Putting cows on the front page since 1885.
Putting cows on the front page since 1885.
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Retired homicide detective J.P. Beaumont is drawn into a missing person case that quickly changes to a long-overdue homicide investigation. Jared Danielson seeks his help in finding his estranged brother, Chris, to satisfy the dying wish of the grandmother who raised them. Beaumont was the partner of their mother, Sue Danielson, and was instrumental in saving the boys’ lives on the night their mother was killed by their father, who then took his own life. After living with Sue’s mother for a d...
A new Pennsylvania law protects your right to be informed about what issues government officials plan to deliberate or act upon at public meetings. That means you get a heads up that township supervisors might OK a cellphone tower behind your house. Or that the county could raise your taxes. Or that your school district is preparing to lay off teachers. Act 65 of 2021 requires government agencies to make meeting agendas available to the public at least 24 hours before a meeting. The law that took effect Aug. 29 and was sponsored by state Sen....
So let me tell you about why I became an even bigger supporter of our State Representative Jim Gregory. When the pandemic started and everything shut down, this included the Hollidaysburg Veterans’ Home where my dad resides. My dad, a veteran of the Vietnam War, a Marine and later an Army Reservist, unfortunately suffered 5 strokes leaving him with left side paralysis and cognitive deficits. I received a call from my dad’s social worker at the VA early March of 2020 that informed me I could no longer visit my dad, my four children could no lon...
James Patterson is the world’s bestselling author. He has given us more enduring fictional heroes than any other novelist alive. In “Steal,” he again brings to life Dyland Reinhart, a professor of abnormal psychology at Yale. Carter von Oehson was now a sophomore at Yale. He is the son of Mathias von Oehson, Yale class of ’86, who ran the world’s most profitable hedge fund. Fortune magazine listed his net worth at more than $24 billion, $100 million of which was earmarked for his beloved alma ma...
Lori J. (Ferry) Bechtel-Wherry, a native of Morrisons Cove, has brought growth, luster and prestige to the campus of Penn State-Altoona, where she has been chancellor and dean, the top executive, for the past 18 years. In addition to performing all the normal duties of a college chief executive officer (supervising the administration, leading the faculty, guiding the students, fund-raising), she has reached out to the surrounding communities and taken the lead in improving town-gown relationship...
Have you ever moved to a land where no-one knows your name? I did. Yes, 25 years ago I left Altoona, Pennsylvania, and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, or as the locals refer to the state, “The Land of Enchantment.” I learned how to drive through the city to my office, how to order lunch stressing no green or red chiles on my plate, how to walk in the desert without cholla jaggers sticking like needles on my jeans, and how to look up to the Southwest sky and yell “hi there” as a hot air balloon filled with a basket of exuberant passeng...
There are approximately 1,250 daily newspapers and a little more than 7,000 weekly newspapers in the United States. They all have one main job, and that is to inform the public about what is happening in the world, the country, and the community. Good and bad, the newspaper, no matter its size, has a responsibility to print the news without consideration of who it might offend. Larger publications and daily papers receive little backlash when they publish stories with controversial subject matter, probably because they serve a wide area, creati...
To the Editor: Please refrain from printing smut! After receiving the Herald second handed and reading the front page, I once again was glad we didn’t renew it. I realize news is news, and don’t have a problem reading it. But what was printed goes beyond news! It’s Smut there is no reason to go into the offensive details. Some children do read, regardless of the editor’s note in the beginning warning the readers of the contents. I feel it was very inappropriate to have it printed and on the front page to boot. That is what courts are for, an...
Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. Only the Bible and Shakespeare outsell her sixty-six novels and fourteen short stories. Christie’s detective novels starring Hercule Poirot, and Miss Marple have withstood the test of time, and many have been adapted for the big screen, television, and the stage. One interesting fact about Agatha Christie’s personal life was her 11-day disappearance in 1926. A massive manhunt went on throughout the English countryside after Agatha’s aband...
My childhood memories of Curryville are enveloped in sounds. Porch swings, birds, cows and tractors. Another sound came from push lawn mowers. Our yard gave me lots of outside jobs. We had a push lawn mower and I mowed the yard (sometimes my brothers helped) and we used hand trimmers and even sometimes sewing shears to trim. We were hard on the front yard where we played ball. Home plate was worn bare and packed down solid. I was amazed each spring when the purple hyacinth would push up and...
Editor’s Note: This column was published in the Feb. 24 edition of the Herald. The version published was incomplete due to a filing error. Nancy and I camped at Shawnee State Park one week last fall and chatted with “neighbor” campers about the local area. The conversation turned to Everett because one of the campers was from there. I asked how the town got its name. The resident didn’t know. In fact, she didn’t know it was once called Bloody Run, after a battle between Native Americans and early settlers. We had a second, similar conversat...
That March 16, 1969, my father passed away. I was shaken. He was strong and big. He could do anything. A blood clot caused a pulmonary embolism that struck him down in his sleep while he was only 50 years old. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) was the cause. Six of his seven siblings developed DVTs. It runs in the family. I had basketball scholarship offers from Millersburg, Shippensburg, Bucknell Colleges; they are all universities now. Tom Beach went down to Elizabethtown College to tryout for their team. Coach Batzel drove him down and invited me...
As the basketball season proceeded toward the end, NBC was tied with Bedford High School for the Bedford County Championship. Bedford was a big school. We had soundly beat Bedford on our basketball court but Bedford had won on their court. So now there was a playoff on a neutral court. The game was on a Tuesday and played at Everett High School. The bleachers were filled and there was standing room only. Dad drove from Pittsburgh to watch the game. I could hear his voice over the large roaring...
If you are a fan of the mystery genre, I would recommend you check out this cozy “who-done-it” by Nita Prose. Her protagonist is an unexpected and unwilling sleuth, and the plot will keep you on your toes until the very end. Molly Gray is different from other people. She has a challenging time reading typical social clues and the intentions of others. Her gran raised her and interpreted the world for her. She also provided Molly with simple rules to help her with coping with the world at lar...
It has been ten years since the Blair County Chamber introduced its “Buy Here. Live Here.” initiative to encourage more businesses to take a hard look at their purchasing practices. A survey, created by a couple business professors from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 2008, helped chambers in five counties to determine how many business dollars were leaving the Southern Alleghenies region for destinations outside that region. The results were mind-boggling. In the case of Blair County, that number was $2.9 million-a-day. And tha...
To the Editor: Unfortunately, toward the end of 2021, the Williamsburg Blue Pirate athletic fraternity lost three special members. As basketball players at W.H.S., all three were senior starters and each one was on Juniata Valley League championship squads and then played in games for the District “ 6” title, as well. Ron Robeson ('55), along with senior contributors Ed Allender, Phil Over, Al Shaffer and John Burger won the school’s second JVL championship after close to a 20 year drought (1936). Coach Bill Casper’s squad ('54-'55) went 22...
Herald of Feb. 24, 1972 The worst snowstorm in six years fell in the Cove bringing 60 mile an hour winds and approximately 20 inches of snow. The snow started falling on Friday and continued through Saturday morning when strong winds began to blow. Snow plows were unable to keep up with the blowing snow, and roads drifted shut. At one point as many as 20 cars were reported snowbound along Rt. 866 between Martinsburg and Curryville. Dairy farmers along some secondary roads were forced to dump milk because tank trucks could not get through. WKMC...
To the Editor: I was pleased to read in the Herald a few weeks ago that our state has released its first-ever Litter Action Plan. As a PA citizen, I’ve watched in alarm over the last few years how littering has become a major eye-sore along our highways and byways. This initiative, which is available to read on our DEP’s website, has a common sense approach to tackle this issue from many angles, including a new push toward litter prevention, to help change behaviors that lead to littering. Hopefully these initiatives will go a long way toward r...
Nancy and I camped at Shawnee State Park one week this fall and chatted with “neighbor” campers about the local area. The conversation turned to Everett because one of the campers was from there. I asked how the town got its name. The resident didn’t know. In fact, she didn’t know it was once called Bloody Run, after a battle between Native Americans and early settlers. We had a second, similar conversation with another Everett resident on another occasion. Again, he didn’t know that the name changed from Bloody Run to Everett. So I began thi...
Timothy O’Day and his four best friends travel to the Wyoming wilderness to mark the end of his bachelorhood. Two days later, his friends return to Ramsey worn out, disoriented and in shock. They tell a disjointed tale, not sure of what happened in the night after a day and evening of joking, drinking, and reminiscing. Five years later, Martin O’Day organizes one last search party in hopes of bringing some answers to his dying wife about the disappearance of their son. Frankie Elkin is on a per...
