Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Philadelphia Reflections: Stories from the Delaware to the Schuylkill
    Philadelphia Reflections: Stories from the Delaware to the Schuylkill
    Philadelphia Reflections: Stories from the Delaware to the Schuylkill
    Ebook192 pages2 hours

    Philadelphia Reflections: Stories from the Delaware to the Schuylkill

    By The History Press

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Beyond the iconic landmarks of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell is the Philadelphia the locals know. The gritty waterfront district, the vital farming suburbs and the immigrant communities of Germantown and Kensington are all part of the hometown face of Philly.
    From the bustling streets of the downtown of today and yesteryear to the bingo halls of Allentown and the Middletown Grange Fair, this collection takes the reader on a nostalgic journey through the cityscapes and suburbs. Sixteen of Pennsylvania s finest creative nonfiction writers share their stories of taking SEPTA buses, riding the Wanamaker s monorail and kayaking the Schuylkill. This collection of vignettes masterfully reveals the unforgettable histories and colorful traditions that make up the City of Neighborhoods.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe History Press
    Release dateSep 20, 2011
    ISBN9781625841360
    Philadelphia Reflections: Stories from the Delaware to the Schuylkill

    Related to Philadelphia Reflections

    Related ebooks

    United States History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Hail, Jalea

      Dec 28, 2021

      Hail, Jalea
      5 min read

    • Article

      ‘Walk Through That Door. You Belong’: Meet Sarah Thomas, The NFL’s Pioneering Female Official

      Mar 9, 2021

      At a Baptist gymnasium in Pascagoula, Mississippi, a men’s church basketball league are holding an emergency meeting to determine the fate of one participant. The player in question, a 23-year-old centre, is watching on with a growing sense of inevit

      8 min read

    • Article

      No Country for White Men

      Aug 21, 2016

      No Country for White Men
      19 min read

    • Article

      Hybrid Citrus

      Dec 5, 2023

      Many of the citrus we know and consume today can trace their lineage back to three wild parent species: the sour, thick-pithed citron; the juicy, sweet mandarin; and the large, subtly bitter pomelo. Generations of cross-breeding among these fruits an

      1 min read

    • Article

      ‘Ukrainians Are Being Treated As Enemies, As Wild Animals’ – Film Star Ada Rogovtseva

      Apr 6, 2022

      One of the proudest boasts in any realm of the performing arts in Soviet times, be it acting, music, ballet or comedy, is the accolade of “Narodny Artist” or “People’s Artist”. Imbued with a sense of duty and service, it’s a title that has far more s

      4 min read

    • Article

      Passenger Lists

      Nov 27, 2023

      Passenger Lists
      6 min read

    • Article

      Cozy Up To Comfort

      Aug 11, 2020

      Cozy Up To Comfort
      4 min read

    • Article

      Tips For English Research

      Dec 21, 2021

      Tips For English Research
      1 min read

    • Article

      Allegiance

      Nov 6, 2023

      Allegiance
      12 min read

    • Article

      BITS & PIECES

      Apr 2, 2024

      On cold, gray Saturdays when I was 11 years old, I often would go to the local “picture show” at the local theater. The movies were always cowboy shows, and you could pay for a ticket and stay to watch it over and over. Well, on one particular Saturd

      4 min read

    • Article

      Not Everything Turns to Gold

      Oct 2, 2018

      Theodore Roosevelt once said, “When I am in California, I am not in the West, I am west of the West.” The Rough Rider’s koan has been widely viewed as a celebration of the limitless California adventure, but it’s also a reminder of the dizzying, vert

      4 min read

    • Article

      Commentary: How My Korean Immigrant Parents Taught Me To Pursue My Own Version Of The American Dream

      Mar 2, 2020

      When I was very young, my parents worked as night janitors at a law firm in Los Angeles. They often took me to work because they couldn't afford child care, and to keep my grumpiness at bay they zoomed me around in empty wastebaskets as if they were

      3 min read

    • Article

      Paddling Through History

      Jun 15, 2023

      Paddling to DeCourcy Island is at the top of my summer activities wish list. The Southern Gulf Island region is steeped in thousands of years of culture and history for the Snuneymuxw, Stz’uminus, Lyackson, Halalt, and Penelakut First Nations. DeCour

      9 min read

    • Article

      Black Turtlenecks, Hoop Earrings

      Jun 1, 2021

      Black Turtlenecks, Hoop Earrings
      18 min read

    • Article

      ‘In The Country Of Women’ Is A Powerful American Memoir

      Aug 29, 2019

      Acclaimed writer Susan Straight shares a poignant and vivid reflection on her family’s journeys.

