November, 2007 Archives for
the Benton News

November 30, 2007. Happy anniversary to Marv and Marilyn Seward, their 51st. Today is also Wilbur Kocher's birthday and the 48th anniversary of the 21st birthday of Phyllis Young Harrison. Wilbur and Phyllis celebrate their birthdays 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."

We are thrilled about two new businesses in the area: Young's Automotive, Stillwater, 925-6940; and Strevig's Family Restaurant and Tavern, Route 487, in the remodeled building that previously housed the former Kameeo's Restaurant and the former Mortgaged Inn. Look for the restaurant to open next week.

Bob Webster is a favorite speaker at the North Mountain Historical Society and will be back on the third Monday of December at the Brass Pelican Restaurant, the week before Christmas. Bob has made a program change, and tells us that "I put together a program that I think might be interesting to people on the customs and traditions of Christmas." Bob will talk about the various customs of Christmas, many of which have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus--things like Santa Claus, Christmas trees, Saint Nicholas, Christmas carols, sending Christmas cards, hanging up mistletoe, He'll take all these customs and traditions and explain where they started and how they started. The program is free and open to the public. Breakfast is served around 8 AM and the program begins about 9 AM. It all happens Monday, December 17.

Joe Paterno’s salary this year will be $512,664, according to the Harrisburg Patriot News. The salary seem fair for a man who has been the head coach at the same University for 42 years! For comparison, the Iowa coach made almost $3 million in 2006 and Alabama's coach makes $4 million a year.

Didja ever notice that quiet people are not the only ones
who don't say much?

Helen and Alfred Snyder ran the grocery store in Central for 19 years. It was a great gathering place for the locals who could be found sitting around in the evening discussing the important and not-so-important news of the day. Country grocery stores used to be something like barber shops; if one wanted to know the lowdown, check in there. Alfred drove the school bus that carried the local kids from home to school and back.

Helen recently went to Washington, D.C. on a bus sponsored by the Columbia County Commissioners in order to see Washington and the World War II Memorial on the Mall in the Nation's Capitol for the first time. Her trip came more or less by accident. She is one of the generous souls in the area and sent in "a small donation" to help finance a veteran who could not afford to make the trip. As she explained how she got to go on the trip, she said "it snowballed back to me so that I could go." Helen's brother, Michael Maziarczyk, was a radio operator and Helen was particularly interested in seeing the Korean Memorial in which she could see the role of the radio operator. She had such a good time on the trip that she said "if there was ever another one going, I'd sneak back in!"

She shares her thoughts of that day in the following letter...

"I wanted to see if anyone would tell of the bus trip to Washington, D.C. on November 12, 2007, to the World War II Memorial. No one has and it's been too significant not to be told." At this point, she wrote a comment in her own handwriting, and added it to the side of the six-inch by six-inch typed letter. The comment indicated that "Mr. Wesley Swanson, WWII Korean/Vietnam from Millville has written by now, but I would like to add more thank you's too."

Helen then continued her account of the trip, saying, "We left the old Giant parking lot along Central Road with almost our full load, continued on to Berwick and then to Burger King where anyone who wanted was invited for a free coffee.

"After that stop we were on the way. Before that I must tell of the care and concern the younger people showed in helping we (us) oldies and (mostly slow and lame) to get on and into our seats.

"Being I was from the Benton area I was in luck when I started to the bus from my car with a small tote bag, a pillow for my hip (higher the better) though not necessarily for cushioning and a cane; who should come to my assistance but two kids I've known for years, Jim Vance, Jr. and Nevin Dressler, Jr. I felt pampered as they unloaded me to be able to grab the rail to get on the bus.

"On the road to the restaurant for brunch in Maryland we sadly we lost two of our bunch to an unfortunate fall at restaurant steps. One the victim, the other, her true friend to stay behind with her. Then on to D.C., my first trip ever. Not having gone through high school and in 1944 did they have that trip to D.C.?

"I was in tears a few times by then. First to see the old gents and two lady vets and their efforts 60 years ago and then again that day; then to see the George Washington Memorial, then the Lincoln Memorial, then the bus stopped and the World War II Memorial right in front of me. I waited to get off till my eyes cleared and I had a bit more space to maneuver. It was the first time I thought to use the word "awesome" since the Grand Canyon in 1986.

"There was no clear direction for the Vietnam and the Korean Memorials and we scattered to go at our own pace in our own direction, being slow and not wanting to hold anyone up I walked long and hard but missed the other two but did walk all around the whole World War II basin with all the states and other countries counted for. Again waiting for the home trip I witnessed the care and the kindness given to the veterans who needed it by their care givers and the younger men on board.

"I had enlightening conversations with two veterans on the trip. One a seatmate and one who helped me type in my brother's name on the registry. It was amazing to hear their ideas and the fluency of topics from men who had gone through so much and are still so able.

I had just turned 18 two months before the end of the Japanese war and am now 80. These men have to be at least five years older. If one didn't know it would be a guess of a much younger voice and opinion.

To close all I can say with a grateful heart is to finish with a sincere thank you to all the veterans and to the coordinators of the trip.

Helen Snyder
Stillwater, Pa"

A Suzuki Firebelch 500 motorcycle was in my arsenal of weapons years ago. It was my answer to the rising gas prices. If Dave Garroway or Barbara Walters were live on the Today show from an outside location in Washington, D.C., my now-deceased first wife and I would hop on the motorcycle and head for Washington. We would park anywhere and see a free outdoor concert of the Beach Boys or other middle-of-the-road group that sucked in a huge television audience for NBC. There was only one problem.

Cars keep coming much too close for comfort. Motorcycles seem to travel in a blind spot for cars which became all too evident once when driving my car I changed lanes without adequately seeing what was to my right. I almost ran into a motorcycle. From that time on, wherever I drove the motorcycle I assumed that someone would try to hit me and then it became a game of figuring out which car it would be. I was always on guard, always alert. Nothing ever happened and I was fine. Computers are much the same.

Security is a major problem for the person just starting out on a computer. Some get that point; others ignore it. Some newbies surf paranoid, afraid to open anything or try anything. Some newbies believe that by clicking a button on what appears to be a legitimate web site will really win them an all-expense paid trip to a time share in Jamaica or that opening that enclosure on an email from someone they never heard of will give them more information about this charming Nigerian woman who is willing to give them half of the $15 million she secretly has in a bank account in the United States. The real answer lies somewhere in the middle and somewhat parallels the amount of personal insurance the user carries. Some insured have just enough to get their driver's license, while others are protected from having their roof collapse from floating elephants in a hurricane.

Computer protection is a little more than developing an unflinching good habit about not opening unknown attachments. Every person who writes to me had best be running an anti-virus program. I take no chances on incoming email. If my filters tell me there is a problem with an incoming email, it gets trashed and not opened. For a newbie, I would say that something like the free version of Avast is good enough, or perhaps buy Norton or if you run Comcast McAfee comes free. Keep in mind that if you change anti-virus software it is essential that you completely delete the old anti-virus software first and don't think things will work correctly by running multiple anti-virus programs on the same computer.

It is important to read about malware and why downloading Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware is important computer protection.

It seems like a lot of people are waiting for their ship to come in
when they never sent one out!

A very interesting web site, http://www.gravmag.com/oil.html, can provide a wealth of information about the oil situation in this country. This web site is worth a visit.

A House panel voted Wednesday for a version of an open records law, House Bill 2072, which is similar to the just-passed Senate bill, but has at least one major difference. It treats all four government groups--executive branch, legislature, courts and local agencies--the same, presuming that most records are open. The House wouldn't exempt the Legislature and the courts from this stricter standard, as the Senate bill does. It is slated for a vote next week.

Clair Ivan Crawford (July 20, 1942-November 28, 2007), Main Street, Orangeville, died Wednesday. He was 65. He was born in Lightstreet, a son of Ivan Crawford, Berwick, and the late Dorothy (Funk) Crawford. He was a 1961 graduate of Central Columbia High School. He is survived by his wife, Barbara (Dildine) Crawford, and his father, and by daughters Rae L. Morris (Dave), Stillwater; Tameria K. Wodrig (Chuck), Stillwater, and Zina N. Minnick (Bill), Mifflinville. There are five grandchildren: Haley and Hamilton Morris; Brooke and Weston Wodrig; and Caitlin Minnick. Clair had two brothers, Earl Crawford (Joyce), Lightstreet; Max Crawford (Renna), Buckhorn, and a sister, Jane Smith (Tom), Millertown. A Celebration of Life Service will be held Saturday, December 1, at 2 PM at the Orangeville United Methodist Church. Burial will be private in the Laurel Hill Cemetery, Orangeville. Immediately following the service at the church there will be a fellowship luncheon at the Orangeville Fire Company where people will be encouraged to share stories about Clair’s life.

November 29, 2007. Happy birthday to Robert Edward Kline.

Upcoming...

. December 19, 2007. The Fishing Creek Femme Fatale Chapter of the Red Hat Society will hold its Christmas gathering at Balzanos at Husky Corners, Bloomsburg, at 1 PM. The menu will be tossed salad, Panko chicken, baked ziti, mixed-steamed vegetables, rolls, dessert tray, coffee, tea, iced tea and soda. The cost will be $13 including tax and tip. Reservations and prepayment are required and should be made to Jackie Malhoyt, treasurer, 8 Red Gravel Road Stillwater 17878 not later than December 15. Everyone is asked to bring a $5 gift to exchange.

. December 20, 21, 22, 2007. A Night in Bethlehem will be performed from 6 to 8 PM nightly at the Benton United Methodist Church. The whole family will enjoy the night of food, crafts, sights and sounds as you journey through Bethlehem the night the Savior was born.

. February 28-March 9, 2008. The Florida Strawberry Festival, Plant City, Florida. There are over 5,000 acres of strawberries produced by some 2,600 farms, but the festival is also famous for citrus, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, okra, peppers, beans, dairy products, eggs, ornamental horticulture, tropical fish, beef cattle, swine and other related products.

Congratulations to the following local people who were elected solely via the write-in process during the recent election, noting that the winner has the option of declining the position...
. Benton Borough, Chris Meigs, Assessor; Dan Hartman, Borough Council

. Benton Township: Pam Tucker, Auditor

. Sugarloaf Township: Kay Stanton, Auditor

. Stillwater Borough, Ferne Yost, Sherry Weaver, Auditor; David Miller, John S. Kline, Jr., Thomas Dougher, Jr., Borough Council

Someone once said that business is what, when you don't have any, you go out of. Some local businesses and churches are doing a thriving business with books for the Christmas season. Here are some examples...
. Red Rock Corner Store is selling Peter Tomasak's new book, The Life & Times of Robert Bruce Ricketts, which retails for $26.45 including tax. The 410-page book is loaded with pictures of the local area and would make an excellent Christmas present. Only 100 copies have been printed to date.

. Brass Pelican Restaurant. The latest version of the Jamison City book is now on sale at the Pelican. I'll review the book when I get my copy. There are also many other books for sale at the Brass Pelican.

