This is where it all began

This is where the card-collecting bug bit my friends, my brother, and me back in the 1960s. A Mom & Pop corner store in Collingdale, PA named Harry's Market. (When the pop-up balloon appears, click "Street View". It's the brick building on the right.)

[March 2013 edit: I fixed the above "Harry's Market" link. This store is now possibly a pre-school.]

This store had been a hairdresser for the past few decades, but back in the day (1967-72), the grassy area in front of the current store was all concrete. We would sit there with our backs to the wall and open our packs of cards... not wanting to wait the 3 minutes it would take us to walk home!

Our "backup store" (Walt's, now called "Steak 'Em Up"), and the store where I bought my 1967 football cards (Joe's) were one block down the side street on the right of the photo.

Also at that far intersection was a drugstore (Perry's, now closed), where in the late 60s/early 70s I would go buy The Sporting News, and sit at the counter drinking fountain sodas while poring over all the stats! (This must have started in 1968, because I can remember one of the first issues I bought was when Jax was tearing up the home run race early in his rookie season, before cooling off.)
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