It's been a day of surprises here for me.
First -beginning early-early in the day -at a hour when most people are sound asleep (but I was sitting in my chair, working away on the "Rooster" tabletopper for my cousin Ruth Ann and watching re-runs of one of my favorite shows on the Hallmark Channel (Cheers) when I heard noises on the stairs, little feet carefully come down the steps and into the living room then pops Miss Maya!
I asked her why she was up as she really should be in bed, sleeping -and dreaming -away so she would be all rested and ready to hop out of bed in the morning to get ready for school. She told me she needed a drink.
So, I told her to go and get a little glass of water and to that, she informed me, in a tone of voice that was almost haughty -"Some people drink things besides water, you know!"
Oh yes, my dear little one, that is quite true. And your Grammy, for example does love occasionally to indulge in beverages other than water or those that are made with water as a main component -like coffee, tea (hot or iced) and yes, Gram likes certain other beverages too that are -at least for several years I would hope -out of Miss Maya's range and liking. Things like oh, maybe a nice cold can or bottle of that fermented stuff called beer! Although my intake of that frosty beverage has dropped considerably over the past few years, I still do enjoy a good cold brew -or two -or sometimes more. LOL
So anyway -back to Miss Maya -I told her to go get herself a drink -of her choice -knowing full well that would involve her putting a little chocolate syrup in a cup and adding a dabble of milk to it and stirring it all up with as much, if not more zest and energy than one would use in mixing up a cake or some other concoction.
The milk having been devoured, I told her she really needed to go back to bed but again, she has a speedy response for me to that suggestion.
"I' m really not very tired or sleepy at all, Gram!"
I thought about forcing the issue and making her go back upstairs and to bed and then thought if I do that and she's not all that sleepy at the moment, she'll be awake upstairs and in no time, I could envision she would also wake up her brother and then, I'd be stuck with both of them up and fighting, and Kurtis having some kind of hissy fit so picking my battle carefully then, I told her she could stay downstairs with me but she had to either go lay down out in my room or lay down on the loveseat or the sofa.
Although there was plenty of room on the sofa for both her and Sammy -who was curled up at one end there -she couldn't lay down there and share the couch with him, so she got herself a lightweight blanket, found her special teddy bear and fluffy dog stuffed animal and curled up on the loveseat. That was shortly after 1:30 a.m. and it was just past 2:30 a.m. when I saw that her eyes had finally closed completely and that she was asleep then!
I just left her there then to sleep the rest of the night on the loveseat cause I sure as heck wasn't about to try to carry her upstairs nor was I going to rouse her and make her walk up the steps either! Best to let sleeping dogs lie you know!
This afternoon, I went out to our church around 1 p.m. to meet up with seven other women from our Women's Group and we set out to give the social hall there a darned good housecleaning!
Cupboards in the kitchen were all cleaned out and scrubbed; the stove and oven cleaned plus windows in the hall, wainscoating, heating vents -all given a good wipe-down. All the tables and folding chairs were given a thorough once-over and finally, the floor swept and mopped up. If anyone were to come into the social room now, I would defy them to find any dirt, anywhere, left over there!
While I was working on the wainscoating and heat vents, my neighbor and good friend, Kate, was doing each table and the folding chairs. We talked a bit as we worked - a nice feature of having a group of people sharing in those chores you know- and when I got to the end of one wall and went to get up from working on that stuff on my hands and knees, I realized I had a bit of a problem.
I was beyond the reach of the last table so I had nothing stable then to grasp hold of and balance myself while trying to pull myself up to my feet!
I thought maybe if I got myself up on one knee and I could put the weight then onto the other leg and do a balance act there, I could stand up. But that knee didn't want to cooperate, so I reverted then to trying to do the same thing but with the other knee and it did seem, momentarily, that it was going to work and then, BOOM! I lost my balance and did a semi-split there on the floor with my left leg bending at the knee and kind of causing my left leg then to splay out a bit and my left ankle was slightly bend under all of that weight then too!
Yeah, it was quite the sight -a not very neat and tidy three-point landing for sure, but thankfully, nothing injured except a bit of pride you could say. Although it did take me very much by surprise and when I made my landing, although in my mind, I meant to say "Oh Sheesh!" but a slip of the tongue and the other women probably thought I was calling out in prayer because what I said was "Oh Jesus!"
I should have known better than to try to get up off the floor in the first place without having anything to hold onto and to give me some leverage but no, I had to prove it to myself, for once and for all I guess, that there are certain moves my old body doesn't approve of and that happens to be one of 'em!
When we were about finished up, my stomach -or intestinal tract actually -began to give me fits with lots of cramping and such so I made a speedy exit out of there then and came home to sit back and put my legs up, rest my back a bit too that way and try to get the intestines to settle down.
Finally, about 5:30 -feeling a little tired but not wanting to fall asleep right then and there -I opted to take Sammy for a nice long walk as an effort to keep my legs and back from stiffening up too much on me.
We walked down the road -in the opposite direction then of the neighbor who complained -and headed down towards the ghost town of Peale.
It had been about 3 weeks since I had last been down that part of the road and what a treat I had today.
Three weeks ago, there were dandelions blooming all over there. Today, still lots of bloomers in that category but lots of them already going to seed and ready to have their fluffy tops blown off and spreading their seeds deeper then into the forest.
Trees that had only the faintest hint of a bud on them three weeks ago now showed many of them to be in full blossom. White flowers, pink ones denoted apple trees among the firs, hemlock and pines. Maple and oak trees had buds coming out and some even had tiny leaves beginning to form. And those evergreens -many of them had lighter green showing on their tips which indicates the new growth coming on to those trees too.
Just beautiful! Seeing all the colors, the different shades of greens and the flora along the road showed how this had all sprung back to life in those three weeks then since my last visit.
It's been many, many a year that has passed since I was a youngster and used to walk down that road or along the old railroad track and see the new blossoms, the new ground flower growth popping up along the way. Back then, when my cousins and I would walk with their aunts along those routes, they told me the names of all the little tiny white or purple flowers we saw blooming but when you stop visiting places like this for a long period of time, don't pay any particular attention over those years to the growth around you, those names, the ability to identify plants leaves you.
And sadly, that's exactly what has happened to me.
I saw some lovely little white blooms as well as some tiny purple and lavender ones too but I couldn't tell you now what plants they were from! I saw the bushes along the roadside beginning to turn from the winter brown to the lovely light green shade and I'm pretty sure many of them will be producing a great crop of huckleberries this summer. I "think" I can still recognize those plants! I know I did see some leaves of some other vine type things growing in and around those bushes and I'm pretty sure they were wild strawberry plants getting their foothold in the ground again.
But when it is time to go pick those things, those bushes, those fir trees and other ground cover growth will then be so thick along the road that it will be hard to reach in and pick their succulent fruits because by then, the wildlife of the area will be out then too. And those woods are really full of creepy crawly things that I hate and am also terrified of encountering one of 'em too -copperheads and rattlesnakes!
Funny isn't it though, how -when I was a kid -my friends and I would take our little pails and head down that road and pick berries with very little fear of those creatures! Usually, we would have one adult with us -for protection and to beat the bushes a bit to roust out any unwanted snakes -but I know and fully understand today why my Mom -and my Grandmother too -were always worried from the time my pals and I would leave on one of these berry-picking expeditions until we got back home with no bites on us other than from some pesky mosquitos or insects of that type.
But these days, I'll enjoy going for walks down there, along that road and trying to imagine what it may have been like there well over a hundred years ago when my Grandfather was growing up in that ghost town and how different the sights there are today than from when he saw them.
Hard to imagine a young boy of 9 or 10 years of age going out and picking berries after having put in a full workday -10 hours or so -loading coal into the mine cars and leading the mules out of the mines, pulling their heavy loads behind them, isn't it?
But that's what life was like back then for him and for many, many other youngsters his age and up. Work from dawn until the late afternoon and then come home and tend to a garden or go picking berries and other things from the woods around them to sustain them with fresh food during the summer months and through the hard work of canning and preserving those items, food to keep them nourished through the long, cold months ahead.
I don't know about you but it makes me marvel that they had that strength to persevere, to push on, to harvest any and all foods they could.
How many of us today could do that? How many of the children today would even be willing to do all that?
All of that makes me very thankful that they could and did and also, that today, we don't have to endure that much work, that kind of hardship, in order to have fresh food to eat.
Enjoy the produce on your tables today and remember how hard our ancestors had to work to have the bounty of the land around them to carry them through.
Showing posts with label ghost town of Peale. Grassflat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ghost town of Peale. Grassflat. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, September 24, 2007
Small World
This is the kind of story I love to hear, love to tell about too, for that matter.
I got a telephone call yesterday from my good friend and neighbor a few doors up the street from me. My life-long friend, Shirley!
She's a very upbeat, VERY bubbly person, rarely without a smile and always a friendly word to whoever she meets. Her youngest sister, Kate, is the same age as me and Kate and I have been friends for as long as I can remember. Kate's my oldest friend in terms of how long she and I have always been "best of friends" but I tease Shirley that she is my "oldest" really close friend since she is 8 years older than Kate and I and Shirley and I have, over the years, evolved into becoming very strong, close friends too.
But I digress. (I know, what the heck else is new, you're probably saying.)
Shirley had to call and tell me that she'd just had a phone call from her older daughter, Kathy, who lives somewhere down in the Philadelphia suburbs - don't know which town, just know she lives down in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Kathy had called because she couldn't wait to tell her mother what had happened to her at church yesterday. She said when it was time for the "Prayers of the Church" during which the minister prays for everything and anything, one of the things he mentioned was that a parishioner there had requested that the members of this particular church offer prayers for the family of Erling Young, who'd passed away earlier this week.
When Kathy heard that, her immediate thoughts were "Now, just how many people can there possibly be with the name of Erling Young?" Because their minister had given the name too of the party who requested this prayer, after the services, Kathy walked up to the lady and asked her where she'd been on Saturday.
THe lady was a bit surprised at Kathy's question but she answered her by saying she'd been to a funeral in Lanse, PA at the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church to which Kathy had then informed her that church just happens to be her home parish! Imagine the look of surprise on the other lady's face to learn that this young woman -who she'd seen at church but didn't know a thing about her -was from the area in central Pennsylvania where her ancestors had lived years and years ago!
Shirley, true to her form, told me she could hardly wait to get off the phone with her daughter because she HAD to call and tell me about this, knowing me as well as she does, she just KNEW this was the kind of story I would really revel in. And you know what? She was right!
Ever since I got interested in researching the local history of the township where I've lived almost my entire life, I've become fascinated too upon transcribing old newspaper reports and especially old obituaries to learn what families are interconnected as well as how many folks I've read about in these old newspapers I've been researching have roots back to the ghost town about a mile or two down the road from my home.
You're all probably familiar with the game made popular several years back "Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon" (or a name similar to that in case I have a word listed incorrectly there.) Well, since doing this research I have developed an opinion that if you talk to people and get them to dig back in their families' roots far enough - maybe 8 or 10 degrees is needed to play my game - you'll very often find a link there back to this little ghost town that only really existed for roughly 30, maybe 40 years tops, just before the turn of the century and shortly thereafter.
It's something that never ceases to amaze me what a small - very small -world we do actually live in ya know!
Think about that awhile now and mentally try to track back where your ancestors - especially if they were Swedish or Slovak and came to this country in the late 1800's and perhaps were coal miners - that quite possibly they too may have a link to this little ghost town near to my home.
It could happen you know and you might just be surprised at learning where you ancestors once lived, what that area was like then, what it's like now.
All things that truly do fascinate me.
Now, with that song "It's a Small World Afterall" playing like a big old earworm in my head, I'm off to the kitchen to try to figure out some type of meal to feed the family for supper tonight.
Any suggestions are welcome in that department too!
I got a telephone call yesterday from my good friend and neighbor a few doors up the street from me. My life-long friend, Shirley!
She's a very upbeat, VERY bubbly person, rarely without a smile and always a friendly word to whoever she meets. Her youngest sister, Kate, is the same age as me and Kate and I have been friends for as long as I can remember. Kate's my oldest friend in terms of how long she and I have always been "best of friends" but I tease Shirley that she is my "oldest" really close friend since she is 8 years older than Kate and I and Shirley and I have, over the years, evolved into becoming very strong, close friends too.
But I digress. (I know, what the heck else is new, you're probably saying.)
Shirley had to call and tell me that she'd just had a phone call from her older daughter, Kathy, who lives somewhere down in the Philadelphia suburbs - don't know which town, just know she lives down in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Kathy had called because she couldn't wait to tell her mother what had happened to her at church yesterday. She said when it was time for the "Prayers of the Church" during which the minister prays for everything and anything, one of the things he mentioned was that a parishioner there had requested that the members of this particular church offer prayers for the family of Erling Young, who'd passed away earlier this week.
When Kathy heard that, her immediate thoughts were "Now, just how many people can there possibly be with the name of Erling Young?" Because their minister had given the name too of the party who requested this prayer, after the services, Kathy walked up to the lady and asked her where she'd been on Saturday.
THe lady was a bit surprised at Kathy's question but she answered her by saying she'd been to a funeral in Lanse, PA at the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church to which Kathy had then informed her that church just happens to be her home parish! Imagine the look of surprise on the other lady's face to learn that this young woman -who she'd seen at church but didn't know a thing about her -was from the area in central Pennsylvania where her ancestors had lived years and years ago!
Shirley, true to her form, told me she could hardly wait to get off the phone with her daughter because she HAD to call and tell me about this, knowing me as well as she does, she just KNEW this was the kind of story I would really revel in. And you know what? She was right!
Ever since I got interested in researching the local history of the township where I've lived almost my entire life, I've become fascinated too upon transcribing old newspaper reports and especially old obituaries to learn what families are interconnected as well as how many folks I've read about in these old newspapers I've been researching have roots back to the ghost town about a mile or two down the road from my home.
You're all probably familiar with the game made popular several years back "Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon" (or a name similar to that in case I have a word listed incorrectly there.) Well, since doing this research I have developed an opinion that if you talk to people and get them to dig back in their families' roots far enough - maybe 8 or 10 degrees is needed to play my game - you'll very often find a link there back to this little ghost town that only really existed for roughly 30, maybe 40 years tops, just before the turn of the century and shortly thereafter.
It's something that never ceases to amaze me what a small - very small -world we do actually live in ya know!
Think about that awhile now and mentally try to track back where your ancestors - especially if they were Swedish or Slovak and came to this country in the late 1800's and perhaps were coal miners - that quite possibly they too may have a link to this little ghost town near to my home.
It could happen you know and you might just be surprised at learning where you ancestors once lived, what that area was like then, what it's like now.
All things that truly do fascinate me.
Now, with that song "It's a Small World Afterall" playing like a big old earworm in my head, I'm off to the kitchen to try to figure out some type of meal to feed the family for supper tonight.
Any suggestions are welcome in that department too!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Stiff Knees, Swollen Ankles!
Yep, that's what I have tonight - a couple of knees with a whole lot of stiffness in them and an ankle that puffed out pretty good after some rare usage I put the old legs through today.
This morning, I was up bright and early - a really rare thing for me to be up by 7 a.m., unless it's that I haven't yet gone to bed -which is more likely the cause for me to be awake at that hour.
But today, not only was I up by 7 a.m. but I was showered, dressed and out of the house too before 9 a.m. and that is really a shocker to my system.
The reason for my early hours was that I was to meet up with a group of other folks who are interested in the history of the ghost town nearby where I live and who ever showed up, we were all going to go spend the morning tramping around in the woods, down in Peale - the ghost coal mining town featured in the website shown on my blog under the listing of my "favorite" places I like to visit online.
The leader/organizer of this expedition was Jeff Feldmeier from Allen Park, Michigan. Jeff's grandparents both came from this village where I live and he still has a good many cousins who live in this area. Add to that, he has such an interest -more like a "love" of this area and its history that although he grew up in Michigan, I'm betting he probably knows more about this area's history than do most of us who were born and raised in these old hills.
There were nine of us who ventured out today and though at a couple times in our trekking around, it did get a bit misty, at least it wasn't more than that.
Our first stop was to walk back in from the dirt road, along a logging path, in search of the Peale cemetery. My two younger kids and I had tried to locate the cemetery about 8-9 years ago to no avail. Although a friend of my son's who is a big hunter and knows the woods around here very well told me later that we were probably just a stone's throw away from the cemetery but it is very difficult to see it. The reason being - there is only one marker left there - the rest having been destroyed over the years by either vandalism or also, from forest fires since many of the old-time markers were made of wood.
I had a personal interest in wanting to find this cemetery though as my great-great-grandfather Till is buried there. He died in Peale in 1889 if my memory of the dates from my family tree records is correct. However, with no cemetery records available as to who is buried there, no markers to show exactly where the graves are save but the one for a lady by name of Martha Renfrew, it's just a means of being able to say that I did visit his grave, just didn't know exactly where it is located.
From the cemetery, we went up to the area that at one time was the village park - complete with a brick-lined swimming pool too in its hey-day! That area is pretty well overgrown now and though there is a big pond there that we're guessing is what now remains of the old pool, I couldn't see any of the bricks that used to be visible. I don't remember it ever being full of water either years back when I had last ventured up to that area of the old village.
I remembered to take a camera along with me today and got pictures down at the cemetery, up at the park and of the ruins of the last house that was being used as a camp but burned completely to the ground last October. It was really a beautiful big old house and why someone would get enjoyment, pleasure, from seeing a slice of the area's history going up in flames and smoke is beyond me. If you take a look through the Peale website posted under my blog favorites, you can see what this old house looked like until last fall.
Before I left the others in the group - had to get back home as Mandy had to be at work by 1 p.m. this afternoon - we managed to find what appears to be the remains of the foundation that was once the Peale Company Store - a place that back in the 1880's and 1890's served ALL the needs of the townspeople.
I'm really glad I had to curtail my walk around old Peale though because by 1:30 this afternoon, my legs and back were telling me that exercise maybe a good thing but my system is not very accustomed to much of it and it was protesting greatly! A two-hour nap this afternoon then was the prescription for curing those woes for me.
But, when I got up after having given my legs and back some relief and relaxation, I think the walking along with lots and lots of fresh air was really a good thing after all.
As soon as I get that roll of film developed - and hopefully at least a couple of the pictures I took will turn out ok - I'll post what I can on this blog for all to see how pretty the forests and hills of central Pennsylvania really can be, even on a grey, misty late-April day.
This morning, I was up bright and early - a really rare thing for me to be up by 7 a.m., unless it's that I haven't yet gone to bed -which is more likely the cause for me to be awake at that hour.
But today, not only was I up by 7 a.m. but I was showered, dressed and out of the house too before 9 a.m. and that is really a shocker to my system.
The reason for my early hours was that I was to meet up with a group of other folks who are interested in the history of the ghost town nearby where I live and who ever showed up, we were all going to go spend the morning tramping around in the woods, down in Peale - the ghost coal mining town featured in the website shown on my blog under the listing of my "favorite" places I like to visit online.
