Philadelphia Voices: Smart, Sassy and Solemn

By Michael Roy

Michael Roy listened carefully to and learned from the interesting people who live on, work near, and pass through the vibrant human street milieu that is part of the fifth largest city in the United States. Each story is based on conversations arising from the life events, views, fears, hopes, and dreams of people whom many of us do not notice as we pass by. The stories became more deep and nuanced as these women and men continued their conversations with the author over several days. One woman held a hand-lettered sign with these words: "Homeless, Broke, Need Food and a Place to Stay. A Veteran." She described how she loved how Eugene Ormandy conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra when it played at The Academy of Music. And she felt close to his wife, Margaret, and visited their graves. You will be in touch with people walking many paths in "Philadelphia Voices: Smart, Sassy, and Solemn".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796082890

Michael Roy

No author information.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 by Michael Roy.

ISBN:                Softcover                    978-1-7960-8270-8

                        eBook                          978-1-7960-8289-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Names of the storytellers, and some of the people or organizations they mention in this book were changed to protect their identities. Any fictitious or imagined information in these stories comes from the storytellers themselves.

Rev. date: 02/04/2020

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Acknowledgements

My wholehearted appreciation goes to:

≈ The unnamed women and men who kindly took generous amounts of time to talk with me about their lives on the streets, in coffee shops, playing cards, singing, performing, being a member of a therapy group, finding peace in a cemetery, and elsewhere. Their life events, views, fears, hopes, and dreams became more rich and nuanced as we talked together. I wish them well.

≈ My wife for her unswerving encouragement to pursue the dream of this book, and for providing powerful, positive, and uplifting support as I wrote. And to our daughter and son for their valuable suggestions.

≈ The pre-publication readers who provided suggestions that made the book much better.

≈ You, the reader, as you discover fascinating people in these pages. Enjoy the insights you find in their stories. I invite you to talk with them and, by so doing, to learn more about them and yourself.

Michael Roy, January, 2020

Contents

i. Acknowledgements

ii. Why These Stories Were Written

iii. About the Author

Stories

1. Gene and Gretel

2. The Bartender at Dirty Frank’s

3. Singing. Wow! What Fun!

4. An Arm and A Leg

5. The Woman with Five Purses

6. Harold’s Story

7. Sneaker in The Snow

8. City and Desert

9. Skeleton in The Passenger Seat

10. The Hardest Job You Will Never Know About

11. Rest Along The Way

12. You Don’t Have Mail

13. Hannah and The Cane Man

14. Thanksgiving in The City

15. Dealing and Singing

16. Joyful Noises

17. Cheap Seats

18. Incoming Flak

19. Happy Is

20. The Best Things About Dyin’

21. Eulogy for Melody, 1950-2016

22. The Therapy Group

Why These Stories Were Written

This book is about the interesting people who live on, work near, or pass through the vibrant milieu that is the streets of Philadelphia. I talked with and overheard them. I learned about fascinating lives that are far different from those of most people. Similar stories could probably be discovered on the streets of almost any major American city if people are willing to listen.

Each story is based on the information that the storytellers told me or I overheard. However, storytellers’s names, names of people they referred to, and some places and names of organizations, have been changed to protect the storytellers. Readers of my previous book, Street Stories: Pro & Con, suggested that I include the locations where conversations took place. In this book, locations appear at the end of each story except where the location is obvious within the story.

About the Author

Michael Roy is inquisitive. He sums up his doctoral degree in adult learning with these words:

Keep an inquiring mind and you will stay alive all your life.

He reminds us go ask questions and discover new ideas from others in the world around us. Don’t accept things as they are without asking why and what.

Michael Roy’s wife, daughter, and son are also story tellers—in the classroom, on TV, and in books. The author is a U.S. Army veteran and worked for various governmental agencies. He advocates on behalf of people who are homeless, refugees, and unjustly imprisoned.

*

Gene and Gretel

She sat propped against a light post in front of the convenience store at Broad and Spruce Streets in Center City. Her frayed cardboard sign told every passerby in bold black letters that she was:

Homeless. Broke.

Need Food and

a Place to Stay.

And that she’s A Veteran.

When Ted first talked with her, her sign said ‘Pregnant’. After six months or so, it didn’t bring in much cash, she confessed, So I trashed it. Call it an easy way to end a pregnancy.

