Franz Ostertag
East Falls Historical Society Oral History Interview
Interviewee: Franz Ostertag (FO)
Interviewers: Wendy Moody (WM) and Marie Filipponi (MP)
Interview: Jan. 12, 2024
Transcribed by: Wendy Moody, EFHS
WM: Good morning. It’s January 12th, 2024, and we’re in the home of Wendy Moody, where Wendy and Marie Filipponi are interviewing Franz Ostertag for an oral history. Franz, thanks for coming.
FO: You’re welcome.
We’re interested in your life in East Falls, and we wonder if you could start by just telling us when and where you were born.
FO: My birthday was January 31, 1944. I was born in Temple University Hospital because we used to live right off Broad Street (note: 6461 Old York Road) around 65th and Broad Street, but we moved here when I was four in 1948.
WM: What made your family move to East Falls?
FO: We were growing. The house where we were living was small – it was only two-story, so we moved in 1948 into East Falls, which was a three-story house. And the price was right; I think my father and mother paid $6000 for that house. We bought it from Lou Caruso, the grocer. In fact, the story is that it actually was an inn at one time, a long time back. But it needed a lot of work. I remember that when we first moved in, there was a pot belly stove in the corner of the kitchen.
WM: Really! What’s the address of this house?
FO: 3682 Calumet Street. The kitchen actually was an addition put on, and we had a backyard, a fairly big backyard, for a row house.
WM: What made you think it was an inn?
FO: That’s what somebody told me. But the stairs were actually turned. Originally, when you came in, you could see the indication on the ceiling that the stairs came straight in, went across and up. But since then, there was a whole room; there was our living room, and then you would walk across it and up the steps near the wall. (the steps were moved from near the front door to the end of the living room)
WM: Is your house attached to the two next to it?
FO: Yes, it is attached. Most of the other houses on the block have alleys, but we never did. But the first thing I remember about the street was that it was cobblestones. That was a mess. Well, I remember one time there was a truck coming down, and when it snowed….
WM: Wait, it was two-way? The truck was going down?
FO: It was two-way.
WM: Do you know what year it became one way?
FO: I don’t know that. I always remembered it was two-way.
WM: Gosh, it’s hard to imagine.
FO: There were not many cars on our street. Anyway, there was a truck coming down the street and he twisted around sideways – that’s how he was going down the street – sideways.
WM: Because it was slippery?
FO: The cobblestones were very slippery. A lot of people couldn’t get up the street. We used to get all kinds of people who would come and deliver stuff – milk, bread. And a grocer came around. They all had horses and horse-drawn carriages. There were some other things that they had delivered; I can’t remember what they were.
MF: Well, cars couldn’t park in the street, I would think.
FO: Yes. Nobody had a car then, or very few, maybe like one or two people on the whole street.
MF: Well, where did they park if they had one, I wonder?
FO: They would park it on the street, but when it snowed you, you found someplace else to park. You couldn’t get up and down.
MF: I was going to say, if it’s two ways and it’s the width that it is now…
FO: Yeah.
WM: Did your parents have any special connection to East Falls when they moved here? Where were they from?
FO: Well, my grandparents from my father’s side, one came from Stuttgart and the other one came from Berlin. And my mother’s side – I don’t know much about my mother’s side. I know they used to live up above the city in a big house.
MF: What was your mom’s maiden name?
FO: Mullen.
MF: Was she Irish?
FO: Definitely, yeah. Around Saint Patrick Day, I always said my name was O’Ostertag!
(laughter)
WM: So tell us about some of your early memories on Calumet Street.
FO: Well, there were so many kids on the street that we were always playing – all kinds of things. We made up all kinds of games – wall ball, wire ball, stickball. The only problem with stickball was we used to play it with a pimple ball, and we’d sometimes break the windows across the street – that’s where we were hitting. So we ended up doing half ball, which didn’t break windows.
WM: And most of this was right on the street?
FO: Oh yeah, right on the street.
WM: Was there a playground or a lot around you?
FO: Not really. I mean, we’d have to walk to McDevitt to play ball. Well, actually, it was called Dobson Field at that time. But I mean, we were up there constantly at McDevitt’s. But, you know, it just was too far to walk. All the kids were right there on Calumet, so we just played. I remember one time we were playing stickball, and I was up at bat. And I swung at the ball and missed it, and the bat came out of my hand, and went right through a neighbor’s storm window. Big window. I always laugh at that but the owner didn’t laugh at all, and charged me $15 to have it replaced, but then we later found later that he had insurance, and they paid for it too.
WM: The kids seem to be so ingenious, just making up games and playing on the street.
FO: It was mostly the boys; the girls didn’t come out to play that much. We also played a game where you played with different blocks. We couldn’t play marbles because the marbles were running down the street, so we came up with bottle caps filled with wax, and we’d shoot them.
MF: And you filled them yourself?
FO: Oh yeah, we filled them ourselves.
MF: Well, what did your sister Mary and her friends do all day?
FO: She had a friend across the street – Irene Wachuski, and they hung out together, either at their house or our house.
MF: But they weren’t into the game thing.
FO: No.
WM: So speaking of that, tell us your siblings in order.
FO: OK. Guy is the oldest; he was born in 1940. Then my sister Mary was born in 1942. And then I was born in ’44, and then my younger brother, Fred, was born in 1945.
WM: So you shared a bedroom with both brothers?
FO: Well, at one time, we each had our own room, but then my aunt – her house burned down – moved in with us and she took over the third floor. So we had the back room. The back bedroom was 2 rooms, actually, and the three of us slept in one bed. It was not a twin – I guess a double.
MF: On the second floor.
FO: No, on the third floor.
WM: How old were you then? I mean, did this go on for years?
FO: Oh, no, maybe they stayed there for about a year or two until she found someplace else. Then she moved over to Kensington – it’s like the Badlands now. But, you know, it was rough because we had one bathroom for all these people, but we managed.
WM: What did your dad do?
FO: My dad was a pipe fitter. He actually did a lot of the construction of pipes in City Hall, and he was steamfitter too. He used to carry these big pipes on his shoulder. He was a pretty big man.
WM: Who was his employer?
FO: I’m not sure. I can’t remember the name of the employer, but once a year he would go out to Youngstown, Ohio to do some work and when he came back, he always had some money in his pocket, so we always got steak. It was the only time we got steak all year.
WM: That’s so interesting. So you moved there when you were four and you started school the following year?
FO: Yes, St. Bridget.
WM: And was this the old school or was the new school built?
FO: I think I started in the old school. Yeah, the new school wasn’t built yet. I remember when that was being built, because all the fathers in the neighborhood would have these block parties with the wheels, you know, and they sold food and drinks and stuff like that. And whatever they raised help pay for the school.
WM: I’ve heard about that. It sounds like everyone participated. So were these both Italian and Irish Catholics?
FO: Everybody.
WM: Was there a block party on your street? Can you describe it?
FO: All the fathers would have these wheels of chance, and everybody would help put it up, and put it together.
WM: Right on the street?
FO: Yeah, right on the street, so all the all the cars were off the street at that time. We sold food.
WM: What would you win?
FO: Oh, you might win a quarter or a dollar, but sometimes they had little prizes for the kids too. One thing I remember is that we used to collect the bottles. We had a case that we put the bottles in, and if you got a whole case returned, you get a free soda for that.
WM: Where would you return them?
FO: To one of the fathers, or there was probably a stand where we returned it.
WM: Tell us about your early memories of Saint Bridget.
FO: I remember some of the teachers we had there – we had some funny names for them.
Old Dog. (laughter)
MF: Was that a nun?
FO: That was a nun.
WM: Can you tell us their real names and their nicknames?
FO: I can’t remember their names. But each class had two rooms.
WM: So there were two fourth grades, two fifth grades? This was in the old school?
FO: This was in the new school.
WM: Do you remember going to the new school when it first opened – what was that like?
FO: Well, it was brand new, and it was real modern compared to the old school, because in the old school, you had to walk up these steps to the third floor, and it was like about fifty steps it seemed. But in that sense, it was great because you just walked in the back door and walked up some stairs, and then you’ll be in your classroom.
WM: The classrooms in the new school were bigger?
FO: Yeah, they were bigger. In the old school, you’d have one room with a divider.
WM: Oh my, so two classes happening in one room?
FO: Right, so you would constantly hear the teacher in the other rooms talking and it was distracting. But they were all nuns then, you know, in the whole place. And eventually we got a couple of teachers who were lay teachers.
WM: Do you remember some of the nuns?
FO: I remember in the 5th grade I had this nun and she accused me of cheating. And I got really upset. What I was actually doing was reading the question or reading my answer, and I would be mouthing the words, and she thought I was cheating, so I told her to go to hell. (laughter)
WM: I guess you got detention that day.
FO: I got a whipping that day, too, when I got home from my father.
WM: Oh, at home. But did they ever touch you at school?
FO: Oh no. Well, banging a ruler on your hands. My father was tough.
MF: I assume the nun told him this.
FO: No. Well, no, my sister. At that time, my sister was two grades ahead of me, so they called her down and told her, so she had to go home and tell my mother. And then, of course, we had to wait for my father to come home and then we would get the beating. My father used to beat us a lot, but we got to a point where we knew what was happening, and we put the covers over and put the pillow under the covers, and he’d be beating us with the strap and we’d be screaming.
MF: Well, I hope it was justifiable.
FO: Oh, yeah.
MF: You guys were bad!
FO: Oh, yeah. Well, breaking the bed, all the slats coming out of the bed, and the bed going flat on the ground. And, well, playing football on the bed too. We were always making a lot of noise.
WM: So what else do you remember about Saint Bridget? Did they have special teachers like music and art, things like that?
FO: Not really. When I was in 8th grade, I had a special assignment. I was given a geography booklet and I had to answer questions in it. I would do a little bit each day, but that was the only special thing. There was no special reading or anything like that.
WM: Did you feel like you got a good education?
FO: Oh yeah, I think I did.
WM: Did you have favorite subjects?
FO: Math. Math was my favorite subject.
WM: So was one nun teaching every subject?
FO: Everything. Every subject.
WM: How big were your classes?
FO: There were probably 30 kids in the class, sometimes maybe more, some less.
WM: Tell us about recess.
FO: Oh, we went out into the schoolyard, which is now a parking lot on Stanton Street and that was our recess. We’d do all kinds of things. We would run and dance and sing and play games and catch and tag and all that kind of stuff.
MF: Well, at that time, the parking lot now (Midvale Avenue), what was that?
FO: It was a schoolyard.
MF: The one on Midvale?
FO: No, that was a parking lot on Midvale. The one on Stanton was the schoolyard.
WM: Did you go home for lunch?
FO: Oh yeah, every day. We’d walk up, in line, to the top of Calumet Street and then split.
WM: Was that on Skidoo Street or the alley?
FO: Skidoo Street. I remember one incident. At one point I was in 8th grade and this guy named Zaborowski was cheating off me, so I gave him all the wrong answers. (laughter) And after class, he said “I’m going to get you.” He said “I’ll meet you up at Skidoo and Calumet.” So I went up there, and I took off; I wasn’t sticking around!
WM: Did you go on class trips?
FO: No, we never did that. The only thing we had was – it seemed we had parties or something like that at school.
WM: Some peopl told us they took an annual trip to Woodside at the end of the school year.
FO: Yeah, we did that, yeah. That was great because it was a big amusement park and in order to get to it, there was a tunnel underneath the Expressway, which had water running through, so you walked through.
WM: You crossed Falls Bridge first?
FO: Yes, and then it was down West River Drive a little bit. Now if you go there, there’s a waterfall there when it really rains hard.
WM: What did you like at Woodside?
FO: Rides. I never liked the roller coaster. I was never a roller coaster person, but I always enjoyed all the other rides. We’d always have something to eat there. My parents were always making stuff, and you took sandwiches with you. That was a lot of fun.
WM: What did you like eating there? Do you remember?
FO: Basically, we were actually very poor. My father – the most he ever made was $10,000 so I figured if I make $10,000, I’d be rich.
WM: So was it a struggle growing up with four kids?
FO: Oh yeah; it was struggle. We had a big table and in the middle of the table was this big pan, and that’s what the iced tea was in. And I mean, my mother wasn’t really a good cook, but she had a lot of Irish dishes. Corned beef and cabbage. Kidney stew. I actually did like that, but I didn’t like it later in my life. I guess I couldn’t get past the smell. Liver. Chicken. Chicken was on Sunday, and sometimes we’d have spaghetti and meatballs. All homemade stuff, not the spaghetti – that would be in the box, but meatballs and sauce were all homemade.
WM: Sounds good. Was there money to buy clothes? How much did your family struggle?
FO: Well, at Easter time, all the boys and the girls would get a new dress or a new jacket or suit. And I remember one time I had this vest, and I was really proud of this vest. And I’d always open my jacket like was – in fact I’ve got a picture of it someplace.
But I mean, we didn’t have an awful lot. No, we knew that. We were one of the last ones on the block to get a TV. We always used to sit in front of the radio and listen to The Shadow and all those kinds of old things. Hopalong Cassidy.
WM: Was everyone kind of in the same boat or did anyone single you out as being poor?
FO: No, the whole neighborhood was like that.
WM: I’ve heard about the store, Len’s. Did you shop there?
FO: Oh yeah. Sneakers – all the time. High top sneakers. Guy said they were Keds, but I don’t remember them being Keds. I thought I remembered them being something else. But, yeah, after we wore out the old ones, we threw them up across the telephone line.
MF: That’s what I was going to ask. When I moved to East Falls, I always saw sneakers hanging from the line. How’d you get them up there?
FO: I’d just throw them up.
WM: First try, or would you have to keep trying?
FO: You had to keep trying. Maybe a couple of times. You know, Len’s used to be really cheap, but it was good stuff, so we would buy jeans and shorts and shirts. I think we went to Crane’s to buy the suits. Crane’s was the place up on Queen Lane, which was above Wissahickon.
WM: And Len’s was on Cresson Street?
FO: Bowman and Cresson.
MF: Was the Italian Club there at the time?
FO: The Italian Club was where the new place is – Franklin’s. On the other corner.
WM: So all this time you were going to Saint Bridget Church. Can you tell us about your memories there? Were you an altar boy?
FO: No, I wasn’t.
WM: Why not?
FO: I don’t know why not.
MF: Was Guy?
FO: Guy was like the senior altar boy. He wore a special outfit, with curly things on the sleeves.
MF: What about Fred?
FO: I don’t think he was either.
WM: Did you go to church every week?
FO: Oh yeah, once a week.
WM: How many services did they have back then?
FO: I think there were two on Saturday, three on Sunday. Beautiful. Right now, I’m the Sexton over at Saint Bridget for the 9:00am Mass. But I can remember each Christmas, we’d get like 600 people in one Mass. It was packed. I mean, there was no place to put them. We would put people up in the in the choir loft and the people were standing all along the aisles.
MF: And you probably put chairs in the back?
FO: Well, there wasn’t a back there at that time.
MF: They were all pews?
FO: Yes, they were all pews, all the way back. In fact, all the pews were down in the basement of the church. But yeah, I mean, I remember Father Cartin. Father Cartin was the original one. He was there for centuries. In fact, when he retired, he still stayed there. And I think, somehow, he was buried in Saint Bridget, but I’m not sure about that. But, yeah, the whole family went, and we were all lined up in one pew.
WM: Always the same pew?
FO: I don’t think it was the same pew all the time, but it was midway up the aisle. We never were up front.
WM: What changes have you seen in Saint Bridget over all these years? First of all, have you always lived in East Falls or did you move away for a while?
FO: No, actually I moved away. I got married in 1971 and we moved to Overbrook. It was right down the street from Our Lady of Lourdes (on Woodbine Avenue). We were three houses from Our Lady of Lourdes.
WM: So you used that church? When did you come to East Falls?
FO: Me and my wife split up and my mother wasn’t doing very well. My father had died in the meantime.
WM: When did your dad die?
FO: I don’t remember that one.
WM: Before 1980, because I only knew your mom.
FO: Yes. I can’t remember when he died. But then my mother was having a little problem with her sight and was having a hard time doing her bank book and checkbook, so I moved back and helped her with that. But it turns out she had cataracts and had surgery on her eyes and she said “I can see!” (laughter)
MF: Was Guy still at home?
FO: Guy was there for a while, but then when he got drafted in the Army and I think he ended up in South Korea. I’m not sure what he did, but all three of the boys went to the Army. I ended up in Worms, Germany and Orleans, France, so I was really lucky. They thought I could speak fluent French and German because I took three years of German and French in school, but it turned out I didn’t. I knew “Danke.” (laughter)
WM: Going back to the church, tell us what changes over the years that you’ve seen there.
FO: Well, we’ve had pretty good priests most of the time. I remember Father Kelly – I used to love Father Kelly – because he always started off his sermon with a joke and he had us all laughing. And it wasn’t a corny joke; it was a good joke. And he busted on the Irish and he busted on the Italians, so he was like busting on everybody. He was really nice, and he used to give a tremendous speech. I used to love to listen to him.
WM: How long was he there?
FO: He was there probably five years. And since that time, I mean the attendance now is completely down. I mean, like I said, we used to have a packed house, but now it’s like, I mean, at Christmas we got 326 people at one Mass, but the other Masses were like 45 and 90 or something like that.
