Author: Jen Ralston
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Remember When: School Lunches
Read more: Remember When: School LunchesOn Thursday I was in New Orleans. I had a meeting to attend in the morning and at lunch, I was whisked away to base camp, which is what we in “the business” call the place where everyone and all the equipment is hanging out between locations. Base camp yesterday was at the Lion’s club in Algiers – a neighborhood on the west bank (also referred to as “The Best Bank” or “The Wank” depending on which side of the river you’re from) of the Mississippi. I don’t usually go to set. In my capacity as the supervising sound editor…
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Remember When: The Sounds of Memory
Read more: Remember When: The Sounds of MemoryWhat do sounds have to do with memory? Let’s explore!
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Remember When: Thanksgiving
Read more: Remember When: ThanksgivingThis week, “Remember When” is taking a trip to the dining room table in honor of (of course) Thanksgiving. Growing up in Bloomsburg, Thanksgiving for me always meant dinner at my grandparents’ home with a roasted turkey (the only turkey dinner we had all year), mashed potatoes (my mother was in charge of them as there were never any lumps when she was at the hand-mixer), gravy, stuffing (Stove Top, because my uncle and I insisted on it), cranberry sauce (of course), the most sugary sweet corn casserole imaginable (because my grandmother has an unquenchable sweet tooth) and broccoli salad…
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Sunday Slowdown: How Many of These Things Do You Say?
Read more: Sunday Slowdown: How Many of These Things Do You Say?I’ve seen this video crop up a few times and while I find it amusing, I wonder just how accurate it is for all of NEPA. For example, I know the waitress at the Texas always used to ask “Are youse together,” but I don’t ever recall hearing anyone around our parts saying “Heyna.” Instead they would use “Hain’t” or, my Grandmother sometimes even says “Henna or no.” So sit back, put your feet up on da davenport, make sure youse got fresh batt-trees in da remote control, pop open a couple two tree yuenglings, and enjoy enjoy!
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Remember When: You Realized What Being From Bloomsburg Meant
Read more: Remember When: You Realized What Being From Bloomsburg MeantThis week, I’d like to try something a little different in this column. Rather than focus on a particular topic, I want to find out what everybody’s memories are of first being made to understand that not every town looks like, thinks like, eats like, or maybe just sounds like Bloomsburg. For example: I remember my first trip to New York City. It was by bus and we entered the Lincoln Tunnel, which you approach via an off-ramp that spirals into it from above, affording you an almost 360-degree view before bringing you down to the toll booths. As the…
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Second Mile: A Lesson To Be Learned
Read more: Second Mile: A Lesson To Be LearnedIn State College over the weekend, allegations came to light of the worst kind: repeated acts of sexual abuse against multiple children over the course of more than a decade by a respected member of the Penn State coaching community, Gerald Sandusky. Sandusky has been accused of using The Second Mile, a charity he founded in 1977 to help children from troubled homes, as a source of alleged victims. As the Presentment states, “Through The Second Mile, Sandusky had access to hundreds of boys, many of whom were vulnerable due to their social situations.” As disturbing as that detail may…
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Will the “Real” Chicken and Waffles Please Stand Up?
Read more: Will the “Real” Chicken and Waffles Please Stand Up?“I know it sounds crazy, but trust me. You’re going to love this place,” Dominic said as we turned on to Colorado Boulevard. Of course I trusted him; we’d been friends for over five years at that point and he had yet to steer me wrong when it came to music, movies, or food. We passed a seemingly endless line of car dealerships, turned on to Lake Avenue, past a few taquerias, and a sad, empty Kentucky Fried Chicken and there it finally was — the restaurant that Dom thought would sound so crazy to me, he kept its name…
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Sunday Slowdown: The New York Harbor Boatlift
Read more: Sunday Slowdown: The New York Harbor BoatliftOn September 1st, 2001, I moved in to a beautiful brownstone in the Hamilton Park section of Jersey City, NJ. The landlords were a couple who lived on the bottom two floors. My partner and I lived on the top two floors. We, like most people in our neighborhood, were daily commuters into New York City on a subway system called the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) line. On Tuesday, September 11th, I had the rare opportunity to sleep in and work from home for a few hours. Everyone else in the house left for the city at their usual rush-hour…
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Remember When: At the Movies
Read more: Remember When: At the MoviesRemember when Bloomsburg had a Drive-In Theater? How about when there were movie theaters on Main Street? Did you know that not only was there the Capitol and Columbia, but at one time there was also a Nickleodeon on the west end of Main Street? This week we share our memories of being At The Movies. My earliest movie memories are all tied to the Capitol. Remember when it was all one theater with a balcony instead of two screens? The ceiling had the most beautiful and intricate medallion on it — probably a leftover base from a chandelier that…
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A Flood of Silence: Amy Wright
Read more: A Flood of Silence: Amy WrightIn this installment of A Flood of Silence, Amy Wright, a resident of the hard-hit 900 block of West Main Street talks about the flood, evacuation, how the area press reacted to this disaster, and the rise of social media — both before and after the waters crested.