Try an old ice cube tray to start seedlings. It fits nicely on a windowsill.

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."
--Mother Teresa

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana

History never looks like history when you are living through it.
John W. Gardner

History is the short trudge from Adam to atom.
Leonard Louis Levinson

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
--A.E. Housman (1859-1936)

Countless children have ridden Radio Flyer wagons to places that an adult's imagination would never venture. Sixteen year old Antonio Pasin came to America after his family sold their mule in Venice, Italy, to pay for his voyage to America. Pasin ended up in Chicago and looked for work as a cabinet-maker but had to settle for being a water boy for a sewer-digging crew and other jobs to save enough money to buy used wood working equipment. From his rented one-room workshop, he made wagons by night and sold them by day.

By 1923, Pasin's business became known as the Liberty Coaster Company, named after the Statue of Liberty. Their first wagon was the Liberty Coaster, handcrafted in wood and sold directly to stores by Pasin.

American manufacturing of its famous red metal wagons will end this fall, as the 87-year-old company moves its manufacturing activities to China and lays off about half of its 90 employees. Radio Flyer's tricycles, scooters and most of its other products already are made in China, a country that makes 80% of the world's toys, according to industry estimates.

The Towanda School Board has a school district proposed 2004-05 school budget of $19.2 million, with a $1.56 million funding shortfall according to the Daily Review.

We continue now with our discussion of warrants as a way of conveying title from public domain to private individuals in early Pennsylvania but we would like first to take a quick look at Michael Schlatter’s Description of Pennsylvania Written at Amsterdam in June, 1751. "Pennsylvania, lying in the northern part of America, is a country of no small compass. It lies in a healthy climate; it is not merely inhabitable, but very much inhabited, not only by the ancient dwellers in the land, but also by thousands who have emigrated thither from Europe and still arrive every year. It extends toward the north to the five largest inland seas known in the world, along the course of which it is not difficult to reach the celebrated Mississippi River, down which one can sail to the Gulf of Mexico.

"Since the time when the English have taken possession of Pennsylvania, and the country has been peopled from various European nations, it has been divided into nine cantons, these called counties. The most important towns, as they have been built successively, are:

• Philadelphia, consisting at present of 2,300 houses, mostly of stone.
• New Castle, consisting of 240 houses, mostly of stone, and lying from Philadelphia distant 40 miles.
• Chester, consisting of 120 houses, lying 10 miles distant from New Castle.
• Germantown, consisting of 250 houses, lying 6 miles from Philadelphia.
• Lancaster, consisting of 500 houses, lying from Germantown 63 miles.
• York, consisting of 190 houses, lying from Lancaster 23 miles.
• Reading, lately built, consisting of 60 houses, lying 60 miles from York.

"In the whole of Pennsylvania, according to estimation, there are 190,000 souls, in which the pagan inhabitants are not included. Of these, it is estimated 90,000 are Germans. These are scattered through all the cantons or counties; still they have more especially settled down in the counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Lancaster, York, and Chester."

The founding of Pennsylvania, about 40,000 square miles, was confirmed to William Penn on January 5, 1681. Penn started the process of finding people to emigrate, at terms of 40 shillings per hundred acres, and "shares" of 5,000 acres for 100 pounds, one shilling per hundred acres quit rent." Masters got 50 acres free for every servant brought over; at end of service, the servant would get the same amount. Rental 1 Penny per acre not exceeding 200 acres." These generous terms induced many to set out for the new world. Penn "the Preacher, then Penn the Promoter," published "Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania" in April, 1781, to reach potential investors and emmigrants--primarily rich Quakers--to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In the book, he told what they would need to take along. "Passage will come for Masters and Mistresses at most to 6 pounds a Head, Servants 5 pounds a head, children under seven years of age 50 shillings, except they Suck, then nothing."

Land was granted by King Charles II of England in 1662 to Connecticut under the Connecticut Charter for new settlements. In 1768, the Susquehanna Company made arrangements for settling land in what is now the Wyoming Valley and eventually some of its territory extended as far south as Sunbury in what was then a much larger Northumberland County. The land was divided into five townships, each five miles square, with enough land for forty settlers and their families. These five townships eventually became Plymouth, Kingston, Hanover, Wilkes-Barre, and Pittston. When Connecticut settlers arrived in what is now known as the Wyoming Valley, some of the land was occupied by settlers claiming a warrant from the colony of Pennsylvania. King Charles II had granted charters to both Connecticut and Pennsylvania at different times for some of the same land. Both groups claimed the land, the Connecticut Charter from 1662, the Pennsylvania Charter from 1681. Fighting was inevitable in what many call the First Yankee-Pennamite War.

The Penn family discouraged "settlement and improvement" before the time of the American Revolution. Squatters didn't pay for the land, rarely paid taxes and often kept surveyors and rightful owners from the land. Following the Revolutionary War, during the period 1792-1833, settlement and improvement became a requirement to satisfy all warrants so long as the settler or someone acting on behalf of the settler lived on the land year round.

Linda Moss recalls that the Pennsylvania warrants were in 600-acre lots. The Susquehanna Company had long, rectangle lots. Until about 1789, claims were very unsettled and conflicting land grants were common in our area. The last dispute wasn't settled until 1820. Many of the hard-working Yankees from Connicutet lost their land to Penn grants because of loss of many of the deeds after the Battle of Wyoming. Linda's ancestor, Joseph Moss Sr., for example, never received a clear title to his Bloomingdale grant issued by Susquehanna County survey.

When the 13 colonies broke from England, many settlers from both the Pennsylvania and the Connecticut colonies had to abandon their homesteads because of Indian tribes threats encouraged by the English. The English used the Indians along the wilderness frontier to force the colonials to fight multiple foes. At the end of the war, settlers claiming warrants from both states moved back to their old homesteads and conflicts flared up again. Connecticut eventually gave up its claim to lands in the Commonwealth and Pennsylvania gained sole control of the land.

Wealthy merchants, speculators, politicians and military officers sometimes claimed multiple warrants under their own names and those of relatives and friends. In adjacent Sullivan County, Senator Muncy owned multiple warrants, as an example. Settlers started buying land already warranted or took out "junior" warrants on tracts where they had squatted.

The Benton United Methodist Church is having an Election Day luncheon April 27 and will combine it with a bake and a garage sale. Lunch will be served from 11 AM until 2 PM. The menu includes vegetable beef or ham and bean soup by the bowl, pint or quart, hot dogs, hot dogs with sauerkraut, ham barbeques, hot sausage sandwiches and ham salad sandwiches, broccoli salad, pie, cake, coffee, lemonade or iced tea.

1. As you plan your summer garden, do you remember, recall, or recollect last year's flowers?

2. Does a seed packet hold or contain seeds?

3. If your spade can finally penetrate the earth, can you surmise or infer that spring has arrived?

4. Is new growth every year a mystery or a puzzle to humans?

5. Do your flower beds have borders or edges?
--Answers at the end of this email.

The next in the collectible series from the Benton U. M. Church is the "Hotel Moses Van Campen." The collectible may be ordered by calling either 925-6903 or 925-2513. The collectible will be available for pick-up the day of the election from 9 AM to 6 PM at the church. The cost is $17.00 each.

Hotel Moses Van Campen

PPL Corporation is asking for a 9½% increase in electricity rates for commercial businesses as part of the company's request to raise prices. Homeowners would pay 9.8% more each month, while industrial businesses would pay an extra 5.7%.

After 60 years of trying to find one location to house all their fire equipment, Towanda Fire Department has moved all of its trucks and equipment into the former Towanda Tire & Glass building at 3 Elm Street..

The Guv pleaded innocent to a newspaper report that said his state-owned Cadillac DeVille DHS has been clocked doing more than 100 mph a few times on the Pennsylvania Turnpike--well, if you have to get specific, it was nine times since November. His driver? A state police patrolman.

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be --
I had a mother who read to me.
-Strickland Gillilan

Didja know...By 1780, the state had contributed more than $6 million to the Congress and, when the American states had reached financial exhaustion, 90 Philadelphians loaned £300,000 to supply the army?

We received an email from a reader who wanted to know what our favorite part of the local history might be. We'll respond publicly by saying that a little known aspect of the local history is the subject of "warrants." Warrants ranks up there at the top of the list of interesting things with us, mostly because nobody locally seems to admit to having a clear picture of the subject.

In Arcadia, one might expect to hear something like, "There warrant enough gas in the car to go to Naples." In the state of Pennsylvania, however, we give a different meaning to the word. To us, the term means a sales agreement from the Commonwealth to individuals, their assigns or their heirs to either purchase or claim a vacant tract of land.

William Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania to insure religious freedom, liberal government, and inexpensive land after receiving a grant in 1681 from the king of England. Thomas Holme was the Surveyor General appointed by William Penn in 1682, and he created Holme's Map of the Province of Pennsylvania, that included the names of original purchasers dating from William Penn in 1681. See http://www.mapsofpa.com/article3.htm for more information.

Early land settlement in Pennsylvania can be grouped into periods before William Penn, although our area essentially had little settlement during that period; the proprietorship of William Penn from 1682-1732; the proprietorship of the heirs of William Penn, 1732-1776; and the period from 1776 on.

The history of our Commonwealth began with land warrants, legal documents much like our modern deeds which conveyed William Penn's domain to private owners. Penn permitted white settlers to choose an open piece of land, petition appropriate officials with a valid reason to acquire the land, get a warrant for it, have it surveyed to make sure that the acreage and legal description were correct, get the land patented, and then record it in the land office for a nominal cost per acre. Warrant boundaries are still evident along hedge rows and fence lines and roads, and represent the first cut at modern cultural divisions that date back to the American Revolution. The warrant removed land from the public domain. The rules were that one person could only take out one warrant, a process intended to help poor settlers. No dummy, Penn and his descendants took 1/10th of any new "prime" land as "Manors." In coming days we'll talk about the "Manor Lands" and other aspects of warrants.

(1) We can "remember" last season rather easily. To "recall" something suggests an effort, and to "recollect" implies even more effort to bring back what is lost.

(2) A seed packet "holds" seeds, but both "hold" and "contain" imply the presence of a substance within something. "Hold" suggests a permanent keeping function. Think of the slight difference between a can that "contains" a quart and one that "holds" a quart.

(3) You can "infer," which implies arriving at a conclusion by reasoning based on evidence. If the evidence is slight and suggests the influence of imagination or suspicion, then you'd "surmise." Loose earth is hard evidence of a change of season.

(4) The phenomenon of new life every spring is a "mystery" to humans, meaning that it cannot be fully understood by reason. A "puzzle" applies to an enigma or problem that challenges ingenuity for its solution.

(5) They have "borders" that mark its boundary line, similar to a magazine cover that has a colorful border. A flower garden may have a ground cover that acts as a border to separate garden and lawn. An "edge" is the terminal line made by two converging surfaces, as you'd have on the edge of a table.

March 29, 2004. On this day in 1973, the United States role ended in South Vietnam, ending America's direct military involvement in the Vietnam War. Dr. Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho signed the cease fire accord that took place at 8 AM March 30, 1973. North Vietnam agreed to release all prisoners of war. Americans felt a sense of relief rather than a sense of victory, and even President Nixon called it "peace with honor."

June Louise (Hess) Laubach, 82, (June 16, 1921-March 28, 2004), 735 Market Street, Benton, died Sunday at Geisinger Medical Center. She was the daughter of the late Marvin and Eva B. "Nettie" (Phillips) Hess, was born in Fishingcreek Township and graduated from Benton High School. She had worked for Dol-Ang Manufacturing, Benton. She is survived by daughters Connie Laubach, Chelmsford, MA; Pam Klinger, Greenville, NC; and Sandi Knorr, Lightstreet; and by sons, Morris C. "Butch" Laubach, Benton, and Dr. Ernest Laubach, Muncy. She also has a sister, Josephine Ash, Asbury; nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her husband, Morris C. Laubach, died November 2, 1987. Friends may call Tuesday from 6 to 8 PM at the Stillwater Christian Church. Funeral service will be Wednesday morning, March 31, at 11 from the church. Interment will be at a later date in the Benton Cemetery. Memorial donations may be sent to the Stillwater Christian Church Benevolence Fund, 42 Wesley St., Stillwater, PA 17878. Arrangements are under the direction of the McMichael Funeral Home, Benton.
--from a Press Enterprise obituary

Some very exhausted firefighters served buckwheat cakes and sausage yesterday morning after spending half the night fighting a stubborn blaze at the Benton Flower Station Saturday night. The Fire Department served 276 people this week, up from 220 the month before. A number of townspeople even came by at 1 PM and helped clean up so the firefighters could go home and get some well-deserved rest.

Quote of the Day:
"Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it's important."
--Eugene McCarthy, born on this day in 1921.

We are very pleased about a bill to battle spyware sponsored by Senators Barbara Boxer (D) of California, Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon, and Conrad Burns (R) of Montana that has now joined a similar bill previously filed in the House by Rep. Mary Bono (R) of California. The bill seeks to ensure that users know when programs are being installed on their computers, so they can refuse them if they wish, and can easily remove installed spyware. Users do not need "Peeping Toms" in their own homes. One form of spyware that we have heard of changes the homepage of a user, then when the user tries to change it back it tries very hard to sell the user an antispyware software.

The year 1864 was one of huge turmoil. The conscription law of the previous year allowing men to buy their way out of military service backfired on President Lincoln. The president needed more soldiers, 500,000 to be exact, and that followed the previous year's request for 300,000 additional soldiers. The Confederacy was also hurting for soldiers and announced in February that they would start drafting men between the ages of 17 and 50.

Three years of war, ever-increasing casualties, numerous battles and no immediate prospect of victory over the Confederacy in the protracted conflict resulted in a nation weary of war and distrustful of Lincoln's policies. Few Northern areas were more hateful of the war than our own.

Lieut. J. Stewart Robinson, Fairmount Springs, was shot July 30, 1864, in upper Raven Creek while attempting to assist a deputy Provost Marshal in arresting draft evaders and army deserters.

By August 13, United States troops, cavalry, and mounted artillery arrived in Bloomsburg and more soon joined them to camp at the "Agricultural Fair Ground." After a rest, some 300 or so marched up the Fishing Creek valley toward "the seat of war." The march took two days. The first night, the soldiers pitched their tents in what was called Stucker's Grove, and the next night the troops marched to Peter Appleman's Sugar Grove where they camped just below Benton, in what some called Camp Fishingcreek.

Soldiers arrested many of our local citizens--perhaps as many as 70--in order to find the perpetrator of the murder of Lt. Robinson and took them to the Benton Christian Church, then located on Cemetery Hill, for interrogation. Forty-four "good and honest" older and respectable men were arrested, not informed of their crimes, and marched off toward Bloomsburg, then to Fort Mifflin, on the Delaware below Philadelphia.

This encounter became known as the Fishingcreek Confederacy. We suggest that you turn to the FEATURES section and catch up on this interesting part of American history. Many in our area have relatives who were involved in this complicated episode that occurred 140 years ago this summer. We'll have much more to say about the Fishingcreek Confederacy as the summer gets closer.

The area around what is now Mossville was first settled by Joseph Moss at a time when there were no roads, not even the old Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike that carved its way through Fairmount township starting in 1810. Joseph married Emily Trescott from Harveyville and in 1832 they set up housekeeping in a new log cabin on 600 acres of virgin land. They built the house and barn of Maple Run Farm, located on Moss Road in the area known as Maple Run, finishing about 1842.

Many attended the one-room Mossville School before the school districts consolidated and students trudged off to Huntington Mills. The last classes were held in Mossville school during the 1958-59 school year.

Linda Moss remembers that "when the school district no longer needed the building, they contacted Roy Moss, my grandfather and grandson of Joseph and Emily Moss. The School District's query was to whom should the land ownership revert (had been deeded back to heirs of Joseph Moss). My grandfather, knowing that at the time (mid 60's) there were well over 200 living descendants of Joseph and Emily, replied to the school district that as the Moss representative, he would waive the school's obligation to return the land and building to the heirs."

The building was utilized as a school, community center and church. In 1843 a Methodist class was formed and met at the school. On April 20, 1867, Joseph and Emily gave, for consideration of $25, the church trustees the land and building known as Moss Church. When it was dedicated, Joseph was very practical and wrote out a unique agreement with the Methodist Conference that neither he nor the trustees of the church would not be personally liable for any debts the church took on.

In 1930, local artist Arden Claude Steele, brother of Rev. Russell Steele, completed the picture on the plaster wall, entitled "the Good Shepard." In 1959 Monema Moss Martz from Broadway (she painted the picture behind the pulpit at the Broadway Methodist Church) restored the picture. In August, 1969, there was a fire in the church basement, burning through the sanctuary floor and carpet in the pulpit area. The picture was blotted out by smoke. Edward Key, an art instructor at Northwest High School reworked the drawing.

The Church building has withstood both storm and fire damage over the years. In 1931 a hailstorm with baseball-size hail swept across the township breaking windows in many homes. The stained glass windows on the west side of the Mossville Church were damaged by the hailstones. In 1954 Hurricane Hazel took half the roof of the building. When workers climbed up above the ceiling to make repairs, they discovered charred wood near the roof. Sometime in the past, lightning had struck the church and had caused a fire.

Nicole Lafleur-Vetter recently wrote saying that she would soon be purchasing the old school and wondered if a local church would like to have the mural. A picture of the mural is avaiable at the Lower Luzerne Web Site,
http://www.lowerluzernecounty.com/mossville-church-interior.htm . If you would like to drive by the building, go 10.6 miles from Benton via route 487 and route 118, and turn right in Red Rock on route 4013, Dark Hollow Road.

--our sincere thanks to Linda Moss for information supplied for this article.

The Mossville School

Picture courtesy of Linda Moss

A fire broke out about 10 PM Saturday evening in the rear of the Benton Flower Station building on Main Street. The building is between DR's QuikMart and the building housing Brian Laubach's beauty shop at 215 Main Street and the offices of Clark, Schaeffer, Jones & Eichner, Certified Public Accountants, at 219 Main Street.

The Flower Station building was extensively damaged before it was brought under control by an estimated 100 firemen from Benton, North Mountain, Espy, Orangeville and Millville. Two trucks from Bloomsburg, including Ladder 42, were on the scene. Espy's Rapid Response Team was also on the scene. Tyson Matthews, 14, 212 Main Street, was taken to the hospital because of smoke inhalation. Today's Press Enterprise includes a full report and a front-page picture. The Sullivan Review also had a reporter on the scene as did Channel 16..

The building was completely empty at the time for the fire. The fire of undetermined origin was first noticed by Michelle Pruden, an employee of D.R.'s QuickMart, about 10 PM when flames were seen through the glass in the door of the building leading to the rear of the Flower Station and the Fishing Creek Railroad Club. The alarm went off at 10:07.

The Benton Flower Station is owned by Kenneth A. Druckenmiller, 201 Main St., Benton. The business operates as a full-service florist featuring fresh flowers, balloons, plants, gift baskets, candles, locally made crafts and many seasonal gift items. The Benton Flower Station is also active and well respected in the repair on mechanical clocks and specializes in antique clock movements and case repair. Two years ago the Flower Station burned, December 31, 2000, when it was located at the corner of Main Street and Market Street.

The ownership of the building was not determined at press time. Bob and Joyce Keller, Benton, long-time owners of the building, have sold the building several times in the past. A "land-sales" agreement to sell the building to Ken Druckenmiller was in effect.

The President of the model railroad club, Phil Malhoyt, had been in the area where the fire broke out approximately two hours before the fire. He is an experienced firefighter and a charter member of the Arlington (VA) volunteer fire company. He reported nothing suspicious and smelled no smoke when he was in the building. Flames were first noticed in the vicinity of a refrigerator.

The building was recently rekeyed and all doors locked with the same key. Two vacant second-floor apartments over the Flower Station were ruined as the flames apparently spread from the first floor to the vacant second floor and then to the attic. Flames at times were breaking through the sides of the rear of the building and the roof as multiple water lines were trained on the building. The adjacent building, once known as the Jay McHenry Funeral Home, was never in grave damage thanks to water lines trained on the side of the building.

Judy Wenner, manager of the Benton office of Clark, Schaeffer, Jones & Eichner, reported that all client's records were evacuated from the adjacent building. The second floor tenant at 217 Main Street, Kim Mercado, was forced to evacuate her apartment for several hours until it was safe to reenter the adjacent building.

Weary firemen stayed on the scene for most of the night, and had the morning monthly breakfast at the Fire Hall to contend with. Many firemen had breathed the smoke that seemed to come from burning yellow pine in the ancient building. The building at one time housed what was known as Buckley's Five and Dime.

John Watson of the Benton Water Commission reported that water levels in the 230,000 gallon reservoir dropped from 31 feet to 29 feet during the fire. Water was also pumped from the Benton Dam.

Benton Fire Chief Carl Speece called the fire "undetermined," and indicated that the State Police Fire Marshall has been called and will investigate.

The CCFNB Bancorp, Inc. declared its 184th consecutive dividend in the amount of 17 cents per share for shareholders of record March 11,
2004.

Yesterday we talked about the Homestead Act, enacted January 1, 1863, during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. The act allowed anyone to file for a quarter-section of free land (160 acres). Daniel Freeman, a former Union soldier, was the first man to take advantage of the law and started a farm on Government property at Cub Creek in Gage County, Nebraska.

Under the provisions of the law, the land became his at the end of five years if he built a house on it, dug a well, "plowed" 10 acres, fenced a specified amount, and actually lived there. Additionally, citizens could claim a quarter-section of land by "timber culture" (often called a "tree claim"). This required that you plant and successfully cultivate 10 acres of timber.

Helen Smith Gammon, Chandler, Arizona, notes that was the reason so many Columbia County residents went to Ohio and bought land there.

Helen has copies of deeds showing three sons of James and Elizabeth Bartleson Peterman "went West," each buying 160 acres of "military land" in Wayne County, Ohio, home today to the world's largest Amish population. We recently wrote about the J.M. Smucker Company, and they also call Wayne County home. Sons James, John and Jacob Peterman settled there with their families. Later John moved his family further west in Ohio and Jacob went on to California.

James bought John's acreage and ended up a wealthy man for that era.
Helen had long assumed they chose to settle there to work on the Ohio Canal which was then being constructed, but now believes that being able to buy cheap land was the reason they stayed.

This was actually a "like father, like son," story. The boy's father, James Bartleson, had purchased a warrant for 400 acres December 29, 1796, for land in Fishing Creek Twp., then part of Northumberland County, and pioneered the land before 1796. They probably were squatters before that like many other early settlers.

Some Peterman descendants are still living on some of that same land more than 200 years later.

It is interesting that we don't always get things right the first time around. Take Frank Fleer, for example. In 1906, Fleer invented the first bubble gum called Blibber-Blubber gum. After many versions of Blibber-Blubber were tested, a young employee in 1928 founded Dubble Bubble, Fleer's ultimate staple in the bubble gum industry.

Buckwheat cakes were flipping at St. James Church last night, one of the early Church suppers our area is so well known for on Saturday nights. The Church will also hold an ice cream festival July 3 and August 21. On November 6, they will host a pork supper. Mark your calendars. Make sure that you also order your bulk ice cream for the Saturday before Memorial Day.

We continue with the list of items to be auctioned April 25 in the fund-raiser for the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center.
• Pie, lemon sponge, donated by Krygier's Catering.
• Handmade quilt, Dresden plate design, blue background, 6' x 8', donated by Marian E. Remley.
• A new patient evaluation by Dr. Dale Neiderhiser, 224 Main Street, Benton, donated by Dr. Neiderhiser.
• A set of five individual lessons on lathe turning with specific instructions on how to turn a bowl, donated by Woodcrafters of Shady Hollow.
• Campsite certificate good toward fees for a weekend of pleasant camping. Located next to Ricketts Glen State Park. Modern showers and bathrooms, playground, restaurant and general store, donated by Good's Campground, 288 SR 118.
• A weekend in a brownstone in New York city, a block from Central Park, donated by Elsie Buyers.

How are you at geography?

Sunday's Washington Post includes an article about a private consortium called Safer Transport and Roadways (STAR) Solutions, which is attempting to double I-81 through a toll truck-only highway on Virginia's 325-mile portion within 15 years. STAR and state officials are negotiating the terms of a contract, and if an agreement can be reached, no other approvals are needed.

March 27, 2004. We celebrate Shirley McHenry's birthday today.

On this date
• in 1512, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida.
• in 1794, President Washington and Congress authorized creation of the U.S. Navy.
• in 1924, Sarah Vaughan was born in Newark, New Jersey. She had a
range of four octaves, singing songs like "Misty," "Tenderly" and "All
of Me."
• in 1973, The Godfather won the Academy Award for best picture of 1972, but Marlon Brando refused to accept his Oscar for best actor. Liza Minnelli won best actress for "Cabaret."
• Six years ago, The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Viagra, launching a new career for Bob Dole and for whoever the dork is that sends us unsolicited spam advertising the drug.

Running on Seven Cylinders...
• Joseph Lesinski, Sugarloaf Township, in Bloomsburg Hospital in the ICU unit.
• Ruth Kline, Back Home in Benton, PA, following an overnight stay at Bloomsburg Hospital.
• Eleanor Sands, facing surgery Monday.
• Theodore Allen Fritz, 48, Fritz Hill, facing back surgery Wednesday.

We are going to start listing the items that will be auctioned off April 25 at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center "Village Sampler and Auction," at the new Benton Fire Hall.

Restaurants and Caterers from Northern Columbia County will offer their specialties at "Grazing Stations" starting at 4 PM, and the popular local group, Raven Creek, will entertain throughout the afternoon. The list is extensive so bear with us as we list items each day. The order that items are listed here are NOT the order in which they will be auctioned.

• Framed holograph letter by Mr. Robin Roberts, entirely handwritten by Mr. Roberts, former Philadelphia major league pitcher, and hall of fame great, donated by Harold and Jane Ackerman.
• Hand-made Porch Plant Bench, donated by Dr. Robert Bennett.
• Moen Chateau Chrome lever 4 lavatory faucet w/metal waste, donated by Pine Run Plumbing.
• Compac Fishing Spincast Outfit, donated by Lou & Kathy Lamont.
• One Elmdale Farms quart milk bottle (orange) with a mold date of 1952, with filler and cap, donated by Brian Bower. This is a collector's item from the Donald Smith Farms, Benton.
• Pie, lemon meringue, donated by Krygier's Catering.
• Two Emery Fishing Rods, 1 long, 1 short, donated by Lou & Kathy Lamont.
• One day of fishing on the Chesapeake or Delaware Bay. Fishing gear and bait provided. Date, time and location to be mutually determined.
Travel, lodging, if any, and meals are not included. Donated by Rich & Missy Kisner.
• Two roundtrip flights to anywhere Southwest Airlines flies. Pennsylvania flights begin May 9 from Philadelphia, but other locations for departure available. Southwest Airlines can be found at http://www.southwest.com/ . Donated through the generosity of Southwest Airlines, courtesy of Tom Chapman.

We'll continue with the list in coming days.

An article in today's Press Enterprise talks about Montour County's old barn along Route 11 near Danville. The barn is now unsafe and the county is staggering with the estimates both to repair it and to haul it away. We'll watch how this story develops because of its similarity to a story in Benton. And when you pick up your copy of the Press Enterprise, read about a "wonderful, big old boob nice dog" named Duke, a Great Dane, that has vanished without a trace from Bob Lewis' farm in the Township. The very pretty Richart's Grove Church is the Church of the Week in the Press Enterprise. And while your leafing through, make sure you know about the I-80 highway closings that begin Monday.

The northern states that were left in the Union once the South pulled out began passing a number of measures blocked by the South before 1860. An example is the authorization of the transcontinental railroads, which helped with economic growth and expansion to the western territories.

Congress passed two of these measures in 1862. The Homestead Act permitted any person who intended to become a citizen or who was a citizen to receive 160 acres of public land, and then to purchase it at a nominal fee after living on the land for five years. The Morrill Act, sponsored by Congressman Justin Morrill of Vermont, made it possible to establish colleges to order to receive an advanced education. The act gave every state that remained in the Union a grant of 30,000 acres of public land for every member of its congressional delegation. Every state had at least two senators and one representative, so even the smallest state received 90,000 acres. The states were authorized to sell the land and use the proceeds to establish colleges in engineering, agriculture and military science.

Over seventy "land grant" colleges, as they came to be known, were established under the original Morrill Act and a second act passed in 1890 extended the land grant provisions to the sixteen southern states.

Land grant colleges started as agricultural and technical schools, and many grew into large public universities educating millions of Americans who otherwise might not have been able to afford college.

Penn State was one of the nation's first land-grant institutions and will celebrate its land-grant designation March 29 in Harrisburg. In 1862, the United States was a nation that could barely feed itself. Today, it feeds much of the world, thanks to advances in agriculture pioneered at Penn State and other land-grant institutions nationwide. We salute Penn State University and the many graduates of the University.

Quote of the Day:
"There is (sic) not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, and into our churches."
- Senator Strom Thurmond, 1948.

Acclaimed storyteller Jay O'Callahan will appear at the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, 226 Center Street, April 1-4. Performances are at 7 PM on Thursday, 8 PM on Friday and Saturday, and 3 PM on Sunday. Tickets and information are available by calling the BTE Box Office at (570) 784-8181 or 800-282-0283. O'Callahan will perform his most recent production, Pouring the Sun, which was commissioned by Lehigh University and Touchstone Theatre in Bethlehem.

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a good idea.
-- Mahatma Ghandi

March 26, 2004

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
-Michael Jordan

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
-John Wooden

An out-of-state trucker took a bath in the Susquehanna yesterday but was otherwise OK when his rig plummeted off the route 22/322 Clarks Ferry bridge and dropped 60 feet into the chilly water. The use of a cell phone while driving apparently was the cause of this accident.

From now until the end of March following sunset until roughly 45 to 90 minutes after sunset it will be possible to see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter all at the same time with the naked eye. Face south. Jupiter lies to the east, below the constellation of Leo. Saturn is next to Gemini in the south, Mars and Venus straddle the Pleiades in the west, and Mercury lies below them, close to the horizon. Venus, the brightest star-like point in the dusk sky, will appear white, as will fainter Mercury and Jupiter. Mars is orange-red, and Saturn pale yellow. All five planets currently are on the same side of the Sun and fall more or less in a straight line in the sky. You'll need a telescope to see Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

Didja know that water is less dense as a solid than as a liquid. Ice weighs less than water, and this is the reason that ice floats.

Here is a list of some of the one-room schools that existed in the area.
• Jamison City School; a two-story building with four grades in one room downstairs and grades 5 through 8 upstairs.
• Central School: Near where the present Fire Hall stands.
• Elk Grove: Across the road from the Bitzer residence.
• Dewey School: near the present Saddle Rock Gun Club.
• Moore School: at Five Points
• Coles Creek School: Across route 487 from Camp Lavigne.
• A school near Harrington's Foundry.
• Fritz Hill School: On the old Harry Hess farm on Fritz Hill. Still standing.
• West Creek School: On the West Creek road near Ed and Susan Coles.
• Diltz School: Across from Grassmere Park

The original Sugarloaf High School was built in 1910. It was the two rooms and the library that became part of the consolidated school, now the Sugarloaf Memorial Building.

Pam Tucker, in commenting on a recent picture of a one-room school we published, consulted her aunt, Ruth Geese, who attended Pine Grove School for first grade in 1926. For second grade in 1927, the school was closed and the students from that area went to Benton. Ruth said that the first year (1927) they had classes in the old wooden building; in 1928 they started attending the new school.

We'll mention basketball next, remembering back to center Bill Russell who led the Boston Celtics to eleven championships in 13 seasons. This record put him ahead of rival Wilt Chamberlain, but Wilt was the first NBA player to sign a $100,000 contract. Russell wasn't down for long, however. In his next contract, Russell insisted on $100,001, which allowed him to brag, "Poor Wilt. Always a dollar short and a basket late."

A basketball star to the folks Back Home in Benton, PA, is Regina Schlichter, who netted 1,960 points during her four-year career at Benton. She is now a Junior at St. Frances.

As a Sophomore in 2002-03, Regina...
Averaged 4.8 points per game (ppg) and 2.3 rebounds per game (rpg).
She played in 28 of 31 games, including one starting assignment versus Marquette, Nov. 30. She scored in double figures five times, including career-high 15-point effort at Miami-OH, Dec. 18. Sank six-of-eight shots from the floor against the RedHawks, including a three-for-three effort from three-point territory. Grabbed a season-high seven boards in 75-46 victory at Central Connecticut State, Jan. 18. Netted 12 points on five-for-10 shooting from the floor in Flash's 71-40 win at Robert Morris, Feb. 5.

As a Freshman in 2001-02, Regina...
Played in all 31 games, including four starts. Averaged 5.8 ppg and
2.8 rpg. Shot 42.7% from the floor (70-for-164) and 71.4% (25-for-35)
from the free throw line. Scored in double figures five times (vs.
Xavier, Penn State, Saint Francis-NY and Long Island [twice]). Grabbed a career-high eight rebounds against the Nittany Lions. Pulled down five-or-more rebounds five times. Made six-of-12 shots from the floor in season-best 12-point performance at Saint Francis-NY. Recorded career-high four steals in victory over Howard at Xavier Tournament.

As a player for Benton Area High School, Regina...
Was a four-year letterwinner. Averaged 21.6 points, 15.0 rebounds, 4.7 blocks and 3.5 steals during senior season at Benton High School.
Second-team all-state selection. Earned all-conference honors in each of final three seasons at Benton. Shot 55.0% from the field and 72.0% from the line. Surpassed the 1,000-point mark as a junior. Led the conference in scoring during junior year. Led Tigers to a 16-9 record during senior year. Selected to Who's Who Among America's High School students. Member of National Honor Society. Four-year letterwinner in softball. High school coach was Don Whitenight.

Regina is suffering from tendonitis of the patellar tendon, sometimes called jumper's knee, a condition seen in sports that require jumping, such as basketball. The muscle contraction and force of hitting the ground after a jump strains the tendon. After repeated stress, the tendon may become inflamed or tear. Nevertheless, the Saint Francis University women's basketball team captured its eighth Northeast Conference championship in the last nine seasons. The Flash clinched the school's eighth berth in the NCAA Tournament with the title game win. All of Regina's friends Back Home in Benton, PA, wish her a speedy recovery. After graduation? She wants to coach college basketball.

The Benton Rodeo Association met last night preliminary to the construction of the new bandstand at the rodeo grounds. Final details of the location for the bandstand will be worked out Sunday at 1 PM at the grounds. Armand Stackhouse has removed the old bandstand. By July 1 when the bandstand is completed, just in time for the large bluegrass festival, afternoon performers won't have to worry about staring into the sun, thanks to the orientation of the proposed bandstand. In other developments, the association has ordered new bucking shoots and back pens. These should arrive within the next month.

Lancaster Farming is on-line at http://www.lancasterfarming.com/ and from that site you can branch out into one of the largest and most modern milking facilities in the country thanks to a web-cam. You can link to an 850-foot long free-stall barn with more than two acres under roof. The cows stand on rubber flooring to eat and can move about as desired. When they sleep in one of the 1,116 comfort stalls, mattresses cushion their weight for a good night's rest. Even the lighting in the 95,200 square foot building is designed to provide periods of darkness as a natural part of the cows' environment.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Chamberlain, Orangeville, dropped off a couple issues of the Argus, for which we are extremely grateful. We'll tell you today and tomorrow a little about what was going on in the area 65 years ago according to the newspaper for Thursday, March 23, 1939.

Lets start with restaurant food. There were the local eateries including the Kozy Korner Restaurant and the Yost Dining Room and the "Casey Restaurant, Albert Casey, Prop.," all popular places to eat.

Albert Casey's restaurant was between Guy Miller's barber shop and the Harry Hess general store, the North half of what is now the Village Ceramic shop on Main Street, plus an "L-shaped" section in the back of the building. This restaurant, first opened by Dan Hartman and then taken over by Elwood Knouse, was locally called the "Blue Plate Cafe" during the time that Albert Casey owned it. Albert's son, Bob, remembers that the pies were made by Clem Shannon's wife and the customers continued the tradition that Dan Hartman started of playing quoits in the back yard. The Casey's moved to Bloomsburg in 1940 ending their restaurant career in Benton. The South side of the building was occupied by Ray B. Keeler, jeweler and optometrist. Mr. Keeler sold "complete glasses, with Kryptok Lenses." The first fused bifocal, called Kryptok, became the biggest thing to hit the optometry industry and the product produced unheard of profits, selling $12 to $20 lenses at a time when other lenses were selling for just a few dollars.

The local restaurants had lots of competition in the ham and egg department from "Penny Suppers" at the Central M.E. Church (ham and eggs and meatloaf), and the Grange Hall (ham and eggs), a ham and egg supper at the Stillwater Church for the price of 40¢ and 20¢, and the Ladies Aid of the Central M.E. Church (ham and eggs). "Penny Suppers" were very popular at the local churches and at the Grange. As nearly as we can figure out, people would pay a penny for a fork, a penny for a knife, a penny for a plate, etc. and a penny for a serving of each type of food that they wanted.

The J.C. Knouse Service Station, "At the Bridge," was selling Tydol Flying A Gasoline in 1939, but competition was around the bend. The Argus revealed that "work is progressing rapidly on the gasoline station being constructed at the corner of Main and Market Street."

Karl Fritz, R. D. 4, placed an advertisement to sell a "Model A 1929 Ford 2-door sedan in good condition," a car Eleanor Fritz Sands remembers driving to school. The Benton Fire Company advertised that they held a dance in the silk mill building every Wednesday (admission, 25¢) and everyone seemed excited about the "big dance" at the Red Rock Dance Hall coming up Saturday night. The Ritz Theater was playing Burn 'Em Up, O'Conner, the "70-minute thrilling story of the auto racing racket."

