Lo LA Sa a al PAGE 4 THE POST COMMUNITY Sunday, December 3, 2006 MOMENTS IN TIME ® On Dec. 9,1926, young clarinetist Benny Goodman, working hard to raise his family out of poverty in Chicago, records his first solo. Sadly, Goodman's father was hit by a car and killed on the same day. e On Dec. 4, 1936, actress Tallulah Bankhead auditions unsuccess- fully for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in “Gone With the Wind.” Vivien Leigh later auditioned and won the part. e On Dec. 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission and never return. The bombers flew over the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean where ships and aircraft are said to disappear without a trace. * On Dec. 6, 1955, the Federal government standardizes the size of license plates throughout the U.S. Previously, individual states had designed their own license plates. ® On, Dec. 10, 1974, Arkansas Democratic Representative Wilbur Mills resigns as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Mills had been stopped by Washington park police while driving at night, intoxicated, with his lights off. His companion, who jumped into the Tidal Basin, was later identified as a popular stripper who went by the names “Fanne Foxe" and the “Argentine Firecracker.” e On Dec. 7,1982, the first execution by lethal injection takes place at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. Charles Brooks, Jr., convicted of murdering an auto mechanic, received an intravenous injection of sodium pentathol. ® On Dec. 8,1993, the North American Free Trade Agreement is signed into law by President Bill Clinton. NAFTA had been criticized by billionaire third-party candidate Ross Perot, who argued that if NAFTA was passed, Americans would hear a “giant sucking sound” of American companies fleeing the United States for Mexico, where employees would work for less pay and without benefits. (c) 2006 King Features Synd., Inc. STRANGE BUT TRUE e Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was feminist author Gloria Steinem who defined a liberated woman as “one who has sex before marriage and a job after.” It should be noted, however, that she made that observation in the early days of the feminist movement, before those activities became quite as widespread as they are today. * Those who study such things claim that the more passionate the kiss, the more muscles are used by the kissers. Makes sense, once you think about it. ® As long as it doesn't get hotter than 60 degrees, experts say that the average person can live 1 days without water. e |f you're one of the millions of Americans who generously do- nate to a variety of worthy causes, | hope you won't let the following fact discourage you: Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and the world’s richest man, and his wife, Melinda, have given away more money than any other couple in the world - more than $30 billion so far. * Famed star of the silver screen Spencer Tracy, when asked what he looks for in a script, replied, “Days off.” ® Francesca Trito was happily married to a well-dressed man in Spain -- that is, until she learned her husband's dirty little secret. He got nearly all of his clothes off corpses he dug up in a cemetery near their home. After that discovery, Francesca wasted no time in divorc- ing him. * The magazine PR Week once asked those in the public-relations industry to name the worst people they ever had to work with. This is the list that they came up with: Mike Tyson, Eminem, Kathie Lee Gifford, Martha Stewart, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Dennis Rodman, Woody Allen and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. oo eo 0 Thought for the Day: “Anyone who eats three meals a day should understand why cookbooks outsell sex books three to one.” - L.M. Boyd READ AND RELAX PROGRAM WINNER ANNOUNCED il, bh ny oh aS * % id # - Read! LE ab A Sarah Connolly, a freshman at Bishop O'Reilly High School, recently received a $50 gift card from Target department store of Wilkes-Barre at the Back Mountain Memorial Library. Connol- ly participated in the “Relax and Read” summer teen reading program during the summer, reading and reviewing more than a dozen young adult books. The more books read by the teenag- ers, the more chances they had of being selected for the prize. Connolly also participated in the Young Adult Book Discussion Group. Other group members included Amy Heindel, Alexa Cheshire, James Gittens, Ronald Chupka, Kathleen Markovich, Jonathan Wallace, Katelyn Reinert, Thomas Rogers, Meghan Pietraccini, Brandon Kelley, Amanda Kocher, Kenny Kocher and Ann Marie Wempa. From left are children’s and young adult li- brarian Janet Bauman and Connolly. The Dallas Post TIMES®LEADER Community Newspaper Group ¢ 15 N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 18711 ® 570-829-7248 thepost@leader.net Richard L. Connor David C. Konopki PUBLISHER EDITOR Trish Roe ADVERTISING a shifting light and the enveloping cold. Every year, summer green is relinquished for autumnal gold. Alas, that can't be the claim for its E ven the youngest recruit of nature - a maple sapling, unexpected and even unwanted -- understands the cycle that comes with the man-made neighbor, untouched by brush or changing hue for seasons beyond memory. 70 YEARS AGO Dec. 4, 1936 BOROUGH SCHOOLS SEEKING TUITION PAYMENTS A joint meeting of Dallas Borough and Dallas Township schools will be held to discuss the borough district’s claims for tuition due for town- ship resi- dents who attend borough schools. The tuition was sug- gested during a meeting of the Dallas Borough School Board on Tuesday night. Several months ago it was discovered that pupils from the township who desired an aca- demic course were attending borough schools and although parents of some agreed to pay tuition, the State Department of Education ruled that the township is responsible for such payments. Township school directors claimed they were not respon- sible for the payments and recently obtained a reclassifica- tion of their system to permit students to take the academic course in the township from now on. ONLY YESTERDAY The prospects of the merriest Christmas in years for local people brightened still more this week as developments indicated that this section is receiving its full share of the country’s spirited business boom. Outstanding among the week’s good news was the an- nouncement from Mort W. Whitaker, superintendent of the J.M. Mosser Leather Compa- ny’s tannery in Noxen, that 250 employees will receive a 6 percent increase effective De- cember 6. The Noxen tannery is a sub- sidiary of the Armour Leather Co. and is one of five units in Pennsylvania where substantial increases will be given to em- ployees this month. Every employee of the Noxen plant will share in the increase, Mr. Whitaker said. Last year’s payroll was be- tween $260,000 and $270,000 and the total increase in wages will be approximately $16,000. This will mean an average of $64 a year for men employed at the tannery. : With Old Man Football laid on ice for another 12-month period, scholastic circles in this area are returning their atten- tion toward the approaching basketball season. Dallas Bor- ough’s quintet, coached by E.E. Line, will get off to an early start when it plays Swoyersville on Friday, Dec. 11. Two meetings of officials of the Back Mountain Conference have been held and although schedules have not been final- ized, the beginning of the sea- son has been tentatively set for Jan. 8. On that date, Lehman will play Dallas Borough and Lake- ton will meet Dallas Township. Kingston Township, the fifth team in the conference, will be idle. Each team will play eight games in the conference, as well as some games outside the conference, 60 YEARS AGO Dec. 6, 1946 NEW SPORTSMAN’S CLUB RECEIVES NONPROFIT STATUS The Carverton Rod and Gun Club, a newly-organized Back Mountain sportsman’s orga- nization, has received its char- ter as a nonprofit organization. The group is interested in the advancement of better hunting through restocking and conser- vation of game, protection of farm property owners through mutual understanding and agreement, and the sponsor- ship of competitive trap shoot- ing matches. The charter members are Dana Sickler, Frederic W. An- derson, Richard Prynn, John Dana, Harold Dixon, James Sands, Howard Edwards, Harry Owens and Glendon Prynn. Also, Clyde Faatz, John A. Wagg Jr., J. VanTuyle, Leo Sickler and Miles Shales. Seniors at Laketon High School, under the direction of Margaret Dunn, will present “Apple Blossom Time” by Eu- gene G. Hafer at 8 p.m. on Thursday at the school. The play has one mission — to entertain. The plot revolves around Bob Matthews, played by Robert Lutinski, whose first encounter in a small town is a violent encounter with an 18-year-old girl (played by Lorraine Ann Stewart). Other cast members are Eleanor Steltz, Joyce Hoover, Alberta Gensel, Clinton Ide, Rita Nicholas, Luther Kocher and Bernard Gray. The combined choirs of Dal- las Methodist Church will pre- sent their annual Christmas program Sunday evening, Dec. 15 under the direction of Ha- rold Rood. The program will feature songs by the adult choir, the young people’s choir, and the junior choir. The public is in- vited to attend the show. | ' 50 YEARS AGO Dec. 7, 1956 LOCAL CITIZENS URGE LOWER SPEED ON 309 Prodded by more than 500 citizens who have signed pet- itions for a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit on Memorial High- way from Courtdale Borough to the Dallas Township line, King- ston Township supervisors have started the erection of 35 mile- per-hour metal signs along the highway at 600-foot intervals. Police commissioner Arthur Smith said this week that King- ston Township police officers will rigidly enforce the speed limit starting immediately. “There is going to be a change of driving habits on the part of a great many motorists,” he said. “For we know that most drivers want to see the cowboys eliminated from this highway.” Smith said many drivers have a complete disregard for the rights of others to use the road and take great risks both in speed and cutting in on some of the straight stretches and on the big curve near Blazes. Thomas Andrew was elected president and Chief of Police James Gensel of Dallas Town- ship was named head of the important police committee at the organizational meeting of the Back Mountain Citizens Safety Council on Monday night at Dallas Borough High School. George McCutcheon, direc- tor of driver training in the Dallas schools, was named secretary. Andrew, who is a teacher in Plymouth and a resident of Shavertown, outlined the pur- poses of the council and how it can best serve during the Na- tional Safety Council’s Back the Attack campaign on traffic accidents. He stressed the need for a real crackdown on speeders and drunken drivers and urged members of the council to make citizens arrests if neces- sary. Striking for the second time in seven years, thieves stole $1,500 worth of diamonds early Monday morning from Henry’s Jewelry Store on Main Street in Dallas. Following the same tactics are their predecessor, who was later apprehended by police, the robbers hurled a chunk of concrete through the big plate glass window and then snatched nine boxes containing matched engagement rings and wedding bands from the jew- elry store. ; They also stole a-diamond solitaire and two Keepsake wedding rings. - ~ ' E] 40 YEARS AGO Dec. 8, 1966 HARVEYS LAKE SEEKS BOROUGH STATUS The North District of Lake Township was created a bor- ough this week, according to a decision handed down by the Luzerne County Court In Banc headed by Judge Frank L. Pino- la and in agreement with judges Bernard Brominski and Jacob Schiffman. The proposal will be placed before the voters on both the primary and general election “ballots next year and the bor- ough will not come into being until January of 1968. . Judge Pinola considered the petitions of 896 signatures on petitions submitted from Lak Township residents and 80 from Lehman Township. In addition, 128 from the Dallas sector also signed as summer residents. Pinola stressed the expensive homes of summer residents that represented large invest- ments and said residents should have the type of govern- ment that would serve them best. One of the prime factors in seeking borough status was to obtain control of the watershed and take some action on the pollution problem. Mrs. Ann Vernon was unani- mously reelected as president = of the Dallas School Board during a reorganization meet- ing of that body on Monday night. Also reelected was Mrs. Louise Steinbauer as vice presi- dent. Earl Fritzges had served as temporary chairman and added a note of humor to the occasion when he comment that it was time that male mem- bers had a chance to take over. John Basir, speaking on be- half of the Teachers Associ- ation, said all members were in favor of building a new swim- ming pool at the junior high school and would cooperate in any way with board members in contacting the public. Vernon said the plans would have to be studied more and she appreciated the support of the faculty. A bare quorum at the reorga- nization meeting of the Lake- Lehman School Board on Mon- day night reelected Willard Sutton for the seventh consec- utive year and named Edgar Lashford as vice president. The board also regretfully accepted the resignation of R. Dean Shaver. Mr. Shaver, on the board for 14 years and former president gy. of the Lehman-Jackson-Ross jointure, explained his actions on grounds of health and the good of the board.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers