As told to C. Burley Zerbe.
I feel I’m indeed a true “Tyroner.” I was born at 310 W. 11th St. on September 23, 1925. And, as were both of my parents, I was raised in Tyrone. They were Harry Irvin Getz and Alice Christine (Wooden) Getz. Daddy was born in Northwood. He had four brothers and one sister — children of Henry and Minnie (Werner) Getz. One brother died during the great flu epidemic. Fred was a tinner, Charles owned a meat market, Victor worked at the paper mill, and sister Gertie married Harry Reed and lived all her life in Tyrone.
Mother was the youngest of five children of Adam Matice Wooden and Laura (Holmes) Wooden. One of Mother’s sisters, Ada, married John Smith, of England, and lived most of her life in western Canada. Another of Mother’s sisters, Flo, married Alvin Andrew, a civil engineer, and she returned to Tyrone to live right next door to us. In fact, our house was a double house on 11th St., right across from St. Matthew’s Church.
Uncle Andy and ‘Fofo’ had two children: Mary Jane and John, who were a little older than we, but were great companions in our early days. Mother and Fofo were wonderful cooks and took turns having both families for holiday dinners. There was a large front porch where we spent many an hour in the summertime. I remember the Decoration Day parades coming up the street on their way to Grandview Cemetery for services. One fun thing about the double house was a cupboard in the kitchen where the sisters could talk to each other through the common wall.
Twins
We had an older sister, Jane Christine Getz. I say we because I had a twin, Richard Wooden Getz. Dick and I were only twenty minutes apart; I was the younger. The story is that an older lady in the neighborhood went around that birth day saying, “Alice has a son,” then later, “Alice has a daughter.” Friends told her to make up her mind — which was it? In those days, twins sometimes were a great surprise!
Jane was nine years older than we were. She attended American University, in Washington, D.C. after graduating from Tyrone High School in 1934.
The Cottage at Twin Oaks
In the summer, our families went to “the cottage” for a Sunday meal and fun. The cottage was an old farmhouse near Bald Eagle named Twin Oaks. Five couples from town jointly owned the property: Mr. & Mrs. Joe Dickson, Mr. & Mrs. Bob Owens, Dr. & Mrs. Walter Lotz, Mr. & Mrs. John Hiller, Mr. & Mrs. Alvin Andrew, and our parents. The cottage had no telephone and originally had only an outhouse. Later, girl scouts and boy scouts had parties there, always with a chaperone.
Joe Dickson and his wife, Edith (Gibbs), were special family friends, living only a block away on Lincoln Ave. The Dicksons had three boys: George, Joe, and John. In the 1940s, John was the first state wrestling champion from Tyrone High School.
Daddy’s Bakery and Funeral Home
In the 1930s, Daddy and Uncle Joe went into the bakery business together — the Getz and Dickson Bakery. Uncle Joe had been a captain in the Army during the First World War. Daddy was working as an assistant to Samuel Graham Sr., the undertaker in Tyrone. A remembered item in the bakery was “Big Joe” bread.
After the war, Daddy and Uncle Joe dissolved their partnership. Uncle Joe became the first Tyrone man to become a Blair County Commissioner. Daddy then opened his own funeral home on Pennsylvania Ave., where the HealthSouth Rehab Center now is located. Before the place was ready, he held his first funeral in our living room, on 11th St. I remember we were banished to the upstairs and told to stay there until the services were over! In later years, Daddy joined Samuel Graham Jr. in business on West 10th St. — the Graham and Getz Funeral Home.
Holmes and Wooden Ancestors
My mother’s maternal grandfather was Jonathan Lorenzo Holmes, married to Laura Matthews, of Shirleysburg. Jonathan was a Baptist minister whose church was on Logan Ave., now part of the Sheetz complex. Pastor Holmes was very active in the community. He was the founder of the Tyrone Cemetery (now called Grandview Cemetery), formed in 1858, and the Tyrone Gas and Water Company, formed in 1865.
In 1880, Jonathan established the Tyrone Times newspaper, in partnership with A. M. Wooden, Laura’s husband. Wooden also had a confectionery store in downtown Tyrone. My mother remembers him bringing fireworks home after the store closed for the Fourth of July, and they had a fireworks display at their home on Cameron Ave., beside the “turkey path.”
School and the 1942 Accident
Dick and I attended the old Logan Elementary School — the big red building on Logan Ave. and 14th St. We always were in the same room, which didn’t bother us too much. We then went on to the junior and senior high schools, both located on Lincoln Ave. I loved school, although Dick was a better student.
In the late summer of 1942, before starting my senior year, I was in an accident at Bland’s Park (now DelGrosso’s Amusement Park). Bob Hughes, Don Hubert, Evelyn Edmondson, and I were at the Clover Farm picnic. While we were going on a swing-type ride, the back cable on the airplane ride broke, throwing us out of the plane. Evelyn was killed in that accident, and I spent a week or so in the Altoona Hospital. The boys were not badly hurt.
That incident, however, forced me to start my senior year a little late.
I loved high school; it was such a fun time. We had a wonderful crowd of friends to do things with. This period was during World War II, so everything was geared toward winning the war. But we still had dances, hayrides, ice-skating, and swimming. We had no gas for joy-riding in cars, but we didn’t need that. We walked everywhere, especially to the Tuesday and Friday dances at Reservoir Park. Some of the boys in our class already were going to the services, so that put a damper on some activities. But we still had the Holly Hop, the Bunny Hop, and the Prom.
