Train 666

As I was coming home from work last night, later than usual, it was quite the spectacle on the subway. Coming from the El (Market-Frankford Line) I was on my way to the City Hall stop to catch the southbound train. After waiting for about five minutes the train slowly approached. As the door opened, I saw an older lady pouring salt all over the floor on the second train car. The salt almost covered about half of the car. I wasn’t sure what happened prior, but it appeared as though two younger kids may have been harassing her (it could have easily been the other way around though, but probably not). The lady continued to pour salt as into her shopping bags.

As I got on the train car this lady was mumbling things to herself. The doors closed. Before the train began to move, those meddling kids punched through the window of the car. Crack! Luckily no one was hurt. At the next stop (Walnut-Locust) everyone had to get off the train due to this cracked window. However, before the people started to exit the train car, this lady started to scream, “Train 666! 666! It was those kids!”  I thought this lady was possibly religious or spiritual.

When I finally got off the train, the actual train car number was 666. This can’t be good. Right. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the next train was delayed for close to 15 minutes. This is just another SEPTA Story.

Put That Cookie Down, Now!

Cookies! Who doesn't love a good ol' cookie? Preferably anything with chocolate is my favorite. Oreo is by far my favorite (with a glass of milk of course) followed by Chips Ahoy. Homemade cookies are great too! Well after that being said, I try not to keep any in the house or buy them. You must be asking, "If you love them so much, why not have them"? The answer is simple, I can not control myself around a good cookie. I was having this conversation with a friend not to long ago, and he agrees. You start out by opening the pack promising yourself you'll only have one or two, maybe three. Well a few minutes later, you've just eaten an entire row. WTF! This is why you need to put that cookie down, now!

Amendment II - Right to Bear Arms

The amendment was adopted so that Congress could not disarm a state militia. More so, that we the people of the United States can not and will not be disarmed by our government or any other government for that matter. I’m all for the second amendment and also support freedom of speech, press, assembly, petition, religion, and right to marry.

Posing with a Sniper Rifle

The main reason I’m a big supporter of the 2^nd is for self-defense. Especially if you have a family! You should do anything to defend your own grounds. I’m a tax paying, peaceful citizen and do not condone violence in any shape or form, but self-defense and preservation is a must.  

In this day and age you must be an informed citizen, unfortunately most people are not. So not to go too far off topic I wanted to talk about my first experience using a fire-arm. Guns can be a scary thing if you are not an informed person and if you do not know how to properly use them. So, as far as home defense goes, in my opinion, and you want to own a gun, I suggest to start with something small and manageable. I think a glock or a beretta is the way to go. I haven’t had a chance to use the glock, but I was happy with the use of the beretta. It is light weight and easy to handle. I’ll try to have more updates on this once I become knowledgeable and get more use of safely handling a hand gun.

Feeling the Kick Back from the .44 Magnum

Showing Off with the Boys

Feast of the Seven Fishes

The Feast of the Seven Fishes celebrates Christmas Eve (December 24^th) by having a seafood dinner with seven different types of seafood for the celebration of the "Dear Lord Baby Jesus." You could have more than seven fish, but it must be an odd number. The (my) family had nine this year. This is an Italian Tradition that dates back some time to the Roman Catholic tradition of not eating meat on holy days or specific periods. The reason that there are seven fish is to represent the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church.

Cleaning the Spearing. You got to watch out for that fish wrapped in newspaper.

Filleting the Smelts, many more to go.

Scungilli Salad

 













My mother cooked most of the dishes, but we prepared everything together. This was the first year that I hosted Christmas Eve in my new house. It’s always hard to start a new tradition since the passing of my grandmother who always prepared the dishes at her house with my grandfather, but we must move on. I learned a lot from my grandmother in the kitchen at an early age so some of it must have rubbed off. The menu this year featured the following:

1.      Stuffed Galamad (Calamari) with lump crabmeat and Galamad Stew

2.      Shrimp Cocktail

3.      Fried Shrimp, Spearing, Smelts, Galamd (with tentacles), and Crab Cakes

4.      Angel Hair Pasta with Mussels in a Marinara Sauce

5.      Sautéed Scallops in a White Wine Sauce

6.      Baccala (Salted Cod) Salad

7.      Scungilli (Conch) Salad

There were other items but I’m just talkin’ about the fish! When preparing the Spearing I had to take off the heads and gut them, and fillet the Smelts (which was not fun). Although mom cooked seven of the fish I was responsible for the salads. I cheated with the Scungilli because I purchased it already cooked and frozen. However, the Baccala is the trick. I soaked it for one day (most people soak it for three) to take some of the salt off and it was enough. 

Anyway, the best part of the holidays is spending time with the family, eating, and having a drink. Here is my Baccala recipe. Don’t ask how much of each, you just judge! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Richie P’s Baccala Salad

·         Baccala (Soak from 1-3 days depending on taste)

·         Olive Oil

·         Fresh Parsley (Chopped)

·         Capers

·         Green Olives (Pitted)

·         Black Olives (Pitted)

·         Cherry Peppers (Cut)

·         Fresh Garlic (Chopped)

·         Fresh Lemon Juice (Squeezed)

Richie P's Baccala Salad

Spartan Race

The PA Spartan Sprint was just held on July 14^th in Palmerton, PA at the Blue Mountain Ski Area. The Spartan Sprint consisted of over 5 miles of steep up and down hill rough mountain terrain, about 15 obstacles, and a whole lot of mud. The race is supposed to be for anyone from a beginner runner to advanced, but I beg to differ. I was supposed to train for the sprint, but I did not. I’m in okay shape, but this is something that you need to train for.  However, my goal this year was to just finish the race. And I did! Next year I will have to train.

The obstacles that were in the race were very cool. I had to jump over walls (the walls got higher as I went along), crawl under barbwire, jump over fire, throw a spear, go up/down hill with a sand bag, up/down hill with a bucket full of rocks, climb rope, and more. For every obstacle that wasn’t completed, 30 burpees had to be done. So, I had my handful of burpees after the race was over. I am already registered for next year and hopefully will have a team.

Water Ice

South Philly is known for its vast array of culture and food, but as the heat turns up this summer, everyone is enjoying a nice cold water ice (not to be confused with Italian Ice).  Nothing beats a water ice with a pretzel rod or you might want to even throw a bit of ice cream in the mix and have a gelati[i]. Water Ice is the best in South Philly!

South Philly’s popular water ice establishments are Italiano’s, John’s, and Pop’s. There are Rita’s locations too out here, but I’m just talking about the real local stuff. All three have been South Philly favorites for a long time. I have recently just tried all three again to refresh my memory.

Pop’s is located right off of Broad Street on the East side Oregon Avenue. Pop’s has a wide variety of water ice flavors and the taste has always been consistent. The after taste of the water ice has a robust and flavorful taste. You can walk across the street to Marconi Plaza afterwards and enjoy a stroll through the park.

Next is Italiano’s which is located at 12^th & Shunk streets in a quaint neighborhood of South Philly. Parking is tight, but so is everywhere else in the city these days. Just like Pop’s, the selection is vast. The water ice has a strong taste at first and has a finishing slushy type taste. Italiano’s is a favorite by most of my native friends.

Finally, there’s John’s water ice on the corner of 7^th & Christian Streets. If you’re ever walking down to South Street, John’s is a place to stop. The selection is small, but has other flavors on occasion. The water ice from here will make your mouth water. It is addictive.

It all comes down to personal preference. All three establishments are worth checking out if you live in the city or from out of town. John’s is my personal favorite, but I’ll let you decide.

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[i] Gelati: A combination of both water ice and ice cream. Outside of South Philly Gelati (the plural form of gelato) is Italian-Style ice cream.

Street Hockey Growing Up

Street hockey (and/or roller hockey) is one of my fondest memories growing up in South Philly. I was an early teen as were most of my friends that played the game with me. These were the days before we had any worries like car payments and mortgages. Our biggest worries were” Where are we going to play hockey today” and “You did what with that girl?” Some times we played on foot (street hockey), but 95% of the time we played in roller blades (roller hockey).

South Philly, at the time, really wasn’t too known for decent places to the game. There were some rinks. Some times we had to play another team to use the rink, or we would schedule a game with them. Imagine we used to do this before any of us had cell phones or computers. We all knew where and when to meet up. We would play up small streets in South Philly or the CVS park lot at 10^th and Reed Streets which would become our home field. I couldn’t even tell you how many times we would get kicked out of there by the CVS employees or neighbors from the back street. We always put up a fight that was because hockey kept us out of trouble.

CVS Parking lot at 10th & Reed Streets

 

1100 Block of S Cross Street

Our team was known as the Snipers and our farm team was the Tyrants (lol). The Tyrants were our friends and I even remember The Titans from 11^th and Jackson. We played teams from all over South Philly, the crew from 6^th & Wharton Streets, 19^th & Johnson Streets, 9^th and Watkins, and many more. These were the days before most of even had a license let along a car, so we would skate all over the city. From 2^nd streets to 30^th streets, we were there!



Columbus Square at 12th & Wharton Streets. The red highlights where we used to play. Now there is a dog park there. 

 

Epiphany Church at 11th and Jackson Streets

Barry Playground at 19th & Johnson Streets

Rizzo Rink located under I-95 on Front Street off of Washington Ave.

When we played at CVS we always had a crowd of girls to come support us. That was always nice. They would even go run errands for us and get us water or Gatorade. They were our girl friends or just some girls who wanted a piece of The Snipers. On the really hot days we would skate to Pop's or Italiano’s to get water ice.When we would play amongst ourselves we would all put or sticks on the ground and some one would throw them to a side to determine the teams. We used to use a roll of electrical tape for a puck. We used roller hockey pucks and balls but it wasn’t the same. We even got our own jerseys made. I think we all wanted to play for the Flyers since we all used to watch them and pretended we were our favorite players. 

As I mentioned earlier we always knew when to meet up, but never wanted to go home. Well most of us. I remember one of our goalies would leave in the middle of any game by 4:55 so he could be home for dinner at five. There would be a puff of smoke around the net and before you knew the goalie was gone. We battled among ourselves but that only made us stronger when it came to playing other teams. Growing up in South Philly was great and I’m thankful that hockey played a major role for me and my friends.



Some of The Snipers- 1996

1000 block of Greenwhch Street- 1996