Greetings

Thanks for stopping by. I'm glad the search engines are working. There is a common thread here that centers around North Western Philadelphia and it's suburbs spanning a decade in the 70's.

Now for the first disclaimer. You are reading this because you searched for something on google or yahoo. And only you know what that was. If you are shocked or alarmed to see your name here then please let me know. The people and events listed on this page are all from the 1970's from 1973 up through 1980. Any similarity by name or event in other time periods is a pure example of a meaningful coincidence.

(2007 edit It seems from the handful of people that have contacted me there are definitly synchronistic items that connect us. Because it has always been two or more things that someone has searched for that brought them to this page. One amazing statistic is the number of people who are now living in Conshohocken or Norristown if they are not still in Roxborough. Five people so far.)

After 2 weeks of a little here and a little there additions I am starting to go back and plug in some more interesting tidbits to try and spice this up. One other reason I'm doing this is an exercise in my writing. I want to write a book real soon so I need to be kicking out words as much as I can.

This is also an exercise in what is referred to as Synchronicity. Meaningful coincidences. Things that would appear totally random by some outside observances but have strange coincidences to others. Some of this idea has been due to researching the same theory as studied by Carl Jung. C. G. Jung, unlike Freud, had an interest into things such as astrology and even magic. Certain connections among people that pure probability statistics would be hard pressed to prove. My theory is that we move through time on a thread. But there are multiple threads going in the same general direction. Events cause us to jump different threads and cause others a small or large degree of displacement. In some cases there is much more involvement, like between boyfriend girlfriend or partner of choice. How much meaningful coincidence has happened between people I knew and other people I knew with each other.

This web page is a modern method of looking back in the past. The internet can be a time machine. What you put on a web page can be easily searched by a billion people and if they happen to be searching for the same thing you will be surprised by what they find. So I write about an event in the past, including a person, the place, and the event itself. So if I can't find information on it then some other searcher can. Nothing that happened in the 70's that I am referring to is real tabloid material. I am hoping you can fill me in on some juicy gossip. Like who got married and divorced or sent to jail. Or who found true happiness.

Hopefully nobody has a grudge for things that took place 25 years ago. You know how there is no such thing as a good breakup. And since what goes around comes around I would love to hear from any of you that wanted me beat up to see where you are at :)

And I will not go into any personal or intimate details. Most of that was so awkward anyway. The names are real. Hopefully spelled right :) Some were girlfriends, some were my friends girlfriends, and some just friends. By the time you are reading this it will probably have changed quite a bit from it's original form. I might modify things as I remember them differently or decide this is too weird or self indulgent. This will be played by ear.

Saint Mary Of The Assumption Church and School. 172 Conarroe Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19127. Graduating class 1975. 8 years in a Catholic Grade school probably explains all of my quirks :) Anyway here comes the first name of any significance. Theresa Mercadante in the summer of 1973. Pong and a jukebox playing The Archie’s Sugar Sugar and Theresa Mercadante were the three things I remembered the most about the summer of 1973 when it was May of 1974 and I was looking forward to that summer. That’s when I realized I had a crush on a GIRL! But sadly she was not there. However an email from her 30 years later was wonderful because she remembered exactly who I was. I felt like a 12 year old that was Noticed! Other than that I was hanging out with Robert Krupak and Mike Sexton reading Hardy Boys books or getting into trouble at the Baker St. Train Station. Or taking the bus (35 cents) up to IvyRidge Shopping Center to the Five and Dime. Woolworth's if you don't remember. And there was a Geno's Fast Food with Kentucky Fried Chicken. If I was really adventurous I would stay on the bus till the Andorra Shopping Center. EDITED Update from a month after writing the original. The Woolworths is long gone and even the store that replaced it was recently demolished but a trip down to Roxborough shows the Ivy Ridge Shopping Center sign still says Woolworths.

7th Grade section added one month after writing the original because I went back to where I grew up last weekend and also after watching a movie I made in 1974. One place I drove by was Cook-Wissahickon Elementary School. 201 E. Salaignac St. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19128. The Philadelphia Flyers were on fire and on the road to their first Stanley Cup win. In 1973 Fred Shero, The Flyers coach, was at a church breakfast as the guest speaker and that got us started as hockey fanatics. And the only place with a big flat area was the Cook schoolyard. I remember so many kids hanging out at that schoolyard either playing hockey or wallball, chink would be the un politically correct term for that handball game. I can't remember the actual timeframe when I hung out at the schoolyard. And it may have been in different phases. A couple weeks here and then a couple weeks over on Seville or Hermit street and then back to the schoolyard. But it was definitly before hanging out up at the Knights or at the Wall. Then again there could have been a time when I was back there chasing some girl. Carolyn maybe. I can't remember any names. I can remember some parties where the usual spin the bottle was played so that had to be after 8th grade. Cook-Wissahickon was a new school. The old Cook-Wissahickon was around the corner from my house and where I went to kindergarten. Anybody play hockey in the Cook-Wissahickon schoolyard in 1974?

One other major 1974 hockey memory was playing hookey from school to go Downtown to see the Flyers Parade. Since I lived only 2 stops before the bus got on the expressway we were waiting for an hour as dozens of busses went by but had no room and didn't stop. My mother had to drive us up to Andorra and even then the first bus was full and we got to stand in the isle of the second one. And the traffic was crazy because it took an hour to get down there. And traffic was gridlocked around city hall and we were stuck on the bus until we rocked it so hard back and forth the driver had to open the doors to let us out. My grandfather worked at Broad and Locust so we went up there to an office on the second floor and had a perfect view of the parade. Big trouble in school the next day because most of the older students had not been there. They made us serve a detention day :) Lot of hockey that summer.

8th Grade. 1974 Last year in grade school finally top bananas. Changed my mind about becoming a priest so I switched high school choice from a Seminary to Saint Josephs Prep. Met three girls, Colleen Lenox, Karen Elliott and Monica Rex. Monica taught me how to slow dance. Instant crush, And unknown to her until 2001 that she was my first kiss. But Colleen Lenox seemed to like me more, in a friend kind of way. My actual first date was with Colleen Lenox at a store on Ridge Ave next to Roxborough Manayunk Bank that had an real 50's style soda fountain. It is so corny to think of my first date at a soda shop. She was a junior in high school so that wasn't going anywhere.. Additional note added about the second year the Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup. The city had another parade planned and the school principal was on the warpath. We were told that on the day of the parade, if any student was absent the principal herself would visit that student at home or at the doctors. We were told that any student found absent without a valid reason would be suspended. What a bummer. Not wanting to risk the wrath of the principal we had no choice. One of our classmates was absent though because he had a broken leg. He did get a visit from the principal who got her ear chewed out by his mother because of the conflicting story about how he broke his leg. I could write a whole chapter about 8th grade and Sister Anna from Saint Mary of the Assumption school, but this page is for good karma only.

Summer 1975 at last. Freedom from grade school and first summer as a teenager. Time to turn in my Schwinn Lemon Peeler for a 10 speed (big mistake, search eBay to see why). Seville St. Elaine Soda, Janine Schmidt and others I forget. While having a discussion about a Brady Bunch show when Peter saw fireworks after getting kissed by a girl (2007 edit Ok it was Bobby Brady and not Peter that got the kiss), Janine Schmidt, was dared to try it on me. Hmm, I guess she was a typical 14 year old hottie and damn if I didn't see fireworks and almost fell off my bike. Thanks Janine, besides my first kiss that I was too nervous to enjoy, that one blind sided me and will go down in history and nobody will ever know :) And thanks to classmates I got an email from Elaine and gave me all the gossip and what you have been doing for the last 25 years. All of you Seville and Mitchell street girls had your high school boyfriends. Except for Kim Hastings. Summer was coming to an end and this one had gone by way too fast. Sure it didn't help that I had gotten my first TV in my room and stayed up every night till after 3 am when the stations shut down. Off the air for the night (2007 edit Besides Johnny Carson the movie on one of the other channels would have been over by 1:00 or 1:30 so it wasn't really all that late). Wait wait get back to Kim Hastings. Part of me was thinking since I was going in to an all boys school I should have a girlfriend. But I had no clue what that meant. So Kim Hastings and I said we were going together and we spent 3 weeks hanging out at her house and school made my life so complicated we stopped seeing each other.

September 1975. Turned 14. Oh the joys of going to Downtown Philadelphia to high school. Being the classic underachiever I was overwhelmed by a prep school. And the bus ride was awful. My Grandfather and Uncle worked Downtown. I started getting a ride in. At 6:30 in the morning. At 7am the school was deserted except for Band practice. So I signed up. What to play. Hmm. They had one on one lessons available on Saturdays. So I show up on Saturday to decide something new. I had taken organ and guitar lessons in 6th and 7th grade and got nowhere. So I am looking at a list of what is open and I hear this woman ask me what was I interested in. I looked up and my jaw must have dropped because she was really good looking and nothing like any of the other teachers I had. I made a snap decision to take whatever she was teaching. Turned out to be the French Horn. I was blinded by an older woman. And I do not remember her name. I remember the adventure of dragging that huge thing on the bus because I couldn't leave it at school on the weekends. She was the only teacher I was ever infatuated with. At the same time I had to pick some kind of sport. They didn't have bowling so I picked swimming. That was after school. I had been a swimmer since I was 4 so it was natural. But that made my days so long. 6:30am to 6:00pm. And the school work was killing me. By January 1976 I was on my way to an ulcer and within 2 months I had changed schools. Switching from a prep school to a vocational school. What a change. I really don't remember much from that last 2 months of 9th grade. With one exception. While seeing my first horror flick at the old Roxy movie theater, Grizzly, I walked up to a girl (2007 edit two girls) and asked if anybody was sitting there next to her. She said no and by the end of the movie we had hit it off. A week later I had my first real girlfriend. Nancy Roop. (2007 edit The other girls name was Arlene, she lived on Mitchell St.) Nancy Roop lived right down the street from the 7-11. Life was good. And finally came the Summer of 1976.

Bicentennial year yet I don't remember many celebrations. I signed up for the Swim team at the Kendrick Recreation center. The Rec as we called it. The Rec had a public pool. Something to do with my first breakup but I can't recall any details. It would be the last time for over a year that I would have a real girlfriend. We were hanging out at the Knights Of Columbus back porch on Walnut Lane and Houghton Street. Next door to Kevin Hay's house. Kevin had a strange transformation and a coincidental reference to warrant it's own page. (Kevin's Link) Anyway time for some pictures.

Recognize anybody? What I hate the most is that Nancy Roop's face is hidden by a Yes album in one and my head (um, how embarrassing) in the other. I don't remember the guys kneeling on either side of Jack Fritz. Ok here are some names. Ricky Mullen, Silvia Horvath, Bob Baver, Louis Malfara, Kevin Hay, Billy Cunningham, And me, Mark. These pictures were taken in my basement before I turned it into a love nest :) Sometime in the summer of 1976. This was the last summer I went to camp in Watertown New York. Met girls. Can't remember any. Another place I went often was Camping at Brandywine Meadows Campgrounds. There, one weekend I met a girl named Jackie Atkinson. And I met a girl who's name was Troy but she went by the nickname Keith because she was a Keith Richards fan. These two may have been in the summer of 1977 instead though. EDITED This pics could not have been the summer of 1976 because my Zenith Allegro stereo speaker is on the wall. I got this stereo for my 15th birthday and moved it to the basement 1 week later. So these pics are at least mid September to early October. (2007 edit Apples without a shirt? must have been a warm september)

September 1976. Start of 10th Grade. Tried dating a classmate, Debbie Goffredo. Now I also remember a few more girls I went out with but I can't remember the exact timeframe so they may have actually been in the 1976-1978 range. Besides a brief attempt at going out with Silvia I remember meeting a girl named Diane Felmeth who lived on Ridge ave and Peggy Williams who lived near Hi Spot. I know it would be weird if I really have these dates screwed up but it wouldn't surprise me because it's amazing I can remember it at all after 30 years. Diane Felmeth was someone I knew in 1975 not 1976. At some point there in 1975 my entire life was consumed by my quest for a weekend party. I must make a note that there was no drinking at these parties. It was all just, um, spin the bottle and 7 minutes in heaven and stuff like that :) .

