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. Years ago when I met my significant other, she told me she taught at an elementary school on the south side, but that I would have no idea where it was.

reprinted from January of 2013

Lehigh Valley of Denial

According to Michael Siegel, who knows about such things, the Little Lehigh is in dire trouble.  Meanwhile, back in the land of government and sacred cows,  the LCA,  like Sergeant Schultz on Hogan's Hero, knows and says nothing.  Nestlé and the other bottlers keep sucking out our water like they're making a profit on it.☺☺

Mr. Siegel better get used to frustration.  Here, in our one paper valley, the sacred cows roam free.  Save but for a few bloggers,  no worries here. But even in the blogosphere, the topics of choice involve personal attacks combined with anonymous comments.

Here in the valley the sacred cows herd together.  The Wildlands Conservancy never criticizes the LCA,  and invites Nestlé Water to conduct children's workshops.

Shown above is the former Robin Hood Dam on the Little Lehigh.  It was demolished by The Wildlands Conservancy in order to harvest a state grant.

photocredit; molovinsky

GrassRoots Politics In Allentown

If you're a student of grassroots politics in Allentown, chances are that you know Robert Trotner. This political and community activist has been encouraging political newcomers for a number of years, through both an internet radio show and coffee house gatherings. His recent meetings at the Coffee House Without Limits has attracted new candidates for mayor, city council and the school board. While their names are mostly new to the general public, all of them are involved in the process already, attending meetings and studying Allentown's problems.

I have been a supporter of local outsider politics for decades. These are the people you see at the meetings, week after week. They are the ones that fight the battle for everyone else.  They are the ones who speak out for the many who remain silent.  While a few get elected and become mainstream, most remain unelected, and unrecognized for their commitment.  Reporting their accomplishments has always been an honor for this blog.

Shown sitting with Trotner is City Council candidate Jessica Lee Ortiz and School Board candidate Phoebe Harris.

ADDENDUM: Political outsider and police officer Luiz D. Garcia has announced his candidacy as a Republican for mayor.  I had reached out to Garcia last fall, and we finally connected at a police event at Sacred Heart Hospital earlier this winter.  He is Allentown's first Hispanic Mayoral candidate.

Lehigh Commissioners Fail Cedarbrook

At Tom Muller's kickdown event,  he announced that although not running for another term,  he would champion for the county's Cedarbrook nursing home.  That most important facility has been stonewalled by the county commissioners.  During the last few years I appealed to the commissioners at least twice that Cedarbrook is their most meaningful obligation.  Not only haven't they funded any renovation there, they have been disingenuous in not doing so. They have commissioned study after study, stalling any real commitment.  By now, the proposed modernized wing would have been half amortized.  It's not as if the commissioners are bound by conservative principle, they funded the useless, but politically correct farmland preservation.  They should at least treat our elderly as well as excessive acreage, used mostly for Jaindl turkey corn.

Although, I have been labeled as a radical Republican choir,  I supported Muller on his Cedarbrook efforts.  I supported Democrat Dan Hartzell, because he voiced support for Cedarbrook.  My support for Cedarbrook will continue, as well as my outspokenness against hypocrisy,  without regard to political party.

ADDENDUM:  An article in the Morning Call suggests that commissioner Marty Nothstein might be more sympathetic to Cedarbrook than his Republican predecessors, time will tell.

photocredit: K Mary Hess

The Trump Effect

Yesterday, a valued reader thought that my observation of women losing it over Trump was perhaps an aberration, caused by a small sampling on my behalf. Between the demonstrations and facebook, I don't know why she thinks that. Another reader suggested that the mental illness resides within me, for not fully understanding their outrage.

I do believe that we are experiencing a unique psychological phenomena, which will eventually be officially  recognized and titled.  To say that the vast majority of women I personally know are offended by Trump is an understatement.

As a political blogger I look forward to seeing how Republican incumbents play the Trump card come the midterms in 2018.  Here locally in Pennsylvania that already is a challenge for Dent and Toomey.

Trump and Mental Illness

No,  this post isn't about Trump being mentally ill, it's about him making women nuts.  If it seems as if I'm dwelling on Trump and women's reaction to him, it's because of their obsession, not mine.  I'm a student of politics, and this visceral reaction to him by women is unprecedented.

I know a woman who has a large presence on facebook.  In all the years of being facebook friends, she has always avoided politics.  Currently, she can't stop posting about Trump.  Furthermore, her comments are becoming more and more vulgar, which is also out of character for her.  I can only conclude that Trump has made millions of women mentality ill.

Recently,  I heard of a psychiatrist who is also very upset about Trump. Who will be left to treat these people with this new condition?

The Business Of Anti-Trump

With the country having been so split in the last election, the losers constitute a large market share. Furthermore,  that segment is passionate in their dislike of Trump, and has disposable income.  Witness both Starbucks and Nordstroms cashing in on that sentiment.  Expect to see more businesses copying the strategy.  While Trump may have been a brand name prior to his campaign,  Anti-Trump  now has purchase appeal.

I recently have been accused of running a choir for Trump supporters.  I was not a Trump supporter prior to the election.  Since he prevailed and now is president,  I have evolved into a Trump defender of sorts, although he doesn't make that task easy.  I am revolted by the animosity coming his way.  There is more vitriol toward Trump than I have ever witnessed in politics.  At that intensity,  there can be nothing productive about it. I do believe that Trump will become the issue in the upcoming mid-term elections.  How sad that a congressman will run on his position on a person, rather than on the issues.

Hot Nights In The South

I am making available monoprints from the fabulous South Beach Series by Jessica Lenard(1950-2016) works in the series are 8"x10" contact off line only