Ode to Philadelphia

In what seems like another life time, I used to drive past this house every morning on my way to teach school in Germantown.  I loved this house.  The tree in front is magnificent, and in the fall, the huge yellow leaves glowed against the fading white of the house.  My favorite mood of the tree was on gloomy rainy days.  The sky was gray, the rain was torrential, yet the tree somehow seemed even more vibrant and bright on the gloomy days.

I found the picture on my computer recently and thought about how it seems I drove past that tree in another lifetime...we've lived here for five years.  When we moved here Brandon was recently out of med school, I was teaching.  Now so many things have changed.  We have grown so much here, we've changed from a couple to a family of five.

As our departure from Philadelphia is becoming imminent, I find myself becoming sentimental about pretty much everything-- the only exceptions being traffic and trash.  I will NOT miss the traffic, and still wish I could take a rake and five hundred garbage bags to most of the streets here....however, other than that I'm developing a rather long list of things Philly that will tug my heart as we leave.

The people.  My wonderful friends who have been our family-- the ones I can trust with my house key, my children, my worries, my joys, my heart.  The ones who watch our dog, give rides to the airport, watch kids for a doctor appointment, ask how my family is, and will pass me an egg over the fence.  The wonderful women in my congregation, who are incredible examples to me of faith, courage, and strength.  My children's "Philadelphia Grandmother" who always has hugs, and usually a treat, for them.  I look forward to seeing them each week, as they strengthen and inspire me.

The diversity...especially the African-American community.  I love it; and I love having it be a part of my children's lives also.  How I wish there was a bigger African-American population in Utah!

I'll try not to get too sappy, but wanted to list the unique Philadelphiaisms that I'll miss.

• The stone houses
• The "mom and pop" neighborhood stores.  It's so convenient having a cheese steak place on every corner!  I love all the neighborhood markets, and that, if I wanted to, I could walk to the florist, the pharmacy, the laundromat, a corner grocer, and a large variety of food places.  
• The historical markers everywhere
• Seeing lines of row houses from the airplane window
• Green!  the trees, vines, more trees, flowers, more trees, shrubs...so pretty!
• The Please Touch Museum, Smith playhouse, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Aquarium, our favorite parks
• The zoo (I usually park on Girard so I don't have to pay, which means I'm walking on broken glass and garbage--but I love walking past the guy selling pretzels, under the painted over pass, and seeing the sign to enter America's first zoo)
• Produce Junction, where I can get a big bag of red peppers for $2...not a convenient place to shop with kids, but so cheap!
• The rivers- my boys love driving on bridges, and won't get to do it nearly as often in the future!
• Devotion to sports teams...good heavens!  The Phillies, Eagles and Flyers have VERY devoted fans.  Our next door neighbor yells "Toooouchdoooowwwn Eeeeeaaaagles" out his back window every time the Eagles score.  I'll miss that-- no matter where I am in the house I can keep tabs on the game.  
• Water ice!  sometimes called Italian ice...and in Philly pronounced "Wurter ice".  There are water ice places everywhere, and I love seeing people lined up outside them in the summer
• The view on the freeway- I-76 is way too small and crowded, but is pretty to drive on, especially from our house to Valley Forge- both sides are lined with trees and vines
• Seeing shoes on telephone wires
• People honking- I usually find it humorous, because everyone will start honking when it usually can't change the situation
• The city-- I always wished we'd lived in center city the year before we had kids.  I love it!
• Soft pretzels- the big long braids of them.  They used to sell them at my school for $0.35 and I loved getting a warm pretzel with mustard...it's the treat of choice for our church's primary activities as well
• Philly accents-- I love hearing people ask "How's you's doing?"
• People's reaction to my having 3 very young kids...in Utah I don't think I'll be seen as a phenomenon, but here I am definitely a spectacle.  The most common comment I get is, "God bless you! You have your hands full!"
• Old stone buildings, especially churches.  There are a ton of really cool old stone buildings.
• Parallel parking-- I won't miss this, but I've gotten good at it!  Before we moved here I had never parallel parked. Tanzen and Makett are excited about our new house with "it's own parking spot in a garage!"

I could keep going on, but think it's been long enough :)  I still can't believe we're moving.  Wow.  We are so grateful for the time and experiences we've had in Philly.