Lets move on to the late 1976. Bob was dating a girl named Maria that lived in Broomall. They met at the campground. They fixed me up with her cousin, Doris Johnson, from Newtown Square. Jumping on the E bus that went out City Line Avenue and on to 69th and Market st. in Upper Darby. Then on the bus headed out to West Chester. We hit if off great and had one Saturday goofing around the Marple Newtown school which is now RETS and there was a little shopping center with a Two Guys store. Doris Johnson introduced me to Led Zeppelin. Turned me into a Zeppelin fanatic. But the long distance relationship only lasted 6 weeks. Fridays after school I would get home and jump on the buses and by 5 o’clock I was up in Newtown Square. If we didn't get picked up by her father it was a mile walk to her house. At 11 I got picked up by my father. That only happened twice. The rest was Saturday trips only. Busses didn't run on Sundays. Strange, but from her bedroom window, she could see the radio towers in Roxborough. Why it took 2 hours to get there by bus or a half hour by car seemed impossible. Anyway, over by January 1977.

Jump to the future sherman. This is getting long. Guess it is going to turn out like an auto biography after all.

1977. Some of the biggest gaps and holes in my memory are from 1977. Carpentry class was going well. The academics were not killing me. But I was talking on the CB radio. My dad got one the year before and it was entertainment on the drive up to New York. But in the spring of 1977 I hooked up the CB in my room. At first with a little antenna clipped on to my window sill. And then a real antenna mounted on our roof. Wow, as I am writing this there is more and more coming back to me. Things are such a blur because there were so many things going on. So these events may be out of order. Bobby and Maria tried fixing me up with a friend of theirs. Didn't work out. I broke a 5 gallon jug of wine in Maria's basement and was not allowed in the house ever again.

I met a girl named Josie from Manayunk on the CB. Josie had black or really dark hair. Soon after she moved in with her cousin out in Drexel Hill near the Drexelbrook Shopping Center. She set me up with her cousin. Michelle Ferkler. I made the mistake of riding my bike out there once. So it must have been spring. I was so sweaty when I got there. Easier to take the bus to 69th st and then a trolley. And we took the trolley to the Springfield Mall. Like all the other long distance relationships it didn't last. I found Michelle Ferkler's younger sister Maggie Ferkler listed on classmates and sent a message. Sadly I was informed Michelle had passed away in 2002. I asked Maggie to pass along my name to Josie if she ever ran across her again. And here is an example of a possible synchronistic event. Not long after the last time I saw Michelle Ferkler, Bobby told me that the other girl him and Maria tried setting me up with had been killed in a car accident. We went to the wake and it was a bit emotional. I remember thinking about how life was so short and I turned up the party attitude probably a bit too much.
( I am almost afraid to hear from other people in that same time period. What if more people are no longer with us. It is the one thing I dread the most when searching online. Finding an obituary. )
Jump back to the future again Sherman. As I am getting these thoughts down in writing I am actually remembering more and more about some of the things I have already written. So a few of the earlier paragraphs have been revised and added to. Coming up on a week since I started this. I'll never be a writer if I can't crank out more than this. Wait a minute, I am only doing it in my spare time. Ok Wayback machine back on.

1977. Sometime in early 1977 I set up the CB radio in my room. This expanded my circle of friends. I have restarted this paragraph after a few hours of writing 5 lines because the chronological order was clashing with the Michelle Ferkler one above. I am having a hard time placing groups of events from the spring and summer of 1977. Since I turned 16 in September 1997 and got my first car in November of 1997 I have a pretty good memory of BC and AC. (That’s before car and after car:) So let me try and get all BC written down. I met a group of girls from East Falls. Kathy Murphy I remember because we actually dated for a while. One other girls name was Eileen and she had short red hair. There were half a dozen others and I can't even remember first names. East falls was only a mile from where I lived But because of the Wissahickon Creek there were only two ways to get there. Ridge Avenue was a direct route but wasn't the safest way. School House Lane did offer a slight short cut and I think Eileen lived on Vaux st. But the shortest way I found was to follow the train tracks from the Wissahickon train station to the East Falls station. (Or actually take the train which I did once) This was an adventure. If you know what Ridge Avenue looks like down there where it meets Main Street you know the railroad bridge high above the Wissahickon creek where the creek goes under Ridge Avenue. Walk across that and half a mile later past the project there was a place to climb up at Merrick Rd and Cresson St. One of the girls, a blonde, lived on Cresson st. I was there for a party one time with Kathy and a half dozen other girls showed up. I was the only guy and got slightly intoxicated and the next thing I know all the girls are writing on my pants with a set of markers. This pair of jeans was made up of a hundred small 3 inch or so squares. So they were all scribbling and drawing in them with Kathy daring one of her friends to write dangerously close to my, um, zipper. I do not remember what she put there. Although I did keep those pants for 10 years when they caused major trouble. And my next Synchronistic Event! ! ! Kathy Murphy moved in to a house on Fleming St about 10 houses up from where I lived with my Ex. I still had those pants (hadn't been worn in 7 years) and I mentioned the story of them to my ex and she had a fit. They disappeared never to be seen again. And I never had the nerve to talk to Kathy Murphy so I have no idea if she knew who I was. Meaningless Coincidence time. Kathy lived around the corner to St. Bridget's school in East Falls. Two houses away from me on Fleming St was a girl named Bridget Quinn. Jump back to 1977 and the next person I remember is Debbie Quinn.

