My Shamokin & Hodge Podge- Edgar Marlock

 

"Edgar Marlock" was the pen name used for a series of articles titled "My Shamokin", in the Shamokin News Dispatch.

"Edgar Marlock" was not an individual but rather a nom de plume used by all of the staff writers who authored the columns.  The name  was formed by taking a letter from the name of each of 12 staff members. All of the reporters on the editorial staff contributed to the My Shamokin columns, some to greater extent than others.

The weekly column included a "Hodge Podge" puzzle - a word scramble, with a clue, which is especially amusing when you remember that the name Edgar Marlock was essentially, a word scramble, using letters from each of the 12 writers names.

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The Hodge Podge Puzzle

November 2 1957

"Taking a tip from some fun. provided for readers of other newspapers, we've decided to add a puzzle element to this column. We'll carry the name of a local institution of yesteryear that was known to majority of the community's residents. However, letters in the name of the institution will not be presented in proper order, but in a meaningless hodge podge.

 The institution: tymeatefhliterha.

Try to rearrange the letters to spell the name of the former local institution, a place that was loved by many residents. See if you can solve the hodge podge. The answer will appear here next week."

Answer - The Family Theater

November 12th 1960

In the following weeks column, the answer would be given, along with a list of those who had answered correctly.

[The answer to this one was Clark Brothers Grocery Store]

In December 1976, published in time for Christmas, a 100 page booklet was compiled and edited by William F. Dyer, including a selection of the My Shamokin Articles.  A copy of the book is at the Northumberland County Historical Society in Sunbury.

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My Shamokin

Communities Taxicab service dates back to one car in '27

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Cook Books

By Edgar Marlok 

My Shamokin Our correspondents, bless 'em, came through this week with a number of topics for discussion in this and succeeding columns. One of our objectives is to present not only our own memories of the past, but to include the varied reminiscences of others. Mrs. Margaret Hancock, Orange, N. J., who was born and reared in Shamokin, wrote the following about the Hodge Podge for last week:

 "For the life of me, I cannot think of a valuable asset in Shamokin that would need as many letters to spell it. It surely ought to see with all the 'i s' it has. Had I solved it, would have had to ask to have the fertilizer omitted, as it would not be so sweet in the potted plants in the living room." Mrs. Hancock, who moved from Shamokin three years ago, added a "bon mot," as follows: A good laugh a day keeps the wrinkles away."

 A local contributor to the column, whose memory possibly has been working for a little longer time than ours, definitely has been working better, writes his reminiscences about local bakeries, half of which we do not recall. He says: "Your column struck a familiar chord when reference was made to 'slabs of country bacon and smoked hams.' "I was reminded at once that bread after till is the staff of life, and how a mother would bake tempting loaves for her six or more children. She would send one of the tots to buy a penny's worth of yeast in a dedicated pitcher from the woman who lived in the basement, and the child would 'spill' half the ferment down her throat on the way home.

"Happily, mothers no longer need bake bread, for from where I sit I can see no less than six bread trucks stop each morning to stock up a neighborhood grocery. "

It may be interesting to recall the bakeries of former days and the first name that comes to mind is Mat Neely's Bakery on Shamokin Street, between Commerce and the railroad, where Captain Kattigan would 'drive up' regularly Monday mornings with his wheelbarrow to get a load of stale loaves for his pigs. "Then there was Theobold Frenk, a German baker, on Race Street in the old Clifford Block. Another shop was the Hehr Bakery on Shamokin Street, just south of the railroad, where hearth bread was a specialty. .

Still another shop practically forgotten was Eddie Christian's Bakery on Cameron Street, just west of Orange, which always swarmed with schoolboys who brought potatoes to roast in the glowing ash pit. "There was Bader's Bakery on Rock Street, just south of Webster Street. Then, too, there were Latham's Bakery and Tinley's Bakery, located, successively, on the site of the Majestic Theatre building. Joe Miller's Bakery was located on Spruce Street, just beyond Harry Unger's Drug Store. - "Surviving of the old bakeries is Henninger's on Second Street, just off Spruce.

"And, we cannot forget McClow's Bakery on Shamokin Street, where the late Dr. Fred P. Steck was head baker before he studied medicine. "As we recall, when mothers baked bread the average housewife preferred 'Pansy' Flour, by W. A.Reed, of the Shamrock Flour Mills, to costlier brands. "When J. F. Tooley and Company opened a store in the Wagonseller Building on Shamokin Street, introducing such enticing loaves as Butter Crust and Mity Nice, home baking sooi died out." Convinced that Shamokinites eat to live, and do not live to eat, we subscribe fully to the idea that tasty foods provide one of the simple joys of life for many folks. We feel certain many persons can take a mental trip back to enjoy the good bread, cakes or pastries purchased in the bakeries listed by our correspondent.

Staff of life, yes, but bread is still just a side issue with most people. Consider, however, the poor souls who must forego bread because dieting. to bushels. in sedate man he as and life. these ring the on the lived.