My mom was always amazed at how a bunch of adolescent friends, now in their early 70s, could still be hanging out as she would say, \u201cafter all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growing up during World War II, she was one of nine children, seven of them brothers. Her parents, immigrants from Austria, structured a life for their kids that made sure they were fed and clothed well, while expecting them to pitch in when they were old enough. In between victory gardens, scrap drives and conserving everything from bacon grease to bicycles, they were still able to be kids and enjoy Dorney Park, and dance at Castle Gardens. Such was teenage life in Allentown amid a war-torn world, well before suburban sprawl took flight.<\/p>\n
She graduated from William Allen High School in June of 1944, around the time of D-Day \u2014 when Allied forces amassed the greatest armada in modern history to invade what the German\u2019s were calling Fortress Europe, by landing troops along the coastline of Normandy France.<\/p>\n
Decades later, she would engage her grandchildren and great grandchildren with tales of how being a teenager in the 1940s was about sacrifice and resilience, adaptability and faith. Her generation was taught almost by default; to keep their heads down, do their part and don\u2019t ask too many questions.<\/p>\n
To her young audience, she delighted in telling how they would walk to school \u2014 \u201cup Union Street, left onto St. Cloud and five blocks north on 17th\u201d \u2014 all uphill she\u2019d remind. But, it was the return trip back from school that became a ride made for smiles when she and friends put on skates and rolled themselves all the way home. And as she spoke, you could tell, this was the best part of her day.<\/p>\n
As juniors in high school, my friends and I got our driver\u2019s licenses in 1972. If you didn\u2019t pass the test, there was a fierce but friendly mocking, because now you had to travel back to the State Police barracks off Airport Road, retake the test and hopefully not have the same trooper that failed you the first time. Unlike my mom coming of age, freedom for us came from behind the wheel of an automobile, cruising in and out of Allentown, and becoming increasingly familiar with many of its legendary establishments.<\/p>\n
There was Yocco\u2019s across from Lake Muhlenberg on Hamilton Street and their famous hotdogs. The Brass Rail (12th and Hamilton) for iconic cheesesteaks with the secret sauce. But, it was Salvatore\u2019s Pizza on 19th and Allen Streets when teenage shenanigans cost one of our friends his slice of pizza, and a quick boot out the door. The owner grabbed him with real intent, yelled something in Italian, and out he went. After city excitement, we\u2019d venture to the country backroads \u2014 where sharp curves brought close calls and silent rides home \u2014 just in time before the Cinderella Law kicked in at 11 p.m.<\/p>\n
Sometimes we would cross over the river into New Jersey (legal age 18). But, it was local entertainment venues that took us everywhere throughout the Lehigh Valley. For live music, there was Bill Daniel\u2019s Rock Palace on Hamilton Street, the Queen Victoria in Orefield, and with enough gas money we\u2019d \u201chead out on the highway\u201d (Route 22) to Godfrey Daniel\u2019s in Bethlehem. But, my sentimental favorite was the Ale House, again on Hamilton, where I bartended in the summer of 1976 and eventually met my future wife there.<\/p>\n
America in the 1970s, was in the midst of a cultural and social revolution; women\u2019s rights, racial equality, the environment and stop the war movements. Vietnam was winding down, the last draft call was on Dec. 7, 1972, and thankfully for my friends and I, we graduated high school in June 1973. Like my mom in her era, we survived and made it safely into the twenty-first-century.<\/p>\n
Teenagers navigating toward adulthood and cruising country backroads today, might find \u201cfreedom\u201d steering them straight into a network of congestion, traffic lights and warehouses. Many iconic establishment\u2019s up and down Hamilton Street are long gone \u2014 progress inevitable, landmarks lost \u2014 but hopefully, following generations have friendships that survive like ours \u2026 \u201cafter all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a contributed opinion column. John Schmoyer is a retired U.S. history\/American government teacher and department chair at Northwestern Lehigh School District. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com\/opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My mom was always amazed at how a bunch of adolescent friends, now in their early 70s, could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,1559],"class_list":["post-176551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}