Debbie Quinn lived near Holy Family school and that playground between Hermitage and Fountain streets. At the same time I met a girl who lived 2 blocks from my house. Terri Gryga. Now with Terri it started out more as a friendship because I hung out with her family who were also on the CB all the time. And also at that same exact time frame I met my muse. While at a friends house we were goofing around trying to set up a CB in his basement. Had the car antenna outside the window. I heard this faint voice coming through and started talking to this girl named Lisa. Found out she was only down on the border between East Falls and Germantown. Somehow I talked her into giving me her phone number. Lisa DiNardo. 2 weeks later I was walking from my house to School House Lane and Wissahickon avenue to meet her. We share the same birthday. That seemed like such a big coincidence. So she was exactly 2 years younger than me. Or so she said as I thought she was younger. Which was confirmed 25 years later in a great email reunion. Anyway, she was the most unique individual I had ever met. Which started a major dilemma. Three girls. Three completely different personalities. Terri was older with a car and part time job. And we were hitting it off more and more. Debbie Quinn was like a good old fashioned girl and a good influence. What was I supposed to do. I saw Lisa a few more times but it was tough hooking up with her. My parents took me and my sister to Hershey Park and let me bring Lisa. So I come up with the brainy idea to continue to date all three. Terri was weekdays, Debbie was weekends and Lisa was every chance I could get which was not much. Talk about a blur. I continued to make new friends on the CB and some were old friends I had been in school with in grade school. I lost contact with Debbie Quinn. Got into a bumpy ride with Terri. And Lisa was grounded in summer school or something.

Summer 1977, I met a girl named Laura that was a mystery until I put it all together through a random sequences of events described on another PAGE. Then I went to see the greatest concert I have ever seen. ! YES ! The Going for the one tour. Thanks to the magic of the internet I don't have to read the faded date on my ticket stub. August 3rd 1977 I get a call from Frank Tadeo asking if I want to run down to the spectrum because tickets were found and would be on sale. A month later I turned 16 and took driving lessons.

Somewhere in that summer I also have to mention Debbie Robinson. Debbie had a younger sister Kathy Robinson. Kathy was on the swim team. Debbie Robinson thought I had a lot of potential so she liked trying to improve my image. She had a boyfriend that was like 25 or something and she was a couple years older than me. And no, there are no "Mrs. Robinson" stories :)

Lisa Nanartowicz. Second real girlfriend. One that lasted more than 6 weeks anyway. 5 months I think. Only on the internet would I be able to look up that last name and see how to spell it. Nanartowicz. Lisa had an older sister and a younger sister. I even took the younger one to a dance as a friendly escort. I wish I could remember Lisa Nanartowicz's sisters names. I was dating Lisa when I got my car. Getting that car at the end of 1977 was another thing that changed my life. I had real strict rules from my parents though because insurance was so expensive. So no joyriding, drinking or smoking. At about the same time we were getting chased from the Knights porch more and more and couldn't hang there. Lisa had a different set of friends that I started hanging out with. And I also started at the skills center which was the first public school I went to. 2 days at the skills center, 3 days at Mercy. Blah blah, blah, must have been uneventful or traumatic because I don't recall much details. So another breakup. And I think I am now up to the beginning of 1978. (2007 edit Lisa's sisters are Debbie and Joyce. Deborah Nanartowicz and Joyce Nanartowicz. Lisa and I didn't split nice but Debbie was always friendly. I think I had a crush on her.)

Looking back at the beginning of 1978 I realize I was an idiot. I was screwing things up left and right. Was trying to reconnect with Lisa DiNardo and managed it for a few weeks and went to a school dance. Started talking to this girl on the CB who's name I can not recall who lived in a house on Ridge Ave across from the east falls project. She lived with her mother and her kid and didn't have a phone but she had a CB. Met her to give her a ride somewhere and was a bit shocked because the house was sort of condemned. That was a new experience for me and an eye opener being the pampered kid I was. Don't know what happened to that girl and the house was all busted out a few weeks later and partially collapsed.

While visiting my sister's Godmother for a family party I ended up meeting the girl next door. Sandy Brown. A name with a nice ring to it. Sandy Brown from Bensalem. Despite the fact she was about to graduate 8th grade she was only a year younger than me and we hit it off. Got her number and talked quite a bit and the following weekend I was up there hanging out with her and her girlfriend. I don't remember the friends name but she was a real comedian. Sandy Brown asked me to her graduation dance. At first I was hesitant about an 8th grade dance but she told me most of the kids were around her age. So I went and actually had a good time. But these long distance relationships, even with a car were not meant to be. I had a lot of pictures of Sandy Brown. I gave some negatives to a friend who was in photography class at the skills center. He was using them when learning to develop portraits. I kept a few of the good ones because Sandy Brown looked very good the night of the dance. But those pictures never survived my ex...

I Started hanging out with a new crowd of Valley Ave girls. Met a girl named Paula. Can't remember her last name. My continuing idiocy caused me to ask her to my junior prom after we had only known each other for a week or two. Things were not working out after another few weeks and it was a bad breakup. Her Mother called my Mother about her expensive dress and I actually got grounded for a while. I wish I could apologize for this or had done a better job of apologizing because tragically her parents were in a fatal car accident a year later. What a shock to see that on the news. So I am really sorry I admit I was an idiot. I ended up not going to my junior prom that year because 2 other dates I tried to set up fell through. Based on my idiocy as I keep mentioning I am sure. I seem to recall during my grounding from the car, getting back together with Terri. Since she was only 2 blocks away. But I was being a jerk and an ( C'mon say it with me ) Idiot and went with her to her senior prom but then did not speak with her for almost a year. But in this case I have been able to apologize as I have her email address. We have had a wonderful conversation about how much of an idiot I was :)

Around spring of 1978 I started talking to a whole bunch of new people on the CB from Belmont Hills. A party or two and a couple times hanging out at the Belmont Hills Firehouse was a little strange. I did meet two sisters. Debbie Janson and Florence Janson. As far as I remember I was dating Debbie Janson. Now Debbie Janson was my age and Flo Janson was a year older. Debbie Janson reminded me alot of Debbie Quinn. An all American girl type. Florence (wait I have to stop saying that, Florence Janson and Doris Johnson sound too much alike. Ooops tangent .. ) Flo was more of a tease. In a good way. We took a road trip to Wildwood the weekend before Memorial day weekend in 1978. Turned out Frank Tadeo new a guy who was dating a friend of Debbie and Flo's. Her name was Cindy. I think her last name was Seal. Cindy Seal. All 6 of us were piled in one car early that Saturday morning. Ahh the joys of a high school road trip. Without going in to much detail, things between me and Flo got a tiny bit too comfy. They came over to my house the following weekend with the pictures from the trip. I took a Polaroid picture of Debbie and Florence Janson. That was the last time I saw them. I hung that picture on my bedroom wall. It is dated 05/28/78. Thanks to the modern miracle of scanners here is that pic. No not the Debbie and Flo pic, but a pic of the whole wall.

