Benton News Archives

for the Month of August, 2008

 

August 31, the 244th day of 2008.  In 22 days, the official start of Autumn will be here.  It is the birthday of Marvin Albertson and the wedding anniversary of Ken and Lynn Dressler.

Didja ever notice that the interesting people in life are not the ones with foul mouths?

The Marcellus Shale formation extends deep underground from Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.  For information on what the state of New York is telling its residents about the Marcellus, turn to  http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/46288.html#Information

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has ordered an evacuation of the city starting early this morning to prepare for what he called the "mother of all storms."  Please keep the entire Gulf coast in your prayers.

Term of the Day:
Wooden Nutmeg
The term "nutmegger" described a con-artist, someone who pawned "wooden nutmeg" on unsuspecting buyers. There are several variations of this nickname. One story has it that this nickname came about as a comment on the shrewdness of the citizens of Connecticut.  This story holds that early Connecticut merchants were so ingenious that they were able to make and sell "wooden" nutmeg to unsuspecting buyers in a maneuver somewhat akin to selling refrigerators to Eskimos. A second variation of the story is that buyers simply didn't know they had to grind the nutmeg to made it into a powder. Some of the wooden nutmegs were probably whittled by sailors coming from the spice island.

    Didja ever notice that patience is often simply the inability to make decisions?

Nothing is more common to us, yet more foreign to visitors, than the profusion of Indian names in our area:  Muncy, Lycoming, Towanda, Kittaning, Swatara, Mahanoy, Allegheny, Wyalusing, Tunkhannock, Lackawanna, Wyoming, Nanticoke, Catawissa, Nescopeck, Mahoning, Shamokin, Chillisquaque, to name some of them. One of the most common is Shickshinny 15 miles east of Benton. 

The name came from the centering of five mountains--River, Knob, Rocky, Lee and Newport--on the Susquehanna river.  The Indian name was Shick-a-shinna, later modernized into Shickshinny by Yankee settlers. The name means "where five mountains meet."

The first white settlers of Shickshinny were Ralph Austin and the Crossley family. They came from Connecticut and captured the area in the name of the Nutmeg State (Since 1959, the official nickname of Connecticut has been the Constitution State).

The Wyoming massacre compelled the Connecticut settlers to flee from their homes to escape scalping knives of the roving bands of red men who were bent upon driving the whites from the land. The mouth of Shickshinny creek was a regular camping ground for the Indians which made it a decidedly unhealthy place for "foreigners." The Austins didn't stay long in Connecticut where they had taken refuge. They returned as soon as hostilities had to some extent ceased and reclaimed what they called the "goodly land." They built a log cabin and travelers passing through the area were entertained there.  The flat land was cleared for the purpose of farming. Before the blazing fire on the hearth of Hotel Austin, hair-raising Indian stories were told by travelers as they ate scraped turnip and doughnuts, the only luxuries of that early day.

Across the Susquehanna River from Shickshinny is Mocanaqua, another town with an Indian name. This name comes from Frances Slocum who was stolen from Wyoming Valley during the struggles of the early settlers. The Indians called their little captive "Mocanaqua," which means "Little Bear."

Wapwallopen, a jaw breaker to the uninitiated, is of Indian origin, its English equivalent being "The place where the messengers were murdered." I haven't a clue who the messengers were or who murdered them.

Nescopeck, in the Indian language, is "deep black water." The township and borough get their name from the creek and the creek got its name from the color of the water. If the Indians could return and look upon the water in the creek now he would see how much better he built than he knew. The town occupies the site of the village of the Delaware Indians.

Koonsville was once known as "Arch Bridge."  The stone-arch bridge that crossed Shickshinny creek was the only one of its kind in this area at one time.  The bridge was very narrow.  If a driver of a wagon had his load shift while crossing, the wagon could easily go into the creek.  The narrowness of the bridge became a problem serious enough for the Legislature to enact laws to have Union Township widen the bridge.  The Legislature failed to put any "teeth" in what they passed.  As a result, the bridge was not widened until the Union Turnpike came along and used that section of the road.  The bridge was then doubled in width.  When the post office was established, the settlement became known as Koonsville, named for the first postmaster, William Koons.

Town Line is just what the name indicates.  The place is located on the township line dividing Huntington and Union.

Ross was formed in 1842 from Lehman and Union and named for General William S. Ross, one of the judges of Luzerne.

Salem was the town in Windham County, Connecticut, from which the Salem settlers came. They gave their home this name.

When paper mills were built at Hublerville by Koons Brothers, the name was changed to Huntington Mills.  J. K. Hubler owned the store and the mill for several years and the place bore his name.  .

Waterton was named by the Watson Brothers who bought out Jared Harrison in the mercantile business at that location.  In order to get a post office to service the community, H. D. Watson carried mail for several years from Shickshinny without charging for the service.  When the route was finally extended to Forks, compensation to the carrier began.

James G. Jones gave his name to Jonestown, the place where he opened a store near the junction of Huntington and Fishingcreek.  The post office was called Fishingcreek.

Residents of New Columbus wanted to honor the man who discovered America, but were told that the name "Columbus" had been taken by a settlement in Warren County.  The post office assigned the prefix "New" and the name New Columbus was born.

Cambra appears to have been a contraction of the word "cranberry," which were found in the area in various swamps.

Register was selected by the post office.  Pine Creek, Westover and other names were recommended by the citizens, but the post office department had none of it.

Reyburn bears the name of one of the late President Garfield's physicians. The post office came into being about the time of Garfield's death and the people not having a suitable name, the department gave the name of Reyburn to the post office.

Beach Haven was named in honor of Nathan Beach, one of the Connecticut settlers, who came to Salem in 1773 and had already located land in Beach Haven before the township was organized at Windham, Connecticut.

Conyngham Township was set off from Hollenback in 1865 and bears the honored name of Judge John N. Conygham.

Fairmount Springs was first known as Fairmount Township post office but afterward assumed the present name owing to a  spring on the property of Justice B. P. Smith.

Hollenback was taken from Nescopeck in 1845 and named for Matthias Hollenback.

Hunlock's Creek took its name from Jonathan Hunlock, who located at the mouth of the stream and was driven out by the Indians in 1778. He returned three years later, from whom sprung the family bearing that name.

Huntington Township bears the name of Samuel Huntington, of Windham, Connecticut, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Huntington is one of the "seventeen certified townships" laid out by the Susquehanna Company and previous to 1776 was known as Bloomingdale Township.

Hardpan is another one of the "didn't know it was loaded" cases. Several appropriate names were sent to the department when the post office was asked for, among them Dodson Chapel by which the locality had been known for some time. Hardpan was tacked on the tail end and partially as a joke. When the papers for the new office came the least desirable of all--Hardpan--was the name of the new office.

 

August 30, 2008.  It is the birthday of Josh Frey and Donna McMichael. During the night of August 30, one hundred and forty-four years ago a number of military squads camping just south of Benton were given orders to stop anyone they met and guard them until daylight, to arrest all men and grown boys, and to surround a number of houses until daylight. The soldiers spread out quietly and secretly south to Stillwater, north and west into Sugarloaf and Jackson Townships. Some went to Cambra and New Columbus. All operations were conducted with the utmost of secrecy, although even the most remote destinations seemed easily reachable by the soldiers, guided it appears by local citizens. To learn more, head to the FEATURES section of the Benton News and read about the Fishingcreek Confederacy.

On this date in 30 B.C., Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, (69 B.C.-30 B.C.) died at the age of 39. She is said to have committed suicide by allowing a poisonous snake to bite her breast (although history records that two bites were found on her arm). Actually, there were seven queens known as Cleopatra. The most well known one was the last one, the one with the confusing marriages. We didn't pay a lot of attention when Mary Hartman 'splained this to us, so don't take this to the bank as being 100% right! Cleopatra was forced to marry her younger brother Ptolemy XIII when she was 11. Ptolemy drowned and Cleopatra married Ptolemy's brother who was also called Ptolemy, but he died from some disease. Cleopatra then married Mark Anthony even though he had killed Cleopatra's sister. Anthony later heard that Cleopatra died, but that was not true. Impulsive, Mark Anthony fell on top of his sword on purpose since, without Cleopatra, he didn't see much of a reason to live. Cleopatra and Mark Anthony were later buried together. Oh, we left out Julius Caesar with whom she had a son, Caesarion. Caesar was not well thought of by the Senators, who in March of 44 B.C., killed him, considering him to be a disgrace to Egypt. Any questions?

Andy Borowitz writes that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) used the announcement of his vice-presidential pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, to blast the experience of his Democratic rival, arguing that Sen. Obama has never been the mayor of a 5,000-person town. Sen. McCain unleashed a savage attack on Sen. Obama, claiming that his Democratic opponent would be "at a loss" when faced with the challenges of running a 5000-person municipality in Alaska. McCain used the example of a caribou on a front lawn, saying "My friends, Barack Obama wouldn't know what to do." McCain noted that his vice-presidential choice would take out her gun and shoot the caribou.

As Hurricane Gustav nears the Louisiana coast, all eyes turn to the preparations underway to safeguard New Orleans and other Gulf-coast cities.  Two sources to keep current are the local newspaper, the Sun Herald, http://www.sunherald.com/, and the television station WLOX, http://www.wlox.com/, both in Biloxi, Mississippi.  These two sources should provide direct information concerning storms approaching the Gulf coast.

Many long-time readers will remember the article from Jamison City about "The Hegs: Biddle, Charlotte and Philip," which we published years ago at (http://www.bentonnews.net/hegs.htm). Phil lives in Gautier, twenty miles east of Biloxi. Pascagoula is two miles east of Gautier. Moss Point, the town where the FFA students from the Benton Area Schools recently visited, is a neighbor of Pascagoula to the north.  All these towns are on the coast. Moss Point is a swamp. During Katrina the high water flooded it badly. Phil will provide "more personal" information if the storm hits as now projected.

Quote of the Day:
"I don't drink, swear or chase women, but I do lie once in a while."
--Jules McHenry

One of the many benefits of membership in the Columbia County Historical & Genealogical Society is to be able to read the publications included in the quarterly Newsletter of the Society.  Volume 23, Number 3, for September 2008, has been distributed to members.  An article which appears in this edition was written by May McHenry and found in the Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, in Record Group 13.  The article is about the first school in Stillwater which met in the log cabin of the first settler of the area, Henry Heister, who made his way up the Fishing Creek valley in 1794.  This schoolhouse was not the same as the log schoolhouse built on the east side of Fishing Creek where the old schoolhouse built in 1838 owned by Bob and Sandra Kelsey now stands.

Want to sign up for membership in the Historical Society?  You can do it on-line by going here.

The Haunted History Tour/Native American Powwow, hosted by the Ft. McClure Chapter DAR will take place Saturday, October 18. It is a two-part event. The first, a Native American Powwow presented by the Fishing Creek Native American Village will be from 3 to 6 PM on the lawn of McClure House. This section will introduce children to Native American customs through dance and other activities. It is free of charge.

The second part of the event is a shuttlebus tour of the Market Street area of Bloomsburg that will include a stop at the Old Rosemont Cemetery, some unique stories from Bloomsburg's history that will send shivers down your spine, and a conclusion at McClure House that will include a peace ceremony by the Fishing Creek Native American Village and refreshments. There will be three approximately two-hr. tours--one starting at 6:30, one at 7 and the last at 7:40 in the evening. Among the speakers will be George Turner, Ann Diseroad and Andre Dominguez. The cost for the tour is $8 per adult, $5 per child, or $25 for family of four. Tickets will go on sale September 12 and must be purchased in advance from Regent Linda Ivey, 275-4613. For additional information about the tour, contact Vinniedee Hippensteel, 752-1761, or Dani Crossley, 387-0925.

 

August 29, 2008. It is the birthday of Susan McHenry and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Chris and Amy Vincent and Jeff and Jody Andrysick celebrate their anniversaries today. Please continue to keep Donna Hayman Fritz in your prayers and add Ellsworth Doty to your prayer list.

The Benton Area School District Board of Directors has an open position to be filled. This volunteer must be a resident of Benton Township or Sugarloaf Township. Send letter of interest to Gary R. Powlus, Superintendent, 600 Green Acres Road, Benton, PA 17814 by September 3, 2008.

The German Heritage Society of the Susquehanna Valley will celebrate the 6th anniversary of its founding with a dinner on Thursday, September 4, at 6 PM at Penns Tavern on Route 147 south of Sunbury (near the village of Fishers Ferry). Join members and guests for a German food buffet featuring jaeger schnitzel, wiener schnitzel, goulasch, chicken wilhelm, noodles, salad and much more. There will be live bluegrass and folk music on the deck! Cost is $23.95 per person. Drinks are not included, but a cash bar will be available. Contact Jeff Sheaffer at 374-7730 to make reservations or mail your check for $23.95 per person made payable to ‘GHSSV’ to Jeff Sheaffer, 778 Pine Hollow Road, Port Trevorton, PA 17864.

Quote of the Day:
"If I knew I was going to get so old I would have took better care of myself."
--Budd Fritz, retold by Whittier Letteer

In today's issue, we'll get into a little about the Borough of Berwick and even before that what was known as South Berwick in Northumberland County. I'll mention that it has been the subject of disputes between nations for centuries.

This is a lot different story from the one that you usually hear, the one about Evan Owen coming from Philadelphia via a Quaker farm at the mouth of Fishing Creek. The story you know probably goes like this: Owen eventually moved north on the Susquehanna about thirteen miles (in 1780) to where Berwick is now located and spent his time "looking out" for Indians and making the land acceptable for farming. He called his settlement Owensville. Farming was hard work, and so in 1786 his emphasis changed and he began promoting the idea of starting a town. In the search for an appropriate name to call the settlement he went back to his native roots in an English town known as Berwick-upon-Tweed. (There are other sources that dispute some aspects of the naming of the Pennsylvania Borough, but, hey, this story doesn't make as much sense if we take a splinter-group theory of the derivation of the name.) We'll stick with our version of history.

So now you get the picture. This piece isn't about Berwick, Pennsylvania, 20 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA, via Orangeville and 16 miles via Jonestown. It is about "Berwick-upon-Tweed," the northernmost town on the east of England at the mouth of and bisected by the River Tweed, about three miles south of the Scottish border. Berwick-upon-Tweed had a stormy past. Because of its proximity to the border between Scotland and England, Berwick changed hands more than 13 times between 1147 and 1482, when Edward IV finally claimed it for England. It did not become officially English until 1885. "Berwick," by the way, is pronounced in England as Bare-wick.

A number of years ago, I went to Berwick-upon-Tweed, arriving on the Fourth of July. I knew of some of their festivals--St. Cuthbert’s, the Riding of the Bounds (a horse ride around the boundaries of the Borough), St. Bede’s Festival, the Spittal Gala , the Seahouses Festival. When I arrived, I realized this was just the tip of the iceberg. St. Eadfrid has his day, there is the Greenses Gala, there is a feast in honor of Tweedmouth, and who can forget recreating life in Anglo-Saxon England done at St. Oswald's Festival. Actually, when I arrived the Borough was in the middle of the "Summer Fayre," and gaily colored booths were set up everywhere and vacationers were happy to enjoy the turbulent water of the North Sea. I had arrived from Scotland so the many colors of the Borough were a huge treat following the color gray which seemed to be the predominant color in Scotland's towns.

Jim Dolimpio, originally from Berwick, now living in Florida, brought me up to date on a major change talked about by the residents of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The walled seacoast town wants to return to Scottish control. The bottom line is that Berwick, because of its low average wages and high unemployment, wants more generous welfare and health-care benefits than England has to offer. In Scotland, residents get their university tuition fees paid, and they pay less for prescription drugs than the English do.

English separatism is being encouraged by the Scottish National Party. The Scottish National Party wants to secede from England altogether. The new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in Scotland says he might support a referendum on Scottish independence.

Tavish Scott, a member of the Scottish Parliament from the Shetland Islands, was just elected party leader according to The Scotsman. The Scottish National Party says the boundary would be easy to shift. The U.K. Parliament would find hard to turn down if Berwick voted to support it in a referendum.

Between the 13th and 17th centuries, the borders between the United Kingdom and England were practically lawless. This is the area where in 1305 Scottish rebel William "Braveheart" Wallace's arms were displayed in the town after his execution and quartering in London.  For a time, the town wasn't a part of either country.

Now if you hear that someone is "moving to Berwick," you'll know the "rest of the story" about its counterpart in England that may be moving to Scotland... 

 

August 28, 2008. It is the wedding anniversary of Harold and Jane Ackerman and Dan and Cathy Hartman.

A few days ago, an article in the Benton News reminisced about the joys of finding wild fruit along our rural roads and specifically mentioned elderberries, raspberries, choke cherries and the like. A reader, her daughter-in-law and her 14 month-old grandson took a walk last month on a rural road. They stopped to nibble on berries. A week and a couple of migraine headaches later, she noticed that the berry bushes and the brush along the road were turning brown and dying. It turns out that a spraying company had hosed DuPont's herbicide "Krenite® S" along the road, much as the linemen on the old Bloomsburg & Sullivan Railroad once sprayed along the railroad tracks each summer. 

Spraying is a necessary vegetation-management program to improve safety along a right-of-way, reduce the growth of weeds that promote allergies, reduce the spread of unwanted vegetation and reduce the potential of fires.

DuPont indicated they do "not recommend that humans eat wild berries that may have been treated by Krenite® S. However, laboratory tests with animals indicate there is a low potential for exposure due to the rapid degradation of the products on plants, its rapid elimination in animals and its infrequent application." The company did point out that the product could "cause temporary-eye irritation."

The vegetation-control company has agreed not spray the reader's land again, but refused to inform the public of spraying, saying that "it gets everyone too riled up." Proper disposal of unused chemical solution and containers is carefully documented by the manufacturer. "Containers are triple-rinsed or pressure-rinsed, punctured and disposed of at approved waste-disposal facilities.

The reader feels that the company regularly cleans out their sprayers along the road with vinegar. As she phrased it, "Somehow they think that makes it all right."  She continued, "As you can see I am very upset about this. I'm not really sure where to go with the info to make a difference, but have taken pictures and am considering sending it all to one of our state representatives."

Quickies...
    •  A few words often put things into perspective. Take, for example, the story of a doctor droning on about the food we put into our stomachs and the fact that so much of it is bad for us. Red meat is awful. Soft drinks corrode your stomach lining. Chinese food is loaded with MSG. High-fat diets can be disastrous and there is long-term harm in germs in our drinking water. The doctor paused, then asked the elderly man he was talking to if he knew what was the most dangerous food of all. The doctor said we've all had it or will have it. He continued, waiting for a response from the man. The food would cause pain and suffering for years after eating it, the doctor offered as an additional clue. The older man thought about it for a second, decided he knew what the doctor was referring to and softly responded, "wedding cake."

    •  The latest poll reveals 430 new demographics that will decide the presidential election.  Learn more by going to http://www.theonion.com/content/video/latest_poll_reveals_430_new/#/

    •  What a sense of patriotism! We hear that the Wal-Marts across Alabama are sold out of ammunition as of yesterday. A reliable source said that one of the purchasers commented that while Russia may have invaded Georgia, "they sure as hell ain't doin' it to Alabama."

    •  We finally find out what the cross-cuts in Camp Lavigne road are all about.  Thursday's Press Enterprise indicates that PennDot will begin a two-week drainage improvement program Tuesday with some road closures between 7:30 AM until about 3 PM.  Camp Lavigne road runs from Route 487 to Route 118.

Ruth Millicent (West) Dangler, a resident of Riverwoods Manor, Lewisburg, died Tuesday, August 26, at Riverwoods Nursing Center where she had been a patient for several weeks.  She was 88.

Ruth was born September 26, 1920, in West Windsor Township, New Jersey, to Walter and Jane (Neal) West. Ruth graduated from Hightstown High School in 1938 and worked as a secretary in a law office, a doctor’s office, and later for MONY Insurance in Berwick and Bloomsburg.  She was a member of the Eastern Star, Wayside (NJ) Methodist Church, and Town Hill (PA) Methodist Church.  She was a talented pianist and organist, playing for her churches for many year.  She was active in the Town Hill WSCS and volunteered for Huntington Valley Little League, Columbia County 4-H, and Northwest High School Band parents.

Ruth was a devoted wife and mother.  She is survived by her husband of 58 years, Wilton Dangler; four children, Jane Ackerman (Harold), Susan Stone, Deborah Moir, and Charles Dangler; seven grandchildren, Eric and Christopher Ackerman, Sara and Benjamin Stone, Michael Moir Jr. and Jaime Moir, and Angela Dangler; and two great-great grandchildren, Logan Ackerman and Clayton Ackerman.  In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by three brothers, Ray, Edward, and John West; a sister, Joan Walker; and her first husband, Theodore Archer. Funeral services will be held Tuesay at 3 PM in the Town Hill United Methodist Church. Friends may call at the church on Tuesday after 2 PM.  Burial will be in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Orangeville, PA.

 

August 27, 2008. The Benton News was not published Tuesday, August 26, and was published on a delayed, shortened basis August 27, 2008. A third of the staff is in Washington, D.C. and haven't even looked at a computer. The other two-thirds of the staff are Back Home in Benton, PA, barking up the wrong tree...

It is the birthday of Lee Fritz and mother and daughter Faith and Regina Schlichter. These fine people share their birthdays with the Chinese philosopher Confucius. According to Mother, Confucius said a lot of things that I don't think the man ever thought about, but he did instruct his followers to love others, to honor one's parents, to lead by example, and to treat others as they would like to be treated.

Quickies...
    • The Little League World Series Sunday pitted Japan against South Lake Charles, Louisiana. Japan won and captured third place by edging Lake Charles 4-3 in the consolation game. So what did the Lake Charles team decide to do after achieving the honor of playing in the World Series? They chose to come to Ricketts Glen State Park. We are happy they did.

    • A new Jib-Jab is available on the upcoming election: www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.htm

    • The Agricultural Research Service, a scientific arm of the United States Department of Agriculture, has come up with "green" technology which could lead to production of hydrogen from nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Hydrogen does not produce pollutants or greenhouse gases, unlike fossil fuels of coal, oil and natural gas. The invention holds promise as a source of hydrogen for use in fuel-cell technology. Fuel-cell devices combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and water, and are considered efficient, quiet and pollution-free. Fuel cells are now being tested in a range of products, including automobiles whose only emission is water vapor. Expect to read more about this in coming days.

    • Evacuations of offshore oil and gas rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico have begun in preparation for the Katrina-like Hurricane Gustav which may become the strongest storm to hit the region in almost three years. At this writing, based on ABC television coverage, the storm looks a lot like Hurricane Katrina, which formed over the Bahamas on Aug. 23, 2005, making landfall in southeast Louisiana on August 29.

