The Archives for the Benton News for

September 2009

September 30, 2009. It is the birthday of Courtney Foust, Henrietta Erney and Lynn Musser. Louisa May Alcott, Truman Capote, Angie Dickinson, Johnny Mathis and Deborah Kerr were also born on this day. On this day in 1927, Babe Ruth hit his 60th homer of the season to break his own major-league record. James Byron Dean would have been 78 now had he not died 54 years ago on this day just two years after he arrived in Hollywood. He celebrated the release of his third movie by taking his Firebelch 500 grey 1955 Porsche (which he paid $7,000 to own and which he nicknamed "the Little Bastard") for a spin in the California countryside. In mid-afternoon, he got a speeding ticket and two hours later he sped into an intersection and into the path of a vehicle turning left. He was killed instantly. He was an American idol with his portrayal of Cal Trask in "East of Eden" and even more so as Jim Stark and Jett Rink when "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant" were released after his death. He did have a fourth movie, but it was never released to theaters. It was a public-service announcement for safe driving in which he advised viewers to drive safely--"the life you save might be mine." To learn more about James Dean, head to the official web site,  www.jamesdean.com/ .

Please add the name of Marcia Worley, Dover, Pennsylvania, to your prayer list. Marcia is the daughter of Marcia Kay Kline. Marcia had a morning appointment Tuesday with two surgeons preliminary to a major operation relating to the removal of a hernia in her stomach. The surgery was to involve both surgeons because of the serious nature of the operation. The surgeons concluded that Marcia is not strong enough for surgery and took no further action.  

As relates to getting on with life, didja ever think that time
can buy you money, but no amount of money can buy you time?

 

Quickies...

   • Restaurant.com sells $25 gift certificates for thousands of restaurants for only $10 and throughout the month they issue coupons for 50-90% off. This month they’re only offering 80% off, so it will cost you a whole $2 to save $25 at some pretty-nice restaurants. As usual, there is no discount for good buckwheat cakes. Benton doesn't have any restaurants on the list, but there is a large variety in the larger cities.

   • At the risk of making some people mad, I feel that Roman Polanski--the high-flying movie director who pled guilty to raping a 13-year old Pennsylvania girl in 1977 before he fled the United States to avoid jail, needs a trip back to the United States.

   • The Cash for Clunkers program found some strange takers. A Bentley Continental R, an Aston Martin DB7 Volante from 1997 and a 1985 Maserati Quattroporte all got clobbered to death under the government-funded incentive program. Of the  nearly 700,000 clunkers, there were 3,061 Thunderbirds including one 2005 T-Bird, s 1999 Mercedes C43 AMG, a 2000 Jaguar XK8 convertible and a 1998 BMW Z3 Roadster and 100 7-series BMWs. There were other surprises, too. Read the list here.

   • The Tuesday attendance at the Bloomsburg Fair was 35,468.

   • A few months ago, I was asked if I could answer a question about Windows 95. But times change and now Windows 7 is around the corner. You can get a first-look at Windows 7 by going here. Windows 7 will be available on October 22.

The article which originally appeared on this page has been removed and moved to the Features Section. The article is entitled, "On the Subject of Undertakers and Funeral Directors and Morticians and Embalming and Cemeteries."

Russell M. Gochenaur (April 24, 1921-Sept. 25, 200), Waverly, New York, formerly of Barton, New York, died Friday. He was 88. He was the son of Roy B. Gochenaur and Anna Mary Rye Gochenaur, Lancaster. Russell was a graduate of Milton Hershey high school, Hershey, with a degree in plumbing, but became an accomplished self-taught electrician and provided 40 years of dedicated service at Robert Packer Hospital. He was a close personal friend of Dr. Guthrie and of Milton Hershey. Russell was a member of the Athens Masonic Lodge for 57 years and a member of the First Baptist Church of Waverly.

He was predeceased by eight brothers and one great granddaughter. He is survived by his loving wife and best friend of 40 years, Joyce (Marsh) Gochenaur; his daughters, Mary (Larry) Robbins, Benton, Beatie (Charles) Rakich, Benton, Kay Runyon, Robin (Brock) McDuffee, Waverly; his sons, Paul (Sylvia) Gochenaur, Benton ,and Russell Gochenaur, Barton, Alan (Linda Thomas) Marsh, Sheila Marsh, Don (Laurie) Marsh, Waverly, David (Sue) Marsh, Florida; sister-in-law Doris Gochenaur, Berwick. There were 18 grandchildren: Debbie, Shirley, Charles, Lorie, Michael, Michelle, Ken, Melissa, Duston, Paul Jr., Chad, Amber, Alicia, Nicole, Ashley, Leah, Holly and Cara; several great grandchildren and a very special friend, Honey; extended family from Lancaster: nephews Ronnie and Donnie Gochenaur, Earl Farmwald and Jeff Fulmer.

Funeral services will be held at Richards Funeral Home, 3670 Waverly Rd, Owego, New York on Tuesday afternoon, September 29, 2009, at 2. Burial will follow in Smithboro Cemetery. Friends are invited to call at Richards Funeral Home on Tuesday afternoon from noon until the time of service at 2. You can share your memories at www.RichardsFH.com .

September 29, 2009. Somehow we missed the birthday September 27 of Kathy Ball. We regret the omission. It is the birthday of Chuck Chapman, Craig Merluzzi and Tim Franklin. Tim has been in the Greek Islands since September 10 and returns to Benton tomorrow.  Benton News Facebook subscribers have been following his island hopping for his 50th birthday. Happy anniversary to the local Uni-Mart, open under corporate management for four years. It is the anniversary of the name "United States." It was on this day in 1776 that the Continental Congress officially named its new union of sovereign states the United Sates.

Didja ever think that it is better to debate a question
without settling it than to settle a question without debating it?

 

Quickies...

   • Bloomsburg Hospital will hold free prostate screenings by board-certified urologists on October 13, 15, and 26. The screening will take place on the second floor of the Medical Arts building from 5 to 7 PM. Dr. Aldo Suraci will perform the screening on October 13. Dr. Raj Chopra will perform the screening on October 15. Dr. Anuj Chopra will perform the screening on October 26. The screening will include a Prostatic Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test, rectal exam and erectile-dysfunction evaluation. Using both the PSA-blood test and rectal-prostate exam more accurately diagnoses prostate problems. The dual test also aids in early detection and diagnosis. The health screening is for men age 50 and over. Appointments are not necessary. For information or questions, call 387-2099.

   • The Robinson Oil/Gas group will hold a 7 PM meeting at the Northern Columbia Community/Cultural Center on Wednesday, September 30. Jack Sordoni will give the assembly an update of current negotiations. Jim Park will then conduct "Gas Drilling 101" for new members to the group, and explain the lease document. Starting at 6 PM, group leaders and volunteers will be at the reception area to help attendees complete new agent-engagement contracts and to intake completed contracts.  Questions related to the contract and the lease document will be answered.  Assistance with contracts will be provided after Jack Sordoni's presentation.

• Thursday night will be the coldest of the week. There is a possibility of a shower today to round off our "Fair weather," then cool but decent Fair weather through Friday.

  • Attendance figures for the Bloomsburg Fair are as follows: Saturday, 56,677; Sunday, 41,426; and Monday, 40,088.

One of the tragic events of the summer was when Kris Hoyt lost his foot in an accident involving a massive concrete slab. Kris never lost his spirit or his drive to do his best. He drove a golf cart within weeks of being released from the hospital, and before long he was being helped into one of his large oil-delivery trucks. Although Dean Hack and others proved to be excellent tractor drivers, it wasn't long until Kris was on his prize Case tractor driving again.

 

The Case tractor isn't quite your garden-variety tractor. Technically, it is a 90 horsepower, single charger, Pro-Stock design. Unofficially, it is throwing off well over a thousand horsepower when he enters it in the “Smoker Series” point races. Kris is in first place for 2009 with one pull remaining in the season--and that comes up Saturday night at 7 in front of the grandstand at the Bloomsburg Fair. The completion is fierce: there are three tractors--a Case ("Nut Case,” which Kris says was named for its owner), International ("Recycled Red") and John Deere ("JD Express”)--all within three points of each other going into the USA-East finals. These tractors are the toughest and strongest in the eastern United States. The Pro-Stock tractors run at 10,000 pounds. Also in the class are Super Stock Tractors that may only weigh up to 9,500 pounds. Pro Stocks are allowed to only utilize a single turbo charger while the Super Stockers can have up to four working turbo chargers. The John Deere was the point champion in 2008 and the “Smoker Series” champion in 2006. Kris Hoyt is driving a tractor he calls “Nut Case,” and will be the sentimental favorite of both the local area and the fans at the Fair. You can find Kris' point standing by going here and learn about the rules for the smoker series by going here.

 

If weather forces the Saturday evening session at Bloomsburg to be postponed, the entire event will be run on Sunday afternoon at 2.

 

 

The final installment of Bridget Allen and R.B. Powell's Alaskan adventure this summer was something that most never get to do. They are both back in Pennsylvania, but this is an accounting of their adventures in the bush country. Bridget is the lead singer in the group Unusual Suspects. The group is booked for the next ten weeks, but has agreed--if details can be worked out--to give a concert at The Center at some point in the future. This is Bridget's report...

 

R.B. met Jerry in Fairbanks in a music store during a conversation about aircraft aluminum used in making banjos. Jerry turned out to be a "fabulous singer/songwriter and guitar player." He is also a bush pilot, has his own personal float-plane and a cabin north of the Arctic Circle in the Brooks Range. He and RB struck a deal for a three-night fly-in fishing trip. The three set out as soon as the weather was right--which happened six days later.

The float-plane was a 4-seater Cessna 185 "with more stuff jammed in it" than Bridget thought was possible (including four 8 ft. long 1x12s that Jerry needed to repair the outside wall of his cabin where a bear had tried to break in). Bridget, the smallest of the three, got the back seat--a pile of gear arranged so she could sort of sit on it. There was barely enough room to sneeze. It took four tries down the Chena Marina runway (yup--it’s water) and some judicious unloading of baggage before they actually took off.

The bumpy trip north over the mountains took about two hours. The plane landed on Wild Lake, magnificently blue and clear, about five miles long and a mile wide, surrounded by glorious spruce and tundra-clad mountains. There were ten small, unoccupied cabins and a part-time gold mine.

The cabin was a fairly new modified A-frame with a woodstove room that served as living/dining/guest-sleeping room/library and a tiny kitchen with a gas stove and sink--but sans functional "frig," running water and indoor potty. The cabin had a gigantic storage room with enough miscellaneous stuff to last by Jerry’s estimate for two years. There were tools, sleeping bags, rain gear, batteries of all sizes, floppy plastic 5-gallon jugs of water, lanterns, kerosene and guns and ammunition. An outside addition housed more stuff of similar utility.

The kitchen was stocked with canned and dried edibles--potatoes, jerky, soup, assorted hiker’s fare and two huge plastic bins filled with cookies and candy bars. There were enough herbs and spices to last three lifetimes, flatware for 16 people and cookpots big enough to fix chili for a platoon.  

The guys fixed the bear hole in the cabin wall.  Bridget made dinner and then everyone hit the "sack." Next morning, Jerry got in his little Cessna and flew away. RB and Bridget stood on the shore and watched the plane dwindle to a speck against the mountains--just like in the movie, "there we were…in the wilderness…alone," Bridget remembers.

The decision was made, “Well!  Let’s go fishin’!”  And they did! For two days they putt-putted all around that splendid lake in Jerry’s tiny Walmart special.  RB caught lots of fish--trout and grayling--including a fine lake trout that fed them for three meals. They explored a bit of the Wild River, which flows out of the lake to the Yukon River, and nosed around a gold mine. "A dreadful place, ecologically speaking. I may think twice about buying gold jewelry after this!" RB fired up the wood stove evenings and "we toasted our toes, read from Jerry’s extensive library of Alaska history and wilderness epics, and listened to the complete quiet of the place."

The big adventure for Bridget, on account of possible bears, was any trip to the outhouse. The building stood about a hundred feet from the cabin at the end of a winding path through the sub-tundra flora. The building boasted a grand view of the mountains if you didn’t close the door. "Disconcerting was the tuft of bear fur caught on a rough corner."

On one such sojourn that happened to be in the dark, Bridget thought that she saw the aurora. The sky was unpolluted by artificial lights. Stars were like dust on the surface of the sky. Across the top was a broad band of whitish light, as if a giant piece of glow-in-the-dark chalk had drawn a great sweeping arc from east to west.  It wasn’t anything like she expected, but Jerry later confirmed that it likely was a modest aurora display.

"Next morning Jerry came back for us. Mixed emotions--I had feared he wouldn’t… and I had feared he would." We loaded up and took off." "As we rose up and higher, blue Wild Lake fell away below us." Bridget mumbled, "G’bye, beautiful place,” just as she has mumbled to the Colorado Rockies, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and other wonderful places they have visited.  

"All of a sudden out of nowhere came a torrent of burning hot tears." All Bridget could think "over and over" was, “Gold mine, go away. Cabins, go away. People, go away. Wild Lake, you should be for the fish and bears and eagles and moose. We humans will just mess you up.” Bridget ended the subject with "Maybe I’m a better person because I experienced Wild Lake. But is Wild Lake better because I was there?"

 

I notice when a fellow dies,

No matter what he's been,

Some saintly chap or one perhaps

Whose life is stained with sin,

His friends forget the bitter words,

They spoke but yesterday

And now think up a multitude

Of pretty things to say.

Perhaps when I am laid to rest,

Someone will bring to light,

Some noble deed or kindly act,

Long buried out of sight.

But if it's all the same to you,

My friends

Just give me instead,

The roses while I'm living,

The knocking when I'm dead.

--Author unknown

 

The article which originally appeared on this page has been removed and moved to the Features Section. The article is entitled, "On the Subject of Undertakers and Funeral Directors and Morticians and Embalming and Cemeteries."

September 28, 2009. It is the birthday of Taylor Iddings, Jeff Remley, Tara Grigas and Dan Hartman. Bruce and Melanie Anderson were married 35 years ago today in scenic and quaint Island Heights, New Jersey. The temperature could reach 70° today, but will then hover around 60° through Thursday.

A number of local residents work at the Bloomsburg Fair. Go here to see a slideshow of some of them. Copies of the pictures can be downloaded or printed by going here.

 

Quickies...

   • For users of Google's Gmail... Didja know that Google introduced a new Gmail Labs feature which lets users hide labeled messages that have already been read when browsing through labels? The ones that have been read can be found under the "more" menu. The feature can be accessed by turning it on from the labs tab under "Settings."

   • The business section of the Times Leader picked up the story on the pinch farmers are in with milk prices in its September 27 edition in an interview with Larry Litwhiler of L & K Mills, Inc. Larry was quoted as saying that the company has not let any employees go, but isn't filling four positions including nutritional-sales people. The depressed milk prices are likely to cost farmers lower production, more health concerns and more herd deaths, he said.  Larry was quoted as saying, “The bottom-line effect on the dairy farmer is the worst I’ve ever seen.”

 

   • The Columbia/Montour Tourist Bureau, the Benton News, Fox News and CNN News and scores of other web sites have a link to Facebook. The question of security is always a concern anytime anyone gets on the internet. Facebook security is discussed here. Take the time to read and heed.

 

   • Looking for a business? You might simply add a Google number to your cell phone or home phone speed dial. The number is 1 800 466 4411 (1-800-goog-411). There is no charge to make an information call. If your car breaks down on the road and you need to call a business and you don't know the number, hit the speed dial to call 1 800 goog-411. A recorded voice will ask the question, "City and State?" Answer the question. The recorded voice asks "Business Name or Type of Service?" Answer the question. The recorded voice says, "Connecting." This works in any state in the nation--but, frankly, poorly in Benton. It turns out there are simply too many "Bentons" in the state. Click here to watch a demonstration.

 

The article which originally appeared on this page has been removed and moved to the Features Section. The article is entitled, "On the Subject of Undertakers and Funeral Directors and Morticians and Embalming and Cemeteries."

September 27, 2009. It is the birthday of Lee Fritz, Kathy Ball and Ed Kocher.

Local businesses are well represented at the Bloomsburg Fair. The "Benton Coin Man," Bill Yanchick, is in the arts and crafts building. A Forks business, known as Them Insects, Inc., has been at the fair since 2001. The bulk of the business is performed by a mother (Colleen Kindig) and daughter (Becky Fidrick) team.  The business is hard to explain. They sell, both wholesale and retail, preserved insects used as art along with jewelry and other insect-related items. Tammy Kindig runs the booth at the Bloomsburg Fair in the educational building.

 

Press Releases

   • It took three spills in nine days coupled with a year of environmental problems for Pennsylvania officials to order Cabot Oil and Gas to stop its hydraulic-fracturing operations in Susquehanna County pending an intensive review. The press release can be found here.

   • The Guv has asked Dick Kriebel, chairman of the Commonwealth's Milk Marketing Board for his agency to make recommendations to dairy farmers on how to survive in a market of historically low milk prices and unprecedented high production costs. Low prices are forcing farmers to sell family-dairy herds and farms. The Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board is a regulatory agency. The Governor has asked the board to research all options within regulation to make sure there are no price-setting areas within the PA law which have been overlooked. The request was that the board analyze the situation and come up with a set of recommendations of what can be done at the state level to confront the price collapse. The board is chartered to protect the state's dairy industry and is responsible for setting prices based on conditions that affect the market. The letter to Richard Kriebel is available here.

 

It is the beginning of Fall, but that doesn't mean that World's End State Park and Ricketts Glen State Park aren't great places to go. The fall foliage on top of Red Rock mountain should be at its finest next week. Learn more about World's End State Park and Ricketts Glen State Park . Both of these parks are in a very scenic part of our Commonwealth. Ricketts Glen has more than 20 waterfalls, a gorge and old growth timber. Some trees are 500 years old. The area not to miss is Glens Natural Area, a National Natural Landmark.

 

We are seeing overnight temperatures dropping into the forties (Wednesday night the temperature should drop to 42°). The first frosts in the coldest locations signal the start of fall foliage season. Peak colors are reached in the northern areas of the Commonwealth in early to mid-October, reaching the southern part of the state around the last week in October. We have had plenty of rainfall this summer and the insects were kind to our forests, so the fall should be spectacular--if the weather cooperates. We just need bright clear days with frosty temperatures at night. These conditions will speed the breakdown of green pigments in the leaves and allow the yellow, orange and red colors to show.

This is also a great time for bird watching. September and October are the best times to witness the annual birds of prey migration. Thousands of hawks, eagles, falcons, and other birds pass by the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, north of I-78 near Hamburg, Pennsylvania. There are both excellent foliage scenes and bird-spotting opportunities at both the North and South lookout. The views of the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Province are breathtaking.

 

There are few steam locomotives still operational in the United States. Three are in Scranton at Steamtown National Historic Site. On October weekends, fall foliage excursions are available to Moscow and Tobyhanna. The Moscow trip takes two hours and the Tobyhanna trip about four. Both excursions are round trips.

Leaving from Jim Thorpe, the 1920-vintage Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway makes a 16-mile roundtrip along the Lehigh River. Plan sufficient time to explore the Victorian architecture and unique shops of historic Jim Thorpe. The one-hour rides depart several times a day on weekends at a cost of about $12 per person.

 

Quickies...

   • Your Sunday morning devotional is to listen to the Lord's Prayer, which you can find here.

   • Richard Kriebel has been asked and is currently seeking a position as one of U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's 15 representatives of the dairy-industry advisory committee.  Dairymen across the nation are feeling the pinch. Richard continues to seek "to improve our export opportunities and find a cure for the supply and demand challenges."

 

   • The weather Tuesday will only get to 60° or so, but the Benton Tigers Marching Band play starting at 9 AM at the Fair. Tuesday is their only appearance.

