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My time away from Greater Pittston is always enjoyable when visiting Charleston, S.C. This trip was no different and I wrote about meeting up with NEPA friends in beautiful Charleston.
I would like to tie up some loose ends on the trip before moving on with business at hand in Wyoming Valley.
One thing I noticed when being away is, maybe not many people can tell you where Pittston or Dupont or Exeter is, but everyone knows Scranton.
“The Office” everyone shouts to me when I mention I live in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area.
Others know Scranton because of President Biden’s birthplace. Other than those two facts, other than the Harry Houdini Museum, that’s pretty much it. Oh, you didn’t know the Houdini Museum is in Scranton? Neither did I until a few short years ago.
The other thing I noticed is, there are a lot of connections to NEPA such as people being born in our area before their families moved away or they had family members that lived or formerly lived in NEPA.
I was teasing one of my fellow photographers while I was working at the Credit One Charleston Open tennis tournament about all the notable people from NEPA.
“I get it, I get it, everything goes through your area,” Leslie Billman, a lawyer by day and excellent tennis photographer by night, said.
Sometimes I find myself saying, “All roads lead through NEPA.” You know, there is a lot of truth to that.
Last week I mentioned Mike Saia, who used to work for the tennis center, a native of Exeter, and then there was the head groundskeeper, Jeff Church, a native of Bloomsburg.
One of the volunteers for many years pointed out to me she was from Scranton.
I used to tell this story often, but when I first started to work at the tennis center, during the tournament I was seated at my desk in the media center when in walked in John Nugent, former WYOU-TV sports director.
Back in his Scranton days, a lot of people referred to him as “The Nuge” so when he walked in the media center, I yelled out, “THE NUGE.”
I definitely startled him, and I don’t know if it was because I shouted it so loudly or because nobody in Charleston called him “The Nuge.”
So naturally, he eventually spoke to me about his good old days in Scranton, and we did a ton of name-dropping. It was fun for sure.
Fast-forward to 2023, I sat next to one of the more experienced tennis bloggers and writers in America, Jane Voigt. I had known of Jane for the many years of attending the tournament but never really got to know her. She was my desk next-door neighbor.
Jane is an English composition teacher by trade, and I get the shaky hand just thinking about my writing getting secretly graded when she read something I wrote.
So we struck up conversation. She eventually asked me where I was from and I told her the Wilkes-Barre area.
She stopped in her tracks: “My family is from Mountain Top, I lived in Kingston for a while before we all moved to Hawley, Pa.”
Honestly, I wasn’t shocked because I said I really believe a lot of America has been touched by NEPA in some regards.
My other office desk neighbor was Madison Golden, who works for TennisOne. Madison is in her 20s and she is striving to be an on-air sports reporter. I really believe she’ll make it one day.
Being that the tennis tournament was broadcast live by the Tennis Channel coverage was great for the event. It’s a world-class tournament and the women on the women’s pro tour love to stop at Charleston, which happens to be the first tournament of the year in the United States that starts the clay court season leading up the French Open in Paris.
I had on-court shooting privileges so naturally, with probably six TV cameras shooting on the court; I’d pop on live TV at some point.
I’ve had several friends inform me that they saw me during a broadcast or two, but the funniest story I’ve heard so far was from Frank and Terry Guasto of Pittston.
Terry and Frank, an avid tennis fan and player in his own rite, had company over, fellow tennis enthusiast Tony Palermo and his wife, Florence.
As Terry told the story, “We were watching the tennis with Tony and Florence Palermo. Frank says Tony (Callaio) is always there. And then you pop up on the screen!”
The Tennis Channel crew, at times, points the camera in the direction of the fans in the seats, except this time, it was a blaringly close up on my face pressed against my camera shooting photos for about seven seconds.
My family and some friends that saw it sure got a kick out of it, and it’s crazy to see your whole head take up 100% of a 65” TV.
I ran into Dan and Carol Truskowski the other day and they told me they saw me during the final’s ceremonies.
It doesn’t surprise me that people saw me on TV, what surprises me is people watch tennis. Hope everyone enjoyed a preview of summer this past week, I know I did.
Thought of the Week
“If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.” – Henry David Thoreau
Quote of the Week
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bumper Sticker
“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” – Christopher Reeve