10 Years Ago – Week of May 26, 2015
SUGAR GROVE – Has Common Sense ‘Gone By the Wayside?’
Common sense seems to have gone “by the wayside.” With that, the writer wishes to pass on an obituary that was printed in the London Times several years ago.
“Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivate such valuable lessons as:
- Knowing when to come in and out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn’t always fair, and
- And, maybe, it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies and reliable strategies.
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses, and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Commons Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.”
The dictionary’s definition for common sense is “it is the ability to think and behave in a reasonable way to make good decisions.”
30 Years Ago – Week of May 25, 1995
25 to Receive Diplomas at Circleville Sunday
Seniors, faculty members, family and friends will celebrate graduation at Circleville High School on Sunday, May 28, 1995. Baccalaureate services will begin at 11:00 a.m. and Commencement will be at 6:00 p.m.
Twenty-five seniors will receive their high school diplomas at the Sunday evening commencement exercises.
Week of June 1, 1995 – 63 to Get Diplomas at Franklin High School Commencement Exercises
A total of 63 seniors will be awarded diplomas at the 1995 Franklin High School commencement exercises Sunday evening at 5 p.m.
Club Work Gets Women Off Farm
A James Madison University faculty member has delved into the culture and changing social and work attitudes of farm women in Augusta County.
And in her study of these farm women since the turn of the century, Ann McCleary, assistant professor of American studies, has made some interesting discoveries along the way.
For many of these women, membership in Home Demonstration Clubs run by the state extension offices at the local level, was the first step to getting off the farm and entering a new social and work arena.
Home Demonstration Clubs were more than networks for trading tips on baking, craft making and sewing. Emerging as part of a local farm women’s “movement,” the clubs promoted change, education and modernization in rural living and service to the community.
To gather information for her research, McCleary said she conducted interviews or “oral histories” with several county extension agents, state specialists and about 30 women who were involved in Home Demonstration work or 4-H Clubs. The study focused on the years between 1917 and 1940, when the county’s thrifty, resourceful farm families prospered, in spite of the Depression and two World Wars.
Augusta County was an ideal location for her study, being one of the richest farm regions and breadbaskets for the state during the early part of the century. State extension offices, through the Home Demonstration Clubs, encouraged women to enter their produce and crafts in “curb markets,” which today are known as farmers’ markets.
“Women loved the feeling of earning money,” McCleary said. Averaging $1,500 a year — a tidy sum in those days — women usually put the money back into their farms and homes or to help their families. In one case, a woman put her son through medical school with what she saved on the curb market.
The curb market is a good symbol of what became changing values toward farm women and work off the farm. “This period between the two World Wars empowers women. The women used it to get off the farm. For many of them, it was one of the only opportunities to break down the isolation of farm life,” said McCleary.
Extension agents, sensitive to the needs of farm women faced with isolation and daily drudgery, encouraged women to raise produce, can their goods and make crafts to help them earn money. The government’s goal was to boost farm income so farm families could afford to modernize with electricity and running water.
For many, it was their only social outlet outside of church. Until the curb markets gave women cash in their pockets, shopping was a chore usually done by the men of the house.
The curb market lasted until the 1960s, when the next generation of farm women, tired of the long hours of preparation for the curb market, threw off their aprons and got jobs in the city.
As the numbers of women in the work force grew, the membership in the Home Demonstration Clubs waned. In Virginia, the club’s name has very recently changed to “Family and Community Educators.”
Today in the region, club membership is dwindling, and recruitment by the female elders of young women has been difficult, said McCleary.
She said the idea for her study grew out of an architectural survey of Augusta County that she did a few years ago while working as a state preservationist. She is developing the information on the culture of farm women in Augusta into a doctoral thesis, and later, she hopes to turn the material into a book.
McCleary said she has been saddened to learn when club members have discarded old photographs, clippings and other records related to the Home Demonstration Clubs, which she called an important part of the area’s local history.
50 Years Ago – Week of May 29, 1975
106 to Graduate From Pendleton High Schools
Pendleton County’s two high schools will graduate 106 seniors in commencements exercises Sunday. The programs will be conducted at both schools at 8 p.m. Seventy-two seniors will receive diplomas at Franklin High School, and 34 will be graduated from Circleville High School.
Franklin Is Bicentennial Community
WASHINGTON — The American Revolution Bicentennial Administration has designated Pendleton County and the Town of Franklin as bicentennial communities, U. S. Senator Jennings Randolph announced.
West Virginia now has 31 communities and 21 counties which have received official designation.
Randolph also said Potomac State College, in Keyser, has been added to the bicentennial campus program. The addition now brings to seven the number of West Virginia colleges and universities in the program.
60 Years Ago – Week of May 27, 1965
124 Seniors Will Graduate from County High Schools This Week
Pendleton County’s two high schools will graduate a total of 124 seniors in commencement exercises tonight and tomorrow night.
Thirty-four students will formally complete their high school careers when they receive diplomas tonight at Circleville High School, and 90 students will be graduated from Franklin High School tomorrow night.
Which Is Best—Fall Lambing or Winter Lambing?
MORGANTOWN — Is it advantageous for West Virginia farmers to adopt a management system of fall lambing, or would it be better to continue with winter lambing?
There are advantages to having lambs born in October and November rather than February and March. First, fall-born lambs can be marketed before growth rate is reduced by hot weather and internal parasites. In addition, weather is more favorable for lambing in the fall months, and prices received in early spring are somewhat higher. On the other hand, ewes of some breeds may not conceive to spring breeding in sufficiently high percentages for the practice to be profitable in view of higher feed costs in raising the fall-born lambs. More harvested feed and more barn space are required for the fall-born lambs.
70 Years Ago – Week of May 26, 1955
Spelunkers to Hold Memorial Day Convention Here This Year – 100 Cave Explorers Expected for Weekend
Cave explorers, wearing dungarees and hard hats, will begin arriving in Franklin Friday night where they will convene for the fifth annual convention of the Virginia Region of the National Speleological Society.
Approximately 100 members of the society are expected to congregate in Franklin for caving trips, business meetings and scientific discussions over the long Memorial Day weekend.
Convention headquarters will be at Dahmer’s Motel where registration will get underway at 9 o’clock Saturday morning.
The Virginia Region of National Speleological Society is composed of four active grottos or chapters. They are the District of Columbia, University of Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Wythville.
Although the NSS was organized for the scientific purpose of gathering data about perhaps the least studied of natural phenomena, underground fauna, flora, geology and water systems, many of the members are interested in caving purely as a sport.
80 Years Ago – Week of May 25, 1945
MOUTH OF SENECA
Dr. G. O. Yount of Petersburg delivered the address to Circleville Hi graduating class Thursday night May 17 to a packed house.
His theme was “Your World of To-morrow” to the class of twenty-one attractive boys and girls, mostly girls, and they were outstanding.
PUBLIC WELFARE
Steps were taken by more than a dozen states this year to increase old age assistance allotments and aid to dependent children.
Aged persons in Delaware now may receive $30 monthly under legislation raising the maximum to that figure from $25 a month. Wyoming raised its maximum to $50 a month, Utah increased maximum benefits from $30 to $40, Washington put old age assistance on the basis of need and provided $30 minimum for persons over 65.
BLACK MARKET DEALS IN BABIES
Wartime conditions create such a demand for adoption of children that a brazen black market in infants is operating so openly that it advertises. Read about this deplorable racket, one of the many interesting features in the May 27th issue of THE AMERICAN WEEKLY—the nation’s favorite magazine with the Baltimore Sunday American.
THOMAS EDISON
In his experiments to develop the incandescent light, Thomas E. Edison tried cardboard and the whisker of a man’s beard for filament.
105 Years Ago – Week of May 21, 1920
SHORT NOTES
We have a nice line of mens and boys shoes and oxfords all the latest styles in tan and black. Ernest Bowman Bro.
Remember the Farmers Bank of Pendleton pays 4 per cent interest on time deposits, compounded every six months.
People knowing themselves indebted to us will please settle before May 24 as we leave Franklin May 25 and will be compelled to turn over all unsettled accounts to a lawyer for collection.—Rubin Bros’.