Some of the stuff had been collecting on this wall for years. Look to the right of the 13, which was some Friday the 13th calendar page. The round thing right above it was an ovaltine lid with the Apollo 13 emblem on it. The flag below Debbie and Flo is from Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in St. Augustine and it shows a pic of an Iron Maiden torture device. I was 16, why did I have a Captn Crunch bumper sticker on my wall. The dead pine cone fish skeleton on the round string art I can understand. The wooden postcard sign under the flags says, Quiet Please Genious At Work. Ha. The Hindenburg newspaper clipping is actually the 40th anniversary one from the newspaper. I was a Led Zeppelin fan so that looked cool. the 104 sticker says Breaker Break 10-4. Pay no attention to the Heineken Dark bottle sitting on the shelf. And one more time for the search engines, Debbie Janson and Florence Janson's pic stayed on that wall for as long as I remember. My mother would not let me have any girls in my room until after I was 18. So nobody else would ever see it anyway.

Time for some meaningless coincidences. Debbie and Flo lived near Lyle avenue. A friend by the name of Karl Disney, who we called Lyle, had a sister named Fawn. Fawn Disney, just try getting a search on that. Anyway, I had always liked Fawn but I was so far out of her league. She had a boyfriend that was away for college. We were goofing around one day hanging out when I found out they had recently broken up. So for the first time I pushed my insecurities aside and asked her out. She said .... can you guess? she said NO and continued to say no for about the next two weeks and I must have reverted back to my inner idiot because I kept asking. And then guess what ..... She said YES ok why not sure what the hell and I was so surprised I wasn't sure what to do. While I was trying to figure out what to do I think a week went by. When we finally got together I was asking for another chance and we were trying to figure out where to go and what to do and after about another week of that I was left wondering what the heck happened. Fawn Disney was the girl of my dreams and when I finally had my big break I blew it.
BTW Karl Disney and I were on the swim team at the Roxborough YMCA together and had our names up on the record board for a 400 yard freestyle relay record that held for almost 12 years.

Met a girl named Lorraine at a dance. Rock and roll was king but disco was where all the girls were. Ran into Lorraine again at an IHM dance. Found out her last name was Sulik then. Lorraine Sulik. We hung out most of the night. She didn't tell me the guy staring at us looking mean was her ex boyfriend or soon to be ex boyfriend so it got ugly in the parking lot when I left. But you know what goes around comes around. Two years later Lorrain Sulik and I met up again and this time went out for a few months. More on that later.

A summer full of trouble. I got into trouble. Trouble seemed to follow me everywhere. I was on the edge of 17 and I have nothing more I can really say.

September 1978. I wonder what Lisa DiNardo was doing for our birthday. Starting 12th grade. One more year to go. I managed to get into electronics at the skills center and I was there 3 days a week and at Mercy for 2. It was the first time in school I was really busting my butt in a class. I was even allowed to drive my car to the skills center. Senior privledge. Not Mercy though. It was kind of cool being seniors. With the exception of all the senior girls wanting nothing to do with us. But the freshmen girls were in awe. I did date a sophmore at the beginning of the year. Susan Ditzel. But she lived out in Port Richmond and I guess I never learned my lessons in long distance relationships. Funny to think of someone in the same city but a half hour away as a long distance relationship.

Somehow I ended back up on Valley avenue. With the Valley Girls. They all went to Hallahan and always hung out together. About 6 of them. I was dating Cathy O'Conner. Things were going well until a TV show came between us. Battlestar Galactica. The first 2 or 3 episodes were fantastic and I was ready on night to sit and watch the next one when I had a phone call reminding me we were supposed to go out. One of the few arguments I remember with anybody I ever dated. Not that I didn't have any just I didn't remember them. Anyway, I'm sure I didn't help matters by hanging around home and watching some of the show and being late. I caught the episode the following week but had lost interest. As you know a VCR in 1978 would have cost over $800 so that was out of the question. Another holiday with a girlfriend. I got a present from her parents. First time I got something from parents. A nice Cross chrome pen and pencil set. Still have them. A couple weeks later I was informed by some guy at my door that I was no longer dating Cathy. So 1979 was starting out swell. The only valley girl I kept in touch with for a while was Sharon Paris.

The final half year of high school was incredibly hectic. I met some majorly party type people on the CB. School was going great. I met a girl, Barbara Casher, from the skills center. Barbara Casher was in Baking class. She always smelled like fresh bread so no wonder why I was always hungry around her. Barbara Casher lived out in Overbrook. Barbara and I kept in touch off and on for almost a year. Speechless now. Move on..

Due to the small size of the classes at Mercy they decided to combine the senior and junior proms into one. Anxious not to repeat the fiasco from the previous year I starting looking for a prom date. I was friends with a few juniors and was hanging out more and more with Lynne Bastian. We ended up dating and going to the prom and had a great time but didn't see much of each other after that. Thanks to classmates I got a surprise email from Lynne in 2002 and got filled in on all the gossip. Also happy to have gotten back in touch with our chaperone, Father Paul. Well, he wasn't a priest back then but was good enough to make sure no hanky panky went on. I didn't go to the Marriott hotel party they had going on. Snuck a keg up the fire escape steps and stuck it in the bath tub. You would think the hotel would notice that every ice machine in that wing was emptied at the same time.

CB Radio was picking up in popularity as disco was dying. I had a special modified Single Sideband unit with channels into the 10 meter range. Above 40 and below 0. So sometime in 1978 or 1979 was when I was really into QSL and was joining all these clubs and collecting QSL cards. I had a PO box I shared with another guy. It was another foray into a collecting binge. One where I finally realized I was obsessive about things sometimes. But strangeness is relative.

Speaking of a strange place to meet girls would you consider a Church? At some point when I had my car I was going to church at St. Johns. I met two girls there. Cathy Lester and Annmarie Skipjack. Now I had known Cathy Lester since my days of hanging out on Seville St. But I hadn't met Annmarie Skipjack before. Annmarie Skipjack was not going for any of my charm. And I think my car broke down once outside the church as I was asking her out for lunch so that would have blown that anyway. Doomed from the start. Coincidently when I bought a house 5 years later I lived next door to Cathy's older sister Linda.

Graduation was 2 months away. Due to special circumstances I got a College grant to go to The Pennsylvania Institute Of Technology but it required 8 weeks of summer school that started a week before graduation. My mental state was, how to put it, Mental! My car was acting up. I had a major crush on this girl Diane that lived on Baker Street. Diane was 21 already. This was a woman not a girl. One Friday night I get a call from her wondering if I want to go out and party for a little bit. She said she would pick me up. So her and Rainbow, (I can't remember Rainbow's first name but it will come to me) drove down to my house. Diane gets out of the car with no shoes on holding a quart of beer and walks up and knocks on my door. Talk about making an impression. Actually I was very much impressed. Even more so that later in the evening I asked her out and we ended up going to Great Adventure the following week. And a month after that I graduated and she threw me a party at her house. She was a house away from a parking lot around the back of the icehouse. Wait, my car blew a water pump coming back from great adventure and I sold it for $100. What good was a 17 year old guy to a woman that was dating a 30 year old biker. Geez what was I thinking. I managed to get all mushy about it at my graduation party and had a bit too much liquid inhibition remover and found out that I was just a cute little distraction so thank you very much Diane. When I was left hugging a pole in the parking lot for an hour I was rescued by Jeannie. Jeannie was a friend from the CB that was about 10 years older and had a car and a job and I think I took advantage of both. She worked in the Drive up Photo booth in the parking lot of Roxboro Market Square. I had a camera and shot lots of pictures for the yearbook and she got them developed for me. She even let me drive her camero a couple times. And dropped me off on a few dates. She must have liked me. We went down to south street to see Rocky Horror Picture Show at least 4 times. I just hope I wasn't too much of an idiot, strike that I was. But that incident is still a few months away. Jeannie is another person I should apologize to. I did run into her about ten years later. But I think my ex was near so it was nothing more than a short hi how ya been good seeya type conversation.

First real job fiasco. The work I was doing with my Grandfather was drying up so I needed to get a better source of income. The custard stand at Ridge and Righter was owned by friends of the family so I tried my hand at working in an ice cream store. Wow, who would have thought soft serve was so hard. I could not make a cone to save my life. And I was distracted by all the girls and other people I knew coming to get ice cream. I was done in a week. My social security statement shows I made $63 that year. I think I got a $5 tax refund. The more I think about this I get a nagging feeling it might have been the summer of 1978 instead 1979. I'll have to re read my SS statement a little closer later. EDIT definitly 1979 when I made $63.50 of earned income. Says so in my SS history.

The summer of 1979 was an obsessive compulsive nightmare that was the best time of my life until I really thought about it. I was in college skipping remedial classes I didn't really need. I was getting extremely philosophical about life. I would listen to the soundtrack to Rocky Horror and get stuck on the don't dream it be it part. One of the things I really liked to do was play video games and I had found a secret spot to do it. Instead of going up to the arcade at the Plymouth Meeting Mall I would go over to the game room at the Marriott Hotel. This is where I met someone that I did the craziest thing in my life (Up to that point) to see again. I met three girls in the Marriott game room in July of 1979. From that initial weekend, to my 18th birthday 9 weeks later, was a story all of it's own. So the story of Maureen McDevitt from Mansfield Ohio has a page all its own.

September 5th (or 6th) 1979 the Greyhound bus terminal at 5:00am I am back in Philadelphia walking a mile to get to my bus. Had way too much time to ponder things on those busses. After sleeping for a day I started my college courses. 69th street in Upper Darby was a rather interesting place. There was one of those Beauty Academies I walked past every day. But I never had enough nerve to stop and talk to any of them. There was also a ton of high school girls running around. But I was in college now and ready for college girls. Wait a minute. Where was I. Pennsylvania Institute of Technology. Yeah today this stuff is so common and the work geek just means good with computers. But back in 1979 there were 3 types of college kids. Nerds, Preps and Jocks. Girls were Preps or just weird. So there were no jocks and only a few preps. But almost no girls. Only 2 that I remember. After becoming friends with one I found out she had a kid and lived with her boyfriend and somebody else and she invited me over to her place after school one day. She lived on Lancaster Ave right above what is now The Point Cafe. I think it was the Main Line Cabaret back then. I was sitting there sipping on some wine she gave me when this awful loud blast made me jump. Sitting on the floor where I was I could see the big air horn on top of the Bryn Mawr firehouse as she is saying sorry that she forgot to warn me. I guess I was just trying to make friends because I can't imaging what else I was thinking. I can't remember her name but if you know who lived in the apartment above the Main Line Cabaret on Lancaster Ave (Route 30) in 1979 let me know.

