There’s another article about the Hundred Steps in Billy Penn, and it got me to reminiscing about when I used to live in the house right at the top of the Steps.

In 2004 the Steps had fallen into disrepair, so that summer there was a major effort to refurbish them.

The workers would start in the morning and work till mid-afternoon, making an awful racket as they did so. But they were very friendly guys, and for some reason the noise didn’t seem to bother me too much—at least after the first day or two. I seemed to get used to it. Perhaps because I knew the repairs badly needed to be done.

Of course, I was still working at the time, so I was only at home one weekday each week (I worked a flex schedule). Here are some pictures.

A few years later in 2008 (by this time I was retired, so I was at home), I noticed some smoke that should not have been there rising from the valley just before noon. So I made a 911 call. The Philadelphia Fire Department didn’t waste any time in getting there.

Most likely the fire was started by teenagers smoking, as it hadn’t rained for awhile and everything was very dry.

Meanwhile, I alerted a neighbor and we did what we could to put some water onto the blaze, while I grabbed my camera. 

I used to have this video on YouTube, but it was taken down because I included a Jimi Hendrix song.