"I see you sent my letters back, and my LP records and they're all scratched..."
From 'I Can't Stand Losing You' by the Police
One of the things that have constantly evolved is the way we buy our music. If you're as old as I am, you remember buying 45 RPM records as a young kid and then LPs as you became a teen and grew older. You may even remember the first album that you bought. For me it was Stevie Wonder's "Innervisions" album, the one with "Superstition" and "Living for the City" on it. Maybe you were one of those who bought your sounds on 8-track tapes or later on cassette. If you're in your 20s or younger, all you'll probably remember are the CDs. downloading, and streaming. You've never had the pleasure of hearing a pop or click or the misfortune of buying an album and having to return it because of a long scratch that made the needle skip as the vinyl record turned repeatedly to that same spot.
If you're one of those from the CD/download era, that means you probably have no knowledge of neighborhood record stores either. Places where the guys who sold the records knew about the music they sold. And that's what you got there - records. No movies and other stuff, just music. Today you will be hard-pressed to find such a store. Even the mall stores like Sam Goody are long gone. The last places that I saw selling CDs were Best Buy, and that was some time ago. Being that I rarely get out anymore because of my disabilities, I don't know what's happening now. The last sign of actual physical media came when I was in Barnes & Noble a number of years ago. and I saw that they were selling - could it be? - 33 1/3 LPs! Like anything, what goes away someday comes back. Now audiophiles are buying records again, though the only bona fide record stores are the independents who sell mostly used LPs.I would think the places where the store clerks cold make good recommendations are long gone. Who knows? Maybe there are some surprises out there. There's always a surprise sitting out there waiting to be discovered.
AND YOU MAY REMEMBER...
...The local record stores here in South Philly. East Passyunk Avenue had two of them.All older neighborhood people remember Record Bar. There was another shop too, somewhere above Mifflin or Moore streets, but I can't remember the name if it would save my life.
...Remember Nick Petrella's on Snyder Avenue near Broad? My late Aunt Carmella used to tell me he was a talent scout, but I don't know if that was true. The Mario Lanza Museum was housed in the back of the store, and Mr. Petrella could often be seen sitting outside the store during the warmer months. Talent scout or no, from what I'm told he did know music.
...You may remember the chains and independents that are long-gone too. Remember Platters Ltd. on Chestnut St. near 10th? There were always punk rockers sitting outside that place. Maybe some were employees, but probably just music fans. Wall to Wall Sound and Listening Booth were to of the major chains back in the 70s, names now committed to record store history. I mentioned Sam Goody earlier. Then again, they're one of the mall stores where you usually wound up paying a few bucks more for an album than at the neighborhood joints.
...There was a big record store called Jerry's Records on Market St that went bust in the late '70s. I remember they had this blowout sale which was more of a teaser to get you in the door. They had a weekend where they sold albums for a buck, but when you got there it looked like they broke out the stock of albums from artists that no one heard of or wouldn't care to listen to. Shortly afterward, they were gone.
...But the granddaddy of them not a neighborhood store, but close enough to hop a bus or train to get to. Third Street Jazz & Rock stood on - you guessed it - 3rd Street just north of Market Street. You had to go to the basement if you were into rock music, and it was by no means like your mall or big box store with promotional displays and whatever. You found your artist's records by thumbing through racks with signs written in magic marker (do they still call them that, or are they simply known as Sharpies today?). If you wanted to know something about music, you asked and got an informed opinion. When I was 18, I worked loading trucks and packing cartons at the slipper factory above the old Stanley Hardware store on Market at Bank Street. Every Friday, almost without fail, my friend Professor and I would head to the bank at lunchtime to cash our measly pay checks. That meant that when quitting time came, we headed right over to Third Street Jazz and bought a few albums. Imports, bootlegs, hard to find artists, they had it all. But they're gone too.
What was the first album that you purchased? The last CD? And can anyone explain why anyone besides a kid would buy singles when there were so many great tunes on albums? You may buy the LP or CD on the strength of one song and find that you liked most if not all the songs. For most, those days are gone. Now people are buying individual songs online, but who knows for how long? I read recently that Apple may put iTunes to rest. Will the only remaining means of obtaining music through streaming services. I know the LPs are coming back, but are they re-releases of older albums or new music too? The mind wanders.
Originally published 01/08/2008 and updated.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Cable TV Comes to South Philly
Young people today will never remember a time when they didn’t have a multitude of channels with nothing to watch. Bruce Springsteen sang in the early 90s about having fifty-seven channels with nothing on. Today it’s well over a hundred and still, it seems that there's not much to watch. Murder has become entertainment via shows like Dateline NBC, 48 Hours and 20/20. Half-hour informercials abound for things like air fryers and other kitchen gadgets that promise to be the last you'll ever need. Yet still, the manufacturers keep developing new machines. I can remember years ago all the health infomercials, including colon cleanses and books with remedies that they don't want you to know about. And you wonder why your wallet's lighter after the shows are over?
Back in the mid-’70s, the area west of Broad Street and I believe above Oregon was the test area for cable TV. No one else had it in the city, not Southwest, Northeast, not even parts of South Philly, including all of east of Broad Street. We were the lucky ones. Woo-hoo! So we felt we had bragging rights, though today, I'd say we're getting robbed.
What we had back then would probably be laughed off by today’s standards. There was no Smithsonian Network, StartTV, History, or CNN (gasp!) at the time. We basically had a few New York channels (WOR channel 9 and WPIX channel 11) and a few odd things in between. There was 24-hour cable news, but it was just text on-screen, provided by Reuters. It's how I found out that Elvis died. If you were one of the homes having it at the time, you’ll remember your “remote” was as big as a cigar box, with 15 buttons for channels and a rocker switch to go from the top tier to the bottom. Plus it had a tuning wheel to fine-tune your picture. And a 100-foot cord so you could change channels in the kitchen while getting it tangled on your trip to the fridge and back. It was really primitive: no voice remote, you still had to actually turn on the TV, but it worked for us. Telesystems was the company running the show at the time. It gave way to Greater Media, which was swallowed up later by Comcast, but I think there was another company that was somewhere between the last two. So much for the four franchises that the city was supposed to have. Comcast has just about everything wrapped up, or did until Verizon launched FiOS. Competition is a wonderful thing.
We got cable TV installed on the same day we got our first color TV back in the mid-70’s. We were always outside doing something, but not that day. We stayed inside and stayed glued to the tube. It was a big event for us. The cartoons were in color! That crazy weather guy in NY kept us laughing. Then, like everything else, we got bored of it and life returned to normal shortly afterward. At least the snow was gonesince we didn't need an antenna.
Not long after we got cable, HBO became available. It was there where we first heard obscenities coming off the tube, much to my mom’s chagrin. It was a movie called Law & Disorder with Carrol O’Connor and Ernest Borgnine on a Sunday evening. Mom was livid, threatening to get rid of HBO if that was what they were going to show. Dad didn’t care much about it, so he wanted to keep it. Dad won, or so some would say. I'm glad she wasn't home when we first saw Taxi Driver. My kind, friendly mother would have taken a torch to the whole thing and said goodbye to Travis Bickle! My thoughts today is that there’s not a need for profanity on TV or in movies. That’s a moral argument and my choice, but this is a blog about memories so we’ll not go there.
Kids, if you ever find yourself bored with TV, think of this…my earliest memories of TV was an old black & white Admiral TV with a tuning knob (?) – no remote controls (well my dad had one. He told us to change the channel, and we did). And we had only three channels (KYW 3; WFIL 6 – now WPVI, and public television, WHYY Channel 12). Our set didn’t even get CBS, which was Channel 10 at the time. It wasn’t until 1969 or 1970 that we got a Sears Silvertone console set that had – wonder of wonders – UHF channels! We finally had a selection of shows that we only heard of before.
That wouldn’t cut it for folks today, but it worked for us. Ah, simpler times!
AND YOU MAY REMEMBER…
... Back when a network's name reflected it's programming. History showed only historical programming, TLC was The Learning Channel without Dr. Pimple Popper, and AMC was American Movie Classics with old classic movies that my grandmother loved. Now it's anything goes.
... Doctor Shock’s horror movies on Saturday nights on channel 17. Who can forget his kid, Bubbles? Or Booth's Soda, his main sponsor?
... Mr. Gagliardi, my and many other young men's English teacher from Neumann hosting Cable Bingo.
... The Flyers channel after they won their first Stanley Cup. Neighborhood guys found you could get it free instead of paying for it by simply pressing two buttons on the remote at the same time. It morphed later into PRISM (Philadelphia Regional In-Home Sports and Movies), and was the first 24-hor station that I can remember.
... When stations signed off for the night with the national anthem.
... Test patterns that occupied the screen from signoff until around 6 AM when the channels signed on again. And then-obscure shows like Farm Report that you found on at 6:00 A.M. if you had to get up early for detention.
...And everyone's favorite UHF station at the time, Channel 48, WKBS, Wilmington/Philadelphia. Home of tons of toons and the Little Rascals by day, and Mary Hartmann and Fernwood/America Tonight and Night Gallery in the late evening. Channels 17 and 29 were alright, but 48 blew them out of the water. I'd say "off the airwaves", but the first two are still around while 48 is long-gone.
Back in the mid-’70s, the area west of Broad Street and I believe above Oregon was the test area for cable TV. No one else had it in the city, not Southwest, Northeast, not even parts of South Philly, including all of east of Broad Street. We were the lucky ones. Woo-hoo! So we felt we had bragging rights, though today, I'd say we're getting robbed.
What we had back then would probably be laughed off by today’s standards. There was no Smithsonian Network, StartTV, History, or CNN (gasp!) at the time. We basically had a few New York channels (WOR channel 9 and WPIX channel 11) and a few odd things in between. There was 24-hour cable news, but it was just text on-screen, provided by Reuters. It's how I found out that Elvis died. If you were one of the homes having it at the time, you’ll remember your “remote” was as big as a cigar box, with 15 buttons for channels and a rocker switch to go from the top tier to the bottom. Plus it had a tuning wheel to fine-tune your picture. And a 100-foot cord so you could change channels in the kitchen while getting it tangled on your trip to the fridge and back. It was really primitive: no voice remote, you still had to actually turn on the TV, but it worked for us. Telesystems was the company running the show at the time. It gave way to Greater Media, which was swallowed up later by Comcast, but I think there was another company that was somewhere between the last two. So much for the four franchises that the city was supposed to have. Comcast has just about everything wrapped up, or did until Verizon launched FiOS. Competition is a wonderful thing.
We got cable TV installed on the same day we got our first color TV back in the mid-70’s. We were always outside doing something, but not that day. We stayed inside and stayed glued to the tube. It was a big event for us. The cartoons were in color! That crazy weather guy in NY kept us laughing. Then, like everything else, we got bored of it and life returned to normal shortly afterward. At least the snow was gonesince we didn't need an antenna.
Not long after we got cable, HBO became available. It was there where we first heard obscenities coming off the tube, much to my mom’s chagrin. It was a movie called Law & Disorder with Carrol O’Connor and Ernest Borgnine on a Sunday evening. Mom was livid, threatening to get rid of HBO if that was what they were going to show. Dad didn’t care much about it, so he wanted to keep it. Dad won, or so some would say. I'm glad she wasn't home when we first saw Taxi Driver. My kind, friendly mother would have taken a torch to the whole thing and said goodbye to Travis Bickle! My thoughts today is that there’s not a need for profanity on TV or in movies. That’s a moral argument and my choice, but this is a blog about memories so we’ll not go there.
Kids, if you ever find yourself bored with TV, think of this…my earliest memories of TV was an old black & white Admiral TV with a tuning knob (?) – no remote controls (well my dad had one. He told us to change the channel, and we did). And we had only three channels (KYW 3; WFIL 6 – now WPVI, and public television, WHYY Channel 12). Our set didn’t even get CBS, which was Channel 10 at the time. It wasn’t until 1969 or 1970 that we got a Sears Silvertone console set that had – wonder of wonders – UHF channels! We finally had a selection of shows that we only heard of before.
That wouldn’t cut it for folks today, but it worked for us. Ah, simpler times!
AND YOU MAY REMEMBER…
... Back when a network's name reflected it's programming. History showed only historical programming, TLC was The Learning Channel without Dr. Pimple Popper, and AMC was American Movie Classics with old classic movies that my grandmother loved. Now it's anything goes.
