Wilkes-barre Contract 
Mayor's Gift Keeps Kadluboski In Tow 
Mcgroarty's Holiday Package To City Wide Towing & Repair Owner Came In The
Form Of Another Deal With The City For Five Years.

2 Sisters Struck By Truck Flown To Danville Hospital

By MARK GUYDISH markg@leader.net
 Wednesday, December 26, 2001 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 1A 





FROM THE PAST - This is the power of favorite toys. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In 1941, 18 days after Pearl Harbor, future U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski
received ``literally an army of soldiers'' - made of rubber and about 4 inches
tall - for Christmas. His brother had a companion set of wooden navy figures. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; They staged great battles that lasted days, complete with tanks, airplanes
and cannons. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Cannons that shot small projectiles. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``It was probably the Christmas of 1944 when we decided the Christmas tree
balls would make great targets,'' said Kanjorski. ``We loaded up and fired. We
must have destroyed a dozen or two.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Realizing the error of their ways, they did what any upstanding kid would:
They hid under the tree. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``I didn't keep my butt down, and I knocked the tree over.'' Kanjorski
said. His father's wrath came swiftly and painfully. ``I couldn't sit down for
days.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 It was a lifelong lesson. When Kanjorski became a real Army man and went
through basic training, he had to crawl across a field under machine gun fire.
``Halfway through I just stopped and laughed, but you can bet your life I kept
my butt down.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Of a desk, Big Wheels and Barbie &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Not everyone conjures such clear memories when asked what their favorite
childhood toys were, but the asking is always fun, and the answers amusing,
revealing or surprising. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Hazleton Area School District Superintendent Geraldine Shepperson will avow
with absolute certainty - no matter how much you tell her it sounds contrived
- that her favorite toy was a child-sized desk. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``I loved to play school,'' said the woman who runs Luzerne County's
largest school district. Cousins and younger siblings gathered in a basement
playroom. ``I had a little black chalkboard and we had bookshelves down
there.'' Shepperson was, of course, ``the teacher.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Given the desk at about age 6, she figures she sat at it until about age
11. It got passed to younger siblings and - she assumes - landed in a trash
heap when no one was left to fit it. ``My mother wasn't a saver.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 While Shepperson might have preferred to huddle in her basement and let
books reveal the world, Todd Vonderheid, a vice president of the Greater
Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, chose on-the-edge exploration -
with a ``Big Wheel'' tricycle. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Make that Big Wheels. ``If I remember correctly I trashed a couple before I
outgrew them.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Where did he roam? ``Everywhere. I certainly remember going far enough that
I couldn't get back. I don't remember how I got back, but I remember sitting
in a street somewhere and being very scared.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And what happened to his last freedom machine? ``I've kept an awful lot of
junk at my parents' - I think they wonder if I'm building a shrine or memorial
or something - but I don't think the Big Wheel made it.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Diane Suffren, executive director of the Osterhout Free Library, freely
admits she wishes she had saved her favorite toy: one of the original Barbie
dolls, with ``brown hair and a black-and-white bathing suit.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 She and Barbie got along famously - especially when Barbie hopped into an
``orange Corvette with turquoise seats.'' But the relationship ended with an
unexpected exchange. ``My little sister gave it to a friend. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``I'm sure it would be worth a lot now.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Well, yeah. A quick check on e-Bay, an Internet auction site, showed an
original 1960 Barbie with additional sets of clothes drawing a bid of $450,
and counting. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Just for comparison, new Barbies at Amazon.com run as little as $13 for
``Olympic Fan'' Barbies and as high as $240, list, for ``Fantasy Goddess of
Americas Barbie,'' sporting a costume by designer Bob Mackie. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Sports-related gifts hit a home run &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 It's true. Scratch an adult man and you'll find a kid underneath, usually a
kid dreaming of becoming a sports star. Take Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``My favorite toy? That's easy. Stratomatic Baseball. The greatest board
game in the world.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The complex game included a card for each pro player and his stats from the
previous years. Gamers recruited teams, formed leagues, made schedules and
played a whole season indoors. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``When the weather was nice, we would play baseball outside from morning
until dark, then we'd go inside and play Stratomatic,'' Barletta said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The last time he rolled the Stratomatic dice? ``When my lung collapsed the
first time, 18 years ago. I knew I would be out of work for a while, so I sent
away for new cards for something to do at home.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Alas, that version didn't survive. ``My wife finally made me throw it
