The 3rd periodic 340 Club Reunion has been postponed indefinitely

Before there was an Animal House there was a 340 Club; before there was a Dean Wormer there was a Harold "the fuck" Martin; before there was John Blutarsky or a Daniel Simpson Day there was Tim Lutter, Sil Simpson, Dan Joyce, Tim Getzloff, Dick Lichty, Jim Shay, Phil Zangari, Chris Joyce, Dave Petkosh, Mitch Herr, Kenny Giltner, Dean Staherski, Randy Brown, John Emswiler, Sue Krimmell Emswiler and myself; before there were any Delta Tau Chi pledge pins, there were 340 Club cards; before Otis Day & the Knights, the 340 Jukebox; before there were Delta Brothers there were the usual gang of idiots that congregated at 328, 340 (twice) and 338 West King Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for a decade beginning in August 1974. This blog is dedicated to those idiots and those times. God bless Kenny, Mitch and Chris; may they rest in peace.

















virtual 340 Club members

Saturday, February 2, 2008

BlogStats

Phil installed a counter around January 2nd.in addition I’ve been counting other aspects of blog participation. I wanted to share some details with you that I find interesting:

First, I’m very proud that when one utilizes the world’s largest search engine – Google – and enters simply 340 Club the number one hit that is returned is the 340 Club, Lancaster, PA. Thus, without patent, exclusive rights, fanfare, publicity in the world when you say 340 Club you mean our 340 Club and believe me there are others. Entering the words 340 Club brings up 1,140,000 hits and of those we are the most relevant!

Second, this is the 138th post placed here by 340 Club residents registered with Blogspot. Here is a summary of who have posted:

Tee 102
Phil 29
Sil 7
Dan 0

In addition, posting capability has been offered to Tim, Tim, RE, John/Sue. Soon we will be expanding posting capability to all who seek it (are you listening JJ?, Lefty?). In the interest of full disclosure, all invited posters have contributed with memories or even pictures sent to Phil or I and included herein. However, I would like to see more participation. I realize unlike me and Phil most people have a life outside of the virtual club but it still would be nice to read others posts.

As it stands now anyone can leave a comment. Sadly Mike Hauck is the only reader who has left a comment other than resident posters Tee, Phil, and Sil. We need to know that the blog is being read; let us know you are out there. To leave a comment simply click on the place that says 0 comments or 1 comments or whatever it says.

Now, to the counter.

Total visitors 720
Actual 620 (1/2-2/2)
Additional estimated 100 (12/4-1/2)

Right off the top I estimate that my “visits” represent 40%. Phil has set it up so that his visits are not counted. So right off the top I lope off 288 leaving 332 visits. Of the total 8% are from out of the country and by and large are unknown surfers or worse. That leaves 305. Now, while it is labeled as visitors it more closely represents visits. The question then becomes how many visitors (i.e. readers) the blog has on a regular basis. I do not have that answer but I suspect there might be a dozen counting the three posters that stop by daily and another dozen that visit on a weekly basis.

Okay, so who are the other visitors? Well, they are folks out there surfing on the net using Google or Yahoo or whatever. Here is a list of the most recent folks visiting the virtual club who were surfing the net looking for stuff. The list depicts the stuff they were looking for and where 340 Club ranked out of the thousands of hits a particular topic might have engendered. For example, one person was looking for “leslie west mountain”. The list of hits he was referred to found the 340 Club as the 6th most relevant site. The only reason we know of his search is because he was sufficiently moved by the snippet description that he entered the site. Here is the list:

SEARCH REFERRALS FOR VIRTUAL 340 RANK
Tim Getzloff 1
Rudy Valentino Rochester NY 1
The old neighborhood 1
gene gene the dancing machine 1
englebet humperdink 2
sss club basketball 2
Woody Kleinhaus 2
bonnie parker death pics. 3
jason 340 3
Lauzus 3
Cassidy's Tavern 3
virtual visiting hours. blog spot. Com 4
mary hartman mary hartman + blogspot.com 4
“The Magnificent Men” 4
Sil Simpson 5
leslie west mountain 6
1975 olympic 340 6
“Jon Schmidt” 6
lancaster pa pub crawls 7
Archaeological 13
Bonnie Parker Band 20
Bonnie Parker Band 25
“Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels” 27
Gene the dancing 41
"west point" 50+
the passion club 50+

by category
Musical Groups 8
Bonnie Parker 4
Lancaster’s Pubs 3
The Gong Show 2
340 members 3

Of the 720 visitors, here are the domains from which they came:
AOL 34%
State.pa.us 18%
Verizon.net 10%
Comcast.net 10%
IP address 6%
18 Others < 5%

92% came from the U.S. with the following countries, in order, making up the remainder: Italy, India, UK, Spain, Germany, Columbia, Canada, Australia 1%

That’s all … more can be culled, such as length of visit but I shall leave that for another post.