Where are you when you’re not here?, Ted asked. What he meant to find out is if she was fortunate enough to live inside at night in some sort of shelter, but her answer deflected to another direction.

I take long walks. Depends on how much money I got and how I feel, but long walks. They do ya good, y’know. The other day, I walked from here way past City Hall for a coupla blocks along North Broad Street. Sittin’ on the concrete makes you lazy and bein’ in this spot for the whole day doesn’t make you any more money. Best time to walk is after people go to work in the morning and before lunch. And after lunch and before they go home. You have to be smart. I keep tellin’ these things to the guys sittin’ on their asses on the corners all day, but they pay me no mind. They’re lazy.

Do you ever walk to anywhere else besides north of City Hall? She looked at Ted, mouth ajar, as if he was dumber than dumb.

Well, this is a walking city where most everything in U. S. history began, isn’t it? Yes. Then you won’t be surprised if I say that I walk around to see things that enlarge my brain. I already been to Independence Hall and seen all that the school kids and teachers from out of town come here to see. But, I don’t go where all the tourists go. Better to leave that for them that never have been here. I go to my special places.

Like, where?

They’re my places! I don’t have to tell you nothin’ ’bout where I go! I don’t want too many people comin’ to my places. I got to know the souls who are there. With that, the conversation was done. She took her cup of change and walked away.

A few weeks later, Ted saw her as he walked through Rittenhouse Square. She was sitting on a park bench across from the restaurants on 18th Street. Her backpack, rolled up blanket, sign, and plastic cup for cash were beside her. Hi!, she greeted him. Ted was surprised that she would make contact.

Hi!. Do you come here often?, Ted asked. As a young associate professor at Drexel University, he seemed to be always searching for answers.

"Sometimes. I sit on this bench. See this little sign on the back of the bench? It says:

Margaret H. Ormandy

In loving memory of her husband,

Eugene Ormandy

Ted missed the cue. He asked, How are you doin’ today?

O.K. Wondered where you’ve been since you are so interested in my walks.

Been busy. But I liked talking to you about your walks because I walk a lot, too.

Yeah, but I bet you don’t take interesting walks like I do.

Maybe not. Tell me about your walks.

Better than that, I’ve decided that I’m gonna take you along next time. I don’t usually do that, but since you seem to be so interested … She searched his face for an answer.

Sounds good.

How about Saturday? Meet you in front of that old Presbyterian Church at Pine and Fourth Street—the one with the graveyard around it—at 10:00 in the morning. Surprised that she would include him in her wanderings and curious, he said, O.K. Meet you there next Saturday at 10:00.

On Saturday, Ted took the bus from Center City to Fourth Street. And there she was, standing in front of the Old Scots and Mariners Church that had been renamed a couple of times but stayed Presbyterian. ‘Opened in 1768’ the sign said, and the graveyard was opened ‘in 1764’. Ted remembered the he went there once and walked up the worn granite steps to the second floor sanctuary to take in a Sunday service. He thought, Amazing that this church survived through so much early American history.

She was standing near the iron gate to the right of the church. This gate was the entrance to the cemetery that surrounded the church.

How are you this morning,? he asked.

She smiled back. Elusive as ever, she replied, I ate breakfast at a church near the Wawa store, then walked here. Only ten blocks. We’re going into the graveyard. Be sure to look at the stones and monuments all around the church. A lot of Revolutionary soldiers and their families layin’ under the ground here. Some were in the army, like me. ’Course, most of them were officers.

We walked through the iron gate and along the brick path, passing tombstones with inscriptions, many of which were almost worn away. There were obelisks and monuments, but many of the tombstones were flat granite panels; headstones laid over the ground. Some gravesites had small American flags. Small plaques describing some of the cemetery’s residents were placed in front of some of the stones.

We made a right turn on the brick path, then after a few steps, turned left and walked across the lush grass toward the brick wall at the back of the cemetery. In front of the wall, a knee-high ornamental iron fence, a couple of feet square, surrounded a large slab laid in the middle of the plot. On the slab was carved:

Eugene Ormandy                                Margaret (Gretel)

    1899-1985                                      Hitsch Ormandy

                                                                1909-1998

Conductor, The Philadelphia Orchestra 1936-1980

This is where Gene and Gretel were laid down beside each other, she explained. "Of all my special places in Philly, this is