Bill OBoyle: Who has a '66 light blue GTO convertible?
Jul. 14—WILKES-BARRE — Being named grand marshal for the upcoming Plymouth Alive 20th Kielbasa Festival Parade is, in a word, humbling.
It's not like I won a Pulitzer or a Nobel Prize, but it sure feels like it.
When I was notified of this most prestigious honor, my thoughts immediately turned to my parents and how proud they would be of their only child.
In all sincerity, it was emotional for me and I am very grateful for being chosen as this year's grand marshal.
Now, as I prepare for this event, I have a few things on my wish list. First off is finding the right vehicle to ride in — my ideal car would be a 1966 Pontiac GTO, light blue, white rag top, white interior. Pretty specific, but that's the car I had following high school graduation. It was a beauty.
So if anybody out there has a GTO like that, please call me so we can arrange this. My phone number is at the bottom of this column.
Whatever vehicle I will be riding in, be assured that my parents — William O'Boyle and Elizabeth Kraszewski O'Boyle — will be with me. After all, they are responsible for me being here in the first place and for providing me with everything I would need to navigate through my life.
So as we prepare for the Kielbasa Parade, let's take a short trip in the Way Back Machine and recall all those places along Main Street that we used to visit back in the day.
If we start on West Main Street near Raub's Restaurant, we can grab a quick meal there, then our first stop would be Karpy's where most Plymouth kids learned how to enjoy the somewhat limited benefits of beer, wine and more.
As we proceed up Main Street, we look to the right and we see the old Ash Diamond beyond the railroad tracks. This is where authentic slow-pitch softball flourished. Our team, Lower End Pizza, was once referred to by our dearly departed Coach Harry 'The Hawk" Yurch as "we are stink."
Next stop would be the beautiful campus of Plymouth Junior-Senior High School, with its winding sidewalks, tall shade trees and connecting bridge. Huber Field sat in the back, near Huber Playground and Plymouth Little League on Wadham Street — our Field of Dreams.
From there we go past all of the iconic businesses on Main Street. Places like Joe's Pizza, which would evolve to become Grotto Pizza, and the Octagon Bar, Walt's Servette, Red's Subs, Mergo's and Golden Quality.
We can still see those huge crowds fill Huber Field, and top-notch basketball at the Gaylord Armory, where fans hung over the horseshoe balcony.
Further up Main Street we see Hacker's Market, Mitch Plessett's Men's Store, Al Wasley's Jewelers, Rea & Derick, the Shawnee Theater, C. Matus News, Ben Franklin Store, Home Furniture, Shawnee TV, and a slew of bars and funeral homes — one after another.
And don't forget Bill Goldstein's Hardware Store, where we could get any doohickey, thingamajig or whatchamacallit we needed. And for sports equipment, Doc Savage's had all we could ever need for any sport. And Smolok's Market always stocked Whiffle Ball bats and balls.
As we hover over the town in the Way Back Machine, we see the Main Street filled with patrons walking up and down and in and out of all the businesses.
Old Shawnee was alive — Plymouth Alive, so to speak.
And that's what happens every August when the Plymouth Alive group puts on the annual Kielbasa Festival. The impact the festival has had on the town is remarkable. So many deserving organizations have received donations from Plymouth Alive because of the success of the event.
I want to walk the Main Street like it was 1966 again — the year our basketball team was District 2 champion. I want to visit all those great places that I have written about before. I want to get a CMP at Golden Quality — vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and marshmallow sauce with peanuts and whipped cream and a cherry on top.
I want to watch a movie at the Shawnee Theater and I want a Mergo's hot dog and a Rea & Derick cherry Coke. I want to buy a pair of pants at Mitch Plessett's Men's Shop and a couple of comic books at C. Matus News, where I might also shoot a little 9-ball and play the six-card pinball.
I want to peer into Brodmarkel's Store and see what actually they sell in there. I want to steer clear of Al Wasley Jeweler — I wasn't ready for that diamond engagement ring in 1966. And I want to get a pizza and a Coke at Joe's Pizza and then walk back to C. Matus and hold up a parking meter with my besties as we watched the world go by.
There was so much to do back then and what I will forever miss is what our lives were like back then. We could walk up and down a crowded Main Street and stop at vendors and sample different treats. We would see familiar faces and have conversations about many things, like how it was back in the day — like in 1966.
And we could again remember and enjoy the halcyon days of our youth — of growing up and celebrating our town's bicentennial as we struggled to grow a mustache or a beard to be in the Little Shavers Contest during the borough's Bicentennial event back then.
I thought about all the great cars of the 1960s and how each had its own distinctive look and appeal. And there were no SUVs, just a few station wagons.
Most of all that was Plymouth in the 1960s is long gone — but the memories never fade.
But every year at the Kielbasa Festival, those memories come flowing back.
If I could only find a '66 GTO, light blue, white rag top, to take this journey on Saturday, Aug 10, well, that would be just perfect.
Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.
