Frank Beeton, one of Wissinoming's oldest residents, was born 19 October 1907 at Mascher and Cambria Streets above a dry goods shop across from Brenner's Saloon in what is now known as West Kensington.  His father was a lace weaver and his mother was a lace mender.  Both were immigrants from Nottingham in England where they lived near the Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame.  He had one sister, Clarissa.  As a young man, Frank and his family moved to 3329 Water St., not far from their Mascher Street home.

As a child, he attended elementary school at Cramps and Stetson Elementary Schools, and he went to high school at Northeast High School when it was on Lehigh Avenue and to Central High School when it was at Broad and Wood Streets.  There wasn't a lot of money for public transportation in those days, so Frank bicycled his way to school every day, an activity that led to his lifetime interest in bicycles and bicycling.

While attending school, Frank was a newspaper boy who sold the Philadelphia Bulletin and the Public Ledger.  He picked up his papers in back of the Public Library on McPherson Square.  He can remember Armistice Day in WWI vividly because one of his regular customers gave him a fifty cent piece for a two cent newspaper because he was so thrilled that the war was finally over.

Growing up in West Kensington was a lot of fun according to Frank.  He spent a lot of time playing soccer, baseball, "peggie," (a game played with a stick and a wooden peg), marbles, and other street games.  He had a lot of good times riding his bicycle to different places like Tookany Creek for swimming and to playgrounds and "lots" for pickup games with friends.  He especially remembers the slaughterhouse on Lee Street where sheep and calves would be herded down the middle of the street into holding pens.  Frank and his friends would peek through the windows to watch the final processing of the animals into butcher shop items.  

The neighborhood was a lot different then: A Street had no pavements and no houses, you could get a loaf of fresh bread for a nickel and day-old bread for two cents, street gas lamps were attended daily by lamplighters (and sometimes by mischievous kids who put the lamps out as soon as the lamplighter lit them), people had gas meters in their homes that took quarters (no quarter, no gas), carbide lamps were common household items, people made a lot of noise shooting blanks with their 38s on the 4^th of July, women made margarine with lard and "yellow pills," and when washing machines were a real luxury.  One of Frank's most vivid memories of this time was when they "pushed the button" for Christmas - they got electricity.  He was really excited and liked the idea that he didn't have to take a candle down the cellar steps any more - just "push the button."

Things were though back then, and Frank had to drop out of high school to help out at home.  He got a job at Jacquard Mills around A St. and Somerset and worked for this company for most of his life, except for some "tough times" during the Depression.  He began in the mills, but because of his skill with machines, he was trained in-house as a machine draftsman. 

At about this time, Frank learned to drive his father's model-T Ford, license number 704459.   To get a drivers license back then, you went to a real estate agent, paid fifty cents, and got one.  No test, no questions, no special qualifications.

Frank met his wife Florence at a party.  Back then, groups of four or five guys and gals met for activities over the weekend, activities like playing the piano, going to the movies, and going for rides in the automobiles of the time (Nash Roadsters with rumble seats, Maxwells, Dodges, Chryslers) to places near and far.   Frank especially remembers a trip to Patchogue on Long Island, New York, a trip he made via the Old Lincoln Highway.

After Frank and Florence got married in 1932, they bought a new house at 4243 Barnett Street in Wissinoming, and they have lived there ever since.  Florence died in 1998.

Frank can remember the time when his father walked across the Delaware River when it was frozen over, when there was no Tacony-Palmyra Bridge - only ferries going across the Delaware from Tacony to Palmyra, when paddle wheel ferries with the paddles on the side of the boat plied their trade between Market Street and Camden, when you could take a train to Atlantic City from Camden for fifty cents, when you could take a "camelback" train (cabin in the center of the boiler) to Cape May, when you could catch lots of flounder the size of doormats at Surf City (usually from a pier or bridge, but from a rowboat if you could afford one), when some folks supplemented their meager incomes by running the material to make booze from Quaker City Sugar to Parkland (now Neshaminy).

He can remember when you could go west across Frankford Avenue from Levick Street to a farmer for your eggs and vegetables, when there was "nothing" west of Frankford Avenue and not much north of Barnett Street, when trolleys ran up Frankford Avenue to Linden Avenue, when you could make a connection at Linden Avenue to go to the amusement park on Burlington Island (an island in the Delaware River between Bristol and Burlington).   He can remember one occasion when he saved a friend's (Howard King) life on the river when his friend fell overboard from a boat.  

During the Depression, Frank did odd jobs to make ends meet.  During WWII, he played an important part in the home front effort making textiles and machine parts for the war effort.  After the war, Frank traveled extensively throughout the world reconstructing textile industries, especially in Germany and Japan.  He continued to travel and share his wealth of knowledge of the textile industry in such places as Switzerland, England, Scotland, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and Alaska, just to name a few.

Frank has always been very close to his grandson Clifford.  They spent many happy times fishing, bicycling, and "hitting buckets" of golf balls on nearby driving ranges.

Interviewed by Walt Stock and Cliff Beeton