... Doctor Shock’s horror movies on Saturday nights on channel 17. Who can forget his kid, Bubbles? Or Booth's Soda, his main sponsor?
... Mr. Gagliardi, my and many other young men's English teacher from Neumann hosting Cable Bingo.
... The Flyers channel after they won their first Stanley Cup. Neighborhood guys found you could get it free instead of paying for it by simply pressing two buttons on the remote at the same time. It morphed later into PRISM (Philadelphia Regional In-Home Sports and Movies), and was the first 24-hor station that I can remember.
... When stations signed off for the night with the national anthem.
... Test patterns that occupied the screen from signoff until around 6 AM when the channels signed on again. And then-obscure shows like Farm Report that you found on at 6:00 A.M. if you had to get up early for detention.
...And everyone's favorite UHF station at the time, Channel 48, WKBS, Wilmington/Philadelphia. Home of tons of toons and the Little Rascals by day, and Mary Hartmann and Fernwood/America Tonight and Night Gallery in the late evening. Channels 17 and 29 were alright, but 48 blew them out of the water. I'd say "off the airwaves", but the first two are still around while 48 is long-gone.
Saturday, September 07, 2019
Remembering Uncle Virgie's and Other Old Neighborhood Luncheonettes
One of the staples of local South Philadelphia culture is the neighborhood luncheonette. There are still many places to grab a hoagie or cheesesteak or even a burger, but they don't have the character that many of us once knew. If all they have is a walk-up counter to place your order, it's just a sandwich shop. That's not to say the food's bad, but it's not a place where you're going to find yourself hanging around.
Back in the '60s and '70s though, a different type of luncheonette ruled the landscape. All of them had the metal signs above their storefronts from either Coca-Cola or Pepsi. The storefront windows were painted by sign painters with their names, just like grocery stores. They all had at least three booths to complement the stools at the counter, and all of them had jukeboxes with the latest in rock music, some with lots of kids or young adults hanging around.
Uncle Virgie's at 17th & Oregon was one of those luncheonettes. For the entire decade or so that I remember them being there, Uncle Virgie and Aunt Millie (no, they weren't family) ran the shop from opening to closing time. Both were great people who didn't mind kids making noise or hanging around longer than it took to eat their fries and have a Coke. This is the place where many neighborhood kids had our first cheesesteak or our first burger outside of our homes. We didn't know McDonald's or Burger King back then, and this was even before Geno's (20th & Moyamensing, long gone) became popular and then faded away. My brother, sister, and I along with a few friends were the younger of the grade school kids hanging around there, most of the others were in their late high school years or young adults.
Maybe Uncle Vergie was a little too tolerant, this was back in the '60s when drugs were becoming a recreational thing and the older guys were experimenting. Still, he didn't make a fuss and toss them even though it was general knowledge that there were some there who were high or dealing or both. It was never an issue until one night near the end of his run on the corner. After closing, the older guys would hang out on the corner, or in the apartment upstairs that was rented by one of the regulars. And then one of them ran afoul with a local biker gang, marring the peaceful atmosphere that we knew. Arrests were made, some were injured, and parents told the younger kids they couldn't go there. It wasn't the same place anymore.
Maybe we didn't do a whole heck of a lot there other than eating junk food and listen to music such as Steppenwolf, The Guess Who, the Stones, and other now-classic rock bands played on 45 rpm records in the old jukebox (kids, ask your parents to explain how they worked). But it was our place to go. The place and the people either had some character or were characters. It wasn't the mass-produced plastic interiors of today's fast-food joints, it was homey. And the food was better than what we know as fast food today. You don't find that combination too often anymore.
If you lived here, you probably had a place where you enjoyed spending the carefree day of your youth. It may have been a luncheonette or a rec center or somewhere else. Those places will always be a part of our lives and they often come up in conversations with friends. Wherever it was, if you enjoyed being there, it was your place. Most of us had more than one. When it came to the corner luncheonette, you could spend only so much time and cash eating the things we did.
AND YOU MAY REMEMBER...
...Ralph & Josie's - Bancroft & Shunk Streets. Closed in the mid-70s and became Mr. Ed's, the neighborhood nuisance because of the kids and the pinball machines.
