Remembering Mrs. Lenore's - Old Neighborhood Candy Stores

I think everyone who's been around for a while remembers the old candy stores or variety stores we used to have here, and there were many. Before the days of 7-11s hitting South Philly, there were numerous small corner stores that sold candy, ice cream, cigarettes, newspapers, and a few other items. Not a tremendous selection, but good enough for the proprietors to make a living and to keep us satisfied.

The one I remember most is the store owned by Mrs. Lenore on Oregon Avenue, between Chadwick and Bancroft Streets. Doughterty Financial and Insurance now sits where her
store and Martin Real Estate used to be. Mrs. Lenore was a nice old lady. She ran the store Monday through Saturday until she got too old to do it anymore. She always smiled, and was always nice to her customers. One of the strange memories I have of her is when our ducks got loose from our yard (a gift from my brother's godmother at Easter) and made it to her store. She ran out hysterically, heading for our house because she knew they were ours. Fortunately, she and the ducks survived. Although she retired in the early 70's, I still remember her. Nothing lasts forever. I remember she bowed out in the early part of that decade, and an old neighbor, Ed Kane, bought her out. He never got the respect that Mrs. L got from everyone, and most of the kids harrassed him. Yet before he ran the store, he was always ready to give a kid a hand, fixing their bikes or giving them a ride to the store, never touching one of them.

Thinking back to her store, this was back when you got a choice of maybe eight flavors of Dolly Madison ice cream, no Baskin Robbins job where you got a selection of 48 flavors you'll probably never want. Eight was enough, and we were happy. The Evening Bulletin was still published, and was probably still a nickel at that time. You could still get candy for a penny each - remember "Grade A's", strips of candy buttons, and loose shoe-string licorice to name a few. Soda was sold in glass bottles with labels painted-on (10 oz, 16 oz, and quarts - no 2 liter bottles then). I still remember the red Coca-Cola cooler chest she had too with the built-in bottle opener. Back in the day when there was style and character, before the days of the True refrigerator cases where the logo of the soda manufaturer appears over the doors and a label on the glass said that only their products could be displayed in that case. Back before Mello Yellow, energy drinks, Cherry Coke, or Vanilla Coke. Tab was the main diet soda of the day, and it tasted like...well, it was nasty. Frank's was the local favorite for Cream, Black Cherry Wishniak, etc. Coke and 7-Up (remember their slogan "You like it, it likes you!"?) were the biggest sellers. There were no Altoids then, you'd most likely grab a pack of Sen-Sen if you had smoker's breath, or a roll of LifeSavers.




AND YOU MAY REMEMBER...
If you're from this neighborhood, you'll remember other stores that were similar, but not quite the same as Mrs. Lenore's....

...Rudy's - Bancroft & Shunk Streets (until late 70's)
...Richie's Variety - 16th & Oregon Ave. (Mid to late 70's)
...Harry's - (16th & Shunk Sts.) What did he sell anyhow?
...Fay's - (until late 70's, later Angel's) - Mole & Shunk Streets. In
contention with Richie's as maybe the most complete variety store around at the time.
...Ray's - Bouvier & Wolf Sts. (until early 80's). Bare-bones, actually made Mrs. Lenore's look like a convenience store.
...Mike's - (until mid 70's) - 17th & Wolf Streets. At the corner of my grandparents' block.
...The "monkey" store (until early 70's) - 16th & Wolf Sts. The owner actually had a pet monkey, said to be a nasty critter.

And that's by no means a complete list. These stores were all over the place, and all of them thrived. For you neighborhood folks, you'll probably remember others as you review.

If you'll notice, all the stores carried the owner's first name (except Mrs. Lenore's, I don't know if we ever knew her first name). And when you went in, Rudy would be Rudy, not some guy who bought the store from Rudy, came from outside the neighborhood, and knew no one.

South Philly merchants have changed. The old ways are gone, but the memories remain.

Photo from https://www.oldtimecandy.com/search?q=candy%20buttons

Originally published 03/26/2009

Summer in the City - Fun Under the Fire Plug

Here we are, more than halfway through July already. Summer seems to take forever to get here and it quickly goes by. If you haven't noticed, you can see that we're slowly losing sunlight at the end of the day, something that naturally happens once the solstice comes in late June.

One other thing I've noticed is that it isn't like it used to be on the streets. Back in the 60s and 70s when we were growing up, we were out from midday through as late as our parents would let us stay out. We didn't hang around the house.

One of the things that you hardly see anymore are kids getting soaked under the fire plug. For those of you scratching your heads, that's what is called a fire hydrant. When summer came around, we could not wait to find someone who had a hydrant wrench and could open the plug for us. Once they had it opened, they'd hide it in someone's house and we'd all have some fun for an hour or so, or as long as we could before the cops would come and turn the water off. And this wasn't with a sprinkler rig attached, this was with the fire plug opened full bore! The only thing close to a sprinkler in those days was someone pressing their butt up against the opening and causing the water to fan out in every direction. The only friction we'd ever get besides the cops was a neighbor who would complain (maybe he called the police) and said that the water would flood his basement. Every kid on the block and from other blocks would be out there having fun.

Photo from: https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/how-city-kids-cooled-off-in-the-heat-wave-of-1953/ (That kid has long pants on!)

