East Coast Whirlwind, Pt. 5

Family visits typically focus around the food element. Visiting my Mom at her retirement community in West Chester, PA for a few days was no exception. As a result of one of her “ladies-who-lunch” groups, I had heard about Arianna’s Café and got to try it this time. Normally, I would not even look twice at a restaurant in a bland shopping mall, but this place was fantastic. Once inside, it felt very homey.



Mom is doing durn well at 94!



I didn’t photography my lunch (which was fantastic!) but I DID photograph the dessert, which was a slice of homemade Peaches & Cream pie. This place is definitely on my “return” list next time I’m in the area.



Since shipping for Leopold’s Ice Cream is cheaper from Savannah to Philly, I had a nice supply sent to Mom’s in time for her birthday AND my visit! Pumpkin Spice was one of the DELICIOUS seasonal flavors:



We also tried the Ice Cream Cookie sandwiches. Wow… both the cookie AND the ice cream were off the charts.



Friday night is Bingo night at Mom’s community; I came close a number of times but as the saying goes…no cigar!



My visit also happened to coincide with the memorial service for former Philadelphia Phillies owner Bill Giles.



His wife Nancy was a high school and college friend of my Mom’s, and they both ended up in the Philadelphia area. We saw them on a regular basis for dinners, holidays, and Phillies games (with just about the best seats in the house). Nancy passed away six years ago. The last time I saw both of them was on a visit for my stepfather’s 80th birthday back in 2009. Below are Nancy, my stepfather, Bill, and Mom:



Nancy graciously invited the family to attend a Phillies game the next day at Citizens Bank Park stadium, which had opened five years earlier to replace historic Veterans Stadium.



The Party Suite was named after Giles. As his son admitted at the service, he was not exactly the poster boy for healthy living!



Inside the suite:



When my Mom remarried in 1977, it was a small wedding at the house with the Giles, my Aunt and Uncle, and my stepfather’s mother. Giles always got a kick out of me playing the Wedding March on the piano that afternoon and never failed to bring it up whenever I’d see him. His autobiography, Pouring Six Beers at a Time is the riveting story of his life in baseball, and how he engineered some of the most fantastic stunts to help fill the seats at Veterans Stadium.



From my treasured autographed copy:



Giles was the mastermind behind the still beloved Phillie Phanatic:



To me, his strength was being able to talk to people of all walks of life with his kind nature and ability to put people at ease. There were no airs or artifice with him. The service was held at the Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square. It was packed.





The service was a beautiful testament to Giles, with highlights by Phillies legendary third baseman, Mike Schmidt. All three sons spoke of their dad, with oldest son Mike detailing the annual spring training trips to Florida that the two shared. I was hoping to get a chance to talk to Giles’ youngest son, Chris, who was close to my age. I probably hadn’t seen him in over forty years, but as kids, we would often play together when our moms would visit. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to connect after.



Mom and I got lunch at LaScala’s Fire afterwards. I’ll just leave it at that… 



On the way home, I spotted the new-to-me Newtown Square Railroad Museum. I had to pull over for this one! It was closed, but I still milled around and got a few photos.



What a cool little gem! Edited from their website:

The Newtown Square Freight station was constructed in 1895, shortly after the Pennsylvania Railroad branch line was built. It was located on the west side of Newtown Street Road (Rt. 252) and what is now Winding Way This was also the site of the lumber and coal yard, plus a feed and grain store. A corral was located in back of the freight station to hold livestock for shipments to and from the farms in the area. Farmers would bring their horses to E.W. Powell, the veterinarian, and after being tended by him they would be shipped out by stock car. A passenger station was next to the freight station. It housed the post office and telegraph station for many years. The freight station was the end of the branch line, the last stop from Philadelphia.



Between 1895 and 1908, as many as thirteen trains a day pulled in and out of the Newtown Square station: the milk train, the mail train, and various freight and passenger trains. The railroad ran its passenger service from 1895 to 1908, but its freight service operated into 1963 - in the later years servicing mostly the lumberyard. There were ten stops on the line - eight of them were “flag stops”, along with the Llanerch and Newtown Square stations.



The freight station is the last vestige of the Newtown Square branch of the P.R.R. freight and passenger line that once rumbled 9.2 miles between Newtown Township and Philadelphia. 



Several years ago, when the Winding Way bypass was to be built, the abandoned freight station was saved from destruction by the Newtown Square Historical Society, who raised money to have it disassembled and relocated to Newtown Township’s Drexel Lodge Park, where it was restored and the Newtown Square Railroad Museum built up around it – which now includes a 1902 passenger car, 1907 box car, 1950 caboose and small steam engine.



Next stop: Independence Hall!

See more photos at my main website.

East Coast Whirlwind, Pt. 4

After breakfast and a tour of Greenwich Village, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the next few hours before I took the Amtrak Keystone Service to Philly. The entire trip, I kept seeing the Empire State Building, but never really thought about visiting it, assuming I had done so numerous times. Just to make sure, I looked at my website and realized I was wrong. While I had photographed the historic landmark from the street many times, I hadn’t been inside since my Junior High school field trip!



What makes this building so famous? Edited from the Empire State Building website:

The Empire State Building was completed on May 1, 1931. Construction began on March 17, 1930, so the whole build took one year and 45 days. The steel frame went up at about four and a half stories a week to reach 102 stories. The Empire State Building was developed by Empire State, Inc., a company formed in 1929 by John Jakob Raskob. Shreve, Lamb, & Harmon Associates were the architects, Starrett Bros. & Eken were the builders. The Empire State Building was built as a speculative office tower, originally intended to be the world's first building of more than 100 stories. Its backers bought the original location of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in 1928 and had the hotel demolished to make room. The 102 stories they finished in 1931 made it the world's tallest building for the next forty years. The Empire State Building is famous for how fast it went up and how long it stayed the world's tallest building. Its film career started in 1933 with “King Kong.” The recognition came later: one of the seven greatest engineering achievements in America's history in 1955, a New York City landmark in 1981, a National Historic Landmark in 1986, and number one on the American Institute of Architects’ America's Favorite Architecture list in 2007.



The interior lobby is art deco design at its best.



One can’t help but feel small in the towering lobby area.



The ceiling:



Celebrating its 95th anniversary, the lobby had a number of historic displays.



The choices of how to get to the observation deck were a bit overwhelming, not to mention overpriced. If you want to have the express visit where you get whisked up immediately for access to the 86th and 102nd floor observation decks, get ready to cough up roughly $80. I chose the basic ticket which is $46 and has you walking around corporate sponsored “exhibits” and winding queues. Not for those who are short on time. Themed elevator doors:



I think I want this for my living room ceiling:



I finally made it up to the 86th floor observation deck!



In this day and age, a selfie station is a given. It was festively themed for the season.



The views were worth schlepping through all the people, faux exhibits, and winding queues.



I was fortunate with the weather, too, as the rain had subsided and the clouds had departed.



The obligatory selfie. Oops…I cut off the “E.”



On a clear day, you can see forever…



including the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island:



No, King Kong was not up there.



Final view:



Back in 1967, “That Girl” Ann Marie (aka Marlo Thomas) also visited the Empire State Building on a whirlwind tour herself with boyfriend Donald Hollinger (aka Ted Bessell).



Because of the crowds waiting for the elevator, Ann and Don decided to hoof it up the steps. Yikes!



And to think - I had traversed the hallowed ground where Ann Marie had once walked some fifty-nine years ago! When I was done, I had to hightail it back to the hotel to get my luggage and then briskly get myself to Moynihan Hall to catch my train!



Until next time, NYC — you were fantastic!

See more Empire State Building photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley, Soda, and More

Legend has it that W.C. Fields (shown above with Baby LeRoy) once said, “Never Work With Children Or Animals.” Why? Because invariably they are either unpredictable and/or they will steal the scene from the adults. In truth, humorist and author Leo Rosten once joked ABOUT Fields saying “Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad,” which eventually morphed into being attributed to W.C.

Shirley Temple never had to worry about that; whether as a child, a teen, or an adult, she always held the focus of the audience, and was never afraid to share a scene with an animal, especially a dog, as seen below.



From the accompanying caption:

Shirley Temple makes friends with Soda, the pet English bulldog appearing with her in “Since You Went Away.” The picture was taken on the set of this Selznick International Picture directed by John Cromwell with an all star cast including: Claudette Colbert, Joseph Cotten, Jennifer Jones, Monty Woolley, Robert Walker, Hattie McDaniel and others of note.



Shirley had previous experience with a bulldog in “The Blue Bird” (1940). She didn’t have many scenes with the dog though, as the animal was transformed into a human early on in the film and played by Eddie Collins:



What a cutie!



Shirley surrounded by Collins and Gale Sondergaard:



Back to Soda…Shirley’s affection for dogs is visible throughout the film with this lovable bulldog.



The publicity machine continued to generate “news” about Shirley and Soda even as she was making her next film without him.



Favorite pin-up boy on the wall of Shirley Temple’s dressing room on the set of Selznick International’s “I’ll Be Seeing You” is Dick Whittington, English Bulldog who recently appeared with Shirley in David O. Selznick’s “Since You Went Away.”

Shirley truly loved dogs and had them throughout her life On set it was Soda; at home it was her beloved Ching Ching:



Below is an image of Shirley and then husband John Agar outside their home:



A 1949 image at home with Agar and her collie:



Shirley from 1960 at home with her Boxer, Chris:



See more “Since You Went Away” photos at my main website.