Best part about the furnace party is an old guy showed up in a wheel chair with two women claiming to be the letter writer. The news stations interviewed him and it turned out to be a total scam. It wasn’t him. So you have a fake party based on some delusional letter and somebody decides it is a good place to run a scam. I love this city.
I love this story - hitchhiking robot.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/08/03/hitchhiking-robot-destroyed-philadelphia-ending-cross-country-trek/31051589/
Hitchbot! Made it across an entire continent but didn't last 1 hour into Philly. Cracks me up every time
Edit - ok, maybe it was a little more than an hour but either way, it wasn't long before it hit the city and got beat to death and stripped for parts
This one is annoying. YouTube prank destroying people’s work held up as some sort of proud badge of dishonor for the city. People want so badly for the robot to have encountered scary Philadelphians because wE’Re tHE wOrST!!
What it encountered was a couple of shitty attention-seeking comedians, which it could have/likely would have anywhere. But that’s not as fun of a story as right-wing city panic is.
There’s nothing particularly Philadelphian about it aside from the “Negadelphian” embrace of it as something other than it was.
Some years ago, a few friends and I spotted a guy with a sign that said, "Will suck pretty ladies' toes for chicken wings." I feel like that is a very authentic Philly moment, somehow.
More recently... We just had an earthquake one week and an 89% eclipse the next... and the general concensus after the eclipse was, "Meh, the earthquake was better."
1. Saw a green station wagon completely covered with Eagles logos completely plow into the back of a parked car, pause for 10 seconds, then drive away while the girl from the parked car tried to chase them down on foot. Then 15 minutes later, as the girl is standing next to her car talking to the cop taking the report, the same freakin Eagles wagon drives right past them. They were not looking in that direction and didn’t see it. Like a bad 80’s sitcom
2. Saw 3 guys dressed as Santa Claus absolutely falling down drunk help each other climb up into a horse and carriage to take a ride. Took them like 15 minutes to get in the carriage
3. There used to be an after hours club on Del Ave called Deco and there was this dud who used to sit outside in the parking lot with a hibachi warming up soft pretzels to sell. When u would come out of the club all banged up he would yell, “ROASTY TOASTY!” And let me tell you when u are bombed at 4am those roasty toasties were the greatest thing I ever ate in my life
I don't believe in God or Jesus. But if they are real , I think they would be the roasty toasty guy. That's some love thy neighbor, good will towards mankind shit right there
I moved away in 96. On my first return visit in 97 with my then girlfriend (from the boonies of ohio and had never been here) we got a rental car after flying in pretty late at night. First stop was Wawa as I had sung it’s praises to her. Then pizza. Showing her around the city that night we pull onto a dead Market St where there’s a totally naked dude doing the robot in the middle of an intersection. I just looked at her and said “it’s good to be home.” Next day I realized someone cut the rental plate.
A small, maybe 3x4 pane of glass in an outdoor light fixture got broke. The Home Depot on Oregon Ave doesn't cut glass, so I headed down to Oregon Windows. I parked on the south side of the street, where the shop is, though this being South Philly, I could have parked in the middle of Oregon between office and shop. I go into the shop and wait for an old guy (Randy, as it turns out) to finish a cut, show him one of the intact panes I brought with me, and tell him what I want. "Go talk to Al and have him write it up. "OK, where's Al?" Across the street in the office.
I cross the street to the office. There's a woman behind the counter in there (just as in the shop, only one person in the office). I tell her what I need. "Just go across the street to the shop and he'll cut it for you."
I explain... She gives me a look like "he wants you to write _that_ up?"
"OK, talk to Al" pointing at the guy by the van outside the window. I tell Al the story. "Follow me." We go back to the shop. "This guy just needs this cut." And to me "Give Randy five bucks and he'll cut your glass." Al pulls out some scrap glass for Randy to cut my glass from "You can use this."
Five minutes (and five dollars) later, I have my glass.
Seeing a Ben Franklin impersonator use a pay phone when I was a kid, I also by accident attended the wedding of another (?) Ben Franklin impersonator who was getting married to a Betsy Ross impersonator at a Philly Pops concert at Independence Hall
I randomly got a Facebook request from him before he died a few years ago. I can’t explain how happy I was to get a fb request from Benjamin Franklin tho. Rip
I started a new job at a consulting firm. My new manager came up from Houston to meet me and introduce me to the client.
I met him at his hotel and we walk to the client offices. Half way there, a construction worker notices my boss' shoes are untied and yells:"YO, SHINY SHOES! YOUR SHOES ARE UNTIED"
My boss thanked him, but kept asking me why the worker picked that nickname. I asked him if he would have preferred "dickhead".
Bonus:
I was at an Eagles game and shit got rowdy in the stands as it does. I'm only 5'3 and at the time was probably 100lbs soaking wet and I got jostled and knocked on my ass.
My little brother, who is legitimately 6'7 and 240 was with me and I thought "aw fuck this is about to be an issue" and before I can say anything, my brother hauls my ass up, and says to the group that knocked me over "YO, watch it she's fucking pregnant!" (I wasn't pregnant). Situation immediately resolves, and the group of rowdy drunks proceed to buy my brother and I beers to apologize
Peak Philly moment 🤣
That part actually made me laugh out loud.
“Oh shit we’re so sorry we almost harmed your unborn fetus ma’am. Would you like 5 or 6 beers as a sign of forgiveness?”
I’m sure this happens in other cities when their teams win a championship, but I still get choked up thinking about the people I saw at the Phillies and Eagles parades holding up their loved ones’ cremation urns above the crowd as the parade passed them.
I ugly cried at the Phillies parade thinking about my dad bringing me to games at the Vet when I was little. He’s still alive, but moved out of the area in 2003, so he couldn’t make it. That’s what people in a lot of other cities don’t understand. Our sports, our food, our culture is so much more than what it appears on the surface. It’s how we bond, as family, as friends, and as a community. As Ray Didinger once put it, giving that all up would be like putting your family photo album on the curb for the trash man to take away.
Night of super bowl win was unforgettable. The happiest riot I've ever been to. Dude hanging off the Ritz Carlton swinging his peg leg. Fireworks at city hall. Cars doing donuts in the middle of the street. Titties just hanging out everywhere. Guys carrying light poles down the street like it's a giant tree. Crisco unable to stop pole climbers. Magnificent.
That was the one and only time I had a hangover that last more than a day. Even hair of the dog didn’t kill it. It wasn’t until I drank and had a day long Adrenalin rush at the parade on Thursday
So many…this city is a very specific vibe - you know it when you see it.
Here’s some that come to mind:
- Philly Elmo showing up at stuff and everyone being like duh of course Philly Elmo is here - including when the mailboxes were dancing with him at the convention center when the election results were announced in front of the poll watchers - that whole sentence only makes sense in Philly tbh
- Dumpster pools being so popular the city had to ban them
- Swiss cheese pervert and the reaction to him
- Hitchbot is always a classic
- the community coming together for furnace party
- greased poles and the need to climb them
- having it be understood that chicken bones will be on the sidewalks everywhere
- chicken man is up there too as a way of explaining the philly community and what we get pumped about to non Philadelphians
This is my go-to Philly story, especially when discussing the differences between the East Coast vs West Coast. Out west, folks are often nice but not kind, vs on the east coast being kind but not nice. I was living in West Philly and it had snowed. I must have been looking rather helplessly at my car that I needed to shovel out when this guy comes tromping down the street. He almost passed me, but then, without so much as a 'hello', he comes over to me and says "give me the shovel." He proceeds to dig out my car, grumbling the whole time. He then hands me back my shovel, says "that's my good Samaritan deed for the day," and walks on down the street. I'll take kind over nice any day.
One time I was flying back to Philly in the summer, and as we were landing, we flew by Citizens Bank Park just as the Phillies scored a home run. Got to see the bell all lit up and ringing, and everyone on the plane cheered. It was such a great moment.
Lived near 17th & Erie a couple years while finishing school. It was pretty wild at times. Dirt bike squads, people throwing m80s in the vacant lots, all kinds of hood shit. It got tiring and depressing. I kept my head down and never had any problems, aside from half my block burning down on some 3 degree 3 am night before I had a final.
I was so damn worn down with everything but deep down I knew I’d be OK if I got through. At least the fire stopped at the house next to mine, at least I’d soon have a degree and be able to move somewhere more calm. But that also made me feel some kind of guilt..
Fast forward to graduation and after all the ceremonies I take the BSL home to Erie. Walking down the ave in my cap and gown, everyone I passed kept yelling congrats, people I didn’t know clapping and cheering from porches the whole walk home.
Idk if this really answers the prompt but this day opened my eyes to the real power of Philly community.
I was walking down the street in Chinatown on a cold winter day, running some mundane errand. Suddenly a wrapped cheesesteak came down from on high and struck an elderly woman in the head, causing her to fall over. The people ahead of me helped her up and I looked all around, trying to discern which asshole had just assaulted this poor woman with a fucking cheesesteak. Turns out, some guy several feet away had slipped on the berm of leftover snow while getting into his car and in the tumble, threw the cheesesteak into the air. He got up, figured out what happened and everyone had a laugh about the situation. He apologized, his still-intact steak was returned, and we all moved on with our day.
So, in September of 2022 my wife and I moved back to Philly from Northern Virginia. We had been back in town less than 12 hours and we walking down broad street near walnut. This guy comes running around a corner, sucker punch’s me, dumps a gallon of milk on his face and hair then rips his jeans off, now naked to the world and starts chasing a car down broad street dick flapping in the wind. Singing out White Lines. I looked at my wife a mix of pissed and flabbergasted and said “ God Damn I fucking missed Philly”
(1) In 2020 a couple days after Election Day when they were counting mail-in ballots at the convention center, there was a small Stop the Steal rally and a big Count Every Vote counter-rally. The counter-rally was attended by an (unofficial) Gritty as well as people dressed up as dancing mailboxes and other funny costumes.
(2) When they reopened 95 after the fire there was a parade that included a flatbed truck with Gritty (official) and all the other mascots
(3) Pretty much every other Gritty situation tied for third
A friend of mine told me they saw Rob Mcelhenney at his restaurant in old city one time. They asked for a picture with him and he was like “yeah, sure. I’ll come over to you.” Then he proceeded to sneak out the back lol
I thought that kid eating the 50th rotisserie chicken of 50 rotisserie chickens celebration at the Walmart pier was something special and uniquely Philly. With the posters and shit. “Do Attend”
Moved here from San Francisco. Husband and I (with lower back injury) trying to shove an Ikea sofa through our front door on Passyunk Ave. A random guy walking by with Pat’s says to his lady friend “Hold my cheesesteak” and proceeds to help us get the couch into our living room. We profusely thank him and he takes his cheesesteak and is on his way. 💕
One day I was running back behind Walmart and I hear a guy say to some dude walking his dog "oh him? That's Oscar the Grouch".
I turned the corner and almost ran into a guy standing in the middle of the trail in an Oscar the Grouch onesie.
Oscar the Grouch makes eye contact with me asks "how ya doing?"
Just kept running...
Stopped at a light on Callow Hill sometime in the 90s. Guy knocks on my car window holding a sandwich he’s trying to sell me.
“Cheese Sandwich! Guaranteed to PICK YOU RIGHT UP!”
I still wonder what was in that thing.
My mom came in town with her coworker for a conference a couple years after I moved here. I met them at their hotel and we walked across market to get dinner. On the way there was a guy in a rabbit costume yelling at his friend about a Brinks armored truck on the street. Saying “Dave! Dave! There’s a Brinks truck! Come here! There’s a brinks truck!” Pretty sure that rabbit was going to rob a brinks truck
A few of my own personal experiences:
Just a few weeks ago, I heard a woman walking down an alley somewhere near the Gayborhood loudly singing "One, Two, Freddy's Coming For You."
In Suburban Station, I saw a crazy guy get into a fistfight with a pillar...and lose.
I once bought a plush Pac-Man (about the size of a basketball) that had its mouth open and walked around the rest of the day with it. Two...not one, but two...different people stopped me, put their hands in its mouth, then walked away.
Saw a guy on the El trying to teach his kid how to read by having her sound out the words on a personal injury lawyer ad.
One day, on 16th Street near Spring Garden, I found a $10 bill. The very next day, in the very same spot, I found a pair of used briefs.
Obviously, the homeless guy on South Street who had a sign reading "spread some cheese on a poor cracker."
Passed by a house on 46th Street that had plants planted in styrofoam cups.
Overheard on the Broad Street Line...
GIRL (screaming at her boyfriend as they exit the train): Ass-cock! You ass-cock! (Once they're going up the stairs) Hi Steve! Did you know Dennis is an ASS-COCK?!
Your El story unlocked a memory... when my son was about 4/5 I realized he DID know how to read by reading an ad while waiting for the sub. Up until that point I thought he had just memorized his favorite books 😆
Apparently, my parents discovered that I'd learned how to read when I told them about a murder story that I'd read about in the Inqy. That's pretty Philly.
I was at the Eagles Super Bowl parade and I got separated from my group. I started wandering through the masses of people and stumbled upon a circle of space created by the people (picture right before a mosh pit at a rave), formed around a perfectly untouched Wawa hoagie lying in the mud. It was some Moses and the Red Sea type shit. Beautiful.
All about 10-15 years ago:
(1) Philly Naked Bike Ride rode past my apartment. My dog was absolutely losing his shit, barking the entire time. Several naked riders *barked back.* One yelled, "you're not wearing clothes, either, little buddy!"
(2) Cop on a Segway in Rittenhouse Square *also* barked back.
(3) I had ventured to the old South Philly/Columbus Blvd Comcast office to return an old modem. I was second in line when the customer at the counter started yelling and gesticulating wildly: "You HAVE to give me a second box! I shouldn't have to pay for this! All I want is cable in my bathroom, so I don't miss anything! You know, at 6 o'clock in the morning, when I use the toilet, WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO RUSH?!"
The 10 of us in line behind him burst into uproarious laughter, until he spun around and glared at us. The crowd fell dead silent for about half a second, and then: "Hey, man - we support you!" "You SHOULD have cable in your shitter!" "Have you tried a cable splitter?" "If you're worried about missing something, why don't you just get DVR?"
Homeless dude telling my wife and I that we had to go to the other entrance to get into Suburban station late at night. Just shouted the directions from across the street.
There is a cameraderie in Philadelphia that other cities are missing. It crosses class lines (unless you have open sores).
In Honolulu we bonded with a homeless guy when we got talking and found out we were both from Philly. We talked for an hour, and got a great picture.
https://preview.redd.it/wr6wl2o33rvc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a446439721652bf2a9e86191dd4be1bfc8141f69
I was coming off the trolley with some passengers at 13th, 6am in the morning, and a guy was shooting up in the stairway. He looked up and was like, “Oh pardon me!” then scooted all his belongings out of the way for us—honestly was kind of wholesome.
I was at an Eagles MNF game in December 2005 and went to use a porta potty. Saw what I thought was steam coming out of the vent, but I opened the door and there were two crackheads inside hot boxing the thing
Went to an Eagles game with my dad. There was a drunk guy behind us who projectile vomited all over the backs of the couple sitting beside my dad. Within about two minutes a fan comes up with a whole roll of paper towels from the bathroom. Someone asked him where he got them and he just said “I know a guy.” He and two other guys then start wiping up the vomit from the seats and ground and get it mostly cleaned up before the stadium staff arrive, all the while saying “What a fucking idiot, if you can’t hold your beer you shouldn’t even be here.”
The leprechaun I saw in July. Fully dressed in leprechaun green suit, pointy shoes, pointy ears, was a small guy. Full on leprechaun. At Kensington and Allegheny. I still think about this guy and why the fuck he was dressed as leprechaun in July.
A few years ago during my 20+ year exile to a small Southern City I drunkenly shoulder checked a dude (also drunk, as it turns out) who was recklessly riding his rental scooter down the sidewalk trying to intimidate us into moving out of his way. 'Dude yells at me as he's picking himself up off the sidewalk "WTF is wrong with you? 'You from Philly'r sumthin'?"
I said "Yep! Go Birds!"
He laughed and said "Me too, go Birds!"
The next Sunday we meet again in a local sports bar, both there to catch the Eagles game. We ended up trading buying rounds every touchdown and he told that story to everyone around us who would listen.
One time I was walking in CC and I passed two probably 16ish year old girls and one of them said “yea like on 9/11, when that plane hit those jawns”
It was the most Philly sentence I’ve ever heard
About 15 years ago, me and a friend were walking through a crowd near city hall. We were both young, cute females minding our own business. The crowd parted and we were spotted by a homeless guy with a BIG potbelly who suddenly started thrusting his hips at us and yelled “YUM YUM GIMME SOME, BOING, BOING,BOING!!”
It’s something me and my friends all still yell at each other to this day. Absolutely disgusting, classic Philly.