. The Christian Women's Ministries of the Benton Christian Church is selling cookbooks as Christmas presents for $10 each. Contact Peggy Follmer, 925-5908.

Quickies...
. For the reader complaining about the lack of storage space on his computer, Google Inc. plans to soon offer users a way to store information on its hard drives they would otherwise put on the hard drives of their personal computers. Google will let users store documents, files, music and video free and then permit access through the internet from any computer.

. Didja hear about the $800,000 in stolen tractors and the arrest of a California man on suspicion of vehicle theft and possession of stolen property? A global positioning system (GPS) known as "LoJack" on a stolen John Deere asphalt roller led the Fresno County Sheriff's Department Ag Task Force to equipment including a backhoe and two diesel engines. Police recommended that equipment should always be inventoried and photographed. John Deere uses GPS to assist in driving equipment and minimize passes through fields with fertilizers and chemicals. A LoJack system installed costs about $800. The savings from locating a missing tractor--Priceless.

. My advice for those people who drink like a fish is to swim, not drive.

. Didja ever wonder what it would be like to live in a four-level condominium?

. Authority to create a series of interrelated non-commercial radio stations serving the Dushore and Laporte areas in Sullivan County and other areas of the "Endless Mountain" area was recently filed with the Federal Communications Commission. The filing indicated the station would serve the educational-program market with news, public information and jazz.

By an overwhelming majority--48-1--a bill to expand the public's access to government records passed the state Senate Wednesday. The bill now goes to the House where yesterday the State Government Committee approved a bill modeled on the Senate version. The measure defines as public all records of the state's executive branch and local government agencies, unless a record falls into one of 28 exceptions dealing with investigations, personal privacy, public security, and unfinished drafts.

Game Commission bear-check stations recorded preliminary figures of 2,004 bears killed during the November 19-21 season, and an additional 23 bears during the two-day archery-bear harvest. The total bear harvest of 2,027 for these two seasons is significantly less than the 3,122 bears during all three seasons of 2006 and the 4,164 during the 2005 season. Local totals for 2007 and 2006 are Bradford, 38 (33); Luzerne, 35 (46); Sullivan, 22 (67); and Columbia, 20 (17).

 

November 28, 2007. Tuesday was an absolutely beautiful hunting day in Sullivan County, the fog lifted, temperatures hovered about 38°, a light snow fell. In fact, it was such a nice day that all the deer must have taken a trip to a neighboring county. The movie The Trouble with Cali began filming in and around Scranton a year ago today. A release date has not been announced.

Quickies...
• The Benton United Methodist Church will take "Angel Food" orders at the church Friday, November 30, from 5-7 PM and Saturday, December 1, from 9-11 AM.

• Robert Ridall and Ramona Heaps will represent Benton and Sugarloaf townships for the next four years. Ramona Heaps was certified by Judge Thomas James, Jr. Monday and will assume her position on the Benton Area school board December 5. A new representative to the Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech board will be named.

• The Sullivan Review has begun publishing Wednesday mornings in lieu of Thursday mornings on a trial basis.

• Nina Ford, Huntington Mills, one of the many volunteers who make the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center such a nice place to visit, got a deer on the way home from volunteer duty Tuesday morning. Nina wasn't sporting a rifle. She used the back door of her Firebelch 500 automobile, which the hapless deer chose to ram. She said it made her feel just like Daniel Boone! A body shop is looking at the damage now.

• A reader suggested that a review of www.patreasury.org/Unclaimed/Search.html , the Pennsylvania unclaimed property listing, might result in finding a treasure worth keeping.

The Christmas season is approaching, and for those who are thinking of a new computer the question is "desktop" or "laptop." There are reasons for and against for both. Here is a quick, incomplete comparison...
• Desktop, meaning a personal computer. You can probably get more whoopty-dos with a PC, lots of power, a Firebelch video card, powerful processors, maximum memory and capacity. You can get hugemongous monitors and a keyboard and mouse to your liking. You'll end up with wires running everywhere, a relatively heavy tower that is always in your way and travels poorly. Add-ons can make the meter spin. Optional speakers can rattle windows, but can produce impressive sounds.

• Laptops. Easy to carry and use, small, convenient, makes a nice resting place for the family cat who likes the warmth rather than the feel, slides under the car seat on a long trip and can be used as a GPS when you get lost and can access a wireless network when you stop at Starbucks or Panera Bread or a library in a far-off city. The mouse, keyboard, monitor and speakers are built in and there are few external wires. You'll be able to eat your Country Store baloney in your undies in the living room while using a wireless connection, rather than sitting in Aunt Sally's uncomfortable desk chair she bought when she went to house-keeping. There are downsides, too, as when the laptop disappears from under the car seat, or Grandma steps on the darn thing during one of her sidestep maneuvers or the mouse no longer responds to the "e" key, or the monitor gets scratched, or meltdown takes place when you stay in a gin-mill longer than you intended. Laptops are difficult to upgrade once purchased.

Bottom Line: Power users probably need the PCs. Everyone else can consider the laptop. Either way, if specifications are not complete when you buy your new computer there is a high probability that you are getting a model that is obsolete.

Computers are not high on the list of Christmas giving and so we should look elsewhere for the appropriate present. I asked around and came up with a number of suggestions. One man, who apparently had spent all his money on whiskey and women and wasted the rest, didn't plan to buy any presents this Christmas. This romantic soul said he and his wife do their shopping right after Christmas when the sales begin.

Some of the men intended to buy gadgets they felt their significant others needed. One felt that four new snow tires would do it "for the Mrs." One 70-plus year-old man said he was getting "Mother" the new set of pots and pans she always dreamed of, although he admitted he didn't have a clue what kind or how many she needed.

Women are quite different in their shopping. They include "ponder" in their purchases, leaving out the male trait of "quickness and finality." Men are more likely to find a flannel shirt for Cousin Ralphie, then buy eight more identical shirts for each male member of the family--with none in the correct size. Women wouldn't think of throwing out the sale slip, whereas men don't have any idea what they did with it. Men tend to get one big present that encompasses the entire family, like a GPS to hang in the family truck. Women head to the mall to "find a little something" for everyone and as a result are a boon to the Chinese economy.

If I had the money, I would give Marcia Kay the perfect gift--and would test drive it a couple of times before I presented it to her.

As a result of all this, Christmas becomes very orderly. When the first man in the family opens his present the rest of the men in the family know full well what he will receive--the only question is how close to the right size it will be. On the other hand, men can never figure out what the women in their lives will give them. Will it be the white shirt one size too small as an inducement to go on a diet? Will it be the orange tie with powder-puff blue shirt that looked so good on the Macy's gift table? Or will it be a gift certificate to the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble?

The best thing about shopping for Christmas presents is that the women in my life have always told me not to worry about it, that they would handle the job themselves. I like it that way although I think I'll go out and test drive something just in case...

 

November 27, 2007. Happy birthday to Hope Miller.

The first day of buck season has some definite characteristics...

Getting up early after staying up late, but not feeling tired.

Eating buckwheat cakes and sausage, home fries and eggs at 5 in the morning.

Hearing old timers say that deer season doesn’t excite them all that much anymore as they pour syrup in their coffee and drizzle cream on their cakes.

Putting on so many clothes you can hardly move.

Panting to the top of the mountain and then freezing as you vegetate in your deer stand.

Remembering what you left in the car after you get to your stand.

Hearing the first shots and deciding you picked the wrong stand.

Hearing the first twenty shots and knowing you picked the wrong stand.

Moving to another stand and hearing a "meat shot" where you were just standing.

Thinking you have a spot all to yourself, only to turn around and find someone slashing through the underbrush toward you.

Downing all the smashed food that you had packed for the entire day by 9 AM.

Seeing wild turkeys you’d been hoping to find for the past month.

Attempting to suck down Reese's Pieces candy with frozen thumbs inside stiff gloves.

Staying out all day in weather you wouldn’t dream of working in.

Seeing a buck appear out of the fog, seeing a huge rack, slowly raising your gun, steadying the cross hairs on the shoulder, hearing a snort, squeezing the trigger, and watching the white tail wave goodbye.

Wanting to wrap your rifle around a cherry tree.

Having fun and forgetting cares and worries, a time to come alive, a time to be free.

You can learn more about deer hunting in our state by visiting the Game Commission website.

Didja know that Schwendfelders were the forerunners of the Quakers. They came to Pennsylvania in 1734 carrying with them their sixteenth century volumes of literature reproduced in neatly written manuscripts. In 1734, upon their arrival, they established a "Gedachtnis Tag" which could best be described as "Thanksgiving." These people established the Perkiomen Seminary, Pennsburg, PA.

The annual Christmas Musical at the Fairmount Springs United Methodist Church is coming up December 9 at 2 PM. This is my favorite musical event of the holiday season! The church is usually lined in poinsettias and just as pretty as any church you'll ever see. This year there will be over 30 participants with many music instrumentals and many vocal selections. Ashley Sorber has promised to climb behind the piano and Arithe Sorber will charm us with her flute, the congregation will be called on to break into song, there will be some prayer reminding us that we are honoring Jesus and the season. Thelma Steinruck, Mill Street, will loosen up her 86-year old vocal cords to produce her famous "Yodl - Ay - EEE - Ooooo." Come and enjoy an afternoon of music. Everyone is welcome. For more information, call 864-3618.

Many lenders who focused on people with poor credit have gone bust while big banks and investors who made subprime loans or bought securities backed by them are reporting billions of dollars in losses. As this scenario plays out around the country, the consolidated statement of income for the nine-month period ended September 30 for the CCFNB Bancorp, Inc., parent company of the Columbia County Farmers National Bank, is much different. Although subject to year-end audit adjustments, the local bank enjoyed an increase of earnings per share from $1.47 a year ago to $1.61 during the current period.

Pennsylvania law does not start with the presumption that government records are public records and that citizens are entitled to see them. The law defines the concept of "public record" very narrowly to include only those documents that are an "account, voucher or contract" or a "minute, order or decision." This precludes a wide range of information that should be open to the public, including studies, reports, plans and databases--none of which is covered under the current law.

The Pennsylvania House attempted to correct this problem and made a mess out of the situation, tacking on amendment after amendment, before lawmakers quit in frustration. They then hammered out a new bill which is patterned after the Senate version of the changes to the law. Although House leaders claim the House will vote on the new bill within the next ten days, the exact language hasn't been made public at this writing. It appears as though the Pennsylvania Senate version of the Open Records Bill, known as "The General Assembly of Pennsylvania Senate Bill No. 1 Session of 2007, will be voted on this week. Stay tuned.

 

November 26, 2007. It is the opening day of what we call "buck season" in Pennsylvania. Be a responsible hunter and neighbor: observe safety zones and private property and be sure of what you are shooting. The local school is closed, the woods have yards of orange in them, men and boys and some women and girls of legal age are in the woods trying to "bang a buck." The weather is much better than it was for the opening day of bear season--although rain is forecast.

