Have you heard about the new contest from The Dallas Post called “Best of the Back Mountain?”

Here’s your chance to vote for everything from your favorite new restaurant to insurance agent. The readers choice awards will allow entrants to vote for their favorite Back Mountain business in 75 different categories. And everyone who enters has the chance to win $100.

I spent much of my morning today driving around and dropping off voting boxes.

Here are the current locations where you can vote:
Back Mountain Memorial Library, Dallas
Grotto Pizza, Harveys Lake
Ochman’s Coins and Jewelry, Dallas
Fire and Ice on Toby’s Creek, Trucksville
Asaki Hibachi and Sushi, Shavertown
Wayne’s World, Dallas
Starbucks, Shavertown
Bagel Art, Dallas
The Lands at Hillside Farms, Trucksville
Red Rooster Pancake House and Family Restaurant, Hunlock Creek

A voting ballot will run in each week’s edition of The Dallas Post and periodically in The Times Leader. Or, you can vote online at www.mydallaspost.com. Votes will be accepted until September 25. 

Students at Lake-Lehman High School and Dallas High School will also have the opportunity to vote in school when they return from summer vacation. It’s especially important that high school students vote because we have categories including high school sports team, high school sports coach, high school male athlete, high school female athlete and high school teacher.

Be sure to vote for the “Best of the Back Mountain 2008 Readers Choice Awards.” Will you be No. 1?

Elizabeth Prater, 103, of Plymouth Township, passed away on Tuesday. Prater taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Idetown during the 1924-25 school year. Only one to three children were in a grade and Prater taught all of the grades. The students sat on a long bench, similar to a church pew, and each had a slate on which they wrote with chalk. A pot belly stove heated the room. Water was accessible only from a pump outside and students had to use an outhouse.

CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/FOR THE DALLAS POST

You may remember a story I wrote in early May about Elizabeth Prater, a 103-year-old woman who taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Idetown during the 1924-25 school year.

I’m sad to say Prater passed away on Tuesday.

Prater moved in with her son, John, and daughter-in-law, Ingrid, in their Plymouth Township home in March of 2002. That was the site for my interview with her. From the moment I arrived at the house, I couldn’t believe Prater was 103! Even though she could no longer walk and relied on her hearing aids, she looked like a woman in her late 70s or early 80s. That might still sound pretty old, but that’s a 20 to 30-year difference less than her real age.

At 103, she was still knitting, mending, doing crossword puzzles, keeping a daily diary and writing letters to her other two children who live out of town. She also was not a smoker or a drinker. And I must say that Prater’s mind was definitely sharp.

The Forty Fort native was able to tell me about her year at the Idetown schoolhouse, to which she commuted via trolley and foot. She remembers having a room of children in grades kindergarten through eight. Only one to three students were in each grade and they all sat across a long bench similar to a church pew. Each child had a slate they wrote on with chalk.

The room was heated by a pot-belly stove and water was only accessible from a pump outside. If someone had to go to the bathroom, he or she had to use the outhouse. But the kids were used to being in the cold. They all walked to school, some from as far away as Harveys Lake. Prater would make the children sit in front of the fire and rub theirs hands until they became warm.

Prater also vividly remembered how she and the children all drank water from the same dipper in the same bucket. She said it didn’t kill any of them and laughed about how people carry their own water bottles today and won’t even drink water from the kitchen faucet.

And if teachers today think they get paid unjustly, consider this: Prater’s pay for the entire 1924-25 school year was a mere $900. The following school year, Prater was hired at Fort Street Elementary School in Forty Fort where she taught for two years until she got married. At that time, married women were not allowed to teach in the Forty Fort School District. That just boggles my mind. Years later, the rule was changed and Prater returned to teaching in Forty Fort.

Thankfully, I had the chance to tell Prater’s story before it was too late. I’m glad I got to meet her and judging from her sweet personality, I’m sure she is in a better place. I give my deepest condolences to her family.

Nicole and Michael Theodore in their Metro Bar & Grill, which opened Aug. 6 in the Twin Stacks Center, Dallas.

FRED ADAMS/THE TIMES LEADER

I’m baaaaack!

After taking one week of vacation time, I have returned to work and will be updating my blog for your reading pleasure.

And today, I’m going to talk of my excitement for Metro Bar and Grill. The new restaurant in the Twin Stacks Center is owned by Michael and Nicole Theodore. The couple also owns the Arena Bar and Grill on Coal Street in Wilkes-Barre.

Arena is one of my favorite bars and restaurants in the area. They have a wide selection of beers you probably won’t find at a corner bar. The food is phenomenal with my favorite dish being the Mushroom and Swiss Burger. Happy hour includes $2 drafts, appetizers and house wines. Arena has always been the place to be on Fridays after work and Sunday evenings for a special happy hour from 9-11 p.m.

I feel that Metro is exactly what Dallas needed- a classy, affordable place both the young and old can eat and drink. Although I admit that I have not been there yet, I imagine it to be similar to Arena, except probably larger in size.

For people who just want to sit and drink, there aren’t many places in the Back Mountain to do that. Students often flock TC Riley’s for college night on Wednesdays and I’m told the place is a practically a Dallas High School reunion. As far as I know, other than Big Eam’s and Libations, there are only pizza places to drink. Misericordia University and Penn State Wilkes-Barre students now have somewhere new to enjoy drinks on their limited budgets.

Obviously, Metro Bar and Grill sounds like an amazing place. Given the success of Arena, I think the Theodores will do well even though restaurants have notoriously struggled at Twin Stacks.

My only issue is what will entice non-residents of the Back Mountain to make the drive to visit Metro when they can go to Arena? Will it be a new atmosphere? How about a different menu? Whatever be the reason, Metro needs to advertise to all of the residents of “the valley” and not just Dallas.

Best of luck to the Theodores and the Metro Bar and Grill. Stop by and let me know what you think. I plan to do so myself very soon.

Christopher and Olivia Mennig, Nicole Cavanaugh, Annabelle Van Hemert and Jace Garnick watch during Jill Kryston’s etiquette class at the Back Mountain Memorial Library.

Charlotte Bartizek/for the dallas post

In the Sunday, July 27 edition of The Dallas Post, there was an article I wrote on Jill Kryston’s children’s etiquette program that was held at the Back Mountain Memorial Library.

As the reporter for the story, I stayed for the entire hour of the program and observed what went on. What I didn’t and couldn’t tell you in my story is that I learned, too!

My mother taught me basic table manners growing up. I knew enough not to utter impolite words at dinner and to say please and thank you. She showed me to place the fork on the left of the plate and the knife and spoon to the right. But I never knew some of what Kryston touched on.

The first thing I learned was to always pass food to the left. I usually just pass it in the direction it is already going in. And if I get the mashed potatoes first, I look to see if the person on either side of me is occupied with a plate of something. If the person on the left is free, he gets the mashed potatoes. If the person on the right is free, I’d pass it to the right.

Next, I was shocked to find out the proper way to eat a dinner roll. Kryston says you should rip off individual pieces one at a time. Each piece would be buttered and eaten separately. So basically it’s wrong to cut your roll in half, butter it and munch on it. Wouldn’t the correct method take forever? And furthermore, wouldn’t it make a mess? I can just imagine myself getting crumbs all over the place. To me, it seems like playing with your food.

I was just plain disappointed to find out I’m supposed to be dipping the spoon in my soup away from me. It doesn’t seem right.

I’m not knocking the etiquette class or manners in general. They are important in keeping us a civilized society. But will anyone really care, or even notice, if I dip my soup spoon away from me instead of toward me? Nevertheless, if I were a parent, I would send my child to Kryston’s etiquette class. I hate it when kids act up at the dinner table.
 

Purple Loosestrife wave in a gentle breeze as their reflection is captured in the calm, clear waters of Harveys Lake on a sunny day. The plant, although striking in its coloration with its pink and purple flowers, is considered a threat to native wetland habitat and programs are in place to control its growth.

CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/FOR THE DALLAS POST

I apologize that my blog entry from Friday was deleted. I don’t know how or why it happened and I am extra upset because I feel it was one of my better ones.

Anyway, be sure to pick up The Dallas Post from Sunday, July 27. Inside you will find our annual Guide to the Back Mountain. The 48-page publication features information on local government, public and private schools, colleges and universities, nursery school and day care facilities, arts and culture, health care, recreational parks, and civic organizations.

You’ll also find coupons for Asaki Japanese Cuisine Seafood Steak House and for free vitamins from Cook’s Pharmacy, both in Shavertown.

The Guide to the Back Mountain is small enough that you can keep it in a drawer or on top of an end table near your telephone. I make sure to get an updated copy each year and place it in my desk so I can quickly access important Back Mountain telephone numbers.

I think you might be interested to know where the photo on the cover comes from. The photo is of Purple Loosestrife growing at Harveys Lake. Photographer Charlotte Bartizek, who took the photo, said in the photo’s caption, “The plant, although striking in its coloration with its pink and purple flowers, is considered a threat to native wetland habitat and programs are in place to control its growth.”

According to invasiveplants.net, the plant was used as a contaminant for European ship ballast and as a medicinal herb. Imagine using this beautiful plant to cure bleeding, ulcers, sores and even diarrhea.

Our Guide to the Back Mountain only comes out every July, so don’t miss out!

About the Author

Rebecca Bria has been reporting for The Dallas Post since June of 2007. She is a 2007 graduate of Wilkes University and previously interned with the company at The Weekender and The Times Leader.

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