Growing Up Parkway

I'm a baby boomer. I was born in December of 1946. As soon as my mother climbed out of the hospital bed, another woman climbed in. I grew up in the neighborhood now called Little Lehigh Manor, wedged between Lehigh Street and the top of the ravine above Lehigh Parkway. That's me on our lawn at the intersection of Catalina and Liberator Avenues, named after airplanes made by Vultee Corporation for the War. We had our own elementary school, our own grocery store, and the park to play in. On Saturdays, older kids would take us along on the trolley, and later the bus, over the 8TH Street Bridge to Hamilton Street. There were far too many stores to see everything. After a matinee of cartoons or Flash Gordon, and a banana split at one of the five and dimes, we would take the bus back over the bridge to Lehigh Street.




Not that many people know where Lehigh Parkway Elementary School is. It's tucked up at the back of the development of twin homes on a dead end street, but I won't say exactly where. I do want to talk about the photograph. It's May Day, around 1952-53. May Day was big then, so were the unions; Most of the fathers worked at the Steel, Mack, Black and Decker, and a hundred other factories going full tilt after the war. The houses were about 8 years old, and there were no fences yet. Hundreds of kids would migrate from one yard to another, and every mother would assume some responsibility for the herd when it was in her yard. Laundry was hung out to dry. If you notice, most of the "audience" are mothers, dads mostly were at work. I'm at the front, right of center, with a light shirt and long belt tail. Don't remember the girl, but see the boy in front of me with the big head? His father had the whole basement setup year round with a huge model train layout. There were so many kid's, the school only went up to second grade. We would then be bused to Jefferson School for third through sixth grade. The neighborhood had its own Halloween Parade and Easter egg hunt. We all walked to school, no one being more than four blocks away.

reprinted from February of 2017

Center City Kids And Stevens Park

Over the last decade, a large portion of my effort on this blog has been focused on maintaining what I refer to as the traditional park system. To me, that would include the WPA structures and both access to, and view of the streams. I rallied against the riparian buffers, and what I consider the excessive emphasis on recreation. In the park department, although there is no less than six supervisors for recreation, there is not one person assigned to the parks per se.

While the designation playground at Cedar Beach cost $1 million dollars, only $25,000 has been spend on the WPA structures in the last decade, and that was a grant from the Trexler Trust. However, this post isn't about my opinion of current park priorities, but rather the implementation of the current policy.

 The designation playground at Cedar Park was almost, if not criminal in design and implementation. A former park director as the time purchased every item in the Playworld Catalog, from a company he had a prior relationship with from his previous job. So we ended up with an oversized playground, in a location inaccessible to center city kids. Regarding these kids, and our current emphasis on recreation, perhaps no park is more important than humble Stevens Park, at 6th and Tilghman Streets in center city. Although the playground equipment and infrastructure are well up to snuff, community groups found it necessary to reclaim the park this past Saturday. This park should be a sanctuary for the children of center city, and the police department should do whatever is necessary to make it that way. In 2019, that might well require a 24 hour presence.

Stevens Park sits on the site of the former Stevens Elementary School, as shown above in 1918.

Kingdom At Stevens

On Saturday afternoon, Stevens Park, a large center city playground, teemed with festivity. As the parents and older kids swayed to the Latin beat from a live band, children at the other side were entertained with craft activities. In between, large stands provided free hot food. The event was sponsored by Kingdom Life Family Center, an outreach ministry based in Orefield. After leaving the park, I decided to visit some merchants who are relocating to 7th Street from Hamilton. On 7th, I encountered the Pastor of the Ministry, Tony Adamo. It is his hope to secure a storefront in that vicinity, and establish a full time presence in Allentown. That would be a blessing.

above reprinted from November of 2011

My apologies for an earlier post where I acted so haughty about Stevens Park. Ive been sick the past couple weeks. That being said had family over today and bragged about the new park. Took my 2 yr old and a couple other toddlers with parents. Trash everywhere! Dirty needles...I picked up 6 heroin used bags. I was horrified! We left, kids in tears. Me on the verge! I went later with husband and cleaned it up. Ive been so excited for the young neighborhood kids....it will soon just get totally trashed. And Im moving......

The above comment appeared on a community facebook page. I have redacted the writers name. The Morning Call did a pictorial spread on the the renovated park, but of course the women above gives us an actual nitty gritty experience from visiting the park. Despite the reality of who will congregate there after hours, and whatever nefarious activity that may take place, it is important to provide attractive parks within the urban center for children.   However,  the nature of the neighborhood requires that the park receive extra cleanup and surveillance.

 Allow me to commend the Parks Department on a renovation well done.

photocredit: The Morning Call/Harry Fisher

above reprinted from June of 2017

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2, 2019:  This past weekend the Morning Call had an article about a Community Day at Stevens Park, sponsored by several community groups. Earlier that morning,  police investigated shots being fired in the park.  Although the article's heading was about reclaiming the park, as you can see from my older posts above,  reclaiming the park is actually an on going process. A new reporter covers new community activists, optimistic that they have solutions to a problem which has been ongoing for a decade before them.  As I wrote in 2017, the location of the park (6th and Tilghman) requires an ongoing police presence, no less than 24 hours a day.

The Great Allentown Fair

The Morning Call website is hosting an archive of Fair Pictures from over the years. Being a fan both of fair pictures and black and white photography, looking at the 111 photos presented was a treat.

The photo shown above, which I will get back to, reminded me of one of my unique fair experiences. In previous posts, I have discussed that both my father and myself had stands at the fair. While my father learned that you couldn't sell hotdogs near Yocco's, I learned that drunks leaving the beer garden loved to buy printed T-shirts.

But today's post has to with George Kistler, long time City Clerk during the 1950's and 60's. George loved the fair, and loved sharing his fascination with a large group of people. I was fortunate enough to be invited several times. The routine was always the same; Dinner at a local stand on the eastern side of the fairgrounds, followed by the wrestling show. I remember photographing Andre The Giant.

The Morning Call fair picture above is none other than Jim "Super Fly" Snuka, who was recently back in Allentown, for a most regrettable reason.

reprinted from August 30, 2018

Allentown's Lottery Ticket

Mike Moore, Allentown city spokesman, announced that Allentown was suing big pharma for the opioid crisis. Allentown joins about 200 other cities in purchasing this lottery ticket. I have mixed feelings about the current suits against pharma regarding opioids. Although I realize that many abusers have overdosed, at what point do these suits discourage drugs companies from new research? The drugs were developed for people needing relief for severe pain. While some doctors may make the drugs too available for patients, the leap to Allentown suing is opportunistic. However, these suits are a popular notion with the left, making the man pay, and retribution against capitalist greed.

What concerns me more as a local commentator is that Allentown still has a city spokesman. Pawlowski expanded the fifth floor of city hall's staff significantly. He created the Managing Director position, in spite of Allentown previously deciding to stay with a strong mayor, instead of a manager. After Pawlowski was elected, we ended up with both positions anyway. Considering we now have both a mayor and manager, do we really need another designated spokesman?

Is Allentown so large that such a position is still necessary, or did Pawlowski train city council so well, that nothing is no longer questioned?

shown above 1962 postcard of new city hall

Hootchy Nights At The Allentown Fair

Morning Call columnist Bill White had a piece earlier in the week where he lamented that  Bobo the dunking clown was no longer at the fair. Although that's about as funky as it got for Bill in his era,  we older Allentonians remember much hotter nights at the fairgrounds. Up to the late sixties the fair had girly shows. I'm going back to the era of Gooding's Million Dollar Midway and Benny's Bingo. I'm going back to three midways packed between the Farmer's Market and Chew Street. I'm going back to when the fair only started after Labor Day.

I mentioned in one of my previous fair posts that Fred Schoenk and I made and sold printed t-shirts at the fairs during high School. At the Kutztown Fair we were hired by the burlesque show owner to letter a new banner for his show tent...as high school boys we would have paid him for the experience.

reprinted from September of 2018

photocredit:molovinsky...Black rock and roll review with strippers, 1969 Allentown Fair

A Republican Primary

Readers of this blog, on the web version, know that I have a campaign logo for Bill Weld on the sidebar. However, they may not know who Bill Weld is. Weld is challenging Donald Trump, and hopes to be on the Republican primary ballot. I believe that his effort was greatly enhanced this past weekend when Joe Walsh also announced his candidacy.

Although I doubt that Trump would participate, perhaps a network will sponsor a debate between Weld and Walsh. A debate might give the notion of a Republican coup some traction. Although the two men are quite different, both bring experience and reason to the table. Both men articulate how Republicans are dissatisfied with Trump's demeanor, but the question of course would be if there is enough political courage to dump an incumbent.

Hopefully, only one of the challengers will end up on the primary ballot, because two them on the ballot would split the Republican dissatisfaction to Trump's advantage.