Oxford Circle Vocabulary

There are probably many "regionalisms" - words that are generally associated with a particular region of the country. Philadelphia has several that come to mind, such as hoagies and jimmies ("sprinkles" on ice cream). But are there words that are either unique or have a unique meaning in Oxford Circle? After discussing this with a childhood friend the other day, we've come up with two possibilities:

Breezeway - the space between two groups of rowhouses in the middle of a city block. (I placed this entry on Wikipedia). Breezeway has different meanings depending on what part of the country you live.

Texas Tommy - a hot dog with cheese and a bacon strip wrapped around it. Texas Tommies were available at the neighborhood luncheonettes. I've never heard of this food item outside of Oxford Circle.

Can you think of other words, phrases, or terms that could possibly be unique to Oxford Circle? If so, I'd love to hear from you.

Update: Punks could very well be another "Oxford Circle-ism": is that a term unique to the neighborhood? What do you think?

Cranford Street Landmark

Recently, I saw an old Nash similar to the one in the photo that brought back an old memory. Somewhere along the 6500 block of Cranford Street, there was an old beat-up rusty, turquoise and white two-tone car, which I believe was a Nash. That car sat on the lawn inside a fence in the exact same spot for so long I considered it a landmark. It was there for so many years from perhaps the late 1950's through the entire 1960's decade and beyond Does anyone else remember that car? Was it in fact a Nash? I always wondered why that car was kept there. I also remember a barbershop along Cranford street near the intersection with Magee Street, where I had my haircut several times as a young boy. Anyone remember that? I think there was "Wildroot" sign in the window of that barbershop.

Northeast High School 40 Year Reunion

This coming weekend, NEHS class of 1969 will hold it's 40 year reunion at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Philadelphia. So, I'll be headed back to Philly this weekend and hopefully will come away with an idea or two for a future post. Please let me know if any reader of this blog is a member of that class. Looks like I'll be missing the Phillies playoff game on Saturday night due to the conflict, but I'm sure it'll be fun reminiscing with old high school friends.

Call for Topics -- Guest Blogger

I've been pleasantly surprised that there's been so much traffic coming to this site over the last couple of weeks! When I started the blog, I was hoping that it could be a repository for photos (street scenes) of the old neighborhood, but no one has contributed any to date. I do appreciate all your comments!

I wonder if any readers of this blog would be interested in contributing Oxford Circle related articles themselves for posting here. Please let me know if you have any interest in doing so. Also, does anyone have any suggestions for Oxford Circle-specific topics for future blogging?

Laura H. Carnell Elementary School

I attended Carnell Elementary School from 1956 (Kindergarten) to 1963 (6th grade). I'm sure much has changed since then. There are a few things that stick out in mind from way back in those days. On some occasions during recess, I would see coal trucks delivering coal to the school. The trucks would unload their coal into large metal chutes accessible from the outside of the school building in the schoolyard. Coal was the fuel used to heat the building. As a matter of fact, I think that Pennsylvania required schools to use coal back then. Makes sense, since Pennsylvania was a major resource for coal. I wonder if that's still the case today. I also remember that teachers would ask kids to take erasers filled with chalk dust down to the boiler room to clean them by clapping them together. I'm sure today those chalkboards have been replaced with whiteboards.

Nowadays most kids commute by school bus, but back in the 1950s/60s, most kids walked to school. Only handicapped students would take the school bus. Along the path to Carnell from my home, I remember there were couple of old street vendors selling soft pretzels from their white pushcarts to kids near the school. I'd also pass by Tarken playground. Those were days when the playground was clean and a decade or two before they build a hockey rink there. I played baseball in a "peanut" league when I was perhaps around 7-8 years old.

Neighborhood Luncheonettes

Corner luncheonettes may not be unique to Oxford Circle, but I think they are, or used to be, characteristic of Philadelphia neighborhoods. Back in the 1950's, my mother would give me a dime and send me across the street to buy a loaf of bread at Marty's (it became Richie's sometime in the 1960's). Located on Frontenac street between Hellerman and Greeby Streets, it appears that it is still a corner store of some sort, judging from a recent photo obtained courtesy of Google Earth. Marty's/Richie's had a pinball machine that kids used to play and every once in a while I was treated to a Texas Tommy. That's a hot dog wrapped in a bacon strip. I'm pretty sure the term Texas Tommy is unique to Philadelphia, as I've lived outside of Philly for over 30 years and never heard of saw it since. In the 1950's they sold assorted candies including little candied dots on paper strips. Does anyone remember what they were called? Baseball cards sold for 5¢ and the package included a pink bubble gum strip.

