The Memorial Day weather forecast is a soggy one, with showers and cool temperatures. Yesterday was a "keeper."

On this date in 1889, more than 2,000 people perished when a dam break sent water rushing through Johnstown.

In a recent obituary in the Press Enterprise for Frances MeKeel Moyer, the article stated that she was the daughter of Albert and Clara Snyder MeKeel (sometimes spelled McKeel). Sheila Brandon is searching for information about a sister of Frances by the name of Mildred McKeel, married to Charles Cadwalader. Anyone that is researching the MeKeel-McKeel family is asked to contact Sheila .

Didja hear about the two Cajun fishermen, Boudreaux & Thibodeaux, who went out in the Gulf of Mexico fishing? The way that we heard the story, they were gone a couple of months and when they returned they noticed a Taco Bell had been built while they were away. Boudreaux turned to Thibodeaux and said, "Look at dat, we not gone no time and dem Mexicans done come over here and built a telephone company!"

It is nice to look over the shoulders of our graduating classes from time to time. We'll look in on the graduating class of 1949 and see what their world was like 55 years ago. Harry S. Truman was sworn in that year, Sam Rayburn of Texas was Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dean Acheson was the Secretary of State, the Supreme Court ruled, in Wolf v. Colorado, that evidence gained through illegal search and seizure may be used by prosecutors. It was a year of Pillsbury "bake-offs" and scented bras and Gorgeous George the wrestler and roller derbies and Silly Putty. Joe Lewis, the "Brown Bomber," decided to take up another line of work after being champ for 11 years. Ezzra Charles became the new heavyweight champion "of the world" when he out-thumped Jersey Joe Walcott. South Pacific was the hit in music and The Lone Ranger just arrived on TV, along with Quiz Kids, Original Amateur Hour and Kukla, Fran and Ollie. Uncle Milton Berle was at the top of the charts. It snowed in San Diego, Palm Springs and Santa Barbara that year.

Jimmy Johnson was Class President of the graduating class of 1949, Back Home in Benton, PA. There were 50 members of the graduating class, we think, since when we asked Naomi Irene Roberts Kinney at the Alumni Banquet about the number, she told us that the class had been "trying to remember about that."

The class night had as its theme "the Gay Nineties," presented as a "mellerdrammer." The whole class participated in the Mary Hartman production. Miss Hartman had taken a chew of gum away from one of the class members and "outlawed" gum from all practice sessions. Miss Hartman told all the class that "this is the fun night." And fun it was, especially after it was all over. Miss Hartman had a pack of gum for each member of the class as a reward for a "job well done."

The Junior-Senior Banquet was held at the Moses Van Camper Hotel. The king of the evening from the Junior Class was Donald Gould. The class did not have a yearbook in 1949, per L. Ray Appleman edict. It was not until recently that old pictures of the class were assembled in what the members now call a "yearbook."

We should mention the members of the class no longer alive. They include Robert Beishline, David Floyd, Carl Fritz, Richard Keefer, Ronald Keller, Richard Sands, Harry Unbewust, Carl Shultz, Anna Hewlett Kropiewnicki, Barbara Long Wilcox, Evelyn Shultz Palmer, Ruth Smith Briggs, Eleanor Wilson Kinney, Mary Ellen Wilson Reigle, Shirley Shannon Parsell, Helen Barnes Fox, Charles Karns, Joan Sentner Mizarchik, Jack Schupp, John Harrington, Ed McHenry and Russell Morgan.

We wandered into a Main Street garage sale Saturday--the kind that actually is held in a garage, not the kind that is held in a side yard or on a porch and called a "garage sale." The seller had new bags of yarn in wonderful colors, and told us that her eyesight didn't permit crocheting any longer. The yarn was for sale. We ran the yarn through our fingers and it not only looked good but it felt good. We snarfed it up, threw it in a giant bag and headed for Florence Kocher's house, where crochet is king!

Florence loved the yarn and told us about some of the simple stitches and the practice needed to crochet. Florence explained that we could be making a baby blanket or a granny square within hours. She said that all we needed was a crochet hook, some yarn, a measuring tape or ruler, a supply of straight pins and a yarn needle. At the end we would need a little water to make it all lay flat.

The next step was holding the yarn so that it could flow easily from hand to hook. Over the little finger, under the ring finger, over the middle and left forefingers. Tough stuff! We tried to loop the yarn around the little finger, running it over the forefinger. The book says that the hook pulls the yarn from the fingers through the loop on the hook. That's what the book says. It was a little like reading an owner's manual for a VCR. The words are in English but the sentences are in a foreign language. We are just not cut out for this over the finger, under the finger stuff. Our patience was unraveling...

Crocheting is the stuff of grandmothers, although younger women are learning to create knit dog cozies and cat ponchos. Florence proudly told us that she had taught her granddaughter-in-law to crochet, and she in turn taught five other young mothers. Across the country, instructional books are winding up in younger people's homes.

Statistics say that more than 38 million people knit or crochet, according to a 2002 survey by the Craft Yarn Council of America. The bible for the group is Debbie Stoller's book "Stitch 'N Bitch" , but "old hands" at the art of crocheting don't need any fancy books to know what to do. Florence's guide was a "hand-me-down" from her Mother back in Warrior's Mark, PA. Those designs work just fine for her today, thank you, and we could tell that she would like us to move on and talk about something else. Her hands wanted to get to work.

Honoring ancestors by cleaning cemetery grounds and decorating graves is a tradition that is both ancient and world wide. The specific origin of Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was first known, are unclear. In early rural America, a memorial day was an occasion for family reunions and picnics. Following the aftermath of the Civil War, America needed a secular, patriotic ceremony to honor its military dead. Monuments to fallen soldiers were erected and dedicated, and ceremonies centering on the decoration of soldiers' graves were held in towns and cities throughout the nation. For many years, states observed the holiday on dates of their choosing. Memorial Day is now celebrated on the last Monday in May.

A bleach that sells under the brand name of Tesco's announced on its label that it "Kills bacteria as well as the leading brand." That's pretty hard on competition!

Quote of the Day:
"I can't really remember the names of all the clubs that we went to."
Shaquille O'Neal on whether he had visited the Parthenon during his visit to Greece.

The town was filled with garage sale buyers yesterday and everyone seemed to have a good time. There were people and cars everywhere. Gas stations were jammed and restaurants had an excellent day. Some garage sales proved so popular that it was next to impossible to park cars along Main Street.

In the course of an average lifetime
It has been said
A man spends twenty precious years Asleep in bed:
Seven more in eating
Or drinking at the bar
And most of the remainder
Trying to park his car...
--Flanders and Swann

Winners of this year's Washington Post word contest
• Coffee (n.), a person who is coughed upon.
• Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
• Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent
• Flatulence (n.) the emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
• Pokemon (n), a Jamaican proctologist.

"His lectures were very clear and organized. His lab experiments always worked, as I remember. His field trips were fun, and inspiring."
Dr. Don Baker, talking about Dr. Don Rabb

"I didn't accomplish much research." But I did get a lot of kids motivated in science. Someone has to light a fire under kids, and I tried."
--Dr. Don Rabb

"It takes more than a village to raise a child. It takes a special kind of village with very special people. You know better than I do that you have such a village."
--Margaret Dawson

"We learned to read and write here, and that was the biggest element."
When opportunities came, we recognized them."
--Fred Baker

"We had
wonderful students and great athletes."
--Don Rabb

The Benton Area School System Alumni Banquet brought 240 to the high school gymnasium Saturday night to feast on Cheri Bissinger's roast beef, chicken, string beans, mashed potatoes and extras, and to meet and greet the 2004 Inductees into the Hall of Fame.

At 5 PM, Allen Turner and Dr. Andy Pollock conducted tours of the high school building. Many of the older graduates were struck by the fact that there are over 100 computers for the approximately 370 students in the middle/high school building--not bad for the seventh smallest school in the state of Pennsylvania. The school system currently has approximately 790 students from kindergarten through 12 grade. The last day of school and the day of graduation is June 11, 2004. The graduation will take place in the elementary school gymnasium.

Middle school principal, Gary Powlus, joked about "breaking child labor laws" getting ready for the alumni banquet in support of the graduates for the years ending in a "4" or a "9." Alumni President Sandy Kogut pointed out that the building is now 80% complete.

Brandon Schupp, president of the graduating class, introduced the members of the class who were in attendance. There are 48 scheduled to graduate. The Alumni Association then distributed $6,500 in scholarships to 19 members of the graduating class. Allen Hack received scholarships totaling $550, followed by Caleb and Josh Fritz at $450 each, and Evan Thursby at $425. Nathan Musselman received $400.

	These members of the graduating class of 2004 received scholarships at the Alumni Banquet Saturday night

The High School Jazz Band, composed of 12 members under the direction of Jennifer Welliver, entertained the alumni with music to the enjoyment of everyone. There are five seniors in the band, with three juniors and three sophomores and one freshmen.

A spokesman from each of the classes with reunion years spoke. Jesse Whitenight from the class of 1944 reminded the alumni that six from her class enlisted in the women's cadet corps. Jim Johnson, who spoke at the 2003 Hall of Fame Alumni Banquet when brother Ralph was inducted, spoke for the class of 1949. Retired Brigadier General Jim Phillips spoke for the class of 1954 and told 2004 class president, Brandon Schupp, that "50 years ago I had a beautiful head of hair like that, too!" He told the alumni that "we were good in 1954 and we are still good in 2004!" The spokesperson for 1959 was Ed Baker, a brother to two of the inductees and the brother who spoke for the least amount of time. Alton Getz spoke for 1964, saying that "we were 62 for 65--and we have five here this evening." The year 1979 had seven back from the 60 who graduated. Special recognition was given to Patti Moss, who passed away twelve years ago.

The inductees individually were introduced to the alumni and the list of accomplishments of the group read.

• Audie Hittle, a graduate of the class of 1975.
Mr. Hittle, with a smile on his face, thanked the Hall of Fame Committee for the "exceptionally good judgment" in selecting him. He specifically thanked former Benton resident, Ora Karns, for nominating him and asked Ora and his wife to stand and be recognized. He told the story of former guidance councilor and now deceased Sara Albertson telling his best friend that he could be "anything that he wanted to be in life." Mrs. Albertson then told Audie that he could be "almost anything he wanted to be in life." Mr. Hittle then told the graduating class to "be and do almost anything in life!"

Audie Hittle

• Mary Lucinda Dodson, (1904-1997), a graduate of the class of 1922.
Mary Lucinda Dodson Gearhart received the honor posthumously. The award was accepted by daughter Margaret J. Dawson, Lambertville, MI.
Mrs. Dawson said of her mother who was born and married in Cambra, "this is where her dreams were born." Her career was in helping physically and mentally challenged people in the Stroudsburg area. Mary Lucinda Dodson Gearhart died one month shy of her 93rd birthday.

Margaret Dawson and family

• Donald Nelson Baker, Ph.D., a graduate of the class of 1952.
Dr. Baker remembered his roots growing "up in a little house along the creek." He also remembered Donald Rabb, saying, "His lab experiments always worked, as I remember." He also observed that "Benton produces great mentors."

Don Baker

• Frederick P. Baker, a graduate of the class of 1967.
Mr. Baker observed that "my first good fortune was my family." Fred started his own company in 1976, Baker Installations, and it has now grown into a 17,000 square-foot facility and is a $45 million telecommunications company located in Pittsburgh. He is the younger brother of Donald Baker.

Fred Baker

• Dr. Donald D. Rabb, D.Ed., a graduate of the class of 1940.
Dr. Rabb offered a "commercial" to the graduating class and commented on the free meal extended to them at the Alumni Banquet, saying that "there will be no more free meals." Dr. Rabb also commented on a recent article about the graduates of Berwick High School where 151 will graduate and approximately $192,000 in scholarships will be distributed. Dr. Rabb noted that although the figures are not yet official, it appears that out of the 48 in the graduating class at the Benton Area Schools, scholarships will be distributed in excess of half a million dollars. Dr. Rabb noted that he had to stay in Benton since "so much was handed to me I had to stay in place." Dr. Rabb was born in Benton and chose to live his life in Benton.

Donald Rabb

We are in the middle of a beautiful Memorial Day weekend. Today are the garage sales in Benton. Tonight is the Alumni Banquet at the high school starting at 5 PM for the tour of the new high school. The alumni banquet dinner will begin promptly at 6 PM and the induction ceremony will follow about 7 PM. Reservations for dinner are a must, but the public is invited to the induction ceremony. In Washington, DC, the National World War II Memorial will be dedicated today, marking the culmination of an effort that began in 1987, when legislation was introduced to create the $175 million memorial. It is also the Indy 500 weekend, but most of the glitter of that event has fallen off on NASCAR.

The 21 beautiful Welcome signs being installed on poles in Benton were the gift to the people of Benton by Mayor Jan Swan. Signs for the Benton Park will be installed in the near future.

Microsoft Corp. plans to release an update to its Windows XP operating system that will contain new technology aimed at stopping viruses and other forms of malware. The new release involves the default setting for the firewall. With Windows XP2, the firewall will turn on unless the computer user knowingly turns it off. In the original version, users had to turn it on themselves.

We are going to take the time to review the life and times of all of the inductees of the Benton Area High School Hall of Fame Program. We'll highlight Mary Lucinda Dodson and Donald Nelson Baker today.

Mary Lucinda Dodson, (1904-1997), a graduate of the class of 1922. Married name: Mary D. Gearhart. She is receiving the honor posthumously. Mary Dodson (Gearhart) graduated from Benton High School loving tennis, swimming and dancing. She especially loved sledding and rode bob-sleds, dishpans and coal shovels! She was an excellent singer and played the piano and the violin. She graduated from Bloomsburg Normal School and received a Master of Arts degree from Duquesne University. Mary served as president of the Association of Retarded Children for Monroe County and served on the board of directors of Burnley Workshop for physically and mentally challenged people in the Stroudsburg area. She founded weekly and summer programs and managed Camp Daddy Allen for 27 years in addition to serving as president of the board for 14 years. She was a member of numerous professional and civic groups and is listed in Who's Who in Outstanding Citizens of the Nation and in Who's Who in Outstanding Special Teachers. Mary retired from the Stroudsburg Area School District after teaching for more than 40 years. She married in 1935 and was widowed in 1954. She has one daughter, Margaret J. Dawson, Lambertville, MI.

Donald Nelson Baker, Ph.D., a graduate of the class of 1952. Donald graduated from Benton High School and completed his undergraduate work at Pennsylvania State University. He received his Masters and his Doctorate from Cornell University. He was named by the United States Department of Agriculture as the Outstanding Scientist of the Year in 1987. His teaching experience includes Clemson University and Mississippi State University. He is currently a cotton production consultant with responsibility for approximately 15,000 acres. Donald holds numerous awards and citations, but says that the most difficult was the one "at the bottom of the stack" which read simply Airplane Single Engine Land, Instrument... Donald lives in Starkville, MS, with his wife, Bobbi. There are five children and two step-children, and numerous grand children.

We are gong to talk about the North Branch Canal that followed the Susquehanna River through Columbia County this morning. We promise that it does have something to do with Benton. Read it all to find out what.

We have mentioned several times that the Susquehanna is the longest non-navigable river in North America. Nevertheless, in 1771 the provincial assembly named the Susquehanna River a public highway and set aside money to make it navigable. The first families to come up the river were propelled by four men with setting poles, cruising about two miles an hour against the current. The steamship "Susquehanna" exploded at Berwick May 3, 1826, during one attempt to mechanize navigation of the river and two years later digging of the North Branch Canal began in Berwick.

Long before this steamship accident, the highways of the wilderness were rivers. Settlements of the frontier were linked by water long before roads connected even neighboring farms. The Susquehanna and streams that flowed into the Susquehanna, however, remained non-navigable and the local roads did nothing to promote long-distance trade. Something had to be done, and finally the State agreed to promote a canal system. In Columbia County, the North Branch Canal was a part of this network. The canal seemed to be a natural. The Susquehanna flows into the Chesapeake Bay and from there was easy access to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.

The building of canal boats was once the major industry of the town of Espy. In 1834 George and Thomas Webb built a canal boat called the The Fourth of July. The boat works of the Pennsylvania Canal Company was established in 1873. Two types of boats were built in this area, the flatdecker and the comber. The flatdecker was good for shipping non-finished material. The comber was outfitted with a pitched roof that shed water, making it more suitable for shipping finished or perishable merchandise.

Plank flatboats, called "arks," were also built near the present town of Fernville. The arks were built upside down, flipped into the waters of Fishing Creek and floated to the river where they were loaded with flour, whiskey and other locally produced products, then, depending on river conditions, floated down the river. Rarely were the river levels exactly ideal. The boat then needed to be brought back up the river, either by pushing the ark by poles stuck in the bottom of the river or by pulling the boat with a team and a rope. Frequently, the arks and later boats called Durham boats were sold when they arrived at their destination. The lumber from the boats were used by the purchaser.

It took six years to dig the canal sixty miles from Northumberland to Pittston. Picture this! The channel was forty feet across at the top and 28 feet wide at the bottom. Workmen dug the canal with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. Teams of horses walking the towpath pulled the heavy loads up and down the canal. The North Branch was completed in 1831 to Pittston and to the New York border in 1856. It was part of a statewide network of canals known as The Pennsylvania Canal.

The drop in elevation between the New York state border and Northumberland was 360 feet. Locks were necessary for each drop of about ten feet. There were seven locks on the North Branch Canal as it rose 69 feet from Northumberland to the Lackawanna River above Pittston. There were locks at Rupert, Bloomsburg, and below Mifflinville.

Within ten years of the canal's completion, rails carried more and more freight, while the canal fell into disuse. The Lackawanna Railroad bought the canal from the State, but pulled the plug in 1901 and did not fill the waterway. An era came to a close.

We have mentioned several times about the grant of $50,000 for the construction of a portion of the bike and foot path connecting Columbia and Montour counties along the Susquehanna River. The grant was awarded by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. It is one of almost $1.6 million in grants recently announced by DCNR secretary Michael DiBerardinis for more than 99 miles of trails in 14 counties. Funding for the project also has been provided through the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program. The project was supported by state Sen. John Gordner, R-27, Berwick.

