It was a nice Saturday afternoon in May and I wanted some black and white cookies from Leons. As I walked up Dictum Ct it seem like almost everyone I knew was outside doing something. I said hello to Mrs Carlson and her daughter Helen who were planting flowers in their yard as brother Roy workout on his high bar on the side of their garage. Jimmy McCandless and Tommy Moore were playing stoop ball as Mrs Hinte arrived home with her groceries from Food Haven, Rosemarie O'Donnell and Carol Burtchell were skipping rope in front of Rosemarie's house. I waved hello to Mr Lombardo and Tony Zara who was helping his dad clean their yard in preparation for planting, Sonny Lombardo said hello on his way to work as a police officer. I crossed Bijou Ave to see Bobby and Jimmy Gibbons helping their dad load up his Bungelow Bar cart, as I go up Dictum Ct I see Richie Erwin coming home from his job at the Sugar Bowl. I see Mr Gleason heading towards the Tamaqua docks, he'll probably see my dad Neal hanging out on the Falcon with his friend John and maybe have a few cold ones. I went down Dictum Ct to Allen Ave and I saw Mr Chandler walking on Allen Ave with his umpire gear headed to Gerritsen Beach Little League to umpire a game. Jim Cincola yelled hey Bobby from down Allen Ave, while I waited for Jimmy Richie Haas came by and we went to Greg Thives house on Plumb 2nd St. They asked if I wanted to play some stick ball up the park I told them I was headed to Leons for some black and white cookies so they decided to tag along. We headed down Plumb 2nd St as fast as possible so we could get back and get a few games of stick ball in. We arrive at Leons and we pool our money, we have enough 1/2 pound of black and whites, we each had 2 cookies walking back up Gerritsen Ave. Mr Byrnes was outside his funeral home he was the official greeter of anyone coming down Gerritsen Ave. He greeted us with a big smile and a hello, if you went by the funeral home and he wasn't there you would think something was wrong. We went by the Sugar Bowl on the corner of Whitney Ave and we saw Frank Rogers and Tommy Cavanagh inside. We went in and asked if they wanted to play some stick ball they finished their small cokes and came with us, Tommy and Frank bought a spaulding(spauldeen) now we were ready to play because Greg had brought his stick ball bat with him.
We saw Harold Olsen outside Tim's grocery store where he worked for many years we all said hello and headed across Gerritsen Ave to the hand ball courts to play some pitch in stick ball. We saw some of the older guys playing basketball, Charlie Hintz, Richie Hanson, Dickie and Bobby Johns were playing some half court two on two. These guys were good, we stood and watched for a while. Charlie dominated the boards while Richie got his share of rebounds plus he had that soft left handed jump shot. Dickie was one of the best players in the Beach he could pass and had great jump shot, Bobby wasn't afraid to go to the basket plus he had nice left handed jump from the foul line. When we got there it was Charlie and Bobby against Dickie and Richie the score was 20-19 in favor of Dickie and Richie. They needed 21 to win, Dickie takes a set shot that hit the rim and was rebounded by Charlie who passes to Bobby who fakes a shot and passes to Charlie for an easy layup now the score is tied 20 up. Dickie has the ball he dribbles around Bobby then passes behind his back to Richie who takes a jump shot from the foul line, Charlie tries to block it but just misses, the ball goes in without hitting the rim game over. We go to the hand ball court with our blue box painted on it, we choose up sides it is Jimmy Greg and me against Richie, Frank and Tommy. We proceeded to play two games each side winning one each, that's the way it went most of the time then we headed to the candy store for a coke. Then we all headed up Allen Ave to go home and eat, then we'd go out for the night games on the block until our parents called us in. This was just another day in paradise, growing up in the best neighborhood in the world, thanks Aunt Jean and Uncle Bill for finding this place called Gerritsen Beach for our family.
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