The article which originally appeared on this page has been removed and moved to the Features Section. The article is entitled, "On the Subject of Undertakers and Funeral Directors and Morticians and Embalming and Cemeteries."

September 26, 2009. It is the wedding anniversary of Clair and Marlene Harvey. The Bloomsburg Fair begins today. Please keep Rose Zimmerman, Jim Dildine and Abigail Crusain in your prayers. All are in the hospital.

The Benton Halloween parade is Tuesday, October 27, at 7 PM. Trick Or Treat night in the Borough of Benton is Saturday, October 31, from 6 to 8 PM.

Members of the Columbia County Land Owners Coalition who walked into the Benton High School Thursday night for a gas-leasing meeting passed a white car in the parking lot with Chesapeake Energy's name on the door panels. The Columbia County Land Owners Coalition is in direct talks with Chesapeake Energy Company. Group leader Bruce Anderson introduced the company to its members. The membership later saw a very informative presentation by the company representative on Chesapeake Energy--the nation’s largest gas producer. The Columbia County Land Owners Coalition--with a combined acreage total of about 80,000 acres in Columbia County, Luzerne County, Sullivan County, and Lycoming County--hopes to complete a deal with the company before the end of the year. Chesapeake Energy has made lease offers to other large landowners in Wyoming County in the range of $5,750 per acre and 20% royalty.

At The Center Thursday night, the Chris Robinson Oil and Gas group disclosed it is also talking with Chesapeake Energy, one of the largest natural gas companies in the United States. The supply glut of natural gas has been driven by lower industrial demand because of the recession and lower consumption by electric utilities during this summer's unseasonably cool weather. Forecasts of a colder winter than usual and more productive drilling than anticipated in the Marcellus shale are prompting renewed interest in gas leasing.

The article is about undertakers and funeral directors and morticians and embalming and cemeteries which originally appeared in this section has been moved to the FEATURES section.

Jacob C. Janney (December 31, 1938-September 24, 2009), died Thursday at the Towanda Memorial Hospital emergency room after getting ill at his home at R. R. 4, Towanda. He was 70. He was born in Milford Square, Bucks County. He was a son of Mary B. (Bender) Janney, Elk Grove, and the late Jacob M. Janney, who died December 26, 2006. Mr. Janney had been employed by Swartley Electrical Contractors in Lansdale and later for John Jaeger, Perkasie. He retired in 2001. Surviving, in addition to his mother, Mary, are his wife, Judi A. (Winkler) Janney; children Jacob Janney, Jr., Anthony Janney, Jeffrey Janney, all of Towanda and Judy Kerrick, Monroeton. Also surviving are seven grandchildren and a great grandson. Also surviving are brothers and sisters Nancy Fox, Benton; Ronald Janney (Roxie), Fountain Hill; Sandra Rosenberger, Benton; Robert Janney, Benton; Linda Reily (Stuart), Allentown; Barry Janney (Evelyn), Benton; Judy Ashelman (Glen), Stillwater; David Janney (Linda), Benton; Susan Reabuck (Joe), Stillwater. In addition to his father, he was preceded in death by a brother, Daniel Janney, on October 10, 1996, and a sister, Irene Swartley, on July 26, 2006. A private family viewing will be held at the McMichael Funeral Home with a graveside service to follow Monday at 2 PM at St. James Cemetery. For online condolences or to sign the guest register book: www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .

John “Frank” Knouse, Sr. (August 10, 1938-September 24, 2009), one of the outstanding baseball players to come from Benton, died Thursday at his home in Warriors Mark. He had formerly lived in Hughesville. He was 71. Frank was born in Bloomsburg, a son of Jacob and Irene (Klinger) Knouse who were former owners of the Hotel Moses Van Campen. He was a graduate of Benton Area Schools as a member of the class of 1956. Frank played first base for the Benton team in the Tri-County League where he was known for both his hitting- and fielding ability. In one game, Franklin broke a bone in his wrist, but would not leave the field despite his pain. He went on to get two more hits in the game, before going to the hospital to take care of his wrist. Although Franklin was always large, he was graceful on the roller-skating rink at Grassmere, where he was considered a "catch" when he asked someone to skate with him. He was well known in Joe Dalto's restaurant in Benton, where he always "racked" up games on the pin-ball machine, then gave the games to others who waited in line to play, but never seemed to be able to win. He later coached baseball in the East Lycoming Little League. He retired from GTE Sylvania as an employee of the former Montoursville plant.  He served in the U.S. Army.  He enjoyed hunting and fishing.

Franklin and his wife, the former Donna Lee Dendler, celebrated 46 years of marriage on August 17. Surviving, in addition to his wife, are a daughter, Jody (Kevin) Poland, Tampa, Florida; a son, John (Jeanne) Knouse, State College; and grandchildren Jacob Knouse, Joie Knouse and James Poland. Funeral services will be held Monday morning at 11, with time for friends to call immediately preceding, from the McCarty-Thomas Funeral Home, 557 E. Water St., Hughesville. Graveside services will immediately follow at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Orangeville.

September 25, 2009. It is the birthday of Wayne McMichael III. Wayne's father, Bruce, remembers the family was on the way to the Fair and near the hospital when Wayne made "his grand entrance into the world." Bruce recalls that "following his birth, I did make a solo trip to the fair and enjoyed a hot sausage to celebrate!" It is the tenth wedding anniversary of David and Connie Shaffer, Elk Grove. Michael Douglas and ABC News correspondent Barbara Walters celebrate birthdays today. On this date in 1789, the first U.S. Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of the amendments became the Bill of Rights. The price of regular, unleaded gasoline on this day in 2002 Back Home in Benton, PA, was $1.319 and $1.359. The Camp Hill price yesterday was $2.319.

"A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences."
--Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to James Madison, December, 1787

Novelist William Cuthbert Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, on this day in 1897. He created the legendary Yoknapatawpha County and its decayed Southern white gentry, merchants, farmers, poor whites and persecuted blacks. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949, but only went to Sweden to accept the award after his wife talked him into it. His acceptance speech was delivered too fast and too far from the microphone. Nobody had a clue what he said. The newspaper transcript the next day revealed that Faulkner had delivered some of the best words of any acceptance speeches any laureate had ever delivered. The acceptance began, "I decline to accept the end of man."

We have ploughed, we have sowed.
We have reaped, we have mowed.
We have brought home every load.
Hip! Hip! Hip!
Harvest home!
--A Traditional Harvest Poem of Unknown Origin

Marcia Kay Kline had her surgeon's review of her broken Distal Fibula (Lateral Malleolus) Thursday and will have the clamps removed in a week. She remains wheelchair-bound, but is now Back Home in Benton, PA. All indications are that with the exception of going through detectors at airports, she will have complete recovery when she is first allowed to walk on the leg the day before Thanksgiving.

 

Go to the Bloomsburg Fair when it opens Saturday. When you stop at the Free Stage, you'll recognize the voice of Danny Stoneham III, who is announcing for the first time. At the fair, support Benton-area stands including Karshner's buckwheat cake stand (and it is open at 7 AM for you early-risers), the good BBQ at the May's stand owned by Robert and Debbie Rabb, Vance's apple dumpling and their stand of English fish and chips and potato pancakes. Dorothy Kocher has a stand. Ed Campbell has his delicious soup. The Benton Cider Mill is one of our favorite stops. We'll mention others as we learn of them.

The Bloomsburg Fair means that we can start drinking cider again--Benton Cider, that is! Dick and Michael Campbell start out with apples that are ripe, clean and shipped in from the "south." Local apples, say the Campbells, are just not ripe enough during fair week for the blend they use. If the apples are over-ripe, they get less juice. If the apples are dry they also get less juice. If there is not a lot of sunshine, the cider is less sweet. Five different varieties of apples are used.

At the fairgrounds, the apples are sent up an elevator and then into an apple washer, then into the grater where they are cut into small pieces. After the apples are ground, they fall onto a nylon cloth.

After several cloths of apples are wrapped, the racks of apples are moved over to the hydraulic part of the press. Here 3,500 pounds of pressure are put on the racks. The juice runs into a 40-gallon holding tank under the press. From this tank, it is pumped into a refrigerated tank that holds 400 gallons of cider, and at this point the cider is cooled, and pumped into a 50 gallon stainless tank. The cider then fills the jugging machine and the cider is jugged into containers.

The cider press was bought from the world's fair planned for 1942 (but never held because of the war effort), trucked to Benton, and it has been in operation ever since. Stainless steel liners were added so the cider touches nothing but stainless steel.

Harry Knouse ran the Benton Cider Mill at the Fair for 20 years . The Campbell family bought it in 1967 and has been in the same spot ever since. The press is a Palmer Press, with 20-inch racks. It can make up to 16 gallons to one press, taking up to six bushels of apples. The press was originally run by steam, later by a gasoline engine. When the Campbells bought it, they converted it to electricity. The press is built on a house-trailer frame, 16 feet wide by 16 feet long. The hydraulic part of the press pumps up by a large cylinder, oil pressure pumps up the plate and will put up to 3,500 pounds on the racks.

The family operates three mills and all three are still in operation. The mill used at Knoebles Covered Bridge Festival is a twin to the one at the Bloomsburg Fair. The cider mill outside of Benton is a much larger press, yielding up to 40 gallons of cider to one press. Michael Campbell runs that operation.

Going to the Bloomsburg Fair reminds us somewhat of the old general store. At the fair, the farmer gets current with the latest in farm equipment, just as the notices in the old general store told of the horse thieves and the church socials, the elections, the farm auctions, the fact that a horse was available for stud. At the fair, we can smell the cotton candy and the freshly squeezed oranges, and the taste of the oysters on a cold evening. We can smell the Italian Wedding Soup and the hot peanuts and the horse stables. We can hear the sounds coming from the dog kennel and the barker trying to get us to come and see the "woman with the pig's head," and the accents of fair workers from far-off places. The fair, like fall, has arrived. Go to the Fair this weekend. Help keep Pennsylvania green!

 

Didja know that the first buyers in the mid-1800s at the very beginning of the Bloomsburg Fair paid $5 for a Bloomsburg Fair share. The price raised to $10 and then to $25 by the 1920s. In 1950, when fair memberships expanded to 1,850 shares, the price went to $50.

 

A local web site worth checking out is www.dianalehr.com. Diana Lehr--of Orangeville and Makawao, HI--has exhibited her paintings in museums and galleries in many parts of the world, and her works are held in numerous private, public and corporate collections. It is a beautiful website. Another nice site for the fall is the official Visit Pennsylvania site. You can do it today by going to www.visitpa.com/visitpa/home.do .

 

It is time to plant your garlic. Plant in fertile, well-drained soil with a pH of 6.5 to 7. Compost, aged manure or 5-10-10 fertilizer is good. Break into individual cloves and place each clove flat (root) end down, pointy end up, about 2 inches deep, 3 to 6 inches apart in rows 18 inches apart. Cover cloves with soil no more than 1 inch above the tip of the clove.

September 24, 2009. It is the birthday of Keith Bankes, Joe Helwig and Lauri Edson. Keith and Rosemary Yorks celebrate their 32nd anniversary and Wayne and Lois McMichael celebrate their 54th wedding anniversary. Wayne will spend the day working at the McMichael Funeral Home.

O, it sets my heart a clickin' like the tickin' of a clock
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
--James Whitcomb Riley

Now pay attention, because this is a little complicated. The Massachusetts Legislature did away with the requirement to hold a special election in order to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy. This law had come into effect when there was a chance that John Kerry could be elected President and thereby allow Republican Governor Mitt Romney to appoint the Kerry successor. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, now occupies the Governor's seat. So the Massachusetts Legislature has reversed the previous law by permitting an appointment if an "emergency" situation arises. Since the Democrats control both the Governor's office and the Legislature, look for an "emergency" as early as today with an appointment made. Some sources look to Michael Dukakis to be named while the Kennedy sons are said to favor former Democratic National Committee chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. Names under consideration are not being released. The naming of a replacement for Sen. Kennedy will provide Democrats in Washington the potential 60th vote they have been seeking to pass health-care overhaul. The interim senator appointed by Patrick would serve until voters elect a new senator in a Jan. 19 special election. That senator would serve the remaining three years of Kennedy’s term.

Didja ever think that a politician is someone
who spends half his time making laws,
and the other half helping friends evade them?

Quickies...
   • This article will provide information on the 8,000 gallon spill of fracking fluids near the town of Dimock last week.  

   • It should be in the high 70s today, then drop back to the high 60s/low 70s through the weekend.

Richard A. "Dick" Wieder (April 1, 1940-September 22, 2009), a painting contractor with ties to Jamison City, died Tuesday at his home in Emmaus. He was 69. He had been ill for the past year and a half. He was born in Heckstown, Northampton County, to Henry and Florence (Gradwohl) Wieder. He was a graduate of Wilson Borough High School. He served with the U. S. Navy for four years. He was a painting contractor and owned and operated Richard Wieder Painting and Decorating. He was an active member of Faith Evangelical Free Church of Trexlertown.  He was involved with Intercity Ministries and helped to build a school for the deaf in Jamaica. He and his wife, Carol A. (Kapec) Wieder, celebrated 45 years of marriage together. Surviving, in addition to his wife, are a son, Lance Wieder, Emmaus; a step son, Brett Landis, Hellertown; grandchildren Devon, Luke and Kayla Wieder and a sister, Ann Riley, Florida. Funeral services will be held Saturday, September 26, at 11 AM with viewing preceding at Faith Evangelical Free Church, Trexlertown, 6528 Hamilton Blvd., Allentown.  Burial will be in the Benton Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of the McMichael Funeral Home. For online condolences or to sign the guest register, go to  www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .

September 23, 2009. It is the birthday of Dennis Janney. Alvin Lynn and Kitty Maynes. These fine folks share their birthdays with Mickey Rooney, Ray Charles Robinson (a man who dropped his last name) and Bruce Springsteen.

Now that autumn has officially arrived, you'll notice that this is the time of the year when we will soon notice the difference in the setting sun from day to day. Ignoring the 80s of today and tomorrow, the leaves on my maple trees are starting to fall and it will be a matter of weeks until the mixed hardwoods sprinkled with evergreens will make our Commonwealth one of the most romantic places in the nation as our flaming fall foliage spreads what Florence Kocher always referred to as its "glory."

 

The turning of the leaves will first take place with the sumac and the black gum, followed by the red maples and the scarlet oaks. Yellow will appear in the beeches and gold will break out on the aspens. As the food factories close down on these trees, we will experience the most spectacular event in nature. The Christmas fern will stay green all year, but other varieties of fern will turn a nut-brown to a tawny yellow.

 

With the change in color comes a year-full of leaves to the ground. Birds give up their favorite summer haunts and spread their wings as singles or in flocks and head toward warmer weather. Some wildflowers and plants like golden rod make a feast for insects. In a few months, our trees will have gained another year of growth and lost all their foliage for the season. This is a season to savor.

 

Start your enjoyment of fall by attending the Bloomsburg Fair. While you are there, stop at the visitors bureau at its booth in the State Building, next to the dog show and cattle barns. The visitors bureau will have a display filled with local pictures of attractions and events from our area. Booth visitors will be able to pick up information on area attractions and events, as well as lodging information for the two-county region.  

Quickies...
   • What a setback! Super Bowl possibilities--the Eagles, Steelers, Patriots and Cowboys--lost their weekend games. The Eagles are in the toughest division, so the loss could affect them the most.

   • Legislative leaders have people responsible for museums, concerts and opera, ballet and theater performances in a dither. Well, yes, new taxes could bring in about $100 million, but many are asking why it is that tickets to sporting events and movies will be exempt from the sales tax.

   Be careful reading the fine print. There's no way you're going to like it.

The Council of Churches met on September 21 at Christ the King Catholic Church. Peg Krum, Benton food bank, reported that the "Plant-A-Row" project was a success and hopes it will continue again next year. She asked all area churches for family-sized hand-sanitizer gel for the October food bank. Anyone interested in donating, please have it to The Center by October 19.

The Agape Project is a non-denominational task force planning for mission outreach by the residents of Columbia County for neighbors in need throughout the Columbia County area. Everyone is welcome to participate and volunteer in providing any of the needs identified. Agape is looking for volunteers to help with repairs for needy families. If you have items you no longer use and think they might help someone, contact the Agape Project at 317-2210. The organization is located in the old Sears repair building, 19 E. 7th St., Bloomsburg.  If you know of someone in need, have them contact that number. They have refrigerators, stoves, beds and mattresses and other items.

The churches in the council have cookbooks for sale at $7 each, with proceeds helping with the fuel fund. With Christmas fast approaching, think of a cookbook for that extra gift.

Thanksgiving church services will be November 22 at 7 PM at St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church. Pastor Calvin Miller of the Methodist Church will be the speaker, Eric Fricke of the Benton Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will play the organ and Benton Christian will have the special music. Plan to attend this service.

   Didja ever think that the trouble with bucket seats
is that not everybody has the same size bucket?

September 22, 2009. Today is one of two times a year when the sun crosses the equator, and the day and night are of approximately equal length. It takes place today at 5:18 PM EDT and represents the official beginning of autumn in the northern hemisphere. It is the birthday of Allen Turner and Monica Mika-Machamer. Tara and Teo Grigas celebrate their wedding anniversary.

Didja ever notice that no one ever says "It's only a game," when their team is winning?

• Didja ever think that those who don't have a sense of humor probably don't have any sense at all?

 Quickies...
   • We don't have to go to New York or Los Angeles to find violence. There have been 14 killings in Harrisburg city this year, three more than the total killings in 2008 and one more than in all of 2007.    

   • Won't it be nice not to hear the name of Hugo Selenski, 36, tossed around by the media for the next 32½ to 65 years? A Monroe County judge tossed him in a state prison for his role in a January 2003 home invasion of a Tannersville jewelry owner, holding him at gunpoint and taking nearly $50,000 worth of jewelry. Police also found bodies of two Luzerne County victims in his backyard in Kingston Township.

   • I'll root for the Washington Redskins as long as I live--whether they win or lose. And as long as I live, I'll root for any team that plays the Dallas Cowboys. But I have to admit that Sunday during the game between the Cowboys and the New York Giants I was in awe at the "over the top" excesses the Cowboys have in their high-definition video screen. For those who didn't see the game, let me remind you that the center-hung scoreboard is 160 feet long, 72 feet high and cost $40 million. It has about 30 million LED lights, hangs 90 feet above the field suspended on two quarter-mile-long steel arches.

Your Loving Choices is holding a fashion show. The fashion show is about current trends and how to dress with more modesty.  There will be a sexual-integrity message geared for our youth today. For further information you may contact LouAnn Martucci, Sexual Integrity  Coordinator. The show is October 18 at 2:30 at Columbia Mall. Featured stores include Bon Ton, Chakra, JC Penney, Christopher Banks, Keyboard World, Maurices, Schuylkill Valley Sports and Famous Footwear. Models are volunteers from Your Loving Choice. Chelsea Rosenberger is a special vocalist. Dick Fink will provide the photography and WGRC Radio will provide the sound services.
 
To Be Fashionable--It’s Okay To Be DIFFERENT--To Make A DIFFERENCE!

Herman B. Pennington, (August 18, 1919-September 20, 2009) died Sunday at his home on Winding Road, Orangeville. He was 90. Herm was born in Fishing Creek Township. He was a son of Eli A. and Lizzie M. (Whitenight) Pennington. He was a 1937 graduate of Benton High School and served his country in World War II in the Army/Air Force from 1942 to 1945, attaining the rank of sergeant. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii after the attack where he worked on military aircraft. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Unit Plaque, the Good Conduct Medal and the Asiatic Pacific Medal with three bronze stars. Herm worked for Penn-DOT, later was a heavy-equipment operator for Boyd Kline, Inc. and also worked for Donald Kocher, Inc. He was a school-bus driver for the Central Columbia School District and worked for the Bloomsburg Fair in the Agricultural Building. He was a member of Washington Lodge, No. 265, F. & A. M., Caldwell Consistory, and Bloomsburg Moose Lodge.    

