On this date in...
1993, the last research samples of the smallpox virus were scheduled to be destroyed, but the destruction plan was stopped by a few scientists. Until eradicated in 1977, smallpox was the world's most dreaded disease. The frozen samples that were not destroyed are in Moscow and Atlanta ready to make vaccine should it ever again be necessary--or if Dr. Strangelove ever comes to call again.

1938, the "drunkometer," the first breath test for car drivers, was introduced, but required re-calibration when it was moved from place to place. Still, it was the first successful machine for testing human blood alcohol content by breath analysis. Robert Borkenstein invented a portable instrument for testing breath alcohol in 1954. It became known as the Breathalyzer.

1935, a patent for a "Board Game Apparatus" was issued for Monopoly and assigned to Parker Brothers, Inc., by Charles Darrow, an unemployed salesman and inventor living in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Darrow struggled with odd jobs following the 1929 stock market crash. He drew the streets of Atlantic City on his kitchen tablecloth, complete with little houses and hotels. Darrow began selling copies of his board game for $4 each in Philadelphia department stores. He wrote to Parker Brothers to see if the company would produce and market the game. The company turned him down, explaining that his game contained "fifty-two fundamental errors" of taking too long to play, rules too complicated and no clear goal for the winner. Undaunted, Darrow had 5,000 copies printed. A daughter of the Parker Brothers' founder bought a copy of the game, described it to her mother and shortly in a series of moves Parker Brothers developed a shorter variation of the game. The royalties from Monopoly made Darrow a millionaire. There is a plaque in Atlantic City dedicated to Darrow on Boardwalk, near the corner of Park Place.

Many years later we have the Nas-Whack Stock Exchange, a free, on-line game for stock-market investors. Be aware! There are a few weasels in the lot. Click here now to play the game.

"The year is going, let him go; ring out the false, ring in the true."
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson

On Sunday, January 23, 2005 at 2 PM, the Anthracite Heritage Museum will host a 46th anniversary program of the Knox Mine Disaster. The program is based on the recent release of the book Voices of the Knox Mine Disaster. Poetry and other readings compiled by Kenneth, Nicole and Robert Wolensky will be read as well as mining music that will be played by Donegal Weavers, a folk music group. Attendees will be able to view the documentary Knox Mine Disaster that was produced by WVIA Public Television. Admission to the event is $5 for the general public and $4 for associate members. For more information, call 570 963-4804.

The Benton Fire Company will host a gun show February 12 and 13 at the fire hall from 9 AM to 4 PM each day. Vendors will sell pistols, long guns and accessories. Call 925-5542 to reserve a table. Admission is $4. Children under 12 get in free. Food will be served.

J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1735-1813) once asked the question, "What then is the American, this new man?" Was he really a "new man" different from the old world man or was he a transplanted European?

To listen to an American today one dialect can be barely intelligible to speakers of another. How do we define American English? We have the French-infused Cajun as spoken on the bayou, the Chicano of the inner-city, the urban black language of hip-hop and rap. There are valley girls and Midwesterners and the New England and the South and the--well, the list goes on and on.

Robert MacNeil ponders these questions and poses new ones in the three-part DO YOU SPEAK AMERICAN? airing on PBS Wednesday, January 5, 2005. The series follows MacNeil as he moves about the United States, conversing with characters from all walks of life in an effort to find out just what "American" sounds like.

We have all heard of Africa slaves penned up together speaking different languages. They could not plan a revolt. In order to communicate, the imprisoned slaves developed their own language, a blend of their native African languages and the English they'd learned from the Americans. Remnants of this blend can still be heard on the islands off South Carolina's coast, and to some people from Back Home in Benton, PA, much closer--as close, in fact, as the nearest big city.

The show visits the Texas town of El Cenizo, where Spanish has become the "official" language. In other segments, teenage boys try to duplicate Latino accents and expressions, while not actually speaking Spanish. New England lobstermen, the American twang of North Carolina mountain men, Cajun accent and sounds much more French than southern, hip-hop, rap and Instant Messaging have contributed new words and expressions to colloquial American.

The show will get into what is being done to ensure that students learn "classroom" English. Jeff Foxworthy defines words like manaze (pronounced "may-naze") and witchudidga (pronounced "witch-uh-did-ya"). Country singer Cody James talks country. All this is done to demonstrate where American English is headed in this three-hour prime time special on Wednesday, January 5 at 8 PM. Tune in!

He used to carry his golf clubs in a golfing bag
and learn to swing just like a pro and that's a fact
The man went to the Masters in Augusta shade
and was in his 20's and got it made
When CBS saw him, the commentators say
"oh, look at how Tiger Woods could play!"

The Columbia and Montour County Visitor's Bureau has an excellent web site at www.itourcolumbiamontour.com/ . Take the time to look at the website or stop at one of their two visitors centers. The Columbia County Visitors Center is located at 121 Papermill Road, Bloomsburg, at I-80 exit 236, Bloomsburg/Lightstreet.

A Linux-based laptop computer priced at $498, called Balance, is now available. The computer comes with the Linspire operating system and the OpenOffice.org office suite. Balance may be the lowest-priced laptop currently available with an operating system and an office suite. It comes with a VIA C3 1-GHz processor, 128MB RAM, a 30GB hard drive, a CD-ROM drive and a 14.1-inch liquid crystal display. The software includes a built-in firewall to protect users from viruses, spam and pop-ups. The Balance laptop is available at Wal-Mart's Web site, although you really have to search to find it. Be advised that although the price may be right, the 128MB of RAM is insufficient, in our opinion. The computer may very well be sufficient for many computing needs.

We usually consult www.snopes.com to check out some of the things that make no sense that we read on the internet, but this one isn't there. We have to rely on common sense and intuition for the one about the insurance company and the coyote, the one that claims that insurance companies and wildlife agencies release coyotes in hopes of reducing deer-car collision claims. The email that we received conveniently did not include a name of a person or a phone number to verify the story, and it also said that the insurance company had branded the deer, but didn't identify the company or even the state. It is illegal to release animals into the Pennsylvania wild without a permit and the state Game Commission hasn't issued any permits to insurance companies. We suspect that the story was first invented by someone who didn't get his deer! Even if your first cousin's dentist's beautician told you the story, we reserve the right to call it all bunk!

The following subject came up from an email that showed up in our incoming email. We normally don't even have time to read this sort of thing, but we enjoyed it and have modified it somewhat and are passing it along. As modified, it goes like this...

One two-letter word that perhaps has more meaning than any other two-letter word is "UP." It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends and we brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special. A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable of the proper uses of UP, look UP the word in the dictionary. In a desk-size dictionary, the word UP takes UP almost ¼ the page and definitions add UP to about thirty. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out, we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so I'll shut UP...

We'll wrap up the New Years Eve traditions today with these...
• The Chinese New Year lasts about 15 days, beginning some time between January 17 and February 19 depending on the moon's phase. During the Festival of Lanterns, a street procession lights the way for the new year.
• in some parts of Poland, dishes are broken at midnight. To make sweeping the mess easier, yes the dishes are clean!
• the Scotch practice "first-footing" shortly after midnight.
Scotsmen wear their kilts and enjoy their whiskey. Neighbors visit each other and leave shortbread or a bottle of whiskey and a lump of coal--signifying nourishment and warmth. It's considered especially lucky if a tall, dark and handsome man is the first to set foot in the house since the first person to walk in the door signals the year ahead. The Scots often select a well-intoxicated handsome man, and send him to the door.
• in the Netherlands, the Dutch burn their Christmas trees on the streets and launch fireworks to purge the old and welcome the new.
• the Japanese begin to laugh at the stroke of midnight to bring themselves good luck. They also forgive previous year's grudges and misunderstandings.
• the Vietnamese believe there is a god in every home, and when the New Year arrives the god travels to heaven and reports how good or bad each family member was in the previous year.
• In British Columbia, the traditional polar bear swim unites people of all ages who plunge into the icy water surrounding Vancouver. We suspect this stunt will be pulled off in Bloomsburg again this year, too.
• the dropping of the New Years Eve Ball in Times Square at midnight is our most famous tradition. Thousands gather to watch the ball descend during the last minute of the old year, while millions watch on TV. The tradition began in 1907, with a ball made of iron and wood. Today, the ball is made of Waterford crystal, weighs 1,070 pounds and is six feet in diameter.
• the Germans have a tradition called bleigiessen. A candle is lit, and small chunks of lead are melted in a spoon held over the candle.
The molten lead is then quickly poured from the spoon into a bucket of cold water, where it hardens almost immediately. Each person tries to determine what he or she sees in the hardened lead figure. Often the lead figure is held up to a candle or other light, and the shape of the shadow it casts aids in this decision. The shape of the lead determines the future of that person for the year to come. An old woman, is bad. A heart or a ring means a wedding. A ship means a journey and a pig means plenty of food. A typical New Years Eve greeting is Prosit Neujahr!

And, finally, here are some New Years Day traditions...
• in Greece, the Festival of St. Basil, one of the founders of the Greek Orthodox Church, is celebrated. A braided sweet bread called vassilopita (VAS-ee-low-pea-tah), is decorated with almonds and baked in the name of St. Basil with a silver or gold coin inside. Whoever gets the coin in their piece of cake will be especially lucky that year. If you think Grandma's chocolate cake got diced apart quickly, stand back for this one!
• in Germany, eating herring and serving carp on the first day of the year is traditional.
• "Happy Birthday," rather than "Happy New Year," is a traditional January 1 greeting in many countries, The day is nicknamed Everyman's Birthday, considered the day when everyone becomes a year older, irregardless of their actual day of birth. This practice is also observed in horse racing, as all horses become a year older on New Year's Day. Thoroughbreds and standard-breds who have raced have tattoos that establish their ages.

December 29, 2004.

The Benton Fire Company elected new officers on December 20. The results of that election are:
President: Luther Spiece
Vice President: Ed Musser
Secretary: Cindy Matthews
Treasurer: Greg Stevig
Chief: Fred Westover
1st Asst: Carl Spiece
2nd. Asst: Ron Robbins
Ambulance Chief Driver: Harold Morris
Financial Secretary: Missy Morris
Trustees: Jim Matthews, Craig Westover and Jack Schupp

A reader by the name of Dennis "heard PA has some really bizarre traditions for New Years Eve!" He heard that down in Mechanicsburg a wrench will be dropped to usher in the new year. He heard about Lebanon County dropping a 7 1/2 foot-long bologna. He asked if we knew of any other bizarre things in the state for New Years Eve.

Well, for some readers the concept of eating pork and sauerkraut is bizarre. Sauerkraut eaten on New Years Day equates to a prosperous new year. Betty Ruckle recalled the story of when Sue Artman slowly stirred her sauerkraut one New Years Day, saying "if it wasn't for the money, I just wouldn't like this stuff." Sauerkraut is finely-sliced white cabbage fermented with lactobacillus bacteria. The sugar in the cabbage is converted into lactic acid and acts as a preservative. The German word Sauerkraut literally translates to sour cabbage.

We'll start this section with the concept of pork and sauerkraut and get that out of the way. We read once that watching the making of "public policy, sausage and sauerkraut" should always be avoided, so we don't know about that part.

The German side of our family always thought that to bring "good luck" in good health, wealth and happiness, we should eat pork and sauerkraut on New Years Day. To prevent illness through the year, eat smoked sausages on New Years Day. To bring "good luck" for the rest of the year, eat boiled cabbage on New Years Day.

In the South, of course, it is black-eyed peas! The black-eyed peas tradition goes back to the Civil War. According to a story that we heard, Northern troops destroyed all the crops in the fields except for the black-eyed peas because they thought they were grown to feed livestock. The peas were left, so Southerners felt they were able to get through the Civil War with them and they should get through the new year with them, too!

We personally don't know much about bizarre New Year's events, but we remember a rainy New Years Eve in 1965 when three local boys went to Painter Den Hunting Club to celebrate the arrival of the new year. We won't bother to divulge the names of the three boys. The date (from Kingston) of one of the boys was so happy to be invited to "Painter Den Lodge," a vision that conjured up thoughts in her mind of evening gowns and romantic music, that she wore a party dress for the occasion. The group arrived in a drenching rainstorm in one of the boy's father's new white Chevrolet, which his son had promised not to get dirty. Two of the boys filled a five-gallon pickle jar with a drink made with a gallon of Seagram's VO and various juices and fruit according to a recipe invented that night. Shortly before the end of 1965, in the romantic glow of the fireplace, one of the boys proposed to his date and shortly after the arrival of 1966, she accepted. The five-gallon pickle jar of "old fashions" was drained by daylight in celebration. On New Years Day, with the temperature approaching 60 degrees, father and mother sloshed into camp through the mud and rain and prepared roast pork and sauerkraut. The food was largely uneaten.

