Wednesday morning I made a Freudian slip referring to the “Chester County Statehouse”
My wife corrected me, “The Pennsylvania Statehouse”.
But when I thought about it, yes, It’s the Chester County Statehouse.
Chester County was the traditionally forever Republican Kingdom in the wealthiest County in PA since about 1854. That makes it the powerhouse of the Republicans in Pennsylvania State Government. Or it was until Tuesday.
Two Democratic County commissioners will complete the Democratic transition.
It began changing well before Trump. I think when George W. Bush crashed the economy.
From:
The Bomb Shelter and my Uncle’s Little Store.
I walked to 1st grade at Carl O Benner Elementary School, mostly downhill from my home at 539 Black Horse Hill Road.
In September of 1949, soon after my first day in school, all the students were herded into the lowest floor of the school next door, Gordon Jr. High School.
In 1949, while other kids covered their heads under their desk, we sat on the basketball court that was in a pit on the lowest floor of the Gordon Jr. High.
It’s a scene etched into my memory. I asked the principal if we were there because the bomb couldn’t get through all the floors above us. He smiled and said “yes, that’s about it.”
Having a real bomb shelter was an upgrade on the usual “duck and cover” other kids did.
The walk back home was mostly uphill, which didn’t bother me. I liked walking over the Graham Avenue bridge over the Pennsylvania Railroad where I could often see a steam engine smoke up the entire bridge. The steam engine moved short trains of sometimes just one car in and out of the sidings in Coatesville.
Trains were fun but on the way home from school I usually walked three mostly downhill blocks to my Uncle Nick’s store where I would “work” restocking candy, weeding out the broken hard pretzels in the hard pretzel jar and putting out new magazines and taking down the old ones. I would also put out and take down comic books. Reading comic books and an occasional magazine was how I learned to read, and love reading.
I still eat the broken pieces of hard pretzels first.
Like all children I was aware of everything going on around me. Unlike my 74 year old self, my 6 year old ears picked up every spoken word. I had no idea what the Italian words meant. They were usually funny words because the men laughed.
Sometimes the men talked about “the horses” and “the horses in the back”.
I wanted to see The horsies.
I was at the why stage. After the thousandth time I asked to see the horsies, my Daddy took me way in the back of my Uncle’s store. He slid open a heavy door. Angry looking men with phones turned and looked at us. A green chalk board was in front of them.
My Dad said, “He wanted to see the horsies.”
The bookie wasn’t in my Uncles store. I guess my Uncle’s store was a kind of emergency exit. It wasn’t my Uncles store anyway, he rented.
Much later a friend told me when he was 6 years old the county sheriff was eating at his dad’s restaurant. He excitedly brought the sheriff to see the “one armed bandit”. His dad had to get rid of the “one armed bandit”. A much better story than mine.
Politics
Politics was talked about at Uncle Nick’s store. Not so much issues. More general.
Democrats were steelworkers. Republicans were doctors, sometimes judges and at times somewhat shady criminal types.
Local Police were all OK. They never paid for anything. State police from the “coal region” were to be avoided by both steelworker Democrats and shady Republicans.
This is just how I think. It’s automatic, since sometime in 1949-50 when I was in first grade and learned about “politics” from the men talking in my Uncle Nicks store:
Organized crime is impossible without cooperating public officials.
Look for a few county workers taking early retirements.
A bunch of black Coatesville Republicans that were Republicans since Richard Legree was chair of CCRC Area 14 have changed to Democrat in the past year.
There's going to be a period when Republicans can't help out organized crime and Democrats aren't into it yet. I don't know how it will happen, but organized crime can't exist without help from corrupt public officials.
The transition from Republican to Democrat could be rough on people like the Norcini family. David & Daniel over at the Junkyard on Elm St. in Coatesville are allegedly colors wearing Road Runner members. I don’t think they run drugs. Joe Carroll told me that the Coatesville PD keeps an eye on them.
David and Daniel were allegedly put in Jefferson Hospital by some Hell’s Angels members in March of 2009. The Norcini’s began building their junkyard in Coatesville a few months later.
“Biker bar fight
Those involved are not speaking out about a biker brawl that broke out March 5 at a neighborhood bar.
Details of the fight at Quattro Bar and Grille, 2535 S. 13th. St., are vague as gang members and bar patrons have been mum on what happened that night at 11:24 p.m., Detective Danielle Tolliver of South Detective Division said.
Four men wearing “Road Runner” jackets were taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. One had head trauma, but all were in stable condition. A group of Pagans arrived at the hospital to visit the men, Tolliver said.
Another man, a bar patron, was taken to Methodist Hospital in stable condition, Tolliver said.
To report information, call South Detectives at 215–686–3013.”
From:
https://southphillyreview.com/bad-medicine-3955e6dd6b81
SEE:
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
AND
Friday, October 19, 2012
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