PILESGROVE TWP. — When Jeff Clarke noticed an old rustic wooden sign leaning against a wall in the back of a local gift shop, he froze.

His wife Rhonda said he was completely still, eyes locked on the weathered piece.

"What is it?" she asked him in the back of Engiftments and Annie's Vintage Venue at the intersection of U.S. Route 40 and East Lake Road.

“That’s my dad and stepmom’s sign to their old store," he said.

It had been 40 years since Jeff Clarke had seen the sign on the store owned by his father, Gilbert Clarke, and stepmother, Donna, called the Sea Robin Seafood, in the mid–1970s.

The store, which was located at East Main and Smith Avenue in Penns Grove, was open for a couple years, but closed in 1978. And until last week, it remained a distant and near-forgotten memory.

“I hadn’t thought about their store in years,” said Jeff Clarke, who grew up in Pennsville but now lives in Alloway. “Immediately after seeing and recognizing the sign, I called and texted photos to my stepmother who still lives in Florida and my older brother, Kevin.”

The 3-foot-by-4-foot white plywood sign — its frame uniquely carved — has the store's name painted in old English-style black lettering, “Crabs, Fish and Clams” below and an outline of a sailboat and a whale painted in the top right corner.

Jeff Clarke, his wife, and older brother Kevin, of Pennsville, went to pick up the sign from on Engiftments Friday. Eleanor Zane, member of both the Pennsville and Penns Grove historical societies, was also there for the auspicious occasion.

When Jeff Clarke first came into Cheryl Abhau's store, she hadn’t seen him since attending Pennsville Memorial High School more than 30 years ago.

The narrative deeply intertwined, the group reminisced.

“I recall my stepmom and father being so happy to be part of the American dream ... provide fresh delivered wholesale and retail seafood to the patrons of Penns Grove and surrounding restaurants in South Jersey,” said Jeff Clarke about the Sea Robin Seafood store which was opened when he was a child.

He also recalled his father drawing out the details of the sign, cutting the plywood for it to the desired shape and then driving it to his favorite freehand artist, Dick Henry, who lived on New Bridge Road in Lower Alloways Creek off New Bridge Road.

“I remembered as a child being amazed watching Mr. Henry use his finesse and a steady hand lettering and pin striping vehicles and signs of all kinds and now will be using those same skills on our sign,” he said.

After the sign was complete, Gilbert Clarke anchored a pipe and support chain to the building above the front window of the Sea Robin hang the sign.

Jeff’s stepmother, Donna Clarke, who is 64 and lives in Yulee, Florida today, said by telephone that she was overwhelmed and amazed when she found out the sign was still in existence.

“I was shocked that it hadn’t been destroyed,” she said.

But more than the sign itself, the uncovering brought back memories of a time before she was even married to Gilbert Clarke, who died in 2010.

Abhau said she got the sign from Jodee Johnson of Carneys Point, who had it in her basement for about 30 years.

Johnson said while the seafood store was in the process of being closed in the late 1970s, she noticed the sign and told her father how much she liked it. Her father returned not much later with the sign for her.

Johnson, who is an antiques collector, recently decided it was time to clean out some items from her basement and called Abhau.

“The sign had been down there for about 30 years,” she said. “And I’m really glad for the family to have the sign. It’s incredible how things turned out — but that’s how the world works.”

At Abhau’s store Friday, the long-lost sign was about to return to its family.

“Do you want to take it?” Jeff asked Kevin.

“I want you to have it,” Kevin said to his younger brother.

As they were leaving, the brothers paid homage to their father.

“He would have reacted the same way we did,” Jeff said with a smile, thinking about his late father. “He would have taken a day to tell you a story about it — laughing and telling jokes."

As Jeff put the sign in the back of his silver Nissan Titan pickup truck, he said he wanted to also pay homage to the artist of the sign.

“I really want to pay respect to him. I don’t know if he is alive or not, but I’d love to maybe get in contact with his family.”

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Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@southjerseymedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.