Where in the World is Swampdoddle?

Between 1959 and his death in 1971 my grandfather Lynne O. Ramer of Milroy, PA wrote letters and articles published in the Lewistown Sentinel column We Notice That by Ben Meyers. Today I am sharing the article about the location of Swampdoodle.

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We Notice That by Ben Meyers
The Question for Today: Where is (Was) Swampoodle?

Natives Want to Know

Dear Ben:
Do you know the exact locale of a place once called Swampoodle? Was it up the east end of Kish Valley? That is, if it even actually existed.

Aunt Annie (Ramer) Smithers claimed that she as well as [her siblings] Howard, Emma, and Carrie were all born in Swampoodle. But none could verify the exact location.

It may even have been farther distance, anywhere in Mifflin, Union, yes, even Blair or Schuylkill Counties because Gramps Joe Ramer worked at clearing off the virgin timber in all those places.

Mrs. Alice (nee Ramer) Mickey sent me some newspaper pictures of a sawmill supposed to be located in Swampoodle. Gramps Joe, then aged and blind, wearing a broad-brimmed Amish-type hat, with full beard and cane, was sitting on a log near the sawmill, while playing around were some kids. Some mountain men and mules were there, too.

Won’t you see what you can find out about Swampoodle, as Aunt Carrie Bobb, near 92, wants to know where she was born for sure?

Sincerely,
Lynne O. Ramer

Who Can Help Them?

Dear Lynne: Personally we can’t be of much help in answering your questions. However, maybe some of the WNT readers can give an assist. If so we’d be glad to hear from them.

The very names itself implies Swampoodle was in or close by a swamp terrain—consisting of soft, wet, spongy ground. The handiest such place we know of in this immediate vicinity is of course Bear Meadows. There the land is boggy and unfit for growing much else than trees, bushes, flowers and suchlike. Also such a place isn’t so good for pasturage. And of course unsuited for human habitation, unless a person was to build his dwelling on piles, which sometimes is done.
Anybody know where Swampoodle is—or was?

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We Notice That by Ben Meyers

Yes, Virginia, There Are (or were) Swampdoodles

Several Turn Up

Yes, Virginia, there is indeed a Swampoodle!

At least, there was a Swampoodle, a flourishing little community. And it may be still existent.

Not only one such place, but actually three, have been reported by as many different readers.

This was all in response to Lynne Ramer’s yelp-For-Help appearing in the WNT column lately.

Tom Harbeson of Milroy, our ex-District Forester for the state, says that the Swampoodle he is familiar with was located in Buffalo Township, Union County.

“Some of my folks were born in the village known as Forest Hill,” says Tom. “Near by Forest Hill was another settlement. It was called Swampdoodle because it was situated on low, swampy ground.

“There wasn’t much to say in favor of Swampoodle as a site for a village to be located upon, but some folks actually did just that. One family I remember bore the name of Mook. There were quite a few members of the clan. I don’t know whether it is called Swampoodle any more.”

Pinpointing the locale as being in Union Country by Tom Harbeson fits in neatly with this having possibly been the place where Gramps Joe Ramer lived for a while when some of his children were born.

The old photo of Joe Ramer at his cabin quite definitely fixes the location as Union County and that was where he had lumbered on the virgin timber. Lynne Ramer’s Aunt Carrie Bobb could well have been born there, also Annie, Howard and Emma.

George Zeigler tells us he remembers the time when Joe Ramer hauled timber off the mountains in the far-eastern portion of new Lancaster Valley. That ties in with the general direction of the Swampoodle mentioned by Tom Harbeson as being in Union County.

George remembers there was a settlement in that section of New Lancaster. he isn’t too sure of its name, but it was a swampy, spongy place and might have been the site of another Swampoodle.

Another Swampoodle is reported by Jim McCafferty, ex-hotelman. However, its locale is too far distant in another direction to have been the one the Ramers are interested in.

However, Jim’s report verifies the belief that not only was Swampoodle once used as the name of a certain location, but it had a more general usage to describe sections that might be of a boggy nature.

In other words, Swampoodle was for real, not just something dreamed up.

“I remember Swampoodle well,” says Jim McCafferty. “It was when I was living in Philadelphia. The place was situated at a spot near 13th and Oxford Streets.

“The distinguishing feature of that Swampoodle was an old cemetery at a higher-than-average spot. It was some five feet higher than the street level and there was a fence around it. My aunt told me that the old name for the area was Swampoodle.

“I don’t suppose it’s still known as Swampoodle. Doubtless it was finally taken into the corporate limits of the city of Philadelphia, just exactly what has happened to various other areas which were absorbed into the city as its limits were pushed further outward.”

Joseph S. Ramer and his second wife
Rachel Barbara Reed

Happy Birthday, Mom

Evelyn A. Greenwood Ramer and daughter
Joyce Adair Ramer

July 26, 1931 was the birth day of my mother Joyce Adair Ramer to parents Lynne O. Ramer and Evelyn Adair Greenwood. She was their first child, born eleven months after their marriage, when my grandmother was only 17 years old.

Joyce Adair Ramer

Mom was born in Kane, Pennsylvania where my grandfather was a high school teacher and athletic director. She was baptized at Tabor Lutheran Church on August 30.

Mom's baptismal certificate

The family lived at 218 S. Fraley St, Kane, PA.

photo of her childhood home taken by my mother

Mom at her Kane home

 In 1934 my aunt Nancy was born.

Nancy and Joyce Ramer

Joyce and Nancy Ramer

Joyce and Nancy Ramer

Mom's Kindergarten Class in Kane, PA

In 1935 twins Don and Dave were born.

Mom's twin brothers Don and Dave Ramer

My grandfather was born and raised in Milroy, PA and the family visited his childhood home every year. After the death of his grandmother and mother, he was raised by his mother's siblings, including Annie Smithers. The photo below shows his family also visited him.

Evelyn, Charlie Smithers with twins Don and Dve, Annie Smithers,
 Joyce and Nancy in front

Joyce, Nancy, Don and Dave 

In 1941 my grandfather lost his teaching job. The family moved in with mom's Greenwood grandparents who lived in Troy, NY. Then my grandfather found work as an engineer at the Chevrolet Aviation Engine plant in Tonawanda, NY. The family moved into the Sheridan Project, wartime housing. Gramps taught at the University of Buffalo and was a deacon in the Episcopal Church.

Mom in the Projects

 In the Projects she met her lifelong best friend, Doris.

Mom loved the Big Band music, especially Glenn Miller, and was a jitterbug dancing queen at the Project dances.

Mom and Dad

Mom saw Gene Gochenour and went all-out to get his attention. They dated from the time they were sixteen.

Gene Gochenour and Joyce Ramer

Joyce Ramer and Gene Gochenour

Mom's graduation photo

Six months after mom's graduation she married my dad on January 6, 1951. It was a simple wedding, mom wearing a suit.

Mom and Dad's wedding photo. Mom's sister
Nancy is at her side.

They moved into my dad's family home, which was an 19th c farmhouse converted into apartments. Mom worked at Remington Rand in Tonawanda on a comptographer. Dad worked in the gas and service station his father had built.

the station built by my paternal grandfather
on Military Rd and Rosemont in Tonawanda NY

1865 Military Road, where I was born, house my grandparents,
my family, and my dad's sister's family

I was born In July, 1952.

Nancy, age 3

In 1959 my brother was born.

Me and my brother

Mom suffered three miscarriages between my brother and I.

At sixteen, mom had been diagnosed with psoriasis. After each pregnancy her psoriatic arthritis worsened. Over the years she lost more joint movement, unable to move her neck, her hands frozen.

Mom and Dad in the 1970s

By the birth of her first grandchild, Mom looked much older than her fifty-five years.

Grandma Ramer, our son, and Mom in 1988

Mom embroidered this clock and dad made the case
from a kit bought in the early 1960s

Mom took art classes in adult education when I was a child. I remember watching her make her first paintings. She told me what she was doing and I learned to mix oil paints to make new colors at her side.

painting by my mother

I recently found these paintings Mom made for our son before his birth.

The Royal Oak house when we moved in

In 1963 we moved to Michigan and my parents bought a house in Royal Oak. After the death of my Grandpa Ramer in 1971, my grandmother moved in with my parents and in 1972 they bought a house in Clawson.

