Latest / ABJ / Mahanoy City, PA | ABJ Podcast

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Mahanoy City, PA | ABJ Podcast · ABJ

0:15
Hey everybody and welcome back to the ABJ podcast.
0:18
So this one's a little different.
0:19
It's not a current state of the pod, it's not self reflection of
0:24
ABJ, it's not even a podcast guest.
0:28
I told you there's going to be some episodes coming up that are
0:30
going to be things I'm into, things I wanted, the research,
0:32
things I wanted to educate myself more on.
0:34
And my education will then come to you guys and what I've
0:37
learned and what I've researched and that'll come in the form of
0:40
these podcasts. This doesn't really fit into the
0:42
narrative of the pop culture or the horror or I mean, these
0:46
could be conversations on Blazing Buds or banging beers,
0:48
but that's for another day. But the IT doesn't really fall
0:52
under any tornado tag or anything like that.
0:53
This is more, I would say ABJ. This is more if you're listening
0:58
to this and you're not from my local area, as the title already
1:02
says, the Mono city Pennsylvania.
1:05
But the, this is going to be a way for you to understand where
1:09
I come from and, and the things I've the area I was raised in
1:12
the town and the local community and the local stuff around it.
1:16
Yeah, just to kind of give you a little idea, like I'm, I'm in
1:18
this tiny town. We'll get into all the details
1:21
about that soon. And it and, and every 10-15
1:24
minutes away is another little coal region town.
1:26
It's like each town, a little, little section of the mountains.
1:29
It's pretty wild. Hard to explain to outside
1:32
people, but man, we have it's beautiful.
1:34
It's, it's rural, it's quiet. It's, you know, everybody kind
1:38
of knows everybody. It could be really supportive or
1:41
it could be really lonely and it could be a spot where it's tough
1:44
for people to find their muse or not only that, people, there's
1:47
nothing to do but find your muse and be creative.
1:50
And I think this is a huge reason why I always say PA
1:52
people. And I'm not saying that because
1:55
I'm not biased to anywhere else. I think every place has its own
1:58
specialness. But in this area, man, you kind
2:01
of get either sucked into a hole of social dorms or you find your
2:05
creative path and you find a way to to to rise above that and do
2:08
other things. And kind of where we are in
2:10
northeast PA, you're like 3 hours away from everything.
2:14
You're 3 hours away from any major city.
2:16
You can kind of go experience big city, then come right back
2:18
to your small little town. But even these towns are
2:21
changing. And like I said, we'll get into
2:22
that too. So let's get into this one.
2:25
Today we are stepping into the heart of Pennsylvania anthracite
2:28
coal region, a place that's once fueled the world's factories
2:32
berth cable television, crown state champions and even hosted
2:36
Muhammad Ali and Babe Ruth. Less than 1/2 a square mile, but
2:40
its stories stretch far and wide.
2:42
This is Monte City, Pennsylvania.
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Monte City, Pennsylvania was founded in 1859, incorporated in
2:50
1863 and quickly became a hub of coal mining.
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The name comes from a lesbian, a Lenape word.
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I may butcher some of these words or names or anything like
3:00
that. Forgive me, I went to Monte
3:03
area, Mogahoney, meaning salt deposits.
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By the 1900's the town was booming with all with miners,
3:10
immigrants, churches, salons all crammed into one narrow row
3:15
homes under the shadow of the coal Breakers.
3:18
Now, when we say row homes, a block isn't like a city block.
3:22
A block is maybe couple, maybe a football field long, sometimes
3:27
even less than that, maybe 50 yards wide.
3:29
And it's just houses connected to each other.
3:32
And they all have this thing where like if I were to go to my
3:36
attic and cut a hole in the wall, I can get into the crawl
3:39
space of the next attic and walk all the way down the block.
3:43
If there's an entire block to do that, we're going to get into
3:46
that because that makes a lot of challenges for this area when it
3:50
comes to like heating your home or for the local fire
3:52
departments to fight fires. Fun fact, in 1903, Mani City had
3:57
143 license salons. That's one bar for every 98
4:02
people. It was deemed the drinking
4:04
capital of America at one point. The Mall of Mcguire's were Irish
4:09
miners accused of forming secret society to fight the
4:13
exploitations of the 1860s and 70s.
4:16
They are blamed for mind for Mine Foreman's murders, sabotage
4:19
and riots. The Pinkerton detective James
4:22
Macparlane infiltrated the group posing as James McKenna in a in
4:26
in Monti City salons. His testimony led to trials
4:30
where over 20 Irishmen Irish miners were hang hung to their
4:34
deaths in various towns of Schuble County.
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When you walk down Center St., you're walking the same streets
4:42
as Mcplann did undercover, gathering evidence against men
4:45
who swore they were only fighting for justice.
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They were they criminals? Were they martyrs?
4:51
Today, the Molly McGuire symbol, a harsh clash between immigrant
4:54
labor and corporate power. It's we have a statue in the
4:59
middle of town that is essentially a man being hung.
5:03
It is behind a wall, so you can't see it from the visible
5:05
Street View. But you go in and there's tons
5:07
and tons of of stuff with that. But essentially what we have
5:12
today with workers rights where you can only work so many hours,
5:15
children can't work in certain locations, pay overtime, pay
5:21
your your company can't do certain things to you because
5:24
you're protected under certain laws.
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That's kind of what the Molly Mcguires fought for.
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They were kind of all paid in credits and the credits were
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only able to be used in town and in the minors stores and and
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businesses. And a lot of them, the Irish
5:40
ones weren't even allowed to even go in half these stores
5:43
because the Irish weren't allowed to do that.
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They were kind of like treated like scum in this area and they
5:48
just they got sick of it and they fought back.
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And maybe it's it's up to you to decide whether they were right
5:54
or justified. But when a, when a Society of
5:58
people are, are, are kind of treated the way they were
6:01
treated, there's two ways. There's either lay down or lay
6:04
down and die, or there's fight back.
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And the Irish fought back. And because they decided to
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fight back is the reason why we have a lot of what we have today
6:12
and the reason why we can't get pushed around when it comes to
6:15
corporate America. Hollywood retold the story of
6:19
the Marlon Mcguire's in a 1970s film showing starring Sean
6:23
Connery and Richard Harris. It was filmed in Cole County.
6:27
Historians like Kevin Kenny. Kevin Kenny have since reframed
6:31
the Mollies as victims of prejudice and corporate
6:34
overreach. In Jim Thorpe, the old jail
6:36
still shows the Molly Mcguire's handprint on the wall, said to
6:38
be left by a condemned man hanging.
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Condemned man declaring his innocence.
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We did a few episodes of Shoot Behind Illusion in that prison
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as well. It is definitely a great place
6:50
to go visit and experience the town of Jim Thorpe because
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that's another one that had a lot of repression because of the
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what the Mollies went through. The Mali's were both history and
6:59
legend. Men, flesh and blood turn into
7:01
symbols of justice, violence and survival.
7:05
Here we go breakthrough and rise cable television.
7:09
In 1947, John Walton rigged a mountain antennas, rigged
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mountain antennas to bring signals to Monte City creating
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the first US cable television system.
7:19
Happened right here in our town. The Kyer Mansion or the Kyer
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Brewery operated from 1880 to 1968, keeping minders refreshed
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from salons and restocked. Now every one of our little
7:30
towns. And This is why I love craft
7:32
beer so much. Every little town had its own
7:35
brewery. So our town had a brewery,
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Shenandoah had a brewery. Tamaqua had a brewery.
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Because distribution and beer wasn't as prevalent in the 1800s
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and, and, and early, early, later on in years.
