Delmar DustPan

On Friday November 9th 1979 the Delmar Wildcats beat the Laurel Bulldogs 16-6. At halftime Penny Adams was crowned Delmar's 1979-80 homecoming Queen. Prior to the game a homecoming parade was held. The cheerleaders had sponsored a bonfire the previous night. On Saturday, the 10th , the Student Council and Keyettes sponsored a homecoming dance featuring the New York band "Star Point".

Today in 1977 the Jolly Jack's Restaurant, located south of Delmar, was almost completely destroyed by fire. 100 firemen from four fire companies resonded to the blaze. Jack Echaulk, of Echaulk Enterprises, had, only a couple of months before, purchased the building. As I recall this was the bar and restaurant at the Greenway Inn.

Another Halloween - this year's trick or treater (TT) count was 77. I understand the high school was mobbed with kids which kept them away from my house. As you know I record my TT count each year.

My daughter started keeping count for me tonight but she refused to put the numbers down by time increment preventing me from doing my time increment vs trick or treater count graph. Non number people do have a hard time with the data gathering part of Halloween.

The Delmar police was cruising the streets and it was a good thing they did.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the radio show "War of the Worlds". The show gave Orson Welles a great amount of publicity. For those few who may not know about the radio show it broadcast on Sunday October 30 1938, it was a show within a show. The radio play started out as a normal music hour and was interrupted by news announcements of martians invading New Jersey. It created mass hysteria in New Jersey and New York and across the country. as I have mentioned before a Delmar native, William Alland, was an actor in the play.

I looked thru some local newspapers in that time period and found very little effect on our local populous. In part I think this was because it happened on a Sunday. Most of the local papers were weekly and would not be published until the following Thursday or Friday. The daily paper at that time, The Salisbury Times, didn't publish on Sunday, not that it would have had anything on a radio show that was produced that evening, and by the time it produced it's Monday evening edition it was old news so the only thing in the paper was an AP story of the event. Maybe everyone in this area listen to the Charlie McCarthy radio program which broadcast opposite the Mercury Theatre on the Air.

What did come to light in reading in this time period was with the expectations of going to war shortly. The US Navy had increased it's blimp patrols from Norfolk to New York. I can't help but think when the announcements of invasions started coming thru people begin to think "wait I saw a big shiny thing in the sky today". This would set them in the right frame of mind to accept the story.

There has been many many stories written about that broadcast so I will not try to add anymore to it.

Over at The Mourning Constitution, Brian has asked five questions of the candidates for Insurance Commissioner in Delaware. Now Insurance commissioners sounds like a nondescript elected office but depending on how the holder of the office uses that position it can be one of most important positions in the state. We may recall David N. Levinson, former Insurance Commissioner from the 1990's who use to use a strong arm approach to convincing insurance companies to invest in Delaware.

"I brought jobs to Delaware and refused to bow down to multi billion-dollar insurance companies and the lawyer/lobbyists to whom they pay millions of dollars per year to do their dirty work," Mr. Levinson said. "The industry went berserk."

I personally had no objections to what he was doing, except when he seem to personally benefit from it. The multi-billion dollar insurance companies directs more state policies than I would care to talk about and that direction is in their favor, not the individual.

Altho I looked at their finance forms and did not see any obvious contribution from Insurance PACs they may be buried under a name I didn't recognize. Of interest Tom Savage is the only finance form filled out by hand instead of a computer.

Anyway Brian did a good job asking questions and getting the candidates to answer them.

I went over to the "Tina Fallon" christening today. The "Tina Fallon" is the latest ferry to be used at Woodland. A ferry has been in operation here since about 1743. This current ferry was named for Tina Fallon, a State Representative from the area. The ceremony was to start at 1:30 P.M. but Governor Minner went to the wrong side of the river and had to drive back around to the Woodland Ferry Park landing. There was a crowd of about 150 attending the ceremony which started about 2 P.M.

The "Tina Fallon". I have written about the ferry before and the previous ferry the "Virginia C."

The ramp, as we all know the old one was so steep the bottom of your car would scrape leaving the ferry. This is at an in between tide level and it still looks steep.

On board - The Ferry has that new ship smell - fresh paint, no heavy diesel oil smell to it.

The "Tina Fallon"

New Line untouched by mud

Car wheel stopping device

The real live person, Tina Fallon, being interviewed

Tina Fallon being presented with a commemorative plate from Governor Minner.

Biff Lee speaking, other speakers were; Robert Venables, Daniel Short, Roger Hamrick, Rev Jervis Cooke and Pastor Richard Bridge. Biff Lee is everywhere now days. He was the first person I saw when I arrived at the landing.

Secretary Department of Transportation Carolann Wicks breaks the bottle of "champagne"

Dignitaries on board. They made the rest of us riffraff stay ashore

Leaving the landing

The Ferry on the East Shore

They were passing out a samll booklet called "Woodland Ferry: Crossing the Nanticoke River from the 1740' to the present." It was interesting and I have included a couple of photo from that booklet of earlier ferries at Woodland.

The 1900 to 1930 ferry being "poled" across the Nanticoke.

The 1930 to 1937 Ferry with the Model T engine

The 1937 to 1961 Ferry. It is interesting that just a couple of weeks ago I was reading two newspaper articles in a 1937 paper about this particular ferry. The first article talked about the new ferry being put into service. Two days later they had another article about two cars that had rolled off the ferry and sunk in the river. In the photo it looks like the ramp stayed permanently down.

The Virginia C took over as the ferry in 1961.

Clipping from the Bi-State Weekly Friday, November 2, 1951

On Saturday October 27th 1951 Delmar put it's first police car into action. It was a new black Ford (Does new mean 1952 or 1951) with "Delmar Police" on each door panel and the word "Police", all in gold lettering, on the trunk lid. The car was equipped with a siren on the top and a "stop" light on the right fender.

Shown left to right in the clipping photo are; Councilman Howard King, Automobile Salesman Leslie Evans, Mayor A. E. Hantwerker, Officer Philip Breyer, Councilman Gene Hammond, and Councilman Alton Tryuitt.

From The Milford Chronicle, Friday, October 29, 1937

Delmar News

Mrs. D. B. Waller has returned from Wilmington where she has been visiting her son, Franklin and family.

Mrs. Lizzie Elliott is spending some time in Norristown with her daughter, Mrs. James Van Ellen and family.

Mr. Frank Taylor, who was retired by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company a short time ago, left on Wednesday with Mrs. Taylor to make their home in the future at New Freedom, Penna. The town regrets losing these good people, but our best wishes go with them.

Fire, caused by burning a pile of leaves in the yard, spread over five acres of wood land on the Hughes farm, four miles east of Delmar on Tuesday afternoon. The Delmar Fire Company responded to a call for help and soon had the fire under control.

The winners in the essay contest on Fire Prevention were as follows; First prize, Mary Nehf; second, Robert Elliott; third, Bobby Adkins. These awards represent the best essays submitted by the pupils of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eight grades of the Delmar, Delaware school.

I was over to Rockville Maryland yesterday. I guess you would call it downtown Rockville, anyway Court House Square is a very nice area in which a lot of money has been dumped. I didn't see much in the way of business except those that would live off the Court building business (usual restaurants for lunch, parking lots, law offices) that are there. Brick is used a lot, from brick paved streets to inserts in the sidewalk to the building themselves. The place looks nice.

This is a statue in Courthouse Square Park, behind is the Old 1891 Red Brick Courthouse. The courthouse was closed in 1982 but preservation groups restored it and it was put back into use in 1996.

Dick Dykes sent me this clipping of a 1955 Halloween contest in Salisbury. Click on it for an enlargement. It appeared in the October 29th 1955 edition of the Salisbury Times.

The Adults from left to right are; Frank Ulman, Judge Fanny B. Murphy, Mayor Rollie W. Hastings, and William Agnew.
The children are Debbie Shores, Bill and Dick Dyke.

Picked up from This Day in Delaware History:

Today in 1869 Griffin Seward of near Dover, Co. G, 8th US Cavalry, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry in action in a fight with Apache Indians in the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona Territory.

This Day In Delaware is compiled by historian Roger Martin and brought to you by the Delaware Public Archives.

In Today's News Journal there are two articles of interest to me. The first is an 81-year old Lewes woman was denied approval by the Delaware State Police to purchase a handgun due to her age and gender. She wanted the .22-caliber pistol for self defense. There are a number of comments on the website to this article. In the second section of the News Journal is an article about an 85-year old man who was sitting on his front porch was attacked at 1:45 P.M. by three teenagers who shoveled him into his house at gunpoint, kicked him and ransacked his house. Does anyone see the obvious here; first, the state denied ownership of a self defense weapon and than those that do own the illegal weapons beat the hell out of you. The State is working against you. It sends the message that if you are in your eighties in Delaware you should buy an illegal handgun and carry it with you. It would at least put you on the same footing as the criminals because the police are not going to be there when you need them.

When the $700 Billion bailout was passed I swore I would not vote for any elected official who voted for it. I am sure this has Biden, Castle, Obama and McCain shaking in their shoes, but this leaves me looking for other choices now for President and Vice President. In Delaware those that have filed for election for those positions are;

The Constitution Party
U.S. President - Chuck Baldwin
U.S. Vice President - Darrell L. Castle

The Green Party
U.S. President - Cynthia A. McKinney
U.S. Vice President - Rosa A. Clemente

Independent Party
U.S. President - Ralph Nader
U.S. Vice President - Matt Gonzalez

Liberterian Party
U.S. President - Bob Barr
U.S. Vice President - Wayne A. Root

Socialist Worker Party
U.S. President - Roger Calero
U.S. Vice President - Alyson Kennedy

I did not go to the Delmar Joint Council meeting last night so you all will have to wait a couple of months until the minutes of the meeting is posted on the town website to find out what happened. This was Diane Buckley last meeting (also Lonnie Figg's last meeting but I don't think he showed up) and on Monday November 3 at 7:00 P.M. two new Delaware Councilmen (Glen Payne and Robert Thompson) will be swore in.

I did obtain a copy of Diane Buckley's farewell address and I have reprinted it below:

This is my last meeting as a Delmar, Delaware Councilperson.

For approximately the past 6 years, I have held this position as a representative on Delmar’s Town Council.

I am proud of my years of service as I have had the chance to take part in many very important decisions to help make Delmar a better place to live and do business.

I stand by my votes on all issues and I hold my head high.

I feel that I did my best to represent the citizens I have served and I believe that many of them are satisfied with the work I have done.

I did not take this position for any one purpose and I leave just as I started….not aligned with any type of “special interest” group, or anyone’s personal agenda, including my own.

I would like to thank the former Mayor John McDonnell and the Delmar, Delaware voters for giving me the opportunity to serve the community which I love so much.

I would also like to thank my fellow Council Members and Mayor Outten for understanding my dedication to the Town and to the voters I represented even when at times I was very passionate about one thing or another.

To the Maryland Mayor and Commissioners, I thank you also for understanding my passion and being willing to work with me even though we found ourselves on the opposite ends of the spectrum more than once.

Last but certainly not least, thank you to my fiancé` John Johnson for his support and understanding.

I bid farewell to all of you tonight and I wish you all the best in dealing with the issues of the Town that are current and those which are forthcoming.

Since I chose not to file for re-election, I will say, I came in on my own terms and I am leaving on my own terms as well. I leave with my integrity and my pride intact.

Thank you.

The Delmar Utility Commission meeting was held last night. All members were present. Among the items discussed were;

Work continues on the Urban Service Agreement with Wicomico County.

We accepted the utilities installed at Lighthouse Square based on a letter of recommendations from the town engineers. The effective date to be September 29th.

The Holly Oak lift station requires repairs and estimates are being received.

Flushing of town hydrants will begin November 7th.

We accepted the utilities part of the Jewell Street project as being complete. Effective October 10th.

Tidewater Utilities is still in discussions with the State of Delaware about spray irrigation.

There was a meeting on the 17th with Maryland and Delaware to review the funding for the Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) project that hopefully will have the bid process started in January.

Discussion is going on with the State of Delaware concerning the depth of the backup well recently drilled.

The commission all told Diane Buckley what a pleasure it was too work with her and we all hope the incoming new Delaware councilperson will be as concerned with Delmar as she was.

In Delaware you can go to the Campaign Finance Online Reports to look at candidate campaign financing. Two reports are filed the first is a finance report thirty days before the election and the second is a report eight days before the election.

Since I mainly talk about the Biff Lee and Barbara Hudson campaign lets look at their reports. At the end of Biff Lee 30 day report he had an ending balance of $33,624.36. He had previous campaign contributions of $35,188.70 to start this year's election campaign with (you can roll money over from the last year's election, obviously an advantage to Biff since he was running unopposed in the last election). Barbara Hudson started her campaign with zero dollars. On his eight day report he had an ending balance of $31,994.59. Barbara Hudson had an ending balance of $2,525.92 on her 30 day report and on her 8 day report she had a balance of $2,900.92.

The 30-day report has the most information on it. Looking at the 30-day report you wonder why out-of-state people would contribute to a fairly local campaign fund. Remember $650 is the most you can donate to a campaign fund. Biff Lee has donations from;
Walmart Stores Bentonville, Arkansas $600
Medco Health Solutions,Inc. Franklin, N.J. $100.00
PHI-PAC Washington DC $120.00
Bank of America Atlanta GA $400.00
Genesis Healthcare Corp PAC Kennett Square, PA $150.00
Norfolk Corp Norfolk VA $100.00
Walgreens Deerfield IL $250.00
unknown $650.00
unknown $300.00
His beginning balance for this year's election was made up of even more out-of-state monies.

Barbara Hudson had no out-of-state sources of money.

The website is not the most user friendly site but once you find the reports they are interesting reading.

I was reading an announcement this morning for the Annual Green Fair to be held in Rehoboth Beach at Epworth United Methodist Church on November 2nd. Energy Companies and business will provide information on how to "go green". The fair itself was of secondary interest what got my attention was the line that said Fair Trade items (coffee, tea, and chocolate) available. Perhaps I just have not paid attention to the ads before but this, I think, is the first time I have seen this included in an announcement. It was a nice touch.

Now Fair trade items is a program where items (handicrafts, clothing, bananas, coffee, tea, chocolate etc) are imported from poor countries or poor areas of the United States and a fair price is paid for the item. This fair price will allow a fair wage to be paid in local communities. There is more to it than that but those select products should help with a fair wage, Children rights, Women rights, and environmental rights. Right off you can figure it is going to be more expensive and you are not apt to find many of these items at Wal-Mart. However I thought for festivals and fairs and other like events this would be a good ideal. The price of a cup of coffee is always higher at these events than what I would normally pay, why not make it a fair trade item cup of coffee and I would feel I was doing more than buying a cup of coffee.

A number of church groups such as the Lutheran World Relief, and Catholic Relief Services support this program. A little more information is here.

Most of this was started under the administration of President Bill Clinton, who tried to set free trade agreements that would encourage countries to adhere to minimum labor and environmental standards. He argued that citizens of other countries will not receive the benefits of free trade if their employers exploit workers or damage the environment in an effort to compete more effectively in international markets. Given the buying power of our dollar today most of us will continue to shop for the cheapest price and turn our heads to sweatshop practices.

Here in the East about the only cause of wildfires out West we hear about is some camper dropping a cigarette or his campfire burning out of control and burning half of California. As I have said before I receive the Ramona Sentinel which is a newspaper for an area east of San Diego. Actually I receive it about three weeks late in the mail but that is another issue. Reading it has certainly given me a different outlook on fires out West. The Ramona area had a fire last year, about this time of year, they call the Witch fire. 1,500 homes were destroyed and 500,000 acres of land was burned. The fire had a number of sources starting it but the most recent determined source of the fire was high winds had blown overgrown trees into the electric power lines of San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E). The power lines, touching the tree limbs had set off the fire because SDG&E had not pruned the trees back away from the power lines. The outcome of this is now San Diego Gas and Electric has made an emergency plan in which Ramona residents could have their power turned off during high fire risk weather. SDG&E is saying only about 1,000 to 5,000 customers would be affected by this outage at one time and the outage could last from 7 to 72 hours. So when there are high winds in the high risk fire season SDG&E will consider cutting residents power to avoid a wild fire. Actually there five conditions that have to occur for power to be turned off. One more thing we never give much thought to around here.

In the paper they have ten tips (questions) to prepare for the next disaster (they know it is going to happen again)

1) Have you and your family registered your cell phone with AlertSanDiego, the County emergency notification system?
2) Have you removed fire hazards near your home?
3) Have you checked to make sure none of your tree branches are touching or are located too close to your roof or home?
4) Have you scheduled a high-fire hazard inspection from your local fire agency?
5) Have you completed a family disaster plan?
6) Are you ready to evacuate your home in just 15 minutes?
7) Do you have emergency supplies to last you and your family at least 72 hours?
8) Have you removed any outside furniture or other items that could be blown into your home if you have to evacuate?
9) Do you have a non-cordless phone that does not require electricity to charge and a battery-powered radio?
10) Do you have a plan for your pet?

It must really be freaky to live in an area where wildfires could happen at any time. We can rest assured that Delaware Emergency Planning has a plan for any disaster that may happen in Delmar. I would feel more comfortable if Biff Lee hadn’t said it was being kept secret from the public due to national security reasons.

This week some events I am interested in;

Monday Oct 27th; Delmar Utility Meeting 6:30 Town Hall - No agenda posted on website
Monday Oct 27th; Delmar Joint Council Meeting 7:00 Town Hall - no agenda posted on website

Wednesday Oct 29th Dedication of new Woodland Ferry at 1:30AM

Thursday Oct 30th Halloween in Delmar. School will give out treat at night

Friday Oct 31st Delmar-Laurel Football game
Friday Oct 31st Punkin Chunkin begins at 7:30 AM, competition at 10:30 AM

Saturday Nov 1st Punkin Chunkin 2nd Day open 7:30 AM Competition at 10:30AM, Fireworks at 8:30 PM
Saturday Nov 1st Book Festival in Dover and First Saturday tours in Dover

Sunday Nov 2nd Punkin Chunkin final day 7:30 Am open, competition at 10:30AM

I understand Delmar beat Milford last night 37 to 15. I also understand Laurel beat Indian River 43 to 37. All in All this upcoming Friday Delmar-Laurel night game should be a big one. Now I won't insult your intelligence by trying to pass myself off as football fan and pretend I attend the games - I am not a fan nor do I go to the games. However I am married to someone who is a big fan and attends every Delmar game she can. She has a vast wardrobe of Orange and Blue, cowbell props and is at the ticket booth by 6:15 for those 7:30 games, so she fills me in on these games.

The Daily Times once again has set her off with their lack of Delmar Football coverage. As I have said before we receive both the Daily Times and the News Journal. In the News Journal Sports section, this morning, is a large picture of the Delmar Milford game and an article. There was also a small writeup on the Laurel-Indian River game. In the Daily Times there is nothing. Both are Gannett publications and will trade articles but nothing about Delmar was in our morning copy of the Daily Times. I suppose I should be happy they had a write up on the front page about the possible microbrewery coming to Delmar, altho I think it was really aimed at telling Salisbury they lost out.

As I was driving up to Dover yesterday I couldn’t help but notice the number of election campaign signs on the highway. Their widespread use seem to have replaced the election bumper stickers of years ago. Now in Delaware, believe it or not, we don’t have as many campaign signs as other states because in Delaware once someone is elected they stay in the office until they decide to leave. People don’t run against them so you don’t have as many campaign signs on the roads. For an office seeker running against an incumbent however the campaign sign signifies to everyone that the campaign is going full steam and you want to be elected.

