While farmers are worrying about their corn and soybean harvest, most of us are happy for the "good sleeping weather" that always comes our way about the time of the Bloomsburg Fair. In fact, the furnace in the house kicked on this morning and the outside temperature was less than ten degrees from freezing. Frost is very possible for the higher elevations in the next five days. The song birds are almost quiet now, the overcast skies are back for the duration and although we did have heat lightening over the weekend, the thunderstorms are all but gone as we transition to a tamer, calmer weather period before the turbulence of the winter begins. We figure that Tropical Storm Isabel will be the last storm we worry about this fall. We can buy fresh cider every day now if we want it. Buster and Chloe suddenly cuddle at night and there are often four of us in bed—two humans and two dogs—at night instead of two. Sure, we'll get an Indian Summer, but for now, sleeping is wonderful. Don't forget that you can get the low-down on the chill-down directly from this page of the Benton News.

Quote of the Day:
"The air is perfectly quiescent and all is stillness, as if Nature, after her exertions during the Summer, were now at rest."
--John Bradbury

The term "Indian Summer" refers to a spell of warm, quiet, hazy weather that may occur in October or even early November. The term "Indian Summer" is generally associated with a period of well-above-normal temperatures that occur after a killing frost/freeze. It is even possible to have several Indian Summers occurring in a fall, especially across the northern areas where frost/freezes usually come early.

Up in Elk Grove, the former residence of Joe Griffith is about to take on new siding and windows and new porch as the Griffith family prepare to spend more time Back Home in Benton, PA, in coming years. Stop and say "hi" when you see someone working there.

The state has come a long way from the "You've Got a Friend" campaign of the early 1980s. We had to smile at an advertisement considered (but not accepted) for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development's fall tourism campaign. The advertisement shows a cannon on a foggy morning at Gettysburg. The tag line says: "This, by and large, is why you ain't whistling Dixie."

Amy Grant and Vince Gill will make a holiday tour entitled "Simply Christmas with Amy Grant and Vince Gill." Comedian Henry Cho and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra will join them. The tour will hit Wilkes-Barre December 15 at the Wilkes-Barre Township's Wachovia Arena.

The stream and village of Pikes Creek are named for Abraham Pike, who in 1810 owned 23,270 acres in what is now Luzerne County. In late March, 1780, he was captured, along with his wife and little baby boy, by the Indians along with Jonas Rogers, a teenage boy. The baby Pike was thrown on the roof by the Indians and they took Pike and his wife with them. They then painted Pike's wife and released her. They then captured Moses VanCampen and Peter Pence. While camping near Wysox Creek, the Rogers boy got a knife and released Pike and the others. They killed all the Indians but one and in later years Pike was known as the "Indian killer." He became a wandering merchant in his declining years. He was found dead in a barn near Lehman and was buried as a pauper in the "Old Ide Burying Ground."
--from the History of Dallas, by D. A. Waters, 1957.

The state's lower DUI limit is set to be signed into law hours before a federal deadline elapses. The state House of Representatives yesterday approved the new limit and the new law, which creates a three-tiered punishment system for DUI offenders. The Senate approved it last Wednesday. The Guv is expected to sign the legislation today.

We were asked to show a picture of former police chief Arley Meeker on his motorcycle and sidecar on the Benton News webpage. The only trouble is that we never knew about it and have never seen it. Can anyone help?

Cabela's will hold its grand opening October 3-12, at its new 250,000-square-foot store in Berks County. The store should soon turn into the largest tourist attraction in the state. The twelve-day grand opening will include shooting and fishing demonstrations and seminars. Hunting and fishing experts are promised. Special prices on clothing and merchandise will also be offered. Cabela's ( http://www.cabelas.com ) is located near Hamburg at the intersection of Interstate 78 and Route 61, approximately 20 miles north of Reading.

One of the beautiful piebald deer seen in the local woods.

An albino deer is solid white, has pink eyes and nose, and greyish colored hooves. A white deer is solid white but has normal colored eyes, nose and hooves. A piebald deer has some amount of white, but not 100% white, and has normal pigment in their eyes, nose, and hooves.

A true albino deer normally has poor eyesight and hearing, deformities in their feet and legs, and have a life expectancy of only 3 to 4 years. They make an easy prey for both hunters and preditors. In order for a true albino fawn to be born, both parents must be albino. If both parents carry the albino gene but are colored normally, they have a 1 in 4 chance of producing a fawn that is albino. It is virtually impossible to find a true albino deer in nature.

Sorry hunters! This is such a magnificant, friendly animal that we are pulling for the deer to get through hunting season. We feel that the greater good comes from seeing this animal year round than for a single hunter to snuff out its life.

Accumulated debris under the route 487 bridge was removed by PennDot Monday morning.

The Benton Sub Shop is in the background of this picture showing the 1972 flood.

When water reaches the bottom of the bridge, it is at the 14' mark.

A large crane removes debris from Fishing Creek Monday morning. The bridge, officially known by PennDot as the "SR239, Segment 100, Offset 120 bridge," is showing signs of decay, the result of years of tree bashing on its concrete pillars.

The original concrete bridge was built in 1926 and widened in 1971. The length of the bridge is 130', consisting of three spans of reinforced concrete I-beams.

Quote of the Day:
"We're might lucky to be living in a country where they change the map to honor a cowboy—instead of to satisfy the greed of a dictator."
--Gene Autry

Trivia Question of the Day:
What was the name of Gene Autry's horse? (Answer at the end)

The Ol' Country Barn up on Comstock Road near the Benton Foundry will hold its 17th annual pumpkin festival October 11 and 12.

The barn will be full of items including baskets, gifts, collectibles, antiques and crafts, as well as some rather unique treasures. They will also have lots of Jim's homemade candles. Over the course of the weekend, there will be various crafters, antique and collectible dealers, and food vendors. There is also free entertainment and door prizes. The barn is located off route 487 six miles north of Benton. Follow the signs.

The Ol' Country Barn Sign of the Week:
"Dogs think they are people. Cats know they are."

It is so very nice to see the houses that are springing to life in the Benton area. The latest is the house at the corner of Market and Third Street owned by Dean and Sharon Simmons. The house is now a pale yellow and looks great! If you see the couple painting the house, stop and tell them what a great job they are doing.

Take the time today to take a walk in the woods. It is a healthy thing to do and you just may have the opportunity to see some of the large buck that we suddenly have in our area. Bowhunters take to the woods Saturday, so if you are going to walk in the woods this week would be a good time to do it. Last year, by the way, archers shot more antlerless deer than bucks—36,172 antlerless deer to 33,476 antlered deer, according to the Game Commission.

It is time to think about heading to areas like Winslow Hill in Elk County to see the elk. Start doing your research here:
http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/PGC/elk/ .

In sports...
• Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, was retired yesterday, after the Phillies lost the final game played there, 5-2.
• The Eagles held on for a 23-13 win over the Buffalo Bills.
• the Redskins are 3-1, barely holding off the Patriots for a 20-17 victory.
• Althea Gibson tore apart the color barrier in tennis, but she died Sunday in relative obscurity.
• The Tennessee Titans rolled to a 30-13 victory over the Steelers.

Archbishop Justin Rigali will become Archbishop of the Philadelphia Diocese next week and yesterday was named as one of thirty new Cardinals of the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II. The successor to John Paul will eventually be chosen by the College of Cardinals.

A year ago...
• Harry Ritter retired and still drinks as much coffee today as he did when he was working.
• The Benton News web site was introduced to readers who had labored with the email version of the News from Back Home in Benton, PA, for several years. We feel that we have contributed something to those who feel the Benton area is a special place, and we are often surprised at the size that we have become, both in numbers of readers and content.

Gene Autry's horse was named "Champ" and was usually referred to as "Champion."

Quote of the Day:
"What's good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA!"
--General Bullmoose, based on a statement made by Charles E. Wilson, the former head of General Motors and Secretary of Defense under President Dwight Eisenhower, who said to a Senate subcommittee, "What is good for the country is good for General Motors, and what's good for General Motors is good for the country."

It's the day Confucius' birthday is celebrated in Taiwan, where the day is called Teacher's Day. Confucius was not a religious leader. He taught people to love others; to honor one's parents; to do what is right instead of what is of advantage; to practice "reciprocity," i.e. "don't do to others what you would not want yourself"; and to rule by moral example instead of by force and violence.

And as hard as it is for the older men to believe, actress Brigitte Bardot is 69 today. Ed Sullivan was born on this date in 1902.

We all know someone who has had open heart surgery. Learn about the disease, the human heart, surgery, and healthy living at http://www.cosi.org/onlineExhibits/openHeart/heart.html .

Mother often mentioned the "wreck of the Hesperus," and we have often quoted her not quite knowing why or what it meant. She would say things like, "I can't go to town today. I just look like the wreck of the Hesperus." We decided that it was time we figured it out so we read the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, (1807-1882), a poet and professor of English literature at Harvard. The poem is quite frankly, dreadful. We found the poem at http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/Wreck.htm and when you are having trouble sleeping, go ahead and read it.

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

When you head to the polls on November 4, 2003, you will vote for two changes to the constitution of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Please read the two proposed changes before you enter the voting booth so that you are an informed voter. We do not fully represent either proposal in the following abbreviated version of the change, but in a nutshell, they are...
1. "Rights of accused in criminal prosecutions. In all criminal prosecutions the accused hath a right to be heard by himself and his counsel, to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him, to [meet the witnesses face to face] be confronted with the witnesses against him..."
2. "[Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, the General Assembly may by statute provide for the manner of testimony of child victims or child material witnesses in criminal proceedings, including the use of videotaped depositions or testimony by closed-circuit television.]"
Be an informed voter. Take the time to read the proposed changes in their entirety.

Quickies...
• The Berwick Bulldogs handed the Hazleton Area Cougars their first loss 21-0 yesterday. Berwick had a 5-5 season in 2002.
• Entertainer Donald O'Connor, known for his role in the movie Singin' in the Rain, died Saturday of heart failure at a retirement home in California.
• Shickshinny councilman Michael A. Shoemaker, 28, was arrested September 9 and charged in New Jersey on charges of possession with intent to distribute close to a pound of marijuana. Shoemaker has been a Shickshinny Borough councilman since January, 2002.
• Congress passed a law awhile back requiring states to adopt by the year 2004 a 0.08% blood alcohol content standard as the legal level for drunken driving—or face the loss of federal highway funds. The resulting 0.08 legislation passed the Senate 47-1 last week and faces likely House passage this week.
• The 24th-ranked Minnesota held off Penn State 20-to-14 yesterday.
• Didja ever wonder where the Cubans got their tobacco for their cigars? Some of it is grown by Mennonite farmers from Turbot Township. The Martin family has grown tobacco for the past 13 years. The plant stalks are speared in the field onto wooden dowels called laths, then taken to the barn on metal-wheeled wagons pulled by horses. About December when the tobacco is dry, the family gathers together in a room and pulls the dried leaves from the stalks, then form the tobacco into bales of about 50 pounds each. The bales are eventually shipped to the Lancaster Tobacco Leaf Co., then on to Cuba for both cigarettes and cigars.

On this date in 1514, the Spanish crown granted Juan Ponce de Leon the title Military Governor of Bimini and Florida. Ponce de Leon sailed for Florida in 1521 on the explorer's second visit to Florida. He landed with 200 men and two ships near Charlotte Harbor on Florida's west coast, but the party was soon attacked by Seminole Indians. Ponce de Leon was struck by an arrow and mortally wounded, and later in the year died in Cuba.

The world record, set in Pennsylvania, is four and a-half miles. A group in Minnesota wants to break the record for the longest banana split and tomorrow will try to build a 4.62 mile-long banana split at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

First, we'll vent a little confusion. Lets see if we can explain what is going through our mind. We've never actually counted them, but something like 50-million residents of the United States have signed up so that people unknown to them don't call and try to sell unwanted gravesites in Topeka or aluminum siding for their brick house or replacement windows for their barn or... A federally enacted "Do Not Call" law would have taken effect next week, but on Wednesday a federal district judge said the law could not be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission because it was beyond the purview of that organization. Yesterday, the U. S. Senate (95-0) and the U. S. House (412-8) acted like there were no political parties and in almost complete unison enacted a law that circumvented the judge's reasoning.

But wait, another Federal judge jumped up and ruled that the law unconstitutionally restricts freedom of speech of tele-marketers. The scales of justice have two federal judges on one side and something like 50-million people on the other side. We actually don't remember the last time that we received an unsolicited phone call from a tele-marketer (although we do remember the exact words we used to shoo him away--and we suspect that he remembers them, too!). We live in the great state of Pennsylvania where we can thank the Pennsylvania "Do Not Call" registry administered by the State Attorney General's Office (www.nocallsplease.com). And by the way, if you are one of the three million registered for the state "Do Not Call" program, you were automatically entered in the federal one, too. Over in New Jersey, they are hoping to create a do-not-call registry by spring.

Isn't it possible that someday soon, some judge is going to think about the state version and conclude that the state law unconstitutionally restricts freedom of speech of tele-marketers? We certainly hope not and the Attorney General says he will stand up for us if that were to happen.

We agree that advertisers have the right to advertise, but we feel that we should have a right not to receive it.

Farmer's Almanac Advice of the Day:
"Two sparrows on the same ear of corn are not long friends."

The rivalry began when the Titans were still the Houston Oilers, survived the Steelers' move to Heinz Field and the Oilers' relocation to Nashville, and should erupt for Sunday's game at Heinz Field. That will be a game to watch, we suspect.

After eating Italian at the Bloomsburg Fair last night, we decided to refresh our knowledge of Italian...
• al dente: "to the touch," a method of cooking pasta so it offers a little resistance when bitten.
• antipasto: "before the pasta," a plate of hors d'oeuvres typically including sliced meats, cheeses and olives, served either hot or cold
• focaccia: round, flat bread flavored with olive oil and spices and occasionally tomatoes, olives, rosemary and onions.
• formaggio: cheese.
• gelato: ice cream.
• insalata: salad
• pesto: a green sauce made from fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, pine nuts, and grated parmesan cheese
• primavera: "spring style," with fresh vegetables • zuppa: soup

September 26, 2003

"Pity the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
--Don Marquis

On this date...
. in 1888, T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot was born in St. Louis. He wrote "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915), and "The Waste Land" (1922). Eliot's work helped shape modern literature, and in 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Somebody once said to Eliot that most editors are failed writers. Eliot said: "Yes. So are most writers."
. in 1898, Jacob Gershowitz was born in Brooklyn, New York. With his brother Ira, the brothers began writing songs for Broadway shows. Band leader Paul Whiteman asked the composer to write a jazz composition for his group and "Rhapsody in Blue" was the result, written under the composer's stage name, George Gershwin. In the original version, Gershwin simply nodded to Whiteman when he was finished playing, and most of the composition was improvised onstage.
. sixty-seven years ago, Jacob and Mary Janney were married. In 1952, they built a cabin in this area and in 1968 moved to Elk Grove from Bucks County. Jacob, 86, and Mary, 85, live in the first house inside Sullivan County on the Elk Grove/Nordmont road and a number of their eleven-living children live in the area. Are they slowing up? Well, not much. Mary is Treasurer of the North Mountain Fire Company.
. in 1952, Clair Harvey and Marlene Shultz walked down the isle at the parsonage of the Millville Methodist Church. That union has grown and prospered, or as Marlene said, "It was no big deal, but we're still hanging in there." Marlene and Clair have two sons, Dennis, Benton, and Rodney, Central.

Today at the Bloomsburg Fair on the free stage and elsewhere...
10 AM: Riverside H.S. Band in the free stage and Lightweight Horse Pulling in front of the grandstand; 10:30 AM: Allan and Peg Lynch Working Border Collie Show, Arena; 11 AM: Montgomery H.S. Band; Noon: Shama Lama; 1 PM: 4-H/FFA Garden Tractor Demo, Arena, and Heavyweight Horse Pulling, Grandstand; 1:15 PM: Re-Creation; 2 PM: Allan and Peg Lynch Working Border Collie Show, Arena; 2:45 PM: Mahoney Brothers; 4 PM: Ryan Pelton "Elvis Returns" on the free stage and 4-H Horse and Pony Drill Team, Arena; 5:15 PM: Shama Lama; 6:30 PM: 4-H/FFA Livestock Sale, Show Tent; 6:45 PM: Re-Creation; 7 PM: Allan and Peg Lynch Working Border Collie Show, Arena; 7:30 PM: Honky-tonk Piano Contest, Agriculture Building; 7:45 PM: Mahoney Brothers; 9:15 PM: Ryan Pelton "Elvis Returns." In the grandstand Friday night: Charlie Daniels Band with Montgomery Gentry.

Quickies...
• If you have a need to make PowerPoint presentations, you might want to check out http://www.actden.com/pp/ and follow the step-by-step tutorials.
• Traders seemed to throw in the towel on the economy yesterday, and the Dow Jones industrial average had its fourth loss in five days, down 300 points so far this week. Eastman Kodak Co. stock was down $4.84 or 18%, on news of dividend slashing, and that accounted for 34 points off the Dow.
• A senior citizen "personals" advertisement read, "I can usually remember Monday through Thursday. If you can remember Friday, Saturday and Sunday, let's put our two heads together."
• Penn State enters Saturday's conference-opener against Minnesota next-to-last in the Big Ten in pass offense. The game could be decisive for Junior quarterback Zack Mills, as the T-shirts saying "Zack Attack" take on a whole new meaning.
• According to the Associated Press, more than 19,000 people died in a heat wave in Europe in August. France was hardest hit, with a staggering heat-wave death toll of 14,802. Back Home in Benton, PA, we took our air conditioners out of our windows yesterday, and we suspect some were not used more than seven times in the entire summer.
• Brandon Schupp, 17, and Jacqleen Shaffer, 17, were crowned homecoming king and queen Wednesday night at Benton Area Schools.

A show coming up next Tuesday on PBS sounds interesting. The ancient Greek scholar Archimedes, somehow History's greatest mathematician, discovered pi, water displacement and calculus. He had other thoughts, too, and a manuscript erased in the Middle Ages and covered over with religious text is believed to be an original document by Archimedes. It will take years to completely decipher it, but scholars are doing just that and in the process making mathematical discoveries daily.

A somewhat similar barn is located off Route 283 on Nissley Road in Lower Swatara Township, near Middletown. It is known as the "Star Barn" and was built about 1872 for banker and gentleman farmer John Motter. The Star Barn has been an important part of the Central Pennsylvania landscape since master carpenter and designer Daniel Reichert built it. The three-level structure is the last remaining of 15 "monumental" barns built in Dauphin, Lancaster, and Lebanon counties. The agricultural history of the Star Barn land dates to the sale of the property by the Penn family in 1765. Preservation Pennsylvania, the owner and caretaker of the Star Barn, is selling the historic structure and it isn't going cheap! The asking price is $450,000 for the 7,100-square-foot barn. The barn is listed in the "National Register of Historic Places. Both barns are distinguished by large belfries.

In the case of the O. B. Savage barn, the belfry was built because the owner felt "closer to God" in his barn than anywhere else. William Eagger moved to what is now the Benton area from Orange, New Jersey, and first cleared the land where this farm sets. In 1857, William Hulme moved here from Nescopeck and purchased the fifty-six acres in Benton Township. Later O. B. and Margaret Savage owned the property and today Mr. and Mrs.
Charles Litwiler are the owners.

Novelist William Cuthbert Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, on this date 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 Origins

Quickies...
• The third-annual Elk Expo will be held this weekend at the Elk County Fairgrounds in Kersey, PA. The Pennsylvania Game Commission will award 100 elk licenses to the group of 26,000 applicant hunters.
• The official opening is set for 1 PM Friday of the Route 54 climbing lanes project between Elysburg and Riverside.
• Another Amish accident occurred with a horse and buggy, this one near Watsontown on Route 54. A Watsontown woman was critically injured Wednesday morning when a pickup truck collided with her horse and buggy. The horse was killed. The 72-year old pickup truck driver, suffered only minor injuries in the accident.
• The new superintendent at Northwest Area School District is Nancy P. Tkatch, hired at a special school board meeting Wednesday night. Her annual salary is $80,000.
• It is always nice to visit the official Visit Pennsylvania site. You can do it today by going to http://www.visitpa.com/visitpa/home.do .

J. Wayne Yorks, died January 8, 2001, at the age of 67. We have added some of the history of Wayne to our Personalities Section on the left side of this page, on the side panel. You may wonder why we tell you these things, but we suspect that many of you don't know that we color code our articles. If an article on the web site has content that you have not seen, we code it in the color red.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel come to Pennsylvania October 16 via the Wilkes-Barre Township's Wachovia Arena as part of a 30-plus city tour. A limited number of tickets go on sale at www.ticketmaster.com from 9 to 9 today. The bulk of the tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 AM. Tickets cost $51.50 to $86.50. And there's an eight-ticket limit per person. And don't complain about the price of tickets. In Boston's FleetCenter, for example, shows go for $45, $85, and $125. Meanwhile in the studio, the group is rumored to be working on a new song, the first studio collaboration since 1970's Bridge Over Troubled Water.

A word from staff reporter, Chloe...
I have always greatly enjoyed running for no reason and jumping for no reason, and lately I have started barking for no reason. Leader looked up "barking" in his Dogs for Dummies book, but got sidetracked as he is apt to do on "bad breath" which came just before the barking section. When we got back to the subject of barking, Leader told me that He and I bark to call up reinforcements, or to intimidate whatever we are barking at, or to welcome whoever is at the outer door. Mother reminded Leader that there were no reinforcements to call up, since the neighboring dogs have moved and anyway they barked all the time. But He and I agree that the problem is in the book. When Leader looked up the word "discipline" once and we had our little chat about the word, Leader didn't make it real clear to me what he was trying to say. The same thing goes with barking. I bark because I am tired of not barking. Leader and Mother will never understand that, because it isn't in the book.
--Chloe, 3, a Bichon who likes to bark.

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.

We are very pleased with the efforts of new owner Dan Jankowski to fix up his big blue house on Main Street. Sandblasting is underway and a new roof is promised along with new paint on the exterior. The old Argus office looks much better these days following the installation of a new roof and other improvements.

The nation's toughest curbs on spam email became law in California late Tuesday with Gov. Gray Davis's signature. All unsolicited commercial mail originating in California is now banned and consumers have the right to sue bulk mailers who ignore the restrictions. Some say that more than 50% of all email traffic is spam. Congress is also tackling spam by considering several spam bills, all of which would supercede state laws. The new California law stipulates that bulk mailers cannot send commercial email unless it has been requested by a user or the sender has an existing business relationship with the recipient.

We often poke about looking at websites of an unusual nature, and yesterday we found the Hillary Rodham Clinton Forum, http://www.hillary.org/. The web site is dedicated to Hillary and Bill Clinton--the "Hillbillys" as we like to call them, and their plans--or lack of plans--to enter a candidate in the 2004 presidential race. Hillary's website posts fan mail from people begging her to run for president. Incidentally, while Hillary is thinking about running, Carol Mosely Braun did enter the race on the Democratic side, as did retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark of Arkansas who has a new Newsweek poll putting him as the Democratic frontrunner over the old front-runner Howard Dean and the old-old front runner John Kerry. The Washington Post, who has the time and interest to watch such utterances, claims that Clinton has flatly denied that she is running for President on 138 occasions since the beginning of 2001. With all this yackety-yak, we revert to the years we've had watching the Government deny things so long that it eventually happens. We now believe that the Hillbillys will field a candidate for President.

Quickies...
• Just five days after Hurricane Isabel raked the region, tornadoes and several violent thunderstorms packing winds stronger than Isabels caused more damage yesterday in the Philadelphia area.
• The Senate Communications and Technology Committee heard testimony yesterday on a bill that would require the attorney general's office to establish a "do-not-email" list similar to the state's "do-not-call" list.
• Body piercers who pierce minors without parental permission would face up to a year in prison, a $2,500 fine, or both, under a measure approved by the House Judiciary Committee yesterday. Do it the second time, and face up to two years in prison, a $5,000 fine, or both!
• The Patriot News says that Pennsylvania has about 40,100 miles of state-owned highways, making the state the fifth-largest state-maintained network in the nation.
• The highest and lowest official state temperatures are 111° (July 10, 1936, at Phoenixville in Chester County) and 42° below zero (January 5, 1904, at Smethport in McKean County). Temperatures outside of this rage are not "official."
• Over a three-week period, Montoursville State Police on Interstate
180 near the Lycoming Mall conducted 15 patrols and arrested 108 for speeding, one for DUI and handed out 36 other traffic citations. Fines are double in work zones and licenses are lifted if convicted of driving 15 miles per hour or more over the posted work zone speed limit.
• The Guv signed an executive order creating a panel to advise him on sportsmen's issues. New York City native Rendell built his political reputation in Philadelphia, and acknowledges that he has a lot to learn about hunting, fishing and other outdoors activities.

Andy Borowitz writes that the recall fever sweeping across the Golden State would recall the entire city of Los Angeles. Andy notes that while the city is growing steadily more annoying, the move to vote it off the map was unexpected. If the recall is successful, Los Angeles could be "sawed off" from the rest of the state and sent floating out into the ocean.

Fair Activities for Wednesday starts at 9 AM with judging of Holstein Cattle, Arena; 10 AM: Berwick H.S. Band; 10:30 AM: E.L. Meyers H.S. Band; 11 AM: Re-Creation; Noon: Crystal Marie; 1 PM: WNEP Outdoor Life; 3 PM: Badlees; 4:15 PM: Mahoney Brothers; 5:15 PM: Ryan Pelton; 6:15 PM: Re-Creation; 7 PM: Livestock Banquet (Exhibitors Only), Allan and Peg Lynch; Border Collie Demo, Arena; 7:15 PM: Badlees; 7:30 PM: Barbershoppers, Agriculture Building; 8:15 PM: Mahoney Brothers; 9:15 PM: Ryan Pelton "Elvis Returns."

It is the time of the year for the Bloomsburg Fair and for the drinking of cider at the fair. Benton Cider, that is! Have you ever wondered how they make it so good? Well, based on information put out by Dick and Michael Campbell, it isn't easy. They say that the first thing is to make sure that the apples are ripe and clean. The apples used at the fair are not local, but are shipped in from the "south." Local apples, say the Campbells, are just not ripe enough during fair week for the blend they use. 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 at the world's fair in 1942, then trucked to Benton, and it has been in operation ever since. Stainless steel liners were added so the cider touches nothing but stainless steel.

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.

The Benton Cider Mill was run by Harry Kanouse for 20 years at the Bloomsburg Fair. 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. It takes up to six bushels of apples for one press. 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 Campbell racks are made in their wood ship out of white oak or red oak. Oak can take the enormous pressure put on them by the hydraulic pump.

The family operates three mills and all three are still in operation. The mill used at Knobles Covered Bridge Festival is a twin to the one at the Bloomsburg Fair. The cider mill "back on the farm at the top of Raven Creek" is a much larger press, yielding up to 40 gallons of cider to one press. Michael Campbell runs that operation.
--Based on "The Art of Making Cider," published by the Benton Cider Mill

The Benton Area School District had a "steel topping out" ceremony yesterday at the rear of the middle/senior high school. To celebrate the last steel I-beam being raised into final position, about 350 staff and students signed the six-ton, 48' long beam before it was raised into its final resting place.

Members of student council and other select students were then invited to the raising ceremony.

Dr. Andrew Pollock, Superintendent of the School, Mr. David Zartman, President of the Zartman Construction Company and Monica Marinos, representing the student council, provided a few comments before what everyone came to see actually happened. Andy Pollock thanked Joe Goode and Gary Powlus for their help. Zartman thanked Ralph Renn, Project Manager, and Jim Stavinski, the superintendent for Zartman Construction. Zartman reminded the students who had signed the beam that it will for the rest of their lifetime be looking down asking the signers, "Am I doing my best?

David Zartman and Dr. Andy Pollock under the huge crane.

As the American flag fluttered in the moderate breeze, a crane capable of lifting 35 tons gently transported the huge beam as if it was nothing to the top of what will become the rear of the stage.

Two men balanced precariously on a narrow beam high atop the steel substructure and bolted the beam into place. Roger Wandell, Clerk of the Works for the school district, breathed a sigh of relief, but quietly mentioned that actually the beam had been lifted into place once before earlier in the day, just on the outside chance of a mistake.

During the coming weeks, a block inner wall will rise toward the top of the 80 x 100' auditorium. A brick outer wall will slowly rise on the lower part of the outside of the building, as weather permits.

Next spring, a Dryvit-type of system will be installed from the brick on the bottom to the top of the building, similar in design and color to the front of the building. By the end of next August, the entire construction project is scheduled to be complete and by the start of the school year next September the school will be 100% in place.

What was left of Hurricane Eloise merged with a stationary front over New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to produce major flooding on this date in 1975. Today is the official start of Fall and we have 90 days until the official start of Winter. On this date in 1957, nine black students entered Little Rock (Arkansas) Central High School under the protection of 1,000 members of the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army. On May 27, 1958, 601 seniors graduated, including the school's first black graduates.

Poetry for The First Day of Autumn"
"No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face."
--John Donne (1572–1631) "Elegy IX: The Autumnal"

Leona Florence Kyttle, 95, (February 28, 1908-September 22, 2003) died Monday at Bonham Nursing Center, Stillwater. She was a daughter of the late John and Emma (Gensel) Robbins. Her husband, Edward, preceded her in death, as did a daughter, Arlene, and two grandchildren. Surviving are her daughter, Charlotte Atkinson, Shickshinny; three sons: Carl, Garnett and Edward; 19 grandchildren; 31 great-grandchildren; seven great-great-grandchildren; and a sister, Dorothy Crane of Laceyville. Funeral services will be 2 PM on Wednesday from the Clarke Piatt Funeral Home Inc., Hunlock Creek. Burial will be in Bethel Hill Cemetery, Sweet Valley.
--from a Press Enterprise obituary

Bloomsburg Fair events for Tuesday...
• On the free stage, 9:45 AM: Benton H.S. Marching Band; 10 AM: Mount Carmel H.S. Band; 11 AM: Hazleton H.S. Band; Noon: John Bressler; 1:15 PM: Re-Creation; 2:30 PM: Ryan Pelton "Elvis Returns;" 3:45 PM: John Bressler; 4:45 PM: Re-Creation; 6:-8:30 PM: "Live WNEP Show;" 9 PM: Ryan Pelton "Elvis Returns."
• Other events happening today: 9 AM: Judging — Colored Breed Cattle, Arena; 9 AM: Judging — 4-H Swine/11:30 AM Open Swine, Show Tent; 11:30 AM: Judging — 4-H Beef, Arena; 2 PM: Judging — 4-H Sheep, Show Tent; 7 PM: Agility Dogs, Arena; 7:30 PM: Banjo Contest, Agriculture Building; 8 PM: 4-H Horse and Pony Drill Team, Arena; 10 PM: Fireworks.

Contributions are very much needed by the Benton Borough to light the 17 Christmas decorations donated by companies and individuals. Business owners and residents contributed $350 each to buy the decorations, but the borough is short on installation costs. PPL charges $210 each to hook up each ornament. In the spirit of giving at Christmas, please help. Donations should be sent to Benton Borough, P.O. Box 520, Benton, 17814.

Tyler Brewington's picture is in today's Press Enterprise, as he comes from the sand on the third hole at Indian Hills Golf Course Monday afternoon in the Susquehanna Valley League Golf Championships. He won, by the way. Scores were Tyler Brewington 78, Sean Freed 86, Mike Wagner 86, Doug Wagner 90, Bryan Wilhite 93.

As we travel through Pennsylvania, it is nice to turn to public radio. Here are the NPR stations in the state:
Erie, WQLN-FM 91.3
Harrisburg, WITF-FM 89.5
Kane, WPSB-FM, 90.1
Scranton, WVIA-FM 89.9
State College, WPSU-FM 91.5

Quote of the Day:
"I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them."
--E. V. Lucas

If you are interested in the historical aspects of the second world war, try http://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/ .

Berwick High School's football visit to Hazleton Area High Saturday night is a matchup of 4-0 teams that should be a doozie both on the field and off. Many forget the impact that a game has on the community--off the field. A case in point is State College, PA, where last weekend--a football weekend--Borough police responded to 237 incidents between 6 AM Friday and 6 AM Sunday.

Google just keeps getting better and better and proof of that is in its new Search by Location. Enter some search terms and an address, city, or zip code and Google will return a bunch of results which contain nearby addresses and plot them on a map. For example, under "search terms," enter (without the quotes) "restaurant." Under address, put "Benton, PA." The URL is http://labs.google.com/location .

The Kemp Studios of Benton and its collection of negatives and prints was destroyed in the Benton fire on July 4, 1910. The studio building "sat some distance from the Exchange Hotel" at the intersection of Main and Market Street, but the intense heat ignited the building and it was destroyed.

The Kemps recorded the community's history on film and they produced a "Souvenir Book of Benton, Penna." with a series of 40 photos of the community plus a short one-page story of the town itself. The book was not dated but was probably published in 1904. We have never seen this book, and if a reader has a copy that we could see we would appreciate it.

In addition to the Kemp Studios, buildings that were lost in the 1910 fire included the Columbia County National Bank, Exchange Hotel, People's Department Store, the Post Office and Confectionery Store of R. E. Keeler, Fred Hagenbach's Store, and the F. M. Golder residence and Millinery Store. You can read the complete history of the fire by going here.

A Kemp Studio photo of Two and a Half Street just a year after the fire. Everything at the end of the street had burned and had been rebuilt by the time this picture was taken

This picture was taken in 1911.

September 22, 2003

A boy becomes a man when he walks around a puddle rather than through it.

We do get a lot of Government, but wouldn't it be something if we got as much as we paid for...

Nathan Hale was executed for espionage at the age of 21 on this date in 1776. As he stood on the gallows, he pulled together the most famous last words in American history: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Hale's crime was that he joined in the fight against the British during the Revolutionary War. George Washington asked for a volunteer to go behind enemy lines as a spy. Hale accepted, disguised himself as a Dutch schoolmaster and gathered information on the position of British troops. He was captured with maps and notes as he attempted to return to the American side and was executed the next day.

Quickies...
• Residents of Benton Borough will vote November 4 in the new fire hall on Colley Street.
• The often scheduled but rarely held homecoming at the high school is now scheduled for Wednesday. A king and queen will be crowned, there will be a dance and a bonfire.
• Catawissa seems to be getting their share of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding. The community has used the grant money for work at their dam and to add a handicapped-accessible bathroom at the police station.
• Teams of Canadian electrical workers continue to aid PPL restore power to the Divide area, but it looks like it will be Tuesday for power for some. PPL says that 95% of their customers are now with electricity. Nationally according to USAToday, nearly 2 million customers were still sithout power last night and the death toll rose to 33 from Hurricane Isabel.
• The official start of fall is tomorrow, but someone forgot to tell the weather guy. Regretfully, tomorrow does not sound all that great as a cold front crosses the state late tonight bringing showers and thunderstorms.
• Did we mention that the weather people are predicting this winter could even be worse than last winter?
• The number of children under the age of 5 dropped in almost every county in Pennsylvania between 2000 and 2002, and fell by 1.2% in the state as a whole, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday. These statistics could indicate a general shift toward smaller families, but economic factors come into play, too. Men and women in their 20s have been leaving Pennsylvania each year for hotter job markets, and the state is losing more people in the 20-to-30 age group than we are gaining.
• Colley Street seems to have turned into the town's dust bowl.

We rarely get any negative email from readers, except for a few that suggest that our use of the word "glad" really would have been better crafted had we used the word "happy." And we do spell quite a few words incorrectly, and we always get told about that. But by and large, the email we receive is positive. An example follows:
"I am retired and in the 'autumn years. I can look back over a more than 50 years since that day I graduated and say Benton started me on a long career of 34 years of teaching. I only hope I was able to help other kids as they came through the school system where I taught. Of course, Benton has some problems but there is nowhere I know of that doesn't have a few of their own." The reader goes on to say, "Robert Stauffer was my Ag teacher and under his watch I achieved Keystone Farmer in the FFA. I completed 12 years of school work in 11 years, graduating when I was yet 16 years old. I saw Bill Follmer and others at the 50th year reunion class last year and heard how they felt Benton had given them a good start on life as well. A poor school would not have such yields. Benton also has a pleasant aura about it and I love Fishing Creek flowing through it. It is a beautiful stream." Amen...

We can remember one night when a young kid decided to take the bet, and he started rolling at the top of the Dug Hill. We could hear the look-outs calling, "Here comes Johnnie!" as the car raced silently down the hill. And we'll never forget the sound of squealing tires as the car left the road after it entered Mill Street. We'll never forget the helplessness we all felt as we watched in horror as the car hit a tree at a speed much too fast. We remember the broken arm on the driver and we remember how in some perverted fashion the driver was a local high school hero for a few days.

Fair News...
• Senior citizens 65 and over are admitted free of charge today with proof of age. College students are admitted free with ID cards tomorrow, Tuesday, September 23. Children 12 and under are admitted free all week.
• All the activities for the fair are now listed in a hyperlink at the top of this web page.
• Today's schedule starts at 8 AM with judging of rabbits, Poultry Building; 10 AM, "Sheep to Shawl," Agriculture Building; 10 AM judging, Columbia County 4-H Swine Achievement Show, Show Tent; 11 AM judging, Dairy Goats, Arena; 3 PM apiary Show, Agriculture Building; 6:30 PM Allan and Peg Lynch Working Border Collie Show, Arena; 7:30 PM fiddle Contest, Agriculture Building; 8 PM 4-H Horse and Pony Drill Team, Arena.
• Today's free stage starts at 10 AM, North Schuykill H.S. Band; 11 AM, Nativity H.S. Band; 12 PM, Re-Creation; 1:30 PM, John Stanky & the Coal Miners; 3 PM, John Bressler; 4:30 PM, Ryan Pelton, Elvis Returns; 5:30 pm, Re-Creation; 6:45 pm, John Stanky & the Coal Miners; 8 pm, John Bressler; 9 pm, Ryan Pelton, Elvis Returns.
• The Benton High School marching band performs at the free stage between 10th and 11th streets on the fairgrounds, tomorrow at 9:45 AM.

A local farmer told us a story about sitting in a bus station. He sat in the waiting room for nearly two hours, much of the time beside an Amish man. Neither had spoken. When the announcement for the arrival of the bus to Bloomsburg was made, he slowly got up and with a note of pain in his voice said to no one in particular, "I am suffering from arthritis." The Amish man immediately responded with "Why now, I'm right glad to meet you. I'm Stulzfuss, from New Holland."

September 21, 2003

On this date...
• in 1784, the nation's first daily newspaper, the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser, began publication. Two days after its signing, the newspaper printed the entire text of the Constitution in its issue dated Wednesday, September 19, 1787.
• in 1866, novelist H(erbert) G(eorge) Wells, was born in Bromley, England.
• in 1947, novelist Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine. King wrote books like The Shining (1977) and Pet Sematary (1983), and began his career writing from the furnace room of his trailer while his day job was at a gas station and a laundromat. To save paper, he typed single-spaced, with no margins. His sense of reality was writing about things like giant man-eating rats and a high school girl with telekinetic powers named Carrie White who unleashed her frightening power upon the small New England town of Chamberlain in 1979. King has written over 40 books, and is undoubtedly the world's leading horror-story writer.
• in 1957, CBS-TV presented a new drama entitled Perry Mason based on the courtroom trials of a mastermind lawyer played by Raymond Burr. He had a beautiful secretary, Della Street, and a private detective, Paul Drake.

On the mend...
• Anna Baker says she is healing well from my open-heart surgery, but that it will be six more weeks before she can golf again!
• Ken McCahan is in need of prayers tonight following a blood transfusion Saturday.

We recently had a dessert at a local restaurant. The size of the portion of dessert reminded us of the liability waiver that Seattle patrons who eat a dessert called the "Bulge" must sign. To mimic the lawyers who are involved in class-action lawsuits against fast-food restaurants, the waiver reads, "I will not impose any sort of obesity-related lawsuit against the (name of the restaurant) or consider any similar type of frivolous legislation created by a hungry trial lawyer."

		Pictures courtesy of Donald Rabb
These pictures were taken at the September meeting of the Benton Chapter of the Red Hat Society, held in the historic Stillwater Covered Bridge. The next meeting of the Benton chapter of the Red Hat Society will be a luncheon at The Hoboken Sub Shop October 15 at 2 PM. This meeting will be the last in the series in the reign of terror for the current Queen Mother, Joselle Confair. Carol Vance will be crowned as the new Queen Mother at the November meeting.

We recently saw the movie Secondhand Lions, starring Haley Joel Osment as a 14-year-old forced to spend his summer stranded in Texas with his odd, grumpy great uncles played by Michael Caine and Robert Duvall. The boy learns about the men's African adventures and we learn to smile at the pigs and dogs and the teenage lion (who was playing the part of an old female lion.) We thought that the movie would hit its stride and turn into a "great" movie, but we were forced to give it only a "darn good" rating.

Quickies...
• The Bloomsburg Fair opened Saturday with partly sunny skies and warm temperatures, a day after Isabel and her scattered rain showers and strong winds swept north. A few puddles and a spattering of mud remained, but that is typical for the fair.
• The Emmy Awards are on Fox, 8-11 Sunday night. Get more information at http://www.emmys.com/ .
• Pennsylvania's bow hunters are gearing up to hunt big bucks as the start of Pennsylvania's six-week archery deer season begins Saturday, October 4.
• Philadelphia city officials are considering bailing out the posh Ritz-Carlton, an $88 million hotel built with private and public funds before the 2000 Republican National Convention.

The red roof on the Waller Community Center.

But then there is an issue of privacy. What happens if the tags are left active once the customer leaves the store. If you bought a pair of skivvies with an RFID tag, you could activate a sensor each time you entered a store or a bank or even a movie, unless some kind of a "kill switch" was activated when the customer exited the original store. RFID tags on items shouldn't be used to collect information on products outside the store.

Whether you are for RFIDs or against them, it looks like the next few years will be the years of the RFIDs.

Pam Hess Tucker and her brother, Steve Hess, on the left and Ray Tucker and Willam Hess on the right.

Five of the six ears of corn on the twelve- foot high corn stalk can be seen in this picture. The gloomy skies of Tropical Storm Isabele show in the background.

September 20, 2003

Opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss

When you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere

Keep words both soft and tender, because tomorrow they may have to be eaten

A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks

Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing

A day without electricity in this modern world is a lost day and much of Benton had a lost day yesterday. Phone calls could be made, but not on "wireless" phones and could only be made if the phone number could be found somewhere other than on the computer. Some rooms in houses are just not fun or functional without a light or two. Adding that percolator to the garage sale list a few years back wasn't such a hot idea, it turns out. Not having a cup of coffee to sooth the savage beast made things tough for those around us. Power was lost to the southern end of Benton about 5:45 yesterday morning and we didn't get it back until about 10 last night. The west end of Benton and eventually the north end in the township got their electricity back much sooner.

Scene on Park Street, Benton		Ridge Road, near Waller

Overnight Thursday, the volunteers with the fire company ran four calls and about daylight ran two more, mostly for trees down over power lines compliments of winds that approached 50 miles per hour. Rain was not a factor locally, as only a little over half an inch fell. In the Washington, DC, area, 1.1 million face no power for more than a week. More than 1 million Northern Virginians are deprived of reliable drinking water. Highway 12 in Kitty Hawk, NC, looks like an Iraq street if Arnold Schwarzenegger had popped in.

The Guv issued a proclamation September 18 declaring a state of disaster emergency in Pennsylvania due to Hurricane Isabel. Friday, Isabel raced from Virginia to the Canadian border as officials in Allentown called the storm "the most damaging storm in the utility company's history." More than 450,000 PPL customers in the company's five regions lost power. A power surge probably caused the fire that burned the Aurand Memorial United Methodist Church, Ringtown, in a raging, three-alarm inferno that kept firefighters on the scene for more than eight hours. Near Hazleton, a flying 12 feet long by 3 or 4 feet wide Value City sign flew into the side of a Jeep, ruining the day for a driver. At least 17 deaths and potentially billions of dollars in damage were blamed on Isabel, which proved troublesome despite taking just a day to fizzle from a 100 mph hurricane into a 30 mph tropical depression.

AccuWeather, a private company with more than 100 meteorologists, headquartered in State College, had their hands full for the past week. We added the local AccuWeather weather conditions to the opening screen of the Benton News a couple of days ago and we'll soon permanently include it there.

Take the time to listen to storyteller John L. Moore, Northumberland, at the Barton House on the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds this weekend. "Farmer John" will spend Saturday and Sunday spinning yarns from the back porch of the historic house about dealing with American Indian-style gardening and farming on the Pennsylvania frontier. Moore is the author of two books about the Pennsylvania frontier, Cannons, Cattle and Campfires and Traders, Travelers and Tomahawks. This afternoon is the championship Figure 8 race at the fair. The fair will run until Saturday, September 27.

The Bloomsburg Fair and rain may be synonymous. But a hurricane? This may be taking things a little too far.

Quote of the Day:
"Carnies, circus folk. Nomads, you know. Smell like cabbage. Small hands."
--Austin Powers

Deb Dressler is in the Towanda Hospital recovering from total knee replacement surgery Thursday. Her orthopedic surgeon, who performed her hip replacement 11 years ago, recently designed a new prosthesis which promises improved performance from knee replacements. We wish Deb a rapid recovery.

From the "There is One in Every Crowd" Department comes this...
The owner of one of Britain's biggest mobile phone chains has declared war on email, banning his staff from sending electronic mail. The owner of the high street retailer Phones4U, himself a slow typist who has yet to send an email on his own, said his staff was spending too much time sending and reading internal emails and not enough time dealing with customers.

Try http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/ , a site devoted to solving historical mysteries, searching out the true facts and falsehoods behind local folklore and family legends.

We apologize to the many readers who have sent email to us recently. We are over a thousand emails behind, but we'll catch up soon. We promise.

September 19, 2003

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."
Charles Schultz

Tropical Storm Isabel swept north through the night at a record 25 miles per hour or so. The storm is passing well west of the Benton area, keeping both wind and rain to a minimum. The fire alarm rang twice early in the evening, but as daylight approaches there is almost an eerie calm as heavy rain from passing showers come and go and we from time to time lose electricity. We remind readers to check Accu-Weather for the state of Pennsylvania from the hyperlink above.

Today may be a great day to do as Yogi Berra said he did: take a two-hour nap between 1 and 4.

Penn State's game Saturday at 1 PM against Kent State (2-1) will not be televised. Readers can watch the game on www.espn.com, but if you don't have a fast internet connection, we suggest watching paint dry would be more exciting. It's been more than six years since a Penn State game was passed over for television. The Golden Flashes have allowed 421 yards per game, including an average of 280 through the air. But following Kent State, the Nittany Lions begin play in the Big Ten Conference, where averaging 15.7 points a game as Penn State is now doing, will get you nowhere.

Common-law marriages are unnecessary in today's times and no new common-law unions should be legally recognized in Pennsylvania, a state appeals court has ruled by a 5-2 vote. The Commonwealth Court said recognizing such unions has created an impossible situation for third parties to determine whether a person is married or single. The unavailability of a preacher in colonial times and the dependence of women on men for support, have dissipated the courts held. Pennsylvania was one of 11 states that continued to recognize common-law marriage, while other states have done away with them. The ruling won't affect existing unions, but will bar people from entering into them in the future.

The California election without a finish line has the "Bust-a-MAN-te" and the "Go, Arnie" crowd slowed and the state in turmoil. The decision by the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to delay the recall vote has begun to take a toll as those who thought that the end of the election was in sight and now realize that it could now be just the beginning.

Local farmers say this year's corn crop is going to be late partly because of a cool season and late planting, but also because of all the rain we had this summer. Soggy soil will delay farmers getting into the fields for harvest and will delay the dry-down of the corn. The best the farmers can hope for now is a warm September and a late frost.

We'll continue with an abbreviated history of Lopez...

A kindling wood factory was erected in Lopez in 1888 in order to provide work for women and to utilize the slabwood from the mills. The first kindling wood factory was along the Thorndale Branch of the railroad. It burned in 1890 and was quickly rebuilt. Later it was sold to the Standard Kindling Wood Company who sent their product to hotels in New York city. In 1895 the Fisher Kindling Wood factory was built and six months later was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt in 1896, and burned again during the same year. Within sixty days the factory was rebuilt and in operation again. It again caught fire in 1897 when the packing room burned. When the Lopez Mills ran out of timber and closed in 1905, the kindling wood factory continued to operate using wood from Ricketts from Trexler and Turrell. Fire in March, 1907, destroyed the sawmill, the last remaining industry operating in Lopez.

J. W. McCartney in 1894 built a clothes pin factory near the Jennings Hardwood Mill. Eventually it was sold to the Jennings brothers and they operated it until their lumbering operation moved to Maryland.

Lopez become a lumbering center by 1890 with a population of over a thousand people. To meet the needs of the citizens, a number of business places were established including the Jennings Brothers general company store, the Clark Brother's general store, Henry Castle's and C. A. Johnson's general stores. The old post office building and store lasted until it burned in the fire of 1982.

There were three restaurants, a branch-clothing store, a jewelry store, a drug store, a draying business, a meat market and a livery stable. There was also a combination shoe repair and harness shop. There were three barbershops, a wholesale liquor store, and a large hotel building which recently was the Chesonios store, Grid Iron and lastly Dougher's Inn (the owner formerly lived in Benton). Black bears in pens were at one time the chief attraction.

Lopez was the only lumbering community in the area which allowed liquor to be sold. On pay day, "woodhicks" from Ricketts and other nearby communities came to spend their hard-earned money as quickly as they could drink it away. There were four hotels: The Lopez House, James P. McGee, proprietor; the McKibbins House, H. W. McKibbins, proprietor; the McDermott House, Henry McDermott, proprietor; and the Jackson Hotel, Mrs. Julia Jackson, proprietor. Jim McGee's hotel was the largest hotel in town, and he did a thriving business. Woodsmen coming into town would give him their money, and McGee would keep track of it until it had all been spent at his bar. Then the woodhick would sober up and return to the woods to work several months dreaming of the day when he would have saved enough money so he could repeat the process.

There were four churches that conducted regular religious services in the town:
• the Lopez United Evangelical Church, dating from 1890. Worship services were held in the school from 1890-96 when Jennings Brothers donated lumber, and a church building was erected.
• The Methodists erected a church on Main Street in 1888.
• The Lutherans were permitted to hold their services in the Methodist Church with the pastor coming from Ricketts every Sunday.
• A Roman Catholic Church, commonly known as St. Mary's Chapel, was located over Mrs. Mary Collin's store. It was a Mission Church of the Mildred parish and served by the same priest. The Chapel was dedicated in 1911 and subsequently donated to the Scranton Diocese.

When the Jennings Company moved to Maryland in 1905, many of the residents followed, and the population reduced about one-half.

--The History of Lopez was edited from "100 Years of Pride" compiled by former Benton teacher Edith B. Shuman and other sources

September 15, 2003

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."
--Agatha Christie

"No one has a finer command of language than the person who keeps his mouth shut."
--Sam Rayburn

Marcia Kay Kline celebrates her birthday today and so does actor Tommy Lee Jones, 57. Agatha Christie was born on this date in 1890. During World War I, Christie worked in a Red Cross Dispensary in England, and her surroundings prompted her to write her first mystery novel about a Red Cross hospital, a poisoning, and a pompous detective by the name of Hercule Poirot. The detective appeared in over thirty books, including The Murder on the Orient Express where in 1930 Miss Jane Marple was introduced. The elderly Miss Marple often had eccentric insights into private crimes and tragedies.

