Glenolden Park by Richard Lloyd

Glenolden Park is a beautifully crafted memoir of the early Forties in narrative verse by Richard Lloyd. Set in a blue-collar community close to Philadelphia, the book recounts the free-spirited adventures of the author and his friends, as well as the doings of local characters like Johnny the Cop. In the background of these often humorous and mischievous tales is the stark reality of the war. While poems such as “V-E Day” and “V-J Day” capture the reaction of the home front to welcome news, by contrast “Uncle Joe Home From the War” depicts the broken spirit of a returning veteran who was a larger than life hero to the youth.

In the community of Glenolden, the park was the main attraction for its children. It held two ponds and a creek with a tunnel and a B&O railroad nearby. Today the same quiet neighborhood surrounds the fabled park.

Richard Lloyd was born in 1938 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. He resided in Glenolden until age ten, when the Lloyd family moved to Marshallton, Pennsylvania. He attended high school in West Chester and served in the US army until retiring in 1978. A teacher at Oakland Technical High School, Oakland, California, he was also a counselor in Juvenile Hall, Marin County, California. His background also includes conducting Race Relations seminars for the defense department in Thailand and San Francisco. Presently he designs and remodels houses employing recycled material. Poetry has been his avocation for over sixty years.