Man (the hunter) will attempt to outthink buck (the animal) for the next two weeks as hunters head outdoors in pursuit of the male white-tailed deer. Deer for the next two weeks will rely on their natural instincts without resorting to a lot of thinking. Man will think things through and pretty much ignore his natural instincts. Many hunters will simply lose the chase because of the simplicity and effectiveness of the animal instinct.

Lets see if I can explain. A deer isn't alarmed by hearing dogs bark and roosters crow, or by cars and trucks in the distance. Deer watch as we cross back and forth in their field of vision. They smell the coffee, the buckwheat cakes and the wood smoke, watching intently for anything out of the norm, while the sights and sounds of its environment that it has known since it was a baby don't alarm him. When the season arrives for deer hunting, the hunter dons his required orange coloring, gets downwind from the expected path of the deer, and hides well. Still, a deer notes the strange shape and knows it doesn't belong in his world. The instinct of the deer, alert 24/7, is danger, even though it has never been fired at, harmed in any way, never read in the newspaper that hunting season had opened. The deer doesn't stop and think, he bolts instinctively before he ever attempts to reason. The hunter has no idea what he did wrong since he looks at the hunt from his relatively complex point of view, not from the black and white of the deer's thinking.

If we think back to the primitive hunter who relied on the animal for his food, clothing and traditions you'll realize that these people thought like animals. They were tuned in with the animals they were after. These people didn't sit on a stump or climb a couple of feet up a knurly old tree. They realized that sitting on a ridge looking down into the valley was simple two-way vision and at one end the hunter was outlined against the sky. Deer simply saw the hunters and chose a route away from the hunters. The hunters never had a clue that a deer was in the area. The giveaway was possibly a dark-colored outfit attempting to blend in against nature's background. Many hunters have watched in the distance as a granddaddy buck stood motionless for minutes, always outlasting the hunter who never did figure out why he didn't get a chance to shoot the deer. The deer, which can only see grey and shades of gray, doesn’t see the fluorescent clothing; it sees the movement. (Birds, on the other hand, do see color, but again if the hunter blends in with the environment, if the lines of the hunter are broken up, the hunter has a better chance of not being detected.) And imagine what a deer will do if a hunter peers around a tree trunk and sees a deer close up. That deer will be in the next township in seconds. (Ancient hunters were said to slowly rise up with a branch in front of their face.)

Deer do not look up or down, but seem to look in a line on their own level. Deer hunters in a tree or prone on the ground will often do better than one sitting or standing (although for the same reasons this is not true of a turkey hunter). Deer listen intently, and the sounds of nylon or a squeaking boot or cellophane or just a broken stick under a hunter's boot will give the hunter away. If the sound doesn't spook the deer, it may spook other woods birds or animals which in turn alerts the deer. Clear away twigs before you plop down. Think of a huge whitetail running in the woods and the number of feet he runs without you ever hearing a sound; then think of the nasty crack you heard when you broke off a branch as you sat down. Take the time to look at yourself as your prey looks at you. Good luck with the hunt.

Keep Ora Karns in your thoughts today. She is back at Loyalton Bloomsburg but is very weak, on oxygen and needs to use a wheel chair. At the moment, she cannot use the walker because of her weak legs. She is fine mentally, with good memory both short and long term.

Northern Columbia County Town Watch (NCCTW) will hold its November meeting Monday night at 7 PM at the Benton United Methodist Church, Main St. The December meeting will also be held there on Monday, December 17. We are looking for new members and will be voting in new officers in December. NCCTW is a joint effort between law enforcement and the community designed to enhance security and keep our neighborhoods safe!

The police scanner yesterday reported a string of calls to the Buckhorn Wal-Mart for shoplifting, which brought to mind a story which goes something like this... A lady was weed-eating her yard in preparation for the onslaught of snow and accidentally cut off the tail of her cat hiding in the tall grass. She rushed her cat along with the tail to Wal-Mart instead of heading for a vet. She explained to the puzzled receptionist at the SuperCenter that she had heard that Wal-Mart is the largest re-tailer in the world.

One of the emails that lined my inbox yesterday dealt with minorities and I thought it worthwhile to repeat it here. On the subject of minorities, the writer made the point that we need to show more sympathy for these people since they travel miles in the heat, risk their lives every day by crossing a border, don't get paid enough wages, do jobs that others won't do or are afraid to do, live in crowded conditions among a people who speak a different language, rarely see their families and face adversity all day every day.

The writer wasn't talking about illegal Mexicans. She was talking about our troops.

The email ended, "Doesn't it seem strange that many Democrats and Republicans are willing to lavish all kinds of social benefits on illegal aliens, but don't support our troops and are now threatening not to fund them?"

We have a lot to be proud of with the people who made our state what it is. The Quaker followers of William Penn (and the Baptist followers of Roger Williams who settled Rhode Island) were the only American colonists who founded colonies to escape religious oppression and were of a mind to give that degree of religious freedom they claimed for themselves to others of differing religious opinion.

It is always a pleasure to stand at the Capitol building in Harrisburg and look outside at the valley and the river and the hills surrounding that city and then to look inside the dome of the building where are inscribed the words of William Penn concerning the founding of his colony:

"That we may do the thing that is truly wise and just...
"That an example may be set up to the nations...
"That there may be room there for such a holy experiment...
"For the nations wait a precedent...
"And my God will make it the seed of a nation."

"And my God will make it the seed of a nation." How true those words became. The Constitution of the United States unequivocally states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Other colonies accepted this principle that stemmed from our Commonwealth and they embodied that concept in their State Constitutions.

Deb and Nevin Dressler, in conjunction with the Columbia County Commissioners and others in the area, had the privilege to accompany the World War II veterans and widows to Washington, D.C. on November 12 to visit the World War II Memorial. There were more than 40 veterans and widows on the bus. The group spent two hours at the World War II Memorial and several vets asked to see the Viet Nam and Korean memorials. Other visitors at the memorial wanted to shake the veterans' hands and little kids wanted their picture taken with the vets. The experience brought up a lot of memories and the guys enjoyed the opportunity to share common feelings.

Another trip is planned in the spring for other veterans in the area. If you know of a veteran who would like to make the trip, please contact the Columbia County Commissioners at 389-5600.

Picture courtesy of Deb Dressler

 

November 25, 2007. The Benton Volunteer Firemen are holding their monthly buckwheat cake and sausage breakfast this morning. Iva Mae Conner celebrates her birthday.

Some old pictures surfaced of a five-passenger touring car built by the Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Company, Indianapolis, being driven through the streets of Benton with Harry Magee in tow. I remember seeing the car in Los Vegas at the Imperial Palace, along with another one once owned by Mr. Magee.

The 1930 Duesenberg on the left was originally owned by Harry Magee.

You can get a preview of the many classic cars on display now at the Imperial Palace by going here.

The Duesenberg was built from 1913 to 1937. The Duesenberg "Straight 8" had eight cylinders "all in a row" with hydraulic brakes on all four wheels. The car was advertised to have extreme flexibility, power and easy riding. Fred S. Duesenberg also built racing cars and airplane motors. An unusual feature of the car was the one-piece camshaft mounted above the cylinder heads and overhead valves. The car has a wheelbase of 134 inches. The brakes were operated hydraulically with a central piston located near the gear box connected with smaller pistons in the drums on the wheels by tubes which carried a special fluid. The "parking" brake which took the place of the usual emergency brake worked directly on the drive shaft with the result that there are no brake rods on the car.

The vehicles that were commonly called "Duesies" in the 1920s and 1930s introduced an interesting name into our vocabulary, although evidence exists that the word "Duzzie" (or doozy as some dictionaries spell it) had been around before the 1920s. If you have further interest in the subject, visit the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana, a National Historic Landmark.

Two "people" who had doozies for names come to mind. The first was "BRFXXCCXXMNPCKCCCC111Mmnprxv1mnckssqlbb11116" (whose Swedish parents got fined $753 for naming their son that silly, unpronounceable name). The second doozie of a name was Sik Kohl.

John Herbert Laubach recalled that there are some references to Ezekiel Cole, the first man to build a prosperous grist mill on Fishingcreek, in the "Day Book" of John Christian Laubach. Christian (the early Germans tended to "throw away" the first name) Laubach moved into the northern end of Columbia Country about 1794 or 1795. John Herbert wrote,

"I would not consider the Day Book spelling as authoritative. John Christian tended to write things according to German phonetics. However, since so many of John Christian's associates were German immigrants, they probably did use the German spelling in their early days.

In any case, John Christian referred to Ezekiel Cole as "Sik Kohl." In German, an "s" that begins a word is pronounced as a "z." Hence, the German "Sik" would be pronounced "Zeke."

On December 24, 1794, John Christian recorded that "Sik Kohl" had borrowed a substantial sum (22 Pounds) from Johannes Gotthart," known elsewhere as "John Godhard." Godhard was the grandfather of John Christian's wife. He came to live with John Christian late in his life. Several local persons borrowed money from him.

There were additional references to "Sik Kohl" in August, 1795, when John Christian worked for Zeke Cole in connection with corn, perhaps the milling of corn. The "Day Book" of John Christian Laubach was lent me by Ethel Laubach, the widow of John Paul Laubach. It was written in German and tracked much of the day labor of John Christian from the time of his youth near Bethlehem, Pa. The time period was from 1782 until 1795. John Christian settled near the crest of what is now Kearcuff Road, near Camp Lavigne."

In the late 1800s, wildlife was dwindling as a result of deforestation, pollution and unregulated hunting and trapping. From this period emerged the Game Commission.

"It is feast or famine," Mother used to say, commenting on whether things were going well for her or not. The same has long applied to the availability of white-tailed deer in our state. The Philadelphia Inquirer, in an article in its issue of November 5, 1879, provided some insight into the hunting of deer long before anyone now alive can remember.

According to the article, deer had been plentiful "twenty-five years before," but "indiscriminate hunting, in and out of season, nearly exterminated the game. In 1877, sportsmen in parts of the state decided to take extreme measures to insure the future availability of deer."

Hunters banded to form a game society. In Pike County, a law was drafted prohibiting the hunting of deer in that county for three years. Heavy penalties awaited those who strayed from the rules. Deer were given a brief, three-year respite from both hunter and hound.

The article told about a large buck, followed by three hounds, which dashed through the village of Bushkill a few years previously, down Main Street until it plunged into Bushkill creek. A score of hunters, with guns, were soon on its track. It was headed off in the creek by a woman who was washing clothes in the stream, and it doubled on his tracks and started back for the mountains. A shot from one of the hunters turned it again, and it ran through the back yards of half a dozen houses and made for the Delaware River. As it jumped a rail fence, it was hit by another hunter. It fell, but was quickly on its feet, and it continued on its way to the river.

Two boys were fishing for bass in the Delaware. They saw the deer coming, and began yelling to chase it back. It jumped in the stream and swam toward the Jersey shore. The boys tried to row ahead of it, but could not. On reaching the Jersey shore, two farmers saw it and forced it turn. It jumped back in the river. The boys rowed in front of it, and one of them struck it with his oar. The other grabbed the deer by the horns. With a sudden jerk of his head, the buck pulled the boy from the boat into the river. The lad swam for the shore. The Pennsylvania shore of the river was now lined with excited men, women and children. The dogs that had chased the buck from the woods swam out to where it was in the river, and a terrible fight broke out between the dogs and the buck. A hunter jumped into a boat and rowed out to where the deer and dogs were fighting. He shot the buck through the head and towed it ashore.

As the winter weather hits our streets and our sidewalks, you might ponder where all the highway deicing rock salt that is used to raise the freezing temperature of snow is processed. On the outskirts of Geneseo, New York, where I spent the Thanksgiving holiday, is the home of the American Rock Salt Company, the largest operating salt mine (18,000 tons each day) in the United States. This is the only underground salt mine in the United States built in the last 40 years.

The American Rock Salt Company owns and operates a rock salt mine located approximately 35 miles south of Rochester just east of the western and central New York and Pennsylvania snow belt. Its principal customers are government agencies that purchase rock salt for ice control on public roadways. The Company has mineral rights to over 10,000 underground acres, most of which are located within a mile radius of its drill holes.

Some may remember that in 1994, the Akzo salt mine collapsed. At the time, the mine was the largest salt mine in North America. The mine was across the Genesee River Valley from the present American Rock Salt mine. On March 12, 1994, part of the mine roof collapsed and millions of gallons of water flooded the mine which covered an area roughly the size of Manhattan some 1,200 feet underground. There were no injuries.

The following is a picture of Idlers Camp, Forks, so named, the grandson of the original owner maintains, because Sheriff Dent and others from the Columbia County Courthouse spent a lot of their idle time there. The thought was that since "they didn't have a real job" that would be a perfect name for the place. William D. Creasy, generally known as W.D. Creasy, was a justice of the peace in Forks, the owner of Idlers Camp, and lived on the farm of his father, John P. Creasy, a soldier during the Civil War.The farm was the first one below the old Forks Hotel. The grove was situated where Fishingcreek angles east and meets Knob Mountain. Older readers will remember that it was east of where Carl Fleckenstein lived.

To access the grove, it was necessary to turn behind the Twin Bridges and continue on that road as far south as the road went. There was a great deal of lawn around the grove and was an ideal location to hold a picnic. The ACF in the early 1940s held its company picnics there. Those who attended the picnics from Berwick would ride the train to Bloomsburg, then ride the Bloomsburg & Sullivan Railroad to Forks.

During a severe flood in March, 1941, the high, swirling waters moved the supporting stone pillars and the building collapsed. The family tore it down. Today, the area is grown up during the warm months with an invasive weed known as Japanese Knot Weed. The foundation and part of a huge outdoor fireplace remain.

 

November 24, 2007. Today's birthdays include Paxton DePoe, Luke Becker and Agnes Hess. Bill and Janet Beishline and Ron and Alice Strauch celebrate their wedding anniversaries.

Quickies...
• Want to get the "skinny" on a place? Go to http://zipskinny.com/ and enter your zip or click or the state and select a town or city.

• Are you smarter or stoopider than the average person? Take a simple IQ test at http://www.flashbynight.com/test/ and find out.

• Beta 1 of Firefox 3 has now been released with some wonderful new features. The program will be released to the public in the near future.

• There was an enthusiastic response to the request for someone with whom to communicate by email for the former Bentonian currently living in Oregon.

It is a new day and a new bill to change Pennsylvania's Open-Records Law has been introduced in the state House of Representatives. House Democrats decided to introduce a new bill closely aligned with the Senate's open-records proposal. The House will likely take up the bill when they return to session December 3. Open records could be considered next week in the state Senate.

A local farmer once named his favorite dog "Dog," his second favorite dog was named "Dog," and, in fact, his wife's lap dog was named "Dog." Life was simple. When the farmer called out for "Dog," he was sure of getting all the dogs in the household. It isn't as easy for us humans. People ended up with last names--known as bynames or surnames--to distinguish them from others with the same first name. Bynames were given to an individual--not a family--by convenience and circumstance, not by birth. Surnames were taken by families and passed on to their offspring, generation after generation, although spelling often changed. The surname in our family changed from Clyn to Cline to Kline. Many surnames originated as bynames.

As everyone who reads the Benton News knows, names of towns and the reason for the names are important in our area. The Borough and the Township of Benton can be traced back to Thomas Hart Benton, Zaners gets its name from Charles Paxton Zaner and Fowlersville goes back to the first postmaster, Gilbert Fowler. Lopez takes its name from a drowning victim, probably of Spanish background. Mocanaqua comes from the Indian name of Frances Slocum who took the name Maconaquah" meaning "little bear woman." These are names connected with a family.

In fact, many of our local post offices took their names from influential members of the community and many from its first postmaster. The little community of "Laubach," for example, was named for Andrew Laubach. The town of Jim Thorpe takes its name from the man King Gustav V of Sweden called "the greatest athlete in the world.” Waller takes its name from Dr. David J. Waller, Sr., a Presbyterian minister and civic leader in Bloomsburg.

Our county name came from the song, Hail Columbia. Many who live in the area have last names which denote occupations; i.e., Baker, Smith and Taylor come to mind, as do Chapman (English for merchant); Cooper (English for a maker of barrels); and Shumacher (German for shoemaker). Names sometimes take on an aspect of a relationship, as in Dickerson or Larson, Norse for Lar's son. We have the Greens, the Whites and the Browns--obviously names that originated with a color.

There are the names than came from a geographical location like Berwick or Lungerville or Hill or Coles Creek or Honesdale or Koonsville. Rohrsburg was named for German-born Frederick Rohr (Roher). There are those who obtained their names from a thing, like a rose or a frost or a foot or from snow or a factory. Stillwater falls into this category. You can be "from" or "of" a place.

Some towns were named in error like Hazel Town, but those errors are usually corrected as the post office tried to do with the name Hazeltown. A clerk in Harrisburg finally got the name spelled the way it is today. Jameson City was another town incorrectly named, but eventually made right. Another botched town name was Emmaus, misspelled as Emaus on the original charter and known as E-mouse for many years until they got the name changed back to the correct spelling.

And then there are those people who have made such a difference that their names become the basis for a new word in the language.

• Bloomer. Schoolteacher Amelia Jenks Bloomer met her future husband, Dexter, and convinced him that although marriage was okay, the word "obey" would have to be omitted from the vows. The committed feminist went on to promote dress reform for women, and founded The Lily, a women's suffrage journal. Shortly after her marriage, Bloomer began writing editorials for upstate New York papers and eventually promoted the "bifurcated skirt" which we all know as "bloomers" in a rebellion against the "hoop skirt." Imagine the snorting when she first appeared at a meeting of the Seneca Falls ( New York) Temperance Society with her skirt shrunk all the way to her knees and the lower part of her legs enveloped in some sort of men's trousers.

• Chauvinism. Nicolas Chauvin was a soldier of the First French Empire. He fought for Napoleon and was severely wounded. Napoleon gave Chauvin a saber of honor as compensation, as well as a red ribbon and two hundred francs or about forty dollar a year. Chauvin was happy beyond words and grateful for the remainder of his life to Napoleon. His name has come to mean exaggerated and aggressive nationalism.

• Mesmerize. Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer became possessed with the powers of an invisible magnetic fluid. He wore a sack around his neck containing a magnet and slowly the magnet was credited with being the cure for ear trouble and the gout and much more. Once when bleeding a patient, a common cure for "what ails you," he noticed that her cramps went away when he approached. He soon was attempting healing by magnets. Not until he became famous did he realize that it wasn't the magnet although we suspect that he did have some sort of "animal magnetism." One can't deny that the powers of a charismatic personality creates the notion in a believer to effect untold numbers of miraculous payoffs. He once "mesmerized" a young blind pianist by dressing her in a loose smock to transfer his magnetic powers through the hands-on kneading of her breasts, thighs and buttocks. The Imperial Morality Police decided that the cure of a hypnotic, or spasmodic sleep (as he called it), was worst than the illness!

“The deer hunting season started out badly, but has now picked up so much that more hunters have been killed than usual.”
-- Philadelphia Inquirer, November 24, 1910. This quote is taken from a paragraph from the News from Back Home in Benton, PA, for Sunday, the day before the opening of buck season in the Commonwealth. The article is about—surprise, surprise—deer hunting.

 

November 23, 2007. Bob and Kathryn Maynes celebrate their 61st wedding anniversary today on Bob's 86th birthday. Bruce Jankowski turns 54. On this date in 1945, most U.S. wartime rationing of foods ended, including meat and butter. There are 29 days left until the official start of winter and Christmas is fast approaching. Don't you wish that you had taken out a Christmas Club this year!

In Search of...
• A propane-powered kitchen stove. The need for a lot of cooking played out a local couple's 30" propane stove on Thanksgiving day. Any reader with one they want to part with, please email me. Cold cereal isn't going to cut it for this couple, judging from the cold-weather forecast for the coming days.

• A correspondent. A 69-year-old disabled veteran who now lives south of Portland, Oregon, and is a full-time occupant in a recreation vehicle, would like to have someone with whom to email and correspond. He grew up east of Route 239 near the Hamline Church. Email me and I'll put you in touch.

• Lovers of piano music to listen to Ray Charles, Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis on stage at the same time playing their very best hit music! Then throw in Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones and you have some fine music.

Didja know that Judi Ann Stish is a native of Hazleton where she graduated from Hazleton High School in 1972? Judith is now married to Rudy Giuliani.

Another major holiday is behind us, with two more to go nationally before the end of the year. There are three more in the local area--Monday begins the first day of rifle deer-hunting season. This day has long been a "major" holiday in the local area.

Mother used to love the opening day of buck season because it meant that Father was in the woods and she could head out to do her Christmas shopping. Local school kids love the day because it means a day off from school. Hunters love it because it gets them out of work or the house and into the woods. Those of us who no longer hunt love it because it allows us time to spend walking through the woods, and if things get a little too slow we can drink a glass of beer and play a little poker. All this is by way of introduction to the fact that the Benton News will be delivered for the next two weeks, but probably never on the schedule to which you have grown accustomed.

Mother often mentioned the wreck of the Hesperus, and we have often quoted her not quite knowing why or what it meant. She would say things like, "I can't go shopping today. I look just like the wreck of the Hesperus!" If you want to figure out what happened to old Hesperus, read the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), once a poet and professor of English literature at Harvard. The poem is dreadful, quite frankly. When you are having trouble sleeping, go ahead and read it.

"Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman's Woe!"

