In store for something different
Today's supermarkets and big-chain retailers provide everything you need under one roof, but see if their employees can identify you by name. Gone are the days when specialty stores filled the landscape. Providing...
Sentence structure
Retired First District Sgt. Louis Carbo remembers "Moco" well. That was what everybody called Moyamensing Prison, also known as Philadelphia County Prison, at 10th and Reed streets. Not that he was ever incarcerated...
Delicious dish
I tend to wax nostalgic whenever I think of restaurants long gone. They were the places of my childhood, places where I learned about good manners and tasted many different foods for the...
Pacifica overtures
The SUV continues its downward spiral with domestic automakers trying to extricate themselves from the vortex. You could say there was good and bad news, with the latter rather more problematic: Ward's data...
A social life
They were places to meet new friends, knock back a few beers and hobnob with what could be your future wife. Comparable to today's nightclubs and bars, social clubs were a Mecca for...
Fight clubs
Jimmy Toppi Jr. has so many boxing memories that he keeps the newspaper clippings in a giant sketchbook. Each page is adorned with three or four stories highlighting the heyday of Philadelphia's boxing...
Movie moments
Before television, movie theaters reigned supreme in South Philly. Many people wiled away the hours watching flicks inside these dazzling edifices while chowing down on snacks and snagging free giveaways -- all for...
Evolution of the Saints
Golden Boy Bobby Rydell, born Robert Ridarelli, is a product of Southeast Catholic High School, as is entertainer Cozy Morley. South Philadelphia's first boys' Archdiocesan high school served as one of the building...
Dearly departed
Given the number of cemeteries that once existed in South Philly, it's rather surprising the area isn't one of the most haunted places in America. During research through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, we...
Whale of a tale
Before the New Jersey Aquarium, now known as Adventure Aquarium, and the Baltimore Aquarium, there was the Aquarama. And it was right here in South Philly at 3300 Broad St. During its existence...
