withDRAW — john james pron

www.youtube.com/@johnpron4683

withDRAW calling card rear.jpg

PENN (re)TREAT(y) PARK          For millennia before the Quakers, a site along the Delaware River in Northern Liberties was a Leni Lenapi summer encampment.  Site of the legendary “peace treaty” wi

DAM(N) THE COHOCKSINK CREEK          During the American Revolution, British soldiers occupying Northern Liberties dammed the mouth of this smelly, polluted creek to create a defensive moat beneath th

MADONNA AND CHILD            An Iconostasis is an ornamented screen found in Orthodox churches to separate the congregation from the altar, its portal marking the transition from earth to heaven.&

ESCAPE           Young Eastern European men- uneducated serfs with no language skills- only got the most menial, physically demanding, poorly paid jobs in Northern Liberties’ heavy industry factori

ALLEY RATS          Kids all over the world always play like kids- whether in the royal gardens of Buckingham Palace or the ruins of Gaza.  In a neighborhood lacking in parks, playgrounds and commu

SCROUNGING FOR HEAT          This is my mother’s story: as a small girl, given a bucket to walk to neighboring train tracks, she collected stray coals that bounced out of rolling rail cars- all to heat

OMNIPRESENT CHURCHLIFE          The churches of Northern Liberties- Russian Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Ukrainian Orthodox, Ukrainian Catholic- all of them were THE most important ins

MARKET DAY          The social center of every town in early 19th century America was the market and Northern Liberties- too distant from center city Philadelphia- had its own where local farmers hawked

STOOPSITTING       Northern Liberties was a neighborhood of rowhouses, and so-like many other Philly neighborhoods, front stoops were a place to hang out, sit, kibitz, gossip.  In good weather, it was not the fra

FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY          While sidewalks lined with stoops were public spaces, the dead-end alleyways were semi-private, belonging to the immediate neighbors who lived in the very tiniest father/so

GRANDFATHERS      I never knew either grandfather.  The bones of one- a young man and father to 8- lie in an unmarked grave near where I now live. Cross, gravestone, records- all lost. The other- a lonely widower, inc

147 WEST LAUREL STREET         My father “saved” my mother by marrying her.  She was of a different ethnicity and religion, poor, scarcely educated, socially inexperienced and shy.  But my father’s

ARCHITECT          Yes, indeed, change is good and evolution cannot be thwarted, but why can’t the  newfangled architecture of Northern Liberties mesh sensitively with the older fabric?  Can’t

NERD          A tough neighborhood but a frightfully scrawny kid, and so, very vulnerable to being bullied.  “Throw a punch at me, and I’ll throw my book right at you!”   I did survive.&n

ROMAN CANDLES          Growing up in an anonymous rowhouse in a monotonous NE Philly, well, through books and pictures, I became intrigued with the richness of ancient architecture.   Being an

NO MO’ NO LIBS          Unlike other historic Philadelphia neighborhoods, Northern Liberties continues to be devastated by highways, condo towers and wildly insensitive (albeit creatively interesting) t

The word "ICON" means image, and in the Eastern Byzantine Empire, holy icons were images of sacred figures and events and were accorded extraordinary, even miraculous powers. They infilled the ICONOSTASIS screen wall of churches and were venerated

icon: AMERIKA : the goal of all immigrants

icon: MATERNAL GRANDPA:  no photos exist                                  &nb

icon: MATERNAL GRANDMA: the great matriarch, doing it alone

icon: UKRAINIAN UNCLE : he never came to America, neve r knew his parents

icon: UKRAINIAN AUNT: his wife, unknown                                    &n

icon: BRIDE & FLOWER GIRL: my mother & her eldest sister- my surrogate grandmother

icon: PATERNAL GRANDPA:  holding my father’s  high school graduation picture                           &n

icon: PATERNAL GRANDMA: she was the loving anchor of her family

icon: POP FIGHTING THE NAZIS :  in the US Navy for World War 2.

