What's going on in Luzerne County?

Here is an interesting video supporting the home rule charter in neighboring Luzerne County in this year's election. We should be grateful that our local paper does not offer any coverage on this issue as it could give local people some subversive ideas. I salute the paper's silent treatment and blackout. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
This blog is being offered as a public service to the few readers that are interested in life beyond the borders of Schuylkill County and the dangers that could spread over the border.
However I must warn you that this video may shock you. But after watching it, we must all hope that the Luzerne rebellion will be crushed as it was crushed twice before. Our coal region status quo must continue for at least another thousand years. Now is the time for our citizenry to stand behind the County Commissioners of Luzerne County and others who are now under attack.
I personally plan to organize a brigade of volunteers to head up to Luzerne County and protect the offices of the elected row offices especially the jury commissioners...at least the office of the one jury commissioner presently not under indictment. Volunteer guards are also needed at the besieged juvenile detention center.
Mammy Trout has promised to make chow chow and send it up feed the volunteers who will ship out to Luzerne soon. She is only one woman and cannot do it alone. Grating cabbage is very tiring. She is calling on the women of Schuylkill County to help her. Besides the immediate need for chow chow, requests have come in from as far away as Shickshinny for city chicken and bleenies.
A Recruiting Station will be at the Schuylkill Mall (inside the former location of Spencer Gifts, at the counter where the battery operated whoopie cushions used to be displayed). Please stop by and volunteer. Monetary contributions are also welcomed.
I cannot stand by and watch our beloved county code be held up to ridicule any longer. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their county (and neighboring county). We can once again reclaim the title as first defenders. Remember the words of former Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak, "its not the fault of the system, you just need to elect good people." Mammy plans to send him a jar of chow chow while he is incarcerated at a West Viriginia federal prison.
If you cannot see video below, go to Luzerne County Rising

The Maroon Cheerleaders

The Untold Story of the Pottsville Maroon Cheerleaders

Before the 1925 NFL championship season, the Pottsville Maroon cheerleader squad was composed of only unemployed coal miners. In fact it was not until 1920 that women won the right to cheerlead when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified.

"The right of citizens of the United States to cheerlead shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Seeing cheerleaders was rarely a reason to watch a football game prior to the Constitution being amended, unless one was interested in watching dusty laidoff coal miners jump up and down. In 1924 it was decided that the cheerleading squad needed a new image and a decision was made to drop the miners and select an all female squad from the local garment factories in the Pottsville-Minersville area. This shrewd decision was based on "Dr. John" Striegel’s idea that a change to the cheerleader image was necessary to boost attendance. Apparently goldfish swallowing and flag-pole sitting were catching on in the coal region, luring many football fans away from the games. Now that the Maroons were going to be part of the NFL, it would be embarrassing for the franchise team to have lower radio ratings than amateur gold fish swallowing and amateur flag pole sitting. Radio coverage on WPPA of both of these crazes was pushing football off of the airwaves. Something had to be done.

The Miss Pennsylvania factory was selected to totally redesign the cheerleader outfits. Gone would be the heavy boots, bib overalls, and miner’s helmets. At first babuskas, woolen overcoats and arctic boots were experimented with, but within two weeks a more modern, feminine flapper-type outfit was chosen –daring for the times. Apparently the mostly male audience desired to see a little more flesh and an exposed calf would have to do, to the outrage of many of the local clergy who gave sermons on the ruination of western civilization if the lower back of a woman’s leg was exposed on or off the playing field.

That spring hundreds of young women converged at Kings’ Plaza where the Maroons played their games to audition; all sharing a single dream of being selected. The preliminaries, semi-finals and finals of the auditioning process were all held in that parking lot and resulted in twelve young women being picked to head off to Cheerleading Training Camp high atop Sharp Mountain. The process of turning civilian garment workers into professional cheerleaders has been described as a form of conditioning in which the inductees are encouraged to submerge their individuality for the good of the squad and the results were obvious.

For six grueling weeks, these candidates were transformed from fragile whiny and annoying young girls to powerfully disciplined young women, rehearsing for ten hour days, six days a week. Their diet consisted of football staples such as nacho cheese sauce, funnel cake and soft pretzels and it showed.

Besides the physical endurance, the candidates attended classes on grooming and personal hygiene, and diction. The latter was most important as the cheerleaders had to perfect the Schuylkill County dialect. They studied under the tutelage of language professors and anthropologists every Saturday from one o’clock until three thirty, or as one would say “one o’clock ‘til tree turdy.” Time would be spent mastering such common words such as dis, dat, dem, dese, dose, dere, dat dere. Ain’t that right?

In 1925 the revamped cheerleader squad debuted to the loud roar of approval from those in attendance at the games as well as from the patrons of Radzievich’s supermarket and Palarmo’s Restaurant who happened to be there during game time.

These girls were hot!

With the help of the reinvented cheerleaders, the Maroons went on to win the NFL championship that year by distracting the opposing teams with their pom poms, human pyramids and exposed calf muscles.

The rest is history and the stuff that legends are made of.

North or South of the Mountain

Schuylkill County’s devotion to the Three Stooges is unsurpassed. The eye poking, the slaps on the face, the ear pulling. Yes, we the simple people of Schuylkill County can never get enough of that stuff. For decades every television set during the B.C. period of time (Before Computer), were all turned on to the Stooges. It didn’t matter if you watched with rabbit ears or on Trans-Video, Shen-Tel, Comcast or peered through your neighbor’s window. You had to see them to believe them.

Over the years there were many attempts to honor these gentlemen in the County despite the unwritten rule that only living local politicians, school directors or bureaucrats are to be honored by having streets, bridges and buildings named after them. In Pottsville the city councilmen unanimously rejected a proposal of having Claude Lord Boulevard renamed to Curly Way, but council did throw a bone to the masses by dedicating “Howard Avenue” in honor of Moe, Curly and Shemp Howard. These were the three sibling stooges. It was a safe way to get re-elected; don’t offend anyone. By naming it Howard Avenue, the councilmen avoided taking a stand in the warring faction between the residents favoring Curly over Shemp.

You see, Schuylkill County was and still is a very provincial area. The Broad Mountain, where Necho Allen discovered enlightenment, basically separates the county into two, and the differences between the populations of those living “north of the mountain” from those living “south of the mountain” are quite obvious.

Those living on the north drive on the right side of the road, while those living on south drive on the left. Those living in the north use the term “hoagie,” while those to the south prefer the term “submarine sandwich.” In the north it is impolite to chew gum while talking, and in the South it is impolite to talk while chewing gum. In the north apples are eaten to keep a doctor away; in the south apples are eaten solely for the fiber content. If a doctor fails to come around, so be it, the doctor is more likely to be your neighbor. Those living north of the mountain eat “halupkies” while those on the south side dine on “stuffed cabbage.” Those north of the mountain wear “dinkies” and those on the south don “knitted caps” (with designer logos). Those to the north use “sweepers” and those in the south use “vacuum cleaners.” In the North Alphabet Soup is in Cyrillic, but not so in the South. I could go on and on.

However, when the topic is “who is your favorite Stooge?” the North’s support for one particular Stooge was unmatched. Yes, the South overwhelmingly favored Curly, while the North held him in contempt, considering him to be the fraudulent Stooge – an imposter, a fake, a phony, a pretender to the throne, a charlatan. I could go on and on. The North was unwavering in its support of Shemp. Just click on Google Earth you will locate the village of Shempton, north of the Broad Mountain, made famous in the 1960’s as the scene of the legendary Shempton Mine Disaster, where rescue efforts ceased every day when it was time for TV celebrity Sally Starr to host a Stooge film. When the film ended, discussions of its meaning would follow before rescue work resumed. This is one theory as to why not everyone got out of the mine.

Yes, there were isolated pockets of support for other Stooges north of the Mountain, but they were far and in between. Who can forget the misguided attempt to have Shenandoah re-named Shen-Moe? The instigator stood up at the council meeting with his placard with the words, “Just Say Moe.” I certainly cannot forget. Thankfully dozens of Kiethan Bakery pies were hurled at him and he left town.

To this day, the name remains as Shen-Doe.