But, back to bizarre! Bizarre is world-wide! In Europe, for example, New Years Eve celebrations ranges from grapes and pig's feet to red underwear and fireworks. In Spain, New Years Eve is known as nochevieja. Restaurants, bars and hotels offer dinner and champagne for one price and in Madrid thousands gather in the square and watch the clock tick down. The event is covered live on Spanish television and is much like New York City's ball drop in Times Square. Eating grapes, however, is the most bizarre. When the clock strikes 12, people try to eat one grape for each chime of the clock, trying to get a dozen grapes down the gullet before the New Year. Those who do receive good luck. Those who don't--well, figure it out for yourself! Somehow, we don't want to wine, but we don't think this is a "grape" way to start the new year.

In Russia, dreams on New Years Eve are shared over Russian caviar. Caviar is fish eggs--or roe--taken from sturgeon. Most of the world's caviar comes from the sturgeon of the Caspian Sea, an inland sea between Russia and Iran. The most prized varieties are beluga, osetra and sevruga, all considered a delicacy and a food with healing qualities.

In Italy, many foods and traditions abound, but a common theme is "out with the old." In earlier times, people really threw old things out the second floor windows, the bad things that had plagued the year. Turns out the tradition was hard on heads of people walking the streets, and it is today rarely followed except in small towns.

Italians sip on spumante and dine on lentils and pig's feet, believing that the feet are rich in fat and symbolizes a year filled with abundance, be it money, love or health. Fireworks go off for about 24 hours.

In Germany, New Year's Eve is known as Silvester, and is celebrated much as the way we do it in this country: noisily, merrily and with glasses of sparkling wine or champagne just before midnight. Typical German new years food is split pea soup with sausages and smoked pork chops with sauerkraut.

But bizarre New Years events are not just for the old world. Closer to home, we have the...
• pickle drop in Dillsburg, a costumed, linebacker-sized pickle plummets into a barrel.
• Fredericksburg, PA, hosts the Hinkelfest, celebrating the culinary heritage of the chicken. (Hinke is the German word for chicken.)
• walleye drop in Port Clinton, Ohio. Port Clinton calls itself "The Walleye Capital of the World," so it follows that the town's mascot would be a 20-foot fiberglass fish named Wylie Walleye, and that they'd drop him from a crane on New Years Eve.
• Atlanta has an 800-pound peach descend from the top of Underground Atlanta's 138-foot light tower.
• LEGO drop at the kid-friendly party at LEGOLAND, San Diego. Come early to see the 22-foot lego brick drops as the fireworks go off. Midnight comes at 6 PM for this celebricktion.
• "Red High Heel Drop" in Key West. A drag queen, Ms. Sushi, is lowered from a balcony in a red high-heeled shoe.
• The Harvest Festival of the Arts and Octubafest features over 200 artists and craftsmen in Carlisle.
• a 100-pound Kutztown Bologna gets dropped in Lebanon, PA. Lets hope that the casing holds together!
• king cake baby drop happens in New Orleans. Jackson Square celebrants watch the paper-mache icon fall from the top of the old Jax Brewery, a "hand-me-down" from the 1984 World's Fair. New Orleans and New Years Eve go together like rum and red drinks.
• The "Lowering of the Goat" happens in Falmouth, three miles South of Three Mile Island. Someone got into the hooch when they decided to lower their stuffed mascot.
• Miami drops its orange, a giant, glowing orange complete with sunglasses, from the 38-floor Hotel Inter-Continental.
• Back Home in Benton, PA, we plan to play some pinochle, swish down a little bubbly, make some resolutions we probably won't keep, and mention how happy we are not to be driving on New Years Eve. We hope we don't doze off before the start of the new year, but we actually tend to think that the whole evening is pointless and we expect that we'll sleep though it all.

Remember, as you celebrate the new year, if you can't say something nice about someone, just keep quiet and listen to those who can't either. Look around you. Most parties will have a group of people having a lousy time trying to have a good time. Don't worry about the parties you didn't get to attend. Nothing is more irritating than not being invited to a party you wouldn't be caught dead at!

You will know that you're getting too old for New Year's Eve parties when you meet the Old Year on his way out and he looks younger than you do.

The nice thing about New Year's Eve parties is that when you wake up on New Year's Day, the year can only get better.

New Year's resolutions are like the glass in fire alarms--they're only made to be broken.

One fellow we know said he was going to make a New Year's resolution to be kind, considerate and nice. Then he decided, hah, he would rather be himself.

The old honeymoon haven at Mount Airy Lodge reportedly has been sold in order to make it into one of the stand-alone slot machine facilities authorized by the new state gaming law.

The price of gasoline in Pennsylvania will jump nearly 4 cents a gallon Saturday because of an increase in the oil company franchise tax.

Christine's Karaoke is booked at the Jamison City Hotel for New Year's Eve. The hotel is also serving pork and sauerkraut at midnight for $7 a person.

The remaining employees at the Lewisburg Pennsylvania House plant will lose their jobs Wednesday as the final piece of furniture rolls off the line. The first of the plant's 425 employees were laid off December 1. Parent company La-Z-Boy said Pennsylvania House's operations will be moved overseas. La-Z-Boy reportedly rejected a $34 million buyout offer from the Guv in October. Employees and supporters tried to buy the plant, but were unsuccessful. About 25 people will remain on-site until the plant closes for good in June.

Thank God who seasons thus the year,
And sometimes kindly slants his rays;
For in his winter he's most near
And plainest seen upon the shortest days.
--Henry David Thoreau

Many readers of the Benton News do not actually know a lot about the Northern Fishing Creek valley and the small boroughs and townships, the rural surroundings and the large holdings of forest land that characterize our area. Three counties meet a few miles above the Borough of Benton.

This part of the state is beautiful and offers a variety of outdoor activities. Indoors recreational, educational, historical, cultural and social opportunities will become available to persons of all ages and incomes with the phase-in of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center.

The northern Fishing Creek valley abounds with historical, cultural and natural resources. Benton Borough, "the best little village by a dam site" was incorporated in 1894. The dam ponding Fishing Creek near the center of town is well known. The Benton Park recently received financial assistance through the restructuring of available funding earmarked for park purposes. The Rodeo Facility on the West side of the Borough is popular for both the annual rodeo and for the annual Out Among the Stars Bluegrass Festival. The hills north of town contain much state forest and game lands, private and state campgrounds, and Lake Jean and Ricketts Glen State Park. Ricketts Glen is registered with the Department of the Interior as one of America's pristine "natural wonderlands." Columbia County has more covered bridges per square mile than any area in the nation. Many of these bridges, including the only twin bridges in the nation, are located in the northern part of the county.

Local businesses abound that thrive on outdoors sports, from fly fishing to bed and breakfasts to archery clubs. Hunting seasons boost the local economy. Trout seasons once experienced shoulder-to-shoulder fishermen and during hunting seasons of a past era many cars and trucks came through Benton with deer carcasses on the hoods. Restaurants and sports shops counted on this seasonal activity.

The headwaters of Fishing Creek no longer support stream life and healthy fishing. Trout stocking has ceased in the headwater reaches. The Fishing Creek Watershed Association, in conjunction with DEP, Columbia County Conservation District, PPL and various other organizations, is working on a variety of projects to combat the effects of acid rain and other factors that have impacted Fishing Creek and the livelihood of area merchants that depend on a healthy environment. The results of the efforts have been positive and are expected to restore a productive fishery.
--This article based on a report by the Columbia County Housing Corporation (CCHC) and portions are reprinted with permission.

"Say kids, What time is it?"

"It's Howdy Doody time!"

Have you noticed how happy school children are when you wave to them on the school bus? Wave frequently!

Show enthusiasm, even when you don't feel like it.

Take care of your reputation. It is your most valuable asset.

A successful marriage depends on finding the right person and being the right person

Don't let doctors and bean counters for insurance companies intimidate you. It is your body!

On this date in...
1845, ether anesthetic was successfully used in childbirth by a doctor in Georgia, who gave it to his wife. Three years before, the doctor had administered inhaled ether to a patient for the removal of a tumor from his neck after he had learned about ether during "ether frolics" while in medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Crawford W. Long's accomplishment in 1842 when he was 27 is considered to represent the discovery of surgical anesthesia. He was the subject on a U.S. stamp issued in 1940. Ether was actually discovered in 1275 by a Spanish chemist and was given the name "sweet vitriol." The synthesis of ether was described by a German scientist as early as 1540. The first successful demonstration of ether anesthesia occurred at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846. The administering physician was so impressed with the results that he uttered the profound medical observation, "Gentlemen, this is no humbug." Dr. Long died in 1878 while administering ether to a farmer's wife during labor. Many readers will remember the horrid taste and after effects of either.

1947, Howdy Doody premiered on NBC, with host Buffalo Bob Smith. It was television's first show to complete 1,000 broadcasts. After 13 successful years, production ended with a total of 2,343 shows.

1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was the woman Americans most admired, according to the Gallup Poll. It was the third year in a row the "Iron Lady" received the honor. In 1975, Thatcher challenged Edward Heath for the Tory leadership. Thatcher went to Heath's office to tell him her decision, but he did not bother to look up. "You'll lose," he said. "Good day to you." Following a series of minor strokes in 2001, Thatcher retired from public life. Her husband, Sir Denis Thatcher, died in June, 2003, several months after a heart transplant.

We usually mention outstanding movie performances that we happen to see, and this is one of those times. Emmy Rossum, 18, portrays a young soprano in Joel Schumacher's $70-million film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. Emmy delivers an outstanding performance in the role of Christine, a young soprano at the Paris Opera who falls under the Phantom's spell. She was good enough that she is now competing for best actress, musical or comedy, at the upcoming Golden Globe ceremony. Based on an 1911 novel, "Phantom" tells of a budding star caught between a dashing theater patron and the Phantom, her disfigured mentor.

A reader recently used the term "cardinal sin" to describe a mistake we made on a date on some email versions of the Christmas Benton News. We checked to figure out what the term meant. A cardinal sin, our reference book said, is the "same as a deadly sin," defined as "vainglory (pride), covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth." They were classified as "deadly" not only because they were serious moral offenses but also because they frequently resulted in the commission of other sins. Somehow, we didn't feel that we had slipped to the sloth level by mistyping a date, but following the practice that Horace Harrison always adhered to of the customer always being right, we'll leave it that the reader is always right.

In our defense, however, we have to say that our reading ability has slipped so that we are no longer able to read the email version of what we peck out. We generally go with what we type for the email version, and then upload the web version. We then open the web page and jack up the text lettering so we can read it. As a result, the email version is much more prone to mistakes. With regret, we suspect more "cardinal sins" will follow on the email version--and we'll probably let a few creep into the on-line version as well.

The Columbia County Model Railroad Club will hold an open house Tuesday, December 28, at the club, 255 Main Street, from 7 PM to 9 PM. Phil Malhoyt, 925-2722, can provide further information. Grab the kids and come on out.

Toy trains have been popular in the United States since World War I. Early toy trains were pulled, had windup motors or tiny steam engines. German toymakers like Marklin dominated the market. In 1891, the company introduced the first train set that permitted additional track and accessories to be added. US manufacturers stepped in with bigger, cheaper sets as World War I sentiments and prohibitions on German exports began. Joshua Lionel Cowen introduced brightly painted trains in the 1920s.

Model railroading is often an underground hobby, but the local club is not content to leave it in the basement. The former Rabb's Drug Store building has come alive again with the model trains and with the passion of scale-model railroading and detailed train layouts good enough to be in Model Railroader magazine.

The hobby appeals most to the resourceful and patient as mountains arise from chicken wire, shrubs from steel wool, and ground cover from dyed sawdust.

The local club specializes in HO Scale Modular trains, although they have examples of other types of trains on display. Plan to stop Tuesday night from 7 to 9 PM.

Sheila Brandon has updated the pictures of the Benton Area Schools on her Lower Luzerne Website, www.lowerluzernecounty.com/. A partial list of pictures includes...
Benton Alumni 1906-1945
Benton Summer School 1909
Benton 1923
B. V.S. 1925
Benton Yearbook 1930
Benton 1930's
Benton Seniors 1932 Yearbook
Benton Baseball Team 1933
Benton Seniors 1934 Yearbook
Benton Yearbook 1937
Benton Class of 1939
Benton Seniors-1939 Yearbook
Benton School 1939-1940 Third Grade
Benton School 1941-42 Fourth Grade
Benton School 1946-47 Tenth Grade
Benton School 1946-47 Tenth Grade Boys
Benton School 1947-48 Eleventh Grade
Benton School 1947-48 Eleventh Grade Play
Benton School 1948-49-12thgrade
Benton Class of 1949
Benton Class of 1949 50th Reunion
School History

The day after Christmas is sometimes known as the Feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. St. Stephen was stoned to death for blasphemy. If the name St. Stephen sounds familiar, think of the Christmas carol and the words about good King Wenceslas made to a poor man whom he observed struggling through the snow "on the Feast of Stephen."

Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel.

St. Stephens Day is actually better known as Boxing Day and is still celebrated in Australia, Britain, New Zealand, and Canada. It is traditionally a day of sport. There is some disagreement over the origin of Boxing Day, but servants received Christmas gifts from their employers on the first weekday after Christmas, usually December 26, after the family celebrations. These were generally called their Christmas boxes. Another story is that this is the day that priests broke open the collection boxes and distributed the money to the poor. In Australia where summer is being enjoyed, Boxing Day activities include surfing.

"Second Christmas" in early Pennsylvania was celebrated the day after Christmas as a secular holiday. The day's activities included shooting matches, games of chance, and wheelbarrow races.

From Our House to Yours, Merry Christmas!

On this date in...
1849, the process of dry-cleaning was [perhaps] accidentally discovered when a tailor upset a lamp containing turpentine on his tablecloth and noticed it had a cleaning effect. Another story says that by accident the owner of a textile dye works in 1848 [possibly] found that the liquid from an oil lamp could dissolve fat. Another tale tells about a French sailor who accidentally fell into a vat of turpentine and [ho, ho, ho] when his soiled uniform dried, it was clean.

1869, William Finley Semple patented chewing gum, made of "the combination of rubber with other articles adapted to the formation of an acceptable chewing gum." The ancient Mayans first harvested the sap of the Central American sapodilla tree, cutting it into chewable lumps. They called it Tsictle, from which we get our word chickle, the base for modern chewing gums.

1996, JonBenet Ramsey, 6, was found dead in the cellar of her family's Boulder, Colorado, home. Jon Benet had reigned as National Tiny Miss Beauty, Little Miss Colorado and America's Royale Miss. The little girl was found eight hours after her mother found a handwritten three-page ransom note demanding $118,000 for JonBenet's return. There was no sign of forced entry. The murderer is still at large.

It is Christmas Day, when much of what is considered the western world celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is a global celebration! The traditions and foods associated with Christmas vary with climate, culture and country, but the spirit of the day transcends all differences. Eating too much at the dinner table, displaying Christmas lights, exchanging gifts, and burning the Yule log are traditions that date back to the ancient Roman celebration of Saturnalia and various winter solstice rituals.
• In Japan, Christmas is a precursor to New Year celebrations. On Christmas Eve, lovers treat each other to lavish gifts and children await Uncle Chimney.
• In Finland, people go to the sauna and listen to The Peace of Christmas on national radio. It is also the time of year when they visit the graves of departed loved ones.
• In Yugoslavia, the second Sunday before Christmas is "Mother's Day." Children demand presents for ransom, taunting their mothers with "It's Mother's Day, its Mother's Day, what will you pay to get away?" The next week they do the same thing to their father. Yugoslavians celebrate Christmas on January 7, following the old Julian calendar.
• In Venezuela, roller-skating teens make their way to church and a special early morning Christmas mass. Skating home, they stop for Christmas breakfasts, featuring cornmeal pastries filled with spicy meat, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled.
• In Australia and South Africa, December 25 falls in the middle of the summer and Christmas is celebrated frequently in the great outdoors with "another shrimp on the barbie." The Aussies also use Christmas trees, mistletoe, holly, and gift giving.
• In China, the Buddhists celebrate Christmas by lighting decorated paper lanterns and decorating their "Trees of Light" with paper decorations. Children wait for a visit from the "Christmas Old Man."
• In Zaire, Rumania, and Poland, folk plays are performed in villages around Christmas time to dramatize the Christmas nativity story.
• In Spain, children leave shoes on the windowsill filled with straw, carrots and barley for Balthazar's donkey, a Wise Man believed to leave them gifts.
• In Greece, St. Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, and ships rarely leave port without an icon of St. Nicholas and his beard drenched with seawater on board.
• In Mexico, children use sticks to break open a piñata filled with candy and money.
• In Brazil, on Christmas Eve people attend Midnight mass, called the Mass of the Rooster, because mass ends the next day, which is announced by the rooster. Father Christmas wears a silk suit because of the heat.
• In Jamaica and some other Caribbean islands and some African countries, Christmas is celebrated as masquerade performances and parties.

"Oh by gosh by golly!" It is Christmas Eve, December 24, 2004. Tonight Santa arrives at the homes of good kids. It is also the day when Advent ends (Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve). Franz Gruber, an Austrian organist, composed the music for the poem "Silent Night" and it was sung for the first time during Midnight Mass on this night in 1818. The crew of the U.S. Navy ship, "Pueblo," walked across the Bridge of No Return (between North and South Korea), following their release by North Korea on this date in 1968. Commander Lloyd M. Bucher, the Captain of the "Pueblo," and 82 of his crew had been held for 11 months after the ship was seized by North Korea because of suspected spying by the Americans. Happy birthday today to Rodney VanPelt, Market Street, who celebrates with the memory of Howard Hughes, born on this date in 1905 and currently being remembered in the movie The Aviator.

Local Church services tonight include...
• Saint Martha Catholic Church, Fairmount Springs, 4 PM.
• St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church, 6:30 PM
• Benton Assembly of God, Stillwater, 7 PM
• Benton Christian Church, 7 PM
• Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church, Benton, 7 PM
• St. James United Church of Christ, Bendertown, 7 PM
• Stillwater Christian Church, Benton High School auditorium, 7 PM
• Richarts Grove, 8 PM
• Zion United Church of Christ, 9 PM

Harold W. Houseweart, 92, (Nov. 5, 1912-Dec. 22, 2004), Maple Grove Road, Stillwater, died Wednesday. He was a son of the late Arthur Sterling Houseweart and Lillian (Evans) Houseweart. He is survived by his wife, the former Pauline Harriet Comstock, and by four children: Harold B. Houseweart, Jamison City; William A. Houseweart, Delray Beach, FL; Sharon I. Graff, Swarthmore; and Eugene D. Houseweart, Lester. There are grandchildren and great-grandchildren and two siblings, Robert S. Houseweart, York, and Florence Polk, Benton. Brothers Wesley, Doyle and Raymond Houseweart preceded him in death. Friends may call Tuesday evening, Dec. 28, from 6 until 8 PM at the McMichael Funeral Home Inc. Interment will be private.
--From the Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary can be obtained.

The poem The Night Before Christmas combined the celebration of St. Nicholas Day and Christmas. Before the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, stories of St. Nicholas and his extraordinary generosity and acts of kindness had become synonymous with the Spirit of Christmas. Nicholas was born in Asia Minor, a village in what is now Turkey, around A.D. 300. Nicholas helped the needy, the sick and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God, was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man, and became known for his generosity to those in need and for his love for children. Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. He died at the age of 43 and was buried in his cathedral church. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day.

A story is told of St. Nicholas which concerned a poor man with three daughters who had no dowry. The daughters of this poor man would probably have been sold into slavery without dowries. The story goes that on three different occasions a bag of gold appeared in their home--providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold were tossed through an open window and were said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings in anticipation of gifts from Saint Nicholas.

Nicholas was so widely revered that more than 2,000 churches were named for him, including more than 400 in England. Bishop Nicholas was venerated by Catholics and honored by Protestants. Between the late 18th and 19th centuries, people of Dutch, German and English extraction were inspired by St. Nicholas or Sinter Klaas traditions of their Dutch ancestry, and Santa Claus was created.

In much of Europe, St. Nicholas Day on December 6 is still the main day for gift giving and merrymaking. In the Netherlands, for example, St. Nicholas' Day is celebrated with the sharing of candies thrown through open doors and windows and with the giving of other small gifts. Dutch children leave their shoes and boots filled with carrots and hay for the horse of St. Nicholas, hoping he will exchange them for small gifts. In Hungary, children leave boots out for St. Nicholas to fill with presents; in Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, a man in bishop's robes listens to children's prayers and gives presents. In Holland, St. Nicholas rides on a white horse, tossing gifts down chimneys. In Holland, children are visited by St. Nicholas on December 5, and on Christmas Eve they are visited by Santa Claus, the American Christmas Man. The act of simple gift-giving during early Advent on December 6 helps preserve a Christmas Day focus on the Christ Child.

Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung
by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas
soon would be there;
The children were nestled
all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugarplums
danced in their heads.

The Night Before Christmas shaped what we today come to think of as the image of Santa Claus. The poem focused attention on children and represented Santa Claus as a Harry Potter human who traveled through the air on a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. Merchants loved the poem, and they pushed the Santa idea. Christmas advertising campaigns began as soon as Thanksgiving turkey was settled in the stomach, and early Thanksgiving Day parades were promotions for Christmas shopping. Franklin Roosevelt set the annual date of Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November in 1939--at the urging of the business community to ensure a four-week shopping season. Christmas sales now account for more than 50% of their annual sales.

The Garrison Keillor Joke of the Week is...
Q. If athletes get athlete's foot, what do astronauts get?
A. Missile toe.

Learn More About Christmas Traditions Here

Have a blessed Christmas. We'll take leave of you now. It is time to set out the milk and cookies for Santa.

On this date in...
1787, Pennsylvania became the second state of the United States. Following the tradition of being second, Pennsylvania was the second state quarter minted (1999). Overdrive Magazine also claimed that the state had the second worst roads.

1897, a comic strip, The Katzenjammer Kids, debuted in United States newspapers. The comic strip was the first to use bubbles over the characters' heads for placing dialogue. The main Katzie was Mamma Katzenjammer, her twin sons, Hans and Fritz, and the target of their mischief, The Captain. The characters all had a German accent. "Just" becomes "chust," "we" becomes "ve," and the Captain was "der Captain." In 1914, Rudolph Dirks, creator of the Katzenjammer Kids created The Captain & the Kids, with the very same characters (although they no longer had German accents) for a rival newspaper chain.

1953, an aircraft first reached the speed of 2-1/2 times the speed of sound. Piloted by Charles Elwood Yeager, the Bell X-1A was carried to launching altitude by a B-29 to conserve its four minutes of fuel. Inertia-coupling (then called "high-speed instability") occurred and the plane tumbled violently on three axes for more than 40,000 feet before Chuck Yeager was able recover to wings-level, stable flight. This incident displayed the skill of the pilot and saved his life and the aircraft. Yeager almost didn't make the flight. Shot down over enemy territory in 1943, Yeager evaded capture and made his way across the Pyrenees to neutral Spain. Although army policy prohibited his return to combat flight, Yeager personally appealed to General Dwight D. Eisenhower and was allowed to fly combat missions again. He flew 64 combat missions in World War II and by war's end he had downed 13 enemy aircraft, five in a single day. A best-selling book The Right Stuff (1979), make Yeager's name household.

Hunting involves using a gun that normally shoots a single shot. We found a sport yesterday that employes a gun that shoots 16 to 22 projectiles per second, much faster than your average AK-47, Kalashnikov or Uzi rifles. Teen-age boys are loving it!

Since its introduction in the 1980s, paintball has gained enthusiasts every year. Teams form, leagues organize, tournaments begin. Paintball may never gain the popularity of basketball or football, since guns and paint projectiles are almost never part of traditional sports.

We'll look at the rules and the basic game of paintball. Like most games, paintball starts with "the ball," somewhat like a water balloon 0.68 inches in diameter. Unlike our traditional games, paintball can have hundreds of balls in play at any one time. Just as the name implies, these balls are actually tiny containers of gel-cap paint, something like bath-oil beads, consisting of colored liquid encased in a gelatin capsule. The "paint" is non-toxic, biodegradable and water soluble, as Grandmother found out when her leather coat got kaboomed by a ricocheting paintball. When the gun is cocked, a paintball falls out of the hopper and enters the gun's barrel. A small burst of compressed carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2) or ordinary air is released into the barrel behind the paintball. The compressed gas pushes the paintball out the barrel somewhat like gunpowder would do for your old Smith & Wesson. The speed of the fired paintball is adjusted not to exceed 300 feet per second. A paintball will sting, can leave a bruise and players always wear head protection.

The original paintball guns were developed for use in forestry and agriculture. Foresters marked trees and farmers marked cattle. Someone in a Hatfield-McCoy type of feud decided to shoot at each other, humans got marked and the game of paintball began.

The first paintball field opened in 1982 up in New York state at Rochester. There are now paintball fields, as well as indoor paintball arenas, all over the world. We got our first look Saturday at the largest indoor paintball facility in Pennsylvania, in Berwick at 355 Bowers Road, the Stonemark Paintball facility.

		We visited the Redz Professional Paintball Clinic at Stonemark, specifically to see a few members of the Punisher Punks, consisting of grandson Erich Becker, 14, Mechanicsburg, Ben Timmons, 16, Carlisle, Christian Sgrignoli, 15, Enola, and Ian Hoffmann, 14, Grantville. The day was spent in drills and workouts, with the afternoon spent in seven-member team competition.
Erich Becker

Here are the rules of paintball as we see them. One or more referees are assigned to each game. They start and stop the game and make all the decisions. The referee is somewhat akin to a wife. Don't interrupt and don't talk back. Getting hit by a paintball that breaks disqualifies the player, even if it hits only the gun or the equipment. The player yells "Out" or "Deadman" when hit, holds his gun over his head and vamooses the field. A little splash of paint doesn't count. If two or more players mark each other simultaneously, all are eliminated. Games can last different amounts of time, and that should be decided in advance. All paintballs used at the tournament must be purchased from the referee or the hosting activity. Wal-Mart and other brands are not permitted and the paintballs purchased are under a no-return policy. A case of paintballs at Stonemark, good for 2,000 rounds, costs $60 according to a sign on the wall. Boundaries of the playing field are decided in advance, although that is not a problem in an indoor facility. During a game, players venturing outside the boundaries must leave the game. Field boundaries are set up in advance so stray flying paintballs don't strike unauthorized horses, cars or people. Players are required to wear long-sleeve shirts and full-length pants, with arms, legs, head and face fully covered. Shooting at close range and shooting at referees are not allowed.

We thought that the sport could be a favorite of ours, but in horror we watched as a player made what he called a "Spiderman landing." We hate to be a quitter, but we did when we saw and felt that landing--even before we got to fire our first 16 rounds in a split second! We may move to England and take up their favorite sport.

On this date in...
1719, the first recorded sighting of the Aurora Borealis took place in New England. A mysterious face seemed to appear in the atmosphere, a cause for alarm since many thought the last judgment had arrived. Most aurora borealis displays occur in September and October and again in March and April. The light occurs most frequently during sunspot activity.

1769, Venetian blinds were patented in London by Edward Bevan. They have been gathering dust ever since.

1874, James Lewis Kraft (1874-1953) was born. The Canadian-born manufacturer and inventor of the pasteurizing process for cheese founded the Kraft Co. In 1903, he established a wholesale cheese business in Chicago. Kraft patented a processed cheese formula that would not spoil and called it "American Cheese." The general public didn't much care for it, but Kraft sold 6 million pounds of the processed cheese product to the U.S. Army and the soldiers got used to the product. During the depression when real cheese was expensive and hard to get, the product really took off. The history of the company can be found at http://164.109.46.215/100/founders/JLKraft.html .

Yesterday we had a pop quiz. This was the question: which of the following names do not belong in this group? Adams, Clinton, Jefferson, Monroe, Washington. If you don't have the answer, think a second longer before you read the next paragraph.

We suspect that you got the right answer, but possibly for the wrong reason. All the names are of counties in the state of Pennsylvania. All the counties but one were named for U.S. Presidents. William Jefferson Blythe IV, later known as William Jefferson Clinton, was never the namesake for a Pennsylvania county. DeWitt Clinton gets the credit. The first correct answer came from Buddy Johnson.

It is just wonderful to pick up the Press Enterprise and read NICE things about Benton, and today's edition makes up for a lot of the hot air and "bad press" that blows through columns like "30 seconds." Please take the time to read the article in the sports section entitled "Benton an early-season success story." Second, turn to the side panel on this web site and scroll down to the section on the Benton Area Schools. You will find the sports schedule there. Look for the basketball schedule and come out and support our winning team.

We have had days and days of rain and the gray drearies. Although there was a report of a "yellow ball in the sky" in the Huntington Mills area a few days ago, it didn't make it to Benton! Little beats the $3 billion flooding the state experienced in June, 1972, when Hurricane Agnes swept up from Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, or 1975 during the "no-name" flooding that we suffered locally. The Great Flood of 1993 in the American Midwest, the most costly and devastating flood to ravage the U.S. in recent history, did little damage locally. Still, those floods were nothing compared with the flooding that hit the upper Fishing Creek Valley in 1849.

In 1849 the flooding was so intense in the Fishing Creek valley that the flour mill above the present town of Benton, owned then by Isaiah Cole, along with his sawmill and his house, were caught in high waters destroying the mill and badly damaging the house. Lives were saved by climbing on the roof of the house. We have read reports that the deluge of water was so great that a man by the name of Charles Knauff, up on the North Mountain, saved himself from drowning by grabbing a large piece of hemlock bark, holding it over his head to divert the downpour.

According to William C. Heacock, who wrote about the episode and other incidents in the Benton area following the Civil War, the amount of water was so intense that water from Fishing Creek and West Creek joined in the area where Benton is now located and flooded the valley as far South as Stillwater. The History of Fishingcreek Valley, written by Rachel P. Evans Kline, and currently for sale at the Columbia County Historical Society, Bloomsburg, also discusses the flood, saying, in part, that "the bed of the stream was moved several rods east to the present course on the East side of the valley."

William Heacock wrote that shortly after the 1849 flood, Isaiah Cole's house was "moved to its present location and the same stones of the huge chimney which were in the old house were brought down in stone boats and set up again" at the location later known as "The Two Sister's Curve" beside route 487 just north of the present golf course. Isaiah Cole's house was moved to the new location on rollers. To show the force of the flood a millstone was carried a quarter of a mile down the stream.

The original mill of Isaiah Cole dated to 1799 and operated for almost half a century until the cloudburst and flash flood destroyed it in 1849. The mill which later became known as the Swartwout Mill was constructed by a man named Robbins about 1849 about fifty yards below the original Isaiah Cole Mill. Later, Bent Cole operated the second mill. "Bent" Cole refers to Thomas Benton Cole, who at one time lived in the stone house next to the present Mill Race Golf Course. Robert Swartwout purchased the mill and about 150 acres of land in 1858. His brother, John, came from Albany, New York, in 1859 and managed the property. Swartwout sold the mill to Joseph Follmer and there were several sales after. Across what is now route 487 from the Swartwout house, an electric company supplied Benton with electricity. A concrete dam, 280 feet long, was built by 1914 at the site of the old Swartwout mill, and the powerhouse contained a 75-kilowatt generator, operated by a 100-horsepower turbine. The Benton Electric Company provided electricity to Benton until the 1920s when it became the property of the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company.

The state has often been hit by flooding, but the flood of 1849 did great damage to what is now Hickory Run State Park. Several dams broke, flooding the towns of Saylorsville and Hickory Run. The devastation was so great that the state passed a bill allowing those who lost property to sue the builder of the dam, but nothing could be proven and no action was taken.

The state did not experience flooding of this magnitude again until the Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889, when 2,209 people died and thousands were injured in one of the worst disasters in our state and our nation's history.

The Garrison Keillor Joke of the Week:
Q: What do you call a group of chess grandmasters bragging about their recent tournaments in the hotel lobby?
A: Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.

Still making holiday plans? Remember The Nutcracker, as performed by the Moscow Ballet visits the Kirby Center, Wilkes Barre, the week before Christmas. The Moscow Ballet production features spectacular new sets, 50 professional dancers, over 400 elaborate period costumes, and familiar music.

If ballet doesn't send you flying, try visiting http://activities.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaid=PA&cu_id=1 for thoughts of things to do in the state.

"Contentment is the only real wealth."
--Alfred Nobel

Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.
--Richard M. Nixon

When we got into office, the thing that surprised me the most was that things were as bad as we'd been saying they were.
John F. Kennedy

On this date in...
1896, Alfred Bernhard Nobel died of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in San Remo, Italy. Each year on his birthday, prizes bearing his name are awarded "to those persons who shall have contributed most materially to the benefit of mankind during the year immediately preceding." The document setting up the Nobel Prize was a one-page document, written by Nobel without legal aid. The first of the Nobel Prizes was presented in 1901. Nobel invented dynamite and was very wealthy, but felt it would be wrong to leave his fortune to relatives, saying "Inherited wealth is a misfortune which merely serves to dull man's faculties."

1927, radio announcer George Hay introduced the "WSM Barn Dance" as "The Grand Ole Opry." Originally known as the WSM Barn Dance, the show started its career in the station's fifth floor Studio A on November 28, 1925. "Uncle" Jimmy Thompson "fiddled the bugs off the tater vines" in the first show. The name of the show changed when announcer George D. Hay ad libed after the WSM Barn Dance came on the air after a broadcast of the NBC Music Appreciation Hour. Hay said, "For the past hour, you have been listening to Grand Opera. Now we will present Grand Ole Opry!" Want to listen this weekend to the Grand Ole Opry? You can, on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Stream 137 or by going to www.wsmonline.com .

Mary S. "Marie" (Lojewski) Jankowski, 82, (Dec. 15, 1921-Dec. 8, 2004), 452 Main Street, died Wednesday. Born in New Hope, she was a daughter of the late Stanislaw and Helena (Maminski) Lojewski. She was preceded in death March 21, 2001, by her husband, Tadeusz A. "Ted" Jankowski. She is survived by her children: Jan T. Jankowski, Benton; Sharon Hutchison, Philadelphia; and Bruce A. Jankowski, Benton; four grandchildren: Dan, John and Tom Jankowski, and Sue Sopkie; two great-grandchildren, Adam and Eric Jankowski; and a sister, Theresa Falcinelli, Bensalem. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Monday at 11 AM at Christ the King Church. A viewing will be held Monday from 10 AM until the time of the Funeral Mass. Burial will be in Benton Cemetery.
--from the Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary can be obtained.

We are springing a pop Pennsylvania quiz today. The answer to this question will be in tomorrow's edition. The question is which of the following names do not belong in this group and why? The names are Adams, Clinton, Jefferson, Monroe, Washington.

Have cabin fever? Want to take a Pennsylvania trip? Christmas sparkles at Longwood Gardens , Kennett Square, through January 2. Consider Longwood Gardens, one of the world's premier horticultural display on more than 1,000 acres. Longwood offers exquisite flowers, majestic trees, manicured gardens and conservatories. An estimated 11,000 types of plants, including roses, orchids and water lilies, are on display. Illuminated fountains and an "Idea Garden" relax and inspire. Enjoy festivals, concerts, holiday displays, shopping, and gourmet dining. Lavish decorations in the massive Conservatory showcase grand-scale wreaths and swags created with fragrant dried and fresh horticultural materials. There are six living wreaths of holiday evergreens, with bromeliads, succulents, orchids, begonias, poinsettias and lilies planted in large moss-stuffed frames.

Didja know that the original name of Forks was Pealertown? The name of the post office in the village of Pealertown was changed to Forks in 1855, changed back to Pealertown in 1861 and back to Forks in 1871. Pealertown, in Fishingcreek Township, dates back to 1786 when a brother of Daniel McHenry by the name of Henry McHenry settled there on what was known as the "Congingham Manor."

The Rohr McHenry Distilling Company was one of the most important industries in Benton and Columbia County during the latter part of the 1800s and the first decade of the last century. Here is what was on a McHenry whiskey bottle...
• Printing on side:
"REWARD. We will give $100.00 for evidence leading to the detection of any one refilling the McHenry bottles with any other whisky or adulterating the McHenry Whiskey in any manner or for selling something else and calling it McHenry when McHenry is asked for. Rohr McHenry Distilling Co.
• Printing on back:
This whiskey is the product of selected Rye and Malt pure mountain spring water and scientific distilling with years of perfect aging in charred barrels in heated warehouses and coming direct from us it brings to you the finest & purest Whiskey made, and costs you no more than the other brands.
--Courtesy of Zane Unbewust

Do you need a smile today? Click here.

Thursday, December 9, 2004.

On this date in...
1845 or 1848, Joel Chandler Harris was born. He wrote children's stories told in dialect by Uncle Remus, a slave who entertained a young white boy with American folktales. While scholars debate Harris's actual birth year, 1845 or 1848, the young white boy was born December 9 in Billy Barne's Tavern to an unwed mother. He grew up hearing tales of Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox and other critters in the Briar Patch. Words like "sezee," "kaze" and "gwine" are common in his writing dedicated to primarily a northern audience.

1907, the U.S. Post Office in Wilmington offered Christmas Seals for sale for the very first time. Contributions for the original seals were designed by Emily P. Bissell, known as the person who introduced the Christmas seal to America. In 1907, her cousin, Dr. Joseph Wales, needed money to operate his tuberculosis hospital for the poor. Emily Bissell decided to sell Christmas seals to raise $300; she ended up raising $3,000. The Christmas seals that are still used every year are the descendants of Emily Bissell's efforts nearly a century ago.

1960, Sperry Rand Corporation unveiled a new computer, known as Univac 1107, using what was known as thin-film memory. Its main cabinets went from floor to ceiling, with air conditioned air injected through the raised floor and exit air exhausted through the dropped ceiling. Most of the central computer cabinets were walk-in. Contrast that 100 megabyte hard drive computer weighing two and a quarter tons and costing more than $130,000 when you tuck your new Dell with a 2.1 gigabyte drive, purchased for under $1,000, into your briefcase.

Royal R. "Butch" Cain, Jr., 63, Red Rock Road, Benton, husband of Ruth M. (Lutz) Cain, died Sunday. The viewing will be Friday from 9 to 10:45 AM at Christ the King Church. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 AM at the Church.
--from the Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary is available

"Uncle Remus, " said the little boy one evening, when he had found the old man with little or nothing to do, "did the fox kill and eat the rabbit when he caught him with the Tar-Baby?"
--How Mr. Rabbis Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox, by Joel Chandler Harris

Benton logged the lowest reported prices in the state of Pennsylvania Wednesday as regular unleaded gas dropped to $1.61 and $1.63. The next lowest prices were in Hershey according to Pennsylvnia Gas Prices in the range of $1.69. At the other end of the spectrum, $2.09 was the highest state price for regular unleaded. For readers from out of the area who come Back Home to Benton, PA, to "fill up," we suggest you stay for lunch or dinner at one of the area's fine restaurants.

Feeling like you need to fill in around the edges? Hardee's Monster Thickburger might do it for you. Two 1/3-pound hunks of all-Angus beef and four strips of bacon and three slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame seed bun yields 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat. The sandwich is $5.49, or $7.09 with fries and a soda. The combo packs more calories and fat than most people should get in a day. One person noted that a person's body would be better off with a stick of butter, about 800 calories and 88 grams of fat.

A 13-year-old from Philadelphia County has the season’s first confirmed case of flu, Type A-Fujian influenza.

Quote of the Day:
"The Tigers played with the same kind of energy and enthusiasm first-year coach Matt Aten exudes on the bench."
--Press Enterprise, discussing the Benton boys basketball win over Central Columbia Wednesday night.

The Sunday before Christmas, Pastor Al Lumpkin and wife Jeanie with son Jeremy on the bass will entertain the Community at 7 PM at the Presbyterian Church. This is always one of the highlights of the Christmas season and should not be missed. We'll remind you again, but please put it on your calendar. The wonderful singing voices of Rev. Lumpkin and Jean doing the old hymns and carols from the hills of Kentucky will brighten your holiday. The program combines ancient hymns from Europe and Appalachian carols with contemporary songs of the season.

A proof of the Benton Area Business Association's new brochure of businesses in the area is now available. This brochure is in full color on glossy paper, and features a centerfold map which shows the location of each business. In early January, 5000 of these brochures will be distributed around the area, and if you have a business and wish to be included you may do so by submitting business information (name, address, type of business, contact and phone number) and $36 (membership fee) to Benton Area Business Association, PO Box 186, Benton, PA 17814. The deadline is DECEMBER 15, so don't delay! More information is available from Carol Vance (925-2591), Mary Ann Gaul (925-2709), or Alan Harvey (925-5081).

Would you believe that Lightstreet about 1912 had a sign at the entrance to town that read, "Anybody exceeding 12 miles per hour though Light Street (sic) will be dealt with according to the law."

In August, 1945, a headline in the Benton Argus was "Superhighway In Red Rock Area." In typical Argus style, a secondary headline followed, which read, "Route 115 will be relocated as short cut to Williamsport." The article indicated that a "four-lane highway" would be cut through the northern end of the county to provide a short cut from Williamsport to Wilkes-Barre as one of the first post-war highways. The article said that the "superhighway will follow route 115 along the Red Rock mountain to a point near the Harrington Foundry and then will branch off past Grassmere Park and will cut though the mountain pass to the Muncy section." Wonder where the other two lanes went?

We talked about Shickshinny a few days ago and a reader asked why we didn't say something about the clothing store that Bernard Racusin ran in that town. We don't have a good reason, but we'll tell you now what we remember about the store, along with the Racusin stores in Bloomsburg, Berwick, Edwardsville and Freeland.

Our first memory of the store was when Father announced that we were old enough to need a suit. For a kid who always ran up and down the abandoned railroad bed in front of our house in his bare feet, cinders flying everywhere, the thought of shopping for a suit was sickening. The thought of being in one was terrifying! We made the purchase, and we actually thought the suit was pretty snappy! Bernard told us to come over and pick out a tie and we did and he told us to pick out a shirt and we did and the same happened with a new pair of socks. These accoutrements came with the purchase. We were suddenly spiffy and Bernard Racusin got added to our list of "good guys." We returned often over the years.

The Shickshinny Racusin store actually opened in 1898 when Robert Racusin began catering to family clothing needs. Robert's sons Bernard, Jacob and Emmanuel carried on the family tradition. Jacob established the Bloomsburg store about 1933. Jake Racusin always had a big cigar in his mouth and either a Boston Bulldog or a Pug sitting on a coral-colored chair in the store. Jake didn't like to see any customer leave his store without buying something! LuAnn (Dent) Everitt remembers Maud (Dent) Banghart worked in that store for many, many years. Eventually, she worked in their Berwick store at the time of her death. She worked for the Racusins in the neighborhood of 37 years. Emmanuel established the Berwick store in 1936, but passed away in 1952. Pvt. Bernard Racusin served his military time in Camp Lee, Virginia, in 1944. Bernard remained at the Shickshinny store when he returned from active duty. The organization purchased the Freeland store in 1971 from Meyer Racusin, Robert's oldest son. The Agnes flood, one of the most costly disasters in this part of Pennsylvania, severely damaged the Shickshinny store in late June of 1972 and it was transformed into a "Warehouse Store." The organization opened an Edwardsville store and then soon moved into larger quarters in the Gateway Shopping Center. Women liked the Racusin stores because the stores handled brands like Ship N' Shore and Lady Manhattan.

By 1976, the Racusin chain was the largest independent family-owned chain of stores in Luzerne and Columbia Counties specializing in men's clothing. Bernard's son, also named Richard, later joined the organization.

Congratulations to Dennis Threlkeld, president of the Benton Area school board, who has completed his second year in office.

Word of the Day: Flashlight.
Tubular container used for storing dead batteries prior to their disposal.

Flashlights were very much in demand Tuesday night as power went completely out to the northern end of Columbia County. A Bloomsburg woman slammed her pickup truck into two electric poles in an attempt to flee from police. An estimated 10,000 northern Columbia County homes and businesses were slammed into complete darkness. Meetings, church suppers, banquets and a host of other events were thrown into chaos. Matches, candles and flashlights were in very short supply Tuesday night!

The Kemp Studios of Benton and its collection of negatives and prints were destroyed in the Benton fire on July 4, 1910. The studio building "sat some distance from the Exchange Hotel" at the intersection of Main and Market Street, but the intense heat ignited the building and it was destroyed.

H. A. Kemp and his son recorded the community's history on film and they produced a "Souvenir Book of Benton, Penna." The contents of that book and the pictures of the community can be found under FEATURES. The Lower Luzerne County website have the following two pictures in their extensive collection, but they are unable to identify the subjects and the exact Benton-area location where the pictures were taken.

Can a reader help?

On this date in 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed as he stood outside his New York City apartment house, the Dakota. The "fan" was quickly apprehended. Mourners listened to Give Peace a Chance as a tribute to the musician and songwriter. Yoko Ono, Lennon's wife, and others set up a permanent memorial to her husband in an area of Central Park called Strawberry Fields.

A new article in the magazine Information Week alleges that a significant percentage of legitimate outbound emails aren't getting to their destinations and that a significant percentage of legitimate inbound emails are being lost before you ever see them. And "significant" in the article means something like 40%. A number of people, mostly AOL users, have written that they are not receiving the email version of the Benton News because of spam filtering.

We don't mean to sound down this morning, but we are starting to think about the "F" word. A light rain is falling outside and we haven't seen the sun in a couple of days, and we don't feel like getting out in the woods even though it is hunting season. Yes, it is time to think Florida! We tried to put that out of our mind, and we thought back to the winter of 1994. We were just getting over a death in the family that happened the last day of 1993, following a three-year bout of cancer, and the terrible weather and our general state of gloom that followed was something that would never be forgotten.

On the east coast, rivers froze solid during the third week of January, 1994, locking in place much-needed river barges carrying coal and oil. Nine power plants on the east coast were locked out from deliveries by truck became of ice on the roads. By Wednesday, January 19, the mayor of Washington, D.C., closed the city down declaring a power emergency. Blackouts of up to 30 minutes were necessary up and down the east coast. In Allentown, for example, temperatures plummeted to -15F, -35F in Berwick, -21F at Wilkes-Barre. The cold even spread to the mid-west, with states like Indiana recording an all-time low of -35F. The Lake Superior shoreline froze. PPL asked all customers to turn off unnecessary lights and appliances, and requested that dishwashers and dryers not be run.

By noon on the 19th of January, Lt. Gov. Mark Singel announced a state disaster emergency and asked all businesses and commercial operations to close. Early in the morning of Thursday, January 20, Unit Two at PPL's Susquehanna plant shut down because of high temperature readings in the generator cooling water system. Later that day, the crisis passed as warmer weather slowly returned to the area.

So, yes, we are thinking the "F" word. We can't agree with the sentiment that there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. We believe that the sun is shining in the Sunshine State! We should be Christmas shopping and writing to friends and relatives and watching our diet, but we are thinking more and more about hitting the high road...

We just hope we don't end up like the man who went to Florida, but, unfortunately, died there. When his body was shipped home, someone said to his widow that he looked wonderful. His widow nodded approvingly and said something to the effect that his two weeks in Florida had done him a world of good.

Oh, what a blamed uncertain thing
This pesky weather is.
It blew and snew and then it thew,
And now, by jing, it's friz!
--Philander Johnson

Patrick F. Toole, 79 (December 29, 1924-November 19, 2004) recently passed away in Lewisburg. Dr. Toole was born in Pittston and was executive director of the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit (CSIU) from its first day of operation until his 1994 retirement. Under Dr. Toole's guidance, the CSIU became recognized as a leader in providing regional education services to schools. He formulated the legislation that outlined the role of Pennsylvania's intermediate units. Dr. Toole served as a member and chair of the board of trustees for WVIA-TV for nearly 30 years. His accomplishments are too long to list, but include being an honorary trustee of Bucknell University. Those who recognized the vision of the man will long miss him.

We are always happy when our service people can head out of harm's way. Cpl. Kevin Forte is no longer overseas and heads for Quantico, VA, for Marine Security Guard School in mid-January. Brother Kenneth Forte is no longer in the Marine Corps. Ken had served in the Persian Gulf. The parents of these two fine brothers are Larry and Debra Wolfe, Jonestown.

I'm harder than nails,
Stronger than any machine.
I'm the immortal soldier,
I'm a US MARINE!
--Corporal Aaron M. Gilbert, US Marine Corps

The Guv and First Lady "Midge" are inviting interested persons to tour the governor's residence, Second Street, Harrisburg. The Residence is open for tours today through Friday from 10 AM to 2 PM and next week on Wednesday and Thursday from 10 AM until 2 PM. The Residence will also be open from 1 PM until 6 PM Sunday for the Historic Harrisburg Association's Candlelight House Tour. Kristianna Smith, 717 783-1116, will make arrangements for you.

Also on this date in...
1942, Harry Chapin, songwriter and singer was born. He was killed in 1981 in an auto accident.

1970, Rube Goldberg, an American cartoonist who satirized the American preoccupation with technology, died. His name became synonymous with any simple process made outlandishly complicated. His cartoons employed a string of tools, people, plants and steps to accomplish everyday simple tasks in the most complicated way.

The Benton Borough Town Council met last night on their way to passing a 2005 proposed budget. At the end of the meeting, the Council decided to continue the discussion at a special meeting Tuesday, December 14. Since details are still unresolved on the 2005 budget, we should say that it is almost unfair to even give a hint as to the status of the negotiations on the final budget. However, some things are clear. The anticipated revenue for the Borough in 2005 will be about $238,291 and at the present time expenses exceed income by about $30,000. The mood of the town council seemed to be of resolving the budgetary issues and there was no discussion of a tax increase.

The finance committee of the Town Council under the direction of Grant Little presented the budget in an organized and professional manner and it was obvious a great deal of time had gone into the preparation. Borough Secretary Dolores Huda was very much in touch with the budgetary preparations. Stay tuned...

In other business, Fink Street should become more passable in the coming weeks. Street Commissioner Joe Peters was directed to fill the potholes and keep the street in good driving condition. Fink Street runs North and South, heading off Market Street between Sophie's WigWam and the Market Square Restaurant, to the parking entrance of the Old Filling Station.

On the third Monday of December at the North Mountain Historical Society the topic will be "Christmas Traditions in Pennsylvania." David R. Kline will be the guest lecturer. We have just come through a wonderful time of the year known as "Thanksgiving." But if we stop to consider the Pilgrims, generally credited for introducing the concept of Thanksgiving to this country, we must remember that they did not observe Christmas as a celebration. It may also come as a shock to learn that in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, most Pennsylvanians did not celebrate Christmas, either.

Holiday celebrations, including Christmas, began to change in this country in the mid-eighteenth century and Pennsylvania had a great deal to do with it. The presentation will sort out the Christmas people from the non-Christmas people in eighteenth and nineteenth century Pennsylvania. We'll look at different groups from the Quakers through various denominations to the Roman Catholics. The Anglicans, for example, rang church bells on Christmas eve and fired rounds of gunshot into the air on Christmas. We'll look at Christmas music and the concept of a decorated Christmas tree surrounded with gifts.

We would love to have you join the North Mountain Historical Society on December 21. If you would like to come for breakfast, it begins about 8:30 and the discussion begins about 9:15. The group meets at the Brass Pelican Restaurant, Elk Grove. There is no charge, except for breakfast.

The National Christmas Tree Association reports that Americans will buy about 24 million live trees this year and to help with that cause sales of Christmas trees were brisk in the Benton area over the weekend. The same Association reports that 62.9 million artificial trees were displayed last year.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission reported hunters took 493 black bears during the special six-day bear season that ran concurrently with the first week of the white-tailed buck season. Combined with the earlier harvest of 2,419 bears during the three-day statewide bear season, the state's total black bear harvest totaled 2,912. In 2003, hunters killed 3,000 black bears during the state's bear seasons. County harvest results for the 2004 season are Lycoming, 229, Luzerne, 131, Columbia, 56 and Sullivan, 56. All 2004 figures are preliminary.

How times have changed! A little over a hundred years ago, on August 6, 1903, farmers and their friends gathered at Grassmere Park for a Farmer's Picnic. They set state records for the event, ending up conducting the second largest farmer's market in the state for the year. The Bloomsburg & Sullivan Railroad hauled in 24 "coach loads of passengers and each coach packed with passengers," while hundreds drove to the park. Bands from Orangeville and Buckhorn provided entertainment and had such a "high 'ole time" that they joined together and played several selections en masse. Hundreds of people brought baskets of food for a picnic, while the ladies of the Benton Methodist Church sold an excellent lunch. The rain arrived shortly after the picnic began, but everyone had an excellent time anyway.
--from an article in the Bloomsburg Morning Press, August 7, 1903

December 5, 2004. Today is the wedding anniversary of Elaine and Jim Laubach. Nina Ford celebrates her 39th birthday again today. The Benton Borough Town Council meets at 7 PM tonight at the Benton Area School building to take up the subject of taxes.

Madaline "Betty" (Hiscox) and Raymond Weston will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary December 11. They were married Back Home in Benton, PA, and have lived in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Hawaii and for the past 33 years in Orlando. Betty worked for Ivey's Department Store, Orange and Landmark Banks. Ray is retired from the USAF and Ford Motor Company.

We knew Betty "from a pup" because we were next-door neighbors, and with our mothers and brother Bill often enjoyed roller skating at Grassmere Park and movies.

We remember when the "fly boy" came to town from the Benton Air Force Station and swept Betty off her feet. They married in the middle of her senior year of high school.

Ray was one of about 100 personnel assigned to the 648th Radar Squadron (SAGE) (ADC) at Benton AFS. For those readers who don't remember the AFS, the mission of the base was to provide search and height finding data to the Direction Center, Boston Air Defense Sector. In December, 1978, as an example, six officers, 133 airmen and nine civilians were assigned to the base. The former Red Rock Air Force Station was transformed into a Job Corps center in May, 1978. Today, the Job Corps Center has approximately 329 students and processes about 500 students annually.

Bill and Loretta (Strauch) Hiscox, Betty's brother, will sail with Betty and Ray on a ten-day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean, starting today, in order to be on the cruise the day of their anniversary. Betty and Ray will take a second cruise to Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia.

As of Sunday evening, Betty Kelsey Miller had received 77 cards, phone calls and letters in observance of her 80th birthday. We suspect that one of her favorites was from brother, Ken, calling from high on North Mountain during a deer-hunting drive when he noticed that he could actually get out on his cell phone.

The Columbia County Traveling Library visits the Northern end of the county Thursday. It will be in Benton beside the CCFNB on 2 1/2 Street 10 to 11 AM; Benton Senior Center 11:05 to 11:15 AM; Stillwater Park 11:30 to 12:30 PM; Bendertown at Farm Family 12:45 to 1 PM.

It is 15 days from the official start of Winter, but North of Benton in the higher elevations the forecast is for about three inches of snow. In Benton, it should be cloudy with a mix of light rain and snow beginning before noon with accumulations of less than an inch, with drizzle and fog later in the afternoon. You can always get the current weather forecast from the opening screen of the Benton News.

We'll continue our trip today, the one we started in Shickshinny, driving down the "Sullivan Trail" to Berwick and then Back Home to Benton, PA, over the "Tioga Turnpike."

Eight miles from Berwick is Jonestown, along Huntington Creek in Fishing Creek Township at the foot of Huntington Mountain. The Post Office Department originally named the community Fishing Creek in honor of the township in which is was located, but since there was a stream named Fishing Creek a few miles away, that didn't seem to make a lot of sense to the residents. The Post Office named Ben Jones to be postmaster and people started calling the place by its present name.

Our trip now meanders through New Columbus. Interestingly enough, the village once had a newspaper, called the Evolutionist. I.J. Jamison, a postmaster in the town, published it for a year in 1891, hoping to provide "an auxiliary to moral and political evolution at a time in our history when we deemed the effort most worthy."

The first term of the New Columbus Academy opened October 28, 1856, about 46 years after the turnpike opened for its first riders.

The span of years in interesting. The Academy has been around for about 148 years. The turnpike a stone's throw away has been around for approximately 194 years. The Academy was built in 1858 by issuing 152 shares of $10 each, all subscribed and paid for by seventy-two persons. New Columbus became an organized borough in 1859. According to the History of Luzerne County, undated, but approximatly 1871, Edgar's gristmill, a merchant mill and a lumber mill, three general stores, and a "wagon manufactory of fair size and good work" were in the Borough.

The turnpike passes along the north part of Huntington Township and through the village of Cambra. The turnpike was abandoned as a stage route about 1840, and as a toll road about 1845. A History of Luzerne County from 1871 says that the town had a "post office, two stores, hotel (no license), wagon and blacksmith shop."

Cambra as it looks today. The post office is in the rear of the building, the Thomas Real Estate Company in the front.

In 1818, the Fairmount Springs tavern on the old turnpike was run by Gad Seward. It was a favorite resort for finding "the best game and fish of the season" and for finding "fine old wine." The first resident of what became Fairmount Township was Jacob Long, who came in 1792. The Fairmount Hotel is now in private hands and is undergoing renovation. Interestingly enough, the front of the first floor was dedicated to the old bar room. On the second floor is a larger "ball room" for dances. The house had two kitchens, a summer one with fireplace and a winter one with a cook stove.

		The Susquehanna and Tioga turnpike runs along and nearly parallel with the west border of the township until it turns into Sullivan county.
Photo courtesy of the Lower Luzerne County Website, Sheila Brandon, Webmeister.

In this portion of the turnpike, even with the donations of some land by the state, investors were never repaid. After a few years, the road closed as a turnpike and eventually reopened as a public road.

About the same time as the Fairmount Springs Hotel opened, Andrew Horn opened a popular tavern at Red Rock, at the foot of North mountain. Frank and Louisa Hacker ran a hotel on the outside of the rather sharp curve starting into the steep part of the mountain. Frank and Carrie Yost, former owners of Yost's Restaurant, at the bridge in Benton, were caretakers there in the later part of their lives.

Although it is not on our route Back Home to Benton, PA, we'll mention a stop at the top of Red Rock Mountain. Ganoga Lake, an Indian term meaning "Water on the Mountain," was called Long Pond until about 1895. At 2,266 feet above sea level, it is the highest natural lake east of the Mississippi. Two Orangeville brothers, Clemual and Elijah Green Ricketts, purchased the stage coach buildings at Long Pond in 1850. They built a stone dwelling in 1852 which was eventually enlarged into a thirty-one room mansion with nine baths, currently used as a clubhouse by the Ganoga Lake Association. Among the travelers during its early days were loggers on their way home to the northern woods after floating logs down the Susquehanna.

On this date in 1933, the prohibition laws went down the drain as drinkers toasted the end of a 14-year dry spell in the U.S. Utah became the last of 36 states to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (repealing the 18th Amendment, which had prohibited all booze.) We always liked what the Prince of Wales thought about Prohibition when he quipped, "Great! When does it start?"

We wonder where we are headed sometimes. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tells about a lady walking along a railroad track as a train passed. One of her fingers got hit by the train, and now she is suing Norfolk Southern Corp., charging that the railroad failed to put up warnings "of the dangers of walking near train tracks and that the tracks were actively in use." She seeks damages in excess of $30,000. We suspect she'll post to 30 Seconds any day to drum up support for her cause.

For those who have read the report on the Long Wagon Works, Benton, you might want to turn to eBay to view one of the wagons for sale.

We received a couple of questions about the origins of the Mountain Echo, published in Shickshinny. The first issue of the Mountain Echo was printed April 10, 1873, by M. E. Walker. Considering the mountainous surroundings of the town, the naming of the paper was a happy hit. A few months after the birth of the Echo, C. A. Boone, the first banker in Shickshinny and the son-in-law of George Search, one of the co-founders of the town, became associated with Mr. Walker in the ownership of the paper. Mr. Boone's half interest was taken by R. M. Tubbs April 1, 1875. Mr. Walker continued to edit the paper until October 1, 1875, when he retired and Mr. Tubbs purchased his interest. A few months afterward, H. H. Rutter, Bloomsburg, became a partner, the firm being Tubbs & Rutter, which continued until October, 1876, when Mr. Rutter sold to his partner who then became the editor and proprietor. The newspaper once wrote about their reporters that they are all "to the manor born."

Yesterday we chatted about Berwick, and today we'll head Back (Toward) Home to Benton, PA, over what many of us call the "Tioga Turnpike." Mother always loved going anywhere in the United States, so long as she was home in her own bed at night and going over the local turnpike was always a favorite trip of hers.

Our state never had riches to satisfy the needs of the impatient. It was never easy to get rich in Pennsylvania. We didn't have gold or silver, and pelts were limited. To harvest our bounty, our early residents had to settle down and quarry the rock, farm the land, dig the coal, or produce the iron and the petroleum.

We'll get some dates out of the way first:
• What is now the Berwick area was settled by Evan Owen about 1780, the year that General Sullivan cleared the Iroquois Indians from the Mohawk River valley.
• The Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike Road was authorized in 1806. The president of the United Sates was Thomas Jefferson.
• Construction of the turnpike began in 1808, as Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of State, James Madison was taking office.
• The first turnpike construction effort was completed locally in 1810. The population of the United States was 7,239,881.
• Stages started using the route in 1827. The company was known as the Berwick and Towanda Turnpike Company. The coaches ran from station to station over a number of "stages" of road with fresh horses about every 12 miles, except for the Red Rock Mountain run.
• Construction ended in 1820 at the upper end of the turnpike. The population of the United States had soared to 10 million.
• The New Columbus Academy opened in 1856. Pennsylvanian James Buchanan was president.

Much of the travel to this area after 1787 followed a route from Philadelphia using the Lehigh River, to Mauch Chunk, then to Nescopeck. Completed in 1789, this route was used between the Susquehanna and the Delaware and many immigrants after 1790 came to this area via the Lehigh-Nescopeck Highway. After 1805-1813, that route generally became the Susquehanna and Lehigh Turnpike, ending at Nescopeck.

The road we will travel today over Jonestown Mountain was authorized in 1806 by an act passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature incorporating a company to be called the Susquehana [sic] and Tioga Turnpike Road. The turnpike was a shorter route from Berwick to the Tioga river at Newtown, now Elmira, NY.

The name of the river that now flows through Elmira was changed from Tioga to Chemung about 1836 although the river upstream of the city of Corning still retains the name Tioga. The river south of Athens, Pennsylvania, is called the Susquehanna. In 1828, the village of Newtown officially changed its name to Elmira. The road-builders objective was to construct a turnpike to connect Berwick and Newtown--a distance of roughly 85 miles.

Berwick traces its roots back to Evan Owen about the year 1780. Among other things, he was a land promoter and urged people from the Philadelphia area to move to the Berwick area. To cross the Susquehanna, a bridge was necessary and in 1812 a bridge company was organized. Theodore Burr built a bridge across the Susquehanna River at Berwick for about $50,000. In 1804, Burr had successfully built a bridge over the Hudson River and so his credentials were excellent! In fact, in Pennsylvania alone, Burr's design was used on 123 covered bridges in 30 counties. The 1,260 foot bridge over the Susquehanna was completed in 1817. It lasted for 19 years, until the spring of 1836 when ice took the bridge out. A second bridge was authorized and completed in 1837.

Stages ran twice daily leaving Berwick in the morning. Horses were changed at the Hacker Hotel at the foot of Red Rock Mountain. They later stopped for lunch and a change of horses at the Long Pond Tavern, a log house standing just north of the present stone house at Ganoga Lake.

The route extended from Berwick, passing a toll gate at the bottom and then up and over Huntington Mountain, and continued north through Columbia County through the towns of Jonestown, New Columbus, Cambra, Fairmount Springs and Red Rock. The road left Berwick heading north/north-west in a switchback pattern going up Jonestown Mountain. The present road does not exactly follow the original route.

Now that we understand the background for the turnpike, we will examine in detail some of the small communities along its route when we continue tomorrow.

Pennsylvania: home of many cultures, at this time of year mostly throat.

Pennsylvania: glove it or leave it!

Pennsylvania: where we can grow three things: colder, older and fatter.

Have you ever noticed that the only person with all his troubles behind him is a school bus driver?

Friday, December 4, 2004.

The Benton Area School Board meeting Thursday night resulted in one director being admonished for not maintaining confidentiality of actions in executive session. On advice of counsel, the board also voted to not accept responsibility for consequences of actions from that director.

In other action, Dr. Andrew Pollock, Benton Superintendent, announced his retirement effective June 30, the day his three-year contract expires. The school will continue to pay his health insurance until he turns 65 or gets a different job. Phil Edson and Robert Zettle voted against the motion. Dennis Threlkeld remains as board president and Phil Edson will be Vice-President. The Board voted to permit the Stillwater Christian Church to rent the auditorium and other rooms for $200 a week for Sunday services from Jan. 16, 2004 to Dec. 31, 2005.
--from news reports from the Press Enterprise.

In yesterday's edition we started from Benton and headed East through Huntington Mills to the town of Shickshinny. Today we'll go back in time to July 11, 1923, and the opening of the "improved" highway between Shickshinny and Berwick. We'll head down the highway known as the Sullivan Trail to the town of Berwick. We'll get to that in a second, but first we'll review the economy and history of Shickshinny and Berwick in the timeframe of 1923.

Shickshinny Borough was derived about two thirds from Union and the balance from Salem Townships. The original owner of most of the town and hills surrounding it was Ralph Austin. The Austin family lost the farm during the dispute of the Connecticut and Pennsylvania claims. Mathias Hollenback then acquired the property and it passed later to his daughter, a Mrs. Cist. After her death, the property was sold to four men who hired a surveyor named Allabaugh to lay out the village streets. The canal was completed to Shickshinny in 1828. A ferry operated crossing the Susquehanna until the first river bridge was built in 1859. In 1877 the Turnpike was constructed to Huntington Mills.

In 1923 when the Sullivan Trail formally opened, industries in Shickshinny included coal mining, manufacturing and agriculture. The town had two coal mines and breakers, two banks, flour mills, planing mills, a shirt factory, silk mills, three churches, stores, garages and hotels.

Further down the Susquehanna is the town of Berwick. The history of this town is heavily dependent on Evan Owen who arrived at what has been described as the "mouth of the Fishing Creek" in 1772, thanks to a flat-bottomed Durham boat and some strong rowers. The settlement where he and others stayed for a few years included many Quakers from Philadelphia. Soon the settlement relocated further up the river where Berwick is now located and Owen sold 313 acres of land to Ludwig Eyer, who later became the founder of the town now known as Bloomsburg. Members of the small settlement farmed, and kept an "eagle eye" out for Indians. Downed tree tops covered with bark were their quarters for the first winter. But farming was good in the area, the settlers stayed and Evan Owen began a town in 1786.

The site of the town was well chosen. There was good drainage at its elevation of 100 feet above the river, so the flooding problems Shickshinny experienced were minimal. The settlement was first called Owensville before it was laid out, but Owen named the town Berwick, after the town in Scotland, Berwick-on-Tweed. The town was laid out to be a mile square, but industrial progress and expansion eventually expanded the original boundaries. For 75 years, Berwick only went as far as Third Street, and in 1840 the population was only 452. A toll bridge was begun in 1814 connecting Berwick and Nescopeck.

One of the early businesses in the town was the American Car & Foundry Company which employed 6,200 men when it operated at full capacity. This corporation began under the direction of Mordecai Jackson and George Mack in 1840 at Third and Market Streets in a building 25 by 46 feet. Fifteen men were employed in the manufacture of agricultural implements. The company later evolved into the Jackson & Woodin Manufacturing Company and later merged into the American Car and Foundry Company.

In the early 1920s, Berwick had a new Post Office, a new Armory, sewerage system and water works. There were five fire companies, churches, a public library; a hospital; good schools and maple trees galore lining Berwick's residential streets. Berwick's industries consisted of six silk mills, a shirt factory, closet tank factory, the Multiplex Manufacturing Company (castings and automobile parts). Berwick had three banks, department stores, Y.M.C.A., an American Legion Post; a golf course, and a newspaper.

		The road between Shickshinny and Berwick prior to 1923 was a glorified "cow path."
		After the opening of the "Sullivan Trail" July 11, 1923, a far-superior road became available to the traveling public.

Pictures from the Chamber of Commerce of Berwick and Shickshinny.

Tomorrow, we'll proceed West on Market Street in Berwick and follow the old Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike over Jonestown Mountain, through Jonestown, New Columbus, Cambra, Fairmount Springs and Red Rock on our way Back Home to Benton, PA.

An excellent reference for additional information on Lower Luzerne County is www.lowerluzernecounty.com/ .

1984, the wife of Kentucky's Governor, heiress of the Kentucky Fried Chicken fortune and Miss America of 1971, Phyllis George, signed with CBS-TV to be co-anchor of the CBS Morning News.

Your cell phone numbers have generally been excluded from printed phone directories and directory assistance services. AllTel, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Nextel, Sprint PCS and T-Mobile will provide a Wireless 411 directory of cell phone customer names and phone numbers that would be made available to directory assistance providers. We suggest that you register your cell number on the National Do Not Call list. You can do this by going on-line to https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx or by calling 888-382-1222 from the phone you wish to register.

We frankly believe that quite a bit of the world's trouble is produced by those who don't produce anything else.

Today we are going to take an imaginary ride, visiting several towns along the trip. We'll end up a few days from now Back Home in Benton, PA. Today, our first stop is in Luzerne County and the town of Shickshinny midway between Nanticoke and Berwick on route 11, 15 miles East and slightly South from Back Home in Benton, PA. Shickshinny Creek and the Susquehanna River are nearby. The word means the city of five mountains or it simply means five mountains, or it means something completely different depending on which reference work is consulted. Nevertheless, five mountains do converge near Shickshinny: Newport, Lee, Rocky, Knob and River, and the hills rise rapidly from the river's edge. Indians were fond of the area that formed the lower end of the original Wyoming Valley. Across the Susquehanna, the towns of Mocanaqua and Wapwallopen were also named for something out of the Indian terminology and "authorities" say the words mean this or that and we can only guess whether they know or whether they don't.

Shick-a-shin-naw, as you may know
Was an Indian village many years ago.
Long before the white man came
They gave the town this beautiful name.
They held their council for peace or war,
And they passed the pipe when it was o'er.
The chief, he ruled without a flaw,
In the Village of Shick-a-shin-naw.

The white man has only known the area for a relatively short time; i.e., the first settler at Shickshinny was a product of the Connecticut jurisdiction in 1752. The Connecticut Yankees made a claim for the land about 1769, and it took Congress and the Decree of Trenton to end the resultant hostilities. The Wyoming massacre compelled settlers to flee their homes to escape the Indians. The mouth of Shickshinny creek was a popular camping ground for the Indians, but eventually the settlers returned.

A deed from John and Thomas Penn dates back to 1774. James I gave the land "from the Atlantic to the South Sea (Pacific) in 1620 to the council of Plymouth." Charles II gave to William Penn the same territory in 1681. The land was sold in 1857 to Nathan B. Crary, George Washington Search, Lot Search and Nathan Garrison, and they laid out the streets of the town. In 1790, Peter Gregory and George Fink came to the valley and soon constructed saw mills. Union Township was formed from the original Huntington Township in July, 1813.

Nathan Beach, from Wallingford, Connecticut, then 15, served with General George Washington in the Continental Army and was promoted to Major in the War of 1812. Later, he owned land in what is now Mocanaqua and Shickshinny, and was responsible for "bringing in mills, the turnpike and the canal." Beach and his family settled on what was later Fort Durkee, Wilkes-Barre. Beach gave land south of Shickshinny to his son, Josiah Beach, from whom the town of Beach Haven takes its name. He operated the first store in Shickshinny and was 82 when he died.

Shickshinny Borough became a reality November 30, 1861. The Borough is 248 acres. In the early years of the borough, Union and Main Streets were from five to ten feet lower than they are today, and often the rampaging Susquehanna made travel through town impossible. Floods are common in the Borough, including the one in 2004. Serious floods occurred in 1865, 1902, 1904 and...

The name of the Village was hard to speak,
It signifies where five mountains meet,
There were plenty of deer, and plenty of bear;
They hunted the game most everywhere.
They fished the river from shore to shore,
But always were ready in case of war.
And the work in the field was done by the squaw,
In the Indian village of Shick-a-shin-naw.

