On July 3, Allen Fink celebrated his 104th birthday. His independent living facility provided the venue for his children, nieces, nephews and multiple relatives and friends to gather and wish him well.

The eldest child of Henry and Edna Fink, he was born in a tenant farmer’s house on his grandfather’s farm in Salisbury Township. The family rapidly expanded to include his brothers Martin, Myron, Edward and sister Minerva.

Fink’s early memories include using coal oil lamps, bathing in front of the kitchen stove for warmth and buggy rides to Bowen’s Market for groceries. Using an iron pump, the family drew water from a well in the front yard. In his memoirs Fink writes, “I learned early in life not to touch the iron pump handle with my tongue on a cold winter day.”

He also vividly describes Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1918. “At 11 o’clock that day all the church bells and sirens and whistles in the city of Allentown were sounded and we found out later that World War I had ended.”

In 1921, the family moved from the farm into town where they remained for a number of years. They would ultimately return to farm life.

Blessed with a strong and reliable memory, Fink recalls not only the details of daily life when Elm Street in Emmaus contained only two double houses and deliveries from the butcher, baker, ice man and milkman arrived in horse drawn wagons, but also the joy of belonging to a musically gifted family.

When Fink’s Aunt Minnie Laudenslager moved from a first to a third floor apartment, she could not get her home organ up the stairs. She gave the instrument to Fink’s mother. A fourth grader, Fink was required to take music class. Therefore, when his mother showed him the C note on the organ, he was able to locate the rest of the notes. In this way he taught himself to play hymns.

Musicality and religious commitment remained intertwined threads that have run through Fink’s long life.

In spite of missing months of school when the family was quarantined for a variety of illnesses, Fink was a fine student.

In the spring of 1926, he passed the standard eighth grade exam and participated in the commencement ceremony held in the Lutheran Church in Old Zionsville. He hoped to attend high school and eventually study for the ministry and do missionary work. Unfortunately, his mother suffered a serious illness and Fink stayed home to fulfill domestic duties. Although he would return to school for a short time, the family’s economic needs took precedence.

At the age of 14, Fink found employment at Widder Brothers’ Silk Mill at Sixth and North streets in Emmaus. Fink’s religious commitment, farm life and musical talent would soon merge and produce memorable experiences.

In 1931, Fink and his brother Martin joined the Macungie Grange. The Fink family first performed as part of a surprise program during which grange members presented their talents. They sang, “How Beautiful Heaven Must Be” which they accompanied with an auto harp.

One day while visiting the outhouse and perusing the Sears Catalog, Fink discovered an ad for a violin complete with case and instruction booklet for $9.95. His brother Martin located a similar deal for a guitar. They purchased the instruments, taught themselves to play and began performing at local dances. Minerva and Myron would obtain and become proficient on the banjo and mandolin, respectively, in the same manner. Martin bought a bass fiddle which he taught his father to play.

Singing in the church choir, at grange meetings and for Mystic Chain Park Saturday night dances led to the family being approached by Pumpernickel Bill (William Troxell) with an offer to join him on his WSAN radio broadcast for the Hummel Warehouse Furniture Store.

With its Pennsylvania German orientation, the show gained popularity beyond the Lehigh Valley. The Fink Family Band performed at Grundsow lodges in Souderton and Temple University, as part of the dedication of radio station KDKA’s new studio and on Pennsylvania Day at the 1940 New York World’s Fair.

In 1941, unaware that the Nazi Party in America was sponsoring the event, Pumpernickel Bill booked the act into New York’s Madison Square Garden. The Nazis assumed that a Pennsylvania German group shared their politics. This not being the case, Pumpernickel Bill and the Fink Family Band required a police escort to safely exit the venue.

The outbreak of World War II and the drafting of Fink and his brother Martin caused the dissolution of the band. At this point, Fink discontinued writing his memoirs because, as he told his niece Marlene Dorman, “I quit when I met my wife. That stuff is personal.”

Fink and his wife, Gladys, settled in Macungie, raised two children, Patricia and Dale, and actively engaged in church and community life. Employed by the U.S. Postal Service for 20 years, for a time Fink was Macungie’s single rural postman. He eventually became the Macungie postmaster.

Fink continued to teach Sunday School for 70 years. He volunteered as a Macungie ambulance driver, directed the church choir and kept Solomon’s United Church of Christ Cemetery records. Gladys wrote the Morning Call’s Macungie news section for 35 years.

Always open to new experiences, in his 80s Fink learned computer skills. In 2008, he left Macungie to move into an independent living facility where he currently resides. According to Dorman, Fink “still likes to speak Pennsylvania Dutch if he finds someone to speak to.” He keeps a collection of the music and lyrics performed by the Fink Family Band which he wrote down from memory. Faith remains the most important aspect of his life.

Fink currently takes no prescription medications and told Dorman the secret of his long life is, “Every morning I get up and take a breath.”

Happy, happy 104th birthday, Allen Fink!