harmonstreet

Harmon Street is located in the working-class neighborhood of Inglenook, just outside Birmingham, AL. It was my father’s childhood home and the kind of neighborhood where people walked to work each day alongside their co-workers. The kind of neighborhood where a kid could buy candy and fishing lures on his family’s tab because the owner of the general store lived down the street and went to the same church.

It was an era before big call centers and computer algorithms. You knew the mechanic, pharmacist, butcher, milkman, gas station attendant, and bus driver. Customer service was provided by someone who knew your name and that of your kids, answered the phone and put you right through to the person who could address your issue immediately.