CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Bocce Club's July 4th at the Water Tower

 

At the Philadelphia Water Tower Recreation Center in Chestnut Hill, a magician named John brought Anna and "Jimmy the Paleontologist" up on the stage as audience volunteers. July 4th Independence Day celebration produced by the Bocce Club.

AAA's Evelyn Houck rescues stranded Christmas Eve drivers

Evelyn Houck, a blond haired, blue eyed, AAA flatbed truck driver and mechanic whose home base is in Southwest Philadelphia made a call late Christmas Eve afternoon to a customer in Chestnut Hill. Houck jumpstarted the car to the delight of the customer who needed to pick her dog up at the pet store where it had been left, apparently, for a Christmas “do”. Houck expected things would get busy very shortly when some shoppers making last minute purchases at the Cheltenham Mall would return to their cars to sadly discover that they didn’t have their keys or had a flat tire or couldn’t start their car for one reason or another. This is the third consecutive Christmas Eve Houck has worked. She enjoys rescuing stranded drivers. Watch video here.

YOU’RE WORKING CHRISTMAS EVE.  Unfortunately, yes I am but you know what? At least I’m out here helping the people get on their way – [pointing to customer] saving your dog… You know everybody’s at the mall doing their Christmas shopping. So probably around 6 o’clock, that’s when the mad rush starts- getting home from the mall to their house – car didn’t start, car keys in the car locket out, flat tire, overheat, you know, all that fun stuff…I’m the only one in my shop now that’s a female doing this job but there are a couple other tow operators that work for different companies that are in this business, too.  AND HOW DO YOU GET THE HONOR OF HAVING THE FLAT BED? I love it. It gets the job done. Let me tell ya, this baby gets the job done. Cars with broken axels, ball joints, tie rod ends. Trying to get those babies up there is a hassle but ya know what? I get them up and I get them down. Rollovers, flip-overs, all those, yes, I do everything…. Some people don’t understand when they have a car, some dealerships don’t even show them where the spare tire is and they’re usually underneath the vehicle. You have to pop open the back, get underneath, and you have to see for yourself that there’s a spare. AND YOU HAD ONE TODAY? Yes, I did, and she was very happy that I didn’t have to tow her.  WAS SHE SURPRISED? Oh yes, she was very surprised that I jumped out of the truck… The big muscular guy – I get out of my tow truck and he just says one word “Gimme the jack.” It takes him twenty minutes to kindly walk back over and say, “Can you give me a hand?” I gave him a hand, showed him how to do it and now he went on his way. And now he’s probably going to call back triple A and ask for a guy now.”