Mystery in an Old Red Barn
In an age dominated by flat digital screens that transmit mind-numbing television shows and formula-driven block-buster films, live theatre is a refuge for people seeking entertainment that stimulates rather than benumbs brain cells. The play is the thing: I do not want to see pixilated images perfectly edited and enhanced by the latest technology; give me instead a stage filled by flesh and blood human beings who work hard to win us over with talent, passion, and wit, their own mental and spiritual resources, as well as their understanding of a text, the play.
There is no escape: We are staring right at them. No film editor will cover up their mistakes. If the actors succeed the audience is rewarded with an emotional release, laughter or tears, and they are rewarded with applause.
The theatre lights go down. The play is about to begin. If a day comes when I do not feel a jolt of energy flow through my veins at this moment then I will know I have become irrevocably jaded and cynical, and the last ember of the fire within my soul has been forever stamped out.
For now, that fire is stoked each time I enter an old red barn a few blocks from my house with a sign that reads “Playcrafters of Skippack.” Soon after we moved into town, my wife and I became subscription members of our community theater. With all due respect to our fine retail establishments and restaurants, it is the best deal in town. Many evenings, we have walked to the Barn theatre, up the narrow stairs and taken our seats in this warm, intimate setting and been treated to a thought-provoking drama or delightful comedy.
This year, I decided to get a preview of the 2011 season. I wrote to Gay Hoyle, public relations co-coordinator for Playcrafters of Skippack, and now I find myself on a rainy rehearsal night visiting the director and cast for the season’s first show The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940.
I am used to the Barn theatre on show nights when it is filled with the buzz of conversation and jostling of overcoats. Tonight, it is eerily quiet. I find my way to the stairway that leads to the dressing rooms and backstage area and meet my contact, Thomas M. McGuire, the show’s director.
This is a community theatre: all the people who participate in a production are volunteers. They must earn their daily bread at some other occupation. At the end of a full work day they come to the Barn for rehearsals that usually last between two and three hours. Because of their work, the town where I live and made my largest investment is made culturally viable, an oasis in the suburban desert.
Tom wears his hair close cropped like a soldier in the army, and I am picturing him leading a rag-tag militia defending Skippack against the forces of shopping mall philistinism which seem to have thoroughly conquered most surrounding neighborhoods.
Tom, who in his day job is a professor of biology at Penn State Abington, describes The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 as “Agatha Christy meets Scooby Doo.” He explains that the production is not a musical, but a comic mystery written and first performed in the 1980s.
In the play, the creative team for a theatrical production company known for staging musical flops is brought together, ostensibly to stage a special performance of a new show for a potential financial backer. However, we learn that there is another reason for the gathering: During the run of a previous show, three chorus girls were murdered. The creative team has really been called together to find out which of these eccentric show biz folks is a serial killer.
There is another mystery: By opening night, Tom will have put more than a year’s worth of work into this production and not one penny in his pocket. Why does he do it?
“I loved theatre ever since I was a kid,” says Tom, “it was always my avocation. It balances out my work in the sciences. In college, I was a double major; biology and English. I’ve always said that I enjoy both sides of my brain working.”
Tom introduces me to one of the cast members, Linda Friday, an elegant, well-spoken woman from nearby Quakertown who has been acting for many years (she first appeared at Playcrafters 10 years ago), and participates in many community theatre productions. I ask her what distinguishes Playcrafters of Skippack from other community theatres.
“Compared to other community theatres, Playcrafters is more willing to stage productions that are cutting edge or at least slightly left of center,” explains Linda. Many community theatres play it much safer, sticking to familiar plays and musicals to avoid offending the audience or potential patrons.
Linda credits the town that surrounds the theatre. Skippack, with its unusual shops and diverse restaurant offerings, attracts people, visitors and residents, who will support a sophisticated community theatre.

The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 in rehearsal. From left to right: Bill Lamack, Linda Friday, Elizabeth McDonald, Amy Reifinger, and Steven Zanine.
