Extended hours

A faithful Tilda reader (and fellow Hillendale homey!) asked me what day the Unionville post office is open late. I didn't know but quickly found out for her: it's Wednesday. The window closes at 4:30 and then reopens at 5 and stays open til 6:30.

The rest of the story

May I channel Paul Harvey for this one item?
I'm editing a fascinating book (a welcome change) on the human implications of medical imaging (x-rays, CT scanners and such). In one chapter the author, Dr. Richard Gunderman, tells the story of Ritchie, a Liverpool boy in the 1940s who suffered a ruptured appendix and was in the hospital for a year due to complications. During his stay he developed a deep love of music. 
Ritchie was Richard Starkey, better known as Ringo Starr. He became the Beatles' drummer, and the Beatles' huge success greatly enriched their record label, EMI. With its windfall profits, EMI decided to expand into the nascent medical imaging business, and one of its scientists, Gregory Hounsfield, developed the CT scanner.
Had the CT scanner been around in the 1940s, Ringo's appendicitis might well have been diagnosed long before his appendix burst, and he would probably have been spared the long hospital stay.

Friday night lights

I was driving home from a wonderful dinner at the Taqueria Moroleon at 9:30 last night and was surprised to find that Newark Road, north of Toughkenamon, was lit up like a stadium. It seems they are installing new pipelines underneath the roadway and are doing the project at night, under portable floodlights. Because only one lane of traffic is allowed through at a time, I waited in a line behind one of Rob Pearson's dump trucks for a minute or so and then the flagger let us through.

Secret society

It seems that a underground society has been quietly forming in our area: people who miss Genuardi's! (The supermarket on Baltimore Pike east of Kennett was converted into a Giant this summer.)
In last week's column I mentioned a friend of mine last week who thought he was the only one, but others have subsequently revealed themselves to me:
"I MISS Genaurdi's!!!! Your friend is noooo way the only one. I miss $5 Fridays, and Giant is much more pricier... I now have to shop at Greg's Produce in Hockessin, a little bit of Giant, and now have to go towards DE more."  
Another said although she liked the Giant's produce, the new store's layout tried her patience.
Do the members have a stealth sign of recognition, maybe an old Genuardi's flyer or a Genuardi's bonus card?

Eye, me, mine

This may well be the buggiest summer I remember. Not, thankfully, those awful stink bugs, but rather moths, spiders, flies, mosquitoes and those tiny bees. I can't sit outside on the deck or relax in the hammock without getting an ankle-full of itchy welts.
Yesterday after supper I was out for my usual walk on our beautiful back roads, maybe two miles from home. I was wired into my 80s playlist and Boy George was crooning, "Do you really want to hurt me? Do you really want to make me cry?" Just then a huge gnat flew straight into my eye. Impeccable timing!
A friend commented that it was lucky I wasn't listening to the Electric Light Orchestra's "Can't Get It Out of My Head" at the time.

The Great Ejection

My West Marlborough friend and neighbor Helen Martin told me that Tyndale Society (USA), of which she is secretary, will be holding a seminar at London Grove Friends Meeting House on Saturday, September 8, to mark the 350th anniversary of “Black Bartholomew” (August 24, 1662), "when almost 2,000 gospel ministers were ejected from their pulpits for reasons of conscience and England was left in religious turmoil from which it long suffered... The event marked the beginning of a period of severe persecution for Quakers and Roman Catholics also, and proved to be a watershed for the advance of religious liberty in general in the English-speaking world."
Speakers will include:

-- Dr. Carl Trueman, the Academic Dean and Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary, Chestnut Hill, will be speaking on "A Tale of Two Ejections: Richard Baxter, John Owen and 1662."
-- Historian Barbara Cross will share "Ministries Sealed by Suffering: Thomas Watson & Edmund Calamy," some forgotten heroes of the era.
-- Helen's brother, retired Avondale District Justice Tom Martin, will discuss "John Bunyan’s Imprisonment: Impact on America."
Something I really want to see is a unique folio copy of the "Book of Common Prayer" prepared for the Archbishop of Canterbury that is going to be on display. "This very rare 1662 book was the standard to which all university professors and English clergy were to conform."
The seminar will start at 9 a.m. and will run until 1 p.m. Suggested voluntary contribution is $10, and light refreshments will be served.
Helen asked me to say that everyone is welcome.

Around town

Random sightings around town today:
1. Route 82 has been repaved through Unionville, and double-yellow lines were added a day or so later.
2. Sure signs of fall: full parking lots at the schools, grape hyacinth leaves sprouting, and the first fixture card in the mail. And a sunny customer at the Willowdale produce stall pointed out that corn on the cob wouldn't be around much longer.
3. The Jennersville Starbucks is being redecorated.
4. Somebody's putting in a new fence over the hill; I can hear the rhythmic thumping of the post driver.
5. For the second time in recent days someone I know only through Facebook came up to me and introduced herself. It's fun to meet these online "friends" actually in person.
  

Meetings

This month's West Marlborough Township meeting will be on Tuesday, Sept. 4. I don't think anything pressing is on the agenda, but it's worth coming out to the township hall/garage anyway. There's always something that makes me put down my knitting or phone (yes, there's Wi-Fi) and pick up my pen and reporter's notebook (or, um, whatever paper I can scrounge. Last month I forgot my notebook and got caught pinching a piece of office paper from the road department's desk).
The Planning Commission meets at 7 p.m., with the supervisors' meeting to follow.
If you should happen to have something else to do that evening (imagine), you can always read my account of the meeting in these pages the following week.

AAA rating

Kennett Square's Mushroom Festival (Sept. 8 and 9) made it into the September/October issue of the AAA Mid-Atlantic magazine! "You've waited long enough," reads the item. "The first-even All Pro Eating-sanctioned Fried Mushroom Eating Championship will be held during the Mushroom Festival in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. In the region where 65 percent of the country's mushrooms are grown, enjoy farm tours and exhibits, cooking demonstrations and plenty of fungi prepared every which way, including frozen in ice cream."
In the same magazine there's an ad for a Lancaster County hotel that cautions visitors: "GPS note: If you have a problem with Bird-in-Hand PA, try Ronks PA." GPS makes some odd choices sometimes.

Nothing new

A friend asked if I had heard anything new about equestrian writer and photographer Sarah Libbey Greenhalgh, 48, who was found dead in her burning home in Upperville, Fauquier County, Virginia, on July 9. No, I haven't. No new details have been released, and although police and the FBI are treating her death as a homicide, as far as I could find out no arrests have been made. I saw that the story was even picked up by the "Daily Mail" in England.

UCF Wants You!

My friend and neighbor Berta Rains is putting out a plea for volunteers to help with the Unionville Community Fair at the beginning of October.

She said that directors are needed for the following divisions:

1. Youth and Adult Wood and Metalwork

2. Adult Art, Handcrafts and Holiday Crafts

3. Adult Models

4. Youth Models (Legos)

5. Youth Pottery & Ceramics

6. Youth Baked Goods

7. Adult Pottery and Ceramics

Being a director is a lot of fun and it's not hard. Each position involves about 15 hours: accepting entries at the Fair on Wednesday afternoon/evening (Oct. 3), helping with judging on Thursday (Oct. 4), and then helping out on Sunday (Oct. 7) when the exhibits are taken down.

Also needed is an auction coordinator for the Denim & Diamonds Benefit Dinner and Auction (Thursday, Oct. 4).

Berta writes: "These positions are the backbone of the Fair and many have been doing the same job for years and are just waiting for other people to step up. Part of the problem is we do not seem to have a way to educate the community at large about this aspect of the fair, the contests. We want to encourage people to enter their home products, art creations, needlework, vegetables, flowers, etc. But there are so many "new" people in the area who have no idea what the fair is about that the best we seem to do is to get them to come."

So many of us live in our own little circles, and volunteering at the Fair is a great way to branch out and get to know a much broader cross-section of our community, old-timers and newcomers alike.

Visit the Fair's website for a lot more information: www.ucfairinc.org.

Going to the dogs

The American Kennel Club is looking for a new chief operating officer, and their help-wanted ad in the Aug. 15 "Wall Street Journal" amused me. It sounds almost as if they're expecting a sea of resumes from people who think they'd be qualified for the job just because they love dogs: "In-depth knowledge of and experience in the sport of purebred dogs over and above mere dog ownership... is a huge plus," according to the ad.

X again

A few weeks ago I wrote about a less reputable member of our community who was convicted of a mean-spirited crime a few years back but has resurfaced. For a brief moment I thought, well, perhaps X has indeed seen the light and is leading a reformed life.
Apparently not. I was just at a local self-service hay and straw farm and saw X's name listed on the Wall of Shame, and not just for a couple of bales: X owes them $130.

Sharing

I was relaxing in my hammock the other afternoon when up jumped one of my backyard squirrels. I have to admit, they're pretty entertaining, even if they do scarf up the bird seed and suet and dig up my window boxes.