Let's Do The Twist: Not too far from Philadelphia is Lititz, PA in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. My son has reminisced on Facebook about a visit to some of the attractions when he was eight years old.

He wrote, "That's right, kids! Joey Sherlock is an OFFICIAL pretzel twister. I even have the certificate to prove it! If you don't believe the Julius Sturgis Pretzel House, "America's Oldest Pretzel Bakery" in Lititz, Pennsylvania, well then I guess nothing will convince you!"

The guy in the photo at the top of the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery certificate is Lewis B. Sturgis - son of the founder - who was 91 years-old when he personally taught my kids to make pretzels in 1975. Sturgis Pretzel was America's first commercial pretzel bakery, founded in 1861, and it is still going strong.

From the website: "In addition to being the site of America's first commercial pretzel bakery, the building at 219 East Main St. holds an even longer history. Built in 1784 by Peter Kreiter, the house is one of the original structures in Lititz. The sturdy stone house was built from stones dug from the street itself and timber hewed from the surrounding forest. The home had musket firing windows in the cellar to ward off attacks from Native Americans, while the interior included beautifully carved wooden panels on the staircase, heavy wooden doors on iron strap hinges, and plank pegged floors. The Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places."

During our Pennsylvania Dutch Country vacation, we visited a lot of attractions and stayed in our own N-5 caboose at the Red Caboose Motel in Strasburg, PA. The motel opened in 1970. A small black & white television was located in an old pot belly stove which once was used to heat the caboose. An entire caboose rented for $27.00 per night in 1975. One evening, we dined in the Red Caboose Motel's dining car.

Naturally, we rode on the Strasburg Railroad; its tracks ran within sight of our caboose.

We also visited Roadside America, an indoor miniature village and railway covering 8,000 square feet; it was created by Laurence Gieringer in 1935.

Roadside America is located in Shartlesville, Pennsylvania. The attraction has not been updated much since Gieringer's death in 1963. While not true to scale - 1:48 O-gauge Lionel trains compete with 1:24 and 1:36th scale automobiles and buildings that are all over the map scale-wise - it retains a certain simple charm of bygone days. (posted 2/29/16, permalink)

Beer Stop: In this 1955 Philadelphia photo, a Route 37 PTC trolley is letting a passenger off in front of the Pennsylvania Railroad's 30th Street Station. In the background, a drab green Market Street Elevated train is passing by and a Schmidt's Beer & Ale billboard towers over all. The Rte. 37 trolley route disappeared in November 1955, merged into the Route 36 line.

When Christian Schmidt, 27 year old brewmaster, formerly of Machstadt in Wurtemberg, Germany, acquired Courtenay's Brewery in Philadelphia in 1860 it was producing 4,000 barrels a year.

Close Before Striking: James Lileks has an extensive collection of advertising matchbooks. Every week he posts a new few new examples with a brief description of the companies which used matchbooks for promotion.

Recently, he displayed a Unity Fine Foods matchbook. These were from the Frankford Grocers Cooperation Association and its Unity-Frankford Stores.

Lileks wrote, "Two thousand stores - and not a trace today." Actually, the association is gone but a few independent stores stubbornly keep their prized green and white Unity-Frankford signs mounted on the building face of their small stores in Northeast Philadelphia.

Before the supermarket chains came along, mom-and-pop stores ruled the grocery business. The Unity-Frankford Grocers was an association of these stores.  They benefited from group buying - it helped them compete in a post WWII world of supermarkets - and established the Unity brand as unique to those little retailers.

Unity-Frankford stores were ubiquitous throughout Philadelphia during the first half of the 20th Century. Growing up, I remember seeing them everywhere. Many were small corner stores at the end of a block of row homes. Unity-Frankfords were individually-owned but were supplied by the Frankford Grocery Company, a wholesaler. Its warehouse was at Unity and Griscom Streets in the Frankford section of Philadelphia.

The house brands were designated 'Unity' after the warehouse's location. As mentioned in The Frankford Gazette, "There was a time when you could not walk down the street in almost any neighborhood in Philadelphia without seeing a Unity-Frankford Grocery store sign."

Over the years, the supermarkets took over and Unity-Frankford declined. Then the mega big box stores - Walmart, Costco, et al - came along and are causing supermarkets to decline and consolidate.

The big stores that ate the little stores are now being consumed by even bigger stores. That's the price of progress. (posted 9/7/15, permalink)

You Can't Go Home Again ... because everything has changed. In my younger days, I often rode the Route 66 trolley in Northeast Philadelphia. It was an actual trolley car line until the mid-1950s when it became what Philadelphians euphemistically call a trackless trolley. The rest of the world refers to these rubber-tired electric vehicles as trolley buses.

The Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Agency plans to remove 19 regular stops from the 66 line along Frankford Avenue. About 10,000 people ride the 66 each day.

My family's most memorable Route 66 event was when a trackless trolley broadsided our almost-new '62 Volkswagen Beetle sedan when my dad was driving to work in October of 1962. The car was declared a total loss.

My dad declared that it was a good thing that the car didn't have seat belts or he would have been killed. The impact pushed him over to the passenger's seat of the car and his knee got banged up by the shift lever. We replaced the car with a new '63 model, which eventually became the Legendary Underdog. (posted 8/24/15, permalink)

In The Dark: I just remembered a humorous story from my working days at the Plastics Engineering Laboratory in Bristol, PA.

The Cookie Has Crumbled: The legendary Nabisco plant in Far Northeast Philadelphia has closed for good. The 600,000-square-foot bakery on Roosevelt Boulevard rolled out their last batches of cookies - Cinnamon Teddy Grahams. Among the products made on the Boulevard in recent years were Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, Lorna Doone cookies and Teddy Graham crackers. In the early days, the plant produced the much-loved (by me) Chocolate Circle Cookies, an item which was discontinued in the late 1960s.

The old National Biscuit Company had a bakery at Broad Street and Glenwood Avenue for decades before building the new plant on a 27-acre tract at 12000 Roosevelt Blvd. in the mid-1950s. At one time, the place could produce 10,000 cases of cookies, six boxes to a case, in a single shift. In the 1960s, it ran 24 hours per day.

Just about every NE Philly resident has a story about driving along Roosevelt Boulevard near the Woodhaven Expressway while salivating at the powerful smell of fresh cookies being baked. The pleasant odor wafted across the Boulevard and through nearby neighborhoods regularly. I remember it well; the smell seemed particularly strong after midnight.

Nabisco became the official corporate name in 1971. In 1985, Nabisco merged with cigarette manufacturer R.J. Reynolds. Fifteen years later, another tobacco giant, Philip Morris Companies, bought Nabisco and grouped it with the Kraft Foods subsidiary.

The plant once employed 1,300 people. By 2008, just 450 workers remained. At the end, there were only 80 or so floor workers. Production has moved to the company's other bakeries in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, Richmond, Virginia and Monterrey, Mexico. Yes, Mexico. Thank you, NAFTA.

One infamous incident at the plant occurred in 2010 when a woman worker - who apparently had a history of run-ins with co-workers and management - was suspended and escorted from her job at the Roosevelt Blvd. plant, she returned with a .357 Magnum and opened fire, killing two women and critically injuring a third co-worker before being taken into custody. (posted 7/21/15, permalink)

And Furthermore ... In 2016, the Southwest Side Nabisco Chicago Bakery will close; production is being moved to Salinas, Mexico. At one time, the Chicago plant employed 1,200 people. Last year, the company posted over $30 billion in revenue. It will move its cookie and cracker production line to a plant in Salinas, Mexico, where it has invested $130 million.

