The following morning, Saturday morning, while driving down the Boulevard looking for a breakfast eatery we soon came upon an IHOP,
I grew up in two houses, The Old House on Barnett Street and The New House, though after a while The New House was no longer referred to by us as The New House, and became just our house.
The Old House on Barnett Street was located in Lower Northeast Philly - Lower referring to the most southern areas closer to downtown - in the neighborhood known as Mayfair.
Far Northeast Philly, on the other hand, refers to the most northern areas of the Northeast. The New House was located in the Somerton neighborhood of the Far Northeast.
So we drove south along the Roosevelt Boulevard,
But in revisiting the place 57 years later, I can see that it's not just a matter of its size having been amplified by my childhood memories:
After we'd looked over St. Tim's
One time when I was strolling around the block by myself as I often did, I caught two boys lighting matches that they had wedged into the doorway. I figured they were trying to burn the Devon down because it was such a bad place. After they ran away I hurried over to the door of the Devon and, my heart pounding in fear of the building exploding into fire, quickly blew out all the matches.
While Tom and I were standing in the alley the owner of the old house came outside. He was from Kazakhstan and spoke little English but I was able to convey to him the I used to live in his house and he was able to convey that he'd lived there for six years,
I would love to have seen what the old house looks like on the inside but the owner did not invite us in.
So we instead said good-bye to him and took a walk around the block,
Turned out Haegele's was still there,