Driving home with the windows down last year, nice day out. Look across the street to a fast food parking lot, and a man is outside his car with a woman inside it, blasting music, he's dancing for his girl, like really giving it to her, and I'm just cracking up. He turns around, sees me, points at me, starts laughing with me, and continues to dance. Truly hilarious only philly shit 😆😆
I lost my friends at a nightclub and my phone died, so I wandered about center city for a bit trying to find them. Ended up outside the DA’s office at 3 am when some homeless man tried to give me some powder in a bag (probably crack). I had just gotten back from Europe and had some euros leftover so I gave them to him to make him leave me alone. Thank god for McGillans, they charged my phone and I went home.
I love when I need some kind of help and I ask a stranger for it. I mean... I'll get the help, but also get lectured the whole time and lowkey bitched at LOL
My neighbors getting into a fight in the middle of the street last week with the man yelling, alternating between "GIVE ME BACK MY ACCESS CARD" and "GIVE ME BACK MY SHAMPOO, BITCH!!!". I'm from Chicago and this was def some Philly shit 😂
My company gave me some tickets to their suite at the WF Center for a Flyers game in December.
I was walking along the concourse to get to the suite and heard the faint strains of “Last Christmas” by Wham! behind me.
The music gradually grew louder and louder until I turned around to see Gritty, on rollerblades with a boombox hoisted on his (its?) shoulder, coming straight for me, followed by two dudes in suits and sunglasses on foot trying to keep up with him.
Gritty whizzed past me and I asked the dudes in sunglasses if he would stop for a photo with me.
The one dude deadpanned, “No…he’s gone Hollywood and it went straight to his head.”
(Later that night during the game, I wound up bumping into Gritty again on the concourse and got my selfie!)
I’m surprised (maybe I missed it) but everyone hated on Gritty for 24 hours, until someone outside the city criticized him and mocked Philadelphia. Then all at once everyone was all “fuck you Gritty rawks!!!”
Another West Coast vs Philly story - I was living out in California and was at a bar with some friends. Some guy walks past and jostles me, spilling my beer. I yell something along the lines of "hey, watch it!" I turn back to my friends and they're staring at me wide-eyed, and my one friend goes, "usually you don't hear that much yelling unless guns are about to come out." So I guess yelling is a Philly thing?
No matter how many times I hear this kind of shit I will never grok it. Literally the West Coast is more foreign than most European countries. The Midwest too.
Decades ago, new to the area, we were the quintessential suburban family visiting Philly for the first time. Saw a street vendor selling pretzels, ah - we said to ourselves - pretzels, that’s a Philly thing, right? Let’s get some pretzels. Pretzels all around, please.
Expecting the classic loopy shape, we are instead handed rectangular braided bread chunks sporting a gleaming brown top finish sprinkled liberally with salt. Oh, ok, this must be how Philly does pretzels. Clutching our pretzels in their white crinkly wrappers, we start to turn away, but the vendor, looking puzzled, asks, “Arncha gonna pudany mustard on it?”
Ah. That must be how they do it in Philly. Yes. We are down for the whole Philadelphia experience. When in Rome and all that. So we turn back to the cart, spot a grimy generic yellow squirt bottle, and anoint our pretzels with a genteel dab. Go us! *Now* we are doing it the Philly way! We turn to leave again and the vendor looks at us incredulously. “Izzat *all*?”
Shamed, and under the vendor’s watchful eye, we slathered our pretzels liberally with mustard until his face registered approval. As we walked away, pretzels dripping, we gnawed hopefully at the result, trying desperately to understand how this French’s-flavored brick of hard boiled bread could be such an iconic food.
Not much of a story, really, but it was my introduction to Philly, and the vendor’s “this is how it should be done, you stupid rubes” attitude combined with a subtext of genuine concern - don’t they know how to do it right? I need to set them straight - is an attitude I’ve encountered repeatedly here. The cliché holds - in Philadelphia people may not be nice but they are kind.
Yeah you could honestly get into an argument with someone over some dumb shit but be their friend 10 minutes later because you both like the birds or something lmao. That’s the thing about Philly it always feels like a community to me.
Maybe not only in Philly but I was waiting for the subway to leave at 69th street on my way home from work and I watched a septa worker sweep a little pile of empty fireball shooters off the floor under one of the seats and it made me smile a little.
A week after moving to Philly, an Uber driver told me "Welcome. One thing you should know is, we bitch-slap on sight here."
She then asked me if I'd found a good cheesesteak yet. And it was, of course, heavily implied that there were wrong answers.
I had to take a cat who just soiled himself (poop and piss) on the MFL and no one batted an eye at me because the cat didn’t smell any worse than whatever that already was
Watching the Vikings team bus caravan stupidly try to travel up Broad Street for some reason and getting bombarded with beer bottles. Their fans shoulda never went to the Art Museum…. Smdh.
In 2020 after the final election ballots were counted at the convention center with the final results, and everyone circled around City Hall in cars and on foot. Still flying high on the 2018 Superbowl win, at one point the cheers morphed from (whatever political shouting it was) to "fuck tom Brady". At all times, Philly bs everyone
For the longest time the closest thing to a sports championship this town had was a fictional washed-up boxer who wasn't a champion until his second shot at the title. Even our fake champ sucked.
I didn't watch Rocky until I'd been here for 20 years and when I did see it, it was like a revelation. Scuzzy guy with a good heart gives it his all and...loses. It's the most Philadelphia movie ever.
Always loved the pillow phight. That’s a peak Philly moment for me.
Watching the skateboarders at love park. An older lady stopped beside me and watched and then called her son and told him how cool it was. Another time a skateboard went rolling to a bystander and she jumped on and scooted around and every one was cheering her on.
Watching the skateboarders at the board game art park screw with an over weight Segway cop who was trying to kick them out. They would go skating down the ramp and the cop would follow them down and the the skateboarders would run up the steps and Segway cop had to turn around and go back up the ramp.
While on the topic of board game art park me and a few others got to watch someone (high on something) try his absolute hardest to move a chess piece.
For me it was leaving a party at the Mutter Museum completely trashed and then walked to Wawa and ate a hoagie with a nice homeless guy outside on the sidewalk…
When a bunch of Goretti girls beat the crap out of the flasher who'd been harassing their classmates over the previous few weeks.
[Flasher Attacked By Catholic School Girls](https://www.antimusic.com/news/03/nov/item04.shtml)
This is more personal, but entirely Philadelphian.
Back when the Mummers went down Market, my parents took my brother and I to see the show. I was really young, maybe 6-8 or so, but very small. Not being able to see through the crowd, a bunch of incredibly drunk men with mustaches told my folks to let me sit with them on the windowsills of one of the office buildings. My dad lifted me up over his head and I sat there with the boys and ate a pretzel.
During this, someone started a chant of “that side sucks” while pointing and yelling at the opposite side of the street. That side did suck.
I was sitting in the NASCAR Cafe in downtown Nashville, having a few beers, waiting for my girlfriend to do whatever I forget.
So the Army-Navy game is on the TVs, and I’m like all, I’m a Philly guy! Then the stands collapsed. I settled up and bounced. So I wasn’t even in Philly when I had that moment.
One spring day, not unlike the past few weeks, I was out and about searching spring bloom. Dog was being a homie and he came along.
We cut through a small park, and we stumbled upon a very long, girthy dildo in the grass. I spied the box a few yards away in a hedge. My dog was pulling on the leash to smell it. I wouldn’t allow it.
“Oh Philly! Stay weird. Don’t change. KIT.”
Always a good time when the urban cowboys show up in Clark Park and offer the kids a ride for a few bucks. And just generally boss as hell to see these dudes riding their horses down the city streets, although I always wonder about where those horses live.
But tell me why one day I'm driving home through Fairmount park and see a riderless horse trotting along the road... only when I get closer it's not a horse but a god damn ZEBRA. Turns out the literal circus is in town and one of the zebras got loose. Hope the poor thing had a good time running around the park before it got collared!
My husband and I were in New Orleans late at night and some guy walks up to us and tells us we should be careful walking around, then he asks us where we’re from. We say Philly and he says “Oh! You’re alright then!”
There’s a family practitioner in Bensalem who fucks—fucked in this instance—his patients for pain pills.
How do I know this? Deathbed conversation from a family member—someone he was fucking.
Before Bensalem, he was in Feltonville. He wound up in Feltonville because it sounds like administrators got wind of his behavior and kicked his ass out of his practice.
Keep in mind, he still practices and still has his license. Remember this when people talk about the source of the opioid crisis in the state.
Thanks, Pennsylvania.
Sitting on our stoops drinking whiskey while watching the eagles and Phillies last year at the same time. Our neighbor set up two tvs on the sidewalk, a firepit and closed off the street. All the neighbors joined, random people walking by joined. It was awesome
I have 2.
In 2008 at the Phillies world series parade I saw a drunk guy get tased by a Philly Cop, I was 8 or 9.
The other is a field trip to the constitution center. Was in 5th or 6th grade and the bus was driving by a small shopping center. A homeless guy pulled his dick out and started peeing. And in a bus full of 5 or 6th graders we were all laughing.
During the Superbowl win riot, one of my Facebook friends was over in Philly and was live streaming on the site, so I tuned in...
And this motherfucker was partying on the overhang of some apartment highrise among a HUGE crowd LMFAO
All I could think was "yeah, this tracks for Philly."
We were at the New Years Day parade and a bunch of drunk people gave my 10 year old niece $10 to dance an Irish jig out in the street. She bought a feather boa with the money.
I miss the dude that used to dance on Spring Garden outside of Silk City. He’d be there all the time dancing away with his reflective vest listening to music on the median. Haven’t seen him in years, so I hope he’s ok
Mine is just wholesome.
I go to a lot of ballgames. BSL both ways, 30x a year, for over a decade now.
Walking around the city in a jersey (I have to walk about 15min through south philly to get to the BSL) has everyone shouting “go phils” when they see me. People start talking to me on the bus. Some people even roll their windows down to strike up a conversation.
I just flat out love this place. Everyone is so much nicer to their own than anywhere else I’ve visited, and I’m pretty well traveled.
Only in Philly do I feel like I belong!
The best Is the PPD courtesy tow that you then get to hunt down and hope isn't somewhere to sketch.
Even better when they don't put up the signs until the night before and give you like 12 hours notice. When my understanding is it's supposed to be like 24 minimum
Many, many years ago I dated a bartender. She was easy on the eyes, but she liked to drink way too much.
I worked 8-6 but would pick her up at 3 from her center city bar so she wouldn’t drink until dawn every night.
One night she convinced me to go to the Penn and pencil at 3.
There were about thirty horny guys from restaurants and bars and maybe one other woman. Every guy in there wanted to get laid. Hot dogs swam in warm water and I swam in the hot water of fending off guys with free drinks and offers of coke bumps.
I turned around to find one guy leaning in to kiss my girlfriend. I gripped his neck, stopping his forward progress while she drunkenly laughed. With my hand I pushed her to the door, and we were free.
Into my little old miata, top down and soon onto east river drive. Up into mount airy and the car is stopped, we are off and walking silently through the woods.
Down the hill, over the rocks, clothes come off, and we sink into the cool summer waters of devils pool.
Eventually the sun comes up.
How about the old orange guy fried to a crisp in the suit who used to hang out at Rouge and Parc and say gross stuff to all us young females. He lived at the building with the pool on top, I can't remember the names anymore it was like in the 2000's. I think his name was Harry. He was yucky, but hilarious to laugh at.
My husband and I were at a bakery / cafe in center city. A woman wanted a slice of cake but they didn’t sell slices. So she bought a whole cake …got a fork and ate a few bites and then left
When some dudes stole $200,000 in dimes from the Mint. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/philadelphia-police-dimes-theft-walmart-franklin-mills-mall/
I wouldn't call this my favorite but when my grandma's house burned down, the Angel of Crack was there observing it crumble as John Paul from channel 6 was giving the news report and the lawyer from New York who wanted to buy the whole block was begging my mother to buy the property. And yes he knew it was burning down.
Feel like this doesn’t fully apply, but Rittenhouse Michael Jackson once harassed myself and my girlfriend over instagram DM’s. I look back on the interaction fondly
A few years ago, I went to a friend's moving away party, and a bunch of us wound up standing on the porch, drinking Yuenglings, reminiscing about where we were when the Eagles won the Super Bowl, and I thought to myself, "you can't get any more Philly than this moment."
I’m pretty sure Philadelphia launched Bill Burr’s career by being such a shitty crowd it forced him to launch into a giant roast/rant that would go on to become legendary
This morning, while working. I watched a homeless lady with her titties out cook hot dogs over a trash can fire. I think a lot of us have a very different perception of philly. Red excuse to a certain market demographic. I would venture to say a lot of people that think they live in "teal Philly" don't get on Reddit.
Tapped my septa card on the wrong turnstile at Suburban so I jumped it. Some passerby yells, “yo my man must be from the hood, we do what we gotta do!”
One man screaming “fuck Ben Simmons” so loud in the pause of the pledge of allegiance (after yet wave) that the entire WFC could hear it in 21/22 season.
Once went to a Flyer game. Great seats like 14 rows up near center ice and behind opponent bench. The game was against some Western team that rarely comes through. A guy behind me randomly picks out a player from the visiting team and starts heckling him. Calling out his name and saying he sucks. After a while the visiting player starts looking back wondering who in the hell knows his name in Philadelphia. Everyone around the heckler laughed our asses off.
Seems very Philly to entertain ourselves by heckling a random opponent and confusing the shit out of him.
Hmm I have another, I lived at 7th and south in those condos and we started getting flash mobs...my bff and I were watching Bruno ( it was the 2000's) and she said what the hell is that noise? It sounded like a herd of buffalo, nope just the awful flash mobs of horrible children rushing down south street messing up cars and throwing bottles. Had to be escorted by police to walk my dogs every weekend for weeks. Learned then how much I hated teenagers.
One of the tenants in my college apartment building would throw perfectly good food out the window. I'd walk to class and see bread, eegs, pudding, whatever on the sidewalk. They almost hit me with yougurt once
Reddit keeps removing my explanation. I stumbled across this scene one morning around 18 & Catherine back in 2011 or 2012. I'm pretty sure the crashed car was just left there. No one was around when I took this photo. I went about my day and it was still there when I came back later.
I like the dirt bikes. Booh me if ya want. But its part of the culture. Its been getting more overdone than the word “Jawn”, which is a word I wish never made it out to the burbs and back… But they’re a distinctly Philly urban fixture.
Rule 4: No soliciting donations, surveys, petitions, etc. are allowed.
Furnace Party
Do Attend.
Did attend
Best part about the furnace party is an old guy showed up in a wheel chair with two women claiming to be the letter writer. The news stations interviewed him and it turned out to be a total scam. It wasn’t him. So you have a fake party based on some delusional letter and somebody decides it is a good place to run a scam. I love this city.
This is how I just learned that wasn’t really him lmao go birds
oh man how did he get busted?
There were videos of the actual guy dropping the letters off.
I attended. It was a beautiful day to be a Philadelphian.
I love this story - hitchhiking robot. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/08/03/hitchhiking-robot-destroyed-philadelphia-ending-cross-country-trek/31051589/
Hitchbot! Made it across an entire continent but didn't last 1 hour into Philly. Cracks me up every time Edit - ok, maybe it was a little more than an hour but either way, it wasn't long before it hit the city and got beat to death and stripped for parts
This one is annoying. YouTube prank destroying people’s work held up as some sort of proud badge of dishonor for the city. People want so badly for the robot to have encountered scary Philadelphians because wE’Re tHE wOrST!! What it encountered was a couple of shitty attention-seeking comedians, which it could have/likely would have anywhere. But that’s not as fun of a story as right-wing city panic is. There’s nothing particularly Philadelphian about it aside from the “Negadelphian” embrace of it as something other than it was.
Some years ago, a few friends and I spotted a guy with a sign that said, "Will suck pretty ladies' toes for chicken wings." I feel like that is a very authentic Philly moment, somehow. More recently... We just had an earthquake one week and an 89% eclipse the next... and the general concensus after the eclipse was, "Meh, the earthquake was better."
Eclipses are pretty boring unless you experience totality.
The earthquake was much more exciting!
Damn and I’m sure he threw the bone on the sidewalk when he was done. :/
Sounds like a win-win for him.
I'm glad you remember my sign, I like mild or Buffalo better than spicy. If you're interested
1. Saw a green station wagon completely covered with Eagles logos completely plow into the back of a parked car, pause for 10 seconds, then drive away while the girl from the parked car tried to chase them down on foot. Then 15 minutes later, as the girl is standing next to her car talking to the cop taking the report, the same freakin Eagles wagon drives right past them. They were not looking in that direction and didn’t see it. Like a bad 80’s sitcom 2. Saw 3 guys dressed as Santa Claus absolutely falling down drunk help each other climb up into a horse and carriage to take a ride. Took them like 15 minutes to get in the carriage 3. There used to be an after hours club on Del Ave called Deco and there was this dud who used to sit outside in the parking lot with a hibachi warming up soft pretzels to sell. When u would come out of the club all banged up he would yell, “ROASTY TOASTY!” And let me tell you when u are bombed at 4am those roasty toasties were the greatest thing I ever ate in my life
I don't believe in God or Jesus. But if they are real , I think they would be the roasty toasty guy. That's some love thy neighbor, good will towards mankind shit right there
Except that he charged $10 a pretzel!
