Saint Stephen's Alumni

Submitted by
Name: Howard McFarland

Comments:
Mike----I only knew him to see and through old records but he must have been a great guy to do all that for the kids. I saw him as a very old man only. Mostly, I remember some the Mohawks players you had helped me with on this site, You and the Duke kid mostly along with the 2nd. baseman too. Yes, he did a lot for the kids of St. Stephen's for a very long time. I forgot to mention that the Orioles supplied bats and bases for the NP Cardinals thus their status as semi pro according to records.

Added: February 2, 2012

Submitted by
Name: mike gospodarek
From: 13th & allegheny
E-mail: smokeygo1946@gmial.com

Comments:
Howard I remmember Frank Whitaker well. Lived on camac st right below pike.When you made the team you had to go to his house to get your uniform.Which he payed for.Do you remember a guy name Jimmy Pitts form nicetown. Hung arond with a guy John Majewski aka houck.

Added: February 2, 2012

Submitted by
Name: Howard McFarland
From: Upper Nicetown then

Comments:
Back in the day, The Mohawks had been a staple of St. Stephen's far earlier than the 1960 group. They go back to at least 1934. A man named Frank Whitaker started them when he was a young man and continued to fund them through the very early 60's. The Apaches Boys Club then inherited many of the Mohawks as well as some kids from Pompeii, St. Veronica's and even Holy Child Parish. I was living up there then and we would walk to Hunting Park. Also, The North Phila. Cardinals were a semi pro team also with former Mohawk Players and later became part of the Pen Del League. Those real fast Mohawk Kids played for them for at least a year. St. Stephen's CYO also fielded a football team during WW 2 for a couple years according to records. The Butler Bears were an amalgamation of kids from all those parishes too. They were started by a younger friend of Mr. Whitaker named Bucky Amadeii.

Added: January 31, 2012

Submitted by
Name: Jim Iaquinto
From: Tioga/New York
E-mail: jiaquinto@frontiernet.net

Comments:
An interesting aside about Charlies' Pizza, the founder was a gentlemen by the name of Charles Yacovetti whose son was Benny and his grandsons were Kenny and Chuckie. Further, his daughter married Bill Rigger who I remember clearly as his campaign for State Senator road on his major plank was he was opposed to the VIETNAM WAR and he would bring the boys home. This was as a State Senator from Pennsylvania. Sometimes you think the present breed are bad and then I think of Rigger. Maybe you guys remember these folks. I did but I always had a strong connection with POMPEI. Charlie's Pizza a fulcrum of politics for the 60"s

Added: January 31, 2012

Submitted by
Name: mike gospodarek
From: 13th & allegheny
E-mail: smokeygo1946@gmial.com

Comments:
Yes joan I just finished reading the book myself. It bought back a lot of memories.If you get a chance e-mail Bill and tell what you tought. He will get right back to you. Looking to his next two books.

Added: January 31, 2012

Submitted by
Name: Joan Wendell Pawlish- Class of 1956
From: 13th Street then, Ocean, NJ now
E-mail: mike.joanpawlish@yahoo.com

Comments:
Hi Everyone,
Just finished reading Bill McCaffrey's book, "It's A Long Lane That Never Turns" and I highly recommend it. There were so many funny stories about growing up in the 1940's and 1950's. My favorite story was how Bill explained to Sister Helen Catherine, about why he and a friend were two hours late coming back to school after serving mass at Little Flower - and the guilty conscience that followed. I also loved his story about playing his first football game on grass at Hunting Park (as opposed to vacant lots with pebbles and glass). It was a wonderful mental walk back in time. Thanks Bill for sharing these precious memories. Your parents would be very proud!

Added: January 30, 2012

Submitted by
Name: Vincent Karustis
From: Nictown, now Perkiomenville
E-mail: vpk999@verizon.net

Comments:
John Beacham:I remember Charlies. My first girlfriend Jane Kelly introduced me to Charlies and we spent many an enjoyable Friday or Saturday evening at Charlies.You say that you haven't found a good Pizza pie out this way. There is a Charlies Pizza, not the same Charlies as Rising Sun Avenue located in the DeKalb Shopping Cener on Germantown Pike. I remember Charlies Pizza was scrumptious and this Charlies ranks right up there with the one on Rising Sun Avenue.

Added: January 30, 2012

Submitted by
Name: Frank Reis
From: warnock st. then / montgomeryville pa. now
E-mail: FCR221@AOL.COM

Comments:
OMG,Charlies pizza.Havenet heard that name for a long time.brings back memories,I lived on Warnock St at Rising Sun Ave.what a great neighborhood many memories.PS the pizza was always great,even as a youngster.most of the people on this site lived in nicetown.only remember jimmy flood & bill streeper, FFROM MY BLOCK. ANY OTHERS OUT THERE? :!cool:

Added: January 29, 2012

Submitted by
Name: Edward Gavin, Class of '55
From: Nicetown then, S. Phila. now
E-mail: edgavin42@verizon.net

Comments:
I'm not sure when our dad first brought home a tomato pie; it must have been the early fifties. We didn't know Charlie's existed, mainly because it was pretty far from Nice Street: Rising Sun Avenue. Wow! What a genuinely classy name for a street. More to the point, I had never heard of such a thing: tomato pie. I knew about apple pie, blueberry pie, but tomatoes in a pie? Hmm. Dad came up the steps to our third-floor kitchen and placed this flat package wrapped in what seemed to be The Evening Bulletin kind of paper without the printing on it. Several turns of string were wapped around the package and a piece of cardboard served as a carrying tray. Oil stains here and there on the paper and a strong odor convinced me that whatever it was, it was one of those Dad edibles, which none of us would like. (He enjoyed offending us with limburger cheese from time to time.) The string was cut, and the paper carefully removed. Behold a circular red flattened item with about a half-dozen toothpicks stuck vertically in the tomatoe-y stuff. ("So's the paper don't stick to the tomato sauce and cheese," Dad explains.) What? Melted cheese? Are you crazy? We always made vomit sounds when we heard some announcer on Kraft Televsion Theater talk about yet another melted cheese recipe on the commercial break. I made up my mind that tomato pie would be on my list of inedibles, just like eggs. I went through the traditional how-do-you-know-you-don't-like-it-if-you-don't-try-it routine from our dad and mom, but remained unmoved. Now, exactly how things went from that moment, when the rest of the family dug in and began eating, I don't recall, but my next recollection of a tomato pie evening is of me eating the leftover crusts of the slices. My adult view of this is that I probably saw that everyone seemed to enjoy eating the stuff, and they were all in good spirits while doing so. So I became the family crust-consumer.
Within a year, I actually went in the car with Dad and my brothers to Charlie's, and I loved going in there. It seems now that it was during the winter months, because the warmth of the ovens felt homey. I may be wrong, but I think most of the interior of the shop was painted white; the employees wore restaurant white clothes and they seemed to be of one family. I really grew to like the smell of the place, too. I'm not sure when I started trying pizza; probably it was during the summer in Wildwood. Down the shore was where I first heard it called "peetzah." I found that it tasted good and realized later that it was the look of the stuff that kept me from trying it. Kids!

Added: January 27, 2012

Submitted by
Name: Ken McCauley
From: Marvine & Venango then Doylestown Now
E-mail: raven6_bpc@verizon.Net

Comments:
It was a double road trip for me Mike. I lived right on the border of St Stephen's parish and Pompeii.
Charlie's was only about two blocks south of our house on Marvine. I usually would walk over to 13th & Butler to meet up with the group and then walk back to Charlie's. Then walk back to 13th & Butler afterwards and then back home around 11 or 12.

Added: January 27, 2012

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