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Click here to go to the Benton News Blog. All Upcoming Events are listed here. Pictures of the problems and the repairs to the Benton dam are posted here and will be updated as events progress. Click individual pictures for a detailed examination.

Last updated July 4, 2009, 11:45 PM

Sunday, July 5, 2009. It is the birthday of Chad Hartman, Michael Gordon, Keith Yorks, Jesse Whitenight and Harry McClure. It was on this day in 1946 when the bikini was introduced in Paris, France, by French engineer Louis Réard and named for the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the site of many American nuclear tests in the 1940s and 1950s. The engineer apparently felt something like a burst of excitement from the idea of a brief swimming suit, as if it had come from an atomic blast.   

If you see Mel Parks or Brian Bower of the Rodeo Association or Monte Hittle of the airport, tell them what a super job they did of preparing the festival grounds this year. The rodeo grounds and the airport never looked better. I know, I know, these three had help and I am not acknowledging them, but thank these three. They will make sure that those who helped get their share of the thanks.

 

Church services will be held at the O.A.T.S. festival this morning at 9:30 with the Reverend Al Lumpkin and friends. Those who wish to attend these services will be admitted free to the festival this morning and may remain at the festival until noon without paying. The group Smokehouse takes the stage at 11 and 3:15 and will play some of your favorite gospel music. Take a listen by clicking here.

 

The afternoon at O.A.T.S. shapes up like this. At noon, Mason Porter takes the stage. You can preview the group here. Mason Porter combines harmonies with hand clapping sing-alongs and the emotion of a rock band. This group began sharing songs and singing together in West Chester, PA,  with Tim Celfo on upright bass, Joe D’Amico on mandolin, Paul Wilkinson on guitar and Jesse Weber on dobro.

Bluegrass Academy is up at 1, the Lykens Valley Bluegrass Boys are back at 1:15 and the popular Remington Ryde takes over at 2:15.

A few of the pictures taken Saturday at the O.A.T.S. festival are available for viewing here. The gizzie on the laptop broke when I tried to copy the pictures hurriedly from the camera to the laptop. I need a trip to BestBuy before I can upload the rest of them.

 

As we leave the O.A.T.S. festival at the end of today, it would be good to take a look at the 2007 and 2008 O.A.T.S. festival as viewed through the eyes of Gary Faucon, a Long Island photographer with a remarkable ability to capture the mood of the subject and display it in a photo album. His O.A.T.S. 2007 and 2008 albums are here and here.

 

We now move to the writing of Kathi Arcuri in an article she entitles Rosemary for Remembrance...

Rosmarinus, “dew of the sea,” originated in the coastal areas of the Mediterranean. When in bloom, the floral haze of tiny lavender flowers does indeed suggest seaborne mists and sprays, shrouding the evergreen shrub with dew drops of color. Throughout the Sicilian countryside, large rosemary bushes, to six-feet tall, grow like weeds in dry rocky ground, thriving in the volcanic soil and nighttime mists.

Americans are most familiar with rosemary in the kitchen garden, and through the winter months, perhaps on a windowsill. It is an excellent culinary herb, redolent of the flavors of the Mediterranean. One of the most popular and easy-to-grow varieties is ‘Tuscan Blue,’ a fragrant, large-leafed plant favored by chefs. When cooked, the volatile oils are released to lend a burst of flavor to whatever food it accompanies.

Rosemary is especially delicious roasted with meats, although a personal favorite is potatoes roasted with a drizzle of good olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. Large woody rosemary stalks can also be used as skewers for kebobs, subtly flavoring all sorts of meats, vegetables, and shellfish. And hearty winter soups and stews enjoy a flavor boost with additions of rosemary, garlic, and a little wine.

Besides these savory dishes, rosemary can be added to sweets for a surprising taste treat. Jellies, jams, cakes, and even ice cream have benefitted from minced rosemary leaves stirred into the mix. Bees learned this secret ages ago, and flock to rosemary nectar whenever they find a blooming plant. Splurge on a jar of rosemary honey, and you’ll be sold too.

For those not inclined to kitchen duty, rosemary can be used as a piney-scented aromatic in cosmetics, shampoos, and sachets. A particularly fragrant choice is ‘Logee’s Blue,’ with deep blue flowers and dark green leaves.

Gardeners also plant rosemary as an ornamental, potted for the terrace or shaped into a formal topiary for the parterre. Favorite specimens are ‘Foresteri’ with its fast and upright growth to four feet, and ‘Miss Jessopp’s Upright’ for a ten foot evergreen column. However, in our climate you might try ‘Salem’ for a garden accent, as it will survive winters in zone 6 with protection. Some gardeners also enjoy color variations, like the yellow leaves or pink and white flowers found in some species.

The ancients had additional uses for rosemary, in healing, and in rituals where it symbolized friendship, love, and fidelity. It still signifies remembrance of those who have been dear to us. Perhaps this is its most important contribution, in an age of reality overload -- a beautiful and fragrant plant to memorialize those who have wafted away like the sea mist for which this plant is named.

In memory of John Savard, Bernice Schneyer, and Stephanie Spiece.

Note:  Growing rosemary is easy if you keep these three fundamentals in mind: sun, drainage and air circulation. Twenty-six species can be found at The Sandy Mush Herb Nursery, including all the plants referenced here.
--Kathleen Arcuri. For more of Kathy's garden writing, go here.    

                                                             

July 4, 2009. It is the birthday of Rachel McKeel, Joe Curtin, Matt Crusan--and of America. It is the wedding anniversary of Don and Loraine Foote. Nina Ford, Huntington Mills, one of the most dedicated volunteers at The Center, has been bed-ridden with an extremely bad back for the past month. She has had two nerve blocks which have done absolutely nothing. On Monday, she will be having an MRI. She is in a great deal of pain. Nina's address is 17 Old Koons Road, Shickshinny 18655. Please include Nina in your prayers now.

 On July 2, 1776, a resolution of independence was approved by twelve of the thirteen colonies, with delegates from New York abstaining on the vote. A declaration to that effect was made on the fourth. This Declaration of Independence was then copied onto parchment and brought back to Congress on August 2 where members signed the document. But didja know that the Congress didn't actually circulate a copy of the document with signatures until January 1777? The Declaration of Independence was a confession of treason issued at a time when the war was not going well. It was not until there was a good chance that the Americans could win the war that the document with signatures saw the light of day.

 

"The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the  Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was 'to form a more perfect Union.'"

--Abraham Lincoln First Inaugural

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

If you haven't read the complete text of the Declaration, click here and read it in its entirety.

There is a lot happening today and tonight...

   • There is an indoor flea market in Maple Grove today inside the former Lazy Acres barn previously owned by Bub and Edith Laubach. This is not a garage sale. It is a flea market, where someone will demonstrate the shelling of corn and much more. While you are there, help Scott Maguire identify the maker of the "Benton sled," buy a motorcycle or simply browse the local antiques, engines and so much more.

   • St. James U.C.C., Zaner's Bridge Road, Bendertown, will have an ice cream festival from 4 PM.  The ice cream is homemade, and there will be hot dogs, BBQ, and the usual.   

   • Today is a big day at the 80th annual Millville Fire Co. carnival. The carnival grounds come alive at 7, with an all-you-can-eat breakfast at the cheesesteak stand. The Independence Day parade forms at 9, and begins moving at 10:30. Country singer Aaron Kelly performs at 7 and 9, followed by a patriotic fireworks display. A shuttle bus is available from Woolcock Oil Co., 533 S. State Street.

   • At the O.A.T.S. bluegrass festival, things kick off at 11 AM with Sav Sankarin and String Theory. The Lykens Valley Bluegrass Boys are up next. At 1 in the afternoon, the popular Remington Ryde hits the stage. A perennial favorite, Dan Paisley and Southern Grass, is up at 2 and 6. At 3 is David Via and Corn Tornado. The show at 4 and 10 will be special with the Bluegrass Brothers. The popular Grillbillies group with local roots, Stained Grass Window, comes next at 5. David Via and Corn Tornado is up at 7. At 8 and 11:50 is Blue Highway, with raffle drawings at 9:45. Ten minutes before midnight, the O.A.T.S. chorus will put on a performance on the main stage. Pictures taken Friday at the festival are available for viewing here.

   • Fireworks takes place tonight at dusk in the Bloomsburg town park along the Susquehanna River. Park along Market Street and surrounding side streets.

Harm can come to humans, wildlife, domestic animals and vegetation through the contamination of the essential life-support systems of water, air and soil.   Didja ever think that the same public-relations company that tells us that "clean-burning" natural gas is the clean fuel, the alternative fuel and anything but a dirty fossil fuel that will solve our energy crisis will soon start cranking out propaganda saying that drilling for natural gas doesn't deplete our water supply, endanger public health and safety or generate toxic waste?

There were lots of complaints about the small type on the Friday edition of the Benton News, written quickly and dispatched carelessly. One reader who sent "greetings from the Southern Hemisphere" asked me not "to write while under the influence." I'll be more careful in the future, but if that ever happens while on a web site, simply slowly turn the wheel on your mouse while depressing the Ctrl key. Turning it one way, makes the type larger. The other, smaller. I'll now return to my influence--which again today is bluegrass.

 

I promised to talk about wireless phone service as it relates to Benton and about "smart" cell phones. Phone service locally is spotty at best. At the lower end of Benton, Verizon service is "five bars." For most of the borough, service is non-existent or poor at best. Benton is an area forgotten by cell-providers. And as relates to choice, since there is really only one provider of merit for the local area, "choice" is not one of the benefits of living locally. And it may not improve in the near future. A Verizon employee at Buckhorn told me that "service will improve in Benton when an interstate highway is put through your town." At the O.A.T.S. festival Friday, a number of people borrowed my cell phone when they found out Benton didn't have coverage on their cell phones.

Against that background, it is important to say that Verizon Wireless is nationally among the leaders in satisfaction and connectivity and probably the best in customer support both for prepaid and traditional service. The service uses Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology and offers high-speed wireless data network for faster web browsing and downloading.

The old bugaboo of the high cost of cell service seems to have fallen by the wayside with prudent use of minutes and the "Friends and Family" program, which allows calls of unlimited length to ten selected phone numbers, including landlines. A prepaid plan very well could be the most economical for you, especially if you use your phone infrequently.

So you say that your two-year plan is up and you decide that you want a "smart" cell phone? You'll have to figure out what you want, sign a new service contract, learn that the phone may be smarter than you are, perhaps enroll in a class to figure everything out. What good are all the applications if you can't use them?

Assuming that your location isn't impeded by buildings or trees, the weather, other users, the location of the cell towers and the time of day, you are ready to begin communicating. Verizon customers should dial star key 228 and press option 2 monthly to update the handset's roaming capabilities. The call is airtime free. Verizon should give you an average download speed of 951 kbps while providing reliable and uninterrupted service. I wanted to buy an iPhone 3G S which is currently only available on the AT&T network, but decided not to wait for ATT&T service in the local area because of the national statistics on its download speed and unacceptable (to me)  reliability. I decided to go with a BlackBerry Storm on the Verizon system instead of the Palm Pre or the iPhone 3G S.

The network and the phone which best suits you is a matter of personal preference. Make a good decision. The phone will be with you for a minimum of two years!

Tuesday, July 7, is the first Tuesday of the month, and donation day for fresh food and flowers for the food bank at The Center.  Please drop off your donations Tuesday between 7:30 and 9 at the rear of The Center. Gardeners need more sun for their summer crops, so what is needed are eggs with herbs and spring veggies like peas and carrots and onions and broccoli, and leafy greens for salads.  Your contributions would be most welcome, as they were last time.

Here is a recipe for an easy baked egg dish (Tortino in Italian) that will be demonstrated for the recipients, which you may want to try as well: coat a pie plate or quiche dish with two tablespoon olive oil or butter. Add about two cups of chopped fresh or frozen vegetables (broccoli, carrots, chard, onions, peas, spinach, summer squash individually or combined).  Sauté in a 350° oven (a toaster oven works well), until vegetables are still slightly firm. Beat six eggs with ¼ to ½ cup parmesan cheese, a little salt and pepper, and an herb of your choice (dill is nice).  Pour over vegetables, sauté and return to oven, uncovered, for 12 to 15 minutes, or until set. Let stand at room temperature for awhile, and serve.  Or refrigerate and serve cold for a picnic.
--recipe courtesy of Kathy Arcuri

July 3, 2009. It is the birthday of Frank Vincent, Sandra Kelsey, Christina Savage Guillen and for the second day in a row Dimi Marinos. Florence Kocher is back in Bonham Nursing Home after spending three days in the Berwick Hospital. Chris Hoyt faces his next surgery Monday. Please keep him in your prayers. Joselle Confair is nursing her bruises, but is home from the hospital. Morgan Crossley had her tumor removed Monday morning and it is benign. She is doing well with just some lingering pain at the incision site in her neck.  The Benton post office is open today from 8:30 AM until noon. It is closed on July 4 and July 5.

The phrase "Dog Days" conjures up the hottest, most sultry days of summer. The 40 days beginning today and ending August 11 coincide with the sunrise appearance of the Dog Star, Sirius.  

 

Erika Funke is the host and producer of ArtScene on WVIA. The show highlights the area's arts and cultural events each weekday at 11 AM.  Her guests Thursday, for later broadcast, were Chuck Chapman, M. R. Daniels and Liane Hayman, all talking about the events taking place in Benton July 25 and 26 during the Fishing Creek Heritage Days.

 

Bob Lewis told a story Thursday about Alice Sutliff which should be shared. She grew up in the same house in Jamison City where she and husband Ed Allegar live today. When she was 16, she got a license to drive, but her father didn't give her many chances to get behind the wheel. One day, her mother asked her to go to Central to pick up a loaf of bread and "come right back." Alice thought that a little side trip north to Elk Grove wouldn't get her in trouble, so when she came to the "T" in Central, she turned right instead of going into Charlie Cole's general store. Her trip took her north of the Elk Grove hotel where she saw a rattlesnake stretched almost completely across the road warming itself in the heat of the sun. She drove a wheel of the car on the snake's tail and pinned it down. She sat in the car for a few minutes, then decided she had better get on home. She turned the car around and there was the snake in the road quiet as a millpond at midnight. Alice stopped the car and after poking the snake decided that she would put it on the back seat and take it home to show her father. In Central, she quickly got the bread, then headed home to Jamison City. She escorted her father to the car to show him the prize snake she found in "Central," but there was no snake in the back seat. I'll leave out a few details of the ensuing conversation, but eventually the snake was found under the back seat of the car very much alive. This was reportedly the last time that Alice ever drove that car with her shoes off!

 

The O.A.T.S. bluegrass festival continues through Sunday with 19 groups, good food, crafts, autographs and much more.  It takes place at the Benton Rodeo Grounds. You can look at some of what went on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week, by heading here.

Fans of bluegrass with a local zip code who come after the dinner break for the evening shows tonight and Saturday will be admitted with the twilight fee of $10 per person. This is a concession to local residents, and it probably makes those evenings among the greatest bargains in the universe. The O.A.T.S. organizers have had a challenge getting people in the Benton Area to support the event. Let's turn that around this year.

 A temporary low-wattage radio station has been set up at the OATS Festival so that all stage activities are broadcast. Everyone within a mile of the festival will be able to listen at FM frequency 89.5. Better yet, come out and support the event.

 

The lineup for today begins this morning at 11 with the group known as Some Assembly Required, Take a sample listen by heading clicking here. Some Assembly Required  first got together in the summer of 2006. Lead singer Lynn Stephens is the 2006 & 2008 Virginia State Champion female vocalist. Lynn plays rhythm guitar and sings lead and harmony and we hear she makes great "clams and linguini white."  Leo Szydlowski won the Song Writer’s competition in 2008 at the Dream Acre’s Music Festival. The winning song, “Just Like Candy,” is a true story about his first tobacco-chewing experience. Leo plays guitar, mandolin and sings lead and harmony. Ernie Freeby contributes vocals and plays bass. Doug Cherrington plays guitar, mandolin and banjo and is a vocalist.

 

At noon and 6 PM, Bill and Maggie Anderson perform as an old-time duet with guitar and dobro singing story songs, bluegrass, gospel and mountain music spiced with humor. They have years of experience ranging from the New York State Fair, PBS television, and a monthly PBS radio and webcast show for WCNY Syracuse.  In May 2005, Bill and Maggie performed in a 23-day tour at the European World of Bluegrass. They have also appeared at the Birthplace of Country Music Pickin Porch in Bristol, VA, at the Carter Fold, and on the PBS broadcasted "Song of the Mountains" at the Lincoln Theater in Virginia.  They also play regularly at the Blue Ridge Music Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

 

The six-man bluegrass group Cabinet comes on at 1 PM playing music for fun and for dancing. The group also creates sounds more closely associated with folk, Americana and straight-ahead rock ’n’ roll. For more information on Cabinet, including additional live dates or to hear their music, click here.

At 2 and 7 PM, Straight Drive mounts the stage. At 3 and 7, it is the Williams and Clark Expedition. The Steep Canyon Rangers are up at 4 and 9. Blue Roots are up at 5. Stained Grass Window, one of the star attractions from Thursday night, comes on at 10 PM, and the scheduled performances end at 11 with Cabinet for their second appearance of the day.

I broke down and bought a smart phone, although I haven't seen that it has done me any good so far. If your last cell phone was hard to figure out, wait until you buy a smart phone and realize that it is smarter than you are! The plans provided by the cell-phone providers are confusing and the phones are complex. When we get together for coffee Saturday morning, we'll talk about cell-phone service.

July 3, 2009. It is the birthday of Frank Vincent, Sandra Kelsey, Christina Savage Guillen and for the second day in a row Dimi Marinos. Florence Kocher is back in Bonham Nursing Home after spending three days in the Berwick Hospital. Chris Hoyt faces his next surgery Monday. Please keep him in your prayers. Joselle Confair is nursing her bruises, but is home from the hospital. Morgan Crossley had her tumor removed Monday morning and it is benign. She is doing well with just some lingering pain at the incision site in her neck.  The Benton post office is open today from 8:30 AM until noon. It is closed on July 4 and July 5.

here.

 

Fans of bluegrass with a local zip code who come after the dinner break for the evening shows tonight and Saturday will be admitted with the twilight fee of $10 per person. This is a concession to local residents, and it probably makes those evenings among the greatest bargains in the universe. The O.A.T.S. organizers have had a challenge getting people in the Benton Area to support the event. Let's turn that around this year.

 

A temporary low-wattage radio station has been set up at the OATS Festival so that all stage activities are broadcast. Everyone within a mile of the festival will be able to listen at FM frequency 89.5. Better yet, come out and support the event.

 

The lineup for today begins this morning at 11 with the group known as Some Assembly Required, Take a sample listen by heading to My Space. Some Assembly Required  first got together in the summer of 2006. Lead singer Lynn Stephens is the 2006 & 2008 Virginia State Champion female vocalist. Lynn plays rhythm guitar and sings lead and harmony and we hear she makes great "clams and linguini white."  Leo Szydlowski won the Song Writer’s competition in 2008 at the Dream Acre’s Music Festival. The winning song, Just Like Candy, is a true story about his first tobacco-chewing experience. Leo plays guitar, mandolin and sings lead and harmony. Ernie Freeby contributes vocals and plays bass. Doug Cherrington plays guitar, mandolin and banjo and is a vocalist.

 

At noon and 6 PM, Bill and Maggie Anderson perform as an old-time duet with guitar and dobro singing story songs, bluegrass, gospel and mountain music spiced with humor. They have years of experience ranging from the New York State Fair, PBS television, and a monthly PBS radio and webcast show for WCNY Syracuse.  In May 2005, Bill and Maggie performed in a 23-day tour at the European World of Bluegrass. They have also appeared at the Birthplace of Country Music Pickin Porch in Bristol, VA, at the Carter Fold, and on the PBS broadcasted "Song of the Mountains" at the Lincoln Theater in Virginia.  They also play regularly at the Blue Ridge Music Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

 

The six-man bluegrass group Cabinet comes on at 1 PM playing music for fun and for dancing. The group also creates sounds more closely associated with folk, Americana and straight-ahead rock ’n’ roll. For more information on Cabinet, including additional live dates or to hear their music, click here.

At 2 and 7 PM, Straight Drive mounts the stage. At 3 and 7, it is the Williams and Clark Expedition. The Steep Canyon Rangers are up at 4 and 9. Blue Roots are up at 5. Stained Grass Window, one of the star attractions from Thursday night, comes on at 10 PM, and the scheduled performances end at 11 with Cabinet for their second appearance of the day.

 

I broke down and bought a smart phone, although I haven't seen that it has done me any good so far. If your last cell phone was hard to figure out, wait until you buy a smart phone and realize that it is smarter than you are! The plans provided by the cell-phone providers are confusing and the phones are complex. When we get together for coffee Saturday morning, we'll talk about cell-phone service.

July 2, 2009. It is the birthday of Tracy Fritz, Dennis Threlkeld, David Chapin and Deborah McHenry. Holly Green turns 42 today. It is the wedding anniversary of Tom and Jackie Becker, Brian and Tracy Hess, and Bill and Agnes Hess. It is going to be a mixed blessing Saturday and Sunday. The weather should be perfect Benton summer weather, following showers today and Friday, meaning that the farmers are going to have to make hay on the weekend when others are enjoying the Fourth of July festivities and the O.A.T.S. bluegrass festival.

Speaking of the O.A.T.S. bluegrass festival--and you knew that we would--it begins today with a gigantic picnic with genuine bluegrass food. For those who have purchased a four-day pass, the picnic begins at 3 PM with tons of food and bluegrass bands--Sav Sankarin and String Theory with Painted Blue and Some Assembly Required thrown in for good measure. It takes a lot of energy to tap your toe, play the fiddle, hold the dobro, strum the banjo or whatever it is that you do when you hear bluegrass music, so we expect that eating will continue until almost six.

 

That takes the afternoon to the evening performance when Painter Blue takes the stage. Remington Ryde is up at 7, followed by the Hillbilly Gypsies at 8 and Stained Grass Window at 9. At 10, the Lykens Valley Bluegrass Boys head up the steps to the stage and the Hillbilly Gypsies round off the evening with a 11 PM performance of old-time music combined with both traditional- and contemporary bluegrass.

 

This is the time of the night when the afterburners kick in and everyone gets down to serious music. I have conveniently parked adjacent to Danny Stewart's jam tent, where rain or shine the music continues nearly 24 hours a day. The nicest people in the world simply walk up and take their instruments from their carrying cases, shake and howdy with the person next to them, and join in whatever tune is being played by ten to fifteen enthusiastic people. This is the place where you'll hear songs you never heard before--songs like Honey Babe Blues, Wayfaring Stranger, Columbus Stockade Blues, and Sittin' Alone in the Moonlight --and you won't be strangers with either the music or the person playing next to you for more than a couple of minutes.

 

We'll take some pictures to share with you. We'll combine the few pictures we took Wednesday with those we take today, and make them available to you in tomorrow's edition. Friday and Saturday will have their own pictures, but we'll tell you about that in tomorrow's edition. If you have the time, take a look.

 

Quickies...

   • Firefox 3.5 has arrived and brings with it new functionality, better security and better performance. Pages load up to twice as quickly as Firefox 3.0.x and up to five times faster than Internet Explorer 8. There are some extra layers of protection against phishing sites with full-page warnings coming up before users access potentially dangerous pages. The  key benefit to Firefox remains its third party add-ons. Download here.

   • Taylor Remphrey has a new address: S/Sgt Taylor Remphrey 88, MXS  pfc # 2  Box 559, Apo  AP   96264.

   • Verizon wireless customers should remember that they are entitled to ten numbers that are free calls from their cell phone. The program is called "Friends and Family." If you have a Verizon cell phone, make sure you sign up here. This is corporate America, so assume that restrictions apply!

   • An adult self-management diabetes program takes place August 6, 13, 20 and 27. The program includes all four Thursday classes which take place from 10 AM to noon. It is absolutely free at the Bloomsburg Hospital, Conference Room #2. The program includes general facts about diabetes, diet and nutrition, exercise, medications, home blood-glucose monitoring and foot care. The program gets into long-term complications, acute complications, dental care and stress management. Sign up early; space is limited. The registration deadline is July 31. For further information or to register for this program, call 784-1723.

Let's say you want a new television and that you want a whopping big 50 inch fire-belch 500 and that you don't want the very best brand, but want one right up at the top of the heap--lets say a Samsung. Let's just look at one retailer and let's make that Best Buy. Ok, Ok, so you might not pick exactly that rationale to pick out a television set, but let's go with it for a minute.

Over the July 4 weekend, Best Buy has a Samsung 50" class Plasma HDTV on sale for $989.99. (Plasma television screens are usually larger than the LCD screens, making television a lot like watching the movies in your own home.) The nice part is that the price is something like $300 less than for Samsung liquid-crystal-display television sets, which use a newer technology. The LCD sets average closer to $1,500 for a 50-inch LCD TV.  

Plasma TVs were until recently more expensive that LCD versions, and had a better picture quality and you could spread out more to watch a decent picture. The gap is closing. LCD TVs generally have higher refresh rates, which allows retailers to charge more for the set.  

Plasma televisions are a great value to consumers, but there are problems. Technicians to service a broken plasma TV or finding parts for an out-of-date set might someday become difficult. The fact is that I have a couple of TVs I wish would break so I could replace them. I bet some of them are 20 years old and never have had a problem.

Plasma televisions have better picture quality. They could require more maintenance and older versions sometimes had a plasma “burn in,” which occured when an image was displayed too long on a screen and permanently remained.  

There are differences. There will be more screen sizes to choose from, including sets smaller than 42 inches (Plasma's generally begin about 42 inches). The LCD picture is generally a little brighter than plasma and the screens don't reflect from overhead bright lights. Video games work better on LCD because burn-in from fixed images isn't a problem (remember the warnings not to leave your old television on when only the test pattern was on? Well, heck, most readers won't even remember a test pattern!)  How 'bout this as a solution? Turn off the television if you aren't watching it! Now there is a thought I could live with.

Both the amount of power plasma televisions consume and the weight of the TVs have gone down in recent years.  The bottom line is that for the cost and quality, plasma is a good deal.

Now that you are thinking it would be nice to have a new television, I would recommend against the rear-projection sets, picture-tube TVs, and front projectors. If you are going to spend a heap of money, concentrate on the flat-panel LCD displays and plasma TVs that can be mounted on a wall or on a table in the corner. All you'll need is popcorn. Whether it is plasma or LCD, both will provide good television.

July 1, 2009. It is the birthday of Kelly O'Brien Gavin. It is the day in 1847 when the US Postal Service issued its first postage stamps to guarantee the government of a steady income from postal services. It is also the day in 1863 when the Battle of Gettysburg began when an estimated seventy-five thousand Confederate soldiers and about ninety-five thousand Union soldiers met.

Pennsylvania law requires that a new budget be in place by the start of the new fiscal year, July 1. That hasn't happened since the Guv took office in 2003. It ain't gonna happen today either. So much for that law...

Quickies...
   • Waller Ice Cream Festival, sponsored by Waller United Methodist Women, takes place Saturday, July 18, at the Waller Memorial Hall, from 4-7 PM.  Homemade ice cream, bean soup, hotdogs, hamburg barbeques, pies, cakes and drinks.  Good home cooking at its best!

   • Valerie Wojton is currently receiving care at Hershey Medical Center for leukemia. She will be admitted on August 5 for chemo. A mini transplant is scheduled for Aug 9. Cards can be sent to 125 Lucy Avenue, Hummelstown, Pa 17036.

   •  Shannon Doyle, Wilkes-Barre, is the new Miss Pennsylvania. Shannon is a graduate of Myers High School and a summa cum laude graduate of Villanova University majoring in biology. She is a student at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. She represented Armstrong County. Luzerne County does not have a pageant associated with the Miss Pennsylvania Pageant, but plans are to participate in the future if an honest judge can be located.

A reader this winter in Florida had a weak moment, and when Marcia Kay and I had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife in person for the first time he made a gentleman's wager with me that the Dow Jones Industrial Average would be "above 9,000 by July 1." The winner of the wager would receive two free steak dinners courtesy of the losing couple. I haven't officially declared myself the winner, but the DJIA closed for the month of June at 8447.00, down -82.38 Monday. I think I'll make mine prime...

The Benton Area School class of 1989 got together Saturday night at the High School.

Those in attendance were Billie Jo Allegar Creveling, Sheila Kay Albertson, Molly Parker Whitmire, Kim Hess, Kerry Halm Schweiki, Jennifer Ickes, Wendy Hess Gable, Tami Wise Collae, Jennifer Bardo Albertson, Terri Albertson Bartmess, Melody Moss Rhodes, Andy Gordon, Mary Jane Steinruck Creveling, Shirley Wodrig Young, Helga Loncosky, Kevin Zimmerman, Allen Strauch, Karin Russell Martin, Jeff Kriner, Jennifer Hubler and Sanford Cunningham.

Linda R. (Fehnel) Bachman (January 23, 1943-June 29, 2009) died Monday at her Red Rock home following a one-year illness. She was 66. She was born in Allentown where she worked for Kraft Foods. She retired in 1987.  At the time of her death, she was president of the Red Rock Mountain Campground, Inc., where she also operated a flea market and antique market. She was an avid reader and loved spending time in Hawaii.   

Surviving, are her husband, Jack C. Bachman, whom she married on July 22, 1961. There are two children: Tracy L. Antrim (John), Emmaus and Guy R. Bachman and his companion, Shawn Hill, Benton. There are two grandchildren:  Shaun and Blake Antrim. She was preceded in death by a son, Jason Bachman in 2007.

Memorial services will be held Tuesday, July 7^, at 7 PM at the Bachman, Kulik & Reinsmith funeral home, 225 Elm Street, Emmaus.  Local memorial services will be held Sunday, July 5, at 3 PM at the Patterson Grove Campground, Huntington Mills. Arrangements are under the direction of the McMichael Funeral Home, Benton.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home

 

 

June 30, 2009. It is the birthday of Shirley Hittle and Tanner Lenhart and the wedding anniversary of Jerry and Donna McMichael, Frank and Rebecca Beishline and Tami and Kris Letteer. We neglected to mention in the email versions of yesterday's Benton News the wedding anniversary on June 29 of Larry and Judy Paul . The omission is regretted. Please keep Ted Fritz in your prayers, as well as Chris Hoyt as he faces surgery today.

A group of people got together and formed what is called the Benton Tigers Athletic Association. Dick Brewington is president. The group hosts fundraising events including golf tournaments at the Mill Race Golf Course.  They assist in funding activities ranging from baseball and wrestling camps to purchasing a hot dogs rollers.

The organization strives to support the athletic programs of the Benton Area Schools, without using tax dollars.

The group realized the need for a concession stand and a lavatory at the athletic fields at the Benton elementary school and through hard work came up with a donation of $10,000 for that purpose. They asked for help from the Central Susquehanna Community Foundation, Berwick, and received a grant from that organization. With that money and money raised through their own hard labor, the organization has begun construction of a building 20' by 50' adjacent to the Benton elementary school. The building will house bathrooms, storage space and a vending area where students, parents and friends can gather outside during games. The Red Rock Job Corps Center plans to provide personnel for electrical, plumbing and carpentry with no cost to the local taxpayers. Ron Kocher laid the blocks for the building and Rick Grassley drew up the plans for the building.

 

School Superintendent Gary Powlus has placed a high priority on the completion of this project and says "it is one of the reasons that I am staying." Marcia Seeley would love to help you help the project and will willingly take contributions in the amount of $20 which will buy a building block and will get your name inscribed in a special section of the building. Can you help?

The concession stand at the Benton athletic fields associated with the Benton Area Schools. It is currently under construction.

Quickies...

   • The library at the elementary school is available this summer on Tuesday from 9-2, Wednesday from 5-8 and Thursday 9 to 2 PM. The Benton Area Schools middle- and high-school library is open Tuesday from 1-3. This service is provided through a grant from the Berwick Health and Wellness Foundation.

   • Are nursery rhymes just word games, nonsense verses to keep children amused, meaningless accompaniments to childhood songs, dances and other activities? Or do they often have sources in historical events, and were they sometimes critical commentaries on such events and the people involved with them? Wilson Ferguson will discuss these questions with reference to several specific nursery rhymes still popular and widely used at a meeting of the North Mountain Historical Society (also known as the History Buffs) at the Brass Pelican Restaurant, Elk Grove, on August 17 at 9 AM. The presentation by Dr. Ferguson is free and open to the public. Breakfast at the Brass Pelican may be enjoyed prior to the formal presentation.

 

 

How times have changed. Before the turn of the century, boys and girls, men and women, headed for the open fields to harvest the crops of the summer. Picking peas became a favorite pastime. It wasn't always profitable. In 1897, peas became a matter for the courts as farmers and pickers agreed to disagree.  When the picking season began, the farmers, as a rule, agreed to pay 25 cents a bushel, but with the volume of peas produced that year, the farmers changed their minds and decided to only pay pickers 12 and a half cents to 15 cents a bushel.

 

In addition to the commercial pea growers, this is the time of the year when our ancestors headed for the back yard and their gardens, where they began digging for "new" potatoes and picking green peas. I was reminded of this finest of fine meals when I bought fresh peas at a farmer's market in the town square in Angelica, New York, Saturday. I know that if it were one of my ancestors eating the peas, they would have fresh strawberries or red raspberries for dessert at this time of the year. That would have been a June vegetable luxury par excellence!

 

Looking at an old diary in my library, I see where four girls picked 27 half-bushel baskets of peas. The next day they picked 38 half-bushel baskets. One notation said, "picked clean. Hot, but we stuck with it." An old picker would fill two half-bushel baskets an hour. The girls have averaged about one basket an hour.

 

Father is remembered as having said that when it came to picking peas, "One boy is good, two boys half a boy and three boys no boy at all." He said that after some high-school friends helped me with my pea picking so I could go to the dam and swim. I never understood what Father meant.

 

Father planted his peas about 3 1/2 feet apart with some kind of a seed drill. We cultivated the soil well. Before or when the peas were picked, the space between the rows was sometimes opened and early potatoes planted. Each hill was treated with well-rotted cow manure from Golden Guernseys. By the time the peas were all picked the potatoes were breaking through the ground. The pea vines and vegetation were removed and the potatoes began receiving the attention they deserved. The potatoes grew very quickly in the warmer weather and were kept in fine growing condition.

 

Celery was sometimes planted in beds and as soon as the potatoes were as Father used to say "laid by" and killed these celery plants were put in the furrows made by hilling potatoes. When the potatoes were dug in August, we hilled up the celery. By fall we had a celery crop and it was picked before the first frost. One piece of land could give us three good crops from early April until Fall.

 

In the heyday of the pea viner, in the summer of 1943, gas was rationed, the swimming hole was manless, and the nation had little to do for young girls. How much fun was it for girls to sit on the front porch with a bunch of other girls? Oh, there was fun for some--not the kind that girls were used to, but the kind that could grow on you, the kind that you could end up liking. The fun was getting into the fields and the orchards to help with the harvest.

 

Picking apples was a lot of fun with the apple-picking crew--and everyone soon became the best of friends. The girls picked near the ground standing on short, but steady, stepladders. The men who helped used extension ladders to reach to the heavy branches high above the ground. There was soon a sense of laughing and talking from tree to tree, with the voices often originating out of sight of others. Few muscles were spared in the picking. There seemed to be more farm jobs than there were people to fill the jobs. Some from the larger towns went to the county agent in Bloomsburg to register, but most found jobs through their fathers or other relatives. Most of the jobs were in August, September and October. Those who signed up for picking peaches, plums or pears needed to be on the husky, athletic side. Digging potatoes or onions or pulling carrots were stooping jobs. Picking peas, tomatoes or beans was stooping work, too, but not as hard as picking potatoes. Picking light fruit, like red or black raspberries, grapes or cherries, was easy work.

 

Some of the farmers with larger plots of ground housed workers in a farmhouse or in a bunkhouse. A cook provided the meals, so that the girls who didn't know about kitchen duty had an easy time of it.

 

The clothes were quite unlike what you see worn today. Shorts during the working day were foolish. The girls needed to wear slacks, overalls or even a mechanic's coverall, depending on what was being picked. The coveralls were usually a couple of sizes too large which provided for ventilation and room to move around. Sweaters were needed for the early-morning picking and for the late-evening work. A canvas coat kept the rain off their shoulders. Dirt seemed to be everywhere. Picking in the orchard was special duty as branches grabbed at the long hair the girls loved to wear. Canvas work gloves, hand lotion and sunburn lotion was a must.

How much easier it was Saturday to sally up to a vender and simply walk away with all the peas I wanted. I am not a bit stiff from that ordeal. And what good peas they were, too.

June 29, 2009. It is the birthday of Richard Kriebel and the wedding anniversary of Marjorie and Dick Shoemaker. Marjorie is facing surgery in the coming days, so keep her in your prayers. It is the 46th wedding anniversary of Larry and Judy Paul, Paperdale Road.

Quickies...

   • Do you like to go to the movies, but don't know if you'll like the movie? We can't help much with that, but here is something that may help. You can get movie trailers in one location by going here.

    • Organizers of the benefit for Pauline and Rueben Albertson thank the many volunteers and all those who attended the Sunday affair at the fire hall. At 2:30 Sunday afternoon, the 400 biscuits were in short supply and more were being ordered.

 

Under the Weather...

   • Please keep Ted Fritz in your prayers. He came home from the hospital Saturday.   

   • Jeannie Walters fell at her home last week and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.  She is now home in Elk Grove. She apparently hit her head when she fell, but a few staples and a few bruises were the worst of the problem.

   • Chris Hoyt remains a patient in the Geisinger Hospital where circulation and infection are of concern. An operation Tuesday will be very important to his recovery process. Chris needs your prayers now!
  • Florence Kocher, 94, was admitted to the Berwick Hospital Monday morning.

 

Quote of the Day:

"Good on good!"

--O.A.T.S. organizer Matt McBriarty, talking about both Brian Bower and the outstanding condition of the Benton Rodeo grounds for the 2009 bluegrass festival which begins Thursday. Mel Parks was an important player in getting the grounds in good shape, too.

 

The 2009 O.A.T.S. lineup includes 19 different groups, both from our area and from national venues.  Blue Highway has been performing its very lively music for 14 years, with eight very popular albums. Dan Paisley and the Southern Grass play a powerful and intense brand of traditional bluegrass music. The Steep Canyon Rangers, the IBMA “Emerging Artist” for 2006, appeared Saturday night on the Grand Ole Opry and appear frequently at festivals in Sweden, Ireland, Germany and Canada. The Bluegrass Brothers has been an O.A.T.S. favorite act, and to call them a “high energy act” would be an understatement. Williams and Clark Expedition could be described as a relatively new band consisting of performers with impressive musical credentials. David Via and Corn Tornado teams up with two-time Grammy winner Curtis Burch to highlight his original songs. Burch played resophonic guitar for “New Grass Revival” for a decade.  The Hillbilly Gypsies is a West Virginia band that combines old time music with both traditional and contemporary bluegrass. This year’s lineup also features a number of area and regional bands.

The O.A.T.S. bluegrass academy for kids is a free three-day learning experience held Friday through Sunday during the O.A.T.S. festival, July 2 through 5, Back Home in Benton, PA. Students ages 8 to 15 attending the festival with an adult weekend ticket holder are welcome to participate. Each student must have his or her own bluegrass instrument.  During the classes, students will learn how to play, sing and perform bluegrass music. Classes will be held Friday and Saturday of this week from 12 until 2. The Sunday performance will be on the main stage at a time to be announced. If you know of a child interested in participating, come to the bluegrass festival and register your child there!

Our travels Saturday quickly led us through the lovely village of Angelica, New York, across the I-86/Route 17 corridor, and south into Potter County, Pennsylvania, and the village of Gold where the Genesee river begins as a spring in a field behind the Melvin Easton dairy farm. Potter County is the only county in the Commonwealth with water drainage into three regional streams and rivers flowing to the Atlantic Coast via the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, the Gulf of Mexico via the Allegheny River, which has its headwaters in Potter county and joins the Monongahela in Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River. The Genesee River drains a small portion of the county to the north to the St. Lawrence. Three major rivers flowing to three distinct parts of the United States from one Pennsylvania county! Top that!

Although we traveled north to south, the river flows south to north, and that is the way that I'll explain the Genesee.

The river flows in a northerly direction 158 miles, including through absolutely wonderful Letchworth State Park. The park begins at Portageville on the south and ends at Mount Morris to the north. At Portageville, the river enters a 17-mile gorge where vertical cliffs jut as high as 600 feet above its banks. In the “Grand Canyon of the East,” the Genesee cascades over three waterfalls before arriving at a major slow-down at a dam at Mount Morris, the largest flood-control dam east of the Mississippi. The Genesee then has easy going as it crosses the "wide valley" between Mount Morris and Geneseo.

The word Genesee is derived from the Indian word Chin-u-shio meaning “beautiful valley, beautiful open valley, good valley or pleasant valley depending on which Indian happened to be telling the story.

 

The river crosses the New York state canal system where twenty years of hard work and six million dollars for design, engineering and construction resulted in an enterprise which became mired down in financial and political problems. Walls were laid stone by stone. From Rochester to Mount Morris, the route was generally level, but as it moved further south, obstacles sprung up. For the 124 miles of the canal, 112 locks were needed. The canal was 42 feet wide at the top and 26 feet at the bottom where the water depth was only four feet. No sooner had the canal completed from Rochester to Olean than it fell on hard times.

 

At Rochester, the Genesee enters a seven-mile gorge with three waterfalls that supply hydroelectric power.
 

I'm getting off subject here. I wanted to tell you about the devastation of the Lymantria dispar, which you know as the gypsy moth, in Potter County. Gypsy moth caterpillars love white, chestnut, black and red oak, but willingly gobble up other oak, apple, alder, aspen, basswood, birch, poplar, willow, hawthorn, hemlock, pine, spruce and witch hazel. It usually takes more than one year of defoliation before trees die. Conifers that are defoliated may be killed after a single season of defoliation. And dying they are in parts of Potter county, specifically around Ulysses and Brookland. You can see some of the devastation by heading here.

 

Didja know that gypsy moths were first discovered in Pennsylvania in 1932 in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties? The leaf-gobbler is now found as far west as Minnesota. It was sad to see what has happened to trees in Potter county, but it was interesting to watch the larvae hang from trees until wrestled from their perch into the water, which produced a torrent of excitement in the waters of the streams below.

 

Learn more about the devastating effects of the gypsy moths by going here.

June 28, 2009. It is Jan Laubach's birthday and the 85th birthday of Ken Kelsey. It is the wedding anniversary of Carl and Ann Spiece. It was on this day in 1914 when World War I began. Stop by the chicken and biscuit dinner at the Benton firehall today from noon to 4 PM. Proceeds benefit Reuben and Pauline Albertson, victims of an alleged arson at their Orangeville-area home. Reuben, 85, spent 18 days at Lehigh Valley and 20 days at Geisinger Hospital. Pauline, 78, was at Lehigh for 16 days and spent 20 more at Orangeville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

Our travels Friday took us from Tioga County, Pennsylvania, to Mount Morris, New York, and Piffard, New York, two communities separated by the Genesee River. The Genesee flows through the gorge at Letchworth State Park, 35 miles south of Rochester. The Genesee River roars over three major waterfalls in the park, one of which is 107 feet high. Each year the river cuts deeper into the canyon 600 feet below where we stand. Letchworth State Park is an attraction worth visiting each year.  

About 1778, a lieutenant by the name of Van Campen (1757-1849) and a Captain by the name of Salmon were sent to "the mouth of Fishingcreek where they made their way upstream for the purpose of fortifying the area." The site they selected was on the farm of a Mr. Wheeler. He had a daughter who looked pretty darn good to the away-from-home soldiers and they vied for her hand in marriage. Rank has its privileges, and the Captain and Annie married. They had a son who became sheriff of Columbia County in 1834.

Moses van Campen found himself in trouble in 1778 when ten Indians killed and scalped his father and he was made to march up what was called Fishingcreek Path from the Susquehanna River through Benton and Sugarloaf Township to Long Pond (now Ganoga Lake) and on to what was called Tunkhannock Creek. Van Campen and two others escaped, stole a river raft and floated downstream in the night to the safety of the forts in the Bloomsburg and Sunbury area.

Van Campen arrived at the McClure homestead in 1781 where Mrs. McClure and her daughter, Margaret, needed a stockade fort around her house. Van Campen turned his attention to Margaret and his building skills to construction of the stockade. When you go to what became Fort McClure, you'll stand on the exact spot where Moses Van Campen once stood. You'll notice the cuts of the axe and the absence of cuttings from a sawmill. The stones of the foundation don't show the marks of a mason chiseling on rock, but were laid up as they were carried from the bed of Fishingcreek. The fort was made by the sheer brute force of manual labor with only limited benefit of tools.

Moses Van Campen and Margaret McClure were married in 1783. Van Campen took over the family estate, later moved to Briarcreek, and still later, around 1796, moved to Allegany County, New York, where he became an Angelica township official and Allegheny, New York, office holder. Freeholder, highway commissioner, highway overseer justice of the peace, commissioner of excise, constable, assayer, election inspector--all of these terms applied to Van Campen in his New York state life.

Moses Van Campen arrived in what is now Angelica in 1801. He was employed as a guide for Judge Philip Church, and was accompanied by surveyor Evert Van Wickle and others. A saw mill began operating in 1802, and a grist mill followed. Van Wickle opened a land office, land was sold, cabins sprung up, and a planned community followed. Judge Church had his house built by 1804, the first painted house in the area, thus giving the house the name carried to this day, the "white house," even though that is the color of about 80% of the other houses in the area. The round common green in the center of town is distinctive, with its surrounding churches and the old courthouse. The town is named after Philip Church's mother, Angelica Schuyler Church.

Major Van Campen returned to what is now Angelica in 1805, and nearly all the settlers of Angelica came from the Wyoming Valley. They arrived by way of the Susquehanna, Chemung and Canisteo rivers to what was then known as "Hornellsville." Van Campen was described as being "well advanced in years, but hale and hearty." Except for a few years when he lived at Dansville, New York, he remained in Angelica until he died in October, 1849, ninety-two years and nine months of a very full life. His life in Angelica was as much in demand as it was in time of war, and he became what was known as a "side judge" in the first county court. I looked at the collection of his rifles donated to the town, and I saw the Jacob's Staff and Compass from his surveying equipment.  

Major Moses Van Campen is a hero to many people, whether they are from Angelica, New York, where he lived in his later years, or those who know of his exploits in the local area. Van Campen was born in New Jersey in 1757, the son of a family originally from Holland who came to Pennsylvania, settling in Northampton County near the Delaware River. Moses found his way to Northumberland where he met James McClure who induced him to stay to help the settlers in their continuing battle with the Indians. Van Campen remained in the area of the Forks of the Susquehanna until the end of the Border Indian War.

The former McHenry House Van Campen was so much loved in the local area that following a fire in which the Benton hotel known as the McHenry House burned to the ground, another hotel was built in the same spot in the spring of 1933 and that hotel was called the Hotel Moses Van Campen. Both hotels were in the present location of D.R.'s Quick Mart, owned by Dean and Beverly Ribble.

The former Hotel Moses Van Campen, Main Street, Benton

Moses wasn't the only local man to head to Angelica. The Rev. Caleb Hopkins, who lived in Bloomsburg on East street near Third in an area known as " Hopkinsville," organized the parish of St. Gabriel's church in 1793, along with ones in Milton, Saint Paul 's Protestant Episcopal church in Bloomsburg, also dating from 1793, and Christ's Protestant Episcopal and Lutheran Church on the road from Jerseytown to Millville. Hopkins was a "missionary and a pioneer." Rev. Hopkins officiated in the Bloomsburg church at irregular intervals until 1805. The records of the Bloomsburg church show he was offered an annual salary of $100 and the use of a glebe to be erected by the "Saint Paul and Saint Gabriel congregations." He accepted the contract, and "entered upon the duties of the rectorship, October 1, 1806 " concentrating on the churches at Bloomsburg, Jerseytown and St. Gabriel's. Rev. Hopkins later moved to Angelica, where he passed away.  

The Main Street of Angelica was alive Saturday with a farmer's market in the town square. Pictures of Angelica are included here .The wide boulevards of the town are lined with historic buildings and numerous churches and a couple of buildings that probably once were churches. The cemetery where old Moses was buried is about a mile east of the village, and Van Campen's former home was only two houses past the cemetery.

Van Campen's tombstone is a plain marble slab in the cemetery known as "Until the Day Dawn" Cemetery, Angelica, New York. The stone bears this inscription, much of which is almost illegible: "Moses Van Campen, died Oct. 15, 1849, Aged 92 Years & 9 Mos." The Hubbard & Minard's Van Campen biography says the following is also on the tombstone: "The notes of war are hushed/The rage of battle o'er/The warrior is at rest/He hears our praise no more. The soldier nobly fought/For all we dearly love/He fought to gain a heavenly crown/And now he reigns above." Photo courtesy of Vinnie Hippensteel

Moses' home is 200 years old. It was built by Moses Van Campen in 1809, and to set the stage I'll tell you that the brick house was a true mansion with not another one like it around this part of New York state for 100 miles, and nothing like it outside of any major city. There are hewn foundation timbers and hand-worked floors, doors and castings. The front of the house is both stately and impressive. How did this beautiful structure end up here, completely outside the of doorstep of civilization, built eleven years before the townspeople even built the town court house? The Moses Van Campen house honors the man wounded at the Battle of Newtown, the man when captured by the Indians in 1782 was forced to run the gauntlet at Caneadea, the man who was one of the first white men to see this beautiful valley, the man so celebrated in the Susquehanna and Wyoming Valleys and in Genesee County, New York.
--Angelica is located directly off Route 17/I-86, Exit #31, four miles east of Route 19, 85 miles south of Rochester and Buffalo, in the southern tier of New York state.

June 27, the 178th day of 2009. It is the birthday of Mary Ruth Krygier and Tanner Lenhart and the wedding anniversary of Jerry and Donna McMichael, Frank and Rebecca Beishline and Tami and Kris Letteer.

Quote of the Day:
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere else.”  
--Yogi Berra

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking drastic steps to shrink California's $24 billion budget gap by making free, open-source digital textbooks available for high-school math- and science classes throughout California, a move that he says will help reduce the more than $350 million the state spends annually on educational materials. Look at the number of textbooks which still list Pluto as one of the planets. Until a new, replacement textbook comes out, mistakes like that will continue. With open digital textbooks, that information could be changed immediately, rather than on the normal six-year replacement cycle. The other side of the coin is that not all students have regular access to computers. And then there are copyright and distribution limits and high price tags. Still, for the kids who carry their books home the old fashioned way--in their book bags--I betcha they would love to make the switch.

 Didja ever notice it is not the hours you put in
but what you put into the hours?

The 2009 economic-stimulus bill lets people who buy their first homes between January 1 and November 30 of this year take a substantial tax credit--either $8,000 or 10% of the home's value, whichever is less. (A first-time home buyer means that you haven't owned a principal residence in the last three years.) There are income restrictions for the higher-income brackets. The money doesn't have to be paid back. It is yours to keep. And better yet, you can claim the full amount of the credit even if you didn't owe that amount in taxes (known as a "refundable" credit). Impatient to get this nice little bonus? You're allowed to take the credit on your 2008 taxes instead of waiting; simply file an amended return.  

The large, black letters on a white background are curt and to the point: “Smoking Kills.” The back side of the cigarette package reads in black letters: “Smoking can damage the sperm and decreases fertility.” There are other pointed messages, which you can read here. In the United kingdom, packs of cancer sticks include pictures of a red, bulging tumor on a man’s neck, brown and yellow diseased lungs, and a flaccid cigarette symbolizing smoking-related impotence. How 'bout including warnings like that on cigarette packs in this country, where smoking kills an estimated 400,000 people a year in the U.S., not counting those who died from second-hand smoke.  

Michael Jackson in his later years was simply weird. But in his earlier years, he was a singing sensation. I remember attending one of his concerts at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. Everyone stood, and when he did his "Moon Walk" everyone turned to the person standing adjacent and asked how Michael had done that. There were not many minutes in the concert when anyone sat. The crowd loved him and chose to stand. I remember turning around to come face to face with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, watching the show from the row behind me. I thought then that I was happy to be one step ahead of Rev. Jackson.

Michael was planning a comeback and a series of concerts in London. A wealthy Santa Ynez valley winemaker was financing the comeback and helping Michael save his Neverland Ranch in the foothills of Figueroa Mountain from defaulting on loan payments. When my son David lived in Santa Ynez, I always loved to drive the two miles or so to the gates of the Neverland Ranch. I would get out of the car, take a picture, and hurry back into the security of the car while the hired goons made threatening gestures to move along.

June 26, 2009. It is the birthday of Joshua Jackson Fritz and the wedding anniversary of Ruth and Don Whitenight and Rich and Sherri Plocinski. It was on this day in 1926 when the Bloomsburg and Sullivan Railroad terminated its rail service to Jamison City. Track crews at work the following day tore up the tracks north of the Benton borough limits.

Please keep Leroy Mussleman in your prayers. And add a prayer for Chris Hoyt, owner of Hoyt Fuel Oil, as he faces surgery today. Chris was seriously injured Wednesday when a large piece of concrete, similar to a Jersey barrier, fell and crushed his feet while he was working at his home in Broadway.

 

Two years ago today, the price of a gallon of regular, unleaded gas was $6.48 in the Netherlands and $6.27 in Oslo, Norway. In London, it was $5.79; Paris, $5.54, and Tokyo, $4.24. If you had been in Moscow, you would have paid $2.10, in San Juan $1.74, and Caracas, Venezuela, $0.12. Back Home in Benton, PA, two years ago today, the prices were $2.879 and $2.939, exactly the same price as here in New York state today.

 

Quickies...

   • California may be the most populous state in the union and what some call the "eighth largest country in the world," but to get money out of their treasury in the near future, it might be necessary to accept an IOU. The state faces a shortfall of $24 billion dollars. Lawmakers recently failed to pass a law cutting spending by $11 billion and the state comptroller warned the state faces a "cash shortfall not seen since the Great Depression."

   • A reader is looking for a young, male driver in the Orangeville area who put her family at risk on May 31. The man was driving a black mustang convertible and passed the reader's car at a high rate of speed on route 487, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with an on-coming vehicle.  The driver passed cars in the same reckless manner until it turned on a dirt road near the fire station. The reader had "significant damage to the windows (pitting, scratches) as well as to both doors on the passenger side."  She was unable to get his license number.  She "would like to report this matter to the police," but needs more to go on. Can anyone provide further information?

 

This edition of the Benton News comes to you from  the Tompkins Campground at the 1,090 acre Cowanesque Lake two miles west of Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, in Tioga County. Our campsite is on the Cowanesque River approximately two miles upstream from the Tioga River. The lake is held back by an earth and rockfill embankment 3,100 feet long and 151 feet above the streambed, with a 400-foot long spillway in the right abutment. The lake is 4.2 miles long. We took a few pictures of the trip. They are available by clicking here . You will probably recognize some familiar faces.

 

Camping takes on a lot of definitions. We'll define terms up front. Camping to many is pitching a tent in a location away from home, and filling it with food, the family pets, all the children and maybe one or two from across the street, a moldy smell, a hard thunderstorm and ants. Lots of ants. I have moved from that to camping in a comfortable motor home with many of the amenities of home. Marcia Kay takes it one step further. She defines camping as having "50-amp service."

 

Eating is one of the joys of life. When traveling and camping with friends, eating is a huge ingredient in the success of the trip. This trip is a success by that measure! There are vegetables grown on the farm, whether this year or "just-so" vegetables freshly taken from a Mason jar. In the morning, there is elderberry jelly prepared the old-fashioned way of scalding the berries and running them through a colander, adding a pinch of lemon and then half berries and half sugar, followed by boiling until the mixture thickens.

