holiday traditions

My holiday season has been great so far. It started off early with a huge multi-ethnic breakfast at home combining the best of Chanukah, Christmas and Chwanzaa - The three C's as we call them. While the rest of my extended family enjoyed the potato latkes, I consumed the thick Pennsylvania Dutch thick ham, all smothered with pineapples, cloves and drenched in raisin sauce. Why? Well it is important to eat fruit during the winter months to keep regular - I highly recommend this meal to everyone.

Years ago we used to walk around the downtowns to shop and look at the festive displays. These downtowns no longer exist as we knew them, and ditto with the Malls. Psst...have you been in Steve & Barry's or Value City lately? So our newest family tradition is to walk around Renninger’s Market and take in the sights of the season there.

It is a great festive place to get support stocking stuffers, and even the support stockings to stuff or to wear.

After parking our SUV on the grounds (warning: there is no valet parking) we immediately entered the grand Hall and headed to the booth to get tickets for the one of the best kept secrets in the area. No, I am not talking about what really goes on in the local township massage parlors; I am talking about The Sounds of Light and Ice Christmas Show. The show has become so popular that you need to reserve tickets ahead of time.

Yes, we all know that Renninger’s Market is renowned for its architecture, boutiques, fine dining and people watching. It is a pop culture phenomena often compared to Venice Beach in California, but many are unaware that it transforms itself every winter into a wonderland filled with colorful displays and fragrant aromas (a combination of poinsettas and smoked sausage); and almost no one knows of the dazzling ice skating extravaganza on the pond which is located behind that exclusive shop that sells used hubcaps and rusty tools. This show puts the Mummers’ Ferko String Band to shame when it comes to old fashioned holiday family entertainment.

With a few hours to wait until show time, we strolled the aisles with the other hundreds of serious sophisticated shoppers all looking for those specials gift for those special someones among the dizzying array of merchandise for sale. Mammy bought some pre-owned VHS tapes – including the complete Saw series - and a tee shirt that proclaims “I’m With Stupid.”

While I trying to figure out who her special someone is, I bought three pounds of frozen herring. We then sat in on the auction for two hours placing bids on every thing that was offered for sale - from Artic boots to Yahtsee games.

Looking at our watches that we purchased earlier at of the many bally-hooed kiosks, we filled up our paper plates with Nachos and cheese and headed out to the bleachers set up for the show. The view was perfect from our seats as the larger Marketeers sat behind us. The music was piped in from the auctioneer’s amplifier while we watched the supersized skaters perform on the ice in their native costumes of bib blue jeans. The pond is not arena size but it is adequate for the half-dozen skaters that dazzled us with pure energy. At one point we thought that some of these skaters might fall through the ice but it did not happen, disappointing the little ones in the audience. Maybe next year kids.
While there is no dancing fountain to watch, you might occasionally see someone shake up a birch beer letting it spurt into the air. If you want to see dancing fountains, I say go to Longwood Gardens, but if you want some good birch beer, then come to Renninger’s Market, available for your consumption at one of the many chic funnel cake and french fry stands that are nestled on the premises.
The enchanting music, by the way, is supplied by North Manheim Steamshovel, an eclectic group of local road crew workers and Rest Haven residents performing holiday pop music with synthesizers as well as the traditional Schuylkill County instrument, the flutophone, in a New Age style.

Yes, North Manheim Township is noted, not only for its red light, adult entertainment district that is bustling along Route 61, but also for its Christmas extravaganza at “The Market.”
I recommend that you take in both this holiday season.

Christmas time memories of Garfield Square

Does anyone else get upset besides me when they drive through Pottsville’s Garfield Square during the “holiday season”? I miss those intricate cartoon characters that used to grace the Square and gave the midtown some holiday cheer. I remember all of them and the location that each was placed.
If you don't remember the glory days of the Square, then I will refresh your memory. Each cartoon character was sculpted from the best quality mahogany, walnut, cedar, cherry and maple; all brought in by Canal boat to the wharf behind Goodfella’s in Mount Carbon and then carefully unloaded and transported to Yorkville for the talented craftsmen to meticulously work their wonder and create such life-like reproductions of Mickey Mouse, Charlie Brown, Snuffy Smith, Steve Canyon, Dick Tracy, Beavis, Brenda Starr, Sgt. Snorkel, the Phantom and so many other whimsical cartoon characters.
Yes, each character was completely hand-carved by skilled Yorkville artists with exacting detail in the sanding, finishing and painting to assure excellence and beauty. Garfield Square at Christmas time was the place to be, believe me.
This cartoon woodcrafting goes back many generations as Yorkville was settled by German immigrants with skills honed in painstaking family traditions and heritage. During the long northeast Pennsylvania winters, these settlers would interrupt their boredom by carving the likeness of cartoon characters that they had heard after arriving in the new world. Thus began what has been called "the Yorkville Renaissance Period." Over a period of time the people in Yorkville began specializing in all aspects of cartoon character reproductions, giving employment to a multitude of carvers, carpenters, and painters.
I remember being an apprentice carver for one whole year, devoting myself to assisting a master craftsman create an astonishing life-like Nancy and Sluggo from the deep-orange Brazilian Rosewood brought up from Sao Paulo. Each piece was hand-painted with greatest of hand and eye coordination, using the finest latex paint from Hadesty’s and Mansell’s, that allowed the wood grain to show through, taking the art of cartoon carving to whole new level.
The exact year that the first cartoon character was carved in the city remains unknown. However, Benjamin Pott, the son of the city’s founder, presented a primitive, hand-carved likeness of one of The Katzenjammer Kids to the borough officials for display during one of the earliest Cruise Night celebrations. Yes, during the late 19th century, the cruise consisted of souped-up wagons and carriages that traveled up and down Centre Street. This Benjamin Pott artifact of white pine is now on display at the Schuylkill Visitors Bureau until January 6th.
From then on, the pieces of cartoon folk art were built to heirloom quality and with proper care, lasting for years to entertain generation after generation, each telling a story that could be shared – whether it was the story of Lil Abner or Beetle Bailey or Little Orphan Annie.

The Square in late December created a magical space where Pottsvillians spent time together, away from the hussle and bussle of the numerous gin joints, speakeasies and gambling halls that doted the city landscape. Just walking around the several blocks was a way to draw deeper meaning into the holidays of Christmas, Chanukah, and Kwanza, all of which are still celebrated to excess by the Trout family to this very day.
In the latter part of the 20th century a movement to “clean up Garfield Square” took hold with its goal to rid the Square of the cartoon characters. Some so-called do-gooders believed that figures were graven images that were leading the population into idolatry. The movement won out and all of the priceless cartoon characters were banished to Port Carbon (a popular location for banishment, even to this day). The cartoon figurines were given a new home but not for long. In 2006 a particularly nasty flood put much of Port Carbon under water, washing away these treasured heirlooms down the Schuylkill River; all lost forever.

Merry Christmas.....

Contest time

Dear Mr. Trout:

Will the New Year Baby Contest be held again? If so, what day is it held? I am not a contestant; I only want to place a wager. I think one of the girls in my homeroom class has a good chance to win. Isn’t that awesome? Do you have any favorite wagering parlors to recommend to me? Doesn’t this contest rival Powerball for pure excitement around here? Where is the announcement of the winner to be made? Will it be televised? Will it be featured on the Sam Lasante Show on Comcast’s 7 or 15? Will Sam Lasante interview the proud mother even if she gives birth past her bedtime?
Will the conversion to digital television on February 17th affect my TV reception of the announcement if a winner is not announced by then? I hope not. I still have rabbit ears. Not me personally, but our family’s television set. It is an old Admiral set. My ears can be described as cauliflower-like. I hate cauliflower. How about you Mr. Trout? Do you like cauliflower?
If I win some money picking the winner, then I will use some of my money to buy a new television set for the family so that we can watch American Gladiators on a 52 inch flat plasma! So cool, Mr. Trout, don’t you think?
Someone gave me a tip in gym class the other day. I was told that the winning child would be born out-of-wedlock? I wasn’t sure what that meant so I looked it up in the dictionary. I thought that wedlock was a Rastafarian hairdo; I was wrong. It means a bastard child. Pardon my language but that is what my dictionary had printed. I was told that it is impolite to use the term bastard anymore. Also you can’t use the term illigitimate anymore either. I am glad as that is one hard word to spell. A more correct term is love child. That is easier to spell. I looked up love child and it is defined as “a child born to two unmarried people who got jiggy with one another.” That is what I call being unlucky in love. Did you know Leonardo DaVinci was a bastard? I mean a love child. Sorry. They are only words and bastard sounds so cool and hip. We will study DaVinci next grading period. He was a great artist and a very smart man. They made a movie about some Code he invented. I thought the movie was so-oo boring. I liked Iron Man much better. Anyway it proves that having parents married to one another does not stop a person from being a winner in life.
My gramps told me that the rise in the number of illegitimate children places much higher costs on society for anti-poverty, criminal justice and education programs. He probably doesn’t know about Leonardo DiCaprio or his Code. He is boycotting the New Year Baby Contest and will play the lottery instead. He doesn’t think we should lavish gifts and attention on irresponsible, sexually frisky teenagers.
My neighbor won a pile of money the other year when a crack baby won the contest. That is what he told me, but he brags a lot. I don’t believe everything he tells me. Actually he told me the young mother won the prizes for having the little crack baby. He treated us to a king size bucket of Kentucky fried chicken down on Claude A. Lord Boulevard. Not the crack baby; that would be silly. My neighbor bought us the chicken.
I gotta go Mr. Trout, American Gladiators is on the tube right now, then I have to do some homework.
Sincerely,
Aiden Jaiden Naponavich
Lower Shaft, PA

Dear Mr. Naponavich:
Thank you for your letter. The contest surprisingly is scheduled to begin at the stroke of New Year on the gregorian calendar which is used in most of Schuylkill County. Bets can be taken at most fire houses and gaming parlors. It's popularity is growing and while it does surpass Powerball, it does surpass the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes. Good luck A.J.!!

Altamont Free Festival

The Altamont Free Festival ended up as the most infamous musical concert ever held in Schuylkill County.

It was held on the grounds of the Schuylkill Mall in northern Schuylkill County. It did not have to end like that as it had the makings of a great day. The performers were outstanding: The Jordan Brothers, The Other Side, Lil’ Andy, Tony Karpee, The Schuylkill Haven Belvederes’ Drum & Bugle Corp, Big Barrel Emil Simodejka, Buddy Widel Trio, The Individuals, and The Pottsville Barbershoppers.
With so many in attendance at the concert, some speculated that it would surpass Woodstock or the Bavarian Festival for sheer spiritual energy – surely the dawning of the new age. The venue was moved just a few days before the concert started under order of the local district magistrate. This was a premonition of the negative things to come.
The show began at noon on a cold December 6, 1969 on a stage that was only four feet high and would be surrounded by members of the Pagans, the Warlocks and the local Shriners, who acted as bouncers. There were no other security forces, so if they got out of line, there would be no stopping them.
By some accounts, the Warlocks were hired as security when the Tremont Division of the Eastern Star refused – a story that has been denied by all involved. All of the groups had provided security for other events in the county before, without incident but they never worked together. Altamont would be certainly different. The Warlocks, The local Shriners, and the Pagans would be a bad mix and not worth the $500 worth of beer that was rumored to be their salary. Surprisingly enough, 400,000 fans showed up even though deer hunting season was in high gear. Such a crowd that day brought the traffic on Route 61 and Interstate 81 to a crawl and even strained the restroom facilities within the Schuylkill Mall. Yes, there was violence at the festival as well as chaos - too much to talk about even almost forty years later. It has been said that wherever one finds violence, chaos is usually right behind; this would turn out to be an “anti-Woodstock, “anti-Bavarian Festival” and be forever known as the dark side of musical culture, immortalized in Don McLean’s famous “Shoo Fly Pie” wherein Li’l Andy presided over the “sacrificial rite” on the day Schuylkill County music died.
Who can forget the performance of “The Pottsville Barbershoppers?” This is the legendary group known for its tight vocal harmony, characterized by their consonant four-part chords for every melody note. It is said that the Pottsville Barbershoppers inspired such national groups as The Four Freshmen, The Limelighters, and The Beach Boys. Dressed in their red and white stripped blazers, they had just completed a dazzling twelve minute a capella foul-mouthed rendition of “Good-bye My Coney Island Baby” and had just started their suggestive encore of “I’ll Take You Home, Kathleen” when the violence began to escalate to serious proportions. No one knows who started swinging the pool sticks at the boilo-crazed people in the first row or who throw the quart bottles of Kaiers. Some say the Pagans, some say the Warlocks and others say Those Shriners. Although the concert was filmed by Sam-Son Productions for a planned Holiday television special on Pottsville’s Channel 7, it was impossible to determine who swung that cue stick or threw the bottle that resulted in bodily injury. It was filmed by Sam Lasante with a Bell & Howell Zoomatic Camera and the police were sure that it would offer a “complete record of the Altamont Free Concert.” The film was replayed thousands of times but to no avail. The police determined that the film did not depict violence about to commence but rather just showed the after effects of the violence. It was often compared to the Zapruder film.
No arrests were ever made. When the Pottsville Barbershoppers suddenly left the stage to be taken away by van to the Dutch Kitchen in Frackville, the crowds dispersed. Most headed home, some lingered to do Christmas shopping at the Mall, while others were too overcome by boilo and Kaier's beer and remained in the parking lot for days.

I was one of them.