The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 31, 2005, Page 9, Image 9
SpecialtoTWY. GAMECOCK
| Jim Casale, above, and his brother-in-law run the Knit Whit shop in
Chestnut Hill, Pa. Casale inherited the shop from his mother.
KniTTlDG • COminUED fRfldl 8
across from her and watching. I
knit backwards because I
copied her, mirror image.”
Marge Casale was an expert
knitter who was taught by her
grandmother. In the store, she
led knitting classes, designed
her own patterns, and even
developed a syllabus in
knitting for the Philadelphia
College of Textiles and
Sciences (now Philadelphia
. University).
* The Casale family lived
above the store, which is
located on the ground level of
the historic Detweiler House at
8226 Germantown Ave. And
because the Knit With was
literally part of his home, Jim,
now 50, found himself working
there, too.
But he was never supposed to
be the one to take over the
business. He graduated from
Penn State Dickinson School of
Law in Carlisle and then moved
back to Philadelphia to work at
a firm in Center City. He
| would stop by the store on
weekends to lend a hand —
getting a mailing list together,
going over the books.
Jim Casale said he learned to
knit from his little sister when
he was in the store one weekend
and a customer asked him for
help.
“I could read patterns. I
could pick yarn, but I didn’t
know how to knit,” he recalled.
“So my sister taught me, in the
storeroom, in something like
10 minutes.”
In 1978, Marge and her
husband, Michael Casale,
divorced, and suddenly the
shop became her primary
source of income.
“When my mom was having
a hard time keeping the
business going after the
divorce, my brother gave up
everything and moved back
home to help us out,” Dawn
Giampa recalls.
Dawn Giampa finished
college and eventually found a
job as a banker.
In 2002, Marge Casale, then
72, was diagnosed with ovarian
cancer.
“When she was too weak to
come into the shop, she’d ask
me who came in and what they
were working on,” Jim said.
“She kept up with everything;
she even kept in touch with the
knitting trends.”
After Marge Casale died in
July 2004, more than 400
people attended her funeral at
Our Mother of Consolation
Church in Chestnut Hill. At
least half, Jim said, were
customers.
Sweepstakes pros clean up
Serious “sweepers”say investment
of time yields entertainment, prizes
Kristen 0. Graham
KRT CAMPUS
PHILADELPHIA — Jane Abo
of Cherry Hill, N.J., blasts
through, at least 10,000 index
cards a year. Nicole Maurer of
Bensalem, Pa., has parlayed a
fun stay-at-home-mom
pastime into a serious side job.
Abo and Maurer are part of
a national network of people
who take entering contests and
sweepstakes very seriously.
Between the two, they’ve
racked up big checks, luxerious
trips, pricey jewelry, even a car.
“It’s a wonderful, wonderful
hobby,” said Abo, 52, who’s
been a “sweeper” for 30 years.
“You can win anything.”
Well, maybe it’s not just a
hobby.
First, Abo earned a degree in
theater. Then she went on a
game show, the now-defunct
“Musical Chairs.” That
experience made her hungry
for more wins, so she bought a
book about sweepstaking, and
never looked back.
That was 1975.
When her sons, now 24 and
21, were young, Abo would get
a baby-sitter and leave the
house with her husband to sit
in his accounting office for a
few hours, writing out
envelopes, forms and notecards
and making meticulous marks
in her various sweepstakes
notebooks.
Abo works as a teachers aide
at Cherry Hill High School
East, but she usually manages
to get in a few hours’ worth of
sweepstaking per day. She
enters a few contests, which
involve skill, but she mostly
sticks to sweepstakes, which
are purely games of chance.
In her living room, just past
the tiny decorative grand piano
— a sweepstakes prize — is an
entire wall unit jammed with
notebooks, folders, win letters,
and other supplies.
Sure, it’s not uncommon for
her to fill out hundreds of
envelopes in a single day. And
yes, Abo is drinking a lot of Dr
Pepper just now because son
Benjamin, 24, wants a Mini
Cooper and she’s got to get
tons of game pieces so she can
score one for him.
But the wins? They make it
all worth it, she says.
There was the inflatable
boat big enough for four. The
sapphire-and-diamond ring.
The $3,000 treadmill, the
iPod, the new screen door, the
two-foot plush Scooby-Doo
doll, the trip to the Napa
Valley with personal chefs
included.
I ve shot basketball at
Madison Square Garden. I
won tickets to the Super Bowl,
sold the tickets to the game,
and went shopping in Atlanta
with my sister,” Abo said.
And yes, she does pay taxes
on her winnings — her
husband the accountant makes
sure of that. She donates a fair
amount of her winnings, such
as the customized soccer
uniforms, and gives many
away as presents to her family.
Of course, she has had some
just plain strange victories.
Take the Morris the Cat
episode. On a lark, Abo
entered a contest that
guaranteed the winner and the
winner’s cat a catered meal.
Her name was drawn in that
sweepstakes, but she found
herself confronted with a
problem: She had no cat.
So she borrowed a neighbors
feline, put up a “We Love
Morris!” sign, and welcomed a
tuxedoed butler to the house.
Years later, Abo still laughs
hard at those photographs.
“Recently, I won a three-lap
high-speed chase on a
NASCAR track,” Abo said. “I
haven’t called to arrange that
yet. I’m not sure if I want to.”
And even after 30 years
sweeping, she still has
unfulfilled goals.
“I want to win a car,” she
said. “And I’ve always wanted
to win a walk-on part in a
movie.”
Special to TI|E GAM ECOCK
“Sweeper” Jane Abo shows off some of the prizes she’s won in her
30 years of entering sweepstakes.
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