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And these breweries essentially all went by the wayside because
7:51
small owned businesses, whether it's the war or the depression
7:55
or just anything like that, or bigger companies standing the
7:58
test of time or like your domestic companies like you're,
8:01
you're, you're not necessary. You're the Miller Lites and
8:04
Coors and all that. A lot of these companies went by
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the wayside. But if Kyer Mansion, if Kyer
8:09
Brewery still stood today, they would be America's oldest
8:13
brewery. But because they went under that
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was passed to a couple towns over from from the Kyre brewery.
8:20
That would be Yingling Brewery. What is America's oldest
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brewery, which is also here here in the Northeast Pennsylvania,
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heart of the coal region, heart of School County, Pennsylvania.
8:30
The borough population peaked over 16,000 people in 1910
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jammed in less to 1/2 of square mile.
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Our town has I think 4 red lights, four or five.
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I could be wrong. It's there's not big at all.
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We had some famous visitors come through Maundy City over the
8:47
years. Muhammad Ali visited in the
8:49
1970s, dazzling the crowds and charisma.
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He had a he has a camp up in Deer Lake.
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You can go visit it today called Fighters Heaven.
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That's where he trained to come back and win the world title.
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But his family doctor was Mr. Holland, not a guy we're going
9:04
to talk about later, but his his father who was a local doctor in
9:08
town. And that's where Muhammad Ali
9:09
went to get his doctor. Gene Kilroy was from this area
9:13
and I believe this town and brought him to this town to go
9:16
see his old family doctor. And that's that's why Muhammad
9:19
Ali spent some time in this town.
9:22
Babe Ruth, he he barnstormed here in the 20s, smashing home
9:25
runs in an exhibition game right here in the East End park.
9:29
Mother Teresa stopped through in the 80s, actually, not in the
9:32
80s. In the 90s, speaking to the
9:34
Catholic Church communities about hope.
9:36
Politicians regularly campaign here with the hometown Senator
9:39
James James A James J Rhodes, bringing colleagues back to see
9:43
his roots. Mr. Rhodes was a fantastic
9:46
senator. He was, he was great.
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It was it kind of seemed like a time where before this it was US
9:51
versus the mentality of politics.
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James was a a a a Republican who did he gave a shit about his
9:58
local town. His family's fantastic.
10:01
We're going to talk a little more more about the roads here
10:03
in a little bit. But his his wife was also a
10:05
school teacher of mine. He worked at the school at one
10:08
point in time. They are a fantastic family who
10:11
still are very much embedded in in our local area or in even in
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the state of Pennsylvania in a better known coal dust corner of
10:19
bars, Saints and sports legends. What once walked our streets
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from 16,000 residents in 1910 to 3500.
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Today the poverty rate is 34% medium.
10:32
Medium household income is around $38,000 a year.
10:36
Demographics once at 98% white, today 80% white, 16% Hispanic.
10:43
Latino especially in the Puerto Rican and Dominican families
10:46
which I think is fantastic. I love that our town is being
10:49
diverse and is being culture fired.
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I think that's good for a community.
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And I think you know, a lot of our next town over, Shenandoah
10:56
had a lot of Mexican people come, our Mexican, his heritage
11:01
come. And at first they were, they
11:02
were treated horribly and they were treated bad.
11:05
Seems to be a trend in our area. But they've turned it around
11:09
man. Most of the local businesses in
11:11
our town are, are Spanish owned or black-owned.
11:14
People are fighting and they're not just fighting for their own
11:17
stake of this town. But I think the older people
11:20
need to realize that they're not here to destroy.
11:23
They're here to make it their home as well.
11:24
And instead of it all being just 98% white welcoming another
11:28
people, let them bring their cultures, let them bring their
11:30
business and let's all get together and learn about one
11:33
another and, and thrive and, and bring back the, which was once
11:37
great about Monte City and, and put some money back in this town
11:40
and bring some reasons for people to come here.