Surviving are his daughters LouAnn Megargell (William J.), Orangeville, and Debra K. Pennington, Northumberland, plus grandsons Jeffrey D. Megargell, Medford, MA, and John A. Megargell (Andrea), Bloomsburg.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 56 years, Jean (Davis) Pennington, on March 7, 2005, and by a son, Dennis Aaron Pennington, in October 1956. He was preceded in death by brothers and sisters Kenneth W. Pennington, Ernest E. Pennington, Letha Kocher, Gladys A. Eveland, Betty J. Houck, Foster Pennington, June Pennington and by an infant sibling. Herm was the last member of his immediate family. With his passing, the Class of 1937 has six remaining members.

Funeral services will be held Friday at 11 AM at Faith Bible Church, 650 S. R. 93, Berwick. Burial will be in Elan Memorial Park, Lime Ridge, with military honors accorded by a joint-veterans group. A viewing will be held Thursday from 2 to 4 PM and 6 to 8 PM at the McMichael Funeral Home. There will also be an additional viewing Friday morning from 10 to 10:45 at the church. For online condolences, visit www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .

September 21, 2009. It is the birthday of Carol Hess and Jay Vandergrit. Jay tells us that he has the same birthday as H.G. Wells, Faith Hill, and Stephen King, the "only difference is that they have more money than I do." Faith is SLIGHTLY better-looking! It is the 40th wedding anniversary of Larry and Susan (Fritz) Fausey. Harry Warner faces knee-replacement surgery in Akron, Ohio, today.

Hurricane Eloise was one of the deadliest Category 3 hurricanes on record. Eloise turned to the north through the Gulf of Mexico on September 21 after crossing just north of Costume, Mexico. On this date in 2004, Lee Remley and Joe Savage both had rain gauges that held five inches of rain, and water ran over the top of the gauges. Some parts of the state received up to nine inches of rain. Near Danville, the Susquehanna River reached 26.2 feet, well over flood-stage level of 20 feet. The river at Danville in 1972 crested at 32.3 feet. All that took place during the Bloomsburg Fair.

 Quickies...

   • The Benton News now has a supplement to the web and email versions. The Facebook version of the Benton News is available at www.facebook.com/bentonnews . Articles at this location are about the next Superintendent at the Benton Area Schools and this morning's lecture at the North Mountain Historical Society. Ah, you say you don't know much about Facebook! Well, take a quick tour by going here.

    • The Roaring Creek and Catawissa Valley Historical Study Group is sponsoring a "Fall Train Ride" on October 10. The North Shore Railroad is furnishing train cars remodeled from the 1940s and 50s. The ride is from the Catawissa Legion to Northumberland roundtrip. The travel is along the Susquehanna River with its beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. There are two rides: 10 AM and 2 PM. The cost is $15 for adult and $10 for children 12 and under. Profits from this ride are used to preserve and restore the group's one-room schoolhouse located at Fisherdale in Cleveland Township. For reservations, call 570 799-0417 or 799-0700.

The 155th annual Bloomsburg Fair runs from Saturday, September 26, through October 3. The stage, new in the 2008 fair, will be a central attraction with its 38-foot ceiling. Last year, the fair was hard-hit when Sugarland and Kellie Pickler decided to do a disappearing act at the last minute. Sugarland is coming back to make it all up this year and their show is almost sold out before the fair begins. Trace Adkins, Miranda Lambert, Josh Turner, David Cook, Tonic, and rock artists Seether and Rev Theory, will be under the lights on the main stage this year.

In front of the main stage will be "figure 8" racing, a demolition derby, motocross racing and tractor- and truck pulling.

At Millennium Park will be the Dock Dogs competition where dogs make a running jump from a platform into water. You can register your dog via www.dockdogs.com . The dogs perform September 26 at 8 AM and September 27 at 1 PM, according to the dockdogs website. We suspect this isn't correct--but, hey, what do we know?

And then you ask if there will there be food. Food? In excess! Our favorite is to start the day with some of the Karschner family buckwheat cakes and sausage. Further down the list of favorites are the deep-fried Oreos, the Thai food and French fried potatoes. We love to listen to Harry Watts, Millville, belt out the announcements over the fair's intercom.

Gates open at 7 AM daily, exhibits open at 9 AM daily. Here is a partial list of the entertainment (See the Upcoming Events List)...

September 26...

Noon - Cody Sassaman, free stage.
2 and 8 PM - Ryan Pelton, free stage.
4 PM - Stanky and the Coal Miners, free stage.
7:30 PM - Josh Turner, grandstand.
9:30 PM - Mudflaps performance, free stage.

September 27...

1 and 5 PM - Mike Lewis, free stage.
3 and 7 PM - Ryan Pelton, free stage.
7:30 PM - An evening with Miranda Lambert, grandstand.
9 PM - Aaron Kelley, free stage.

September 28...

Senior Citizens Day - All senior citizens 65 and older are admitted free with proof of age.
10 PM - North Schuylkill High School band, free stage.
3 and 9 PM - Ryan Pelton, free stage.
5 PM - Magic Trunk, free stage.
7:30 PM - David Cook with special guests Tonic, grandstand.

September 29...

High school students ages 13 to 18 admitted free
10 AM - Mount Carmel Area High School band, free stage.
11 AM - Hazleton Area High School band, free stage.
1 and 5 PM - Magic Trunk, free stage.
3 and 9 PM - Ryan Pelton, free stage.
7:30 PM - Trace Adkins, grandstand.

September 30...

1 and 5 PM - Break-Urban Funk Spectacular, free stage.
3 and 9 PM - Terry Lee Goffee, free stage.
7 PM - Barbershop Quartet contest, free stage.
7:30 PM - Freestyle Motocross, grandstand.

October 1...

1 and 7 PM - Break-Urban Funk Spectacular, free stage.
3 and 9 PM - Terry Lee Goffee, free stage.
7:30 PM - Sugarland, grandstand.

Oct. 2

High school students ages 13 to 18 admitted free
10:30 PM - Nativity BVM High School band, free stage.
3 and 7 PM - Break-Urban Funk Spectacular, free stage.
5 and 9 PM - Mahoney Brothers, free stage.
7:30 PM - Seether with special guests Rev Theory, grandstand.

October 3...

11 AM and 3 PM - Soulmen Rhythm and Blues Revue with the Blues Brothers, free stage.
Noon - Championship Demolition Derby, grandstand.
1 and 7 PM - Break-Urban Funk Spectacular, free stage.
5 and 9 PM - Mahoney Brothers, free stage.
7 PM - Full Pull Productions Inc. Presents Sanctioned Tractor and Truck Pulling, grandstand.

For a detailed schedule and more information, visit www.bloomsburgfair.com .

Ruth A. Wheeler, Tayler, died Monday, September 14, 2009, at Mercy Hospital. She was 67. She is survived by a son, David J. Wheeler, Morris, PA, and a daughter, Ruth E. Frey, Red Rock, several grand children and four great grand children. A private service will be held by the family.

September 20, 2009. It is the birthday of Andrew Hartzell, Judith Fanelli, Kathleen Roberts, Ken Sutton, actress Sophia Loren and poet Stevie Smith, born in Yorkshire, England in 1902. Smith had a way with words, so much so that I can still remember these words from the first time I read them: "This Englishwoman is so refined, She has no bosom and no behind." It is the wedding anniversary of Kay and David Kline and the seventh anniversary of D.R.'s Mini Mart, Main Street.

I'll make every attempt to answer as many emails as I can after 2 PM today. I apologize for not responding during the past week. I'll try to bring you up to speed on what is going on following Kay's accident. We are staying in Camp Hill. Kay is confined to a couch in our sun room and is wearing a path in the carpet to the little room around the corner. In that room, she has decided that for our anniversary present she would like a handicapped lavatory! Isn't romance in these declining years a marvelous thing!

 

After making a run to the pharmacy at Giant at 11:30 Friday night, I told Kay that I deserved to get paid for all the work I was doing. Kay agreed that I was working very hard and diligently, so she agreed. "What'll ye pay?" I asked. Kay said she would pay me what I was worth, but after careful consideration, I concluded that I would not work for that amount.

 

Kay has an appointment Thursday with her surgeon, and following that we should be able to come back to Benton where at least we have a full bath on the first floor.

 

It seems so strange what a mess is created when I cook a meal! The meals do come out good, but some of the blemishes on the counter top may never come out...

 

Quickies (and today we really mean it)

   • It is a daunting task to try to read newspapers that were published in the local area. We all know about the Benton Argus. If you head here you can find other newspapers published over the years in Berwick, Bloomsburg, Millville and Danville.

 

   • A reader asked about the Eagles Mere Air Museum located at Merritt Field (4PN7) east of Eagles Mere on state route 42 by about two and a half miles. Nancy Spencer filled me in that the museum is a collection of airplanes, airplane engines, and related toys and artifacts from 1908 to 1935. The approximately 20 airplanes are fragile and may not be touched unless under supervision.  Visitors are not allowed to smoke and pets are not allowed.

   • The world of animation via computers is a marvelous art, as shown here.

September 19, 2009. It is the birthday of Elery Hess, his 85th. It is also the birthday of Jeffrey Lynn. It may be the birthday of Google, but then again it may not be. Google opened its doors in September 1998. The exact date has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake. For more on Google's history, go here. Yesterday's weather was almost perfect September weather, but keep your snuggies close as night's cool but the days remain lovely.

Quickies...
   • A reader is trying to find copies of a 2002 book, Katie's Church, by L. A. Flick, Bloomsburg, from SterlingHouse Publishers, Incorporated. She tried to find them last year for Christmas gifts and thought maybe if she started earlier this year she would have better luck. The church dates to 1869 and is tucked away in Northwest Madison Township just off the road between Muncy and Millville on Katie's Church Road, near the intersections of Katy's Church, Ridge and Ant's Hill Roads. The Church is known as Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 347 Katy's Church Road, Muncy Hills.

   • It took months, but state lawmakers (approved by a 32-17 vote in the Senate) have given Philadelphia the temporary sales-tax hike and two-year reprieve from pension payments that Mayor Nutter wanted. The Guv is expected to sign the bill soon.

   • The Guv announced at 8 PM Friday night that lawmakers have reached a state-budget agreement. At long last! The agreement broke a political deadlock that has left the state without a full budget for 80 days. The state has operated under a stopgap budget that left public schools and county-run social-service programs and day care, child care and pre-school programs without state aid. One of the programs hard hit was the Columbia County Traveling Library. Friday, the Board of Directors took action to implement changes effective October 1 to reduce all bookmobile stops to once per month (except daycares on Friday), close the library on Fridays (bookmobile to operate). Reduce time worked by part-time employees and move Thursday bookmobile stops to Tuesday. These plans could change now that the state-budget impasse is resolved--if the fourth-quarter appropriation from the county is received soon.

   • We haven't a clue what the final state budget will look like, but wouldn't be surprised if tables games are soon allowed in the state's slot parlors, according to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The Guv has said he would block table games of poker, blackjack, craps and roulette until all of the state's 14 slots parlors are up and running, but there must be lights spinning in his head at the lure of hundreds of millions that table games could raise for the Commonwealth.

   • We are in the midst of one of the strongest bull market rallies since the 1930s.  

 

Flaming Foliage Festival takes place October 3-4 from 10 AM to 4 PM. The 42nd Flaming Foliage Festival will be held at the Forksville Fairgrounds, on Route 154. Juried arts and crafts by local artists and craftsmen will be displayed indoors. Alpacas and food too! Demonstrations scheduled for both days. Aaron Kelly, Sonestown, will perform two free shows on Saturday and on Sunday. Sweet Aroma Band will perform two free shows. In the grandstand, there will be a used-book sale and pony rides to benefit various local youth organizations. Free admission and parking. A family-friendly event sponsored by Craftsmen of the Endless Mountains. Call 570 596-3148 or 637-0897 for additional information.

 

The 29th Sullivan County Fall Festival takes place from 9 AM to 5 PM October 10-11, rain or shine. This festival is held each year on the second full weekend in October. The festival is at the fairgrounds in Forksville in the beautiful Endless Mountains of Sullivan County. The Fall festival has something for everyone in the family--from free live entertainment on the outdoor stage, lumberjacks, chainsaw carvers, juried arts and crafts, quilt show and sale, demonstrations, children activities, an art expo, a variety of good food to much more. Make sure you see the lumberjack competitions and Mid-Atlantic national chainsaw carving competition. Each day the carvers work on their master-log forming many different kinds of sculptures which will be judged and awarded cash prizes on Sunday. The 45-minute carvings are auctioned off each day. All the woodsman events provide great shows. Adults: $5, children 12 and under are free.  No pets, please.

William Howard Hess, Jr. (July 9, 1932-September 17th, 2009) died Thursday at his Cemetery Hill Road home in Benton Township. He was 77. He had been in ill health for the past four years. Bill was born in Benton Township. He was a son of William Howard Hess, Sr., who died August 16, 1998, and Sylvia (Polk) Hess who died February 21, 1996. He served his country in the U. S. Army during the Korean War and attained the rank of Corporal. Bill was employed by Magee Carpet Company and later for Kawneer, both in Bloomsburg. He retired in 1991. Surviving are his wife, Alice B. (Piatt) Wilson Hess;  children Dennis Hess (Leslie), Benton; Randy Hess (Sara), Orangeville; Mark Hess, Orangeville; Beth Combs, Stillwater; Janet Wilkinson (Cuyler), Orangeville; Mike Hess, Millville; eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren; his step children Deb Martz (Robert), Benton; Rick Wilson (Kathy), Benton; Kenny Wilson, Benton; Jeff Wilson (Belinda), Georgetown, Delaware. There are seven step grandchildren; 12 step great grandchildren, 4 step great great grandchildren. Surviving sisters and brothers include Hilda M. Mulaney (Hubert), Stillwater; James M. Hess, Wilkes-Barre; Thomas C. Hess, Schwenksville and Donald F. Hess, Benton, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his first wife, Ada M. (Lamoreaux) Hess on October 13, 1985; a son, David Hess on Aug. 5, 1972;  a sister, Helen F. Mulaney, on May 9, 2000; and a brother, Carlton R. Hess, on July 30, 2000. Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 11 AM with viewing preceding at the McMichael Funeral Home.  Burial will be in the Jonestown Cemetery with military honors accorded by a joint-veterans group. Online condolences may be sent to www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home

September 18, 2009. It is the birthday of Cheri Reinaker, Orangeville, Fred DePoe and Dr. Ken Cross, Benton. It is the 95th birthday of Florence Burwell Kocher, formerly of Market Street, Benton, now residing at Bonham Nursing Home. Florence is the mother of Shirley Keller, Marcia Kay Kline and Ed Kocher, all of Benton. She has nine grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. With her late husband, Carl Kocher, the couple owned the Benton Water Supply Co. from 1943 to 1982. We'll have temperatures in the low 70s through Monday, but cool nights continue. Problems with the web version will permit only email versions being distributed Thursday night.

Quickies...

   • Tonight's sundown will mark the start of Rosh Hashanah. For those who invest in the stock market, the old axiom is that you sell on Rosh Hashanah and buy back on Yom Kippur. The idea was that Jews wished to be free of the distraction of worldly goods during a period of reflection and self-appraisal. The September/October weakness in the market has often corresponded to the Rosh Hashanah tradition.  

 

    • Luzerne County elected officials are at it again. The third member of the school board has been indicted on corruption charges since April.

   • American Airlines will resume service at Harrisburg International Airport in summer 2010 with daily nonstop flights to Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

   • Pickup is this Saturday for those who already ordered their Angel Food. Ordering dates for October are Saturday from 8 to 10AM, October 9, from 5 to 7 PM and October 10 from 9 to 11 AM. That pickup will be October 17. There is a  $5 coupon special this month. If you order for both October and November, you'll will get the coupon to be used with another order.

   • The state House of Representative on Wednesday voted 145-52 to raise the fee for a marriage license from $3 to $28, with $25 of the fee going to the state Department of Public Welfare for use for victims of domestic violence. Talk about raising taxes! This is a 700% increase so that domestic-violence organizations can get more money from the state. I remember when I got married, the Welsh Congregational minister said, "May those who enter the rosy paths of matrimony never meet with thorns." Getting hitched is still a great deal cheaper than getting unhitched! The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.

• This is a short edition. We are currently "out of town," and don't know "Wuzzup!"

 • The natural-gas frenzy is heating up. We mentioned yesterday that Fortuna Energy Inc. made a $165 million bid that would have paid 600 Friendsville Group property owners $5,500 per acre and 20% royalties. Soon after the negotiating committee accepted the offer, Chesapeake Energy offered $5,750 per acre and 20% royalty. Chesapeake agreed to forgo a renewal option, meaning that if the land isn't drilled in five years, property owners can lease elsewhere.  Fortuna has 20 active wells in Tioga and Bradford counties, expects to have 40 by the end of 2009 and plans for 100 more in 2010.  

   • From Friday, September 4, through Thursday, September 10, the price of United States Natural Gas Fund, LP (UNG) units in the market ran up from the close on September 3 of $9.01 to a close on the 10th (the Thursday of the weekly EIA NG reports) of $11.18, a 24.08% increase. This was accompanied by a run-up in natural-gas prices even though natural gas in storage is 18% above five-year averages. For more, read this.  

   • Dimmick, Pennsylvania, south of Binghamton, New York, continues with their natural-gas drilling problems. An amount estimated as between 6,000 and 8,000 gallons of an lubricant used for "fracking" leaked Wednesday in two separate spills from a pipe of a contractor hired by Cabot Oil & Gas at a drilling site and contaminated a nearby wetland and stream in Susquehanna County. Cabot had two previous spills and permitted "unacceptable" levels of methane to get into private-water supplies in an earlier mishap.   

September 17, 2009.  It is the birthday of Carole Stevenson, Mt. Lebanon, Joselle Confair, Nescopeck, and Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter. Jeff and Lenora Lynn celebrate their wedding anniversary today. Hurricane Eloise caused over $200M in damage and left 76 dead in the U.S. and the Caribbean between September 17 and 27, 1975. It remains one of the deadliest Category 3 hurricanes on record. We tell you about it in the FEATURES section. The United States Constitution was adopted on this day in 1787. If you want to know anything else about today, head here. Nighttime temperatures will be 50° or lower through Saturday--something very hard on our gardens.

Karen Musitano is asking for prayers for her nephew, Aric, a college student in Ohio following a seizure in class Wednesday. Surgery is planned for Friday, October 2.

 

Didja know that an operation is something that takes a surgeon an hour to perform and takes the patient paragraphs to describe? Marcia Kay came through her hour and a half operation Wednesday with an eight-inch plate in her leg to show for it. She is resting as comfortably as a person who can't walk on her leg for ten weeks can! I came through my internal-television debut without pathology results (for eight days), but do know tests disclosed that I have/had colon polyps, peptic-ulcer disease and diverticulitis.

 

Here's to the person who can smile through their tears,

And laugh in the midst of a sigh.

Who can mingle their youth with advancing years

And be happy to live or die.

 

Quickies...

   • The lawmakers in Harrisburg close the doors and act like a herd of elephants being chased by a mouse. They are said to be considering making investments in gold bullion subject to sales tax--although no such tax applies to stocks and bonds. The other tax is on drilling in the Marcellus shale which did made sense when natural gas prices were four times higher than they are today. The argument goes both ways. One side claims that the industry would be hard hit by the tax while the other side tells about the shape our Commonwealth was in during the early periods of oil- and gas extraction where taxpayers still are paying on the bills. The argument is that the taxpayers should not get stuck paying for damages to roads, bridges and our precious water, that the gas companies can afford the extraction fees, that the potential for huge damage looms when a million or more gallons of water are needed to frac each well and this water goes back into the earth loaded with chemicals and solids that our sewer plants don't have the ability to purify. Local communities would face higher demands on their services, but would receive little revenue in return. Pennsylvania has been without a comprehensive budget deal since the new fiscal year began 79 days ago, leaving it the last state in the nation to finalize its annual spending plan.