...Frank & Tessie's - 18th & Shunk Streets. Tessie wore a house dress and was alleged to have placed more than a few hoagie rolls under her armpit while cooking up a steak, sending the customers elsewhere.
...Does anyone remember the name of the luncheonette at 16th & Oregon where the real estate office now sits? They had a waitress there who my mom nicknamed Pincushion. When I asked why that name, I got the usual parental "never mind" answer. I found out why later. The only things I can remember about that place is the location, the waitress, and a guy who hung around who seemed that he didn't want to say goodbye to the 1950s. He looked like the actor Bo Hopkins and wore a leather biker jacket and had a greasy ducktail haircut. How do I remember these things? I don't know! I wish I had this kind of memory for the important things in life. I;d be much better off. Maybe.
Originally published in 2006 and edited as the memories were brushed off.
Back in the '60s and '70s though, a different type of luncheonette ruled the landscape. All of them had the metal signs above their storefronts from either Coca-Cola or Pepsi. The storefront windows were painted by sign painters with their names, just like grocery stores. They all had at least three booths to complement the stools at the counter, and all of them had jukeboxes with the latest in rock music, some with lots of kids or young adults hanging around.
Uncle Virgie's at 17th & Oregon was one of those luncheonettes. For the entire decade or so that I remember them being there, Uncle Virgie and Aunt Millie (no, they weren't family) ran the shop from opening to closing time. Both were great people who didn't mind kids making noise or hanging around longer than it took to eat their fries and have a Coke. This is the place where many neighborhood kids had our first cheesesteak or our first burger outside of our homes. We didn't know McDonald's or Burger King back then, and this was even before Geno's (20th & Moyamensing, long gone) became popular and then faded away. My brother, sister, and I along with a few friends were the younger of the grade school kids hanging around there, most of the others were in their late high school years or young adults.
Maybe Uncle Vergie was a little too tolerant, this was back in the '60s when drugs were becoming a recreational thing and the older guys were experimenting. Still, he didn't make a fuss and toss them even though it was general knowledge that there were some there who were high or dealing or both. It was never an issue until one night near the end of his run on the corner. After closing, the older guys would hang out on the corner, or in the apartment upstairs that was rented by one of the regulars. And then one of them ran afoul with a local biker gang, marring the peaceful atmosphere that we knew. Arrests were made, some were injured, and parents told the younger kids they couldn't go there. It wasn't the same place anymore.
Maybe we didn't do a whole heck of a lot there other than eating junk food and listen to music such as Steppenwolf, The Guess Who, the Stones, and other now-classic rock bands played on 45 rpm records in the old jukebox (kids, ask your parents to explain how they worked). But it was our place to go. The place and the people either had some character or were characters. It wasn't the mass-produced plastic interiors of today's fast-food joints, it was homey. And the food was better than what we know as fast food today. You don't find that combination too often anymore.
If you lived here, you probably had a place where you enjoyed spending the carefree day of your youth. It may have been a luncheonette or a rec center or somewhere else. Those places will always be a part of our lives and they often come up in conversations with friends. Wherever it was, if you enjoyed being there, it was your place. Most of us had more than one. When it came to the corner luncheonette, you could spend only so much time and cash eating the things we did.
AND YOU MAY REMEMBER...
...Ralph & Josie's - Bancroft & Shunk Streets. Closed in the mid-70s and became Mr. Ed's, the neighborhood nuisance because of the kids and the pinball machines.
...Frank & Tessie's - 18th & Shunk Streets. Tessie wore a house dress and was alleged to have placed more than a few hoagie rolls under her armpit while cooking up a steak, sending the customers elsewhere.
...Does anyone remember the name of the luncheonette at 16th & Oregon where the real estate office now sits? They had a waitress there who my mom nicknamed Pincushion. When I asked why that name, I got the usual parental "never mind" answer. I found out why later. The only things I can remember about that place is the location, the waitress, and a guy who hung around who seemed that he didn't want to say goodbye to the 1950s. He looked like the actor Bo Hopkins and wore a leather biker jacket and had a greasy ducktail haircut. How do I remember these things? I don't know! I wish I had this kind of memory for the important things in life. I;d be much better off. Maybe.
Originally published in 2006 and edited as the memories were brushed off.
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