In 11th grade, I was a starter for the JV team and on a few occasions I was allowed to dress for the varsity team. Usually at half-time for the varsity team, the head Coach Dale Batzel would give me and Ronald Steele the nod to go dress for the second half. Those were the days that I wanted our varsity team to have a great lead by half time! My senior year was extra special. I was five-foot-ten and 155 pounds. A thin, lanky fellow, with a big smile. The 1968-69 basketball season was off to a...
To the Editor: We are two local residents who are seeking reader assistance with a research project focused on the Juniata Collegiate Institute (also known as the Martinsburg Indian Training School). We are diligently working to compile information on the building – which was once located at the 400 block of E Allegheny Street – with a focus on the time period in the late 1800s when Native children from the Osage and Oneida tribes studied and lived there. Approximately 100 children arrived by train to the school, which was overseen by P.H. Bri...
Shed: I believe the importance of a shed is greatly misunderstood. Typically made of wood or metal, the shed complements the larger building(s) on one’s property. Sheds are utilitarian in nature, as they are the home for garden tools, mowers, and even recreational items, like ATVs. I’ve even heard arguments that contained the line, “…Well you can sleep in the shed tonight…”. “What would life be like without a shed?” one may ask. I know that at my house, the lawnmower and the wheelbarrow would be taking up residence in my garage (which more rec...
Dave Marko became the all-time winningest coach in Blair County wrestling history last month when his Central High School squad knocked off Claysburg-Kimmel at Claysburg. That gave Marko his 318th career victory to move ahead of former Altoona High coach Marty Rusnak. Ironically, it was as the former Claysburg-Kimmel coach that Marko racked up 234 victories over 18 seasons, before moving to Central where he has notched another 84 wins, and counting, over eight seasons. Marko owes his start in Bl...
High school Junior Lovette Taylor struggles to find her way as her parents have totally forbidden her from surfing the California coastline—the very passion that makes her feel most alive and closest to the One who created the majestic waves and the soothing seas. Lovette’s older brother Matty suffered near-fatal injuries in a surfing accident a few years prior. Matty wasn’t the only one left with wounds that needed healing from the accident. Lovette and her parents struggled through the traumatic time, and though the young adult novel picks up...
My classmates David Long, Harry Speicher, and Scott St. Clair were football players that brought the game to the basketball court. They called them the “Hatchet Squad.” They played a high impact and contact game of basketball. They were physical. Now Coach Ewart reminded us that even dancing was a contact sport, so we should expect a little contact in basketball. That’s why they were the second string and when they checked in to play, the tempo and wildness went up three notches. We had a lot of fun even when we lost a game at that stage in li...
The whole Curryville Village raised me, but my parents, Robert and Virginia, were the most influential. I never heard anything negative directed to me. There were no put downs or belittling. Before I left the house they would tell me how nice I looked. They praised things I did in church or wherever. If I didn’t hear it, I knew I should do better. I truly was raised on praise. We matured fast because dad would let us know we were responsible—we were in charge. He told us we could play ball in...
Then there were the games of “PIG” and “HORSE” we played at Cousin’s Daryl’s house. One person would make a shot and the next guy had to make the same shot. If you missed, you got a “P.” If you missed enough time to get “PIG,” you were the loser and eliminated from the game. That is where I learned to make a hook shot, make a basket facing away from the basket and to shoot behind my back: the trick shots that won you the game of “HORSE!” Since the basketball hoop was on the end of the garage and the driveway was steep down to State Route 26...
For years, Lillian Carter was known simply as Angelica, muse to some of the greatest artists of the time. Her likeness is found in famous pieces across New York City. But now she finds herself at a crossroad. Having lost her mother to the Spanish Flu in 1919, she has lost her manager and best friend. She is struggling to make money while avoiding the wily advances of her landlord. When she returns home one day, she finds that her landlord has murdered his wife and that she is wanted for...
Covites love to eat apple butter. Even a newcomer like me can be obsessed about apple butter. It’s a veritable staple of my diet. In September our family convened to create sweet, delicious apple butter the old fashioned way – a wood fire, a 40-gallon cauldron, applesauce, lots and lots of sugar, cinnamon, and many cousins, nephews, in-laws, and friends to stir the concoction. We made this annual batch of umber nectar at my brother’s home in Taylor Township. It’s an autumn tradition that go...
