Philly Tales

1953 to 1957 – Ages 9 to 13 – Summer The siren's sound was deafening as our teacher quickly guided us to the hallway and told us to put our heads b...

Happy Easter! “Spring has sprung,” my grandfather, Pop, used to say. For him, it was a time for celebration because he could go fishing again. Ever...

Yesteryear Technology We live in a fabulous technological world! So many great technical feats make our lives better and healthier. For example, in...

“Ties that bind” is an English language idiom that generally refers to shared beliefs that connect people emotionally. Religion would be one tie, f...

It’s odd to look back to my days growing up during the 1950s in Philadelphia’s Kensington section. Kensington today is different from the blue-coll...

On November 22, 1963, I was working in the darkroom making prints of some target or another for my employer, the United States Air Force. It was a ...

My favorite Bruce Springsteen song is “The Streets of Philadelphia.” It gives me a lump in my throat every time I hear it. This haunting song remin...

When you live in one place for a long time, you get comfortable with your surroundings, get used to the people who live near you, and become accust...

By Harry Hallman Kensington had a lot of hot rods, and in fact the whole country was crazy for hot rods in the ’50s and ’60s. Movies such as Rebel...

By Harry Hallman The other day while I was lying on my two thousand dollar lounge chair by my million dollar pool in Hollywood and talking to Scarl...

Making a Buck By Harry Hallman Ben Franklin famously said, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Obviously, he didn’t grow up in the Kensington sectio...

Kensington dads, in my era, came in all flavors. Some drank too much, others were overbearing,  and some ignored their kids. Most dads, however, di...