{"id":7149,"date":"2016-07-19T00:52:11","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T04:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"\/yorkspast\/?p=7149"},"modified":"2023-08-24T02:43:14","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T06:43:14","slug":"family-business-avalong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yorkblog.com\/yorkspast\/family-business-avalong\/","title":{"rendered":"Working in the Family Business; Avalong Farms Dairy Bar"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Avalong<\/a>
Avalong Fairways Miniature Golf along Mt. Zion Road in Springettsbury Township<\/strong> (Sunday Aug. 16, 1964 Artwork by Cliff Satterthwaite)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Capt. Dick Wolfe provided memories of his families\u2019 business; Avalong Farms Dairy Bar, which stood on the northwest corner of Whiteford Road and Mt. Zion Road in Springettsbury Township.<\/strong> Dick\u2019s early work experiences provide some neat Avalong recollections and more accurately pinpoint estimated dates in last years post Avalong Farms Miniature Golf & Arnold Palmer Driving Range.<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year Cliff Satterthwaite submitted this drawing of the miniature golf course, located along Mt. Zion Road, behind the dairy bar; he drew it August 16, 1964.<\/strong> In a previous post, I incorrectly believed he did this drawing when the course opened. Dick Wolfe pinpoints the opening to 1960.<\/strong> If you are reading this on the Ydr.com site, click on this LINK<\/a> for a Full View of the illustrations in this post on the original YorkBlog site; since the ydr.com site will occasionally cut off important details in the cropping of illustrations.<\/p>\n

Quoting the comments submitted by Capt. Dick Wolfe:<\/p>\n

\u201cAvalong Fairways Miniature Golf\u201d was constructed in five weeks (from the last week of April to Memorial Day weekend) in 1960.\u00a0 Joanne Long (my sister), her husband Clyde and his brother Ken were partners in the project and hired a firm from Margate, New Jersey to build it.\u00a0 The name of the construction company was \u201cFairways Miniature Golf\u201d and we had to use their name as part of the contract.\u00a0 Fairways later became part of the Arnold Palmer consortium and also did the construction in 1965 when we remodeled the miniature golf course and built the driving range.<\/p>\n

The reason I\u2019m sure of the dates is I was twelve years old in the summer of 1960 and I was the \u201ckid\u201d waiting on customers during that and the following summers.\u00a0 A prominent judge raised the question shortly after we opened, when as a customer; he asked how old I was.\u00a0 He then went to my sister (Joanne) and not so politely asked, \u201cHow can you employ a 12-year-old at the golf course?\u201d \u00a0She responded that I was her brother and since I was a member of the family, the state\u2019s employment laws, working papers requirement, etc. didn\u2019t apply. \u00a0(I had been an employee since I was seven.)<\/p>\n

He went on to push the issue \u201csomewhere\u201d and was told she was correct, but he never apologized to my sister and she remembered and talked about this incident many times until she died in September 1997. \u00a0My sister\u2019s full maiden name was Elizabeth Joanne Wolfe and my brother-in-law\u2019s full name was Donald Clyde Long.\u00a0 It’s interesting that both went by their middle name. Clyde Long died the same year; in February of 1997.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dick has memories of where the design of the curb service Drive-In originated.<\/strong> The Springettsbury Township Historic Preservation Committee has a tiny, grainy black and white photo of the Avalong Farms Dairy Bar Drive-In; I enlarged it and added some color. The photo is dated August 12, 1965, and is a view of the Drive-In looking eastwardly from along Whiteford Road.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking East along Whiteford Road towards Avalong Dairy Bar Drive-In on August 12, 1965<\/strong> (Springettsbury Township Historic Preservation Committee; Colorized by S. H. Smith)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Continuing with comments submitted by Capt. Dick Wolfe:<\/p>\n

In 1961, we built the dining room addition, the curb service roof and installed the \u201ccar call\u201d system during that summer. Joanne and Clyde got the idea for the roof design and \u201ccar call\u201d system while vacationing in California earlier that year. The \u201ccar call\u201d switchboard had room for 60 speakers.\u00a0 Initially we had 40 under the roof and shortly (I would say within two or three months) as dictated by demand, we added another twenty; which we called the \u201cback row\u201d and not under roof, which brought the operational count to 60.<\/p>\n

Moving ahead to 1965.\u00a0 I was a senior at Central High School and one afternoon, in I would say mid-April, I reported for work to my usual \u201ccashier\/milk and ice cream seller\u201d job and Clyde told me to go out and tear down three sections of fence on Mt. Zion Road, just beyond the miniature golf course because two tractor\/trailers were coming with building supplies.\u00a0 I asked what was being built and he explained to me that he and my sister were becoming the principal owners\/partners of a new driving range and remodeled miniature golf course.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Avalong<\/a>
Avalong Farms Quart and Half-Gallon Glass Milk Bottles<\/strong> (Submitted by Capt. Dick Wolfe)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Continuing with comments submitted by Capt. Dick Wolfe:<\/p>\n

At any rate, after the driving range opened, I was the manager during that summer.\u00a0 At the end of that summer I went to college, other work and never returned to the family business. My dad, \u201cGene\u201d (short for Eugene) Wolfe, was assistant manager of the restaurant; he ordered all of the food and made the soups.\u00a0 His chile and clam chowder were very popular and sold well.\u00a0 He was known by the family and many employees as \u201cPop Wolfe.\u201d\u00a0 Dad died in 1977, twenty-seven years to the date of Alva Long\u2019s purchasing settlement on the Robertson farm (January 3, 1950).<\/p>\n

My mother was Anna Wolfe and just about everybody called her \u201cMom Wolfe.\u201d Mom was famous for her apple dumplings; she retired from Avalong in 1980 and died in 1992.\u00a0 I went on to a 30-year career, primarily in Human Resources at Caterpillar and retired when the plant closed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks to Capt. Dick Wolfe for sharing these neat recollections of Avalong Farms Dairy Bar and for setting the record straight on dates associated with the miniature golf course and driving range.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Links to related posts include:<\/p>\n