Today is the 44th anniversary of the 21st birthday of Phyllis Young Harrison and we know what kicks in today. Phyllis celebrates her birthday with author Jonathan Swift and with Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. Garrison Keillor wrote that Twain said "Mamma has morals," quoting Twain's daughter Suzy, "and Papa has cats." Some of our favorite Twain quotes include "You have the words, Livy, but you'll never learn the tune," uttered when he heard his wife swear. Other memorable quotes include "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt." He said, "Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."

The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse defines words that are often used when people talk or write about diabetes. It is designed for people who have diabetes and for their families and friends. Go to http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/diabetes/pubs/dmdict/dmdict.htm .

Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

It is always important to thank the individuals who volunteer their time and their considerable skills to help with the administration of the community, whether it be the school board or local government.

On behalf of the community served by the Benton Area School System, we would like to thank the outgoing school board--Phillip Edson, Randy Laubach, Geraldine Newhart, Rick Posey, John Rakich, Lanny Conner, Nichole Shultz, Dennis Threlkeld and Robert Zettle.

As of December 6, the Benton Area School Board will consist of Phillip Edson, Evy Lysk, Geraldine Newhart, Rick Posey, Harold Ackerman, Lanny Conner, Nichole Shultz, Dennis Threlkeld and Robert Zettle.

And while we' re talking about the local school, take the time to visit the redesigned web page of the Benton Area Schools: http://www.bentonsd.k12.pa.us/.

Pennsylvania State Game Commission rules state hunters can take one antlered deer with at least three points on one side, contrary to what we said yesterday. Yesterday, we said the number was "four," and we haven't a clue where that number can from. Apparently the brain said one number and the fingers typed another. In any event, we apologize for the mistake.

Both Benton Township and Benton Borough got hit hard in today's editions of the Press Enterprise. The subject was taxes.

We received an email from Joe Mitchell, son of Herman Mitchell, who was the son of Frank Mitchell. The family at one time had a farm along what is now known as Mitchell Road in Fairmount Springs, near Chet Hess's farm. Joe is looking for information about his family. If you have any information on this family, please email and we'll pass it along. Joe writes that the family "grew mostly strawberries and had 17 children."

The following may not be true for where you live, but the year with the most precipitation was 1972, the year Tropical Storm Agnes flooded our area. In that year, nearly 60 inches of precipitation was measured in many areas.

We'll remind you that Jamison City prospered from the operations of the importation of raw hides and the exportation of leather. The hides were processed in the tannery for 35 years starting with its establishment in 1889. It was one of the most modern of its kind. Part of the brick chimney still stands, and several cement frames and building foundations remain in various stages of disrepair. The tannery processed its last log with hemlock liquor in 1925.

Among Pennsylvania towns named for Washington are New Washington in Clearfield County; North Washington, In Butler County; Fort Washington, Montgomery County; Washingtonville, Montour County; and Washington Borough, Lancaster County.

Prayers are needed today for Allen Chapman, brother of Chuck Chapman.

The Philadelphia Flyers, who haven't lost since October 30, ended November unbeaten (10-0-2). Their unbeaten streak reached 12 games.

It's the birthday of Louisa May Alcott, born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1832, but moved to Boston at a young age. She is the author of Little Women (1869), but enjoyed writing lurid stories and publishing them under several different pen names. She was offered more money to publish under her own name, but she did not want to embarrass her father and his colleague, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Country recording artist and Towanda native Lynn Bryant moved to the Allentown area when she was 11 and now is making it big in Nashville thanks in part to the TV show American Idol. Bryant's debut CD is entitled "Stone's Throw Away." You can check her out at http://www.lynnbryant.net/ .

We have been making a bunch of mistakes lately; i.e., we called the original Main Street in Benton "First" Street when really it was originally "Second Street," we mistyped both the birth date of Hiram Hess and the date of his death, and we've done a couple of things like the Associated Press recently did when they proclaimed that "A tree fell on a sport utility vehicle driving down a road Friday, killing the couple inside." (A SUV was driving down the road?) We say to the readers who get the email version of the Benton News that they should check the web version, where corrections, if needed, will be shown.

Quickies...
• Number 20 Pitt (8-3, 5-1) and Number 10 Miami (9-2, 5-1) are playing for all the marbles in the Big East Conference tonight.
• Golfer Tiger Woods, 27, will marry his Swedish girlfriend Elin, a
23-year-old former model. Woods proposed after the President's Cup golf competition in South Africa. The Orlando couple will wed in Sweden.
• Did you get your flu shots? The flu has arrived early in Pennsylvania and nationally. It is spreading quickly, hitting hard and expected to be especially deadly.

'Tis the season for men to race off to hunt and women to head for the malls. The hunting season for antlered and antlerless deer starts Monday and ends December 14. Don't forget that a buck has to have at least four points on one antler to be considered a legal kill. Hunters must wear at least a combined 250 square inches of florescent orange on their head, chest and back.

There is a chance that Leader has lost his grip on what fun is all about. I am referring to his odd notion that throwing a red piece of rubber shaped like a cow bone and then enthusiastically yelling for me to "Fetch" is good evening entertainment. Leader waves his hands in the direction he threw the bone, as if I can't see and my eyes were covered with hair like She has. I bring the rubber bone back once or twice, but then that terrible taste like when I chewed on Leader's running shoes makes me want to call it quits even if it means that I don't get my biscuit and even if Leader starts into that "Bad Dog" routine that just makes me want to run outside and right back in just to track up the floor. After I do the fetch trick, She is expected to do the same thing, only She refuses to put that foul-tasting rubber in her mouth. After She and I have made our point that we are not retrievers and the fetch ceremony is over, we like to curl on the couch while Leader and Mother lull us to sleep as they sit and complain about people they call politicians and diddle with the television remote control and speculate why we just don't fetch better. Don't they realize that we deserve something with more class than rubber?

--contributed by staff reporter Buster, a white Bichon Frise. Buster and his girlfriend, Chloe, recently got one vote each for town council.

Buster asked us to tell you about the boy he knows who just got a new Saint Bernard for his very own. Surprised, the boy walked slowly around the large dog, looking directly into the huge, brown eyes. The boy turned to his mother and asked, "Is it for me, or am I for him?"

A concrete truck owned by Riverview Block Co., Berwick, came down the west side of Jonestown Mountain Friday afternoon, when the truck went out of control. The truck, driven by Kevin Hoffman, 42, Benton, could not make the sharp turn at the bottom of the mountain and careened onto its side in a field. As it sped across the lane of the oncoming traffic it grazed the fender of a 2002 Toyota traveling in the opposite direction. The Coatesville driver of the car heading up the mountain was never really worried about the near-fatal situation. Her name: Sister Catherine, a nun. The Press Enterprise identified her as Alexandra G. Bennett. There were no injuries.

Town of the Day: Sweet Valley A neighboring community is Sweet Valley, 19 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA, four miles off route 118. We remember visiting the cemetery when we were growing up. We mowed the grass and placed flowers over the graves of ancestors we never knew. Somehow, the trip to the cemetery in Sweet Valley reminded us of an epitaph we saw for a dentist: "Stranger, approach these bones with gravity, Doc Brown is filling his last cavity."

We knew that it was a great little village, but we knew little more than that. When we want to know something about the Lower Luzerne County we usually consult either Bradsby's enormous 1893 History of Luzerne Country or head over to Sheila Brandon's web site for the Lower Luzerne County, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~lowerluzernecounty/ . From these two sources, we'll refresh your memory about Sweet Valley.

Luzerne County was created out of Northumberland County in 1786. In the southwestern portion of the county was Huntington Township. A little of Huntington Township was split off to form Union Township in 1813 and 29 years later portions of Union and adjoining Lehman Township were merged and became Ross Township. This township was named in honor of General William S Ross, then one of the judges of the county. The township has an area of about forty-six square miles, and a population of 1,053 (1880) against 990 in 1870. The first school house dated to 1820.

Sweet Valley originally consisted of two areas called Cramer Hook and Pleasant Hill. The dividing line between the two areas was at the bottom of the hill on Main Road below the present Post Office. Cramer Hook, named for James Cramer, an early settler and hotel keeper, stretched west to below Sylvan Lake. Pleasant Hill lay to the east, up the hill past the two churches, beyond Harris's Pond to the present-day Farley's Golf Course.
The postal department insisted on one post office since neither Cramer Hook nor Pleasant Hill was large enough to rate a post office of its own. Neither side wanted to use the other's name, but finally agreed on "Sweet Valley" because of the many "sugar" maple trees in the area.

Quote of the Day:
"You know frankly, going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind."
--Jed Babbin, a former deputy undersecretary of defense in the first Bush administration

The St. Gabriel's Church is holding a craft sale Saturday, November 29, from 9 AM until 4 PM. Sarah Newhart is the chairperson of the event.

Standing in front of the Sacristry Cabinet is Sarah Newhart on the left and Betty Victory Fritz on the right.

The Sacristry Cabinet was recently built by Fred Newhart, Stillwater, and presented to the Church by Franklin and Sarah Newhart, Camp Lavigne Road.

You can find out more about the historic St. Gabriel's Church by heading over to the FEATURES section.

The craft and bake sale features many Christmas items and mostly hand-made or hand-sewed material.

Start planning for the 2004 version of the O.A.T.S. Bluegrass festival, Back Home in Benton, PA, July 1 through 4. Take a look at the lineup at http://www.oatsfestival.com/ and plan to attend.

Pennsylvania is one of the top 10 states in the percentage of 18 to 24 year olds enrolling in college. We could go on and on about the good news in Pennsylvania schools, but we'll let you go directly to the source: http://www.nea.org/goodnews/pa01.html .

Is anyone else fed up and sick about all the attention to what eccentric Michael wears to his arraignment and other details of his strange life?

No one bull dog yet could eat,
Every other bull dog's meat.
If you have a good-sized bone,
Let the other dog alone.

We smiled when we saw the sign inside the men's room at a restaurant which said "please be seated during the whole performance."

Denise Benz nee Pennington, daughter of Dennis and Pat Threlkeld is expecting her first child in June 2004. The prospective grandparents are overjoyed.

Didja know that according to the 1997 Census of Agriculture, the most recent data, Pennsylvania had the second-most Christmas-tree farms in the nation. Oregon had the most.

Rick Rockwell, a 1979 Penn State graduate featured on the Fox reality show Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?, told Penn State President Graham Spanier that he is taking his former alma mater Penn State out of his will following a negative article in the university magazine about him. Rockwell said he had planned to give Penn State $500,000, but was removing the university from his will.

We shake a bit when we think of onions grown in the part of Mexico that we were in two weeks ago under the conditions that we observed, then brought to the United States and plopped down on salad bars. We think we'll start our own garden next spring.

Dennis Wolff, the state Secretary of Agriculture from Millville, walked into a urban 6th grade class in Harrisburg Wednesday and proceeded to explain to the class basic differences between cows and humans, told them how to make butter from cream and discussed the differences between butter and margarine. Wolff said, "I was able to teach students about cows, help them make and taste butter, and think about how agriculture impacts their lives. This may spark an interest in agriculture that lasts a lifetime." From his performance so far, we suspect that politicians will never let Dennis Wolff return to the farm...

The tradition of the Thanksgiving Day nine-mile Run for the Diamonds cross-country race near Berwick continued yesterday, as 1,100 runners pounded out the miles. Michael Mykytok, Ramsey, NJ, won by three seconds with a time of 45 minutes, 41 seconds. Debbie Grossman, Shavertown, won on the women's side with a time of 54:23.

The Exchange Hotel was at the intersection of Second Street (now Main Street) and Market Street in Benton.

The Exchange Hotel as viewed from in front of the present Presbyterian Church. The covered bridge entrance into Benton would be behind photographer Kemp's back. Market Street veered left of the hotel and Second Street turned right in front of the hotel.

The Market Square Restaurant now occupies the land once the site of the Exchange Hotel.
The Exchange Hotel was built in 1873 by Hiram Hess. The hotel is on the left in this Kemp picture.

The hotel had two main sections. The front part was reported to be 30x40 feet, three stories high with seventeen rooms, and a public hall or ball room. The outside of the hotel was very ornamental and very attractive. The back part of the hotel was an addition to the main building and was approximately 30x35 feet in size, two stories high, with four rooms, three below and one above. A kitchen 14x18 was in yet another addition. For the convenience of traveling guests and the horses that brought them to Benton, a barn 40x50 feet was nearby.

The Exchange Hotel as it looked when D. J. Donovan owned it, following the Hiram Hess ownership.

Hiram Hess married Olive McHenry, daughter of Elias McHenry, in October, 1849. Mrs. Hess was reported to be an excellent cook, and for "forty miles around the people come to partake of her buckwheat cakes." The History of Columbia and Montour County reports that "No lady in the State knows better than she the wants of the traveling public, and the house is kept in perfect order. The bar is always supplied with the choicest wines and liquors."

Hiram Hess was born in 1821 in Centre Township. He married and moved to a 108 acre farm he and his wife purchased near Stillwater where they lived until 1872 when they moved to Benton and began "keeping hotel" across the street from the eventual location of the Exchange Hotel. They began business as the Exchange Hotel in 1873.

In 1864, Mr. Hess partnered with E. J. McHenry and purchased the "flouring-mill" at Stillwater, operated it there two years and then sold out.

In 1878 he bought 105 acres two miles below Benton, on Fishing Creek, and in 1880 twenty-two acres adjoining acres in Benton Township. In 1884, they erected the "finest, house and barn between Bloomsburg and the North Mountain, costing upward of $3,000." This farm was later known as the Roy Hess Farm, but over the years people realized that the value of the property lay below the ground rather than in farming the ground. The property is today owned and mined by Sokol Quarries, Inc.

Hiram and Olive Hess had two children:
• Francis M., born January 39. 1850, married Cymantha Thomas in 1871 and had four children: Cora, Charley W., Warren and Ray.
• Wesley M., born July 3, 1855, married Miss Allie in 1881, daughter of S. P. Krickbaum (they had one child, Ray) and lived on the farm two miles south of Benton.

The story of the Exchange Hotel ended on July 4, 1910, when much of the town of Benton burned. You can read George Turner's account of this fire under FEATURES above.

The chances are that the next time you see a Hess from the Benton area, they can add more to this story. We, as always, invite you to share your stories about anything written in the Benton News.

November 27, 2003. It is Thanksgiving.

Lean back today and watch the 2.5 mile-long Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, or brave the cold at the Berwick Marathon. There might be a football game or three on television. Enjoy family and fellowship and good food. Have a Happy Thanksgiving whether you are Back Home in Benton, PA, or elsewhere.

Over the river and through the wood
To Grandfather's house we go.
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh
Through the white and drifted snow.
--Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880)

Benton was alive with the lights of Christmas last night, as the Christmas decorations at the bridge and on light poles in the Borough were turned on without fuss or fanfare.

Have a most wonderful Thanksgiving!
--May your stuffing be tasty, may your turkey be plump.
--May your potatoes 'n gravy have nary a lump,
--May your yams be delicious may your pies take the prize,
--May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs.

Karen and Bill Boston will watch the lights on the River Walk, San Antonio, for their Thanksgiving. Bill bought a lemon one year around Thanksgiving (in the form of a pull-behind house trailer). This year, Bill "had to buy one of those turkey cookers to fry our turkey in peanut oil so if you hear of a big fire in San Antonio you'll know it's just our turkey cooking."

Pennsylvania Game Commission employees processed 845 bear at check stations on Tuesday, bringing the total number of bear checked after two days to 2,299, up about a total of 300 over 2002. The top counties continue to be in the state's north central region with Lycoming setting the pace with a kill of 170. Luzerne: 76; Sullivan: 73; Columbia: 32; and Montour: 1, follow.

Brain DeFebo, 26, Berwick, had a stunning racing season at Mountain Speedway, setting records some drivers couldn't do in a lifetime. Brian won 14 times overall, ten of those wins in 15 regular-season point races--a record in the 50-plus year history of Mountain Speedway. He has established himself as one of the premier race car drivers of the region. Over the last ten years, he has rewritten the record books, coming out of the WigWam to become the all-time leader in starts (222), wins (40), top-5's (123), and top-10's (174). Brian is the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. George Pavalonis, Raven Creek, and his mother, Sophie, is a Benton high school graduate.

Over in Luzerne County, the Commissioners floated a $32.5 million bond to fund future projects, but so far aren't sharing how they plan to pay bills that are due now in their $6.6 million deficit dilemma.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that 107 troopers of the Pennsylvania State Police were arrested over the last eight years, "including 82 officers accused of criminal offenses."

A car approaching Benton slowed, then stopped. The driver asked what the quickest way would be to get to downtown Benton.
"Are you walking or driving?" asked the farmer from the seat of his John Deere.
"Driving" said the man.
"That's the quickest way," replied the farmer.

We'll continue with some local McHenry history, today concentrating on Daniel McHenry, a farmer, a lumberman, a post master, a bridge builder and a store owner. His father was Moses and his mother was Martha, parents of eleven children: Cynthia, Isabella, Elias, Mary, James, John, Ellen, Martha, Cyrus B., Silas and Daniel.

Daniel was born in 1837, and when he was 20 he opened the first store in Fishingcreek Township (in Stillwater) with his brother, James. He eventually purchased his brother's interest and ran the store for the next fifteen years.

In 1854, President Franklin Pierce appointed Daniel as the village of Stillwater's second post master and he served from 1855 for about thirty years. We'll remind you that Stillwater was on a mail route with Shickshinny and Jerseytown the ending points. (The adjacent stop on the route was half a mile north of the present village of Forks in the area then alternatively known as Forks and as Pealertown.) Daniel's brother, James, was the first post master of Stillwater dating to about 1849.

Daniel married Mary A., daughter of James Deimer McHenry, November 17, 1859, and they had two children: Orvis Dell and May. With her husband Torrence McHenry, May recorded the McHenry history in a 1950 book entitled Coat of Arms of Clan Henry (McHenry).

Voters elected Daniel Treasurer of Columbia County in 1862, a post he held for three terms. In 1876 he built the large McHenry home in Stillwater which is still occupied today. The building was erected on the site of the original log cabin built by Daniel McHenry I in 1783.

Daniel assisted his brother, James, in building the second Stillwater bridge, a covered bridge. The first was an open bridge erected in 1823 at a cost of under $500. That bridge was destroyed in 1848 by the Kauff flood, named for members of the Kauff family who were flood victims. Locally the flood of 1848 was also known as the "Great Freshet." In case this is a word you don't currently have in your vocabulary, "freshet" is defined as the occurrence of a water flow resulting from sudden rain or melting snow.

This flood probably was the all-time record high water for the Fishing Creek valley. The records of the McHenry family indicate that the flood "followed a cloudburst" and destroyed many "buildings and carried away every bridge on Fishingcreek from North Mountain to Bloomsburg."

The brothers contracted in 1849 to build the replacement covered bridge which still crosses Fishing Creek. The foreman on the job was John H. Edson, New Columbus, who was also the builder of the Berwick and the Catawissa bridges over the Susquehanna. The 168-foot Burr Arch Stillwater bridge opened for use in 1849 and was used for one full century before it was closed in 1949. The cost to build the bridge: $1,124.

Most of us have heard the familiar words"This is NPR, National Public Radio." And those of us who have, know the program Fresh Air, produced in Philadelphia at WHYY, serving the Philadelphia and Wilmington area. You can listen to the current edition of Fresh Air via your computer, a good alternative if you have difficulty listening over the air.

Over the river and through the wood
Trot fast, my dapple gray!
Spring over the ground
Like a hunting hound,
For this is Thanksgiving Day.

.

Willis Haviland Carrier was born on this date in 1876. One year after graduating from Cornell University, the first air (temperature and humidity) conditioning was in operation. He cooled machines operating at high temperatures, built cooling plants, and started a company to build air conditioners for private residences. Robert Goulet is 70, Rich Little is 65 and Tina Turner is 64 today.

The Senate passed the huge and confusing Medicare bill, the largest change to Medicare since its inception, and it now goes to the Prez for signature. We will soon have a Medicare reform law and soon hopefully someone, including Congress, can start figuring out what it says.The bill will include limited pill coverage. Go here to find a calculator in which seniors can estimate how much money the bill will save them.

In need of prayers...
• Bill Rodman, breathing problems. He collapsed about a week ago and has been in Bloomsburg Hospital ever since. Bill is Laurie Edson's father.
• Florence Kocher, low potassium levels, in Geisinger Hospital.
• Doris Harvey, resting following a brief Wilkes-Barre General Hospital stay.

Didja know that George Washington proclaimed the fourth Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving, but it didn't become a national holiday until Congress established the day in 1941. The first American Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, by the way.

An alert reader pointed out that in an obituary in the Press Enterprise announced that "Arrangements are in charge of the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home, 325 Market St., Bloomsburg."

Pennsylvania's hunters took more than 1,454 black bears on the opening day of the state's three-day statewide bear season. The top five bears shot Monday in the state were all males and all exceeded estimated live weights of 600 pounds. The top bear weighed in at a porky 725 pounds and was pelted in Potter County. Other bears included a 648-pounder taken in Wayne County; a 644-pounder taken in Clarion County; a 642-pounder taken in Monroe County; and a 624-pounder taken in Lackawanna County.

A total of 105 bear were killed the opening day in Lycoming county, followed by Clinton, 100. Other counties included Luzerne, 56; Sullivan, 52; Columbia, 21. Doug Letteer bagged his bruin near Jamison City Monday.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission's 26 check stations processed 1,454 bear on the season's first day, compared with an opening day figure of 1,348 in 2002 and 1,812 in 2001.

As we get older, we should be looking for foods reported to be high in powerful antioxidants. Researchers funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have found in rat studies that compounds in blueberries reverse existing short-term memory losses. What good news for those of us in this area where wild blueberries (we call them "huckleberries") grow by the bushel and forgetfulness is rampant!

Food for Thought:
Turkey boiled is turkey spoiled
And turkey roast is turkey lost
But for turkey braised
The Lord be praised.
--A Thanksgiving Ditty

Holiday Plans...
• Ralph and Nina Ford, Huntington Mills, look forward to a holiday visit from their daughter, Julie, along with her husband Tony Parr, Salem, VA.
• Dick and Janet McHenry will be in Ft. Walton Beach, FL, spending Thanksgiving with their daughter Beth and son Eric and look forward to a surprise Thanksgiving dinner.

We from time to time find a subject that interests us a lot. Many times the conclusion we expect is far from the way that the subject plays out. This is the way that we felt yesterday when we sat down with some material that Vinnie Hippensteel, Berwick, pulled together about the McHenry family. Sure, we knew it was a complicated subject and we knew that the McHenry clan could be traced back far farther than many other local families, we knew that we are not historians and in fact too much detail tends to bore us (and our readers). But we pulled out of the driveway, reading material in hand, and headed into the mountains of Sullivan County to check on bear hunters and to pull our chair in front of a fireplace and do some serious reading.

What we found was so interesting that we shall in the near future give a report on the coming to America of the McHenry line. But before we do that, we mention with gratitude the people like Vinnie Hippensteel (the McHenry family), Peter Tomasak (Mountain Springs Lake, the Ricketts family), Walter Brasch (Place Names in Columbia County), George Turner (countless works of Columbia County history), Doris Harvey (numerous articles in the Suburban News) and many others who painstakingly research a subject and faithfully report on their findings. Our report will be nothing like a report that they would deliver.

These and countless other researchers experience the pain of not knowing for sure. Not knowing which source document is correct, or if any book is correct. Things believed for years are blown out of the water by new discoveries or old theories disproved. Such was the case yesterday when we started researching the family named for the "son of Henry," in this case the son of Henry O'Cahan. We are talking the 10th century here, and we are talking about the O'Cahan family that lived in a castle called Dunseverick, in County Derry (or as it was called then "County Antrim"), Ireland. According to a genealogist and historical consultant from Ireland, Dr. Cahal Dallat, this branch of the O'Cahans became known as the "Clan Manus of the Bush" after Manus O'Cahan who was the Chief. (The "bush" refers to the river "Bush").

It was from this branch of the O'Cahans that our McHenrys are descended, and Dr. Dallat points out that early McHenrys had the double name of McHenry O'Cahan. Although the O'Cahans were spread out through Ireland, they didn't always get along and often went to war against each other. Fierce fighting can be traced to the years 1247, 1524 and 1525, and 1577.

The last occupant of Dunseverick Castle was Gilladuff O'Cahan, whose one daughter married Henry McHenry and another daughter married Brian Modder McHenry O'Cahan. Dr. Dallat believes that members of this family were executed about 1641 and in 1653 their property was confiscated.

Sometime soon--probably tomorrow--we'll continue our discussion about McHenry history.

Have a most happy Thanksgiving.

November 25, 2003

Thoughtfulness is to a friendship as sunshine is to a garden.

Time does not heal, but it does seem to make hurt bearable.

Everyone smiles in the same language.

The best substitute for experience is being 16.

The thought of the day, as expressed by William Cullen Bryant: "Autumn... The year's last, loveliest smile." And smile it did yesterday, up until about the time the sun set. More of Pennsylvania's liquid sunshine set in about 5:30 PM, and it turned cold, breezy and wet! A high in the 40s for the rest of the week including the holiday on Thursday will be the norm.

Benton Borough garbage collecton the day before Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year will be moved to the Wednesday of that week. In other words, have your garbage ready tomorrow!

Ho, ho, ho! The spirit of Christmas is alive and well in some parts of Benton. Santa and his helpers are getting ready to deliver trees to folks on Mill and Main Streets who agree to light them up for the holidays.

Three requests have been received. This is the deal: a tree will be delivered to your lawn, and will be set into the ground. The soil removed will be carefully saved under the tree. After the beginning of the new year, the trees will be collected, the dirt replaced into the hole, and grass seed sprinkled over the little circle where the tree was.

All you have to do is string some lights on the tree to add to the festive air of the town. Mike Ruane and the Town Council and dedicated residents are working hard to make this year special in Benton. The new Christmas lanterns on the light poles and brightly lit trees on the lawns all the way through town are striking and make quite a statement. Order your trees now by calling 925-2576 for delivery starting Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Almost 400 babies are born each day in Pennsylvania. The question is how to find that perfect name which captures your child's essence? According to a survey just released, the top five girl baby names for Pennsylvania are Emily, Sarah, Samantha, Madison and Hannah. The top five for the boys are Michael, Matthew, Jacob, Nicholas and Tyler.

State Representative John Gordner resigned from the State House and was sworn in as State Senator yesterday as a result of his victory in the special election for a successor to resigned Republican Ed Helfrick. With the GOP win, the Senate is at 29 Republicans and 21 Democrats.

Didja know that in Pennsylvania last year, 12 people lost their lives as a result of hitting a deer with a vehicle...

A small winery in the Endless Mountains near Eagles Mere is now open for business and offers wines in a peaceful countryside setting. Eagle Rock Winery is just 15 minutes from World's End State Park and Lake Macoma. From route 220 north, take 220 north to the Laporte Exit. Turn left onto Route 42 (Main street in Laporte). The winery is approximately 3/4 mile toward Eagles Mere on left.

In news from bear hunters...
• Jesse Edson, 20, bear hunting in a party of about 20 mostly from the Cambra and Huntington Mills area yesterday bagged a 150-pound sow. The group, hunting in the poconos, got a total of four bear for the day.
• Although Jesse and his group did well, the first-day harvest was reported by the Game Commission to be down for the year, possibly because of the warm day. (When it is a cold day, hunters and therefore the bear move about more). Last year hunters killed 2,686 bruins statewide. The state record harvest occurred in 2000, when 3,075 bruins were taken.
• The largest bear we have heard about weighed 455 pounds when weighed at the Antes Fort (just outside of Jersey Shore) station, where about 150 people packed the fire hall for the bear-weighing yesterday. That local fire hall counts on bear-weighing to bring in significant revenue, because of food sales, for the organization. A 454-pound bear was processed at Trout Run. The biggest bruin brought in to the weighing station at the Monroeton Rod and Gun Club was 420 pounds, with an estimated live weight of 495 pounds.
• The bear check station in Trout Run processed three cinnamon bear.
Despite their common name, black bears are not always black. They may be cinnamon-colored, blond or black. Often they have a white spot or on their chest.
• In all but one of the last 27 seasons, Lycoming and Clinton county have lead the state in bear taken during the three-day season. Last year, Pike County's harvest of 225 beat out Lycoming by one bear.
• And while we are at it, we might as well tell you that sows give birth in January; litters number one to five cubs. The newborns are blind, toothless, and covered with short hair. Cubs nurse in the den while the sow hibernates. Fed by the sow's milk, they grow from a birth weight as light as 10 ounces to as much as 10 pounds by the time they leave the den in late March or early April. Boars do not help rear young.
• Bear that are shot by hunters in the state are on average 2.2 years for males and 3.4 for females, according to the Game Commission.

A heart attack back in March, 1935, caused the almost instant death of Percy Brewington, then 56, United States Marshal, Columbia County Democratic leader, former Register and Recorder of Columbia County, publisher of the Benton Argus, active in civic affairs and perhaps the best known man in this section of the state at that time.

His death followed an illness of several years. It happened in the office of United States District Judge Albert W. Johnson in Scranton, with whom he was conferring. On Monday of that week in March, 1935, he and sons Robert and Howard left Benton for Wilkes-Barre, then took a Laurel Line train for his office in Scranton. He chatted freely on the trip and didn't complain about his physical condition, although his diabetic condition plagued him for several years.

When Percy Brewington died, he left behind his second wife (of ten years) and ten children. The children were Marion, Robert, Howard, Madge, Woodrow, John, Earl, Ruth, Jennie and Percy, Jr.. He also had two sisters, Mrs. Lawrence Summers and Mrs. Fred Bache, Baltimore.

Rev. Lawrence Doak conducted the funeral from the Benton Christian Church and we cannot help but admire his closing at the funeral...

"Green be the turf above thee,
Friend of my better days.
None knew thee but to love thee,
None named thee but to praise."

November 24, 2002

"By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn."
--Latin Proverb

We continue to advocate keeping your enthusiasm and forget your birthdays.

Our lives are like 10-speed bikes: most of us have gears we never use.

Health is like money; we never have a true idea of its value until we lose it.

There are only a matter of a few days until Thanksgiving, and kids in the local school are counting the hours until noon Wednesday when they are dismissed for the holiday. The following Monday is buck season, which offers a holiday from something for some. In fact, some will stretch out the season for two full weeks. Then comes holiday parties and Christmas. Then comes New Year's Eve and later the bowl games, the whole time while laboring under the extra weight that we have added. In short, we are going to soon need a holiday from holidays!

Give us, Lord, a bit of sun,
a bit of work, and a bit of fun.
--old English Prayer

Wilbur G. Johnson, 67, (March 12, 1936-Nov. 22, 2003), 40 Paragon Farm Road, Stillwater, died Saturday at home. He was a son of the late Golden and Elva (Whary) Johnson. He and his wife, the former Betty V. Hummel, celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary on June 7. Surviving, in addition to his wife, Betty, are two sons, Jeff G. Johnson of Benton and Tim Johnson of Stillwater. Also surviving are four grandchildren: Jeffrey Johnson Jr.; Eric Johnson, Phillip Johnson and Guy Wright II; a brother, Marvin W. Johnson Sr. of Elysburg; and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by two sisters, Marian Johnson Sarge, in August 1999, and Doris Johnson Haupt, in August 1994. A viewing will be held Tuesday from 6 to 8 PM at the McMichael Funeral Home Inc., Benton. The funeral service will be held Wednesday at 3 PM at the Bible Baptist Church, Benton. Burial will be at the convenience of the family in the Northumberland Memorial Park, Stonington. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Bible Baptist Church, Benton.
--from a Press Enterprise article

State Senator-elect John Gordner makes it official at 2 PM today.

In need of prayer...
• Doris Harvey, Harveyville, irregular rhythms of the heart, a patient in the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, room 255.
• Joe Feola, a patient at the Geisinger Medical Center, undiagnosed symptoms.
• Nancy Hartman, Clayton, NC, daughter-in-law of Max and Lorraine Hartman, malignant lymphoma.
• Helen Smith Gammon, Chandler, Arizona, possible cancer of the sternum.

Want to learn more about computers? You can learn the Internet at http://www.aarp.org/learninternet/ through an Internet tutorial by AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). You can learn how to create and organize favorites, how to make text larger, how to customize your browser, how to capture Internet information, and much more. Each lesson contains written information along with pictures of what you actually see on the computer screen.

A traveling salesman visited northeastern Pennsylvania and saw a circus banner reading: "Don't Miss The Amazing Man from Benton." Curious, he bought a ticket. The tent goes dark. Suddenly, trumpets blare and all eyes turn to the center ring. There, in the center ring is a table with three walnuts on it. Standing next to it is an old retired carpenter. The old guy smashes all three walnuts with his bare fist! The crowd erupts in applause as the elderly man is carried off on the shoulders of the crowd.

Ten years later, the salesman visits the same little town and sees a faded sign for the same circus and the same: "Don't Miss the Amazing Man from Benton." He can't believe the old guy is still alive, much less still doing his act! So he buys a ticket. Again, the center ring is illuminated. This time, instead of walnuts, three coconuts are placed on the table. The old guy stands before them, then suddenly smashes the coconuts with his bare fist. The crowd goes wild!

Flabbergasted, the salesman requests a meeting with the old carpenter after the show. "You're incredible," he tells the old man. "But I have to know something. Why switch from walnuts to coconuts?" "Well, says the man from Benton: "My eyes aren't what they used to be."

With deep regret, the Benton Area Business Association announced that "Christmas in the Park" is not going to be held this year. The Association thanks everyone involved in previous years.

Benton residents are encouraged to wrap boxes and decorate their porches, lawns, light standards, and lampposts. Paper and ribbon were donated, and interested citizens were invited to a wrapping session several weeks ago. There was no response on the part of the residents and there are no "presents" to tie around town as in years past. Each house, especially those on Mill, Main and Market Streets, are urged to keep this tradition going. Help make Christmas in Benton as special as it can be. Tomorrow we'll discuss the delivery and lighting of Christmas trees.

Over the weekend...
• The Benton Council of Churches held the Thanksgiving Service at the Benton United Methodist Church. The speaker was the Rev. Al Lumpkin, of the Benton United Presbyterian Church.
• The Benton Volunteer Fire Department plans to hold a buckwheat cake and sausage breakfast once a month at the fire hall. Sunday's breakfast drew over 270 people, up from the first breakfast of about 230 people. The cakes got rave reviews, by the way...

Looking for ideas for Christmas presents? Try Our Pennsylvania, a new book from Voyageur Press. The beauty of the Keystone State is captured in 150 photographs by Jerry Irwin, and range from farms and churches to tourist destinations and state parks, nature scenes, cityscapes and cultural events. The 128-page book can be purchased for $19.95 at www.voyageurpress.com. And while you are on their site, look at Backroads of Pennsylvania by Marcus Schneck.

George Burns once said about sermons that the secret of a good one is to have a good beginning and a good ending and have the two as close together as possible. We'll apply that thinking to today's Benton News and wish you a most enjoyable day!

Bob & Kathryn Maynes

Bruce Jankowski celebrates his 50th birthday today as well. The parishioners of Christ The King held a birthday party for Bruce Saturday evening and it was a humdinger! Presents were everywhere, including a thingamajig, a whatsitsname, and a doohickey. Even the menu sign at the Market Square Grill, Main@Market, this morning says "Happy Birthday, Bruce!"

We enjoy hearing Bruce tell us whenever we head for California that if we see Bob Barker we should tell Bob that Bruce says "hello."

Bruce Jankowski

Didja know that the year 2000 population of Columbia County was 64,151, up from 62,211 in 1980 and 63,202 in 1990?. The county consists of 464 square miles of land.

Need a Christmas wreath? Wreath's by Susan Cole, 2.5 miles from Riverside Market, north on route 239. 570 925-6907. All Christmas trees are inexpensively priced. Fresh greens of Douglas Fur, Fraser Fur, Blue Spruce and White Pine.

Alimony has been defined as the high cost of leaving.

We have observed that a boy becomes a man about the time that he walks around a puddle instead of through it.

Computer tip of the day:
To highlight a section of text, hold down the "Shift Key," left-click at the beginning of the section. Then go to where you want the highlighted area to end and click again. Now the whole section is highlighted!

Need a Christmas wreath? Try a wreath's by Susan Cole, 2.5 miles from Riverside Market, north on route 239. 570 925-6907. All Christmas trees are inexpensively priced. Fresh greens of Douglas Fur, Fraser Fur, Blue Spruce and White Pine.

Farmer's Almanac Advice for Today:
"A handful of common sense is worth a bushel of learning."

Good luck if you are hunting bare or bear next week. Hunters who bag a bear during the three-day bear season must have it processed at one of the Pennsylvania Game Commission's check stations within 24 hours. These check stations are listed on page 37 of the "2003-04 Pennsylvania Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations" given to every hunting license buyer.

In response to a reader's question about Winslow Hill outside the village of Benezette, elk calves (rarely twins) weighing in the 30-pound range are born in May or June, and have spots almost like white-tail fawns. Based on our experience, the elk should have finished bugling by now. For future reference, we go to the Benezette area sometime during the period between Labor Day and October 15 for what we consider the best viewing and the best listening.

Elk is the second largest member of the deer family. A 1,000 bull may stand 5 feet high at the shoulder and measure almost 9-feet long from nose to tail. Compare that with a 150-pound white-tailed buck standing under 3 feet at the shoulder and weighing less than 150 pounds.

An elk's antlers begin growing each year in May and fall off the following March or April, and can extend 8 feet across and weigh 40 pounds, with 5 to 7 points per side. Females weight in the 500-600 pound range, lack antlers and are smaller than males. Elk graze on various grasses and therefore inhabit open space, unlike the white-tail browsers that we know.

General Motors has wanted to unload DirecTV for more than a year. The FCC and Justice Department nixed a merger last year between DirecTV and EchoStar Communications Corp., owners of Dish Network, on public-interest and antitrust grounds. The FCC is now apparently moving closer to approving News Corporation Ltd.'s $6.5 billion stock-and-cash purchase of DirecTV. News Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corp., DirecTV's parent company, are eager to finalize the deal in order to boost the pension fund of General Motors Corp., Hughes's parent company, to record the cash on this year's balance sheet. News Corporation owns the Fox television network, Fox News Channel, FX cable channel and a satellite empire that stretches around the world.
--from an Washington Post article.

Jeff Smoker smoked Penn State yesterday, throwing for 357 yards and four touchdowns, leading Michigan State to a 41-10 victory and ending the worst season in Joe Paterno's 38 years as coach of the Nittany Lions.

Social tact is making your guests feel at home, even though you wish they were.

On Friday some select students from Benton Middle School went with their teacher, Mr. Mitchell, to Bloomsburg University to compete in the first annual science bee. The students were asked a total of 80 questions about certain science topics to get a grand total of correct answers to try to win a Smithsonian science set. Four teams from Benton participated, for a total of 20 students. A total of approximately 160 students participated from different area schools. Fourth place went to a Benton team consisting of T. J. Shultz, Anna Hopkins, Sam Strevick, Sara Harvey and Andy Russell. The fifth-place team was also from Benton and consisted of Shawn Christian, Miles Cole, Allisa Killian, Lauren McGrath and Bridgette Street.

Benton Area School District Board of Directors now consist of Phillip Edson, Randy Laubach, Geraldine Newhart, Rick Posey, John Rakich, Lanny Conner, Nichole Shultz, Dennis Threlkeld and Robert Zettle.

As of December 6, this will be the Benton Area School Board: Phillip Edson, Evy Lysk, Geraldine Newhart, Rick Posey, Harold Ackerman, Lanny Conner, Nichole Shultz, Dennis Threlkeld and Robert Zettle.

We have been pulling for a piebald deer that makes her home very close to Benton, and remind her that hunting season is upon us. We tell here that she sticks out like a "sore thumb!"

A piebald deer has some amount of white, but not 100% white, and has normal pigment in their eyes, nose, and hooves.

This deer, named "Freckles," has not been seen in a week, and those who know her well are getting a little worried and miss her...

We continue to hope that the deer gets through hunting season. We feel that the greater good comes from seeing this animal year round than for a single hunter to snuff out its life.

The majority of Americans are under 40 years of age, and, therefore, according to the latest Census, 57.5% of all Americans have no personal memory of this date in 1963 when President Kennedy was shot to death while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Texas Gov. John B. Connally, in the same limousine as Kennedy, was seriously wounded. Lee Harvey Oswald, suspected of assassinating the president, was arrested. President Kennedy would have been 86 years old had he lived.

After 40 years, Kennedy's "ask not" summons to sacrifice and volunteer, his dreams for the Peace Corps, his desires for the space program and the challenge to send a man to the moon within a decade regretfully must be read in a text book and recited like a trivia quiz question and can never be personally experienced by a significant number of Americans.

A few years younger but celebrating his birthday today is Clair Harvey, born on this date in 1932. Sharon Remphrey celebrates a birthday today, as does Kelly Yost who turns 43 and plans to celebrate by having a meal in each restaurant in Benton. These three share their birth date with French president Charles de Gaulle, born on this date in 1890 and with Hoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael, born on this date in 1899, and who later wrote "Stardust" and "Georgia on My Mind." Barry and Sylvia Harrison celebrate their anniversary today.

The Benton Area School Board awarded contracts for general construction, heating and air conditioning, plumbing and electrical work one year ago to Zartman Construction, Northumberland, general contractor; Bognet, Inc., Hazleton, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) ; Bognet, plumbing; and Howard Organization, Bloomsburg, electrical contractor.

Sandra K. "Sandy" (Hess) Stoker, 55, (Aug. 23, 1948-Nov. 20, 2003), Camp Lavigne Road, Benton, died Thursday afternoon at her home. She was a daughter of Nina (Goss) Hess, Bloomsburg, and the late Robert O. Hess. Mrs. Stoker and her husband, Pastor Mark A. Stoker, would have celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary December 14. Mrs. Stoker worked for Magee Carpet Company and later worked as a Kelly-Occupation Girl for Bechtel at PPL, and last worked for Berwick Industries from 1984 until 2000. She was a member of the Rohrsburg Christian Church. She was a 1966 graduate of Benton High School.

Surviving, in addition to her husband, Mark, are her two daughters: Mrs. Mantle N. (Marcinda May) Roth, Johnson City, Tenn.; Mrs. Jared (Marti S.) Harrison, Kingsport, Tenn.; four grandchildren; a sister, Linda Brown, Lightstreet; two brothers: Clair R. Hess, Myerstown, and Thomas L. Hess, Sweet Valley. She was preceded in death by her father, and by her son, Bryan P. Stoker, and by a brother, Richard C. Hess. A visitation will be held Tuesday from 9 until 11 AM at the Stillwater Christian Church, with the funeral service beginning at 11 AM. Burial will be in the Raven Creek Cemetery. Contributions may be made in her memory to the Columbia Montour Home Hospice, 599 E. Seventh St., Bloomsburg, PA 17815. Arrangements are under the direction of the McMichael Funeral Home Inc., Benton.
--from a Press Enterprise article.

Michigan State is looking to improve its bowl position. Penn State is hoping to end its season with a victory following the worst season since finishing 2-8 in 1931. A win would give Michigan State its first eight-win season since 1999. A loss would be the Spartans' fourth in a row. Penn State (3-8, 1-6) dropped six in a row for the first time in 70 years before finally winning big last week against Indiana. The excitement begins at noon.

The Benton Area School System will have an early dismissal on Wednesday, November 26, in celebration of Thanksgiving. The school will be closed November 27 and 28, and on December 1.

House and Senate negotiators reached agreement yesterday on a bill to curb unsolicited email, and as this is being written, the House is waiting to vote on the bill which would sweep away more than 35 state anti-spam laws, including some that imposed significantly tighter restrictions on email marketing. The major newspapers predict that the bill would then be quickly ratified by the Senate, which passed a version of the bill last month. But with good news comes some bad...

The law is expected to be largely ignored by the worst spammers, many of whom operate overseas. The bill would codify rules permitting legitimate companies to send even more unwanted email.

The bill in the form in which it is expected to pass will provide for criminal penalties for disguising the Internet addresses of their computers so they cannot be located, "harvesting" email addresses from Web sites and sending spam to them, using deceptive subject lines in messages, and sending spam to millions of email addresses that are randomly generated by special software programs. Email recipients would have to be given clear opportunity to remove themselves from future mailings. Commercial email would have to be labeled as advertising, but marketers are free to choose how that labeling will occur. Unsolicited email containing pornography would have to contain a warning label in the subject line.

Didja know that Pennsylvania is the last state where fish and wildlife resources are administered by separate agencies? Twenty-seven other states have these services performed by a larger state agency, such as a Department of Natural Resources. The other 22 states combine fish and game into one stand-alone department.

Alumni of the Benton Area School System with address changes can email the changes directly to the school. Alumni can also request mailing labels for their classes with the updated address information.

Brandon started the project June 15, and asked the community for contributions to make the Eagle Scout project a success. This is what the project looked like in June of this year as chalk lines in the grass showed what was envisioned.

By August 23, he reported that the community had responded and he had raised enough money to complete the project.

When you get a chance, stop by the Head Start building near the soccer fields at the elementary school on Park Street in the Green Acres subdivision and watch the joy in the children as they use Brandon's contribution.

Job well done, Eagle Scout Brandon Schupp!

Quote of the Day "He was an inspiration to us all. We can fill his position, but filling his shoes, that's a whole other ballgame."
--Benton Area School Board President Geraldine Newhart, talking about Rick Martin.

Sandra K. (Hess) Stoker, 55, died at her home Thursday afternoon, Nov. 20, 2002, following a lengthy illness. She was the wife of Pastor Mark A. Stoker. Arrangements will be announced by the McMichael Funeral Home Inc., Benton.
--Press Enterprise

Computer tip of the day:
By pressing the Windows Logo key and the letter D (for desktop) you will minimize all windows on the desktop. These keys are a toggle, so if you do it again the windows you had open previously will again open.

A bipartisan legislative committee claims that merging the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Fish and Boat Commission would save the state $5 million and would permit cutting 71 jobs. It is no surprise that officials at both commissions say a merger would hurt conservation efforts and customer service.

A domestic turkey, from birth to freezer, can count on about 26 weeks of life. During this time, it will eat about 75 pounds of feed that only a turkey would get excited about. In the wild, the average life span of a turkey is three to four years feeding on seeds, nuts, insects, and berries.

From the "Phrases of the Day" Department comes...
• Middle of the road. Most early roads were narrow and poorly maintained. Carriage and wagons wheels tended to rut the edges. Travelers walking along the roads stayed away from the sides and held to the center, becoming "middle of the roaders" for their cautiousness. We use the term today for anyone who adopts a moderate stand.
• Mill about. One of civilized man's first major achievements was the invention of a mechanical way to crush grain--the mill. We list a number of Benton-area mills in www.bentonnews.net. "To be put through the mill" means to be tested--and usually it's a grinding test. An expression now rarely heard is "to draw water to your own mill," or taking unfair advantage of a situation or person. The circular motion of the mill wheel inspired "to mill about," meaning to move about in a circle in a confused and aimless way, around and around and around--well you get the idea!
• "Shake a leg!" meant "Jump out of bed and be quick about it!" Ship crews on 19th-century sailing vessels had to show a leg over the side of their hammocks to acknowledge the mate's call.
• Apple-pie order," meaning neat and orderly, was used in New England by cooks who carefully arranged their sliced apples in rows in a pie crust, but was first used in England in the early 17th century as a corruption of the French phrase nappes-pliés, or "folded linen." Back then, dinner napkins were neatly folded after a meal, placed tidily away in a drawer and arranged in a precise pattern just like, well, apple slices on a pie.
--The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology, by Robert Barnhart; The Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, by Robert Hendrickson; Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, by W. and M. Morris; Why You Say It, by Webb Garrison; Have a Nice Day! by Christine Ammer, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, by Ivor Evans; A Browser's Dictionary, by John Ciardi

Want to identify someone from Pennsylvania?
• Your turkey has "filling," not "stuffing," and most certainly, NOT "dressing."
• When someone says 1972, you think "Agnes," and when someone says
1979, you think "Three Mile Island."
• Words like "sub," "crick," "buckwheat cakes," and "Kozy" have meaning to you.
• You can go two weeks without sunshine and not realize that you are depressed.
• People wear hunting clothes at social events.
• Outside security lights are left on, but exterior doors are unlocked.
• Electric candles in outside windows are left on all year.

Common-Sense Photography Tips
• Fill the frame of the shot with your subject, not background. Learn how close you can get without pictures blurring.
• If shooting an interesting background and a person, DO NOT center the person in the frame but set them off to one side or the other.
• ALWAYS use a flash outside.
• Turn your camera for occasional vertical shots. Even digital photos can later be rotated.
• Don't stand above children, especially a vertical shot; go down to the child's level.
• Don't shoot on bright, sunny days. The warm colors of late afternoon or cool colors of early morning won't wash out your pictures.

Quickies...
• The Greenwood Friends School will hold an open house this morning from 9 to 11 AM.
• Bette Midler will be in concert Saturday, December 27, at 8 PM, at the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza, Wilkes-Barre.
• The U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee cleared State Attorney General Mike Fisher to become a federal judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
• The Press Enterprise reports that Earl "Skip" Mordan, Gerry Powers and Paul Reichart are possible Democratic candidates to fill John Gordner's seat in the state House. Republicans pick their candidate November 26.
• Harrisburg lawmakers are working to impose a 6% sales tax on every glass of beer, wine and liquor sold at restaurants and bars.

Gary Powlus, Middle School Principal, addressing local residents at Thursday's Open House at the Benton Area Middle-Senior High School. Gary is in the upper right of the picture.

• Local residents got a tour of the 99,438 square-foot Benton Area Middle-Senior High School last evening at the school's open house. Gary Powlus, Randall Labach, Jan Swan, Dennis Threlkeld and Andrew Pollock spoke.

We were browsing about in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and in an edition from March of 1946 we came across an article about "people from upstate towns who visit Philadelphia" and send back a present to the "kiddie or the wife." A gent by the name of John Wagner, 65, got in trouble with the law after sending a few packages back to his pigs in Snyder County.

Postal inspectors said that John's packages were full of garbage in the literal sense, not the kind we get in the mail today advertising a sale at a store or an accomplishment of a politician. John lived at McClure off route 522 on the road to Lewistown. He often visited Philadelphia and made a little expense money while he was in the big city by selling shopping bags on the streets. During these visits, he killed two birds with one stone, and almost did the same for employes at several post offices.

John scrounged around hotels in the city at nights, filling unsold shopping bags with garbage put out in cans by hotels, and shipped it home. He claimed that he had sent some 30 or 40 packages, carefully wrapped, and mailed from various post offices to his own address.

The article continued that while the packages lay in the post office, "wild life of terrifying appearance sometimes emerged from the packages and flew or scuttled, and the aroma of the bundles was such that many clerks became openly suspicious of each other."

John told the postal inspectors that he had no grudge against their department, but merely wanted to send back a portion of the fine victuals thrown away in the city to feed the animals on his little farm. Postal officials, speaking from upwind, held John for the Federal Grand Jury on charges of practices injurious to the mails and to the health of postal employes.

		Grover Dressler reminisces that he has spent many mornings and evenings sitting in a tree "dressed up like a leaf" unable to put an arrow in a buck or a doe.
Meanwhile, son Jared Dressler shot this buck with a 20½ inch spread. On Veteran's Day, Jared bagged a gobbler with an 8-inch beard. Grover managed to harvest a "hen about the size of a large crow!"

Cartoonist Chester Gould was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma, on this date in 1900. Thirty-one years later, he offered a strip called "Plainclothes Tracy" to the Chicago Tribune-New York Daily News Syndicate. The comic strip "Dick Tracy," depicted racketeers, bloodshed and murder, featured a detective in love with Tess Truehart, and all the villains had physical abnormalities.

Robert F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on this date in 1925 and on this date in 1947, Britain's future queen, Princess Elizabeth, married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, in a ceremony broadcast worldwide from Westminster Abbey.

On the subject of the financial status of communities...
• Financially strapped East Lycoming and Montgomery Area school districts say they "might" close and lock the doors as of January 15 if the state budget impasse isn't resolved and basic education subsidy payments are not sent. The state education budget stalemate grinds through its fifth month.
• North of us, Troy and Sayre either passed tax increases or heavily debated it yesterday.

Rain, rain, rain. The local area has had it with rain for this year. With only 41 days to go before the end of the year, it is obvious it is the rainiest year in the memory of most people. In fact, the rain totals through today nudge the record year for rainfall dating back to 1895. Exact totals are hard to judge, since rainfall varied so much from area to area, but we should be somewhere in the 41" area at the moment, with 43" as the record.

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued a compliance order against Eagle Rock Resort Co. for state code and Clean Streams Act violations. The order stops all earth-moving activities at the 400-plus-acre resort until the company addresses remedial actions for soil and erosion problems. The order came the day after The Hazle Township Planning Department gave preliminary, but conditional, approval to a proposed Eagle Rock land development plan.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission is out of sorts with "assertions and assumptions" made by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee report on the feasibility of merging the Game Commission with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. "This report confirms our worst fears about the impacts a merger would have on the wildlife resources and the Game Commission's ability to deliver services to the public," sayeth the Game Commission.

The newest version of the Toyota Prius, the world's first commercially mass-produced hybrid car, was named by Motor Trend Magazine as the 2004 Car of the Year. Last year's winner was the Infiniti G35. Last month, the magazine named the Volkswagen Touareg as the sport utility vehicle of the year.

Wilkes-Barre, a city easy to pick on these days, is finding out what local horse lovers have known all along. Taxpayers in Wilkes-Barre City paid out almost $13,000 for feed, medical costs and supplies for the city's two police horses in 2002.

The man that Time Magazine named as one of the 10 most powerful men in Washington in the 1960s because of his leadership positions on the defense and health, education and welfare appropriations committees will be honored Tuesday, November 25. A memorial observance honoring the thirty years of Congressional service of the late Daniel J. Flood will begin with a wreath-laying ceremony at 11 AM at the site of the Flood monument on Public Square.

Didja know that the Rick Martin Memorial Auditorium, when completed, will seat 525 people, 225 more than the old auditorium...

Imagine Walking Into a Restaurant And Seeing these Lovely Ladies!

Queen Carol Vance on the left and outgoing Queen Joselle Confair on the right.

Carol Vance reading her acceptance speech following the Coronation Ceremony.

"When I am an old woman...
I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me...
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised..."
--Jenny Joseph

November 19, 2003

Gratitude preserves old friendships and procures new

Contrary to what we read in books, good works frequently do not go unpunished.

Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings."
-William Blake

Bandleader Thomas Francis Dorsey was born on this date in 1905, just 47 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA, in Shenandoah (via route 337 from Mainville). His father was a miner and resolved to keep Tommy and his older brother Jimmy out of a life in the mines. The brothers learned the cornet as soon as they could blow a horn, thanks to their father who had a band. Both boys soon joined their father's band and by the age of 16 Tommy and Jimmy had a band of their own called Dorsey's Wild Canaries. They played with Bix Beiderbecke, Joe Venuti, and Paul Whiteman's orchestra. Glenn Miller pushed the Dorseys to form an orchestra, and Miller wrote most of the arrangements. The band dissolved in 1935 when Tommy, a go-getter, wrote "I'll Never Say 'Never Again' Again." Jimmy felt the pace of the song too fast, and was quoted as saying "Let's do it right or not do it at all." Tommy agreed and declared that they wouldn't do the song. He walked off the bandstand, and the band was history.

No shade, no shine, no butterflies,
no bees No fruit, no flowers,
no leaves, no birds! -- No-vember!
--Thomas Hood (1799-1845)

The Press Enterprise reports that Dave Kovach, 49, Berwick, a Democrat, will join the Columbia Country Commissioners on the three-man board January 5. He links up with Republicans Bill Soberick and Chris Young.

Geisinger Health System reports that they lost $9.2 million during fiscal 2003, but rebounded to a $5.7 million profit during the first quarter of fiscal year 2004, which ended Sept. 30, a major improvement over the $1.7 million operational loss experienced in the first quarter of the 2003 fiscal year. Meanwhile, the Geisinger Health Plan posted profits of $14 million through the end of the third quarter.

Term of the Day: "On the Fritz."
In America, we use the expression when some mechanism is malfunctioning or broken: "My brake peddle is on the fritz," while people in Britain and Australia would say that the "brake peddle in on the blink." Over the years, the term has migrated from its use in the sense of lack of success or an injured part of the human anatomy to the meaning it has evolved to today. Fritz Hall told a Benton News and North Mountain Historical Society gathering yesterday that his given name of "Arthur" evolved into "Fritz" since his father felt that his son was "on the fritz" and needed some fixing... Fritz and his son Jeff were not "on the fritz" yesterday as they told of the history of the Benton Foundry.

Richard Savage, Berwick, recalled yesterday, as only Richard can tell a story, about Fred Lord telling O. B. Savage one morning many years ago that he had forgotten his false teeth, and asked to use O. B.'s teeth for an important meeting. The swap was made. Hours later, Lord returned and the teeth were again exchanged. O. B. smacked his lips and exclaimed, "Had strawberry shortcake, didja!" Stories told by people who can really tell stories and some of us who can't will be the subject of the North Mountain Historical Society's December meeting on the third Monday at the Brass Pelican restaurant. Plan to stop by and have a laugh or two. Bring some of your favorite stories.

Wilkes-Barre certainly has its share of problems. Mayor Tom McGroarty has decided now that leaf-filled plastic bags won't be picked up by garbage collectors. Residents must repack their leaves, grass clippings and branches into paper sacks or open reusable containers, even though city workers skipped yard waste pickup last week. About 4,000 of the jumbo bags that McGroarty does like are at the Public Works garage on North Pennsylvania Avenue if someone would like to drive there to pick them up.

Dauphin County commissioners passed a preliminary budget yesterday calling for a 20% real estate tax increase in 2004.

A new search engine named The Scannery permits users to search the Web sites of 11,000 publicly traded companies from over 40 countries, including the S&P 1500, S&P 500, Euro 400 and Global 100. The Scannery will search virtually any file made available on the Web site of a public company, not only HTML files, but also Word documents, PDF files, Excel files, PowerPoint files, and even the contents of ZIP files. The most powerful feature is that the user can consolidate all search results by company Web site, and even find all hits within all documents on any specific Web site. In the US, the top 1,500 companies are included. The Scannery is the only investor-specific search engine we are aware of which exclusively searches publicly traded companies. The web site is http://www.thescannery.com/ .

We hope that we never see the story again about the Oklahoma City man who bought a Winnebago motor home, set the cruise control, walked from the drivers seat to the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee and crashed. The email is very popular at the moment, and concerns the real "Stella Awards," named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's. This particular story is a fabrication, however. Before forwarding stories like this, please go to www.snopes.com and check out if the story is true.

"Friends of Greg Kelchner" came from all over the area Sunday, November 16, as the Stillwater Christian Church, The Old Filling Station Restaurant and DR's QuikMart donated their time and a portion of their proceeds to the Greg Kelchner Fund. Greg, 33, was recently diagnosed with ALS, a very rare and serious neurological disease.

Members of Stillwater Christian Church volunteered to serve as waitresses, bus boys, dishwashers, and kitchen prep staff from 12 noon to 7:00 PM at the Old Filling Station Restaurant. All tips earned were donated to the Greg Kelchner Fund. Chris and Dennis Dawson, owners of the restaurant, also donated all money earned from the sale of dessert and made a generous cash donation to the fund.

Dean Ribble, owner of DR's QuikMart, donated 5¢ of every gallon of gasoline sold, as well as collected cash donations to present to the fund at the end of business Sunday. Members of his staff volunteered their time to pump gas for customers that day.

By the time the sun set Sunday, over $3,000 was donated to the Greg Kelchner Fund from that fundraising afternoon.

The Greg Kelchner Fund was created to help finance Greg to take his young daughter to Disney World, and also to meet costly medical expenses Greg will incur.
The "Friends of Greg Kelchner" welcome anyone who would like to contribute to this most worthy cause. Donations may be sent to:
Stillwater Christian Church
"The Greg Kelchner Fund"
42 Wesley Street
Stillwater PA 17878

U.S. Navy Capt. Nathaniel B. Palmer discovered the continent of Antarctica on this date in 1820. Lyricist Johnny Mercer was born in Savannah on this date in 1909. Mercer co-founded Capitol Records in 1942 and under his presidency in 1946 the company sold 42 million records, one-sixth of the total records sold in the United States. Sir W[illiam] S[chwenk] Gilbert, of the team of Gilbert and Sullivan, was born in London on this day in 1836. He met composer Arthur Sullivan in 1870. They started working together the following year and produced a series of hits with silly themes and lyrics to match including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzanze, and others.

We sail the ocean blue,
And our saucy ship's a beauty;
We're sober men and true,
And attentive to our duty.
--Introduction and Opening Chorus from the Lass That Loved a Sailor, usually known as H.M.S. PINAFORE

The Guv is proposing to raise the cigarette tax by 25¢ increasing the total state tax to $1.50 a pack in order to alleviate the medical malpractice insurance crisis. Now mind you, we don't advocate sucking on cigarettes, but shouldn't we try harder to fix the problem that is driving the cost of malpractice insurance sky high rather than tax people into oblivion?

The proposed increased price of cigarettes reminds us of the fellow who asked for a cigarette and was immediately told that he said that he had quit smoking. The puffer responded by saying that he was in the "process of quitting," and that at the moment he was "in the middle of phase one." The puffer explained that phase one only involved "quitting buying."

The Guv also announced a contest for a new tourism slogan for the Commonwealth, throwing out old, poorly constructed slogans like "You've Got a Friend in Pennsylvania." Slogans may be submitted through December 17, 2003, if you are a resident 18 or older. The Guv's action reminds us that Pennsylvania memories may last a lifetime, but the slogan changes with each new administration! The winner gets a weeklong vacation package worth up to $5,000 to any location in the state, including, we suppose, Back Home in Benton, PA.

A separate contest will be held for elementary schools, which will be eligible to win free computers. That winning slogan will be put on specialty license plates that the state will gladly sell. The public will choose the winner from among five finalists by voting online and the winner will be announced in early February. Entry forms are available at state welcome centers, liquor stores and online at www.visitpa.com.

President George Bush will be in Pittsburgh December 2 for a campaign fundraiser, his 23rd visit to Pennsylvania since becoming President. Someone should ring him up and remind him that the City of Pittsburgh is a "distressed community," not the best choice for soliciting funds...

The excellent web site for the Lower Luzerne County, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~lowerluzernecounty/ , has a number of Benton photos that Sheila Brandon could use some help in identifying. Take the time, please, to spend some time on this wonderful source of local history.

Forty-nine children from the North Mountain area tackled the haunted house at the Royal Order of Raccoons of Jamison City and the North Mountain Fire company's Halloween party. The kids colored pictures, painted pumpkins and made a couple of passes at the haunted house.

The Royal Order of Raccoons and the North Mountain Fire company will host a Christmas Party at the North Mountain Fire Company on December 20 at 1 PM. Children up to 12 years old are invited to meet and greet Santa and every child will receive a present plus all the children will receive a ticket when they enter and at the end of the party may win either a girls 20" or a boys 20" bicycle.

Donations are always welcome and can be sent to Sue Jones, Royal Order of Raccoons, 1239 Elk Grove Rd., Benton, Pa. 17814.

On November 15, The Raccoons handed out 50 turkeys and all the trimmings to needy and elderly people in the community in order for them to have a Thankful Thanksgiving. Everyone who participated should be congratulated. The team effort of the Jamison City area is extraordinary!

		Betty Fritz Victory remembers that day five years ago at St. Gabriel's Church when she spotted a motor home with a woman sitting in it. A woman who seemed to know what she was doing had just finished smearing shaving creme on a tombstone in search of ancestors of James Peterman. The woman, Helen Smith Gammon, turned out to be Betty's cousin. Helen is a devoted genealogist and travels in her motor home, despite her age that we will simply say is in the 80s.
Photo by Richard Shoemaker
Helen Smith Gammon

Helen's motor home is equipped with a computer and scraps of notes about Betty's Grandmother Sarah Kile Peterman. Two years ago, for example, Helen drove by herself from Chandler, Arizona, to the Benton area in pursuit of Hess and Peterman records, despite her doctor's pleas to commence chemotherapy following a mastectomy. A month ago in October, 2003, she attended the North Mountain Historical Society's meeting just before heading home to Arizona--a full summer of dedicated research under her belt. We remember George Turner, President of the Columbia County Historical Society, telling us once that when Helen enters the building, no one is allowed to speak--it's time for research!

Helen has been doing research for the Sugarloaf area for more than 50 years, while traveling across country from Columbia County and returning to Arizona 16 times in her motor home. She "went to the source" by visiting the areas where her ancestors lived. Helen is writing a a synopsis of how she learned about Ann Batcheler-Bartleson-Peterman who turned out to be both her maternal AND paternal grandmother.

Helen wrote from Arizona Monday that she has cancer of the sternum, saying that "The breast cancer evidently moved on to the bones in my sternum and in my skull. After having such a great summer I can hardly believe this is happening to me. I feel like I am standing outside of myself and hearing about all these things happening to someone else."

She tells us that she has had a couple of bad weeks since she got back to Arizona with severe pain, several chest X-rays, a Barium stomach x-ray and a bone scan. Her oncologist and radiologist and others are helping to make a decision about her course of treatment.

This grand lady asks that she be placed "on any and ALL prayer lists," saying that she needs "all the help I can get." Our prayers and best wishes go out to Helen Smith Gammon. We hope that yours will, too!

December 1 is the big day, the day that hunters take to the woods in pursuit of the whitetail deer in Pennsylvania. The antler restrictions require that all points, including the brow tine, be at least one inch in length. The main beam tip will count regardless of length.

Hunters who are not required to follow these antler restrictions are junior license holders, disabled hunters with a permit to use a vehicle, and Pennsylvania residents on active-duty in the U.S. Armed Forces.

In 2002, hunters shot 352,113 antlerless deer and 165,416 antlered deer (517,529 total). The harvest compares with a 2001 total harvest of 486,014, of which 203,247 were antlered and 2000's total harvest of 504,600, of which 203,221 were antlered.

The buck harvest in Columbia County last year was 2,107, with 4,004 antlerless deer shot.

We expect that Gary the Guide will come out of retirement to help with the hunt. Last year he got a hunting party lost on a drive and promptly retired. One of the members of the hunting party screamed at him for getting the group lost, reminding Gary that he said he was one of the best guides in Pennsylvania. Gary responded that he was one of the best in the state, but somehow they had wandered into New York state.

Upcoming...
• The Box of Light Theatre will present the Charles Dickens holiday favorite A Christmas Carol December 4-6 at Mahoning Presbyterian Church, 218 Ferry Street, Danville.
• The popular Brush Arbor Choir of the Stillwater Christian Church, under the direction of Barbara Henne, will present a "Home for the Holidays" concert on Saturday, December 6, and Sunday, December 7, at 6 PM. Refreshments will follow both concerts.

On this date in...
• 1869 the Suez Canal formally opened to traffic. The waterway is 100 miles long, connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Suez and the Indian Ocean.
• 1934, Lyndon Baines Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, known as "Lady Bird."
• 1962, Washington's Dulles International Airport was dedicated by President Kennedy.
• 1993, the House of Representatives approved legislation implementing the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Andrew Volanski, 74, (Oct. 13, 1929-Nov. 15, 2003), Volanski Road, Benton, died Saturday at home. He was born in Fairmount Township, the son of the late Michael and Anna Spess Volanski. He graduated from Huntington High School, a member of St. Martha's Church, Stillwater, and was employed by the Department of Transportation and later with the Charmin Division of Proctor Gamble.

Surviving is his wife, the former Dolores Giza; a daughter, Sharon Telesky, Benton; a son, Andrew J. Volanski, North Carolina; a sister, Irene Gashi, Bloomingdale; a brother, John Benton; and several nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 8:15 AM from the Clarke Piatt Funeral Home Inc, Hunlock Creek, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 9 AM from St. Martha's Church, Stillwater. Interment will be in the parish cemetery. Friends may call Monday from 7 to 9 PM at the funeral home.
--from a Press Enterprise article

The Old Filling Station and DR's QuickMart were filled with customers yesterday as Friends of Greg Kelchner, 33, gathered for a fund raiser. Greg has been diagnosed as being in an advanced stage of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is a progressive neurological disease with no known cure. Greg and his wife, Michelle, live in Benton with their daughter Teela. We were served by some very fine waiters and waitresses at the Old Filling Station yesterday. And last night was the annual hymn sing at the Benton United Methodist Church, playing to a completely filled church.

The Benton Red Hat Society will hold their first anniversary meeting at The Old Filling Station Restaurant on November 19 at 2 PM. The menu includes chicken and biscuits or a choice of a cup of soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, dessert and beverage for $9.00 including tax and tip.

The 2004 chapter dues of $1. are also due. Paying the dues will allow the club to renew with the National Charter.

The Christmas Party is a field trip to The Galleria at Split Rock Lodge at Lake Harmony in the poconos. The buffet is delicious and the show is quite funny with wonderful fifties music. Cost is $33 per person and reservations can be taken until November 28. Spouses and friends are welcome to join the car pool from Benton, leaving about 10:30 AM. Reservations can be made by calling Joselle Confair or the Queen Mother Carol Vance at 925-2591. The pocono Christmas Show is Thursday, December 11, 2003 at noon. Red Hatters will of course wear proper attire.

The Coronation of new Queen Mother Carol Vance will be held at the November 19 meeting. Joselle Confair will now be known as the Queen Mum (but doesn't plan to be mum about anything.)

Sergeant of Arms Evelyn Christalaw suffered a stroke on Friday and is currently in the Bloomsburg Hospital, Room 206. Your prayer, cards and expression of caring would be greatly appreciated.

The Benton chapter is open to new members and guests are always welcome. Proper attire is a purple outfit and red Hat.

This is a story about the evil of smoking and the wonder of vitamins, told about a man who means a great deal to all Pennsylvanians. The man was Milton Snavely Hershey who was raised among the "Plain People" of the Mennonite faith. The story goes that he went on a vitamin kick in the 1940s, and started experimenting with different vegetables. He concluded that it was easier to get vitamins by drinking them than by eating them.

Hershey ate onions and carrots and celery and combinations of all those, and finally decided that beet sherbets tasted the best and he added them to the menu at his Hershey Hotel. Now for the man who gave the world the Hershey bar and Hershey kisses to make a mistake like that was unthinkable, and patrons who tasted the beet sherbet actually gagged from the terrible taste.

Milton Hershey had three lifelong passions--chocolate, children and cigars. Hershey is said to have smoked eight to 10 cigars a day until his death in 1945 at the age of 88. A former CEO of the company later said that Hershey simply had burned out his taste buds and could not taste or smell a thing.

By the time Hershey died, his company owned an estimated 65,000 acres in Cuba. The manager of the Hershey Havana operations regularly sent his boss boxes of cigars with Hershey's picture printed on the cigar bands. A much cheaper brand of cigars made in York was sold around the Hershey area with a "Hershey" band. They were sold for five or six cents apiece in the town drugstore, at the golf course and at Hershey park and were known as the Hershey Invincible, Hershey Park Golf Club Special, Hersheytown and Havana Perfecto brands. Until the early 1980s at Hershey park, cigar rollers made cigars at a kiosk in the craft area and sold the hand-rolled products to park patrons.

Norman Vincent Peale once addressed students in the Hershey school auditorium and asked, "How many of you would like to have millions of dollars someday?" The children all raised their hands. "And, how many of you would, 25 years before you die, give it all away to strangers?" After seeing that not a single hand was raised, Peale looked over his shoulder and said, "Hershey did just that." But he could never even give away his beet sherbet.

Quote of the Day:
"Boys, don't rock the boat, row it."
--Milton S. Hershey

The old Germans of the Benton area did many of the things that we did in our lives. Here is a poem that we found as we poked about to illustrate the point...

If in this world there were but two
And all the world were good and true;
And if you knew that no one knew,
Would you?

If you dreamed in pajamas blue
Of two strong arms embracing you,
And if you really wanted to,
Would you?

If all the world were nice and bright,
And if I stayed with you all night,
And if I turned out all the lights,
Would you?

If we were in a certain place
And we were sleeping face to face,
Nothing between us but a little lace,
Would you...kiss me good night?

Microsoft has unveiled beefed-up anti-spam software to stop junk email. Part of the program will operate on back-end computer servers, taking out suspicious messages before they're delivered to in-boxes. A second part runs on individual PCs and laptops, helping the recipient identify, separate and delete the junk. It is also promised to block computer viruses and will be included in versions of Microsoft's email programs early next year.

What are you planning for Thanksgiving? Better stick with turkey! Wholesale prices of beef and veal rose 18.3% last month, the biggest jump since 1974.

New content has been added to the Christ the King Church page.

November 16, 2003, the birthday of Mikelanne McHenry Welliver and David McHenry, and the birthday of playwright and director George S. (Simon) Kaufman, born on this date in 1889 in Pittsburgh. He collaborated on more than 40 plays after a brief period of studying law and working as a salesman. There are 45 days left in the year 2003.

		The historic twin bridges suffered major damage in Wednesday's windstorm. We have posted a number of pictures of the damaged structure at the end of today's news.
Picture courtest of Brian Bower
The bridges are located on Huntington Creek in Fishing Creek Township, east of Route 487 and a stone's throw east of Forks, off route 1020.
We have also updated the article about the bridges that you can find under FEATURES. If you wish to see additional pictures of the twin bridge damage, head on over to http://coveredbridges.org/twins/TOC.html . County Commissioner Chris Young tells the Benton News that the twin covered bridges are fully insured for the damage incurred during mid-November's windstorm. The county commissioners are in the process of accessing the damage so they can solicit bids for repair. Commissioner Young promises that "The bridge WILL be repaired." He also told us that "I have also contacted John Gordner and DCNR about securing funding to re-do the entire park."

While we were gone...
• The Huntington Mills Elementary School had four Dell computers, a digital camera, a laptop computer and a VCR stolen on Wednesday or Thursday by someone who entered by removing a skylight from the roof.
• Coach Joe's son Scott Paterno has became one of the Republican contenders for the 17th Congressional District to challenge incumbent Democrat Tim Holden.
• A sport utility vehicle slammed into a 115-year-old Civil War monument of the 74th Pennsylvania Infantry in Gettysburg Wednesday night. The granite sculpture, which depicts a color bearer holding a regimental flag, broke into three pieces. Repairs are estimated at $15,000 to $20,000. The driver was fined $25 for failing to maintain control of a vehicle.
• West Virginia won big, 52-31, over No. 16 Pittsburgh Saturday night. Penn State took six games worth of frustration and unleashed it on cellar-dweller Indiana in a 52-7 win yesterday.
• The outbreak of hepatitis A in the Pittsburgh area claimed a third life Friday and has now infected more than 500 people, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Didja know that Pennsylvania is one of the top ten states in its commitment to funding anti-kid-smoking campaigns according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids?

Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy says that he will petition the State Department of Community and Economic Development to declare the City of Pittsburgh a "distressed community." If approved, either a person or an oversight agency will develop and implement a city fiscal recovery plan.

A television program that may be interesting tonight (11-16) on The History Channel, 8-11 PM, is entitled JFK: A Presidency Revealed and is another documentary that tells what went on behind the scenes in the White House during the Camelot era, and, yes, according to the press release it does tell of personal indiscretions, and, yes, it does talk about how sick the man was.

The state has more than 2,300 dump trucks, 550 front-end loaders and 24 snow blowers to clear 40,000 miles of state roads and 26,000 bridges in Pennsylvania this winter according to Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler. Last winter, it cost $227 million to keep Pennsylvania roads free of snow and ice and it took a record 1.2 million tons of salt.

Here lies the body of our Anna,
Done to death by a banana.
It wasn't the fruit that laid her low,
But the skin of the thing that made her go.

We read an interesting article in the Star Telegram from the Fort Worth, Texas, area about 4-pound cast-iron quoits, a game that most of us from Back Home in Benton, PA, have played. No, we're not talking horseshoes here. Quoits are thrown just 21 feet, half the distance of horseshoes. There were many quoit leagues in eastern Pennsylvania through the 1930s, and so readers not familiar with the Eastern part of our state may not know much about this sport. The article talked about the World Quoits Championship held in Gilbertsville last month.

Good quoit throwers take a firm grip to keep the 3-to 4-pound ring level as it flies toward a pin in the ground. The quoit is thrown in a arc while flicking the wrist to give it spin. Points are racked up by sliding the 5 inch quoit completely around the pin for a ringer, and points are also awarded for landing close to the pin. Quotes are made from steel, brass or bronze.

Members of the Amish and Mennonite communities frequently bring 3-pound quoits to summer picnics and family reunions.

Want to know more about the game that traces from the ancient Greek discus throwers? Go to http://www.quoitpits.com/ . Want to buy some quoits? Try http://www.quoitsdirect.com/ or the Ephrata East End Mart. These quoits are purchased from an Amish farmer who operates a foundry. Perhaps that would be a line that the Benton Foundry could get into to uphold the Pennsylvania tradition!

And speaking of the Benton Foundry, Harold Ackerman will tell you a little about Newton Harrington who started the Foundry that bore his name Tuesday when we buckle down with buckwheat cakes at the Brass Pelican. Jeff and Fritz Hall will update us in the current Benton Foundry. Several members of the Harrington family will also be on hand to help with the discussion from an historical standpoint.

If you come, you'll hear about the foundry that Newton built when he returned to the Sugarloaf area following the Civil War. The actual building was only 20 x 40 feet, and was across the creek from the present foundry, but the property extended as far down as the stone house on the present Lehet property. Originally, the foundry made sled shoes and plows (the Harrington plow). Power for the foundry came from a dam, which ponded water then released it in a "race." The water operated a large water wheel.

The discussion is sponsored by the Benton News, the first of several planned on various topics for upcoming months. We plan to start the discussion about 9 AM, so if you plan to have breakfast, please arrive accordingly.

Thirty lucky people who hold reservations will also get to tour the foundry. The North Mountain Historical Society will also join in the meeting. The public is welcome to attend. Plan to attend the breakfast--which we will let you pay for yourselves! Be there to hear about Benton's largest employer and meet and greet the Harrington and the Hall families and one of the two newest members of the Benton School Board from Sugarloaf Township.

Black bear season begins November 24.

For the record, Mexico is a great place to visit, but we wouldn't want to live there... It is very good to be Back Home in Benton, PA.

November 6, 2003

"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."
-Gene Fowler

At twenty we don't care what the world thinks of us.
At thirty we start to worry about what it thinks of us.
At forty we realize that it isn't thinking of us at all.

We go through three periods in our life: youth, middle age, and "how well you look."

Now that we are over 50 we try to get more fresh air and exercise. We drive with the car window open.

Middle age is when your age starts showing around your middle

We have everything we had 20 years ago, except now it is a lot lower

November 6, 2003.

The Benton News will not publish again until Sunday, November 16,
and so we are including birthdays and anniversaries with today's version of the news. They are:
• Saturday, November 8: Richard Bardo.
• Sunday, November 9: Budd Fritz.
• Monday, November 10: Frank E. Beishline.
• Tuesday, November 11: Veteran's Day.
• Wednesday, November 12: Brass Pelican celebrates its birthday, Kevin Schlichter does too!
• Thursday, November 13: Betty Zane Unbewust, Maria O'Brian.
• Friday, November 14: Report cards sent home.
• Sunday, November 16: David McHenry, Mikelanne McHenry Welliver.

Yesterday we talked about the unfortunate fire in Rick Swigart's Third Street apartment Tuesday night. Several additional items...
• Many Benton firemen were still up at 1 AM Wednesday cleaning equipment and packing for the next time they are called into service.
• Much of the water running on the town streets Tuesday night came from the tanker trucks that were pulling water from the Benton dam in order to fight the fire. But what about the fire hydrants you ask? Well, sorry, but the two closest hydrants were inoperable when the fire company connected to them. OOPS.
• A Maryland man emailed to the Benton News and offered the use of an apartment in Benton Township through the end of November for the Swigarts. We passed the information along to Rick Swigart.

The contract between the Geisinger Health Plan and the Bloomsburg Hospital expired Friday, and according to several articles in Thursday's Press Enterprise, GHP Gold patients essentially can no longer use Bloomsburg Hospital. GHP charges that the Bloomsburg Hospital misinformed the public by alleging in advertisements that GHP patients could use the hospital for 30 days despite the contract's expiration.

Now that John Gordner (R-Berwick) has been elected to the state Senate, his House seat will be filled by a special January election on a date to be set by the House of Representatives. The superintendent of arts and crafts for the Bloomsburg Fair, Republican David R. Millard, 50, threw his hat into the ring yesterday, announcing he'll run for John Gordner's state House seat to serve the 109th Legislative District. John Gordner must run for his Senate seat again next year.

Herman M. Stackhouse, 90, (Aug. 10, 1913-Nov. 5, 2003), 620 Wolf House Hollow Road, Benton, died Wednesday at Geisinger Medical Center. He was the son of the late George S. and Sadie Ellen Potter Stackhouse, Rupert; he attended Millville High School; was a member of the Danville Moose, and lived at his present address for the past 89 1/2 years. He retired from Carey McFalls, Montoursville, in 1975. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, the former Winifred C. Slusser, Benton; two sons: Richard M. Stackhouse and wife Nancy Trowbridge, New Holland and Alan G. Stackhouse, Benton; a daughter Mrs. Robert (Vanic) Glidwell, Benton; four grandchildren, including Laurie Glidwell, Benton. Services will be Monday at 11 AM at Pine Center United Methodist Church, Millville with burial at Pine Center Cemetery. Friends may call on Monday from 10 AM until the time of service.
--from a Press Enterprise article

On November 11, 2003, pause to remember and honor those who have served their country. We deeply appreciate the sacrifice these men and women have made.

Greg Kelchner, 33, has been diagnosed as being in an advanced stage of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is a progressive neurological disease with no known cure. Greg and his wife, Michelle, live in Benton with their daughter Teela and are members of Stillwater Christian Church.

"Friends of Greg Kelchner," along with The Old Filling Station Restaurant and DR's QuikMart are raising money for The Greg Kelchner Fund. At the Old Filling Station Restaurant on Sunday, November 16, from 12 noon to 7:00 PM, there will be volunteer waitresses, hostesses, and dishwashers. All tips earned and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Greg Kelchner Fund. At DR's QuikMart, 5 cents for every gallon of gasoline sold will be donated by owner Dean Ribble to the fund.

The "Friends of Greg Kelchner" are planning to send Greg and his family to Disney World. Greg's long-time dream has been to take Teela to Disney. This is a memory that we can help create, but it must happen right away while Greg has the physical ability to make the trip. We also know there will be a lot of home health expenses in the near future.

All contributions to this cause will be greatly appreciated. Plan to come to the Old Filling Station Restaurant on Sunday, November 16, and enjoy a delicious meal while you help a friend in need at the same time. And remember to fill your gas tank at DR's QuikMart while in town that day.

If you just wish to make a contribution, you may send your gifts in care of Stillwater Christian Church, 42 Wesley Street, Stillwater PA 17878. Please indicate: For Greg Kelchner Fund. The "Friends of Greg Kelchner" Administrator is Kim Heggenstaller (570) 925-6519.

Dr. Harold Ackerman, retired professor from Bloomsburg University, and Evy Lysk, chief writer for the "30 Seconds" column in the Press Enterprise, were elected by write-in to the Benton Area School Board from Sugarloaf Township Tuesday.

Ham Fisher created Joe Palooka in 1921 after seeing a burly and a less-than articulate boxer who didn't like to box standing outside a poolroom in his hometown of Wilkes-Barre. Based on Fisher's Wilkes-Barre background, he first considered naming his character Joe Dumbelletski and it took a full decade before Fisher named his boxer Palooka. The word possibly came after baseball player Jack Conway coined it to mean a "third rater." Within 25 days of its creation, it started appearing in 30 big-city newspapers featuring boxing contenders like Ruffy Balonki, Red Rodney, and Jack McSwatt.

Knobby Walsh was the boxer's manager and best friend, modeled after a Wilkes-Barre cigar store owner. Smokey, a valet, was depicted as a shuffling, subservient black man until the early 1940s when the character disappeared from the strip. Joe was in love with and married Ann Howe, a daughter of a cheese tycoon. The birth of his daughter Joan was a national event.

The Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce tells us that the man "he based the Little Max character on is now a prominent businessman in Wilkes-Barre." Elsie Byers tells us that Little Max was the next door neighbor of Ham Fisher and is Max Bartikowski of the jewelry store.

Fisher farmed out the strip to a number of assistants, but only he draw the faces on Joe and Knobby, so the assistants would always leave blank features on those two characters. One of Fisher's illustrators was Al Capp, the pen name for Alfred Gerald Caplin, who created L'il Abner after ghosting Joe Palooka for Fisher for a time. Shortly after working on a sequence involving hillbillies for Fisher, Capp began developing Li'l Abner and the two soon parted company.

And while we're at it, we'll tell you some other things about Wilkes-Barre:
• Greater Wilkes-Barre is the birthplace of HBO.
• Amadeo Obici opened a fruit and peanut stand at 15 E. Market Street in 1906. The business grew to become Planters Peanuts--the largest peanut manufacturer in the world. Now owned by Nabisco, the company is still big in the Wilkes-Barre area.
• The first F.M. Kirby Five & Dime Store was in Wilkes-Barre.
• Pete Grey, Nanticoke, played major league baseball, and had 51 hits for the 1945 St. Louis Browns--and only had one arm.
• Queen Esther (Montour), a half French, half Native American ruler of the Delawares, tomahawked 16 prisoners in Wyoming on July 3, 1778. Queen Esther's rock, site of the massacre, still exists near the Susquehanna River.

There isn't any question but what the people of the Benton area love their rodeo. Here is a little something to get you ready for the event coming up July 13-18, 2004.

Messiah defeated Susquehanna University men's soccer team 5-1 Wednesday night in the Commonwealth Conference semifinals. It was Susquehanna's first playoff game in its 45-year history. Jason Zeisloft, Millville, scored the only Crusader goal six minutes into the game. His shot from 30 yards out deflected off a Falcon and into the left corner of the goal.

The Falcons (16-2-2 overall) came back quickly and dominated the second half. Freshman goalkeeper Austin Kelsey, Benton, saved nine shots in goal for Susquehanna. Dustin Shambach stopped three for Messiah. All of Benton is very proud of Austin today!

You've lost that lovin' feeling,
Whoa, that lovin' feeling,
You've lost that lovin' feeling,
Now it's gone...gone...gone...wooooooh.
You've Lost That Loving Feeling Lyrics
Righteous Brothers

The Righteous Brothers ' Bobby Hatfield, 63, died November 6 of undetermined causes in his hotel room. The singer and his partner, Bill Medley, were famous for hits such as 'Unchained Melody' and 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin.'' Haatfield was discovered in his hotel bed half an hour before their next show in western Michigan.

Don't forget the antique sale this weekend at the Bloomsburg Fair. Take your long underwear! Temperatures will be much colder by the weekend.

Allen Turner reminds us that the major sports are now included in the sports schedule on http://www.bentonsd.k12.pa.us/ . The sports schedule is also mirrored on the Benton News web site, on the side panel under the heading for the school.

In an average month, the local food bank serves about 120 people from 60 households. The Food Bank is in need of paper products, cleaning products, personal hygiene items, and other non-perishable items. You can help by contributing non-perishable items and dropping them off at the Benton Methodist Church.

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank distributes food and grocery products to more than 300 soup kitchens, shelters, and food pantries in 27 central Pennsylvania counties, including Columbia. On average, the Food Bank distributes approximately one million pounds of product each month, which is equivalent to approximately 750,000 meals.

The Food Bank is open the third Tuesday of each month at the Benton Methodist Church from 9 AM until 11 AM. This month it will be December 18. If you can help, call Peg Krum, 570 925-6416.

"Live your life so that whenever you lose, you are ahead."
--Will Rogers

November 5, 2003

And when you come, look at the remains of the adjacent property on Third Street, the scene of a stubborn, persistent fire that wiped out the life savings of a couple that lived in one third of the building Tuesday night about 9 PM. The couple did not have renter's insurance.

Rick Swigart, 41, and his wife Elizabeth (Lisa) were resting in their apartment on the south side of the building with their pet dog, Tuti, when the lights in the room flickered and went out, and Rick noticed that the ceiling fan was glowing as if on fire. He raced to an unoccupied second floor apartment, opened the door and encountered a wall of fire. The first phone he picked up to call 911 was disabled by the fire, but luckily a second phone worked long enough for the call to be placed. Benton firemen responded immediately, but faced a wall of fire erupting from the building. Before the stubborn blaze was extinguished, fire companies from Benton, Orangeville, Unityville, North Mountain, Espy, and Millville responded, as well as Catawissa's Rapid Intervention Team. Fire equipment was strewn over neighboring lawns, as the blaze just would not go out in the double plank house.

The Swigarts lost everything except for the clothes on their back and their pet dog. Police Chief Warren Nelson called the American Red Cross for assistance for the couple. Swigart is a meat cutter at Riverside Market.

Firemen at the Third Street Blaze Before Fire Broke Through the Roof

An apartment in the three-unit building was rented on the south side of the first floor, adjacent to the Benton Christian Church. An apartment on the north side and an apartment on the second floor was not occupied. The building consists of a main two story building, a connector building and a large rear garage.

The owner of the building, Beatrice Reed Lanyi, rents the building and conducts frequent garage sales from the rear double-car garage. She was reported to be out of town.

Both Swigart and former tenant Don Cole told of flickering lights in the second-floor apartment. There was no fire escape from the second floor.

Water was pulled from Fishing Creek and stored in holding tanks on Third Street, as well as from fire hydrants. Foam and discharge water flowed down Third Street in torrents. Firefighters climbed on three roofs to vent the building, in an attempt to open holes to get water inside. At one point, a fireman was on a side roof at the same time flames were seen licking at the ceiling of the room beneath.

Robert L. Steinruck, (July 24, 1930-November 3, 2003), 73, 136 Old Greenwood Road, Orangeville, died Monday at Geisinger Medical Center. He was a son of the late Claude V. and Mary E. Rider Steinruck, Benton, a 1948 graduate of Benton High School, and served in the Army during the Korean Conflict. He retired from Kawneer in Bloomsburg in 1996. His wife, the former Mary K. Morris, died July 2, 1997, and a daughter, Donna I. Ayers, died in 1975. Three brothers, Ray, Larue and Harold Steinruck, preceded him in death. He is survived by a companion, Mary Ann Levan, Orangeville; one granddaughter, Aleah Propst; a brother, Frank Steinruck, Benton; and a sister, Mrs. William (Irene) Liddick, Berwick. Friday services will be at 11 AM at Bunnell Funeral Home Inc., Millville, with burial at Greenwood "Lemons" Cemetery. Friends may call Friday from 10 AM.
--from a Wednesday article in the Press Enterprise

Darlene Dickson Bartlebaugh, a member of the class of 1965, was physically able to be at the Benton Alumni Reunion in May. Siblings Don and Kate Dickson made arrangements for her to be there and for family members to get together. It was known then that Darlene was suffering from terminal cancer, but her cheerfulness foretold a different outcome. Her condition since May has deteriorated. She is now being fed through a portacath and her time is limited, but her spirits are unbelievable. Several of her family will gather in North Bend, WA, November 9 to be with her on her birthday. Darlene's many friends from Back Home in Benton, PA, are being asked to shower Darlene with cards for her birthday. Darlene's address is: Darlene Bartlebaugh, 44413 S.E. 142nd Place, North Bend, WA. 98045.

Of the 408 registered voters in the Borough of Benton, 207 ballots were cast yesterday and there were no surprises in the outcome. Chris Young won easily for County Commissioner, with Bill Soberick coming in second. Mike Klem (153), Grant Little (159), Nancy Laubach (156) and Karen Reed (156) were elected to town council. In write ins, Buster Kline and Chloe Kline both got one vote, and we certify that no one in this family voted for them or even thought of voting for them. In the special election for Senator in the 27th district, John Gordner, 41, a Republican, captured 152 votes to Kent Shelhammer's 48 votes. Shirl Keller got 142 votes for county auditor, compared to A. D. DeGeorge's 84 and Henry Dalto's 75 votes.

In other election news, Louis Barletta got about 70% of the vote to reclaim Hazleton's mayoral seat. Luzerne County turned down the home rule charter, defeated by a heavy "no" vote in traditional Democratic strongholds. State Rep. John Gordner appears to be winning easily at this writing in the special election race for the Senate seat vacated by Edward Helfrick. The 27th district includes all of Columbia, Montour, Northumberland and Snyder counties, as well as parts of Dauphin and Luzerne County. Democrat Max Baer, 56, had a Supreme Court victory. Democrats won two of the three open seats on the state Superior Court. Democrat Mayor John Street was re-elected in Philadelphia despite an FBI bug in the mayor's office. Republicans picked up two governorships in the South, in Mississippi and Kentucky. Democrats took control of the New Jersey Legislature. The ballot question that we could not understand yesterday passed easily, as state voters didn't let not understanding something stand in the way of approving it! The ballot question of the way children testify was easily approved. Republicans Bill Soberick and Chris Young were reelected and Democrat Dave Kovach--replacing Leroy Diehl--joins the Columbia County commissioners on the three-man board. Gary Norton is the new district attorney for Columbia County.
--gathered from various news sources believed to be accurate at the time of this writing.

Wednesday's Christian Scientist Monitor takes up the issue of aged people that we recently discussed. The article points out that people in England frequently refer to them as pensioners. In Germany, a common term is Senioren, or seniors. The French use the term "senior" as well as person du troisième age, or person of the third age. We'll also mention that AARP magazine says that "Sixty is the new thirty." Click here, if you think that you are a senior citizen.

Please take the time to read about the diabetes at http://www.diabetes.org/info/diabetesinfo.jsp.

We did like the sign at a propane filling station that said simply, "Tank heaven for little grills."

The Benton Women's Club is having a soup sale. The club will take orders for chili, vegetable and ham-n-bean soup through November 10. The price is $3.50 per quart and it will be ready for pickup or delivery on Friday, November 14. To order, call Kathy at 925-2178. We can assure you that this soup will not be like Mrs. O'Malley's soup.

In case you had not heard of Mrs. O'Malley's soup, and at the risk of offending some readers, we'll mention that Mrs. O'Malley arrived in Boston from Ireland, and in no time at all her bean soup has made her the talk of New England society. At a party celebrating the sale of her recipe to a fancy Charles Street restaurant, an old woman approached Mrs. O'Malley and said, "My dear girl, what is the secret of your soup?"

Mrs. O'Malley replied, "The secret to me soup is that I use but two-hundred thirty-nine beans to make it."

The woman asked, "How come only two-hundred thirty-nine?"

Mrs. O'Malley's answer: "Because one more would make it too farty."

The business is owned by Paul and Lori Olshefski. They feature all kinds of puppets from finger puppets to the most intricate marionettes. They carry the full line of Folkmanis award winning plush puppets and the full body big mouth puppets very popular with youth groups and puppet ministry. A highlight of the puppet line is custom made marionettes, made in your likeness, hand crafted by Paul.

Puppets make excellent gift ideas for young and old alike. Beginning this Sunday, the store’s regular hours are Thursday and Friday evenings from 5-9 PM and Sunday from Noon – 6 PM. It is a good idea to call 570-925-2317 before you go, however.

November 4, 2003

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.
--Will Rogers

The schools ain't what they used to be and never was.
--Will Rogers

Never let yesterday use up too much of today.
--Will Rogers

Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.
--Will Rogers

Faults are the easiest things to find.

Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get.

November 4, 2003. It is election day and the birthdays of Carley Jane Kocher and Jeannette Hartman. They share their birthdays with rodeo performer and humorist Will Rogers, born in Oklahoma in 1879.

Temperatures in Benton have come from sweater weather, to shirt-sleeve weather, to tank-top weather. Dulles Airport hit 80 yesterday, and Benton enjoyed the 70s. It should hit about 74° today, so there should be no excuse for not voting. With regret, the weekend will bring us back to seasonal temperatures.

Today is Sadie Hawkins Day, a day popularized by Li'l Abner, the main man in the syndicated newspaper strip by cartoonist Al Capp that ran from 1934-1977. It is a day of the year girls and women may take the initiative with their sweethearts--including proposals of marriage. It is also a favorite theme for high school dances.

First, we'll explain about Li'l Abner. Although hardly "li'l," Abner was big, naive and simple-minded. He lived in the make-believe town of Dogpatch. Abner often found himself in the company of unscrupulous industrialist General Bullmoose, often in snowbound Lower Slobbovia.

Li'l Abner was the son of tiny Mammy (Pansy) and Pappy (Lucifer) Yokum. Mammy was the "sassiety leader" of Dogpatch who instilled honesty in Li'l Abner. Pappy, in contrast, was illiterate. Abner was forever vigorously pursued by Daisy Mae, a beautiful Dogpatch damsel hopelessly in love with the never amorous bachelor. Abner spent nearly two decades outracing Daisy in the annual Sadie Hawkins Day race but the couple didn't marry until 1952, a fictional event that captured national attention and was a cover story for Life magazine.

Their only child, Honest Abe, was born in 1953. Li'l Abner earned his living as a mattress tester and for recreation read his favorite "comical strip," Detective Fearless Fosdick. The "ideel" of Li'l Abner, Fearless Fosdick was Al Capp's long-running parody of Chester Gould's "Dick Tracy." If you are still confused, go to http://www.kenpiercebooks.com/al-capp.htm .

A company called PriceGrabber grew a reported 81% in home and work users from August 2002 to August 2003. The web site takes a list of items and calculates the best price available, whether that be from a single merchant or from multiple merchants. Shoppers can add as many items as they want to their Shopping List; PriceGrabber will then compare the cost of buying each item from the lowest priced store with buying the whole list of items from a single store. The site is www.pricegrabber.com. Give it a try with a specific request.

The Benton Borough Election Board

From the right, Sally Brewington, Alice Lewis, Eleanor Klementik, Nancy Kline, Hubor Kline. Waiting to vote is Jason Hess. In the voting booth is Dr. Andrew Pollock.

Voting in the Borough takes place in the beautiful Benton Volunteer Fire Hall.

When you vote in Pennsylvania today, you will be asked the following question: "Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to provide that a person accused of a crime has the right to be 'confronted with the witnesses against him,' instead of the right to 'meet the witnesses face to face'? You have to be a tad brighter than we are to understand those words as written.

We may be treading on what some people would call sacred ground here when we mention that football practice at Penn State was delayed yesterday after a player reported finding an unknown white, powdery substance on the field. Joe Paterno suspended practice while police and federal investigators investigated. FBI forensic experts determined the white substance unknown to players was the goal line. Practice was resumed after special agents decided the team was unlikely to encounter the substance again this season.

Isn't it wonderful when a person loves his job, even though the pay stinks! An email rolled in yesterday that was special. The author was Charles R. Wolfe M.D., an internist and pediatrician practicing at a tertiary center/teaching facility in Duluth, Minnesota. Dr. Wolfe's grandfather was Bernard Wolfe and his grandmother was Alice Housewert Wolfe, graduates of Benton High School in 1917, and members of an unofficial group in Benton called the Molly Maquires, a social group we recently wrote about.

Dr. Wolfe's grandmother grew up in Bella Sylva, on Dutch Mountain. If you head over to http://www.lopezpa.com/photogallery.html, you will find a picture of the Bella Sylva school and Dr. Wolfe's aunt Linda Houseworth (Hauswaert). His grandmother is in the picture as well. His mother was from the Bernice/Dushore area. His grandfather retired as a bank president in Towanda, and his father was a medical doctor in the same town.

Dr. Wolfe wrote of an interesting comparison with his grandfather. His grandfather's nurse gave young Charles his own jug of apple cider for his fourth birthday. He writes, "On my own, I found a magic marker and put a mark at the current level to make sure no one was snitching my prize gift. When my father saw that, he cracked up because apparently Grandpa Wolfe used to do that with his whiskey. Another example of how familial tendencies "skip generations" and we are so effected by our grandparents."

State Treasurer Barbara Hafer, officially a Republican, endorsed Democrat Ed Rendell for Governor over Republican Mike Fisher. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says that Hafer anted up $15,000 for Philadelphia Democratic Mayor John Street's re-election campaign against GOP challenger Sam Katz. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review yesterday suggested that Hafer might attempt to unseat GOP Sen. Rick Santorum in 2006--while running as a Democrat!

Justin Lockard, 20, 665 Market Street, Benton, pleaded guilty Monday to killing Frank D.J. McHenry, 20, last February 7 in a drinking-while-driving car accident. The car Lockard was driving hit a utility pole near Waller Road. A full account of the story is available in Tuesday's Press Enterprise.

Are you doing your part to save? Consider this. Kamato Hongo of Japan, the world's oldest person, died Friday at 116. If she put away just $100 a year starting when she was 26 and if the investment had yielded a constant 10%, she could have left over $3 million to her family.

Karen Reed, President of the Benton Town Council, announced yesterday that bids will go out in the immediate future for sale of the town hall on Third Street. Final drawings are available for construction of a new town hall on the airport property.

We love to complain about the major interstate routes in the state, but didja know that PennDot estimates 15,000 trucks travel Interstate 81 on a daily basis? Didja know the estimate to widen and rebuild Interstate 81 ranges from between $15 and $20-million per mile.

Jane and Rodney Young will lead a discussion about communicating with the autistic child Friday, November 7, at St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church, starting at 10 AM. Parents, grandparents, child care givers and teachers are invited to this informative discussion. Jane and Rodney are the parents of a 13 year old autistic son. Jane has authored three books and many articles on this disability. Come and bring a friend...

Remember to check the Upcoming Events for the special events that make our area special! Two recent additions to the list are by the Huntington Valley Volunteer Fire Company. The first is a chicken and biscuit dinner at the Huntington Mills Fire Hall November 8 from 4 to 7 PM. And the third Sunday of each month there is an "all you can eat" breakfast for $5 at the Huntington Mills Fire Hall for 8-12. The next one is November 16.

The Bradford County commissioners have declared November 7 as "Nate Bump Day," and will honor the Towanda native in special ceremonies at the Bradford County Court House. On June 28, Bump officially joined the Florida Marlins a week after the team suffered a 20-4 defeat to Boston. The rest, as they say, is history: last month the Marlins defeated the New York Yankees in the 2003 World Series.

Pathetic Verse of the Day:
It's a comf'terbul feelin' when you don't have to care
'Bout choosin' your words or bein' quite fair
'Cause friends'll just listen and let go on by
Those words you don't mean and not bat an eye.
--Baxter Black

"All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents."
--John F. Kennedy

November 3, 2003

Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is.
-- Will Rogers

People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.

Tomorrow is election day. As Al Capone said, "Vote early and vote often." Remember that "Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote." Election day brings out the good food at the Benton United Methodist Church and at the Sugarloaf Memorial Schoolhouse, the scene of the Christ United Women's lunch. Both are open to the public and highly recommended.

Radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast the first commercial news, featuring the returns of the Harding-Cox presidential election, on this date in 1920. You can read the history of the station by going to http://members.aol.com/jeff99500/kdka.html .

Tyson DePoe, feeling sorry for himself after the latest in the string of Penn State losses, wrote from Seattle that wife Kristen and daughters Paxton and Rebecca went trick-or-treating and had a great time Back Home in Benton, PA. The three are home for the week from Seattle visiting relatives like Kristen's sister Carrie Lockard and parents, Joe and Lorraine Feola, and on Tyson's side, grandparents, Don and Barb King and Fred and Florence DePoe.

The Susquehanna University men's soccer made the playoffs for the first time in its 45-year history, as Susquehanna knocked off Widener 4-0 in Commonwealth Conference action Saturday afternoon. Benton's freshman goalkeeper Austin Kelsey earned his second career shutout even though Widener (11-7, 4-3) out shot the Crusaders 17-16. The next game is a Commonwealth semifinal, on Wednesday, November 5, at Messiah College, 7 PM. And is that game going to be easy? Well, if past performance is any indication, it will be a darn tough match up. Messiah is the 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 regional champions and the
2000 and 2002 national champions!

Ted and Shirley McHenry leave Monday for warmer climates. They plan to arrive in Ruskin, Florida, in mid-November.

Christina Guillen writes from Long Beach that she and her husband Alex had to cut short their anniversary weekend in Julian, an hour east of San Diego in the Cuyamaca mountains, due to the fires. Few roads were open that connected with the I-15. Tina's many friends Back Home in Benton, PA, will be happy to hear that she is OK.

Dr. Bob Laubach, 85, son of Benton native Dr. Frank L Laubach, has authored a new book entitled "Pieces of String, too Short to Save!" The book is published by ProLiteracy Worldwide and features over 350 pages and many photographs in the telling of his life's story. The book is available only to individuals who make a contribution of $50 or more to support literacy.

A reader said that a computer repairman clicked a couple of buttons and solved a troublesome problem. The serviceman indicated that the problem was an "ID ten T error," then presented a bill for a minimum service call. As the puzzled computer owner slowly wrote down what the repairman had said, it dawned on him what it was all about. He slowly wrote I D 1 0 T.

We received an email telling us that we were an old "fogy," possibly because of all the lollygaging that we do with computers, possibly because we sometimes see life differently than others do. Actually, we assume that the writer meant that we were an old "fogey" and we'll comment as if that is what the writer meant. And we would further assume that readers will generally agree that the old fogey term is somewhat disrespectfully applied to someone advanced in life with old fashioned notions. We don't take offense to the old fogey notion like we might have at one time because we do dawdle around doing everything but what we should be doing.

And that leads us to the conclusion that "lollygag" is a very funny term. "Loll" is an old word meaning to droop or to dangle and we use that word today to denote the relaxed passage of time as if on a vacation. There also seems to be a big difference between the relaxed meaning of "loll" and the wasteful use of time in the sense of "lollygag."

All this leads us to mention that we'll take about nine days off starting Friday. The Benton News will be silent during that time.

Marie Antoinette was born on this date in 1755. She married the quiet and unassuming crowned prince of France when she was 15. He became King Louis XVI four years later. She was a party girl, and some people resented her extravagant ways saying that she was immoral and wasteful. Antoinette supported the Old Regime when the French Revolution began, and when the National Convention established the First French Republic in 1792, she and the King were imprisoned. On October 16, 1793, she was executed on the guillotine.

Some refugees escaped France to avoid imprisonment or death at the hands of the Revolution. According to a story that has really never been accurately verified, Marie Antoinette and her two children were to settle about ten miles below Towanda in Bradford County at what is now known as the French Azilum, located on a horseshoe bend of the Susquehanna River. Azilum was a natural setting for French exiles who settled there in the autumn of 1793.

Names like the LaPortes, Homets, LeFevres, Brevosts and D'Autremonts remained in Pennsylvania where their progeny helped to settle Wysox, Wyalusing, Athens and Towanda while Azilum passed into history. More than fifty structures once existed in Azilum, but today not one remains. The four hundred-odd half-acre house and garden plots were absorbed into larger tracts of farmland and then tilled. About 20 acres of the original settlement remains at the site.

Quote of the Day:
"The harder I work, the luckier I get."
--George Allen

The upper Fishing Creek Valley seems to be the multicolored Ladybird Beetle capital of the county at the moment. This beetle is beneficial to the landscape but is frequently a serious household pest as it is now in Benton. We commonly refer to these buggers as Lady Bugs.

Someone who counts these things estimates there are about 400 different types of Lady Bugs in North America. Lady Bugs obviously are not all ladies! Eggs are laid in the spring and when hatched the larvae will feed for several weeks and pupate into adults. The adults feed through this time of the fall, then either lay eggs and die or hibernate over the winter, waking in the spring to feed and lay eggs.

Lady Bugs are widely used for biological pest control. Lady Bugs control aphids, and will consume whitefly, mealybugs, scales, mites and many other soft bodied insects as well as bollworm, broccoli worm, cabbage moth and tomato hornworm. A single Lady Bug will consume aphids in both their larvae and adult stages and work well in garden and greenhouse settings.

Lady Bugs are very territorial, and ones that hatch in your backyard will stay in your backyard--unless they decide to come inside your house as they are doing around Benton at the moment. One local lady rolled back the covers on a bed in a spare bedroom only to find the sheets covered with lady bugs. Anyone with trees near their house is sick of the pest at the moment.

For control of ladybugs inside the house, use the same methods and products used to control boxelder bugs. Treat around the outside of your home where you find cracks, crevices, entry points. Your vacuum could be a good tool inside the house!
The ladybugs create a nuisance by wandering indoors during a limited portion of their life cycle. They don't feed or reproduce indoors.

They don't attack the house structure, furniture, or fabric. They don't carry diseases or feed on people, although they will occasionally pinch exposed skin. Ladybugs may leave a slimy smear and they have a distinct, distasteful odor when crushed. From personal experience, we can also tell you that they spoil a glass of cider when they fall from the ceiling...

Ladybug! Ladybug!
Fly away home.
Your house is on fire.
And your children all gone.

All except one,
And that's little Ann,
For she crept under
The frying pan.

There was a nice picture of John Herbert Laubach on the front page of the Press Enterprise today, as he sang at the Barbershop program last night. Central resident, Greg Notestine, was named "Barbershopper of the Year." Greg and Kim are expecting their second child in a few months, by the way.

Local Government...
• Sugarloaf Township Meetings are normally held the first Monday of each month at 7:30 PM off Route 118 and Schoolhouse Road just past Grassmere Park. The supervisors for the township of 885 are Bill Repko, Chairman; Jerry Laubach, Vice-Chairman and Joseph DiAgostino, Supervisor.
• Don't forget the Benton Borough town council meeting Monday night at 7 PM at the high school. The meeting will take place in the Home Economics room, the old library.

November 1, 2003. Many houses in Benton looked ominous, forbidding, and spooky last night as hundreds of trick-or-treaters walked the town's streets. Two local bars celebrated the night with specials for those who showed up in costumes. The Presbyterian Church threw open its basement doors and served up cider and apples and candy--although to get through the door you had to get past a simulated chain saw. Demonstrations were held on the porch at the Third Street home of Theresa Hartman on how to electrocute people who went trick or treating. Well over 250 kids marched through the streets, hands outstretched, wearing their fright-night decor. Rarely would two be alike. Staff reporters were exhausted by the time that the trick-or-treaters went home and the jack-o'-lanterns turned off.

Today is All Saints Day. There are only 60 days remaining until the start of 2004.

We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries today, including...
• The Sistine Chapel at the Vatican was opened on this date in 1512 with a Papal Mass celebrating All Souls' Day. Michelangelo decorated the ceiling of the chapel based on the Old Testament, including the famous center section, "The Creation of Adam." The painting took four years.
• We'll have to mention the birthday today of Lyle Lovett, born in Klein, Texas in 1957. He grew up on the family horse ranch playing music, earned his degrees at Texas A & M in German and journalism, then went off to Germany to study. His career today centers around singing, song writing and acting.
• Ethel Kelsey has a birthday today and she and husband Ken also celebrate a wedding anniversary today.
• Rod Vincent, 53, celebrated his birthday yesterday, and somehow we forgot it. Happy belated birthday! Rod is proprietor, resident pro and head groundskeeper of Snob Hill Country Club, up on Distillery Hill), a personal golf green near his house with 5 tee boxes approaching from different points on his land. He's now working on a second "water hazard," a small pond to supplement his swimming pool. He even maintains "business" accounts for Snob Hill CC. It is quite exclusive with very limited memberships available! The photos of the McHenry tennis courts shown under the Rohr McHenry Distilling Company article on this web site were likely in the area near his home.

Rumors are flying about the possibility of an increase in the cigarette tax by as much as 25 cents per pack to help Pennsylvania doctors pay their malpractice costs. Based on documented health facts and armed with this impact on the pocketbook, wouldn't today be an excellent day to give up the habit?

Want a complete list of keyboard shortcuts? Go to
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/tips/personalize/keyboardsc.asp

Walter Trohan, 100, former Executive Director and later Chief of the Washington Bureau of the Chicago Tribune, died Thursday at the age of 100. Trohan was born in Mount Carmel July 4, 1903. His father, a wholesale grocer, moved to Chicago's South Side in 1910 and so he was raised and went to school in Chicago, and attended to the University of Notre Dame. Trohan was on familiar terms with 10 presidents, was a prominent Washington personality, a columnist and a WGN Radio commentator. Trohan covered the St. Valentine's Day massacre for the City News Bureau in which seven members of the Bugs Moran gang were gunned down by members of the rival Capone gang. He also covered the Cook County Building and courts, including the investigation of the gangland-style murder of Alfred "Jake" Lingle, a corrupt crime reporter for the Tribune who was gunned down at a Loop train station. In 1934, Mr. Trohan was transferred to Washington.

Trohan wrote it as he saw it, describing FDR as "the worst snob I ever ran across" and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as "a Keystone cop" and his men "callow drug store cowboys with twitchy trigger fingers and a love of limelight." He was the first to learn that President Harry Truman planned to fire Gen. Douglas MacArthur for insubordination. When President Truman found out that Trohan knew, Truman announced the action at 1 AM to blunt the exclusive Trohan might have otherwise received.

The Central Susquehanna Valley Transportation Project is still on track. The bypass of Shamokin Dam should begin right-of-way acquisition next year. PennDOT planners will soon start on the final plans for the proposed $380-million bypass around Hummels Wharf and Shamokin Dam on Routes 11-15, as well as a bridge crossing the Susquehanna River connecting Route 15 and Route 147 near Winfield. The Susquehanna bridge over the West Branch would be 4,000 feet long and 130 feet above the river. PennDot estimates that upon completion the traffic count on Routes 11-15 will be lower in 2030 than it was two years ago.

Just when we were getting used to not hearing the name "Hugo Marcus Selenski," ABC Primetime for Thursday, November 13, will feature the missing persons investigation of Penn State student Hyunjung Cindy Song and the possible connection of her disappearance to Selenski.

The faster that you go, the more chance you have of stubbing your toe, but the more chance that you'll get where you are heading.

Buster and Chloe passing out candy to trick or treaters on Halloween.

November take flail; let ships no more sail.

From the "Nobody Would Do That For You or Me" Department comes news that a federal bankruptcy judge has given his approval to a plan by WorldCom and its creditors to exit bankruptcy by the end of the year by simply wiping out nearly $35 billion in debt. Scandal-plagued WorldCom could again become a viable company.

Photo courtest of Lisa Zeveney Urie