Father used some expressions as we were growing up that when looked at now seem just a bit strange. One of his favorites involved the use of the word "kibosh," often used in discussions with Mother involving his youngest son. A typical use would be "I'll put the kibosh on that right now." There would be no further discussion on that subject again that nigh. The term was also used to directly rebuke someone, as when someone had put the kibosh on something and therefore rendering it incapable of completion or execution.

The Benton Town Council meets on the first Monday of each month. The April meeting is on the fifth at 7 PM and since the group does not have a current home they will be forced to again borrow a meeting room to conduct the business of the town. A number of weighty issues are up for discussion at this meeting and we'll discuss a couple of them over the coming days.

The Fishingcreek Sportsmen's Association plan to ask the Benton Town Council at their monthly meeting for permission to "take over" the lookout area on route 239 adjacent to 42 acres they recently purchased from Bill Follmer. The Lookout is adjacent to what we used to call the "dump," but is a completely different piece of ground. Exept for a few feet of rolling, but generally level, ground, the land is vertically inclined.

The Sportsmen's Association promise to take "necessary steps to improve the overall safety aspect of the land," including "new posts, fencing, etc." The club wants to "beautify the area with improvements suggested by their club members. President Clair Harvey feels that the lookout would make a great tourism attraction and the group even suggested to the Borough governing body the possibility of adding a sign inviting tourists to the hospitality of the Benton area.

The group has opened the door to the Town Council for further action, saying that any work done would be within applicable "codes and stipulations." The view from the Lookout could be unsurpassed and the possibilities for the improvement of the tract are endless.

Listen with your ears, not with your mouth

Trust that still, small voice that says, 'This might work and I'll try it
-- Diane Mariechild

The elk herd in Pennsylvania is somewhere between 500 and 600 elk, and something like 100 calves should be born this spring. Road-kill and crop-kill claimed 116 elk last year and over the past three years, 156 elk were shot. These figures will be further refined this September when the state's first fall elk survey takes place.

Elk were native to Pennsylvania, but disappeared by the late 1800s. The wild elk inhabiting Pennsylvania today are descendents of elk released in Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk and Potter counties from 1913 to 1926. A total of 177 elk from places like Yellowstone National Park were released in the Commonwealth to serve as a breeding base for what was hoped would develop into a population that could sustain hunting. Elk were hunted from 1923 to 1931, and then received closed-season protection from 1932 through 2000.

March 24, 2004. Today are the wedding anniversaries of Ed and Jackie Davis and Richard and Tracy Fritz and Bob Lewis celebrates his 69th birthday. There are "sixties" in the forecast, and if you are from Back Home in Benton, PA, that should make you very happy!

Elaine A. Hess, 55, (Oct. 26, 1948-March 22, 2004), Floral Park, NY, died Monday. She was born in Bloomsburg, the only daughter of Beatrice M. (Swisher) Hess, Asbury, and the late O. Edward Hess. She resided in New York City for more than 25 years. She graduated from Benton Area High School in 1966, was employed for several companies as an office administrator in New York City, but had been plagued with health issues for a number of years. She is survived by her mother and by brothers Frank Hess, Asbury; and Robert Hess, Benton. Also surviving are three nephews, one niece and her friend, Fern Pearl, who resided with her. Graveside services will be Friday at 3 PM in St. James Cemetery. Arrangements are in charge of the Dean W. Kriner, Inc., Funeral Home, Benton.
--from a Press Enterprise obituary

For anyone affected by the smell of wood smoke, Main Street in the Borough was not the place to be last night.

Mavis Rae, "a cigarette-smoking, alcohol-drinking, menopausal and especially opinionated hotelier," played by Whoopi Goldberg, is the lead character on the hit NBC show, Whoopi. Next Tuesday night, she challenges an elderly tenant, played by Celeste Holm, in a new episode called "The Squatter." Mavis manages to get her placed in a retirement home because she is annoyed at the woman's eccentric behavior. But the home is as horrible as the apartment's new tenant, the old lady's hard-partying granddaughter, played by guest star Krysten Ritter.

Lights will soon be on at the Southeast corner of Main and Market as the old flower station springs back to life as Benton Coins & Collectibles under the ownership of Bill Yanchick. Bill sells all sorts of coins and has long specialized in military payment certificates. He hopes to soon start selling metal detectors. Bill's store has been operating at 227 Main Street.

The building that Bill just purchased traces back to Paul Hartman, who built it in 1941. Paul had worked at a gas station in Muncy and decided to build and run a station in Benton. Mary Hartman sold the building yesterday, following years of rental as a gas station and in recent years as a flower station until Ken Drunkenmiller moved to the former Buckley Store building. The building had an unusual past in that on one summer day in 1956 the operator of the Gulf Station where the Columbia Country Farmers National Bank now have their drive-through windows and the operator of the Mobil Station across the street each packed up, loaded all their belongings on trucks and exchanged locations. Dick Sands began 1956 running the station on the Southeast corner selling Mobil brand gas and Harold C. (Harry) Ackerman ran the corner on the Southwest corner of the "square" in Benton selling AMOCO brand of gas. Richard later moved to Palmerton and opened a Chevrolet car agency.

Following Harry's move to the station on the Southeast corner, he specialized in gas sales, service, car washing, oil and filters, radiator flushing, etc., and continued with his business until he suffered a heart attack about 1966. The business operated for a time, but then closed for health reasons. Harry purchased his gas from Charles Long, Sweet Valley, and sold under the AMOCO brand.

Harry had worked at the station on the Southwest corner when Bill Heckman owned it, but about 1951 Bill passed away and Harry took it over. GULF later pulled out their franchise and the building was sold to Richard Sands and the exchange of the two gas stations took place.

Harry went into the gas-station business following a serious eye injury at the Benton Foundry about 1945 or 1946. He chose not to return to work at the Foundry and instead made his career with the gas stations.

Bob Deitrick and Engene Bardo operated gas stations from the building at various times. The station sold gas under the Texaco flag at one time.

All the former operators would be amazed at the current gas prices in Benton of $1.669 and $1.689. And that brings us to our next story, right after this picture...

Picture courtesy of Kelly Yost

In this picture, the gas station on the right is the subject of the preceeding story. At the time of this picture, the station sold Texaco gasoline. It is now the new home of Benton Coins & Collectibles.

Didja know that Christopher Columbus was the first man to get nineteen hundred miles on a galleon?

In 1859, the United States relied upon wood for 91% and on coal for 9% of its inanimate energy. By 1973, oil supplied 46%, gas 31% and coal 18% of the country's energy needs. By early 1980, imports accounted for nearly 50% of the nation's oil needs.

The modern petroleum industry began in the oil region of western Pennsylvania. We read that Pennsylvania Indians rubbed in crude oil as an ointment and used oil carried in hollowed gourds for medicinal purposes. The white man used the oil as a lubricant. Later the crude was bottled as a cure-all medicine called Seneca Oil. Other brands followed, including Kier's Rock Oil, bottled near Pittsburgh.

The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York was founded in December, 1854, and the company later founded the Seneca Oil Company. Seneca Oil began operations in Titusville in April, 1858, under the direction of E.L. Drake, then 49, a man usually referred to as "Colonel," a strange title for a man whose only qualification for the job was that he needed the money. He didn't know petroleum or drilling and wasn't even successful as a businessman. "Drake's Folly" struck oil south of Titusville in August, 1859, at a depth of only 69 feet. It was the first such well drilled anywhere in the world, and followed the general guidelines used to drill salt wells.

Like the 1849 gold rush which drew would-be miners to the frontier regions of California, two similar phenomena took place a decade later. The first was in Oil Creek at Titusville for crude oil. The same year as Drake found oil, a man by the name of Henry Tompkins Paige Comstock located a vein of silver worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the Western United States and the race was on in both the East and West.

March 23, 2004. It is 16° at press time. Didn't we read somewhere that Spring just happened? Happy birthday to Alice Strauch and happy anniversary to Alice and to hubby Gary.

Today is Jim Edson's birthday. Ira McHenry, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, enjoyed his day thanks to some changes in his Parkinson's medication. There are still limited short-term memory problems for Ira.

The Second Virginia Convention convened March 20, 1775, at St. John's Church in Richmond to consider some pretty weighty matters concerning tyranny and oppression of the Crown. Think for a moment as Patrick Henry, then 39, would have thought. Many around him favored continued conciliatory measures with England. Henry knew he would be opposed by many powerful and wealthy members. Attorney Henry pleaded with delegates to vote in favor of the resolution to have Virginia join the war. Speaking passionately without notes, he explained why a militia must be raised and the colonies must do battle. He said, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" He ended his speech by saying, "but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

Henry's resolution was adopted unanimously, and with Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and others they submitted a plan for the defense of the colony. By April 19, the single lantern was hung in the tower of Christ's Church and Paul Revere rode off with news that the "British are coming." The English met their match at Lexington and Concord later that day as Americans fired from behind hedges and trees, and the war was on.

Maryland and Pennsylvania legislators seem to be racing to legalize gambling using the argument that thousands of their residents are crossing borders every day to gamble away millions in New Jersey, West Virginia, Delaware and New York. Both states face an array of fiscal problems, but there is a deeper fear with the governor of each state: that the other state will legalize gambling first. These men feel that the question is if Maryland legalizes slot machines, shouldn't Pennsylvania do the same? Make no mistake about it. The fight for gambling is lead by The Guv on the premise that slot machines could help pay for schools, lower property taxes, and close budget shortfalls without raising taxes.

The 189,000-square-foot blighted Edwardsville Shopping Center and adjacent Gateway Cinema are about to be sold, according to this morning's Times Leader. The people of Edwardsville are enthusiastic.

We'll take a quick look back today at the year 1898, both Back Home in Benton, PA, and at the national level. First at the national level. William Randolph Hearst told Frederic Remington to "Furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." Commodore George Dewey obliterated a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, and Hawaii became part of our nation. The battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor killing 252 men aboard as a total of 289 lives were lost in battle and 4,000 to disease during the Spanish-American War.

Back home, the Argus spoke to the future: "The political outlook seems satisfactory to all parties. But after election there will be many funerals. Some of the old political sinners will be called to judgment." Hedden and Company (located across the street from the McHenry House) offered dress goods, clothing, boots and shoes, hats and caps and groceries. The Star Clothing House (in the first building above the McHenry House) offered all-wool black suits at $4.87 and up. Young men's suits, $2.98 up and men's dress overcoats $4.37. R.T. Smith and Son advertised ladies' dress goods, clothing, shoes, gent's furnishings, dry goods and groceries. They also operated the Benton Planing Mills. Oak bedroom suits were as low as $13 delivered, fancy dining chairs $5 and up at the Ira McHenry Furniture Store. Thomas Carey, druggist, advertised patient medicines and a "sure cure for chicken cholera." The Empire Mill (formerly Hulme's Mill that we mentioned in the O. B. Savage barn article) manufactured "Lily" flour, chop and feeds. It was then operated by the Edwards Brothers. Isaiah Raber, Third and Market Streets, sold Singer sewing machines.

We don't jump over the county line south of Benton too often, but we took a look at the Montour County web site and found lots of reasons to suggest that you visit. You can get the history of the county and if you are a genealogist, you can search wills dating as far back as 1850. Nearly every department in the county, from the District Justice to the transit office and treasurer's offices, has information on the site.

Louis Dearborn LaMoore was born in North Dakota on this date in 1908, the last of seven children. Well disciplined, he loved to write and started his day each morning, seven days a week, by pounding out pulp-fiction, often working on several different stories at the same time. Louis often met cowboys as they came through the Dakota Territory on the Northern Pacific Railroad, traveling to market from their ranches in the western part of the North Dakota or Montana. He eventually shifted over to writing western stores and eventually wrote more than a hundred under the name Louis L'Amour. Once L'Amour was typing rapidly at the typewriter, and his young daughter asked why he was writing so fast?" L'Amour answered, "Because I want to see how the story turns out!"

Quote of the Day:
I just pointed my rifle at him...and let him have the big one right through the third button on his shirt. If he ever figured to sew that particular button on again he was going to have to scrape it off his backbone.
--Louis L'Amour

Mark your calendars now for the dedication of the Benton Area High School Thursday, August 26, at 6 PM, following the picnic in the park for the students of the school system and their parents. There will be an open house and we'll all be eagerly looking forward to seeing the inside of the new school.

Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, home to the Phillies and the Eagles for more than 30 years, bit the dust after 3,000 pounds of explosives took down the stadium section by section yesterday. The location will ultimately be a 5,500-space parking lot.

"The Pennsylvania Experience" debuts tonight at 7 on WVIA-44 and focuses on people, places and history of Pennsylvania. The show will be repeated on Friday evenings. Wednesday nights in that timeslot, the popular WVIA-FM show, "Homegrown Music with George Graham," will make its television debut. Regional artists, usually with original music, are featured in performances at the WVIA-FM studios. The radio show has been around since 1982.

A reader asked for the definition of various cousins. Here 'tis...

Cousin (often referred to as "first cousin").
Your first cousins are the people in your family who have two of the same grandparents as you. In other words, they are the children of your aunts and uncles.

Second Cousin
Your second cousins are the people in your family who have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents.

Third, Fourth, and Fifth Cousins
Your third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents, fourth cousins have the same great-great-great-grandparents, and so on.

Removed
When the word "removed" is used to describe a relationship, it indicates that the two people are from different generations. You and your first cousins are in the same generation (two generations younger than your grandparents), so the word "removed" does not apply to your relationship.

The words "once removed" mean that there is a difference of one generation. For example, your mother's first cousin is your first cousin, once removed. Your mothers first cousin is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents. This one-generation difference equals "once removed." Twice removed means that there is a two-generation difference. You are two generations younger than a first cousin of your grandmother, so you and your grandmother's first cousin are first cousins, twice removed.

The terms "niece" and "nephew" spring from Latin words which meant "granddaughter" and "grandson," so you may find them used in that context.

The North American Securities Administrators Association has come up with the ten worst scams, schemes, and scandals that investors will most likely face in 2004. The Nigerian scam we talked about yesterday didn't even make the list.

Want to shut down your computer quickly? Press the Windows key, release, and then press the "U" key twice. Windows will automatically shut down.

USAToday includes an article on job loss in Reading, but much of it could apply to the entire state.

Didja know that there are no wild deer of any kind in Australia. The small red deer is the only one found in Africa. At this time of the year, the Pennsylvania white-tail deer population seem to concentrate each night a few feet from any road we travel.

The Lady Lions had an easy time in the NCAA opener against Hampton, except many students couldn't tell. March madness set in on the Penn State campus Sunday when students hoping to see the Lady Lions play Hampton were instead shown another game. Connecticut routed Pennsylvania with a 91-55 victory in the first round. The Purdue Boilermakers defeated the Red Flash of St. Francis (Pa.) 78-59 in the first round of the West Regional. Benton's Regina Schlichter was in for 19 minutes and scored 4 points.

Seconds count, especially if you are dieting.

March 21, 2004

One way to measure success is if you have a tough problem, and it is not the same tough problem you faced last year

We don't have to be perfect, but we must grow. We should grow from a mistake as well as from a success.

We have seen love as a medicine cure many ills.

Not everything that you face can you change. But you can't change it unless you face it.

It is always interesting to notice people rearrange their prejudices in a conversation.

The smallest deed is far better than the grandest intention.

Quickies...
• Don't forget the Jerseytown Jam at the Jerseytown Community Center, 10 AM until 6 PM today.
• Benton was busy last night as the lure of "cheap" gas at $1.619 and a lot of people who wanted to eat out filled the town. It was hard not to be reminded of the scene in "The Fatal Glass of Beer," where W. C. Fields looked out a cabin door, moaned that "It's not a fit night out for man nor beast," and is hit in the face with a handful of soap flakes made up to look like snow flakes.
• Taylor Remphrey reports from Alaska that he got to fly a F-16 last week for the first time.
• The Press Enterprise includes an article about Benton graduate Regina Schlichter, now a junior at Saint Francis University. She will play in her third straight NCAA tournament tonight when the Red Flash play Purdue.

Sheri Fowler suggested that we watch the Discovery Channel on Sunday, March 21, at either 8 PM or 11 PM. Discovery will air the episode that features the myth that the duck's quack has no echo. She writes that "I am sure you will find it fascinating," which we suspect is Sheri's way of suggesting that she thinks that viewers will be told that a duck's quack does not echo. We'll lay in a fresh supply of pop corn and some olive oil to pop it in and we'll let you know what's up. One thing we know for sure is that a duck's quack casts no shadow! The show is called Best Animal Myths.

When operating Windows XP as shipped, files named "readme.txt.exe," for example, show up as "readme.txt." The ".exe." is hidden, making the computer user think the file is a harmless text file when it could harbor a virus. You can better protect your computer from disguised executable files by turning off the "hide extensions." Click the "My Computer" button in Windows XP, choose "Tools," then "Folder Options." Choose the "View" tab and uncheck the option marked "Hide extensions for known file types."

In basketball, No. 1 seed Stanford fell to No. 8 Alabama on Saturday and No. 10 Nevada upset No. 2 Gonzaga.

On the weekends we like to review the stupid things that circulate on the Internet, mostly things that we received during the week. Here are some examples...

CLAIM: 911 days separated the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. and the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, Spain.
TRUE OR FALSE: Sorta True. There is a 912-day difference between the two events. Perhaps someone neglected to account for 2004 being a leap year.

CLAIM: Photograph shows a 115-pound coyote killed in New York.
TRUE OR FALSE: Sorta False. The photo is of a male neutered wolf-dog hybrid shot and killed in Pennsylvania, weighing somewhere between 102 and 105 pounds.

CLAIM: Steven Spielberg plans to direct a film about the Crusades following Mel Gibson's success with the Passion of the Christ.
TRUE OR FALSE: False. A spokesman for Spielberg totally denied the story; Spielberg himself had no comment. Ridley Scott is reportedly filming Kingdom of Heaven set during the Crusades.

CLAIM: On the vernal equinox, eggs can be balanced on end.
TRUE OR FALSE: TRUE. Of course, eggs can be balanced on any day of the year in that way if one works at it long enough.

CLAIM: Someone wealthy from Nigeria who writes like he likes you a lot because someone in your family has a sirname like his needs an "urgent business transaction" to help move megabucks from his homeland to yours and, by the way, he'll cut you in for a good chunk if you agree to assist him.
TRUE OR FALSE: False. The email could have came from Sri Lanka and the "funds" could have been gold or diamonds, but it is still called the Nigerian scam.

We love to find mistakes that others make, since we make so many ourselves. Here are a couple you may enjoy.
• Greenspan Says Rates Will Go Up Sometime. Sure they will!
--USA Today headline
• Free Shower Insert and Wayne's Coating. (Try reading it out loud.)

Mark April 18 as Scottish Heritage Day in Benton as the folks at the Presbyterian Church honor their Scottish Heritage with a highland tea at 10:30, a Celtic worship service at 11:00, followed by fellowship and more tea. Pastor Al Lumpkin will provide the music, Stuart Erwin will bring his popular bagpipes, and John Herbert Laubach accompanied by Eleanor Klementik are practicing a Scottish Psalter. Robert Burn's poetry will also be featured. The Community is invited to attend and participate.

