From the Poet Laureate

A Written Wish by Chris Joyce, 340 Club, Jan-Jun 1977

Free interaction without discord.
Silence.
Followed by a new math of base 9.
Ommitting the 6's - Visions.
Before the silence, Helter Skelter?
... No, Charlie stole the handle.
The train will continue unimpeded into the silence of the storm.
Many will remain behind.
With a chance to get aboard the next train?
Who knows,
who is to determine other than the passengers and the conductor who collects the ticket.
---- Casey Jones had better watch that speed.

"Since the United States Government declares this man to be Santa Claus, this court will not dispute it. Case dismissed."

In the 1947 holiday classic, Miracle on 34^th Street, the defense attorney endeavors to prove that his client – a nice old man with whiskers, Kris Kringle – is the one AND only Santa Claus. He receives fortuitous help in that regard when the post office – the United States Post Office, a branch of the Federal Government - delivers oodles of mail to the courthouse where Kringle is on trial. After a few legal motions, Judge Henry X. Harper delivers the title line to this post.

In 1981-82, in a lesser but just as significant manner the Intelligencer Journal (to be discussed in greater detail in a future post) granted quite the imprimatur on the 340 Club when, based on the composite votes of the general public over a two year period, they declared the 340 Club to be the 3^rd most popular night club in Lancaster County behind only The Village and The Old Colony.

Now, in 2007, after over two decades of darkness as the 340 Club emerges for what will be the Third Coming in whatever final form it takes, the world’s largest search engine (that bears repeating – the World’s Largest and Most Popular Search Engine) – Google – recognizes the 340 Club as the one and only and most significant of any organization, group or collection of misfits in the world by that name. Try it yourself, simply go to Google and do a search on “340 Club”. No need to say 340 Club Lancaster PA or provide any additional detail. Simply type in the numbers and letters: 3 4 0 C L U B … and voila, at the top of the hit list, comes 340 Club. [NOTE: to be honest, the 340 Club is coming up 6^th on the generic Google but #1 if you use Google Blogs thereby limiting your search to Blogs only]

We’re baaaaaaack.

A Stranger In The Living Room

It was a summer Saturday, nearly noon. In the aftermath of a frenzied Friday night, a curious sight remained in our living room. A young male was asleep in a chair. No one had any idea of who he was, so I figured that it was time to get rid of him. With help (I believe from Mr. Getzloff) we picked up the chair and carried it out to King Street. When the traffic light gave us a brief opening, we placed the chair in the lane of traffic closer to the club, with the sleeping stranger still in it. 

Unfortunately, just as we placed the chair on the ground, he awakened, thereby ruining a potentially great photo op for the Sunday News. And he actually had the audacity to curse at us. 

To the best of my knowledge, the sleeping stranger never returned to the 340, but the memories of a great story that almost was will live forever.

Sil 

Jam Session at the 340

The planning of this gala event has brought back floods of memories. One of my favorites occured on one Saturday afternoon. There was a party at the 340 Club, no particular reason that I can recall,as if we ever needed one.
340 resident Randy Brown,local musical legend,had stored amplifyers,guitars,drums and assorted other equipment for his band, "The Thunderin Herd" in the basement of the Club.
For some reason four of us,Randy,Kenny Giltner,Tex Peffer and myself found our way down there at the same time..Tex started playing the drums,Randy picked up a bass ,I started hitting a few chords on an electric guitar and Kenny grabbed a microphone.
Soon we all got into rhythm and Kenny started ad libbing song lyrics. We played for what seemed like hours,oblivious to any of the upstairs party people who ventured down for the jam,although I vaguely remember seeing Club member Tim "Fus"Stoltzfus enjoying the music.
When we finally stopped and went upstairs to re-new our partying, Fus came over to me and said,"You guys really sounded good", a compliment to me for sure as the only guitar playing I did was alone in the comfort of my own bedroom. Fus then said,"Look at your fingers",I glanced down and saw all of the digits on my right hand were bleeding. Apparently I had broken my guitar pick or dropped it but didn't want to break up the tempo we had going so I continued playing..Sadly we will not be able to "Put the band back together" as both Tex and Kenny have gone on to the Big Club (RIP)

Ed Cameron, 340 Club Card #103-81

There many stories of the 340; so many in fact that neither Phil nor I know them all. Here is one that just turned up and it is a doozy:

In working on The True Story of the 340 Club I was reviewing the names of cardholders from 1981 with Phil when we came across one Ed Cameron. It turned out that neither one of us had ever heard of him. After some sleuthing Phil came up with this gem.

