Travist and the Pretzel Man's Daughter - Kensington Folk

 Originally Posted by travist 

I was born in Episciple Hospital,Lehigh Ave 6/13/1949. I remember Phila cop cars were red,street lights were gas,milk was delivered by horse/wagon..real milk,glass bottles with paper tops and the cream would float to the top,also you could get butter milk. Rag man would go up and down the street on horse/wagon,horseradish man would go up and down the street ginding fresh horseradish,people scrubbing their steps,washing the gutters down,pushing it down to the next guy till it ended up in the coalberts. That is also where we use to dig out balls (pimple balls,star balls,smooth balls). If you lived on a block that had porches,everybody had porch awnings and would sit out in the afternoon until it got dark. Remember walking from Ella St. at the age of 13 to Lehigh Ave.,catch a bus to Connie Mack Stadium,watch a twilight double header,come home and not be scarred to walk back to your house ( I would't do that today with a m16). Cops walked the beat all over the city. Back then,cops were well respected. They wouldn't think nothing of putting their foot in your a##. Candy stores on every other corner,a bar on the next corner,ice cream parlors on the next corner. Back then ladies could not sit in the taproom they had to sit in the backroom. Taprooms had footrails with running water. Fathers,Uncles,Aunts worked in the lace factories (Bromley,Quaker Lace),others worked at Philco.

In the summertime,the taprooms served crabs. Took a ride around the old neighborhood a few years ago,looked like a war zone. How things have changed.

I am Gene the Pretzel Mans Daughter.

Bass Barn . com 7-31-2010 -

Thread: If you're from Kensington,where were you born & what year..what do you remember?

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