It is beautiful, but... The trees are turning to their fall colors in the village of Central. It is a pretty ride through that area.

We're having a quiz this morning. We'll give you a hint as to how to find the answer and we'll give you the answer at the end. The question relates to state law—and it can be any state. Let's say that a ten-your old is killed riding his bike. He was not wearing a helmet. What is your state law on bicycle helmets? Think about how you would find the answer on the internet. We'll give you a clue in a second.

Rob Davidson, Rohrsburg, is employed by 11 municipalities in Columbia and Montour counties as a zoning officer, sewage enforcement officer or subdivision development officer, but resigns from those jobs October 1 to be the administrator of the Agricultural Lands Condemnation Approval Board, part of the Bureau of Farmland Preservation.

Monday's Times Leader lists some Federal Trade Commission suggestions for computing the best long-distance carrier. They suggest to carefully look for monthly fees or surcharges that may be involved when services guarantee 10 cents a minute or less. Beware of minimum per-call charges. Plans that offer 20 minutes for a dollar are not good, for example, for a message left on an answering machine that will cost a buck. On calls over 20 minutes, rates can surge. Understand peak rates and make sure they aren't too high. Make sure you find out if an advertised rate is offered only for an introductory period like 60 days. Remember that the big print gives and the fine print taketh away!

The Bloomsburg University field hockey team is ranked first in the latest National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division II National poll. The Huskies are 3-0 after beating second-ranked Lock Haven in double overtime last weekend. We have to beat the drums for Bloomsburg and senior Shanna Fritz.

The New England Patriots didn't leave up on Donovan McNabb Sunday. Tom Brady passed for 255 yards and three touchdowns and the Patriots' defense forced six turnovers and had seven sacks in a 31-10 victory over the Eagles.

Keep your eyes glancing skyward today. The Goodyear blimp was in the air over the Wyoming Valley for most of the day on Sunday to celebrate the grand opening of Jack Williams' new High Performance Center in Kingston. We suspect that with Isabel closing in on us, the blimp and its 17-member ground crew will soon seek safer flying space.

There are many ways to look up state laws. We love to Google and recommend you try that approach. If you search for "bicycle safety" (using the quotes) you'll find only listings that contain that exact phrase. Try searching both with and without the quotes. Try it with both "bicycle helmet" and "bicycle helmets." There is a difference. An authoritative site that links to full-text state statutes is http://www.prairienet.org/~scruffy/f.htm .

Our early roads were usually nothing more than an existing trail that was just wide enough for a man to walk or ride a horse, gradually widened over the years to accommodate wagon traffic. They often went miles out of the way to avoid a hill or to cross a creek at a shallow point. The roads were rough and dotted with tree stumps that had to be avoided and often followed the terrain of the land, rather than going where you wanted to go. After a hard rain, a traveler was likely to spend his time trying to get his wagon out of the axle-deep mud.

The Pennsylvania General Assembly chartered the first turnpike company in 1803. Several conditions accompanied grants received by the early turnpike companies. They were required to keep the sections that they collected tolls on in good condition and they usually had to have at least 21 feet of road hard-surfaced. If a traveler felt that a turnpike was not being maintained he could complain to the local authorities. If, after investigation, the authorities felt the company was not maintaining the portion of road, they could order the company to cease collecting tolls on that portion of roadway until repairs were completed. After 1825, a stipulation in the grants allowed the state to take possession of any or all parts of a turnpike by paying the company a fair price, which would be decided by a panel of men from the state and the company.

The advent of the automobile caused many problems for the companies. They had built the roads for horse and wagon traffic and the automobile, with its increased speed, destroyed the road surface. On roads that carried heavy traffic, such as ore carts, the roads were surfaced with planks or split trees and were known as plank or "corduroy" roads, depending on which way the underlying wood faced.

Along toll roads, travelers made many stops to pay tolls if they were going any distance. Tollhouses were set up at varying distances to make sure that payment was received from all users of the road. The vehicles using the roads were called "stage" coaches, since the vehicle traveled in stages; only the team of horses was changed on a trip. In the grants for most of the turnpike companies there was a stipulation that tolls could not be charged to a person using the road to travel from one part of their farm to another, nor to any person using the road to attend church, school, or military training.

The Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike ran from Berwick to the present town of Elmira, NY, and passed over Jonestown Mountain and Red Rock Mountain. Two articles about this turnpike are on this web site, both under FEATURES.

A good list of state laws on bicycle helmets is at the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute at http://www.helmets.org/mandator.htm and that site says "There is no federal law in the U.S. requiring helmets. States and localities began adopting laws in 1987." In Pennsylvania, the State Law is that passengers under 5 have needed helmets since 1991 and all riders under 12 since 1995.

As background, Edwin W. Craig joined his father's company, the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, and felt that a radio station would enhance National Life's identity. Craig wanted to use call letters "WSM" for the fledgling station to reflect National Life's motto: "We Shield Millions." On October 5, 1925, hundreds in the Nashville area listened over their ear pieces to the first broadcast. That station today modestly advertises that they are America's Country Music Station, and if you can't get to the Grand Ole Opry, you can listen over the internet at http://www.wsmonline.com/ or if you are close enough to Nashville you can listen to WSM on the AM band.

WSM recently published the 500 top country music songs of all time, based on responses from listeners of the station, and a Kline made the top six all-time best, even though she really didn't know how to spell her last name. (We've actually had others in the family that didn't know how to spell their names, either. The top six were Crazy, I Fall to Pieces, Sweet Dreams, Walking After Midnight, He Stopped Lovin' Her Today by George Jones, and She's Got You.

It has been about a year since we first mentioned http://www.coffeebreakarcade.com/ , where you can get links to over 100 free online games grouped into six different categories: classic games, cool games, sports games, shooting games, racing games, and casino games. We still get readers who love that site. Give it a try.

And speaking of a year ago, the Benton area was busy anticipating a concert September 22 to celebrate the life of Rick Martin. Michael Milnarik, a 1987 graduate of Benton High School, promised to bring his musical group from Boston, a group unknown to most Bentonians: Innovata Brass.

The September meeting of the Benton version of the Red Hat group takes place Wednesday, September 17, at 2PM at the Stillwater Covered Bridge and it will happen rain or shine. It is a covered dish event. Beverage, tableware, cups and plates and table covering will be furnished. September birthdays will be celebrated. Please bring baby pictures if you have not done so at a prior meeting. Guests are welcome. They will also accept new members. Fee is $1.00 and proper attire is required as always. Directions: At Stillwater turn off of 487 onto Lower Raven Creek Road. Make an immediate right and park at the old Stillwater school. The organizers even promise a "clean job johnny."

The investigation into the murder of Juan Gonzalez may be old news to you, but in case you forget the details, let us remind you that Juan was killed by a golf gun. We don't exactly know what a golf gun is, but it sure made a hole in Juan.

Contributions are very much needed by the Benton Borough to light the 17 Christmas decorations donated by companies and individuals. Business owners and residents contributed $350 each to buy the decorations, but the borough is short on installation costs. PPL charges $210 each to hook up each ornament. In the spirit of giving at Christmas, please help. Donations should be sent to Benton Borough, P.O. Box 520, Benton, 17814.

David Johnston, 21, Conyngham, works at Wal-Mart in Hazleton during the week, but is in Orlando this morning hoping that he'll return to Pennsylvania as a billionaire tonight. Johnston is one of 1,000 contestants chosen for Pepsi's "Play for a Billion Sweepstakes" that will be televised from 8 to 10 tonight on the WB Network. We don't watch many TV programs like this so we're not an expert, but it sounds like the program works about like the Pennsylvania lottery. Johnston will pick a multi-digit number that represents his chance at the prize money, host Drew Carey will tell 990 of them that their numbers were no good but thanks for coming to Florida anyway, and the contestants will be down to 10 finalists. Johnston feels he has a good chance since he has mathematically deduced that the winning number will use a number that somehow correlates back to pro wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The popular Pennsylvania RV show at the Farm Show complex, Harrisburg, ended yesterday, and as those of you who attended know prices were sky high, especially for food. The accessory lane sold lots of cooking ware and other items not directly related to the recreational vehicle world. The Patriot News this morning also reports that less than a year after completing an $86 million renovation, the Bureau of Farm Show is in "a financial crisis" of a projected $3 million deficit next year.

Need a zip code? Look at http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/lookups/lookup_ctystzip.html . You can also find tips like this on the HOW TO section at the top of this page.

One of the highest per-mile toll charge roads in the nation will soon get more expensive. The first toll increase on the turnpike since 1991 is under discussion. The turnpike apparently has money problems, despite the $399.5 million in tolls generated last year. Repaving of the first 10 miles of the turnpike in the state coming from the Ohio line were recently postponed indefinitely due to insufficient funding."

Susquehanna Supply Company, Williamsport, will begin construction of a 250 feet flood wall along a short section of Route 54 at the north end of Danville next week between Route 54 and Mahoning Run. Route 54 eastbound, heading into Danville, will be reduced to a single lane north of the pedestrian overpass, opposite the Weis Shopping Plaza, and that traffic pattern is expected to be in place until late this year. Don't forget the Raven Creek Valley discussion Monday morning at the Brass Pelican restaurant, Elk Grove.

September 11, 2003

Hershey kisses were introduced in 1907

"Paying alimony is like feeding hay to a dead horse."
--Groucho Marx

It's the birthday of William Sydney Porter, born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1862. In early 1898 Porter was found guilty of a banking charge and sentenced to five years in an Ohio prison. Three years and a dozen short stories later, he emerged from prison as "O. Henry" to help shield his true identity. He moved to New York City, where over the next ten years he published over 300 stories and gained worldwide acclaim as America's favorite short-story writer. Writing under the name "O Henry" he wrote "The Gift of the Magi" in 1905 about a woman who sold her hair to buy her husband a watch chain, while her husband sold his watch to buy her a set of expensive hairbrushes. And the name O. Henry? It was derived from his frequent calling of "Oh, 'Henry'" the family cat. Porter died in 1910 at the age of 47, an alcoholic and virtually penniless.

A year ago, the Dollar General store seemed stalled in its construction efforts because of delays in delivery of the steel for the building.

People turn over a lot of photographs to us. Many photographs are not identified as to who the people in the photographs are. An obvious way to identify the people in old photographs is to ask relatives, but we are finding that doesn't always work. We suggest that at the next holiday get-together, bring people and photographs together and discuss "the olden days." Relatives can help identify the people in the pictures, where they were taken and the occasion. Make a copy of a questionable photograph and send it to a relative and ask their help in identifying the subjects. A self-addressed, stamped envelope can encourage a response. Remember that old photographs can be light-sensitive and that photocopying can damage some photographs. If you have a question about a specific photograph, you might want to seek advice from a professional photographer before you make a copy.

Four pieces of free advice for today:
A drought usually ends with a flood.
A worm is the only animal that can't fall down.
You can't get lard unless you boil the hog.
Don't hang your wash on someone else's line.

We also have some free advice for the city of Wilkes-Barre this morning, but since we only seem to open our mouth to change feet, we'll keep it to ourselves. We are referring, of course, to Mayor Thomas McGroarty's admission Wednesday night that there is a "possibility" the city would not have enough money to meet payrolls in the coming weeks. The city finance officer reported the city had enough money to finance the net pay for the checks issued August 29, but not the gross pay. Controller Bernie Mengeringhausen last week predicted a $7.4 million year-end deficit.

The parade without a band was a sight yesterday in Middletown as a cap for Three Mile Island's Unit 1 reactor was slowly hauled through blocked-off streets in the borough, traffic was rerouted, people standing on the sidewalks were searched on the outside chance that an evil doer lurked, and a 13-axle, 130-foot transport trailer that ferried the 85-ton top cap crawled along with a police escort. The cap was manufactured in Japan and France, and flown to Harrisburg International Airport early yesterday in what must have been a whopper of an airplane. The parade yesterday was in stark contrast to the controversy kicked up when former President Carter went to TMI—and his procession didn't go under 50 miles per hour in the Borough of Middletown...

Monday morning about 9:15 we'll gather at the Brass Pelican for the monthly meeting of the North Mountain Historical Society. The subject of this month's discussion is the Raven Creek Valley. We'll open in usual fashion with a prayer and follow with a song provided by a grandson of a Raven Creek couple on whose property was one of the primary springs that fueled Raven Creek. David Kline will lead the discussion. Raven Creek residents are asked to consider bringing with them a memento of the valley: a picture, a story or an artifact. A complication is that David has essentially lost his voice, the result of a fall cold.

Dig around the bottom of your freezer for frozen beef! The price of beef is climbing. Because of high demand, supply shortages and a ban on Canadian beef because of a single instance of mad cow disease in Alberta in May, beef prices have climbed into record territory. Steers at New Holland Sales Stables in Lancaster County brought a record 93 cents a pound on Friday, and that record was shattered just four days later when choice cattle went for $1 a pound. Prime steers brought 65¢to 67¢ just a year ago.

Quickies...
• The Bloomsburg Hospital is seeking $3 million to renovate the hospital.
• Colley Street was tarred and chipped yesterday.
• The old Argus office, under new ownership, is also under a new roof.
• We wonder why Joe Paterno isn't more upset over his team's 21-21 record since late 1999... In the past five years, Penn State has finished no better than fourth in the Big Ten. In 2000 and 2001, the Nittany Lions compiled a 10-13 record.
• J. Donald Kile, Berwick, is being moved to the rehabilitation part of Berwick Hospital today, following a recent fall.

Quote for today:
"My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes."
--Ronald Reagan, said during a radio microphone test, 1984

A reader asked how to remove the ">" and other formatting characters from email. You can use emailStripper, a free program. It will restore "forwarded" or "replied" emails back to their original state so they're easier to read. You can download it here and we have added it to HOW TO on this web site.

September 10, 2003

"Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything."
—Frank Dane

"Let's see what's happening with the recall election. As it gets closer, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a lot of challenges ahead of him. At some point sooner or later, he's going to have to pronounce the word, 'gubernatorial.'"
--Jay Leno

In Covered Bridge news...
• The Columbia County Covered Bridge Association will hold their Dinner on the Bridge Sunday from 1 to 3 PM at the Twin Bridges Park, Forks. Tickets for the pork dinner are $15.
• The Kramer Covered Bridge in Greenwood Township is slated for repairs by the Columbia County Commissioners. The 1881 bridge named after Alexander Kramer, a local farmer, is located on Mud Run, a tributary of Green and Fishing Creeks, southwest of Rohrsburg on Township Route 572, off Township Route 595.
• The 97-foot-long Hogback Covered Bridge in Iowa, built in 1884 and featured in the Robert Waller novel, The Bridges of Madison County,
was set on fire Saturday afternoon, but the flames were put out before the fire caused much damage. The fire followed a blaze two days earlier that destroyed a covered bridge near Delta, Iowa, on the one-year anniversary of an arson fire at the Cedar Bridge in Madison County.

The full Moon nearest the autumnal equinox (it falls on September 23 this year) is called the Harvest Moon. In years when the Harvest Moon falls in October, the September full moon is usually known as the Corn Moon or Barley Moon. For the rest of this year, full moons will occur on the 10th in September and October and the 8th in November and December. We doubt any full moon during the rest of the year will be any more beautiful than the one last night.

Someday you'll need a loan. Just fill in the numbers on our HOW TO section and find out exactly how much your loan will cost you.

A female attorney was looking over a local farm just before an auction and went for a stroll among the cattle. Suddenly, she stepped in something soft. "Help!" she shouted to the farmer. "I'm melting!"

Republicans seemed to have two more candidates than they needed (Three names were put forth: State Rep. John Gordner, R-109 of Berwick, Northumberland County Controller Charles Erdman Jr. and Mike Brown, an attorney and mayor of Elizabethville) when John Gordner was securing his nomination, while the Democrats seem to be having trouble coming up with a single candidate to take State Senator Ed Helfrick's seat. Only a week remains before the Party selection deadline.

Didja know it is important to allow meat to rest after cooking, do you know what happens to the muscle fibers in meat when they are cooked, why some pie crusts are tender and flaky, while others are cookie-like crusts, why so many whipped cream recipes call for chilled cream, beaters and bowl? For the answers to these and other of life's perplexing questions about cooking, turn to America's Test Kitchen, http://www.americastestkitchen.com/sciencedesk/default.htm. The TV show "America's Test Kitchen" starts its fourth season in January (currently in reruns), and airs on 90% of public-television stations across the country. Is it easy to watch? Well—no! Locally, WVIA airs it at 5 AM. The next show is about preparing a simple Mexican meal with guacamole, classic fajitas and margaritas and comes on Tuesday, September 16, at—yawn—5:00 AM. The show for September 23 may be more in tune to the home folks: breakfast at home with home fries, oven-fried bacon and cheese omelets. And it comes on just in time to watch before breakfast. Or set your Tivo!

Members of the Seneca Indian Nation voted Tuesday in favor of building a casino on the tribe's Allegany Reservation about 50 miles south of Buffalo. The Indian Nation will soon choose a site for the casino and purchase it. The Senecas opened a casino in Niagara Falls last December and plan to build another in suburban Buffalo.

September 9, 2003

"If the going is real easy, beware, you may be headed downhill."
--Unknown

On this date in 1776, the second Continental Congress made the term "United States" official, replacing "United Colonies." British citizens settled the colonies in North America for the most part and by 1700 there were thirteen colonies. The 13 colonies were inhabited by possibly 250,000 people who considered themselves English. The free men considered themselves entitled to an Englishman's rights, women had diminished rights, and slaves none at all. The colonies were mostly made up of small farmers and a few large planters and some merchants. Each colony considered itself independent of the other colonies, and preferred a loose tie to Britain. There was peace between the American Colonies and the mother country as long as Great Britain left them alone.

About Everyone's Favorite Search Engine...
• Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated their tiny company only five years ago. Page and Brin worked together on a search engine they called "BackRub" since early 1996. By 1998, they started a company, and needed backing. A founder of Sun Microsystems, Andy Bechtolsheim, saw a demonstration of Google and knew it had potential.
He told Page and Brin, "instead of us discussing all the details, why don't I just write you a check? It was made out to Google Inc. and was for $100,000." A problem was that there was no "Google." Google, Inc. came into existence September 7, 1998. With their first employee, they set up shop in a friend's garage, soon handling 10,000 search queries every day.
• Google is a play on the word googol, used to refer to the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros, a very large number. There isn't a googol of anything in the universe—nothing is quite that large. The use of the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite amount of information available on the web.

Gladys Strauch, 82, Waller, is recuperating in the Bloomsburg Hospital today, the result of a fall and a broken hip two days ago. Gladys is further hampered by the loss of her vision three years ago, the result of diabetes. Husband Harold, 86, set a record for bailing 1,600 bales of hay in one day this summer. Harold did get tired, and son Ronnie had to finish the last 60 bales according to Bill Hiscox!

Town council met last evening in the elementary school for their September session. Council was joined by about a dozen residents of the Borough. The Town Council provided the time for each person to speak, and one by one they spoke of the impact on the community and on their families of having houses in an advanced state of decay in a community like Benton. The discussion was about both owner-occupied and tenant-occupied property, but then got specific about three condemned properties. Speakers lay out a list of ways that the houses impacted them, things like no gutters and downspouts resulting in water run off into their basements and accumulations of debris. The code-enforcement officer went through the provisions of the code leading to the condemnation of the properties, and outlined the steps that follow. Members of Town Council, notably John Herbert Laubach, were very conversant about the Borough Code. The residents thanked the council for the opportunity to be heard and were appreciative of the council's constructive comments about the situation.

For the past two days, we have been writing about the Columbia County Agricultural Society's annual fair held in Bloomsburg October 12 through 15, 1898. The Fair had been in existence since 1855 and had come a long way from its beginning when it was created to exhibit agricultural products of Columbia County farmers, things like fruit and grain.

• In the horse competition, a prize of $12 for first and $8 for second went to the heavy horses like the Normans and the Clydesdales. Similar prizes were awarded for the French Coach horses with their ultra-short tails, Cleveland Bays (sometimes referred to as a "Chapman horse," and Hackney" (often called "Norfolk trotters), other trotting breeds, and the general-purpose horses.

• Competition for cattle consisted of durhams or what we now know as "Shorthorns." These cattle were occasionally used as draft animals at the turn of the century and there are several pictures on this web site where people in Benton, like Percy Brewington and others, are being pulled in carts by a Durham. Devons, Holstein-Friesian (a black and white animal with a weight in the 800 pound class), Dutch-Belted (a black cow with a white "belt" around its middle, promoted in this country by P.T. Barnum), Herefords, Red Polled (a red cow originally found along the west coast of Norway, a short-legged and small-boned, relatively efficient milk yielder for its size), Jerseys, Guernseys and Ayershires were classes for judging.

• There were classes for sheep, swine, poultry, etc. Grain seeds and flour, vegetables, fruit, dried fruit, prepared foods, knit, patchwork and crotchet work, embroidery and lace and drawn work were also competitions.

Other Pennsylvania towns with fairs in 1898 included Stroudsburg, Orwigsburg, Lebanon, Bethlehem, Tunkhannock, Corry (located at the junctions of Erie, Warren and Crawford counties), Allentown,, Mansfield, Towanda, Kutztown, Lewisburg, Milton, York, Burgetstown, Reading, Nazareth and Montrose, Hughesville, Oxford, Clarion, Stoneboro, Washington, Honesdale, Lehighton, Dallas, Carlisle.

The Bloomsburg Fair is very different today than it was during its beginning in 1855 as a one-day event staged in Caleb Barton's field at the lower end of Main Street (then known as Second Street). Gone are the excursion trains, the midget car races, fat ladies, freak acts and "girlie shows." To understand what the Fair is today, go to http://www.bloomsburgfair.com/, then attend the Fair September 20 through 27, 2003. We'll see you there...

Republican county conferees meet last evening and named Rep. John Gordner (R, Columbia), a 41 year old attorney, for the November 4 Special State Senate election to fill the vacancy created by resignation of veteran Republican Ed Helfrick. State Representative John Gordner of Columbia County and Northumberland County Controller Chuck Erdman were locked in a dead-heat contest in their attempts to win a majority of the 48 available votes. Gordner gathered 25 votes and will now face the still-unnamed Democratic candidate in a special election on November 4.

David Copperfield will appear at the F. M. Kirby center October 30 at 5:30 and 8:30 PM.

The Philadelphia Eagles opened the 2003 National Football League Season against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the new Lincoln Financial Field on Monday Night Football. The Buccaneers spoiled the inaugural by handing the Eagles a 17-0 loss. Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers routed the Baltimore Ravens 34-15.

Eastern Delaware Nations Inc., a Native American non-profit organization, plans a public meeting about the $1.6 million council house/museum building project they plan north of Wyalusing along both sides of Route 6, including the scenic overlook called Wyalusing Rocks.

September 8, 2003

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
--Groucho Marx

Marriage is a friendship recognized by the police.
--Robert Lewis Stevenson

"I have just returned from Boston. It is the only thing to do if you find yourself up there."--Fred Allen

Grace Metalious was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, on this date in 1924. She authored the novel Peyton Place in 1956, about a small town in New England. Paperback editions of the book changed the publishing industry forever. She incorporated in the book the subjects of sex, rape, murder, and suicide based in part on a town secret about a woman who murdered her father. It was nasty, notorious and lots of fun to read, even if you had to read it in secret, but the book horrified residents of her town. People yelled obscenities and throw rocks from in front of her house. Naturally a book that shocking had to have a movie version...and a sequel...and then a movie version of the sequel...and then an inevitable TV series.

It was on the 8th day of September in...
• 1892 that an early version of The Pledge of Allegiance appeared in a magazine called The Youth's Companion, a leading family magazine and the Reader's Digest of its day. It read: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible, with liberty and Justice for all." Francis Bellamy (1855—1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August, 1892. Incidentally, Francis Bellamy was born in a marvelous town in New York state, Mount Morris, the gateway to a wonderful state park called Letchworth State Park, the "Grand Canyon of the East." You should consider including it in your travel plans for any season of the year.
• 1900 that a hurricane leveled Galveston, Texas, and left 5,000 people dead. The storm kept up for 18 hours, with winds clocked at 120 miles per hour.
• 1664 that the Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed the city New York. Henry Hudson gets the credit as the city's discoverer in 1609, when he sailed into its harbor and up the river that now bears his name. Hudson was sailing for the Dutch West India Company, so it was the Dutch who moved in and settled the area in 1614.
• 1565 that a Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at St. Augustine. The city is the oldest continuously settled city in the United States.

Please remember the following two people recovering from falls:
• Frances Hess, Bloomsburg, broke a hip and is recovering in the Evangelical Community Hospital, Lewisburg, Rook Pavilion, room 310. Her phone number is 570 523-5310.
• J. D. Kile, Berwick, a former real estate broker, fell Friday night at home and is in intensive care at the Berwick Hospital. Apparently Don had no broken bones.

Geisinger Health Systems in conjunction with a development company are talking of building a $40 million continuing care retirement community near Geisinger's Wyoming Valley Medical Center on a portion of the hospital's 168 acres of land on East Mountain Boulevard.

Tonight is the Benton Town Council meeting at 7 PM at the Benton Elementary School. Several people who have formed a "concerned citizen" committee have told us that they will attend in a push to get ordinances enacted to clean up the handful of houses and the bucketful of mobile homes in an advanced state of decay.

Today at 11 AM, the Market Square Restaurant, 100 Main Street, opens for business under the ownership of Scott and Janice Maguire. The building has never looked nicer, and is an excellent example of taking an older building and bringing it to a state of repair that deserves attention. Others in the same situation include houses owned by Mike and Christine Klem, Mayor Jan Swan, the Old Filling Station owned by Dennis and Chris Dawson--well, this list could go on and on. We wish the new restaurant great success!

The Two Faces of the Market Square Restaurant, Benton

The view of the Bardo garage. The Texaco sign in the top right of the picture is now hanging from the wall of the new restaurant.

The Market Square Restaurant on opening day, September 8, 2003.

"I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia."
Woodie Allen

Yesterday we talked about the nation and the world in 1898, and today lets come a little closer to home and take a look at the Bloomsburg area at the time of the Columbia County Agricultural Society's annual fair in mid-October, 1897. Harry Aurand was the proprietor of the Exchange Restaurant, Bloomsburg, in the Exchange Hotel "centrally located opposite the court house" where baths were free and the rate was $2 a day. The Central Hotel on East Main Street was newly furnished and the bar was stocked with "the choicest liquors and cigars," which is a little different from the "segars" that were available at 36 Main Street at the St. Elmo Hotel. The hotel advertised "good stables and yard room." Mrs. B. Stohner was the proprietress. Frank Bomboy advertised fresh and smoked meats from his market at the corner of Main and Jefferson Streets. The State Normal School, J. P. Welsh, Principal, maintained four courses of study for training teachers, with two courses in music, in a setting of "good mountain air." M. P. Lutz in his advertising, warned to "Beware of Tornadoes!" The H. V. White & Co. mill at the corner of Iron and Centre Streets sold "Old Glory," "Keystone," and "Columbia" flours.

E. M. Savidge sold Hummer chewing Gum, 6 pieces for 1 cent, at 17 East Main Street. Telephone service was available for some of the establishments, and references to phone numbers like "telephone call no. 1432" were found. Alexander Bros. & Co. dispensed "cigars, tobaccos, pipes, confectionery, fruits and nuts."

During the war effort of 1898, the 44th annual fair of the Columbia County Agricultural, Horticultural and Mechanical Association opened in October. The D. L. & W., the Pennsylvania, the P.& R., the B.& S. and the Central Penn. railroads ran special excursions to get people to the fairgrounds, with "good pavements leading to the gates just a short walk from the depot." The price of a single admission was $1 and a life membership could be acquired for $10. An exhibition hall 300 feet long allowed products to be displayed. The grandstand with a seating capacity of 2,000 permitted the audience to view the "trials of speed" and a purse of $3,000 enticed entries. The ladies of the Reformed Church served "first-class" meals.

We were sorry to see motorcycles roaring through town Sunday with riders not wearing helmets. The helmet law, which had been on the books for the past 35 years, was repealed by the state government and went into effect last week. Motorcyclists over the age of 21 with two years of riding experience, or who have completed rider education training, now have the choice of wearing or not wearing a helmet. We realize that our thoughts on the subject seem to run contrary to our general opinion about things that decisions should be left up to the individual and not dictated by some politician. We hope that all of the riders without helmets will take measures not to become burdens on society if they are involved in an accident while not wearing a helmet.

Do you remember the "blue laws of Pennsylvania? The laws date back to 1794, although they were amended many times. The laws stated that it was illegal to sell anything but essential goods on Sundays, prohibited worldly employment or business, kept motion picture theaters closed on Sundays, and banned Sunday sports. In fact, Sunday fishing was even prohibited until the mid-1930s. The laws changed over the years, as movie theaters and ballparks were allowed to open in the afternoon after religious services, but baseball games had to be over by 5 PM or be completed later. Although the laws were declared constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1961 case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1978 declared them unconstitutional. Many Pennsylvania blue laws remain on the books today.

"Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor."
--Elizabeth the First of England

September 7, 2003

"The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves."
--James A. Garfield

Last night, we sampled the evening air and thought of the Bloomsburg Fair—a true indication that fall is arriving in the local area. We'll start mentioning some Fair events during the next couple of weeks, and we'll begin today with the Columbia County Agricultural Society's annual fair held in Bloomsburg October 12 through 15, 1898. We'll tell you about the Fair of 1898 over a period of three days.

Today, we'll talk about what was happening nationally in 1898, Monday we'll get a little closer to home and talk about the local happenings in and around the town of Bloomsburg and on Tuesday we'll finally get around to talking about the fair.

To set your thinking, we'll refresh your memory about the year 1898 (as if any of us can remember it!). The warship Maine blew up in Havana Harbor (February 16) shortly after Frederic Remington telegrammed publisher William Randolph Hearst from Cuba that "Everything quiet, no trouble here. There will be no war. I wish to return. Remington." Hearst, by the way, responded with the curt telegram, "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I will furnish the war. Hearst." By April 21, Congress declared war on Spain. Admiral George Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in seven hours on May 1, as the fleet rode at anchor in Manila Bay. Theodore Roosevelt, riding on his horse Little Texas, and his Rough Riders stormed up the hill at San Juan Heights July 1 in what amounted to more foolishness than military strategy, as more than 1,000 Americans lay dead from various causes in the valley below. What Secretary of State John Hay called a "splendid little war" ended January 20, 1889, with a total of 289 lives lost in battle and about 4,000 lives lost to typhoid, yellow fever and "embalmed beef." In news other than the war, the Republic of Hawaii was transferred to the United States August 12. Down in New Bern, North Carolina, a pharmacist worked up a concoction to compete with Coca-Cola and called it Brad's Drink. Sales were slow, so the name was changed to Pepsi-Cola. The five boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Richmond, Manhattan and the Bronx formed the world's largest city January 1 with Robert Van Wyck as the single mayor.

The Nittany Lions lost 27-14 to Boston College yesterday before a crowd of 106,445 in Beaver Stadium.

A reader asked about the future of PDAs and wondered if we would recommend one. Our answer is that the future is bleak and no we won't recommend one. We use a Handspring, but increasingly smart mobile phones, like the Sony Ericsson P800, are coming on the market and that is the direction that we think things are going.

The P800 and many others like it include email and an address book and calendar, which many people used to look for in a PDA. And digital cameras are heading the same way. Take Asia, for example, where something like 70% of all cell phones now include a digital camera, and Europe seems to be following Asia's lead. What we now call cell phones could become a camera, game machine, music player and radio. Sure, we basically just use cell phones for talking now, but smart phones will slowly change that and like obedient animals we'll follow. Take a look at the Nokia 9210 Communicator, for example, or look at the Motorola A920 which combines a mobile phone, video and still camera, a PDA, an MP3 player and gaming capability into one product.

Remember the term, "Symbian OS-based phones," the basis for all these smart phones. If you think that there is an investment opportunity here, check http://www.symbian.com/press-office/2003/pr030821.html for more information about this British-based company.

We live in a wonderful state. What other state would have town names like Moon, Mars and Venus? Or town names like Nevada, Tennessee, or Massachusetts or Nevada or Maine, or Idaho or Virginia or Iowa or California or Oklahoma? We even have an Alaska, Pennsylvania.

Don't forget the Fishing Creek Festival today in Millville, sponsored by Fishing Creek Valley Watershed Association. This free event features a petting farm, fishing derby, nature exhibits, local art, storytelling, food, prizes, and bluegrass music. The Feolas are the main members of Raven Creek Gospel, and they entertain at 11 AM. The Traveling Musicians are at noon, K. J. and the Sweet Nothings are at 1 PM, Cabin Creek is at 2 PM, Van Wagner at 3 PM and a bluegrass folk jam from 4 to 6 PM. The event goes on rain or shine.

We like to highlight personalities of the local area from time to time, people you either know or should know. C. Harold and Marqueen Bankes, Main Street, Orangeville, celebrate their 61st wedding anniversary today, and fall into that category. They were married by Rev. Cryder H. Bankes, Sr., Harold's father, at the Hamline Methodist Church on this date in 1942.
• Marqueen was born in 1921 and raised on a farm in Benton Township. For one year she attended Pine Grove School, a one-room schoolhouse. She graduated from Benton High School as part of the class of 1938. She graduated from the Bloomsburg Hospital School of Nursing in 1942 and for a number of years she did private duty as a registered nurse in hospitals, private homes and nursing homes. The dashing Harold entered her life at a Christian Youth Group skating party at Knobel's Grove. Marqueen is active in Orangeville United Church of Christ, the Women's Guild and Women's Civic Club.
• Harold was born in 1920 in Bloomsburg, graduated from Bloomsburg High School with the class of 1937, and worked at the Magee Carpet Company during World War II and later worked at the AC&F, Berwick. He enlisted in the United States Army Signal Corps, served one year and was medically discharged. The couple owned and operated the Orangeville Printing Company. Harold is active in Orangeville United Church of Christ, Oriental Masonic Lodge, Irem Temple Shrine, Columbia County Shrine Club. He is a former Director of the Columbia County Farmers National Bank.

The idea for a National Grandparents Day originated with Marian McQuade, a housewife in Fayette County, West Virginia, in order to help the cause of lonely elderly people in nursing homes. President Jimmy Carter proclaimed in 1978 that National Grandparents Day would be celebrated every year on the first Sunday after Labor Day. The Ric-Mar Restaurant, just below Danville, has the most innovative advertising that we have seen for Grandparents Day. An advertisement for the restaurant currently running in area newspapers asks, in part, that on Sunday, September 7, readers should celebrate Grandparents Day! The advertisement suggests that readers should "Treat Grandparents to dinner at the Ric-Mar" and goes on to say that "We will be serving Dinner from 11-2 featuring Roast Beef & Filling, Roast Turkey & Filling, Filled Pork Chops, Oyster Stew." You probably are wondering what caught our eye about that advertisement, when we normally don't plug commercial establishments. What caught our eye was the striking picture of a striking lady. The photo of the lady in the advertisement is grandmother Libby Lewis.

Turnip greens are better than nothing. Many people have tried both!

Education means developing the mind, not stuffing the memory.

A loose nut at the wheel often isn't as dangerous as a tight one.

A father was approached by his small son who told him proudly, "I know what the Bible means!" His father smiled and replied, "What do you mean, you know what the Bible means?" The son replied, "I do know!" "Okay," said his father. "So, son, what does the Bible mean?" "That's easy, Daddy. It stands for 'Basic Information Before Leaving Earth."

A newly discovered asteroid has the unexciting name "2003 QQ47." It is getting attention because it has about the same chance of colliding with the Earth in the year 2014 as you have of winning the Powerball. But in fairness, it would be wise to mention that if it hit the earth, it would have the estimated impact of the equivalent of 20-million atomic bombs. Astronomers put the chances of it hitting Earth at 909,000 to 1.

Hootie and the Blowfish will appear at the Bloomsburg Fair Tuesday, September 23, replacing Lynyrd Skynyrd as Tuesday's headliner. Looking at their concert bookings, (http://www.hootie.com/) , they should be happy for the gig!

In sports...
• The Berwick Bulldogs beat Wyoming Area 7-3 last night in a Wyoming Valley Conference matchup before a capacity crowd at Crispin Field. Wyoming Area beat the dawgs at Crispin Field two years ago and lost by a point at home last season.
• On this date in 1995, Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's record of 2,130 consecutive major league baseball games played. Gehrig's record had stood for 56 years.
• Penn State-Boston College will duke it out in Happy Valley today.

Montoursville's 27th annual Fall Festival kicked off Friday night. Today, the festival includes a sprint race, a magic show, performances by bands and dance groups, and a fireworks display at 10:30 PM. There will be a worship service Sunday morning, followed by live music, a ventriloquist act and a car show.

We don't have the figures for Columbia County, but the National Weather Service reports that Luzerne County has had over 14" of rain since July. Lackawanna and Bradford Counties have lots of roads in shambles, and even the Penn State fans will have trouble parking for today's home game because of rain-soaked fields. Parking at the Luzerne County Fair, which runs through Sunday, will be limited. At the US Open this week, nearly every tennis match was washed out Monday through Wednesday. The eye of Hurricane Fabian passed 30 miles west of Bermuda and did extensive damage there, but is not expected to have any effect on us. A rather disorganized Tropical Storm Henri will move northeast from Florida and then up along the Southeast Coast on Sunday and Monday and its effects could be felt locally as early as Wednesday. We should have some sunshine today, with temperatures, now at 49°, heading up to the mid-70s. Tomorrow should be even nicer.

Friday, September 5, 2003, and we remember...
• birthdays of Florence DePoe and, at Bonham Nursing Home, Ross Pennington. Florence and Ross celebrate with actress Raquel Welch, 63.
• the first Continental Congress (September 5–October 26, 1774), which assembled in Philadelphia on this date. It was made up of delegates from all the colonies except Georgia and met in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, Peyton Randolph presiding. The meeting's general purpose was to express colonial grievances against British policy.
• the day in 1975 that Lynette Fromme attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford.

On Wednesday, September 3, Scott Kriebel, Nathan Becker and Eleanor Sands celebrated their birthdays and since we didn't publish Wednesday or Thursday, September 3 or 4, we didn't mention it. On September 1, we neglected to mention the birthday of Paul Bowles and the anniversary of Paul and Melody Bowles. Happy belated birthdays and anniversaries!

Martin J. Sheridan, 47, (November 20, 1955-September 3, 2003), 678 Central Road, Benton, died Wednesday at the Bloomsburg Hospital. He was a son of the late Martin W. and Anna M. (Evans) Sheridan and was born in Newark. He was a 1974 graduate of Middlesex County Vocational School in New Jersey, served with the Army and the National Guard and Army Reserve. Mr. Sheridan was a structural mechanic employed by PPL Electric Utilities at the Nuclear Power plant, Salem Township. Preceding him in death was a sister, Marjorie E. Miller, who died October 7, 1996. Survivors include his wife of 22 years, the former Kathie E. Stackhouse; a stepson, Marlin L. Sitler Jr., Bloomsburg; a brother, Charles W. Sheridan, Monroe Township, NJ; and a sister, Ann Marie Foster, Benton. Funeral services will be at 2 PM Saturday in the Kriner Funeral Home, Benton. Burial will be in St. Gabriel's Cemetery.
--from a Press Enterprise account.

Music news...
• "Grand Ole Opry Live," will now be available each week on the Great American Country (GAC) network. Beginning Saturday, October 4, the show moves to GAC from Country Music Television (CMT). The television broadcast schedule includes 52 weekly telecasts airing on Saturday nights at 8 PM ET and repeating three times on weekends and twice on Tuesday evenings. According to USAToday, GAC is in 25 million U.S. households, compared with CMT's 70 million.
• The very popular Feola jam is this Saturday at the shed on upper Raven Creek Road.
• There will be a lot of music at the Fishing Creek Festival this Sunday, September 7, at the Millville Park.
• The 25th season of the Jerseytown Jams will start in September on the third Sunday of each month at the Jerseytown Community Center. The jams consist of bluegrass, bluegrass gospel and "Old Time Country Music." You can get more information at http://cobrasound.com/jerseytownjam .
• Lynyrd Skynyrd has canceled its September 23 appearance at the Bloomsburg Fair. A replacement rock show has not been named. The group had intended to begin a "Vicious Cycle" tour September 16 after the band's founding lead guitarist Gary Rossington rested under doctor's orders following open-heart surgery in late February. It was discovered that he suffered a mild seizure. Tickets for the Bloomsburg Fair are available at 570 387-4192, 387-4191, or 387-4145.

If you receive attachments to emails with an extension of .pps and they will not open, fear not. The files being transferred are Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. If you own Microsoft Office, they should open automatically. If you want to just read PowerPoint files (but not create PowerPoint files), you can get a free download of a reader by going to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D1649C22-B51F
-4910-93FC-4CF2832D3342&displaylang=en . We have also added this tip to the HOW TO section (above), in case you need this information in the future.

US Airways Express will resume commuter flights from the Williamsport Regional Airport to Philadelphia International Airport starting this Sunday following the termination of those flights June 15, 2003.

Weather...
• In a word, "nasty." Over five inches have fallen locally this week.
• Near Stevensville in Bradford County last night, a gas tank was picked up by the wind. There was flooding on Main Street in Towanda and at Plank Road and Main Street water was over the curb with water in one spot reported to be over 3 feet deep. In Towanda Township, golf-ball-size hail fell during the rainstorm yielding 1.35 inches of rain in 45 minutes. All this happened about 7 PM.
• Thousands of Lackawanna County residents began a cleanup last night following flash flooding. At least 65 homes were damaged in Jermyn. The rain that began Wednesday night turned torrential, dumping 2 to 3 inches between 10 PM and 4 AM. Thursday. In Archbald, the Lackawanna River rose more than 6 feet during the downpour, breaching the flood level by about 2 feet. High water forced about 500 residents from their homes in the county. the Sixth Avenue Bridge in Carbondale was closed and will apparently remain closed.
• Hurricane Fabian pushed closer to Bermuda early this morning and could be the worst storm to hit the islands in years.

We have a barber question for you today? How does the man-in-the-moon cut his hair? Answer: Eclipse it!

If your checkbook is a little short this morning, consider the plight of Wilkes-Barre where Controller Bernie Mengeringhausen predicted Thursday that the city could have up to a $7.4 million shortfall at the end of 2003. Adding to their immediate problems, the city owes $3.8 million on a tax anticipation note in December bringing the total to about $13.4 million. About $6 million in revenue between now and December is anticipated.

In politics...
• State Representative Todd Eachus of Luzerne County decided yesterday not to seek the Democratic nomination for the State Senate Special Election to fill the vacancy created by Senator Ed Helfrick's resignation. The GOP picks its candidate on Monday night.
• The non-surprise of the day is that former New York Governor Mario Cuomo is quoted as saying that he would support Hillary Clinton for President "in a flash."

Here are some pictures from the 29th annual show September 4, 5, 6, & 7, 2003 at Penn's Cave, Centre Hall, PA. The show is the Nittany Antique Machinery Association, Inc. of Central Pennsylvania. This year the featured tractors are the Minneapolis Moline & Fairbanks Morse.

Dave Moss, the buckwheat meister from the Upper Raven Creek area, is part of the welcoming committee at Penn's Cave during the show. Here Dave watches a tractor pull a trailer into position.

Mud, you ask! Was there mud at Penn's Cave this year? Here is a typical view from Thursday's show. Mud, you ask! There was mud everywhere.

A John Deere can only pull this camper backward to get it where it is going. A few seconds later both vehicles were mired in mud when the tractor tried to pull the camper around a 45° turn.

The machinery came in all shapes, sizes and descriptions...

One of the dryer roads at Centre Hall Thursday.

September 2, 2003

September 2, 2003. School is open. Drive very, very carefully—there are a lot of nervous mothers out there this morning! Brett Becker is 8 today and celebrates his birthday in Camp Hill. Ed and Mary Ann Baker celebrate their wedding anniversary today. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Stackhouse, 266 St. Gabriel's Road, Benton, celebrate their 51st wedding anniversary today. They were married in 1952 at the Benton Christian Church. Bob Keller is celebrating the end of one year since his heart bypass surgery. Every day counts... On this date in 1945, Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri, ending World War II.

Albert Goodwill Spalding was born in Byron, Illinois, on this date in 1850. He pitched for the National League Boston Red Stockings from 1871 to 1875, then became a pitcher and manager of the Chicago White Stockings in 1876 and won 241 of the 301 games he hurled for these teams. He and his brother founded the sporting goods company A.G. Spalding and Brothers in 1876.

Term of the day: "curfew."
Following the Norman Conquest in 1066, King William the Conqueror insisted that all fires in London should be put out at night to reduce the risk of fire in houses with straw carpets and thatched roofs. William's law of "couvre-feu" (meaning "cover fire") became the modern term curfew.

On this day in 1666, almost 600 years after William the Conqueror, a fire broke out in the house and shop of the baker to King Charles II on Pudding Lane. The flames spread and the destruction of medieval London began. Within 5 days the city was destroyed by fire. An area of one and a half miles by half a mile lay in ashes; 373 acres inside the city walls and 63 acres outside. When it was all over, what became known as The Great Fire of London destroyed more than 80% of the city, including over 13,000 houses. By the end of the fire some four fifths of the City had been destroyed, approximately 13,200 houses, 87 churches and 50 Livery Halls. Although the fire only claimed a few lives, it may actually have saved many more—the rats that had helped to transmit the bubonic plague (Black Death) the previous year mostly died in the fire. The number of plague victims dropped rapidly after the fire.

Wayne H. Morris, 48, (June 9, 1955—Aug. 31, 2003), 17 Distillery Hill Road, Benton, died Sunday afternoon at his home on the David McHenry farm. Born in Nanticoke, he was a son of Margaret M. (Barnish) Morris, Savage Hill, and the late Harold C. Morris. He was employed in the laminating department at Berwick Industries for the past eight years and was the street commissioner for Benton borough under Mayor Sands and Houseweart. He was a member and former trustee of the Benton Volunteer Fire Co., a member of the Eagle Hose Co., Berwick, and was a former member of the Huntington Valley Fire Co. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, horseshoes, bowling, photography, model airplanes and collecting Lionel trains. His father preceded him in death in 1983, and a brother, Harold Morris, died in childhood. Surviving are his mother and three children: Harold C. Morris, Benton; Mrs. Ezra (Amy M.) Raught, Bloomsburg; Brian W. Morris, Bloomsburg; two grandchildren. He siblings are: William "Bill" Morris, Bloomsburg; Betty J. Mutchler, Savage Hill; John J. Morris, Shickshinny Lake; Thomas E. Morris and Mrs. Dennis (Susan) Albertson, Savage Hill; and Gerald "Jerry" Morris, Stillwater. Funeral services will be 10 AM Friday at the McMichael Funeral Home Inc., Benton. Burial will be in the Hamline Cemetery.

Hunting & Fishing Museum

For the sportsmen...
• The proposed $9.2 million Hunting and Fishing Museum of Pennsylvania to be built on a 22.5-acre island near Tidioute, PA, will be an interactive and learning-based museum. The center, as planned, will be 258 miles from Benton via I-80, north of Oil City. The Guv released $1.5 million August 24 and promises to commit another $2.5 million toward the project by the year's end, but funding sources have not all been identified.The remaining funding needed for the museum will be collected through contributions from various sources including private individuals, outdoors clubs, state organizations and major corporations. Construction could begin as early as this fall.

Cabela's

"When a young deer is too small and weak to run swiftly, it is covered with spots that blend with the earth. It has no scent and it remains very still and close to the earth when its mother is not by its side. And when it has grown enough to have the speed Wakan Tanka gave its people, then it loses those spots it once needed to survive."
--If you want to know more about how the fawn got its spots, according to Indian legend, go here.

We remember...
• 1963, when Ray and Alice Davenport sold their business which had operated under the name of Buckley's 5¢ to $1.00 Store to Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Fullmer, Bloomsburg.
• 1963, when Alice Elaine Dobbs and Gary Karl Strauch married at Waller Methodist Church under the watchful eye of Rev. Samuel Kissiel.
• 1956, when Nancy Lee Shannon married Huber Lee Kline against a background of music provided by Mrs. Ross Pennington in the Benton Methodist Church.
• 1959, when Florence Adele Funk married Millard Russel Kelchner at Grace Lutheran Church, Berwick.
• 1963, when Dr. and Mrs. Freas Golder celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Although retired at the time, Dr. Golder had practiced dentistry in Benton for over 50 years.
• 1965, when Nancy Lee Young wed Kenneth Laubach wed at the Benton Christian Church.
• 1964, when the ice was so thick on the Benton dam that many residents feared that the dam would be lost.

This remarkable view of the bridge was made by Grace Stowe and given to Shirley Lockard. The entire picture is only slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes and is mounted on wood, which is the brown border shown above.

The Welle Hesse bridge was in Sugarloaf Township between Grassmere Park and Laubach and replaced a bridge known as the Laubach Bridge which was destroyed by a flood in 1848. The bridge was on route SR 19074

You can find out more about this bridge which is no longer spanning Fishing Creek by going to FEATURES and reading about the covered bridges of our local area.

Today is Lynn Watson's birthday and the birthday of Miles Cole and Paul Bowles. They share their birthday with former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird, actress Yvonne De Carlo, former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, actor Ron O'Neal, Lily Tomlin, singers Barry Gibb and Gloria Estefan and former White House Press Secretary Dee Myers. It is also the anniversary of Paul and Melody Bowles.

On this day in 1904, Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe, the first blind-and-deaf student ever to graduate from any college anywhere. When Woodrow Wilson met Helen Keller, he asked her why she had chosen Radcliffe instead of a less challenging school. "Because they didn't want me," she replied promptly. For more on Labor Day, Helen Keller and Woodrow Wilson, read about the case of Joe Hill .

World War II became a reality on this date in 1939. The events beginning that fateful September evolved like this:
Sept 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland.
Sept 3, 1939 - Great Britain declared a state of war existed with Germany, and were joined by France, Australia and New Zealand.
Sept 4, 1939 - British Royal Air Force attacked the German Navy.
Sept 5, 1939 - United States proclaims neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland.
Sept 10, 1939 - Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins.
Sept 17, 1939 - Soviets invade Poland.
Sept 27, 1939 - Warsaw surrenders to Nazis Sept 28, 1939 - German-U.S.S.R. border and friendship treaty signed, resulting in partitioning of Poland.
Sept 29, 1939 - Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland.
In Oct - Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.
Nov 8, 1939 - Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
Nov 30, 1939 - Soviets attack Finland.
Dec 14, 1939 - Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations.

After 21 years of service, Barry Harrison retired from the Benton Post Office as of August 29, 2003. And don't forget to read about Barry's impressive projectile point collection. You can find it under FEATURES .

Today's saying of the day:
"September blow soft, till the fruit's in the loft."

Quote of the Day:
--"I'm so far behind I think I'm in first place."
If you have ever gone to a racing event and watched a car slowly losing ground while others are leading the pack, you can understand what a racer far back in the pack is experiencing when no drivers are seen in front of him. This has been one of those "far behind" weeks, and it seems to be getting worse. We'll publish the Benton News Tuesday morning, then take a break until the end of the week.

Candace Otto, who will vie for the title of Miss America September 20 in Atlantic City, will appear as a contestant on the game show "Pyramid" hosted by Donny Osmond, sometime during the week of September 15.

One of the tents at yesterday's Pow-Wow at Camp Lavagine.

Picture courtesy of Tracy Fritz