The Mighty Twenty Three

One of the oldest  (before 1877) and longest urban bus routes, for many years the longest streetcar route in the world, is SEPTA's 23 bus, here in the Quaker City. Described as "SEPTA's rolling cash register", it winds from the wealthy reaches of Chestnut Hill, through historic Germantown, through the "Badlands", downtown and ends in deep South Philadelphia. Ridership changes from white to black to Asian to white en route.

Folks still work at getting it back to be a streetcar line, especially after seeing route 23 streetcars in robust daily service in San Francisco.
Among the landmarks it passes in North Philly is Fair Hill Cemetery, resting place for early Quakers, abolitionists and female rights advocates. According to some often verbose passengers that cannot comprehend the site signage or the several murals nearby, it is a) the oldest black cemetery or b) the oldest pet cemetery in a)Philadelphia or b) the United States. This may be due to the Quaker tradition of marking graves with very modest stones.

 

 

These days SEPTA's 23 and other busses have become more and more festooned with advertising that often covers the entire bus, making it look like a Heineken bottle or a large gin & tonic. They also have ads for personal injury lawyers (who sue one another to gain ad space on our public transit) on the back.

 

The 23 also passes two wonderful places, to me heavens on earth. First is the Reading terminal Market, which lends joy to conventioneers and jury members among many others. Its inside -

 

 





 Even better, just a few stops further south, is the Italian market, a mecca to some and a great place to get some python, buffalo tongue or a pig (that's a whole pig, as in pig roast). Someday maybe Connie and I can rent a place above one of these stores...