TRIP ENDS IN PHILADELPHIA

We came back to Philadelphia on an especially auspicious weekend.

It was graduation day for the University of Pennsylvania and other schools. Hundreds of teams of scullers from all over the country were vying in the Mother's Day Race on the Schuylkill River and The Barnes Institute of Art formally opened on the Parkway.

We stayed near Rittenhouse Square, a small Park surrounded by old brownstones, apartment houses, shops and of course, restaurants with sidewalk cafes. We walked there to find a restaurant but it was virtually impossible to get through the crowds.

We opted instead for Effie's, a small Greek restaurant where I often met with fellow writers. We passed Kimmel Center, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where people were watching the concert broadcast on a large outdoor screen.

I was born and raised in and around Philadelphia. The reason for the week long trip was that Ed was curious about the places and people he had heard about and it was an opportunity for me to catch up with so much that is a part of me.

Broad Street is the City's spine off of which run a multitude of ethnic and tony neighborhoods. It runs from the Naval Base in the South to Cheltenham Avenue in the North. Market Street runs East from the Delaware River to the Schuylkill River and West. The streets intersect at City Hall.

Ed and I went North on Broad. We traveled past Temple University. As we did, I wondered if the students I taught there still remember my charge to them, ask hard questions, and use P.A.M.?

The Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue an imposing building where my sister and I first attended Hebrew School is still standing but is now home to a Vietnamese Congregation. Across the street was the "Hinky Tire Company," my father's first business. We had lived in the aparment above. It is uninhabitable.

A long row of Brownstones, boarding and flop houses were on the rest of the block. All have been demolished. On the corner of this same block was an elegant florist, Grakelow 's which catered to the carriage trade. Up the street, only a historic marker shows the site of the Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium, home to both the Phils and the "A's" baseball teams.

As we explored the neighborhood I spotted my first public school,the Staton. Children were playing in the schoolyard. We traveled past the house where I was given a doll by a neighbor. The doll is still sitting intact in my curio.

Good friends and family came out to join us for coffee one morning. We sampled Philly's cheese steaks near the Italian Market and drove past the house where my father was born and raised and went to school. We were hosted by a close friend for dinner on the Main Line and stopped in Swarthmore to visit more family.

The day before we left, more family came in from New Jersey, New York and the suburbs for brunch. We all bemoaned the distance that keep our visits infrequent.

Before we headed for PIA a guard at the Philadelphia Art Museum in the Raymond G. Perelman Building told us that children who saw the 1969 Olivette portable typewriter display wanted to know how it worked.

It was a wonderful trip. Ed took me to the Airport, then went on to D.C. I came home happily exhausted after seeing so many people and places unique and important to me. Andrew met me at the Airport.

ON THE WAY TO CAPE MAY

We left Absecon Island for the Somers Point Dinner. Old juke-boxes are still on tables where Ed and his brother had earned "Clean Plate Badges." The bridge leading to the Dinner, once known as the rickety-rackety bridge has been replaced by one high enough for the QB II to sail under, by my estimation.

We traveled along coastal roads passing through one seashore town after another. In Ocean City, I pointed out the home of the late Jean Fuschillo who I worked with along with Ruth Fisher and others to create awareness of the worth of wetlands and the natural environment.

Jean's home faces the Ocean behind the dunes. Ed and I walked out on the beach in something of a tribute to her memory and to Ruth Fisher, too ill to see us on this visit.

We passed the little known Carson's Inlet with its almost pristine hidden beach and the towns of Strathford, Sea Ilse City, Avalon and Wildwood, all similar but each with its own special identity. McMansions in Avalon seemed out of place even with with the City's well-tended bird sanctuary for egrets.

As we traveled, we were entertained by a profusion of birds as they left their nests in the brush. Red winged blackbirds came zipping across the road.

When we came into Cape May, we were pleased to find our accommodations had a backyard with eight purple martin apartment houses. The martins were constantly busy building their nests and chirping loudly to let us know this was their territory.

Cape May Point is the very Southern tip of New Jersey. It's State Park was established because of the efforts of local citizens. The Light House, built in 1859, is still used by The Coast Guard as a navigational beacon.

The hull of a concrete Merchant Ship which sank is visible from the beach. A concrete Bunker built in the event of an enemy invasion during World War II was equipped with living quarters and long range howitzer guns. The Bunker once stood off shore in the Ocean, today it is beached.

While we were there a group of Amish teenagers set up a volley ball net on the beach and played in teams of mixed gender. In addition, they brought thermal food containers and large beach blankets. All of them reminded me of simpler times and summer-time excursions to the Ocean.

Before we left for Philadelphia, we had breakfast in Congressional Hall a restored hotel built in the 1800s. From 1968 to 1995, Congress Hall was operated by the Cape May Bible Conference under the infamous Reverend Carl McIntire. Our server was a Russian exchange student working for the third summer at the hotel. Other guests in the dining room represented different nationalities and ethnic groups. I had the feeling McIntire must be turning over in his grave.

From there we headed for the Atlantic City Expressway and Philadelphia.

ATLANTIC CITY & WETLANDS

My son Edward lives in Washington, D.C. He invited me to join him in Philadelphia where we once lived. My other son Andrew who lives in St. Louis encouraged me to take up the invitation.

I flew into Philadelphia International Airport on Mothers Day. As the plane approached PIA, I looked for the statue of William Penn which had once been the City's tallest building. It is now hidden by taller buildings and the Comcast Tower. It seemed ironic that Penn, the patient, quiet Quaker who planned this City could no longer be seen from the air.

Ed met me and we drove to the Shore. In Atlantic city, the Casino/gambling glitz has faded. Revel, the newest Casino was sleek, modern and cavern-like amidst a neighborhood trying hard to resurrect itself. Even the shabbiness of the City could not lessen my sense of excitement about seeing, and smelling the Atlantic Ocean.

Some of the old hotels like the Shellbourne, the Claridge and the Haddon Hall are still standing though "cassinofied." We ate in new ethnic restaurants and in others that we remembered from years ago. As we walked the Boardwalk, we hunted out the few amusement arcades the children loved.

In Ventnor, my parents year-round home which was also home to my children and me, still remains. The Morris Hardware Company, owned by my parents, where children received free balls and mailed letters to Santa, has been replaced by a 7-11 store. My children's public school has been replaced by single family homes. The Custard Stand we walked to on summer evenings over the Bridge to Ventnor Heights still stands with a big sign on the door, "See You on Memorial Day!"

Magnificent dunes, running along Absecon Island beaches now serve as protection for property, wetlands, and the Inter coastal waterway against coastal storms. In Longport we stopped at the rocks where Bay and Ocean waters meet. As ocean spray wet our faces, we were able to see at the same time, Atlantic City on our left and Ocean City on our right.

At the other end of the Island, the Atlantic City Light House, once standing in the Ocean, now stands several blocks inland serving as testament to the power of tides, storms and the unpredictability of nature, even as existing beaches shrink and the water comes up higher toward the Street.

Before we left Atlantic City, we drove out to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. It is there we were able to see the beauty and ecological activity of the vast expanse of wetlands. We were able to see this part of New Jersey's coastline against the horizon as it was before being over run by development.