Advocates of clean fossil fuel are ecstatic at the potential of the Marcellus Shale (gas) fields of our area, but "one person's feast is another person's famine." With the prospect of rapidly increasing drilling--therefore potentially allowing lower prices for the consumer and an increased competitiveness for American business--comes the realization that natural gas prices have fallen rapidly since July--the "hopefully" short-term consequences of Gustav not withstanding. (Natural gas prices are rising today amid speculation Hurricane Gustav will slash through the Gulf of Mexico, paring output from production platforms.) The bottom line is that what is good for the American consumer might not be exactly the best for local landowners hoping to wrestle the last dime out of drillers.

Natural gas for September delivery is about $8.293 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down from $13.577 on July 3, but up from this day in 2007 when gas closed at $5.523 per million Btu.

At the national level, legislation has been introduced which would give more tax credits to producers and consumers of natural gas and mandate the installation of natural-gas pumps in some service stations.

Domestic gas production was up 8.8% in the first five months of this year according to the New York Times compared with the period a year earlier, a rate of increase last seen in 1959 during the drilling boom that followed World War II. Gas production domestically runs counter to domestic oil production, which has been on the decline since 1970.

Benton Foundry in the year 2000 took delivery of the first DISA Match 130 machine, which was manufactured in Denmark. This was a machine that was developed over a two-year period with the input of Benton employees. The machine produced a 20 x 24 mold size at the rate of 170/hour, and was designed strictly for the jobbing market. There are currently over 30 machines of this type world wide.

On Friday, August 15, 2008, Benton again took first delivery of a new DISA 28 x 32, which will be in operation in the fourth quarter of 2008. This new machine will handle castings up to 300 pounds at a rate of approximately 125/hour. With this machine in operation, the molding capacity will now balance the plant's melting capacity at 300 tons/day. Also, by March 31, 2009, Benton will install state-of-the-art new pollution equipment to comply with all current standards. Go here to see a video of the equipment arrival.

August 25, 2008. It is the birthday of Brandy McHenry and the wedding anniversary of Herbert and Jane Fritz.

The Millville Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is preparing for an anniversary. The church will celebrate a hundred years of Christian worship and service in commemoration of its incorporation September 8, 1908. The full names of the charter members may be unknown to many readers, but their names--Heacock, Kisner, Buck, Parker, Stadlere, Montague, Reese, Lee, Watts, and Holdren--still dot the countryside around the Borough of Millville.

The church building was constructed in 1880 as a Union Church for use by all religious bodies in Millville. The Union Church (meaning it was an interdenominational church bringing together worshipers of different denominational backgrounds) was known as the "Free Church." This is an early picture of the "Free Church."

In 1926, the church was remodeled to include five Bible-school class rooms and an auditorium. Over the years, new pews, a pulpit and an organ were purchased and became part of the church. In 1948, the a kitchen and dining room were added to the basement. Additional remodeling has continued through the years.

	The Church congregation on Heritage Sunday, October 22, 2006.

Among those celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the Millville Christian Church is Mitchell Curtis Watts, 10, whose great-great-great-grandmother, Lydia E. (Reed) Watts, was a charter member. Lydia and her daughter, Emma J. Watts, were among nineteen signers of the incorporation papers on September 8, 1908.

Mitchell is holding a copy of the New Testament the church gave his grandfather, Harry Watts, when he was baptized in 1941 by the late Rev. G. Lee Lunger

Mitchell represents the sixth consecutive generation of his family as members of the Millville Christian Church. He and his parents, Bradley and Tina Watts, and grandparents, Harry and Mildred Watts, live in Millville. At rest in the Millville Cemetery are Mitchell’s great-grandparents, C. Edgar and Mabel Watts, his great-great-grandparents, Thomas J. and Susan Watts, and his great-great-great-grandparents, Elias and Lydia E. Watts.

Thomas J. Watts, also known as T. J. Watts, served many years as the janitor, an elder and a deacon of the church and C. Edgar Watts was a deacon for many years, he was also a trustee and at one time was the Bible School Secretary. Mabel Watts served her church as a long-time Sunday School Teacher.

Lydia Effie Reed was born in 1843 near Lairdsville, PA, to John Frederick Reed and his wife, Elizabeth Whitmire. Lydia and Elias Watts raised their family of six children in Pine Township, Columbia County. After Elias’ death in 1900, Lydia and her daughter, Emma, lived on Center Street in Millville. Lydia was 65 years old when she became a charter member of the Millville Christian Church. She died July 22, 1925 in Millville.

It is with pride and thanksgiving that the Watts family joins their church family in the centennial celebration of the Millville Christian Church.

In celebration of its 100 years of service as the Millville Christian Church, an ice cream social will be held Friday, September 12, 2008, from 4:30 to 8 PM, which includes a free show featuring the Greenwood Valley Boys.

		On Sunday, September 14, at 3 PM, there will be a celebration service and reception. The public is invited.
--Thanks to Harry Watts for the photographs used in this article.

W. Rollin Young (August 4, 1919-August 21, 2008), Leesburg, Florida, a former dairyman for the late Alvin Sutliff, died Thursday. He was 89.  Born in Talmar, he attended local schools and graduated from the Benton Schools with the Class of 1936.  He continued his education at Penn State University earning a B.S. degree in Dairy Husbandry. He worked 43 years as a fieldman for Carnation Company in Cambridge Springs, PA; Corry, PA; Cameron, West Virginia; Clarksburg, West Virginia and South Dayton, NY. He retired in 1984 and moved to Statesville, NC, then to Leesburg in 1999. He was an active member of the United Methodist Church since 1937 in the Wesley Foundation. He married  Jean (Kerr) August 4, 1943. 

He is survived by his widow, Jean, two sons, Wendell (Bernice) Young of Villa Park, CA, and Roger (Winifred) Young, Florissant, MO; two daughters, Marcia (Richard) Fletcher, Sahuarita, Arizona, and Melanie (Alfred) Priest, Florissant, MO; one brother, Gordon Young,  Benton; one sister, Gertrude Fox, Linglestown; nine grandchildren, Angela Simoneau, Victoria Young, Dennis and Kristen Young, Constance, Andrew, Justin and Stacy Priest; and two great-grandchildren, Shane and Luke Young. Funeral services will be held at Morrison United Methodist Church on Monday, August 25, 2008, at 11 AM, with visitation preceding. Interment will be at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens, Leesburg, Florida.  Arrangements are from the Beyers Funeral Home and Crematory, Leesburg.

 

August 24, 2008. It is the birthday of Elaine Taylor Hartman, Pat Thomas and Mary Ann Hartman Hoffman. It is the wedding anniversary of Dale and Anna May Brandon.

The best fruit in the world grows helter-skelter along the rural roads, in the thick wild grass or hidden in the straggling underbrush along a country road. The wild strawberries come in June, followed by gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries, mulberries and wild currents in July. Near the beginning of September comes the grape, wild crabapple, cherry and the elderberry. The cranberry, in those areas when it grows, comes after the first frost. There is a lot to say about finding wild berries. Wild berries differ from the same variety found in markets. Wild berries don't cost anything. They seem to have more juice, but need to be carefully handled.

Yesterday I mentioned that we are on the downside of the huckleberry season, but neglected to mention that elderberries are also ripe. I omitted this fact, since elderberries are in short supply and much sought after by the few people who recognize the value of elderberries. Ruth Frey didn't let me get away with it, however. Ruth told about an experience she once had while picking elderberries. She finished picking but came home crying. Her "gram" brushed off her knee, kissed it and told Ruth to pick herself up by her "boot straps, hold your head high and carry on Child." Ruth and all mothers know how amazing "a loving kiss" restores "a child's scrape."

When you pick elderberries, "pick them clean." Do your picking-over when gathering the berries in the field by picking only fruit and leave the hulls still intact on the stems. This may sound difficult, but after all it is the easiest method, as a ripe berry drops from its plant very readily. Don't let twigs, grass, bugs or other debris in the berry pail, or their weight will crush the berries.

Here is a recipe for elderberry wine from 1911. Take eight quarts of elderberries and pour over them four quarts of boiling water. Let stand twelve hours and then strain well, pouring out all the juice. Add to each four quarts of juice, three pounds of sugar, one ounce of powdered cinnamon and one-half ounce of powdered cloves. Then boil five minutes and set away to ferment in a stone jar with a cloth thrown lightly over it. When it is done fermenting, rack it off carefully. Bottle and cork well.

Making elderberry wine has its downside. On August 14, 1908, the Wilkes-Barre Times reported that an 18-month old girl in Altoona pulled over a kettle of boiling elderberry jelly and was "frightfully scalded."

In August 1921, forty barrels of elderberry wine were the only effective fire extinguisher when a blaze on a Pennsylvania farm destroyed a barn and outbuildings valued at $10,000. Water was poured on the burning buildings to no avail, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, although a bucket brigade worked strenuously for six hours. The flames had ignited a house on the farm, but it wasn't long until the available water gave out. Soon the bucket brigade was transferring elderberry wine to the burning roof until the forty barrels were exhausted.

A tongue -in-cheek article appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer in a July 1901 article. A father asked his son if his country cousins had treated him cordially during his visit. The answer, quoted as follows, was: "Do they? Say, the minute I got there they make me take some elderberry cordial as a fatigue destroyer, then I have to drink some peppermint cordial for fear the water won't agree with me. Next day they insist that I absorb some snakeroot cordial, to ward off possible chills and fever, and then I have to gulp down some liverwort cordial for the good of my system generally. Do they treat me cordially? By Jove, there's plenty of cordiality. I can taste it for months after."

Each age has its color. In 1892, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "elderberry green" was an exquisite evening shade.

Down below th' old gristmill,
Wher' th' crick is deep an' still;
Ther's wher' elderberries grow,
Glis'nin' in th' sunshine's glow-
Purple bunches weightin' down
Bushes tel they touch th' groun'-
Jis a-waiting' ther', I vum,
To be cut off an' tuk hum!

Hain't no fault t' find with what
Kind o' taste must folks has got,
When it cums t' kind o' pie,
Nachurily jis takes their eye;
But fer me a pie that's prime-
Summer munths er winter time--
Pie I'd eet an' eeting', die,
Wu'd be elderberry pie.

Haint no elderberries grow,
Ennywhere, fur es I know,
Thet fer flavor beats th' wuns
Down by whar' th' old crick runs-
Hangin' like a purple stain,
Kiss'd by sunshine--wash'd by rain-
Down below th' old gristmill,
Wher' th' worter's deep an still.
-- Ohio State Journal, October 1900

Didja know that the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center provides free wireless high-speed internet service for members?

Whenever a person walks into the entrance foyer of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, they stare in amazement at the wonderful painting which gives a panorama of the northern Fishing Creek area. It is as simple as a Norman Rockwell or a Wallace Nutting, yet it is one of the largest paintings you will ever see..

The artist who realistically captured the local area in this massive mural is Diane Derr, 59, a resident of Bloomsburg. Diane is a member of the North Mountain Art League which makes its home in the Community Center. She was recommended to the Center's Board of Directors by Dr. Ken Wilson, a former head of the art department at Bloomsburg University where Diane, a "non-traditional student," received her Master's Degree in 1985.

Diane's work is also visible at Russell's Restaurant, Town Perk, Balzanos Corner Gatherings, St. Luke's Church in Lightstreet, the children's museum in Bloomsburg and many local homes in the area.

Diane's background includes a ten-year period in the 1970s when she lived on Upper Raven Creek Road, Benton, next to "the Smith farm." Diane is married to William D. Derr II and the couple have three children, all "creatively minded" and three grandchildren, also creative.

The mural is a simple view of the upper Fishingcreek valley as viewed as though someone was riding a helicopter slightly south of the Orangeville area and turned his/her attention to the north. Pictures were used for reference and an original sketch was created of what the mural would eventually look like. Diane moved to the production phase of locating on the imposing wall exact locations for communities of the area and marking out the boundaries of each scene of the 14' by 45' mural. The mural is "a generalized overview of the area as viewed in the 1800s extending from Pine Summit to the west to Shickshinny to the east.

The northern Fishing Creek community will long be indebted to Diane Derr for her substantial contribution to the visual history of our area.

 

August 23, 2008. It is the birthday of Travis Kline and Brass Pelican Waitress First Class Becky Westover Stahler. It is the 50th wedding anniversary of Lee and Carolyn Remley.

The Benton News was a tad short today as a result of our hobnobbing with nature by doing things like gobbling down huge quantities of wild berries. The huckleberries, although admittedly waning toward the end of summer, are simply wonderful. They are sweet and large, easy to pick.

When I "was a grown' up," my fingers and my lips were always covered with the berry-stained juice of freshly-picked huckleberries at this time of the year. I knew about huckleberries--an old fashioned way of saying hurtleberry--long before I heard about Mark Twain's famous character of the same name and long before someone starting calling former classmate Tom Shaw by that nickname. The misnamed huckleberry isn't really a berry; it is a fruit with a hard pit (which makes it a "drupe." Many people simply call them a wild blueberry, but their skin is tougher and their flavor is stronger than a blueberry.

Although I picked the berries on North Mountain on orders from my parents so our family could have dessert of milk and huckleberries and something Mother called "Huckleberry cake," not all that many berries made it to my pickin' bucket. I would never have worked out with the professional berry pickers of our local past. In 1912, for example, there was such a demand for huckleberries in the big cities of the East that record-breaking shipments from the picking fields were made. The Philadelphia Inquirer of July 4, 1912, reported that the women of McAdoo went on strike and refused to pick any more berries for sale when the price paid was reduced to 7 cents a quart. In some years prior to 1912, trains out of Hazleton were delayed while all the picked huckleberries could be loaded on trains to the big cities.

In 1922, serious fires in the mountains during the month of May equated to thousands in additional revenue for berry pickers. Whenever the scrub trees and the pines burned, the huckleberry bushes grow profusely. In the years when there was a scarcity of forest fires, the huckleberry bushes did not thrive.

The Philadelphia Inquirer estimated that $250,000 in wages was paid during 1921 for picking huckleberries in the Hazleton area. The newspaper reported that because so many miners had been laid off, there would be lots of pickers because both the miners and their wives would be operating as berry pickers. Many girls used the money they made picking huckleberries to buy a new dress which they displayed in public for the first time in September.

I found a 1907 Wilkes-Barre newspaper reference that said "it is a smart girl that can pick huckleberries very rapidly, yet a good many maids manage to gather a dollar's worth of them a day." One girl claimed that she picked and sold $12 worth of the berries in one week.

The berries I pick generally go directly into my mouth. When Mother laid down the law, I was to return with a quart of berries, of which a cup and a half would be used to make Huckleberry Cake. I found the recipe in a 1907 cookbook from the family, with the notation that the recipe was as much a component part of breakfast as beans were on Saturday nights.

To make the recipe, Mother would "pick-over" one and a quarter cups of huckleberries, wash, dry and dredge them with flour or butter and one-half cupful of sugar. She then added to it the beaten yolk of one egg and one cupful of milk. She stirred into it a mixture of two cupfuls of flour, one-half teaspoonful of salt and two even teaspoonfuls of baking powder, then folded in the stiffly beaten white of the egg and added the berries last, being careful not to break them. The mixture was baked in muffin tins or in shallow pans for half an hour and served hot. The recipe did not specify a temperature, but is actually more accurate than many of Mother's recipes; i.e., it doesn't say things like, "add flour," without specifying the amount. Her recipes rarely said how many of anything the recipe would make or how long something should be baked.

It is nearly the end of the summer and time to don your pickin' boots and take to the fields and North Mountain to gather the berries. You probably need the exercise, you'll certainly see some wild critters and--hey--what is this time of year without a purple-stained set of fingers?

Didja ever notice how our well-crafted thoughts turn to mush when we attempt to put them into words?

Term of the day:
"Hobnob."
Before 1800, there were two terms, "hob" and "nob," with virtually the same meaning--both simply meant an invitation to have a glass of beer. The person receiving the invitation could have it warm (meaning room temperature) or cold. Warm beer was called "hob," when beer was warmed in the winter on the kitchen grate called the "hob." A small table on which cold beer was placed was known as a "nob." The question would be asked--"hob or nob," meaning do you want your beer warm or cold? If you accepted the invitation for a drink, it meant that you would have a drink with the person who asked you to join them in a drink and a certain bonding or intimacy would develop. Hob or nob, which later blended into a single word "hobnob," means familiarity and intimacy, even if you don't drink beer...

 

 

August 22, 2008. It is the birthday of Lindsey Keller Harvey and the wedding anniversary of Lynn and Ken Dressler. We note the passing of Rollin Young. Additional information to follow. Please put Donna Hayman Fritz on your prayer list. Donna is now being assisted by the local Hospice.

For the next week, all deliveries of the Benton News in all forms will be made only when I find an internet connection--which is another way of saying that I am going camping without turning on the cell phone.

If you have an interest in having the state of Pennsylvania make its older state death certificates more accessible and available online, head over to http://users.rcn.com/timarg/PaHR-Access.htm.

On the third Monday in September, Stephen A. Runkle will speak to the North Mountain Historical Society at the Brass Pelican Restaurant, Elk Grove, beginning at 9 AM. The program is free and open to the public. Steve is a retired Hydraulic Engineer and Engineering Supervisor formerly with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. He also has served as an independent contractor with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission in the field of water resources engineering. He has a keen interest in local history, the civil war, area canals, coal mining, and Indian tribes that once lived in the Susquehanna Basin. He is here as a volunteer with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission’s Public Information and Outreach Program to discuss Native American Life in the Susquehanna River Basin Region.

Steve's presentation provides an overview of Native Americans and their life in the Susquehanna River basin region during the 17th and 18th Centuries. The various tribes that inhabited the Region are discussed. The presentation reviews Native American physical appearance, dress, dwellings, travel, occupations, hunting and fishing techniques, warfare, government, religion, medicine, and amusements. An audio recording of Iroquois songs is played as an introduction to this presentation. We will request that Steve's presentation include a hands-on display of wildlife furs and war clubs used by the region’s Eastern Woodland Native Americans.


The annual meeting of the Sullivan County Historical Society took place Thursday night at the Forksville United Methodist Church with about 80 attending. Speakers were Pete Tomasak and Richard Sauers, both experts on Civil War history. The discussion was of The Fishing Creek Confederacy.

Richard A. Sauers, Ph.D., has written numerous books on the Civil War, including Gettysburg: The Meade-Sickles Controversy (Brassey’s, Inc., 2003), Advance the Colors! Pennsylvania Civil War Battleflags, The Civil War Journal of Colonel William J. Bolton, and How to Do Civil War Research. The Benton Area school library recently donated "Advance the Colors! Pennsylvania Civil War Battleflags to the library at The Center, so it is available to anyone interested in reading it. Dr. Sauers is the Executive Director of the Packwood House Museum, 15 North Water Street, Lewisburg.

Pete wrote about Mountain Springs Lake in a book known as The White Gold of Mountain Springs. This book is no longer in print and is almost impossible to find. Ricketts' Battery was written by Peter Tomasak and Dr. Sauers. The book provided a history of the Battery, its members and its leaders from its 1861 recruitment until its final mustering out in 1865. The Battery under the command of Robert Bruce Ricketts participated in the battles of Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville and many other Civil War engagements. Much of the research for the subject of the resistance in the Fishing Creek valley toward President Lincoln's policies began during the writing of this book.

Pete Tomasak told of reading two articles in a publication known as The Historic Hodge-Podge, written by Myrtle Magargel, one of which was based on stories told by a man by the name of Jim Edgar. The author of the article suggested that the troops should have looked up "Muncy Creek as far as Long Brook" high in the mountains of Sullivan County along the banks of “Deserter’s Run." Speaker Tomasak told of finding the remains of a former Sullivan County encampment which matched the description provided by Jim Edgar. He was accompanied on the trip by a reporter for the Sullivan Review, by Dr. Shoemaker, the publisher of the Sullivan Review and by Pete's grandson.

Pete described the walls of the fort, and pulled out square-cut nails he found in the ground at the foundation level of the building. Again, from the Historic Hodge-Podge comes this: "The fort was no figment of imagination. It was a rude block house built by the occupants themselves. It measured about 400 square feet, had two stories, a roof of bark laid shingle-wise, door of poles, fireplace of stone and table and seats of hand hewn logs. Fifty men could be quartered there in a pinch. It was headquarters for disloyal men from Sullivan, Luzerne and Columbia counties."

The basis for looking for the "fort" came from the Hodge-Podge publication: "Federal authorities having heard that a large number of draft dodgers had gone into hiding in the wilds of Fishing Creek and built a fortification, a thousand Federal Soldiers were hurriedly sent to the area to crush this confederacy. In an old diary a member of the force wrote. "Well do we remember the heroic charge on the supposed battlements after a fortnight's preparation. Vivid is the picture of disgusted countenance as we reached the summit where we believed the Fishing Creek Army was massed and found not a man nor evidence that a man had ever been there. No such thing as the Confederacy to resist the U.S. government ever existed in Columbia County." Had they looked on the other side of the mountain they would have found what they sought.

Peter wrote The Life & Times of Robert Bruce Ricketts. Ricketts and the history of North Mountain is a popular place for Pete to spend his time. Pete has been researching this project since 1985. Peter's newest book, In Command of Time Elapsed--The Life and Times of Robert Bruce Ricketts is an excellent book about Ricketts.

When we get the time, we'll tell you more about the Forksville meeting Thursday evening.

 

August 21, 2008. It is the wedding anniversary of Ken and Lynn Dressler.

Quickies...
• The current Art Exhibit at the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center runs through September. Visit the Library/Museum at The Center to view the paintings of the students who attended the Center’s June 2008 Watercolor Class. Come also to enjoy reproductions of the artwork of William "Bill" Strausser. For further information call the Center at 925-0163.

• A glossary of terms for gas drilling can be found here.

• I know that it would be easy to not understand what is meant in this paragraph, but please give it a try. You might end up wanting to bookmark this website. The public can easily track the Pennsylvania environmental facility compliance tracking system by heading to www.dep.state.pa.us/efacts/search.asp?varSearchType=cty. You'll be able to search for individual authorizations www.dep.state.pa.us/efacts/search.asp?varSearchType=auth, clients <www.dep.state.pa.us/efacts/search.asp?varSearchType=clnt>, sites <www.dep.state.pa.us/efacts/search.asp?varSearchType=site> and facilities <www.dep.state.pa.us/efacts/search.asp?varSearchType=fac>. Users can also search the database for inspections <www.dep.state.pa.us/efacts/search.asp?varSearchType=insps>, pollution prevention visits <www.dep.state.pa.us/efacts/search.asp?varSearchType=plpv>, viewing inspection results data, including enforcement data when violations are noted. There is also a name search <www.dep.state.pa.us/efacts/search.asp?varSearchType=name> to search the database by company name. The Department of Environmental Protection "believes bringing individuals, businesses and local governments into compliance with environmental requirements is our first obligation and that compliance reporting should become a fundamental part of all environmental protection programs."

