Friday, April 30, 2010, the birthday of Elaine Laubach and the wedding anniversary of Rev. Howard and Nancy Leh, Central. Remember Harold and Esther Hess in your prayers. Esther broke her hip and the couple have moved to a retirement community. Their new address is Rockwell Center, 32 S Turbot Avenue, Apartment 123, Milton, PA 17847-2450. Esther is in Evangelical Hospital, Milton. Florence Kocher has been released from Berwick Hospital and is at Bonham Nursing Home.
Quickies...
• The National Honor Society induction program is May 3 at 7 PM in the high school auditorium. The Alumni Banquet is May 29 in the high school cafeteria. The last day of school is June 4 with graduation that night at 7.
• The Saturday, May 1, MerleFest lineup will include performances by Elvis Costello and TheSugarcanes, Steve Martin with The Steep Canyon Rangers, Peter Rowan, Tony Rice, Dehlia Low, Nation Beat, Jim Lauderdale and Scythian. The Hillside Album Hour, hosted by The Waybacks and a special performance by Doc Watson and friends will culminate in a tribute to Merle Watson. The Midnight Jam will takes place hosted by Zac Brown, with Sonia Leigh and Levi Lowrey. The jam will feature The Duhks, The Greencards, Peter Rowan and Dierks Bentley.• The Center, long suffering from its long name, has decided to refer to itself as "enforeseas." Well, sure, it is still the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, but in order to "present a unified name to community at large and to members," written references to The Center should use "N4Cs."The most practiced liar in Radioland was Fibber McGee and his best friend was a windbag Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve and they were the stars of a radio show known as Fibber McGee and Molly--once the top-rated program in America. The program’s characters included Mayor LaTrivia, Doc Gamble, Mrs. Uppington, Wallace Wimple, Alice Darling, Gildersleeve, Beulah, Myrt and the Old Timer. Fibber and his wife Molly, who also happened to be the hostess of the show, lived at 79 Wistful Vista. Every Tuesday evening this group of friends got together from WMAQ/Chicago during the colder months of the thirties and forties . The show continued on NBC’s Monitor until 1959. The location of the show and guests were usually the same.Molly usually asked Fibber not to open the hall closet door--although he usually did--which created one of radio’s best remembered running gags that audiences expected each week.
After years of hardship and touring in obscurity on the small-time show biz circuit, they arrived in Chicago in 1924, where they eventually performed on thousands of shows and developed 145 different voices and characters.
You can listen to 442 episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly for free by going here.Jim Jordan (Fibber) was born on a farm on November 16, 1896, near Peoria, Illinois. Marian Driscoll (Molly), a coal miner’s daughter, was born in Peoria on November 15, 1898. Jim Jordan died on April 1, 1988. Marian Jordan died on April 7, 1961.
This edition of the Benton News is written in the Southern Appalachians where many things are just a tad different from Back Home in Benton, PA. Not bad different--just different. Because of the MerleFest, this edition is about music, of course, but is specifically about the influence that old-time religion had on the music of the mountains.I am staying in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. "Wilkes" comes from the well-educated English politician John Wilkes (1725-1797) who was an opponent of the Tory Party in England and worked to grant America its freedom from England. Wilkes-Barre honors Wilkes in the same manner.It isn't until you mosey off the two-lane highways of this mountainous region and into the remote hollows, hills and ridges that you discover the heart, soul and old-time beliefs of the local folks, many of whom have probably never lived more than three miles from where they grew up.Many of these people came from ancestors who farmed or were carpenters or both, served in the Confederate Army, owned slaves, a few horses, some cattle, sheep, swine and poultry. They raised crops such as corn, potatoes, wheat, oats, rye, flax and hemp. In researching one couple, I found they had ten children, 62 grandchildren and 156 great-grandchildren.These people, in turn, had come from hard-working parents with probably no social contacts until churches were built near where they lived. Certainly they had a true love of music, but they didn't share that outside of their homes before the churches. A number of people considered music and dancing the "work of the devil," and only after "opening up" in the privacy of their own home did they experience music at more public, family-orientated gatherings such as corn shuckings, pig killing or the making of molasses.
As the years passed, revivals and tent shows came along and music was a part of that experience. As in Benton and Bloomsburg, annual agricultural shows brought the people from the hills into the communities and socialization picked up. Next came the Opera Houses where lectures were held and dignitaries were presented to the community and church and community productions presented. Professional traveling shows made an appearance and eventually a visiting circus would show up. Out-of-doors entertainment and social clubs finally brought the people from the hills into the modern world.These people are absolutely sincere about their religion and their music. Many will tell you they have experienced salvation though a personal experience with the Holy Spirit. This kinship with religion doesn't seem to be exactly the same with their children who come back to celebrate MerleFest. The kids, like kids growing up in our area, have moved away in droves, seeking additional education and higher pay. Like everyone who has ever dangled their toes in the waters of Fishingcreek, they return when they can and long for the day when they can retire and return to where they grew up.Ken, a bus driver who shuttled those of us who camped at the Wilkesboro fire department's campground, affectionately known as "the Sewerfest" from its location adjacent to the town's sewer treatment plant, is a member of the East Elkin Full Gospel Baptist Church. The bus is of unknown vintage in a poor state of repair, but dearly loved by everyone who rides it. He described the church as located 35 miles East of Wilkesboro. The dedication of the church to its music is one of the reasons that its buses shuttle festival goers.Many of the original backwoods churches of these mountains were built in a plain "double box" fashion without 2 x 4 studs in the walls. Boards were nailed around the outside of the building with the cracks overlapped clapboard style with other boards. These churches typically had a single entrance, centered in the front of the church. Sunday school took place in the basement. A few still have a single wood stove positioned about two-thirds of the way back from the front of the church. The benches (usually now called "pews") are wood and a lot of squirming takes place before the minister releases the congregation. Originally, the bathroom was outside. The open windows provided air conditioning, even on the coolest of days and served as an entry way for creepy, crawly creatures. The Baptist hymnals are frequently unused, as the words have been sung for generations and well known by everyone in the congregation.Even the elementary style of worship that this is differs significantly from the earliest days of religion in the Southern Appalachians where families learned to read from the Bible, Pilgrims Progress and Blums Almanac. Most won't be familiar with this almanac. Take the time to learn more about it by going here.We'll continue with this subject when next we get together--if our access to the internet permits that.
April 29, 2010. It is the birthday of Loretta Strauch Hiscox, Helen Kent Karns and Alan Hack. Communication from my North Carolina location at the MerleFest is virtually impossible. Communication by cell phone is as bad here as it is in Benton. I had to sit outside in 31° temperature to connect to the internet this morning. I'll make an attempt to get this edition out, but that will probably will be it until next week.
Quickies...• There will be a reception following the Benton High School chorus and band concert Saturday. The concert starts at 7 PM and the reception immediately follows the concert to honor the 35 students who attended band and chorus festivals this year. Cake will be served.• There will be a meet and greet at the Benton Christian Church, Saturday, May 8, for the Rev. Dr. David Mansfield and his wife Cathy. The public is invited.• A hearing May 4 at 7 PM at the Luzerne Co. courthouse will consider a Lake Township drill site on the Salansky property (corner of Sholtis and Zosh/Ide Road). The site is surrounded by 300 properties within a one-mile radius--not exactly ideal for a neighbor.• Tuesday the Pennsylvania State Police came down hard on drivers on I-79 near Pittsburgh. More than 100 drivers were caught driving 80 MPH or faster in a 55 MPH zone. The state police removed 219 trucks and 31 drivers statewide April 21 for safety violations.• The head of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, told a U. S. Senate Committee that he was generally supportive of the Obama/Dodd financial regulatory reform bill--although he didn't know the details of the bill. He would fit right in as a member of Congress...• The Zion Church will hold a chicken bar-b-que in the church community hall. There will be plenty to eat. The price is $9 for adults and $4.50 for children. Under six eat free. It takes place Saturday, May 1, from 4 PM. Take-outs are available. A second bar-b-que will be held at Zion church October 23.
• The Sullivan County Council on the Arts Roving Theatre's next performance is "Northwest Passage," centering on the histories of Fox and Elkland townships. Performances are scheduled for May 28 and June 4 at 7 PM and May 30 at 2 PM at the Endless Winds Fire Hall, Shunk. Adult tickets are $8 ($7 in advance), students 12 and under $1; pre-school free. For more information call (570) 928-8927 or info AT sullivanarts.org.
• Elkland Township in Sullivan County had ice and snow squalls Tuesday with brisk winds. Nevertheless, Benton Area high schools boys beat Sullivan County 10-8 in high school baseball. Dave Root's pitching had a lot to do with the win.
• The United Methodist Women of Christ United Methodist Church in Central is having a soup and sandwich sale at the Grassmere School on Schoolhouse Road, May 18. Chicken corn, ham and bean and vegetable beef soup is available by the bowl or quart. Hamburg bar-b-que, hot dogs, hot turkey sandwiches, and fresh baked goods including some sugar free items are also available. You may order soup in advance and pick it up at the schoolhouse before 5 PM. Call Terrie Sidinger, 925-5203, for orders.
Here is the MerleFest lineup for Thursday, April 29, at MerleFest 2010: artists including The Zac Brown Band, Taj Mahal, The Duhks, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, The SteelDrivers, The Gibson Brothers, Balsam Range, The Belleville Outfit, and an opening night dance with Donna the Buffalo among others. Thursday is a day for community outreach, with many MerleFest artists visiting and performing at local schools. Recent performers at The Center were R. B. Powell and Bridget Allen. The couple will appear on MerleFest's Cabin Stage as part of the "Jam Camp" group.
April 28, 2010. It is the birthday of Tammy Johnson Corey and Tara-lyn Baker. Pictures of the Village Sampler have been posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/bentonnews/Auction2010# and can be viewed as a slideshow, copied or downloaded. For best result, copy and paste the URL into your web browser.
Didja ever think that the meaning of life is to give life meaning?
The late 1800s saw a population explosion in America that helped create adolescent hoodlums and gangs. Of the boys in the inner urban schools, 88% of high-school age did not graduate, but headed out on their own to find jobs that ended up being low-paid. Many ended up in a world of delinquency.One of the solutions to this problem was the creation of an organizations called the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), founded by Chicago publisher William D. Boyce on February 6, 1910. Several loosely structured outdoor-oriented youth organizations eventually folded boys between eleven and seventeen into this organization, including the "American Woodcraft Indians" and the "Sons of Daniel Boone." Boyce organized the BSA as a business. He incorporated the organization, recruited professionals to design and operate the program and he provided important funding for the new organization.
The BSA published its manual, Handbook for Boys, in 1911, which included the Scout oath: "On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty to God and my country, to obey the Scout Law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight."
The Scout Law required certain qualities from members: "A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent."
The BSA quickly expanded into the national picture. In 1916, Congress gave the BSA a federal charter, by which time there were more than 250,000 Boy Scouts throughout America. Two years later, the BSA was officially chartered in Benton and has been active and influential since that time.
One of the most experienced scouts in our area is Bob Maynes, who has "been a Scout since 1933" when Troop 39 organized, sponsored by Our Lady Help of Christians R.C. church, in the Lehigh County Council, Allentown. In later years, Bob was an advisor to the camping program at Camp Lavigne. He lived in the old frame house at Camp Lavigne and was responsible for training camp personnel and overseeing building projects and repairs.The Benton Boy Scout troop plans a 92-year celebration of the local activity later this summer. The Benton News will provide the plans in an upcoming edition. When you think that the Boy Scouts have been around for a hundred years while the Benton troop has been officially organized for all but 8 of those years, this is an important event in the local area.
Didja ever think that it would be helpful if recliners had ejection seats?
Quickies...• It appears as though problems in Benton and Sugarloaf Townships of noise pollution, ruined roads, destroyed water wells, contaminated soils, ruined farm production, lower property values, strained families and health issues may not show up as quickly as originally thought. The Columbia County Planning Commission denied three previously approved applications for gas drilling on April 20 due to failure to record within the allowed 90 days. The properties were the 56 acres of Stacy Lee and Stacey Farver in Benton Township and the Sugarloaf properties of Merle and Christine Martin, 82.3 acres, and James E. Campbell, 39.39 acres.• We are writing today from North Carolina where terms like "gottawannaneedagettahava" are used. We haven't a clue what the term means, but for a long combination of letters, the word certainly comes out of the mouth fast.• Didja ever notice that the young and the old have all the questions? Those in between are stuck with the questions.• Bret Michael Sychak, 47, who sings under the name Bret Michaels, wasn't someone I knew much about until he came on Donald Trump's reality show, "The Celebrity Apprentice." The Pennsylvania singer, a graduate of Mechanicsburg high school, is a likable and capable performer. He had an emergency appendectomy April 12. He suffered a massive brain hemorrhage and was hospitalized Friday. He remains in intensive care in an undisclosed location with complications brought about by a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a type of stroke that causes bleeding in the fluid-filled spaces around the base of the brain . His many fans wish him the best.
• "Ringer each one," "Three ringers three" and "Four dead" are some of horseshoe pitchers’ lingo that will be heard on Saturday, May 15, as horseshoe pitchers once again descend on Benton. Competitors from many parts of eastern Pennsylvania and southern New York will take part in an NHPA-sanctioned tournament. Local pitchers from communities like Stillwater, Red Rock, Bloomsburg and Hunlock Creek will be part of the competition. The public is invited to watch the pitching beginning at 9 AM and continuing throughout the day. Hot sandwiches, soup and other snacks will be available. For more information about the sport of horseshoe pitching, visit www.horseshoepitching.com and www.pennshoes.com .
• The local Future Farmers of America pig roast will be held Saturday, May 15, from 4 to 7:30 PM at the Benton Township Building. Admission for adults is $10, $5 for kids 6 thru 12 and free for kids under 6. Takeouts will be available.
• The Friday, April 30, MerleFest lineup includes performances by Little Feat, Sam Bush, Dierks Bentley featuring the Travelin' McCourys, Joey + Rory, Dailey and Vincent, The Waybacks, The Steep Canyon Rangers, The Lovell Sisters, Missy Raines & The New Hip, Donna The Buffalo, The Greencards, Bearfoot, Cadillac Sky, Wylie and The Wild West, Great Big Sea and The Kruger Brothers. There will be an "Old-Time" set with Doc Watson and David Holt and dancer Carol Rifkin. The Merle Watson bluegrass banjo championship and the Doc Watson guitar championship will also take place. Finalists in the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest will compete and later perform on the Cabin Stage.
April 27, 2010. It is the birthday of Charles Wodrig, Barbara Fritz, Bea McMichael, and the 85th birthday of Jules McHenry, Apache Junction, Arizona. Bob and Carla Lee celebrate their wedding anniversary. Please continue to keep Florence Kocher, 95, in your prayers. She is a patient in Berwick Hospital.
Tonight at 8 PM on American Idol, Crystal Bowersox, Lee DeWyze, Casey James, Aaron Kelly, Michael Lynche and Siobhan Magnus perform selections from the Shania Twain songbook. Wednesday night at 9 PM, Lady Antebellum will perform their hit single "Need You Now." This group is slated for an appearance at the Bloomsburg Fair this Fall.
Didja ever consider that you should be like a postage stamp?
Stick with one thing until you get there.Quickies...• Jesse Whitenight is giving rave reviews for a course offered at The Center, but says more should attend. It is not too late to sign up for a five-week writing workshop on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 7 ending May 26. The workshop is designed for people who want to express themselves through writing, but feel "stuck." No one particular form of writing is pushed—rather all forms, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and autobiography/memoir are explored. The instructor, Leslie G. Mastroianni, M.Ed., has developed her teaching style to combat early negative influences that people may have experienced in school, work or elsewhere. The cost is $30 for members and $36 for non-members. For additional information, call The Center at 925-0163.
• President Obama scolded Wall Street last week for its "furious efforts" to fight tighter regulation, saying the United States was doomed to another financial crisis if reforms were not implemented. "Reform" brings more government intervention from the same agency which gave AAA ratings on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of dubious assets which were eventually downgraded to junk status. Do you want the same agency that provided the oversight on the "Bernie" Madoff caper to continue to guard the hen-house and to hire more lawyers to use up computer bandwidth? And what is in the financial regulatory-reform bill? Have you read it? Have the Senators even seen it? In some respects, Wall Street operates a rigged game. It does need to be fixed. Isn't it a shame we don't have full confidence in the fixers! Hindsight being the great teacher that it, we have trouble believing that the problem only belongs to Wall Street.
• Harry Ackerman has a photo exhibit in the gallery at Katie's Country Store, along scenic route 220, in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania at Muncy Valley, ten miles south of Laporte and Eagles Mere. The exhibit runs through May with a reception for the photographer on May 15. Call Katie's County Store at 482-2911 for more information. If Katie's isn't a stopping place for you, consider that the building opened as a general store in 1919. The store took its name from former owner Kathleen Berardi Nelsen and is currently owned by Rich and Deb Fry.• Make sure you watch the 2009-2010 Benton Wrestling highlight film at• For the hawk watchers... Some red tail hawks have a nest known on the internet as the Franklin Institute Hawk Nest. Go here and watch live.• Shirley Bogart Roberts and her daughter, Valorie, are in Jonestown helping Eualia Bogart, 95, now that she is home from the Bloomsburg Hospital where she had gall bladder surgery.My life has now officially entered the stage where I forget things, repeat things, lose my glasses and car keys and forget things. Repeating myself happens far too often. My memory loss results in assuming that I have more money in my account than is actually there. I forget to write down checks or forget to write down the amount of the check. I wrote down one deposit, then spent it three times before I realized the mistake. Christmas and birthday presents are fewer these days--how many grandchildren did Kay tell me we have? There has to be a correlation between exercise and memory loss. I have walked into many a room only to try to think what I was there to get. Although the same thing happens with the refrigerator, I improvise. I just take whatever comes into reach. The telephone is hard on memory. I call someone, then panic as I realize I don't know who I called. No problem. I figure I'll recognize the voice on the other end of the line. Too often, a kid answers and when I ask him who his parents are he won't tell me because he has been trained not to talk with strangers. It is such a help when the kid recognizes my voice and says, "Granddad!"
This is a critical stage in our lives--there is so much to remember. I have pills for the morning, pills for every other day, pills when I have chest pains, pills when I have acid reflux, pills to take before bed. How do we remember all this? I have a container with each day of the week marked and compartmentalized for morning pills, noonish pills and evening pills. What good is this if I can't remember what day it is?My lack of memory got the best of me Monday when I was unable to locate the connecting cable from my computer to my digital camera. Pictures of the Village Sampler were posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/bentonnews/Auction2010# Tuesday and can be viewed as a slideshow, copied or downloaded. For best result, copy and paste the URL into your web browser.Quote of the Day:"None are as old as those who have outlived enthusiasm."--Henry David Thoreau
April 26, 2010. It is the wedding anniversary of Robert and Elizabeth Chamberlain. Please keep Florence Kocher, 95, in your prayers. She was admitted to Berwick Hospital Sunday evening. Some pictures of the Village Sampler are posted here, but most will be posted at a later time.
Quickies...• A laborer forget to lock his 20-inch diamond-tipped saw blade and the blade rolled across a lawn into an adjacent house. It was caught on surveillance camera. Watch it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdqAUi96V8U .• Do you want to see what it is like in the space station? Go to www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=H8rHarp1GEE and watch this tour.Sounds of bluegrass, blues, gospel, country and Americana will fill the air and the airwaves of North Carolina starting Thursday as the MerleFest comes alive. The MerleFest honors the memory of Eddy Merle Watson (1949-1985), the son of legendary performer Doc Watson and his wife Rosalie. It started 23 years ago as a way to raise money for Wilkes Community College, Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
The festival has increased in size. This year, 100 artists on 15 stages--361 musical performances over 270 hours of music--will be keeping those who attend very busy. This year's lineup represents a group of artists who have collectively earned more than 20 Grammy Awards, 46 international bluegrass music awards and four Americana Music Association Awards. About 70 vendors and artisans will sell pure Americana. Eighteen major food vendors offer a variety of foods, from the best pulled pork sandwiches you'll ever eat, to vegetarian, Thai--the works.
In the heritage tent are vendors who demonstrate their art, the making of jewelry, throwing pots and decorating face jugs, carving mandolins and building instruments, dolls, sock monkeys and Appalachian crafts.
A large expo tent is filled with musical instruments, strings, cases and more, manned by representatives of music companies from around the country, including one of the best of the western North Carolina instrument makers, Bob Kogut, the owner of Kogut Violins, and a master on the mandolin and violin. Bob is a brother of John Kogut, Benton. Bob is an experienced fiddler and has performed at MerleFest in prior years.
Scattered around the college campus are "pickers' tents" where professional musicians jam with amateurs. How would you feel playing your guitar next to Steve Martin?
There is a "little pickers' area" filled with age-appropriate activities. Kids can perform on the stage, sit with a big-name entertainers and be creatively motivated. One of the best entertainers in this area is Billy Jonas, a singer, songwriter and percussionist, who is fully capable of bringing out the musician in a child.
There is absolutely no alcohol at MerleFest, and everything is clean, organized and orderly. Parking is free off-site with cram-jam buses taking patrons to the festival.
There won't be a lot of time in the coming week to bring you the Benton News. We'll sandwich it in as times permits, but in the past I have been unable to send emails from the local cell-phone provider in that area of North Carolina.
April 25, 2010, the birthday of Bruce Anderson, Janet Kriebel and Nathan Schlichter. It is the wedding anniversary of Frank and Sylvia Vincent and Devona and Marvin Albertson. Rain is possible through Tuesday.
Quickies...• So you like the Apple iPad, but don't want to spend the money? Take a look here and wait until later this year to pick up your $100 (or so) iPad "look-a-like."• Pictures of Saturday's fly-in at the Benton airport are available here thanks to Bob Maynes. The pictures can be copied, downloaded or printed and are also viewable as a slideshow. Bob said that there were "more planes than I ever saw there at one time--several ultra lights, 2 choppers and even an amphibian, several older Cubs, a couple of Navions, and old biplane complete with closed cockpit." The folks coming from Waller after attending the annual Benton Lions club for "Over 80-year olds" saw a real treat as these wonderful planes were landing.• One of the great things about having a high-speed internet connection is the ability to watch a movie on your computer. One of the best available is entitled "Plastic Bag." The 18-minute movie is about a plastic shopping bag. The movie begins when the bag was "born" at a checkout aisle in a grocery store, through life with the woman who took her groceries home in it to eventual abandonment in a garbage dump. The bag searches for its original home during which the human race disappears and the bag meets its final reward in the Pacific Ocean's "garbage vortex," with other un-biodegradables of its kind. Take the time to watch.Didja ever conclude that it is better to be an hour early than a minute late?Mount Tambora in Indonesia, once a cone-shaped mountain estimated at 14,000 feet high, was responsible in 1815 for the "Year Without a Summer." The volcano created a worldwide disaster that killed crops and resulted in widespread starvation and food riots. As a result of the 1815 eruption, "the largest in historical time," a crater was formed approximately 4 miles in diameter and 3,640 feet deep. Read more here. That eruption resulted in little more than a cloudy day compared to what happened long before recorded history.
Many anthropologists maintain that the eruption on Lake Toba on Sumatra seventy thousand or more years ago blocked the sun so badly that it triggered an ice age that nearly extinguished life as we know it. Toba is considered the largest volcanic eruption in the history of the earth. The eruption of Toba 72,000 or so years before Christ was born was one of the largest in the last few hundred thousand years. Particles from the Toba eruption remained in the air for an estimated six years.
As a kid, the accounts written by Richard Halliburton about Mount Vesuvius and how it buried Pompeii and its sister city, Herculaneum, made a lasting impression on me. Pompeii simply disappeared from the face of the earth. The volcano continued erupting every 100 years or so until about 1037 A.D., when it decided to take a rest for 600 or so years. It came back to life in 1631 when it worked up a good head of steam and killed about 4,000. It wasn't until after this eruption that the ruins of Pompeii, lost and forgotten for almost 1600 years, were found. Pompeii took another 300 years to excavate.
An ordinary volcano sends sulfur dioxide into the troposphere, the lowest (closest to the earth) portion of earth's atmosphere, much like what happens when a fossil fuel power plant emits sulfur. In both instances, the gas stays aloft for a week or so, then falls to the ground as acid rain, generally within a few hundred miles of where it all began. A volcano of the size of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull projects sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, the second major layer of Earth's atmosphere, above the troposphere and below the mesosphere--the layer where Ralph Kramden wanted to belt his wife Alice. The stratosphere layer begins about seven miles above the earth's surface. In this layer, sulfur dioxide absorbs stratospheric water vapor and forms an aerosol cloud that circulates the globe. In the stratosphere, sulfur dioxide can remain for a year or more and will impact global climate.
Mount Pinatubo erupted on the island of Luzon in the Philippines June 15, 1991, decreasing ozone, making sunlight more diffuse and dropping the global temperature. About 800 people were killed and 100,000 made homeless following the Mount Pinatubo eruption.
For further reading on the subject of volcanoes, consult "Superfreakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
MerleFest 2010 will kick off Thursday, April 29, when the gates open on the campus of Wilkes Community College at 2:30 PM and an estimated 70,000 people will show up for four days of continuous music featuring more than 100 artists on 15 different stages. Just like the hours of preparation which takes place for the Village Sampler tonight, the MerleFest takes work in advance, too. Chairs for seating at the main stage are stored under the main stage. Like other parts of the county we know about, there was flooding on the campus and the chairs were under two feet of water. Mud and silt caked many of the low-lying chairs, even though they are stacked 14 chairs high. Everything had to be pressure washed, but the chairs can't be put out until the final lawn mowing takes place just before the concert begins.More than 50 volunteers spread out Saturday working in preparation to do what in previous years the North Carolina Department of Correction's inmate community work program accomplished. Budget cuts and changes within state government this year put an end to this. About 700 volunteers total will bring the festival all together.One of the interesting groups to perform at the MerleFest is Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers bluegrass band (May 1 at 7:30 PM). Steve Martin, mostly known as a comedian, has been a banjo player for 45 years. One group I truly enjoy is the Zac Brown Band. Elvis Costello is coming back, this time with a new band called the Sugar Canes. The Avett Brothers are crowd pleasers. Doc Watson will once again mount the stages and perform. To learn more or to purchase tickets, go to www.merlefest.org.As you can imagine, if 70,000 people were to descend on Benton, cell-phone service would all but disappear. (Heck, maybe I better look out the window! These people may be here if the quality of our cell-phone service is any indication.) If 2010 is like previous years, I will from time to time be able to receive email, but will not be able to send any email from Thursday, April 29, through late afternoon Sunday, May 2. So I am going to take a little time before the concert begins to tell you more about artists and their music. We'll begin tomorrow.Clarence Leonard "Chip" or "Chippie" Grisco, 91, formerly of St. Gabriel's Road, Benton, passed away Friday, April 23, 2010, in Hunlock Creek at the home of his daughter Gail and her husband, Darryl Davis. Chippie was the son of George and Anna Marie (Patrick) Grisco, Fairmount Springs. Chippie worked for the Coombs Company in Luzerne County and did surveying for oil pipelines and military installations in Alaska for at least six years around the time of the Korean War.
Chippie's love in life was his White Owl cigars (which he called "Hooters") and playing music and singing songs. He survived his way through Alaska with his guitar, which he bought from money he made from selling vegetable seeds. Some of the people he went to Alaska with starting about 1952 included Dick Campbell, Frank Yost, Dale Smith and Billy Confair. Each year before starting for Alaska he would buy a new Chevrolet from Hasay Chevrolet and he and whoever went along raced up Alaska's dirt roads without stopping, except for new supplies of gasoline and to change drivers. His return trip was often with fewer passengers, since work was not always easy to find in Alaska. One trip home with Dale Smith was made without Billy Confair and Frank Yost. Bill and Frank didn't play any instruments and when contractors in Alaska went out on strike, there was no work for them. The first car that picked up the two hitchhikers in Alaska took them all the way to Montana and the second car that picked them up brought them directly to Harrisburg where they then caught a bus to Berwick.
Chippie loved playing music with former Bentonians including Howard McCern, Ross Harrison and Charles "Slim" Moore. They played under the name of the "Amalgamated Musicians of the Upper Fishingcreek." Chippie played guitar in his band known as "The New Image" and was a member of "The Aces," a group known for wearing white tuxedos. The group included his sister Eleanor as the lead singer, Jim "Ivory Knuckles" McHenry, Bruce Sutliff, Bob Laubach and Dale Smith.
Chip was a member of the Benton V. F. W., and the Elks and Moose lodges of Bloomsburg.
Surviving are his daughters Gail Goss Davis (Darryl), Hunlock Creek; Donna Cienga (David), California; Barry Sauers, Nanticoke; Diane Gaiski (Maurice), Harrisburg; Brenda Malone, New York. There are 12 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren; a brother, Joe Grisco, Arkansas, and numerous nieces and nephews. In addition to his wife, Marion Ruth (Sliker) Grisco, who died August 28, 2004, he was preceded in death by a son Ricky Sauers, brothers John and Ed Grisco and a sister, Eleanor. At the request of the deceased, services will be private. Arrangements are under the direction of the McMichael Funeral Home. To sign the online register book or for online condolences, please visit www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .
April 24, 2010, the birthday of David Laubach and Caleb Lahey and the wedding anniversary of Donald and Dottie Rabb. Have you bought your tickets for the Village Sampler Sunday night? Don't be on the outside looking in. Buy your tickets in advance. Benton wrestler Eric Hess was inducted into the PIAA Hall of Fame at Friday night's banquet at Benton Area high school. Eric was the youngest member ever inducted.
Quickies...• Wrestling fans and friends of Eric Hess have begun to raise funds for Eric's needs, including selling t-shirts for Eric. All shirts are $10 (youth sizes are available; add $1 for XXL and $2 for XXXL). Contact Michelle Doud at 204-4717 or patwininwa AT yahoo.com.• Benton Wrestling 2010 PIAA State Champion T-shirts are available. Shirts are $10 (add $1 for XXL and $2 for XXXL)! Contact Brian Hart at bryanhart AT mac.com .
• A picture of Benjamin Franklin is on the face of the recently introduced $100 bill with enhanced-security features. As the Washington Post pointed out, "the amount of the federal bailout money still outstanding is equivalent to 3.05 billion Benjamins."• We note with regret the death Thursday of Michael E. Hamilton (August 23, 1951-April 22, 2010), 58, 426 Ridge Drive, Danville, following a 14-year struggle with Parkinson’s disease. He was the owner of Lutz Real Estate & Insurance Agency from 1981 until retiring recently.
• Things are winding down at the Main Street Benton IGA inside-store sale. This weekend the store will once again be open for the inside sale and will include furniture. Stop at the store--it's a nice place to reconnect with friends.• According to Reuters News Agency, Atlas Energy, Inc. and Reliance Industries Limited plan to acquire as a joint venture 42,344 acres in Marcellus shale and will be able to drill more than 450 horizontal wells in Fayette, Washington, Indiana, Westmoreland, Armstrong and Clarion Counties at an average price of $4,532 per acre.
• Krysten Ritter's new show aired April 23, at 10:30-11 PM on STARZ and on Netflix. Krysten plays the role of Lily Champagne in the show curiously titled "Gravity," a show which is serious about suicide as viewed through the eyes of a suicide-support group. The characters in the show retain the anguish that drove them to attempt suicide and the prospect of another suicide attempt never is far from the surface. The New York Daily News said it is "very dark, very weird and it's also hard to stop watching." Krysten heads next to New York city to shoot the Banana Republic campaign for the second year in a row.