Somewhere in the 80s, someone got the idea that it wasn't a good thing for kids to be doing such things. It was easy to say that it didn't matter, that we were adults and there were more important things to do than play at the fireplug. But still, a part of our heritage started to disappear. Kids were told that it created a danger for firefighters because the pressure dropped low when the hydrant was opened. Why not use one of those sprinkler caps instead? You could get them at the local firehouse and no one would have to worry ever again about low pressure or water levels. The argument was bogus, except for one year when there was an extreme drought.

Don't worry about kids getting swept under car tires by the tremendous pressure of the hydrant. Hey, we never met one kid who that happened to, but then again we would always open them on side streets like our own Chadwick Street, not on the more well-traveled streets like Oregon Avenue. We did have common sense. But still, the Eighties were the beginning of the end for that summer ritual of cooling down with water that didn't pass through the meter at home and everyone enjoyed.

In the past decade, I think I've seen kids using the sprinkler cap on a fire plug all of one time. Not once in the past few years have I seen an fully opened hydrant. Where are the kids at? Parents, let your kids go out and have some fun! When kids of today get older, what are they going to talk about when they reminisce about their childhood? "Hey, remember summer, when we got out of school and..." And what? And waited for the back-to-school sales in August so we could buy our pencils and copy books and uniforms? Get out there and do something already! You've got a few  weeks left before the bell rings again. Go out and find someone with a wrench and have some fun, or do what some of the kids of our era did and make one out of a pipe wrench and section of pipe. If someone asks what you think you're doing, tell them that you read it would be a fun thing to do and be respectful. Just hide the wrench so they don't take it away and you can turn the hydrant on again when the cops leave. And leave the bicycle helmet at home. A gush will rip it off or cause a neck injury. You're going under the hydrant, not riding a bike. Just use common sense and pay attention to what's going on around you. You'll be fine. Get wet and have fun.

Kids Days at the Vet

As the Phillies push again toward the post season, I can't help but remember the highs and lows as a Phils fan. Thankfully, the past few years have been more highs! Becoming a fan during the teams losing era, it was nice to experience 1980, and again the current run from 2007 through today.

My brother and I, along with many of our friends, spent a good deal of our youth at Philadelphia Veterans Stadium, known to Philly sports fans as "The Vet". Some remember it more as "The Big Toilet" because of the state the City of Philadelphia left it in for a good part of it's history. But as kids, we didn't even think about the condition of the concrete octorad at Broad Street and Pattison Avenue. All we were concerned about was taking in Phillies games and having fun, both watching the games and otherwise.

Back when the stadium first opened in 1971, the cost of a general admission ticket was just $0.50. That's right, fifty cents! If I remember correctly, adults paid $1.50. You can't by a ticket anywhere for that low an admission price anymore, so every day was Kid's Day. We would spend at least one day out of the weekend there whenever the team was in town, sometime both Saturday and Sunday if we could swing it timewise. Not that we had a full schedule as kids, but as I moved into my teen years and held two jobs on the weekend making stroboli at Pizza Shack and busing tables at The Forum caterers, I had less time for ballgames.

What was amazing was that even the Sunday giveaway day games were at that low admission price for the first few years. After a few years, they raised the general admission rate to the adult price of $2.50 for the gift days, and eventually kids had to pay that same amount every game. And that didn't last long either. After the 70s, the cost of a ticket anywhere in the Vet went higher. General admission - the famed "700 level" - was pricier than the cheap seat days that I remembered as a kid. Sneaking down into the box or reserve seats somehow left me feeling less guilty after the increase.

AND YOU MAY REMEMBER...

... Being able to see double-headers for the price of one admission. This was the era before what is now known as Day/Night Double Headers, where games are now played first in the afternoon, and again in the evening, a separate ticket purchased for each game.

... The events that often occurred between the double headers. I remember being there when Karl Walenda, aka "The Great Walenda", walked the tightrope over The Vet. Being a dweller of the 700 level, we were there when he came down into the crowd after his walk. A crowd of us were there to see  him afterwards. Sadly, Mr. Walenda died a number of years afterward when a gust of wind took him off the wire during a stunt in Puerto Rico.

... Charlie Frank, the king of the hot dog vendors. His cries of "Doggie-ho!" were famous, so much so that he appeared in some TV commercials and the Phillies had a special day to commemorate his service. Some folks were known to try to get tickets in his section after that for a while.

... Nasty stadium food - The Vet could never be called a real ballpark. Wilted hot dogs would be forgettable (sorry, Charlie) were they not so mediocre. The fries weren't bad, but then again, it's hard to mess up fries. The food available at The Bank - Citizen's Bank Park - is gourmet by comparison.

... The animated boards in the outfield that predated the hi-res screens found in today's ballparks. In 1970s technology they seemed to be spectacular. Today they would seem woefully outdated except for in a museum.

... Philadelphia Phil and Phylis, the two colonial figures that stood in the outfield. Kind of a pair of mascots that served the Phillies prior to the arrival of the Phanatic, although they didn't do anything to fire up the fans or satisfy the kids - they were after all, made of fiberglass.

... The hike up the long concrete ramps when you sat in the cheap seats - or anywhere above the 300 level. It was good for a workout, but not so good if you were older or had a handicap.