In this third column, I am speaking to Kevin Reichel, Dale Kocher and Ron Keppel on life in Phoenix, an area in Nazareth named for the Phoenix Portland Cement Company. It was home to many ethnic groups who worked in cement plants and apparel factories.

They recall that there was a great deal of community spirit there. If a neighbor was working on any home project, the neighbors would always be there to help.

Music was a great source of entertainment. Kevin's father, Joe, founder of the Reichel Funeral Home, played the trumpet, his grandfather the trombone. Gerry Zimidz could play practically any instrument. Backyard music was alive and well in the neighborhood.

In later years at age 54 Joe Reichel formed his own band. Most musicians were self taught. For years Ed Novogratz, a Northampton resident, played the accordion in the band.

Mr. Keppel added an interesting memory. He recalled when he went to Louie Messenlehner's Sunoco station in Nazareth. There was a young attendant, a nice boy who filled the tank. His name Mario Andretti!

Kevins father, after graduating from Nazareth, was drafted during the Korean War and served in the U.S. Army. On his return he wanted to attend medical school but was unable to afford the tuition. Instead he graduated from Eckel's Mortuary School.

In 1957 he borrowed $29,000 and purchased the Austin Buck home in Washington Park in Phoenix.

Mr. Reichel's first funerals were for Ambrose Fischl, former owner of the Blue Moon Tavern, and Patsy Brown of Phoenix.

In 1981 he purchased the home of Dr. Charles Haff in Northampton, the legendary founder of the Haff Hospital.

Presently, Mr. Kevin Reichel, a graduate of Northampton Community College Funeral Service program, operates the friendly funeral home, continuing the Reichel tradition.

He has been married to the former Susan Baltz for 27 years. They are proud of sons Nathaniel and Jonathan.

When Kevin drives through Phoenix, he pauses and looks at the bronze memorial plaque in Sauerzopf Park. The memorial commemorates current and former residents of Phoenix. Among them are early immigrants who settled there.

The plaque was erected in 1992 by residents of "All Land West of Wood St." The committee included historian Paul Wukovits, Raymond Amadore, William Barket II, Carl Cortazzo, William Deutsch, Peter Drosnock, Herman Fischl, Andrew Kopach, Joseph Morro, Charles Paukovits, Joseph Reichel, William Sauerzopf and Frank Stampf.

A second plaque includes 60 names from Mary Brown Amberger to Helen Tomandl Ziegler. They were residents, good citizens, most of whom labored in the local cement plants, others were steelworkers and garment workers or were employed at paper plants. Many were veterans who served the nation.

They had pride in their families, church and country, the type of people who are the backbone of the American Dream. If you have any Nazareth connections, stop over and view the plaques. It will give you a warm feeling about what neighborhoods should be!

I thank Kevin Reichel, owner of Reichel Funeral Home in Northampton, Dale Kocher, who had a career in banking, and Ron Keppel, a former Dixie Cup employee, for taking us on a mental journey of memories to Phoenix, Nazareth, Pa.

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See you in two weeks, keep reading!