1948 – 69 YEARS AGO
Members of the Wyoming Borough Council were scratching their heads as to what to do about a new problem unlike the usual variety of taxes, sewers and law enforcement issues. This one included everyone’s favorite snack — popcorn. A borough businessman placed a popcorn vending machine on the sidewalk in front of his store and the snack with its familiar aroma was attracting lots of customers. The problem was not with the snack, but the location of the machine and the congestion it was causing, especially in the evening hours. Council members realized there was no city ordinance prohibiting such a machine being placed on a public thoroughfare. A meeting was called to discuss creating “legislation” regarding the “popcorn problem.”
1949 – 68 YEARS AGO
Constable Frank Palumbo, of Dupont, appealed to the softer side of a thief in order to return an injured girl’s bicycle. The thief, a young Dupont man, had been burglarizing homes in the Pittston area, stealing such items as pants from one residence and a suit from another. He also managed to confiscate a couple of bicycles, one which belonged to a young girl who had been injured in a mine blast near a stripping operation. Although there wasn’t evidence the young man had stolen that particular bike, Palumbo visited the young man in jail and told him the story of the injured girl. The young thief, moved by the account, gave the location of the bike so it could be returned to the girl.
1965 – 52 YEARS AGO
Pittston City Police officers were gearing up for a raise. The Pennsylvania State House of Representatives passed a bill that would provide a $4,500 annual minimum wage and 40-hour week for all policemen in third-class cities. At the time, there were 13 Pittston city patrolmen with more to be hired due to the 40-hour work week provision. Upon the bill passing the Senate, the increases would add $19,124 to the city’s annual budget. According to the US Inflation Calculator, that annual budget figure would equate to $148,425.80 today.
1967 – 50 YEARS AGO
Toni Novabilski, of West Wyomin, proved that a woman could be just as good with a gun as any man when she finished in a tie for third place in competition event with another national trap shoot competitor. Novabilski entered the 27-yard handicap match as a member of the Elm Street Sportsmen’s Club. She and her husband, Norbert, had joined the club together a few years earlier. According to Women in Trapshooting website, women began competing as far back as 1917. Some of the top women shooters were Annie Oakley, Plinky Topperwein, Nora Martin Ross and Debbie Ohye Neilson. Undoubtedly the most famous, Oakley passed away due to pernicious anemia in 1926.
Favorite Sunday television shows in 1967 were “Lassie,” “Walt Disney Presents,” “Ed Sullivan,” “Let’s Make a Deal,” “Bonanza,” “Candid Camera,” “The Saint” and “What’s My Line.”
The Sunday Dispatch photographer was at the Pittston High School for a planned distribution of 1967 yearbooks when he happened upon school officials and police already on the scene investigating the destruction of the school. It was determined the culprits entered the school through a boiler room window and went on a spree, leaving broken beer bottles in their wake as they destroyed school records, American flags, furniture, doors, thermostats, sound equipment, an organ, and left the stage backdrop curtains fashioned into a hangman’s noose. Investigators went on to discover slashed gym mats and paddings and several trophies broken and strewn along a hallway. A sign was left on one teacher’s room door, stating he was a nice guy so they weren’t going to bother his room.
1968 – 49 YEARS AGO
Top 10 Songs of 1968 –
1. “This Guy’s in Love with You” – Herb Alpert
2. “Lady Willpower” – Gary Puckett & The Union Gap
3. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” – The Rolling Stones
4. “Stoned Soul Picnic” – The 5th Dimension
5. “Grazin’ in the Grass” – Hugh Masekela
6. “The Horse” – Cliff Nobles & Co.
7. “Angel of the Morning” – Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts
8. “MacArthur Park” – Richard Harris
9. “Hello, I Love You” – The Doors
10. “Mrs. Robinson” – Simon & Garfunkel
1984 – 33 YEARS AGO
Pittston Township resident and county GOP chairman Pat Solano missed the old days when John Kehoe, publisher of the Sunday Dispatch, held the annual “Kehoe Clambake.” The celebration, attended by hundreds of Greater Pittston residents, would, on occasion, host Pennsylvania governors. In 1983, Solano decided to initiate an Old-Timers Day event at his home in the tradition of the Kehoe extravaganza. The first year more than 100 people attended. The second in 1984 boasted over 200 people.
1975 – 42 YEARS AGO
Schools in the Greater Pittston Area announced free and reduced lunch and or breakfast for children unable to pay full price. Based on family size, income and hardships, families could enroll their children in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program. A family of four could receive free meals and milk with an income level of $6,260 or less and reduced price meals with income levels of $6,261 to $8,770.
After being informed that many young men were rejected in the draft of World War II due to medical conditions caused by malnutrition, President Harry Truman initiated The National School Lunch Program in 1946.
2004 – 13 YEARS AGO
2004 was the first year for the Wyoming Area girls field hockey team. Kim Chipego had coached a team at Valley West prior to coming to Wyoming Area and was unfamiliar with the rivalry with Pittston Area. She and her team consisting of Samantha Shumlas, Stephanie Zielinski, Nicole Spak, Stephanie Sarti, Christina Kolmansberger Sarah Zielinski, Liz Golden, Jessica Murray, Melissa Anderson, Nicole Shulde, Anne Thomas, and Katrina Alba looked forward to playing Pittston Area.
This date in history
1859 — The first commercial oil well was set up. Colonel Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful oil well in the United States near Titusville, Penn.
1894 — The US Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, providing for a graduated income tax. It imposed a 2% tax on incomes over $4000. Pres. Grover Cleveland enacted the tax to cope with the deficit. The Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional on May 20, 1895.
1910 — Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, later known as Mother Teresa and caretaker of the poor in Calcutta, was born to an ethnic Albanian family in Skopje, Macedonia. She later founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her work.
1945 — Life magazine’s issue for VJ-Day featured a photo that Life photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt made on May 8, VE-Day when he got signalman Jim Reynolds to pose for a kiss with a nurse on Times Square. That the photo was posed was denied by Life and Reynold’s role was not verified. Edith Shain, in a letter, claimed to be the nurse with documented letters from Eisenstaedt. In 2007, Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson completed a detailed investigation and concluded that Glenn McDuffie (80) is the man in Alfred Eisenstaedt’s Aug. 14, 1945 image of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square.
1988 — Tens of thousands of civil rights marchers gathered in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