•  Take the time to read A Toxic Spew about the impact of "fracking" oil and gas in the current edition of Newsweek Magazine.  You can read it on-line by heading to www.newsweek.com/id/154394.

• A free financial/tax seminar is offered Tuesday, August 26, at the Raven Creek Community Center at 7 PM. Topics that will be covered include income taxes, the impact of rental and royalty payments on your tax liabilities, calculating your estimated tax payments, and payment of the estimated tax payments. There will be a segment on how to structure your assets so additional taxes will not have to be paid on those assets. Michael Hoydis, CITP, 803 Upper Raven Creek Road is the host. He will also cover setting up a system to insure future family financial stability. There will be a Question and Answer Session. Call 732 758-1233 by Thursday, August 21, for more information or reservations.

• Close to Home is the appropriate title of a section of a local web site that is truly a "Joy in the Morning" or at any time of the day. The Web Site is a product of Christian Growth Ministries, Inc. under the able guidance of Dottie and Jim Moore. The emphasis is to see the world "Close to Home," just outside of your front door or in your own back yard. Take a look at the current offering at http://www.joyinthemorningetc.com/close-to-home.html. Enjoy the photography of the delicate flutter of a butterfly’s wings as it feasts with the bees on the colorful flowers or a male turkey in full regalia as he struts his "stuff" in order to impress his lady friend. Take a stroll around the website and see what else is there.

• AirTran Airways will begin new daily nonstop service between Harrisburg International Airport (MDT) and Orlando International Airport (MCO) on Thursday, November 20, 2008. The route will be served by AirTran Airways’ Boeing 717-200 aircraft, which seats 117 passengers (12 in Business Class and 105 in coach). Nonstop flights between Harrisburg and Orlando, effective November 20, 2008:

From To Flight Departs Arrives Frequency
Harrisburg (MDT) Orlando (MCO) 1002 12:02 p.m. 2:35 p.m. Daily
Orlando (MCO) Harrisburg (MDT) 1001 9:00 a.m. 11:26 a.m. Daily

What has been taking place in China during the past week and a half has been a far cry from the ancient Greek Olympics. The Greek Olympics ran for five days and nights every four years from 776 BC until the Christian emperors banned pagan festivals in AD 394. You counted correctly! That represents twelve hundred years that Olympic games were held in Greece. In that entire period, there probably was never an athlete who accomplished what American swimmer Michael Phelps achieved--a record eight gold medals in a single Olympics. There was erratic judging involving Chinese gymnasts against American gymnasts, negativity about the ages of some of China’s female athletes, but what Phelps did in the pool is indisputable. Each and every time Phelps swam, there was an undeniable winner. Winning an Olympic gold over competing in the true spirit of the game appeared to be the Chinese motivation.

But, now back to those twelve hundred years. The athletes during those years were unclothed and unadorned. Competing in the buff was the time-honored tradition of ancient Greek athletics.

We still have some of the events from back then--running, wrestling, boxing, javelin and discus. Some traditional events are no longer with us--the opening of the chariot race with an estimated forty vehicles on the track. The pankration is gone (this was a martial arts sport, which was a blend of boxing and wrestling, a no-holds-barred free-for-all, where only eye-gouging was off limits. Fingers would be snapped off, intestines ripped out, and strangling was permitted.)

Individuals had to do their best, because there were no team sports. There were no sports using a ball, no swimming events, no marathon, and no Olympic torch. All contestants were professionals and all did it for the money. The games were filled with corruption. The champions were treated as royalty, just as Phelps Phever is sweeping today's world.

I have read where a hundred oxen were butchered for food for the participants and the spectators. And if anyone got bored, remember it simply meant that they would take a hike to see things like the forty-foot-high statue of Zeus--after all, that was one of the seven wonders of the world.

 

August 20, 2008. It is the 15th birthday of Lacey McCourt and the wedding anniversary of Gary and Carolyn Beach. On this day in 1866, President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over.

Andy Borowitz writes that Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del) is so confident that he will be the running mate of Barack Obama that he has begun preparing a 50,000 word acceptance speech. The speech will be an abridged version of a 200,000 word acceptance speech that Mr. Biden wrote when he ran for President in 1988.

It isn't often that I lean back in my red chair and prop my feet up to watch television. I normally am oblivious to the happenings of the world and ignore local television news--the barn burnings, the tragic accidents, the despair that surrounds us. My "negative" switch turns off easily!

Last night I had a little time and turned on the boob tube. Within seconds, a political advertisement for one side appeared on the screen, and in the same one minute time-out from the program I was watching an advertisement for the other side was broadcast. Mother might have called both of the men "shysters." Father would simply have uttered a word that meant "nonsense," a word rarely heard any more. No, it wasn't "baloney," "blarney," bunk," or any of the other "B" words--some of which we won't use here. Father might have emphatically said "horse feathers," but the word that I think I would have heard him say was "balderdash." The term originally, according to the writings of Ben Jonson in The New Inn indicated the word meant a combination of beer and buttermilk, a mixture of liquids. It came down through the years until it meant a mixture of words and ideas. The emphatic "Balderdash!" of a century ago was transformed into the current "Bull----" of the 1930s and subsequent. If you see the word "balderdash" on these pages in the future, remember to read one thing and know I meant something stronger...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts farmers will harvest 12.3 billion bushels of corn this fall, down from 13.1 billion bushels in 2007. Still, it would be wise to keep in mind that it takes more energy to produce a gallon of corn ethanol than we get out of it. We have succeeded in reaching new highs in food prices. We created an area in the Gulf of Mexico where marine life can't live because of fertilizer run-off from recent storms. We have dammed rivers with hydroelectric projects and threatened the extinction of shad and salmon. We position wind farms on our highest and windiest peaks and we desperately hope that taking natural gas out of shale from more than a mile beneath us will make us all economically stable. As long as we are on a negative bent, we should also note that we will have to do significant timbering and road building to get the natural gas to a pipeline. And what about contaminating the millions of gallons of water it will take to frack a gas well? Where is that water going to come from and where is it going to go? There are simply more questions to the energy problem than there are answers...

Methane gas, a primary component of natural gas, has long been associated with coal formations. So what, you say, we don't have coal formations locally! (Coal-gas methane would be more prevalent near North Mountain) Even coal-bed methane maps don't show it in our area. Read on. Just give me a minute. If you have signed a natural gas lease you agreed that drillers have the right to drill for coal-bed methane. The drilling for natural gas and for coal-bed methane have similarities, but actually are miles apart in more ways than one.

Getting methane gas out of coal formations hasn't been economically feasible because of the cost of drilling deep wells and doing something with scads of ground water. But with the market value for cleaner-burning natural gas, with improved technology, with finding large coal formations, and with Federal tax credits for coal-bed methane development, a renewed emphasis is taking place even in our local area which is not coal-rich.

Landowners signing leases for natural-gas drilling are finding that a "hard point" with drillers is coal-bed methane which would be harvested locally through high-pressure injection of "fracing fluids" into subterranean-coal seams. This process fractures the seam so underground water can be pumped out and free-up gas formerly trapped in the seam. The gas is then collected on the surface. Understand that coal-bed methane would be fraced and collected relatively near the surface, while natural gas would be extracted from very deep in the earth. Don't forget--contracts you sign for gas drilling will insist that drillers have the right to drill for coal-bed methane.

The Halliburton Company pioneered hydraulic fracturing technology. The Los Angeles Times identified the original Halliburton fracing fluids as a mixture of napalm, gasoline, crude oil and sand. The undisclosed formula has certainly changed today, but diesel fuel is commonly thought to be mixed with water and sand. (Sand in either the gas or coal-gas drilling sticks in the fractures, keeping them open so gas will flow.) EPA investigators in Durango, Colorado, are said to have isolated benzene, naphthalene and fluorines in the fluids. These chemicals would logically enter groundwater following the fracing procedure of coal-gas methane, obtained relatively near the surface compared with the depths for natural gas in the Marcellus shale.

The Federal Government holds that there is no threat to drinking water supplies. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub.L. 109-058) specifically exempted hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The act treats the salty, mineral-laden fluids being pumped to free methane trapped in coal seams as nonpolluting and exempt from regulation under the Clean Water Act. These fluids can be dumped into waste pits or simply poured into rivers and streams. Energy development has been exempted from some provisions of the Clean Water Act. 

In the production of coal-bed methane in the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming, an estimated 4 trillion gallons of water will be pumped from coal seams. Wyoming methane drillers have dumped these fluids into the north-flowing Tongue and Powder rivers. When the water reaches Montana, it is used as irrigation water for agriculture production.

"Hydraulic fracturing of coal-bed methane wells is likely to release toxic and carcinogenic chemicals."
--Natural Resources Defense Council

Hydraulic fracturing is not a new term on the pages of the Benton News. In case you have been watching the Olympics every waking moment and missed the news, hydraulic fracturing consists of water containing specialty high-viscosity fluid additives injected under high pressure. The pressure is greater than the strength of the shale and the fluid opens or enlarges fractures in the rock. These man-made fractures extend from the injection well for several hundred feet. After the formation is fraced, a "propping agent" of sand in high-viscosity additives is pumped into the fractures to keep them from closing when the pumping pressure is released.

Drilling for coal-bed methane uses vertical wells, but requires more wells than drilling for natural gas, which means more surface is used for gas wells, and more risk of groundwater pollution occurs with every well drilled.

Read more about the potential and concerns for coal-bed methane by going here.

August 19, 2008. It is the birthday of Joann Heimbach, Betty McCahan, Connie Shaffer, and Ed Cole. Also celebrating birthdays today are former President Clinton, Tipper Gore and Ogden Nash. Ogden Nash is the man who wrote "Candy is Dandy but Liquor is Quicker" and wrote The Bad Parents' Garden of Verse.

Construction begins today on the biomass furnace enclosure at the Benton Area Schools. The furnace will burn corn, wood and grass instead of oil.

Eric Fricke had a busy summer, but now it is off to school. He installed his organ in the Benton Christian Church and provided wonderful music for many occasions. He participated for three days in the American Theater Organ Society Convention in Indianapolis, as part of the Young Theater Organist Competition. He attended the Pipe Organ Encounter Advanced in Lincoln, Nebraska, in which he got to play "a two-manual Kilgen tracker from 1871 and the large Schoenstein at First Plymouth Church."

Last Saturday, Eric attended the once-in-a-lifetime organ event at Radio City Music Hall. Eric said that "Unfortunately, the organ is in sad shape." A man by the name of Colonel Jack Moelmann spent about $120,000 to rent the Music Hall and then invited some of the top theater organists in the world to play a program with him. While in New York, he heard one of New York's newest organs, the Marshall and Ogletree at Middle Collegiate Church, where Cameron Carpenter is the organist. Eric had a piano lesson with Miles Fusco, one of the great piano teachers in the world . He got two days at New Jersey's Pt. Pleasant Beach playing some of the local theater organs (including the Wonder Morton at Loew's Jersey City) and exploring the boardwalk.

Eric heads to his new high school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Wednesday. He has been invited to lunch Thursday with Pier and Beth Holcombe. Monday is registration day at the North Carolina School of the Arts and classes start on Tuesday. His roommate is a guitarist! For those who would like to drop Eric Fricke an occasional "do your best" card, his address after Monday of next week will be NCSA Box 437, 1533 South Main Street, Winston-Salem, NC. 27127-2188

It is fun to dig around in old newspapers to see what pops up. For example, here are some local items making news in the edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer of this date in 1909.
• "Berwick.--Hungarians today became prosecutors of Mike Ewinetskie on the charge of adultery. His fellow countrymen learned that his family in the old country were starving while he was living in comfort here with another woman. He was sent to jail."

• "Jamison City.--After a lengthy period of idleness the central Pennsylvania Lumber Company has renewed operations at Jamison City, Columbia County, and is now cutting 70,000 feet of lumber a day."

• "Berwick.--'Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man' is the scriptural verse which greets everyone who enters the office of Tax Collector George Unangst. His predecessor, John R. Sutton, is now a defaulter, with detectives hunting him throughout the West."

Another article caught my eye, from the same year but in the winter.  "While thawing water pipes at his home near Hazleton, Franklin Firedbanner, aged 62, was stricken with apoplexy and died in a few minutes." I turned to Wikipedia, the free internet encyclopedia. From that source I found that "Apoplexy" is an old-fashioned medical term, which can be used to mean 'bleeding." The word derives from the Greek word for 'seizure,' in the sense of being struck down."

That was not the impression of what apoplexy was all about from my discussions with Father many, many years ago. I decided to go back--way back--to see how it was described years ago. My first stop was in a publication dated September 15, 1869, known as the Deseret News, Utah's oldest continually published daily newspaper. In a style often used in that time period, the author of the article was simply listed as a "well-known medical author." No name was given.

The description was astonishing! It read, in part, "The exciting causes of apoplexy"--and I have to stop there. What in thunder could be "exciting" about a problem with something that has the dire name of "apoplexy?" Sorry for the delay in the story, but things aren't heading quite right here! I'll start the quote again. "The exciting causes of apoplexy and, indeed, of all diseases, are such incidents, punctualities, etc. as suddenly to disturb the circulation. so as to induce the proximate cause or condition, which, as I have already explained, is congestion of blood in the brain." Well--there you have it! I haven't a clue what I just typed and you haven't a clue what you just read...

So, you ask, what could cause apoplexy? The author of this 1869 article explained, "When the predisposition to apoplexy is strong, very trivial exciting causes may induce the paroxysm. Over-exertion, great fatigue, an indigestible meal, a surfeit, a late supper, an ordinary meal taken when the mind is wearied, worried, anxious, or depressed, or when the body is overheated or exhausted; severe mental effort immediately after eating; a mental shock; an extraordinary day's work.." His list of causes included everything except getting kicked in the head by a mule. The author finally took pity on his readers, and gave a short explanation. "Apoplexy," the unnamed author said, was "congestion of the brain."

Not at all satisfied, I leaped forward to see how apoplexy was defined in the year 1900, and consulted the Daily Herald, a newspaper printed in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois. The edition was May 8, 1900. The newspaper reported that "Apoplexy, or its English equivalent, "a stroke," is a "good name for a disease under which the sufferer falls to the ground, unconscious and paralyzed, as if he had been struck down by a blow. The usual cause of apoplexy is the rupture of a blood vessel in the brain and a consequent escape of blood but the condition may also be produced by the sudden plugging a blocked vessel with a clot."

Sorry if I sound apoplectic, but I think I'll stay away from old newspapers for awhile.

 

August 18, day 231 of 2008. There are 35 days until the official start of autumn. It is the birthday of Karen Edwards.

Meriwether Lewis was born on this day in 1774. Thomas Jefferson chose Lewis to explore 800,000 square miles of land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains known as the Louisiana Territory. This enormous tract of land opened up a great deal of land for settlement and assured free navigation of the Mississippi River. Lewis asked William Clark to be his partner.

How could things not go wrong when a contract is signed that essentially says anything can be changed at any time without any reason? Things seem to be going very wrong in the credit-card industry where terms and conditions like that are standard. As went the banking industry, the credit card world appears ready to tumble. On top of the housing crisis, there is now an estimated one trillion dollars of credit-card debt. A growing number of credit-card holders are two and three months delinquent in the paying of their bills. Many of the people with the high balances on their credit cards are the same people who are having mortgage problems.

What can be done? Here are some suggestions to help you help yourself:

• Wait before you haul out the plastic from your wallet. Think it over. If you are still hot to trot two days later buy the item with cash. If you don't have the cash, don't buy it. If you really can't wait the two days, count to five--count five good reasons why you shouldn't buy the item.

• Give your credit cards to a good friend to keep.
 
• Never buy more than an amount you decide on before you go to the store. OK, you need the baking dish for when Cousin Claudia comes calling, but don't buy a new table cloth, too. Set an upper limit before you go shopping and stick with it.

Not enough reason to stop charging? How 'bout this? Didja know that credit card companies have on occasion raised interest rates as high as 32% on existing balances with no notice regardless of prior-payment history? My Boscov's charge account in the first paragraph in letters small enough to make my eyes squint states that the "variable rates can change monthly." Compare your original billing and see if the current billing doesn't cut the number of days you have to pay the bill. Watch for on-time payments that are charged late fees. Watch for charges made to the account when payments are made by phone.

Some credit-card companies are lowering your available credit limit. Your credit score could be affected if your available credit limit is lowered and the amount you charge stays the same. (What you charged against your available credit went up.)

Switching credit card companies isn't the solution. Didja know that 80% of the market is controlled by five companies? You can't take the companies to court; they are covered by binding arbitration and free of class action. And I betcha you're pelted with credit-card applications for new cards all the time.

Still, these companies are having their problems, too. MGIC Investment Corp. has a current $1.47 billion loss. Triad Guaranty reported a $75 million loss.

They took a little gravel,
And took a little tar.
With various ingredients
Imported from afar;
They hammered it and rolled it.
and when they went away
They said they had a good street
To last for many a day.
--the Argus, 1918

Park Street leading from the bridge over Fishing Creek to the intersection of School Street looks great and will be ready for the School Open house Thursday, August 21, from 5 to 7 PM.

You can see a picture of the first motorhome ever to run completely free of fossil fuels by going to http://www.otshows.com/PFRV/features_soltrekker.htm. The manufacturer claims that "It will never need to visit an RV campground to be plugged in to shore power or use a dump station and will almost never need to be filled with water. The interior will be fully solar powered, with electrical and heating systems fully covered by solar power." No petroleum, no diesel generator, no propane stove.

No, I cannot forget where it is that I come from
I cannot forget the people who love me
Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town
And people let me be just what I want to be.
--Small Town <http://users.cis.net/sammy/smlltown.htm>/, John Cougar Mellencamp

 

August 17, 2008. It is the birthday of Ron Hontz and the wedding anniversary of John and Beth McMichael. August 16 was 50th wedding anniversary of Bernie and Janice Shultz. Their family of three children, their spouses and seven grandchildren held an early celebration with a picnic and family reunion at Knoebel's. As part of the day, the group went to do the train ride. Imagine the surprise when the man taking the tickets for the train was Bob Byer, the best man at their wedding! How's that for a coincidence!

Columbia County Land Owners Coalition has established a cut-off date for parcel owners who want to sign up with the coalition for oil and gas leasing. The cut-off date is Friday, August 22, 2008. This date was set to establish negotiations as the group moves forward to signing a lease. The major concern of the group is protecting the environment, water supplies and the property owner. The next meeting for members only or those who wish to join the group is scheduled for Wednesday, August 20, 2008, at 7 PM at the Benton High School auditorium. The Columbia County parcel map will be reviewed at the meeting. Sign up at http://www.columbiacoalition.org/ until August 22. For further information, call Bruce Anderson, 458-4337.

The funeral Saturday wasn't exactly ordinary. John Herbert Laubach, Ph.D. (March 19, 1929-August 13, 2008) was laid to rest surrounded by fourteen members of the Columbia-Montour Barbershop Chorus who came to serenade him with Amazing Grace and It is Well with My Soul. Tears streamed from many eyes as a video showed John Herbert singing the Lord's Prayer from a few years back. Another video showed John Herbert singing with his brother Winton and with John Unbewust at the Benton Christian Church. How many funerals have you attended where the deceased was able to sing at his own service? John once said, "I hope they have pizza in heaven." He loved to make his own pizza according to a prized recipe and pictures were shown of him in the kitchen of his home in his white apron kneading dough. His pecan sticky rolls using a recipe he found in the Joy of Cooking was another favorite.  Pizza was served to his many friends and relatives at the conclusion of the service.  We all know, John, that by now you know if they have pizza in heaven!

"Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live, as I pass to and fro through the mouths of men."
--Quintus Ennius

Father loved to tell the story of one of Benton's finest who in his courting days would walk with his girlfriend through the pastures and the "bottom" land on our farm. Courting in those days--the year was 1933--was done far differently from the way it takes place today. Tandem bicycles were popular then--"courting' on a tandem" is what Father called it.

Father frequently told the story of the well-educated man worrying about the early days of the FDR Administration and his girlfriend who would ride his bike from "town" to our farm. The couple would then head out the lane from the macadam highway toward Fishing Creek. The very-much-in-love couple would park their bike. They would take a book to read, a hand towel on which to sit, some bread to nibble and would walk through the pasture to where they could sit and look over the "eddy." It was "their spot." They were "thick as thieves," Father always said in a kindly way.

Special costumes were worn by both the man and the woman for these forays into the woods. Today many of us "dress down," but in those days everyone "dressed up." The most conservative women wore a short skirt, the length varying from knee to halfway between knee and ankle. Casual for this man was a three-piece suit.

As I interpreted the way that Father told the story, the man was someone who still thought that the car would never supplant the horse. His use of a bicycle was a compromise between the two.

On one special day, the man confided in father that he was going to ask for her "hand" in marriage. Mother and Father watched from the security of their front window as the couple walked to the eddy hand-in-hand. After what seemed like a very respectable period of time, the couple walked back toward the house, the question having been asked and the acceptance quickly made.

    You did it in the kissin' game,
    That's how it came about;
    But still you kissed me, just the same,
    And you can't rub it out.
    And, Lindy, ever since that night,
    I haven't been exactly right.
--Found in a 1916 Collier's Weekly. Poem by C. L. Edson

Times were tough back then in those "the only thing to fear is fear itself" days and the prospects of marriage was a huge undertaking. Remember how Keats expressed it:

    "Love in a hut, with water and a crust,
    Is--Love, forgive us--cinders, ashes, dust."

Father and Mother walked out of the house as if they didn't know anything of what was going on and approached the man and his "intended." The couple bubbled over with joy. Details of the offer of marriage and the acceptance quickly emerged. It wasn't until the couple mounted the tandem bicycle that the whole story was known. The man had spread his towel and carefully helped lower her to the ground when they were by the eddy. He, anxious over his upcoming proposal of marriage, wasn't as careful when he sat down in the pasture--squarely on a fresh cow flop! Both were so elated that neither noticed the load in the back of his pants!

I would love to tell you the names of the man and the woman. I may do that sometime, but not in this issue. There are too many NRA members among the ancestors of this couple.

While we are on the subject, we should report that the "cow-flop" contest at the Montour Delong Community Fair Thursday was a flop. It was a case of cow maneuvers gone wrong.

For those who don't know about such things, participants buy a "deed" for a plot of land in an empty field that’s marked off in white paint on green grass. A couple of cows are then released and wander the way cows are wont to do. Whoever owns the deed to the section where the cow deposits her "muffins" wins a cash prize. The winner uses absolutely no skill!

We don't want to cause a flap over flop, but the fair needed a license in order to hold the contest and it neglected to get one.

Didja ever think that when you don't know what you are doing,
everyone else in town does?

Charles L. Ross, Sr., 378 Austin Trail, Orangeville, husband of Sarah J. (Lentz) Ross, died Friday afternoon at the Bloomsburg Hospital emergency room. He was 74. Surviving are his wife, Sarah J. (Lentz) Ross, and three sons, including James L. Ross (Treena), Stillwater. Funeral services will be Tuesday at 11 AM at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc. Burial will be in the Bloomingdale Cemetery. Viewing will be Monday evening from 6 to 8 PM at the funeral home.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary will be available in the Sunday edition of the Press Enterprise.

We'll close this Sunday with an Irish prayer, which you can find at http://www.e-water.net/viewflash.php?flash=irishblessing_en.

 

August 16, 2008. Willard David (Bill) Hiscox of Palm City, Florida, and Hughesville has a birthday today. It is the 50th wedding anniversary of Bernie and Janice Shultz. On this day in 1977, Elvis Presley, 42, died in Memphis, Tennessee. His singing career began when he performed hymns and gospel tunes with his parents at concerts and state fairs. At the age of 18, he recorded My Happiness and That's When Your Heartaches Begin for his mother in a Memphis studio by paying $4.

Congratulations to Krysten Ritter, apparently heading to Sunday nights at 10 PM in a major role in AMC's Breaking Bad. Entertainment Weekly says she'll play a love interest for Aaron Paul's Jesse. Krysten tells us that she leaves for New Mexico next week to begin shooting.

Our area is close to the center of the Marcellus gas drilling which stretches something like 600 miles through the Appalachian Basin from West Virginia and northeast into the state of New York. Marcellus is part of the Devonian era that extends to a minimum of 359 million years ago when fish were taking on legs and walking on land for the first time. The Marcellus has been estimated to contain anywhere from 168 trillion to 516 trillion cubic feet of gas. Attempts to drill in the thick, nearly impermeable Marcellus shale with conventional technology would barely work. The drilling of vertical wells, then shifting to horizontal wells followed by a multi-stage process of hydraulic fracturing to expose and release more of the gas formation to the wellbore is working with nearly 100% success rate.

Based on historical data gained from natural gas drillers across the United States, wells will experience an eventual decline in production resulting from a variety of factors.  Some wells have layers bypassed either intentionally or inadvertently during the original completion.

Landowners can expect that hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracing (pronounced "fracking"), which relies on a blend of water, sand and chemicals pumped into the ground, will take place on underperforming wells during a subsequent fracing of wells. Refracturing has been extremely successful in the Barnett shale in the Fort Worth Basin.  Want to know more about fracing a well?  Take a look at a short video on the subject. Although not evident from this video, there have been problems in the past.

Employees at Halliburton Energy Services in Farmington, New Mexico, spilled 30 to 60 gallons from a 600 gallon tank of acid used for the hydraulic fracturing of gas wells on June 7, 2006. The spill sent a toxic cloud into the neighboring community resulting in a mass evacuation of 200 residents.

Some environmentalists have warned that hydrofracking has left polluted water in Colorado and New Mexico.  Hydraulic fracturing has been the prime suspect in incidents of impaired or polluted drinking water. In Colorado in 2001 while fracturing four wells, the gas-well operator "blew up" a neighbor's water well.  Fracturing opened an hydrogeological connection between the water well and the gas well.  Fracturing of wells injects millions of gallons of fluids underground which has the effect of a mini-earthquake to jar loose and release natural gas. Something like 70% of what is injected underground is retrieved. The fluids that are recovered are placed in holding pits on the surface to begin the evaporation process. Toxic chemicals can be released into the air and in rare cases into local surface waters. The fluids remaining in the pits are taken off-site and disposed of in a process not fully documented for those of us outside the industry in the local-drilling operation.  Return of the fluids to the ground could release toxic chemicals to the air thorough dust or result in accumulation of mixtures of toxic metals in the soil.

The Marcellus formation has been known since about 2000 and some vertical gas wells were mildly successful. As techniques were tested and proven in the Barnett shale, Marcellus wells began to make sense, even from 4,000 to 8,500 feet below the earth's surface.  Horizontal lateral lengths exceeding 2,000 feet extended from the vertical shaft.  A series of multistage fracturing with more than three stages per well came into being. The Marcellus remains in the exploration stage, but its future--both of promise and of possible pain--appears strong.

  Didja ever notice how we hide the truth about ourselves from ourselves?

The Benton Borough Council met for its August 11, 2008, session at the Benton Volunteer Fire Hall. Attending were Dan Hartman,Allen Hess, Dan Jankowski, Joshua Price, Mayor Swan, Bryan Getz, Ed Kocher, and Kay Yankovich. Dan Jankowski presided. Others attending included Lila Allen, Frank and Barbara Edson, Monty Hittle, Scott Kline, David Kline and Maralee Yost

Council received a letter of resignation dated July 17, 2008, from John Jankowski, Borough Council President. Council accepted John's resignation with regret. The office of President will be filled by Vice-President, Grant Little. Mike Klem was elected as Vice President. Dan Hartman reported that several gas companies have shown interest in Columbia County. Currently, the mapping process is taking place. "Benton Borough property will, most likely, be included."

Dan Jankowski reported that the Borough has received a letter from DCNR stating that in order to receive grant funds for the Park, there can be no leases with the Park. The school currently has a lease for the use of the athletic field. This was referred to the Park Committee for resolution.

Frank Edson, Park Street, stated that he felt that Park Street speeding will be a problem. Council Member Allen Hess requested that he contact the police each time he witnesses anyone driving at an excessive speed.

Frank distributed a letter expressing appreciation for the Park Street improvements. The letter also referred to the Park renovation project and the relocation of the basketball court. Advantages and disadvantages of the relocation were listed. Mr. and Mrs. Edson are asking Council to consider the advantages for leaving the court in its present location. A similar letter from Richard and Joanne Smith, Park Street, was also submitted. Mr. and Mrs. Smith also expressed their concern about the relocation of the basketball court to an area across the street from residential properties.  They expressed concern that it will cause a disturbance to the peace and quiet to that section of town.  The letter also cited reasons to keep the band shell in its present location. A suggestion to elevate the band shell and move it closer to the creek with the audience sitting on the street side was rejected by Zoning Officer Ed Kocher who noted that DEP approval requires that no building be within 50 feet of the creek.

Mayor Swan noted that the reason for moving the basketball court came from Larson Design in order to comply with the flood-zone areas.  The area of the basketball court is the only place to move the band shell. A public meeting was held to discuss the park renovation. Current citizen concerns will be brought to the attention of the Park Committee. Final plans will be approved by the Council.

Scott Kline expressed concern with speeding cars on Park Street, which he has "witnessed on many occasions." In the interest of public safety, Scott requested two stop signs be placed on Park Street. Council referred this request to the Public Safety Committee and the Public Services Committee. The question of lines painted (for walkers and drivers) on the section of Park Street where there are no sidewalks was referred to the Public Services Committee.

Monty Hittle asked to be considered for the position of Benton Airport Manager. This was referred to the Airport Committee. Mayor Swan referred to the Confederacy Reenactment scheduled for the summer of 2009. She expressed concern with campfires in the park and the grass damage which will result. She encouraged Council members to give this consideration before a decision is made regarding the approved location for the tents and campfires.

Council voted to hold a public meeting for discussion of the proposed Outdoor Furnace Ordinance. This will be held on Tuesday, August 26, 7 PM in the Fire Hall social room.

Dan Jankowski distributed a proposed Animal Control Ordinance. He encouraged Council Members to read the proposed ordinance and be prepared to make suggestions, additions, etc. at the September meeting. Dan also stated the Committee is recommending Kathy Barrett be hired as the Animal Control Officer for the Borough. He distributed a proposed contract which he requested Council members read and be ready to discuss at the September meeting. Kathy is currently the Animal Control Officer for Berwick and five townships.
--Taken from Borough Secretary Kay Yankovich's official minutes

 

August 15, 2008. It is the birthday of Allen Kocher and Ronald Beckman. Ken Kelsey is recovering from surgery tonight with an overnight stay in the Geisinger Hospital.

An AARP Driver Safety Program sponsored by the Benton Women's Club is scheduled for September 10 and 11, 2008. The cost is $10 per person and includes lunch and if both the husband and wife attend a reduction on your automobile insurance could result. To register or for more information, please call Barbara, 925-6242. Complete details on the Upcoming Events page of the Benton News.

A reader showed her concern over natural-gas drilling in an email that arrived in our inbox Wednesday. She asked, "What recourse does a land owner have that does not sign up for the lease and their water quality or small streams are destroyed? Can they sue their neighbor/neighbors?"

In order to answer the question, I turned it over to two attorneys, Barry Lewis, Bloomsburg, and Loren L. Bly, Jamestown, New York. Both attorneys were kind enough to provide responses to the reader's concerns.

The following is the response from Barry Lewis.

"The suit would ultimately come to the drilling company as most leases, or addendums, require the lessee to indemnify the lessor for any damages or actions arising out of the lease. In the Pa. Oil and Gas Act there are provisions that apply to water and streams including setbacks, and presumptions if the water quantity or quality deteriorates within six months of a well being drilled within 1000 feet.

"It is important to have your water tested prior to drilling and after drilling. Most addendums require this testing. However, if the well is not on your property, you will have to do the testing at your expense. A very good investment."
--Barry Lewis, Attorney, Hummel & Lewis, Bloomsburg

The following is the response from Loren L. Bly...

"I appreciate this opportunity to provide an objective response to presumed harm to drinking water supply by Industry Well and pipeline development. This is far less prevalent in the high quality planed well development programs such as those contemplated for the Marcellus Shale formation in the Benton area.

"The Penna. Statutes at Title 58, Chapter 11 sets forth the Provisions of the Oil and Gas Act initially adopted in 1984. Section 601.208 provides remarkable protections and procedures for the preservation of a "private-water supply" and a presumption "that a well operator is responsible" for the pollution of a water supply that is within 1,000 feet of a the oil or gas well, where the pollution occurs within six months after the completion of the drilling or alteration of such well--unless rebutted by one of five (5) specified defenses. The major defense available to the Driller/Operator is the predrilling water supply test--THAT MUST BE DONE AT THE SOLE EXPENSE OF THE DEVELOPER/ OPERATOR--AND MUST BE FURNISHED TO THE LANDOWNER .

"It is obvious that this test will be a basis of the presumed water quality BEFORE DRILLING OCCURS--ergo, any change is presumed to be the Driller's responsibility. Believe me, no driller/developer wants to be responsible for such untoward consequences. The minimum Marcellus Shale well [a vertical well] represents a minimum investment of $1.500,000. for the well alone + an additional $500K--$1M costs for ancillary pipeline and transportation of production. The horizontal wells run $3.5M--5M + with the same pipeline associated costs."

Mr. Bly continued, "no Oil or Gas developer wants to risk that investment by any impairment of the surface potable water table. Additionally, the inspectors and staff of the DEP's Bureau of Oil and Gas will be on site of any major well/pipeline development to assure the Operator and Development is occurring in accord with the prescribed Soil, Sedimentation and Erosion Plan and the Rules and Regulations of the Bureau's Operators Manual. A true review of this information will cause the reader to realize that there are substantial strict standards prescribed for the total process of well development and the cementation of the Surface casing and Production casing [for surface water table protection] before the perforation and Hydrofracture process is initiated.

"I suggest any landowner with any concern about the oil and gas well development process log onto the DEP's Oil and Gas Bureau's website and check their substantial involvement and regulation. I am sure they will realize that these rules and regulations and the staff are a true protection and an ally in this process. This is prescribed and done with the true governmental recognition that the correlative interests of Landowner/State/Industry each need protection and assurance of compatible development and benefit from production of the OIL and/or GAS reserves of a property/Township/County/Region.

"Landowner interests do need definition and protection in the drafting of the economic and operational provisions of the Lease Agreement--as the Industry has had a 150-year head start in drafting Lease Agreements that primarily protect their interests alone. This unfortunately was with a past unchallenged industry attitude of "Take it or Leave it." and provision of only minimal economic benefits. It is just that now the economics {another story} provide an opportunity to define more realistic benefits to the good people of your community.
--Loren L. Bly, Consultant, Bly, Sheffield, Bargar and Pillitieri,

Didja ever think that computers let you make more mistakes than any other human invention, with the possible exception of handguns and tequila?

Area Names...
. Dansbury. Before the plot of land that is now the Borough of Benton was known by that name, owner Daniel Hartman called it Dansbury.

. Hoboken (Jamison City). An area in northern Jamison City which came into existence after 1890. It was named after Hoboken, New Jersey, which is situated across the river from Manhattan and was a resort and amusement center for New Yorkers before the mid-19th century. Houses were built by Thomas E. Proctor and later by the Union Tanning Co. in this area.

. Hoboken (Benton Borough). That section of Benton Borough located south of Fishing Creek. Walter M. Brasch's book, Columbia County Place Names, says the usage came from Hoboken, New Jersey. It is possible that "Hoboken" referred to a more fun and relaxed area than the rest of the Borough and that its usage came via Jamison City rather than directly from Hoboken, New Jersey. Baseball games between the Hoboken Huskies and the Benton Giants were always popular.

. Hoseaburg was the area of Benton Borough from the railroad tracks to the West Creek bridge. Named for former Market Street resident Hosea Davis, an employee of the planing mill in 1901.

Outdoor wood furnaces heat water which is then piped underground to the building it heats through radiators or into a hot-air system. The systems are cost-saving alternatives to heating oil. An installer of the outdoor furnace is Joe's Heating Systems, Shickshinny. This company sells an outdoor wood-burning furnace adequate to heat a 4,000-square-foot home for $4,677, plus up to another $1,500 for installation. Pollution and odor raises eyebrows in many communities including Valley Township where a new ordinance requires an acre of land in order to install an outdoor furnace. The homeowner must comply with a 200 feet setback from any boundary line. Chimneys must at least 20 feet high. Trash can not be burned in the furnaces. Fines for violating the ordinance range from $300 to $1,000. Valley Township is not alone. Schuylkill County, the City of Pottsville and Saint Clair, the Borough of Girardville and the Townships of Butler and Ryan have ordinances about outdoor furnaces. With no anticipated action by the state or the Federal government, it is up to the local or county municipality to safeguard the health of its residents. Benton Borough will hold a public meeting on this subject following a number of citizen complaints. The Public Meeting for the proposed Outdoor Furnace Ordinance will be Tuesday, August 26, 7 PM, in the Fire Hall social room.

The O.A.T.S. Bluegrass Festival is a popular tourist attraction in the Benton area around the Fourth of July. The 2009 version of the O.A.T.S. Bluegrass Festival will take place July 2-5. Here are some of the non-professional videos that are available of performances of past shows...

. Two Days On The Road With Loon, "the Trip to O.A.T.S. Fest."

. Two Days On The Road With Loon, "The Ride Home from Oats."

. Dan Paisley at Oats 4

. "Music of the Spirit" OATS 2008, "Darkest Hour

. Mike Cleveland and Flamekeeper with Patrick McAvinue, here and here.

. The Roaming Gnome, bluegrass festival 2007)

. Dan Paisley and Southern Grass at Oats 1, and at Oats 2

. Grillbilly Chorus OATS 2008, Out Among the Stars

. Grillbilly Chorus OATS 2008, Out Among the Stars II

. Music of the Spirit, OATS, I am an orphan

. Pony Express

. The Infamous Stringdusters - Were You There, and Uncle Pen

. The Chapmans - Fire In The Canyon

. The Hillbilly Gypsies- Dear Ol' Dixie

. The Grascals - Where Corn Don't Grow

 

August 14, 2008. It is the birthday of Grace Stowe. Steve Martin was born on this day in 1945. Today is the anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act in 1935, creating the nation's first public retirement system. In 1945 on this date, President Truman announced that Japan unconditionally surrendered, ending World War II.

Didja know that in the early 1900s, neighbors of Henry Knoebel came to his farm at the spot where Roaring Creek, Mugser's Run and Henry Knoebels spring dam intersected? Knoebels Grove, Elysburg, opened July 4, 1926. It continues to be a favorite vacation spot in Pennsylvania.

Poverty is no disgrace. I can't think of anything else to say in its defense.

Well, sure. It is the Stillwater Covered Bridge and, yes, there are scads of people who visit it each year. The visitor's log is jammed with names of people from all over the United States, so it really wasn't a huge surprise when Commissioner Chris Young pointed out that Burt Reynolds had once signed the Visitor's Log. Chris was naturally suspicious and asked if I would attempt to determine if it was valid. I took on the job.

The job of authenticating the signature fell to me since it was assumed that I knew something about Burt because Bill and Loretta Hiscox once showed Marcia Kay and I around Burt's three-acre estate on Hobe Sound, Florida. To be completely honest, we were driven "around" the monstrous 12,500 square foot mansion with five bedrooms and seven-bathrooms because the gate was locked and we were unable to enter! Actually, since I don't personally know Burt, perhaps he should be called Burton Leon Reynolds Jr., but since I also once viewed Cosmopolitan Magazine (for less than three seconds, mind you!) to see the mustachioed macho man nekkid as a jaybird, I figured that I could get away with "Burt." The inside of Burt's house could have caused gastric distress. Look at Burt's "migraine-inducing" pink- and paneled-game room with the stuffed bear, and you'll see what I mean...

Burt bought the Hobe Sound hacienda for $700,000. When his shellacked hair, former wife Lorne Anderson raked him over the coals, he needed to dispose of the behemoth. He reduced the price to $12,900,000 (and later reduced it to $10,500,000.) Burt finally went the bankruptcy route in 1996, after a string of terrible movies and a divorce from Loni Anderson.

Burt currently lives in Beverly Hills (in an undisclosed location), but I did obtain a signature of his and compared it with what was recorded in the Stillwater Covered Bridge. You decide whether Burt visited the local landmark.

Signature in the Stillwater Covered Bridge Visitor's Register
Authenticated Signature of Burt Reynolds

Quickies...
. A new quilting group, the Quilters of N4C's, is forming this fall and will meet the second Monday of each month, beginning September 8, at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Interested quilters who share an interest in quilting should come out and join in the fun. For further information, contact Janet English, 925-2417, Kitty Genthe, 925-5113, Joanne Riley, 925-2563, or Carolyn Watson, 925-6221.

. Nothing--nothing--beats Google as a search engine. That being said, you might want to glance at Viewzi for images, audio, video and other multimedia searches.

• Volunteer receptionists are needed weekday afternoons from 3 to 6 at The Center's Library/Museum to receive visitors, books and donations for the Library/Museum. Monitoring computer use is another duty. Additional information is available from The Center at 925-0163.

• Readers have asked for Bed and Breakfast information for the upper Fishingcreek Valley. Bed and Breakfasts that would like to be included in this list, please contact the Benton News.

Didja know that energy companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale are expected to drill more than 1,500 wells per year and collectively draw as much water as a nuclear reactor? In our area, all the water will be spread throughout the Susquehanna River Basin. Where will it will come from and how it will be transported? The Press & Sun Bulletin, Binghamton, New York, recently reported on a water consumption symposium at the Binghamton Regency Hotel and Conference Center.

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission, which oversees water use, projected 112 drilling rigs may be operating at a given time in the river basin of Pennsylvania and New York. Each well will require between two and five million gallons of water. Drilling operations in the Susquehanna basin will require on average of about 28 million gallons a day.

"Fracking" can consume several million gallons of water per gas well. Some wells will be fracked twice in its lifetime. Undisclosed chemical additives and natural underground contaminants must be collected, treated or recycled properly. Fracking fluids are expected to contain substances including formaldehyde, benzene and chromates. The Benton municipal sewage-treatment plant is currently not allowed to accept fracking fluids since they could contain high levels of salt, iron and manganese, and traces of barium, lead and arsenic.

To give you an idea of the size of the natural-gas impact, look at Owego, New York, where a 22,000-square-foot renovated rail facility will become the warehousing site for New York state and some Pennsylvania drilling. The project includes installing 1,000 feet of railroad track in order for trains to deliver special sand. A number of commercial truck drivers will be hired to haul material needed for fracking to drilling sites throughout New York and Pennsylvania. Sand deliveries are expected to average about 2,000 rail cars annually. Powder mixes of additives and chemicals will be stocked in the Owego warehouse and trucked to the wells for mixing with sand and millions of gallons of water and injected into wells.

John Herbert Laubach (March 19, 1929-August 13, 2008), Main Street, Benton, a retired educator, a former member of the Benton Town Council and the Susquehanna Valley Barber Shop Chorus, a member of the Benton Area Schools Hall of Fame, and a former member of the Advisory Board of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center. passed away at Bonham Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Stillwater, at 3:02 Wednesday morning. He was 79.

John Herbert was born in Orangeville. He was a son of the late Earl and Bernice (Parker) Laubach. Earl was a former teacher in the Benton School System and part of the Reinhart generation. The family moved to Benton in 1930. When John was about eight years old, he was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa. His brother, Winton, eight and a half years older, had also been similarly diagnosed at an early age.

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

John had an excellent singing voice and always enjoyed being in choirs and choruses, including the Susquehanna Valley Barber Shop Chorus and the Disciples of Christ Church. In earlier years, he belonged to the Brooklyn (NY) Community Chorus and sang in the choir of All Saints Episcopal Church and the Ridgewood Christian church, both in Brooklyn. He was an excellent piano player, playing by ear.

John married the former Diane E. Harvey in 1970 and the couple lived in Westerville, Ohio, near Columbus, for 22 years where he taught until his retirement in 1991. He was a member of the Stillwater Christian Church.

Surviving, in addition to his wife, Diane, are his sons Robert P. “Rob” Laubach, Youngstown, Ohio; Brian K. Laubach, Benton; one granddaughter, Robyn Laubach, Westerville, Ohio; a brother, Winton Laubach (Jan), Golden, Colorado, and his mother-in-law, Helen Harvey, Benton. He was preceded in death by step brothers Stanleigh and Richard Malotte.

Funeral services will be Saturday morning, August 16, at 11 with viewing preceding at the Stillwater Christian Church. Burial will be in the Benton Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to the Alzheimer’s Association, 57 N. Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701. Arrangements are under the direction of the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc., Benton.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home, Benton. A complete obituary will be provided by the Press Enterprise in its edition of August 14, 2008

 

August 13, 2008. It is the birthday of Clyde "Jug" Albertson, Elk Grove, and Scott Faust, Derrs. It is also the birthdays of Cuban President Fidel Castro, 82, and "Master of Suspense" filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, born in London in 1899. It is the wedding anniversary of Ernie and Edna Bogart and Bob and Sandra Hess.

On the Mend...
• June Hartzell would like to thank readers for their support during the past five months and seven surgeries. June is now back home on Comstock Road and gets around with a walker. She had five strokes and had open-heart surgery.

• Joan Salsburg, Stillwater, suffered a stroke and is in need of prayers. She is in John Hines Rehabilitation Institute, 150 Mundy Street, Wilkes Barre, Room 114.

Passing...
• Mary Sharretts Curwood, formerly of Shickshinny and for the past five years of Sakonnet Bay Manor, Tiverton, Rhode Island, died Sunday, August 10, 2008, at the age of 96. She was the widow of the late Representative William B. Curwood. She was a member of the Methodist Church in Shickshinny, and a past matron of the Order of the Eastern Star. She is survived by a daughter, Sally C. Weilburg ( Don), Tiverton and a son, William B. Curwood (Sarah), Shickshinny. There are six grandchildren and 7 1/2 great grandchildren.

• William C. "Billy" Saab (Dec. 25, 1936-Aug. 11, 2008), died at his home at 209 State Street, Millville Monday. He was 71. Billy was a son of the late William and Ann Mausteller Saab. Billy joined his father in the service-station business and later owned and operated Saab's Garage in Millville from April 1975 to the time of his passing. He was preceded in death by his parents and his brothers Robert and Charles. Billy is survived by his wife, Gloria Starr Saab, a son, Todd (Debbie), Macungie; a daughter, Stefanie (Chris Omlor), Salem, NJ; and four grandchildren. Also surviving is a sister, Sandra Lehet (Richard), Benton; and several nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be Friday morning at 11 at the Millville United Methodist Church. Burial will be at the Millville Cemetery. The family will receive friends Thursday from 6 until 8 PM with Masonic services at 8 PM at the Bunnell Funeral Home Inc., 179 E. Main St., Millville, and Friday from 10 a.m. until the time of service at the Millville United Methodist Church.
--Obituary courtesy of the Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary is given in its edition of August 12, 2008

Quickies...
• What happened to 90° days? Cooler weather is with us into Monday of next week with the possibility of thundershowers through Friday. Temperatures yesterday didn't get out of the 70s.

• Ag Progress Days, August 19-21 at Rock Springs, will be a good place to learn about the impact of the deep-well natural-gas boom in Pennsylvania and to get your questions answered about the "legal, social, economic and environmental issues associated with gas exploration and production." Visit the Ag Renewable Energy Tent near the intersection of West 10th and Main streets where faculty and extension educators from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences will offer expert advice on natural-gas issues. Presentations on natural gas will be held in the Agricultural Sciences Exhibits Building theatre at 11 AM Tuesday, August 19, and at 11 AM and 2:30 PM Wednesday, August 20. Those presentations will focus on financial management, leasing and water quality. Ag Progress Days are held at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, nine miles southwest of State College on state Route 45. Hours are 9 AM to 5 PM on August 19; 9 AM to 8 PM on August 20; and 9 AM to 4 PM on August 21. Admission and parking are free.

• Erin McHenry-Sorber, a former teacher in the Benton Area Schools, is the Managing Editor of Penn State University's Journal of Research in Rural Education. This is a blurb from the website: "The Journal of Research in Rural Education is a peer-reviewed, open access e-journal publishing original pieces of scholarly research of demonstrable relevance to educational issues within rural settings." Erin is also the graduate assistant for the Center on Rural Education and Communities. The Center's mission and goals are to conduct and support research and outreach activities for rural education and community-related issues in Pennsylvania.

Can you name a sport where strength means little and those of us who are "little" guys can whoop the big boys, where a game can be played in a matter of minutes, at lunch perhaps, before heading back to work? The game I have in mind is what we called as kids "ping-pong," actually a trade-registered name for a game probably first used as aptly describing the noise made by the celluloid ball on a velum racquet. Now it seems the sound is a little different. A "ping pong" is no longer a fitting term and doesn't convey the idea that "table tennis" conveys. For us old-timers, the rules are identical. The only difference is that ping pong was a game everyone played, while table tennis is a sport, an analogy something like the way the boys at Mill Race bang the ball and the way Tiger Woods engineers his golf swing.

Table tennis is a very technical game. The game has been around for awhile. At the World Championships in India in 1975, for example, attendance averaged 22,000 per night. And if you are from China, it is something of a national sport as you'll find out this week as you turn the television toward the Olympics.

I learned to play the game using sandpaper paddles, then I took a fancy to rubber, finally moving to a paddle that had sandpaper on one side and rubber on the other in a desperate attempt to confuse my opponent. I can assure you that my opponent was not the player confused when I used the rubber for spin and speed, then twirled the racket to the sand paper side for a "dead" effect to take away the spin and for return of serve.

What a difference in style in the game! The Hungarians are spinners, the Japanese are all-out attackers playing like Kamikaze pilots, and the Chinese are blockers who slam it by their opponents whenever they catch them out of position. The Americans are top-spinners. The players are all young; none seems to be more than 25, although all seem older than the current crop of Chinese gymnasts. It is demanding on the legs. Players seem to retire from active participation by the time they reach the age of 30.

In high school, fellow classmates and I played ping-pong on the kitchen table with host Bill Hiscox. The table was nowhere near regulation size. The table measured about a yard wide and five feet long, but somehow it was the best available and we all became proficient in that environment. I learned to play holding the paddle in a semi-fork-holding style, while others grasped the paddle in a "hand-shake" fashion.

Greg Sutliff, President of the Sutliff Auto Group, Harrisburg, mentioned that one of the contenders for the American Olympic team four years ago is a Harrisburg native. Greg invited him to his Camp Hill house some years ago, and beat him! Greg notes that the table tennis Olympic contender spotted Greg 18 points. Greg told us, "Of course, his serve is virtually impossible to return, so that give him 15 points right off the bat."

As the balls whoosh back and forth at speeds in excess of a hundred miles an hour, an average game to the score of 21 takes something like five minutes with an average volley consisting of ten or so shots.

China should dominate the table tennis at the Beijing Olympics today. and anything less than a sweep of all four golds would rate as a major disappointment for the hosts in their national sport. Three Chinese men are at the top of the sport in the world and three Chinese women have dominated the game for nearly a decade. The penalty of losing for any of these players is probably public humiliation. One person who might be able to defeat the Chinese is South Korea's Ryu Seung-min. China doesn't seem worried. With four medal events in the table tennis, China expects to win every one.

To learn more about table tennis at the Olympics, head here.

 

August 12, 2008. It is the wedding anniversary of Kathi and Ron Taylor. Our sympathy is extended to Benton Borough Police Office Gene Barrett, whose barn burned Monday afternoon at 329 Stoney Brook Road in Orange Township. The Tuesday Press Enterprise has a complete story and pictures. It is the birthday of poet Katherine Lee Bates, born on this day in 1859, who wrote the poem that began...

"O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!"

President of Borough Council, John Jankowski, resigned effective with Monday night's Council meeting. John has moved from the Borough and is now a resident of Benton Township. His resignation was accepted with regret. O. Grant Little moved into the office of the President of the Council and Mike Klem became Vice-President. A position for member of Council opened with this action. Applications for the position will be accepted by Borough Secretary on the second floor of the Fire Station. The goal is to fill the position at the next meeting.

Didja ever notice that we never seem prepared for what we expect?

Joshua and Jacob Vincent, Boy Scouts in Troop 755, Gambrills, Maryland, recently returned from their annual summer camp at Camp Freedom, Heritage Reservation, Farmington, PA. While at the week-long camp the two not only earned four merit badges but completed the Heritage Ironman Challenge. The Ironman Challenge consisted of three events: a seven-mile hike, a six-mile canoe trip, and a mile swim all in the same day. By completing the swim, the boys also earned the Mile Swim BSA award.

Between broad fields of wheat and corn
Is the lovely home where I was born.
The peach tree leans against the wall
And the woodbine wanders over all.
--Thomas Buchanan Reed. Read more about this fine writer by heading here.

Here at the Benton News we love to flounder around looking for the derivation of words, especially the names of people and what those names originally meant. I have told the story on these pages before about a Chinese friend whose grandfather entered the United States through the port of San Francisco. The family name was "Chue," but barely able to answer the required questions in English the immigrant and his wife did not know how to spell their last names. The customs agent, probably in the middle of a bad day, spelled the name for him on his immigration papers. The immigration papers showed his family name as "Jew," and for two generations the family continued using the last night. I suggested some years back that my friend, the immigrant's grandson, consider changing the name to something that more closely represented his Chinese heritage. He thought about it for months and one morning proudly told me that he decided that he would change his last name. The name he chose was "Wong," clearly in the Chinese tradition, but he got to choose the name that he really wanted.

As immigrants arrived in the new world they were required (after 1727) to sign their names upon arrival and to attest (the "oath") their allegiance to the king. Ship captains kept logs of the passengers on their ships, too, but the way they spelled the immigrants names was at times sloppy. If the immigrant bought land, often someone with a name like "McHenry" would attempt to spell the name of the German and a slightly revised spelling occurred. (Don't bother to email me and say I am picking on anyone. I am simply showing someone of Scottish heritage attempting to spell a German's name). Translations of names became blurred, too. For fun, head here where you can translate first names into native languages. My mother's name was "Evelyn," which, while German, was derived from the given name Aveline. Look at names like Johannes while you are at that web site. "Fester" was a low German-short form of "Sylvester." "Gerhardt" was the German form of "Gerard." "Albert" comes from the Germanic name Adalbrecht. Alice comes from an old French name "Alis," a short form of "Adelais," which was a short form of the Germanic name Adalheidis. The list goes on and on.

Many of our ancestors followed one of three speech patterns when they arrived in the local area. They probably followed one of three streams; i.e., German, Scottish or Quaker. It has been 325 years since the first Germans arrived, although it was a number of years later that the heavy immigration began. Early in the German immigration, names began to be translated rather than transliterating the names. The English and the Scottish arrived next, but were better prepared than most Germans to document life in the new world. As a result, early descriptions of German life were often written by the linguistically inept English who murdered the names of people. The Carpenters once were Zimmermans, the Smiths once were Schmidts, the Shepherds were Schaefers. Other nationalities had their share of problems, too. One story was of a Czech named Syr, which meant "cheese." He decided to change his name into "Kase," but ended up with "Casey."

Consider the confusion when whole areas were solidly "Dutch" and the schoolmaster the area was lucky enough to find was English. Talk about "English as a second language" and conversations about "looking the windows out" and "going the stairs up." I doubt that it is true, but I have heard that our state once voted to determine if English or German should be the national language and that a Pennsylvania German cast the deciding vote to make it English. Well--I think I read that story somewhere, but for the life of me Monday night I can't find it.

The Clyns, Clines, Kleins and Klines all sounded the same, but as spelling was assigned many with a derivation of this name took dissimilar routes through our ancestry. And while I am thinking of it, some people are attempting to find some information on Ephraim Kline. Can anyone help?

Those with a "Ch" in the name were simply out of luck--as in Bachmann and Baughman. And then there were the Blochs who turned out Black and the Hochs who became Hokes. Schnaebele dived into posterity as Snively, Schwab as Swope, Schlosser and Slusser became hopelessly confused. It is almost safe to assume that whenever you find an unfamiliar name twisted into a German pretzel shape, it probably came from Pennsylvania; i.e., the Studebakers and the Rockefellers can be traced back to their original Studebecker and Roggenfelder.

Can you imagine how a German would record the spelling of "Montgomery" or "Mongumry, depending on how he heard it pronounced or how strong the nasal twang? As a person once told me, "I am so happy that my parents named me what they did, because that is what everyone calls me!"

 

August 11, 2008. It the birthday of Linda Cragle and the wedding anniversary of Jay and Susan McHenry, Stillwater.

Nancy Smith Shea is now at her permanent residence and would love to hear from any classmates/friends. When daughter Jill McHenry calls her mother, Nancy always asks how things are in Benton. Her address is Goldstone Assisted Living, c/o Nancy Shea, 5200 9th Ave, Room 1, Great Falls, Montana 59405.

We suspect that ears in Wilkes-Barre are ringing today following the Fox News documentary shown Sunday at 3 PM, entitled Porked: Earmarks for Profit, hosted by Chris Wallace, in which the recurring theme was the Congressman Paul Kanjorski earmarking of more than $10 million "directly to the company run by his family. The money was supposed to fund the development of new technologies to help turn around desperate coal towns and make them prosperous." Didn't see the show? Read about it here.

There are times when a story from a long time ago brings tears to my eyes. Few events affect me more than the happenings of the Civil War. It is never how skillfully a great artist painted what they thought represented that terrible war or how faithfully an author patched together words that become the basis of belief about an event. What impresses me is the common person, unskilled, unlearned, undisciplined, who creates something which is indelible in his personal memory because he or she was there, experienced it or interpreted it through the receiving of letters from their significant others who were on the front lines.

An example comes from an article from the Tulsa Daily World, date unknown. The article was about "Christmas Parker," known as "Grandmother Parker," and her quilt.

As she worked on the quilt, her skillful needle brought into a harmonious whole many intricate parts. Her thoughts must have been as busy as her fingers. She saw beyond the tiny squares in her hands, and instead saw what those blocks would create. She saw a tombstone. Her objective in creating the beautiful quilt was to raise enough money to create a monument for the grave of the man who was her constant companion and her best friend from the day they were married until he passed away.

She mourned following the death of her husband in the Civil War because his final resting place was unmarked. She dreamed of a monument that would speak to the pride and love she had for her soldier husband. She had no idea how to come up with enough money for the monument until the idea of utilizing her skill in quilt making and the possibility of translating it into terms of money came to her. Just after Christmas, she set to work and week after week she quilted until the Daughters of the Confederacy agreed to help find a buyer for her skillfully prepared "soldier's puzzle quilt." When Grandmother Parker finished the quilt, she simply signed the quilt "Mrs. L. C. Parker," and then it was time to "rest up." She was 78 and according to the article rented a single room in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A woman bought the quilt, identified in the newspaper article simply as Mrs. Rogers, for $15. Mrs. Rogers understood that the money would be applied toward the purchase of a tombstone for the confederate soldier.

The objective of the later years of Mrs. Parker's life had been satisfied. She would have a fitting memorial for the man she loved who died in support of the cause he believed in during the Civil War.

When the subject of quilts come up, it is evident that quilts are more than just keep-busy work, more than the making of functional bedcovers. The quilts often mirror history and ways of life and yet they remains timeless in design, appeal and usefulness.

In the Benton News of June 15 of this year, I told a story about a Soldier's Home which I found in the Biloxi Daily Herald of February 27, 1902, as a reprint from a Washington Star article, about a man by the name of John Billings, a man the paper described as a "grizzled old artilleryman from the soldier's home." Mr. Billings told the reporter that "I was sittin' on my bunk in a ward out in Leavenworth, and thinkin' it was a darn poor business just waiting for every day to get by. Then I get up and bought me 29 cents' worth of calico and a spool of cotton. And I've been sewing from that day to this. I can sew as straight a seam and as neat a seam as was ever sewed by man or woman." John Billings sewed a large quilt and offered it to the Smithsonian Institution. For three years, this man of battle worked on that quilt, carefully cutting out and fitting 1,000 or more slender diamonds, working designs with the care and skill of an embroiderer, and hunting out insignia to render the completed product of the fullest possible significance.

The edges were sewn in three seams of satin--red, white and blue. In the corners were figures representing the four arms of the service--crossed guns for the infantry, crossed cannon for the artillery, an anchor for the Navy, and so forth. The flags of eight nations--Mexico, China, Morocco, Cuba, Spain, England, Turkey and Greece--were shown. The craftsman justified the flags by saying "Exceptin' alone for the Turks and the Greeks," he said, "the United States has licked the tar out of every one of those nations."

The central figure of the quilt--the feature which gave it its value in the maker's eyes--was a star of eight points, composed of small varied-colored diamonds and arranged to serve as a frame for pictures of Washington, Lincoln, Grant, Garfield and McKinley. They were sewn into place with such care that the line of the seams looked like the true edge of the photograph. "Those five men represent my sentiments," said Artilleryman Billings, "and the rest of the quilt won't amount to a darn without 'em."

As the bombardment began of Fort Sumter in mid-April 1861 and President Lincoln responded carefully avoiding the use of the word "war" but calling up 75,000 volunteers for three months of military service, neither side was adequately prepared to provide food, clothing or other necessities for an army. Women by the thousands formed Soldier's Aid Societies to sew, knit and collect food and medical supplies to be sent to the troops. By mid-June 1861, the United States Sanitary Commission was created (disbanded in May 1866) to coordinate the volunteer efforts of women who wanted to contribute to the war effort of the Union states. Some estimates are that the contributions of women through the Sanitary Commission reduced deaths from disease by half. Their contributions also greatly reduced the suffering of the wounded and eased the daily life of soldiers living in arduous circumstances far from home. They raised money, worked as nurses, ran kitchens in the Army camps, administered hospital ships, made uniforms, and organized Sanitary Fairs to support the Federal army with funds and supplies.

If you walk into the Berwick Hospital, you can find a quilt hanging on the cafeteria wall put there by Ann F. Diseroad, Bloomsburg. It will hang in that location through August 29 as part of a textile show that she is running. Ann has an interesting story to tell about this quilt and about support that soldiers received from their women at home through the making of care packages and civil-war quilts.

On Tuesday evening at 7 on October 21, Ann Diseroad will speak at St. Paul's Episcopal Church Social Hall, Iron and Main Streets, Bloomsburg, which will draw upon local period newspapers, letters and diaries to examine local women's activities and contributions to the Union war effort and soldiers' responses to them. On display will be replicas of items made for soldiers created using directions published during the Civil War or copied from surviving examples to give the audience a firsthand taste of mid-19th century life.

Featured will be a Civil War Soldier Memorial Quilt dedicated to the memory of George W. Perkins, a Greenwood Township Civil War veteran who was Ann's great-grandfather. The quilt, made of Civil War reproduction fabrics, is based on one of only five known surviving quilts made for the Sanitary Commission. Hand-inked blocks recount and illustrate Sgt Perkins's military record with a replica of the Regimental Colors which he saved and planted on the top of Lookout Mountain in Tennessee when the original color bearer was mortally wounded during the Tennessee Campaign.

The lecture is free and sponsored by the Columbia County Historical and Genealogical Society.

 

August 10, 2008. It is the birthday of Erika Lenbergs, Jermey Griffith, Ken Sutton, Elizabeth Christian and Marcia Becker. Today is the birthday of Herbert Hoover, born in Iowa in 1874, son of a Quaker blacksmith. He ran for president in 1928 and within the year the 1929 stock market crash sent the country into the economic collapse. Please keep Dr. John Herbert Laubach, a resident of Bonham Nursing Home, Stillwater, in your prayers.

On this day in 1833, Chicago was incorporated as a village with a population of about 200 people. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson met on this day back in 1776 to come up with a design for the Great Seal of the United States. They chose a motto E Pluribus Unum, meaning "Out of Many, One," but Congress rejected it, then six years later accepted it.

Around the Area...
. The Central Susquehanna Valley Thruway project, which would have provided traffic relief around Shamokin Dam and Northumberland, appears to be dead for good. The state Transportation Department issued its 12-year program of improvements to state highways, but failed to mention the Central Susquehanna Valley Thruway project put into "hibernation" by PennDOT last month.

. The second-largest solar power plant in the nation may be heading for Nesquehoning, 58 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA, located smack dab in the middle of coal country between Hazleton and Jim Thorpe. The $65 million plant would generate 10.6 megawatts of power and begin operations by the end of 2009. The state of Pennsylvania makes it attractive for industry to invest in alternative energy. Utilities must acquire a portion of their power from renewable sources by 2021.

. The September issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine includes State College as one of the 50 next great adventure towns, a good choice of location for the future.

. Bradford County commissioners are off on a fact-finding trip from August 10-14 to the place where horizontal gas drilling began in the Barnett Shale formations of Wise County, Texas, to see how that county has been affected by a gas drilling. Lycoming County commissioners recently made a similar trip to Texas

Didja know that tomatoes, botanically speaking, are a fruit? Now that they are producing, only water the plants in the morning and don't overwater. Don't water either the fruit or the leaves.

I spent a little time last week staining my fingers and my lips blue picking "huckleberries" on North Mountain. The berries are exceptionally sweet this year. Wild blueberries in this area are frequently called "huckleberries," and are wonderful for eating and fun to pick. American colonists when they found the native American blueberry misidentified it as the European blueberry known as the "hurtleberry." The berry was called by that name, but as we have so often pointed out generations of sloppy pronunciation and spelling have coined a new word, in this case "huckleberry."

Didja ever notice that the pursuit of truth
is a lot like picking huckleberries?
You are going to miss an awful lot
if you only go at it from one direction.

Does anyone else not want to see Elizabeth Edwards grilled on the love life of her husband?

 

August 9, 2009. It is the birthday of Doug Deitrick. On this day in...

1173, construction began on the (Leaning) Tower of Pisa, and it took two centuries to complete.

1945, an atomic bomb, code named "Fat Man," was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan, killing an estimated 70,000-90,000 people.

1974, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, became president.

Quote of the Day:
I use the word "fat." I use that word because that's what people are: they're fat. They're not bulky; they're not large, chunky, hefty or plump. And they're not big-boned. Dinosaurs were big-boned. These people are not overweight: this term somehow implies there is some correct weight. There is no correct weight. Heavy is also a misleading term. An aircraft carrier is heavy; it's not fat. Only people are fat, and that's what fat people are! They're fat!
--George Carlin

It isn't possibly for me to comprehend the concept of a thousand million--which we usually call a "billion," the number "one" followed by nine zeros--a term often applied to money and tossed around as if it didn't mean anything. General Motors lost 15.5 billion in three months. Yesterday, for example an estimated 40 billion people world-wide (the obviouly inflated figure reported by www.chinanews.cn) witnessed the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, If somehow you missed the combining of ancient history with modern high technology, you missed quite a show! This will be a short edition. The Olympics were on at the time I usually set aside to write the News.

Today's edition of the Benton News isn't pleasant! It is devoted to problems identified and experienced by readers. There is no need to identify the readers, but if after reading further you would like to contact them, I'll gladly provide your email to them. If they wish to contact you, they can.

The problems deal with guardian abuse of elderly people and with Lime Disease.

