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

The Political Blogosphere

Bernie O'Hare usually doesn't post on weekends, but he made an exception to note and link to Chris Casey's piece bashing Wayne Woodman, a sore spot they share in common. In Casey's mind, Woodman is a wealthy manipulator of local politics, which left to it's own, would be magnanimously run by Democrats. Democrats don't have a problem with wealth processed by their own, be it a Kennedy or kerry/Heinz, but when those Republicans spent their money, it can only be for evil intent. Seems as if Percy Dougherty is facing a primary challenge. In most circles, including Democratic, that's healthy democracy. In Casey's treatment, speculation presented as fact, Dougherty is being punished for his moderation. Rather than respect the potential challenger, Scott Aquila, for the accomplished and politically involved person he is, Casey assumes that he is a puppet, who must be paid for and controlled by Woodman.  For my varied interests, it's way too early in the election cycle to concern myself with candidates, however, fairness and balance demands this short rebuttal.

Relics Of Our Past

One of the surviving relics of our industrial past is the right of way of former railroad spur lines. Allentown literally had hundreds of factories serviced by dozens of spur routes and rail sidings. The area between Second and Front Streets was crisscrossed with dozens of spur lines. Even the west end had service. A line ran behind the current site of B'nai B'rith Apartments, across 17 th St. and up along side of the dry-cleaners. The B'nai B'rith was the site of the former Trexler Lumber Yard, which burned to the ground in a spectacular fire in the mid 70's; The heat from the fire could be felt in West Park. The rails and ties are gone, long ago sold to scrap yards. In many cases the space occupied by the right of ways can still be seen to the knowing eye. They appear as alleys which were never paved. Here and there a surviving loading dock provides another clue. Show in this photo from 1939 are the Mack Truck factories on S. 10th Street, now part of the Bridgeworks Complex. Here the components for Mack Trucks were manufactured. The parts were then trucked to the Assembly Plant (5C) located on S. 12 Street, right off of Lehigh Street. "Built Like A Mack Truck" became a figure of speech across America. It was a prouder time than the lyrics from Billy Joe; little did we know that things could get worse. reprinted from September of 2009

The Reading Road

Part of Don Cunningham's political patter as a candidate and elected official is repairing or replacing bridges in the county. When you replace a bridge which doesn't need replacing, you're wasting taxpayer money. When you replace a historic bridge which doesn't need replacing, you're stealing our culture






The Reading Road Bridge, scheduled by Cunningham for replacement, is in excellent condition. Although my observation and top photograph clearly shows that, I did confirm it's structural integrity with someone formally with the City engineering department.

The bridge was built in 1824 and totally rehabilitated in 1980. At that time a separate walking bridge was built next to it for pedestrian safety.*





Although the beautiful two arch stone bridge needs no work, and Cunningham has been in office since 2006, the steel beams of the walking bridge are in dire need of paint. How sad that inexpensive maintenance is ignored, while $million dollar projects are planned.

Let Don smile and cut a ribbon somewhere else, please join me in saving our history. Call Cunningham and our County Commissioners. Let them know our past means more to us than their political future.

* a former manager under Mayor Daddona, recalls walking bridge constructed in 1980.
click on bridge photographs to enlarge image

UPDATE: The above post was written in 2010. I'm happy to report that this blogger had some success in regard to saving the bridge, and it still stands.  Earlier in the week, The Morning Call reported that the historic Youell's Oyster House burned to the ground.  The seafood restaurant was at that location for about 20 years, what was historic was the building; It was one of the inns along the Reading Road, the connection between Allentown and points west.  With the inn gone, the little bridge shown above is one of the few remnants of that era still standing in Allentown.  Although the county project manager was stymied in his attempt to destroy the bridge, he has failed to perform any maintenance on the structure since.  Let us not lose the bridge by neglect.

The Anonymous Comment

Occasionally, I have an urge to insult blog readers, and always try to do it on Bernie's blog, instead of here. Some people who comment anonymously have a legitimate reason, most simply want a venue for expression, with no risk of any repercussion. Some people establish a recognizable pseudonym, so that they can have some credibility and consistency with their point of view, others just comment under the generic anonymous. The Red Meat posts, where the blogger accuses or insults someone or something, draws the most comments. The anonymous can't throw enough stones. Some bloggers cherish comments, I try to tolerate them.

Monument To Better Times

The concrete monolith still stands five stories above Lehigh Street at the Parkway Shopping Center. Currently it sports a clock and a sign for St. Luke's medical offices. It was built in 1953 as the modernistic sign tower for Food Fair supermarket, which then was a stand alone store. Behind it, on South 12th Street was the Black and Decker Factory. The shopping center would not be built to decades later, connecting the former supermarket to the bowling alley built in the 60's. Food Fair was started in the 1920's by Russian immigrant Samuel Friedland in Harrisburg. By 1957 he had 275 stores. 1953 was a rough year for the butcher, baker and candle stick maker; the huge supermarkets were too much competition, even for the bigger independent markets, such as Lehigh Street Superette; it was further east on Lehigh, now the site of a Turkey Hill Market. The sign tower also remains at the 15th and Allen Shopping center, which was another stand alone Food Fair. That parcel remains an independent supermarket. Food Fair would eventually absorb Penn Fruit, which had a market on N. 7th Street, then turn into Pantry Pride. When the Food Fair was built, there was as yet no 15th Street Bridge. Allentown only connected to the south side by the 8th Street Bridge and the Lehigh/Union Street hill. (stone arch bridge, near Regency Tower, was route to West End) Allentown was booming and Mack Trucks were rolling off the line, a block east off Lehigh Street, as fast as they could build them. The factories on S. 12th st. are now flea markets. Mack Headquarters is being sold to a real estate developer. Perhaps those concrete monoliths are the monuments to better times, by those of us who remember.

reprinted from June 14, 2009