On this date in 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France. She was born during the Hundred Years War, a war so bad that the population of France fell by a half. When she was thirteen, she started hearing heavenly voices in her garden. Following the voices, she went to the city of Orleans with the intent of defeating the English and giving the disputed crown of France to the dauphin Charles. Using skills modern politicians will never have, this poor teenage girl who was unable to read or write persuaded the authorities to give her armor and an army, march to Orleans and lead the battle, carrying a banner with Jesus' name on it. Shot in the chest with an arrow, she nevertheless continued fighting and the English retreated from Orleans. She continued leading battles and her people came to believe she was an angel. She failed in her attempt to take Paris, was captured and sold to the English for ten thousand pounds, and made to stand trial for heresy at the age of eighteen. As we said when you came in, on this date in 1431 she was led barefoot to the marketplace in Rouen and burned alive. Twenty years later, she was pardoned by the king whom she helped to crown. St. Joan was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

We looked at the calendar to be sure. Summer is on its way and will officially be here in 22 days, but it certainly has taken some strange detours.

Saying of the Day: More of something "than Carter has little liver pills." The Carter Medicine Company, founded in 1880, marketed a single product called Carter's Little Liver Pills, a very popular over-the-counter medicine in the early 20th century. Sales reached $40,000 in 1881. Many years later in 1935, finally, a research chemist for the company developed a new product called Arrid deodorant. The company changed its name to Carter Products in 1937 to reflect its broader image. Today the company markets Nair hair removal products, Pearl Drops liquid tooth polish, First Response pregnancy and ovulation test kits, and Trojan condoms, all as plentiful as "Carter's little liver pills" once were.

The vice president and chief financial officer for supermarket operator Penn Traffic Co. resigned, the company announced May 29. The company operates 212 supermarkets and is in a "weakened financial" position. The company employs 6,200 workers in Ohio and West Virginia. The company operates grocery stores under the Bi-Lo name in Pennsylvania. Penn Traffic remained silent on its present financial course. A week ago, the company said it was considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as an option to fix its financial problems. Some vendors have cut off shipments to Penn Traffic warehouses and stores, and the Nasdaq market will delist the stock today. Penn Traffic stock closed at 32 cents per share Thursday. A year ago, it traded for $10.88 per share. Penn Traffic has not filed its annual financial report. That was supposed to be done by May 1, three months after its fiscal year ended. Locally, Chris Thomas licenses the trade name and operates the Riverside Market much as a BiLo store is run.

Congratulations to Ruby Young Whitmoyer and her sister Ann Young Bower, daughters of Foster and Carmen Young, Benton, who graduated last night from Luzerne County Community College, with a RN Nursing degree. Ruby will go on to work at Bloomsburg hospital and Ann will go on to Geisinger Hospital.

A new, updated book on the Creveling Family History and Genealogy is available from Zane and Nancy Creveling, who are selling the books for the author. They have several on hand and can order more. The cost is $40.

Patience is the ability to keep our motor idling when others feel like stripping your gears.

Saturday night we'll be watching A Prairie Home Companion live at Wolf Trap Farm Park in Vienna, VA, with Garrison Keillor, Tim and Mollie O'Brien and Cajun band BeauSoleil. Peter Ostroushko joins the Shoe Band. You can join online for the live performance of A Prairie Home Companion!! All you need to watch, listen and join in the fun is a copy of RealOne Player installed on your computer. The Webcast is a live online presentation of A Prairie Home Companion during every live show from 5:45 - 8:00 PM ET (show begins at 6:00 pm, with a 15 minute warm-up). Go to www.prairiehome.org. During the live show, there is a special Webcast homepage with links to the Webcast, as well as to the regular homepage. (The regular homepage returns after the live performance is over.) A broadband Internet connection is helpful, but not required. If you experience trouble viewing the Webcast, try listening to the audio only.

John Rundle, Benton, pleaded guilty in Scranton Wednesday to distributing six kilograms of methamphetamine and about 280 pounds of marijuana in a regional drug trafficking ring. Rundle faces a mandatory minimum 10-year prison term and possibly up to a life sentence and fines of up to $4 million under federal drug laws. He remains free on bail awaiting sentencing. Also named was David Benjamin, 33, Benton.

Verizon is closer to building a 300 foot-high cell tower to serve route 6 between Mansfield and Towanda. The Bradford County Planning Commission last week granted conditional approval for the tower's construction. The tower would be operated by Verizon Wireless. We wish that we would hear about a tower for Benton.

The Past is history.
The Future is a mystery.
But today is a gift
That's why they call it "The Present."

We hope that you see lots of sun over the weekend. We'll see you soon.

In 1989 on this date, former Arizona senator Barry Goldwater died. Born in Phoenix on New Year's Day in 1909, he was the grandson of a polish Jew who married an Episcopalian. He grew up Episcopalian. He took over his father's department store and sold lots of his "Antsy Pants," men's under shorts covered with large red ant imprints. Goldwater offered his employees health insurance and life insurance, and gave jobs to blacks as salesclerks. He flew transports and supplies in Asia and eventually flew himself around Arizona in his own plane. He became a conservative Arizona senator in the mostly Democratic state in 1952, and eventually represented the conservative faction of the Republican party. He ran against Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and lost in a landslide, winning only five states. He came back to the senate and voted to end the draft and to give eighteen-year olds the vote. He helped persuade Nixon to resign. He fought for Indians' rights and he supported environmentalism.

A reader asked what was going on when she got email from someone she knows, but her friend claims she didn't send it to her. The bad part is that her virus protection program says the friend's email contains a virus. Without more to go on, I'd say there is a good chance a virus is sending out email without the friend's knowledge or consent. If someone is infected with certain virus, such as Klez, the virus will send itself out to everyone in the infected users address book. To make it even harder to identify who actually is infected with the virus, the virus even fakes the "from" field, so it looks like it is from someone else! So, in the case of the friend, she could be the one who has one of these type of virus, and the virus is automatically sending the mails to everyone in her address book without her knowledge. Or, a mutual friend may have both you and your friend's address in their address book, and the virus is sending to you and spoofing the from field to make it look like it is from the other friend! Have we mentioned that you MUST have a working and up-to-date virus protection program on your computer? And have we mentioned that you have to RUN it?

If you want to know the time, try http://www.suite101.com/files/mysites/askalice/clock.htm. If you have a fast internet connection and like cats, go to http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~christ6/SA/funny_cats_1.wmv.

We remember from our youth the story of a resident of Retreat State Hospital who was seen pushing a wheelbarrow upside down. The story went that someone asked him about it, reminding him that the wheelbarrow was upside down. The resident responded that he used to run it on its wheels, but people kept putting stones in it.

Quickies...
• Based on state data as of 2002-2001, the total number of state residents is 12,071,710.
• Not that we actually give a hoot, but the New York Post says that marrying Mayor Bloomberg, Senator Hillary Clinton and Senate Minority Leader Daschle will not release their tax returns...
• Marriage teaches you loyalty, forbearance, self-restraint and a lot of other things you wouldn't need if you had stayed single.
• Graduation is Friday, June 6, and that is the last day of school for seniors. The last day of school for grades K-11 is Monday, June 9. Dismissal time on June 9 is 10 AM. Our advice for kids who didn't do well this year: head for the attic. Pick up one of your dad's old report cards and when you show him your report card hold one of his old report cards in the other hand.

Do you know the difference between an optimist and a pessimist? The optimist goes to the window every morning and says," "Good morning, God." The pessimist goes to the window and says, "Good God, morning."

One of the oldest houses in Benton is this house at the corner of Third and Market Streets. At the time this picture was taken, it was owned by the Krickbaum family. You may note that the wooden sidewalk leads to the old opera house, now the Benton Town Hall. Later, Miss Myretta Hess lived in the house.

Picture courtesy of Phil and Susan Shultz

In the mid-1930s, a WPA project built a flood dike along the west side of the creek, and, once built, the town of Benton did not flood for many years. But getting it built was not easy. The dike was largely ridiculed locally as not being a workable solution to the flooding problem. A flood in March, 1936, in fact, ripped out about 40 feet of the center of the dam. The dike was under construction at the time, very nearly completed. Water came through the dike at the upper end of the town park where work was still in progress. When the dike gave way, it dropped the level of the stream, but sent tons of water against the new dike just below the dam and washed out that section. Water immediately surrounded the homes of Lee and Sara Kline, John S. Baker, the Presbyterian Manse and the Presbyterian Church. The Benton school was closed for a week with a flooded basement and no furnace.

For 36 years, the dike held and the town did not flood. The dike got its big test on Wednesday, June 21, and Thursday, June 22, 1972, when the town of Benton was again under siege by the rushing waters of Fishing Creek. But that is a story for another day...

The man who invented the character James Bond, novelist Ian (Lancaster) Fleming, was born in London on this date in 1908. During World War II, he served in the British Naval Intelligence and once spotted a group of German agents at a casino and devised a plan to scoop up all their money in a game of baccarat. It didn't work, but later he wrote a version of the story in his 1954 James Bond novel Casino Royale. Many of his stories were written in Jamaica. His books got terrible reviews, but were very profitable and popular. Fleming wrote, "My books have no social significance, except a deleterious one; they're considered to have too much violence and too much sex. But all history has that."

A very well-done site devoted to contacting the Congress is http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ . The site provides email address and USPS address for the 108th Congress.

The former Benton Air Force Station was turned into a Job Corps center in May of 1978 when the first student, called a "corps member," was accepted. Over the past 25 years, a gymnasium has been added, along with a new auto repair shop and a health facility. Red Rock Job Corps Center has nine dormitories and trains more than 450 students each year. The center has an academic facility, several trade shops, a dining room, a recreation hall, health facility, and administration building. The center employees over 120 local people from various counties.

The Farmers Almanac very accurately says that "A May cold is a 30-day cold." As relates to weather, the state is in a deep rut. In fact, the word "stinky" comes to mind.

There are currently 638 state stores across the state and some of those stores will soon be moving into supermarkets. The experiment will put stores inside some supermarkets in the Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas by the end of the year. State unionized employees will operate the stores.

A sergeant in a cavalry regiment was having a hard time drilling new recruits. They could not stick on the horses' backs. He warned each recruit not to dismount under any circumstances. Almost immediately, one of the men fell off and the sergeant roared at him for falling off. The soldier explained that he couldn't help himself. The sergeant sarcastically responded that he supposed the soldier had orders from headquarters. The soldier, however, assured the sergeant that the "hindquarters" was responsible.

Quickies...
• The Dutch retailer that owns Giant Foods has uncovered $29 million in intentional accounting mistakes at its Tops Markets subsidiary. Tops operates supermarkets and convenience stores in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
• Nearly 2 million taxpayers filed their 2002 state Personal Income Tax returns electronically in 2002 and the state says that saved an estimated $2.8 million.

The current picture on our opening screen is of the original concrete bridge over Fishing Creek in Benton. Winton Laubach, Golden, CO, a recent visitor back home in Benton, remembers his senior year in high school, during the "winter of '37-'38." He writes, that "for a couple of weeks our newspapers had been highlighting the manhunt for David Shaeffer, a murderer who had escaped from the state prison. Bruce Sutliff, my classmate and close friend, was walking home from a nighttime school activity. He was between Kozy Korner and the bridge, a section which was icy at the time. A car speeding by him skidded on the ice and slammed into the bridge. Bruce was able to open the driver's door and discovered that the driver was unconscious and that there was a revolver on the floor. Bruce then got to the passenger's identification and learned that he had the escaped convict. Doctor Confair was contacted and the captive was given an injection to keep him subdued until the authorities arrived."

A reader asked about an email program called IncrediMail, wondering what I thought of it. She caught me in a negative mood, perhaps, but she got both thumbs down. Why? Incoming email can't be re-copied or re-used, perhaps because it is transmitted as something like an image. But more basic than that goes back to the use by IncrediMail to gather information "related generally to Users' use of the Software, Service, and Site including without limitation:"
• The number of Messages that a User sends;
• The number of Messages that are read;
• What elements of the Service are most often used;
• User log-in dates and time; and • Message size data..."
• And the catch-all, "...IncrediMail may gather information."

A reader yesterday jogged our memory about relatives who didn't live in New York--they lived in York State.

Novelist Dashiell Hammett was born on this date in 1894 in beautiful St. Mary's County, Maryland. His writing contained almost no extraneous detail. As an example, he described a woman by writing, "Her eyes were blue, her mouth red, her teeth white, and she had a nose. Without getting steamed up over the details, she was nice." Sam Spade, the famous fictional detective, was introduced in Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon."

We love three-day weekends, somewhat like Mother viewed visits from her out-of-town relatives--she loved to see them come, and she loved to see them go. We meet such interesting people when the tourists start arriving. One lady, her name and lineage unknown to us, knew everyone in sight Sunday, calling people by their first names, "Honey," "Sweetie" and "Darlin." The lady seemed to know her p's & q's, giving us a "P"umpkin pie recipe and telling her children "Q"uiet ya'll! We had a nice conversation as she sipped her sweet tea, and we were very fond of the way she closed our conversation, as she headed for her car to leave town. She simply said, "Y'all come back!" We wondered but didn't ask if she might be from Arcadia. We hope that your weekend was as pleasant as ours, Back Home in Benton, PA.

Maynard J. Hartman, 62, (August 16, 1940-May 26, 2003), 677 Zaner's Bridge Road, Stillwater, died Monday at Geisinger Medical Center. He was the son of the late Leonard T. and Laura F. Fetterman Hartman. He was employed by Wenner-Burton Construction, Benton for 20 years, retiring in 1998. He is survived by his wife, the former Martha J. "Marty" Houseknecht; three children: Maynard J. Hartman Jr., Miami, FL; Dee Martz, Hickory, NC; and Craig L. Hartman, Benton; three grandchildren; and two sisters in Bloomsburg. Memorial services will be 11 AM. Thursday in the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home, Benton, with the Rev. Vernon W. McDormand officiating.
--from a Press Enterprise article.

It has been so long since we have had a lot of sun and warm weather and clear skies and we are still 25 days from the official start of summer. We've been thinking about the weather a lot lately. We wondered...
• Why is it that since our body temperature is 98 degrees, when we are outside in 85 degree weather we feel hot? Shouldn't we be feeling cold?
• Why is it that when someone walks into a place dripping wet people turn around and ask them 'Is it raining outside'?
• If the first thermometer wasn't invented until the 1600s, how can they say global warming is the worst in 10,000 years?
• Why is the color blue associated with coldness? The hottest part of the flame on your gas stove is the blue part, isn't it?
• When it rains in the south, do cotton fields shrink?
• Why is it rain drops, but snow falls?

Microsoft won't send you attachments with updates. If you happen to get email from Microsoft telling you to update your system using an enclosed file remember that it is not from Microsoft. Don't open attachments, even if they're from Microsoft. Don't be fooled by a new worm that pretends to come from Microsoft technical support and becomes active when you open an attached file that carries the infected code. According to Web User Magazine, the mass-mailing worm, called Palyh, spreads via email and can send itself to all contacts in the Microsoft Outlook address book. We have said it before and we'll say it again: if you don't have a current virus protection program installed on your computer, please don't use it. It is a little like driving 45 MPH through Orangeville. You may get away with it today, but someday soon you'll get nailed and the consequences are not pleasant.

US Airways is cutting back service to the Williamsport Regional Airport. Air Midwest, an affiliate of US Airways Express, will "temporarily" discontinue Williamsport-Philadelphia service effective June 15. It is possible regular flights between Philadelphia and Williamsport could be resumed later this summer.

The Outdoor Advertising Association of America convinced Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Small Business subcommittee on rural enterprises, agriculture and technology, to overhaul and loosen federal regulations governing signage on scenic and rural highways that receive federal funding. The Highway Beautification Act, which limited billboards, was a project of Lady Bird Johnson. We believe that some readers will consider more billboards somewhat like spam on their computers.

Keep your eye out for Fido. Parts of the Canadian cow that recently tested positive for mad cow disease may have been used to make dry dog food that was shipped to the United States, the Food and Drug Administration announced. There is no scientific evidence that dogs can contract the disease or spread it to humans, but the FDA nevertheless advised that dog food made by Champion Pet Food between Feb. 4 and March 12 may have contaminated meat in it. Buster and Chloe thought that you would like to know this.

It is Memorial Day, once called Decoration Day, the day set aside to remember those who have died in service to our country. The designation goes back to May 30, 1868, when General John Logan, National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic decorated graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery by placing flowers on the graves. That cemetery comes alive with flowers each year on the Thursday before Memorial Day, as soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones. The Memorial Day parade in Benton yesterday slowly came down Main Street and wound its way up cemetery hill to honor our fallen military veterans.

		The Benton band and a fire truck and the VFW and a big ole Cadillac convertible carrying the elders of the Presbyterian Church were featured.