It was a cold raw wind that blew over the gently rolling hills of the Genesee Valley in New York state on Thanksgiving day. The temperature was a balmy 56° when I rolled out of Benton Thursday morning and a nippy 36° when I arrived 30 miles south of Rochester about 8:30 AM--much different weather from the local area. A hard rain fell for much of the day, changing back and forth to snow flurries. As I drove up the lane to son David's home, a field full of Icelandic horses graized off to my right. I thought of the fjords in their native country of Iceland and wondered whether the sturdy horses lived outside all winter. After all, winters in Iceland are longer and harsher than they are in New York state.

Sources like the Icelandic Sagas do not mention horses being stabled during the winter. None of the stories of the winters of Iceland equal the winter of 1515, which the Icelandic people refer to as the "horse-perishing" winter. A writer by the name of Hannes wrote that there was more snow "than ever, with famine and the livestock perishing all over the country. There was probably more frost than ever because the legs of sheep and horses froze even though their bodies were still fleshy. Much of the livestock of the country perished, and many people lost everything they owned, especially horses.

November 22, Thanksgiving Day, 2007. On this Thanksgiving Day, remember that the ideal diet is expressed in four words: No more, thank you.

Birthdays today include Clair Harvey, Kelly Yost and Sharon Remphrey. Barry and Sylvia Harrison celebrate their wedding anniversary. On this day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot in Dallas, Texas.

Copies of Peter Tomasak's new book about Robert Bruce Ricketts, In Command of Time Elapsed--The Life and Times of Robert Bruce Ricketts, will begin selling Friday afternoon at the Red Rock Corner Store (570 925-5648) at the intersection of Route 118 and Route 487. Peter has limited the printing to only 100 books for now. If you want a copy, act now! Don't say we didn't warn you.

The state House of Representatives gave up on fast-tracking the Open Records Act without resuming debate Tuesday, promised to write a new bill along the lines of what the Senate has approved, then left for a 12-day Thanksgiving break. I figure the House leadership got the message about the real meaning of "open records."

At the end of the second day of bear hunting, the preliminary harvest is 1,638 bears, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. In 2006, 2,185 bears passed through check stations the first two days. The top bear-harvest county in the state after the first two days was Clinton with 142. Lycoming County came in fourth with 97. Locally, results for this year and last are Bradford, 28 (30); Luzerne, 22 (40); Sullivan, 20 (59); Columbia, 14 (16); and Northumberland, 2 (2).

Rev. Dr. Donna Laubach Moros, retired missionary, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), daughter of Harold Laubach, and granddaughter of Harry and Clara Laubach, wish all a Thanksgiving prayer for peace on earth..

For those of you who don't want to do your Black Friday shopping with all the crowds, you can do it on-line by visiting http://bfads.net/ . Actually, there are online sales going on over Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Friday-Saturday and Cyber Monday. In-store sale items are also listed.

The feast of Thanksgiving has arrived. Today is the big day. Thanksgiving dinner is the central idea of the day and behind all of that is the giving of thanks for the blessings of the year.

Our Puritan fathers made a big hit when they conceived of Thanksgiving day. They probably had little idea when they shouldered their blunderbusses and box traps for their November gunning of wild turkeys that their descendants would brag about how it "used to be" and would continue the tradition. The Puritans, one suspects, paid more attention to the religious side of Thanksgiving than people do today.

It must have been quite a meal those Pilgrims had. They might have had wild cranberry sauce on their wild turkey, but there is a question as to whether there was sugar to sweeten the sour mix. Turkey was the main course and historically has the same relation to Thanksgiving day as the firecracker has to the Fourth of July. Remove the turkey and the feast is nothing.

Most of us have forgotten that the idea of setting apart a day to be observed by the people of the United States in thanksgiving and prayer originated in Congress during the first session of the first congress in September, 1789. Congress then passed the resolution to the first president, George Washington, and a few days later he made the first Thanksgiving proclamation.

The original log of the Mayflower, which ex-Ambassador Bayard carried over the Atlantic as a gift from England to Massachusetts, recalls the memoirs of the first Thanksgiving day when Pilgrim fathers and Indians ate the festival dinner in honor of the safe arrival in the new land of promise.

The day celebrated the abundant harvest that had blessed the Puritans following the early years of hardship.

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercising in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.
--William Bradford in his History Of Plymouth Plantation

Thanksgiving is our oldest national holiday. The holiday predates the Fourth of July by about 125 years. Each year a special celebration adds to the enjoyment of the holiday as we "go over the hill to Grandmother's house." The customs of the holiday have changed but the constant from the initial days on Plymouth Rock has always been the turkey, although "turn of the century" feasts often included roasted pig stuffed with "sausages, oysters and chestnuts."

For the record, Alka-Seltzer didn't come along until something like 1931 and commercials for Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, oh what a relief it is!--or as they say in the United Kingdom, plunk, plunk, fizz-ics--came much later.

Around 1900 and before mince pie was always the dessert for a Thanksgiving feast, sometimes the first in a series of desserts. Nobody pretended to think that it was digestible but the "pangs of the morrow" were forgotten in the "eagerness to indulge for the moment the almost boyish fondness for the forbidden dainty."

So lets express our thanks for Thanksgiving and I'll start. You pick up the pace when I finish my short list. I am thankful that I can make a quick trip to New York state and break bread with David and Heidi on Thanksgiving Day, for the continued health at the age of 93 of my mother in law, for the hospital care being administered to my step-daughter, for Marcia Kay putting up with my bitchy mood during these trying days, for drivers who aren't on their cell phones, for not having more people in this world who define evil as good, for that first-down indicator on television, for the success of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, for Buster and Chloe, for a fast connection on the internet, and for being able to scrape together the time to bring you the News from Back Home in Benton, PA.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

November 21, 2007. Terry and Terri O'Connell celebrate their wedding anniversary today. If our paths don't cross again before Thanksgiving , have a wonderful day.

Yesterday I reported that the fellows at Soapstone Hunting Club bagged two bear. Actually, by the end of the day, they had three down. The successful hunters were Eric Ignatavich, Mike Thomas and Colton Fought, 14. All hunters were from the Benton area. Lee Remley reported there was ten inches of snow on the ground, although he admitted that he didn't go out of the cabin to verify the depth of the snow.

The website for the "Valleys of the Susquehanna, includes eight unique and distinctive road trips throughout a 10-county region. The eight road trips includes...

• Homegrown in the Valleys: This road trip features local farmers markets, pick-your-own produce farms, farm stays, and places to find seasonal produce year-round.

• Post Office Art and Architecture: The tour takes visitors to eleven post offices: eight feature unique artwork from the New Deal Era, and three are wonderful examples of Federal architecture. A WVIA-TV documentary about this road trip will premiere in the spring of 2008.

• Underground Railroad: Gain an understanding about Pennsylvania’s Underground Railroad heritage, including local safe havens for those fleeing the bondage of slavery.

• Art Thrives on 45: Explore scenic Route 45 (also known as the Purple Heart Highway) which is home to more than 45 artists and artisans, working in both traditional and contemporary styles.

• Victorian Homes: Victorian Homes magazine called Williamsport’s Millionaires’ Row “Pennsylvania’s Mother Lode” of Victorian architecture. When combined with Lewisburg, Bloomsburg, Danville, and Bellefonte’s offerings, visitors can experience architecture within the context of many unique downtowns.

• Covered Bridges: There are more covered bridges in the Valleys of the Susquehanna than there are in any other place in Pennsylvania. Visitors are encouraged to experience first-hand these historic “wooden monuments”.

• Antique Trail: This road trip takes shoppers along scenic country roads, and into downtown specialty shops, restored mills and barns, flea markets, farmers markets and homes of antique dealers and sellers.

• Wineries/Vineyards: PA ranks fourth nationally in the amount of grapes grown, and eighth in the production of wine. Savor wine from the region’s eight wineries, or take a stroll through the scenic vineyards.

Each road trip features a detailed map, as well as electronic documents that can be easily downloaded and printed. Website visitors can also request that a brochure about the Valleys of the Susquehanna be mailed to them, free of charge.

From My Position Sitting on the Fence:		A reader wrote that there is too much "slang" in the Benton News. Because of eyesight problems, I rarely take the time to reread what I have written, except casually to change "glad" to "happy." I concluded that the reader was correct, but decided that even if I promised to put my thoughts into good English in the future, there was an excellent probability that I would not.
		I then turned to the reading material on my desk, picked up the first article I came to, dating to 1923. I looked for slang in that article. I found the following: It's up to you I don't think Not on your life You can search the I guess That's going some Can you beat it? Sure I will! That looks quite spiffy There's some class to that Are you on? That's awfully nice It's a cinch Oh, fudge! Cut it out Talking to beat the band They're not in it It's all bosh Northing doing That's nifty Never again Cough up! He has nothing on me The surest thing you know Not to be sneezed at That's the real thing Not by a long shot That will be about all

A writer whose name I probably never did know once said something to the effect that "slang is the language of the slums." Slang is a kind of colloquial language used by both the educated and the uneducated. All professions seem to employ it, whether it is literary slang, legal slang, or whatever.

Slang at times has the force of narrative told with pictures and can be stronger than generally accepted words. Where did slang originate and why do we use it in lieu of purity of speech? The person who first used words now considered to be "slang" might know, but even he wouldn't know if he hadn't heard it before. Look at the sport of baseball where batters "choke" their bats by grabbing it above the handle, taking it around the neck in a way that suggests choking. I read a newspaper article from 1908 which used terms like "pea," "pellet" and the "marble" and the "pill" and the "blobule" and the "bulb" in describing the ball used in baseball, all slang we no longer use. I didn't find many slang words for the bat in baseball, so just plain bat it is, with no varieties except for "stick." I found "fungo" used to describe knocking out fly balls, popular along with "steal" and an older word "muff."

Continuing with the 1908 article, "bean" was another good slang word, as in its use for the word "head." A player got hit on the "bean" and the "ump" told him to head for first base. The pitcher was happy since now he wasn't taking his "bumps" meaning that the pitcher was no longer being hit hard. For the next batter, the catcher yelled "Give it a ride, old boy!" This command was a lot like "Get a piece of it" and "take a bite out of it." The term "break up the game" doesn't mean that at all.

Over the years, fighters have had their slang, too. A fighter's head was his "nut" or "knowledge box." His eyes were his "ogles" or his "glims." His nose was his "horn," his "conk," his "smeller," his "cutwater" and his "proboscis." His mouth was his "potato trap" or his "kisser," and his ears were his "lugs." His arms were his "fins" or "dukes," and his fists were his "manleys" and his "bunches of fives." His stomach was his "bread basket" and his legs were his "pins." When he got thumped hard and didn't wince he was "game." The beating he gave or received was "punishment" and when he got too much he turned "groggy" until his opponent finished him off by "putting on the kibosh."

Gamblers had their slang, too. Some were "cappers" whose business it was to haunt lobbies of theaters and the offices of hotels in quest of "suckers" to "rope in" to play the "game." When the player got in trouble, he sometimes played "both ends against the middle" or "both ways to the pudding." When he died, other players would say he had "cashed in his chips."

