Yom Kippur 1973

On Yom Kippur in 1973 Egypt and Syria surprised Israel with a coordinated attack on two fronts. 80,000 Egyptian troops overran Israel's Bar Lev defensive line in the Sinai. 175 shells per second rained down on Israel's 500 defenders from 2000 Egyptian artillery pieces. On the Golan, Israeli tanks were outnumbered by the Syrians ten to one. It took Israel two full days, and thousands of casualties, to mobilize. By the time a truce went into effect three weeks later, Israeli commanders had marched within 25 miles of Damascus, and 63 miles of Cairo.

Shown above General Ariel Sharon with Defense Minister Moshe Dyan in Egypt

Bill White, Something Borrowed

Readers of this blog know that I was upset about the editing of my last column in The Morning Call. My premise was that there would be a political price to pay for voting for the water contract. I wrote that "One Councilman, Michael Schlossberg, who is going to Harrisburg unopposed as a State Representative, is resigning early from Council to evade this damaging baggage." The Morning Call changed the sentence to "One councilman, Michael Schlossberg, who is going to Harrisburg unopposed in the election for state representative, is resigning early from council." That deletion significantly changed the meaning, and compromised the cohesion of my piece. When I called in protest, the Your View editor told me that he accommodated another editor who requested the change. I didn't ask who he was accommodating. It is generally known that Bill White is now assisting with the Letters page. Tuesday's Bill White column questions if Michael Schlossberg resigned early to avoid the water vote. I must now ask Bill White if he edited my editorial so that he could use my question as his own?

UPDATE: My first reaction to the editing of my Morning Call article last week was that it was a gift by the paper to Schlossberg. My second reaction, upon reading White's article, is clearly stated above. I have just been told that Bill White was NOT the second editor. Although I'm compelled to post this update, the sentence in my editorial never should have been changed. If I over-reacted, it's based on the paper's history in failing to give proper attribution.

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.

reprinted from March, 2010

A Personal Memoir

I'm not sure memoir is a good title, rather than facts and records, I have hazy recollections. Assuming my memory will not improve at this stage of the game, let me put to print that which I can still recall. In about 1958 my father built Flaggs Drive-In. McDonalds had opened on Lehigh Street, and pretty much proved that people were willing to sit in their cars and eat fast food at bargain prices. For my father, who was in the meat business, this seemed a natural. As a rehearsal he rented space at the Allentown Fair for a food stand, and learned you cannot sell hotdogs near Yocco's. He purchased some land across from a corn field on Hamilton Blvd. and built the fast food stand. In addition to hamburgers, he decided to sell fried chicken. The chicken was cooked in a high pressure fryer called a broaster, which looked somewhat like the Russian satellite Sputnik. The stand did alright, but the business was not to my father's liking, seems he didn't have the personality to smile at the customers. He sold the business several years later to a family which enlarged and enclosed the walk up window. Subsequent owners further enlarged the location several times. The corn field later turned into a Water Park, and you know Flaggs as Ice Cream World.

I'm grateful to a kind reader who sent me this picture of Flaggs

reprinted from January, 2011

Romney's 47%

Yesterday I went to the Social Security Office, across from the prison, to discuss my retirement options. I was given number 199. In addition to retirement, Social Security also dispenses money for disability. I would say from the gray hair, there were about three of us contemplating retirement, all the others were for disability. A few middle age men were carrying their fake canes. The canes aren't fake, it's the disabilities. I saw one such gentleman walk in from the parking lot, clearly the cane bore no weight, and was merely a prop. Most of the people waiting were quite young, in their twenties. Disability has now been expanded to include mental conditions such as depression, anxiety, additive personality and anger management. I will say many of them did look angry to me. It was hard finding a parking space. Business also looked good at the prison. If Johnny Manana's had gotten these crowds....

The above is reprinted from a previous post entitled Growth Industry In Allentown.  The Obama camp and their sycophants in the media, think that they're having a field day with the secret Romney tape.  In reality, the tape raises a question about a serious problem in America,  which Obama and his choir wouldn't want to address.

AEDC's Choo Choo

The Allentown Economic and Development Corporation has received a $1.8 million grant, toward a $4 million dollar project, to restore a portion of the Barber Quarry branch to service an industrial building on South 10th Street. The building once housed Traylor Engineering, which was a giant back in the day. Recently, it housed a smaller fabricator who President Obama visited on his Allentown photo opportunity mission. The business has since closed, but let's not have that reality stand in the way of grants. Last summer, I fought against Allentown's Trail Network Plan, which catered to the spandex cyclist crowd. The new trail was to be built on the Barber Quarry track line. Not only didn't the AEDC oppose the plan, it's director was an advocate. Now they will be funded to develop that which they wanted to destroy. Where do I begin in Allentown's World of Mirth?    Only in the unaccountable  world of agencies and grants, would $millions of dollars of our money be available for projects which are twenty years too late.  The track is long gone.  The only industry (Traylor Engineering) which would have need, is long gone.  The business reality of South 10th Street is now  a go-cart track and the Hive, which is a Junior Achievement type project.

Barber Quarry Branch Line Posts
The Train of Lehigh Parkway
Allentown Archeology
Junkyard Train

above reprinted from May of 2011

UPDATE: SEPT. 21,2012  AEDC And Pawlowski AT IT AGAIN Pawlowski Development Company is currently conducting a full court press on both the County Commissioners and the Allentown School Board to grant KOZ status to the closed Metal Works, the same building referred to above, from where both Obama and Romney spoke on their visits to Allentown. When Obama was here shortly after being elected, it was still operating. By the time Romney came during his primary, it was already shuttered. At no time did the owner ever cite lack of rail service, or payment of property taxes, as factors in the decline of his company. Pawlowski has Scott Unger, from AEDC, pitching the KOZ, saying that the building will have a choo choo train. The track has been removed and scrapped years ago, all the way from 3th and Union Streets. The cost to restore the rail bed to an empty building on speculation would be untold $millions to the taxpayers. Although in the world of federal grants there is little accounting, this would truly be the Track To No-Where. Ironically, one of the last existing areas with a track spur, along the river by Structural Steel, is being eyed for residential use.