WM: Why do you think that is?
FO: People don’t go to church anymore. The young kids don’t come. Well, it also had something to do with selling the school because, I mean, parents always had the kids come with them at church. Since there’s no more school, the kids moved up to IHM (Immaculate Heart of Mary in Andorra). Actually a lot of parents and families all moved up to IHM, so they go there.
WM: Were there physical changes to the building you saw?
FO: Yes. The original church was actually on Stanton Street. I don’t know if it burned down or they just knocked it down. Guy remembers that; I don’t remember. Yeah, I used to be in charge of the Hammer and Nail Club at St. Bridget’s. We would fix all kinds of things around the church, school, rectory, and convent. Actually, we did the whole convent over. We did the kitchen over. A guy named Bill Murphy – I think he was an electrician – used to work downtown on all these projects, but he would come, and Father Kelly would get him and all these other workers to volunteer.
Now, I am a Certain at church at the 9 AM mass on Sundays. My job is to set up for mass and pick ushers to help and collect donations. After mass I also help set up for the following mass at 11 AM.
MF: So the convent got renovated when Father Kelly was there.
FO: Yes.
MF: He knew a lot of people.
FO: Oh yeah. If something needed to be fixed, he always had a contractor who could do it.
WM: Going back to the Irish and Italian, do you have any memories of any conflicts on your street or at church?
FO: I can’t remember anything like that, no. I mean, Guy mentioned that the Italians couldn’t come to Saint Bridget’s, but…. at one point, every church had a different nationality. St. Bridget was Irish, St. John’s up in Roxborough was Italian. And I think there was a Polish church someplace, so it was like everybody had their own church. It was a shame that people had to go that way.
WM: So is the church in good shape now?
FO: It got renovated. I mean the tower needed major work because the bars in the cement were actually showing up in the tower, so they really had to replace it. And parts of the tower were shifting. We raised $1,000,000.
WM: How did you do that?
FO: Well, people made contributions.
WM: It wasn’t an event, it was contributions?
FO: They asked everybody to give a certain amount of money and to pledge for a number of years. And we raised it. It turned out they finished doing the renovation for $750,000, but then we went over that because they got a grant from some organization that donates to churches. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the Archdiocese.
MF: I think the President, or the person who gives out the money, might have been a student at St. Bridget at one time. That’s what I heard.
FO: Grace Kelly worked there, or lived and got married there, and lived up on corner of Coulter and Henry Avenue. At one point the Prince (Ranier) came over. We had the 75th Anniversary and the Prince attended the service.
WM: Did you see him?
FO: Oh yeah.
WM: And you saw Grace?
FO: She wasn’t there. She had died by this time.
MF: You’re talking about Prince Albert.
FO: Yeah, Prince Albert. I remember she got married there because she got married in a church and also she got married over in Monaco. (note: Grace’s sister got married there, not Grace),
WM: Did you ever see her?
FO: Well, the church, when she (Grace’s sister) got married, the church was packed. I mean, you couldn’t get close to the church because there were all the special guests who were invited. And then there were all the other people that wanted to see her. So the whole front of the steps going up to the church had a cover over it with decorative flowers and stuff like that. I mean, I saw her from a distance.
WM: So let’s go a little around the neighborhood and tell us your memory of different places. Let’s begin with the library.
FO: Well. I didn’t spend much time in the library. I mean, I went up there, and I remember getting a card. Later, when I got older, I was in there a lot more, but I wasn’t a really a reader. I actually had trouble reading. I think I was just dyslexic, because I was embarrassed reading in front of the class and a lot of times, I would read and I would fall asleep. It put me to sleep.
WM: So not a big library user. How about the Bathey? Did you go there?
FO: Oh yeah, the Bathey was down on Ferry Road. It was Boys one day and Girls another day, and Sunday was Family. I mean, I remember going there one time and somebody pushed me in the water.
WM: How old were you?
FO: I was twelve because I remember getting lessons when I was 12, because I hadn’t learned how to swim. And I almost died, but then somebody jumped in and pulled me out. But, I mean, that was great. You used to go down there every day.
MF: Did they have lifeguards?
FO: Yeah, there were lifeguards there.
WM: Did they have to inspect you or anything before you went in?
FO: Yes. Well, they made sure you had a bathing suit. A lot of people were trying to get in with just a pair of shorts. And there had to be a liner in your bathing suit.
WM: And I heard you couldn’t go back in the water until your suit was dry?
FO: Yeah, I think there was a time you would be in and then you had to get out because there were so many kids wanting to get in.
WM: So McDevitt?
FO: We grew up at McDevitt. We were always up there, always playing. In the beginning when we first went there, it was called Dobson Field. The baseball field we played on was right next to the steel placeon the entrance going up from Indian Queen Lane. And we used to play there, and that was the backdrop of our field. And there were probably about five fields up there at that time. And the Recreation Center wasn’t built yet, but when they put in the Extension for the Boulevard, they gave McDevitt a building and that’s when the building got built. We played all kinds of things – they had a big wall up there, so we’d play wallball and stickball, and there was a basketball court so we played basketball, and baseball. I can remember playing one game of baseball when I gave up probably about 15 hits in one hitting.
WM: Oh no, you were the pitcher? Oh dear.
FO: But I also struck out about fifteen! So I was just wild sometimes.
WM: Did you play with kids from all over the neighborhood, or did you have a certain group?
FO: All over the neighborhood.
WM: Did you play with Mifflin and Penn Charter kids?
FO: Penn Charter kids have come down. It was mostly just Mifflin and Saint Bridget. We also played up at Mifflin. Mifflin had a gym in the basement, and we were always up there.
WM: You were allowed to go in there?
FO: Yes. I can’t remember how often we’d go there, but we went there a lot. One of the things I liked about it was the back stop, or the basket, was right against the wall so you could actually run up the wall and dunk! (laughter)
WM: What about McMichael Park?
FO: We really didn’t go up there that much, maybe because it was too far a walk. There wasn’t really much to do at McMichael because there were no swings or that kind of stuff. It was just a big field.
WM: Were there swings at McDevitt?
FO: Oh yeah. Many swings and I think there was a spray pool there at one point. But, yeah, we used to play a lot there. We basically grew up there. My brother had a team along with the Keeley brothers. They used to live on Allegheny Avenue up near Tastykakes, up that way. But we used to play there all the time. I remember I rarely ever got into the games. If I did, I was wild, because I was just so excited to get into the game that I would fumble the ball. But, you know, I tried to always do a lot of stuff to score a lot of points. But I never was very good.
WM: So did your church have their picnic at McMichael? Do you remember that?
FO: I remember there were a lot of parties at McMichael. I mean, at the big 4th of July parade, we’d start down at Saint Bridget and every grade would march up, in order, to McMichael and then we’d have a massive party there.
WM: Was there a May Procession?
FO: May Procession was basically on the front lawn of St.Bridget. We would maybe start at one point, and go around, and up and down. But almost every kid was in the May Procession. The boys were all dressed up in their white suits and the girls were in their white dresses.
WM: Did your mom have to buy white suits for all of you?
FO: Oh yeah. She bought them all. I mean, at one point, maybe there was a hand-me-down from my brother, my brother Guy.
WM: What was the purpose of the May Procession?
FO: Just to celebrate the Virgin Mary.
WM: So how about Old Academy. Any connection?
FO: Never.
WM: The railroad?
FO: Oh, the railroad. We were always walking along the railroad. And that’s the way you got to McDevitt – it was the shortcut.
WM: Why don’t you tell us what you did around the neighborhood? Did you play in the factories?
FO: Well, yeah, like I said before, there was this house in the parking lot on Calumet Street and we used to go through it and we destroyed the whole house.
WM: So the parking lot on Calumet; where would that be?
FO: It’s the entrance to the project.
WM: Right, OK. This was an abandoned house?
FO: Abandoned house. It was Mrs. – I can’t remember her name – an Italian lady. She used to live there, but then when she left, it was abandoned, so we destroyed the house. We’d break the windows, and we’d run up and down the steps, and play hide and seek in the house, and play all kinds of games. We’d throw rocks at the windows, rocks at the house, and break the doors out.
WM: Parents were totally unaware, I guess.
FO: They didn’t know about it; no.
WM: So did you play in the old factories or the railroad?
FO: We broke into the old factories. There used to be Hohenadel up on Indian Queen Lane and Conrad. We used to break in. Actually, I don’t know if I broke in so much as somebody broke in and got the sodas. We would get these sodas….
WM: This is when it was still open?
FO: Yes. They made sodas and we’d break it and get a case of soda and take it home.
WM: Would you do that at night or on Sundays?
FO: All days.
WM: You mean when people were working there?
FO: Yeah. Well, they were working inside or upstairs, and they had stored these sodas
downstairs. So we broke in and stole the sodas. I mean, I’m sure sometimes they caught us and chased us but…
WM: Was this a big group of kids?
FO: It was more than just my family.
MF: So Guy was part of this?
FO: He was the ringleader probably. (laughter)
WM: What about the caves?
FO: I remember going into the caves. They were behind the railroad station. I think they’re covered up now. But, yeah, I mean, it was crazy going in there. It was like, you know, walking into a cave, and you’d go in pretty far and it was scary.
WM: Were you doing that on a dare or because you wanted to?
FO: Dare sometimes, and just because it was there. Actually, when we got used to it, we’d go in there a lot.
WM: Were they off Eveline?
FO: No, on the street across from the undertakers… (McIlvaine’s)
MF: Arnold?
FO: Arnold! And we’d go back there, and there were caves back there.
WM: What were used for, originally?
FO: They were just leftover from something. I don’t know what they were used for. I don’t think they actually had a use. I think it was just left over. But there used to be one back there, and there was also one beyond the railroad station, too.
WM: So did you hang out at the railroad station?
FO: Yeah, I wasn’t really at the railroad station much, because we just basically walked down the tracks to get to McDevitt. But we spent a lot of time at McDevitt.
WM: Tell us about when the Schuylkill Falls project came. How old were you when they started building that, and what do you remember?
FO: I remember a lot of the kids from our classes at Saint Bridget’s lived there, and we used to go run and play in there. I used to love riding up on the elevators. Once you got up on the elevator, you’d get off the elevator and there would be three apartments there, on each floor.
WM: It was an innovative design. Was it there when you were little, or was it built while you were growing up?
FO: When we were little, there was a farm back there and it had this big steeple. And eventually the steeple came down.
WM: Was it a silo?
FO: It was more like a steeple. It was like a chimney.
WM: Oh yes, was that from Powers & Weightman? Laboratory Hill? The row of houses.
FO: Yes, yes, but I don’t remember houses back there. I remember just the dirt field, dirt and farms. There were cows.
WM: What do you remember about it being built? And how did the neighbors react to it?
FO: Actually, it wasn’t a problem because, once they got built, all the kids from the project were at St. Bridget and Mifflin, and a lot of us knew each other and we’d always spend time visiting people over there, riding up and down the elevator, and running up and down the stairs.
WM: Would you play there when it was being built?
FO: No.
MF: Was it always called the projects, even when it was new?
FO: Yes.
WM: Schuylkill Falls. Later they changed it to housing development, not project.
FO: They had a basketball court over there too, and we used to go there to play basketball. There was like a school there, and part of the school was the basketball courts.
MF: Was it inside?
FO: No, it was outside. But I mean, we used to ride bikes around there. Oh, that’s one thing I remember. One of the best gifts I ever got in my life was a Schwinn bicycle, and me and a guy named Tommy Farrell from up the street used to race around the park – East River Drive and West River Drive. We raced all the way around as fast as we could. I loved that! I got that at Christmas one time, and I was like “Oh God, a bicycle! And a Schwinn!” which is like the premier brand.
WM: Who were your other friends besides Tommy?
FO: Well, Sharkey’s across the street, Lewis is across the street, Fiedlers next to them. I can remember there was an Italian family, Sharkeys, Carusos, then I remember there was Doozy, then there was an older lady who lived there, and then the Lewis’s, Fiedlers. After them was Mrs. McGruddy, who was a friend of my mom, and then, Wachuski (?) – Irene and Rita. That’s probably not the right pronunciation. They were there. And then Vulpe’s.
WM: Was there a lot of transition on the street over the years?
FO: Well, eventually, all the kids moved out and found someplace else. The only kids that are still there are us, two houses down is Jay Henry, and four or five houses down is Bobby Henry, and the rest are all new.
WM: Where’s Lou Caruso now?
FO: Oh, he died a while ago.
WM: And the son?
FO: The son moved out; I’m not sure where he moved there. The son was Lou, too.
WM: Do you remember this old psychiatric hospital that I’ve heard about? Roseneath?
FO: It was up on the place we went sledding – The Nuts – and there was actually a little golf course there too, that my brother played in a lot. Ravenhill Academy was up there too.
WM: Did you have any connection with that at all?
FO: No, I mean, we went up there a lot and just walked around and played in the fields, stuff like that. The other people I remember on the block were the Spinos. Spinos up the street, Spinos next to us, Spinos across the street, so there were a lot of Spinos there.
MF: And they were all related?
FO: The mother and father lived in the big house where the driveway is, and next door was Acey, and next door to me was the daughter, Marge Spino.
WM: Going back to the housing project, did that change over the years, and how did you feel when it came down?
FO: I mean, I used to go there and play all the time, but I got to a point where I was scared to go through there. I used to cut through the project when I was up in Roxborough, walk through the project, but after a while, there’s no way. There was just so much crime going on. My mother actually got her pocketbook stolen from her at the bottom of Calumet Street, and she had to go to the hospital. They yanked her arm out getting her pocketbook. But. I mean, it got really bad. There were a lot of drugs there. The big tower was not safe to go into because the elevators never worked, and you had to walk up the steps, and the steps had no lights on them because the kids would break them out. So you’d be scared of death going up there. But. I mean, it was a good design in the beginning, because it was just three apartments for every entrance.
WM: Not one long hall – different sections.
FO: Well, it was a long hall, but you’d have three apartments here, three here, and three there. But you could only get in this one, to get to the three apartments.
WM: So you weren’t sorry when it came down?
FO: No. Everybody in the neighborhood got a piece of it. I was on top of Saint Bridget’s roof when it imploded.
WM: Any other memories around the neighborhood? What did you do holidays? Anything special at Christmas?
FO: At Christmas my father and mother used to have all of our family over. And they’d have a big party downstairs, and we would have to go upstairs, so we’d stand at the top of the steps listening to what’s going on. Of course, before we went up to bed, we always got a lot of treats.
MF: How did your mom get her purse stolen?
FO: Well, she was walking up the street from I don’t know where – I think she might have gone downtown, took the 61 bus home, and she was walking up the street and somebody grabbed her purse.
WM: Which street? Calumet?
FO: Yeah, right at the bottom of Calumet Street, and my mom wouldn’t give up the purse, so she ended up on the ground and wrenched her shoulder.
WM: They got the purse?
FO: They got the purse eventually.
WM: So tell us about what happened after St. Bridget. Where did you go to high school?
FO: I went to LaSalle High School after that. At that time, LaSalle was $300 a year. Now it’s like $15,000 or $20,000 a year. But we also got a discount because my older brother went there, and my younger brother also went there.
WM: Did you go to college after that?
FO: Well, in high school I spent two years at the campus at 20th and Chelten. But then, after that, the new school was built up on Wynnewood, so we moved up there and I went there for two years – the new school. It’s a major campus up there now.
WM: Tell us about your career.
FO: Well, the other thing you need to know is I also went to LaSalle College afterwards, which was at 20th and Olney. At the time, I was working part time with the Department of Recreation as an Assistant Recreation Leader and I worked at Black Coyle and McBride, which was in Kensington, right off Lehigh and Kensington. And it was a small place, but I loved working there. I took a test, and I came out one of the highest on the test for Leader One, but then I got drafted into the Army. This is after I finished four years of college, and I got drafted because they didn’t know I was going an extra year. Actually, I changed majors from chemistry to pre-law or liberal arts, but they didn’t know that, so I got drafted and went back to school after I got out of the Army. When I was drafted, I went down to Fort Jackson for Basic Training and then went to Fort Gordon. After that, I thought I was being sent to “Orleans” – New Orleans – which was where all the people went from Orleans to Vietnam. But I didn’t – I went to Orleans, France, which was tremendous. They thought that since I took three years of French in high school and three years of German in college, I was fluent in both of them, and they needed a person who was fluent to talk with people from the country who were involved. It turned out that I knew “bier” and “danke” and that kind of stuff. But I didn’t really know much more about either language.
WM: You said you eventually worked at McDevitt Recreation Center. Tell us about the changes you’ve seen there.
FO: I had taken the test for Leader One before I went in the Army and came out number one. So the Director at. McDevitt, Tom Dixon, knew a lady named Miss Peterson, who was a boss downtown, so they finagled something and I got assigned to McDevitt when I got out of the Army. My brother Freddy showed me this letter that said “Uncle Sam wants you.” So he got drafted into the Army a week later. When he got drafted, they needed somebody to replace him and they knew the name Ostertag, so they sent me to McDevitt as Leader I.
WM: What was McDevitt like then? About what year are we talking about?
FO: I went there from like 1968 to 1976.
WM: A lot of changes during that time?
FO: I loved it there. It was great there. I mean, Tom Dixon, sort of ran it, but he didn’t run it. He let all the staff run the place. Lyda Doyle was also there as a Leader I.
