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Who was
Recently, a few of my friends
attended an informal party in my home. We were all, except one,
about the same age fifty-something. We had lived in the same
neighborhood and had the same general experiences while growing
up in South Philadelphia.
Someone, with a faint smile
on their face, asked if anyone remembered the Waffle Man. They
had a memory flashback, caused by something said or done. Almost
instantly, we all sighed. Of course we remembered! Although we
had not thought of him in quite a while, we all had fond
memories of this unforgettable character. We were then all
wearing that same curious smile brought on by this memory
flashback.
One of my friend's sons, who
is twenty-something, was the exception. He said he had never
heard of the Waffle Man. To satisfy his curiosity we related
this explanation to him:
The Waffle-man was a
pleasant, elderly, white haired man who regularly visited
neighborhoods in South Philadelphia. To announce his arrival, he
would clank loudly on a bell attached to his yellow push-cart,
as he chanted . . . Waaaffles. Waaaffles.
Freessh baked waaaffles. On his push-cart he had a gas-fired
waffle iron, on which he cooked square Belgium waffles, six at a
time. He used a homemade batter. When the waffles were cooked,
he removed them from the griddle. From an ice box, also on his
cart, he took an inch thick square of ice cream. It was
three-flavored, vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. He sandwiched
this slice of ice cream between two of the still-warm waffles.
The whole thing was then liberally sprinkled with white powdered
confectionery sugar. This cost the princely sum of ten cents.
They were simply delicious.
This started a flood of other
memory flashbacks that I have attempted to catalog. This list is
not complete, to be sure. There are probably inaccuracies in it,
but remember . . . the second thing to go is the mind. What's
the first thing to go? Gee, I forget. |
of
South Philly
