4 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, October 25, 2000 EDITORIALS Let's all get behind regional rec park After a long period of silence, there is good news about the proposed Back Mountain Sports and Recreation Complex — the project is alive and kicking. The organizers of the effort to create a regional facility met last week and reported great progress at lining up the substantial financing needed to carry out their dream. That doesn’t mean the park is a sure thing, but there is reason to be optimistic that it will be built. It was unfortunate that officials from Back Mountain Base- ball and Back Mountain Soccer were not present, due to an oversight by the rec park committee. It's critically important that all parties to this important project participate in bringing it to reality, because each brings unique talents and perspec- tive and each represents a constituency that can help fund the park, and will make use of it. There may be some hesitation on the part of single-sport organizations to get behind the regional park, perhaps for fear of diluting their own efforts to secure fields. That may be a legitimate concern, but it is probably misplaced. While young- sters play baseball, softball and soccer for a few years, their parents — who foot the bills — likely take a wider view of what recreation facilities are needed here. In addition to ball fields, the regional park will have walking and biking trails, fitness circuits and indoor facilities that would be suitable for people of all ages and physical condition. More important, especially for Back Mountain Baseball, is that the existing fields are not secure. Owned by the Dallas School District and leased to the baseball organization for a nominal fee, the fields could be sold at any time, and for a substantial sum. Sooner or later, school directors are likely to conclude the district is not in the business of providing no-cost playing fields for use by a single organization, especially if the district's current robust financial condition should deteriorate. We have, as the saying goes, a happy problem, with active youth sports organizations, a fiscally capable populace, willing governments and energetic volunteers on all sides. Now we need to have them all working together to forge the best outcome for all people. Publisher's notebook Ron Bartizek I need to find a new line of work. This one’s too hard. You might have noticed how IBM stock fell by about 20 percent last Wednesday, after the company announced that sales weren't increasing as fast as anticipated. Three or four “stock analysts” promptly lowered their ratings on IBM, apparently to warn clients the company might not be a smart investment. Great timing. To my mind, this is akin to a weatherperson announc- ing that the sun rose this morning, and the liquid falling on ~ your head is rain. I know, I know, that's what they do now anyway. So I got to thinking. Why knock myself out trying to tell people things they don’t know before anyone else does, when Wall Street types get millions for giving out-of-date advice? It doesn’t make sense at all, so we're going to make some changes around here. First, we will no longer report on “potential” tax increases. You won't read about the government dipping deeper into your pocket until it’s too late, and I expect you to thank me for it! I can see that we’ll save a lot of space with this new approach. We won't need to publish a calendar of events, since those listings are all about what is going to happen. Poof! A half-page of newsprint saved each week. Okay, so we're not really going to do this, but it makes as much sense as investors paying “experts” to advise them not to buy the day after a stock goes in that tank. Imagine if the national press and television networks took this tack, especially in an election year. No polls. No overpaid pundits prognosticating about who will win and who will lose, and why. No endless analysis of each candidate’s (at least each major party candidate’s) performance in a debate or on the stump. No, sir, just report that day's news and tell us who won when the election’s over. Come to think of it, lots of us might pay dearly for that. Your news is welcome The Dallas Post welcomes submissions about Back Mountain people and events. In order to plan each issue, we must adhere to self-imposed deadlines, as well as those of our printer. To have the greatest likeli- hood of publication, items should be received at our ~ office by 4 p.m. the Friday prior to each issue. Items will be accepted until 4 p.m. Mondays, although much of the paper is already assembled by that time. Send or bring items to: The Dallas Post, 607 Main Road, P.O. Box 366, Dallas, PA 18612. Our normal business hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. A deposit box is located at the front of the building for after-hours submissions. 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 Elizabeth Skrapits REPORTER Joanna Cease OFFICE/TYPIST/CLASSIFIEDS Ruth Proietto PRODUCTION MANAGER rd PRINTED WITH PENNSYLVANIA SOY IN K = a NEWSPAPER Pumpkin patch. Photo by Charlotte Bartizek. LETTERS Editor, While the decision as to which candidate to support for Presi- dent should not be based upon that candidate's stance on a single issue, certain issues deserve pri- ority attention. No issue is more important to the citizens of this country, and the future of the human race, than the candidate's stance on environmental issues. With that thought in mind, I would like to ask each voter to consider the following questions: ¢ Should we invest our na- tional resources in attempts to find "clean" fuel alternatives that do not generate radioactive waste that has 20,000 year half-lives, and try to develop more energy- The Senior Side 4 Jack Hilsher If you were listening to the ra- dio on Halloween, 1938 you may have had your pants scared off. That is, if the program was the Mercury Theatre, and you believed what you were hearing was real, which was exactly more than half its listeners did. Boy-genius Orson Welles was presenting his version of "The War of the Worlds," and H.G. Wells novel about invaders from the planet Mars. The story was cleverly pre- sented as an actual event, with a news announcer breaking into a musical program to report the landing and subsequent terrify- ing events. Since it was, after all, on the Mercury Theatre time slot, and since Welles came on at the end to explain it was all merely a staged drama, it still was unbe- lievable how gullible America was. Thousands panicked, thinking we were actually being invaded. The announcer reported a "flam- ing object” had landed on a New Jersey farm. He said, "It looked like a huge cylinder, gave off a hissing sound, and, when the top came off, things crawled out." There was also a vivid description of a "V-shaped mouth dripping saliva from rimless lips that seemed to quiver." He told of a large crowd trying to escape crea- tures running amok with at least forty people dead. New York City became a mess, people jammed bus and train sta- tions, trying to leave. In Harlem i efficient vehicles, or should we continue to drive gas-guzzling S.U.V.s and pollute our federal lands and the Arctic Wildlife Ref- uge looking for more gas and oil? e Should we protect 40 mil- lion acres of forest in the west, or should we destroy those areas, including the last remaining se- quoia and redwood stands? e Should we, as 6 percent of the world's population, continue to use more than 33 percent of the world's energy? e Should we ignore the in- creasing damage to the ozone layer until we have 50 years' worth of documentation as to increased cancer and global warming? Before the decision as to which Think about this before you vote Presidential candidate to support is made, we Pennsylvanians should pause to reflect that we have recently been provided with an example of what happens when the State's Chief Executive Of- ficer appoints every member of our present P.U.C., and that group turns its back on its own previous Consent Decree and on our Wa- tershed. So, who are you going to vote for as President? Wait...Before you answer that question, tell me, "Where do the future children play?" Garry S. Taroli Dallas The phantom war : Orson Welles was captured on film during his 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast. churches were crowded. Electric light companies were asked to stop power so the Martian could not see. In Pittsburgh one man found his wife in the bathroom holding a poison bottle and yelling "I'd rather die this way than that!" Stories of terror came from all over the coun- try. Streets leading from almost every city in New England were filled with refugee cars. Parties stopped as hysteria spread. In Birmingham, Alabama, peoplerushed into the streets and at one college, women in sorority houses, weeping and still trem- bling from listening to the broad- cast, lined up at phones to speak to their parents "for the last time." A Newark housewife expressed the feelings of everyone: "We lis- tened, getting more and more ex- cited. Then we heard, 'get gas masks! and that was the part that got me. It's a wonder my heart didn't fail me because I'm nervous anyway. I felt if the gas came I wanted to be with my husband so we could die together. So I ran out of the house. I didn't know what I was doing. I stood on the corner waiting for a bus and thought every car that came along was a bus and tried to get on it. People tried to quiet me but I kept saying, "Don't you know New Jer- sey is being destroyed by the Germans...it's on the radio." At the show's end when the Mercury orchestra played the fi- nal familiar chords (Tchaikovsky's B-Flat piano concerto) the phone rang in the studio control room and the mayor of a midwestern city demanded to speak to Welles immediately. He yelled, "There are mobs in my streets! Women and children are crowding my churches! Violence, looting, riot- ing! If this is just some crummy joke, then I'm coming right to New York and beat you up!" CBS went nuts. Local politicos went after William Paley to disci- pline his star. Studio police forced Welles and his staff into a back room while station employees found every script and record, destroying or locking them up. Somehow, the press, which had been mobbing the offices, forced their way into where the Mercury team were kept and yelled for information. "How many deaths were caused?’ "Had there been fatal stampedes?" "What about suicide, riots, murders?" All in all the panic nationwide made it seem as though the end of Orson Welles was within sight. The FCC threatened action; some believed the program producers would be prosecuted. But a show contract absolved them from "all liability resulting from the show content,” and the matter died. So did Welles, but not for many years later after many other tri- umphs. However, he never equalled his Halloween master- piece. Were you scared? W ONLY YESTERDAY 70 Years Ago - Oct. 24, 1930 FIRE DESTROYS TWO COTTAGES A fire at Lake Carey destroyed two cottages and scorched an- other, causing damage estimated at $20,000. The destruction of the cottages was the second fire in 24 hours for the Tunkhannock Fire Company. Earlier the same day fire: broke out in a Tunkhannock garage, but be- cause of the great effort made by the fire company, the building was saved from being completely destroyed. Kingston Township High School was the only high school in the rural district that did not have a football team for the fall season, and it was expected that they would not have a basketball team, for the winter, either. The Castle Inn was padlocked for violation of the Eighteenth Amendment which prohibited the sale, possession and transporta- tion of alcoholic beverages. 60 Years Ago - Oct. 25, 1940 MACVEIGH CHAIRMAN OF DRAFT BOARD The draft board for Area No. 1 which included Dallas and sur- rounding towns, with the excep- tion of Jackson, Lehman and Lake Townships, began numbering the cards of the 3,708 young men who had registered for selective military training. The cards were numbered from 1 to 3,708, in preparation for the lottery in Washington when the first con- IL 2 f ne He 2 BK 3 tingent of draftees were to be se-- lected. Joseph MacVeigh of Dal- las was named chairman of the local draft board. 50 Years Ago - Oct. 27, 1950 CHURCH REMODELS To meet the needs of a growing primary department in the Sun- day School of Orange Methodist Church, the Men's Bible class re- modeled the building. Through excavation of the basement, a Sunday school room had been built and a new heating system installed. New equipment for pri- mary instruction was to be pur- chased by the Cheerio Class. You could get: Strawberries, 12 oz. pkg., 39¢; Kraft Velveeta cheese, 2 1b. pkg., 87¢; Jolly Time popcorn, 10 oz. can, 19¢; Win- Crest coffee, 1 1b. bag, 77¢; Peter Pan peanut butter, 12 oz. jar, 33¢. 40 Years Ago - Oct. 27, 1960 LINEAR INC. AND UNION SIGN AGREEMENT Linear, Inc., and Local 204 United Rubber Workers of America signed a new two-year agreement. Included were a seven cents per hour wage increase, in- creased vacations, Workmen's Compensation make-up pay, press room incentive system and improvements in the pension plans. 30 Years Ago - Oct. 29, 1970 BURGLARIES INVESTIGATED Dallas Borough Police were in- vestigating a series of break-ins to homes during recent weeks. A group of juvenile boys were be- lieved to be the culprits. Items stolen included $40 cash, a case of beer, cigarettes, cigarette light- ers and whiskey. There was also some damage done to one of the homes. Jefferson Airplane was sched- uled to perform at the Kingston Armory this week. Mr. and Mrs. Frederick S. Daley of Dallas, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary Oct. 31. 20 Years Ago - Oct. 23, 1980 TATTERSALL'S WIN AUTO SHOW Richard Tattersall of Sweet Valley and his brother Atty. Will- iam Tattersall of Bethlehem, re- cently won the first prize trophy at the Antique Auto Club of America 1980 National Field Meet. The Tattersall's took first prize in category 18C (Homemade Cars from 1900-1930), with their 1929 Cadillac Touring Car. Tattersall stated that he purchased the car in 1972 from a private owner in Virginia. At that time the car was completely dismantled and he brought it home in pieces. "I purchased the car for $8,000," said Tattersall "And right after I accepted the trophy, a man of- fered me $150,000, which I re- fused." 9) oN “8 HN ; 0. | NA ‘DUI. Ha
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers