On this date in...
1858, John Landis Mason received a U.S. patent for his invention eventually known as the "Mason" jar for preserving food. Mason jars sealed at the shoulder and had a zinc screw cap. The threaded neck fit with the threads in a metal cap to screw down to the shoulder of the jar and form a seal. In 1869, a top seal above the threads and under a glass lid was introduced to the jar.

Please take the time to read the oral history of Jamison City, "A Conversation with Jim Downs.

The preliminary total bear harvest for the state's traditional three-day season was 2,423. Statewide, 42 black bears with estimated live weights of 500 pounds or more were killed in the regular three-day season. We will not include any statistics for the buck season until the end of the season.

Three little words you often see
Are articles--A, An and The.

A Noun's the name of anything,
As School, or Garden, Hoop or Swing.

Adjectives tell the kind of Noun,
As Great, Small, Pretty, White or Brown

Instead of Nouns, the Pronouns stand--
Her head, His face, Your arm, My hand.

Verbs tell something being done--
To Read, Count, Laugh, Sing, Jump or Run.

The preposition stands before
A Noun, as In or Through, a door.

How things are done the Adverbs tell,
As Slowly Quickly, Ill, or Well.

Conjunctions join the words together,
As men And women, wind Or weather.

The Interjection shows surprise,
As Oh! how pretty! Ah! How wise!
--Anonymous

A recent trip to the behemoth Buckhorn branch of Wal-Mar started us thinking about the way that we once acquired our medicine, and our thoughts wandered back to those days when Rabb's Drug Store on Main Street sold Carter's Little Liver Pills and Lydia Pinkham products, all the medicine previous generations usually needed until someone invented our modern ailments and modern remedies. Rabb's Drug Store sold the medicine we needed to cure our aliments, and they were prominently displayed on the shelves.

Younger readers won't remember this, but Doc and Lola Rabb ran the drug store where the Columbia Country Model Train Group now meets. The store was in operation from June, 1921, through 1948 when Doc Rabb passed away. Mrs. Rabb then ran the drug store for another 18 years until 1966. Prescriptions were handled, after Doc Rabb died, by sending prescription requests to Bloomsburg each day where Moyer's Drug Store filled them, then returned the completed prescription requests with the afternoon mail run.

Druggist Norman Gelb purchased the property in 1966 and ran the store for a few years before moving his operation to the site of the former Charlie Hess Meat Market. The Charlie Hess Meat Market was on the East side of Main Street.

For those who don't exactly remember how the area was laid out between the former Jay McHenry Funeral Home (now Brian Laubach's Beauty Parlor) and Jay Yorks' Sports Center, lets describe it out this way. First, North to South, came the Jay McHenry Funeral Home, then the old Buckley's Five and Ten Cent Store, which recently burned during the occupancy of the Benton Flower Station. Next came an alley, which is still visible next to D. R.'s QuickMart, followed by Hotel Moses Van Campen. The Hess Meat Market came next, then another alley approximately across the street from the alley that runs beside the Old Filling Station. The M. D. Pennington Store Company came next, followed by a double house, then in the same building the U.S. Post Office (now Jay's Sports Center) and Kozy Korner.

In 1960/61, Edgar Baker combined the former Charlie Hess Meat Market and the M.D. Pennington store building and eventually seven apartments were added on the second floor. About 1965, Ginger's TV & Appliance started operating out of the combined building. Norman Gelb bought the building from Edgar Baker about 1968, and the drug store was moved from the location of the former Rabb Drug Store. Gelb's drug store and the Hotel Moses Van Campen burned in 1975 during the flood.

But, we digress! We set out to tell you about a medicine made by the most famous maker of patent medicine in the country, Lydia Pinkham. You can read more about this product at www.mum.org/mrspink3.htm .

Old Ebeneezer
Thought he was Julius Caesar
And so they put him in a Home
Where they gave him medicinal compound
And now he's Emperor of Rome.

Lydia Estes Pinkham started her business in 1875. What she sold was for "all those painful Complaints and Weaknesses so common to our best female population."

Johnny Hammer
Had a terrible ss..ss..ss..ss..ss..ss..stammer
He could hardly s..s..say a word
And so they gave him medicinal compound
Now he's seen (but never 'eard)!

The "female complaint" appeared on the backs of newspapers and women's magazines. The advertisement appealed to the "pain and suffering of being a woman," and featured glowing testimonials from women who claimed to have been healed from all manner of dysfunction and disease by the compound. Women were encouraged to write to Mrs. Pinkham for advice but the advertisements always failed to mention that Lydia Pinkham died in 1883.

Auntie Millie
Ran willy-nilly
When her legs, they did recede
And so they rubbed on medicinal compound
And now they call her Millipede.

Lydia Pinkham's morning picker-upper contained "seven natural herbs, plus iron, calcium, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E." Oh, and we forgot to mention the alcohol! Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound was 13-20% alcohol, which she claimed acted as a "solvent and preservative," probably solving many problems and preserving or pickling a number of her customers.

Up to Heaven
Her soul ascended
All the church bells they did ring
She took with her medicinal compound
Hark the herald angels sing.

We remember as we were growing up Father and Mother were good friends with Bernard and Alice Wolfe, Towanda. As a good friend, we suppose it was OK for Bernard to accuse Father and Mother of having a son that was a direct product of the alcohol in the Lydia Pinkham medicine. And if Lydia Pinkham was responsible for us being here (and being able to leap tall buildings with a single bound), we owe a lot to this medicinal compound once so popular Back Home in Benton, PA.

Jennifer Eccles
Had terrible freckles
And the boys all called her names
But she changed with medicinal compound
And now he joins in all their games.
--from Lily the Pink, sung by "Scaffold."

Sometimes it doesn't matter if you are on the right track. If you don't keep
moving, you'll still get run over.

Diatribe: "to wear away, spend, or waste time," "to be busy."
--The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1961, the first U.S. satellite carrying an animal was launched from Cape Canaveral. Enos, a five-year-old chimpanzee, was along for the two-orbit ride for almost three and a half hours. Enos experienced up to 7.6-G accelerative force during the launch, but carried out the lever-pulling and psychological testing that he trained for 16-months. Enos performed the tasks well, but received electrical shocks for incorrect answers. The input device eventually failed and Enos received shocks even when the correct answer was given. The well-trained chimpanzee continued to give answers until the end of the flight. Enos landed some 220 nautical miles south of Bermuda and was picked up by the U.S.S. Stormes. The test preceded John Glenn's orbital space flight.

If you loved the days of spinning on roller skates and boogying down to the sounds of ABBA, you'll want to see Bjorn Again: The ABBA Experience. Complete with Swedish accents and plenty of sequins and glitter, this show has delighted audiences for 13 years. From "Momma Mia" to "Dancing Queen" the 18th of February 2005 at the Kirby Center, Wilkes-Barre, will be a night of ABBA music you don't want to miss. Tickets go on sale Monday, December 6, at 10 AM. Call the Kirby Center Box Office, 826-1100, ticketmaster at 693-4100 or on-line at www.ticketmaster.com .

Most of our readers get the Benton News by email every day, although we consider the email version only a rough draft for the web version. Many of our readers who have joined us lately never look at the web version, and we recently were told by an email reader that he was afraid he would "break his computer" if he attempted to navigate to our web page and said that he "preferred to stay with the email version."

We were looking at the Benton News we published a year ago today and read about the history of the Exchange Hotel, the large hotel that once stood at the corner of Main and Market Streets in the Borough, at the location where the Market Street Grill and Dr. Hutnik's office now stand. If you have the time, head to the panel on the side and scroll down until you come to the ARCHIVES section. Double clink on the November 2003 articles and scroll down until you come to the November 28, 2003 portion.

The younger readers of our daily diatribe won't know the answer to this question, but take a look at the following two snippets and that is what we are going to write about Tuesday. The question? What was the "medicinal compound?"

Mr. Frears
Had sticky-out ears
And it made him awful shy
And so they gave him medicinal compound
And now he's learning how to fly.

Brother Tony
Was notably bony
He would never eat his meals
And so they gave him medicinal compound
Now they move him round on wheels.

November 28, 2004. The Benton News was not published today, but on this date in...
1925, the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville's famed home of country music, made its radio debut on National Life & Accident Insurance Company's station WSM. The station's call letters were abbreviation for the insurance company's motto, "We Shield Millions."
1948, the Polaroid Land Camera first went on sale. The 40 series, model
95, roll film camera sold for $89.75 and sold through 1953. It was the first commercially successful self-redeveloping camera system. A sepia-colored photograph took about one minute to produce and it was strictly "fingers off" until the photograph dried. Polaroid one-step photography was invented by Edwin Land.

November 27, 2004. Don't forget the Christmas Bazaar at the St. Gabriel's Parish Social Room Saturday from 9 to 4 PM.

On this date in...
1701, Swedish astronomer, physicist and mathematician Anders Celsius was born. He is known for the temperature scale he developed. He and an assistant discovered that aurora borealis influence compass needles. Celsius' fixed scale for measuring temperature, often called the centigrade scale, defines zero degrees as the temperature at which water freezes and 100° as the temperature at which water boils. This scale, an inverted form of Celsius' original design, was adopted as the standard and is still used in almost all scientific work.

1901, John Clement Studebaker died. Studebaker was born in 1799 in Adams County, later married in Ephrata to a Lancaster girl. In 1852, brothers Henry and Clement Studebaker opened a blacksmith shop in South Bend, Indiana. During the Civil War, the shop supplied wagons to the U.S. Army. In 1868, four of the brothers established the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company. The family firm took in $.25 the first day for shoeing a horse. The company later became the world's largest producer of horse-drawn vehicles and a leader in automobile manufacturing, delivering on its motto, "Always give more than you promise." The company built both electric and gasoline powered automobiles.

Buck hunting begins in Pennsylvania Monday. Last year about a million licensed deer hunters harvested 465,000 deer in Pennsylvania. The rifle season runs through December 11. To learn more about deer information from the Game Commission, head over to www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a465&q150279 .

We don't pretend to be movie critics, but we have seen three movies this year we enjoyed very much. They are, in the order we saw them...

RAY
Director Taylor Hackford didn't give us a great movie, but if you loved the music of Ray Charles. you can overlook the hard-core drug use, the fact that he had 12 children, and was at best a philanderer. The man could sing! Jamie Foxx plays Ray Charles Robinson to perfection and supporting players are excellent.

NATIONAL TREASURE
A couple of our Founding Fathers concealed a stolen treasure 230 years ago and wrote clues to its location on the back of the Declaration of Independence, using invisible ink that would be revealed under the influence of heat and lemon juice. Lots of action and an excellent movie about the Knights Templar, the Freemasonry, the pyramids of Egypt with Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C. thrown in. Nicolas Cage and Sean Bean head the cast trying to unearth the loot.

SIDEWAYS
Paul Giamatti treats his old college friend played by Thomas Haden Church to a weeklong fling before the character "Jack" marries. The two tour California's Santa Ynez Valley vineyards hitting our favorite restaurants (Los Olivos Cafe, The Hitching Post,"), the wonderful Fess Parker vineyard, and our favorite towns of Santa Ynez, Solvang, Los Olivos, Buellton, Santa Barbara and others. They meet two ladies, and the plot sickens from there. Worth seeing for the superb beauty of the Santa Ynez valley, a sailor could come out blushing and there is a scene with full-frontal nudity. Like a good wine, the movie will sneak up on you and you'll leave in a buzz.

We will not publish a Benton News Sunday. We will be in Washington, D.C. Saturday night at the Kennedy Center to see the Joffrey Ballet production of the Nutcracker Suite. The development of the story is worth noting, whether you like the music composed by Petr Ilich Tchaikovsky or not.

The story dates back to 1816 as written by E.T.A. Hoffman, an amazingly long short story called The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Alexander Dumas revised it into a children's story about a little girl named Clara and what happened to her at Christmas time when she received the gift of a nutcracker doll from her godfather. On Christmas Eve she dreamed that many of her toys became lifesize. In the story, there is a beautiful princess cursed to be ugly, a Mouse King, an ugly princess who becomes beautiful, a Rat King, a handsome prince and some other characters we'll remember when the production begins.

Tchaikovsky wrote the music for The Nutcracker Ballet and the ballet debuted in Moscow in 1892. It was first performed outside of Russia in 1934 when it was produced in England. In 1940 it came to the United States. The current staging was created in 1954 and is the Nutcracker most American audiences know.

Saint Francis (Pa.) racked up an 81-61 victory over Bucknell in women's basketball Friday evening at De Gol Arena. Saint Francis finished the game with 41 rebounds, including eight each by Benton's Regina Schlichter. Schlichter also tallied 11 points.

Pennsylvania's Republican senators, Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, announced some of the 2005 omnibus spending bill handouts passed by the Senate and soon to be passed by the House. The list includes...
• The Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce, $250,000 to buy the Irem Temple for a cultural center.
• Lancaster, $250,000 to renovate Central Market.
• Eagles Mere, $250,000 to revitalize the downtown area.
• Lewistown Borough, $200,000 for its municipal building.
• Philadelphia, $300,000 to save the 18th-century, 15-room Philadelphia home of Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, the first speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Philadelphia, $250,000 to the Allegheny West Foundation for the Budd Plant rehabilitation project.
• Philadelphia, University Community Homes, $200,000 for converting land into lots for low-income and moderate-income families.
• Philadelphia, Inglis Foundation, $200,000 to plan and build housing for the disabled.

Regretfully, no money was allocated to make Fink Street, Borough of Benton, into a navigable street. Fink Street runs behind the Market Square Restaurant, Dr. Hutnik's office, the ceramic shop, passes by the entrance to the Old Filling Station Restaurant. A street parallel with Market Street then leads to Main Street.

On this date in...
1915, W. Atlee Burpee died. Burpee, then 18, began selling seeds in 1876. He founded the world's largest mail-order seed company in Philadelphia and called Bucks County home. He had a passion for plants and animals and a mother willing to lend him $1000 dollars of "seed money" to get started in business. Within 25 years he had developed the largest seed company in America.

1836, John Loudon McAdamm, the inventor of macadamized roads, died. In 1816, as surveyor to the Bristol (England) Turnpike Trust, he designed their roads with a raised roadbed to facilitate drainage and laid graded stones in levels, with the smallest stones crushed and laid as a top surface. Later he added a paved surface having compressed layers of broken rocks held together with tar (tarmacadam) to bind the top layer. His methods were adopted in the United States.

Google has recently launched a new search tool for access to academic material. Google Scholar, http://scholar.google.com/ , allows anyone to search for keywords in theses, technical reports, university Web sites, and books. This service is free of charge and allows you to search from medicine and physics to economics and computer science. The search results are ranked by order of relevance, rather than by the number of hits. The project involved broad co-operation from academic, scientific and technical publishers to improve indexing of restricted-access material. Some publications may require a subscription to the publishing website to be read but short extracts should be available.

Foster Young's farm will be posted for NO HUNTING, NO TRESPASSING this weekend. For older readers of the Benton News, this farm was once the home of Dallas Hess and his wife, Mary Dallas Hess. Well, actually, Mary Dallas was not quite her real name, but everyone called her by that middle name because of the number of women in the area named Mary Hess.

Anyone caught trespassing on the Foster Young farm will be prosecuted to the fullest. Foster has always let people hunt who ask for his permission, but this year Foster's tree stand was stolen and so, unless the tree stand is returned, there will be no hunting on the land.

Dayne Kline remembers the time that someone built a tree house on his land without permission. During hunting season, two different parties started arguing over the rights to the tree house when neither party had permission to construct the tree house in the first place.

Need to shop for children this holiday season? Here is the list of the top ten toys for 2004, arranged by age and category, chosen by 1,300 children who played with the toys for about 38,000 hours, then voted. There were 21 winners and 42 finalists that kids had decided were worth recommending.

What we know as Thanksgiving originated in two holidays known as the Harvest Home feast and the formal day of thanksgiving ordered by church or government authorities in gratitude for a particular event. Thanksgiving Day began in 1621 at Plymouth Colony, when the Pilgrims gave thanks for their survival and a good first crop. President Lincoln in 1863 set aside the last Thursday in November for a national celebration of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day was permanently fixed in 1941 by a Congressional decree as the fourth Thursday in November.

On this date in 1998, Kenneth Brugger died. He was an American naturalist who in 1975 discovered the long-sought winter home of the monarch butterfly in the mountains of Mexico. For 38 years starting in 1937, Canadian zoologist Freud Urquhart tried to establish the route and destination of the insects. Using tags on the wings of some butterflies, he followed their trails to Mexican territory. Kenneth C. Brugger, a helper of Urquhart, finally found the first butterfly refuge in the center of Mexico, home of around 20 million butterflies.

Give thanks, all ye people, give thanks to the Lord,
Alleluias of freedom with joyful accord:
Let the East and the West, North and South roll along,
Sea, mountain and prairie, One thanksgiving song.
-- The President's Hymn, 1863

The Pennsylvania Game Commission processed 2,262 black bears this season, including 689 on the second day of the hunt. The statewide three-day bear ended at sundown Wednesday although some sections of the state will have an additional week concurrent with the first week of the rifle deer season (hunters should consult pages 36-38 of the 2004 Pennsylvania Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations). So far, hunters have taken 35 black bears statewide that have had estimated live weights of 500 pounds or more. Four have exceeded 600 pounds. County figures released by the PGC indicate the following figures: Bradford, 68; Luzerne, 61; Sullivan, 46; Columbia, 33; Wyoming, 32; and Northumberland, 4.

Turkey facts for turkey day, some old, some new...
• The word "turkey" may have originated with Columbus thinking that the bird was in the peacock family. Columbus, according to some stories, called the birds "tuka," which is the word for peacock in Tamil, an Indian language. Other stories hold that the name turkey came from Native Americans who called the birds firkee, which sounds like turkey.

• A young chicken, partridge, grouse, or turkey is called a poult. A male turkey is called a tom, a female is a hen. A group of turkeys is called a rafter. The tom makes the gobbler sound while the hen never gobbles. The hen makes a gentle clucking or clicking sound. A turkey under sixteen weeks of age is called a fryer, while a young roaster is five to seven months old.

• Tail feathers on a tom are helpful to identify jakes (1 year-old gobblers) from mature birds. When the tail feathers of a jake are fanned out, the middle 2 to 6 sets of primary feathers will be 2 to 4 inches longer than the rest of the feathers giving the fan a "bump" in the middle.

• The head and neck of turkeys have no feathers, but is covered with red, fleshy skin. A soft floppy growth which dangles downward over the beak is called the snood or dewbill. The fleshy, wrinkled, often brightly colored fold of skin hanging from the neck or throat of chickens, turkeys and some lizards is called "wattle." The warts on the wattle are called the caruncles. The head, neck, snood and wattle are reddish colored until the male turkey begins to strut, when the entire area turns brilliantly bright red.

• Ben Franklin thought the North American wild turkey should be the national bird, rather than the bald eagle, because it was quick to defend itself and fight against all predators.

• A domestic tom can weigh up to 50 pounds, while the domestic hen can weight up to 16 pounds. The wild tom can weigh up to 20 pounds, the wild hen up to 13 pounds, although local hunters discussing the hunt over coffee often claim they shot larger birds. The largest turkey is probably Big Bird of Sesame Street fame. He is actually dressed in nearly 4,000 white turkey feathers, dyed bright yellow.

• Breast and wings of turkeys (and chickens) are white meat, while the legs and thighs are dark. The dark coloration comes about because of specific muscle type and its ability to store oxygen, not the amount of blood in the muscles.

• The first turkey trot happened in England during the 1700's, when turkeys were walked to market in large herds. Farmers often covered the birds' feet with little booties to protect them on the long journey. In the dance known as the "turkey trot," dancers imitate turkeys by circling the floor in short, jerky steps somewhat akin to a fast way some of us slow dance.

• The average person in the United States will eat 15 pounds of turkey this year, according to someone who sits around watching what we eat.

• The domestic turkey can't fly and have such large chests that the tom is not able to fertilize the eggs of the hen in the natural mating position. The wild turkey flies for short distances, but it prefers to walk or run and has no problems in the other department. Wild turkeys can burst into flight at speeds up to 50-55 mph in a matter of seconds. A spooked turkey can also run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. A turkey does not have ears per se, but does have excellent hearing. The turkey also has exceptionally keen eyesight and can see in color with a field of vision of about 270 degrees. A turkey's night vision, depth perception and sense of smell are poor, but have a keen sense of taste.

• An old weather proverb says that turkeys perched on trees and refusing to descend indicate snow. Turkeys can drown if they look up when it is raining.

Planning to visit Central Pennsylvania. The web site at www.visitpennstate.org/ is an excellent source of information about rooms, upcoming events, sports and eating.

EverView Farm is a small family farm at 410 Klinger Hill Road selling a variety of handmade goat-milk soaps. Their market garden carries a variety of peppers and tomatoes and will offer strawberries and asparagus in the future. Their herd is of Scotch Highlander beef cattle and boer goats for breeding and meat. Goat kids and yearlings are available for purchase. All are hand raised, social, and trained to electric fence. For further information, contact Jackie Stash, 925-2611.

We have seen the rumor in publications twice; i.e., the Poconos are being mentioned as a possible resort site for a slot machine facility under the new state gaming law.

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious and your pies take the prize,
and may your Thanksgiving dinner stay off your thighs!

On this date in...
1909, the Wright brothers formed a corporation for the commercial manufacture of airplanes. Bogged down by patent suits against Glenn Curtiss and others, Wilbur died of typhoid fever in 1912 at the height of his career. Orville sold his interest in the Wright Company in 1915. The Curtiss Wright Corporation was formed in 1929 with the merger of the Wright and Curtiss companies.

For those of you who are headed "Through the woods, and over the hills to grandmother's house" via the Pennsylvania Turnpike be prepared for a possible walkout by turnpike toll takers starting today. There could be up to 2,000 workers who may head out to strike. The Commission could charge a maximum flat toll rate of $2 for passenger vehicles and $15 for commercial vehicles with State Police at every toll plaza to maintain decorum.

The Guv could approve legislation shortly that would speed the deployment of high-speed Internet access statewide following General Assembly approval Friday. That measure would replace what was called "Chapter 30," now expired, which required companies that own the telecommunications infrastructure to offer broadband service to every area of the state by 2015. The new measure requires faster speed of service and moves up that deadline to 2008. If the Guv does not sign the legislation, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission will continue to work under the law's original 2015 deadline.

Pennsylvania hunters took 1,573 black bears statewide on the opening day, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The 2004 first-day preliminary harvest is up slightly from the 2003 opening day harvest of 1,454 and 1,348 in 2002. The top four bears processed at check stations on Monday all had estimated live weights that exceeded 600 pounds, including a 660-pounder taken in Black Creek Township, Luzerne County. The top bear harvest county in the state after the first day was Lycoming with 147, followed by Clinton, 131; Tioga, 77; Cameron, 66; and Pike, 62. County harvests for the opening day included Bradford, 56; Luzerne, 38; Sullivan, 32; Columbia, 25; Wyoming, 19; and Northumberland, 4.

We understand that 47 bears passed through the bear checkpoint in Hillsgrove Monday with no reports of oversized bears. Owen Hess tells us that the bear season was successful for Jeremy Hess while hunting with friends Carl Fritz, Sr., Maple Grove, and Jason Deter, State College. The bear was taken in the Bendertown area at noon Monday. Live weight was 271 pounds. Near Dotyville, Charley Kearkuff and Richard Clocker both shot bears. Both Allen Hess and son Bruce shot bear, as did Joel Smith, Benton, and Woody Covington, Raven Creek.

The area record holder, however, is Robert McHenry Rabb, II, Hughsville. Hunting in the Lairdsville area, Robbie shot his fourth bear in four years. The bear dressed out at 225 pounds at the Dallas weighing station. Robbie, grandson of Dr. and Mrs. Donald Rabb, Mendenhall Lane, has three "Triple Awards" under his belt. For the past three years, he has shot a bear, a buck and a turkey. So far this year, he has shot his bear and his turkey, and could possibly get a fourth Triple Award this year.

Pork from Congress's 2005 spending bill flowed freely to the Wyoming Valley Levee Raising Project as the Senate and House of Representatives passed the $388 billion 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill on Saturday. The bill contains $7.3 million for the Wyoming Valley levee raising project and flood protection for the city. Congressman Don Sherwood, R-10, coughed up a total of $15.6 million for special projects in Wyoming County, parts of Lackawanna County, and the Back Mountain area in Luzerne County. We have not yet seen what Congressman Paul Kanjorski, D-11, raked in for special projects in his district other than the levee project.

Didja know that excessive automobile speed kills more people in Pennsylvania--472 last year--than drunken driving? Speed was responsible for 30% of Pennsylvania's highway deaths last year. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, over the last five years the average speed near Harrisburg in the 65-mph zone of I-81 has moved up from 68 mph to 70 mph and the average speed in the 55-mph zones has gone from 62 to 67 mph. Expect a crackdown in the near future, even though it currently appears as though State Police interest in speeding is at aa alltime low.

A presentation of the Christmas story will take place at the Stillwater Christian Church December 10 and 11 from 6-8 PM and December 12 from 5-7 PM. The story of the unfolding of the story of the First Christmas is depicted by local actors and through the use of artistic scenery, costumes, and live animals. Angel guides will lead groups of 12 to 15 people for a 25-minute tour through the "streets of Bethlehem." The event is free to the public and the church can accommodate approximately 300 people per night. Bus groups are welcome with advance reservation. Telephone (570) 925-2356.

And speaking of the Stillwater Christian Church, their congregation is ecstatic about the vote Sunday in favor of buying 34 acres just north of the Stillwater Cemetery, behind the Stillwater park. The property will front on Cemetery Road and on McMichael Road. Barbara Edson, secretary to the church, equates it to a Field of Dreams, in that the field is currently planted in corn and the hopes are that by spring an entirely new facility will be built in that location. The existing property in Stillwater will be sold upon completion of the new church. The church anticipates settlement of the agreement within the next 30 days. J. D. Klingerman, Orangeville, was the seller.

Janet and Bill Beishline, on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary celebration Photo courtesy of Richard Shoemaker

On this date in...
1889, Louis Glass and William Arnold placed a coin-operated Edison cylinder phonograph in the Palais Royale Saloon, San Francisco. The machine was a forerunner to the modern juke box. It was an Edison Class M Electric Phonograph with oak cabinet, fitted with a coin mechanism. Vacuum tubes had not yet been invented, so there was no amplification. A patron could listen for a nickel a play using one of four listening tubes. In its first six months of service, the Nickel-in-the-Slot earned over $1000.

Benton can be very, very proud of its championship rodeo. Contrast our rodeo with the Susquehanna Valley PRCA Rodeo held this weekend in Harrisburg. This summer on Thursday night, more people saw the Benton Rodeo than saw the entire Susquehanna Valley PRCA Rodeo over the past three-day weekend.

The hills were alive with the sight of hunters Monday, but the sound of hunters was nowhere to be heard, although the Bradford County bear reporting station reported 40 killed by 7 PM Monday. Five were from Wyoming and Sullivan counties. Dallas had not released figures as of press time. The largest bear brought to the Monroeton station was a 507-pounder, killed on Dutch Mountain. Last year, hunters killed bears in 52 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties. We will get statistics from the Pennsylvania Game Commission in a couple of weeks, but not much seemed to be happening locally yesterday during the bear hunt. The black bear population has grown to an estimated 15,000 right now. Still, the odds seem good for the bears; i.e., according to the PGC, last year only 2.4% of bear hunters were successful, more than 122,000 hunters bought a bear license, and 3,000 hunters got bears. We saw lots of cars on state game lands yesterday. We saw hunters sitting on five-gallon paint cans, on stumps, on downed trees and in the front seats of their pickup-ups. We saw road hunters and swamp walkers and cave people. We didn't see any bears.

We did enjoy talking with two old bear hunters, who said something like this (both talked fast and combined sentences into a few words and a few words into a phrase or two: "They was one up'ere at what they call Bear Swamp." His friend said that he intended to shoot at "him a time'r two," but so far he hadn't "got'im." As nearly as we could decipher the words, "he'uz hid off under the hemlock trees s'long he won't get up from where he'uz at." One of the hunters warned that when he "heered him a-comin', I'll give him a load and that'll be hit for him."

And speaking of hunting, the Times Leader reports that Gary Alt, Moscow, is "looking at retirement options," but nothing official has been determined about leaving or staying with the Pennsylvania Game Commission's deer management section.

At the state level, a bill passed Saturday night what requires that by the year 2020, 18% of Pennsylvania's energy will have to come from alternative sources. In addition to wind, solar and waste coal, other alternative energy sources covered by the new standards include geothermal energy, coal mine methane, biomass energy and fuel cells. The Guv made passing the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act one of his top priorities in the legislative session. The intent is good: the reduction of nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxides and the improvement of the environment. Some lawmakers, however, warned the bill was ahead of its time, pointing out that similar objectives are lacking at the Federal level. The bill, which the Guv has 30 days to sign into law, will implement the 18% requirement in stages over 15 years.

Numerous readers saw and wrote about the Northern Lights on November 8. Here is a site where you can see some pictures of the evening.

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.

In response to a reader's question, the Benton Area School Board consists of Lanny Conner, Phillip Edson, Evy Lysk, Geraldine Newhart, Rick Posey, Harold Ackerman, Nichole Shultz, Dennis Threlkeld and Robert Zettle.

On this date in...
1899, Wiley Post was born. The first round-the-world solo flight of 15,596 miles was completed by Post in 1933 in his single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B aircraft, "Winnie Mae," in a little less that 9 days. His first solo flight in 1926 was signed by Orville Wright. He wore a patch over his left eye, the result of an oilfield accident. Post invented a pressurized suit to wear when he flew around the world. He died in an Alaska plane crash with humorist Will Rogers in August, 1935.

1927, the first U.S. patent for a snowmobile was issued to Carl J.E. Eliason of Saynor, Wisconsin. Called a "motor toboggan," the machine had ski-like front runners and a rear-drive track. Between 1922-26, Eliason handmade forty of them. The first machines used a 2.5 hp outboard engine mounted on a metal frame body. In 1932, Eliason introduced a model that used a converted motorcycle engine and could travel over 40 mph. Eliason created the first reliable, self-propelled vehicle that could be manufactured on a sustained production basis. His basic design is still in production.

If you think that you saw Randy Hess on the Grand Ole Opry Saturday night playing with Lane Turner, you were right. Randy normally plays with Trace Adkins, but sits in when he isn't busy and plays with Lane. Lane's name might not be "household" to you. He was a honky tonker on the Texas circuit, playing music to make people dance, like he does on his new album Right On Time.

Having trouble seeing a web site? In both Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, click "View" (top toolbar) and go to "Text Size" and make the text as big as you want. No more eye drops required...

We had to smile at the advertisement for the upcoming "semi-annual After Thanksgiving Sale."

But we didn't have any smiles for Monday's Press Enterprise article that spoke to a Benton Area School Director speaking out of line, in our opinion, about undecided and confidential events involving the school board and the renewal of Superintendent Andrew Pollock's contract. The board must make a decision on Pollock's contract by February 1, 2005. Pollock's contract will expire unless the board chooses to extend or renew it at a public meeting expected in either December or January. In the Navy we had a saying that went "Loose Lips Sink Ships." We feel that one person's opinion published as if it were the decision of the entire school board jeopardizes the official, public decision when it is made. Talking before one knows what should be said sets a dangerous precedent as the school district enters a phase of contract negotiations with teachers.

William C. Follmer is recovering from a badly injured right kidney he suffered three weeks ago when he fell off the ladder at his home in Livonia, Michigan, while pruning a tree.

On this date in...
1783, Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis Francois Laurant d'Arlandes made the first flight in a balloon. They flew near Paris for 25 minutes to an altitude of around 300 feet for a distance of about six miles. A previous unmanned hot-air balloon demonstration and a second with a duck, rooster and sheep in a basket had proved that living beings could survive air travel. Louis XVI wanted to launch two prisoners, but Rozier didn't want to give criminals the glory of being the first men to fly. Ben Franklin was a spectator. By the time the Wright Brothers flew their first plane in 1903, de Rozier and d'Arlandes had already been the world's first human fliers 150 years earlier.

1846, Oliver Wendell Holmes coined the word "anesthesia" in a letter to William Thomas Green Morton, the surgeon who gave the first public demonstration of the pain-killing effects of ether.

Ada L. (Comfort) Holcombe, 94, (May 6, 1910-Nov. 20, 2004), formerly of Benton and Bloomsburg, died Saturday, in Cherry Hill, NJ. She was born in Troy, PA, a daughter of the late Burton Head Comfort and Alta Maud (Wheeler) Comfort. She received her degree in education from Mansfield State Teacher's College. Atter her marriage to Pierson J. "Si" Holcomb, the couple moved to Benton from Dushore in 1947, ran the former Chapin Funeral Home until 1965, maintained a summer home in Jamison City, moved to Bloomsburg in 1981, then to New Jersey in 1997. She was preceded in death by her husband on August 21, 2002. Their marriage lasted 71 years. Mrs. Holcombe was a school teacher and assisted in family business. Surviving are her three children: Pierson J. Holcombe Jr., Advance, NC; Susan L. Rhoads, Medford, NJ; Marianne Bettis, Prescott, AZ. There are seven grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren; and a brother, Laverne Comfort, of Savona, NY. A viewing will be held Monday from 6 to 8 PM at the McMichael Funeral Home Inc. Funeral services will be held 10 AM Tuesday, November 23, at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Bloomsburg. A graveside service and burial will be held in Benton Cemetery following the funeral.
--from a Press Enterprise obituary. A complete obituary is available from the newspaper.

Clyde ("Jug") Albertson, 73, and Marie Jankowski, 82, are both back in the hospital for the second time in a week and Tom Wenner is in the hospital. Please keep them in your prayers. Marisa Whitenight had a total knee replacement on October 11 and is now at home recuperating under the care of the therapist and "her beloved husband, Ted." She commented, "How loving everyone is in this small town of Benton."

The Nittany Lions scored four third-quarter touchdowns in a 37-13 win Saturday over Michigan State. Students chanted their support for Joe Paterno, 77, as the game ended.

We plan to celebrate tomorrow what may turn out someday to be a national holiday. It is the opening of bear season and we plan to disappear tonight into the Endless Mountains of Sullivan County. We will either not publish tomorrow or we will publish at some strange time.

We remember hearing about a hunting trip about 75 years ago to the same location, and under similar circumstances that group did not have a cook, either. When the group got into camp, they devised an emergency plan. Every day they played a round of poker dealing cards face up. The player with the highest hand was the designated cook for the day, with the proviso that if any other person complained during that period about the cooking, the cook should be relieved of his job and the person who bellyached would get the cooking detail.

An attorney got the first day's high cards and the job of cooking. The man had never even boiled a potato in his life. The meal he prepared was completely uneatable starting when he threw the spaghetti pasta into the cold water. A portly and prominent person proved pompous; in a moment of forgetfulness he leaned back and roared, "This is the damndest stuff I ever ate!" Suddenly, remembering the arrangement, he stiffened right up and quickly exclaimed "But I do like it. Gee, how I do like it!"

Now, let's see! Do four of a kind beat a straight flush?

Our isolated, unrelated and possibly incoherent thoughts for today...
• We don't seem to automatically get smarter as we get older. Except for wrinkles, nothing seems to arrive automatically. Some wines improve as they age, but only if the grapes were good to start with...
• We wonder if we can make sense out of the terms turkey filling, turkey stuffing and turkey dressing. When we put as much as we can into a turkey, we have "filled the turkey." Stuffing in the middle ages was known as farce, and that word came from Latin and French words that meant "to stuff." A "Farce" was a short, lighthearted play stuffed in between lengthy religious productions to keep the audience from nodding off. Forcemeat and farce referred to a spiced chopped-meat mixture, and the term is still applied to the making of sausage. The term stuffing did not appeal to the upper crust of the Victorian era, and the term "dressing" came into fashion. The terms stuffing and dressing are used interchangeably, with stuffing most frequently used in this country in the South and East. "Back Home in Benton, PA, most say "filling," or at least the well-dressed members of the Benton Christian Church congregation said that Saturday night as they filled their bellies until they were stuffed at their church Thanksgiving meal.
• Thanksgiving is good, but thanks-living is better.

Happy days are here again

The skies above are clear again

So let's sing a song of cheer again

Happy days are here again

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

One step at a time is good walking.
--Chinese Proverb

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
--Steven Wright

1929, the Leo Reisman orchestra recorded Happy Days are Here Again just three weeks after the stock market crash that plunged the nation into the Great Depression.

1947, the first network presentation of "Meet the Press" aired on NBC-TV. The panel interview program became the longest-running series on network television. Guests upcoming on Sunday, November 21, are Sen. John McCain, R-AZ; the former CIA senior analyst known as "Anonymous"; and Michael Scheuer, on CIA turmoil.

1984, 35 years and 11 months after the very first McDonald's hamburger was sold, the 50 billionth burger was made and sold.

The police of Pennsylvania will enforce a Click It or Ticket: Eight Days of Enforcement program from Sunday, November 21, through Sunday, November 28. You have been warned!

As the lame-duck Congress neared adjournment, the House on Friday passed a Senate bill that prevents state and local governments from taxing monthly fees. The ban on Internet access taxes should put an end to the countless emails we receive on this subject.

The Garrison Keillor joke of the week is...
Q: What did the building contractor say to the psychiatrist?
A: I think I'm developing a complex.

When the overcast fall skies overtake our area and we don't feel like banging around outside, we often turn to one of our favorite books, a complete, bound edition of a publication called the General Advertiser. The huge, worn book contains all the pages of the newspaper from the year 1812. The paper was published by Benjamin Franklin Bache, called "Benny" by his grandfather, Benjamin Franklin. Bache started the General Advertiser with the inheritance Franklin left him. Under the Sedition Act of 1798, he was arrested for some of his comments about the government and President. He came down with yellow fever while awaiting trial and died in September, 1798. His widow and William Duane continued to publish after his death.

The offices of the newspaper were in the former residence of an editor of the paper, James Wilson, at 322 Market Street, Philadelphia. Wilson was a grandfather to Woodrow, the 28th President of the United States. Under the name, Pennsylvania Packet and General Advertiser, the newspaper was the first newspaper published daily in United States, starting in September, 1784. The newspaper, which tended to be abusive to Federalists, continued to publish until 1822. The General Advertiser later became The Aurora and General Advertiser.

We give you all this information since we intend to revisit the paper from time to time and we wanted you to know that this is not just a "quack" newspaper, although it was a staunch and vocal anti-Federalist paper mocking Presidents George Washington and John Adams equally. What caught our eye on Friday afternoon was this advertisement, which introduced us to a word we didn't know.

The advertisement read...

"Six cents reward. Ran away from the subscriber on the 17th instant, an apprentice, named William McGonigle, between 19 and 20 years of age, a cordwainer by trade. John Thomas, November 20, 1812."

The English term "cordwainer" means shoemaker. The term cordouan, or cordovan leather, comes from this word. The first "Cordwainers," or shoemakers, in America came to Jamestown, Virginia, about 1607. Captain John Smith was a Cordwainer and his settlement was in part supported by profits made in the English shoe trade.

By definition, a cordwainer works only with new leather, where a cobbler works with old. Cobblers are repairers, and over the years were frequently prohibited from making shoes. The term "Cordwainer" is derived from the Spanish city of Cordoba, celebrated for silversmithing and the production of cordouan (cordovan) leather, called "cordwain" in England.

At the Veteran's Day program at the Benton Elementary School, Anna Dressler was listed to read an essay she had written in which she won $100 in a VFW writing contest. The essay was not read, so we decided to publish it as a public service. The essay reads...

November 19, 2004. Happy birthday today to John McHenry Unbewust.

On this date in...
1863, President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated the national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield. 1928, "TIME" magazine presented its first cover portrait. The cover was Japanese Emperor Hirohito. 1943, Stan Kenton and his orchestra recorded "Artistry in Rhythm," which become the Kenton theme. 1954, Sammy Davis, Jr. suffered a shattered face and the loss of his left eye in an auto accident while driving in the California desert. 1959, the last Edsel rolled off the assembly line. The Ford Motor Company produced the car for two years, with 110,847 cars manufactured.

Have you been worried about the outcome of the Governor's race in the State of Washington? It is finally over--oops, we just found out the race was so close there will be a recount! On the first round, out of 2.8 million votes cast, Republican Dino Rossi defeated Democrat Christine Gregoire by 261 votes.

We were asked to speak at the Benton Lions monthly meeting last evening. We closed our presentation with this story and we'll share it with you in today's Benton News. We prepared the story in honor of Benton's Post Master Gary Strauch, a member of the Lions and husband of the President of the local Lions Club. You can find out specifics about the Benton Post Office under FEATURES.

There is a rule of thumb that postulates that everything takes longer than we think it will take and that if anything can go wrong it will. That rule of thumb is sometimes applied to the U. S. Postal System and that is what this section is about: our mail system. By way of introduction, we'll mention that out in Pittsburg, California, a postal patron once was so upset over the non-delivery of a letter he needed that he simply shot the postal clerk.

What we used to know as the Post Office Department has since 1970 been an independent public corporation operating under the name of the United States Postal Service.

Everyone can tell a story about letters that went askew. What a friend and former postal employee from Arlington, VA, used to call a nixie, a inside term denoting an unknown origin and seemingly undeliverable mail, gets remarkably good service sometimes. We remember Sue Laubach's son Stanleigh Malotte, both now deceased, wrote to his Mother from California. Sue and Earl Laubach were Back Home in Benton, PA. Without a return address, the envelope was addressed simply, "The House With the Hole in the Roof," Benton, PA. The letter was promptly delivered to their home which Earl and others were painstakingly building beside the present Benton Elementary School. A letter incorrectly addressed to "Don Helwig" was correctly delivered to Donald Rabb, thanks to the Benton Post Office.

Sending post cards from a vacation trip was popular over the years, and at one point many post cards were sent to specific people in the Benton area, and the opening line of the post card frequently read, "Dear Wilene," a postal employee who some felt perused the incoming mail before sortingthe mail into the applicable pigeon hole. Those were the days when the post office was at the corner of Main Street and Market, where the Sports Center is now. Those were the days when standing in line waiting for the mail to be sorted was a popular event.

The rather rotund Rev. Robert Matthews served the congregation of the Benton Christian Church from October 1968 to November 1971. A youthful Bob Kelsey once wrote a letter simply addressed to the "Big Man in the Pulpit, Benton, PA," and the letter found its home on the first try.

Pat Truskoloski, Red Rock, told us about her six-year old nephew who sent her husband a letter addressed to Uncle Frank, Benton, PA. The letter was delivered. Their mailman at the time, Bruce Crawford, explained that he knew of two Uncle Frank's with relatives in Virginia and "he took a chance that it was us, and he was right. I still have the letter! You don't get service like that anywhere but 'Back Home In Benton, Pa.'"

John Herbert Laubach tells of a tavern in Bad Godesberg, on the Rhine River. Numerous foreign embassies and government agencies as well as residences of diplomats and government officials are here and in September, 1938, Adolf Hitler and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met there. In the town is a tavern called "Aennchen." With apologies to those who know German better than we do, Aennchen is a form of "Anna," and means gracious. The word "Aennchen" also could mean a small "n." Anyway, many letters were addressed to this tavern with simply a small "n" as the recipient with no other identification on the envelope.

Dayne Kline, a man with a mischievous side at times, is known to have been in Canada and simply addressed a post card to "The Proprietor of the Grist Mill, 17814." The card went through to John Mather without a hitch. Children write a lot of nixies, addressing their Christmas list to "Santa Claus" or "My teacher."

One of the most famous nixie was an envelope addressed to "Smitty, Askk Cookie." It was delivered by the letter carrier, "Smitty," to a tavern owner known to her customers as "Cookie." Another letter was addressed to "s.o.b., Washington." The letter was promptly delivered to the late Drew Pearson, a newspaper columnist. A letter in 1963 addressed to an address in Cowford, FL, a nonexistent town, was promptly delivered to Jacksonville. Cowford had became Jacksonville in 1822.

With our modern transportation methods, we no longer need to write "Haste, Post, Haste," on envelopes. We have come a long way from the days of the mail delivery on the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike where the mail went through every three days. We can no longer live as Henry David Thoreau did. We need the mail system.

We all know the motto of the U. S. Postal System, but few of us remember that the motto originated in fifth century B.C. During what was then called the Persian Wars (as distinguished from the Persian Wars still ongoing), Xerxes used runners to send back the warfront news of his invasion of Greece. Herodotus told the story...

A modern adoption of that is today the post-office motto. "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
--Inscription on the General Post Office, New York City

And where does the name "post" come from? Dating to the time of Augustus, the Romans had a system of delivering the mail, called "cursus publicus." The stations along the route were known as "posts," from the Latin positus, the past participle of ponere and it means "placed." There is no indication that mail was delivered during what we now call the "Dark Ages," but as civilization moved toward the "Middle Ages," private mail carriers carried messages in small metal bags made out of mesh, from which the term "mail" comes.

Mail delivery did not speed up for 1,900 years. In March, 1861, the Pony Express carried Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address 1,600 miles in 7 days and 18 hours. Benjamin Franklin was appointed in 1753 as postmaster general. He wanted the job for the prestige it would bring to him and the increase of sales of his newspaper he thought it would bring. He was an excellent postmaster general, even though he spent long periods of time during his incumbency in London. William Goddard actually got his private-enterprise system into operation and called it a constitutional post office. Disregarding this, the Continental Congress authorized a publicly owned post office on July 26, 1775, passed over Goddard and named Franklin the first American Postmaster general. When Government began under the Constitution, the American postal system had about 75 post offices and 1,875 miles of post roads.

We would continue writing, but we have to quit now. We have to pay some bills, and get to the post office before it closes to get them mailed.

November 18, 2004.

On this date in...
1820, Navy Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer discovered the continent of Antarctica. Speculation over the existence of a "southern land" was finally confirmed when British and American commercial operators and British and Russian national expeditions began exploring the Antarctic Peninsula region and other areas south of the Antarctic Circle. Not until 1840 was it established that Antarctica was indeed a continent and not just a group of islands.

1883, the United States adopted standard time and divided the country into four time-zones.

1959, the film, Ben-Hur, starring Charleton Heston, premiered in New York. It later received 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director.

Christine Karns will present her karaoke August 11, 2005, for the North Mountain Fire Co. Carnival, the opening Thursday.

We talked yesterday about Ed Allegar playing baseball. Teddy McHenry, writing from Florida, remembers his Navy days in the 1950's and a minor league game in Charleston. A member of the visiting team was Eddie Allegar. Ted went down and talked with Ed after the game. Ed writes, "I told him my name and where I was from. I am sure he didn't know me but knew my father. We had a great chat. I think he played shortstop that day. I was thrilled to see him as I had seen him play with his father, Red, and his brother, Bobby, at the ball diamond by Zehner Bridges."

And speaking of baseball, the Benton Area Little League holds its first registration for 2005 baseball and girls softball this afternoon from noon until 7 PM in the Benton Elementary School lobby. Players must be between the ages of 5 and 15. First-time players must bring a birth certificate. For more information, call Scott Mussleman at 864-2673. Scott tells us that there may be enough interest to have two minor baseball teams, a major team, a softball team, a teener team and a T-Ball team. The girls could end up with two minor softball teams.

When the snow falls, the air is filled with love,
It is a wonderful gift from up above.
The cold winter snow blows through your hair,
It's chill so surprising it gives you a scare.
You understand winter is definitely here,
When snow falls from the sky like happy tears.
--Composed by Caitlin Adams on her eleventh birthday, November 11, 2004

Wouldn't you like to visit five Danville homes that have been beautifully decorated for the holidays? You can Saturday, December 11 from noon until 5 PM and Sunday, December 12, from 1 until 4 PM. The cost is $15 per person. Contact Flemings Antiques, Danville, for tickets.

We love to sit down in the quiet of the evening and read ledgers and letters to loved ones and think how life was for our ancestors. Think, for example, what it was like for the wives of the early settlers who came up the Fishing Creek Valley and lived for months at a time without seeing a person outside her own family. Her family, by the way, seemed to get larger about once each year! Think of making the garden in the spring, spading the earth, throwing up some sort of fence around the plot of ground, hauling water to the garden in a container, maybe walking to town to get a little sewing from the "hotel women" in order to have a little money. An addition of a cow brought unexpected joys and some welcome changes to the meal situation. The unexpected death of one out of the team of horses threw all schedules off balance. Some years the entire crop of food would be corn meal. The house slowly enlarged to the point where a living room and two bedrooms emerged. A milk cow and then another made it possible to work toward the day they could say they had a "herd." More money came into the family as she took in washing when it was available, and did her share of the milking and made a little butter for selling, and made all the clothes.

One of the primary reasons we feel this way about history is because of our friendship with Helen Smith Gammon, a local resident during the summer months and an Arizona resident during the winter months. Helen is known for getting right in there and digging to the bottom to find how it was "back then." We have mentioned Helen many times since we started sending out the Benton News. We have to mention her again today. Helen's cancer has metastasized, evidently the tamoxifen stopped working. A bone scan shows the cancer is in her sternum, right lung and now in a lymph node in her left neck, and possibly in other places.

Helen could use your help in making a decision. Because the radiation would be very close to her heart from three different angles she can't decide whether to have 35 treatments plus boosters or take Arimidex and pray. The radiologist said since she has no "symptoms," she should take the Arimidex for 2 months. Helen has severe pain in her shoulders plus many other bones and is having difficulty walking.

Helen says that she is feeling slightly better at the moment than she has in months and is praying that the Arimidex is working. She needs to go on our prayer chain, and if your time permits would you allot just a little extra for this fine lady.

On this date in...
1932, there was a tie at the Academy Awards for the Best Actor between Wallace Beery and Fredric March. Eventually they both received an Oscar during the Fifth Annual Academy Awards. March got one for his performance in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Beery for his role in The Champ. The "best male performance of the year" was a bit unusual since each had adopted a child that year. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's movie, Grand Hotel, was "Outstanding Production."

1978, a murder-suicide took place in Jonestown, Guyana, when religious-cult leader Jim Jones directed the ingestion of Kool-Aid laced with cyanide by at least 900 of his followers. He and his mistress then did the same. Earlier that day, Jones directed the murder of California Congressman Leo J. Ryan, three news people and several "defectors." Ryan, on a fact-finding tour of Jonestown, was boarding a private airplane with his group when they were shot down.

Alanna Bath, a music education major at Wilkes University, won fourth place in the junior women division at the National Association of Teachers of Singing student auditions held recently at Millersville University. Alanna was one of more than 100 students to perform for voice teachers from the Allegheny Mountain Chapter of NATS, which includes faculty from Wilkes, Bucknell, Millersville, Susquehanna and Penn State universities. The Benton High School graduate is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Bath, Orangeville.

LuAnn Dent Everitt recently wrote of her fond memories of her father, Charles Henry Dent, Sr. (11/13/1910-01/30/1990), a sawyer, a soldier under General Patton, and a 27-year employee of the Mordan & Johnson Garage, Bloomsburg, first as a mechanic under the tutelage of Ercel Smith, and then as Sales Manager. The garage over the years sold Packards, Pontiac, Crossley, Willies, and Diamond-T trucks. LuAnn writes that her "Dad purchased a brand new '47 Pontiac in April of that year and so we traveled on our vacation to Bristol, Tennessee, in high style. My Grandmother Dent was from Washington County, Tennessee, and had many relatives she had not seen since the late 1890's. It was a wonderful time and we stayed a whole week. While we were there we all went to a ballgame to see a young man from Columbia County play. His name was Eddie Allegar.

LuAnn continued that her dad's first love was baseball and he "was scouted by the Phillies to play on one of their farm teams. However, he was raised on a farm and one of nine children, and the family needed everyone home to work on the farm. But that never dulled his deep passion for the game. I remember how thrilled he was to see a 'hometown boy' make good." After the garage closed Charles became Assistant Superintendent of Highways in Columbia County.

We should say something about the semipro league in which Ed Allegar played. A host of players who made it to the major leagues started in the Southern Association (or as it was often called, the Southern League) during their careers, men like Ty Cobb and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Teams tended to come and go, but Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, and Macon played with other teams from Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga, Birmingham, Bristol and Jacksonville. A similar league was the South Atlantic League, http://www.southatlanticleague.com/index2.html , also known as the Sally League. For more about minor league baseball, swing over to http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/history/general/ . Ed even pulled in a Most Valuable Player award while playing minor league baseball, but as a member of the Giants farm club there just were not enough openings to bring him to the majors. Ed now lives in Jamison City, is a retired teacher from the Benton Area School System and is married to the former Alice Sutliff.

Senator Arlen Specter is what conservatives call a Republican in Name Only, a long way of calling him a RINO. Specter, along with Rhode Island's Sen. Lincoln Chafee, Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and Ohio's Sen. George Voinovich and Sen. John McCain of Arizona are RINOs on some issues. So far, Specter -- who is in line for the Senate Judiciary Committee post -- appears to have weathered the campaign against him.

The MerleFest for the past 17 years has been the premier festival in Americana music. This year the festival runs in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, from April 28 through May 1, and the music will be no exception. Listen to this lineup: Doc Watson, Patty Griffin, Del McCoury, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Douglas, Buddy & Julie Miller, Ricky Skaggs, and Allison Moorer. The "Father of Bluegrass" will have a Blue Grass Boys Reunion hosted by Peter Rowan, featuring Earl Scruggs, Vassar Clements, Bobby Hicks, Del McCoury, Tater Tate, and Roland White. Many festival favorites return for MerleFest 2005, including Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Donna The Buffalo, Railroad Earth, Tim O'Brien, Tony Rice, Balfa Toujours, The Kruger Brothers, John Cowan Band, The Waybacks, David Holt, Loretta Lynn, Nashville hillbilly band BR549, Americana pioneer Rodney Crowell, acoustic innovators Wayfaring Strangers, dance greats Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble and John Jorgenson exploring the music of Django Reinhardt. Quintessential traveling bluesman Roy Book Binder hosts the acoustic blues showcases, featuring 90-year old Delta master Robert Lockwood, Jr., Corey Harris, and Mary Flower. New Directions at MerleFest 2005 on Friday at the Americana Stage will feature Allison Moorer, The Greencards, Gigi Dover, Old School Freight Train, Caroline Herring, Daybreak, The Duhks and Hayes Carll. We'll see you there!

There are two types of people:
those who are more for getting,
and those who are more for giving.

We wonder...
• If the counties of Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna and Wyoming make up the "Endless Mountains, why aren't the mountains "endless" when they get to the borders of those counties?
• How can we get "usto" terms like "up back of Benton," and "down cellar"?
• Why did the Delaware Indians call themselves "real men" (Leni-Lenape?"
• What was in the lunchtime favorite sandwich known as "Hoggies" at the Hog Island Shipyard in Philadelphia? (the word was later changed to "Hoagies.")

November 16, 2004. Mikelanne McHenry Welliver and David McHenry celebrate birthdays today.

On this date in 1980, Roger Mudd began working as chief Washington correspondent for NBC after leaving CBS after being passed over as Walter Cronkite's replacement on The CBS Evening News. The position was given instead to Dan Rather, who continues to make his own news even today. Mudd, 76, still occasionally hosts History Channel documentaries about politics.

An open house to commemorate the 50th wedding anniversary of Bill and Janet Beishline, 50 Bendertown Road, Stillwater, is planned for Sunday, Nov. 21. Family members are hosting the celebration from 2 to 5 PM at St. James Church community hall, Bendertown. The Beishlines were married by their brother-in-law, the Rev. Kenneth Kindig, on Nov. 24, 1954, at the East Side Baptist Church in Sharon. Mrs. Beishline is the former Janet M. Thomas, daughter of the late Harlan and Patti (Van Horn) Thomas. Her husband's parents are the late Clayton and Pauline (Young) Beishline. Their children are Mrs. Michael (Carol Ann) Bath, Bendertown; Mrs. William (Cheryl Renee) Pasukinis, Benton, and Gregory Levi Beishline, Harrisburg. There are four grandchildren and two step grandchildren.

We are having an old-fashioned Indian Summer all week. According to the Farmer's Almanac, an Indian Summer can occur between St. Martin's Day on November 11 and November 20. It is described as a period of warm weather following a cold spell or a hard frost.

A rapid response from the Benton Area Volunteer Firemen to Green Creek Road kept the woodshop of Carl Stuehrk from being destroyed Monday afternoon. An apparently overheated wood stove was the cause of the late-afternoon fire.

We are like a phish out of water. We are so pleased that we scored 100% on a test! If you can't be sure what is fake email from eBay, Citibank, PayPal, and so on, take the test at http://www.mailfrontier.com to see if you can detect which are phish attempts and which are legitimate. Click on each link to see an example of the email before making your guess.

At the school board meeting Monday night, the board voted to...
• Appoint Linda Smith chairperson of the Arts/Humanities Department with a pro-rated $550 stipend yearly.
• Approve Benton Area High School to host the 2005-2006 Columbia-Montour County Chorus Festival on November 9 and 10, 2005.

We have lots of readers who "don't know sickem" about hunting bear, and yet for thousands of men come a week from now hunting bear will be a primary activity in the state as we enter a period something akin to having a state holiday. The three-day bear season opens Monday, November 22, and the estimated state bear population of 15,000 could be reduced by about 3,000 bears by Thanksgiving.

Bears were taken in 52 counties in 2003, including three bears with estimated live weights exceeding 800 pounds. In Pennsylvania, bears are most frequently found in north-eastern and north-central areas. A favorite topic of conversation around the Kozy Korner this time of year starts off "the biggest bear I ever saw," or "the best coon dog I ever owned." It is necessary to sometimes read between the lines. An animal that was "treed" may never have left the ground. It might just have "holed" up somewhere like a cave or a hollow tree. References to a "painter" could be to a mountain lion that someone thought he saw the previous day, even though the Game Commission swears we don't have any. Other birds and animals come up in conversation, too. The expression "inta'flock" probably means 20 or so turkeys in one location at one time. When something is "up'ere" it means that it isn't down there and when it is "in'ere" it means it isn't out there.

If something goes "t'gobblin'" the something is a turkey and it is telling its friends something that we can only guess at. If a hunter goes to "get'im," the animal or bird probably has been shot and the next question is usually "d'ja get'im?" We heard about a hunter once who shot a bear that disappeared between some rocks into the steep side of a hill. The hunter who shot the bear decided to go in after the bear. Another hunter told him to be careful so the bear "don't bite' chew!" Turns out the bear had been shot and it died. When the hunter came out, he said he wasn't afraid because when he went in he didn't come "a'holt a'th'bitin'" end.

We have to admit at this point that these stories are coming to light because it is Sunday night and three of us are spending the night at the Painter Den cabin in Sullivan County. Buster and Chloe are sleeping on chairs in front of the fireplace. It is a fine place to remember hunting stories, like the November hunt in 1998, when Robert Rabb, then a Muncy resident, shot a 501 pound dressed-weight bear on opening day of bear season in Central. Robert was hunting with sons Robert and Mathew and with Miles Little, Benton. Harry Ritter, also of Benton, shot a smaller bear that appeared about the same time. Robert had a full mount made of the bear.

We know that dragging a huge bear out of the woods like the one Robert shot would be a problem, and we remember an old story of killing and skinning a bear. The bear meat was stacked in as many piles as there were hunters who helped get the meat out of the woods. One hunter was blindfolded and turned away from the piles of meat. He then called off hunter's names as someone pointed to piles of meat. Each hunter would then claim "a mess a'meat" and nobody had hard feelings about the meat that he got. The shooter got the hide.

This year we suspect that hunters will find bears in thick cover like swamps and bogs, outcroppings of mountain laurel and rhododendron, and north-facing slopes as the animals enter a phase known as hyperphagia in which they gorge themselves with high-calorie food. Listen intently. Look for scat up to the size of a soda can. A paw print can be up to 5" in diameter. Bears are very noisy when they eat. Organized drives of hunters are effective. Get out early and stay late. Try to stay downwind of bears and don't expect a bear to run up on you. Most walk and feed slowly. If you use a call like a fawn bleat, remember that the bear that shows up will be there for lunch! Good luck in your hunt and let us hear your bear hunting stories.