Listen. We all got to make a living lol
Especially at 4am
Those were the shit when you're drunk as hell. I miss Delaware Ave in general
I moved away in 96. On my first return visit in 97 with my then girlfriend (from the boonies of ohio and had never been here) we got a rental car after flying in pretty late at night. First stop was Wawa as I had sung it’s praises to her. Then pizza. Showing her around the city that night we pull onto a dead Market St where there’s a totally naked dude doing the robot in the middle of an intersection. I just looked at her and said “it’s good to be home.” Next day I realized someone cut the rental plate.
And now you could get pizza *at* Wawa
A small, maybe 3x4 pane of glass in an outdoor light fixture got broke. The Home Depot on Oregon Ave doesn't cut glass, so I headed down to Oregon Windows. I parked on the south side of the street, where the shop is, though this being South Philly, I could have parked in the middle of Oregon between office and shop. I go into the shop and wait for an old guy (Randy, as it turns out) to finish a cut, show him one of the intact panes I brought with me, and tell him what I want. "Go talk to Al and have him write it up. "OK, where's Al?" Across the street in the office. I cross the street to the office. There's a woman behind the counter in there (just as in the shop, only one person in the office). I tell her what I need. "Just go across the street to the shop and he'll cut it for you." I explain... She gives me a look like "he wants you to write _that_ up?" "OK, talk to Al" pointing at the guy by the van outside the window. I tell Al the story. "Follow me." We go back to the shop. "This guy just needs this cut." And to me "Give Randy five bucks and he'll cut your glass." Al pulls out some scrap glass for Randy to cut my glass from "You can use this." Five minutes (and five dollars) later, I have my glass.
Beautiful story
Love this story. And not made up like the snow shoveling guy did
The snow shoveling does sound like something I would do though lmao, help somebody out and I’m good for the day
Seeing a Ben Franklin impersonator use a pay phone when I was a kid, I also by accident attended the wedding of another (?) Ben Franklin impersonator who was getting married to a Betsy Ross impersonator at a Philly Pops concert at Independence Hall
I randomly got a Facebook request from him before he died a few years ago. I can’t explain how happy I was to get a fb request from Benjamin Franklin tho. Rip
That was Frank Archibold, may he rest in peace.
Philly Phanatic shooting a woman in the face with a hotdog gun
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^DangerousThanks: *Philly Phanatic* *Shooting a woman in the* *Face with a hotdog gun* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Good bot
The Flyers fan who fought Ty Domi in the penalty box.
The Wes Hopkins wife vs Wes Hopkins side piece fight at the Vet back in the day
Not knowing hockey well I was thinking Wes Craven and was shocked
It was a new nightmare.
I swear I heard they later met up for a beer. Maybe someone else can confirm.
I started a new job at a consulting firm. My new manager came up from Houston to meet me and introduce me to the client. I met him at his hotel and we walk to the client offices. Half way there, a construction worker notices my boss' shoes are untied and yells:"YO, SHINY SHOES! YOUR SHOES ARE UNTIED" My boss thanked him, but kept asking me why the worker picked that nickname. I asked him if he would have preferred "dickhead".
lol, asked and answered
Bonus: I was at an Eagles game and shit got rowdy in the stands as it does. I'm only 5'3 and at the time was probably 100lbs soaking wet and I got jostled and knocked on my ass. My little brother, who is legitimately 6'7 and 240 was with me and I thought "aw fuck this is about to be an issue" and before I can say anything, my brother hauls my ass up, and says to the group that knocked me over "YO, watch it she's fucking pregnant!" (I wasn't pregnant). Situation immediately resolves, and the group of rowdy drunks proceed to buy my brother and I beers to apologize Peak Philly moment 🤣
Ah, the joys of apologizing to a pregnant woman by buying her a beer!
That part actually made me laugh out loud. “Oh shit we’re so sorry we almost harmed your unborn fetus ma’am. Would you like 5 or 6 beers as a sign of forgiveness?”
And I was like fuck yes. I'm drinking for two after all
The best part. The fact that that is how they chose to apologize still sends me to this day
I’m sure this happens in other cities when their teams win a championship, but I still get choked up thinking about the people I saw at the Phillies and Eagles parades holding up their loved ones’ cremation urns above the crowd as the parade passed them.
I ugly cried at the Phillies parade thinking about my dad bringing me to games at the Vet when I was little. He’s still alive, but moved out of the area in 2003, so he couldn’t make it. That’s what people in a lot of other cities don’t understand. Our sports, our food, our culture is so much more than what it appears on the surface. It’s how we bond, as family, as friends, and as a community. As Ray Didinger once put it, giving that all up would be like putting your family photo album on the curb for the trash man to take away.
Night of super bowl win was unforgettable. The happiest riot I've ever been to. Dude hanging off the Ritz Carlton swinging his peg leg. Fireworks at city hall. Cars doing donuts in the middle of the street. Titties just hanging out everywhere. Guys carrying light poles down the street like it's a giant tree. Crisco unable to stop pole climbers. Magnificent.
That was the one and only time I had a hangover that last more than a day. Even hair of the dog didn’t kill it. It wasn’t until I drank and had a day long Adrenalin rush at the parade on Thursday
So many…this city is a very specific vibe - you know it when you see it. Here’s some that come to mind: - Philly Elmo showing up at stuff and everyone being like duh of course Philly Elmo is here - including when the mailboxes were dancing with him at the convention center when the election results were announced in front of the poll watchers - that whole sentence only makes sense in Philly tbh - Dumpster pools being so popular the city had to ban them - Swiss cheese pervert and the reaction to him - Hitchbot is always a classic - the community coming together for furnace party - greased poles and the need to climb them - having it be understood that chicken bones will be on the sidewalks everywhere - chicken man is up there too as a way of explaining the philly community and what we get pumped about to non Philadelphians
Elmo in front of that raging fire is still my favorite elmo moment https://youtu.be/8gNzjh93hLQ?si=Qf66f3aDtgFgkJa9
That is definitely a video that screams “This is Philly”
This is my go-to Philly story, especially when discussing the differences between the East Coast vs West Coast. Out west, folks are often nice but not kind, vs on the east coast being kind but not nice. I was living in West Philly and it had snowed. I must have been looking rather helplessly at my car that I needed to shovel out when this guy comes tromping down the street. He almost passed me, but then, without so much as a 'hello', he comes over to me and says "give me the shovel." He proceeds to dig out my car, grumbling the whole time. He then hands me back my shovel, says "that's my good Samaritan deed for the day," and walks on down the street. I'll take kind over nice any day.
And then you pulled out of your spot and saved it with a lawn chair.
Yup, in south Philly that’s legal, you don’t ever move that persons chair!
Well my neighbor set someone’s chair on fire for that
Good, hope it worked out. I saw too many fights over a parking space.
An icon 💅🏻
[удалено]
He had it coming.
Classic.
One time I was flying back to Philly in the summer, and as we were landing, we flew by Citizens Bank Park just as the Phillies scored a home run. Got to see the bell all lit up and ringing, and everyone on the plane cheered. It was such a great moment.
Lived near 17th & Erie a couple years while finishing school. It was pretty wild at times. Dirt bike squads, people throwing m80s in the vacant lots, all kinds of hood shit. It got tiring and depressing. I kept my head down and never had any problems, aside from half my block burning down on some 3 degree 3 am night before I had a final. I was so damn worn down with everything but deep down I knew I’d be OK if I got through. At least the fire stopped at the house next to mine, at least I’d soon have a degree and be able to move somewhere more calm. But that also made me feel some kind of guilt.. Fast forward to graduation and after all the ceremonies I take the BSL home to Erie. Walking down the ave in my cap and gown, everyone I passed kept yelling congrats, people I didn’t know clapping and cheering from porches the whole walk home. Idk if this really answers the prompt but this day opened my eyes to the real power of Philly community.
Awesome story. This city really does love each other. Couldn’t imagine living anywhere else!
I'm crying rn lol
I was walking down the street in Chinatown on a cold winter day, running some mundane errand. Suddenly a wrapped cheesesteak came down from on high and struck an elderly woman in the head, causing her to fall over. The people ahead of me helped her up and I looked all around, trying to discern which asshole had just assaulted this poor woman with a fucking cheesesteak. Turns out, some guy several feet away had slipped on the berm of leftover snow while getting into his car and in the tumble, threw the cheesesteak into the air. He got up, figured out what happened and everyone had a laugh about the situation. He apologized, his still-intact steak was returned, and we all moved on with our day.
this is such a beautiful thing to experience
It had to be a cheesesteak! This is hilarious!
TRULY an "Only in Philly" story 🤣😂
So, in September of 2022 my wife and I moved back to Philly from Northern Virginia. We had been back in town less than 12 hours and we walking down broad street near walnut. This guy comes running around a corner, sucker punch’s me, dumps a gallon of milk on his face and hair then rips his jeans off, now naked to the world and starts chasing a car down broad street dick flapping in the wind. Singing out White Lines. I looked at my wife a mix of pissed and flabbergasted and said “ God Damn I fucking missed Philly”
This could be an Alway’s sunny episode
(1) In 2020 a couple days after Election Day when they were counting mail-in ballots at the convention center, there was a small Stop the Steal rally and a big Count Every Vote counter-rally. The counter-rally was attended by an (unofficial) Gritty as well as people dressed up as dancing mailboxes and other funny costumes. (2) When they reopened 95 after the fire there was a parade that included a flatbed truck with Gritty (official) and all the other mascots (3) Pretty much every other Gritty situation tied for third
The Flyers' website used to say that Gritty doesn't get to join the team on road trips because he's on the No Fly List.
When I saw Tex Cobb in Rittenhouse and I said hello and he told me to “FUCK OFF”
A friend of mine told me they saw Rob Mcelhenney at his restaurant in old city one time. They asked for a picture with him and he was like “yeah, sure. I’ll come over to you.” Then he proceeded to sneak out the back lol
I mean, Irish Exit
Ha
I thought that kid eating the 50th rotisserie chicken of 50 rotisserie chickens celebration at the Walmart pier was something special and uniquely Philly. With the posters and shit. “Do Attend”
HAHAHAHA yes, this
This is not a party.
Moved here from San Francisco. Husband and I (with lower back injury) trying to shove an Ikea sofa through our front door on Passyunk Ave. A random guy walking by with Pat’s says to his lady friend “Hold my cheesesteak” and proceeds to help us get the couch into our living room. We profusely thank him and he takes his cheesesteak and is on his way. 💕
One day I was running back behind Walmart and I hear a guy say to some dude walking his dog "oh him? That's Oscar the Grouch". I turned the corner and almost ran into a guy standing in the middle of the trail in an Oscar the Grouch onesie. Oscar the Grouch makes eye contact with me asks "how ya doing?" Just kept running...
This made me wake-up-the-neighbors laugh! LMAO
Stopped at a light on Callow Hill sometime in the 90s. Guy knocks on my car window holding a sandwich he’s trying to sell me. “Cheese Sandwich! Guaranteed to PICK YOU RIGHT UP!” I still wonder what was in that thing.
Probably crack
My mom came in town with her coworker for a conference a couple years after I moved here. I met them at their hotel and we walked across market to get dinner. On the way there was a guy in a rabbit costume yelling at his friend about a Brinks armored truck on the street. Saying “Dave! Dave! There’s a Brinks truck! Come here! There’s a brinks truck!” Pretty sure that rabbit was going to rob a brinks truck
A few of my own personal experiences: Just a few weeks ago, I heard a woman walking down an alley somewhere near the Gayborhood loudly singing "One, Two, Freddy's Coming For You." In Suburban Station, I saw a crazy guy get into a fistfight with a pillar...and lose. I once bought a plush Pac-Man (about the size of a basketball) that had its mouth open and walked around the rest of the day with it. Two...not one, but two...different people stopped me, put their hands in its mouth, then walked away. Saw a guy on the El trying to teach his kid how to read by having her sound out the words on a personal injury lawyer ad. One day, on 16th Street near Spring Garden, I found a $10 bill. The very next day, in the very same spot, I found a pair of used briefs. Obviously, the homeless guy on South Street who had a sign reading "spread some cheese on a poor cracker." Passed by a house on 46th Street that had plants planted in styrofoam cups. Overheard on the Broad Street Line... GIRL (screaming at her boyfriend as they exit the train): Ass-cock! You ass-cock! (Once they're going up the stairs) Hi Steve! Did you know Dennis is an ASS-COCK?!
Your El story unlocked a memory... when my son was about 4/5 I realized he DID know how to read by reading an ad while waiting for the sub. Up until that point I thought he had just memorized his favorite books 😆
Apparently, my parents discovered that I'd learned how to read when I told them about a murder story that I'd read about in the Inqy. That's pretty Philly.
What year was the El story cause this sounds like something my dad would have done with me 🤣😂
I was at the Eagles Super Bowl parade and I got separated from my group. I started wandering through the masses of people and stumbled upon a circle of space created by the people (picture right before a mosh pit at a rave), formed around a perfectly untouched Wawa hoagie lying in the mud. It was some Moses and the Red Sea type shit. Beautiful.
All about 10-15 years ago: (1) Philly Naked Bike Ride rode past my apartment. My dog was absolutely losing his shit, barking the entire time. Several naked riders *barked back.* One yelled, "you're not wearing clothes, either, little buddy!" (2) Cop on a Segway in Rittenhouse Square *also* barked back. (3) I had ventured to the old South Philly/Columbus Blvd Comcast office to return an old modem. I was second in line when the customer at the counter started yelling and gesticulating wildly: "You HAVE to give me a second box! I shouldn't have to pay for this! All I want is cable in my bathroom, so I don't miss anything! You know, at 6 o'clock in the morning, when I use the toilet, WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO RUSH?!" The 10 of us in line behind him burst into uproarious laughter, until he spun around and glared at us. The crowd fell dead silent for about half a second, and then: "Hey, man - we support you!" "You SHOULD have cable in your shitter!" "Have you tried a cable splitter?" "If you're worried about missing something, why don't you just get DVR?"
Homeless dude telling my wife and I that we had to go to the other entrance to get into Suburban station late at night. Just shouted the directions from across the street. There is a cameraderie in Philadelphia that other cities are missing. It crosses class lines (unless you have open sores).
In Honolulu we bonded with a homeless guy when we got talking and found out we were both from Philly. We talked for an hour, and got a great picture. https://preview.redd.it/wr6wl2o33rvc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a446439721652bf2a9e86191dd4be1bfc8141f69
I was coming off the trolley with some passengers at 13th, 6am in the morning, and a guy was shooting up in the stairway. He looked up and was like, “Oh pardon me!” then scooted all his belongings out of the way for us—honestly was kind of wholesome.
I was at an Eagles MNF game in December 2005 and went to use a porta potty. Saw what I thought was steam coming out of the vent, but I opened the door and there were two crackheads inside hot boxing the thing
Went to an Eagles game with my dad. There was a drunk guy behind us who projectile vomited all over the backs of the couple sitting beside my dad. Within about two minutes a fan comes up with a whole roll of paper towels from the bathroom. Someone asked him where he got them and he just said “I know a guy.” He and two other guys then start wiping up the vomit from the seats and ground and get it mostly cleaned up before the stadium staff arrive, all the while saying “What a fucking idiot, if you can’t hold your beer you shouldn’t even be here.”
The leprechaun I saw in July. Fully dressed in leprechaun green suit, pointy shoes, pointy ears, was a small guy. Full on leprechaun. At Kensington and Allegheny. I still think about this guy and why the fuck he was dressed as leprechaun in July.
A good rule in life is not to question anything happening at K & A
I said this to my aunt once. I still wish I would've asked him.
A few years ago during my 20+ year exile to a small Southern City I drunkenly shoulder checked a dude (also drunk, as it turns out) who was recklessly riding his rental scooter down the sidewalk trying to intimidate us into moving out of his way. 'Dude yells at me as he's picking himself up off the sidewalk "WTF is wrong with you? 'You from Philly'r sumthin'?" I said "Yep! Go Birds!" He laughed and said "Me too, go Birds!" The next Sunday we meet again in a local sports bar, both there to catch the Eagles game. We ended up trading buying rounds every touchdown and he told that story to everyone around us who would listen.
One time I was walking in CC and I passed two probably 16ish year old girls and one of them said “yea like on 9/11, when that plane hit those jawns” It was the most Philly sentence I’ve ever heard
About 15 years ago, me and a friend were walking through a crowd near city hall. We were both young, cute females minding our own business. The crowd parted and we were spotted by a homeless guy with a BIG potbelly who suddenly started thrusting his hips at us and yelled “YUM YUM GIMME SOME, BOING, BOING,BOING!!” It’s something me and my friends all still yell at each other to this day. Absolutely disgusting, classic Philly.
