Bethlehem, Israel was the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
Bethlehem is a Hebrew word meaning “house of bread”.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania has been calling itself the Christmas City since Christmas Eve in 1741.
My grandmother on my mother’s side, Myrtle Keenly, lived for most of her adult life in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She had a big house on Main Street across from Moravian College. Her husband, Leroy Edwin Keenly founded the Rittersville Coal & Lumber Company and was a celebrated musician. My grandmother and grandfather were known as the handsomest couple in Bethlehem. He was tall and very good looking, and she was very pretty and always dressed beautifully. My grandfather died in the pneumonia epidemic of 1925, leaving my mother who was five-years-old and her sister who was only eight-months-old.
After the sudden death of her husband, Myrtle found herself with two young daughters to raise and a pile of bills. But nothing could stop my intrepid grammy. She was one of the first few women to attend the Bethlehem Business College, and upon graduation took a job with the Moravian Church which essentially ran the town, handling their insurance companies. And before long, she became the business manager for the Moravian Church, making her a very well-known lady around town.
After years of loyal service to the Moravians, my grandmother got an interesting proposition. Archibald Johnson, a classmate from the Bethlehem Business School and the former President of Bethlehem Steel, had just become the Mayor of Bethlehem. He asked my grandmother to be his personal secretary. And when he retired from political life, Archie moved to his lovely estate on the outskirts of Bethlehem, a place called Camel’s Hump. My grandmother stayed on as Archie’s private secretary, and every day she would go to work in the main mansion. And she hired a housekeeper to take care of my mother and her younger sister.
My mother attended Moravian Prep School which was founded in 1742, and was the oldest school for boys and girls. George Washington’s niece went there. These days it’s called Moravian Academy and is popular with the rich and powerful. My mother’s house was literally right across the street from the Moravian College & Theological Seminary for Men which still exists to this day.
As a little boy I traveled to Bethlehem with my Mom to visit my grandmother. But to be honest, I only remember four things about the place: the Bethlehem Star overlooking the city at night; my grandmother’s house filled with intricate needlepoint pillows and framed Pennsylvania Dutch proverbs , like “The Hurrier I Go, The Behinder I Get”; the Christmas Putz (nativity scene), and having a very tasty vanilla milkshake in some long-forgotten drugstore. That’s pretty much it.
Coincidentally, my mother and grandmother both died at the ripe old age of 94 and have been gone for many years now. But as it turns out, the memories still linger.
As far as I know, I have no relatives living in Bethlehem these days. And I hadn’t thought about the town in god knows how long.
And that’s why it was pretty odd that when my lovely wife Inna asked me where we were going for Thanksgiving, I said, “BETHLEHEM.”
NEXT UP: What’s A Moravian?