The Benton band stopped to serenade at the tent set up for the 150 or so who came to celebrate the centennial of the Presbyterian Church. Earlier, inside the church, Rev. Al Lumpkin led a Council of Churches service following a social hour with coffee and doughnuts.

A bagpiper along with Rev. and Mrs. Lumpkin provided the musical accompaniment. Moving outside in the bright sunshine, ham and chicken and other good things were available in a very nice buffet. The day of celebration ended following the 3 PM skit put on by the members of the church celebrating the first hundred years.

It was on this day in 1521 that the German theologian Martin Luther's writings were banned by the Edict of Worms. Luther hiccupped on the church's common practice of the sale of indulgences, which decreased the time a person had to spend in Purgatory. In 1517, the church was fundraising for money to build the Sistine Chapel, and the fever of the sale of indulgences made it somewhat akin to a modern election day campaign. Luther on the eve of All Saints Day, posted 95 theses on the door of his church attacking indulgences. In 1520, Luther attacked papal authority and the whole structure of the church and later he publicly burned a copy of canon law and a copy of the Pope's indictment of him. In May 1521 the Diet of Worms, a legal assembly of the Holy Roman Empire, declared him an outlaw and his writings banned. His writings inspired the Protestant Reformation.

Two key House Republicans have introduced legislation to curtail the unsolicited commercial email called spam that every email user despises. The bill is sponsored by Reps. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) and F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), and would impose fines and criminal penalties for many deceptive tactics that spammers use. People would be allowed to remove themselves from most commercial e-mail lists. Early reports of the bill didn't fare well on the report that marketing and retailing lobbyists had weakened it. Major email account providers America Online Inc. and Microsoft Corporation have now endorsed the bill, however, even though the Tauzin bill would allow marketers to evade provisions if they have a "commercial relationship" with consumers. In English, this means that if you sign up for something and agree to have a company send future email to you, you are entering into a "relationship" with the company and their related services. Our recommendation: don't sign up for nuttin'.

Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in adults, and most occur in persons with underlying heart disease. CPR doubles a person's chance of survival from sudden cardiac arrest. The CPR site http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/index.html is a good place to learn the basics of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

The Benton High School Class of 1953 held its 50th anniversary reunion this weekend. The bash began Saturday morning near Northumberland at a brunch organized at the Ric-Mar restaurant by Robert Lewis, whose daughter, Annie, owns the eatery. James R. Hess was the master of ceremonies and offered a prayer before the chow-down began. Scads of pictures were taken, scores of prevarications were told and a few outright lies about the "old days" were floating through the air. Incidents long forgotten were embellished in some cases but, hey, why let the facts get in the way of a good story? (More on this in The New York Times). At any rate, one would have to search high and low to find anybody who wasn't enjoying him/her self. Among those at the brunch were Harold Benjamin, Louise Boston (Roat), Tom Conner, Curtis Creveling, Sterling Dickson, Doyle Dodson, Beverly Fritz (Phillips), Emma Lu Funk (Savage), Keith Gilbert, Richard Good, Gary Hess, James R. Hess, Joan Hummel (Gilbert), Jackie Knouse (Hack), Robert Lewis, Ursula Lewis (LeFevre), Lillian Litwhiler (Miller), Hazel Miller (Karns), Barbara Raski (Hess), Dick Savage, Ruth Ann Search (Hess) (married to James R. Hess), Ann Shannon (Fantanarosa), Carol Smith (Doty), Wayne Smith, Mary Ellen Strauch (Harrington), Alice Sutliff (Allegar), Richard Sutliff, Irma Jeanne Wood (Vansock), and Norma Young (Sweeney). Thirty-four members of the 50 year reunion class attended the alumni banquet.

Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.) has asked his party to begin looking for his possible successor, saying he may not run next year for reelection.

Two hundred years ago, on May 25, 1803, American poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston. He studied to become a Unitarian minister, but left the ministry in 1832 after his wife passed away. He wrote in his essay Nature (1836) that each person could discover God by looking deep into themselves and the world around them. His quote: "To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society."

One hundred years ago today, Benton was in the infancy of the Benton Presbyterian Church as we now know it and the town celebrated, although as early as 1812 local Presbyterians worshiped in an Episcopal church at what was then called Sugar Loaf, also known as Coles Mills. The St. Gabriel church deed states that the church was for the "Lutherans, Presbyterians and Episcopalians." Go to the left side, under CHURCHES, for the details of the local church activities celebrated earlier today.

The 98th Benton Alumni banquet was the big event in Benton last night as graduating seniors and returning alumni gathered in the high school gymnasium for a catered meal and then strolled down memory lane to the auditorium for speeches, introduction of the 2003 Inductees into the Hall of Fame, and Eleanor Klementik's traditional playing of the Alma Mater.

Following the dinner, President of the Alumni Association, Sandy Kogut, presented Austin Kelsey, President of the Graduating Class, and reminded the alumni that over the last ten years, the alumni association has distributed over $10,000 to graduates. Association Secretary/Treasurer Kerry Vincent provided reports of previous meetings and the asset position of the organization. She explained that a total of $5,675 will be given away this year.

Mr. Gary Powlus explained the process by which 2,000 nomination forms were distributed. Twenty-four nominations were submitted and three living members and four deceased members were selected. Gary reminded the alumni that the forms for 2004 nominations can be submitted now (and you can get those forms from our web page). We'll mention that no women were nominated in 2003, and we hope that as a minimum Miss Mendenhall will be nominated in 2004. Get those nominations--for both men and women--in mind, and put pencil to paper soon.

Please go to the Hall of Fame section for a complete rundown, but we'll mention some highlights of the night.
• Percy Brewington urged the male members of the graduating class to "marry the right lady," referring of course to his bride of many years, Pauline Raski. Percy recalled the award he received in the White House from President Reagan. He also provided our favorite quote of the evening, which follows this section.
• Bill Follmer, accompanied by wife Margaret, reminded alumni of his teachers, including third grade teacher, Miss Hess. He remembered how she left school one day and didn't come back for a week. When she returned, she was to be called Mrs. Ash, much to the confusion of the entire third grade.
• John Herbert Laubach, accompanied by his wife, Diane, attributed some of his success to "being baptized in the same water as Percy Brewington." He also provided the second most interesting quote of the evening, which also follows this section.
• Margaret Ianthe Hess accepted for Russell Shultz, and was also the oldest alumnus in attendance.
• Dr. Bob Laubach recalled he and his father's last two trips to his beloved Benton. In June, 1970, his father received a pin for 50 years of service in Masonic work, and son Bob attended the Benton services at Benton Lodge #667 in commemoration of that. As father and son returned to Syracuse, Dr. Frank mentioned a numbness in the right arm. A doctor diagnosed the ailment as acute leukemia. A week later Bob accompanied his father Back Home to Benton, PA, for a memorial service. Frank Laubach (1884-1970), along with his Benton bride, Effie, are buried in the Benton Cemetery under the inscription, "World Missionaries."
• Members of reunion years included Lavna Campbell, 1933, and Winton Laubach, class of 1938.
• The 50-year reunion year, the class of 1953, had 34 attending and if we get a second later today we'll include a picture of the well-seasoned class on the web page.
• Five members of one family were at the alumni banquet. They were Sterling, Carol, Genevieve, Donald and Darlene Dickson. Darlene also went home with flowers, awarded for having come the longest distance, from Seattle.
• Each inductee, or the family representative standing in for the inductee, received a commemorative plaque, with an identical honorary plaque to be mounted on the district's Hall of Fame wall, which is yet to be built. Returning alumni two years from now will see the new wall. The auditorium where we have so many memories is slated for destruction June 17 and the new auditorium will not be completed until August, 2004.

Alumni Quotes of the Day:
• "I only did well in one subject (pausing, looking up)--thank you, Mary Hartman!
--Percy Brewington
• "You can't be flogged for ignorance, but you can be for impudence."
--Corolla Fritz, quoted by John Herbert Laubach

Someone said that the way to achieve inner peace is to finish things one starts. Yesterday I finished two bags of potato chips, a chocolate cake, a bottle of wine and two dishes of nephew Tom's homemade peanut butter ice cream. I feel better already.

Last year about the time of the May Day celebration, we entered into a dry spell. Trees started whistling for the dogs! You could get sunburned through your car window and burn your hand opening the car door. This spring if you depended on being outside to earn your living you were literally "up the creek."

The Conner family descends from ancestors in Orangeville, Sugarloaf, Fairmont and Huntington Townships. The 57th Conner Family Reunion will be held June 14, 2003, at New Columbus Academy, New Columbus, PA. All descendents of James J., Laura (Moore) and Sarah (Daum) Conner are encouraged to attend. Registration begins at 10 AM and lunch is served at noon. Afternoon activities will include genealogy research and sharing, games for all ages, and a scrap-booking workshop. Contact Ron and Carolyn Conner, P.O. Box 185, West Milton, PA 17886.

On this day in 1844, Samuel F. B. Morse sent the first telegraph message from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. Morse sent the line, "What hath God wrought?," a Bible verse taken from Numbers 23:23. Long before "You've Got Mail!" echoed through homes, Morse devised a series of dots and dashes to represent the alphabet, and that code ended up being named after him. In 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph line was completed, signaling the beginning of the telecommunications industry.

On this day in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge opened to the public after nearly 14 years of construction. The 1.3 mile-long bridge spans the East River of New York City and links Brooklyn and Manhattan. On its first day, more than 150,000 people crossed the bridge and paid a one-cent toll each.

We'll quickly remind you what is going on the Benton today:
• The community yard sale will act somewhat like our community speed dips in slowing down traffic this morning.
• The alumni banquet is tonight and the public is invited at 7 PM to see the Hall of Fame presentations to three living graduates, Dr. John Herbert Laubach, Class of 1947; Percy Brewington, Jr., Class of 1948; and William C. Follmer, Class of 1952. Four deceased alumni will be inducted: L. Ray Appleman, honorary graduate; Dr. Frank C. Laubach, honorary graduate; Russell M. Shultz, Class of 1920; and Dr. Ralph Sterling Johnson, Jr., Class of 1944.
• The Benton Presbyterian Church will celebrate its centennial Sunday. Festivities start at 10 AM Sunday with a social hour at the church. At 11 AM, the Council of Churches will celebrate a community church service featuring the music of Rev. Al Lumpkin and Stuart Erwin, bagpiper. The Memorial Day parade forms Sunday at noon and moves at 12:30 PM. Rev. Vernon McDormand will be the featured speaker. A buffet at the church follows at 1 PM. The celebration will end with a historical skit at the church.

We would be remiss if we didn't tell you about two books published through the efforts of Joselle Confair and Carol Vance and others to celebrate the centennial of the church. Whether you are one of the lucky 150 to have tickets to the dinner Sunday or not, make sure you get to see a copy. Better yet--order yourself a copy.

Term of the Day: P. O. S of A.
Joyce Johnson was the first reader to tell us that the acronym meant "Patriotic Order Sons of America." The organization seems to have been centered in Pennsylvania starting about 1846, with some spill over into New Jersey and Maryland. Want more? Go to www.posofa.org/ . Know more? Tell us.

The Benton Grange was organized and the charter applied for on January 29, 1874. The charter was granted on February 11, 1874. H. H. Brown, Lightstreet, was the deputy who organized the Grange. He was very active in the state granges, and in 1875 he was credited with organizing 24 granges, among them Lightstreet 31, The Valley 52, Columbia 56 and Rohrsburg 108. At one time, there was one at Waller and Sugarloaf. Frequently, the grange would meet in homes. They then moved into the P.O.S. of A. Hall over the store which was the People Department Store. On July 4, 1910, the building burned and with it the grange regalia, manuals, and many of the records. The next meeting was held in the home of N.W. Hess, and after that met in Keller's Hall until October 7, 1911, when it moved into the P.O.S. of A. hall in Neil Harrison's building. The new manuals and badges cost $26.16. In 1922 the P.O.S. of A. disbanded and the Grange brought the furniture. About this time the Grange had a period of growth with the hall filled to capacity for many meetings.

In 1932, the Grange purchased the land and building from A. T. Chaplin near the intersection of Two and a Half Streets and Market Streets, Benton. The Grange moved into the building and were using it as their meeting hall and as their minutes showed "was steadily paying for it" when it was ruined by fire in June, 1935. A study was made whether to repair or rebuild, and after comparing costs it was decided to rebuild. Plans were drawn and the contract was awarded to William Curey for $4,200. The cost of repairing was $2850.

In honor of Americans who died in service to the nation, the White House Commission is encouraging U.S. citizens to participate in a 60-second moment of silence at 3 PM local time May 26, the national observance of Memorial Day.

The National Moment of Remembrance Campaign is designed as an act of American unity, encouraging the participation of all U.S. citizens, including military members of all services and ranks, wherever and however they spend the national holiday, according to commission officials.

Congress established the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance on Dec. 28, 2000. The commission's mission is to promote the values of Memorial Day by acts of remembrance throughout the year; institutionalize the National Moment of Remembrance; enhance the understanding of Memorial Day; and to educate the younger generation in American history.
--U.S. Air Forces in Europe News Service

If you let your dog sleep in your bed once, he will be there for life.

Q: How do I open windows in www.bentonnews.net in a new window.
A: Hold down the shift key while you click a link, forcing the link to open in a new window.

Quickies...
• Like Stookey's Bar B Que? You can get it at the TasteCreme in Benton and at the Stookey's Bar B Que stand in Berwick, but the Bloomsburg version has closed.
• Don't forget what rhubarb does to a stove top when it boils over. If you have forgotten, bring scouring pads and come to our house and we'll talk.
• According to the Press Enterprise, the $1 million redo of route 11 between East Street and Park Street will be done by next weekend.
• PPL Corporation declared a quarterly dividend on its common stock of $.385 per share, payable July 1 to shareowners of record June 10.

Friday, May 23, 2003. There are 29 days until the official start of summer and 222 days remaining in the year. It is the birthday of Tom Kline today, who shares his birthday with bandleader Artie Shaw, 93; actress Joan Collins, 70; and singer Jewel, 29.

The New York Pubic Library was dedicated on this day in 1911. It took 14 years to complete and cost $9 million. Gov. Samuel Tilden left $2.4 million to "establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the city of New York." The Astor and Lenox Libraries agreed to merge their assets with Tilden's capital, and the dedication of the library occurred exactly sixteen years later to the day. When the library opened, there were one million volumes on its shelves, and 40,000 visitors. Today, it is the largest public library in the United States, with over 2 million members.

As long as we are talking about generosity of contributors, we'll mention...

• Harry Warner, Akron, Ohio, responding to the call for support for the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center, drove to Benton with a pickup truck load of 1,000 books as a donation to the Center from he and his wife, Becky. Each book was carefully indexed by box number, title and author.

• Major Rod Deitrick, son of Jean Deitrick, Benton, reports that he now has "several years of historical reports from the 648 Radar Squadron" for us in order to record the history of Benton AFS. The 648th Aircraft and Warning Squadron was activated in October 1951 and deactivated in June 1975. The histories of these two units were obtained from several sources, including AFHRA, the Air Force Historical Research Agency. The contribution of Major Deitrick is greatly appreciated.

• Harold Ackerman, "almost officially retired" from Bloomsburg University, took on the task of writing the history of Benton Foundry (including the Harrington Foundry) for inclusion in the Benton News. The foundry and the efforts of President Fritz Hall are so very important to the local economy! And by the way, we intend to celebrate the publication of the article by inviting up to 60 readers of the Benton News to breakfast at the Brass Pelican, followed by a short "oral" Benton News, followed by a tour of the Benton Foundry. We'll go into details soon. Sorry--breakfast is "Dutch treat!"

Harry, Major Deitrick, and Harold have "gone the extra mile," and we hope that other readers will respond with donations according to their ability to do so in order to make our community center a success and our general knowledge of the local area more complete and fulfilling.

Donna McIntosh wrote that she has a "new" cousin in Wellsboro, Marietta Borden. Donna and Marietta have a mutual Hess grandmother, who was a Fritz. Marietta told Donna to go to the Benton News web site and read the minutes of the North Mountain Historical Society. Donna writes, "There was an article by Betty Victory who spoke of the settlement of the Fritz family in Sugarloaf Township. Philip Fritz is a direct connection to our family and through this article I learned that he came into the area in 1790, was a teacher and a Justice of the Peace; also that he was a private in the Revolutionary War. So much information after so many years! I just can't believe it! Our whole family is in shock! We had all but given up on finding any information at all, then all at once, it falls in our laps. My mother, Lois Hess, was born in Benton in l905 and lived there for many years. She went to Normal school and studied to become a teacher but there were no positions open so she went to work at Artistic Card Co. manufacturing company. She married George Rohrer and they lived in Elmira for many years. That's where I was born in l939. We moved to Phoenix, AZ in 1949."

It also turns out that Dorothy Whitmoyer and Donna McIntosh had grandmothers who were sisters and they found each other through the Benton News website. Dorothy's grandmother married a Diltz and Donna's grandmother married a Hess. Well, OK, so it wasn't exactly a "When Harry Met Sally" type of meeting, but we're happy.

We get many requests for a history of the Fritz family, and since we are not genealogists we hesitate to write such an article. But Betty Fritz Victory agreed to write an abbreviated version of the Fritz history for publication in the Benton News and we look forward to the article. Now, please, don't bug Betty, let her take her time on this project.

For those of you who are interested in the genealogy of the people involved in St. Gabriel's Church, there will be an all-day genealogy workshop July 19 in the Church social hall, Church Historian Betty Victory tells us. And the St. Gabriel's homecoming will be Sunday, July 20. Sunday services are at 11 AM. The Vicar in charge is Rev. Alan C. Mead, with assistance on this special Sunday by the Rev. Joseph Hess.

First Columbia Bank & Trust Co. is having a book sale at their seven branch offices through May 23. The Benton branch at 4375 Red Rock Road will continue the sale of the fine collection of books through the end of May. Hardcover books are only a dollar, and paperback books are $.50. Local school libraries benefit.

Many residents heard The Innovata Brass Quintet when they played at the concert for Rick Martin. Others missed the concert and regret it. Michael S. Milnarik and the Innovata Brass Quintet will play the Bloomsburg Town Park July 23, 2003. Don't miss it.

We need help with the abbreviation of P.O.S. of A. as used in the history of the Benton Grange. In transcribing the history of the organization for a future article, we find that the Grange moved into the P.O.S. of A. Hall over the Peoples Department Store. On July 4, 1910, the building burned. Meetings were then held in private homes and Keller's Hall until October 7, 1911, when it moved into the P.O.S.of A. Hall over Neil Harrison's building. Ideas? And while you're at it, where was Keller's Hall?

A woman complained to her butcher that some link sausage she bought was meat on one end and little more than cornmeal at the other. It is just another example of how hard it is to make ends meat these days.

Good news! A report in the British Medical Journal suggests people who eat chocolate regularly live a little longer than those who deprive themselves.

Michael Bolton and Charlie Daniels will be at this year's Bloomsburg Fair. Bolton will be on stage Wednesday, September 24. The Charlie Daniels Band with special guest Montgomery Gentry will be on Friday, September 26. The Irish dance troupe Spirit of the Dance will perform September 21. The Bloomsburg Fair runs September 20-27, 2003.

Quote of the Day:
"We said, 'Why shouldn't we just do it together? I wanted something small, but as you can see...'"
--Jodi Brittain Birster.

Two hundred and one years ago on this date, a "fever" claimed the life of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, the first of the first ladies. When Martha married George Washington in January 1759, she was twenty-seven, a widowed mother of two, and one of the wealthiest women in Virginia following inheritance from her deceased husband, Daniel Parke Custis. Life at Mount Vernon, Virginia, was a social whirlwind. Between 1768 and 1775 over 2,000 guests visited the Mount Vernon home. Martha burned all but two of the letters she and George exchanged during their forty years together.

We'll mention novelist Arthur Conan Doyle, born in Scotland on this date in 1859. When Doyle graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in medicine, he was ship's doctor on two vessels that sailed to Greenland and West Africa, eventually opened his own practice in England, and wrote fiction. His third novel was the first that introduced Sherlock Holmes and his partner, Dr. John Watson. He wrote The Sign of Four three years later and published two-dozen short stories which took the public by storm. Doyle, however, was tired of the character, and decided to end the series in 1894 by killing Holmes off in The Final Problem. The problem was that didn't set well with the public! One woman called him a "brute." His solution was elementary: he resurrected his hero, and Holmes and Watson later appeared in 34 additional short stories and 2 novels.

What is good for the goose isn't always good for the gander, and that works with computers, too. I recommended a program recently called MailFiler for Microsoft Outlook users, which worked great for getting rid of incoming spam. It added either an attachment or a tag line to outgoing emails, however, that made some computers suspicious of the email and caused some readers to wonder if it was a virus. The program has now been removed and we'll go back to manually removing spam from incoming mail and muttering unmentionable things under our breath.

The election is over! Signs come down.

Today's Press Enterprise offers a picture of Jennifer Welliver, Benton's new band director, and a strange story that describes Benton as mostly shotguns and pickups.

One of our all time favorite sites and one we've been visiting for years is "Tudogs". If you like downloading software and learning about what's new on the Internet you won't want to miss this site. You can visit Tudogs by going to http://www.tudogs.com/ .

Josh and Caleb are twin sons of Nelson and Robin Fritz, juniors at Benton Area Schools, on the Honor Roll and National Honor Society. They run on Northwest's track team, and are both state qualifiers for this year's state meet in Shippensburg. Caleb is 2002 and 2003 district 2 champ in the 1600 meter and Josh is runner up. Josh also took a silver medal in the 800 meter. They are active in the Benton United Methodist Church, leading the praise and worship part of the service. They are active in the Town Hill United Methodist Church youth group. They are the kind of kids you would want to take the place of Neil Metcalf at the upcoming MusicFest. And they are going to do exactly that. Neil was slated for the 2-2:30 time slot before his untimely death last week. Josh and Caleb Fritz will fill Neil's slot. Please make sure that you attend to hear these two talented boys.

I guide my life as I do my diet:
It's nuts to knock it before you try it.

An old codger from Catawissa brought in a gangling young man to see the family doctor, and asked the doctor to fix up his son-in-law. Turns out that the son-in-law had been shot in the leg by the man and "lamed him up a mite." The doctor waved his finger at the man, reprimanding him for shooting his son-in-law. "Well, doc," the man said slowly, "he warn't my son-in-law when I shot him."

Plan a trip to see Pennsylvania's elk sometime this year. The PGC reports that samples taken from the hunter-killed Pennsylvania elk during the 2002 season have all tested negative for chronic wasting disease. In addition, results of the brucellosis and bovine tuberculosis tests for the elk were negative. The PGC will continue random testing of hunter-killed deer and elk during the 2003-2004 seasons.

If you are selling or giving your old computer away, make sure that you remove all personal information. A way of doing this is to run the restore disk that came with your computer. Chose the option that will erase the hard drive during the restore process.

May 21, 2004. In 1881 on this day, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.

Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris on this day in 1927, following his non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic. He used only a magnetic compass, his airspeed indicator, and luck to navigate toward Ireland. The New York Times for May 21, 1927, using "all the words that fit," headlined, "Lindbergh Does It! To Paris in 33 1/2 Hours; Flies 1,000 Miles Through Snow and Sleet; Cheering French Carry Him Off Field." Lindbergh didn't pack heavily for the trip! He brought five sandwiches, saying, "If I get to Paris, I won't need any more. And if I don't get to Paris, I won't need any more, either." He flew through all kinds of weather on his 3,610 mile trip, sometimes only 10 feet above the water.

Five years later to the day, Amelia Earhart set a record as the second person and first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, traveling to Northern Ireland in 15 hours. She experienced engine problems and lost some flight instruments, but she successfully landed in a field in the British Isles. A man ran up, and she asked, "Where am I?" He responded, "Gallegher's pasture...have you come far?" Following the tradition of packing light, Earhart brought with her a thermos of soup, a can of tomato juice, and smelling salts to stay awake.

Quote of the Day:
"Amelia is a grand person for such a trip. She is the only woman flyer I would care to make such an expedition with. Because in addition to being a fine companion and pilot, she can take hardship as well as a man-and work like one."
--Fred Noonan, Earhart's navigator for the around-the-world flight.

In Tuesday's primary election...
* Columbia County's Republican commissioners, Chris Young and Bill Soberick, will face off against Democratic challengers David Kovach and Jim Haney in the fall.
* Williamsport: Councilwoman Mary B. Wolf took the Republican nomination from incumbent Mayor Michael R. Rafferty. The unopposed Democratic nominee is former Councilman Thomas E. Bailey.
* Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid got the Democratic nominations for Luzerne County commissioner and will face Republican nominees Stephen Urban and William "Bill" James in the November general election.
* In Benton Borough, top vote getters for town council were Mike Klem, O. Grant Little, Nancy Laubach and Karen Reed.
* Hugh Sumner took 59% of the vote, knocking incumbent District Attorney John McDanel out of any re-election run.

Quickies...
* Please keep Ken Rhinard in your prayers.
* Congratulations to Dr. Harold Ackerman who retires from Bloomsburg University May 30. His teaching career spans 35 years. An average of 200 students per year survived his "Freshmen Composition" courses. Congratulations to Jason Wenner, Tadd Hile and Levi Floyd, all recent graduates.
* Pledges of support for the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center continue to come in. As alumni of the Benton School System come Back Home to Benton, PA, over the weekend, we hope that they will consider supporting the local effort. Please remember that by pledging your future support now, the Center can be assured of meeting their financial requirements. If your pledge card is not back, please dig deep and help.
* Benton school officials have balanced next year's $9.2 million budget without a tax increase or staff cuts.
* The selection of Jennifer Welliver to replace Rick Martin has been announced to the joy of many students and parents. We wish Jennifer the best in her coming years in Benton.
* Thirty members of the senior class of the Benton Area Schools just returned from a trip to Williamsburg and Bush Gardens. From all reports, they had a great time.
* Today is the wedding anniversary of Bill and Lori Lenhart.
• We are very pleased with Chuck and Kay Chapman's landscaping now underway along the stream beside their farm.
• Joselle Confair is home from the hospital and improving daily.

Pat Wary reminds us that on route 15 in northern Pennsylvania is the new Tioga Welcome Center, under construction since spring of last year. The center has a mountain lodge look, and is constructed of Pennsylvania Red Oak and Cedar. The floors are stone. A statue of a lumberjack greets visitors. Exhibits display products made in Pennsylvania. Outside the back is a breathtaking view, again with ample and comfortable seating.

Although not widely known, it is a sin for a woman to make coffee.
It's in the Bible. It says--"Hebrews."

Here are the unofficial results of the Benton Township/Benton Borough primary elections Tuesday. Please excuse any typographical errors, as we are doing this hastily...

We'll take Benton Township first...
For County Commissioner, on the Republican side: William Soberick, 40; Thomas Evans, 36; Chris Young, 57. Auditor: Shirley Keller, 70. For District Attorney, Gary Norton, 74. For township supervisor, Gerald Houseweart, 20 (19 Republican votes); Lance Wolfe, 7 (28 votes on the Democratic side); William Ertwine, 23. On the Democratic side, Tom Sherman, 18 votes; Chuck Henry, 26 votes; and David Kovach, 16 votes.

In Benton Borough, with 425 registered voters (250 Republican and 175 Democrats), 66 registered Republicans voted and 59 Democrats voted--not counting absentee voters. For County Commissioner on the Republican side, Soberick got 40 votes; Thomas Evans got 16 votes and Chris Young received 52 votes. For Auditor, Shirley Keller received 52 votes and A. D. DeGeorge got 35 votes. For school director, Geraldine Newhart received 49 votes and Phil Edson got 62 votes. For the office of town council, with four vacancies, the write-ins were Republican Mike Klem with 44 votes (using four different variations of spelling of his name). O. Grant Little received 32 votes, using two variations of spelling of his name. Nancy Laubach received 21 votes. Karen Reed received 19 votes and Alton Getz received 15 votes using two variations of the spelling of his name.

At the county level, Columbia County's Republican commissioners, Chris Young and Bill Soberick, will face off against Democratic challengers David Kovach and Jim Haney in the fall.

In Wilkes-Barre, Leighton easily defeated incumbent Mayor Thomas McGroarty.

And since we mentioned L. Ray Appleman, we'll tell you that Mr. Appleman has been selected for the Benton Area Schools Hall of Fame, and we'll briefly tell you about each of the distinguished Hall of Fame Recipients. Please understand that the following is not the "official" write-up of the person being nominated, but will give you an idea of what the person is known for. In order to get the official information about the following men, please plan to attend the Alumni Banquet this weekend.

Name: L. Ray Appleman
Year of Graduation: Honorary Graduate
Significant career and professional accomplishments:

The nominee served in the capacity of principal of the Benton elementary and High School for 52 years. He was a graduate of the Bloomsburg Normal School, and received a Master's Degree from Bucknell University. The elementary school is named in his honor.

The nominee was born September 2, 1884, in Benton. He earned a B.A. degree from Princeton University where he received the McLean prize from the college president Woodrow Wilson for a speech on peace among nations. Earned M.A. degree in sociology from Columbia University in 1912 and married a local girl, Effa Seely. Graduated Union Theological Seminary in 1913. Earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University in 1915. He was commissioned by Union Congregational Church as a missionary in the Philippines and for 15 years he ministered and educated Philippine Christians. From 1935-54, he brought "Each One Teach One" literacy programs to Philippine communities and to Southeast Asia, India, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. At Mahatma Gandhi's request, started Indian national literacy campaign. Instrumental in founding of World Literacy Committee, Committee on World Literacy and Christian Literature, and World Literacy, Inc. (now called World Education). He founded the Laubach Literacy and Mission Fund, now called Laubach Literacy. Continued world literacy tours during last 15 years of his life, spoke out across the U.S. on poverty and illiteracy as impediments to justice and peace. With son Robert S. Laubach, founded New Readers Press to publish instructional materials for growing U.S. literacy movement. In 1968, Dr. Laubach created the National Association for Literacy Advance, now called Laubach Literacy Action, to bring volunteer literacy efforts together in the United States. Died June
11, 1970, at age of 85. His wife Effa Laubach died March 28, 1973. Buried in Benton cemetery under the inscription: "World Missionaries."

The nominee is a 1947 graduate of Benton High School. He was a Political Science Major at Pennsylvania State University from 1949 through 1953, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and served as Student Body President in 1953. He was a Danforth Fellow for Graduate Study in Political Science at Harvard. At Harvard, he assisted Dr. Henry Kissinger by translating his German office correspondence for staff members. He received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University in 1958. John was a Fulbright Scholar from 1955-1957 at the University of Bonn, Germany, and University of the Saar. He served as Professor of Political Science at Otterbein College and Parliamentarian of the College Senate. He became a member of the Otterbein faculty in 1958. John has always had a special interest in constitutional law, politics of the European Economic Community, and computer applications as relates to instruction. He is fluent in German, and is knowledgeable in Fortran and Basic. He is the coauthor of the Westerville, Ohio, City Charter (1964). He was a member of the Westerville City Charter Commission during the period of 1963-1964. He was the Benton High School Commencement speaker, June 6, 1979. He served 25 years as college senate parliamentarian at Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio, retiring in 1991. He was elected to membership to the Benton Borough Council in November 2001. He is a member of the Bloomsburg Kiwanis and Susquehanna Valley Barber Shop Chorus.

The nominee spent two years on active duty as a Lieutenant. Has a B.S. in civil Engineering from Drexel, graduating in 1954. Married to the former Pauline Raski, class of 1947. Has three children, all graduates of the University of Tennessee. From his beginning on active duty with the Army Engineers in 1954, he worked as a civilian with the US Corps of Engineers in Mobile, AL, on NASA Test Stands and Ballistic Missile Defense Systems test facilities. From 1972 through 1985, he worked for the Atomic Energy Commission (now the Department of Energy), Oak Ridge; and at the Uranium Enrichment Facilities, the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
He retired from the Department of Energy in 1985 and later consulted with Bechtel, Tennessee Valley Authority. He retired as a Lt. Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve. He tells that he has not seen his high school class ring since 1948 when he turned it over to Paulene and she eventually stopped wearing it around her neck.

The nominee was born in 1900 in Benton Township and attended a one-room school house there before graduating from Benton High School. He graduated from Penn State University in 1925 with a degree in chemistry. Began working for National Biscuit Company in New York City in 1926 starting as a baking foreman for $2,200 yearly. He worked his way up in the company, striving to improve the food industry through chemistry. He worked for the company in Buffalo, NY, Chicago, Missouri and New Jersey. He had helped perfect both the Ritz cracker and Lorna Doone shortbread cookies for Nabisco and spend much time in experimenting with frozen eggs. He reached the position of senior vice president and remained in that position until he retired because of his wife's illness--a total of 36 years with the company. He was an accomplished clock and furniture maker, and proficient at growing roses. He was an accomplished artist and photographer. Shultz is deceased, having died June 7, 2001, in Stuart, FL, at age 100. He is buried in Hamline Cemetery.

The nominee was an active and well-respected student, member of school band and orchestra. He participated in school plays and musicals, while remaining an honor student. Ralph was born in Shickshinny in 1926 and moved to the farm when he was in the 7th grade and attended the Sugarloaf School to the 10th grade. He attended Benton High School during his Junior and Senior years graduating in the upper fifth of his class. He also played the trombone in the high school band. He spent two years in the Army Air Corps (1944-46, then attended Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for two years receiving an Associates Degree in Aeronautical Engineering (AE). Upon graduating, he went to work for Goodyear Aircraft Corp. in Akron, Ohio, and attended Akron University, receiving a BS in Aeronautical Engineering and an MS in Physics. He married his wife, Margie, in December 1951, and had one son, Ralph S. Johnson, Jr. He later worked on the Lunar Extravehicular Module (LEM) for Bendy Corp. in Ann Arbor, MI, and during his employment with Bendix he earned his PHD in Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Later, he worked for Bechtel Corp. in San Francisco and in Saudi Arabia. He also worked for Arabian American oil Co. (ARAMCO), Standard Oil of Ohio in Anchorage, Alaska and Dallas Texas, and with Meade Paper Co. in Chillicothe, Ohio. He had numerous publications in various scientific journals and belonged to and held offices in various engineering and scientific societies. Ralph died April 22, 1999.

William Follmer began his career in 1956 at Philco Research Labs, specializing in semiconductor devices and circuit research. He developed unique low-noise components for the Doppler Radar employed in the Lunar Lander. As a Senior Technical Specialist for Ford, he pioneered developments in electronic controls for automotive systems linked to the engine, transmission, and braking. He is author of numerous technical publications and holder of several patents. In 1995, he retired from Ford and established his own consulting company, Automotive System Inc. in Livonia, Michigan.

May 20, the 140th day of 2003. It is primary election day. In the Borough of Benton, the following are running for town council: Michael Klem, O. Grant Little, Nancy Laubach, Alton Getz, and Karen Reed.

Please keep Ken Rhinard in your prayers today. Joe Labonte was born on this date in 1932, and shares his birthday with singer-actress Cher, 57. On this date in 1506, Christopher Columbus died in poverty in Spain. The Homestead Act became law on this date in 1862. The Homestead Act granted 160 acres of land to anyone who was the head of a household and at least 21 years old. In return, the homesteader agreed to live on the land for 5 years. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, NY, aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his solo flight to France. Ten years ago today, an estimated 93 million people tuned in for the final first-run episode of "Cheers."

Lets look back to 1953, the year the best picture was "From Here to Eternity" and "I Love Lucy" was the most popular TV show. Our parents put away some of what they made for a rainy day and still lived a decent life. Our mothers baked their own bread, but if they bought a loaf because company was coming it would have cost about 15 cents from either the IGA store on Main Street or Market Street. Prime-Time television meant I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriet, Gunsmoke and Lassie. Air conditioning meant windows down at night and up during the heat of the day. We learned more in the park than in the classroom--until we made the mistake of telling our parents that. Not in a million Sundays would we call our teacher Ms. Mary or Mr. Warren. The only hazardous materials you knew about were the huge splinters on the railroad bridge and the cinders that got into your sneakers. Fresh beds smelled like the outdoors, because sheets were dried on the clothesline. People just lived on a different streets in the same town and there were "town" relatives and "country" relatives. "Child care" meant grandparents or aunts and uncles. Parents' rules were law. Children did not talk back. TV was on the inside in black-and-white and glorious color could be found everywhere outside during Spring, Summer and Fall. Your Dad knew how to adjust everybody's carburetor--and did, twice a week. The lazy duffer next door just knew how to adjust TV knobs. You hated cleaning lima beans and pushing your push mower, but loved eating milk pie and ham salad and wearing wax lips and downing VMPs from the Kozy Korner and swimming in the Benton dam. Grass-fed chickens would strut by every time company came as if to say, "You can't catch me!" And if you tried doing something really bad, you would run into your parent's Saturday night pinochle partners or the Sunday School teacher. And how and why did everyone know your first name? And why did your Dad say that the cute Fritz girl was related to you somehow; that just was not fair!

Quickies...
* Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose last month to 5.9% from 5.8% in March.
* Drivers crossing the state on the Pennsylvania Turnpike now have wireless coverage from Verizon Wireless over the entire 531-mile span, including in the five tunnels along the route.

Our readers flooded the genealogy mailing lists for Columbia and Montour counties in an effort to sign up. The list manager asks that if you want to subscribe to the list, use the following URL for Columbia County: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/PA/columbia.html

The people of the Borough of Benton are holding their garage sales this Saturday, which reminds us of the advertisement for the garage sale which read, "Ladies, don't forget the garage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands."

Today is the Municipal Primary Election. The Benton United Methodist Church will hold a luncheon, bake, soup and indoor garage sale from 9:00 AM-3:00 PM. You may eat in or take out from 11:00- 2:00. There will be ham and bean soup and vegetable soup by the bowl, pint or quart, hot dogs with or without sauerkraut, ham salad sandwiches, ham barbeques, hot sausage sandwiches, broccoli salad, cake, pie, iced tea or coffee. Anyone who need to pick up the Benton Dam Collectible may do so on this date.

This story will tell you what kind of a news day it is! A Berwick woman received minor injuries Sunday when her car crashed into a cow on route 93. In a local version of "Shock and Awe," the crash caused the 1990 Oldsmobile Eighty Eight to burst into flames.

For what seems like an eternity, Americans could travel abroad rather cheaply and bring back all kinds of wonderful and exotic thingies. Foreigners poured money into the rising stock market, and the dollar climbed higher. We're seeing a gradual move away from the emphasis on the US dollar remaining strong compared with other currencies. The move will apparently help the US economy by boosting exports. The thinking apparently is that it should become more difficult for overseas firms to sell goods here and should help keep US citizens in this country rather than gallivanting around the world. But wait a minute. The stock market fell 185 points Monday. The US economy is not quite as robust as we would like it. Exporters are hard pressed to find new markets to send the stuff we produce. Interest rates are very low, making yields lower for foreign investors. The declining dollar means that it will cost us more to import goods and services. OK, we'll sit back and wait a little longer to see if it is really a good policy, but we continue to be concerned about the relationship of the decline of the dollar and the increase in the budget deficit. Whose ear can we whisper in that this country is living beyond its means? We read that there is a proposal to increase the current $6.4 trillion debt by another $984 billion at the same time as the Congressional Budget Office issued its deficit forecast for 2003 to more than $300 billion. We can't do anything about national policies, so maybe we'll just worry about Firebelch 500 cars kabooming cows on local highways.

Today is the monthly meeting of the North Mountain Historical Society at the Brass Pelican, and so it is appropriate to recite a ditty that Harvey Andruss, in town to hear Brad Cole's program, quoted. It goes...

"A wise old bird is the pelican
It's beak holds more than its belican.
It can hold in its beak
Enough food for a week.
Damned if I know how the helican."

Tomorrow at this time you will be asked to mark a ballot for candidates of your choice. We'll soon learn who the Democratic and Republican candidates for office will be in November. Please vote. Remember that in the Borough of Benton, there are four vacancies for town council and apparently five running.

Word of the Day: "seersucker."
Pronunciation: (sEr'suk"ur). A plain-woven cotton, rayon or linen fabric with alternate stripes of plain and crinkled material. An English word literally meaning "milk and sugar," referring to the surface of the cloth, which had alternate sheer (smooth) and puckered stripes, producing the effect of the flat surface of milk and the bumpy surface of sugar. The name seersucker alludes to the texture of the fabric: sheer and puckered. The name came from the British colonial version of the Hindi word shirshaker. The fabric was exported from India for summer suits in the 18th century. We wonder when it will get warm enough that seersucker will make an appearance...

Now that the IRS is providing a Spanish-language Form 1040A, we wonder if IRS forms written in English will be far off?

Quickies...
* A 104 year-old graduate of Gettysburg College bestowed $14 million on his alma mater last week.
* A Medicaid Resource Book at http://www.kff.org/content/2003/2236/ describes how the Medicaid program operates--who it covers, what it covers, how it is financed, and how it is administered.
* Google now conducts 55% of all searches on the World Wide Web. Give it a search term to find and it disappears into who knows where, returning a fraction of a second later with the site you were looking for. You might as well start using it and forget about all the rest. If you use Internet Explorer, add Google to the toolbar.
* The proposed Super Wal-Mart and Lowe's construction in the Buckhorn area could begin within a month, according to the Press Enterprise.

Having trouble seeing? In both Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, click "View" (top toolbar) and go to "Text Size" and make the text as big as you want. No more eye drops required...

May 18, 2003. Pope John Paul II is 83 today.

The sign coming into Benton loudly proclaims "Jesse Laubach, USMC." Jesse received his Eagle, Globe and Anchor Thursday at Paris Island and is now one of the "The Few and the Proud." And we forgot to mention that Tuesday, May 13, Erik Jost left for Paris Island to become a marine. Our congratulations to both!

Health notes...
* Richard Savage, Berwick, is recovering from double bypass surgery two weeks ago and is "doing well."
* Lee Remley is also doing well in his recovery at Geisinger Hospital from a quadruple bypass.
* Ruth Kline is showing improvement at home, following her release from Bloomsburg Hospital.
* Donald and Jean Hess can sleep better at night now that the Thunderbird Farm appears to have sold at auction Saturday. We wish both of them the very best.

We always suggest that you don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want!

Poem of the Day:
Mother doesn't want a dog.
Mother says they smell,
And never sit when you say sit,
Or even when you yell.
And when you come home late at night
And there is ice and snow,
You have to go back out because
The dumb dog has to go.
--Judith Viorst, "Mother Doesn't Want a Dog."

PPL Electric Utilities said it plans to ask the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission for permission to hike its electricity delivery rates effective in January 2005, when the company's current rate cap expires. PPL Electric, which serves 1.3 million customers in Pennsylvania, is one of four major subsidiaries of PPL Electric.

The original brick and wood Presbyterian Church in Benton was erected in 1903 at a cost of $21,000 by a Conference of the First Presbyterian Church of Benton. There were 30 members of the Church at that time, including two elders. The Church burned May 16, 1913, after surviving the fire of July 4, 1910.

Farm impliments left over from the Benton Fire of July 4, 1910. The Presbyterian Church is in the background, right.

Term of the Day: "Committee."
A group of men who individually can do nothing, and as a group decide that nothing can be done."
-Fred Allen

Groaners...
* A jumper cable walks into a bar. The barman says "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."
* A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: "A beer please and one for the road."
* Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly; but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving once and for all that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
* What do you call a fish with no eyes? A f sh.

Area of the Day: Hopkinsville A subdivision of Bloomsburg, bounded on the North by East Third Street, on the South by East Fourth Street, on the East by East Street, and on the West by Catherine Street. The area was named for the Rev. Caleb Hopkins (1759-1824), who is believed to have laid out the housing section in 1815. Hopkins established St. Pauls Protestant Episcopal Church in 1793 in what became Bloomsburg, and St. Gabriels Church in what became Sugarloaf Twp. Rev. Hopkins is credited with organizing parishes in Milton, Jerseytown, Bloomsburg and Sugarloaf township. Rev. Hopkins left the St. Gabriel's aided parish, moving to Angelica, New York, in the fall of 1824 and died there soon after.

We bring up Hopkinsville for two reasons. First in the never-ending search for ancestors in the Columbia and lower Luzerne county area, we frequently turn to the Montour & Columbia county mailing lists, a Genealogy and history mailing list. To join the list, contact Bob Puckett. We first heard about Hopkinsville by reading this list. And the second reason for mentioning Hopkinsville is that Monday morning at 8:30 we start chowing down at the Brass Pelican, Elk Grove, in anticipation of hearing Brad Cole address the North Mountain Historical Society. He will be talking about eight generations of the Cole family in the area, St. Gabriels Church and general genealogical research. It should be a fun morning. See you there.

Frank C Yost
1897-1969

Caroline Perry Yost
1896-1981

On this date and again on May 26, 1868, the Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson under the articles of impeachment" of high crimes and misdemeanors." Johnson, a Southern Democrat, assumed the presidency after Lincoln's assassination. The executive and legislative branches came to fisticuffs over Johnson's handling of former Confederate states returning representatives to Congress after their legislatures approved a constitution recognizing the abolition of slavery.

Blues music is an influential form of American roots music with influence in rock and roll, jazz, rhythm and blues, country, and even classical music. Head on over to http://www.blues101.org/ to reach the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Blues Association. As they say, "Blues you can use."

Thirteen school safety patrol members received the 2003 AAA-Mid-Atlantic Outstanding School Safety Patrol Award Tuesday at the East Mountain Inn in Plains Township. Locally, Kayla Charles received the Outstanding Safety Patrol Award. She and twelve other students from the surrounding area received awards. She attends L. R. Appleman Elementary School, and is ranked at the top of her class. She received the principle's award in all the marking periods this year. The AAA Mid-Atlantic outstanding School Safety Patrol Scholarship program recognizes the most outstanding school safety patrols. Each honoree received a plaque recognizing their accomplishment and a $150.00 Savings Bond. She is the first recipient of this award at the school. Her parents are Richard and Tracy Fritz; her Grandmother is Barbara Fritz, Benton. Her maternal grandparents are Bobby and Betty Watkins, Westminster, SC.

On the mend...
* M. Ruth Kline is now Back Home in Benton, PA, following her hospital stay. She is very weak, but thankful to be home.
* Lee Remley had a quadruple bypass and is doing well in recovery. As a surprise, son Jim drove from VA last night and will stay through the weekend.

Saturday is Raven Creek day. The auction at the Thunderbird Farms on Lower Raven Creek starts this Saturday, May 17, at 9 AM. Also on Saturday is one of the first signs of the long anticipated summer: signs are on RT 239 advertising an Ice Cream Festival, also on Raven Creek, on the other side of 239. It starts at 4 and goes till 7:30. Those unfamiliar should just follow the signs. So Saturday is all planned. Go to the auction, and refresh yourself later with ice cream!

And while we're talking about the Thunderbird Farms and the big sale Saturday, we might mention Nellie Kline Smith, a former resident of the farm. Back in 1978 as she approached her 90th birthday, navigating the house from a walker as a result of a broken hip, she reminisced about being one of the Stillwater McHenrys. She was born at the bottom of the O'Brien hill in the house now owned by Bob Lewis and in her lifetime only moved from there to the Thunderbird Farms when she married Ralph Smith, a union that lasted 61 years until he died in 1970. Nellie told Ralph when he proposed that she didn't know how to cook, but Raph felt that would be fine and told her "I'll teach you to fry potatoes," as if that was all there was to it. The couple were farmers all of their lives and later with son Charles their farming changed from a small dairy herd to a huge dairy operation known as the Thunderbird Dairy. Milk straight from the farm to the family continued for many years. Nellie was a Christian lady, honored for 70 years of membership in the Benton Christian Church. In later years, she moved to a bungalow a short distance from the farm and Charles and Ruth Smith moved into the farm house. Today Donald and Jean Smith Hess live in the farm--or will through Saturday, the day of the sale. We suspect that Nellie is keeping a keen eye on things...

"Old Genealogists never die, They just lose their census."
--Sign on the wall at the Columbia County Historical Society

Quote of the Day:
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
--Mark Twain

A reader shopping at Riverside Market yesterday, noticed a frazzled young woman shopping with three children, and the following question popped into her mind. The reader wondered why we give our children middle names? Her conclusion was that they can tell when we're REALLY mad at them when the middle name is used! We love mail from readers...

Quickies...
* The 48th annual fiesta is ongoing through Sunday on the "square" in Wilkes-Barre, featuring more than 30 artists and craftsmen. Exhibits include paintings, jewelry and woodcrafts. The Fiesta will be open today 10 AM to 9 PM, Saturday from 10 AM to 10 PM, and Sunday between 11 AM and 7 PM.
* Passenger totals are down and revenue losses up for the fourth consecutive month at Avoca Airport.
* Laptop Larry gets a final chance this weekend as we start up the diesel and head down the road. If you don't get any more Benton News until Sunday afternoon, you'll know who I am going to blame! Life is so much like a roll of toilet paper! The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes. We look forward to a weekend where we can relax.

It's the birthday today of the man who wrote The Wizard of Oz, Lyman Frank Baum, sort of a cross between Doyle Pennington and Ben McHenry. He ran a general store that he called "Baum's Bazaar" where he entertained kids by telling them fairy tales and giving them candy as they crouched on the wooden sidewalk in front of his store--always with a cigar dangling from his mouth. He published a collection of Mother Goose stories, Mother Goose in Prose, and later published Father Goose, His Book (1899). One of his children's stories turned into The Wizard of Oz.

If you are people searching, or doing genealogy and ancestry research, try the site recommended yesterday by Major Andrew Vincent. The site is http://www.nedsite.nl/search/search.htm .

Hospital notes...
* Edna Laubach underwent a knee replacement at Williamsport yesterday.
* Lee Remley undergoes a heart by-pass today at Geisinger.
* Ruth Kline remains a patient in the Bloomsburg Hospital.

The number of students training to become registered nurses within the state jumped by 21% between 2001 and 2002.

Near Reading, in Millmont, residents are accustomed to foul smells from a sewage treatment plant, but now a ton of garlic, about five truckloads, is rotting in a warehouse. The Department of Environmental Protection has ordered the owner to toss the garlic by Monday.

Calling costs on cell phones would go up by a $1 a month to fund an "emergency 911" triangulation system in all of the state's 911 call centers according to legislation that is now through a Senate Committee. The bill would provide a means to locate 911-emergency cell phone callers. Lots of luck finding three cell towers in Benton!

Farmers Almanac Advice of the Day: "Better a good cow than a cow of good kind."

American Idol and Joe Millionaire helped put Fox on top for the February ratings "sweeps" and the network could run off with the May sweeps, too. Now Rupert Murdoch is going to acquire DirecTV, the world's second-largest satellite network. Fox news and entertainment will soon be everywhere. Move over Tom Brokaw, here comes Homer Simpson, anchorman!

State Senator Vince Hughes yesterday called for a quadrupling of the state cigarette tax to $4 a pack. Hughes says the hike will result in $2.4 billion in additional revenue which he would use to provide health insurance to every uninsured Pennsylvania adult. Watch for increased smuggling of untaxed cigarettes.

Americans heading for European vacations and European cars will soon pay more. The dollar's value has hit a four-year low against the euro.

The view Saturday of the new Benton Fire Station. Note the roof and the workers on the roof.

Picture courtesy of Lorena Bennett, who lives on top of Pop's Mountain.

May 14, 2003. On this date in 1607, the first permanent British settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, VA, by the Virginia Company charter. The colonists were led by Captain John Smith for their first two years in the settlement. After Smith left the colony in 1609, only 60 out of 500 survived the harsh winter. The arrival of fresh supplies from England in the spring fortified the colony and enabled it to endure for several years. As the mortality rate rose and the prospect for profit fell, support waned and the charter was revoked in 1624. Virginia became a Crown colony.

We celebrate the birthdays of Eugene Bardo, Jr. and Jackie Davis today. There are 38 days left until Summer officially arrives.

On this day in 1804, Lewis and Clark left St. Louis for the Pacific Coast "in the presence of many of the neighboring in habitants, and proceeded on under a jentle brease up the Missourie." The group was determining for President Thomas Jefferson just what it was that the nation got through the Lousiiana Purchase. When the group reached the Pacific Ocean, Clark wrote in his journal, "Ocian in view! O! the joy." Lewis and Clark did science a favor by identifying 178 new plants and 122 animals, including the grizzly bear, which often chased the group. Lewis wrote, "the curiosity of our party is pretty well satisfied with respect to this animal."

Neil P. Metcalf, 62, (Jan. 9, 1941-May 12, 2003), 3935 Maple Grove Road, Stillwater, died Monday afternoon in Kingston from work-related injuries. Mr. Metcalf previously lived in Huntington Mills for 32 years. He was a son of the late John and Catherine Price Metcalf, was born in Harveyville and was a 1958 graduate of Northwest Area High School. He owned and operated Metcalf Steel Services, Benton, assisted by his son, Brad N. Metcalf. The business was located in the former Little Lumber Sawmill building. Mr. Metcalf was a member of the Stillwater Christian Church, where he sang in the choir. Mr. Metcalf sang country and western, gospel and patriotic music at area community and church functions. A brother, the Rev. Glenn Metcalf, died May 26, 2002. He is survived by his wife, the former Phyllis Gensel; a son, Neil; a daughter, Tina M. Metcalf, at home; four grandchildren; and nine siblings: Jacqueline Stocksdale, Hampstead, MD; Mrs. Caleb (Sue) Hoyt, Shickshinny; Darte Metcalf, Sheffield, OH; Vivien Everett, Shickshinny; Mrs. Herbert (Ferne) Stevens, Harveyville; John W. "Jack" Metcalf Jr. and Madeline Bilby, both of Shickshinny; and the Rev. Richard W. Metcalf and Mrs. Fred (Peggy) Cragle, both of Sweet Valley. Memorial services will be held 11 AM Saturday, June 7, at the Stillwater Christian Church, with his pastor, the Rev. Paul J. Bowles, and his brother, the Rev. Richard Metcalf, pastor of Bloomingdale Bible Church, officiating.
--from a Press Enterprise obituary

Thought for the Day:
"Do not feel personally, irrevocably responsible for everything. That's my job!
--God (Contributed by Charlie Dodson)

Like a freshly painted room, the new $20 bill has a different look. There are new colors of subtle green, peach and light blue, a new number arrangement and a new background. Andy Jackson is still on the front, minus the circle.

Area tax hikes...
• "Homeowners here are facing an average tax increase of $125, but the school board is looking for ways to whittle that down."--Millville. Press Enterprise quote.
• "Homeowners here can expect to pay an average of about $50 more in school property taxes next year."--Danville. Press Enterprise quote.
• Williamsport Area School Board proposes a .25 mill tax rate increase. Muncy school district can expect a 1-mill tax increase. Northwest Area School adopted a tentative budget without a tax increase Tuesday night, but indicated budget cuts are coming before the budget's final approval in June. Central Dauphin (near Harrisburg) School Board gave preliminary approval to a $109.3 million budget which would increase property taxes nearly 5%.

The Guv is getting in the motor home business. The state now has an official state bus, "Commonwealth One," a converted motor coach with almost 192,000 miles on it. You'll remember that Rendell the Campaigner said he would buy his campaign bus and donate it to the state if he won the election, but he ditched that plan soon after the election when Rendell the Elected thought more about it. An organization called Team Pennsylvania Foundation, a public-private group that works to foster economic growth in exchange for tax benefits, is leasing it to the state for $120 a year.

We'll remind you that the 1952 high school senior class officers were Donald Baker, President; Wayne Baker, Vice-President; Beverly Dietterick, Secretary; and William Follmer, Treasurer. The yearbook, the Kaleidoscope, was dedicated to L. Ray Appleman, an educator in the local school system for 52 years. We would love more information about Mr. Appleman, and if you have any to share, please check CONTACT US on the side bar of this page.

The local Red Hat Society meets May 21 for pie and ice cream on the deck (weather permitting) at the Hoboken Sub Shop. Because of the May Day celebration at the school, this month's meeting will feature pie and ice cream and lots of women wearing "purple with a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit."

Memorial Day weekend in Benton will be interesting, educational, emotional and a lot of fun. Consider attending some or all of the activities at the Presbyterian Church, on the corner of Park and Market Streets on Sunday, May 25. The festivities start at 10:00 AM with a social hour in the church, and entertainment by a bagpiper on the banks of Fishing Creek. At 11 AM, the Council of Churches will celebrate a community church service featuring the music of Reverend Al Lumpkin, and Stuart Erwin, Bagpiper. A buffet will be catered at 1 PM. A Barbershop Quartet will serenade diners under the tent. There will be a short musical timeline. The entire congregation will perform FROM THE BEGINNING in the church at 3:00. Reservations for the buffet must be in by May 19th. Call 925-2591, 925-2502, or 379-2407 for tickets.

In local politics...
• County Commissioner Race: three to be elected. (Salary: $37,523)
Democrats: Candidates are Jim Haney, Chuck Henry, David Kovach, Bob Rupp and Tom Shuman. Two will be nominated. That pair will face two Republicans in the fall.
Republicans: Candidates are Tom Evans, and incumbents Chris Young and Bill Soberick. Two will be nominated. That pair will face two Democrats in the fall.
• School Board: Phillip Edson is on the ballot running for a two-year school board term. Phil is cross-filed, so you'll find him on both the Republican and the Democratic ballots. Phil took over for Bob Mawler after Bob had some medical problems. Phil was appointed for a year of Bob's four-year term. Now Phil is running for the office he has held for the past year, and if elected will serve for another two years.

Arlington, VA, is a second home for me, so it is easy to mention that the first burial of a soldier at Arlington House, now called Arlington National Cemetery, took place on this date in 1864. He was a Confederate prisoner of war who had died at a local hospital. The cemetery now contains graves of soldiers from every war in which the United States has participated. Arlington House dates back to 1802 when it was built by George Washington Parke Custis, George Washington's adopted son. In 1831, Custis's daughter Mary Anna married Lieutenant Robert E. Lee in the mansion. The couple resided there until 1861, when Lee took command of Confederate troops in the Civil War. After Lee left his beautiful home, the Union Army made Arlington House, also called the Custis-Lee Mansion, into a military headquarters. In 1864, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton declared the estate was a military cemetery.

It is with great sorrow that we report the death May 12 of Benton businessman Neil Metcalf, 62, Maple Grove, at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. A 12-foot steel I-beam hit him at the site of the former Mack Truck Co. building, 135 S. Wyoming Ave., Kingston, at 1:06 PM. The Luzerne County Coroner attributed Metcalf's death to injuries caused by the steel beam hitting him after the I-beam he was welding shifted and fell, striking him in the face and chest. The I-beam was being placed over a doorway approximately 12 feet high and was being held by a forklift. Apparently one side of the I-beam was welded, and the weld broke lose, causing the beam to fall on Metcalf, who was on a ladder. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been called to investigate. Metcalf Steel Services sells and installs structural steel, and related services. The company has six employees and is owned with his son, Brad. According to the Press Enterprise, the business opened in 1969 with one welding rig, moved in 1979 to a 3,500 square feet shop in Huntington Mills in 1979, and bought the 16,000 square foot Little Lumber Sawmill building in Benton. Metcalf was a popular area musician and has played country and gospel music at church and community functions for many years. He was one of the featured performers at the upcoming June 28 MusicFest at the Benton Park. His sister, Sue Hoyt, Broadway, has always been one of his biggest supporters.

"It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than a man in a chaotic time."
--Chinese proverb

Benton's new fire hall will host an open house June 21. This is a "must-do" event for everyone in the Upper Fishing Creek valley. You'll hear much more in the coming weeks.

Upcoming at the F. M. Kirby Center: Pat Boone. He as sold more than 45 million records, and has charted sixty songs, with 18 hitting the Top 10. He'll be at the Kirby Center for a live show Sunday, Aug 24, 2003 at 3 PM. Ticket Prices are $25 Balcony, $35 Orchestra, $50 Gold Circle.

Microsoft is expected to offer a paid online radio service called MSN Radio Plus this week. The radio service will reportedly offer dozens of commercial-free audio channels, segmented by format, at $4.99 a month.

Pittsburgh International Airport may have to go on the auction block following US Airways' cancellation of contracts and leases at the airport. The local Airport Authority may have to ask the state to float bonds, cut costs dramatically or put the airport up for sale to repay the bondholders more than $1 billion. US Airways, freshly out of bankruptcy protection, snubbed its nose at American suppliers and placed a $4.3 billion order about 170 regional jets from Canada's Bombardier Inc. and Brazil's Embraer SA. The move has significant impact on services from other state airports as well.

The government plans to unveil its new $20 bill today, marking a sharp change from its standard green color. The redesigned notes will remain the same size and use similar portraits and images, but will include subtle background colors.

Elections aren't as simple as they used to be. Take for example, the Town Council of the Borough of Benton. There are four vacancies: Susan Shultz, Alton Getz, Karen Reed and Nancy Laubach. There are four vacancies listed on the ballot, and so in order for someone to be nominated they have to be written in. Another way of saying it is when you enter the voting booth, you'll be asked to fill in four names for the vacancies on the town council. Lets review the four incumbents first:
• Susan Shultz has been on town council for four years and previously she was Borough Secretary for 12 years and tax collector for ten years. Susan says that she will not seek reelection and does not wish to have her name written in.
• Alton Getz has been on council for two years and is seeking reelection. If you choose to write in Alton's name, please write the name exactly as follows: Alton P. Getz, Jr.
• Karen Reed is the current president of the town council. We are not sure at the moment of the exact way to write Karen's name on the ballot, but if it is other than "Karen Reed" we'll let you know.
• Nancy Laubach. If you choose to write in Nancy's name, please write the name exactly as follows: Nancy Laubach.

In addition to the incumbents listed above, two other Borough residents are throwing their hats into the ring.
• Michael S. Klem, basketball coach of the 11th and 12th grades of the Benton Area School System and local businessman. If you choose to write in Mike's name, please write the name exactly as follows: Michael S. Klem.
• Beatrice M. Roberts, a retired teacher in the Benton Area School System. Her deceased husband, Ernest Roberts, was a past president of the town council. If you choose to write in Bea's name, please write the name exactly as follows: Beatrice M. Roberts.

On the mend...
• Theresa Hartman has almost another six weeks of casts before she is walking normally again, following her fall.
• Ruth Kline is making some progress in ICCU at the Bloomsburg Hospital, and is starting to eat small amounts of food. She says that she still does not have her appetite back.

Benton Grange #88 Will be meeting in the Benton Town Park on June 11, at 6 PM for a covered dish dinner open to the public. At one time the Benton Grange had over 150 members but now it is down to just 5 active members. It could come to the time that the Benton Grange would fold. Please come and join the group and keep the Benton Grange going. You can contact the Benton Grange,or you can call for more info: Rick Posey, 925-2124, or Brian Bower, 683-5472. Brian, by the way, prepared an article about the history of the Benton Grange, while will appear in an upcoming article in the Benton News.

Lobbyists seem to be getting their way with two House committee chairmen to craft federal legislation to curb junk email, creating a bill that would do more to protect mass email advertising than to combat spam. Email marketers are adding provisions that would supersede tough state anti-spam laws, would prohibit consumers from suing spammers and would give companies the right to send email to anyone who has done business with them in the past three years. The legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. Tauzin (R-La.), who heads the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee. We betcha that these two yahoos don't even use email on their own!

Quotes of the Day by Yogi Berra:
"It ain't over 'till it's over."
"It's d`ej`a vu all over again!"
"Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hitting."
"Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken."
"Half this game is 90% mental."

Starting about 4 PM yesterday, the National Weather Service reported conditions that could spark tornadoes for parts of Lycoming County. Tornado warnings for southern Columbia County and parts of Luzerne County were issued last night at 6:30 PM and local television weather reports called for tornadic-like weather, high winds and heavy rains. A warning was specifically issued for Berwick. The National Weather Service reported a funnel cloud near White Haven and that area had hail ¾-inch in diameter. In Susquehanna County, heavy rain was reported making I-81 hard driving. Tornado warnings for Luzerne County were in effect until 8:15 PM last night. But we actually had another hisser, as Father would say, and we received no rain in Benton. Tornado warnings for Luzerne County remained in effect until 8:15 PM. Earlier in the day, tornadoes tore across Kentucky and Illinois for a record-breaking count of 395 tornadoes that have been sighted during the first 10 days of May.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the first total eclipse of the moon visible in the Philadelphia area in more than three years will occur Thursday night. The moon will start to vanish by 10 PM. The eclipse will reach totality about 11:15 PM. A second eclipse will occur November 8.

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, former Iraqi information minister, must feel slighted. He didn't make the deck of Iraq cards even though he assured his people, in fact he gave them "triple guarantees," that no American soldiers were in Baghdad. You may remember that as the US troops were rolling into Baghdad, he announced that "they have started to commit suicide" and promised that Iraqis "slaughtered them in the airport." But what a job he had--absolutely the world's worst public-relations job! And you thought that your boss was murder! We suspect that he has a new job in the Congo. After the rear doors of a cargo plane fell open at 33,000 feet over the Congo, killing around 129, the defense ministry of Ukraine, which owns the cargo plane, "denied that anyone was hurt in the mishap and said no cargo was lost." Looks like the man is alive and well.

We talked about the Mountain Echo yesterday and a reader asked about it. For about six decades, The Argus, a weekly newspaper published in Benton, was read in a majority of homes in this area. For most of those same years, a paper known as The Mountain Echo held a similar place of importance in the Shickshinny area. Those times seemed to be a more peaceful and sensible era and reporting centered on "drunkenness, crookedness and failure to do the right thing." There were some examples of hucksteering in both local papers, such as the claim about McHenry Whisky that the drink "is recommended by all the leading physicians for medical purposes."

The Farmers Almanac reminds us that for long-lasting blooms, pick flowers in the late afternoon, when the leaves and stems contain the most sugar.

Take a peek at the biggest of the big, the Forbes 500 at http://www.forbes.com/home/2003/03/26/500sland.html , Forbes annual report card on how big corporations performed in 2002.

Quote of the Day:
"Motherhood is a wonderful thing - what a pity to waste it on children."
--Judith Pugh

For those who are still kids at heart, take a look at the Press Enterprise today and read about Bob Ruppel, 55, Honey Town Road, Benton. He wants to race radio-controlled cars, so he's building his own 150 ft. by 60 ft. track and the Benton Township Zoning Hearing Board recently said OK. If no one appeals that decision, he'll start work for a June opening. Ruppel will also open Pot Bellies RC Racing and Hobbies for radio-controlled racers.

Today is the second Sunday in May, and that means it's Mother's Day, May 11, 2003. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made Mother's Day a national holiday and we can thank Anna Jarvis for that. By the way, Jarvis lived the last years of her life penniless in a nursing home, her bills paid by the Florist's Exchange. Take time to remember the Military Moms today, a day when their military children possibly cannot directly contact their mothers.

Dayne Kline, Steve Letteer and Ron Kelsey celebrate their birthdays today. In Dayne's case, he is 84 years young today and reminds us that one of the best things about getting older is that all those things you wanted and couldn't afford when you were younger, you no longer want. With regret, Ruth, his bride of 50-some years, remains in in the ICCU at Bloomsburg Hospital.

All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

Didja know that a soldier from Hazleton helped make wanted Iraqis as easy to spot as the King without a mustache on a deck of cards? U.S. Army Sgt. Scott Boehmler and four other soldiers with the Defense Intelligence Agency dreamed up the idea of depicting Iraqi officials on playing cards. The cards became the Operation Iraqi Freedom U.S. Military Heroes Playing Cards. The Defense Intelligence Agency originally printed 1,900 decks of cards with the Iraqis on the front and camouflage on the back. By the way, from a high of $230 on eBay, the cards are now available for as low as $3.

A reader asked how the toaster fire started on the 16th floor in the Labor and Industry Office, Harrisburg. The fire apparently started when something fell on a covered toaster, turning it on. The fire was minimal, but the blaze set off the sprinkler systems, which showered water over the 15th and 16th floors. Imagine for a moment the devastation of a sprinkler going off in a Government building...

The oyster's a confusing suitor;
It's masc., and fem., and even neuter.
At times it wonders, may what come,
Am I husband, wife, or chum."
--Ogden Nash

A trade we don't know much about anymore is stonecutting. The trade flourished at one time in our area and is now obsolete. Most of us--sob, old-timers--who grew up in the Benton area remember walking across the railroad bridge below town. For those of you who don't know where the railroad crossed Fishing Creek, just head down to the future site of the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center at the rear of the former Little Lumber Company. Look down the bank toward the creek, or look across the creek, at the foundations of the former railroad bridge. The stones that held up the former railroad bridge are good examples of the stone cutting, quarrying and laying of an industry that vanished years ago. These stones were laid during the summer of 1886 by ethnic workers who were quartered at Zaners. Although no longer used, little work would be needed if a bridge were again to cross the creek on these rocks. The use of cement concrete killed the stone business.

Three young Englishmen came to the Shickshinny area to work on the piers of the river bridge. They were J. S. Sunderland, Richard "Hicky" Hearst and Thomas Senior. The three friends hailed from the same place in Yorkshire, England. They were a strong lot, and there were stories that on a bet one of them swam the Susquehanna on a Sunday with a jug of whiskey tied to him. At that time, booze was not sold on the Shickshinny side of the river.

Jimmy Sunderland, Dicky Hearst and Tommy Senior, as they were usually called, were expert stone cutters and masons. Hearst went back to England, but Senior and Sunderland stayed in Luzerne County until their deaths in their 80s. The Senior and Sunderland names in the Shickshinny area are probably all descended from these stone masons.

The different quarries on the mountains gave employment to a good many stone cutters and laborers. The trade seemed to run in families just as the stone ran in veins. "Good masons could pile up more stone wall in one day than two other men could tear down in two." We often lay up the round creek stone of the fishing Creek corridor, building walls. We're actually getting quite good at it, since we seem to have to do it each spring! We wish that Paul Crockett, who laid up the fireplace at Painter Den, were still around to give us some pointers.

Peter Colons, who built the railroad on the east side of the river, gave a contract for laying culverts and bridge piers, but discharged his employees after a month or two, saying he didn't want "men to work for him who could make nineteen dollars a day apiece laying stone."

Flagstone pavements were quarried almost on the spot or not very far away by old quarry-men. During the past summer we saw many old flagstone pavers carried away during the Center Street sidewalk replacement. We often find beautiful flagstone in West Creek, but almost never find any in Fishing Creek.

One stone mason would drill, plug and feather holes all day. The stone mason could, with a hand hammer and plug drill, make 120 feet of holes in a day, each hole 3 inches in depth. A man by the name of Moses Springer in the Shickshinny area was a one-armed soldier and followed the quarries. It must have been a sight to see him use the wedge, hammer and crowbar with his one arm.

Paving blocks were made in the Nicely quarry and in the red stone quarry above Mocanaqua, by English stone cutters imported for that purpose. If you never saw a stone cutter take a boulder of any shape and with no other tools but a hammer, make a square block of it you have missed one of the most interesting sights of the stone-cutting trade.

Marble cutting was also a stone trade. Huber Kline's grandfather, John Baker, cut tombstones in his shop on Market Street across from the Presbyterian Church and many a young boy went by his shop at night on his way to the covered bridge by taking the center of the road. The yard sometimes showed displays of samples of his work in the front yard and it looked like a cemetery.

A lesser version of the trade was the laying up on stone fences. Along the Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike north of Dushore are many examples of stone walls neatly cut and stacked and if you own a stone fence you can count on some pillywigger knocking on your door asking to buy your cut stone. Regardless of the complexity of the job, no matter what he was carving, our forbearers felt that "the stonecutter' s gaze must be fixed on the image of a cathedral."

David T. Bound and Charles A. Boone, under the name of Bound and Boone were large cutters and shippers of cut stone in the Shickshinny area and they employed a number of men. Even the DL&W railroad had quarries in the Shickshinny area. Stone was cut and quarried for railroad use and shipped wherever the company operated. All of the railroads of the area used stone masons. Many of the air walls in coal mines used quarried stone.

Two summers ago I marveled at the huge stone squared for sale on route 220 near Sonestown. The stones were taken from one of the old Susquehanna River bridges at Berwick. The price tag was $500 each and the stones seemed to sell about as fast as trucks could be found to take them away.
--Based in part on an article in the Mountain Echo of July 14, 1916.

The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railways met on Promontory Summit in Utah Territory to drive in the Golden Spike on May 10, 1869, symbolizing completion of the first transcontinental railroad, reducing a trip of four or more months to just one week. In the 1850s the Senate ordered ten thousand copies of topographical surveys called the Pacific Railroad Route Reports, including one by John Charles Frémont. (Frémont was married, by the way, to Jesse Benton Frémont, daughter of Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton--the man for whom the town of Benton was named. Expansionists such as Senator Benton (Democratic Senator from Missouri, 1821-1851) believed that both pioneers and railroaders would rely on these topographical reports to transverse the continent and to accomplish the nation's "Manifest Destiny." Congressional leaders felt that in the event of a Civil War between the north and the south, whichever side had the best transportation system and access to the west would hold a great military advantage.

Isn't there something wrong when we hear that about 100 state employees stayed home yesterday after a toaster caught fire at a Bureau of Occupational and Industrial Safety office in Harrisburg Wednesday night? A toaster fire in the six-figure range in the Bureau of Occupational and Industrial Safety? That is about like having a fire hall burn or a water department flood.

In need of a quick prayer...
• Lee Remley, who celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday, is scheduled for heart bypass surgery Thursday, May 15, 2003.
• Ruth Kline remains in ICCU at Bloomsburg Hospital.

Dan Elias, 45, host of "Antiques Roadshow," on PBS (locally WVIA-TV-44) loves to listen to stories about family heirlooms and antiques. Thursday, the "Antiques Roadshow" host will be at Genetti Hotel & Convention Center, Wilkes-Barre chatting about his life and times with the show. Tickets for the event are $55.

Avoid the following Trickware at all costs: Hotbar, Gator, IGetNet, Comet Cursor, and Xupiter. These install by the use of "automatic" downloads usually via a pop-up window. Even clicking "No" can install the software. If you see a box pop-up on your screen for one of these products, click the "x" in the top right of the popup window and close it. And then be thankful it didn't download.

The only thing that springs up faster than the dandelions this spring are political yard signs for the May Primary election. And there are a huge amount of dandelions in blossom at the moment!

Roses are red,
violets are blue.
Orchids are expensive,
will dandelions do?

May 13 is the last day to submit an application for absentee ballots at the courthouse. In Benton Borough, with four vacancies for town council, we know for sure that Mike Klem and Nancy Laubach will run as write-in candidates.

It's been a record week of tornadoes and flooding, with dozens dead and millions of dollars in damage. We remember back to May, 1950, when a tornado traveled across England. The trail of damage left by its four-hour journey included a number of chickens plucked completely bare.

The Guv said yesterday on the subject of malpractice insurance that he hopes to "have our plan out in the next two weeks, and we hope to have it approved by June."

The Tioga Central Railroad sounds like a lot of fun. The train takes a 24-mile round-trip excursion leaving Wellsboro Junction 11 AM, 1 PM, and 3 PM every Saturday and Sunday through the summer. Adult tickets are $10, seniors, $9 and children $5. Dinner trains operate on Saturday evenings from the third Saturday in June through the last Saturday in October. Dinner trains operate from Wellsboro Junction, three miles north of Wellsboro on Route 287, to Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. The round-trip distance is 42 miles.

A couple of weeks back we talked about the bridge in Laubach, PA, built in 1871 by Clinton and Montgomery Cole and named for Welle Hesse. Some called it the Wellington Hess Bridge, some called it the Sugarloaf Bridge. We'll finish the story with a broad clue as to its present whereabouts when we tell you that two years after it tumbled into Fishing Creek it was reconstructed by Ed Campbell at Ed and Dick's Old Fashioned Ice Cream stand. It is still there, although today the restaurant beside the bridge is known as the Old Heritage House. Ed Campbell, a Benton native who lives in Lightstreet, constructed a 16-foot replica of the 112 year old original bridge on the grounds of his Heritage House Family Restaurant on the Orangeville-Lightstreet highway. After the bridge pieces were pulled from the creek by state employees, they were laid out at the Sugarloaf township municipal building like a giant jigsaw. Ed was the high bidder for the remains of the bridge. Two years after the bridge fell into the water, construction of the replica began. Turn to FEATURES to see pictures of the construction of the replica and the bridge as it looks today.

May 9, the 129th day of 2003. We missed some more birthdays: Laurie Kline Lamoreaux's birthday was April 29 and hubby Alan Lamoreaux's birthday was April 26. And we goofed big time yesterday when we said that a member of town council was helping with the sweeping of the streets, when actually there were two: town council president Karen Reed was the second member of town council doing her part for the community.

Down in Danville, Lois and Ira McHenry celebrate their wedding anniversary today. Ira recently turned 90, by the way. Back in 1980 on this date, 35 motorists were killed when a Liberian freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, causing a 1,400-foot section to collapse.

President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation on this date in 1914 asking Americans to give a public expression of reverence to mothers through the celebration of Mother's Day. Carnations have come to represent Mother's Day following President William McKinley's habit of always wearing a white carnation, his mother's favorite flower. What are you planning to do to celebrate all of the mothers in your life this Sunday?

The moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of that wonderful mother of mine;
The birds never sing but a message they bring
Of that wonderful mother of mine.
--Walter Goodwin, music, and Clyde Hager, lyrics.

Life expectancy for Americans, according to the Social Security Administration, has reached an all-time high. In 2001, life expectancy for men reached 74.4 years and for women 79.8 years. This means that Americans can now expect to live an average of 77.2 years. In 1900, the average American man could expect to live to about 40.4 while the average woman lived around 43.1 years. Fifty years later, in 1950, life expectancy for men was 62.6 and for women was 67.4. And in 1980, life expectancy for Americans had increased to 68.2 for men and 76.1 for women. Americans have nearly doubled life expectancy in 100 years.

The full Senate next week will take up the proposal for legalizing slot machines at the state's horse racetracks.

We have updated the death notices under FEATURES at the top of the page. We generally only list the Benton cemetery, but wander from time to time into other cemeteries. If you want to check a death in a town other than Benton, go to http://www.arrangeonline.com/ . You are always welcome to submit death notices to us for publication.

The Benton Rodeo Association at their annual dinner last night voted to hold a joint APRA/IPRA championship rodeo July 15-20, 2003. Lets take that a little slower! The APRA (American Professional Rodeo Association) has represented the Benton Rodeo for years. In both 2001 and 2002, the Benton Rodeo was voted the #1 APRA rodeo. Now the local rodeo group will grab life by the horns and sign on with both the APRA and the IPRA (International Professional Rodeo Association).. The joint venture will cost the rodeo association extra money, but will insure that better livestock and riders participate. One of the highlights of the rodeo this year will be the introduction of the one arm bandit and company. The rodeo will be able to seat 3,000 per performance this year. New aluminum bleachers arrive next week that are handicap accessible, and will replace bleachers now in front of the pizza stand and the french fry stand. One of the bleachers is 75' long, 15 rows high, and seats 640. The other new bleacher is 10 rows high, 27 feet long. Again this year, the Rawhide Rodeo Company, Leicester, New York will produce the shows for the enjoyment by both contestants and rodeo spectators. Officers from last year were reelected, and include Wally Gordon, Richard Lehet, Dean Kelchner, Lynnette Fisk, and Don King. The rodeo association needs volunteers to help in the food stand.

Poem of the Day:
The rodeo is what I'll always love;
This life fits me like a well worn glove.
To rodeo with my friends is what I love to do.
--Bo Boggess

After last year's rodeo, a cowboy rode down from the rodeo grounds and stopped at a local pub for a drink. Some of the locals in the bar picked on strangers and when the cowboy finished his drink, he found his horse had been stolen. He went back into the bar and with a quick move of his hands he flipped his guns into the air, caught them above his head without even looking and fired at the ceiling and demanded to know which one of the sidewinders stole his hoss. No one answered. He then proceeded to tell the locals that he was going to have another beer and if his horse wasn't back outside by the time he finished, he was gonna do what he "dun in Texas!" and he concluded by saying that "I don't like to have to do what I dun in Texas!" The locals got very restless as the cowboy had another beer, then walked outside. His horse was back! As he swung up into the saddle and started to ride back to the rodeo grounds, the bartender ran outside and asked what happened in Texas. The cowboy turned back and said, "I walked home."

Tickets are still available for the roast beef dinner Saturday night at the Waller Memorial Hall. The dinner will raise money to pay medical bills and related expenses for Ivy Young, 15, a patient in the Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, while she awaits a donor for a bone marrow transplant. Tickets for the diner are $8 for adults and $4 for children 6-12. Donations to help the family are accepted by the Benton Lions Club, P.O. Box 410, Benton, Pa. 18714. Mail for Ivy should be sent to P.O. Box 29046, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45229.

A reader wrote about a sign for a long-established New Mexico dry cleaners: "38 years on the same spot."

Kirk Hess, always a good source of things historical, has an early 1900s beer bottle that is embossed "Andrew Shurilla Larksville PA." We've added this to our list of local beers.

Enjoy your weekend.

"A bunch of brewery presidents went out for a beer. The CEO of Corona asked for the world's best beer, a 'Corona.' The bartender gave it to him. The CEO of Budweiser asked for 'The King Of Beers,' a Budweiser. The bartender gave him one. The CEO from Coors asked for the only beer made with Rocky Mountain spring water, a Coors. He got it. The guy from Gibbons sat down and said, 'Give me a Coke.' The bartender was a little taken back, but gave him what he ordered. One of the brewery CEOs looked over at him and asked why he wasn't crying to gimme, gimme, gimme a Gibbons. The Gibbons president replied to the effect that 'if you guys weren't drinking beer, neither would I.'

The question then came up as to what happened to Gibbons and Stegmaier beer. Whatever happened to the slogan, "Cold and Gold from the Poconos?" We'll attempt to shed some light on that mystery in the following paragraphs.

But first, remember this catchy tune?

"For beer and ale, that never fail,
to win the first prize ribbons,
join the crowd that shouts aloud,
gimme gimme gimme gimme Gibbons!
G-I-B-B-O-N-S takes the first place ribbons,
if it's Gibbons it's good, so the next time you should,
say gimme gimme gimme gimme Gibbons!

Over the years breweries have been big business in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and at one time there were over two dozen, including:

• The Luzerne County Brewing Company. The company built a five-story brew house in 1901. In 1933 the Smulowitz family formed The Lion Brewery at that location and started producing Gibbons beer. The family owned and operated the company until it went public in 1993. Today the Lion Brewery is a privately owned company brewing about 12 million gallons a year, but Gibbons beer is simply history.

• The Baer & Stegmaier Brewery was opened in 1863 on South Canal Street by a partnership between Charles Stegmaier and his father-in-law, George Baer. Charles Stegmaier personally delivered each barrel of beer with an express wagon drawn by a goat. The operation was later called the C. Stegmaier & Son brewery before finally becoming Stegmaier Brewing Company in 1897. It was the first brewery built in Wilkes-Barre, and the largest in Pennsylvania outside of Allegheny and Philadelphia counties.

Stegmaier became one of the largest independent breweries in North America following prohibition, producing a half million barrels in 1940. With a 60-truck fleet combined with rail services, distribution eventually spread from Maine to Florida. The company enjoyed many productive years before closing in October, 1974. The vacated Stegmaier brewery was purchased for back taxes in 1978 by the City of Wilkes-Barre and is now an office building. The Stegmaier label was sold to the Lion Brewery who bought the rights to label and produce Stegmaier beer.

Stegmaier beer is still produced by Lion, Inc. The Lion today is at "full capacity," producing 75 different products to the tune of 450,000 barrels a year. The most produced product at the brewery is an non-alcoholic malt-based beverage produced under contract for Goya Foods. The company's best selling beer products are the Pocono Lager and Stegmaier brands. The company also produces Lion's Root Beer and Olde Philadelphia soft drinks.

And now for the final chorus:
"G-I-B-B-O-N-S, Pure the bright, light Gibbons!
If it's Gibbon's, It's Good.
So every time you should say "Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie Gibbon's!"

Besides Gibbons and Stegmaier, these brands were also brewed (and consumed) close to us Back Home in Benton, PA...

Bartel's, Wilkes-Barre.
Bavarian Mount Carbon, Pottsville.
Black Diamond, Mt. Carmel
Columbia, Shenandoah
Franklin's, Wilkes-Barre
Freeland Pilsner, Freeland
Fuhrmann & Schmidt (F&S), Shamokin
Hazleton Pilsner, Hazleton
Kaier's, Mahanoy City
Liberty Beer, Tamaqua
Lion's Head, Wilkes-Barre
Mt. Carbon, Pottsville
Standard Tru Age, Scranton
Senator's Club, Shenandoah
Sunshine Beer, Reading
Yuengling, Pottsville
Andrew Shurilla Larksville PA

Beer Quote of the Day:
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
--Benjamin Franklin

Certain farms of the area stand out. We think of the Hessy McHenry farm, the Doyle Hess Farm, the Kriebel farm, the Roy Hess farm, the William Hess Farms, and the Thunderbird Farm. And after May 17, the Lower Raven Creek Road will lose an old standby, home of generations of Smiths--the Thunderbird Farm, now owned by Donald and Jean Smith Hess. After 55 years of lifting heavy milk cans and around-the-clock farm work, Donald is calling it quits--his back and his spirit will no longer take the strain. A complete farm and home disposal will take place May 17, starting at 9 AM: a 150 acre farm, 85 dairy cattle, dairy equipment, farm machinery, antiques, stoneware and milk bottles. We always heard that Charles Smith, Donald's father-in-law, dumped truck loads of Ralph R. Smith bottles over the dump and next Saturday scads of people will line up hoping to get just one for their collection. There will also be Elmdale Farm bottles, Breisch Dairy bottles, Sanitary Dairy bottles--well, you get the idea. Oh, yes, the antiques: old Texaco gas pumps, high-back bedroom suite, birds eye maple dressers--well, just go to the sale and find out.

Term of the Day: "Rule the roost."
To be in charge; dominate. "The big man always rules the roost." In the days when families kept chickens, the rooster was in charge in the farm yard. In fact, an English proverb, went like this: "What so ever ye brage or boste, my mayster yet shall teule the roste."

Someday maybe I'll be skinny
I'll be able to bend with ease
And investigate the off-limits area
That exists there below my knees.

Dennis Wolff, Millville, is now the 14th of 18 nominees to be confirmed by the State Senate. Wolff is the Secretary of Agriculture in the new Guv's administration.

We continue to hear lots of criticism of the speed dips on town streets, but the town streets are getting cleaned! And we note that one town council member is spending a lot of time with the broom himself... And where did all the cars come from? Using route 11, I-80 or even our own route 487 can be a chore this time of the year...

The Army, Navy and Air Force are having an unusual degree of turnover at the top at the moment. Air Force Secretary James Roche has been selected to run the Army. The Army job is available because Thomas White was recently fired by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The Navy Secretary has been open since January since Gordon England left. The Navy had three secretaries in four months, and has had no undersecretary for that entire period. Wonder whatsa going on...

Don't forget to put the Cambra yard sales on your calendar. The popular event will be held August 9 from 9-4.

Another version of Windows Longhorn leaked out last week, and it appears that Microsoft is ahead of schedule with the operating system. Microsoft could release the new operating system between October 2004 and February 2005."

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) plans to introduce new antispam legislation that would create a national "no e-mail" list similar to the recently enacted do-not-call lists aimed at curbing telemarketers. It would be wonderful if someone would can spam!

XM Satellite Radio made its 101 channels available to personal computers Monday, selling a receiver which connects to most PCs and lets them access broadcasts from XM's two satellites. The device is available for $70 at PC Connection or directly from XM. Access to XM's programming costs an additional $10 per month. A fast Internet connection is almost a "must."

On the mend...
• Theresa Hartman fell and broke one ankle and sprained the other. A card would be in order.
• Ruth Kline is in ICU at Bloomsburg Hospital, as of about 5 PM last evening.

The next time you hear something that sounds too good to be true, scurry over to http://www.scambusters.org/ . The site will tell you about the top ten scams of the year, will disprove some urban legends, and will provide a wealth of information that will permit you to keep whatever wealth you have.

The average man's life consists of twenty years of having his mother ask him where he is going; forty years of having his wife ask the same question; and at the end, the mourners wondering, too.

Try saying these fast...
People who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones.
There's no plates like chrome for the Hollandaise.
The pie rates of Penn's aunts.
Transcend dental medication.
Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.
Squaw bury Shortcake.
Now I weigh me down to sweep.
Only Hugh can prevent florist friars.

Scott Edwards, whose Scott's Floral & Gift Center was destroyed by fire down in Danville March 31, has purchased the adjacent Wagner Building, also badly damaged by the fire. Before the fire, the Wagner Building housed Handy Harold's Service & Repair, Kut-N-Kurl Family Salon, K&A Treasures and an apartment.

A recommended addition to your library: "A Patriot's Handbook, Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love." The contents were selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy, and is available for $24.95 ($19.57 from Amazon). Caroline Kennedy is the author of The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the editor of Profiles in Courage for Our Time, also a bestseller. She is president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and is chief executive of the Office of Strategic Partnerships for New York City Schools.

In May get a weed-hook,
a crotch and a glove,
and weed out such weeds,
as the corn do not love.
For weeding of winter corn,
now it is best;
but June is the better
for weeding the rest.
--Thomas Tusser (1524-1580)

Remember that a rose is a weed if it comes up in your peas.

May 20, Election Day, the Benton United Methodist Church will hold a luncheon, bake, soup and indoor garage sale from 9:00 AM-3:00 PM. You may eat in or take out from 11:00- 2:00. There will be ham and bean soup and vegetable soup by the bowl, pint or quart, hot dogs with or without sauerkraut, ham salad sandwiches, ham barbeques, hot sausage sandwiches, broccoli salad, cake, pie, iced tea or coffee. Those who wish to pick up the Benton Dam Collectible may do so on this date.

May 17, 2003. The St James United Church of Christ is taking orders for home made ice cream at $3.00 per quart. The flavors are chocolate, vanilla, pineapple, peanut butter and banana. Orders must be placed by May 11, 2003. To order call 925-5774 or 864-3746. Pick up is at the Community Hall between 4 and 6 PM, Saturday, May 17.

May 17. 2003. Yard Sale and Car Wash at the Berwick High School, Berwick. The yard sale starts at 6:30 AM and Car Wash runs from 8 AM till Noon. The school wrestling program benefits.

The upcoming bluegrass schedule is...
• July 12, 2003. The 14th Annual Canyon Country Bluegrass Festival at Hills Creek State Park .
• August 15-17, 2003. Music in the Mountains Hickory Fest 2 at Stony Fork Campground, located six miles south of Wellsboro PA.
• May 15-18, 2003. The Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival. The Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival is held at Granite Hill Campground, located 5 miles west of Gettysburg.
• July 3-6, 2003. The OATS Bluegrass Festival Back Home in Benton, PA. You will start to hear a LOT more about this wonderful festival in the coming weeks.
• July 17-20. The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in Ancramdale, NY, a huge festival with many major acts. Grey Fox was nominated for IBMA Event of the Year in 2002.

The McHenry reunion for 2003 will be held Saturday, August 9, at Benton Park. The meal will be served at noon and all activities follow the meal. Vinnie Hippensteel and Bill and Sandra Schamberger have spent many hours completing the updated McHenry book and will have a sample at the reunion. There will be shirts, coffee mugs, ink pens, pictures and hats for sale. Contact Vinnie Hippensteel, Berwick, for additional information.

Remember to check the UPCOMING EVENTS for all the events of the local area.

June is the month for weddings, it seems. And Benton was excited that June morning in 1921 when at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. T. Golder, their daughter, "Miss Pearl was united in marriage with Mr. Eli McHenry, son or Mr. and Mrs. Abe McHenry, of near town." Rev. Claude Shaffer, pastor of the Christian Church did the honors. The Argus reminded its readers that "the bride is one of Benton's fine young ladies and for sometime past has held a position in the office of the Harbred Silk Mill of town, while the groom is a fine young fellow, and one of the country's most progressive young farmers, being engaged with his father in the farm work. The young couple are now on a bridal tour."

Here is a family photo taken from in front of the white pickett fence. It shows several generations of the Abe and Eli McHenry families.

Quote of the Day:
"I didn't know the full facts of life until I was 17. My father never talked about his work."
--the son of Sigismund Shlomo Freud (Sigmund Freud) talking about his father who was born on this date in 1856.

Quickies...
• U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter was in Pittston last night collecting potential votes with his promise to seek funding for the widening of I-81 from Nanticoke to Clarks Summit, the highway that is always under construction. The project could cost more than $600 million.
• In Wilkes-Barre, most of the men who want to be mayor discussed their campaign policies last night and answered questions from the audience. Two Democrats and three Republicans were present; incumbent Mayor Thomas McGroarty attended a meeting in Plains Township concerning a proposed methadone clinic.
• Today is the day that doctors and nurses haul off to Harrisburg to participate in rallies concerning the high cost of medical insurance. Be well today and always!
• Sullivan County's radio station is now known as WQZI at 103.9 on the FM dial.
• The Guv last month asked the largest state employee union to accept a wage freeze and yesterday The Guv announced he would turn down next year's $3,000 cost-of-living raise as a symbolic cost-cutting gesture. Lt. Governor Catherine Baker Knoll will decline her increase and the Governor has recommended that his Cabinet officers do the same.
• Fishing Creek Sportsmen's Club President Clair Harvey announced that the Fishing Derby will be held the first Sunday in June near the golf club. The derby is for children 5 to 12 years of age, begins at 1 PM and provides prizes for all the children. All of the children are assured of catching lots of trout.

There are few places in America more beautiful than Yosemite National Park. Here, for the world to see, is a live camera peek of the most famous and most photographed view in Yosemite. Visit this website during Pacific coast daylight hours.

We cannot adjust the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

We are preparing an article in conjunction with Radomes, Inc., the Air Defense Radar Veterans Association, about the former Benton Air Force Station. We are finding it very difficult to get pictures and information about the site. Our findings will be shared with the Radomes Museum. We'll gladly accept any scrap on information that you will be willing to share. Please help. If you know an address of a former serviceman assigned at Red Rock, please forward this email to him, too. Thank'Ye!

The following is just a "sign of the times." Around Leola, Bird-In-Hand, Intercourse and New Holland, low milk prices are prompting Amish dairy farmers to switch to nonfarm businesses. As many as 50 Plain-sect dairy barns in eastern Lancaster County are now empty. Amish families are still farming the land or leasing it out to other farmers, but are also forging ornamental ironwork or building pallets and gazebos. In Indiana where our motor home was built (by an Amish-owned company), the Amish are given permission to paint the bumpers of their cars black and drive to the factory for employment.

We are often asked where we get the stuff that we include in the News from Back Home in Benton, PA. Some of our sources include:
"Electrical Wiring Made Easy" by A. C. Deesey
"I Love Mathematics" by Adam Up
"Sea Birds" by Al Batross
"New Mexico Tour Book" by Albie Kerky
"Crocodile Dundee" by Ali Gator
"I Like Fish" by Ann Chovie
"Keeping Old Furniture Looking Good" by Ann Teak
"Inflammation, Please!" by Arthur Itis
"How to Annoy" by Aunt Agonize
"What the Butler Saw" by Ava Nutherluk

A story making its rounds is about Uday Saddam Hussain, the former Iraq President's eldest son, who came home from shopping with everything in a cardboard box. The elder Saddam asked why he brought the shopping home in a cardboard box. Of course, the obvious answer from the son to the father was "Because there's no Baghdad!"

We are in tick season. We have pulled two ticks off Chloe in the past week. Lyme disease in Pennsylvania has more than doubled in the 11 years through 2001 according to state health officials. The state received 2,120 reports of Lyme disease in 2001, the latest year for which statistics are available, a rise of 114% over the 991 cases reported in 1991. Lyme disease is contracted through bites from deer ticks or black-legged ticks.

Didja know that the Titanic carried 12,000 jars of Richard Hellmann's mayonnaise scheduled for delivery to Vera Cruz, Mexico, the next port of call for the ship after New York City? Hellmann made his salads and sandwiches famous with his wife Nina's mayonnaise. His Blue Ribbon mayonnaise in jars contributed greatly to the surge in popularity of cole slaw as a side dish. The Mexican people were horrified at the loss of the ship and of the mayonnaise. So much so that they declared a national day of mourning which they still observe today. It is known, of course, as Sinko de Mayo.

Glen and Anna Baker are celebrating 52 years of wedded bliss today. It is also the birthday of James Beard, a food writer and food lover, born in 1903. He was enormous, flamboyant, and wrote 23 cookbooks, with many of them becoming classics. He said, "I believe that if ever I had to practice cannibalism, I might manage if there were enough tarragon around."

Memorial services for Dorothy R. "Dot" LaMont, Maple Avenue, St. Cloud, Fla., will be held 7 PM Wednesday, May 7, 2003, in the Benton Christian Church with the Rev. Vernon W. McDormand, retired pastor of the church, officiating. Mrs. LaMont, 74, formerly of Benton, died March 9, 2003, in at a St. Cloud Health Care Center. She was born February 16, 1929, in Pittston. She was a 1947 graduate of West Pittston High School. Mrs. LaMont moved in 1980 to Benton from Homestead, FL, where she lived twenty years until 2000, when she returned to Florida. She was a part-time employee of the Mill Race Golf Course for a number of years and worked part time at the Crystal Brook Golf Club, Kissimmee, FL. Mrs. LaMont was a member of the Benton Christian Church. She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles E. LaMont Sr., on May 22, 1997. Surviving are a daughter, Mrs. Sonny E. (Gail F.) Wrabel, Kissimmee, FL; a son, Charles E. LaMont Jr., Narcoossee, FL; two grandchildren; and a sister, Mrs. Charles K. (Eileen C.) Shannon, Benton. Arrangements are under the direction of the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home, Benton.

There is an article in the May 5, 2003, edition of The Sun-Gazette about the establishment in the 1870s of the Sixth District State Normal School, later known as "Bloomsburg State Teachers College" and as "Bloomsburg State College," now known as Bloomsburg University. Today it is the largest employer in Columbia County, providing jobs for 1,100 people. The article points out that besides the University, other major employers include Wise Foods and Del Monte Foods, in the Briar Creek Business Park; Magee Rieter Automotive Systems; Bloomsburg Hospital; Bloomsburg Mills and Bloomsburg Carpet; and numerous school districts.

Arcadia Term of the Day: "Heavy Dew," a phrase, a request for action, as in the question, "Kin I heavy dew me a favor?"

Kin I heavy dew me a favor? Help me ponder on a Monday...
• Who coined the phrase "to coin a phrase?"
• Why were the Three Musketeers always fighting with swords? Did they lose their muskets?
• What do you use to get out club soda stains?
• Why is an older woman younger than an old woman?
• Before they first sliced bread, what was the best thing?

There is an article in today's Times Leader about Chris Yanik, 24, Dallas, a member of the 75th Army Ranger Regiment, part of the group of U.S. special forces operatives who participated in the rescue of prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch.

We rant on about spam and spyware, we suppose, but today we'll briefly mention this about spyware--software that gets installed over the Web without the user's awareness of what it does. Spyware can maneuver you to Web porn and gambling pages, track where you go on the Internet, flop a bunch of pop-up ads on your screen and slow your computer's performance. Xupeter was mentioned a few days ago. Spyware can be installed consensually.
• Some pop-up ads or some Web pages trigger code that resets your browser home page, inserts unwanted bookmarks and makes the unwanted program virtually impossible to remove from your computer. Some of these sites are paid for each browser click diverted to porn and gambling sites.
• Services such as Kazaa or Grokster used to download music alert advertisers where you go on the Web. Before long, pop-up ads follow, and PC performance goes down the tubes.
• Certain Web pages can trick your PC modem to dial 900 numbers in other countries at a high cost to you. We continue to recommend SpyBot if you run into spyware problems.

Have a restful Monday...

Sunday, May 4, 2003. The Rev. Vernon McDormand and new Momma Lynn Sutton share birthdays today. In 1970 on this date, four students were killed by National Guardsmen during demonstrations at Kent State University.

