Wednesday, April 30, 2008
A Tree In State Street Park Comes Down
Wayne Barrall Photo
I see the News Journal has picked up Wayne Barrall's photo of the Bonanza fire in both the paper version and the online version of the paper. Congratulation Wayne.
1937 Ad Esslinger's Beer
32nd Annual Day In The Park
In recent years Delmar has had two annual events. First is the annual "Day In The Park" and the second is Diane Buckley announcing this will be the last year she is going to be Chairperson of the Day In The Park event. Well at the last Joint Council Meeting she once again made her annual announcement, that said let's wish her well in putting together the 33rd annual Day in The Park.
This year will be the 32nd annual "Delmarva Day In The Park" put on by the Greater Delmar Chamber of Commerce. The "Day in the Park" event is another outcome of the Bi-Centennial celebration that occurred in 1976. As I have said before the Bi-Centennial made a marked impression on Delmar giving it the pavilion in State Street Park and the Caboose.
"Day In the Park" will happen on June 7, 2008 at State Street Park in Delmar. It sounds early to be announcing an event that will not happen for another month but in case vendors are interested I will give some information on it. First, the festival is the Chamber of Commerce only fund raising event. They use the profit from this event to sponsor the Christmas Parade, Carnival of Lights and the Citizen of The Year event. The festival includes; food, crafts, game booths, train rides, fire engine rides, bake sales, live entertainment and music. So if you are interested in having a booth at "Day In The Park" you will need an application that can be obtained by writing The Greater Delmar Chamber of Commerce, PO Box 416, Delmar DE 19940 ATTN: Day In The Park.
Deadline for having your application in is May 23rd. Booth Costs are 12'x12' $35, 12'x24' $50, 12'X36' $70, and a 12'X48' $90.00. You are responsible for providing your own table, chairs awning etc. There is a duplication rule on food vendors, yard sale items are not acceptable. It is a family event so choose your products with that in mind. Drink sales are not allowed. Alcoholic beverages are not allowed. Set up time is 8 A.M. to 10 A.M. the day of the event. See the application package for the actual rules, the above is just a brief description of some of them.
This year will be the 32nd annual "Delmarva Day In The Park" put on by the Greater Delmar Chamber of Commerce. The "Day in the Park" event is another outcome of the Bi-Centennial celebration that occurred in 1976. As I have said before the Bi-Centennial made a marked impression on Delmar giving it the pavilion in State Street Park and the Caboose.
"Day In the Park" will happen on June 7, 2008 at State Street Park in Delmar. It sounds early to be announcing an event that will not happen for another month but in case vendors are interested I will give some information on it. First, the festival is the Chamber of Commerce only fund raising event. They use the profit from this event to sponsor the Christmas Parade, Carnival of Lights and the Citizen of The Year event. The festival includes; food, crafts, game booths, train rides, fire engine rides, bake sales, live entertainment and music. So if you are interested in having a booth at "Day In The Park" you will need an application that can be obtained by writing The Greater Delmar Chamber of Commerce, PO Box 416, Delmar DE 19940 ATTN: Day In The Park.
Deadline for having your application in is May 23rd. Booth Costs are 12'x12' $35, 12'x24' $50, 12'X36' $70, and a 12'X48' $90.00. You are responsible for providing your own table, chairs awning etc. There is a duplication rule on food vendors, yard sale items are not acceptable. It is a family event so choose your products with that in mind. Drink sales are not allowed. Alcoholic beverages are not allowed. Set up time is 8 A.M. to 10 A.M. the day of the event. See the application package for the actual rules, the above is just a brief description of some of them.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
A Glimpse at the History of Delmar Manor
Delmar Manor is a development built in the 1950's in the East part of Delmar Delaware around Tenth street. It is one of three sections of Delmar Delaware that is referred to by name. The others are; Brooklyn (around 6 and 8th street) and Frogtown (the West side of Delmar). Only about 30 homes of the projected 112 homes were ever built.
Delmar Manor started out about 1949 with Delmar Manor Reality development acquiring a number of acres of land around Tenth and Grove street. At that time the land was out of the Town limits. The original land seems to have been owned by Mitchell H. German (of Brick Row fame) in the 1890's and was later sold to Joseph J Ellis. I am not someone who is good at following deed transfers at the courthouse. I attempted to research some of the land in Delmar Manor to find out the people who owned it in the past but simply was unable to follow the transfers. Delmar Manor, Inc had as President Liborio I. Villani and Helen Villani as Secretary. The Villani's seem to be connected with the Villani of Ocean City. The Plat of the development called for 112 lots. The Streets were named Hantwerker Drive, Ellis Parkway, Jones Terrace, Hope Avenue, Pleasant Avenue, Gay Avenue and Faith avenue. The flow pattern was greatly different from what exists to day.
In January 1951, with much fanfare, Ben Villani announced the creation of Delmar Manor. In part, the 112 homes were to provide housing for veterans and the expected influx of workers that would have jobs at the new Purina Mill. Delmar was looking at big times in 1951. At that time, Mr. Villani was predicting 75 homes would be completed by the end of 1951. In May of 1951 he was predicting all 112 homes would be completed by the end of 1951.
The typical house in Delmar Manor was the dream home of many Americans in the 1950's. It was a "rancher". I can still remember my mother talk about these type of ranch homes that were being built in the area and speaking dreamily about the Picture Window and the breezeway. In Delmar Manor in February of 1951 they were talking about homes between $5,000 and $6,500, FHA approved two to three bedroom. They were to have; Automatic Oil Heat, washing machine, electric range, paved driveway, city utilities, large picture window, and a tile bath. Lot size was a minimum of 65 by 120 feet.
The first model home was built in August of 1951. They sold it on opening day. I have tried to look for this house in Delmar Manor as a picture of it is in the ad at the top. It may be the house at 203 Hantwerker Drive or that house may just have the same floor plan.
At this point Delmar Manor had lower the down payment on the houses to $280 for veterans and $600 dollars for non veterans. They had 12 sold and had ordered all the material to build the 12 homes from Nuttle Lumber Company. A slight shift in the price occurred,the price now begun at $7,800 and were FHA approved. Of interest one of the homes built in 1954 (3 bedroom, 1 car garage, breezeway, concrete slab) is currently up for sale at $199,000. Using the inflation calculator $7,800 in 1951 is equivalent of $66,500 in 2007 so I guess the different between $199,00 and $66,500 is profit.
Delmar Manor had covenants attached to the deed. The usual things of no signs in the development, no oil wells, no mining operations, no garage over two cars, and no building to cost less than $7,500.
In December of 1951 the first crack in the bubble appeared in Delmar Manor with a Mechanic Lien being placed on the door of each of the 12 homes started. Nuttle Lumber at not been paid. In January of 1952 the veterans who had placed a down payment got warrants for Mr. Liborio I. Villani of Seaford. He could not be found. In January there was a Sheriff sale of Delmar Manor. Industrial Trust Company (Part of Wilmington Trust) paid $71,300 at the auction to protect their interest in Delmar Manor. In February Liborio's father Mr. Ignazio Villani repaid the veterans their down payment.
In March of 1952 there were new players in Delmar Manor. Wilmington Trust, by way of Industrial Trust, committed to finishing the 12 homes and were looking for buyers for these homes. A new Corporation called Delmar Housing Inc was formed. The main people in the company were William S. and Charles Marvel of Delmar and Robert Rogers and Simeon Bowman of Salisbury. In May of 1952 work resumed on the 12 homes.
It becomes confused at this point who really owned the undeveloped land. Regardless at some point Houlihan Real Estate Company brought a large portion of the undeveloped land. They created another subdivision called Fox Run from the old Delmar Manor land.
I am under the impression in 1951 Delmar Manor was annexed into the Town of Delmar. However due to a disagreement between Mayor Hantweker and the Villani's he dis-annexed it. In 1987 it was re-annexed into the Town of Delmar.
Delmar Manor has had an interesting history, I can only hope for better for Fox Run.
Bonanza Fire Alarm
This morning one of the several vacant buildings we have in Delmar caught on fire, or at least generated a fire alarm. At 6:30 this morning I went to see the fire trucks at Bonanza Restaurant. A number of fire companies were in the parking lot, Laurel and Gumboro etc beside the Delmar Fire Dept. They have left State street open so you can travel on it, if you are going that way this morning. Back in October it closed but the outside lights remained on. Last week the lights were off for a few days and than a couple of days ago they were back on. Maybe it was an electrical fire as the roof leaked. Looked like fireman were on the roof and a there was a hole in the roof with them shooting water into it.
8:30 AM UPDATE PHOTOS
Monday, April 28, 2008
Delmar Joint Council Meeting - April
The Delmar Joint Council met tonight. Commissioner Marlena Hodgins and Councilman Lonnie Figgs were missing. My usual disclaimer is what I write is not the minutes of the meetings, it is just my interpretation of what took place and what I am interested in posting. If you want to know the real story go to the meeting. Those of you who attend meetings are aware the door sags in the town hall meeting room. It takes great force and strength to open and close it. Cindy Fisher, Clerk of the Council, is a strong woman as she can wrangle that door open and close with the greatest of ease, while strong men stand outside unable to open it. Anyone who has watched her with the door knows she is not a woman to be on the bad side of.
The Town Newsletter is in the process of being written. If you have anything to put in the Town newsletter contact townhall by May 9th. We were assured this newsletter would be on regular size paper with print you can read, unlike the previous versions that were designed for elves.
Joy Slabaugh was sworn in as a member of the Planning and Zoning Committee for the Delaware side of town. After swearing in she was handled a stack of papers to read before the next Planning and Zoning meeting.
Various resolutions were passed; Authorizing members of the council to sign agreements with the EPA for money; the budget was passed - you can go to Town Hall to review it if you want to; an affiliate agreement was made with Delaware Department of Economic Opporunity so money can be applied to improving the down town district (what is that old saying about if you eat the King's salt - you have to give allegiance to the King) .
Jim Wolfe came before the council to talk about a 24 to 28 unit apartment house he wants to built behind the Holiday Inn Express. It would face on Bi-State Blvd. Mayor Niblett gave initial approval to it. It would have to be annexed in.
Above looking over the plans
Mike Angelo and Maria Andaya from the State of Delaware gave a presentation on the improvements planned for down town. As I said it comes with attachments.
Commissioner Carrie Williams of the Parks and Rec Committee said she had received a bid of $400 to power wash the pavilion and equipment and equipment in State Street Park.
Public Works complained about picking up trash on the annual cleanup day - To much stuff, not properly stacked, people didn't call in they just put their trash out. As I have said before the town doesn't want to keep the town clean as they don't want to pick up trash, nor enforce building ordinances on the Lecates building. Next year I will be surprised if we have an annual cleanup day.
Public Works is looking for a general laborer and part time mechanic, altho I don't see the position listed on the town website.
Doug Marshall came before the council to ask for a variance on the property discussed at the P & Z meeting. The property is in an R2 district which requires 9,000 sq ft to build on. The council gave him an R1 zoning for the property that allows 7,000 sq ft. No input from the neighbors was required.
Bill Mervine of Prestige Homes above, again came before the council about Lot #3 Bynum Lane. I have expressed my opinion on this matter before and it has not changed. The Mayor is saying the lot only has 4,300 sq ft on it and it is in a R1 zone which call for 7,000 sq ft. Strange there was no problem with Doug Marshall zoning request. It is to the point where the Mayor and Council look down at their paperwork when they talk to him as they are obviously embarrassed about the questions they are raising. Mr Mervine said the town lawyer had said the lot size issue would be grandfathered in. The Mayor said he thought the Town Lawyer had a conflict of interest and they would have to get another lawyer to ask for an opinion if is grandfathered in. Does this ever sound like they are jacking the guy around? Bill Mervine is keeping his temper better than I would.
Commissioner Carl Anderton listening to the Bill Mervine discussion.
Town managers Sara Bynum-King said the Jewell street bids were opened and Dixie Construction was apparently the low bidder at $153 thousand. This includes paving and utility work.
The Lot at 106 E. Elizabeth
Jeff Marshal came before the council to ask about buying the lot at 106 E. Elizabeth. The town had removed a house that was there some years ago at a cost of $6,000. the gentleman said the lot had been empty for 12 years, not bringing in tax money and requiring someone to cut the grass. He would offer $3,000 for the lot and make it part of his property that was next door to it. The Town said they would think about it.
Percey Elliott said the VFW was having a Loyality day picnic at the VFW and the public was invited at 1 PM.
Chris Mills, above, the person who has a contract to buy the LeCates building spoke to the council about the difficulty he is having obtaining a clear deed to the property. It would seem the building does not match the deed description and the land behind the building belongs to no one, thusly it is the property of the state. To sum it up it seems Percy Elliott is the hold up for the building not being purchased and repaired.
The Town Newsletter is in the process of being written. If you have anything to put in the Town newsletter contact townhall by May 9th. We were assured this newsletter would be on regular size paper with print you can read, unlike the previous versions that were designed for elves.
Joy Slabaugh was sworn in as a member of the Planning and Zoning Committee for the Delaware side of town. After swearing in she was handled a stack of papers to read before the next Planning and Zoning meeting.
Various resolutions were passed; Authorizing members of the council to sign agreements with the EPA for money; the budget was passed - you can go to Town Hall to review it if you want to; an affiliate agreement was made with Delaware Department of Economic Opporunity so money can be applied to improving the down town district (what is that old saying about if you eat the King's salt - you have to give allegiance to the King) .
Jim Wolfe came before the council to talk about a 24 to 28 unit apartment house he wants to built behind the Holiday Inn Express. It would face on Bi-State Blvd. Mayor Niblett gave initial approval to it. It would have to be annexed in.
Above looking over the plans
Mike Angelo and Maria Andaya from the State of Delaware gave a presentation on the improvements planned for down town. As I said it comes with attachments.
Commissioner Carrie Williams of the Parks and Rec Committee said she had received a bid of $400 to power wash the pavilion and equipment and equipment in State Street Park.
Public Works complained about picking up trash on the annual cleanup day - To much stuff, not properly stacked, people didn't call in they just put their trash out. As I have said before the town doesn't want to keep the town clean as they don't want to pick up trash, nor enforce building ordinances on the Lecates building. Next year I will be surprised if we have an annual cleanup day.
Public Works is looking for a general laborer and part time mechanic, altho I don't see the position listed on the town website.
Doug Marshall came before the council to ask for a variance on the property discussed at the P & Z meeting. The property is in an R2 district which requires 9,000 sq ft to build on. The council gave him an R1 zoning for the property that allows 7,000 sq ft. No input from the neighbors was required.
Bill Mervine of Prestige Homes above, again came before the council about Lot #3 Bynum Lane. I have expressed my opinion on this matter before and it has not changed. The Mayor is saying the lot only has 4,300 sq ft on it and it is in a R1 zone which call for 7,000 sq ft. Strange there was no problem with Doug Marshall zoning request. It is to the point where the Mayor and Council look down at their paperwork when they talk to him as they are obviously embarrassed about the questions they are raising. Mr Mervine said the town lawyer had said the lot size issue would be grandfathered in. The Mayor said he thought the Town Lawyer had a conflict of interest and they would have to get another lawyer to ask for an opinion if is grandfathered in. Does this ever sound like they are jacking the guy around? Bill Mervine is keeping his temper better than I would.
Commissioner Carl Anderton listening to the Bill Mervine discussion.
Town managers Sara Bynum-King said the Jewell street bids were opened and Dixie Construction was apparently the low bidder at $153 thousand. This includes paving and utility work.
The Lot at 106 E. Elizabeth
Jeff Marshal came before the council to ask about buying the lot at 106 E. Elizabeth. The town had removed a house that was there some years ago at a cost of $6,000. the gentleman said the lot had been empty for 12 years, not bringing in tax money and requiring someone to cut the grass. He would offer $3,000 for the lot and make it part of his property that was next door to it. The Town said they would think about it.
Percey Elliott said the VFW was having a Loyality day picnic at the VFW and the public was invited at 1 PM.
Chris Mills, above, the person who has a contract to buy the LeCates building spoke to the council about the difficulty he is having obtaining a clear deed to the property. It would seem the building does not match the deed description and the land behind the building belongs to no one, thusly it is the property of the state. To sum it up it seems Percy Elliott is the hold up for the building not being purchased and repaired.
Delmar Utility Commission April Meeting
On a rainy night the Delmar Utility Commission had their monthly meeting. Marlena Hodgins was missing, otherwise all members were present.
The two main items discussed tonight were Vernon Esham reimbursement request and Tahira and Ghulam Murtaza request for a reduction in water charges at their Laundromat.
Vernon Esham, the developer for an 18 home subdivision called Amber Ridge - East of Stage Road, came before the commission to request a reimbursement for the costs of a pump station he put in at Amber Ridge. When Mr Esham was developing the utilities for Amber Ridge the town required him to put in a pump station. The pump station cost him $275,523 to install. It is his opinion that the pump station, altho required for his development, could handle an additional 102 housing units. He would like the town to allow him to charge anyone hooking into our utility system using "his" pump station an amount that would allow him to recover 85% of the $275,523 cost he incurred. The town engineers are saying he could not have put in a smaller pump station for his development and the fact the pump station can handle more is incidental to the argument. The only costs the engineers feel should be recovered for the pumps station is the costs involved in putting in a deeper wet well the town requested. What I don't understand is why Mr Esham, an experienced developer, has nothing in writing that the town would agree to reimbursement him before he built the the pump station. It is my feeling that this is just a developer making an attempt to recover costs on the pump station after he was allowed to hook into the system. Never less the town said it would take his request under consideration.
Lou Massey of Eastern Wash and Ghulam Murtaza and Tahira Murtaza of Delmar Laundry came before the commission and requested a reduction in the charge for water. As you may recall in a previous post I had showed where the laundry had to replace a water service line with a larger line. Without going into the ins and outs of the situation the Laundrymat charge for water dramatically increased. It is less related to water usage and more to rate structure. A number of businesses are charged based on an Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU) rate as opposed to their actual usage. This is due to the potential impact a business may have on the Utility system facilities - ig; they may change the hours of operations causing more water and sewer usage than the system had planned for their usage. To sum it up, a reduction of EDU's was given with an understanding we would look at the situation after two more billing cycles were completed.
The two main items discussed tonight were Vernon Esham reimbursement request and Tahira and Ghulam Murtaza request for a reduction in water charges at their Laundromat.
Vernon Esham, the developer for an 18 home subdivision called Amber Ridge - East of Stage Road, came before the commission to request a reimbursement for the costs of a pump station he put in at Amber Ridge. When Mr Esham was developing the utilities for Amber Ridge the town required him to put in a pump station. The pump station cost him $275,523 to install. It is his opinion that the pump station, altho required for his development, could handle an additional 102 housing units. He would like the town to allow him to charge anyone hooking into our utility system using "his" pump station an amount that would allow him to recover 85% of the $275,523 cost he incurred. The town engineers are saying he could not have put in a smaller pump station for his development and the fact the pump station can handle more is incidental to the argument. The only costs the engineers feel should be recovered for the pumps station is the costs involved in putting in a deeper wet well the town requested. What I don't understand is why Mr Esham, an experienced developer, has nothing in writing that the town would agree to reimbursement him before he built the the pump station. It is my feeling that this is just a developer making an attempt to recover costs on the pump station after he was allowed to hook into the system. Never less the town said it would take his request under consideration.
Lou Massey of Eastern Wash and Ghulam Murtaza and Tahira Murtaza of Delmar Laundry came before the commission and requested a reduction in the charge for water. As you may recall in a previous post I had showed where the laundry had to replace a water service line with a larger line. Without going into the ins and outs of the situation the Laundrymat charge for water dramatically increased. It is less related to water usage and more to rate structure. A number of businesses are charged based on an Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU) rate as opposed to their actual usage. This is due to the potential impact a business may have on the Utility system facilities - ig; they may change the hours of operations causing more water and sewer usage than the system had planned for their usage. To sum it up, a reduction of EDU's was given with an understanding we would look at the situation after two more billing cycles were completed.
Philip S. Breyer - 1950
From the Bi-State Weekly April 28, 1950
PHILIP S. BREYER NAMED TOWN COP
Philip S. Breyer, age 31, has been named by the Mayor and Council of Delmar, Delaware, to the position of Town Cop. Mr. Breyer succeeds George E. Hearn, who resigned this week due to failing health.
Mr. Breyer is a veteran of World War II having served 6 years in the U. S. Army. One year of this time was spent as a member of the Military Police.
He is married to the former Miss Thelma Carmine, whose home is near Delmar on the Maryland side. They have three children.
He was born at Greenlane, Pa.
Mr. Breyer's only statement was "I'm glad to receive this appointment and will do my utmost to preserve law and order in Delmar."
Cop Hearn, who is nearing his 75th birthday, has been the local police man for the past 30 years. He will still hold the position of Constable for Sussex County.
PHILIP S. BREYER NAMED TOWN COP
Philip S. Breyer, age 31, has been named by the Mayor and Council of Delmar, Delaware, to the position of Town Cop. Mr. Breyer succeeds George E. Hearn, who resigned this week due to failing health.
Mr. Breyer is a veteran of World War II having served 6 years in the U. S. Army. One year of this time was spent as a member of the Military Police.
He is married to the former Miss Thelma Carmine, whose home is near Delmar on the Maryland side. They have three children.
He was born at Greenlane, Pa.
Mr. Breyer's only statement was "I'm glad to receive this appointment and will do my utmost to preserve law and order in Delmar."
Cop Hearn, who is nearing his 75th birthday, has been the local police man for the past 30 years. He will still hold the position of Constable for Sussex County.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Stop Signs - 1938
From the Bi-State weekly May 13, 1938
Notice To Owners and Operators of Motor Vehicles
Stop Signs are being installed at all Delmar Street intersections with the Delaware State Highway, U. S. Route No. 13. The State Laws require strict observance of these signs.
We solicit the cooperation of the Public.
Mayor and Council, Delmar, Del.
Wm. S. Melson, Town Clerk
Delmar, Delaware April 27, 1938
Notice To Owners and Operators of Motor Vehicles
Stop Signs are being installed at all Delmar Street intersections with the Delaware State Highway, U. S. Route No. 13. The State Laws require strict observance of these signs.
We solicit the cooperation of the Public.
Mayor and Council, Delmar, Del.
Wm. S. Melson, Town Clerk
Delmar, Delaware April 27, 1938
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Marie Depralon - 1937
From The Milford Chronicle April 30, 1937
SUSSEX GIRLS WIN DECLAMATION TILT AT DOVER
Elizabeth Murray, of Selbyville, and Marie Depralon of Delmar shared honors in the annual declamation contest, sponsored by the State Board of education and held in the Murphey School at Dover last Saturday. More than 100 persons attended.
Miss Murray was the winner of the dramatic division while Miss Depralon triumphed in the humorous section.
Miss Murray, a student of the Selbyville High School, had as her topic, "Dust of the Road," while Miss Depralon, a Delmar High School student spoke on "Storekeeper's Luck." Supt. Harry V. Holloway of the State schools awarded each winner $25.
NOTE: DECLAMATION = a speech recited or intended for recitation from memory in public
SUSSEX GIRLS WIN DECLAMATION TILT AT DOVER
Elizabeth Murray, of Selbyville, and Marie Depralon of Delmar shared honors in the annual declamation contest, sponsored by the State Board of education and held in the Murphey School at Dover last Saturday. More than 100 persons attended.
Miss Murray was the winner of the dramatic division while Miss Depralon triumphed in the humorous section.
Miss Murray, a student of the Selbyville High School, had as her topic, "Dust of the Road," while Miss Depralon, a Delmar High School student spoke on "Storekeeper's Luck." Supt. Harry V. Holloway of the State schools awarded each winner $25.
NOTE: DECLAMATION = a speech recited or intended for recitation from memory in public
Friday, April 25, 2008
Wicomico Middle School Drama Club
This year's production of the Wicomico Middle School Drama Club was really four separate plays; "Imperfect Proposal", "Not My Cup of Tea", "It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Chickenman!" and "Happily Never After". The plays were directed by Wicomico Senior high Students; Shelby Morris, Tessa Johnson, Briana Sarig, Hillary Pullen and Erin Moore. The four separate plays seem to go better than one long production.
Allison Pullen, Colin Dennis, and Blake Barrett who did so well in last year's production of Huck Finn once again put on outstanding performances. Allison Pullen, Devon Hendershot and Katy Bryant played parts in more than one play, and did well in each play they were in. Jordan Jones, Maura Skeen, Blake Barrett, and Corrin Harris were stand outs in the parts they played.
Imperfect Proposal
Not My Cup Of Tea
Chicken Man
Happily Never After
Bonnie Ashley
On Dover Post this week there is an interesting article on Bonnie Ashley. 54 year old Bonnie's claim to fame is she has been married 11 times and has written a book about it. She currently lives in Bethany Beach but hails from Salisbury.
Mason Dixon Auction - Good Stuff Tonight
I stopped by to preview the stuff at the Mason Dixon auction that starts at 4 PM tonight. As usual good stuff there.
This bottle had on the bottom "PB" and on the side was "Zion Road Bottling Works Salisbury MD Contents 6 1/2 Fl Oz" It doesn't look that old but does anyone know anything about it?
There were other Salisbury Bottles there.
The Usual furniture
This bottle had on the bottom "PB" and on the side was "Zion Road Bottling Works Salisbury MD Contents 6 1/2 Fl Oz" It doesn't look that old but does anyone know anything about it?
There were other Salisbury Bottles there.
The Usual furniture
Alleyways and Paper Streets
Scattered around Delmar are alleyways and streets that have not yet been put in. Most are on the Maryland side of town, but the Delaware side has their share.
Above, Third street heading south, unpaved but is it a paper street or real street?
These paper streets frequently lead to an alleyway or possible an East/West paper street. When my youngest daughter was in elementary school we allowed her to ride her bike to school. On days I didn't work I would ride my bike with her to school. One of our enjoyments was the sense of adventure cutting down these paper streets and alleyways.
Above, First street heading south.
These streets in the photo are obviously streets, but there are some in Delmar that have no trace of being a street. They are usually mentioned in a Plat or deed that they exist. Most are quite old and now when they come up in discussion there is many questions as to who is suppose to put in the street - the town or the people who will live on this paper street.
Above, An alleyway or East/West paper street over by the Elementary school.
Alleyways are usually mentioned in the deed, most in Delmar are considered private alleyways (so the town doesn't have to maintain them). I have always thought they are handy for criminals and burglars. There are problems when people aren't aware or chose to ignore an alleyway across their property and they build a garage or shed in the middle of it.
Above, Third street heading south, unpaved but is it a paper street or real street?
These paper streets frequently lead to an alleyway or possible an East/West paper street. When my youngest daughter was in elementary school we allowed her to ride her bike to school. On days I didn't work I would ride my bike with her to school. One of our enjoyments was the sense of adventure cutting down these paper streets and alleyways.
Above, First street heading south.
These streets in the photo are obviously streets, but there are some in Delmar that have no trace of being a street. They are usually mentioned in a Plat or deed that they exist. Most are quite old and now when they come up in discussion there is many questions as to who is suppose to put in the street - the town or the people who will live on this paper street.
Above, An alleyway or East/West paper street over by the Elementary school.
Alleyways are usually mentioned in the deed, most in Delmar are considered private alleyways (so the town doesn't have to maintain them). I have always thought they are handy for criminals and burglars. There are problems when people aren't aware or chose to ignore an alleyway across their property and they build a garage or shed in the middle of it.
Gallipoli and Anzac Day
Early in the War to end all Wars, the British, Australians, New Zealanders, French and Indian forces, on April 25 1915, launched a beach head attack from the sea on the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) at the Gallipoli Peninsula. The idea of this attack was to capture Istanbul. Gallipoli is in North Western Turkey and next to it is the Dardanelles Straits which separates Europe from Asia. The Battle of Gallipoli would last from April 25 1915 to January 9, 1916, ending with the Turks kicking the invaders off the peninsula. As a refresher; Turkey had sided with Germany and Austria-Hungary (you may recall the old “Lawrence of Arabia” movie) and on the other side was Britain, France, Russia, and the “Commonwealth” countries. As I said the campaign ended in defeat, with more than 100,000 dead (mostly Turks) of that number there were 8,700 Australian and 2,400 New Zealanders killed. Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day is a major commemoration day for the dead of those two countries at Gallipoli. Numerous books have been written about the Gallipoli Campaign.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Delmar Planning and Zoning Meeting April
The P & Z meeting happened tonight. Joe Dixon and Carl Anderton were missing. Carl no doubt is still recovering from walking in the Little League Parade Saturday. As usual my disclaimer is what I write is not the minutes of the meetings, it is just my interpretation of what took place and what I am interested in posting. If you want to know the real story go to the meeting. With the exception of the Bill Mervine discussion I found tonight's meeting more boring than usual, so I will just discuss that part of the meeting.