Let's start with the website www.stopguardianabuse.org, the home of NASGA (National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse). Guardianships are used for soldiers, accident victims, and the mentally impaired, as well as senior citizens. Regretfully--and here I quote from the web site--"a growing uncaring and unjust judicial system has helped convert guardianship/conservatorship from an appropriate law to one which, if misused, is damaging to the general public. At present, it operates to ensnare the most vulnerable people in a larger and larger trawling net, now including those merely physically 'incapacitated'! It has become a feeding trough for unethical lawyers and other "fiduciaries" appointed by the courts to protect, but many of whom become nothing more than predators."

Wards are being victimized, losing their "freedom, property and their very lives, due to a lack of monitoring by individual judges and court administrators," and lack of oversight of the courts by state and federal legislatures."

Members of NASGA are dedicated individuals with personal experience with guardianship or conservatorship problems. They are former victims or family members of victims whose mission is to end unlawful and abusive guardianship or conservatorship practices. They have seen first-hand the professional predators engaged in self-enrichment.

The second part of today's harangue is about Lyme disease and was suggested by a recent graduate of the Benton Area Schools who acquired it when she lived locally in 2004, but wasn't discovered until just a couple months ago. On top of that diagnosis, she was recently diagnosed with Parvovirus. The combination of these two diseases is absolutely painful. Let's stop at this point and make sure you understand both issues.

. Lyme Disease. Lyme disease (borreliosis) is an infectious, tick-borne disease transmitted to humans by the bite of infected hard ticks. Symptoms may include fever, headache, fatigue, depression, and skin rash. The joints, heart, and nervous system can be affected if not treated. Delayed or inadequate treatment can be disabling and difficult to treat.

. Parvovirus. This disease, often simply known as "parvo," affects dogs, wolves, and foxes, and some species will infect cats. "Canine parvovirus" is deadly among young puppies about 80% of the time, causing gastrointestinal tract damage and dehydration. An adult human can be infected with parvovirus and either have no symptoms or develop a rash, joint pain or swelling. Joints in the hands, wrists, and knees on both sides of the body are sometimes affected.

If you feel joint pain and chronic fatigue--even though you don't have classic "bulleye" rash--get tested for Lyme Disease to prevent a horror story. Your body could end up feeling 10-20 years older. Parvovirus is something to get tested for, even though there is no medication to treat it. At least you will have answers on why you feel the way you do.

The reader who contracted both diseases has experienced severe joint pain and chronic fatigue. When the cause of the problem was diagnosed, she immediately began taking antibiotics twice a day. "Some days," she told the Benton News, "I wouldn't experience anything. On other days, I would feel like I got hit by a truck. I couldn't go in the sun due to the medication. I would become burned. I couldn't drink milk or eat any milk products two hours before or two hours after. The one time I didn't listen to the doctor of not laying down for at least an hour after taking the medication I awoke the next morning with my throat practically swollen."

The reader also suffers from vitamin D deficiency. She was encouraged to be out in the sun more often, but couldn't because of the burns she experienced. After three weeks, she thought she might get better. She didn't. She still suffered from severe joint pain so bad that sometimes she would just cry. It switched between her left knee and ankle and right knee and ankle. The doctors thought it was just the Lyme acting up. But it wasn't. While at the doctor's office for "what seems like the hundredth time in a few months," they ran more tests and determined that she tested positive for Parvo, the ailment known as the "Fifth Disease" in children. It's something that is not too severe by any means in children but if you get it as an adult it's pretty much debilitating.

The reader is in the "later stages" of the disease. She is in need of prayer that this disease can be cured and put behind her. Remember that prayers go up and blessings come down. There is no medication to treat the disease; it simply has to "run its course."

Treasure the love you receive above all.
It will survive long after your good health has vanished.

 

August 8, 2008. It is the birthday of Shawn Becker, William Mather and Scott Maguire. It was on this day in 1917 when a letter written by John W. Knouse, Benton, to the Editor of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader was published. In his letter, Mr. Knouse asked, "does the late law of this state allow automobiles to run more than 15 miles per hour in cities and boroughs? If so, what is the limit? Also, what is the limit in the country? The response from the newspaper editor stated that "the state law allows 24 miles an hour in country, but cities, boroughs and townships have different laws fixed by local authorities. In Wilkes-Barre it is 24 miles and Luzerne country limit is the same."

Sign Seen Thursday in the Consignment Gallery, Carlisle:
"Eat, Drink and Bloody Mary."

Frontier Communications Corporation customers will have to identify themselves as of August 12 when sending mail through their outgoing mail servers. If you are an EPIX customer, find out if this change will impact you or any of the computer users in your home or business by heading to http://www.frontierhelp.com/smtp.

Didja ever notice how a neighbor will spend half an hour at your door talking because she "doesn't have time to come in?"

Typing is one of the most important subjects taught in the elementary schools today. Can't type? Go to www.pinokiosoft.com/downloads.html to download a free typing tutor to help you learn quick and blind keyboard emulation through a simple and colorful interface using personal exercises.

Didja notice how our language has changed in our lifetime? I attempted to explain a computer concept in a recent Benton News and a reader told me it was simply "Greek" to her. Here is a word most of you won't remember: "gozinter." Many from the generation prior to mine would remember that word. It would be used in a sentence like "one gozinter two, two gozinter four, three gozinter six." Some may remember that we sang about the "consecrated cross-eyed bear" in Sunday school. Others might remember that creature of speed and endurance, the "equator," or "menagerie lion that ran around the earth." Other words I don't hear much today include "baluster," "bivouac," "espy" (with a small "e"), " flummoxed," "hobnob"--well, heck, when you come across an old word and you don't know its meaning head to the list of archaic or unusual words used in John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's works which you can find here.

Didja ever think that the Government's acquiring of money and power is a lot like teenage boys getting their first car and their first beer on the same night?

Bill Vezendy is the scheduled speaker at the North Mountain Historical Society meeting for August. The Monday, August 18, breakfast session will address the subject of Indians with the resident expert on the subject. Bill has organized the Indian Artifact Collectors Association of the Northeast (IACANE) Artifact Show at Nescopeck Township Fire Hall for the past 10 years. Bill also organizes the Indian Artifact Show at the PP&L Information Center held annually in February. He also helped put on Indian artifact presentations at Francis Slocum State Park for the last nine years at its annual Heritage Days in October. His presentations for the Shickshinny Historical Society, Potter County Historical Society and Berwick Historical Society and local Boy Scout groups are always well received. Bill last spoke to the History Buffs three years ago.

For the August meeting, he will talk about the Indians who lived in our area, how long they lived here, where they lived and will explain the different stone tools they made. Bill will have "a show and tell" display of different artifacts for people to look at and discuss during his talk. He'll discuss the materials they used in making these tools and where they acquired these materials. Bill has agreed that after the meeting, weather permitting, he will demonstrate an Atlatl, a primitive spear-throwing device. Many missed his demonstration three years ago when he showed the weapon and astonished those who saw it by landing within three inches of the center "bull's eye." Members of the audience who have items they want identified, or if they want to make sure that they are real or if they would just like to show them off the group, or would like to know the approximate value will be in luck at this meeting. Bring your Indian artifacts with you and join in the discussion.

The North Mountain History Group meets about 8 in the morning for breakfast and about 9 the speaker climbs behind the podium. The meeting is always free and open to the public.

West Chester University Associate Professor Christine Thomas RN, MSN, DNSc, will speak regarding exercise in older adults at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center Monday, August 11, at 11 AM. The PowerPoint presentation will be of interest to members of the Senior Center and the "Sit 'n Fit" exercise class. There is no charge to attend this informative discussion.

 

 

August 7, the 220th day of 2008. There are 46 days until the official start of autumn. It is the birthday of Lori Roberts Tunaitis, James Fox, Rod Pennington, Terry Griffith, William Mather and Prairie Home Companion storyteller and host Garrison Keillor.

Didja know that August is Pennsylvania Produce Month? Our fruits and vegetables are delicious and nutritious. The vegetables from our state are not transported thousands of miles across the country in refrigerated trucks which gobble up high-priced fossil fuels in order to appear on our tables. They come from nearby family farmers. Where are they located you ask? The Benton Farmer's Market and the Forks Farm Market are great places to start. The Columbia-Montour Tourist Bureau has a "Homegrown in the Valleys" brochure at www.itourcolumbiamontour.com/pdfs/brochures/homegrown.pdf where you can find farmer's markets.

September 11 is when Pennsylvania's smoking ban--known as the Clean Indoor Air Act--goes into effect. The Keystone state will join 32 other states that have some type of smoking ban. Smoking will be prohibited in a public place or a workplace, except in bars and taverns with food sales totaling 20% or less, private clubs, cigar bars and adult-care facilities. Smoking will be prohibited in 75% of sleeping quarters in lodging establishments and 75% of casino floors must remain smoke-free.

Email continues to filter in asking about my knee and when the operation will take place. I did see a number of surgeons and sports-medicine doctors and decided to postpone the surgery as long as possible. An injection was a great relief. The episode reminds me of the old story about the two young physicians who were struggling to get a foothold in their profession. They discussed their profession with each other and the discussion turned to the last patient one of them handled. "Yes," one of the doctors remarked, "the operation was just in the nick of time. In another 24 hours the patient would have recovered without it."

The historical groups of East Lycoming, Montgomery and Muncy are combining efforts to mark the 105th anniversary of the beginning of Civil War in 2011. Because of the movement of people from place to place, our ancestors may have originated in these Lycoming County locations. These historical groups have graciously extended an invitation to pay homage to our Civil War ancestors with roots in the East Lycoming, Montgomery and Muncy areas. Consider this advance notice in order to gather information and be included in such a historical event. Particulars are being worked out and the Benton News will keep you informed.

Ethan Minier, a senior at Benton High School, is raising money for his trip to Spain. He will travel to Spain in July 2009 with his Spanish Club. There will be a family-style ham dinner at the Raven Creek Memorial Hall, off Route 239 on Upper Raven Creek Road from 4 until 7 PM September 13, 2008 with the proceeds going toward the cost of the trip. For more information, call Ethan or his mother, Michele Minier, at 925-2845 or 854-1390, or consult the Upcoming Events section.

If a computer user heads to the wrong internet site, serious consequences to the computer could result. A useful application involving security for Firefox users warns users about risky websites that try to scam visitors, deliver malware, or send spam. The program is known as WoT and can be downloaded here. After downloading, a small circle appears on the left side of the Firefox toolbar. The circle changes colors according to the site's security rating: dark green means the site is secure, yellow means that you should exercise caution, and red means to expect the worst if you go to the site. Sites are rated by users for trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy, and child safety.

Have you noticed how much slower your computer is now than when you bought it? The more you use your computer, the slower it gets. As the Dutch would say, "the git-up and go has got-up and went." If your PC is running at a fraction of its original performance, try the free PC Pitstop Optimize 2.0 scan now.

The end of the dog days of summer (on August 11 this year), meant to me that returning to school was just around the corner. In this vein, I asked a neighborhood boy if he liked going to school. He told me that he did, then thought for a second and added that "I like coming home, too. It's the staying there in-between that I don't like."

We'll close with some toughies! Wet your lips, lean back in your chair and tell yourself that you can do this fast. Ready? Let's start. Read the following out loud very quickly.

Some shun sunshine,
Do you shun sunshine?

See how easy that was. Let's try another. Before long you'll be ready to read the complete works of Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation and other awful articulation.

Bitty Batter bought some butter
"But," said she, "this butter's bitter.
If I put it in my batter,
It will make my batter bitter."
So she bought some better batter,
And she put the better batter in the bitter batter,
And made the bitter batter better.

And another...

She sawed six slick, sleek, slim, slender saplings. Or how 'bout this one--"Cross crossings cautiously."

And finally...

Frivolous fat Fannie fried fresh fish furiously Friday forenoon for four famished Frenchmen.

Want more? Go here.

 

August 6, 2008, It is the birthday of Tom Becker, Camp Hill, and Joyce Keller, Iklertown.

Even the best anti-virus software doesn't catch everything and if it does it doesn't always disable it. Microsoft has a "Malicious Software Removal Tool" for these situations. When the tool runs, it detects and removes any malicious software it finds on your computer. If your computer is running up-to-date anti-virus software, it is simply another layer of protection and probably not needed. The tool is installed with Vista and is available for Windows XP by typing mrt.exe in the Search field on the Start menu. You'll need to choose the type of scan to perform: Quick, Full or Custom. Choose a Quick scan to start. Your computer will quickly scan the areas of a computer that are likely to contain malicious software. A full scan checks the entire system for malware, but will take a few hours.

WHLM Radio, 930 on the AM dial, has pictures of the recent firemen's parade on its web site.

Today is the day that the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission will release information on potential toll-collection locations on I-80. (No, the Feds haven't blessed the concept of tolling I-80.) Many local residents use the Lightstreet and Buckhorn access to I-80. The Associated Press reported early Wednesday that the Turnpike Commission wants to let passenger cars with E-ZPass transponders zip free through the first toll plaza, not charging until the car passes through a second tollbooth. Go here to learn the proposed tolling locations on I-80.

The Borough of Ebensburg, west of Altoona on route 22, 160 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA, signed a five-year natural gas-drilling lease for a $2.6 million with GFI Oil & Gas, Williamsport. Ebensburg has 1,300 acres for drilling. Does anyone think that the Borough of Benton should do the same?

Boscov's announced Monday that it plans to close ten stores including the one at the Harrisburg East Mall and other locations in Pennsylvania as the company seeks protection through Chapter 11 bankruptcy. None of the local Boscov's is affected at this time. The chain opened in 1911 when Solomon Boscov began selling merchandise in the Reading area.

Father once told the story of a man who put his hand in a mule's mouth to see how many teeth the mule had. The mule closed his mouth to see how many fingers the man had. Curiosity can be a wonderful thing. If you were a baby moose, what would you be curious about, what would tickle you the most? Get your answer at http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=yNy9jTeolUk.

Didja ever think that we were all taught to respect our elders, but now there are so few left to respect?

The Meadows Kitchen Band will appear on the stage at the Montour County Montour-Delong Community Fair arena August 14 starting at 6:30 PM. This is not your ordinary band. The soloist is 96 and the band director keeps time by banging two sticks together. The band has a pianist and guitarist, but the rest of the group simply blows on something, bangs on something or shakes something. The string bass, for example, is a wash tub and strings fastened to a broom handle. One 80-year old player uses thimbles to bring the music out of a washboard. There is a maraca player (a rumba shaker, using an instrument native to Puerto Rico) someone plays the kazoo and still another keeps time on a tambourine. The rehearsal studio for the band is Maria Joseph Manor, an assisted living community in Danville. The 70th Annual Montour-DeLong Community Fair, "Fun For the Whole Herd," runs from August 11-16. This is a great fair for you to visit and take a load off your mind by playing cow-flop bingo, watching the powder puff/double-tree tractor pull, or listening to groups like The Bill Country Stompers, Shamalama, the Lucky Afternoon Band or Van Wagner.

If you are a student, teacher or staff member and you buy a Macintosh computer with your education discount before September 15, 2008, you can get a free iPod touch or iPod nano after rebate. Head to your Apple Store for more information.

Zelda M. (Krum) Dell (August 8, 1923-August 5, 2008), died Tuesday morning at her home at 3118 S. R. 487, Orangeville. She was 84. Mrs. Dell was born in Danville. She was a daughter of Thornton and Margaret M. (Beyers) Krum. She was a 1942 graduate of Danville High School. Mrs. Dell attended Stillwater Christian Church and was a member of the Benton Senior Citizens Center.

Surviving are Mrs. Dell's children Edward E. Dell, Jr., (Minneapolis, MN); Charlene M. Zappini, Harrisburg; Robert L. Dell, Sr. (Kathy), Orangeville; Thomas H. Dell (Sandy), Nashville; Steven C. Dell (Elizabeth), Orangeville; James M. Dell (Juhee), Lubbock, TX; Beverly S. Hefner (Richard), Pampa, TX; Barry A. Dell, Orangeville; There are 9 grandchildren; 6 great grandchildren and a brother-in-law, Donald Dell, Lewisburg. She was preceded in death by her husband, Edward E. Dell, Sr. on May 27, 1982, and by her parents. She was also preceded in death by her brothers Staff Sgt. Roy A. Krum, killed in action during World War II, and by Denton E. Krum. Funeral services will be held Thursday, August 7, at 2 PM with viewing preceding at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc. Private burial will be in the Columbia Hill Church Cemetery, Buckhorn.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary will be published by the Press Enterprise in its edition of August 6, 2008

 

August 5, 2008. It is the birthday of Bill Allegar.

On the Mend...
. Richard Sutliff is "gradually returning to normal" now that he is out of the hospital and the rehabilitation center. Dick currently weighs "202 pounds, having lost 128 pounds with only 22 to go to reach the goal of 180."

. Nancy Smith Shea is now living in an assisted living home following a fall and surgery to repair damage in her back. Daughter Jim McHenry, wife of local businessman Dean Kriner, tells us that Nancy did not come out of the surgery as hoped. She refuses to eat, get up and exercise and it appears that the anesthesia caused some dementia. Some readers will remember Nancy Shay's parents, Ross and Edna Smith, Market Street.

. Beatrice Roberts, Third Street, continues "in a lot of pain" following her hip replacement. She is confined to bed on her back. At this point, she is not allowed to sit up.

Didja hear about the couple who bought a new-to-them house on Route 487? The husband's mother came to visit and told her daughter-in-law that the traffic on the busy highway would bother the couple. The daughter-in-law was ready for the meddling of the mother-in-law. She quickly said that she was told that after the first few nights, the noise would not bother her and went on to say that the first few nights they would simply stay at her mother's house.

Jim and Dotty Moore of the Benton/Stillwater community will share some of their videography which was shot locally if you head over to a place they call "Close to Home," which can be found at http://www.joyinthemorningetc.com/close-to-home.html, Consider bookmarking this URL, since Jim updates his site to keep it fresh from time to time. The videograhy shown in today's videos was shot at Ricketts Glen State Park.

Quickies...
. Deep Purple by Larry Clinton was the number 1 song in the United States the week I was born. Everybody's Somebody's Fool by Connie Francis was number 1 the first time I got married. Know how I remember that trivia? I head over to www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm. What was number 1 the week you were born? Or the week your oldest child was born?

. Mike Lester and Gary Pang have teamed on the gas lease/drilling beat for the Press Enterprise. If you have a gas-leasing topic you would like to discuss, contact either Mike or Gary at 570 387-1234.

. In answer to the question of how good an investment of "mad money" might be in General Motors Corporation, bear in mind that in the second quarter, General Motors lost $172 million per day. In case you care to count, that is $15.5 billion in three months. Now please answer your own question. Is General Motors currently a good investment?

. It seems everyone knows more about car engines than I do. Maybe that is why I think the Engine Identification Trivia Game at www.americantorque.com/game/engine-id/ is neat.

. Mitch Crawford, 18, Bloomsburg, the "2007 King of Wings," will be up against some heavy hitters as he defends his title of King of Wings during the Rod & Custom Cruise-In's hot wing-eating contest at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds on Saturday, August 9, at 2 PM. The contest is sponsored by Quaker Steak and Lube. Mitch could compete against you in the contest if you are the additional participant chosen at random at Saturday's show to compete to receive the $100 gift certificate to The Lube.

Didja ever think that grit ruins machinery and makes men?

On Saturday evening, Buster, our Bichon Frise, panicked from the sirens of fire trucks and the explosions of small firecrackers. He ran away from where we were camping along Fishing Creek and spent his first night alone in the woods. Buster's account of the "incident" follows...

"There was an incident. It started with all the people that Leader called "relatives" who came to the campground last week and stayed through the weekend. They came, Leader said, from as far away as California, which I guess is somewhere across the creek in a place I have never been. When I was in my favorite sleeping time, children would insist on petting me or would want to go on walks in the woods. I went with them to make sure they were protected from wolves.

"Then it happened. We came back to the house where Leader and Mother live with me and the noise began. What Leader calls "fire trucks" began making the noise that hurts my ears. They were all outside my house. I was afraid that my house on fire. Leader was nowhere around so that I couldn't pass the problem along to him. The noise finally ended, and I began to take a nap. The noise started up again. Leader was still nowhere to be found, but I knew he would be scared and needed me to calm him down.

"But there was worse and more of it! After the dark came, we went to the campground for the night and suddenly there was awful noise and bright lights. Children sat on their parents laps to keep calm. Lights and noise were everywhere in the sky. I couldn't find either Mother or Leader to keep them calm. I figured the end of the world had arrived and my girlfriend "She" and I took off on a dead run heading for our house--although we were not exactly sure where that was! I later found out that someone found "She" and brought her back to the campground, but being stronger and able to run faster I made it into the woods. I ran until I couldn't run any longer, then I had to take a nap.

"I don't know where I spent the night. I remember that I barked most of the night to keep the wolves away and to let Leader know where I was. Leader claims that about 15 people looked for me most of the night, but I never saw them. When the light came after my nap, I was able to find my way back to the campground. I kissed everyone, and they kissed me and hugged me and gave me so many of my favorite biscuits that I didn't feel well. My legs were weak, I weaved all over when I walked and when I tried barking in joy only funny, quiet little noises came out of my throat. I took a nap that lasted all day. I noticed that Leader and Mother did the same thing. You would have thought that it was them that spent the night in the wilderness!"

 

Sunday, August 3, and Monday, August 4, 2008, have been combined into one edition of the Benton News. Beatrice Roberts is home and resting comfortably following a hip replacement in the Berwick Hospital.

Sunday, August 3, 2008, was the birthday of Terry Hack and the anniversary of Rick and Maryann Bardo. Leon Robbins is "either 93 or 95," but he is not able to remember which. It is the yearly Painter Den Family Picnic today. On this day in 1933, the Philadelphia Athletics beat the New York Yankees, 7-0. The Yankees had posted the somewhat unbelievable feat of playing 308 straight games without being shut out, beginning August 2, 1931. Two years and one day later, Lefty Grove stopped the streak, blanking Ruth, Gehrig, Dickey and the Bombers, 7-0. Two years ago on this day, with a Cuba Sí, Castro No! and Se Acabó! -- the ailing Fidel Castro temporarily yielded power in Cuba to his brother Raul. The Eric Fricke organ concert in the Benton Christian Church was a huge hit with the audience of about 70.

Monday, August 4, 2008. It is the birthday of Roxie Walters. Ron and Faye Igou celebrate their wedding anniversary. Jazz musician and Grammy Award-winning singer Louis Armstrong was born on this date in 1901 in New Orleans. He got the nickname Satchmo, short for "Satchel Mouth." He learned the cornet in 1913 when he was sent to a reform school. On this date in 1693, a monk named Dom Perignon invented champagne at the Benedictine Abbey of Hautvillers in the region of Champagne, northern France. His first champagne was made by re-fermenting wine in the spring and then placing it in sealed bottles to make the wine sparkling.

Buster is back! He arrived at 5:30 Sunday morning, wagging his body as much as his tail at the sight of Leader and Mother. Buster had taken off following the continuous sounding of the fire sirens during the firemen's parade and the discharge of some fireworks which scared him. He spent his first night outside and didn't find his way home until the light of the day.

 

August 2, 2008. It is the 75th birthday of John Sibly. It is the night of the annual Firemen's Parade. Here is the plan for the parade. The parade forms at 4:30 PM on Colley Street. The parade moves at 5:30 PM from the fire hall on Colley Street to Main Street (at the Fishingcreek Bridge), then north on Main Street to the "square, then west on Market to Third Street, north on Third to North Street, then east to Main Street and south on Main Street to Colley Street. Those individuals and organizations who will not make the second swing through town will drop off by turning south at the fire hall. The fun is ready to begin on the next circling of the parade. Usually only fire trucks and apparatus make the second trip. The smaller and more apprehensive parade then hears north on Third, east on North Street, then south on Main Street "with guns a firing!" to Colley Street. From there a bunch of tired and wet firemen and spectators will spend the rest of the evening at the Benton Firemen's Carnival.

"Water Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink."

Landowners in the geographic area of southwestern Ross Township, Luzerne County can now better learn the current market conditions and issues regarding leasing of their gas, oil and mineral rights by going to www.swrosstwp.com/. Penn State Cooperative Extension in Columbia County is offering a water quality educational meeting for landowners who may be located near existing or future gas well-drilling activity. The program will include an information session by Bryan Swistock, Water Resources Extension Specialist, Penn State University Extension. The topics covered include how gas wells can impact groundwater wells, regulations to protect private wells, potential water pollutants and water testing strategies to monitor the safety of your water. The program will be held on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 from 7-9 PM at the Benton Area High School auditorium. Admission is $5, payable at the door.

Water testing through Penn State’s Analytical Services Lab will be available in conjunction with this program. There will be water test kits available at the program for participants to take home, collect a water sample, and then return the sample to the Penn State Extension Office at 702 Sawmill Road, Bloomsburg, on August 27, 2008 from 7-10 AM. Several water testing packages specifically for gas-well activity sites will be available at a 20% discount. During the program, Mr. Swistock will also explain how to interpret your test results.

To register for the program, contact the Columbia County Penn State Cooperative Extension office, 784-6660 ext. 11 or via email at Columbiaext AT psu.edu.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing special accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Dave Hartman at (570) 784-6660 ext. 12 prior to your participation or visit

Didja ever think that beer drinkin'
don't do half the harm of love makin'?

Quickies...
• PPL Corp. (PPL) reported a decline in second-quarter earnings and lowered its full-year earnings forecast. The second-quarter earnings were $190 million, down from $345 million in the same period of 2007. Its 2008 forecast of earnings per share from ongoing operations to between $2.25 and $2.35, down from between $2.35 and $2.45 per share.

• Independent presidential Ralph Nader filed a petition yesterday to be on the Pennsylvania November ballot as a presidential candidate. Nader is reported to be hoping to get on the ballot in 45 states. As a Green Party nominee in 2000, he is often attributed to the loss of Al Gore as the Democratic nominee.

• "Believe you me," was one of Father's favorite ways of making sure that the person he was talking with knew that he was deadly serious about a point. Sentences that are not constructed in subject-verb-object order seem out of place today, but when we have used the term since childhood it seems OK.

• In 1911, following the Benton Fire of July 4, 1910, the total real estate valuation of the town of Benton was $145,245 according to the Argus. In the Borough at the time of the fire, there were 80 horses and 33 cows according to an Argus article. Three adjoining farms formerly owned by Alvin and Ellis Sutliff, just north of Benton and totaling about 279 acres, were sold for $40,800 at public auction in August, 1963. Otto Little, proprietor of the Otto Little and Son lumber yard in Benton, purchased the main farm of 100 acres owned by Alvin Sutliff for $23,900 and David Floyd Sr., Benton, bought the 47-acre airport farm, also owned by Alvin, for $4,900. Lyle Benjamin, Waller, purchased the 83-acre farm owned by Ellis for a sum of $12,000. Each had a house, barn and other outbuildings. A fourth farm now owned by an Amish family, owned by J. B. Sutliff, 86 acres, remained for sale. The sale was attended by an estimated 500 persons. Also sold was a herd of 130 purebred Guernsey milk cows for a total of $25,000. The top cow was sold for $485. At least a dozen of the cows were purchased by Canadian dairymen and many others by herdsmen from New York. The sale of farm machinery totaled $16,598 and more than 100 tons of hay was sold for an average price of $30.50 per ton. John Merryman, Sparks, MD, was the auctioneer and the sale was managed by the Pennsylvania Guernsey Breeders Association.

 

August 1, 2008. It's the birthdays of Brian Becker, Camp Hill; Shirley Keller, Dotyville; Barbara King, Benton; Carol Bath, Bendertown; and Seth Eyer, Millville. The Benton News will not be published on a predictable schedule through next Tuesday

Quickies...
.The Guv seems to have a significant say in the picking of the Vice President for the presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama, and tends, according to various newspapers, to favor Scranton native Delaware U.S. Senator Joseph Biden.

. Angel Food Ministries order forms for August can be delivered to the Benton United Methodist Church today from 5 to 7 PM or on Saturday from 8 AM to noon.

. Congratulations to Tyler Brewington for his Wednesday tie for 10th place in the Huntsville Golf Club's 95th Pennsylvania Amateur Championship at Saucon Valley Country Club. Tyler fired a 4-over-par 75 on the day to total 5-over for the tournament.

. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the prognosis for recovery from Hodgkin's disease is "excellent" for U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and that he intends to seek election to a sixth term in 2010.

. Pam Thomas found a framed-marriage certificate in a box of frames. She would like to locate a family member who would like to have it. The certificate is dated December 25, 1894, and it commemorates the marriage of Alfred J. Hess and Edith M. Cole, both of Waller. Pam's number is 925-1219.

. The folks in the Cambra area are getting ready for the community yard sales Saturday morning starting promptly at 8 AM.

. There are people scratching their heads this morning wondering why it is they signed a natural-gas lease and the check for the lease payment was not made as promised. Could it be that some of the players in the natural-gas play are not of the caliber of most of our local people?

Williams Pipeline Company wants to hire an employee at the facility outside of Divide on Pole Bridge Road. No applications are taken at the facility. The company is looking for people who" thrive in a dynamic environment." Team members are paid competitive salaries and provided with an attractive benefit plan that includes insurance, matching 401k and pension plan and more! The job is to maintain and operate a natural gas-compressor station and facilities including engine-driven reciprocating natural-gas compressors, turbine-driven centrifugal compressors and their ancillary equipment (pumps, heat exchangers, filters, instrumentation and controls, etc.), piping, valves, separators, storage tanks, reciprocating air compressors, auxiliary generator, etc. Maintain and/or operate all pipeline facilities including valves, piping, pigging activities, right-of-way, and inspection of third-party activities, meter stations and regulator stations. Successful applicant will be required to learn all modes of station operations and be qualified and willing to work shift work and be on an on-call rotation if necessary. A high-school diploma is required. An associate's or two-year technical-school degree in mechanical, electronic or related field preferred. The person needs an ability to use computer programs. Individual must be self-motivated with a willingness and ability to work unsupervised. Natural gas pipeline or plant maintenance experience preferred. The job requires standing/walking, climbing stairs, ladders, scaffolds; bending, stooping and squatting; carrying and lifting items which sometimes weigh more than 45 lbs. The employee can be exposed to extreme heat and/or cold temperatures; high noise levels; enclosed spaces. To apply online, visit www.williams.com and select Job Title and/or Req. # 6330 or email your resume to Michael.Meacham AT williams.com.

In answer to the question as to where to put your money in this uncertain market, I would recommend an investment in gold, whether it be through bullion ownership, or indirectly through certificates, accounts, derivatives or shares. A politician won't mess up the value of gold. There are other rare metals that make sense; i.e., silver, rhodium and cobalt, to name a couple. Another area which will be a good investment is energy. Heck, look at Exxon where revenue soared 40% to $138.07 billion in the last quarter. Exxon's tax payment in 2007 was $30 billion and the company pays taxes at a rate of 41% on its taxable income! With the spend, spend, spend attitude in Washington, think of the loss in revenue to the country if Exxon was not profitable! And speaking of the clunkerheads in Washington, isn't it a shame that the one side of the aisle wanting to drill in ANWAR can't make up with the guy wanting to push solar or the guy convinced that hydrogen is the wave of the future, or the guy hot for wind, or the motion of the ocean, or nuclear energy. Most of us fully realize that it is going to take a concentrated look at all of these energy sources and that one single source of future energy won't solve the problem. Another area for investment is in the agricultural commodities, like coffee, cocoa and sugar, and raw metals like aluminum, copper, nickel and zinc. And don't forget fertilizers. Or water!

Ralph E. Snyder (August 4, 1925-July 30, 2008), formerly of the Benton area, died Wednesday at his home at 220 Lake Street, Dallas. He was 82. He was born in Trucksville. He was a son of the late Jacob and Ida (Myers) Snyder. Mr. Snyder was a 1943 graduate of Dallas Township High School and served in the U. S. Navy during World War II where he received the Pacific Theater Ribbon with one star; the American Theater Ribbon; the World War II Victory Medal and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon. He worked as a truck driver for Thomas Brown, Lehman, for 34 years, retiring in 1980. He last worked for Russell France in Dallas as a maintenance man. He was preceded in death by his wife, Hazel E. (Weidenbaugh) Wise Snyder on October 11, 2004. Surviving are his step children Linda Hartzell (David), Spring City, Barry D. Wise ( Galina), Royersford; Ronald W. Wise (Patricia), Royersford; Jay E. Wise, Benton; Susan Kolb (Nathan), Benton; 15 step grandchildren and 33 step great grandchildren. In addition to his wife, he was preceded in death by brothers Paul, Harry, and Emerson Snyder and by a half sister, Emma Coolbaugh. A visitation will be held Saturday morning from 10 until 11 at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc. with a graveside service to follow at 11:30 AM at the Idetown Cemetery, Lehman Township. Military rites will be accorded by a combined Veteran’s group.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary will be provided in the Press Enterprise in its edition of August 1, 2008.

 

July 31, 2008. On this date in 1792, construction began on the first building to be used only as a United States Government building, the United States Mint in Philadelphia. Don't forget the rodeo association meeting at the rodeo ground tonight at 7.

The Fair Advisory Board chaired by Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff, Millville, recommended and the Guv has signed a bill to provide grant funding for fairs in the 2008-09 fiscal year. Recipients include the...

. Troy Fair--$16,250 to expand parking facilities and vendor spaces by installing 2,500 feet of drainage pipe and 40 catch basins, along with additional dirt fill and surface material.

. Centre County Grange Fair--$16,250 to construct a new water line to improve restroom facilities.

. Bloomsburg Fair--$16,250 to replace the Industrial Building roof.

. Allentown Fair--$8,775 to blacktop Machinery Avenue.

. Luzerne County Fair--$4,392 to replace a pole barn roof.

. Northeast Fair--$16,250 to improve and install electrical system and to add a second handicapped-accessible restroom.

. Lycoming County Fair--$6,077 to concrete seating area and free band-shell floors, and add sheep and goat pens in the livestock area.

. Montour Delong Community Fair--$4,040 to construct a 14'x 40' milk house and milking area, including electric and lighting.

. Sullivan County Fair--$16,250 to improve handicapped accessibility by the grandstand, move the scales and scale house, build a retaining wall, and construct a larger seating area. For information on Pennsylvania's fairs and other agritourism programs, visit http://www.agriculture.state.pa.us.

Didja ever think that no one gives a hoot how well you dance? You'll be judged by whether you got up and tried.

Exactly what the "Sixties" meant was always something I couldn't understand. It didn't seem to be as simple as "the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969." Some people always want to make things harder and these people define the Sixties as being from about 1963 to 1973. Some counties will remember the Sixties as the period when the allegiance to a motherland ended and civil war and dictatorships began. In politics, it generally meant an upturn for liberals with the election of John F. Kennedy as president, Christian and Social Democrats in Italy and the Labour Party in England came to power.

Many could not get no satisfaction until they heard the music of the Sixties which you can remember by go here. You can take a Sixties trivia quiz by going here.

On these pages, we often look at a slice of time in our local area, but rarely do we look at music. Our early church upbringing was filled with happy memories of music. No song made me happier than singing about the Little Brown Church in the Vale, an actual church in Bradford, Iowa, immortalized by William Pitts in 1857 as he dreamed of his bride-to-be. The church was brown, the cheapest paint available. Pitts got $25 from a song publisher for the rights to the song. He used the money to enroll in Rush Medical College. The doctor practiced medicine until 1906. Traveling musicians loved the song and spread it across the United States and probably that is the way it initially made it both to Benton and into many song books.

Reading little snatches of writing from our ancestors gives us an idea of how music played a part in their lives. Fiddlers made their rounds hoping for a handout of a meal or a little money, playing tunes like "Turkey in the Straw" which set toes to tapping or feet to dancing.

Soon after World War I, rural young people began to abandon other amusements to devote the entire evening to dancing. The waltz and other graceful round dances were largely superseded by the "Bunny Hug" and the "Turkey Trot." The dance hall and road house began to invade the countryside. During the winter, dances were commonly held on Saturday night at the Isaac Walton barn with Jim "Ivory Knuckles" McHenry playing and Walt Kresge calling the dances. The Red Rock Dance Hall and the Light Street Grange were also popular. At exactly midnight, "Home, Sweet Home" was played so that no one danced on Sunday. The Pennsylvania Grange News wrote in 1918 that dancing in grange halls was the "leading cause of disrupting many Granges in Pennsylvania."

Drama and musical comedy were important in rural entertainment. Versions of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle and T. S. Arthur's Ten Nights in a Barroom toured the State. These plays were instrumental in bringing religious people to watch drama. Gilbert and Sullivan's musical comedy began thrilling audiences in places like the Catawissa and Benton Opera Houses.

Benton had its share of the minstrel shows. An example is the three-day minstrel of April 8-11, 1924 sponsored by the Benton Vocational School held at the Universal Theatre. The dialog would never be used in today's world, but it was certainly unique. An example is a monologue given by Eleanor Sands entitled "Minnie at the Skating Rink." Here is an example of some of the lines: "Did I git run into by a ottymobile? I did not! Ner a streetcar, neither. I been learning to skate on roller skates. And never agin fer Minnie, never no more! Roller skates? I'm off'n 'em fer life." You can read the complete dialog here. Another example was Lonesome Cinderella, originally performed by Fanny Brice, but performed at the Market Street Universal Theater by Mary Savage and a chorus from the school. Some works from "Dreamy Melody" followed, including Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye.

The Universal Theatre was the scene on May 7, 1924, of a Program of Music Week. The school orchestra opened, followed by A Pickaninny Lullaby, presented by the girls glee club. Pickaninny at that time was sometimes used to describe African American children and it is possible that the song was performed in blackface.

Eleanor Sands presented a paper on "National Music." T. Carl McHenry and Leona Masten performed a vocal duet "I Feel Thy Angel Spirit." Dale Smith rosined up the bow and played "Midnight Bells" on his violin. Robert Edson presented a paper on the "Classification of Music." There were violin and piano duos. The men's chorus performed Hangin' Out De Clo'es, by Words-Elsie Duncan Yale and music by J. Lincoln Hall.

The black-face minstrel show, sparked by "Sambo" and "Bones," was eventually replaced by variety shows and ultimately by the movies--that is, until television came along! The occasional minstrel show took place in the upper Fishing Creek valley into the 1960s. Pam Thomas remembers going into school--about second grade--and repeating some of the jokes, which were considered risqué at the time, and her teacher raising her eyebrows and putting in a call to Pam's parents. Luckily, she was a family friend and was more amused than appalled, but it resulted in Pam'sparents informing the young girl that she was not to repeat any more minstrel jokes!

Music groups included male quartets, stringed hands, women's glee clubs, orchestras, and mixed choruses. There were one-act plays, music, folk games and pageants. About a hundred years ago, the movie, phonograph, and radio began to take over everything--except dancing.

The kinetoscope was invented by Thomas A, Edison in 1889, and in 1896 the Edison Company presented the first silent moving picture in a theater. In 1908, moving picture theaters were common in cities, but there were few in rural towns until after 1910. By 1920, more than half the movie theaters in Pennsylvania were in towns of less than 5,000. The Universal Theatre in Benton, for example, was built in 1915 by Alonzo Houseweart. Mary Pickford was "America's Sweetheart" and Charles Chaplin's slap-stick comedy pleased the nation.

By 1910 the movie was the most popular amusement of rural young people, next to dancing, even though most pictures were concerned with sex, thrills, and the glamour of urban life. About this time, schools and churches began using movies as propaganda, education and entertainment.

Play that dreamy melody that soothing refrain. Play it sweet and tenderly. I don't know why it haunts me so I seem to hear it everywhere I go. Play that magic harmony 'twill linger forever just like a memory. Oh let me dream and play for me that melody.
--Dreamy Melody, (Ted Koehler/Frank Magine/C. Naset, 1922)

Didja ever notice that everyone seems to be trying to change humanity and no one tries to change himself?

Frederick R. Poust (May 4, 1929-July 27, 2008), Bethel Hill Road, Shickshinny and Lake Panasoffkee, Florida, (north of Bushnell) passed away Sunday at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. He was 79. Fred was born in Philadelphia, the son of the late Milton R. and Anna Schoen Poust. Prior to retiring, he was self-employed as a machinery consultant in metal shops. Both Fred and Helen served as Admissions Counselors at the Masonic Village, Elizabethtown. He was a member of the Sylvania Lodge 354 F&A.M.; Past Master of Bushnell Lodge 30 F&A.M.; Order of the Eastern Star 279, Bloomsburg, and Caldwell Consistory, Bloomsburg.

As Fred's health conditions permitted during the summer months, he enjoyed coming to Elk Grove for the monthly Brass Pelican history group meetings. On several occasions, Fred provided the group with a song prior to the start of the meeting. Because of his gritty determination, Fred would "run out of air" as the last crystal-clear note was sung and would immediately get reconnected to his constant companion, his oxygen tank. His voice, which served him so well for his entire life, never failed him.

He was preceded in death by sons Kurt Allan and Karl Mark; and brothers, William and Daniel. Surviving is his wife, the former Helen Philippi; sons: Fred Robert Jr., Perkasie; Charles Kenneth, Crawford, Georgia; Robert Richard, Perkasie; and Eric Curtis Telford; daughters Kristine Lazowicki, Boyertown; and Heidi Ann Strouse, Sellersville; sisters: Anna Ludlow, Boca Raton, Florida, and Ella Ludlow, BenSalem; 40 grandchildren; 22 great-grandchildren; and nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held Saturday afternoon at 2 at the Patterson Grove Camp Meeting, Bethel Hill Road, Shickshinny. Sylvania Lodge 354 will conduct Masonic services.
-- Obituary courtesy of the Charles L. Cease Funeral Home, Shickshinny. A complete obituary appears in the July 30, 2008, edition of the Press Enterprise.

Didja ever notice that after climbing a huge hill, there always seems to be a higher hill just around the next bend?

 

July 30, 2008. Happy birthday to Shirley Fulmer and Corey Lee. Happy birthday to the city of Baltimore founded on this date in 1729, to auto maker Henry Ford born in 1863, and to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Tara Kline came through her wrist surgery with an excellent prognosis for full, eventual recovery. Beatrice Roberts will have her hip-replacement surgery this morning in the Berwick Hospital. The web version of the Benton News Tuesday provided the wrong date for the surgery. We regret the error.

Through Tuesday of next week, I will be concentrating on endurance sitting. The extent of the Benton News will be governed accordingly.

Staff reporter Chloe, a Bichon Frise, is seven years old today. Except when she is barking to warn of terrorists and evil doers in the neighborhood, Chloe is a very quiet dog, keeping to herself, her male Bichon friend she calls "He" and to Marcia Kay and I--"Mother" and "Leader" to Chloe. The staff reporter wrote a short article for today. It follows, translated to the best of our ability...

My brothers and sisters and I were born on a very hot day surrounded by our cousins and uncles who lived next door, separated from our family by the same stuff that keeps me from raiding the chicken pens in the field where Leader sometimes takes He and me. I came from an important family, but before I even learned the fun of chasing mousies we were separated and sent all over the United States on missions of kindness. I will never forget those early, formative months, when I learned to survive on food from a garbage can and I still love to turn over a garbage can and investigate its contents.

I had the good fortune to be sent to a family who loved me and fed me good and brushed me. Each day they left their apartment early in the morning and didn't come home until after dark. They left me tied to a leg of a table, and I am ashamed to admit that I had a couple of what Leader calls "accidents." I was told that I wasn't "working out," although if they had just taken me over by the trees I would have done all the work that they wanted.

I was then sent to a house in the woods where Brenda took me in. I was allowed to run through the woods and warn of big mousies approaching and play with some friends and sleep on the couch. Life was good. There was a story that I don't completely understand about the expense of the man that pushes the sharp stick into my rear and gives pills to me, and I was send to live with Leader and Mother.

They seemed like nice people at first, but they had their evil side. They didn't let me run outside whenever I heard a sound I couldn't identify. They plunked me into the bathtub--a place I never will like. They put stuff on me that hurt my eyes and made me smell like I could never sneak up on a mousy. They cut my beautiful hair, something so prized by my cousins and my uncles and the rest of my family, stroked my whole body with a piece of wood with sharp wires sticking out of it and made me swallow a bitter pill that they said would make my itching go away. They made my beautiful ribs disappear. They made a noise that I couldn't understand, although with my superior intelligence I have now mastered most of their sounds and teach Leader and Mother to understand new sounds every day. I slowly warmed up to Leader and Mother as I learned that noise like "hungry" and "ride" and "biscuit" were good words. As months went on, I taught them to use words that I would understand. I showed them that if they would hit metal dishes together He and I would run to the kitchen. I taught them to rub my belly and my ears. I taught them the joy of lying on the floor with me. I taught Leader and Mother that if they called me "Chloe" I would come to them. They quickly learned to pat me on the head and let me sleep with them and I decided to stay, in spite of He.

He is a problem. Mother says He is a year older and a lot wiser. I hope that I never get a year older! He can't even jump onto the front seat of the car and He can't run as fast as I can. He can't see the mousies as good as I can. He likes to sleep when I want to play. He eats my food if I leave a little for a snack in the afternoon. He does that disgusting thing if we go too long in the car without stopping. But He is my best friend and I look forward to convincing He to share his biscuit with the birthday girl tonight.

