Ce-Ce Walks The Walk

Ce-Ce Gerlach is running for Allentown City Council.  My first encounter with Ce-Ce was in September of 2013, when she organized a fundraiser for school uniforms.  The post below appeared at that time.


Ce-Ce Gerlach rocked South 16th Street this afternoon with a block party to raise funds for school uniforms. The block was packed with people enjoying several carnival attractions, music and food. From all reports, the new Allentown school uniform policy seems to have gotten off to a good start, but one issue is the cost of the clothes.  With a large, low income student body, this can become a family hardship.  I'm sure Ce-Ce's organizing abilities will help with this problem.  I've had a couple of conversations with Ce-Ce this past month, and I believe she will be a factor in Allentown's future. (reprinted from September of 2013)

Israel In Today's American Politics

These are trying times for American support of Israel.  As Democrats and the media obsess against Trump,  that vilification is being smeared on Netanyahu, and Israel itself. The media is delighted by corruption charges against Netanyahu, and paints him and Trump as brothers from the same mother.  Between Netanyahu being described as Trump's friend,  and new critics of Israel in Congress,  American support is being tested.

This new packaging of Israel by the left creates a dilemma for American Jews, who overwhelmingly vote Democratic.  I'm sure that support of Israel will remain as part of the party's platform,  but historical canards about Jews and Israel will only increase in the new climate.

Voting Machine Madness In Lehigh County

The old voting machines were 800 pound monsters. They resembled old time photo booths found in arcades. In Lehigh County, these heavy steel booths would be trucked and placed in the various polling locations by prisoners of the county jail. When the county was mandated to replace them with  electronic machines for the 2006 election, I felt it was unnecessary. When they immediately disposed of the old machines, I knew that was a mistake. Those old monsters were reliable, foolproof and verifiable.

Governor Wolf has decreed that votes must now have a physical receipt. Although, Tim Benyo, Chief Clerk of Elections, claims that the new paper ballots are not going back in time, it sure seems that way. Some off the old mechanical machines, in addition to tallying the votes, also had a adding machine type of paper verification. Of course the expense of replacing those old mechanical wonders would now be prohibitive. So the new plan is paper ballots, which will then be electronically scanned.

The old mechanical machines were hack-roof.  The current electronic machines are also hack-roof, not being connected to the internet.  Their replacement and disposal will be another knee-jerk reaction.

Flights Of Fancy

Readers of this blog can learn from my search engine, (right sidebar of web version) that I'm a long time critic of projects at the Lehigh Valley International Airport. The fact that there are few flights that hardly go anywhere, never stops them from expanding the underused facility. In my previous criticism, I took them to task for planning a separate transportation hub, when convenience of the existing one was one of their few advantages. When the airport's largest incoming flight arrived yesterday, no taxicabs were on hand. The airport will have a new transportation hub, with no transportation.  Now they want to build a hotel?

What people want are flights and destinations. What this airport needs is a new executive director, and a new board of directors.

Allentown Photographic

My experience with Allentown Photographic in the late 70's, at 12 N 8th Street, was not unlike my grandparents with the Vendig Hotel. Neither were particularly successful, both only lasted a few years, but provided many memories. Now, Bela Lugosi never came into my shop, but my custom darkroom did attract numerous characters. I printed negatives, supposedly smuggled out of Russia, of the Romanov Family, while my strange anonymous customer watched by the door for KBG agents.(If they were real, I made no copies, nor did I keep the negatives) I once rented the darkroom to the local Porno King for his art directors to produce Puritan Magazine. His former building is now becoming the new Mayflower Condominiums. I snuck into a local high school at night to photograph an old circus juggler perform his act, one more time, on the stage. This photo gem, of a midget skating between legs, is from the juggler's mementos.

reprinted from 2014

Welcome To The Vendig

In 1933, with the end of Prohibition, my grandparents(maternal) started operating the Vendig Hotel. They were the working partners, another immigrant family, here longer, were the silent backers. The hotel was directly across from the current Main Street Depot Restaurant in Bethlehem, which was the old New Jersey Line Terminal. With my grandmother cooking, they became well known for crab cakes and other shelled seafood. What wasn't known, was that she was strictly kosher, and never even tasted anything she prepared. As some may recall, my grandparents came from Hungarian Transylvania (now Romania) in the early 20's. Family lore* says Bela Lugosi visited the hotel. Lugosi was born in the same area of then Hungary, and started his acting career playing Jesus in Passion Plays. In 1931, after immigrating to America years earlier, he got his big break playing Dracula. Typecast as a villain, Lugosi was reduced in later years to drug addiction and playing in low budget monster films. He died in the mid 50's and was buried in his Dracula cape.

*My uncle, who as a boy lived above the hotel, had no recollection of Lugosi. The partner families would later merge through marriage, and 40 years later come to own the old vaudeville theater in South Bethlehem known as The Globe. It too is gone.                                                      

reprinted from 2016

Union Rumbles At Morning Call

An article on Lehigh Valley Live, web version of the Easton Express, reports that elements at the Morning Call want to unionize.

While the group has already created a website and facebook page, as of 5:00PM on Monday, there is still no report about it in the Morning Call itself. While those employees interested are pictured in a photograph, I noticed that some of those who might be considered senior staff are not involved, at least as of this writing.

While those organizing are fearful of Tribune policy and job security, ironically a journalism professor at Lehigh has a column in the paper stating how the industry is holding its own. Talking about Lehigh Journalism teachers, Bill White likes the group's facebook page. I sincerely doubt that he would be part of the effort if still employed by the paper.

Although, I'm generally not a union guy,  I wish the group success with their mission.

UPDATE: At 7:25PM an article on the unionization effort appeared on the paper's website. The article states that the request for union (The News Guild) recognition was signed by 48 employees, which is 79% of the staff.  The article was written by Morning Call Staff.

Citizenship The Hard Way

According to my mother, a Gypsy prince was buried in Allentown years ago, she knew about such things. She was born in Galgo, Hungary, an area of Transylvania, now part of Romania, near present day Gilgau. In Galgo, the Jews and Gypsies lived on the edge of town. In the early 20's, my grandparents, along with their Gypsy neighbors, came to Bethlehem to work at the Steel. On weekends, to make extra money, my grandparents would open their house and show Hungarian movies. None of their relatives, Jew or Gypsy, save one cousin, survived the Nazis... Even the cemeteries were desecrated. As you can see from the document above, my grandfather earned his citizenship the hard way.

reprinted from previous years