The Mighty Atom

Years ago, at the Allentown Fair, as one would push through a sea of carney delusion, tucked back by the 4H animals, was an island of reality. There, in an old battered truck, an ancient Jewish strongman performed incredible feats of strength, to sell only homemade kosher soap. Standing on a platform on the rear of his truck, flanked by photographs from his performing youth, he would bent horse shoes and bite through nails. Many years earlier, my mother as a little girl in Bethlehem, saw him pull a truck uphill with his hair. Even as an old man, like a reincarnation of Samson, his grey hair was still long.
In the summers of 1964 and 1965, myself and a friend,(Fred Schoenk, retired Allentown art teacher) made and sold printed tee-shirts at the fair. We had the honor to know Joseph Greenstein(The Mighty Atom) and his wife. For those interested, there are various articles on the Mighty Atom and even at least one book. Enjoy the fair!

reprinted annually during the fairweek

Allentown Memories

click on photo to enlarge
From low income sections of center city, to expensive suburbs, Allentown and the Lehigh Valley is becoming home to more and more outsiders. I'm afraid the time will soon come when local memorabilia will have little appeal. Fortunately, for those interested, some impressive collections still exist. This past year Robert Bungerz published Allentown Remembered, documenting his outstanding collection of historical postcards and other objects. David Bausch, former County Executive 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 previous years

Allentown's Future

According to The Morning Call,  one quarter of  the Arena project debt service falls directly on the cigarette tax. Pawlowski and Company are fond of saying that the arena project will not impact the city taxpayers. This blogger has once again donned my janitor disguise, and managed to overhear an important strategy meeting between those who rule us. The concern was the longevity of our smokers, now a valuable commodity in the arena's future. Worse still, new smokers are not being cultivated in sufficient numbers to guarantee a cash flow for the next thirty years, the life of the bonds. Our forward looking leaders have come up with several proposals in protect what they affectionally call The Project. The Allentown Health Bureau and Police will stop conducting underage cigarette buying stings, once an annual public relations promotion for those departments. No sign or zoning regulations will be enforced in regard to store front cigarette advertising. City workers, who smoke, will be encouraged to take breaks in pocket parks that have playgrounds, such as Bucky Boyle, Franklin and Stevens. The Sweep Program will issue no tickets for cigarette related litter. A public relations firm, with ties to the tobacco industry, will be hired to explore any possible promotions under existing federal law.

Say It Ain't So

Excuse me Mayor Pawlowski for writing again, I know that you're a busy man. Me and my friend, who also worked at Mack back in the day, walked up and saw where that hockey arena is going to be. It took us a while, between my cane and his oxygen. We could barely believe the size of that hole! I bet that buildings going to cost a million dollars! My friend said that they're using the cigarette tax for the top of the building, but I told him that's nuts; That money's for children without health insurance. He's on oxygen because of those cigarettes, and you wouldn't allow the children's money to be spent that way. Anyway, with the stores gone, there was hardly anybody on Hamilton Street, but I know you know what you're doing. Those hockey games do save cities, don't they? I think my friend with the oxygen may be losing his marbles. He also said that you're going to sell the water works! I told him that he must be taking his medicine wrong. I'm going to mention it to his daughter next time she comes to Allentown. She used to live a few blocks up on Walnut Street, but moved to Catty after you sold the neighborhood parking lot to your house building friend. She got her Dutch up, because they went to meetings at the church about it, but you sold the lot anyway. You know the fancy people never moved there after all, and they had to rent those new houses out. I'm worried about my friend. He even said that you're going to mix the garbage with the poop, and burn it. I know that you're not crazy, so he must be nuts! Maybe you could come over to the senior high rise here on Walnut Street, and tell everybody that these things ain't so. Thank You.

Just Rewards

The Rubber Stamp Council of Apparatchiks (an all Democratic body of bureaucrats, as is traditional in the City With No Spending Limits) passes a resolution praising the lengthy jail sentence recently given to former dissident writer Michael Molovinsky. Molovinsky, as could be expected, ran afoul of Governor Ed Pawlowski's long-awaited "Fairness Doctrine" shortly after the sweeping law was enacted. The disgraced dissident was formally convicted of "gross political agitation, conspiracy to incite counter-revolution and blogging without a government permit". That and a few other charges revolving around heinous crimes against humanity. "It's good to know that a dangerous and ruthless criminal like Molovinsky got twice as much prison time as Jerry Sandusky," Mota related. "It's rather unfortunate that notorious IronPigPen character got away, though." (The aggrivating IPP, after a brazen smash and grab operation which left the Phantoms' Allentown ticket office effectively looted of all cash and valueable credit card information, was barely able to sneak across the unguarded border with Mexico but proceeded to make his way to east Germany on the strength of a phony passport provided by Republicans)

guest post by Rolf Oeler, from comment submitted to Back To The Future.