Friday, February 1, 2008

From the Mighty 340 Juke Box

Written by Alan Peltier (recorded by Johnny Sea) as counterweight to P.F. Sloan's (recorded by many but the 1965 hit was by Barry McGuire) Eve of Destruction. Unfortunately, this is not the version that was on the juke box.

October 1976

I started work on October 11th as a Planner I in the Evaluation Division of the Bureau of Planning at City Hall Lancaster under Mayor Richard Scott, Chief Planner Jack Canan, and, my direct Supervisor (the man who hired me), Division Chief Norman Grinager. I was responsible, along with the vet, the other planner under Norm, Gary Solomon for monitoring and evaluating scores of projects funded by the City’s CDBG program. It was a great position. Norm was a fine teacher and good friend. I was best man in Gary’s wedding so obviously I fit in quickly. The functions of the job were right up my alley as I loved to count and count I did – people served, calls handled, meals served, feet of sewer line installed, money spent and et cetera.

The other highlight of the month was the departure from the 340 Club of Jimmy Shay. Perhaps the quietest of all 340 residents (and, believe it or not, most were on the quiet side), Jim was a great guy otherwise he would not have been there. In fact he was such a good guy that when I moved out a couple of years later, Jimmy again was a roomie at my next spot. You have noticed that he hasn’t been mentioned much. He had the room in the back and he and his lady Vickie would pretty much keep to themselves. Jim worked with Sil as a paver for 7 or 8 months of the year and then, like Sil, was a gentleman of leisure for the remaining months. Quiet as he usually was he could quaff his beers with the best of them and Phil’s first memory of Jim – the day Phil moved in the previous October – was of the three of us – Jim, Phil. And I – going to Soldner’s Bar down at the trough of West King Street for some beers welcoming Phil into the abode. I’m certain we sent ol’ Jimmy off with similar brews when he departed for greener pasture. His departure started a revolving door in the 4th spot that would continue for the duration of the first coming.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Curator's Corner



I picked this up at some point during our journey in 1976, at least that was what I always told myself. I have no clue where/if I purchased it on the trip....Being a tobacco chewer at the time, I found it very interesting. It hung proudly on my bedroom wall at all my residences during the decade this Blog is dedicated to. It has even found its niche at my current address on Seymour Street.

Incident on a Cinder Track

I’ve never spent a day in my life in a physical state that could be described as “in shape.” Perhaps ths time period, the late summer of ’76, at 25 after a long summer’s work on those hills of Columbia I was in the best shape of my life. One reason for such was my friend Dick Lichty, himself a stellar athlete, wrestler, weight trainer, runner, who used to hound me to join him at F & M’s Williamson Field for a jog and for the steam room afterwards. Truth was I coulda (and often did) did without the run and headed straight to the steamy. This was early in the college’s coeducational days and the steam room sometimes was better than other times.

One day after a hard day of labor, Dick stopped by the 340 and drug me to the track. This day turned out to be one of the more significant days of my life. Early in our run I spied a nice pair of buns on a F & M coed a few yards in front of us. Understandibly, we settled into a nice lope about 25 yards behind the behind. When she had completed her run – I jogged alongside and made an awkward introduction and we cooled down together on a walk around the track. It turned out that she was not a coed at all but worked for the City of Lancaster in hiring. Her job was to assist the City in providing additional opportunities to minorities, females, and diasdavantaged workers. Ironically, her tip in our walkabout lead this whiteboy to pursue a position with City government. She made me aware of an opening in the planning department as a program evaluator.

The next day I was at City Hall filling out an application. The rest – as they say – is history which you will read about in my next post. For the time being it was back to school. My CETA time had been extended and I was guaranteed employment through the end of the 76-77 school year.