After our interview, I am invited to sit in on a rehearsal of The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940. I have never attended a theatrical rehearsal before. Memory cells are jogged as many of the actors are vaguely familiar to me (“wasn’t that guy the lead in last year’s production of Pippin?”). Predictably, the acting is rough around the edges, with actors stopping suddenly to call out “lines, please.” Sometimes, cast members break down in laughter at their own mistakes or find themselves standing at the wrong end of the stage.
But through it all, I sense characters coming into being, a story taking shape. Soon enough, I am hooked by the plot and by the eccentric personalities the actors depict. I want to stay, but force myself to leave. I have tickets for the performance Saturday April 2. I do not want to spoil my night of theatre. Give me the full production. I have learned that the easiest and most enjoyable part is to be a member of the audience.
The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 is the first show of Playcrafters of Skippack 2011 season and opens March 31. For more information, visit www.playcrafters.org.
First Fridays: A New Skippack Tradition
What dreamy-eyed young boy doesn’t look up to the soldier going to battle, the astronaut going to the heavens, the man on the flying trapeze ⎯those great heroes of adventure, who bravely and freely sparkle with life’s possibilities. But then life itself happens; the spaceship bursts into flames in the sky; the soldier comes home weary and disillusioned; the trapeze artist files a lawsuit against his employer the circus. How ridiculous the admiration for the heroes of one’s youth seems once one gets a salty taste of reality. The need to make a living becomes paramount. One sees accommodation and compromise and learns to play by the rules.
But there is one type of person, I’ll even say hero, who can instill some of that same sense of awe and admiration felt during my youth into the blood of my middle age. The hero of my later life is a man or woman who after many years of inhabiting a corporate cubicle or office, long after the fire of youth has steadied itself, cuts the umbilical cord connecting them to the corporation and strikes out to make a living on their own and live out the autumn of their life a free man or woman at last.
Such are my thoughts sitting in the office of Art Berger, the co-owner with his wife Jane, of the Wooden Duck, a store in Skippack which sells gift items and women’s apparel.
Art and Jane have owned the store for 11 years. For the first nine years of their ownership, Jane steered the course of the Wooden Duck, growing the business and developing the product mix that was their formula for success. Art held a position in the corporate world as a director of accounting in the health care Industry.
Just over a year ago, Art left his corporate job to become a fulltime partner with Jane, helping her commandeer the Wooden Duck and its crew. The Wooden Duck seems like a good name for a ship and I am picturing in my mind Art and Jane setting sail, leaving the shores of corporate security to chart their own course, to the benefit of us who live in Skippack and our visitors.
If Art and Jane are co-captains sharing the helm, then the passengers in steerage are the numerous wide-eyed, open-mouthed Byers’ Choice carolers that populate the store itself, as well as much of the space in Art’s office and a newly-built warehouse in the back. The population density of these decorative figures is testimony to the success of the Wooden Duck. The Wooden Duck is the largest retailer for Byers’ Choice carolers which are handmade in nearby Chalfont Pennsylvania by one of the few manufacturers of holiday gifts remaining in America. There are Byers’ Choice figures with special designs handcrafted exclusively for the Wooden Duck and only available from this Skippack-based establishment. In addition, the Wooden Duck has an expanding showroom of women’s clothing, jewelry, accessories and many other gift items. The flow of customers is steady and my impression is that Art and Jane run a tight ship, if a cheerful and colorful one.
Before I steer too far off course, I am reminded that Art is a man with a mission. I am invited into his office for a purpose. Now that Art is full-time co-captain at the Wooden Duck, he has become much more involved in the Skippack Merchants Association and is one of the prime movers behind a new initiative ⎯First Fridays in Skippack. Better get to the point already. Art is eager to get the word out about first Fridays, and this blogger does not want a mutiny on his conscience.
“Our goal for First Fridays is simple⎯to bring more people to Skippack Village,” says Art.
Beginning on Friday, April 1st 2011, participating merchants will stay open until 9:00 p.m. the first Friday of every month through October. For entertainment, street musicians will perform throughout town and artists will exhibit their work, with an emphasis on fine arts rather than crafts. There will be activities for children, discounts at selected merchants and dinner specials at selected restaurants. Special activities are set to start at 5 p.m. More details will be posted on this blog and the Skippack Village Online website as they become available.
“First Fridays will offer something for everyone: Singles, couples, families with children and parents who leave their children with a babysitter,” explains Art.
While filled with enthusiasm, he cautions people not to expect an event of the magnitude of our larger festivals, such as Skippack Days. He hopes to build First Fridays into a robust tradition over time.
Toward the end of our talk, Art and I return to an unavoidable topic here in Skippack; the impact of social trends and the economy on the Village. About seven years ago, some 54 retailers were listed in the Skippack Village walking guide. Now the number of retailers listed is about half that figure. The increase in for rent signs is troubling. The Wooden Duck is thriving thanks to a sound strategy that includes e-commerce, a pleasing shopping environment, an unusual product mix, and a well-established clientele built up over many years.
“I would be reluctant to open a new retail business in current economic circumstances,” admits Art.
I finish our discussion and walk past the colorful decorative gift items, trying to take a few photographs of the store without bothering customers. The Wooden Duck seems a solid vessel to navigate the rough waters of a changing economy. I am glad to see Art and Jane Berger at the helm, both dedicated to the success of the business and especially glad to see Art taking an active role in the Skippack merchant community. For the Skippack merchants’ new project, First Fridays in Skippack, I hope for the best of luck and smooth sailing.
2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,400 times in 2010. That’s about 8 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 7 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 99 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 178mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was August 31st with 165 views. The most popular post that day was Coming of Age in a Housing Crisis.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were estatesofbiltmore.com, facebook.com, linkedin.com, thereporteronline.com, and bestofskippack.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for gabe schick, i love skippack, skippack blog, skippack wordpress, and michael shaw skippack.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Coming of Age in a Housing Crisis August 2010
13 comments
Tasty but Healthy: Café Proves It’s Possible September 2010
9 comments
A Special Skippack Holiday Adventure December 2010
1 comment
Why is Skippack Special? July 2010
6 comments
Festival Days: The Luckiest Town in the World October 2010
1 comment
Festival Days: The Luckiest Town in the World
The first weekend of October, we enjoyed one of Skippack’s many festivals, this time a craft and gift show called Skippack Days. What happens during Skippack Days? Mostly a celebration of that great American pastime, buying and selling. Feeling down about economic hard times? Come to Skippack Days to see Pennsylvania’s middle class open wallets and pocketbooks in exchange for crafts and objects bright, shiny, adorable, unique, imaginative and not always terribly useful.
During evening and early dawn hours before Skippack Days, crafters, food vendors, and hawkers of assorted wares set up tent-like structures along the sidewalks and in the parking lots − modern day nomads traveling across the suburban desert and creating a temporary encampment along Skippack Pike. And following the rise of these temporary structures come people, wonderful people, actual crowds: children, families, couples, young, old, middle aged. For a day or two at least the town acquires the human horde needed to give a much-needed boost to the local economy. To paraphrase a popular song, towns that need people are the luckiest towns in the world.
My lovely wife Debby is my guide and off we go. At the entrance to a booth-filled parking lot, a young man with close-cropped hair hands out flyers proclaiming that the end of days is near. So it may be, but right now the day, however fleeting, is beautiful and life beckons to be enjoyed like grapes ripened on the vine. Here God and man unite to create a world of motley abundance: Handbags and jewelry flourish like neon-colored wildflowers. Debby is not displeased. Knick knacks for the house are not scarce, nor are outfits of all kinds. Something for everyone.
My wife scouts out a delicate, gauzy shawl with silver threading sold by an Asian vendor who speaks little English but is able to close the sale using the twinkle in his eye and personal charm. Most likely, the fine shawl we purchased was manufactured in Hong Kong. My observation: From the dawn of trade until the Skippack festival, commerce has built the strongest bridges between continents and cultures. If you want to find the secret of bringing harmony to the world (as much as seems to be possible), stop singing Kumbaya and go shopping.
But a voice inside tells that while it is good to think globally, we must act locally, so we continue on in search of our next purchase, hoping for an object more native to our local area. What could such an object be? We soon discover the answer: A cutting board in the shape of a cat! So we learn when we arrive at the booth of Pottstown craftsman Joe Pennypacker who uses Corian, a solid surface material created by DuPont and often used for kitchen countertops, to make cutting boards and trivets in whimsical shapes: cats, dog bones, mice, pigs, fishes, milk bottles, hearts, apples, flowers, ovals, circles, rectangles, and crosses. All styles are available in array of colors and patterns.
The cat-shaped cutting board charms my wife and Joe charms us both with his sense of humor, and tells us that he himself cuts the board into its feline shape and explains how to care for it. I want to ask more questions, such as where did he get the idea for his product, but there is much more to see and I must follow my guide who is eager to stimulate the economy during the recession, and am swept along.
I promise myself to be disciplined in my spending and walk like a steadfast soldier past booths of beaded jewels, Halloween-themed statuettes, glimmering glassware, wooden toys, adorable kitty cats in cages (real ones), soothing quilts, tie-dyed t-shirts that recall Woodstock-era freedom, handmade soaps, household items of all sorts, an infinity of temptations. I am growing proud of my ability to hold fast. But then I see a table of beautifully-crafted wood pens. What creature of flesh and blood who ever sought to express themselves in writing can resist a fine, lathe-turned pen?
The pens are the creation of Tim Swanson, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania who handcrafts gifts out of exotic and domestic woods. The pen I set my sights on is made of a box elder burl, so Tim tells me: Box elder is a species of wood; burl describes a condition of wood whereby it becomes knotted and contorted within the tree, so Google tells me (as I type this).
The wood has been dyed blue; the pen evokes both forest and sky. I look longingly but hesitate. My wife Debby reads my mind, reaches for the wallet inside her handbag, and the beautiful pen is mine. I think of a line from the Book of Proverbs that says a good wife is worth more than jewels.
Worth more than jewels but right now wants a leather handbag: Next we seek out one of the little known secrets of Skippack Days: a small modest booth manned by Charlie Brous, president of Budd Leather Company, and his wife Rose. Each year we come to this booth to buy fine leather handbags, wallets, cosmetic bags, jewelry boxes, desk accessories, and other items at a fraction of their retail cost. Budd Leather Company is a wholesaler headquartered in nearby Souderton, Pennsylvania that mostly serves retail stores, but each year Charlie and Rose offer leftover sales samples at amazing prices to the attendees of Skippack days.

Charlie Brous, president of Budd Leather Company, and his wife Rose at Skippack Days. Budd Leather items are available at two Skippack Shops: Sharp Unique Gifts for men and the Copper Partridge.
Charlie and his wife tell me that Skippack Days is the only fair of its kind where they sell their leather-goods samples: Simply because they find the atmosphere delightful and people nice. It makes me feel proud to live here. My wife Debby walks away with a pink leather handbag and a green leather wallet; I walk away with a beautiful black leather writing pad cover and a long reach shoe horn with a sculpted profile of horse at the head, making a mental note to return to Charlie’s treasure trove next Skippack Days. Year-round Budd Leather items are available at two Skippack Shops: Sharp Unique Gifts for Men and the Copper Partridge.
At this point, I begin thinking that a life dedicated to acquiring material goods is empty and meaningless. A single afternoon dedicated to acquiring material goods is exhausting and leads to much rearranging of items in plastic bags.
It seems fitting that next we arrive at a booth that is dedicated not to selling to decorative objects but to spreading an idea. The booth is manned by Matt and Sylvia Schelly of Norristown, Pennsylvania and eight student volunteers from Ursinus College. The idea available for penetration into open minds is: Fair trade. Advocates of this concept encourage people like you and me to buy products labeled “fair trade.” This ensures that farmers and artisans from developing nations get a fair price for the goods they sell, so they may support their families and pull themselves out of poverty. Matt and Sylvia show me coffee, chocolate and other items with a fair trade label.

Booth promoting fair trade: Buying products labeled “fair trade” ensures that farmers and artisans from developing nations get a fair price for the goods they sell
Now, I have long since left the days of picket signs and political causes. Utopian ideas are stored somewhere in a closet along with my old Lego sets and 8-track cassettes. However, many years ago, I spent time in the Andes Mountains in Ecuador, making friends with indigenous people who lived on small farms and sold handmade items to tourists, and fair trade sounds like a practical way to help out these fondly-remembered friends. I begin expressing my views and soon am deep in conversation with Matt and Sylvia.
I continue talking. My wife’s current favorite possession is a fair trade handbag made in Nepal and purchased from Crystal Persuasions LLC, a new age and jewelry store in Skippack. I am eager to hear what Debby has to say on the topic. But I look around and, alas, rather than listen to me pontificate, Debby has wandered off to do more shopping. I take my leave of Matt and Sylvia, thinking not only of farmers in Ecuador but of the opportunity to meet good people and have thoughtful conversation right here in Skippack.
All good things must end, and when I find Debby I tell her that I can no longer look at gift items, we must call it a day. We are sad for the vendors we didn’t get to see and for the close of a beautiful festival. Time for a late afternoon lunch at local restaurant Basta Pasta. The excitement for the day however is not over.
While savoring our delicious pizza, entertainment is provided by Lenny G and the Soulsenders, a versatile reggae, R&B, blues, pop, rock and soul band. When Lenny and his musicians arrive in Skippack, the hipness factor in our Pennsylvania semi-tourist town goes up a sizzling one thousand percent. The music is authentic but easy-to-enjoy as I am gathering the melted cheese that has fallen off my pizza slice. As if they are reading my mind, the band plays some personal favorites; Sitting On The Dock of the Bay, No Woman No Cry, The Wind Cries Mary, as well as some original tunes. As the tight rhythms and beautiful wailing guitar notes float from the parking lot to our ears, my wife and I have a collective thought: We live in Paradise.
The festival is ending, but before we go home, my wife and I will visit one store. While it is great to have crafts people and vendors for a festival, we must never forget the shop owners who are here year round, working hard to make Skippack a special place. My wife Debby has refrained from buying any jewelry so she can purchase a couple reasonably-priced pieces from Beth Wade, owner of Crystal Persuasions (note: Crystal Persuasions recently moved to Green Wolf’s Village Barn Shoppes at 4010 Skippack Pike). We go not only for the baubles, but to enjoy Beth’s relaxing, easy-going personality. I would like to tell you more about Beth and her wonderful shop but that is another blog entry for another time.
Skippack’s next festival, the International Car Show & Oktoberfest, is Sunday October 17th. More information on Skippack festivals and events is available from the Skippack Village website.
More Photos from Skippack Days

My wife Debby enjoys loot obtained at Skippack Days: A shawl from Hong Kong, a leather handbag courtesy of Budd Leather and jewelry from Crystal Persuasions, a store in Skippack.

Blog writer hanging out with members of the band Lenny G and the Soulsenders. Lenny G stands at front left. To his right is Don Butler, lead guitarist. Standing to my right is bass player Ron Ward. Behind Lenny to his left is an anonymous friend of the band.
Tasty but Healthy: Café Proves It’s Possible
When I venture out for a meal, I find comfort in going to a restaurant where I am known as a regular customer. It seems the best of both worlds: the pleasure of venturing out combined with a safety net of familiar people and environment. These days, it is seems almost every week I take at least one meal at Butterflies Café, an intimate, casual restaurant with an accent on fresh, healthy food in Skippack. Now its lunchtime on a clear, beautiful day and I have ordered my favorite meal, a veggie burger.
My veggie burger arrives. For people who only know store-bought veggie burgers such as myself, the veggie burger at Butterflies is a treat. A store-bought veggie burger is flat as the earth was thought to be before Columbus set sail; the veggie burger at Butterflies is plump and rounded, like the world after Columbus or more precisely, like a real, homemade burger. Texture and taste satisfy. It’s made from fresh, locally grown natural vegetables, peanut butter, garbanzo beans and fresh herbs.
The veggie burger is the creation of proprietor and chef Jacquelyne Rennie. At my request, she stops from her work to sit down and talk. Jackie has an authentic, no-nonsense personality; her earthy demeanor belies the tremendous pride she takes in her restaurant. To each customer who bothers to stop to take notice, she offers one-on-one service, seeking to meet as much as possible each individuals taste and dietary needs; an example of what I love best about Skippack; the revival of the interpersonal relationship between seller and consumer.
In the past year, as I have gotten to know Jackie, I have watched her venture, Butterflies Café, evolve. The restaurant’s interior is better organized and brighter, the menu keeps getting better. Jackie now offers programs on selected nights, such as cooking classes, ladies night, and live music. I feel personally invested in the welfare of this enterprise.
Jackie describes struggling through her first winter as a restaurant owner, learning which items sell and which don’t. She lists her mainstays: Veggie burgers, vegetable stir-fries, buffalo burgers, gazpachos, butternut squash soup, and more. Meals can be made complete with a delicious, unusual dessert such as dairy-free cheese cake, made from dates, avocado, cashews, agave, coconut oil and a few secret ingredients. (“This is the most delicious cheesecake I have ever had,” shouts my wife in delight, “and I am from New York.”)
Before she owned a restaurant, Jackie worked for twenty years in the mortgage banking business. When the bottom fell out of the housing market, her employer closed its doors and she found herself looking for a job. She worked at a department store and a bank but neither were her calling. She is also a single mom, and needed an occupation that would accommodate her schedule when caring for her two sons ages 9 and 11.
During this time, Jackie discovered she had celiac disease, a digestive condition triggered by consumption of the protein gluten, which is found in bread, pasta, cookies, pizza crust and many other foods containing wheat, barley or rye. It was a turning point in her life. Jackie realized that there was nothing served in fast food restaurants she could eat; every type of fast food contains wheat.
As she became more conscious of her own diet, Jackie began to wonder why there wasn’t a healthier alternative to fast food. She thought of opening a restaurant that would offer a wholesome alternative to fast food. When an acquaintance warned against the idea, it gave her the final push she needed.
“When someone tells me I can’t succeed at something,” says Jackie, “Then I get motivated and go out and do it.”
No banks were willing to provide financing. Jackie found private funding on her own.
Today, Jackie is building her enterprise with a consciousness of sustainable living: She renovated an old building, the furniture is from local antique shops, and most of the food is locally grown and organic. She caters to people who have special dietary needs, such those with celiac disease, or nut allergies or who cannot tolerate lactose found in milk products. She is sensitive to the harmful effects dietary restrictions can have on a person’s social life. Many customers tell her that her restaurant offers them the first opportunity to dine out in years.
As I am talking to Jackie, two teenage girls come in and ask what items on the menu are gluten-free. Jackie points them to several selections.
Still, Jackie worries that her theme of healthy food may scare some people away. She is reconsidering her approach to promoting her café. She has already erased the word healthy from the sign outside her shop. She is going to make her establishment more like a friendly neighborhood joint, with stronger family appeal. She will continue to focus on serving locally grown and fresh foods. She hopes to educate people over time, but for now she wants customers to feel well fed and well entertained. She unveils the new name and new tag line to me and my blog readers. The new name is: Jay Bee’s Café. The tag line is ”Fresh Food, Healthy Vibe.”
My hope is that Jackie can find the commercial success she needs without changing her personal approach to serving food or undermining the connection between her life philosophy and personal experiences and her business. As I sit on her porch and watch people pass by, the delicious food, the warm and friendly environment, and the sense of individual identity reinforce the feeling that I live in paradise.
Note: Butterflies café is BYOB and offers free Wi-Fi. It is also a great place to hang out and read. Phone: 610-222-2111. Address: 4019 Skippack Pike. Open Wednesday thru Sunday.
Coming of Age in a Housing Crisis
I thought my Skippack adventure began in January 2008 when I put a considerable portion of my and my wife’s life savings down for a house in Biltmore Estates, right in the heart of the village. But the real adventure didn’t begin until about 13 months later, in April 2009, when the builder of my swanky new Skippack home, TH Properties, declared bankruptcy.
For my neighbors and myself, the housing crisis was no longer a matter of editorials in the Wall Street Journal. We looked outside our windows and saw economic reality in the form of unfinished construction, abandoned equipment, overgrown weeds, debris, a closed sales office and unleveled plots of land.
Everything is a learning experience. Or at least this is what I tell my friend Bob Biddle. Bob and I share an unusual connection: While I was absorbing the shock of the TH Properties bankruptcy as a new homeowner, Bob was reeling from the same crisis from the opposite side of the settlement table: He was a senior finance associate for TH Properties. He, along with his partners, negotiated the deals and financial arrangements that held the company together, at least until April 2009.
Now Bob and I walk across the divide that separates company from consumer to share a beer at the Roadhouse Grille in Skippack. Once we are settled and served, I ask Bob to tell me about his career at TH Properties. He explains that he had been hired immediately after graduating from Penn State in 2004. His job: To help obtain the financing needed to build new housing developments. Back then, the housing market was still booming.
With his career on a steady curve, Bob married the woman he had dated since high school and looked forward to starting a family. The career curve, however, did not hold its smooth trajectory. TH Properties was hit hard by the rapid decline in the housing market: On April 20 2009, TH Properties closed its doors to business. On April 30, the company filed for bankruptcy.
Prospective homeowners lost deposits; vendors lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some people lashed out. The day after TH Properties announced they were closing their doors, a crowd of reporters and angry homebuyers gathered outside the company headquarters. Threats were made against the owners of the company, the remaining staff members and even their families. The windows of TH Properties office building had to be covered with paper to allow business, now in a crisis state, to continue. To avoid the mob, Bob had to enter and exit the office through the back door.
Rumors and accusations spread across the Internet like wildfire. Some got under Bob’s skin, especially claims that the company principals had engaged in criminal activity or stashed away money and other assets before declaring bankruptcy. He knew people had a right to be angry, but he was not prepared for the level of anger, even hatred, some people expressed. It was a bitter awakening; the end of his young executive innocence.
“What” I ask, “did you learn from the experience?”
Bob looks back at me directly, almost defiantly: “Other people’s opinions don’t matter. Only your own convictions matter,” he answers. For a moment, he seems like a different man, older and grimmer; but soon the familiar casual, cheerful attitude returns.
Bob tells me he did what most people do when an employer is in crisis; he prepared his resume. However, he continued to work for TH properties, putting in ten and twelve hour days taking the first steps to rebuild the company. One change in the terms of his employment: He was no longer getting paid. A month earlier, his wife had given birth to their first child. Daddy was now a volunteer finance associate.
Unlike many homebuilders who jump from a bankrupt project to the next opportunity, the owners of TH Properties wanted to return to business to make good on their commitments. They wanted to complete the housing development where I live, Biltmore Estates in Skippack Village.