The Clawson house

We lost Mom on April 4, 1990 to cancer. We lost Dad to non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2008. I inherited the Clawson home and we moved in after retirement. The house is haunted with happy memories. Mom putting on her lipstick at the bathroom mirror. Dad swimming in the above ground pool with our son. The knick knack shelf of great-grandmother's Hummels. Mom's paintings hang on the walls.

I love to look at mom's old photographs and her happy jitterbug days.

At Sheridan Park, Tonawanda NY

At her home in the Sheridan Projects

Mom and Dad

at her Greenwood grandparents home in Troy, NY

In the Sheridan Projects

In the Sheridan Projects

Mom loved to read and stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to enjoy the quiet house and her book. She loved music, including classical. Mom was creative. She was generous. She had compassion. Her life was a struggle with a progressive disease that required hours of personal care and left her crippled for months of the year. She was stubborn and would not budge. She loved us.

At our home on Military Rd in Tonawanda NY

Mom and Dad 1969

Restaurants Remembered

It began with a Twitter post asking if you could go to a restaurant that no longer exists, which one would it be?

Memories of so many popped into my head. I asked my husband and we went on a trip down Memory Lane.

Our last time eating out would have been in early March or late February. I don't even remember. We do order delivery from a local restaurant every week just to give them business.

Neither my parents or my husband's folks took the family out to eat. In Tonawanda, NY, my folks couldn't afford to eat out. Dad ran the gas station his father had built. It supported our family and his mother. I remember sometimes going to a place down the road for a burger and fries where we sat on stools at a counter.

In 1963 my family moved to Royal Oak, Michigan. Mom's break from cooking came on Friday nights when we piled into the car and went down the road a mile to Peppy's Hamburgers in Clawson, where I live now.

Peppy's Hamburgers in Clawson, MI
next door to Famous Chicken

I was assigned the task of going into the restaurant and ordering the burgers and fries and drinks and bringing them back to my family. After eating in the car, we tossed the trash onto the parking lot. The burgers cost 15 cents. They came with catsup, mustard, relish, and chopped onions. My little brother only liked catsup so they had to make his burger special.

Sometimes Mom would pick up broasted chicken from Famous Chicken next door to Peppy's, just visible behind the Peppy's sign in the photo above.

At Adrian college my friends and I sometimes scraped together a few dollars and went into town to Pizza Bucket. I am thrilled to say it's still there, serving brick oven baked pizza.

At the Pizza Bucket in Adrian, MI.
I am on the left and my roommate is next to me.

Early in our marriage we would literally save our pennies for the $1 repertoire movie theater in Delaware, OH, gong to a pizza place for dinner.

We moved to Philadelphia in 1975. During our fifteen years there the city was blooming with a restaurant renaissance.

Right after our move, we celebrated our third wedding anniversary at Old Original Bookbinder's. I wore a long skirt and heels and looked very out of place. The dressier men wore denim leisure suits. We had lobster for the first time. We were given plastic bibs to wear. We also had clam chowder with lovely, big, crunchy oyster crackers. And cheesecake for dessert.

We first lived in Bucks County and ate at the local chain Seafood Shanty. We took my in-laws there for a special treat--their first lobster meal. My father-in-law's verdict was it wasn't worth the work to get the meat out.

Our first visit to New York City was to see Isaac Bashevis Singer's play Yentl. We took the train to Grand Central Station and ate a bag lunch at Central Park before the show!

the Reading Terminal building. It was a train station.
Below was the Reading Terminal Market.

Before it closed, we went to Horn & Hardart on Broad Street to eat from the vending machines.

It was in Philly that we first ate the foods we came to love.

We had our first Tabouli at a restaurant counter in the Reading Terminal Market. I recently learned that the family that owns the Oasis Gourmet Cuisine in Royal Oak knows the family that ran that counter!

We had our first pesto at a bar/restaurant near Rittenhouse Square that had a pasta bar. You chose a pasta and a sauce: Alfredo, Marinara, or Pesto. We went to food festivals; we ate samosas sold on the street and small cups of a soup we learned was made with duck's blood.

