Professor Hamilton's Diary: Aug. 23, 1935

Where did he go? Reading playground pageant overrun by spectators

There’s a mystery in today’s entry in the diary. “Worked around home. Went”

So where did Professor Hamilton go? Perhaps to the City Park, where he and his family were involved in a near-disaster as thousands of enthusiastic spectators descended on the annual city recreation department’s children’s pageant titled “Through Storybook Lane.”

Paid subscribers can read about what happened that night and the long-term impact on Reading.

This postcard offered on eBay was mailed in 1934. It shows the lily pond at the Reading City Park, which also boasted a reservoir, a monument to late president William McKinley, a rose garden, and a drinking fountain paid for by the Elks, guarded by a large bronze statue of — you guessed it — an elk.