-->
Way back in the last century while serving in the U.S. Navy I was stationed aboard the U.S.S. Guadalcanal. We spent most of 1979 undergoing a refit and refurbish overhaul in the Philadelphia Naval shipyard. For the most part The Guad was uninhabitable during that time, so, we lived in a barge. Or in Navy speak, one mil std non-self propelled berthing and mess, barracks barge; an APL, moored to a pier. You can see a similar APL moored at the river end the first dry dock. It's probably in the same position as it was 31 years ago. It might even be the same one. Living conditions aboard the barge were cramped to say the least. The mess deck (cafeteria) was an absolute pain in the ass. As a break from, or perhaps an escape from Navy chow many of us chose to walk down to "Blind Man's" Subs and sandwiches. If I remember correctly, it may have been in the parking lot I've indicated. Don't quote me on that, after all it has been 31 years, and I've slept since then.
Blind Man’s was a local sub sandwich shop located in the shipyard. Yes, Philly steak and cheese’s were on the menu, duh. Why do I mention it? I recently experienced a thirty-one year flash back, and no, there was no acid involved, only a Subway sandwich. The smell of that sandwich caused a couple of brain cells to trigger a few random synapses and caused them to fire, and I think I may have transcended space and time as we know it. Briefly, and just for an instant I was standing in line waiting to place my order. I could even hear the winged rats (seagulls). Perhaps top secret power fields that escaped the top secret warehouse containing the top secret "Philadelphia" experiment affected me and opened a wormhole, pulling me through. After all, said warehouse was very close to Blind Man's we had to walk by the building each way.
6 comments:
What is it about smells that make memories flash so vividly?
Wow, I was there atPNSY in 1980. I remember Blind Man's subs well.
Awesome to see your blog. I was just watching an episode of Triple-D on the Food Network and they were talking about Philly cheese steak sandwiches. It made me remember the Blind Man's again, as I have often over the past 35 years. I decided to get on the PC and Google "Blind Man's Philadelphia Naval Shipyard" to see if I could find out any info, and this is where I ended up. Such wonderful memories. I was stationed aboard the USS Claude V. Ricketts, a tin can out of Norfolk. We were in Philly most of 1977 for a major overhaul. Even on our limited salaries, we went there for breakfast, lunch and dinner often. They'd make an egg sandwich by putting the egg in a square Tupperware container and zapping it the microwave. The egg would puff up 2 or 3 inches and made the most awesome bacon and egg sandwich. We'd take turns going there in the evenings and picking up food for the whole duty section in our division, usually 4 or 5 guys. Lewis would always order a liverwurst sub and we'd tease him by asking how he could eat that garbage. My favorite memories were of the actual blind man himself - if I ever knew his name, I've forgotten it. He was gruff but funny. He wore sunglasses and always acted like he was in a bad mood but I think it was a bit of an act. We loved to stand in line and listen to him complain about people when they took too long to order, etc. Or someone would order loudly and he'd say "I'm blind, not deaf godammit". The incredible thing was, he could tell the denomination of money from the feel; apparently a 10 or a 20 would be less circulated than a 5. And of course if your total was $4 and you gave him a single bill, he knew it had to be a 5 or higher. (I never saw anyone try to cheat him by telling him a 5 was a 10 or anything like that.) An example would be your meal coming to $4.50 and you'd hand him a $10 bill. He feel it for a second and then hold it up high and say "10?" and one of his kitchen helpers would confirm it. I gave him a 20 once and he nailed it. I'm sure he missed a few but he was right a lot more often than not. He was old then so I'm sure he's passed by many years. But I often wonder about him, his life, family etc. I loved that place and will remember it till the day I die. I hated Philly, but the Blind Man's shop was a dear place and helped me survive that shithole.
I loved the subs there. Great!
I was stationed in Phila. 67-68. I loved the subs at Blind Man's,
I would like to know what year they closed?
It is nice listening to all the stories about the blindmans, That place was in my family a long time, first my uncle ed had it and my grandmother and anut betty and even my father helped out sometimes. Loved the food there. When uncle ed passed and the new guy came in..richard. he married my aunt betty (lol) and it stayed in the family till it closed and my father helped close it.
Post a Comment