Not a Blank Slate

When I am talking to a client in my counseling office, I often check the clock. I am looking for the magic number of 53 minutes from the start of the session. That is how much time insurance companies will pay me for.  When I look at that clock I am also looking at something that is near and dear to me.  My clock is made from Slatington area  slate.

I got it as a Christmas gift several years ago. It is beautiful and solid. The slate comes from the Penn Big Bed Slate Company near Slatedale, a small village close to Slatington. It is the only, still operating, quarry in the Slatington area.

Sometimes, when I look at the clock, I think how much slate has been an integral part of my childhood.  My dad, when I was very small, used to take me on walks on old roads up into the area of the quarries themselves.  The area is filled with quarries and piles of waste slate, called slate dumps.  As I got older, into my early and later teen years, I spent a lot of time in that area exploring that area with friends. Whether it was hunting or hiking or swimming in quarries, it was where I grew up.

I saw my first burning cross erected on top of the highest slate dump that overlooked the town. I don’t know if it was teens having “fun” or the actual KKK. All I know is that it was a little scary.

My entire school career was spent in classrooms with slate blackboards. Slatington was once known as the Blackboard Capital of the World. The largest producer of slate blackboards was the National School Slate Company, just off of Seventh Street. Sadly, blackboards are disappearing from the face of the earth. But, not sadly, also disappearing is that horrible screeching of chalk on slate!

I am old enough to remember when most of the houses had slate roofs. I am also old enough to remember slate curbs and sidewalks in town. I know there are still a few slate roofs around but I doubt if there are any slate curbs or sidewalks.  The Slate Heritage Trail has some new benches made from slate. Again, solid and beautiful.

Until 10th grade I was a Slatington Slater. That is how my town was linked to slate. Even the school mascot was linked to the slate industry. In 10th grade we became Bulldogs and a few years after that we became Northern Lehigh Bulldogs, further blurring the links between slate and our town.

Slatington, of course, is named after slate. We were a Slating town. Before that, it was Kernsport. Slatedale used to be known as Labarville. I wonder as we get further detached from our slate history if we will get a new name in the future. I hope not.

Here is something I recently learned about slate from our area.  Slatedale had the Crescent Slate Company and was well known as the producer of Federal Government slate. Independence Hall in Philly is covered by a roof made of Slatedale slate.  The same  can be said of many of the government buildings in Washington. How cool is that?

That ends my ode to slate. One last thing. You haven’t really played quoits unless you played it on a slate board!