• On May 6, the National Day of Prayer, we should all lift up our government and all of its branches in prayer, whether at the flagpole or in your personal prayers. The Benton United Methodist Church will hold a prayer breakfast at 9 on Thursday, May 6, where they will share in prayer for our nation. All are invited. Please come and share in this time of breaking bread, fellowship and prayer.
• Last year thirty-five gardeners helped put fresh food on the tables of eighty-five households from the Northern Columbia community. A nutrition educator offered cooking demonstrations to ensure that the donated food was tastily prepared. A demonstration garden produced beans, tomatoes and chard fresh for the picking. It can be done again this year--with your help. Vegetables, fruit, eggs, herbs and flowers are all welcome. If possible, please wash your produce. Volunteers are also needed on donation days to assist with distribution. Plastic grocery bags and egg cartons would be welcome as well. Bring your donations to the food bank at the rear of the Benton Community Center, on the first and third Tuesday of the month, between 8 and 9 AM. The program will operate from June 15 through September 21. For further information, contact Kathy Arcuri at karcuri at epix.net.The Benton volunteer firemen will serve a roast-pork supper on May 1 from 4;30-7 PM. The menu consists of roast pork, stuffing, mashed potatoes, applesauce, green beans, rolls and butter, and homemade desserts. The price for all this is $8.50 for adults and $4.25 for children.
• The Benton volunteer firemen will hold a flower sale May 6, 7, and 8 from 9 AM to 6 PM featuring hanging baskets, deck planters, vegetables, herbs, potted plants, and a large variety of annuals.
• The Sugarloaf Township web page can be found here.
• Richard Sutliff is having Macintosh difficulties. He describes it this way: "I can no longer view pictures on my Mac. I'm sure it's just a simple key stroke or three to remedy the problem. When I sign on, the place where I had a pic of my 2 doggies is black. The icons I had arranged around the pic come up OK. If anyone sends me a pic as an attachment or in ordinary e-mail, I can't see it. It's possible that my grandkids, who spent a few days here last month, inadvertently (or advertently) diddled with one of my settings." Can a reader help? You can email Richard by addressing it to rhsutliff and sending it to AOL. Whatever advice you can give would be appreciated.• It is now happening to Facebook. The lure of something free is hooking users of the popular social network. One example is with the IKEA gift-card scheme which recently suckered about 40,000 Facebookers by offering a $1,000 IKEA gift card. Now why would anyone think that IKEA is going to give anyone $1,000 without a catch? The catch is that all you get when you click on the link for the free gift card is a bunch of trouble. Do you have your computer adequately protected in the event that you or someone using your computer clicked on a scam like this?
The eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano has resulted in the World Health Organization issuing a health warning to Europeans with respiratory conditions. Pictures of the eruption and its impact are available for viewing here.
Didja know that in the past, eruptions from volcanoes have cooled the temperature of the earth significantly by blocking sunlight? Benjamin Franklin published Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures in 1784 in which he discussed volcanic eruptions in Iceland. He wrote about the harsh winter and the following cool summer, described the constant fog over Europe, and a "great part of North America." But let's let Franklin tell it in his own words:
"Hence perhaps the winter of 1783-4, was mor fevere, than any that had happened for rnany ycars. The caufe of this univerfal fog is not yet afcertained. Whether it was adventitious to this earth, and merely a fmoke, proceeding from the confumption by fire of fome of thofe great burning balls or globes which we happen to meet with in our rapid courfe round the fun, and which are fomecimes feen to kindle and be deftroyed in paffng our atmofphere, and whofe fmoke might be attracted and retained by our earth; or whether it was the vaft quantity of fmoke, long continuing; to iffue'during the fummer fiom IIecla in Iceland, and that other volcano which arofe out of the fea near that ifland, which rmoke might be fpread by various winds, over the northern part of the world, is yet uncertain . It feems however worth the enquiry, whether other hard winters, recorded in hiftory, were preceded by fimilar permanent and widely extended fummer fogs. Becaufe, if found to befo, men migbt from fuch.fogs conjecture tbe probability of fucceeding hard winter, and of the damage. to be expected by the breaking up of frozen rivers in the fpring; and take fuch measures as are poffible and practicable, to fecure themfelves and effects from the mirchiefs that attended the laft." You can read all of Franklin's report by going here.
When we return Sunday, we'll tell you about the "year without a summer" and the largest volcanic eruption in the history of the earth.
April 22-23, 2010. Columbia County Conservation District native plant sale takes place on April 22, 23 and 24. See www.columbiaccd.org for details.
April 22, the birthday of Jeff Kelsey, Shelby Holdren, and Theresa Hilley and the wedding anniversary of Frank and Barbara Edson and David and Amy Rhinard, Orangeville. It is Earth Day, its 40th anniversary.April 23, the wedding anniversary of Guy and Joanne Roberts and Jack and Nancy Laurer. Birthdays on this date include poet and playwright William Shakespeare, 1564; 15th U.S. President James Buchanan, 1791; and Illinois politician Stephen Douglas, 1813.
Oh, no! Another pop quiz. This one might look hard, but is quite easy. Here 'tis: Tomorrow, today will be yesterday and yesterday, today was tomorrow. When tomorrow is yesterday, today will be as close to Sunday as today was when yesterday was tomorrow. What day is it?
Quickies...
• Matthew Opdyke, PhD, has scheduled a community meeting on May 11 (Tuesday), at 6 PM at the Fishing Creek Sportsman Association clubhouse regarding the upcoming trout study. The clubhouse is located on Shannon Hill road across from the VFW building and near the Mill Race Golf Course, approximately two miles north of Benton. Those interested in volunteering for this project should attend this meeting. Water-sample training has been scheduled for Thursday, May 13, at 7 PM at the same location and aquatic-insect training for Saturday, May 15, at 9 AM at the same location. This is open to anyone. During the training sessions, the need for volunteers will be discussed for scheduling sampling periods.
• There will be a picnic fly-in at the Benton Airport Saturday, April 24, starting at noon. The public is invited to stop at the airport and enjoy the chance to get together with pilots and see some interesting aircraft. Airport manager Monty Hittle says "We will be having the normal picnic fare, hamburgs, hotdogs and whatever else shows up." There will be airplane rides available during the fly-in. Donations for the rides will go to the Benton dam fund.• A video making the rounds on the internet is a contortionist act from 1955 consisting of siblings Vicki, Dixie and Betsy Ross born in 1926, 1927 and 1929. They sang using the names Aggie, Maggie and Elmira. The song they sing, "Solid Potato Salad," takes about 45 seconds or so, then hold on for what comes next. Find it here.• The Robinson Group will hold a meeting on Wednesday, April 28, in the auditorium of the Benton Area Middle/High School. The gas lease document will be distributed and discussed and there will be a presentation by Jim Park, "Practical suggestions for Water-Well Owners." People with water wells on their property need to test and monitor their water around natural-gas exploration. The group welcomes all landowners with interest in joining. Doors open at 6 PM with representatives on site. The meeting begins at 7 PM.• The Columbia County Land Owners Coalition will meet Thursday, April 22, at the Benton Area Middle/High School auditorium. The following times are scheduled for each group...6 to 7 PM: Ross Township and Columbia County north of routes 254 and 239.
7:30 to 8:30 PM: Fairmount/Luzerne and Columbia County, south of routes 254 and 239.
• The Department of Environmental Protection issued an order April 15 requiring Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. to help the residents of Dimock Township in Susquehanna County who have been affected by the company’s drilling activities. The consent order and agreement requires Cabot to plug three wells within 40 days. These wells are believed to be the source of contaminated groundwater and drinking water for 14 homes. Cabot must also install permanent treatment systems in those homes within 30 days.
• Brian Hart is "seven months away" from the start of wrestling season, but is planning activities to honor the sport in the Benton schools. He and others are putting together a history book similar to the one made prior to the 1990-91 season and 1991-92 season. Brian is looking for pictures, articles and videos of Benton wrestling from any era. "Any help readers can provide would be amazing in our project!"• The "Valleys of the Susquehanna" promoting Columbia, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder and Union Counties, released a new "Homegrown in the Valleys guide" to 49 agritourism destinations. Pick up a copy of the guide at the Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau’s Danville location, 316 Mill Street. The Guide can also be requested and downloaded from www.PAValleys.com under “Eat Better” or by calling 800-847-4810.Here are some things that are seldom said by a Pennsylvanian:
I'll take Shakespeare for 1000, Alex.
Duct tape won't fix that.
Come to think of it, I never did like Yuengling.
We don't keep firearms in this house.
Has anybody seen the sideburns trimmer?
You can't feed that to the dog.
Honey, did you mail that donation to Greenpeace?
We don't need another dog.
Don't forget I want grits with that.
Too many deer heads detract from the décor.
I just couldn't find a thing at Walmart today.
Cappuccino tastes better than espresso.
I'll have the arugula and radicchio salad.
I've got it all on the C drive.
Checkmate.
You cooked that pork and sauerkraut too long.
Didja hear the one about the man who walked into the doctor's office. The doctor said, "I have the results of your test and I'm afraid you are going to die."
The man asked, "How long do I have to live?"
"Ten, " replied the doctor.
"What does that mean," the man asks. "Ten years, ten months, ten weeks, what?"
The doctor replied, "Nine..."Benton Area Middle/Senior High School and the L.R. Appleman Elementary School have been recognized for their energy efficiency by the federal government through a program offered by PPL Electric Utilities. These two schools are among the 40 public schools across PPL Electric Utilities' 29-county Pennsylvania service territory of 1.4 million customers that qualified for the Energy Star building label. PPL Electric Utilities will send approximately 700 blue spruce seedlings this week to the local schools who have agreed to distribute them to their elementary and secondary students. A few students from organizations will get multiple seedlings at their request. The seedling distribution reinforces the students’ roles in nurturing habits that support the energy efficiency efforts in their schools.
The L. R. Appleman school will receive one seedling for each student and teacher to plant; approximately 410. The "green-team," which is part of our elementary student council, will distribute the seedlings with directions for planting. Miss Lutkiewicz, the librarian, is coordinating the project, among other activities happening on Earth Day. Mrs. Womelsdorf and her third-grade students conducted a rainforest T-shirt project to save 35 acres of rainforest from being developed. This brings the school's 13-year total to 430 acres under contract to be protected from development.
The folks at Energy Star say that it costs $6 billion to pay for the energy to run the nation’s primary and secondary schools, more than is spent on books and computers combined. PPL Electric Utilities provides information on saving electricity and money here.
Readers asked about farm markets and bed and breakfasts in the local area.Farm MarketsBenton Farmer’s Market, route 487, Green Acres Road, Benton, open Friday and Saturday from Memorial Day, 10 AM to 3 PM, 925-2690, and the Forks Farm Market, 299 Covered Bridge Rd, Orangeville, open the second and fourth Saturdays, June through October, 10 AM to 3 PM. 683-5820. Bloomsburg Market Square is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 7 AM to 1 PM, June thru October, 784-2522. Schoolhouse Garden Market, 108 School House Road, Bloomsburg is open all year; 387-0551. Rohrbach’s Farm Market, route 487, Catawissa, is open April through December, Monday through Friday from 9 AM through 6 PM and Saturday 9 AM to 5 PM. Closed Sundays; 356-7654. Eagles Mere Farm Market is open Wednesdays, June 23 through September 1 from 9 AM to 1 PM; 525-3963.
Bed & Breakfasts
Cottage at Skymeadow Farm, 205 Shultz Hollow Road, Benton, owned by Gerald and Kathleen Arcuri, 925-2786. Country Farm Bed & Breakfast is at 11 Andys Hill Road, Benton, owned by Ron & Alice Strauch; 925-2267. Fishing Creek Angler Bed & Breakfast , 314 Saint Gabriels Road, Benton, is owned by Mary Ann Gaul; 925-2709. Mattress & Muffin Bed & Breakfast , 230 Main Street, Benton, PA 17814, contact Christine Luttrell or Sharon Hess; 925-5466.
--Information courtesy of the Columbia/Montour Tourist Bureau
The Center will host the Village Sampler and Fun Auction April 25. Tickets are available at the door: $10 (members) and $12 (non-members). The following restaurants and organizations will provide food and drink. Please remember their generosity to The Center and the community by supporting these fine restaurants and organizations in the future.
Benton Women's Club
Benton Lions Club
Bissinger’s Catering
Creekside Family Restaurant
Deer Oak (tentative)
Henny Penny
Hoboken Sub Shop
The Inn at Turkey Hill
Jerseytown Tavern
The Old Filling Station
River Room at Comfort Suites
StrevigsThe answer to today's pop quiz is Wednesday. See, I told you it was easy.
April 19, 20 and 21, 2010.
April 19, the birthday of Deb Frye Ross, Jim Kelsey and Don Foote. On this day in 2005, theologian Joseph Ratzinger, 78, was chosen to succeed his friend and close ally Pope John Paul II. Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, the 265th leader of the world's largest Christian institution. The North Mountain Historical Society meets at the Brass Pelican restaurant, Elk Grove. Breakfast is at 8 AM and attorney and author Charles Petrilla begins speaking about 9.Try to think what it would have been like on this day in 1775 as an advance guard of British troops, ten times the strength of the American contingent, marched into the Massachusetts town of Lexington, 20 miles west of Boston. The British opened fire on the approximately seventy American Minute Men, killing eight and wounding ten. The Americans offered little opposition and withdrew, but that event should be remembered as the first resistance to the British Crown. The British continued their march to the North Bridge in Concord where they encountered 300 to 400 armed colonists, and were forced to march back to Boston with the Americans firing on them all the way. Hours later, the British again entered Lexington, exhausted, their ranks thinned by the relentless fire of the Americans, the province of Massachusetts at war. Soon other colonies would join in war against England. The American Revolution had begun.American volunteer militia men knew of the approach of the British troops as remembered in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Paul Revere's Ride," which tells how a lantern was displayed the previous night in the steeple of Christ Church.
Quickies...One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex, village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.April 20, the birthday of Richard Sutliff, Richard Lehet (S. Comstock Road), Savannah Geffken, Chuck Musitano, John Kitchen, Mark Barrett, Guy Roberts and Fred Baker.April 21, the birthday of Ken Druckenmiller, Soozie Hummel and Kathleen Hann DeYong and the wedding anniversary of Phil and Laurie Edson.
• Joyce Davis is looking for EMTs who can help the medical staff at Camp Little People at Camp Victory, Millville, June 11-13. Camp Little People, is a family camp for children who have different types of dwarfism.
• There must be music lovers, Pennsylvanians or both in South Florida. I spotted a "Good Luck Aaron Kelly!" sign in Port Saint Lucie Saturday. When I travel North from Benton, I see signs reading "Welcome to Sullivan County, home of Aaron Kelly" and throughout Columbia County there are signs asking drivers to "Vote for Aaron Kelly." Aaron isn't a political candidate, but is a singing sensation at the age of 17, one of seven remaining finalists on the television show "American Idol." Go Aaron!
• Volcanic problems in Iceland are nothing new, with an eruption as recently as 2004. Some experts Sunday morning said that Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which in 1821 released a toxic cloud over Europe for more than a year, was possibly intensifying with ash plume rising to 30,000 feet. The implications for public health, military operations and the world economy are alarming.
Calvin Tillman, 37, is the mayor of Dish, a small, rural town on top of the formation known as Barnett Shale, about 11 miles from Fort Worth. The pleasant greeting at the edge of town is purely Texas--it simply reads, "Welcome Y'All!" What is happening in Dish is significant--there are reports of major health disorders. A study conducted by Earthworks (Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project, Town of Dish), cites "respiratory ailments, headaches, brain disorders, pre-cancerous lesions and impairment of motor skills." Mayor Tillman will be in Williamsport April 30 where he will speak at 7:30 PM in the Genetti Ballroom on the consequences of drilling for natural gas.
