Lititz Record Express

              _____________________________________________________________________ THURSDAY, December 12, 1991
L i t i t z R e c o r d E x p r e s s
I 115TH YEAR LITITZ, PENNSYLVANIA 28 Pages- No. 34 30 cents
Holiday lights brighten downtown
Large crowd
watches Fri.
ceremony
JENNIFER KOPF_________
L ititz R ecord News E d ito r
Motorists passing through
downtown Lititz last Friday even­ing
must have wondered what this
community was up to.
Adults and children alike roam­ing
the sidewalks, many munch­ing
on hot dogs or soft prezels, or
downing coffee to stay warm,
with an especially large congrega­tion
of people collected near the
square.
But when 6:30 rolled around,
the area around Main and Broad
was filled with eager children —
of all ages — waiting for Mayor
Roy Clair and Santa Claus to do
the honors and light this year’s
community tree.
They were welcomed by Mike
Hess of the Lititz Retailers’ Asso­ciation,
who announced the win­ners
of the house decorating
contest:
• Whole house decoration: Eli­zabeth
Siegrist, 339 Pierson
Road.
• Door decoration: Robert
Carner, 30 E. Woods Drive.
• Store window decoration:
Marion Eby Interiors, 53 N.
Broad St.
The applause for the winners
was eclipsed only by the cheers
greeting Santa’s appearance.
Holding court just up the street at
the entrance to Lititz Springs
Park, Santa ambled south to the
lawn of Lititz Mutual Insurance
Company. There, he shared tree­lighting
honors with Mayor Clair.
The crowd applauded as the tiny
white lights illuminated the faces
of children gathered up front in
the crowd.
And just about everyone joined
the Warwick Warblers, dressed as
Toyland characters — as well as
puppies, Donald Duck, jokers,
panda bears and alphabet blocks
— in the singing of holiday carols.
Derek Drum had staked out a
prime location before the cere­mony
began, saying that he had
“asked Mom if we could come
down.” The singing was good
practice for Derek; he attends St.
Luke’s United Church of Christ in
Lititz and his choir is “practicing
about 15 songs” for an upcoming
Christmas program. “We’ve been
practicing every Thursday,” he
said, for the Sunshine and Snow­flakes
concert.
Derek must have been pleased
with the song selection last Friday
— his favorite carol, the second
grader said, is “Silent Night”, and
the crowd seemed to enjoy it just
as much as he when the Warwick
group led this holiday’s rendition.
T v e never seen
anything like it../
R e m e m b e r i n g
LORIN BEIDLER____________
R eco rd E xp re ss S ta ff
There are certain events in Ameri­can
history that were important
enough that people who were alive at
the time forever remember exactly
where they were and what they were
doing when they heard news of the
happening. The invasion of Pearl
Harbor, which catapulted America
into World War II, was one such
event.
Lititz resident Norman W. Almo-ney
may remember where he was at
the time a little better than most,
however. He was there.
On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941,
much of the industrialized world was
at war. America, however, was not.
Almoney, who had enlisted in the
army only seven months earlier,
remembers it as being a particularly
peaceful Sunday morning. As it was
Sunday, reveille had not been blown
and quite a few of the men stationed
a t S c h o f ie ld B a r r a c k s , a
stone’s-throw from the air corp’s
Wheeler Field, were sleeping off
hangovers after another wild Satur­day
night
Almoney, however, was one of the
several dozen soldiers who had got­ten
up in time for breakfast Almoney
remembers that he was eating ham
and eggs in the barracks’ mess hall
when “we heard this plane diving and
P e a r l H a r b o r
Norm Almoney
then we heard this bomb go off and
someone said ‘Hell, that’s strange
that Wheeler’s on maneuvers on a
Sunday morning.’
“When the second bomb went off
wc all hit the door at the same time
trying to get out of the barracks.
“Wc just stood there with our
mouths hanging open and then we
saw who it was, wc saw the rising
sun.” When asked if he was scared,
Almoney replies with a chuckle,
“Well, 1 wasn’t feeling too good.”
