Apr 15, 2016

A Trip Around Allentown


The other day on a trip around town,  I drove past the current house on 2nd Street where my grandfather first lived when he came to Allentown in 1895.  A couple minutes later,  I drove by my grandparents house that I remember, near Sacred Heart Hospital.  It's the house where my father and his four siblings grew up.  Earlier that morning I was on the south side, where my parents lived when I grew up.  Allentown is a small place, I even drove past a couple of houses that I lived in as an adult.

In the course of writing the political aspect of this blog, I sometimes clash with the millennials and X'ers,  who think that my observations are so historically based that they're no longer relevant.  Perhaps they think that I'm frozen in time,  still eating strawberry pie at the Patio restaurant in Hess's.  It is true that I remember an Allentown very different than the current one,  but I was here and present, for the transition.

Yesterday, we learned that one NIZ baron got $28 million,  out of a total of $29 million, of state tax money toward his portfolio of buildings.  Years ago, there were so many business leaders in Allentown that they had a special club for lunch, named the Livingston.  In today's Allentown, the barons could all met at one table for four, and there would still be empty seats.

photo:  I'm on the front lawn in Little Lehigh Manor, around 1949.  Never imagined that I would have to defend the park 60 years later.
                                                                
                                                   BONUS ART BELOW

                                                     FREE ADMISSION
                                                       HIGH CULTURE

1 comment:

  1. Your problem with millennials and Xers is not uncommon; perhaps not even unusual for young generations as they come along. I'm sure us baby boomers were seen in a similar light. The difference, however, is that our parents and teachers made damn well sure we were aware of our history. We all could find Japan, Germany and Italy on a map. How many young people today can do you think can find Viet Nam or Iraq on a map? And our elders didn't try to be like us, which is often the case today.

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