My new book Microbreweries, Nanobreweries, and Brewpubs: Histories of 241 American Craft Beer Companies (ISBN: 978-1-4766-9085-8) is now available.
Yesterday, I noticed my Texas Instruments TI-30 "electronic slide-rule calculator" in a drawer in my house. I took it out of the simulated-denim case, and put in a fresh 9-volt transistor battery. I pressed the "ON/C" button, and it came on. For old-time sake, I took the square root of 2. As an Electrical Engineer, I took note that the first four digits "1.414" were correct. Therefore, I concluded that it still works. I purchased my TI-30 at Sugerman's in Eynon, PA. This store had been called "Sugerman's Eynon Drugstore", but many locals referred to it as "Up the Eynon." I made the purchase in September of 1979 after I began to study Electronics Technology at the Lackawanna County Area Vocational-Technical School - North Center on Old Plank Road in Mayfield, PA. That year, I attended "Vo-Tech" in the morning, and Mid-Valley Senior High School in downtown Olyphant in the afternoon. "North Vo-Tech" was closed many years ago. "South Vo-Tech" on Rockwell Avenue in Scranton is now called "The Career Technology Center of Lackawanna County." The Mid-Valley Secondary Center is in Throop. The little handle on the case came loose and fell off. I turned the case inside-out. While I was studying Electrical Engineering at the Worthington Scranton Campus of the Pennsylvania State University in Dunmore, and working on some problems a classmate asked me why my calculator case looked that way. I replied that it was my great-grandfather's calculator case. He brought it over from the Ukraine when he immigrated to the United States in the late 1890s. One classmate said, "Oh, how sweet." We all grinned and continued working on our problems.
My new book Microbreweries, Nanobreweries, and Brewpubs: Histories of 241 American Craft Beer Companies (ISBN: 978-1-4766-9085-8) is now available.
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Saturday, November 5, 2022, marks the 100th Anniversary of the Olyphant Coal Party in Olyphant, PA.
Up until the 1922-23 school year, the Olyphant School District purchased coal to heat the schools from the Temple Coal Company. There was the Olyphant Junior High School, the Olyphant Senior High School, and the Olyphant Central School which was an elementary school that was adjacent to the senior high school. There were four neighborhood elementary schools: the Columbus School (Smoketown), the Washington School (Fern Hill), the Lincoln School (Grassy), and the Roosevelt School (Tiger Valley in Fern Hill). In addition, there was a three-room school in Underwood, and a one-room schoolhouse in Marshwood. The school district also purchased the coal that was used to heat the synagogue and the churches of the borough. In 1922, Temple Coal had reduced production, and stopped selling coal to the school district. At the time, Olyphant was a coal mining town, and almost all of the mining operations were owned and operated by the Hudson Coal Company. The school district tried to buy coal from the Hudson Coal Company, but they refused to sell. Hudson Coal insisted that the school district should work out arrangements with their former supplier. In October it was cold and the coal supply in all of the schools had been depleted. They were unable to heat the schools, and were unable to purchase coal from any supplier. They had to close the schools while they tried to make arrangements to buy coal. There were approximately 60,000 municipalities throughout the United States and Canada that used anthracite to heat their schools. Even though thousands of tons of anthracite were produced in Olyphant on a daily basis, Olyphant was the only school district in the entire United States and Canada that was unable to purchase anthracite coal. The Hudson Coal Company refused to sell coal to heat the schools that were attended by the children of their miners and laborers, as well as the children whose fathers and brothers were killed or maimed in mining accidents. The school district sent telegrams to the Governor of Pennsylvania, William Cameron Sproul, and the President of the United States, Warren G. Harding. The governor’s secretary, James F. McCoy, referred the matter to the Pennsylvania Fuel Commission. The school district had the money, and was willing to pay for coal, but the coal companies flat-out refused to sell it to them. On the evening of Saturday, November 4, 1922, there was a meeting among the Burgess (mayor) of Olyphant, P. B. Dempsey, members of the borough council, the school superintendent, Professor Michael W. Cummings, and members of the school board. They decided that they had no choice, and they had to execute their plan to take coal by force. On the morning of Sunday, November 5, the fire gongs sounded. That was the signal for the men of the borough to go to the borough building with shovels. From there they walked to a railroad siding near North Valley Avenue, where loaded coal cars that were destined for delivery elsewhere were above an incline. The Olyphant Police and the volunteer fire companies were in on the plan. The police stood guard to prevent anyone from stopping the men from taking the coal. The volunteer firemen from Excelsior Hose Company No. 1 and Grassy Island Hose Company No. 3 stood ready with their hoses to ward off anyone who would interfere. Olyphant Hose Company No. 2, Eureka Hose Company No. 4, and Crystal Hose Company No. 5 remained ready if there was a fire in the borough. The men opened three coal cars from the side to allow the coal to fall down the incline and onto the street. They then loaded the coal into trucks and wagons and delivered it to the schools, churches and the synagogue. Father Murphy of Saint Patrick’s Church showed up and said, “You did all in your power to avoid this, but when the health of your loved ones is menaced, you must act in their defense.” The Hudson Coal Company Police arrived on the scene. They observed what was going on, turned around and left. Burgess Dempsey estimated that approximately 200 tons had been taken, and he intended to pay Hudson Coal Company for all of it. On November 21, 1922, there was an article on page 7 of the Wall Street Journal, entitled “Sproul Answers Hudson Coal Co.” According to the article, W. H. Williams, Vice President of the Hudson Coal Company was furious about what had happened in Olyphant. He asked Governor Sproul to have the Pennsylvania State Police assist the Hudson Coal Police in any future incidents such as this. Governor Sproul responded that while the action taken by the residents of Olyphant cannot be justified, under the circumstances it was expected. He added that it is the responsibility of the local coal company to sell coal to the local school districts. The amount of coal used by the Olyphant School District was comparatively inconsequential in comparison to the amount of coal mined in the borough. Bibliography Scranton Republican [Scranton, PA]. 1922. "Olyphant Men Seize Coal in D&H Yards." November 6: 1-2. New York Times. 1922. "Whole Town Raids Railroad for Coal." November 6. New York Times. 1922. "Town Offers to Pay for Confiscated Coal." November 7. Wall Street Journal [New York, NY]. 1922. "Sproul Answers Hudson Coal Co." November 21. My beer website lager57.weebly.com/ Follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/strippens The Old School thebp.site/57084 My new book Microbreweries, Nanobreweries, and Brewpubs: Histories of 241 American Craft Beer Companies (ISBN: 978-1-4766-9085-8) is now available. On December 10, 2021, I visited my hometown, Olyphant, PA. My son, Joseph, drove, so I took some pictures from inside the car. In downtown Olyphant, there is the Queen City Station. It is used for special railroad events such as the Santa Claus Train. It is along the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA) railroad which is used for freight service between Simpson and Scranton. This was part of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad. The tracks have been removed beyond Simpson. There are similar stations "up the line" in Carbondale (Pioneer City Station), Archbald (Gravity Slope Station), and Jessup, and "down the line" in Dickson City. Trains originate at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton. My beer website lager57.weebly.com/
Follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/strippens The Old School thebp.site/57084 In the early 1980s while attending college, I worked part-time at Genetti Manor on Main Street in Dickson City. There, I worked with Olyphant native, Kenny Maloney. He was a retired construction worker, who served with the United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees during World War II. He was in his early 70s. As you can imagine, he told a lot of stories. Looking back, I wish that I had a notepad with me to write some of them down. (Likewise, for the stories told by my grandfather, Peter Klapatch, and his brother, my great-uncle John Klapatch.) One story he told was that the University of Scranton defeated Notre Dame in a football game on field that was located on the same property as Genetti Manor. He clarified that at the time, the University of Scranton was Saint Thomas College. At the time, there was no Internet as we know it for fact checking. Last week, this story came to mind, so I decided to see if I can verify it. An Internet search yielded the following webpage. History of University of Scranton Football Sure enough, for the 1932 season, the article said, “St. Thomas routed the Notre Dame "B" squad 24-6”, but the article did not say where the game was played. Further down the article says that in 1940, the team started to play at their new stadium in Scranton. I know that there was a football field in Dickson City in the vicinity of Genetti Manor called Crystal Gardens. The Dickson City High School Black Hawks football team played their home games there. I sent an e-mail to the archives mailbox as indicated near the bottom of the webpage to ask if the Saint Thomas Tomcats (often referred to as the “Tommies”, or the "Purple and White") played their home games at Crystal Gardens in Dickson City before 1940. The next business day, I received a response from Special Collections Assistant, Christian A. Scipioni. He replied, “It appears St. Thomas did indeed play at Crystal Gardens from 1931 until the stadium switch.” He provided the following link. The Aquinas 1931-10-16 In the article, Tommies Lose to Quantico Marines in Night Contest it says, "The Quantico Marines placed a 14-7 defeat in the 1931 record of St. Thomas College last Friday night. The game, the first one staged by the Purple and White under the arc lights in Crystal Gardens, Dickson City, was enjoyed by approximately 2700 spectators." So I conclude that Kenny Maloney’s story is true. The Saint Thomas College (later the University of Scranton) Tomcats defeated the Notre Dame “B” squad on a field located in the vicinity of Genetti Manor in Dickson City. When I discussed this with my father, Joseph Klapatch, he told me that Jim Thorpe also played football at Crystal Gardens. (This will be another small research project.) I remember the early days of the Mid-Valley School District, and the first few football seasons in the early to mid-1970s. The home football games were played at the Valley View stadium in Peckville. I asked my father if they had kept Crystal Gardens, would it have been suitable for Mid-Valley home games. He told me that the stadium at Crystal Gardens was gone by the 1950s. When he attended Olyphant High School in the 1950s, Olyphant, Dickson City, Archbald, and Blakely high schools played their home games at the stadium in Peckville. Jessup High School also played in Peckville until they got their own stadium. My beer website lager57.weebly.com/
Follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/strippens The Old School thebp.site/57084 In 1969, the Mid-Valley School District was formed with the consolidation or jointure of the Olyphant, Throop and Dickson City (Pennsylvania) school districts. Many years before the consolidation, each borough had small neighborhood elementary schools that were in walking distance of the students. Each borough had a school named after Christopher Columbus:
My beer website lager57.weebly.com/
Follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/strippens The Old School thebp.site/57084 On January 28, 1981, I was a junior at the Mid-Valley Senior High School, and a member of the Mid-Valley Spartan Band. That day, the band members reported to school in uniform. We took our instruments, got on school buses and rode to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport (AVP) in Avoca. We marched onto the tarmac, and waited for the plane carrying Michael Metrinko to arrive. The plane landed and taxied to the terminal. The rolling stairs were moved to the exit of the plane. We played God Bless America as he descended the stairs. Michael Metrinko had safely returned from Iran! We got back on the buses and rode to Throop and waited for Michael Metrinko’s motorcade to pass as it headed into Olyphant. We were was inserted into the parade, and played patriotic songs as we marched down South Valley Avenue and then Lackawanna Avenue on our way to Saints Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church in downtown Olyphant. When we arrived, we saw helicopters from television stations flying overhead. There was WNEP, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Skycam 16, as well as the Philadelphia stations: KYW Channel 3, WPVI Channel 6, and WCAU Channel 10. Outside the church, Monsignor Stephen Hrynuck led the crowd in prayer. Almost a year earlier, Monsignor had Michael Metrinko’s parents, Harry and Alice Metrinko light a special candle. That afternoon, Michael Metrinko was back in his hometown to extinguished the candle. Recently Michael Metrinko and I began to occasionally exchange electronic correspondence. In December of 2019, he sent me a package. He enclosed a two-page letter. The first paragraph: As I continue to downsize my collection of memorabilia and art works, I think that you are the ideal person to receive the items I have enclosed as a gift. Your book “The Old School” was really wonderful and meant a lot to me because of the impact that building had on my young life. One of the items was a school bell with a wooden handle dating back to the 1800s. It was used to summon the students to class. It was given to Michael Metrinko’s Aunt Mitzi. She took it with her to college in Springfield, MA. She then kept if in her home in Massachusetts, until the 1980s when she gave it to her nephew, Michael. He took it with him during his State Department service in Poland and Israel. He later had it with him in Virginia. He last “officially” rang this bell about two years ago to quiet down a group of about forty US Military and State Department guests who were at his home for dinner. He passed this bell on to me as its “next custodian.” The moral of the story, “It’s not always how many people read your writing, it’s who reads your writing, and how it affects them.
My beer website lager57.weebly.com/ Follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/strippens The Old School thebp.site/57084 On Thursday, March 5, 2020, President Donald Trump visited Scranton, PA for a townhall meeting.
I recall Vice President Walter Mondale’s visit to Scranton on October 29, 1980. I was a junior in high school and a member of the Mid-Valley Spartan Band. Vice President Mondale made a campaign stop at the Hotel Casey at the corner of Lackawanna Avenue and Adams Avenue. The Mid-Valley Spartan Band played outside as he entered the hotel. The Dunmore High School Band played inside. We were then invited inside, and were each given soda in a paper cup and a hotdog on a slice of white bread. As the vice president was walking through the crowd, I was able to shake hands with him. The vice president shook hands with many of the other band members as well. I am not aware of any partisan arguments concerning our playing at this event. My beer website lager57.weebly.com/ Follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/strippens The Old School thebp.site/57084 Happy Easter! Christos Voskrese! Here is a photo of my cousin, Lynn Ann Hughes Hailey, my sister Melissa, and me in our Easter finery after church on Easter probably in 1970. It wasn’t 1971 because it snowed. The photo was taken in the front yard of my parents’ house on School Street in the Grassy Island section of Olyphant, PA. To our backs School Street meets Lemko Street. West Palm Street was not yet built. Take note of the dump in the upper left corner. This was beyond the present-day Sanko Drive. The kids used to refer to this dump as “the Red Rooster”. I’m not sure why. My great-uncle John, my grandfather, and my father used to call it “the rogg dump”. I’m not sure why. I think that rogg may be Anthracite Brogue for rock. Sometimes k is pronounced as gg as in “bicyggle”. The rogg dump was atop what was once St. Patrick’s Church Cemetery. It was composed mostly of shale and other waste from the coal mines. The slope toward the Fern Hill side was not as steep as the ones in the picture. My friend Bob and I climbed it several times. We did not have a camera. I remember being able to see very far, but don’t recall any landmarks that we were able to see. The Red Rooster was between Grassy Island and Fern Hill. There was a smaller rogg dump between Fern Hill and Smoketown. My beer website lager57.weebly.com/
Follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/strippens The Old School thebp.site/57084 The 50th Anniversary of the establishment of the Mid-Valley School District is approaching. June of 1969 marked the last graduating classes of Dickson City High School, Olyphant High School, and Throop High School. In September of 1969, the public schools of the three boroughs began to operate as the Mid-Valley School District.
For the 1959-60 school year, there were 2277 school districts in Pennsylvania. There was the School District Reorganization Act of 1961, the School District Reorganization Act of 1963, and the School District Reorganization Act of 1968. For the 1969-70 school year there were 669 school districts in Pennsylvania. http://mrea-mt.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/PA-psba-merger-consolidation.pdf During the 1960s, there were many proposals concerning which school districts would consolidate with each other. There was talk that Throop, Olyphant, and Jessup would be one school district; Dickson City, Blakely, and Archbald would be another. There were numerous political factors, but I would imagine they may have also considered how they were going to shoehorn the students into the existing schools. The former Dickson City Junior High School became the Mid-Valley Junior High School. The former principal of the Dickson City High School, Edward Munley, was the principal, and the former principal of the Throop High School, Joseph Regenski, was the assistant principal. In the new environment, students and teachers from the former Dickson City and Throop schools had a familiar administrator in the building, but not those from Olyphant. I would imagine that initially, the seventh through ninth grade students, as well as the teachers from Olyphant and to an extent Throop felt uncomfortable in Dickson City. The former Olyphant Junior High School became the Mid-Valley Senior High School. The former principal of the Olyphant High School, Stanley Kucab was the principal, and an Olyphant High School science teacher, Frank Rolka, was the assistant principal. In the new environment, I would imagine that initially the tenth through twelfth graders as well as the teachers from Dickson City and Throop felt really uncomfortable in Olyphant. In about 1977, I remember a teacher telling us that she believed that immediately after the consolidations, the school districts should have planned for the construction of new secondary schools (grades seven through twelve), but continued to operate as they did with separate secondary schools until the new schools were completed. She was fully aware of the initial friction in the newly consolidated secondary schools. If a new school was built soon after the consolidation, and they waited until it was completed before the students from the three boroughs started attending classes together, things would have gone more smoothly. Instead of “we’re going to their school”, it would have been our school for the entire student body, right from the beginning. Taking this one step further, if a new school were built in the beginning, they would not have needed to consider the utilization of existing schools, and perhaps they could have made larger consolidations (i.e. Dickson City, Olyphant, Throop, and one or two more boroughs). My beer website lager57.weebly.com/ Follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/strippens The Old School thebp.site/57084 In 2016, the estimated population of Olyphant, Pennsylvania was 5,087, but in the early twentieth century, its population was much greater. Due in part to an influx of European immigrants to work in the coal mines and silk mills, the population of Olyphant grew from 8,505 in 1910 to 10,236 in 1920. There were not enough classrooms in the schools. Many students attended classes on split sessions.
On January 20, 1926, the new Olyphant Junior High School opened for seventh and eighth grade students. It was located on Lincoln Street across from the high school. There were three classrooms per story for a total of nine classrooms. It was designed by John Howley. The general contractor was Boland Brothers of Carbondale. It cost $180,000. There were eight teachers assigned to the school: Catherine Murphy, Mary Rogan, Mary Gavin, Sarah Ruddy, Nellie Lenahan, Gertrude Hoban, Marie Beatty, and Catherine Walsh. Around 1938, an addition was built that extended the structure to Susquehanna Avenue as it stands today. This addition included two gymnasiums and increased the number of classrooms to a little over twenty. The school was for students of Olyphant in grades seven through nine. When the population of Olyphant began to decline, there were many vacant classrooms in the school. In the mid-1940s, St. Patrick’s Church rented the third floor to use for their parochial school. In September of 1969, the school became Mid-Valley Senior High School for students in tenth through twelfth grades from Olyphant, Throop, and Dickson City. On February 10, 1977, the Olyphant Elementary School was condemned by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. On March 4, 1977, the Dickson City Elementary School was also condemned. The displaced elementary school students attended classes in the junior high school in Dickson City. Senior high school students attended classes in this building during the morning session, and junior high school students attended classes during the afternoon session. In September of 1978, students in grades nine through twelve began to attend classes on full day sessions in the senior high school, while seventh and eight grade students attended classes in the former St. Patrick’s school on Delaware Avenue. There were additional classrooms in the basement of St. Patrick’s Church, and a mobile home for Home Economics classes in the alleyway between Church Street and Lincoln Street. In September of 1981, students in grades seven through twelve began to attend classes in the newly constructed Mid-Valley Secondary Center on Underwood Road in Throop. The school in Olyphant was then used as an elementary school. It was closed in 1989 when the Mid-Valley Elementary School on Underwood Road opened. The building is now the Lackawanna Heritage Apartments. My beer website lager57.weebly.com/ Follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/strippens The Old School thebp.site/57084 Updated 10/22/2023
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They purchased this house when I was an infant, and lived there over fifty years. We estimate that the house was built in the 1890s. Before they purchased the house, it had been in the Winstone family. During the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, James Winstone, his wife, and two sons lived in the house. Winstone owned the house next door as well. His daughter, and son-in-law, S.J. Lewis lived there. Winstone had once held office in the union, but during the strike, he and his son-in-law were not union members. They routinely went through their backyards, across what is now Lemko Street to go to the Grassy Island Colliery. According to the September 26, 1902 issue of the New York Times, on September 25, while Winstone (spelled "Winston" in article) and Lewis were on their way to work, they were met by three Hungarians. The three beat Winston and Lewis with clubs. Winstone, who was 48 years old at the time, died from his injuries; Lewis survived. The three murders were later apprehended in Hoboken, NJ. <http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=950CE6DF1E3DEE32A25755C2A96F9C946397D6CF> Later in 1902, the famous journalist, Ray Stannard Baker, visited the Winstone home to gather information in order to write an article for McClure’s Magazine. The article entitled “The Right to Work: The Story of the Non-Striking Miners” was published in the January 1903 issue. <moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/documents/Right%20to%20work.pdf> In the writing style of the day, he did not mention the first names of the women. This article provided more details about this terrible tragedy. I took note of the following sentence, “James Winstone lived in a neighborhood known as Grassy Island, of which he was the foremost citizen, having by far the best home.” -Updated March 2, 2020 My beer website lager57.weebly.com/
Follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/strippens The Old School thebp.site/57084 After school, on the afternoon of Thursday, February 10, 1977, the Mid-Valley Spartan Band had practice in the auditorium of the Olyphant Elementary School in Olyphant, PA. The band was comprised of junior and senior high school students, but we practiced in an elementary school. We were learning the music for our spring concert. The Olyphant Elementary School was sometimes referred to as the Mid-Valley Elementary School in Olyphant. The original two-story part of the building was located on the corner of Church and Susquehanna. It was designed by Lewis Hancock, Jr., and was built in 1910. In 1915, a three-story annex was completed that extended the building to the corner of Susquehanna and Lincoln. The annex was designed by Edward H. Davis. The original part of the building was an elementary school, but the annex was a hybrid. In the annex there were twelve classrooms and an auditorium. Some classrooms were for elementary grades, and others were used for senior high school classes. The senior high school was across the street. Some senior high students used to cross Lincoln Street when changing classes. On December 22, 1976, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry notified the Mid-Valley School District that the Olyphant Elementary School was not in compliance with the Fire and Panic Law. The building had highly flammable oil-soaked wooden floors. There were also open stairwells that would aid in the ventilation of a fire. Their concern was that if there was a fire while classes were in session, the building would quickly become fully engulfed in flames. An evacuation would not be able to be completed in a panic situation. They also cited health related concerns such as the permanent stench in the lavatories. They said that if the remediation was not performed to bring the building into compliance, they would condemn the building, and order it closed. After school, on the afternoon of February 10, 1977, we noticed that building inspectors were moving about in the school. Apparently, they took note that very little (if any) work had been done. Toward the end of practice, a state inspector had a sidebar conversation with our band director, Mr. George Kinsley. Mr. Kinsley relayed the message to the band that the school building had just been condemned. The band was allowed to practice until our parents came to pick us up. Before we left, my father and I, along with other parents and band members talked to a maintenance man. He told us that the Dickson City Elementary School was going to be condemned next. (It was condemned on March 4, 1977.) He said that the junior high school in Dickson City had enough classrooms to accommodate the students from both schools. The junior high school students and senior high school students would then attend classes in the senior high school across the street on split sessions. While exiting the building for the last time, I remember hearing a parent say, “Last one out; don’t forget to turn off the lights.” The building was razed in 1982. The Valley Covenant Community Church Glory Garden occupies the property where the school once stood. (Thank you Kevin Novak and Andy Palumbo for photographs.) My beer website lager57.weebly.com/
Follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/strippens The Old School thebp.site/57084 I was searching the Library of Congress website for information about my hometown, Olyphant, PA. I learned of a song that was composed in Olyphant in 1918. The lyrics for Dear Old Glory were written by the Olyphant School District superintendent, Michael W. Cummings, and scored for piano by William T. Evans. According to the sheet music, it was “Dedicated to the Veterans of the Civil War on their annual visit to the Public Schools.”
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ihas.200202010.0?st=gallery The Old School - The Mid-Valley Elementary School in Olyphant, Pennsylvania is now available. This book has two parts, History and Memoir. The History part of the book consists of factual data about the schools of Olyphant from 1855 through 1969. This is background information for the Memoir part of the book. This is a narrative about my public school education starting in 1969 with kindergarten, and concluding with graduation in 1982. I also include an Epilogue with a snapshot of the current status of items discussed.
Currently it is only sold at http://www.thebookpatch.com/BookStore/the-old-school/2e904897-a58a-416a-9899-d83ac706cdfa?isbn=9781633187276 TheBookPatch is a print-on-demand service. Books are printed as they are ordered. They will print a single copy. It cost $7.99 plus shipping and handling (comes to a total of $14.27 if only one book is ordered). Books are barcoded for retail sale at $14.99. The tracks were once part of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad. Now, the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRPA) owns the tracks that remain between Scranton and Carbondale. The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad Company (DLRR) is under contract to operate trains along this line. On April 16, I was in Olyphant, and was able to photograph a freight train as it passed through the borough from Scranton toward Carbondale. I grew up in Olyphant, PA which is outside of Scranton. I spent most of my adult life in Galloway, NJ which is outside of Atlantic City. I am interested in the local history of these two places.
To a lesser extent, I am interested in the local history of the following places:
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AuthorJoseph Peter Klapatch is originally from Olyphant, Pennsylvania. He currently resides in the urban forests of Galloway, New Jersey with his wife, Margi. They have five children. Archives
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