London Grove

I just got home from the annual London Grove Friends Meeting Plant Sale. It's a highlight of my year. Not only do they have wonderful plants -- I can't find Rocket Mix snapdragons anywhere else -- but I get to catch up with so many nice people from different circles of my life, from my Unionville neighbors to my kind doctor to my younger friends. There's always a wonderful relaxed atmosphere of fellowship and tradition. (And I have to say, it was very gratifying to hear people say how much they enjoy reading my little column!)
I got there just after 7, the official start time, and the parking area across Route 926 already had row after row of cars in it. I snagged some wonderful red geraniums for the window box, a hanging basket for my mother, some herbs, the aforementioned snapdragons ... and on and on. Time to do some planting!

Band Jammed

I would venture to say that a significant proportion of the families in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District descended on the high school on Friday evening for the "Band Jam," a district-wide concert performance with UHS student Meg Boeni as mistress of ceremonies.
First the fourth-grade musicians from Pocopson and Chadds Ford elementary schools played two pieces; then the fourth graders from Hillendale and Unionville. Then the fifth-grade bands took the stage, then the middle school, and on up to the high-school jazz band and combined band. Judging by the elementary-school performances, there will be no shortage of percussion talent in the high-school marching band for some years to come.
Conductors were Ken Miller, Ryan Fegley, James O'Rourke and G. Scott Litzenberg.
What a great idea to have all the schools performing together.

Creamery

Tom Cummings, a history buff who lives in Mortonville, keeps me supplied with fascinating stories about what life used to be like around here. When I visited him a few months back he showed me a wonderful 1950s-era photograph of the old Highland Dairy Products creamery, now a ruin on Highland Dairy Road here in West Marlborough.
According to a 1929 story in the "Daily Local News," the first business on the site, in the early 19th century, was a woolen mill run by James Barton and then his son Joshua. After it burned down, Pusey Buffington bought the ruins in 1898 and built a three-story public hall. In 1904 M. Darlington's Sons rented the first floor as a branch creamery, and four years later Alfred and Maurice Darlington bought the entire building to convert it into a milk-condensing plant to make evaporated milk. Albert Hoopes of West Chester bought the business in 1921 and renamed it Highland Dairy Products Co.: "This concern retails about 4,000 quarts of milk and 200 quarts of buttermilk per day on routes to Kennett Square and Coatesville by way of their nine trucks."
Local historian Don Silknitter adds that "the large milk delivery truck, to the right, was driven by former West Marlborough supervisor Landis Hess. He picked up milk from local farmers for Al Hoopes."

Yellow journalism

Remember my story a few weeks ago about that sign at the Unionville Post Office warning that those wet spots on the lobby carpet were "not water"? Turns out that somebody urinated on the carpet, and not just a toddler who couldn't make it to the potty in time. The suspicion is that it was an idiotic teenage prank.

I'm told that the Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company, which owns the post office building, is planning to replace the entire carpet (which was aging anyway).

A hot time

A friend of mine who leads a fully countrified life was putting up some out-of-town guests for the weekend. She told them what her schedule would be, mentioning that she planned to go into town and do some errands in the morning. As the words came out she realized how quaint she may have sounded to her cosmopolitan guests.
"I felt like I should be hitching up the buckboard," she said. "Ma! We're goin' into TOWN!"

Taste

My friends are an opinionated lot, and I received renewed proof of this, as if I needed it, while eating ice cream at La Michoacana on Sunday evening. It was chilly so we sat in my car, and I plugged in the smart phone to play some music. The fellow next to me, who has a serious grown-up day job investing people's money but also plays guitar in a band, scrolled through my music list and started critiquing it.
"Down to the Waterline" by Dire Straits and "Waiting on a Friend" received high marks ("best song the Rolling Stones have done in 30 years"); George Harrison post-Beatles drew a frown; I was informed that Rod Stewart just cannot sing, whether it's "Handbags and Glad Rags" or the Great American Songbook; he had heard good things about the Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith and the late Amy Winehouse and would have to investigate further.
But then he came across "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel. Judging by the look of contempt on his face I thought my poor Android was going to be hurled out the window.
"That's not music!" he cried.
I tried to mollify him by downloading a song by the Bonzo Dog Band (you can crib off the library's Wifi in the parking lot!) but I'm not at all sure that it worked.

Update

Did you notice the recent change in the cover style of "The Chronicle of the Horse"? The magazine previously used an old-fashioned, hand-drawn-looking font for its "flag" (the title on the front cover) and featured a piece of equestrian artwork. Now there are little fewer drawings of tack and carriages, just the magazine title, and instead of a painting there's a photograph.

Roads

The West Marlborough road crew, with able assistance from their East Marlborough colleagues, were out patching Newark and Wilson Roads last week. Here they are, hard at work on the latter on the morning of May 8. Thanks to the guys for posting Facebook updates on where they would be working so we residents knew which roads to avoid!

Tender

On Saturday I was driving past The Stone Barn and saw a bunch of folks awaiting the start of an outdoor wedding. A guy laden with cameras along the side of the road was signaling traffic to slow down, and I quickly saw why: a horse-drawn carriage was coming down the road, bringing the bride, all in white, and her father.
I waved to them and immediately felt myself getting utterly choked up. By the time I hit the Newark Road intersection I blinking back tears.
Are we hard-wired to cry at weddings? Is this some kind of instinct?

Cleanup crew

A longtime reader wrote to me, praising a man who walks around the Kennett area picking up litter. She said he wears an orange vest, walks with a stick and carries a flag and trash bags. She said she sees him daily while making her rounds as a school-bus driver: "I have seen him walk down Old Kennett Road from Nine Gates, I think, and I have seen him next to Walmart sometimes. I have also seen him walking down Walnut Street picking up trash. I think that's a great township citizen, cleaning up around town."
 

Tempest

That was a jolly little thunderstorm we had on Friday night, but up towards Embreeville it was an absolute gully-washer. One friend reports getting an inch and a half of rain, and even hail. I was on a back road in Newlin on Sunday and saw that gravel had been washed onto the road. And even almost two days after the storm a friend's paddock was still a "muddock," as she called it.

Veritas

Some of my faithful readers have told me they feel as if they've come to know my wonderful family and delightful friends -- so please help me to congratulate my high-school classmate George on his promotion to Full Professor in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. I will do my best to grab the check at our next dinner.