PAGE4 THE POST EDITORIAL Sunday, December 30, 2007 MOMENTS IN TIME The History Channel e On Jan. 6, 1838, Samuel Morse's telegraph system is dem- onstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, N.J.. In May 1844, Morse sent the first official tele- gram over the first telegraph line, with the message: “What hath God wrought!” e On Jan. 4, 1935, Billboard magazine publishes its first pop ‘music chart. A song called “Stop! Look! Listen!” by jazz vio- linist Joe Venuti topped the first chart. e On Jan. 2, 1941, the Andrews Sisters record “Boogie Wo- ogie Bugle Boy" on Decca Records. The song, which became a classic World War II hit, was heard in the Abbott and Costello film “Buck Privates.” The Andrews Sisters were the most pop- ular “girl group” of their time. e On Jan 1, 1951, the Zenith Radio Corp. of Chicago demon- strates the first pay-per-view television system. The company sent movies over the airways via scrambled signals, and the 300 families who participated in the test could send telephone signals to decode the movies for $1 each. e On Dec. 31,1972, Roberto Clemente, future Hall of Fame baseball player, is killed when the cargo plane in which he is traveling crashes off the coast of Puerto Rico. Clemente was on his way to deliver relief supplies to Nicaragua following a devastating earthquake. e On Jan. 5, 1982, a series of landslides near San Francisco kills up to 33 people and closes the Golden Gate Bridge after the area received 24 inches of rain in two days. In all, about 7,800 homes and businesses were seriously damaged. Damag- es exceeded $100 million. Aerial surveillance showed that 18,000 separate slides occurred. e On Jan. 3, 2000, the last daily “Peanuts” comic strip is published in 2,600 newspapers as Charles Schulz retires. “Pea- nuts” first appeared in Oct. 1950. Charles Schulz died on Sat- urday, Feb 12, 2000 -- on the eve prior to the publication of his final Sunday “Peanuts” strip. He was 77. MU MASS REMEMBERS LT. CLEARY Misericordia University recently held a memorial Mass in the campus chapel for ist Lt. Michael Cleary of Dallas Township who was killed Dec. 20, 2005 near Samarra, Iraq. Misericordia Uni- versity Chaplain Rev. Daniel Toomey celebrated Mass and also blessed a commemorative plague in Lt. Cleary's honor. The plaque will be displayed in the Anderson Sports and Health Center on campus, where his brother, Patrick, has an office. Pa- trick Cleary is an employee in the athletics department at MU. Shown at the blessing of the commemorative plague at Miser- icordia University are, from left, Rev. Daniel Toomey, Misericor- dia University chaplain; Erin Kavanagh, Lt. Cleary's fiancée; Mi- chael A. MacDowell, president of Misericordia University; Pa- trick Cleary, Lt. Cleary's brother; and Lt. Cleary's parents Mar- ianne and Jack Cleary. STRANGE BUT TRUE The History Channel By Samantha Weaver e |f you've ever suffered from thermostat wars at your office, you might be interested in the following fact: Those who research such things conducted a study in 2004 on office temperatures. The results showed that workers were less productive and made more mistakes when office temperatures dropped from 77 F to 68 F. X e Anyone who has read her works will not be surprised to learn that it was 19th- century novelist Jane Austen, one of the most wide- ly read and best-loved writers in British literature, who made the following observation: “There certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.” * You might be unsurprised to learn that the word “mortgage” shares the same Latin root meaning as the terms “rigor mortis” and “mortician.” “Mortgage” literally means “death pledge.” ® Records indicate that in 1925, movie stuntmen (and yes, they were all men in those days) earned $7 to $8 per day for basic stunts. They got extra pay for certain activities, though; jumping from an airplane to a train was worth $150, for instance. Any stuntman who parachuted out of an exploding plane would get $500, and it was worth $1,500 to crash a plane into a house or a tree. Considering the state of technology and safety standards of the day, it's no wonder that between 1925 and 1930, 55 people were killed while performing movie stunts, and another 10,000 were injured. e Every year the town of Brevard in North Carolina celebrates its unusual local fauna with an entire festival dedicated to white squir- rels. Yes, squirrels. Thought for the Day: “An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.” -- Joseph Addison The Dallas Post TIMES® LEADER Community Newspaper Group 15 N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 18711 ® 570-970-7440 news@mydallaspost.com Richard L. Connor Dotty Martin PUBLISHER EDITOR 829-7202 970-7440 rconnor@timesleader.com Matt Smith d.martin@mydallaspost.com ADVERTISING 970-7303 msmith@timesleader.com They're all ready and willing to help Santa spread some holiday spirit! Precious is an 11-year-old cat, Dude is a 7-year-old black cat. Muffin, an Old English Sheepdog, was rescued after her owner passed away and the family could not keep her, so no one knows how old she really is, but may be around 9 years old and Sabrina, a 2-year-old ferret, keeps everyone in line. These “beasts” all live with Genn Pauley of Noxen. ra MAN & BEAST Share your pet pictures with other readers. Who's your best friend? If your very best friend in the whole wide world is your pet, we want to know about it. Send us a picture of your pet — wheth- er it be a lovable puppy, a slimy iguana or a parrot with an extensive vocabula- ry — and we’ll share it with readers of The Dallas Post. Tell us your name and address, your pet’s name, his or her age, his or her breed and anything else you'd like ev- eryone to know about your pet. Be sure to include your telephone number in the event we have questions. Send everything to “Man and Beast,” c/o The Dallas Post, 15 N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711 or e-mail the picture to us at news@mydallas- post.com. If you send a picture and would like have it returned, be sure to include a | La | self-addressed/stamped envelope. : We'll publish the pictures in the order in which we receive them. d SCI Dallas to test escape and emergency sirens Superintendent James T. tendent Wynder said. erating properly and second, to with unlisted phone numbers Wynder announces that begin- ning Tuesday, Jan. 1, at noon and every day thereafter, the State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Dallas will conduct tests of its emergency whistle which is lo- cated on institution property. The two emergency sirens locat- ed at Penn State and Chase Cor- ners, will continue to be tested every Wednesday. “We want to assure the public that we are committed to public safety and are taking all neces- sary steps to alert them in the event of an emergency,” Superin- The whistle/sirens are sound- ed to alert the surrounding com- munity in the event of an inmate escape or other emergency. When tested, the whistle/sirens will emit a distinctive sound and will be blown for a continuous 30 seconds. In the event of an actual escape, the whistle/sirens will be sounded for a continuous 60 second blast with a five second pause before being sounded again. The purpose of the daily and weekly tests is two fold. First, to ensure the whistle/sirens are op- allow those in the surrounding community to become familiar with the sound of the whistle/si- rens. : In the event of an emergency, SCI Dallas would sound the whistle/sirens, activate the community alert network - which is an automated tele- phone system that dials listed telephone numbers within a specified radius of the prison to inform individuals of an emer- gency — and immediately notify Pennsylvania State Police and lo- cal law enforcement. Individuals who reside within a one-mile ra- dius of the prison and who want to receive the automated phone calls should contact the prison to have their information id tered into the system. , If citizens hear the whistiela: shy rens at times or days other than normal testing times/days, they should tune into their local news media to obtain additional infor- mation. For more information about SCI Dallas and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, visit www.cor.state.pa.us 20 YEARS AGO Three Back Mountain residents were re- cently honored for outstanding service by the Visiting Nurse Association at the home care agency's Employee Recognition Din- ner. Receiving a Gold Pin for 15 years of ser- vice was Executive Director Martie Conrad of Chase. Pat McCue, a Dallas resident and Nursing Coordi- nator for VNA, re- ceived a silver five-year anniver- sary pin. Lake Louise resident Carol Bolesta al- so was awarded a silver pin in rec- ognition of five years of service as a staff nurse. Linda Bennett, of Dallas, received her pa- ONLY YESTERDAY ralegal certificate from the Continuing Edu- cation Department of Penn State Wilkes- Barre. Five students from Dallas Area High School attended a Legal Careers Day held re- cently at King’s College. The event, attend- ing by more than 120 students from eight lo- cal high schools, was sponsored by the Gov- ernment and Politics Department at King’s. The event consisted of a panel discussion by four Kings alumni employed in different as- pects of the legal profession. Dallas attend- ees included Heather Lawley, Shannon Clea- ry, Jill Lieberman, Tairran Batory and Kelly Weller. 30 YEARS AGO Vandals have again knocked down the Li- ons Christmas tree at Harvey's Lake and stole the tree lights. William Gallagher, pub- lic relations chairman for the Lions, report- ed that the destruction of the tree, decorated for the community by the Harvey’s Lake Li- ons Club, seems to happen every year. Leonard Venable, manager of the Dallas Water Company, announced that a five- horsepower pump had been installed on the Old Lake Road to eliminate the water pres- sure problems in College Manor. Residents have been complaining of low water pres- sure and frequent disruption in service for several months now. The Back Mountain Recreation Council recently received its articles of corporation from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Officers of the new council are: Howard Grossman, president; Barbara Niedjaco, vice president; and Robert Kelly, secretary. 40 YEARS AGO John G. Henninger, Jr., a loyal and active member of Dallas Kiwanis Club, was honor- ed by that organization at a special program Wednesday evening when he was awarded a bronze plaque for faithful service. Mr. Hen- ninger, who recently observed his 80th birth- day, has been a member of the club for over 25 years. There has been a recent rash of books deal- ing with complications caused by the death of a President and succession to office of a vice president, all of the stemming from the circumstances surrounding the assassina- tion of President John F. Kennedy four years ago. The latest to be acquired by Back Moun- tain Memorial Library is by Robert Serling, a former aviation news editor for UPI in Wash- ington. 50 YEARS AGO Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Denmon, Beaumont, had a lovely Christmas present, beautiful twin baby girls, weight four pounds each. Local Acme Markets were featuring tur- keys for 37 cents a pound; hams for 59 cents a pound; Legs O’ Lamb for 63 cents a pound and lobster tails for 99 cents a pound. Nearly one hundred Girl Scouts from the Back Mountain District turned out Thurs- day night to sing at the community Christ- mas tree in central Dallas. A number of adults, leaders and bystanders, joined in fa- miliar carols led by Mrs. Howard Wright. Girls marched to Dallas Methodist Church after caroling, to enjoy refreshments. Mrs. Joseph Schneider was chairman of the milk and cookie detail. 60 YEARS AGO There is a little girl in Dallas Mrs. Alfred Rood would like to meet. Saturday after- noon after she alighted from a bus at the Franklin Street intersection with Main Street, she discovered she had forgotten her ; ] purse containing $100 in bills and a » wrist watch. She called to the driver, but unaware of her plight he blithly drove away. For an in stant Mrs. Rood was unsure whether or not, she had carried the purse on the bus, or ~ whether she might have left it in a Wilkes: Barre store where she had been shopping. She called her neighbor Norti Berti, Gods gift to Dallas housewives, who rushed out of his house without coat and hat, started up his two-ton coal truck and with Mrs. Rood by his side raced the bus through Dallas to Col: lege Misericordia. They finally overtook it on Center Hill Road. The driver, Howard Strunk, beamed at their wild signals. Sure he had the purse. A girl seated in the rear of the bus handed it to him as she got off. Mrs. Rood would like to meet the girl and she also thinks Howard Strunk deserves a promotion. As for Norti Berti — well, he’s still od’s gift to everybody who needs help. 70 YEARS AGO A group of talented amateurs from the Fi delitas Class of Centermoreland MLE. Church, directed by Mrs. Ophelia Majof; won the bi-county one-act play tournament at Beaumont High School Wednesday night. As its reward, the group of Centermoreland thespians will go to Harrisburg in January to compete in the statewide tournament there. The cast which presented the winning play had as members: Mrs. Rebecca Rhu- barb, Enweene Smith, Miss Araminta Rhu- barb, Janet T homas, Miss Keturah Melon, Alice Schoonover, Parsley Endive, Kenneth Smith. Christmas Day was the scene of great ag. tivity at Carpenters Inn on Kunkle Road when the best shots of the county met at a gun shoot. The shoot attracted about 60 per- sons and was voted a great success. Th winning on Christmas Day were: John Fron: za, Dick Richards, John Yaple and Bill Hat blett. Information for “Only Yesterday” is taken from past issues of The Dallas Post, which 1 118 years old. The information is ited here exactly as it appeared in the newspaper vears ago. Besteder, Joshua Buckley and i oN a
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers