Mr. Jenning's Trophy Case

Alan Jenning's short lived post on Facebook pictured no less than two awards he received for being a great humanitarian. One of them was from some Latino group, which is relevant to this post. Jenning's post took George Rivera to task for heading the local Republican Party. Seems in Alan's mind, no Latino should vote Republican, much less work with them. I suppose he also has issues with the Log Cabin queers, who also go red.

With my baker hours I didn't see much of the post. It appears shortly before I retired last Sunday, and was MIA by early Monday morning. Alan did explain that the dialogue was demeaning his stature and his family recommended the deletion. Leave it to someone like me, with no stature, to dredge it back up.

Actually, a number of people, minority themselves, took Alan to task for the post. 

Needless to say that this was news wise a busy week, and this post never made it to prime time. Not just for Mr. Rivera in Lehigh County, but all Republicans, even Ms. Wiles in the White House, it was a rough week.

Prince Of The Gypsies

According to my mother, a Gypsy prince died near Allentown in the late 1960's, she knew about such things. She was born in Galgo, Hungary, an area of Transylvania, now part of Romania, near present day Gilgau. In Galgo, the Jews and Gypsies lived on the edge of town. In the early 1920's, my grandparents, along with their Gypsy neighbors, came to Bethlehem to work at the Steel. On weekends, to make extra money, my grandparents would open their house and show Hungarian movies. None of their relatives, Jew or Gypsy, save one cousin, survived the nazi's; even the cemeteries were desecrated. As you can see from the document above, my grandfather earned his citizenship the hard way.

REPRINTED FROM DECEMBER 23, 2007

Trump's Delusions Continue

Trump claims that the Republicans lost because he wasn't on the ballot. In reality, they lost because he was on the voter's mind.  Those red hats may still be able to fill an auditorium, but apparently they can't fill a stadium. Even the $5k bribe wasn't enough.

But Trump's grasp on delusion and reality are real issues. He stated on Tuesday that the Iran War will unfold at his whim. I don't know what constraints can be placed on him, but constraints are certainly in order.

He thinks that his power of veto will hold sway over Congress. I think that what can hold sway over Trump is his need for monuments. Perhaps if he behaves himself, they'll allow him to build his arch or a small pyramid.

The Cost Of Buffoonery

I saw a short clip of Bill Reilly last week wondering why Trump did the diesel fuel deal with Putin? Bill until then had been an unquestioning cool-aid drinker. Fortunately for Bill, he wasn't up for re-election, he was just trying to not look like a fool for whatever audience he has left.

For Republican incumbents, the cost has been pricey. Ryan Mackenzie got beat by the most unqualified congressional candidate in my memory. All Mackenzie needed to do was speak up a few times, but he didn't have it in him.  Hopefully, for the sake of the country, these lame ducks will go out with some dignity, and speak up even if it's too late to save their careers.

I fully expect the politically surviving Republicans to now exert themselves. Trump's directives keep becoming more detrimental to the country.

William Allen High School

I have a diploma from William Allen, just not a class. I had some attitude issues, and was frequently asked to stay away and think about them. As it turns out, I was about a year younger than my original classmates, and eventually was given the coveted document at the end of summer school, the following year. My original classmates didn't know what happened to me, and the latter ones didn't know where I came from. The delayed development did prepare me to eventually become a blogger.

Move ahead some sixty years, and the progressive school board decided that it wanted administrators who look like the students. They have progressed to the point where they now have administrators who act like the students.

Today is election day, and students of this blog know that I have in recent months mentioned candidates in selected races. It is certainly a consequential election, especially in the U.S. Congress.

Allentown Memories

From low income sections of center city, to expensive suburbs, Allentown and the Lehigh Valley is becoming home to more and more newcomers. I'm afraid the time will soon come when local memorabilia will have little appeal. Fortunately, for those interested, some impressive collections still exist.  David Bausch, former County Executor and authority on Automobile Art, is also a expert on things Allentown. Then there are the many small collections, home of the hidden treasures. Above is an early aerial photograph of the Allentown Fair. Those interested in the recent commotion concerning the 19TH Street Theater District may find the upper right of the photograph interesting. There is no theater, there are no houses on Saint George Street and most of the buildings seem to to garages and automobile in nature (don't tell Auto-Zone). This gem is probably from the late teens or early 20's, and comes from the Thomas Reed Collection. Thomas is aka Z1pyro, long time expert shooter for Zambelli Firework Company. He retired several years ago, and we who appreciate fireworks, notice his departure.

reprinted from July of 2008

ADDENDUM:Allentown recently lost David Bausch. For those of us interested in local history and politics, he was the dean. While his annual Christmas party brought the past and present together, his breakfast clubs were a more contemporary, daily event.

Allentown Memorabilia

The time and market for Allentown memorabilia has come and gone. With a changing population, and the graying of the older town folks, objects of our history are destined for the landfill. Even the local historic society concentrates on shows of general interest, such as Abraham Lincoln. In addition to having been a retail mecca, Allentown manufactured a large assortment of products. Allentown was stamped on tools, knifes, and metal products of all kinds, distributed nationwide. A local regional food product was the hard pretzel, a variation of the traditional German soft pretzel. Allentown had several pretzel companies. Miller's operated out of their factory at 732 Tilghman Street, between 1944 and 1978. In the coming months this blog will profile some of these Made In Allentown products, before litter and meaningless slogans became our legacy.

reprinted from July of 2013 

CLICK HERE for this baby boomer memory and 35 others in my booklet at the Amazon bookstore