“Father wears his Sunday best
Mother’s tired, she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister’s sighing in her sleep
Brother’s got a date to keep
He can’t hang around
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our…
Our house it has a crowd
There’s always something happening
And it’s usually quite loud
Our mum, she’s so house-proud
Nothing ever slows her down
And a mess is not allowed
Our house, in the middle of our street”
“Our House” – Madness (Chris Foreman; Cathal Smyth) – 1982
I was born and raised in the Fox Chase section of Northeast Philadelphia. We lived at 1113 Borbeck Avenue, in a twin home. The walls were thin- it was pretty easy to hear what was going on at our neighbor’s home next door. The main floor had a small living room, dining room, kitchen, and 3 bedrooms. We had a finished basement, where I would listen to music and hang out with my friends. We had a very small fenced-in yard in the back, with a basketball hoop facing the alleyway which led to our small garages- there wasn’t a lot of room, but I spent countless hours out there shooting baskets. I could walk or take the bus to wherever I wanted to go. There was a big vacant lot at the end of the street, where we would play baseball and football. I commuted to college and lived on Borbeck Avenue until I got married in 1981. I have lots of great memories of that house.
Although I never actually lived with them, both sets of grandparents lived close by, and I spent countless hours at their homes as I was growing up. Grandmom and Grandpop Leitmeyer lived just 10 minutes away in a row home at 540 Anchor Street in the Crescentville section of Philadelphia. They had a small living room, dining room and kitchen on the first floor, and the bedrooms and bathroom were upstairs. The neighborhood has gone downhill over the years, but back in the day, it was a vibrant area where all the neighbors knew each other, and would often be seen talking with each other across their front patios. When my grandmom passed away, we found out because her neighbor noticed she wasn’t sitting out on the porch as usual, so he gave my dad a call. It turned out that she had a stroke. We were glad she had neighbors like the DeMaras to keep an eye on her after my grandpop had passed.
Nana and Pop-Pop Waters lived 20 minutes away, at 707 Penn Avenue in Ardsley, PA. I loved their house- it was a big (to me) single house with a nice back yard where I would always play catch with my grandfather. It was a split-level home with the living room, dining room and kitchen in on the first floor, and bedrooms and bathroom on the second floor. They also had a finished basement which led to the back yard patio. They also had a big garden, so we always had fresh vegetables from Nana and Pop-Pop. They kept their property in beautiful condition. One thing I remember which is embarrassing today, although I didn’t think anything of it as a child, as they had a black lawn jockey statue on the brick wall leading up their driveway (that Seinfeld episode hit home for me). They eventually took it down, although I don’t recall any discussion about it. Pop-Pop would frequently be found in that driveway keeping his car sparkling clean. I certainly miss that house and playing catch with Pop-Pop in the back yard.
When Eva and I got married in 1981, we moved to an apartment in Ambler, in a development called The Woods. I don’t remember the exact address, but it was on Lincoln Drive West. It was a nice area- close enough to work and the nearby Temple Ambler campus where we took some classes at night. And then there was the great Ambler Cabaret, where we spent many a night listening to our favorite bands.
The following year, Eva’s parents retired to Florida, and asked if we wanted to buy their house at 1760 Valley Forge Road in Lansdale. We jumped at the opportunity. It worked out great, and we just paid the mortgage to them. It was nice to keep the house in the family, as Eva had so many memories there. An extra bonus was that it was just minutes from Merck, where we were both working at the time. We stayed there until 1986, when we decided to start a family. With the blessing of Eva’s parents, we sold the family home, paid off the mortgage, and had enough left over for a down payment on a new home.
We were looking for a bigger home for our growing family, one that wasn’t right next to a major highway like the Valley Forge Road which was currently in front of our house. When Eva’s sister heard we were looking for a new home, she mentioned that her husband was working on a new development in East Norriton, so we decided to check it out. We liked the layout, and it was nice that our brother-in-law would be overseeing the construction. We were very excited about seeing our new home at 18 Tanglewood Court built from scratch, and stopped by every day as it was being built to check out the progress. It was on a beautiful wooded lot. There were lots of young families like us moving in, and many pregnant moms could be seen in the neighborhood over the coming years. Kevin and Keith were born there, and there were always play dates and neighborhood activities for the little ones. For several years I ran a fantasy football league in the neighborhood. We loved it there, until it was time for Kevin to start kindergarten. We discovered that all the neighborhood kids were either going to Catholic School or private school- hardly anyone was going to public school, which we soon discovered was predominantly low-income children from the city of Norristown, many who came to school hungry or without warm clothes in the winter. We felt it wasn’t a great educational environment for our kids, so in 1992, we decided it was time to move again, before Kevin started first grade.
As luck would have it, Eva’s brother-in-law was building another new development, this time in Lower Salford township. We checked out the neighborhood and the school district, and everything looked good. We were excited to build another house, this one at 401 Belle Lane in Harleysville. It was a nice lot, with a creek in the back yard. Our third son, Jason, was born shortly after we moved in. We made a new group of neighborhood friends- once again they were all around our age, which was nice. We subsequently added an in-ground pool. Over the past 30 years, several of our neighbors moved, and many sadly passed away. We are now one of the few original families still living there, and I must admit I don’t know many of our neighbors these days. I went from being the young guy with kids running all over his lawn to the old guy yelling at the kids “Get off my lawn!”. Time flies, but I’m thankful that throughout my life, I’ve had some great homes, amazing neighbors, and wonderful memories.
“I remember way back then
When everything was true and when
We would have such a very good time
Such a fine time, such a happy time
And I remember how we’d play
Simply waste the day away
Our house, in the middle of our street”
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