Jim Martin was born in 1925 in Philadelphia, which he always considered his home, even though he lived in New Jersey most of his adult life. He worked as an electrical designer, mostly at shipyards, where he contributed to company newsletters. Many years later, he wrote for a small newspaper, The Speedliner. He often said that he didn’t like to write, he liked to have written. He loved to tell stories about his old neighborhood, and finally decided to commit some of them to paper. The result is a collection of colorful, often hilarious reminiscences about the people and places he knew in his youth. It should appeal to anyone who grew up in the city (any city, not just Philadelphia) during the 1930s and 1940s, anyone who didn’t but wants to know about that period, and anyone who just likes good stories told with humor and affection. Jim died in 2008 after a series of illnesses. His second wife, Jessica, arranged these writings into a book that he had always wanted to call. . . THE OLD MINBRO