PAGE 4 THE POST EDITORIAL Sunday, August 6, 2006 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Post, volunteers key In auction's success Editor, As chairwoman of this year’s Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction, I am writing to express my thanks to you and your staff at The (Dallas) Post. : This was only my third year on the auction committee, and somehow our volunteers managed to outdo themselves once again. And the staff of your paper was there to follow our every move: Charlotte Bartizek snapped photos of everything, beginning with the first antiques to arrive. She followed auctioneer Steve Traver’s moves as he worked the crowd at Irem Country Club, where we celebrated our first auction dinner-dance in style. Editor Dave Konopki assembled the vast array of stories and pictures of the past 60 years of the auction in the July feature sec- tion. And the paper kept up with the day-to-day events as they unfolded on the library grounds. And I must mention our growing list of businesses that have donated either their time, materials, or services that enable this huge event to continue. They include Fino’s Pharmacy, Ochman’s Jewelers, Caddie Labar, attorney Ben Jones, Emmanuel Bus Lines, Dominic’s Equipment, Dallas Borough police, Dallas borough man- ager Joe Moskowitz, Luzerne County Sheriff’s Department, Sue Hand’s Imagery, Marquis Art & Frame, Main Street Galleries, the Dallas Rotary Club and the Dallas Kiwanis Club — to name a few. But most importantly, we all thank everyone who came and enjoyed this most successful fund-raiser. It’s all for the Back Moun- tain Memorial Library, and its future. This truly is a landmark to be proud of, and one we’ll keep working to support for a long time to come. Bravo! My volunteers and I salute you. It makes us all proud to be part of the library auction, and the Back Mountain. Carol Warholak Sweeney 2006 Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction Chairwoman MOMENTS IN TIME The History Channel * On Aug. 13,1860, Annie Oakley, one of the greatest female sharp- shooters in American history, is born in Patterson Township, Ohio. Her ability to shoot holes through playing cards led to any free event ticket being referred to as an “Annie Oakley,” a reference to the validation holes that were often punched in the ticket. * On Aug. 12,1877, Thomas Edison describes the fundamentals of the phonograph to an assistant and instructs him to construct one. Edison had discovered the principles behind the phonograph when trying to invent a telegraph repeater. He patented the phonograph six months later. ® On Aug. 9,1936, at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, African American track star Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the Games in the 4x100-meter relay. His relay team set a new world record of 39.8 seconds, which held for 20 years. ® On Aug. 7,1959, the U.S. unmanned spacecraft Explorer 6 is launched into an orbit around the Earth. The spacecraft transmitted a crude picture of the Earth's surface from a distance of 17,000 miles. The photo transmission took nearly 40 minutes. ® On Aug. 1, 1966, the first Chevrolet Camaro drives out of the manufacturing plant in Norwood, Ohio. The name “Camaro” is French for "comrade, pal or chum.” ® On Aug. 8,1974, President Richard M. Nixon announces his resig= nation. The House Judiciary Committee had adopted three articles of impeachment against Nixon for his involvement in the Watergate affair: obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential powers and hin- drance of the impeachment process. ® On Aug. 10, 198], the decapitated body of 6-year-old Adam Walsh is found in Hollywood, Fla. In the wake of Adam Walsh's kidnapping and murder, Congress passed the Missing Children’s Act, giving the FBI greater authority to track the disappearance of children. John Walsh, Adam's father, went on to host TV's “America’s Most Wanted.” (c) 2006 King Features Synd., Inc. é The Back Mountain sure has changed a lot from the time trains and trolleys rolled through our community. A century ago, the Raub Hotel - located at the corner of Church and Lake streets in Dallas - was a prominent landmark. The above photo of the hotel - along with the picture below of the former trolley at Fernbrook Park - is being shared with The Post and its readers by College Misericordia archivist and local historian Harrison Wick. The Post wants to publish your stories - childhood and otherwise - about the Back Mountain, whether you grew up inthe early 1900s, the 1950s or the 1970s. Or if you have an old photo you'd like to share we'd love to publish it, as well. High resolution photos in JPEG format may be e-mailed to thepost@leader.net. They may also be mailed or dropped off at our office, 15 N. Main Street in Dallas. If the photos are one-of-a-kind, call editor Dave Konopki at 829-7248 and he'll make arrangements to have your photo scanned into our system while you wait. Stories and remembrances should be e-mailed to thepost@leader.net. Be sure to include your name and daytime phone number. For more information, call editor Dave Konopki at 829-7248. STRANGE'BUT TRUE * Add to the list of ridiculous headlines: “Plane Too Close to Ground, Crash Probe Told.” * Before they became successful, the Beatles were turned