PhillyTablet Inquirer Daily News
Mobile
Home Delivery
philly.com

This Suburban Life

An Occasional series by Art Carey / Inquirer Staff Writer
Chester school thrives with focus on the arts
John Alston is an avid cyclist. With a tailwind, he can pedal from Chester to Swarthmore - just over two miles - in about six minutes. That's how close the two communities are. In most other respects, they are far apart. Swarthmore is mostly white and rich. Chester is mostly black and poor.
Animal shelter turns 100
When Sheena Bowa was 3, she traded her tricycle for a dog. "It just followed me home," she explained to her mother, neglecting to mention the swap.
History by the bottle
Some people know Gerry Treadway as a teacher who imparted woodworking skills at Unionville High School for 35 years. Others know him as the unofficial historian and one-man historical society of Parkesburg, a quiet village in western Chester County.
Candidates go to the mat, literally
When Lansdale Mayor Andy Szekely and his challenger, former Borough Council President Ben Gross, were trying to generate excitement about November's mayoral election, they decided to settle their differences in the ring, mano a mano.
A classic romance
They met at the Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine. Judith Skillings was a Mount Holyoke student working as a bartender at the officers' club. Richard Frawley was a Navy flier. Their shared passion for cars led to a business repairing and restoring Rolls-Royce and Bentley motorcars made before 1981.
This blacksmith forges works of art
Some of the reproductions crafted by Chester County's James Kieffer look so original they've been mistaken for antiques.
James Kieffer has been a blacksmith for nearly 40 years. He scoffingly calls himself "semiretired." At age 66, he works six days a week and most days is at his forge at least 10 hours.
Advertise Here