Nanticoke Trojans 2008 Football Schedule

I'm a little - well, a lot - late with this. Only four games left on the Nanticoke Trojans' 2008 football schedule as I write this. But I'm listing the entire schedule in case someone is curious about past match-ups.

This is taken from the Greater Nanticoke Area School District website.

Fri. 8/29 Away Wyoming Area 7:00 pm
Sat. 9/6 Away Columbia Montour Vo-Tech 1:00 pm
Fri. 9/12 Home Meyers 7:00 pm
Fri. 9/19 Home Mid Valley 7:00 pm
Fri. 9/26 Away Old Forge 7:00 pm
Fri. 10/3 Home Northwest 7:00 pm
Fri. 10/10 Home Lake Lehman 7:00 pm
Sat. 10/18 Away GAR 1:00 pm
Fri. 10/24 Home Holy Redeemer 7:00 pm
Fri. 10/31 Away Hanover 7:00 pm

St. Mary's Parish Festival this weekend, August 1 & 2

The Parish Festival for Our Lady of Czestochowa, Nanticoke, a.k.a. Saint Mary's, will be held this Friday and Saturday, August 1 and 2, 2008, at the Holy Child Grove in Sheatown (directions, sort of; these are to Guardian Elder Care, a nursing home located in front of the grove.)

Saint Mary's Parish Festival, or Church Bazaar, or "Picnic" (to use the more genteel term) used to be a thing of legend. For years these were held in the parking lot behind the church and school and were three-day events, starting Friday night and wrapping up Sunday night. Sounds of polkas could be heard for blocks around, and the smell of frying food permeated the area for days. Beer flowed like water, parked cars clogged the streets in the neighborhood, and young punks rubbed elbows with the elderly. Yet somehow, I never remember any fights or other disturbances.

2005 is the last year St, Mary's had a traditional Church Bazaar. November 2005 was the first time we had a Fall Festival, an indoor mini-festival. We didn't have a Church Bazaar or Fall Festival in 2006, but we did have a "Spring Fling" in 2007. There was no Church Bazaar in 2007. I don't recall if we had a Fall Festival in 2007, and there was no Spring Fling this year. But this year we are having a Parish Festival. It may be our last.

Parish consolidation continues throughout the Scranton Diocese, and St. Mary's is one of the parishes shortlisted for closure. It's not set in stone yet, though. But in any case, please come to the St. Mary's Parish Festival this weekend. It may be the last one, ever.

The Cemeteries of Nanticoke

Originally published on Another Monkey on June 20, 2008




In a lot of ways, the cemeteries of Nanticoke form the heart of the city.

Actually, they form what used to be the Southern border of the city, before a bunch of culm banks were cleared out to make way for Luzerne County Community College some thirty-five or so years ago. But LCCC is separated from the rest of the city by a ravine. The complex of cemeteries belonging to several different parishes and the city itself present about half a mile of frontage along Washington Street alone. They contain the remains of ancestors and relatives of many of the people who live in Nanticoke, and of many more who are forgotten and nameless save for the engravings on their stones.

These cemeteries have modeled for me many times, and have provided scenic backdrops for many photos and even subjects for two of my paintings.
This week the cemeteries have come under attack. Vandals smashed flowerpots and vigil lights and toppled headstones. Estimates put the damage in the thousands of dollars.

Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice: Nanticoke cemeteries vandalized

Nanticoke police are investigating vandalism to St. Mary, St. Francis, St. Joseph’s and City cemeteries.

Someone toppled gravestones and statues, broke candle holders, ruined and stole flowers, and otherwise did a variety of damage in the cemeteries.

“This is the first time we had anything like that in a long time,” Mayor John Bushko said.

The vandalism most likely happened Sunday into Monday, probably by more than one individual, Nanticoke Detective William Shultz said. Police have not been able to determine if anything of value was missing. They are waiting for lists of damages from the churches, Shultz said.

Shultz called it the worst he’d seen, perpetrated by “some type of sick individuals.”

“I wouldn’t even think of doing something like that for fear that I would go to hell when I die,” he said.

Anyone with information should call Nanticoke police at 735-2200.

Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader: Vandals hit 5 Nanticoke cemeteries

Headstones toppled, American flag sticks broken and other damage
reported at sites.

EDWARD LEWIS elewis@timesleader.com

NANTICOKE – Paul Kankiewicz and his friend Dan Kotsko noticed broken wooden American-flag sticks at St. Francis Cemetery earlier this week.

Thinking the damage was caused by recent thunderstorms and high winds, they continued with their summer job of updating cemetery burial records.

But, when they arrived at the cemetery Wednesday morning, they noticed 16 headstones had been toppled.

Police said the damage is widespread and involved four other city cemeteries -- Nanticoke City, St. Stanislaus, St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s -- that are adjacent to each other in the area of Washington and Prospect streets.

Capt. Detective William Shultz said more than 100 tombstones were knocked over at the five locations. Most of the damage was found in Nanticoke City Cemetery on top of the hill.

A few reports of toppled headstones were reported to police earlier in the week, he said, noting the vandalism became more widespread. Flower pots, religious statues and solar lights were also vandalized, Shultz said.

A toppled headstone was reported on Monday by people who left the cemetery to buy topsoil, only to return to find additional vandalism at the site, Shultz said.

“Based on that report, we can’t say for sure all this vandalism took place at night,” Shultz said.

Shultz believes more than one person is responsible.

Tom Roman, who was cleaning his parents’ burial site in the Nanticoke City Cemetery, said he didn’t notice any veterans’ grave markers missing from other plots.

Contact police
Anyone with information about the vandalism is asked to contact Nanticoke police at 735-2200.

Edward Lewis, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7196.

I don't believe in ghosts. I don't believe in revenants - spirits in corporeal form who are set out to avenge a specific wrong. (Think of James O'Barr's The Crow, later made into a movie that proved fatal for Brandon Lee.)

I don't believe in curses, or hallowed ground, or magic inherent in cemetery soil. I don't believe any supernatural force will marshal itself to see to it that the people who committed this crime against the dead, and against those who loved them and honored their memories, have a fitting punishment bestowed upon them in this life and the next.

I believe in what I call the Cosmic All. Essentially, it's the universe put under an integral sign, with limits at plus and minus infinity. Our task in life is to contribute to this in a positive way. If we do harm to people, to the universe in general, we're contributing in a negative way - and that's fundamentally wrong.

The national economy is in terrible shape. Nanticoke's is even worse. Nobody - no individual, no church, not even the city itself - has a few thousand dollars just siting around waiting to be spent to repair the damage done by a few individuals on a vandalism spree.

But the damage will be repaired. The money will be spent. And if nobody can afford it right now, someone will go deeper into debt. The damage will be compounded.
No, I don't believe that some curse will fall upon the heads of the people who did this. I don't believe that some rotting, stinking, blackened corpse will rise from its grave and dog their steps until the day they die, always just behind them, just out of sight, to be glimpsed briefly in the edges of their vision and in reflections in mirrors in darkened rooms. I don't believe in any of these things.
But I hope somewhere, on some level, they do.

And I hope in time they know fear, and maybe guilt, and perhaps even remorse.

And if I should ever catch them in the act, they will wish that curses and avenging spirits were the worst things they ever had to fear.

Nanticoke Musicfest 2008, June 6, 7, and 8

From the official website:

Party In The Park

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

June 6th, 7th, and 8th, 2008

Party hours and information:

Friday - June 6th

From Harrisburg, Pa.- Brad Crum as "Elvis"

5pm to 8pm

Meets

From Philadelphia, Pa. -"Shattered" a "Rolling Stones" tribute band

8pm to 10pm

Saturday - June 7th

From Pittsburgh, Pa. - Lee Alverson's tribute to "Elton John/Billy Joel"

5pm to 7pm

and dance to

"The Original Starfires with Eddie Day"

7pm to 11pm

Sunday - June 8th

Dance to the oldies with "The Cadillacs"

3pm to 6pm

Get ready to PARTY with "M-80"

6pm to 9pm

Come party in the park with us and win prizes at our hula hoop and jitterbug contest, and bring your appetite for our pierogie eating contest!

Featuring: Rides, games, Pat Ward (Magician extrodinaire and all around balloon guy), refreshments and fun for the whole family.

Sponsored by The City of Nanticoke.

Where: Patriot Park - Broad and Market Sts., Nanticoke, Pa.

~ Free admission ~

Nanticoke on YouTube

Videos from around Nanticoke are appearing on YouTube! As of this writing nanticokeweb has posted 25 of them. So far they're all from either Musicfest 2007 or Christmas 2007. Here's hoping that more are on the way!

Here's a sample - the Christmas in the Park parade:



Also, check out the Pierogi Eating Contest from Musicfest 2007:



Go here for all of nanticokeweb's YouTube videos!

WNAK

When I was growing up we always had Nanticoke's own easy listening station, WNAK, playing in the house. My parents were children of the 1930's, and came from somewhere in-between "The Greatest Generation" that fought World War II and the "Happy Days" generation of sock hops and submarine races. Technically, I believe they fell into what was called the "Silent Generation" - overshadowed by those who came before them, eclipsed by the Baby Boomers who came after them, conformist, moderately conservative, moderately progressive. Their music was not the rock'n'roll of Elvis and Chuck Berry, but was something smoother, mellower, gentler.

WNAK catered to their tastes, playing a mix of songs from their childhood by performers like The Andrews Sisters, The Mills Brothers, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra, songs by their contemporaries such as Jim Reeves, Englebert Humperdinck, and Robert Goulet, Polkas (always popular in this Polish-dominated area), and hymns (also popular in a primarily Roman Catholic area), along with softer stuff by more modern artists like Elvis, Ray Charles, Jim Croce, Anne Murray, The Carpenters, and The Captain & Tennille. Each day would be punctuated by the ultra-conservative editorials of station owner Bob Nielson and pieces by Paul Harvey and "This Is Pennsylvania" by Peter C. Wambach (featuring the line "It's a beautiful day in Pennsylvania,"), even "Old-time radio dramas" - actually funny little 30-second melodramatic commercials for C.W. Schultz and Sons Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning. Each broadcasting day would end with Jim Reeves' version of "Night Watch":

Bright stars are watching the world as it sleeps
Shepherds watch over the little white sheep
The lighthouse is shining for ships far at sea
As God keeps the night watch for you and for me.

So sleep, sleep in peace and rest
Don't be afraid of the darkness
All's well for over the land and the sea
God's keeping the night watch for you and for me.*

I learned a lot of older songs back then, while other kids my age were growing up listening to The Who and The Doors, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. I would learn those songs, too, but later, as my older sister entered her teen years and blasted them from her stereo. (Later, during her college years, she would work as a DJ at WNAK for a while.) I think my childhood is richer for this layer of musical experience that many of my contemporaries, whose parents were sometimes ten to fifteen years younger than my own, never got to have.

Over time the artists I heard on WNAK have died off. Some, like Jim Reeves, died before I was born; others died when I was young. A few, like Englebert Humperdinck, are still alive and well, touring and performing.

WNAK itself has died, in a sense. Years ago Bob Nielson sold it to a corporation, which gradually morphed the station into a soft rock/easy listening format intended to appeal to the under-70 crowd. A while back Bob Nielsen died. A few weeks ago WNAK changed formats again, now into a Spanish easy listening station. It calls its format "Caliente", but the times I have listened to it - well, without the lyrics, you wouldn't know the music was any different; even polka and mariachi songs are fairly interchangeable.

Now another artist I learned to love from WNAK has passed away. Two days ago I learned that Robert Goulet was gravely ill and in need of a lung transplant. Yesterday he died. Tragically, the world has lost one of its great voices - and a pretty fair actor, too. He will be missed.

*Hearing this song on a Sunday evening was always one of the saddest experiences of my childhood, because it meant that the weekend was ending, and it was time to start thinking about whatever homework I might have been assigned on Friday.

Nanticoke City-Wide Yard Sale Part 2, Saturday October 6

Nanticoke will be having another citywide Yard Sale this Saturday, October 6 from 9 AM to 3 PM. Check out the (very spiffy) Citywide Yard Sale webpage on the official City of Nanticoke website. Here is the text of that page:

The Civic Pride Committee is planning another citywide yard sale for fall, but this one has a twist — it’s also a treasure hunt.

Sharpen that brain of yours and you might be $25 richer during the yard sale, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 6.

Also, the Salvation Army will have a truck by the old Nanticoke/West Nanticoke bridge where the Street Department used to be to take your useable or recyclable items from 3pm to 5pm that day.

Committee member J.D. Verazin, who brainstormed the idea, said that it will feature clues to street names in the town. For example: Where do people wear 10-gallon hats and pointy boots? Where do baseball players play?

If you figured “west” and “green,” then you’d be one step closer. Now you just have to visit a yard sale on West Green Street, and if you purchase an item that’s marked, you win one of six $25 prizes.

“Every year we’ll be coming up with something new like this treasure hunt to keep it exciting,” Verazin said. “The event keeps growing from last year.”

The first citywide yard sale was held during one weekend last summer, and the second was held in the beginning of this summer. Verazin said the committee decided to split the single event into one summer and one fall event. For this year’s summer event, Verazin said, about 280 residents signed up.

“It was great for Nanticoke,” he said. “We had people walking around 2 hours before the yard sale was scheduled to begin.”

This year Verazin is expecting a higher number of people to sign up for the fall and is asking residents of the Honey Pot and Hanover sections to call 735-2800 to register for October’s event. The address of everyone who registers will be printed onto a map that will be offered at Patriot Park on Oct. 6.

“This event brings a lot of people into Nanticoke,” Verazin said. “People from as far as Shickshinny were here, and it was great for local businesses.”

Larry Karnes, owner of Larry’s Pizzeria on the corner of Church and College streets, said tables were set in the back parking lot to satisfy the customers during this summer’s sale.

“We were selling anything that we had ready and it was going,” Karnes said. “People were walking around town hours before (the yard sale) started.”

And for residents participating in the sale, Verazin said it’s a perfect opportunity to lose the extra summer stuff and get ready for winter.

“It’s also great for the extra cash,” he said. “One lady made $350 selling only dollar items, so that tells you something.”

Karnes said he’s going to prepare more for October’s event, due to running low on everything during the summer sale. He recommends other businesses also better prepare.

“This is a great impact on Nanticoke,” Karnes said, who’s also a city fire officer. “I’ve never seen so many positive people come through Nanticoke on one day.”

Local merchants are encouraged to plan special promotions or sidewalk sales to coincide with the event.

Unfortunately, I will be working that day, so some other enterprising soul will have to take the initiative to sell soda and water to thirsty yard sale shoppers. Come to Nanticoke this Saturday and see what everyone has to offer!

Nanticoke Trojans Football Schedule

Here is the schedule for the Nanticoke Trojans football team, as reported on the Greater Nanticoke Area School District sports page.

ALL GAMES ARE SCHEDULED FOR 7 PM. Schedules are always subject to change; please check the GNA school district page linked above for the latest information, and for cshedules for other sports.

Home games are indicated in BLUE.

Friday 8/31 - Away
Central Columbia

Saturday 9/8 - Away
Meyers

Thursday 9/13 - Away
GAR

Friday 9/21 - Home
Wyoming Area

Saturday 9/29 - Away
Holy Reedemer

Friday 10/5 - Away
Northwest

Friday 10/12 - Home
Coughlin

Friday 10/19 - Home
Dallas

Friday 10/26 - Away
Lake Lehman

Friday 11/2 - Home
Hanover

School's Back in Session August 28

Classes will begin in the Greater Nanticoke Area next Tuesday, August 28. This means police will be out in force, ticketing people who exceed the 15 mph School Zone speed limit on Kosciuszko Street (which normally has a speed limit of just 25 mph, anyway.)

Students at Luzerne County Community College should be aware that police preferentially ticket vehicles heading south on Kosciuszko Street, towards L.C.C.C. While reasons for this are unclear - students driving towards the High School also exceed the speed limit on a regular basis, both at the beginning of the school day and after school lets out in the afternoon, when many of them also show off by stunt driving through the streets surrounding the school - there has been some speculation that it is connected to the fact that while most of the students attending the John S. Fine High School probably have relatives, or friends, or relatives of friends or friends of relatives who have city connections who would be able to get a speeding ticket overturned, most L.C.C.C. students are from outside of Nanticoke and do not.

On a related note, it seems unlikely that the construction on Kosciuszko and Main will be completed by August 28, so expect some congestion as a result of that. L.C.C.C. students should plan accordingly, allowing extra time to reach the school or considering an alternate route along Middle Road (exit 2 off of Route 29, heading west.) Note that Middle Road is a long, narrow, winding road through a residential area, and also has speed limits which are sometimes strictly enforced.

One last point: the street sign indicating "Kosciuszko Street" has been removed as part of the construction project, so incoming students may be confused as to where they should turn to get on this road. It is the north-south road that intersects with Main Street at the traffic light on the east side of Nanticoke. Just to make things more confusing, where the street continues north of Main Street for 50 feet towards the river, it is actually called "Jefkin Street" - and that sign is in place.

Pope John Paul II school library sale, September 8 - 10

The recent realignment of Catholic schools throughout the Diocese of Scranton has left many closed schools in its wake. One of those is Pope John Paul II school, located on the corner of Church and Hanover Streets, next to Holy Trinity Church. (This is the former Holy Trinity school building, but it was PJP II for at least the last 25 years, perhaps 27.)

There are many books that were a part of the Pope John Paul II school library that will not be being transferred to the new, central Catholic school for the region. These books are being put up for sale to the public.

The sale will be held at the former Pope John Paul II school at the corner of Hanover and Church streets in Nanticoke. The days of the sale will be:

Saturday, September 8, 3 PM to 6 PM
Sunday, September 9, 9 AM to 1 PM
Monday, September 10, 12 PM to 3 PM

Prices will be $0.10 - $0.25 for softcover books and $0.50 - $1.00 for hardcovers.