Barnett Shale is a large natural-gas reserve stretching underground across fifteen Texas counties. The formation contains an estimated 26 trillion cubic feet of natural gas approximately 1.5 miles below ground level There are many similarities with the Marcellus formation stretching northeast from West Virginia through much of our Commonwealth into Western New York.
The town of Dish is named in honor of the satellite television provider. Dish Network, in exchange for naming the town offers free basic-television service and minor extras to residents for ten years. If you think this is incentive enough to entice you to move to Dish, consider the natural-gas compressor sites and the sounds and odors produced from these sites. Don't just take Mayor Tillman's word for it. Read the report prepared by Wolf Eagle Environmental on the quality of the ambient air in the town. The ambient air was sampled in mid-August 2009 around the three metering stations, 11 compressor stations, and 20 pipelines all within about two square miles. If you read the conclusion, you'll find that "Air analysis in the town of Dish confirmed the presence in high concentrations of carcinogenic and neurotoxin compounds in ambient air near and/or on residential properties” with many of the compounds in the air exceeding the short-term and long-term Effects Screening Levels (ESLs) acceptable to regulations of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Too technical? You might want to read the report by homeowner Megan Collins.
Regulators initially dismissed the findings of carcinogenic air pollution from natural gas that the mayor and the study reported. Rather than do nothing, Tillman headed for Pennsylvania and New York to spread the word about the dark side associated with the gas boom.
Mayor Tillman writes in his blog, "Our air quality has been destroyed, and it is now confirmed that we are being exposed to the toxins in our air, and it is present in our water. If the unsightliness of the site were all we had to worry about, we may be able to live with it. However, if you cannot breathe the air, or drink the water, you pretty much live in a wasteland." Take the time to read the entire article in which he discusses the negative side of natural-gas drilling. Or you can watch the video here.
Sprinkled throughout the reports on natural-gas drilling, you'll find references to benzene, a carcinogen known to cause cancer, but that is a subject for another day.
Calvin Tillman is scheduled to speak at 7:30 PM April 30 at the Genetti Hotel & Suites, 200 West 4th Street, Williamsport. The lecture is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Responsible Drilling Alliance and co-sponsored by Freshlife.
Allison Hess and Melinda Vincent are doing a three-day 60-mile walk for breast-cancer research in July in Boston and are having a fundraising event at the Benton volunteer fire hall on May 8. They need to raise $2,300 each in order to participate. Cathy Goode and daughter Tara are serving as a support crew for the three days. The Saturday event at the fire hall is a "Ladies Day Out" from 11 AM to 2 PM. It will be an afternoon of friendship, food and shopping while raising funds for breast-cancer research. The cost is $20, paid in advance. Tickets include lunch and one Chinese auction ticket. Due to the generosity of many local businesses, 100% of the ticket cost becomes a tax-deductible donation to the foundation! Lunch will be tea-style fare, with different types of sandwiches, fresh fruit and lots of desserts. Vendors will sell everything from pink Pampered Chef knives to breast cancer tee shirts and bracelets, plus lots of other fun items. There will also be a Chinese auction with prizes like wine baskets, gift certificates to restaurants, Pampered Chef "Think Pink" items, and more. Auction will end and drawing will occur at 1 PM.On July 23-25, Allison and Melinda will be walking 60 miles (thanks to crew help by Allison's mom and sister) to raise awareness and funding for breast-cancer research. The women will be walking in honor of their own family members, as well all the other survivors or those currently fighting their battle and in memory of those who lost their battle.
Net proceeds from the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure™ are invested in breast-cancer research and health programs. Without a cure, one person will die of breast cancer every 13 minutes in the US. Share this journey by supporting Allison and Melinda in their fundraising efforts!
Vendors include:
The Pampered Chef
Framing by CJ
Avon
Mary Kay
Longaberger
Discovery Toys
Henny Penny
Tastefully SimpleChinese Auction Items Include:
Pampered Chef “Think Pink” martini glasses & recipe cards
Basket of various Avon items
Quilt from Bloomsburg Hospital Third Floor
Creekside Family Restaurant - $20
Playa Cancun Restaurant - $20
Cracker Barrel - Dinner for 2 (drinks, meal, dessert included)
Movie Night! – Two tickets to cinema center and movie snacks
$25 gift certificate good towards Applebees Anywhere Catering
Girls night! – 4 DVD’s, a bottle of wine and popcorn/snacks for a girls’ movie night
Victoria Secret body care basket
Staples Gift Card $25.00
Wine basket from Shade Mountain Winery
Breast Cancer Ribbon Embroidered Fleece Blanket
The Center will host the Village Sampler and Fun Auction on April 25. This is a huge fundraiser for The Center and a great deal of fun for everyone who attends. This is a list of items to be auctioned.
LIVE AUCTION ITEMS LOT# ITEM DONOR 1 Oil Change for car John Gerstlauer 2 Kenneth Cole weekender luggage Ken & Katie Knorr 3 Open Oak standing CD/DVD/VHS shelf Ken & Katie Knorr 4 Pies: Coconut Cream, Oatmeal, Peanut Butter SMP Monica Diltz 5 Dental Exam and hygiene - 2 SMP Cross Family Dentistry 6 Landscaping consultation Ed Smith 7 Rectangular basket David Millard 8 Retired Hummel: The Photographer Donna Schwab 9 Family style dinner for ten at the Brass Pelican Monica Diltz 10 Gift Basket Fishing Creek Vet Clinic 11 Metal Detector Benton Coins & Jewelry 12 2 Trees -White weeping cherry & Kwanzan cherry SMP Stoney Acres 13 Themed children's birthday party for 15 Allison Hess 14 Sourdough buckwheat starter (24 years old) Monica Diltz 15 $50 chiropractor gift certificate Dr. Dale Neiderhiser 16 Canon Pixma 1 P1600 photo printer Anonymous 17 Benton Hometowne Collectible SMP Ed Nedza complete set minus #9 18 Benton Hometowne Collectibles SMP Anonymous #4 Waller Covered Bridge #7 Boyhood Home of Dr. Frank Laubach #12 Christ the King Church #13 Hotel Moses Van Campen 19 Pearl necklace (24") Judie Scavone 20 Stihl 16-inch "Farm Boss" Chainsaw F&R Fronheiser (Model - MS 290) Hess's; H Fritz J&C Sibly 21 Quart of Brass Pelican house dressing Monica Diltz 22 Framed numbered print (21/250) Kathy Arcuri "Yesterday" Rachel Isaac 23 Yo-Yo quilt (33 1/2 x 44 1/4") Kathy Harvey 24 Cookies of the month Kay Chapman Katie Knorr Geraldine Laubach 25 Retired Hummel: Volunteer Donna Schwab 26 Off season stay in Eagles Mere Cottage Jim & Ruth Vance (3 nights) www.homeaway.com Site 192810 27 1920's double bed, veneer Art Deco Jerry & Kathy Arcuri 28 Digital photo frame Jerry & Kathy Arcuri 29 Cypress Benton clock Chuck & Kay Chapman 30 Animal Crackers tin Shelly Crawford 31 Gift Basket Monica Diltz 32 3 pans of sticky buns Chandlee Stowe 33 4 Penn State football tickets Ken & Katie Knorr Youngstown State (9/4) 34 4 Penn State football tickets Ken & Katie Knorr Kent State (9/18) 35 Retired Hummel: Good Hunting Donna Schwab 37 10 year membership N4Cs N4Cs 38 Basket of homemade jams & jellies Helen Stackhouse 39 3/4 Rope Bed Heavy pine 19th Century Jerry & Kathy Arcuri 40 10# extra lean Angus ground beef Chuck & Kay l lb packs Chapman 41 Necklace and matching earrings Shelley Crawford 42 Framed floral needlepoints - 2 SMP Anonymous 43 Pan of sticky buns Joyce Letteer 44 New York cheesecake - 2 SMP Helen Stackhouse 45 Unframed signed print "Stillwater Bridge" Pam McHenry Thomas 46 5 hours of lathe lessons Chuck & Kay Chapman 47 Hand-turned wooden bowl Chuck & Kay Chapman 48 Pan of sticky buns Dolly Hollinger 49 Dinner for 6 w/waiter David Millard Carol Vance 50 Lawn mower L & K Mills 51 Birdfeeder & 50#s of seed Benton Roller Mills 52 Steeler's Longaberger Basket Set Butch Young w/several jars of Butch's honey & homemade wine 53 Blue tweed swivel rocker Dildine Estate 54 1952 Kiwanis Club apron, Dildine Estate signed by members 55 Round card table & 4 padded chairs Dildine Estate 56 Acrylic painting "Swan and Cygnets" Mike Hall 57 Wooden Rocker Dildine Estate 58 Forks Twin Covered Bridges print Dildine Estate 59 Basket of bath & body items Fran Stiltz 60 4 boxes of 4 - Apple Dumplings SMP Jim & Ruth Vance 61 First Day of Issue Frank Laubach stamp - 2 SMP Diane Laubach 62 Wheat weaving "Heart Pedestal" The Country Frog 63 Stained glass "Purple Irises" Ellen Hall 64 Pet Safe Remote Trainer (40+ lbs) Ken & Katie Knorr 65 Phillies game 4 tickets w/parking pass Harold Ackerman August 18, 2010 (Wednesday) 7:05 pm 66 Golfing with Paul Randall Paul Randall 67 Paint a 12' x 12' room - 2 coats - you provide paint Jamie Tetreault Mutually agreed on date 68 Original Photograph; 2 goats at the barn Barry & Cathy Beck 69 Pacific 3-wheel bike scooter - 2 SMP Joe Labonte 70 Five - 18 holes - green fee & cart SMP Mill Race Golf Course 71 Shop for you (25 mile radius of Benton) Go and Michael Mackey Pick up anything 72 Charles Edson & Son framed sign Jim Fox Ol' Country Barn 73 4 New Handknitted sweaters Donna Schwab Ladies Small Long Sleeve Blue, Multicolor and Ecru Vest-blue 74 2 Handmade pottery vases - SMP Sandra Tranor Black Bear Pottery 75 Full size colorful, hand-tied block quilt Lila Allen 76 Redington fly fishing rod Fishing Creek Angler 77 Children's Book "The Little Boy From Ellen Hall Shickshinny" (1965) 78 Crocheted "Pineapple" doilies - 2 SMP Evelyn Young 79 Clark's spool cabinet Carl Stuehrk 80 6 Autographed children's books written and/or Robert Bender illustrated by Robert Bender SMP 81 Segmented wood/a virtuoso small bowl 245 pcs Lon Baker and large bowl 157 pcs SMP 82 McHenry Whiskey Bottle Sharon Little 83 THH Motorcycle Helmet (Model TS-38) M&M Repair 84 Pottery bowl and vase SMP Sara Baker Sara Baker, potter 85 Table Bob & Holly Gray Bunk Beds Plus 86 2 sets of quoits SMP Benton Foundry 87 Handwoven basket David & Carolyn Diehl 88 Jars of Butch's honey Butch Young Frosty Hollow Aviary 89 Book "Columbia County 200 Years Ago" Helen Fritz by Edwin Bartin 90 3 formal gowns SMP Joyce Johnson Pink, 2-piece, short skirt, size 14 Yellow, 2-piece, long skirt, size 18 Sea green, long dress, size 16 91 Queensize quilt (90"x98") 6 pt Log Cabin Star Eileen Knouse 92 Two All-Day Passes for O.A.T.S. Festival (July 2-4) O.A.T.S.Festival 93 Standing birdfeeder (Made in Lancaster, PA) Giesla Demko Mountain View Barn 94 Rocking Chair Geraldine Dunn 95 Chamber pot Geraldine Dunn 96 Antique bedpan Geraldine Dunn 97 Alice Stokes Paul 1st Day of Issue Stamps-3 Geraldine Dunn 98 Unframed painting by Christina Christina Bothwell Bothwell "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" 99 Miniature garden Joanne Lingo 100 Baby Quilt Rita Millard Fabrics Galore 101 Toys: Ertle Big Farm Mulch Ripper Nathan & Kaylee Steinruck Ertle Big Farm Disk Ripper SMP 102 2 Large golf umbrellas & golf shirt (XL) First Columbia Bank 103 Large double roof cedar gazebo birdfeeder Richard & Sandy Lehet Lehet Mobile Homes 104 2 Pressure-treated outdoor settees w/backs SMP Richard & Sandy Lehet Lehet Mobile Homes 105 Custom Landscape Design Lori Dautel 106 Basket of bath and body items Kathy Prajzner
Saturday and Sunday, April 17-18, 2010. Because of rain and the first day of trout season, volunteer work day at the Benton Park Saturday is cancelled.
April 17, the birthday of Emma Marie Wilkinson and Blanche Getz and the wedding anniversary of Charity and Ron Robbins. It is the opening day of trout season. The Amish parochial school spring consignment sale is today at the Beaver Run Parochial School, one mile North of Route 54 between Washingtonville and Turbotville. That sale is a hoot!April 18, the birthday of Mary Rundle, Nancy Herbert, Hunter Anthony Rekus, Devona Albertson, Richard Shoemaker, Denise Hack, William Thursday, Theresa Hartman (her 90th). Ruth Kline was released from the Bloomsburg Hospital Friday in time for her birthday today. The Bloomsburg University band spring concert is today at 2:30 at Mitrani Hall, 400 East Second Street, Bloomsburg.Take the time to look at the National Speedtrap Exchange at www.speedtrap.org/ before you continue with this paragraph. It would probably officially be termed a "coincidence," but Route 11 between Selinsgrove and Harrisburg and the Florida Turnpike earlier this week were filled with revenue officers--possibly as an aftermath of falling tax revenues. As taxes collected fall, small towns and large cities press officers to write more tickets. Internal police pressure also calls for additional revenue in order to justify increased salaries for the coming year. If you get an official denial of this, ask to see the figures for the revenue generated by police officers. Compare the number of warning tickets this year versus last year. One Florida police officer, with a slight smile on his face, told me that as relates to the Florida speed limit of 70 miles per hour, "nine (miles an hour over the speed limit) is fine, but ten and you're mine!" Here in Florida, many intersections with traffic lights also have cameras to record those who slip through as the traffic light turns red. Strangely enough, in these situations, most of the revenue collected from the cameras go to the companies who provide the technology rather than the local municipality. I also noticed one driver who was apparently pulled over for talking on his cell phone. For more on the subject of revenue officers, read this.
Quickies...
• The Orangeville Library will host a earth-day celebration on kid's night, April 21, at 6:30. There will be crafts and snacks and a reading dog.• Didja ever think that the Census Bureau might want to count all the federal investigators now in Luzerne County as part of a look at homes, businesses and county government offices? Luzerne County officials have their choice of being counted for census purposes in the lock-up or in their former residences.
• Shirley Yost taught at Benton High School from 1970-1998 and lived in Benton from 1970-1977. Shirley contacted the Benton News a few years ago in an effort to find information on her husband Robert's family. His grandmother, Margaret Young, Danville, married Charles Albert Yost sometime in the 1920s. There may have been another marriage to a Mr. Jenkins before she married Mr. Yost. Mr. Yost passed away in 1929 when Shirley's father-in-law was 5 years old. The family has been told "that he is buried in the cemetery on the hill behind the feed mill." A search of cemetery records does not locate Mr. Yost. If anyone knows more of Charles Albert Yost, let us know. (From the Benton News, November 8, 2004.) Charlotte A. (Yost) Hunt is now trying to locate Shirley Yost who is searching for information on Charles Albert Yost. This man was Charlotte's Great Grandfather. Can anyone help?
• Wondering what to make for dinner tonight? Google has a recipe feature that allows you to find user ratings, preparation time, and a picture of the dish directly in search-result snippets. Learn more by heading here. Give it a try by going to Google, and typing in "recipe, Venison Sausages, Carol Vance."• Chesapeake Energy Corporation had a Bradford County road permit yanked for the second time for heavy equipment causing damage to a roadway. PennDOT revoked the permit following the issuance of two notices of unsafe conditions on the road.