For more than a year, TH Properties sought the legal permission and financing needed to return to complete Biltmore Estates as well as some other developments. For Bob, this meant an ongoing series of negotiations and court hearings involving banks, creditors, local governments and other parties affected by the bankruptcy. During this time, I became involved; I volunteered to do what is best described as public relations work on behalf of Biltmore Estates to counter the negative publicity our development had received in local newspapers as a result of the bankruptcy.

For the first time, I test out our long-awaited walking trail at Biltmore Estates, a development in Skippack coming back after bankruptcy.
A few weeks ago Bob called me to tell me that TH Properties obtained the right to build again at Biltmore Estates and secured the needed financing. Now when I leave for work I see hopeful signs: trucks, workmen, equipment, gigantic metal drainage pipes, and freshly-leveled plots of ground, now clear of weeds and debris. A winding paved pathway behind my deck is the first indication of a walking trail promised long ago. I am looking forward to the full flowering of my community, Biltmore Estates.
As a homeowner here I never suffered the harsh effects of the past months felt by some people in my community. My wife and I had bought a beautiful, intact home. The homes that surrounded us were intact as well. Perhaps if I had lost my deposit or had to live in an unfinished house, I would be less eager to share a beer with Bob Biddle. A dark thought passes through me. If my circumstances or timing had been different, would I look at the engaging young man beside me at the bar with anger and bitterness?
I look up from my beer. Bob is telling me about how he had to go home and ask his wife for permission to work without pay. He says he will always be grateful for the support she gave him when he stayed with TH Properties. I think to myself, “at least let the harsh economic times we live in bring us together rather than tear us apart.”
Strange as it sounds, there is an aspect of living in an unfinished development that is pleasing to me. I walk outside and see unfinished buildings with Tyvek sheets rustling in the wind. It reminds me that we live in a world of risk: A person can do all the right things such as work hard, save for a down payment, and negotiate a good price, and the result is still not guaranteed. Nothing in our life is guaranteed. Likewise, things most precious to us, such as the people we love, are not promised to us forever and therefore should not be taken for granted. I thought it good to have a symbol reminding me of this truth each time I looked out my kitchen window,
What’s more, in our corporate, mass-marketed world rarely do we get to know the people who make the products we rely upon. I know nothing about the people who built the chair I sit in or the keyboard I type upon. Thanks however to the bankruptcy and subsequent events I got to know Bob and other men and women who built the house where I live. I saw them struggle with their circumstances and decisions, just as I have struggled with my own. My house now has a back-story. It has a soul: A soul in addition to all of the conveniences of a new construction property.
Bob asks me if I want another beer. Think about it: The housing market in the United States collapses and the country and much of the rest of the world goes into a deep recession. It reverberates here in Skippack; and it leads to me sharing a beer with Bob Biddle at the Roadhouse Grille. Yes, Bob, one more beer.
Why is Skippack Special?
As corporate America and economies of scale rob the landscape in suburbia of flavor, one stalwart town outside Philadelphia stubbornly maintains a special character; mixing quaint and earthy, leaning toward sophistication without tipping over into the dreaded upscale foo foo. This is town that I have made my home: Skippack PA.
Skippack is unique from two directions. It defies the bland acres of endless suburban development that lie to the East. At the same time, it is more diverse and better suited to the good life than the rural Pennsylvania working towns that lie further West.
Our shops and restaurants are all owned by individual entrepreneurs. Corporate ownership is forbidden: held back at the gate as if it were a form of leprosy. There is no Gap, no Best Buy, no Super Walmart, no Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks. Our main street has authenticity as well as charm.
This is the type of place where one gets to know people. In the two years I have lived here, I have gotten to know shop owners, restaurant owners, bartenders, local politicians, housing developers, musicians and more. Meanwhile, current harsh economic circumstances are a looming threat over the town.
What makes Skippack special? Can the town survive, even grow and still retain its special character? Please come back to visit this blog and take time to get to know a unique place and the people who make it special. I hope you will love Skippack as much as I do.