Time is at something of a standstill in Duncannon, Pa., a no-stoplight town tucked along a bend in the Susquehanna River about 80 miles north of Baltimore. Trains still rattle the windows of houses as they rumble through town, carrying freight through the Pennsylvania coal region. The Doyle Hotel in the center of town looks as if it hasn't been touched in years.
But nowhere in Duncannon is time locked in more of a deep freeze than at the Old Sled Works, a former sled factory turned antiques shop at the north end of town. Meander through the narrow aisles, past collectible glassware, antique tools and stuffed bears, and you'll find Jimmy's Old-Fashioned Penny Arcade and Soda Fountain, complete with nearly 60 functional arcade games dating to the 1920s and a circa-1955 soda fountain. To step inside is to step back 50 years. Snowy-day thrills During its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, the Standard Novelty Works plant churned out as many as 1,800 of its trademark Lightning Guider sleds every day, making it for a time the most productive sled factory in the United States. But by the late 1980s, like March snow in Maryland, business had all but melted away, a victim of cheaper plastic and imported alternatives. "They just got too expensive to make," says Jimmy Rosen, whose family owned the sled factory for its final 22 years. And, Rosen adds, "kids have other things to do today. Kids used to sled from the beginning of the day until the end. But they didn't have shopping malls to go to and all these other activities." When the plant closed in 1990, Rosen converted the 30,000-square-foot space into an antiques market. The long brick building's history is still evident today, from factory hardware mounted in the rafters to red paint that speckles the concrete floor where freshly painted steel runners dripped on their way down the assembly line. A small museum -- not much more than an alcove, really -- tucked between antiques dealers traces the history of the Lightning Guider. Glancing at the dozen wall-mounted sleds, some dating to the 1930s, I can almost hear the shrieks of children on the morning of the season's first snowfall. Gathering antiques Still, Duncannon is easy to miss, and Rosen knew he needed something different to lure antiques hunters -- and vendors -- to this gritty town of 1,500 that has lost the sled factory, a shirt factory and a dress factory. Other than the Old Sled Works, Duncannon's main attraction these days is the Appalachian Trail, which runs right through town. Recalling childhood days spent in penny arcades where "we could play all day for a dollar," Rosen began acquiring old arcade games, at times scavenging old amusement parks that were closing down. He ultimately assembled one of the top vintage arcades in the mid-Atlantic region, with nearly 60 games from the 1920s to the early 1970s. Marty's Playland in Ocean City, by comparison, has more than 250 games, but none made earlier than 1979. Then in 1993, Rosen bought a vintage soda fountain from a Harrisburg pharmacy that was shutting its doors. Now covering 2,000 square feet at the south end of the Old Sled Works, the arcade and fountain go together like poodle skirts and bobby socks. Rosen says the arcade games aren't a big money-maker -- for that he relies on some 125 vendors, up from 20 when the market opened in 1991. But the games do a brisk business in time travel, whisking a visitor back to a county fair midway, a windswept boardwalk, a time before PlayStation or even Pong. "Oh, I remember them," says sixtysomething Jim Clements of Lebanon, Pa., who was sharing a banana split at the soda fountain counter with his wife, Doris. "In our day, we played 'em all." You can step up to one of three Skee-ball lanes or take your swings at the 1956 United Star Slugger pinball baseball game that once stood at Hershey Park. There is Bally's ABC Bowling Lanes from 1957 and a 1940 "Kiss-O-Meter." In deference to Duncannon's rural roots, a half-dozen shooting gallery games like Keeney's "Two Gun Fun," from 1961, line one wall. The oldest machine is a 1927 Mutoscope manual motion picture machine. Turn the crank, press your eyes to the viewfinder and you'll see a woman preening for the camera in a sequence of grainy black-and-white photos. The arcade has none of the menacing computer-generated voices or explosions of a modern game room. The only sounds are the rat-tat-tat-tat of a manual scoring device and simple bells from pinball bumpers. Unlike the antiques and crafts that fill every other nook and cranny of the Old Sled Works, none of the arcade machines is for sale. But they aren't just for looks, either. "These games need to be played," says Rosen, who at 39 is younger than most of them. "You can set a video game aside for weeks or months, plug it back in and it's going to play. These games don't operate well if they sit for very long. They have parts in them that need to be constantly in motion." Root beer floats On a recent Sunday, customers occupied all five stools beneath the red-and-white striped awning at the soda fountain counter and most of the tables in the dining area, authentically appointed in '50s chrome and vinyl. For a more intimate setting, take the cozy table for two inside a gleaming 1953 Airstream trailer. As '50s music was piped in overhead, Three Stooges reruns played on a handful of Philco black-and-white television sets. One set was an early attempt at remote control; the 21-inch picture tube could be moved and connected to the main console via a 25-foot extension cable. No detail is overlooked here, from old ads and photos to the Seeburg Wall-o-Matic jukeboxes on the fountain counter stocked with Chubby Checker and Jerry Lee Lewis. The authenticity even attracted Hollywood; portions of the fountain were used in the 1999 Wynona Ryder film, Girl, Interrupted. As I savored a root beer float prepared by 71-year-old Mary Emma Sterner, I half-expected to see Richie Cunningham, the Fonz and the rest of the Happy Days gang at the next table. Sterner has been here before. A lifelong Duncannon resident, she worked as a "soda jerk" -- so-named for the way workers jerk on the dispenser handles -- in her father's Duncannon drugstore as a 14-year-old. That's her in the sepia-toned photo near the counter. Now, 57 years later, she's back at it, whipping up milk shakes and cherry phosphates -- fruity, fizzy concoctions of ice, cherry flavoring, soda water and citric acid. "I guess I've come full circle," she says. "Friends of my father will come in and say, 'Can you serve me what you served me 50 years ago?' " Towering view For a superb view of Duncannon and the Susquehanna River, climb the 110-foot fire tower across the street from the Old Sled Works. The tower, originally located along a highway a few miles away, was slated for demolition as part of a road expansion. That is, until Rosen bought it and had it moved here, which earned him public relations points and a huge financial headache. Thousands of dollars and months of bureaucratic red tape later, the tower is up to code and open for visitors to climb all 144 steps (for $1.50). Duncannon's New Year's Eve celebration concludes with -- what else? -- a giant sled descending from the tower to ring in the new year. From the small perch high atop the tower, I can make out the gravel rail bed behind the Old Sled Works where boxcars once were loaded with sleds by the thousands. Back on the ground, I return to the soda fountain, where 71-year-old Shirley Koller is making her semi-annual visit "to see my old soda fountain." Koller began working at this same soda fountain at Bennett's Pharmacy in Harrisburg as a 13-year-old. "You were supposed to be 14," she says, "but back then, they didn't care. My gosh, I think we sold cigarettes for something like 7 cents a pack." That was when life seemed to revolve around the corner drugstore and its soda fountain. But the advent of fast food and suburbia in the 1950s changed all that. Before long, Main Street drugstores were either shutting their doors or removing the fountains to stock more profitable items like perfume and cosmetics. Today, nostalgia buffs are fueling something of a fountain revival. The National Association of Soda Jerks, which was formed in 1990, has grown to more than 1,000 members. In the Baltimore area, Hampden's Hometown Girl installed an old-time soda fountain two years ago. As I prepared to leave the arcade and return to 2004, I glanced back once more. Moe is still bopping Curly on the nose, and Sterner is still dispensing hometown charm along with those malts and cherry phosphates. "If my parents could see me now," she says, "they wouldn't believe it." When you go Getting there: Duncannon is about 80 miles from Baltimore. Take I-83 north to Pennsylvania Route 581 west to I-81 north. Then take Routes 11 and 15 north about 10 miles to Route 274 and follow the signs into Duncannon. The Old Sled Works is about three miles ahead at 722 N. Market St. The Old Sled Works, 722 N. Market St., Duncannon, PA 17020 717-834-9333 www.sledworks.com * The penny arcade, crafts and antiques vendors are open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The soda fountain is open weekends only from noon to 4 p.m. (Call ahead to make sure the fountain is open.) Children under the age of 10 must be accompanied by an adult in the arcade area. Admission to the building is free. Admission to the Duncannon fire tower is $1.50. * If all the memorabilia has you longing for an authentic touch of the '50s, stop by Atomic Warehouse (www.atomicwarehouse.com) in Harrisburg on your way home. The store is stocked with three floors of '50s and '60s furniture, appliances, advertisements and more.
1. Rachel Craft of Lemoyne, Pa., waits for her ice cream at the Old Sled Works' soda fountain.
2. The factory produced Lightning Guider sleds from 1904 to 1990.
3. Duncannon, Pa. 1. Susannah Dowell : Special to the Sun
3. Sun Staff