SSS or Gastro-Intestinal Achievement

At Tee's insistence he wants me to comment on an event that did not happen during the week of 7/16-7/23,1976. He coined this non-event a "Gastro-Intestinal Achievement".
I have always been uncomfortable doing what we called in grade school a # 2 in any foreign bathroom. When my travelling partners realized I hadn't gone after a few days they became enamored with my lack of a normal bodily function. Perhaps egged on by their amazement, I continued by abstaining from the "throne" for the entire trip.
Now even in the comfort of my own home I have gone three days without a # 2 but never an entire week. Within minutes,maybe seconds, of our arrival back at 340 I was in the bathroom for an "evacuation" of epic proportions that lasted close to a half-hour and that was without any reading material.

Olympic Memories

My first rememberance of the Olympics was arriving in downtown Montreal and seeing signs that read "Olympic Parking $ 10", it could have been $20 but in either case we were shocked at the price.
We were clued in about the Youth Hostel that Tee referred to by a local I believe. It was a ice-hockey rink,sans ice of course. I can't remember the coffee and danish but it could have been offered. You showered and shaved (and anything else you wanted to do) in the hockey team's locker-room. We would then take the "Metro" into the Olympic Village for a mere 50 cents.
This subway was unbelievable. It was so well lit it seemed like daylight with no graffiti anywhere although that might have been done just for good P.R.
Once we were downtown I noticed there were street cleaning machines rolling by every few minutes it seemed and being a smoker I was moved to put my butts in my pocket instead of discarding them in the street.
We marvelled at the different ethnic groups wandering about the village. There is a limit to how much weight-lifting and Greco-Roman Wrestling one can watch so we ended up in bars and watched what transpired in the Olympics on TV. Tee got to see boxing and swimming events which were more interesting than what Sil and I had seen. One of us commented that "By being actually at the Olympics you missed the Olympics", since we all had gotten used to the total coverage on television.

Homeward Bound

July 21st

We were up fairly early at the hostel, we all showered, none of us shaved, and two of us took care of normal bodily functions. Off we went to the USA. First stop was to be in the White Mountains of New Hampshire – Mount Washington. It was a four hour trip that seemed entirely made up of two lane black top. Eventually we reached the foot of Mount Washington and were faced with mounting it to the summit by rail (a three hour round trip) or car. I’ll leave it to my fellow travelers to recall which if either method we used. I’d hate to think we didn’t scale the hill.

Given that we still 2 ½ hours from the Maine coastline I’m pretty sure we did not take the train ride. Upon rolling in to Old Orchard Beach in the middle of the week we were stunned at the number of tourists. Further, it turned out they were all “frogs” as the locals called them. The tourists, parked all over the place, were all Canadian and mostly all French-Canadians. Frogs was not a term of endearment. In any case it looked like a marvelous party but with no room at the inn we were off on our third trip (all told covering 500 miles) of the day.

It was off to Wethersfield, CT to visit my Aunt and my cousin this time and they put us up nicely and fed us the next morning before the push home. The last stop of the trip was the U.S. Military Academy at West Point which we gave cursory look to stopping for perhaps an hour and maybe having lunch.

July 22nd

We arrived home at about four in the afternoon having been on the road for 148 hours, covering 1,400 miles. The next day, being a Friday, I would assume we threw a welcome home party. The following Monday it was back to work on the hills.

Jeux de la XXIe Olympiade




July 19th

On to Montreal, a short 97 miles or more appropriately 156 kilometers, from Burlington, Vermont. Upon arrival we turned to another form of cheap lodging. Relatives, camping … and now, a youth hostel. If my memory is accurate it was cheaper than camping. In an Olympic city within easy public transportation of the games, we paid $3 a nite for a cot in an auditorium filled with cots, access to a shower and – maybe I’m stretching now – I think coffee & Danish in the morning. You left your non-valuable possessions under the cot and off you went to the games. 1976 bears very little resemblance to 2008.

Once on site, tickets were available for most events although there were few events ongoing. Among the options of the 21st Olympiad on the 19th were aviron, basketball, boxe, gymnastique, halterophile, handball, hockey, notation, pentathalon moderne, tir, volleyball, and yachting. Tickets were available.

