Weekly Reader

When I was growing up my parents would receive both The Morning Call and The Evening Chronicle.* This was their main source of news. Television in the late 40's and early 50's had national and world news, but there was no local programing in Allentown. The antenna on our roof would receive the three network (ABC, NBC, and CBS) stations from Philadelphia, and that was it. The morning and evening papers provided the local news, in addition to national and world stories. Hess Brothers and Leh's would compete with multiple full page Ads. We children also had our own little paper, Weekly Reader, handed out in the classroom every Friday. I think of it when I get the thin Morning Call on Mondays.

* The Morning Call and Evening Chronicle were both published by same company, Call-Chronicle Newspapers.

PennSPOT New Director

Governor Spendall has appointed a new Director for PennSPOT Laundry and Highway Department. Satellite imaginary has revealed that snow drifts reported by PennSPOT to be 15 feet high on February 10th, were in fact 15 inches. PennSPOT defended itself with a climate report from Penn State, but Spendall said, "Who can believe them about anything?"

PeeWee will assume leadership of the Department on March 1, 2010. He is known as a innovator who makes do with what is in hand.

The Ultimate Entitlement

Post hosted at Poliblog

No Lassie Service

Al Bundy, serving as honorary Director of Lassie, suspended all bus service as of 8:00 p.m. Thursday.



Speaking at the temporary office of the Jr. High Sports Museum, to be named after him, Bundy said, "Let them walk." It's a long standing policy of Lassie to not allow bus tires to get wet.

Road and Bus Closing

PennSPOT Laundry and Highways and Lassie Bus Service announce all state roads and bus service will be suspended for five (5) days, starting immediately, to assure public inconvenience because of the approaching snow. Both organizations have chosen this site, molovinskyonallentown, for public announcements.

8th Street Bridge

When opened for traffic on November 17, 1913, with seventeen spans, the Albertus L. Meyers Bridge, then known as the Eighth Street Bridge, was the longest and highest reinforced concrete arch bridge in the world.
The Lehigh Valley Transit Company organized the Allentown Bridge Company in 1911 for the sole purpose of building the bridge. The bridge was designed by the engineering firm of B.H. Davis and built by McArthur Brothers of New York City. Costing in excess of $500,000, construction of the bridge required 29,500 cubic yards of concrete and 1.1 million pounds of metal reinforcing rods.
The structure operated as a toll bridge from its November 17, 1913 opening until the 1950s, at which time the toll was five cents for an automobile. The concrete standards that once supported the trolley wire are still standing on the bridge to this day.*

This iconic bridge is a monument to our industrial history; epicenter of both the cement and steel industries. Unfortunately, bridge is suffering. Weeds and undergrowth are being allowed to penetrate the roadbed. Spalling concrete is not being replaced, submitting the reinforcing rods to rust.

Harry C. Trexler, founding member of the Transit Company and Lehigh Portland Cement Co., was a principle player in the construction of this bridge. General Trexler's gravesite, in Fairview Cemetery on Lehigh Street, affords unique views of the bridge and center city Allentown.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertus_L._Meyers_Bridge

reprinted from Aug. 6, 2008