Shirley
I met Shirley, a spunky 80-something-year-old African American woman, at a senior center on Broad St. She was sitting outside with the “cool kids”, as she describes the smokers, but wasn’t smoking herself—“I ain’t got the time or money for those things.”
She had purple strands weaved into her braids and a heavily lined face that stretched wide and made her look 20 years younger every time she smiled. The other senior citizens made a ring around her and chatted quietly always deferring to Shirley whenever she wanted to add to the conversation.
Shirley, named after Shirley Temple, lived in the projects behind the Academy at Palumbo in Hawthorne for a little over a decade in the seventies. Back then the “projects” were not renovated and the Academy at Palumbo was an junior high school. During the day, Shirley was a care giver for the elderly and in the afternoon and evening, she and her husband volunteered around the community.
Mostly they helped their friend Doris give students help with their homework after school. Every Tuesday and Thursday, Shirley and Doris would cook up a giant dinner and feed all the kids who came to them for extra help and more often than not, kids would ask for an extra plate to bring to their mom or dad.
Shirley and her family left the projects in the mid-eighties and moved to North Philadelphia but visited Hawthorne often to see friends. Shirley was surprised at how much the neighborhood had gentrified but now, more than thirty years since Shirley and her family left, she says the gentrification is common place in Philadelphia.
Smiling knowingly, she told me, “Lemme tell you somethin’, the way you know if the neighborhoods gentrified or not is if the projects is new. New project--- new money, the city’ll only fix up where there are rich people yellin’ bout their neighborhood looking bad.”
Shirley and her family left the projects in the mid-eighties and moved to North Philadelphia but visited Hawthorne often to see friends. Shirley was surprised at how much the neighborhood had gentrified but now, more than thirty years since Shirley and her family left, she says the gentrification is common place in Philadelphia.
Smiling knowingly, she told me, “Lemme tell you somethin’, the way you know if the neighborhoods gentrified or not is if the projects is new. New project--- new money, the city’ll only fix up where there are rich people yellin’ bout their neighborhood looking bad.”
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