By Maria Cascario

Authentic
fashions
reflecting the culture
and styles of the late
1800s were modeled
recently at a fashion
show held at Eunikue
Fashion, located at 31
Broadway in Bangor.
The event was the first
of many that will take
place throughout the
year in commemoration
of the 140th anniversary
of
Bangors
incorporation.
Bonnie
LaBar
welcomed everyone to
the show. In addition to
being one of the
organizers of the event,
Bonnie also modeled a

dress made for the 1975

Centenniel, and her
husband, Ron, wore a
suit from the 125th
anniversary.
June and Shirk Jones
wore
oufits
that
represented the St.
Davids Society and the
Welsh heritage of the
borough. Junes hat was
a compliment to the
Welsh heritage, as was
the sash Shirk wore.
Sharon Davis modeled
an original creation
made by Marie Claire
Placide,
owner
of
Eunikue Fashion.
Janet Miller, another
familiar face in the
borough, wore a Belle

costume from the 1975

Centenniel, representing
the
Pennsylvania
German heritage, and
Donald Jones wore a
vest, hat and tie from the
100th Anniversary.
Donald also gave a
brief history of the
building where the
event was held. He told
the audience it had one
been a bank and the
second floor was a
Moose Lodge.
Look to future issues
of The PRESS for more
information
on
upcoming events that
will
be
held
in
celebration of Bangors
140th anniversary.

Hopesprings
Community of Faith, a
non-denominational
Christian fellowship
serving the Slate Belt
and
beyond,
is
welcoming you to join
them for coffee at
10:15am and gathering
at
10:30am
on
Sundays. Visit www.
hopespringscommunity.
org for more information, upcoming events,
links and podcasts.
Leck
Veterinary
Hospital is in need of
blanket donations to
help pets in need.
Please drop off donations to 115 West Pennsylvania Avenue, Rt.
512 in Pen Argyl.

The First United

Methodist Church of
Bangor will be holding
a
Knitting/Crochet
Circle the second and
third Wednesdays of
every month at 6pm and
the third Sunday of
every
month
at
12:15pm. For more
information,
contact
Cecily
at
carcher
2011@gmail.com.
The
Stroudsburg
Aglow will be holding a
meeting on February
12th, at 9:30am, at the
St. Peters UMC in
Saylorsburg. Refreshments will begin at
9:30am with a small
donation fee. Fellowship
will follow at 10am.

The Holy Name Society of Our Lady of

Victory Church is
sponsoring a parish
breakfast on Sunday,
February 15th. Come
enjoy a freshly made
breakfast
including
eggs,
homefries,
omelets,
pancakes,
waffles, bacon, sausage
and beverages. Fees
apply and children
under five are free.
Takeout is available.
The church is located on
Cherry Lane Road in
Tannersville. For more
information, call the
church office at 570629-4572.
The Slate Belt Senior
Center will be on the
move on February
17th at 9:15am to leave
for Mohegan Sun.To
reserve a seat, call Kay
at 610-588-1898.
The Bangor Rescue
Fire Company Auxiliary is hosting a Charity Tea on February
22nd at 1pm. The event
will be held in the Fire
company hall at 209
Pennsylvania Avenue in
Bangor. For more information or advance
tickets, call Sandy at
610-588-2139.
Hope UCC Food
Pantry is in great need
of donations. Items
include any kind of
drinks
(in
plastic
bottles) or drink mixes,
such
as
Kool-aid,
lemonade and iced tea;
and all canned fruits and
canned meats (ham,
tuna, chicken, spam,
sardines, canned stew,
chili). All donations can
be dropped off Monday
through Thursday, 8am
to 1pm. All monetary
donations may be paid

to Hope United Church

of Christ, P.O. Box 425,
Wind Gap, PA 18091.
Kindergarten registration for Plainfield
Elementary School in
the Pen Argyl Area
School District will be
held
April
28th
through 30th. To make
an appointment for
registartion, call 610746-4436 between 9am
and 3:15pm on March
9th.
Happy
Birthday
wishes are sent to Troy
Miller and Isabell
Shook, February 13th;
Izabella Frey, Brittney
Johnson and Kyra
Faust, February 15;
George Markaoupolus
at The Riverton, February 16th; Staci Bender,
Bryce Bartolecci, and
Luka Albanese, February 17th.
Nicholas
Rudolph,
son of Bill and Ruth
McInerney Rudolph, a
Deans List student at
Millersville University,
has been accepted to
study
abroad
in
Australia. Nicholas, a
sophomore, has a major
in Phycology. He is a
graduate of Trinity
Catholic High School, in
Camp Hill. He is the
grandson of Eugene and
Esther (Falcone) McInerney.
We love hearing from
you! Send us your
birthdays, anniversaries, birth announcements and other tidbits
of information to:
The PRESS
1 Broadway
Bangor, PA 18013
thepressmail@
gmail.com
Dont Forget to
Like Us on Facebook!

Adult Fiction: Gaffney, Patricia: Circle Of

Three; Thilliez, Franck:
Syndrome E; Wright,
Austin Mcgiffert: Tony
And Susan.
Adult
Non-fiction:
Freedman,
Rory:
Skinny Bitch: A Nononsense, Tough-love
Guide For Savvy Girls
Who Want To Stop
Eating Crap And Start
Looking
Fabulous;
Freedman,
Rory:
Skinny Bitch In The
Kitch;
Markham,
Wendy: Thats Amore;
Vaccariello, Liz: Flat
Belly Diet.
Junior Fiction: Cabot,
Meg: Moving Day; The
New Girl; Stage Fright;

Windham,
Ryder:
Switching Gears.
Large Print Fiction:
Barclay, Linwood: Too
Close To Home.
Young Adult Fiction:
Cast, P.C.: Redeemed.
Young Adult Nonfiction: Hiber, Amanda:
Sexual
Violence;
Merino, Noel: Abortion; Miller, Debra:
Global Warming; Snedden, Robert: Environmental
Engineering
And The Science Of
Sustainability; Sundem,
Garth: Real Kids, Real
Stories, Real Change:
Courageous
Actions
Around The World;
Zott, Lynn: Hacking
And Hackers.

On Tuesday, February
3rd, Faith United Presbyterian Church hosted
a regional gathering of
Presbyterian
Church
leaders in the Slate Belt.
The purpose was to
solicit input from local
congregations on how to
best use resources for
common
mission
initiates.
The meeting was
hosted by Reverend
Ruth Ann Christopher,
Pastor of Faith United,
who introduced Reverend David Duquette as
the newly elected Moderator of the Lehigh
Presbytery, a geographic
governing body comprised of 32 congrega-

tions. The Moderator

conducts meetings and
guides the Presbytery in
its work and mission.
In spite of the cold
weather, there was good
turnout of people in
attendance where the hot
coffee and cookies
helped along the discussions from allocation of
assets to new funding
initiatives.
This was a positive
meeting with some very
good ideas being generated that can benefit the
entire Slate Belt, Pastor
Ruth Ann Christopher
said.
For more information
visit faithunited.net and
like them on Facebook.

A Fundraiser for The

Blue Mountain Community Library will be held
on February 19th, from
11am to 7pm at a local
cafe, on 21 S. Broadway
in Wind Gap. The caf
will generously donate a
portion of all sales that
day to the library. All
food is fresh and made
to order.
You are

encouraged to call ahead

with your order. Specials are listed on the
restaurants Facebook
page. The caf is takeout or eat-in, with
limited seating. The
phone is 610-881-4261.
Menus are available at
the Caf or at the library.
Your support of this
fundraiser to benefit the

This Valentine's Day,

The Red Thread Caf,
an art, coffee and music
venue of Hopesprings,
is providing all the makings of a romantic
evening for you and that
special someone.
A
candle light dinner,
choice of non-alcoholic
beverage
and
a
delicious dessert will be
on the menu, along with
music provided by
Allen Carrescia and his
band.
They'll be
performing the music of
romance and love both