The path from Northumberland to the Wyoming Valley will run along the old Pennsylvania Canal and tow path. The section of trail in Montour and Columbia counties will stretch approximately 25 miles from Danville to Berwick, part of the Susquehanna Greenways Project, a group that develops greenways to the Chesapeake Bay. The SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority owns the land where the trail is going to run. The first phase of the project involves connecting Danville and Bloomsburg. Ultimately, a regional trail network can be developed, linking Northumberland to the Wyoming Valley. Project organizers estimated work to begin in a year. With an interest in the canal by hikers and bike riders, things of historic significance like existing canal locks could be preserved and restored.

Brian Auman, Landscape Architect, Community Resource Center, SEDA-Council of Governments, looked into extending the hiking and biking trail from the Canal Trail to Benton. Brian feels that it is feasible. Columbia County currently is conducting a County Recreation and Open Space plan. Brian told us that "I encourage (you) to get involved in that process and make the case for connections to Benton!"

We would like to know what you think. Should the residents of the upper Fishing Creek Valley push for inclusion in planning for a hiking and biking trail to link to our area? Please let us know what you think. If you like the idea, the person to convince is Bob Aungst, the director of Columbia County Planning, (570) 389-9146.

Quote of the Day:
"I don't believe in pessimism."
--Clint Eastwood

In what we can only say are very unofficial readings, readers have told us that Wednesday night's rain totaled 1.6" South of Benton Borough, 2¼ inches out West Creek and the same at New Columbus. Name it and someone reported it: rain, hail. lightening! One small bridge over West Creek washed away. Shoulders are washed away in places along state route 239 from Cambra towards Benton. Harrisburg didn't get a drop of rain, by the way. We see great stands of corn with the corn mostly standing in water, we see fields with weeds two feet high, we see fields much too wet to plant or to get a tractor on. Strawberries could be ready a week early this year, but getting into the fields to pick is another matter. For every inch of rain, a field will need a minimum of two days of good weather to dry out. The waterlogged soil will cause plant roots to rot, encourage pests and cause soil erosion.

Quickies...
• About one in every eight, 12.3% of the population, is an older American.
• CDs are very likely to develop 'CD Rot' if mishandled. Damage or scratches on the label side can occur. CDs should be handled as delicately as records, kept clean and placed in a case when not in use.
• Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was one of the most important figures in Pennsylvania's history, although he was born in Boston. He founded the University of Pennsylvania in 1742. He had the distinction of signing both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. He is buried in Christ Church Cemetery in Philadelphia.
• Freddie Mac quotes the average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at 6.32%, inching up slightly from last week's average of 6.30%. Low rates aren't going to last forever. Have you refinanced?
• The O.A.T.S. bluegrass festival begins in a month and five days. Remember that if you purchase a four-day pass you can attend the free meal on Thursday night with some of the best pulled pig we have ever tasted. Just bring a dish to share. We'll be telling you much more about the festival in coming days.
• Darlene K. Bartlebaugh, 56, North Bend, WA, passed away at home on May 6, 2004. There is an excellent memorial to Darlene at http://www.flintofts.com/. There are many pictures and an excellent description of the life and times of a former Benton resident. Take time now to have a look and while you are there you can also share memories and sign the family's online quest book.

Dreaming of Alaska this summer, but short of cash? If you can get out of town in June and July, sailings are being offered by the new cruise discounter Cruise Cheap. The airfares are bundled with the cruise price. Rates are good-for-June and July for a weeklong Alaskan cruise aboard Holland America's Veendam (Vancouver to Seward, including the Inside Passage, Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Glacier Bay and College Fjords) and airfare from East coast gateways for $1,078. The least expensive sailing is June 13, but there are good rates (about $40 more per person) for June 27 and July 4 ($60 more). Call 800 439-1909 to book, but do it quickly or availability will be gone.

Quote of the Day:
"There will never be a bigger plane built."
--a Boeing engineer talking about the Boeing 247 in 1932. The twin engine plane had a capacity of ten.

We are going to take the time to review the life and times of all of the inductees of the Benton Area High School Hall of Fame Program. We'll highlight Audie Hittle today.

Audie Hittle helped found the first Explorer's Post in the Benton area and was that organization's first president. He served as class president and held other high-school offices. He holds three degrees, one in engineering plus two advanced degrees. Audie is a highly decorated military veteran, nationally recognized pioneer of government-industry collaboration and intrepid entrepreneur. During his 22-year military career starting in 1975, he was twice awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, the highest USAF non-combat award and distinguished himself in outstanding service to the United States. Audie transitioned to the private sector in 1997 and has since held key leadership roles in Fortune 500, small and startup companies. Audie is married to his high school sweetheart, Karina McMillan. The couple has one daughter and resides in Tyngsboro, MA.

Howard Johnson borrowed $2,000 in 1925 to buy a small corner drugstore in Wollaston, Massachusetts. The store sold candy, newspapers and patent medicine but the real interest of customers was at the old marble soda fountain. Howard created a sensation using his mother's recipe for ice cream with natural ingredients and a heavy hit of butterfat content. He soon opened a beachfront ice-cream stand, and sold $60,000 worth of ice cream cones, a nickel a cone, the first summer.

By 1928 he was selling $240,000 worth of ice cream cones and he kept adding flavors until he reached 28 varieties. He added more beachfront stands and sold lots of hot dogs clipped at both ends, notched lengthwise, cooked in creamery butter and inserted in a lightly toasted, buttered fresh roll.

Howard Johnson opened a restaurant in Quincy, Massachusetts, but banks balked at loaning more money for additional restaurants.

Undaunted, Howard persuaded an acquaintance to open a "Howard Johnson's" restaurant on Cape Cod under a franchise agreement in 1935. Howard Johnson designed the space, created the menu, set the standards, and delivered the food and ice cream. The franchisee, under a license, owned the property and received the bulk of the revenues. Howard required that the restaurant be run according to his quality standards or the contract was void.

In the middle of the Depression, 17 Howard Johnson's restaurants opened. One restaurant owner invested $10,000 as one-third the cost, the remainder to be financed over three years. The owner hoped he would gross $60,000 a year, but he actually grossed $200,000 during the first twelve months. The bright orange roof and the Simple Simon and the Pie Man road signs appeared on 107 Howard Johnson restaurants by 1939. The restaurant became the "Host of the Highway." By 1954 there were 400 Howard Johnson restaurants in 32 states. The Howard Johnson Co. went public in 1961 with 88 franchised Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges and 605 restaurants. Ahead, however, lay obstacles in the road, known as the energy crisis and the Big Mac.

Howard Johnson's became yesterday's news. Holiday Inn®, Ramada Inn® and Marriott® hotels and McDonalds and Burger Kings and--well you get the picture. The Howard Johnson chain suddenly didn't look so modern any more. Imperial Group PLC of Great Britain bought the chain in September 1979, and started selling off many of the pieces of the pie.

In 1984, the company adopted Chevron Corporation as the official corporate name, replacing Standard Oil Company of California. This step coincided with the merger with the Gulf Corporation. Today, the company is known as the ChevronTexaco Corp selling the Chevron, Texaco and Caltex brands.

May 27, 2004. Hobe and Jesse Whitenight celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary today on the 27th. Daughter Lacinda tells us they were "set up by Aunt Marisa and Uncle Ted being invited to their house for dinner. Unbeknownst to Dad, they had schemed for him to take Jessie home afterward. He drove his motorcycle. She took the ride home anyway and the rest is history." Actually, Jesse always fumed a bit when daughter Linda would hitch a ride on future husband Tom Morris' motorcycle. After her ride with Hobe, however, a motorcycle ride didn't seem quite as bad.

Julia Ward Howe was born in New York City on this date in 1819. She is best known as the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible, swift sword;
His truth is marching on."
--Julia Ward Howe, poet, essayist, and women's movement leader.

The northern part of Columbia is getting ready for the yard and garage sales Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with most sales taking place on Saturday. Even restaurants and food suppliers are getting into the act. The good Southern Sweet Tea will be available at a moment's notice for take-out at the Market Square Grill, and both Market Square and The Old Filling Station will have quick sandwiches to eat on the run. The TasteeKreme is always quick, as is the Sub Shop. From noon until about 7 PM, the fire company will have fried chicken. D.R.'s QuickMart will have a couple of hot dogs (or a hamburg) and chips and soda outside for under $2, weather permitting. AYSO will wash your car at the CCFNB at Main and Market and you can keep right on piling the bargains in your SUV. If you head north to Central for the big sales there, the Christ United Methodist Church will have a yard sale with food and baked items from 8 AM. Rev. Leh tells us there are a lot of children's items in good condition. Our unofficial records show that we have had rain on 23 out of the last 35 days , but the forecast for Friday and Saturday is perfect.

On Friday, May 28, local musicians will stage a benefit concert for Jason Perez, the owner of Brews N Bytes, Danville. The benefit concert is to help Jason with his medical bills. Jason had a terrible accident that put him in the hospital. The concert will be held in the parking lot behind Brews N Bytes and will get underway at 7:00 PM.

Ruth Cavanaugh, Staten Island, NY, wrote that the annual Farver Reunion will be held starting at noon Sunday, July 11, at Berwick's Ber-Vaughn Park. Ruth notes that it is the 56th Consecutive Annual Reunion of the many branches of the Farver family. Ruth has many of the pictures that her mother had, and has Family Tree charts to explore along with over 5,000 Farver Family members in her files on her web site. If any Farver family members would like to visit the web site, send Ruth an email at and she will send an invitation so they can visit.

Bonnie Farver, President of the group, tells us that the reunion will be in the last pavilions down on the top section near the restrooms. She asks that attendees bring an item for auction and to be prepared to an do an old fashioned cake walk.

For people interested in starting their own genealogical web site as Ruth has done, visit the web site at www.myfamily.com .

Flying somewhere? Consider Harrisburg International Airport, a little over two hours away. Passenger traffic counts jumped by 14.8% last month. We find excellent rates out of the airport in Middletown, just outside of Harrisburg.

We all know that the partially hydrogenated oils in margarine, shortening, french fries and thousands of processed foods contain trans fat. Studies begun in the late 1980s began to show that trans fat actually promotes heart disease. In 1993, the Food and Drug Administration began to require food labels to disclose trans levels.

Trans fat raises LDL-or "bad"--cholesterol about as much as saturated fat does. Unlike saturated fat, however, trans fat lowers blood levels of HDL--or "good"--cholesterol. Studies in the last year indicate that current thinking is that trans fat is worse than saturated fat and could be responsible for as many as 20,000 or more deaths each year.

Foods that are or soon will be totally trans fat free include most Frito-Lay chips, Triscuits, some Oreos, Promise margarine and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. Crisco has a trans-fat version and Ruby Tuesday's has switched to trans fat free canola oil for all fried foods. Among food processors, two of the biggest users—-Kraft (Nabisco, Oscar Mayer) and Campbell (Pepperidge Farm, Keebler)-—have begun reformulating their products. Riverside Market sells a delicious Arnold Hearty Classic 12 Grain bread that contains no trans fats.

Check for "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" in the ingredient lists of margarines, cakes, cookies, pastries, pot pies, crackers, and frozen foods. Some of the biggest users of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil are such major chain restaurants as McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, KFC, Applebee's, and Red Lobster. When you visit your favorite restaurant, don't accept french fries just because they are inexpensive for the restaurant to serve. Insist on a heart-healthy substitute.

Whine, whine, whine--that's all we seem to do. Verizon Wireless activated its Troy Township cellular communication tower Wednesday, to the delight of western Bradford County. Another Verizon tower in Tioga County provides service sweeping from Wellsboro to the edge of the range of a tower near Towanda. Does the upper Fishing Creek valley get a cellular tower? You betcha your bippy we don't! Please mention that fact whenever you happen to be around a person anyway associated with the sale of cell phones.

The sirens some heard Wednesday were emergency sirens used to warn residents of an emergency at the PPL nuclear power plant in Salem Township. They were activated for an annual test Wednesday. There are 112 sirens located throughout Luzerne and Columbia counties. Only one failed to sound.

Millville will dedicate a monument in the park May 29 at 1 PM. Millville graduate Mark Robbins is responsible. The monument remembers local Millville veterans who served their country.

We are going to take the time to review the life and times of all of the inductees of the Benton Area High School Hall of Fame Program. We'll highlight Fred Baker today.

Fred Baker is the Chief Executive Officer of Baker Installations, Inc., a $30 Million 500 employee telecommunications service provider in 12 states. Baker Installations technicians service over 20,000 consumer homes and businesses every week.

Fred founded Baker Installations in 1976, Baker Leasing in 1984 and Expert Cable Inc. in 1990. Inc. Magazine awarded Baker Installations the "Inc. 500" Award for "Fastest Growing Privately Owned, Companies" in both 1984 and 1985; the 1999 Arthur Andersen "Best Practices" Award for Motivating and Retaining Employees; and in year 2000, runner up for Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Pittsburgh.

Fred has served in numerous positions with organizations ranging from the Pennsylvania Cable and Telecommunications Association, to the Allegheny Regional Asset District Board of Directors which distributes $60 million of taxes annually to regional cultural projects; and the Governor's conference on Small Business 1998. His commitment to "making a difference" is reflected in his involvement with the Council on Pornography during Ronald Reagan's presidency and the Republican Presidential Task Force Medal of Merit, George Bush Presidency; and the Board of Trustees for Allegheny Institute, a local political economic think tank. In the spring of 1999, candidate Fred Baker came within a 4% voter approval for Allegheny County Councilman At Large for the first elections for Home Rule government. Fred devoted 18 years to the South Hills Christian School as a school board member, and two 2-year terms as a Deacon of Library Baptist Church. A favorite board since 1987 is the Board of Directors of the Caleb Project, which focuses on missions mobilization to the least reached nations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A bible student for 45 years; an adult bible class teacher for 30 years, Fred enjoys guest lecturing and has been heard on several radio shows such as "The American Entrepreneur," "Lead the Way" and "The Jerry Bowyer Show" where he talks about leadership as a Christian businessman.

Born and raised in Benton, Fred later attended Mississippi State University. At his campus job with the Mississippi County Extension Service he developed and established a library reference filing system for over one million County Extension Service agricultural and home economics publications saving 20 hours per week to fill publication shipping requests from county agents.

Fred has been married to Beth Christine Kocher for 38 years, and they are the parents of eight children and seven grandchildren. Their social and recreational time center on family, church, school and business activities. Leisure time pursuits and hobbies are computer activities, photography, reading, television, skiing, golf, single track biking and travel.

It came and went so fast! Folklore holds that when you hear the sound of the first cicadas, the first frost of the year will occur about three months later.

The Susquehanna River bisects our state. One branch is known as the West Branch and flows East through Lock Haven and Williamsport, then South until it joins with the North Branch in Northumberland. The North Branch begins in New York state and flows South through Wilkes-Barre. The river then flows South and East to the Chesapeake Bay, draining an estimated 27,500 square miles of the state, an area larger than Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and Delaware put together. The river is the longest non-navigable river in North America.

My lilac trees are old and tall;
I cannot reach their bloom at all.
They send their perfume over trees
And roofs and streets, to find the bees.
-- Louise Driscoll (1875-1957)

The 51 members of the graduating class in Millville are excited about Thursday night, the night they graduate and the night that the Guv comes to give them a send-off courtesy of a commencement address. State Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff's son Nicholas will be one of the 51 graduates.

We are going to take the time to review the life and times of all of the inductees of the Benton Area High School Hall of Fame Program. We'll start today with Dr. Donald Rabb.

Donald D. Rabb graduated from the Benton Vocational High School Class of 1940, and went on to graduate from Bloomsburg State Teacher's College. He received his master's degree from Bucknell University and his Doctor of Education degree from Pennsylvania State University. He has participated in advanced studies at an additional five universities.

During his teaching career at the Benton Area School System, he taught all the science courses, and served as the Athletic Director influencing and shaping lives in the class room and on the athletic field. He joined the faculty of Bloomsburg State Teachers College in 1957 and served on the faculty for 26½ years teaching a variety of biology courses specializing in Genetics and Anatomy and Physiology. He served as chairperson the Department of Biology from 1965 to 1973.

Donald served for three years in the Army Air Force, two of which were spent with the 12th weather squadron in North Africa, Italy and Egypt. He has served on numerous national biology committees dedicated to improving the curricula of secondary school biology courses and to upgrade the education of biological scientists at the undergraduate level. He was appointed to teach in National Science Foundation-sponsored Institutes for Biology Teachers at the University of Hawaii in 1965 and at Delhi University, India, in 1968. He was the commencement speaker for the first class to graduate from Bloomsburg University in 1983.

He has an impressive list of local organizations in which he has played an active role, ranging from high school and college alumni associations, the Bloomsburg Fair Association, the Benton Fireman's Association and the Benton Borough Council. He was an inspiring scoutmaster. Donald married his high school sweetheart, Dottie McHenry, and they have three children.

Speaking of getting together at the Alumni Banquet, remember that nothing makes a woman feel older than meeting a bald-headed man who was two grades behind her.

Didja know that the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company dates back to June 4, 1920, when eight different utility companies were merged into a single company with 62 small steam electric and hydroelectric generating plants. Just a few years before the beginning of the PP&L, more than 70 electric companies served central and eastern Pennsylvania. One of the companies was the Lehigh Power Securities Corp., which had a controlling interest in the Columbia and Montour Electric Co., which provided service to Berwick, Bloomsburg and Danville. PP&L made a major expansion in the late 1920s. In 1928, for example, PP&L acquired the Benton Hydro-Electric Company, the Millville Electric Light Company, the Montoursville Electric Light Company, and the Orangeville-Columbia Power & Light Co.

A new Pennsylvania law requires parental consent for a minor to have any form of body piercing. Body piercing joins prohibitions on tattooing for under-age kids. Of course, Momma and Poppa can agree, but we hope that they do not.

We overheard two cows talking in a field near Derrs. Daisy said to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't believe you," said Dolly. "It's true, no bull!," exclaimed Daisy.

