Perhaps you have old family photos of Manor Ridge from the 50;s, 60;s, or 70;s? If so, I'd be glad to have them and post them along with your stories right here.
Here's one of mine, taken about 1967-1968. I can guess the date accurately because I am holding my new glasses, which I started wearing that year. And my little brother looks to be about 2 or 3 years old, which would have been his age in 1967-1968.
The picture was taken, probably by my dad, of us standing in our carport. You can tell a lot about Manor Ridge life in those days just by carefully studying the image.
For example - note at our feet is chalk on the driveway for hopscotch. A perennial favorite for Manor Ridge kids. Sadly, a kids game that appears to be all but forgotten today.
In the background is the ever-present bicycle. That little red thing was a hand-me-down I rode after my older brother outgrew it. It had coaster brakes and I remember well learning the limitations of those brakes riding down "rabbit hill" towards the Conestoga Creek and the skeleton bridge. As I was cruising down that long hill just about where the apartments are, I tried to stop but the brakes had other ideas and I smacked right into the rear bumper on some old 1950’s American piece of steel car. My bike didn't even scratch the bumper and I went flying forward straddling the cross bar - leaving a huge purple bruise on my inner thigh. Lucky I didn't land a bit higher up on the anatomy.
The second bike is visible underneath the picnic table. That was my little brother’s tricycle. That too was a hand-me-down (new bikes were expensive and not something your parents went out and bought on a regular basis - so you got what was available). Unfortunately, soon after this picture was taken that tricycle met an untimely end as my dad crushed it with the 57 Chevy as he was backing out of the driveway. My little sister left it parked behind the rear wheel. A big no-no and she heard about it.
On the picnic table appears to be an assortment of tools and yard implements my dad always had at the ready - possibly a garden hose sprayer and an oil can nozzle/opener. Note the two cans of Quaker State oil on the top bench and the plastic milk bottle with some fluid in it. That fluid would be used oil. Back in those days, there were no Jiffy Lubes and 30-minute oil change stations. If you wanted to change the oil, your dad did it himself. You needed a catch pan, milk jugs to put the used oil, a new filter, a filter wrench (to pry the filter loose), a socket wrench (to crank open the drain plug) and a tool that has all but disappeared - the oil can opener/spout. This was a stout instrument that with an unmistakable sound would pierce the can along the edge and then allow the oil to come out the spout. Every house had one, but today with screw off caps for oil (plastic bottles, no more cans), the oil can opener/spout has gone the way of the carburetor.
Also on the top of the picnic bench you can see my dad's shoes alongside one other thing that all Manor Ridge houses had, but which today, sadly, is gone - the milk box. Everyone had milk delivered to their home by one of the multiple local dairies. Glass bottles of milk, not cardboard or plastic. If you have never had milk in a glass bottle, there is no substitute. When you needed more milk, you simply put the empties in the milk box and the delivery man would replace them with fresh milk. Of course the delivery man brought more than just regular milk, he could also bring chocolate milk (if your parents could afford it). When you went away on vacation (something you did once per year - for one week), you put a note in the milk box telling the delivery man to not deliver that week. Amazingly, that was all the communication needed, no emails were required. And the delivery man never screwed up.
In the 1960's and perhaps even into the 1970's, you could also have baked goods delivered to your house, especially bread. Now the bread delivery man had something very special he would bring with him - the "goodie caddie". This was an amazing box he would carry and the box would open with all these cool fold-out drawers. Inside these drawers were magical stuff your parents could seldom afford to buy - but when they did, what a treat! Pastries and raison bread and all kinds of baked delights.
Some of the real Manor Ridge old-timers remember (though I don't) a man who would come around in a horse-drawn wagon selling meat. That's right, a freaking horse-drawn wagon! How cool was that?!
Back to the photo - my dad's ever present wood step ladder is planted onto the side of the house next to his trusty rake. Note the asbestos shingles on the house. Many Manor Ridge houses were built with these durable asbestos/asphalt/cement shingles. It was the vinyl siding of the day. I remember very well when my dad took these shingles off the house to replace them with siding. I had to carry box after heavy box of old shingles to the curb and place a box or two each week by the trash cans for the trash collectors to pick up. Back then the trash collectors would dispose of asbestos shingles no questions asked.
Also - note what is running up the side of the house. That is a piece of black antennae wire. This was not coaxial cable for cable TV - that was a good decade in the future. No - what you are looking at was the antennae wire my dad ran from the antennae on the roof, down the side of the house, and into the basement (so we could watch TV in the basement as well as the upper floors). All Manor Ridge roof tops had one form of TV antennae or another. The Manor Ridge skyline looked like a NASA tracking station. But if you wanted to get anything more than Channel 8, you needed an antennae on the roof. Really advanced household TV systems had antennae that would rotate. To rotate the antenna you would turn this really cool dial, which was usually located on top of the TV. This then mechanically turned the antennae in the direction you wanted it. If you wanted to tune in the Philadelphia TV stations like Channel 3, Channel 6, Channel 4, or Channel 17 or 29 (UHF), point the antenna east. Want to pull in Channel 11 from Baltimore? Turn it south.
My dad loved college basketball and most of all he loved watching the Big Five games out of the Philadelphia Palestra arena. But to see these games in anything other than complete static fuzz and snow on the black and white TV, he needed a better antennae. He got one and placed it up on the roof (risking ones life to erect an antennae on the house roof was well worth it to get better TV reception for Philadelphia sports). A great side development from our new rooftop antennae was we could now (pretty) clearly see channel 17 (Wee Willy Weber and his cartoons!) and Channel 29 (Flyers hockey!) for the first time. My dad ran antennae wire into the second and first floors and the basement so we were one of the few families back then that had three, even four TV's going at the same time. I spent many hours in the basement watching cartoons on the little black and white TV.
The fact that the picnic table is stacked in the carport and not out in the back yard meant it had to be either fall or spring when the photo was taken. Judging by the hoodie sweatshirts my brother and I have on, and the low angle of the lighting it could be either. However, I spot what appear to be bare tree branches reflecting in the doorway glass. If so - then that means the photo was taken probably in the spring - March or April.
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