1940's: CENTRAL BAPTIST CHURCH

 

 

February 4th was the birthday if my "big brother" Bud who went to be with the Lord in the year 2012. He and I and his family were very close. Like me, Bud was a convert to the Faith; he to the Baptist, and I to the Roman Catholic. I received an email from Bill Zulker who was a member of Central Baptist back in earlier years. I graduated from and was a Hamilton High 1951 classmate of Ginny Zulker who was a fellow member of Louise Baird's legendary Hamilton High School choir. This was back in the years when we were allowed to sing religions hymns glorifying our Lord and indeed we sang some hymns that literally moved us to tears. Brother Bud's entry into the Faith came as a result his meeting and marrying his wife of 59 years, Florence Adam, whose Central Baptist family roots go way back into the 1930's.Below is an email I received from Bill Zulker who was one of the very zealous members of that legendary Baptist church in Trenton, and now Ewing Township. One of the wonderful things about this computer age lies in our ability to re-kindle old acquaintances; here's an example:

BILL ZULKER WROTE:
Hi Tom,
My aged 87-year-old brother Chuck keeps reminding me of your writing.
Yesterday, I was looking at your blogs and want you to know that you "jogged" my memory about two things.

First, The Contemporary Club on West State Street was the location where we held Youth For Christ meetings each week - Friday nights or Saturday nights in 1947.
After my return from serving in the Army - 1945-1947, I founded and directed this youth movement in Trenton. During my service in Europe, I had become the President and Director of Frankfurt, Germany Youth For Christ which was primarily a "soldier's" ministry at the time. When I returned home I was encouraged to start it there, and obtained a charter from the national organization to do so. The idea was to keep it independent from any specific church or denomination, and thus we rented the auditorium at the Contemporary Club. What memories. You can read more about this ministry on my web-page - www.williamzulker.com

The second memory came about when I saw your blog of Jan 19, 2014 showing South Broad and Front Streets. In 1948 as a part of TYFC we rented the third floor of that corner building for a Youth Center. We wanted to provide Christian young people with a setting to meet others after school, in the evenings and on weekends in a suitable environment of Christian fellowship. Mayor Connolly cut the ribbon on Memorial Day right there at street level at the door pictured to the far left.
Unfortunately, things didn't develop as planned when in September I un-expectedly decided it was time to start college just shortly before my 22nd birthday, and left for South Carolina. The vision was not caught by anyone else!

Seeing this photo of "1949", I don't recall the large Pale Dry Billboard and don't think it was there in the Summer of 1948. We had several windows like the one that looks open at the front.

And just up the street was The Eton Shop where I worked from the summer of 1943 until I went in the Army in June 1945 during my Junior and Senior years at Hamilton High, and again when I returned in 1947 til I went to college in 1948.

Soooo, I just thought I would tell you how much I enjoy reading your reflections.

By the way, when we moved from the Philadelphia suburbs here to Lebanon County, PA a few years ago, I was very interested in knowing more about this seemingly remote area that was so different. The upshot was that I ended up writing a column for the Lebanon Daily News each month entitled "The Way It Was" in Lebanon County in ???? year. After two and a half years I gave it up, but you can read those columns in my web-site as well.

Keep going, and have a great year.

In admiration,