Bill Mervine of Prestige Homes wants to build a house on lot #3 on Bynum Lane in Delmar, Delaware. This is his third visit to P & Z to try and build a house. I have discuss his previous visits in the prior Planning and Zoning Meetings. In his previous submissions his house has always required a variance. This submission he has gotten the footprint down to the size that requires no variance and has parking for 4 cars on the lot. Remarkable planning on his part to get that. The P & Z is still saying no as they want input from the neighbors. It is interesting that later in the meeting they gave approval to Doug Marshall to build a house at 206 E. Walnut and 300 E. Walnut without any neighbor input. As I have said before I think the man should be allowed to build. it is his lot and he has a house that fits it. No one else in Delmar has had to go thru these hoops to build in town. I think it is reverse discrimination. You have a white guy trying to build in a black section of town and they don't want him. So P & Z is saying in order to buld in Bynumville you have to have all the neighbors give you their blessing, unlike the rest of Delmar that as long as you meet the requirements you can buld.
Bill Mervine of Prestige Homes wants to build a house on lot #3 on Bynum Lane in Delmar, Delaware. This is his third visit to P & Z to try and build a house. I have discuss his previous visits in the prior Planning and Zoning Meetings. In his previous submissions his house has always required a variance. This submission he has gotten the footprint down to the size that requires no variance and has parking for 4 cars on the lot. Remarkable planning on his part to get that. The P & Z is still saying no as they want input from the neighbors. It is interesting that later in the meeting they gave approval to Doug Marshall to build a house at 206 E. Walnut and 300 E. Walnut without any neighbor input. As I have said before I think the man should be allowed to build. it is his lot and he has a house that fits it. No one else in Delmar has had to go thru these hoops to build in town. I think it is reverse discrimination. You have a white guy trying to build in a black section of town and they don't want him. So P & Z is saying in order to buld in Bynumville you have to have all the neighbors give you their blessing, unlike the rest of Delmar that as long as you meet the requirements you can buld.
Tansy
Well the Tansy seem to have survived the winter. This plant in mid summer is about 3 to 4 foot tall and spreads all over the place. Tansy foliage is feathery and a bright green. It has small yellow flowers in the summer and a unique smell. It is one of several plants that arrived at our house as a cute plant in a 4 inch pot that we knew nothing about and turned into a monster. Sort of like those cute kittens the kids dragged home that turned into a damn cat. The Tansy arrived by way of my wife buying it when her and the children were at Furnacetown in Snow Hill. The Herb person said it was good for chasing away flies. I don't think any of us thought about it getting 4 foot tall and spreading around the garden.
You occasionally read about people making Tansy tea from the leaves and flowers. It is suppose to be one of those good-for-what-ails-you tea. Well it seems Tansy has other uses, namely as an abortive. It has been used thru out the ages as a way to cause abortions. An old New York Times article reports on someone who killed herself trying to have an abortion created by oil of Tansy. As those of us who have read "The Cider House Rules" by John Irving know; he discussed a woman who died by way of an abortion because the constant use of Oil of Tansy prevented her intestines from absorbing Vitamin C so her body ended up with the same effect of scurvy. True or not I don't know.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Department of Energy, Another Failure
Way back in the 1970's when we had long gas lines and no gas, President Jimmy Carter came up with the idea of a government agency that would oversee and direct the nation's energy supply. This agency would see that we would no longer have an energy problem in the future. He created The Department of Energy on August 4th, 1977 and was activated on October 1, 1977. The Department of Energy was created by combining a couple different agencies; Federal Energy Administration, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Federal Power Commission, and parts and programs of several other agencies.
Jimmy Carter delivered this televised speech on April 18, 1977 about a proposed Energy Policy and eventual creation of the Dept of Energy. Since we have all been trained to read in sound bites let me just excerpt a few comments from Jimmy Carter instead of printing the whole thing, as we know not all readers can maintain the concentration to read a complete reprint of his speech.
Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly.
I know that some of you may doubt that we face real energy shortages. The 1973 gasoline lines are gone, and our homes are warm again. But our energy problem is worse tonight than it was in 1973 or a few weeks ago in the dead of winter. It is worse because more waste has occurred, and more time has passed by without our planning for the future. And it will get worse every day until we act.
The oil and natural gas we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are running out. In spite of increased effort, domestic production has been dropping steadily at about six percent a year. Imports have doubled in the last five years. Our nation's independence of economic and political action is becoming increasingly constrained. Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980s the world will be demanding more oil that it can produce.
The world now uses about 60 million barrels of oil a day and demand increases each year about 5 percent. This means that just to stay even we need the production of a new Texas every year, an Alaskan North Slope every nine months, or a new Saudi Arabia every three years. Obviously, this cannot continue.
The second change took place in this century, with the growing use of oil and natural gas. They were more convenient and cheaper than coal, and the supply seemed to be almost without limit. They made possible the age of automobile and airplane travel. Nearly everyone who is alive today grew up during this age and we have never known anything different.
Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change, to strict conservation and to the use of coal and permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power.
The world has not prepared for the future. During the 1950s, people used twice as much oil as during the 1940s. During the 1960s, we used twice as much as during the 1950s. And in each of those decades, more oil was consumed than in all of mankind's previous history.
World consumption of oil is still going up. If it were possible to keep it rising during the 1970s and 1980s by 5 percent a year as it has in the past, we could use up all the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade.
But we do have a choice about how we will spend the next few years. Each American uses the energy equivalent of 60 barrels of oil per person each year. Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth. We waste more energy than we import. With about the same standard of living, we use twice as much energy per person as do other countries like Germany, Japan and Sweden.
That is the concept of the energy policy we will present on Wednesday. Our national energy plan is based on ten fundamental principles.
The first principle is that we can have an effective and comprehensive energy policy only if the government takes responsibility for it and if the people understand the seriousness of the challenge and are willing to make sacrifices.
The second principle is that healthy economic growth must continue. Only by saving energy can we maintain our standard of living and keep our people at work. An effective conservation program will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
The third principle is that we must protect the environment. Our energy problems have the same cause as our environmental problems -- wasteful use of resources. Conservation helps us solve both at once.
The fourth principle is that we must reduce our vulnerability to potentially devastating embargoes. We can protect ourselves from uncertain supplies by reducing our demand for oil, making the most of our abundant resources such as coal, and developing a strategic petroleum reserve.
The fifth principle is that we must be fair. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, every interest group. Industry will have to do its part to conserve, just as the consumers will. The energy producers deserve fair treatment, but we will not let the oil companies profiteer.
The sixth principle, and the cornerstone of our policy, is to reduce the demand through conservation. Our emphasis on conservation is a clear difference between this plan and others which merely encouraged crash production efforts. Conservation is the quickest, cheapest, most practical source of energy. Conservation is the only way we can buy a barrel of oil for a few dollars. It costs about $13 to waste it.
The seventh principle is that prices should generally reflect the true replacement costs of energy. We are only cheating ourselves if we make energy artificially cheap and use more than we can really afford.
The eighth principle is that government policies must be predictable and certain. Both consumers and producers need policies they can count on so they can plan ahead. This is one reason I am working with the Congress to create a new Department of Energy, to replace more than 50 different agencies that now have some control over energy.
The ninth principle is that we must conserve the fuels that are scarcest and make the most of those that are more plentiful. We can't continue to use oil and gas for 75 percent of our consumption when they make up seven percent of our domestic reserves. We need to shift to plentiful coal while taking care to protect the environment, and to apply stricter safety standards to nuclear energy.
The tenth principle is that we must start now to develop the new, unconventional sources of energy we will rely on in the next century.
These ten principles have guided the development of the policy I would describe to you and the Congress on Wednesday.
Our energy plan will also include a number of specific goals, to measure our progress toward a stable energy system.
These are the goals we set for 1985:
--Reduce the annual growth rate in our energy demand to less than two percent.
--Reduce gasoline consumption by ten percent below its current level.
--Cut in half the portion of United States oil which is imported, from a potential level of 16 million barrels to six million barrels a day.
--Establish a strategic petroleum reserve of one billion barrels, more than six months' supply.
--Increase our coal production by about two thirds to more than 1 billion tons a year.
--Insulate 90 percent of American homes and all new buildings.
--Use solar energy in more than two and one-half million houses.
We will monitor our progress toward these goals year by year. Our plan will call for stricter conservation measures if we fall behind.
I've given you some of the principles of the plan.
I am sure each of you will find something you don't like about the specifics of our proposal. It will demand that we make sacrifices and changes in our lives. To some degree, the sacrifices will be painful -- but so is any meaningful sacrifice. It will lead to some higher costs, and to some greater inconveniences for everyone.
But the sacrifices will be gradual, realistic and necessary. Above all, they will be fair. No one will gain an unfair advantage through this plan. No one will be asked to bear an unfair burden. We will monitor the accuracy of data from the oil and natural gas companies, so that we will know their true production, supplies, reserves, and profits.
The citizens who insist on driving large, unnecessarily powerful cars must expect to pay more for that luxury.
We can be sure that all the special interest groups in the country will attack the part of this plan that affects them directly. They will say that sacrifice is fine, as long as other people do it, but that their sacrifice is unreasonable, or unfair, or harmful to the country. If they succeed, then the burden on the ordinary citizen, who is not organized into an interest group, would be crushing.
There should be only one test for this program: whether it will help our country.
Jimmy Carter, "The President's Proposed Energy Policy." 18 April 1977. Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol. XXXXIII, No. 14, May 1, 1977, pp. 418-420.
I think most people who heard the speech agreed with President Carter and were willing to make sacrifices to have energy independence for America. Okay, so 30 years later, what went wrong from freeing America from dependence on imported oil and achieving energy independence? As with any government agency the Dept of Energy became a political pawn of oil companies, lobbyist, and bureaucratic officials. The agency started with inapt government employees when the agency was formed by combining other government agencies. The direction changed from freeing America from imported oil to having a high percentage of the Dept. of Energy budget directed to research and development for nuclear weapons for the military and Weapons of Mass destruction.
From the Fy2009 Budget request for the DOE;
The FY 2009 budget reconfirms the Department of Energy’s steadfast
commitment to the national security interests of the United States through
stewardship of a reliable and responsive nuclear weapons stockpile and by
advancing the goals of global non-proliferation. Through the National Nuclear
Security Administration (NNSA), the Department directs $6.6 billion in this
request for Weapons Activities, a $320.6 million increase from the FY 2008
enacted appropriation, to meet the existing requirements for stewardship of the
nation’s nuclear weapon stockpile, technologies and facilities, as well as to
continue to transform the nuclear weapons complex with the goal of a much
smaller size by 2030. This transformation effort is structured to achieve President
Bush’s vision to create a more efficient and less expensive nuclear weapons
complex of the future that is able to respond to changing national and global
security challenges.
Altho the budget is boring, a review of it will show the direction of the DOE is not what was presented in Jimmy Carter's speech. If you look at the DOE website you will see it talks about energy saving and things it is doing as discussed in President Carter speech, but if you look at the budget you will see it is not entirely true. The Department of Energy is but another example of a failed government cabinet level department. With under 15,000 employees, down from over 20,000 employees when it was created, you can say the Department is more efficient or the attention to energy problems is just going away at a time when we need something done. What ever way you look at it, the original purpose of a Dept of Energy is no longer what today's DOE is.
Jimmy Carter delivered this televised speech on April 18, 1977 about a proposed Energy Policy and eventual creation of the Dept of Energy. Since we have all been trained to read in sound bites let me just excerpt a few comments from Jimmy Carter instead of printing the whole thing, as we know not all readers can maintain the concentration to read a complete reprint of his speech.
Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly.
I know that some of you may doubt that we face real energy shortages. The 1973 gasoline lines are gone, and our homes are warm again. But our energy problem is worse tonight than it was in 1973 or a few weeks ago in the dead of winter. It is worse because more waste has occurred, and more time has passed by without our planning for the future. And it will get worse every day until we act.
The oil and natural gas we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are running out. In spite of increased effort, domestic production has been dropping steadily at about six percent a year. Imports have doubled in the last five years. Our nation's independence of economic and political action is becoming increasingly constrained. Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980s the world will be demanding more oil that it can produce.
The world now uses about 60 million barrels of oil a day and demand increases each year about 5 percent. This means that just to stay even we need the production of a new Texas every year, an Alaskan North Slope every nine months, or a new Saudi Arabia every three years. Obviously, this cannot continue.
The second change took place in this century, with the growing use of oil and natural gas. They were more convenient and cheaper than coal, and the supply seemed to be almost without limit. They made possible the age of automobile and airplane travel. Nearly everyone who is alive today grew up during this age and we have never known anything different.
Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change, to strict conservation and to the use of coal and permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power.
The world has not prepared for the future. During the 1950s, people used twice as much oil as during the 1940s. During the 1960s, we used twice as much as during the 1950s. And in each of those decades, more oil was consumed than in all of mankind's previous history.
World consumption of oil is still going up. If it were possible to keep it rising during the 1970s and 1980s by 5 percent a year as it has in the past, we could use up all the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade.
But we do have a choice about how we will spend the next few years. Each American uses the energy equivalent of 60 barrels of oil per person each year. Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth. We waste more energy than we import. With about the same standard of living, we use twice as much energy per person as do other countries like Germany, Japan and Sweden.
That is the concept of the energy policy we will present on Wednesday. Our national energy plan is based on ten fundamental principles.
The first principle is that we can have an effective and comprehensive energy policy only if the government takes responsibility for it and if the people understand the seriousness of the challenge and are willing to make sacrifices.
The second principle is that healthy economic growth must continue. Only by saving energy can we maintain our standard of living and keep our people at work. An effective conservation program will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
The third principle is that we must protect the environment. Our energy problems have the same cause as our environmental problems -- wasteful use of resources. Conservation helps us solve both at once.
The fourth principle is that we must reduce our vulnerability to potentially devastating embargoes. We can protect ourselves from uncertain supplies by reducing our demand for oil, making the most of our abundant resources such as coal, and developing a strategic petroleum reserve.
The fifth principle is that we must be fair. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, every interest group. Industry will have to do its part to conserve, just as the consumers will. The energy producers deserve fair treatment, but we will not let the oil companies profiteer.
The sixth principle, and the cornerstone of our policy, is to reduce the demand through conservation. Our emphasis on conservation is a clear difference between this plan and others which merely encouraged crash production efforts. Conservation is the quickest, cheapest, most practical source of energy. Conservation is the only way we can buy a barrel of oil for a few dollars. It costs about $13 to waste it.
The seventh principle is that prices should generally reflect the true replacement costs of energy. We are only cheating ourselves if we make energy artificially cheap and use more than we can really afford.
The eighth principle is that government policies must be predictable and certain. Both consumers and producers need policies they can count on so they can plan ahead. This is one reason I am working with the Congress to create a new Department of Energy, to replace more than 50 different agencies that now have some control over energy.
The ninth principle is that we must conserve the fuels that are scarcest and make the most of those that are more plentiful. We can't continue to use oil and gas for 75 percent of our consumption when they make up seven percent of our domestic reserves. We need to shift to plentiful coal while taking care to protect the environment, and to apply stricter safety standards to nuclear energy.
The tenth principle is that we must start now to develop the new, unconventional sources of energy we will rely on in the next century.
These ten principles have guided the development of the policy I would describe to you and the Congress on Wednesday.
Our energy plan will also include a number of specific goals, to measure our progress toward a stable energy system.
These are the goals we set for 1985:
--Reduce the annual growth rate in our energy demand to less than two percent.
--Reduce gasoline consumption by ten percent below its current level.
--Cut in half the portion of United States oil which is imported, from a potential level of 16 million barrels to six million barrels a day.
--Establish a strategic petroleum reserve of one billion barrels, more than six months' supply.
--Increase our coal production by about two thirds to more than 1 billion tons a year.
--Insulate 90 percent of American homes and all new buildings.
--Use solar energy in more than two and one-half million houses.
We will monitor our progress toward these goals year by year. Our plan will call for stricter conservation measures if we fall behind.
I've given you some of the principles of the plan.
I am sure each of you will find something you don't like about the specifics of our proposal. It will demand that we make sacrifices and changes in our lives. To some degree, the sacrifices will be painful -- but so is any meaningful sacrifice. It will lead to some higher costs, and to some greater inconveniences for everyone.
But the sacrifices will be gradual, realistic and necessary. Above all, they will be fair. No one will gain an unfair advantage through this plan. No one will be asked to bear an unfair burden. We will monitor the accuracy of data from the oil and natural gas companies, so that we will know their true production, supplies, reserves, and profits.
The citizens who insist on driving large, unnecessarily powerful cars must expect to pay more for that luxury.
We can be sure that all the special interest groups in the country will attack the part of this plan that affects them directly. They will say that sacrifice is fine, as long as other people do it, but that their sacrifice is unreasonable, or unfair, or harmful to the country. If they succeed, then the burden on the ordinary citizen, who is not organized into an interest group, would be crushing.
There should be only one test for this program: whether it will help our country.
Jimmy Carter, "The President's Proposed Energy Policy." 18 April 1977. Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol. XXXXIII, No. 14, May 1, 1977, pp. 418-420.
I think most people who heard the speech agreed with President Carter and were willing to make sacrifices to have energy independence for America. Okay, so 30 years later, what went wrong from freeing America from dependence on imported oil and achieving energy independence? As with any government agency the Dept of Energy became a political pawn of oil companies, lobbyist, and bureaucratic officials. The agency started with inapt government employees when the agency was formed by combining other government agencies. The direction changed from freeing America from imported oil to having a high percentage of the Dept. of Energy budget directed to research and development for nuclear weapons for the military and Weapons of Mass destruction.
From the Fy2009 Budget request for the DOE;
The FY 2009 budget reconfirms the Department of Energy’s steadfast
commitment to the national security interests of the United States through
stewardship of a reliable and responsive nuclear weapons stockpile and by
advancing the goals of global non-proliferation. Through the National Nuclear
Security Administration (NNSA), the Department directs $6.6 billion in this
request for Weapons Activities, a $320.6 million increase from the FY 2008
enacted appropriation, to meet the existing requirements for stewardship of the
nation’s nuclear weapon stockpile, technologies and facilities, as well as to
continue to transform the nuclear weapons complex with the goal of a much
smaller size by 2030. This transformation effort is structured to achieve President
Bush’s vision to create a more efficient and less expensive nuclear weapons
complex of the future that is able to respond to changing national and global
security challenges.
Altho the budget is boring, a review of it will show the direction of the DOE is not what was presented in Jimmy Carter's speech. If you look at the DOE website you will see it talks about energy saving and things it is doing as discussed in President Carter speech, but if you look at the budget you will see it is not entirely true. The Department of Energy is but another example of a failed government cabinet level department. With under 15,000 employees, down from over 20,000 employees when it was created, you can say the Department is more efficient or the attention to energy problems is just going away at a time when we need something done. What ever way you look at it, the original purpose of a Dept of Energy is no longer what today's DOE is.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Protecting Community Character and Sense of Place
I went to a workshop this morning at the Seaford City Hall on the Preservation of Historic Community character. First let me say the Seaford City Hall has really nice broad chairs with thick cushion that you can actually sit there for three four hours with out pain, unlike those wooden folding chairs in Delmar Town Hall. Second, there was about 40 people in attendance and naturally to attend something like this they would all be interested in it, so it was like preaching to the choir. As the speakers spoke you see all the heads nodding in agreement with them.
Dan Costello, on the board of trustee for Preservation Delaware, was the moderator and Adrian Fine of the National Trust Historic Preservation; Tom Reed, lawyer; and Robin Krawitz of the Delaware State Historic Preservation office were the speakers. The discussions were about how to maintain the character of a community by maintaining the style of the houses in the neighborhoods and town. The idea being; if the neighborhood is made up of 1,200 square foot, 2 story homes built about 1930 than a 9,000 sq ft three story house would not necessarily fit in. Nor would tearing down a house built in 1800 do much for the character of town unless it was so neglected it needed to be torn down.
One of the important thing discussed was the need for a town to do a survey of the houses in the town, so when there is a request to have a house torn down or greatly modified Planning and Zoning can determine if it would be suitable to tear it down or change it without changing the character of the community.
Dan Costello, on the board of trustee for Preservation Delaware, was the moderator and Adrian Fine of the National Trust Historic Preservation; Tom Reed, lawyer; and Robin Krawitz of the Delaware State Historic Preservation office were the speakers. The discussions were about how to maintain the character of a community by maintaining the style of the houses in the neighborhoods and town. The idea being; if the neighborhood is made up of 1,200 square foot, 2 story homes built about 1930 than a 9,000 sq ft three story house would not necessarily fit in. Nor would tearing down a house built in 1800 do much for the character of town unless it was so neglected it needed to be torn down.
One of the important thing discussed was the need for a town to do a survey of the houses in the town, so when there is a request to have a house torn down or greatly modified Planning and Zoning can determine if it would be suitable to tear it down or change it without changing the character of the community.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Amy Clayville
An article from the Dover Post - Online discussed, Amy Clayville, former Towne Point Elementary School PTA treasurer. Towne Point is in the Capital School district in Dover. Amy Clayville had been arrested for theft from the PTA bank account and entered a guilty plea on April 8th for $3,500. As usual in these cases she was ordered to pay back the money and her many years of jail time was reduced to one year of probation. However after an audit, now it turns out she may have actually taken at least $11,062. Clayville allegedly forged the PTA President, Jenny Mabus, name on to the PTA checks to steal the money. The PTA is now pretty much broke and is trying to do fund raiser to replenish the money. As I have said before Associations are the most frequently hit for embezzlement and theft. Do you know how your organization finances stand?
Death of Three Delmar Girls in 1935
April 20, 1935 The Salisbury Times
PLEASURE RIDE BRINGS DEATH TO SIX WHEN SPEEDING AUTO CRASHES INTO LUMBER TRUCK
Three Delmar Girls and three Salisburians Are Victims Of Accident In Powellville At 12:15 A. M. This Morning
“NEVER KNEW WHAT HIT THEM” SAYS STATE POLICEMAN AFTER PROBE
Bodies Were Crushed As Front Of Car Is Driven Back To Rear Seat. Girls Had Attended Rehearsal of Church Pageant
All six occupants of an automobile were killed early today when their machine crashed into the rear of a lumbertruck parked just off the road in Powellville.
The dead are;
Thaddeus Dykes, 25, Washington Street.
Norris Dykes, his brother, 22, Washington Street.
Wisehart Mumford, 19, East Locust Street.
Violet Templeton, 17, Maryland Ave., Delmar.
Evelyn Willey, 17, Chestnut Street, Delmar.
Agnes Taylor, 20, Maryland Ave., Delmar.
All died at the scene of the accident except the Taylor girl who died four hours after being brought to the hospital here. She did not regain consciousness and none of the six victims lived to tell their own story of the tragedy.
The bodies were brought to the undertaking establishment of Holloway and Company and later claimed by the relatives and were taken to the several homes.
State Attorney Rex A. Taylor said investigation showed the cause of the accident to be so apparent a coroner inquest would serve no purpose.
“It was one of the worst accidents I have ever seen since working on the State Police force,” said Corporal C. E. Minnick “ the occupants of the machine never knew what hit them, the crash was so terrific,” “the Car must have been traveling at least seventy miles an hour at the time the crash occurred,”
The incident occurred almost in the center of town at 12:15 A. M. The machine failed to negotiate a sweeping curve in the state highway and went across the road to hit the truck parked three feet off the left side of the concrete thoroughfare.
As the motor clashed into the rear of the lumber the top part of the radio, hood, and entire front of the machine was either sheared off or pressed backward against the rear seat. The impact crushed all occupants.
No actual eyewitnesses were found by Corporal Minnick, who continued an investigation until 8 A. M. He had Sheriff Charles H. Truitt notify the relatives of the victims.
Roger Jones and Henry Kelly were standing about 100 feet down the highway when their attention was attracted by the sound of the crash.
Jones said he first noticed steam rising from the wreckage and with Kelly went to the scene. They found all occupants inside the wrecked car. A superficial examination revealed that the three Salisbury men and one of the girls were dead. Life appeared to be lingering in two of the girls and they pulled the wreck apart to rescue them. One of the girls died as soon as she was extracted.
Jones put the Taylor girl in his car and rushed her to the hospital. The State police sub-station was notified and Corporal Minnick arrived with Dr. L. A. Radenmaker. The four bodies remained in the car.
Minnick said Thaddeus Dykes body was taken from the wrecked driver’s seat. Dykes was married and is survived by a widow and three children. The oldest is four and the youngest seven months old. He was employed as a cutter at a local shirt plant.
The three young women had attended the rehearsal of a pageant by the Methodist Protestant Church last night. Afterwards they joined the men and the six set off on a pleasure ride with no definite destination.
State attorney Taylor was informed they had been to a road house near Salisbury sometime during the evening. The machine was driving into Powellville from the direction of Snow Hill.
Charles Coulbourne, driver of the truck owned by Edwin Jones, Whiton, had parked the load of lumber along the roadside and went to his home in Powellville to obtain sleep, expecting to deliver it to Hebron today.
The lumber was scattered over the ground and the wrecked car. The trailer was also badly damaged.
Mumford is survived by three sisters, Mrs. Blanche Young , Mrs. Gladys Ennis, Mrs. Catherine Baker and a brother, William Mumford. Funeral Services will be conducted from St. Andrew’s Church at 3:30 Monday afternoon, Rev. R. P. Edwards officiating.
Violet was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Templeton; Evelyn; the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Willey; Agnes of Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Taylor. The fathers of the three girls are all railroad trainmen.
April 26, 1935 The Milford Chronicle
Delmar News- Funeral Services for Miss Agnes Taylor and Miss Evelyn Willey, two of the three women who with their escorts, were crushed to death in an automobile accident near Salisbury Friday night, were held on Monday. The services for Miss Violet Templeton, the third victim, were held from her late home on Tuesday. Services for the other victims, Salisbury Men, were held on Monday.
PLEASURE RIDE BRINGS DEATH TO SIX WHEN SPEEDING AUTO CRASHES INTO LUMBER TRUCK
Three Delmar Girls and three Salisburians Are Victims Of Accident In Powellville At 12:15 A. M. This Morning
“NEVER KNEW WHAT HIT THEM” SAYS STATE POLICEMAN AFTER PROBE
Bodies Were Crushed As Front Of Car Is Driven Back To Rear Seat. Girls Had Attended Rehearsal of Church Pageant
All six occupants of an automobile were killed early today when their machine crashed into the rear of a lumbertruck parked just off the road in Powellville.
The dead are;
Thaddeus Dykes, 25, Washington Street.
Norris Dykes, his brother, 22, Washington Street.
Wisehart Mumford, 19, East Locust Street.
Violet Templeton, 17, Maryland Ave., Delmar.
Evelyn Willey, 17, Chestnut Street, Delmar.
Agnes Taylor, 20, Maryland Ave., Delmar.
All died at the scene of the accident except the Taylor girl who died four hours after being brought to the hospital here. She did not regain consciousness and none of the six victims lived to tell their own story of the tragedy.
The bodies were brought to the undertaking establishment of Holloway and Company and later claimed by the relatives and were taken to the several homes.
State Attorney Rex A. Taylor said investigation showed the cause of the accident to be so apparent a coroner inquest would serve no purpose.
“It was one of the worst accidents I have ever seen since working on the State Police force,” said Corporal C. E. Minnick “ the occupants of the machine never knew what hit them, the crash was so terrific,” “the Car must have been traveling at least seventy miles an hour at the time the crash occurred,”
The incident occurred almost in the center of town at 12:15 A. M. The machine failed to negotiate a sweeping curve in the state highway and went across the road to hit the truck parked three feet off the left side of the concrete thoroughfare.
As the motor clashed into the rear of the lumber the top part of the radio, hood, and entire front of the machine was either sheared off or pressed backward against the rear seat. The impact crushed all occupants.
No actual eyewitnesses were found by Corporal Minnick, who continued an investigation until 8 A. M. He had Sheriff Charles H. Truitt notify the relatives of the victims.
Roger Jones and Henry Kelly were standing about 100 feet down the highway when their attention was attracted by the sound of the crash.
Jones said he first noticed steam rising from the wreckage and with Kelly went to the scene. They found all occupants inside the wrecked car. A superficial examination revealed that the three Salisbury men and one of the girls were dead. Life appeared to be lingering in two of the girls and they pulled the wreck apart to rescue them. One of the girls died as soon as she was extracted.
Jones put the Taylor girl in his car and rushed her to the hospital. The State police sub-station was notified and Corporal Minnick arrived with Dr. L. A. Radenmaker. The four bodies remained in the car.
Minnick said Thaddeus Dykes body was taken from the wrecked driver’s seat. Dykes was married and is survived by a widow and three children. The oldest is four and the youngest seven months old. He was employed as a cutter at a local shirt plant.
The three young women had attended the rehearsal of a pageant by the Methodist Protestant Church last night. Afterwards they joined the men and the six set off on a pleasure ride with no definite destination.
State attorney Taylor was informed they had been to a road house near Salisbury sometime during the evening. The machine was driving into Powellville from the direction of Snow Hill.
Charles Coulbourne, driver of the truck owned by Edwin Jones, Whiton, had parked the load of lumber along the roadside and went to his home in Powellville to obtain sleep, expecting to deliver it to Hebron today.
The lumber was scattered over the ground and the wrecked car. The trailer was also badly damaged.
Mumford is survived by three sisters, Mrs. Blanche Young , Mrs. Gladys Ennis, Mrs. Catherine Baker and a brother, William Mumford. Funeral Services will be conducted from St. Andrew’s Church at 3:30 Monday afternoon, Rev. R. P. Edwards officiating.
Violet was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Templeton; Evelyn; the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Willey; Agnes of Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Taylor. The fathers of the three girls are all railroad trainmen.
April 26, 1935 The Milford Chronicle
Delmar News- Funeral Services for Miss Agnes Taylor and Miss Evelyn Willey, two of the three women who with their escorts, were crushed to death in an automobile accident near Salisbury Friday night, were held on Monday. The services for Miss Violet Templeton, the third victim, were held from her late home on Tuesday. Services for the other victims, Salisbury Men, were held on Monday.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
My Brother Got Forked
Pranksters went by my brothers last night and stuck a few hundred plastic forks in his yard. Well it is better than the days when they tossed toilet paper all over your yard. Click photo to see it better
Gordy and Williams Mill on Gordy Mill Road
The Gordy and Williams Mill was similar in location to the Williams mill, south west of it. Located on today's Gordy Mill Road, off Stage Road in Delmar, the mill was a grist mill run by Benjamin Gordy and Isaac Williams in the 1870's. It was upstream from Williams Mill pond on what was than called Rum Ridge Branch. Today Rum Ridge Branch is called Andrews Branch. Andrews Branch flows to the North Prong and eventually into the Wicomico River. As the photo above shows it is a sunken piece of land today where the mill pond was. This is at the junction of Gordy Mill Road and Andrews Branch.
This is the outflow that goes to Williams Pond.
Gordy road is a lightly travelled road that is torn up at the east end due to utility lines being run to new subdivisions.
The photo doesn't do it justice but there is only a narrow strip of paved road left until you get past the subdivision.
Gordy Mill Road also has a burnt house that is roosting place for buzzards. You will notice one cooling his armpits or wings pits in the photo.
As can be seen on this 1870's map, today's Gordy Mill Road is one of the original roads in this section of Delmar, Maryland. On the map it is shown as a secondary road leading from road #848 (Stage Road)by the colored M E church, to road #737 (Rum Ridge Road). Since all the roads were dirt back then, I can't imagine what a secondary road must have been like. Still considering there is no road show to Williams Mill, the Gordy and Williams Mill must have been on a well traveled road.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Scrap Metal Theft
I was glancing at Spiegel today and they had an article on bronze plaques from the Holocaust memorial Theresienstadt being stolen. As it is here, scrap metal prices are up also in Europe and the Czech Republic. People are stealing copper guttering and roofs from building thru out Europe to be sold as scrap. In this case they stole over a 1,000 bronze memorial plagues in honor of concentration camp victims. At what point will the graveyards in this area be vandalized for the bronze markers in them? I think it will happen shortly.
Yearning For Zion Ranch Issue
This whole deal down in Texas with over 400 children being removed from their parents is just unbelievable to me. To work for the Federal Government and the State of Texas you must have to take a stupidity test. I keep waiting for them to reverse their selves but like Iraq they are just determine to stay with a mistake. They attacked this polygamous sect back on April 3rd because they had receive an anonymous phone call that a 16 year old had been beaten and raped by her 50 year old husband. I understand, as of this time, they have not found that 16 year old nor traced the call to anyone. Sounds like government bullshit to me. Now I can vaguely see some type of government agency looking into this (Okay I can't see the government looking in to anything between a man and his wife but I will be nice about it) but they hauled everyone in the subdivision these people lived in into jail (Protective custody). To me this is the same as if some one made an anonymous phone call to the effect some one in Delmar was being abused and the government came in and took all the children in Delmar into protective custody.
Certainly polygamy is against the law, but the Federal government has always knew it existed and where it existed, but have not made any attempt to stop it.
I understand now they want to do genetic testing on the children to determine who their parents are. It is none of the government damn business who the parents are. The Foster Care system is overburden as it is, so how are they going to handle over 400 children? I can't help but think these children came from loving parents and altho they may not have the same beliefs I do the children are better with their parents than the government.
Certainly polygamy is against the law, but the Federal government has always knew it existed and where it existed, but have not made any attempt to stop it.
I understand now they want to do genetic testing on the children to determine who their parents are. It is none of the government damn business who the parents are. The Foster Care system is overburden as it is, so how are they going to handle over 400 children? I can't help but think these children came from loving parents and altho they may not have the same beliefs I do the children are better with their parents than the government.
Cynthia Reynolds
Embezzlement just keeps occurring, today in the News Journal there was a report of Cynthia Reynolds, 48, confessing to stealing over $100,000 from Alderman court #42 in Newport. This was stolen over a three year period. Reynolds worked as a bookkeeper and Administration Assistant. The comments to the article are interesting as they point out this is the second time in 12 years someone has stolen from the Alderman court in Newport. The comments are also really bad on the Chief of Police in Newport.
Streets Paved With Candy
Adults may look for street paved in gold but kids look for streets paved in candy and today was the opening day parade of the Delmar Little League and altho the street may not have been paved in candy there was a lot of it. It is also the 50th anniversary of the Delmar Little league.
Shining up the wheels on the fire truck before the parade
The Start of the parade
Fire Prevention Queens
The school color guard and band
The legendary band fan Pat Palmer
Delaware Vice Mayor Mike Houlihan, Town Manager Sara Bynum King and Maryland Commissioner Carl Anderton walking in the parade. Now you know this is the most exercise this crew has gotten in a long time.
The Town Police Lead and Followed up at the rear
It was a good haul for these kids
Public Works at work
As I have said before the kids are unknowing in the effort it takes to put on one of these parades. A big thanks to the Public Works Department, Police Department, Fire Department, sponsors of little league teams, and the little league organization for putting on the parade today.
Dillards Restaurant
Dillards Restaurant in the 1980's was a great place to eat and inexpensive. It was in Seaford and was later purchased by Englishs - which should have been a good fit, but they screwed it up and it stayed empty for a while and is now a Mexican restaurant.
Delmar Community Yardsale
Today there are yardsales all over Delmar. The main one is at State Street Park.
Had to stop by the Delmar Kiwanis' Trailer for a scrapple sandwich and to the Friends of the Library table for a cup of coffee, that the only way to do a yardsale is with a scrapple sandwich in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.
The Girl Scouts had some tables of good stuff
A lot of good buys today I even bought a couple of things.
The Delmar Police (PCO Ed Ferro) were there with a table of free stuff.
One of the new Chargers the Delmar Police Force received. The money mostly came from grants and confiscated drug money.
Look at the electronic equipment in one of these.
Happy Birthday Whitley
Friday, April 18, 2008
Breaker Breaker
Recently at an auction, I was at, they had a couple CB Radios for sale. Now in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s CB Radio ruled the airwaves. Everything you see on “Smokey and the Bandit” was real life. Citizen Band (CB) radios originally required a FCC license to operate and you had to use call letters assigned to you. Somewhere in the 1970’s when it reached it peak the license requirement was done away with. There was so many people illegally using CB sets the government couldn’t enforce the requirement for a license, so it gave up. When in 1974 President Nixon decided to make the speed limit 55mph in response to an oil shortage and take away from the states what had been a state right to set speed limits, truckers embraced the CB set to alert them to speed traps.
Citizen band radio was formed in 1945 by the US government and made use of the 11-meter band which had been an amateur radio band. CB radio started out with 23 channels and in 1977 the government added another 17 channels bring it up to 40 channels. When the 40 channels CB sets came out it was at the peak of the CB craze and then like other fads, and a lot of misuse, it started to go away. Although people still use them the cell phone has pretty much killed any mass use of citizen band radio.
CB Radio probably made Radio Shack a major corporation and got them into inexpensive consumer electronics. I think I read in a book about Charles Tandy that CB Radio sales made up 20% of Radio Shack sales in the 1970’s.
It was wild when it was at it peak. Everyone used a handle instead of a call sign. CB Clubs were popular and they had Coffee Breaks for CB people to meet one another. They used their own slang on CB radio that was as popular as the codes used in text messaging are today. At least a third of the radio sets used linear amplifiers to magnify their signals from the legal five watts to a thousand or more. The fact it would interfere with neighbor's TV reception was immaterial to them. Neighborhood spouted antennas on the roofs and in the backyards and cars had those 15 feet radio antennas on them some times the cars would have three or four of those antenna. The misuse was rampant and you had fools who would break in when you were talking or sometime they would just tie up a channel with their ranting and raving and vulgarities. If you got into an argument with them they would threaten to pin your coaxial (driving a straight pin thru the cable leading to your antenna would short out everything). The desire to say it was like blogging is overwhelming, except with blogging you have to purposely go to the blog to read it and if you don’t like the blog it is your choice to leave it.
There was an entire cult with CB radio and you can still see it in the movies with The Smokey and the bandits series, or on reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard, or listen to it on the radio when “Convoy” is played. So breaker breaker good buddy catch you on the flip flop.
Citizen band radio was formed in 1945 by the US government and made use of the 11-meter band which had been an amateur radio band. CB radio started out with 23 channels and in 1977 the government added another 17 channels bring it up to 40 channels. When the 40 channels CB sets came out it was at the peak of the CB craze and then like other fads, and a lot of misuse, it started to go away. Although people still use them the cell phone has pretty much killed any mass use of citizen band radio.
CB Radio probably made Radio Shack a major corporation and got them into inexpensive consumer electronics. I think I read in a book about Charles Tandy that CB Radio sales made up 20% of Radio Shack sales in the 1970’s.
It was wild when it was at it peak. Everyone used a handle instead of a call sign. CB Clubs were popular and they had Coffee Breaks for CB people to meet one another. They used their own slang on CB radio that was as popular as the codes used in text messaging are today. At least a third of the radio sets used linear amplifiers to magnify their signals from the legal five watts to a thousand or more. The fact it would interfere with neighbor's TV reception was immaterial to them. Neighborhood spouted antennas on the roofs and in the backyards and cars had those 15 feet radio antennas on them some times the cars would have three or four of those antenna. The misuse was rampant and you had fools who would break in when you were talking or sometime they would just tie up a channel with their ranting and raving and vulgarities. If you got into an argument with them they would threaten to pin your coaxial (driving a straight pin thru the cable leading to your antenna would short out everything). The desire to say it was like blogging is overwhelming, except with blogging you have to purposely go to the blog to read it and if you don’t like the blog it is your choice to leave it.
There was an entire cult with CB radio and you can still see it in the movies with The Smokey and the bandits series, or on reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard, or listen to it on the radio when “Convoy” is played. So breaker breaker good buddy catch you on the flip flop.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Spiegel
One of the on-line newspapers I enjoy reading is the German Spiegel, English version of course I am not smart enough to read German, I have enough trouble reading and speaking politically correct American. Two articles in recent days that I found interesting are below. It happens that they both are related to World war II, but the on-line newspaper has a much wider range of topics than these two. I just happen to have found these two interesting.
the WWII submarine bunker named "Valentin." in Bremen is up for sale. It is about 1,400 by 250 ft in size, and has water access.
Heinrich Boere an 86-year-old former SS soldier accused of killing three people in the Netherlands in 1944 may be put on trial in Germany for Nazi war crimes. Now I had thought most of the war crime trials were done with. After all even if guilty they have already lived a long free life, much longer than their victims, the point of putting an 86 year old in jail seems pointless except it shows you will not escape some form of justice even if it is just for show, after all how much longer is he going to live? What I have found disgusting is those Germans who could have been held for War Crimes but had skills the United States wanted, and they went on to live fairly well off lives. Warner Von Braun comes to mind.
the WWII submarine bunker named "Valentin." in Bremen is up for sale. It is about 1,400 by 250 ft in size, and has water access.
Heinrich Boere an 86-year-old former SS soldier accused of killing three people in the Netherlands in 1944 may be put on trial in Germany for Nazi war crimes. Now I had thought most of the war crime trials were done with. After all even if guilty they have already lived a long free life, much longer than their victims, the point of putting an 86 year old in jail seems pointless except it shows you will not escape some form of justice even if it is just for show, after all how much longer is he going to live? What I have found disgusting is those Germans who could have been held for War Crimes but had skills the United States wanted, and they went on to live fairly well off lives. Warner Von Braun comes to mind.
Laina M. Massey
Well another theft from a Sports association. As I have said before, associations rather they are Homeowners associations, Sport associations, School Band associations, Churches, Girl scouts, Boy scouts, etc are the most vulnerable to theft. Usually the treasurer is someone they know and they are too embarrassed to ask that person for reports or audits of their money. Most theft is never reported. The association just hopes to get most of their money back and save the embarrassment of not having kept closer tabs on their money. This time around Laina M. Massey, age 27, of Seaford supposely made off with $30,000 from the Nanticoke Youth Soccer League. The money seem to have been taken over a seven month period. How quickly it goes. How much money did that league have anyway? Mrs Massey said she had a shopping habit to support.
Salisbury - Isabella Street
I rode a little on Isabella Street this week and that is the most ridicules mess I have ever seen. I thought the previous crap they had on the street was bad but now the stupidity of it and waste of money just amazes me. This is one of the primary cut thru street between RT50 and RT13 and they have all that shit put up on the East end of Isabella. If it is a problem on the East end and they are putting in those curb things than it most be prejudice as they don't seem to be doing anything at the west end which should be just as bad. It is even worst than some of the ridiculous stuff the State (Maryland and Delaware) highway people do. One more reason I am glad I live in Delmar and not Salisbury or Wicomico County.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Williams Mill Pond
Williams Mill Pond Road, off Stage Road, East of Delmar Maryland crosses its namesake Williams Mill Pond. Altho no longer there, at one time a saw mill and a grist mill operated on this pond. As you drive along Williams Mill Pond Road you can see where it crosses Jackson Branch there also are the characteristics of an unknown mill being there.
In the 1870's, John Williams had a saw and grist mill at a pond along Rum Ridge Branch, upstream of Leonard Mill. Today Rum Ridge Branch is called Andrews Branch. Andrew Branch and Williams Pond flow into the North Prong and Leonards Mill Pond.
In the 1880 census; L. Catherine Williams had a sawmill on Williams Pond with 1 employee, who also did the logging. A 4-foot fall on the pond drove a 5 hp turbine to cut 68,000 ft of lumber in 1880.
The Outflow into the North Prong.
Happy Birthday Alan
Monday, April 14, 2008
Delmar Police Commission For April
The Police Commission had their meeting tonight. All members were present. The usual low key meeting was held with an executive session afterward. The Police Chief talked about some "assists" Delmar police did with the Maryland State police and Salisbury police. He also said in 2007 and 2008 the Delmar police have received over $86,000 in confiscated drug money. They have four surveillance cameras, either in place, or about to be put in place. One is focused on the downtown area, another will be at State Street Park, a third will be at the shopping center where Food Lion is (are we going to be able to spot illegal parking 24 hour a day?), and the fourth location has not been decided. If you have a suggestion for the fourth camera location contact Chief Hal Saylor. He is looking for volunteers to man the cameras. At the public comment section I asked if there had been an increase in stolen lawn mower gas cans since the price of gas was going up and they are usually not locked up. He said no one had reported any stolen yet. I told them I had received an email that said some public works people had been involved in stealing from the town. He said that about three or more years back there was someone caught stealing but there has been nothing since.
Old Mill Crab House
Rumor has it that the Old Mill Has been sold to people that have the Domino Pizza franchise in the area.
Lilacs In Bloom
1953 Ad Acorn Oaks Drive-In
Delmar Community Yardsale
This weekend (On Saturday, the 19th) there will be a yardsale at State Street Park. Should you want to have a booth or space there contact Sharon Ledvadnuk at 302-846-9574.
Police Commission Meeting Tonight
As a reminder there is a Delmar Police Commission meeting tonight at town hall at 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Connelly Mill
The area around Delmar, Salisbury and Laurel has had a number of mills and mill ponds. The mills were grist mills, carding mills, cane mills, saw mills, bark mills, kindling mills and leather mills. In Delmar proper there were several mills but they were gas or steam powered as there is a lack of streams to dam in Delmar. Where dams were placed the State and county Government required that they be wide enough to support a road going across them and this would save the government the expense of building a separate bridge to cross the stream. The roads leading to the dam was usually called by the owners name, thusly Connelly Mill Road.
Map showing Connelly Mill Pond in the 1870's
I don’t know if anyone named Connelly ever owned the mill that was on Connelly Mill Branch, south of Delmar, but the land around it was owned by Connellys. Connelly Mill Branch flows into Leonard Pond Run which eventually ends up in Johnson Pond. The stream was dammed and a saw mill and lumber yard was built there in the crook of the road in the 1860’s. The saw mill was built by William Woods and in the 1870’s it was called the William N. Hastings sawmill. I am unsure when the mill went out of business, I think in the 1920’s, but I am unsure of this.
Today when you turn off RT13 on to Connelly mill Road and go a little over a mile to a sharp left turn you are at what was Connelly Mill pond. The road now goes over Connelly Mill Branch, which is a fast running stream. The pond is just a low spot now on the west side of the road, over grown with trees. As far as I know the road goes over the original dam.
Map showing Connelly Mill Pond in the 1870's
I don’t know if anyone named Connelly ever owned the mill that was on Connelly Mill Branch, south of Delmar, but the land around it was owned by Connellys. Connelly Mill Branch flows into Leonard Pond Run which eventually ends up in Johnson Pond. The stream was dammed and a saw mill and lumber yard was built there in the crook of the road in the 1860’s. The saw mill was built by William Woods and in the 1870’s it was called the William N. Hastings sawmill. I am unsure when the mill went out of business, I think in the 1920’s, but I am unsure of this.
Today when you turn off RT13 on to Connelly mill Road and go a little over a mile to a sharp left turn you are at what was Connelly Mill pond. The road now goes over Connelly Mill Branch, which is a fast running stream. The pond is just a low spot now on the west side of the road, over grown with trees. As far as I know the road goes over the original dam.
Cape Henlopen Lighthouse
Today in 1926 the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse fell into the sea. Built by the British in 1765 it was the second oldest lighthouse in the United States. The lighthouse had replaced a whale oil lamp placed on a sand dune. The lighthouse was eight-story, hexagonal building more than six feet thick at the base. It was built of Ashlar granite from quarries around Wilmington and financed by a lottery. In the Revolutionary War the British burned the wooden staircase that went to the light on top. Altho built on a sand dune and over a mile from the sea, the sea eventually arrived at the base of the lighthouse. by 1876 it was felt the lighthouse would fall into the sea, erosion continued, bulkheads were put down, but at One o'clock Tuesday afternoon April 13th the Cape Henlopen lighthouse fell into the sea.
In classic "wrecker" fashion souvenir hunters came for chunks of rocks, glass and iron, any thing they could pick up. The Brass and steel was sold for junk. Stone was advertised at $8.00 a cart, delivered. A number of fireplaces in Lewes and Rehoboth were built from the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse.
James Robert Powell
The April 13th, 1945 edition of the Bi-State Weekly reported that James Robert Powell, QM 3-C, USNR, had died at sea on the aircraft carrier "Franklin" in the Pacific. He was killed instantly by an exploding bomb. He had entered the Navy at age 17 immediately after graduation in 1942 from the Delmar Maryland High School. Powell had participated in seven invasions in the Pacific. On his last leave home he had married Jane Hodnes of Brooklyn, N. Y. His father was J. Elmer Powell.
Robert Powell is listed on the Glen Rayne Post No. 15 American Legion honor roll
Robert Powell is listed on the Glen Rayne Post No. 15 American Legion honor roll
Saturday, April 12, 2008
First Snake Sighting of the year
I was working out in the garden this morning and had my first snake sighting. Now I have a thing about snakes, mainly I run in the opposite direction they seem to be going. He went one way and I went the other. Unlike The Shores of Delmarva who also had his first snake sighting I don't know the type of snake mine was. Actually my snake identification extends to two types -live snake - dead snake. I sure as hell wasn't going to pick it up and photograph it.
Brick Row
In 1892 The Big Fire sweep thru Delmar burning most of it to the ground. Among the houses burnt were tenement houses on what was than called Front street. After the fire Mitchell H. German, owner of the M. H. German & Co. Brickyard, built on that land what is today called Brick Row. The Rowhouses faced on Front Street, which became RailRoad Avenue and later it would be called South Pennsylvania Ave.
Brick Row has had a series of owners. In 1915 Mitchell German defaulted on the mortgage he had with Walter Miller and Brick row was sold at public auction to Arthur Williams, his heirs in 1937 sold it to Lee Mason, whose heirs sold it to Sue Payne in 1955. In 1979 it was owned by Norman and linda Buroker who sold it to Samuel and Darlene Lombardo in 1981, who flipped it to Terry Sell in 1981, who sold it to GNI,LLC in 1999.
The upkeep of the property aside, Brick Row standing on the Maryland side of Delmar is one of the most distinctive structures in Delmar. It is of a late 1890's style and it is amazing so much of it is still intact. It is a two-story brick rowhouse that has seven units in the structure. Each paired units share an entrance bay and are separated by a narrow passageway between units. There is a front decorative turned post porch with scrollwork. Above each second floor window is a metal vent that provides air circulation to the attic. Along the top of the rowhouse is decorative brick corbelling with pyramidal topped metal finials.
Attached to to Brick Row is a smaller series of rowhouse units dating from the second quarter of the twentieth century.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Lt. John William Miller
On October 8, 1951 Lt. John Miller, 30, of the United States Air Force lost his life when his plane crashed on the runway after returning from a photo reconnaissance over Korea. Lt. Miller lived at 102 Jewel Street Delmar Delaware and he left behind his wife, Margaret Anne, and three children; Robert, Judy, and Steven. Prior to Korea he had been a bombardier with the Seventh Air Force in the Central Pacific area during World War II. He had received the Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross with several clusters during World War II. He worked for the Bi-State Weekly before being reactivated for the Korean conflict. The Air Force awarded him an Air Medal with Seventh and Eighth Oak Leaf Clusters, posthumously, for service in Korea. He is buried at Arlington.
John Miller was also the first Scout Master of Boy Scout Troop 176. This troop is sponsored by the Salisbury Rotary Club. They built a Boy Scout lodge at Shad Point for Boy Scout Troop 176 and they named it in honor of John Miller. The original building has since been torn down but a new building was put in it's place and it is still named in honor of John Miller. I stopped by it yesterday and was shown the marble engraved stone over the fireplace that shows the dedication piece to John Miller.
Boy Scout Troop 176
The dedication Stone, I have no idea why it says Oct 7th as everthing I have read says he died Oct 8th.
The current Boy Scout Lodge
And, of course, he is on the honor roll of fallen heroes at the Delmar American Legion.
John Miller was also the first Scout Master of Boy Scout Troop 176. This troop is sponsored by the Salisbury Rotary Club. They built a Boy Scout lodge at Shad Point for Boy Scout Troop 176 and they named it in honor of John Miller. The original building has since been torn down but a new building was put in it's place and it is still named in honor of John Miller. I stopped by it yesterday and was shown the marble engraved stone over the fireplace that shows the dedication piece to John Miller.
Boy Scout Troop 176
The dedication Stone, I have no idea why it says Oct 7th as everthing I have read says he died Oct 8th.
The current Boy Scout Lodge
And, of course, he is on the honor roll of fallen heroes at the Delmar American Legion.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Tulip Tree or Saucer Magnolia?
As any Eastern Shoreman will tell you this is a Tulip tree. Just look at the blossoms and the time of year it blooms - it's a tulip tree. Now I know foreigners that come here keep telling us it is a Saucer Magnolia, but what do they know? If they knew anything they would have been born here instead of moving here. Also the tree experts (government people) keep telling us this is what a Tulip tree is - well you know how often they are right about anything.
Megan is another year older
The 1917 Eddystone Explosion
The Eddystone Ammunition Plant, in 1916, was looking for a thousand girls to work at their ammunition plant outside of Chester Pennsylvania, piercing fuses and filling shells with gunpowder for the Russian army. Included in the people hired at the Eddystone Ammunition plant were Martha Parsons and her husband Anthony Parsons from the Delmar Maryland area. On April 6, 1917 President Wilson asked Congress to declare war and Congress officially declared it. About this time at the plant rumors were floating that the Russian, Leon Trotsky, had put out an order to sabotaged the plant in order to prevent the shells from reaching the new Russian government run by Kerensky, which was democratic. On April 10, 1917 at 9:55 A. M. “F” Building at the Eddystone Ammunition Plant, where 380 girls and women worked loading shells with black powder, exploded . One hundred and thirty-three persons, lost their lives in the explosion. Fifty-five of the dead would never be identified. Among the identified dead were Anthony and Martha Parsons.
From the Wicomico News April 19, 1917
April 13, Delmar – Two of the victims of the Eddystone disaster Anthony G. Parsons and his wife, who had been employed in the factory only a short time, were from the rural section, near this town. Their remains were brought home today for interment.
Martha E. Parsons May 23, 1886 to April 10 1917 Buried at Cemetery in Melson.
Anthony G. Parson May 29, 1880 to April 10, 1917 Buried at Melson.
The unidentified dead were buried at a mass funeral service in Chester Rural Cemetery. The service was held on April 13 at 11:00 a.m. An estimated 12,000 people attended the funeral service. The Eddystone Ammunition Company paid for all the funeral services.
Monument to the unidentified dead at Chester Rural Cemetery
Eddystone, Pennsylvania is located on the Delaware River next to Chester PA
From the Wicomico News April 19, 1917
April 13, Delmar – Two of the victims of the Eddystone disaster Anthony G. Parsons and his wife, who had been employed in the factory only a short time, were from the rural section, near this town. Their remains were brought home today for interment.
Martha E. Parsons May 23, 1886 to April 10 1917 Buried at Cemetery in Melson.
Anthony G. Parson May 29, 1880 to April 10, 1917 Buried at Melson.
The unidentified dead were buried at a mass funeral service in Chester Rural Cemetery. The service was held on April 13 at 11:00 a.m. An estimated 12,000 people attended the funeral service. The Eddystone Ammunition Company paid for all the funeral services.
Monument to the unidentified dead at Chester Rural Cemetery
Eddystone, Pennsylvania is located on the Delaware River next to Chester PA
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
The Government Accounting Office Reports
In the news today is reports of government purchase cards (they are like a gift card and were used like a gift card) being used incorrectly. For those who may not know, this is the website for those reports issued by the GAO. They are frequently interesting reading. The improper use of government purchase cards have been going on since I have been reading the reports. If you go to the top tab and click Reports and Testimonies than you can pick reports out that go back to the 1960's.
1953 Ad The Tropics
Merger of Negro Schools - 1953
From the Bi-State Weekly April 10, 1953
Merger Plans Under Way For Negro Schools
Plans are said to be underway for the merging of four Negro public schools in Western Sussex County with the Paul Lawrence Dunbar School in Laurel. It was revealed last week that an extra $150,000 has been added by the State Department of Public Instruction to the previous sum of $300,000 approved by the state school authorities and forwarded to the omnibus appropriation bill for school improvements.
Approval of this additional request will give the Dunbar School a total of $450,000. That sum will be a state grant and does not require that any added amount shall be raised by bond issues or local taxation. It was specified that the original $300,000 should be used for three classrooms, a cafeteria and equipment, and for certain renovations. The other $150,000 will provide sufficient classroom space to take care for the present pupils of the four rural schools. they are Ross Point, with one teacher; Portsville, with one teacher; Delmar, with one teacher, and Owens Corners, with two teachers.
The current enrollment of the Dunbar School is 212. The enrollment of the other four schools is Ross Point, 24; Portsville, 14; Delmar, 21; and Owens Corner, 46.
Merger Plans Under Way For Negro Schools
Plans are said to be underway for the merging of four Negro public schools in Western Sussex County with the Paul Lawrence Dunbar School in Laurel. It was revealed last week that an extra $150,000 has been added by the State Department of Public Instruction to the previous sum of $300,000 approved by the state school authorities and forwarded to the omnibus appropriation bill for school improvements.
Approval of this additional request will give the Dunbar School a total of $450,000. That sum will be a state grant and does not require that any added amount shall be raised by bond issues or local taxation. It was specified that the original $300,000 should be used for three classrooms, a cafeteria and equipment, and for certain renovations. The other $150,000 will provide sufficient classroom space to take care for the present pupils of the four rural schools. they are Ross Point, with one teacher; Portsville, with one teacher; Delmar, with one teacher, and Owens Corners, with two teachers.
The current enrollment of the Dunbar School is 212. The enrollment of the other four schools is Ross Point, 24; Portsville, 14; Delmar, 21; and Owens Corner, 46.
Lecates Building in the Spring
The Front of The Building
The building at the corner of North Pennsylvania Ave. and West State Street is a noticable eyesore. If you go to the Sussex County On Line Maps look for parcel ID 532-20.14-204.00 and you find it is owned by John G and Beverly H. Lecates of 29625 Foxwood Drive, Delmar Maryland. The Town of Delmar doesn't think it can do anything to make these people clean up the building. The Mayor and Council do not even want to mention the Lecates name in connection with this building. What kind of hold does the Lecates have over the Delmar Council?
The Back of the Building, It is across the street from the Bank of Delmarva. I can see why the Bank of Delmarva wants to move out of the down town to Rt13, they are sick of looking at this piece of trash and scare it is going to fall over on them.
Again the back of the building, notice the lack of glass in the windows, if it was your residence you would be cited for allowing pigeons to nest in your home, yet nothing is done to this building.
A broken window on the side of the building
The side of the building. The weather plywood covering the doors sort of adds a big city look to the building. Maybe that is what Delmar is going for.
One of the doors on the side of the building as viewed from State Street, one of the main traveled streets in Delmar. Sends a great message about Delmar doesn't it?
A door on the front of the building, notice the broken windows. Easy place for a troublemaker to throw a lit traffic flare into and start the third major fire to destroy Delmar.
A view thru the broken window of the door, nice stairwell. The building was built in the 1890's and has good detail but has not been kept up.
Stillwater Ponds
I received an email this morning that said the Stillwater Ponds Development was listed on Broker Post for six million dollars. As you may recall Stillwater is a proposed development of 138 homes located between Old Stage Road and Robin Hood Drive, off RT54. That is $43,478 per lot in a development nothing has been done in. Back in October 2007 the Delmar Planning and Zoning commission gave final plat approval to this project and the developers must have almost tripped over their feet rushing out the door, after the meeting, to put it on the market. One of the people involved in it is Steve Fuller, who is also involved in the Foskey Business Park development on the Delmar Maryland side of Town. He is a man to look out for.
I have to agree with what Councilperson Diane Buckley keeps saying, once approval is given for these developments, if they are sold than the new developer has to start the approval project all over again. These developments are in the works so long that by the time work starts building they have been sold a number of times and the paperwork is so messed up it is hard to say what can be built on the land.
I have to agree with what Councilperson Diane Buckley keeps saying, once approval is given for these developments, if they are sold than the new developer has to start the approval project all over again. These developments are in the works so long that by the time work starts building they have been sold a number of times and the paperwork is so messed up it is hard to say what can be built on the land.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Joshua Hopkins Marvil, Governor of Delaware
Joshua Hopkins Marvil, Governor of Delaware died today (April 8th) at his home in Laurel in 1895. He had been in poor health before running for governor and he only served three months of his Governorship before dieing. He was the 56th Governor of Delaware (if we count from 1638 when Peter Minuit was Governor). William Tharp Watson, Speaker of the State Senate, succeeded him and finished his term of office. Governor Marvil was the first Republican Delaware Governor to be elected in 32 years due to the dislike Delawareans had for the actions of the Republican Party during the civil war. He is buried at Laurel Hill cemetery (End of 9th street) in Laurel Delaware.
Joshua H. Marvel claim to fame was not being Governor of Delaware, his fame was in the Peach and Berry Basket making business. He had the largest basket making business in the area. Like today one business in an area will attract additional like businesses to the same area as the trained labor force is available and the technology is known. It was the same for the Marvil Basket Company, several other basket companies started up in Laurel and W L Sirman’s Basket Company and Levin Hastings Basket company started up in Delmar. J. H. Marvel had 16 patents in his name for basket designs. He was also the publisher of Laurel’s first newspaper, the ‘’Gazette’’, which he started in 1889.
I don’t know of any commercial wooden basket making companies left in our area. When I was a child, in the 1950's, my father worked a candy vending route and one of his customers was a basket making company. At times, when not in school, I was allowed to ride with him. The basket company was one of my favorite companies to go to as the smell of fresh sawed and cut wood, the bright colors of the drying strips of wood, and the movement of machinery has always attracted me. The basket company cut the wood into strips, dried the wood, dyed the wood (purple, red, and yellow seems to me to be the main colors), dried it again and than stapled the strips into a 5/8 or bushel basket, they also made berry baskets.
Monday, April 07, 2008
The Rice Mother
I recently finished a book called "The Rice Mother" by Rani Manicka. It is an excellent book. The book is somewhat reminiscent of the Anne River Siddons books in that there is a matriarch and the book goes thru several generations of children. Unlike the Anne River Siddons books which seem to be based on Collage educated females that marry into rich families and live in small southern college towns or cloistered beach communities, Manicka story starts with a 15 year old named Lakshmi who is fooled in to marrying an unambitious man in Ceylon and goes to Malaysia. By 19 she has a number of children and has become the person in charge of the family. They live thru the Japanese occupancy of Malaysia and you will learn to hate the Japanese again. Her children are flawed in character and rarely live up to their mother's expectations. The story is in Ceylon and Malaysia and is filled with Asian folklore, myths and magic. The family members with their flaws, altho Asian, could easy be matched with family members of any Eastern Shore family and as such you can relate to them easily. I would recommend the book. Rani Manicka is an economic graduate who was born in Malaysia and lives in England. She has recently taken to using the name Sampreeta.
Laurel Construction
I was in Laurel today and the construction and traffic jams continues. Today on Rt13 you merge to the left lane. There are barriers all over the road, the road is scraped down, and no work is being done. The traffic problems it create is frustrating enough but when you don't see anyone working it just adds to it. Elbert has had his say on it. Over at Five Point in Laurel it isn't any better, more construction etc.
Speaking of Five Points, do you remember when Five Point Antique Shop was there? Now Laurel has always had a long history of small antique shops in town, so when Bargin’s Bills Flea market opened up it came as no surprise that it would be successful.
Five Point Antiques was run by Mimi Alexander, a legendary character. I understand she was from the Midwest and had studied to be an opera singer, eventually ended up in Baltimore and finally Laurel. Being a native of Delmarva I naturally am attracted to sparkly and/or gaudy things so I was out looking at "estate" rings one day in Laurel and wandered into Five Points. I encountered a small woman who I felt sure was a hundred years old, in a dusty shop with stacked up tables of antiques in what is the classic Eastern Shore “antique” shop (nothing like O'Neals today).
After browsing the main room I asked her about rings and she took me to a back room as cluttered as the front and she took out cigar box after cigar box that were overflowing with jewelry. Even to my untrained eye I could see there was a lot of money piled in those cigar boxes. You just looked at the place, her and the jewels and said to your self sooner or later this old woman is going to get knocked in the head and robbed. As far as I know she never was. She was very knowledgeable about gems and “estate” jewelry. You also realized she was a character.
Had I known what the price of gold would be today I would have invested heavily in her stock. Another lost opportunity.
Speaking of Five Points, do you remember when Five Point Antique Shop was there? Now Laurel has always had a long history of small antique shops in town, so when Bargin’s Bills Flea market opened up it came as no surprise that it would be successful.
Five Point Antiques was run by Mimi Alexander, a legendary character. I understand she was from the Midwest and had studied to be an opera singer, eventually ended up in Baltimore and finally Laurel. Being a native of Delmarva I naturally am attracted to sparkly and/or gaudy things so I was out looking at "estate" rings one day in Laurel and wandered into Five Points. I encountered a small woman who I felt sure was a hundred years old, in a dusty shop with stacked up tables of antiques in what is the classic Eastern Shore “antique” shop (nothing like O'Neals today).
After browsing the main room I asked her about rings and she took me to a back room as cluttered as the front and she took out cigar box after cigar box that were overflowing with jewelry. Even to my untrained eye I could see there was a lot of money piled in those cigar boxes. You just looked at the place, her and the jewels and said to your self sooner or later this old woman is going to get knocked in the head and robbed. As far as I know she never was. She was very knowledgeable about gems and “estate” jewelry. You also realized she was a character.
Had I known what the price of gold would be today I would have invested heavily in her stock. Another lost opportunity.
Marsha Lynn Renfrow
On March 31st the owner of Mar-Lyn Management, Inc. - Marsha Renfrow, which manages the Sundower Park Association - a homeowners association, pleaded guilty to stealing more than $19,000 from the homeowners association. Marsha Lynn Renfrow had worked for the association between 1992 to 2006.
Renfrow, who is 69, was charged with six counts of felony theft and one count of felony theft scheme. Renfrow pleaded guilty to felony theft and was ordered pay back over $19,000 in restitution to the trailer park association. She was also placed on probation for 18 months. These items can be looked on the Maryland Judiciary search Court cases
Residents of the 186-unit complex at 133rd Street got suspicious of her actions when Renfrow let them know there wasn't enough money to pay property taxes, and then flatly refused to provide any financial records, said Lucy Kelly, president of the neighborhood's board of directors.
Renfrow, who is 69, was charged with six counts of felony theft and one count of felony theft scheme. Renfrow pleaded guilty to felony theft and was ordered pay back over $19,000 in restitution to the trailer park association. She was also placed on probation for 18 months. These items can be looked on the Maryland Judiciary search Court cases
Residents of the 186-unit complex at 133rd Street got suspicious of her actions when Renfrow let them know there wasn't enough money to pay property taxes, and then flatly refused to provide any financial records, said Lucy Kelly, president of the neighborhood's board of directors.
Janis Ian born today in 1951
Janis Ian was born born today in 1951. Writer and singer she started cutting records at 15 and in 1975 she did 'At Seventeen" that is, at least to me, her best known song. Somewhere along the line she decided she was a lesbian and "married" Patricia Snyder. They live in Nashville Tennessee. Now a white haired woman she still sings and performs.
Janis Ian
"At Seventeen"
I leaned the truth at seventeen that love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles who married young and then
retired.
The valentines I never knew, the Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful. At seventeen I learned the truth.
And those of us with ravaged faces, lacking in the social graces,
Desperately remained at home, inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say, "Come dance with me," and murmured vague obscenities.
It isn't all it seems at seventeen.
A brown-eyed girl in hand-me-downs whose name I never could pronounce
Said, "Pity, please, the ones who serve; they only get what they deserve.
The rich relationed hometown queen marries into what she needs.
A guarantee of company and haven for the elderly."
Remember those who win the game lose the love they sought to gain.
In debentures of quality and dubious integrity.
Their small-town eyes will gape at you in dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen.
To those of us who know the pain of valentines that never came,
And those whose names were never called when choosing sides for basketball.
It was long ago and far away; the world was much younger than today
And dreams were all they gave away for free to ugly duckling girls like me.
We all play the game and when we dare to cheat ourselves at solitaire.
Inventing lovers on the phone, repenting other lives unknown
That call and say, "Come dance with me," and murmur vague obscenities
At ugly duckling girls like me at seventeen.
Janis Ian
"At Seventeen"
I leaned the truth at seventeen that love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles who married young and then
retired.
The valentines I never knew, the Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful. At seventeen I learned the truth.
And those of us with ravaged faces, lacking in the social graces,
Desperately remained at home, inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say, "Come dance with me," and murmured vague obscenities.
It isn't all it seems at seventeen.
A brown-eyed girl in hand-me-downs whose name I never could pronounce
Said, "Pity, please, the ones who serve; they only get what they deserve.
The rich relationed hometown queen marries into what she needs.
A guarantee of company and haven for the elderly."
Remember those who win the game lose the love they sought to gain.
In debentures of quality and dubious integrity.
Their small-town eyes will gape at you in dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen.
To those of us who know the pain of valentines that never came,
And those whose names were never called when choosing sides for basketball.
It was long ago and far away; the world was much younger than today
And dreams were all they gave away for free to ugly duckling girls like me.
We all play the game and when we dare to cheat ourselves at solitaire.
Inventing lovers on the phone, repenting other lives unknown
That call and say, "Come dance with me," and murmur vague obscenities
At ugly duckling girls like me at seventeen.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
The Scout House
At State Street park is a building called the Scout House. The building was built in 1953 by the Lions Club for the Boy Scouts and it has been used for that purpose every since. The building was literally built by the Lions Club as they would hold their meetings at the park and build it. The 1953 photo below from the Bi State Weekly shows them in action. It was a loving act of community involvement. I think it is remarkable as now days you would not think of building something your self (can't get enough people top commit to it), even homes built by Habitat for Humanity have their difficulty getting people. Ask Mayor Outten how hard it has been to get people to work on the "Doctor's/Heritage" Museum.
About a month after it was opened the first case of vandalism to it occurred and since then it and the attached bathrooms have been a constant target. It takes away a certain pride in the community when you go past a park that has a vandalize building and equipment or when you drive past the Lecates building (The derelict building at State and Pennsylvania) and look at how it stinks up what beautification has been done in Delmar. I think this is called the broken window philosophy, which is when you see a house with a broken window and you figure what the hell one more broken window doesn't matter so you break another window. Soon the whole town has broken windows. It is a similar thing with vandalism, you see one bit of vandalism and you figure a little more can't harm things anymore than what they are so you break something.
As has been said before by myself and other people; Public goods belong to every member of the community. None is excluded from its use. As such we have a vested interest in preserving and protecting our common property. Whatever the motivation for indulging in acts of vandalism, it imposes a tremendous burden on the taxpayers of this town. Taxpayers are the ones who have to come up with the additional money to repair the damage. It is grossly unfair to ask the taxpayers of this town to pay for acts of vandalism committed mostly by those who contribute least to the public finances. It will cost even more to install surveillance cameras around town.
Vandalism and the Lecates building also costs us in a much more powerful, but less tangible way. It costs us our pride. Vandalism is symbolic of a lack of pride in those who indulge in such acts. Evidently, vandals and the owner of the Lecates building have no pride, no sense of ownership. The lack of pride manifests itself in their desire to destroy or let their property collapse. A dilapidated society is not usually associated with positive images. No society can be proud of broken park equipment, derelict buildings, boarded-up windows or a school defaced with graffiti. When are they going to clean the sign at Delmar High School? Why should you clean up your property when the town of Delmar lets the LeCates building continue to remain in the shape it is? At what point will vandals set a fire in the building and like Cambridge destroy what has been cleaned up down town. Along the same lines is the town grudging pass at the annual spring clean up. If trash is in peoples yards they should have some way of disposing of it. Yet the town besides their attitude on spring cleanup, seem hell bent on not to help maintain some pride in the town by picking up the trash. I, myself, am not even going to bother with disposing of my larger trash this year in the spring cleanup, it just looks like it is going to end up being an argument as to what Public works will pick up and what they won't.
A Police Chief Blog
I found this interesting (Okay it may not be riveting, but it interesting) blog that the police chief in Lincoln, Nebraska does. It is called The Chief's Corner. He talks about crime and other topics in Lincoln. Interestingly he had a post on Beer Burglars - people who enter open garages at night and steal your beer. I am safe as there is no beer in my garage and my garage is so junked up you can't get in it. But I do know from the map given in the post the areas to hit for beer if I am ever in Lincoln, at night. As I have said before I wish the Delmar Police Force would be more open with information on what they do and cases they solve or don't solve. Since they are always asking for a raise as a resident I would like to know what they do and how successful they are to deserve a a raise. I think the more public information given about the police, in any town, is a benefit to them not a negative. Look at the issues that have been going on in Milton with their police. They are refusing to comment on why the town police chief and lieutenant were put on administrative leave and than reinstated. I know people rush to judgement when something negative is put out however I think the citizens of Milton should be made aware of what went on, not some private closed doors affair that happened. Who knows if some serious charge was raised by a citizen and there was not evidents to back it up a public announcement of it may bring forth people that the same thing happened too or would show how foolish the person that brought the charge was. As it is you have coffee shop chatter going on that does more harm to the faith in a police force than just owing up and telling the people what is going on, but government employees always think they are smarter than the people that pays their salary and maybe they are as they keep multiplying.
1952 ad Tingle Drug Store
Norman Farlow - 1935
From the Milford Chronicle April 5, 1935
Delmar News-
Norman Farlow of Delmar, charged with stealing a crate of eggs from Elsie E. Thomas, was imprisoned for one year.
Delmar News-
Norman Farlow of Delmar, charged with stealing a crate of eggs from Elsie E. Thomas, was imprisoned for one year.
Friday, April 04, 2008
1985 ad Empress Doll Boutique
Community Yardsale Reminder
Again as a reminder, Delmar will have it's community yard sale April 19th at State Street Park. The Concerned Citizens are selling booth space at $20.00 pre-registration and $25.00 the day of the yard sale. The profits will be donated to the Little League which I think is having their parade and opening day that day. Contact Sharon Ledvadnuk at 302-846-9574.
1949 Ad
Civilian Conservation Corps
On April 5 1933 the Civilian Conservation Corps was created by executive order 6101. It allowed a number of people who were unemployed and probably would not be employed to hold a job. It allowed all unmarried, unemployed male citizens between the ages of 18 and 25 to be eligible to apply for work as junior enrollees, with the stipulation that a substantial portion (between $22 to $25) of each man's basic $30 monthly allowance would be sent home to his dependent family. In 1935, when the age bracket for junior enrollees had been increased to between 17 and 28, pay for unskilled workers was $40, with $55 for skilled labor. In 1935, enrollment was just under 506,000 men, an increase of 115% over the previous six-month enrollment period. Additional men and women (of any age) employed in administration or advisory capacities swelled the ranks to a total of 565,000 persons in the CCC work force in 1935.
In addition to their cash stipend for the five-day workweek, the young men received three full meals a day, lodging, clothes, footwear, inoculations and other medical and dental care, and, at their option, vocational, academic, or recreational instruction.
Many of the large-scale projects, nationally, involved the protection or reforestation of woodlands, including a major push to control forest fires. To this end 138,000 miles of roads and truck trails were built, 3,116 lookout towers or stations were erected, and 89,000 miles of telephone lines laid. Numerous tree nurseries were started and production increased more than 100% on established nurseries, due to CCC labor inputs. About 2.5 billion trees and 814,000 acres of grazing land were replanted, including the planting of shelterbelts on farmland. Insect and fungal control measures were applied on millions of acres of forest, saving hundreds of millions of dollars of timber nationally. These efforts earned the CCC participants the offhand nickname of "Roosevelt's Tree Army."
In Sussex County Delaware there were camps at Lewes, Slaughter Beach, Redden, and Georgetown. In Eastern Sussex county most of the work was aimed at mosquito control. In Western Sussex County they worked in the forest, clearing trails building fire towers etc. They also did a lot of work with the mill dams in the area. Trap Pond was washed out and the CCC rebuilt it. A write up of Jack Lewis, Delaware artist, experience is located here and for more information on the CCC click here
In my limited travels I can not think of many state parks I have visited across the US that has not had at least one CCC project built in it.
My father and his brother were in a CCC camp located in the forest northwest of Snow Hill. I think most people who were in it, view it as a positive experience.
In addition to their cash stipend for the five-day workweek, the young men received three full meals a day, lodging, clothes, footwear, inoculations and other medical and dental care, and, at their option, vocational, academic, or recreational instruction.
Many of the large-scale projects, nationally, involved the protection or reforestation of woodlands, including a major push to control forest fires. To this end 138,000 miles of roads and truck trails were built, 3,116 lookout towers or stations were erected, and 89,000 miles of telephone lines laid. Numerous tree nurseries were started and production increased more than 100% on established nurseries, due to CCC labor inputs. About 2.5 billion trees and 814,000 acres of grazing land were replanted, including the planting of shelterbelts on farmland. Insect and fungal control measures were applied on millions of acres of forest, saving hundreds of millions of dollars of timber nationally. These efforts earned the CCC participants the offhand nickname of "Roosevelt's Tree Army."
In Sussex County Delaware there were camps at Lewes, Slaughter Beach, Redden, and Georgetown. In Eastern Sussex county most of the work was aimed at mosquito control. In Western Sussex County they worked in the forest, clearing trails building fire towers etc. They also did a lot of work with the mill dams in the area. Trap Pond was washed out and the CCC rebuilt it. A write up of Jack Lewis, Delaware artist, experience is located here and for more information on the CCC click here
In my limited travels I can not think of many state parks I have visited across the US that has not had at least one CCC project built in it.
My father and his brother were in a CCC camp located in the forest northwest of Snow Hill. I think most people who were in it, view it as a positive experience.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
The Wreck of the "Cavalier"
On April 2, 1933 The express train of the Pennsylvania Railroad, "the Cavalier", was making a run from Cape Charles to New York with 125 people on board when, at 50 mph, it derailed in Wyoming Delaware. The wreck killed The Engineer, Christian A. Burkhard of Wilmington, by scalding and fracturing his skull. It also killed E. L. Poulson from Delmar, Maryland, who was a fireman in the locomotive. He was pinned under the locomotive and only part of his body was found. Thirteen passengers were injured. The wreck was part of a criminal act as a switch had been opened on the track. Altho a manhunt was made I do not think the criminals were ever found.
Among the passengers were 39 members of the Boston Red Sox baseball team going to a game in Jersey City, N. J. on Sunday.
Edward L. Poulson at 46 years of age was buried on Tuesday, April 4th at the Methodist Protestant Cemetery. He had a wife and daughters. They lived on East Street.
Among the passengers were 39 members of the Boston Red Sox baseball team going to a game in Jersey City, N. J. on Sunday.
Edward L. Poulson at 46 years of age was buried on Tuesday, April 4th at the Methodist Protestant Cemetery. He had a wife and daughters. They lived on East Street.
The West Tot Lot Revisited
The West Tot Lot in Delmar Delaware has had it ups and downs. There has been some periods of time that it has looked liked the hind end of hard times. In a previous post , that happens to be just about two years ago, I spoke of the poor shape it was in.
Well that has changed. New equipment has been put in, a fresh coat of paint has been applied and a good thick layer of wood shaving is down to soften those hard landings. It really look nice, particularly if you remember it from last year.
The tot lots, both the East and West one, are rarely used and I don't know why. Maybe kids don't play as much as 20 years ago, or their parents work and don't have time to take them to the playground. Actually when you figure the usage time to the cost and vandalism of the playground you wonder if there wouldn't be a better use of the money, but Tot playgrounds are expected in parks.
Prior to becoming a tot lot the land had an empty house Mayor Hantweker bought in the 1950's and torn down with the ideal it would become a playground. Behind it was the Railroad offices and storage sheds for the repair yard that was here. What is today a church along side of the playground use to be a nightclub. A couple of lots to the west of it was a Delmarva Electric transformer yard (Try not to think PCB's).
Peninsula Pacemaker
A look back at a give-a-way magazine from the 1970's and 1980's. Peninsula Pacemaker was put out by Thomas W. Kinsy, Jr in Seaford, Delaware. It started in 1971 and continued on in to the late 1980's or perhaps into the early 1990's. It was typical of "free" magazines in that it was mostly advertising with some recipes and write ups of tourist attractions on the Del Mar Va Peninsula thrown in. I always enjoyed thumbing thru it.
1953 Ad Bryan and Brittingham's
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Arbor day in Maryland
Arbor Day is one of those strange observed days that is frequently state related. In Maryland it is the first Wednesday of April (Today), in Delaware it is the last Friday of April. As a day to celebrate it does not seem to be embraced as much as when I went to elementary school. Now I went to school in Salisbury, Maryland as I was considered a child and not capable of making the decision to move to Delaware, but the entire school on Arbor Day had a mandatory planting of a tree in which the whole school would take part. Now days I don't think they do that, but they don't pray in school anymore either. So for the Maryland readers happy Arbor Day.
The Fountain
The fountain in State Street Park was placed in the park by the Delmar Moose Lodge as a permanent memory to James R. McLernon, a loyal Moose member. It was dedicated at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 25th, 1952 with all the pomp Delmar could muster.
An array of speakers spoke, the high school band was there, and all the Boy Scouts in Delmar were at the dedication. For a permanent memory to James McLernon something when wrong, as I don't know of anyone who remembers him or the reason for the fountain in State Street Park. This poor fountain is hit constantly by vandals. I think the water has been turned off to it due to vandalism. As you can see the drinking part of the fountain has long since been smashed and removed.
It is both a shame that vandalism still continues and the reason for the fountain has been forgotten, but now you know the reason for the fountain.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Delmar Delaware Wants You
Delmar Delaware is looking for a few good citizens to serve on some of it's Boards. These are non-paying positions. Two citizens are needed for The Board of Adjustments and Two Citizens are needed for the Board of Assessments. As I had posted earlier it has been my privilege to serve the citizens of Delmar for ten years on the Utility Commission but I feel it selfish of me not to allow another citizen the opportunity to serve, so the utility commission position can also be considered open.
This is a good opportunity for someone to get their feet wet in town government without committing to a tremendous amount of time. Normally these Boards meet on an "as needed" schedule.
Contact the Town Manager, Sara Bynum King, if you are interested.
Polio in 1952
From a 1952 Bi-State weekly Article
1952 WORST POLIO YEAR IN HISTORY
50,000 Cases Reported
Reports from public health officials indicate that 1952 will go down in history as the worst polio year in the history of this nation. There have been about 4,000 more cases of polio this year than there were during the comparable period of 1949, which was, until now, the worst polio year.
The Medical director of the polio foundation, Dr. Hart E. Van Riper, estimates that during the year 1952 there will be a total of about 50,000 cases. His estimate is based on the fact that polio epidemics die down at about the same rate they build up.
Weekly increases have been confined to the five states: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. In other states, a decrease occurred. In the nation as a whole, it is probably true that the peak has been reached. In any event, the number of cases this year has been so high that public support is needed more than before.
Citizens in Sussex County and in the nation will undoubtedly rally this year in their support of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and other organizations that are trying to save the lives of polio victims.
1952 WORST POLIO YEAR IN HISTORY
50,000 Cases Reported
Reports from public health officials indicate that 1952 will go down in history as the worst polio year in the history of this nation. There have been about 4,000 more cases of polio this year than there were during the comparable period of 1949, which was, until now, the worst polio year.
The Medical director of the polio foundation, Dr. Hart E. Van Riper, estimates that during the year 1952 there will be a total of about 50,000 cases. His estimate is based on the fact that polio epidemics die down at about the same rate they build up.
Weekly increases have been confined to the five states: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. In other states, a decrease occurred. In the nation as a whole, it is probably true that the peak has been reached. In any event, the number of cases this year has been so high that public support is needed more than before.
Citizens in Sussex County and in the nation will undoubtedly rally this year in their support of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and other organizations that are trying to save the lives of polio victims.
1952 Ad Delmar Raceway
