Standing on the heights above Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania one can not help but get a sense of the powerful mystique that pervades this historic American town. Every door and window beckons to those that care enough to hear the tale. Step through these portals and meet the ghosts of our past and the spirit of our future.
I began this year’s annual March pilgrimage with a pint and a song at the quiet shebeen located off the back parlor of the Gilded Cupid Bed and Breakfast. My cup was filled with Guinness, and my ears were filled with a tune trumpeting the struggles and exploits of the Molly Maguires. In past years, I would have raised that first glass honoring those intrepid Irish colliers from a bar stool at the old Molly Maguire’s Pub; but unfortunately that celebrated saloon on Broadway, like so many of the region’s anthracite mines, is no longer in operation.
But Jim Thorpe is that resilient community that epitomizes the grit and fortitude of the nation. Today once more you can hear the coal cars of the Reading and Northern Railroad rolling through the Lehigh Gorge from the outside deck of the recently reincarnated Molly Maguires Pub. It was there that I ended this year’s journey – raising a final pint in tribute to both the Irish heart and the American spirit!
All of us at American Public House Review wish everyone a very happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Click here to enjoy some suitable Irish tunes for the celebration.
Posted by: Chris Poh
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Excellent advice. I’ll post a link in this podcast on my blackboard website for my students. Everything you could said works for user discussion forums too.