SOLDIER JAM: Fundraiser on March 19 in Wimington

My pal Davey Dickens asked me to mention the third annual Soldier Jam concert, a March 19 fundraiser he's involved with. This year it's going to be at the Queen in Wilmington. All proceeds will going toward the Thorncroft Equestrian Center's therapeutic riding program for veterans (Davey is a military veteran himself). The headliner is Vinyl Shockley with Johnny Neel ("was with the Allman Brothers for a long long time," says Davey). Tickets are $25.

ROUTE 1: Reversing the tide

What a strange experience I had on Monday, Jan. 25! At 4 p.m. I was on the Route 1 bypass, heading south from Kennett toward Jennersville (a coffee-shop meeting), when I saw lots of emergency equipment tending to an accident in the northbound lanes. Then there was a stretch of empty road, and more equipment, with firefighters in bunker gear walking toward the first scene. Then came the strange sight: the road was being closed, and northbound traffic was being told to turn around, so cars in all four lanes of the divided highway, on both sides of the median strip, were heading in the same direction. They were crossing over and exiting at the Newark Road off-ramp.
I was alone in the car so couldn't shoot a good video of the oddity but was struck by how freaky it looked.
I learned later that the equipment was on the scene because of an overturned propane truck. That would also explain the wide buffer zone between the two areas where I saw the emergency crews. I must have been one of the last cars allowed to enter at Route 82 before the highway was closed completely.

MR. CUMMINGS: Goodbye to a hero

Thomas Cummings of Mortonville, a local history buff and a member of the Greatest Generation, died at age 91 on Jan. 23.

Thomas Cummings

I met Mr. Cummings in early 2012, after I wrote about how Lone Eagle Road, in West Bradford, is so named because back in 1928 the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh made an emergency landing nearby ("Lone Eagle" was the name of his plane).
Shortly after the item ran, Mr. Cummings contacted me. He said he remembered the incident well, though he was only four years old at the time, and had some photographs of the plane that he wanted to show me.
I went over to his immaculate hilltop house one sunny afternoon, and we took a short drive to where the plane had landed. While we were talking, I learned that he had served in the Marine Corps during World War II, fought at Iwo Jima in the Pacific ("I didn't think I'd make it out alive," he recalled), and earned two Purple Hearts. He showed me the glass case where he kept them, along with his military ID card and other memorabilia.
I also learned he was a widower and missed his wife dearly. He and I took something of a shine to each other, and I made a few more visits over the years to talk about local history (I remember talking about the destructive Ercildoun storm, and local Native American history) and to look at his files of old photos and newspaper clippings.
One afternoon, out of the blue, he presented me with two equestrian-themed bracelets and said he wanted me to have them. They had belonged to his wife, he explained, and she would have enjoyed the life I lead.
I was pretty much speechless.
At his Funeral Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary church in Coatesville on Jan. 29, the Rev. Thomas Brennan spoke about how Mr. Cummings exemplified the Marine Corps motto, "Semper Fi," throughout his life, showing his faithfulness to God, his country and his family and friends.
It was an honor and a privilege to know Mr. Cummings, a war hero and an old-school gentleman. May he rest in peace.

BOOK SALE: Delayed donation pickup

The neighborhood book pickup for the annual Unionville used-book sale was a casualty of the blizzard and has been rescheduled for Saturday, Jan. 30. You are asked to leave your donations (books, videos, CDs, DVDs, computer software, audio books and video games) at the end of your driveway (not at your front door or garage door) by 9 a.m. with a tag. Make sure your bundle is visible from the road.
If your neighborhood isn't one of those covered, you can drop off your donations at any of the schools between Monday, Jan. 25, and Friday, Feb. 19. The book sale will be at the UHS gym on Friday, Feb. 26, from 4 to 9 p.m., and Saturday, Feb. 27, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with the bag sale from 3 to 5 p.m.
For more information, go to the website UHSBookSale.org.

JONAS: Tilda takes it easy

I apologize for the fact that my column is distinctly lean this week, but everything I had planned to write about was canceled because of the blizzard. While I was snowed in I did nothing more exciting than watch the birds at the feeders, edit a constitutional law book, watch "The Maltese Falcon" and "Mad Men" (season one), and solve a backlog of "Wall Street Journal" crossword puzzles.
I was living in the lap of luxury compared to my friends who had to go outside to take care of their horses, chickens and other critters -- especially if they had to drive. Photos of abandoned vehicles and impassable drifts filled Facebook, along with harrowing stories about awful commutes and pleas from emergency personnel to stay home if possible (by the way: thank you, road crew guys!). I ventured outside only to fill the bird feeders and shoot a video of my wind-chimes, which were practically horizontal in the howling wind and ringing furiously.
On Friday at lunchtime I stopped in at the Jennersville Giant for last-minute provisions and, predictably, they were out of milk. A shopper behind me saw the empty shelves, chuckled, and said, "Choices!" Another man just stood there staring, unsure what to do (I got the sense he didn't often do the grocery shopping).
"Do you think they have more in the back?" he asked me.
"Try slipping the guy a $20," I suggested. I don't think he realized I was kidding.

