It was a tragic scene yesterday at the corner of the 52nd block of Chestnut street in West Philadelphia. Humpty, a young egg walking home from school with his friends as usual, fell victim to a horrific accident. He, along with his companions thought it might be fun to climb a wall in the backyard of Philadelphia resident James Kingcrumb. “I didn’t even know the kids were out there, not until I heard the noise,” tells Kingcrumb. The noise Kingcrumb heard was Humpty, who lost balance along the wall and plummeted to the pavement, his hard shell and gooey insides leaking out into the street. Kingcrumb hastily tried to assemble the pieces, but it was too late.
Kingcrumb relayed his feelings to reporters with a mixture of anguish and aggravation, “I knew he was gone when I could smell him cooking on the hot summer pavement--that’s when I called the police. It’s sad you know, because this stuff happens too often in this neighborhood; just the other day a young piece of cheese was sliced to bits up on Baltimore Avenue, right outside the pizza place. It just really upsets me. . . makes me sick, because. . . you know. . .we all have to live here and nobody wants to live like this. I feel for the young kids in this neighborhood, they’re the ones who have to grow up in this environment and, well. . . it’s just horrible. Something needs to be done, this is just ridiculous…this can’t go on.”
Humpty’s friends declined to comment for reporters but have been seen entering and exiting the Humpty home all day, more than likely to offer their condolences and express their sorrow for the tragic accident.
“You never expect this kind of thing to happen right in you’re own backyard,” said Kingcrumb, “I guess now that it has, it’s not going over very easy for me. It’s just hard.”