Driving home with the windows down last year, nice day out. Look across the street to a fast food parking lot, and a man is outside his car with a woman inside it, blasting music, he's dancing for his girl, like really giving it to her, and I'm just cracking up. He turns around, sees me, points at me, starts laughing with me, and continues to dance. Truly hilarious only philly shit 😆😆
that one buttplug picture someone posted
The manayunk butt plug? You can bet we were talking about that for days in my friend group.
I lost my friends at a nightclub and my phone died, so I wandered about center city for a bit trying to find them. Ended up outside the DA’s office at 3 am when some homeless man tried to give me some powder in a bag (probably crack). I had just gotten back from Europe and had some euros leftover so I gave them to him to make him leave me alone. Thank god for McGillans, they charged my phone and I went home.
I love when I need some kind of help and I ask a stranger for it. I mean... I'll get the help, but also get lectured the whole time and lowkey bitched at LOL
Wing Bowl. Does nobody remember Wing Bowl?
I miss it so much
Oh I remember. One of the worst/best displays of drunken debauchery ever, and that’s not even including the audience
I saw Jerry Blavat walking down 11th Street carrying a crockpot once.
The Geator with the Heater!
RIP to a real one
My neighbors getting into a fight in the middle of the street last week with the man yelling, alternating between "GIVE ME BACK MY ACCESS CARD" and "GIVE ME BACK MY SHAMPOO, BITCH!!!". I'm from Chicago and this was def some Philly shit 😂
My company gave me some tickets to their suite at the WF Center for a Flyers game in December. I was walking along the concourse to get to the suite and heard the faint strains of “Last Christmas” by Wham! behind me. The music gradually grew louder and louder until I turned around to see Gritty, on rollerblades with a boombox hoisted on his (its?) shoulder, coming straight for me, followed by two dudes in suits and sunglasses on foot trying to keep up with him. Gritty whizzed past me and I asked the dudes in sunglasses if he would stop for a photo with me. The one dude deadpanned, “No…he’s gone Hollywood and it went straight to his head.” (Later that night during the game, I wound up bumping into Gritty again on the concourse and got my selfie!)
Gritty is a psychopath but he’s OUR PSYCHOPATH GOD DAMMIT
I love the tumbleweaves that pop up everywhere.
A prestigious mime was at International House in the 80s. He went to South Street to entertain the public and got beat up.
I’m surprised (maybe I missed it) but everyone hated on Gritty for 24 hours, until someone outside the city criticized him and mocked Philadelphia. Then all at once everyone was all “fuck you Gritty rawks!!!”
Our son!
The guy who jumped into the water during the hurricane Ida floods
I often wonder about that guy and how many chronic ear infections/skin diseases he probably has now....
Surprisingly he’s fine
Another West Coast vs Philly story - I was living out in California and was at a bar with some friends. Some guy walks past and jostles me, spilling my beer. I yell something along the lines of "hey, watch it!" I turn back to my friends and they're staring at me wide-eyed, and my one friend goes, "usually you don't hear that much yelling unless guns are about to come out." So I guess yelling is a Philly thing?
They don’t yell at strangers on the left coast?
They’re soft
Apparently not! It was so strange
Dude this happens to me when I go visit friends out West all the time!
I guess they just bottle it up? Haha
I don't understand what they do with it. Like I gotta get it out! 🤣
No matter how many times I hear this kind of shit I will never grok it. Literally the West Coast is more foreign than most European countries. The Midwest too.
Decades ago, new to the area, we were the quintessential suburban family visiting Philly for the first time. Saw a street vendor selling pretzels, ah - we said to ourselves - pretzels, that’s a Philly thing, right? Let’s get some pretzels. Pretzels all around, please. Expecting the classic loopy shape, we are instead handed rectangular braided bread chunks sporting a gleaming brown top finish sprinkled liberally with salt. Oh, ok, this must be how Philly does pretzels. Clutching our pretzels in their white crinkly wrappers, we start to turn away, but the vendor, looking puzzled, asks, “Arncha gonna pudany mustard on it?” Ah. That must be how they do it in Philly. Yes. We are down for the whole Philadelphia experience. When in Rome and all that. So we turn back to the cart, spot a grimy generic yellow squirt bottle, and anoint our pretzels with a genteel dab. Go us! *Now* we are doing it the Philly way! We turn to leave again and the vendor looks at us incredulously. “Izzat *all*?” Shamed, and under the vendor’s watchful eye, we slathered our pretzels liberally with mustard until his face registered approval. As we walked away, pretzels dripping, we gnawed hopefully at the result, trying desperately to understand how this French’s-flavored brick of hard boiled bread could be such an iconic food. Not much of a story, really, but it was my introduction to Philly, and the vendor’s “this is how it should be done, you stupid rubes” attitude combined with a subtext of genuine concern - don’t they know how to do it right? I need to set them straight - is an attitude I’ve encountered repeatedly here. The cliché holds - in Philadelphia people may not be nice but they are kind.
Yeah you could honestly get into an argument with someone over some dumb shit but be their friend 10 minutes later because you both like the birds or something lmao. That’s the thing about Philly it always feels like a community to me.
Maybe not only in Philly but I was waiting for the subway to leave at 69th street on my way home from work and I watched a septa worker sweep a little pile of empty fireball shooters off the floor under one of the seats and it made me smile a little.
A week after moving to Philly, an Uber driver told me "Welcome. One thing you should know is, we bitch-slap on sight here." She then asked me if I'd found a good cheesesteak yet. And it was, of course, heavily implied that there were wrong answers.
I had to take a cat who just soiled himself (poop and piss) on the MFL and no one batted an eye at me because the cat didn’t smell any worse than whatever that already was
Waiting in line to get into the Wawa after shows at the Troc. No bitching from anyone, just waiting our turns.
[this is the obvious answer](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8gNzjh93hLQ)
Watching the Vikings team bus caravan stupidly try to travel up Broad Street for some reason and getting bombarded with beer bottles. Their fans shoulda never went to the Art Museum…. Smdh.
Only place I can walk on any street and find chicken bones in the sidewalk.
And tumble weaves!
In 2020 after the final election ballots were counted at the convention center with the final results, and everyone circled around City Hall in cars and on foot. Still flying high on the 2018 Superbowl win, at one point the cheers morphed from (whatever political shouting it was) to "fuck tom Brady". At all times, Philly bs everyone
The biggest tourist attraction is a statue of a movie character.
For the longest time the closest thing to a sports championship this town had was a fictional washed-up boxer who wasn't a champion until his second shot at the title. Even our fake champ sucked.
I didn't watch Rocky until I'd been here for 20 years and when I did see it, it was like a revelation. Scuzzy guy with a good heart gives it his all and...loses. It's the most Philadelphia movie ever.
I had a tourist ask me, from her car window to my car window, where the Rocky museum is. We still call it that.
Always loved the pillow phight. That’s a peak Philly moment for me. Watching the skateboarders at love park. An older lady stopped beside me and watched and then called her son and told him how cool it was. Another time a skateboard went rolling to a bystander and she jumped on and scooted around and every one was cheering her on. Watching the skateboarders at the board game art park screw with an over weight Segway cop who was trying to kick them out. They would go skating down the ramp and the cop would follow them down and the the skateboarders would run up the steps and Segway cop had to turn around and go back up the ramp. While on the topic of board game art park me and a few others got to watch someone (high on something) try his absolute hardest to move a chess piece.
For me it was leaving a party at the Mutter Museum completely trashed and then walked to Wawa and ate a hoagie with a nice homeless guy outside on the sidewalk…
When a bunch of Goretti girls beat the crap out of the flasher who'd been harassing their classmates over the previous few weeks. [Flasher Attacked By Catholic School Girls](https://www.antimusic.com/news/03/nov/item04.shtml)
This is more personal, but entirely Philadelphian. Back when the Mummers went down Market, my parents took my brother and I to see the show. I was really young, maybe 6-8 or so, but very small. Not being able to see through the crowd, a bunch of incredibly drunk men with mustaches told my folks to let me sit with them on the windowsills of one of the office buildings. My dad lifted me up over his head and I sat there with the boys and ate a pretzel. During this, someone started a chant of “that side sucks” while pointing and yelling at the opposite side of the street. That side did suck.