The other nearby luncheonette, Freda & Al's (or "Punzie's" as it was nicknamed by some kids) was run by proprietor Al Shein and located on Summerdale Avenue between Hellerman and Greeby streets. I worked there part-time during my high school years. I remember making hoagies, cheesesteaks, pizzas, and doing a variety of other chores. There was also a soda fountain, which contained syrups that were mixed into club soda and stirred manually. I doubt there are many places still around with soda fountains like that. It also had a grill, a pizza oven, and a room with slicer in it. Working that slicer to cut deli meats, cheese, and other things made me quite nervous. When I first started working there, I accidentally flipped a burger from the grill to the floor. Al instructed me to place the burger back on the grill and finish cooking it. After that incident, I never ate in there unless I made it myself :-) For some reason, some high school kids used to hang out there. And there were a few strange people in the neighborhood. One kid in my high school class asked me, seriously, if he could sleep in our garage. He would also buy model airplane kits that came with a small tube of glue. Come to find out, he'd throw away the kit and keep the glue for sniffing. That was one messed-up dude. Freda & Al's is now only a vague memory for me. The building that it once occupied appears to be entirely residential today.

Cottman Avenue: From Algon to the Boulevard

Today I'll list the few places that I remember from the 60's that no longer exist along Cottman Avenue, from Northeast High School to Roosevelt Boulevard:

Burger Chef: This was directly across the street from Northeast High. Never ate in there, but I do remember it's neon sign. (No, that's not same Burger Chef in the picture, but has a pretty good likeness of it).

Polar Cub: A soft serve ice cream store, similar to Dairy Queen.

Horn & Hardart (at Large St.): Don't remember much about it, but I think it had been there in the 1950's.

Kresge's (at Large St.): A small department store similar to Woolworth's.

Cottman Lanes (at Horrocks St.): I used to bowl occasionally back in the good old days. I remember that Cottman Lanes used to award a free game for every "A" on your report card. I also remember spending a New Year's Eve there with a friend bowling the entire night while "Hey Jude" played on the radio again and again. That must have been Dec 31, 1968.

Record Museum (one block from the Northeast Library, between Oakland St. and Bustleton Ave.): A great place to buy 45's. I believe this is where I bought my first ever 45rpm record in 1967. I believe it was owned by Jerry Blavat, not sure.

S. Klein "on the square": A department store where John Wanamaker (?) is now. Was this also a Korvette's back in the 60's before it was Klein's?

I do remember that Bill Deal & the Rhondells gave a free concert at the Roosevelt Mall once. It must have been around 1969.

Hey, if anyone out there is reading this, please leave a comment. I'd like to hear about memories that you had of that time period. Photos also welcome!

Pimple Ball Games

Back in the 50's and 60's, neighborhood kids played outside almost every day. We played many games in the back (driveway) using a pimple ball. I hadn't seen these games played since I was a kid. There were many variations of these games:

Stickball - the bat was usually a sawn off broom handle. The batter would face the row house on the other side of the driveway. There were two sets of parallel electric wires that ran horizontally across the row houses, essentially dividing the house into three zones. A ground ball that reached the house would be a single, a line drive of fly ball that reached the lowest zone would be a double, the middle zone would be triple, the highest zone would be home run. Hitting the ball on the roof would also be a home run, but that wasn't desirable because we'd have to use another ball. Kids looked forward to the days when roofers would come to repair someone's roof. Kids stand below and the roofers would throw those 'home run' balls down to us. Also, there was always the risk of breaking someone's window with a batted ball!

To avoid the risk of breaking windows, I'd sometimes walk over to Fels Junior High to play stickball in the yard. Strike zones were chalked on the wall and we'd pitch the ball overhand and fast. That was my favorite game as a kid.

Wallball - one player would throw the ball against the wall and the other player would try to catch it off of the bounce.

Handball - No resemblence to the handball game played on a handball court. No bats used in this game, but the 'batter' would toss the ball up in the air and use his fist to punch the ball, then run to the bases. The bases would be corners of the driveway blocks. Usually, there were two players on each team, one player would be an 'infielder' and the other an 'outfielder'.

Boxball - Similar to handball, but there would be a pitcher who would 'pitch' the ball to the batter on one bounce, the 'batter' would use his fist to punch the ball and then run the bases.

Halfball - When our pimple balls broke in two around the seam, we'd use a half to play this variation of stickball. It's much harder to hit a half ball.

Stepball - Played in front of the house. One player would bounce the ball off of the steps and the other player would try to field the ball.

Update 10/8/09: Thanks to Mike Flaherty for contributing his pimple ball photo to the blog!

"I'm Buying Men's Clothing"

Sometimes when I think of the old neighborhood, I remember waking up to the loud voice of an elderly man with a heavy accent walking slowly down the driveway in back of the house. He would yell "I'm buying men's clothing, I'm buying men's clothing" over and over. It's been so long ago, I can't remember how often he did this, but it seems like it might have been once or twice a month. Some of the kids on the block would yell out the window at him to shut up, but that didn't keep him away. This must have occured during the late 1950s, early 1960s.

