Christmas in Philadelphia, 1966

Philadelphia had a big Christmas Eve snowfall in 1966 and I was unfortunate enough to be there.

I entered grad school at Penn in the fall of 1966.  That was before airline deregulation, so air fares were somewhat expensive.  I was on what they called a teaching fellowship, with tuition paid and a salary sufficient for basic needs, but not for extras such as flying home to Seattle for Christmas break.  Moreover, I hadn't put down roots in Philly and no one knew me well enough yet to think about inviting me for the holidays.

So on Christmas Eve day I took the streetcar to nearby downtown Philadelphia and poked around to help fill the day.  Went window shopping on Walnut Street, gazed across Rittenhouse Square, visited Wanamaker's department store near City Hall.  City Hall had a huge statue of "Billy" Penn atop it, and Wanamaker's had a large eagle statue inside.  During these wanderings, it started to snow -- lightly at first, then building up.  Sensing that matters were getting worse, I retreated to my little apartment on the top floor of a converted row house on Pine Street, between 39th and 40th.

Next morning was Christmas.  The snow had stopped, and there was about a foot of snow all over everything including the streets.  Besides being Christmas Day, it also was a Sunday so almost nothing was being done to clear streets and sidewalks.  I opened the few presents my parents had sent me and decided that I really wanted a copy of the Sunday New York Times.

The only place that might have newspapers was the 30th Street railroad station, about a mile away.  I trudged through the deep snow and silent streets because the streetcars weren't running and eventually got there.  Sure enough, there was a news stand with copies of the Times sent down by train.  Getting home was easier because I discovered that the Market Street subway line was working, so I rode a train to 40th Street, about half a mile from my place.  Spent the afternoon reading the paper and looking ahead to Monday when the city would begin to come alive again.