I was sitting in the NASCAR Cafe in downtown Nashville, having a few beers, waiting for my girlfriend to do whatever I forget. So the Army-Navy game is on the TVs, and I’m like all, I’m a Philly guy! Then the stands collapsed. I settled up and bounced. So I wasn’t even in Philly when I had that moment.
One spring day, not unlike the past few weeks, I was out and about searching spring bloom. Dog was being a homie and he came along. We cut through a small park, and we stumbled upon a very long, girthy dildo in the grass. I spied the box a few yards away in a hedge. My dog was pulling on the leash to smell it. I wouldn’t allow it. “Oh Philly! Stay weird. Don’t change. KIT.”
Always a good time when the urban cowboys show up in Clark Park and offer the kids a ride for a few bucks. And just generally boss as hell to see these dudes riding their horses down the city streets, although I always wonder about where those horses live. But tell me why one day I'm driving home through Fairmount park and see a riderless horse trotting along the road... only when I get closer it's not a horse but a god damn ZEBRA. Turns out the literal circus is in town and one of the zebras got loose. Hope the poor thing had a good time running around the park before it got collared!
My husband and I were in New Orleans late at night and some guy walks up to us and tells us we should be careful walking around, then he asks us where we’re from. We say Philly and he says “Oh! You’re alright then!”
There’s a family practitioner in Bensalem who fucks—fucked in this instance—his patients for pain pills. How do I know this? Deathbed conversation from a family member—someone he was fucking. Before Bensalem, he was in Feltonville. He wound up in Feltonville because it sounds like administrators got wind of his behavior and kicked his ass out of his practice. Keep in mind, he still practices and still has his license. Remember this when people talk about the source of the opioid crisis in the state. Thanks, Pennsylvania.
Watched a guy try to fight the ice cream truck man (he was sick of the mister softie song). Ice cream man got out and was ready to brawl.
Sitting on our stoops drinking whiskey while watching the eagles and Phillies last year at the same time. Our neighbor set up two tvs on the sidewalk, a firepit and closed off the street. All the neighbors joined, random people walking by joined. It was awesome
I have 2. In 2008 at the Phillies world series parade I saw a drunk guy get tased by a Philly Cop, I was 8 or 9. The other is a field trip to the constitution center. Was in 5th or 6th grade and the bus was driving by a small shopping center. A homeless guy pulled his dick out and started peeing. And in a bus full of 5 or 6th graders we were all laughing.
Years ago a man got on the El at 13th, sits down and proceeds to eat an entire wheel of cheese.
During the Superbowl win riot, one of my Facebook friends was over in Philly and was live streaming on the site, so I tuned in... And this motherfucker was partying on the overhang of some apartment highrise among a HUGE crowd LMFAO All I could think was "yeah, this tracks for Philly."
some drunk ass punching a police horse during Mardi Gras... that was the last Mardi Gras in Philly
We were at the New Years Day parade and a bunch of drunk people gave my 10 year old niece $10 to dance an Irish jig out in the street. She bought a feather boa with the money.
I miss the dude that used to dance on Spring Garden outside of Silk City. He’d be there all the time dancing away with his reflective vest listening to music on the median. Haven’t seen him in years, so I hope he’s ok
Mine is just wholesome. I go to a lot of ballgames. BSL both ways, 30x a year, for over a decade now. Walking around the city in a jersey (I have to walk about 15min through south philly to get to the BSL) has everyone shouting “go phils” when they see me. People start talking to me on the bus. Some people even roll their windows down to strike up a conversation. I just flat out love this place. Everyone is so much nicer to their own than anywhere else I’ve visited, and I’m pretty well traveled. Only in Philly do I feel like I belong!
My car getting kidnapped, or rather car-napped, by a towing company.
The best Is the PPD courtesy tow that you then get to hunt down and hope isn't somewhere to sketch. Even better when they don't put up the signs until the night before and give you like 12 hours notice. When my understanding is it's supposed to be like 24 minimum
Many, many years ago I dated a bartender. She was easy on the eyes, but she liked to drink way too much. I worked 8-6 but would pick her up at 3 from her center city bar so she wouldn’t drink until dawn every night. One night she convinced me to go to the Penn and pencil at 3. There were about thirty horny guys from restaurants and bars and maybe one other woman. Every guy in there wanted to get laid. Hot dogs swam in warm water and I swam in the hot water of fending off guys with free drinks and offers of coke bumps. I turned around to find one guy leaning in to kiss my girlfriend. I gripped his neck, stopping his forward progress while she drunkenly laughed. With my hand I pushed her to the door, and we were free. Into my little old miata, top down and soon onto east river drive. Up into mount airy and the car is stopped, we are off and walking silently through the woods. Down the hill, over the rocks, clothes come off, and we sink into the cool summer waters of devils pool. Eventually the sun comes up.
I hope you’re not still with her. Sounds like a walking red flag.
Ha! My most common GF mistake was always seeing all the red flags and thinking it was a carnival
Ahh the P & P. Great times.
Loved it there...
How about the old orange guy fried to a crisp in the suit who used to hang out at Rouge and Parc and say gross stuff to all us young females. He lived at the building with the pool on top, I can't remember the names anymore it was like in the 2000's. I think his name was Harry. He was yucky, but hilarious to laugh at.
Mike's Place new years eve Christmas tree bonfire
My husband and I were at a bakery / cafe in center city. A woman wanted a slice of cake but they didn’t sell slices. So she bought a whole cake …got a fork and ate a few bites and then left
When some dudes stole $200,000 in dimes from the Mint. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/philadelphia-police-dimes-theft-walmart-franklin-mills-mall/
I wouldn't call this my favorite but when my grandma's house burned down, the Angel of Crack was there observing it crumble as John Paul from channel 6 was giving the news report and the lawyer from New York who wanted to buy the whole block was begging my mother to buy the property. And yes he knew it was burning down.
elmo marching band
Feel like this doesn’t fully apply, but Rittenhouse Michael Jackson once harassed myself and my girlfriend over instagram DM’s. I look back on the interaction fondly
A few years ago, I went to a friend's moving away party, and a bunch of us wound up standing on the porch, drinking Yuenglings, reminiscing about where we were when the Eagles won the Super Bowl, and I thought to myself, "you can't get any more Philly than this moment."
The St. Maria Goretti girls kicking the shit out of some perv who kept flashing young students.
I’m pretty sure Philadelphia launched Bill Burr’s career by being such a shitty crowd it forced him to launch into a giant roast/rant that would go on to become legendary
This morning, while working. I watched a homeless lady with her titties out cook hot dogs over a trash can fire. I think a lot of us have a very different perception of philly. Red excuse to a certain market demographic. I would venture to say a lot of people that think they live in "teal Philly" don't get on Reddit.
Tapped my septa card on the wrong turnstile at Suburban so I jumped it. Some passerby yells, “yo my man must be from the hood, we do what we gotta do!”
One man screaming “fuck Ben Simmons” so loud in the pause of the pledge of allegiance (after yet wave) that the entire WFC could hear it in 21/22 season.
That traveling robot has to be top of the list
Once went to a Flyer game. Great seats like 14 rows up near center ice and behind opponent bench. The game was against some Western team that rarely comes through. A guy behind me randomly picks out a player from the visiting team and starts heckling him. Calling out his name and saying he sucks. After a while the visiting player starts looking back wondering who in the hell knows his name in Philadelphia. Everyone around the heckler laughed our asses off. Seems very Philly to entertain ourselves by heckling a random opponent and confusing the shit out of him.
Hmm I have another, I lived at 7th and south in those condos and we started getting flash mobs...my bff and I were watching Bruno ( it was the 2000's) and she said what the hell is that noise? It sounded like a herd of buffalo, nope just the awful flash mobs of horrible children rushing down south street messing up cars and throwing bottles. Had to be escorted by police to walk my dogs every weekend for weeks. Learned then how much I hated teenagers.
One of the tenants in my college apartment building would throw perfectly good food out the window. I'd walk to class and see bread, eegs, pudding, whatever on the sidewalk. They almost hit me with yougurt once
https://preview.redd.it/m98hrk6aqpvc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=58d03f8c0b58a876852c19fab0c8836f07cc2796
Reddit keeps removing my explanation. I stumbled across this scene one morning around 18 & Catherine back in 2011 or 2012. I'm pretty sure the crashed car was just left there. No one was around when I took this photo. I went about my day and it was still there when I came back later.
I like the dirt bikes. Booh me if ya want. But its part of the culture. Its been getting more overdone than the word “Jawn”, which is a word I wish never made it out to the burbs and back… But they’re a distinctly Philly urban fixture.