Jim and Dottie Moore have local pictures snapped at the Millrace golf course from within 40 feet of their front door. Take a look at www.joyinthemorningetc.org/nature.html and www.joyinthemorningetc.com/hymns.html. If you liked what you saw, you should also visit www.joyinthemorningetc.org/.

Quickies...
. The White House budget office boosted its estimate of the federal deficit for fiscal 2009 to $482 billion. With the full costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan added in, the deficit for 2009 likely will exceed $500 billion. How much is $500 billion? With something like 300 million legal residents of the United States, the amount is more than $1,600 for every American man, woman and child.

. Natural Resources Defense Council concluded that "Hydraulic fracturing is a suspect in impaired or polluted drinking water in Alabama, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming..."

. The cost of heating oil, corn pellets and propane is up something like 50% from the prices we couldn't afford last year! The price of wood pellets has fallen slightly. Home-heating oil, selling for about $2.55 a gallon last year now averages about $4 a gallon--up 57%.

Jeremiah E. Cedeno (July 19, 1990-July 27, 2008) died Sunday in a one-car accident on Waller Road, Benton Township. He was 18. Jeremiah was born in Logan, Utah. He was the son of Luis A. and Bonnie K. (Gullans) Cedeno, with whom he resided at 520 Market Street, Benton. Jeremiah and his family lived in Benton from 1996 to 1999, at which time the family moved to Bloomsburg. The family returned to Benton in 2006. Jeremiah had completed the 10th grade in the Benton Area Schools and would have been a junior this fall. He was employed part-time during the summer months as a tree trimmer at Karchner’s Tree Farm, Benton. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Lime Ridge. At school he was a member of the Future Farmers of America and participated on the wrestling and baseball teams.

Surviving in addition to Jeremiah's parents are siblings JaimeLee (Carl), Esposito, California; Sara Cedeno, at home; Adam L. Cedeno (Chelsea), Mifflinville; Matthew J. Cedeno, at home; Rebekah Cedeno, Bloomsburg; Daniel Cedeno, at home; his maternal grandmother, Barbara Gullans, Sanford, Maine; his paternal grandmother, Adriana Alicia, Orlando, Florida; and a number of nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be held Friday morning at 11 AM in the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, 7368 Old School House Road, Bloomsburg, with Bishop Michael S. Klem officiating. Interment will be on Monday in Oakdale View Cemetery, Sanford, Maine. Friends may call on Thursday from 6-8 PM at the Dean W. Kriner, Inc., Funeral Home, Benton. The family will provide flowers. Memorial contributions may be sent to the Benton Future Farmers of America, c/o First Columbia Bank & Trust Co., P. O. Box 503, Benton, or to the Jeremiah E. Cedena Fund, c/o Benton Area School District, 600 Green Acres Road, Benton, PA 17814.
--Obituary courtesy of the Kriner Funeral Home, Benton. A complete obituary will be published in the Press Enterprise in its edition of July 30, 2008.

 

July 29, 2008. It is the birthday of Valerie Wojton, 24, and Ruth Taylor, formally of 2½ Street, Benton, 100. Keep Tara Lane Kline, daughter of Robert and Margie Kline, in your thoughts this morning as she undergoes extensive wrist surgery at the Bloomsburg Hospital under the watchful eye of Zeferino Martinez, M.D., F.A.C.S. Beatrice Marie Roberts undergoes surgery this morning in the Berwick Hospital.

On this day in 1588 Spain's "Invincible Armada" was defeated by the English. Spain had hoped to raid England and turn the Protestant isle Catholic again using the idea that if Spain won then God must be Catholic. The 8,000 seamen and almost 20,000 soldiers comprising the Spanish fleet sailed with 130 ships carrying 2,500 guns. Storms delayed their arrival and England was ready by the time they arrived. Just after midnight, England sent eight burning ships into the harbor at Calais, where the Spanish were anchored for the night.

Plans to toll the 311-mile Pennsylvania turnpike seem to continue, despite opposition to the plan at many levels. Current planning is to create an information superhighway of fiber-optic trunk lines along I-80 for high-speed internet to help the corridor become more competitive for future growth.

Main Street, Bloomsburg, could turn into hot-rod gridlock from noon to 2 PM Saturday, August 9. The 5th Annual Rod & Custom Cruise-In at the Fairgrounds takes to the streets from Main Street from West Street to Iron Street. The "Hot Rod Gridlock" started last year with over 170 cars filling downtown Bloomsburg. The goal this year is to bring over 200 cars. The cars will be four wide during a Main Street parade on Main Street. The cars then park and visit the local shops and restaurants, while spectators get to stop and look at the cars. Entertainment taking place at the Fairgrounds after the Gridlock includes live music by Flamin' Dick and the Hot Rods, a 50s/60s band; a hot wing eating contest sponsored by Quaker Steak & Lube; a burnout competition; and a flamethrower exhibition by Flames 'R' Us.

In early April 2005, the Columbia County Covered Bridge Association placed a "Visitor's Register" in the Stillwater Covered Bridge. The visitor response has been amazing. Sunday afternoon at the Covered Bridge meet and greet at the annual wine tasting on the bridge, Commissioner Chris Young was pleasantly surprised to find that the book had been filled with signatures. The signers came from virtually every state in the union, from Peterborough, Ontario, Canada; from Poland, from Russia, and a number of other countries.

Some visitors chose not to write much. Words and terms were used like "Awesome," "beautiful," "lovely," "exceptional and picturesque," "calming," "good stuff," "educational," "sweet," "how quaint," "would love to show it to all my friends," "cool bridge," and "historical and peaceful." Many people enjoyed a picnic lunch in the bridge.

A visitor from Easthampton Township, New Jersey, wrote, "Grew up in Stillwater, New Jersey; we need a covered bridge." A couple also drove to the covered bridge from Stillwater, Minnesota. Readers said they loved to come and play cards on the picnic tables. A visitor wrote, "I am visiting Pennsylvania for fun!" A signer of the visitor's book was obviously a younger person, judging from his handwriting. He wrote, "Wish I could build one!" A visitor from Moscow, Russia, wrote, "Keep this tradition alive!" Charles McHenry, visiting from Naples, Florida, wrote in the log, "bridge actually named McHenry bridge." (James McHenry built the 168-foot Stillwater bridge in 1849 with help from his brother Daniel.) A couple from Atlantic, Iowa, wrote, "I'll never forget this bridge." A couple from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, "loved everything, plus church," referring to the former Stillwater school house adjacent to the bridge owned by Bob and Sandra Kelsey. A visitor from Fairfax, Virginia, noted that the Stillwater bridge was one of 32 bridges he had photographed on his trip. A small girl from Stillwater wrote, I came down with my daddy to see the flooding."

Jim and Helen Rinehart, Spokane, Washington, wrote, "We used to live here back in the 57-63 time period when I was stationed at Red Rock." A California resident called it a "scary old bridge" while an Oberlin, Ohio, resident called it a "fantastic bridge." There were several signatures from visitors at Whispering Pines Campground. Beth McHenry, Walton Beach, Florida, wrote, "my favorite place!"

A visitor from Oliphant wrote, "on a covered bridge hunt in Columbia County. Three down, ? to go." One visitor was "checking out Ricketts Glen" when he heard about Columbia County's covered bridges and headed directly to Stillwater to see the span.

Not all visitors kept in focus with the bridge. One Stillwater girl wrote, "I (heart shape) Marc Velez. He is hot." She returned to the bridge a year later and wrote in the book, "I (heart shape) Kyle Keefer."

Frederick R. Poust (May 4, 1929-July 27, 2008), Patterson Grove, passed away Sunday evening at the Wilkes Barre General Hospital where he has been a patient for several weeks. He was 79. Fred and Helen Poust lived in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida, (north of Bushnell) during the winter months and as health conditions permitted enjoyed coming to Elk Grove for the monthly Brass Pelican history group meetings. On several occasions, Fred provided the group with a song prior to the start of the meeting. Because of his gritty determination, Fred would "run out of air" as the last crystal-clear note was sung and would immediately get reconnected to his constant companion, his oxygen tank. His voice, which served him so well for his entire life, never failed him. Both Fred and Helen served as Admissions Counselors at the Masonic Village, Elizabethtown, for a number of years. A memorial service will be held at 2 PM on Saturday at Patterson Grove with the Cease Funeral Home, Shickshinny, making arrangements.
--Information courtesy of the Cease Funeral Home, Shickshinny, and M. M. Houseweart. An obituary will be provided to the Press Enterprise for inclusion in its edition of Wednesday, July 30, 2008.

Brian A. O’Handley, Jr. (December 6, 1990-July 27, 2008), Benton, died Sunday evening in Benton Township from injuries sustained in an automobile accident Sunday evening on Waller Road. He was 17. He was born at the Bloomsburg Hospital. Brian would have been a senior at Benton High School this fall. His hobbies included BMX biking, dirt biking, snowboarding, surfing, hunting and he was an excellent swimmer. He had coached the 8 and Under BAY Swim Team.

Brian A. O’Handley, Jr.

Surviving are his parents Maryann Grendzinski and John Vinciguerra, and Brian A. and Nancy O’Handley, all of Benton; a sister, Brittney O’Handley, at home; a step brother, Steven Vinciguerra, Benton; step sisters Christa Vinciguerra, Nanticoke; Samantha Clasen and Kristy Clasen, both of Benton; his grandparents: John and Marie Grendzinski of Pond Hill; Doug and Dot O’Handley, Benton; Christina Vinciguerra, Union, New Jersey; and Robert Perau, Berwick; his great grandmother, Lottie Grendzinski, Wilkes-Barre, and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. Funeral services will be held Wednesday afternoon at 1 with visitation beginning at 11 AM at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc. Burial will be in St. Gabriel’s Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to the Bloomsburg Area YMCA Swim Team, 30 E. 7th St., Bloomsburg, PA 17815.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary and run-down of the tragic death will be in the July 29, 2008, edition of the Press Enterprise.

Grief counseling is available for students, friends and adults at the local high school Tuesday from 8:30 AM following the fatal automobile accident Sunday night in which Benton Area Schools Senior Brian O'Handley and Junior Jeremiah Cedeno were killed in an automobile accident on Waller Road, Benton Township. All available information will be released in the Tuesday edition of the Press Enterprise.

Kathryn E. (Davis) Swank (November 26, 1943-July 27, 2008), 64, Benton and formerly of Lairdsville, died Sunday at Muncy Valley Hospital. She was 64. She was born in Norristown. She was a daughter of the late Allan E. and Annabell Viola (Edkin) Davis. Surviving are her children Willard N. Swank, Jr. (Beverly), Benton; Kenneth R. Swank, Sr. (Charlene), Talmar; Michael W. Swank, Sr. (Sue), Hubbardsville, New York; Thomas A. Swank ( Penny) Lairdsville; and Kathryn E. “Kathy” Swank, Benton. Also surviving are 12 grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren; and sisters June D. Lumbard, Berwick; Barbara Miller, Antesfort; Gloria Baisinger, Lock Haven; a brother, Allan E. Davis, Jr. Unityville, and a half brother, David Harvey, Florida. She was preceded in death by her husband, Willard N. Swank, Sr. on October 21, 2007, and by children Larry and Pollyann Swank and by two sisters. Private services will be held at the convenience of the family with burial in Sonestown Cemetery.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc., Benton.

 

July 28, 2008. Happy anniversary to Jason and Jennifer DiLossi. Happy birthday to Lee Ann Kline. Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1929-1994) was born on this date in 1929 in East Hampdon, Long Island. She graduated from George Washington University, then worked as the Washington Times-Herald's "inquiring photographer." Jacqueline met the young congressman from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, in 1952.

About 9:30 PM Sunday night, two deaths were announced in an automobile accident on Waller Road, Benton Township. Names were not announced at the time we "called it a day." Please keep the families in your prayers.

Quickies...
• Hospital stays are happening to Don King. Tara Kline, in her final weeks before starting college at Penn State University, Dallas campus, shattered her wrist during the horse show at the rodeo grounds Sunday afternoon. Leona Bardo continues her recovery from a fall in the Berwick Rehabilitation Center.

• A small, but dedicated group enjoyed wine, good company and good food at the annual Covered Bridge Association wine gathering on the Stillwater Covered Bridge Sunday afternoon.

• Gas prices a year ago today Back Home in Benton, PA, were $2.639 and $2.699 for regular, unleaded. Yesterday, the prices were $3.629 and $3.669 in the Borough.

• The activity in the upper Fishing Creek valley was amazing over the weekend. One local restaurant owner said it was the best Sunday in five years. The price of gasoline didn't hurt.

• During the final three days of last week, something like $22 million--the same amount that John McCain raised during the entire month of June--was distributed in the upper Fishing Creek valley in payment for the right to eventually drill for natural gas. If that sentence didn't penetrate, read it again! That is one heck of a lot of money! The money was all paid to private landowners.

• The Columbia County Landowners Coalition appears to be on track for signing a group-gas lease in late August. That group is negotiating for $2,900 an acre up-front money and a royalty fee of 18.75% for a five-year lease.

Didja know that Pennsylvania's first well into the Marcellus Shale was drilled in 2003 by Range Resources in Washington County. Range got a producing well in that county in 2005.

Deep well drilling on 74,023 acres in the Loyalsock, Tiadaghton and Tioga state forests in Tioga and Lycoming counties could happen shortly after the bids are opened September 3. The state is expected to bring in $75 million and probably more now that leases of private land have reached $3,000 an acre in some parts of the state. Pennsylvania appears intent to not permit any backyard treatment of waste water from the fracking process be allowed in our state which cleared the way for many to agree to the leasing.

With the millions of dollars coming into the local economy through the signing of gas leases, landowners need to sock away enough to pay taxes. It is important to test your water before the drilling begins. Once a company has drilled, it is too late and there won't be a record of the well water's quality before drilling. The fluids of an undisclosed mixture pumped thousands of feet below ground during the fracking process comes back to the surface for temporary storage in open-air, lined retention ponds before being trucked off for further treatment. States other than Pennsylvania have determined that fluids have included numerous hazardous and toxic substances, including formaldehyde, benzene and chromates, as well as natural-occurring radioactive isotopes such as radon.

So you thought that gas drilling is all American? The South China Morning Post indicated in today's edition that China National Petroleum Corp, the largest oil producer on the mainland of China, is considering bidding for minority stakes in shale gas assets owned by Chesapeake Energy, valued at about US$15 billion each.

Quotes of the Day:
"Pouring 10 gallons of industrial waste into a 10-ounce cup, and there you have the disposal problem regulators face with the natural gas industry."
--Press Connects, Binghamton, New York

"You may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden. Your father had an accident there, he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor."
--(Helen) Beatrix Potter, born on this date in 1866

A Town Hall meeting will be broadcast live on (Pennsylvania Cable Network) PCN from 7 to 9 PM, July 29. The subject is natural gas exploration in central Pennsylvania. A panel will appear on the show made up of Thomas Murphy, an educator with the Penn State Cooperative Extension; Dr. Timothy Kelsey, a professor of agricultural sciences at the extension; Ronald Gilius, director of the state Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Oil and Gas Management; Louis D'Amico, executive director of Independent Oil and Gas Association; Ted Barbour, a landowner who leased his property for gas exploration; and an as-yet-unnamed person.

 

July 27, 2008. It is the birthday of Gary Beach. Please keep Matt Pollock, 38, in your prayers. Matt has hemorrhaging on the brain following an operation at Geisinger Hospital when a titanium plate inserted into Matt's skull was rejected by his body. A fluid build-up took place. Matt remains in the special care unit of the hospital. Matt took one step forward, and ten backwards.

It was on this day in 1940 that Bugs Bunny made his debut in a short animated film called A Wild Hare. Bugs was probably related to a former Disney character, Max Hare, who won an Academy Award for Animated Short film in 1934. Bugs Bunny was born in 1940 in Brooklyn, NY, according to his fictional biography. His speech was a cross between a Brooklyn accent and a Bronx accent. Bugs real life model was Groucho Marx, except with a carrot rather than a cigar. He chewed his carrot without getting overly concerned by any of his enemies. The film A Wild Hare told of Elmer Fudd's attempt to hunt rabbits with Bugs Bunny thwarting him at every turn. Bugs Bunny's first line to Elmer Fudd was, "What's up, doc?" That line was such a hit that it appeared in all of Bugs' subsequent movies.

On this date in...
. 1789, the United States Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs. Later the agency was re-named the Department of State.

. 1909, the record for the longest airplane flight was set by Orville Wright who was testing the United States Army's first airplane. Wright kept the craft aloft for 1 hour, 12 minutes and 40 seconds over Fort Myers, Virginia.

. 1921, Canadians Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolated insulin for the first time. It proved an effective treatment for diabetes, an illness that occurs when the body fails to produce enough insulin, an enzyme. In healthy people insulin helps the body break down glucose. Without it, glucose builds up to dangerous levels, which can cause coma and even death.

. 1974, Annie's Song, John Denver's biggest hit song, written for his wife, reached the top of the "Billboard" singles charts. Denver had three other number 1 songs: Sunshine on My Shoulders, Thank God I'm a Country Boy and I'm Sorry.

. 1980, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi died of cancer while in exile in Egypt. He was the former Shah of Iran from 1941, then lost control of his country and fled in 1979. Ayatollah Khomeini succeeded him.

. 1996, during the Olympic Games in Atlanta, a bomb exploded in an entertainment park killing two and wounding 110.

Didja ever think that untold suffering seldom is?

Shortly after exiting the first bat cave I ever visited, my vow was never to reenter another. Now don't get me wrong, a visit to a bat cave is something to remember but hardly anything to do a second time. The cave was somewhere in North Carolina, somewhere near Ashville, but I forget the name of the cave or the town nearby. I do remember that Perry Como had a summer home nearby, although now I no longer even remember how far away that was.

My objective here is not to tell what all I have forgotten over the years, since I have said many times that whenever I put something into my brain something has to fall out to make room. My objective is to tell you what I remember. The cave, as I recollect, was the size of a football field with high ceilings and filled everywhere with bats. As I walked cautiously with a group through the cave the gentle wind from their wings cooled my cheeks. I'll never forget the sounds made by a woman who wore a dress only to find that an overly friendly bat had landed on the wrong side of the fabric.

There wasn't much light in the cave, although light beams filtered from the ceiling in places, and many had a flashlight arrangement so as not to trip over the abandoned railroad ties, left over from the Civil War according to the guide, when guano was extracted for nitrate, then moved outside the cave to dry. The group was even told there was actually a bat nursery where the little ones were raised, hanging like stalactites from the ceiling.

The bat cave I entered on Saturday was at the Cinema Center of Camp Hill at the Batman movie The Dark Knight, a shootem-up and shootem-again type of movie with more car chases, crooked cops, mobsters, explosives and coin flips than I've seen in years. Heath Ledger as The Joker was extraordinary! He was as Ledger himself described the character, a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy." Bruce Wayne's trusted butler, Alfred Pennyworth, was played perfectly by Michael Caine. Morgan Freeman was excellent as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises.

The movie had a strange twist. Just as the movie entered its eighty-first crescendo, the movie abruptly stopped, lights in the huge stadium theatre began pulsating and a recorded voice told the packed house to "exit the theater immediately" and proceed to the nearest exit and then to the parking lot. It was soon evident that everyone in all twelve theaters was rushing to exit the theater. Although the patrons were not directly told, it was obvious there was a fire--or the threat of one. In keeping with the theme of the movie, everyone kept a watchful eye on the side of the building in anticipation of the structure self-destructing as every building in the movie we had been watching seemed to do.

I have watched the Benton Volunteer Fire Company respond to fires. I have seen Dave Albertson race off the Waller hill to get into the cab of Attack 152 or Engines 153 or 154 and have seen Jim Albertson do the same to man ambulance 150 or 151 when the alarm goes off. I have often listened on the scanner for the first notice of a local fire and by the time I could walk to the station the trucks were rolling toward the Fishing Creek bridge where they roared onto Route 487. I know that the local fire company prides themselves in being able to "start the engines" within three to four minutes after dispatch. The local fire company gets my full respect for doing the best they can to rapidly respond to all emergency situations.

The first Hampden Township fire truck arrived at the theater 20 minutes after patrons arrived in the 91° parking lot, a few minutes after the fire chief arrived in his Firebelch 500 Chief's station wagon. Within ten minutes, two more fire trucks arrived on the scene. It took another half hour to find the cause of the smoke coming from the air conditioning vents and allow us back in the theater to see the rest of the action of the film.

Frankly, I have had it with bat caves and bad guys. The only joker I want to see for the next year is in a deck of cards.

Didja ever notice that the difference between life and love
is that life is just one darned thing after another
and love is two darned things one after another.

A Ted Fenstermacher article appears in the July 27 edition of the Press Enterprise about the Sugarloaf school. Ted was editor of the Berwick Enterprise for 41 years and a Press Enterprise columnist.

Looking back to 1919...
. in October, the "state road" to Millville was under construction. The Argus advertised for workers, dangling a carrot of "overtime if desired." The pay was $3.50 for an nine-hour day, including bed and lodging.

. in October, the Benton area had a "Chin-Chin" Club. Does anyone have more information on it?

Didja ever think that what this country needs is more "lemme" and less "gimmie."

The state of New York must come up with a tougher generic environmental impact statement for hydrofracking during the drilling of natural gas in the Marcellus in order to allow drilling to go forward by next spring or summer according to an article in the July 27 edition of the New York Times entitled The Light Is Green, and Yellow, on Drilling Upstate. All applications for drilling will be required to undergo a review of environmental concerns, and in particular those posed by the enormous water needs of the extraction process--including "where to get the water; how to treat it; how to store, handle and dispose of it; and how to be sure water supplies are not tainted." The study also requires a look at the potential effects of multiple drilling sites on "air quality, aesthetics, noise, traffic and community character."

Email continues to come in on alternative energy sources. Rev. Donna Laubach Moros, retired grand daughter of Harry and Clara Laubach, Benton R.D. 2, writes "from high in the Venezuelan Andes, where we have clean air and water. Down in the Maracaibo basin we have polluted water and poor air because of the pollutants produced from oil drilling. Even here, where I have retired as a missionary (from the Presbyterian Church of the United States), we have solar panels. In this main oil-producing place we have solar panels. Some folks are working with Spain right now to bring in the wind forests that I saw when I lived there. I think that this may be the way out for all of us--launching environmentally positive fuel sources, using wind and sun power to launch a whole new environmentally safe world. It also might avoid that we get into wars over petroleum sources. So, for a safe environment, and for a war free world, solar power and wind power may be the way to go. "