I always wondered what he did with the clothing he purchased. Does anyone else remember him? Does anyone remember selling him anything? Any ideas what he did with the clothes?

Castor Avenue: From Oxford Circle to Cottman Avenue

Welcome to the Oxford Circle Memories blog. The purpose of this blog is to reminisce about the Oxford Circle neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the way it was back in the 1950's and 1960's. You know, when Philly police cars were painted red! I decided to create this blog for several reasons: to have the opportunity to exchange memories with other folks who have (mostly) fond memories of the neighborhood where I spent my childhood years, to have readers contribute photos of the neighborhood from that time period, and to experiment with blogging. So much of the neighborhood has changed it no longer felt like "home" the last time I passed through over a year ago.

I haven't lived in Philadelphia for just about 35 years. I moved out of Philly for my career after college. I attended Carnell Elementary School, Fels Junior High, and Northeast High School. I grew up near the intersection of Hellerman and Frontenac, just a few blocks from Castor avenue.

For my first post, I thought I would list the establishments that I remember along Castor avenue, from about the Oxford Circle to Cottman Avenue that existed in 1950s/60s that are no longer there. These places are just a distant memory now. If you have any pictures of the neighborhood from that time period that you'd like to share on this blog, I'd really appreciate it. Anyway, here goes:

Benner Theatre: I remember this as the theatre where I saw "Rosemary's Baby" in 1968.
Castor Theatre: In the late fifties (or early sixties) they had children's matinee movies for 25 cents. Lots of "creature feature" type movies for kids back in those days.
Tyson Theatre: they used to have $1 movies back in the 1960s.

Dante's Inferno. Pizza restaurant.

Pep Boys (between Stirling and Levick?). As a kid, I remember being fascinated with the vacuum tube testing machine they had. I think it was next to or close to the post office.

Frankford Trust Bank (at Hellerman): where my parents banked.
Western Savings Bank: think I had a passbook savings account there a long time ago.

Sun Ray Drug Store (at Hellerman). It later became the Gingham House restaurant.
Sailor's Dairy. A couple doors from the Sun Ray Drug Store.

Linton's restaurant (near Hellerman). I think there were several Linton's restaurants in Philly back then.

Fogel's (at Hellerman). I think this was a dress shop. I remember it had a large neon sign that was lit at night and could be seen from my house. Singers Appliances is there now, I think.

A&P Supermarket (at Passmore). You can see the A&P in the photo in the upper right section. Next to it is the Woolworth's 5 and 10. I think there's a drug store there now.

Bogalavsky's (sp?) bakery (at Greeby). I believe this is now an upscale restaurant called Paloma MexicanHaute Cusine.

Fleet's (at Magee). A men's clothing store. I believe they closed sometime in the 1990s.

Corset shop (between Magee and Fanshawe). I can't recall the name of the shop, but it had a great classic sign. I'd really like to see a photo of it.

Lenny's Hot Dogs. In about 2003 when I was helping my mother move out of Oxford Circle, I took a walk along Castor with a friend of mine. We were passing the storefront where Lenny's used to be and overheard a couple of guys discussing Lenny's. Turns out it was the owner of Lenny's reminiscing about his Castor store.

Penn Fruit supermarket (at Magee).

Barson's Grill (at Tyson). Waffles and ice cream was a favorite of mine there. Across Castor avenue from Barson's on Tyson there was a wooden newspaper stand where you could buy a newspapers from your car while driving by.

Chinese restaurant (between Tyson and Princeton). The name eludes me, but I believe it was just a few doors away from Barson's on the same side of the street. It had a long purple awning that stretched across much of the sidewalk. Does anyone remember the name of this restaurant? It was probably where I had my first Chinese meal.

Ronnie's Hot Dogs / Cooks Hamburgers / Fun Bun Hamburgers. All occupied the same location. There might be a 7-11 there now. Not sure if Ronnie's or Cooks was there first, but whichever was first is where I had my first fast-food meal. I vaguely remember hamburgers at Cooks were 15 cents and 10 cents for fries.

Wellington Car Stereo Center (7000 Castor). I used to pick up WFIL Famous 56 top 50 song lists from there. I still have them!

Ott's Camera shop (at Longshore). Not sure if it is still there, but I think had been around forever.

Novack's. I think this was a place to get seafood and bbq chicken takeout. It was pretty good from what I remember.

Lit Brothers (at Cottman). A department store. Later it became Gimbels, and then Clover.
Food Fair Supermarket (at Cottman). Next to Lit Brothers.

Lychee Garden (between Cottman and Bleigh). Chinese restaurant that my family frequented. We were friendly with the owner and I once had an opportunity to play table tennis with him at his house. There may still be a Chinese restaurant at that location.

Well, that's about all I can recall from the cobwebs of my mind at this time.