Where is My Shamokin?????

Recently a page came to be on Facebook called "You Know Your from Shamokin When." It talks about all the things that people grew up with in Shamokin and it's surrounding Coal Township.  It is a little skewed to do most social media users being under a certain age.  Most of the memories come from the last 40 years but there were a few like that went a little further back.

It is hard to pinpoint why such things now so dear to our memories have been lost and to the reason why.  The reasons really don't matter.

Here are some of the things Shamokin had at one time:

• Edgewood Amusement Park.
• Three movie theaters called the Majestic, Capitol and Victoria.
• A drive-in movie theater.
• Trolley service
• Passenger train service
• A vibrant downtown that included clothing, shoe, and sporting goods stores often with multiple selections of stores. Anything a person wanted could be found downtown.
• The F&S Brewery.
• 2 major industries were coal and textiles.
• One radio and one television station.

It is hard to comprehend, but this phenomena wasn't unique to Shamokin.  It happened all over northeast Pennsylvania.  Pick any town from Shamokin to Scranton.  You can see what happened for better or worse. Are there remedies?  Only those of us left can decide.