It turned out that an Ed Cameron was a member of the 7th Ward Republican Club where Phil works. Further, Mike Kendig, the Pabst salesman, and a friend of Cameron’s said that back in the early eighties Ed lived at 602 West King Street above the Lauzus Hotel. He also said Ed did not have a license so he often walked down West King to the Legion, the Forester’s, and Johnny’s Tavern. So, it would be logical that this Ed Cameron was the Ed Cameron who had Card #103-81.

Phil: “I assumed he must have walked by and saw a party at the 340 and came in. Well, one day Ed comes into the Club and I asked him about the 340 Club. He claimed to have never heard of it. I explained his name on the roster as cardholder #103-81. He asked again where it was at and after I told him he said:”You mean where Randy Brown lived”. Bingo! It turns out he went to school with Randy and one day saw him on the front steps. He said he stopped several times but mostly in the day. He doesn’t remember attending any parties. However, he did say that the 340 Club was partly to blame for him going to jail. He was working his way home when after a few too many he ran into Randy on the 340 stoop. Randy convinced him to have ‘one more’. So they went back down to Johnny's Tavern. The next thing Ed remembers is he is being awoken by a uniformed fireman. Still inebriated he is horrified at being rescued in the burning Lauzus. However he realizes the fireman is screaming at him not saving him. ‘What are you doing here?’ screamed the fireman. Ed asked where he was. ‘Your in the firehouse you idiot’. He was in the fire station up King Street (between 340 and 602), sleeping in one of the bunk beds. Apparently, after leaving Randy back at the 340 stoop, he stumbled in to the station unnoticed and crawled in an awaiting, warm, comfortable cot. They took him to jail for a few hours.”

Ed is looking forward to the reunion on June 7th and I look forward to meeting him! :)

From the Poet Laureate

The Temple of 340 by Chris Joyce, 340 Club, January-June 1977

Words are spinning in and out,
Constructing unpatterned dreams,
Dissolution, unremembered reasonings,
Foots the basis for future schemes.

Thoughts unguarded in conversation,
Provide in retrospect,
A self servfing glimpse of hysteria
And a loss or gain of respect.

The accumulation of unfounded mania,
Rebounding from the Egg Man and Mr. City,
Provide extensions unimagined
By those of whom need pity.

Looking out for all who glitter,
And converting all the fools,
It is not a matter of decision,
We are all only Allah's tools.

The county judge,
Held a grudge,
Such forever more
For The Temple of 340.

Official 1983-1984 Membership Card

Chris "Clactu" Joyce's Membership Card

Roll Call (continued)

When responding to the roll call - thanks Mike!!! Please leave your contact info -address (optional), phone (optional), fax (optional), cell phone (optional), e-mail (MANDATORY) .. what is your e-mail address Mr. Hauck?

Others please respond to the roll call by leaving a comment with your name and e-mail address.

Thank uuu!

Lauzus Hotel, Wilhelm Lauzus, Proprietor

Lew Bryson attended Franklin & Marshall graduating circa 1983. He is a beer connoisseur (not to be mistaken with most of us although I don't mean to be all inclusive here - I, for one, am no connoisseur) and maintains an excellent blog on the subject. Here are two links to his Blog and an additional article. All three reference the great tavern man - Wilhelm Lauzus. Lew's descriptions of not only Mr. Lauzus but the beer choices and behind the bar classics (remember the Blind Robins?) will provide a cheer to your heart. Happy reading.

Two blog articles on Wilhelm:

http://lewbryson.blogspot.com/2007/11/session-music-and-memory.html

http://www.beveragebusiness.com/bbcontent/art98/bryson0507.html

and one more without link

by Lew Bryson

I've run into a lot of 20-somethings recently who are telling me all about
the great beers they've found. "We had a keg party, man, 12 halves of Sam
Adams and 6 cases of Sheaf Stout, it ruled!" or "This place had fifty taps,
and they were great, no crap on tap." They tell me about the trips they've
made to Europe, New England, Colorado, California, and the great mecca, the
Pacific Northwest.

