The title comes from a button in Barry Sherwin's collection. Barry Sherwin was a former borough councilman in Media, PA and one the first Democrats elected in our borough since before the Civil War (or maybe ever, Delaware County has been a Republican machine from the late 1800's and I can't remember what the county was before the Republican party formed.) He died the Monday after Hurricane Irene. The memorial service was Sunday morning (11Am). I knew Barry only casually. We were both active Media Democrats. I had moved to town at the end of 2005. Barry lived here for decades and served on Borough Council for 20 years. But even from our casual acquaintance, I would have liked more time to get to know Barry.
I moved into Media because it was on several bus and trolley lines. I expected to use them to get to the Springfield and Granite Run malls, but surprisingly Media has such a thriving business district that I didn't need to use SEPTA very much. They said the malls would kill Media when the malls first opened in the late seventies and early eighties but Media's business district is still going strong, even with the recession. It's Granite Run Mall that's in trouble. The work of Barry Sherwin and others on the Borough Councils over the last twenty years certainly deserves part of the credit.
Barry's work on borough council isn't what impressed me though. What impressed me most was how Barry seemed to know everyone in town. Barry talked to everyone from the aging hippies to Lilah. Lilah is two and 1/2. Barry worked as a programmer on the old mainframes when programmers used COBAL/COBALT (sp?), but he also associated with 30 something web designers.
While many of the older generation at Barry's memorial service were still in shock, because he'd died suddenly, I found the old photos and newspaper clippings to be a fascinating lesson in local history. I was introduced to one of Barry's sons beforehand; a large guy who reminded of a football linebacker. It was hard to believe this guy was the same as the newborn Barry was holding in the old photographs. In other photographs, there were people who looked just like the Media Democrats I knew, except their hair was so much darker! What really got me, though, was Barry's old buttons. Barry had been active in the peace movement and he had saved plenty of his old buttons, including one from about thirty years ago. The button said: Jobs not War and underneath that:US out of El Salvador. With only a slight edit, I could wear it now and no one would be the wiser. Just change the country and voila! Barry may have been (and even looked like) and old hippie, but he was right. I just wish his buttons weren't so relevant.