   • The annual Chapin Reunion was held at Bonnieville, the recreation area at Bonham Nursing Home on Sunday, September 6, with 120 descendents of Frank and Bertha Chapin in attendance. You can head here where you'll see the members of the oldest generation (grandchildren of Frank and Bertha, along with spouses), the great-grandchildren and Jim Bonham, director of the facility and owner/operator of the train which took everyone for a ride around the perimeter of the grounds. With Jim are Erma Harris and her brother Ernest Bogert (who also happens to have received the prize for oldest man in attendance.)
--Submitted by Edna Bogert (who happens to be the wife of the oldest man!)

   • Memorial services for Shirley C. (Schmidt) Hughes, 76, Benton, will be held Saturday, September 19, at 11 AM at the Millville American Legion, 269 Legion Road, Millville.  Mrs. Hughes died July 12 at the Bonham Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

  • There currently is an offer in Susquehanna and Bradford Counties for $5,500 per acre and 20% royalties. The group held together with over 900 landowners and 30,000 acres; i.e., there is strength in numbers. As Bloomsburg attorney Barry Lewis is fond of telling his clients, "it is early yet and those that can be patient will be rewarded." There is an offer in Wyoming County for $5,750 per acre with 20% royalties.

   • The Pine Township zoning-hearing board granted a special exception for ATT to place a cell tower 250 ft high on the Little Fishingcreek Rod and Gun Club property west of Millville Borough. The projected start date is the first of the year. Normally, the provider allows other providers to rent space on the tower which can hold up to 4-6 additional antennas. ATT is also placing towers on Route 44 in Madison Township and in Moreland Township west of Unityville.

   • Landowners in Benton and Sugarloaf Township are being offered pipeline agreements for the gathering lines from the first two wells. These agreements, like gas-lease agreements, are favorable to the gas company and provide no protection for the landowner. Landowners should consult an attorney about getting an addendum to be added to the agreement to protect the landowner. Gas-drilling companies are offering a lowball amount for these right of ways as compared to the average in the state.

September 16, 2009. It is the birthday of Ronald Thompson. Gail and Jackie Hess celebrate their wedding anniversary today. The Mayflower set out from England on this date in 1620, arriving on December 21. Henry V  was born on this day in Monmouth, Wales, in 1387, and became the first king of England to grow up speaking and writing fluently in English. Wednesday and Thursday should be cooler with precipitation.

Quickies...
   • As of September 14, 280 people have contributed to the repair of the Benton dam and have raised $22,883. Of the money received, 49 contributed in memory of John Unbewust, raising $1,845. Authorization to repair remains elusive.

   • Allen and Shirley Roberts are on a motor-home trip in the northwest coast area, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary September 5 and Allen's 70th birthday August 29. The couple have been ocean fishing and salmon fishing on the Columbia River and generally having a "great trip." They plan to arrive back in Colorado about September 20 in time for Shirley to fly to Pennsylvania to visit her mother who is 94 years young and "go to the fair."

   • There seems to be a collective sigh of relief in the Borough at Council's decision (4-2) to keep the basketball court in its present location at the park. The bandstand will be moved slightly to get it out of the floodplain. What doesn't seem to at all appreciated is the estimated price of $4,400 to modify Master Site Plan drawings created by Larson Design to keep those two fixtures of the community in their present location. Dan Hartman is the new chairman of the Town Park Committee.

   • Garrison Keillor, 67, was to appear Sunday at Harrisburg's Whitaker Center. The author and host of "A Prairie Home Companion" on National Public Radio suffered a minor stroke last week. The performance will be rescheduled in 2010.  

  • The outcome of Tuesday's surgery for Kay Kline will be determined today. We'll provide a status report when the doctors determine how it went.

   • BTE is presenting Russell's & Kristy's “Playboy” Pub Package in celebration of its upcoming production of J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World. You can get two tickets to any performance of The Playboy of the Western World and dinner for two at Russell's & Kristy's Pub, Main Street, Bloomsburg, for just $75. The “Playboy” Pub Package is available for each performance of The Playboy of the Western World, September 17 through October 18. Dinner is at 5:30 PM; that's before curtain on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and after the performance on Sundays. There are no performances or dinner October 1 – 4. Call Rachel at 784-8181 or 800 282-028 for more information and to make your reservations!

In the edition of the Benton News last year on this day, I wrote... "The Verizon cell tower requested and approved for Benton Township may not be dead in the water, but it isn't making much headway, either. The company has yet to apply for a building permit. A fall activation date does not look favorable at this writing. If you are in a Verizon retail store, mention it. It won't do much good, but you'll feel better for getting it off your chest and something good might happen to come out of it." Sorry to report that there is no change from a year ago.

I frequently get email from people who feel we talk differently here than in other parts of the country. Here is a short primer for some of these people to better understand the way we talk "round here."
  • Red up - to "clean up" or "tidy up."
  • Put up - the process of canning jams and jellies.
  • Fast - Firmly attached, as in a tow vehicle made fast to a truck. Also used to describe a truck that is bogged down in snow. A truck that appears to be unusually slow may in fact be "fast."
  • Hoedown - rural square dance
  • Up the Creek - in a predicament
  • Up the River - in prison
  • To town - a trip to any "burg" larger than anything we have where we live.
  • Down country - Folks who visit our area from any unknown location
  • Collision - Unexpected contact between one vehicle and another. Collisions that result in two smaller and less usable vehicles are generally the most serious.
  • Calm - Weather conditions characterized by the simultaneous disappearance of the wind and the last cold beverage.
  • Battery - Electrochemical storage device capable of lighting an incandescent lamp of a wattage about equal to that of a refrigerator bulb for a period of 15 minutes after having been charged for two hours.
  • Flashlight - Tubular metal container used for storing dead batteries prior to their disposal.
  • Accord - a thick piece of string.
  • Auctioneer - A man who looks forbidding.
  • Noticeable - To spot a male cow.
  •. Washable - What a farmer does very carefully
  • Diet - A short period o starvation before a gain of five or more pounds.
  • Dime - A dollar with all the taxes taken out.
  • Detour - The roughest distance between two points.
  • Conversation - The slowest form of human communication.
  • Sleeping bag - A nap sack.
  • Good talker - One who learns to listen.
  • Shotgun wedding - A case of wife or death.

Carl Howard Grimes, (August 4, 1926-September 14, 2009), Third Street, Benton, died Monday at the Bloomsburg Health Care Center. He was 83. He was a son of Stewart Ramsey Grimes and Jennie Marie (Black) Grimes. He was born in Mt. Pleasant Township. Carl's career included farming and a wide variety of local businesses. He retired from the Benton Area School District in June 1988, but continued as a school-crossing guard and security guard for athletic events at the Benton school. He worked 31 years as a parking attendant at the Bloomsburg Fair, assisted at many carnivals in the area for traffic control and directed traffic for numerous parades in the Benton area. He was a Lieutenant of the Benton Fire Police. He worked at Strausser's Home for Funerals and later the McMichael Funeral Home, Benton. He was a 60-year member of the Wesley United Methodist Church, Bloomsburg.

Surviving are his son, Stewart H. Grimes (Lori), Waller; grandchildren Matthew, Tyler and Kia Grimes and brother S. Raymond Grimes, Almedia. He was preceded in death by his wife, Alice Marie (Jacques) Grimes, on May 27, 2007, and by two sisters who died in infancy.

Graveside services will be held at the convenience of the family at Elan Memorial Park, Lime Ridge. Contributions may be made in his memory to the Benton Fire Company or the Benton Fire Police. Arrangements are under the direction of the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc., Benton.  For online condolences, go to www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .

September 15, 2009. It is the start of a new decade for Kay Kline, who is finding that previous decades treated her much better. She celebrates her birthday today during surgery for a broken fibula in Holy Spirit Hospital, Camp Hill, where she will remain until Wednesday. While in the hospital, her daughter is preparing for major surgery and her husband is prepping for a Wednesday gastrointestinal tract examination and a few minutes later an EsophogaGastroDuodenoscopy, her mother, Florence Kocher, was returned to Bonham Nursing Home after a three-day stay in Berwick Hospital. Kay will not be able to return to Benton to celebrate her mother's birthday.

In preparation for Wednesday, the gastroenterologist told me to drink 10 fluid ounces Monday night of something called Magnesium Citrate "pasteurized and sparkling" in lemon flavoring. Dave Barry once described the taste as a "mixture of goat spit and urinal cleaner, with a hint of lemon." Today I am not allowed to have any solid foods or dark liquids, including coffee.

When Dave Barry described the liquid I took last night, he brought it all into focus. He referred to it as a nuclear laxative, much like a space-shuttle launch with me as the shuttle. The worst will come Wednesday when the physician rolls out a tube the length of the Williams pipeline. But we should tend to more enjoyable subjects--so we'll move on.

Monday was another Sunsational day. They will get few and far between soon. In the first half hour, I didn't think that Jay Leno had much of a show. In my opinion, he should never have left his day job.

Didja ever think that one of the advantages
of being disorderly is that you can
constantly make exciting discoveries?

The grass always seem to be greener. A recent discussion about moving to a southern state where the winters would not be so severe was interesting. Let's take a look at it. Federal taxes will be about the same no matter where you live. But state and local taxes do vary from location to location and that makes a difference in how much you pay and deduct if you itemize deductions.  

People planning to retire often place a lot of emphasis on state-income taxes and ignore higher sales and property taxes. Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming do not have state-income taxes. New Hampshire and Tennessee tax dividend- and interest income when it exceeds certain limits. Retirees are generally treated kindly in the remaining 41 states.

States without a personal-income tax don't have as many sources of revenue and might raise property- or sales taxes and other fees to shore up their budgets during tough economic times. Look at the states that are in trouble with money now that nationally state-tax revenues declined nearly 12% during the first three months of 2009. While property-sales figures have fallen in many locations, property taxes haven't fallen at a proportionate rate.

Alabama, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York and Pennsylvania exclude federal, military and in-state government pensions from taxation.  Pennsylvania and Mississippi exempt all retirement income—including distributions from IRAs and 401(k) plans.

There is a large move out of the state of California--a state known to be tough on retirees. They fully tax most pensions and other retirement income and have high top-tax brackets: California (9.55% on income less than $1 million). Pennsylvania and 27 other states do not tax Social Security benefits.  

Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon have no state-sales tax. California recently raised its sales tax to 8.25%. Indiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Tennessee have a state sales tax of 7%. Pennsylvania exempts food and medicine; others tax every dime you spend.  

Carol Marie Evans (May 7, 1952-September 11, 2009) died Friday,  at her home 1523 S. R. 254, Orangeville. She was 57. She was a daughter of the late Henry E. and Shirley (Shoemaker)  Evans. She was born in Muncy and was a  graduate of Benton High School. She worked for Milco Industries and the Strick Corporation. Surviving are her husband, Nyle L. Warner; children Katherine  I. Evans and Gordon H. Evans; a step daughter,  Mary Irene Warner; her siblings:  Kirk Kapp,  Montgomery; Jean M. Bogert, Stillwater; Janet M. Stauffer, Benton; Carl Evans, Hughesville;  Edward Evans, Benton;  Richard Evans, Stillwater; Cindy Henderson, Benton; Sandy Schamberger, Berwick;  Penny Evans, Bloomsburg; and by numerous step siblings, nieces, nephews and aunts. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by siblings Grace L. Martinez, James Kile and Barbara Weaver. Private services will be held at the convenience of the family with burial in the Pine Summit Cemetery.   
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc., Benton.

It may be that I am getting younger instead of older. I often send a Short Message Service (SMS) text to friends, one of an estimated 1.2 trillion of them that will be sent this year across the nation--mostly by teens. Nielsen Mobile, who takes the time to record such events, claims that teens send or receive an average of 2,899 text messages per month and would rather text than make a phone call. The text messages get sandwiched in between transmission channels designed to carry voice calls and cost the phone provided next to nothing. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon saw a chance to increase revenue and raised their pay-per-use charge for sending a text message from 10 cents to 20 cents.

Let's look in on Bridget Allen and R.B. Powell as they RV their way around Alaska. Today's report is posted from Valdez where Bridget pecked out a few lines from her computer as their rig was parked a quarter of a mile from "The Pipeline" on the "edge of Prince William Sound in the oddest campground" they encountered on their trip. It looked like a place to pull off the road and we didn’t even know it was a campground until neighbors told them they had to pay to stay.

Daytime temperatures were in the 50s with rain and fog.  They needed heat in the morning before they crawled out of bed.  R.B. ventured into the muck and mist and came back two hours later, grinning from ear to ear, with ten pounds of salmon. Didja ever notice how much a refrigerator in a motor home holds?

"Rain and fog make me want to sequester," Bridget lamented, but she experienced "the Sound"s silky-smooth gray water, the lights of Valdez in the mist a mile away, the Chugach Mountains rising beyond…and thousands of dead salmon floating in the water.  (It’s ok.  This is how salmon end up.)"

Which got Bridget to thinking... "These creatures have lived their lives and done their jobs.   They have struggled to procreate, sometimes fighting rapids and journeys of hundreds of miles to do so.  They have spawned and died. In the process they shall have fed their offspring, bears, humans, sea birds and other critters along the way. They have done their jobs…and then some. What is our job as humans?  How are we supposed to end up?"

September 14, 2009. It is the birthday of Dr. Mary Ann Knovich, Ken Boonie and Adele Confair. Joselle Confair has been released from the hospital and is recovering at home. Marcia Kay Kline is recovering from a basement fall Sunday night in Camp Hill which resulted in a broken fibula and an initial estimate of ten weeks on crutches unable to drive.

Quickies...

   • The Benton volunteer fire company thanks everyone who attended its roast-beef dinner Saturday. The firemen served 200 people. We heard many excellent comments about the buffet-style meal. Special thanks go to Ed Stevens for supplying the sweet corn, and to Dick Karschner for the fresh green beans.They both helped make the dinner a success.        

   • Little gives us more pleasure than a good movie, especially if it is a mystery movie. Amelia, with Hilary Swank in the title role, opens October 23 and sounds as though it will be a good one. Female aviator Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and the first woman to win the Distinguished Flying Cross. She disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during her flight around the world in 1937, while trying to reach the uninhabited coral island 1,700 miles southwest of Honolulu known as Howland Island. Her disappearance remains one of the biggest mysteries of the 20th century.

   • Didja ever notice how some people are chronically late? The reasons range from the insane pace Americans maintain, to lack of responsibility for keeping schedules, to habit, to the way they were brought up. The Mexicans, famous for their lack of punctuality, have words to describe their tardiness. Ahorita can be substituted for the word "now." The word can mean "right now," but it often means five, 15 minutes to half an hour from now--anything but now! Al ratito means "in a little while," but don't bother to watch the clock while you wait.!

   • September has long been hard on stock prices, so there was little surprise last week when gold, a bellwether of inflation fears and anti-stock sentiment, rose to close the week at $1004.90 an ounce, its highest close this year. Stocks slightly fizzled Friday, but rose in three of the shortened week's four trading sessions. But why not? Inflation is low, interest rates are low, the government is pouring bejillions of bucks into the economy.

   • Didja ever notice that Firefox 3.5 takes about 20 to 25 seconds from a cold start to load its home page? Internet Explorer 8 takes about five seconds less on my computer and Opera 10 is slightly faster. Google's Chrome 3 loaded its home page in half Firefox’s time. Once started from cold and loaded into memory, all four browsers restart and load the home page under six seconds. Firefox remains my favorite.

   • The "Cash for Clunkers" rebate program is now moving into "Rebates for Refrigerators." The government has earmarked $300 million for states to give out as rebates for energy-efficient household appliances.

   • A tentative deal has been announced in Pennsylvania's Capitol that could release billions of state dollars for schools, libraries and social services. If the Legislature gets its collective act together and if the Guv decides to sign the bill--at this writing, he is publicly saying he will veto it--it could take weeks for money to actually arrive in the bank accounts of private-service providers. The budget is already more than two months overdue. Agencies beg, borrow and steal to keep their doors open. Many of the private businesses and nonprofit organizations that make up the Commonwealth's social safety net are hanging on by a thread.  

   • Keep your credit score in mind during these times of late payments, delinquencies, short sales and foreclosures. The way that you handle payment problems can have profound effects on your credit scores. A loan modification that rolls late payments and penalties into the principal debt can increase borrowers' scores modestly. Refinancing  negative-equity mortgages may have only slight negative effect on scores, even though the homeowners might have been on the edge of serious delinquency before refinancing.  The "Making Home Affordable" program offered through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be a solution. When homeowners negotiate a short sale with lenders, the full debt is not repaid and the lender lost money. When borrowers walk away from their mortgage debts, as many are doing in Florida, Las Vegas and California, expect negative marks on credit-bureau files for seven years. People who file for bankruptcy protection covering all their debts (mortgage, credit cards, auto loans, etc.) will get hit hard. If you are in financial stress, contact your lender as soon as possible to take steps toward a loan modification or refinancing.

   • During Benton's Bicentennial Observance in 1976, a flag afghan and historical quilt of the Benton area was produced by Mrs. Paul Hartman, Mary Pennington, Mrs. Elvin Remley, Lottie Knouse and Mrs. Andrew Van Sock, then auctioned. Does anyone know the whereabouts of that quilt today?

   • Geraldine Yost Laubach's fifth "grand, grandbaby" was born to Mr. and Mrs. Kyle Jones, Charleston,South Carolina on September 5.  Eli Garret Jones weighed 9 pounds, four ounces and will be playing soccer as soon as they can find shoes to fit him. Kyle is Geraldine's daughter Gerriann's son.

September 13, the 256th day of 2009, nine days from the official start of autumn. It is the birthday of Marla Fritz Harris, Kristina Hagan, Joyce Johnson, Betty Kile and Columbia County Commissioner Chris Young. Eddie and Kristina Hagan celebrate their wedding anniversary. Watch for morning fog for the next three days, but the weather will be in the high 70s during the day.

Quickies...
   • If you need printable Pennsylvania maps, head here where you can find county, city and state outline maps.

   • Didja ever notice that some men choose their wife about the same way an apple picks a farmer?

It isn't easy to get comfortable these days. On September 16, I'll have two medical procedures which will preclude a Benton News for September 17 and on October 1 a cardiac catheterization is planned which might impact the delivery of the news for a few days.

I am not the only one who finds it difficult to get in a comfortable position when I sit down to peck out a few lines. Dame Edith Sitwell, writing under the feeble light of oil lamps during wartime England did so after collecting her thoughts in an open coffin. An article entitled "O Muse! You Do Make Things Difficult!" published in the New York Times, November 12, 1989, cites other examples of writers finding unusual ways to get comfortable when they expressed themselves.

Amy Lowell smoked cigars while writing, and in 1915 bought 10,000 of her favorite Manila stogies to kindle her creative fires. Honoré de Balzac drank more than 50 cups of coffee a day until he died from caffeine poisoning. Victor Hugo and Benjamin Franklin liked to write while nude. Franklin often wrote from his bathtub. Voltaire liked to use his lover's naked back as a writing desk. Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain and Truman Capote wrote lying down. Samuel Taylor Coleridge indulged in a couple grains of opium as a relaxant, analgesic and antidepressant. Numerous stories and poems were written while under the influence of alcohol. Actually, I am quite normal when I write--except for writing in my bare feet from a desk top hidden from view by piles of notes, with every light in the room on so I can see, and with a constant flow of cups of flavored coffee.

A Ranch Horse Show will take place at the Benton Rodeo grounds, Mendenhall Lane, September 26-27. The event begins at 9 each morning. Paybacks will be awarded in each class. Divisions will be available for each class. The divisions include Open, Green, and Youth. Friday night before the show will be a clinic with Rebecca Lipka beginning at 5:30; $35 per person. A portion of the proceeds will be given to paybacks for the show. A limited number of riders will participate.

