Perry Como's Prisoner of Love, Frank Sinatra's

Five Minutes More and the Inkspots To Each His Own top the music charts blaring from cars cruising along Frankford Ave.

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It's time for a fill-up.  You find a Gulf station and fill your tank at .15 cents per gallon.  You just got paid, so your yearly wages of $2,500 burns a hole in your pocket. 

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You stop at a grocery story and get a 2  lb. bag  of coffee for .85. (Percolators were the home Starbucks) And with that coffee, .15 gets you a dozen donuts and neighbors in your kitchen. 

 

You return to the home you purchased for $1,459, new--$5,600.

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Can you guess what year this is?  I'll give you a hint... President Donald Trump was born.

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Yes, 1946.  It was also the year a group of girls approached Principal Hitner (new to the school) and asked if they could join the always male cheerleading squad  

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He gave the nod, and history changed in the fall of 1946. 

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The first coed cheeleading squad began with five girls and seven boys.  Mrs. Janet Angelo, Coach Al Angelo's wife was one of the first female cheerleaders.

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By 1947, Frankford's cheerleading squad was all girls.  

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"It was a fun time.  My husband, Al Angelo (championship winning football coach.)  was a football player.  We married in 1953 and had one son and three daughters."

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"Arlene, my oldest, was Frankford's Valedictoria and works as an attorney. She graduated from Penn State.  Al Jr. graduated from West Chester and is a teacher in the Ocean City school district. 

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Her third child, Alisa graduated from Penn State, her husband also played football.  He's currently a dentist.

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Her youngest, Annette graduated from Kutztown College and retired from the Richmond School in Port Richmond.

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Mrs. Angelo loved cheerleading, singing in the choir and participating in sorority activities.  Her fondest memories are of the communiy that Frankford High is located.

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"Always integrated school, the Frankford community behaved like a small town. 

 

We all knew each other.  We shopped on Frankford Avenue together and we all attended the same schools.  Frankford High wasn't opened to the entire city back then."

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"On football game day the community came out to march with us up Wakeling Street to the football field.  It's nice to belong to Frankford.  We still have big class reunions."

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Her advice to current students is to get involved in school activities.  "If you don't get involved in groups, you don't enjoy it as much."

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And to the alumni, "Get involved in the alumni association... if you don't it may not be around.  So you owe it to yourselves to keep it going."

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