This coming Friday is the City of Pittston’s first summertime event with the first of four Second Friday Art Walks and today is the final day of West Pittston’s Cherry Blossom Festival featuring entertainment on the docket.
At the Cherry Blossom Fest, food, entertainment and plenty of vendors will be the order of the day, so get out and show your support of festival.
The Art Walk will feature a record amount of vendors along Main Street and at the Tomato Festival lower lot. Again, it’s important to get out and support local events and local artists and artisans.
Town events are seldom and few when several decades ago, each municipality had several events whether it be church bazaars, fire department bazaars or municipalities themselves.
As a child, for example, West Pittston had the Little League carnival, the Moose bazaar, Immaculate Conception Church bazaar, Goodwill Hose Co. picnic, as well as the West Pittston Pool Pie and Ice Cream Social and the West Pittston Fire Department’s Pie and Ice Cream Social.
Memory fades as I get older and I may be missing a few other summer events, but once we were out of school and summer session kicked in, it seemed like there was something going on every weekend.
Summertime fun was literally something we took for granted and just believed tradition would continue for ions to come. Well, I was wrong.
Out of all the events I listed above, most are extinct or places like Goodwill Hose Co. has completely disbanded, the Little League combined with other towns, the pool is no longer and pie and ice cream social are a thing of the past.
It’s too bad about the pie and ice cream socials no long happening. They were fun and if you liked pie and ice cream, you were set. The profits on those fundraisers had to be big because members of the organizations used to bake the pies and donate them.
One problem of today is … who bakes anymore?
In the 1960s, the population of West Pittston was about 7,000, today it is estimated to be approximately 4,600 or less. Since 1970, West Pittston has lost approximately 40% of its population or roughly over 2,400 residents.
That is a lot of loss over the decades and if local churches, fire departments or other organizations tried to sustain on fundraising from just residents alone, they would be in big trouble.
If summertime carnivals, picnics and bazaars are to make money, they would have to appeal to a broader audience such as people from outside if the municipality.
The City of Pittston has adapted to that formula and really made an effort to attract outside audiences for their events.
There will be more than 40 vendors at the Second Friday Art Walk this coming Friday and it the weather promises to be pretty warm at 78 degrees with a very small chance of rain, so it will be a great reason to get out and enjoy the sunshine and local merchants.
It feels like we have turned the corner cold temperatures with a bunch of 70s on the weatherboard. Last week certainly didn’t feel like spring but rather late fall and even a few nights ago, temps dropped into the 30s. My friend in California tells me Los Angeles has had just about the worse spring ever with cold and rain. She even said snow fell for the first time in decades.
Shooting local high school sports as been miserable for me with the chilly weather. I feel like I had better weather shoot fall football last year.
Speaking of high school sports, all seasons are coming to a close with playoffs looming for many of the teams from Pittston Area and Wyoming Area.
Pittston Area’s baseball and softball programs are peaking and looking good and Wyoming Area’s track and field team ended undefeated and the boy’s tennis team is having one of the best seasons ever.
It must be nice for the Warrior team tennis team to finally have home courts to play on after many years of an unplayable surface due to very large cracks.
Transfer Luca Argenio has given the team a boost playing in the number one spot in singles for the team.
The Pittston Area baseball team had a huge win over Hazleton Area at home halting the Cougars’ win streak at 42 games. Hazleton Area had their ace pitcher, Brett Antolick, on the mound with a bunch of pro and college scouts watching on.
That’s a lot of pressure on a high school kid while all those scouts are behind home plate with radar guns.
Evidently the scouts didn’t affect Pittston Area freshman hurler Elijah Barr. He tossed a nice game shutting out the Cougars striking out six batters. Reliever Anthony Cencetti got the win for Pittston Area coming in late in the game.
As the weather heats up, let’s hope our two Greater Pittston schools do well in the playoffs to represent us well as they move along.
Again, speaking of sports, I covered the opening ceremonies of the newly formed Greater Pittston Area Little League baseball at Jenkins Township Baseball Complex. The late Jim Musto, who gave it all to Jenkins Township Little League was surely smiling.
Thought of the Week
“And the thing I call living is just being satisfied with knowing I’ve got no one left to blame.” – Gordon Lightfoot “
Quote of the Week
“I realized, with gratitude, optimism is sustainable. And if you can find something to be grateful for, then you can find something to look forward to, then you carry on.” – Michael J. Fox
Bumper Sticker
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius
