Each year at this time, as thousands of 5-year-olds experience their first day of kindergarten, I know the mix of joy and dread they are feeling. I’ll always remember my first day of school – that sunny September day in 1944 in Summit Hill in nearby Carbon County – with pain and embarrassment. For days before, I chattered non-stop about starting school. My mother had bought me new clothes for the big day. She wanted to take my photo before we left, a precious keepsake to be tucked away for the ages. My father ceded matters such as discipline and logistics to my well-organized mother. In a …
Senior citizen Dale Schneck of Schnecksville reached into the beer cooler at Weis Market along Route 873 in North Whitehall Township, took out a 12-pack and presented it to clerk Linda Henninger for purchase. “I’ll need your driver’s license,” she said. “Don’t think I’m old enough?” frowned the 82-year-old Schneck as he opened his wallet. Henninger explained that everyone who wants to buy alcoholic beverages at Weis, regardless of age, must present a driver’s license or a valid photo ID. As Schneck attempted to show her the license that was still in the wallet, she said, “I’ll need it out of …
As we are in the heart of commencement season, I am reminded of how I got snookered – big time – 14 years ago. As publisher and editor of a newspaper in Oswego, N.Y., I wrote two weekly columns. Always on the lookout for good ideas, I decided to use as the basis for one an e-mail I received from a close journalist friend. It was said to be the commencement address at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997 by well-known novelist Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse-Five. I was smitten by the practical and irreverent tone of the message. In it Vonnegut is alleged to have said: “Do…
For every recent generation, music has been the soundtrack of our youth. I was lucky to be a teenager during arguably the most important music upheaval of our lifetime: the advent of rock ‘n’ roll. Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” and Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” were two of the big hits that ushered in the rock era in 1954. Just before the rock revolution, the early-'50s produced a number of major hits and performers, including the likes of Frankie Laine (“I Believe”), Tony Bennett (“Rags to Riches”), Patti Page (“How Much is that Doggie in the Window?”) and Joni James (“Why Don’t …
Yet another Superman movie is due for release in 2012, with Henry Cavill as the legendary Man of Steel, Amy Adams as feisty reporter Lois Lane and Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Superman’s parents. Faster than a speeding bullet; More powerful than a locomotive; Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound. Look! Up in the sky. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman! Yes, Superman, strange visitor from another planet, who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way. Jettisoned from…
I don’t know about you, but the never ending number of passwords and personal identification numbers (PINs) we need to operate our computers, do our banking and perform other vital life functions is driving me nuts. I live in mortal fear of forgetting some key password when I need it most. Of course, I am warned nonstop not to carry the password or PIN for my bank and credit cards in my wallet because some nefarious individual will steal them, and, with them, my identity. Just for fun, I counted all of the passwords and PINs I have to operate the various accounts associated with them. I was …
When I hear or see the word “free,” I become tingly all over, but, increasingly today, ecstasy has given way to skepticism, wariness and, yes - I admit it - cynicism. You see “free” no longer seems to mean free. Just to make sure the word hadn’t undergone a definition shift in recent years while I wasn’t looking, I consulted the newest Webster’s dictionary. There it was – still the same unequivocal definition: “no charge.” Can’t get much more specific or simpler than that. When I watch TV, I hear commercials for scores of products, but the new rage these days is upselling. Annoying pitchmen, …
Customer service seems to be an oxymoron today. Too often when I come back from a shopping encounter, I feel as if I have been in a skirmish. I am agitated and riled. I want to rush to the window, throw it open and shout to my neighbors, ``I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more.” It seems as if every other day I encounter uncaring customer-service representatives who, I swear, seem oblivious to solving my problems or, for that matter, even acknowledging my presence. I’m a polite shopper: I say "please,” "thank you,” and I’m respectful. I went into a convenience store the …
The sanitized version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, due for publication in this month, comes nearly 50 years too late for this embarrassed former English teacher. New South Books is publishing the revisionist copy of Mark Twain’s classic novel that will eliminate the “n” word, which appears 219 times in the original, and replace it with “slave.” When I read the news, I wondered out loud, “Where the heck were you when I needed you?” I endured my most-embarrassing moment as an educator in the fall of 1962 when I was teaching an English course at Washington (N.J.) High School, now a …
When Wilson Borough Council appointed Edwinna Howey to a vacant council seat last week without advertising its availability, Council President Leonard Feinberg defended the move by saying that Howey was the best person for the position. He also justified the decision by saying it saved the borough the cost of advertising for potential candidates. Howey found out about the vacancy – created by Councilman David Schug’s resignation -- because she hangs around the borough office from time to time, heard about the vacancy and applied. Faster than you can say "Is anyone else interested,” the …
As I was importing one of my compact disks into my new-version iPod Nano – a gift from my son, Paul – it brought back memories of one of the most exciting moments in my life. Fifty-eight years ago on my 13th birthday, my parents presented me with an RCA 45 RPM record player. If you happen to be about my age – 71 – you probably had one, too. Some were stand-alones that plugged into a wall socket; others plugged into a radio or TV from which they were amplified. These players, on which you could stack 12 45s, looked like a box and had a distinctive red-topped spindle. This record machine …
Have you been keeping abreast of the chest-beating going on over the wearing of ''I Love Boobies" bracelets? The flap has wound up in U.S. District Court where the Easton Area School District is defending its decision to suspend two Easton Area Middle School students who, with their parents' backing, refused to remove the bracelets when ordered to do so by school officials. Enter the American Civil Liberties Union, claiming that the students' First Amendment rights have been compromised by the administration's actions. For their part, the students claim that they wore the bracelets to …
