The song I’ve chosen is I Have Dreamed from Rogers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I.” The place it reminds me of is Little Flower High School for Girls in Philadelphia.

In the fall of 1977, I acted in “The King and I” at Little Flower. It was the first play I was in, and it opened the theatre world to me. While acting in this play, I decided to take Theatre as a major in college.

I think this song does more to remind me of Little Flower than the others in the play because it’s not as well know. At least, I probably didn’t know the song back then, so it was new. The most intense feeling I get from the song (since my memory isn’t that specific) is the sense of seeing the two lovers singing to each other. It must have been the first time I saw a love song acted out in real life.

There are so many memories and topics I could discuss today as I think back to that time. Why did I audition for a play at a girl’s school? How did being at an all girl’s school affect me, especially since I went to an all boys high school? Did I date any of the girls? Well, I’ll leave these and the other topics for other blog entries.

• SamEric Theater
  When I was nineteen, I went to the downtown movie theater to get a job as an usher. Two weeks later, I was made assistant manager. Although it was a fairly easy job, there was a lot of responsibility. The SamEric was the largest movie auditorium in the city of Philadelphia (1200 people). Also, my lack of social skills made it difficult for me at times. Yet, I am proud to say I worked at the largest movie theater in Philly.
• Camp Saginaw
  While working at the SamEric and going to Temple University, I attended a job fair at school. This let to my getting a job as a camp counselor at Camp Saginaw in Oxford, PA. The first year I worked there, I helped with the shows the campers did. During the second year, I also taught Model Rocketry.
• Archdiocese of Philadelphia
  After a failure in trying to join the Air Force, I thought I would try teaching (something I always wanted to do, but thought I was too temperamental). Between 1984 and 1991, I taught at three Archdiocese schools: Holy Name of Jesus in Fishtown, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in South Philadelphia, and St. Cecilia in Foxchase. I did feel somewhat the hypocrite, since I was already an atheist by this time, but I did teach Religion, along with all the usual elementary curriculum. I did enjoy it, but I was not well suited to handling 30 kids at a time day after day.
• Tracey Tours
  I think I worked for them in the summer of 1987. I gave 2 and one-half hour tours of the historic area of Philadelphia. Most of the tour was on a bus and we drove past City Hall, down Pine St., and through the Historic District. The visitors and I got off at the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, and we also stopped at the Betsy Ross House. This was a really fun job which allowed me to combine my love of Philadelphia history and teaching.
• Sesame Place
  During the summers of 1989 – 1991, I worked with the Muppets. I began as an Entertainment Tech and ran a show called The Wild Duckie Chase, where kids would act and be inserted into a video with Bert, Ernie, and Super Grover. I was able to become Area Supervisor of the Technical Services Department in 1990. I was then able to work on all the shows in the park, plus the exhibits, video games, and computers.
• Busch Gardens Africa
  Working at Sesame Place allowed me to move to Florida and work at another park owned by Busch Entertainment. From 1991 through 1995, and again in 1998, I worked at the Moroccan Palace Theater. The shows at that time were ice shows, so not only was I doing real professional theater work, I was also helping to maintain an ice rink. The two shows I worked on was Around the World on Ice and Hollywood Live on Ice. This was one of the jobs I really enjoyed.
• VerticalNet
  I moved back to Philadelphia for two years from 1995 to 1997. While I tried to establish a business on the Internet for myself, I began working for a net company in Horsham, PA called VerticalNet. It specialized in websites for specific industries (vertical markets). I learned a lot about coding and graphics while working there. The company has been sold and reorganized a couple of times. It was never really profitable, but I didn’t know the Internet bubble was coming. I also didn’t know that the man who became CEO while I was there, Mark Walsh, was such a big player on the web. I decided office work was not for me and I missed Florida. I left the company after only 10 months.
• LBI.net
  I have worked with computers since 1981, and I build my first webpage in 1994. When I decided to move back to Philly for a bit in 1995 and create a neighborhood website for Fairmount, my friend Paul Neal decided to build one for Long Beach Island, NJ. I’ve been working with him on LBI.net ever since.
• Yesindeedy
  I always wanted to work for myself and own my own business. I seem more suited to that than working for someone else. I tried many businesses through the years, but in 1998, I officially began a web-based company called R-JEM Enterprises (a name I had thought of years before). Later, I decided no one would recognize or remember that name, so I changed it to Yesindeedy Software, and then simply, Yesindeedy. This reflects my hope of a happy future and positive outlook on life. While I still continue to work on the Internet, I’m hoping that Yesindeedy expands into Real Estate and Show Business in the future.

Myrtle Street looking West

(Originally published on December 21, 2007)

One of the most important landmarks in anyone”s life is the street where they grew up. I spent almost 30 years of my life on Myrtle Street. I”ve lived next to relatives and beside neighbors who were almost like family.

I remember as a very young child playing in the street with my brother and sister and other children who lived on the street. That was before you had to worry about traffic. In those days, a car seldom came down the street during the work day.

It was safe on Myrtle Street. Back in the sixties and seventies, neighbors looked out for you. If you were doing something you weren”t suppose to be doing, they would tell you, and probably tell your parents. If you needed help, they were there. As children, we must have made a lot of noise on the street, but I never heard a complaint (well, maybe one or two from “The Queen”).

My uncle and father would actually close off the street with police barriers, park a tractor-trailer on 22nd street and use it as a movie screen. We had street parties! This tradition lasted into the seventies. If anyone is interested, I have a picture of Stu dressed as Al Jolsen.

Of course, what makes a place special is the people. I won”t mention some of the families that still live on the street for privacy sake, but I remember some of those who have gone: The Kirers(sp), Mrs. Elliot, The Dyers, The Hoffners, The Brennens (22nd Street at the corner), Aunt Liz”s Family(opposite the Brennens), The Fosters (across 22nd Street), Laurel and others. And there were the passers-by: the Water Ice Man and the Broom Guy.

Neighbors on a small street like Myrtle St. were like family. They saw you at your best and your worse. Family arguments could be heard and even sometimes spilled out onto the street. But like family, it was kept on the street and if not forgiven, at least not mentioned.

While I don”t think I would like to live in a row house again, I can say that my memories and impressions of living on Myrtle Street are mostly good. The people who lived on the street are a part of my past, and I look back on that past fondly.