In ninth grade, I was growing and getting bigger and had more skills thanks to playing inside barn basketball with my brother, cousin Daryl, Jim Miller, Earl and Ellis Rush, and the Clark boys. Barn basketball is the roughest toughest game there is. During June – and then again in August, if the grasses grow and it rains enough, but not too much – you make hay! Yes, you make hay when the sun shines. For if the hay is wet or too green and put in the barn, then there is spontaneous combustion because of the heat and the barn burns down. Any...
The Williamsburg Public Library is pleased to offer many fun educational kits to patrons, teachers, and parents. Funded by educational grants, the kits provide fun learning experiences for children of different ages. MackinMaker Take & Make kits include STEM and technology based items, books, and ideas for activities. Included are items such as Makey Makeys, Buddha Boards, miniature building supplies, and Merge Cubes, each with a book and idea suggestion cards. Great for homeschooling, learning...
I believe the value of the ordinary backyard bird feeder is greatly misunderstood. Is it a refuge for birds in the dead of winter, starving for small morsels of food? Or is it just a waypoint in the daily life of a sparrow, as he/she flies hither and thither, occasionally perching and blessing us humans with a brief song? I don’t know, as I’m not an ornithologist. But I do work in an office. So, I wonder if the birds see it like a water cooler? Flying in, checking out what seeds are at the little window, filling their little gullets, and cha...
This is not for the birds (fowl). This is for you. This is about basketball, High School basketball. This happened in the 20th Century, in a farming community, in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Back in the 1950s five small school districts got together to make the Northern Bedford County School District. They even built a brand new high school building to bring us all together. Well, education was important, but making friends and socializing was a big part of going to school back then, perhaps even now. Then in seventh grade they added that...
Charlemagne Russo, Charlee to those who know her, loves writing the perfect mystery. But, when her agent is murdered using the same method Charlee used in her latest unpublished manuscript, writing is the last thing on her mind. To the police, Charlee is the number one suspect. To Charlee, everyone’s a suspect – everyone that read her manuscript at least. Could her beta readers, friends, and writing group members really be capable of murder? Her imagination runs wild and she sees shadows and possible killers everywhere she goes. She thinks she...
If you recently bought meat from a local farmer, you are not alone. Over the past 22 months, millions of Americans quit overpaying at the grocery store and began buying food grown closer to home. This is good news for local livestock producers and the independent meat lockers they partner with. While a bright spot during difficult times, this sudden increase in demand has brought its own set of challenges. Independent processors needed to scale up, and fast. This laid bare capacity shortages that have drawn the attention of state and federal...
Late last year Don Appleman of Williamsburg sprang into action when it was determined by his local school board that the “old high school gym” would be reconfigured to serve as a dining facility and to accommodate other school functions. He offered to buy the two basketball hoops that hang in the gym and have them moved and preserved in some other venue in the community, perhaps the town counsel’s building. Appleman has an acute appreciation for history and doesn’t want the memory of so many athletic achievements made in that gym, and thru thos...
I’m a little concerned about recent developments here in the Cove. I’m concerned that the Cove has seen some developments that might be dimming the future light of the area. Most people in the Cove know about the losses, have probably mentally grouped them and wondered what the effects will be. I’m referring here to events like the closing of the Spring Mill, the loss of the two C&S Family Market grocery stores, the relocating of Curry Supply and the death of Gene Henry, who was a strong supporter of local businesses. Williamsburg has been...
Dairy farmers in the Northeast — facing a warming climate that exacerbates nutrient pollution but lengthens the growing season — can reduce the environmental impact of their operations and maximize revenues by double cropping and injecting manure into the soil, rather than broadcasting it. That’s the conclusion of a team of researchers, led by Penn State agroecologists, whose new study evaluated whole-farm production and the environmental and economic impacts of adopting these practices on a representative dairy farm in central Penns...
Thomas Neill Cream, a doctor from Canada, gained release from Joliet prison in the summer of 1891. Cream left the states to practice his trade in London, where no one knew him or of his dark and murderous past. Cream’s license earned him faith and trust that he most certainly did not deserve. “When a doctor goes wrong, he is the first of criminals,” according to Sherlock Holmes, well-known fictional detective who was just being introduced during the time Cream was practicing his skills. Cream ch...
No sooner had the sun set than a mass of white, like exploding clouds, rose over the evergreen trees. They weren’t clouds, of course, but stars, gas and space dust that collectively appear as translucent white to our eyes. Think 400 billion stars or so. Even though temperatures had fallen into the 20s, about 100 people, many of them families, made their way into the Night Sky Public Viewing Area, fashioned from the old unpaved runway. They sat in portable chairs cocooned in blankets or lay flat on the ground wrapped in sleeping bags. All had th...
Winter in Curryville gave us all the excitement we could handle. Sledding was a serious sport. If our sleds were in good condition and the snow was packed just right, we could make it from the top of the hill the whole way down to our house. It was quite the hill to us then. However, seeing it now, it is just a slight grade, not really a hill at all. Amazing how monstrous things are when one is small. Curryville was just right for us. It was all we needed. Sometimes the snow drifts were so big...
Storyteller, Edward Carey reimagines the classic fairytale, Pinocchio, in this narrative about a carpenter who one day realized he didn’t want to be alone. In “The Swallowed Man,” we meet Joseph Lorenzini. We follow the story through Giuseppe’s eyes, after he’s been swallowed by a monstrous fish. Readers may remember him as Geppetto, from the original novel or Disney film. He longed for a son, and in a frenzy of workmanship, he created one. Out of wood. The book reads as a diary. Joseph fo...
“Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”—Thomas Jefferson. For more than 300 years, countless words have been printed and delivered to communities across North America. Whether daily or weekly, the American newspaper not only keeps people informed about of their community and country, but also serves as a community watchdog of local and national governments. If not for a free press, governments at all levels could operate with no accountability to the public. Fortunately, the founding fathers recognized that for a dem...
Many may remember Highlights for Children, a favorite magazine from our youth that contained various interesting activities to do - like word searches, mazes, and of course the picture finds in which everyday items were hidden into a larger picture for all to find. The “Highlights Book of Things to Do” includes many activities similar to those found in the magazine, and so much more, such as recipes, art projects, and science experiments. The book is broken down into things to do inside, outside, in the kitchen, with recycled materials, and man...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced plans for the Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Partnership Initiative. As they move forward with development, it’s crucial USDA works with existing private sector markets. However, the support should not duplicate efforts, nor should a federal program facilitate transactions of carbon sequestration payments to producers. Instead, leaders of this proposed program should consult farmer participants and private sector leaders to identify needs and barriers to scaling up these e...
To the Editor: So I attended my second Roaring Spring Borough meeting, with not much more to say other than the people should be able to vote, yes Rodney Green has stated that this is not an item that should be put on a referendum simply because it is voted by elected officials. More like because he is the one who wants to prohibit people from enjoying this property. LIABILITY is his cry, well Mr. Green prove it. We want to see your data. I feel the Spring Dam is more of a Liability issue than mountain ground. If you truly are looking out for t...
Fewer vehicles were on the road during much of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And fewer vehicles on the road equals fewer crashes. According to 2019 and 2020 data from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), vehicle crashes in rural counties decreased from 33,078 in 2019 to 28,048 in 2020, a 15 percent decline. In urban counties there was a 17 decline during this period. Despite the decrease in overall crashes, there was an increase in statewide fatal crashes from 2019 t...
The world of dreams is fascinating. Charlie Crabtree was so enamored by it he wanted to live there. He would do anything to escape the real world to live in the dream world. No price was too high. Sacrifice. Murder. And, because of his dark imagination and what others believe he may achieve, grisly murders continue to happen so others can join him. Paul Adams knew Charlie as part of his outcast friend group. We meet Paul as a teenager, being taken in for the murder of a friend. We meet him...
Note: The author of this editorial would like to alert readers that this is for parents only. It should not be read by or to little ones. My mind was made up. Being a mature second grader, I decided that I no longer believed in Santa Claus. The conversations amongst my classmates in the cafeteria had swayed me and I had finally given in to rational thought. There was simply no way Santa Claus could be both at J.C. Penney’s AND Mason’s department store at the same time! There would be no more cookies and milk left on the kitchen table for fut...
