Never been to the "Mart" in Pennsauken...but many of us have been to similar places, and many of us, especially in Ardmore, know some "mom and pop" merchants who ARE our friends, and do mean the world to us. For that reason, we are putting up excerpts of Monica Yant Kinney's article in the Inquirer.
Because, especially in Ardmore, we could be forced to say these good byes if eminent domain for private gain and bogus blight doesn't get kicked to the curb, and if those state lawmakers don't give us laws that will help people....Ms. Kinney aptly points out quite a few truisms that we can relate to 'round here. This article should be a must read.
Monica Yant Kinney | Everything must go, but memories stay
By Monica Yant Kinney Inquirer Columnist
I don't know what I was thinking, waiting to make my last trip to the Pennsauken Mart until just a couple hours before closing time Sunday.
I figured it would be a long, lonely walk, just me and the melancholy merchants inhaling the stench of death.
Instead, the place was packed. Bargain-hunters and history buffs flocked to the Mart over the weekend in crowds not seen since the 1970s.
They came. They spent. They cried, hugged and posed for pictures.
In all my years of shopping, I've never embraced anyone on the other side of the cash register at the mall.
But that sort of thing happened all the time at the Mart.
.....When you haggle with mom-and-pop shop owners over the price of everything from tire rims to tattoos, you can't help but become friends....
...Going, going, gone
The deals were plentiful, if pitiful.
There's "going out of business," and then there's "been forced out of business because the snobs who run the suburbs don't like your kind."
...Last dance
Joyce Hanley had a choice:
Should she arrange the inflatable dummies dressed as South Jersey politicos in compromising positions?
Or, should she portray Camden County Freeholders Jeff Nash and Lou Capelli as dogs on a leash attached to their "owner," powerbroker George Norcross?
....What would the politicians who loathed the Pennsauken Mart have seen if they came to the last dance?
Tables full of Mart families saying prayers in Spanish and Russian.
Colleagues and competitors reminiscing over meatballs and Miller Lite about how much fun they had eking out a living on their own terms.
And, on stage, kids being kids at the karaoke machine, belting out "Over the Rainbow" completely oblivious to the lyrical significance.
Some day I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me,
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops.
That's where you'll find me."
full text: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/13752643.htm