Stephens College and Penn State
After high school graduation, I went to an all-girls junior college named Stephens College, in Columbia, Missouri, where I took a two-year secretarial course. I boarded a train in Altoona in the fall of 1943 to go to Columbia, not knowing a soul. While there, however, I made many friends and still keep in touch with several girls.
After completing the course at Stephens, I took a secretarial job at Penn State, in State College, and lived there with the McClintock family (friends who had lived on Park Ave., Tyrone). When the war was over, I returned to Tyrone to work at the telephone exchange in the Jones Building. After a few years there, I went back to the same job at Penn State, commuting there with Bucky Baldrige and Bob Klesius.
Marrying ‘Dickie’ Rodgers
By this time, I was dating William Fleck Rodgers, who became my husband on December 20, 1948. Bill was a few years older than I, born in 1917. He was a member of the old Troop B Cavalry that left Tyrone in a group early in World War II. He served stateside until the end of the war. I met Bill one night at The Villa, when all the fellows came home.
Bill was called ‘Dickie’ by some people because that was his nickname when he played baseball. He was an excellent athlete — a pitcher for the old Middle Division team and the VFW team. He played with such fellows as ‘Hard Eggs’ Snyder, ‘Scow’ Kennedy, ‘Boney’ James, and Howd Anderson.
That’s how Bill got his job at the Chicago Rivet & Machine Company. When the company came to town, he was one of the first to be hired to work at the building where the Wilson Chemical Co. stood on the hill. Roger Branstetter was manager and he wanted to start a Chicago Rivet baseball team. So Dickie was hired because he was a good pitcher. He was a top-notch bowler who rolled one of the first 300 games at the West End Lanes. He also was an superb archer and horseshoe pitcher.
We started our married life in a very small apartment at the head of 10th St. owned by Mrs. Edwin Hooker and later moved to an apartment owned by Jane Burnham Hughes. Subsequently, we bought a home back on Cameron Ave., where we raised our three children: Catherine Elizabeth, William Getz, and Ann Virginia. The house previously was owned by the Tyson family, whose son, Lloyd, was the radio play-by-play announcer for the Detroit Tigers baseball team in the 1930s. Lloyd made an impression on his listeners by opening his broadcasts with, “Good afternoon, boys and girls!”
My twin, Dick, married Norma Bair, of Lancaster, and they, too, lived on Cameron Ave. (at number 1209). So we all were in the same neighborhood, not far from my mother’s homestead. Cameron Ave. was alive with children in those days. They called the southern end of Cameron Ave. “the dead end,” where they could play games, and in the winter, sled-ride without worrying about vehicle traffic.
Working Years
I went back to work: First, part-time at Blatchford Furniture Store; then, part-time at the WTRN Radio Station; then, full-time at the First Presbyterian Church as secretary for twenty-one years. My first boss there was Dick Giffen, then Fred Dickerson, and then Chuck Swenson. After my husband retired, I took a job in the Grandview Cemetery office. That seemed full-circle, since my great grandfather had founded the cemetery. For the past ten years, I’ve been back at WTRN, working four hours a day, six days a week, and enjoy it very much.
Dickie worked at the Chicago Rivet & Machine Co. for many years, retiring in 1982. After living on Cameron Ave. for some thirty years, we built a home across from the high school, near Clay Ave. I missed Cameron Ave., but it wasn’t the same with my parents gone; and then Dick, my brother, died on December 11, 1988. At the time of his death, he was a partner in the Getz and Searer Funeral Home, on W. 10th St.
For several years, my husband Dickie and I enjoyed his retirement; even with me working part-time, we played golf, traveled a bit, and enjoyed living in Tyrone. Gradually, Dickie lost a sense of reality, and he required quite an amount of time and care. He died suddenly on December 9, 2003.
I sold the house and rented an apartment at Graystone Court. My cat, Buddy, and I made the transition, and we are quite content to be on our own — among old friends and new ones.
Civic Life
Over my many years in Tyrone, I have been fortunate to belong to a number of civic and social clubs. I was one of the charter members of the Women’s Club of Tyrone, now in its fifty-first year of existence. I was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Tyrone since my teen years. My husband was a longtime deacon, and now I’m serving on that same board. I was secretary at the church when the Presbyterian Nursery School was founded, with Beula Hitchens and Ginny Giffen as first teachers. I belonged to the Speer Bible Class and served as an officer, with wonderful Lillian Garman as our teacher. I continue to serve as treasurer of the Volunteer Church Meals organization and on the Grandview Cemetery board of directors.
At one time, many Tyrone women enjoyed playing bridge — a night out to play cards, talk, and eat lovely refreshments. Perhaps some will remember the big parties held at the American Legion, the Elks, and the Driftwood with twenty-plus tables of women playing bridge. We all were dressed up with hats and gloves.
Mrs. Garman always told us that everyone has a talent, and I wondered what in the world my own talent could be. Perhaps mine is the love of knitting. My mother was a very good knitter, teaching knitting lessons at the YMCA during the Second World War. She taught me to knit when I was a teenager, and I enjoy the hobby to this day.
I feel I’ve been blessed to have been born and raised in Tyrone, as my parents were. I have a wonderful family and many dear friends. I can’t imagine changing lives with anyone!
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