"In Society Hill, dozens more restaurants are set to throw open their doors lor the 12th annual Old City Street Festival and Block Party on Sunday and Monday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day....Almost all the Society Hill restaurants will operate outdoor concession stands at their front doors and will be able to seat customers inside. This allows them their third advantage. Alcoholic beverages will be available in those restaurants that have liquor licenses. Without the Fairmount Park Commission rules that forbid such things on the Parkway, beer and wine on the sidewalks, as well as dancing in the street, have been an observed part of past Old City festivals."

El Metate was located across from the Academy of Music. We liked to eat there after an afternoon concert. We liked the Chicken Mole.

Dickens' Inn, situated in New Market, was run by the author's great-grandson, Cedric Charles Dickens. We remember the green beans were still crisp. We had grown up with canned, mushy vegetables.


The Monk's Inn was on Second Street along the Delaware River where we feasted on steamed mussels.


Once Upon a Porch on Head House Square in Old Town was a favorite place for ice cream sundaes. I liked the Gibson Girl--vanilla ice cream with caramel topping and peanuts. The perimeter of the seating area was comprised of 'porches'.

We went to Eden Restaurant for burgers with alfalfa sprouts. The owner also ran the upscale Frog restaurant which we went to once. Le Bec Fin was way out of our price range, but we dined there one. My husband ordered steak tartare.

When we lived in Kensington, we would go to a pizza place in Port Richmond, Philadelphia, that made pizzas in a wood oven and a bakery where I always got Hamentashen. And on Allegheny Avenue we went to a Chinese restaurant for the fresh  handmade egg rolls.

The Magic Pan in The Gallery mall had a lovely split pea soup served with a dash of sherry and a spinach salad with mandarin oranges and almonds.

We loved the ambience of the City Tavern, reopened for the Bicentennial.

Dining was always fun on the Moshulu, a ship docked on the Delaware River. I had eaten Oyster Rockefeller but was very naive about food. I ordered oysters and when they came raw, I was shocked. I had one and my husband ate the rest.

We went to Old Town and ate at the Middle East Restaurant which had a belly dancer, finishing off with the small cup of strong coffee.

One year for my July birthday we went to Fish & Company and I had an amazing poached salmon with dill sauce.

One day after walking Philadelphia from river to river and back again we stopped at Rib-It and my husband ordered the all you can eat ribs. He ate two servings!

For lunch in Center City we loved Saladalley's huge salad bar and Bread & Co. where we ordered soup and a basket of delicious breads. I went with coworkers to lunch at Corned Beef Academy for the thick sandwiches with Russian dressing and coleslaw.

Saladalley

Once when my brother visited us in Philadelphia we took him to dinner at Cafe Nola on South Street. Our bill came to $100. That was a very expensive evening out!
 

We loved to go to Chinatown for the food. I would stop at a shop and buy the simple black Chinese slippers that I wore in summer.


When the China Gate opened in 1984 my husband was working for a charitable trust company and got tickets to the opening day banquet. Most memorable was the delicious sweet and sour bass, cooked whole. We went to the opening ceremony pictured in the news clipping above.

Our son was born in 1987. Having a child was expensive and we no longer frequented the Center City restaurants. As a toddler his favorite restaurant was Roy Rogers. We ate at an Italian place in downtown Olney with live music or ate at the Oak Lane Diner on Broad Street, a few blocks from where we were living. After church on Sundays we would eat at Friendly's or the Taco Bar at Wendy's.

The Oak Lane Diner in recent years

We left Philly in 1990. We lived in a small town with few restaurants. But we liked The Wedge in downtown Hillsdale where we lunched on a vegetarian wrap.

In Lansing we enjoyed more options, including national and local chains. Our favorite place was a small Middle Eastern restaurant not far from the shopping mall. The owner told us he had run a big construction company in Iraq. When his son, who was studying in America, came down with cancer, he sold his business and used the money to pay his medical expenses. The son was studying to be a doctor. And now his dad ran a restaurant. After we moved, we always stopped in when driving across state, until one day we found it was closed.

Some of our regular places closed during the last recession, including Troy's Anita's Kitchen. When we came to town we always ate there. The waitress would greet us with a cup of lentil soup. She knew we always ordered it!

We have been ordering delivery from local restaurants during lockdown. Our small city has some of the best. I pray they survive. I don't want to add them to this list.