Girlhood friends Dorothy (Jones) Dissinger, left, and Betty (Gross) Crol share memories of their childhood in Hebron recently. The two women grew up together, but they lost touch when they became adults. They were reunited last year neighbors again in the same retirement home, Linden Village, 100 Tuck St., North Cornwall Township. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS JEREMY LONG)
It all started with an old photo.

Two Hebron classmates in the 1920s are neighbors again - about 50 years later at Linden Village


In the 1920s, Dorothy (Jones) Dissinger and several of her girl friends posed for a photo, each holding a baby doll, outside the one-room school at Sixth Avenue and Walnut Street in Hebron. Her friend and neighbor, Betty (Gross) Crol, stood next to her. The two friends grew up and eventually married, but they lost contact with each other.

After about 50 years, they are neighbors again - in the same retirement home, North Cornwall Township's Linden Village.

They may not have remembered each other, except for that old photo taken when they were little girls. Michelle Kendy, program services coordinator at Linden Village, 100 Tuck St., said Dissinger came to live at the retirement home in April 2008.

Michelle Kendy, program services coordinator at Linden Village, points out Betty (Gross) Crol, left, and Dorothy (Jones) Dissinger in a 1920s photo taken in Hebron. Thanks to the photo, the girls now women were reunited at the retirement home last year after more than half a century. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS JEREMY LONG)

She brought the photo with her.

"She would tell me the names of the girls. She told me that was Betty Gross," Kendy recalled, pointing to Crol in the photo.

Last June, Crol moved into the retirement home, "and I asked her what her maiden was, and when she told me she was Betty Gross, and I said, 'Are you from Hebron?' She said yes," Kendy recalled.

Kendy reintroduced the two friends, both born in 1923.

When Dissinger saw her friend, she said, "Oh, my God. I can't believe it."

Kendy said it was exciting for the two women to meet again.

"They grew up together. They went to school together. They always went to Laudermilch's to shop for their dresses," Kendy said, recalling the stories Dissinger told her. "And then they

Crol and Dissinger exchanged stories of their younger days, joking about the mischief they used to get into as young girls and how they met their husbands.

"I can't believe it," Dissinger said as she looked again at her friend in the activities rooms last week.

"I haven't changed," Crol responded with a smile.

Looking at a photo from the 1920s, Dorothy (Jones) Dissinger points to some of her girlhood friends in Hebron. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS JEREMY LONG)

By CHRIS SHOLLY

Source: ldnews.com