out.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 State Superior Court Judge Correale Stevens, state Rep. Todd Eachus and
Luzerne County District Attorney Dave Lupas were all athlete-wannabees. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Stevens recalled an indoor, kid-sized basketball and hoop. ``When I was
young, it was a big thing to go to Hazleton Mountaineer games. They were in
the state championships.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The hoop disappeared with age, just like the Mountaineers, a team name that
didn't survive the closing of the old Hazleton High School. Stevens still
plays, though ``I'm not very good.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Eachus and Lupas preferred rushing out to try new footballs, basketballs
and baseball gloves. But both recalled plunking little plastic men onto those
vibrating electric football games when stuck indoors. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 For Lupas, his most memorable indoor toy was comprehensive cowboy gear:
pants, shirt, boots, hat, holster ... and rocking horse. ``My parents have a
photo they pull out and show me once in a while.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 For Eachus, his favorite Christmas gift was a game of a very different
sort. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``I was about 10 or 11. We got five tickets to the Philadelphia Eagles and
New York Giants game. Those were given to me in my stocking,'' Eachus said.
``It was pretty awesome. My belief in Santa was gone by then, but it was a
beautiful present.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 One local sports-loving kid grew into a local sports guru: Ed Michaels,
Wyoming Valley West High School football coach. Michaels said he has no memory
of a favorite toy, but does recall playing board games - Candy Land, Chutes
and Ladders - with mom and dad. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``My parents usually let me win because I was a very bad loser,'' Michaels
said, laughing. ``That hasn't changed, and I don't think it's going to
change.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Future builder loved Erector Set &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In many cases, those who didn't revel in sports reveled in construction.
State Rep. Kevin Blaum - who, as an adult, helped get the First Union Arena
built - said the legendary metal, nut-and-bolt Erector Set was probably his
favorite toy - complete with electric motor. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``I built everything - motorized police cars, the whole nine yards.
Everything and nothing, actually. They didn't look like much.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Luzerne Intermediate Unit Executive Director Mike Ostrowski had fond, if
fuzzy, memories of a ``big blue truck with a yellow scooper,'' something that
could excavate and haul from the huge dirt pile in his back yard. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``I played with that all the time. It had to be in first or second grade.''
He lost the toy in a curious gesture of generosity. ``My cousin would visit
once a year, and we would exchange things, and it was my favorite toy so I
gave it to him. Figure that out.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And, of course, some built railroads. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Luzerne Foundation Executive Director Charles Barber spread track
throughout his bedroom. ``I had probably a couple hundred feet of track
weaving all over. I'd make little towns and cities, tunnels and moats with
papier-mache.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 County Commissioner Steve Urban remembered playing a lot of Monopoly, but
also anticipating the annual train around the Christmas tree, as did the Rev.
Thomas O'Hara, King's College president. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``We had a Lionel train set and after many, many years the engine of the
train set died,'' O'Hara wrote in a note explaining his favorite toy. ``The
next Christmas season, we just assembled the train set with the lead engine
for display only, knowing it couldn't go around the tracks. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``To my great delight that Christmas morning I received a new engine. I
hooked it up immediately and the train ran around the track.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Toy buyer can still be a kid &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 There are those who never really got the gift they wanted. Shepperson said
her father refused to buy her a bike. ``He didn't think that proper young
ladies rode bicycles.'' So she saved up and bought a used one - a boy's bike,
no less. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Urban always wanted a Tonka Truck, but didn't get his wish until he had a
child of his own. ``I ended up buying my son one when he was born about 28
years ago. We played with it. We still have it.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But there are a lucky few who end up getting all the toys they want, well
into adulthood. Janet Maloney, the toy buyer for Humphrey's Children Apparel
in Shavertown, Kingston Township, had no trouble remembering her favorite toys
- she still sees many of them daily in the store, and plays with some with her
kids. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys,'' Maloney rattled off her list, ``blocks
... paper dolls with cutout clothes ... puzzles ... a Radio Flyer ... &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``All that money my parents spent. It wasn't worth it.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Don't tell Kanjorski that. He still has a few of those rubber soldiers that
saved his butt. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7161. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

From Barbie Dolls To Baseball Board Games, Prominent Area Residents Recall
Those Special Gifts 
Favorite Toys Still Fill A Special Place In The Hearts Of Adults

From Barbie Dolls To Baseball Board Games, Prominent Area Residents Recall Those Special Gifts Favorite Toys Still Fill A Special Place In The Hearts Of Adults