Havertownies HQ was in the house at the Haverford Middle School concert on Wednesday, December 6th 2017 at 7:00pm at the Haverford High School auditorium. Our district's music program is pretty kick-ass, and the concert was yet another demonstration of it. You don't have to know much about music to appreciate the performance, shown below in music director's Alex Gittelman's video (that's Mr. Gittelman conducting). You just have to know what it's like to herd cats, and imagine those cats wielding fireworks. This is what it is like getting a bunch of 11-, 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds to play complicated band and orchestral pieces together. We were really impressed. This video doesn't do the full sound justice, but it still sounds good and you can get an idea of all the work everyone put in. Congrats, players and directors, and frankly, sincere congrats to the teachers and administrators who create and handle a-thousand-moving-parts schedules of said cats every week, month and year. Good job and great show! Thank you, all. … [Read more...]
L’Angolo-West Review
In November 2016, the Inky’s famed restaurant reviewer Craig LaBan named L’Angolo in South Philadelphia as one of his favorite Italian BYOBs. We, the mom and pop proprietors here at TownieHQ, had yet to try out it’s H-Town sister, L’Angolo-West. LaBan said the South Philly restaurant was a “gem … for garlicky artichokes, grilled seafood, and braised duck pappardelle.” We were excited to try our local versions. Friday night, June 22, we headed over to celebrate our 20th year of marriage. The problem, which if one is truly Italian isn’t a problem at all, was that we couldn’t get a reservation until 9pm. 9pm is the early crowd in Italy. We’ve been to Italy. The only people dining out before 9pm are the Americans. No worries. The weather was holding, so we walked over to Crossbar to have a beer while we waited. We said hello to people we knew sitting under the umbrellas at Crossbar. We went in and found seats at the counter. On our right, we met a nice young man in fatigues, tattoos and a jarhead haircut who recommended Jai Alai beer (can). He said it was a popular beer akin to Sierra Nevada that he serves a lot in his bartending job. (The conversation went by quickly so we didn’t catch the establishment where he works.) On our left was a young couple who are expecting their first child in September. They are moving to Htown from Roxborough, mostly for the schools and the easier commutes. Sounds just like us, but back in 2000. We welcomed them and told them to look for community groups on Facebook to join. 9 pm rolled around. We walked up to Eagle past the Oakmont Pub. L’Angolo’s was hopping, with most of the outdoor seating occupied. We opted to sit inside. We were greeted warmly by Loraine, the hostess, at her tiny stand right by the door. The entrance to L’Angelo-West is a double doorway with a ramp in between the doors. The entrance seems like it could be redesigned to add for more waiting area. We were the last stragglers of the evening though; Loraine … [Read more...]
Let’s get Swoop & the Eagles Cheerleaders to a Fords Football Game!
"Game of the Week" is an event covered by the Philadelphia Eagles media department (which gets local news coverage). If you have a twitter account, please vote for the Fords game scheduled for October 14th at home. Here's what you do: Go to the current GAME OF THE WEEK. Click on the middle option "@mntigers vs @fords_football". Click through to tweet it out. The most tweets wins! You can tweet it as many times as you like. Right now, we're waaaay behind so we need some help. Voting ends at 11:59 on October 9th. The Fords are 4 and 2. They are having a great season and this team, the band, the cheerleaders, the boosters, the fans, the coaches and everyone involved in HHS sports deserves some recognition! (And heck, you can always delete your tweets after October 10th). If you know any Tigers football advocates, ask them to tweet too. Tweets don't have to be regional, so get the cousins involved, too (we know you have a ton!). Send them the link. Let's do this for our kids and our awesome athletics at HHS! … [Read more...]
Gallery Mall downtown looks like a post-apocalypse scene
Here's a pic from Hidden City Philadelphia's Instagram account: This pic made us wonder about the good old Granite Run Mall, demolished last year. It turns out that "Abandoned Malls" is a thing. We'd heard about "urban exploring" or "decay" seekers wandering around the old Swell Bubblegum Factory in the space now occupied by the YMCA. Apparently "Abandoned Malls" is a popular pastime with these type of folks. A YouTube guy named Dan Bell did visit and tape the Granite Run Mall before it closed, when only a handful of stores were still open. Meanwhile King of Prussia has a brand new wing. The new section's shiny bright newness makes the rest of the mall look like total crap, but hey, that mall is KICKING. Thank god. And Springfield is hanging in there too despite being the bridesmaid for Mall Rats 2. … [Read more...]
Veterans Park, Broomall
The scene tonight at Veterans, when we were on another Pokémon Walk … [Read more...]
School year starts for us after labor day
Seems like lots of parents from other parts of the Commonwealth and beyond are posting back-to-school pics. Not Townies! The Haverford School District begins after Labor Day. According to this 2013 article, our district is one of 57 out of about 500 in PA that begins after the holiday. We all seem to be OK with this. For now, anyway... because the Atlantic Ocean is still cold in the early part of June and an overwhelming amount of us seem to head down the shore for one last hurrah over the Labor Day weekend. It's like when the kids in the Poconos have off the first day of hunting season: may as well give 'em the day because they won't show up to school anyway. We here at HavertowniesHQ think the logic is the same. We like our late summer days down da shore! Plus, we need the extra days to get everything on the supply list. What do you say? Would you want the school year to start earlier? … [Read more...]
Watch for cars on the trails
We've been noticing township cars cruising the the Pennsy and Merry Place trails. The Merry Place trail is way too narrow for both a township truck (like Animal Control) and say, a stroller. Definitely not a double stroller! Hopefully when they come by you'll be walking near a space to get out of the way. Pennsy trail has plenty of "shoulder;" Merry Place's trail does not. … [Read more...]
PokéWalk Tonight! Veteran’s Park in Broomall 7:30pm
Havertownies Unite! Let's meet at the gazebo in Veteran's Memorial Park in Broomall tonight at 7:30. This park ROCKS for Pokémon!!! It's a best-kept secret for trainers! The park has a little loop walk with over a dozen Pokéstops and a gym. Come fill up your bags and trade tips and show us the rare Pokémon you've collected. Tonight's weather will be clear and a comfy 82 degrees F. This is a great walk for kids. A ton of stops are right next to each other, so it's super easy to load up on Pokémon and items for your bags. Meet in the gazebo at 7:30 tonight and we'll start walking. We'll do one loop around the park together (less than a 1/2 mile). You can keep going round and round tie the sun goes down or gather back at the gazebo or grab a bench to battle at the gym. Bring water bottles and bug spray! Spread the word! DETAILS: Tonight, Wednesday July 20 2016 at 7:30 pm-sundown Veteran's Memorial Park, 354 Lawrence Road in Broomall, PA (Marple township). Parking is available. Meet at the Gazebo at 7:30pm. Come a little early or a little late! Just look for your fellow Pokémon trainers! If the parking lot is full, see the neighboring streets for street parking. There is a light at Warren Blvd to cross. … [Read more...]
Storm swishes through Swiss Farms and H-Town: Photos
Here are some photos collected from Townies and news sources. We're adding as we go. Click on the photo to flip through the gallery: … [Read more...]
Recycling moving today
Today the glass and paper/cardboard recycling bins (why never any plastic?) will move to some place in the township you’ve likely never been: the Fire Training Grounds. If you’ve ever walked Merry Place’s Darby Creek path all the way to the end, you’ve run into the fire training grounds. The area has a township building, a parking lot and a fire tower. This will be the new home of the big recycling dumpsters that were by the skate park. Merry Place got the Skate Park. The fire grounds got the recycling. Shit’s getting real on the new police/township building. Here’s a map: To get to the bins, you need to take that left at the light into the weird medical building complex off WCP. You know: that road you take to get to Barnaby’s. Follow that road around and take a left on Hilltop Road. There’s a little drive off to the left for the fire training grounds. Our guess: those bins will see a LOT less use. … [Read more...]
Retiring old flags, and YAY! Flag Day!
Tuesday, June 14, 2016 is Flag Day. Let's show Delco how it's done! __________________________ The US Library of Congress tells us the legend of the flag, which all Townies should know by now: It's said that George Washington approached Betsy Ross (a seamstress) to sew up a flag. This was in June of 1776, a month before the Declaration of Independence was to be announced. We imagine good old Betsy had to tell the rest of her clients to GFY for that month. Having a rush job to make an entire new flag for a new country that would undoubtedly go to war soon was probably a bit stressful. Anyway, it got done. And how shrewd of old George to know a flag would be needed before the big day. It's almost as if the Founding Fathers knew what they were doing, eh? There have been 27 different versions of the US flag. The current one we have was established in 1960, after Hawaii was the 5-0 State of the Union. We'll probably see more states added in our lifetime, namely Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands or others. We always thought 52 stars would be nice, as it would match a card deck. The US was such a huge gamble in the beginning. A card deck is fitting, in a way. Someone in HavertowniesHQ direct area flies a flag that is tattered and torn. This is a big no-no. Let's all display nice, intact flags this Tuesday. No stains, rips or shreds. New flags are sold everywhere and they aren't that expensive. Also, if flags are flown at night, they must be lit up like the Fourth of July. Let's make an effort. The flag is for everyone, not just the crazies. Let's win the most-flags-out-on-flag-day (non-existent) prize. Maybe we can get some good press in The News of Delco. We might not be the la-dee-dah safest township in Pa but we're a civil rights, life, liberty, pursuit-of-wine-sales-in-Giant loving bunch, despite our political differences. Can we all just stick out one little flag on Tuesday? Let's do it. The scouting troops in the area and the VFWs take old … [Read more...]
Armed Robbery, Car and Foot Chase, Arrest
This latest Press Release from Haverford Police Department reads like a movie script. (But holy crap, armed robbery?! At Grasslyn and Ellis?!) HAVERFORD TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPARTMENT 1010 Darby Road Havertown, Pennsylvania 19083 Official Press Release On Friday May 27, 2016 at 0211 hours Haverford Township Police were dispatched to the area of Grasslyn Avenue and Ellis Road for an armed robbery that had just occurred. The initial investigation revealed that two actors armed with handguns had just robbed a subject at gunpoint. The victim stated that the actors were two black males; one was described to be in his twenties, thin build approximately 5'10', clean shaven and wearing a gray or white shirt and black pants. The second actor was described as, being a heavy build with a full beard wearing dark clothing. The victim stated the gun displayed was dark in color. The actors got into a silver colored Hyundai and fled the area at a high rate of speed. While officers were checking the area for the suspect vehicle they were advised that Marple Township Police were in foot pursuit of two suspects at West Chester Pike and New Ardmore Avenue in Marple Township. Haverford Township Police units did respond to that location. Marple police reported that they observed the silver Hyundai traveling westbound on West Chester Pike and attempted to stop the vehicle. The vehicle failed to stop and pulled into the parking lot of 2201 West Chester Pike Broomall. Both occupants exited the vehicle and fled on foot. Officers from Marple Township, Newtown Square Township, Springfield Township and Haverford Township established a perimeter in the area and initiated K-9 tracks. HTPD K9 Jango located 9mm black in a grass lot adjacent to 2201 West Chester Pike. Police located a black male subject hiding in an exterior basement stairwell of a residence. The subject was taken into custody without incident. HTPD K9 Jango located a second handgun in the rear yard where the … [Read more...]