down by four record companies. A spokesperson for the Decca Recording Company is quoted as saying in 1962, “We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.” * When figured on a per-participant basis, pole vaulting has the highest mortality rate of any sport. Between 1982 and 1998, there were 16 reported deaths among about 25,000 athletes. ® The woman's name “Melanie” is derived from the Latin word “melania,” meaning “dark.” * [n 1982, David Grundman was killed by a cactus in the desert near Phoenix. For reasons unknown, he decided to shoot a giant saguaro cactus measuring 23 feet tall. After firing two shots at it, the plant fell over on top of Grundman and crushed him to death. * Do you remember the song “Pop Goes the Weasel” from when you were a child? Did you have any idea what it was about? Well, most people don't - it has nothing to do with animals at all. It is thought to have originated with hat makers in London. To a hat mak- er, a “weasel” was one of the tools of his trade, and “to pop" once meant “to pawn.” Whenever a hat maker needed some extra cash, he would “pop his weasel.” * In 1897, Typhoon Il won that quintessential event in the horserac- ing world, the Kentucky Derby. Oddly, though, he ended his career by pulling milk wagons in Indianapolis. * An anteater can grow to be 6 feet long, but its mouth is no wider than an inch. ® 00 Thought for the Day: “He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage - he won't encounter many rivals.” - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg , (c) 2006 King Features Synd., Inc. Tae POST TIMES®LEADER Community Newspaper Group 15 N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 18711 ® 570-675-5211 thepost@leader.net Richard L. Connor PUBLISHER David C. Konopki EDITOR Erika Calvert ADVERTISING Memorial and honor books part of the new collection at the library The Back Mountain Memorial Library recently added the fol- lowing books to its collection. EXPRESS (1 week) “Immediate Family” by Eileen Goudge “Dead Wrong” by J.A. Jance “Sandcastles” by Luanne Rice FICTION “Immediate Family” by Eileen Goudge “Dead Wrong” by J.A. Jance “Sandcastles” by Luanne Rice “Flirting with Forty” by Jane Porter “Ghost Force” by Patrick Rob- inson “On, Off” by Colleen McCul- lough “The Foreign Correspondent” by Alan Furst “The Wrong Hostage” by Eli- zabeth Lowell “To the Power of Three” by Laura Lippman “The Girls” by Lori Lansens “Phantom” by Terry Good- kind “Relentless” by Robin Parrish NONFICTION “The Saudi Connection” by Jack Anderson and Robert West- brook “PC’s All-in-One Desk Refer- ence for Dummies” by Matk L. Chambers “PGP & GPG: the email for the practical paranoid” by Mi- chael W. Lucas : “The Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne “The Hassle-Free Walt Disney World Vacation” by Steven M. Barrett “Insider’s Guide to Charles- ton” by J. Michael McLaughlin & Lee Davis Todman “Hidden Georgia” by Marty Olmstead “Hidden Belize” by Richard Harris “Dispatches from the Edge” by Anderson Cooper LARGE PRINTFICTION “Leaving Home” by Anita Brookner “Catch Me When I Fall” by Nicci French “The Truth of the Matter” by Robb Forman Dew “Love with Noodles” by Harry I. Freund “Bride Needs Groom” by Wen- dy Markham “Changing Faces” by Kimber- la Lawson Roby “A Necessary Evil” by Alex Ka- va BOOKS ON CD “The Last Templar” by Ray- mond Khoury “Wisdom of Our Fathers” by Tim Russert YOUNG ADULT “The Queen of Cool” by Cecil Castellucci “TTEN” by Lauren Myracle “Isaac Newton” by Kathleen Krull “Enthusiasm” by Polly Shul- man “A True and Faithful Narra- tive” by Katherine Sturtevant The following memorial and honor books were recently do- nated to the collection at the Back Mountain Memorial Li- brary. For information about do- nating a book in someone’s hon- or or memory, call the library at 675-1182. MEMORIAL BOOKS In memory of Genevieve Balo- ga: “Pirate Treasure” by Loretta Krupinski, presented by Kevin, Valerie, Kirby and Shelby Smith In memory of Genevieve Balo- ga: “The New Girl...and Me” by Jacqui Robbinss presented by Kevin, Valerie, Kirby and Shelby Smith In memory of Genevieve Balo- ga: “Christmas Tapestry” by Pa- tricia Polacco, presented by Ke- vin, Valerie, Kirby and Shelby Smith : The following books are in memory of Nancy Kozemchak and are presented by the Clifford Kozemchak family: “I Spy a Penguin” by Jean Mar- zollo “Franklin and the New Teach- er” by Sharon Jennings “The Berenstain Bears & the Trouble with Chores” by Stan & Jan Berenstain “The One and Only Delarnffl) by Valerie Tripp “Lindy’s Happy Ending” by Valerie Tripp “The Fair-Share Pair” by Vale- rie Tripp “My Trip to the Hospital” by Mercer Mayer HONOR BOOKS In honor of Ron Moran: “The Buffalo and the Indians: a shared destiny” by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, presented by Barbara Ball Levy In honor of Ron Moran: “The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin” by Cheryl Harness, presented by Barbara Ball Levy In honor of Ron Moran: “Silver Packages: an Appalachian Christmas story” by Cynthia Ry- lant, presented by Barbara Ball Levy In honor of Ron Moran: “On- ward: A photo biography of Afri- can-American polar explorga Matthew Henson” by Dolo Johnson, presented by Barbara Ball Levy
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers