The winter of love

click on photograph to enlarge
Who could forget the easy listening of the Al Robel's Orchestra* setting the tempo with the band's mild performance of sight and sound? For starters, probably everyone in this photograph, which was taken back in December 1967: the so called "winter of love." That is when an unprecedented number of young people (estimated to be in the dozens) converged into the Nativity gym, creating a seminal moment in Pottsville's musical history. It was called the Christmas Prom.

Easy-listening music was immediately criticized by some as a tool of the devil for its ability of letting dance partners actually have physical contact with one another in public. Others said that the three hour event was likened to being trapped in an elevator for days and that rock and roll would soon take over the airwaves of WPPA, WPAM and WMBT.

Yes, many remember 1967 for its psychedelic summer of love in San Francisco, but in Pottsville it is the fortieth anniversary of the winter of love, where easy listening music ruled. Try and remember those gentle, bland sounds that filled the gymnasium one cold december night.
It was pure magic.


*Remember that Al Robel is often confused with Jolly Jack Robel, the polka king of Shenandoah.

Merry Christmas.