May 31, 2008. Happy birthday to Dimi Marinos. David Shaffer, Elk Grove, is in the Williamsport Hospital, Room 383. A card will cheer him up!
On this date in...
. 1884, a patent for "flaked cereal" was applied for by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Kellogg had accidentally left a pot of boiled wheat. When it was put through a rolling process, each grain of wheat emerged as a large, thin flake. When the flakes were baked, they became crisp and easy to prepare as a breakfast when milk was added. His brother, Will Keith Kellogg, assisted his brother, and in 1906 created the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co.
. 1889 on this date in a river valley 185 miles southwest of Back Home in Benton, PA, a neglected dam pelted by driving rain led to a catastrophe in which 2,209 people perished and Johnstown was nearly wiped off the face of the earth.
It is very easy to create a shortcut to your favorite web site on the desktop of your computer. Simply right-click on an empty area on the desktop, then select "New>Shortcut." In the Shortcut Wizard, in the location box type the URL to your favorite web site; i.e., www.bentonnews.net . Press the 'Next >' button, then give the shortcut a name (such as "Benton News") and then press the finished button. When you double-click the shortcut, your browser will open to the News from Back Home in Benton, PA--or whatever site you selected.
Didja hear about the five-year old boy who peeled the skin away from his first sun burn and mused, "five years old and I am wearing out already!"
Friday night I felt like I was wearing out. The pain in my knee was to the point where I was not able to sit and write much for a Saturday report. This will be a short report, but I will share a story Bob Parks told. As I remember, it went something like this...
Three men were bragging about how they had given duties to their new wives.
The first man had married a woman from Philadelphia and bragged that he had told his wife she was going to do all the dishes and house cleaning. He said it took a couple days but on the third day he came home to a clean house and the dishes were done.
The second man had married a woman from Pittsburgh. He bragged that he had given his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes and the cooking. On the first day he didn't see any results, but the next day it was better. By the third day, his house was clean, the dishes were done and he had a huge dinner on the table.
The third man married a girl from Benton. He told her that her duties were to keep the house clean, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed and hot meals on the table three times a day. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything, but by the third day most of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye; enough to fix himself a bite to eat, load the dishwasher and telephone a landscaper.
It is fun to take a step back in time to the country stores of a long-ago era. Swisher's Store on the Beech Glen Highway and the Forksville General Store are examples as are most of the country stores of the area. The Cracker Barrel restaurants give somewhat that same feeling. Along the same lines is the "new" Benton Roller Mills & Tack Shop, 15 Mill Street, Benton. The retail space is now 2,400 square feet in the general theme of an old country store, complete down to the original tongue & groove flooring and post and beam construction. The siding for the front of the retail space will be barn siding from the Foster Young barn. Switch-back steps lead to an office and a children's nursery. The construction isn't quite complete, but the store is open for business. New lines of merchandise are being added, including the sale of propane for up to 100-pound tanks. You can call 925-2543 for information, or--better yet--stop in....
Quickies...
. What many environmentalists predicted would happen did happen Friday when the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ordered a partial shutdown of natural gas-drilling operations in the Marcellus Shale by two companies near Steam Valley in the northern end of adjacent Lycoming County. Various news media reported that Range Resources Appalachia and Chief Oil and Gas "did not take necessary steps to protect nearby streams," while other reports indicated that the companies "lacked permits for collecting water" from streams to be used in the exploratory drilling, according to the DEP. The companies reportedly have been diverting "tens of thousands of gallons of water" daily from streams into storage areas in preparation for blasting fissures into the rock formation with pressurized water and sand to release trapped gas.. We are somewhat blinded by the business of gas drilling in the local area, thinking that we have a monopoly on deep drilling. The Penn Virginia Corporation (NYSE:PVA) is achieving success in Harrison County, Texas, with its Lower Bossier (Haynesville) Shale test well. The initial production rate was approximately 8.0 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from a vertical depth of 11,378 feet with a 3,861-foot lateral in the Bossier formation.
. Farmers are slowly catching up with the planting now that we are getting some warm days and the ground is drying out from the recent rains. Cool nights have slowed growth but about three quarters of the estimated amount of corn that will be planted this season is now in the ground and about half of all corn planted in the state has germinated. A rule of thumb for corn is to have it in the ground by May 10. After that date, harvest figures go down. Farmers are reporting that in certain fields seeds are not germinating, while the late planting is bringing up a lot of weeds. With temperatures anticipated in the 70s and 80s next week, spring planting is a flurry of activity--assuming that we don't get washed out today.
In the fall of 1864, President Abraham Lincoln was contacted by Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, who had written on behalf of Mrs. Lydia Bixby, a constituent. Andrew explained that Mrs. Bixby had lost five sons in the Civil War, and he requested that Lincoln send her a note of condolence. The text of the letter to Mrs. Bixby was sent to us by Chris Vincent when he lived in Alabaster, Alabama. It read...
Executive Mansion
Washington
November 21, 1864
Dear Madam,
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln
May 30, 2008. Happy birthday to Nina Baker and Brandon Schupp. It is the 50th wedding anniversary of Bill and Adele Confair, Camp Hill. Our thoughts today are with Ted Fritz, Klinger Hill, a patient in the Geisinger Hospital; Catherine Harrison, in need of your thoughts and prayers at her Main Street home; and Becky Stoneham Green, continuing as a patient in the Geisinger Hospital with pneumonia. Thursday was a "keeper," and all indications are that Friday will be as nice--until the thunder boomers arrive late tonight and Saturday.
A reader asked about updating to the Beta version of Firefox (which will eventually turn into Firefox 3). I upgraded to the "release candidate" version two months ago and have regretted doing so. The new version currently accepts only about 10% of the add-ons I used in Firefox 2. The way the program auto-completes URLs is at times a feature I could live without. The "memory improvements" aren't apparent to me, but the browser is a bit more stable. The propaganda says there is better phishing protection and maybe improved performance.
Didja ever think that in addition to the art of getting things done
there is an art in leaving things undone? Wisdom in this life
consists of the elimination of non-essentials.Didja know that...
. Pennsylvania is the fifth largest milk producer in the U.S.--more than 10 billion pounds and 1.2 billion gallons of milk, all coming from half a million cows.
--The 2006 National Agricultural Statistics ServiceThe Benton News will from time to time relate stories of the American Civil War in preparation for later and more extensive discussion of local actions relating to events of the estimated 800 Federal troops in late August 1861 to quell what some viewed as an insurrection in the upper Fishingcreek Valley. Today we'll have a quick discussion of the disposition of the millions of freed slaves following the conclusion of the Civil War. As the war progressed, the nation debated what would be done with the freed, uneducated slaves. Congress passed a bill in April 1862 freeing the slaves in the District of Columbia and put aside $100,000 in order for former slaves to board ship and head for either Haiti or Liberia.
While Lincoln argued in the words of the Constitution that "all men are created equal," in actuality he balked at the idea of allowing blacks the vote, serve for jury duty, intermarry or be given citizenship. During the fourth joint debate of Lincoln and Douglas at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858, Lincoln announced that "I am not nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people." You can read his exact words by going here. It may have been the politician in Lincoln which made him utter in June 1858 in his "House Divided" speech about a "house divided against itself cannot stand." During this speech he also stated his current and somewhat changed position that "this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free."
Many believe that Lincoln freed the slaves with a stroke of his pen with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation as a way of showing moral indignation at the horrors of Southern slavery. Lincoln did issue the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which on paper freed slaves in the states of the Confederacy that had seceded from the United States. In fact, it didn't free a single slave, since it applied to slaves only in rebellion, which meant slaves which were in the Confederacy. In fact, the Confederate states chose to ignore Lincoln's directive issued in the middle of the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation specifically did not apply to 800,000 slaves in slave-holding states which chose to remain with the Union--states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri.
There are many estimates, conveniently known as "official figures," of deaths in the Civil War. It simply isn't possible to claim the exact number of Federal soldiers who died in the hands of the Confederacy because no records were made available for fourteen of its major prisoner of war camps and incomplete records were available from six others.
For what were known as the "Negro Troops" or the "United States Colored Troops" in the service of the United States Army in the Civil War, there were 7,122 officers and 178,975 enlisted men. A total of 324 officers and 36,523 enlisted men lost their lives from all causes for a total of 36,847. These figures come from "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion" (Des Moines, 1908), p. 18, and are about 5,000 more than the casual total in the Report of the Secretary of War for 1866.
After losing the Battle of Vicksburg, Jefferson Davis proposed allowing his Southern slaves to fight on behalf of the Confederacy in exchange for their freedom. The Confederate Government contacted both England and France in 1865 and offered to abolish slavery in exchange for being recognized as a separate nation. The Civil War ended before either nation formally responded.
The Union Army of two million soldiers finally won over the Confederacy when the South lost the war in April 1865. Confederate slaves were finally freed at this time. Slaves in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri were freed by the 13th Amendment, adopted December 18, 1865.
May 29, 2008. It is the birthday of Kevin Karnes, Rohrsburg. Leslie Townes Hope was born on this date in 1903 in Eltham, England. Most of us knew him as "Bob." In 1917 on this date, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was born in Brookline, MA.
Summer is on its way and will officially be here in 22 days, but it certainly has taken some strange detours. The Benton Rodeo Association monthly meeting will take place at 7 PM at the rodeo grounds. Take the time to remember Maude Luskey, a patient in the Birchwood Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, 395 E Middle Rd, Nanticoke, PA. And keep Catherine Harrison in your prayers tonight.
The landscaping at the driveway entrance to Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center came from Mayor Jan Swan and from Stoney Acres Landscaping. The landscaping makes a fine entrance to the Community Center.Didja ever notice that about the only thing that comes to us
without effort is old age?Quickies, all gas related...
. Gasoline Wednesday in Camp Hill was $3.819 for regular, unleaded, resulting in a bill of $76.38 for 20 gallons. Gasoline Wednesday Back Home in Benton, PA, ranged from $3.959 ($79.18 for 20 gallons) to $3.999 ($79.98 for 20 gallons), which was higher than Tuesday's national average in the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report of $3.939 ($78.74 for 20 gallons) for regular, unleaded. Gas is generally available up and down the Susquehanna at $3.899 ($77.98 for 20 gallons). Last year at (approximately) this time in May, regular, unleaded gasoline was selling in Benton at $2.759 ($55.18 for 20 gallons). Four years ago, regular, unleaded gasoline in Benton sold for $2.019 ($40.38 for 20 gallons). Now, for grins and giggles, lets assume that you drive a Hummer H2 Sport Utility Firebelch 500 with a 32-gallon capacity gas tank. It would cost $127.97 in Benton for a complete fill-up from an empty tank.
. The state collected about 7.6% less in liquid fuels taxes in the first 10 months of the 2007-08 fiscal year than in the same period in the last fiscal year. The revenue pays for road- and bridge work. In the same period last year, slightly more than $1 billion in liquid fuels taxes were collected.
. Ford Motor Co. announced last week that it will cut production of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles for the rest of the year, including production of the F-series pickup truck, the best-selling vehicle in the United States.
. Sales of recreational vehicles could drop 14% this year over last year, according to the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association.
. The national cost of diesel fuels is at a record high $4.768 a gallon, or $1.85 higher than last year.
. According to Reuters, Americans are starting to cut back on gasoline consumption as prices at the pump continue to break records. Using Reuters statistics, during the week prior to the Memorial Day holiday, Americans pumped 5.5% less gasoline than a year ago as average prices continued to hit new peaks.If you find Google lacking in its ability to deliver business information to you, try switching to Gray Boxx. Grayboxx is pretty comprehensive in its ability to find a specific business. It will tell you where the business is located and the phone number. Try it on local restaurants.
Didja ever notice that it is much easier to suggest solutions
when you don't know too much about the problem?Saying of the Day: More of something "than Carter has little liver pills." The Carter Medicine Company, founded in 1880, marketed a single product called Carter's Little Liver Pills, a very popular over-the-counter medicine in the early 20th century. Sales reached $40,000 in 1881. A typical advertisement for the patent medicine, this one from the year 1895, said, "To get relief from indigestion, biliousness, constipation or torpid liver without disturbing the stomach and upsetting the bowels, take a few doses of Carter's Little Liver Pills. They will please you."
Buster and Chloe would like you to read about Hachiko, the World's Most Loyal Dog. You can find the story here.
May 28, 2008. It is the birthday of Scott Wary, Stillwater; Pam Karnes, Rohrsburg; and twins Randy Karschner, Derrs Road, and Robby Karschner, Austin Trail, their 41st. Keep Becky Green, the proprietor of the Sub Shop at the bridge over Fishingcreek, in your prayers as she battles pneumonia in the Bloomsburg Hospital.
Columbia County Land Owners Group meets tonight at 7 PM at the Benton High School. Knowledge and education are the foundation for making the right natural-gas decision for each individual landowner! The Columbia County Land Owners Coalition web site includes meeting dates, a sign-up form and other information on this site. Questions? Contact Bruce Anderson, 458-4337.
Just outside of a town called "The Needles," about 12 miles across the Colorado river, on the California side, is an huge area where the Hualapai Indians raked up stones in windrows in a very mysterious manner for reasons I never quite understood.
It is a dreary and dusty area, generally devoid of rain, the ground baked by the sun for centuries and covered with broken lava and pumice stone which must have come from a volcano in the nearby San Bernardino mountains sometime early in its history. Head in any direction and the scenery will be the same, devoid of the color green and of any plants except for sage brush and cactus.
A single mesa, built much like a tabletop, is virtually level on its flat surface. Once a year the Hualapai tribe gathered in the still of the night and began to rake the lava and pumice stones into windrows, some as long as two miles. They were regular in length and interval. The height ranged from a foot to 15 inches, about the same as a windrow of hay we so often see on our own hillsides.
I remembered this bit of history when I stopped at the Merrifield Garden Center over the weekend and inquired about the price of pallets of familiar-looking stone. I'll get the price out of the way so there is no question about that. The pallets of stone were $299 each. They came from the Endless Mountain Stone Co. right here in our state. I immediately realized that I owned enough of these goonies to make me a zillionaire, and decided to learn what I could about becoming a zillionaire as quickly as possible. An eager young college student with a German accent and zero interest in rocks, told me that all the "boulders are unique," a fact I have know since I was knee high to a grasshopper. The salesman went on to tell me that boulders made good retaining walls, and they look good in a garden. I stopped him at that point, because I didn't want to remind myself of the back-breaking work of windrowing stones, turning over a rock and finding a snake, having fingers crushed, etc.
I remember reading a faded article in the Pennsylvania Freeman written in 1852 that there was "no end to inventions," as the writer put it. There were suddenly reaping and mowing machines. There were machines to cut blocks of marble with toothless saws, and for hewing granite "with precision and rapidity." And then the ultimate machine had just been invented, a machine for picking stones. It was simply a large cylinder on a common axle and cart wheels consisting of four rows of teeth or lifters. Gearing on the wheels and on the ends of the cylinder provided a rotary motion. The teeth picked up the stones and deposited them in a box. When the box was full, the cylinder raised and the load carried off and upset from a cart.
Before we get too far into this, didja ever hear the story of the boy who joined the pig club, but had no scales with which to weigh his pigs? One of the requirements of the club was that the weight of the pig at the start and at the finish had to be taken, and the weight at the end of each month was desirable. According to the story I found in a 1910 agricultural magazine, the pig-club boy solved the problem and weighed his pig as required, using only small scales which had only the capacity of a few pounds. He borrowed the scales from his mother's kitchen. His example stimulated boys for years. Think about it, and we'll tell you how he determined his pig's weight at the end of today's post. A small hint. Because these paragraphs are about rocks, you can betcha that has something to do with the answer.
Dealing with stones has always had its ups and downs. In 1900, a Doylestown stone dealer and farmer lost his life while oiling a stone-crusher when his overcoat caught on an iron pin in a rapidly revolving shaft. In another second his body was whirling about the shaft "with great velocity" as his body struck parts of the machinery. He soon died.
Many fences were made over the years by Irish stonemasons who were responsible for many of the lined hedge rows on farms. Their craft was often passed along to slaves in the South where stone walls are sometimes known as "slave walls."
A friend from England laid up many hours of dry-stone masonry for me, selecting stones by shape to fit snugly and securely together and he did it in the blink of an eye, much as our ancestors certainly laid up their rows of stone. The difference is that the stone wall laid up on my property will remain a stone wall as long as I live. Stone walls laid up by many of the early residents of the area are being disassembled stone by stone, snake by snake, and shipped off to places like Virginia's Merrifield Garden Center. As the old stone-spring houses and stone rows disappear, a little of the history of the area vanishes, a bit of the distinctive nature of the countryside fades into a dim memory.
On second thought, I choose never to be a rock zillionaire. I'll keep my rocks, thank you. If I am not going to make money selling rocks, I am going to start not making money right now!
Orthopedic Surgeon Zeferino (Jeff) Martinez, M.D., F.A.C.S., has joined with Bloomsburg Physicians Services and will begin practice in Bloomsburg on June 1. He is board certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery and is a member of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and American College of Surgeons. Dr. Martinez obtained his medical degree from the University of San Luis Potosi in Mexico. He completed his residency in orthopedic surgery at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, Canada. He also completed a spine fellowship at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Texas. Dr. Martinez is a member of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, the Montgomery County Medical Society and the Pennsylvania Orthopedic Society. Dr. Martinez is skilled in minimally invasive surgery, sports medicine, micro decompression and total-joint replacement. Appointments may be made by calling 387-6150.
A black bear apparently thinks that the Red Rock area is too good for it. Three weeks ago Tuesday a black bear was removed from a Scranton tree when Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officer Mark Rutkowski tranquilized the bear with a dart from his rifle. The bear was released later that day in Roaring Brook Township, but soon ran afoul of a Game Commission representative in White Haven. The second time the bear was released near Red Rock, but the bear didn't take long to make its way back to Scranton. This time, the PGC will release the 170 pound male in the Poconos.
The boy who weighed his pig had a hog crate, a strong box, some chains, a rock fence, a long pole and the small scales as material to be used in weighing his pig. He marked the middle point of the long pole and placed it over the rock fence. To one end he attached the crate and to the other end the box was fastened by means of the chains. Sand sufficient to balance the crate was placed in the box. The boy then gathered a quantity of stones, dropping them near the box. By placing a few grains of corn as bait, the pig was enticed into the crate. The door was closed and the pig was ready for the weighing. By putting the small stones into the box, the box and the crate balanced. The boy learned the weight of his pig in terms of stone. By means of the total of the weighing gave the boy with fair accuracy the weight of his pig in pounds. His problem was solved in such a satisfactory manner that he used this arrangement during the whole contest.
May 27, 2008. Happy anniversary to Hobe and Jesse Whitenight and to Scott and Julie Lyons.
Tomorrow and every Wednesday morning, throngs of people head to the Lewisburg Farmers Market. You can count on about 80 vendors tomorrow, and that is no different from 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.
As gasoline prices rise within a whisker of $4 a gallon, families are thinking of new and economical ways of seeing our local area. The Centre Daily Times asked its readers for the best day trips from Centre County--"great places to go, and things to do and see that won't burn excessive amounts of fuel or greatly reduce the vacation budget."
It came as no surprise that the top pick was the 13,050 acre Ricketts Glen State Park, one of the most scenic parks in the state. We claim some of it in Columbia County, but Luzerne and Sullivan counties also get a slice of it. Where else can you hike such a short distance and see 21 waterfalls and trees as old as 900 years?
Over the next year, you'll hear stories about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War culminating with an event planned for the first weekend in August, 2009. We'll provide specifics in a later issue, but here are some facts that you might not know...
. The artillery exchange preceding Pickett's charge was said to be heard 140 miles away in Pittsburgh, making it one of the loudest noises on the North American continent up to that time.
. In two presidential elections, Lincoln never carried Columbia County.
. 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 a possible injury 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, because war had not been declared. If 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 building then utilized as the Christian Church in Benton. Some prisoners were released, but forty-four prisoners were hurried off without food. Some were young, some were sick, some in the prime of their lives, some rich and some poor. The Federal troops shackled the prisoners together like common thieves and marched them with force and without food to Bloomsburg, then by rail through Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and then to the prison camp at Fort Mifflin on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. 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
May 26, 2008. Carol Vance, Yvonne Unbewust Lenbergs, Laura Gould and Linnea Holdren have birthdays today. Nevin and Deb Dressler celebrate their wedding anniversary. It is Memorial Day. Let us spend the day honoring those who died serving their country. Don't forget the veterans.
The picnics planned for this Memorial Day weekend are reminiscent of those wonderful days when the famed Columbia County Farmers' Picnic was held on Friday evenings and all day Saturday in the beautiful Benton Park. Didja know that because there was a vital need to raise money for the Red Cross during the First World War, an annual picnic was born--which became one of the biggest affairs of its kind in the commonwealth? The history of the park was closely aligned with the history of the Farmers' Picnic. Although the first picnic was to raise Red Cross money, those that followed were for the improvement and maintenance of the 18-acre park.
In the early years of the picnic, speakers from Penn State and from the Department of Agriculture came to town and waxed poetic, but in 1968 mostly politicians came to make an appearance, speak to the crowds and "meet the voters."
We'll tell you a little about the 50th-year picnic, July 26 and 27, 1968. Mayor Karl Fritz was chairman of the Benton Park Commission that year.
There were midget- and teener-league baseball games that Friday night and Tri-County double-headers in the afternoon between the teams fielded by Orangeville and Benton. The honky-tonk piano of Jim "Ivory Knuckles" McHenry provided the musical entertainment and Harold Yaple joined in with his excellent voice. The Berwick Colonial Band played. There was horseshoe pitching following about the same rules used at the horseshoe pits at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center. There were tractor-driving contests and a greased-pig chase and even some turtle racing. As the theme song from All in the Family went, "Those Were the Days."
Fab Finds is an antiques and collectibles blog that serves as a guide to antiques in eastern Pennsylvania. You can find antique events in the eastern Pennsylvania, antique articles of note, coverage of major antique events nationwide and small towns worth a visit.
Bids are rolling in and contracts are being signed for the natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation in anticipation of finding gas in commercial quantities.
The Marcellus shale contains what is sometimes called "unconventional natural gas," a term used less each day as the "unconventional" becomes "conventional." Unconventional natural gas falls into the general categories of deep gas, tight gas, gas-containing shales, coalbed methane, geopressurized zones, and Arctic and sub-sea hydrates.
You can get an overview of Devonian shale here, of which the Marcellus is the deepest and the oldest. Devonian shale was formed from the mud of shallow seas that existed about 350 million years ago in the Devonian period of the Paleozoic era which existed 543 to 248 million years ago. It was during this period that much of the limestone and coal deposits that exist within a short distance of our area were formed.
The fine-grained, soft, sedimentary-shale rock characteristic of the Marcellus shale, breaks at the touch into thin, parallel layers. The natural gas in the shale is "sandwiched" between two thicker-shale deposits. Possibly only 10% of what is at a depth of 5,000 to 7,000 feet will be recovered.
Sorry for the short visit this Memorial Day, but Marcia Kay and I are in Washington, D.C. and there is just too much to see and do to peck something out today. Happy holiday.
May 25, 2008. Happy birthday to Brenda Conrad, Lebanon, PA. Saturday was the area-wide garage sales, and the valley was a madhouse, with huge sales from the Thrift Store, a gymnasium of quality items at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, continuing throughout the Borough and the surrounding Townships from St. James Church to St. Gabriel's Church to Central and points in between. The Benton Rodeo ground was packed with horses and people for a junior rodeo. Apprentice Chef Bob turned out some excellent "Levi-burgers" at the rodeo grounds. He could have a promising career if he gave up his day job.
Didja ever think that when a man brings his wife flowers
for no reason, there is a reason?The Benton Area Schools gathered in reunion Saturday night with approximately 200 seniors, their families and alumni attending. Lavena Campbell was the oldest alumnus attending, a member of the Class of 1933. There were 33 in the class, three of whom are still living. Lavena told the graduating class to "always be proud you graduated from Benton." Winton Laubach, Golden, Colorado, said that six from his class of 38 were still alive. Winton remembered that on the night that he graduated, he took off in the family car, first buying seven gallons of gasoline from Yost's Service Station for a dollar.
Harold Yaple told of his class celebrating their 60th reunion Wednesday at the Creekside Restaurant with 22 class members attending. Dick Goode spoke for the Class of 1953, saying that is was "a pleasure to be here, but it is a pleasure to be any where." Jay Kocher spoke for the Class of 1958, telling of the party Friday at the home of Larry and Carol Laubach. He told the 28 attending members of the Class of 2008 that 50 years from now when they gather in reunion he hoped that they would have the same positive feelings toward the school as the alumni in the auditorium felt Saturday night. Dave Baker spoke for the Class of 1963. Bob and Eleanor Sands were honored for attending alumni banquets for 68 consecutive years.
Two alumni and an honoree were inducted into the Hall of Fame, including...
. Jimmie Dale Johnson, Class of 1949, deceased. Jimmie was senior-class president, graduated from Bloomsburg State Teachers College, earned a Bachelor of Science Degree and later earned his Master of Science Degree in Meteorology from Penn State. He served for 37 years in the Air Force and active Air Force Reserve, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He became Station Manager of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Weather Satellite Command and Data Acquisition Station at Wallops Island, VA. He was responsible for the command and control of four to eight active-weather satellites.
Accepting on behalf of Jimmie Johnson was his widow, Rosa Johnson. Rosa noted that five years ago Jimmie had accepted on behalf of his brother, Ralph, when Ralph was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Rosa told of the great pride Jimmie took in his high school, and of the same pride that went with him in both his military and civilian career. . Warren L. Ketner, deceased, was an educator and principal, serving at the Sugarloaf School from 1927-45 and in the Benton Area School District from 1945-69. He graduated from Gettysburg College and Bucknell University. For 42 years, his life was dedicated to education. He devoted much time and energy to the community. He was a leader in the Methodist Church, secretary to the Benton Borough Council, and active in the Kiwanis Club. Mr. Ketner retired in 1969 after 43 years of service to the educational system of the Benton and Sugarloaf areas. He died in 1971, only 20 months after he retired.
Accepting on behalf of Mr. Ketner was his son, Jared Ketner, on right, who introduced his older brother George, Class of '54, and George's wife, Elizabeth. Jared then introduced his wife, Grace, and their granddaughter, Rachel. . Sue Albertson Walker, Class of 1961, deceased, was an educator, author and civic leader. She graduated from Benton High School in 1961 and from Millersville University in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Library Science. She received a Master of Science Degree in Library Science from Syracuse University in 1967. Sue taught at Benton High School from 1964-68 before teaching in Fairfax County schools in northern Virginia from 1968 to 1973. She was a teacher and administrator for Lancaster (PA) city schools from 1973 until 1999. Sue was Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Millersville University from 2000 through 2005 and achieved the Millersville Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award in 2005.
Accepting on her behalf was her husband Robert Smith Walker, Lancaster and Washington, D.C., who represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican from 1977 to 1997. In the audience was her sister, Sara Anne Albertson, Newark, DE, a member of the Class of 1957. Bob Walker said he and Sue dated for six years before they married, and he had fond memories of Benton both before and during their 45 years of marriage. Rep. Walker spoke of her devotion to education and the warm feelings Washingtonians from the President down had for Sue during his 20 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.
. Donald P. Martini, Class of 1950, Seattle, Washington, was to have been the fourth inductee. Don has had a few health issues lately. He had to be taken to the hospital Wednesday of this week by ambulance with a pinched nerve. He was unable to use his left leg because of the pain. On the third of June, he has eye surgery. Don's induction will be postponed until the 2009 Alumni Banquet. Dr. Donald Rabb spoke on his behalf and outlined his many accomplishments.
Donald Martini joined the Air Force in January, 1951, as a private. He wanted to enter cadet school, but didn't have the education, although a proviso in the regulations said that "or equivalent" could be substituted for a formal degree. Don sat for the GEDs for the first two years of college and passed them on the first try--all of which speaks highly for the education he received in the Benton schools. Donald eventually retired as a Major and Master Navigator in March, 1971, after logging more than 6,000 hours of flying time and receiving several commendation medals as well as an Air Medal for his 50 missions in Vietnam. In 1980, he graduated cum laude from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering, Structures. After graduation, he worked for Boeing. In his final 10 years with the company, he was a 747 Flight Instructor, teaching many crews at the Boeing facility and overseas.
Notably, he was the only instructor for the space shuttle crews and the Air Force One 747 crew. He actually retired three times from the Boeing Company, but was called back for special assignments. He retired "for good" in 2003.
Don considered his contribution to the Vietnam War effort as the most important achievement of his career. It led to the ability to detect and interdict the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese on the Ho Chi Minh trail. "Teaching pilots how to operate the 747 rates second," Don recalls. He added, "Although not all of my Air Force career was fun, it was always interesting and challenging." In absentia, he offered Don Rabb a "special thanks," asked that Beverly Fritz Smith be given a special thanks for keeping in touch over the years. His special tribute was to the "classmates of the class of 1950 who are no longer with us." He closed an email to the Benton News by saying that "I will always miss Benton. I plan to be back in 2009 for the induction ceremony if everything goes OK."
Didja ever think about the high cost of low living?
From the This Might Be a Worthwhile Idea Department come these two tidbits...
. It appears that bottled water is not necessarily safer than tap water, and it certainly is a lot more expensive. The consumption of bottled water continues to grow as concerns about the environmental impact of drinking bottled water also gains steam. Consumers should be increasingly looking to their faucet in lieu of plastic bottles for hydration. If you are worried about what's in your tap water, a carbon filter such as those made by Brita can remove chlorine, lead and other impurities. Cancer patients taking chemotherapy and patients recovering from a major surgery, pregnant women, children and the elderly need to watch what they drink. From what I read, about 40% of bottled water--including major brands like Dasani and Aquafina--use municipal water. There is nothing magic about the water, nothing exotic, nothing more healthful than tap water. Making plastic bottles to keep up with demand for bottled water requires the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil--about the amount of fuel to power a million cars a year. An estimated four million pounds of plastic bottles ends up in landfills or as roadside litter. In Texas, the Austin City Council approved a plan to stop using bottled water at their City Hall--and we expect to see more action along these lines. For more information on this subject, turn to www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org/. Consider public-tap water over bottled water and support the prioritization of a strong public-water system over bottled-water profits. Consider buying an inexpensive aluminum-travel bottle for your car trips.
. The Chinese are exporting a whole bunch of things that I don't want to eat or ingest as medicine, have children play with, or trust to keep from burning down my house. I want nothing to do with substandard or tainted food or clothing. Some canned and preserved fruit and dried fish contain excessive amounts of bacteria. An alarming amount of fruit and vegetable juice is substandard by American standards. Many goods made for children's products are defective or laced with harmful chemicals. Take a common plastic-power strip labeled "Astra." The 220v male plug at the end of the cable has Chinese inscriptions, is assembled backwards and has the cable going up instead of down on a vertical wall socket. The product packing includes words like "traiting socket," and "electronic produsts." Instead of waiting for the Federal Government to suspend trading with China which might happen as Mother used to say "when Hades freezes over," or until the government does something about the situation, why not take matters in your own hands? If the bottom of the product you want to buy says "Made in China" or "PRC," simply choose another product or elect not to buy. You really don't need those plastic eggs at Easter, do you? Get some real eggs and help out an American farmer! Think of the economic impact of a million Americans refusing to purchase $20 worth of tainted Chinese thingies.
There is a movement afoot to send retailers and the Chinese a message by refusing to purchase anything made in China from June 4 through July 4. If we all did that, it would mean a reduction of 1/12th of their total exports to this country. If you can't live without cheap Chinese goods for one month, you deserve what you get from China and please don't complain to me about shoddy merchandise.
May 24, 2008. Happy birthday to Mollie Hough, Orangeville, and Ron Robbins, Benton.
Quickies...
. For more information on Fishing Creek Sportsmen's Club, write to P. O. Box 331, Benton, PA 17814.• Sign of the times... A Berwick propane company has a list of thirty delinquent accounts in Saturday's Press Enterprise.
From the archives...
. Dr. Charles S. Sentner, 44, a former Benton medical doctor for four years, died March 4, 1950, from a heart attack. Dr. Sentner became ill in Emmaus, near Allentown, when he was driving to Allentown to pick up his wife who was visiting relatives. Dr. and Mrs. Sentner had two daughter and a son. Joan, the oldest daughter was studying nursing at the Temple Hospital, Philadelphia. Eloise was a student at the Slovak Academy in Danville. Charles, Jr. attended elementary school in Benton.
. Older readers will remember the barber shop on Main Street owned by Guy C. Miller, across from what is now the municipal parking lot. Some may remember the cold February day in 1954 when his wife, Nettie, 65, was killed in a two-car crash near Richmond, Virginia. Guy was hospitalized with rib and chest injuries and four other persons, all members of the same New Jersey family, were injured in the accident. Guy and Nettie Miller had two sons, William and Haines. Haines died several years ago. Bill and Edna Miller live in Mesa, AZ.
Guy Miller lives on in 2008. Dave Miller, Palm Bay, Florida, a grandson of Nettie and Guy Miller, sent the Benton News a picture of his son, Guy Robert Miller, 24, who is now serving in the Air Force and is stationed at Yakoto, Japan. Guy was an honor graduate of basic training. His job is emergency response specializing in chemical emergencies. "Robert" is from Robert Miller who lived in the Maple Grove area after he retired from a career with the Federal government in Washington, D.C. Guy Robert Miller was bapitized at the Benton Preysbyterian Church.
Guy Miller, 2008
. One of the largest and most prominent of the potato farmers in the upper Fishingcreek valley was Roy R. Hess. His farm was on the "flats" and generally lay where much of the Sokol Quarries are today on the east side of Route 487 between Maple Grove and Stillwater. Roy concentrated on potato growing and was one of the first in the area to become a member of the "400 club" attained by production of 400 bushels of potatoes per acre. This yield is surpassed today, but in 1954 it was an accomplishment. Roy spent his entire lifetime on the same farm, and in fact in the same house. Roy, 68, died in early June, 1954, of an embolism. Roy was the son of Wahle and Alice Krickbaum Hess. He married the former Susie Shultz. He had one sister, Myreta Hess, Market Street, Benton, a brother, Doyle, Asbury.
. In response to a reader's question, the Farmers National Bank of Orangeville and the Columbia County National Bank of Benton consolidated operations January 16, 1956. The capitalization after consolidation was about $100,000. The new name of the bank was the Columbia County Farmer's National Bank with offices in Orangeville and Benton. The Orangeville Bank was organized August 17, 1917. C. E. Wenner was the cashier of the institution at the time of the merger. The Columbia County National Bank in Benton was organized in June, 1902. T. Carl McHenry, cahier of the Benton Bank, retired December 31, 1956, after serving in that capacity for 35 of his 37 years with the bank. Before that, T. Carl was secretary to the Congressman from Benton, John G. McHenry.
. T. Carl McHenry died at the age of 75, early in November, 1963. Back in the "roaring twenties" when baseball was the king of sports in all the small towns of Pennsylvania and Benton was the king of the sandlotters in our part of the commonwealth, three of the most prominent men connected with baseball were Robert W. (Doc) Rabb, John Saxon Baker and T. Carl McHenry. The three men were friends, but active in different pursuits. "Doc" Rabb was a died-in-the-wool Democrat and a pharmacist. John Baker was a died-in-the-wool Republican and a stone cuter. T. Carl was a banker and active in many fraternal affairs. T. Carl could hit a ball, as Father used to say "like nobody's business." He excelled at some of the bitter clashes between the Benton Giants and the Hoboken Huskies. T. Carl was a member of the first graduating class of the Benton Schools, then went on to serve on the school board for many years and was president for a time. T. Carl and his friends lived in the golden age of the sport of baseball, and left a lot of colorful memories.Didja ever think how many people have never learned
the difference between motion and direction?Warren L. Ketner is an Honorary Inductee in the 2008 Benton Area Schools Hall of Fame. Mr. Ketner served at the Sugarloaf School from 1927-45 and in the Benton Area School District from 1945-69 as both an educator and as principal. He was a graduate of Gettysburg College and Bucknell University. For 42 years, his life was dedicated to education, sharing his love of learning, inquisitive intellect, and passion for excellence with area students while devoting much time and energy to the community. He was a leader in the Methodist Church, secretary to the Benton Borough Council, and active in the Kiwanis Club, and once served as Pennsylvania District 17 Lieutenant Governor.
The Rev. and Mrs. George Ketner had high expectations for their children. During the 1920s when college was not the norm for girls, Warren and his two sisters were college graduates. Many thought him to be harsh and demanding. Because of the way he was raised, Warren Ketner had high expectations for his family and students. He expected no more from them than he did of himself. The greatest reward for an educator was to see a former succeed.
Continuing education was the standard for this educator. After earning a masters degree, Mr. Ketner went on to part-time teaching for Bucknell University at their Wilkes-Barre extension campus in addition to his regular duties at Benton High School. Leisure time reading very often including re-reading the "classics."
For many years in addition to his regular duties as principal he taught the Problems of Democracy "P.O.D." class. Participating in government was stressed at school and home. The Morning Press was read daily with the first cup of coffee. There was always a weekly news magazine on the coffee table. Lively political discussions were a regular item at the supper table. Mr. Ketner and his wife, Martha, always took his sons, George and Jared, with them to the polling station for every election. Jared recalls that he "could not wait until (he) was 21 to be able to participate in (the) democratic process."
Warren was a true educator with an inquiring mind and a thirst for knowledge. He loved to debate with students and friends often playing the devil's advocate making his adversaries prove their point.
Warren's son, Jared Ketner, married Grace Ham of the Poughkeepsie, NY, area in 1964. He taught math and physical science in the Edgar, Nebraska, public schools from 1962 to 1968. The family then moved to Wahoo, Nebraska, where Jared taught math and physical science until his retirement in 2003. Jared has taught chemistry part-time for about 12 years at Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, NE. Jared and Grace have two children. Their son J.B. is a family-practice physician. He and his wife Carla and their two boys, Joel and Nathan, live in Seward, NE. Their daughter, Suzanne, is a cardiology R.N. in Oklahoma City where she and her husband live with their two children, Rachel and Ryan.
Warren's son, George Ketner, married his life-mate, Elizabeth, in 1962 and the couple live in Stella, NE. He taught science in the Stella schools and then went to work at the nuclear power at Brownville, NE, in nuclear chemistry and physics. The couple have two children. Martha Ketner married David Aldacushion in Colorado. They have no children. They are in Gondar, Ethiopia, near Lake Tana with the Peace Corps until the spring of 2009. Martha works in Aids/HIV education, and teaching English as a second Language and David in a hospital doing computer training, maintenance, repair, data-base development and related hospital topics. John W. married Amy Bates four years ago. The couple have no children. They live in Kansas City where she is studying chiropractic medicine. John works as a guard in an IRS office in Kansas City.
Didja ever think that a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks?
Sheldon Eugene Hess (August 8, 1925-May 22, 2008), Franklin Court, Bloomsburg, died Thursday at the Williamsport Hospital. He had been in ill health and a resident of Loyalton of Bloomsburg for the past three months. He was 82. Sheldon was born in Benton Township. He was a son of the late Wilson J. and Emma I. (Fritz) Hess. He was a 1943 graduate of Benton High School. He enlisted in the US Marine Corps in November, 1943. Following the completion of recruit training at Parris Island, he went overseas with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines. During World War II he participated in the Tinian and Okinawa Campaigns. Other duty stations included Camp Lejeune, NC. His recruit duty was at Altoona. He was also stationed at Fort Monmouth, NJ, and the Telephone Teletype Technicians School, San Diego. He was awarded the Navy Unit Citation, the Good Conduct Medal with 6 stars, the Navy Occupation, and the WWII Victory and the Korean Service Medals. He retired from the Marine Corps in October, 1964, with the rank of Gunnery Sergeant. Following his retirement from the Marine Corps, he was employed at base-telephone operations at Camp Lejeune, N.C. until his final retirement in 1992. He was a member of the Waller United Methodist Church and the Marine Corps Fleet Reserve Association. He was an adult leader in the Boys Scouts of America, also a member of the Order of the Arrow (BSA). He was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years, Priscilla D. (Hanner) Hess, on June 27, 2000. Surviving are his children Wendy Vorgang (Major Blaine Vorgang, USMC, Retired), Plainfield, Illinois; David Grant Hess (Linda), Rome, Georgia; three grandchildren: Tyler Hess, Nathaniel Vorgang and Brittany Vorgang; two brothers: Carlton B. Hess (Margaretta), Benton; Donald G. Hess (Jean), Belles Hill Road, Benton; and Ruth Ann Allegar (William), Waller, and several nieces and cousins. Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 2 PM with viewing preceding from 12:30 PM at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc. Burial will be in the Waller Cemetery with full military honors accorded by the US Marine Corps Honor Guard and a combined veterans group.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary will be published in the Saturday Press Enterprise.
May 23, 2008. Tom Kline celebrates his birthday today. Lisa and Randy Gordner celebrate their wedding anniversary. Don't give up on our weather. It should hit 75° Sunday and 79° Monday.
The Benton Lions Club, Benton Womens Club, NCCCC and the American Red Cross would like to thank everyone who donated blood on Thursday at The Center. The totals were 56 registered, 57 productive, (double reds count as two) 3 deferred, and 9 first-time donors, with a goal of 50 units.
If our effort to continue doing things wrong until we get them right, the Benton News will in the future not publicize upcoming events in the daily rant. Please bookmark upcoming local events at www.bentonnews.net/events1.htm. Because of the unusually busy weekend, we suggest you turn there now.
Readers will remember that Colton Albertson, 10, Buck Road, Stillwater, recently tangled with a riding lawnmower driven by his brother. Colton lost a big chunk out of his heel and lost most of the tissue up to his ankle. He was taken by life flight to Geisinger Hospital. After two weeks in the Children's hospital, Colton was able to come home last Saturday in time to receive his Arrow of Light Award with Pack 51 where his father is Cub Scout Master. Earlier this week, Colton went back to the hospital for staples and suture removal and to clean everything out one last time. His mother, Jenny Albertson, said he had "very little pain most of this week." He was anointed with oil (they are Pentecostal) last Sunday and "we can feel God working to heal him." Jennie asked to thank everyone for their "thoughts and especially for their prayers. God's Grace and Mercy is what we live by."
Didja ever think that a diamond is a chuck of coal that made good under pressure?A century ago, it was the small things in life which provided the most enjoyment. Beside the trolley line in and out of Willow Grove, at the intersection of Spencer Street and Old York Road, was an old wooden pump. Because of the cold water, cars even in the middle of summer would reach that point and would halt long enough for the conductors, motormen and passengers to have a drink of water using the rusty-tin cup hung by a stout iron chain from the side of the wooden pump.
Many readers will remember the hand pumps of our youth, but it generally takes a previous generation to remember the wooden pumps. In Jonestown, a man by the name of Elias M. Laubach and later Frank Laubach built water pumps out of pine logs. The center of the log was bored out and a handle attached. This was the standard way of extracting water from wells back then.
Elias M. Laubach, was born November 14, 1828, and worked as a carpenter until 1857, then began to make wooden pumps. Little is now known about his making of pumps, but Dean Good does remember some details about the Laubach Wood Water Pumps when the business was owned by Frank Laubach. The business and an attached house were located just east of Huntington creek and over the years have housed the pump business, plus the Jonestown High School and for a time a Patriotic Order Sons of America (P.O.S. of A), on the second floor (the P.O.S. of A. primarily used as its location the second floor of a store on the Bendertown side of Huntington creek).
Dean Good was born in 1924, grew up around Jonestown and started school in 1930 at the Jonestown grade school, which was located just across the road from the present church. There was no well on the school property so the job fell to the boys to take the water pail down the hill to the Chapin Store, fill it from the wooden pump, and carry the bucket back up the hill and deposit the water in the water cooler. The cooler was refilled twice a day. Dean remembers that several Laubach pumps were still in operation in the 1930s. The one Dean remembers the best was at the Jonestown General Store, owned by Oscar Chapin.
From Dean's memory he feels that "a few pumps were still made in Jonestown in the early 1930s," about the time that iron pumps were replacing the old bucket and wood pumps. A new Laubach wooden pump may have been made for the Chapin Store about 1932. Dean associates the name Nathaniel Dresbaugh with the building, which was beside the Reeder Evan Myers home (Reeder was the owner of the Jonestown Roller Mills). Dean doesn't remember many details about the machinery that was used except that the tools were powered by an old single-cylinder gas engine.
The company probably went out of business about 1932 because the blacksmith shop of William B. Sutliff (father of Eulalia Sutliff Bogart) went out of business about the same time. Dean notes that "the pumps would need some iron hardware that the blacksmith shop would have to make."
It is very easy today to turn a lever and get water from a spigot. The current crop of youngsters probably fail to understand that in "the old days" it was necessary to fetch a tin bucket half filled with water and pour it down the wooden pipe, take the pump handle and stroke it several vigorous times until a plentiful flow of water would fill the water trough.
Pumping water taught a good lesson; i.e., many things that are done require a contribution of something from ourselves. A quarter bucket of water poured into a dry pump to dampen and swell the leather-suction valves made possible the bringing up of pure water from a well.
While it might seem odd to use wood for a water pump, it is interesting to turn to the city of Philadelphia to learn that city began using wood for carrying water in the year 1800. Spruce logs were first put into service in Philadelphia in the year 1800. These water mains were finally dug up in 1893 and although they had been in the ground for nearly a century, they were nearly as sound as when they were put down. Each of the mains was twelve feet long and from sixteen inches to two feet thick, each having a six-inch hole extending from end to end. On Broad Street, there were six lines of these wooden water pipes which had been laid three lines abreast, which dated from the infancy of Philadelphia, the days of the stage coach and the canal boat. According to a Philadelphia Inquirer article in 1893, the holes in the logs were bored by horse-power with an immense steel auger which carved out the logs. Schoolchildren would watch the progress and when they started to get bored, they would fill their aprons with the chips to take home for kindling fires. To give you an idea of the times, there were only three steam engines in the United States in 1893 (according to the Inquirer article) and each of them had a wooden boiler!
Before the water mains were laid, Philadelphia got its water entirely from wooden pumps. It is interesting to note the cause which lead to the establishment of the first water works. Philadelphia was ravaged by yellow fever in 1793. Prior to that time and for the next seven years, photographs of the city show streets full of pump handles. The water under the city became contaminated with sewage and that was largely responsible for the yellow fever. It took until 1801 when the city's first water works in Philadelphia was completed and water began to be taken from the Schuylkill river for drinking to clear the water situation.
The boilers for the city were largely made of wood, instead of iron, steel or brass. The lever beams, large fly-wheels, main shafts and arms, cold-water pumps and cisterns were all made of wood. The boilers were simply wooden boxes 9 feet high, 9 feet wide and 15 feet long made of 5-inch white pine planks, bolted through and braced on the outside. The firebox inside the boiler was made of wrought iron.
It wasn't until 1801 that fourteen pieces of cast-iron pipe were laid as an experiment. In 1804, the city stopped using wooden pipe and pumps. Progress didn't come that quickly to the hills of Pennsylvania, however. The Laubach wood pumps continued to be built into the early 1930s and from all indications sales continued until the shop closed.Dawn Domony, Jonestown, 864-3774, continues to look for history of the village of Jonestown, including material related to the Laubach Wood Water Pumps. She has begun an ambitious project to collect photos and stories of the area. If you can help Dawn, please call her.
May 22, 2008. Happy birthday to Hiram Brewer and Jenna Nicole Deitrick. Happy anniversary to Tim and Shelly Charles. The date of yesterday's post was incorrectly given, as well as birthdays and anniversaries for that date. My apologies go out to those who are not another day older as a result.
Today is Community Awareness Day at Ola Stackhouse's District Court, Millville. The Columbia County Traveling Library Bookmobile will participate from 10 AM to noon. The Benton High School Class of '57 will gather in reunion at 1 PM at Stevig's Restaurant. It is set-up day for the book sale Saturday at The Center. Additional volunteers are needed to help with the set-up this morning at 10. The Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, the Lions Club and the Women's Club sponsor a blood drive today in memory of Elsie P. Buyers from 2 to 7 PM at The Center. To schedule an appointment, call 1-800-GIVE LIFE, extension 2150. Donors must be at least 17 years of age and weigh at least 110 pounds. Please bring photo ID. The Sugarloaf Men's Group will have five flavors of homemade ice cream for sale: vanilla, chocolate, peanut butter, maple walnut and strawberry. The price is $3.50 a quart or three quarts for $10. To order, call Ed Allegar, 925-6875, Howard Leh, 925-2304, or Edd Sidinger, 925-5203. There is a one-hour, live call-in program on issues associated with natural gas exploration, mineral rights leasing and the Marcellus Shale formation at 7 PM simulcast statewide on the Pennsylvania Cable Network and Webcast at http://wpsu.org/gasrush/.
Didja know that the "biggest log" ever sawed by R. T. Smith & Son Lumber Company was sawed in February, 1918, according to the Benton Argus. The log was a chestnut brought to the mill by Orville Savage. It was 12 feet in length and 52 inches in diameter. The log produced 1,300 board feet of lumber.
Didja ever think that a good father has a little "mother" in him?
Clair Harvey, President of the Fishing Creek Sportsmen's Club, was the guest speaker Wednesday evening at The Center. His talk started with his developing interest in fishing as a child. He recalled how he would fish for chubs in the Benton Dam, then sell them to Mrs. Doyle Pennington for a penny each. His goal was to catch 18 chubs two or three times a week, because admission was 18 cents at the Ritz Theatre. After selling the chubs to Mrs. Pennington so she could feed her cats, Clair would take the money across Market Street to the theatre and see a movie.
Clair talked about the beginning of the Fishing Creek Sportsmen's Club about 1965. The group which started the club was so hard up for money that they ground up road-kill for feed, and even ground up bear meat and deer meat. When one of Donald Smith's cows died, that went into fish food, too.
The club leases land from the VFW and recently signed a 25-year lease to assure the continued operation of the club. The club purchases fingerlings about 5" long in July. Because brook trout can't handle the water when it gets over about 70°, the hot-summer months are a matter of concern. The club finances much of its activity from individual package sales of fish food at 25 cents a package. Clair noted the distances that families come to feed the fish and the ducks. This year there has been some stealing of food and money and the club has instituted measures to catch the offenders.
One of the big events of the club is the annual fish derby, which this year will be held on June 1. Sportswriter Tom Austin called the local fish derby "the granddaddy of fish derbies." The club makes milkshakes at the Benton Rodeo each year. They travel each summer to Camp Victory to teach children how to fish. The club owns 35 acres around Zaners, 38 acres along Route 239 south and about 30 acres near the old power dam north of Benton. The 500 members pay $7 in dues yearly.
The opening July 1 of a sports center where the former Benton Sports Center was located was announced by Clair. Chad Eckroth, who one year ago was the victim of a logging accident, will operate the store.
Whenever I take the old road from Elk Grove into Nordmont and pass through what was the logging town of Emmons and was later the home of Camp Morton, the Civilian Conservation Corps camp where unemployed young men were sent to halt the erosion of natural resources, I watch for the groves of apple trees standing alone like soldiers at their sentry posts. The same is found in a few places in Sullivan County where the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike labors to climb hills on a now-abandoned trail to nowhere. A few days ago my travels took me through deserted back roads of New York where masses of blue signaled groves of aged lilacs. None of these bushes or trees grew in these spots by themselves. A closer examination usually results in finding rotten timbers or a depression in the ground where once a cellar existed.
The spot likely was the home a hundred or so years ago of a family who had cleared the land and built a house. To eke out a living, they cleared the land and tilled the soil and raised a little livestock and turned out children about every year and a half. Life was all toil with little in the way of excitement or beauty. The women of the house turned to planting the necessities and for beauty. Fruit trees and lilacs were the result.
But life was hard and the unforeseen happens. Some men were called to war and rode away never to return. Without insulation, the houses were cold in the winter and the stoves had to be fired hard. Fires burned some of the houses. If the house was in a timber area, when the trees played out, the family had to move on. In summers of no rain or too much rain, crops--the only means of survival--were ruined. The sheriff came knocking when the mortgage was foreclosed. As the family moved from the house, often no one else wanted to live there and the hard work of the family and the memories of the family were for naught. In the winters, the snow covered everything and in the summers the undergrowth slowly hid the beauty that one was associated with the house.
Didja ever notice that the things that last often are not intended. We don't knowingly build monuments to ourselves. I remember building a foot bridge at Painter Den, with the help of several others, so that a walk which I made could be used to get across some water at the head of the pond. It took days to build and when completed I added a lovely sign which said "Constructed by Mark Burke and David Kline, builders of bridges and skyscrapers." It would have been a nice monument for future generations as they walked around the pond. But circumstances change. A colony of beavers decided the valley was a pleasant place and began construction of a dam a hundred or so feet downstream from the bridge. They worked for about a year building a massive dam, each week adding a little to the height of the dam. It was a total surprise when one day on my walk around the pond I discovered that the bridge was six inches below the water line. My "monument" to cross a stream remains to this day, submerged in the beaver pond. The trouble is the bridge represents a "monument" to poor planning and design and an event unforeseen when I built the bridge.
The monument of the apple trees planted to keep her family healthy or the monument of lilacs to add just a little touch of beauty in the family's life remains, while what the family originally thought would be a monument is gone forever.
Didja ever notice that the person who sings his own praises
often gets the tune too high?Didja know that in the 18th century indigo dyers went from community to community dying material for farmers' wives? You can learn more about dying the color blue from indigo by going here. Tan was used a lot because the clothes were made from dyes which the housewife could make from vegetables and herbs. Clothing, because of its expense and the degree of difficulty to obtain, passed from parent to child and then among siblings. As a result, clothing was never very form fitting. It was a "one size fits all" society. Many of our German ancestors initialed and dated when clothing like scarves, sunbonnets and aprons were made. If you have any of these items as hand-me-downs from previous generations, check to see if the garment was initialed and dated.
As my worn-out knee forces me to hobble more and more, I am reminded of the story dating back to March of 1918 when Earl Hess, 19, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Herdic Hess, Sugarloaf Township, wanted to be in the fight across the sea. Three times his attempt to join the American Army was rejected because of his weight (reported to be between 120 and 125 pounds) and a slight stiffness in one arm. Earl was finally accepted for service in the Canadian army and on March 14 left for Canada for training. Earl said to the editor of the Benton Argus, "what's the difference where I fight, though I would prefer the Stars and Stripes, but I have tried in vain to get accepted, and when I went to Philadelphia to make the last attempt, and had I been turned down by the Canadians, would have next tackled the French-recruiting station." The boy wanted to "do his bit" and you have to take your hat off to his determination.
May 21, 2008. Happy birthday today to Colleen Bender. Happy anniversary to Bill and Lori Lenhart. Dean and Laura Christian celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. In 1881 on this day, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. On this day in 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed his plane in Paris, completing the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight. 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. Clair Harvey, president of the Fishing Creek Sportsmen's Association, is the featured speaker tonight at 7 in the library at the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center. The program is free and open to the public.
The Salvation Army is looking for children from 7 to 12 years old for summer camp. There are vacancies for about 20 kids. There is no cost for the children to attend the week-long camp. The only requirement is that the children are on a free- or reduced-lunch program at school. The camp is called Camp Ladore, located in Waymart, PA, northeast from Benton about 72 miles and just off scenic Route 6. The dates for camp are June 25-30. The children will participate in all of the traditional camp activities of swimming, hiking, boating, fishing, arts and crafts, games, etc. Anyone who knows of a child who might want to attend can call Abigail Ritchie at 925-2675 and leave a message. This is an excellent opportunity for children of the area.
Sherry A. (Robbins) Weaver wants to see how many people are interested in having a 20th high-school class reunion. She has reserved the pavilion at the Stillwater park for 2 PM, Sunday, June 1. If anyone from their class is interested in being on the committee to organize the reunion please show up at this time. If you can make it please call Sherry at 570 925-2491. This could turn into a great reunion with the right planning. Help make it a success.
The high honors (93.0 or higher) for the Class of 2008 at Benton High School have been announced. The students, the college or university of choice and their planned major are...
Sean Christian, son of Dr. & Mrs Dean Christian, University of Pittsburgh, Pre-Med.
Shane Andes, son of Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Andes, Pennsylvania State University, Wilkes Barre, Information Science/Technology
Samantha Strevig, daughter of Kristin Strevig and Gregory & Lynn Strevig, Pennsylvania State University, Hazleton, Undeclared
Rebekah Robbins, daughter of Deborah Little, Bloomsburg University, Undeclared
Thomas James Schultz, son of Mr. & Mrs. Emeric Schultz, University of Pittsburgh, English Writing
Bridgette Street, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. James Street, Appalachian State University, Athletic Training
Megan Appleman, daughter of Connie and Gerald Campbell and Carl Appleman, Thomas Jefferson University, Nursing
Samantha Clasen, daughter of Nancy O'Handley, Drexel University, Physician Assistance
Sarah Harvey, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Alan Harvey, Salve Regina University, Undeclared
Lauren McGrath, daughter of Brien McGrath and Phyllis McGrath, Ursinus University, BiologyThe honors (90 to 92.99) for the Class of 2008 are...
Charles Tyler Wenner, son of Mr. & Mrs. Richard Wenner, Pennsylvania State University, Erie, Business
Michael Klem, son of Mr. & Mrs. Michael Klem, BYU-Hawaii, International Business
Scott Crouthamel, son of Mr. & Mrs. Brian Crouthamel, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Culinary Arts
Megan DePoe, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Fred DePoe, Bloomsburg University, Business Marketing
Steven Wanner, son of Mr. & Mrs. Eric Wanner, Lycoming College, Biology
Miles Cole, son of Mr. & Mrs. Edward Cole, Bloomsburg University, Political Science/Economics
Daniel Hartman, son of Mr. & Mrs. James Hartman, Luzerne County Community College, Undeclared
The remaining distinguished graduates of the Class of 2008 are James Blackburn, Krystle Cameron, Anthony Carl, Morgan Clocker, Jonathan Deacy, Jacob Evans, Mark Evarts, James Harrison, Chad Hartman, Jesse Hedrick, Taylor Holloway, Adam Jankowski, Daniel Laubach, Steven Miller, Calvin Musser, Kimberly Naugle, William Pasukinis, Mitchel Petersen, Sherri Puterbaugh, Tyler Reabuck, Kayce Record, Jennifer Ross, Andrew Russel, Danielle Samsenak, Felicia Schaffer, Nathan Schlichter, Logan Spiece, Alissa Stackhouse, Ryan Steinruck, Dylan Tyree, Jessica VanPelt, Ethan Wary, Patricia Weaver, Caleb Wilkinson, Alexandra Wolfe, Bobbie Wolfe and Cyndal Yannes.Want to know gas station prices? Enter your zip code where indicated at autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=&src=Netx and you'll learn who has the lowest (and highest) price in your zip code area. The site updates each evening.
The following are notes from the meeting of the Council of Churches held at the Assembly of God Church, May 19.
. The food bank reported it served 83 households in April for a total of 179 people, up from last year by 50 people. There is always a need of volunteers to help on the third Tuesday of each month from 8 AM.
. George Peterman walk was held May 11, but due to the rainy day no one walked but everyone gave their pledge amounts. The Vacation Bible School gets the benefit from the walk.
. The Vacation Bible School, to be held this year at the United Methodist Church, Main Street, mornings from June 16 to 20 is in need of teachers and volunteers to help. They are in need of paper-towel rolls, tin cans (any size) and shoe boxes. These can be dropped off at the Methodist Church.
. The hoagie sale was a success with the making and selling of 450 hoagies.
. Vesper Service on July 27 at 7 PM, held at the Rodeo Grounds is being planned. Everyone is invited to attend and show support for our firemen.
. The God and Country Program held every November is in the planning stages.
. The next meeting of the Council will be July 21 at 7 PM at the Waller United Methodist Church. This date is a week earlier than usual because of the Firemen's Carnival.
--Thanks to Peg Follmer for the informationAn edition of the Bloomsburg Morning Press in May, 1902, told about a man by the name of Joe Bidelman who took a "strapping lad of 16 years" into "his keeping" at Rohrsburg making the young boy's aging father very happy. The episode took place during the previous week when a twenty-two year old "woman of Lairdsville" "enticed" the boy of sixteen to "forsake his home" and seek his fortune with her. The two set out to see the world, packing their worldly possessions in two flour sacks, then trudged toward the bright lights of Bloomsburg, more than thirty miles away. A policeman by the name of Dietrick thought things were askew with the couple and the boy's father was notified. The father was "aged and infirm," but "tramped all the way to town." Regretfully, his son and the woman of the world were gone. The father heard that the pair was heading for Orangeville to seek their fortunes, and off he set on foot. He was able to walk to Light Street by dark where he met Joe Bidelman and told his sad story of his son running away with an older woman.
Bidelman agreed to help the father and took him to Orangeville, while Bidelman headed for Rohrsburg to look for the couple there. Bidelman struck pay dirt in Rohrsburg when he asked people if they had seen the couple. It turned out that the girl was in a store. Bidelman walked directly to her and asked where the son was. She told him. He found the boy, a lad as big as his father, and told him that he was to go along. The group finally caught up with the father riding in a wagon with Agent H. P. Rice, Espy. When the old man saw his son in Bidelman's wagon he cried out in joy, jumped from the wagon and embraced his erring son. A complete reconciliation soon occurred and with three flour sacks in hand the boy and his father along with a girl who agreed with the old saying that "three is a crowd" started on their long, weary tramp to Lairdsville, twenty-nine miles away, the exciting part of the adventure over. The old man was happy; he had his son back.
May 20, 2008. Happy birthday to Lauren Marinos, Robyn Hack and Joe LaBonte. Aren't we supposed to be having warm weather about now?
On this day in 1830, a Reading, Pennsylvania, man by the name of Hyde patented the fountain pen. It took, however, until 1884 before Lewis Waterman invented a truly practical fountain pen. In the first year, 200 Waterman pens were made by hand. In 1892, George Sampson patented the clothes dryer. In 1940, inventor Igor Sikorsky demonstrated his helicopter invention to the public. In 1927, at 7:40 AM, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, aboard the Spirit of St. Louis monoplane on his historic first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He arrived in France thirty-three and one-half hours later.
The Orangeville Community yard, book and bake sales begin at 8 AM Saturday. Based on the history of the community, it should be a good yard sale. Orangeville has a way of doing things right! The homemade ice cream served at the Orangeville carnival is a good example. The outstanding service of their library is another. In 1900 on what was then often referred to as "Decoration Day," the Bloomsburg Columbian took special note of the "entertainment given at Orangeville on Memorial Day."
The paper noted the "elaborate celebration which took place at Orangeville." The paper mentioned that "the parade was one that did credit to the village, and to the patriotic Wilkes-Barreians (sic) who lent their old, both financial and oratorical, on that occasion." The orator on that day was Frank Ricketts and the "tribute he paid to the heroes especially those from Wilkes-Barre is said to have been a masterly effect." The paper ended, "It is probable the celebration will be the greatest event in the history of Orangeville--it will be if Ricketts can make it such!" Frank Ricketts, by way of reminder, owned the tavern in Orangeville in the building now owned by Briar Creek Mutual Insurance Company.Speaking of Orangeville, I never seem to tell any stories about that community. I'll rectify that tomorrow when I tell the story of the "strapping lad of 16 years" from Rohrsburg forced to "forsake his home" when he was enticed by a "twenty-two year-old woman of Lairdsville." The setting for this story was Orangeville. It happened exactly 106 years ago.
Match the following quirky quotations with their originators. Answers appear at the end of this rant.
1. "History is bunk."
2. "I am free of all prejudices. I hate everyone equally."
3. "Television: Chewing gum for the eyes."
4. "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
5. "In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes."A. Oscar Wilde
B. W. C. Fields
C. Benjamin Franklin
D. Henry Ford
E. Frank Lloyd WrightOn Sunday the veterans of the Benton area will honor their own with a Memorial Day parade beginning at noon. The parade will form on North Street, then proceed down Main Street to the Veterans Memorial on the grounds of the Columbia County Farmers National Bank. The parade will then proceed up Cemetery Hill to the VFW Memorial at the Benton Cemetery where Rep. Karen Boback and Robert Maynes will address the attendees. The color guard, Benton Police and the Benton High School Marching Band will join in the parade. We hope that the entire area will join in honoring those who have protected our country.
Many will remember in 2006 when on May 28 the Veterans Memorial on Main Street on the lawn and adjacent to the Columbia County Farmers National Bank was dedicated following the Memorial Day Parade. The beautiful monument is a memorial to all veterans. The parade to the monument was led by the color guard, the Benton High School band, Pennsylvania National Guard vehicles and the Benton Volunteer Fire Company equipment. Following the dedication of the monument, the parade proceeded to the Benton Cemetery for the annual Memorial Day services. Speakers were Fred Long, Col. US Army (Ret.), Post 8317 Commander, and MC Chris Cleaver, Col. US Army, Lance Diehl, President, Columbia County Farmers National Bank, and John Bitler, Post 8317 Chaplain.
The local VFW post has a long history of veterans who served in the Armed Forces contributing their time and energy to the promotion of the American veteran and the veterans of the community. One of the outstanding accomplishments of the local post was the design and installation of a monument "dedicated to the memory of the veterans of all wars who served their country and God. They loved peace but fought with honor to preserve justice and freedom here and throughout the world." These words form a lasting and permanent memorial to the veteran.
The monument is positioned for everyone to see near the center of the Borough, on grass in front of the Columbia County Farmers National Bank. A concrete walk leads to the front of the memorial.
The idea for the memorial came from Robert Baker, and the design and words were chosen by Bob. He passed away September 28, 2005, before he saw the final product, but the project was completed with the help of Robert T. Vincent, Jr. and Bill Boston. The formal dedication with speakers, music appropriate to the occasion, Bob Baker's family and friends and the full compliment of the local VFW was something the community will long remember and often mentions.
For users of Mozilla Firefox, a site that provides tips, tricks, modifications, and other information about the popular browser is available here.
Gas prices Back Home in Benton, PA, two years on this date were $2.579 and $2.639 for regular, unleaded. Monday night prices ranged from $3.709 to $3.769.
Term of the Day: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." Old people or people with long experience find it difficult to learn new ways; they are unwilling to change.
--John Fitzherbert, 1523, "Treatyse Moost Profytable for Husbande Men."
"The dogge must lerne when he is a whelpe, or els it wyl not be, for it is harde to make and olde dogge to stoupe." These words evolved into "It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks" and continues to evolve along the same lines.Answers to "Quirky Quotations Quiz."
1. D - Henry Ford
2. B - W. C. Fields
3. E - Frank Lloyd Wright
4. A - Oscar Wilde
5. C - Benjamin Franklin
May 19, 2008. The full moon tonight was called the "Full Flower Moon" by the Algonquin Indian tribes. Other tribes referred to it as the "Corn Planting Moon" or the "Milk Moon." Joyce Letteer and Bob Milnarik celebrate their birthdays today. Keep Nancy Fox in your prayers. She heads off this morning to the cancer doctor to talk about doing radiation on the nickel-sized tumor they found on her brain.
The Benton Women's Club (BWC) met on Thursday, May 8, at Your Loving Choices (YLC), a pregnancy resource center in Bloomsburg. The ladies brought “dollars for diapers” and were given a tour of the center by Kathy Leamont, a BWC past president and the YLC Executive Director. They learned about the various resources that are available to YLC clients and enjoyed seeing the beautiful gift shop that is lovingly filled by donors and taken care of by Shirley Brocious, a volunteer who lives in Benton. The monthly meeting followed, chaired by Sandy Lehet, Vice President, followed by delicious cookies baked by Kathy Leamont.
The competition for buyers in this tough real estate market is fierce, but Google is helping realtors with listings and owners attempting to sell without the aid of a realtor through a real estate search option on the main page of Google maps. Go to maps.google.com/maps, click on "My maps." Click on the hyperlink for "Google Real Estate Search." Not every house is listed, but a reasonable number is there. The listings can be sorted by price or their number of bedrooms or bathrooms. Search results also include pictures, and you can click through to the original listings on Google Base or various real-estate sites. While not of the level required by a professional real estate person, the Google Maps feature is quite handy and very interesting.
Didja know that about a fifth of all U.S. households--about 20 million--are without an internet connection and have never used email, according to research firm Parks Associates? Age and education play a role: half of those who have never used email are over 65, and 56% had no education beyond high school.
It is always nice to visit an old friend, and old jokes revisited can be OK, too. Here is an old chestnut you probably have heard a few times. It begins...
Dear family,
I have become a little older since I saw you last, and a few changes have come into my life since then. Frankly, I have become a frivolous old gal. I am seeing five gentlemen everyday. As soon as I wake up, Will Power helps me get out of bed. Then I go to see John. Then Charlie Horse comes along, and when he is here he takes a lot of my time and attention. When he leaves, Arthur Ritis shows up and stays the rest of the day. He doesn't like to stay in one place very long, so he takes me from joint to joint. After such a busy day, I'm really tired and glad to go to bed with Ben Gay. What a life. Oh yes, I'm also flirting with Al Zymer.
Love, Grandma
P.S. The preacher came to call the other day. He said at my age I should be thinking of the hereafter. I told him, "Oh I do it all the time. No matter where I am, in the parlor, upstairs, in the kitchen, or down in the basement, I ask myself, "Now, what am I here after?""I'm from Missouri; you've got to show me"
--Willard Duncan Vandiver, from a speech at a naval banquet in Philadelphia in 1889. The whole quote was "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I'm from Missouri. You've got to show me."American chestnut trees which could grow to a height of 100 feet and a diameter of 8 feet or more once produced the nuts that were stuffed in the Thanksgiving turkey, a nut that everyone could find in Pennsylvania's woods, a delicacy frequently roasted back when grandfather was still alive. American chestnuts once made up about 25% of the forests in the eastern United States. Farmers liked the wood of the chestnut tree because of its resistance to rot and used the wood to make fence posts and utility poles, barns, homes, furniture and musical instruments, All good things came to an end when a fungus disease was discovered in 1904. Over the next half century, the appearance of our woods changed as parasites grew in the bark of many of the chestnut trees, eventually killing the cambium in a 360°. Nothing controlled the spread of the fungus and in 1908 the country was not closing in on the origin of the disease. In 1912, a Plant Quarantine Act was passed. The blight continued to spread and the trees continued to die.
The blight killed off most of our chestnut trees, except for a stand of the trees an hour south of Atlanta near President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Little White House at Warm Springs. The largest of the half-dozen or so trees is now about 40 feet tall and 20 to 30 years old. The American Chestnut Foundation is attempting to restore the American chestnut tree through scientific research and breeding.
It started in the late 1850s in the western part of our state when flammable gases and smells of rotten eggs coming from the ground were used as medicine for animals and humans. Next came a period of drilling by Edwin Drake. The copper craze in the Central area came and went. A coal era took place in Columbia County. Today's pursuit of natural gas is done with a watchful eye toward the possibility of finding oil. The finding of minerals has long been on the minds of those who live in our area.
Not much has ever duplicated the natural gas rush of today, but considering the time and population density a five-foot vein of coal once came close--at least for a short time.
The year was 1907. The Wilkes-Barre Times of January 3 of that year reported that coal had been found on what was then known as the McHenry tract four miles from Berwick. The rush to get wealthy from coal in our county was on.
A company was formed and it immediately purchased a diamond drill and went to work "day and night." Finally, a large piece of coal was excavated and brought to the Williams' restaurant, Berwick, to show that the miners knew what they were doing and to convince investors to put up some money.
Drilling was taking place in an area about a mile south of "Greenville," a section between the two hills on the road from Jonestown to Berwick, and to the west of the old Berwick Turnpike.
According to the Times article in 1907, "a five-foot vein of coal" had "already been found and the prospecting and drillings have so far convinced the men interested in the company that they have already planned railroad extensions to enable them to market the coal." Exploratory drilling began in a second mine in the Shickshinny valley five miles away. Ah, the stuff that dreams are made of...
The American dream of owning a Firebelch 500 automobile is backfiring. Of all the major oil producing companies, only Occidental Petroleum produced more oil last year than the year before. All other major companies produced between 2% and 4% less oil each year in the previous three-reporting years. Cambridge Energy Research Associates notes that the output from the largest 810 oil fields throughout the world are depleting at an average rate of 4.5% per year. This means we will have only 22 years and all existing fields will be dry. Reports are that ExxonMobil was only able to replace three out of every four barrels of oil it produced causing the Wall Street Journal to inquire in a headline, "Is ExxonMobil Going Dry?"
And now we come to the natural gas exploration in our area. Using coal, nuclear and gas to produce electricity, we can run our trains electrically as is done in Europe, and use battery-operated cars, or electric trolley cars, for transportation. We can even heat our homes with gas. Even with the high cost of producing natural gas, it is an attractive alternate to solving the energy crisis. And Pennsylvania is right in the thick of it...
May 18, 2008. Ronnie McHenry and Shirley Lockard celebrate their birthdays today. Happy anniversary to Jeff and Brenda Hubler and to Don and Betty Miller, Grove, OK. Keep Donna Hayman Fritz in your thoughts and prayers as she recovers from surgery at the Orangeville Nursing and Convalescent Home.
Didja notice that stairs are steeper, groceries are heavier, everything is farther away, standing from a sitting position is harder, when driving there is less mileage covered and more pit stops, and everything seems uphill? A walk to the post office takes longer than it once did. And people are less considerate now, especially the young ones. They speak in whispers all the time! People my age are so much older than I am. I ran into an old friend the other day and she aged so much that she didn't even recognize me. Drivers today screech and swerve in my rear view mirror! I'd like to call someone and report what is going on, but the telephone company is in on it too: they've printed the phone books in such small type that no one could ever find a number in those books.
If you wish to put lists in alphabetical order? Microsoft Word might be able to do the job for you...
1) Type the list, and it is not even necessary to highlight it.
2) Click Table in the menu bar.
3) Click Sort in the drop-down menu.
4) Click the appropriate box if the list has a header row, and choose whether to sort A-Z or Z-A.
5) Click OK
"The prouerbe is true that I tell to you,
tis better to be dronken and drowsy,
than hungery starued and lowsie."
--Knack to Know an Honest Man (1596)Find out whether a web site is a legitimate one by heading over to www.betterwhois.com/ to find out the name of the register. You can go directly to the register from that point and you may then have to google the web site before you have your answer.
A nuisance is a man you like better the more you see him less.
Quickies...
. After making a contribution to the A+ School Rewards program, Larry Paul received an email from Giant Food Stores noting that the food company has donated over $1.5 million dollars. Locally, the L. R. Appleman Elementary School earned a total of $1,931.59.. Wilkes University has formed a Law School Planning Initiative to develop plans for northeastern Pennsylvania's first law school.
. Emails keep blindly rolling in which claims this or that is true. Often the emails ask that the emails be forwarded to ten of the closest and dearest friends of the receipant. Most of these emails are so absurd that the recipient simply clicks the delete button, but others seem to have a bit of merit and are cut and into Google or it is checked out at www.snopes.com. It has now reached the point where I am simply going to add a valid reference to the incorrect information and return it to all the people who were given a copy of the incoming email. To avoid this embarrassment, please remove me from future mailings that haven't been checked out. Better yet, don't send the offensive email to anyone! At the same time, please do not send emails with video in them. It takes up valuable bandwidth. Simply send the web reference to the video and if it is something the recipient needs to look at they can head to that web site.
It is always interesting to see how things were. To see what the Benton News looked like on November 14, 2002, go here.
There are now four peregrine falcon chicks at the PPL Montour power plant.
We note with sadness the passing Friday of Robert L. Eddinger (June 24, 1924-May 16, 2008), Williamsport. He was 83. Mr. Eddinger was the father of Melanie Eddinger Norton, Estella, Sullivan County, a very active member of the Sullivan County Historical Society and an occasional speaker at the North Mountain Historical Society. A memorial service will be held at 2 PM Tuesday, May 20, at Clark Chapel on the Lycoming College Campus, Williamsport. Burial arrangements will be held privately by the family.
May 17, 2008. Happy birthday today to Emily Terri Marie Notestein and happy anniversary to Robyn and Dean Hack.
"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning."
--Catherine AirdAt the Water & Sewer Board meeting on Tuesday night it became evident that the delinquency list is growing. The Water & Sewer Authority has taken a stand on cracking down on property owners who are delinquent on their monthly payments to the Authority.
Mother used these expressions. With your Benton background, I'll betcha you have heard them all...
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
"Straighten up."
"Because I said so, that's why!"
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."
"Keep crying and I'll give you something to cry about!"
"You'll sit there 'til all that spinach is finished!"
"It looks as if a tornado went through this room!"
"If I've told you once, I've told you a million times!"
"You act just like your father!"
"Just wait till your father gets home!"
"Ask your father."
"Eat your supper. There are children starving in China."
"You had better straighten up and fly right!"
DCNR has scanned Historical Aerial Photography they have in their photo library. The web site www.pennpilot.psu.edu/ uses a flight database from 1939 and has very good quality. Benton looks quite different in 1939 than it does today. To use, pick an area, zoom into the area, until the aerial photo with some orange circles show up, then using the "Select Photo" button at the top, click one of the orange circles and the photo and date open in a new window.
Didja realize that a man who slings mud, loses ground?
Didja know that in the Harrisburg area, the average residential gas bill will top $151 monthly when UGI raises rates by 11.4% on June 1?
--from PennLive, HarrisburgA reader commented on the many people in the local area who do not own substantial acres of land. The implication was that they would not be able to take advantage of the gas-drilling frenzy now underway. Jobs ranging from actual drilling to carrying pipe to land prospecting should soon become available. Specialized jobs seem to be following the availability of natural gas, but there are plenty of other jobs because of the complexity of drilling in the Marcellus Shale. These jobs, which "start at the bottom," happen to be exactly where the workers with the specialized jobs started.
Here in New York where I am currently staying, construction of the 30-inch-diameter Millennium Pipeline is underway on its 182-mile-long journey across New York's Southern Tier and lower Hudson Valley from Corning to Ramapo preliminary to building the feeder lines from individual wells. Here in New York, workers who join the union are starting for $23 an hour with benefits. The rigs work 24/7 with three crews of five people, 12 hours on and 12 hours off, ten ays at a stretch, rain or shine.
May 16, 2008. Today is the birthday of Cecile Steiner Martin, Third Street, Marlene Harvey, Distillery Hill Road, Ethel Horne, Bloomsburg and Ron Strauch, Divide. Harold Hess, Muncy, turns 92. Our get well wishes go out to Bob Thomas, who has a viral infection in his throat.
Quickies...
• A suit filed in Nockamixon Township by a gas-drilling company and three related legal entities seeks an injunction prohibiting that township from enforcing ordinances that restrict gas and oil exploration involving well locations, emergency plans and natural resources , according to a Morning Call article. The suit alleges that regulation of oil and natural gas in the state is under the control of the state Department of Environmental Protection. Other townships in western Pennsylvania have previously lost suits with the oil and gas industry on this issue. Gas exploration in the township, according to the article, is becoming divided between landowners who seek financial benefits and those on the side of side of environmental and property values.
• For the next several days I will be writing from the land of $4 gasoline--the regular, unleaded type--in New York state.
• George A. Turner, former president of the Columbia County Historical and Genealogical Society, will give a talk on the origins of Decoration Day in the 1860s, which we now called Memorial Day. It is a breakfast program at the Brass Pelican Restaurant with the presentation beginning at 9 on Monday morning, May 19. Public is invited to attend. The Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Civil War Union veterans, took the leadership in promoting a special day of national homage and remembrance of the sacrifices the soldiers gave to sustain the Union during its most difficult time. The speaker will focus on the early practices in observing Memorial Day, and specifically, those activities that occurred in Columbia County communities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and how Americans today observe Memorial Day, which is significantly different from how its founders had envisioned.Didja ever notice that in order to accomplish anything a committee
should be composed of at least three people,
all but one of whom should be absent?Stockholders of the hundred-year old Columbia Financial Corporation, the holding company for First Columbia Bank & Trust Company and ninety-year old CCFNB Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for Columbia County Farmers National Bank, agreed Wednesday, May 15, 2008, to merge the two banking institutions. The resulting company will be the second largest independent publicly-traded bank-holding company headquartered in the four county region of Columbia, Montour, Northumberland, and Luzerne counties. Chief Executive Officer of the CCFNB, Lance Diehl, called the merger "two good companies coming together to form one great company."
Diehl remarked that the "banking industry is a lot more competitive today than it was 25 years ago." He went on to say that "we not only have the banks as competitors, but you have the big credit unions, the mortgage companies, the insurance companies, and Wal-Mart is getting into the banking business." He talked about the new regulations that have been forced on the banks which take a great deal of both time and money. He summarized by noting that "joining forces will help us out tremendously."
The CCFNB has for about ten years discussed a name change from the Columbia County Farmers National Bank. The bank no longer concentrates on the farming community and outsiders tended to think that business outside the farming industry could not be accommodated. The name was considered too long. The new name of the bank will be the First Columbia Bank. That name was selected because of "its excellent, long-term reputation" and will save shareholders money by not requiring new signage. The holding company will be known as the CCFNB Bancorp, Inc.
The CCFNB South Center office will be consolidated into the First Columbia office on Columbia Blvd. In mid-July, the Berwick office of the CCFNB will be consolidated into the Berwick office of the First Columbia Bank at 1919 West Front Street. The Benton office of the First Columbia Bank will be consolidated into the CCFNB Bank at the intersection of Main and Market Streets, Benton. Future use of the Benton First Columbia bank facility is to be determined. The East Street location of the CCFNB in Bloomsburg will become the Financial Planning and Investment Center. Following the merger there will be 14 branch banks of the combined corporation.
The deposits, investments and assets of the CCFNB at the end of 2007 were about $245.3 million while deposits ended the year about $171 million. The investment portfolio of the corporation ended at $57.6 million. All figures were up from 2006. Loans increased slightly for CCFNB in 2007. Earnings for the past year were up to about $2.65 million, which is a 1.07 return on average assets. Earnings per share in 2003 were $1.69 a share. Earnings gradually increased over the years to $2.15 per share in 2007. Dividends increased from $.66 a share to $.82 a share. Book value increased to $25.59. Outstanding stock was reduced by about 50,000 shares over the past five years. The first quarter of 2008 saw profits climb $36,000 over the first quarter of last year, a difficult task in this overall atmosphere of regulatory oversight and the credit crisis around the United States.
The bank stock is trading at a price about 10% lower than last year, but Lance Diehl pointed out that many banks are trading at 30% less than last year. The stock is currently trading at less than book value with no issues of asset quality. The merger of the bank is expected to produce a positive result in the price of the stock. One estimate of earnings in the combined company was in excess of five and a half million dollars.
Stockholder Elizabeth Herring Chamberlain, Benton Township, was recognized as the daughter of Clinton Herring, one of the civic leaders who raised $25,000 in order to open the Farmer's National Bank of Orangeville on December 17, 1917. Jake Trump of the CCFNB Trust Department will take an early retirement after serving the bank for the past 18 years. Dean Kelchner, manager of the Benton office of CCFNB, will also retire after 30+ years with the bank.
Today we'll take a look at the year 1956, the year that Dwight David Eisenhower was president after winning his second term with a landslide vote, the year the Rev. Martin Luther King had his house bombed, the year Congress passed a measure providing $750 million per year as a subsidy to farmers to reduce their production. The top films of the year were "Bus Stop," "Giant," "The Ten Commandments," and everyone's all-time favorite, "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Elvis was shimming and the Andrea Doria sank. Comet cleanser, Raid for bugs and Imperial margarine for toast were new products. Television had Bert and Harry Piel, Betty Furness, and the county got their first female Presbyterian minister.
Back home in Benton, PA, Shirley Kindig and Ethel Baker kept the school running, but gave all the credit to Warren Ketner and Ben Pollock. The high school had 15 teachers, each one a name known to everyone in the community. The school stayed clean because of the ever popular Louis Nouch and the hard working Ray Welsh and Clyde Fritz.
The class officers were David Laubach, President; Nancy Lee Baker, Vice-President; Esther Kay McMichael, Secretary; Betty Jane Zimmerman, Treasurer, and Nancy Arlene Heath, Historian. Others in the class included Marie Ash, Jeannine Louise Beishline, Mary Benjamin, Robert Benjamin, Margaret Ellen Brown, Bob Conner, Genenieve Dickson, Edward Doty, Betty Sue Garrison, Nancy Getz, Ruth Gilbert, Sue Golder, Carole Griffith, Lee Hayman, Joanne Hess, Shirley Ann Hess, Susan Holcombe, Lily Mae Houseweart, William Houseweart, Randolph Hundley, Sandra Karns, Cara Lou Kearkuff, Frank Knouse, Shirley Kocher, Dorothy Laubach, Dawn McHenry, Sadie Moss, Art Search, Jr., Marion Smith, Jr., Patricia Ann Smith, Ruth Ann Snyder, Gloria Start, Ario Sweet, Marjorie Sweet, Carol Vance, Janice Elaine Whitenight, Evelyn Elaine Williams and Raymond Woods.
The Class of 1956 dedicated the Benecho to "The Donald"--Donald Rabb. I asked Marge Sweet Shoemaker why they did that, and her answer was simple "Everyone admired him." Donald, looking back fifty years, remembers that the class was "a very cooperative class of students. I hated to give them much of a homework assignment in biology because they really went overboard in going above and beyond the assigned tasks. Their drawings were meticulously done and their reports detailed and thorough. It was one of those classes that a teacher delights in having every once in a while. The girls in particular were very competitive and seemed to delight in doing better than the other person."
What is now the coin shop at the corner of Main and Market Streets was in 1956 a CALSO gas station, run by Glen Watts. Gene Bardo sold Texaco ("trust the man who wears the star") across the street. Jack Perry was still cutting hair in a tiny concrete building just off the Benton-Huntington Mills highway, and a trip to the Huntington Locker Plant was an excellent time to get a haircut. John and Clara Conner were still selling "a cold one" north of the borough. Ray Keeler, a watchmaker and optometrist, operated out of what is now the Taste Crème on the north end of the bridge. The drugstore was run by Mrs. R. W. Rabb, the paint store by Carl L. Kline, the meat market by Jim Vance, the furniture show room by "Si" Holcombe, Kozy Korner was run by Jim and Nina Wood. Ladies were made beautiful by Betty Ward, dressed well in the Towne Dress Shoppe run by James R. Hess and family, put into shoes by Wood's Shoe Store at the rear of the Kozy Korner Restaurant, made larger by the buns and doughnuts from Hess's Bakery, fed from the Fairlawn Food Stores on Main Street and on Market Street, and kept in money by the Farmers National Bank of Orangeville, PA, "open 7:00 Till 9:00 Friday Evenings."
Didja know that the Higginson Book Company is a reprint publisher of genealogy, local history, civil war books and historic maps? Their inventory of books is in the range of 15,000. Their gift certificates make wonderful presents. From now through June 30, you can save 20% on all orders of $50 or more. Books include a History of Columbia & Montour Counties, which contains a history of each county, the townships, towns and villages in each county, plus a wide assortment of biographies. The reference book was edited by J. H. Battle and published by A. Warner in 1887. This book was reprinted 1993. The price is $88. A second book of local interest is The "HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY from the Earliest Times by John G. Freeze, 566p, and published by Elwell & Bittenbender in 1883), reprinted in 1996. Books of this nature from all over the United States are available here.
Carroll M. Fritz (April 27-1926-May 14, 2008), died Wednesday at his home at 66 Lower Raven Creek Road, Stillwater. He had been seriously ill for the past month. He was 82. Carroll was born in Divide. He was a son of the late B. Frank Fritz and Gladys (Edwards) Fritz. He was a 1944 graduate of Benton High School. Following graduation, he entered the US Navy where he served in World War II in the Philippines as a Mail Man, Third Class. He was awarded the Pacific Theater Ribbon with one star; the American Theater Ribbon; the WWII Victory Medal and the Philippine Liberation Medal with one star. Following his discharge from the Navy, he was employed by B. F. Goodrich Tire Co., Norristown. He was a custom crop sprayer for local farmers and canneries; was a field manager for Hungerford Packing Co., York County; worked part time for the Columbia County Conservation Office and delivered the Press-Enterprise for 21 years. He had also grown string beans, packing and shipping them to city markets in New York and Philadelphia. He once lived in South Carolina where he did crop spraying and in Florida for three years where he grew watermelons.
He and his wife, Marilyn (Stevens) Fritz, would have celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary on October 15. Surviving, in addition to his widow are his children Shane S. Fritz ( Penny), Benton; Melanie J. Gordon (Mike), Stillwater; and Courtney L. Fritz, Benton. Five grandchildren also survive: Brandon, Shanna, Ashley, Brian and Taylor; one great granddaughter, Callie and by a sister, Madalyn Kell, Reading. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a brother, Sterling Fritz, on July 20, 1984. Funeral services will be Sunday at 3 PM at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc, with a viewing preceding for two hours. Burial will be in the Benton Cemetery with military honors conducted by a combined veterans group.
May 15, the 136th day of 2008. There are 36 days until the official start of summer. Lorraine Feola and Cheryl Kelsey celebrate their birthdays today. Frank and Linda Robbins celebrate their wedding anniversary. Rosalie and Arden Harrison celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary today and plan a huge meal at the County Buffet in celebration after spending yesterday at the hospital. Rosalie is battling cancer. She says that she will "probably be having treatments about 7-8 months, starting with radiation and a chemo pill." That will follow with six months of chemotherapy.
Quickies...
. Microsoft Corp. released a free application that permits viewers to focus on a particular planet or cluster of stars without abandoning the scale of the area surrounding it. Download it at www.worldwidetelescope.org so long as you are using Windows XP or Windows Vista or a Macintosh computers with those versions of Windows.. Didja hear about the computer problems solved by an eleven-year old by the name of Eric? The young computer guru simply said that the problem was an "ID ten T error." For those unfamiliar with this problem, but familiar with computer problems, we should tell you that you can better understand what we are talking about if you simply write it down. When you do, you'll see that the problem as written spells I D I O T.
. Didja ever think that opportunities are never lost. Someone will take the ones you miss.
We sometimes wonder whatever happened to the parlor, or at least to the concept of the parlor. Oh, you remember the parlor. Sure it was just a room in the house, but it was a place where the double doors could be closed and the never-ending hard work of the day could be put aside, where gentle thoughts overtook the seriousness of the day, where refreshments could be served to those "who counted" during events of consequence. The mementos of the family were assembled in this room--from the family Bible, to homemade jugs covered with sea shells, to the only photographs of a long-deceased relative.
There was no doubt that the color red, the upholsterer, fringe and needlepoint, wax flowers in a bell jar, spindle-back chairs, perhaps a piano, and the family china did well in that room; in fact, more money funneled into this room than any other in the house. It was a room both for reflection by oneself and for conversation with friends during formal occasions. It was the place where the visiting minister would be taken. It was the formal, cluttered part of the house, a place that must have been a nightmare for anyone with problems with dust. While the rest of the house may have been well below modern standards of the "poverty level," the parlor did not reflect that fact. Money for furnishing a house always considered the parlor.
House planning always considered how to get guests into the parlor quickly so as not to "show off" the condition of the rest of the house. Emily Post back in 1922 offered suggestions on the subject. She wrote that planning the parlor was akin to learning to swim. "Take plenty of time, don't struggle, and don't splash about."
It was important to know how to enter a parlor, and equally important to know how and when to depart. Subjects of discussion and personal demeanor followed certain rules. Affection in the parlor was taboo, as were conversations of "low expression" (profanity) and unneeded expression" ("You know what I mean," "Mercy," "I said," those sort of expressions). Talking about oneself or the family rarely happened. Discussions were of the weather, local entertainment, the pleasures of Church. Children were seen but never heard except on those occasions when brief piano playing was permitted.
So whatever happened to the parlor, or at least to the concept of the parlor? Clutter was overtaken by comfort. Life became more complicated; houses shrunk in size; "friends" became fewer, but closer; women were no longer the keeper and the primary user of the parlor, as they moved into the world of men, into business and politics and travel. The world for women moved from keeping the ankles covered and close together in conversation, to kicking back and enjoying life, to throwing up her legs on the ottoman, to joining in political conversations. Women suddenly realized that men may have been right all along in the way they viewed parlors.
"Whatever may have been the cares of the day, greet your husband with a smile when he returns. Make your personal appearance just as beautiful as possible. Your dress may be made of calico, but neat. Let him enter rooms so attractive and sunny that all the recollections of his home, when away from the same, shall attract him back."
--Thomas E. Hill, Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms (1881)
May 14, 2008. Happy birthday to Eugene Bardo, Jr. and Jackie Davis. Happy anniversary to Benton postmaster Bart Weaver, formerly of the Bloomsburg Post Office for 19 years. Bart took over the Benton duties on this date in 2006. On this date in 2005, Anna Pennington had a house sale at her residence on Third Street and subsequently moved into a new house in Green Acres.
Quickies...
. My goodness, the girl is pretty! Take a look for yourself in the June/July issue of Cosmo Girl Magazine. Krysten Ritter has never looked better.
. Locally, we can consider ourselves very fortunate. When I pecked this report out, southwestern Sichuan Province had a reported 12,012 dead in Monday's quake, with another 9,404 buried in debris, 7,841 missing and 26,206 people injured. In the former country of Burma, the death count from Cyclone Nargis climbs past 34,000 and the United Nations estimates the death toll could be as high as 100,000. The weekend devastation in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia raised the number of twisters to 654 so far in 2008. Walt Davis sent pictures of Manassas, Virginia, where 9 inches of heavy rain have fallen since Thursday evening. We may not like our dismal days in the dead of winter Back Home in Benton, PA, it may get too hot in the middle of August and it may get too cold in the middle of February, but our share of earthquakes, twisters, cyclones and flooding remains at a very manageable level. During times like this, there "is no place like home."
. Ever wonder how your brain works? We start out seeing one thing but, upon further inspection, we wind up seeing another. Here is an exampleTerm of the Day: BAKERS' DOZEN
A little extra, usually meaning 13, as in "Make it a bakers dozen and you have a deal."
---This term originated with an act of the English Parliament in 1266, laying down standards of weight for bread. In order to make certain of meeting the standard, bakers adopted the practice of giving 13 loaves to vendors for each dozen they bought to sell to consumers.Several of the personnel previously assigned to the 648th Radar Squadron (SAGE) (ADC) at Benton AFS (Air Force Station) have asked for a history of the organization. For those readers who don't remember the AFS, the mission was to provide search and height finding data to the Direction Center, Boston Air Defense Sector. In December, 1978, as an example, six officers, 133 airmen and nine civilians were assigned to the base. The former Red Rock Air Force Station was transformed into a Job Corps center in May, 1978.
Bob McKelvey was one of the men stationed at Benton Air Force Station in 1957 and 1958. Bob married a "Wilmington, Delaware, girl" and he and Marie rented a "nice honeymoon cottage" on Hill Street in Benton from John Mather and moved in April 26, 1958. The couple still have fond memories of the area and loved the beautiful scenery. Bob was transferred to Hawaii after his tour on top of Red Rock Mountain, but "drove back to the area in 1985 and was sad to see the apartment was gone."
I never thought of myself as a farmer, and I never was one. As a kid, I did my share of windrowing, rolling hay bales, stacking straw, spreading manure, yelling "come-on, Bossy," selling strawberries, saving baby skunks after their mommas got run over, that sort of thing. But I was never a farmer.
What I did on the farm required me to start at the bottom, and I quickly found that I didn't want to work my way up! Brother Dayne gave me jobs like brushing cobwebs from the ceiling of the barn, load the manure spreader when it was, as Mother used to say, "stinking hot" and unload manure spreaders when it was numbing cold and the wind came from behind (no pun intended) at gale strength. I led reluctant cows across route 487 and across the railroad tracks at the exact moment traffic was the heaviest and I breathed the dust and the chaff while I stacked hay in the mow.
Well now there is a word we don't see much any more--"mow," a heap or stack of something, in our area usually hay, but it could be wheat or barley. Those readers who came from farming stock remember the pitchforks and the tired backs as the hay mow was filled, and during the winter the process reversed. Those readers who visited farms but didn't work there remember their younger years with deep pleasure as they climbed the barn ladders, then walking across the 8x8 inch beams, looking down at the hay below, imagining that we were about to parachute into enemy territory or that we were performers in the circus--then we jumped into the hay mow where we were surrounded with the sweet smell we still associate with country living.
Hay mows and spontaneous combustion seemed to go together, as did cast-barn pulleys with wooden sleeves. And in the distant past, the hay fork and trolley lifting hay into the hay mow went together. Some of us grew up in the hay mow, making forts for friends, learning to carry on spirited conversations, hiding from the dog and from Mother.
We remember the back ache that accompanied the use of the cumbersome scythe that always seemed to need sharpening. For the handful of readers who don't understand the term "scythe," they were curved, steel blades attached to a peculiar handle on which were two handles that let the operator stand upright and swing the blade horizontally at ground level. The scythe probably came along about the time of the horse-drawn mower. It was amazing how many kids were able to run the end into the ground to prove that the scythe was smarter than they were.
May 13, 2006. Today we celebrate the birthdays of Bob Conner, Charles Wodrig, Lauren Elizabeth Andrysick, Sandra Baker Fritz, Libby Lewis and Nancy McClure. Karl & Mary Myers celebrate their wedding anniversary.
We liked the story about the boy who announced to his mother, "Mom, I've decided to become a minister when I grow up." "That's okay with us, but what made you decide that?" "Well," said the little boy, "I have to go to church on Sunday anyway, and I figure it will be more fun to stand up and yell than to sit and listen."
Bids are due momentarily for gas-drilling rights locally and landowners are holding their breath for a Marcellus Shale arrangement similar to the kind of deal received by about 300 property owners in eastern Broome and western Delaware counties in New York. The New York deal is worth nearly $90 million to be paid this year in lump sums and will allow natural gas companies drilling rights to coalition members' land for five years. They will receive another lump sum of $90 million if the gas companies want to extend the leases for three years. The deal is from XTO Energy, Fort Worth, Texas, and Whitmar Exploration, Denver. The two companies, in a partnership arrangement, offered landowners $2,411 per acre for leasing rights for five years and the same amount for the three-year extension. Income taxes will generally take a third or more of leasing revenues. Like the local area and its proximity to the Williams pipeline, the Southern Tier New York locations are near the Millennium pipeline. The proximity has much to do with the value of leasing rights.
Quickies...
. A total of 636 people enjoyed the fish dinner Saturday night at the Sugarloaf Township Community Building.
. One nice thing about bores is that they never talk about other people.
. Nina Ford, Huntington Mills, is "home and recovering" from her knee surgery, although walking with a cane.Bring out your artistic ability by enrolling in the watercolor classes at The Center taught by Kenneth T. Wilson, an art professor at Bloomsburg University for 33 years, now retired. Ken is president of the North Mountain Art League. Classes begin Saturday, May 31, and continue on Saturday mornings 10 AM until noon, with the last class June 28. The cost is $50 for members, $65 for non-members. The class cost includes most supplies. The class is limited to 12 participants and will be placed on a first-paid, first-served basis. Call 925-0163 for more information.
. A trip that sounds like a hoot will take place with a Reading and Northern RR Steam Locomotive on a scenic ride from Tunkhannock to Jim Thorpe and back. The train and its nine passenger cars will depart on the round-trip at 9 AM Saturday, July 12, returning to Tunkhannock on Saturday evening about 7:45. The train will carry 650 passengers. Contact the Wyoming County United Way, 836-1661, for tickets.
. The State House has approved a revamp of the state's bingo law to allow more nights of bingo per week, permit bigger payouts, lift advertising restrictions and legalize hand-held electronic bingo devices. The bill would permit a maximum daily payout of $10,000, up from $4,000. It would also allow progressive jackpots that could increase by $10,000 per day to a maximum of $50,000. Electronic bingo devices would be permitted. The bill to overhaul the state's bingo law now heads to the Senate.
Don't forget to put 42 cents on your first-class letters when you use the U. S. Mail.
OK, OK, that doesn't seem like much. But take a look at Barrow, Alaska, where all products are flown in via U.S. Postal Service. Milk last week was $8.99 per gallon. Monday it went to $9.89 per gallon.
Photo courtesy of Dale Ruckle
Summer Youth Program at The Center...
The Center has a summer program planned for children from 6 to 12 years old. The summer youth program will be held from 8 AM to 4 PM, Mondays through Fridays, beginning June 9. The program is free to members of The Center; non-members must purchase a daily-guest pass or join The Center. The summer youth program will provide daily activities that revolve around weekly themes. The activities will include arts and crafts, volleyball, soccer, board games, storytelling, reading, singing, dancing, softball, basketball, plus some very special events. Parents must provide transportation to and from The Center, and may require that children remain at the Center until they are picked up, although The Center staff does not require full-day attendance. Children staying at The Center for a full day should pack a lunch (which does not need refrigeration), drinks, snacks, and other items such as change of clothes, sunscreen, bug spray, water bottle and towel.
The Center is hiring two adult activities coordinators for the summer youth program. Candidates must have experience working with children and be available to work during the summer. Interested parties should call Rob Hutchison, Center Director, 925-0163.
The Center is seeking volunteer teenagers 13 or older as Jr. Leaders. The Jr. Leaders will help with the summer youth program and gain valuable work experience. Candidates must be a member of The Center and complete a volunteer-application form.
May 12, 2008. Happy birthday today to Patti Malhoyt, Alexandria, Virginia, Ron Kelsey, Jack Schupp and Carolyn Watson. Today is the wedding anniversary of Huber and Nancy Kline and Allen and Dorothy Hess. Actress Katharine Hepburn was born on this date, as was Florence Nightingale. Benton Town Council gathers for their May meeting at 7 PM at the Benton Volunteer Fire Station. The high for today will not quite reach 50°.
Didja ever notice that an argument always tends to interrupt a good discussion?
It is easy when I say that I am going to do something, but it gets harder every day to accomplish it. David E Hart, Msgt, USAF, retired, reminded me that I promised to set up a list of retired Benton Air Force Station personnel who read the Benton News from time to time. I will do that in the near future. Dave retired from the Air Force in 1983 at Mountain Home, Idaho. He spent several years working for a credit union as a loan officer and branch manager and then went back to work for the Government as a Federal investigator. He retired again in 1997. Dave and his wife, Sandra, have a home in Idaho Falls and in the summer they live at Kilgore, Idaho. Would former Benton AFS personnel who were not contacted by me yesterday please email me. Thanks.
A reader of the Daily Charlotte Observer writing in its edition of October 18, 1896, lamented about coming to "Yankeeland" and eating "fishballs and pie plant" for the first time. The woman remarked that "no boardinghouse keeper could make a living here but for the fishball, the fried potato and the pie plant--nor could any undertaker." The use of the slang term "pie plant" led to its common use for the vegetable rhubarb. The vegetable was used primarily in pies, hence the nickname "pie plant."
The woman was writing the letter after returning from a visit to the doctor where a pint of "pie plant" (rhubarb) had been extracted from a woman's stomach who was suffering from "inward spasms." Unfortunately, the woman died of what the doctor recorded as "brain fever." A recipe for rhubarb which follows will not produce the same disastrous results.
We should also explain fishballs. They were apparently made of fish and potatoes. The article noted that when "boarders had fish for dinner fry they have fishballs for breakfast Saturday. If they had eaten all the fish Friday, they would not have had fishball Saturday." Somehow, that reminds me of the Mother's Day turkey served in the Kline house yesterday.
Fishballs were made of codfish and "cats," and by that I assume not prepared in the Mexican tradition but the reference was to catfish. The digestibility of fishballs depended on their age and degree of hardness. The article went on to note that as the article was being written "three doctors and a nurse resigned from the staff of a Brooklyn hospital because they could no longer eat chard fishballs. One of the doctors said that there was no way of getting these balls out of the human stomach except by probing for them."
In England, the rhubarb crop is "forced" in January and February by candlelight in dark sheds in the region known as the "Rhubarb Triangle." Locally, rhubarb is now plentiful.
There are many different ways to prepare it. Upscale restaurants are serving rhubarb as a sauce or condiment with fish, especially salmon and sea bass, and with pork or duck. I personally like stewed rhubarb as a side dish, a dessert or on ice cream. Making it is pretty simple: take six cups of rhubarb slices cut about 3/4 of an inch long, a pinch of lemon juice, a shake of cinnamon, a pinch of salt and a cup and a half of sugar (more or less depending on how you prefer it). Dunk the rhubarb, lemon juice and salt in a large pot. Add just enough water to cook. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered, until tender, not more than 45 minutes. Check occasionally and add water if needed or cook uncovered if there is too much moisture. Add sugar; stir well and cook until dissolved. Our thought is that the mixture tastes better if sampled ten or twelve times while simmering.
For the uninitiated, only eat the stems or stalks. The leaves contain oxalic acid and other potentially toxic substances. The stems of the rhubarb can range in color from celery green to pale pink, speckled to deep red, depending on the variety. Ruby reds are attractive to most people and are the most popular. Pick fleshy stalks that are thick, firm and crisp. To counteract the acidic nature of rhubarb, mix with sweet fruit like strawberries or raspberries, peaches or even blueberries. I always prefer sinfully excessive amounts of sugar.
The oyster's a confusing suitor;
It's masc., and fem., and even neuter.
At times it wonders, may what come,
Am I husband, wife, or chum."
--Ogden NashQuickies...
• There are sure signs of spring. Camping friend Janice Dietrich, who calls Florida home, attended a spring campout over the weekend. She writes, "Our camp group was determined to have a campfire; so, I know you will believe this because we're Floridians, we built a campfire, sat around it, and had the electric fan on us to keep us cool!
• For every opinion there is an opposite opinion. If a Republican says the moon is made of green cheese a Democrat will say it is not made of blue cheese. Regretfully, neither one is correct. Not everyone will agree with the following figures, but they are the best that I can find. This country produces something like 1.9 billion barrels and imports a little more than 3.6 billion barrels of crude oil every year. Approximately 39% of our consumption is met by domestic U.S. production. We have reserves of 23.7 billion barrels, give or take, enough to last only about five years if that was the only crude we used. The Alaska refuge could have 10 billion barrels of oil, about 6% of our total consumption. Natural gas isn't in this bad a shape. Domestic production accounts for about 84% of total domestic consumption of natural gas.
• Do you need to know how to do something? Try going to www.monkeysee.com and learn how to do it.
• Do you need to know the meaning of sprinkling trust, toxic tort or some equally puzzling legal term? Look up your legal terms here.
• In thinking of the wonderful weather Saturday night for a high-school prom, we should also think of Deanna and Dale Ruckle in Barrow, Alaska, to attend their grandson's high-school graduation. The weather was "a warm and cozy 23° with snow most of yesterday. This is adding to the foot to 2 foot of snow already on the ground. Last night at 11 PM it was as light as Benton at 4 PM." Dale said that the whaling season has started. The natives "bagged" three yesterday.Have the grandmothers who used to sew on buttons
noticed that they now have a granddaughter who just pushes them?Andrew G. Hasay (November 17, 1913-May 9, 2008), Route 239, Cambra, passed away Friday at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Plains Township. Andy was born in Wilkes-Barre. He was a son of the late George and Mary (Paciga) Hasay. He was 94. He attended Red Hill School, worked on the family farm and in coal mines, owned his own truck and worked as a private hauler. He and his wife, Helen Gajewski Hasay, bought a tavern at the intersection of Route 239 and Tioga Turnpike Road, Cambra, which they named Hasay's Café. Andy continued to drive his truck to work as part of the WPA each day. Andy joined the Army in 1944, serving in the 7th Army 36th Division, Infantry, Company A, in World War II. He was wounded while serving in France and captured Dec. 4, 1944. He became a prisoner of war held in Stalag 7A where he contracted diphtheria. He was liberated on April 29, 1945. Andrew was the recipient of two Purple Hearts. He returned to civilian life and continued with his bar and trucking business. Andrew was preceded in death by his sister, Mary, and brother, Joseph. He is survived by Helen, his wife of 66 years; daughter, Irene Nardone (Joe), Shavertown; grandson, Joe Nardone Jr., (Wynn), Dallas; great-grandsons: Andrew and Joey; brother, John, sisters, Anna Crepack and Sophie Gabana, all of Shickshinny; sisters: Helen Heller and Irene Kropiewnicki, Bloomsburg; and several nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, May 13, 2008, at 10:30 AM at the Mayo Funeral Home, Inc., Shickshinny, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11 AM in Ascension Church, Mocanaqua. Entombment will be in the mausoleum at St. Mary's Cemetery, Hanover Township. Visitation will be Monday, May 12, from 4 to 8 PM.
--Obituary courtesy of the Mayo Funeral Home, www.mayofh.com/index.cfm, where a complete obituary can be found
May 11, 2008. Happy birthday to Steve Letteer, Ron Kelsey and Janet Whiston. It is the second Sunday in May and time to honor the woman in our lives. It is Mother's Day, the day for Mother, Mama or Mom.
The day that first entitled your mother to honor was the most difficult. It was the trying day when you were born. For it was in that hour, if for none other, that the world owes its mothers a debt that can never be paid in full.
Mothers know that the first ordeal was merely the opening skirmish in a campaign that lasted a lifetime--far beyond the first anxious moments of your first illness, through the skirmishes with measles and chicken pox, through those school days when little hands and faces needed constant washing so that their little minds would not feel ashamed to learn beside other little minds going through the formative years.
There was all that teaching and learning that went on at home, the many hours of figuring out how the household budget would stretch to cover the expenses and yet be assured that you would be fed. It didn't stop there, either. Your mother followed you through the high-school years when temptations abounded, she was there to listen to the tribulations of your first job, she ached with your first love affair, worried on the night of your first prom, and fretted when you made your decision about your spouse. She suffered the pains of motherhood again when a new mother brought her grandchildren into the world. A mother's job is never done--not even from the grave. Somewhere out there, her love reaches out to those left behind and mothers them still.
One day to honor mothers? One day couldn't begin to keep the record straight!
"Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee."
-- Exodus 20:12"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.
--Howard Johnson (c. 1915)The complete schedule for the 24th annual Frontier Days Celebration, which we usually refer to as the Benton Rodeo, is now posted under UPCOMING EVENTS. The dates are July 15-20, 2008.
The 2008 Benton Area Schools Prom took place last night. We would tell you about it, but instead we'll direct you here to see the pictures of the arrival of the honored guests in cars, trucks, motor homes, fire trucks, and behind a horse and carriage. Click on "slideshow" for best results in viewing all photos. Individual photos can be downloaded or printed.
The Fish Supper at Grassmere Saturday night was excellent, as usual. It did lack something that I have learned to love eating--the hush puppy. These are golden-brown dabs of fried-corn meal. The name originated, according to the story that I heard, when the cook at a fish fry threw a handful or two of corn-bread batter into the deep fat the fish had been cooked in, and then hollered "Hush, puppies!" in order to quiet the dogs which had gathered around.
This was the time of the year when Mother would start the long preparation for "laying in" the food for the winter. It was time to prepare the "garden plot." With the high cost of gasoline and food, seed companies are doing a booming business this year. But a garden isn't something for the faint of heart. Growing vegetables is not for someone who wants something for nothing. A lot of work is involved. But, hey, as your garden plot thickens what you can't use for your own family, you probably can take to the Benton Farmers Market and sell this summer. There will be lots of folks heading there for their fresh vegetables.
I once tried a garden plot,
But some chicken all my garden got.Whether it is inflation or nostalgia or simply the taste of home-grown vegetables, here is a quick primer on becoming a backyard gardener. Take a few common vegetables and devote space, even as small as 15x15-feet, to grow them. There never was a weed that didn't love a garden, so the larger the garden the more weeds you'll need to eradicate. Columbia County Extension will help you test your soil if you are unsure of the nutrients your ground might need.
Plan some chives, parsley and peppers in the first row. The second row could be your favorite kind of lettuce. In the next couple of rows, plant carrots, beets and onions, followed by radishes and endive. The tomatoes and squash could go in the next row. If you have a fence at the back of the vegetable plot, put in your cucumbers and beans, which are natural climbers. Lay out your garden on paper first; have a plan.
Vegetables have some basic requirements. They need sunlight for at least six hours a day. If that much sunlight isn't available, stick with the leaf crops which don't need to develop edible roots or fruit. Father always said Memorial Day was the earliest to be sure we wouldn't have any more frost, but rely on your own experience, bearing in mind that you don't have a chance of controlling what Mother Nature wants to do.
Dig up the garden to a depth of eight inches, then rake it well and mark off the rows with twine and small stakes. Not important, you say? Well, if your garden is a success, all your guests will be taken to your garden to show it off. The crooked rows--not the size of the radishes or the tomatoes--are what will be noticed. Make a shallow trench for the seeds with a stick. The seeds need warmth to germinate, so don't plant too deep; three times the smallest width of the seed should work. Don't sow too thickly. Press the soil on the seeds so there are no air pockets which might allow the seed to dry out. Water well, and remember that your garden needs an inch of rain a week to thrive. You don't need to water unless you don't get that much rain.Radishes and turnips pop out of the ground in five days, while celery will take about three weeks. Give the plants growing room by pulling or hoeing weeds, but don't hoe deep or you will get roots of the vegetables. Thin the seedlings ruthlessly so you don't end up with scrawny plants.
Beans are very frost-sensitive. When they come up, don't work on them if they are wet. Beets are good eating anytime, but best under three inches in diameter. Your carrots need extra depth of well-spaded soil. Pick them thumb-sized. More than two inches in diameter, feed them to Old Paint. Plant your chives early. Plant endive early in the spring. Your endive is a good substitute for your ham and dandelion recipe, but so is lettuce (as in wilted lettuce). Plant loose-leaf lettuce for best results; i.e., easier to grow, earlier to harvest. Cucumbers can't have a chance of frost. Pick cucumbers often, even if you don't eat the fruit, in order to stimulate production. Peppers are usually raised by transplant. The seed packet will tell you how. Leave half an inch of stem when you pick the peppers so they store better. Overcrowding and hot weather will result in your radishes going to all tops and no bulbs.
I never met a squash I liked to eat, except for pattipan squash (served with onions and butter). Start your tomatoes indoors and then move them outside when all danger of frost is behind you. Stake your plants. Pick the tomatoes often to increase yield up to ten to fifteen pounds per plant and remember those figures so you don't buy too many plants. Just before frost, pick all the tomatoes and wrap them in paper and store them in the dark at 55° until they gradually ripen.
Plant hope within your garden plot--
Its bloom and fragrance bless the day;
And, while you're at it, plant a lot
So you'll have hope to give away.
--Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, July 26, 1904For additional gardening tips, consult Green Thumb Therapy, written by Kathy Arcuri, published in the Danville Daily Item and summarized here.
"Come, lettuce get married," said Arti.
"Will your celery keep two?" asked she.
"With carrot will do and I think, dear,
Something better will turnip," said he.
So off to old Parn'n Ipps cottage
Onion road, the wedding to stage,
They spud, and it took but a second
In this modern taxi-cabbage.
But you cant beet a taxicab meter;
Appeasing the bill left him broke,
Caused a lump to sprout in his thorax
And nearly made poor Artichoke.
However, they weren't cress fallen;
To the house on the corner they went,
Woke the pars 'nip up from his slumber,
On the greensward held the event.
And that is the endive my story
For there isn't much room left to write!
May 10, 2006. Happy birthday to Audrey Schupp and Joe Savage. Don Miller, Grove, OK, is very relieved. After his heart cauterization test on Tuesday, it was determined that he is not yet a candidate for a heart-valve replacement. He returned home from the hospital Tuesday evening, after expecting to go into surgery Wednesday. He attributes his good fortune to the fact that he got "Lots of prayers from all over the country." Nina Ford, Huntington Mills, a frequent greeter at The Center, is reported to be recovering well from knee surgery Friday. Richard Sutliff is in a rehabilitation center in Naperville, Illinois, following three days in a hospital after a severe food-poisoning attack.
"Visit a bridge during Covered Bridge week. It's not enough to protect and restore them, it's even more important to enjoy them."
--Columbia County Commissioner Chris Young, 2006Didja know that...
. The first covered bridge in the country spanned the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia in 1805?. Pennsylvania at one time had more than 1,500 covered bridges. By the 1870s, more than 10,000 covered the American landscape.
. Building covered bridges in Pennsylvania primarily took place from the 1820s to the end of the 19th century.
"We crossed the river by a wooden bridge, roofed and covered on all sides, and nearly a mile in length. It was profoundly dark, perplexed with great beams crossing and recrossing it at every possible angle, and I held my head down to save my head from the rafters above and said to myself this cannot be reality."
--American Notes, Charles Dickens, 1842Quickies...
. Didja ever think that experience is simply a series of mistakes that we like to remember?
. The Boston Beer Company Inc. (NYSE: SAM), known for brewing Samuel Adams beer, reported a loss of $3.7 million for the first quarter, a decrease of $9.5 million compared with the first quarter in 2007, following a product recall of certain glass bottles of Samuel Adams products. The company plans capital spending this year totaling $45 million to $55 million following the purchase of a brewery in Lehigh Valley.
. Congratulations to three members of the nursing staff of Bloomsburg Hospital presented with Nurse of the Year awards. The nurses included Mary Kay Paternostro, RN, Medical/Surgical Unit, Mary Beth Ferry, RN, Psychiatric Unit, and Erica Evan, LPN, Medical/Surgical Unit. The state-certified Nurse of the Year awards are presented to nurses who show initiative, a strong sense of caring and a true passion for the profession.
. An article on air pollution thick enough to pose a health risk, largely a result of the natural gas industry, can be read here.
. One hundred and forty-four years ago, the federal government's efforts to suppress the Peace Democrats opposition to the draft and Lincoln's wartime policies in Columbia County, often called the "Fishing Creek Confederacy," boiled over in the upper Fishingcreek valley. You can read a little of the story under FEATURES on the Benton News Web page and some here. We would love to look at any material you might have on this subject. We will return it.Want to make some dough?
Here is a plan to try:
Buy stock when they are low,
Sell them when they are high.Two years ago in mid-May, an 18-year old from Farina, Illinois, was jumping through a ring of fire as part of Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Dinner & Show in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The rider was Dusti Crain, the youngest female Roman rider and the featured performer whose typical day includes standing atop two fast-moving horses, one foot on each horse. The highlight of each show occurred when she and her team leaped through a ring of fire.
Dixie Stampede, for those not familiar with the term is a dinner and show experience in a 35,000-square-foot arena featuring 32 horses, live buffalo, ostrich races, illusions, music and more. Seating accommodates 1,000 guests who come to see the show and devour the four-course meal.Dusti was in the show ring from her earliest days. Her professional riding began at the age of eight, about the time she began training in gymnastics, often tumbling to the music of Dolly Parton. She became a trick rider performing in one of her father's rodeos. Dusti combined her equestrian skills with lessons learned in gymnastics classes to learn the trick ride knows as the "vault," where she jumped on and off a running horse. She saw her first Dixie Stampede performance in Branson, Missouri, when she was 12, and immediately knew what her career would be. Her performance six years later at the 2005 International Finals Rodeo was good enough to permit Dusti to be accepted for the Dixie Stampede. She moved to Pigeon Forge for the Stampede's 2006 season and began performing two or three shows a day in the 1,000-seat arena.
Dusti graduated from high school in 2005, then attended Kaskaskia College in Centralia, Illinois, as a broadcast journalism major. From July 16-19, she will be Back Home in Benton, PA, for the Benton Rodeo. You'll hear about other entertainment at the local rodeo when we get back together Sunday.
OLD FISHING CREEK
Old Fishing Creek, yes, it is old,
I've known it since a child.
And, it has doubtless flown for years,
When Penn's woods yet were wild.
But, now it flows a much loved stream
Near Bloomsburg, Orangeville, Benton,
A scenic stream--a rippling stream,
The idol of a poet's dream!The wild flowers in abundance grow
Along this rippling stream.
And the birds about Old Fishing Creek,
Make children faces beam.
There is swimming. boating, fishing,
By o1d and young alike.
And along the banks of Fishing Creek,
They even ride a bike.
There's always reminiscing of the days of long ago,
When the "B & S" ran steady,
But the train was always slow!But, still Old Fishing Creek flows on,
It still winds in and out.
Upon its banks arc cottages and
There are gala times about.
While "Red Rocks," Iron Bridge," and "Benton Park,"
Most favorite spots for "teens,"
Will keep Fishing Creek--Old Fishing Creek,
Pennsylvania's favorite stream!
--origin and author unknown
May 9, 2008. Today is the birthday of E. Lee Remley, 75, and Ethel Hack. These fine folks celebrate the day with actress Candice Bergen and Billy Joel. The AARP 55 Driver Safety Program sponsored by the Benton Women's Club continues through today as does the flower and plant sale at the Benton Fire Company. About dark, a trailer-load of flowers arrived for tomorrow's sale. The sale is under roof, so don't let a little dampness keep you away. The firemen had a great day yesterday and there is much more today.
President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation on this date in 1914 asking Americans to give a public expression of reverence to mothers through the celebration of Mother's Day. Carnations have come to represent Mother's Day following President William McKinley's habit of always wearing a white carnation, his mother's favorite flower. What are you planning to do to celebrate all of the mothers in your life this Sunday?
The moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of that wonderful mother of mine;
The birds never sing but a message they bring
Of that wonderful mother of mine.
--Clyde Hager, lyrics.Quickies...
• The Landscaping Committee for The Center is grateful for plant donations received so far, allowing the organization to stretch their budget to cover important things like compost and mulch. The Center needs donations of Echinacea or purple coneflowers, sedum 'Autumn Joy', Shasta daisies, and purple irises (Elsie Buyers' favorite plant). If you can divide any of these plants and share with the Community Center, they would be most appreciative. Just leave your offerings on the north side of the Community Center, in the shade, and tell the front desk so there is a record of your donation.
• It is nice to see a country say "no" to U.S. foreign aid, but... Burma's military government continued to block international aid workers from delivering relief supplies yesterday as bodies floated in stagnant waters left behind by Saturday's cyclone. The death toll is said to top 100,000.
• There seems to be more talk of The Guv, 64, being the running mate of Sen. Obama. He is the governor of a major state, a former general chairman of the Democratic national committee, he is not identified with any Democratic faction or constituency group (although he did back Sen. Clinton). The thinking is that Guv Rendell could win Pennsylvania against Republican John McCain in the general election, just as LBJ brought Texas in 1960. (Hey--don't shoot me! I am just the messenger!)
• The month of May received its name from Maia, the Roman goddess of spring and growth. May was once the third month of the year, but was later changed by the Romans to the fifth month, with 31 days.The Benton Rodeo shareholders gathered for their 24th annual meeting and dinner last night at the Benton Volunteer Fire Station. The hard-working officers of the Rodeo Association were recognized, as well as the various organizations which help support the group. The progress of replacing a 15' high, 95' long section of bleachers to the west of the arena was discussed. The Association members get together every Wednesday night to work on the project beginning about 6 PM and additional volunteers are needed at that time and on Saturday mornings in order to complete the project as inexpensively as possible. The rodeo does not have any shares to sell, but there is a demand for the purchase of the shares.
In the weekend edition of the Benton News, we'll go over the exciting plans for the July 15-20, 2008, rodeo, tell you about the Rawhide Rodeo Company and owner Sam Swearingen. We'll tell you a little about the "Roman Rider of Fire" at Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. We'll talk about Dusty Barrett, the clown for this year's rodeo. Sam Swearingen
In 1950, May and Torrence McHenry began the monumental job of chronicling the early McHenry family history and to list the descendents of John and Susannah McNeal McHenry who had come from Ireland to American in 1739. The compiling and updating of clan Henry (McHenry) continues under the careful, watchful eye of Vinniedee "Vinnie" McHenry Hippensteel. Let's take a little time today to examine "Mac" and "Mc," noting that there are probably exceptions to every rule, versions of every story and conflicts in many versions of history.
We'll start with the basics. The name Lawson designates someone who is the "son of Law" and Donaldson is the son of "Donald." The original word "Mac" is Gaelic for "son," and is used in both Irish and Scottish surnames. "Mac" is always an addition to a name, so MacDonald means that there was a "Donald" before, that the person is the son of Donald and that he, too, is "Donald." At times, "MacDonald" was simply changed to "Donald." In both Nova Scotia and Scotland, the alphabetization of a name was under the first letter of the second name; i.e., "Donald" in lieu of MacDonald. As Americanization set in, many Scots simply dropped the "Mac" so that "MacWyeth" became "Wyeth." "Mc" is an abbreviation of "Mac" in Ireland and Scotland.
In the south of Scotland and in Ireland, two words often became one, as in MacGill which became Magill. At times, the "k" sound in "Mac" is moved to the beginning of the following word. An example would be MacLintock which became MacClintock and MacRackten which became MacCracken. And then there are times when the word "Mac" is pronounced "muck" and the name gets written that way; MacGilroy becomes Muckleroy.
May 8, 2008. Happy birthday to Randy Hess, to Alexa McCourt who attains the worldly age of 16 and to Mariah Krygier who turns 17. The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, was born near Lamar, Missouri, on this date in 1884. On this date in 1946, the Benton Flying Club incorporated. Maude Luskey is in Geisinger South, Room 424, recuperating from hip surgery. Her mailing address is 36 Talcott Hill Road, Shickshinny, PA 18655.
On this date in 1886, Dr. John S. Pemberton sold the first Coca-Cola, down at the soda fountain in Jacob's Pharmacy, Atlanta. Pharmacist Pemberton mixed it in a 30-gal. brass kettle hung over a backyard fire and marketed it until 1905 as a "brain and nerve tonic." The drink contained small amounts of cocaine and from the kola nut came caffeine. The name came from these two "C" words. The flourish of the logo C's was suggested by his bookkeeper Frank Robinson, whose excellent penmanship provided the first scripted "Coca-Cola" letters of the famous logo. Asa Candler later marketed Coke after buying the company from Pemberton.
Drugstores in the 1890s did a brisk business in medicines that contained what we now know as dangerous narcotics. In addition to the cocaine, there were opium derivatives like laudanum and morphine used routinely as cures for problems ranging for toothaches to tuberculosis to insomnia. Sears, Roebuck and Co. offered a mail-order coca wine under the name of Cocaine Toothache Drops. When the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was passed, these narcotics disappeared from the over-the-counter market. Coca-Cola changed its formula, by the way.
Laudanum (sometimes known as wine of opium), an alcoholic tincture of opium, is sometimes sweetened with sugar. It was a popular over-the-counter drug during the Victorian era. Cheaper than gin, it was not uncommon for both men and woman to binge on laudanum after a hard week's work. Doctors of the time prescribed it for almost every aliment. Lord Byron, Shelly and other romantic poet were said to indulge.
When we were growing up just south of the borough line, Father often told of various men who walked to Benton, but filled with laudanum for the return trip fell asleep by the rocks when they headed out of town on the south-bound trip.
And who can forget this date in 1951, when Dacron, a registered trademark of DuPont, was first marketed in the form of polyester-fiber men's suits. The polymer fabric came from Deering, Milliken & Co. and the suits were sold by Hart, Schaffner & Marx Co. Dacron was the first commercially marketed polyester fiber. The continuous filament yarn is still used in curtains, dress fabrics, high-pressure fire hoses, men's shirts and thread. The staple fiber was at one time popular for mixing with wool in men's and women's suits, as well as in dress fabrics, knitted wear, and washable-woven sportswear. It was a favorite of Johnnie Carson.
Quickies...
Beatrice Roberts, 68, Third Street, narrowly missed serious injury Wednesday afternoon when an animal ran in front of her car near Digger's Diversion, Orangeville. Bea swerved to miss the animal and ended up in a ditch with the car on its side. EMTs from Bloomsburg and Benton, along with fire trucks from Benton and Orangeville responded and cut her out of her car. She was treated at the scene and released. Her first lament was for her car. Her second concern was that all the firemen from Benton were former students of hers and were for the first time seeing a side of her they had never before been exposed to.Worth watching...
• Have you heard about "Big Dog?" if you haven't met this guy, head here and meet this fellow.• Nothing beats a good hike like some morning exercise on El Caminito del Rey along the steep walls of a narrow gorge 700 feet in the mountains in El Chorro, near Álora in Málaga, Spain. Four people died in two accidents in 1999 and 2000 on this hike. Go here and experience an eye-opener.
• Here is something that you do not want to try at home. Go here.
We tend to think of rhubarb growing against the side of the house or the back of the barn, sheltered on one side from the wind and the elements. I have seen fields of rhubarb in California that appeared to be four feet high, leaves two feet across and stems two inches through and eighteen inches long. The harvest season in California, when the price received for the plants are the highest, begins about Thanksgiving and continues through the winter holidays of Christmas and New Year. The spring crop that we get locally would bring a fraction of the price of the winter trade.
Rhubarb grows in any good vegetable soil, if it isn't too wet. The best soil in which to grow rhubarb is a rich, warm, sandy loam, deeply spaded. The plants will stand in the same spot for many years, so be nice to the plants and prepare the soil well before planting. South facing is best.
Rhubarb can be grown either from seeds or from roots, but I have only ever planted from roots. Take the old roots out of the ground and cut into pieces having one or two strong crowns to the piece. Plants should be set in the ground to the depth that they were when dug. Water them immediately and keep them from drying out. Don't bother with manure or fertilizer the first year. The planting can be done in late fall, unless the soil is heavy, then plant in early spring. Put the crown three feet apart. Don't crowd; the plants will spend most of their life in a crowded situation. Set the roots deep enough so the topmost crown will be two inches under the soil.
In the first year, pick lightly. Good quality rhubarb should be fresh, firm, crisp and tender with stems of red or pink color. During the second year, leave about half the stalks. Pull the stalks with a quick motion, then leave the broad leaves on the ground to mulch the plant and provide food for it. Cut off any flower stalks as soon as they appear or they will weaken the plant.Helen Marie (Stauffer) Hess of the Cathedral Village in Philadelphia, formerly of Swarthmore, died May 6, 2008, at Roxborough Memorial Hospital, Philadelphia, after spending a week on a "ventilator." She was 86. Helen was born in Chester to the late Clarence and Agnes Stauffer. Helen was joined in marriage on May 22, 1942 to Joseph Wesley Hess, Jr. She moved to Swarthmore when her husband, the Rev. Joseph W. Hess, retired as associate rector of the Church of the Good Samaritan, Paoli. The couple lived in Swarthmore for several years before she moved to the Cathedral Village three and a half years ago. Mrs. Hess enjoyed trips to Long Beach Island, NJ, where she and her husband maintained a home in Beach Haven Gardens for a number of years, and her trips to St. Gabriel's Church where Father Joe was long associated. She also loved to sew and was known for her tailoring and her wonderful ability to upholster pieces of furniture. Mrs. Hess will be remembered as a loving and devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Survivors include her husband of 66 years, the Rev. Joseph W. Hess, who told us "I miss her very much." The couple have daughters Jennifer Sears, York, Hennie Cline, Wallingford, Nether Providence; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. She was the sister of the late Jack Stauffer and Betty Ramaika. Services will be at 11 AM Saturday at Christ Episcopal Church, 104 Nevin St., Ridley Park, with a visitation preceding. Helen will be buried in the Media Cemetery. Contributions in Helen's memory may be made to Christ Episcopal Church, 104 Nevin St., Ridley Park, PA 19078.
--Obituary courtesy of the Griffith Funeral Chapel, NorwoodFather Joe once told the story of when he attended an Elderhostel at a Methodist Retreat Center at Lake Junaluska in the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina. Father Joe met a medical doctor from Minnesota who was also a member of the Elderhostel group. Father Joe told the doctor that his family was connected to the pioneer settlers of Columbia County in a mountain valley of The Fishing Creek in Pennsylvania. That prompted the doctor to tell Father Joe that his mother had originally come from Pennsylvania and that her maiden name had been Laubach. The good news of a newfound "kissing cousin" did not end there.
While returning home from Lake Junaluska about lunchtime Father Joe stopped at a roadside rest station near Baltimore where, while eating a sandwich, he became engaged in conversation with a lady eating next to him. Soon Father's Joe's wife, Helen, joined in the conversation and the first thing she said was, "Have you found another relative?" This prompted telling the newfound luncheon friend the story of meeting a somewhat distant relative while on an Elderhostel in North Carolina. When Father Joe came to the part of the story about the doctor from Minnesota’s mother and that her name was Laubach, the women’s eyes just about popped out of her head. It turned out that she was the secretary to Dr. Bob Laubach of The Laubach Literacy Foundation.
May 7, 2008. Today is the birthday of Mike Geary, Gerald McHenry and Leona Bardo. The elementary Great Beginnings concert is at 7:30 PM tonight in the auditorium at Benton Middle/High School. Featured will be the Elementary Chorus and Elementary Band, as well as soloists and ensembles. There is no charge for the concert. Jennifer DiLossi and Jennifer Welliver are directors.
Colton Albertson, 10, Buck Road, Stillwater, is in need of prayers. On Sunday, part of Colton's foot was taken off by a riding lawnmower driven by his brother. Colton lost a big chunk out of his heel and lost most of the tissue up to his ankle. He was taken by life flight to Geisinger Hospital where his mother, Jenny Albertson, is a nurse. Colton is the great grandson of Leona Bardo. Jenny Albertson is the granddaughter of Leona Bardo. Colton is the grandson of Pat and Jane Sutton, Denny and Sue Albertson and Dave and Rose Bardo. Colton thought the ride in Life-flight was "so cool" but he couldn't see much since he was strapped in so tightly. Colton is starting on a long road of plastic surgery and recovery so please don't forget the prayers. And, by the way, he'll be 11 on July 1. Drop him a birthday card when the time gets closer.
Quickies...
• Bob and Iva Conner's barn certainly is spiffy with its new white paint.
• Our best wishes go with Chris and Barb Thomas as they depart the grocery business via the Riverside Market and head into their retirement years at Dutch Mountain and Mifflinville.
• The activity level at the newly opened Country Fresh Shurfine Market Tuesday was at a feverish pitch. Hours and personnel will remain the same as when it traded under the Bi-Low brand and the name Riverside Market.
• A number of college students are shaking their heads at how hard their final examinations are this spring session. We wish them all the best.It is a joy to read a book correctly written and well thought out, a product turned out by design, not something written in a hurry and its ability to achieve its intended objective simply a matter of luck. It is therefore no accident that thoughts, words and deeds come together to make an understandable product in the study of religion.
As I try to write the Benton News nightly from 8 until 10 or 10:30 PM, a lot of mistakes take place. In my case, it is somewhat akin to eating lunch with someone who eats spaghetti with his fingers. You can expect that he'll have other social problems as well!
What I am talking about is the careless use of the English language as I work toward my goal of documenting the life and times of living Back Home in Benton, PA. I simply don't spend a lot of time writing the Benton News. I know, I know, Mary Hartman is looking down and shaking her finger at me.
My suggestion is that readers concentrate on what I am trying to say, not on how I say it, spell it or pronounce it. I try to bring out certain traits characteristic of people who have grown up with a toe dangling in the waters of Fishing Creek. One trait of the local area is our vulnerability to outsiders. Someone moving to the area often remains an outsider. Jim Dildine once explained that he was still an outsider, and "I have lived here 70 years."
We tend to be proud people, whether it is of our double-wide or our log home. We are proud of what we have and know full well how hard it was to get it. We are self-sufficient, innovative and ingenious. Half of us can solve virtually any problem of a mechanical nature; the other half can work through the varied problems that fall outside of a mechanical nature. We are sometimes naïve, but always completely aware of our blessings. We are content with what we have (although a lot of the men would like a new pick-up truck), but never satisfied with what our children will receive. We make our future by the best use of the present. We love our nostalgia; i.e., we name our grocery store "Riverside" when there isn't a river within fifteen miles. We cling to our distinctive characteristics. We are not all good, but by the same token we are not all evil. We offer prayers when prayers are called for. We aren't needy, but we respond to need. We aren't all alike, but we have many common traits. We tend to be secretive, yet we love to assemble at a bar or a coffee shop or a church or The Center.
We didn't all come over on the same ship, but we are all in the same boat. We identify primarily with our families and with our communities. We love a good joke and have little time for those who don't have a sense of humor. We pass down the family recipes and we have been known to slightly alter a recipe given away so that "no one makes ham and dandelions are good as Mother." We trace our family history, we learn to quilt and crochet like our grandmothers did. When things go wrong, we quickly point our fingers at other people or powers, but if good things transpire we credit ourselves or God and nobody in between. We love our animals. We know it is better to be straight than smart since lies, like chickens, always come home to roost. We know that worry, like a rocking chair, will give you something to do but won't get you anywhere. We laugh with people, but not at them. We measure success by our ability to get along with people--and ahead of others. We handle conceit by listing all the things we don't know.
So maybe I have dodged the question by giving a long-winded answer. Father always said that if I couldn't state the problem in ten words or less I didn't understand the problem. If I put you to sleep, I apologize for that, too. Mother always said that if the preacher puts you to sleep, he is the one who needs waking up.
I started this diatribe to say that however I write it the first time is the way it is delivered to you. There is no time for a "do-over." Especially tonight...
Glenn A. Farver, Jr. (Sept. 13, 1943-May 6, 2008), County Line Road, Benton, died Tuesday at the Bloomsburg Hospital. He was 64. Glen was born in Kingston. He was a son of the late Glenn A. Farver, Sr. and Ruth C. (Lamoreaux) Farver. Mr. Farver was a former truck driver for L&K Mills and Bloomsburg Cement Co. He had also worked for the former Benton Wood Products Co. He was currently employed by Century Security at Wise’s in Berwick. Surviving are his widow, Sharon J. (Wolfinger) Farver; children Glenn A. Farver, III, Orangeville; Cindyann Robbins (Dean), Millville; Steve W. Farver (Michelle Ann), Unityville; and Kimberly Stackhouse (Frank), Wisconsin. There are 8 grandchildren; 5 great grandchildren; a brother, Gail A. Farver, Benton, and 4 step children. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by an infant daughter, Linda Ruthann Farver, and by a half brother, Sidney Farver. Funeral services will be held Friday at 10:30 AM with viewing preceding at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc. Burial will be in the Raven Creek Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to the family.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary will be published in the Press Enterprise in its edition of May 7, 2008.
May 6, 2008. Karen Boston and Alica Stackhouse celebrate their birthdays today. Keep Don Miller, Grove, Oklahoma, in your prayers today as he faces heart-related surgery.
Quickies...
. The free 2008 Pennsylvania Travel Guide is hot off the press with thousands of dining and lodging listings, detailed maps, road trips and photo galleries. You can plan your vacation, get ideas for your next family reunion, or discover a spectacular new place for a romantic getaway. Order your copy today by clicking here.• The Scranton Times Tribune continues its series on gas-drilling in Tuesday's edition, today concentrating on the fate of the Allegheny forest, "which has been splintered by conventional drilling." The problems of that area are "on the minds of citizens and environmental groups as a new, unconventional natural gas rush is sweeping into forests and farmland in Northeastern Pennsylvania." You can read the article here. A companion article about forming groups to secure better terms and conditions in gas leasing can be found here.
. Didja ever feel like the world is dressed in a tuxedo and you are wearing brown shoes?
. The Riverside Market is scheduled to open under new owners and a new name this morning at 8:30. The store is now owned by Carl and Sue Barchik and will no longer carry the Bi-Low Brand. The store is converting to the Shurfine Label. According to the Shurfine Web Site,,the Shurfine label has been around since 1948 selling both Shurfine and Shurfresh products. The company is headquartered in Skokie, Illinois, a unit of Topco Associates, LLC. Over 2,500 items are managed and distributed in more than 25 states to over 3,500 stores. A group of locally owned and operated independent supermarket retailers in Central Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland form the Shurfine Markets. These retailers work together as a unit.At intersections
Look each way
A harp sounds nice
But it's hard to play.
--Burma ShaveThe end of the dandelion-eating season has arrived as has the beginning of the dandelion-hating season. There is probably no weed in existence that is so obnoxious to lovers of beautiful lawns as is the dandelion. It spoils the harmony of the beautiful velvety green of the lawn with its large display of yellow flowers and ugly leaves. When the weed gets a start in a lawn, it is difficult to eradicate.
It is almost too late to get a "mess of dandelions" because the weed is getting too strong to eat. The best time for eating, of course, is before the blossoms come out. The Catawissa First UM Church always sets the record for the first ham and dandelion supper of the area. This year they held their ham and dandelion feast on March 29, using dandelions that grew elsewhere.
Dandelion greens properly prepared, constitutes one of the most delectable of green dishes. They are easy to prepare, cost nothing and will be found to be more delicious than spinach.
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.
-Author unknown
The property is owned by Dave and Carol Stoker.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. Read more at www.consumer.gov/sentinel/ , a consumer fraud database. Continually say that "if it looks too good to be real, it probably is."
The south end of Benton Park, May 5, 2008
May 5, 2008, Cinco de Mayo, a date of great importance for the Mexican and Chicano communities, the day that celebrates the victory of the Mexicans over the French army at The Battle of Puebla in 1862. The Mexicans were outnumbered two to one, but they inflicted an estimated 1,000 French casualties and forced a retreat to the Gulf Coast. The city was renamed Puebla de Zaragoza after the Mexican general that led the effort. Happy birthday to Keith Gilbert.
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 coleslaw 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.
Quickies...
. Alumni who did not receive a letter this year from the Alumni Association can download a copy here. Include an updated address when you return the form so you are current for next year.
. Home furnishings retailer Linens 'n Things has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.Upcoming...
. May 17, 2008. Fairmount Township Volunteer Fire and Ambulance on Route 118, a half mile west of Ricketts Glen State Park, will serve roast beef as a buffet dinner on Saturday night from 4 PM. The menu includes mashed potatoes, gravy, two vegetables, rolls, dessert and beverage. Adults are $8 and children $4.
. June 1, 2008. Skyhaven Airport Pancake Breakfast and Craft Show at Tunkhannock's Skyhaven Airport on Route 29S from 7:30 AM to 1 PM, sponsored by Skyhaven Pilots Association. Admission is free. Breakfast is $6 for adults and $3 for children. More information? Call 570 836-4800.
Discover your unique voice and find the joy of singing! Alanna Bath is opening a voice studio in Bendertown. She is seeking individuals of any age and skill level who may be interested in taking voice lessons. Alanna wants to help each individual discover his or her true voice and develop it to its maximum potential in a supportive and positive atmosphere, through vocal technique and musicianship skills. Alanna has instructed students of all ages and abilitie, teaching basic skills like reading music as well as preparing high-school students for undergraduate music-program auditions. Lessons will begin in July and continue through early December/ Then will resume in late February/early March. Lessons will occur on every other Saturday. Service times and fees are...
30 minutes - $30.
45 minutes - $45.
60 minutes - $60.
You may contact Alanna directly from her web site at www.alannabath.com.What will the future hold for energy? Gasoline prices are going crazy--the Sunday night price at both stations in Benton was $3.499 for regular, unleaded-- because there simply isn't enough oil supply to meet the world's insatiable desire for the commodity. When you toss our falling dollar and the increasing costs of investment money to bring the oil out of the ground into the equation, you run into real problems, especially at this season when gas companies incur the traditional cost of switching from winter to summer-gasoline blends. The result is an average U.S. gas price in excess of $3.60 a gallon for regular, unleaded. Will gasoline stay that high? Experts say it will through the summer months.
A local resident lamented that he owned only a few acres of land and would not be able to profit from the current race to sign up land for gas drilling. Actually, local businesses that provide services and products could end up profiting, too. As land representatives stream into the local area, restaurants should notice a slight uptick in business and if the "promised" money becomes a reality, more will be eating out. Actually, millions of dollars of investment have already channeled into northeastern Pennsylvania. For those with a few extra dollars to invest, there are several gas-drilling companies that appear to have above average merit.
The investment money is following the Marcellus Shale, which stretches far under Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. If the creation of permanent jobs in Texas in 2007 when drilling for the Barnett Shale is any indication of the boom in employment locally with the Marcellus Shale, the local economy has a great year ahead of it. Read more on this topic in the May 5 edition of the Scranton Times Tribune by clicking here.There are other energy options, like uranium and wind.
Energy from uranium...
Folks in Utah and other states have renewed interest in nuclear power, triggering the open-pit mining of uranium like never before. Much of the uranium comes from public land surrounding the sandstone cliffs beside the Grand Canyon and in Utah's Arches National Park, Capitol Reef National Park and Canyonlands National Park. The Department of the Interior says there are 1,100 uranium claims for that area, up from only 10 claims in January, 2003. Uranium is mined in a number of Western states. New claims totaling 4,333 were filed in 2004 in these states, according to the Interior Department; last year the number had grown to 43,153.Environmentalists appealed to federal courts and Congress to halt any drilling on the land. The mining companies maintain that the uranium would feed nuclear reactors that could produce electricity without contributing to global warming as does coal and natural gas. There just isn't a whole lot of uranium. The United States as well as France and other European countries have announced their intention to expand nuclear power and the price of uranium has soared to $65 a pound from $9.70 a pound in 2002.
Energy from Wind Turbines...
New York's Wyoming County is host to a number of wind turbines that make a whooshing somewhat like a far-off jetliner. The town of Eagle, about 60 miles southwest of Rochester has something like 60 of them. The turbines are 265 feet tall, with blades that reach an additional 123 feet. Each turbine turns out about 100 megawatts of electricity that is fed into the national power grid and then sold to businesses and homes. An additional 84 more turbines will go up in Eagle and adjacent towns in a $450 million investment. Landowners are paid about $7,000 a year per turbine.James A. “Goober” Laubach (April 3, 1962-May 2, 2008), 215 Moss Road, Benton, died Friday, at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital where he had been a patient for the past two weeks. His health was not good for most of his life. He was 46. Jim was born in the Bloomsburg Hospital. He was a son of the late George G. “Junior” and Janet M. (McDaniels) Laubach. He was a grandson of the late J. Brandon and Lydia M. (Goss) McDaniels, who raised him. He attended Benton High School. At one time, we was employed by Benton Wood Products, Rod’s Exxon and had assisted his brother with construction work. He operated a disc jockey service known as JL Sounds. Surviving, are his widow, Joey Sue (Bronson) Laubach; a son, Ian J. Young, Pittsburgh; a brother, Jerry E. Laubach (Joanne), Benton; a sister, Jeanne M. Michael (James), Benton, and numerous nieces and nephews. A Life Celebration Service will be held Wednesday evening at 7 at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to the American Diabetes Assoc., 63 N. Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary will be published in the Press Enterprise in its edition of May 5, 2008.
May 4, 2008. Vernon McDormand and Lynn Sutton celebrate their birthdays today.
On this day in 1626, Peter Minuit (1580-1638) landed on Manhattan Island to take over as the third director of the New Netherland Colony 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 Amsterdam'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.
I do not own a Microsoft computer which runs on the Vista operating system, so I never say anything about any operating system other than Windows XP. Windows XP Service Pack 3, a collection of updates, patches, and enhancements for Windows XP in one download, is to about to be released.
Many computer users will remember Service Pack 2, released in August of 2004. Service Pack 3 is a major update for Windows XP that is mainly the collection of all previous downloads along with some minor enhancements. Much is designed for business networks; much is designed for home users. We have seen statistics that claim speed improvements up to 10% after installing the update.
Probably the best bet is to remain on the sidelines for a month or so to let all of the potential issues work themselves out before installing the update. It is hard to tell exactly when the update will be available, since April 29 was the release date, but that date was not met because of a minor issue. If your Windows XP is updated on a regular basis, you probably have most of the Service Pack 3 updates already. Installing Service Pack 3 as soon as it's available isn't that critical.
You can control when Service Pack 3 is installed on your XP computer. Right-click on My Computer; select Properties to open the System Properties window. Click on the "Automatic Updates" tab and select the "Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them" option. This will download updates as available, but you decide when or if you want to install them. A yellow shield will appear in your Systray--in the lower right corner next to the clock--to notify you that new updates are available for installation. When you double-click the yellow shield, a screen will appear with an Express Install or Custom Install option for the updates. Choose the Custom Install update if you want to decide what does and does not get installed in your system.
Just when we think that we have the largest, fastest, shiniest something, a new gizzie comes along and leaves us in the dust. Computers seem to have a new generation released about twelve minutes after the customer leaves the store with what he thought was "state-of-the-art." We've had the Beta vs. the VHS war, and the Blue-Ray war. From across the ocean now comes the story that a London funeral home has begun a service where for a fee anyone with an internet connection can view the final services of a loved one. You can now see your loved ones in their final-public viewing, while wearing your blue jeans and munching on a bag of Tostitos.
With the oncoming arrival of warm weather, it is time to resolve to walk or bicycle as much as you can, turn your thermostat as high as you can tolerate it in the summer and understand that you'll need to turn it as low as you can tolerate when the cold weather again arrives.
It is going to seem strange this summer, when the grandchildren come to call, that the old supply of fish worms will be gone. I know, I know, when most of us were kids we simply went out by the barn to that damp place, took the spading fork, turned over the ground and pulled out huge night crawlers by the gobs. There would be enough worms to catch all the fish in Fishing Creek.
For many years at Painter Den, we had a place beside the kitchen door where the coffee grounds and the scraps of food left over at the end of the meal would be thrown. Over the years, the black ground needed only a spritz of water during the dry days of August and earthworms (which at times we also called "angle-worms") would come close enough to the surface where we could easily dig them.
A method one of my high school cronies read about somewhere--I think it was Popular Mechanics--to get earthworms involved sinking an iron pipe a couple of feet into the ground. The ground needed to have a little moisture in it. The exact details escape me now, but as I recall we would then connect a wire to the house electric-light circuit. A couple of experiments, a couple of mistakes, and we had it down. The current going through the wire to the earth would spread through the soil around the pipes and zap the worms in the ground so they would come rushing out helter skelter by the dozens.
I remember that we told other boys about the procedure that we read about, but I don't actually remember any worms jumping in the bucket as a result of employing the procedure.
Kids know that the sluggish earthworm it is not as weak as is commonly supposed. It can retreat within its burrow like a flash and can take such a firm hold as to almost defy extraction without making two worms out of one. A worm crawling on our hands caused a slight tingling roughness.
Examine the worm's body with a microscope and you'll discover that each of the numerous rings or joints into which it is divided is finished with four pairs of minute tactile hooks or points to aid in movement, which take the place of legs. The earthworm is a hermaphrodite, although, as Father used to say rather delicately when he would discuss the facts of life with me, "it takes two to tango." In certain seasons a few of the rings, generally near the anterior third of the body, swell so as to look much like a healing wound.
I consulted an 1882 newspaper (Worcester Daily Spy, November 18, 1882) to see how this sexual relationship would have been described back then. The article I finally found didn't disappoint. The article stated in its finest Puritanical style, "two individuals join at these swollen parts a glutinous secretion aiding the conjugation." Risqué stuff...
Interestingly enough, the young worm is usually born in a cyst-like covering which subsequently bursts. The worm living in the earth is actually semi-aquatic. It can live a long time in the water, but dies when exposed to air. It likes damp soil, and takes advantage of rains to travel at night on the ground surface. In early spring, worms often travel in fairly large numbers on the warm sidewalks. Many worms die if the weather becomes suddenly cold or the pavement dries out too rapidly. The earthworm hibernates at the bottom of its burrow and remains underground in a stupor during very dry weather.
But I mentioned that in another month the fish worms will be gone. I need to get back to that.
When the grandchildren come to call, we usually head for Jay Yorks' Sports Center, 107 Main Street, at the corner of Main and Market Streets. Yesterday all that ended when the contents were auctioned and the many years of the fellows gathering in the morning came to a close. It is the place where I first met Mayor Barletta of Hazleton who came there when he was politicking for the House of Representatives. Commissioner Chris Young stopped for a little talk with the "boys." Every bear shot in the upper Fishingcreek valley in the past fifteen years first came to the Sports Shop to be shown, even before it went home to show the family. It is where the members of the Fishingcreek Sportsmen Club held their informal meetings, the ones before the regular meetings at the VFW. It is where the grandchildren got their fish worms and the inspiration to stand beside the creek for hours on end. It is where the big stories were told, although I did notice that many of the big stories were often told before either the hunt or the fishing began!
The auction continued until about 4 Saturday afternoon. Absolute strangers in abundant numbers filled the parking lots on the side and in the back. There were Fenwick Fly & Spinning Rods; Mepps & Rapala Spinners & Plugs; Darton & Excaliber Compound & Cross Bows; a Browning Night Seeker Cap Light & Knife Combos; Hard Hats for Headlamps; Dickies; and--well you get the idea.
Jay will keep the Sports Center open for another thirty days to comply with the law. He'll continue to sell grubs and earthworms, but the place is otherwise cleared to the bare walls. Jay will tell you a story about the big one that got away, if you'll take the time to listen. But thirty days from now, be prepared to get the shovel out and find your own fish worms.
May 3, 2008. Happy birthday today to Lynn Shaw, Fifth Street. On this date in 1494, Columbus discovered Jamaica, which he called "St. Iago." In 1936, Yankee slugger Joe DiMaggio made his major-league debut and hammered three hits. Satellite TV was first used on this date in 1965, when the Today Show beamed in on Early Bird Satellite.
Here is a partial listing of events taking place in our area today. There is a group getting together to help landscape The Center from 9 to 11 and your help would be appreciated. From 9 AM to 5 PM is the Annual Spring Fling with more than 150 vendors showing their homemade and very unique crafts in downtown Danville. If birds are your thing, from 2 to 3 PM you can learn about the spring migrants (real birds, not snow birds) making their way north. It takes place at the PPL Montour Preserve, 700 Preserve Road, Danville. A Benton institution goes away when the auction of the contents of the Benton Sports Center, Main Street, begins at 9 AM. Good luck in the future, Jay! There is the always fun horse-tack sale at 25 Bendertown Road at the Stillwater home of Julie and Jerry Beishline. Proceeds will benefit the Retired Equine Adoption Society of the Northeast, . The event will run from 9 AM to 4 PM. History Day is happening from 10 AM until 5 PM in the King Street Park, Northumberland, with crafts, buggy rides, open hearth cooking, folk music. If you like ham, you can head to the ham supper from 4 to 7 at the Millville Fire Hall.
Tonight at 7 is The Sounds of Spring concert with the High School Concert Band, Concert Choir and Mixed Ensemble Saturday in the Richard E. Martin Auditorium at Benton Middle/High School. Tickets are available at the door. Jennifer DiLossi and Jennifer Welliver are directors.
Here is a partial list of the happenings in the area Sunday. Fill up in a breakfast buffet of the "all you can eat" variety from 8 AM until noon at the Fairmount Township Fire & Ambulance Co., 671 SR 118. Adults $6; children, $3. From 2 to 5:30 PM, the Peace of the Susquehanna Guided Recreational Kayak River Trip takes place on a beautiful and peaceful seven-mile paddle from Montgomery to Watsontown. Watch for riverside wildlife, improve your paddling skills, learn about local history and enjoy the companionship of other friendly paddlers for only $39 per person. Everything is included. Reservations are required from Canoe Susquehanna, Lewisburg, 888 524-7692.
Quote of the Day:
"A Veteran--whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve--is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including my life."
--Author Unknown. Contributed by Robert Smith.Sweet corn was selling yesterday in the Amish market in Winchester, Virginia, for four ears for $7. Nearby, diesel was priced at $3.999 and regular, unleaded gasoline was $3.459.
James Percey, P.O. Box 73, Effort, PA. 18330, in conjunction with Rick Iddings, is gathering the former members of the Benton Area Schools graduating class of 25 years ago for a get-together at the Mill Race Golf Course on August 9, 2008. There will be golf for people who would like to play 18 before the reunion occurs. James is trying hard to get members of his class to come Back Home in Benton, PA, and enjoy a day of golf and an evening of fun.
The tee time for golf is 10 AM. Cocktails will be served and the class photo will be taken from 5 to 6:30 PM. There will be Hors d'oeuvres, beer and a cash bar. Dinner is served in the main dining room from 6:30 to 7:30. A DJ will provide entertainment and music for dancing from 7:30 to 10:30.
The cost for this event will be $30/person (without golf) or $62/person (with golf), and both include all of the above. Please make checks payable to "James Percey" and mail before Friday, July 18. James tells his classmates, "For those of you who have not been to a reunion yet, or have not been to one recently, lets make this reunion one to remember and have a great showing. Hope to see all of you there!"
Mike Morrison, one of the area's few Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists and a recreational therapist in the psychiatric unit of the Bloomsburg Hospital, has brought the therapeutic benefits of magic to the local hospital. Morrison uses magic to help people with ailments ranging from depression to fine motor-skills problems.
Morrison began his research on the therapeutic benefits of magic in 1987 when he discovered that using magic with existing therapy programs helped patients increase self-esteem, concentration, problem solving skills and socialization skills. He also applied magic in a physical rehabilitation setting to help patients increase their memory, motor skills and speech.
Morrison wrote a book in 1991 called Therapeutic Magic which outlines eight tricks that work on the most common therapeutic goals seen in both psychiatric and rehabilitation settings. He uses magic with patients who are going through very stressful situations to prove to patients that leisure time can be used for something enjoyable and productive.
His work on Therapeutic Magic, and as co-founder of the Rollin Rinos Wheelchair Athletic Association in New Orleans, resulted in him being chosen as East Stroudsburg University's Young Alumni of the Year in 1996.
"Magic is believing in yourself;
if you can do that, you can make anything happen."
--Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe state Department of Revenue has provided an estimate of the average property tax reduction created by slot-machine revenues for homeowners in each Pennsylvania school district. To find the average homeowner's estimated reduction, enter your school district's name in the box below. To compare school districts within a county, enter the county name.
Click here to load the data pages. The actual amount of tax relief per homestead and farmstead will be calculated by each school district and will differ from this estimate.
The calculation is based on the number of approved homesteads and farmsteads in each school district, as reported by county assessment offices. For further information, see the article entitled “Slots savings come off tax bills” in Friday ’s Press Enterprise.
May 2, 2008. Happy wedding anniversary to Bruce and Darla McMichael, and happy birthday to Lori Lenhart and Abigail LeValley.
Monica Merrin will be at Bible Baptist Church in Benton for a gospel concert on Saturday evening, May 10 at 7. Monica is a former actress with Sight & Sound Theaters, Lancaster. She is currently ministering at churches through her singing and as a guest speaker. Bible Baptist Church is located on Rt. 239S next to the Benton Township Building. For more information contact Pastor Paul Moseley, Sr., 925-2592.
We'll be leaving what is commonly known as the "South" today, the land of "Bluegrassic Park," and reentering "Yankee Land." Breakfasts of salty country ham served family style, with fried apples and breath-stopping coffee, will be missed. Here is a poem from where we are...
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.How soon we forget. It happened in 2003. Ground was broken May 1 for Benton Manor at the former Little Lumber Co. site. Construction of the $1.045 million project for older residents began May 12 with completion of the 11 apartments and community room in November. The eleven 500 sq. ft. garden apartments were one story with one bedroom and a patio and will rent from $320 to $405 a month. There will be three buildings with six units in one building, three and a community room in another, and two units in the third.
A significant grant to the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center was formally announced by Bill Klink, president of the Columbia County Housing Corporation, in early May, 2003. The announcement was that the $24,000 lot would be donated to the community center foundation if the center gets the necessary funding to build.
Domestic Critters...
• An engineer's guide to the study of the domestic cat can be found here.
• And the cutest dancing dog ever can be seen here.Benton Township Zoning Hearing Board met on April 29, and approved the construction of a Verizon cell-phone tower on the Janet C. Fester property, 173 Johns Road, Benton Township. This is the old Dick Johns' property. The tower is expected to be under construction soon, but not sooner than 30 days.
The Verizon representatives were quite interested in making sure that the tower was approved. They brought an attorney to represent the company and present their case for putting a tower on the property. They had both a civil engineer and an electrical engineer there. The site locator for Verizon Towers, the man responsible for finding the best possible site, was there. Everyone representing Verizon made a contribution to the presentation, including a presentation on what the local cell coverage is with Verizon and what it will go to once that the tower is installed. The representatives of the company also indicated that if other carriers wished to use the tower, they would consider the renting of space.
Gina Tomasak, 37, passed away November 1, 2007, of a ruptured brain aneurysm which also caused her to have a major heart attack. Her family did not know that her symptoms indicated that she was seriously sick. The family and friends were completely caught off guard. Not allowing her demise to be in vain, the family has asked themselves how many others do not know about this disease and how fatal it can be.
Gina and her husband, author Pete Tomasak, were soul mates. She loved her four step-children as if they were her own. “Ninnie” was loved by all of her nine step-grandchildren. Gina loved life and was a very gracious person to know. Without question she would give to anyone who needed help. Her heart of gold won her many friends in her short life. She is deeply, deeply missed.
To return her love, the family has taken on the challenge of helping to raise the necessary funds needed at The Brain Aneurysm Foundation to get the word out. Learn more at http://www.bafound.org/info/index.php.
A 1K Brain Aneurysm Awareness Walk will be held Saturday, May 24, 2008, at 1209 Carolina Beach Presbyterian Church, Carolina Beach, NC, to raise the necessary funds needed by the Brain Aneurysm Foundation to get the awareness out concerning this killer disease. Every penny of each donation goes directly to The Brain Aneurysm Foundation. All donations will be gladly accepted. If you donate more than $15 you will receive a printed T-shirt.
A candlelight vigil will be held at the Sandpiper Lane Beach Access Entrance in Carolina Beach May 24, beginning at 8 PM. If you have lost a loved one from this condition, there will be a posting board for you to hang up a photo of that loved one. Please come out and help the family spread the awareness and honor our loved ones. More information and registration information is available at www.active.com/donate/ginatomasakwalk.
May 1, 2008. Happy birthday to Jay McHenry, Stillwater. Starting tonight at 7 PM and running on an intermittent basis through May 18 at the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, 226 Center Street, Bloomsburg. 800-282-0283, "Incorruptible." When a Medieval monastery hits a financial crunch, the monks must call it quits or do something drastic to attract new business.
Upcoming...
. Rep. Karen Boback (R-Columbia/Luzerne/Wyoming) monthly satellite office schedule includes...
. Friday, May 23, 9 AM to 3 PM at the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center, 42 Community Drive, Benton.
Dr. Boback's closest full-time office is located in Sweet Valley at 5315 Main Road (477-3752). Residents can call toll-free at (800) 278-3930.
The Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center is offering a class in "Yoga for Better Breathing," with Ginny Mazzei as instructor. Classes will be held Tuesday evenings, May 20, May 27, and June 3, from 6 PM to 6:55 PM. Recent research shows that many of our degenerative illnesses can be slowed and even reversed by changing the way we breathe. Yoga teaches how the breath exerts a powerful influence on the body and mind. This three-session series will include postures and relaxation techniques that bring awareness to and improvement in the breath. Cost is $10 for Center members, and $15 for non-members. Advance registration is necessary. Call 925-0163 for more information or to sign up.
Didja know that the latest Energy Information Agency figures show that U.S. gasoline demand climbed 0.57% year-over year? A year ago, gasoline sold for an average $2.86 per gallon. Gasoline prices set a record for the 16th consecutive day Wednesday. A gallon of gas cost an average of $3.62, according to AAA. Not only are Americans not using less gasoline as the price goes up, we are actually using more. We would like to think that if gas prices were to hit $4 or more this summer that people would drive less which would cause a supply surplus and send prices back down. Sure it will!
Today we are in rural Virginia on the road less traveled, smack on the famous "Crooked Road" of southwestern Virginia, a 230-mile highway showcasing hotspots of bluegrass, old-time and country music. The "Crooked Road" is basically a driving trail through Virginia that includes some of the most scenic country in the United States and some of the most musically significantly areas anywhere. The roots of American music are right here.
It would be impossible to describe the entire route, so we picked a community known as Floyd, Virginia, as representative of one of the stops on the "Crooked Road." The Floyd Country Store is a traditional gathering place for musicians, dancers and visitors. The best night is a Friday night. Yesterday was not Friday but Marcia Kay and I still had a hoot. As it was described to us, Friday nights is a "Jamboree" in the finest tradition of old-time and bluegrass music. It all starts at 6:30 PM for an hour of gospel. From 7:30 to 10:30 PM, the music is played just as it was on Friday nights a century ago when customers would come to town to buy groceries, or wool socks or a mousetrap.
Floyd County has never had a four-lane highway, never had a rail-line--but it does have 40 miles of Blue Ridge Parkway. The town of Floyd has great food at places like the Blue Ridge Restaurant where Kay and I had a traditional country breakfast with home-made biscuits and gravy, grits and sausage. They even serve "mashers" at lunch. What is special about the town of Floyd? Well, for starters Edgar Allen Poe's girlfriend is said to be buried in the local cemetery. Well, at least she said she was his girlfriend and that the poem For Annie was written about her. Nathaniel Henry is buried in the local cemetery in an unmarked grave. He is the son of Patrick Henry. The world's largest distributor of bluegrass and old-time recordings (Country Sales) is headquartered here. The Floyd Historic District, including most of the town center as established in 1831, is on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register.
A number of readers had choice words about the recent article on Southern girls and their flirting, an innocent piece on a certain mannerism of women of the south. Today I want to say some about mountain girls. Yes, mountain girls! They, at least in earlier times, had possibly the purest blood lines in America. They came from the earliest colonists, which meant there were no outside blood lines until the last half of the nineteenth century. Their growing-up years was in an environment where the culture lagged the rest of the county by as much as a century. The life they knew was simple and self-sufficient.
These vestiges of the past continue with pronunciation of works like "hit" meaning "it" and terms like "just as common" to describe someone who is not "stuck-up." "Them thar" still occasionally makes it into sentences. These are the women who spend time "redding up the house." Most are blonde, from my counting.
I continue to get questions about the family history of this person or that person and I am always embarrassed to admit that I can't even remember people's names let alone the names of anyone more than a generation ago. Alex Haley prompted African-Americans to research their family history, and probably had something to do with white American doing the same. Haley's 1976 book, Roots, started people thinking about the part their families played in the making of history.
I am not sure about your family but as recently as four generations ago my family wrote infrequently--and, frankly, poorly. What little information I have on my family comes down through the ages in the form of stories told to me by my parents and passed to them orally by their parents. Since several generations of the same family lived in the same house, the old stories freely passed to the next person. Since some of these stories have certainly been "embellished" over the years, some "history" certainly is fictional. And therein comes the subject of genealogy--where there is no room for the unknown fact. It is only a fact when it is proven--and often confirmed by a second source. I don't have any statistics to prove it, but based on the number of emails I receive on the subject it very well could be the most popular of all hobbies.
Bonnie Farver, Executive Director of the Columbia County Historical & Genealogical Society, Bloomsburg, is one of the best minds in the area when it comes to researching names and dates. I have watched Bonnie tackle an amazing tangle of names and relationships. My feeble mind went into "mind-boggle mode," as I watched the commitment, concentration and patience that Bonnie brought to the job.
For those who aren't sure of what genealogy is, I would define it as the science of tracing and accurately recording the history of the descent of an individual or family. It isn't something for someone like Longfellow, who wrote in Psalm of Life, "Let the dead Past bury its dead."
