Delmar DustPan

In a recent story the Little People of America requested The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ban the use of the word "Midget" as they felt it was a derogatory word. It reminds you of the Special Olympics protest of Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder" for using the r-word (retard). Sorry Little people (LP), but nowhere in the Constitution is there a guaranteed freedom from being offended, as blogger well know. Our government frequently over look the fact the only rights they have that they can enforce is what is spelled out in the Constitution not what they think they can do. You are on your own for anything not spelled out. Actually I don't think they asked to ban the word from the airways as reported. They just filed a complaint against the April episode of NBC's Celebrity Apprentice that the group said was demeaning.

A couple bits from their Little People of America site;
On April 05, 2009 the NBC network aired an episode of Celebrity Apprentice which was degrading to people of the LP community. On the show, Donald Trump challenged this crew of b-list luminaries to come up with a viral video campaign for ALL laundry detergent. Playing on the product's "small and mighty" slogan, Melissa River's team came up with a video entitled, "Jesse James Dirty with Midgets." During the 2-hour program things seemed to go from BAD to WORSE! Not only was the word “midget” used in a derogatory way a dozen times, other comments were made to further degrade people in the dwarfism community.....
As a volunteer organization and a community of people with little numbers in the general population, it takes a lot of work and effort to take one step forward in raising awareness about our organization and our members. It is even more difficult when a two-hour program seems to throw us five steps back and overshadows years of work......

So other than the "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" monologue comedian George Carlin use to like to do (Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker and Tits) and what ever is the most recent politically correct outlook on racist, ethnic, sexual orientated phrases, that may offend some minorities, Midget isn't one of them. Besides in one of the FCC fact sheets indecent and profane speech is only prohibited between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on the nation’s airwaves, not after those time slots. I think even that oversteps their constitutional bounds.

Banning the word could interfere with Bridget,the midget and the money she makes from her act. It just wouldn't be the same if she was called Bridget, the Little Person. Well maybe after watching Bridget perform, the word Midget might be offensive to a number of people.

From the Bi-State Weekly July 11, 1958

ALL OF DELMAR WILL BE SPRAYED FOR MOSQUITO CONTROL

The Mayor and Council of Delmar, Del. has entered into an agreement with the Delaware Mosquito Control Commission at Lewes to have Delmar sprayed for the control mosquitoes. The town of Delmar, Md. has already been sprayed once by the equipment of Wicomico county.

The Delaware Commission, just as Wicomico county does, has offered to do the job on a cost basis.

The 15th annual Nanticoke Riverfest in Seaford is going on today and this weekend.

I happen to be downtown when Bob Windsor, Public Works Foreman, and Jerome Reid, Director of Public Works, showed up to do a water test of the work that has been done so far. They flood the street to see if the paving contractor left any low areas where water might stand after a rain.

Bob Windsor cranking open the fire hydrant

Bob Windsor and Jerome Reid and the foreman from Hopkin's Construction.

One end of the Street Flooded

I was researching an event that happened in 1976 and came across an advertisement supplement for the 1976 Delmarva Poultry Industry (DPI) 29th Annual Chicken Festival. In looking at some of the full page advertisers for the chicken festival I was surprised at how many have disappeared over the last 33 years. DPI must have felt the impact of a dozen processors going down to three or so, the same as other non-profits. Before when there was a dozen are so poultry processors all the non-profits (girl scouts, boy scouts, sports organizations, High school bands, various charities ) could count on a little bit from each poultry processor, when it decreased down in numbers the donations dropped off. Here are some of the full page advertisers.

Bayshore Foods

Golden Pride

Chesapeake Foods

Paramount Poultry

Holly Farms

Allen's and Freestate Foods

Perdue

It's like in the movie "No Country For Old Men" when Sheriff Ed Tom Bell talks about a newspaper story of old people being tortured and he says; "You Just can't make stuff like this up", well tonight on WBOC was a story about the Surf Bagel shop in Lewes being burglarized three times in less than a month's time and they were bemoaning the fact that over $600 was taken from the cash register and over a hundred dollars was taken from a donation jar for ALS. You just can't make stuff like this up. How damn dumb is that shop owner? One of the first safeguards you take with cash is to remove all cash from cash registers and other places (Donation Jars) and make a daily deposit to the bank or put the money in a safe or a mayonnaise jar you bury out back. You never leave cash in a store. If you were going to rob a store wouldn't you go to the cash register first? I use to require the cashiers to leave the cash drawer pulled out after they had removed the cash from it, that way crooks can see there is no money there and not tear up a cash register trying to get into it. The owner might as well had placed the money on the doorstep and hung a sign up over it asking for it to be stolen. This had been done to him or her twice before using the same burglary method - no wonder - it was easy picking. I have no sympathy for this shop owner.

Stripes were added to the roadway today.

July of 1952 was a magical month for UFO's and locally the luminous ball of light that had been appearing around Hebron since the early 1900's made a spectacular appearance on the night of July 9, 1952. The week before July 9th, Trooper Robert W. Burkhardt had encountered the light and on July 9th he drove out to Church Street Ext. near Route 50 west of Hebron, with his barrack commander of the Maryland State Police, Lt. C. C. Serman, plus two other troopers and about twenty carloads of people to see it. It did not fail to appear and at about 10 PM, for two hours the yellow light bounced around the ground. If they approached it, it would dim and disappear, then reappear. Burkhardt and Trooper 1-C Edward Bracey gave chase in their police car for about a half mile before it disappeared. It was reported in the Daily Times on the July 10th and on the night of July 10th about two to three hundred people were on the road with flashlights looking for it. If it did appear there was too much flashlight power to see it. The road was described as looking like a parade.

Since July was a hot month and school was out and lets face it there was not much to do around Salisbury and Hebron, the roads around Hebron for the rest of the summer had a number of young people each night sitting around in their cars listening to the Buffalo New York radio station supposedly looking for glowing lights. It was not seen again in July but some unplanned pregnancies did occur. Various explanations were given for the light (not for the pregnancies), like marsh gas escaping from the ground and igniting but no one had heard of marsh gas bouncing around for two hours. A Life Photographer, Albert Fenn, came over and set up his equipment in hopes of catching a picture but no luck there. The state police refused to give out anymore information about it as it was causing traffic hazards in the area.

July was also a busy month for UFO sighting in the Chesapeake Bay region. They were picked up on radar scopes, airline pilots saw them and reported them and just plain folks saw them. Pan American Pilots, W. B. Nash and W. H. Fortenberry, reported, eight glowing like red hot coals, objects over Newport News. Elmer Chambers saw six bright orange dics streaking through the sky around Washington and the Air Force reported UFO's picked up on their radar scopes. Unlike today, the President was not flown to an undisclosed secret location that only Joe Biden knew about. Everyone just seem to say oh wow UFO's isn't that so much better than the Russians.

What can I say they tried to contact us but we just couldn't reach them.


From the Salisbury Times, click to enlarge

As a reminder the Tuckahoe Steam and Gas Association will have their annual show this weekend - July 9-12. The show schedule is here.

From the Bi-state weekly July 9, 1954

DELMAR LAD IS NAMED STAR CAMPER

David Burton, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ira Burton, of near Delmar, last week was named star camper at camp Wo-Me-To, Rocks, Md.

Young Burton, one of 97 campers registered here for junior camp during the week, received a trophy for earning the highest number of points awarded on the basics of conduct, promptness, tidiness, athletics and camp attitude.

In the same week, thirty-three boys were named honor campers. Among them were five from this area; Chelton Hills, James McClaine, Clark Layfield, Paul Hastings and Frank Craven.

Other area boys registered were Adolf Seefried, Allen Hearn, Douglas West, David Perry, John Taylor, Donald Wiltbank, Steven Thompson, John Hudson, and Thomas Marshall.

In the previous week, Wilhelm Seefried scored the third highest number of points. This was intermediate week at Camp Wo-Me-To, and sixty-eight campers were registered.

Also listed among thirty six intermediate honor campers were Wayne Boney, Waldamer Seefried and Standley Hudson.

Harry Lane Foxwell and Elmer Taylor also attended camp at this time.

Proof that the economy is recovering is another new business in Delmar. Over on East Grove these two young ladies are selling 50 cent snow cones and they are good as I had one myself.

Ninety years ago, today, at 11:15 AM the first transcontinental motor train gathered for a dedication of the Zero Milestone in Washington DC and left town heading for the Pacific Ocean. The motor train was made up of eighty-one Army vehicles. The vehicles were operated by thirty-seven officers and 258 enlisted men with Lt. Colonel Charles W. McClure as the convoy commander. Sixty-two days and 3,251 miles later, on September 6th the convoy would arrive in San Francisco.


In 1919, there were only a few people who had ever crossed the United States by Motor Car. The Army decided they would use this transcontinental trip to test the difficulties of sending the Army to the Pacific Coast in the event of war and road test the performance of various makes and sizes of trucks, types of tires, and repair equipment in the inventory of the Army at the time. There was also some good publicity to be gained for the army in doing this.


The convoy would pass thru about 350 communities and be witnessed by over three million people. It would travel over what was called the Lincoln Highway. They would drive about six to twelve hours a day, making about 5 miles an hour. They would then make camp, work on the vehicles and than the local populace would invite them to parties. The convoy in turn had a searchlight that they would fire up and give the equivalent of a 1919 laser show to the local towns. All the towns along the route celebrated that the convoy was driving thru their town. In Delphos, Ohio the men were given dinner in the local dance halls of the town and driven out to swim in Auglaize River. In Illinois, Joliet served cold drinks. In Aurora they handed out sandwiches, cakes, and ice cream. As they pulled into Oakland California two hundred girls sang to welcome the convoy (reminds me of Norfolk when the fleet drops anchor).

As one soldier described the trip; “Pretty strenuous. Up every night until eleven or twelve o’clock at banquets and dances and out in the morning at five and five-thirty to be on our way… It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.”


But there were great difficulties on the trip. What roads that existed were made for the weight of a horse and wagon, not 81 motor vehicles. The engineer company attached to the convoy had to rebuild bridges so they would hold the weight of trucks (88 were destroyed by the heavy trucks). The convoy encountered quicksand, ravines and creeks. The men had to attach ropes to the trucks and pull them across parts of the desert. Each night the vehicles were inspected, re-oiled, greased, carburetors cleaned, etc. The tires on the vehicles were solid, not air filled, the steering wheels were large and took great strength to turn them, and shocks were none existence.


Among the officers on the trip was Captain Dwight D. Eisenhower. Thirty-seven years after making this journey, President Eisenhower would sign into law establishing the interstate highway system.

A good book on this subject is “American Road” by Pete Davies.

the final dinner program in San Francisco. Also includes list of men in convoy.

For the last two weeks I have been receiving as comments about 12 to 16 comments a night in a language which looks like Chinese. They all have the same time stamp on them so I assume they are some kind of spam or virus. Since I have to approve or disapprove all comments before they appear on this blog, I reject them and you, as readers, never see them. Has any other blogger been receiving them?

One of the blogs I enjoy looking at is Thyme-for-Cooking (on the sidebar). Kathleen Lerum Zeller lives in France and she not only writes about cooking but also her trials and tribulations of living in France. One of her recent post is about Trying to change her address. Altho I become irritated with our government bureaucracy apparently it is quite worst in France. I am sure we will be on the level with France in a couple of years, after all those government employees being hired have to justify their job.

From the Bi-State Weekly July 6, 1951

FIRECRACKERS BRING FINES FOR TWO THIS YEAR

So far this fourth of July has brought fines for two Delmar boys for illegally setting off fireworks. Magistrate Patrick H. Hearn fined Earl Horsey and Dallas Hearn each $10 and costs on the firework ordinance charge, Monday evening.

A message from Brian Shields
The Western Sussex County Libertarian Party of Delaware Meeting, scheduled to occur on Tuesday, 7/7/2009 has been canceled, due to a conflict with the 19th Senate District Candidates discussion held at the same time at the SCCOR, held at 7:30pm at the outdoor pavilion of the American Legion in Oak Orchard. Please update your plans accordingly. The Sussex LPD encourages all Libertarians and everyone from the 19th to attend the SCCOR event. If you were planning to go to the LPD meeting, please consider our event in Milton on Thursday, the 9th @ 6:15pm at the Milton Public Library.

Someone down in Stockton, Maryland has these great bottle trees in their yard. Being an Eastern Shoreman I am attracted to anything shiny and as an added enticement it is a yard ornament. They shine like a whore’s eyes on pay-day as you ride by and each year they seem to add another tree. Puts that feeble one of mine to shame. Guess I will just have to drink more so I will have more bottles to improve it. Yes The sacrifices I make for public art in Delmar.

Please remember that my friend, Dick Dykes, over at the Balloon Man blog collects circus and carnival photos. If you have any of the rides/carnival at the Laurel 4th of July please email them to him. His email is rngstr55@verizon.net Or if you attend other traveling shows I am sure he would appreciate any photos you could send him. If possible try and put the date, place and name of the show with the photo.

The Fourth was wrapped up with us going to the Chincoteague Carnival

Had been almost a year since I had my last Oyster Sandwich and they are still the best oyster sandwiches on the shore.

The place was packed. I think even more people than pony penning time.

Since it was packed meant when it was over with there was only one road off Chincoteague so we waited a while until it was our turn to leave.

I don't think the fireworks display was as good as the Laurel Firework display. but what they do, which is better than Laurel, is to turn the surrounding lights off when the fireworks start. You can see the fireworks better.