The LuLac Edition #393, Jan. 13th, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: 1968 PRESIDENTIAL POSTER OF HUBERT HUMPHREY, HUMPHREY WITH BLOG EDITOR IN 1972 AT THE GREATER PITTSTON FRIENDLY SONS OF ST. PATRICK DINNER AT THE MAYFAIR SUPPER CLUB.

HHH GONE 30 YEARS

It was a Friday night, the weather outside was about 22 degrees and I knew that my political idol Hubert Humphrey, a victim of cancer was going to die. My friend Frank Chebalo and I drove to a bar at the Wyoming Valley Mall called Barrells, Whiskey and Rhyme. I was pursuing a waitress there and our mission on this stormy night was to drop off a present for her kid who was having a procedure in the hospital the following Monday. We chatted, drank and then he drove me home to Pittston in his 1965 Chevy BelAir that was the color of bondo. We called it off gray. On the drive home, given the icy roads, he drove the Chevy sideways. On the way up my hill to DeWitt Street we heard the news that Hubert Humphrey had died. Many people in this day and age only know him as the guy they named the Metrodome after in Minnesota. But to many Americans he was a missed opportunity as a President. (He lost narrowly to Richard Nixon in 1968, 40 years ago.) Here's a snippet of a speech he gave during that fateful year from YOU TUBE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGQBcPgfvAc&feature=related.