A LITTLE SUNDAY NOSTALGIA

When I was nine years old I used to travel the city by bus, train, trolley and subway. It was Philadelphia in the late fifties and early sixties. On Saturday’s I rode the Reading Railroad from my neighborhood in the northern end of the city to Center City Philadelphia and meet my Grandmother for a day of fun at the automat and the penny arcades. We’d go to the movies, usually a double or triple feature, and when the day was over we go back to her place in old Brewery Town which was right by the river and on the edge of the Art Museum Area. We’d watch some TV after breakfast on Sunday and I’d take the 48 Bus back into the City and get back on the train at the Reading Terminal and head home. We lived in a row house neighborhood called Mt Airy. My mother, like most of the mothers in the neighborhood didn’t have a car. We did a lot of walking and when we had to go someplace far we’d got on the bus or ride the subway. The subway would take you all the way into town for a quarter. You could go around the whole city on the bus for thirty-five cents which would buy you the first ride along with a transfer ticket good for three more rides. The mortgage on my father’s house was $87 a month. He bought his first new car, a 62 White Chevy Bicayne for $2300. The last time I leased as car I had to put down twice as much. We didn’t have a lot of toys. There wasn’t all that much to watch on TV, so we went out and played in the streets. We invented games with balls, bats, paddles and bottle tops to keep us occupied. There were no fast food restaurants, no malls, no x-box or Nintendo. By the time I was eleven I could cook just about anything so there was no need to run out to a restaurant. Life was simple. And though it had its boring moments I can’t help but wonder if all weren’t a better off back then. I walked through my neighborhood day and night and never had a fear of being kidnapped or harmed. The neighbors looked out for one another’s kids and if a stranger did wander in the word got out real quick. My daughter’s room is stacked with toys. Like all kids she has the computer, the video games, and now she wants cell phone. She’s never been on a bus – we drive her back and forth to school. She’s never seen a subway. She can’t cook or use the microwave. There are no kids in our neighborhood for her to play with so we have to take her on play dates. She almost nine years old but I still never take my eyes off of her when we are out in public. There are just too many stories, too much fear. Someday she’ll have a car but she’ll never ride the bus alone.