Founded
December
17,1912 Ceased Publication Thursday
February 1, 1951
Book 1 Volume
10
This
is a re-formatted version of Volume 10 done with Nvu
Saturday,
January 24, 2004 7:15 AM 10 deg
at LVIA and
9.5 in the bus stop
Another week of
this web page is
beginning.
Well, so far I have 6.61 Mb on my web server. No need to worry yet.
Actually, it is now 6:20 PM Somehow,
I lost everything I did this
morning. Me, who always saves his work. Queen said that at least I am
not ranting and raving, no blue smoke out of my ears, which is I am
sure a refreshing change for her. I shall have to reconstruct it as
best I can. Therefore, I will have to wing it. Geez!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Well, I have to
start somewhere. This
morning in the
e-mail was a note from Dave Engler
concerning this picture that was in last week’s web page.
His input is very
much appreciated and
is of great
value in the recall of this area’s history. Stuff like that is what
makes local history so interesting.
Bob:
I agree, the picture was taken from the
"Devil's Pulpit" side of the gap. We used to trek across it
when
hiking the Appalachian Trail. I believe the "apparent road"
to
which you refer is the actual L & NE track
right-of-way. I
think it used to wrap around the mountain toward Berlinsville and may
have connected with the Chestnut Ridge RR in Palmerton, but of that I
am not certain. As an aside, Engler family lore has it that
the
bridge in your picture was "built" by my father (S.D. Engler)'s step
father, Bill Berg, who was a railroad right-of-way and bridge building
engineer. My dad's mother (Ella Berg, Palmerton Hospital
Chief
Cook in the 1930s and 1940s) seemed to have had a "thing" for "railroad
men" as her first husband, John J. Engler, was a railroad freight yard
manager.
Sincerely,
- Dave Engler
It did indeed connect with the Chestnut Ridge as seen from this picture
with a lot of activity in the Chestnut Ridge yards. This picture was I
think from Steve Jensen. He has provided me with a lot of
good
stuff.
This
morning my blood glucose was 127 and the weight 207.When ever she has a
bean-based dish like the chili we had last evening, the blood sugar
behaves very well.
This morning we
went to IGA and Rite-Aid
where Queen
got one of her prescriptions that was getting low.
Today is my day
for the Times News. I
like Saturday
best of all. Their staff columnists and reporters often have articles
on this day. I enjoyed Joel Kern’s trials and tribulations with the
smoking habit. I suppose that the price of the habit will eventually
force a lot to quit. When I was a kid cigarettes were a few cents a
pack. Now, Wow!!
Bob Urban is still
battling the Post
Office
Department for a postage stamp issued for anthracite miners. Lots of
luck!
Pattie has had a
heck of a string of bad
luck happen
to her. From her vacuum cleaner to her oil burner that her service man
hasn’t a clue how to fix, and now to top it all off, her car has mice
that are eating away at vital parts of the car with very undesirable
results. All this combined with the slings and arrows of her job. She
speaks of “Insensitive” phone calls. Geez! , Queen knows all about
that. When Queen worked at the Palmerton Telephone Co. as an operator
for 20 years, she got a lot of that. Whoever called about a problem
after working hours, was MAD as Hell and didn’t hesitate to tell off
the first representative of the company they encountered. Well, she was
it. She said she learned many words she never knew before; surprisingly
some from very “nice “ people who while trying to be anonymous, didn’t
realize she recognized their voices. Ha!! Today, she is very
good
at recalling voices.
This morning when I went into the bus
stop, I saw the bag of frozen
sauerkraut that we decided to have for supper.
Supper is over and
we had sauerkraut,
pork, mashed
potatoes, and lemon pudding for dessert. It was excellent. She will
probably hear from me this evening! Ha!!
This morning,
while I was in the bus
stop, I saw the
two smoked pork butts that have been there for awhile. I brought them
in and cooked them up to be turned into ham and bean soup. I cooked the
meat most of the afternoon, took it off the bones and it is all setting
out there to be de-fatted tomorrow. That also makes an excellent meal.
Above is the old
firehouse and Chestnut Ridge train station on Delaware
avenue
Sunday, January
25, 2004 7:56 AM 5 deg. at LVIA and 2.3 deg. in the bus
stop
Burrr!!! It is
cold this morning. It is
a clear day
here so far, but snow is to enter the area later this evening.
Apparently, the worst of it is predicted to fall to the south of us.
This morning my
weight was still 206 and
the blood
glucose122. That sauerkraut meal did not raise it.
Well, I was out
and had my first cup of
coffee on
the upper park bench. Queen thinks I am nuts, but I was well bundled
and quite comfortable. She is starting breakfast and then wants to take
her bath. I don’t know, these late hours of hers. She didn’t get to bed
until after 12:30 AM. Yes, it was the computer. She wrote several
e-mails last night and she likes some of the solitaire games. I taught
her how to play Spider Solitaire. It is different and fun. It comes
with the XP program.
I just got this from Bob Green:
Snappy Answer #1
A
flight attendant was stationed at the departure gate to check
tickets. As a man approached, she extended her hand for the ticket, and
he opened his trench coat and flashed her. Without missing a
beat
she said, "Sir, I need to see your ticket, not your stub."
Snappy
Answer #2
A
lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store, but
couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked a
stock
boy, "Do these turkeys get any bigger?" The stock boy
replied,
"No ma'am, they're dead."
Snappy
Answer #3
The
cop got out of his car and the kid who was stopped for speeding
rolled down his window. "I've been waiting for you all day," the cop
said. The kid replied, "Yeah, well I got here as
fast as I
could." When the cop finally stopped laughing, he sent the
kid on
his way without a ticket.
Snappy
Answer #4
A
truck driver was driving along on the freeway. A sign comes up that
reads "Low Bridge Ahead." Before he knows it, the bridge is
right
ahead of him and he gets stuck under the bridge. Cars are
backed
up for miles. Finally, a police car comes up. The
cop gets
out of his car and walks around to the truck driver, puts his hands on
his hips and says, "Got stuck, huh?" The truck driver says, "No, I was
delivering this bridge and ran out of gas."
And
finally #5 - Snappy Answer of the year:
A
college teacher reminds her class of tomorrow's final exam.
"Now class, I won't tolerate any excuses for you not being here
tomorrow. I might consider a nuclear attack or a serious
personal
injury or illness, or a death in your immediate family but that's it,
no other excuses whatsoever!" A smart-ass guy in
the back
of the room raised his hand and asks, "What would you say if tomorrow I
said I was suffering from complete and utter sexual
exhaustion?"
The entire class does its best to stifle their laughter. When
silence is restored, the teacher smiles sympathetically at the
student, shakes her head, and sweetly says, "Well,
I guess
you'd have to write the exam with your other hand."
I got this e mail from Bill Danneberg:
“Am
I correct in assuming that the house portrayed [in your
newsletter] as "Dr. Leshok's house" was once the residence of
Philip Ginder at Fourth and Columbia [Residence Park]? Do you
remember the nearby "circle" on Fourth Street in Residence
Park?
That was the scene of many "Circle Bowl" touch football games in the
50's, despite the fact that a big tree stood squarely in center of this
fine arena. Too bad this athletic facility fell victim to the
need for enhanced traffic flow in and out of Residence Park.”
I replied
as follows, "Bill, Do you
remember when the
Ginder house was the Baker house? Do you remember the fountain that was
right in front of the house as you enter the driveway? It was fed by a
small dam on the park run that was located up in the upper reaches of
the property. It was placed so that there was just enough drop to
display a really nice fountain. I suppose it drained into the sewer, of
that, I am not sure. I remember it very well. I used to play in that
creek and catch Hell from Mom when I came home soaking wet. That is a
story in itself. I will bet your Dad would have known all the details
of the fountain. "
“Bob,
“I
never knew that fountain was
"powered" by gravity. Very
interesting. I recall the place being called the Baker
house. When Phil Ginder moved there, we moved into Ginder's
previous house at 436 Columbia Avenue from a rented farmhouse off Route
209 about a mile west of Forrest Inn. [I can't recall the name of the
village nearby.] My Dad dropped me off at Delaware School
each
morning and my mother picked me up in the afternoon in our yellow Jeep.
[Cool!] Fond memories of a wonderful childhood in and around
Palmerton, a life that included building dams in Park Run and catching
hell from my Dad on one occasion for re-routing the stream down Third
Street from a point about 100 yards south of the swimming pool entrance
drive. Fortunately, he discovered our engineering project before the
police did.”
Well,
here are some of Bobby’s
water
escapades, which often caused me no end of trouble with Mom. I wrote
about some of this stuff a couple of years ago, but many never have
seen it.
All of my life I
loved the water. In the
summertime,
I would explore the park run in detail. I worked my way down to
Delaware Avenue from Columbia Ave. It started by crawling under the
street at the Baker house on Columbia and I worked my way down stream
crawling under each avenue until I reached Delaware. Under Lafayette,
it was really neat. I would crawl backward into the storm sewer line
that came down Lafayette Avenue almost in the center of the street, and
lay there watching stuff floating by. Of course, in those days, I
didn’t weigh 206 lbs. By the time, I worked my way down to Delaware, I
chickened out. Delaware Avenue’s “tunnel was dark as Hell and much
longer because it stayed covered until it got past the Palmerton
Lighting Co. building, now Bob’s Floral shop. There was no grate, as
there is now. It looked like a dark pit to this little kid. I started
in but thought better of it when the street noises and claustrophobia
closed in on me. Geez!!
Of course, then I had to face Mom and
since there was no logical reason
to appear home soaking wet, I was in for it. It was fun though. She had
me figured out. I never fooled her on very much of anything. She wasn’t
a one-room schoolteacher before she married Dad, for nothing. Sometime
I shall recount my learning to swim.
It is hard to believe that on the
other side of the street from these
pictures was my starting point. See below!!
This afternoon, I
figured that the
weather scene for
tomorrow was not going to be good, so I went for a walk this afternoon.
It is much like walking on a treadmill, but much colder. Without Queen,
it was boring as Heck. I took the camera along and got two pictures at
the park run at the Berlew [Kupp] place. Now, it is practically frozen
over.
Tonight for supper
we had a meal in
Queen’s new
crock-pot. It is programmable. We had an excellent chicken
vegetable meal. We had some brown and serve rolls and lemon pudding for
dessert. It was an excellent meal. I long ago told her that her
probationary period was over and I was going to keep her. Usually with
that remark, I have to fend off the frying pan. Geez!!!
Monday, January
26, 2004 7:24 AM 8 deg at LVIA and 13.7 in the bus stop
The blood glucose
this morning is 123
and the weight
208. <Ugg> It is white outside this morning. It had started
to snow
in the middle of the night. I doubt if there is an inch of the stuff
but tomorrow is supposed to bring a “big one,” Sheez!!
I have been going
through my e-mail this
morning and
seeing a lot of interesting stuff. There are communications from lot of
folks to whom I want to respond.
Here are some simple games I found on
the Kim Komando site.
http://ferryhalim.com/orisinal/
After breakfast, I
went up to the park
bench,
coffee, broom, and tush cushion in hand and sat there awhile. It wasn’t
uncomfortable sitting there. I noted the smoke drifting toward the west
from the neighbor’s wood stove and am reassured that it isn’t over yet.
A
break from winter from last summer
Viewing the wood
smoke reminded me of my
early
attempts to “stick it to the Arabs.” I bought my first wood stove and
then my second. After two chimney fires, one requiring the assistance
of the fire department, I persevered. The oak pallet wood was all
dumped on the sidewalk. The wood was put in coke boxes which I carried
up into the patio area under a roofed area.
After a time, my trusty
assistant declined putting oak
woodcuttings into the coke boxes. She also stated that she did not want
to be cremated before her time. Therefore, I decided to switch to coal.
Ha!! The man put the coal into
the wood storage place that I
had
turned into a coal bin. At one time, the sides of the redwood lattice
split open and spewed coal all over the church yard. A bit of poor
engineering, was involved in that one. However being a” Fudge
Institute” graduate of long standing, I overcame that difficulty with
some reverse engineering. Ha!!
The newer stove was
interchangeable with wood or
coal.
Well, that eliminated the chimney fire problems but it was a bitch for
dirt. The house had a black coating of coal dust over everything. I
also had to get up about 5 or 6 AM and turn on the draft and shake the
ashes and take them outside, a process taking well over a half an
hour. Geez!! It just wasn’t worth the effort. Therefore, then
we
put in a gas parlor heater. This was the best idea of all by
far.
Finally, we realized that while the
downstairs living area was
comfortable, the rest of the house was like living in a barn. The old
Crane Sunny Day oil burner that Mom had installed many years ago was
certainly not efficient. That is when we had Milt Stemler replace it
with a new high efficiency oil burner along with the addition of a
programmable thermostat.
Now, we heat the entire house
comfortably for well under 800
dollars a year and we are very comfortable. That isn’t bad for a single
dwelling house sitting unprotected by itself. The house is well
insulated with rock wool insulation blown in under the stucco and then
and sided with aluminum siding with Celotex underlying it. We had
new storm windows installed, it has all paid off.
I
said to Queen, now is when we need it. I would no longer make a good
pioneer! Geez!!
I went to the Iron Works this morning
and found that there was no lack
of lack of people. I saw Betty and Bob Hartman as well as Betsy
Burnhauser. Will Bradbury was there being shown the ropes. It must be
his first time at the equipment.
Then I stopped on the way home
at the T.N. office to say a
quick
hello, just an in and out, on my way to IGA and asked Pattie about her
mouse mobile. Ha!!
Tuesday, January
27, 2004 7:28 AM 16deg at LVIA and 14.4 in the bus stop
It is a nasty
looking day out there this
morning.
Butternut was out but I have not ventured out yet. They want a royal
mess later today and into tomorrow with the possibly up to 8 to 10
inches of snow. I bet Howard Cyr and Barbara Shepherd are laughing
themselves silly over us poor frozen northerners. Ha!!
This morning the
weight was 206 but the
blood
glucose was 149. Why oyster stew should do that I haven’t a clue. I
didn’t even have any dessert. Geez!!
Now at 8:20 AM, I
am back inside from my
trip out to
the park bench. I guess one really would consider me as neighbor Mike
calls them, a “nut case”.
I just received
this from Bob Green. I
find it very
interesting:
Zip
code 18071 - Palmerton, PA
Page 1 of 2 |
Go to Page 2
|
Enter new zip code
|
Where's the
Nearest?
Demographics
zip 18071 Regional
Avg. National Avg.
Neighborhood
type Suburban
Population
11,384
635,064 285,658,441
Pop.
density 362.5
1,336.9 1,161.6
Percent
male 48.4%
49.0% 49.6%
Percent
female 51.6%
51.0% 50.1%
Median
age 39.5
38.4
36.5
People
per household 2.4
2.5 2.6
Median
household income
$33,382
$45,569 $38,353
Average
income per capita
$16,900
$21,468 $17,970
Crime
zip 18071 Regional
Avg. National Avg.
Violent
crime risk index 3.0
2.1 3.0
Property
crime risk index 3.0
2.4 3.2
Housing
zip 18071 Regional
Avg. National Avg.
Median
home value $89,100
$128,976 $126,047
Median
age of homes 44.2
32.3 27.8
Home
appreciation 7.2%
7.3% 7.7%
Homes
- owned 74.2%
73.0% 63.4%
Homes
- rented 20.8%
18.7% 21.7%
Homes
- vacant 5.0%
8.3% 14.8%
Commuting
by bus 0.9%
1.0% 2.0%
Commuting
by carpool 17.5%
12.8% 14.6%
Commuting
by auto 72.2%
78.6% 71.6%
Working
at home 2.6%
2.8% 5.6%
Family
Facts zip 18071
Regional
Avg. National Avg.
Currently
married 58.4%
58.8% 58.3%
Never
married 22.7%
23.9% 23.8%
Divorced
6.6% 6.6%
7.7%
Widowed
9.2% 7.8%
7.4%
Separated
3.1% 2.9%
2.8%
Married
- w/ children 26.2%
27.2% 28.5%
Married
- no children 33.1%
34.2% 31.3%
Single
- w/ children 8.0%
7.5% 9.3%
Single
- no children 32.7%
31.1% 30.7%
Continue to Page 2
Zip
code 18071 - Palmerton, PA
Page 2 of 2 |
Back to Page 1
|
Enter new zip code
| Where's the
Nearest?
Education
zip 18071 Regional
Avg. National Avg.
High
school graduates
74.2%
79.2% 76.5%
College
degree - 2 year 5.9%
8.0% 8.2%
College
degree - 4 year 8.0%
13.9% 14.9%
Graduate
degree 4.1%
7.2% 7.0%
Expenditures
per student $5,894
$6,292 $5,896
Students
per teacher 18.6
18.5 16.0
Students
per librarian 660
518 934
Students
per guidance counselor
396
519 560
Economy
zip 18071 Regional
Avg. National Avg.
Unemployment
rate 5.3%
4.9% 4.6%
Recent
job growth 1.4%
2.0% 0.9%
Future
job growth 7.6%
7.0% 11.4%
Sales
tax 6.00%
6.00%
5.63%
Income
tax 3.80%
3.83%
5.02%
Cost
of living index 93.8
105.8 100.0
Health
zip 18071 Regional
Avg. National Avg.
Air
quality 74
39
48
Watershed
quality 47
46
54
Physicians
per capita 91.7
250.5 168.5
Health
cost index 97.8
102.0 100.0
Superfund
site index 20
15 71
UV
index 3.8
3.8
4.3
Climate
zip 18071 Regional
Avg. National Avg.
Altitude
410 580
1,058
Rainfall
(inches annually)
44.0
47.9 38.8
Snowfall
(inches annually)
19.1
26.6 24.4
January
avg. low temp 19.2
18.1 21.6
July
avg. high temp 86.1
84.1 86.4
Days
of precipitation annually
125
126 112
Days
mostly sunny annually
204
202 205
Comfort
index (during hot weather)
47
49 44
I find the above very interesting and subject to many interpretations.
Aside from my visit to the park
bench, I haven’t been outside
today and I am getting cabin fever.
<Later> I did go out and push
Queen’s new bright yellow
wide
shovel all the way up to and including Mike’s place. Bernice Kleintop
already had hers done. That is it. At least, it got me outside and got
the blood moving a bit. Bernice opened her front door admonishing me to
stop it. Hey, I feel fine. If it begins to feel like too much, I stop.
Queen has been busy doing the
thankless job all afternoon of
going through excess papers, mail, and just assorted piles of stuff we
have accumulated in the kitchen, and throwing out the unneeded stuff.
This just in from the National
Weather Service,
BERKS PA-CARBON PA-LEHIGH
PA-MONROE PA-MORRIS NJ-NORTHAMPTON PA-
SUSSEX NJ-WARREN NJ-
WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT
TONIGHT.
LOW PRESSURE OFF THE CAROLINAS
WILL INTENSIFY AS IT MOVES NORTHEAST
TONIGHT ALLOWING SNOW FALL
HEAVY AT TIMES TONIGHT. THE SNOW WILL
TAPER OFF TO FLURRIES BY
MORNING. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 7
INCHES ARE FORECAST WITH THE
PERIOD OF HEAVIEST SNOW BETWEEN 7 PM
AND MIDNIGHT WHEN AN INCH OR
TWO COULD FALL PER HOUR.
At
8:00 PM tonight here it comes Bah Humbug!!
Tonight for supper
Queen had the rest of
the rest of
crock-pot meal left over from the other day. She had it in the oven
with a fresh salad, cottage cheese, and some cranberries. It was first
class.
Wednesday, January
28, 2004 7:33 AM 25 deg at LVIA and 19.6 in the bus
stop
My weight this
morning was 205 but the
blood glucose
was back to126. That is better.
It has stopped
snowing but we must have
8 or 10
inches of the stuff outside. I will wait a bit before going out to work
on it.
Well,
here is how it looks this morning.
I am back inside.
As I was finishing
breakfast, we
saw neighbor, Garry, going by with his snow blower. When Queen stepped
out to thank him on his last pass up the walks, he stopped to ask about
her. He said he hadn’t seen her in awhile and was concerned about her
well being. His Mom has a similar problem.
I got our blower
out and cleaned off out
back area
including my park bench spot. Then I went up to neighbor Mikes place
and did his east sidewalk way. Of course, a few spots for Butternut as
poop stops were done. When I went and looked, Mike’s plowman
had
opened the whole garage area. I tell you we certainly do have
wonderful neighbors.
I used the snow
shovel to clean the
steps down to
the street and opened three spots for us to gain access to the parked
car when this place fills up. I will have to open the area next to the
garage. I plan to do that when I get the car out when I to go to the
“Iron Works” this morning.
I have been down
and back. I used the
treadmill and
walked a half a mile, then the regular specialized machines for the
various muscle groups. My back feels like a rusty hinge this afternoon.
I didn’t overdo, but I came damn close. With the addition of the
shoveling I did before I went, it was plenty. A nap felt damn good this
afternoon. Stuff like this never seemed to bother me 20 years ago.
Golden years my foot!! However, it beats looking up from 6 feet under,
at the snow on the ground overhead. Ha!!
Tonight for
supper, we are dining in
God’s
restaurant. Spaghetti!!!!!! She makes the best in the world. It isn’t
Italian by any means but it is without peer. After her spaghetti meal,
all is right with the world. Spaghetti is the king of “comfort food”.
Even more than Mac and cheese, which is also right up near the top of
the list. Ah!!!
Thursday, January
29, 2004 7:19 AM 21 deg at LVIA and 17.1 in the bus
stop
This morning my
blood glucose was 139
and my weight
206. It is a cold, clear, day this morning. Butternut has been out but
not I. Soon I shall have to take the garbage to the alley and get out
the car. Today, we plan to do our shopping.
Most of the
soreness from yesterday has
disappeared
this morning and I certainly feel much better. I was bone tired last
evening and must have needed the rest.
Dummy was sitting
on the park bench when
he heard a
truck coming. So, I had to go like Hell to get the stuff up there. They
have been coming unusually early these days. Well, I made it but just
barely. He had to wait for me. Sheez!!
We did our
shopping this morning and
that was
uneventful. The stores were crowded and busy. We saw Marie Dieter in
Aldi and Ida Snyder leaving IGA this morning.
I guess everyone wanted to just
get out while the weather was
nice. We were back a bit after noon.
This morning in my emergency e mail
messages is the following
from U. S. Department of Homeland Security:
US
Computer Emergency Response Tm.
Issues
Cyber Security Alert for the MyDoom.B
Click
for details
http://www.emergencyemail.org/cyber1.asp
Refer
others for sign up to...
THE
EMERGENCY EMAIL & WIRELESS NETWORK
http://www.emergencyemail.org/
Also from ProLog:
Dear
Valued Customer,
Please
carefully review this
critical announcement that outlines a new
e-mail virus which has begun circulating on the Internet. This virus,
commonly known as W32/Mydoom, arrives as an attachment to an e-mail
message. Running the attachment allows the virus to infect your PC.
As
a result of this
announcement, PenTeleData strongly urges all
customers to do the following:
1)
Please use extreme caution
when opening e-mail attachments from both
known and unknown sources.
2)
Please ensure that the virus
definitions for your anti-virus
software are up to date and run the anti-virus software on your
computer to detect and clear any infections.
For
any problems or additional
questions please call our technical
support at 1.800.804.5783.
Thank
you for your business and
continued support.
PenTeleData
My advice is be
careful even known
friendly e-mails
from folks with previously clean machines may now be
infected. BE
SURE YOUR ANTI VIRUS IS UP TO DATE! In addition, be sure it is set to
scan your incoming e mail. A properly configured e-mail
scanner
can catch it. Check your virus scanner for updates regularly.
I was sitting here
today wondering about
the
political scene. Everyone is spinning and slinging mud at each other. I
thought for a time how can it get any worse? Each week more and worse
stuff keeps coming out.
At this point, I decided to have
Google run a search on the subject of
past political campaigns. Moreover, I thought they are becoming worse
and worse, well, I was in for a surprise. Today’s stuff is mild
compared with the past. It is an interesting subject that gets bigger
and bigger, as one delves intro it.
”These
Are the Good Old Days:
"Dirty
Campaigning" Was Once Much Worse”
By
Dan Sanders
"Presidential campaigns are a lot nicer today than
they used to be.
What respectable person today would think of calling one of the
candidates for the highest office in the land a carbuncled-faced old
drunkard? Or a howling atheist? Or a pickpocket, thief, traitor,
lecher, syphilitic, gorilla, crook, anarchist, murderer? Yet such
charges were regular features of American presidential contests in the
19th century." http://216.132.160.230/lp_goodolddays.htm
I
have concluded that human nature is pretty much the same. What has
changed tremendously is the ability to communicate all the insults and
drivel instantly all over the world. The Pope sneezes and immediately
someone in San Francisco says “God Bless” you! Before candidates had to
read it in the paper to know they had been maligned. It was a lot
easier on the rest of us in those days, though.
Friday,
January 30, 2004 7:26 AM 14 deg at LVIA and 10.4 in the bus
stop
This
morning my Blood glucose
was 127 and the
weight 206. It is very cold outdoors this morning. I haven’t been out
yet even though Butternut did his thing.
Queen just told me that
John Parsons died. He was 78 years old. The Historical Society will
miss him. This from the
paper:
John
W. Parsons
John
W. Parsons, 78, of Palmerton, died Jan. 29 in his home. He was
married to Jeanette (Serfass) Parsons for 52 years last June. He was a
science teacher for Palmerton Area School District Middle School before
retiring and also taught physics and science for Northern Lehigh School
District and physics for the Upper Perkiomen School District, was the
owner and operator of Towamensing Tree Nursery, and was a land surveyor
for 20 major subdivisions in Towamensing and Lower Towamensing
Townships, Carbon County. He earned a bachelor's degree in forestry
from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., and a master's degree
in general science from Temple University, Philadelphia. Born in
Aquashicola, he was a son of the late Walter and Florence (Greene)
Parsons. He was a member of St. John's Towamensing Lutheran Church,
Palmerton. Previously, he was a member of St. John's United Church of
Christ, Palmerton, and a Sunday school teacher and 25-year consistory
member there. In 1998, he and his brother William co-authored ''The
Towamensing Union Church,'' for the 200th anniversary of the church,
which originally included both St. John's congregations. He was an Army
Air Corps veteran of World War II, serving as a B-17 radio operator and
gunner and attaining the rank of sergeant. He was a past conductor of
the Parryville Band, a member and librarian of the Palmerton Band, and
a cornet soloist for both bands. He was a member of the Lehigh Brigade,
Civil War Roundtable of Eastern Pennsylvania, and one of the original
members of the Lehigh Gap Historical Society. He authored ''The Lehigh
Gap,'' a book published by the society, and ''A Ramble Through the
Lehigh Water Gap.'' Survivors: Wife; son, John of Palmerton; daughters,
Jan Steigerwalt of East Stroudsburg, Jeanne Green of Owings, Md.; five
grandchildren. He was predeceased by a daughter, Judy. Services:
memorial, 7 p.m. Monday in St. John's Towamensing Lutheran Church. Call
6-7 p.m. Monday in the church. Arrangements, T.K. Thomas Funeral Home,
Palmerton. Contributions: Judy Parsons memorial scholarship funds of
the Palmerton Area School District and Bucknell University, Lewisburg,
Union County. Published in the Morning Call on 1/30/2004.
I intend to
go to the “Iron Works” this morning.
There is no point in
going early. The place is full of geezers who often go there very
early.
Gee, whiz!! We
just got a phone call from son
in-law, Fritz. He is just
home from the hospital having had three stents put into his arteries.
He had a stress test, they found an abnormality in the readings, and he
had this procedure at that time. He is well and feeling fine and
expects to resume a more normal life. However, he intends to modify his
lifestyle to take into account this new condition. He said the doctor
spoke of the genetic connection that he and his sibling’s share. It
probably played a large part in his condition. He
speaks of the possibility of moving into a town where Belva will have
better access to stores and people as well as the great function and
livability of a small town. We wish them well.
I went down to the Iron Works and got
back about ¾ hour
later. After my return, I took some banking down to Keystone.
Then I stopped in at my favorite conclave of TN reporters. When I told
them that I had just paid the Telephone bill that just arrived to
reassure them that the company would have sufficient funds to pay all
three of them. Ha!! From there, it was back home. I drove by the
Lafayette Ave Elliston’s house and saw that the sidewalk was cleared.
Please love one another Mom and Bob, [Queen and Bobby]
Let us be thankful for
the fools. But for them the rest of us could not
succeed.
Mark Twain
(1835-1910)
It is
better to deserve honors
and not have
them than to have them and not deserve them. Mark Twain
(1835-1910)
If you
pick up a starving dog
and make him
prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference
between a dog and a man. Mark Twain (1835-1910)