WM: What was a Leader I doing?
FO: Leader I is the first full-time level of the Department of Recreation.
WM: Were you supervising games or what? What was your job?
FO: What I actually did was to come up with a whole bunch of games, organizing games, because there weren’t a lot of games going on when I was there. So we played volleyball, and, of course, you know, the basketball players didn’t like the fact that we took a day away from them to play volleyball. In the beginning, we had a hard time getting people to play volleyball, but eventually we got to a point where we had two courts. The full court went this way, and then there’s two side courts. So we’d put a net in the middle, or a bracket in the middle that was screwed into the floor, and that’s what it crossed. So we had two games going on at one time.
WM: This was indoors?
FO: Indoors.
MF: Do you have a lot of girls coming for volleyball or was it mostly guys?
FO: It was co-ed.
WM: From local schools?
FO: Just the people who came and played. They were mostly kids. But, I mean, we had soccer, baseball, football – the East Falls Football Association ran the football – but we had softball there, and all kinds of basketball games.
WM: Did attendance grow or diminish over the years?
FO: In the beginning, we had a lot of kids. Oh, we also played hockey indoors – foot hockey. But, I mean, in the beginning, we had all these kids – loads of kids, and then at certain times we had, from the Lower End, which was Allegheny Avenue, we had a team, and from my area, which was also called the Lower End, we have a team, and then the Lallys, who lived up on Conrad Street, and then we had the Green Corner, which is the place right across from the playground – the store – they had all those people from there. So we had like maybe five or six teams from the neighborhood. I mean, I loved working there.
MF: Why did you leave?
FO: I got promoted to Leader II.
WM: Did all the kids get along?
FO: There were some kids that didn’t like me, but I was refereeing a lot of games, so I would call something against somebody, and they would be upset about it, and I’d go out and find my car dented in.
WM: Oh, no. Tell us about Gustine Lake.
FO: Gustine Lake. When we first moved, there was a big pond, and they had places where you could get changed all around it.
WM: Oh, indoor rooms?
FO: No, it was like the Bathey. They had these cubicles – you walked in and you changed your clothes. And it had a bathroom. Hmm, I don’t know if they had a bathroom there….
WM: You swam there?
FO: Oh yeah. We swam there during the summer and all, but then in the winter it was an ice skating rink.
WM: So it was man made. Did it have a cement bottom?
FO: No, it had a dirt bottom.
WM: What was it like swimming there? I mean, was it deep?
FO: No, it wasn’t deep. I mean, in the middle of the pond it was probably like five feet or something like that. But you know, eventually, they put in two cement pools.
WM: Oh, they put in two to replace the one?
FO: Yes, and I think they actually built a building there too. Yeah, we used to go there a lot.
WM: Was there a lifeguard there?
FO: Yeah. My brother was a lifeguard there – my older brother.
WM: Do you remember when it was filled in?
FO: It was probably later on. It might have been when I was in the Army or something like that.
But McDevitt, I loved working at McDevitt. We all have all kinds of activities goingon, and. I’d come up with all these different games. One thing I was really proud of, we had a summer camp. And I was able to pick six people from the neighborhood that could work there: Billy Malizia (“Lizard”). Tony Rapone – he didn’t have a nickname, Billy Murphy (“Eggy”), Peggy McSomething (“she was “Lazy”). Who else was there? But I put them in charge of different groups in the camp. I had organized it – you had this activity between these hours, and between these hours, this group was doing this, and then they would switch over to another group.
WM: Sounds like you were very good at this.
MF: Was this Billy Murphy’s from Murphy’s Pub?
FO: No, this was Murphy from Conrad. I think the mother still lives up on Conrad.
WM: Speaking of Conrad, do you remember stores there? What stores did you use in the neighborhood?
FO: We didn’t use those stores that much, we basically used Caruso’s across the street. There was a place right at the entrance of the project – I can’t remember the name – but that was like, you know, pizza pie or tomato pies and junk food. And then on Stanton Street, there was a Mama Jessett, or something like that and we always got junk food there too, right after school we’d go there. She sold penny candy, so we went with a nickel and got five cents worth of candy. But there was also a store right at the beginning of upper Calumet on the left side, and I think she sold junk food too.
WM: That’s Montimore?
FO: No. Montimore was the one at the entrance of the Project.
MF: Was that any relation to Sandy?
FO: Yeah, there was some relation there. Frank was the owner, and his mother worked there, and then his sister, who lived right across the street – actually, Frank and his sister both lived across the street.
WM: Do you remember stores on Ridge?
FO: The most famous one was the druggist, Dr. Fiedler. Doctor Fiedler – if you went into the store, it was like wall-to-wall shelves. I mean, it was probably 20 feet high, and he used to have this ladder which would go up, and he’d slide back and forth to get whatever you needed.
WM: So the son was the doctor and the father was the pharmacist?
FO: Yes. The doctor was up on Ainslie Street.
WM: So you would go in there for prescriptions?
FO: Yes. And didn’t realize this until Guy mentioned it in his paper (note: Guy Ostertag’s essay on his recollections of East Falls), that he used to get this paper and wrap all the stuff in it and then would put some rope around it, and sometimes he would just fold it neatly. So we would get all our medicines there – everybody in the neighborhood went to Doctor Fiedler up on Ainslie Street. I mean, you’d go into Doctor Fiedler’s and he’d have a packed house, you know, maybe have like 15 or 20 chairs in there, and they were all people waiting.
WM: Where on Ainslie? Which block?
FO: Next door to the Flynns – the 3500 block.
WM: Do you remember the old hardware store and the 5 & 10 down on Ridge?
FO: I remember the Five & Ten. We’d always go in there to buy some cheap stuff, or snacks. The hardware store – where was the hardware store?
WM: At Palestine Hall, the Masonic Hall right on the corner of Ridge & Midvale – that big green building.
