Speaking of Bethlehem traditions

Gadfly's posts, Local Color 1 Minute

See Dana’s comment on the “Helms and Haines” post earlier today.

Gadfly #1 Stephen Antalics sent the following:

“The Globe Times [1925-1977] gave the city a paper dedicated to the city. The demise of the paper ended many of the local traditions. One interesting one was the celebration of the first-born in the new year.”

This page from December 31, 1949:

First Baby

Any other traditions we’ve lost and maybe forgotten about? Oldies but goodies?

Published by The Bethlehem Gadfly

Edward J. Gallagher, Bethlehem immigrant, retired, nearly 50 years as Professor of American Literature at Lehigh University, known as "Dr. G" and "Conan the Grammarian" to students, whose virtual world avatar "EdwardScholarhands" stares at you here, has reinvented himself as the Bethlehem Gadfly.

Published

2 thoughts on “Speaking of Bethlehem traditions”

  1. They still announce the 1st birth of the year. (Both the Express-Times & the Morning Call.) Plus — I’ve seen it announced by the hospital on the digital billboards.

    (It’s hard to imagine how much energy is wasted by those LED billboards. Depending on the colors, it can be up to 25 times the energy used to light an old-fashioned billboard only after dark, So count Adams & the other billboard companies as big contributors to global warming — not to mention the visual blight on the Valley.)

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