This morning, we turn back to 1886, back to the Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago which occured on this date. Police had shot several lumber workers during a strike at the McCormick lumber plant. In protest to the police actions, a "peaceful" demonstration of about 1,500 men and the city mayor convened in Haymarket Square. As a rain began, the crowd started to thin out. The final speaker of the day was concluding his remarks when the police arrived and demanded that the crowd disperse. The speaker explained, "We are peaceable." A bomb struck the ground near the police and exploded, killing seven policemen. The surviving policemen attacked the crowd with their clubs and pistols. Thirty-one prominent labor leaders were arrested, eight were convicted of having planned the bombing, and four were hanged, with almost no proof. The identity of the bomb thrower was net proven.

Quote of the Day:
"There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you hear today!"
--August Spies shouted these words from the gallows, just before being hanged as part of the Haymarket Square Riot.

Poem of the Day:
"A rose is a rose,
I suppose."

We hope this means that the threat of terrorists is going down: The airport screening staff will be cut by September 30 at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport as 23 of its Transportation Security Administration workers get the axe.

We'll be very short on this subject today. The FTC claims that two-thirds of spam are in some way false--whether in misleading "subject" lines, forged "from" lines, or deceptive text. And continuing with statistics, from September 2002 to March of this year, the FTC says that spam to corporate users rose from an average of 56.4 per person per day to 84.5. This week, America Online, Microsoft and Yahoo announced they are going to collaborate in tracking down spammers. Now sure, out here in the country, we aren't seeing that much spam as residential users and all EPIX users can reduce their spam by using the filters provided by the ISP that we have been talking about here. In Congress, the Burns-Wyden "Can-Spam" bill has been reintroduced, but was not previously popular with Congress. Two new spam bills will be introduced next week, one to create a "Do Not Spam" list and the other that would pay a bounty to consumers who nabbed illegal spammers in the act. We don't think that FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle's suggestion that they put all the people involved in the nation's spam brouhaha in one room and keep them there until they solved the problem is such a bad idea...

It rained on the effort in many places this year on April 26, the "Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Day." Many participated in the Borough clean-up yesterday and you can do your part by picking up and disposing of anything that does not belong. That being said, now why is it that the Borough's streets haven't been swept this spring, except by property owners? It is only 40° at press time, but we still think the onion snow is over for the spring. Lets clean up!

DirecTV has announced that they will carry local channels in this area by the end of June. Dish Network has announced that they will carry local channels in this area by the end of this year.

Didja know that Penn State was the original "state-related" college when it was created in 1855, operating under an independent board of trustees, and receiving an annual appropriation from the state. Penn State has grown to include more than 20 campuses around the state, including a medical school, a law school and a technical college. In 1965, the Legislature voted to add Temple University in Philadelphia as a "state-related" institution; the University of Pittsburgh was added in 1966, and Lincoln University in 1972. Including their satellite campuses, the four "state-related" schools enroll some
140,000 students on more than 30 campuses.

There was a Funny Cide to the race at the Downs yesterday. A gelding hasn't posed under the blanket of roses since a few months before the stock market crash of 1929, and owners with a three-horse stable simply aren't supposed to win the world's most famous race, let alone on their first attempt. But Funny Cide, deprived of his manhood but not his courage, is not a student of history. Of course, when your poppa's name is "Distorted Humor," we suppose that anything is possible.

Please take the time to read the extensive list of upcoming local events listed under UPCOMING EVENTS. If you supply information to us about your events, your organization, your church, or your servicemen, please take the time to go to the web site and check to make sure that we are saying what you want said about your organization. On the home page, hit the hyperlink for CONTACT US and we'll make the changes. Any don't forget to check the Photo of the Day. The one that is up now is of Mahlon Strauch's delivery truck with a number of local men, contributed by Jill McHenry Kriner.

Saturday, May 3, 2003, the birthday of Zane Hartman and Lynn Shaw. On May 1. We neglected to mention the birthday in Stillwater of Jay McHenry and the anniversary in Benton of Vernon and Noreen McDormand. On this date in 1494, Columbus discovered Jamaica, which he called "St. Iago." In 1936, Yankee slugger Joe DiMaggio makes his major-league debut and hammered 3 hits. Satellite TV was first used on this date in 1965, when the Today Show beamed in on Early Bird Satellite.

Saturday's auction at the
Benton Store Company

Some ways that you know you've reached middle age...
• Your potted plants stay alive.
• 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to sleep.
• You hear your favorite song on an elevator.
• You carry an umbrella and watch the Weather Channel.
• Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.
• Your dog's food comes from Science Diet instead of McDonalds.
• Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.
• Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.
• MTV News is no longer your primary source for information.
• Grocery lists are longer than macaroni & cheese, diet Pepsi & Ho-Ho's.

Middle age comes along when you know all the answers, but nobody asks you the questions. You'll start to say things like, "in my day" and "I remember when." We can argue when middle age begins, but if we arbitrarily say it begins at 40, we also have to say that so does lumbago, bad eyesight, arthritis, and the habit of telling the same story three times to the same person. And what is the good of having something to look forward to, if you can't remember what it was?

Quote of the Day:
"She'll never admit it, but I think that it was Mamma."
--Zsa Zsa Gabor, when asked which Gabor was the oldest.

Michelle Jenceleski, Stillwater, was injured on route 487 near the former Swartwout home north of Benton Friday when she lost control of her 2003 Honda motorcycle. She was taken by ambulance to the Bloomsburg Hospital where she was treated for head injuries.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation awarded nearly $3 million in grants to eight public-use airports in the state. Harrisburg International Airport received $1.3 million for taxiway and taxi-lane construction and runway lighting; Carlisle Airport got $60,750 to finance an airport planning study; York Airport was given $15,825 to pay for tree removal. Benton International received the same amount they always receive.

The nation's unemployment rate jumped to 6% in April.

The bridge over Blackberry Run on the Jamison City road leading into the wilds of State Game Lands #13 in Davidson Township, Sullivan County, will be closed for replacement beginning May 12. The existing bridge will be removed and replaced with two 83" x 57" x 30' arch-type culvert pipes. The road should reopen by May 19, 2003. An alternative route into the game lands would be the Cherry Ridge road.

The remains of the chimney from the Jamison City tannery can be seen in the back of the picture.

Health issues...
• Lee Remley had a heart catheterization yesterday and will be scheduled for double bypass surgery in the coming week.
• M. Ruth Kline was released from Bloomsburg Hospital Thursday evening and is resting comfortably at home.

Poem of the Day:
"Drive carefully, my people,"
said the pastor to them all;
"A car is not the only thing
A Maker can recall."
--Pastor Prout, Victoria, Australia, as quoted by the Christian Messenger, a publication of the Stillwater Christian Church

Was it an eagle? Or was it an osprey? Or was it... Several people have spotted a large bird in the general area from the rodeo grounds to the golf course. Dr. Donald Rabb says "nine out of ten people will misidentify an osprey for a bald eagle." Dr. Lynn Watson concludes that he saw an osprey. Officer Nelson and others thought that they saw a bald eagle (and we never argue with an officer of the law!). Keep looking and when you see the bird, you decide and let us know. The birds...

• Bald Eagle. Bald at one time meant "white," not hairless. The bald eagle is found over all of North America (except Hawaii), wherever dead or dying fish are found. The Bald Eagle Protection Act prohibits virtually everything that one would want to do to an eagle. As an example, possession of even a feather (except by native Americans) is a felony with a fine of up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment. The bald eagle is listed as "threatened" in the United States. The greatest concentration is on the Chilkat river near Haines, Alaska, in mid October through December where the salmon run attracts three to four thousand bald eagles along a four miles of the river in the Alaska Chilkat Eagle Preserve.
• Osprey. This bird of prey is related to the Hawk and the vulture, and is found near water in most parts of the world. American Osprey, or fish hawk, has white under parts and a wingspan of 5 to 6 feet. It feeds exclusively on live fish and is usually seen hovering over the water, then it plunges feet first to grasp its prey. Life begins for an osprey as a buffy colored egg with dark brown streaks. Two to four eggs are laid in a large nest made of sticks perched at the top of trees at heights varying from three feet to a hundred feet. Nests can also be situated on cliffs, power poles and in rare instances on the ground. All osprey nests are located near water. The downy white chicks grow rapidly, being fed by both the male and female and within six to eight weeks are slightly smaller versions of their parents. During the seventh to eighth week there is much wing-flapping and soon the young are ready to leave the nest. The chicks return to the nest to be fed for a few days, usually morning and evening, but perch in nearby trees to keep an eye on their parents. When the big day finally comes when the young birds try fishing they learn the business and within three or four days of being consistently successful in feeding themselves they are on their own.

"Is your wife entertaining this spring?" asked one man of another.
"Not very," said the other man.

Quickies...
• The old Moose Home in Bloomsburg, now a bar and banquet hall called "The Blue Moose," will close May 11. A congregation of about 175, called New Birth Ministries, will lease the building.
• The Hiawatha riverboat casts off Saturday for its first charter cruise of 2003 and will make its first public cruises of the season during the Mother's Day weekend.
• State police ask that people call the state Department of Transportation at 888 783-6783 or 800 331-3414 for road and weather conditions rather than calling state police barracks.
• The International Astronomical Union has named an asteroid for Fred McFeely Rogers who died February 27 at the age of 74. The asteroid, formerly known as #26858, will now be known as "Misterrogers."

In 1914, Benton was supplied with electricity by a company of which Charles Bellas was president and manager; C. B. Whitmire, vice president; G. L. Hess, secretary and treasurer. A concrete dam, 280 feet long, had been built by 1914 at the site of the old Swartwout mill, and the powerhouse contained a 75-kilowatt generator, operated by a 100-horsepower turbine. For a more complete history of the area around the Swartwout mill, look under Features.

Anyone can get old, you just have to live long enough.

Added Upcoming Events:
• May 3, 2003. Benton Borough clean up. Dumpster provided at airport. 8 AM to 4 PM.
• May 5, 2003, Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican national holiday, the way you say "party time" in Spanish.
• May 5, 2003. The Gin Game (PBS, check local listings): the comedy team of Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore reunite in D.L. Coburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about two belligerent seniors living in a run-down nursing home. Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy created the roles on Broadway in 1977.
• May 18, 2003. North Mountain Fire Company breakfast.
• May 19, 2003. North Mountain Historical Society. Brad Cole will speak on the Cole family and will provide an update on "The Coles of Columbia County" and will address "amateur" but correct and fun research methods for doing family research. Mr. Cole will tie it into how he did his corrections and updates to the Cole Family project.
• May 24, Christ United Methodist Church, Central, 8 AM to 2 PM.
Includes a bake sale, lunch, soup, hot dogs and barbecue.
• June 8, 2003. North Mountain Fire Company breakfast.
• June 16, 2003. Chuck Chapman talks on the subject of the handicapped accessible park under construction near Light Street. North Mountain Historical Society.

Warren W. Rhinard, (March 29, 1924-April 29, 2003), 79, Jonestown, died Tuesday at the Bonham Nursing Center, Register. He was a son of the late Orvie D. and Cora E. Hess Rhinard. He owned and operated the Benton Texaco service station for many years, and later drove school buses for the Benton Area School District. He was a baseball player and umpire in his earlier years in the North Branch League for Jonestown and Bendertown, and in the Tri-County League for Benton. He is survived by his wife, the former Esther Elizabeth Cragle; Robert E. Rhinard, Norfolk, VA; and Keith J. Rhinard, Pottstown; three grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; two brothers: Kenneth Rhinard, Orangeville; and Roy Rhinard, Stillwater; and three sisters: Audrey Reed, Allenwood; Mrs. Richard D. (Ruth) Wenner, Stillwater; and Mrs. William (Shirley) Avery, Orangeville. Private graveside services will be Saturday in the Jonestown Cemetery.

Ground was broken at 11 AM yesterday for Benton Manor at the former Little Lumber Co. Construction of the $1.045 million project for older residents is scheduled to begin May 12. Completion of the 11 apartments and community room should be in November. Various dignitaries including the three Columbia Country Commissioners spoke of the project's impact on the upper Fishingcreek valley. Town council president, Karen Reed, spoke, and was very encouraging in her remarks. Three members of town council, plus Mayor Jan Swan, attended. The eleven 500 sq. ft. garden apartments are one story with one bedroom and a patio and will rent from $320 to $405 a month. There will be three buildings with six units in one building, three and a community room in another, and two units in the third. An attractive similar project of 24 apartments in Scott Township, Scott Meadows, has a waiting list up to 50 people.

A significant grant to the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center was formally announced yesterday. Bill Klink, president of the Columbia County Housing Corporation, said the $24,000 lot will be donated to the community center foundation if the center gets the necessary funding to build. The community center will be located behind the Benton Fire Hall now under construction in the former Little Lumber Co. building. The center will house a museum, gym, weight room, library, and space for various community events. Nearly $200,000 has been pledged for construction of the $1 million center so far, but at least another $50,000 is needed. The center has turned to the local area for pledges of support.

You're past it when you look forward to a dull night in.

Quick tips for Windows users:
• When you are working in Windows and want to quickly go back to the desktop, press the Windows key (between the Ctrl and Alt keys with a windows symbol on it) and the letter D. The keys are a toggle, so do it again and you are back in your application.
• In Internet Explorer, click once on the address bar to select it or touch F6. In the address bar, type two periods (..) and hit Enter. You'll go right to your home page.
• You may not have heard about Xupiter yet, but if you have children using your computer it may zap you. So listen up just in case that you need this information someday. Xupiter changes a browser's home page, redirects searches to pre-selected sites, and automatically lets in ads and games via pop-ups. Xupiter forwards searches to its own site, downloads games, takes over the computer with pop-up ads and don't even think for a moment that you can regain control over your computer. Xupiter also checks to see that all its parts are intact, downloads missing parts and nags users to re-install the toolbar. There are uninstall instructions on the Internet, but they did not work on the two computers I attempted to repair. The only program I found that worked to uninstall Xupiter was SpyBot, a free download at http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10122137.html .

We talked last night to a man who was telling us about being invited to dinner at a Quaker home. He said that there was an awkward pause at the beginning of the meal, but he finally told a funny story and broke the ice.

Linda Moss provided this incentive to attend the sale of the Benton Store Company Saturday. The sale brochure, http://www.kappsauction.com/ , lists the following: "Early Hardwood Doctor's Partner's Desk, nice condition, with the initials: E.F.B., MD, believed to be a doctor from the Shickshinny area." Linda believes it belonged to Dr. Edgar Fletcher Bonham, who had a practice in Fairmount Springs. He stitched back Linda's grandmother's thumb when she almost severed it as a small child. Linda provides this history of the doctor from the H. C. Bradsby 1893 History of Luzerne County:

EDGAR F. BONHAM, a prominent physician of Fairmount township, having his residence at Fairmount Springs, was born in Union Township June 28, 1855, a son of Joshua C. and Armanda (Van Horn) Bonham, natives of Pennsylvania, born of Scotch-Irish and German origin. The father was a carpenter by trade, and was killed by the falling of a scaffold July 23, 1890. He was a son of Joseph and Christiana (Gregory) Bonham, natives of Pennsylvania, the former of whom is still living at ninety years of age, a farmer of Union township. He is a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Arnold) Bonham, natives of Northampton county, Pa., and Litchfield county, Conn., respectively. This Mr. Bonham came to Luzerne county about the year 1800. Our subject, who is the eldest in a family of six children, was educated in the common schools, the Huntington Mills Academy, New Columbus Academy, and the Wyoming Seminary, and began the study of medicine in 1877. He graduated with honors from the University of New York, March 13, 1883, and was appointed house surgeon at Bellevue Hospital, but owing to poor health could not accept the appointment. Returning to his native county, the Doctor entered the office of Dr. E. C. Hice, at Muhlenburg, remaining, however, only a short time; then opened an office at Fairmount Springs, where he enjoys a large and lucrative practice. The Doctor was married October 11, 1887, to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of William and Rebecca (Sanders) Werkheiser, natives of Pennsylvania and New York, respectively, and of German origin. Mrs. Dr. Bonham is the eldest in a family of three children, and was born at Plains, Pa., March 21, 1858, was educated at the Keystone Academy, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Doctor is a member of the Luzerne County Medical Society, and of the Pennsylvania Sportmen's Association; politically he is a Democrat.

If you think that your mid-life crisis is bad, just wait until the old-age crisis hits.

State police and National Guard troops provided extra security at the gates of PPL's Susquehanna Nuclear Plant near Berwick for the past 20 months. Their deployment is up. Plant security is again the sole responsibility of the plant.

US Airways Express flies three round-trip flights daily between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport and the Pittsburgh airport. Airport officials are concerned those flights would be affected if the airline cancels its Pittsburgh airport lease.

We recommend that you stay off I-80 eastbound from Danville to Berwick. Your stress factor will appreciate it. As Lily Tomlin said, "Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it."