrel pickles, yum.
Next to Kresge..Westfield meat market.
Chew and 5th..Fruit and Fish grocers..then some years late Willies market caddy corner.
Paul's deli...across from Peppino's.
Minerva's hair salon in 2nd and Mascher.


Shenk's, by the way is now at Rhawn and Veree in the Northeast.

Spains card shop by the Tabor Rd Library.
Nice's Tavern on Olney.
There was a guy that did rotisserie chicken..5th just above tabor..Joe? (was near a market that sold kielbasa, slavic goods, etc...)

mrs 'Jack's Donuts' is doing well. My mother ran in to her some months back. Living somewhere in the NE...

I remember Jim Minerva's when he had one or two chairs in the late 60's and he would give out a small toy with a haircut (I believe he acquired the shop from his uncle). Later he expanded to the upstairs and became James Minerva's Unisex Hair Salon. Also on that block of Grange at the corner of Philip was The Bulletin newspaper( I lived right across the street and had the surrounding streets, what a great route!) and on the other corner was a thrift shop and at American and Grange was Spina's Meat Market and down closer to 3rd st was Lucas Beer Distributor where the manager was Rich Roseburo(sp)( He was also a neighbor of ours in West Wildwood NJ) also at Lucas was Frankie Kerrigan from 4th and the Blvd. (He let me deliver beer with him ) He also played for The Olney Vets and is A HELLUVA GREAT GUY!

the acme stores at 2nd & grange and at 5th & godfrey? me and my kid brother would look for money under the check out counters. i remember the smell of coffee from the coffee machines at the end of the check out counters. i think they were a&p coffee grinders. since i'm on the subject of supermarkets. remember pantry pride at front & godfrey, across from finletter and a short stay of super fresh at b & olney.
the fireworks at olney high school. there had a small 4 or 5 man string type band there with loud speakers preforming before the fireworks. i can still see them playing on a flat bed truck and a older woman would ask for donations before you entered the field. the place use to be packed.
the 4th of july baby parade up 5th st. thats when the community came out. either at the parade or in it. where is it now? gone!
the easter egg games at fishers park. gone!
and for the older people out there, including my mom. colony movie theater between chew & olney and lets not forget the fern rock. my first movie as a kid was patton. remember walking by the front show case and seeing the jaws poster displayed. at one time it was one big movie screen and sometime in the early 70's. they made a wall, making it two movie screens. gone!
lowell's school carnival. it was at one time up at one of the baseball field's behind finletter. it went on for a week. the sounds and music of the rides, the smell of funnel cake, watching the older guys from olney football league spin the wheel of chance. even remember seeing the posters go up a month ahead of the carnival on telephone poles all over olney. is the carnival still active?????
did anyone ever eat at the schwartzwald inn on olney between mascher & palethorp st.? i did. a good german place to eat. they had parking across the street.
all of these things and many more are all gone. i know nothing last forever but dam.................
what is in place of these things? i can't think of any.
can you still say olney is a community or a place for the hell with you and who-ya for me!
everyone..............i mean everyone who every lived their said it's a shame what happened to it.
and i'm being nice.

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dave

So was I.

I remember my grandmother telling me St. Helena's held Sunday mass at the Colony Theater during the time the church was being built.

that's when olney was clean!!!!!!!!! i remember just right under the bridge there, was a street cleaners cart that was chained up to the side of one of the bridges pillards. i remember him cleaning 5th st. early in the mornings. the pillards were painted black & white.

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dave

There was a meat market acroos the street from the colony theater, it was celebrating being the first self service meat market in Olney. On each Sat matinee they gave a bicycle away for 18 wks. I won one and did not know how to ride it and had to push it home. I finally learned, and that carnival up by Finletter came around. My father told me not to ride that bike up there, well i got ready to go home and no bike they stole the whole pile of them. Needless to say i could not go home so at 1100 pm that noght waiting for the high diver to dive in the small pool, I heard a voice behind me say i guess you lost your bike,lets go home. It was my father

A few question answered the Bowling Alley was above Woolworths on 5th st entrance on ground level I hand set pins there. I think maybe 10 lanes

Before the Acme at 2nd and grange there was an American Stores Market at Nedro and Mascher sts. if you remember they were all painted yellow on the outside and the guy that ran it wore a straw hat and apron and tied all you purchases in brown paper and string

That icream store at Mascher and Champlost the first day i walked to Finletter by myself in first grade i got hit by a car at that corner. The guy drove 3 blocks before someone told hime he had a child on his running board, I was lucky only a lump on my head and was knocked out
I rember my dad taking me to the corner to explain what happened and he said all i could tell him was the store had the biggest and best icream cones

Do you remember War Cards?

Did you make a skate mobile out of orange crates?
If you hit a stone or anything in street you went right over the top of it

We also made clubhouse furniture out of orange crates. I have a great story about Big Sheepy I will post sometime.

i called my mom and she said you may be right about the bowling alley being around ten lanes. she doesn't remember the corner store at nerdo and mascher. she grew up on the 100 block of spencer. don't know what era your from while growing up in olney. she's from the 30's,40's & 50's time frame. she went to finletter in the 30's and olney high at the height of the war. she remember's weber's butcher shop at the corner of spencer and mascher and going down 5th street on sat. night real well. she spend mostly her whole life in olney. just moving out in 2005.

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dave

Great time to be a kid in olney. Mixed neighbors, Irish, German, Jewish, Italians and English. Mostly catholics. Be glad to answer any questions