A new supervisor for West Marlborough

"It's been a good ride," said West Marlborough Supervisor Hugh Lofting Sr., summing up his decades of service to the township. At the April 6 meeting, he submitted his letter of retirement, which was regretfully accepted by the other two supervisors, Jake Chalfin and Bill Wylie.

Mr. Wylie asked long-time township secretary Shirley Walton how long Hugh Sr. had been a supervisor, and she said he started serving as a planning commission member back in the 1980s.

"That was before I was born!" exclaimed his son, Hugh Lofting Jr., who is the head of the township's road crew. The younger Lofting agreed to take on some of his father's tasks in terms of getting grants for township roadwork.

Supervisors Chalfin, Lofting and Wylie, with secretary-treasurer Shirley Walton and engineer Al Giannantonio, at a 2016 township meeting.

The supervisors appointed Emery Jones Taylor to fill Mr. Lofting's term. A lifelong township resident, she was the secretary for the planning commission and is married to former supervisor Josh Taylor. She recently joined the staff of the National Steeplechase Association. Jake Chalfin predicted she will be "a dynamite fit" on the board.

The supervisors also received a resignation letter from zoning hearing board member Tom Best.

Supervisor Chalfin also noted that Kenny Young, "a fixture of the township," died April 4. Mr. Young served in the Army, rode the King Ranch as a cowboy and for 50 years served as the farm manager for  the Runnymede estate. He said the last time he saw Mr. Young was when Mr. Young brought him some Angus steaks from his own cattle. Jake said Mr. Young was immensely proud of his grandchildren and loved talking about them. Supervisor Wylie recalled that Mr. Young and his brothers were all gifted athletes, and the King Ranch baseball team was always a formidable opponent.  Here is Mr. Young's obituary.

Kenny Young

Also at the meeting, Mr. Wylie said he had heard from a former member of the Kennett Library board who told him that West Marlborough's financial support of the library's building project was instrumental in influencing other municipalities to contribute as well. Mr. Wylie noted that he thought this was worth mentioning, given the "concerns" that some West Marlborough residents expressed back in 2019 about whether the township should help to finance a new library building in the center of Kennett Square.  

Artist's rendering of the proposed Kennett Library.

 

Starting the gardening season!

I stopped by the local big-box DIY store this afternoon and found it fully stocked with gardening products, and with hope. 

Potted hyacinths scented the air, with a whiff of fertilizer from off in the distance. Racks of seed packets with beautiful illustrations of flowers and vegetables almost made me forget my lack of success starting pretty much anything indoors. And as they're undoubtedly designed to do, the patio sets, grills and fire pits got me thinking of warm summer days on the deck.

But I was there on a mission. My two-seasons-old gardening gloves had developed a rip in the middle finger. This would not be a problem if the extent of my gardening were planting pretty red geraniums in a window box, and then sitting down to a glass of iced tea. No: my yardwork includes tangling with my arch-enemy the multiflora rose and its mercilessly sharp curved thorns. So I quickly rejected the dainty cotton gloves in floral prints and went straight to the heavy armor: rugged reinforced leather with Velcro closures. They look like something an astronaut might wear. I will soon put them to the test.

Small talk with strangers is something I have greatly missed during the pandemic, so I was happy when another shopper came up to me in the garden center and said he couldn't find those brown coir liners for planters. It was his belief, he said darkly, that the store just wanted you to spend more and buy their premade planters rather than assembling your own.

 

A 1919 reunion

On Friday I had a great time exploring life in Chester County circa 1919, thanks to the microfilm collection at the Chester County History Center on North High Street in West Chester (formerly the Chester County Historical Society). 

At the Cloud family reunion back in August, I had volunteered to research whether the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic had affected the family's 1919 reunion. Back then, stories about family gatherings were a fixture of the Daily Local's society pages, so I asked the library staff if I could take a look at the appropriate reel of microfilm. They very kindly set me up at a microfilm reader, dimmed the lights for better viewing, and I started my trip back in time.

I got my answer within an hour. The Aug. 4 issue carried a lengthy account of the Cloud reunion in East Goshen (we still meet at the East Goshen Park), but it didn't mention the Spanish flu at all. More evident was the long shadow of World War I: the entertainment portion of the gathering included the WWI songs "Keep the Home Fires Burning" and "Good Morning, Mr. Zip Zip Zip" (Google the latter; it's a snappy tune). 

There was a lengthy account of the annual "base ball" game, which featured a pitcher who in his college days at the "State Normal School" had been known for his "cannon-fire speed." (There's no longer a baseball game, but we did have a heated cornhole competition last year.) The luncheon menu included ham, beef, potato salad, ice cream, jellies and lemon butter (still a staple at today's reunions).

After finding the reunion story, I spent another hour browsing through the paper. The Daily Local must have had a huge staff at the time because they ran detailed first-person stories about everything from car crashes, industrial accidents, arrests, and court trials to births, deaths, marriages, club meetings, and church activities. 

One reporter was sent out to find out why a politician decided to drop out of a race. The reporter quoted the man as saying "for party unity," before noting that he turned away from the journalist and busied himself with some paperwork. Can't you imagine his gritted teeth and the horse-trading back-story there!

Police officers were much more willing to provide colorful, on-the-record comments about arrests. One provided an account of how a youth ratted on his friends and turned them in for breaking into houses. And there was certainly no Patient Privacy Act; the paper ran a list of hospital admissions, sometimes giving details of the person's illness and prognosis. A reporter interviewed one recuperating patient who had received several blood transfusions; the enthusiastic patient was happy to share his experience and said he felt years younger.

Some things remain the same over time, of course. According to a letter to the editor, a road south of Oxford was in such rough shape that it would produce indigestion in the soundest constitution. And a West Grove resident complained that the placement of a billboard was an accident waiting to happen because it blocked motorists' visibility. One wonders what they would think about today's distracting video billboards on highways!

February WMT meeting

Notes from the brief Feb. 5 meeting of the West Marlborough Township supervisors:

1. The meeting was postponed from the usual "first Tuesday" due to the lengthy snowstorm. Supervisor Hugh Lofting Sr. said that the road crew plowed from Sunday afternoon through Wednesday morning. "No equipment broke down!" he reported.

2. West Marlborough will join with its neighbors East Marlborough and Newlin to apply for a state grant to update the regional comprehensive plan. The state requires an update every ten years, and supervisor Jake Chalfin said that the grant money is expected to cover most of the consultant's fees. Not much updating will be needed, he predicted.

 

Goodbye to the Goddards

I just heard today about the deaths of Steve and Marna Goddard on January 2 and 14, respectively, at ages 81 and 82. The West Grove couple, married for 56 years, will be missed for so many reasons.

The Goddards were the kind of distinctive people who give spice to a community. Their appearance alone made them instantly recognizable: Steve's long white beard and ponytail, Marna's old-fashioned braid wrapped around her head.

The couple donated the land that is now the popular Goddard Park in London Grove Township. And they were fixtures at every kind of cultural event in the area: Hadley Fund lectures, school and community theatrical productions, and concerts. They were regulars at the Anson B. Nixon summer concerts, so much so that we remarked on the rare Wednesday evening when they were absent. They always sat in the front row, and Steve would lug heavy wooden folding chairs for them to sit on.

We were not at all surprised to run into them at plays in Wilmington and at the Milburn Stone Theatre in North East, Maryland. 

I first met Steven when I was working at the Bayard Taylor Library. He did not want to have a computer at home, so he used the library's public computers (and grumbled when we told him his time was up and someone else was waiting!). I've since seen him using the computers at the Avon-Grove Library and I wouldn't be surprised if he is familiar to staffers at other local libraries as well. 

Here is their obituary:

Steven Jerome Goddard, age 81, of West Grove, Pennsylvania, passed away on January 2, 2021 at his home. He was the husband of Marna Mason Goddard, age 82, who passed away January 14, 2021.  They shared 56 years of marriage.

Steve was born in Louisville, Kentucky, graduated from Rice University, and earned his PhD from MIT.  He worked for DuPont.

Marna was born in Hartford, Connecticut, graduated from Earlham College, and earned her MA from Harvard.

Steve and his wife Marna were both music lovers and patrons of the arts, Steve hosted a radio show at WVUD for several years. Their love of nature, community, and conservancy was exemplified by their donation of land to London Grove Township which initiated what is now known as Goddard Park.

Steve and Marna were preceded in death by their son Chad Phillips Goddard, and survived by their daughter Laura Pogue.

Services and interment will be held privately.  Contributions in their memory may be made to London Grove Township/Goddard Park, 372 Rosehill Rd, West Grove, Pa. 19390.

Foxy Loxy will reopen in the spring

After working out the other day I was thinking about heading over to Foxy Loxy in "downtown" Unionville and enjoying a hot cup of coffee in front of the fire -- but then I remembered they're closed until April. Another reason to look forward to spring!

Tina Brown (daughter of founder Henry Brown) explained the reasons behind the temporary shutdown in this notice on the shop's Facebook page: 

Trail cam changes Tilda's life

My new trail cam, a CamPark T-100 model, may be the best Christmas present I've ever received.

As soon as I get out of bed, I check the footage to see what critters visited overnight, before I even feed Tina the cat, pour my coffee, or fix my cereal. (Tina has filed a formal complaint with the West Marlborough Cats' Union.)

The trail cam is equipped with side and front motion detectors that trigger the camera to capture both still photos and videos. First I scroll through the photos for a summary, and then I watch the 10-second videos.

There is no routine for the backyard activity, although usually the opossum shows up shortly after sundown, and then the raccoon or raccoons appear at about 3:30 a.m. After that, all is quiet until sunup -- unless the fox shows up, or the skunk, or the barn cat. We've seen deer strolling by only a few times, far off in the background.

We put out leftovers for the critters every night, whether it's bones, turkey skin, stale cereal, or stuff in the pantry or freezer that predates my low-carb diet. 

We've started to recognize one raccoon with a truncated tail -- we call him Stubbs. Though he can't climb up the feeder pole and swing on the bird feeder like the other more acrobatic raccoons, he's excellent at picking up Cheerios.

The trail cam did have a bit of a learning curve. Determining the optimal settings and location involved some frustration and, sorry to say, some bad language, but we've managed to figure it out.

I share the most amusing or action-packed footage via social media every day, and so far two friends have enjoyed it so much that they've purchased their own trail cams.