"Once upon a time..." a Cherry Hill Travel Page by ExGuyParis

I spent my high school daze in Cherry Hill, NJ-- Cherry Hill High School (West. The "west" was added my first year there.) The town, originally called Delaware Township, named itself after the incredibly popular shopping mall that attracted bus tours from as far away as New York. Most malls have been named after a town they are in, but in Cherry Hill, the town was named after the mall! Somehow fitting.

So many memories! Ponzio's, Gino's, Garwood Mills, the junior prom at the Cherry Hill Mall, the CHHSW musicals. "Lions Shine in '69" (Nothing sexual in this-- we were the Class of 1969-- but we got a lot of laughs out of our motto.)

Fondest memories: seeing the shows at the Latin Casino: Donna Summer, The Temptations, the Pointer Sisters, and, many times, The Supremes.

The Latin Casino is gone, replaced with a building that houses a Subaru office. What a tragedy. Other Cherry Hill losses-- Richmond's Ice Cream. I was horrified a few weeks ago when we drove to Richmond's to have lunch and discovered it was torn down. Also gone-- Chapel Pharmacy, a place I worked for several summers. Displaced, I suspect, by a CVS (a cold, soulless chain of pharmacies). Yuck. The Cherry Hill Inn is gone. The Hawaiian Cottage, a restaurant/nightclub with a gift shop shaped like a giant pineapple--gone.

Cherry Hill High School (West) was the home of thousands of baby boomers... close to 1000 in the class of 1969. Cherry Hill grew so fast a second high school was built--Cherry Hill East; its first class would graduate in 1970

Memories: sock hops in the gym, air raid drills, flower power, "Who is your favorite Beatle?," seeing Cream, Martha & the Vandellas, and Richard Chamberlain in West Side Story at the Camden County Music Fair.

There are no real hills in Cherry Hill, and not too many cherry trees. Here is one they stuck in front of Cherry Hill High School West.