ALL SHOOK UP: A new start at the library

There was a HUGE shakeup at the Jan. 19 meeting of the Bayard Taylor Library board: Tom Swett is the new board president, Jeff Yetter vice president, and Bill McLachlan secretary/treasurer.
Mr. Swett, who lives in East Marlborough, served as the library board president back in the 1980s. In his remarks upon being elected, he gave a gracious, optimistic speech about the strengths of the library and its potential.
He and the other new officers have expressed their commitment to return to the traditional "Bayard Taylor Memorial Library" name; the outgoing board tried to change the name to the "Kennett Public Library" in early 2015, causing a firestorm of protest that has simmered all year.
Susan Mackey-Kallis stepped down as president and left the board. In her farewell speech, she acknowledged that the name change was a mistake in hindsight and was "a regret of mine." She admitted she did not realize how important the name was to the public.
Rosa Quintana, Margarita Garay-Zarco, Doug Thompson and Joan Weber also resigned from the board. Two new board members are Betsy Del Vecchio, named by Pennsbury Township to replace Ms. Mackey-Kallis, and Dr. Brenda Mercomes, a higher education professional appointed by Kennett Square Borough.
The other members of the board are Karen Ammon, Chris Britt, Stan Allen, Henry "Jerry" Brown, and Carolyn Mohr.
Mr. Swett, a member of the Wilmington Club and the Philadelphia Club, has considerable experience with fundraising and public relations, two areas that will be key if the library is to build a new facility. He served as assistant headmaster at the Upland Country Day School from 1964 to 1991 and did outreach and fundraising at the Stroud Water Research Center from 1991 to 2001. He has served on the boards of the Chester County Hospital, the CCH Foundation, Historic Kennett Square, the Upland Country Day School, and the United Way of Chester County and on the advisory boards of the First National Bank of Chester County, Kennett Square's History Station, the Jefferson School in Georgetown, Del., and the Northern Trust Company of Delaware. He chaired the Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company's capital campaign in 1999-2001. He was named Citizen of the Year by the Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce in 2001.

NEW MEMBER: An ESL tutor joins the board

Betsy Del Vecchio, the newly appointed Pennsbury Township representative to the library board, introduced herself at the Jan. 19 meeting as a "passionate" user of and donor to the library and said both she and her husband have been tutors in the library's adult literacy program.
"I'm very honored to be here," she said.
She said because her husband uses a wheelchair, she is more aware of the obstacles that handicapped people face and is committed to making sure the new library will be accessible.

BEAT THE CLOCK: Earlier meetings for the library board

One of the first actions new library board president Tom Swett took was to change the time of the monthly meetings to 5 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. He explained that he finds people's "cognitive processes" work better earlier in the day. So as not to conflict with library programs, the meetings will be moved from the library's board room to the conference room at the Market at Liberty Place at State and Center Streets.
Mr. Swett also said he wants to schedule an off-campus retreat for the board in the near future. 

CIVIL WAR: The art of conversation

At dinner on Monday night the Young Relative mentioned he had a midterm approaching for his Civil War class. Immediately we began peppering him with questions about that tragic, bloody chapter of American history, all of which he answered correctly. Fort Sumter, Emancipation Proclamation, Jefferson Davis: check, check, check. I thought I would catch him on where Lincoln's assassination took place, but he knew it. (I considered asking for the play name, but realized I wasn't 100 percent sure of it myself.)
After that we started talking about the war more generally. My brother the engineer said he'd always marveled at the complexity of managing the multiple supply lines for an army: food, ammo, communications, medical supplies. We discussed how radically different history might have been had cell phones been around, and a pilot at the table mentioned that the first use of aircraft in warfare was to gain intelligence. I mentioned an article I'd read recently saying that even with modern medicine, Lincoln's gunshot wound would have been fatal.
Of course, then this learned discussion veered to an unfortunate incident involving some Patton middle-schoolers, an errant ping-pong paddle and a gaping hole in the wall, and howls of laughter took over our table.

POLICE BEAT: Clarkie caught in the act

A friend and I sat down for a pre-blizzard lunch Thursday at the Longwood Family Restaurant (formerly Hugo's). We heard some animated conversation coming from the hostess station, and my friend said, "Isn't that your friend Clarkie?"
Sure enough, East Marlborough Township Police Chief Robert "Clarkie" Clarke was there chatting up the waitresses. We actually had to ask him to stop distracting them so we could order our lunch!
(Seriously, though: it's nice to have a police officer who is so visible and well known and liked in the community. But why does he call me "Speedy"?)

PANTO: Bad news for the "Beanstalk"

My heart goes out to the cast and crew of "Sherlock and the Beanstalk," the Kennett Amateur Theater Society pantomime that was to have been performed this past weekend. Given the predictions of heavy snow over the weekend, the director was forced to cancel the two Saturday performances but added a performance on Thursday. But then Thursday's show was "rained out" when there was a sprinkler mishap at Kennett High School, and then the snow predictions worsened, forcing the cancellation of the Friday show. I can only hope that they can come up with an alternative date for the show, for the sake of not only the performers but the audience, too. We've gotten used to the "panto" as part of our winter amusement!