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Richard graduated from Gloucester Catholic High School class of 1975 and received his bachelors degree from Rutgers Camden in 1979. He was a dedicated employee for 20 + years at NuStar Asphalt Refinery in Paulsboro. Richard was an active member of the Memorial A.A. in Gloucester City. Relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend his viewing on Saturday morning from 8:30 AM to 10:45 AM at the McCANN-HEALEY FUNERAL HOME: 851 Monmouth Street, (at Brown Street) Gloucester City. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 11:30 AM at Saint Mary’s R.C. Church: 426 Monmouth Street, Gloucester City. Interment New Saint Mary’s Cemetery, Bellmawr. There will be No Evening Viewing. Family requests memorial donations in lieu of flowers in Richard’s memory to Lighthouse Hospice: 1040 N. Kings Highway, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 in the memo please write: Richard Bucher. Condolences and Memories may be shared at www.mccannhealey.com. Funeral Arrangements and Inquiries may be made through: McCANN-HEALEY FUNERAL HOME, Gloucester City. Ph: 856-456-1142

\”We put our residents first, not ourselves. Public service is about service, not about benefits. We learned last week that Sony in Pitman is closing at the end of March, times are tough and we know it. We are in the process of making some very difficult budget decisions and every dollar we can save now is going to help us toward our goal of cutting the county\’s tax rate,\” said Director Damminger.

Director Damminger said that he instructed the county administration to research all its legal options to eliminate the benefits as of February 28, 2011 and is satisfied the county can authorize the insurance commission to enact the plan changes quickly.

Damminger said, \”We did not want to jeopardize anyone\’s situation by eliminating the benefit without giving them the time to secure other arrangements or if it was not within our legal purview. Since the announcement we have had overwhelming support from our Boards and Commissions and applaud their cooperation to save the taxpayers\’ dollars.\”

Producing Artistic Director Joseph M. Paprzycki states, \”Waiting for Lefty, Clifford Odets’s first produced play, is set during the 1930’s as taxi drivers contemplate a strike against their employers. The play is broken in vignettes showing what life was life during the Great Depression that eerily mirror our current economic landscape. I selected this play due to its continued relevance to our American society and the fit to our season’s theme ‘The Past in the Present is Our Future.’ Our production will take the play from the 1930’s and bring it all the way to 2011. It is a play that expresses the anger and frustration of working people towards their employers and their situations in their daily lives.\”

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About South Camden Theatre Company, Inc.

Ewing, NJ… Prior to its meet with New York University, The College of New Jersey women’s swimming and diving team sported \”Team Beam\” t-shirts in support of Violet head coach Laura Beam.

Beam has been diagnosed with advanced stage colon cancer. Members of her swimming team at NYU organized a \”relay for life\” fundraiser and have since branched out to sell shirts with the help of Beam’s sister, Carrie.

Lions head coach Jen Harnett ’93 developed a friendship with Beam through coaching and contacted her sister Carrie to order shirts as a show of support for her friend and the NYU program. TCNJ’s swimmers lined the pool before the meet with NYU donning blue shirts that read, \”Team Beam\”. All proceeds from the shirts will be put into a fund to help pay for a second and third opinion after four rounds of chemotherapy. These appointments are not covered by medical insurance

A 1999 graduate of NYU, Beam was a two-time All-American. Since taking over the Violets program in 2004, Beam has accumulated a coaching record of 59-6. She’s produced NCAA All-Americans and guided NYU to four ECAC Championship titles.

NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today officially announced the Trenton Fire Department was awarded $13,685,436 in federal funding to prevent 61 firefighters from being laid off. The funding is made available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program. The highly competitive SAFER grant program is designed specifically to staff departments with trained firefighters.

by Jack \”Bomber\” Bennett

 GCHS Class of \’66

Today, a kid might have to go a couple of miles to find a store, and that’s if they could leave their video games long enough to do it. And I’m not talking about a Wa Wa or 7-Eleven. I’m talking about a place where you could buy real supplies like toilet paper, canned goods, vegetables, dairy products, bakery items, lunch, and butchered meats. Sounds like a lengthy trip to a huge box store would be the only answer these days.

But, when I was a kid growing up in Gloucester during the ’50s and ’60s, it seemed like every neighborhood had a place where you could actually buy the necessities of life. Gloucester had many great little Mom and Pop businesses that helped make up the fabric of the city. These places varied from simple grocery stores, drug stores, and bakeries, down to candy and novelty shops. You never had to walk very far to find one because there was at least one store on every other corner. 

Many of the corner stores were there for generations. Their owners witnessed the progression of entire families being born, growing up, marrying, and dying. They knew everyone in the neighborhood and on a first-name basis. Typically, when you walked into one of these establishments, you were usually greeted with a \”Hello, how’s your Mom and Dad\” or \”How you doin’ in school?\” They really knew you and seemed to care.

Some store owners knew you so well, you could buy stuff \”on the I\” meaning the owner kept an IOU and you paid him at the end of the month. Try doing that at the Ac-a-me or Super Walmart today without a major credit card. Most folks in Gloucester lived paycheck to paycheck and usually ran out of money before they ran out of the week. Store credit to buy food was sometimes the only way folks could make it and feed 4 or 5 kids. 

Now remember, this was back in the days when most families had only one car, if any, and a lot of Moms didn’t even know how to drive (mine didn’t). So, either your Mom made the trek, or she would scribble out a list, hand you a few bucks, and off you went. And Heaven helps you if you didn’t bring back ALL the change. If you were lucky, she might let you have a nickel to buy some penny candy.

Most of the stores were independently owned but were affiliated with a group of food chains like the Unity or Quaker brands. When I was 12, I worked at the Kadlec Quaker Food Market on the corner of Morris and Broadway. Paul Kadlec was the owner. As I recall, Paul was a gentle man, slow to temper, but he didn’t take any crap. And, he was well-liked by everyone who shopped in his small but neat store.

The store was no bigger than your average house, but there was produce, paper products, canned goods, cereals, soda, and a complete butcher area that included a cold case, butcher block, and a walk-in fridge.

My job was as an \”Order Boy\” meaning when I wasn’t bagging onions, potatoes, or groceries, I was out delivering them on a bicycle—one of those clunky types with a huge basket on the front. People would call the Market and make an order, we put it in some paper bags, and I rode to the house and delivered them. And, I can tell you I delivered groceries in weather that would make any mailman proud. Neither rain, nor hail, nor sleet could keep Mrs. Jones from her husband’s scrapple.

I worked mostly for tips and on a good Saturday I could bring home around 20 to 25 dollars. At 50 cents a trip, I had to do a lot of pedaling. You do the math. But, I survived.

I know time marches on and things change, but not always do they change for the better. The small business owner is a dying breed in this country and it is a shame. When I look back on my youth in Gloucester City in the 60s I realize how fortunate I was to be in a place where life was good—not easy, but good. I hope it never ends for those who still live there. 

Now, run downthestore and get me some lunch meat, eggs, and penny candy.