The Highland Tea planned by the Ladies Service Circle of the Presbyterian Church will feature Scottish scones, shortbread, and oat cakes as well as clotted cream, lemon curd and marmalade. Coffee, tea and punch will also be served. The traditional strains of Bagpipe Music, the talents of friends and neighbors, and wonderful Highland Food will make a great Sunday Service. Bring your relatives and children.

And speaking of the Presbyterian Church, they are planning a shindig on Memorial Day that we'll call a yard sale. Oops, maybe we used an incorrect word, since the Southern use of the old term "shin-dig" literally meant a kick to the shins.

Terms of the Day: Flotsam and Jetsam. Flotsam is any part of the wreckage of a ship or the cargo on the ship that is lost by accident and found floating on the surface of the water. Jetsam are goods or equipment deliberately thrown overboard to make a ship more stable in high winds or heavy seas. And for good measure, we'll tell you that "Lagan" are goods cast overboard with a rope attached with the intention of retrieving them at a later time. When not floating on the water, the term flotsam and jetsam means odds and ends of no great value.

Here is a quick tour of the roadside highway markers in Columbia Country.

Marker Name: Catawissa Friends Meeting
Date Dedicated: 5/8/48
Location: Junction US 11 & PA 42, .7 mile SW of Bloomsburg
Marker Text: At Catawissa, three miles distant, is the Friends meetinghouse built about 1790. The log structure is still standing and is a fine example of a pioneer place of worship.

Marker Name: Catawissa Friends Meeting
Date Dedicated: 5/1/48
Location: South St. between 3rd & 4th Streets., Catawissa
Marker Text: The nearby Friends meetinghouse, built about 1790, was the place of worship for early Quaker settlers among the pioneers of this region. Catawissa itself was laid out by William Hughs, a Berks County Quaker.

Marker Name: Columbia County
Date Dedicated: 7/11/83
Location: County Courthouse, Main St., Bloomsburg
Marker Text: Formed March 22, 1813 out of Northumberland County.
Named in honor of America. County seat, Bloomsburg, became this State's only incorporated town in 1870. A Friends meetinghouse was built at Catawissa about 1789. "Twin covered bridges" at Forks are a unique site.

Marker Name: Fort Jenkins
Date Dedicated: 5/8/48
Location: Old US 11, 6.5 miles NE of Bloomsburg
Marker Text: A stockaded house used as a settler's refuge was situated here on the bank overlooking the river, 1778-80, when it was destroyed by the Indians. The land was later owned by James Wilson, an author of the Constitution.

Marker Name: Fort McClure
Date Dedicated: 5/8/48
Location: US 11 at Fairgrounds, Bloomsburg
Marker Text: Early in 1781 the McClure house was stockaded by the noted Indian fighter, Moses Van Campen, to protect settlers in this region after destruction of Fort Jenkins in 1780. Site on the north bank of the Susquehanna in present Bloomsburg.

Marker Name: Fort Wheeler
Date Dedicated: 5/10/48
Location: PA 487, 1.2 miles NE of Bloomsburg
Marker Text: A stockade-type fort was built here in 1778 along Fishing Creek by Moses Van Campen. It served during the Revolution as a refuge against the Indians, by whom it was once attacked. Van Campen was the noted Indian scout of this region.

Marker Name: Wyoming Path
Date Dedicated: 5/3/49
Location: US 11 at Fairgrounds, Bloomsburg
Marker Text: Important path linking the many Indian settlements in the Wyoming Valley with Shamokin, now Sunbury. In 1742 Count Zinzendorf, organizer of Moravian missions, came this way after visiting the Shawnees at Wyoming.

Wise men talk because they have something to say, fools talk because they have to say something.
--Plato

March 20, 2004

We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.
-R. D. Laing

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.
-Haile Selassie

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out.
-Richard Milhous Nixon

Ed Davis celebrates his birthday today. Don't forget the bluegrass jam at Jerseytown tomorrow.

And I think if you listen closely
In the sweet glad days of spring,
With the song of the brook,
the breeze, and the birds,
You can hear the flowers sing.
--Helen Isabel Moorhouse

The Fourth of July in 1910 changed Benton forever. Oh, we all know the story of that peaceful afternoon about three o'clock when George Crossley's blacksmith shop and barn just East of Third Street on Center Street caught fire followed by blazes at three more barns within minutes. George Turner interviewed our father, Robert E. Kline, then 13, who witnessed the fire and remembered the burning roof shingles. You can read the entire article George Turner wrote under FEATURES. Father recalled how the shingles were sucked into an updraft by the fire and quickly spread the fire onto other roofs over an area of about five acres, leaving 200 Bentonians homeless.

We're forced to think of the fate today of the old Town Hall that sat just hundreds of feet from where the fire began. The people who guide the town wrestle with a decision about the fate of the building. We all look at the building and we see it from the positive side or from the negative side. It reminds us how we all see things differently. There is an old story about the American shoe company that sent two sales representatives to different parts of the African backwoods to see if they could drum up some business among the natives. The company heard back from both agents. The first said, "No business, natives don't wear shoes." The second one said, "Great prospects, natives don't wear shoes!"

Following the devastating fire, business in the town was severely hampered. The fire destroyed sixty homes, stores, barns, and outbuildings. Thirty homes in the area of Market and Two and a Half Streets burned. The town turned to the Town Hall for a number of solutions. All the rooms in the building filled following the July 4th fire.

Justice of the Peace John Keeler and his wife along with Mr. and Mrs. Ray Keeler moved to the second floor of the Town Hall to live. Mr. and Mrs. Boyd Gibson also lived in the building. The Argus made quarters in the first floor, along with a meat market, the U. S. Post Office and the telephone exchange of the United Line.

The North Central Telephone Co. quickly strung temporary phone lines to the Columbia County National Bank makeshift quarters in the Presbyterian Church, to the Argus Office in the Town Hall, the office of Dr. Bruce Hess and the home of Charles A. Hess. The noted photographer, H. A. Kemp, moved his office to his home on Third Street and advertised that "all work will be done at my home." Kemp advertised that he had a "large line of souvenir post cards of the big fire." The Argus ran large section advertisements that would begin, "Notice to the Benton Sufferers!"

By Thursday following the fire, the first foundation was being laid for the construction of a permanent house. H. E. Everitt started construction on Two and a Half Street. A. R. Pennington started construction of a house and barn for Charles W. Hess. The Argus reported that A. T. Chapin (father of Ernest Chapin, grandfather of Ike Chapin, great-grandfather of Dave Chapin) then began construction on Market Street of two buildings, one for a furniture store and one for an "undertaking establishment." The other building was for a residence for A. T. Chapin's son-in-law, William Austin, who was connected in business with Mr. Chapin.

Right behind the first wave of construction was a residence for Evan Buckalew on Market Street, a home later owned by Donald and Dottie Rabb; a house for J.L.C. Kline, and a house for Mary Kase. Harry and Boyd Gibson, both carpenters, later built the house now owned by Louise Lewis. Dr. Bruce Hess announced that he would build a residence and office as soon as possible. By Saturday following the fire, the Argus announced that "fourteen contractors from out of town" were waiting to build something for someone. The paper said that there was a lot of dickering on the lot of D.J. Donovan, the former site of the Hotel Exchange.

The town of Orangeville immediately rallied their townspeople to help their neighbors to the north. They held a meeting in the Presbyterian Church with Burgess C.H. Dildine in charge of the meeting in an effort to raise cash, food and clothing for those affected by the fire. Light Street rallied much in the same way as Orangeville residents. In Danville, the Elks spearheaded must of the relief work.

The town quickly passed ordinance No. 35--on July 11, 1910--creating the office of building inspector and requiring and regulating building permits. The ordinance was quite severe: "From and after the passage of this ordinance it shall not be lawful for any person or persons, firms or corporations to construct or repair, or cause to be constructed or repaired, any building or buildings within the Borough without first having applied for and obtained a Building Permit. Ordinance No. 36, which prohibited the erection of any wooden barns, stables, carriage houses or other out-buildings fronting upon the streets of the Borough, quickly followed. This ordinance also required the construction of fireproof roofs. The ordinance didn't keep ten houses from starting construction with a week after the fire. The town was springing back to life.

We'll come back and revisit the Town Hall in an upcoming issue.

Readers who go to the WWII Memorial website, http://www.wwiimemorial.com, can add their family member's names to the Memorial. They can list the names, branch of service, rank and the war theatre they served in, or for civilians, what kind of war work they did to support the war effort. They can also, for a small fee, post pictures of their loved ones in uniform, or at work in the factories. Family members can in this way be recognized for posterity, at the WWII Memorial. Ruth Cavanaugh, who writes from Staten Island, listed her Mom and Dad, who worked in the Eastern Aircraft plant in West Trenton making Grumman Avenger airplanes for the Navy. She also listed her brother-in-law who was in the U. S. Navy, and her husband, who was a young boy who collected newspapers and scrap metal for the war effort. Anyone who lived through WWII participated in some way, such as growing "Victory Gardens" to help feed their families and friends, or by helping out at the U.S.O. organization, and by abiding by the Food and Fuel Rationing Rules and Regulations.

And at this point we might as well tell one of our favorite stories about dogs and World War II. Well, actually, it is the only story we know about dogs and World War II. Anyway, among the passengers of a Navy ship returning from France was a small mutt of a dog. One of the wives meeting the ship complained about the dog being on the ship when none of the wives could be. An officer reassured her by telling her that this way "all the men can pat the dog."

Do you know of anyone with experience looking for a job cleaning residential and commercial? Contact us.

The Press Enterprise has an article about educators from Guatemala visiting Benton to see how rural American schools operate and an article about a Danville school bus with 33 students in route to the Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech School getting whacked on route 11. The Daily and Sunday Review reports that a production crew was in Towanda Friday to film and interview police for an upcoming episode abut the Dianne Odell murder case for the A&E Cold Case Files documentary series.

How long do you think that an 18-mile (or so) train ride from Bloomsburg to Jamison City took in 1910? We'll give you a couple of clues before we give you the answer at the end of this email. Our first clue: the train started from the D.L.&W. station in Bloomsburg. Often the DL&W reference meant "Delay, Linger and Wait." We'll even narrow the choices down a bit. Is the correct answer (a) 1 hour and 15 minutes; (2) two hours and thirty minutes, (3) three hours, or (4) four hours and 15 minutes? (Answer at end of email). Now make your guess.

Nearly 59 years after the end of World War II, the National World War II Memorial will be dedicated in Washington, DC, on Saturday, May 29, 2004, to honor "all military veterans of the war, the citizens on the home front, the nation at large, and the high moral purpose and idealism that motivated the nation's call to arms." The National World War II Memorial will be the first national memorial dedicated to all who served during World War II.

As kids, we remember with awe and respect those who served in the first world war. With the death of Karl Fritz at the age of 104, those men we once knew are gone. We continue to have great admiration for those who have served their country in the armed forces. The memory of those who served their country during world War II will soon be refreshed with the opening of this memorial.

There is no such thing as a "short history" of anything, but many readers of the Benton News may need some of the details of 1945 and the end of World War II refreshed in their memory. On April 25, 1945, thirteen days after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, United States and Russian troops linked up at the Elbe River, cutting Germany in half and trapping an estimated 300,000 men, two dozen generals and an admiral.

On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker along with his long-time lover and the woman who was briefly his wife, Eva Braun. Adolph Hitler was dead, his Thousand Year Reich destroyed and the war in Europe was over. Hitler had appointed successors: Karl Donitz as the new Fuhrer and Joseph Goebbels as the new Chancellor of Germany. Goebbels himself committed suicide May 1, leaving the new Fuhrer to work out the surrender of Germany. The final surrender documents were signed by General Jodl May 7, and the following day was declared Victory In Europe or V-E Day.

The remains of the former Third Reich were partitioned by the Allies into an area of Soviet control, later known as East Germany, and an area of British/French/American control, later known as West Germany.

The Memorial Day weekend celebration on the National Mall will culminate an 11-year effort to honor America's World War II generation. Congress authorized the memorial in 1993. Construction began in September, 2001, after several years of fund raising and public hearings.

The official dedication celebration will cover a period of four days and will include a WWII-themed reunion exhibition on the National Mall. Read more about the memorial at http://www.wwiimemorial.com/ .

The Memorial Day parade in Benton this year will be on the 23rd of May, forming at 12 PM, moving at 12:30 PM and arriving at the Benton Cemetery at 1 PM. This parade is a remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service.

Connie (Thomas) Williams has started a group page in Yahoo. It is for anyone who went to Millville Area Schools. The web address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/millvillegraduates/ . If you went to the Millville Area Schools, sign up and see how many friends you can find. Please put the year you graduated in your information. Connie says, "Thanks and use wisely." An ice breaker for the group can be the Millville Junior High Drama Club production of Kisses for the Princess, Friday and Saturday, 7:30 PM.

The annual Easter Egg hunt sponsored by the Benton VFW will be at the organization's building Saturday, April 10, starting at 1 PM.

The 2003-04 hunting season recorded the fourth highest deer harvest in state history, including the second highest antlerless deer harvest. Hunters took 464,840 deer, including 322,620 antlerless deer and 142,220 antlered deer during the deer seasons that ran from Oct. 4, 2003, through January 10, 2004.

Have a little extra time? Try this.

Richard Charles Hawk Jr., 26, and Casey Ann Cunningham, 19, 430 Third St., Benton, face charges in connection with a burglary of the Hess Market, Orangeville, where $2,660 was taken. The story is in Friday's Press Enterprise.

The Bloomsburg & Sullivan Railroad schedule that became effective December 1, 1909, had the train leaving the D.L.&W. station in Bloomsburg going North twice a day. The morning train left at 9 AM, left Paper Mill at 9:14, Light Street at 9:18, Orangeville at 9:26, Forks at 9:36, Zaners (stop on demand) at 9:40, Stillwater at 9:48, Benton at 9:56, Edsons (stop on demand) at 10, Coles Creek (stop on demand) at 10:03, Laubachs (stop on demand) at 10:08, Grass Mere (sic) Park (stop on demand) at 10:10, Central 10:15, and arrived in Jamison City at 10:18--one hour and 18 minutes after leaving Bloomsburg. That train would then turn around in Jamison City, leave the station at 10:48 AM and arrive back in Bloomsburg at 12:05. The first south-bound train from Jamison City left at 5:50 AM and arrived at 7:18 in Bloomsburg.

The Friends of the Bloomsburg University Library Association are holding their annual book sale on Saturday, Sunday and Monday March 20, 21, and 22 in Andruss Library. The times are 12-5 on Saturday, 12-5 on Sunday, and 10-3 on Monday. The sale will include cassettes, records, CDs, videotapes, DVDs and books.

Jane (Dildine) Clewell, 82, (April 24, 1921-March 16, 2004), Rohrsburg, died Tuesday at the Millville Health Center. She was a daughter of the late Bruce C. and Ruth W. (Chapin) Dildine, Benton. She was a 1939 graduate of Benton High School and a 1942 graduate of the Bloomsburg Hospital School of Nursing. Mrs. Clewell was a member of the Rohrsburg United Methodist Church and was a former member of the Benton Presbyterian Church where she had been a Sunday school teacher. Mrs. Clewell was a charter member of the Benton VFW Ladies Auxiliary. Surviving, in addition to her husband of 60 years, Bob, is a daughter, Roberta Jane "B.J." Davidson and a son, Gary Alan Clewell, Fogelsville, PA. Also surviving are four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held Saturday at noon at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc., Benton, with burial in the Benton Cemetery. Friends and relatives may call Saturday from 10:30 AM until the time of the service at the funeral home.
--from a Press Enterprise obituary

Question of the Day:
Who said "There is a physical difference between the White and Black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality." Answer at end.

Donna Anderson, 38, and her son John, 18, lost their home at 247 Honeytown Road is a blaze that destroyed their mobile home Wednesday.

A reader suggested the reason for the "oil shortage." He writes that "nobody bothered to check the oil. We just didn't know we were getting low. The reason for that is purely geographical. All our oil is in Alaska, Texas, California, and Oklahoma. All our dipsticks are in Washington DC."

We are passing along an excellent idea concerning a genealogical codicil to last wills and testaments. The tip came from the folks who put out the software program Family Tree Maker, who suggest that your will include words to the effect that your spouse, children, guardian, administrator and/or executor is requested not to dispose of any genealogical records in your possession including books, files, notebooks or computer programs, for a period of two years after your death. The suggestion recommends that during this two-year period someone be found who would be willing to take custody of the materials and maintain the family histories.

President Bush signed the nation's first federal anti-spam law, known as the "Can-Spam Act," three months ago. We all expected great things from the Federal legislation. Now Microsoft, AOL, EarthLink and Yahoo announced they'll finally sue six of the most active spammers! Six! Most of us get that many spam emails an hour. We have seen reports that indicate that spam accounts for 60 to 80% of email traffic. The federal government has not filed any lawsuits under the Can-Spam Act to this point.

Back on March 1 we forgot to mention Elmer Hunter's birthday, and it was his 85th birthday, too. Pretty good for a couple that has been married for 60 years. Many remember Elmer's picture from the Raven Creek article where we showed him playing at the Shed at Ivy Farms. Elmer has been having some hard times with his health lately. We'll keep Elmer in mind and prayer.

EASY THUMBNAILS at is a free utility that creates thumbnail images from a wide range of picture formats. Contrast, sharpness, brightness, and quality can be adjusted and results checked with the built-in viewer.

Winter is having a hard time being finished even though there are only two days until the official start of Spring. Ten inches of snow fell in the Towanda area and much of the upper Fishing Creek valley got 6 inches or so Tuesday. Across the state, 10 people were killed in weather-related accidents. We have heard a number of Borough residents
say that the speed limit for snow plows in the Borough should be lowered by 15 miles per hour.

Columbia County Cuisine will be showcased at the "First Annual Village Sampler and Auction" April 25, at the new Benton Fire Hall. Restaurants and Caterers from Northern Columbia County will offer their specialties at "Grazing Stations" starting at 4 PM, and the popular local group, Raven Creek, will entertain throughout the afternoon. Items donated for the PM auction will be on display and include some exciting things like:

-a weekend in New York City

-a stay in a beachfront penthouse

-a catered dinner for six

-stays at local campgrounds

-two round-trip airline tickets to selected major cities in the U.S.

-pieces of art, hand-crafted woodwork, sporting equipment, dinners, desserts, goods and services,

-coupons for area restaurants

Businesses and supportive individuals in the Community have been most generous with their donations. We guarantee something of interest for every taste and every pocket. If you believe in the Community Center and would like to donate a special item, please call 925-6974 or 925-6972.

The auction will be conducted by J. Vance Auctions, AU-002109-L. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased in advance by calling 925-6972 or 925-6974, and will be available at the door, up to the limit of 300 tickets. The $10 fee covers the food, the music and the auction. All proceeds from this fantastic afternoon go to help finance the Northern Columbia County Cultural and Community Center. Mark April 25 on your calendars now.

Penn State became one of America's first land-grant institutions 141 years ago. It was established in 1855 as an agricultural college by the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society.

Our mystery quote from the top of the page comes from Abraham Lincoln, from an 1858 speech.

There really was a St. Patrick, although his name started out as Maewyn; he was born around the year 385, in a village in Wales. At the age of 16, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish pirates that raided his village on the west coast of England. Patrick was kidnapped and carried off to Ireland. He escaped after six years of working as a herdsman, and after returning home had a dream in which he received his call to preach the Gospel and convert the Irish to Christianity. He spent the next 15 or so years in a French monastery, preparing for his missionary work of spreading Christianity throughout the land. Later, in Ireland, he founded monasteries, schools, and churches.

Patrick used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Trinity and we continue with the shamrock tradition on St. Patrick's Day. The story about him driving the snakes out of Ireland around A. D. 400 is not substantiated. Patrick died on March 17 in AD 461 and that day has been commemorated as St. Patrick's Day ever since.

Gas prices in Benton ranged from $1.579 to $1.639 yesterday, and it doesn't look as though prices will go down anytime soon.

We would like to share some Irish sayings that we have heard over the years...
• That's the tune the old cow died of. (Said of bad music.)
• What would you expect out of a pig but a grunt? (Said of a person using bad language.)
• Tis only a stepmother would blame you. (Said by a mother to her son, about a minor error.)
• She has a tongue that would clip a hedge. (Said of someone spreading gossip.)
• No man ever wore a scarf as warm as his daughter's arm around his neck.
• That woman would talk the teeth out of a saw. (Said of a talkative person.)
• He is always in the field when luck is on the road. (Said of a person with bad luck.)
• It isn't a trick until it is done three times. (Said of beginner's luck.}

It is said that there are only three kinds of Irish men who can't understand women—-young men, old men, and men of middle age.

And St. Patrick's Day needs a limerick. So here is one...
Said the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher,
"The hen's a remarkable creature."
The hen, hearing that,
Laid an egg in his hat;
And thus did the hen reward Beecher.

The area has another web site, http://www.the-patriot-s-voice.com/ . The site founded by Robert Runyon, Nescopeck, and Evy Lysk, Benton, is "dedicated to all those brave Americans who gave their all; that makes it possible for this organization to exist as a freedom right, to express the people's right of redress on issues that are corrupting the very documents that guarantee us these rights."

An Irishman by the name of O'Mally proposed on St. Patrick's Day. He gave his girlfriend a ring that had a synthetic diamond. The excited lass showed it to a jeweler who immediately saw it wasn't real. The lass returned the ring to the crafty Irishman who explained "It was in honor of St. Patrick's Day that I gave you a sham rock."

These basic computer courses for the adults of our area begin in the middle of April at the elementary school. There will be two sessions, each consisting of four classes. The courses are free to residents within the Benton Area School District. All classes will be held on Wednesday afternoons from 3:30 PM until 4:30 PM in the Technology Lab at the Elementary School.

The instructors are Kristina Wood and Cherie Roberts, assisted by students Miles and Edward Cole.

Registration must be made on or before March 31 at the L.R. Appleman Elementary School Office through Kristina Wood or Cherie Roberts, or you can link directly to the elementary school website and scroll down to the yellow area marked Adult Education Classes or print and use this online form.

Don't put it off another minute. This is your chance to keep up with those who use computers all the time. Check this out. It is probably something that you should make the time to do.

Tuesday, March 16, 2004. Happy anniversary today to Ted and Shirley McHenry and to Ken and Lynn Sutton. And in New York City, happy birthday to Lori Andrysick.

We won't laugh at Punxsutawney Phil next year! The storm now sweeping through the area fulfills Phil's promise of six more weeks of winter. We welcome the official start of spring late this week.

Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on this date in 1802. The My Lai massacre was carried out by U.S. troops under the command of Lt. William L. Calley Jr. on this date in 1968. In 1984, William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen and died in captivity. Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut in 1985 and held until December, 1991.

From time to time we publish gasoline prices to reinforce the need to buy our gasoline locally. Lets pick out a couple of representative gasoline prices for regular gas yesterday. Sam's Club, Hershey: $1.639; Sheetz, Shamokin Dam, $1.699; Sunoco on Route 11, Bloomsburg, $1.639; Uni-Mart, Benton: $1.579; DR's Quick Mart, Benton, $1.599.

We suspect that the newspaper The Arizona Republic headline could have phrased it better. The headline read, "Janet Jackson Has Another Single Out."

Monday night, the Benton School Board received an invitation to participate in an Educator Exchange Program with a school in Guatemala. Carol Vance, a former principal of The American School of Guatemala and a current member of the Bucks County Organization for Intercultural Advancement Board, presented the program.

The American School and it's partner, the University of the Valley, is the largest private bilingual educational facility in Guatemala. On a campus of 50 acres, these two institutions educate students from Kindergarten through the Doctorate level. The University was recently named one of three schools in Latin America cited for excellence in education.

Guatemalan educators will visit Northern Columbia County to observe the Benton educational system, our Intermediate Unit and the Pennsylvania State Education Association. They will also participate in school functions, field trips and classroom projects. Everyone involved is thrilled with this opportunity, and look forward to a rewarding liaison with the American School.

Do you like grapes? We haven't personally tried it, but a sweet, colorful red seedless grape called "Sweet Scarlet" has a light, pleasant, muscat flavor. Developed by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the new grape has an attractive, raspberry-red skin. The grape would be harvested in this area in late August.

While others were finishing their breakfast, we sat chatting with Bob and got thinking about various buckwheat cakes and how long the "starter" has been around. Monica Diltz of the Brass Pelican has kept her starter going since the restaurant opened and we always enjoy seeing Monica get a wry smile on her face when someone asks about her cakes. We won't spoil Monica's fun by telling how long the starter has been going, but when you see her ask her in person.

We remembered the story that Dennis Threlkeld told us recently about the sour buckwheat cakes that Zell Seward used to throw on the griddle. Dennis had stopped at Zell's Red Rock country store for buckwheat cakes on a spring Saturday after trout fishing, a favorite fish-related ritual.

Dennis was eating his cakes and Jug Albertson's Pappy came in the restaurant to talk about just about anything. He asked Dennis how he liked the cakes and asked how old Dennis thought the starter was. It turns out that Zell made the original starter in 1928, but actually was older than that. Seems she was given the original starter by her Mom or some other such relative in 1922, but it froze one winter. Fortunately, they had more, so she resurrected the batter with more of the original starter, which was a distant ancestor of what Dennis had on his plate.

Phillip Shultz told of his grandfather, Phillip Giddeon Shultz, a former owner of the Benton Store Company. Phillip and Anna Pennington, both related to local store owners, brought in objects from the original stores, as did Monica Diltz. Gwen Swisher Hall from Swisher's Store on the Beech Glen Highway was introduced. Gwen with her husband and sister run Swisher's Store, now in its 125th year of operation.

Bob Webster then took command of the room, and the 53 years of experience in the public schools became very obvious. Without consulting notes and although severely limited in his visual skills, he was a dynamic and interesting speaker. From the determination of locations for the country store, through the introduction of canning jars and glass bottles, tin cans and paper bags and cardboard boxes, Bob walked the 70 in the capacity crowd through the concept of the country store. He ended with country-store credit, and recited a poem to illustrate the point. It went something like this...

To trust is bust!
To bust is hell!
No trust, no bust, No hell.

Bob Webster, Hughsville.

Bob was the featured speaker March 15 at the North Mountain Histrocial Group. He spoke on the subject of Country Stores.

Of local interest...
• We enjoyed seeing the picture of Austin Kelsey on the Susquehanna University web site and loved the description of Jackson Township that is used on their web site. It reads, If you are looking for a shopping center to go to or enjoy driving in traffic, you won’t find any of that in Jackson Township. Our Township is 'Pure Country.' There are 18.6 square miles of farms, hunting cabins, forests, dirt roads, nice folks, and a lot of wild life. We’ve seen deer, turkeys, coyotes, black bears, and a lot of other wild animals. The population, according to the 2000 census is 598 people. We are located at the top of Columbia County, next to the State Game Lands. Our land is beautiful with its mountain streams and scenic views. If you come for a visit, please leave the land as clean and uncluttered as it was before you got here.
• We got thinking about the "Masonite Land" in Sullivan Country that was eventually sold to the state game commission. We remember reading about William H. Mason and the waste products from lumber mills that he found a solution for. Mason proposed to "explode" the wood into fibers instead of burning the scrap wood, in an effort to find some use for them. He experimented for months and successfully exploded the scrap wood, but didn't have an application for their use. Once, he left a pile of fibers in a press that had a leaky steam valve. The extended pressure and heat formed a firm and durable board. Mason learned to pound, cut, bend, and drill the new substance, finally credited with making something useful out of waste products. The product was named after him. It was called Masonite.
• The Mill Race golf course officially opened Saturday, March 13.
The hours for golf are dependent on the weather, but the pro shop is open 10 to 3. With three to six inches forecast for the local area today, we suggest orange balls.
• PPL Corporation posted record profits of $734 million in 2003. The company has now announced they will seek a pay hike effective January, 2005.

March 15, 2004. Happy birthday to Michelle Turner and to Kay Chapman today. The American Legion was founded in Paris on this date in 1919. All the major newspapers include articles today on the reign falling in Spain.

Today is the ides of March. In the Roman Calendar, ides occurred on the fifteenth of the month in months that had thirty-one days. Brutus and Cassius saw to it that Julius Caesar had a bad day on this date in 44 B.C.

The Press Enterprise has an article about Anne Beck being on the cover of Fly Fisherman Magazine

Here are two good ways to flip through desktop windows...
• ALT + ESC: Press and hold the ALT key on your keyboard, then press the ESC key while you cycle through all Windows on your desktop. When you find the window you want, let go of the ALT key.
• ALT + TAB: This will display all open windows on the desktop. Press and hold the ALT key on your keyboard, then press the TAB key to bring up a list of all windows on the desktop. If you press the TAB key again, the cursor will select the next [icon] window in line. To stop cycling windows, release the ALT key.

From the "It Can Happen to Anyone" Department comes this:
A chimney fire Sunday night burned at the home of the chief of the Windham Community Fire Department near Towanda.

Several people have written asking about the bluegrass, gospel and country group called Raven Creek. They want to know what connection the group has to the area East of Benton known by the same name. The group who will be featured at the Spring Fling at the Fire Station April 25 consists of Joe and Loraine Feola, with Blain Long playing bass and coming along that Sunday to fill in the musical gaps. Others may make a surprise visit.

Joe and Loraine live in the Raven Creek valley and own the Shed at Ivy Farms where the popular Jamin' at the Shed takes place on the third Saturday of each Summer month from 3:30 to 9 PM. Incidentally, the dates this Summer are June 19, July 17 and August 21. These are benefit jams, and no admission is charged. Donations are accepted with gratitude and go to feed hungry children.

The group specializes in bluegrass, and love to play gospel songs and old-time country. In fact, they are considering cutting a gospel CD in the near future. Joe and Loraine have played together for twenty years, Loraine on rhythm guitar and vocals. Joe covers the guitar and the banjo and has been known to pick up the fiddle on occasion.

According to a study called the "Sperling Best Places study," the Scranton-Wilkes Barre-Hazleton area is the 6th safest place to live in the U.S., based on the number of major crimes in relation to population size. The safest? The Nassau-Suffolk county area. The least safe? Tucson, Arizona.

Quote of the Day:
"In the state where government of the people, by the people and for the people was born, the back door to the Capitol is wide open."
—Center for Public Integrity

Are you voting for the first time in Pennsylvania? First-time voters in the spring primary and voters using a new precinct will need an identification card, as part of Pennsylvania's amended election laws aimed at improving election procedures.

The Scott Kriebel farm above Benton seems heading for auction within the next 30 days, according to signs posted in front.

We have a few questions this morning...
* What did cured ham actually have?
* If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
* Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up every two hours?
* Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON television?
* Did you know that in 1850 the first all-white Dalmatian dog was spotted?
* Why do people say they are sicker than a dog? Buster hasn't been sick a day in his life.
* Which ones are the kibbles and which ones are the bits?

Writer Richard Halliburton was a world traveler. As a kid, I loved reading his book The Complete Book of Marvels. Halliburton crossed the Panama Canal by swimming it in 1928, paying 36 cents. Halliburton died in 1939 trying to sail the Chinese junk, the Sea Dragon, from Hong Kong to San Francisco. The vessel went down in a storm soon after Halliburton sent out his last signal: "Southerly gales, squalls, lee rail under water, wet bunks, hard tack, bully beef, wish you were here--instead of me!"

Richard Halliburton wrote about the Seven Wonders of the World. The Great Pyramid of Giza, built near the ancient city of Memphis for Pharaoh Khufu, still survives as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The other six were...
• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which were built on the banks of the Euphrates river by King Nebuchadnezzar II.
• The gold statue of Zeus built by the sculptor Pheidias at Olympia.
• The temple of Artemis erected in the Asia Minor city of Ephesus in honor of the Greek goddess of hunting and wild nature.
• The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, a huge tomb constructed for King Maussollos, Persian satrap of Caria.
• The Colossus of Rhodes, a massive statue erected by the Greeks in honor of Helios the sun-god.
• The Lighthouse of Alexandria, built by the Ptolemies on the island of Pharos.

Saturday's Press Enterprise includes an article abut Greenwood Township's 6 million junk tires on Max and Martha Starr's 14-acre tire pile and the $400,000 fine levied on the Stars for the states largest collection of used tires.

The Sullivan County Department of Emergency Services will assign city-style street addresses, like 14 Deerlick Trail or 300 Route 23341, to all houses that currently lack such addresses, according to a Saturday article in the Daily and Sunday Review.

The math teacher noticed that little Larry wasn't paying attention in math class. She called on him and said, "Larry! What are 22, 28, 6 and 44?" Little Johnny quickly replied, "CBS, NBC, QVC and Sesame Street!"

Most of what we write in the Benton News is personal opinion based on what is of interest to us. We make every possible effort to be historically accurate and try not to include anything that is outdated or too politically slanted. Many agree with what we say and many don't agree. We hope that what we write about gives you some insight and some food for thought. We are not trained professional writers and we won't give up our day job to make sure that every "I" is dotted and every "t" is crossed. We continue to ask for your recommendations on topics that would be of interest to you, and we'll make every effort to include them. We would love to have guest writers help out, since we are rapidly approaching the time of the year when we want to get on the open road.

Quote of the Day:
Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy!
--Said by men Edwin Drake tried to attract to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

Benjamin Holt and Daniel Best both experimented with various forms of steam tractors for farming use and were pioneers with track-type tractors and gasoline-powered tractor engines. The need to develop new farming technology using bigger and bigger equipment led Benjamin Holt to try to find a way to keep the large equipment from getting stuck. He first laid down a series of planks about 1904 so the huge steam machinery could roll right over the soft ground. Someone said that it "looked like a caterpillar" and the name stuck and the name of Caterpillar Tractor evolved. Holt's first gas track-type tractor came along in 1906.

General Pershing needed a vehicle that could go over all kinds of terrain, and a secret tread-rolling machine was developed for warfare. Military personnel said of the project that the vehicles were "water tanks for Mesopotamia." The name "tank" stuck and Holt "Caterpillar" track-type tractors were used by the Allies in World War I. In 1925, the Holt Manufacturing Company and the C. L. Best Tractor Company merged to form Caterpillar Tractor Co. Today, more than 300 products are now offered.

The Queen Mum, Joselle Confair, who isn't mum about anything, reminds members of the Red Hat Society that the March meeting of the Fishing Creek Femme Fatales will be held March 17 at the Old Filling Station. Menu is corned beef and cabbage with a beverage and dessert for $8.00, including tax and tip! Members and guests should bring a small green gift in a bag to play "I want it." Time is 2PM. Proper attire of a purple outfit and Red Hat are required! Guests are welcome. You can order off menu if you don't like corned beef and cabbage.

From the Change of Direction Department: beginning Monday, March 15, Radio station WSM will begin charging $6.50 per month, or $65 for a year, for high-band internet streaming. Low band stream will continue to be offered at no charge. The impact of this is that this is the last weekend you can listen to free high-speed audio of the Friday night Opry and the Grand Ole Opry.

The Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program recently got $750 million in funding by Congress to help fire departments provide improved operations, increased safety programs and expanded fire prevention initiatives. Grant applications can be obtained on the Internet through the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Domestic Preparedness at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/odp and though the U.S. Fire Administration's Federal Emergency Management Agency at www.usfa.fema.gov. The 2004 program will require all grantees to obtain a special identification code known as a DUNS number, which will be used in an electronic database to help better identify those organizations slated to receive funding. The DUNS or "Data Universal Numbering System," is a unique nine-digit numbering system that is used to identify a business. Businesses can get a free DUNS number by calling 1-800-333-0505 .

Hotel Sterling, Wilkes-Barre, will light up Sunday, March 14, at 5:30 PM when electricity is restored to the landmark hotel. The Sterling to many represents the best of old Wilkes-Barre.

If at first you don't succeed, you're running about average.
M. H. Alderson

The important thing to recognize is that it takes a team, and the team ought to get credit for the wins and the losses. Successes have many fathers, failures have none.
Philip Caldwell

March 12, 2004

Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.
Erma Bombeck

There is more to life than increasing its speed.
Mohandas Gandhi

It is time for a couple of computer tips...
. It is also time for spring housecleaning for your computer. As your computer runs, fans draw air through your machine. You need to clean out the dust buildup just like you do behind and under your refrigerator and you need to do it about every other month. Shut off the computer, unplug the power, take the sides off the computer tower. Do it when no one will see the inside of the computer because if you didn't do it two months ago it is probably cruddy, looking a lot like dryer lint, especially if you have a pet. You need to do it before the summer heat causes an excessive heat buildup in the computer.
. If you use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express you should read this. If you don't use these programs, skip this paragraph. Both programs have a certain size past which the file cannot exceed. Those who receive a lot of emails, soon find that their files are filling up and need cleaning out. Here is a nifty way of culling out what you don't really want to retain. Following that, we recommend that you file them away outside of Outlook or Outlook Express.
. First, create a folder on your desktop by right clicking your mouse; give it a name that you will remember, and put it on the right bottom side of the desktop.
. Open Outlook or Outlook Express, then open the folder or the individual emails that you want to archive.
. Go to edit, click on select all (CTRL+ A), then drag that page over to the new folder you just created, then drag all the highlighted messages to this folder and release. If you drag hundreds of emails at a time, it will take a little time, but is worth it.
. All the items you decided to archive are now in this folder
and you can delete the ones in your outlook file.
. Drag the new folder to My Documents and out of sight and out of mind.
. Name the file by Month, or Subject, or Date Created, etc.

The Governor's Center for Local Government Services has a most interesting web site, http://ctcoas01.state.pa.us/dced/MSS.mainmenu.show. On this web site, is a...
** Zip Code to Municipality Converter: Converts a zip code number or a zip code name to a municipality.
** Tax Rates 2003: County, municipal and school district tax rates, including Earned Income and Occupational Privilege Taxes and tax collectors.
** Tax Rates 1997-2002: County, municipal and school district tax rates, including Earned Income and Occupational Privilege Taxes and tax collectors.
** Local Government Officials by PennDOT Districts:
** County/Municipal/School District Information
** General information relating to Counties and Municipalities within the Commonwealth. Includes Demographic, Contact Person, Planning/Zoning/Building Code, Police Service information and Municipality/School District relationship(s).
** Financial Statistics, 1998 through 2001
** Financial Statistics, 1998 through 1999.
** Financial Statistics, 1986 through 1997.
** Municipal Authority General Information Report.
** Municipal Authority Financial Information, 1993 through 1999. Financial data including operating revenues, non-operating revenues, operating expenditures, non-operating expenditures and debt.

Quote of the Day:
"You know how kids are."
--Gerald D. Parks Sr., 64, Coles Creek Mill Road, Jackson Township. A local jury yesterday convicted Parks of eight sex crimes, that carry a minimum mandatory penalty of five years in prison. Read the article in today's Press Enterprise.

Quickies...
. Attention collectors of the Methodist Church shelf sitters and especially those who are concentrating on completing a collection of local churches: the Benton Presbyterian Church collectible is available through the Church Service Circle at 925-2502.

. We heard about an Amish divorce. Seems that he was driving her buggy.

. Army Spc. Edward W. Brabazon, 20, Bensalem, died this week in Iraq, a victim of a non-hostile gunshot wound.

. Friends in Washington believe that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will get the Veep nod from John Kerry.

. The Philadelphia Flower Show's 175th birthday anniversary runs through March 14.

. Penn State has increased its football ticket prices $2, bringing the season ticket costs to $252, or $42 per game, and single-game tickets to $46.

If you are having relatives visit, you might have them check
http://www.visitpa.com/visitpa/detailItinerary.do?area=History&id=5
before them come. The link is for a retreat to northeastern Pennsylvania.

They're back! If you are 17 or younger, you don't know the sound of humming, buzzing insects heard on summer nights. The cause can be traced to cicadas, the small, stout-bodied, large-headed insects with sucking mouth parts. Cicadas are green with red and black markings. They are an inch or more in length and have 2 pair of wings. Cicadas also have a 3-jointed beak, an abdomen of six segments, prominent compound eyes, and three eyes. They will be back in June. Then, if nature repeats itself, they will rest for 17 more years.

Didja know that in 1762 the fourth Earl of Sandwich, a gambler by the name of John Montagu, would get so involved in card games that he would not take breaks to eat? He prepared for the card games by bringing slices of bread and meat and played while he ate. His invention now bears his name.

Andrew Carnegie dipped deep into his pockets on this day in 1901 and gave New York City slightly more than 5 million dollars to construct sixty-five libraries and later donated money to create more than 2,500 libraries all over the United States and Britain. Carnegie gave away over 350 million dollars by the time of his death. We wish that Mr. Carnegie could help out now to raise money for the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, but we know that we have to do this one on our own with the help from some very generous people.

The community center will host a food sampling and foot stompin' afternoon starting at 4 PM on Sunday, April 25 at the Benton Volunteer Fire Station. Area restaurants and caterers are donating samples of appetizers, main courses, and desserts. The group Raven Creek, headed by Joe and Loraine Feola, will provide the background music. At 6 PM, the auction begins of items donated through the generosity of a lot of fine businesses and people dedicated to the cause of insuring the success of the Community and Cultural Center for the northern part of Columbia County and serving the southern part of Sullivan County and the western part of Luzerne County. The admission price is $10.

Remember that the Center is a non-profit organization and your contributions and your purchases are so very important. If you have a major contribution that you would like to donate or a suggestion for the success of the event, please call 925-6972 or 925-6974.

Quote of the Day:
"The man who enters a library is in the best society this world affords; the good and the great welcome him, surround him, and humbly ask to be allowed to become his servants."
--industrialist Andrew Carnegie.

March 11, 2004. Happy birthday today to Jackie Malhoyt, Major Andrew Vincent, Judy Search and Nancy Fox. We know the ages of all of these fine people, but we will be gentle and not divulge the information.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the opening of the Old Filling Station in their new Main Street location and they are celebrating Friday, Saturday and Sunday with specials and drawings for gifts, gas, desserts, a prime-rib dinner and lottery tickets.

The man who started his career with the "The Hotsy Totsy Boys" was born on this date in 1903. His name was Lawrence Welk.

The most famous snowstorm in American history, known as the Blizzard of 1888, occurred on this date creating weather never again matched. The East Coast including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington were paralyzed, two hundred ships were grounded, at least one hundred seamen died. Property loss from fire alone was estimated at $25 million and more than 400 deaths were reported. The days before the blizzard were unseasonably mild, with temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Torrential rains began falling, and on March 12 the rain changed to heavy snow, temperatures plunged, and the wind began. The storm continued unabated for 36 hours. The National Weather service estimated that fifty inches of snow fell in Connecticut and Massachusetts with forty inches in New York and New Jersey. Winds blew up to 48 miles an hour and created snowdrifts forty to fifty feet high. The transportation crisis created by this blizzard led to the creation of the New York subway, approved in 1894 and begun in 1900, but that is a story for another day.

Lots of people love Knoebels Grove in any season, and one of those people is Mike Reilley who has an interesting web site that looks at Knoebels Grove in the Winter. Take a look and turn the speakers up.

The Bloomsburg antique show is March 13 and 14 in the Industrial Arts building at the fair grounds from 10 AM until 5 PM on Saturday and 11 AM until 5 PM on Sunday. Seventy-five exhibitors have signed up.

After reading yesterday's email, we do wish that people would be more specific! What kind of kite? What lake?

Quote of the Day:
"Looked like he just woke up."
--Benton senior Jonathan Yankovich, talking about Ralph Nader, as quoted in the Press Enterprise. Read more about this remarkable guy in today's paper.

A reader recently discussed the beginning of the Unityville Fire Company, writing that in the early years of the company, a local garage owner made sure his repair bays were empty at night so the company could store its equipment in his building. He also kept them inside during the day in the coldest part of the winter, somewhat limiting his business.

"The Unityville Fire Co. owes its beginnings to Clarence Glidewell's generosity," the reader continued. The reader remembers as a child going to a turkey raffle in Clarence's garage. The reader's parents never told the little boy the whole story about whatever happened to the large, white, live turkey who had to share the back seat of the car going home, saying that "Our family was never able to grant amnesty like the president is able to."

Term of the Day: Neck of the Woods.
Our early settlers wanted little to do with Old World town names like the "-cester" names, the English "-borough" names, the Germanic "-burg" names, and the French words like "mont." They steered away from words like "moor," "heath," and "dell." Colonists used words like "branch," "fork," "hollow," "gap," "flat" and "-vill." The settlers used terms like "Neck of the Woods," which originally applied to a narrow strip (or neck) of land surrounded by water. Later the term applied to a narrow piece of woods and later still to a settlement located in a particular part of the woods.

Jessie Fine Whitenight took time off from the wonderful winter weather of Florida in response to our request for more information on the Carter Bache farms. Jesse lived in Nanticoke before the family moved to Benton "so my Grandfather John Norton could be an overseer on the Bache farms."

We had such an overwhelming response to our request for information on the subject that we will offer this as an introduction and when we get time we'll get more into detail.

Jesse wrote that Carter Bache owned two general stores--one in Nanticoke and one in Alden. In Nanticoke, Jesse remembers that a "lady would come to our house and Grandma Norton would give her a list of items they would deliver later in the week so my Grandma could stock the shelves of her pantry." One of the "Bache boys would deliver the chops, potatoes and olives. A lot of the store items came from the farms around lower Raven Creek and Honeytown areas.

When Jesse moved to Benton she remembers her Grandfather working from early morning until late supper time, except for Sunday. She remembers the story her grandfather told her about Carter Bache's second wife occasionally driving around the farms in a new car wearing a new suit the color of the car, quite a sight in those depression years. Jesse remembers that she had a goal as a kid to someday be able to drive a new car with a suit to match.

Many families who worked for Carter Bache saved enough to buy their own small farms.

Pat Wary writes that "If you drive by our neck of the woods," which is just off Raven Creek on Hollow Road in Stillwater, "you'll find some houses with two front doors, one to the kitchen, and one to the parlor." Pat tells us that these houses were Carter Bache foremen's homes. Pat and Scott's house had only one door, to the kitchen, when they bought it. When they added on a large living room and expanded the front part of the house, Scott knocked out walls and came upon the parlor doorway, including the original door, which had been plastered over.

The Wary family live on one of the Carter Bache foreman's homes, the one who ran the chicken farm, and they have found three foundations of buildings to house the chickens.

We'll continue with the Carter Bache farms on another day.

The Red Rock Corner Store is at the foot of Red Rock mountain, nine miles North of Benton, at the intersection of routes 487 and 118. Freas Seward operated the store as a general store and later sold the store to Zell and Bill Seward. Zell opened a restaurant in the store, and maintained a service station with gas pumps. The garage did minor garage work.

Russ Seward remembers that the garage survived until a truck came roaring down Red Rock mountain and ripped through part of the garage.

The restaurant had two large round oak tables, and there were some tables spread out in the store, so that about 20 could be served at any one time. The specialty of Zell Seward's restaurant was buckwheat cakes, unlike any we know of being sold today. They were sour! Customers would drive for miles to eat the cakes, while others felt they were too sour.

Today the corner store is operated by "Maddy" Bonham, and is a favorite stopping place to buy hoagies. The meat is fresh and carved, and their sandwiches are hugely popular. This is a favorite of the Ricketts Glen crowd.

Rep. David R. Millard came Back Home to Benton, PA, last night to get current on the status of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center. He listened as representatives of the Columbia County Redevelopment Authority and the Board of Directors of the Community Center outlined the plans and progress of the organization, and he asked a number of questions about the status of ongoing funding efforts at Harrisburg and in other locations. Rep. Millard pledged his support to the Center and will report back in the near future on the status of funding authorization. The member of the 109th district seemed impressed with the local community raising approximately $400,000 in support of the project and with plans for a community auction at the Benton Volunteer Fire Station Sunday, April 25. The legislator was told of the plans for area restaurants to participate and that music would be provided by the group, Raven Creek, headed by Joe and Loraine Feola. We will tell you all about this upcoming event tomorrow.

Elsie Buyers, President
Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center

March 10, 2004. Happy birthday today to David Depoe.

Zelda Fitzgerald died in a fire at the Highland Hospital outside Asheville, North Carolina, on this day in 1948, after suffering a mental breakdown that kept her in and out of psychiatric hospitals for 18 years. A fire broke out just after midnight on a night in March. She was locked in a room on the top floor, awaiting electroshock treatment scheduled for the next day, one of nine women who died as the fire swept through the building. Earlier in the evening, she had written to her daughter, Scottie: Today there is promise of spring in the air and an aura of sunshine over the mountains, and that is our quote for today. Read the fascinating story of the love affair of Scott and Zelda at http://www.zeldafitzgerald.com/fitzgeralds/index_ie5.asp# .

Auntie Anne's Inc. is opening the first of 17 Australian stores in Sydney this fall. Privately held Auntie Anne's supports more than 100 international and 700 domestic stores. The company certainly has come a long ways since 1987 when Anne Beiler began twisting pretzels as the manager of a concession stand in a Maryland farmer's market. A year later, she opened a stand in a Downingtown Farmer's Market, selling the original pretzel and lemonade.

Those of us who are German rarely mute our words. German carmaker Volkswagen AG said the first quarter of 2004 would be "lousy" and planned to slash 5,000 jobs.

Carter Bache farms are still something that we know very little about. Can you help? Larry Hayman reminds us that one of his farms was on what is now Honeytown Road near Bendertown. Carter Bache "had a store up the river somewhere where he sold stuff from the farm--meat, eggs, lard, turkeys, chickens, etc. He had several farms, one was a dairy, one was a turkey farm, one was chicken farm. Another farm was at the bottom of what we knew as dairy hill, another was where Mark Wolfe lives out toward Bendertown.

It is always nice to have the ability to laugh at ourselves when we make a mistake. Evy Lysk tells us about when she was a courier for a small business in New York. She recalls that she "was given a car and a beeper, and I noticed my boss was always leaving his junk on the front seat. This one day I was out delivering packages and sometimes I picked them up on stops along the way. I was out all day and wondered why my boss hadn't beeped me, he always did before. When I got back to the office, my boss said, 'I have been trying to beep you all day.' I said, 'I had the beeper with me, maybe the battery is dead.' I handed him the beeper and he laughed and said, 'This isn't the beeper, its my shaver.' Funny how that shaver looked a lot like that beeper. What an embarrassing moment I had that day."

George W. Bush who has been on Republican ballots in all the primary states now has enough votes to guarantee his nomination for re-election. U. S. Senator John Kerry, who won in Florida, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi yesterday, is still short of the required number of delegates to claim the nomination, but is rapidly gaining on it.

We were leafing through some very old handwritten notes and came across a couple of what appear to be tidbits of superstition. We are unable to determine the year. Here are some samples...

Monday's child is fair of face;
Tuesday's child is full of grace;
Wednesday's child is full of woe;
Thursday's child has far to go;
Friday's child is loving and giving;
Saturday's child works hard for a living.
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
is fair and wise, good and gay.

Pick a dandelion that has gone to seed. Take a deep breath and blow the seeds into the wind. Count the seeds that remain on the stem. That is the number of children you will have.

To cure a sty,
stand at a crossroads and recite
Sty, sty, leave my eye
Take the next one coming by.

The day you find the first flower of the season can be used as an omen: Monday means good fortune, Tuesday means greatest attempts will be successful, Wednesday means marriage, Thursday means warning of small profits, Friday means wealth, Saturday means misfortune, Sunday means excellent luck for weeks.

Knife falls, gentleman calls;
Fork falls, lady calls;
Spoon falls, baby calls.

Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home.
Your house is on fire,
Your children all roam.

Snowbirds Marisa and Ted Whitenight are back in Benton after two months in Myrtle Beach, and this year they came back with the same car that we left with! (Last year their car was stolen). They are happy to be home with their family.

When you have a little extra time, take a look at the history of general stores in our area.

Do you know where...
. the first capital of the U.S. was located?
. the first written protest against slavery in the New World was recorded?
. Daniel Boone was born?
. the first medical school in America was started?
. the nation's Centennial celebration was held?
. our oil industry had its beginnings?
. classical music was first heard in the colonies?
. Federal troops assembled for the first test of our government's ability to enforce law?
. the oldest "White House" still standing in the U. S. is located?
. the turning point of the Civil War occurred?
. the first American pretzel was twisted and baked?
--answers at end of email

The major newspapers report on a study showing that lowering cholesterol levels far below what most doctors recommend can substantially reduce the risk of a heart attack.

We tried to find out yesterday what the Town Council was doing about the proposal that was submitted for the renovation and rejuvenation of the Town Hall. We tried to find out from the President of the Town Council, but her phone is "no longer in service or has been disconnected."

Readers tell us that historically it is too early in the year to complain about rising gas prices. The average retail price of gasoline has now reached $1.74 per gallon. We repeat, $1.74 a gallon. There are still piles of snow; the price of gas should not be a topic of discussion at the coffee table for months yet! The reason for the high price for fuel ranges from the greed of the oil-producing cartel to environmental policies in effect since January 1 relating to producing fuel with less sulfur. There seems nothing that we can do, and little that even the President can do. The American people held Jimmy Carter accountable for the energy crisis of the late 1970s. Ronald Reagan defeated him in 1980.

Taking inflation into consideration, the prices we pay at the pumps today are still below what we paid in the 1970s. At the national level. fewer manufacturing facilities exist today and many power plants are more diversified today than during the Carter administration, resulting in a less severe oil impact than 30 years ago. Still our economic recovery is not producing jobs fast enough to offset the rising resentment of the cost of driving over the hill to Grandmother's house in our Fire Belch 500s. We noticed it in the restaurant Sunday morning as we loaded our stomach with buckwheat cakes and sausage, we notice it at the shopping centers, we notice it on the interstate, we notice it everywhere. Oh, and did we mention that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has pledged to cut supply on April 1? Brace yourselves! The higher prices of summer are around the corner! We'll mosey around today and this afternoon we'll post representative prices from area gas stations on this web site. We expect that we'll find prices about 10 cents below the national average.

We don't make any bones about it, we like shoofly pie, and for those readers who haven't a clue what a shoofly pie is we will simply say that it is a pie with a filling of molasses and brown sugar, so called because early bakers supposedly had to shoo away the flies attracted to the sweet filling.

We once asked a good friend, a Mennonite, how to make shoofly pie. She told us about the brown sugar and the cold butter and the unsulphered molasses and the vegetable shortening, and things seemed to make sense to us, but when she told us to "throw the flour to it" instead of telling us how many cups to use, we panicked. Her directions were not so much a reflection on the fact that shoofly pie is not as popular in the Amish and Mennonite communities as it is with tourists as the fact that she simply dipped her hand into the flour bin and pulled out a handful of flour. Her mother's influence and years of baking had taught her the "hand" method rather than the "measuring cup" method.

We used to love to take a couple of shoofly pies back to the office following our visits Back Home to Benton, PA, during our working days. We would ladle out small pieces of the sweet, gooey pies following our 8 AM staff meeting and serve the pie with the thick Navy coffee that made us all quiver a little after drinking the third cup.

The pies we bought were not home made, they were just commercial pies manufactured since 1937 by the Wixon Bakery in Shillington and available even today at the Riverside Market. Although we have never actually visited the bakery, we understand that modern blenders mix the ingredients and a gizzie flattens the dough, but the rest of the process of trimming and baking is pretty much labor intensive. The bakery prepares them in two sizes and in individual slices for vending machines. We called the bakery to see if they have a web site, and they don't and have no plans to create one. We were invited to "drive over" and see the baking process anytime between "6 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon." We just might do that one of these days. We'll even bring back a freshly baked pie.

That story reminds us of the story about the punishment dished out by the Amish father who found out that two of his sons sneaked into a bar for a drink. The father disciplined his sons by taking the horse home. The boys had to bring the buggy.

With the 2004 General Primary fast approaching, Rep. George Hasay reminds residents that March 29 is the last day to register to vote. Pennsylvanians will vote on several important offices this year, including those of President, and some U.S. House and Senate seats. State offices up for a vote include Auditor General, Attorney General, Treasurer, and State Representative. Half of the State Senate seats are also up for election. Pennsylvania voters will be asked to respond to a ballot question dealing with the authorization of the state to borrow $250 million to improve the state's sewage and water infrastructure.

The U.S. Census Bureau's Dynamic Population Clocks is at http://www.census.gov/main/www/popcld.html . Every time you go to the site, you'll get the latest updates on the U.S. and world populations. Click the "clocks" to get information behind the numbers.

A man took his wife to the doctor for her annual physical. After she was done, the doctor consulted the husband. The husband mentioned that he thought his wife was losing her hearing. The doctor gave him suggestions to test this condition. He said "When you go home, go in the farthest room in the house and ask her a question. If she answers, her hearing is OK" They went home. The husband went in the living room and asked, "Hey, what'for dinner?" No answer. He went into the bedroom and asked, "Hey, what'for dinner?" Still no answer. Next he went into the family room and asked, "What'for dinner?" Still no answer. Finally he went into the dining room and asked, "What'for dinner?" His wife answered him, "I told you four times... Chicken."

We liked the John Deere sign we saw which read, "The only machine we don't stand behind is our manure spreader."

The answer to the pop quiz is PENNSYLVANIA, specifically, York, Germantown, Baumstown, Philadelphia, Fairmount Park, Titusville, Bethlehem, Carlisle, Germantown, Gettysburg, Litiz.

The congregation of the Benton Presbyterian Church is at it again. They have declared that April 18 will be Scottish Heritage Day and are planning great things like a Highland Continental Breakfast with scones and clotted cream, followed by a Celtic Worship Service led by Alan O. Lumpkin with music and readings and the rich sounds of Scottish bagpipe music, A fellowship hour and refreshments will follow. As the schedule gets firmed up, we'll keep you posted.

Hello, tulips, in the sun
You are lovely, every one.
But I wonder why don't you
Wear a sad expression, too?
Can it be you fail to see
Things aren't what they used to be?
This old world is all upset,
Why don't you begin to fret?
--Edgar A. Guest

From the newspapers...
• Columbia Works Inc. is now up and running in the 16,000-square-foot building off Colley Street that formerly housed Metcalf Steel. The machine shop provides welding and mechanical repairs, according to articles in today's Press Enterprise.
• Drivers coming east on I-80 toward the Buckhorn exit will be able to see the Wal-Mart Supercenter from two miles out according to a Press Enterprise article March 8, Construction of Wal-Mart and Lowe's is expected to begin this month. The stores should open this fall.
• Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.,went public in 1999 and the value of the company on the New York Stock Exchange, climbed to a worth of $2 billion that year. Now, with Martha's conviction on four counts, the company was worth $539 million based on Friday's closing stock price and has taken on an Enron Corp. smell according to a Washington Post article.

Quote of the Day:
An orange grown in Florida usually has a thin and tightly fitting skin, and it is also heavy with juice. Californians say that if you want to eat a Florida orange you have to get into a bathtub first. California oranges are light in weight and have thick skins that break easily and come off in hunks. The flesh inside is marvelously sweet, and the segments almost separate themselves. In Florida, it is said that you can run over a California orange with a ten-ton truck and not even wet the pavement.
--John McPhee, born on this date in 1931

It all depends on your perspective. If something is "obsolete," it is old and you are wanting to sell it. If something is a "collector's item," it is something that you are trying to buy. If something is a "pep talk," someone is trying very hard to get you to buy. It is "harangue" when it is your arm that is being twisted.

Don't like the weather outside? Here are some things that you can do today. Smile...set out a mouse trap in the attic...take down the Christmas wreath from the front door...pick up that loose paper that you keep hoping will blow over onto nurse Nancy's lawn...stop complaining about all the mud that gets tracked into the house...prune those tree limbs that are edging up toward the power lines...keep your kids away from the game of "zip code." It is like post office, only faster...read a good book...get into your Firebelch 500 and drive to one of the three real country stores we mention in the next couple of paragraphs.

The Stillwater Cardinals Baseball Players

From the left, John Unbewust, Donald Rabb and Jack W. McHenry

The year is either 1947 or 1948.

"The road to a friend's house is never long."
-Danish proverb

March 7, 2004

"Live free or die."
-New Hampshire State Motto

Although Richard and Wendy do not qualify because of age, many of us have seen Willard Scott wish older Americans a happy birthday, with his birthday wishes sponsored by the folks at Smuckers. Didja know that the original family name was "Schmucker," but was shortened to Smoker? Gideon Smoker, a Swiss immigrant, strongly opposed smoking, and so the name was changed--this time to Smucker. Gideon's son, Jerome Smucker, opened a cider mill in 1879 near Orrvile, Ohio, selling his cider for a penny a gallon. Smucker made and sold other products made from apples, including apple butter. Smucker peddled the apple butter door to door and sales of the apple butter grew steadily. In 1915, he sold more than $59,000 worth of it and he decided to invest in better machinery for making and canning the apple butter. By 1923, apple butter sales were so good that Smucker expanded his product line and sold other types of preserves. Smucker's jams and jellies began selling nationally in 1942. The company still isn't sitting still! The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM) and International Multifoods Corp. (NYSE: IMC) recently announced that their boards of directors have approved an agreement, under which Smucker will acquire Multifoods in a transaction valued at approximately $840 million.

Poem of the Day:
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
--"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost (1874-1963), published in 1923 on this day.

Some people don't have enough to do. California Gov. and former Mr. Universe Arnold Schwarzenegger has accepted a new role of executive editor of Muscle & Fitness and Flex magazines.

The Internet Service Provider Digital Freedom announced that any emails showing up from the following addresses are actually viruses and are not from Digital Freedom. The web site of Digital Freedom recommends a solution. The bad email addresses are: management@dfnow.com, administration @dfnow.com, staff @dfnow.com, noreply@dfnow.com and support@dfnow.com.

Quickies...
• Eight buildings at the Reading Outlet Center are scheduled to be auctioned to satisfy back school taxes and mortgage payments.
• The Press Enterprise for Sunday reports that Dr. Wayne Miller, Coal Township, and George "Ollie" Wagner, Riverside, an attorney, are challenging Senator John Gordner for the Republican nomination in the April primary. The winner will battle the Democratic nominee in November for a four-year term.
• The Fairmount Township Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Co., suggests that you come hungry. From 8 until 1 today is their breakfast. Adults are $5 and children $2.50. On Route 118, slow down east of Ricketts Glen.
• Several from the Benton Christian Church are attending the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church this morning to hear Dr. Kennedy.

Quotes of the Day, from Groucho Marx:
—From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.
—Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well, I have others.
—Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
—I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.
—I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

Pennsylvania has a historical marker program that came into existence in 1946. The familiar blue and gold markers highlight people, places, and events significant in state and national history. There are more than 1,900 markers recognizing Pennsylvania's history.

Nominations for historical markers may be submitted by any person or organization. The deadline for the receipt of nominations is usually in December or January. Nominations are reviewed by a panel of independent experts from across the state.

So isn't it about time that Dr. Frank C. Laubach had an historical marker erected in his honor Back Home in Benton, PA?

The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, was attacked on this date in 1836, with Mexican general Santa Anna leading the charge. Dr. Andrew Pollock, superintendent of the Benton Area School District, has been a Benton resident about two years.

Alvin L. Kile, 86, (Sept. 30, 1917-Feb. 24, 2004), Anchorage, Alaska, died last month in Alaska. Mr. Kile was born in Sugarloaf Township, the son of the late Clarence E. and Nora L. (Fritz) Kile. He graduated from Benton High School in 1935, entered the Army in 1944 and with his late brother-in-law, Mack Thomas, built and operated the original Wenner-Burton garage in Benton. Mr. Kile moved to Alaska in 1956, and worked at Elmendorf Air Force Base for seven years, and later invested in trailer courts and mined as a hobby. Mr. Kile is survived by his wife Elizabeth Brandt Hundley Kile; four children: Randy Hundley, Eric Kile, Mrs. Jeff (Laura) Thimsen, Mrs. Dave (Lesa) Hultquist; a niece, Dorothy Hess, Hill Street, Benton; a nephew, Larry L. Laubach, Millville; eight grandchildren; four great-grandsons. He had one sister, the late Mary A. (Kile) Laubach. A memorial service was held February 28 in Anchorage.
--from a Press Enterprise obituary.

Thomas Glyn Jenkins, 59, (June 17, 1944-March 4, 2004), Benton, died Thursday at home. Mr. Jenkins was a local resident since 2000 and formerly lived in Downingtown. He previously taught elementary science in the Downingtown School District. He attended the Raven Creek Presbyterian Church. Surviving are his parents, and his stepmother, along with three children and two brothers. The funeral services are private and there will be no viewing.
--from a Press Enterprise obituary

What is that attachment? Do You know? Do you really know if the attachment in that email is from whom it seems to be from? Well, let's explain. You can't even tell any more that the extension JPG, as in oscar-pic.jpg. exe has a hidden ".exe" at the end. We have now regressed in our Internet life that we should never again click any attachment in any email. Always save it to your desktop and scan it with a good, updated anti-virus program. Most anti-virus programs allow you to scan a single file. It only takes a second to do and could save you and the rest of us in your address book a lot of problems. The only reason why these worms are spreading all over the Internet is because people will not stop clicking attachments in email.

Why can't today's country superstars sing like those country superstars of years gone by who sang about broken hearts, broken fists and broken bottles?

Pennsylvania will participate on April 24 in the "Great Pennsylvania Cleanup," an statewide effort to remove litter and trash from the state's roadways, parks, river banks and open spaces.

We promised to make comments each weekend on the absurd things that go around on the Internet. Here are the latest that we have seen...

CLAIM: American Express can issue a black card which can be used for the purchase of almost anything.
TRUE. For a $2,500 fee, the Centurion "arrives at your house with a security guard. The card is in a black, velvet-lined box, with a special mini-computer and two black cards in it, one for business, one for pleasure." If you put your card in the mini-computer, it tells you how much you've spent. One user even bought a new Bentley automobile with his black card. This card is not for everyone.

CLAIM: Neiman-Marcus now sells chocolate chip cookies, and McDonald's collects pull tabs for a charitable cause.
TRUE. Both stories are NOW true, and happened because some nitwit spread the story on the Internet when it was NOT true. Both companies thought the idea made sense, and now it is true! .

CLAIM: Paul Harvey wrote a widely-circulated review of the movie, "Passion of the Christ."
FALSE. The movie review was not penned by long-time radio commentator Paul Harvey; it was written by Keith A Fournier, a "constitutional lawyer and a graduate of the John Paul II Institute of the Lateran University, Franciscan University and the University of Pittsburgh."

CLAIM: Boycotting a couple of gasoline brands will bring overall gas prices down.
FALSE. This wishful thinking starts off "I hear we are going to hit close to $3.00 a gallon by the summer. Want gasoline prices to come down?" Ah, shucks, folks! It is almost Spring. Take a walk in the refreshing air, clean your house, head for Florida and watch a game of baseball in the new Phillies stadium with Dayne Hartman, read a book, do what we suggest in the next paragraph, but don't spread emails calling for oil company boycotts. Oil companies can manipulate their prices by controlling how much gasoline they produce and where they sell it, but supply and demand almost controls itself. If one oil company's product isn't being bought, it will simply sell its output to other companies.
--always consult an authority like www.snopes.com before forwarding an email that sounds too good to be true.

Instead of spreading inaccurate email, we suggest that you...
. Spread dark plastic mulch to speed up the warming of the soil.
. Get ready to uncover bulb beds about the middle of the month.
. Plant deciduous trees and shrubs this month.
. Trim out the old canes from rows of berry bushes. The bramble fruits are borne on new wood of last year's growth.
. Prune fruit trees until spring buds swell. Wait for maple and birch trimming until they leaf out.
. Sprinkle wood ashes around berries and fruit trees. The potash sweeten the fruit.
. Uncover mulched perennial and strawberry beds gradually, along with snowdrops and crocuses.
. Put out pansies as soon as the ground is ready. They withstand cold weather.
. Not uncover spring-flowering plants like daffodils and tulips.
. Trim your hydrangea severally to stimulate good blooms.

Wal-Mart, the nation's largest grocery chain, opened its first California supercenter, a 225,000-square-foot store, on March 2 in La Quinta. Wal-Mart has 40 supercenters planned for California over the next three to five years, and now operats nearly 1,500 supercenters in the U.S., which helped raise Wal-Mart's total sales by nearly 12%, to $256 billion last year. The Wal-Mart Supercenter in the Buckhorn area opens in October, 2004.

. Harold Sitler, Hershey, came across the article iunder FEATURES on this web site about Raven Creek, and wrote that Lavinia Campbell was "sort of a foster sister to me. When my family broke up about 1930, Lavinia's parents, Alfred and Zella Dietrich took me into their home. I lived with them until late 1935 when I entered the Hershey Industrial School (now Milton Hershey School)."

When Jules and Dottie and Zane McHenry lived in the "McHenry House" along route 487 just north of Stillwater, Harold lived across the road. He recalled that "as a ten to twelve year old, it was a favorite place to do some fishing and sometimes bathing with my boyhood friend, Jules McHenry. We would also shoot water snakes along the creek. Imagine ten- or twelve-year-old kids allowed to use a .22 in today's 'pc' society." Harold attended the one-room school in Stillwater for a time.

Harold didn't leave Hershey after graduation from the Hershey Industrial School. He stayed and finally retired as the assistant maintenance officer for Hershey Park.

We located Jules McHenry in New Mexico last night, staying with Merton and Geraldine Laubach. Jules just returned from Japan and is making a country-wide pass to see many of his friends. Apache Junction, Arizona, is next, and Mississippi and Florida follow. He will be Back Home in Benton, PA, in April, before returning to Japan. Perhaps Jules and Harold can get together then, since we don't think the two have seen each other since that day in the fall of 1935 when Jules rode along on the long drive to Hershey to drop off Harold at the Hershey Industrial School.

Bill Lenhart remembers Burma Shave signs on route 15 going up the mountain to the Turkey Hill Restaurant south of Blossburg. Bill would go there with his parents for Sunday dinner, an all-day trip up and back, most of the time spent going up the mountain in their 1947 Dodge 6 cylinder flat head with a fluid drive transmission. Bill's dad would call out to the three kids in the back seat to quit dragging their feet! The Burma Shave signs read...

Grandpa knows
it aint too late
he's gone to get
some "widder" bait
--BURMA SHAVE

Towanda was incorporated as a borough 176 years ago today. That Borough faces the prospect of minor flooding this weekend, and we all face the prospect of snow on Sunday night.

On this date in 1953, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died at age 73 after 29 years in power. In 1963, country music performers Patsy Cline, "Cowboy" Copas and "Hawkshaw" Hawkins died in a plane crash near Camden, TN. And in 1946 in a speech at Missouri's Westminster College, Winston Churchill introduced the term "iron curtain" to describe the repression of Soviet-dominated Europe.

A man we have great respect for often says that the world is going to "hell in a hand basket," especially when discussions come up concerning the current state of marriage in San Francisco and elsewhere. What does the term mean? Alliteration of "hell" and "hand basket" probably contributed to the saying, and it is possible that since hand baskets are "light and easily conveyed" perhaps "hand basket" suggests something easily and speedily done.

It doesn't take a lot of brains to figure out that a "hand basket" is a basket carried in the hands. Duh! The expression sounds somewhat like the phrase "to go to heaven in a wheelbarrow," which has been used back to 1629. Something similar came along about in 1714 in Samuel Sewall's diary, when it read 'A committee brought in something about Piscataqua. Govr said he would give his head in a Hand basket as soon as he would pass it.'

Maybe it is possible that the world is going to hell in a hand basket! During one three-hour stretch Wednesday, groups that go around looking for this sort of thing found five new viruses, apparently the result of an unfriendly competition between rival virus writers. With all the variants running around, it's virtually impossible to know what they are dealing with. And since most of the viruses come with a randomized file names and included text, it is impossible to tell consumers how to spot the malicious programs with the naked eye. We just don't open email that looks suspicious. When we, as an example, get an email with an attachment from a single name like "Dennis," with the subject of something like "Hi," that email goes in the trash bin without mercy. Every day we get email asking why we haven't answered someone's question. It is probably because we just didn't know if the email was valid or a virus and we take no chances. In fact, you will notice that personal email from us is starting to take on a Verizon (in lieu of EPIX) flavor.

The hen riding the donkey photo and story from the Press Enterprise will air during the first half-hour of this weekend's U.S. Farm Report to be aired Sunday at 5 AM (ET). Locally, it can be seen on WOLF-TV, channel 56. Check your local, cable or satellite provider for channel in your area.

The Muncy Historical Society presents Ed Wentzler at 2:30 PM Sunday. He will discuss the life skills of the Native American Indian, how things were made and what materials were used. Those who arrive early can take a guided stroll through the museum’s treasures at 40 N. Main Street, Muncy.

What highway do Loretta Lynn, Wynonna Judd, Naomi Judd, Billy Ray Cyrus, Tom T. Hall, Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Dwight Yoakam, and Patty Loveless all have in common? These country music stars all hail from areas along 150 miles of pure Appalachian Americana from Ohio to the Virginia State Line through eastern Kentucky along U.S. 23, called The Country Music Highway. This designation will soon to be expanded 50 miles through Virginia with legislation expected to pass the Virginia General Assembly next week.

Nicotine, one of the greatest threats to human health since it is addictive and toxic and can constrict blood flow, is being rethought in some circles. Outside of cigarettes where it raises heart rate and blood pressure, if tweaked molecularly and carefully administered, nicotine appears to hold promise as a treatment for illnesses from Alzheimer's to depression to schizophrenia. Much of this research is coming from the tobacco industry. The industry is saying that cancer and heart disease are not caused by the nicotine but by the tars and carbon monoxide in cigarettes,

Do you want your kids to develop an interest in gardening? Do they need a show-and-tell project? Try one of these...

• Have the kids soak lima beans in water overnight and have them plant the beans in moist, sandy soil. When the soil is kept damp, sprouts will appear in a few days. The plants will grow supported, or they can be draped like ivy. .

• Line a shallow bowl with pebbles and scatter a handful of lentil seeds over them. Fill the bowl with water. In just a few days, a bowl of greenery will emerge.

March 4, 2004. On this date in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated president, based partly on his pledge of leading the country out of the Great Depression. FDR (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) was the 32nd (1933-1945) President of the United States, elected for four terms, the only U.S. president elected more than twice. FDR was part of the reason the United States Constitution was amended to limit presidents to 2½ terms (10 years). For his program involving the Civilian Conservation Corps, turn to FEATURES.

The Benton Volunteer Fire Station celebrates their first anniversary of the pouring of the first section of the concrete floor in the truck bay. The second pour took place March 6. The Social Hall was the old showroom of the Little Lumber Company.

In 1789 on this date, the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York, then adjourned for lack of a quorum.

In 1861 on this date, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated president. The threat of secession hung over Abraham Lincoln's inauguration. Jefferson Davis had been inaugurated as the President of the Confederacy two weeks earlier. The former Illinois Congressman arrived in Washington by a secret route to avoid danger, and General Winfield Scott's soldiers guarded his every movement. Ignoring advice to the contrary, the President-elect rode with President Buchanan in an open carriage to the Capitol, where he took the oath of office administered by Chief Justice Roger Taney surrounded by a sheathing of scaffolding because the copper and wood "Bulfinch" dome was being replaced with a cast iron dome.

