Ice-cream parlor?

Last month I wrote about the possibility of an ice-cream parlor opening in downtown Unionville, in the first floor of the Cemetery Lane building that until recently housed Andra Rudershausen's quilting shop. The East Marlborough supervisors will hold a conditional-use hearing to discuss the proposal, submitted by Henry I. Brown III and Doug and Pat Mooberry, at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 4, at the township building. The site is in the village commercial zoning district.

At Union & Cypress

Noelia Scharon, the owner of the Michoacana Grill in downtown Kennett, told me that she's buying the building next door and plans to expand her wonderful Mexican restaurant. Up to now it's been pretty much take-out only, but she plans to put in chairs and tables so you can enjoy your chicken burrito or fish tacos right there! Great news! She said she hopes to have the addition up and running by the summer.
Aren't we lucky to have such great Mexican cuisine around here? On Wednesday some financial business took me on a trek along Route 1, Lancaster Avenue and City Line Avenue, and I couldn't help but notice all the chain Mexican restaurants along the way. They don't know what they're missing.
In other restaurant news, Hood's in Unionville is going to be closed Wednesday, Feb. 20, through Thursday, Feb. 28, for spring cleaning and preparing for BBQ season, according to the notice posted on the door. They'll reopen March 1.

Rest in peace, Jack

Jack Singer, who died Saturday at age 81, was a guy who seemed to be at home just everywhere. You'd see him at the post office, at the Buck & Doe Trust breakfast in the Laurels, at equestrian events, directing traffic at accident scenes and of course at his shop, Chester County Timber. For years he served as the official photographer at the Unionville Community Fair, and he'd spend the entire weekend at the Fair, chronicling every single event from the Fair Queen pageant to the cow-milking contest.
Jack was an old-time Unionville native, and it's safe to say he was one of a kind. He was enormously friendly and always ready to settle in for a chat, and it's almost impossible to imagine that we won't see him around town, grinning and sharing the latest news. How fitting that his final resting place is at the Unionville Cemetery right in town, where he'll have no trouble keeping up with what's going on.
I'm so glad I knew Jack. My deepest sympathies to his family.

Under the weather

I felt sorry for the people in front of me at Route 796 and Baltimore Pike on the afternoon of Feb. 8. During the rainstorm that constituted our brush with Winter Storm Nemo, they were moving house and had their belongings loaded up in what looked like a small hay buggy, mostly open at the sides and covered, insufficiently, with a tarp. I could see cardboard boxes, computer equipment and a TV. Everything must have been soaking wet by the time they reached their new home.

No soliciting

Well done, East Marlborough supervisors! Those of us who just like to be left alone while running our errands greatly appreciate the anti-peddling ordinance that you approved, as reported in last week's Kennett Paper.
Back in July 2011 I complained in this column about two panhandlers in East Marlborough, a man and a woman standing at the entrances to two shopping centers along Route 1, holding white buckets and soliciting money from motorists: "The guy is well dressed, wearing a tie and a traffic safety vest, and he was approaching motorists with great enthusiasm. Their buckets say they are collecting for a religious organization I had never heard of."
You can bet they got no money from me. Let's hope this ordinance is enough to discourage these annoying panhandlers. (Of course, legitimate groups like our local fire companies are still allowed to solicit, and I'm happy to drop a few bucks in their buckets.)
(By the way, according to Yahoo! the term "panhandler" comes from "a supposed resemblance of an arm stretched out to beg to the handle of a pan.")

Ready for reading

Don't forget, the Unionville High School PTO's annual used-book sale is Feb. 22 and 23. Last week I assembled all of my donations, collected additional stuff from a friend, and dropped off multiple bags and boxes of books and videos to the Charles F. Patton Middle School, where the helpful Signal 88 Security guy stationed in the lobby helped me unload my car. Donations can be dropped off until Feb. 20 at the marked boxes in any of the school lobbies.
Hours for the sale, held at the high school gym, are:

• Friday, Feb. 22, 5 to 9 p.m.
• Saturday, Feb. 23, 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• $8 Bag Sale, Saturday, Feb. 23, 3 to 5 p.m.

Snow dates are March 8 and 9.
And two dates to put on your calendar: the 68th running of the Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Foxhounds Point-to-Point Races (in simpler terms: the Cheshire Races) will be on Sunday, March 31, and the Bayard Taylor Library's annual house and garden tour will be Saturday, June 1. As always, I'll be a volunteer at the latter, which this year will center on the Unionville area.

Back in the saddle

A Cochranville friend has mixed feelings about getting back on her horse after such a long layoff (prompted by the treacherous footing). After one week off, she can expect him to buck once; after two weeks, two bucks. But after three weeks without being ridden, she told me, all bets are off.