The movie "Gasland" is a winner of a special jury prize for documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker Josh Fox investigates natural-gas drilling in 24 states and uncovers the consequences of the natural-gas drilling boom. During the filming, he found water that ignited as it came out of the tap, chronically ill residents of drilling areas and animals whose fur mysteriously vanished, water wells exploded, and there were well blowouts and gas explosions. These findings are documented in the movie "Gasland." Much of the filming took place in Dimock, Pennsylvania, where 14 households recently uncovered contaminated drinking water, resulting in Cabot Oil & Gas getting nearly a quarter of a million dollars in fines. The movie will be shown May 11 in Williamsport at the Community Arts Center at 7:30 PM in advance of its HBO premiere on June 21 on HBO. Josh Fox will be in attendance. The showing is free and open to the public. Donations will be accepted.. Learn more about the movie here. This is information that should be made available to all residents of the upper Fishingcreek valley.
Jon Bogle, Williamsport, provided information he received from Ralph Kisberg who saw "Gasland" in Philadelphia the night that Joe Hoeffel attended the showing. Joe is a candidate for Governor who is asking for a moratorium on new gas permits and one on additional state forest leasing. Ralph said that the film is "riveting." The director of the movie is a young man who loves the land he grew up on and still lives on in Wayne County. He "turned down a $100,000 lease offer and took off across the country to investigate other gas-drilling sites and those negatively impacted." The director was described as a "very likable person, genuine, talented, with an amazing ability to speak and think from his heart." The movie reflects this--in his "ability to get people to trust and open up to him on camera wherever he went, except for gas-industry insiders--unless they were testifying before Congress--and DEP Secretary John Hanger, who probably regrets his horribly bungled interview.
Anyone who lives above gas-bearing shale can't help but be at least "jarred and most likely very disturbed" by the film. We hope that only a small percentage of the Marcellus wells drilled so far have been screwed up enough to affect people's wells or streams. One unmentioned fact that comes across in the documentary is how much gas drilling has "scarred the flat, arid landscapes of the west and how utterly stupid it is to proceed at the pace occurring here in our forested, surface and aquifer water rich state with the second highest number private water wells of any state in the union."
Isn't it a great feeling to have your income taxes finished and submitted! Isn't it nice you can walk nearby and cast your line into the well-stocked waters of Fishingcreek? But somehow good feelings are balanced by the rate of spending, borrowing and money-printing taking place to avoid a bond-market meltdown, higher interest rates and a double-dip recession that seems more and more likely. Think back to the year 1861 when the high cost of the Civil War and plummeting public confidence in the federal government prompted Salmon Chase, the U.S. Treasure Secretary, to take a hard look at the country's budget. About $55 million in taxes for the year were expected. The cost of the war for 1861-62 was estimated at $532 million. When the Union army was defeated at Bull Run in July 1861 and banks cooled at the idea of lending to the federal government, a new property tax was briefly considered, then discarded in favor of a tax which would be more palatable to rural Americans. The thought of a federal income tax was inconceivable to the states which considered it an attempt to undermine the power of the states. The wealthy didn't like it. Congress ultimately passed legislation levying a "flat" 3% on incomes above $800. The average annual income that year was $150. Interest on mortgages was made deductible. Congress threw in a clause creating the inheritance tax on estates in excess of $1,000. Congress required federal agencies to withhold taxes from the pay of civilian and military employees and railroad and financial institutions to withhold taxes before distributing dividend and interest payments to investors. And thus began the process we all dread on April 15 each year.
Thursday and Friday, April 15-16, 2010. Keep Ruth Kline in your prayers as she recovers in the Bloomsburg Hospital. Florence Kocher has returned to the Bonham Nursing Home after a bout with bronchitis in the Berwick Hospital. Taxes not finished? You aren't alone. IRS Form 4868 is a single sheet that, when you mail it, can buy you an extra six months to prepare your federal taxes. You still have to pay your taxes now based on the amount you expect to show at the bottom of your tax form when you file it. Still, having a grace period is useful for people who have a lot of fishing they want to get caught up on. Some showers, some sunny weather, some breezes for the next couple of days--it must be Spring!
April 15, the birthday of Jennifer Malhoyt, Brian Steadman, Ken Bond and Jeff Andrysick. Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald's chain restaurant on this day in 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois.April 16, the birthday of Sam Dressler, Carlton "Carl" Phillips, Frank Robbins, Henry Mancini and His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. It is the wedding anniversary of Randy and Denise Hack.
The Center is looking for artist’s, crafter’s, club’s, churches, and organizations that would like to be venders at the Heritage Days Festival Saturday, July 24 (9 AM to 8 PM), and Sunday, July 25 (11 AM to 6 PM).This festival celebrates the diverse and significant heritage of the Fishing Creek Valley by providing festival visitors with assortments of local food, lore, arts, music, demonstrations, crafts, and history.
The festival will give non-profits and businesses:
- the opportunity for non-profits to do fund raising activities by selling their unique food vending, crafts, arts or demonstrations.
- the opportunity for organizations, and businesses to share information with the public.
Preliminary plans include:
- a sequel play written and produced again this year by MR Daniels.
- the Civil War Artillery and the Civil War Re-Enactors.
- demonstrations.
- a presentation and walking tour of the location of the Benton Fire of 1910
- entertainment on the stage throughout the festival.
- no admission fee for festival visitors.
- local artists and food venders to set up booths.
- children’s activities.
Quickies...
• The Fishing Creek Players get together April 28 at 7 PM at The Center to discuss the season and have audition scripts for "Damaged Trust," to be performed July 24-25 (auditions in early May.) The group will discuss the October production of "Dracula," and "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" which will be performed in December. All interested, please attend and bring anyone else who wants to help in any way.
• When in Florida, we love to stop at the Front Porch Restaurant and Pie Shop, Dunnelion. Becky Westover remembered an article about the restaurant in the Benton News and when in Florida this winter she stopped at the restaurant for a bite to eat. She soon found out that the owners were previous neighbors of hers many years ago in Tampa. Small world!
• This weekend, the Sullivan High School Griffin Players (drama) are presenting "The Miracle Worker," the story of Anne Sullivan's struggle to teach the blind and deaf Helen Keller how to communicate. The show will be Friday, April 16, and Saturday, April 17, at 7:30 PM with a matinee Sunday, April 18, at 2 o'clock. Tickets, available at the door, are $5 for adults and $3 for students.
• A female reader wrote that men are like a fine wine. They start out as grapes and it's up to women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with...
• And yet another female reader fumed when asked why married women are heavier than single women. Her answer was simple. "Single women come home, see what's in the fridge and go to bed. Married women come home, see what's in bed and go to the fridge."
• Benton Weight Watchers lost 34 pounds this week. One person was recognized for losing 10% of her starting weight, two people lost more than 20 pounds and one person lost more than 50 pounds. Weight watchers works!
• Cal and Sue Doucette will be the guest speakers at the Wyoming Valley Civil War Round Table to be held in the lower level of the Daddow-Isaacs American Legion, Route 415 Memorial Highway, Dallas, on June 10. Mr. Doucette will talk about the life, newspapers and politics of Horace Greeley, the man who established the New York Tribune and edited the newspaper for more than 30 years. He was against alcohol, tobacco, gambling, prostitution and capital punishment. The abolition of slavery was his primary focus. In 1856, he helped form the Republican Party. Mrs. Doucett will speak about women's roles during the Civil War--nurses, soldiers, spies and smugglers. The Wyoming Valley Civil War Round Table meets the second Thursday of each month September through June at 7 PM. For more information, contact Maureen Follmer, 356-4413, or Reese Pelton, 675-5790, or write to WVCWRT, Box 613, Dallas, PA 18612.
• Frank Gough, the Raven Creek weatherman who interned with the National Weather Service in Jackson, Mississippi, and later worked at the Williamsport-Lycoming County airport until it closed in 1996, takes daily temperature and precipitation readings as a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, State College. Frank provides snow results each spring for our local area. Here are the results he gathered for the winter of 2009 - 2010.
October ... Trace
November ... Trace
December ... 10.1
January ... 3.0
February ... 29.1
March ... 1.9
Total ... 44.1The most snow that Frank recorded in one storm was on February 10 and 11 when 9.6 inches fell. The lowest temperature Frank recorded was -1° on January 10. All in all, it was not a bad winter when you compare it with some of the surrounding areas. The snowfall amount was about normal for the Benton area. Here is how snowfall stacked up this year compared with previous years...
2005-2006--Total snowfall for the season was 39.2 inches. The coldest temperature Frank recorded was -6°. The most snow in a 24-hour period was 8.5 inches on December 9.
2006-2007--a season with no significant snowfall for the winter before January, 2007. Thirty-seven inches fell in 2006-07 with the heaviest snow coming in February with 17.3 inches and 14.4 inches in March.
2007-2008--Frank recorded that we had 49.7 inches, of which 7.7 inches fell in November, 16.4 inches fell in December, 3.8 inches fell in January, 17.5 inches fell in February, and 4.3 inches fell in March. The coldest temperature he recorded was -2° on January 21 and the most snow from one storm was 7.7 inches in mid-November. This was a year when we had a lot of freezing rain.
2008-2009--The snow amount in 2009 was 39.8 inches.
Mary Lou (Sobers) Gregory (September 12, 1927-April 12, 2010), died Monday at her Sugarloaf Township home. She was 82. She was born in Wilkes-Barre. She was a daughter of Anthony and Mary Lou Sobers. Mrs. Gregory is survived by her children Raymond G. Gregory, Jr. (Patricia), Erie; Carol J. Ippolito (Jimmy), Rivervale, New Jersey; Stephen T. Gregory; Anita L. Downs, Freeland. There are nine grandchildren; one great granddaughter; a brother, Thomas Sobers, Mountclare, New Jersey, and a sister, Helen Swartz, Wilkes-Barre. She was preceded in death by her husband, Raymond George Gregory, Sr. on Oct. 17, 1984; by a son-in-law, Charles "Chip" Downs; and by sisters Florence Vino and Margaret Caggiano.
Graveside services will be held Friday at 2 PM at St. Gabriel's Cemetery, Sugarloaf Township. Arrangements are under the direction of the McMichael Funeral Home. For online condolences or to sign the online register book, please visit www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .
Larry Paul was named the Volunteer of the Quarter at The Center for the months of January-March. Larry is a faithful morning volunteer. He begins his day at 6 AM greeting the early arrivals with coffee and a welcoming hello as they check-in at the desk. Larry served as one of the night watchmen for the antique show, participates in theatrical productions for the Fishing Creek Players and volunteers at most functions the center hosts.
Larry and his wife, Judy, moved to Paperdale Road in July 1978 from a position with PPL at Allentown to a position with PPL at the nuclear-power plant, Salem Township. Larry began his PPL career as a draftsman, but began taking computer-related courses. He retired as a computer analyst in 2001.
Larry has been active with various aspects of The Center since its inception. He was one of the first to help clean out and set up the library, he was recruited to play the part of Glen Cooper in the Fishing Creek Player's production of "Rumors," he serves on the Library/Museum committee, he is a volunteer's volunteer! When Larry is not at The Center he is doting over his two children and his grandchildren, reading, tending to his garden, putting together puzzles or simply watching his tropical fish.
Larry summed up his experience at The Center by saying that "I never knew many people around here and through The Center I have met a lot of great people." Amen to that! A lot of people would say it differently. Through The Center, they have had the opportunity to meet a great guy like Larry Paul. Congratulations to Larry for his service to his community and his Center.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, April 12, 13 and 14, 2010. Street sweeping begins in Benton borough Monday and continues through Thursday. Expect temperatures slightly above the freezing mark through Wednesday night. Showers are possible Tuesday afternoon.
April 12, the birthday of Ron Kelsey, Susan Kluck Ridall, Nancy Fricke, Deborah Hess and talk-show host David Letterman.
April 13, the birthday of Brian Stedman and United States Senator Bob Casey. Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, was born on this day. The Hoboken Sub Shop is an institution and today it marks its 31st anniversary. The Sub Shop opened on a Friday the Thirteenth in 1979, just in time for the onslaught of fishermen who descended on the town for the opening of fishing season. You can read the history of the restaurant by going here.
April 14, the birthday of Pat Truskoloski, Catherine Russel Lovett, Allen Chapman, James "Ken" Bonham, Jr. and Judith Scavone. On this date in 1865, actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth and President Abraham Lincoln both attended a performance at Ford's theater and in 1912, on the fifth night of its maiden voyage, the Titanic struck an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean. About 1,500 people lost their lives. The tax day approaches. Put down this foolish publication and get those taxes finished!Okay, okay--I am now climbing on the bandwagon that I mount every three months or so. My spam filter is set to automatically delete any email sent to me at the same time that a trillion other people receive that email. Kerplop. Right in the trash bucket it goes without me ever seeing it. When I returned from Florida, I was more than 2,000 emails behind in reading emails written by real people about real subjects. I do not have time to read multiple-dispatched emails. Oh, dear, you ask, why! I'll tell you why...• Emails that want you to forward the email to a scillion of your friends or want you to sign a petition so that you don't get bad luck or that you'll see something funny on your screen if you don't forward it almost always have an email-tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and emails of people you forward to. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of active email addresses to use in SPAM emails or sell to other spammers. These people especially target religious themes or heart-tuggers involving a missing child or an incurable disease. Spammers don't care how they get your email addresses as long as they get it. • Emails that ask you to add your name and then forward the email to everyone in your address book are simply a method of obtaining names and cookie-tracking information for telemarketers and spammers.
Don't risk being inunandated with bunches of junk mail with the possibility of getting a virus from one of them. Opening this kind of mail only makes spammers get rich and robs you of precious time and eventually your identity. Please try to use the blind carbon copy (BCC) function on your email package if you need to send to multiple recipents. A BCC email goes to a recipient whose email address does not appear in the message. This is in contrast to "To" and "CC" recipients, whose addresses do appear in the respective header lines and where very recipient of the message can see all the To and CC recipients, but does not know about BCC recipients.
Quickies...
• For those who are heavy users of email, we have long advocated the use of Gmail. One of the Gmail features you might like is called "Message Sneak Peek," which lets you sift through incoming email messages without opening the messages. To get started, click on the settings bar at the top of the Gmail screen. Navigate to the right to the "Labs" tab, and scroll down alphabetically until you get to the "Message Sneak Peek" icon. Click the enable button, save the "Changes" button at the bottom of the page and activate keyboard shortcuts under general settings. Sign out of Gmail, then sign back in. Scan messages by either right-clicking a message or pressing "shift-H." Move to the next message by hitting "shift-J"; move backwards by hitting "shift-K."
• Didja know every member of the Supreme Court in the nation’s history has been a white male, just as is Justice John Paul Stevens, with five exceptions? Justice Stevens, the only Protestant, whose retirement was announced Friday, means that the highest court in the land will not have a single member of the nation’s majority religion. The court is made up of six Roman Catholics, two Jews and Justice Stevens.
• Today's patriotic music can be found here and is sung by third graders from Tussing Elementary in Colonial Heights , Virginia.
• Didja ever wonder why rates on credit cards are the highest since 2001 while rates on the 10-year U.S. Treasury notes are at 3.9%?
• Downloadable images of numerous 19th century Pennsylvania landowner maps and atlases are now available at no charge on a web site. The site includes 19th-century landowner maps from many townships--approximately two-thirds of Pennsylvania counties. These maps are invaluable when used in conjunction with the 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 census. You can find the free Ancestor Tracks web site at http://ancestortracks.com .• Didja ever know that there is a Benton in the states of PA, DE, LA, KS, IL, ME, NH, AR, KY, OH, MS, TN, NY, MI, GA, WI, BA, MN, MO, IN, CO, FL, IA and AL? And that does not include Benton Center, Benton City, Benton Corners, Benton Crossing, Benton Cut, Benton Falls--ah, heck, just go here and read the list for yourself...
• Even wonder how many miles of roads our local townships maintain? Benton Township has 46, Fishing Creek has 50, Greenwood has 63, Jackson has 36, Orange has 21, Sugarloaf has 35.
• Weight Watcher members lost 25 pounds last week. This month's special until May 1: join for $19 (saving $15) or six weeks for $77 (save $23) or ten weeks for $124 (save $28)
• A 4-man scramble golf tournament in memory of Stephanie Spiece will take place Saturday, July 31. Stephanie graduated from Benton High School and attended Bloomsburg University with a major in special education. Stephanie lost her two-year battle to oral cancer last June at the age of 21. Stephanie's parents, Carl and Ann, have started a scholarship fund at Benton High School in her honor. All money that is raised at this tournament will benefit the scholarship fund. Anybody interested in being a hole sponsor or donating to the tournament can contact Rev. Calvin Miller at 683-6041. Details will be posted on the upcoming events page of the Benton News.
It is customary, Back Home in Benton, PA, to greet someone with an outstretched hand, a warm smile on the face, and recognition using the first name only, except in those cases where the other party is much older, teaches school or achieves a level of perfection which commands the utmost respect. The general rule of using the first name only also applies to everyone I know in Bendertown.
This proved to be true Sunday afternoon when a dramatic soprano, a coloratura soprano, a lyric soprano and a spinto soprano thundered onto the stage of The Forum, Harrisburg. You might not understand women with the highest of the female voices "thundering" onto a stage, but these four with their high, bright sound could cut through the sound of a full orchestra. A young soprano from Bendertown achieved a remarkable level of perfection! Alanna Bath, Bendertown--"Ms. Bath" as she was known Sunday afternoon--has a wonderfully full voice as she demonstrated when she sang "Climb Every Mountain" from The Sound of Music.
Ms Bath has a substantial and powerful voice which ranges through the vocal registers. In recognition of her ability, Alanna will be Ms. Bath for the rest of this report! Ms. Bath and her substantial dramatic soprano voice sang the parts of heroic, tragic women of opera, starting with "Morro, ma prima in grazia."
Recordings of the concert were not permitted, but if you want to hear how Verdi intended it to be sung listen to a recording made by another artist and visualize Ms. Bath performing it perfectly. Go here so you know what the music sounds like. It never gets played on Froggy 101! Ms. Bath made her operatic debut at Wilkes University and went on to achieve a Master of Music Degree in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from Penn State where she premiered the role of Henny Penny in the world premiere of Trinkley and Charnesky's children's opera, "Chicken Little." Ms. Bath is the daughter of Mike and Carol Bath, Bendertown.
Saturday and Sunday, April 10-11, 2010. Please keep Florence Kocher (now out of ICU, but a patient at Berwick Hospital) and Eric Hess in your prayers. Eric is fighting Hodgkins Lymphoma. Keep the model railroad display at Columbia Mall in mind for Saturday and Sunday. We have a pop quiz today. Eleven states border Canada. Without looking at a map, what are they? (Answer at end) Most of our local snowbirds are now safely back in their roost. The latest arrivals are Richard and Sandy Lehet, in "shorts one day, long pants the next!"
April 10, the birthday of David DePoe and Bridget Andrezee. From 3 to 7 today is the Sugarloaf Fish Supper at the Sugarloaf School Memorial Building, Grassmere, off Route 118. Starting at 2 PM, the annual old fashion buckwheat cakes and sausage supper happens at St. James Church, Zaners Bridge Rd, Bendertown. Details, as always, are on the upcoming events page. The Taming of the Brew takes place at Caldwell Consistory, Market Street, Bloomsburg. Call 784-5530 for more information.April 11, the birthday of Taylor Remphrey, Bud Allegar and Dorothy Kocher and the wedding anniversary of Ronnie & Sheila Thompson. Today is breakfast at the North Mountain fire company. "A Cast of Divas" take the stage at 4 PM at the Forum in the southeast corner of the State Capitol Complex, Harrisburg, featuring the magnificent voice of Alanna Bath, Bendertown, and sopranos Elizabeth Colpo, Liz Shoenfelt and Cheryl Crider. The Bloomsburg University wind ensemble concert is at 6 PM at Carver Hall, 400 East Second Street, Bloomsburg. Call 389-4284 for more information.
Quickies...
• It is hard to have more fun at an auction than you can have April 17 starting at 8:30 AM at the Beaver Run Amish School during its 31st consignment sale. 290 PL Road, Danville, off Route 54 between Turbotville and Washingtonville. This is an all-day event with eight auctioneers or more at one time. All proceeds help support the Amish four parochial schools. Here is a partial list of items available: door harps, wooden wagons, butcher kettles, piano-box buggy, steam engines, Civil War leg shackles, pressure treated lawn furniture, grain binders, box wagons, cultivators, cultipacker, check lines, collars, jockey sticks, pony carts and market wagons. Breakfast is served from 8. The lunch stand has baked goods, chicken barbeque and homemade ice cream.
The North Mountain Historical Society, known as the History Buffs, meet and listen as presenter Bill Baillie, a retired English professor, president of the Columbia County Historical & Genealogical Society and author of four books on Columbia County history, talks May 17 about "who do you think you are." The hit NBC TV series "Who Do You Think You Are" shows the excitement and surprises that can arise when you begin to trace your family history. (Sarah Jessica Parker discovered an ancestor connected to the Salem witch trials.) This presentation will feature three local examples of intriguing discoveries in tracing ancestry, including a local militia general whose family’s military history stretches back 1000 years, a canal boatman who “got religion” and changed his tavern to a teetotalers’ inn, and a Puritan refugee from England who founded Stratford, Connecticut.
• Following Vacation Bible School on June 20 at 7 PM, there will be Puppets In The Park presented in the Benton Park by Kingdom Kidz of St. Andrew's U.M. Church of Milton. You will not want to miss this show! Plan now to bring your whole family. This show is for every age, young and longer-living. There will be food and refreshments available. A free-will offering will be received. In the event of inclement weather, the show will be held in the Benton high school auditorium. The program is sponsored by the Men's Prayer Meeting.
• Last Wednesday was Bob Kelsey's last experience of chemotherapy and Thursday was his last radiation treatment! Bob expects to continue not feeling well for the next week, and then should begin to see improvement. Bob lamented, "I now know what bad feels like, so I’m looking forward to good." The last part of his treatment is IV infusions at home for the next week in order to stay hydrated. He will continue his tube feedings for a month and then assess when he can have an esophagus dilatation so he can begin swallowing food again. "Hopefully," he wrote, "I can begin eating some yogurt, jell-o and puddings in a few weeks when the inflammation from the radiation subsides."
• Bridget Allen, Lewistown, known as the Pennsylvania Fudge Lady for the company that she once owned, and her husband, RB Powell, formerly of Leraysville and the owner of Nittany Mountain Trail Rides, sang classic bluegrass and traditional music and songs and told stories Wednesday night during The Center's April concert featuring RB on banjo and Bridget on guitar. On Thursday, the duo entertained pre-school students and senior citizens. You can see pictures from the three concerts by going here. The pictures can also be viewed as a slideshow from that location.
• The Northern Columbia Ballet, the ballet school run out of The Center, will hold its spring performance at the Benton high school auditorium at 6:30 PM May 15. Eleven dances will be performed by local dance students ranging in age from 3-18. Admission for the show is by donation at the door.
• The Northern Columbia Ballet will host a summer dance camp in June with two sessions divided by age group. June 14-18 is for ages 8-12, and June 28-July 2 is for ages 5-7. Camp runs for one week Monday-Friday 10:30-2. Students will take a ballet class in the morning each day, eat a provided lunch, have an after lunch activity/art and craft and try a new kind of dance in the afternoon. A guest teacher will be teaching Irish Step Dance to the students in one of the afternoon sessions! Classes are taught by professional dancer Sandy Fritz. Sandy trained in dance for more than 16 years and has danced professionally with the Pacific Northwest Ballet of Seattle, and the Suzanne Farrell Ballet of Washington D.C. Sandy is also a certified teacher in the state of Pennsylvania.
• It would appear that whoever is in charge of building cell-phone towers has their wires crossed. A proposed tower on Route 254 West of Millville at 127 Taylor Road would have been about ¾ of a mile from the tower in Pine Township. This situation is now being reevaluated. The same situation could occur with construction of an independent and an ATT tower a mile apart at Benton.The Center will host the Village Sampler and Fun Auction April 25. In coming editions of the Benton News, we'll show some of the items for sale and we'll have a complete auction list prior to the auction. Here is the list of restaurants and organizations which will provide food and drink at the auction.Benton Women's Club
Benton Lions Club
Bissinger’s Catering
Creekside Family Restaurant
Henny Penny
Hoboken Sub Shop
The Inn at Turkey Hill
Jerseytown Tavern
The Old Filling Station
River Room at Comfort Suites
StrevigsThe Friends of the Columbia County Traveling Library are conducting a membership drive to encourage current members to renew their commitment and new members to participate. During the last year, the Friends purchased large print and audio books for the bookmobile and provided prize books, speakers and supplies for the children's summer reading program. In 2010, the Friends will continue their support for book purchases as well as summer reading and are also setting aside funds to assist with future needs. The 2010 children's summer reading program kicks off in June and fun and educational activities are planned for the kids.
The Friends meet monthly for lunch and a meeting. They enjoy good fellowship, conversations about the latest books, and are happy to welcome new members. The officers for this year are Jessie Hofman, President; Betty Fodness, Secretary, and Peg Root, Treasurer.
Consider supporting the Friends by sending membership dues of $5 for an individual or family or $10 for a patron to CCTL Friends, 15 Perry Avenue, Bloomsburg, PA 17815.The Friends hold a used-book sale every year to help support the Library. This year, the sale will be held Saturday, May 15, at Columbia Mall, Buckhorn, from 10 AM to 6 PM in front of Bon-Ton. The Friends are accepting donations of used books (no encyclopedias, textbooks or magazines). You can bring your books to the Friends stand at the mall Friday evening, May 14, from 7:30 to 8:30, telephone the library (387-8782) to arrange a drop-off time, or leave them on my front porch at 237 Market Street until 6 PM May 14. Visit the sale. It is a great opportunity to purchase quality books at bargain prices.
• Want to save money by clipping coupons? A popular website is here. The site will tell you which coupons apply to your area. Another website is the self-described "#1 Website for printable grocery coupons."
• A plan recently approved is to plant one tree for every soldier who died in the Civil War. The trees would be planted on the Civil War route from Gettysburg to Virginia. The ambitious endeavor would require planting 620,000 new trees along U.S. 15 from Gettysburg to Charlottesville, VA. The program is funded by grants and private contributions. The trees might eventually rival Washington’s cherry blossoms as a tourist attraction.Four local ladies will be participating in July in the Susan G. Komen 3 day walk for the cure for breast cancer. Allison (Goode) Hess, Cathy Goode, Melinda (Goode) Vincent and Tara (Goode) Reichert will participate in a 60-mile walk over three days to raise awareness for breast cancer. Please show your support by donating to the participants to help them reach their goal, or by contributing to an event on Saturday, May 8, from 11 AM to 2 PM. The event takes place at the Benton fire hall and supports six family members who are walking 60 miles or volunteering to raise money for breast-cancer awareness. Net proceeds from the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure™ are invested in community-based breast-health programs and breast-cancer research. The research focuses on decreasing breast-cancer incidence and mortality in the next decade. Without a cure, one person will die of breast cancer every 13 minutes in the United States. Share this adventure by supporting this fundraising effort. The cost is $20 paid in advance and tickets include one Chinese auction ticket. (Tax deductible; Checks payable directly to Susan G. Komen Foundation and sent to Allison Hess, 273 Waller Road, Benton PA 17814) Chinese Auction tickets available that day--six for $5. Auction will end and drawing will occur at 1 PM. The team will be wearing shirts with the names of those they are walking to honor. Please feel free to sign the shirts with names. Round up your friends for a day a fun, and wear pink on May 8 to support the cause! You can also make a donation here.
Answer to trivia question... From East to West, using states with land to land borders rather than shared bodies of water (otherwise some wisenheimer would tell us that New York bordered Ireland) there are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Alaska.
James Emanuel "Jim" Peterman (April 1, 1918-April 6, 2010), Benton, died Tuesday at Bonham Nursing Center, Stillwater. He was 92. He was born in Sugarloaf Township. He was a son of James Tilden Peterman and Murtis Delphine (Sterner) Peterman. He attended the Sugarloaf School in Grassmere. Mr. Peterman served his country in the U. S. Army during World War II. He was a lumberman and had worked for the former Sutliff Farms, Benton. Surviving, are his brother, Jack K. Peterman, Benton; a sister, Letha Smith, South Carolina; a sister-in-law, Dorothy Peterman, Benton, and by many nieces and nephews. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a sister, Elizabeth Cornell; a brother, George Roland Peterman, and by a sister, Elma Eckroth.
Funeral services will be held Monday afternoon at 2 at the McMichael Funeral Home with burial in St. Gabriel's Cemetery, Sugarloaf Township. A viewing will be held Monday from 1 PM until the time of the service at 2 PM, at McMichael's. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to the charity of the donor's choice. For online condolences or to sign the online register book, please visit: www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .
Ruth M. Long (August 25, 1929-April 6, 2010), a member of the last class to graduate from Sugarloaf schools (Grassmere) in 1945, passed away Tuesday at Grandview Health Care. She was 80. She was born in Bloomsburg and lived in Unityville. Ruth was a daughter of George W. and Mabel V. Babb McHenry. She graduated from Benton High School in 1947. She worked at Dockies in Catawissa, Bloomsburg Mills, Benton Mills, and was a hairdresser. She also was co-owner of Long's Garage in Unityville. She was preceded in death by her husband, George L. Long; a brother, George McHenry, and a sister, Patricia Ann Maylin.
She is survived by daughter Lydi-Ann Gitschlag, Unityville; sons George C. Long (Joyce), Unityville; Edward Long, Fulton, MO, and Todd Long (Alexa), Unityville. There are nine grandchildren: Patrick and Patricia Gitschlag, Sean Michael Schumacher Long, Robert, Heather, Renee, George, Jeff and Steven Long; six great-grandchildren: Taylor, Aaron, Austin, Logan, Lauren and Jolene Long; a brother, Donald McHenry, Baltimore, and sisters-in-law Harriet Jane Gleason (Pennsdale), and Lois Long Gilot, South Carolina. Services will be at the convenience of the family. Bunnell Funeral Home Inc., Millville, is handling the arrangements.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, April 7, 8 and 9, 2010. Please keep Florence Kocher and Eric Hess in your prayers. Eric has Hodgkins Lymphoma. He has yet to be "staged" with the disease as he has to do a few more tests and have minor surgery for a medaport (a port to have his chemotherapy through). Eric's mother, Suzanne, "faced this cancer" 16 years ago and says that the disease usually has a favorable prognosis.
April 7, the birthday of Alexandra Schaich, Gabrielle Gombert, Melanie Anderson and George W. Welliver and the anniversary of the birth date of the internet. A publication known as a “request for comments” (RFC) 41 years ago paved the way for the internet. The RFC contained research, proposals and methodologies applicable to internet technology which allowed engineers to bounce around new ideas in a public forum. Others say that the birth of the internet came about on January 1, 1983, when the National Science Foundation’s university network backbone, a precursor to the World Wide Web, became operational. Tonight at 7 is the free concert by R.B. Powell and Bridget Allen at The Center.