 

Lunch includes some chow-chow, a traditional concoction with a couple kinds of beans, celery, onions, pickles, carrots, sweet peppers, cauliflower and any other ingredients that the preparer had in the garden when it was made. The concoction includes vinegar, sugar and salt and is considered one of the "seven sours" in the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition.

 

Corn relish is popular at a summer camping event. The mixture includes corn, of course, plus sugar, vinegar and water, chopped peppers, celery and celery seed. Have you noticed how often vinegar and sugar is used in a condiment for a hot summer luncheon meal?

   Didja ever think that nothing is more annoying
than to have someone repeat word for word
what should not have been said in the first place?

 

The Amish are averse to any technology they feel weakens the family structure. If a temptation could cause vanity, create inequality or lead the Amish away from their close-knit community, it is not accepted. Since the days back in Europe of Jacob Amman (~1644 to ~1720), the Amish have made technology strides with each new generation. They began using horses, eventually used lamps from kerosene and moved into the world of propane refrigerators and disposable diapers and are now debating the use of rollerblades (the rubber wheels being the problem). Why not land-line phones, cell phones and electricity? The thinking is that if something is not specifically prohibited by the Ordnung, it is acceptable.

Amish beliefs forbid members to drive a car, go to school past eighth grade or have phones in their homes, but Amish families sometime share a telephone located in an unheated shanty, sometimes even in an outhouse, on their property line or down a country lane where several can use it. Wires from the outside world are not permitted into their world, which knocks out their use of electricity from public-utility grids but not from inverter/converter units like in my motor home.

Technology is one of the areas where you will see the greatest differences between Amish orders. The ultraconservative side of the sect do not even allow the use of battery lights. Old Order Amish are allowed to ride in motorized vehicles including planes and automobiles, though they are not allowed to own them. New Order Amish allow the use of electricity, ownership of automobiles, modern farming machines, and telephones in the home.  

 

June 25, 2009. It is the birthday of Jill Pascale, Manassas, Virginia. Daytime temperatures will be between 85° and 87° through the weekend.

On one hand, things look pretty rosy. America's natural-gas reserves are larger by 25% than two years ago because of technology which has allowed producers to drill for natural gas in shale rock. Natural gas seems to be an ideal solution to our dependence on foreign oil. One study, admittedly funded by the gas-backed American Clean Skies Foundation, found that the U.S. has a 118-year supply of natural gas--which should hold us nicely. Our country consumes about 22 trillion cubic feet of gas per year, almost all of it produced in the U.S.

Natural gas generates about a fifth of the nation's electricity and emits about half of the greenhouse gas that coal does. Natural gas should get more future play as a transportation fuel.

Natural gas is trading at a 7-year low, the one commodity that hasn't rebounded from the sell-off experienced during the economic crisis. With natural-gas prices at a low level, drilling is also slowing its pace and will probably remain there until natural-gas prices climb higher than some figure, say $5/mcf. As the nation's economy and industrial demand improves, prices could  remain depressed, although, frankly, I would not bet on it.

To be viable, the current pricing at approx. $4/mcf should be higher. High levels of gas in storage, new production and massive tanker loads of LNG deliveries are factors that will keep the price depressed until substantial additional demand develops. LNG usually arrives in the United States from rogue states that don't give a hoot about our nation. These sellers from rouge nations sell LNG for virtually any price. The money received is a great supplement to the meager economy of their nation.  These shipments do save our nations reserves for another day, but do nothing to gain our independence on foreign supply.

The northern end of Columbia County has lagged behind some of our Commonwealth's western and northern counties in actual drilling for natural gas. Looking at the drilling activity in northern Columbia County, it is obvious that local community leaders aren't tuned into what is coming down the road--and coming all too quickly. I see the scores of workers who are forced to bed down at motels in the area of Pennsylvania where I am writing today's Benton News because of the lack of less-expensive places to live during the drilling operation. It would seem natural that organizations like the Benton Rodeo Association should consider adding sewer and water for the scores of workers who could bring in mobile-living facilities. The water and sewer hookups could also be used by the two thousand or so who show up for the O.A.T.S. bluegrass festival, and by the cowboys and die-hard fans of the Benton Rodeo. It would be a significant source of local income and would bring people to our community who will otherwise end up finding places to live in other areas to the detriment of local stores and restaurants.

Drilling permits have been filed by Citrus Energy with the Pennsylvania DEP for the Martin #1 gas well on Route 487 and Farver #1 well in Dotyville, both in Columbia County, as part of the development of about 8,500 acres by that company. Applications for the permits were filed in the case of the Martin IV well on June 16 (permits should be issued by the end of July if everything goes according to plan). The S Farver IV well application was filed on June 18 and should be issued early in August if the same review procedures are followed.

The location of the Martin well on the old Raski farm is ideal because it is adjacent to the Williams pipeline. Tap points can be easily installed to get the gas flowing to markets, rather than drilling and capping for movement of the gas after the price goes up. A negative of the site location is its direct proximity to Route 487 and the number of "Hummers" who could cause accidents on the busy state highway as they slow down to gawk. (The term "Hummer" comes from employees at the Kennedy Space Center who would explain to visiting tourists from Dubuque what they were seeing during a shuttle launch. The tourists would in turn bob their heads like china dolls in the back window of a Ford Fairlane as if in complete agreement and would in unison make a "humming" sound.)

Citrus Energy needs approval of meter and tap points on the adjacent interstate pipeline. Discussions continue on right-of-way acquisition and construction of gathering lines to transport gas from the wellhead(s) to the interstate pipeline. Sign-up of landowners, such as the St. Gabriel's cemetery association, is complete or nearly complete.

Actual drilling of these two wells will be dependent on the granting of the required permits which is far from an easy process.   

There is so much public discussion of health-care reform that members of the American Medical Association have weighed in with the allergists voting to scratch it and the dermatologists determined not to make any rash moves. The gastroenterologists have a gut feeling about it, the neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve, the obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception. Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted. Pathologists would yield to it only over their dead bodies, while the pediatricians told the opposition to grow up. The psychiatrists thought the whole concept to be madness, while the radiologists saw right through it. Surgeons washed their hands of the whole thing. The internists claimed it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the plastic surgeons thought that it put a whole new face on the matter. The anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and the cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no. The podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.  In the end, the proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the assholes in Washington.

Area sportsmen wonder what will happen to what is known as "the Harrisburg Mall," now that the deed holder defaulted on a $50 million mortgage and heads for a sheriff's sale July 9. The mall is the home of the Bass Pro shop, Macy's and the 14-theater Great Escape movie theaters. Nineteen stores out of about 80 in the mall are currently closed.

June 24, 2009.  It is the birthday of Russ Castrogiovanni. Today is what is known as Midsummer Day which seems a bit strange, since it happens near the beginning of summer, but to the farmer it is midpoint in the growing season, halfway between planting and harvesting. It is time to kick back and celebrate, although for many of us a special day is actually not needed to do that sort of thing. Washington Irving said it "is a time when it is well known all kinds of ghosts, goblins and fairies become visible and walk abroad." Days begin to shorten--sob, sob--after today.

Lithuanian tradition holds that the dew on Midsummer Day makes young girls beautiful and old people look younger. All the men of the community named John would be recognized on this day by fixing a wreath of oak leaves around their doors. This was usually done in secret, and John had to guess who did it or catch the person in the act.

 

On June 24, 1940, Japan formally asked Britain to close the Burma Road. Allied forces had endured disease, monsoons, and Japanese attacks to build the infamous 700-mile supply line that wound through three nations. For more information, we suggest you read Burma Road: The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II, by Donovan Webster, or sit down with a coffee and read the article in the FEATURES section of the Benton News which recalls Dayne Kline's experiences in that part of the world.

 

Expect sunny, warm weather through Saturday, with the exception of Friday morning when thundershowers could hit.

 

"I remember, I remember
How my childhood fleeted by--
The mirth of its December
And the warmth of its July."
--Winthrop Mackworth Praed

We don't like to do it, but we open on a sour note today. Skip to the midway point of today's Benton News if you aren't in the mood for things of a negative nature.  

 

Negative point #1. This won't apply to any of our readers, but didja know that if a property is abandoned, the IRS will hold that the owner has voluntarily and permanently relinquished possession with the intent to terminate ownership--which will result in a total loss of investment or interest in the property.  If the property is business or investment property, there may be a deductible loss. The loss may be an ordinary loss (as opposed to a capital loss) even if the property is a capital asset. The amount of the loss is the adjusted basis of the property at the time of abandonment.  Abandonment of personal property, such as a home, is not a deductible loss for federal income-tax purposes. Abandonment will probably lead to the property being foreclosed or repossessed and gain or loss would be determined according to the rules for foreclosures and repossessions.

Now comes what I would like you to consider. If there is a loan on the property and in abandoning the property that debt is canceled, the amount of the canceled debt is considered ordinary income to the person who was personally liable for payment of the debt. This ordinary income for the cancellation of the debt is separate from the ordinary loss for abandonment of the property. Abandoned property could have both an ordinary loss, for the abandonment of the property, and ordinary income for the debt that is canceled for the person personally liable for the debt. The income is for the canceled balance of the debt.  Please remember that debt forgiveness may generate taxable ordinary income.

We mention this because of an actual situation where a person personally liable for a mortgage walked away from his home, then received a notice from IRS of the amount that he owed to the federal government as ordinary income. Here was a man who no longer had the house which secured the mortgage loan, but he did have a huge bill from the IRS which will take him years to repay. If this subject is of interest, additional reading is available here.

Here is negative #2. After the stock market rally peters out, I continue to expect a major, multi-month decline to take place, with the Dow falling back to levels that will make many wipe tears from their eyes.

The intent of the foregoing paragraphs was to inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information included here may have already been overtaken by events and should be verified independently should you choose to act on it. Investments can fall as well as rise. And they will!  

Summer is finally here. What better way to enjoy this warm weather than with a comedy about baseball, romance and road trips? Let's Play Two is the story of a young couple, Phil and Grace, who leave on a short trip to a wedding that morphs into an adventure filled with memories, love, and the All American sport that brought them together in the first place.  Let's Play Two runs Wednesday, June 24 through Saturday, June 27, at 7:30 PM and Sunday, June 28 at 3 PM. Tickets are $10! Call the BTE box office at 570 784-8181.

Didja ever think that any person who is always feeling sorry for himself should be?

Congratulations to "Burt the Barber" who celebrated his 50th year as a barber Tuesday by putting in a full day at his barber shop at 611 Arch Street, Williamsport. Burt Ware is the barber who trained Ed Cole and Ed worked in his shop frm 1966 to 1972 while he was an apprentice barber. The two have remained close friends and each month Ed travels to Williamsport where the two barbers trade haircuts. Burt is a well-known visitor to Painter Den, where his outspoken comments about politics brings out the political leanings of those in the conversation.

Burt operates from a location which has been a barbershop for almost 70 years. A barber by the name of Al Carducci had a shop there in the late 1930s until 1955 when Burt's father, Burt Ware, Sr., took over. Burt, Jr. began sweeping hair off the floor at the age of 14 for his father, got his working papers when he was 16 and took over from his father in 1959. Burt III now makes the shop a three-generation shop.

June 23, 2009. It is Midsummer Night's Eve, sometimes called St. John's Eve. It is the eve (meaning the day or the evening before a holiday) of celebration before the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist. The Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:36, 56-57) holds that John was born about six months before Jesus. The feast of John the Baptist falls on June 24, six months before Christmas. Wednesday will be Midsummer Day.

 Somehow I missed the birthday June 16 of Cora Sacks, Unityville. The omission is regretted, but I should explain. Tomorrow will be somewhat of a make-up edition. I recently switched to Microsoft Outlook 2007 from Thunderbird on my laptop and didn't pay attention to the "junk-mail filter." Last night, while sitting on the bank of a lovely lake in northern Pennsylvania, I decided to open the junk-mail on my email. I found all sorts of interesting email from very interesting people. I'll try to get to some of them in the coming days.

Birthdays today include Sheri (Sharon) Fowler, Russ Castrogiovanni and actress Frances McDormand, daughter of Rev. Vernon McDormand. Kayla Savage is 21 today. David and Angel McHenry celebrate their wedding anniversary, as do Mark and Peggy Seward and Matt and Kathy Seward. Mark and Matt are brothers and both married on June 23 but with five years between.

Didja ever think that it would be nice
if we could only think for ourselves

as clearly as we think for others?

 

Quickies...
   •  The Orangeville Library will have a reading night tonight, complete with a live animal who would love to hear you, your children or your grandchildren read. The time is 6:30 to  7:30.

   • Didja remember that the goal of putting a man on the moon was fully achieved in eight years of its announcement--a few years more than it takes General Motors to take a car from conception to the showroom floor?

   • The O.A.T.S. bluegrass festival is right around the corner, and we'll start telling you more about the exciting lineup in a few days. But today please keep in mind that people of the local area who come after the dinner break for the evening shows will be admitted with the twilight fee of $10 per person. This is a concession to local residents, and it probably makes those evenings among the greatest bargains in the universe. Spread the word. You won't hear this anywhere else! The O.A.T.S. organizers have had a challenge getting people in the Benton Area to support the event. Let's turn that around this year.

   • The Benton Rodeo Association will meet on Thursday at 7 PM at the rodeo grounds.

   • Temperatures will remain between 82° and 85° through Friday. Temperatures at night will make good sleeping.

   • Goodbye to an old friend! The Eastman Kodak Co. is retiring Kodachrome, the world's first commercially successful color film, because of declining customer demand in an increasingly digital age.

   • Lemoyne heard the sounds of Civil War re-enactors Sunday, 146 years after the Gettysburg Campaign. Members of Cooper's Pennsylvania Artillery Battery ker-boomed a 1,700-pound cannon during Camp Curtin Historical Society's annual Civil War Days. It was back in June 1863 when Confederate troops invaded Cumberland County on their way to taking Harrisburg. Union troops dug in at Lemoyne and went into battle with the Confederates June 29-30 in Camp Hill and Hampden Township. What is now Negley Park adjacent to the Susquehanna River was part of Fort Washington, the largest fort defending Harrisburg. Three blocks away was Fort Couch, another part of the Civil War defense of Harrisburg. The word suddenly came to the Southerners to head to Gettysburg. Harrisburg was saved and we all know the terrible early days of July in Gettysburg. We have to wonder how history would have changed had Harrisburg fallen to the Southern troops. If you have never been with re-enactors, you may not realize their dedication. You'll get a chance to meet a number of them July 25 and 26 during the Fishing Creek Heritage Days in Benton Park. Don't be bashful when you meet the re-enactors. They'll gladly answer your questions. You'll find that your children and grandchildren will have many questions.

 

Didja ever think that it would be nice if all of life's problems
hit at the age of eighteen
when we know everything there is to know?

Dale E. "Roundy" Farr (Nov. 23, 1933-June 20, 2009), 29 Main Street, Millville, passed away Saturday at Geisinger Medical Center. He was 75. He was born in Millville. He was a son of Cyrus and Cleatus Sweeny Farr, graduated from Millville High School in 1952, then served in the Army as a paratrooper during the Korean conflict. He was co-owner of Millville Forest Products, Farr Brothers Lumber Company and the Pine Grove Inn and Tavern. He also worked for PennDOT as a foreman and owned Roundy's Tavern in Iola. He was preceded in death by brothers Richard and Denny Farr, and sister Dorla Dildine. He is survived by his wife, the former Virginia Harding; daughters Sonna Rae Farr-Morgans (John Morgans) Bloomsburg; Charity Puterbaugh (Robert  Jr.), Market Street, Benton, and Jo Ellen "Babe" Farr, Millville; grandchildren Kristi Dale Puterbaugh and Sherri Marie Puterbaugh, Benton, and twin sisters Paige Lynne Morgans and Hayley Rae Morgans, Bloomsburg; brother William Farr, Millville, and sister Phyllis Green, Williamsport. Services will be Wednesday at 1 PM with friends received preceding at Bunnell Funeral Home, Millville. Burial will be at Millville Cemetery.  
--Obituary courtesy of the Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary can be found in its edition of June 22, 2009

Monday, June 22, 2009. It is the birthday of Jim Remley, Shawn Lowe and Bernie Shultz and the wedding anniversary of Carl and Crystal Faust, Orangeville, and  Ray and Gloria Mincemoyer, Mifflinburg. Please add Marqueen Bankes, Orangeville, to your prayer list.

Quickies...

   • The skateboard park at The Center continues to be very popular and well utilized. There are skateboarders who continue to use the picnic tables in the Benton Park and on other private property in the Borough as ramps for their skateboards. As a result, very costly picnic tables are being destroyed. Anyone seeing skateboards in use in the Benton Park are asked to call police at 925-5432 or the borough office at 925-6101. The names of the skateboarders, if known, and the date and time of the incident should be reported.

   • The newspaper industry has changed over the years. In the year 1898, the following newspapers were published in Columbia County: Berwick Independent, Columbia County Republican (Bloomsburg), Columbian and Bloomsburg Democrat, Bloomsburg Democratic Sentinel, Bloomsburg Daily Sentinel, Catawissa News Item, Danville Intelligencer, Montour American, Danville Sun, Danville News, and Millville Tablet.  

  • The plates issued in conjunction with the dedication of the historical marker on July 26 have arrived and are beautiful.

   • Didja ever wonder what it would be like in the wilderness, away from the rat race, where it is just you against the things that go bump in the night? Didja ever think that you would like to try a wilderness-survival situation, just like they do it on television? You can sign up for one or all part of a three-part family series over the July 4 weekend at nearby Ricketts Glen State Park.

 

   • Part I is on Friday, July 3, 7 to 8:8:30 PM. It is entitled "gearing up for a wilderness adventure."

   • Part II is on Saturday, July 4, from 2 to 4 PM. It is entitled "overnight survival--setting up a shelter." The emphasis is also on fire-making and primitive-cooking techniques.

 

   • Part II is on Sunday, July 5, from 10 AM to noon. It is entitled "Canoeing basics and island journey."

Make some family-fun memories while building self-confidence! Registration is required and space is limited. Call Judy at 570 477-7780 to join for one or all parts of this series!     

                               

And speaking of Ricketts Glen, there is an alien invasion at Ricketts Glen taking place on Friday, June 26, at 7 PM. Join the staff of the park for this informative fireside program on the invasion of alien species into Pennsylvania and how to counter attack this growing problem! Everyone is being affected, and our poor natives have no natural defense against these invasive buggers. Learn how this happened and what we can do about it!  Jack Hannis will be presenting this power-point presentation to be held at the Visitor’s Center.

Friday, June 26, 8:30 PM. “Stars in Parks," a free educational program designed to give the public an astronomical adventure through the dark night skies of Ricketts Glen!  Check out the stars, planets, sputniks, UFOs--whatever is up there this time of the year!  Telescope provided.  Bring your own bug spray, flashlight and lawn chair and meet at the western boat launch area near the entrance of the park.

June 27, 2009, 1:30-3:00 PM. Join Saturday for the "Basics of Fly Fishing." This will be a great free opportunity for you to get outdoors in Pennsylvania. Join Lee Gaul of the Fishing Creek Angler Fly and Tackle Shop located at the northern end of upper Raven Creek Road, Benton. He will be beside beautiful Lake Jean to introduce you to the wonderfully relaxing sport of fly fishing!  Lee will show you just what you need to get started, the simple basics of fly fishing, how to tie flies, and demonstrate the techniques involved in successfully catching that trophy fish!  And thanks to equipment loaned by the Fish & Boat Commission for this session to be held at the western boat launch area of Lake Jean by the entrance to the park on Route 487.  Contact Judy Adamic, EES, 570 477-7780 for more information.

June 27, 2009, at 7 PM. "Second Chance Rehabilitators." Join the staff of Ricketts Glen State Park Saturday at the amphitheater to meet the people who give young wildlife a second chance at life after injury or abandonment.  They will be bringing some live guests, so come early for a good seat!  In case of bad weather, this program will be held at the Visitor’s Center.

Quote of the Day
"If it's not one thing it's another; if it's not that, it's something else."
-Rosanne Roseannadanna

 

June 21, 2009.  Today is the first full day of summer in the northern hemisphere, the longest day of the year and the shortest night.  Happy birthday to Joseph Robert Pascale, Don Miller, Sheila Thompson, Helen Steinruck and Max Hartman. It is the wedding anniversary of Jeff and Sandra Kelsey and Fred and Florence DePoe.

The Cappella Sistina, which you might know by the name "Sistine Chapel," is a chapel in the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City, the ceiling of which was partially painted by Michelangelo and today is known as one of his greatest achievements in painting. Take the time to take a look at the Sistine Chape, then use the arrow keys on the screen to look at the ceiling, the walls and even enlarge the screen.

 

Quickies...

   • Have you ever struggled to understand a concept of the modern computer? If you, you'll smile at the problems faced by the first computer techie. Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J9-Qr7oz-4 for more.

   • Take a break from the hectic pace of life and listen to some of the comedy of Aaron Wilburn by going here.

A reader once found the Benton News by Googling for "fritz, and wrote, "How about a little lesson on the origin of the term fritz as used when something doesn't work right, as in 'My toaster is on the fritz'"? We'll try...

Fritz: pronounced "frits."
. -n. On the fritz, not in working order: Our TV went on the fritz last night.
. -v. fritz out, to become inoperable.

We'll say right up front that we haven't a clue where the term came from. We know that at one time the word fritz was used in an offensive manner to describe a German soldier and it is a popular given name in the Benton area (Fritz). The word is commonly used when something is malfunctioning or broken: "Laptop Larry is on the fritz again," just as the Brits and the Australian would say that Larry is "on the blink." Some claim that fritz is an imitation of the pfzt noise from a faulty electrical connection or the sound of a fuse blowing, but the word actually was around both before the invention of electricity and before the nickname for a German soldier in the first World War.

The word may actually have come from someone called Fritz, someone like "Fritz" in the comic strip The Katzenjammer Kids. In this strip, two youngsters called Hans and Fritz get involved in all sorts of capers, fouling things up to the point of putting everyone involved "on the Fritz." Rudolph Dirks created The Katzenjammer Kids in 1897 for the American Humorist, the Sunday supplement of the New York Journal. Inspired by Max Und Moritz, the German children's stories of the 1860s, The Katzenjammer Kids featured the adventures of Hans and Fritz, twins and foes of any form of authority. "The Katzies" rebelled against their mother, called Mama, der Captain (the father-image shipwrecked sailor and der Inspector (the dreaded representative of school authorities).

We came upon a note that Wayne Baker sent about an old article from the Country Impressions about recognition given by Jeff Farley, owner of the Sweet Valley Golf Course for four men who played his course each week: George Fisher, 70; Robert Kline, 83; Harry Katerman, 84; and Karl Fritz, 86. The four men had a total age of 323 years and an accumulated handicap of 92. Fisher and Katerman lived in Bloomsburg. The four were members of the Susquehanna Valley Retired Men's Association and started golfing together through that club. The four would golf in the mornings before the heat of the day--and never used a golf cart--then enjoyed lunch together. The courses they enjoyed included the Country Club, Mill Race, Sugarloaf and Cherokee at Elysburg.

Incompatibility should be a word we all understand.
When a husband loses his job,
notice how quickly his wife loses her patibility.

Stephanie Ann Spiece (April 11, 1988-June 21, 2009) died early Sunday morning at her home at Sones Hollow Road, Benton, following an illness from cancer for the past two and a half years. She was 21. Stephanie was born  at the Bloomsburg Hospital. She was the daughter of Carl L. and Ann (Guinter) Spiece, Benton. Stephanie was an honors graduate in the Class of 2006 in the Benton Area Schools and was in her junior year at Bloomsburg University, majoring in elementary education/special education. She was a member of the Waller United Methodist Church. While attending Benton Area Schools, she played JV basketball, prom queen in her senior year, was a varsity cheerleader and a member of the drama club. She was a volunteer for the Greenwood Township food bank and Camp Victory during camp emerge week. She was employed by the Sub Shop and Bloomsburg University. Surviving are her parents, her brother, Logan C. Spiece, at home; her fiancee, Kyle R. Middleton, Orangeville; grandparents, Luther and Doris (Robbins) Spiece,  Benton, and her great grandfather, Leon Robbins, Benton, as well as numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. She was preceded in death by her great grandparents, Leona Robbins and Guy and Ruth Spiece. Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 11 AM at the McMichael Funeral Home. Burial will be in the Waller Cemetery.  A visitation will be held Tuesday from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 PM at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in her memory to the Stephanie A. Spiece Scholarship Fund, c/o Benton Area School District, 600 Green Acres Road, Benton, PA  17814.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home

June 20, 2009.  It is the birthday of Gerri Newhart, Ed Vandergrift and Ann Sutliff Ganshaw. It is the wedding anniversary of John and Jessica Geffken. All the prayers seem to be working for Morgan Crossley. She had surgery Thursday at St. Joseph's Hospital to do the arteriogram and embolize vessels leading to the tumor. It was successful and other than some unpleasant side effects from the IV meds and dyes, she is home and doing well. She is now scheduled to have the tumor removed Monday, June 29, at St. Joseph's. Morgan is a relative of Ethel Crossley and Ruth Kline.

The Benton Farmers' Market is having a Lasses, Lads and Dads Day today between 9 and 2. The Mifflinville yard sales begin at 8 AM. Head for the Mifflinville United Methodist Church at Fourth and Market Streets where much of the action takes place.

Camp Little People, part of Camp Victory, Millville, received some well-deserved recognition in a June 19 write-up in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Joyce Davis, Mill Street, founded Camp Little People in 1994 after she discovered that her daughter, Becky, was born with a genetic disorder brought on by achondroplasia dwarfism. You can find the article, at least for a few days, by clicking here.

It would have been something that Father would never have believed. He would have loved to have been with Marcia Kay and I Friday night at Citizens Park, Philadelphia. He supported the team when a loss was to be expected, usually sitting in total darkness in his living room listening to the radio, eyes closed as if in deep sleep, but always waiting and hoping that a miracle would happen and his team would take the pennant. Heck, through the inception of the Phillies in 1884, they lost 10,101 times and only won 8,961 times (figures as of the playoffs last year). The world-champion Phillies did it again last night, losing to their neighbors in Baltimore. Baltimore has now won three straight games and Philadelphia has lost four straight games. Pictures of the Baltimore/Philadelphia game are here.

June 19, 2009. It is the birthday of Sherry Jones, Judy Paul and Ricky D. Karns and the wedding anniversary of Barb and Bill Repko and Debby and Charles Ross.

Quickies...

   • If you haven't seen much of Wilson Lynn since last Monday, it is because he has been recovering at home from triple by-pass surgery.

   • It is like having an old friend back again, now that the Heritage House Restaurant, Lightstreet, is open, even if the management is new to us.

   • Starting with this edition of the Benton News and continuing for another week, our editions will not be delivered on a set schedule. "When the mood hits us," we'll print an edition.

   • We were thrilled to see a picture from the Press Enterprise taken by photographer M.J. McDonald appear in the Thursday edition of the Baltimore Sun. The story was picked up by Jill Rosen who covers news and features involving animals. She has done a story about dog Christmas carolers in State College, hounds who toured with a production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and a story of a preschool teacher who had to replace her class guinea pig, which died over the winter holiday. Jill's pets have included goldfish Bob and Fingle, a fish named Ichabod, and, currently, sweet, sweet kitties named Leo Sesame and Milo Pumpkin. What the Sun didn't say was that Mamma Cat who got her picture taken on the roof of the Benton Christian Church is in heat again and wants nothing to do with her two kittens who in turn want nothing to do with human beings. And in her coverage of the original Press Enterprise photo she doesn't say a thing about Church members having to chase local kids off the Church roof when they decide to climb up and see the kittens.

   • Didja ever hear about the attempt to remove natural gas from the shale of Colorado in September 1969 by detonating a 43-kiloton device three times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima? The drilling went to 8,426 feet, then a nuclear bomb was detonated. The blast did free up natural gas, but it was highly radioactive and a three-mile area around the blast site had to be sealed off. You can read about it by clicking here.

 

 

"Oh good grief," as Father would often say. It is time for another quiz. Here 'tis... You have ten stacks of coins, each consisting of ten half-dollars. One entire stack is counterfeit, but you do not know which stack it is. You do know the weight of a genuine half-dollar, and you are told that each counterfeit coin weighs one gram more than the genuine model. You may weigh the coins on a scale. What is the smallest number of weighing necessary to determine which stack is counterfeit? Answer at end.

 

We'll return to the subject of picking potatoes, continuing from the story in the Thursday edition. About 1922, digging potatoes became less labor intensive on the big farms. A machine became available which only needed a driver and two girls or boys for sorters to do the work that it took eight to do in previous years. This machine used a plow-point digger carried under the row of potatoes and the spuds, dirt and vines turned back on a chain carrier that carried them up an incline which let the ground fall off and let sorters standing on a platform thump the potatoes into an endless belt which took the potatoes into the bed of an adjacent wagon.

 

In conversations with numerous local people who have helped pick potatoes at some point in their lives, it would appear that most potato farmers in the area did it the old fashioned way--brute force: bend over and pick them up. Ed Baker remembers that he never got up. He just crawled on "all fours" and threw the potatoes into a bucket. When he had a potato sack full, he had almost made another $.10. In fact, he did get $.10 per sack, but about three in the afternoon, everyone had to stop and "work for free" bringing in the sacks of potatoes and loading them on a wagon, then unload them at the storage facility.

 

Larry Smith "picked lots of potatoes," and never remembers any migrant workers helping with the work. Everyone was "local," Larry recalls.

 

Lee Remley never picked potatoes for Roy and Susie Hess, but did for Marion Ide. The Ide farm stretched from Route 487 to Fishingcreek in the broad fields North of Benton Borough. Lee said he was paid a dollar for picking a row "clean" from Route 487 to Fishingcreek.

Lee Remley remembers that Roy Hess was a tough taskmaster. It was simple: if you didn't work, you were fired. Ken and Ethel Kelsey lived on the Roy Hess farm from 1946 to 1950, shortly after they were married.

Potato pickers at the Roy Hess farm, thanks to the loan of a picture from Don and Betty Miller.

Didja know that John D. Rockefeller, the man who was worth $145 million in 1895, and his brother, William, roamed about the county, like ordinary country boys. Their parents were poor, and moved from place to place. A farmer hired them to pick potatoes. The two boys labored hard all day, and at its close were paid 25 cents each for their day's work. Both of the Rockefeller brothers acknowledge that the first money they ever earned was the hardest.

 

Potatoes are planted in April and May and the crop matures in August and September, with the earliest potatoes ready in July. On a hot summer night and extending through the late fall of the year, the pungent odor of an occasional rotten potato often fills the air. Potato farmers never want a warm winter. Potato tubers during a warming period in the winter months begin to grow. When the potatoes begin sprouting, the only option for a farmer is to take them to market.

 

 

The answer to today's quiz about the counterfeit coins is a single weighing of coins. Take one coin from the first stack, two from the second, three from the third, and so on to the entire ten coins of the tenth stack. Then weight the whole sample collection on the scale. The excess weight of this collection, in number of grams, corresponds to the number of the counterfeit stack. For example, if the group of coins weighs seven grams more than it should, then the counterfeit stack must be No. 7, from which you took seven coins, each weighing one gram more than a genuine half-dollar.

 

Blanche Frances (Bay) Roberts (January 4, 1915-June 17, 2009) died Wednesday at her home on Marr Road, Benton.  She was 94. She was born in Edwardsville. She was a daughter of the late Joseph and Catherine (Kovwicz) Bay. Mrs. Roberts was a member of Christ The King Church. Surviving are her 12 children:  Sally M. Brown, Shavertown; Betty Ann Amos (John), Trucksville; Bruce R. Roberts (Charlene), Register; Blanche Getz (David), Benton; Thelma Wehner, Bloomsburg; Lela Wills, Tampa, FL; Theresa Kubasek (Joseph), Benton; A. William Roberts, Benton; Nancy L. Slusser (Richard), Benton; Guy G. Roberts (Joanne), Benton; Lori L. Tunaitis (James), Benton; Richard J. Roberts, Benton.  Also surviving are 53 grandchildren, 60 great grandchildren and 32 great great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, John P. Roberts, on September 25, 1988; and by children Delores Sorber, Margaret Husted and John R. Roberts; and grandchildren Denise Bewley, Beverly Brown, Rodney Sorber, Kathleen Patla, Phyllis Dale, John Amos and Margaret Cobb; a great great grandson, Andrew Daley, and daughter-in-law, Susan Roberts. She was the last member of her immediate family and was preceded in death by a brother, Andrew J. Bay and sisters Catherine Bay, Mary Lucas and Amelia Petroski. Private funeral services with viewing preceding will be held Saturday at 10 AM at the McMichael Funeral Home.  Burial will be in St. Gabriel’s Cemetery.   
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home.

June 18, 2009. There are three days until the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, not counting human meddling with the calendar on the last Sunday in October when we get 25 hours. The official start of summer is June 21 at 1:45 AM EDT. Maybe we'll soon get some warm weather and perhaps when the weather forecasters say it will rain it actually will rain (the forecast is rain or thunderstorms through Sunday). There are also three days until Father's Day. How are you going to honor your father?

It is the birthday of Shirley Lockard and the wedding anniversary of Michelle and Allen Turner.

Didja ever think that people are reading Bibles more these days?
Is it possible that they are craming for their finals?

The annual McHenry reunion takes place Sunday, July 26, at the Benton Fire Hall, Colley Street. All McHenry descendants are welcome. At 10 AM, there will be a memorial tribute on the banks of Fishing Creek near the Presbyterian Church. At 11 AM at the Benton Presbyterian Church, there will be a re-enactment of an 1864 Church service featuring Rev. David Diehl speaking on abolitionism, Pastor Calvin Miller speaking on the separation of the Churches over slavery and Rev. Allen Lumpkin portraying the Rev. Alvin Rutan, minister of the Stillwater Christian Church, who was arrested, imprisoned and tried for his political views and opposition to the draft. Eleanor Klementik will present and direct period music. George Turner will host a "Round Table" discussion at 2 PM for the descendants of those who were taken prisoner during the events known as the Fishing Creek Confederacy and for general discussion of Civil War stories involving descendants of the McHenrys. At 4 PM, the group will assemble on Mill Street for the official dedication of the historic marker. The Fishing Creek Heritage Days will include many other activities that will make for a very enjoyable day. It is important that those who plan to attend the McHenry reunion RSVP so the committee has enough food, beverages and paper supplies. A meal will be served at 1 PM. Please bring a covered dish. Meat, place settings and beverages will be provided by the committee. Cash donations to cover expenses will be collected at the reunion. There will be door prizes and gift certificates given out, including a one-quart brown McHenry bottle with label and a sampler amber-colored bottle with no label. Bingo will be available. Please RSVP by July 18 to Vinnie Hippensteel, 1805 Steel Street, Berwick 18603-2553, 570 752-1761, or to Nancy Fricke, 570 925-6123, or Barbara McHenry, 570 925-6641, or Bill and Sandy Schamberger, 570 752-4309, or to Don and Dawn McHenry, 570 864-3168.

Quickies...

   • Are  you concerned about quality of items made in China? If not, check on some issues that might make you change your mind. Take Chinese drywall, for example. On the other hand, they certainly know how to dance.

   • On Saturday, the Benton Farmers' Market is having a Lasses, Lads and Dads Day. Bring your dad along to market and pet the goats, donkeys and other farm animals. Test dad’s skill with a lasso. Enter a coloring contest. Learn how to compost.  Maybe he will buy you some home-made ice cream as a treat.  Perhaps you can find a Father’s Day present for him at the market; i.e., Alpaca socks, a favorite cheese or fresh veggie, home-made pirogies or kielbasa.  Dean House will be playing guitar and singing children songs. It all happens between 9 and 2.

 

• I don't feel that Dan Quayle was such a bad person after writing the following article about picking potatoes. My spell-checker yelled at me three times for spelling the word "potatoe!"

 

A car ride south from Maple Grove in the 1950s followed exactly the same route as it does today, but in the general area of the Sokol quarries adjacent to Route 487 there were four farms which were collectively known as the Roy Hess Farms. Three of the four houses and barns are no longer standing. The one remaining farm is on the west side of Route 487. Some readers will remember Nick Shook, who lived on one of the farms on the hill. Others will remember Jess Crossley, the father of Ethel Kelsey, who lived on one of the farms immediately adjacent to the present Route 487.

 

It about this time of the year--well, maybe early in July--when small potatoes were picked and appeared on stands where vegetables were sold. It was early in July when men and men gathered to dig and make a few dollars of what they felt was easy money. On the cooler days of early July, men and a lot of kids could be found in abundance when Roy didn't want many potatoes dug. But as the heat of the summer began to take its toll and more and more potatoes needed to be taken from the ground, workers began to be harder to keep in the fields.

 

Labor troubles with "tater pickers" began as the hot weather arrived. Most of the workers earned their money by "piece work," getting paid for only the amount of the work that he or she did. It wasn't hard to "soldier" a little when shocking grain or working in the hay fields--but when picking potatoes, what was stacked at your station at the end of day was the basis on which the worker got paid. Ethel Crossley Kelsey remembers that she and her mother picked potatoes to "get money to go to the fair." Others who helped pick were "men from around town."

 

In a large operation like Roy Hess had before more modern mechanization was available, usually he organized the pickers based on years of experience and he personally ran the digger with the team and later with a tractor. The machine that brought up the potatoes jerked along through the field of potatoes, splitting and throwing up one row at a time. The soil came up broken and went through rods which served as a screen so that loose dirt and very small potatoes fell through and the larger potatoes stayed on top of the ground. But that operation didn't get the potatoes into the sacks any more than shaking an apple tree gathers the apples. The pickers were the ones who counted, they got the job done.

 

When the man in charge was ready to begin, he looked at his crew--often ranging in age from six to sixteen--and sized them up as to how much they could accomplish. He then sized the field into "stations." The fastest pickers got longer stations than did the slower pickers. The old man or the woman whose back was bound to get tired received less of a station than a "young buck" who was not afraid of work. Young girls often got longer stations than some men.

 

Stakes driven into the ground indicated where each station began. The stake where the next picker began was in all cases the end of the station just behind. Pickers stayed inside their stations. If the digger worked slowly and someone else had surplus time on his or her hands, they could not break into his station--unless he gave permission.

 

Each picker knew his station and picked up from a wagon the number of potato sacks he expected to need. He stored his sacks in a convenient spot, somewhere near the middle of his station as he got the potatoes. Each picker had a half-bushel basket, usually made of wire, and the picking began as soon as the potato digger threw out the first potatoes. Usually there was work for all pickers all of the time. Each basket had to be filled four times to fill a potato sack. Each station had to be "picked clean."

 

The potatoes that were picked beginning in early July were of the early summer variety. Their storage life was of shorter duration, and most of these potatoes were promptly hauled off to the city for what we today would know as "farmer's markets."

 

No two crops were ever alike. When June was dry and hot, potato farmers would complain that the crop wasn't worth picking. The crop could be salvaged, however, if a couple of hard rains hit the crop in July. In the potato-picking business, as Father used to say, it was "feast or famine."

 

The larger potato growers would fill railroad cars with potatoes ranging from 200 to 265 sacks--two bushels to the sack. O. B. Savage took many bushels of potatoes to the huckster areas of Wilkes-Barre with rocks in the bottom of the sack. O.B. sold his potatoes by weight not by volume!

 

On the average farm, potatoes were only raised to serve what the farmer's family would consume as a garden crop. Growing potatoes wasn't that easy. Huge weeds loved to grow in the potato vines, but they needed to be plowed under--and the potato bugs needed a lot of attention.

 

When we get together Friday with our cups of coffee, we'll leap forward to about 1922 when digging potatoes became less labor intensive on the big farms. Feel free to send in any comments on your experience picking potatoes.

June 17, 2009.  It is the birthday of Allan Harvey and the wedding anniversary of Harry and Ellen Angle and John and Margaret Wharton. Keep Whittier Letteer in your prayers today as he faces knee replacement.

Tuesday morning was busy at the Community Center Food Bank, with ten local gardeners delivering pounds and pounds of fresh produce and eggs, enough to distribute to 50 households.  There was lettuce and other leafy greens in abundance, scallions, dill, flowers, and a huge box of rhubarb, as well as about 20 dozen eggs.  Thanks to the following gardeners:  Kathy Arcuri, Kay Carter, Kay Chapman, Meme Christie, Nancy DePoe, Sandy English, Larry Paul, Susan Root, Karina Tupsak, and Lynn Watson--a fine and generous group of Bentonites.  Meme Christie also had a delicious strawberry salad available for sampling, composed of mixed greens, strawberries, mandarin oranges, pecans and a poppy seed dressing.  The next "Plant A Row" distribution day is the first Tuesday of July, the 7th.  Thank you all for your support!

Jill McHenry is looking for someone who might have information on the Mendenhall family from Benton. Jill is trying to research the Franklin side of her family. Her grandmother (Ruth Franklin McHenry) was a daughter to William F. Franklin. He was a son to Evan Franklin from Huntington Mills. He was born in 1823 and died in 1905. Evan married a girl by the name of Araminta Mendenhall Franklin, born in  1831 and died in 1907. They were married in Benton on April 6, 1856. She was Jill's great great-grandmother. If anyone can help, please email me and I'll put you in contact with Jill.

The North Mountain Historical Society met Monday at the Brass Pelican restaurant to learn about the upcoming play, "Dushore: Past and Present." Melanie Norton went through act 1 of the play, which will be performed July 31, August 1 and August 7 at 7 PM at St. Basil's Hall, Dushore.

The play includes the story of "the Frenchman at the spring." Aristide Aubert Dupetit Thouars was given land as a reward for his efforts to find a place of refuge (Azilum) for the ill-fated French queen Marie Antoinette in what is today Bradford County. The play is in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of a borough with the name "Dushore."  Events have been taking place in that crossroads community from around 1794, when Dushore's founder settled a plot of land along the Little Loyalsock.

Aristide Aubert Dupetit Thouars was born in France in 1760 and worked himself through military school and into the position of captain of a self-financed warship. During one expedition, he lost about a third of his arm, and sailed into a Portuguese harbor for help. He was  arrested, sent to prison and his ship sold. The Portuguese government eventually released him and reimbursed him for his ship. He split the money with his crew, then sailed for the United States where he walked from Philadelphia to the French settlement at Asylum  between Wysox and Wyalusing in an attempt to find a refuge in Pennsylvania for Marie Antoinette, France’s de-throned queen. When he arrived at his destination ten miles south of Towanda, he was completely destitute.

 

The manager of Asylum gave him 400 acres of land in what today is Cherry Township, where he came upon a spring with good drinking water. He built a cabin and cleared land with his one good hand. He worked constantly during the week, then at least during one summer walked the twenty miles to Asylum each Friday night and back again Sunday night to what today is known as Dushore.

 

The lure of the Navy was too much for the man, and in 1797 Aristide again returned to France where he joined the Navy, commanded a large ship (80 guns) and sailed with the French fleet to Egypt where he ran into the English fleet under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson at the battle of the Nile during the wars of the French Revolution. Nelson attacked the French on the evening of the first two days of August 1798.

 

The battle did not go well for Aristide. He nailed his colors to the mast, telling his men never to surrender. A shot ripped his only good arm from his body, but he remained in command. A second shot amputated a leg. He issued orders as he lay helpless on the deck of the ship, when a third shot killed him in his thirty-eighth year of life on August 1, 1798. For more reading on this remarkable man, consult  the "History of Sullivan County, Pennsylvania," by Thomas J. Ingham, Lewis Pub. Co., Chicago, 1899.

 

The play to be presented in Dushore was written by Derek Davis with input from Melanie Norton and Connie Hatch. It is directed by Linda White. Historians Dick Holcombe and Wilson Ferguson have also checked it for historical accuracy. There are nine scenes. Ten “interludes” present the scene to come and comment on the preceding one. The interludes for “Dushore: Past and Present” will be handled by a newspaper editor with a heart of gold and two reporters who take the audience on a journey through the decades.

Scene one  is set in 1793 and introduces Dushore's "founder" Aristide-Aubert Dupetit-Thouars. Scene two is set in the mid-1800s. Scene three explores Dushore’s churches, particularly St. Basil’s, as presented in the person of Fr. Xavier Kaier, who served the parish for almost 60 years and whose work was largely responsible for St. Basil’s church. Scene four is set in 1908 at the Dushore train station. There is even a part in the play for the one red light in Sullivan County! There is drama, comedy, dancing--so set the wheels in motion to get tickets and see the play.  

 

Tickets are $7 in advance, $8 at the door for adults; $1 for children and students. For more information, visit www.sullivanarts.org or phone 570 928-8927. The drive to Dushore is only 27 miles from Benton. The memories will live forever.

 

Quote of the Day:
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
--Abraham Lincoln

The Tuesday edition of the Benton News discussed the auditorium which served the Benton schools for 75 years.  Diarrhea of the fingers set in and the story didn't get finished. The auditorium of the old school was large, airy and well lighted. The stage was the forum for school entertainment and for large groups like the garden club which met on the stage. Wrestling practice sometimes took place there. The stage was fitted with footlights and hung with a blue, sunfast velour curtain. A black valance with a monogram "B" was at the top of the stage arch. Under the auditorium was a large basement room for "a play room for the smaller pupils on stormy days."

Benton Garden Club Meeting "on the stage," as viewed from the balcony. The annual flower show was held in the high school June 14, 1940. Picture courtesy of Geraldine Yost Laubach

Some of the beams in the ceiling of the basement were from the McHenry Distillery, and during the demolition of the auditorium in 2003 these beams and the charcoal from the burned Distillery were clearly visible.

The building was heated with a steam-heating system supplied by a "Harrisburg Star water boiler." The ventilating system was the unit type which delivered fresh warm air to each room. The building was not air conditioned.

The Benton Argus described the building dedication on December 31, 1928...

"It is a two-story building with steel frame and brick walls. The wall finish is ivory-colored Textone. The wood trim is stained light and varnished. The floors are double wood throughout, except in the toilets and entrances, which are cement.

"At the ends of the halls the entrances and stairs are located. A third and main entrance comes into the middle of the hall from the front of the building. There are eight standard classrooms and the stage will also be used as a classroom.

"There are laboratories for science, cooking, sewing and agriculture. The cooking laboratory contains a cafeteria where lunches are served at noon. In connection with the Home Economics Food Laboratory is a small dining room and a girls' rest room. One classroom on first floor contains the library of about 2,000 volumes and a small room on second floor above the stage will be used as a teachers' room.

"Folding doors between the rooms of the seventh and eighth grades make it possible to open them into one large room for assembly work. The four toilets are modern although the building has excellent natural lighting by windows. It is completely equipped with electric lights. An emergency system, as required by the state, is installed that will enable lights to burn for 3 hours, in case of power failure. Although there is practically no ornamentation, the building is exceptionally comfortable and workable. It measures up well with the present day ideas in school construction. It is a building that any community could feel well satisfied with."

A great factor in the success of the Benton schools was L. Ray Appleman. The faculty for the new school in its first term was L. Ray Appleman, principal; Blanche Shultz, assistant principal; Alvin C. Sutliff, supervisor of agriculture; Aurabel Pelton, supervisor of home economics.

Elementary - Harriet Hagenbuch, first grade; Marcella Hess, second grade; Helen Mendenhall, third grade; Esther Chapin, fourth grade; Helen Long, fifth grade; Mary Savage, sixth and seventh grades; and Carola Fritz, eight grade. High School - Wayne B. Renschler, science and agriculture; Flora Fritz Henderson, English and music; and W. R. Jones, history and Latin.

 

 

June 16, 2009. It is the birthday of Nancy Joan Hess and Melanie Gordon and the wedding anniversary of Scott and Karen Edwards, Fran and Harry Baker and Ed and Alice Allegar. Keep Dottie Ann Pollock in your prayers today as she faces surgery in Florida.

Stan Laurel, the skinny half of the old-time comedy duo of Laurel and Hardy, was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in England on June 16, 1890. Laurel began his career as a comedian and understudy to Charlie Chaplin. He moved to the US in 1910, began to perform in vaudeville theater, and teamed with Oliver Hardy in the mid-1920s. They made dozens of films before ill health caused them both to retire in the early 1950s. Laurel once said he liked the way that Dick Van Dyke impersonated him the best, although, he pointed out, Van Dyke never quite wore his hat correctly. In 1965, Van Dyke delivered the eulogy at Laurel's funeral. Today's comedy sequence features Stan Laurel. Click here to watch.

 

Quote of the Day:

That's another nice mess you've gotten me into."

--Oliver Hardy to Stan Laurel

 

A reader from San Diego, after reading that I was going to a Phillies game Friday night, sent me a quiz--which I failed. I'll pass it along to you, and will provide the answer toward the end of today's post. Here is the quiz, a detective, answer-is-obvious question...

 

Three elderly ladies were excited about seeing their first Phillies baseball game. They smuggled a bottle of Jack Daniels into the ball park. The game was real exciting and they were enjoying themselves immensely as they mixed the Jack Daniel with soft drinks. Soon they realized that the bottle was almost gone and the game had a number of innings to go.

Based on the given information, what inning is it and how many players are on base?

 

Jennifer Quick, a professor, writer and historian in Northern Michigan,  and her mother, Donna Hollopeter, a resident of Indiana, are the most recent additions to the email version of the Benton News. The names might not be familiar, but Jennifer's great grandparents were Herman and Pearl Funk,  Benton, whose oldest daughter was Catherine, Jennifer's grandmother. Jennifer's grandfather was William (Bill) Kingsbury, whose parents were Chapin and Edna Kingsbury, Jamison City. Jennifer has fond memories of Jamison City, Benton, and the rest of the region.

 

Jennifer's parents, Jason and Donna Hollopeter, moved to Ohio six weeks after she was born in Pennsylvania, but the family often drove back and forth between the two states to visit family. Jason ministered in the Methodist church and had the circuit of Methodist churches outside of Berwick.  

Jennifer's great uncle is Bill Mather who was married to Jennifer's great aunt, Pauline (Kingsbury). Her great grandmother was Edna Kingsbury. Jennifer remembers the fish suppers and helping her great aunt Emma Lou Savage working the sno-cone machine for her great grandfather Funk at the Benton Carnival.

Jennifer is looking for information on her family, noting that "the older I get the more I lose out on knowing them." Email me if you would like Jennifer to contact you.

 

Colonial Pharmacy, 283-285 Main Street, across from the corner of Church and Main, Benton, will close for the last time at the end of today's work day. The local pharmacy will not reopen. On Wednesday, all prescriptions will be transferred to the CVS pharmacy, Berwick. The local drug store had prescriptions, health/ beauty aids, photo finishing and film. The loss of the drug store will be felt throughout the upper Fishingcreek Valley.

 

   Didja ever notice that each year it takes less time and more money to get where you're going?

Answer to today's quiz...
It's the bottom of the fifth, and the bags are loaded! Now lets try another type of quiz. It is called "circle the cat." Go to

www.members.shaw.ca/gf3/circle-the-cat.html and give it a try.

 

 

Residents of the area always turn out in mass for dedications; i.e., the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, the bio-mass heating plant at the Benton Area Schools (although it hasn't quite happened yet) and the dedication on December 31, 1928, of the 450-seat auditorium in the new Benton Joint School.  Residents of Benton Borough and Benton Township flocked to one of the state's first "consolidated" school systems, a combination elementary-high school. Seventy-five years later, the wrecking ball descended on the auditorium.

An 1877 map of Benton shows a school located on Market Street about where Mr. and Mrs. Rod VanPelt currently live. Both John Appleman and Ben McHenry attended the Market Street school as children. You can read more about this school under FEATURES, The Writings of William Heacock.

T. C. Smith, former school-board member and secretary of both the Benton Borough and the joint school board was a pupil in a school that was operated on the third floor of the "Rohr McHenry Building," located west of the present Market Street home of Starla Grasley, the former manse of the Benton United Presbyterian Church. The first Pennington and Seely Store in Benton opened on the first floor of the large structure. It was one of the 60 structures destroyed by the July 4, 1910, Benton Fire. (Route 487 south from the square did not exist at that time.)

L. Ray Appleman, a teacher and principal in the Benton schools for 50 years, organized the Benton schools into grades with an established course of study while it was operating in the 6-room frame building. This effort along with his teaching in the summer school formed the basis for instruction in the high school. The six-room wood-frame structure gave Benton a full 12-grade public school system, a rarity in the 1920s for a municipality of less than 1,000 residents. Students from five surrounding small municipal districts sent students to the Benton Joint School.

E. E. Beare was principal when the school first gained state recognition as a third-class high school. In 1913 the school became recognized as a "First Grade" high school. The Benton High School was one of only three in the county at the time getting a first-grade rating. Twenty-three classes graduated from Benton from this school building.

Thomas L. Davis, Dr. Thomas C. McHenry, M. L. Cole, J. F. Ashelman and F. I. Shultz were on the school board at the time the wood-frame school in Benton Borough was built. In 1926, when discussions were held about building a new school to replace the wood-frame structure, M. P. Edwards, P. G. Shultz and N. B. Cole were on the board--all sons of former school directors. Edwards and Cole lived in the township, were on the Benton township board and were instrumental in getting the township to join with the borough. Several one-room schools were closed at the same time.

The original frame building was no longer large enough for educational purposes. The building was moved east on the lot across the street from Benton Park and through an addition was made into an "L" shape. This building had outside plumbing and six rooms, three up and three down. It was heated by a central hot-air system inadequate in the coldest temperatures to heat the second floor satisfactorily. Benton experienced lots of trouble with contagious diseases among the school children during that period and in one school term it was necessary to close three times. It was generally felt that the problem could be traced to the inadequate heating system.

The high-school building was built with a sense of community spirit. The school was made possible through the efforts and public spirit of a few people backed with their own personal resources and effort, not by a public-school tax. A lot of the credit for the school went to Byron S. Keller and Dr. I. L. Edwards. Area residents worked together in August, 1927, to cut costs and get the school site ready for construction. The account of the "frolic" appeared in the Argus. The residents of the Benton School District were in a great mood the day that the article appeared, filled with a huge sense of accomplishment. The town--men, women and children--had turned out the day before for what the Argus called a "school frolic." Headline on headline read: "GREAT WORK DONE AT SCHOOL FROLIC HERE," HUNDREDS OF WILLING WORKERS BUSY AS BEES," and "REAL COMMUNITY SPIRIT."

Benton had long had the "Summer Institute" or "Summer School," a program where students who completed the public schools could attend the institute and become certified to teach in the public schools.

In 1915, the Benton school became the center of high-school education in the northern end of Columbia County. Some townships had established two-year high schools, but some still went only to eighth grade. Pupils from throughout northern Columbia County and some students from adjacent townships in Lycoming, Sullivan and Luzerne counties enrolled in Benton's high school to complete the four-year course.

The expanding enrollment at the high school level made it necessary for the Benton school board to consider more space. First the second floor of the Columbia County National Bank on Market Street was rented for the home economics department and a small former shirt factory adjacent to the north border of the school property was taken over and remodeled to serve as the "Ag" building. In 1917, the school purchased the home recently owned by Mr. and Mrs. Ernie Koons, and used it for the home-economics department.

L. Ray Appleman, a teacher and principal in the Benton schools for 50 years, was primarily responsible for organizing the Benton schools into grades with an established course of study while it was operating in the 6-room frame building. This effort along with his teaching in the summer school helped form the nucleus and build the support for the high school.

All prior articles are filed in the archives.
Please go to the archives for previous Benton News.

The News from Back Home in Benton, PA, is copyright © David R. Kline, 2002–2009. All rights reserved.

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