Mr. Virgo was from South Philly. We never got the chance to go there together so he could show me his old stomping ground, but he had plenty of great stories about the places of his youth. He was raised in an era when kids were out on the streets from sun up to sun down and all the moms looked out for all the kids. There was always a mom within butt-swatting range. I wasn’t allowed to go across Grand Central Avenue…a two lane boulevard with a wide, tree-lined median that my mother somehow likened to a major super highway. Mr. Virgo’s mom handed him train fare and sent him into New York City by himself for doctor’s appointments when he was 12! Big difference in parenting there.
Mr. Virgo and his buddies would hop on the trolley and go downtown to the department stores and movie theaters. They would walk the streets and listen to the doowop groups singing on the street corners, hoping to be discovered. When they were teenagers, they got in to American Bandstand and even got a chance to dance on camera. He once was asked by Dick Clark to rate the song. I think he gave it a 10 because it had a great beat and was easy to dance to.
He started smoking at ten when his mom would send him down to the corner store for cigarettes. There were Mafiosi-types in the neighborhood that would make sure bags were carried for little old ladies and that children had shoes. They kept the neighborhoods safe, reputation notwithstanding. Mr. Virgo was never, ever scared as a child. His parents were together forever and his was an idyllic childhood. I was envious of growing up with that kind of security and it made him the strong, steady, independent man I needed in my life.
One of his first jobs was at Pat’s Steakhouse in South Philly. Mr. Virgo was a cheesesteak purist. It wasn’t a real cheesesteak unless it was served on an Amoroso roll with Cheese Whiz (Whiz for short). When we lived in the Denver area for a couple of years, we found South Philly Cheesesteaks, a neighborhood restaurant that delivered the closest thing to a Pat’s cheesesteak that Mr. Virgo had ever found west of the Pennsylvania state line. We ordered them just about every Thursday night. OMGosh! They are SO awesome!
Last night, I was out browsing for some last minute gifts and drove past our old neighborhood. It was dinner time so I decided to stop in and have a cheesesteak and visit with some memories for awhile. I can still see his face every time he took that first bite. He’d close his eyes, smile slightly, and breathe a sigh of absolute contentment. I would move heaven and earth to get to see that joy on his face. I sat in the restaurant, enjoyed my sandwich, and smiled remembering that it really wasn’t all that long ago that this was a shared experience. I felt him in the booth sitting across from me, that same contented sigh breathing through my heart. I can do this now with only the slightest catch in my chest. This is a huge, huge relief to me.
❤️
“I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land.”
Psalm 143:5-6 NIV