No offense, but what do these youngsters know about beer? They've never
known anything but shelves full of the best of European beers, American
craftbrews, some exotic Asians. It's so easy, you can pick up a six-pack
anywhere, you can read about great beers in the local paper. It wasn't
always that way.

I started drinking good beer back in 1981. I was 22, a senior at Franklin &
Marshall College, and I really did know everything. My medieval history
professor decided to straighten me out. Doc Thibault took me to the Lauzus
Hotel, a classic beer palace. This elegantly down-at-heels relic of a bar
was built inside the former Rieker Star brewery in Lancaster, PA, a town
once known as America's 'Munich on the Conestoga.' H.L. Mencken spoke well
of Lancaster's beers, which made me proud to be a local boy.

I arrived ahead of the good professor and checked the place out. I was a bar
novice, and didn't even realize it. I drank Rolling Rock and Stroh's in
places with lots of lights and neons, bars with carpet on the floor. This
place had a pressed-tin ceiling, a mosaic floor, and a huge backbar,
cluttered with memorabilia, beer signs, liquors I didn't recognize, and
about a dozen salecards hanging from the backbar offering everything from
Alka-Seltzer to packs of salted herring (which were called, for reasons
unknown to me still, Blind Robins). I was taken aback, but as I looked
around I felt more relaxed.

Opposite the bar itself was a long bank of glass-fronted coolers,
fluorescent lights and all, and they were full of more kinds of beer than I
had ever seen, more beers than I thought could exist, scads of beer, swamps
of beer. . . There were about 125 beers in those coolers, and in 1981, it
seemed like a vast unexplored continent. And what did I do, Columbus in the
Caribbean, ready to discover new lands and peoples? Why, I grabbed a bottle
of Stroh's and beat a retreat to the bar.

A huge, bald, gentle-faced man took the Stroh's pounder in his hand, opened
it for me, and took my money. This was Wilhelm Lauzus, a man I would grow to
respect and adore, a man who I genuinely mourned at his funeral some 7 years
later. Wilhelm had come to Lancaster from West Germany in 1964, a World War
II naval veteran, an antiaircraft gunner on the Prinz Eugen, the heavy
cruiser which broke out into the Atlantic with the Bismarck. Wilhelm was to
be my first guide to the world of beer.

But it was my professor who started me down the path. He finally showed up,
laughing at my discomfiture, and immediately displayed shock at my choice of
beer. Then he did the simple thing that would change my life like nothing
else ever has. He grabbed a bottle of Altenmünster from the cooler, slapped
the Stroh's out of my hand and stuck the big fat German swingtop bottle in
it.

"There.You're at Lauzus, you have to drink something good," he said.

I popped the swingtop, and took a hearty swig. Damn! This was totally
different from anything I had ever had to drink. There was a depth of flavor
that was immediately obvious to even my inexperienced tongue, a full body
and a sharp sting that I would someday learn to classify as hop bitterness.

And there is all the difference between my malty epiphany and those of today's whippersnappers. In 1981 there was nothing to tell me what I was tasting. There were no books by Michael Jackson. There were no Charlie Papazian homebrewing books. There were no beer geeks to show me the way. There was no Celebrator, no Ale Street News, no Malt Advocate, no Internet newsgroups, no local homebrew shop. The only source of information was brewery tours at places like Anheuser-Busch or maybe one of the regional brewers. Sierra Nevada had only been open three months, Anchor only doing serious ground-breaking stuff for eight years, and neither was anywhere near the East Coast yet.

I was drinking good beer in a vacuum. It would remain so for years. I
remember the joy I felt when I discovered the Brickskellar quite by
accident. I was visiting my old college roommate and happened to mention
that I had begun drinking unusual beers. "Oh, you'll have to go this place
around the corner," he said. "It's got a lot of beer." So after dinner we
walked down to the Brick, and I had my first Anchor Steam. I believe even in
those days the Brick had over 400 beers, but there was still no easy source
of reference on what was good, or even what the different kinds of beer
were. I knew four: stout, pale ale, pilsner, and everything else. With that
tiny scrap of knowledge I was already ahead of 99% of the American
population.

Things changed, of course. By 1987 I had moved to California and found
brewpubs. I started writing a beer journal one night in the Front Street
Pub, in Santa Cruz. I got Jackson's books, I got Papazian's book, I started
homebrewing. I was finding a whole new set of friends, other people who
understood about malt and hops and the strange discovery that Budweiser
tasted like slightly buttery dishwater. That shook me. Realizing that I did
not care to drink beers like Bud ever again required some deep shifts in my
thought patterns.

I look back on those days and shudder. But I miss the thrill of discovery,
the joy of finding a new oasis. I can't remember the last time I was excited
by the discovery of a beer bar or brewpub. Perhaps it was two years ago, the
Country Inn, Krumsville, NY, back in the Catskills and miles from anywhere,
but pouring Paulaner Hefe on tap and 400+ bottles.

Am I bored? NO! Jaded? NEVER! Because the life of beer has entered a whole
new stage in the U.S. The revolution has become established, and like the
progression of wine culture in this country, we can never go back to the way
it was. There are closings in the future as the industry tightens its belt
and begins to compete more fiercely, but we have reached a new standard. It
is now time to solidify our position, and to begin to enjoy the fruits of
our labor. There are cities and towns in America where you can walk from
brewpub to beer bar to restaurant and have ten great beers, none of them the
same. Let's go get some.

Roll Call

Please leave a comment and ID your self. I'm trying to get a feel for who might attend this reunion. Simply click on the line under the post that tells how many comments there are. Just leave a comment, leave name and whether or not you think you can attend on June 7th. Thanks,

Archaeological Find

I had started the process of reducing 420 45s down to 80. It was easy - although some great songs were left behind - to pare down to 280 and, not too difficult, although still greater music was left behind, to reduce the list of records to 187. It was at that level that I consulted with Phil from the perspective of which groups should make the final 80 songs. In doing that exercise I noticed that few Beatles and no Rolling Stones records were in the pile of 420. I realized that I had stored many records somewhere else.

Well, after sifting through much stuff today I found the Rolling Stones records. Turned out there were 24 singles dating back to Time is On My Side and including most of their big hits of the sixties. Given there simply is no room in an 80 record set for more than three Stones slots filling those three will be difficult. 187 + 24 = 211. If that was the end of the problem it would not be so remarkable; however, in addition the Stones records, ten more Beatle records were located, and 50 more various singles from The Sharks, The Blame, The Shaynes and Cream, The Surfaris, Wayne Fontana, Janis Joplin, the immortal ! (Question Mark) & the Mysterians and others were found. So, the total catalogue is now approximately 500 and the yet eliminated pile is back to 270. I intend on presenting a representative 80 at the June 7th affair.

In its 18 month or so period of viability the 340 Juke Box was a representative icon of the West King Street lifestyle. difficult as it is; that lifestyle will be represented and on display on June 7th.

IMPORTANT! – Date Changed

The 340 Club Reunion has been moved and pretty much firmed up. It will now be Saturday, June 7th, at the Knights of Columbus from 7 to 11 p.m. The $20 ticket will include a cold buffet, free beer, a cash bar, DJ spinning the familiar sounds of the 340 juke box, souvenir program, 340 club cards, and buttons. Tee Shirts and additional button styles will also be available for sale. There likely will be raffles, trivia contest, a couple of guest speakers, and maybe CDs with Juke Box music for sale. It is certain to be the social event of the year … no, the millennium to date. Although if successful it should be an annual event on the Lancaster social scene. #$)!

Also, and this is a low key pitch here but … there are three ways you can help make sure this affair is a success and a low stress event for me & Phil. They are as follows:

1) purchase your ticket early.
2) Be a patron and contribute $10 … just $10 to the cause. You will be honored at the event and commemorated in perpetuity in the souvenir program
3) Have your company or employer take out an ad in the souvenir program for $25

In any of the above cases the appropriate payment can be made to Phil Zangari (48 Seymour Street, Lancaster, PA 17603) or Tee Knorr (309 Fox Ridge Court, Harrisburg, PA 17102)

Trivia Questions 1-5

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:

1. What was the name of the dog that lived at the 328 Club?
2. Who was the only 340 visitor to ever get a dart embedded in his head?
3. What was the final monthly rent level at the 338 when the second coming came to an end?
4. What was the name of the church that allowed 340 residents to use their parking lot (except Sundays of course)?
5. Which 340 Club member was known to run in 100 mile races?