      3 min read

    • Article

      My Old Kentucky Store

      Sep 12, 2019

      My Old Kentucky Store
      5 min read

    • Article

      Growing Up Sansei in LA

      Jun 23, 2020

      Growing Up Sansei in LA
      9 min read

    • Article

      All In The Cards

      Nov 25, 2019

      IN CREATIVE WRITING courses, we’re often told that quotidian topics make the best grist for the mill. We’re asked to consider the most mundane of items, the ones we step over in the houses of our memories or don’t notice because they are always there

      7 min read

    • Article

      Nurturing Growth

      Jul 7, 2020

      I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee, which was both challenging and rewarding. Mountain people live off of the land, and while that offers harvest, hope, and bounty, it also brings hardship and struggles. Due to rugged terrain an

      4 min read

    Reviews for Philadelphia Reflections

    5/5

    2 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      What can be the best thing about a book of essays is that they are different flavors of the same main ingredient. This is the case in “Philadelphia Reflections”. In lovely, bite sized pieces, I was able to savor different aspects of a portion of the country that I am completely unfamiliar with. The theme mentioned in the book’s summary, “A City of Neighborhoods” proves more than true as the reader is introduced to Allentown, Pughtown, Oreland, Germantown and, of course, Philadelphia. Because each essay had such a different taste to it, I found myself reading only one each sitting – individually savoring the words and images and emotions these writers bring to life. As much as I liked the book as a whole, several stood out from the rest for me. “No. 13 on the B Line”, by Colleen Lutz Clemens absolutely transported me. I felt as if I was part of this family, part of the events she describes. “…local ordinances prohibited Allentonians from gambling for money on Sundays, so we found a bingo game with prizes – not money, but meat – in Topton. Stacy and I fought over who got to sit seatbelt-less in the front seat of the brown Monte Carlo . Mennonites in horses and buggies slowed traffic on the one-lane highway. Auntie Weasel and my cousin John came, along with Nan and Pappy. John, a product of thalidomide, used his half arms to circle vowels in the Sears and JC Penney’s catalogues, while the rest of us marked our boards. Postage stamp for a T-bone, four corners for pork chops and the big game, the coverall, for a full meal, including a roast, potatoes and corn, if it was in season.” And, “One day, I won a pack of chicken while humming the lines of a Stayfree commercial. I believed this song enchanted me and sang it to myself for the next three hours.” This story was so well done that I was profoundly sad when I finished it – it felt as if a little window I had into a past that had elements similar to mine. In “Portrait of a Village”, by Maria Baird Garvin, I was captivated by the first sentence. “I met my house in the aftermath of the huge snowstorm of February 1972,” and the piece lives up to that engaging beginning. “Landscape Design”, by Laura M. Gibson, spoke far more eloquently that I would ever be able to about feelings that we share on the environment, our role in it and the changes we can make as part of the larger picture. After moving to Oreland, she tries to adapt to her new surroundings. “In our small mountain town out West, even our summer nights had been cool and quiet and very dark. I sweated among the sheets and tried to shut my ears against the din – not against the rasp of cicadas and one very industrious owl, but against the constant pulse of traffic that rose above it, as if the beat of so many living in so few square miles was an amplified drumline in the heart of the night.” Where Gibson strives to find her place in this new environment and work with it in harmony, her neighbor seeks to exert control, to shape it to his will. “On a few occasions, I caught him leaning against a fencepost after dark, his headlamp turned off, shoulders slumped, watching the windows of his own house.” This piece resonated very deeply for me as many of Gibson’s feelings are similar to mine. She puts in beautifully when she writes, “I thought about the anthrax room, about the way the oversized televisions in my neighborhood, which we could see through windows when we walked the streets with our dogs at night, created a collective flickering glow all around us. How this odd ritual of participating in the world actually unmoored us from one another in the way that Orwell depicted so well. Encouraged us to build an anthrax room. To practice intolerance of our neighbors. To be afraid.” As much as she captures the atmosphere of her surroundings, she captured a place in time for me. And in “ Delaware and Pine” by Darcy Cummings, I was able to take one last visit to this region across the country from me as a part of her childhood memories. “Some nights I lay in bed and imagined I was walking with my eyes closed from Delaware Avenue to Second Street at the end of the block: the feel of the cracked, rough sidewalk under my feet. Step by step, I’d retraced the scents – tar, rags, gasoline, beer and roast beef; old unpainted boards; peppery weeds; and singed feathers.” I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would. The images, the histories, both of place and of people, will stay with me for a long while. This place, that I have never been a part of, is part of me now.

    Book preview

    Philadelphia Reflections - The History Press

    1^book_preview_excerpt.html}Z۲䶑n>}Fֱ'&bt[E ͬ$&$Ai=#/,gs Teee|~?/_x~|0' o?αSrTa8zq|5G_OS n r]/W{ҼxVqU|K%_RyV-t_ v~RvY?9Tc/7nz_R׋a:Vzrvӥz*ǵxn#~b*wv̆;|1שՆg<ܻ\%,ar^S|B맜2X}`rC5p$گqFZ\37&cB۪YBG%Z>r n~gy1&l+;ǘzLS̰BbӡjB2'+xadVZ`&E.j}-Cy>jO _fG7kY.e5yqmв+CH/ƎlпF&бJL%?%<2aݔZߞ 痚x2r P{XB +L5,`Bl[~ڛ)fAUO`0ߵRl!i8p#.*l FMGY(pp \υ 9X{W?Zot¡#VU#/`vR^xA8M@¼"g@ocXF@tx1h~) 5 K߸`t\mGk\¯5xw TP0rbo;땲RIx]խb0h/?/tM.fpQ#~cd$9)~^e*OVGHSbff/\yz 8o{&|ʱDv_~i?aav\-epk2MӜO?Kx1kFJNO'K~pxеlKn·@okEֱ=}Hi:Ԡ R:~.q6A6'&®IwtG'eB$|>!$/8ѴjCͷ6^liDTyM4#l׀(KGGORZmF4_CSJAML1?_3}}AJkf@JNb|!^a\4bvnևjd r;b} 3Z7xpti賄]2$LZuCmdXU؄#ܖ |'Bb\1?.3 C%K~)R息"PvIAbj̎Ulu6PAɞ t;{ s!b)#wW)S־%jl|(/%JIn|$Pqw<2yO翼j&C׌@DqgnrUb:e=)HLCLL0mV*wr2Ud9$,aaaTZp&:*Tə9;)M=QotkA?pиQ{B$Y~帖=` jSR-Z!MDjjFd.,pr9en+ɗ Pc*)T8%YګYT2Y5d)>+>>o=2 m?NJbFy=^!bFe+Lw 37 'Vw|4޵H_B4!F} ?eg wLƂePvY$hQ'aʉȊ>X8zZ#>'M~u4qXyrj& peS-F6D)~? ;ⴉ.Ё< >KhLz<2-xH,`‰AK3qWSR x7M,qی6Tw߆n a/ZrTqЈcjX_E[WH#H`f܈vZn[R "@Z^F $,l# )onw,zȾ ^,dL"+|"~\*r1-Y!zvۗeizZ龻Tj٢Z]w2l V (Pq+JDcG>}lԴJ|($Z&&7~FI[B?.ZVQT8(27s-Oof UԵ4"aaviG 'MS*sSfPjN[_\"MG؋ 3a ^PoC^(w'Ț0 .k!={Э: V~OSh7E,Z>u^qgr45ɧ(68 3ki, ~VE PQ4lK T`S"v(cI| ʩ ,Ѱ/\6P@m#_"tUbM^V+',RfaU5;.=LB+;ZgĂK=p]:QE}PYM(jڐA_ó4ƺlTBBm :)=h%1<°PQ~YֻnEmx RQM 5UYI=K@2S.諸1?6:vtQt NsʞXŚ9Nypl*l }M-*~{)״bU{Վr SAGDRS /P!+WWvicK%(8WׁȽI bRj6=UWSvW?ݎG.RV,MKZVcP; |~-B04{< iCMJ4ٸ9l3^nҠJ&>iB?@҆w#<oOK~C5DX¯O9V/15).<>nb'i^bjelD#oYVAw ,",f':B 㰁8g1бPkJ/oY3|碌Ml5uzBA}[(kMWJ JZ#qL.C9k=-T8?OZGE8vj&;QMuicpz*ᝲ-7z#!ģPYc+OS[$ K˥jD꧙Lqv9 jS8=ԗ LͰvԊ E]~K lЗ<(,M|_Qu-ѓ)B]Pt6~%~Э:2]hVr,>%.FV-T=f/dxvvv6=sR5 鎄X|.]Dv*ZΑj>%J;wRE. ]X6`9Q(eHߓ|4! n%lᣬ>Nk)a*(6K^).≺q kks")1!U&iy ke9mdgj馴z9Β'bBkyu\{+2$-PF}(k>Sq'C#LoR947@q2DVNZڽ$Ӹx Ơ^&cBePWIJicW4.U72(F+9x)ZHZHOq*-H%=e_5'̜-.Sa7XTa"ɮDc=S m+u C3o,wKJW~./W#WpjඪS|RnD|6g2=gz6;_` kuuKhyr>g'_XoulP#{7D~I `%oak5Vx8cRK=(Qa7 L³*bDT[Fͽ T!K*WdRl6D2ULnFRY̬:Xgcfq3l Y[`nuc/%tA; `T`;SkI FF21VVşd yVM\H'i䨃i"T[GwF1ZaR /u>Qe2mu4ݲ8Y7JUn+^Oz%N7&4R}}.z_ K^^S݌q_da^TP?XBMӌYpHnگ4##D㍟طv{Ye*(056F\*M춷~/ am: 054’~=KmKL]qpJ"ێLc\L?h^2׎Y.JoMtD9H+hT?@;>I"rSyoe/,fPtlbŎ\e:m eu$SzRFoz8~{;u\C j~'xy1r=Z+{/VL,Qcl*w_oWFTu)(YF`' y+fQ|p X#Z JɅtQ%{ UeɡfQ8g?UZtyHGg嚃XfT vf2JSة7"D5] ;:&oۇ֤Mu|` Yo0LX!p,Rַd"a1>,"DG'Te& NfWѴ[D[%gʑ[`Gh [02ΪlEWSJvy~MnO}kqO0~ +wYTo|p^'>ſ? m"$4>x ~),9TɆ͛‡_0
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1