Will there be enough water to survive? Thirsty Land is an exciting new documentary that tells the story of drought, its impact on agriculture, communities, and the global food supply. Two Frederick production companies are collaborating to produce this film. Frederick County filmmaker, Conrad Weaver, is already well-known for his award-winning documentary The Great American […]
Department of Maryland Sons of AMVETS 1st Annual Picnic at North Point Home by Jim Houck, Jr. Saturday, June 5, 2015, started out as a dreary, rainy day to have a picnic—especially the very first one—for the immediate residents of North Point Home in Hagerstown. The Department of Maryland Sons of AMVETS Veterans Affairs Voluntary […]
James Rada, Jr. “Wagons ho!” With that once-common call, Joe Eyler started his wagon train, moving out from his farm on Eyler Road in Thurmont. The wagon train was made up of eleven wagons, ranging in size from an authentic Conestoga wagon to a small cart pulled by two small Shetland ponies. The wagon train […]
by James Rada, Jr. Emmitsburg June 2015 Helping Out Little League The Emmitsburg Town Council recently voted to give the Emmitsburg Little League $500 for a concession stand, as they host a state tournament on July 2-5. They also voted to give all of the tournament participants a free admission day to the town pool […]
FFA Members Honored at Annual FFA Banquet Madelyn Krantz, Catoctin FFA Reporter The Catoctin FFA’s annual parent/member banquet was held on May 14, 2015. The Catoctin FFA members and supporters were recognized for their accomplishments for the past year. First year members, also known as Greenhands, were recognized with the Greenhand Degree. Liz Bisbee, Jimmy […]
2014-2015 Season Achievements of Some of Catoctin’s Talented Wrestlers Joshua Small, the 113 pounder, qualified for the state tournament in his first year, no easy feat for a freshman. But Small is not your average freshman wrestler. He has wrestled, and placed, in large tournaments before, even at the national level. He has a relentless, […]
The Time of My Life by Valerie Nusbaum me… “A stitch in time saves nine.” —Francis Baily, 1797 (This simply means that repairing a rip or tear in a garment when it occurs, will save more stitches and time later when the hole has gotten bigger.) “Time and tide wait for no man.” —St. Marher, […]
Farm to Table at Local Farmers Market by Chris O’Connor My journey on the road to the farmer’s market with my wares in tow began not as a mad dash, but more like a casual meander. The first issue to confront was the most mundane: I had nothing to sell but for seedlings I’d started […]
Deb Spalding Alyssa Imes of Emmitsburg (pictured right) is a student of art. The dining room of her parent’s home resembles an art museum with displays and photos of her sculptures. A muse-ful elephant smiles at you proudly with his ceramics metallic body and wire trunk; a gumby giraffe made of screws and pipe seems […]
Buck Reed, The Supermarket Gourmet I was thinking about this month’s article when my three-year-old niece mentioned that July was her birthday; she informed me that she would be four this year. I like Gabrielle. I guess at that age it’s hard not to: she plays a good game of Uno, laughs at my magic […]
Christine Schoenemann (Maccabee) Oh the place that I’m from is the place that I won, It’s the joy of my heart, it is my own. It took many a year but I’m finally here, With a hey and a hoe, to the field I go! —Song of the Homesteader German Homesteaders in the Catoctins Most […]
by James Rada, Jr. Thurmont Gets A New School It used to be that if students in Thurmont were going to be late to school, they simply didn’t go because they would have been sent home anyway. At the beginning of the 1877-1878 school year, Thurmont, which was still known as Mechanicstown at the time, […]
Deb Spalding The name, The Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock (BOJC), sounds naughty today, but when the idea of forming the organization was discussed in the 1930s by a few men, Joseph W. Brooks, Jr., J. Hammond Brown, and Frank L. Bentz, who gathered for a weekend of fishing at the Catoctin Recreation Area above […]
Total Kid Summer Camp at Well-Fit in Thurmont The Total Kid Summer Camp, presented by the Youth Wellness Organization, will be held at the Well-Fit Aerobics and Fitness Center in Thurmont. The camp is for children (ages 8-14) and features four sessions: June 22-July 3; July 6-17; July 20-31; August 3-14. Cost is $75.00 per […]
James Rada, Jr. When Amanda Portner was a young girl, she would pretend to be a teacher, writing on a chalkboard and assigning classwork. Of course, she may be the only teacher to have ever been given a time-out by her mother. “I kept trying to give my little sister detention, because she wouldn’t do […]
The Thurmont & Emmitsburg Community Show will be held at Catoctin High School on September 11-13, 2015. On Friday night, the 2015-2016 Catoctin FFA Chapter Ambassador will be announced. The baked goods auction will begin following the program, and the grand champion cake, pie, bread, gluten-free baked product, sugar-free baked product, and the Junior and […]
Deb Spalding Emmitsburg’s Vigilant Hose Company hosted their 7th annual Spring Fling in the parking lot of Mount St. Mary’s University’s Waldron Family Stadium on May 16, 2015. In past years, the event has been described as our community’s version of a party at the beach; this year’s location was described as a community tail-gate […]
James Rada, Jr. Hundreds of millions of years ago, dinosaurs walked the earth, and hundreds of millions of years before that, prehistoric clams filled a vast lake that covered all of Central Maryland and a mud flat that stretched from North Carolina to Connecticut. The lake, known as the Lockatong, sat in the middle of […]
Wine, Cupcakes, and Art in Thurmont James Rada, Jr. It was a nice night for a stroll on the evening of May 8, 2015, and residents took advantage of the pleasant weather to come to downtown Thurmont for the Art & Wine Walk. Ten downtown businesses shared their storefronts with local wineries, cupcake bakers, and […]
by James Rada, Jr. Emmitsburg May 2015 Emmitsburg 2016 Budget will be Mostly Unchanged The Emmitsburg town accountant Cole Tabler told the Emmitsburg mayor and commissioners that the fiscal year 2016 budget “is really only slightly different from this year.” The difference, he said, comes primarily from a reduction in some state funding. The general […]
Melissa Wetzel CPA Staff and Customers Donate for Emmitsburg Food Bank Customers and staff at Melissa Wetzel CPA in Emmitsburg have topped last year’s record for collecting food donations in comparison to the annual numbers for the project that started in 2009. “With 1,244 food items collected, it’s still catching on. Our goal is to […]
Deb Spalding Emmitsburg resident, Toni Marquette is a sarcoma cancer survivor. When in Baltimore going through radiation treatments and surgery at UMMC, she and her husband Gary stayed at the Hope Lodge located across the street from the Ronald McDonald House. Toni observed children leaving the Ronald McDonald House going for their radiation or chemotherapy […]
Deb Spalding Yes, the Kuhns and the Wolfes were out for the Foxville School Reunion on May 17, 2015, at the school house. So were the Brandenburgs, Buhrmans, Hurleys, Willards, Delauters, Klines, and Clines, in addition to members of other homestead mountain families as students of the former Foxville School reminisced while enjoying a lunch […]
Race for Education Ends with Limo Ride to Lunch for Top Sellers Deb Spalding Thurmont Elementary and Primary School students who turned in the most address labels to solicit sponsorship for Race Day, held on April 17, 2015, were rewarded with a limousine ride to lunch with their principals on Monday, May 18, 2015. Paige […]
V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N by Valerie Nusbaum It’s June, and with the onset of summer, most people are busy planning vacations. Randy and I prefer to travel in the late spring or early fall whenever we can—when the temperatures aren’t too hot and the kids are still in school. Traveling during off-peak times helps us to avoid some […]