Philadelphia’s Sound of Silence
It happens for many of us not long after we turn in for the night on the weekends.
It starts with piercing decibels into the silence of the late-night hours , suddenly rousing the attention of our eardrums from a summer slumber at the first detection of a faraway sound like a dog adjusting his head with peaked interest.
It’s the sound of an engine.
Closer and closer it comes — with the interlay of the shifting of gears and the loud whine of acceleration — as two cars race by and into the night.
Like many humble beginnings of American sports, which have a deep history in Philadelphia , so did auto racing. The Fairmount Park Motor races — which were an annual event from 1908 until 1911 — even attracted 500,000 fans in its first year.
Its founder , the Quaker City Motor Club, even introduced car racing to South Philadelphia. During the early 1900s , Philadelphia’s Automobile Row between Spring Garden Street and Girard Avenue featured dealers like Cadillac, Studebaker, Ford, and Oldsmobile as well as places to get parts, tires, and showrooms.
Philadelphia PD has been trying to find a remedy for illegal car meetings increasingly over the last year. Gatherings have occurred in South Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, and Northeast Philadelphia. Illegal street racing is even suspected in a crash that turned deadly last week on the PA Turnpike near Willow Grove.
That unmistakable sound of engines and gears shifting is as predictable these days as the forecast of a hot, clear summer night. I don’t wish for anyone to be hurt by what many would consider a dangerous pastime.
But I do admit — before I roll over and go back to sleep — some part of me does enjoy the thrill of hearing those engines just the same.
PHOTO: Unsplash
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