July 13: Talking to Mom

At the age of 23, I am starting to think deeper about myself and the meaning of life. One of the conclusions I've come to is that you cannot live fully unless you know where exactly you've come from and the histories of those who brought you into the world. That has pushed me to sit down with my parents and really delve into as much of their history as I can. Here is what I learned from my Mom yesterday about growing up in North Philadelphia in the 1950s.

Mom grew up in North Philadelphia in a place Feltonville. "It was kind of a working class, middle class neighborhood mainly inhabited by Catholics and Jews. The Jews were first-generation, so were the Catholics probably and the street that I lived on was comprised, right across the street actually, that whole block was comprised of a lot of small businesses."

There was a deli, a five-and-dime, a supermarket (called Leon's). "Everybody knew everybody else, the aisles were much smaller. They sold mostly packaged goods. We would go to the butcher to get our meat, it was a kosher butcher."

Mr. Learner sold fish and vegetables and fruit. "He always was wearing a bloody apron."

There was a local shoe store, local dress shop, Marty's Candy Store, which sold a lot of penny candy. There was a lot of penny candy and then a modern-day candy bar like a Snickers was about 10 cents.

Budin's Pharmacy was the name of Mom's drugstore. "Handlers," another drugstore, was right across the street. Grandma made their store a littler "homier and it was always very clean." And there was always a boy working in the shop who would serve ice cream and tend to other chores. "Handlers" was quite a bit smaller. They had prescriptions and sundries — over-the-counter medicines.

Ted Budin bought the store in 1947, when Mom was 2 years old. He bought the stock of the store and they always rented the house. Mom's family never owned a house.

Then they moved to Atlantic City for about a year during Mom's last year of college (she had lived at home the first three years).

"I guess I really didn't like being there, but I was really busy," Mom says of living at home.

Mom lived by herself her senior year at Temple. "It was just easier to get a place by myself, and I kind of wanted that freedom."

It was downtown and she had to take the subway about 15 minutes to get to the Temple University campus. Frank's Bar was on the corner and "The Tip Top Bar" was just a couple blocks away. Mom would go there and dance with the Greek men, although traditionally Greek men would dance by themselves.

They had rock-n-roll on the jukebox. "I loved dancing to Jefferson Airplane, I still do," Mom says.

Mom had to pay about $120 for the apartment, which had a kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom/living room. Mom says she didn't get that lonely. She was busy and there was another apartment at the other end of the hallways. Mom was friendly with the people who lived there. First, she got to know a gay man named Rick and then Cheryl, an organ player at a church.

Mom "HATED" her land lady. She says it was the only lady she ever wanted to kill. Mom snuck a cat into the apartment, and the lady made her give the cat away.