American standards
and original compositions. The only thing
missing to make this
evening a perfect one is
you!
Allen Carrescia and
his band are no strang.
Allen is an accomplished
performer,
composer and producer
that has the vibe of a
modern day Sinatra or
Tony Bennett, but with
a fresh, original sound.
Enjoy dinner and
music from 6:30pm
until 8pm on February
14th,
at The Red
Thread Cafe, 301
Market St. in Bangor.
Space is limited for
this special event so
don't
delay!
To
purchase your tickets,
send an email to
redthreadcafe@gmail.c
om.

library will be greatly

appreciated.
The Blue Mountain
Community Library is
also currently collecting
non-perishable foods for
the Salvation Army
Food Bank in Pen Argyl,
through March 15th.
Please consider donating to this ministry and
bring your food items to

the library, located at

216 S. Robinson Ave. in
Pen Argyl.
Library
hours
are
Monday
through Saturday, from
10am to noon, and
Monday through Thursday from 6pm to 8pm.
For more information,
call Lisa at 610-8633029
or
visit
www.bmcl.org.

(NAPSI)If
youre
worried that you havent
saved enough for retirement, you are not alone.
As they near retirement, many people find
they are less than confident that their savings or
monthly Social Security
check will be adequate
to meet their financial
needs.
Fortunately, if you are
in your 40s or 50s and
have a decade or more
before retirement, you
still have time to take
meaningful steps toward
building your retirement
nest egg.
To help, here are some
tips from the experts at
First Investors.
First Things First: To
start, you should evaluate the potential sources
of
your
retirement
income. Social Security
is one traditional source.
To get an estimate of
your Social Security
benefits,
visit
the
programs website at
www.ssa.gov/mystatem
ent.
Company
pensions
(NAPSI)Small
businesses create jobs,
help sustain communities
and are a driving force
behind
the
U.S.
economy. What you may
not know is that many
take the leap to business
ownership as an alternative to traditional retirement.
In fact, 62.2 percent of
almost 1,000 smallbusiness clients surveyed
by Guidant Financial are
50 or older, with the
highest percentage of
new
entrepreneurs
between the ages of 51
and 58.
Why are many baby
boomers leaving corporate
Americaor
postponing retirementand turning to business
startups? According to
the survey, approximately 10 percent of

may be another source

of retirement funds,
although they are far
less common today.
Even if you will one day
be a recipient of one or
both of these programs
benefits, they will likely
provide only a portion
of what youll need to
live comfortably. That
means
that
your
personal savings and
investments must generate a significant part of
your retirement income.
Jump-Start
Your
Investments - Since
youre getting a late
start, youll want to get
the biggest bang for
your buck from your
investments. Here are
some
strategies
to
consider:

Get
with
the
programIts always a
good idea to use taxadvantaged programs. If
your employer sponsors
a retirement plan, such
as a 401(k) or SIMPLE
IRA,
you
should
consider enrolling. If
youre self-employed,
look into establishing a

respondents cited not

being ready to retire or

retirement plan such as a

Simplified
Employee
Pension
(SEP).
Although plans differ in
a number of ways, all
offer
tax-deferred
contributions
and
growth, which help your
funds accumulate faster
than they would in a
taxable account. Some
companies even make
matching contributions
to employee accounts,
which is something
youll want to take
advantage of, if available.
Open an IRAEven
if you contribute to an
employer-sponsored
plan, you may want to
go one step further and
open an individual
retirement
account
(IRA).
Traditional IRAs offer
taxdeferred growth
and penalty-free withdrawals
in
certain
eligible situations. Roth
IRAs offer tax-free
growth and tax-free
withdrawals for qualified distributions. And
dont forget an IRA for

your spouse.
Go on automatic
pilotThe old adage of
pay yourself first is
still a valid idea, particularly with investments.
One way is to sign up
for a systematic investment plan, whereby a
fixed amount of money
is automatically transferred on a regular basis
from your paycheck or
bank account into your
investment account.
Consider variable
annuitiesIf
youve
reached the annual
contribution ceilings of
your
employersponsored plan and IRA,
you can further supplement your retirement
funding with annuities.
A variable annuity is a
contract with a life
insurance company that
allows you to accumulate money on a taxdeferred basis. And,
unlike
other
taxadvantaged
vehicles,
variable annuities do not
have an annual contribution limit.
Get the balance

rightGetting the right

mix of stock, bond and
money market mutual
funds is important. For
growth potential, youll
want to have an appropriate allocation of stock
mutual funds in your
portfolio.
Of course, pursuing
faster growth entails
greater risks. And with
your compressed time
horizon, you may have
difficulty riding out and
rebuilding your portfolio after the inevitable
stock market downturns.
Contact your financial representativeWhether its helping you
to establish financial
goals for retirement,
selecting an IRA, offering advice on the right
balance in your portfolio
or helping you navigate
complex risk and tax
issues, there are a
number of ways you can
benefit from a strong
relationship with a
financial representative.
To learn more, you can
visit firstinvestors.com.
startup dream a reality,
and can be especially
attractive to those who
have spent a number of
years in a corporate
setting acquiring the
assets and expertise to
make their startup a
success.
To learn more, you can
call 888-472-4455 or you
can
visit
guidant
financial.com.

coming out of retirement

as their primary reason.

For others, dissatisfaction with the corporate

lifestyle or position, or
fulfilling a lifelong entrepreneurial dream, drove
the change.
Many of these entrepreneurs
started
their
encore career with the
help of a financing option
called
ROBS,
or
Rollovers as Business
Startups. ROBS let
prospective
business
owners leverage existing
retirement assets to
finance a business or
purchase a franchise free
of tax penalties. ROBS
can also be used with
traditional
funding
options, such as SBA
loans, for supplemental
financing.
For many who have
trouble securing necessary business financing,
ROBS can help make the

(NAPSI)Spring is on
its way, and soon, home
and business owners
will be cleaning and
preparing lawn and
garden equipment.
Many are so eager to
pull out lawn and garden
equipment once spring
arrives that they sometimes forget basic steps
to ensure the powerhouse
of
the
equipmentthe
engineis in good
working order, said
Kris Kiser, president and
CEO of OPEI.
One challenge is that
most fuel contains some
level of ethanol, which
contains
corrosive
alcohol. If you left that
fuel in the tank over the
winter months, you
dont want to use it in
the spring. It may
damage your equipment.
You need to drain it and
put in new fuel that is
E10 or lower, advises
Kiser.
Whether its a mower,
trimmer, blower, chain
saw or pruner, the
Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI)
offers tips to help users
avoid fuel-related problems and ready their
equipment to operate
safely.
Check the fuel tank. If
fuel has been sitting all

winter long in the fuel

tank, do not use it in the
spring. Drain it responsibly and put in fresh
fuel. Remember to
dispose of this fuel properly.
Use only E10 or lower
fuel in your outdoor
power equipment. Do
not use gas with more
than 10 percent ethanol
(E10) in outdoor power
equipment. Some gas
stations may offer 15
percent ethanol (E15)
gas or other fuel blends,
but this higher ethanol
fuel is dangerousand
is in fact illegalto use
in any small engine
equipment, such as lawn
mowers, chain saws,
generators, and all other
lawn and garden equipment.
Dont leave fuel sitting
in the tank for more than
30 days. Untreated gasoline (without a fuel
stabilizer) left in the
system will deteriorate,
which may cause starting or running problems
and, in some cases,
damage to the fuel
system.
Inspect your equipment. Check for loose
belts and missing or
damaged parts. If you
find anything concerning, replace the parts or
take your equipment to a

qualified service representative.

Drain out the old oil
and put in fresh oil.
Remove the oil drain
plug in your lawn
mower and catch the
old oil in a container.
Replace the plug and
refill the engine with oil
recommended by the
product manufacturer.
Properly dispose of the
oil you drained.
Install clean air filters.
Your engine and equipment will run much
better with clean filters.
Paper filters need to be
replaced. Some foam
filters can be cleaned
and replaced.
Sharpen your cutting
blade. Have your lawn
mowers cutting blade
sharpened so you can
get a clean cut on your
lawn. Your lawn will be
healthier and your lawn
mower will operate
more efficiently, too.
Clean your equipment.
If you did not clean
your equipment before
storing it, there may be
dirt, oil or grass stuck to
it. Give your equipment
a good spring-cleaning.
A cleaner machine will
run more efficiently and
last longer.
Review your: manual.
Now is a good time to
read the operators
manual and refamiliarize yourself with the
controls and what they
do. Make sure you
know how to stop the
machine quickly if
needed.
About
OPEIThe
Outdoor Power Equipment Institute is an
international trade association
representing
more than 100 power

equipment, engine and

utility vehicle manufacturers and suppliers.
OPEI is the advocacy
voice of the industry,
and a recognized Standards
Development
Organization for the
American
National
Standards
Institute
(ANSI) and active
internationally through
the International Standards
Organization
(ISO) and the International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC) in
the development of
safety and performance
standards. OPEI is managing
partner
of
GIE+EXPO,
the
industrys annual international trade show, and
the
creative
force
behind the environmental education program,
TurfMutt.com. OPEICanada
represents
members on a host of
issues, including recycling, emissions and
other regulatory developments across the
Canadian
provinces.
For more information,
visit www.OPEI.org.

Hello, fellow readers!

Did you notice the full
moon lighting up our
nighttime snow-scape
last week? No flashlights needed.
It made me think of
planting by the moons
phases, a practice as old
as agriculture. True its
largely based on legend,
but there are scientific
concepts to back it up.
For instance, the tides
are highest during the
new and the full moon
when the sun and moon
are lined up with earth.
Just as the moon pulls
the tides in the oceans, it
causes moisture to rise
in the earth, which
encourages growth.
The Old Farmer's
Almanac explains it in a
nutshell: Plant flowers
and vegetables that bear
crops above ground
during the light, or
waxing, of the Moon:
from the day the Moon
is new to the day it is
full. Plant flowering
bulbs and vegetables
that bear crops below
ground during the dark,
or waning, of the Moon:
from the day after it is
full to the day before it
is new again. Old-time
farmers swear that this
practice results in a
larger, tastier harvest.
Not only is Lunar
planting influenced by
the phases of the moon,

it is also impacted by the

astrological signs of the
zodiac (and you, Mr.
Valentine,
thought
zodiac signs only had to
do with best matches for
a mate!). The constellations correspond with
the elements of water,
earth, fire or air. After
determining the best
moon phase for your
plants, find the astrological sign of the
zodiac that best represents them.
Roots are favored by
earth signs of Taurus,
Virgo and Capricorn;
leafy crops by water
constellations
of
Cancer, Scorpio or
Pisces; flowers by air of
Libra,
Gemini
or
Aquarius; and seed
crops such as fruits and
nuts may be planted in
Aries, Leo or Sagittarius, the fire signs,
though some consider
fire signs barren, dry,
and not the best for
planting. It sounds complicated, but there are
Lunar Planting Calendars that chart it all out
for you.
Of course, we have to
be in the growing season
to plant based on preferences for air and soil
temperature,
which
overrides the benefit of
lunar cycles.
For now, while the
moon is waning, rather
than whining about the
cold, lets dream about
the
perfect
match.
Happy Valentines Day!
Garden dilemmas?
askmarystone.com
Please visit me at the
upcoming
Springfest
Garden Show at the
Sussex County Fair
Grounds in Augusta,
NJ! Ill be there every
day and on Thursday,
March 12th at 2pm, my
colleague Marty Carson
and I will give a talk on
Deer Resistant Plants
You May Not Know
About. Look forward
to meeting you there!

By Jennifer Lively

Abusing bath salts?

Now that's confusing,
because there are two
different kinds of bath
salts.
The bath salts were all
familiar with are the
fragrant,
therapeutic
crystals you add to
bathwater to moisturize
skin. Theyve been
around for decades and
are sold in bath stores,
department stores and
fragrance shops.
However, in the drug
world, bath salts is the
name law enforcement
has given to a new class
of
designer
drugs.
Advertised as incense
and plant food, these
drugs
are
actually
synthetic
chemical
compounds created to
mimic
hallucinogens.
Sold in convenience
stores, head shops, gas
stations, and tobacco
shops, they come in a
variety of forms, from
white powder to granules to crystals. Users
smoke, snort, or swallow

them. Bath salts have

been illegal since 2012. It
is illegal to sell, produce,
or possess over 25 of the
most common chemicals
used in designer drug
bath salts.
But health professionals say lawmakers cannot
keep pace with bath salts
producers,
who
constantly adjust their
chemical formulations to
come up with new
synthetic drugs that
arent covered by these
laws, Matthew Perrone
reports for the Huffington
Post. Experts who have
studied the problem
estimate there are more
than 100 bath salts
chemicals in circulation"
and most of them are
toxic when ingested.
Some of the effects of
illegal bath salts can be
hallucinations, aggression, suicidal thoughts,
psychotic delusions, liver
failure, kidney failure,
loss of bowel control, and
death. For more information see the staff at A
Clean Slate in Bangor.

Ciao Amici,
One of the most popular soups we make is
Italian Wedding Soup.
The ingredients are
greens like spinach,
escarole, endive, kale or
dandelion greens and
meat usually little beef
or sausage meatballs,
and sometimes shredded chicken in a clear
chicken stock. The soup
also contains a soup cut
pasta like acini di pepe
[peppercorns], semi di
melon [melon seed],
orzo [barley shaped]
pastina [small bits]
anellini [little rings] or
ditalini [little thimbles].
You would think the
word has to have something to do with an
Italian Wedding but the

actual term is a translation of the Italian phrase

minestra
maritata
[married soup] which is
a reference to the fact
that green vegetables
and meats go well
together. The minestra
maritata is prepared in
Lazio [Rome region]
and Campania [Naples
Region] during the
Christmas season. This
tradition was started
from the Spanish Rule
of Italy. A form is still
made in Toledo, Spain
which contains more
meat then just meatballs
and is not as light as the
modern Italian American version.
We like to make the
analogy in our catering
business that I am the
meat when it comes to
making sure the food is
delicious and plentiful
and my wife Joelene is
the greens and she
makes sure the food is
presented
beautifully
because you first eat
with your eyes. With
Valentine day approaching, and if you're interested in being true to
your Italian roots, or if
you just love Italy and
want to incorporate
Valentine's Day traditions into your engagement and wedding
celebrations, you'll do as

the ancient Romans did

and become engaged on
14th February. We offer
a beautiful Valentine
dinner basket for two.
Check our web page,
www.Jdefrancoanddaug
hters.com for details.
Just remember when
you order your Italian
Wedding Soup for your
wedding reception it is
because of the meats
and greens that has
nothing to do with an
Italian Wedding.
L'amore e la tosse, non
pu essere nascosta.
~George Herbert,
Love, and a cough,
cannot be hid.
Con cordiali saluti,
Joe
My book, Growing up
in the Butcher Shop is
available at the shop or
online
at
www.
JDeFrancoandDaughter
s.com. To receive menu
specials and our newsletter, join our mailing
list at our web page.
Click on mailing list
and enter your e-mail.
Send us your Roseto
stories, recipes and
comments
to
portipasto@epix.net or
call 610-588-6991. Our
store hours are 7am to
7pm, seven days a week
with catering available
anytime or by appointment.