Day 9 March 7, 2008
The edge of town is today’s destination. I run down Bywood Avenue for almost a mile until I reach Market Street and then head eastward. The Southeastern Transportation Authority’s (SEPTA) rail and bus hub sprawls along the north side for a few blocks. Dozens of public transportation routes servicing Delaware County and West Philly terminate here. I have to dodge three buses entering from the west as I pass.
When I was a kid, the “Terminal” was the edge of my known world. We could take the trolley from our neighborhood to this endpoint and spend the day shopping in the stores which stretch up the 69th Street hill. In the sixties my family did all our back-to-school shopping at the J.C. Penney’s at the summit. In those pre-credit card days my parents with eight kids “had an account” there. There was a Gimbel’s department store lower on the hill, but that was the fancy store where you bought gifts, not staples.
There is a pedestrian walkway over Market Street that was built around the time they refurbished the terminal building a dozen years ago. A hugh blue “69” sign beacons visitors ambiguously from either direction. The old terminal was a miniature version of Philadelphia’s downtown historic Reading Terminal. When I was young there were several eateries, a drug store, two markets with piles of fresh fruit and a large four sided newsstand. The new, improved version is not so vibrant. The newsstand was shoved in a corner and now has much less charm. Its old position boasts only benches for transients. There are a few small stores: a pretzel stand, a coffee shop and a small gift shop. There’s no place to buy milk on your way home.
At one time the area had three movie houses: The 69th Street, The Tower and The Terminal Theaters. The 69th Street was a Warner Brothers outlet. It closed first and is now the office building across from the west side of the terminal at the corner of Garrett Road and West Chester Pike. The Tower is still open a half block away at the corner of 69th and Ludlow. It is slightly world famous as a concert house for music and comedy acts. The Terminal Theater was actually in the terminal building and was the best of the three in my opinion. In what other theater could you hear a John Wayne gunfight drowned out by trolley wheels steely screeching from the tight turnaround loop? One day I hobbled down on crutches to see The Exorcist. I think that I screamed louder than the trolleys.
Still headed eastward on Market Street I pass the entire diminutive borough of Millbourne, Pennsylvania nestled between Market Street and the elevated rail line. This vestigle political entity hangs on Upper Darby like an appendix. It only encompasses eight blocks, one tenth square mile, and its biggest claim to fame has long been a stop on the elevated line, now closed for construction. More than half the population hail from South Asia. It has the greatest percentage of Indians of anywhere in the U.S., which should increase its international prestige more than the el stop. No one quite knows why it still exists independently. Its kids go to Upper Darby schools and UD’s police and firemen have to backup its squads. It started as a one company town, Millbourne Mills, which produced King Midas Flour. When that closed in 1927, the golden touch for the borough tax coffers was replaced by a Sears store. Even that has relocated to 69th Street. Millbourne’s residents now have to shoulder the second highest tax burden in PA for their independence. Freedom isn’t free.
I turn right on South Millbourne Avenue. Cobbs Creek Park is now on my left. A thicket of trees blocks the view of the wide valley that the little creek has cut. This is the edge of my town. I can’t see the big city lying on the other side. Trees and trails on my left, blocks of my hometown on my right, I skirt the forested border a little and then turn my journey home.
The edge of town, of the forest, the edge of the sea, of the world, the edge of reason, of music, of art. Edges, boundaries and borders all promise thrills and danger just beyond where you comfortably stand. Terminals, endings, finishes and finales all promise resolution, some final climax, good or bad, which ends the journey. Life is full of edges and terminations. Make sure, before you reach “The” Terminal, that you have spent enough time on the edge, and once or twice danced on the other side.
Distance: 4.04 miles Time: 38 min 8 sec Pace: 9:26 min/mile
1 comment:
69th street was also an edge for me--the last familiar 'sub-urban' edge before the el and Girard trolley to the Prep. I never felt okay after entering 69th and heading to the city and always felt good getting one of the trolleys there home, although nervous and selfconscious when the Prendy girls and Bonner boys got on.
I bought Christmas gifts at the Penny's and Sears there many times and got my allergy shots there for so long I still have a discoloration in my arm where they went in 35 years later.
Dad sold electro lux there and taught others to sell them too as I learned at his funeral. Despite his evident faults, he was some kind of natural teacher just like the rest of us.
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