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I'm a huge fan of that, but houses, old row homes dominate.
11:47
The average rent for a house is around $1100 according to the
11:50
Internet. For a modest 2 to 3 bedroom
11:52
house. It is very cheap to live here.
11:54
The cost of living is not very high, but also the pay rate
11:58
around here is not that great, so it all kind of balances out.
12:05
Yeah, so people would be like, back in the day, you would hear,
12:10
you know, Irish music and German music and the Lithuanian polka,
12:14
and now you hear a lot of Spanish music.
12:16
You know, the town is really changing.
12:17
And I and I do love the fact that our town is evolving and
12:20
growing our education system. Serve the Monte Area School
12:23
District has about 1100 students.
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The graduation rate is about 76%.
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The reading proficiency is about 30%, and math is about 11%.
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I fall into that shitty math category.
12:35
The Golden Bears is our our our our thing.
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So if you do watch a lot of this content, my background of my, a
12:41
lot of my stuff, that little towny, dingy town, that's Monty
12:44
City, Pennsylvania. That's where I'm from.
12:47
Some of the photos look like they can be taken in from my
12:49
house. Just put that out there if you
12:51
want to dox me later on. The reason I use black and gold
12:54
is that's our color scheme of our school.
12:56
Black and black and gold, black and yellow, however you want to
12:58
signify it. I do throw a little bit of
13:01
burgundy in there because that's my, my team is the commanders.
13:04
So I throw a little bit in that with a new season.
13:06
But black and gold is predominant my colors and that's
13:08
because of that. And it's, it's underfining, it's
13:10
underlying and it's it's the identity of our town.
13:14
We have some other crazy things with when it comes to our town,
13:17
especially in that the school thing, we had a Monet area
13:20
school district versus the BL, a cheerleader off campus, Snapchat
13:25
led to a ruling that protected student free speech nationwide.
13:30
I don't know much about the story or anything like that, so
13:33
I don't want to say if it was positive or negative, but free
13:35
speech is always good. I don't know if they said
13:38
something offensive or if they said something around those
13:40
lines, but I believe the school tried to punish her or take
13:44
things away from her because what she said on the social
13:46
media that did not involve school grounds or we're on
13:49
school grounds. And we had this thing back in
13:51
the day where they would say, hey, even if you're walking home
13:53
from school, we're responsible for you.
13:54
And if you get in trouble outside of school, we can we can
13:57
punish you here. But that that Supreme Court
14:00
ruling that came straight from our town ruled that you have
14:03
free speech and it protects student free speech, sports
14:07
legacies. So we have predominantly
14:10
football, basketball, wrestling, baseball, swimming.
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I believe we have a golf team, but the but the predominant ones
14:20
that people mostly talk about in our town is our our girls and
14:23
boys basketball and football. No disrespect to any other
14:26
sports, but they're just not as showcased as these other sports.
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I only played football for a short, short, short time.
14:35
I did not play any high school basketball, but I played in
14:38
every school, every park in this town.
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I love basketball. Our town is once was a huge
14:44
basketball town. Whether you were on the team or
14:46
not. You would not walk to a
14:48
basketball court in this town and it wouldn't be filled with
14:50
kids out there balling from sunup to sundown.
14:53
But in 1963 an undefeated 90 and one season for football in 1983
14:59
to 9/10/1995 Eastern Conference champions.
15:03
Keep in mind too the students. The student body of our school
15:07
is about 1100 students today didn't was probably even less or
15:12
around the same. Graduating classes for boys are
15:14
probably 100 kids like or less. So to think about a school this
15:21
size, we have a lot of heart, we have a lot of grit, we're tough.
15:26
And, and the fact that we're even playing for conference
15:28
championships and district championships and state
15:30
championships at our school level and our our small little
15:33
town is pretty, pretty impressive.
15:36
Comes to good coaching. It comes to tough nose, tough
15:39
Coal Region boys and girls. So, yeah, keep that in mind when
15:43
I say some of this stuff. Rivalries with Shenandoah Valley
15:46
and Marion were Coal Region classics and blood feuds back in
15:50
the day. We used to go to a football game
15:52
and the Monet area kids and the Shenandoah kids, we would
15:55
fistfight a lot and you would throw shit at the other person's
15:58
bus. It was wild, wild times.
16:01
It's not nearly as bad as it once was.
16:04
But let's talk a little bit about the boys and the boys side
16:06
of basketball. And when you think of the boys
16:08
basketball in Monte area, no disrespect to our amazing
16:10
coaches we have right now, we've had some amazing coaches in the
16:13
history of, of, of Monte area basketball.
16:17
But there's one name that stands above the all of them, and
16:19
that's Mickey Holland. Mickey Holland, I've never
16:21
played a second for that man, but his, he's a legend.
16:24
I respect him so, so much as a coach, as a husband, as a
16:28
person, as as a as a teacher. He was one of my favorite
16:31
teachers. The reason why I loved history
16:33
class was Mickey Holland. Mickey Holland not just told us
16:36
about the history of what was happening in the world, but then
16:39
he would break it down to what was happening in our local
16:41
community. His father was the one who
16:43
pretty much was the doctor for Muhammad Ali, the guy we talked
16:45
about earlier. He had 33 years as a coach in
16:49
Monte Area boys basketball program, racking up 614 wins in
16:55
2006 through 7. He had a 26 and two record.
16:59
And we actually named one of we have two gymnasiums in our
17:02
school. We have an elementary school and
17:03
a high school. One of those gyms is named after
17:06
Mickey Holland. And then on the girls side of
17:09
things, you think of one person and one person only.
17:11
And no disrespect to great coaches that have come after,
17:14
but that's Joe Olanski. Joe Olanski is the reason why we
17:16
have to have even have a state championship in our banner.
17:19
198832 and two PA AA state champions. 199827 and four Pi AA
17:26
state champions. Again, I was at that game in
17:29
Hershey, PA. It was awesome.
17:31
He was known for his sweet Caroline team tradition.
17:34
He retired with 391 wins and now is the in the District Hall of
17:39
Fame. So District, yeah, District 10A
17:42
Hall of Fame, I believe wrestling in 2025, Rory Dixon
17:46
placed top 16 in Pi AA tournament.
17:48
So that's awesome that we do have a pretty tough wrestling
17:50
program in this area as well. You know, from undefeated
17:54
football squads to the three girls state titles, sports game,
17:57
Monte City and banners to hang and, and and our our community
18:00
kind of lies on our local team. Even to this day, if you don't
18:05
have a kid that's still playing, Friday night footballs are a big
18:08
time basketball games people still go to, even if they have
18:12
no connections to any of the players anymore.
18:14
Because it's that it's kind of a thing for our town to do is go
18:16
support our local teams. I wish they still did it.
18:19
I need to go and support a team very, very soon because it's
18:23
part of our culture, part of our town, part of our our our
18:25
traditions and our history kind of keeps the town unified too.
18:29
When the sports teams are doing good, the town seems to have
18:32
more of an uplift to it. And it's kind of crazy to think
18:35
about that high school sports can do that.
18:37
The best way I can describe is it's very remember, remember the
18:39
Titans sports teams can change a lot in an area.
18:43
And when sports teams do good from the youth teams to the high
18:47
school teams, if someone does something, every fire truck in
18:50
town breaks out. The kids jump on the back of a
18:53
fire truck and they parade them through town and everyone shows
18:55
them that love and support. So another reason why I'm very
18:59
proud to be where I'm from, things to do in the area or in
19:04
our town. Center Street is the corner
19:06
cornerstone of our town. That's where most of our stuff
19:08
happens. We have the West End Cafe.
19:10
I don't know if it's still running, but at one point in
19:12
time it was the longest running and oldest bar in School County
19:16
firehouses. Our our our socials are huge.
19:18
Block parties, bingo parties, parades, the Citizens Humane,
19:23
the Washington Hook and Ladder and the the West End and the
19:26
Good American all do functions, whether it's dinners or events.
19:30
We just had a wrestling show at the Humane Fire Company.
19:33
So the fire company and and the and the football, sorry, it's
19:37
fire company and the local sports are very big lifebloods
19:40
of Maumee City even to this day. I wish we had more people who
19:43
volunteered. I'm probably guilty of that too.
19:46
I should go do more. But I, I, I'm just busy.
19:49
But but if you're the youth out there is really stepping it up
19:52
every single year when it comes to keeping that local fire
19:55
department and sports alive. We have nature, a lot of nature,
19:59
man woods. You can walk up in the woods and
20:01
go explore. But also we have Locust Lake and
20:04
Tuscarora parks for hiking and swimming and picnics.
20:07
They're literally right outside of town.
20:08
Tip 10 town 1015 minute drive out.
20:11
We have the Historical Society in Monte City, the Smith Mansion
20:14
museum nearby, and the number 9 coal mine and museum.
20:18
I've never heard of that, That's what someone said is there.
20:21
Maybe it's something new I'm not familiar with.
20:22
I know they just start doing train rides in town as well too.
20:25
Just outside of town as well too.
20:27
If you're heading towards the Locust Lake, Tuscarora area is
20:29
Heisler's Dairy and Ice Cream. C JS Doghouse in town is pretty
20:34
good. They just we just opened up some
20:36
Dominican places that you can go and get in food.
20:38
So we have Dominican food in town.
20:39
We have Carini's pizza in town, Amato's Pizza's probably the
20:42
oldest pizzeria in town and still kicking Joe Amato out
20:44
there, still killing it as the best pizza in town.
20:47
Sorry for everybody else, but that's just what it is.
20:49
Next to 54 is like an Italian Mexican restaurant.
20:52
That's pretty dope. We have a, a deli that's next to
20:56
a Barber shop in town. It's it's literally the size of
20:59
this table to walk through. But man, they have everything
21:01
you need in there. They're super welcoming.
21:03
They're super nice. I believe some of the family
21:05
members listen to this podcast. So if you're checking out, keep
21:08
killing it. I love your business.
21:09
You're doing great and the food's awesome and it's really
21:12
cool way to try different varieties of foods from
21:14
different places. They they get food from all over
21:16
the world, different chips, snacks, sodas, everything you
21:20
name it's in there. So great things going on there.
21:24
Notable people from our town, John Walton, the the the father
21:27
of cable television. Joe Duggan was a Yankees
21:30
infielder and Babe roots team teammate.
21:32
Probably a huge reason why he even came to this town.
21:34
Anyway, so not only did the the, you know, the Sultan come to
21:38
Monte City, one of our own got to play with him at one point in
21:42
time, which is pretty cool. Ron Norley was an MLB out
21:45
outfielder. George Senski, an NBA champion.
21:49
Jack McCloskey, the GM of the Detroit Pistons.
21:53
The Bad Boys is kind of noted to our area and our town.
21:57
Viktor's Schweitzberger, a Hollywood composer and director.
22:01
Lizzie Arrington, a female pro basketball player, janitor, same
22:04
as janitor. Senator James Rhodes.
22:07
Mike Rhodes, he's the head basketball coach at Penn State.
22:10
He also coached at BCU and they broke into the Sweet 16 one
22:13
year. That's also his Senator Rhodes's
22:16
son. And then Kevin Bishop, the
22:18
Bishop. Kevin C Rhodes was a Catholic
22:20
leader in our town, so all great names there.
22:24
We also have he's not from this town, but he coached here.
22:27
Gene Snitsky, pro wrestler was has some ties and and and roots
22:31
to our local area, especially when it comes to our high school
22:34
football team. Modern outlook.
22:37
The ACT 47 distress Miss Miss Anali program in 2016 exited
22:43
debris free in 2004. 2024, a 450, $1000 grant revitalizing
22:50
Main Street happened for us. Community pride anchors the fire
22:54
companies and schools still facing challenges with poverty,
22:57
aging houses, stock and shrinkage of population.
23:00
We do have a problem with houses just falling apart.
23:03
It's a safety hazard when it comes to our community and it I
23:07
hope it's something we definitely can fix in the
23:09
future. But yeah, trying to see what
23:15
else we have here. Oh, I do have more history when
23:19
I do close here. I I, I did realize I have more
23:22
when it comes to certain things that I want to touch on more.
23:25
But yeah, so book recommendations if you want to
23:28
check some stuff out, Making sense of the Molly Mcguire's by
23:31
Kevin Kenny, the film, the Molly Mcguire's, Molly McGuire Park
23:35
Kyer Brewery site, which is now a playground, and the Historical
23:39
Society. The mansion's also still there's
23:41
too, Heisler's Dairy or bar where you can, or the Yingling
23:44
or get some Yingling at a local bar in town, the West End Cafe.
23:49
You can go check out the Red Zone, Mcniff's, Mcguire's Pub,
23:53
which is another one in town. All three good, all great places
23:56
to go to. I believe there's a few other
23:59
bars in town. If I'm not saying them, I
24:01
apologize. It's it's not a a slight or
24:03
anything. I'm just trying to get through
24:05
this. But well, for minors to martyrs
24:09
to Saints, to sluggers, Monte City has a history bigger than
24:13
its map. This town that gave American
24:16
gave gave Americans cable television, the Supreme Court
24:19
cases, the state championships, all while packing more stories
24:23
into a half square mile than most cities 20 times its size
24:26
can do. Thank you so much for checking
24:30
out the podcast. I appreciate you so much for
24:32
tuning in. If there's any other topics that
24:34
you want me to cover that are not pop culture related or maybe
24:37
some local things I will dive into, I will do so.
24:40
Check out some of my other content on banging beers.
24:42
While I do talk about Yingling beer, I do review a lot of their
24:44
stuff, so you can check that as well.
24:47
They do do tours. Maybe I'll do a whole thing of
24:49
Pottsville as well, but tons of great things to do in this area.
24:53
It's small. We're we're tiny, but we're
24:56
mighty. We pack a punch.
24:57
It's one of those places that if you're, you know, when you're in
25:00
it, when you're in it and you're going through it, sometimes it
25:03
may not seem like the best and it may seem grungy and dirty and
25:06
gross, but when push comes to shove, if someone needs somebody
25:09
or there's someone that needs help, we usually rise up and
25:12
help each other. It's just, it's just kind of
25:15
what we do in this area. I love that it's becoming more
25:17
culturally vast. And I hope that the positive
25:20
things of our history branch out to the new people that are
25:22
bringing their own cultures in and we all can learn to respect
25:25
one another and grow this fine town.
25:27
Fix up some of these houses, get rid of some of the bad ones, put
25:30
up some new ones. Let's continue to grow our
25:32
sports teams. Let's continue to grow our
25:34
Volunteer Fire departments, clean up our parks, and just
25:37
make a great place for the future, the past, present and
25:40
future of this town. I hope one day that I can kind
25:43
of be like the Kevin Smith of my town and get popular, make
25:46
enough money on this that I can provide for myself, my friends,
25:49
my family, but also get back to my community and give more
25:52
things for the the youth to do. Give more places that people can
25:55
be safe, places that people can be educated, create their art,
25:58
showcase their art and grow. Thank you guys so much for
26:01
joining the ABJ podcast. This has been the episode about
26:03
Monte City, Pennsylvania. We'll see you guys next time.
26:06
Go Bears.