Editor’s note: The Lehighton Sesquicentennial celebration starts Saturday. In the days leading up to the celebration, we will be featuring stories about the town and the people.

Ruth Dellecker remembers what it was like to walk to school in the snow and that sliced bread once cost 12 cents a loaf at Young’s Bakery.Dellecker, like her parents, was born in the 150-year-old Lehighton Borough before a hospital was even planned in town.“I was born at home in 1939. Back then not even (Lehighton) had a hospital,” she said.Looking back, Dellecker recalls how easily navigated the area was before the automotive industry took over.“The town was compact in World War II when I was born,” she said. “Gas was rationed so my father never drove. He used to walk to work at the Packerton Yard and clean the coal out of the steam engines. Everyone walked then. You could get anything you wanted to get in Lehighton.”Growing up on South Second Street, Dellecker remembers fondly the mom and pop shops that lined the streets.“After school we’d go get root beer floats and play pinball,” she said of the old hangout on First Street.“Up the street was Bennetts. They had homemade candy and a peanut roaster. You would walk in and the whole place would smell of peanuts. It was great.”Dellecker attended elementary school at the old First Ward and graduated from the former junior high school turned borough annex.“We didn’t have kindergarten so at 5 years old I went right into first grade,” she said.“In the winter we had to wear snow pants under our skirts. We had no privacy and were with the boys in one long hallway where were had to try to get out of our snow pants and galoshes,” Dellecker said, adding she only remembers being allowed to wear slacks in school once.“When I was in 12th grade, we were decorating the gym for a dance and we were allowed to wear pants because we had to climb up the ladders to hang decorations.”According to Dellecker, boys and girls had separate entrances into the schools and the cafeteria was nonexistent.“You either brown bagged it or you walked home. We got out at 11:45 a.m. and came back at 1 p.m. Schools didn’t provide lunch.”After graduating, Dellecker stayed in the borough. She applied at various jobs around town but was turned down because she lacked factory experience.After being taught to drive by her brother-in-law, Dellecker got her first car and first job at the age of 20.“I worked at a dog kennel in Doylestown.”Dellecker went on to marry in the early ’60s and had six children, five boys including a set of twins, along with one girl.According to the lifelong resident, Lehighton began to change when people began to drive more often and farther distances for work.“When people got more mobile, that’s when it started to change and First Street went in the pot. It was a thriving downtown and you didn’t have to drive anywhere. Looking back, taking that train station out was such a mistake,” she said.One of her fondest town memories was of the Lehighton Fair, located at what is now the high school.“Gene Vincent, the original singer of “Blue Suede Shoes,” was at the fair. We’d all sit as teenyboppers and scream and yell,” she said.Dellecker said the highlight was getting to meet the crooner after the show.“Back then they had girlie shows at the fair,” she said with a giggle.Dellecker worked for her church in one of the food stands at the fair.“The girls would come to the church stand for breakfast in the morning and talk to us. All the churches had food stands but we were the only ones who served breakfast.”