A Place in Alburtis I Love ... Preserved! (Allentown, New Hope: sale, apartments)

[2nd trick op]

Since my original carrer plans imploded a few years ago, I've lived a semi-peripatetic lifestyle, renting out most of my home upstate while working a variety of jobs, in a variety of places. I'm quite comfortable with the times when people on a smaller budget, or just starting out, lived in rented rooms rather than sterile apartments.

One day late in the fall of 2006, the need for temporary quarters took me to the Iron Horse in Alburtis, where i got to meet Herman, its septugenarian, Austrian-born proprietor whom any budding writer would soon characterize as "feisty", and a deal was struck.

Every day at the Iron Horse was like a scene out of Steinbeck's Cannery Row. Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar" was a favorite on Herman's "Cadillac" jukebox, otherwise heavy with an assortment of progressive rock evoking memories of Allentown's long-gone and fondly-remembered WSAN. In short, other than acertain fraternity house up in Happy Valley, I can think of no other place where I felt so much at home while away from home.

But a place like this will, by its nature, also draw a grittier clientele, and a faction of the Borough's high-placed have long hoped for Alburtis to turn into a local version of New Hope. After a lot of effort, they finally succeeded in "regulating" Hrman out of business.

So, having learned of the sale last week, I drove by this afternoon with a heavy heart, looking to pay a farewell visit, and was delighted to see a remoldeling, rather than a demolition truch parked out back, and plans to reopen this fall posted out front.

I'll be first in line if the new crew descides to fix things up upstairs.
;