You might watch U.S. Farm Report this weekend on WOLF-TV, Channel 56, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. If all goes well, they will show the Press Enterprise picture of the hen riding the donkey on Brien McGrath's farm near Benton. The WGN farm folks are trying to get permission from the Press Enterprise to use the photo on the show in exchange for credit to the paper and McGrath. There are somewhere around 200 TV stations that carry the show, which is part of Tribune Company's network. The show features Orion Samuelson, WGN agribusiness director, and his associate, Max Armstrong, both well-known and highly-regarded in the agriculture industry. Channel 56 carries the show at 5:00 AM (ET) Sunday, so set your TiVos now.

Many of us are now backing up our computer data on CDs which we create on our computers. Be aware that applying labels to a CD may not be a smart thing to do since it can accelerate the rate of data loss on a CD. Many recommend using a marker specifically designed for writing on CDs and write only on the inner hub to be extra safe. Use only high quality media, and keep the CDs out of strong light. Store vertically in a case in a cool, dry, dark location. Avoid flexing the CD or getting fingerprint on the reflective surface. Make a second copy with a different brand of CD for extra security.

The Press Enterprise wove a story in today's edition involving charges against two men over an incident back in November in which Amanda Kingston, 17, North Street, was run over by a car as she chased her boyfriend Timothy Newhart during an argument.

"There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn't matter who gets the credit."
--Emerson

March 3, 2004

A friend is someone with whom another person can be sincere, a person with whom you can think aloud.

And if you are looking for a friend without a fault, you are never going to have many friends.

Quote of the Day:
Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Follow it up, explore all around it, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the results of thought.
--Alexander Graham Bell.

Father Joe Hess, long associated with St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church, gently wrote that while we often write of Mother's saying that something was in a "mell of a Hess," he respectfully recommends that we change it to "If you're ever in a mess, call on Hess."

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is going to study the feasibility of collecting tolls on Interstate 80. PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler told lawmakers Monday the study is in the form of a cost-benefit analysis being done in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

A state representative is reportedly initiating legislation leading to a law requiring police officers to notify local newspapers of the arrest of persons for possession or distribution of illegal drugs, hoping that it will cut down on the "recreational" use of drugs through public embarrassment.

Today's Press Enterprise includes two articles about Monday night's town council meeting, you can have doughnuts with your morning coffee and get the "hole" story in the Times Leader about the family owned Krispy Kreme doughnut, you can trace three generations of the Adcroft family as WVIA's "State of Pennsylvania" takes a closer look at the story of Krispy Kreme tonight at 8 on channel 44, USAToday includes an article about the soaring gas prices and mentions that regular gas near San Francisco hit $2.85 a gallon, the Washington Post headlines "Kerry wins nine of 10 states in "Super Tuesday" voting and "Kerry Locks Up Nomination," an article entitled "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow" is one we can relate to in today's Christian Science Monitor, and finally the Pittsburgh Tribune writes that "US Airways and its unions must settle on a way to turn a profit by July or its board will start selling assets or find a merger partner."

A farmer that some might describe as a "small" farmer was accused by the Wage and Hour Department of not paying his help the right amount. He was required to provide a list of employees and what he paid them. The farmer slowly took the tattered piece of straw out of his mouth and pushed the straw hat back on his head a bit and explained that the hired man had been working three years and he was paid $600 a week including room and board. The agent wanted to know who else worked on the farm. The farmer explained that he had a cook who had been around about 32 years and was worth he figured about $500 a week including room and board. The agent wanted to know if there was anybody else.

"Yep," the farmer said, "yep there is. There's the half-wit, works 'bout 18 hours a day, gets about $10 a week and gets chewin' tobacco.

"A ha!" the agent snarled. "I want to talk to that half-wit!"

"You're talkin' to him," said the farmer.

A dress that zips up the back will bring a husband and wife together.

March 2, 2004

The concept of two people living together for 25 years without a serious dispute suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep.
--A. P. Herbert

Elevate those guns a little lower.
--Andrew Jackson

Children aren't happy with nothing to ignore, and that's what parents were created for.
Ogden Nash

Happiness is having a scratch for every itch.
--Ogden Nash

Marriage is the alliance of two people, one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other who never forgets them.
Ogden Nash

As my plastic surgeon always said: if you gotta go, go with a smile.
Jack Nicholson

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
--Sir Isaac Newton

Most responsibility for raising the young falls upon the female in nature. Some male animals are even considered dangerous, such as the male black bear. A male bear normally does not recognize his own offspring, so the animal is actually capable of killing and even eating his own young, something exceedingly rare in the animal world. A male bear makes life tough both for its mate and for its young. Once a bear leaves its mother, about the start of the breeding season, most bear become solitary animals, except during the mating season when testosterone levels overflow. After a young male bear leaves its mother, he also leaves her home range. For this reason, early in a young male's life the young male must avoid any larger male bear. A young female, on the other hand, stays fairly close to the mother's range.

Quote of the Day:
Be who you are and say what you feel 'cause people who mind don't matter, and people who matter don't mind.
--Theodor Seuss Geisel

Local residents left the comfort of their television and easy chairs and came out in force last night to say what they felt to the town council at the high school. The items of interest centered on a proposal by the Historic Benton Preservation Society for rejuvenating and recycling the town hall on Third Street and on the rental of a house previously condemned by the code enforcement officer for the Borough. Although the group was quite vocal, staying home would have had about as much effect on town council.

The Historic Benton Preservation Society, a non-profit charitable organization, wants to renovate and rejuvenate the building and put it in "first-class shape," guarantee a "not-to-exceed" price for the fix-up, then turn the building back over to the Borough within a year for use as a functioning town hall. The group even believes that the major structural modifications and the first-floor changes could be far enough along in 90 days that the building could be partly used in that time frame. The group apparently submitted the only responsive bid for the purchase of the building.

The plan would revitalize the structure utilizing "donations of money and building material" with some volunteer help. The scope of the project would include a new roof, exterior painting (although we also heard the term "vinyl siding," which would jeopardize the future "historic" aspects of the building), repairs/replacement of the cupola, removal of the concrete exterior handicapped ramp with a handicapped ramp inside the building. The North foundation wall would be fully supported and bracing of the floor as necessary would take place. Two handicapped accessible bathrooms would be added, and a new furnace would be installed. The repairs to the building would somewhat follow the recommendations of the Larson Design Report of 2002 for the first-floor and substructure. There are no plans to do anything to the existing second floor of the building.

Carl Stuehrk, Waller, is president of the Historic Benton Preservation Society, and J. Robert Sands and E. Lee Remley are vice-presidents of the non-profit organization. Bob Sands and Lee Remley are well known locally. Carl Stuehrk is an electrical engineer by education, holding a master's degree from MIT. He carries the title of professional engineer in the state of Indiana. The group would only be formed if town council decided to go along with the plan, but the group said they had discussed financing for the project through the Columbia County Farmers National Bank.

The intersection of Second (Main) and Markets Streets is in the foreground in this picture taken from the roof of the Presbyterian Church. The Opera House on third Street is in the center top of the picture.

The Third Street building is owned by the Borough of Benton and by the Benton Volunteer Fire Department, although the Fire Department's portion is anticipating settlement of the sale of its portion Thursday of this week to the Jankowski family. No zoning permits have been requested at this point to take the property from its current fire-department use. Generally speaking, the fire department section of the building is on the south and west sides of the building.

Carl Stuehrk presented a 15-minute briefing on the proposal, noting that if the town did not choose to accept the proposal, it would not be available for other groups--it was only for the borough hall. Town Council President Karen Reed expressed her concerns with the project, John Herbert Laubach recommended that the Borough Solicitor be consulted, a recommendation was made (and not acted on) to organize a committee to look into whether the proposal would meet the council's needs, Corry Lockard presented his findings about the need for an elevator for the second floor, and after two hours of discussion of the subject Grant Little moved to table the discussion until next month pending further review. The audience seemed generally in favor of the concept of the proposal, assuming that some sticky points could be worked out. The reaction of the non-council members did not seem to mirror the mood of town council.

The Benton Town Hall and Opera House as it looked about 1900 before additions were made for the fire department. When this picture was taken, the streets had not been paved and the fire of 1910 was still a few years off.

Lance Diehl and Dean Kelchner of the Columbia County Farmers National Bank and Judith Scavone of the First Columbia Bank & Trust Co.
presented financing alternatives for construction of a town hall on the airport property. The CCFNB proposal was for a general obligation note, with repayment to the bank from revenue generated by taxes. Both banks presented attractive interest rates, and the CCFNB proposal would not have requred a down payment, while the First Columbia proposal was more along the lines of a conventional mortgage. The financing alternatives apparently would be similar in the event that the borough purchased the refurbished town hall in one year.

Mayor Jan Swan read a letter to council recommending the sale of the "rodeo grounds" to the rodeo association in order to raise money for the town hall replacement. Karen Reed and Grand Little will discuss with the rodeo association.

In other developments, it was announced that Ed Kocher is acting code enforcement officer as well as being the borough's zoning officer. A claim was made that fish had been seen swimming in some of the potholes in Fink Street (the street running from Market Street between the Market Square Restaurant and Sophie's bar), but that did little to persuade town council that they should devote any time or money to the street. Karen Reed announced that she had given Nevin Hartman written permission to rent two Market Street houses that previously had been condemned, and did that on advice of council. Her letter to Mr. Hartman stipulated that the repairs required by the September, 2003, ruling be completed "prior to occupancy." No action was taken on the remaining condemned property on Main Street, usually known as "the bakery," to take it out of the condemned category.

There may be someone somewhere in Pennsylvania who has never heard of the Shady Maple Smorgasbord and the Shady Maple Farm Market in East Earl, Lancaster County, but we would be surprised if that were the case. Lets look at the market first. The market totals 50,000 square feet, the buying offices total about 70,000 square feet, the bakery shop is something like 60 feet by 300 feet and employs over 60 people. The soup and salad department is 48 feet of service display cases with over 150 different heat-and-eat selections, plus desserts and salads. The deli department consists of 48 feet of full service cases and 48 feet of self-service cases. The dairy department has 168 feet of five-deck refrigerated cases. Produce is 448 feet of self-service produce displays and 45 feet of deluxe candy displays. The meat department now has 60 feet of service meat cases and 56 feet of four-deck self-service display cases. The seafood department includes 24 feet of full-service fish cases, 16 feet of self-serve fish cases, 16 feet of frozen seafood glass door cases. Frozen Food has 215 feet of refrigerated glass door cases. That sure does beat the tar out of old Harold's Market in Maple Grove, doesn't it!

On the smorgasbord side, Shady Maple is planning a significant expansion from its current size of about 100,000 square feet with an addition of 52,600 square feet. Shady Maple's gift shop will be expanded, too, and that is now in a building about the size of a Giant or Safeway grocery store. Construction began yesterday and is expected to be completed by February 1 of next year.

Shady Maple is 133 miles from Benton via routes 61, 222, I-176 and
23. It is east of New Holland in Lancaster County. Still don't know where East Earl is? Go to http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?zip=17519&zoom=7&size=big . The Amish values of hard work, thriftiness, and love for the family are reflected in their food and the trip is worth the time! And we want to publicly state that the fact that the restaurant sent us a bundle of schnitz and knepp, red-beet eggs and Fasnachts did not influence what we said about them, not even one little bit.

Those trout being dumped in Pennsylvania's lakes and streams by the Fish and Boat Commission this week are safe to eat, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. All recreationally-caught fish in Pennsylvania are subject to a one-meal-per-week consumption advisory.
One meal is considered to be one-half pound of fish for a 150-pound person. The advisory is meant to protect pregnant women, women of childbearing years and young children.

The town of Dushore was founded in 1859, but the area traces back to
1794 when a man named Aristide Aubert Dupetite Thouars constructed a
12 x 12 cabin at "French mans spring." Thouars walked from Philadelphia to what we know as Asylum, a French settlement on the Susquehanna River. While there, he acquired 400 acres of land at what is now Dushore. Thouars cleared, farmed, built a cabin by himself, and in 1797 began to cultivate the land he owned at Dushore.

He later left what is now the Dushore area and went to France, joined the Navy, and became the Commander of an 80-gun ship, which deployed to Egypt, straying into the path of the English fleet under Admiral Nelson's command. This skirmish became known as the "Battle of the Nile," one of the most decisive naval battles to ever have been played out. In one night it altered the course of world history, denying Napoleon his Eastern Empire, and crippling him at sea. For its victors, the British under Admiral Nelson, it was also a textbook example of daring inventiveness, unconventional warfare, and the power of individual initiative. Nelson would order the British fleet to sail between the French ships and the shore, and this tactic gave him the advantage because the French were not expecting this kind of an attack and often "did not even bother to clear their gunports."

Thouars' ship was powerless against the English. Thouars had his right arm shot away, then the left and finally one of his legs was taken off by a cannonball. Refusing to give up command, he insisted on being put in a tub of bran that was on deck and led his men until he collapsed from blood loss. He encouraged his men to fight till the last man was standing. As he was being carried away, he was shot again and died at the age of 38.

Nelson did not fare well, either. A musket ball struck Nelson on the forehead, tearing a flap of skin, which fell over his one good eye, rendering him temporarily blind. He thought he was dying and was carried below, where he refused to see the surgeon until the other wounded were cared for. "I will take my turn with my brave fellows," said Nelson, our second quote of the day for today.

Want to read more about Thouars and Nelson? Go to http://africanhistory.about.com/library/prm/blnelsonandthenile3.htm .
Want to read more about Dushore? Go to http://pavisnet.com/dushore/ or jump in your car and drive the 30 miles on route 487 north from Benton. If the history of the French roots in the local area interest you, turn to Craft's History of Bradford County, which you can find at http://www.rootsweb.com/~pabradfo/craft/crafttoc.htm .

As a member of the Benton girls basketball team, 6'1" Regina Schlichter's numbers--21.6 points and 15 rebounds per game--got her plenty of attention from college recruiters. She is still at it, getting an article in the sports pages of the Press Enterprise today.

Regina Schlichter is playing outstanding team basketball for St. Frances University (West on rote 22 from Altoona). Last year she averaged 4.8 points per game and 2.3 rebounds per game during her sophomore year, playing in 28 of 31 games, including one starting assignment versus Marquette. She scored in double figures five times, including career-high 15-point effort at Miami-OH. She sank six-of-eight shots from the floor against the RedHawks, including a three-for-three effort from three-point territory. She got a season-high seven boards in 75-46 victory at Central Connecticut State, Jan. 18. She netted 12 points on five-for-10 shooting from the floor in the teams 71-40 win at Robert Morris. She is now a junior with the Red Flash, a team that went to NCAAs last season, losing to Villanova in the first round. Monday night against Central Connecticut State, she scored 11 points in 16 minutes. Make sure that you read the whole story in today's Press Enterprise. Regina is the daughter of Faith and Kenvin Schlichter, Benton, and don't think for one minute that she is the last of the basketball line for that family. There are three more in the family waiting to dunk a few!

Isn't it interesting that when Russian men talk to each other, a comfortable talking proximity is about ten inches. American men, however, feel much more comfortable about two feet apart. And we know some husbands and wives that seem to like to be about a thousand miles apart.

"March comes in with adders' heads and goes out with peacocks' tails."
--Scottish proverb

How times have changed. President Grover Cleveland said in 1905, "Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote."

March 1, 2004

Never miss a good chance to shut up.
-- Will Rogers

In today's news, we have a story with pictures about Oscar and Mabel and their Benton owner Brien McGrath in the Press Enterprise, a story about the World of Racing Motorsports Expo at the Kingston Armory in today's Citizens Voice, and the Associated Press is quoted in all the local papers with their story that "The Passion" which debuted on Ash Wednesday was the No. 1 box-office attraction for the weekend with $76.2 million from Friday to Sunday.

"The Return of the King" won all 11 categories in which it was nominated, including the year's Best Picture. The winners at the 76th annual Academy Awards bash included...
. Best Picture: "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
. Actor: Sean Penn, "Mystic River."
. Actress: Charlize Theron, "Monster."
. Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins, "Mystic River."
. Supporting Actress: Renee Zellweger, "Cold Mountain."
. Director: Peter Jackson, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
. Foreign Film: "The Barbarian Invasions," Canada.
. Original Screenplay: Sofia Coppola, "Lost in Translation."

Is your boss looking over your shoulder while you are reading the Benton News? Hold down the Shift key and click on the close box (X) in the upper right corner of the folder window to quickly close multiple folders. On a Windows-based computer, hit the Windows key (it has a picture of a flag on it) and the letter "D" and you will go to the desktop.

A simple adjustment in email software is all that is needed for "spoofing," a way for spammers to hide their tracks. Microsoft, Yahoo! Inc., and AOL are experimenting with systems designed to authenticate senders of email. Microsoft's proposal is known as Caller ID for E-mail and requires Internet service providers to submit lists of unique numeric addresses for their mail servers. On the receiving end, software would check a database to verify that a message said to come from an email provider actually originated at one of its registered machines. AOL's system in testing is called Sender Policy Framework. Yahoo calls their system DomainKeys, and it would use encryption to digitally sign messages. If the sender or message content is altered, the signature gets rejected. Additionally, Sendmail Inc., Brightmail Inc. and Amazon.com are also testing systems. All these competing proposals are enough to get the Internet's standards-setting bodies in a lather.

Quote of the Day:
Email today is broken, and now we're going to break it a little more.
--Meng Weng Wong, lead developer of SPF

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said something to the effect that rules are not necessarily sacred, but principles are. Well now that we know that, we'll change it. If you go to http://www.everyrule.com/ you can access the largest database of rules in the world for sports, games, etiquette and--well, everything.

Baker Installations is a telecommunications outsourcing company headquartered in McMurray, PA, and marks its 28th year of operation in 2004. From the time of the company's incorporation in 1976, the company has grown to approximately 2,000 employees with anticipated 2004 revenue of $134 million.

The man who started the company is Fred Baker, a native of Benton and brother of Sandra Fritz, Dr. Donald Baker and Ed Baker. Fred is married to the former Beth Kocher, formerly of Benton, and the couple have eight children and seven grandchildren.

Baker Installations' services include broadband cable, telephony and cable modem installations as well as system audits, site surveys, rebuilds, plant extensions and upgrades and underground construction. Unique projects include the design, engineering and installation of a state-of-the-art data network for the eight-building campus which comprises the historical landmark Fallingwater, and a 2,000-foot fiber pull through the Market Street Bridge in Harrisburg.

The Structured Wiring Group of Baker Installations specializes in the design, installation and project management of cabling solutions for voice and data network topologies involving the use of copper and fiber optics for both inside and outside plants in commercial, industrial, residential and campus environments.

You can find out more about the company by visiting http://www.baker-installations.com/index.html . Fred is also on the board of directors of the Caleb Project, http://www.calebproject.org/cporg.asp . Caleb Project participates in world evangelization by taking the gospel to the least-evangelized people groups of the world, the billions of people wh6 have no access to the gospel. Many of these people live in an area between the 10th and 40th latitudes north of the equator and stretching from North Africa to East Asia.

Didja know that snow can actually be different colors? Snow can be red, for example, if the air during the snow contains red dust particles. Red snow is relatively common in parts of Europe where the air is filled with dust particles from the red sands of the Sahara desert. Certain types of algae stain snow yellow, purple, orange, green, and red. We hope that we don't see any more snow of any color this winter.