I Am Collingswood

Walter Schlitz and the Curious Case of the Collingswood Card Game Controversy

The most recent subject 'I Am Collingswood' is a cribbage fan—not canasta, as initially reported—but our story helped him discover a relative in town.

Readers of my column "I Am Collingswood" may remember my latest installment on the subject of the irrepressible Walter Schlitz, a 99-year-old Collingswood resident in search of a canasta partner. It turns out I had Mr. Schlitz's game of choice all wrong: He is a cribbage player, and doesn't much care for canasta at all. He set me straight in an email about a week after the article was published. “The game is CRIBBAGE not Canasta,” Schlitz wrote. “Must I now learn to play it??” I'm not familiar with either game, so I met up with him to learn some more about the finer points of cribbage. Schlitz produced a leather carrying case about the size of a pack of cigarettes. Within were pegs and a scoreboard that he says are used in conjunction with…

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Collingswood Businesses Partnering Up in the Post-Christmas Daze

The garland's come down, and the summer dollars are months away. So what are borough businesses doing to drive traffic in the winter?

Look around your favorite Haddon Avenue shops these days, and you might be surprised at what’s in their inventories. It’s not that they’re carrying anything unusual. But they are carrying more and different items, sharing more products among themselves, and fitting out their displays with products from their neighbors.  Like that mint green dress that perfectly matches the swing-arm lamp in the window of Dig This? Surprise, it’s from Frugal Resale (whose monthly ladies night is catered by neighbors at Casona and The Candy Jar). Picking up a bottle or two of olive oil at Blue Moon? You might also go home with a handmade dipping tray produced by local artist Eric Wolff. This kind of cross-promotion helps sustain the flow of business in the …

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Aaron Kuhn

12:24 pm on Monday, February 11, 2013

Collingswood has a parking map here: http://www.collingswood.com/getting-here , but it doesn't have the kiosks on it With you on the hours though. I love Collingswood and know lots of folks there (including Reed) but I would find myself so often trying to go to a store and finding it closed that I kind of just gave up trying to shop downtown.   more ›

Bonanza in the Streets: Collingswood Cash Sale Saturday

This year, the borough is giving away $50,000 in bonus cash through its Business Improvement District tax. In all, $175,000 will be up for grabs, starting at 9 a.m. Saturday.

In the elements and the early morning hours this Saturday, in advance of Black Friday, Collingswood residents will make their annual offering to the season as the town hosts its Collingswood Cash bonus promotion. For an extremely limited time—less than an hour elapsed before it all sold out in 2011—residents can pick up a bonus $20 for every $50 in Collingswood Cash they purchase. The bonus cash must be spent by March 31, 2013, which will ensure that it is used to stimulate first-quarter sales in the borough; regular Collingswood Cash has no expiration date. The borough is making $125,000 in Collingswood Cash available through the promotion. The Business Improvement District (BID) tax, an assessment levied on shops and restaurants in the …

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Beer, Video Games and a Bridge to the Past

At last Friday's Atari party, friends and neighbors filled Dig This with the sounds of eight-bit electronics and old stories.

They came from up the block and across town. They came bearing cardboard boxes of old electronics components. They came with easy smiles, toting their children in hand and helping themselves to a beverage with the other. But at last Friday’s Atari Party at Dig This, Collingswood neighbors came out mostly to reconnect with a little piece of their childhood. There were excited shouts when an old, favorite title resurfaced. Dads nudged their sons, handing down stories about money and time and youth misspent in pursuit of irredeemably high scores. And for their part, the next generation took to the old titles with gusto. Despite growing up in the era of high-definition video games, Jesse Teer, 13, said the comparatively simpler Atari games are…

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Atari Party Friday at Dig This

The store that does retro is dusting off the cartridge-based videogame console for its customers at 7 p.m.

Vintage furniture dealer Dig This specializes in turning back the clock on classic furniture and home décor. This Friday, owner Reed Orem is also dialing back the pixels with its first-ever eight-bit video game party. What’s a more authentic setting for a gaming session than a room that feels like a 1980s den? “We’re going to set up a couple video systems, set up a couple of vignettes,” he says. “We’ll set them up like someone’s living room.” From 7 p.m. on, guests will be able to stop by, have a drink with the boss and curl up in one of three staged areas with an old friend: Atari. Last week was the 40th anniversary of America’s oldest TV gaming system, which Orem discovered when planning the event. “We were trying to think of things that…

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Dig This: Bringing Retro Back to Haddon Ave.

Here's a throwback: a Collingswood storefront that's being used for retail space.

In searching for a name that would encapsulate the business model of his Haddon Avenue furniture storefront, Reed Orem knew he’d struck gold when a friend came up with Dig This. It’s a moniker that perfectly captures his selection of vintage Danish modern and mid-century furniture as well as the way in which he acquired it; the reclamation of retro-cool. “If you see the furniture on Mad Men, that’s the kind of stuff that’s driving renewed interest,” Orem says. “It’s a lot different from hard lines and dark furniture, which seems to be popular.” Orem says he prefers a coffee-stained coffee table to one with a flawless finish because it’s a detail that demonstrates use. “You’re going to use it for the same purpose,” he says. “I like the idea…

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