April 8, the birthday of Charlotte Sibly, John McHenry and Ken Dressler. This morning at 9:30, The Center will hold "Storytime" for pre-school age children. There will be a live music program in addition to stories. It is free and open to the public. For additional information, call The Center at 925-0163. Senior citizens of the area are encouraged to attend the free concert at 10:30 this morning at The Center. Tonight at 7, the Benton Women’s Club will meet in the LR Appleman school library to hear master gardner Joanne Lingo, Orangeville, explain the master gardener program and talk about growing herbs. Guests are welcome. The Country Cultivators will host its annual open house tonight at 7 at Christ the King Church featuring Joella Socko talking about "Fairy Gardens."
April 9, the birthday of Lou Kwasny, Central.Quickies...
• In case you missed it, the Citizens' Voice had an article in its April 4 edition about the girl who left Benton, moved to Shickshinny, graduated from Northwest Area High School, relocated to Los Angeles, and is currently working with Alicia Silverstone and Sigourney Weaver in the new movie, "Vamps." The "girl," of course, is Krysten Ritter. Read the article here.
• State lawmakers are attempting to change the effects of drilling on water supplies and the environment by introducing House Bill 2213, the Land and Water Protection Act . The bill would require inspection by the state during each stage of the drilling process, extend to 2,500 feet (from 1,000 feet) the presumed liability of a well polluting a water supply, require full disclosure of the ingredients used during the fracking process and update bonding requirements to cover costs of decommissioning a well. There are a flurry of other related bills, which will be covered in future editions.
• Questions are coming in about the new 55+ community in Benton known as Bailey Park. You can learn more by going to http://baileypark55.com/ . The builder is Innovative Building & Design, 406 Shickshinny Road, 925-2077.
• A 250-foot cell-phone tower for AT&T use is under construction on the grounds of Little Fishing Creek Rod & Gun Club north of Millville in Pine Township. Verizon is expected to also become a user on that tower. The same company will erect a tower on Dutch Hill between Jerseytown and Buckhorn along route 44. The local area has suddenly been noticed by cell-phone providers.
• Today's music is from Joe Cocker who tells you just how beautiful you really are. Go here and have a listen. No one puts more into a song than Joe Cocker.
• The U.S. Department of Transportation rejected Pennsylvania's application to toll I-80. The Guv is now forced to call for a special legislative session to find state transportation funding to replace the $450 million-plus per year that tolls were to produce for highways, bridges and mass-transit systems.
We often take things for granted. Take the simple job of swinging the door open on the refrigerator and removing the milk in which we drown our Cheerios each morning. Who is behind getting the milk into the case? The list is very long, and is vastly different than it once was. Let me explain.
Before 1880, Pennsylvania women did most of the milking. The women controlled the milking part of the family farm, just as they did the kitchen. The "woman of the house" milked, lifted the heavy crocks of milk into the springhouse, skimmed off the cream, churned and later packed the butter and distributed what was excess to the family's requirements to the market. She was also a mother and a housewife.
Cows spent their winters inside the barn where little attention was paid to sanitation. The cows laid in the filth which gathers in stables during our long, cold, overcast winters. In spring, the cows were released to the outside where the spring rains helped to wash them clean. During the warm weather, cows were often milked outside, rain or shine, and some of the drippings from the cows would find themselves in the bucket with the milk. This condition continued in the Commonwealth until about 1890 according to a 1933 edition of Home Journal.
The Columbia Register in its edition of July 1, 1817, noted that the "operation of milking" is generally performed by having a "female seated by the side of the cow, commonly on a stool, and by a gentle squeeze with the hand the milk is forced into a pail."
The paper may have felt it was on dangerous ground, and began to backpeddle, as if it had been caught in saying something that a hundred years later would have tossed ears forward. "It is by no means absolutely necessary that the milker should be a female." The article admitted that "females with their soft and supple fingers generally perform this task with dexterity." The article then pointed out that men "practice the art of milking without making it their particular business much more than females. Females make their greetings by nodding the head. The customary mode of greeting among males is the shaking of hands and the squeeze used in shaking hands is much like the squeeze used in milking." The paper concluded that as a rule "a "great shaker of hands is a great milker."
Girls were said to be more "sympathetic" with the cows than men or boys. Men at times would lash out at a cow when she kicked the bucket. The result would be bad for the cow and worse for the milk. The girls generally used a more soothing tone.The Barre Gazette of August 23, 1839. wrote that "thirty years ago it would have been almost as difficult to find a man milking as to find a woman mowing. Half of the young girls now-a-days hardly know whether the milk comes from the udder or the horse. "
One journal described the "rosy milk-maid" as wearing thick shoes, a chedquered apron, her sleeves turned up and a handkerchief tied over her head, a pair of black eyes and ruddy cheeks peeping out from under it." She sat milking a "cow that stood placidly switching off a fly now and then while looking drowsily out upon a lovely summer landscape." The milking would be accomplished from a milking stool.
One of the interesting things about milking stools is that while there were thousands of them in use, no one sold them. They were not an article of trade. The stools simply could not be made commercially cheaply enough to sell. The farmer could make them cheaper and there was no reason for him to buy what he could make for nothing or in a short time.
Most milking stools were constructed from a piece of board or plank with the corners rounded off, making the stool round. Into the underside of it would be bored--not quite through--three or four auger holes into which would be driven short, turned pegs for legs. However made, the milking stool was on every farm.The stools were never very elaborate or ornamental. There was generally one cow in each herd which would do whatever ornamenting there was to be done!
There were many cows who loved being sung to by those doing the milking and on brother Dayne's farm he always had the radio on during milking. He felt that some cows only gave their "fair share" of milk when being sung to. Strange noises or rough treatment did take a toll on milk production.
Where are you going to my pretty fair maid,
With your red and rosy cheeks and your nut-brown hair ?
Oh ! 'tis I am going a-milking, kind sir, she answered me,
A-rolling in the dew makes the milk maid so fair.Shall I go with you my fair pretty maid,
With your red and rosy cheeks and your nut-brown hair ?
Yes, 'tis you're kindly welcome, kind sir, she answered me,
A-rolling in the dew makes the milk maid so fair.Suppose I should lay you down in here, my fair pretty maid,
With your red and rosy cheeks and your nut-brown hair ?
Oh ! then you must help me up again, kind sir, she answered me,
A-rolling in the dew makes the milk maid so fair.
Suppose you should prove with child by me, my pretty fair maid,
With your red and rosy cheeks and your nut-brown hair ?
Oh ! then I must find a father for it, kind sir, she answered me,
A-rolling in the dew makes the milk maid so fair.
Monday and Tuesday, April 5 and 6, 2010. Keep Florence Kocher, a patient in Berwick Hospital, and Richard Sutliff, a patient in Edward Hospital, Naperville, Illinois, in your prayers. Eric Hess should remain in your prayers.
April 5, the birthday of Alfred Wilson and Jim Albertson. It is the birthday of Booker T. Washington, former principal of the Tuskegee Institute. A favorite quote of his was "You can't hold a man down without staying down with him." Penny and Randy Fritz and Noah and Abra Weaver celebrate their wedding anniversaries.
April 6, the birthday of David "Otto" Kurecian and Stephen Hess. On this date in 1789, George Washington was elected the first president of the United States, the only president to be unanimously elected. George Washington received 69 votes. John Adams was elected Vice President with 34 votes.Quickies...
• It is never wise to bet on what seems like a sure thing. It's now anyone's guess if a cell tower to support ATT or Verizon will be the first to service Benton and surrounding areas. Four towers have been approved or in permitting over the years.
• Don't plan to cook Saturday night, April 10. The Sugarloaf Fish Supper takes place from 3 to 7 at the Sugarloaf School Memorial Building, Benton, Grassmere, off Route 118. Takeouts are available.
• One of the interesting jokes making its round of the internet shows a simple message of "Clean the House," following by a picture of a woman and her cleaning supplies and vacuum. As you scroll down, the final message read "And the Senate too!"
• Thanks to Betsy Andrews, senior editor of Saveur, for sending copies of her magazine in exchange for information on the local area. We'll have more on this subject in an upcoming edition. Preview the magazine at www.saveur.com/ .Natural Gas Update...
Natural gas consumption in January was up 14% from December 2009. As milder spring weather arrived in all 48 states, natural-gas spot prices fell. The Henry Hub price fell to $3.93 per MMBtu March 31 while inventories of working natural gas in storage rose, according to EIA’s Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. Natural gas spot prices continue to move in the opposite direction of oil spot prices. The number of natural gas-directed rotary rigs was 941 as of March 26, a rise in that number for 13 consecutive weeks.--U.S. Energy Information Agency and other sourcesThe Robinson Group will hold an important meeting on Wednesday, April 14, at 7 PM in the Benton middle/high school auditorium. Doors open at 5:30 PM with representatives on site. Chris Robinson and Jack Sordoni will be in attendance. There has been a significant amount of activity and news in the past two weeks that indicate a deal is imminent. Because these details and lease terms will be discussed at this meeting, it is very important that group members attend or stay in close contact with other members and/or group leaders. Landowners with interest in joining the group are welcome to attend.
North Carolina is the latest state to become a hot spot for natural gas following an announcement by geologists of mile-deep deposits covering nearly 1,400 square miles. The find is significant--the state's gas supply for the next 40 years lies below its borders. The discovery is not as significant as the 9,000-square-mile Haynesville Shale or the 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas estimated in the Marcellus shale. Energy companies are busily going over land ownership records in county courthouses in a pattern local owners have seen locally. Development in North Carolina will require changes to state law which currently prohibit horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Read more here.
Jamie G. Houseknecht (September 4, 1982-April 3, 2010), Boalsburg, and formally from the Benton area, died Saturday morning from injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident in Sugarloaf Township. He was 27. He was born in Williamsport and was a 2001 graduate of Columbia Montour Vocational Technical School where he was president of his class. While in high school, he was also president of the Vocational Industrial Club of America (VICA) and involved with that organization for three years. He was also vice president of the Student Council and the National Honor Society. He graduated from Penn Tech where he earned his associate degree in Applied Sciences. He later went to Penn State University and Bloomsburg University where he graduated in 2007 with a B. S. in Chemistry. Jamie was employed by Penn State University, State College, as a research assistant. He previously was employed by Beckton Dickinson, North Carolina.
Surviving, are his girlfriend, Allison M. Sharpe, of Boalsburg; his father, Jay G. Houseknecht, and his wife, Michele Verdone, Benton; his mother, Leslie A. (Michael) Umstead (George), Hughesville; a brother, Justin M. Houseknecht, Dayton, Ohio; a sister, Rylee A. Houseknecht, Hughesville; step brothers Ryan G. Umstead, Hummelstown and Michael Verdone Benton; his grandparents June Houseknecht, Muncy; Joanne Rogers, Muncy; Weldon Michael (Barbara), South Williamsport; his great grandmother, Florence Michael, Danville as well as several aunts, uncles and cousins. He was preceded in death by grandfathers, Robert K. Houseknecht and Wilbur Rogers.
Graveside funeral services will be held Wednesday afternoon, April 7, at 2 at Gordner's Cemetery, Unityville. A visitation will be held Tuesday evening from 6 to 8 PM at the McMichael Funeral Home. For online condolences or to sign the online register book, please visit www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .
Saturday and Sunday, April 3 and 4, 2010. What a difference a couple of days make. The "mountain" was covered with snow March 31 and on April 1 the temperature was in the mid-70s hit the lower 80s on Friday. Please continue to keep Eric Hess in your prayers.
April 3, 2010, the birthday of Jesse Fritz, Shane Hess, Jamie Westover, Helen Raski and Kim Fantanarosa. Charlotte (Hubler) Kingsbury has a birthday today, as do her twin brother and sister, Jeff and Jennifer Hubler. Tomorrow, Fawn (Hubler) Jolly and Guy Hubler will celebrate their birthday. That makes three Hublers on the third and two on the fourth. On this day in 1860, young Henry Wallace galloped out of St. Joseph, Missouri, carrying a unique satchel. It was the first packet of mail carried by the Pony Express. The cost was $5 per 1/2 ounce and the packet arrived in Sacramento, California, in an amazing ten days. Ben Franklin's design of the U.S. Postal Service almost a hundred years before was also based on way stations and riders. The Persian postal service under Xerxes nearly 2,000 years earlier did the same. The Pony Express lasted only 18 months, falling prey to an invention called the telegraph. Borough residents: have your food bagged for the Boy Scouts early Saturday morning for pickup.
April 4, 2010, the birthday of Fawn Hubler Jolly, Larry Smith , Robert Hough, Guy Hubler. A special birthday greeting goes out to Lavinea Campbell who turns 95. Today is Easter. The date for Easter is not based on the calendar and is not fixed each year. Easter falls on the first Sunday on or after the first full moon following the Vernal Equinox (the first day of Spring). It was set by the first Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. Because of the formula's basis in astronomy, Easter can never be later than April 25 nor earlier than March 22.Much of my time has been spent trying to get the web version of the Benton News working correctly. I have also been slogging my way through the mountain of mail that awaited me after three months in Florida. I never much cared for proofreading the Benton News and recently I got slapped on the wrist by a writer and editor in Washington, D.C., a former "Berwick boy with land in Jackson Township" (where he and his wife, Jody, plan to retire). He is a "West Crikker," a member of the West Creek Rod and Gun Club. David Morris is Executive Editor of CongressDaily . Father-in-Law, Bob Thomas, says that he has forgiven David "for his Berwick roots!"
What did I do wrong? I casually remarked that death occurred to "a man preceded in death by his widow." My goof reminded David "of a time long ago at the Press Enterprise when a young pup reporter wrote in an obituary that a Massive Christian Burial would be celebrated!" Fortunately, this was discovered before it was printed" by the alert editor.Quickies...
• Want some interesting reading? You might head to a Congressional Budget Office report which analyses the current government-budget plan. The CBO concludes that the government will spend one-quarter of the national economy (25.2% of gross domestic product) ten years from now, while collecting revenue less than one-fifth (19.6 percent) of the national economy. Where is Unora when we need her?
• Our recent warm, spring-like weather sent our ice maker into overtime as "sweet tea" suddenly became popular. Didja know that it was back in July of 1850 in Apalachicola, Florida, at the "Mansion House" that Dr. John Gorrie amazed friends when he whipped out drinks with ice? Ice? In Florida? In July? The doctor had found a way of compressing water and air in a way to chill things sufficiently to make ice. The doctor was searching for a cure for malaria, prevalent near wetlands in Florida in warm weather. He concluded that the cause of malaria was hot air, but a cure might be possible if the hot air were cooled enough by his ice-making, anti-malaria machine at the United States Marine Hospital. The rooms soon were cool and the patients more comfortable, but the "yellow fever" continued. It was a half century later when Walter Reed proved that the cause was mosquitoes thriving in the hot weather. Isn't it wonderful how success often lies just the other side of failure...
• Buy five Easter flowers and receive a $10 gift certificate at Stoney Acres Nursery, 4378 Red Rock Road, Benton. The certificate is good through April 30, 2010. Call 925-6826 for more information.
• If you like bluegrass, there are several outstanding events coming up. Next Thursday night at 7 at The Center R. B. Powell and Bridget Allen will take the stage. The performance is free and open to the public. MerleFest takes place April 29, 30 and May 1 and 2 in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Information is available at www.merlefest.org. The Wind Gap Festival is June 10, 11, 12 & 13 at Mountain View Park, Wind Gap. Information is available at www.windgapbluegrass.com . The wonderful O.A.T.S. festival is July 1, 2, 3 and 4 at the Benton Rodeo Grounds, Mendenhall Lane. The lineup and more information are available at www.oatsfestival.com . The Hickory Fest, "Music in the Canyon," takes place at Stony Fork Creek Campground, Wellsboro, August 20-22. Learn more at www.hickoryfest.com.
• Some enterprising young women in the area are setting up a scholarship fund in the name of Stephanie Ann Spiece. They are asking for donations of gently used prom/formal gowns which will be available to young ladies of high school age for a monetary donation to Stephanie’s "Princess Closet." It takes place Sunday, April 11, Benton Fire Hall, 12-4 PM. For more information contact Ann (925-2290) or Lynn (683-6041).
