Philly Tales Blog

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...

Dogs, Cats, Salamanders, and Scarlet Johansson. Oh my! By Harry Hallman Updated March 13, 2023 The other day while I was lying on my two-thousand-d...

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...

I once told you I have a time machine. Don’t laugh. You have one also. That time machine is my memories, coupled with my historical fiction writing...

I loved growing up in Philadelphia. My childhood street, West Wishart in Kensington, was packed with interesting people. People who still kept the ...

Kensington and Philly seemed to be designed to provide great hangouts for kids and adults alike. The numerous corner bars of that time was the equi...

For many of us, the golden age was when we were kids carefree and happy running around the streets of Kensington in Philadelphia with little or not...

I was very fortunate that by the time I was five years old, our family bought a TV. It was an RCA. We were not the first TV in the neighborhood. A ...

Valentine's Day was as an important holiday for kids as it was for adults.

I was dumbstruck and couldn’t speak. My mom walked over to me and said, “Didn’t you hear me?” She felt my head like she always did when trying to determine if I had a fever.

In 1951, we lived in a small row home on Wishart Street in the section of Philadelphia known as Kensington.