Now those signs are expensive but I think they are a good election value. It has been estimated that well-placed campaign signs can account for four percentage points on Election Day. They cost about a dollar, if ordered in quantities of a thousand, and about $3 a sign for two-sided, two-color signs in quantities of a hundred. The signs seem to be three types, plastic foam (coroplast), polybags, and paper. My Bill Lee sign was made of some kind of paper and it fell apart in a heavy rain storm. I guess you can say his signs would recycle well. The others will stay in the landfill for ever. In the 1980’s when I ran for councilman they didn’t have them and I used simple black-white posters tacked to power poles. My whole campaign cost for the Delmar councilman position was between $300 to $400 which mainly consisted of mail-outs, letters, envelopes, stamps, beer and posters. The current councilpeople who ran unopposed are getting a free ride.

I can certainly see there is some sign logic required for them to be effective such as how many, location, size, color, etc. Location is an obvious - you put them where the most people travel. You don’t see many in Delmar but the roads leading to Georgetown has a lot of them and of course RT13 as you go north of Bridgeville. I think size is a matter of if you are putting the sign in a neighborhood where the streets only have a speed limit of 25 mph (small ones 18 by 24 inch) or out on RT 13 where the speed limit is 55 mph (larger 4 by 8 feet ones). After all you only have a split second while driving to take in the information on a sign. I have no ideal how many a candidate would buy. Certainly Barb Hudson has about 20 signs for every one of Biff Lees. How many does she have out there – a thousand? They were over by Georgetown when I went there last week. Someone who could tell us where the signs are located is "Scrapple" Shields who being a pizza delivery guy goes everywhere.

The main thing that will make you notice an election signs is color and size of the lettering. Now I think signs should have the main information transferred to your brain in a split second as you drive by it. Photos, flags designs, and excess information distracts from that transfer. I see a number of them that have website addresses on them this year. Do those people really think you are going to stop your car and write down the website address? It is useless information.

So that said lets look at some photos of campaign signs I took yesterday and today and I will give you my opinion of them;

Let’s look at using photos on campaign posters. I used my photo on my campaign poster but hindsight says no, although I did get some pity votes for being ugly. Christine O'Donnell uses her photo on her poster, okay she is a pretty girl. Mike Castle doesn’t use his photo. Okay if they were running for the same office and your choice was based on a photo of Christine O'Donnell or Mike Castle who would you vote for? Karen Weldin Stewart also uses her photo.




Let’s look at color;
Background color is key and it varies with each individual as to which color they like. Some colors for what ever reason, aren’t used such as black, purple, pink, and only a limited amount of orange. Dave Wilson does has some small ones in orange that look Halloween like.

This is a simple blue with white background it comes across positive with me. Large name letters transfers the main information to remember in the election booth.

Usually a navy blue is a predominate background color, sometimes with variations and touches of red and white in it.

This is my favorite. Navy Blue, white letters with a green stripe. Perhaps due to age it reminds me a preppy clothing color scheme of navy and green used back some years ago. It is a positive sign for me.

I don't like the shade of blue used on this sign also I think it is risky using this takeoff on the "I Like Ike" signs from the 1950's. The association might be positive if you liked Ike but other might not like the copy cat slogan.

Good simple design everyone knows Joe so we know what he is running for - maybe. I understand this same sign is used in Pennsylvania but it says "Scranton's Joe Biden" on it. No Biden photo on it.

I like his signs because they say "Please" on them.

Parish has good simple lettering. Altho the small size sign is on Rt13 at 55mph you can read his name.

Fuller sign isn't bad but the added information doesn't make it as readable.

This would be a good sign but he has additional information written in red letters that you can't read because the blue overpowers the red.

A good clean sign, the website information is only a slight distraction because it is small enough not to be noticed, which makes you wonder why it was put on to begin with.

This is a good sign but the website information distracts from it.

Red is a color that should stand out but I don't care for it. I don't know if it is the black letters or the same dark color intensity of both the red and black. Perhaps due to my age and on a subconscious level I also relate this red background to the communist signs of the 1950's. Maybe a younger person wouldn't think about this.

This is a nice sign but it doesn't stand out as well as the others do.

Not a good photo but I also don't care that much for the yellow background. Also the smaller red sign for Georgette Williams is poor due to the red and the small size.

A good sign with just enough of red and white to draw your attention to it.

UPDATE:

Scrapple told me about the Libertarian Party campaign sign for Mark Parks and I took this picture of it. Now what comes to mind is that old saying that everyone (thing) is good for something even if it is a bad example. This sign is bad on sooo many levels. It is like someone made it up with out ever considering the purpose of an election sign. The color isn't bad and it is the right size for 55 mph but it has so much stuff put on it. At 55 mph the only thing I read was "Libertarian Party." The "Mark Parks For Congress" is written in some strange script that does not stand out, nor is it readable at a glance. Plus it is at the bottom of the sign. Had this sign been put out a month ago the grass by now would be tall enough to cover up the Mark Parks part of the sign. I have always said Delaware is small enough that a third party candidate could be elected. Each election year it is like the Libertarian Party doesn't think about the election until a month before the election plus they must rethink how to run a campaign each election year.

I was talking to Dick Dykes yesterday and he touched on a subject I had long forgotten which was the traveling Photographer. Back in the late 1940's when wives stayed home and didn't work outside the home there were many more door-to-door salesmen. Matter of fact, since it was usually a one car family and the husband had the car, the wife had to stay home. There was a wide assortment of salesmen and peddlers driving thru the neighborhood who sold food and other products. Yet none of us kids were stolen or kidnapped; altho the threat from our mothers of "the gypsies are going to get you" was made often. Sales types like; the Fuller Brush man comes to mind, vacuum cleaner salesmen, the fish peddler, Produce peddler, and let's not forget the ice cream truck, etc. My mother worked at one time as an American Tea Store traveling saleslady. I think it was associated with the A&P Grocery store chain. She would drive a jeep with food supplies and other items in it and sell door-to-door to farm wives in the rural areas of the Eastern Shore.

In Salisbury at this time there was a man with a pony who would go thru the neighborhood knocking on doors, asking the housewife if she wanted a picture of her child on the pony. Since this was the age of the baby boomers and mothers go out the way for the "first" child he had a good market. He had a cowboy hat, chaps and handkerchief as props with which he would dress the child. Dick Dykes sent me this photo of him (or his brother as they were twins) dressed in the outfit. Naturally, since they didn't have Polaroid or digital cameras back then the photo was mailed to the housewife later. The saddlebag on the pony held the film and other attachments for the camera. The photographer's tripod would be carried by the pony in between camera shots.

UPDATE:

Jane Brown sent me this pony photo of her father, Ralph Brown of Salisbury, taken in 1928. Shows the popularity of pony photos.

As the ad says, the Cabin Kids made a live appearance at the Delmar Theatre in April of 1937. The Cabin kids made about 16 movies shorts between 1935 to 1938. Along the line of Little Rascal (Our Gang) series The Cabin Kids were billed as a musical ensemble and the writers made up some lite comedy plot which would feature them singing. The Cabin Kids were Mrs. Beatrice Hall's quintet of children; Ruth, Helen, James, Winifred, and Fred.

Educational Films Corporation (Educational Pictures) usually made The Cabin Kids series of shorts. Educational Films started out as a movie production company that made films for schools but discovered more money could be made by producing short comedy/musical films. Some of the people who starred in Educational pictures shorts were; Buster Keaton, Bob Hope, The Ritz Brothers, June Allyson, Imogene Coca, Danny Kaye, Shirley Temple, Joan Davis, and Roy Rogers.

As you can see from the ad they were to start their show at 2:30 P.M. and continue on into the second show which started at 6:30, sounds like a long day for kids. It must have been over about ten at night. I assume they had the same difficulties of black performers of that day in finding a hotel to sleep in or a restaurant that would feed them. I can also assume any blacks that came to see the show sit in the balcony of the Delmar Theatre.

Update: Over at The Balloon Man, Dick Dykes has posted a clip of the Cabin Kids singing.

There is a State of Delaware auction coming up on October 25 at 10 AM in Dover. Over three hundred vehicles for auction, lots of school buses and 15 passenger vans, plus SUV's,and pickups. If you are about to be evicted from your house here is a good chance to buy a school bus to live in.

The auction is at 800 S Bay Rd, Dover, DE. Inspection is October 24th 10AM TO 3PM.
A $200.00 cash refundable or deductible deposit to Auction Liquidation Services at time of registration. All bidders must be 18 years old and are required to have a valid form of identification. Cash payments shall be in U.S. currency; other acceptable forms of payment are cashier’s check, or traveler’s checks. All of the above checks must be made out to the auctioneer.

Brian Shields over at The Mourning Constitution is dieing to run for an elected office in Delaware. He says his two hold backs is first, not being a native of Delaware and second, not having a nickname. Well not being born in Delaware doesn't hold anyone back, look at Joe Biden and Tom Carper both born elsewhere. Matter of fact Joe isn't claiming Delaware in any form now and is broadcasting he is from Scranton PA. Beyond the title of Senator you wouldn't know he is from Delaware now days.

So that comes down to the issue of nickname, a serious subject in Delaware and Sussex county politics. I am pretty sure when you file forms in Sussex County to declare you are a candidate for an office the form is worded like; First Name, Last Name, Nickname. Lets look at our congress people; Joe, Tom, and Mike. Fairly vanilla favored nicknames, but nicknames never the less. We have Aunt Bea who is governor, and "Bill" Lee and "Jack' Markell wantabes for Governor. So I guess we need to come up with a nick name for Brian. I can't think of any shortened form of "Brian" that would be acceptable to western Sussex County so that leaves the door wide open for a good Western Sussex County name. Let's help Brian out and post your suggestions and I will tell you mine.

I think the name of "Scrapple" is an idea name for Brian. Brian "Scrapple" Shields, it reeks of Sussex County. If I was in the "Sports Nuts" bar in Delmar and said "Okay Scrapple it is your turn to pay for the beer", no one would think anything other than this is a local boy. It is an election winning name.

On October 20th 1949 the Delmar Feed Mill caught fire and burned. The fire started next to the stationary diesel unit used to power the mill's equipment and as the fire spread it ignited the fuel oil storage tanks, resulting in an explosion heard thru out Delmar. The main building was burned but the office building, truck garages, corn bins and other small buildings were saved. The fire was discovered by Lester Dunn, mill manager. Lee Littleton, owner, estimated the loss was more than $33,000. The main building continued to smolder for over a week before the rubbish could be cleared. The mill had recently been recovered on the outside in tin and new machinery put into the building. The mill was located where the current (2008) mill now stands.

Today in 1934 Pretty Boy (Charles Arthur (Choc) Floyd was shot to death outside of Wellsville, Ohio. Floyd was one of a number of gangsters in the 1920’s and 1930’s that were made popular by the news media and Hollywood. In truth Floyd was simply a robber, killer, drunk and a whore chaser.

Born in Georgia to a farming family (Walter Lee Floyd and Mamie Helena Echols Floyd) on Feb 3, 1904. The Floyds had ties to the Floyds of Eastern Shore of Virginia based on the family story of four brothers who came from Wales in the mid-1600’s. Two brothers, William and Frederick, settled in Accomack County Virginia, another brother went north and Charles Floyd settled in Georgia. I have discussed the Three or in this case Four Brother myth in genealogy before.

The family later moved to Sallisaw, Oklahoma where the Floyd family farmed and made moonshine. Floyd got his nickname of “Choc’ from a type of homemade beer made in Oklahoma called Choctaw beer, which was made from the spent mash of moonshine.

In 1924 he knocked up Ruby Hargraves (Hardgraves) and married her. They had a son named Jack Charles Dempsey Floyd. Shortly afterwards Floyd started his crime career by holding up the courier for the payroll for Kroger Grocery and Baking Company. The clerk who was held up gave the description of Floyd describing him as a pretty boy and thusly gave Floyd his best known nick name. Floyd went to jail for his crime and in 1929 Ruby divorced him. After being released from jail Floyd went back to robbing and killing.

There is some discussion on how he died in the field outside of Wellsville, Ohio. Some says he was still alive after receiving a couple of gunshot wounds and the police shot him pointblank when they walked over to him. Other says the first couple of gun wounds he received while trying to escape caused him to die. Regardless one more criminal was removed from doing harm.

If you read old newspapers from the 1930’s you will know gangsters were popular writing material. At the library in Salisbury when I look at the microfilm newspapers from that period they will go on for days about shootouts and killing done by Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd etc. Floyd’s death write up only lasted about a week but Dillinger’s death and the Lady in Red had articles written about them for several months after his July death. Matter of fact, mingled in with the October Floyd shooting in the Salisbury Times was an article about Dillinger.

Altho remarried after their divorce, Ruby Hardgraves would shack up with Floyd after his release from jail. She went thru multiple marriages and none were successful. She died on July 29, 1970 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma at age 63.

Charles Demsey Floyd died at age 74 on March 23, 1999. He was a successful businessman in Vacaville, California. He was survived by his wife, son and daughter.

I went to check out the blog "Nice, Laurel" and I find it has been removed, what happened?

This article by U.S. Sen. Joe Biden appeared in the Oct 6, 1977 State Register newspaper

Federal Spending Control

I am more than ever convinced that there is a growing sentiment throughout the state and around the country for less government, less costly government, and less intrusion into people’s lives by government. I don’t believe that this sentiment is going to go away. In fact I think that it is getting stronger and that it is the responsibility of those of us in the Congress to try and do something about it.

That is why last week I testified before the senate Rules Committee on behalf of the Federal Spending Control Act which I have introduced. I think this legislation will benefit all taxpayers. It should help assure better service for the dollar and fewer dollars spent.

Specifically, this legislation will require a review every four years of each Federal spending program to determine whether it serves a useful purpose. If it does not, the program will automatically terminate. In addition, every new spending program will have to be compared in relation to existing programs to be sure that it is really needed. We must not only review existing programs in order to weed out the wasteful ones but we also must stop enacting them in the first place.

This bill will also stop another fiscally irresponsible practice of authorizing new spending programs without putting a ceiling on the annual spending. It will require that any bill which authorizes spending must state the maximum amount that can be spent in any year. If the cost of the program spirals out of control, then Congress will have to review it determine whether or not it will grant the additional cost.

We have told the American people again and again that we will work toward a balanced budget. But the unanswered question has been: how are we going to do it? I think that my Federal Spending Control Act provides one answer to that question.

In 1977 the Federal National Debt was about $706 billion today in 2008 it has a new debt limit of $11.3 Trillion. Somewhere in the 31 years since he wrote this article something went wrong with Joe's outlook. He voted for the $700 billion bailout. His records speaks for him.

In October 1977 Charles Brown joined the Delmar police Force. He had been on the Fruitland police force for about a year before joining the Delmar Police Force. At that time the Delmar Police Chief was J. W. Ford and the police force had five full-time and three part-time officers.

In October of 1977 Donald Johnson, 19 year old senior at Delmar High School, signed a one year contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Johnson said he had been undecided as to play baseball or to go to Delaware State and play football. He was raised and lived with his aunt Mable West in Delmar. Johnson had played with the Delmar football team that took the state championship in 1976. I think his son is Dustin Johnson who was on the Delmar State championship football team in 2000.

The Mule Show put on by the Delmarva Coon Hunters Association is located on Ben Davis Road between Pittsville and Powellville.

Nice Looking Mule

It is a female dominated contest and this poor mule (Red Hot Chili Pepper) is having it's hooves painted pink. Click photo to enlarge

Mule playing peek-a-boo around corner of trailer

A father helping his daughter to put on spurs

If there was a prize for big ears this mule would take it

Flag carrying mule is it lucy?

At horse shows the horses know their routine and get out there and do it. At a mule show everything is up for discussion and negotiation with the mule usually winning. This mule was suppose to be lead by it's owner at a run, instead the mule decide to walk with the owner dragging the mule.

In spite of being on show if a mule decides to roll in the warm dirt he is going to do it, no need to groom them and frankly this looks like the same mule from last year doing the same thing. The mule did get a round of applause after five minutes of rolling in the dirt.

The Mule Lineup - click on photo for larger photo

Second Place winner

Red Hot Chili Pepper picked up a third place win, must have been the pink hooves.

First Place Winner

Rail Sitters discussing Showmanship strategy

Prize Winner getting family photo

Mule Jumping I think the mule is Lucy. Once again this year I had another meeting to go to and missed the rest of the day's events.

It should be pointed out the event is free and the food is cheap. Fifty cents for coffee or hot chocolate, dollar for onion rings or fries or a hot dog, BBQ chicken at $5 and oyster or clam fritters at $6.

From the Wicomico News October 18, 1928

Delmars News- While excavating for the sewerage on the Delaware side of town, Monday afternoon, Wailes and Holden, two negro boys quarreled over an argument. Wailes went to his home in Frogtown secured a pistol and came back to his work and shot the Holden fellow in the leg. He was taken to the Peninsula General Hospital where it is feared his leg will have to be amputated. The Wailes fellow is still at large, having made his escape as soon as the shooting occurred.

I went over to Bethel today for the Bethel's Maritime Fall Festival. It was a big change in the weather from last year. Last year it was a perfect day, this year there was dark skies and wind.

Bizzy Fingers homemade jams, jellies and pickled goodies. Always like to buy something from this woman. She was saying she has cut back from making 6,000 jars a year to 2,000 jars. Their email is garyjanc@peoplepc.com should you want to see where she is selling next.

Yes, it is an election year and there is a cold Barb Hudson at her booth.

and across the way from Barb is Biff Lee (in shorts on a cold day). One good thing about Barb Hudson running is I have seen more of Biff Lee this year than in the last ten years. He insists he was here last year but I just didn't see him.

Carlos Mirs doing his juggling act with a bowling ball

Working Iron, the best job going on a cold day like today.

Bill Miller and his model steam engines

This vendor was selling Chesapeake Bay Bratwurst so I had to have one.

The Jones Boys one of the best bands on the Eastern Shore

A cold crowd listening to the Jones Boys

From the Every Evening News (Wilmington, Delaware) October 17, 1932

Jack Johnson, former heavyweight champion of the world, is going to Germany to pick up some easy marks.

The giant Negro, now 54 years old, plans to sail a week from today to appear in boxing and wrestling exhibitions. He is unable to appear in most States in this country because of the National Boxing association's age limit.

While researching another subject that happened in 1972 I came across this ad/notice for the Delmar Drive-In Movie theatre. (click on it for a larger more readable picture) Now we know in it’s later years the Delmar Drive-in became a X-rated movie drive-in but this post is less about the drive-in and more about the Deep Throat phenomenon of the 1970’s. The movie made the late Linda Lovelace an instant recognized household name and to a lesser extent her co-star Harry Reems achieved recognition. Bob Woodward would later appropriation the title as the code name for his secret Watergate source. It was just one of a number of quirks of the 1960's and 1970's.

Now rather you call them porno, X-rated, or stag movies, these type of movies have been made since movies were invented. They had for the most part remained in the realm of male dominated venues. Deep Throat however was entirely different in it’s customer base. In 1972 I was living in Millsboro and I went to see the movie at the Midway theater (between Rehoboth and Lewes). Three things stand out in thinking back about going to that show. First the Midway was not a normal X rated film theater, second the theater was filled and third the audience was made up of about 70% couples. For a brief period of time after Deep Throat there were several X rated movies made that the general adult public went to see and then they fell back into the realm of the raincoat brigade in porno theaters.

The movie itself was shot in six days in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for about $25,000. It has grossed between $20 Million to $600 Million depending on which source you believe, that includes box office receipts, videocassette and DVD sales and rentals. It became the first mass audience X-rated film and a symbol of changing times in the United States. The movie was raided in city after city, it was prosecuted for obscenity, it was seized and banned, and the publicity only made it more popular. Thirty-six years later you can still say the words Deep Throat and almost every one knows what you are talking about.

From the Salisbury Advertiser Oct 16 1897

The schooner Elias Rose, Captain Lewis, from Philadelphia to New london, which went ashore on the Point of Cape Henlopen Monday night, is resting easily on the shoal, but is full of water. The crew of five men were safely landed in the beechers buoy by the crew of the life saving station.



An example of a beecher buoy

I was over in Charles County today and had reason to stop by the Charles County Detention Center. No, they didn't keep me. What surprised me was how much the Charles County Detention Center resembles the outside of the Wicomico County Detention Center. It is like Maryland in the 1980's and 1990's had one jail design that all fit all the countries. Or maybe Charles County was just so impressed with the jail in Wicomico County they had to have one just like it.



On the way back across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge I saw there is a small flotilla of sailing ships and sailboat anchored off the mouth of the Severna river. The Annapolis Boat show for Powerboats is this weekend. Last weekend it was the Annapolis Boat Show for Sailboats, so I guess they are just hanging around for both shows.

Friday evening and Saturday morning this week the Delmar Public Library will have a book and bake sale. You can always use one more book.

From the Wicomico News Thursday March 8, 1928

COLORED PASSENGER REFUSES TO ABIDE BY "JIM CROW" LAW

The Maryland "Jim Crow" law is very much in force on trains operating in the state and not only penalizes passengers but the railroad company for infractions of that statute, Judge White informed an offender in Peoples Court Saturday.

Katie Johnson, Negress, of Snow Hill boarded the B. C. and A. train at Berlin in the morning and presented a ticket for Salisbury. She refused to obey instructions of Brakeman Frank Bowen to take a seat in the rear coach. Arrived at Union Station here, she was turned over to officer W. W. White. In court she was released on her own recognizance for grand jury action.

The "Jim Crow" law provides a penalty of $5 to $50 fine, or a maximum of 30 days in jail, or both for any colored passenger who does not ride the trains in a compartment assigned to them. The railroad may also be fined from $25 to $50 for failure to segregate white and colored passengers riding between intra-state points.

Back in February of 2005 there was much discussion from President Bush to privatization of Social Security accounts. One of President George W. Bush second-term priorities would have been to transform Social Security fundamentally. One version was to have private accounts where people could put their money in stocks, bonds and banks instead of letting the government handle it for you. A number of people jumped on the bandstand yelling for support of this idea. Where are they today? Not a peep from them.

I did a post last year about Hurricane Hazel coming thru the area today in 1954. As a side note to it I came across this newspaper clipping;

From the Salisbury Times October 16, 1954

Songstress Peggy Lee and a troupe of entertainers were stranded here last night during Hurricane Hazel. They put up at the Wicomico Hotel.

In the group were the Pete Rugojo orchestra and Billy Eckstine, besides Miss Lee.

A spokesman said the theatrical unit billed "The Biggest Show of '54" was headed for Norfolk for a date tonight, when the storm halted ferry service there.

Just to play it safe, the two busloads of entertainers returned to Salisbury for the night.

Barb Hudson and Biff Lee talking before the discussion
I went to the Chamber of Commerce meeting tonight in Laurel at town hall. The Town Hall building used to be the Laurel fire house and it was built about 1937. The Chamber had tonight the 'Meet your Candidates' discussion. The big plus was they had FREE FOOD, okay it was only snacks and punch but it was plus. There was about 50 people in the audience. Each Candidate had ten minutes to speak on their positions and than there was a twenty minute question period. Brian Shields from Mourning Constitution was there and Elbert from That Elbert With An E was there.

There is little difference between the positions of two candidates, most of the night they agreed on the same things. Biff Lee felt the number one item to face the upcoming general assembly will be a balance budget. He said at present Revenue is already down $90 million. Barb Hudson felt the number one problem facing Delaware was the economy. She feels cost cutting is in order and more effective use of the states resources. They both are not in favor of DSTP (Delaware State Testing Program)for the schools and neither are in favor of school consolidiation. On the question of property re-assessment Barb Hudson was in favor of it and Biff Lee said he didn't think the property owners could handle any increased taxes but perhaps somewhere out in the future it could be done. On the matter of sports betting Biff Lee is not in favor of it, Barb Hudson is in favor.


The Candidates waiting for the questions.

Update; see Brian;s post at Mourning Constitution on the meeting. He did a more detail study of it than Elbert and I.

Well it's that time of year when the soybean fields change from green to yellow and in a couple of weeks they will be brown and money will start rolling in.

The Delmar Police Commission meeting was held tonight. All members of the commission were present. Among the items covered were;

The Delmar Police Department received a thank you letter from Delmar Crossing for the work the police did there with their drug problem.

They also received a thank you letter from the Salisbury Police Department for the assistance Delmar provided when the fight at the Monkey Barrel happened.

Chief Saylor is looking at purchasing Tasers for the department.

Chief Saylor said the town police force was required by the Federal Government to have Lime Green Fluorescent Green Reflectors windbreakers/ rainjacket by November 24th. They will cost $169 each. I view this as another Federal requirement to drive up taxes and expenses.

Maryland Commissioner Williams suggested the police force look at a training aid for the police to learn some level of Spanish.

Update: The Statistics provided in the Police Commission meeting are as follows;
From July thru September
In Delaware 9 Delaware "E" Tickets, 12 Delaware warnings, 3 parking citations
In Maryland 46 Maryland warnings, 8 Maryland Parking citations, and 48 Maryland Traffic citations

Delmar Drug Activity; 5 search warrants, 11 CDS arrest, 8 seized vehicles

D.E.A. Drug Activity 3 search warrants

Listed below are some events this week that appeal to me. Back in the dark ages when I was growing up festivals were rare, nowadays you have five on a weekend.

Monday, the Quarterly Delmar police Commission will be held at 6:30 at town hall - yes it is open on Columbus day.

Tuesday, "Ask the Candidates" at the Laurel Town Hall 6:30 PM, Biff Lee and Barb Hudson.

Saturday, Oct 18th; Bethel's Maritime Fall Festival on the Bethel Museum Grounds, starts at 8 AM, bands Big Hat & No Cattle in the morning, Jones Boys in the afternoon.

Saturday and Sunday; Olde Princess Anne Days/ 1812 Heritage Festival

Saturday; Chili and Chowder Cookoff in Chincoteague, VA

Saturday and Sunday; Delmarva Home and Remodeling expo at the Civic Center in Salisbury.


Sunday, the 31st Annual Delmarva Coonhunter's Mule, Show starts at 9 AM

Sunday, Benefit Beef and dumpling Dinner at Delmar VFW for the Kyle Dixon Memorial Scholarship Fund. 1 to 5 p.m.

General Robert E. Lee, commander of Confederate armies during the Civil War, died at the age of 63 today. "The brief telegram of General Lee's relapse this morning had not prepared this community for the sad and sudden intelligence of his death, which was received with evidences of the most profound sorrow," informed The New York Herald on October 13, 1870. NOTE: On the day he died, people were unsure as to where Lee would be interred as the family burial ground at Arlington had been desecrated. They decided to bury him in a vault beneath the chapel at Washington College in Virginia. The college later changed its name to Washington and Lee University.

From the Milford Chronicle Friday October 5, 1934

DELMAR NEWS
Miss Janie Lawrence has entered Beacom Business College in Wilmington.

Harry Keenan who has been confined to his home by illness for two weeks has resumed his work with the railroad company.

Irving Gillis and Marion Lee Hitchens have joined the CCC Camp at Lewes.

A smash-up of motor vehicles at the intersection of the Whitesville road and the State Highway, last Monday resulted in the injury of one person and the damaging of two trucks and two pleasure cars.

A Buick car, driven by Mr. Weaver, of Frankford, was struck by Breyer's Ice cream truck, resulting in considerable damage to both vehicles. About this time, Ralph L. Henderson, of Pocomoke City, who was driving a new Graham car from the factory to the Pocomoke agency, approached the scene of the accident and to avoid striking the other cars, stopped suddenly. A truck belonging to Townsend's Nurseries of Salisbury, was following the Graham car closely and plowed into the rear of the pleasure car and knocked it around a concrete abutment and into a deep ditch.

The only person injured was Miss Catherine Hill, eleven years of age, who was cut by flying glass when the car in which she was riding was ditched. Weaver and the driver of the Townsend car were taken before Magistrate Records of Laurel, who fined Weaver for ignoring the stop sign and the other man for reckless driving.


A 1934 Graham car

There has been much comparison of the Maryland Saving and Loan crisis from the 1980’s to the current Stock market problem and bailout. I will agree both were created by individual greed and government agencies not doing what they should have been doing but that is about where it ends. The Maryland Savings and Loan crisis was created by the Ohio Saving and loan crisis and in turn the first domino to fall in Maryland was the First Progressive, and Old Court Savings and Loan. Altho two separate S&Ls they both had the same players running them so I consider them as one. In the end the depositors and taxpayers of Maryland lost $185 million.

Maryland Savings and Loans date back to 1837. Until the stock market crash in 1929 there was little regulation of them. In the 1950’s the Building, Savings and Loans were mainly neighborhood associations. You may recall them as being little places that only opened one day a week, the larger ones, although small, were open five days a week. In the 1960’s Maryland had it first Savings and Loan crisis; 46,000 depositors in 28 Maryland Savings and Loans lost money with only 30% to 40% of their deposit being returned to the depositors. At that time the only requirement to form a Savings and Loan was to have three people with thirty dollars between them.

In 1962 the Maryland Savings-Share Insurance Corporation (MSSIC )was formed to provide insurance on Savings and Loans deposits at $20,000 per depositor. Savings and Loans were required to have at least $50,000 as capital instead of $30. Maryland S&Ls could go with FDIC insurance or MSSIC insurance for their depositors.

With the Jimmy Carter Era came increasing interest rates, S&Ls had regulations that controlled their interest rate ceilings and they had difficulty paying competitive interest rates on deposits. As the market rates increased depositors would withdraw their money and take their money to a higher paying source. In addition, S&L had restrictions on them by not being allowed to enter business other than granting home mortgage loans. In 1981 the interest rate reached 20.5%. The older S&Ls however had most of their loans at fixed rate mortgages of 6%.

Enter the Ronnie Reagan Era of deregulation and less government. The S&Ls were allowed to venture in to commercial real estate development loans. More lawyers starting controlling S&Ls, and with the lawyers came Greed. The lawyers running the S&Ls were bad enough but the depositors themselves were just as bad. The S&Ls advertised the highest interest rate (11.5%) around for deposits and they were big on the jumbos, $100,000 certificate of deposits (CD) and the money came poring in. The rule in investing is the higher interest rates means higher risk but when the S&L fall came, no depositor wanted to admit it was their fault for taking a chance. Finger pointing went to government regulators and greedy S&L owners. The owners were borrowing money from their S&Ls and buying Real Estate and lining their pockets. S&Ls begin replacing fixed rate mortgages with adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM).

Enter Jeffrey Levitt, Allen Pearlstein and Jerome Cardin. They first gained control of First Progressive Savings and Loan association. First Progressive Savings and Loan Association was a mutual association chartered in 1914 and located in Baltimore. From 1978 forward, MSSIC was concerned over mismanagement at First Progressive and flagrant violations of Maryland laws and regulations. Since the Board of MSSIC was controlled by the S&L’s and MSSIC lawyers, Venable, Baetjer and Howard, advising them also did business with Levitt, Pearlstein, Cardin, First Progressive and Old Court, the end result nothing was done to stop First Progressive. In 1982 Levitt and Pearlstein purchase the stock of Old Court Saving and Loan. Old Court S&L was located on Old Court Road in Randallstown, Maryland and eventually had branches all over Maryland.

In March of 1985 Ohio had a run on their Savings and Loans that started with Cincinnati’s Home State Savings and Loan and ended with Governor Richard F. Celeste declaring a bank holiday and the temporary closing down of 69 privately insured S&Ls. This created a run on all Savings and Loans everywhere that were State or privately insured and the Maryland Saving and Loan crisis became a reality. The crisis was created by three major causes 1) a total absence of regulation, 2) individuals who took advantage of the absence of regulation to expropriate depositor’s money, 3) a system that allowed the S&L industry to make and enforce its own rules.

Altho First Progressive and Old Court were the first S&Ls to go, there were many others such as; Merritt Commercial Savings and Loan, Community Savings and Loan, First Maryland Savings and Loan, Friendship Savings and Loan, Ridgeway Saving and Loan, and Sharon Security.

Maryland’s panic started with the press revealing Jeffrey Levitt had stepped down from Old Court due to sloppy management and overly rapid growth. Levitt had pushed the S&L from $140 million to $873 million in three years. Well the run on the Savings and Loans was a classic bank run. People lined up outside the S&Ls with folding chairs to sit in and coolers waiting for their turn to withdrawal their deposits. On May 13th Old Court went into conservatorship. On May 14th Maryland Governor Hughes declares a crisis and limit withdrawals in 102 MSSIC institutions to $1,000 every thirty days. This posed problems not only for individuals but businesses trying to meet payroll. On November 8th 1985, Maryland Deposit Insurance Fund (MDIF) was appointed receiver of Old Court S&L and they stated owners of certificate of deposits would receive no interest for the period May to November and after that only 5 ½% rather than the higher rates on the certificates. Depositors would not be entirely paid off until the 1990’s. The S&Ls in trouble were sold off to banks like Chase Manhatten and Citicorp bank.

Jeffrey Levitt and his wife, Karol, were posters children for the Maryland Savings and Loans crisis. They had 17 cars, a rolls-royce golf cart with stereo and TV, they were gluttony personified. They were fat people and once the downfall came the press made fun of them. The dislike Jeffrey Levitt and his wife Karol were held in is displayed in this article from the Washington Post. Both were obese and Karol always had on a leather cost, numerous jokes were made about them such as; What do you call their waterbed? Bay of Pigs. How did they get her into her jail cell? Greased the bars and threw in a Twinkie. What do they sing when she walks down the street? There she is, North America. They tied a chain to his wife Karol and dragged her through the Harbor Tunnel in that leather coat to scrub the walls. It was a community service thing.

In 1986 Jeffrey Levitt was brought to court on charges of stealing and misappropriating a total of fourteen million, six hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred forty-seven dollars and fifty-eight cents. He received thirty years. Karol Levitt got 15 weekends in a Baltimore jail. Jerome Cardin was sentenced to 15 years for stealing $385,000. Allen Pearlstein was found guilty of stealing $640, 000.

In August of 1989 Karol Levitt, at 45 years of age, died of a heart attack in Boca Raton, Florida. Her body was buried in Maryland and her husband Jeffrey, who was still serving his prison term, was allowed to leave prison for 14 hours to attend the funeral. In November of 1993 Jeffrey A. Levitt was released on parole. Later in the 1990’s he was running a cigar shop in Florida. I believe he is still alive.

The findings of the Special Counsel on the Maryland Saving and Loan Crisis (The Preston Report) in 1986 were; the crisis occurred because of mismanagement of the Division of Savings and Loan associations and Maryland Saving Share Insurance Corporation (MSSIC). Second; the gross mismanagement of certain Savings and Loans associations. Third; the Saving and Loan industry controlled the Board of Directors of MSSIC and the Board of the Savings and Loan commissioners who were responsible for regulating the industry instead of acting to safeguard depositors’ funds, they primarily acted to promote the industry

The difference in the Bailout today from the S&L Crisis of yesterday is no one is going to jail today and it costed the taxpayers a lot less back in 1985.

The only election campaign in our area that seems to be doing anything is the Biff and Barb campaign. Both are running for the State Representative of the 40th District. I notice Biff Lee now has a website to compete with Barb's, who has had one since the beginning of the race. I looked at Biff's website and it is a surprisingly well done website. Not all the links work but I am sure that will be fixed shortly. You have to be impressed with him in the fact he gives his phone number for you to call him, he gives his street address and he says stop by for coffee and a talk at the VFW in Delmar or Britts in Laurel.

Over at Barb's Website it says she will be at Apple Scrapple tomorrow and on the 14th is "Meet Your Candidates" at 6:30. Where Representative Biff Lee and Barb Hudson will answer questions. The evening is being sponsored by the Laurel Chamber of Commerce. The event will be held at second floor at Laurel Town Hall, 201 Mechanic Street, Laurel, DE 19956.

John Glover, actor, has returned to Salisbury. He has been coming back for the Alzheimer Association walk for a number of years now. I always enjoy watching him on TV and I particularly liked the part he played as the Devil in the 1998 series Brimstone. I even sent an email to the network, when they dropped it, complaining about them dropping the show.

Now John Glover was a year behind me at Wi Hi. I really don't seem to remember him but usually you remember the ones that are older and in the next grade instead of the ones younger and behind you. Based on my yearbook (1961) I see he was a player in the Junior Class Play "Liliom", but did not have a starring role or any role other than crowd person. No doubt Miss McMurrian (English teacher)was the director who never had much luck recognising talent. So what did John Glover look like in 1961? see below.

From the Salisbury Advertiser June 1909

Through the purchase of a Small safe at a public sale over thirty years ago, Nathaniel Conway, former coroner of Sussex County, who lives at Seaford, has come into a fortune.

At the time of the purchase Mr. Conway stored the safe in his stable. A few years ago he had the safe removed to his office, but being unable to open it, he moved it aside. This week he determined to find its contents and succeeded in breaking the lock.

When the door swung open gold coins of many denominations fell to the floor. The noise attracted a large crowd and from the outside Conway could be seen gathering the gold from the floor, putting it into bags.

Mr, Conway refused to say how much gold the safe contained but says he can live the rest of his days in luxury.

Of note the Mason Dixon Auction in Delmar is tonight but I didn't see any safes for auction.

Biff Lee and Barb Hudson will be at the Meet Your Candidates Night sponsored by the Laurel Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday October 14 at 6:30 in the Mayor and Council Chamber, second floor at Laurel Town Hall. Both will be asked questions by the Chamber of Commerce. I do not know if public questions will be accepted to ask the candidates.

I lifted this from Baboon Pirates blog.

You Know You're From The Gulf Coast If:

1. You have FEMA's number on your speed dialer

2. You have more than 300 'C' and 'D' batteries in your kitchen drawer

3. Your pantry contains more than 20 cans of Spaghetti O's

4. You are thinking of repainting your house to match the plywood covering your windows

5. When describing your gutted house to a prospective buyer, you say it has three bedrooms, two baths and an open air feel to it

6. Your SSN isn't a secret, it's written in Sharpie on your arms

7. You are on a first-name basis with the cashier at Home Depot/Lowes and Sutherlands

8. You are delighted to pay $4.00 for a gallon for regular unleaded

9. The road leading to your house has been declared a No-Wake Zone

10. You decide that your patio furniture looks better on the bottom of the pool.

11. You own more than three large coolers.

12. You can wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the least bit guilty about it. (well maybe a tad)

13. You rationalize helping a friend board up by thinking it'll only take a gallon of gas to get there and back.

14. You have 2-liter coke bottles and milk jugs filled with water in your freezer.

15. Three months ago you couldn't hang a shower curtain; today you can assemble a portable generator by candlelight.

16. You catch a 13-pound red fish - in your house.

17. You can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowner's insurance policy.

18. You consider a vacation to stunning Tupelo, Mississippi.

19. At cocktail parties, women are attracted to the guy with the biggest chainsaw.

20. You have had tuna fish more than 5 days in a row.

21. There is a roll of tar roofing paper in your garage.

22. You can rattle off the names of three or more meteorologists who work at the Weather Channel.

23. Someone comes to your door to tell you they found your roof.

24. Ice is a valid topic of conversation.

25. Your drive-thru meal consists of MRE's and bottled water.

26. Relocating to South Dakota does not seem like such a crazy idea.

27. You spend more time on your roof then in your living room.

28. You've been laughed at over the phone by a roofer, fence builder or a tree worker, and probably one of each.

29. A battery powered TV is considered a home entertainment center.

30. You don't worry about relatives wanting to visit during the summer.

31. Your child's first words are "hunker down."

32. Having a tree in your living room does not necessarily mean it's Christmas.

33. Toilet Paper is elevated to coin of the realm at the shelters.

34. You know the difference between the "Clean Side" of a storm and the "Dirty Side."

35. Your kids start school in August and finish in July.

36. You go to work early and stay late just to enjoy the air conditioning.

Another disappearing business is the Frozen Food Locker Plant. When I was growing up there were a couple in Salisbury (Charley Williams and Wicomico Frigid Food) and one in Laurel (Koster’s) and in Pocomoke (Garland Bull’s). When locker plants were popular in the 1940’s and 1950’s home refrigerators had a very small freezer section, not at all like today’s refrigerator. I am talking about a size that would only hold a couple ice cube trays and a container of ice cream. At that time Delmarva was still orientated to a rural economy which meant you canned or froze garden produce, possibly grew your own chickens for the dinner table, would hunt/fish and bring home deer, ducks and fish, or would buy a whole hog or large section of a cow. You needed space to freeze all this stuff and home refrigerators were not the answer. Enter the frozen food locker. a large refrigerated building which had a freezer room that was kept at between -15 to -25 degrees Fahrenheit, there the food was ‘quick frozen’. The locker plant would rent out a drawer or locker to you for a little over a dollar a month. As a rule of thumb you could figure one cubic foot of freezer space would hold 35 pounds of cut and wrapped meat. The locker plant frequently had a butcher shop connected with it that would do custom butchering of your deer or cow and wrap it for you. They also sold freezer supplies such as freezer boxes and bags for you to put your garden produce in.

As time moved on, home refrigerators begin having larger freezer sections, grocery stores became more plentiful and people got away from home gardening and laying in a supply of meat when they found a bargain in meat. No, I won’t go into a lecture on the $700 billion bailout and spending/saving habits of Americans today, as tempting as it is. People became more orientated to the “I want it now” philosophy and found having to remember to go by the Locker Plant before it closed to get their food out was too much of a nuisance. With the increased Health inspections, higher electric costs, and the change in the savings habits of Americans the frozen food locker plants begin disappearing. At the moment I can think of none that exist in the area.

My last connection with Locker Plants was back in the 1980’s when I knew Al Griner and Al owned the Koster’s locker Plant in Laurel. The plant was of course sold and torn down about the end of the 1990’s. Al was a great guy and was always enjoyable to talk to. The locker plants were at that time, still a good place to store ducks, venison and fish. Some times, on those rare occasions, when you would do well at fishing you just need space for all of them. Did I mention that the Department of Natural Resources also inspected Locker plants for illegal size, type and quantity of fish and fowl?

Locker plants are once again being looked at. This time as community food lockers and a place to store your food when a natural disaster (hurricanes etc) strike and the area is with out power for a week or so. You can salvage what is in your home freezer and take the food to the food locker until things return to normal.

There is always some rumor floating around that usually doesn't become fact, the current one is Bargin's Bills in Laurel has been sold to a Walmart Subsidiary. As we know it was put on the market a while ago at $8.9 million. Fact or not there you are.

Questions presented to the candidates for Delaware's 40th Representative District, Barb Hudson and Biff Lee, for the 2008 election. We gave both Barb and Biff a number of questions developed by Elbert, Uncle Paul and my self. We decided to show the answers to the questions received from the two candidates by splitting them among our blogs. Part 1 is on my blog, part 2 is on Uncle Paul's blog and part 3 is on Elbert's blog.

1. What is your stance on Gun control?

Hudson: I believe the 2nd Amendment guarantees individuals the right to bear arms. Gun control should only occur when it is necessary to protect law abiding citizens; for example, not allowing felons or mentally unstable people to purchase handguns.

Lee: I am a supporter of gun control but also the rights of responsible individuals to own and bear arms. As a former Delaware State Police Office, the monitoring of who is buying guns is important though I realize guns are accessible through illegal markets. Having some safeguards in place such as background checks and waiting periods is necessary for the safety of the public. I received an A plus rating by the NRA for my stand on gun control.

2. Delaware Tech received an increase in students when the Student Excellence Equals Degree (SEED) scholarship program was put in effect. In 2007/2008 Del Tech wanted the State to provide funds so they could do capital improvements as opposed to raising tuition. Sen. Robert Venables, and Rep. Vincent Lofink, tried to put through a bill to provide 0.28 addition to the 3% transfer tax as a way to provide funding for this. It was shot down. What is your opinion on this?

Hudson: I believe the SEED program is beneficial to students as well as society in general. If we have an educated and prepared workforce, we will attract new businesses to Delaware. That will help everyone in the long run. Looking at all avenues for the money should be explored before any additional tax is passed.

Lee: Giving eligible students of a lower income the opportunity to attend Delaware Tech is a worthy initiative. Education of our young people is important not only in terms of the future of our state but to the future of our nation. This was one of the questions I asked in my survey of issues of importance to the district and overwhelmingly the response was not in favor of providing capital improvement monies to Del Tech. I also received a great many calls from residents not in favor and voted the will of the people.

3. OOGA - or Open Our General Assembly would provide for more open state government by removing the exemption of the General Assembly and its deliberations from the Freedom of Information Act. It was held back by state Senate Pro Tem Thurman Adams. What is your stance on Open Government?

Hudson: I would like to see real changes that would create open government including changing regulations that would open the Joint Finance Committee meetings and Bond Bills Committee meetings without substantively impairing a free deliberation of ideas.

Lee: The House of Representative introduced five bills regarding Professional Conduct of the Legislature last session. I was pleased to be a co-sponsor of these initiatives and will continue to support the issue of open government during the next legislative session.

4. Since Delaware is supposed to have a balanced budget what agencies do you propose to take money away from to see that the areas you want to increase attention to receive money?

Hudson: I have no specific proposals at this time but I do know that State spending must be reduced.

Lee: Balancing Delaware's Budget this past legislative session was no easy task based in part on the fact that money had to be trimmed from the current operating budget to offset costs before the next fiscal year could be addressed. The Joint Finance Committee from both sides of the aisle had to make tough decisions in order to accomplish their mission. The one positive out of this challenge was the review of many programs that had been in existence but had ceased to be productive. Cuts were made to make the least negative impact on the State of Delaware and to make sure the basic services required of the state were not affected. In a large part, this was accomplished, but with the continued downturn in our economy the need for government supplements will continue. It is important to keep in mind that many of our programs are in concert with funding from the federal government and as such these obligations must be met or funding is lost.

Education, public safety, homeland security, housing etc. are all important issues that will become increasingly important as the years go by. But in order to stimulate the State of Delaware to regain its financial edge money must be utilized to enhance, attract and retain business in our area. We must also have the necessary resources to provide the type of skills needed to find the kind of jobs that will enable them to make an honest wage in which to raise a family. Having a skilled workforce is also a major enticement to companies wanting to locate in our area.

For the next set of questions go to Uncle Paul's blog.

I purchased my first Hayman Sweet Potatoes yesterday at the Salisbury Flea market. It is so early in the season I am sure they had not been 'cured' yet, so it will be a couple weeks before I bake them. There is an interesting article on growing Haymans on the GHOTES site. It has been there a number of years but for those of you who may not have seen it it is here.

Today in 1963 Elisabeth Judson Shue was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Elisabeth Shue is an actress best known for her movies in the 1980's ( Karate Kid, Adventures in Baby Sitting, Cocktail etc). Most recently she was in Hamlet 2.

In 1954 several new things started the Salisbury school year, first Wicomico Sr High School opened. The new 'campus' design with walkways between building, cafeteria and gym looked nice for the 1950's and it was, just when you walked between buildings and it was raining or snowing or just plain cold it wasn't the best thought out design. They also built a tunnel in the Main Street underpass in 1954.

I arrive at the Wicomico Library before it opened today and to kill time took a walk around downtown Salisbury. It is a boring obsolete place. You would think it would be a model of failure for all the other towns that want to renew their downtown. Out on RT13 and main, I do remember the tunnel was a high point when I went to Junior High and walked up town after school. Back then I was pretty much a simple country kid, unlike the sophisticated Delmartonian I am today. The tunnel I thought was cool. It echoed when you walked thru it and it had those cool tiles on side. Nothing else around that approached it for being an Eastern Shore Novelty. It is a toss up for am eleven year old rather going thru the tunnel was best or taking the dirt path over the top of the railroad embankment. Today the tunnel seems to be a resting area for various people. Have you looked at that steel railroad bridge going over Main Street? It looks bad. I understand it was built in 1925. There was a lake there and the rail line embankment and bridge crossed over the lake. When the dam broke and the lake drained it allowed Salisbury to expand East so they extended Main street under what we call the underpass.

The other place I remember with less fondness were the public restrooms they had on the Main street side of the courthouse. The good thing was at least Salisbury had public restrooms, the down side I will leave to your imagination.

Over on Strange Maps I saw this post on a wrist road map. As Strange maps says "the ‘Routefinder’, showed 1920s drivers in the UK the roads they were travelling down, gave them the mileage covered and told them to stop when they came at journey’s end." I think the modern day GPS systems stole their patent ideal.

From The Milford Chronicle, Friday, October 4, 1935 Delmar News

Ground was broken last week for the new building for S. N. Culver between the Gas company and the First National Bank.

Benjamin Beasley, formerly of Cambridge, has been made manager of the meat department of the American Store here with Richard Wilson, assistant. Mr. Beasley with his family is occupying the Dickerson bungalow at North Third street and Delaware Highway.

Falling down a stairway at her home, at Hollyville, Mrs. Charles I. Joseph, wife of former Deputy State Auditor Joseph, sustained a broken arm and other injuries and has been receiving treatment in the Beebe Hospital in Lewes. Mrs Joseph sister, Mrs. E. Guy Hastings of this town, is a patient in a Philadelphia Hospital.

Many of our citizens are planning to attend the opening of the Choptank River bridge on October 26 when President Roosevelt will take part in the ceremonies.

The Delmar (Maryland) High School is to have a $68,000 addition soon. That amount of money has been allotted by the Federal Government. The plan includes a wing on each end of the present building.

Elder H. C. Ker is confined to his room with a case of rheumatism.

I spent an enjoyable night at the boxing matches at the Wicomico Civic Center last night. I enjoy boxing on TV so seeing the fighters live was a plus. All the matches were good, some were shorter than others, but all were good. I had not seen Fernando Guerrero fight before and he is good, but I also was impressed with Ariel Espinal, Shawn Porter, Willie Williams, and Tim Coleman.

A couple of impressions from last night; first I had a seat in section 216 which surrounds an entrance to the second floor so the seating rows are short. I had a good view and since there were only two other people on my row I didn't have to stand up to let anyone in or out very often. Across the aisle however it was different story, apparently only a few people arrive at start time and others arrive thru out the evening so all night long the people who were in their seats at the beginning were standing to let late arrivals take their seats. Since it was frequently in the middle of a bout those people standing lost out on watching that part of the bout.

Second, God there is a lot of people connected with putting on one of these shows. Not just the Civic Center people, but those with each boxer and those with the TV crews. A lot of money was being spent last night.

I hope they continue to put these shows on every three or four months, I think I would squeeze the money out of my social security check to go to them.

From the Bi-State Register October 3, 1952

LOCAL MOTEL TO BE CONVERTED TO APTS.

Luther and Sarah Mitchell have recently purchased the former Rickenback home and motel located on U. S. 13, just south of the Delmar City limits.

The motel is in the process of being converted into a six-apartment house and is expected to be ready for occupancy within the next week. The Mitchells, after renovation, will live in the home located on the same property. They plan to continue the operation of their present business, known as the Elite Laundry and Cleaners, Inc.

The Salisbury Times Friday Evening, October 3, 1952

Insinuating that President Truman is acting like the animal that is his party’s symbol, U. S. Sen. Richard M. Nixon urged here today that Gen. Eisenhower be elected so Washington could be swept clean of the “scandal a day” administration.

Nearly 5,000 persons congregated in wind-whipped chilly Municipal Park to hear Sen. Nixon’s 23 minute speech blasting a Truman-Acheson administration, the failure of the Truman foreign policy, and Truman assault on the integrity of Gen. Eisenhower.

“This idea, of all people of Harry Truman to smear such a great American as General Eisenhower”, the 39 year-old Republican vice president running mate of the general declared.

There was loud laughter when Sen. Nixon said President Truman was “braying” his way along on the whistlestop, give-em-hell tour.

Fourteen times, the crowd interrupted Sen. Nixon’s speech with applause. But there was only silence when he touched on the civil rights issue. Greeted by the silence he quickly went on to another subject, after saying the United States must take the leadership in demonstrating equality.

Eyes flashing, Sen. Nixon declared that it was impossible to drive the Communists out of Washington without kicking out the people who put them there.

Once, someone in the crowd yelled “give ‘em hell, Dick”.

Sen. Nixon told the crowd – many of whom were Democrats – he was certain Maryland Democrats were going to be on Eisenhower’s side.

“I am going to predict that the Texas Democrats, and the Oklahoma Democrats, the California Democrats, the Tennessee Democrats, the Virginia Democrats, and the Maryland Democrats are going to vote to throw the Truman Democrats out of Washington D. C.”

Sen. Nixon’s speech here was one of several to be made in Maryland and Delaware today. He flew here from Washington. His plane was met at the Salisbury-Wicomico County Airport by about 200 people. It was about a half hour late arriving from Washington.

After the speech in the Municipal Park bandstand, Sen. Nixon returned to the airport at the head of a cavalcade of cars. He was scheduled to fly to Friendship Airport near Baltimore. Then he was to go to Annapolis, Baltimore, Aberdeen, Elkton, and Wilmington, where he speaks tonight.

His pretty smiling 39 year-old wife, Pat, was with him. She was introduced by Miss Bertha S. Adkins of Salisbury, Maryland’s Republican National Committee. “Here is one of the reasons why Dick Nixon is a great man,” Miss Adkins said, introducing Pat Nixon.

Smiling as she accepted a bouquet of red roses from Miss Adkins, Mrs. Nixon waved to the crowd and quickly sat down. She was wearing a cocoa brown suit and a small black hat.

Sen. Nixon put in a campaign plug for Congressman Edward T. Miller of Easton, who is running for re-election and who is running for re-election and who introduced the senator as the “next vice president of the United States.”

He also urged election of Congressman Glenn Beall of Western Maryland to the Senate to serve on as “All-American team” from Maryland with Sen. John Marshall Butler. Beall and Butler were on the bandstand.

Today’s crowd of 5,000 was far below estimates of 25,000 that came from some Republican leaders. Along the route to and from the airport small groups of people waved and cheered.

There were many school children in the crowd. Nearly 1,000 came from Wicomico High School across the street. Before the start of ceremonies, a bus marked “Worcester County Schools” pulled up and unloaded a large group of Negro children.

Laurel and Wicomico High School bands played on opposite sides of the park stream in a battle of music that is a prelude to tonight’s game here between the football teams of the two schools.

Everywhere there were “Welcome Nixon” placards, most of them carried by school age youngsters. One red-headed, freckled faced boy was asked where he got his, “some man came around passing them out,” he said.

During the senator’s speech the fire department ambulance pulled close to the bandstand. A young Negro girl had fainted. She was taken from the park by the ambulance.

Many of the men in the crowd wore topcoats as protection against the breeze that whipped around the stream and into the face of Sen. Nixon as he spoke.

Before and during the ceremonies, presided over by Ernest Matthews, Republican State Central Committee chairman for Wicomico County, the sun dodged in and out of the clouds.

Before 8 a. m., small groups began gathering in the park. About 9 a.m., a pedestrian traffic jam developed on the narrow wooden footbridge leading to the bandstand.

As the Nixon cavalcade arrived from the airport, several women in the crowd were heard to say “he looks just like his picture” and “isn’t Pat pretty?” The senator wore a grayish-blue double-vested suit and no hat.

At one point in his speech he confessed that he played the piano, but he said he would give it up if elected. Then some man in the crowd asked “Can your kids sing?”. Mr. Truman plays the piano, Margaret Truman, his daughter, sings.

Robert F. Cannon of Salisbury, Democratic member of the House of Delegates passed out cards urging the election of Dudley G. Roe in congress. Mr. Cannon is Mr. Roe’s campaign manager.

Downtown stretched across Main St. at N. Division earlier in the day the Democrats had raised a street-wide banner urging election of the Stevenson-Sparkman-Mahoney- Roe ticket.

Democratic Mayor Rollin W. Hastings welcomed Sen. Nixon to the city and introduced Congressman Miller.

One of the less noticeable item related to the 'Bailout' is the change the Banks would like for the 'Mark-to-market' accounting rule. The 'bailout' bill adds pressure on the Security and Exchange Commission to change this rule. They are hoping to have this rule suspended or changed in the next few days so when they do their quarterly financial statements for the period ending September 30th they can show inflated assets.

So what does this mean and why should you care? In accounting you always value assets at their most conservative value. This means if a retailer has an inventory of digital cameras purchased at $100 each and now the wholesaler is selling the same camera to the retailer at $75 he has to carry his entire inventory at the 'lower of cost or market' or $75. If he has ten cameras in inventory he can not go to the bank and ask to borrow on an inventory he purchased for one thousand dollars. The most he can tell his bank is his inventory is worth is $750. By applying this rule across the board it helps investors, banks and other people that may be influenced by the asset value of a company make decisions.

The Banking Industry would like to suspense the equivalent of this rule called the 'Mark-to-market' rule. The 'Mark-to-market' rule came about from the Savings and Loans collapse in the 1980's. Believe me, as someone who was more involved with the Maryland Saving and Loans collapse than he wanted to be, you don't want to go thru those lies and falsehoods and trying to get your money back. The rule forces banks to value their assets at the lower of the current market price or the price paid for them. Since banks are overrun, now days, with bad mortgages and mortgage related securities this rule has forced them to write off billions of dollars in bad loans. Not only does this bring the incompetence to the attention of investors and depositors, who can read a balance sheet, it also alerts depositors who simply wants to deposit money in their bank. A year ago that bank was advertising it had ten zillion dollars in assets and this year it only has ten thousand in assets due to bad loans. Would you put money in a bank that was as poorly run as that example? If the 'mark-to-market' rule is suspended you will never know the bankers are incompetent assholes because it will never show on the balance sheets.

The whole bailout is a rip off of the American people. It is protecting people that have lied and cheated everyone else and are now being protected by this bailout. The delay in the bailout isn't about any politician wanting to protect the American people they just want time to stick their pork barrel spending projects on to the bill.

For a much longer period of time than American Newspapers the German on line version of Spiegel news magazine, Spiegel-online has been writing about the current economic conditions in America. One of their current articles is called America, where it pays to fail.. It basically says in the United States; money is God, and with the up coming bailout the separation of church (banking) and state is disappearing in the United States. It gives an accurate look at the foolishness that wall street and the banks have taken us into and how the bailout is not the solution.

From the Milford Chronicle October 1, 1937 - Delmar News

Jack Journey and Charles Truitt of Wilmington spent this week end with their respective parents.

Mr. and Mrs. Perry Phillips are receiving congratulations on the birth of a son, who has been named Bruce Hudson Phillips.

Mr. and Mrs. Howard G. Poore spent last week with their son, H. Lee Poore, at Lock Haven, Pa. Lee recently completed the mechanical engineering course in aeronautics at the Lincoln Airplane and Flying School, Lincoln Nebraska. He is now currently associated with the Taylor Aircraft Company at Lock Haven, Pa.

Phillip Elliott is seriously ill at his home on State Street, suffering with pleurisy.

Miss Helen Elliott, daughter of Phillip Elliott of this town and Richard Figgs, son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Figgs, of Melson's were quietly married on Saturday evening by the Rev. Ralph C. Jones. The newly weds will reside in this town.

Today in 1890 Stanley Augustus Holloway was born in Essex England. He was a great comic actor. He is best known in the United States for his role was in the movie, "My Fair Lady", as the father of Eliza Doolittle - Alfred P. Doolittle. He did the role when he was 73. The film producer had wanted James Cagney to do the part but Cagney turned it down. In the movie "My Fair Lady," he was the only member of the main cast to do his own singing. Rex Harrison and Wilfrid Hyde-White talked their way through their songs, while Audrey Hepburn and Jeremy Brett were dubbed. Holloway died in 1982.

Today in 1859, this spot at the end of the Railroad line, was officially called Delmar. Today it is 149 years old.