• An AARP four-hour refresher driving course (must have previously taken the 8 hour course), sponsored by the Benton Women’s Club takes place Wednesday, May 5, from 9 AM to 1 PM at Christ the King R.C. Church, Benton. The certificate is good for three years. Both the husband and wife must attend. The cost is $12 for members; $14 for non-members. To register, call 925-6242.
• A genealogist from California is looking for information on a Reuben Culp. The man is buried in Light Street Cemetery. June Hartzell will forward all information to California, no matter how trivial. Wife? Children? Siblings? Anything at all. Can a reader help? Forward whatever you might have to me.
Jesus Christ, Nazareth, died at three o'clock in the afternoon, Friday April 3, AD 33, outside the walls of Jerusalem on Mount Calvary in a place called Golgotha, following a betrayal by his apostle Judas Iscariot. Jesus, tortured by a crown of thorns, was crucified beside criminals, one on the right and one on the left, by the Romans under order of Pontius Pilate. The cause of death was listed as crucifixion, exhaustion, torture and loss of blood. He was 33.Jesus Christ was a descendant of Abraham and a member of the house of David. He was the son of Joseph, a carpenter of Nazareth, and Mary, His devoted mother. He was born in a stable in the city of Bethlehem, Judea. He is survived by His mother Mary, faithful apostles and many followers.Jesus was self educated. He spent His adult life working as a teacher and, on occasion, as a medical doctor. Until the time of his passing, Jesus taught, healed the sick regardless of pre-existing conditions, touched the lonely, fed the hungry, listened to the smallest ones, cared for those who were ignored by others, helped the poor and inspired many.
He was noted for the telling of parables about his Father's kingdom. He performed miracles, including the feeding of more than 5,000 with only five loaves of bread and two fishes. He healed a man who was born blind. He walked on water. He forgave sins, His Last Supper, which celebrated the Feast of the Passover, took place the day before His death. He foretold His death while at this meal. His body was buried in an unused stone grave donated by Joseph of Arimathea, a loyal friend of the family. A boulder was rolled in front of the tomb on orders of Pontius Pilate. His grave was guarded by Roman soldiers.In lieu of flowers, the family requests that everyone attempt to live as Jesus did. Donations can be sent to persons in need.
On the first Sunday of each month, Kathy Arcuri contributes a garden column. The column for April is titled, "Serviceberry: What's in a Name?"Mid-April, a delicate white floral cloud blossoms in Northeast Pennsylvania, one of the earliest signs of spring around here. Delightful in its virginal simplicity, the serviceberry shrub or tree goes on to set delicious summer fruit for all manner of greedy critters. Come fall, the airy frame sports dainty foliage ranging from golden to brilliant crimson. And vertical fissures streak the gray bark for winter interest.
The botanical name Amelanchier comes from old French for “little apple.” But this plant answers to many monikers throughout North America, including juneberry for time of fruiting; shadblow, as petal fall marks the shads’ journey upstream; and Cree Indian saskatoon in parts of Canada. Some early colonists also called it serviceberry after the similar-looking sarvis or sorbus tree, an endangered European mountain ash. However, folk lore offers several other interesting christening stories for serviceberry, conjuring itinerant preachers, spring burials, and church floral arrangements.
With confusion about names, it is perhaps no surprise that the serviceberry plant sometimes masquerades as a single-trunked tree, sometimes as a multi-branched shrub, and in wetlands as a spreading thicket. Indeed, growth habit tends towards suckering, with multiple basal branches the norm, unless pruned to a single trunk.
Averaging 15 to 25 feet in height, serviceberry again defies expectation when occasionally it tops 40 feet, and up to a record 55 feet for one specimen in Illinois.
A member of the rose family, close cousins are the hawthorne and crabapple, with apples and pears more distant relatives. Serviceberries prefer moist but well-drained soil and are found naturalized in open woodlands, often in early successional habitats. But they also do well in sunny landscapes with adequate wind protection, accented perhaps with perennials and bulbs beneath their dappled shade.
In Northeast Pennsylvania, the lacy five-petalled white flowers open in mid-April and look especially hopeful against the dark background of a building or evergreen hedge. Following petal fall, berries begin to ripen, from green to red to a deep purple-black redolent of blueberries. Here, cedar wax wings are the first to arrive at the harvest; but up to forty bird species, small mammals, deer, and even bear feast on the sweet treats. Native Americans also gathered the berries and dried them for a winter staple called pemmican--a dried meat, berry, and fat mixture. Today the berries are used in jellies, cobblers, pies, muffins, and dessert toppings, especially in Canada where commercial orchards are now harvested for food production.
Twenty-eight of the thirty seviceberry species can be found distributed throughout North America. Varieties are rather similar in appearance, with the downy serviceberry native to the eastern United States. Particularly nice is ‘Autumn Brilliance;’ although sentimental types may want to plant ‘Princess Diana’ alongside ‘Prince Charles.’ ‘Northline’ and ‘Honeywood’ have especially excellent fruit, but flower later than most.
Whatever its name; whichever species or form; in woodland or garden or church – serviceberry heralds spring in Northeast Pennsylvania, and goes on to provide delights through the rest of the year.
--Kathleen Arcuri
Thursday and Friday, April 1 and 2, 2010. Keep Eric Hess and Bob Wenner in your prayers. Temperatures will increase daily through Saturday when it could reach 80°. It is a rare day when the email version of the Benton News is published before the web version, but that is the case today. The web version is down. The problem is being worked.
April 1, the birthday of Cinda Hartman, Caleb and Joshua Fritz and Dorothy Passamonte. Happy wedding anniversary to Phil and Jackie Malhoyt. Susan Robishaw, Vice President of the German Heritage Society of the Susquehanna Valley, will present a talk this evening and will show photographs of her 2009 trip to Aachen, Bad Windsheim, Landshut, and the Rhineland in Germany. The GHSSV meeting will be held at 7 at the Degenstein Library, Sunbury. Members and guests are invited for this free program. Refreshments will be served.
April 2, the birthday of Karen Musitano, Scott Thomas and Congressman Paul Kanjorski. Avis Young McHenry celebrates her 89th birthday in Bonham Nursing Home. Harold and Alice Steinruck, 50 Mill Street, Benton, celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary. Today is World Autism Awareness Day. You'll see many wearing blue in support. Visit www.worldautismawarenessday.org for more. The Harrisburg State Capital Building will turn blue at dusk thursday night in a gesture of support for Autism Speaks and to kick off Autism Awareness Month. The "Light It Up Blue" international campaign will have nearly 200 buildings in 25 US cities and 15 nations around the world illuminated for the cause.Back in the days when the western world used the Julian calendar, March 25 began the new year. March 25 fell during holy week, so April 1 was when festivals first began to celebrate the new year. In the 1500s when the Gregorian calendar was adopted, the new year moved to January 1. Because the Benton News wasn't around then, some didn't get the word about the revised start of the new year and were considered "April fools" when they celebrated the new year at the wrong time. There are other theories, including the one about nature "fooling" with the fickle weather we get this time of the year.
Whatever the reason, the first of April is known for pranks. Some of the more famous pranks pulled on this day include firemen called for a fire in a refrigerator at an address that didn't exist, Western Union operators calling to sing a song to an unsuspecting person, rubber mice laid where the woman of the house would find them. One eleven-year old was told to go to a friend's house and retrieve a skyhook. Two Maryland kids tied a dollar bill from a fishing line and laid it on the street, then tugged it away when someone tried to pick it up. One enterprising fellow from across the street watched, then walked to the dollar bill and simply put his foot on the dollar bill, cut the line and ran away. So much for that April Fool's joke.
One young girl put cotton in the middle of the biscuits that she made for the family's evening meal. Kicking a hat found on the ground was a popular sport for young kids at one time, until the first of April when bricks somehow were under the hats. One famous prank was the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland. One boy was sent to retrieve 50 feet of shoreline. One boy in Seaford, Delaware, saw an advertisement for a job and walked about a mile to apply for the job in person. This location and the job turned out to be non-existent, but on his way the boy found a bank envelope with a $1,000 in it, lost by a merchant on his way to the bank. The newspaper the next day included an article about the lost envelope. The boy returned the envelope and the money, received a $100 reward and was offered a summer job. Some April Fool's jokes turn out okay. We hope your day does too. No fooling...
Quickies...
• Street sweeping will begin in Benton borough on Monday, April 12, and continue through Thursday, April 15. Residents are reminded to move their vehicles from the street on these days to allow the equipment operator to perform this work properly. It would be appreciated if citizens would sweep their sidewalks prior to the street-sweeping process.
• It is not too late to get Easter egged. Go here.
• Life Scout Jacob Vincent was selected last weekend for the Order of the Arrow during the Four Rivers OA Call-Out Ceremony in Odenton, MD. The Order of the Arrow is the national honor society of the Boy Scouts of America. Both his brother, Eagle Scout Joshua Vincent, and his father, Chris, are Brotherhood members of the Order. Jacob will attend his Ordeal this summer.
• Weight Watcher members at The Center lost 29 3/4 pounds last week. The discussion this week was about the need for a buddy to provide encouragement and support in weight-loss efforts.
• The Columbia Country Volunteers in Medicine Clinic, Inc., 310 East Third Street, Mifflinville, will hold a "Night on the Titanic" to benefit the working uninsured. The departure date is April 24 at 6:15 sharp at the sound of three bells at Rolling Pines, between Berwick and Bloomsburg (the former Briar Heights). A five-course dinner will be served. The first course will be stuffed mushrooms, followed by beef and barley soup. The third course will be spring-mix salad with vinaigrette dressing. The good part comes next. The fourth course will be chicken lyonnaise with chateau potatoes and asparagus. A dessert station with coffee and tea comes last. The cost of the north Atlantic crossing is $45 per person, $80 per couple. There will be silent and Chinese auctions (including two Pittsburgh Pirate tickets). Period dress is encouraged but optional. Musical entertainment will be provided as well as a cash bar. For tickets, call 752-1780. Tickets are available until April 15.
• A group known as the Fishingcreek Historical Club met Tuesday night at The Center for the purpose of gathering pictures and history of the Benton fire of July 4, 1910, for copying and displaying at the 100th anniversary of the event. The pictures will be displayed at the fire company carnival. The group will again meet at The Center at 7 PM on April 15. Interested parties are invited to attend,
• Didja know that Aunt Jemima's Original Pancake Mix has more salt per serving than Wise Potato Chips? So sayeth Consumer Reports Magazine. The magazine also reminds readers to avoid saturated fats (found in fatty meat, ice cream, whole milk, butter and cocoa butter) and trans fats (found in some cookies, crackers, cakes, French fries, margarine, onion rings and donuts).
• Didja notice that the stock market has moved higher for 26 of the last 30 weeks?
• Be happy you are not a resident of New York, California, Alaska, Rhode Island or Massachusetts where deficits may force the states to end up like the unhappy people of Greece.
• Members of the rodeo association will be starting Thursday work nights April 1 at 6. The annual banquet/meeting will be on May 13 at the Benton Fire Hall. The rodeo will be serving pizza at the O.A.T.S. bluegrass festival this year. Help will be needed for that. Contact Mell or Brian if you can help. The Bull-A-Roma is May 15 along with high-school rodeo that day, just like the one the last day of the rodeo. All the tickets will be $12. All upcoming events at the rodeo are shown on the web version of the Benton News. The next meeting will be April 29 at 7 PM at the rodeo grounds.
• Today devotional music comes from the beautiful voice of Andrea Bocelli as he joins the Mormon Tabernacle Choirfor "The Lord's Prayer." Go here.
Don't you just love people who keep trying until they get it right! Presidents Lincoln and Truman come to mind. Companies do the same. Walmart is the largest company in the world, employing 1.6 million people and they did it in fifteen years.
It isn't as easy for certain classes of organizations to be successful. Take the U.S. Post Service, established in 1775, in operation 234 years--now broke. Social Security, established in 1935, had 74 years to do things right--now broke. There is Fannie Mae, established in 1938, had 71 years to get it right--broke. The "War on Poverty," started in 1964. transfers $1 trillion to "the poor" and more could be transferred. Medicare and Medicaid, established in 1965, 44 years to work the wrinkles out--now broke. The same with Freddie Mac, established in 1970--now broke. The Department of Energy, created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, now has 16,000 employees and a yearly budget of $24 billion and we import more oil than ever before. But somehow we never give up, knowing that someday we'll create a government agency that does it right, that won't go belly-up, won't be a drain on our nation's monetary system. But, wait--we just created that! It is called the government-run health-care system. Listen to what former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew P. Napolitano says about government control. You can listen to it by going to www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=7n2m-X7OIuY .
Quote of the Day:
"I believe in the institution of marriage, and I intend to keep trying till I get it right."
Richard Pryor
Ellsworth J. Doty (November 11, 1924-March 30, 2010), a founding member of the Benton VFW. (Ft. Ricketts Post), lost his battle with cancer Tuesday in the same house on Dotyville Road in Benton Township where he had lived his entire life. He was 85. Ellsworth was a son of Ray and Reba (Letteer) Doty. He served his country in World War II in the U. S. Navy and had been awarded the Philippine Liberation Ribbon; the Pacific Theater Ribbon; the American Theater Ribbon and the World War II Victory Medal. He worked for Neil Harrison, Inc., in his younger years. He had been employed by Bloomsburg University, Kawneer and Benton Township.
He and his wife, Audrey M. (Doty) Doty, celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary on February 12. Surviving, in addition to his wife, are his daughters Kathy L. Houck (Joe), Benton and Terry J. Snyder, Benton. There are three granddaughters: Tanya and Kara Jo Harvey; Tracy Doreskewicz (Ed); a great grandson, Austin Joseph Doreskewicz; a brother, Joseph F. "J. F." Doty (Carol), Benton; and a sister-in-law, Doris Doty, Benton. Along with his parents, he was preceded in death by a brother, Delbert Doty.Funeral services will be held Saturday morning at 10:30 at the McMichael Funeral Home. Burial will be in the Hamline Cemetery, Benton Township, with military honors accorded by a joint veteran's group. A viewing will be held Friday from 6 to 8 PM at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to the Benton VFW, P. O. Box 463, Benton, PA 17814. For online condolences or to sign the register book, please visit www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .
Elwin F. Mulaney (December 16, 1920-March 30, 2010), Hemlock Hollow Road, Pine Township (Benton), died Tuesday at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville. He was 89. He was born in Clinton Township, Wayne County. He was a son of Francis J. and Madeline (Terrel) Mulaney. He attended Mount Pleasant High School and Aldenville High School in Wayne County. He served his country during World War II as a Staff Sergeant in the U. S. Army and had been awarded the American Defense Service Medal with a star; the American Service Medal; the Asiatic-Pacific Service Medal; the European-African-Middle Eastern Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. Mr. Mulaney owned and operated a farm in Talmar for 48 years. He also worked at the former GLF, Bloomsburg, for a few years. He served on the Millville area school board for many years.He was preceded in death by his wife, Helen F. (Hess) Mulaney, on May 3, 2000, and by siblings Leon C. Mulaney (2009); Alta Shepherd (1998); Kenneth Mulaney (1931); Robert Mulaney (1933); Edward G. Mulaney (1948), and a brother who died in infancy (1932). Surviving are his children Joyce E. Meek (Eugene), Jerseytown; Sandra M. Smith, Millville; Kenneth R. Mulaney (Janet), Talmar. There are eight grandchildren; ten great grandchildren; a brother, Hubert W. Mulaney (Helen), Stillwater.Funeral services will be Monday, April 5, at 10:30 AM at the McMichael Funeral Home. Burial will be in the Waller Cemetery, Jackson Township. A viewing will be held Sunday evening from 6 to 8 PM at the funeral home. For online condolences or to sign the online register book, please visit www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .
