20 Years Ago
Week of August 19, 2004
SUGAR GROVE
Why Are Good Manners Passé?
Summer appears to be swinging silently in serenity. Summer has seemed too short, now that school is just around the corner. With that said, a new Carnegie Report reveals that students have poor logic, listening, writing and speaking skills. Perhaps one needs to go to deep roots than formal schools to find the origins.
Society demands two working parents and as a result, grade school teachers nationwide have to become more parent-like, because it is parenting that kids are starving for. It is quite noticeable that modern kids are a little rude. Then too, their concentration span runs short.
Whatever happened to good manners? They really are not generated; they are taught! If one were to begin educating children at an early age on the basic manners, they will have plenty of time to practice and perfect them before venturing out on their own.
- Teach simple table manners, such as chewing with the mouth closed, where to put the napkin and keep elbows off the table.
- Teach what RSVP is all about, as well as how and when to respond appropriately.
- Teach children to cover their mouths when they yawn, sneeze or cough.
- Teach them to chew gum with mouths closed, to not chew during serious occasions such as weddings and funerals, art museums and doctor visits and to dispose of the gum in an appropriate manner (not under tables, bleachers, chairs or on the street).
- Teach them to hold the door open for others.
- Teach them the importance of good eye contact, especially when speaking to adults.
- Teach children to say “please,” “excuse me,” and “thank you.”
- Teach one’s child to respect others. Even though they may have disagreements or different opinions with others, they still need to show respect.
- Try to teach some conversation skills so that they can at least communicate with an adult.
- Telephone manners are so important. Teach them what to say, such as “May I ask who’s calling?” or “May I take a message?” Make sure they know to use the cell phone in a private area and to put it on silent mode while in a movie, place of worship or other religious ceremony, concerts and museums.
- Teach them the value of a handshake. It can be more important than one thinks!
- Teach them that there are certain places and times for body sounds. Burping so loud that one looks to see whether there is a live cow promoting dairy products can be a source of amusement; however, when these body sounds do occur “excuse me” is necessary and appropriate.
The bottom line is that parents have an obligation to do their part. Parents need to be involved with the children by talking to them, reading together, showing an interest in their schoolwork and setting high expectations. Perhaps all children are not honor roll students, but education still needs to be supported. It is important for Pendleton County and West Virginia to have nicer, well-mannered children. After all, good manners help them to become comfortable in social situations and enables them to develop good human relations—and much nicer to be around.
30 Years Ago
Week of August 11, 1994
American Bald Eagle Back from
Edge of Extinction
American’s largest conservation group is celebrating the best news so far this year on the environmental front: the comeback of the country’s national symbol, the bald eagle.
“There is good news in our environment, something we can be proud to celebrate on Independence Day,” said Jay D. Hair, president of the National Wildlife Federation. “The American bald eagle is coming back from the edge of extinction.”
Just before the long July 4th weekend began, federal officials proposed that this success be recognized formally by reclassifying the bald eagle from “endangered” to “threatened” in 43 of the lower 48 states. “We support this proposal under the Endangered Species Act,” Hair said.
The bald eagle was once common enough in North America that Congress adopted the bird as the national symbol of the United States. One estimate suggests there were 250,000 bald eagles in North America before 1800. By the turn of the 20th century, though, biologists had begun to see a decline among bald eagles.
Pollution reached toxic levels in ecosystems throughout North America by the middle of this century. Bald eagles were harmed by the contaminants building up in the food chain, especially DDT. Meanwhile, people were altering bald eagle habitat throughout their range in the lower 48 states.
“This conversion of nesting and wintering habitats often left bald eagles without a home or resulted in the killing of eagles by electrocution, poisoning and shooting,” Hair said. “In 1964, a survey found fewer than 500 nesting pairs in the lower 48, and the population was still declining rapidly.”
Today, it’s a different story. Bald eagle populations have increased every year since 1986, and a 1992 U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey found evidence of 3,747 nesting pairs.
“Thanks to the hard work of volunteers, thanks to the banning of DDT and, of course, the passage of the Endangered Species Act, the bald eagle is coming back,” Hair said.
60 Years Ago
Week of August 13, 1964
100 YEARS AGO
By LON K. SAVAGE
Editor’s Note—The following is one of a series of articles on the Civil War. Each weekly installment covers events which occurred exactly 100 years ago.
Civilians Killed In
Atlanta Bombardment
It was about breakfast time in Atlanta when the first shell exploded on the morning of August 9, 1864, 100 years ago this week. The people of the city were not too surprised as shells had been falling on the city for weeks, and already civilians had been killed. But there had not been a day like this one.
Outside the city, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman with his army of 100,000 Federals was tightening his grip on the city and on the Confederate army of Gen. John B. Hood who was defending it.
Hood’s artillery answered the Federal fire, and soon the full firepower of both armies was lobbing shells back and forth, as the people of Atlanta suffered tragic losses.
Wallace Reed, young Atlanta writer, described the bombardment as follows, according to A. A. Hoehling in his book, “Last Train From Atlanta,” (Thomas Yoseloff, Publisher).
“Shot and shell rained in every direction,” Reed wrote. “Great volumes of sulphurous smoke rolled over the town, trailing down to the ground, and through this stifling gloom the sun glared down like a great red eye peering through a bronze colored cloud. It was on this day of horrors that the destruction of human life was greatest among the citizens.
A Confederate officer was talking to a lady and her little boy when a shell struck, killing the officer and the boy. Another lady was struck and killed by a shell while doing her ironing. A well known city barber was wounded while standing on a street corner, and he died from shock after a leg had been amputated. A young lady was struck and fatally injured while on the way to a shed.
Many families in the city long since had dug bombproofs in their yards, and they spent much of the day in them. Hoehling wrote of an unconfirmed report that one bombproof, with a family of six and several neighbors inside it, was the target of a direct hit that crashed through the bombproof’s roof.
Houses and buildings crumbled under the artillery fire. A well known mansion, a button factory, an office building, stores and churches were among the buildings that were wrecked.
The day, Hood wrote later, “was made memorable by the most furious cannonading which the city sustained during the siege.”
The war in Atlanta had become total war, and it appeared only a matter of time before the city fell. Outside the city, Sherman edged his army farther and farther around the city, hoping to choke off aid from other areas.
Two days earlier, Sherman had written to army headquarters in Washington: “We keep hammering away all the time, and there is no peace inside or outside of Atlanta…One thing is certain, whether we get inside Atlanta or not, it will be a used-up community when we are done with it.”
Next week: Burning in the Shenandoah Valley.
70 Years Ago
Week of August 12, 1954
‘Bide-A-While Park’
Completed by
Sugar Grove
Farm Women
The Sugar Grove Farm Women’s Club last week put the finishing touches on a project which transformed an unsightly trash dump into an attractive roadside park.
Speaking of the project in which the whole community has taken an interest, Mrs. Dick Mitchell said, “The club and the community has long felt the need of a picnic area, and after searching for a suitable place to establish it, the grounds beside the ‘swimming pool’ was chosen. This spot was chosen because of its nearness to the favorite swimming hole of every youngster in the community, and because it is located at a place which has never been reached by floods.
Located about 1-1/2 miles northeast of Sugar Grove between the Brandywine/Sugar Grove Road, and the South Fork River, the park is 162 feet long by 48 feet wide. Two modern fireplaces with removable grates and four attractive picnic tables have been installed, and the grounds have been fenced with woven wire for the safety of children. Also a stairway has been added leading from the park down over the bank to the swimming hole.
In keeping with the recommendation of the State Farm Women’s Council to carry a project to help “Preserve West Virginia’s Beauty,” the Sugar Grove club began work on the roadside park over a year ago and only last week added the last coat of paint to the neat tables and fence posts.
“Before much planning could be done, a trash dump had to be removed. As we look at it now, it is hard to think that only a few months ago it was literally piled with broken glass, beer bottles, tin cans, brush, and everything else unsightly that people so carelessly toss by our roadsides.
“As we cleaned it off and cut brush, we found that Mother Nature had already planted our shade trees. Aspen, oak and maple were growing at appropriate places for future shade.”
The club is making arrangements to install electric lights in the near future, and plans are also underway for the erection of another fireplace and playground equipment for the children.
A lease was prepared by J. T. Rexrode and Dick Mitchell and presented to the club members at the June meeting making the picnic area the property of the club as long as it is used for picnic purposes.
“The members of the club sincerely thank each and everyone who has assisted us in this project, either with work or donations,” Mrs. Mitchell said, and added, “We have named it ‘Bide-A-While Park,’ and invite the public to use it and enjoy it. It was established for your convenience.”
Mouth of Seneca Man Is ‘Farmer of Many Talents’
A man of many talents is Virgil G. Hedrick of Mouth of Seneca. Right now he is a farmer, and a farmer of considerable extent having a good size home farm and grazing farm, a herd of Hereford beef cattle, a flock of picked grade ewes, at least one horse which provides his children with a reliable means of transportation, besides chewing off the grass of the Hedrick lawn to a well clipped length. Pure bred males are always used for breeding purposes on the cattle herd and sheep flocks.
However, should you look up Mr. Hedrick this fall you will find he is beginning a new term of classes at the Mallow Elementary School. He expects to have 25 pupils this year to teach in all the grades—from one to eight inclusive.
And, in between times, with the able assistance of Mrs. Hedrick, the farmer-school teacher is also the operator of a modern motel which this year has doubled its facilities. The Hedrick Motel, built on a portion of the Hedrick farm which lies along Route 33, is now a 12-unit which boasts, in addition to its sleeping accommodations, two units with kitchenettes and a back porch overlooking the North Fork River.
Hedrick, who says school teaching is his first love, admits that farming is not bad and that his motel is doing pretty well.
The multi-operation of the Hedricks may prove a headache to the judges in the Farming For Better Living program in Pendleton County when they try to classify his program. However, the judges in the Farming For Better Living will have to admit one thing—the Hedrick family is certainly not resting on their laurels, or resting anywhere else, in making farming, teaching and motel operating a better living.
