So what happened to the Snack Bar? In September 1963 Howard “Skippy” Klopp died, and presumably the Snack Bar went to his wife Hattie. His son Lynn continued to work there, but sometime in 1964 the family decided to sell. This was the same time that Sterling Drug was opening its Winthrop Laboratory factory in … Continue reading What Became of the Snack Bar?
Richland
Sorting Through the Rubble
This is a followup to Nessun Dorma and I suggest reading that first. When we lived on the hill on West Main Street in Richland, we were only a couple hundred yards or so from the railroad tracks, and let me tell you, those freight trains were LOUD, and seemingly endless, and if you … Continue reading Sorting Through the Rubble
Nessun Dorma
Residents of Richland didn’t get much sleep on the night of Wednesday April 13, 1960, and into the morning of the 14th. Marlin Stutzman was returning home from work at the Quaker Alloy Casting Co. in Myerstown, around 11:45 PM, “when I saw this big ball of fire going up in the air”. He first … Continue reading Nessun Dorma
Chuckwagon Steak
I probably patronized Skippy’s about as often as I did the Snack Bar. Skippy’s didn’t toast their burger buns and I didn’t like their fries as much (they made the thick fries with the curly cut rather than the thin straight cut fries), but otherwise their food was pretty much just as good. And they … Continue reading Chuckwagon Steak
Darryl Royer and the Upside Down Burger
There were two luncheonettes in Richland when I was growing up (three if you count Irvin Wolfskill’s Sugar Bowl but that was more of a soda fountain/news stand where we’d go on Sundays for sundaes). There was Skippy’s just next to the railroad tracks at the corner of Race and Main Streets, and there … Continue reading Darryl Royer and the Upside Down Burger
Johnson & Johnson
In seventh grade I was still going to school in Richland, as the consolidated Eastern Lebanon County (Elco) school was a year from being completed. My memory is a bit hazy, but I think I had a study period in Mr. Paine’s room once a week, and I usually sat next to a delightful girl … Continue reading Johnson & Johnson
The Blizzard of ’58
We moved to W. Main Street in Richland, about halfway up the hill, in November 1957. It was the first house that my parents bought, and we ended up staying there until 1964. Anyway, during the first winter that we were there, I remember a major blizzard such that the snow was piled up to … Continue reading The Blizzard of ’58
Thank You, Mr. Walborn!
I went to a relatively small high school in a predominantly rural section of Pennsylvania, so one might think that my teachers were not necessarily of the highest caliber. There were a few rotten apples to be sure, but there were also some terrific instructors that I recall fondly. In particular, we had at … Continue reading Thank You, Mr. Walborn!
Some Like the Witness For the Apartment
It was probably in the summer of 1957 that I saw The Spirit of St. Louis at Richland’s Neptune Theatre. View fullsize Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in costume for Some Like It Hot That was probably also the very first Billy Wilder film that I ever saw, although I did not think of it … Continue reading Some Like the Witness For the Apartment
The Other Farm
John Jacob Troutman (1895 - 1965) and his wife Edna M Moyer (1894 - 1966) actually owned two farms. Unlike Twin Meadows Farm, the second one didn’t have a name, or if it did, I never knew it. We always called it The Other Farm. View fullsize Satellite image of The Other Farm as it … Continue reading The Other Farm