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Authored by Society president George Meiser IX |
| Posted 02-01-2006
THREE News-Bits of Reading-Berks historical interest.... =============== ============= =============== =============== ============= =============== 1- Society's BCTV program tonight has photos you've never seen! 2- FIRST THURSDAY tomorrow morning: Franklin's Rdg.-Berks connections 3- Bally Borough to replace WWII memorial. Interesting! ================= ============= ============= ================= ============= ============= ================= ============= ============= 1- Tonight's Society BCTV program (at 7 p.m.) features many Reading-Berks (restored) photos you've never seen---thanks to Society members---and avid picture collectors. Great views of Clingan (near Birdsboro, destroyed some months ago), Wyomissing a century ago, Gravity Railroad, Carsonia Park, etc., etc. These are photos being prepared for The Passing Scene--- Volume 14, due out THIS COMING November. Starting tomorrow, you can access this tv program, any place on earth and at any time, at.... ================ ============== ============= 2- Boots Fehr, a Society vice-president and active Berks County history researcher, will present tomorrow morning's FIRST THURSDAY program (Feb. 2nd) at 9 a.m. in the Connor Auditorium at the Society. The program is "Ben Franklin's Reading-Berks Connections." You WON'T want to miss THIS presentation, as it's a once-and- done offering. Mrs. Fehr has gathered (mostly by recent purchase) some incredible Ben Franklin items. One is an iron, circular, coin-like "medal" with Franklin's likeness on its face.... freshly repainted by a well-known Berks artist. The thing must weight 40 pounds! Wait till you see it. Franklin was no stranger to Reading-Berks. Some of his connections here will surprise you. You won't believe how many hotel, societies, streets, etc. were named in his honor... YOU ARE INVITED to this unique presentation, offered in commemoration of the great man's 300th birthday observation. Parking at the Society is easy on Thursday mornings. The auditorium is easily accessed by the special walkway right to the side door that leads directly to the auditorium. Also, you now have access to the parking lot on the former bank property right behind Society headquarters, site of our upcoming "new library" headquarters. Light, breakfast fare is offered at 8:30. The program itself begins at 9 a.m. Members: $1. Non-members: $2. The charge is made simply to help defray the cost of the "eats and drinks!" Come, and bring a friend or two =============== =============== ================= 3- Pottstown MERCURY newspaper---01/30/2006 "Group to replace lost war memorial" by Don Brensinger , dbrensinger@pottsmerc.com BALLY -- Community members are working to bring back a piece of Bally’s history that has been missing for the past 40 years. Constructed in 1943, the borough’s Roll of Honor was a wooden sign engraved with the names of residents who served in World War II and was displayed prominently in front of the original town hall building (now Bally Ribbon Mill) along Main Street, between Sixth and Seventh streets. During the borough hall’s relocation to its present site on Chestnut Street in the early 1960s, the Honor Roll disappeared and was never seen again. Determined to construct a public monument in Bally to recognize the sacrifices of local veterans, Pat (Stompf) Blackwell formed the War Memorial Committee late last summer to rally support. Along with fellow committee members Joseph Nichols, Carl Fronheiser, Donald Conrad, Bill Blackwell, Robin Melcher and Borough Manager Toni Hemerka, Blackwell is raising money for the new war memorial, which will be combined with the current Leonard Melcher Memorial, located in the park on Chestnut Street. "I have a great committee," Blackwell said. "Everyone is really committed and out there working on this." While the committee wants the new Roll of Honor to evoke the same respect and gratitude toward U.S. military that the old monument did, the committee wants this project to be broader in scope. "This isn’t necessarily just for those who served," said Nichols, a Korean War veteran. "It’s also for those who remained behind and who knew the soldiers. It’s for the veterans, but it’s being done by those who recognize them." The committee is SELLING BRICK on which contributors may have ANY name engraved before they are used for a new walkway in front of the memorial. "Anybody can buy a brick," said Conrad, a Vietnam War veteran. "It’s called the War Memorial, but it’s a memorial for EVERYBODY. Even those not native to Bally." "You can buy a brick for your favorite family pet if you want," Hemerka added. "It doesn’t have to have a veteran’s name on it." Intended to be completed in time for a special service on Memorial Day, the new war memorial will consist of three granite stones with the center one engraved with the names from the original Roll of Honor. The second stone will name all those who served in any war, and the third will bear the insignias of the different branches of service. The monuments will be engraved by Schell Memorials in East Greenville, and Fronheiser, a professional brick layer, will be responsible for the walkway. "We have to honor these guys," Nichols said, referring to older war veterans. "Bally just lost three (World War II) veterans (Kenneth Fronheiser, Paul Bauer and Leo Bauer) in the past month whose names were on the original monument. These guys are disappearing fast." In addition to the war memorial, Pat Blackwell is hoping to have a new book published in the near future. Her Arcadia- published book, "Along the Route 100 Corridor," was reprinted four times, and she hopes to garner even more readers with her new book about World War II veterans who lived in the Bally area. Blackwell said the inspiration for the new book came after she discovered "The Bally Home and Camp News," a wartime newsletter that the community members in Bally sent to their overseas soldiers. "The servicemen just went crazy over this. This was their link back home, so veterans started writing letters back," Blackwell said. "These letters are absolutely unbelievable. When I read my dad’s letters, I found out that this is a man I didn’t even know because many veterans didn’t talk about it." Blackwell hopes the new book will be on store shelves by Memorial Day. For more information on the Bally War Memorial, contact borough hall at 610-845-2351. Incidentally, if YOU want to purchase a brick.... a 4 by 8 brick is $40. 3 lines; 14 characters per line, including spaces an 8 by 8 brick is $120 5 lines; 14 characters per line, including spaces Checks---payable to Bally Borough---may be forwarded to Bally Borough BRICKS P. O. Box 217 Bally, PA 19503 ==================== ============= ============ ==================== gmmix ==== END ==========
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