When I was a kid, some adults were still talking about their youth back in “the Roaring Twenties.”
Despite the entertainment politics provides today, will our own decade match up with that legendary era or go down in American cultural history as “the Boring Twenties”?
Will our descendants look back on our time with awe and shake their heads and wish they could have been here for the sheer excitement of 2025?
Or will they hoot and hurl catcalls at us and call us history’s losers?
There’s only one way to find out. Since we know what’s happening today, let’s take a virtual trip back in time to February 1925, a century ago here in Wyoming Valley. Buckle up. Could be a rough ride.
For better or worse, prohibition was the law of the land in those days, and the cat-and-mouse game played by alcohol-hungry citizens and the forces of law and order was pretty much a daily soap opera in the press.
The old TV show “The Untouchables” would later give the impression that the law kept winning. But a glance at news stories shows that the true picture was more muddled and evenly fought.
Yes, there were liquor raids galore by the feds as well as state and county officials. But, as Luzerne County’s judges found out, actually getting guilty verdicts from a jury was another matter, apparently since there was so much anti-prohibition sentiment locally.
So, despite the county coroner reporting almost daily deaths from alcohol poisoning, the drinking went on. My own family told me that they enjoyed annual visits from their favorite bootlegger, since it would have been nigh unto a crime to celebrate a holiday without booze.
But there was more going on in February 1925 than prohibition.
Famed World War I flier Eddie Rickenbacker came to town that February to speak before the Kiwanis Club. Wish I could have heard him.
You never knew what was going to happen. Two school buildings in Larksville were temporarily closed because of apparent mine caving underneath, but Plymouth dedicated its beautiful new high school.
Well, things are looking interesting for the 1920s here in Wyoming Valley that month. But maybe there’s hope yet for us in 2025.
Let’s see. The new Kirby Park was flooded when the Susquehanna River spilled just over its banks, with homes in the Westmoor section of Kingston taking on some water in the basement. But no major damage was reported.
We’ve had some ice in the river, but no real problem with it.
Alcohol, though, was still the 1920s’ signature issue. During the summer, lawmen would find a still with an amazing capacity of 5,000 gallons and another they valued (in today’s money) at more than $900,000.
On the last day of February that year, something literally earth-shaking did occur that in my view definitely tips the excitement scales in favor of our great-grandparents and their era.
Geraldine Farrar, the great star of the Metropolitan Opera, was singing in “Carmen” at the Irving Theatre on Wilkes-Barre’s South Main Street when a tremor described by the Wilkes-Barre Record as “the most noticeable in many years” shook the community.
In fact, said the Record, the audience was in a near panic as the balcony swayed, though no damage was actually done there or anywhere else nearby. Anyway, the show went on.
OK. The 1920s wins the excitement wars and can keep the word “roaring” in its name.
Booze wars and earthquakes — a tough pair for any decade to beat.
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Tom Mooney is a Times Leader genealogy writer. Reach him at tommooney42@gmail.com.