When we published our special Remember When section on Wednesday (see the blog entry below this one), it brought back a lot of memories for many residents throughout the area.

Quite a few called or e-mailed to tell us they remembered this or that, and what fun it was to see the old diners, speedway, amusement parks and the like.

But two people helped us add a bit of information to what we published, so we’d like to offer that today.

Jerry Bertucciati of Ambler both called and stopped in to help solve one of the mysteries of a photo of the former White’s Line Diner, which had been located in Upper Gwynedd.

He and his late wife, Donna, were the couple that had been listed as “unidentified” in a photo that showed the diner decorated for the holidays.



Bertucciati said it was a New Year’s Eve gathering — and he had a copy of the same photo we published.

“I don’t know how we even got the photo,” he said. “Maybe they sold them there. It’s just so great to see this photo — it brings me full circle.

“My wife was pregnant when that photo was taken; unfortunately she lost the baby shortly after that,” he said.

Now he also has lost his wife, but the photo still brought him great joy.

“I had forgotten about it. I never thought I’d see it again, and then I opened the paper and there it was,” he said. “It brought back great memories.”

Also show in this photo are, at back from left, Charlie Delp, Lou Cardy, Bobby Landis; the couple in front of them that HAD been unidentified but we now know are Jerry and Donna Bertucciati; the young man standing in the back is Al Zeller and next to him is Dave Mayberry, and sitting next to him is Royce Heebner. In the booth near the front is Arlene Miller with an unidentified boy with his back to the camera. Sitting near the back is “Deppie” Detwiler and the man sitting in front of him is Norris Anders.

The other photo was taken by Ray Masser at the Hatfield Speedway and shows an accident that took out part of the outer metal fence; behind the fence, the Wayne Avenue water tower can be seen.


It turns out that Howard Bilger, who delivers The Times Herald, a sister paper to The Reporter, was driving car 36 when the accident occurred.

“I raced at the speedway just about every Saturday night,” Bilger, of Lansdale, said. “I was bruised a little in that accident, but not really hurt.

“And I wouldn’t let a little thing like that stop me from racing,” he said.

He raced there for five or six years, he said, and then was out of racing for several years. He moved to Arizona and when he came back, then raced at Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville.

He said racing was great, but noted that he certainly wouldn’t speed around the area as he delivers his newspapers.

Thanks, Jerry and Howard, for helping us bring a bit more life to these photos!