1:00 Boxe (Boxing) was my choice. I was fortunate to see USA Louis Curtis win his bout but later he became the first of our guys to lose. In all, I saw 15 bouts including Light Flyweights Korean Silver Medalist Li Byong Uk, Thai Bronze Medalist Payao Pooltarat, Cuban Middleweight Bronze medal winner Luis Martinez, and Polish Light-Heavyweight Bronze medal winner Janusz Gortat. We had one of the greatest Olympic boxing teams of all-time with Howard Davis leading the way and Ray Leonard, Leo Randolph and the Spinks Brothers all winning Gold.

1:00 Halterophile (Weightlifting) was the pick of Sil & Phil. My French was so bad I thought they were going to see something very gay. I’m not sure who they saw. The star was the big Russian Vasily Alexiev. The only USA medal winner was 198 lb. Lee James.

8:00 Houston Astros 3, Montreal Expos 1 behind a complete game for the great J.R. Richards. York County’s Gregg Gross was the hero with three hits, knocking in the game winner and scoring the insurance run; both in the 7th. 7.560 other fans attended at Park Jarry that evening.


July 20th

9:30 The Lutte (Wrestling) competition opened and needless to say Phil & Sil were very disappointed not to see Bruno Sammartino, Lou Albano, nor any tag teams.

9:30 Natation (Swimming) was my choice and I can’t remember who I saw compete. I do remember the immortal who was practicing next to the pool in the diving pool – the young Greg Louganis, who due to the US boycott in ’80, had to wait 8 more years for his first Gold.

2:00 now this event was a sellout but luckily all three of us were able to score tickets. Not sure if we paid a premium or not. I know I didn’t as I purchased mine off former NFL player and then actor Bernie Casey. He showed the $4 (!) ticket and being ready to pay, gosh; triple that asked how much he wanted for it. He said, somewhat insulted, what does it say? I want $4. I looked him up during the game and had him autograph the ticket – a souvenir that has long faded. If I recall the US women upset a Rumanian team on the way to a Silver. The US men beat the Puerto Rican tam lead by Butch Lee by a single point enroot to a Gold.

7:00 Football (Football) the Red Chinese rallied late to upset the Peru squad 23-21. The game ended with a blocked field goal attempt. At the game I sought the assistance of the Ecouter Chien vendeur to help me with the French words for “but then again” so we could provide Lenny Lane with greater flexibility with one of his bits. I believe the phrase was presented to us as “mais alors encore”.

After both evenings events we retreated to the cafes for some continental drafts. I don’t recall but I assume it was early to bed early to rise in the crowded gym. It was a quick, fun two days in the international village. Despite being post-Munich it was about as far away from the époque moderne as one could imagine.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

My Memories of Northward Bound

I have a slightly different recollection of the start of our Northern Trek. Maybe not different but a few more details which I admit may be compromised by old age or too many brews or a combination of both.
I recall Sil being apparently disgusted at the end result of Tee and me foraying into the fine potables of the Bavarian Beer Festival. As Tee said, Sil was an Eagle Scout compared to us. When it was time to set up the tent,Sil, realized that neither Tee or I were not going to be any help, so he said,"Get in the car". He then drove to his relatives house where I remember after a brief introduction, Tee spotted a couch and said,"I will sleep here". I also recall a mighty fine breakfast before we bid our adieu's and departed for Cooperstown. I don't think we really did anything to embarass Sil's kin.
Once in Cooperstown as Tee stated we went to a campground. We struggled to put the tent up even with Sil's help. Finally a neighboring camper who aparently was watching with great amusement at our befuddlement came over and erected the contraption in a few minutes.
In Burlington,our next campsite,I am sure Sil did it all himself with perhaps Tee or I holding something until Sil needed it.
The post titled SSS will be addressed tomorrow.


Northward Bound

We arrived at Lakewood Park around 2 and spent three hours or so wolfing down beers and bratwurst to give us a solid foundation of fortifications for the trip ahead. This was my 2nd trip to the Bavarian Beer Festival of this summer. Once satisfied, as much as sober drinking would allow; it was off to Scranton to spend the night at Sil’s relatives (the Rowan’s I believe). I hope Sil doesn’t have a memory of me misbehaving at his cousins house … I believe I behaved.

Our second attraction was the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY. This would be our first exposure to the rustic life of the camper as we rolled into Cooperstown and immediately pitched a tent on the outskirts of town at a KAO Campground. Let me tell you, Sil wasn’t much of an outdoorsman then (he may or may not be now) but compared to Phil & I he was an Eagle Scout. Somehow the three of us got a tent up. Mostly Sil. We then proceeded in to Mecca to tour the Hall of Fame. To put the time period in perspective this was before such stars of our youth as Ernie Banks, Eddie Mathews, Al Kaline, Willie Mays, Bob Gibson, or Frank Robinson had been inducted. Coincidentally (in retrospect), it was the very year that the greatest player inducted since the first class was inducted - the great Oscar Charleston. Charelston was so good, and his career in the Negro Leagues so long, that he was known as the Black Ty, the Black Tris, compared to the great DiMaggio and finally (when Charlie was now a manager only with an occassional pinch hit appearence) compared to Willie Mays. In truth and without a hint of performance enhancers, Charleston stole more career bases than any other Negro Leaguer while being one of the leading power hitters of the segregated era. After touring the Hall of Fame we hit a few pubs in the lovely village before heading to the campsite.

Next day we headed north, stopping at historic Fort Ticonderoga before moving on to the base camp - Burlington, VT - apparently another campsite. That darn Sil turned out to be a regular Daniel Boone. While in Burlington we attended a screening of Bingo Long & his Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings.

SSS

My job at Columbia High School during the school year was to teach/counsel incorrigible youth. In the summer, I had a different role – developing and placing students in full and part-time jobs, glazing the basketball bleachers with a lacquer, and mowing the grass on the hills leading up to the school. If you know where Columbia High School is you can picture the difficulty in the last task particularly on a hot summer day. So, by the middle of July, I was ready for a vacation. So were Phil & Sil. With the Summer Olympics being closer to us than they are expected to be in our lifetimes; it was an easy choice as to where to go.

On the morning of Friday, July 16th, we all woke up and dutifully did our SSS, packed the car (Sil’s I believe), and, after dutifully watching The Gong Show, embarked on our journey.

Now, I emphasize the Triple S for a reason. Most of us perform that routine upon rising on a daily basis. Shit, Shave, Shower. The disposable component is shaving. I’m quite certain I did not shave often – if at all - during the trip. I know I certainly performed the other two on a daily basis. I’m reasonably sure Sil did also; as would every other normal human being. However …

Lenny Lane's Greatest Hits (Decca 2721-1978)

Hits & Bits

10. Piano Man … the Billy Joel ode to Lenny’s profession … very rare
#9. Sweet Georgia Brown … good opportunity to pound those pedals
#8. Danny Boy … the Irish stand, typical of the standard request
#7. As Time Goes By … Play it Again, Lenny
#6. I Left My Coat in Coatesville, Pennsylvania … a parody on I Left My Heart in San Francisco
#5. But Then Again Inspector … not a song but a bit, a monologue on whatever vibe Lenny was feeling delivered in character similar to Columbo
#4. Tea for Mr. Tee ... old standard with ad libbed lyrics
#3. Smoke Gets in Your Sunglasses … another parody, this one with cigarette held in corner of dark sunglasses
#2. Sweeper Man … another bit with Lenny rambling into an extension for a vacuum cleaner

And the number one most requested, best, Lenny Lane song or bit …
#1. Cab Driver … again, with Lenny’s own lyrics of unrequited love and cab rides up St. Joe Street

… all of the above combined to make him a perfectly qualified candidate to run for President of the United States which gave him another bit to incorporate into his routine. He was an entertainer, a hero, an icon and a friend. I went to Wildwood once to see him play and searched as far away as Coatesville going bar to bar looking for Lenny but would have been just as glad to find his coat. However, just as the gap between candidate Lane and Carter & Ford began to narrow … he spit on the Wheatland barmaid and was unceremoniously fired from his job. Stay tuned. Unfortunately, just as that happened the 340 gang (me, Phil, Sil) had to leave town on a well deserved vacation. There was nothing we could do for Lenny until we returned.

From the Poet Laureate

Lunassociation
written. 1969 by Black Fox

Way upon the Summer sky
Many stars appear to lie
Some at times fall and die
Downward to the earth below

Beneath the stars but not sun
Lies the deep and glorious moon
When full resembles the sun at noon
Effecting us in all we know

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Dancing Machine/The Unknown Comic



The Bird Takes A Pounding

Phil & I (together or separately depending to which one of us you talk to) attended the 47th MLB All-Star game hosted by the City of Brotherly Love on July 13, 1976. A total of 63,974 fans packed the Vet that night to see the Nationals pound the Americans by a score of 7-1. The NL jumped on rookie starter Mark Fydrich in the first inning and never looked back. George Foster (game MVP) and Cesar Cedeno each poked two run shots. A total of ten Hall of Famers got into the game: Brett, Carew, Fisk, Hunter, Yastrzemski, Seaver, Bench, Morgan, and Perez with Fingers & Gossage remaining in the AL bullpen. Sil may also have attended the game with us. Memories are fragile things (now they tell us).

Gene, Gene; The Dancing Machine

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was knocked from its perch as 340’s favorite TV show with the July 6, 1976 debut of The Gong Show, an early ancestor of American Idol except with better judges and lesser talent.

Monday, January 28, 2008

APBAcon76

This was the third and final of the great APBA conferences of the seventies. The first (1973) and third (1976) took place in Philadelphia and the middle one (1975) took place in NYC. Each was attended by an amazing 400 enthusiasts. I truly believe 400 would be an undercount in all three instances. The 1976 conference featured a display of National Pastime cards; the game which APBA “inventor” Dick Seitz played as a child with Sil’s dad (and Tom Doran’s pop) that provided a lot of concepts that later showed up in APBA. The National Pastime inventor – Clifford Van Beek – had actually attended the ’75 APBAcon and Mr. Seitz spent most of his time at that conference avoiding him. Seeing the National Pastime cards was a great eye opener; even discussing them prior to this was akin to blasphemy. Nowadays it is no longer a big issue as both Seitz and Van Beek (I would think) have gone to their rewards.

A personal highlight of the ’76 conference was my capturing the football championship or the World APBA Football Championship as I portray it. In truth, it was an ad hoc affair hastily put together at the conference. There were less than 16 entrants at the most. I believe I needed to win three (maybe four but I doubt it) games. I had to borrow a team in order to play. I also needed to find time to play in between sundry golden beverages. That proved to be the most difficult part of the tournament. I chose the 1967 version of the Green Bay Packers as my squad. Turned out, this was Lombardi’s final Packer championship team and they were showing extreme signs of age – Hornug & Taylor were gone and Bart Starr threw twice as many ints as TDs. The key to the team was the fortuitous appearance on the Packer bench of one Travis “The Road Runner” Williams whose season average of 5.4 yards per carry (albeit on only 35 carries) was decent enough but who also happened to have the greatest season of any kickoff returner other than Devon Hester in the history of the NFL. Further, this was back when the returns and rushes from scrimmage were contained in the same column of an APBA cards hence Williams already glossy average was embellished with a 22% TD possibility and a 41.1 yard per return average. In other words, he had a monster card.

Well, I won my preliminary games and found myself in the final against I believe the organizer of the tourney. Myself, Phil, Timmy Lutter and Skeet Carr (in my memory even Skeet might have been a little tipsy). If my recollection is correct we dined at a Steak & Brew Pub where ones salad, meat, potatoes and not insignificantly beer were all you can eat for $9.99. Needless to say we – particularly me, Phil and Tim – were all more prime(d) than our steaks by kickoff. When the game began I was too drunk to call a defense so I assigned that to Tim Lutter future coach of the Peoria Hornets of the LAFL (Skeet’s APBA football league). It wasn’t long before a couple of Travis Williams runs had put the Pack up when the opponent complained about playing two guys instead of one. A valid thought but such protest was greeted with increased drunkenness and mayhem from my sideline. Relieved of the headset and fueled by the still being devoured Knickerbockers Tim went from sideline to the grandstand to lead the bellicose, loud and raucous cheering with obnoxious “Beep Beeps” every time the Roadrunner touched the ball. On fourth downs the cheers became even louder since – no matter the distance to the 1st down marker I drunkenly refused to punt. By the time the game mercifully ended I was well in front and we were all in need of more beers; my opponent was in need of one too although he apparently did not realize it as he disappeared into the night and obscurity while we disappeared into a chorus of “Beep Beeps” and “Refuse to Punts!”

The Old Neighborhood

I ran through the old neighborhood on Saturday morning. The block looks pretty much the same as it did 25 years ago. Here's a cursory observation of our old houses:

328 - It has 2 mailboxes, so it may be 2 separate units now - hard to imagine since it had only one heat source in our day. Overall, the outside looks at least as good as it did under HTF*'s management. 

338 - Looks okay. It's apparently still a single unit.

340 - Looks quite nice, actually. The balcony in the back is now an enclosed living space and looks quite attractive. 

* I had a discussion with a friend who is a city housing inspector. He had some interesting HTF stories to tell. My favorite - The inspector walked into HTF's office. No one was there, but a big PILE of money was on the desk. The inspector walked to the back room and found HTF sleeping under newspapers, in the midst of huge piles of papers.  


Curator's Corner

Okay, here we go … I’ll name a piano style and you name a pianist. Ready?

Honky Tonk > Antoine “Fats” Domino, Bill Doggett
Blues > Memphis Slim, Dr. John, Ray Charles
Boogie Woogie > Jerry Lee Lewis or Jelly Roll Morton or Little Richard Penniman
Classical > perhaps Van Cluburn or Sergei Rachmaninoff or Eduardo DelGado
Rock > Keith Emerson, Ian Stewart or John Evan
Pop > maybe Liberace or John Tesh or Jon Schmidt.

HEAVYFOOT >>> There is only one, the immortal, the spectacular, the whit of the Wheatland, the gab from Groff’s, the only – LENNY LANE.

Lenny Lane was a piano man who I believe I first met at Fanny Lermer’s Bar on Cabbage Hill. Later he was a mainstay at Al Trimble’s Wheatland Inn before returning to the hill at Groff’s Café. Tonight’s artifact is a sign – autographed in 1979 by the immortal maestro himself – which Al gave me.



It was in the summer of 1976 when Lenny Lane launched his campaign to be President of the United States. We will have more on Lenny in a few posts.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Trivia 29-32

There will be some trivia questions posed at the reunion in June. To help you prep for such an event from time to time questions will be posed here in the Blog so you can revive some old memories and rev up your response time. To that end here are a few questions:

THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS:

29.)Who was our favorite waitress at the Village ?

30.) What did Sil put on the ledge of the transom to his bedroom to keep uninvited guests out during 340 parties ?

31.)What did Bonnie Parker usually announce during her final set when the band played at the Village ?

32.) Before locking your front door became mandatory in Lancaster, what two items were stolen most frequently from the W.King Street Clubs ?

LAST WEEK'S Q & A

25. Which 340 Club tenant had the shortest tenure? DEAN STAHERSKI ... not sure if he even spent a night but he was to be a tenant ... earlier Dick Lichty had honorary status

26. What two 340 Club members lived at all four (328, 340, 340 again and 338) addresses? TEE & SIL

27. What 328 Club member met his wife at a West King Street bash? SIL SIMPSON (and Barb Stank)

28. What future husband and wife couple cohabitated at the 340 Club prior to entering a life of wedded bliss? JOHN EMSWILER & SUE KRIMMELL EMSWILER

Because he killed his mother last night

“Do you have a student named Tommy Sarbanes?” Sil asked yelling over the transom above the bathroom door. I was in the shower and when I finally stopped serenading myself I answered in the affirmative. “Yes, I believe I have him in detention.” To which Sil deadpanned: “I don’t think he will be in class today.” Now Tommy, an 8th grader, was rather big for his age so I thought perhaps Sil saw him the previous night passing for 21 and drinking at some bar. I was shocked when Sil continued: “Because he killed his mom last night.”

It turned out Sil had just heard the breaking news bulletin on the radio about a Columbia school boy who had killed his mother the night before. Tommy’s father had died just a month prior and the authorities eventually deduced that Tommy had poisoned him prior to blowing his mom’s brains out at point blank range with a shotgun. Obviously, Tommy had a little more problems than my typical student but I did teach an alternative classroom and a couple of my other students didn’t make it to 25 and I had my distributor caps removed from my car when I was visiting one set of parents and one time had a parent teacher conference with a parent who brought a baseball bat to the meeting and we weren’t discussing the National Pastime. It was a rough bunch.

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