We love to walk through the streets of the cities that we visit and today we walked through the streets of Philadelphia. We started by heading on down to Penn’s Landing, an area on the river that they have fixed up in the last few years to bring people down to the water front. We first found this amazing monument, Leacht Cuimhneachain Na Ngael, dedicated to the Irish immigrants who were victims of the potato famine and came to America with very little to their names. On the right you can see a family digging up their potatoes and finding that they have rotted in the ground. To the left of them are grave stones of those who starved to death. Further left are families with all their worldly possessions in suitcases ready for the trip and finally on the far left they have arrived in America. Surrounding this monument are benches and gardens but also plaques with the story of their life in Ireland during the famine. It is heart wrenching and if you want to read it all please go to: http://www.irishmemorial.org. It is an amazing story but oh, so sad.
The waterfront area has a skating rink where people just skate around and some actually practice their moves.
Then there’s the free entertainment: like the hula hoopers and the trapeze artist.
Oh, yeah, they’ve got lots of hammocks. This young man is probably texting in his. I wanted to take a picture of Gary in one but I’d probably never get him out.
On another street, we saw a community garden and a marvelous 2-story tall mosaic on the side of the building on the north side of the garden. As I was struggling to get a picture, a woman named Carolyn came out of the garden and asked us if we wanted to come in to get a better picture. Sure. Inside she told us that this was the Queen Village community garden with a waiting list of 5 years. It was the idea of a woman named Libby Goldstein and in 1996, to celebrate the garden’s 20th anniversary, Isaiah Zagar completed the mural with the line ‘Libby’s Dream Realized’ embedded in the mosaics.
Carolyn also told us to visit Philadelphia’s Magic Garden created by Zagar on South Avenue. We did find South Avenue and enjoyed the city flavor of the small shops and restaurants. And, hey, here are two of Zagar’s works on this wall.
Now, about the Magic Garden: we decided that we had walked enough today and it was time to head back to the train station. Dumb, dumb, dumb. We were within 4 blocks of the Magic Garden and we didn’t see it. We looked on line and there are are 3-dimensional mosaics. We’re now kicking ourselves. Don’t you forget to put the Magic Garden on your list when you visit Philly. We certainly have it on our for the next time we’re here.
We did stop by Washington Square on our way back. Here we saw the tomb of the unknown Revolutionary War soldier with a statue of George Washington. When the British held Philadelphia and Washington was in Valley Forge, the British took many Americans prisoner and many died in their prisons. In most cases they were buried in mass graves.
Across the street was the old Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891, which housed such venerable magazines as Saturday Evening Post, Ladies’ Home Journal and Jack & Jill. Inside were an imaginative fountain and a huge mural in mosaics by designed by Maxwell Parrish and constructed by the Tiffany studios. There are more than 100,000 pieces of glass in 260 colors. 30 artisans worked 1 year to make it and 6 months to install. The glass pieces range from translucent, transparent and opaque and are exquisitely designed.
Here’s bit of the detail.
I’m thinkin’ it’s time to head home. Back on the train for our trip to the other side of the river over this bridge.
Hey, ever watched a movie at your local drive-in. I sure have. I might have watched ‘Psycho’ on the Fort Dodge, IA screen. It was a light horror movie because I remember the person in the back seat raising the sound level on our speaker just as the scary part was starting. Ooh. I ducked my head under the dashboard.
Our train back to Jersey passes through Camden, NJ where the drive in theater was invented. Yep, right here in Camden, NJ. Seems that the mother of Richard Hollingshead couldn’t sit in regular movie seats so he rigged up a sheet over their garage door, put a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of the car and she could sit in comfort in her own car and watch a movie at home. Well, of course, it wasn’t that simple: he tried various kinds of speakers, put blocks of varying thicknesses under the tires, and tried different car configurations to get the right spacing but in the end, he had the drive-in experience. Of course the neighbors were curious and wanted to get in on the action so Hollingshead decided that this was something that could sell. His first drive-in opened in 1933 and had 400 spaces for cars. He advertised his theater with this slogan: ‘The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.’
And, there you have it. The drive-in theater start, in Camden, NJ. The sound might have been scratchy but at least you didn’t have to walk on those sticky theater floors.
“Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.”
Phyllis Diller
No comments:
Post a Comment