Celebration was the theme, and a celebration it was!
The weather was perfect. The crowd was festive. The music set the mood.
The colorful balloons were everywhere. The free mini-cupcakes, hot dogs and burgers were delicious. And, the occasion was memorable.
The parking lot at the corner of Lancaster Avenue and Waterloo Road in the Village of Berwyn may never be the same.
Even today, one can still imagine Kool and the Gang in the background rocking to their 1980 platinum hit, Celebration:
“Yahoo! Celebration
Yahoo! This is your celebration
“There’s a party goin’ on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times and your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you
“Come on now, celebration
Let’s all celebrate and have a good time
“It’s time to come together
It’s up to you, what’s your pleasure?
“Yahoo! It’s a celebration Yahoo!”
It was, indeed, a very special late September celebratory Sunday in the Village of Berwyn!
The main attraction was the official unveiling of a new, 17 feet high mural featuring the American Flag and artistic depictions of about three dozen residents and businesspeople from the Berwyn Village area, covering the 55-feet wall of the building facing the parking lot directly across from Clay’s Creative Corner Bakery, a modern landmark in the Village. (More about Clay’s later in this column.)
Stacey Ballard, president of Eadeh Enterprises in Berwyn, the principal sponsor of the free event, said that the mural “celebrates our country, our community and our neighbors. Many people consider the Greater Philadelphia area as the ‘mural capital of the world,’ and I believe this one truly is one of its best. I only wish that we could have honored more equally deserving Berwynites, but the wall would have had to reach Trinity Church (a Presbyterian house of worship more than a football field length away.)”
Stacey emceed a brief opening ceremony joined by Easttown Twp. Board of Supervisors Chair, Mark Heppe, muralist Carrie Kingsbury (of Promiseland Murals in Birdsboro,) and La Cabra Brewery’s (one of the most popular, independently owned and operated small businesses in the area) Vern Burling.
In speaking about the mural she created, Ms. Kingsbury said that it took her about three months in all, a few days for each of the persons depicted, and about three weeks to paint the flag. (As an aside, the new mural replaces one that graced the same wall for more than 15 years.)
Among the hundreds of celebrants Sunday (more than a few accompanied by their pet pooches) were most of those featured on the mural. For the record, here is the list of those “that made the cut:”
Frankie (Fellini’s Cafe,) Mr. Kim (New Scottie Cleaners,) Mr./Mrs. Pyun (Area Cleaners,) Sydney (student TE and Eadeh intern,) Buck and Carmie Buchanan (Handel’s Ice Cream,) Chrissy (Studio Flora,) the Marvelous Vin Maisel (Eadeh employee, dog greeter or security depending upon who you are, Nat (TE graduate and Ernest Eadeh Scholarship recipient,) Eamon Brazunas, Harper and Stella (Berwyn Fire Co,) Molly and Meg (Kramer Drive,) Lulu and Andy (Creative Chiropractic,) Bill (military veteran and McQuiston Handyman Services, ) Chris, Alessandra and Bronson (township volunteers,) Heather and Everett, Chantal, Lydia and Jocelyn (Eadeh Enterprises co- owners,) Jeremy and Christina (Eadeh employee,) Kim Cuthbert and Jordan (Sweet Jazmine Bakery,) Chuck (Easttown Township,) Sarah (Springhouse Education) James Webb (Webb Fitness,) Marti Magee (president and CEO of Daemion Counseling Center,) Dave (Eadeh Enterprises,) Julian (Julian Sur Accounting,) Joe (Berwyn Tavern,) Nancy Ward (TE Veterans Assn. and Santa’s helper,) Vern Burling (La Cabra Brewing,) and the late Ernie Eadeh, founder of Eadeh Enterprises, former president of the board of TE Schools and community philanthropist.
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Now a few words, old and new, about Clay’s Bakery, the other “sweet attraction” last Sunday:
It was also a day marking the bakery’s 31st birthday. Untold dozens of freshly made, colorfully iced free mini cupcakes for all did just that.
“In addition to the fun of the day, it was also a wonderful time to express our gratification to the community that has made our success possible,” proprietor Denise Bones said. “It’s especially fulfilling to me since there were skeptics back in 1990 who said we wouldn’t last for six months.”’
Clay’s has been a full-line, on-the-premises sweets shop (and the go-to place for special occasion cakes) since Oct.1, 1990, when it opened in memory of Denise’s (nee Clark) father, Clayton Earl Clark, a former Tredyffrin Twp. Police Officer who died at age 46 a year prior to the shop’s opening.
Before becoming a bakery, the location was the site of Alleva’s Coffee Shop, a favorite gathering place of neighbors and SEPTA rail commuters for decades. It also had been an earlier iteration as Blue Jay.
According to a long-time local historian, whose family roots go back to the early 1800s, the building’s second floor was one of several sites used in the 1870s by Augustinian priests from Villanova University to say mass for local Catholics. The group of that faithful community eventually formed what is now St. Monica’s Parish.
As a sadder part of the bakery’s birthday bash, Denise has launched a month-long raffle for the benefit of Daemion Counselling Center in memory of the recent untimely death of one of her teenage employees. Stop in at the bakery for more information and tickets for the raffle.
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Finally, nobody asked me, but if you were born about 1950, you are of a generation that can remember a time of great war and a time of a world secure and full of plenty and promise. You grew up when the world was getting better, and you may have felt privileged to have lived in “the best of times.” Where, oh where, have those times gone!
The Last Word: Good day, good luck, and good news tomorrow.
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