Saturday, February 1, 2014

Slow learners

This Saturday evening we went to a performance by two folksingers we've seen and enjoyed before. It's a casual venue -- more like a house concert -- and the two always encourage the audience to sing along with their old favorites. One of the fellows announced that they'd be trying out a new song, and repeated the lengthy chorus in hopes we would join in.
The second member of the duo shot him an incredulous look and said: "Ain't nobody gonna remember that!"
We managed to get through the first few lines. Maybe we'll improve next time.

Only just begun

On the front porch of a home in downtown West Grove is a big blue banner proclaiming to passersby that a certain happy couple became engaged in December: "Two hearts, one love," it adds, in red letters. I'm eager to see what they do when the wedding rolls around: more than just a standard announcement in the newspaper, I'll bet!

Friday, January 31, 2014

Ferris wheel

Jim Houghton Enterprises, the carnival-ride company, had one of its Ferris wheels up and running on Friday evening at their winter storage site at Routes 41 and 926.  A friend of mine happened to be driving by and described it as a surreal sight, all lit up, red, white, and blue, against the dark January sky. When he returned in the southbound direction, the colors had morphed into sky-blue, spring green and pale yellow.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Road hazards

It shouldn't be news that I detest driving along Baltimore Pike from Longwood Gardens to the Route 1 bypass. Not only do people speed, but they drive carelessly and recklessly. I've mentioned before that I refuse to turn right on red onto Baltimore Pike after shopping at Staples: go ahead and honk at me, but there are just too many careless, distracted drivers who try to beat the light.
Well, the newest outrage is that motorists who are driving southbound (toward Kennett) are using the right-turn lane as a passing lane. Or they're getting into the turning lane as soon as possible and then failing to turn until they've passed several driveways. One motorist this evening got into the turning lane by the Wawa and blew by me. Last I saw the car he or she was passing Onix Drive, still in the right lane.
One reader suggested that people driving like [he used an entirely appropriate epithet] is really nothing new, and unfortunately he may have a valid point.
Another reader correctly pointed out that "people unfamiliar with the road never know how soon to get in the right-turn lane. Do we need to wait until after Sears if we want to take the Kennett exit? Or after Wendy's? Within maybe 200 feet you have exits for Wendy's, Sears, the hotel, Walmart and Kennett, and maybe I missed one. Here's hoping PENNDOT is reading."
Twenty-five years ago, when that stretch of road still featured the Anvil Inn, Hugo's, the Longwood Inn, and Phillips Mushroom Museum, the Kennett Paper ran a diagram showing what Baltimore Pike would look like if all the proposed developments were built out and the road was widened. It has come to pass.

At the car wash


Everybody has been driving around with icky cars, encrusted with grime and chalky road salt from the snow. So not surprisingly, the Mr. Wizard car wash in Kennett was the place to see and be seen this week. I drove by on Friday afternoon, when the temperature soared into the mid-30s, and the line of cars stretched out along Mill Road past the RiteAid drugstore, all the way up the block to the traffic light at State Street. And apparently the place was just as busy on the two preceding days as well.
Commented one reader: "Meant to get there today but did not make it. So funny, pulled up at UHS yesterday afternoon and several cars in front of me had the plastic sleeves on their rear wipers, and very clean cars, lol!"
Another friend decided to get her car washed before the cold snap broke. On one of those single-digit days, she took her car through the car wash at lunchtime and went back to work, parking in the Kennett parking garage. At the end of the day she was dismayed to find that the small amount of water left over from the car wash had frozen her car doors closed. She managed to get in, but got seriously razzed by her workmates. Honestly, it wouldn't have occurred to me, either!

Out of business

Spring Run Natural Foods, the health-food store in the Phillips Place cluster of stores on East Baltimore Pike  near Longwood, has closed its doors. I drove past this evening and the shop is completely vacant, with the fixtures and shelving removed. A broom was leaning against a wall. There's a sign on the window giving the new address of the chiropractor, Bob Sybesma, who maintained an office inside the store. The store owner was Art Paviglianiti.

What a card

Looking for a Valentine's Day card? I stopped in this evening at Equinox, the gift store in the Shoppes at Longwood Village, and was delighted to find a wonderful and diverse selection of very appealing cards ranging from the sentimental to the silly. I was laughing aloud as I read some of them and had trouble selecting mine. Go before the supply is depleted!
I was telling the pleasant clerk what great cards the shop stocked and another customer chimed in, seconding that opinion.
(They also have terrific birthday and other cards and even a very funny post-breakup card informing the recipient that the sender had never liked the ex, anyway.)
I told a friend to check out their Valentine's Day cards and she reminded me how good the card selection also is at the two local Pack-N-Ship stores (one is in the same shopping center as Equinox; the other is in Jennersville, both conveniently near Starbuckses). She also praised their assortment of books about rural life, gardening, animals and horses -- not standard fare at a mailing outlet!

On the clock

Those few extra minutes of daylight are starting to add up! When I left for the gym yesterday it was actually light out. Yeah, okay, the thermometer read 4 degrees, but at least the sun was above the horizon.
Another sign of approaching spring: the 69th Cheshire Point-to-Point is set for March 30.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Door #1 or Door #2?

Last year some Unionville friends of mine went to the wrong church in New Jersey for a relative's wedding. They realized their error when (a) they recognized no one in the church and (b) they received an anxious text asking where they were. (They claim there are two churches in the town named after the same saint.)
But I'm seeing a pattern here. The other night the same family went to the movies intending to see "American Hustler" but instead walked into the auditorium where "Wolf of Wall Street" was showing. The raunchy opening scene (the first of very many) clued them in to their mistake. Though they were fairly disgusted by the lurid depiction of the characters' bad behavior ("10 years ago this would've been considered porn!"), they stayed until the end anyway. The following night they went back to see "American Hustler" -- and made sure they chose the right venue.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Panto

We got our full year's worth of silliness in just a few hours Saturday night at "A Midsummer Night's Tail," the annual pantomime "in the British tradition" presented by the Kennett Amateur Theatrical Society. This year's play, directed by Chris Ramsey, was a mashup of Shakespeare, "Star Wars," Robin Hood and "The Great Gatsby." As always, there was much audience participation: booing and hissing whenever the villain appeared, singing and clapping to the "Silly Song," and greeting the Dame when she appeared.
The most groan-inducing moment for me (an old English major) came when two characters were discussing a new game involving knocking down small pyramids with Frisbees. Its name? "Pyramids and Frisbees."
At one point Puck declared that she would "girdle the Earth" to find a love potion for the Fairy Queen Titania. One of the fairies wondered whether this would involve a trip to the ends of the world -- even as far as Unionville!
I thought the costumes this year were magnificent. I especially liked the Dame's pinup-boy apron, Puck's leafy tunic, and the evil Van Driver's blindingly pin-striped zoot suit. The kids portraying robins and fairies were utterly adorable. We loved the kid who doffed her robin headdress while taking her bows!
At the door we were greeted by the tuxedo-clad Gary Smith and Steve Warner, two of the founders of the now-13-year-old KATS troupe.
"I can't think of anyplace else I'd rather be on a snowy January night in Kennett Square than in that auditorium," proclaimed my theater companion, who sang, booed and laughed as lustily as anyone in the place.

Perpendicular

The owners of Hood's should've set up a camera at the front door this weekend. They decided to move the counter 90 degrees (back to an earlier configuration), disorienting breakfast patrons who were already in need of caffeine. The double-takes were pretty amusing to watch!

Township meeting

Shake off those winter doldrums by attending the monthly meeting of the West Marlborough Township planning commission and supervisors. The fun starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4, in the township garage in the village of Doe Run.