Allentown and a family history lesson.

Saturday, May 18, Day 26

Before we leave North East, John wants to get his hair cut.  He goes to the only barber shop we can find in town, and while there, the barber tells him he will close up shop in a few hours to go eel fishing.  He has 1,000 traps on 19 miles of line and sets 400 traps at a time.   He gets $2.90 for small eels, $3.50 for big ones, and a good catch per trap is 5 pounds, although he usually gets three pounds.  The eels are  measured by their circumference.   He has been doing this by the Susquehanna River for about a year.   It makes sense, since you can enter right into the tackle shop from inside the barber shop, and get all the lore you need - fishing or otherwise.  John is happy with his haircut from an eel fisherman!

We are headed for Pennsylvania today, more specifically to John's Uncle Bill Humphrey's house.  We are going visit a few days and then leave the camper there while we head to New York.  

These are the types of houses we are starting to see -  big old stone ones, that are a couple of hundred years old.  

Uncle Bill lives in Perkionmenville.  I guess the largest nearby town is Allentown.  

Sunday, May 19, Day 27

We went to the Shady Maple to eat breakfast.    John always likes to order what's local on the menu and so he orders scrapple while he is here.  Never had scrapple?   It's pork "trimmings" (That's being polite!) that have been boiled and then combined with cornmeal, wheat flour and spices.   To me, it's an acquired taste! 

The Shady Maple used to be a gas station.  

They also served these pastries, which are mainly Pennsylvania Dutch in origin.  More on them later.

Uncle Bill likes red, and wears red hats.  Here's his stash in the closet from which he will select today's hat.

He tells us that instead of going to Philadelphia to get the train to New York, we are better off taking the bus from Hellertown.  So we three go off to check it out.  The bus tickets are sold at the gas station, and the buses come to a parking lot about three blocks from the gas station.  Then it's a non-stop into New York.  So it sounds like a good idea.  We end up buying a one way ticket.  John wants to see if it works before he buys the other half.  Hope we have another option if he doesn't like it!

Bill offers to take us on a tour of Allentown, which is where he and John's mother Jane grew up.  Our first stop was at the house at 368 Hanover Street.  The Humphreys lived there while Bill was ages 6 to 13.

This is Mosser elementary schools he and Jane attended.

The first house they lived in was at 1205 E Livingston.  We drove by and Jane took a quick picture out the window Then we stopped.  We heard a young girl yelling, "Dad, someone just took a picture of our house."  The guy came out of the house and made tracks over to the truck.  "Hey," he said, "You taking pictures of my house?  What you takin' pictures of my house for? "  Bill said, "My Dad built that house."  The guy backed off, and let us take some additional pictures. He turned out to be pretty nice.

Bill's Dad owned his own sign painting business and did large commercial installations.  He did quite well until the Depression hit, and they lost this house when he was unable to keep up with the mortgage.  Pop got a job with the WPA painting schools.  Bill remembers the municipal swimming pool and playing in a nearby quarry. Also he remembers climbing up onto coal trains and throwing coal off to the poor people who would pick it up along the tracks.

Allentown is a quaint, tree lined town, built by a wealthy sea merchant who hoped to capitalize on the area's proximity to the Lehigh River.  One claim to fame is that the liberty bell was hidden here when the British invaded Philadelphia.

Ritter Elementary School that both attended.  These schools are unbelievable in their construction!

Look at the brickwork!

We saw the high school from which Jane graduated.

Bill then took us to the Allentown Fairgrounds, which is right in the middle of town.  This is one of his favorite restaurants. We didn't stop there, but it looks interesting!

People come from all over to attend events here, including concerts by big name performers.  Bill remembers coming to see Johnny Cash.

This is the hospital where both Bill and Jane were born.

 Bill's Dad (The family called him Pop) got a job during World War Two painting names and numbers on the ships at the Naval shipyards in Philadelphia.  Jane wanted to finish high school in Allentown, so he commuted for three years, staying at his mother's house in the Bridesburg area of Philadelphia during the week and coming home on the weekends.  When Jane graduated they moved to Philadelphia.

Here's the Episcopal church they attended a youngsters.

It was a fun day, totally unexpected, and we really enjoyed seeing it.