The leader/organizer of this expedition was Jeff Feldmeier from Allen Park, Michigan. Jeff's grandparents both came from this village where I live and he still has a good many cousins who live in this area. Add to that, he has such an interest -more like a "love" of this area and its history that although he grew up in Michigan, I'm betting he probably knows more about this area's history than do most of us who were born and raised in these old hills.
There were nine of us who ventured out today and though at a couple times in our trekking around, it did get a bit misty, at least it wasn't more than that.
Our first stop was to walk back in from the dirt road, along a logging path, in search of the Peale cemetery. My two younger kids and I had tried to locate the cemetery about 8-9 years ago to no avail. Although a friend of my son's who is a big hunter and knows the woods around here very well told me later that we were probably just a stone's throw away from the cemetery but it is very difficult to see it. The reason being - there is only one marker left there - the rest having been destroyed over the years by either vandalism or also, from forest fires since many of the old-time markers were made of wood.
I had a personal interest in wanting to find this cemetery though as my great-great-grandfather Till is buried there. He died in Peale in 1889 if my memory of the dates from my family tree records is correct. However, with no cemetery records available as to who is buried there, no markers to show exactly where the graves are save but the one for a lady by name of Martha Renfrew, it's just a means of being able to say that I did visit his grave, just didn't know exactly where it is located.
From the cemetery, we went up to the area that at one time was the village park - complete with a brick-lined swimming pool too in its hey-day! That area is pretty well overgrown now and though there is a big pond there that we're guessing is what now remains of the old pool, I couldn't see any of the bricks that used to be visible. I don't remember it ever being full of water either years back when I had last ventured up to that area of the old village.
I remembered to take a camera along with me today and got pictures down at the cemetery, up at the park and of the ruins of the last house that was being used as a camp but burned completely to the ground last October. It was really a beautiful big old house and why someone would get enjoyment, pleasure, from seeing a slice of the area's history going up in flames and smoke is beyond me. If you take a look through the Peale website posted under my blog favorites, you can see what this old house looked like until last fall.
Before I left the others in the group - had to get back home as Mandy had to be at work by 1 p.m. this afternoon - we managed to find what appears to be the remains of the foundation that was once the Peale Company Store - a place that back in the 1880's and 1890's served ALL the needs of the townspeople.
I'm really glad I had to curtail my walk around old Peale though because by 1:30 this afternoon, my legs and back were telling me that exercise maybe a good thing but my system is not very accustomed to much of it and it was protesting greatly! A two-hour nap this afternoon then was the prescription for curing those woes for me.
But, when I got up after having given my legs and back some relief and relaxation, I think the walking along with lots and lots of fresh air was really a good thing after all.
As soon as I get that roll of film developed - and hopefully at least a couple of the pictures I took will turn out ok - I'll post what I can on this blog for all to see how pretty the forests and hills of central Pennsylvania really can be, even on a grey, misty late-April day.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
A Promise Made, A Promise Done
I've been promising for a week now that I would post the results from the Red Moshannon Downriver Race that took place on March 31st and now, I'm happy to post these here for your long-awaited reading pleasure. After typing in these results, I think I now know why I was getting numerous hits from a reader in Albion, Michigan over the past week too. Glad you came by to visit and hope you'll come back and visit often. Feel free to leave comments on the blog at any time as well so I know if you have other things I can find and post here for you to read.
And, just to clarify something too - if anyone reading this happened to be a customer at the grocery store near to Grassflat and overheard some employee of that store talking about having a state police officer posted along the road past our house on the morning of the race so as to keep people from speeding along there, she really was only joking! That would have been my daughter and she would really like to see some participants slow down a bit enroute down to the Peale bridge and for that matter, so would I. I'd really hate to see anyone get a speeding ticket or worse, be in an accident on their way down to the race. Only want to post your name and time it took you to get down the Red Mo to the bridge -no "high speed driving awards" on the highways, just the waterways. Fair enough?
Finally! The results are in! Published in today’s (April 10, 2007) issue of the Clearfield Progress, the winners of the 40th Red Moshannon Downriver Race. The following information is excerpted from the article written by Timothy Nebgen, Staff Writer.
This race is the oldest and largest on the East Coast and this year’s event had 217 racers in 154 boats going down the 7.5 mile stretch of the Red Moshannon. The race begins at the Peale Bridge, located below Grassflat, where the ghost coal mining town of Peale used to stand, and ends at the bridge on state Route 53 at the point where the Red Moshannon and Black Moshannon creeks converge.
The “Top Dog Award” for the fastest time of the day went to Jeff Rankinen and Todd Roadman who cmpleted the race in 44 minutes, 12 seconds.
K-1 WOMEN SHORT: Carol Yeckley, Morrisdale, 1:02:06; LeeAnn DeArmit, Pennsylvania Furnace, 1:04:26; Jean Voigt, Boalsburg, 1:10:44
K-1 WOMEN LONG: Susan Williams, Secane, 0:55:04; Diane Fisher, Kane, 0:57:15; Molly Sturniolo, Warriors Mark, 1:02:54
K-1 MEN SHORT: Ken Damelio, New Columbia, 0:55:11; Steven Smith, Curtisville, 0:56:03; John Workinger, Huntingdon, 0:57:58
K-1 MEN LONG: David Shubert, Gasport, NY, 0:54:36; Jesse Rakovan, Brookville, 1:03:22; Christopher Johns, Erie, DNF
OC 2 MIXED: Zaak Havens, Albion, Mich/Emily Magyar, Gables, Mich., 0:52:15; Jim Goochee, Port Allegheny/Teresa Stout, Sorsica, 0:54:56; Lauren Sugg/Jon Reynolds; 0:55:13
K-2 REC UNLIMITED: Arpad Batizy, Medina, Ohio/Tass Batizy, Erie, 0:52:52; Ron Matchock/Hunter McClelland, Ramey, 1:00:50; Ryan Coleman, Julian/Scott Dehart, Julian, 1:19:30
OC 2 OVER/UNDER: Randy Stout/Logan Stout, Corsica, 0:53:44; Todd Shaffer/Scott Shaffer, Drumore, 0:56:57; Jake Smith, Williamsport/Rick Shumaker, Binghamton, 0:57:28
K-1 WOMEN UNLIMITED: Joanne Simpson, Littlestown, 0:55:10; Dawn McCracken, Curwensville, 0:55:54; Linda Kay Volpe, Grampian, 0:55:58
K-1 MEN UNLIMITED: Andrew Augustine, Throop, 0:53:38; Brian English, Morrisdale 0:53:54; Jared Shrader, Lewisburg, 0:54:20
k-1 men unlimited composite: Doug Keiper, Celebration, Fla., 0:52:31
OC 2 CENTURY: Ken Gerg, Emporium/Glen Vandewinckel, Webster, NY, 0:53:49; Michael Burk, Ebensburg/Greg Gdula, Johnstown, 0:54:28; Howard Pillot, State College/Edward Prince, 0:54:34
OC 2 SHORT: Randy Bailey, Driftwood/Alex Kostra, Transfer, 0:52:20; Chuck Wendler, Lanse/Bob Horton, Clearfield, 0:53:36; John Koenig/William Koenig, 0:53:44And, just to clarify something too - if anyone reading this happened to be a customer at the grocery store near to Grassflat and overheard some employee of that store talking about having a state police officer posted along the road past our house on the morning of the race so as to keep people from speeding along there, she really was only joking! That would have been my daughter and she would really like to see some participants slow down a bit enroute down to the Peale bridge and for that matter, so would I. I'd really hate to see anyone get a speeding ticket or worse, be in an accident on their way down to the race. Only want to post your name and time it took you to get down the Red Mo to the bridge -no "high speed driving awards" on the highways, just the waterways. Fair enough?
Saturday, March 24, 2007
The Red Mo -Ready to Go!
Next week on Saturday, March 31, 2007, the road in front of my house will look almost like a city street. Cars, vans, trucks - you name it - will be going down here and almost every one of them will either be towing something or have similar equipment all strapped down on the roof of their vehicles - kayaks, canoes, paddles - all the items needed for folks to take part in the 40th Annual Red Moshannon Downriver Race!
This is one of the high points in the area every year, on the last Saturday in March. Canoists and kayakers will come from points almost all over the country now as the popularity and notoriety of this race has become known.
I remember back in the mid-70's - the race had been taking place at that time for roughly ten years or so and back then, almost like clockwork, every year in late winter, early spring, the road in front of our house would have a major upheaval resulting in a huge bump that rivaled any "rumble strips" the highway department might lay down in a construction zone!
There were no markers along the road either to alert drivers that this big, big bump lay ahead of them either.
And, for several years running, on the day of the race, my ex, the kids and I would watch out our front window, worrying and wondering how soon someone would come flying down with a vehicle loaded down with canoes or kayaks and gear, hit the bump, lose control of the car or truck and land in our front yard - or even inside the house for that matter. Lucky for them - and for us -that never happened although one car did some to a screeching stop in front of our house after taking the bump way too fast and the two canoes on the roof slid down and totally blocked his windshield.
I wrote an article about this race about two years back for the West Branch Review and focused my story on a father/daughter team who had run this race for several years. The father(Howard Pillot) is the son of a couple up the street from me who are very good family friends and their granddaughter, Anna.
Howie, as he is better known to me and my kids, has taken part in this race for many years now, won a couple of them too, he has. The photo on the left is Anna Pillot and her brother Carl, canoeing on the Red Moshannon Creek. On the right, is father and daughter at one of the many races they participated in on the "Red Mo. (Howard and Anna Pillot of State College, PA.
The Red Moshannon begins up around Osceola Mills, PA, winds its way down through Chester Hill and Philipsburg, behind Hawk Run, through Munson, behind Winburne and down through the ghost town of Peale, PA and eventually empties into the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The photo on the top of the first page of my blog shows the Red Moshannon where it converges with the Susquehanna (West Branch) near Moshannon, PA.
The race itself runs a sometimes really wild and wicked course as the Red Mo makes its way downstream to the bridge on Rte 53 between Moshannon and Drifting. It used to be referred to as the "Iron Bridge" but since that bridge has now been replaced just a few years ago by a nice, new, much safer crossing, only locals would refer to it as that now. The distance of the race course is, I believe, seven miles long. Lots of beautiful scenery along the ride too!
So, if you happen to be a white water canoe/kayak enthusiast and want to try and exciting race, come on out for the fun on March 31, 2007 to Peale, PA. Peale is located about 1 1/2 miles down the road from Grassflat. You'll find lots and lots of other white water racers there plus a guaranteed good time too. And, if you happen to see Howie and maybe his son Carl at the race, wish 'em both lots of luck too from me!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
What's New?
Tonight - or rather this morning now - I'm starting off with the Bushism for the day. Not to ruin anyone's day by putting that there first, but rather to get it in and up and done with lest the senility factors set in and I forget about it. (I do have problems like that from time to time you know.)
March 20, 2007
"Listen, Al Gore is a very tough opponent. He is the incumbent. He represents the incumbency. And a challenger is somebody who generally comes from the pack and wins, if you're going to win. And that's where I'm coming from." - Detroit, Michigan; September 7, 2000.
Sometimes, I do wonder if DUBYA ever has a clear speaking plan when he pops off with some of these statements that, when reading them now, sound a little absurd to say the least. I'm thinking he must have flunked the basic speech courses in college anyway.
'Nuff said on my opinions of DUBYA's speaking prowess. Moving on to other things here now.
What's new? I'm going to be learning how to administer a website, that's what is new for me at the moment.
The website is one that is shown on my blog, under my favorite links about the ghost town of Peale, PA which is about two miles down the road (at most) from my home.
The man who put that website together is a professor at a college in northwestern Ohio and now, with his teaching, research and family - wife and two small children - he is pressed for time to try to keep the website up-to-date so I offered to take over some of that responsibility provided he teaches me how and what to do in order to maintain the site. I know nothing, absolutely NOTHING about tending to a website!
The current plan is also though for me to set up a companion blogsite to the Peale website and that, I think I can manage ok, provided some of my ideas about the blogsite idea go over ok with a few other people too along the way.
One thing I'd like to do with the blogsite is to post the articles I had written and which were published in a small local "monthly" newsletter here. These would be postings about not just Peale though but also about the township and the other little villages here. The blog would encompass then not just information solely about Peale but also about the township as a whole as well - history, other little stories of interest here and there.
A little explanation here about the ghost town though and how I came to get interested in it along with a few other little things.
I'm interested in the history of Peale because my great-grandparents and their children were some of the early settlers of the village back in 1884. Growing up, there was still one family still residing in Peale who moved out of there in 1957 or 1958 - not quite sure at the moment on the exact year. At that time, one could still see a lot of the remains of the old town and my grandfather as well as one of my uncles used to tell me stories that kept the town alive in my mind. I have you see, always been interested in history and especially any type of history that came down to me via my grandfather too.
When I first discovered the website - while surfing the net late one Saturday nite - I was really startled to find a website about a place that had no residents at that time for over 40 years. From reading an article on the website, I ascertained that the writer of that article was related to a family here and that I knew many of his relatives still in this area. I e-mailed him as well as the man who had put the website up to comment to them both on how much I had enjoyed reading all the data posted on the site. And from that, I have since established a long-standing friendship now with the author of the railroad article there as well as becoming acquainted by e-mails back and forth with Dr. Krygier, the owner of the site.
One point that I felt would make a companion blogsite to the Peale website a good idea is that it would make it easier for anyone visiting to submit comments, information, ideas etc. about the ghost town. And, by including the other villages in the township within the umbrella there, I could also do small pieces from the research I have been doing on the township for the past almost three years now. I had noticed from the sitemeter on my blog that a fairly goodly number of hits I was getting - visitors to my blog - were coming from people using the search words of "Peale, PA" and/or Cooper Township but I am assuming because there is no place on the website itself for folks to leave comments and I hadn't really posted anything pertinent to the website either in my blog, they just checked out the website and left leaving no traces then of their visit. And maybe, just maybe, those visitors may have had additional information they wanted to share or questions they wanted to ask but were unsure of trying to reach Dr. Krygier or Jeff Feldmeier, who wrote the excellent articles about the impact of the railroad on the old town of Peale.
I've no idea right now how long it may take me to set up this blog and get it moving or how soon I will actually be doing the administration of the website itself too - just that it's something that is coming as soon as possible and that will be my involvement in both aspects there.
So, if you happened into this blog post by way of searching information about Peale or the township (Cooper) or perhaps any of the little villages here - Drifting, Grassflat, Lanse, Winburne, Forest, Kylertown - feel free to leave a comment or contact me via my e-mail address in the contact area under my profile on this page.
I'd love nothing better than to hear from people who have roots back to this area and share a common interest with me about the history of the region. Or, if you are trying to do family tree research and your roots bring you back here, let me know and I'd be more than happy to try to help you any way possible with your research in that aspect too!
Any and all input in that respect would most definitely be very much appreciated. In the meantime, check out the website for now - if you've not already done so - and keep checking back for the new blog coming to cyberspace sometime in the very near future!
March 20, 2007
"Listen, Al Gore is a very tough opponent. He is the incumbent. He represents the incumbency. And a challenger is somebody who generally comes from the pack and wins, if you're going to win. And that's where I'm coming from." - Detroit, Michigan; September 7, 2000.
Sometimes, I do wonder if DUBYA ever has a clear speaking plan when he pops off with some of these statements that, when reading them now, sound a little absurd to say the least. I'm thinking he must have flunked the basic speech courses in college anyway.
'Nuff said on my opinions of DUBYA's speaking prowess. Moving on to other things here now.
What's new? I'm going to be learning how to administer a website, that's what is new for me at the moment.
The website is one that is shown on my blog, under my favorite links about the ghost town of Peale, PA which is about two miles down the road (at most) from my home.
The man who put that website together is a professor at a college in northwestern Ohio and now, with his teaching, research and family - wife and two small children - he is pressed for time to try to keep the website up-to-date so I offered to take over some of that responsibility provided he teaches me how and what to do in order to maintain the site. I know nothing, absolutely NOTHING about tending to a website!
The current plan is also though for me to set up a companion blogsite to the Peale website and that, I think I can manage ok, provided some of my ideas about the blogsite idea go over ok with a few other people too along the way.
One thing I'd like to do with the blogsite is to post the articles I had written and which were published in a small local "monthly" newsletter here. These would be postings about not just Peale though but also about the township and the other little villages here. The blog would encompass then not just information solely about Peale but also about the township as a whole as well - history, other little stories of interest here and there.
A little explanation here about the ghost town though and how I came to get interested in it along with a few other little things.
I'm interested in the history of Peale because my great-grandparents and their children were some of the early settlers of the village back in 1884. Growing up, there was still one family still residing in Peale who moved out of there in 1957 or 1958 - not quite sure at the moment on the exact year. At that time, one could still see a lot of the remains of the old town and my grandfather as well as one of my uncles used to tell me stories that kept the town alive in my mind. I have you see, always been interested in history and especially any type of history that came down to me via my grandfather too.
When I first discovered the website - while surfing the net late one Saturday nite - I was really startled to find a website about a place that had no residents at that time for over 40 years. From reading an article on the website, I ascertained that the writer of that article was related to a family here and that I knew many of his relatives still in this area. I e-mailed him as well as the man who had put the website up to comment to them both on how much I had enjoyed reading all the data posted on the site. And from that, I have since established a long-standing friendship now with the author of the railroad article there as well as becoming acquainted by e-mails back and forth with Dr. Krygier, the owner of the site.
One point that I felt would make a companion blogsite to the Peale website a good idea is that it would make it easier for anyone visiting to submit comments, information, ideas etc. about the ghost town. And, by including the other villages in the township within the umbrella there, I could also do small pieces from the research I have been doing on the township for the past almost three years now. I had noticed from the sitemeter on my blog that a fairly goodly number of hits I was getting - visitors to my blog - were coming from people using the search words of "Peale, PA" and/or Cooper Township but I am assuming because there is no place on the website itself for folks to leave comments and I hadn't really posted anything pertinent to the website either in my blog, they just checked out the website and left leaving no traces then of their visit. And maybe, just maybe, those visitors may have had additional information they wanted to share or questions they wanted to ask but were unsure of trying to reach Dr. Krygier or Jeff Feldmeier, who wrote the excellent articles about the impact of the railroad on the old town of Peale.
I've no idea right now how long it may take me to set up this blog and get it moving or how soon I will actually be doing the administration of the website itself too - just that it's something that is coming as soon as possible and that will be my involvement in both aspects there.
So, if you happened into this blog post by way of searching information about Peale or the township (Cooper) or perhaps any of the little villages here - Drifting, Grassflat, Lanse, Winburne, Forest, Kylertown - feel free to leave a comment or contact me via my e-mail address in the contact area under my profile on this page.
I'd love nothing better than to hear from people who have roots back to this area and share a common interest with me about the history of the region. Or, if you are trying to do family tree research and your roots bring you back here, let me know and I'd be more than happy to try to help you any way possible with your research in that aspect too!
Any and all input in that respect would most definitely be very much appreciated. In the meantime, check out the website for now - if you've not already done so - and keep checking back for the new blog coming to cyberspace sometime in the very near future!
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