Tamaqua Then and Now by R Thomas Berner

One of the great things about blogging is the people you "meet." Every once in a while, someone writes me out of the blue about something I wrote on this here blog. About a week or so ago, a gentleman by the name of R Thomas Berner wrote me about a mention I made of the Tamaqua Evening Courier--my hometown newspaper when I was growing up--and included a link to his own blog (which you can visit by clicking here). While exploring that blog, I found out that Mr. Berner had self-published his own book on my old hometown, titled Tamaqua Then and Now.

The book is exactly what the title says. Berner takes an historical photo, often an old postcard, or a shot from a personal collection, and lays it side-by-side with his own photo of the same building or site as it is now. It's a fascinating juxtapositioning of images, showing how much--or at times, how little--things have changed. I haven't been back to Tamaqua in over a decade (I know...shame on me), so this is more than a trip down memory lane for me...it's--at times--a revelation. The old train station, for example. I knew it was now restored and had a restaurant, but I didn't realize how absolutely lovely it looked, how pristine and beautiful the landscaping is around it. While I'm disappointed that the book didn't include my grandfather's building on Broad Street (you can see a tiny sliver of it on page 53, about three doors down on the left; you can also see the Beard Insurance Agency building there, the second building in, where I worked for a few years as the art director of The Tamaqua Paper), it does include so many buildings I recognize from my 25 or so years of living there.

Berner does a wonderful job of capturing the correct angle and matching the shot of his original source material. The Elks Building and St. Jerome's Church shots on pages 56-57 and 60-61, respectively, are great examples of his attention to detail (and two buildings that--thankfully--appear to have not changed one bit). There's a little bit of history thrown in with some of the photos, but Berner is the first to admit he's not an historian (although his next project, The Illustrated History of Tamaqua, shows promise in that area). Not a lot has been written about my hometown (although there's a ton of history here). There was the slim volume Tamaqua Tales, written by the Rev. Milton Detterline, back in the late '60s, and that's about it. When I worked for the above-mentioned Tamaqua Paper, we had the voluminous articles by a local history buff--who is mentioned prominently in Berner's book--Paul Scherer. Scherer's weekly columns were one of the most eagerly-awaited parts of the paper and certainly deserve to be collected.

Berner's book made me both happy and a little sad. So much has changed in my hometown. It really started to change the most in my formative decade, the 1960s, when the trains slowed to a crawl and the coal industry started to die. In one way, it's gratifying to see these photos of the town I grew up in. The blight of strip mining seems to be gone, the literal holes in the ground covered up and it's green and lovely again. But there's so much missing. The Victoria Theatre is a particular heart ache. I spent many a weekend there growing up (my first James Bond movie--Goldfinger; the night my friend and I went to see The Guns of Navarone and got caught for a curfew violation because the movie ran so long). Even then it was rundown (I remember the lower section of the main seating area being closed off for many years, because of rats...or at least that's what the rumor was). Now it's just plain gone. But for every missing theater, there's the train station, a triumphant story of restoration. Berner's book celebrates this town, then and now, and is a wonderful collection of images and memories. You're not going to find it at your local Borders or Barnes or Noble or even on Amazon.com. The only place you can get your very own copy is at Lulu.com (click here to go directly to the Tamaqua Then and Now page). For all you fellow Tamaquains who might have come here while Googling...this is the perfect holiday gift, whether you still live there or are like me, an ex-pat (or Tam) living 3,000 miles away. Go home with this book.

Comments

[carol anne reese massi]

When my husband [from NJ] and I went to a 50th wedding anniversary party in Ocean City, NJ about 32 years ago, my husband was astounded when they said the couple was from Tamaqua and more than half of the people at the party stood up to sing the Tamaqua fight song...myself included. I lived in Hometown and Tamaqua until ths summer between 8th and 9th grade but still consider it home. Many of my relatives, including great-grandparents, are buried either in Odd Fellows or in Hometown. Am probably going to buy the book for my Mom as her birthday present. Thanks for the memories!!!