This week we first got the news that the UCD won a bronze "Telly Award" for their "Left of Center" tourism video. This video, which plays in 14,000 hotel rooms in 46 area hotels, can be viewed online at the UCD’s website. You, as local residents can vote on it, too.
Then, we were informed that the UCD was awarded the Top International Creative Award for Production of Tourism Video from The Summit International Awards organization, a group dedicated to furthering excellence in the communications industry.
When you were a kid, going to the May Fair, at Clark Park, you didn’t really know much, that a civic association—Spruce Hill—had to put it all together. (A lot of work!) Na. It was, like, for kids. It was a time to celebrate that it was Saturday, not a school day. That, with Spruce Hill May Fair finally here, summer (no school at all!) couldn’t be far behind.
Clark Park, May Fair, perfect together, right? The historic sound of old trolley cars clanging their business up and down the tracks. Charles Dickens, in stone. Holding forth, on his throne, there, for Little Nell: the kindly, understating, listener, Uncle figure who’d always be there for us, whether we got into trouble or not.
May Fairs…. Let’s see: I remember the simple (and personal) stuff. The fire engine stopping hotly by, for a free ride, but no fire to worry about. My father on the loudspeaker (one of the perks for serving as a president), trying to place a lost child while making him or her laugh instead of cry, or hustle raffle tickets. My mother, selling her first pointing, outdoors, at least, off a colorful clothesline rigged up by an artist’s co-op of friends. There was the dog contest, on the wooden stage, for which our beloved brown and white cocker spaniel won a prize. The smell of almost charred hot dogs, hamburgers, mixed with the sweet burning incense of also health conscious cotton candy (always a mystery, how, in the machine, it would spin, gather up, like wool out of lint, into a massive yet ever so light soft pink fluffy spool you knew, barely held upright by paper cone, would get messy). The ingenious engineering of: you put a stick of hard candy deep into a lemon, suck on it long and hard enough, and the sourness of the lemon became, actually, an interesting drink, with before long, the candy stick vanishing…
The Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustments granted Tom Lussenhop a continuance for the proposed boutique hotel at 400 S 40th St. on Tuesday, May 6th.
"We still need to go through the Philadelphia Planning Commission and Spruce Hill Zoning," said Lussenhop’s Attorney, Carl Primavera when explaining the grounds for requesting a continuance.
Marty Cabry, assistant to Councilwoman Janie Blackwell of the 3rd District stated for the record, "that the councilwoman did not object," to deferring the hearing.
Spruce Hill’s annual May Fair turns 50 this week, and with the milestone comes more of the good food, lively music and community sharing that visitors have enjoyed for the last half-century.
The fair, a fund-raising event for the Spruce Hill Community Association, will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday (May 10) in Clark Park, at 43rd and Baltimore. Proceeds will go toward block beautification projects and other community improvements.
About 20 jewelers, crafts people and other artisans will be offering their work for sale – a chance for last-minute gifts for Mother’s Day and other occasions. For sale at the booths this year will be hand-crafted jewelry, hand-made children’s clothing, origami, original art work and photography, textiles, metal-working and stained glass.