For 15 to 20 minutes the Japanese,
in Almoncy’s words, “bombed the
hell out o f’ Wheeler Field, a mere
(Turn to Page 28)
Consumers are ‘shopping around\ but still turning out
LORIN BEIDLER__________________
R eco rd E x p re ss S ta ff
November and December are typically the
bread and butter months of the retail trade.
Christmas sales can make or break the sales
year and tide shopkeepers over through the
lean winter months.
Last December, as the reality of recession
was setting in, the papers were full of articles,
painting gloomy pictures of how the hard
financial times spelled trouble for retailers,
often among the first to suffer during eco­nomic
slowdowns.
How does shopping in the Lititz area this
Christmas season compare with prior years?
Is it gloom-and-doom or is the economy just
riding the waves of its naturally cyclical
tides?
The concensus among Lititz area retailers
seems to be that shoppers are definitely being
more careful, but things might not be as grim
as media hype has made them out to be.
While the impulse buying of the ’80s has
been replaced by more careful, selective
shopping, traffic through borough shops
remains strong, and spending seems to be
remaining strong enough.
Like many area retailers, Herb Shop owner
Barbara Zink reports that consumers are defi­nitely
shopping more carefully. “People
check their prices more carefully,” she says.
“They spend less frivolously than they did a
few years ago. It’s been more of a controlled
buying.”
Rodney Moseman, owner of Bicycle
World, agrees with Zink. “People are shop­ping
around a lot harder,” he says. “You don’t
see the kind of impulse buying that you used
to.”
The selectivity of the consumer may be the
only thing that area retailers have in common;
beyond that they report varied successes.
Some have been having banner years, for
instance, while others have been having aver­age,
or below average years.
The Wilbur Chocolate Outlet, for example,
fits into the former category; retail chocolate
seems immune to the recession.
“I’d say we’re bigger this year and we get
bigger every year,” says Sylvia Roberts,
manager of Wilbur’s outlet. “We’ve been
very, very busy.”
Roberts attributes the business’ continued
success to the nature of the chocolate market.
“Some say that when the economy is not so
good, chocolate and candy sell even better
and I think they’re not far off the mark,” she
adds. “It’s not as expensive as a new car or
some of the other luxuries. It’s one luxury
people seem to always afford themselves. I
think they’re also a little addicted,” she adds
chuckling.
The Teddy Bear Emporium is also holding
its own despite the uncertain economy.
“We’re running a little ahead of last year,”
says owner Judy Kahn. Thanks to a “pheno­menal”
August and a good Christmas season,
her business is experiencing a “better year as
a whole than last year.”
Another reason that both Wilbur and the
Teddy Bear Emporium are having good years
is a strong shopper turnout for the day after
Thanksgiving, commonly known as “Black
Friday.” Roberts, Kahn and Zink all attest to
having strong sales on Black Friday this year.
“We brace ourselves every year for that,”
says Roberts. “It’s always our biggest day.”
Kahn shared in Wilbur’s Nov. 29 success.
“Our sales on Black Friday tripled over last
year,” she says.
While Sue Reich, owner of Noah’s Ark,
reports that the Christmas season as a whole
has been a little off from other years, Black
Friday was strong for her as well. Despite the
fact that the Christmas season has been some­what
slow, Reich adds that 1991 in general is
pretty much keeping pace with other years.
“The year as a whole is pretty much on
line,” she says. “It’s Like any year, you have
good days and you have bad days.”
One reason Black Friday may have been so
good this year, Zink points out, is that
Thanksgiving came later this year than other
years. As many as six days may have been eli­minated
from the Christmas shopping season
due to the late Thanksgiving date, she says.
Moseman’s line of business is such that he
rarely experiences the rush of Black Friday
but, he reports, November was a strong
month for him nonetheless. Though Decem­ber
has not been quite as brisk, he, like Reich,
says that his sales for the year as a whole are
keeping pace with the last couple of years.
Bicycle World has been able to compen­sate
for the evaporation of the easy market of
several years ago, Moseman adds, by re­targeting
their own purchasing and stocking
items that they think will continue to sell
well. “We’ve been able to anticipate buyers’
needs to a large extent,” he says. “People are
looking around for good values and we’ve
been able to capitalize on that.”
While some retailers are so far escaping
the recession without serious suffering, Cred-
(Turn to Page 28)
Sidewalks to be finished
th is week in Rothsville
JENNIFER KOPF____________
L ltltz R e co rd News E d ito r
For awhile this autumn, traffic was
flowing smoother in downtown
Manhattan that it was in downtown
Rothsville. The curbing and sidew­alk
project along Main Street, espe­cially,
caused some delays as con­tractors
tried to get the project fin­ished
before cold weather set in.
Compounding the tie-ups was the
fact that utility poles, situated direct­ly
in the path of the new sidewalks,
had to be pulled up and moved back
from the roadway.
But now, contractor David
Pflumm said Tuesday morning, “the
north side (of Main Street) is all but
UK) percent complete.” After Tues­day
or Wednesday of this week, he
added, that part of the project would
be finished.
Remaining for his workers are
about 1,000 feet of sidewalk in Phase
I, located between Jim and Shirley’s
Tavern and the Getty Mart, along the
south side of Main Street Rothsville.
In early September, Warwick
Township supervisors gave the pro­ject
an official go-ahead nod, and
work commenced soon afterward.
Pflumm said that the crew tried to
coordinate its work schedule with
that of Pennsylvania Power and
Light workers sent to Rothsville to
move utility poles.
“We kept moving back and forth
to different ends of the project to stay
out of each other’s way,” he said,
adding that “it’s tough to have traffic
control being done by two different
(crews) at the same time.”
Residents had expressed some
concern had been expressed at a
recent supervisors’ meeting about
work continuing after weather turned
colder, making it more difficult for
concrete to set properly.
(Turn to Page 2.8)
A willingness to help at all hours
LORIN BEIDLER
R ecord E x p re ss S ta ff
Nineteen years ago, Beth Runk
acquired certification that would
allow her to legally drive an ambu­lance
for the next three years. Early
into her stint with the Warwick
Ambulance Association, she was
sure she would never renew that
certification.
Fortunately, driving ambulances
grew on Runk and she not only
renewed her cetification once, she
did it enough times to keep her on the
Warwick Ambulance Association
for almost 20 years. Runk and fellow
driver Pat Ross were recently recog­nized
for their 20 years of voluntary
service to the association at its annual
Christmas banquet.
Ross, the wife of Richard Ross,
and Runk, the wife of Barry Runk,
are both Lititz residents.
The two veteran drivers have seen Steve Henkel, president of the Warwick Ambulance Association, recently presented Beth Runk, left,
and Pat Ross with plaques recognizing their 20 years of voluntary service.
(Turn to Paae 24)
THIS WEEK IN THE R E C O R D EXPRESS THE INDEX
Early deadlines for the holiday season
Holiday Issues of The Lititz
Record Express will be printed
and mailed on Monday, Dec.
23 and Monday, Dec. 30.
Deadlines for editorial copy
and retail and classified dis­play
ads will be Thursday at 5
p.m., Dec. 19 and 26. Classi­fied
reader ads will be
accepted until 10 a.m., Dec. 20
and 27. Please plan ahead for
these special deadlines.
Thank you!
Grappiers deck L-S and Daniel Boone
The Warwick wrestling team
began the season with an
impressive start as it gained
convincing victories over
both Lampeter-Strasburg
(41-24) and Daniel Boone
(50-15) in the Lampeter-
Strasburg tournament this
past Saturday. Read more on
page 10.
Business 15
Church 18-19
Classified 25-27
Editorial 4
Lunch Menu 6
Manheim 20
Obituaries 2
Out of the Past 4
School News 6
Social 16-17
Sports 8-11
WEATHER: Fair Thursday.
Chance of rain Friday and Satur­day.
Highs near 60 Friday and in
the low 50's Saturday.