Rt. 22 Is A Crime

Although I no longer attend public meetings and functions, I do venture out on excursions.  Early Tuesday morning I decided to check out Rt. 22...Glad I got back in one piece.  Traffic was heavy heading east, and heading west it was even worse, at 5 in the morning no less!  Those warehouses need to be kept filled, and emptied, by an endless stream of tractor-trailers.

When State Senator Pat Browne endorsed that Rt. 22 widening money instead be used for Rt. 78 improvements, including making a new exit for Jaindl land interest warehouses, I complained about it here on this blog. When Browne lost the primary this past May,  I could shed no tears. Under his direction too much of our state taxes have gone to enrich J.B. Reilly, and too much of new federal infrastructure money to benefit Jaindl Land interests. I don't think of Browne as corrupt, just too preoccupied with privately owned development, instead of the public good.

Next time you're on Rt. 22, wedged between speeding trucks, think about the Rt. 22 widening plans being again postponed.

photo/graphic:NYT

Almost A Howdy Doody Bottle

When I was a young man in Allentown, for a few years I operated a small antique store on N. 7th Street. In between waiting for an occasional customer, I would set up shop at one flea market or another.  At some point in those years I packed away the inventory, and went on to another interest, photography.

Move ahead fifty years, and I'm now faced with the proverbial downsizing. I billed my yard sale this past weekend as antiques, curios and collectables.  I believe that the few attendees thought that they stumbled upon their great grandfather's attic, and that what I really needed was a dumpster. 

In the process of setting up the sale, I unpacked a box of old bottles from the long ago store on 7th Street. Inside I found a Howdy Doody Bottle in great condition. None of my few customers noticed the bottle, and if they had, none would had any idea of who or what was Howdy Doody. On closer inspection, it wasn't even Howdy Doody after all, but rather an embossed Howdy soda bottle from Lehighton, Pa.

Although I can't yet bring myself to rent the dumpster,  now there is a Howdy Soda bottle squeezed onto an overcrowded shelf, in one of my overcrowded rooms.

Is Allentown Fair Also A Victim Of Shootings?

While the local news told us that there were two shooting victims last Wednesday night in Allentown, was there actually a third victim, The Great Allentown Fair?

Although I personally no longer attend the fair, I heard of people reluctant to take their children. The shooting incident at Musikfest offered them no encouragment. Pictures from the Fair's first night, and subsequent nights, both from social media and news sources, show the midways less than packed, compared to years ago. However, both fear of Covid, and inversely a pent up demand for entertainment from it, are also factors affecting attendance.  

While the mayor, fair society and media are concerned with positive spin, that sort of consideration doesn't occur to this blunt, politically incorrect blogger. 

photo by molovinsky taken in 2000

The King Has Abdicated

In 1958 my father had a food stand at the fair. It took him about an hour to realize you cannot sell hot dogs in the King's back yard, that is Yocco the hot dog king. When Yocco's claimed last year(2006) they were not at the fair because their canvas ripped, I was skeptical. This year it's official, they have abdicated their spot. Tonight the fair was jammed. In Ag Hall the granges still compete in vegetable canning. A wiseguy still incites you to dunk him. The world's smallest horse hasn't grown. Maybe Yocco's is gone, but the fair is still much more like 1958 than any other aspect of Allentown.

reprinted annually since 2007 

ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER 2, 2022: While another Allentown icon, The Brass Rail, recently closed on Lehigh Street, they have announced that a curtain call will be held at this year's fair... Last chance for a Brass Rail cheesesteak.

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

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 September of 2016

The Mighty Atom

Years ago at the Allentown Fair, as one would push through a sea of carney delusion, tucked back by the 4H animals was an island of reality. There, in an old battered truck, an ancient Jewish strongman performed incredible feats of strength, to sell only homemade kosher soap. Standing on a platform on the rear of his truck, flanked by photographs from his performing youth, he would bent horse shoes and bite through nails. Many years earlier, my mother as a little girl in Bethlehem, saw him pull a truck uphill with his hair. Even as an old man, like a reincarnation of Samson, his grey hair was still long.
In the summers of 1964 and 1965, myself and a friend,(Fred Schoenk, retired Allentown art teacher) made and sold printed tee-shirts at the fair. We had the honor to know Joseph Greenstein(The Mighty Atom) and his wife. For those interested, there are various articles on the Mighty Atom and even at least one book. Enjoy the fair!

reprinted annually since 2007

Fetterman Push Poll

This weekend I had a surplus of patience, and participated in a 20 minute push poll for John Fetterman.  While the poll and interview questions started out somewhat neutral, toward the end each question wanted to know how I felt about some crime against humanity supposedly committed by Mehmet Oz, and if that information lowered my opinion of him.

The script seemed somewhat more sophisticated than the interviewer, who sometimes struggled reading it. While Oz was portrayed as the super-rich carpetbagger, in my limited exposure* Fetterman is outspending him.

In an apparent attempt to camouflage the push, there were a few other questions about other races. I was asked about Shapiro vs. Mastriano, and to rate Biden.

On the other election of local interest, Wild/Scheller, there were no questions. In that race, Wild has been filling up my mailbox with an endless barrage of expensive mailers, complaining about how much money Scheller has to spend.

*my select television stations do not air political ads