Few places hold memories so dear as the neighborhoods we grew up in. No matter how long we’ve been away, or how much time has gone by, the sights and sounds of childhood always seem to leave their indelible mark.

At 98 years old, Mervin Shiner is a testament to this fact. His recollection of adolescence is as clear and vivid as ever. Several years ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Merv about his childhood neighborhood in North Bethlehem, the same one I grew up in 70-some odd years later.

What a treat it was to hear Merv paint a picture of a Bethlehem that was vastly different than the one I knew, yet at the same time, quite familiar.

Liberty HS was a pillar of the neighborhood back then, just as it is now. Only it was brand new when Merv was a boy. It was officially dedicated as a War Memorial in 1923, commemorating the valor of the Bethlehem men who died heroically at the front. His older brother was among the crowd eager to see the impressive new school when it first opened.

“He said he remembers when the school was completed, there was a big event to go down there and take a tour of the high school,” Merv explained to me.

Before any houses were built, our shared neighborhood was home to the famous Bethlehem Fairgrounds, known far and wide for its half-mile horse racing track. With the onset of WWI, Bethlehem saw a phenomenal increase in population as the Steel hired more and more workers. A housing shortage quickly arose and the former fairgrounds was divided into lots for development.

Merv’s father, Algier Shiner, bought a twin home at 428 E. Locust St. in 1915 and moved in when it was finished. Algier’s brother Bill purchased the other half. This would be the house where Merv was born in 1921, the backdrop to his childhood.

Across the street was another neighborhood landmark, Lafayette School, which is said to have stood on the exact site of the race track. Merv recalls seeing a barn in the area, probably left over from the fairground days.

What is now the geographic center of the city still had some rural charm when Merv was growing up. East Locust Street was a dirt road.

“They probably paved it when I was about, I would say, 10 years old,” recalled Merv. “That was quite a big exciting thing, having the street paved. To see all the people doing the work there. It was quite an event.”

Unlike other streets in the area which were macadam, East Locust Street was paved with concrete.

Each year the circus made its annual parade down this grand boulevard to the fields now occupied by Northeast MS.

“I remember in Lafayette School the teacher would let us go to the window to see the elephants and the horses pulling the wagons. All horse and wagon. There were no trucks yet.”

Surprising as it may sound, there was a barn at nearby Mowrer’s Dairy, known to locals today as “the Cup.”

“They had horses at the time,” chimed an enthusiastic Merv. “Yeah, there were horses delivering milk and you could hear the horses come up the street at like 3, 4, 5 o’clock in the morning.”

The neighborhood teemed with activity. There was a man known as the “boney” who used to come down the alley once a week with a horse and wagon collecting junk.

“He would be hollering. You know, just making noise. ‘Any junk? Any bones today? Any junk, any rags, any cans, any this, any that?’ You’d hear him coming down the street and he’d blow a little whistle, you know.

“When the iceman came down the back alley, we would run and jump in the back of it and ride down the back alley and steal a piece of ice! That was a big deal.”

The butcher also made his rounds down East Locust Street, but the Shiners didn’t buy from him because he was too expensive. They bought their groceries at an A&P at the corner of Locust and Linden streets, next door to the drugstore which now is the home of Nuts About Ice Cream.

Times became tough when the Great Depression hit, and like many other Bethlehem residents, the Shiners supplemented their diets by growing vegetables in a “Depression Garden.” Their plot was on Frankford Street between Maple and Elm.

“It was a narrow street and there were vacant lots over there. The one side of the street was row houses, and then the other side of the street was nothing. So we had to go over there every day after supper and help my mom and dad plant, pull weeds. That was our job.”

It wasn’t all work and no play, though. On summer days, Merv would take a long walk down Elizabeth Avenue to the bridge where Schoenersville Road crosses the Monocacy Creek. From there he’d follow the train tracks north behind the Paint Mill and swim at a dam the teenagers called Depression Beach.

“It wasn’t bad going down, but coming home now you had to go up that hill…oh jeepers,” Merv laughed.

After the W.P.A. put in magnificent stonework at Illick’s Mill Park, the Shiners would take trips there as a family. “That was beautiful work, oh yeah. And everybody could go down there and have a picnic. They could have a picnic and they could swim. And that was recreation for them. You’re talking about the 30s, you know.”

To this day, Monocacy Park is still the perfect place for a picnic.

So the next time you drive past Liberty or enjoy an ice cream cone at the Cup, try picturing dirt roads, horses and wagons. Envision elephants marching down East Locust. See if you can visualize this established part of town in its infancy.

We can only imagine, but Merv Shiner remembers.

Please share your comments and memories by writing to me at bethlehemhistory@gmail.com.