Robert McClenahan, born 1944
East Falls Historical Society Oral History Interview
Interviewee: Robert McClenahan (RM)
Interviewer: Lyda Doyle (LD)
Date of Interview: June 9, 2014
Transcriber: Wendy Moody
This is an oral history interview for the East Falls Historical Society on June 9, 2014 with Bob McClenahan at 3805 Vaux Street and the interview is being done by Lyda Doyle.
LD: So, Bob, when and where were you born?
RM: April 14, 1944 Where? Officially, Germantown Hospital, but we were living here in East Falls.
LD: So you’ve lived in East Falls all your life?
RM: Yes.
LD: And what was your occupation?
RM: I was an electrical engineer for Leeds and Northrup Company.
LD: And where was that located?
RM: When I was working for them they were located in North Wales, Pa. They were originally founded, and for many years, they were over on Stenton Avenue near Germantown Avenue, just a few blocks from Wayne Junction Station. An old established company making industrial instruments but they had moved, just before I started to work with them up to North Wales.
LD: So I guess I’m sort of jumping the gun on this – maybe we should have started out with your earlier years. Your first memories of East Falls…
RM: Well I’ve only lived in two homes: 3434 Midvale Avenue and that was from 1944, and then in 1954 we moved up here to Vaux Street and I’ve been here ever since.
LD: So you were 10 when you moved here then. Did you play outside at the other house? Or did you have friends?
RM: Yeah, I played around in a lot of places. I played a lot just in the driveway behind the house – the driveway that goes all the way down along the row of houses there. Actually I even remember some of the friends that I played with. It seems to me the back driveway was a good place to play in those days.
LD: How about Mifflin schoolyard?
RM: Oh yeah, I played in Mifflin schoolyard. Played in what we used to call the church lot – where our former manse (we’ve now sold it, but where it was). The house is still there. That was a vacant lot until that house was built. We played there all the time.
LD: What sort of games did you play? Do you remember?
RM: I really don’t.
LD: I remember playing Red Light/Green Light and Red Rover Come Over…
RM: I’ve heard all those things but I just don’t remember playing them myself. I probably did but I just don’t know.
The other place that I played is where we’re sitting right now, believe it or not. This house (3805 Vaux Street) and the two just like it here (3310 and 3314 W. Coulter), that was a big open – not open, it was actually a wooded lot, and there were paths running through it. We used to run around through there all the time too.
LD: Did you play Cowboys and Indians?
RM: Oh sure! Sure, all that kind of stuff. And of course we played in McMichael Park. I kind of remember occasionally going down to what they call today McDevitt Playground – I guess in those days it was Dobson’s Field. But I don’t really remember anything about what I did down there.
LD: It had a lot more property before the expressway cut it in half.
RM: Right, sure. We also played down at the school (Mifflin) in their school yard and in that rock garden that they have down there now – that was a little better kept than it is these days – we used to run though there all the time. We had a grand old time.
LD: Did you ride bikes?
RM: Yeah, we rode bikes. We used to ride up on Coulter Street and around these streets all the time on bikes and occasionally roller skates – the old roller skates with metal wheels and the key that tightened it down.
LD: Sledding?
RM: Sledding? Yes. Well I guess there were basically two places you went sledding here. One was the Walnut Lane Golf Course and the other was down here at “The Nuts” as they call it– I forget what the real name of it was. I think at that time it was called Roseneath Farm or something like that.
LD: That was before Ravenhill bought it.
RM: Yes, I think it was something like a private sanitarium at the time which is why it got that rather politically incorrect name of “The Nuts.” But I don’t think most people who used the term knew why they were calling it that because they were calling it that because that’s what everyone called it.
LD: This is a single home. What your other home a single home also?
RM: It was a row house, 3434, about halfway down Midvale Avenue between Vaux and Conrad on the opposite side from where we are.
LD: Do you have any special memories growing up in East Falls?
RM: Well I don’t know “special”… I went to school… I guess most of the activities were centered around church (Falls Presbyterian).
LD: Did the church celebrate all the holidays? Religious and/or secular?
RM: Yeah. We had a Fourth of July picnic every year. Things like that.
LD: How about Christmas or Easter?
RM: Oh yeah, they celebrated all those.
LD: Were there activities for kids connected to them?
RM: Yeah, they used to have at Christmas time – I forget what they call it – it was like a Christmas party type thing and Santa Claus would come.
Santa Claus was Clarence Brehm (a member of the Church) –which we found out later. And he came in his Santa Claus outfit, of course. He would start way in the back of the church and you’d hear him start to sing. He would get closer and closer and closer until he was at the back door of the stage. And then he would go through the thing of calling people up – “What do you want for Christmas?” and everything. He was verygood at it.
The parents would always have to be there and they would say “I want a train” or something and he’d say “That’s interesting” and he’d look at the parents and expect the parents to indicate or gesture either yes or no. If they said yes, he’d say “I think maybe we could arrange that.” If they said no, he had a way of gracefully bowing out saying “Well, I don’t know if we have any of those left” or something like that.
And then he would get out his little hand puppet – he called him Pumpernickel – and Pumpernickel had no teeth! (laughs) He wasn’t really a ventriloquist but he could sort of play with Pumpernickel and have him sing a song. It was a good time.
LD: Were there any Easter Egg hunts or anything like that?
RM: Off and on they did. I don’t specifically remember Easter Egg hunts but I’m sure we did. We still have them today over there.
LD: When did the Strawberry Festival start?
RM: It originally started before I can remember. I don’t remember much about it back in the old days. And then it kind of stopped. And then it got rejuvenated essentially by the choir. They said “Let’s have a Strawberry Festival” which basically then became like a choir concert - a secular concert by the choir. And then they would serve strawberries afterwards. And then that grew into what it is today which is the same thing but it’s become very popular and we now do it every year. It’s coming up in about 5 days, actually. I think they did some other kind of Strawberry Festival before that when we were kids but I really don’t remember much about it.
LD: Do you remember a Christmas Train coming through around Christmas time with Santa Claus?
RM: Yes, yes, I do remember that. I don’t know where it came from – I mean it came on the Norristown Line but where it started I don’t know. But, yeah, it came through and it went all the way downtown, stopping at the stations and then downtown. I guess that was the same Santa Claus who would ride up Market Street to Gimbels.
LD: Gimbels or Wanamakers.
RM: I think it was Gimbels. And then they had a firetruck down there with its big ladder up to one of the upper story windows and the Santa Claus would come along and climb up the ladder and wave to everyone and go through the window and become the Santa Claus for the season in Gimbels.
LD: So did your parents take you down to the East Falls train station to see Santa Claus?
RM: I remember it happening - I don’t have any visual memories of actually seeing it but I’m sure I did, yeah, for all those years I’m sure we must have gone down there a few times to watch him come through. And I think when we did it was originally a steam engine, too.
LD: So, where did you go to school?
RM: Mifflin, from kindergarten to the first half of 8th grade. I didn’t actually graduate from Mifflin. My parents decided for high school they were going to send me to Friends Central on City Line.
At Mifflin I was in that split session arrangement where they had one class that graduated in June and the other class graduated in either January or February.
Well I was in the January or February and, of course, Friends Central operated on the normal September to June schedule. So there was a missing semester in there, and they decided after some conferences, the best thing for me to do would be to leave Mifflin after the first half of the 8th grade and start in the 8th grade at Friends Central. So in fact I backed up one semester. They said their standards were high enough that they thought I would benefit from that anyway. So for that reason I never really graduated from Mifflin.
LD: Do you remember any teachers or any special events at Mifflin?
RM: We were just going over that the other day. I can remember a whole bunch of teachers’ names. I can’t remember exactly where they were. Miss Murphy - Dorothy Murphy - she was the kindergarten teacher. And then I don’t remember who all the different grades were but there was a Mrs. Ream, there was a Mrs. Ruth Harnett, Gertrude Eldridge, Bessie Greenberg, Caroline DeVitis, Ruth Heck, and Mrs. McAllister – I can’t think of her first name. Then of course when you get up to the 7th/8thgrade, then you had a cycle situation with Josef Radetsky, Eleanor Dunn, Eleanor Sypher, Miss Young and Constance Lyons.
LD: And then did you have Shop also?
RM: Oh and shop also. With Floyd Simon with the Brown Bomber.
LD: What was the Brown Bomber?
RM: The paddle!
LD: Oh I forgot – the paddle! He probably made that himself, right?
RM: Yeah, it became called the Brown Bomber because it was shaped like the fuselage of a B-29 bomber (laughs). And he would hold it by the tail! Yeah, just about everybody tasted the bomber from time to time. He was sort of the school disciplinarian also.
LD: Oh ok. Kind of enjoyed his job…
RM: He did, but he knew how to control it. He often – not to me – I talked to my dad later and he said he had talked to him a few times and Simon said he would never use the bomber if he was mad because he knew that he might hurt somebody. But if you were screwing around in Shop, he’d say “Up to the green door.” And there was a song called something about the “Green Door” and on his desk he had a green blotter pad, like most desks do, well he called that the green door. So if you were going to get the bomber, you had to stand up with your hands on the blotter pad – wham! And if the class really got unruly, he’d say “All right, that’s it! Everybody line up!” And he just – wham - one paddle for everybody in the class (boys only, of course) (laughs)
LD: Do you remember anything you made in Shop?
RM: No, I don’t think so. I sort of remember some sort of a tray. It had handles, and holes in either end to set cups or glasses. I can’t imagine where I would have made that if it weren’t in Shop. I know it was something we made somewhere.
LD: How about Shoeshine kits? Birdhouses?
RM: I really don’t remember that. Probably made all those things but I just don’t remember. Once in a while we – it was more the girls, but the guys would have to do it too - the cooking class with Lena Terrell.
I was surprised at how many of those teachers I could remember. Some of them had unique ways of discipline! (laughs) Mrs. Sypher and Mrs. Dunn – well, a lot of them – if you were really bad you had to stand outside in the hall as the classes went by so everyone knew you had been bad.
They had one particular thing they did – if you were caught chewing gum, you had to stand outside and put the piece of gum on your nose and stand there in the hall as everyone went by. And Mrs. Sypher, occasionally, if there was enough gum, she had a way of putting it on your nose and then stretching it back to your ears! And you would stand there that way.
And one of the teachers, Mrs. Ream, if you were bad, you had to sit under her desk! It was one that didn’t have a modesty panel on the side that faced the class – it was open – so you would have to sit there – she would be right behind you - her legs would be right down here, and you had to sit there looking out from under the desk at all your classmates (laughs) These little things probably wouldn’t be allowed today but somehow we got through it, and we’re better for it.
LD: Do you remember assemblies or programs?
RM: Oh yeah. I just thought of two more - as soon as you said that - two more names: Viola Pastoret and Jenny Fishbein. They were two more. Yeah, we had assembly.
LD: Was it every day?
RM: At least once a week. Yeah, at least. And I know there was - I don’t know how they classify it but up to the 6th grade was one level, and then the 7thand 8th grade – and the assemblies were different. Mrs. Fishbein, Jenny Fishbein, was in charge of the one for the lower grades. I remember that. And Mrs. Sypher took care of the ones for the upper classes.
LD: Do you remember singing in assemblies?
RM: Yeah, particularly I remember that with Mrs. Sypher because she was also the music teacher. So, oh yeah, I remember her up there – she had a very expressive way of leading. When you went in there was always music playing. And one of the jobs you hoped you’d be able to get was to run the music. The music was played from a little room beside the stage and while everyone else was in assembly, you’d be up there sitting with the record machine.
You felt real important! And then someone else, when it was over, before the assembly started – when the music ended, it was always somebody’s job to get up, walk up on to the stage and say “You have been listening to….” and then give the name of the piece that was played and then come down. Again, you felt important if you got those jobs.
LD: So were you baptized here at the Presbyterian Church?
RM: That is a question that’s not quite clear. You know the church originally started on Ridge Avenue and then they built this building here. There was a gap of I think a couple of years. They had to sell the old church basically to get enough money to finish the new one. Well, they had all sorts of problems with building this church because the Depression, Second World War, and the contractors went bankrupt and all kinds of stuff.
LD: I didn’t even know that piece of it.
RM: Yeah, it went on for years. So there was a gap. So they had to move…well you know the church started in the Old Academy, as did almost every church in East Falls, except one. Then when they had to leave the old church, they actually went back to what was called at the time the Young Men’s Association. I think East Falls Young Men’s Association. It’s the building that is now next to the Old Academy. They own it. The Old Academy owns it. Now they call it the Carfax Building. But it was originally – it was sort of like a youth social club type of thing. There’s a gymnasium. The church moved back in there in the interim and we think I came along in that interim!
LD: In the nick of time to be baptized there.
RM: Yeah, the record says baptized in this building but we know that the church had an opening dedication in December of 1944 and my baptism date is earlier than that. So while the record says here, we think it was probably in fact in the Carfax building.
LD: I want to go back – I thought of a question - what was the one church that didn’t start at the Old Academy.
RM:I was afraid you’d ask. I think it’s the Good Shepherd. The Methodists did, I know. St. Bridget’s did. We did. I’m pretty sure the Baptists did.
LD: I believe the Good Shepherd would probably be the newest of all the churches.
RM :I think it was, yeah.
LD: So where did you and the family shop for food, clothes and things like that?
RM:Well I guess if we went to a supermarket type thing it would probably be over at Greene and Chelten. There was a market over there called Penn Fruit at the time – there still is (a different name), a very small one compared to today’s markets. But I think that’s where they went for a market but they also went to the local stores here. There was a little delicatessen right across from – well, today it’s the East Falls Post Office - called Helen’s Delicatessen. They shopped there. There’s that Tilden Market over on Tilden Street.
For clothing and other items, we shopped either in Germantown at Allen’s Department store at Greene and Chelten or Rowell’s at Germantown and Chelten or in the big stores in center city.
LD: Did you ever go to the Conrad Market? That was at Bowman and Conrad?
RM: I guess occasionally but I don’t remember going there as much.
LD: How about pharmacies?
Well, pharmacies, that was easy. That was Jimmy Buchanan. James Buchanan, which is at Indian Queen Lane and Vaux Street. Right at the end. A little tiny little hole-in-the-wall but that’s where we went. He and his wife Helen lived right above the store.
LD: I remember their son Bill. What were the streets like and public transportation? I know we talked a little bit about the Christmas train.
RM: Well the public transportation here was the 52 trolley. The closest thing to it today is the K bus. It was one of those double-ended trolleys. It came from – I don’t know where it actually started over in the Oak Lane area or someplace, but then came all the way through Germantown and then finally down Midvale and dead ended in front of what today is Johnny Manana’s. It came down the center of Midvale, and then the tracks turned over and went right in along the curb and then just dead ended. And he (the driver) would get out and he would pull the trolley thing down in the back and put it up in the front.
LD: The poles that contacted the overhead.
RM: Yeah, the poles. And then he’d go again.
LD: Was the 5 & 10 there?
RM: That was what it was, the 5 & 10. I say today it is Johnny Manana’s but the 5 & 10 was there. Caddy-corner to that was the Falls Hardware run by the Kersons. I can’t remember the guy’s name but the woman’s name was Ruth. The two of them and another guy – his name was Max – I don’t remember what his last name was, but they were the ones who waited on you all the time.
LD: I kind of remember wooden floors and a wooden counter, and wooden little cubby holes with all the different things that they sold …
RM: That sounds familiar. I can picture all three of them. Mr. Kerson was kind of a fairly heavy-set, round red-faced type of guy. Max was little, short, hustling around, very knowledgeable though – anything you needed – he would say “Is this what you need?”
LD: Did Mrs. Kerson have a Bette Davis hairdo – a bob they called it – kinda short with waves.
RM: I don’t remember that.
LD: Major Drug was there then too?
RM: Yeah, it was. I never quite sure. There was also an American Store down there which was another place we shopped. I had in my mind that it was on the corner but it couldn’t have been because Major Drug was there, so I suspect it was around the corner near the hardware store.
LD: Were all the streets paved back then in East Falls? Was there cobblestone or brick?
RM: Well, there was a lot of cobblestone – well, Belgian block they call it. If I remember correctly Midvale would be paved along the side and then where the tracks were was Belgian block. This street out here, Vaux Street, had what they called country paving – paved in the center but the shoulders were unpaved. They call that country paved.
LD: I kind of think Crawford Street, as you walked down to the Bathey, was Belgian block.
RM: Now that you say that, you may be right. Coulter Street was brick and still is.
LD: I think Heywood Street was yellow brick and Coulter’s red.
RM: Yes, that’s right.
LD: And Stanton was Belgian block as you came down from Skidoo Street.
RM: I don’t remember the details. Transportation was basically the 52 trolley. The “A” bus to get into town and the train. The 61 trackless trolley ran on Ridge Avenue but I don’t think I ever rode it, the 61 the whole time I lived here, until a couple of years ago when I took the 61 bus into town for something.
LD: Are there any special people you remember who contributed to the life in East Falls or who stand out in your mind.
RM: I’ll have to think about that.
LD: That’s ok. Did your dad work in East Falls?
RM: He did not. He worked in a number of places. I think he started working at the Stetson Hat Factory somewhere in Philadelphia; I don’t know where. Then he worked for a refrigeration contractor – installing refrigerators in houses and small stores and they were out in Upper Darby, west Philadelphia somewhere. During the Depression he worked as a gardener of some sort in West Laurel Hill Cemetery. And then he worked, seemed like everyone in our family worked at Leeds and Northrup for a couple of years.
And then when the wartime came along, he managed to get a job with the War Department as an inspector. He went around to all the suppliers of armaments and equipment to inspect their facilities and inspect the products and that sort of thing.
So he went off to the war during that and then he met somebody who was also working there who was associated with Merck, Sharp and Dohme Pharmaceuticals Company and, through him, he got a job with them. And that’s where he really worked his whole career, was with Merck. Well, it was Sharp and Dohme, then it became Merck, Sharp and Dohme and then it became Merck.
Friends of McMichael Park - Alexis Franklin
East Falls Historical Society Oral History Interview
FRIENDS OF MCMICHAEL PARK HISTORY
Interviewee: Alexis Franklin, Founder and Coordinator of Friends of McMichael Park (AF)
Interviewer: Ellen Sheehan (ES)
Date of Interview: July 22, 2009
ES: I would like to ask you about your initial involvement with the Friends of McMichael Park.
Alexis: Hello. We started the Friends of McMichael Park because there was a need. The six acres were neglected. Trash cans were overflowing and it became a dumping ground, unfortunately, in the neighborhood where people would throw spare tires and sofas and the grass was three feet tall and I got tired of looking at it one day and 1 went over and posted small signs all around the park that said the turtle needed a friend. I scheduled a meeting at the Redeemer Lutheran Church, not knowing who or what would show up and Anne Land came along with a representative of the Department of Recreation and the room was filled with people who were concerned with McMichael Park. So that is how it started. Everyone agreed that it needed attention hut there wasn't anyone spearheading so Tom Williams and Keith Shively, who lived across from the park were willing to act as coordinators with me to get things started; write letters, start a Friends group, open a bank account, get our EIN number and make contact with other community organizations.
ES: Are you a non-profit?
Alexis: We are non-profit. We kind of "ride the coat tails" of the East Falls Development Corporation. They have been very helpful since the very beginning. We are going back 20 years to 1989.
ES: Did you live near McMichael Park?
Alexis: I lived catty-comer to the Park right on Henry Avenue. I grew up on Queen Lane. I moved there in 1959 and attended Ravenhill Academy so I used to walk to school every day and go through the park. At that time the park was attended to. It wasn't as bad as later. It got progressively worst. We were at the mercy of swimming pools and recreation fields that needed the attention obviously because the children needed swimming pools. So our grass wasn't being cut because the swimming pools needed to be open or the baseball fields needed attention, so we were put on the back burner and that's why the conditions got so bad.
ES: So at the time the park was under the auspices of the Recreation Dept. Did that change?
Alexis: Our City Councilman was Michael Nutter, who is now the Mayor. The Friends met with Michael Nutter and we discussed the fact that we were a passive park, which means we do not have a baseball or basketball field, so because we were a passive park we felt it was more of a grass cutting, peaceful place and we felt we should be under Fairmount Park because they were the ones who could really take care of it. They had arborists, which the Recreation Dept. did not have. They started sub-contracting the grass cutting and we have the grass cut every two weeks.
ES: Have they cooperated with you for these past twenty years?
Alexis:Actually, they have. There have been a number of district managers over the years, through Fairmount Park. We are part of District 3, and they are based on Henry Avenue, across from the Saul High School, up in Roxborough. They drive by every day. If they see a tree has fallen they are right there. They have been receptive. Any problems with the water fountain, they repair.
They assisted with the small stone walls on either side of the sign. They have given it a nice presentation. Anything we need they write letters of support. They help us get additional funding for the Park. The Friends provide maintenance but there are some things we cannot do. We cannot do cement work. We can't do masonry or large trees. We do have large trees since the park was established in 1929. If we need a major work we can get a pruning grant from a local arborist.
ES: Has the community in general supported you?
Alexis:Absolutely. We have always encourage people to use the park. Dog walkers use it and take care of it. We have nice people who stock pile debris. They work within the park. We are grateful for people who help. We encourage people to use the park so that it continues to be a viable centerpiece for the neighborhood.
ES: What about your volunteers?
Alexis: We have about 90 volunteers right now, not all active. We are aging up. We started out young and doing physical work, mulching and moving earth. Those who couldn't do that would help by phone calling and letter writing, which was great. There is always a handful willing to come out and prune every spring and fall. We have had a lot of people who adopt a bench, a tree or area of the park. They weed, etc. on their own time. We basically meet as we can get together. People are working so we get together when we can. No dues because why would we ask people to work and pay money too? We would rather have them use volunteer time to come out and help maintain the park.
ES: How do you support the organization for paint and supplies?
Alexis:Basically, we rely on generous donations from the community. People are very generous. One of our major fund raisers is "Love Lights" supported by the Fallser. Everyone who purchases a love light for $5.00 (and it has stayed $5.00 over the years) gets an acknowledgment in the Fallser. Julie Camburn has been very helpful to us. We started out for a few hundred dollars and here we are after ten years and we raised $1‚000.00 this year. For one night, we light the tree with little red lights on Valentine night. For a February night it has been very successful. We use to have dancing at the lighting but the weather got too unpredictable. Sometimes people come with candles to the tree. It's very sweet. It's turned into something meaningful. I was inspired by Wissahickon Hospice. They had a lighting that they do every year at Christmas time for a loved one no longer with you. That is how I initially thought of the idea.
ES: When did you start your column with the Fallser?
Alexis: I found out this year that they celebrated their anniversary this year and I was one of the first ones. Fifteen years. I had no idea I had been writing it this long.
ES: How did you come up with the name "Turtle Talks?"
Alexis: I did it because there was a little newsletter that we had with that name. Some people refer to it as the "Turtle Park" so we called our newsletter after the turtle. We only issued one or two newsletters when Julie started the newspaper and she suggested we call it "Turtle Talks." When I'm away on vacation, another volunteers will step up and write the column. Whenever a volunteer wants to do something I am fine with that. This is not a monarchy. Great, if you want to do something.
ES: How have other community organization helped you? For instance, East Falls Community Council?
Alexis: We have done a number of things. Every year the East Falls Festival and Flea Market use the Park. Money raised from the Flea Market goes back to the community. The Friends have applied for grants and we have obtained money from the fund for clean-up, doggie scoop bags, "Shakespeare in the Park." Every year it's something different. Initially our signs came from the East Falls Development Corporation and the Friends purchased the other one.
Our Historical Marker was gotten through funds from the community. We applied through the State for funding however, Morton McMichael did not have enough historical significance throughout the State so they turned us down. So we decided to do our own. We applied to East Falls Community Council for half of the funds and the Friends were going to raise the other half. We got to the council meeting and your sister (Doris Kelley) stood up and said “I think this historical marker is so significant for East Falls that the community should pay for the entire marker.” There was a vote from the floor and it was voted on. Tom and Keith and I looked at each other and couldn't believe it. We didn't have to do the fundraising. It was so sweet of her to say she believed in the importance of this for the community. She was outspoken in a good way.
ES: Have other organizations used the park for other purposes?
Alexis: The Medical College Hospital has used it for their health fair. The schools have use it. We coordinated with East Falls Tree Tenders, Penn Charter, Mifflin, St. Bridget’s. We had daffodil planting days. We have a program with Bartram Gardens where the school children come and learn about trees - an environmental class. They do leaf rubbings and seed identification. The wildlife is there - birds, butterflies, squirrels.
One year Penn Charter Lower School wanted to plant a tree, so they held an earthworm sale at the school and earned enough money to plant a tree at the corner of Coulter and McMichael Street, near the Penn Charter campus. It is a beautiful pink flowering tree and every year those kids who are grown up now, come back and remember how they raised the money for the tree by selling earthworms. Many times kids come back now to do clean-ups or play ball.
ES: In reference to the Marker, where did it go and was there a ceremony?
Alexis: The marker was established at the corner of Midvale and McMichael Street. We had a dedication (in 1995) on Morton McMichael's birthday, which is October 20. He is the former Mayor of Philadelphia, Republican, Founder of the Union League, and he also founded a newspaper publication in Philadelphia. Because of the Union League's connection, we had the Men's Chorus group from the Union League, "The McMichaels" come and perform. We also had Edward Rendell, who was running for Mayor of Philadelphia. And a few others state reps, Michael Nutter. Keith Shively made a cover with a sketch of Morton McMichael. We unveiled the marker and held a dedication ceremony, the group sang, and we had punch.
ES: How did the Hymn Sing for Christmas begin in the Park?
Alexis: The Hymn Sing (note: Carol Sing) was an offshoot of the EFCC. Pastor deHeyman started it. Each year it got bigger and bigger. More instruments were added, more people came, candles were provided and music sheets. After the Hymn Sing, we went to the library for hot chocolate refreshments, and Santa Claus.
ES: What about other organizations such as the Falls Festival?
Alexis: The Falls Festival started small and grew - health care from MCP, Battle of the Bands. They were before we were founded. Lucy Iannitto usually was involved. They asked me to chair the "Baby Parade" and that's how I got involved. Later, I became chair of the Festival for a couple of years. Then I decided to just stick with the park.
ES: How did you establish your logo?
Alexis: The turtle is our logo. We ran an art project. Our theme was "What the Park means to you" John Gowling came up with a lovely drawing of the turtle. He remembered playing in the sand around the turtle as a child. He designed our first logo, we put it on a T-shirt and that was our fundraiser for several years. About five years ago we added the 19129 zip code. A lot of people didn't know where East Falls was so we used die zip code on the shirts.
Attachment:
FRIENDS OF MCMICHAEL PARK
3904 HENRY AVENUE
PHILADELPHIA, PA 19129
Phone: 215-849-0829
FAX 2I5-849-0188
Email Lexy39O4@aol.com
FRIENDS OF McMICHAEL PARK
ESTABLISHED 1990
COORDINATOR.... ALEXIS FRANKLIN (1990 TO PRESENT)
LOCATED IN THE EAST FALLS SECTION OF PHILADELPH1A. IT IS SIX GREEN ACRES WITH AN OPEN FIELD AT THE NORTHWEST END. THE PARK 1S NAMED AFTER MORTON MCMICHAEL, A FORMER MAYOR OF THE CITY. THERE IS ALSO AN HISTORICAL WAR MEMORIAL ESTABLISHED FOR ALL VETERANS. IT IS ALSO "HOME OF THE TURTLE", ONE OF THE LAST SURVIVING CEMENT TURTLES IN THE PARK SYSTEM. MCMICHAEL PARK IS CURRENTLY MAINTAINED BY THE FAIRMOUNT PARK COMMISSION, DISTRICT THREE.
THE FRIENDS OF MCMICHAEL WORK WITH THE FOLLOWING COMMUNITY AND CITY GROUPS:
EAST FALLS COMMUNITY COUNCIL (EFCC)
EAST FALLS BUSINESS ASSOCIATION (EFBA)
EAST FALLS TREE TENDERS (EFTT)
EAST FALLS FLEA MARKET COMMITTEE
EAST FALLS FESTIVAL COMMIITEE
EAST FALLS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (EFDC)
PENNSYLVANIA.HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY (PHS)
PHILADELPHIA CARES
FAIRMOUNT PARK RANGERS
FAIRMOUNT PARK COMMISSION
PHILADELPHIA DEPARTMENT OF RECREATION
FRIENDS OF THE WISSAHICKON
ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
CONTINUING CARE OF TREE PITS AND GARDEN BEDS INCLUDING WEEDING, WATERING AND MULCHING. LIGHT PRUNING OF SMALLER TREES.
1990,1996,1999,2001 - BENCH PAINTING 0F 22 PARK BENCHES. SOME EFFORTS COORDINATED WITH PHILLY CARES AND THE BOY SCOUTS OF TROOP #221 LEAD BY BILLY SCARPATO
1991 - REPLACEMENT S1DEWALKS AROUND PARK PERIMETER. DEPT. OF RECREATION.
1995, 1997 - SPRING ANNUALS PLANTED IN FRONT 0F WAR MEMORIAL AND GARDEN ENTRANCES.
1994 - HILARY LANGER DONATED AN EVERGREEN FROM HIS HOME TO BE PLANTD NEAR WAR MEMORIAL.
1993 - THREE WHITE AMELANCHIER TREES PLANTED IN HONOR OF MOTHERS DAY.
1993 - JOE LOCASTRO DONATED A KOUSA DOGWOOD FROM HIS GARDEN.
1995 - ESTABLISHED CEMENTED BASE TRASH RECEPTACLES IN PARK.
1996, 1998, 2000 - PRUNING OF THE TAXUS YEWS AROUND THE WAR MEMORIAL. (COST $300.00/BARTLETT)
2000 - MILLENNIUM GROVE ESTABLISHED ALONG WITH 2 KOUSA DOGWOODS AS PART OF THE "GIFT FOR ALL SEASONS PROGRAM"
1999,2000 - PENN CHARTER & THOMAS MIFFLIN STUDENTS PLANT DAFFODIL BULBS FOR SPRING BLOOMING.
2000 - FILM SERIES COORDINATED WJTH SUNOCO WELCOME AMER1CA..."T0 CATCH A THIEF" STARRING EAST FALLS OWN GRACE KELLY.
2000 - MAYOR EDWARD G. RENDELL TREE PLANTED WITH DONATIONS RAISED BY THE EFTT.
2000 - PERENNIAL BED AND RETAINING WALLS ESTABLISHED AT THE PARK ENTRANCES UNDER SIGNS.
1999,2000,2001,2002 - COORDINATED PROGRAM WLTH BARTRAM GARDENS AND EFTT WITH THE LOCAL SCHOOLS.
2001 - NEW TELEPHONE BOOTH AT THE CORNER OF HENRY AVENUE.
2001 - SUMMER ENVIRONMENTAL CAMP, WILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL.
2001 - SWEETGUM TREE PLANTED NEAR HENRY AVENUE IN HONOR OF TWO WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS, TOM WILLIAMS & KEITH SHIVELY WHO HAVE MOVED AWAY.
2002...3 - BOLLARDS ARE 1NSTALLED ON MIDVALE AVENUE NEAR BUS STOP TO REMOVE CURBSIDE HAZARDS AND GROUND IMPACTING, INSTALLED MIKE DESANTOS, FPC.
2003 – AUGUST - SECURITY LIGHTING OF THE TURTLE AND THE WAR MEMORIAL- INSTALLATION BY MIKE DESANTOS OF THE FAIRMOUNT PARK COMMISS1ON.
GRANTS & FUNDRAISING -
1992 - NEW PARK SIGNS AT HENRY AVENUE ENTRANCES...$840. GENERATED BY THE EFBA.
1996 - EAST FALLS FESTIVAL AWARDS COMMITTEE ... $1,000. TO ESTABLISH AN HISTORICAL MARKER DEDICATED TO MORTON MCMICHAEL.
1996 - NEW PARK ENTRANCE SIGNS ... MONIES RAISED BY FOMCMP.
1997...PURP GRANT ... $20,000 MATCHING GRANT FROM PENN. URBAN RESOURCE & AMOCO OIL CORPORATION & THE EFBA TO PRUNE 25 PERIMETER PARK TREES.
1998 - INTERIOR PRUNING OF OLDER TREES ... BARTLETT
1995, 1996, 1997 - DAFFODIL BULB SALE AT THE EAST FALLS FLEA MARKET.
1996, 1997 - TOTE BAG SÄLE AT THE EAST FALLS FESTIVAL.
1998, 1999 - RAFFLE BASKETS AT THE EAST FALLS FESTIVAL.
1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 - "LOVELIGHTS' ON VALENTINES DAY...ANNUAL FUNDRAISER FOR FRIENDS ... BUY A LIGHT FOR SOMEONE SPECIAL IN YOUR LIFE ... RAISES $400.00 ANNUALLY.
2001 - NEW FLAG AND RESTORATION OF FLAGPOLE.
2002 ... SEPTEMBER 11 - ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY ...52 FLAGS WAVED IN MCMICHAEL PARK TO HONOR ALL OF THOSE WHO PERISHED IN THE WORLD TRADE CENTER DISASTER.
2003 - SPRING ...5TH GRADERS FROM WILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL PLANT ANNUALS AND GROOM THE BEDS AROUND WAR MEMORIAL. (COST $40..00 MULCH/FLOWERS)
2003 – MAY - PHILLY CARES ... MULCH AND WEED TREE BEDS AROUND 60 NEW TREE PLANTINGS IN THE PARK. 60 BAGS OF MULCH WAS DONATED BY HOME DEPOT, CONSHOHOCKEN. 10-15 VOLUNTEERS FROM OUTSIDE THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
2003 - 0CTOBER - SPRING BULB SALE TO RAISE MONIES FOR NEW ENTRANCE SIGNS AT THE CORNER OF HENRY & MIDVALE AVENUES /HENRY & COULTER ST. ($400.00 RAISED)
2004 - JANUARY ...$ 1500.00 GRANT APPROVED BY THE EAST FALLS FESTIVAL FUND TO PAY FOR ONE OF THE PARK ENTRANCE SIGNS ... APR1L INSTALLATION.
2004 - FEBRUARY ...$300.00 RAISED THRU NEIGHBORHOOD "LOVELIGHTS" ... DOLLARS RAISE CONTRIBUTED TO THE MATCHING MONIES NEEDED FOR PARK SIGNS.
2004 - OCTOBER ... DONATION OF "DOGIPOTS" FROM SCHULKILL NATURE GROWING GREENER.. TWO POTS WITH BAGS WERE INSTALLED THRU FAIRMOUNT PARK, DISTRICT THREE AT THE CORNER OF MIDVALE AND HENRY AND COULTER AND MCMICHAEL STREETS.
2004 - NOVEMBER ... CABLING OF THE "BIG" PAULOWNIA TREE. WORK DONATED BY HAL ROSNER OF BARTLETF. COORDJNATED THRU EAST FALLS TREE TENDERS.
JANUARY 2005 - PRUNING OF THE YEW BUSHES AROUND THE WAR MEMEMORIAL. WORK DONE BY BARTLETT TREE SERVICE. MONEY GRANTED BY THE EAST FALLS FESTIVAL FUND. ($600.00)
FEBRUARY 2005 - LOVELIGHTS FOR VALENTINES DAY. 8300.00 RAISED. FOUR VOLUNTEER HOURS PLUS THE SUPPORT OF THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER, THE FALLSER.
2005 - SPRING ... MULCHING OF TREE PITS ALONG MIDVALE AVENUE. ALSO, BENCH PA1NT1NG ... 22 BENCHES. PAINT DONATED BY DURON PAINTS. WORK DONE AS A COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT FOR THE 9TH GRADE BOYS AT CHESTNUT HILL ACADEMY. (Cost of mulch, $240.00) (16 volunteer hours)
2005 - JUNE FLEA MARKET.. .T-SHIRT SALE TO CELEBRATE THE FORTIETH BIRTHDAY OF THE MCMICHAEL PARK TURTLE.
2005 OCTOBER - SPR1NG BULB SALE ORGANIZED BY CHRISTINA KISTLER ... RA1SED $500.00
2005 NOVEMBER - COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT WITH THE 6th GRADE BOYS FROM THE WILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL. TURTLE SWEEPING, MULCHING AND GENERAL CLEAN UP FROM THE GROUP OF 13 BOYS LED BY PENN CHARTER TEACHER, CHARLIE BROWN. COST $45.00 FOR MULCH. 4 VOLUNTEER HOURS.
2005, FALL - BENCH DONATED BY THE GREICOS IN MEMORY OF THEIR PARENTS, JUDGE STAN AND SOPHIE KUBACKI
2006, FEBRUARY ...LOVELIGHTS RAISED $350.00. FALLSER SUPPORT PLUS 4 VOLUNTEER HOURS
2006, MARCH ... FRIENDS RECEIVE A GRANT FROM THE EAST FALLS FESTIVAL FUND OF $275.00 TO PURCHASE DOGGIE BÄGS. MCMICHAEL PARK USED 6000 BAGS IN 2005.
2006, APRIL – 4th GRADE CLASS OF THE WILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL CAME OUT CLEAN UP THE WINDER GARDEN AS WELL AS WEED AND MULCH THE STREET TREES ALONG MCMICHAEL STREET.
2006, JUNE - FRIENDS OF MCMICHAEL PARK SELL, "TURTLE T-SHIRTS" TO BENEFIT PARK PROJECTS. -
2006, SPRING - GIFT FOR ALL SEASONS BENCH PUCHASED BY THE HUGHES FAMILY TO CELEBRATE RITA HUGHES BIRTIIDAY. RITA IS A REGULÄR IN MCMICHAEL PARK.
2006, AUGUST - 5 BENCHES REPAIRED BY THE FRIENDS OF WISSAHICKON. FPC HAD NO CARPENTERS.
2006, SEPTEMBER 11th, FLAGS FLYING IN MCMICHAEL TO COMMEMORATE THE FIVE-YEAR ANNIVERSAY OF THOSE WE LOST IN 9-11.
2006, SEPTEMBER - 5 RECENTLY REPAIRED BENCHES WERE PAINTED AND PRIMED BY RICH LAMPERT AND DEBORAH THORP.
2006, OCTOBER - PARK PRUNING ON LOW LIMBS AND SUCKERS. CHRISTINA KISTLER, RICH LAMBPERT, VINCE GRIECO, JOHN FRANKLIN AND ÄLEXIS FRANKL1N
2007, FEBRUARY - LOVELIGHTS RAISED RECORD DOLLARS OF $750.00 THIS YEAR. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS APPEAR IN THE FALLSER.
2007, APRIL - ARBOR DAY COMMUNITY SERVICE WITH W1LLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL. PLANTED THREE TREES WHICH WERE DONATED BY FAIRMOUNT PARK AND ALSO ASSISTED IN REMOVAL OF DEAD TREE ON COULTER STREET SIDE. LIMBS WERE ALSO STOCKPILED AND REMOVED.
2007, MAY - PHILLY CARES ... PLANTINGS AROUND THE WAR MEMORIAL
2004-2008 - VINCE GREICO HAS STOCKED THE "DOGGIE BAGS" IN THE PARK. CORNER OF MIDVALE AND CORNER OF COUTLER @MCMICHAEL
2008, FEBRUARY - LOVELIGHTS RAISED $900.00
2008, MAY - TURTLE SWEEPERSIKJSTLER FAMILY. BRUCE CLAYTOR ADOPTS RENDELL TREE AND CORNER OF COULTER & HENRY AVENUE. ALEXIS FRANKLIN WEEDS & MULCHES TREES ALONG HENRY AVENUE.
2008, APRI - COMMUNITY SERVICE DAY WITH PENN CHARTER MIDDLE SCHOOL. WEEDING AND MULCHING AND REMOVAL OF A FALLEN TREE. ALSO, WEEDING OF THE WINDER GARDEN.
JULY 23, 2008 - SHAKESPEARE IN MCMICHAEL PARK, "TAMING OF THE SHREW" BROUGHT BY COMMONWEALTH CLASSIC THEATER. SPONSORS: FRIENDS OF MCMICHAEL PARK, FAIRMOUNT PARK COMMISSION & EAST FALLS COMMUNITY COUNCIL.
OCTOBER 1, 2008 - COMMUNITY SERVICE DAY WITH PHILADELPHIA UNIVERSITY. LEAD BY ASSOCIATE DEAN OF STUDENTS, STEVE SPANNS AND UNIVERSITY FACILITIES DEPARTMENT, STEVE MCQUINN, 10 STUDENTS, FRIENDS ALEXIS FRANKLIN & JANE LYONS. PAINTING OF THE 22 GREEN BENCHES IN THE PARK PLUS A NEW COAT FOR THE TURTLE. PA1NT & SUPPLIES WAS DONATED BY DURON PAINTS IN EAST FALLS.
OCTOBER 18, 2008 - MCMICHAEL PARK WAS A CHEERING STATION FOR THE THOUSANDS OF WALKERS WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE SUSAN B. KOMAN WALK FOR THE CURE.
OCTOBER 2008 - APPROVAL OF A $ 10,000.00 PRUNING GRANT THRU STATE REPRESENTATIVE JEWELL WILLIAMS. LESHAE HUDSON, ASSISTANT TO WILLIAMS, WILL DISPERSE FUNDS AS SOON AS THEY COME THRU. PAT CROSSAN & ALEXIS FRANKLIN WALK THRU MCMICHAEL PARK AND PREPARE LIST FOR THE STATE REP.
FEBRUARY 2009 - LOVELIGHTS BRING IN RECORD NUMBERS ...$ 1000.00 RAISED. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AGAIN SUPPORTED BY TEE FALLSER.
APRIL/2009...COMMUNITY SERVICE DAY WITH THE WILLIAM PENN CHARTER MIDDLE SCHOOL. MULCHED AND WEEDED TREE PITS WITH 10-12 STUDENTS AND A FACULTY MEMBER.. CYNTHIA KISHINCHAND AND ALEXIS FRANKL1N SUPERVISED FROM THE FRIENDS OF MCMICHAEL PARK.
JUNE 3, 2009 - FRIENDLY PRUNERS, CHRISTINA AND BRIAN KISTLER, JANE KENNEDY, FRANCES BOURNE, BILL HOFFNER, AND RICH LAMPERT GAVE CLEARANCE TO ALL LOW LYING BRANCHES IN LIGHT OF THE EAST FALLS FLEA MARKET THAT WAS SCHEDULED THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND.
Jack McNicholas, born 1931
East Falls Historical Society Oral History Interview
Interviewee: Jack McNicholas (JM)
Interviewer: Lyda Doyle (LD)
Date of Interview: March 19, 2011
LD: Ok, this is Saturday March 19, 2011. My name is Lyda Doyle and I am interviewing Jack McNicholas. So I guess we could start with when and where you were born.
JM: Ok, I was born November 2, 1931 and actually born in Roxborough Memorial Hospital.
LD: Ok, and where were your parents born?
JM: My dad, whose name was James, was born in Ireland. My mother was born in East Falls, and her name was Mary Lynch. She was born on Clearfield Street, 3412 Clearfield Street, down what we call the lower end.
LD: So you grew up right here in East Falls?
JM: Yes, when my mother and father got married, they bought a house, a brand new house, on 3300 Tilden Street in 1927 and that’s where we were all born and raised.
LD: And when did you get married and move from that house? Were you there ‘til you got married?
JM: I was there ‘til I got married. I was there and I was born in 1931, I got married in 1960, and I was still there with my mother in 1960 when I got married.
LD: And then you and your wife bought this house?
JM: No, when we first got married we had an apartment, at 33rd and Allegheny, and we lived down there for about 2 years. Then we came back to East Falls and bought a house that I’m still in at 3429 Indian Queen Lane. That was around 1962.
LD: Alright. And how many children did you have?
JM: We had ten.
LD: That’s amazing.
JM: My wife had ten with a little help from her friend here. Hahaha
LD: And you were a mailman?
JM: I was a mailman for thirty-five years. Most of it right here in East Falls.
LD: So was it easy to raise ten kids with a mailman’s salary?
JM: It was, but I worked two jobs most of the time because my wife wasn’t. She had her first child, she worked up until then, and she never worked outside of the house after that, and so I just got a second job and I would have gotten a third job than to do what she did because her job was hard. She had three in diapers more than once at one time. It was really hard but she was really good at it so she got through it.
LD: Well, tell me about what it was like growing up in East Falls. Did you play sports?
JM: Well, when I was younger we didn’t have too much for sports because it was during the Second World War and everyone was in the service. So it didn’t have any sports teams, little league teams or anything like that. I went to St Bridget’s when we would play once in a while, we would play softball at Mifflin School, after school and then we would get games like the seventh grade would play the sixth grade over at Dobson’s lot, which is now McDevitt. And we just didn’t have bats or balls. We only had a few clubs. We would have a game. We would chip in and buy these balls at McDermott’s store on Sunnyside and Conrad, like they were a nickel. We called them nickel rockets and after about two innings dust would come out and we would tape them with black tape. We would have one bat. I can remember the bat would get broken and would have to tape it… One time we took it up to Dominic Cain on Conrad’s street and he taped it and put a screw in it. It was just because all the then men were in the war and there were no coaches.
We didn’t have any sports. No we didn’t have football or anything else. We’d play pick-up games at Dobson’s field and we had McCarthy field which was over around Cresson and Merrick, where we call the new homes are now. We had little pick-up football games, things like that. Nothing organized until, well after the war. After the war, like 1945 to 1946, I was just starting high school and they got a softball league up which was all the guys come back from the war. They had different teams like the VFW. Alden Theater had a team and bars like McMackins, Quinny’s had teams, and we had a team, they just called us the kids. We were all like sixteen, fifteen. Played in the league. We played all over. We played at Inn yard down at Ridge. It’s still there by the firehouse. We played there, we played at McMichael Park, and we played over at what we called McCarthy field, which the homes were built over there, I guess late 40’s early 50’s. They had a field there. And that was a pretty good league.
They didn’t start playing hardball back in East Falls, I guess until the 50’s when the East Falls Sports association got together and start having teams which they’re still going strong doing very well. I worked there. I coached little there for fourteen years, baseball, and with guys like Dick Garner and Phil Morris, and so many others Chicky Gramlich, and we did very well. We played in the Wissahickon league for a few years, then we got our own junior league and now our older teams play in the Roxborough leagues and they still have things going on down there, baseball.
LD: Was the Pop Warner Association down there?
JM: Pop Warner was football.
LD: Football.
JM: Football, they had the East Falls Falcons, which were… They started right at the end of the war, and they played Pop Warner football. They were like the away team; 160, 150, 160 pounds. They had some good teams. They played the Wissahickon Hawks the one time. The Hawks were really good, they were really good from Wissahickon.
LD: Now, being so close to the river, did you ever go fishing as a pastime?
JM: No, when we were kids, we weren’t allowed down the river. My father wouldn’t let us. They were too worried we would fall in.
LD: They were too worried you’d fall in.
JM: We’d get whacked if they were afraid we’d fall in, and of course we lived on Tilden Street so that was a pretty good walk down there, and we were told to stay away from there until we got older. When we went down the Bathey and things like that which was right next to the river, but when we were younger we were told to stay away from there. So we did.
LD: Now being part of the post-war baby boom, when I went down to the Bathey they had to split into girls days and boys days. Was it like that when you were younger?
JM: It was like that when I was a kid. I started to go down there. I guess I started going down there in the late 30’s because I was born in ’31. I remember going down there nine, ten years old before the war, and we spent a lot of time down there. I just remember we use to just get in then we’d have to come out. Then we’d have to wait then get back in again. They had staggered hours.
LD: They called it ranks then?
JM: I forget what they called it, but we had to get out and get in line to come back in.
LD: I kind of remember coming out and going around the building and getting back in line.
JM: Yeah, they had you go out and come back. We use to go across the street, there was a store across the street on Ridge Avenue. Right around Ridge and Crawford (ed. note: Crawford ran down beside the end of Dobson Mills close to where the twin bridges start. You can still see part of it inside the fence). People named Croce had the store, and I knew one of the sons, Joe, he was my age, and his sister kind of waited on the customers. We use to buy a little loaf of Italian bread. I forget, nine cents or something, and we’d just pull it apart and eat it. No lunch meat or anything. That would be our lunch, but we spent most of the day down there, the afternoon anyway. Walked down, walked back it was some good time down there.
LD: Now, where did you go to high school?
JM: Roman Catholic High, Broad and Vine. That’s when we went to St Bridget’s for grammar school, and that’s where, more or less, you went to Roman if you wanted to go to Diocese. You could go to St Johns in Manayunk, but you had to pay some tuition and of course the other schools; the Prep and La Salle were private. You could go if you had the money, but we all, most of us went to Roman.
LD: So you took the bus?
JM: Took the bus, I can remember the first year of high school, we went to St Peter’s annex, which was 5th and Girard. So that was the only way to get there, we would all have to, no matter where we lived in East Falls. We would have to walk to Ridge and Midvale, get the trolley down to Girard. This was 1945. Right? September 1945. Right after the war ended in Japan. 61 to Girard Avenue, we’d get off there and we’d get the 15 trolley down to 5th street. We went to an annex school, which was St Peter’s. We went there for a year and then we went to the main building - Broad and Vine - and we would get there by getting the C-bus on Henry Avenue to Broad. Then we’d get the subway down to Broad and Vine. That’s how we went.
LD: You mentioned the end of the war, do you remember D-day or VJ day?
JM: Oh, yeah. I remember it very well.
LD: Here in East Falls?
JM: Yeah, I can remember the day the war started. I did write that down. I was ten years old and I was in the Alden Theater on Midvale Avenue, and I was by myself, ten years old. Those days we use to walk all over; no one was afraid to go anywhere and now I can remember. I was there on a Sunday afternoon and I walked from there over to Dobson Field, which is now McDevitt, there was a football game going on and everybody was talking about the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. That’s why I remember December 7, 1941. It was a beautiful sunny day and I remember the two teams that were playing, it was Roach AC, which was a team of all guys down Ridge Avenue round the Bathey.
LD: Roach Row?
JM: Yeah, Cockroach Row. That’s what they called it but they had a team called Roach AC, and I can remember they had a little roach on it, not on the football uniforms but they had a baseball team at one time and they would have a little roach on their jersey. But they played McCarthy AC. McCarthy AC was a bunch of guys from, more or less, over around Fisk Ave and Midvale (ed. note: Dobson St. – Fisk did not connect with Midvale or Cresson), upper, by the railroad. I guess you would say they had field over there named McCarthy field and I guess they named the field after that or it must have been some guy name McCarthy. It’s no longer there but that was the… I guess I was in fourth grade. Then I was in eighth grade. I just graduated eighth grade in June of 45. Then I started high school in September of 45. So I can remember all that excitement.
LD: Were there bells ringing, a parade or anything?
JM: There was a lot of people banging pots. You know like it was New Year’s Eve. Then, of course, all the anticipation of the people coming back. I had an uncle, my mother’s brother, who was Tom Lynch, who was first to go, and he was in the army four and a half years and he was oversees almost three years. So he was one of the first ones to come back and then some didn’t come back and then I remember they were all excited, a lot of them would have never went to school. That’s one of the good things that came out of it. They could get that GI bill and a lot of them went to college and got degrees, things like that. And they were worried about getting jobs, but most of them got jobs and went on from there. So all through high school it was all these people coming back and it was pretty exciting.
LD: Do you remember anything about rations during the war?
JM: Yeah, during the war, we had, my father had a car but we never used it. We use to go and get spring water every time. We took the car, we had to push it to get it started. I don’t even know why we even bought it, but we always had to jump start it.
LD: You became experts at jumpstarting…
JM: Yeah, you’d just push it down the alleyway. Then we’d go and get spring water in Atlantic City once and it took us about eight hours (note: Jack clarified later that it was 8 hours round trip. He also said they went there for salt water taffy and got their spring water in Germantown), but they had coupons for gas and I can remember they had red, and black. I think black for gas, and red coupons for meat. The meat and the gas, I don’t remember whether sugar and things like that there were certain coupons. But I do remember the coupons.
LD: The ration books?
JM: Yeah, the books. We never had too much problems with it. I can remember, whether you want me to say on there or not. Your father had a gas station on Midvale Avenue. He was a kind man and…
LD: Husky?
JM: A big husky man. My father became very friendly with him because every time we had a problem with the car. It was Dave Furman who we had to see to take care of it. He became good friends with my father. He had… he was one of the first gas stations down there, I think. That I can remember, he was there for quite a few years and he had a good business with everybody who went to him. Of course, there weren’t a lot of cars around during the war, but I can remember that, I think it was an Atlantic Station, but I am sure. Was it? Yeah that’s during the war, I was only a kid.
LD: So did you start with the post office after high school?
JM: No, when I got out of high school… There just, well though it was 1949, it seemed as though all the vet guys from World War II, you know, they were still getting jobs and they were getting preference which they should. There wasn’t much around for a kid, 17, I remember. I got a job down in Dobson’s Mills. The place called Vander Beck, it was a hosiery mill and there were some guys from East Falls, who were the bosses. Joe Verdone was a boss down there. Anyway, I worked there for about a year. I remember I started at 75cents an hour that was 1949 and that was shift work, three to eleven, but I could walk to work and things like that. I worked there for maybe a year.
Then we bounced around, we would work, I worked at a container corporation up in Manayunk for a while. I worked at Mrs. Schlorer’s Pickles down on Scott’s Lane at the time, and I know they use to play music down there. Mostly all women, and we would start singing and this and that. And the guy called us in the office, me and a fella named Harry McGready. His name was Ed Schlorer - Mrs Schlorer’s nephew, believe it or not. He said “You fellas are live wires and we really like you but all that singing you get the women going, and we can’t have that. So we are going to let you go.” So that was the end of that place. Then I bounced around a few places.
Then the Korean War came along in 1952, I went in the Navy, and I was in the Navy a couple years. Came out of the navy in ’54. And there wasn’t much around, so mostly everyone who came back from the Korean War would take tests. I took the postal test, I took the fireman’s test, I took the policemen’s test. Some guys went to school with the GI Bill, but my dad passed away right after I came home and I had sisters still in high school. So my older brother and I had to work to help my mom out. I took all these tests and I passed all the tests, but I went and took the postal test. When they called me, I ended up being a letter carrier, and I lasted thirty-five years.
I worked in center city for one and a half years. I worked at Manayunk for a year, then I got transferred to East Falls for the last thirty-two years or so, right in the neighborhood. So it was good, I retired when I was sixty, and during the time I was in the post office, I worked part time for Philadelphia Textile College. Then when I retired from the post office I got full time up there. I worked security and I drove a van and I worked there for twenty-three years. They were nice people. It’s Philadelphia University now, but they were nice people to work with. And it helped as a side job. I didn’t have to travel, I could walk over there, so that was about it for the working.
LD: I know, something you said made me think of another question. There were some factories in East Falls. There was Aston Hill…
JM: Oh God yeah. Well, see, when I was a kid, Aston Hill was down there at that complex, where the mills, we call Dobson’s Mills, down around Ridge Avenue (ed. note: it later moved up to Henry Avenue where the trade school is now – same building, just down from arboretum). This side of Allegheny, like past where the twin bridges are now, but there were a load of different mills down there. I remember when you rode by there, there was a place that made pies. Wasselle’s. W-A-S-S-E-L-L-E-S. They made pies, well I guess they made more than pies, but you could smell the pies and then there was the place I worked at Vander Becks, which was a hosiery mill. Then they had a place, I forget the name of it, but luggage. They made suitcases things like that, leather bags and I don’t know how many more places were in there. But a lot of people worked down there. They called it Dobson’s Mills, and a lot of people… In fact, my mother’s mother worked there during the First World War. They made uniforms or something down there, for you know, 1918. But I can’t remember the names of the other places that were in there, but a lot of people in East Falls work in there at one place or another.
LD: Do you remember the businesses that were around when you were growing up? Like you mentioned McDermott’s, the Green Corner…
JM: Green Corner was there. A lady we called Miss Hall, an older woman, she ran it. And then of course McDermott’s, and Fitzpatrick they had the corner store at Sunnyside and Conrad. It was just novelties. They sold all kinds of games and puzzles and candy. I don’t remember them having ice cream or anything like that. And there was at least two or three grocery stores. There was Caldwell’s, on Conrad Street by Ainslie (in the gray stone building that are apartments now). Then down, well right next to Caldwell’s store at Conrad and Ainslie on the corner (where Petrone’s Realty is today) was an old German guy. Schaff, his name was - a jeweler. You would see him working on watchers and stuff. Then down from there on the corner was McDermott’s Fitzpatrick’s store. Right there on Sunnyside and Conrad. Then right next to him on the other side of Sunnyside was a plumber, George Kelly, his name was. Next to him, couple doors down, was a meat market, Sowden, who sold meats. Then there was a barbershop, it was Herrera’s. Freddy Herrera and Felix, Felix was the owner and his brother Freddy were barber there. Right before you got to Division Street. Then past Division, on the corner of Bowman and Conrad, there was a store there, was it Claytons? Then it became…
LD: When I grew up it was Gotwol’s. It might have been between Clayton then Gotwol’s.
JM: Yeah, I think it might have been Clayton’s at one time. Then I don’t know if it was during the war or after the war or before the war, there was an appliance store there, Buckley and Hodge. I’ll never forget because the guy, Buckley, was about six foot six inches and he used to pitch for East Falls baseball team with Harry Prime, he was a catcher. The guy was a pitcher, who went to school at Penn Charter or somewhere (ed. note: yes, and they lived on Netherfield Road). He, Buckley and Hodge, and I don’t know how long that store was there. Then it sold appliances, refrigerators, and all that stuff. Then I think Clayton’s had and of course it changed hands so many times, this guy named Max Celser had it then. Tom, the guy that has the restaurant now, he had it for a while, then a guy named Joe Buloba had it. Before him, then of course there was that beer distributor, McKeever’s, which there are new apartments there on Conrad before Indian Queen Lane. When we were kids, Gene Rowland had it, and his wife, who I think you interviewed, Gene Rowland and Frank Rowland for years. And of course I forget what was on the corner where the Saloonery is now. I can’t remember what was there. I know McMackin had a bar there (catty corner from Murphy’s), but before McMackin, I forget what was there. Caddy-corner to where the Saloonery is now, McMackin had a bar there. Then when he had the new one built, where the Saloonery is now, he moved across the street, but McMackin use to be in the old place which is now Smokey Joe’s. McMackin, that was McMackin’s old bar before he moved across the street. Then up Conrad, up at the far end of Conrad, at Crawford, there was a little store on the corner. Real small little corner store, a guy named Bob Wittaker had it for years during the war. On the other side of Conrad, the brewery Hohenadal brewery, we all remember that.
LD: Was that still functioning when you were growing up?
JM: It was still functioning when I was a kid. I think, in fact, when I was twenty-one, and be able to go into McMackin’s place. I think they still had Hohenadal beer on tap. I remember they had strikes there. Like, after the war. In like the late ‘40s, they would have pickets and this and that. And I think Hohenadal’s, they were in business ‘til the early ‘50s.
LD: Was there a steak shop at, I don’t know, if it was Conrad or Cresson and Scotts Lane?
JM: Cresson and Scotts lane?
LD: There was a contractor there - that was the last business.
JM: No, where the contractor, Cameady is now, that was a bar, Si Feeler’s bar. They called it. Around the Horn, I don’t know why. It was right on the corner of Scott’s Lane and Cresson. And they had a whole row of houses on that block. Where Caveedy’s is now and all the way up to Crawford. There were, maybe, forty houses.
LD: Wow, that’s many.
JM: Yeah, because I can remember when we were kids playing. I can remember in the ‘50s, when the Falcons were playing, or ever when baseball games were going on. The older guys who lived on that road. Instead of walking down to the field, they would just stay and look down and watch the game from…
LD: From the fence?
JM: From the fence, that was on top of the railroad there. I don’t remember a steak shop there.
LD: I think it was a tavern, but they might’ve made sandwiches also.
JM: It could’ve been. I remember Si Feeler’s bar, but I…
LD: Don’t know if they had food.
JM: I think there might have been a steak place on Conrad Street, but that doesn’t ring a bell right now.
LD: Do you remember a reservoir, right behind McDevitt’s, where the parking lot is now. When I was a kid it was all dried up, but you use to be able to climb down inside it. It was right between Scotts Lane and where the McDevitt parking lot is now …
JM: Where McDevitt is now. I can just remember… Well it was Dobson’s Field, they had three fields. They had main field, when you came off Indian Queen Lane. They had a ball back there. Then in the middle was the main field where center field was facing, where Hohenadal’s was. Then down toward Scott’s Lane was a smaller field. Where a smaller field… what, they have two fields now? I’m not sure. (note: they are back to two fields now)
LD: Isn’t there just one?
JM: Is it only one now?
LD: Yeah I think.
JM: Well there use to be?
LD: Because the expressway ate most of the ball field.
JM: There use to be three fields, and like you know, the big team, like semi-pros, the Trojans or whatever, I think they called them the Gotwols brothers, they had great teams. Then they played all these teams from Kensington and Mayfair and… I forget some, I remember Mayfair and Kensington had teams because when the visiting team would come, we’d hang around and try to be the bat-boy for them, for like a quarter. I can remember players. I remember the Gotwols brothers (Dave and Webster), Mike Caukin, Dave Budens. These guys are all dead now. Harry Prime, he became a singer. They had an article in the paper about him. I think he must be ninety by now. And he was a catcher, I think for the baseball team, like in the ‘40s, late ‘30s. And Conrad. I talked about Sam Pollis, the shoe maker and right across the street on the corner of Conrad and Ainslie, there was a bar there called Quinn’s. Owen Quinn owned that bar, and on that side like at Sunnyside there was that Merrick Hall, where it used to be the Falls Official Club (note: originally America Hall). And there’s Dr. Durst there now. The garage there, they’re working on… I don’t know what they’re gonna do, put parks there, I don’t know, where that big lot is. I can always remember a lot there on Bowman and Conrad. Then there was a little store on the corner… had the little name… Annie Morrison had the store. Old lady, when we were kids. When someone had a birthday, they could go down and buy some hankies, handkerchiefs and stuff, like for a nickel, you’d get a couple of handkerchiefs for my sisters, to take to a birthday party. I don’t know whether it was exactly on the corner of Bowman and Conrad, or just the second house, but she was very old then, her name was Annie Morrison. And of course coming up at where Apollo’s is now, was a guy named Harry Katz had a drug store. Then of course you had Mifflin. Mifflin was built around 1935. They had Breck’s School before they moved to Mifflin. They had a place where you could play inside, you know. I remember a gym, they had games, but I forget. Then Krail Street ran all the way down to Crawford, and you could get down there and down to Ridge. That was before they put the expressway through. And…
LD: Now was the post office, in East Falls, on Midvale at that time?
JM: Yeah, the post office… Back when I first started working at the post office, the post office was still on Midvale. You had - right up from the church, the first house was Dr. Morani. She was a woman doctor, surgeon. She had an office there and I think there was another house. Then there was the post office and then there was a house next to the post office that the Pete Kelly’s lived there. Kelly’s that were related to John B. Kelly, I think. And I worked in there for… I started there in the post office around ’55 and I worked downtown and Manayunk. Around ’57 I came down to East Falls when they went down to Ridge Avenue. I’m trying to think it must have been the early ‘60s, but I’m not sure. And of course they had… Yeah the post office, well the new St Bridget’s school was built by then and then the old movie was there. I don’t know when the old movie got there, but I remember the old movie that was at Fredericks Street.
LD: Oh, at Fredrick and Midvale?
JM: Fredrick and Midvale and I remember it was a dime. In the late 30’s early 40’s it was a dime. I think during the war they moved up to Midvale, where the Chestnut Hill Bank is now, that use to be the new-old movie. And I’m trying to think… I remember going to the old movie. The use to give you candy when you went in and…
LD: They gave you the candy? You didn’t have to pay for it?
JM: No, they would give you like a piece of candy. I don’t know whether they did it all the time or just Saturday matinees or whatever. I remember it was a dime and I remember it went up to eleven cents. Then when they moved up to Midvale Avenue, where Chestnut Hill Bank is now. I remember that was the first time they started the evening movies. You know night time, it was always day time before. And we were always - we had to be a certain age before we could go at night.
LD: Now, you mentioned that the East Falls Beneficial Association was originally on Conrad and when did they move to Cresson?
JM: I’ll tell you when, because when I was a kind, they were on, up in what they call America Hall, which was the upstairs of that building at Sunnyside and Conrad. And I remember going in there when I got out of the Service… When I was in the service, you could go in there as a guest, if you were in the Service. That was like 1952, somebody signed me in as a guest and when u came back from the service in 1954, right around that time. ’55 they moved to Cresson Street between Bowman and Indian Queen.
LD: Was Len’s store there?
JM: Yeah, Len’s store was there (note: Len’s was a sporting goods store). Len’s store was on the corner (note: Bowman and Cresson – an empty lot now). Now, when I was a kid, Len’s store was the Republican Club. Yeah, Len’s store was a Republican Club, and it was an old building then. Then when the Republican Club folded up, I think the Republican Club moved into where the Benefit Club was. Then Len moved into the old Republican Club, across the street was the Italian Club. Now, when I was a kid, the Italian Club was a coal yard there. A guy named George Walker had a coal yard there (note: later the coal yard was smaller and owned by the Ferrante family). There was no Italian club. Now, right on the corner on Cresson Street, there was a place we used to call the Wagon Wheel. It had a wagon wheel outside. That was some kind of club. I don’t know whether it was the old Italian Club or just a club owned privately but a guy named Rafferty ran it. And I don’t think I ever went in there. I went in there, I think, the Italian Club might have taken that place before they moved into the new building, which was Walker’s coal yard. But I’m not sure but I can remember the old Italian club when we played football, this was around 1956 or around there. Pete Maggio (note: he later owned Pete’s Café on Midvale Avenue across from Furlong’s old office) was our coach, and we use to change in that old building into our football equipment then walk over to Dobson’s. That’s where we played. Let me see…
LD: I can remember that those associations ran picnics…
JM: Yeah, the Beni club had a picnic every year. Kids loved it. We would get, I think we would get as many as three buses, three or four buses. They would leave, maybe, 7:30 in the morning and then you’d get home, maybe, 7:00 at night. And they went to Mermaid Lake, we had different places.
LD: Forrest Park maybe? Was that one of them?
JM: Yeah, I forget. I know Mermaid, but there was an old place up further. Later years we had places that had bathrooms, but we went to some places that didn’t. I remember this one placed you’d use to have to walk across this rickety bridge to go to outhouses, you know. I forget the name of that place, but they had all kinds of food, and everything and usually they had a place where you could swim. And they had lifeguards and things like that, but it was something the kids looked forward to.
LD: And did Santa use to come to the Italian club?
JM: Yeah, they had a Christmas party. See the Benefit Club, no women were allowed in there (note: Benefit Club was the East Falls Beneficial Club), and I can remember the first time they had the Christmas party for kids. They had it in the regular falls benefit club, which was on Conrad street and I don’t know who the president was then. But then, because the women were coming in with the kids, I know there was something about the liquor. They covered all the liquor up with like black tape or something. Everybody was inebriated… you know. Then it got the, the upstairs of the Benefit Club got so small, there was so many kids that they made arrangements with the Italian Club after that. Where any member, their children or grandchildren were eligible to come. We had quite a few kids that was quite a few years. The kids got an individual present. Then we had a Santa and we had entertainment stuff or them. It was a shame when that place went, but everything else went. I forget what year that went.