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Traffic report for July 29

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At the farmers market: Hoagland Farm from Elysburg

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Some people look forward to summer for the hot weather, or swimming, or hiking.</p><p>Not me. My summer fun starts with the first red homegrown tomato. Oh, how I can&#8217;t wait to throw on a little salt and taste those juices. And then put some meaty slices between two slices of rye bread, add mayo, salt and pepper, and enjoy.</p><p>This week, we may see red tomatoes at the farmers market on Public Square. I&#8217;m sure they&#8217;ll go fast.</p><p>One place you&#8217;ll find some hearty tomatoes on the vine is at Phil&#8217;s Sunoco on South Main Street. Right in front of the gas station&#8217;s office are two planters. Four tomato plants are growing and they&#8217;re filled with the biggest tomatoes you can imagine.</p><p>Phil Pisano Jr., the 71-year-old owner of the station, is continuing a tradition his father, Phil Sr., began in the 1950s.</p><p>&#8220;This is one of the best years we&#8217;ve ever had,&#8221; Pisano said of his tomato crop. &#8220;Our customers love it.&#8221;</p><p>Sitting in the office with Pisano and his son, Mark, and grandson, Phillip IV, and customer, Joe Thomas, took me back to my childhood. Our neighborhood was known for its back yards and what grew in each. Our yard had plum trees and a cherry tree. Across the street, the Romans had a red cherry tree and two chestnut trees. Just up Reynolds Street, the Miklosis had a garden and tomatoes were plentiful.</p><p>It was a big deal when Mr. Miklosi would say, &#8220;Hey Billy, pick a couple of tomatoes and take them home for your mother.&#8221;</p><p>I would take two, or three, sometimes more. My mom would make tomato sandwiches for us and I can still taste how good they were.</p><p>Sharing was a huge part of our neighborhood. Everybody was welcome to take what they wanted. There was never an issue. Once in a while, Mrs. Roman would warn us not to climb the cherry tree, but we did anyway to get those juicy delights.</p><p>That&#8217;s the kind of feeling I got when I stopped at Phil&#8217;s Sunoco. The chatter was friendly and Pisano offers tomatoes to customers who comment about them as they pay for their gas.</p><p>It&#8217;s more than a novelty. The gas station opened in 1950 and Phil&#8217;s dad took it over in 1958. The tomato plants are as much a part of Phil&#8217;s Sunoco as is the full-service offered customers or the front-end alignments and oil changes. A stop at Phil&#8217;s is much more than a transaction. It&#8217;s a visit. It&#8217;s a gathering of friends, of neighbors.</p><p>Joe Thomas said Phil&#8217;s dad was everybody&#8217;s friend who treated everybody like family. That tradition, like the tomatoes, continues at Phil&#8217;s.</p><p>The Pisanos are Philadelphia Eagles fans, so when a longtime, loyal customer came in wearing a Redskins cap, the bantering commenced.</p><p>&#8220;You know they won&#8217;t be called that much longer,&#8221; Phil said to the Redskins&#8217; fan, who was quick to tell him they will always be the Redskins to him.</p><p>Thomas, who will soon celebrate his 60th wedding anniversary, said the tomatoes grown amid the aroma of gasoline and oil are the best he&#8217;s ever tasted. Mark Pisano said the secret is the chicken manure mixed with lime to make the richest of soil.</p><p>Pisano likes grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches. Mark likes them on bread with mayo and salt and pepper.</p><p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t wait to have one,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Red and violet petunias grow alongside the tomato plants, adding beauty to the planters. In an age of franchise-owned convenience stores that sell gas and just about everything else, Phil&#8217;s is family-owned and family-operated. It&#8217;s where you can buy gas and lottery tickets and talk about card games and football.</p><p>It&#8217;s a place where daily gatherings can range in topic from local issues to state to national. It&#8217;s like a neighborhood front porch where families and friends gather and solve the world&#8217;s problems &#8212; just like those days gone by on Reynolds Street in my boyhood neighborhood.</p><p>And sometimes, friends can gather and talk over a sandwich with tomatoes plucked right from the vines next to the gas pumps at Phil&#8217;s Sunoco.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_Columnshot10.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_TTL072915tomatoes.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Tomato plants planted by Phil Pisano Jr., right, of Phil&#8217;s Sunoco on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre, and tended to by his sons and grandson, from left, Mark, Phillip IV, Phillip III. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_TTL072915tomatoes.jpg</photo1><caption1>Tomato plants planted by Phil Pisano Jr., right, of Phil&#8217;s Sunoco on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre, and tended to by his sons and grandson, from left, Mark, Phillip IV, Phillip III. </caption1><photoCredit1>Clark Van Orden | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

In Focus: A tomato grows in Wilkes-Barre