Septa and the 70s: getting to Jerry’s place

The nonsense that takes up space in my memory bank.

Everyone who grew up in Philly was obsessed with the "Geator With the Heater"...everyone loved him, even 'those of us who couldn't afford to Make Memories in Margate.

While all my contemporaries were obsessed with Philly's legendary Geator,  Jerry Blavat, I was fantasizing about the rhyming  intellectual that  I personally idolized,  Dick Cavett.

They wanted their Jerry, I wanted Dick.

In the summer of 1972, I lied about my age, dragged two friends who also lied about their ages, and took the train to NYC to see a taping of "The Dick Cavett Show" for audience members who were eighteen and up.

I got to shake his hand and almost broke it, because as I was in the middle of  shaking it, the news was breaking that the taping would be cancelled because of the Democratic Convention.

That's what I get for lying...

Going to see Jerry Blavat was much easier.  There wasn't an age limit, and the taping of the show was in Philly.

I recall it took a few buses to get there with SEPTA, Philly's public transportation system.  You'd be on hold forever asking a SEPTA operator how to get from point A to point B, how many transfers you'd need.  You'd give them the very specific address of both your starting point and ending point, and I remember when my bestie Marla volunteered to map out our bus route.  

She called SEPTA and simply asked, "How do you get to "Jerry's Place?"

Without providing any address, but that was the name of his show, so she assumed that's all the info anyone would need.  

 I'm so glad those days of public transportation are behind me.  I'm certain everything is done via  an app these days, but I hated waiting on those  crowded   smoke filled platforms on freezing winter days.  I did love the smell of pizza wafting up to the elevated train..there's nothing like Philly comfort food!

Or Philly  music. 

Back to the topic at hand, Philly music.

I remember when Judi Trachtman almost missed the bus(she joined us one full stop after ours) but managed to see us and hop on.

I remember when Cathy Ripka left her loose-leaf notebook, filled with homework assignments, back at the last bus stop, and her boyfriend Michael Lennox volunteered to miss the taping and hike all the way back to the stop to try and find the book.

The things we did for love back then!

For comp tickets to a show!

For fun!

You didn't need to get lucky with 1iota, your only source  for getting tickets to a television studio these days, you just needed a wall phone and an address.

I can picture that studio now...packed with excited eighth graders like me, dressed alike, with unflattering center parts in our uninspired hair styles,  watching our idol do a dance that looked like a chicken was trained to do.

"Go Jerry, go!" we'd shout.

Betcha he's still going..

RIP, Jerry Blavat.