Classes and entry fees are as follows:

   • Ranch Riding: $10. Horse will be shown at all three gaits and be asked to demonstrate stops, turns and back.

   • Ranch Reining (with pattern): $10. The exhibitor will work individually and be required to follow the details of a designated-reining pattern.

   • Ranch Trail (with pattern): $10. Basic trail obstacles.

   • Breakaway Ranch Roping (heading or heeling): $20. Roper will rope cow in herd, track the cow to time line, then dally and break honda. (Three roping attempts allowed, as well as a three-minute time limit)

   • Working Cow Horse $20. The rider will be required to box, fence and circle (or rope) a cow. (three-minute time limit)

   • Ranch Roping (three-member team): $20 per person. Header will rope the cow and hold.  Heeler will rope and hold.  Ground person will put both front feet in loop and hind feet in loop.  Ropers will stretch cow and time is called. (Three head-loop attempts allowed, Five-minute time limit)

   • Ranch Cutting: $20. Rider will cut a desired cow from a herd, drive cow to end of the arena and into a pen. (three-minute time limit)

   • Cow Challenge: $20 per person. A two-member team will be required to sort a cow from a herd and drive it through various obstacles. (three-minute time limit)

For more information on the show or to reserve a spot in the clinic, contact Desiree Hoyt, 570 885-8626.

Krysten Ritter is excited now that she has been offered the lead in her own scripted television show on STARZ, She warned that "It's another cable series so it's gonna be edgier" than some of us have grown used to from watching shows like Little House on the Prairie! Krysten happily has the lead role and the show, which will be called Failure to Fly, has been picked up for the first season "so it's not as tortuous as doing a pilot and wondering if it's going to get picked up. This one IS already picked up!" The show will begin airing in the spring.

Cable only does ten episodes a year and the time commitment is very small for Krysten. She will have ten months out of the year to write and do movies. Krysten loves doing both television and film and this is really the only way to have that luxury. After reading her part, she decided that the "writing is fantastic and the role is to die for--which is a pun since she will be playing a suicide survivor.

The downside of the series is that she may not get to make the movie that she is slated to make in New Orleans with Jessica Alba at the end of September. The series will shoot in New York city in October and will shoot until Christmas. Krysten will get to live at the Ritz "and spend time in the city I love the most!"

Krysten plays the part of Lily, a cute, dark-haired, artistic girl in her 20s, somewhere between atheist and agnostic and butting up against being clinically depressed. She hates her job at Bloomingdales, hates her life alone, and one night took one too many Klonopin--a prescription medication used to treat certain types of epileptic seizures and panic disorders. She ends up in the emergency room with a drug-induced vision of a heavenly lover, which oddly gives her purpose to survive. She searches and finds the man that fits the image of that lover, but in the meantime has met Robert, who might be even better because he's real. Lily is court-ordered to join an eccentric, out-patient program for suicide survivors. The series sounds as though her acting talents could be very much displayed.

September 12, 2009. It is the wedding anniversary of Allen and Kathleen Harvey and Scott and Courney Foust. We were also told that yesterday was not the wedding anniversary of Bill and Dorothea Mather, although we were not able to determine the correct day. We apologize for the error. It was interesting Friday to watch traders fall out of love with the stock market's rally. Many of us fell out of love with the fall-like weather we had Friday. The damp, cool weather will eventually end and by Sunday the temperatures will be on the rise again.

One week shy of her 95th birthday, Florence Kocher was admitted to the Berwick Hospital Friday with chest- and back pains. Birthday or get-well greetings can be sent to Florence at P. O. Box 269, Benton, PA 17814.

 

Wondering what to do this weekend? Well, we always recommend that you check the Upcoming Events page, but here is a Saturday sampling: the Luzerne County Fall Fair is ongoing, Danville is having their Fall arts and crafts fair, Columbia Mall has their Community Day, Ron Wing's popular West Creek Gallery art show and the Stillwater Poetry Festival take place today. If those are too tame, there is the 2009 PA Summer Cruisin’ Nationals. If food is what you are looking for, the Benton Fire Company has roast beef, filling, real mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh sweet corn, fresh green beans, desserts, and drinks for just $8.  

 

We have a quiz for you today. The answer is at the end--and you'll find it is not as easy as it looks. The question is which of the 50 states is farthest East? Farthest West? Farthest North? Farthest South? Now don't fluff it off. Give it a go.

Quickies...
   • A Christmas present for the history buffs in the family is a CD set depicting the year 1779 when Gen. John Sullivan led his troops from Easton to New York to fight the Iroquois Indians. The three-CD set, "Warrior Road: The Story of Sullivan's March through Pennsylvania," provides guided directions from Easton to Wilkes-Barre, providing driving directions to historical sites. The CD can be purchased from Monroe County Historical Association's gift shop in Stroudsburg, which features many historical books, CD and more. The phone number is 570 421-7703.

  • The next “Plant a Row” produce distribution is Tuesday, September 15. Those who would like to donate should bring their produce to the rear door of The Center Tuesday from 7:30-9 AM.

  • Waller UM Church is selling homemade ice cream: chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter and pineapple. The price is $5 a quart. Pick up at Waller Hall on Saturday, October 10, between noon and 4 PM. To place an order, please call Laurie Strauch, 925-6783, or any member of the Waller Church not later than Sunday, October 4.

   •  Two old guys were chatting. One said to the other, "My 85th birthday was yesterday.  The wife gave me an SUV." The other guy responded, "Wow, that's amazing!  Imagine, an SUV!!  What a great gift!" First guy, "Yup ! Socks, underwear and Viagra!"

   • There will be a flu-shot clinic from 8 AM to noon, October 14 and November 4 at the Bloomsburg Hospital outpatient laboratory services, Route 239, Benton. Call 784-1723 for appointment. Shots will not be given without an appointment. Holders of Medicare Part B as their primary insurance will be accepted free. All others will be charged $28.

   • September 20, 2009.  Skyhaven Airport Association will hold its annual Fall pancake breakfast fundraiser on Sunday at the airfield in Tunkhannock. It will be a hearty all-you-can-eat breakfast with eggs, pancakes, ham and sausages served 7:30 AM to 1 PM in the main hangar. Unlimited servings of free coffee, milk, orange juice is also included at the low price of $7 for adults and $3 for children. Browse displays of antique automobiles, old farm equipment, motorcycles, and first-responder public-safety vehicles. There will be a bluegrass band and aviation-related treats throughout the day. Skydiving demonstrations (weather permitting). Bring a lawn chair. Scenic airplane rides on sale. Arts and crafts show features a wide-array of vendors from throughout the Endless Mountains. Limited vendors. Please call Jaime at 677-0536 or 836-5236, to reserve a spot. For more information regarding Skyhaven Airport, call Charlie Gay at 836-4800. Skyhaven Airport is located on RT 29 a short distance over the bridge from the traffic light in downtown Tunkhannock.   

   • The Benton airport will have a fly-in on October 17 in conjunction with the chicken BBQ benefit to support the Benton dam. Area residents are invited to the airport to see the various planes. Only pilots and planes suited for short-field operations are invited; however, there are many that are capable.  Because the Benton field is licensed as a private field, every pilot coming in needs to have permission and be briefed on the conditions of the field.  More details will follow.

   • NBC's The Jay Leno Show debuts at 10 PM Monday. The first show will probably be worth watching. What happens from then on out is anyone's guess.

   • September 13, 2009.All You Can Eat Breakfast Buffet Sunday, Sept 13, 7 AM to 1 PM at Picture Rocks Volunteer Fire Company , Main Street, Picture Rocks. Eggs to order, pancakes, toast, biscuits and gravy. There will be sausage, scrapple, liverwurst, bacon, and home fries, French toast, orange juice, coffee, hot tea and hot cocoa. The price is $7, and for ages 6 to 12 the price is $3.50. Under six years of age eat free.

   • The Knights of Columbus will conduct a Texas Hold'em Tournament at the Benton Fire Hall on Saturday, November 7. Doors open at 4 PM and the games begin at 5 PM. No new players are permitted after 6 PM. The event is limited to one hundred players--all of whom must be over 21 years of age. The buy-in amount is $50. Money raised from this event will go towards the church and the community. The first-place winner takes home 10%, second place takes home 8%, third-place finisher takes home 7%, fourth-place finisher takes 6%, the fifth-place finisher takes home 5%, the sixth-place finisher takes home 4%, the seventh-place finisher gets 3% and the eighth-place finisher gets 2%. Food will be available for purchase. Send registration and money to Joseph M Flite, 963 Green Creek Road, Benton Pa 17814, 925-6928. Make check payable to KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS Council #10882.

Quote of the Day:
" Cats are like patience.  I never had any and never wanted any."
--Jack Burlingame

Montauk Air Force Station (AFS) NY and Thomasville AFS AL had two of the first four long-range search radars known as the AN/FPS-35. The other two of these first four were installed at Benton AFS, PA in 1962 and Manassas AFS, VA. A total of only twelve would eventually be deployed around the country. Benton's proximity to New York city probably helped make it a candidate for the second production model.

The AN/FPS-35 search radar made by Sperry Gyroscope Company was designed to succeed existing Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) radar systems, at one time the backbone of air defense of the continental United States, in order to provide enhanced electronic counter countermeasures (ECCM) capability. This extremely powerful radar could detect airborne objects at distances of well over 200 miles. The system was designed to operate at 420 to 450 MHz. First deployed in December 1960, problems hampered the program. The system suffered frequent bearing problems as the antenna weighed seventy tons and the unit on top of Red Rock mountain took six 100 horsepower motors to run. Eventually twelve AN/FPS-35 radars became operational in the US. The enormous surveillance radar was eventually abandoned in place by the Air Force about 1981. Today the site is the Red Rock Job Corps Center with buildings housing classrooms and vocational-training areas, as well as administrative offices, recreation facilities, support buildings and male and female dormitories.

The 648th AC&W Squadron activated a pair of AN/CPS-6B radars at the Benton AFS starting in October 1951. The search radar remained active until 1961. In 1958 a pair of AN/FPS-6B radars replaced the AN/CPS-6B radar. In late 1958 Benton began providing data for the SAGE system. In 1961, the Benton site received an AN/FPS-35 search radar, but difficulties prevented it from becoming operational until 1962. This radar and another located in Manassas, Virginia, were used in 1962 as part of a missile-detection test, but the radar had marginal value for detecting submarine-launched ballistic missiles. In 1963 the search radar was complemented by one each AN/FPS-26A and AN/FPS-6 height-finder radar. By the end of 1963 Benton was a FAA/ADC joint-use site; the FAA also maintained an AN/FPS-8 search radar for back-up. Circa 1974, the AN/FPS-35 was replaced by an AN/FPS-67B search radar. The 648th Radar Squadron (SAGE) was deactivated in June 1975. For additional information, go to the Air Defense Radar Veteran's Association's web site at http://www.radomes.org/ .

One of the Benton Air Force personnel was Lou Traini, who laughed when he read about cell phones giving people brain cancer. The AN/FPS-35 radar on Red Rock Mountain that "35 of us worked on from 1961 to 1972 put out 5 million watts. The transmitter consisted of 2 LEAD lined rooms. The Tetrode driver room put out 1 million watts. The amplitron room boosted the power out to 5 million watts. We worked in these rooms daily."

Lou, a frequent visitor to the Benton area when he comes to hunt and roam the mountain, remembers that for a "joke we would  put 4 or 5 NE-51 gas filled bulbs between our lips, then walk into these rooms and have all of them light up. We would talk about all this high-power microwave environment we were being exposed to and what it might do to our health."

"Through the years we would call each other and the conversation would always include asking about each other's health and that of others the guys talked to." Lou told us that "I'm happy to say that not one of us have had any illness or subsequent death that we could attribute to the high-power microwaves we were subject to during those 12 years."

Here is the answer to today's quiz: The state farthest North is easy. It is Alaska. The state fartherest west is--surprise, Alaska. The state extending the fartherest east is surprise, surprise: Alaska (it goes so far west it slips over the meridian into the Eastern Hemisphere). The state farthest South is Hawaii.

September 11, 2009. It is the birthday of Anna May Brandon, Bethel Hill, and the wedding anniversary of Shawn Miller and Melissa "Missi" Wood. It is the eighth anniversary of the tragedy which took place on September 11. Show you remember and show your patriotism by flying your American flag today.

It was on this day in 1850 that Johanna Maria Lind, later also known as Johanna Goldschmidt, made her New York city debut thanks to Phineas Taylor Barnum. He brought "the Swedish Nightingale" to New York under the name Jenny Lind, put her on a special railroad car, and leaked to the press that she would occasionally look out her window or appear on a balcony. About 30,000 people surrounded her hotel and for the first time police were needed to keep the crowd quiet. To get ticket sales beefed up at the Castle Garden Theatre, he announced that her show was sold out, but he would auction off some tickets (which sold for $.25). The first ticket sold for $225 and some tickets sold for as high as $625. The crowd went wild and began bidding frantically for tickets. When the auction was over, many of the successful bidders resold their tickets at a premium.

Address changes (Do not use return addresses on your envelopes)...
SSGT. Taylor O. Remphrey
PFC   #2   Box 559
APO   AP   96264

SSGT. Hess, Brandon
FOB  Taqqadum
HHC  1-504  PIR  MTRS
APO   AE   09381  

Didja ever notice that dogs come when they're called,
while cats only listen to the message and will get back to you later?

 

Quickies...

   • Folks in Hershey are nervous about rumors that Kraft Food, Inc. will purchase Cadbury candy--dropping the Hershey candy maker to a distant fourth in size. Hershey now has the license to make and sell Cadbury brands in the U.S.

   • Bankruptcy is one of the options apparently on the table for Harrisburg as it faces an inability to repay a $287 million bill on its incinerator. Stay tuned.

   • Thinking of a new cellphone? Consider cellphones emitting radiation when you make your choice. The free listing of more than 1,000 devices is listed here.

   • You can create a free Smilebox scrapbook in five minutes by going here. You can create greetings, slideshows, photobooks and postcards by dragging photos into amazing e-designs.  Email them free.

   • Natural gas emits about half the greenhouse gases as coal, according to a New York Times article . Take a look at the thin brown plumes coming out of the "scrubber" exhaust tower at the Washingtonville PP&L plant now that its $600 million environmental improvement project at Montour power plant is complete. What's a scrubber, you ask? Let PPL tell you. For those downwind of the Montour plant, wouldn't it be nice if that was a natural gas-powered plant using our own Marcellus shale gas?

   • Bob Edwards, son and grandson of an International Harvestor dealer, reports that 323 registered IH tractors were on display yesterday at Penns Cave. Bob examined 320 of them. I prefer tractors of the "green persuasion," but Bob reports that "the Deere family was outnumbered and there were a lot of tears wetting the cheeks of green farmers and fans on the grounds." Judging from the weather forecast, there will be a lot of wet patrons at Penns Cave today.

 

Didja ever notice that a good story has a good beginning
and a good ending--and that they are both close together?

 

 

It continues to drone on--now in its 72nd day--taking its toll on food banks, day-care centers, school districts and libraries--while the Guv and lawmakers do fist-a-cuffs over cutting services or raising taxes.

 

The Office of Commonwealth Libraries leads the development of the state’s public, school, academic and special libraries to meet the information, education and enrichment needs of its residents. Non-essential services of the state library have been slashed (The state library's hours have been reduced to Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 9 AM to 4 PM.  There are no evening or weekend hours).

 

The slashing continues down to the county level where it impacts various county services (Several Columbia County offices are closed Fridays). At the Columbia County Traveling Library, the state library has told the libraries under its jurisdiction that they are "held to maintaining standards," but can't provide the financial wherewithall to do that. Fourth Quarter  CCTL funds from the county have been "frozen" due to the state budget stalemate. An immediate decision is necessary to determine the library's role in the coming days.

 

While fiscal 2010 budget enactment was difficult in all states because of the recession, Pennsylvania remains the only state in the union not to approve a spending plan.  The budget impasse affects different counties in different ways--23,000 residents of Adams and Franklin County are waiting on $1.7 million in state payments--not due to funding cuts, but because a full budget has not been signed. Sixty-eight employees were laid off August 21 due to the budget impasse.

Call your legislators to let them know that you know that important services are being seriously limited because we have no state budget. Enter your zip code in the search box in the top right-hand corner of www.legis.state.pa.us to learn the name of your legislator. Call Governor Edward G. Rendell, 225 Main Capitol Building, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120. His phone number is 717 787-2500. If you are getting M.A.D. (motivated and determined), do it.

The current situation reminds me of the center fielder who dropped a fly ball during a baseball game because his mind was on an upcoming vacation. We only pay center-fielders to do one thing when they are in the outfield--and when they drop the ball we start looking for new ball players. We do the same for legislators and governors...

Those who work out our budget
Have a policy--really a honey--
We shall live on our income,
Even if we must borrow the money.

 

September 10, 2009. It is the birthday of Eddie Hagan and Barbara Edson. Anniversaries include Mr. and Mrs. Ron Janney. We should have some afternoon rain today continuing into Friday morning.

The president's speech has just begun. I arrived in Camp Hill minutes ago so I can be at a doctor's appointment first thing in the morning in order to fix me up so I can keep on growing old. I need to throw something together for the Benton News, so I'll do what I usually do when I am under pressure. I'll grab some thoughts from someone who called or emailed me and use them, rather than taking the time to write anything of my own. Here goes--let's get the bull rolling...

Quickies...

   • Bravo to the Times Leader which has been lauding the Benton Area School system for its recent installation of a biomass burner to heat its buildings with pelletized plants such as switchgrass. The newspaper has included two recent articles about how the move could reduce the district’s oil consumption by up to 48,000 gallons per year. The district expects to save money, plus put fewer pollutants into the air.

  Didja ever think that one of the most important ingredients in a recipe for speech-making is plenty of shortening?

Long ago I decided never again to attempt to say "How y'all" to a group of people from the South. On my own, I decided not to partake of snuff and chewing tobacco after I read that a single pinch of smokeless tobacco exposes the user to the same amount of carcinogen as the smoke produced by five cigarettes--even though Levi Garrett is the preferred method of polluting creeks in the South. I wean myself off hot tea and perogies when I go South. One doesn't exist in Dixie and the other is in short supply simply because of the lack of demand for it. If you ever go south, don't ever tell a new friend that you love bagels or the next morning you'll wake up with a front yard full of the little howling hound dogs.

Connie Hatch, the talented member of the Sullivan County Museum who recently wrote the Pictorial Guide to Sullivan County, grew up in the South. Yesterday's rattling on in the Benton News about church dinners reminded her of her "growing-up" days in the South in the 1960s. Her take on eating, as viewed from the perspective of south of the Mason-Dixon line, is different from most we hear in the upper Fishingcreek valley.

"Before the advent of air conditioning, when young kids at school took naps after dinner (that is, dinner in the middle of the day; remember, supper was the last meal of the day) and people sat on their front or back porches after meals to rest for a bit," Connie remembers that "church socials always took place outside where it was much cooler than being stuck inside."

Church dinners where Connie's folks and Connie attended in the south "were held outside on a long, sturdy table beneath tree shade. Older woman sat fanning themselves with fans that were printed especially for the church. Most of these fans were kept in the hymnal holders at the back of the pews. So while your face and neck were cooled by the moving air, the rest of you sweated. I remember some older men sitting "downwind" of their wives busily fanning themselves."

Main courses of these southern dinners were "fried chicken, potato salad and vegetable dishes. They were plain and simple, nothing fancy, unless a woman dared to be different with her salad and added something that had the gossip line going."

Deep in thought as if she had not thought about the subject for years, Connie continued, "It's funny, how, when you're young, you don't remember the heat and humidity. I remember running all the time, never sitting still and always getting in trouble. I ran just for the sake of running and freedom, never racing. Actually, I remember walking very fast but my dad has proof on some old 35 mm film. Wow, were my legs moving!"

"Sunday dinners were crowded. Men stood back talking while the women brought out the tableware and food." Older girls "helped or flirted with the boys," Connie remembers as if she had first-hand experience.

"I remember one of my aunts walking up and down the table sides fanning and slapping at flies, her voice so loud and shrill that it bounced and echoed off the church walls. Her husband was the storyteller in the family. There were always groups of people standing around him listening to old family tales or him talking about people he'd met over the years. As he talked, he'd do the fixin's for a cigarette. As a matter of fact, a lot of the men smoked. The fronts of old country churches were decorated with men standing outside lighting up before and after sermons. I don't remember the woman smoking in public, although, a few years later when my dad was transferred further south two counties away, I thought all babysitters took snuff or chewed tobaccy."

Connie remembers a short, "one-minute sermon--then a prayer of thanks that lasted forever. The older folk went first in line." She remembers holding a plate piled with delicious smelling foods and a couple pieces of fried chicken. The older folk went first, then the younger. My mother remembered being so hungry as a child while waiting for the guests and grownups to finish eating that she'd sneak over to her mother and whisper for a piece of something to hold her over until it was time for the children to eat."

"The fried chicken was as fresh as it could be. Quite possibly the chicken was beheaded the day before and hung to drain. I remember my grandmother doing that for Sunday dinners at her home. There was no driving into town to the grocery store and buying up food to cook for church dinners. It was home grown, simple and delicious."

"That sense of fullness one gets after eating leads to torper (it is a word--look it up!)," a state of drowsiness where people sat in their chairs and dozed. "Tones of voices rose and fell, kids shouted and ran or were asleep on a parent's lap. Many of the dinners lasted so long that no one went home until after the evening services were over. Sometimes in the summers, the evening preaching took place outside while the women gathered up dishes and food remains."

Eating in the South requires you to eat grits, but never to drink ice coffee or hot tea. The Lord never intended it that way. If a restaurant serves anything other than barbeque, don't order barbeque. As a fellow once told me in Tennessee, "never eat no meat that ain't fried." Just as you would not chew gum and toot your tuba--or wear chartreuse or lavender--you would not eat quiche at Buster's Barbeque or turn your back on someone who wears an earring. But if you ever get a chance to sample true Southern fried chicken, don't miss the opportunity. It is out of this world. Don't just take my word for it. Listen to Connie.

September 9, 2009. It is the birthday of James G. Hartkorn and outgoing State Secretary of Agriculture, Dennis Wolff, Millville and Harrisburg. It is the wedding anniversary of Ron and Cheryl Kelsey and Christopher and Erin Ackerman. On this day in 1776, the name "United States of America" was adopted in Philadelphia by the Continental Congress for the united colonies. We could get some rain today, will probably get some cool rain Thursday (high of 62°) and be stuck with rain and drizzle on Friday.

Dale B. Ruckle, Plano, Texas, knows something about Barrow, Alaska. His son lived there for five years and managed the largest retail store in Barrow, a store something like a junior Walmart. In a town of about 4,429 people, he did $19 million the last year he was there--not bad for a store about the size of the Weis Market in Bloomsburg. The Alaska store is on piers and elevated.

 

Dale visited Barrow in May 2008. Dale added to the report from Bridget Allen in yesterday's edition, noting that "all structures are erected on piers sunk into the permafrost." Houses are on poles with the diameter of a telephone pole. The piers must stand at least a year before construction can start in order "for the permafrost to reset. As a result, all structures are off the ground." He was full of good information, including...

• The heated utilities in the "old section of town are set in a five-foot-high tunnel through the permafrost. It is in the shape of a diamond with a flat top and bottom. It is totally lined with wood. You can walk the entire distance in this tunnel. The sewer pipes and water pipes run through the tunnel. The newer part of town does not have tunnels. As a result, this part can experience pipe breaks from time to time."

   • The water they process is the cleanest, with the highest rating of any water in the entire United States. "They generate their own electricity. The generators are fired by gas that comes from a well about 15 miles out of town. They estimate this well to be good for at least 115 years."  

   • "Every home in Barrow looks like a dump on the exterior. After all, why worry about how your exterior looks when it is 60° below zero? The interiors are a much different story. They would put many homes in the lower 48 to shame. The kitchens are awesome, with expensive kitchen gadgets."

`• Abandoned vehicles are not there for parts. "There are no junk yards. If you tried to transport the junk out you would go broke. There are two barges a year (The ice on the ocean moves out in late June and it returns in September). One brings in gasoline and the other freight. The only other means of transportation is by airplane. The cost to transport a junked vehicle would be in the same price range as buying a new small car in Benton."

  • The roads in Barrow are "paved" with a stone substance quarried from a bluff out side of town and close to the gasoline tanks. This is a site overlooking the ocean. Each spring the roads become vicious rumble strips. After the weather turns warm, the street and roads are smoothed out. Now the interesting part. Since the improved roads are not part of any state street or highway system, the residence are not required to register their vehicles. This means no license plates are required, no inspection, no nothing. Most of the vehicles have a license plate. It is the one they had when the vehicle was flown to Barron from some place in lower Alaska. It may be expired for years, but it is legal.

• There are exactly 50 taxi cabs in Barrow. Many families do not have automobiles. The fare is $6 each way. It is the norm for people to come to the grocery store in a cab, shop and return home in a taxi cab.

   • The length of the day changes 7 minutes every day. It depends on what side of the equinox they are. In the winter there are about two months of darkness. In the summer, there are two months of light.

   • Barrow has no land connection for a distance from NYC to Chicago. Will Rogers and Wiley Post died in 1935 15 miles south of Barrow when their plane stalled and they plunged into a river. All communication dishes point down--after all, they are on top of the world! Learn more by clicking here.

Quickies...
   • CCFNB Bancorp, Inc. announced September 8 that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $.27 per share, payable September 24, to stockholders of record. The dividend declared 1n September 2008 was for 24 cents per share, an increase of three cents or 14.29% over 2007. Are you listening Bank of America?
   • An AARP four-hour refresher drivers safety course will be sponsored by the Benton Women’s Club on Wednesday, October 14, from 9 AM to 1 PM at Christ the King Church, Mendenhall Lane, Benton. The course is for those who have previously taken the eight-hour class. Refreshments will be provided. Please bring your current driver’s licenses, proof you’ve taken the 8-hour course, a check made out to the AARP ($12/member with proof of your AARP membership or $14/non-member) and a pen. No test! To register, call Barbara King, 925-6242.   
   • They get an "A" for trying. The Pennsylvania Office of Administration is going after funding in anticipation of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Rural Utilities Service broadband-funds distribution. If it's awarded, the funding would be allocated from the $7.2 billion identified for broadband within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Pennsylvania plans to extend its broadband network to unserved and underserved regions of the state.   

A whole lot of Pennsylvanians are packing in preparation for the Nittany Antique Machinery Association, Inc. of Central PA and its 35th annual fall show September 10, 11, 12 and 13 from dawn to dusk. International Harvestor tractors are the featured attraction this year. The senior citizen admittance Thursday is $3. The parking is free. Look for Dave Moss parking cars. He promises to fasten both straps of his coveralls this year. The weather is not promising for Thursday and Friday, but my plan is to attend if at all possible. For those who have never attended this highly anticipated show, here are some of the things we encountered a few years ago.  

There were lots of interesting antiques at the flea market part of the Penn's Cave show. There was a bulletin for Campbell's Soups from 1926 when the company put out 21 flavors of soup. The tomato soup sold for 12 cents a can and had "sunshine in its flavor." One weary advertising sign showed two women chatting, with the comment below the picture, "I just knew you would come back to Fels-Naptha." A wringer-washing machine in like-new condition went for $75. A can of Borden's Eagle Brand condensed milk was inscribed that it was "Nothing short of miraculous" how a baby's health improved when she went on the milk. A General Electric advertisement said that five cents of electricity would operate a washing machine for two hours, a sewing machine for seven hours, an electric fan for ten hours, and a reading lamp for two long evenings. We found Black Flag containers in both liquid and powder, a half pint for 25 cents. We read through an old cook book left by a loving mother for her growing daughter, which instructed the coming-of-age daughter to "save Vaseline and cold crème jars, wash and sterilize them and fill them with jelly and jam and custard for the school-children's lunches." We saw an electric Priscilla sewing foot-treadle machine and a 72-key Burroughs Portable which "added to $1,000,000.00." A 110-year-old steam engine almost the size of a locomotive with only 20 horsepower pulled a huge amount of weight. We saw many signs proclaiming "Nothing runs like a Deere," and one sign that modified the message slightly, saying, "Nothing runs like a Christian."

The parking lot at Penn's Cave was sprinkled with "Proud to be an American" signs, we saw many Kentucky Meerschaums being sold, and we smiled broadly when we saw Bendertown farmer "Country Dick" Wenner sporting a new baseball cap that said, "If Dolly Parton were a farmer, she would be flat busted, too!"

The food activities at Penn's Cave are very reminiscent of what the Rev. John Sutton (one of two men who organized the First Christian Church [Disciples of Christ]) in Benton on December 6, 1836) called "venison dinners" in the 1840s when local men would gather (with their spouses) to listen to tales of hunting. Penn's Cave eating was also a lot like church dinners of a bygone era that served as the gathering place for old friends to join together at the communal table.

The atmosphere at Penn's Cave is reminiscent of a church supper. It is a community get-together with well-cooked meals. Judging from the quality of the baked chicken and the beef pot-pie, it was evident that certain ladies of the community were asked to make certain items. We suspect that there is a friendly competition among the ladies for certainly the food featured the best products displaying the best of their skill.

We seem to attract certain readers who are not from the country and for those readers we'll chat about church dinners, not the kind we so often now have with ham bar-B-que, hot ham sandwiches, and a scattering of desserts. No, we're talking about the old fashioned, full-up church dinners.

There was always an array of delicious pies and cakes, fresh pieces so tasty they would melt in your mouth. These desserts were the climax to the main course which consisted of salads, baked beans, meats, and the like. My first memory of church suppers always included potatoes of some sort in the meat. Scalloped potatoes were always easy to prepare and easy to transport to the church. My memory is that they were frequently prepared in a shallow dish, so that each serving would have lots of dark, crusty topping. A green vegetable would always be served. A coffee urn was always in plain view.

The food was always arranged so that the servings would be passed from one place to the next in a continuous forward motion without any retracing of steps. Always prepared and served by volunteers, the serving line was always sure of what they were doing.

The most successful suppers sold tickets in advance so people generally knew how much food to prepare and so there was not a surplus left over.

The stream and forest gave them meat,
Their clearing gave them corn and wheat.
They made the garments that they wore.
And thought they had a bounteous store.
--Rev. John Sutton

Speaking of "eating good," A Taste of the Parish is coming up in the social hall at Christ the King Church, Mendenhall Lane, on Sunday, October 25, from 1 to 4 PM. Tickets are $10 each. Come and enjoy a sampling of favorite foods created by members of the parish--then take a recipe home to try the dish yourself. Tickets are available at the church or at the parish office by calling 925-6969 or by contacting Ann Eustice at 925-6325. There is a gift basket raffle at 4 PM.

September 8, 2009. It is the birthday of Sam Follmer and Scott Maguire.

We ended the Benton News on Labor Day by telling about Bridget Allen's trek through Alaska. We'll continue the story today.

 

"In a flash we’re landing at Barrow," Bridget recalled, "flat, gray, foggy Barrow," where she proceeded to a terminal about the size of their house in Lewistown.  "People are moving with intention here and there and I haven’t the faintest idea what to do next.  I venture out to the unpaved, muddy street and spot a short-tour bus.  With no other apparent options, I get on.  All they can do is tell me to get off…"

As it turned out, this is her tour.  Eli, the driver and guide, is of Inupiat heritage, "and is very congenial, articulate and willing to share his community and his culture." Barrow, one of the northernmost cities in the world, is a community of Native Alaskans--which we know as Eskimos.  There are a few Anglo-Saxons in Barrow--but not many.

The town is built on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. Bridget's goal was to take off her shoes and wade, which she did "for about 45 seconds," not enough time to qualify her for the Polar Bear Club.  For the PBC, "one must register, pay $10, proceed in a bathing suit with the rest of the wannabes and an official witness to the Arctic Ocean, and completely submerse oneself in the frigid water within sight of the witness.  Then, in two or three weeks by mail, one gets a certificate and a (really neat) patch signifying that he/she has done this goofy thing." Bridget's reaction: "Not this chicky-poo…really neat patch or no…"

Here are some of Bridget's observations from her trip to the North Slope...
   • The native people of Alaska learned a lot from their less-fortunate relatives of the lower 48. When the great oil discovery was made on the North Slope, they struck a deal with the Feds that the USA can have this oil but, guys, you’re gonna pay. Consequently, native corporations have been set up, deals and wise investments have been made, and “the Indians” are not going to be skizzled this time.
   • On the tour of the old part of town, "we observed what might be construed as ‘squalid’ conditions in housing and landscaping. Homes and businesses were nothing more than wood and/or concrete boxes built solely to withstand the cold, wind and wet of the Arctic seasons. Forget artsy exterior color schemes and tricky roof-lines. Forget foundation plantings. Definitely forget lawns to mow. Very often a yard would be a resting place for carcasses of snow machines, pick-up trucks, dog sleds and ATVs.  Dreadful as this may sound to us, it is simply an extension of the native people’s desire and ability to use everything, like using every part of the harvested whale or seal. Also consider the fact that there are no roads into Barrow. Stuff comes in by plane or ship. Not cheap or easy to come by. So folks keep what they have ‘cause they might need a part from it someday."     
   • However, in the 21st Century there still is trash, even in an Inupiat community, so there’s a state-of-the-art municipal incinerator. "There’s also a sophisticated sewage-processing system that allows highly processed wastewater to be returned to the drinking-water supply.  This is amazing!  The fresh-water and sewer lines are heated so that they can function in 40-below temperatures."
   • The annual spring whale harvest is divided among the heads-of-households and the elders. The meat is stored underground in caches (vaults dug into the permafrost.)
   There are schools--elementary, high school and regional college--accommodating about 1,000 students.  The high school football team travels to away games by plane.
   • "Polar bears are occasionally seen swimming in the ocean or on a beach.  Numerous members of our tour saw a swimming bear--but I didn’t."
   • Family is of utmost importance. "Eli explained this to us and I got to see it for myself at the airport at the end of the day. An older woman in a wheel chair and apparently ill arrived on a flight from Anchorage. The terminal was full of 20 or 30 people (remember, this is not O’Hare…) of all ages with flowers, balloons and hugs to meet her. The adults were crying. The little kids didn’t know what to make of it. This was obviously a very important person in the lives of very many people.  (We don’t have much of that any more…)"

Bridget concluded by saying that the "bottom line is there is a whole different world in the far north that we don’t see, but it works for the people there, as well as for us and for the earth. It’s important for a whole lot of reasons. Thoughtful people can learn much from it."

 

One last thought... A number of readers said that they would like to meet Bridget. When Bridget and R.B. return to the lower 48 and her second bluegrass CD has been released, I'll arrange a concert at The Center with a question and answer session at the end about Alaska.

 

 

A reader commented on a recent Benton News article about "old toys," because she is "involved with most of these toys yet today." Ah, the joy of playing with tin riverboats and steam locomotives, cast-iron acrobats and trotting horses, carousels and wooden villages! The place to find these toys is in the book American Antique Toys, 1830-1900, published by Harry N. Barams, Inc.

 

The reader asked if anyone would want to "share thoughts about some old-time games they used to play that required little to no money." She remembered playing "Button, Button, Who's Got the Button," with friends that came to visit. They played "Gossip" and created a "homemade telephone line system."  Her objective was to make "kids today realize how much fun we can have without spending a lot of money and by using our imagination." She would love to hear from Benton News readers so she can make a list of these games for families with "VERY limited resources."

 

Great idea. We'll get the ball rolling today by mentioning some of the games which have over the years been played in the upper Fishingcreek valley. Feel free to tell us about your favorite "free" games for children.

   • In the old red school which once stood on Market Street about where Rod VanPelt now lives, children loved to race outside at recess to play "Anthony Over" (or antiover) the schoolhouse. Students would get on each side of the schoolhouse and they threw a ball over the building to kids on the other side. Whoever caught the ball ran around the house and tried to tag one person from the opposing side.

   • A similar game called "sock-about" was played at the same school with a woolen ball. The objective was to hit a player with the ball, and when the ball became well soaked in wet weather you were well aware when the thrower hit you. Games called "Long Tom" or "town ball" were popular before baseball became an organized sport in school. The Market Street covered bridge made a good place to play on a rainy day.
   • At the red school house and the academies at New Columbus, Orangeville and Millville, children "sang" the multiplication table and capitals and rivers of the United States and "spoke their pieces" Friday afternoons. Spelling bees were popular.

   • Lesta Bangs, writing in an article entitled Recreation in the One Room Schoolhouse, wrote that in the lower grades in the Millville area the smaller children played games like "Drop the Handkerchief," "Blindman's Bluff" and "Ring around Rosy." A strand of rope was sufficient to jump rope or play horse. Mrs. Bangs wrote that a hop-scotch pattern could be made on a piece of smooth ground simply by dragging a stick. Tag was a popular game after all other games were exhausted. In the fall and in the spring, upper grades played a baseball game known as "Roundtown" and a variation known as "double bats." Tug-O-War and Crack the Whip were popular, and as cold weather arrived the game of "fox and geese" was popular.
   • Kids in the late 40's remember the game played on the Forks covered bridge called Red Rover, sort of a group game of tag. The game called for players divided into two teams, lined up facing each other about 25 to 50 feet apart. Each side took turns calling "Red Rover, Red Rover, let (insert name) come over." At that signal, the player whose name was called ran from his line and tried to break through the line of opponents, who had all joined hands. If he broke through, he could take one opponent of his/her choice back with him to his team. If he did not break through, he had to join the other team. The team to add all the other players on its side first, or which had the most players at the end of a designated time period, won. When one team was down to only one player, the game was officially over. Sue Lucas remembers playing Red Rover in 1960/61 when she was in second and third grades at Picture Rocks school. Sue and her classmates also played Crack the Whip in long chains, but suspects that these games are too dangerous these days.
   • Bob Edwards remembers those mornings "waiting for bus owner Ken Musselman or driver Warren Rhinard inside the Forks bridge where kids played tag as cars and trucks crossed the bridge. He called it an "exciting game" darting in front of a vehicle to avoid being tagged. We suspect the reader did not have this game in mind. The bigger boys tried to get bats to fly from the upper parts of the bridge.  
   • The peanut hunt was a good out-of-door game for a children's party. When the game was over, the child who had found the greatest number won a simple award. "Follow the leader" has always been popular.
   • The potato race was a popular game in the local area. Two children would race against each other. Both start at one end of a lawn and pick up the potatoes at either side, arranged at intervals down the line. Each potato was balanced on a spoon and carried in the end of a line where there is a waiting basket. If the child loses the potato, he or she must go back for it before going on to the next one. The winners play against other winners until, by process of elimination, all but one have been defeated.

Here are some other games with a web location where the rules are listed...

Come a little closer, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/come_a_little_closer.htm

Ghost in the Graveyard, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/ghost_graveyard.htm

Hide and Seek, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/hide_and_seek.htm

Hide the Button, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/hide_the_button.htm

Lion's Cub, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/lions_cub.htm

Marco Polo, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/marcopolo.htm

No Ghosts Out Tonight,  www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/no_ghosts_out_tonight.htm

Piggie wants a signal, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/piggie_wants_a_signal.htm

Punch the Icebox, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/punch_the_icebox.htm

Red Light/Green Light, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/rl_gl.htm

Sardines, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/sardines.htm

Sharks and Minnows, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/sharks_minnows.htm

Spy, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/chasing_games/spy.htm

The Blind Game, www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/blind_game.htm

 

 

September 7, 2009. David Robert Kline, Mooresville, North Carolina, and Kelly Ann Little, Owasso, Oklahoma, celebrate their birthdays today. It is the eleventh anniversary of Google's incorporation.

Local...

   • Please keep Herm Taylor, Raven Creek, in your prayers. Herm is now in the hospice program at Pleasant Valley Manor, near Stroudsburg. Bruce Jankowski could use prayers for his back. Bill Repko needs your prayers, too. Stephen Hanzlik has bone-marrow problems. Dale Franklin will undergo a cardiac catherization this week. Georgia Sweet Bashline begins radiation treatment Tuesday.

   • Donations of fresh eggs and vegetables will be welcome at the Benton Food Bank through September. You can bring your donations to the rear of The Center the first and third Tuesday of the month between 7:30 and 8 AM. With the concerns of the upcoming colder fall weather when flu viruses are known to really take off and spread, please add a special item for October's delivery: anti-bacterial hand sanitizer.

   • The Benton Council of Churches is having a cookbook sale. The book includes great recipes from local churches. Please help in the sale of this book. The cost is $7 each. Contact any member of the Council of Churches.   

   • Tutoring sessions are available at the Center for children K through 6th grade. This service is offered Monday through Friday from 3:30 to 4:30 PM. Students should bring subject materials with them to each tutoring session. Tutoring is free for Center members; non-members can purchase a guest pass. Please call The Center at 925-0163 for questions.

The Sunday edition of the Benton News talked about the Reading system's route to Benton coming from Rupert, through "Paper Mill," to Orangeville, Zaners and Benton.

The term "Paper Mill" needs further explanation, because of its similarity to "Paperdale." Picture courtesy of Jim Laubach

Bloomsburg Paper Mill

 

Most of us have heard of Papermill Road, Bloomsburg. It is where the Hampton Inn and the Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau are located. Many of us have eaten at Denny's Restaurant on Papermill Road. Lt. Moses Van Campen and 20 or so soldiers put up a fort near Papermill Road during the days when the local area was part of the frontier. It is the location of the Bloomsburg Sand & Gravel Company operated by Hanson Aggregates.

In 1818, John Barton constructed a dam across Fishingcreek about two miles north of Bloomsburg and built a flour and grist mill. Sometime after 1882, the milling equipment was removed by the then-current owners and paper-manufacturing equipment was installed. The mill burned in 1855 and 1905, but was rebuilt both times. It burned again in 1932, but was not rebuilt.

It is a holiday weekend and I have the great fortune today of having someone else write the Benton News. Bridget Allen joins us from the North Slope of Alaska and Kathy Arcuri joins us from her garden. First, Bridget's adventures on her trip to Barrow, Alaska.      

"Booking a tour was easy," Bridget found out. "Ads, brochures, websites all over the place--no problem."  She signed up and got her confirmation.  Fuss-budget that she is, she read the very fine print--which stated "more or less that, if the commercial flight from Fairbanks to Barrow is canceled because of weather (very likely), there’s no refund." Trip insurance is strongly recommended, since the price of this one-day tour is $675. Hey--you only live once, right!

Bridget got on-line and made a feeble attempt to research trip insurance.  She hit one cyber-obstacle after another “Web page cannot be found.” The AOL system has quit unexpectedly." "Impatient technoditz that I am, I threw up my hands. Forget it!  It’ll be fine…"

Next morning Bridget went on her trip to the top of the world. Departure time neared and no call to board was given. She started to squirm. "Then this message over the PA system: 'Flight 501 to Barrow has been delayed because of weather. We will update you as information is available'.” “Oh, gawd,” Bridget remembers thinking as she jumped to conclusions, "I’m about to lose $675!” Update deadlines came and went. Several other passengers paced up and down looking anxious and quizzing the Alaska Air staff as to status.  "I guess they didn’t have trip insurance either," Bridget remembers. Finally, almost two hours later, they flew.

It was not a direct flight.  They made a quick stop at Prudhoe Bay--in Bridget's mind "a fictional place like Tasmania or Nepal." Peering out the window of the plane, all she could see was gray, foggy, very flat and empty except for something that looked like several isolated-industrial complexes on the horizon about ten miles distant--oil processing facilities--and the gossamer snow-covered peaks of the Brooks Range just below beyond--so far away, she wasn’t even sure they were there.

“Is there a town here?” she inquired of her fellow travelers, who were pipeline or oil-company workers either coming or going.  “Yeah, Deadhorse, if you want to call it a town,” offered the line inspector from Dallas, Texas, who was on his way home for vacation. Bridget started to get the picture of what it was like to live near the Arctic Ocean near the Prudhoe Bay oil fields.

Bridget recalls as the plane took off that an inspector nudged her and directed her to look out his window.  "He knows I’m a tourist," she thought. “Down there’s a herd of musk oxen,” he said.

"Musk oxen!" instantly flashed in her mind, "I thought they were extinct." She stretched across him as politely as possible to see the ground below and there were 8 or 10 big, brown, bushy critters with huge whitish horns.   "Musk oxen…what else?"

 

When we get together over coffee Tuesday, we will continue the story as Bridget lands in Barrow, a community of Native Alaskans---Inupiat, culturally related to the residents of Siberia.  In the vernacular, Eskimos.

We now move to the subject of "Backyard Environmentalism," thanks to an article from the writing of Kath Arcuri. Kathy's column is normally published on the first Sunday of each month, but was moved back a day in September in order to finish the Reading Railroad article. We apologize for the inconvenience.

BACKYARD ENVIRONMENTALISM
Last month’s “Go Native” column, citing a new edition of Douglas Tallamy’s Bringing Nature Home, made a plea for using indigenous plants in the home garden to feed native insects, the protein source for most forms of higher life. But can such a small effort really make a difference? And can the backyard gardener create a beautiful garden with native plants?

To answer the first question, we have to look at the record pace of habitat destruction. Most of our natural ecosystems have been decimated by development or invaded by alien species (only one percent of Pennsylvania is deemed wild). And conservation lands are scarce and fragmented--tiny habitat islands surrounded by roads, dammed waterways, manicured lawns and development. So Tallamy believes that a network of home gardens planted with native species is the last best hope to preserve biodiversity in this land of farm, city and suburb.

Now to the second question, how do we create beautiful gardens with native plants? Unfortunately, exotic aliens have ruled landscape design. But there is no reason that gardeners can’t adopt a new aesthetic, informed by some of the original contributions of Mother Nature. To aid the effort, native plant growers are working hard to develop hybrids suitable to home gardens; and public spaces are beginning to incorporate natives into their plantings.

For example, to attract butterflies, plant a milkweed variety, perhaps the well-behaved orange butterfly weed, or one of the new strains of swamp milkweed. Yes, the Asian butterfly bush does attract nectar-seeking adults; but not one single North American butterfly species can use this import for hosting larvae.

And every home needs shade, but unfortunately the alien Norway maple has become the most common tree sold in North America, rapidly displacing indigenous trees with its windborne seeds, and supporting no native insects. So to provide shade and spectacular fall foliage, try a sugar maple or a red maple--natives that host over 285 species of moths and butterflies.

In the shrub border, use Appalachian azaleas instead of Asian varieties; and ninebark instead of burning bush or Japanese barberry. In the perennial bed, coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, evening primrose, baptisia, and New England asters nurture all sorts of winged creatures. Violets in the lawn feed fritillaries. And if you’re a fan of rapidly spreading ground covers, replace English ivy, which hosts nothing in this country, with Virginia creeper, which enables the majestic Pandora sphinx to reproduce.

Tallamy in fact provides seven pages of native plants suitable for gardens in the Mid-Atlantic States. Refer to his Appendix if you are serious about becoming a backyard environmentalist, and potentially doubling the numbers of native insects visiting your “naturalized” outdoor space. Because ultimately “Go Native” is not just about a new garden aesthetic; but more importantly about a sustainable relationship with other species that were here long before us.
--Kathleen Arcuri

September 6, 2009. It is the birthday of Dayne Sharek, Mike Delp, Teddy McHenry, Winton Laubach, John Andrysick, and Roger Worley. Today is the wedding anniversary of Scott and Pat Wary and Gerald and Barbara McHenry, Benton. Other than a round-up of illegal aliens, the area was quiet Saturday as we basked in wonderful weather which should last through Wednesday.

A reader was upset that she had been hit with a late fee on her credit card, which raised her interest rate. Credit cards are one of those situations where you almost can't win! Didja know that some credit cards are now penalizing you if you make your monthly payment too soon? Do you think that stores are in favor of you paying off your credit balance each month? Take Bon-Ton as an example. The annual percentage rate is 45.09%. It might not be that rate for everyone, but for us who have never made a late penalty to them, that is the rate. Wouldn't it be simple just to heed this warning and simply cut up your credit cards? Well, not exactly...

Fair Isaac & Co. warns that when you have more than seven revolving-debt accounts, your FICO score (the most widely-used credit score which indicates how likely you are to pay back debt) begins to sag a bit. Dropping below the magic seven figure by simply closing accounts won't make things exactly right and may actually hurt your FICO score. Lenders are interested in the ratio between the balances on your revolving accounts and your total available credit. Keep your debt below 30% of your available credit--and the closer you come to 0% the better. The secret is to pay off your credit balances--not necessarily to close accounts with no balances. When you close accounts, the credit lines are no longer factored into your ratio. Closing an account with no balance increases the percentage of debt to available credit. Other lenders may penalize you for having too much available credit, fearing a spending binge that is well beyond your means.  

Still, fewer cards are easier to keep your finger on than having a bunch. The more cards you have, the easier it is to rationalize spending too much. Fewer cards with lower balances should be your objective. As a general rule, if you don't carry the credit card in your wallet, you probably don't need it.

If you do destroy your cards, remember that information embossed on the front of the card and the information encoded in the magnetic strip on the back of the card should be destroyed. Both sides of the card contain the same information. Disable the magnetic strip and cut it or take the strongest refrigerator magnet you have and rub it along the magnetic strip. Cooking in a microwave with a glass of water for about 30 seconds works, but only destroys the embedded smart chip, so you’ll need to cut up and shred the card afterwards. Consider throwing the pieces out on alternate trash days. Burn the card, which will destroy both the card and chip. Run a hot iron over the chip and card to melt them. Cards with a smart chip will be rendered useless with a solid smack with a hammer. If you own a tank, run over it. It is will only take a few seconds to do any of the above, but it will take months to regain your lost identity if your credit card is compromised. Incidentally, by law, negative data--late payments and foreclosures--will come off the credit report after seven years.

Didja ever think that love is like a tennis match? You'll never win consistently until you learn to serve well.

When we left the subject of the B&S railroad yesterday, we were telling you about the Reading Company taking over the B&S in October 1928 as their Bloomsburg Branch. Today, we'll tell you about the new parent company. A number of interesting things happened to the railroad over the years; in fact, older Philadelphians would consider the Reading company an institution in their city, somewhat akin to the warm feeling they would have toward a Horn & Hardart Automat, shopping at Wanamaker's or going out on the town at Bookbinder's Restaurant.

Some may know the Reading Terminal, the eight-story home of the railroad's executive staff and the home of the Reading Terminal Market, where at one time the people of the suburbs with money would phone for choice cuts of meat, seafood and fresh vegetables. The orders were processed and shipped out on the next available train. The order was picked up by a coachman in time for milady's dinner. If you are familiar with the Reading Terminal Market, you'll enjoy a nostalgic look back at the market "below the tracks." Click here and enjoy a trip back in time.

Who today would not be absolutely thrilled at a chance to ride a Reading Railroad train along the eastern end of the Catawissa branch of the line? (At one time, The Catawissa railroad had seven wooden trestle bridges, including one 546 feet high and 574 feet long and about as many tunnels. The bridge at Mainville was 115 feet high and 727 feet long.) For more on trains in Catawissa, go here , for views of Reading trains in Catawissa, go here and for a railroad history of Catawissa go here. Think what it must have been like to ride on the road of coal tipples and breakers, on sharp spurs and steep sidings. These tracks and those of the former B&S go through some of Pennsylvania's finest scenery in the eastern part of the state.

	Jim Laubach, a former Benton resident now living in Elverson (Chester County) Pennsylvania, has an "O" gauge model railroad loosely based on the Catawissa Division of Reading.
The majority of cars are Reading, as well as all six locomotives.

Most of the train's traffic was within a hundred mile radius, except for the Williamsport run. Within that radius, trains served industries with familiar names, including Lehigh Portland cement, Bethlehem Steel, Wyomessing Mills, Hershey's chocolate, duPont products, Scott tissues and many more.

The main line of the Reading Railroad was from Philadelphia along the Schuylkill River to the town from which its name is derived, then through the anthracite region via Shamokin to Williamsport and Newberry Junction. A "bridge route" went west from Allentown to Shippensburg. The Reading also had lines from Philadelphia to Bound Brook and Port Reading, New Jersey, plus a line to Bethlehem, one to Lancaster and Columbia and from the Reading area to Coatsville and Wilmington, where the duPont interests were served. Other minor runs exited, too, including the one to Benton.

North of Reading, the old Reading Company is operated by two regional railroads:
       A. Reading to Mt. Carmel--operated by Reading & Northern Railroad, an independent regional line. The R&N also operates the old  LV/CNJ line from Jim Thorpe through the Lehigh River gorge to Wilkes-Barre and Meshoppen.
       B. Avis to Montgomery--operated by Lycoming Valley Railroad, and from Sunbury to Mt. Carmel by Shamokin Valley Railroad. Both railroads are a part of North Shore System

A train close to home was the "Black Diamond," which ran through Bethlehem, the former town of Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe), Wilkes-Barre, Geneva and Buffalo. The "Black Diamond" was operated by the Lehigh Valley, although there were through sleepers from Bethlehem to Philadelphia over the Reading. Jim Laubach maintains that "The Crusader" was the Reading's best train, and the first Budd-built stainless steel train on the east coast.

The B&S connected at Bloomsburg with a branch of the Reading from Rupert to Bloomsburg. After the takeover by Reading, the Bloomsburg branch went from Rupert to Benton.

The 1947 route map of the Reading system includes the route to Benton coming from Rupert, through "Paper Mill," to Orangeville, Zaners and Benton. The term "Paper Mill" needs further explanation, because of its similarity to "Paperdale." We'll provide the explanation in Monday's edition.  

The Reading Railroad Heritage Museum, located in Hamburg, PA, is owned and operated by the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society, a non-profit corporation dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of the Reading Railroad. The museum is open to the public to tell the story of the Reading Railroad. The museum includes vintage railroad cars and locomotives, photographs, documents and artifacts from the Reading Railroad. The museum is open on Saturdays from 10 AM to 5 PM, and on Sundays from noon to 5 PM.

A number of local people were involved with the railroad after it became Reading property. Frank Klase retired from the Reading company after 57 years of service. Frank came to Stillwater when he was a teenager and became a telegrapher for the B&S in 1889 and he stayed there for some time until he was sent to Jamison City as station agent. From there he was sent to Bloomsburg where he worked in the B&S office for three years. On April 1, 1900, he accepted the position as agent in Benton and was with the B&S until it was purchased by the Reading Company in 1929. He remained with the Reading Company until October 1945 when he retired because of illness.

Revenue declined as the use of coal declined and the company entered bankruptcy in 1971 and became a part of Conrail in 1976. Many of the Reading tracks are today part of the Norfolk Southern and CSX freight networks.

A Reading Railroad realty office remains in operation in Wilkes-Barre to administer former railroad land owned by that company between Benton and Bloomsburg.

For further reading on the subject of the Reading Railroad, look at...
   •  Take a Ride on the Reading, by Frank P. Donovan, Jr.

   • Reading Railroad Online

   • Historical and biographical annals of Columbia and Montour counties

   • A personal favorite is to sit down and have a leisurely conversation with James Laubach or Nathan McKenzie. We especially thank Jim Laubach for his assistance in compiling the railroad information.

This article has been made a part of the FEATURES section of the Benton News in the area entitled "The Reading Railroad." The article will be removed within the week from the daily postings.

September 5, 2009. It is the birthday ofArnold Kinney (his 80th) and Bill Confair, Camp Hill. Bill's sister, Joselle, remains a patient in the Geisinger Hospital, Danville. A card addressed to Joselle Confair, Bush Pavilion, Room 8345, Geisinger Hospital, Danville, might help get her out of the doldrums. Or call her at 271-8345. It is also the birthday of Pat LaBonte Wary, Kayla Charles and Florence DePoe. Nancy Ann and Zane Robert Creveling, Stillwater, celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary today as do Allen and Shirley Roberts.

The German Heritage Society of the Susquehanna Valley will celebrate the seventh anniversary of its founding with a dinner on Thursday, September 10, at 6 PM at the Packer House, 24 North Third Street, Sunbury. Members and guests are invited to enjoy a meal of Austrian delicacies prepared by John Price, owner and chef of Herwig’s Austrian Bistro, formerly of Lewisburg and soon to be open for business in Danville.  Entrée choices include Zwiebelrostbraten (NY strip with caramelized onion), Rosmarin Schweinbraten (marinated pork), or Marieniertes Huhn (marinated chicken).  Entrees will be served with sauerkraut, potato salad, green salad, and choice of two deserts: Linzer Torte or Black Forest Cherry Cake. Cost is $20 per person. Drinks are not included, but guests may bring their own wine or beer to accompany the meal. Please contact Jeff Sheaffer by Tuesday, September 8, at 374-7730 to make reservations along with your entrée choice.           

 

Most readers of the Benton News know about the former Bloomsburg and Sullivan Railroad which once lumbered up Fishingcreek valley from Bloomsburg to Jamison City. The story is available in detail here and here.

For those who came in late, we'll refresh your memory today about the B&S and tomorrow we'll talk about what happened to the B&S after a company you'll recognize from one of the three railroads mentioned in the game of Monopoly acquired the company at public auction on October 23, 1928, and placed the line in service as their Bloomsburg Branch in December 1928.

The B&S tracks came north in the Fishingcreek valley 29 miles, thanks in large part to an estimated 50 Italian workmen hired to lay the track under the supervision of John Bush (Giovanni Bucci), Bloomsburg. These men were housed in and around Zaners. The right of way was secured through the efforts of Capt. H. J. Conner and Silas McHenry. The first spike for the railroad was driven into the ground in early Spring 1887. Tracks generally were laid about 3/4 of a mile per day. The tracks reached Orangeville in time for the Fourth of July celebration in 1887. Ground was broken at the bridge a short distance north of Orangeville in August 1886 and finished into Benton in August 1887. The following spring, tracks were laid to Jamison City and service began from Bloomsburg to Jamison City November 30, 1888, with three passenger trains a day making round-trips. The telegraph was installed in the fall of 1889.

A railroad extension northward from Jamison City was originally intended to connect with the Lehigh Valley railroad. A route was once surveyed, but nothing came of it.

The last-scheduled passenger train from Benton ended its trip south November 15, 1930. The last time that the railroad carried any significant number of passengers was on a special train for an ox roast at Benton celebrating the 1934 election of George Earl as Pennsylvania's first Democratic governor in forty-four years. Freight service continued until 1969.

Employees of the Railroad Demolition Division of the R. Moulthrope Jr., Company of Lehighton began taking up the rails following flash flooding in the spring of 1969 which caused considerable damage to bridges and washed out the ballast of long sections of the tracks just north of Lightstreet.

The B&S connected with two other railroads, the Susquehanna, Bloomsburg and Berwick at Paper Mill, and the Lackawanna and Reading at Bloomsburg. Jamison City was almost completely dependent on the train from late 1888 until 1892.

Some records indicate that the nine miles of B&S to Jamison City was abandoned March 1926 after the tannery closed. Track remained in place until June of that year to allow removal of equipment.  

