The Philadelphia Italian Market and Live Chickens

Some of my earliest memories are from my parents taking me and my sister to the 9th street Italian Market. There were and still are outdoor and walk-in shops in the South Philly Market. Although there are Italian shops, there are now Asian, Mexican and African shops.  Historically South Philly has been a attractive area for newly arrived immigrants. I knew there were also ethnic and racial tensions but since this is about my childhood,  I never experienced them.

In the summers the smells and sounds were both satiable and pungent. I used the slosh around in the the sawdust and hay that the butcher shops had on their floors before I even know what the purpose  was. I am still not sure, I think it was to to soak up the blood from the butchered meats. My vegan daughter is wincing by now.  We would walk among the fruit,vegetable and fish stands in the Market.

My father would choose the meats at the butcher shops and then disappear to the local bar for a few drinks. Back in the late 60s and early 70s, before the plastic bag revolution people used to bring their own bags. You had to. You can't carry 30 lbs of meat in a brown paper bag for a long time. There would also be bag sellers outdoors selling heavy duty bags with handles.

Walking past the outdoor stands among the bustle of people buying vegetables, fish and fruit. There was this old fruit and vegetable seller that would bark "How many?", in a raspy old cigar voice that sounded more like he was saying "hominy". It took almost all of my childhood to figure out what he was saying.

In the winter it seemed just as busy.  You can always near one of the fires from open drums with pieces of  pallets that were lit. To me it was like a campfire. Workers and customers would warm their hands by the fire and the smoke would rise off into the sky. The City tried to get them to stop for polluting the air, but the businesses fought it saying that it took away from the open markets atmosphere and tradition and asked for  a special exemption.

File Photo: Italian Market 1950s

Later after my dad joined us he would sometimes take me down to the live poultry place. They had live chickens, pigeons and sometimes rabbits . My father would pick a chicken and the creature's fate would then be sealed. The Poultry man with his white butcher coat and black rubber boots would grab the doomed, squawking flapping chicken out of the coop and take it to the back where I would hear the squawking stop instantly. I was curious as to what was happening with the chicken so my father told me that they place the chicken headfirst in to a funnel and chop off its head. My vegan daughter is probably shrieking at this point.  Then they dip it in hot water to loosen the feathers and place it on a rolling drum that resembled a music box cylinder that would pluck the feathers . The butcher would then clean out the intestines and give you your chicken in plastic.

The chicken was still warm when my father would hand me the bag. Children today don't know that the chicken they eat was alive at one point. Because of my visits to the poultry place I knew that, even when my mother would take me grocery shopping and ask me to grab one of the cold chickens from the refrigerated poultry section of the A&P or Pennfruit supermarkets. The Live Chicken place was usually the last stop because my father wanted to get home as quickly to cook the chicken.

Since the chicken was fresh . He wanted to make sure that we cooked it right away. He would make the best Arroz con Pollo ( Puerto Rican Rice and Chicken). He would use the the back, wings and chicken feet to make the best broth that I have ever tasted. You can make both rice and broth with supermarket chicken but it wouldn't be the same.

http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/italian-market

Our absolute last stop would be George's Sanwich shop , recently featured on Andrew Zimmerman's Bizarre foods for their tripe sandwiches . There was never air conditioning in the summer and very little heat n the winter from all the patrons opening the door. There never seemed to be enough stools to sit together. There would always be some stranger in between. Sometimes customers would  move to let us sit together. Other times I would be sitting alone while my parents and sister stood. It was great to be the baby of the family. We would all get the same thing, their Italian roast pork sandwich on a crusty Italian roll that soaks up all the juices.  They still serve it on the counter and the only barrier keeping the juices in place would be the sheet of wax paper between your sandwich.

Georges Sandwich shop never moved and is still there. Very few things have changed. The old Coca-Cola  ice cooler with the bottle opener is gone along with the glass coke bottles that I miss. But the sandwiches and the family are still there.  It is still a must, when I visit the Maket.

The Best times were when my uncles and Grandmother came to visit from New York. My Grandmother bring us pastries from her favorite bakery and gifts for me and my sister. Always pajamas for me. She was obsessed with pajamas. Yea, they would always have footies. I would barely understand her since my Spanish was limited. I would try to look surprised with the pajamas even though what I really wanted was some kind of toy. She would make the trip to Philly to visit us and to to buy meats at the market to take back home. My father and his brothers would cook and play musical instruments. Sometimes there weren't enough instruments, so we would make some out of kitchen supplies. A standing grater became a Guiro ( the puerto rican scraping instrument usually made from a dried gourd). Pots would be drums, wooden spoons sticks and an old coffee can with dried beans became a maraca.

Jack Delano Photo(not my family, maracas  boy would have been me)

The house would be full of cigarette smoke, beer and food fortunately for the cigarette smoke I was close to the ground. They would sing and joke and eat in Spanish. The ash trays would fill up until they faded one by one to sleep. I only assumed this because I would wake up in my new pajamas  adjusting the footies that would slide from my heal and see fewer uncles around the living room on the plastic couches.

Today there are fewer uncles and my grandmother is long gone. When I  visit the remaining uncles and my parents we still bring up the old times.