October 25, 1979: I was born. I lived in Kensington until I was 1.
June 2, 1980: Catherine was born.
1981 - 1997: I lived in Juniata, attended Holy Innocents Elementary School and Northeast Catholic High School. Life was pretty good in Juniata when I was a kid. You could walk through the Carl Mackley apartment's courtyard without fear of being shot. You can go to the playgrounds without much fear either. Piccoli Pool was clean and not filled with kids with foul mouths and a fighting attitude. Things started to change.....
January 1997 - June 1997: In January, we started practicing for North Catholic's Spring play: Man of La Mancha. I would hold the role of Padre Perez. I would meet Catherine for the first time. She played one of the prisoners and a knight. June 7, 1997, Catherine and I started dating.
1997-2002: I lived part-time in Philadelphia, but mostly in West Chester at West Chester University. I had to escape city life.
August 30, 2001: Our first child, Cailin was born. She was Baptized at Holy Innocents Church.
June 8, 2002: Catherine and I got married at Holy Innocents Church. We had both gone to Holy Innocents School and lived in Juniata for 16 years, but had never met before North's play. Catherine and I moved in with my in-laws.
June 2003: Catherine and I lived in our first house as a family. It was Catherine's grandmother's house. Catherine Persner, had passed away and we rented the house from my in-laws.
October 2003: I began working at Lincoln High School in Mayfair.
November 15, 2003: Alexa was born.
2004: Alexa was baptized at St. Martin's of Tours Church. The neighborhood, Summerdale, changed. You could smell weed quite often. Most of the neighbors were rude and that's putting it lightly. I am going to keep my language clean here. Our house was infested with mice thanks to one of our next door neighbors who always left their house trashy. The mice traveled through the walls of our rowhome. It was disgusting. Those neighbors at one point just abandoned the house they were renting. The owner of the house said that it looked like the family just got up from the dinner table and left. Food was left on the dining room table. The house was a big trashy mess.
June 2004: Catherine and I purchase our first house in Lawndale. A twin! No more row homes. All of our neighbors, except for one house, were great. The one house: the parents had moved out and left all of their children, the oldest being 18, in the house. The 18 year old was wanted for armed robbery. I didn't find this out until after we moved in. They eventually were evicted.
April 6, 2005: Ryan is born. He was later baptized at St. William's Church
September 2005: Cailin starts Kindergarten at Presentation BVM on the border of Philadelphia and Cheltenham.
August 27, 2007: Erin is born. She was later at baptized at Presentation BVM.
September 2009: Alexa starts Kindergarten at Presentation BVM.
2004-2010: Lawndale changes. Neighbors moved away. Five houses on our block are abandoned. Two of those five gets a new resident. The other three are still empty. Our block still holds strong until one family moves onto the block. They hold summer parties until the early morning hours. Sometimes two sometimes three in the morning. Cops are slow to respond. Those neighbors are never caught breaking the noise ordinance.
July 29, 2010: The last night we spend in Philadelphia as residents of the city.
I do want to thank Philadelphia for being the city I grew up in. I did not have a privileged life in Philadelphia as far as money goes. But as far as family, friends, and school, Philadelphia, I feel very privileged. The neighborhoods I grew up in went from great to horrible.
I am very thankful that we are able to move outside of the city. I live Philadelphia with a sense of content in my life. I wish Philadelphia the best, and hopefully one day, it will no longer be violent, trashy, and obscene.
Good-bye, Philadelphia.
Hello, Warminster!
No comments:
Post a Comment