In today’s column, we will be visiting local businesses and attend a meeting in Cementon. The year is 1936.

Our first stop in today’s column will be at Schaffer’s store at 47 Second St., Coplay, to purchase some groceries with our Depression dollars. You could purchase a packet of Wheaties cereal for 11 cents, 12 pounds of Banner flour for 48 cents, oysters for 16 cents a dozen and a large packet of Rinso for 20 cents. Minced ham from the meat counter was 19 cents a pound, and A&B fresh sausage was 19 cents.

Our next visit is to Geo. J. Falk at 25 W. 10th St., Northampton, to look at the new 1936 Pontiac. The price was $615 — and that was a high price for the Depression. Mr. Falk said the 1936 Pontiac averaged 23.9 miles per gallon.

“The Pontiac was tested in the Yosemite economy run,” Falk said. “Pound for pound, you can’t do better.”

To sell any automobile was a challenge. Many people repaired their old automobiles to keep them on the road.

If your old Chevy needed tires, you could stop at Quality Service Station, the home of Firestone tires, in Northampton. The station was owned by George and Harold Schisler. You could purchase a set of four tires for $6.95 per tire, with $10 down and pay the balance when you had money.

On Jan. 10, 1936, a large number of citizens from Cementon, which was part of the 5th Ward in Whitehall Township, assembled in the Laurel Fire Company to consider the practicality and desirability of separating from the township to organize the town into a borough.

The meeting was sponsored by the Cementon Businessmen’s Organization and was held to obtain views of those attending. Attorney Irving Coleman, of Northampton, was in charge of the discussion and the vote to consider the proposition more fully. He was elected chairman of the investigating committee.

The vote was not to assert whether the town of Cementon was to become a borough, but to determine whether the citizens wanted further investigation on the town becoming a borough. “Is home rule cheaper than township rule” was the question to be answered.

The chairman pointed out Cementon was producing 24% of the township revenue, yet it received only a small part of that in return services. Attorney Coleman said only $9,000 was returned to Cementon. A heated discussion started when the school board was criticized for overlooking the town when new schools were erected.

The committee was instructed to visit industrial plants in town and sound out their feelings on the move to incorporate Cementon as a borough. The question: Would any good be accomplished for Cementon under borough rule rather than under the existing government?

In the end, Cementon remained within Whitehall Township.

We all know there has been a massive change in business and population of the township since 1936. Cementon remains a friendly community within the township. Who could have forecast the transformation of a township of small communities to a mega market of business activity?

In the last column in our series, we will be visiting a Northampton graduation during the Depression.