Norris  And Diamond Streets

   I grew up in the Norris and Diamond Street Community of North Philadelphia in the mid forties. It was  racially mixed in the early stages of white flight. It was and era of black migration.
Blacks were leaving the South and coming to the North. I lived at 1735 Fontain Street  between Norris and Diamond between 17th and 18th streets. The white people on our block smiled and acted very friendly but gradually disappeared. There was a movie theater at 20th  and Norris called the New Jewel. That's where I went to see Tarzan, Mighty Mouse, Roy Rogers,
Gene Autry, Lash Larue, and the Cisco Kid. Blacks had not yet entered the main stream of cinema other than buffoons, slaves and servants. Our heroes were real life Champions;
   Joe Louis,  Sugar Ray Robinson, Ella Fitzgerald and many others.
 Norris St. had a reputation for violence and trouble. The poorest of the poor resided in that area.
Times were hard and many people struggled to survive. I was very young and did not know about the street life, drugs and gangsters. I didn't even know that I was poor. I thought I was normal and that was the way things were suppose to be. The School I attended was within walking distance several blocks away. Our desk was attached to the seat as a 1 peace unit and contained an ink well.
  Penmanship was very important. We had to learn to form lower and upper case letters in both printing and writing.
     Franklyn D. Roosevelt was nearing the end of his term as president as the Germans were finally defeated and Adolph Hitler was deposed and committed suicide. This was 1945. Harry S. Truman
followed Roosevelt in the same year.
    During the week there would be a procession of street venders, some with horse drawn wagons.
The Iceman, watermelon man, milk man, fruit and vegitable man and of course the ice cream man with bicycle cart. On foot you had the Insurance man, the numbers man, Vacuum Cleaner man, other salesman and the mail man. The milk man left milk on your doorsteps. They were glass bottles with a head of cream at the top.
  living in a predominately black area with a few whites, I was not exposed to the harsh racism of the times. I had no knowledge of racism at such a young age of 7 or 8. There was no television no black radio stations that my parents listened to. My world was confined to school and my immediate neighborhood.
    There was a church around the corner at diamond street and page? One summer while playing with my friends these white quaker men came out to round up the kids. The chased me caught up and took me by the hand and led me into the church. I was afraid but somehow they assured me and a few of my friends that they would not harm us. They gave us cookies and milk and told us about Jesus.  We played games and sang songs in a classroom like atmosphere. They invited us to come back which we did. It was there version of vacation bible school. That church remained years after I was grown.
 The neighborhood turned completely black but that little church was still there. On the side of the building hung a sign that said ..COME TO JESUS.
     Today Temple University has spread it residential community to my old neighborhood. Students now walk the streets of my Black History.