FO: Oh yes. Oh man, they had everything you wanted. Anything you needed, they had it there.
I mean, when I got older, I always went down there to buy stuff because it was down the block, first of all, and then they had everything. Anything you needed, they had. You could buy some little trinket that you used maybe once a year.
WM: Do you remember the old Falls Tavern, where the gas station is now?
FO: I don’t remember that as much, because, I mean, I wasn’t old enough to go drinking. And they also had the big Alden Theater up on the hill (on Midvale).
WM: Oh, yes, what do you remember about that?
FO: We’d go in there on Saturday morning and you couldn’t hear a thing because the kids were all just screaming and running around all over and playing. They had a person working there and he tried to sit you down.
WM: Do you remember his name?
FO: Oh, no. There were a couple of people like that working there. But, I mean, it was Saturday morning and the whole neighborhood of kids went there.
WM: Did the kids settle down during the movie?
FO: No. (laughter)
WM: And it was full?
FO: It was full. It was packed. In the beginning, there was a short Army story about what was going on in Europe.
MF: Oh, the newsreel.
FO: The newsreel, yeah. Then there was a movie, a kids movie.
MF: I’ve heard after the movie they’d run across Midvale and go up to the Rock Garden.
FO: Yes, we spent a lot of time up the rock garden.
WM: Acting out the movie?
FO: No, just playing and jumping off the rocks and climbing on the rocks. At the top there was a flat area where you could run around a little more. There used to be an alleyway that goes from New Queen Street. You would walk there, and it would take you right up to the schoolyard. That was like a shortcut if you were going to Mifflin.
WM: What’s your overall feeling about living in East Falls?
FO: I loved it. It was great, I mean, there was always a place to play, and there were kids in the neighborhood to play with, and we loved playing different games.
WM: You’ve seen a lot of changes over the years here?
FO: Major. I mean, when I came back from being married, there was like a major difference because a lot of kids weren’t around. At one point, there were a lot of students from Textiles, or whatever it was named after Textiles – Philadelphia University – and we realized that there were 67 rental units between Calumet and Stanton, which means every house had two cars.
WM: Wow. So no home ownership, it was more rental?
FO: So that’s why Acey Spino came up with the idea of getting permit parking. We all agreed to that, and it was a major difference, because I couldn’t park. You could only park for two hours on the street up until 10:00 at night, and after 10:00 everybody would bring their cars in.
WM: Did you have a car?
FO: Yes. I had my first car, a Chevy Malibu. I loved that car. It was green and orange.
WM: They would know when you were home! So other changes you’ve seen in the neighborhood over the years?
FO: The school (Textiles) had all these people, so we ended up having a meeting with the person who’s in charge of students. He used to live right at the first house next to The Nuts. And we used to go there and talk to him, and the Captain of the Police came with us, and he was always going on about what’s going on in the neighborhood. And we got to a point where we talked him (the person from Textiles) into changing the rule where the 1st and 2nd year students had to live on campus. Before that, everybody in the neighborhood was in there. So actually what happened was there were no people renting anymore.
WM: So that improved things.
FO: Yeah. So families start moving back in.
WM: There’s been new development on your street. How do you feel about that?
FO: Well, there’s probably something going to happen across the street from our house. Down the street, there was a guy named Bill who owns this lot, and he used to park his junkers – his cars – on the lot. He had roosters, and all kinds of things; he was a pain. But he actually has moved out. He’s trying to sell the property for. $500,000, but he hasn’t got any approvals yet. Nobody wants to move in because it’s too much money. People want to buy the house cheap so they can start, you know, building stuff and making money. There used to be a man there who did a lot of odds and ends stuff in the neighborhood. He had a little garage next door, and he sold the property and as a result there’s five units in there now. But the one good thing was, there’s off- street parking. But now the other thing that’s going on, is there was supposed to be a parking lot for the houses (note: apartment building) that’s being built on Midvale, and it was going to be up on Calumet Street, but it turned out they built these houses instead. But there is one property that had a lot next to it, and I think eventually they’ll build something there. But, the thing is, the students were pains. They always had parties all the time, and it got to be a point where the girls lived in this house, and next door were the boys.
WM: Yeah, that can affect the quality of your living there.
FO: And, I mean, they’d have parties on the weekends that would go on to 4:00 in the morning.
MF: Didn’t anybody ever call the cops?
FO: Oh, always.
WM: So I guess that’s why they built that new dormitory; that helped. Well, thank you, Franz, for all you’ve given us, and if you think of anything else, call us and let us know. Anything else on your paper of notes to talk about?
FO: (checking his notes) There was a bakery too
WM: Oh, where was that?
FO: Frederick and Eveline. We used to go there all the time. My father used to love this butter bread, or butter pie, or something like that, and cheesecake. We’d get some doughnuts. Eventually Lyda Doyle moved into the house.
Oh, the dentist we used to go to on Midvale. Somehow, I think it was on the left-hand side as you are going up; he was a terrible dentist, but he was cheap. It was cheap and terrible, but I mean afterwards I went to another dentist, and he said, “Who worked on your teeth? It was just terrible.
WM: Thank you so much, Franz.
Post-Note: At the December 2024 East Falls Community Council Christmas Celebration, Franz Ostertag was recognized with a Certificate of Merit by East Falls Town Watch for his loyal volunteer services, focusing on graffiti removal throughout the neighborhood – especially along Ridge Avenue, Henry Avenue, and the beginning of Kelly Drive. Franz has painted over walls, signs, poles, the bulletin board at Indian Queen Lane and Ridge Avenue, as well as walls around Wissahickon Fall, going out once a week for about 2-3 hours. Mary Jean Cunningham and Lisa Monaco assist. Besides graffiti removal, the crew also pulls down illegal signs, Franz, a big Eagles fan, was also given an Eagles shirt. Also recognized was Mary Jane Fullam from Town Watch.
