Another Parkway Story

Growing up during the early 1950's in Little Lehigh Manor, aka Lehigh Parkway, aka The Parkway was kiddie city. Most of us were born in the mid to late 1940's, children of WW2 veterans. I don't recall one house without children. Everyone had friends, even the maladjusted. 

In addition to friends, I also had cousins. I had an aunt and uncle on both Lehigh Parkway South and 17th St.SW. Siblings of my mother, the whole family lived in the Parkway. I can tell from Facebook groups that my affinity for the neighborhood is commonplace.

I expect that those growing up in Midway Manor and other Allentown neighborhoods of that era share similar emotions. I know that my father's generation stayed connected to their youth in the Ward. Likewise, today's Allentown youth will cherish their memories.

Shown above myself and a cousin in our Parkway backyard.

CLICK HERE FOR MY BABY BOOMER MEMORIES OF ALLENTOWN AT AMAZON BOOKSTORE....    36 SELECTED POSTS FROM THIS BLOG

Netanyahu Plays At UN

Netanyahu's speech at the UN might as well be given to Mamdani's staff at the NYC city hall, neither place has any use for him. But he's not speaking to influence the UN, rather voters back in Israel. His platform now is that Israel is Sparta, and will go it alone if necessary. 

Unfortunately, more and more, Israel is alone, and that isn't the worst of it. The shelf life on his reliance on Trump and the United States is getting shorter, election by election. Netanyahu will learn his fate at the end of October. Likewise, Israel will learn more about its reliance on the USA in early November. A blue wave doesn't bode as well for Israel as it once did.

I'm hoping that Israel moves beyond Netanyahu, and that United States moves beyond Trump, but both have staying power. In Israel, things could go even more hawkish and aggressive. Likewise, in the United States any majority will be thin and under constant pressure.

Anonymous comments are discouraged and may not appear.

CLICK HERE FOR MY BABY BOOMER MEMORIES OF ALLENTOWN AT AMAZON BOOKSTORE....    36 SELECTED POSTS FROM THIS BLOG

The Israel Dilemma

Israel's conduct in Gaza and the West Bank is no dilemma for anti-semites and anti-zionists, they had no use for Israel in the first place. However, for many of us who didn't consider zionism a dirty word, there is a conflict. As I have written before, Israel's responses since its creation in 1948 always took the  high road, at least for those of us who considered the UN partition of Palestine legitimate. 

Since mid 2024, Israel's actions have become problematic. October 7th (2023) was a horrendous massacre of innocents. Israel's counter attacking against Hamas was justified, the issue is of scale. Although Hamas is an entrenched enemy totally within civilian infrastructure, the problem is how that difficulty should be approached.

The aggression on the West Bank is even more troubling, more less devoid of justification beyond Israeli politics. I was pleased to see Mike Huckabee and the UK speak up. Israel has an election at the end of October, but with their parliamentary system, the result is much more of a wild card than here.

graffiti above from Heraklion, Crete

CLICK HERE FOR MY BABY BOOMER MEMORIES OF ALLENTOWN AT AMAZON BOOKSTORE....    36 SELECTED POSTS FROM THIS BLOG

Trump's Curve Ball

I suspect that even James Carville had to admire Trump's audacious $5,000 bribe offer to America. Forget if it's legal or possible, the offer will have effect on the election, probably more than the $4.59 gal. gasoline. America buys lottery tickets, so if there is a chance for five big ones, they'll take it. Trump's crassness and corruption aside, America doesn't understand or care about the national debt.

It is said that comments are the lifeblood of a blog. It is also a known fact that anonymous is the name most associated with comments. Nevertheless, I have decided to suspend that option on this blog, at least for the time being. You may continue to comment with the anonymous gadget, but you must type your name at the beginning or end of your comment, or it will not be published. Other options are to create a Google tag, with a pseudonym or your name.

As mentioned yesterday, I will be holding court this morning at the outdoor flea market behind the Parkway Shopping Center, between 8:00 and 10:00AM.

CLICK HERE FOR MY BABY BOOMER MEMORIES OF ALLENTOWN AT AMAZON BOOKSTORE. ..     36 SELECTED POSTS FROM THIS BLOG

An Antique Blogger

I wasn't always a blogger, getting here I wore a few different hats. One hat was as an antique dealer. Many mayors ago, I had a small shop on 7th Street. That little building has long since been demolished. Another retail venture involved photography and a darkroom on 8th Street.

A large antique venue has relocated to the former Parkway Bowling in the rear lower section of the Parkway Shopping Center. A visit this past weekend found Weil's Doghouse Antiques packed with 185 antique dealers. However, their parking lot flea market has yet to take root.

Although very sparse last weekend, the parking lot flea market will host another odd fellow this Friday morning for a couple hours. I'll be at an outside parking lot table between 8:00 and 10:00 AM, with some vintage camera accessories from the 1940's and 50's, and a few sketches on paper by Jessica Lenard.

Shown above is the back and front cover of my booklet available at Amazon Bookstore. It contains 36 selected blog posts about growing up in Allentown during the 1950's.

The Monstrosity Lives On

In 2013 developer Bruce Loch got permission to build a pencil tower at 9th&Walnut. In 2023 he sold the small parcel and essentially the permission to a new developer. That developer is now trying to keep the permission in force and marketable.

I think that it's fair to say that the marketplace is not clamoring for this building. While pencil buildings have been built in Manhattan because of extremely high real estate prices and very limited space, here in Allentown it would be ridiculous.

I remember some of Bruce Loch and John Troxell real estate development in Allentown. During the Joe Daddona era, small city owned intersection triangles, mostly in the Hamilton Park area, were acquired. Hardship lot size variances were then used to build on the parcels. In NYC these pencil buildings have been plagued by wind and sway issues. Leave it to Allentown to entertain this nonsense.

  MY MEMORIES OF ALLENTOWN IN THE 1950'S & 1960'S AT AMAZON

NATURE, ART AND TRASH IN ALLENTOWN PARKS

One of my seven hundred pet peeves is signage in the parks. Back in 2013, when I was trying to save the miniature dam by the Robin Hood Bridge in Lehigh Parkway, the then park director said he'll demolish the dam, but they could put up a sign with picture of what it looked like.

Signs have become fashionable now in our park system. Years ago we maintained the parks as designed, and the beauty spoke for itself. The beauty is still there, but now it has to struggle against stupid policies. 

The small trash can shown above is the only one on the end of the park near the Rose Garden ponds. Very often by Sunday afternoon it is overflowing. While common sense would suggest that more trash containers are in order, I no longer expect common sense. I can only hope that the park department hires a consultant to make that recommendation.

MY MEMORIES OF ALLENTOWN IN 1950'S & 1960'S AT AMAZON