Editor’s note: This column first appeared in the Sunday Dispatch in September 2011.
Question #1
An article In the Duryea section of the Sept. 25, 1956 issue of the Sunday Dispatch noted that in 1892, Duryea was known by what other name?
1956 – 61 YEARS AGO
Pittston City Police Chief O’Brien had a gang war on his hands. A tip was received that teenagers from Jenkins Township and Pittston were gathering for a fight on South Main Street and some were reported to be carrying switchblades. After being detained at city hall, the Jenkins Township youths were instructed to stay out of Pittston or risk being arrested.
Pittston City Police reported break-ins that resulted in several odd thefts over the years, some including bookkeeping machines, raw clams, chickens and radio aerials, but one break-in stood out. One young man owed several dollars to a small grocery store. He broke into the building through an office window, found his billing records and marked “paid” beside his name. He was caught exiting the building.
Reporters at various Pittston Area schools would report their respective news to the Sunday Dispatch each week. Patricia Harrington, Jo Ann Merli and Mary Helen Danko were responsible for Pittston High; Joyce Pace and Elaine Pace, Exeter High School; Pat Korecki and Edna Hartman, Wyoming High; Ida Ralston, Mary Ann Atmonavage and Ann Marie DeLuca, Jenkins High School; Audrey Malinics and Joan Bellomo, Dupont High; Mary Mularkey and Eleanor Frati, Hughestown High; Rosemary Wierbowski, Nancy Bittinger, Ned Shaughnessy and Pat Cumbo, West Pittston High; Elaine Gillis and Suzanne Scoda, Duryea High; Loretta Richel and Mary Timlin, Avoca High; and Charlotte Jacobowsky, Frances Hoover and Louise Saunders, West Wyoming.
1966 – 51 YEARS AGO
Faculty members of the Wyoming Area School District recommended that all pupils from kindergarten through sixth grade use common textbooks in the development of reading skills. The district adopted the Ginn Basic Reading Program as a measure of standardizing the skills. Dorothy Mitchell, Joseph Knish, James Brokenshire and Gail Young oversaw the implementation of the program.
The Water Street Baptist Church celebrated its 190th anniversary. Edith Irving and Mrs. William Martin were honored as the oldest living members. The church was organized in 1776, the year recognized as the beginning of the First Baptist Church in Pittston. After the Wyoming Massacre in July 1778, with members either killed or dispersed, the church nearly broke apart. In 1785, the church was re-born with an edifice built and cornerstone laid in September 1865.
Avoca Borough residents felt their Squire, Thomas M. Golden, held some type of record. In his 24 years as judge, Golden had performed 406 weddings for couples from all over Northeastern Pennsylvania. One couple, he remembered, flew into Avoca airport from Philadelphia, arranged for him to perform the nuptials and took the next flight out.
The magnitude 9.2 earthquake of 1964 in Anchorage, Alaska prompted Duryea borough officials, Joseph Rava, George Murman and Mayor John B. Salek to consider reorganizing the Duryea Civil Defense Program. During a Luzerne County meeting, the men viewed a film that focused on the fact that ravaged communities affected by the earthquake did not have any programs to help devastated victims. The men felt re-establishing a Civil Defense Program in Duryea would benefit if disaster struck their community. Before the creation of Federal Emergency Management Association or FEMA on March 31, 1979, the responsibility for handling disasters in the United States was shared by a wide variety of short-lived and frequently changing departments, agencies, and organizations the Civil Defense Program being one.
1976 – 41 YEARS AGO
Jim “Casey” Barrett or “Mr. Baseball,” as he was known to many kids in Pittston, passed away. Little Leaguers and their parents all knew Mr. Barrett as a fixture in coaching the Moose Club and First Bank teams and taking the 1955 and 1963 teams to state finals. Earlier in the year, the league presented Mr. Barrett with a plaque commemorating his 25 years of service.
Susan Sgarlat was named Wyoming Area Homecoming Queen. She, along with her court consisting of Ann Greskiewicz, Donna Lippi, Joann Montagna and Mary Claire Chairge, were looking forward to the Wyoming Area Homecoming Game.
Receiving the highest qualifying score on the Preliminary Aptitude test in Pennsylvania, Joanne Marie Russavage was among 15,000 semi-finalists of the nation’s most academically talented high school seniors competing for the National Merit Scholarship Program. The test was administered to over one million students in approximately 17,000 schools nationwide.
1986 – 31 YEARS AGO
A full year after Gloria, a category 4 Hurricane dumped more than seven inches of rain in a 24-hour period on the Eastern Seaboard, the residents of Greater Pittston were still awaiting monetary assistance specified by the Act25/Act88 grant program. The Department of Welfare cut disaster relief from $15 to 7 million prompting legislators to intervene and ask for reconsideration of denied claims.
Hurricane Gloria formed during the 1985 Atlantic hurricane season and reached category 4 status near the Bahamas. It made landfall on North Carolina’s Outer Banks at Hatteras. Measuring 300 miles wide, Gloria caused $900 million in damage. The storm was the first significant system to strike the northeastern United States since Hurricane Agnes in 1972.
It was the first competition of the season and the Wyoming Area Marching Band did its very best by capturing first place in Group II. Directed by Don Butz and Cathy Clamar and fronted by drum majors Sabrina Stach and Beth Jones, the band placed fourth out of 10 bands in overall performance at the tournament held in Berwick.
Ann Sleboda, Kay Haddock, Rose Rosiak, Ann Wassil, Rose Pavlick, Ann Tirpak, Susan Chromey, Ann Andruchek, Margaret Pesta, Mary Kundla, William Kossuth, Mary Kossuth, Susan Tkach and Eva Shemo, all of St. John the Baptist Slovak Church, were busy making thousands of delicious pirohy the old fashioned way for their 10th annual bazaar. Along with this all-time delicious favorite, the volunteers were preparing goulash, haluski, kielbasa, holupki and potato pancakes.
Question #2
How many ways are there to spell pirohy, the potato or sauerkraut filled dumpling?
1996 – 21 YEARS AGO
A memorial tree, honoring all living and deceased members of the Ladies Auxiliary to Przybytek-Kundlas Post 4909 V.F.W., was planted on the lawn of the Dupont Borough Building. Ann Marie Milon O’Malley, Michael Rowan, Ed Strucke, Marg Strucke, Pat Buchan, Michelle Buchan, Clara Vida Dulney, Doris Goula, Fran Krupnik, Mary Ziantz, Lottie Maleski, Bill and Mary Kossuth, Charles Rydzy, John Buchan and Auxiliary President Stella Kotula participated in the event.
Answer #1
The article in the Duryea section of the Sunday Dispatch on Sept. 25, 1956 noted that in 1892 Duryea was known as Red Ball, Pennsylvania, and that Stephenson Street was known as Red Ball Street. It also stated good fishing existed at Cianelli’s Farm on Foote Avenue and at Red Bridge Pond and Blue Pond, each divided by the Lehigh Valley railroad tracks. Simpson’s Patch was once known as Shady Grove Park and the American Legion Post 585 had one of the best stadiums in the area.
Answer #2
Pirohy can also be spelled pierogi, perogi, pierogy, perogy, pierógi, pyrohy, or pyrogy, dependent upon one’s nationality and customs.
This date in history
1789 — The US Federal Judiciary Act was passed. It created a six-person Supreme Court and provided for an Attorney General.
1906 — Devils Tower, the first US National Monument, was designated by President Theodore Roosevelt. Devils Tower is a volcanic rock formation, rising 867 feet over a base of gray igneous rock at 1,700 feet, located in the Black Hills of Wyoming
1934 — Babe Ruth made his farewell appearance as a regular player with the New York Yankees in a game against the Boston Red Sox. The Sox won, 5-0.
1956 — The first transatlantic telephone cable system from Newfoundland to Scotland began operation.
1957 — The Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1964 — The TV situation comedy “Munsters” premiered on CBS with Al Lewis (d.2006) as the family patriarch.
1997 — Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) declared a truce and blamed recent killings on a splinter fundamentalist group, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA).
