passing-gear

In December of 1957, when I was 13, my family moved to the new suburban development of Oak Lane Manor north of Wilmington, DE.
It was because my father had begun employ with a new oil-refinery built south of Wilmington.
My father had begun working at Texaco®, the Eagle Point Works (a refinery) in south Jersey.
That was about 1950. In 1956 he began working for Tidewater (Flying A) in Delaware.
He was commuting at first; but that was a daily trip of about 100 miles.
We had to move to Delaware.
It was a difficult move for me, as it meant establishing all new social contacts, although my earlier roots in south Jersey were in turmoil.
The sleepy suburb of Erlton, NJ, where I’d begun life, was being shaken by the post-war baby boom. (Erlton was a suburb of Philadelphia.)
Erlton School, my elementary-school, was too small. I had to do double sessions in fifth grade.
High-school age kids had been previously sent to nearby Haddonfield High School; Haddonfield being an old Revolutionary town. (George Washington stayed overnight in a tavern there — that tavern still existed; the Indian King Tavern.)
But with the post-war baby boom, a new high school was built to serve our area.
This was “Della Twip,” named after Delaware Township (“Dela. Twp.”), the township we lived in. (That high-school was soon renamed “Cherry Hill High School,” since it was near Cherry Hill, a location made famous by the visit of president Eisenhower in 1956.)
The high-school was incomplete when I started there, which was seventh grade (‘56-‘57). Only one finished building of four, a two-story academic building.
We woulda been the second class to graduate — the class ahead (eighth grade) woulda been the first: the Class of 1961.
At first we had to walk it; about a mile and a half.
But since the country road we were walking had no sidewalks, the parents in Erlton organized an independent schoolbus service to cart us to school.
It wasn’t door-to-door — we had to hike to the bus-stop, which was on a main drag.
Della Twip meant all-new friends. It was drawing kids from well beyond Erlton.
Oak Lane Manor was a high-tone development, one of many built north of Wilmington after the war.
It was higher-tone than Graylyn Crest, or nearby Faulk Woods. Both were bedroom communities for DuPont employees. (DuPont was the main employer in northern Delaware.)
Oak Lane Manor seemed aimed more at those with higher incomes; like DuPont engineers and scientists.
Oak Lane Manor was built in three sections; the first section being like Graylyn Crest, although more expensive.
The second section was more expensive still. Our house was in the second section.
(The third section was built after we moved there, and was even more expensive. It was also far away, on the other side of a creek and woods.)
When we moved there, our section was hardly started; all mud and houses not begun.
Our house was done — it was a sample house — a so-called “Vermont.”
The house that sold the most was the “Connecticut,” a house with four bedrooms and a garage, although three bedrooms were very small.
Both the Vermont and the Connecticut were split-level; although the Vermont had only three upstairs bedrooms, and no garage — unless one was added, which my father optioned.
We lived at 2401 Allendale Road, a corner lot at the intersection of Allendale and Alders Drive.
Allendale accessed the first section of Oak Lane Manor, and Alders went west all the way up to Concord Pike, a main drag (U.S. Route 202).

The ugliest Oldsmobile of all time. (This is a two-door hardtop — Ball’s car was a four-door hardtop.)

A four-door 98 hardtop.

Across the intersection was a “Connecticut” inhabited by the Ball family.
In this house lived Cindy Ball, two years older than me, which means she was in the first graduating class from Brandywine High-School; 1960 — I was ‘62.
(Northern Delaware was also swamped by the post-war baby boom, which required a surfeit of new school construction, including Brandywine.)
We had little contact with the Ball family; they were very quiet and standoffish.
In fact, we had little contact with anyone in Oak Lane Manor; just our immediate next-door neighbors, the Stewarts and the Martinezes (“mar-TEEN-ez”), both of whom were at each other’s throats.
The Balls got a new 1959 Oldsmobile four-door hardtop; black body with a thin creme top.
Bar none, the ugliest Oldsmobile ever.
Cindy Ball got her driver’s license, and told me about “passing-gear.”
Their car was an Oldsmobile “Rocket” V8, with a Hydra-Matic four-speed automatic transmission.
Floored, ya passed through a detent that downshifted the Hydra-Matic into a lower gear.
She tried that once, and scared herself to death.
The car downshifted, and all-of-a-sudden there was a great roar as the V8 opened up. Induction noise and exhaust racket. It surprised her.
“Passing-gear” scared her to death.

“Erlton” (‘EARL-tin’) is the small suburb of Philadelphia in south Jersey where I lived until I was 13. Erlton was founded in the ‘30s, named after its developer, whose name was Earl. Erlton was north of Haddonfield, an old Revolutionary town.

“Graylyn Crest and Faulk Woods” were other suburban developments north of Wilmington, built before Oak Lane Manor.

“Brandywine High School,” north of Wilmington, DE, is the high-school I graduated from in 1962.

Hydra-Matic is the first fully automatic transmission. It was pioneered by GM’s Oldsmobile in the 1940 model-year.