Quickies...
• Christine's Karaoke will be at the Jamison City Hotel Saturday night starting at 9:30.

• Columbia County Traveling Library will make a new stop in Benton today at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, Community Drive, from 10:30-11:50 AM and then will continue to Stillwater Park from noon until 1 PM. The stop at The Center replaces the Two and a Half Street stop. Both the Bookmobile and the Perry Avenue library will be closed for Thanksgiving.

• Jimmy Rollins boldly proclaimed in January that his Phils were the team to beat in the NL East. The shortstop then made sure his words wouldn't ring hollow, putting together a brilliant 2007 campaign that was capped off Tuesday with National League Most Valuable Player honors. Rollins became the first player in history to collect at least 200 hits, 25 homers, 15 triples and 25 steals in a season.

• Abraham Lincoln wrote in his famous Thanksgiving Proclamation...
"The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God."

• The Judiciary Committee of the state House of Representatives voted down two gun-control bills and tabled a third Tuesday. The first would have provided municipalities with limited power to pass firearms ordinances. The second would have limited handgun purchases to one a month, with exceptions for dealers, collectors and law enforcement. The tabled bill would require gun owners to report a stolen firearm and would allow State Police to create a registry of lost or stolen firearms. The committee approved penalties for the murder of law enforcement officers and created the specific crime of "criminal homicide of law enforcement officers."

Pennsylvania Game Commission officials announced Tuesday that bear hunters took 1,005 black bears in 49 counties on opening day of the 2007 season, compared with 1,461 in 2006; 2,026 in 2005; 1,573 in 2004; 1,454 in 2003; and 1,348 in 2002. The first-day harvest was down 30%. One hunter in Potter County shot a male bear which weighed in at 712-pounds (estimated live weight). The top bear-harvest county in the state after the first day of season was Clinton with 78 (123 in 2006). Other counties and the bear shot this year and last on opening day includes Bradford, 16 (18); Sullivan, 12 (35); Luzerne, 10 (31); and Columbia, 8 (12).

Ernest "Ernie" B. Koons (October 24, 1930-November 19, 2007), Park Street, Benton, died Monday at the Bloomsburg Health Care Center. He was 77. Ernie was born in Muncy, a son of the late James S. Koons and Ethel I. (Bates) Koons Baker. His stepfather was the late Dallas C. Baker. He was a 1948 graduate of the former Huntington Mills High School. He was a draftsman and detail engineer, last employed at the former Orangeville Manufacturing Co. He lived in Benton since 1983. He was a member of the Benton United Presbyterian Church and of the Masonic Lodge in Morristown, New Jersey. Ernie was a fire policeman with the Benton Volunteer Fire Company. He was married to the former Diane Decker and has a daughter, Carolyn Levy (Charles), Mountaintop; two sons: Jay Koons (Christine), Cambra; Michael Koons (Margaret), Williamstown; a stepdaughter: Carol Cox (Keith), Glen Mills; three stepsons: Frank Holdren (Carol Ann), Millville; George Holdren (Shelby), Benton; and David Wesner, Revere; 16 grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. Ernie was the last of his immediate family. He was preceded in death by a stepson, Kennard James Wesner, and a stepbrother, Robert Baker. Memorial services will be announced by the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home, Benton. Memorials may be sent to the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, P.O. Box 305, Benton, PA 17814.

November 20, 2007. Happy wedding anniversary today to Earl and Joann Heimbach and to Wayne and Mary Baker. On this date in 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.

Quickies...
• New York state claims there are lots of deer there and is counting on raking in millions of dollars over the next few months thanks to a hyped-up deer-hunting season which started over the weekend.

• Pennsylvania's rifle-deer season begins the Monday after Thanksgiving, November 26, and runs through December 8. The estimate is that more than a quarter of a million deer will be harvested.

• The recount on the November 7 voting for school director in Benton and Sugarloaf Townships is complete. Write-in candidate Ramona Heaps petitioned the court Monday morning to consolidate the various spellings of her name, which would give her a 250-247 edge over her "on-the-ballot" opponent, Evy Lysk. Because of the shortened workweek, a decision on that is not expected before the middle of next week, and even that may be too optimistic.

• In Lackawanna County, six write-in candidates for local office won, even though they had ballot-listed opponents.

• The State "Open Records" bill will be taken up today with all its 77 amendments and the entire House will consider its final passage when the Legislature returns next month. HB 443 would slam the door on the public and would give less access to public records than we have today. Its provisions would enable agencies to label as confidential records that are now available, and it would create blanket exemptions for much agency correspondence and all email.

Quote of the Day:
"There are two things you don't want to see being made--sausage and legislation."
--Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)

Charles Libby, 90, was the featured speaker at the November North Mountain Historical Society. He spoke about being part of Gen. Patton's European Theater of Operations and about serving with the CCC at the Emmons camp north of Elk Grove.

Those of us who didn't receive an education in a one-room school missed a lot. Many who have had that experience claim they deeply value those years. Yet many of these schools were little more than abandoned log cabins or hastily throw up buildings that were unfit for human habitation by today's standards and many were sorely lacking in convenience, comfort and lighting. The size of the school often depended on the population, but most seemed to be not more than about fourteen by eighteen feet.

The fact they even existed at all was due to volunteers and the dedication of those who provided the education. The school term was usually during the winter months, so heating was a problem since the wood was generally also provided by contribution. The school was usually either too hot or too cold. If parents had children in the school they had an interest in keeping their children warm and they provided wood for the fireplace common in early schools or in the pot-bellied stove in the middle of the room common in later years. The older boys stoked the fires after the teacher lit it after she (or he) arrived in the early hours of the school day. Many students had to blow on their pens to keep them from freezing and to use them for writing.

Still sits the schoolhouse by the road,
A ragged beggar sunning;
Around it still the sumacs grow,
And blackberry vines a-running.

Names of schools were a problem. Take the ridicule that female students got in the Princeton Middle School. Schools were often named after hills, trees or animals. In Arizona, for example, a public school was often named after some kind of mesa or cactus. Locally, the school on Savage Hill was named for the location, and the same applies for the Loyalsock School, the Rock Oak Bridge School, Stone Church, Smith Hollow, Sheep's Public School, North Mountain School, the Wildcat School, Pine Grove School and the Sodom School.

Well, I'll betcha that last one woke you up! Why would a school be named "Sodom?" Well, according to John Lindermuth, librarian at the Northumberland County Historical Society who found the answer in the book, The Sodom Schoolhouse and its Influence on the Foundation of American Education, by Glenn A. Good, 2002, until recently schools were identified by the area in which they were located. From 1817, the school, located on Route 45 outside of Montandon and about 34 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA, was named the Chillisquaque Schoolhouse. A church also occupied the building during this period. A man by the name of Lot Carson (also spelled Corson) built a nearby tavern to serve the stagecoach trade about 1835. Lot frequently had too much to drink and the story goes that he died by drowning when he was getting water from the well.

Because husbands frequented the tavern, the wives of the area considered it a den of iniquity and the area became known as "Sodom" and from that came "the Sodom Schoolhouse." The school closed in 1915.

Lindermuth cites an old newspaper account of Carson who donated the land for the school building. As to the eight-sided building design, area historian John Carter suggested it was Scottish influence and the design enabled the teacher to be in the center so that she could always be in front of the group. Another newspaper account said a resident of the valley was certain the design duplicated that of an eight-cornered stone church in the north of Scotland.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And scenes we left behind;
No, wheresoever be our lot,
We keep them still in mind,
The scenes mid which we often roved
In childhood's early morn,
The old red schoolhouse on the hill
The cot where we were born.

"Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorra brimstone...And He overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities...."
--Genesis XIX: 24,25. Thus sayeth the King James version of the Old Testament.

Others may know the name "Sodom" from the movie Sodom and Gomorrah in which manly Stewart Granger (and his hairdresser, who always stayed off screen) takes a batch of Hebrews to the Jordan while his uncle looked for other bodies of water and arable land in a story that only resembles the Biblical version because of a similarity of names. I don't remember any more of the movie version than that, but in any event you have to admit that Sodom is a strange name to hang on a one-room schoolhouse.

November 19, 2007. There have to be some very worried bear this morning! Remember that you can get complete weather forecasts on the Benton News in the upper right corner of the main page. At this writing, the Benton Area Schools are on a two-hour delay this morning but the buckwheat cakes at the Pelican will be on time as will the speaker. Happy birthday 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. The only flaw in his words came with his prediction, "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here..." There were only two-hundred and seventy-one words and the pronoun "I" was never used! The speech followed the main-event oration of Edward Everett. A Harvard graduate--later its president--Everett was a professor of Greek, a former governor of Massachusetts and ambassador to England. An audience of possibly 18,000, including Lincoln, congratulated him on his stunning delivery. Everett later wrote to the President, I should be glad to flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.

The Gettysburg Address began Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. The speech ended with Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

There isn't much point in giving all the specifications of a monster submarine under construction in England when you could go here and read about it for yourself. Here are a few details, however. Britain now has a massive 7,400-ton nuclear-powered sub known as the HMS Astute more complex than the space shuttle, and able to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing. The "boat" is 318 feet long, and as wide as four double-decker buses. Astute's sonar is so advanced that if she were in the English Channel she would be able to detect ships leaving New York harbor 3,000 nautical miles away. The nuclear reactor will never need refueling, and could stay underwater for its entire 25-year lifespan. She will carry 38 Tomahawk cruise missiles, with a range of 1,240 miles, but no nuclear weapons. Astute is the first of four vessels to be built.

We recently asked readers to contact their state legislators over some provisions of the "reform" of the restrictive aspects of Pennsylvania's open records law which generally hold government documents as confidential unless specifically designated as open. The "reform" comes in the form of "the Open Records Act," No. 443 in the 2007 Session of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. One of the provisions of this bill would basically make any email sent to the state government confidential and therefore exempt from the public's right to know. The other aspect we find disturbing about the proposed bill deems "inaccessible" any record containing a birth date or address. If interpreted literally, this bill would seal birth, marriage, death, deed, probate, divorce, and hosts of other county court records. The House and the Senate are expected to vote on the bill this week.

There isn't much memory left of old threshing machines. We pass by them as we slowly walk through the museum at the Bloomsburg Fair, and we sometimes see them in the museum of the Rough & Tumble Engineers Historical Association, at Kinzer, when the Old Thresherman meet for their yearly August reunion. One shows up from time to time at the fall reunion of the Nittany Antique Machinery show at Penn's Cafe.

When we came across a local picture of a threshing machine in operation on the former Jasper Shultz farm on upper Ravencreek Road, we studied it long and hard. I don't remember Jasper Shultz or his daughters Blanche, Catherine or Suzie, but after studying the picture for a time and remembering back to the days when father did some threshing, I conclude some things about the times. I will hold off for a little before I show you the picture.

I conclude from the posture and the demeanor of the people in the picture that Jasper Shultz was a pretty good-natured man, a person who remained even-tempered and cheerful through the frantic threshing season. The Shultz family goes way back in the upper Ravencreek area. The family once lived in the first farm on the right heading north on upper Ravencreek road. Jasper was the son of Russell Shultz who was born in 1827 and Catharine Beishline Shultz, born in 1833. Jasper had four daughters, Catherine, Suzie, Blanche and Grace. Catherine Shultz married Eugene Hess; Blanche Shultz married Carl Hartman; Suzie Shultz married Roy Hess; and Grace Shultz married Alfred Jackson. Several were school teachers.

I would guess that Jasper Shultz was a popular man, judging from the appearance of his three fine-looking daughters.

I suspect that Elmer George Houseweart (August 2, 1878-Oct. 26, 1956) is in the picture, since he owned the threshing machine (possibly with others), but I am not able to identify him for sure. I suspect that the men in the picture might have been apt to use a little profanity during the wheat harvesting season, but not in any kind of a mean way. With so much work to do during the daylight hours, it was important that the workmen knew who was boss from time to time--in a warm and cheerful way, mind you!

I suspect that the man who ran the threshing machine was a popular man. Sure, the operation sometimes got caught up in a thundershower or a rainstorm, sometimes a cylinder tooth broke or the straw stacker became hopelessly clogged. The thresherman I knew always seemed to talk out of the corner of his mouth, with the other side of his mouth reserved for continual expectoration. The thresherman talked a lot while raising and lowering one or the other of his eyebrows.

Back at the turn of the century, reports came in from all over the United States of the power units of threshing machines blowing up with the operator killed or blown fifty feet or so.

In the picture, Elmer's threshing machine is out of sight inside the barn and the steam-power unit is outside. Elmer is the grandfather of Fred and Marianne Houseweart. He was born in Lopez in 1878 and lived to 1956. He moved into the local area about the turn of the century. Actually the history of the Houseweart family is an interesting one, starting with brothers Valentine and James Houseweart. Sometime soon, we'll tell you that story here on the News from Back Home in Benton, PA.

The steam power unit for the thresher had steel wheels, and had a tall stack to minimize the sparks. A continuously running belt ran into the barn to the threshing machine. Fred Houseweart says that the yearly threshing would begin at the farm of Arthur Houseweart, then move on to Wesley Houseweart's farm, then to Elmer Houseweart's farm, to the farm of Jasper Shultz, then to the farm of Doyle Houseweart, ending with the farm of Bert Houseweart. The machine would take turns thrashing everyone's wheat.

The steam thresher with its traction engine probably wasn't bought new when it sported a brilliant red paint all varnished and polished. The machine was a monster, both in size and in payment, and owning a thresher and a new-fangled corn-husking contrivance was a large undertaking.

If you think that the threshing machine was something to behold, you should have seen an early corn husker with its curved knives rotating on a continuously running belt.

Farmers often got together in a cooperative ownership of equipment. The Houseweart family was an example of owning a machine and running it by themselves when they wanted it and at the price they could afford.

They probably were tired of waiting for one of the privately owned machines to harvest their grain, which often happened with traveling group of harvesters. Often the grain was almost ruined by the time the men arrived long after the grain was ready. A week or two difference in when the grain was harvested could mean the difference between a profit and a loss for the farmers. After their own wheat was harvested, the men would often rent out themselves and their equipment until the end of the threshing season.

Both the farmers and their wives (who fed the thresherman what father used to call sinkers) benefited from getting the wheat threshed quickly.

It was always necessary to keep the equipment running during the season in order to justify the ownership of equipment which often cost several thousand dollars. The process would begin before "first light" and would continue all day until the steam was turned off just before the day turned pitch black.

A machine like the one that Arthur Houseweart owned kept four to six men pitching in the bundles of grain as fast as they could be handled. Repairs would be postponed until night, if at all possible. A patched-up old machine meant that a breakdown could occur at any time when it would mean irreparable loss. In many parts of the United States, a threshing machine was run until it wore out, then it was scrapped at the end of the season and a different (sometimes new) piece purchased the following spring. A good steam-threshing machine probably lasted only three or four seasons before it was ready for the scrap heap, and many burned beyond recognition. Some severely injured the owner/operator. If was no business for the faint of heart.

The Barn of Jasper Shultz on Upper Ravencreek Road
with the Houseweart Threshing Machine

 

November 17, 2007. Christ UMC in Central has a Thanksgiving dinner open to the public today after church service. Church is at 9 and the dinner with all the trimmings is around 11:30. Happy birthday to Julie Bardo.

A program of interest happens Monday at the North Mountain Historical Society monthly meeting at the Brass Pelican Restaurant. A man who helped build a "road from Jamison City over to Red Rock" will return to the area. Charles Libby, 90, Loyalsock, will be the featured speaker. He lived at the CCC Camp at Emmons from 1934 to 1936, a few miles "up the road" from Elk Grove. Charles has a keen memory of the operations of the CCC, and has a special fondness for Grassmere Park. His talk will be of World War II and the battles in which he participated. Charles is an interesting speaker. Breakfast is on the table by 8 AM and the speaker begins behind the new amplified lectern about 9 AM or as soon as the last buckwheat cake has been shoveled devoured.

Upcoming...
• November 25, 2007. Southern Gospel Singspiration on Sunday at 7 PM at Bible Baptist Church, Route 239, Benton. Bible Baptist Church is located next to the Benton Township Building at the top of the dug. For more information call 925-2592.

• November 23, 24, 25, 30 and December 1 & 2. Bloomsburg's TreeFest featuring trees set up by hundreds of people who decorate rooms and trees in Caldwell Consistory on Market Square. Wreath decorating will take place from 10-4 on Saturday, November 24, and Sunday, November 25, from 12-4. An elegant Scottish high tea will be presented on Monday, November 26, at 2 PM and again at 6.

It is pop quiz time again, this time with a turkey and a Thanksgiving theme. Go here. (I only got 13 out of 20 correct.)

Didja hear about the farmer whose barn burned? His insurance agent tried to explain they could not pay the farmer in cash for his loss. "Read the policy," the agent insisted," "All our company intends to do is to build you another barn exactly like the one that was destroyed." The farmer by this time was enraged, and he thundered back "If that is the way you varmints do business, cancel the policy on my wife before it is too late."

The time of the year when I become less dependable than usual will arrive this week. There is bear hunting and Thanksgiving and deer hunting and Christmas shopping all bunched up at the end of the year just when I wanted to finish some projects I started this spring.

It seems like only days ago that the maple trees looked their finest against the blue of the sky. Now they are bare and silhouette against a gray sky. There is just a bit of goldenrod and some Queen Anne's lace left as a memory of summer. The groundhog began his winter sleep late this year, and the sound of peepers, frogs and birds has disappeared. Bear are closely watching the weather in hopes they can soon begin their winter sleep. The critter we see the most is the whitetail deer--and according to the stories of local hunters, we don't see much of them. What deer there are in the mountains are desperately seeking buds they can forb to get through the winter. Little do they know what awaits them on the next couple of weeks.

The telltale signs of hunting season are all around us. The break between bear hunting and deer hunting will not take long, and will be occupied with Thanksgiving.

My memory of Thanksgiving over the years involved the watching of the Berwick Marathon. This year will mark the 98th "Run for the Diamonds," starting at 10 Thursday morning. I was never one for watching parades on television, and besides when Mother cooked there was no time to spend watching television (unless it was one of her soap operas). The windows in our house always seemed to fog over as the turkey slowly cooked and spread the wonderful smell of Thanksgiving food throughout the house. The day was usually grey and overcast and often it was cold enough to spit some snow.

Think about what the early settlers were thankful for when this time of the year rolled around in the upper Fishingcreek valley. 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 their own family, except for the new addition which seemed to arrive 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 the mother 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. With unabashed joy, the farm families of our area gave thanks at this time of the year.

Think for a moment of the things in your life for which you can give thanks. I'll let you finish this story. You don't need me to do it for you.

November 17, 2007. Happy birthday today to Cindy Becker.

On this date in 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.

Walter Davis, Manassas, Virginia, was in Jamison City recently and stopped to see Ed and Alice Allegar. Many readers don't know about the semipro league in which Ed 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, also known as the Sally League. Ed pulled in a Most Valuable Player award while playing minor-league baseball, but as a member of the Giants farm club there were not enough openings to bring him to the majors. Ed now lives in Jamison City, a retired teacher from the Benton Area School System, married to the former Alice Sutliff.

The Hess gas station in Enola was a busy place Friday with its regular, unleaded gas selling for $3.09. The attraction was both the gas and the boxes of toy trucks piled to the ceiling. I stopped to pick up two of the winter 2007 version of the long-selling Hess toy truck, this year a "Monster Truck with Motorcycles." The man in front of me bought 20 and the lady at the register "claimed" that someone that morning had loaded a truck with 200 of them. The cost for the two Hess toy trucks was $46.62 including tax. I felt like a piker--only buying two!

It was a sad day a week or so ago when Camp Hill narrowly defeated our Benton boys in soccer. Today at 10 AM, at Hersheypark Stadium the Camp Hill Lions (21-5) will meet Sewickley Academy (24-1-2) for the PIAA Class A crown.

There was some email praise received for the local church congregations and their community spirit of celebrating the Thanksgiving season together. The subject came up because Sunday night there is a community church service at the Benton Christian Church, with the guest clergyman from the Christ the King Catholic Church and the music provided by the Waller Methodist Church.

What the reader didn't understand is that there has long been a tradition of community involvement with the local churches. Take, for example, the strong ecumenical flavor during the dedication of Christ the King when five Protestant clergymen, including the pastors of three Protestant churches in Benton were present along with 32 diocesan priests.

At that dedication, Msgr. Donald E. Adams, then editor of the Catholic Witness, made the statement that many had joined "hands and hearts [snip] to make Christ's presence felt in your entire community." Msgr. Adams then recognized Rev. Richard Lichti, Presbyterian; Rev. John Richardson, United Methodist; and Rev. Robert Matthews, Christian Church; Dr. Harry Franks, Disciples of Christ, Bloomsburg, and Rev. Canon Kermit Lloyd, Episcopal, Harrisburg. One of the visiting priests at the Christ the King dedication was Father Jerome Gallagher, a native of Jamison City who was then serving in Paterson, New Jersey

Coffee hadn't even arrived when I heard that we live in a sick society. I had just sat down for a "coffee with the boys" when I heard that the war in Iraq is sick, that tolling of I-80 is sick, about sick relatives, cars that were "sick," and policies, politicians and prices that were sick. I hear this sickness so much that I have finally decided that I am sick, too. I am sick of all the bellyaching' and bitching, I am sick of hearing the excessive negativity in the world.

I am sick that so many feel that the use of drugs is an acceptable practice, and I am sick of the people who complain about drugs but don't do anything about them.

I am sick of hearing about the high price of gasoline and am thankful that we aren't paying $4 a gallon. I am sick of paying more in taxes to build bigger and better schools for the education of our youth when so many adults are breeding like common farm animals and do absolutely nothing to educate their own children and then blame the lack of success on the school system. I am sick of mothers like Britney Spears.

I am sick of the judicial system that turns the true misbehaving society loose from jail and incarcerates the person for an unreasonable period who has made little more than an error of judgment. I am sick of having to help finance these people get on the "road to recovery" knowing full well that they have no ability to stay out of jail. I am sick of criminals who use guns to rob and murder getting any of my tax dollars in an attempt to rehabilitate them back into society. I am sick of the press glorifying the criminal and denouncing law-enforcement officials when these criminals are brought to justice. I am sick of people who stand up for the community getting blasted by the neasayers who sit on their butts and complain.

I am sick of hearing candidates for the highest office in our country tearing down their fellow candidates--one of whom will be our next President--rather than convincing me why the guy doing all the talking is worth his salt. I know how bad some of the candidates are; I don't need to be told. I want to know how "good" someone is. I am sick that we have almost a year to listen to candidates tell us how bad the other fellow is and sick that so many millions of dollars will be spent to elect someone to a job that pays $400,000 plus change per year.

I am sick of the high cost of fuel, which increases in price for no reason other than it might look like rain in Venezuela.

Even though I am sick of all these things, I can get well and our country can get well. We can all help our country get well. I'll continue to pay taxes and continue to serve the community in any way that I can. I'll continue to honor those who get the highest education their level of ability permits, and will especially honor those achievers who utilize the education they receive for the common good and who contribute to the elevation of society.

This is the week of giving thanks, culminated by joining with our families on Thursday. Start by appreciating the food you eat and those who prepared it for you. Thank God for your life and for those around you. Be thankful that you are not spending the holiday alone. If you are alone this Thanksgiving, find out from any member of the Benton United Methodist Church about the freewill Thanksgiving meal at the church. Family values are very important in the upper Fishingcreek valley. Be a part of your community family on Sunday night at the community Thanksgiving service and on Thanksgiving Day at the Methodist Church.

"The measure of a country is how many people are trying to leave--and how many people are trying to get in."
--Tony Blair

November 16, 2007. The Benton Lions Club served some wonderful chicken dinners last evening. Happy birthday today to Mikelanne McHenry Welliver and to David McHenry. We have lots of readers who "don't know sickem" about hunting bear, and yet for thousands of men come Monday 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 19. Didja know that the success rate among all Pennsylvania bear hunters is about 1 in 30?

Wanna see a movie made in Dallas, Pennsylvania, and learn the language of northeastern Pennsylvania? Learn about Heynabonics by heading to www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sMI2jb16eo. Henya!

Upcoming...
• November 17, 2007. Jonestown United Methodist Church turkey supper from 4 PM until ? Price is $8 for adults and $3.50 for children.

• November 18, 2007. A community Thanksgiving service with the Rev. Father Donald Cramer and the Waller United Methodist Church choir at the Benton Christian Church at 7 PM.

The following is extracted from the minutes of the Benton Borough Council meeting of November 5, 2007, from the official Secretary's records.

The meeting was held at the Benton Volunteer Fire Hall, John Jankowski, presiding, with O. Grant Little, Daniel Hartman, Allen Hess, Dan Jankowski, Michael Klem, Mayor Swan, Joseph Peters, Randy Karschner and Kay Yankovich in attendance. Joshua Price, a new member as of the November election, was also present, as was Boy Scout Troop 16, attending as part of the requirements necessary to earn their Communication Merit Badge. Council welcomed the members and leaders of this troop.

Items discussed ranged from the number of stray cats roaming the Borough streets to a letter from Rod Pennington about the Cemetery Hill/Hill Street project. Mr. Pennington appreciated the project, but expressed concern there will be issues at the corner where the concrete support wall was removed if some type of support and water diversion is not installed. Council agreed to observe the area throughout the winter months; and, if required, additional work to correct the problem will be completed in the spring of 2008.

Street Commissioner Joseph Peters expressed his gratitude to the Job Corp Landscaping Class for help with the park leaf pickup. They will return again on November 15 for final leaf pickup. He estimated the Borough saves 130-160 hours of paid hours per visit. A heater for the block building at the airport, which houses the paint and working supplies, will be purchased.

Mayor Swan reported that residents parking their vehicles on Church Street beside the Post Office have become a problem. It was suggested that a 15-minute parking sign be placed in this area to allow for better parking and better traffic flow. On motion of Mike Klem and second of Dan Hartman, it was decided to place a fifteen-minute parking sign on the south side of Church Street between Third and Fourth Streets, alongside the Post Office. Following discussion a role call vote was taken with the following NO votes: Hess, Little, John Jankowski, and the following YES votes: Hartman, Dan Jankowski, Mike Klem, Mayor Swan’s vote was required to break the tie: Mayor Swan, Yes. Motion carried.

Mayor Swan provided information on upcoming events scheduled at the Community Center. She encouraged Council to consider membership, volunteerism, and promotion of the Center.

The Mayor requested Council to consider hiring a cleaning person for the Borough Office. Dan Jankowski stated that the fire company is also looking into this, and possibly the fire company and the Borough could work together on this project. He will provide more information at the next Council meeting.

Grant Little reported that the Little League Association is discussing the possibility of building a new little league field, and has contacted the Rodeo and AYSO. This would be a Rodeo Association decision as they lease this property.

Grant Little would like Council to consider inviting a Benton High School Student Council Member to become a member of the Borough Council. He stated this is being done by the United Way Board as well as other non-profit boards. It is an excellent way for a young individual to become involved in the community.

Grant Little provided spreadsheets for the General Operating Account, Liquid Fuels Account, and Benton Park Account. The sheets provided information on the 2006 and 2007 budget figures as well as expenses incurred during the current year. Grant noted that the park is part of the General Fund; however, this is a separate profit center with no tax dollars subsidizing the park expenses. Each budget was reviewed with suggested changes discussed by Council.

Dan Hartman stated that he was not entirely satisfied with the work done by Larson Design Group for the Cemetery Hill/Hill Street Project. He asked Council to consider requesting Request for Proposal statements from other engineering firms in the future.

Mike Klem reported that he and Randy Karschner have held discussions on ideas for joining with other municipalities to provide more police coverage. They will continue to pursue this issue.

Grant Little announced that the next Park Committee Meeting will be held November 14.

We'll resume the visit with Peter Cmiech and Barbara Niedzwiecki that we began in the Thursday edition. Peter pointed out where the horse barn and five horses were located to the north side of the cabin road "at the center of the job."

Sullivan County Map Showing the Wilds of Davidson Twp.

To the south side of the road was the first saw mill run by the Baer Brothers, a smaller mill on a gently rising slope of a hill, a less desirable location with little room to spread out. The third mill was "toward the stone corner" at the western end of the pond, located in that end of the property to save skidding logs several miles around the pond. Clem Baer had a diesel Minneapolis-Moline to run his second saw mill. A gas engine ran the first and the third saw mills. Diesel engines were a more dependable source of power and much safer from a fire-starting standpoint than steam engines.

Peter recalled how Clem Baer would "holler" about feeding the horses too much. Clem would yell, "Look at the feed. It's gone. It's gone!" Late one night, Clem arrived on the mountain and stopped to see how the horses were doing. Peter remembers Clem later telling him, "You oughta see the coons running out of that barn." Peter explained that there was never a top on the container of feed and suddenly he understood where all the horse feed was going. After the timbering was over in 1949, the barn was sold to Peter's mother and moved as a barn to Luzerne County.

Peter's voice grew husky as he thought about things he hadn't brought to the surface in fifty years. Clem had one horse that was bigger than the others, but one that would not let anyone shoe him. Peter recalled, "we had to shoe him every once in a while, you know, so we got ropes and flipped him over." He continued, "they put him down a few times, but after that when he saw the ropes coming he would lay down himself."

We arrived at the "wye," an intersection of dirt roads that split directions, one road going toward Bear Swamp and one road going toward the Painter Den cabin. On the inside of the turn toward the cabin is an area called the "bakeoven," for reasons that are only generally understood. I suppose, and this is the common interpretation, that during the logging operations around 1900 the loggers went to this location where food was served to the loggers. I suspect bread was once baked in this area, but no one in memory has found evidence to support that, another example of things lost over the passage of time.

Peter's next story involved the timber beyond the "wye." He said, "Andy McHenry told me that I wasn't to cut no trees over there, we don't want that cut." Peter said that one of the men later saw a tree he wanted to cut and began cutting it. Andy happened to see it, and yelled "Don't do that!" "Geeze, was he upset," Peter said in an elevated voice, "he told me to "go get some nails and we'll nail it back down again."

The initial logging was done with horses, but eventually some Army trucks were bought and used. Peter remembers that the trucks were often not turned off in the winter because of the danger of not being able to get them to start and he would be stranded on the mountain.

Baer Brothers eventually purchased an International tractor, which during cold weather would be parked just inside the Painter Den gate on a downhill slope in order to start it in the mornings. Peter used the tractor with a "V-blade" on the front to plow the roads during heavy accumulations of snow, but Peter remembered that the tractor would "hang up" on the snowdrifts and he would have to shovel the machine out of deep drifts, a very responsible job for a young kid fresh off the farm.

When Peter got the job, his uncle dropped the 13-year old boy off at Clem Baer's house and said "there he is." Peter noted that "My family never worried about me. They knew I was going to do my job," then continued, "It wasn't long, I was pulling out two truckloads a day of timber, 8 to 10 tons of timber on each truck, because they weren't big trucks like today."

One day Clem told Peter to "get on that thing, run it." talking about the International. "This is what you do. Do this, do that, push the brakes, you know," Clem told Peter at machine-gun speed. Peter said that every time he was on a hill, it "wouldn't stay there for me to hook on to the tree." He said that sometimes he had to put three or four chains on to keep the tractor where he wanted it. He paused, then continued, "Can you imagine a 13-year old kid, maybe 14 already, getting put on a tractor and saying 'go on use it." Peter remembers the first hill inside the gate at the bottom of the Grassy Hollow road. "Back in them days," Peter began, "you didn't have no brakes. Clem's brother Ted stalled his motor out on that first hill. We didn't have no brakes, the truck was going backwards. It was a good thing that the poles were up (referring to the hinged gate with a barrel on one end for counter weight) as the truck rolled backwards down the hill" and through the gate.

Other equipment used on the job was a "1928 nine-passenger LaSalle sedan, 12 cylinder. Peter remembers watching the fuel gauge going down as they came up Grassy Hollow, the sedan filled with loggers, fuel oil strapped to the front end, fuel oil in the truck and strapped to the back end, "nine of us people in the car and snow on the ground."

A note found in the Painter Den cabin on November 15, 1943, is quoted as written: "Arrived at camp 12:30 a.m. and was expected to find Doctor Rab and Dial Baker in at camp but no wone was in seit. I went in camp and found no one in seit so I went to work and billed me a fire and cooked meself a fine dinner and after words I got drunk by