Becomming a Nerd, Ms Bertha, Geramantown Ave, Slices of Pizza, and Charlotte's Web

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I am a Youth Worker that have made a career working with Young people. I ran supporting programs for children and teens in schools and currently run after school enrichment for High School Students. I often struggle with delivering the outcomes of the programs and my desire for youth to learn the experience of discovery that I did as a child.

The Time was the early 70s. There were no real after school programs. There was the PAL centers for athletes and the Boys Clubs for the more needy kids. Me, I used to go to the Nicetown Library after school after obtaining my Library card. Once I learned I could take books out for free. I thought it was great .

I was a skimmer with books. I would never read them through. I used to skim the encyclopedia, that we had, that must have cost my parents a fortune, reading for hours but never read a full article.

Ms Bertha was the little grey haired sweet low voiced authoritative African American librarian, She was small, and moved in small purposeful gestures. She was most geisha like in her movement. Just reaching for a pencil seemed like a ballet. She could get us to quiet down without screaming of talking down to us. Only with a smile that seem both serious and sincere. A much different approach than the nuns at the elementary school.

Amongst the posters of the Apollo Astronauts, John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. she asked gently about my interest. She would recommend books. I would read through the 5 Chinese Brothers, Paul Bunyon and Dr Seusse.
She asked me to do the Read-athon where you had to read a number of books get rewards.

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I used to never read the books. I would just skim over them, answer a couple of questions and get stars towards my reading goal. I really though I was getting over. Ms Bertha continued giving me stars. She then recommended a book that I was interested in. I loved animals and had all kinds of pets at home like gerbils, frogs, dogs cats and white mice.

 Lesson : never have a cat and mice in the same house at the same time. 

After a while my conscience started to bother me. She handed me Charlotte's Web and I read the first page. I just kept reading page after page. I identified with "Fern" in the story because I was always trying to save animals.
The book showed me that I could read a chapter book cover to cover. I still struggled through books still skimming first. I did get the courage to read them after all.

The children's Libray sometimes had events arranged by Ms Bertha. Sometimes she would show a film, I mean with a film projector. I saw movies like the original King Kong and Bugs Bunny. This was a time before VCRs and DVDs. After spending time at the library and before going home I would go to Germantown Ave for some Pizza. 

Pizza Quality has really suffered more than any other food. A lot of entrepreneurs think they can turn the combination of simple cheap ingredients: flour, sauce and cheese into a cash cow. They are right! Pizza chops are all over and do great business. There are only a few that do it well.
I would sometimes head out to the King of Pizza parlor on Germantown ave .

This is where I came to love Pizza. It's owned by two brothers that have been and are still there to this day. They are known as one of the treasure spots in that area, They outlived Moma Rosa's Souls food restaurant , Medow Lanes Rotisserie chicken( currently not the original owners ) , Head off and Split fish shop, Vincent's barber shop where my dad and I  used to go and most of the shops on the Ave.

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King of Pizza's approach is simple. Just 3 varieties of pizza, plain, peperoni and beef sausage and fountain drinks. They never made Cheesesteakes(Philadelphia Cheesesteaks for you outsiders, we just call them Cheesesteaks),  or other sandwiches or delivered and closed when the avenue closed.
The exception was that their three simple choices was done better than anyone else could.
I cant help wondering how many of their children they put through college with this simple approach.
They are still there today

I didn't know what a nerd was until I watched Happy Days. I wanted to be the Fonz. I was always more like Richie , shy, smart, awkward and hesitant to take risks . I was a nerd! So I became a Jr. library aid.