On Friday, November 16, I was once again at the "One of Us" Columbus airport. (See posts from 4/29/2018, "What's So Funny At The Columbus Airport" and 4/30/2018, "One Of Us! One Of Us!"). |
This time I was traveling with Tom, |
....on our way to a week-long visit with our daughter, son-in-law and grand children in Los Angeles, |
My 1969 high school year book, The Rose. Note the psychedelic color scheme, which was in vogue at that time.
My year book photo. |
The following morning, Saturday morning, while driving down the Boulevard looking for a breakfast eatery we soon came upon an IHOP, where we found the food and service to be exceptionally good.
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, "...the great artery that pumped twelve lanes of traffic through the heart of Northeast Philadelphia," (That's a quote from my book, page 11).
St. Timothy's Church. |
...or that its grounds took up a square city block of Levick Street, |
... bounded on the corners by Battersby and Hawthorne Streets, |
...the name of which has been changed from St. Timothy's to Blessed Trinity. |
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: St. Timothy's- now Blessed Trinity - really is a big school.
Directly across the street from St. Timothy's was the even bigger public school, Ethan Allen, Northeast Philadelphia being a teeming East Coast population center when I was young, as it still is today.
After we'd looked over St. Tim's we crossed Hawthorne and walked down Levick towards Barnett Street,
...and our Old House, 4020 Barnett Street, at the corner of Charles street. |
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.
Evidently the Devon is now the Kingdom Life Christian center. |
...and the alley between the Devon and the row houses where my friends, siblings, and myself used to play has been blocked off and trashed. |
...and the drug store on the corner at the end of the block that we called Bud's, |
As for our Old House on Barnett Street, I thought it looked pretty nice, if a bit worn. |
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, and that he'd built the deck on the side of the house.
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,