Crazy Moravia

This here photo is looking in to the old colonial industrial quarter of Bethlehem

If you find yourself hangin' out in downtown Bethlehem (Bethlum is how they say it around these parts) you can't help but notice the beautiful old college named after the Moravians. Who the hell are the Moravians? As if you don't know. Just in case you're a little rusty on your reformation era churchies here's a bit of a reminder; catholic-ish folks from Moravia and Bohemia (the lands of my people) who, after an unsuccessful attempt to establish a Moravian settlement in Georgia (1735-1740), settled in Pennsylvania on the estate of George Whitefield. Moravian settlers purchased 500 acres to establish the settlement of Bethlehem in 1741. Soon they bought the 5,000 acres of the Barony of Nazareth from Whitefield's manager, and the two communities of Bethlehem and Nazareth became closely linked in their agricultural and industrial economy.
Walking around present day Bethlehem one is treated to all kinds of great old buildings. The Moravians started a college here in the 1880's on some land from their church, and strolling through the grounds of the campus is like being transported back to...well, some other time. It's actually really pretty and the leaves
falling in the autumn air really adds to the feel.
Here is one of the entrances to the Old Moravian Cemetary (1742-1910). The stones all lay flat on the ground for some damn religious reason, and it's wild to find stones of people born in the late 1600's. Apparently the Moravians were friendly with the Injuns and quite a few can be found buried here 'bouts.

Creepy door knobOne of the many sweet old houses around town.



There is a cute, but also kinda late-in-the-season-to-really-enjoy-it Garden down here called the Miller House garden. As the name indicates, the garden graces the house of the miller who ran the grist mill, which ran until the 1950's!That's the miller's house behind the ruined mill. Behind both is the Bethlehem Hotel, built circa 1910.


The trout stream running through the old industrial area.



The 1762 waterworks is considered the first municipally pumped water system in the country. Since Bethlehem is built on a hill, it took quite a bit man-power to deliver the everyday water needed to live and work, so, voila! The waterworks!

Next time on Lelko Blog...Hawk Mountain!!!!

Jeez, I guess it's been a while...what haven't we done since last we visited? Well, for one, we haven't gotten any jobs. Oh, I guess I sorta work and make money as a Guy who drives people around, but it ain't steady. Not that I'm complainin'. Just sayin...


We've had the good fortune of experiencing some nice thunderstorms (ya know, where the sky gets all green and dark and there's lightning about fifty times a minute and it frickin rains like mad, that kind) which we've both missed since living out west.
Our Dumb Grey Cat has some kinda sore on her foot that she won't stop chewing on, so we had to give her the old cone-around-the-neck (known as an elizabethen collar ), but you know how cats are..she can still somehow reach it, so it's been a vigilant week for us. Also, she hates us.
Though it seems like a million years ago, it looks like we went to Bushkill Falls in the last few weeks. It was totally awesome. We took the long hike, which wasn't really that long or difficult, but there were signs every few hundred yards warning us how dreadfully strenuous it was. Now, we are not in any way very excersise oriented, but it was not a tough walk. How fat and out of shape are these people? And what miracle brought their lazy asses up to the Poconos? This was before the cat thing, so we had a little more free time on our hands (and feet).

Hey ya know what I hate? The state. Not this state, as in Pennsylvania, but the concept of the state (you know, a monopoly on force), and i feel like I haven't spent enough time here on Lelko Blog making this clear. So, may I direct you to our Permanent links to the upper-right. The road-side blog is fun, but the others are something you should at least peruse, because the quicker we all get over this whole 'it's okay to be slaves' thing, the quicker we can all have the option of Complete Liberty .
But, hey, who am I to rain on your parade? Let's get back to those all important giggles ("you're not human tonight, Marlowe").
Apparently the indians around here were very short and shiny. Who woulda thunk it?
This was near a living, old-time farm where you can go and watch them do old-time farm stuff, like, I don't know, animal husbandry or something. The farm was closed the day we went, but maybe we'll make it back for the old-time Halloween they do. As a side note, we were thinking of some hi-larious costumes, like the sexy quadruple amputee, cos, you know, Halloween is all about being a sexy something or other. At least that's how it appears judging on what they have in the windows at each of the 812 halloween store near us. What a boon for the economy halloween is...
Dill, pesto, tomato, Raw cheddar-stuffed mushrooms. All raw baby! Yeah, we've been doing pretty good with the Raw foods. I'd say we are about 80-90% raw these days, and feelin' fine.

Walkin' around Caty

Hey, it's a fact. We look better when the sun is setting. You probably do too (god, I hope so). Today we decided to take a walk around Catasauqua (hereon known as Caty), our new hometown, and look at the cool old homes dotted around the neighborhood. Back in the 1860's, and thru the early 1900's, this town was a seriously happenin' spot. Some of the wealthiest folks of the Industrial Revolution made camp in town, and their way-big mansions are still standing, as are some of their old industries (something we'll see in a later post).


This is a cool old church that's been turned into a home.
Check out this wacky place. We live on the top floor. Dang!
"Is our picture gonna be in the newspaper?" they asked. I frickin' hope not!
This is our block...

Tie up yer horse here
The basement of this church is the town library.

David Thomas and his son moved to Caty in 1839, and less than one year later, on July 4, 1840, the first successful anthracite iron furnace in the United States began operation, and the Industrial Revolution began.Check out their house(above).
There are about 167,000 churches within 2 blocks of us. This is only one of them. I think it's for sale. Actually, so is this awesome old home that's been turned into apts.
Couple of good examples of 100-140 year old houses still keepin' people dry (or warm, or cool).

This (below) is by far the largest house in town. The guy who built it was an Austrian fella named D. George Dery who created a vast industrial empire based around silk mills that he built in the area.( We'll take a look at his original Mill later this week.) The section you see is only about a third of the place. The original three-story colonial structure was expanded and enlarged until it disappeared entirely. A long, south wing was added to the house as an art gallery. Elegant porticos with delicate fluted columns and ornate pilasters added a touch of neo-classical grace. Equipped with a library and astronomical observatory, it also contained a large ballroom and indoor swimming pool. Modeled after the palaces the very rich built for themselves at Newport, R.I., it was a home worthy of a man of wide interests and social connections. Naturally he lost it all...
Not sure what the deal-e-o is, but I dig this house.

We got some old, OLD sidewalks in town! See ya next time
LELKO

Stuff N' Stuff

What haven't we been doing. you may be asking. Well, nothing, I may say in answer. Let's see, I built this bridge... went back in time to the caveman days..., turned Emily into a goat, then a chicken, then a peacock, and then, very briefly, a cow. And that was only today!

I like to drive around these parts, and that works for us in a couple ways; first we get to drive around the old country roads (which are five minutes in any direction) and see cool old farms and towns and just plain old stuff that we both enjoy lookin' at. Second, I get paid to drive folks to the airports around here 'cos I've been working for Marty, and he owns a limo service. Pretty cool, huh?



Today we went and got some raw cheese from a farm about 15 miles away and then we went cruising around. There's an old bridge in Reigersville that was built by the guy that built the Brooklyn Bridge, and its a mini version of that bridge. we also went to the Lost River Caverns to look around (too cheep to actually go IN the caverns, but the gift shop had cool old stuff), a place I went to a long time ago with my Grammy.


Check out these tiny sewing machines they had on display at the Lost River Cavern!
There are a bunch of old canals around these parts that used to have mules and or people pulling barges down them. I have to read up on that for more info. Any way, the apartment is coming along nicely (finished the bathroom, more or less) and now we both have a chair to sit in and our bed arrives this coming Friday (after a month and a half of sleeping on the floor!). The cats frickin' love our place with all of its windows and nooks to hang out in.


There are twenty million Yacco's within four miles of us!


The weather is startin' to cool off, and the very beginnings of the Fall can just barely be felt in the air and seen in the trees.


See y'all later
LELKO