 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Rev. Juanita Lockhart filled her regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. church.
Dorothy Lockhart, age 64, of Burning Springs Run passed away after a long bout with cancer. She was the wife of Francis Lockhart. Florence Sandy noted that her son Junior is said to be very ill also.
Ruth Greathouse Kendall, age 74, of Spencer passed away. She was a daughter of Jesse Greathouse and Roxie Roberts Greathouse Monroe. Burial was at Hodam.
For those who are concerned about local, state or national government, now is the time to act. The filing period for office in West Virginia starts January 14 and ends on January 26. When responsible people do not act responsibly, others will fill the void. Now is the time to make a difference.
The big university up at Morgantown has now joined "The no child left behind" plan, especially if the father of the child is the Big Boss down at the Mouth of the Elk. It seems some prying paper from Pittsburgh inquired about an advanced degree said to be held by the Big Boss's daughter who works for Mylan Pushkar, the drug czar, who is also one of the big sugar daddies for the Big Boss. The big university now says that it was a clerical error that half of the courses were not written down in the record, etc., etc. Of course such situations make it clear why the state's ruling oligarchy insists that higher education in West Virginia be run by career politicians rather than academic scholars. Prior to the recent furor the university's main claim to fame was the #1 party school in the US, beating out such favorites as Dartmouth (Animal House) and U. of Miami (Sun Tan U). Dartmouth used to have pig weekend when less than beautiful girls were invited to spend the weekend on campus. One who was there for some of them said they came from far and wide to be abused, ridiculed and humiliated.
It was learned that there continues to be "evaporation" of petroleum products from fuel tanks in the Creston area. There is likely to be found some fuel with a very high lead content.
An oil tanker was up the Richardsonville road on Sunday.
Nancy & Alvin Engelke returned from visiting her father, Harold Martin, on the occasion of his 100th birthday in Florida. All three of his children were present for the occasion. He recalled when he was 10 years old that the flu epidemic hit his family and he was the only one not stricken with the deadly strain. He cared for the entire family, 500 chickens and all the animals on the farm until others recovered. He noted that there was discussion at the time that perhaps the way to stop the spread of the illness was to kill all who were sick. The great liberal Woodrow Wilson was president at the time.
On their travels they saw road construction projects that would be in the billions of dollars (that is with a B). To hear the global warming crew perhaps the added lanes, etc. will be for mopeds and rickshaws.
In Florida they noticed a significant number of property foreclosures as advertised on the national media that has been trying to bring about an economic slump. However, Nancy's brother pointed out that many of the foreclosures were on condos that had never been occupied. It seems that speculators, many of who had not even the proverbial pot to use, would buy the condos and then quickly resell them to the actual buyers and all these deals were done quickly by the "less than reputable" folks in the federally guaranteed home loan business without credit checks, etc that are routine in most local banks. All this got a big boost several years ago by the Keating Five in Congress, a group that included former House Speaker Jim Wright (who retired for personal reasons to spend more time with family) and John McCain the perennial presidential candidate.
One of the new scams is the reverse mortgage for "older folks". It was noted that the companies that are doing these can't lose as the taxpayers are committed to covering any losses.
Wilbur Harrison Schenerlein IV, his mother Jane and grandmother Nancy, Susan J. Myers, Brenda McCann and the lovely Lena were among those who attended the Fairs & Festivals event down at the Mouth of the Elk. In the pageant Jane's shop Elizabeth Michaels dressed 3 of the top 5 contestants.
Spark Arthur's luck hasn't been too good lately. First he fell out of his hay mow into the manger and then he went up to Grantsville only to be hit on the head when the sign fell at the Foodland store. It is a good thing that he is tough.
The price of local crude oil fell to $86.50/bbl which is quite a bit below the well-hyped world price of over $100/bbl. Of course one has to keep inflation in mind but back in the 1800s oil sold for $20/bbl when good farmland was worth $10/acre and $20 would be considered a good monthly income for any ordinary man who worked six days/week.
The Wirt County Farm Bureau will meet Tuesday January 22 at 8 P. M. at the fire station in Elizabeth. Among the discussion topics will be plans for attending Ag Day at the legislature on February 6.
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