David Neff, 34, 255 Shannon Hill Road, Benton, lost control of his tractor-trailer in the westbound lane of I-80 near Milton. There were no injuries, but traffic was tied up about five hours.

Expect police to check for seat belt usage in vehicles over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.

For those who inquired about our health we'll mention that we are heavily into exercise, this week concentrating on weightlifting. We perform this exercise as we stand up. We don't want to be in the position where we are called upon to stand to offer a chair to a lady--and we can't. We feel that we can do as much as we ever did, we just don't want to! We have everything that we had 20 years ago, except that most stuff is a little lower. We want to feel fit as a fiddle, but it's hard shaped as we are like a cello. We suspect we may be over the hill because we feel like the morning after and we haven't been anywhere. We can remember back to when we were 20 and we didn't care what the world thought of us. At 30, we started worrying what the world thought of us, and now we realize that it isn't thinking of us at all. We know that life begins at 40, but then so does hair loss, bad eyesight, arthritis and the habit of repeating everything three times. We tell you these things just to console ourselves at no longer being able to set a bad example. We often think that life would have been so much easier if we had been born 80 and worked our way toward 18. This nonsense of being told to slow down by a doctor rather than by a policeman is for the birds.

Get the last word in: Apologize.

When weeding, the best way to make sure you are
removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.

The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

Union soldiers often marched South singing a song entitled "John Brown's Body."

Pennsylvania furnished 362,284 men to the army and 14,407 to the Navy during the Civil War.

May 25, 2004

May 25, 2004. Happy birthday today to Brenda Conrad, Lebanon. Brenda shares her birthday with Ralph Waldo Emerson, born in Boston on this date in 1803. Please extend your prayers today to Lorna Evarts, a patient in the Geisinger Hospital.

The Benton Area Schools would like to take old yearbooks off your hands if you no longer want them. If you are willing to part with yearbooks that are no longer of any use to you, how 'bout bringing them with you when you come to the Alumni Banquet this weekend.

Tomorrow morning, like every Wednesday morning, throngs of people will head to the Lewisburg Farmers Market. You can count on about 80 vendors tomorrow, and that is no different than most of the 70-odd years of "The Market's" existence on Fairground Road in East Buffalo Township. The market is open year-round on Wednesdays, with fish markets, butchers, bakers and much more both inside and outside. Three-quarters of the sales at the Lewisburg Farmers Market take place between 9 and noon. Most of the market’s business is conducted in the morning.

American Bandstand started as a local program in Philadelphia and stayed with us on ABC from 1957 to 1987, broadcasting the hottest new recording acts and dances. Eternally young Dick Clark, now 74, won't let go of a good thing. He is trying to market an update of American Bandstand for a summer 2005 debut.

We've been away, but we returned to Benton last night and found multiple presents waiting for us in our basement. We left the basement door open for awhile before we left and a three-legged cat decided to take a basement nap and slept through the closing of the door, her last chance of freedom for a long time. The cat has had a miserable two weeks, since the family it lived with decided to leave town without the cat, making the poor animal homeless. If anyone would like the cat, we suspect that it is yours for the asking. Bring warm milk.

The small town of Gettysburg was the site of the largest battle ever waged during the American Civil War. The town was already 77 years old in 1863, after originally being laid out by James Gettys, who had purchased a
116-acre tract from his father's homestead. By 1786, he had laid out 210 lots around the Square, which still remains as the center of town.

By chance on July 1, 1863, the future of Gettysburg was changed forever. The Battle of Gettysburg, fought in the first three days of July, 1863, resulted in a victory for the Union "Army of the Potomac" and successfully ended the second invasion of the North by General Robert E. Lee's "Army of Northern Virginia." The battle is frequently referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy." It was also the bloodiest single battle of the war, resulting in over 51,000 soldiers killed, wounded, captured or missing.

We'll continue from yesterday with some of the oddities of the war...

• Lincoln was not universally trusted. In the election of 1860, more men in the North than in the South voted for his opponent. Although he ended up being called the "Great Emancipator," that was never the role anticipated for the man. As President, Lincoln had the preservation of the union as his primary objective.
• In April 1861, the New York Times assured its readers through a series of editorials that the "local commotion" in the South could be put to rest "effectually in thirty days."
• Lincoln insisted at first to call the conflict an "insurrection." During the first battle of Bull Run, it became obvious that 75,000 ninety-day volunteers could not be victorious. By July, 1861, the President had to ask Congress for 400,000 troops and $400 million. Lawmakers responded as lawmakers do: they gave the President $500 million. A popular song of the day was We Are Coming, Father Abraham, Four Hundred Thousand Strong. (The song was also known by the same name, only Three Hundred Thousand Strong.)
• History records that President Lincoln was subject to severe mood swings, perhaps prompted by Marfan Syndrome, a hereditary condition that leads to the elongation of bones and abnormalities of the eyes and the cardiovascular system. Perhaps his mood swings came from the kick to the head he received as a child, the result of a mule kicking him. Others suggest that he suffered from petit mal, a type of epilepsy.
• President Lincoln was deeply embroiled in legal tests of matters that touched on the local area and the national level. The disposition of captured ships taken by Federal vessels was a central issue of the period. Attorneys for the owners of the ships Amy Warwick, Brilliant, Crenshaw and Hiawatha argue that the president had pronounced a blockade without authority, since war had not been declared. Had this reasoning prevailed, the legality of the entire conflict would have been at issue. The case was scheduled to be heard in March, 1862, but was deferred until a close friend of the President, David Davis, and two others named by Lincoln to the high court were seated. In addition, Lincoln broke with tradition and nominated and named a tenth member of the judicial body, the former chief justice of the California Supreme Court, Stephen Field. Field had to cross the continent to assume his new position and "pack the court."
• Military exploits unparalleled in the history of America occurred right here in the upper Fishing Creek valley. In what some referred to as the Fishing Creek Confederacy in August, 1864, about 100 local men were rounded up and rousted out of bed without time in most cases to even dress or say goodbye to family or even to have charges read to them. They were marched to the Christian Church in Benton, at that time located on top of Hill Street just up from the covered bridge spanning Fishing Creek. Some prisoners were released, but forty-four prisoners were hurried off without food. There were the elderly and the young, some were sick, some able-bodied, some rich and some poor. The Federal troops shackled the prisoners together and marched them with force and without food through Bloomsburg, then by rail through Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and then to Fort Mifflin. The names of those arrested were common Benton names, and descendents of these 44 remain in the community today. A partial list of names included Coleman, Appleman, Stiles, Chapin, Rantz, Yorks, Everett, Stott, Colley, Benjamin, McHenry, Karns, Davis, Baker, VanSickle and Kline.

Quote of the Day:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I do not believe the nation will fall, but I do believe it will cease to be divided."
--Abraham Lincoln

To the right was the bar, which was especially crowded during the Farmer's Picnic. At the end of the carpeted lobby was a unique coat rack with an oval mirror, deer hear, and deer hooves turned up to hold hats and coasts. The restaurant held 100 guests.

The hotel was run by John Henry Knouse until his death in 1943, then Jacob and Irene Knouse owned and operated the hotel. The hotel was destroyed during a fire that occurred during the flood of hurricane Eloise in September of 1975.

Next in the series will be the former band shell at the Benton Park and it will be available in September. In November of this year will be the O. B. Savage barn and in February, 2004, will be the Long Wagon Works. Contact a member of the Benton U. M. Church to order your copy today.

May 24, 2004.

Leota H. Poust Shaffer, (Jan. 6, 1920-May 22, 2004), 84, died Saturday. She was born in Pine Summit, the daughter of the late Oliver and Della Fenstermaker Poust. She is survived by son, Barry D., Middleburg; and daughters Judy and Linda K., Lancaster and grandchildren. Services will be Thursday at 11 AM at the Benton United Methodist Church, Friends may call just prior to the service. Burial will be at Benton Cemetery.
--from an obituary in Monday's Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary is available.

Frances Moyer, (July 9, 1919-May 22, 2004), 330 W. Third St., Bloomsburg, died Saturday, She was a daughter of the late Albert and Clara (Snyder) Mekeel and graduated from Lehman High School in 1937. Mrs. Moyer worked as a waitress for 20 years at the Heritage House Restaurant and for 20 years at the Kozy Korner Restaurant and last worked for the Mortgaged Inn Restaurant. Her homemade pies were legendary. Mrs. Moyer lived in Stillwater for 45 years and in Benton from 1995 to 1999. She is survived by daughter: Jo Ann Lindner, Bloomsburg; two grandsons and four great-granddaughters: and a brother, Warren Mekeel, Lehman. She was preceded in death by her husband, Emmett M. Moyer, who died Jan. 23, 1969; a son, Robert "Bobby" Moyer, in 1955; and brothers and sisters. Funeral services will be held Tuesday at noon at the McMichael Funeral Home Inc. with burial in the Maple Grove Cemetery, Sweet Valley. Friends and relatives may call Tuesday from 11 AM.
--from an obituary in Monday's Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary is available.

Thomas Hart Benton, a Senator and a Representative from Missouri was born at Harts Mill, near Hillsboro, NC, March 14, 1782; attended Chapel Hill College (now the University of North Carolina) and the law department of William and Mary College, Williamsburg. He was admitted to the bar at Nashville, TN, in 1806 and commenced practice in Franklin, Williamson County, TN; member of the State senate 1809-1811; served as aide-de-camp to General Jackson; colonel of a regiment of Tennessee volunteers from December 1812 to April 1813; lieutenant colonel of the Thirty-ninth United States Infantry 1813-1815; moved to St. Louis, where he edited the Missouri Inquirer and continued the practice of law; upon the admission of Missouri as a State into the Union was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate; reelected in 1827, 1833, 1839, and 1845 and served from August 10, 1821, to March 3, 1851, the first Senator to serve thirty consecutive years; author of the resolution to expunge from the Senate Journal the resolution of censure on Andrew Jackson; unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Senate in 1850; elected as a Missouri Compromise Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress (March 4, 1853-March 3, 1855); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1854 to the Thirty-fourth Congress and for Governor of Missouri in 1856; engaged in literary pursuits in Washington, D.C., until his death there on April 10, 1858; interment in Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis. Benton Township was established in 1850 in honor of Senator Thomas Hart Benton.
--Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949

We find estimates of up to 623,000 soldiers dying in the Civil War. Almost everyone kept a diary or a ledger, newspapers on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line editorialized daily and photographs recorded the major events of the way. If all of the recorded information about the Civil War was bundled it would take a number of large rooms to contain it. We have collected some information about the Civil War that we found interesting and we'll share some of it over the coming weeks. Here is a sample...

. When Abraham Lincoln was chosen to lead the Republican Party over William H. Seward, his advisors recommended that he give no speeches and make no public announcements. (Contrast that to the current election campaign. According to MSNBC, the Bush campaign has already spent at least $40 million and John Kerry has spent about $10 million.) Lincoln was told to stay in Springfield. Mr. Lincoln followed that advice to the letter, so much so that it turned out that he did not meet his vice-president, Hannibal Hamlin, until after Hamlin was elected.

. The superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania Railroad was a man by the name of Thomas A. Scott. He was chosen to become an assistant secretary of war and he elected to take an aide to Washington with him. The aide, then 26, spoke with a soft Scottish accent and soon proved himself very capable with the telegraph and became an executive in the military transportation section of the War Department coordinating rail and telegraph lines of the Union. This man felt that his contributions to the war effort were some of the most important that anyone contributed. Later he entered the iron and steel business and within 25 years the former aide Andrew Carnegie gained controlling interest in U. S. Steel Corporation.

We'll mention this for Kay Hoostie, a native of Arkansas. Confederate soldiers of the Tenth Arkansas Regiment marched off to the Civil War outfitted with immense "saber pistols." Beneath the barrel of the heavy one-shot weapon was a short saber which could be moved into position to "finish off any Yankee who survived the bullet." The Regiment used the pistols in one battle, then threw the weapons away.

. Experienced observers judged the speed of oncoming troops by watching the flag bobbing up and down. When it moved jerkily, it was a signal that the color bearer was moving "double-quick." The flag usually marked the spot at which enemy fire was most concentrated and as a result carrying the flag usually meant death to the unarmed bearer. We read about a brave Confederate soldier by the name of Lt. P. E. Drew, fighting for the South from the state of Louisiana. Four color bearers had been shot to their death, and a fifth took a direct hit. Drew immediately "dropped his gun, caught the colors from the ground and rushed forward with them. He was pierced through the heart just as he reached the second line of works."

The Original Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Festival announced yesterday that the entire Kutztown Folk Festival collection of tools, farm equipment, signs, and buildings will be sold at public auction at the Schuylkill County Fairgrounds on Saturday, June 12. The Kutztown Festival was scheduled to run June 26 through July 4 at the Kutztown Fairgrounds. The festival celebrates the history of the Pennsylvania German culture. You will only find traditional crafts, food, music, and folk life at this festival. At press time, the web site for the festival had not yet made the announcement of the sale.

A reader is looking for a picture of John Kile, Sr. and wives Maria Hess and Hannah Scott. He is also looking for a picture of their son, Nelson Kile, who married Amy Holmes. Can you help?

Ralph Ford, 60, a volunteer from 17 Old Koons Road, Shickshinny, was directing traffic at the Benton Memorial Day parade Sunday, and was struck by a 88-year old woman from Bloomsburg. Ralph stands 6'4", was wearing a big orange vest with reflective tape on it with a big white hard hat on his head at the time. The accident occurred between the UniMart and the bridge on state route 487. The driver's car hit his knee, and Ralph was taken to the Bloomsburg Hospital, then treated and released. His ankle was hurting him Sunday night but Monday morning reports are that is is OK. The next time that you see a community volunteer, thank them for the service they provide. Folks should be glad we have guys like Ralph who do a good job!

		Memorial Day celebration at the Benton Cemetery. County Commissioner Chris Young was the featured speaker.
Picture courtesy of Bob Maynes

Didja know that this year, 38% of shoppers who bought a new car on credit still owed an average of $3,686 on their trade-in, according to Edmunds.com, a consumer car-buying guide?

We would like to mention the recipients of last year's Hall of Fame. They included...
. Percy Brewington.
. Bill Follmer.
. John Herbert Laubach.
. Russell Shultz.
. Dr. Frank C. Laubach.

May 23, 2004. Tom Kline celebrates his birthday today, and sharing his birthday are bandleader Artie Shaw, 94; actress Joan Collins, 71; and singer Jewel, 30.

For those of you who are interested in the genealogy of the people involved in St. Gabriel's Church, there will be an all-day genealogy workshop July 17 in the Church social hall. The St. Gabriel's homecoming will be Sunday, July 18. Sunday services on the 18th will be at 10 AM and 2 PM.

We seem to end up with the darndest questions from readers. One of the strangest was about how Indians of the area kept their health. Our research concluded that the Indians used a lot of different roots and plants as medicinal cures for their various ailments, but they didn't disclose much about their remedies to people who would later provide that information to others.

We did find that bleeding and sweating were the first of the remedies the Indians tried. We found several articles about sweat ovens or sweat lodges, where Indians would go to recover from being a wearied hunter or warrior, or to shake a cold, or to recover a lost appetite as a result of eating something that didn't agree. Sweat ovens written about over the years ranged in size from one that would hold two men to one that would hold six men. In the examples that we found, there were common threads. Generally, the sweat ovens were built on a slope near a creek. It would have a door and Indian men would be assigned for the day to keep the stones warm. These stones would be heated while roots and plants would be boiled to produce a medicine and promote a rapid perspiration. In some cases, the medicine would be used to quench thirst. The Indians would squat in the sweat oven until the perspiration began to flow. Water was often thrown on the stones to produce a steam. The Indians would come out and wrap in a blanket when they felt refreshed or weak. The women never used the men's sweat ovens, but did have ovens of their own. Helen Gammon writes that "the Pima and Navajo call them sweat lodges."

Lindsey Keller is the subject of a feature article in Sunday's Press Enterprise. You may recall that Lindsey, running in her second marathon, recently finished 33rd out of 6,653 women in the Boston Marathon, ninth among American women and 488th in the entire field of 17,950. The article is entitled "Miss do-everything--Field hockey, biking, running, Keller does it all."

The story is told about the time that President Eisenhower invited James Michener to the White House. Michener wrote back, explaining why he could not attend. Michener's letter read,"
"I received your invitation three days after I had agreed to speak a few words at a dinner honoring the wonderful high school teacher who taught me how to write. I know you will not miss me at your dinner, but she might at hers. In his lifetime, a man lives under fifteen or sixteen presidents, but a really fine teacher comes into his life but rarely."

Eisenhower wrote back that he understood.

A really fine teacher and friend came into our life and the lives of hundreds of students at both the Benton Area School System and Bloomsburg University. We'll tell you more about this man later next week, along with others who are being inducted into the Benton High School Hall of Fame at the annual Alumni Banquet. We'll hear each of these fine people speak next Saturday night, or we'll hear from a living relative of the honoree.

Didja know that Pennsylvania now averages $2.019 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline according to the AAA?

In Tom Austin's column in the Press Enterprise with Sunday's byline, he tells the story behind the story of the Fishing Creek Sportsmen's Association giving the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the park $1,000 dollars to buy lime for Lake Jean. The club contributed another $1,400 for a new boat dock for anglers to use at the park. Why the increased emphasis on fishing at Lake Jean? Trout were stocked at Ricketts Glen State Park for the first time this year and the lime was an attempt to achieve an accessible pH count for the trout to survive. To get the rest of the story, make sure you read the article in today's Press Enterprise.

Set your calendars for some events of the summer, including...
• In July: Mifflinburg Buggy Day, July 3; O.A.T.S. Bluegrass Festival, July 1-4, Benton; the Benton Rodeo, Benton Park Flea Market, July 10; July 13 -18; the Iron Heritage Festival, Danville, July 15-18.
• In August: Union County West End Fair, Hartleton, Aug. 2-7; Montour-Delong Community Fair, Aug. 8-14; Sunbury River Festival, Aug. 19-22; New Berlin Day, Aug. 28 .
• In September: Milton Harvest Festival, Sept. 11-18; Beaver Community Fair, Beaver Springs, Sept. 19-25; Market Street Festival, Selinsgrove, Sept. 25; Bloomsburg Fair, Sept. 25-Oct. 2.
• In October: Warrior Run-Fort Freeland Heritage Days, Turbotville, Oct. 2-3

Quote of the Day:
"On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time."
- George Orwell

Didja know that William Henry Harrison served only 32 days, the shortest term of any U.S. president? He served from March 4 to April 4, 1841. He came down with pneumonia shortly after his inauguration and never recovered.

May 22, 2004.

A little over two hundred years ago on this date, a "fever" claimed the life of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (1731-1802), the first of the First Ladies. Martha, a widowed mother of two, and one of the wealthiest women in Virginia following inheritance from her deceased husband, Daniel Parke Custis, married George Washington in January 1759 when she was 27. Life at Mount Vernon, Virginia, was a social whirlwind. Between 1768 and 1775 over 2,000 guests visited the Mount Vernon home.

Martha remained at Mount Vernon when her husband went to Philadelphia as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, but often accompanied him during the war years. George Washington was inaugurated president on April 30, 1789. As the wife of the president, Martha lived with her husband and grandchildren in Philadelphia until they returned to Mount Vernon in 1797. George Washington died at Mount Vernon two years later in December, 1799. Martha was widowed for two and one-half years until she died on this date in 1802.

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

We can't make all the class reunions, but we'll include all the pictures of various classes that you can provide to us.

A unique popcorn, peanuts, and molasses confection that was the forerunner to Cracker Jack caramel coated popcorn and peanuts was introduced at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago's First World Fair. The name "Cracker Jack" came from a salesman who had been given a taste sample of Cracker Jack, then exclaimed, "That's a Cracker Jack!"

What could possibly be more fun than finding the surprise inside a box of Cracker Jacks? The confection even is memorialized at the World Series through the third line of the 1908 song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." "Buy me some peanuts and CRACKER JACKS." "A Prize in Every Box" dates to 1912 when toys are inserted into every package. Borden, Inc. purchased the Cracker Jack Company in 1964. Frito-Lay purchased Cracker Jacks brand from Borden in 1997 and is now the owner of Cracker Jack. Sailor Jack and his dog, Bingo, were added to boxes in 1918. Cracker Jack celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1993. Cracker Jack has been part of baseball for more than a century and was immortalized in the sport's own anthem, which is played during the seventh-inning stretch at ballparks nationwide.

Now it turns out that the New York Yankees have decided to stop selling "Cracker Jack" at the ballpark and replace it with the more profitable "Crunch & Munch," an unknown brand as far as we are concerned. The company, however, says "We've kept mouths crunchin' and munchin' since 1966!" "Crunch & Munch's trademark has been around for over 35 years.

"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."
Jack Norworth wrote this song in 1908. He was riding a New York City subway and spotted a sign that said "Ballgame Today at the Polo Grounds." Some baseball-related lyrics popped into his head, that were later set to some music by Albert Von Tilzer to become "Take Me Out To The Ballgame." Despite the fact that neither Norworth or Tilzer had ever been to a baseball game at the time the song was written, it is one of the most widely sung songs in America.

We always enjoy the sights of Memorial Day, the freshly marked graves so carefully attended to by descendents who remember and care, the former members of the graduating classes of Benton Area High School who for the first time in many years agree to return to an Alumni Banquet and class reunion, the parades and other remembrances for those who have died in our nation's service, the red poppies worn in honor of those who died serving the nation during war, and the huge number of people in a hurried pace carrying used items as if they were priceless and moving as if time were running out. It is time for the annual Memorial Day yard sales and flea markets and the upper Fishing Creek valley will be right there with the best of them!

The term flea market--an open-air street market where a wide variety of merchandise, mostly secondhand, is recycled at bargain prices--could have originated from a couple of different places. One group holds that the first market of this sort, the marché aux puces, was in Paris. The articles sold there were so shoddy that they were likely to gather puces (fleas). The American version of the derivation of flea markets traces back to the Vallie Market located at the foot (or valley) of Maiden Lane during Dutch colonial days on the island of Manhattan. The market was called the "Vlie Market" and mispronounced "Flea Market."

No matter where the term came from, there will be flea markets and garage sales a plenty over the Memorial Day weekend in Jamison City, Central and Benton. Benton's annual rite of turning trash to treasures will be larger than usual with the addition of the use of the fire hall for those who want to go to one "under cover" location to find their bargains. Hungry? No problem, there will also be plenty of food sold. Come early and come prepared!

May 21, 2004. There are 30 days remaining until the official start of summer. On this day in 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed his plane in Paris, completing the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight. Bill and Lori Lenhart celebrate their wedding anniversary today. Don't forget the Rummage Sale running to 5 PM today at Christ the King Church.

On this day in 1901, Connecticut enacted a driver speeding law that stipulated the speed of all motor vehicles should not exceed 12 mph on country highways and 8 mph within city limits.

A new restaurant is set to open next week locally and one is slated to close later this month. We'll start with the Good-Bys! Jillys Restaurant on route 118 in Kyttle closes for good at 2 PM the last Sunday of this month, the 30th. We wish the staff and ownership of the restaurant the best. Jillys is an excellent place for Sunday dinner.

Further up the road by a mile a new Italian restaurant opens next week under the management of Gina and Peter Tomasak. They are the new owners of the Foothills Restaurant, 1417 State Route 118. You can't miss the restaurant with the 3' X 4' lighted sign out front. The restaurant will seat 60. Pete is the author of books like Ricketts' Battery: A History of Battery F, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery and The White Gold of Mountain Springs Lake. He has written for several journals and has edited other books. Pete is in the final stage of wrapping up a fourth book that we'll tell you about soon, and has a fifth book researched and ready to put pen to pencil. Three have been published. We wish Pete and Gina the best in their new endeavor.

We have not been keeping the service personnel as up to date as we could be, but we'll tell you that Erica Feola is in Fort Drum with the 10th Mountain division and will be on her way to Iraq in June. Her address is 204 Brady Road, Sackets Harbor, NY 13685.

The Benton branch of the First Columbia Bank & Trust Co. will conduct a Food Drive in June for the Benton Food Bank starting June 1. The bank is also taking donations of stuffed animals for the 4-H Club. The animals are given to the Bloomsburg State Police for distribution to children during a crisis. The police asked for Teddy Bears but will accept any cuddly animal that is clean and in good condition. Stop at the bank above Benton for further details and with your donations.

In recovery...
• Bill Getz, formerly of Benton, needs prayers and your get-well wishes. Bill is visiting from Cocoa Beach, but fell and fractured his vertebrae and is currently a patient in the Bloomsburg Hospital. Bill is the brother of Alton Getz and Jean Foust. Rose Hack is a niece. He is retired from the U.S. Air Force.
• Carol Gould, daughter of Laura Gould, is recovering from surgery.

There are several theories as to who first discovered anthracite coal. One theory involves a campfire that a hunter by the name of Necho Allen built and which ignited an outcropping of hard coal near Ashland. The Necho Allen theory of who discovered the black gold holds that the event lead to the discovery nearby of the world's richest known vein of anthracite coal.

Others hold that anthracite coal was discovered by a farmer and miller by the name of Philip Ginder in 1791 on Sharp Mountain, nine mile west of the Lehigh River and forty miles north of Allentown. According to the story, Ginder was digging for "good rock" to use as a millstone and returned with what he later called "stone coal." A blacksmith, possibly by accident, caught it on fire. A neighbor, Col. Jacob Weiss, saw the possibilities in what had just happened and had the stone coal taken to Philadelphia for analysis. Weiss, with some partners he picked up in Philadelphia, formed the first coal mining company in the United States, the Lehigh Coal Mine Company.

In 1818, the Lehigh Navigation (the Lehigh Canal) was constructed to carry anthracite coal from the upper Lehigh Valley to Easton. By 1820, a downstream navigation system was completed allowing barges loaded with coal to float from the present town of Jim Thorpe, then called Mauch Chunk, to Easton.

The Lehigh Navigation and the Lehigh Coal Company merged to form the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in 1821. In order to provide both ascending and descending navigation on the Lehigh, the company rebuilt its waterway into a conventional lift lock canal 46 miles long. It had 52 locks, 8 guard locks, 8 dams and 6 aqueducts that ranged over an elevation of almost 355 feet.

Whatever theory of the discovery of anthracite coal you wish to believe, by 1828 coal towns were filled with both opportunists and miners. Prospectors penetrated the mountains with pits, tunnels and shafts and when these holes in the ground filled with water others would be dug. Miners discovered that they could dig much farther by horizontal drilling into the mountain from the foot of a hill. The original Pioneer Colliery at Ashland gave its name to the Pioneer Tunnel which ran 1800 feet into Mahanoy Mountain, owned and operated by the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company from 1911 to 1931.

Anthracite coal is clean burning and gives off less smoke and greater heat than soft coal. Eastern Pennsylvania has 97% of all anthracite in the United States with the balance in Utah. The Pennsylvania deposits geologically occurred within an area of 484 square miles contained in nine counties. The majority of anthracite produced comes from Lackawanna, Carbon, Luzerne, Northumberland, and Schuylkill counties, with additional mining in Wayne, Columbia, Dauphin, and Susquehanna.

The Schuylkill River provided a way to get the coal out of the mountains, and by 1815 the Schuylkill Navigation Company had opened a canal between Pottsville and Pottstown. Financial trusts from Philadelphia bought up huge tracts of anthracite-rich forests and farmlands by 1830, and by the time of the Civil War, any town with anthracite in the ground became a mining bonanza.

Nine trains a day once ran to Philadelphia from Pottsville. Trains don't run from Pottsville to anywhere anymore. The Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company once dug sixty million tons of hard coal per year. By 1795, an anthracite fired iron furnace was established on the Schuylkill River. In 1806, John Pott purchased the furnace and then founded the city of Pottsville.

Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts
-- Nikki Giovanni

Take your dog to obedience school. You'll both learn a lot.

I'm not a snob. Ask anybody. Well, anybody who matters.
-- Simon LeBon

Don't answer the phone when it is not convenient for you. The phone is for your convenience, not the caller's convenience.

Don't rush into important decisions. People will understand if you tell them that you'll "get back to them tomorrow."

May 20, 2004. Joe Labonte was born on this date in 1932 and shares his birthday with Academy Award-winning actor Jimmy Stewart. H.D. Hyde of Reading patented the fountain pen in 1830 on this date.

Lorraine Feola turned 50 on Saturday, May 15, and we forgot to mention it. In fact, if Lorraine's Mother, Orchid Carlson, Kearny, NJ, hadn't told us about it, we would have slept through it completely. Lorraine is the popular co-founder of the bluegrass group, Raven Creek, and the hostess of The Shed at Ivy Farms.

On the West side of town, the new band shelter is under construction at the Rodeo Grounds. The old one was blown down by a bad wind last November. All remnants of that bandstand are now gone, and a new one is under construction in the northeast corner of the rodeo grounds. Construction started on Mother's Day and the floor is in and the walls are going up.

Dan Stoneham played the radio advertising for the upcoming rodeo for us yesterday and the Rodeo Association has scored a winner with their efforts. You'll start to hear these advertisements on the radio and television as we get closer to rodeo time, July 13 through July 18, 2004.

And as a reminder, work night is every Thursday night around 6 PM for rodeo association members. There is always something to do around the grounds to get ready for the rodeo, things like mowing, weed wacking or just cleaning up around the grounds. The meetings of the rodeo association are the last Thursday of every month at the grounds during the summer.

"A wise old bird is the pelican
It's beak holds more than its belican.
It can hold in its beak
Enough food for a week.
Damned if I know how the helican."
--Quoted for no reason other than my mind wandering to the thoughts of buckwheat cakes. We keep checking the list of foods we can eat, but the authors apparently never heard of buckwheat cakes since they never seem to be on the list.

A newcomer to the country and western music world is Josh Turner, a native of Hannah, South Carolina. His popular song currently on the fast track is Long Black Train. The song uses the image of a long black train as a metaphor for temptation, and warns of the eternal consequences of climbing aboard. Josh has a deep, rich voice that is well beyond his 25 years. In fact, MCA signed him after hearing him sing only two songs. Josh, a strong Christian, is an all-American good looking young man you might expect to see on television's "The Bachelor." Take a look and listen at his web site, http://www.josh-turner.com/ , and you'll understand. You may think that you are listening to Randy Travis or Johnny Cash.

You can hear Josh in Pennsylvania on June 4 at the Reinholds Memorial Park in Reinholds, 120 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA, down route 61 past Reading and on June 6, at Del Grosso Park, Tipton, 130 miles from Benton, down route 220 past State College and Tyrone.

Well, I can hear the whistle from a mile away.
It sounds so good but I must stay away.
That train is a beauty makin' everybody stare,
But its only destination is the middle of nowhere.
--"Long Black Train."

Quickies...
• The Press Enterprise reports that Berwick property owners could be hit by a 48% school tax hike next year.
• The Senate yesterday by vote of 99-0 approved $5.6 billion for research, production and stockpiling of vaccines and antidotes for bioterror agents on American soil. That is bipartisan support of the highest order--well, almost the highest. Presidential candidate John Kerry, D-Mass., did not vote.
• The numbers of most of the nation's mobile phones will be compiled later this year in the first wireless directory. Cell phones, once immune to telemarketers and email spammers, could become vulnerable to calls selling cemetery plots soon.
• The number of people who died in crashes involving large trucks last year totaled 217, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
• The Fine Arts Fiesta begins today on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre and runs to Sunday, May 23. A total of 47 artists are promised.
• Take the time to read the article in Thursday's Philadelphia Inquirer about Media, PA, where "people are just working together, trying to help each other, because they love the town." It is a feel-good article about a small Delaware-County town.
• Having trouble seeing? In both Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, click "View" (top toolbar) and go to "Text Size" and make the text as big as you want. No more eye drops required...

PPL Corporation owns and maintains ten area that are listed among the 200 best bird-viewing spots in Pennsylvania according to Audubon Pennsylvania. PPL maintains about 25,000 acres of company-owned land for recreational and educational use. Local PPL sites listed include the Susquehanna Riverlands environmental preserve and its Council Cup Scenic Overlook in Luzerne County; Montour Preserve's Lake Chillisquaque in Montour County; and Lake Wallenpaupack in Wayne County.

Didja know that Elizabeth (Betty) Dressler (1925-2003), known to many as the "Hug Lady" of Jackson Township, was the first triple bypass valve replacement patient from the Harrisburg Polyclinic Hospital to survive? Betty worked the farm, raised the six children, had a "garden the size of Benton," and learned to drive a car at the age of 40. Betty had her first heart attack at the age of 37 and had seven heart attacks by the age of 42. Her surgery took place in 1966, and followed a quick trip to the hospital in the ambulance with Dr. Lee Dippery riding with her, which probably saved her life. Years later, when son Ken had his bypass surgery at the Polyclinic Hospital, Betty and Ken became the first successful mother and son to have bypass surgery from the Polyclinic Hospital.

The Plymouth Historical Society is seeking family recipes for their upcoming cookbook to be available this fall. Anyone can submit a recipe, whether it is a family favorite, something that grandma use to make, something for a family reunion, whatever the case may be. You can also include information such as who the family member was that made the particular dish, any fond memories, etc. Recipes can be sent to Sheila Brandon.

Gasoline prices edged toward $2 a gallon locally for regular unleaded. Here are some representative prices: Catherman's Mobil in Milesburg: $2.069 a gallon; a Texaco station in Pleasant Gap: $2.04. The Snow Shoe Auto Travel Plaza: $2.02. Sheetz in Shamokin Dam: $1.999; Benton QuikMart: $1.959; Benton UniMart: $1.939.

Since we introduced the subject of the "good old days," here are some terms you probably haven't thought of for years. If you are not of a sufficient age, you may have to get someone over 50 to explain the terms to you.
. Fender skirts. Not a car in a dress, but somewhat akin to curb feelers and steering knobs.
. Continental kits were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that attempted to make any car look like a Lincoln Continental.
. Foot feed. If the driver hit the foot feed too hard, emergency brakes were necessary.
. Store-bought, as in a store-bought dress or store-bought candy.
. Coast to coast seems to have been replaced by the term worldwide.
. Wall-to-wall carpeting covered hardwood floors. Now wall-to-wall carpeting is replaced with hardwood floors.
. In a family way was the term for pregnant, which was too graphic. For years we looked at the sky waiting for the stork to arrive.
. Brassiere has turned into plain old bra.
. Unmentionables were discussed in a whisper.
. Divorce was frequently a gay divorcee. Confirmed bachelors and career girls are long gone, too.
. Percolator became a coffeemaker and then simply Mr. Coffee.
. DynaFlow and ElectraLux and the 1963 Admiral TV with SpectraVision.

The subject of the super load was of interest to a number of readers. The convoy consists of nine police cruisers, utility trucks and two haulers from Robbins Transportation Services carrying an industrial wood dryer on its way to Lock Haven. The trucks have been tying up roads since May 6, as part of their journey from Fairless Hills to a paper pulp factory in Lock Haven. Each of the two truck and trailer combinations measure 234 feet long, with 22 axles and counting cargo stands over 20 feet high and weights over 900,000 pounds. The trailers range from 18 feet wide to 24 feet wide. Each truck has two drivers. The trucks each have 650-700 horsepower and can tool along a straight stretch of I-80 at breakneck speeds up to 30 mph. Crossing bridges, a technique called crabbing is used. Because both the back and front of the vehicle can be steered, the truck crosses almost sideways in both lanes of traffic to evenly distribute the weight.

From route 192 West of Lewisburg, the convoy caught Route 880 to Loganton. After spending last night, the trucks will continue to Lock Haven, delivering the loads this evening.

Common looking people are the best in the world. That is the reason the Lord made so many of them.
--Abraham Lincoln

Please use your seat belts today. We would like you to join us again tomorrow.

We have a holiday coming up. Do you have Old Glory ready to be flown?

If you are never on time, try setting your watch five minutes fast. It won't help, but it shows that you are trying.

Today would be a good day to take the scenic route

Meanness don't happen overnight.

It was on this date in 1860 that Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the presidency by the Republican National Convention and Hannibal Hamlin was nominated for the vice-presidency. Lincoln was a Kentucky-born lawyer and former Whig representative to Congress. He gained his national stature during his campaign against Senator Douglas for the Illinois senate seat in 1858 over the issue of slavery in what became known as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Lincoln argued against the spread of slavery. Douglas argued that each territory should have the right to decide whether it would become free or slave. Lincoln lost that senate race, but gained his party’s presidential nomination. That November Lincoln again faced Democrat Douglas, Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell.

Lincoln defeated his opponents with only 40% of the popular vote, becoming the first Republican President. The announcement of his victory signaled the secession of the Southern states as promised if Mr. Lincoln won. By the time of Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven states had seceded and the Confederate States of America had been formally established with Jefferson Davis as its elected president. One month later, the American Civil War began when Confederate forces under General P. G. T. Beauregard opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

It was 24 years ago today when Mount St. Helens, a volcanic peak in the Cascade Range of southwestern Washington, blew its 9,680 stack in a massive eruption which killed 57 people and devastated 210 square miles of wilderness. Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of the mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown over or left dead and standing. At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted 9 hours. In 1982, the 110,000-acre National Volcanic Monument was created on the spot.

Buster and Chloe wanted you to know about the new law in Pen Argyl, PA, 95 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA [E on I-80, then S on route 33]. The town is no longer a "pooper scooper" town. A new law forces dog owners to walk their pooches in the street and attempts to prohibit animals from relieving themselves on some public property or private property owned by someone other than the owner of the dog. Sidewalks are off limits, so pet owners say they've walking their pets in the street. Violators of the new ordinance can be fined from $50 to $1,000 or face 30 days in jail.

We are frequent visitors to California and so we tend to keep our eye on Governor Schwarzenegger. You'll remember that he started as popular as pie six months ago. We looked over his shoulder yesterday and found the polls say he has a 64% job-approval rating. His $100 billion budget, somewhat comparable to France, isn't raising taxes and has every promise of being approved on schedule by June 15. What a concept! The governor proposes a budget to the legislature, the legislature barely gets out its blue pens, they pass the budget and the governor signs the bill into law. Compare that to our state! The state deficit was covered with a $15 billion bond, which voters approved in a referendum. The legislative agreed to support the Governor in reforming the costly state workers' compensation system. Confidence is coming back to California, although problems like highways and water and education still need to be tended to. We don't recall the exact words Jay Leno once used, but it was something like Governor Schwarzenegger could be President in that he has the appeal of Ronald Reagan as an actor and the difficulty with the English language that George W. Bush has, and he's got a little Clinton in there, too!

Didja know that Pennsylvania is only one of three in the nation without a law that makes it a crime for a pilot to fly while intoxicated?

Make sure that you have the concert of the Stillwater Christian Church's Brush Arbor Choir on your calendar for Saturday and Sunday evening at 6.

We didn't get time this weekend to say anything about various emails we received over the week making claims that were unknown to be true or untrue. One claim asked readers to participate in a one-day "gas out" May 19 in order to help lower the retail price of gasoline. That email first come on the scene in 1999, and resurfaced in 2000. In both years, there was virtually no participation or effect on retail gasoline prices. The current version is no different.

"Not purchasing a drop of gasoline for one day" won't make oil companies "choke on their stockpiles." Oil company inventories are on a weekly basis. The "gas out" scheme doesn't ask people to buy less gasoline but simply to shift their date of purchase by one day. Oil company stockpiles won't be affected at all and certainly will not "hit the entire industry with a net loss of over $4.6 billion." Consumers will simply buy gas a day earlier or a day later than they usually would. The very same amount of gasoline will be sold either way.

Ever wonder what the news was all about 100 years ago? A Morning Press for approximately this time in 1904 included the following events of local interest...
. Five cases of smallpox have hit the families of Frank Hess and Watler Hess of Fritz Hill.
. Miss Richmond, "late of New York City, wishes to make engagements with the ladies of Bloomsburg at their homes for shampooing, scalp treatment, facial massage, manicuring, electrical treatment for the scalp and face steaming."
. F. P. Pursel, Market Square, Bloomsburg, advertised that "It is a season of dignified stuffs--all the colors one wants, but no freakishness of weave. Such a season calls for good goods--quality shows on plain fabrics. Quaint grays, modes and browns are good. Big splotchy designs are not in good form."

You might not want to speed on Italian highways this year. You might find yourself being chased by a Lamborghini. Italian police now own a 500 horsepower, two-seater Lamborghini Gallardo, which can hit a top speed of 185 miles per hour. The sports car, painted in the police's distinctive blue and white colors, has a flashing blue light on the roof.

I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Give the best you have to your employer. It is one of the best investments that you can ever make.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. ~ Henry Ford

Loosen up and relax! Except for a couple of life and death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems.

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.
~ Lloyd Alexander

Be curious forever. Ask "Why" a lot.

Try not to tell people how something should be done. Try telling them what needs to be done. You'll quickly be surprised at the creative solutions that come up.

On this date in 1932, the US Congress officially changed the name of the US protectorate of Porto Rico to Puerto Rico, restoring the original non-Anglicized, spelling of the Caribbean island’s name. On this day in 1954, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The ruling stated that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees equal protection of the laws to all citizens.

Make sure that you read the article in today's Press Enterprise about Barbara Barnes Thirtle, the guest speaker yesterday at St. Gabriel's Church.

We have come a long way since 1943 when the US Army contracted with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop an electronic computer later known as ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). The computer took more than three years to build. It might be an appropriate time to review some essentials for email...
• Don't be confrontational.
• Never assume an email that you are sending will be read only by the person you intend it for. Never say anything you would be ashamed or embarrassed to see on the evening news.
• Keep your ego and power in check. Email bullies aren't popular. Remember that there are at least two sides to every issue. Real people with real hearts and feelings are behind each email address and web site.
• Don't write in technobabble.
• DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS.

Didja know that state wildlife officials estimate that 30,000 coyotes live in Pennsylvania? Eastern coyotes can weigh 45 to 60 pounds and stand two feet at the shoulder. They are capable of sprinting about 40 miles an hour. Mark Twain described the coyote as "not a pretty creature or respectable either, for I got well acquainted with his race afterward, and can speak with confidence. The cayote is a long, slim, sick and sorry-looking skeleton, with a gray wolf-skin stretched over it, a tolerably bushy tail that forever sags down with a despairing expression of forsakenness and misery, a furtive and evil eye, and a long, sharp face, with slightly lifted lip and exposed teeth. He has a general slinking expression all over. The cayote is a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry."
The Pennsylvania Game Commission reports that 1,810 coyotes were trapped or shot in 1990. Ten years later, that number exceeded 11,000.

Views on Joe Paterno's contract to coach Penn State football through 2008 seem more closely divided than polls weighing Senator Kerry's chances against President Bush.

Quote of the Day:
"As we know,
"There are known knowns.
"There are things we know we know.
"We also know there are known unknowns."
--Donald Rumsfeld, from his Feb. 12, 2002, briefing on the situation in Iraq.

In a noisy world, wisdom whispers. Listen closely.

Some may remember during the War Years when...
• On this date in 1940, the Nazis occupied Brussels, Belgium, and began the invasion of France.
• During a three-month period in 1944 that the American Car and Foundry Company, Berwick, turned out 1,000 tanks, equaling in that time period the tank yield of the plant for the first year of production during the war. Guy C. Beishline, formerly of the 4-G farm, Benton, was the district manager of the firm. Others responsible for the manufacture of the 13-ton tanks were Herman Amble, tank engineer, and H. H. Ensign, superintendent of the ordinance division in the Berwick plant.
• An air raid alarm meant two blasts of the siren and an all clear signal meant one blast of siren. During an alarm, no one was allowed to use a phone, except in the case of an emergency. The instructions were clear: "All lines must be kept clear." All active firemen were requested to report to the fire station during an air raid, since during an air raid the fire alarm would never be sounded. If you were not a fireman and the alarm went off, you were to immediately park and go for shelter.
• In February, 1942, Mrs. Carl Kline entertained "little guests" for daughter Madge's 8th birthday. Attending were Miriam and Barbara Keller, Janet Follmer, Shirley Ann Buck [lived on Market Street, where Ike and Jo Chapin lived], Margaret Ann Ash [lived where Carol Vance now lives], Carlamae Hess, Laura Comstock, Joyce Hess [lived in the double house where the Stevens family lived on Railroad Street], Joan Marie Polk [lived on Railroad Street], Opal Marie Doty, Betty Phillips, Marlene Penman, Joy Adamson, Dolores Hess, Ruthann Stoker [lived in the "other side" of the L. Ray Appleman house] and Madge Kline.
• Edwin W. Carpenter, then 64, State Game Protector, passed away in 1942 and is buried in the Benton Cemetery. He was known as "Ed" to thousands of hunters and fishermen. The immediate cause of death was listed as influenza, but he had never really regained his health following pneumonia about two years previously. Ed had started as a lumberman, but turned to employment with the Commonwealth when veterans of the outdoors were being recruited for the job at the Game Preserve above Jamison City. He remained with the state for 21 years and although we don't know this for certain we have always been told that he walked the line of the game preserve almost every day of his working career. His son, Earl, was a game protector in Doylestown at the time of Ed's death. Dayne Kline remembers that "everyone kept a jaundiced eye open for Ed."
• Sixty-two years ago this week, Elery Hess played trumpet in the all-state band festival in Millvale (outside Pittsburgh). Sidney Rosbach was "instructor of music" at the local school at that time. As part of the festival, the group broadcast live over radio station KDKA.
• Local residents had until November 30, 1942, to turn in to their rationing boards the serial numbers of the five tires "they desire to retain" for use on their automobiles. Dec. 12 was the deadline for motorists to turn over all their excess tires to the Government without suffering penalties. An OPA inspector examined all tires along with the lower part of Form 534 from December 1 through January 31.
• in 1943 on this date, the Memphis Belle, one of a group of American bombers based in Britain, performed its 25th and last mission in a bombing raid against Lorient, a German submarine base.

We heard about the farm hand near Waller who was leaning on his John Deere when a Firebelch 500 came roaring over the top of the hill. The driver slammed on his brakes and yelled out the window for directions to route 487. The farmer said he didn't know. The driver then asked how to get to route 239. The farmer thought for a moment, then said he didn't know. The driver then asked about Benton, asked which direction it was from there. The farmer wasn't sure. The driver raced his engine in frustration and said to the farmer that he didn't know very much, did he! "Nope," the farmer, replied, "But I'm not lost, am I."

Going West, Young Man? Watch out for the super load again moving on area highways this morning. The super load is a large dryer on a special truck equipped with 22 axles. It is 235 feet in length, 20 feet high and 20 feet long. The weight is almost a half-million pounds. The load was too tall to clear the overpass bridge at Lightstreet and used local roads. Back on Westbound I-80 west, the super load exited at the Buckhorn Interchange, again because of physical restrictions along the interstate. The dryer then headed north on Route 42 to Millville, where it turned left onto Route 254 to I-80 at Limestoneville (Exit 215). On I-80 westbound, the super load travels to Exit 210, where it gets onto Route 15 northbound to the White Deer Exit. At White Deer, it picks up Old Route 15 Road (Route 1011) southbound to West Milton. In West Milton, the super load, heading south, will enter the northbound exit ramp and travel several miles south in the northbound lanes. Going south on Route 15, the dryer will turn right onto Route 45 at Lewisburg. Following Route 45 west, the super load will then turn north onto Buffalo Road (Route 3007) in Mifflinburg, north on Buffalo Road to Forest Hill, and Route 192 west for further adventures in Centre County.

I have totally ruled it out.
--John McCain, talking about a Kerry-McCain ticket for the November election.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can
do him absolutely no good.
-- Ann Landers

I have always been on the side of the heretics, against those
who burned them because the heretics so often turned out to
be right. Dead, but right.
-- Edward Roscoe Murrow

May16, 2004

Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.

May 16, 2004. Don't forget the bluegrass jam at Jerseytown today.

The May meeting of the Fishing Creek Femme Fatale Chapter of the Red Hat Society will be held May 19 at the Cloverleaf Barn, 129 McCracken Road, Danville, just off I-80. Please call Marilee Yost,925-6718, or Queen Mother Carol Vance, 925-2591, if you would like a ride. Luncheon is at 2, but consider coming early to shop the antique mall. Luncheon is a quiche, salad, beverage and dessert for $9.00, excluding tip and tax. Guests are welcome, but proper attire is required; i.e., purple outfit and red hat . Program will a special guest playing the Hammered Dulcimers and of course the wine tasting. The chapter is open to new members. Please plan to attend this most special program.

The doughnuts-and-coffee crowd will be happy to know that Dunkin' Donuts and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are teaming up. The chain will open stores inside ten Wal-Mart stores, none locally. If the stores do well, additional stores will be added. The Wal-Mart SuperCenter that opened near Camp Hill this week is gigantic, possibly the largest one we have ever been in, and it has a nice feature for the men who have to lolly-gag around while their wives search for goodies. The store includes a wireless area where you can sit with your laptop and get your email and troll the Internet. Big seems to be the order of the day, in that the new Giant grocery store in Camp Hill will be 91,000 square feet. We suspect that their motto will be "Where's the beef?"

We thought that recovering from an operation gave special privileges. We were wrong. When we arrived at the house after leaving the hospital, I was asked if I would like dinner.

"What are my choices?" I asked.

"Yes or no," was the quick response.

On this date in 1868, President Andrew Johnson came within one vote of "high crimes and misdemeanors," charged in the Senate under the articles of impeachment. A second vote on May 26 of that year also fell short of the two-thirds majority required to convict the president.

Johnson was a Southern Democrat who became president after Lincoln's assassination, but he was following a tough act and his plan allowing former Confederate states to send representatives to Congress as soon as their legislatures approved a constitution recognizing the abolition of slavery almost ended his presidential career.

In 1865, while Congress was in recess, Johnson recognized a reconstruction government in the former Confederate states, except Texas. The states then passed "Black Codes" limiting freedmen's rights. Congress then passed the Freedmen's Bureau and Civil Rights Bills to empower those the codes repressed. Johnson vetoed both bills, forcing Congress to pass the first override in U.S. history protecting the civil rights legislation.

Congress approved the Fourteenth Amendment, which Johnson recommended that the states refuse to ratify. Congress responded by passing the Army Appropriations Act to thwart the president's power as commander-in-chief and repassed the Freedman's Bureau Act and overrode Johnson's veto.

Passage of the Tenure of Civil Office Act only heightened the antagonism between Johnson and the Congress. The Act forbid him to remove office holders, including Cabinet members, without the Senate's approval. The Act, formulated in language akin to that used in the Constitution to describe grounds for impeachment, made the removal of office holders without Senate approval a "misdemeanor in office."

Johnson's Cabinet advised him the Act was likely invalid, and he defied Congress by discharging Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton on February 21, 1868. He appointed Ulysses Grant who served five months then stepped down and joined with the Republicans. Johnson then appointed Lorenzo Thomas, but this time Stanton, who had actually been working with radicals in Congress, barricaded himself inside his office.

This deadlock culminated in the first impeachment proceedings in U.S. history. In February 1869, the House voted articles of impeachment and seven House Managers, including former Civil War Majors General Benjamin F. Butler and John A. Logan, prepared Johnson's trial. Lincoln appointee Salmon Chase, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, presided. Ten of eleven articles concerned the Tenure and Army Appropriations Acts; the last article claimed Johnson had attempted to undermine the Congress.

Between May 16 and May 26, when the vote was called a second time, enormous pressure and actual threats were brought to bear on the seven Republicans who joined the Senate's twelve Democrats to vote against conviction. Yet the final count, 35 to 19, remained one vote short of the two-thirds needed for conviction.

Several people who don't know the Benton area, but nevertheless read the Benton News, asked for more description of the ridge and valley countryside surrounding our area. The readers wanted to know what made things different here from other places. We immediately thought of the boundaries that historically have made our area difficult to reach. To the East, far beneath the ground, lay the anthracite coal fields that created a very different life style. To the North lay a formidable "mountain" that made winter travel difficult, but our forefathers nevertheless carved out a narrow stagecoach path in order to reach the lower boundaries of New York State. Our typical entrance to the upper Fishing Creek valley followed a trout stream from the South, where the valleys were wider, the passage was easier and the soil easier to work. For most of us, our commuting patters haven't changed much over the years.

We have adhered to the promises made by Quaker William Penn that dates back to 1681, and we do seem to live friendlier in this part of the world. We have pictures of men riding on locally made carts behind their oxen on unpaved streets waving to their neighbors in their unpainted houses, able to sip on rye whiskey as abundant as today's soft drink, shortly after consuming their hot buckwheat cakes for breakfast and before they ate their cold, rolled buckwheat cakes for "dinner" the local term for lunch, while dressed as though they were heading for the Champs-Elysées, the men in their white shirts and ties and the women in their hooped skirts. This is home, this place Back Home in Benton, PA, and no matter where we are today it is good to know that life continues the same.

Take a 30-minute walk today.

Practice empathy today. Try to see things from other people's points of view.

Don't burn your bridges today. You have to cross this river again soon.

May 15, 2004

Show a lot of enthusiasm today, even if you don't feel like it.

Take good care of those you love.

May 15, the 136th day of 2004. There are 230 days left in the year. The Benton News was not published Friday, May 14, and therefore we missed the birthdays of Eugene Bardo, Jr. and Jackie Davis. Happy belated birthday! If you see Rosalie and Arden Harrison today, wish then a happy 40th anniversary.

This is Armed Forces Day. President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish a single holiday to thank our military for their patriotic service in support of our country. Armed Forces Day replaced separate Army, Navy, Marines Corp and Air Force days. The single-day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces in the Department of Defense. The entire month of May is actually Military Appreciation Month. You can express your gratitude to individual members of the Armed Services by signing the on-line form at http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html .

In 1942 on this date, gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 states limiting sales to three gallons a week for non-essential vehicles. The French would say, Ah, les bons vieux temps ou nous etions si malheureux! which translates into something like, "Oh, the good old times when we were so unhappy!" But guess what! We are still unhappy with the current state of gasoline. And speaking of the "old days," Edna Laubach underwent a knee replacement at Williamsport a year ago at this time, and Lee Remley underwent a heart by-pass.

The Webmeister of the Benton News was released from Holy Spirit Hospital, Camp Hill, Friday morning following the implanting of a coronary stent system in his left anterior coronary artery and the insertion of several balloons in posterior descending arteries. Other problem areas were left for improvement by lifestyle changes through proper nutrition, infusion of medicine and exercise. Fred Allen once said that a committee is a group of men who individually can do nothing, and as a group decide that nothing can be done. Such was not the case with the committee of medical personnel who treated my coronary arteries.

The Benton Volunteer Fire Company, along with firemen from Unityville, Millville and North Mountain, responded to a fire alarm early Friday evening, a fully engulfed barn on fire at 132 Mendenhall Road, Waller. The farm is owned by Jerry Newhart and his wife Geraldine Newhart, a member of the Benton School Board. Livestock and a pet dog were lost, along with hay and straw. The Press Enterprise reports that son, Mike Newhart, 21, saved a horse and one cow.

The month of May, the merry month of May,
So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green!
O, and then did I unto my true love say,
Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my Summer's Queen.
--Thomas Dekker

If getting away from the rain forecast for today sounds good to you, take a road trip. Follow the Susquehanna South with your fishing gear and camera and visit a few antique shops on the way.
. If you're heading into the Pennsylvania Dutch country of Lancaster County, try www.padutchcountry.com/ for tips on attractions and events. Make a note of the July 17 quilt auction at the Rothsville Volunteer Fire Company. Directions on a suggested tour of covered bridges are listed under "Outdoors."
. Take a look at the Harrisburg-Hershey-Central PA Welcome Center, for information about the state, Capitol, Carlisle and Hershey chocolate. Try the site at www.hersheyschocolateworld.com/, and the Hershey Museum at www.hersheymuseum.org/ or the Hershey Capital Region at www.pacapitalregions.com/ .
. A trip we often forget is one up the Juniata River Valley, so check out www.juniatarivervalley.org/ if you want scenery, antique shops and bread and breakfast get-aways.
. The Susquehanna Valley Visitors Bureau has a good web site, www.visitcentralpa.org/ about the area where the Susquehanna's west and north branches meet.
. Williamsport and Lycoming County are covered by www.williamsport.org/visitors/index.htm , and that includes the 64-mile-long Pine Creek Rail Trail. The Little League World Series , www.littleleague.org/ comes up August 20-29.
. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has a parks guide at www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/ and the state forests has a guide at www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/stateforests/ .
. Need a license? Go to www.pahuntandfish.com/ . The state's website at Experience PA www.experiencepa.com/ , can give you many more ideas..
. Or do as we shall do! Go to the benefit Yard Sale, 8 AM to 4 PM, Millville Friends Meeting House, or the inside yard sale at Caldwell Consistory. Stay home and watch Smarty Jones become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. A lot of people like that horse. Take a look at his web site at http://www.teamsmartyjones.com/ . There is excellent cooking available later tonight in local restaurants or try...
. The Raven Creek Church Ice Cream Festival from 4 to 7 PM in the community hall on Raven Creek Road.
. Dinner is served buffet style from 4 PM today at the Fairmount Volunteer Fire Company, Route 118, The menu includes ham, scalloped potatoes/gravy, two vegetables, dessert, beverage. Adults, $5; children, $3.50.
. The Sugarloaf Fish Supper is served family style today from 3:30 to 7 PM at the Sugarloaf School memorial building. Includes homemade ice cream, baked goods. Adults, $9; ages 6 to 12, $4.

We appreciate the reader who told us how much she enjoys The Benton News as her home page. Of course, we recommend that you make the Benton News your home page. Didja know that a way of creating a shortcut to a Web site that you want to visit later is to right click anywhere on the page you are viewing (but not on a picture) and chose "Create Shortcut." This puts a link to that site right on your desktop. Another reader asked about spyware programs that get on your computer from bogus web pages. Some spyware programs use popup download boxes. Whether you click cancel, OK, or the X in the top right-hand corner it starts downloading. If you think that you are getting a spyware program that you don't want because of a trick download, hit the combination of ALT + F4 keys as soon as you see the popup appear. The ALT+F4 Key Combo immediately closes the popup window.

The goal in marriage is not to think alike, but to think together.
- Robert C. Dodds

You don't stop laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop laughing.
- Michael Pritchard

It is very hard to believe that it has been a year since Neil Metcalf, then 62, died in Kingston from work-related injuries. And a year ago at this time, Theresa Hartman had another six weeks of casts to look forward to before she could walk again following her fall and Ruth Kline was in a hospital care unit with heart-related items. A year later, Theresa is doing just fine, and Ruth is much improved with her heart problems of a year ago. However, this year Ruth is confined to a chair or a bed following the serious fracture of one ankle and a serious sprain in the other ankle.

Birders from all across Pennsylvania will meet at PPL Corporation's Montour Preserve for the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology's annual meeting Saturday, May 15, and Sunday, May 16. The preserve is among 200 recommended birding sites in the state by Audubon Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology fosters the study and appreciation of the state's birds and promotes the conservation of birds and their habitats. Program information is available on the society's Web site at www.pabirds.org.

Didja know that
. PPL Corporation controls about 11,500 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy to nearly 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America. More information is available at www.pplweb.com.
. Millville High School Alumni Association will hold their alumni banquet June 12. Dinner will be in the cafeteria and awards will be given in the auditorium afterwards. The program begins at 6:00 PM.

• Up in Sullivan County, the School Board approved a $10.4 million tentative school budget for the 2004-05 school year, which includes a 5.5% increase in the property tax rate.
. The State Senate has confirmed acting Sheriff Tim Chamberlain, 36, to be Columbia County's new sheriff, completing the term of former Columbia County Sheriff Harry A. Roadarmel Jr.

There once was a man from O'Clare
who tempted to bugger a bear
but the veruous brute took a swipe at his root
and left nothing but buttons and hair.
--Contributed by Donald Rabb, a man who has made many attempts to bugger a bear!

The 1952 high school senior class officers were Donald Baker, President; Wayne Baker, Vice-President; Beverly Dietterick, Secretary; and William Follmer, Treasurer. The yearbook, the Kaleidoscope, was dedicated to L. Ray Appleman, an educator in the local school system for 52 years.

The Benton High School Honor Roll was published in today's Press Enterprise. Share your pleasure at seeing a familiar name!

Scores of former Benton residents will soon be returning for the Alumni Banquet and other visitors will be beating down our doors to get a taste of the country. And what to do with these visitors?

We have the small and delightful family restaurants so unlike the Cracker Barrels with their strange vegetable soup ingredients, and we have the antique shops with the locally manufactured woodwork items and the things that your visitors will never see "in the city," and we have our rodeos and our bluegrass festivals and we have our carnivals where high school kids try (and succeed) in dunking their teachers, and we have our parades where everyone tries (and succeeds) to get wet, and we have our Endless Mountains and our lush farmland. We are, in fact, the best town by a dam site in the known world!

At the risk of offending someone, we also suggest that you cart Cousin Cornelius in the car and take her for a ride through our wonderful backwoods. How 'bout this for a trip...

. Begin at milepost 1 Back Home in Benton, PA. Head North 13 miles to Ricketts Glen State Park, for your first stop.

. Proceed North on Route 118 to Dallas, then East on Route 309 to I-81 and then North to Steamtown National Park for your second stop 50 miles up the road.

. Proceed North and west 23 miles to Tunkhannock for your next stop.

. Take a leisurely ten mile ride over Pennsylvania Highway 29 south and west to State Route 3003. Then go north to North Mehoopany, then take State Route 4002 north to Township Road 443, and 443 northwest to State Route 3001, which runs northwest ten miles to Laceyville in the northwest corner of Wyoming County on the North Branch on the Susquehanna River.

Laceyville has a three-story building on Main Street which is simply called the Oldest House and dates back to 1781 when it was built as a stopping point for canal boats on the Susquehanna River. Local historians say it is the oldest frame house in all of the Endless Mountains. The North Branch Canal was completed in 1857 and provided an easier and safer mode of travel than the river with its rafts and riverboats. Farm products, stone from quarries, lumber and other goods were hauled on the large river freighters known as Durham boats and coal from the anthracite mines and other products were brought back. Later, in the late 1860’s, the railroad replaced the canal.

In the mid-1800s, children's books were often published anonymously, so that a man whose birthday occurred today is not well known. It was, for example, not until the third edition of his book of limericks in 1861 that his name was revealed. The man was poet Edward Lear, born in London in 1812. He suffered from epilepsy, asthma, poor eyesight, and chronic depression. Had you been alive when Lear was alive, you would know him for his landscape paintings and drawings , but today he's best known for his nonsense poetry like The Owl and the Pussycat and poetry in the form of limericks , a verse form in five lines (aabba). Tennyson, Kipling and W.S.Gilbert later followed in his style.

There was a Young Lady of Clare,
Who was sadly pursued by a bear;
When she found she was tired,
She abruptly expired,
That unfortunate Lady of Clare.
--Edward Lear

The event of the death of Edward Lear took place on a Sunday in May 1888. Invitations were sent out well in advance. The invitations read: Mr. Edward LEAR, Nonsense Writer and Landscape Painter Requests the Honor of Your Presence On the Occasion of his DEMISE. San Remo 2:20 a.m. The 29th of May Please reply. Lear's death became so popular that revivals of the event were often staged but no one knows how it came about.

Ronald C. Poles, 70, (Jan. 18, 1934-May 11, 2004), 5063 State Route 487, Benton, died Tuesday at Geisinger-Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Wilkes-Barre. He had been employed by Fishing Creek Outfitters in rural Benton and with his wife, Dotty, had owned and operated the former Blue Heart Bed and Breakfast, Five Points Road. He was an Eucharistic minister with Christ the King Catholic Church. Surviving are his wife, Dotty, children Jean M. Reiss, Toms River, NJ; Linda L. Deglman, Milford, NJ; Ronald A. Poles, Flanders, NJ. Seven grandchildren and a sister, Carol Ann Clay, also survive. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 10 AM Friday at Christ the King Catholic Church. Burial will be in St. Gabriel's Cemetery, Sugarloaf Township. A viewing will be held Thursday from 6 to 8 PM at McMichael Funeral Home Inc.
--based on an obituary in the Press Enterprise. Read the newspaper for complete details.

Alanna M. Bath, a 2002 graduate of Benton Area High School, was recently inducted into Kappa Delta Pi, the Wilkes University Chapter of the Education National Honor Society. Alanna is entering her junior year as a music education major at Wilkes University this fall. Alanna also made the Dean's List for this Spring 2004 semester with a GPA of 3.91, and a cumulative GPA of 3.6.

We have something for you to say fast five times: Benton Boys Basketball Booster Basket Bingo takes place at the Benton Volunteer Fire Company Sunday, May 16. The cost is $20 per player and all players must be ticket holders. Over $1,000 in baskets will be given away, plus door prizes. Doors open at 1 PM, and bingo starts at 2 PM. Tickets are available at the door, but seats are limited. Refreshments are available, please call 925-0141 for information.

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

The Farmer's Almanac suggests grouping these herbs together in the garden:
BASIL - Plant with tomatoes. Repels flies and mosquitoes.
CARAWAY - Plant here and there. Loosens soil.
DILL - Plant with cabbages. Keep away from carrots.
GARLIC - Plant near roses and raspberries. Deters Japanese beetles.
MINT - Plant near cabbage and tomatoes. Deters white cabbage moths.
ROSEMARY - Plant near cabbage, beans, carrots, and sage. Deters cabbage moths, bean beetles, and carrot flies.
SAGE - Plant near rosemary, cabbage, and carrots. Deters cabbage moths and carrot flies.
THYME - Plant near cabbage. Deters cabbage worms.

Do you need to know the meaning of sprinkling trust, toxic tort or some equally puzzling legal term? Look up your legal terms at http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/dictionary/wordindex.cfm .

We are currently putting together a short history of Rhorsburg which we'll include here within the next two weeks. We welcome pictures of any of the three churches, the five stores or the hotel that once stood in the town. We welcome any human interest stories that you might like to share.

In the coming weeks we may be slowing up a bit on the Benton News. We haven't been feeling the best lately and so Thursday morning about 6 we'll check into Holy Spirit Hospital, Camp Hill, for a heart catheterization scheduled for 7:30 AM. We didn't do well on a stress test and we followed with a similar performance with a nuclear stress test, and falling asleep at 9 at night is losing its appeal. We are going to try the route that the doctors want us to take and so you might not see us around for a little while. We'll be back as soon as we are feeling up to it.

We are only young once. That is all society can stand.
Bob Bowen

May 11, 2004

A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice.
Bill Cosby

You are the music while the music lasts.
T. S. Eliot

For reasons we don't fully understand, we often talk about roads and this morning we'll say a few things about wooden roads. We previously discussed the corduroy roads that were used as stagecoach runs on the Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike, and we have talked about the plank roads in Sullivan County that existed for a very short time in Jamison City and for a longer period in Thorndale.

The first plank road that we can find a record of ran from the tip of Lake Oneida in New York state to the Erie Canal at Syracuse. This road dates back to July of 1846. Historians have noted that the road was made of four inch Hemlock planks cut 8 feet in length. The success of this road set off a rash of plank road building in other states and soon thousands of miles of plank roads existed. Wood set in water can last hundreds of years, as evidenced by the corduroy roads still existing on the old abandoned turnpike on top of Red Rock Mountain that date back 150 years. Wood that is wet then dry, frozen then hot, will not last long as the base for a road, and soon the public got very disinterested in wooden road construction.

Layered and rolled shale and gravel came into favor as the wooden roads deteriorated. In dry areas like the deserts of the Southwest, wood roads continued to be used into the 20th century. An interesting account of early automobile travel West of Yuma across the Algodones Dunes by plank roads can be found at http://www.outwestnewspaper.com/plank.html .

Didja know that...
• Caldwell Consistory, Bloomsburg, will host a flea market May 15 from 8:30 AM. Members of Benton Lodge #667 F&AM, will set up a table and sell items. All of the proceeds will go toward a scholarship to be given to a senior at Benton High School. We'll see you at the flea market.
• When we talk about the Kentucky Derby, Pennsylvania in the past 14 years produced more winners of the roses than any state other than Kentucky. Virginia, Florida, and New York were each represented by one Derby winner during that time span. Pennsylvania has one of North America's more successful breeding programs.
• Carol Lehet graduated May 8 from James Madison University with a BA in English with a minor in Writing and Rhetoric. She is the daughter of Carlene Bender, Forksville, and Richard Lehet, Benton, the granddaughter of Nancy Fox and the great granddaughter of Jacob and Mary Janey.
• Nationally, gasoline prices rose by slightly more than 10 cents per gallon in the past two weeks and motorists are forking over about $2 per gallon for fuel. If you want to know the price of gas where you live, go to http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgas_index.asp where at press time the highest price in the nation for regular unleaded was $2.539 in Friday Harbor, WA, and the lowest price was in Herndon, VA, at $1.509.
• Country singer Charley Pride, 66, is expected to make a full recovery following brain surgery for a subdural hematoma, a blood clot that occurs when blood from a torn vessel collects between the brain and the skull.
• The TRW Automotive plant, 601 E. Market Street, Danville, which employs approximately 140, will close its doors and most of the jobs at the engine components plant will go overseas. The local economy will be hit hard by the loss of jobs and the closing of the TRW plant. There are multiple articles in today's Press Enterprise.
• We applaud Applebee's restaurants in Pennsylvania. The restaurants will become smoke-free at the end of May.
• Every 17 years, the Washington area is a good place to avoid as evil-looking cicadas emerge from their long hibernation. We have seen the critters tunnel through mecadam driveways, we have seen what seems like a thousand on a dogwood tree, we have had dogs who would not eat anything else for six weeks, we have not been able to sleep at night with the windows open because of the sound of millions of the insects chawing on the leaves of everything in sight, we have hated to walk down our garden pathways because of the crunching sound as the black-bodied, red-eyed insects get smushed under our feet. We should mention that the 17-year interval is over. The little creatures have started to emerge again. If you have friends from the beltway area of Washington, don't be surprised if they come to visit in the coming weeks.

Many in the area know Max and Lorraine Fritz Hartman, full-time motor home people who usually spend the summers Back Home In Benton, PA. Their son Keith's wife, Nancy, peacefully passed away Sunday afternoon in North Carolina. Max and Lorraine have parked their rig on Keith and Nancy's property since last August when they left Benton. Our sympathy is extended to the family. The family address is 2192 Jack Road, Clayton, NC 27520.

On this day in 1869, the transcontinental railroad was finished "coast-to-coast" when the last "Golden Spike" was tapped into place at Promontory Point in Utah Territory as the Union Pacific tracks joined those of the Central Pacific Railroad. It took six and a half years to link the two coasts with 1,800 miles of track. The connection of the two tracks reduced the four to six months time taken by the overland pioneers to about six days.
But as in much of life, with the good came the bad. The owners of the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads had devised a clever scheme to rake in big bucks by creating their own construction companies and charge the railroads exorbitant rates to lay track. The companies that defrauded the stockholders were the Contract and Finance Company, set up by the Central Pacific's owners. The Credit Mobilier Construction Company was set up by the Union Pacific Railroad.

The Central Pacific came East 742 miles from Sacramento at an expense of $120 million, with an actual cost estimated about $50 million. The Union Pacific pushed West 1,038 miles from Omaha and paid $94 million (at an estimated cost of $50 million). Bribes were rampant, up to the future President of the United States James Garfield and to the future vice-president, Schuyler Colfax, of the Ulysses Grant administration. In September 1872, the Baltimore Sun reported that the owners of Credit Mobilier held more than 367,000 shares of Union Pacific stock that hadn't cost them a cent.

Congress created the Poland Committee to check it out, but the investigation didn't go very far. A few at the top were censured, and the Attorney General did sue Union Pacific stockholders for illegal profits. The case went to the Supreme Court and the High Court in 1878 found that even with the convincing argument that "more unmitigated frauds were never perpetrated on a helpless corporation by its managing directors," since the government got what it bargained to get it could collect nothing.

Frederick Austerlitz was born on this date in 1899 in Omaha, a son of Frederick Austerlitz, a Vienna-born brewer, and his wife, Ann Gelius. His sister, Adele Marie Austerlitz, had a successful vaudeville act with brother Fred that lasted into an adult stage career on Broadway. She was, in fact, the bigger star of the two during their time performing together. The name "Astaire" was taken by young Frederick and his sister, probably from an uncle surnamed "L'Astaire." Astaire introduced 36 hit songs in his movies from 1929 through 1951. Dancing seemed effortless for him. His movies with dancing partner Ginger Rogers were classics, although they only had one on-screen kiss and that was in a dream sequence.

Tomorrow marks the second day four administrators from Colegio Americano de Guatemala will spend in the Benton Schools. After an overview of both buildings, and meeting with the superintendent and the principals, these visitors are ready to spend the next few days in classrooms observing and talking to teachers and students. This fall teachers from CAG will spend time in Benton classrooms with Benton faculty members. These visitors will be housed by local residents. Benton teachers and administrators are expected to visit the Guatemalan school as soon as early 2005.

State College ranks ninth in the nation in Forbes Magazine's list of the Top Ten small towns in America to do business, a higher ranking than the Penn State football team over the past several years.

We are very happy about the decision--pending county review and approval--to move a Panera Bread Restaurant into the Buckhorn area, near the Wal-Mart SuperCenter and Lowe's. The restaurant is extremely popular wherever one is created, usually outside of a shopping center and accessible during the drive into the shopping center in a separate building from the shopping center. The bagels and the bread and the soups are homemade. The stores are divided into two lines as you enter. The first line is mostly for bagels and bakery items and carry out. The second line, further back in the store, is primarily for lunch and dinner items. Because of the normal popularity of the restaurant, there is usually a line, although it is fast moving. All menu items are made on the spot and very fresh. Soft drinks and ice tea are dispensed by the customer at the rear of the store and the many blends of coffee are dispensed near the middle of the stores. Most of the over 600 restaurants have a free wireless connection for laptop computer users and several issues of the Benton News came from various Panera bread restaurants this winter as we dawdled over a latte and a cinnamon crunch.

Didja know that in Pennsylvania...
. the top agricultural industry is dairying, which generates 38% of agriculture's cash receipts. Annual milk production is 10.6 billion pounds of milk.
. we are the fourth largest milk-producing state in the United States, ranking behind only California, Wisconsin and New York. . Annually, the state produces 66 million gallons of ice cream and ranks only behind California in ice-cream production.
. We are the sixth largest producer of cheese in the country. The annual production of 347.8 million pounds of cheese ranks behind the numbers of Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, New York and Idaho.
Source--The Dairy Outlook Web site, maintained by Ken Bailey, associate professor of dairy markets and policy at Penn State University.

We know a husband who is absolutely no good at fixing anything, so everything in that couple's house works. Our house is different. The husband in our house is absolutely no good at fixing anything, but attempts everything. The wife takes desperate stabs at disaster control, and usually that fixes the problem, but on occasion that creates a new crisis. A case in point was the laborious removal and recycling of two large sections of fencing, which turned out to be four feet short of what was needed in the new location. The fence problem reminded us of a Mother's Day advertisement we saw that said, "Whatever type of person your mother is, we know we can help you choose a gift to make her grim all over." The fence situation made everyone grim indeed!

Randy Hess, son of Al and Pat Hess, will perform at the Bloomsburg Fair September 28. Oh, and by the way, Trace Adkins will be there, too!

If the man can remember so many jokes,
With all the details that mold them,
Why can't he recall with equal skill,
How may times he's told them?

We wonder how many readers can remember hearing on the radio the lines "Call For Philip MMMMMooooorrrrrrrrrraaaaaiiiiisssss!!!!!" The man responsible for that once-familiar sound was only 4' tall and in public always wore a red bellhop uniform and that was the only line we ever heard the man utter. His name was Johnny Roventini, but radio listeners knew him as "Johnny Philip Morris." Johnny first did his "Call For Philip Morris" in 1934 on a broadcast of the Ferde Grofe Show on NBC's Red Network. To the music of On The Trail Movement from the Grand Canyon Suite, Johnny yelled out his first "Call For Philip Morris" to a nationwide audience.
Before he began calling for Philip Morris, Johnny Roventini was a bellhop at the New Yorker Hotel. Two executives were staying at the hotel and asked Johnny to page a man named Philip Morris. Johnny, unaware that Philip Morris was really the name of a cigarette, went through the hotel lobby paging Philip Morris creating one of advertising's greatest promotions. Johnny, in his bellhop uniform, become the living trademark for Philip Morris Cigarettes. Johnny was given the new name of "Johnny Philip Morris" and become more popular than the product he was selling.

Spec. Jeremy C. Sivits, 24, a member of the 372d Military Police Company, is a military policeman from Hyndman, PA, about 100 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Sivits will face a public court-martial in Baghdad May 19. He is suspected of snapping some of the now-notorious photos of Americans abusing Iraqi prisoners. Seven other soldiers also face criminal charges for alleged abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison. The 372d Military Police Company apparently were told what to do by Army military intelligence officers, CIA operatives and civilian contractors who conducted interrogations. Abuses at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are being hinted. With each passing day, we get the impression that inhumane and degrading treatment, including physical and psychological coercion, was more of a broad Army policy than the Department of Defense is letting on and if that is the case we wonder why it is that the soldiers at the lower levels are the ones who may end up being the ones punished most. Because we live so close to the local headquarters of the 320th Military Police Battalion based in Hanover Township, we expect that we will be hearing a lot about the subject in the coming days.

"Survivor All-Stars" contestant Amber Brkich walked into Madison Square Garden and walked away with an engagement ring and a $1 million prize. "Boston Rob" Mariano, yanked out a ring and proposed to Brkich on the nationally-televised show seen last night on TV.

A mother never realizes that her children are no longer children.
--Holbrook Jackson

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.
Shirley Temple

May 9, 2004

I don't have a bank account, because I don't know my mother's maiden name.
Paula Poundstone

Today is the birthday of Ethel Hack, formerly of Stillwater, now living in Berwick, who celebrates the day with actress Candice Bergen. Down in Danville, Lois, 78, and Ira McHenry, 91, celebrate their wedding anniversary today. Back in 1980 on this date, 35 motorists were killed when a Liberian freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, causing a 1,400-foot section to collapse.

How many of you can identify this quote from your youth? My head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger services, and my health to better living. Answer at end.

The term "post road" applied to any recognized mail route including both navigable waters (1823) and railroads (1838). Early post offices were often taverns or general stores, and letter carriers were horsemen riding in relay. Richard Fairbanks's tavern in Boston was one such mail repository and dates from 1639. The Boston Post Road was laid out along old Indian trails from New York City to Boston. In January of 1673, the first post rider rode from New York to Boston and established the first major overland route in the American colonies. The first trip lasted between two and three weeks for the 250 miles, much through wilderness. Francis Lovelace, governor of New York, gave the rider the following instructions:

"You are to comport yourself with all sobriety and civility to those that shall entrust you...You are principally to ally yourselfe to the Governors, especially Gov. Winthrop, from whom you shall receave the best direction to form ye best Post Roade;You shall do well to provide yourself to a Spare Horse, good Port Mantels soe neither letter nor Paquetts receave any damage under your hands."

We don't always get things right around here. We remember the story about another person who didn't get everything right, a baseball player by the name of Hank Aaron. The first time he batted in the major leagues, the catcher of the opposing team told him mockingly that he was holding the bat all wrong. "You should hold it with the label up so you can read it," the catcher told him.

Young Aaron told the catcher "I didn't come here to read!" Fifteen years later while playing in the 1968 season he became the eighth player in major league history to hit more than 500 home runs--and he was still holding his bat wrong.

The specialty of the 320th Military Police Company, headquartered in Ashley, is in-processing and medical care of arriving prisoners. Guarding enemy prisoners of war as part of the 800th Military Police Brigade was also a requirement, but according to an Army report quoted in Saturday's New York Times, "few of the 1,000 reservists had been trained to do that, and fewer still knew how to run a prison." Within days following the American invasion of Iraq, the 320th landed in Kuwait and moved swiftly into southern Iraq, to a sprawling barbed-wire American camp known as Camp Bucca, home of many Iraqi prisoners, a prison formerly used by Sadam Hussein. Camp Bucca, the coalition's facility for enemy prisoners of war is near Umm Qasr in southern Iraq. The 280-acre site Abu Ghraib prison had a history of executions and torture that made the prison one of the most feared symbols of the old government. At times, six guards on a single 16-hour shift would be in charge of 700 Iraqi prisoners. Reportedly at one time, 7,000 to 8,000 detainees were held at Camp Bucca.

Quote of the Day:
"They took over the whole base; it was their show. That was their wording. `This is our show now.' They would try to get us to keep prisoners up all night, make them stand outside, have them stand up all the time--sometimes they asked the guards to do something that was totally against what you believed in doing."
--Sgt. First Class Joseph Mood, Benton, now Back Home in Benton, PA, after serving in Iraq, voicing his views of intelligence officers' influence from a quote in New York Times' Saturday. Sgt. Joseph Mood is the son-in-law of Nevin and Debbie Dressler.

Students, are you tired of wasting your time on guessing equation roots? Do you want to finish your math homework faster? Do you think it's impossible to solve complicated equations? DeadLine is a free equation solver designed especially for students. It combines graph plotting with advanced numerical calculus, in a very intuitive approach. Using this freeware, you can solve not just algebraic equations, but also a variety of equations, trigonometric equations, exponential equations and many more. Download it free at http://deadline.3x.ro/ .

Didja know that eBay could reach merchandise sales of $32 billion this year? There are approximately 105 million registered users.

The 4-H Clubs have as their motto, "My head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger services, and my health to better living."

"Pemberton's French Wine Coca" was once sold in drug stores, with "valuable tonic and nerve stimulant properties of the coca plant and cola nuts," although it was not sweetened with wine, but with sugar. It was said to be "a most wonderful invigorator of the sexual organs," although no actual clinical trials of the product were ever reported. The drink's inventor, Dr. John Stith Pemberton (1832-1888), called it "one glorious cocktail."
Pemberton knew about the coca plant acting as a stimulant, and to that quality he added "aid to digestion, aphrodisiac and life-extender." Accordingly, he decided to attempt to base his new drink around it and the addictive qualities of the cocaine found in the coca-leaf were generally overlooked. Psychologist Sigmund Freud wrote a "song of praise to this magical substance."

When prohibition hit the Atlanta area in 1886, physician Pemberton rewrote the formula for his nerve tonic, stimulant and headache remedy, and introduced it to the American public on this date in 1886 down at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta under the name Coca Cola, "the temperance drink." The bookkeeper of the firm, Frank Robinson, came up with the name and it is his handwriting on the Coca-Cola trademark. Pemberton was a onetime Confederate lieutenant colonel who earned his medical degree at the age of nineteen, who served on the first Georgia pharmacy licensing board, who set up a top-rated laboratory for chemical analysis and manufacturing, concocted a soft-drink syrup in a three-legged brass pot in his backyard. and who in a little more than 12 years established eighteen business ventures--including the Coca-Cola Co. Following prohibition, the drink was sold as a tonic until 1905, and contained extracts of cocaine and generous amounts of caffeine. Net operating revenues for the Coca-Cola Co. increased 13% during the first quarter 2004 to $5.1 billion.

Today we celebrate the birthday of Randy Hess, 40, who celebrates his birthday playing music with Trace Adkins at Jamboree USA at the Capitol Music Hall, Wheeling, West Virginia, tonight. The group will be returning to the Bloomsburg Fair September 28, although we notice that the fair has not yet made that announcement. And while we are talking about the fair, we'll mention some of the other acts coming to the Fair this fall.
. Billy Ray Cyrus with special guest Darryl Worley
. Spirit of the Dance
. The Smothers Brothers Show, with Mickey & Jan Rooney
. Hootie and the Blowfish
. Michael Bolton
. Lonestar
. Charlie Daniels Band with Guest Star Montgomery Gentry
. "World's Largest Demolition Derby"
. Brad Paisley with guest star Buddy Jewell
. A Broadway review show, The Spirit of Broadway

The Central Susquehanna Valley Transportation Project (CSVT)--the Shamokin Dam bypass on the existing Route 15--has progressed to the point where construction could begin in late 2006 or early 2007 if funds are made available. The project has been cleared to proceed into final design and purchase of the right-of-ways needed for construction. The engineering and right of way will cost an estimated $72 million and the construction phase would cost an estimated $278 million, for a total project cost of approximately $350 million. Phase one of the project would run from Chillisquaque Creek north of the Route 405 intersection to just south of Winfield, where the CSVT will interchange with Route 15 and would include the highest bridge in the state--4,400-foot long, 130-foot high--crossing from Point Township to just below Winfield. The estimated cost of Phase 1 is $170 million, none of which has been allocated. Phase two would continue south, bypassing Shamokin Dam and Sunbury and rejoining Route 11/15 near Selinsgrove. Funding for the project will be 80% federal and 20% state money. No bills have yet to be introduced at the Federal level to provide full funding for the project.

About this time of the week we look at some of the ridiculous things we get in the mail each week. Here are a couple for this week, except for a change there is a ring of truth lurking below the surface...
. CLAIM: Raisin toxicity gave my 56 pound, 5 yr old male neutered lab vomiting, diarrhea and shaking. Raisins and grapes cause acute renal failure in dogs.
RESPONSE: The Animal Poison Control Center reported that "nearly all the dogs reported to have eaten grapes or raisins developed acute renal (kidney) failure. These cases were noted all across the USA, with the amount eaten varying widely, from over a pound of grapes to as little as a single serving of raisins."
. CLAIM: Plump, juicy Bing cherries, eaten fresh, may help people who suffer from the pain of gout or other forms of arthritic inflammation.
RESPONSE: Levels of uric acid--a compound the body uses to form painful urate crystals during a gout attack--decreased significantly in volunteers' blood (plasma) over the 5 hours after they ate Bing cherries according to data obtained by the Agricultural Research Service.

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

Over a million and a half dollars in grants for the planning, acquisition and construction of more than 99 miles of rail-trails in 14 Pennsylvania counties have been announced. Rail-trails are abandoned railroad beds converted for recreational uses such as hiking, biking, jogging and cross-country skiing. Pennsylvania leads the nation in the number of rail-trails with 116 open trails, according to the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's Pennsylvania office. Over the last decade, Pennsylvania has nearly tripled the number of miles of rail-trails to the current 1,257 from 432 in 1995.

We first got excited, then confused, about an announcement out of Harrisburg that indicated that SEDA-Council of Governments, had given out a $50,000 grant to determine the feasibility of developing a trail "along the historic North Branch Pennsylvania Canal from Danville to Benton." Brian Auman, Bloomsburg, a landscape architect with the Community Resource Center of SEDA-Council of Governments set the record straight by telling us that "the project will examine the trail opportunities from Danville to Bloomsburg and then on to Berwick" at the Luzerne County line. In most places the trail will parallel the historic North Branch PA Canal, along the Susquehanna River corridor. Brian held out hope for the town, though, saying "Maybe we can get to Benton in the future as part of an expanded county greenway program."

We learned more about "huckle-buckle bean stalk" than math when we were students in the Benton Area School System, and as a result we didn't compute the monthly charge for year 20 correctly yesterday when we used the illustration of an annual augmentation of $900 monthly rent for a Town Hall located in the existing Fire Hall, assuming an annual consumer price index rise of 2.5%. The rent in year 20 should be $1,438.785 in lieu of the $1,271.67 that we computed. We apologize for the error.

We'll never forget the time a little boy saw a bull at the other end of the pasture. "Is that bull safe?" the little boy asked the farmer. "Safer than you are!" was his answer.

Johannes Brahms was born in Germany on this date in 1833, and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky came along seven years later on this date in 1840 in Russia. Brahms was the composer of A German Requiem, four symphonies, four concertos, and many songs, piano pieces, and chamber works. He never married. Piotr Tchaikovsky was the most popular Russian composer of all time and wrote symphonies, operas, and the ballets Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and The Sleeping Beauty. Tchaikovsky was a homosexual, which was officially banned in Russia at that time. He was, however, financed by a wealthy widow for thirteen years. She stipulated that they never meet and they didn't. Like many modern men, Tchaikovsky thought that marriage would be a solution to his sexual problems. He married a young female fan, but like so many modern marriages, it was a disaster. He left her almost at once, in a state of nervous collapse, attempted suicide and went abroad. Officially, Tchaikovsky died of cholera, but stories also circulate that he underwent a 'trial' from a court of honor from his school regarding his sexual behavior and it was decreed that he commit suicide. The true story is unknown.

On this date in 1915, a German submarine sank the British ocean liner Lusitania, drowning 1,198 civilians, including over 100 U.S. citizens. Prior rules of naval engagement required warning commercial vessels before firing upon them. Public outrage over the loss of civilian life hastened the United States entry into World War I. Although the cargo list of the Lusitania stated that she carried approximately 170 tons of munitions and war material, this fact was not revealed to the U.S. public at the time. An emotional appeal in which Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane evoked the Lusitania to explain U.S. involvement in the war might not have gone over so well if all the facts were known. Luckily, this sort of thing never happens in modern government.

Darlene Dixon Bartlebaugh died Thursday morning, May 6, 2004, about 7:45 at home in North Bend, WA. Her husband and daughter were at her bedside. She was the daughter of the late Byron and Theta Dickson who lived on Park Street, Benton, for many years. Darlene is survived by her husband, Bart, sons Brian and Shawn; daughter, Tracie, and six grandchildren, all in the Seattle area. She is also survived by brothers, Sterling, Leakesville, Mississippi; Donald, Dallas; sister, Genevieve Yacko, Catawissa,and Carol Koss, Pittsburgh, along with several nieces and nephews. For anyone wishing to sent her family a card the address is...
Brian Bartlebaugh
44413 S.E. 142nd Place
North Bend, WA. 98045

Melvin L. "Pete" Rosencrance Jr., (July 27, 1925-May 5, 2004), 78, 264 Town Hill Road, Shickshinny, died Wednesday. He was a son of the late Melvin L. Rosencrans Sr. and Myrtle (Kyttle) Rosencrans. Surviving are his wife, Dorothy, three sons: Ronald, Annville; Harold and Howard, both of Shickshinny; three daughters: Linda, Oklahoma City; Beverly, Millville; and daughter-in-law Dottie Rosencrance, New Hope. Also surviving are 20 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren; a brother, Donald Rosencrans, Mooretown; and a sister, Gertrude Roman, Sweet Valley. Funeral services will be held at 11 AM Saturday at McMichael Funeral Home Inc. Burial will be in Bethel Hill Cemetery in Fairmount Township. A viewing will be held on Saturday from 10 AM until the time of the service at the funeral home.
--from an obituary in the Press Enterprise. See the newspaper for complete details.

At the Town Council meeting Monday night, a proposal was advanced that suggested renting office space from the Benton Volunteer Fire Department to fulfill the functions of the Benton Borough in lieu of establishing a long-term debt for the purchase of a building. A number of readers asked if we could provide more information about it. Excerpts from the proposal follow, noting that we neither attempt to endorse or not endorse the proposal...

The proposal was presented "to present cost-effective alternatives to a new building." And we should point out here that all quotes are from the actual proposal for lease in lieu of purchase. The proposal pointed out that the "reason the current Town Hall is in such disrepair is that past councils have neglected their duty in performing needed maintenance on the hall" and speculated if future councils would maintain a new building. The proposal stated that the "purpose of municipal government is to provide public services in the most cost efficient manner possible, not build equity by owning property and buildings." The proposal went on to state that "In a small borough such as ours, public ownership of land and buildings further depletes an already small tax base and places additional unneeded tax burden on residents. We believe public ownership should only occur for recreation or when existing, suitable facilities are not available."

According to the proposal, Fire Company representatives asked if the Borough would consider leasing municipal office space on the second floor of their building. The Borough solicitor provided the information that Magistrate Donna Coombe's office is located on the 2nd floor in Bloomsburg and utilizes an intercom or buzzer system to accommodate
handicapped individuals.

The following arrangement was tentatively worked out with the Fire Company, according to the proposal...

. The Borough could occupy four offices and restroom facilities located on the second floor, which includes the current police office. According to the proposal, this would provide room for police, secretary, mayor, plus one additional office to be used at Borough discretion.

. The Borough would have the right to use the large conference room or the upstairs training room for public meetings as needed.

. The Fire Co. would provide space for additional Borough record storage that would not be accommodated in the leased offices.

. All utilities would be included in the agreement including heat, electric, water, sewer, and garbage.

. The Fire Co. would cover property insurance. Borough would be responsible for contents of leased offices.

. Borough is responsible for any renovations with Fire Co. approval.

. Length of lease is 5 years with an automatic renewal.

. Lease cost is $900 per month with annual CPI increases starting in January 2006.

The proposal states that "at their meeting on Monday, April 19, the Fire Co. Board approved these proposed terms and would like to continue the process to finalize a lease."
The proposal then proceeded to an analysis of 20-year taxpayer cost for three loan amount options compared with the proposed lease of Fire Co. offices. The proposal added known and unknown costs and concluded that costs of construction could approach $150,000. The details of that analysis are omitted here only because of space limitations.

The proposal then requested that the Borough Secretary place this proposal on the town council May agenda for further discussion. The proposal concluded by saying "This proposal from the Fire Co. helps two public service organizations share building costs for municipal services and is mutually beneficial to both parties. In our mind, this is the best possible solution for the residents of our borough. We hope fellow council members understand and agree that it is our fiduciary responsibility to investigate all legitimate municipal office proposals before committing to a decision that will affect taxpayers in this community for many years to come."

Using an annual augmentation of the $900 monthly rent, assuming an annual consumer price index rise of 2.5%, the rent in year 10 would be $993.43. and in year 20 would be $1271.67.

At the Kirby Center...
• May 13, 2004, 7:30 PM, Jewel. An acoustic, folk-based sound. Jewel has continued to explore fresh avenues in rock, pop, dance, country, blues, jazz and classical. Jewel's most recent album, 0304, was the highest-debuting and highest-charting album of her career to date.
• May 15, 2004 at 6 and 9 PM, Bill Cosby. A return engagement by one of America's favorite comedians and one of the most influential stars in America today. As a comedian, television star, author, and educator, his humor and insight have touched our lives.

Quickies...
• Zane and Barb Hartman will renew their wedding vows immediately following Church services in Central June 13 on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary.
• The North Mountain Historical Society will meet at the Brass Pelican May 17 at 8:30 AM. The speaker will be Eileen Wylie and her subject will be the first hanging in Sullivan County. On June 21, Robert Webster, Hughesville, will speak on Country Grist Mills and flour mills. Refresh your memory of this subject by visiting our section under FEATURES on Grist Mills.
• The North Mountain Fire Company breakfasts will be held May 16 and June 13.
• Gasoline prices hit record highs across Pennsylvania Wednesday. A gallon of regular unleaded costs about $1.82 while the average price of premium unleaded is nudging $2.
• If you missed this week's American Idol, you should know that the four remaining contestants are all women. Soulful singer George Huff was voted off.
• Don't forget to appropriately remember the women in your life on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 9.
• The Sugarloaf Fish Supper comes up again May 15.
• If you think that people in this area don't like buckwheat cakes, think again! The Benton Volunteer Firemen served 344 at their last Sunday breakfast.

The Internet has brought the world into the living room, both the good and the bad. As in dot con. Dot con? Dot con. As in con artists. Don't forget for one moment that the Internet world is filled with fraud in very clever ways, including business opportunity scams, using email to reach vast numbers of people with false promises, hijacking consumers' modems and cramming hefty long-distance charges onto phone bills. Law enforcement officials have identified the top 10 dot cons facing consumers who surf the Internet at http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel/ , a consumer fraud database. We continually say that "if it looks too good to be real, it probably is."

A site where you can spend a lot of time, especially if you don't have a fast modem, is the Pennsylvania State Highway Video Inventory at http://164.156.5.83/ividlog/video_locate.asp where you can watch the excitement of driving on Pennsylvania's highways on video. It is worth taking a look, though, if you want to get an overview of any road in the state.

The Stillwater Christian Church Brush Arbor Choir will present Just Hooked by Gospel, arranged by Bob Andrews and directed by Barbara Henne and Bob Andrews. Reserve May 22 and 23 at 6 PM at the Stillwater Christian Church for a stompin, toe tappin, clappin good time--old time gospel music at its best. For additional information, call 458-6389.

Didja know that in the United States, about 1 in 200 will be diagnosed with some form of cancer this year? The American Cancer Society predicts 1.3 million new cases of all forms of cancer in 2004 in the United States, and because of advances in medicine, more than half will survive! For prostate cancer, the most common internal cancer among men, approximately 13% who get the disease will not survive. Breast cancer in women and prostate cancer have a similar rate of occurrence, although nearly 19% of women with breast cancer will succumb to the disease. From ages 60 to 79, one man in seven is going to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, but not because of specific warning signs of its presence.

We'll mention some cowboy songs that probably won't make the top ten, but are interesting anyway...
• If The Phone Don't Ring, You'll Know It's Me
• How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?
• I Liked You Better Before I Got to Know You So Well
• I'll Marry You Tomorrow But Let's Honeymoon Tonight

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

The Farmer's Almanac reminds us to Plant corn now or lose a bushel a day past the middle of May. The annual meeting of the CCFNB takes place at 10:30 this morning. Glen and Anna Baker are celebrating 53 years of marriage today. Designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel introduced her first perfume in 1921 on the fifth day of May, the fifth month, giving it the name "Chanel No. 5," her lucky number.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has begun testing the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging, technology that the company hopes will eventually replace bar codes once that a global RFID standard is adopted. Future generations could be wearing, eating and carrying miniscule microchips about half the size of a grain of sand. The microchips listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most don't even use batteries. They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response. Wal-Mart is installing "smart shelves" with networked RFID readers for their initial testing. Gillette, as an example of a company using the technology, recently announced it would purchase 500 million RFID tags from Alien Technology, a venture funded, privately held company. In the future when you munch a Mounds, the candy could include a 64-bit unique identifier yielding about 18 thousand trillion possible values. A German company has invented washable RFID tags designed to be sewn into clothing. The European central bank is considering embedding RFID tags into banknotes as soon as year 2005. Stores could flash ads on screens based on spending patterns. Keep a clean arrest record or police could gain cradle-to-grave surveillance. Father used to ask no one in particular, "What is this world coming to?" If he could see it today.

Joshua B. Laubach, son of Jerry and Joanne Laubach, Benton, will graduate from Mansfield State University on Saturday, May 8, with a Bachelor of Music in Education. He was on the Dean's List for the past five semesters, and this semester he made the President's List with a 4.0. Josh has been a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia for the past four years, and served as President in the 2003/2004 year. Joshua will be working at Knoebels for the summer, managing the music department and is getting married July 10 to Angella Hoffman, Mifflinburg. Angie is also a Music major and plans to teach. Joshua plans to teach Choral/Music at the high school level.

Quote of the Day:
A gentleman is one who doesn't hurt anyone's feelings unintentionally. --Oscar Wilde

Mr. Cashman's senior economics classes are studying stock market simulations and last night two of his students addressed the Fishing Creek Investment Club at their monthly meeting.

Shannon Pratt and Nathan Musselman, representing two of fifteen senior groups at the Benton Area School, explained how their groups were given $100,000 in simulated money to invest in stocks and mutual funds. Mr. Rob Cashman is on the left.

Brokerage fees were charged on the sale and purchase of the investments, and real-life events applied to the investments, such as stock splits and dividend reinvestment. During the period from March 13 and ending on May 7, the groups studied an array of stocks and invested in diverse companies. Shannon proudly told us that in her group out "of 28 investments, only ten were in the red."

The Hurff Family Association will celebrate its 100th anniversary at the annual family reunion July 17 in Washington Township near the site of the family's first Gloucester County homestead. Robert S. Parks, 70, Benton, chairman of the Hurff Family Association reunion committee, expects abut 200 people to attend the event. Anyone who believes he or she might be a Hurff descendant is asked to send genealogy information to Robert Parks, 2030 Parks Road, Benton, Pa 17814.

Another nail was pounded into the public service coffin of the Borough Town Hall last night when the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center unanimously voted not to consider the building for use. The saga of the building continues as the four bids for the purchase of the building were rejected at Monday's Town Council meeting.

May 4, 2004. The Rev. Vernon McDormand and Lynn Sutton share birthdays today and celebrate the day with Randy Travis. In 1970 on this date, four students were killed by National Guardsmen during demonstrations at Kent State University. We haven't published for about a week and we forgot our birthday list while we were away. We'll make up the birthdays tomorrow, and we are sorry for the belated notices.

Keep Ruth Kline in your prayers, a victim of a fall at her home yesterday. She broke a bone in her left ankle and is in a cast for up to six weeks. She also sprained her right ankle.

On this day 378 years ago in 1626, Peter Minuit (1580-1638) landed on Manhattan Island to take over as the third director of the New Netherland Colony, a Dutch settlement that was established in 1624. and within two days bought the island from the Indians for sixty guilders of trade goods, which someone who knows about converting guilders to modern-day dollars said was about $1 for each square mile of land. The newly-acquired land was called New Amsterdam. A path along the East river was called Pearl Street, named from the seashells that lay along the edge of the water. New Amsderdam's main street, called de Heere Straat (Gentlemen's Street) was built on an Indian Path that ran north from the southern tip of the island. The street eventually came to be known as "Breede Wegh" and that evolved into "Broadway," the name by which we know it today. The island's fort become Bowling Green where Minuit met May 6, 1626, to transact the sale of the island. Outposts of the colony were known as Staten Island and Governors Island. Peter Minuit served as director of New Netherland until 1633 and reportedly died at sea in a hurricane near St. Christopher in the Caribbean in 1638.

English and Dutch relations went sour in 1652 when war broke out between England and the Netherlands. and residents of the colony decided to build a wall across the northern end of town. Logs reported to be twelve feet high and eighteen inches thick were used for palisades. The wall ran from the East River to the North (Hudson) River, with a gate at de Heere Straat. The English didn’t invade, but the street that ran along the wall took its name from it. Wall Street was just a street until the summer of 1791, when shares of stock were traded beneath a sycamore tree on it.

The lake was part of the 69-acre Waste Water Treatment Facility of Wilkes County, North Carolina, where SewerFest 2004--the name that the firemen give to the campsite at the waste water treatment plant--was ongoing. We parked here for the third year in a row while we attended the 17th annual MerleFest nearby on the campus of Wilkesboro Community College.

There are towns where residents and visitors turn up their noses, literally and figuratively, at anything involving close proximity to a sewer plant. But in Wilkesboro, the Sanitary Commissioner is also the Fire Chief and the town of Wilkesboro owns both the water company and the fire company, so when 75,000 or so come to town for the MerleFest the firemen rent the grounds around the sewer plant as a fund raiser to people who gladly shell out good money for the privilege of staying on site at the sewer plant. It would be somewhat akin to the Benton Water and Sewer Authority renting space, with electricity and water and selling fried chicken and barbeque and tee shirts, to something like 1,200 people when the Benton Rodeo or the O.A.T.S. bluegrass festival comes to town. About 600 camping sites had been reserved when we arrived about a week ago. It is an honor to be able to stay at the sewer plant and hundreds who come to the MerleFest are turned away from the camp sites each year. In fact, our reservations are secured for a camping site for next year.

We ought to mention that to get the mile and a half from the SewerFest to the MerleFest, the firemen provided three busses that life would otherwise have passed by. The largest of the three was a 1987 Chevrolet that would hold about 60, but almost always held about 80. The East Elkin Full Gospel Church owns the Chevrolet bus and the driver, Ken Stoker, made round-trips from 7:30 AM until 3:30 in the morning Thursday night through Saturday night and all day Sunday. A stain line showed on his SewerFest Tee Shirt, the result of Ken's belly dragging on the steering wheel.

On the evening of October 22, 1985, Merle could not sleep and went to the basement of his home and started to trim some red beech paneling for his basement walls. The saw blade hit a fault in the grain and a large piece of hardwood splintered off, embedding itself in his muscle in his arm. Merle wrapped the arm in a leather jacket, jumped on his tractor and in the darkness followed the ridge line to a neighbor's house. The neighbors did not have anything to remove the huge splinter and Merle was finally forced to use his hunting knife, sterilizing it in a glass of wine, to dislodge it. The wound was then covered with a bandage and Merle climbed on his tractor and left. On the way back down the steep incline, the tractor brakes locked and Merle was thrown off and the tractor rolled on him, killing him instantly.

As a testament to Merle's popularity and musical accomplishments, acoustic musicians gathered in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, near his home in Deep Gap, in the fall of 1987. Doc was asked to do a benefit concert at Wilkes Community College in order to finance a garden in Merle's honor, and that began the history of the MerleFest. Doc Watson is 79 now and mostly retired and has come a long ways from the day that he bought his first guitar from Sears, Roebuck.

Will the circle be unbroken,
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye.
When God's heavenly choir sings,
He'll have Merle pickin' the lead
In the sky, Lord, in the sky.
--lyrics by Wayne Hayes

And we must mention our favorite poem from our trip to North Carolina. It goes like this, if we can remember the way that we heard it told...

Said the little red rooster to the
little red hen,
"You ain't laid an egg since God knows when.

Said the little hen to the
little red rooster,
"You don't come around as often as you uster.

We followed the recovery progress of Jules McHenry following his bypass surgery and his recovery in ICU and his short stay now in the rehabilitation unit at the Geisinger Hospital. It seems as though Jules has been recovering for a long time, but a quadruple bypass surgery is nothing to sneeze at for a person of Jules' age.

Being in the hospital convalescing reminds us of the time that three duffers were in the hospital, and they decided to pick up a game of poker. No one had any cards, so one of the guys shuffled down to the nurse's station and when the nurses were all away from the station he picked up a bunch of cards that listed operations, disorders, treatments, procedures and medicines. He hid the cards in his hospital gown and if you have ever actually worn a hospital gown you realize just how awkward it really is to get to a location where you can actually hide anything in the gown. It was a real attention getter, mind you.

The cards worked out pretty good, and before long the guys had worked up quite a pot. They raised and re-raised, they bluffed, and then raised again. By the time they were done, the first guy had two pairs, a pair of appendectomies and a pair of tonsillectomies. The second man had three of a kind, a card that laid out the procedure for a triple bypass. The third man had a full house and won the pot with two enemas and three caster oils.

Lindsey Keller is a James Madison University senior who isn’t even on the track team at JMU but who qualified for both varsity field-hockey and for the U.S. national field hockey team and likes to skydive in order to curb her fear of heights and who recently went to North Carolina to compete in a 24-hour mountain bike race. The latest feather in her cap is placing 33rd among the 6,653 women who started the Boston Marathon. Lindsey finished 488th in the entire field of 17,950, pretty darn outstanding for a girl from Back Home in Benton, PA. Lindsey ran the 26.2 miles in 3 hours, 3 minutes and 22 seconds and Boston was only the second marathon she ever ran.

Lindsey is a geography major from Benton and we recently read a JMU article about Lindsey where she was referred to as being from "a zero-stoplight town." The only daughter of David and Kim Keller, there is little chance Lindsey will follow in her father's taxidermy business. She tried it one summer, but skinning hides with a draw knife was not the life that Lindsey decided to follow.

What is next for Lindsey? She is considering a high-altitude marathon at Pike’s Peak and there are the Iron Man competitions and the Olympics are a possibility although she isn't exactly sure which sport to try out for. Not bad for a girl who will be 22 August 22! We wish this outstanding young lady the very best.