All tagged 2020/06
Since 2000, Swarthmore resident Lawrence Katz has been a guitarist for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, a group you most likely know for songs they recorded before Katz joined them, such as 1992’s “Where Did You Go?” or 1993’s “Someday I Suppose.” The band’s sound is sometimes punk overlaid with ska horns, sometimes straighter ska but with rock-and-roll guitar solos. This is a story of his musical journey, including how he found Swarthmore.
This Juneteenth, the Historically Black Neighborhood of Swarthmore (HBNS) organized a combination Juneteenth celebration and Black Lives Matter protest. Various speakers, including two young people, offered thoughts on Juneteenth, Black Lives Matter, and the meaning of freedom. The Swarthmorean is featuring photos taken by Swarthmore resident and photographer Andy Shelter documenting the celebration.
Most summers, the Community Arts Center (CAC) in Wallingford is full of children making art, exploring nature, and forming and renewing friendships. This year, the traditional Summer Spree program has been reconceived.
I took special note of two (anonymous) comments to our latest survey, “How Long Do You Have to Have Lived in Swarthmore to Be Considered a Real Swarthmorean?” One person said, “I believe you are welcomed as a Swarthmorean as soon as you live here. However, there is a second milestone when neighbors start referring to your house with your last name not the previous owner’s. This can sometimes take 10 years!”
Have you missed looking at the strawberries before deciding if you want to buy them? Starting Saturday, June 27, the Swarthmore Farmers Market will again permit on-site retail sales.
The Borough of Swarthmore and the Independence Day Committee have made the difficult decision to cancel the annual Fourth of July celebrations due to COVID-19 health and distancing concerns. Affected festivities include the Swarthmore Recreation Association’s bike race and horseshoe tournament, the community parade, the Lions Club parade, the Community Award Ceremony, and the Swarthmore Fire and Protective Association events. But we have photos and a video from last year’s celebration to tide you over until 2021.
Since 1993, the Swarthmore Centennial Foundation has awarded a $6,000 college scholarship – now named after its late founder – to a Swarthmore high school senior with an exemplary record in both academics and community service. An essay describing the student’s experience in Swarthmore is the heart of the application. Anya Hooper is this year’s recipient.
Anyone who has driven into town has surely noticed the sign declaring that Swarthmore is “Tree City USA.” Naïvely, I always assumed we were THE Tree City, but it turns out that there are more than 3,400 of them across the country, and 115 in Pennsylvania, that have met the exacting standards of the Arbor Day Foundation. We’ve decided to poll our readers to select Swarthmore’s Favorite Tree, as nominated by a panel of experts. We urge you to see as many of the candidate trees as you can before voting.
In the midst of the tumult and restrictions of the last few months, many Swarthmoreans have been looking forward to cooling off — and experiencing some normality — at the Swarthmore Swim Club (SSC). Will it open, and if so, when? The answer is yes, on Monday, June 29.
Have you seen colorful traffic safety signs displayed on lawns throughout South Media and other parts of the Wallingford Elementary School (WES) community? Twenty-six WES students, all residents of South Media, conceived of, designed, and created the signs during the fall term of the SMArt (South Media Art) program.
The Strath Haven High School Class of 2020 had a senior year like no other, and they had a graduation ceremony like no other. Class members never expected to finish their last high school classes remotely, and they never imagined watching their own graduation on a computer screen at home. But the one-hour commencement video produced by the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District is full of joy, energy, music, and humor. The video was released at 5 p.m. on June 5, after a slow stream of graduates, each accompanied by two family members or friends, received their diplomas one at a time in the SHHS auditorium.
June 19 is Juneteenth, the anniversary of the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas finally learned that, two and a half years earlier, the Emancipation Proclamation had legally set them free. If regular Juneteenth commemorations have been held in Swarthmore, they have not been announced in the pages of this newspaper, which record observances and public celebrations of Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. I would like to change that.
Why do you call the police if someone falls asleep in their car at a fast food drive-thru? Couldn’t an employee or someone in one of the other cars tap on the window to see if he was okay? Have we already forgotten how cops kicked in the door and shot up Breonna in Louisville while she was under the sheets trying to sleep?
On Tuesday, March 24, Tom Shaffer of Rutgers Avenue in Swarthmore started feeling sick. This is an account of his illness and subsequent recovery, edited from near daily Facebook posts by his wife, Virginia Thompson, while she was at home in Swarthmore with their two kids, both in their twenties. At first she called her posts “Update on Tom,” but after a while, she started titling them “The Tom Report.”
The Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board wants input from the school community. The Board asked Superintendent Lisa Palmer to prepare a survey to be emailed to families (which you may have already received). The results will inform the board’s decision about whether and how to revise the 2020-21 school calendar. Also, Board president David Grande announced the creation of two new diversity and inclusion committees, one community-wide and the other a school board committee.
Swarthmore has been home to at least eight Guggenheim winners over the years. The distinguished fellowships have been awarded since 1926 in the humanities, sciences, and arts. In 2020, 175 people, out of an applicant pool of about 3,000, were granted fellowships. Author and Swarthmore resident Ben Yagoda is one of the award recipients.
Swarthmore Borough Council approved a plan on Monday to construct “parklets”: portions of roadway blocked off for outdoor restaurant seating. Swarthmore Town Center (STC) developed the proposal to help struggling restaurants in the borough. Parklets will increase the number of patrons restaurants can serve during the next phases of reopening.
The Swarthmore College website proclaims that its community “thrives on open dialogue, shoulder-to-shoulder discovery, face-to-face exploration.” This approach, as well as the 8-to-1 student to faculty ratio, has helped the college garner a reputation as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. But its hands-on, intimate learning had to be modified once the college transitioned to remote learning.
A lot of guys have let themselves go during the pandemic. Gray roots, unkempt nails, bellies flopping over the waistband of baggy sweatpants. But not this guy. Whatever it takes, no matter what kind of crazy the world throws my way, nothing comes between me and looking good for my Lady Love. How good? Well, fellas, do you come down to breakfast every morning dressed in a tuxedo – the one you wore on your wedding day?