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www.youtube.com/@johnpron4683

withDRAW calling card rear.jpg

PENN (re)TREAT(y) PARK          For millennia before the Quakers, a site along the Delaware River in Northern Liberties was a Leni Lenapi summer encampment.  Site of the legendary “peace treaty” wi

DAM(N) THE COHOCKSINK CREEK          During the American Revolution, British soldiers occupying Northern Liberties dammed the mouth of this smelly, polluted creek to create a defensive moat beneath th

MADONNA AND CHILD            An Iconostasis is an ornamented screen found in Orthodox churches to separate the congregation from the altar, its portal marking the transition from earth to heaven.&

ESCAPE           Young Eastern European men- uneducated serfs with no language skills- only got the most menial, physically demanding, poorly paid jobs in Northern Liberties’ heavy industry factori

ALLEY RATS          Kids all over the world always play like kids- whether in the royal gardens of Buckingham Palace or the ruins of Gaza.  In a neighborhood lacking in parks, playgrounds and commu

SCROUNGING FOR HEAT          This is my mother’s story: as a small girl, given a bucket to walk to neighboring train tracks, she collected stray coals that bounced out of rolling rail cars- all to heat

OMNIPRESENT CHURCHLIFE          The churches of Northern Liberties- Russian Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Ukrainian Orthodox, Ukrainian Catholic- all of them were THE most important ins

MARKET DAY          The social center of every town in early 19th century America was the market and Northern Liberties- too distant from center city Philadelphia- had its own where local farmers hawked

STOOPSITTING       Northern Liberties was a neighborhood of rowhouses, and so-like many other Philly neighborhoods, front stoops were a place to hang out, sit, kibitz, gossip.  In good weather, it was not the fra

FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY          While sidewalks lined with stoops were public spaces, the dead-end alleyways were semi-private, belonging to the immediate neighbors who lived in the very tiniest father/so

GRANDFATHERS      I never knew either grandfather.  The bones of one- a young man and father to 8- lie in an unmarked grave near where I now live. Cross, gravestone, records- all lost. The other- a lonely widower, inc

147 WEST LAUREL STREET         My father “saved” my mother by marrying her.  She was of a different ethnicity and religion, poor, scarcely educated, socially inexperienced and shy.  But my father’s

ARCHITECT          Yes, indeed, change is good and evolution cannot be thwarted, but why can’t the  newfangled architecture of Northern Liberties mesh sensitively with the older fabric?  Can’t

NERD          A tough neighborhood but a frightfully scrawny kid, and so, very vulnerable to being bullied.  “Throw a punch at me, and I’ll throw my book right at you!”   I did survive.&n

ROMAN CANDLES          Growing up in an anonymous rowhouse in a monotonous NE Philly, well, through books and pictures, I became intrigued with the richness of ancient architecture.   Being an

NO MO’ NO LIBS          Unlike other historic Philadelphia neighborhoods, Northern Liberties continues to be devastated by highways, condo towers and wildly insensitive (albeit creatively interesting) t

The word "ICON" means image, and in the Eastern Byzantine Empire, holy icons were images of sacred figures and events and were accorded extraordinary, even miraculous powers. They infilled the ICONOSTASIS screen wall of churches and were venerated

icon: AMERIKA : the goal of all immigrants

icon: MATERNAL GRANDPA:  no photos exist                                  &nb

icon: MATERNAL GRANDMA: the great matriarch, doing it alone

icon: UKRAINIAN UNCLE : he never came to America, neve r knew his parents

icon: UKRAINIAN AUNT: his wife, unknown                                    &n

icon: BRIDE & FLOWER GIRL: my mother & her eldest sister- my surrogate grandmother

icon: PATERNAL GRANDPA:  holding my father’s  high school graduation picture                           &n

icon: PATERNAL GRANDMA: she was the loving anchor of her family

icon: POP FIGHTING THE NAZIS :  in the US Navy for World War 2.