The only other girl in PIT I remember was Dolores McKenna. Dolores McKenna was a freshman like me but her boyfriend had been there a year or so. Two things I remember was spending extra time after school playing with a computer and trying to get a date with Dolores McKenna. By the way I have no idea if it is McKenna or MacKenna so it could be Dolores MacKenna. Anyway, I must have returned to my idiot stage and even though things were a bit rocky between her and her boyfriend (or so she said) but I tried anyway. One day Dolores, who I wanted to call Dee because I thought she was Delicious, wanted to know just exactly what would we do if we went out. Um, movie, dinner, concert, whatever she wanted. She agreed. Sometime the next day or two I was informed by her boyfriend that they were not seeing other people and he was concerned about my health. Thanks for caring. I didn't pursue that any farther.

The 70's were coming to an end. I read the Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings trilogy in 2 weeks. I bought a Dungeons and Dragons game. I was looking for a cult to join I guess. Wait, that is pure hindsight, DnD was not identified as a devil worshiping soul stealing game until 1980. My experience in college was turning out to be different than what I expected. I was back on the CB and in party mode. A Buddy of mine was getting ready to go in the Navy. Rich Humphrey. Ritchie Humphrey lived on Manayunk Ave a few blocks from me. Ritchie's family was also a CB family. I met my future ex sister in law at the Humphrey's. Helped her baby-sit one night. What a meaningful coincidence that was looking back.

The holidays were approaching. I met these two girls from Bala Cynwyd on the CB. Right on the other side of Belmont Hills, up Rock Hill Road. Suzanne Leary was one and I can't remember the other. Suzanne Leary and I hit it off and started Dating. Was a little tough because I had to borrow my parents car. Suzanne had a bit of a tough home life though and things didn't work. I do have a great pic of Suzanne and Ritchie though and as strange as things got it makes me realize that a lot of good things did happen. And looking back at what I have written her I seem to have been able to focus on the good things. I have nothing bad to say about anybody except myself being an idiot at times. Anyway, I did run into Suzanne Leary, almost literally, in December 1981. I was at the Osteopathic hospital rushing to see the birth of my oldest. I was waiting for the elevator and when the doors opened out walked Suzanne and her Mother. They were talking and did not see me and I was a bit too preoccupied to think twice about it.

It would probably take some therapy to figure out what was going wrong at the beginning of the 80's. Even after trying to recall more details for a few days here I am still drawing blanks. After the first semester of college I was so mental I talked to the school counselor and it was suggested I take a few months off. You know what that meant. Parents ready to cut me off. So I got a job at the Roy Rodgers fast food restaurant on City Line Avenue. You would have thought my attempt at working with food the year before would have taught me something. Guess not. But since I was 18 I was allowed to work the deep fryer. It was part time work. Minimum wage at $3.18 an hour for a couple hours a week. Not sure how many weeks I worked but I made $253 dollars that year according to my SS report. There were quite a few high school girls working there. I was very distracted trying to hook up. I only remember two names and only first names. Linda and Jeanne. Linda had a boyfriend but if you got this far into this story you know that wasn't exactly a deterrent. I did manage to take Jeanne out once but only once. Got back together with Sharon Paris to talk about the good old times and also because the Saul High School (The Farm School) was selling roses for a fund raiser. I was able to get 25 roses for like $10. One dozen went to my Mother because I needed major brownie points. And I, being my usual idiot self gave Linda a dozen roses. It was the night of her Prom and I was trying really hard to impress. The final Rose will be explained in the next paragraph. I'm sure giving Linda the roses had something to do never seeing Jeanne again. She was away on a school trip to Paris France and wouldn't talk to me when she got back. I did receive a postcard from France a few weeks later from Jeanne though. It was written all in French. Nothing more than the usual Hi how are you I am fine it is beautiful here type postcard.
J'étais un idiot is what it should have said.

I picked out the best looking rose from that 25 and set it aside. For like the 4th time since 1977 I got back in touch with Lisa DiNardo. And it would be the last time I would see her. Over the years I have recalled this incident as a last ditch effort to get back together. A final attempt at stealing her away. But that night as I was pouring my heart out she was getting ready for a date with a new boyfriend and I realized she was unattainable. She was in a new school The school for creative and performing arts in Philadelphia. And Fame had just come out and there was a whole new lifestyle associated with it. So why this time would I not be an idiot? A boyfriend never stopped me before. Why now. But in my attempt to break the cycle I did not pursue Lisa DiNardo.
What a mistake. Looking back 20 years later I remember getting a post card from Lisa from Florida. I still had that postcard put away so I looked at it and the cancellation stamp says Aug something 1980. She contacted me several months after the rose and I don't remember trying to contact her back. Until 1982 when I was in school a few blocks away from the HS for CaPA. I walked down to the school one day as it was getting out and stood there for 45 minutes watching for her. My life at that time had radically changed with an instant family and although I didn't remember it at the time I wrote her a letter that I actually sent her, on the inside of a card. Dozens of other letters written were never sent. 21 years later after finding her email address I got the story. And some insights into how people remember things from the past. Perceptions change over time. Things were not as they seemed from her end so I should have let myself be an idiot. But then what if they didn't work out? Then she probably would not have been my muse all those years. Alright, lets get back to the past again.

I was not cut out for flipping burgers. I knew a minimum wage job was not for me so I better get my act together. I got word that I was recommended for a handyman job over in Germantown. One of those houses where there are only 4 of them on a block. Huge 8 bedroom mansions. So I get out there and meet this woman and get my assignments. During the course of this extremely hot June afternoon I was clearing leaves and other yard junk when a girl comes out of the house and lays down in a lounge chair in the middle of the yard. Talk about a distraction. Somehow we managed to do a lot of talking as I was cleaning up and I think she moved her chair once or twice. Unfortunately I do not remember her name. But I remember she was a big Genesis fan. They were coming to concert in a few weeks. I finished up my work, got paid, and was asked to come back the following week. During that week I got the brainy idea to get concert tickets and see if she wanted to go to the concert. Duh, the concert was sold out. Both shows. While listening to the radio about the sold out show they mentioned that Peter Gabriel was coming to concert. Hey, since he was in Genesis that would be as close to Genesis as you could get. So I went over to the Marriott where they had a ticket office and bought two tickets to see Peter Gabriel at the Tower Theater in July. That weekend I head over to work at that house and was greeted by a man who told me I would not be needed for anymore work. Imagine a cartoon where someone’s jaw drops to the ground. Doh! Later it sort of came to me in hindsight. I was the yard boy. The Handyman. The minimum wage worker cleaning up. I wasn't even thinking about being snubbed. I might need to write up a page about dealing with rich girls because there were a few others. Anyway, what should I do with my Peter Gabriel tickets.

How, why, when or where I got back with Lorraine Sulik that summer I do not remember. But Lorraine and I went to the Peter Gabriel concert together. Peter had buzzed all his hair off so when he cam on stage to introduce the greatest band in the world, Random Hold, people did not recognize him. The concert was fantastic. So different at the Tower Theater than anything at the Spectrum. One other thing I recall from that night is a parking ticket. I had parked at a meter 10 minutes before the cut off time and did not see a meter maid in sight. Sigh. Anyway, Lorraine and I also took a trip to the Jersey shore. Brigantine NJ. Home of the famous Brigantine Castle. 1980 was the peak of this shore attraction. The remaining 4 years it was open were riddled with trouble but in 1980 it was perfect. Lorraine and I spent a few hours in the wildlife preserve at the north end of the city. I took a few dozen pictures of the dunes and Lorraine. (sadly all had Lorraine in them and did not survive my ex) I still have one picture of the castle sitting above the dunes. If it wasn’t for that strange exterior color of the castle it would look real. It was a perfect day. And a great time in the castle itself. Followed by spending lots of money in the arcade. Trying to win prizes. When checking out the tickets I got a real shock. The girl behind the counter was an old girlfriend. Darlene. Darlene lived right around the corner from me on Kalos street.

THIS is a nested flashback because I missed writing about Darlene. I met Darlene in 1977. Darlene indirectly caused a rift between Terri and I because I indirectly caused a rift between Glenn and Darlene so Glenn started trouble with Terri. Wait a minute. I have no idea where that was going. What else can I say. I need to keep this at a level I wouldn't mind my mother reading so as far as I can go is to say Darlene was a great kisser. But we never really went out.. Back to the future.

Darlene said she was living down the shore to work there. I remember feeling strangely torn between wanting to find out more about what Darlene had been up to and knowing it was not a good idea because I was out with Lorraine. So we got our tickets redeemed and were going to head home. We realized in the car that we had spent all of our money. After unsuccessfully trying to bum a quarter from someone we dug up 23 cents from under the seats and took off. Staying off the expressway and heading up to the Tacony bridge added almost an hour to the trip. I remember handing the toll taker all the pennies and actually dropping some and then him telling me we were short so I told him they must be under the car. An hour later I was finally home after dropping her off. What a long day.

How, why, when or where I stopped seeing Lorraine Sulik later that summer I do not remember. There was one incident at the Facenda Whittaker bowling lane where after we bowled a few games one night I got engrossed in a video game. It was battlezone and the first time playing a 3D game. I know she must have been annoyed standing there while I played. What was I? An idiot. Right.

Ritchie was back from the Navy and Married! Huh? Met someone on base and they decide to get married 2 weeks later. Wow. Remember the future ex sister in law? She calls me up asking if I want to make $10 driving her sister from South Philadelphia to her moms. Sure, I desperately needed the money. Driving her and her two kids up to manayunk that day. Could I possibly have foreseen that she would be my ex one day? Anyway later that night I was up outside of Ritchies house and met Patsy, she lived on the corner a few houses up from Ritchie. It was a hot summer night and Patsy and I sat out on the front step all night long. I mean all night long as I left to go home at 6:30 am. Patsy was the last girl I dated before the ex. Woman I should say because she was 6 years older than me. The thing I remember the most about Patsy is a paranormal event that happened in her basement. (or something I have dreamed up that happened in her basement.) It was a late summer storm. There was a blinding flash of lightning with no thunder. What appeared to be ball lightning about 6 inches in diameter came through the basement window and along the electrical wire to the light bulb that went POP. We couldn't decide what we saw though and chalked it up to a power surge. Patsy had a friend whose family owned the Dog training pound on Leverington Ave. The friend and I went to see the movie Airplane and I can't remember why Patsy didn't go. Then I helped her deliver dogs to Teddy Prendegrast's house over in Gladwynne. On the way over I was talking to her about the old mystery girl, Qantas, from the CB years earlier. We had traced her to the same general area. This friend of Patsy's knew a girl that matched the description exactly. Even told me her name. But she had just gone off to college a month earlier. Wait, I have the Qantas mystery on another page. Never mind that here.

Some excitement. The Phillies won the world series. That was the last time I saw Patsy. until running into her 8 years later and finding out the next person she met was the love of her live and they had been married ever since.

Well, this era of my life was coming to a rather dull close. My attempt to get back in the college groove had derailed. My transcripts show I failed DC Electronics. How in the world did that happen. That was my absolute biggest interest and best subject in high school. I often wonder how things might be different now if I would have gotten that associates degree then. Would it have caused me not to go to computer school in 1982? I will never know. So I dropped out. Blah. Holidays came and blah blah. I know exactly what happened on Jan 10 1981, Helped future ex sis in law baby-sit and end of story till Nov 1992. But some time in the week before I had a long heart to heart chat with Terri. And the last Date I went on was down to Atlantic City to gamble at Resorts with my parents and I asked Lorraine Sulik to come along. It was an excellent night. We took a stroll on the chilly boardwalk, and that was the last time I saw her.

It has been exactly 2 weeks since I started writing this little auto bio. 2 weeks to write 10,300 words. Now I plan on going back and editing and adding stuff but that is something you will never know unless I decide to make a note of it. Which I probably will at least to make it more interesting. I was thinking about spinning off some fiction based on some real experiences. Who knows, maybe this will even get deleted and never see the light of day...

Please email atebitz@yahoo.com me and tell me who you are and why you came here or if you are just curious or if you have any memories of me being an idiot.

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