10 Years Ago
Week of April 18, 2013
SUGAR GROVE
Without modern technology, the children of “yesteryear” kept quite occupied, either inside or outside, with games. Most of them were best done with a group of people. Playgrounds were especially a good place for all the social activities that took place.
The following are some games that were especially lots of fun:
Hide and seek; Kick the Can; Hopscotch; Jump-Rope; Jacks; Marbles; Red Light; Mother, May I; Simon Says; Tag; Shadow Tag; TV Tag; Blind Man’s Bluff; Red Rover; Heads Up; Seven Up; Spud; Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?; Musical Chairs; and Telephone.
Week of May 2, 2013
School Board Mulls Two Sites for New School
The Pendleton County Board of Education accepted the state School Building Authority’s (SBA) $9.8 million grant for construction of a new Franklin Elementary School (FES) and officially prepared to consider the offer of a second property for the site of the new school.
The board also approved the firm (Omni Associates) that will help with the design build concept for the new school.
The second property is the Dalen field and is situated within town limits below the Pendleton County Library. A nonbinding option-to-purchase had been executed in early March for property above town on Entry Mountain.
CHS Alumni
Celebrate 60th
Anniversary Banquet
On March 30, approximately 150 people gathered in the beautifully decorated Historic Circleville High School (CHS)gym to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the alumni banquet. The gymnasium, decorated by Patti Bennett and friends, was virtually unrecognizable with the draping of ivory and gold gossamer creating a ceiling from the famous balcony, accented with white lights and hanging beaded crystal curtains. The sides were draped with tulle covering white lights with lighted silk trees lining the sides. The tables featured floral tabletop chandeliers and silk lilies in vases. The evening began with hors d’oeuvres.
Praise was given to the class of 1954 who pioneered the annual event as a junior class fundraiser. The alumni banquet has continued each Easter weekend for 60 years.
SUGAR GROVE
In the early West Virginia days, along the Southern Appalachian mountain areas, which ranged from West Virginia to the northern section of Georgia, the winter diet for folk consisted largely of salt pork, dried vegetables, such as beans, and wild game. The body definitely needed a good mess of greens to purify the blood and give vim and vigor for spring planting. Lacking fresh fruit and vegetables, many mountain folk in isolated areas suffered from scurvy, diseases of the mouth and gums and gastric issues caused by the lack of minerals and vitamins.
In the very early spring, the deep green leaves of the ramp were seen as a welcome addition to the supper table. These folk began enjoying ramps after having gotten the idea from the American Indians, who called the ramp “Wa-S-Di,” meaning a “smelly business.” Probably not realizing it, this was a cure for the winter complaints for the ramp is full of vitamin C. Many ramp devotees claim they possess other magical healing powers from cold prevention to the cleansing of the blood.
The harvesting of ramps has some people worried that the wild onions will be picked into extinction. Known for their pungent flavor and strong odor, ramps are becoming increasingly popular. The popular food (TV) channel, “The Chew,” featured ramps in their culinary foods, recently. Ramp festivals have brought new attention to this lowly leek, and now more restaurants are serving them up as exotic springtime delicacies
Ramps are found growing on the north side of a mountain where the dirt is real rich and is shaded. The best time to dig them is around the first week in May. The green shoots look a little like corn when it gets up about five inches.
Ramps are adaptable to many dishes. They can be cooked with eggs, potatoes, ham or omelets…the sky is the limit. Ramps are an excellent substitute for onion, but in moderation, and can be used also in corn breads, soups, grits and puddings. There are many opportunities to fill up on ramps—raw, fried, boiled, sauteed, jellied, and pickled.Wash and clean ramps as if they are onions.
The wild mountain ramp looks innocent enough. But bite into a raw one and one is sure to become a social outcast for a week. The only way the non-eater protects himself is either to run or to eat some him/herself.
20 Years Ago
Week of May 1, 2003
First Annual
JAKES Event Successful
Although the weather on Saturday turned out to be cool and rainy, the first annual JAKES (Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship) was an unqualified success, with 42 youngsters between the ages of five and 17 braving the elements for the Fort Seybert event.
It was organized and sponsored by the local Potomac Headwaters chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation.
The archery station was manned by Mark Rexrode while Rick Gillespie was at the helm of the shooting station.
Participants were given the choice of firing at static targets with a BB gun, a .22 rifle, a .410 gauge shotgun and a .20 gauge shotgun.
Procedures Named
For Anglers Catching
Record Breaking Fish
By Kevin Yokum
What would you do if you had just landed a fish that might be a new state record? Few things generate as much excitement within the angling community as setting a new state record. Because of the infrequency of state record catches, landing a record-breaking fish is something few anglers are ever prepared for. Typically, anglers have no idea about the certification process involved in establishing an official record. Like most states, West Virginia has a very specific set of procedures that must be followed for a fish to be certified as a new state record.
Although breaking state records is a rarity, the trout fishing in Pendleton County is second to none, and a new record could emerge anytime anglers are on the water. During 2000, West Virginia anglers broke an astounding seven state records as the state experienced some of the best fishing in its history. Additional records were broken during 2001 and 2002, and the walleye weight record has already been shattered in 2003. Who knows, maybe you’ll land the next state record.
If you’re fortunate enough to catch a state record fish, be sure to follow the correct procedure and get the fish officially recognized as a state record. There have been cases where state record fish were not recognized, because procedures were not followed. The state must adhere to precise procedures to sustain the integrity of the state record program, because there are a few unethical anglers who try to cheat in order to gain the fame and/or money that often accompanies a state record catch. Biologists from around the country tell of elaborate schemes that some unethical individuals have devised to try to establish new state fish records.
40 Years Ago
Week of May 5, 1983
DAHMER
The humming of the honeybees in the pear trees Sunday was music to the ears. May the first is a late date for the pear tree and peach tree to be in full bloom here. So far no sheep have been clipped locally, but above Circleville at the Price Arbogast farm, the sheep training and shearing school was held on April 18 and 19 as scheduled. Some gardens are too wet to plow and there are a lot of potatoes to plant yet. There were the least potatoes planted here by May 1 this year of any year in the writer’s memory.
Raymond Smith of Hammers Run had a swarm of honeybees in April and wondered if it was too early for them to survive. Remember that little verse that ended like this: a swarm of bees in July is not worth a fly.
50 Years Ago
Week of May 3, 1973
Earth Slide on Route 220
Blocks Traffic
Seven Hours
A massive earth slide on U.S. Route 220 four miles north of Franklin at the Hog Trough Friday night blocked the road for seven hours and resulted in two automobile accidents.
The slide occurred about 10:15 Friday night and a Department of Highways crew worked from 11 o’clock Friday night until 7 o’clock Saturday morning before one-way travel was restored.
DAHMER
- T. Rexrode and Mrs. Virginia Crummett called at the John Dahmer home last week. Mr. Rexrode said, “I retired 7 years ago but now am busier than ever.” The Sugar Grove artist met a man at the Monterey Maple Festival, who is with the American Folk Art Co., Richmond, VA. This man gave him an order to paint 36 different old time farm scenes 18×24 inches and four of each making a total of 144 pictures.
60 Years Ago
Week of May 9, 1963
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.
Grant’s Invading Army Pours Into Mississippi
Blue-coated Federal troops poured into the state of Mississippi 100 years ago this week, beginning one of the greatest campaigns of military history.
They were the troops of General Ulysses S. Grant, and they marched into the Deep South state with spirits high and with a goal which, if reached, would go far toward ending the American Civil War. The goal: Vicksburg on the eastern banks of the Mississippi River, the “Gibraltar of the West.”
It was not the first time Federal soldiers had entered Mississippi during the Civil War—not by a long shot; but this invasion was quite different from those that had preceded it. The soldiers were stepping off big boats at the little town of Bruinsburg, 30 miles south of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River, and marching up the bank and into the Mississippi hinterlands.
It was the climax of months of planning. Grant had brought his army south on the Louisiana side of the river and while General Robert E. Lee and General Joseph Hooker were fighting, the battle of Chancellorsville had brought them across the river in boats south of Vicksburg.
The first troops started across April 30, and for more than a week they swarmed up the banks into Confederate territory, and marched off to the northeast. Next day, they met Confederates at Port Gibson and drove them back. By May 3, they had captured the important town of Grand Gulf.
In Vicksburg, Confederate Gen. John C. Pemberton watched Grant’s advance uneasily and prepared to meet an attack on Vicksburg from the south. But instead, Grant continued moving northeast toward Jackson, the state capitol. Pemberton wired his superiors for help but got none. Finally, he cautiously sent out troops to find a weak spot in Grant’s line.
Meanwhile, more Federal troops poured in until they numbered 40,000, and more were on the way. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, commanding the tail end of Grant’s force, expressed fear as he left Bruinsburg that Grant was overextending himself, that Grant’s supply line could be cut and his army isolated in enemy territory. But Grant plunged on until his army was directly between Vicksburg and Jackson, ready to turn either way. “All we want now are men, ammunition and hard bread,” he wrote Sherman. “We can subsist our horses on the country and obtain considerable supplies for our troops.” In short, there would be no supply line; the army would feed off Mississippi farms.
To Grant, the invasion was the realization of a dream. Writing about it years later, he said that when his troops had crossed the river, he “felt a degree of relief scarcely ever equalled since…I was now in the enemy’s country…All the campaigns, labors, hardships and exposures from the month of December previous to this time that had been made and endured were for the accomplishment of this one object.”
Next week: Grant captures Jackson.
70 Years Ago
Week of April 30, 1953
DAHMER
A few words concerning the fishermen which includes both old and young. On the morning of April 26 we commenced counting parked cars from the Club House of Dr. R. L. Thacker and passed by the Reunion Ground and the old McCoy Mill to Z. D. Bodkin’s gate. Within that distance we counted 45 parked cars and one dozen more at Trout Rock. No information on the catches at the time.
