1948 – 69 Years Ago

St. John’s High School offered girls the opportunity to play basketball again after a 15-year hiatus. The Dispatch recalled the years prior that the sport was popular with local girls and the Hughestown team stood out as the area’s best. Avoca’s high school team, coached by Ruth Little, practiced in Polonia Hall in Dupont and Mary Keely and Margaret Lavelle were star forwards. Other team members were Verna Widdall and Margaret Morton.

Frank Wilk, of Avoca, a driver for the Laurel Line Bus Company, on his normal Pittston to Dupont route entered onto Main Street in Dupont at the Tulsa Service Station. Seeing he was approaching a D&H train moving on the railroad crossing just ahead, Wilk applied the brakes, but they did not respond. He applied his brakes again, but nothing happened. Wilk jumped from the slow-moving bus and attempted to bodily stop the vehicle from rolling into the train, but to no avail. As the bus moved ever closer toward the train, passengers also started jumping from the bus, one passenger tossed a child into a snow bank and then followed. When Wilk saw the last passenger disembark the bus, he jumped out of the path of bus just before it struck the passing train. Everyone escaped injury.

1949 – 68 Years Ago

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Max Huber, manager of the Pittston Liquor Store, conceded in a letter to the editor of the Sunday Dispatch, there had been quite a few fires at his store in recent months and credited the Pittston Fire Department for saving the location from a devastating loss each time. But also in his letter, Huber mentioned “there is a tendency among many people to act as volunteer firemen whenever they find out that it (the fire) is at the liquor store. They are not concerned with helping the firemen as much as they are in helping themselves!” Huber also thanked Officers Mullen, Daley, Armitage and Finnan for “stopping the volunteers in their efforts to grab whatever they could get their hands on.”

Due to the fact the Dupont High School was destroyed by fire, sponsors of the movement for consolidation of small schools in the Pittston area advanced their efforts. With legislation already in the general assembly of Pennsylvania calling for the abandonment of schools with less than 180 pupils, the Yatesville and Laflin School Districts were already slated to consolidate and would have to send their students to yet another school district. The remaining districts, Avoca, Dupont, Hughestown, Pittston Township and Jenkins Township would form the basis of the proposed consolidation. Most affected felt that, along with consolidation would be the loss of civic pride, teacher dismissals and the loss of political prestige. Tenets of the plan included a combined area of seven districts in 35,576 square miles. The area would be known as the Northeastern Luzerne County Administrative Unit.

1950 – 67 Years Ago

The Grotte Society of Pittston requested the use of the Pittston High School auditorium for an event. The school board first approved, but then rescinded its approval when it found out the group would be showing an Italian movie. The content of the movie was not the issue, but the fact that the auditorium wasn’t equipped with an asbestos projection booth. Prior to 1950, nitrate used in the film material was highly flammable, and any venue showing films had to be equipped with a fire resistant projection booth. The society and school board came to an agreement to go ahead with the planned event, but the society was required to have a fireman present during the showing of the film. After 1950, nitrate was eventually replaced by cellulose triacetate in film production. Triacetate is less flammable, but deteriorates quicker than the nitrate based film.

Pittston City Council was fed up with people not paying for traffic violations. It was so bad then city mayor, John Allardyce, said traffic offenders would actually laugh when presented with a ticket by an officer. The result, the introduction of the “green ticket.” These were dispensed to offenders in the month of February, and were meant to be a sign that the “ticket fix” was no longer possible. In just a few short days, 158 people had paid a dollar fine for whatever infraction they were accused of. Phone calls and complaints poured into the city building, but the mayor and city council vowed to keep the “poison ticket” in effect until motorists learned they must obey traffic regulations. According to the US Inflation Calculator ,$1 in 1950 is equivalent to $9.96 today.

1961 – 56 Years Ago

The Dispatch was beginning its 15th year and editor, William Watson Sr., boasted 9,000 in circulation, stating, “It’s the largest of any previous Pittston publication.” His pledge to Greater Pittston was, “As long as there is a Sunday Dispatch, there will be a dependable, fighting newspaper serving and battling for all that is Pittston area’s birthright, and never bowing to the forces that desire to subjugate Pittston. There will be a newspaper that will not flinch in its battle for gains for the local region.”

1976 – 41 Years Ago

The Sunday Dispatch Inquiring Photographer asked Greater Pittston youngsters, “If you were named president for a day, what is the first thing you would do?” Joanie Baker answered, “I’d make sorrow and unhappiness un-Constitutional.” Karen Mikita added, ” I’d give everyone a million dollars and let them do whatever they want with it. Cathy Pace stated, ” I’d provide a home for all of the orphans of the world.” Margie Pace answered, “I’d throw a big party in honor of the girls basketball team at St. John’s.

This Date in History

1554 – Lady Jane Grey, the Queen of England for 13 days, is beheaded on Tower Hill. She was barely 17 years old.

1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is formed.

1924 – George Gershwin’s groundbreaking symphonic jazz composition Rhapsody in Blue premieres with Gershwin himself playing the piano with Paul Whiteman’s orchestra

1929 – Charles Lindbergh announces his engagement to Anne Morrow.

1999 – The U.S. Senate fails to pass two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. He had been accused of perjury and obstruction of justice by the House of Representatives.

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Peeking into the past

By Judy Minsavage

Reach Judy Minsavage on Twitter @JudithMinsavage