Oreos and other Nabisco brands - including Ritz, Nutter Butter, Nilla Wafers, Honey Maid, Premium and Wheat Thins - will be produced in Mexico to be sold across North America. (posted 4/5/16, permalink)

Update (September 2017): The iconic Nabisco bakery tower has been demolished; a Wawa convenience store and gas station will be built on the site.

At The Shore - 2015 Edition: My brother recently returned from a Wildwood, NJ vacation. Knowing that my wife and I enjoy all things Jersey shore-related, he sent me a copy of The Sun By The Sea magazine, a pulp newspaper loaded with local ads. Last year, I summarized some of the more interesting items; this year brought a new batch.

I love the tacky ads, the unique offerings and the catchy, memorable and sometimes outrageous business names. The Duke of Fluke in Sommers Point, offers Four Hour Bay Fishing. Sommers Point used to be a big drinking and party town for college kids back in my day. I wonder if it still is?

Wildwood's Crab Island Liquor Store is still around, selling "wines, beers, liquors, cigars, cigarettes and lottery." What else could you possibly need? Munchies in North Wildwood offers The Ultimate Munchie: two extra-large cheese pizzas, 20 Buffalo wings and two-liters of soda for $29.95.

The Star Diner Cafe of North Wildwood competes with the neighboring Vegas Diner and the Surfside West Diner in Wildwood by-the-Sea. In the same part of town is the Ravioli House, operated by Teresa for "45 Delicious Years!"

The Italian-American Festival features over 40 vendors and the Grand Marshal is a fellow named Vince Papale - can't get more Italian than that.

The Bagel Time Cafe offers $9 Baker's Dozen of bagels with purchase of a large container of cream cheese. Primo's Hoagies (slogan: 'It's not just a hoagie ... it's a Primo!') has locations in North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest.

During Wildwood's 'Fabulous '50s Weekend', the two surviving original members off Bill Haley's Comets arrived in a '57 Chevy convertible to view the new Haley-themed building mural. These guys were at least 85 years old now and it looked like the only rockin' they do these days are in rocking chairs.

Stay alive and upright, dear old Comets. By the way, during his musical career, Bill Haley burned through over 100 Comets. The hours were long and tough; after all, they did 'Rock Around The Clock'.

The Crab Cake Hotline of North Wildwood and Stone Harbor invites you to try their Add-A-Cake program, whatever that is. Cool Scoops offers ice cream while you sit/dine in the interior of a '57 Ford, Chevy or Plymouth.

Gotta love the Jersey Shore; there's nothing quite like it. (posted 7/17/15, permalink)

Bouncing, Ducking And Weaving: If you're a Philadelphian of a certain age, you may remember the automotive pinball alley known as Delaware Avenue.

Located by the river of the same name, it was the industrial nexus of water, truck and rail shipping. The City of Philadelphia owned the Belt Line Railroad, built in 1890 "to serve port and commerce." The Pennsylvania, Reading and B&O Railroads shared the tracks. The wide, mostly-cobblestone street was rough and bouncy and drivers were tasked with watching out for boxcars being shuttled around by switch engines as well as ducking large trucks which were coming from every direction.

Today, it has all changed. Some of the avenue has been christened Columbus Boulevard - it sounds more upscale, ya know - especially the area serving Penns Landing, home of expensive river-view apartments and the inevitable posh shops and eateries. (posted 7/15/15, permalink)

The facts presented on this website are based on my best guesses and my substantially faulty geezer memory. The opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the author and are protected by the U.S. Constitution. Probably.

Spelling, punctuation and syntax errors are cheerfully repaired when I find them; grudgingly fixed when you do.

If I have slandered any brands of automobiles, either expressly or inadvertently, they're most likely crap cars and deserve it. Automobile manufacturers should be aware that they always have the option of giving me free cars to try and change my mind.

If I have slandered any people or corporations, either expressly or inadvertently, they should buy me strong drinks (and an expensive meal) and try to prove to me that they're not the jerks I've portrayed them to be. If you're buying, I'm willing to listen.

Don't be shy - try a bribe. It might help.