Happy Birthday Wilson Borough !!

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Sunday, October 17, 2021

Incorporated on July 12, 1920, the Borough of Wilson was finally able to celebrate its 100th birthday this past weekend.  The COVID-induced belated (by 459 days) Centennial bash was held at Meuser Park - recalling the Golden Jubilee Celebration that took place in 1970, the summer between our Junior and Senior years. After a year-plus delay, which did inspire that clever and resourceful logo, the celebration ran from Thursday, October 14 through Saturday, October 16, with three days of fun, food and entertainment. The festivities wrapped up with a fireworks display launched from a currently (and sadly) de-commisioned Meuser Swimming Pool.

A handful of '71 alums reprised their Golden Jubilee carnival appearances of a half-century ago at this year's event. Here are a few photos . . .

  

The Class of '71's Terry Bieber Balcavage and Joy Garren Hemming enjoyed Large Flower Heads' renditions of the sounds of the '60s along with Terry's daughter Krista (Class of '93) and sister Ann (Class of '78) at the opening night of Wilson Borough's Centennial Clebration at Meuser Park.

 

Diane Yurko Mahoney was able to score a new 21st century WHS t-shirt while visiting the Wilson Centennial Celebration with her granddaughter, Kathy.

Back home, Diane was also able to dig up this memory from one of the many activities held during 1970's Golden Jubilee.  We can only hope that these vintage autos have fared better over the past 51 years than the commemorative time capsule that was buried during the 1970 celebration . . . 

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1970 - a great year for music. The Kinks ("Lola"). Mungo Jerry ("In the Summertime").  Joe Cocker ("The Letter"). 

1970 - not so great for time capsule design.  Unfortunately, the concrete vault used to house and preserve treasures from the Golden Jubilee days failed to pass the water-tight test.  By the looks of things, its sacred seal was breached by the elements sometime back in the 20th century and any paper-based memorabilia - incuding a secret letter from the 1970 mayor to the (future) 2020 mayor - took a Bushkill Park style bath.

 

Fortunately, unlike the time capsule, this noble fellow and his loyal canine companion have hardly aged at all over the past 51 years and stood figuratively, literally and vigilantly at their post in the park.  (For an interesting article about Wilson Borough's only public statue, click here for this 1992 Morning Call piece.)

 

Ironically, the time capsule's demise proved to be a prescient foretelling of future water woes.  After being blessed with two-and-a-half beautiful sunny days, the Meuser Park festival suffered its own agua-based setback just after 3:30 Saturday afternoon. The massive cold front that had been making its way across Pennsylvania all day concentrated its forces behind Route 22 and proceeded to unleash a micro-burst of wind and rain directly at the relatively defenseless celebrants below. 

 

The timing of the storm was especially bad, coinciding with the end of the Wilson-Bangor football game and negating the expected outpouring of the crowd from the stadium to the fair.  While most of the vendors, food trucks and amusements stood their ground, the rains that continued throughout the evening put a damper on what would have been expected to be the event's biggest night.  To their credit, despite the limited attendance, the remaining musical groups performed as if they were playing to packed venues at MusikFest.

 

But all's well that ends well and the downpours abated enough by 10:00 p.m. that the party was able to go out with a big bang - 13 minutes worth of bangs to be exact.  Beside those hearty souls who stuck around or came out late to watch up close and personal, the fireworks were enjoyed by many from the sidewalks, lawns and porches of the borough.

Kudos to John Burke and the Wilson Borough Celebration Committee and the scores of volunteers who made this happen despite all the obstacles of the past 20 months.  

Happy Birthday, Wilson Borough - Our finest thoughts are all for thee!