Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia PA

One of the things Christmas does for all of us is make us nostalgic for earlier times. We live in Texas but we grew up in Philadelphia and all our relatives are in that area. From 1961 to 1978 I lived in the Northeast section of the city. We lived in various houses but always within walking distance of Frankford Avenue, generally called "The Avenue" by locals. Frankford Avenue has a long history. It was once an Indian trail and in colonial times, it was the main highway to New York City. In August 2007 I was in Philly and took a walk along The Avenue. Here are some of my photos.This may just look like a tree but it isn't just any tree. In 1963 or so, my Boy Scout troop, with the help of local merchants, planted trees for several miles along Frankford Avenue. Many of them still survive. This is one of the survivors.
When we first moved into the area, this was the Pennypack Movie Theater. It closed soon after we moved there and I never actually saw a movie there. It was a furniture store for many years and is now a dollar store. It still has the original marquee.
This building dates back to colonial times. Located at Rhawn and Frankford it is at the center of what was the town of Holmesburg before it was incorporated into Philadelphia many years ago. When I was a kid, this was a drugstore. When my mother was a kid it was a drugstore. As a teenager she hung out at the soda fountain there.
In the late 1960s this was a Jack-in-the-Box fast food place. It was the first fast food restaurant in the neighborhood. As I remember you could get hamburgers for a dime. We used to spend a lot of time there.
This is a portion of The Avenue where real retail district starts. Although Frankford Avenue for most of it's length has many retail stores, from here and for the next 10 blocks or so it is all retail. It really doesn't look much different now than it did then. Except I don't remember there being chain fences in front of the windows. Times do change.
Moe's. A fine Philadelphia delicatessen. One thing you don't see too much in my part of Texas. Great lunch meat (cold cuts to the rest of you) and great bread. One of my old Philly friends moved to New England in the early 1980s. Every time we visited him we had to bring him rye bread from Moes.
The Mayfair Diner. A dying breed, the railroad car diner. This has been the Mayfair diner since about 1920. The current place was built in the 1940s. It's a classic and seems to still do a good business. Barak Obama visited there in October 2008 while running for president. My sister-in-law was there for the occasion.



This is the corner of Frankfort and Cottman Avenue. The heart of the retail district. This furniture store used to be a classy woman's dress store called The York Shop where my Mom used to buy clothes.
Also at Frankford and Cottman, this used to be the Mayfair Movie Theater. The taller structure in the back was the actual theater. The part in the front, which is now a bank, was the lobby. It was a drug store for a long time before the bank moved in. I didn't go in so I don't know what they are using the old auditorium for these days.
This Family Dollar store was a Woolworth's when I lived there. My Mom used to work there, dressing the windows, in the 1940s. It had wooden floors and a soda fountain, even in the 1960s.

Well, that's it. I hope I didn't bore you too much. Or, if you're an old Philadelphian far from home, I hope you enjoyed this little trip down the Avenue of memories.

All Booked Up in Archer City Texas

Because my family loves to take road trips, loves books, is a little crazy and the price of gas is comfortably back below $2 a gallon, we took a two-day road trip to Archer City Texas, the home of Larry McMurty's used book store, Booked Up. McMurty is the author of Lonesome Dove and The Last Picture Show among many other books. He's also been in the used book business for over 30 years.

Along the way we stopped in the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco Texas. If you're wondering why the Texas Ranger Museum is in Waco and not Arlington, its because it's this kind of Texas Ranger.
Archer City has a population of about 1,800 and is the very definition of a small Texas town. But its a viable town, as it is also the county seat for Archer County. There are 3 banks in town plus a Sonic (the only place to get dinner unless you drive 25 miles to Witchita Falls), 3 gas stations, and several other businesses. Here is what downtown looks like. I didn't include a photo but just to the left is the county courthouse.
The movie The Last Picture Show was filmed here, which is also McMurty's home town. The movie theatre which was featured in the film is still standing. They don't show movies there any longer but have live shows throughout the year.
Booked Up is one of the largest used book stores in the country. It used to be located in Georgetown VA but moved here some years ago. I estimate that they have about a half a million books scattered through 5 buildings. Here is my daughter standing between rows of shelves in Building 4. There is row after row like this throughout this building and the other 4.
We spent about $100 in the 2-3 hours we were actually in the store. With several stops, it took us 12 hours to get there but only 8 hours to get home.

Photography - Crepe Myrtles

When we first moved to the Houston Texas area in the summer of 1995, we lived in an apartment complex for about 6 months while waiting for our house to be built. The apartment grounds were full of crepe myrtles, which I'd never seen before. These will not grow in Philadelphia, where we came from. The summer after we moved into our house, we purchased some crepe myrtles and planted them. At the time I knew nothing about them. For example, I didn't know that some varieties grow into 20 to 30 foot trees (which I'd seen at the apartment) and some grow to be tall bushes (10 to 15 feet), which is what we bought.

I learned this after a few years when I was wondering why my plants weren't developing into trees. Oh, well.

Often, the flowers grow in large clumps, like this photo. This clump is about 12 inches long.

I found a web site which listed more than 60 varieties of crepe myrtle. The variety we have is called Prairie Lace which is different than most in that it has two-toned flowers.

The centers of the flowers are pink and the outer edges are white.

I've noticed this year that the color variation among the flowers is higher than before.

In this picture you can see that some of the flowers are almost all white. Some of these here have just a hint of pink in the center. Some others that didn't photograph well (the darn things would hold still) are completely white.






These here are almost completely pink. Some have just a little white on the edges.

I don't know what this means but overall, it doesn't change the look of the tree.

Crepe myrtles are very common here, and I'm sure, across the south. They are so common in landscaping that perhaps they are being over used. But, even after 13 years in Texas, they still look exotic to me. And they flower forever. They first start to bud in early April and there will still be flowers into November. Then they lose their leaves for the winter.

Photography: Public Art - Philadelphia

We're in Philadelphia this week on vacation. These pictures are from a previous trip. These three pieces are along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia.

Kopernik

The piece above is called Kopernik. The artist is Dudley Vaill Talcott (1899-1986). The sculpture was dedicated on 8/15/73 and commemorates the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543). It stands 12 feet tall and is located on the Parkway at 18th Street. There is a good write-up here. If you click on the photo you'll get a bigger image. You'll be able to see the scourge of all public statuary. There is a pigeon sitting on the lower part of the circle and ample evidence of other pigeons.

Three-Way Piece Number 1: Points

I wasn't able to find out as much information on this as on Kopernik. The artist was Henry Moore. The piece is 6 feet, 4 inches tall and is located on the Parkway near 16th Street. It was installed in 1964. I have recollections of seeing this piece in the late 1960s. This photo was taken by me in 2006. There may also be a copy of this located in Kansas City Missouri. While researching this I found an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about theft of metal statues. The copper dedication plaque for the piece was stolen sometime in January 2008. Apparently the whole statue was too big to take.

The Prophet
There was even less information on this piece. The artist was Jacob Lipkin and it was dedicated in 1968. It is currently located on the Parkway at 16th Street (it's to the right of the Henry Moore piece). It was originally located on John F. Kennedy Plaza, a few blocks down the Parkway but was moved here in 1974. It stands about 8 feet tall. Examples of Lipkin's work (although not this piece) can be found here.

Photography - League City Texas

League City Texas, where I live, is located south of Houston about mid way between downtown Houston and Galveston. It's a small town (about 67,000 people) but it's a Houston suburb. When we moved here in 1995, the southern portion of the town was still pretty rural. But as you can imagine, a rural area so close to a big city is going to succumb to growth and League City is no exception. In January 2007, my youngest son and I drove around some of the quieter parts remaining in League City to take some photographs. Philip took most of the photos (he's currently taking photojournalism at the University of Houston). Here is some of what we saw.

There are still quite a few horses in League City. Cattle as well. This is Texas afterall. We saw this horse who clearly believes that the grass is greener on the other side.

There is a lot of growth in the area now. All that growth requires earth moving equipment. Here is a recently opened place which sells and rents all sorts of heavy equipment. We liked the row of earth movers reaching into the sky like some sort of alien presence.

League City, although not incorporated until about 1960, was first settled in 1873. In old League City is the Fairview Cemetery, which was founded in 1900. There are Civil War veterans buried here. Unlike modern cemeteries, the head stones are scattered all over, with odd bits of statuary and even a small reflecting pool. We're not sure who maintains the place but clearly it is being maintained.

A bit of life in the cemetery. This is a purple martin house. Behind it is a very large live oak tree. League City is called the City of the Oaks because of the number of large oak trees in the old city area. The area which became known as League City was purchased by a man named J. C. League around 1900. In 1907, he brought in two railcar flatbeds of oak trees for residents to plant. Many of these trees survive to this day.

The cemetery is located along a stream called Clear Creek, which drains into Clear Lake which is an estuary of Galveston Bay. Although it doesn't get real cold in Texas in the winter, it still looks like winter. We saw a spot of color along the banks of the creek and found this child's toy hammer logged in the flotsam.