Contents

 

Acknowledgements

 

Introduction

 

In the Beginning

 

The Rides

 

The Dance Hall

 

Ethnic Celebrations

 

The Theater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acknowledgements

 

Despite a disastrous fire that destroyed our grandparents' home and department store in 1945, pictures of Lakewood Park remained at the Guinan summer bungalow or in married sons' homes. After going through Lakewood memorabilia following my mother's death and listening for years to the stories of my dad and uncles, I felt compelled to collect all the history and record it in book form.

 

With the encouragement of several people, including Shirley Ryan, the best genealogist and living historian on the Mahanoy City area, I solicited the help of Richard Guinan Jr.'s daughter Kathryn (Kathy) Connelly and Frank Guinan's daughter Janet Cunningham to help with the project. For their research and writing I am most grateful. My uncle Lawrence (Larry) Guinan, age 90, patiently answered my questions and retold stories until I got them right, and my cousin Ceci Connelly lent her journalistic editing to the introduction. Although most of the pictures and postcards belong to family members, the following people must be thanked for rooting in attics and basements to find the pictures I wanted to tell the story of Lakewood: Marjorie Fletcher, Joseph Moore, Dale Freudenberger, Mary Altoff Koch and her sister Lois, Marle Becker for his help in contacting Bob Buchanan and John Kenley, the Knights of Lithuania and members Jim and Dot Setcavage, Helen McBrearty, Paula Duda Holoviak, Donald Coombe, Carolyn Jenkins, Mary Mokol Marlow, the Mayersky family, and Francis and Barbara Pedriani. Thanks also to the late Bob Skeath for his scrapbook memories, Tom Whalen for his keen eye in identifying people, my husband for proofreading, John "Puck" Sullivan for his wonderful eyewitness accounts, and, most importantly, Krista Gromalski, my local editor, who checked my style and grammar before it was submitted to our publisher.

 

Each person who reads this book has their own memories of Lakewood - picnics, rides, a dance, a kiss, and many times, a spouse. I sincerely hope you will share those memories with me at peggrig@frontier.net. Unless otherwise noted, the images in this book are courtesy of the Guinan family.

 

Peggy Grigalonis