Electric lights arrived in Shickshinny in 1893. The Shickshinny Water Company began installing water pipes in 1884. The Union Turnpike Company, formed in 1875 and chartered a year later, permitted the parent company to extend its road from Shickshinny through Huntington Township to Fairmount Springs. Shickshinny's two newspapers included The Shickshinny Democrat, in operation from 1895 to 1897. The second paper was The Mountain Echo, dating from 1873, a "non-partisan, liberal progressive newspaper" that once ran a story entitled, Chicken Thief Cured about how a puppy was cured once and for all of visiting henhouses. A once-prominent Benton business, The Long Wagon Works, was established in 1874 in New Columbus by O. M. and J. F. Long. The Longs had come to Shickshinny shortly after the civil war. Jonestown, Stillwater and Pealertown were at one time post-office stops on a mail-route between Shickshinny and Jerseytown. By 1926, only four miles of dirt road remained to be paved between Shickshinny and Benton.

Protected by mountains on either side,
The sun and the moon were their only guide.
They signaled by fire many miles away,
And they traveled the train either night or day.
The tom-toms were beating,
and they were chanting their songs,
And the braves were dancing all night long.
This was the custom, and this was the law,
In the Indian village of Shick-a-shin-naw.

The first school was on Glen Avenue, dating from 1836. Benches were upside-down slabs situated around the outer edge of the room, with wooden pins for legs. A wood-burning stove occupied the middle of the room. Painted boards served as blackboards. The first teacher was paid $20 per month for the school term from the middle of November to the middle of March. Physiology and singing were taught, along with the standard reading, writing, arithmetic.

But lo, the Indian left this place,
The place he loved so well.
And gave it to the white man,
A place for him to dwell.
He took the trail towards the setting sun,
The trail that ends when life is done.
Yes, the Indian left with his faithful squaw,
Never to return to Shick-a-shin-naw.

An excellent reference for additional information on Lower Luzerne County is www.lowerluzernecounty.com/ .

On this date in...
1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned emperor of France by Pope Pius VII. A year later on this date, Napoleon defeated Russia and Austria at the battle of Austerlitz, often called the "Battle of the Three Emperors."

1823, President James Monroe introduced his "Monroe Doctrine" basically saying that the American continents were not open to future colonization by any European power.

1859, United States anti-slavery activist John Brown was hanged following a raid on a federal arsenal on October 16 of that year. In that raid, John Brown led 21 men against the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, and seized the armory to provide for his militia. His plan to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal went askew thanks to local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36 hours of the attack, Brown and many of his men had been killed or captured.

1934, the molten glass was poured across the New York State line in Corning for the first 200-inch diameter telescope mirror. Pyrex glass at 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit was poured into a ceramic mold. The temperature of the glass was lowered over eleven months, a degree or two a day until it cooled to room temperature. The 20-ton disk was shipped in March 1936 for grinding and polishing at the California Institute of Technology. Eleven years later, in October 1947, it was installed in a telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory, San Diego. The telescope was named in honor of Dr George Hale who had conceived it.

1980, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve was established in Alaska.

1982, the first permanent artificial heart was implanted in Dr. Barney Clark, a Seattle dentist, by Dr. William De Vries at the University of Utah. Clark died on March 23, 1983, after surviving the artificial heart for three months.

Carola T. Comstock, 91, (April 24, 1913-Dec. 1, 2004), 121 S. Comstock Road, died Wednesday at Berwick Hospital Center. She was a daughter of Lawrence and Edith (Fritz) Cole and graduated from Benton High School in 1931. She was preceded in death by her husband, Orval M. Comstock, on Oct. 3, 1979; sisters, Pauline Cole, in 1922, and Ethel Hartman, in March 1973; and by her son-in-law, George Y. Haines, on Sept. 13, 1981. She is survived by a daughter, Donna L. Haines, and a grandson, G. Steven Haines, both in Benton. Funeral services will be 2 PM Friday in the Kriner Funeral Home, Benton. Friends may call Friday from 1 to 2 PM. Interment will be in St. Gabriel's Cemetery.
--from the Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary can be found

Faye A. Mika, 63, (March 16, 1941-Dec. 1, 2004), 8601 Temple Hill Road, Temple Hill, MD, died Wednesday at Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C. She was a daughter of Clara G. (Hess) Mika and the late Robert P. Mika and a 1960 graduate of Benton High School. She lived in Benton prior to 1975, when she moved to Maryland. Surviving, in addition to her mother with whom she resided, are three siblings: David L. Mika, Bloomsburg; Linda O'Flaherty, Boynton Beach, FL; and Robert J. Mika , Mechanicsville, MD. Funeral services will be 10 AM Monday in the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home, Bloomsburg. Friends may call Sunday from 6 to 8 PM. Interment will be in Rose Lawn Cemetery, Berwick.
--from the Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary can be found

In news out of Harrisburg...
• the Guv signed a bill into law Tuesday changing the title "District Justice" to "Magisterial District Justice." This does not mean that the Honorable Ola E. Stackhouse needs to be called "Your Majesty."
• the Guv signed legislation this week that will make high-speed Internet access available statewide by 2008 rather than by 2015.

We were recently asked why we don't speak out on some local issues. We tend to hold with Calvin Coolidge, the president who rarely said much of anything. He once said, "I found out early in life that you didn't have to explain something you hadn't said."

La-Z-Boy has begun closing the Lewisburg Pennsylvania House store as its 425 jobs will be moved overseas to China.

Last evening must have been a lot like the night of February 13, 1927, when a group of men, primarily from the Benton area, agreed to the purchase of 1,251 acres of land to form a Sullivan County hunting club which became known as the Painter Den Club. Last evening 28 men sat down to eat after a hard day of hunting. The stories of the hunt flowed fast and furious and by the time 6:30 rolled around everyone was ready to eat. We could tell from the aroma that cook Dave Moss had prepared baked ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas and corn. And when that was gone, there were four different desserts waiting for us. The problem was not in enjoying the food, it was a matter of finding the food! There was no electricity to see what was on the table.

Lake Ganoga and Painter Den Club were without electricity, a victim of heavy winds that whipped through Sullivan County and much of the area Wednesday.

Electricity gets to the cabin at Painter Den from the vicinity of Lake Ganoga. The electric lines had to come along the road from Ganoga Lake, about four miles away. The 69 electric poles were all set in the ground by club members in 1962 and linemen from the Pennsylvania Electric Co. hung the wire, and the era of the carbide lamps and the carriage lights passed and a new age of electricity in the mountains came into effect. Most of us had forgotten how difficult it is to carry water from the pump in the darkness, how hard it is to walk from the glow of one lantern to the almost depleted shadows of a second lantern in adjacent rooms.

Many of us could trace our ancestors back to original members of the club in 1927. Many of us were second-, third- or fourth-generation sons or sons-in-law of original members, men who enjoyed being in the mountains sans electricity or the other trappings of a modern existence. Somehow we just didn't seem to measure up to the standards of the previous generation. We heard one man who later was referred to as a "wiseacre" announce to no one in particular that this is the way a hunting club should be. Many stood outside in the complete darkness of a December night and stared at the overhead sky in all its beauty. We had never seen so many stars! One hunter was on his third round of telling a hunting story about "the big buck that got away" when he realized that he was re-telling it to the same group. Slowly members pealed away to head back to civilization or to head up to bed.

There was no television to watch last night and the batteries in Laptop Lillian finally give out. Thursday is another day and the hunt will resume by the light of the day, but we sure hope that electricity comes back soon...

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?

Pilgrims.

Indian Summer: "The air is perfectly quiescent and all is stillness, as if Nature, after her exertions during the Summer, were now at rest."
--John Bradbury

Mist and rain in November make for a beautiful December.

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished. Persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
From Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn

1913, the continuous moving assembly line introduced by Ford in his Michigan factory was capable of delivering a car about every two and a half minutes. Earlier in that year, three subassemblies (magnetos, motors, and transmissions) were assembled on moving lines using conveyor belts. The moving chassis line was so successful that Ford Motor Co. became the world's largest car manufacturer.

1913, the first U.S. drive-in automobile service station opened on Clair Street, Pittsburgh, operated by the Gulf Refining Company. The station, open 24 hours daily, featured free air, water, crankcase service, restrooms and a lighted sign featuring Good Gulf Gasoline. The station sold 30 gallons at 27 cents per gallon on opening day. By the first Saturday, Gulf sold over 350 gallons a day thanks to word-of-mouth advertising. The Standard Oil Company of California opened their first service station, the equivalent of a shed, six years earlier in Seattle.

1917, Father Edward Flanagan opened Boys Town, near Omaha, as a farm village for wayward boys. Girls are now welcome, a change instituted in 1979.

According to the Times Leader, the days of the oversized metal and Plexiglas canopy on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre are numbered as the city moves toward a redevelopment project that includes a 14-screen cinema, retail shops and 30 or so residential units. It's about time!

Have you ever wondered how the term "Indian Summer" came about? Baer's 1828 Farmer's Almanac, printed in Lancaster, gives us a clue. Although the explanation was written in Pennsylvania Dutch, we trust the translation is accurate; i.e., "The reader must be reminded that during the long-continued Indian wars the settlers enjoyed no peace except in the Winter season during which the Indians were unable to raid the settlements."

"The onset of Winter weather was therefore hailed as a jubilee, a time at which the settlers could come out of the forts and not be subjected to the danger of Indian raids.

"It sometimes happened that after the apparent onset of Winter the weather became warm. This was Indian Summer because it gave the Indians an opportunity to make surprise raids on the settlements and wage destructive warfare.

"The melting of the snow in Indian Summer saddened every countenance and the genial warmth of the sun chilled every heart. The fear of Indian attacks again gripped the little settlements."

Indian Summers should be over for this year, according to the current definition. The generally accepted definition is "any spell of warm, quiet, hazy weather that may occur in October or November."

Is it true that...
A cook who leaves Arby's to work at McDonalds is an "arbitrator?"
"Counterfeiters" are carpenters who put together kitchen cabinets?
"Eclipse" is what a barber does for a living?
"Eyedropper" is a clumsy ophthalmologist?
"Heroes" is what the guy in the boat does?
"Misty" is how golfers create divots?
"Paradox" are two physicians?
"Parasites" are what you can see from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
"Polarize" are what penguins see with?
"Rubberneck" is what you should do to relieve your wife's stress?
"Selfish" is what the owner of a seafood store does?

They miss so much who never know
The joy that country living brings--
Star-studded nights and rosy dawns,
The grace of plain old-fashioned things.

The first stocking of deer in Pennsylvania took place in 1906, when 50 deer were brought in from Michigan. More "Michigan Deer" were brought in about 1911. Guy Kocher, now deceased, once recalled that he was about eight years old when the deer arrived in Jamison City. School was dismissed when the train came into town. About a dozen deer arrived in crates, then loaded on horse-drawn sleds and taken up Blackberry Hollow at the north end of Jamison City and released "pretty well up the old lumber road."

Frank Edson and Francis Reed, both now deceased, once told about the stocking of about two dozen Michigan deer. The crated deer were loaded on horse-drawn sleds, taken up Grassy Hollow to Lewis Falls, following the Quinn Trail to the Jordan Lumber Camp (today known as Kinney's Clearing), where the deer were released.

Roy Evans once recalled seeing about twelve deer in individual crates loaded on railroad cars near the train station in Benton around 1915. The train continued to Jamison City where the deer were transferred to horse-drawn sleds and taken up Blackberry Run for release. Roy said J. C. Knouse was one of the first in this area to get a buck following the opening of a legal season after the deer were stocked. J. C. got his deer in the West Creek Gap area. With J. C. on that hunt were Josiah Ash, Harold Hartman (then 12 years old), Jacob Knouse and Ray Coleman.

The Benton Argus reported that the first 25 of 200 deer from Newport, New Hampshire, were received in Jamison City in March, 1916. "When they arrived," Keith Schuyler reported, "there was three feet of snow on the ground, and the deer were held over for an extra day." We have also found newspaper clippings that indicate the first stocking took place in 1913. In addition to the deer previously mentioned, domestic deer from preserves were released according to the following years and numbers supplied by the Game Commission: 1923-24, 8; 1924-25, 21; 1925-26, 8; 1926-27, 12; 1927-28, 12; 1929-30, 3.