4 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, May 24, 2000 EDITORIALS Let's not kid ourselves about 'new’ jobs Cries of elation coming out of Wilkes-Barre could almost be heard in the Back Mountain last week, as city officials and economic development leaders touted the 330 jobs which will move to the city early next year. Mayor Tom McGroarty and executives of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce probably had to spend a few hours in a hot tub to rehabilitate their arms after expending so much energy patting themselves on the back. And for what? Because they successfully gave away tax money to lure Commonwealth Telephone Company all the way from Dallas. (Pennsylvania, that is.) Commonwealth's parent company, which remains head- quartered here, assures us those jobs will quickly be replaced by new ones in its fast-growing divisions, and we hope that is the case. And who could fault them for jumping at a tax-free decade in Wilkes-Barre that was there for the taking? It's hardly Commonwealth's fault that a perverse system of entice- ments makes it lucrative for an employer to move jobs 10 miles rather than expand and invest in existing facilities. Some of the speakers at Thursday's announcement of the move made it sound as if there was a good chance Commonwealth would pull up stakes and head to greener pastures far away if it didn’t get a great deal in Wilkes-Barre, but it's difficult to take that possibility seriously. The company has too much infrastruc- ture and too many loyal, well-trained employees in this region — its primary service area — to leave behind, and the cost of doing business here is lower than almost anywhere Common- wealth could go, except Wilkes-Barre, apparently. While Wilkes-Barre and Chamber officials are busy pro- claiming the success of their efforts to lure “new” jobs to downtown, the Back Mountain loses an opportunity to have more employment close to home, while both Dallas Township and the Dallas School District could lose tax revenue, at least temporarily. Employees who live here and work in Wilkes- Barre, though, will pay a much higher wage tax. It's funny how the same people who talk earnestly about thinking regionally can’t wait to step in front of the camera and take credit for moving jobs from town to town within Luzerne County like pieces on a chessboard. This hardly seems the way economic incentives are intended to work, and it's a shame anyone is proud of the result. Publisher's notebook One could hardly miss the recent overblown press coverage of the admission by William Clay Ford, the chairman of the automaker, that his company’s Excursions have a couple of teeny, tiny faults that cause him to lose sleep at night. Seems Mr. Ford acknowledged that the Excursion, which is slightly smaller than a Peterbilt, may be polluting the atmosphere a bit more than a Honda Civic, and its gas mileage - 10 - is a tad wasteful of natural resources. Oh, and if an Excursion collides with a normal car, chances are the other driver will end up in amorgue, while the Excursion driver will only be late for lunch. He said he felt real bad about this, and would try to improve things: In the meantime, he’s more than happy to take your order, since Ford's profit on each of these behemoths is about the same as the total price of a Taurus. You may not have noticed the news a few days later that Ford was cutting production of the Excursion by a third due to slow sales. Hmm, makes one wonder about Mr. Ford's eagerness to fall under the Excursion’s wheels in an act of financial sacrifice. I know it would be cynical to say it, but perhaps he knew this bloated SUV wasn’t so popular anyway, so any harm he may have caused by admitting its shortcomings would have a minimal impact on profits. In any event, it was a shrewd move, judging by all the sympathetic press it generated. I can think of a few other companies that weren't so clever: May 20, 1908: Johnson Carriages founder Joshua Johnson announced today that his company will no longer produce buckboards, since he has found that their hard ride hurts people’s backsides, and horse dung makes walking unpleasant for pedestrians. Also today, figures show that most businesses are embracing the new horseless carriage for use in deliveries. July 5, 1939: Cunard Lines president Francois Cunard says too many people are getting seasick on his company’s ocean liners, and the firm will therefore cut back service in the interest of their health. He said the announcement had nothing to do with the start of transatlantic airline service. Oct. 13, 1985: Sony Corporation has decided to discontinue its Betamax line of video players because three children have gotten their fingers stuck in the loading door. “Sony is just too responsible to continue marketing such a dangerous device,” said a spokesman. He had no comment on recent statistics that showed VHS with 90 percent of the video market. Jan. 4, 1988: McDonald's will stop selling coffee at its drive- through windows. “The risk that someone might put steaming hot coffee between their legs, then spill it, is just too great,” said a spokesperson. She added that while it was unlikely anyone would be this stupid, or clumsy, or both, McDonald's felt the responsible thing would be to remove the possibility of such an accident, no matter how remote. The Dallas Post Published Weekly By Bartsen Media, Inc. P.O. Box 366, Dallas PA 18612 570-675-5211 Charlotte E. Bartizek ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER OFFICE MANAGER Ronald A. Bartizek PUBLISHER Ken Brocious ADVERTISING ACCT. EXEC Bill Goodman REPORTER Joanna Cease OFFICE/TYPIST/CLASSIFIEDS Ruth Proietto PRODUCTION MANAGER 7} PRINTED WITH PENNSYLVANIA SOY INK im rr NEWSPAPER PER Sir Squiggles, owned by Toni Jackloski of Beaumont, doesn't stray too far from mom. Photo by Charlotte Bartizek Back in time Anna Mae Estus Every kid in Dallas knew who Mame was. She was the lady who gave them candy for their pen- nies. Her name was Mame Fleming and she lived in the back of the store. She was a big woman with snowy, wavy hair piled high on her head. Her skin was the peaches and cream type and she had the bluest blue eyes. She always wore blue dresses and starched white aprons. Her store was a small wooden building next to the Corey Frantz building, built over Toby's Creek. There was one window in the front with: a ruffled white curtain tied ' Tales from Mame's candy store back and you could see the candy case. You had to step down from the sidewalk to reach the door. When you opened the door a loud cow bell let Mame know there was a customer. She always greeted you with a smile. It was difficult to choose which candy you wanted. There were green spearmint leaves, little pots of baked beans (coated peanuts), rootbeer barrels. slices of water- melon made of coconut to re- semble the green rind and pink meat and black seeds. There were stripes of licorice with white dots of candy down its length. There were long pieces of narrow white paper with flavored colored dots that you picked off to eat. There were Mary Janes and Licorice Nigger Babies - yes, that's what they were called then. There was always Jelly Beans and lolli- pops. There were diamond shaped chocolate covered maple fudge, and bolsters chocolate covered crispy candy, peppermint patties, coconut creams and chocolate covered vanilla drops. There were clove drops and lemon drops and thick licorice cigars and packets of candy ciga- rettes with red tips, and butter- scotch pennies and little tin dishes with a tin spoon to eat the candy that resembled pie. There were sour balls, peppermint and win- tergreen lozenges and tootsierolls. There was rock candy, much too sweet and tasteless and Hore- hound drops we didn't like even a little bit. Both of these were used in remedies by our mothers for colds. But the candy I wanted more than any of the others was a Jaw Breaker, preferably a black one. They came in two flavors, black licorice and red. hot cinnamon. Mame said Jaw Breakers were only for the Big Boys and would not sell one tome. Once I gave my money to one of those Big Boys to buy one for me, but Mame knew, and wouldn't sell it to him. One time I had a Canadian quarter and it bought a big bag of candy. When I gave Mame the quarter, she snatched the bag of candy away and put every piece back in it's sparkling glass dish. Those days Canadian money didn't have exchange value, even banks wouldn't take it. That was a sadly learned lesson. On into our teen years we bought all of our candy at Mame's. One morning her store wasn't open as usual. She was very ill in the hospital. We all prayed she would be well soon and every day we checked to see if the store was open. It was not to be. A note on the door let us know she had died. We didn't think about candy, we would miss Mame, she was our friend and we loved her. She could never be replaced by any- one. She never did sell me a Jaw Breaker. ONLY YESTERDAY 70 Years Ago - May 23, 1930 MAN GROWS MORE THAN 100,000 CABBAGE PLANTS Eli Parrish, 88, of Dallas had one of the largest cabbage plantings in the region. Mr. Parrish did all of the work and caring for them, and had more than 100,000 plants which were going to be sold at market. A ‘get-together for the Girl Scouts of Trucksville, Lehman, Shavertown, and Dallas had been planned by the troop committee of Girl Scout Troop 39, of Shaver- town. The program was to in- clude a field meet, games, songs and the presentation of badges. 60 Years Ago - May 24, 1940 LIGHTNING STRIKES CENTERMORELAND HOME A random bolt of lightning struck the home of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Nulton of Centermoreland, and scattered through every room with the exception of their son's bedroom. The lightning ignited a couch on the first floor and potato bags in the cellar, split a stout post in the middle of the house, splintered floor boards and then made its exit, sparing the occu- pants any harm. The bolt was said to have passed within six inches of Mrs. Nulton's head. The first case of cerebrospinal meningitis in the Dallas area since Wilkes-Barre's epidemic began two years earlier, was reported when a child was taken to Wilkes- Barre Contagious Hospital. Im- mediately, Health Officer John Q. Yaple, acted to guard against the spread of the disease by destroy- ing the child's school books and desk. : : 50 Years Ago - May 26, 1950 OWNER ARE WARNED NOT TO LET DOGS LOOSE The Pennsylvania Game Com- mission reported an increase in the number of dogs running at large in forests. Deer had been driven to the point of exhaustion and some had been killed by half- starved dogs. Some of the dogs were homeless, half-wild animals that had been abandoned by in- different owners. Others were owned by people who were ne- glecting their responsibilities. The Commission office advised that residents of the area could avoid having their dogs destroyed and themselves inconvenienced by prosecution if they would accept their responsibility under the law - know where the family dog is at all times. Now playing at Himmler The- atre: "Miss Grant Takes Rich- mond" with Lucille Ball and Will- iam Holden. 40 Years Ago - May 26, 1960 COLLEGE MISERICORDIA CELEBRATES MAY DAY Despite heavy, grey skies threatening rain, guests gathered on the campus of College Miseri- cordia to witness the student's May Day Coronation. Underclass- men in academic attire and se- niors in formal full length pastel dresses attended the Court of their May Queen, Rosemarie Miano, in order to pay special honor to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The May Queen was chosen by vote of the entire student body. You could get: Ideal ice cream, 1/2 gal., 69¢; Bala club soda, 6 cans, 50¢; Fresh N Good saltines, 19¢; Beads 'O' Bleach, 18 oz. 39¢; Nabisco Lorna Doone, 10.25 oz. pkg., 29¢; Reynolds Alumi- num Wrap, 25' roll, 31¢; Liquid Lestoil, pt. bot., 37¢; Kraft Swiss Cheese, 59¢/1b. 30 Years Ago - May 28, 1970 COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST LOAN FOR H.L. Aloan of $4,400 to the Harveys Lake Municipal Sewer Authority granted by Harveys Lake Borough Council had been contested by two Lake taxpayers. A complaint that was filed alleged that no plans or details of the proposed sewer system were presented for con- sideration by Council members before the loan was approved, and that a resolution or ordinance must be passed instead of a mo- tion, to approve the loan. The complaint also stated that the @ loan was not advertised or pre- sented to the mayor as required by Borough Code Approximately 135 junior high school students were preparing for their Spring Chorus Concert in the recently dedicated Dallas Junior High School auditorium. Four choruses, the Junior Choraliers, Chordettes, Boys Glee Club and Girls Glee Club, per- formed separately, and in combi- nation. 20 Years Ago - May 22, 1980 LAST NEWMAN DOLL DONATED TO THE LIBRARY A lucite doll case was donated to the Back Mountain Library to permanently displayed the last doll Mrs. Arthur Newman made for the library auction. The case was donated in memory of Mrs. Newman by her two daughters, Elizabeth Corby and Alice Snowden. Jennie Newman made more than 1,000 dolls for the auction during 33 years she gra- ciously donated them for the li- brary. The doll to housed in the case was the one Newman was working on when she died. Her daughters completed the remain- ing finishing touches to the doll. Two backyard swimming pools were vandalized in Kingston Town- ship. A $500 pool sliding board was taken from one pool, and the heavy plastic liners of both pools were cut and destroyed. Dam- ages were estimated at $3,550. LEGISLATORS DIRECTORY | Federal Officials Representative Paul E. Kanjorski (Democrat) Wilkes-Barre: 825-2200 Washington: (202) 225-6511 e-mail: paul.kanjorski @hr.house.gov # 400M, 7 N. Wilkes-Barre Blvd., Wilkes-Barre PA 18702 or 2358 Rayburn Building, Washington, DC 20515 Senator Arlen Specter (Republican) Wilkes-Barre: 826-6265 Washington: (202) 224-4254 e-mail: senator_specter @specter.senate.gov 116 South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 or 711 Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510 Senator Rick Santorum (Republican) Scranton: 344-8799 Washington: (202) 224-6324 Fax: (202) 228-4991 e-mail: senator @santorum.senate.gov 527 Linden St., Scranton, PA 18503 120 Russell Senate Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 State Officials State Senator Charles D. Lemmond (Republican) (717) 675-3931 e-mail: smurphy @pasen.gov 22 Dallas Shopping Ctr., Memorial Hwy., Dallas PA 18612-1231 State Representative George Hasay (Republican) 287-7505 or 542-7345 or 474-2276 or 477-3752 119 S. Mountain Blvd., Mountaintop PA 18707 : Hasay’s district encompasses: Harveys Lake, Lehman Township, Jackson Township, Lake Township, Franklin Township, Ross Township, and Dallas Township's north voting district. State Representative Phyllis Mundy (Democrat) 283-9622 or 655-3375 Suite 113, 400 Third Avenue, Kingston PA 18704 Mundy’s district encompasses: Dallas Borough, Dallas Township except for the north voting district, and Kingston Township.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers