Letters to the Editor
Written by PA Heritage Staff in the Letters category and the Spring 1996 issue Topics in this article: Berks County, Bloomsburg, Chester County, coal, Eckley Miners' Village, Haines Shoe House, Lincoln Highway, New York, Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylvania German), York CountyHome Again
Like many others who grew up in the hard coal region in the 1950s, I couldn’t wait to finish high school and leave the area. When I went away to college, I vowed never to return. Yes, I did go back for funerals and weddings and the like, but I couldn’t wait to leave again, to get as far away as possible from the giant culm banks and the coal dust. I devoted myself to my career and later to raising a family. I made new friends in new cities but now realize, quite sadly, that I gave up all my old childhood ties. I write this because the article on Eckley [see “A Jewel in the Crown of Old King Coal: Eckley Miners’ Village” by Tony Wesolowsky in the winter 1996 issue] made me homesick and I wonder if you really can go home again. My father, uncles, and both grandfathers were coal miners and until l read this article, I never appreciated their sacrifices and hardships. Thank you for opening my eyes – I suppose it’s better late than never. I haven’t been “back home” in many years but from now on I will be proud to call myself a Pennsylvanian.
Marian M. Jones
New York, N.Y.
Raisin Redux
I just happened upon your fall 1995 edition and must comment about several of the letters to the editor regarding the use of raisins in shoofly pie [see also Brian A. Butko’s “Larger Than Life Along the Lincoln Highway” in the summer 1995 issue]. As another person of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage (my family spanning several generations in southern Berks County), I have found an old family recipe for “Raisin Shoo-Fly Pie” in a cookbook entitled A Legacy of Recipes from the Brady Farm, Scarlet’s Mill, Pennsylvania. This book is a delightful collection of recipes and anecdotes collected, written, and illustrated by descendants of Bertha May (Keinard) Brady and published by the Old Springfield Shoppe in Elverson, Chester County. Bertha Brady was the sister of my late grandfather, Howard Keinard. This pie, by the way, is very tasty-as are most of the old fashioned recipes in the book!
Doreen R. Keinard
Bloomsburg, Pa.
Down Memory Highway
The summer edition came last week and I’ve enjoyed reading it. I know well many of those scenes on the Lincoln Highway [see “Larger Than Life Along the Lincoln Highway” by Brian A. Butko]. The Haines Shoe House built by Mahlon “The Shoe Wizard” Haines in York County was especially notable because he was a competitor of ours in the shoe business back in the forties, fifties, and sixties.
Richard L. Ebersole
Akron, Pa.