The abandonment papers for Benton to Light Street was filed October 10, 1969. The Bloomsburg Branch was originally abandoned between Benton and Light Street, although service to Light Street from Bloomsburg was maintained for a few years until the floods associated with Hurricane Agnes in the 1972 hurricane season. The tracks from Light Street to Bloomsburg were abandoned after Hurricane Agnes. The B&S railroad tracks to Bloomsburg were taken up in 1971 when Railroad (Fifth) Street was repaved.

Former Benton resident Jim Laubach, now retired from Hershey Chocolate, has spent much of his life collecting railroad memorabilia. He has transferred many of his papers and photos to the archives of Reading Company Technical & Historical Society Museum , Hamburg, Pennsylvania. Jim donated blueprints of track locations for the B&S Railroad to the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center.

On January 1, 1928, the first mortgage bonds of the B&S matured and the company was not financially able to meet the obligation. Under the mortgage terms, the trustee (Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company) took possession of the property in order to protect the holders of the outstanding first-mortgage bonds.The Reading Company (pronounced Red-ding) acquired the B&S October 23, 1928 at public auction. Much of the business of the B&S passed over the Reading line, so that company purchased the entire railroad line and equipment. There were other bidders for the railroad, but only Reading was interested in keeping the line running. The application to purchase the property was approved by the ICC and the Public Service Commission of Pennsylvania and on December 1, 1928, the Reading company took possession. The line was placed in service as their Bloomsburg Branch on December 1, 1928.  

The Reading Railroad started in 1833 as the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad to build a line between the two cities for whom it was named. It turned a 94-mile coal-hauling line into a 1,367 mile Class I carrier in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware and was at one time the largest corporation in the world. The Reading's main purpose was hauling hopper cars of anthracite from the anthracite mines of eastern Pennsylvania--primarily from the counties of Columbia, Northumberland and Schuylkill--to the 275 acre, 5,800 car yard at Port Richmond (Philadelphia) and the 3,000 car Port Reading facility at New York harbor. Imagine a hopper car weighing 50- to 70 tons being emptied in ninety seconds!

When we return Sunday, we'll tell you about the Reading Railroad Company.

Quote of the Day:
" It is a definite, hard fact that if you want good fishing and good hunting, you must go where the railroad goes. That is not due to any inherent virtue of the railroad, but to the fact that it's the only effective way to get away from good roads."
--Bert Perks, quote found in Canadian National Magazine

September 4, 2009. It is the birthday of Cheryl McDonald. It is the wedding anniversary of Ann and Brian Bower and the 44th wedding anniversary of Ginny and Ron Ryan, Stillwater. It was mid-morning on this day in 1969 when John Unbewust, 46, had his famous "out-of-control" ride down Red Rock mountain. On this date in 1919, the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that "Millville and Benton, bitter baseball rivals, fought out the issue of baseball supremacy on neutral grounds" in Bloomsburg. (Benton won 9-8.) Tonight is the September full moon, with four more full moons before the end of the year (two take place in December).

Julie Jackson-Parr, the daughter of Nina and Ralph Ford, recently returned to Pennsylvania after living in Virginia. She turned 38 yesterday and we neglected to mention it. Our apology for the omission. Nina Ford, by the way, is very much missed at The Center where she was a sparkplug of a volunteer. Nina thanks everyone who has sent cards and remembrances over the past months. As Hallmark is fond of saying, "sending a card is the biggest little thing that you can do."

The Benton Area School District invites district residents to the public interviews for the superintendent candidates. The two prospective administrators are Penny Lenig-Zerby and B. Christopher Cooper. The event will be held in the Benton Area Middle-Senior High School cafeteria on Thursday, September 10.  Mr. Cooper will meet with the public from 6 to 6:30 PM and Ms. Lenig-Zerby from 6:30 to 7PM.   

Quickies...
  • Pennsylvania is the only state in the union without a budget. The Connecticut Legislature has passed that state's budget and Gov. Rell said she would allow it to become law without her signature.

   • Bob McKelvey, Cape May, New Jersey, was stationed at Benton AFS with a man by the name of Fuller.  Bob believes his first name was Herman, "although everyone referred to him just as Fuller." The two car pooled to work with guys from the motor pool. Bob at the time lived in an apartment on Hill Street in the former John Mather home. Bob remembers that Fuller's family had two young boys at that time and his wife was from England. We have a number of readers who were stationed at the former Benton AFS. Anyone else remember Mr. Fuller from 50 years ago?

   • Abraham Lincoln, the president we think of as most closely aligned with the abolition of slavery and the Civil War, is turning 200 this year. It was like visiting an old friend as I trudged to the memorial in his honor in Washington, D.C. yesterday. The memorial looks as fine today as the last time I saw it. Built in 1922, the memorial does reflect the ideals of freedom, equality and national unity that our 16th president espoused.

   • The monthly breakfast at the Benton U.M. Church, Main Street, is from 8 until 9 AM Sunday. A free-will offering is taken.
                                                                     

Here are some toys I betcha you haven't thought much about lately...

 

   Lionel trains. How 'bout the piece of plywood we got out for Christmas each year with the metal transformer/controller and the miniature station? We set it up under the Christmas tree and watched as needles fell on the track. Life was a fantasy world when the American Flyer or the Lionel came out of the attic.

 

   Easy-bake oven. Remember the $15.95 you shelled out for your daughter's first birthday with a light-bulb oven?

 

   Slinky. Remember the toy that was accidentally invented during World War II, walked the stairs, had a U.S. postage stamp created in its honor, went on a NASA space mission, and then got hopelessly knotted into an unusable mass when cousin Claude played with it?

 

   GI Joe. He was the hulk in camouflage with the Jeep, the uniforms and the weapons. Remember the day we threw him off the side of the hill to see if he could fly?

 

   Superball. Remember dropping it four feet and having it pop back three feet, nine inches? If it was spun, it would hop backwards. Remember how it hurt when it smacked you in the face and remember the big vase Mother had in the living room that didn't survive the superball attack?

 

   Lincoln Logs. Not the everlasting ones Kay Taylor sells, but the next step up from erector sets and Tinkertoy (Kay actually keeps two sets for children of customers of Taylor Made Log Homes). No matter how many logs you had, you always needed more.

 

   Mr. Potato Head. Each potato was its own size, shape and personality. A little like we all are.

 

   Silly putty. Remember making it thin and transferring a favorite Sunday comic page to it? It never had the flavor of Beemans and why was it that Mother always said that it had to go back in the container each night before bed?

 

   Barbie. No I never had one, but remember the girls always trying to get Ken or Poindexter as a boyfriend for their Barbie? They bought gowns to head to the prom, just like their older sisters.

 

   Etch-A-Sketch. The red-plastic frame had two white knobs surrounding the gray screen. The object was to draw over the entire screen so what lay below was visible.

 

   Yo-Yo. A toy as old as the Chinese hills, Napoleon had one at Waterloo, Richard Nixon took his to the Grand Old Opry and Abbie Hoffman was cited for "walking the dog" at a House Un-American Activities Committee. Just you wait, the fad will come full circle again.

 

   Play-Doh. Remember the bright colors that girls kept in such good order and boys messed up? Remember how salty it was, even by eating a small piece?

 

 

The word "Fall" may take on new meaning in the coming days. After pumping $13 trillion in rescue money into suffering banks to save a handful of megabanks--not the local regional banks we can be so proud of--the country continues in the worst banking crisis since the 1930s. In the first eight months of this year, 84 U.S. commercial banks have gone bankrupt. September is historically not a good month in the stock market. We are in a rally that has lasted longer than the rally following the '29 crash.

 

There are reasons to worry. About 15 million Americans--9.7% of the population--are out of work. We won't come out of a bear markets with stocks trading at nearly 20 times earnings and the dividend yield barely at 3% and bear markets don't end because a bunch of people who are in desperate shape in the market pray it will end. A bear market won't end until dividend yields exceed 5% and stock prices trade at 5 to 8 times earnings. Stocks never went low enough to qualify for a genuine bottom. If we don't have a booming economy, how do you expect to have a booming stock market? Do you expect to earn more money next year than this? Will our elected officials balance the budget, cut taxes, or increase benefits in the years ahead?       

 

For the first time in a long time we no longer charge everything under the sun. We aren't mortgaging our houses so we can take foolish trips. We are clomping down on our pennies, hitting the thrift shops or buying discounted brands and generally acting as frugal as we can.

September 3, 2009. It is the birthday of Owen Hess, Jr., Scott Kriebel, Nathan Becker, Julie Jackson-Parr and Eleanor Sands.  It is the 37th wedding anniversary of Kay and Chuck Chapman. Didja know that a post office was established 119 years ago on this day in Elk Grove?

Do you have problems remembering things? Others have the same problem. Head here and see if this applies to you.

 

Following the lead of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, the governor of Massachusetts may appoint a Democrat to replace Senator Ted Kennedy rather than follow state law. Former Phils pitcher Curt Schiling, a registered Independent, is considering running for the office.

 

Quickies...

   • Oil prices fell for a third straight day Wednesday, dipping below $68 a barrel. Meanwhile, the Energy Department suggests demand may be recovering.

   • When you have access to a copy machine, photocopy every card in your wallet, both sides. You'll then know what you were carrying, the applicable account numbers and phone numbers to call if you lose your wallet or if it is stolen. Put the copy in a safe place. Do the same for your passport if you travel--but take the copy with you. If you valuables are stolen, report that fact to the police and the credit-card companies as soon as possible.

   • The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review notes that 1,067 Marcellus Shale drilling permits were issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection between January 1 and August 21 of this year compared to 476 permits for the year 2008.

   • Holiday-itis has set in--my only excuse for late Thursday deliver.
  • The address to make contributions to the Save the Benton Dam project is P.O. Box 520, Benton, PA 17814. Senator Gordner's office indicates that approval for dam repairs could arrive next week.
  • Want to know about road conditions and traffic? The state Department of Transportation will launch its 511 system Friday to provide free, 24-hour traffic-delay warnings, weather forecasts, regional-tourism information, and links to transit agencies and major airports. The service will be available Friday by calling 511 or by visiting www.511pa.com. 

 

Recovering...

   • Bill Repko, following a session in Bloomsburg Hospital's emergency room earlier this week, is resting at home.

   • James Dildine is undergoing therapy at the Sippican Healthcare Center, 15 Mill Street, Marion, Massachusetts 02738. The therapy center is approximately 60 miles south of Boston. Jim's sister, Eleanor Klementik, says Jim is eating a little better and improving each day. Bob Sands said Jim's "booming voice is back," certainly a good sign.

Vida J. (Kyttle) Smith (July 31, 1925-September. 1, 2009), Elk Grove Road, Benton, died Tuesday at the Orangeville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center where she had been a resident since March 2008. She was 84. She was a daughter of Martin VanBuren Kyttle and Emily Alice (Brown) Kyttle. She was born in Ross Township, Luzerne County. She had been employed by Milco Industries for 45 years, retiring in 1993. She was preceded in death by her husband, Maurice N. Smith, on Sept. 23, 1977. Surviving are her son, James D. Arter, Benton; two grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; step grandchildren; step great-grandchildren; a stepdaughter, Mrs. J.F. (Carol) Doty, Benton. Private services will be held at the convenience of the family with burial in the Bethel Hill Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc., Benton. Online condolences may be sent to www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .

September 2, 2009.  It is the birthday of Diane Raski, Brett Becker, Cindy Raski Fuller and Miles Cole. It is the wedding anniversary of Ed and Mary Ann Baker. Early in the morning on this day in 1666, a fire broke out in a baker's shop on Pudding Lane in London. The fire spread, and within hours all of London was ablaze. When it was all over, the Great Fire of London destroyed more than 80% of the city, including over thirteen thousand houses. A  young man who witnessed the fire was William Penn. When he set up Philadelphia in 1681, he forbade the construction of wooden houses. This is why Peter J Mastroianni, from the Austin Trail, Orangeville, maintains that the original parts of Penn'e "Greene Countrie Towne" are all built of brick. It was on this day in 1884 that Dr. Frank C. Laubach was born. Like Tuesday, the next seven days will be perfectly pleasant!

Dr. Frank Laubach was honored on a 30-cent stamp that was issued Back Home in Benton, PA, his birthplace, on this day, his birthday, in 1984. First-day ceremonies were held at the Benton Junior-Senior High School and then-Postmaster General William Bolger was the principal speaker. The stamp depicted a full-face sketch of Laubach based on several photographs. The stamp was printed in green, 100 stamps per pane, with a single-digit plate number. The last printing date of a stamp is never announced, and the Laubach is no longer printed. The stamp was retired June 1, 2002. The stamp is known as "The Laubach," is Scott number 1864, issued September 2, 1984, in a denomination of 30¢. The Scott Number is the main American identifier for the Laubach stamp. Any stamp dealer or collector would easily know the stamp by that reference number. The definition is a picture of the stamp. Scott recently valued it at 55¢ and a generous stamp store in Arlington, VA that we contacted offered to pay us 18¢ for each 30¢ stamp we would like to sell to them, a concept that is somewhat akin to the "greater fool theory." That stamp store, however, did contribute a first-day cover of the stamp to the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center, for which we are most grateful. We checked on eBay in February 2004, and found the stamp offered for $5. For the Laubach to sell for $5, it had to have been a Cachet (artwork) hand-painted on a first day of issue envelope (cover). The value was for the art, not the stamp. We frequently smile at the prices people are willing to pay for something on eBay. As an example, one person put up a one cent National Park stamp, selling normally at 25¢. The bidding went to $12. The seller turned the offer down saying that was not enough.
 

Quickies...

   • What a conundrum! Invest is a word which comes before investigate in the dictionary, but which follows it in practice. Half the people who invest feel that record government spending may be forestalling another slowdown and market selloff. These people do not think that the current market recovery is sustainable. These are the people who think that we are in a "ski-jump recession," with short-term stimulus creating a bump that will ultimately lead to a more precipitous decline later. Others read and interpret the same bits of information and draw an opposite conclusion. This debate creates a tense situation in the markets. Which side is right? That’s the critical question.

   • The Benton Fire Co. will serve a roast-beef dinner on Saturday, September 12, from 4 PM to 8 PM. The meal will be sliced roast beef, filling, real mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh sweet corn, fresh green beans, desserts, and drinks. You get all this good home cooking for just $8. Children 6-12, $4. All proceeds benefit the fire company.

   • The Benton Women’s Club will meet on Thursday, September 10, at 7:15 in the LR Appleman library.

   • Speaking of upcoming events, Ricketts Glen State Park has some exceptional events happening this weekend. Take the time to head to www.bentonnews.net/events1.htm to look at all local upcoming events. Bookmark the page for future reference. The Upcoming Events list usually has more than a hundred outstanding local events that will take place in the future.

For many, the teen-age years are the interval between pigtails and cocktails, the time when kids strive to be different by dressing alike, the fateful time when they get a driver's license followed by their first ticket and too often by their first accident. The world changes substantially by the time that the teenagers arrive at middle age, the time when the morning after lasts all day, when you sit home Saturday night waiting for the phone to ring and hoping it isn't for you, when we strive to get ahead by simply staying even. It is the point in life when our narrow waist and broad mind begins to change places. It is the point where most of us don't need watching any more. We have been through the school of hard knocks and we are ready to kick back and enjoy life.

But some don't feel the same way about the another middle-aged icon turning 40 this month. The internet is turning 40, the anniversary of the Network Measurement Center at UCLA selection as the first node on the ARPANET. In September 1969, the first host computer was connected. Now some want to make the internet less open. Those who have discovered that there is spam out there in the world, the people who feel that hacking attacks could bring down the country, want to erect security firewalls and have the ability to control information. The question is whether the President has the duty or the right to take over possibly the most powerful private industry in this county as if it were another auto maker or failing bank. Remember that the internet is more than text messaging, emailing, looking up a friend's address or phone number. We do our banking, conduct our commerce, read our newspapers, keep in touch with friends and family--all over the internet.

Do you feel that the President should have the authority to "seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a cybersecurity emergency?" Remember we are talking non-governmental computer networks. Take the time to read the text of the bill available here and make an informed decision.

September 1, 2009.  It is the birthday of Lynn Watson and of Paul Bowles. Wedding anniversaries include Dennis and Chris Dawson. Two couples--Rose and Terry Hack and Paul and Melody Bowles--were married on this day 31 years ago. We are in for a week of wonderful weather, although hints of fall-like weather greet us mornings.

The birds sing summer's parting song

And start their southern trek ere long.

 

September, the French are fond of saying, is the May of Autumn. September, ninth month in our calendar, was seventh in the Roman list. (Latin teacher Warren Ketner taught us that from the Latin september mensis means the "seventh month"). September remained the seventh month in the legal year of England until 1752. That year the start of the legal year was changed from March to January. The Swiss called this month Herbstmonat--harvest month. The Saxons called September Gerst Month--meaning "Barley Month--because they harvested their main crop, gerst (barley) this month.

 

Barley--now there is a word we don't hear much of any more! Barley was once very popular in Pennsylvania. As the Federal Gazette in its edition of April 28, 1790, put it, " In the year laft paft eleven thoufand bufhels of Barley were imported into Philadelphia from the State of Rhode-Ifland."

 

The Germantown Telegraph in its edition of April 15, 1869, wrote that "any good fair land in a decent state of cultivation and in a condition to have borne wheat will produce barley."

 

The article noted that "barley does not require to be planted in any way different from oats; it may stand till it is nearly ripe, when it should be cut, and if it gets quite ripe there is a little loss in some of the heads breaking off, but the grains do not scatter out like other varieties of grain." In England at the time of the article, barley was carried to the stack or barn loose "like clover." It was a favorite crop for seeding down clover and rye grass and it made good fodder for cattle.

 

Barley is one of the oldest foods in the world. The Egyptians, Israelites, Chinese, early Greeks and Romans used barley meal. During World War I when getting wheat flour was difficult, barley bread came into general use in a limited way during the mandatory wheat-abstaining days. Four cupfuls of barley were often added to two cupfuls of wheat flour to make bread. In family cook books, I find references to barley flour pie crusts used for open-faced apple, squash and pumpkin pies.

 

Want to try a barley recipe? Here is one for something called "steamed barley pudding." No, I haven't tried it. As written, take "1 egg, 1 cup molasses, 1 cup sour milk, 1 teaspoon soda, 3/4 cup corn meal, 1 cup barley flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 cup chopped raisins. Heat the egg, add molasses, milk and soda dissolved in a little cold water. Sift corn meal, barley flour and salt together and combine with first mixture. Add chopped raisins and pour into well-greased baking-powder tins or pop-over cups. If the latter are used, cover each cup with a well-greased paper. Steam two hours."

 

September's the month when a fool relaxes

And a wise man works for bread and taxes.

 

Quickies...

   • Our Commonwealth has a history of electing a Governor and re-electing him for a second term, then picking someone from the opposing party and later re-electing him--then starting the process over. The Guv goes out of office next year. Likely candidates ebb and flow like the tides, but at this writing Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, a Certified Public Accountant, seems highest on the pecking order among the Democrats, followed in no particular order by state Auditor General Jack Wagner, Tom Knox, a businessman from Philadelphia who pledged to spend up to fifteen million dollars of his own money in the race, Montgomery County Vice Chairman Joseph M. Hoeffel, and Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty who, since his election seven years ago, has brought about an investment of almost $400 million dollars in Scranton. On the other side of the political fence are Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett, busily pursuing allegations that state lawmakers and their aides improperly diverted public resources to help win campaigns or benefit themselves; and U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, who has spent 18 years in public service representing the citizens of Southeastern Pennsylvania in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and two terms in the state Senate. He is currently serving his fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives serving the 6th Congressional District seat since 2002.

   • The Guv, according to CBS Broadcasting Inc., Philadelphia, has decided to drop his plan to impose a tax on the extraction of natural gas in Pennsylvania, which would have added revenue to prop up a new state budget.