The Wanamaker department store’s light show was such a seminal part of growing up in Philadelphia. Over the past few decades, as Wanamaker’s was sold and resold to various owners, Philadelphians were as anxious as they get over the Eagles: “Will we still have the light show?”
Of course I was one of the little kids lying on the floor to watch the show, and I brought my own kids. My grandkids live in another state, they’ll never know what it was like. They will have their own traditions.
It was an open secret in Philadelphia that Mayor Wilson Goode beat his wife, Velma. There were even cops assigned to his house to take his occasionally-battered wife to a suburban hospital, away from reporters. What wasn’t as well known was that as the MOVE siege was coming to a boil, the mayor was down in South Carolina, trying to run the whole operation by phone, according to a senior cop I talked to that night.
The reason? He allegedly beat his wife so badly, she finally had enough and was going to file for divorce on those grounds. He was hiding out while political leaders were trying to talk her out of it — what a stain on the first black mayor, etc. (That’s according to a local donor, who was at that meeting. The same donor told me later he “deeply regretted” ever backing the famously inept Goode.) Goode later became a minister, and he and his wife are still married.
And put the rest of it in this context: Everyone hated MOVE. I mean, imagine nuts with guns and megaphones turning your neighborhood into an armed camp, screaming amplified threats 24/7. During their first standoff in hippie hangout Powelton Village, a cop was killed. (Friendly fire, or MOVE? No way to know.)
Then they moved to Osage Avenue in Cobbs Creek, a really nice middle-class black neighborhood. Lots of teachers, civil servants, etc. who took pride in the place. When MOVE built a stockade around their property and started throwing garbage in the yard and the street, rats invaded the neighborhood — which did not go over well. (MOVE loved rats. After all, they were animal rights activists.) When the megaphones were working, it was hard to sleep. And of course there were the weapons. The mayor’s office was inundated with demands to DO SOMETHING.
You have some idea of the rest, I suppose. Who the fuck knows who’s telling the truth? (Odd trivia: I went to West Catholic with Ramona Africa, the only living survivor. I remember a very quiet girl with coke-bottle glasses.)
The News is a good paper:
If you’ve been around here a while, you may remember I wrote about them towing my car from a fully-paid meter to an impound lot — which there was no record of. I insisted on reporting my car stolen, and an hour later, when I was home, I got a call telling me where my car was. It was around the block from where I’d parked — and there was a $50 ticket on it.
I had a doctor appointment downtown yesterday morning.
He said, “I guess you have a lot to write about.”
“Yeah, you could say that,” I told him.
I said if he was looking to donate, he should send money to the Senate races in Florida, Texas, and Montana.
“Really?” he said, looking skeptical.
“Oh yeah. Texas and Florida are virtually tied, and Montana — it depends on a couple of things, including an ongoing court case, but we want Jon Tester to keep that seat, so it can’t hurt.”
So that’s cool.
As I was driving home, I went past the National Constitution Center, where tonight’s debate is taking place. I have never seen the area like this — some big-ass cement barricades, and new metal fencing that looks a lot stronger than anything I’ve seen. They blocked off everything within a two-block area.
Nice to know Kamala Harris is safe from MAGA. Except the one on the stage, of course.
My Uber driver yesterday was from Georgia (the one in the former Soviet Union) and he’s been here 20 years. He didn’t speak Emglish well, but he did manage to say “Kamala! Me, yes?” pointing to himself.
“She is a beautiful woman,” he said.
“And a very smart one,” I said.
“Yes, but very beautiful.”
Most of the Uber drivers I talk to are Republicans. This is a good sign.
