 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
The Creston area continues to get rain which has put water back in the streams.
Rev. Keith Belt filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. church.
Glenn Griffin & family were calling on C. Romeo Griffin, Sr.
Richard McFall is in Creston looking after his oil interests.
Brooksville resident Lucille Basnett, mother of the famous Annamoriah Cowpoke, recently received a letter that her late husband Bob Basnett mailed from England 67 years ago. Bob was fighting for America at the time and later spent some 'quality time' in a German POW camp after the Battle of the Bulge. Back then the postal system was known for being efficient.
Bryanna Kay Burns, age 69, passed away in Ohio. She was a daughter of Durward Hopkins and a grand-daughter of Hannable Hopkins whose sister Mable Merrill is remembered by many Creston area residents. Mable & Hannable were two of the children of Tom Alec Hopkins, the man who, with his crew, rounded up the logs that got away from the log boom at Creston over a century ago.
Susan Myers and Nancy Engelke were visiting down in the sunny south.
The Wirt road crew was mowing in the Creston area and both the Wirt & Calhoun crews have been using the "super paver" to patch the Little Creek road. It was reported that there were major technical difficulties encountered. Presently there are notches cut out which makes for 'fun' if one forgets about them. The management of the DOH has been going around asking retirees if they would be willing to come back and help out. Some have declined and, of course, others weren't asked.
Some area residents have been dealing with a nasty flu type bug.
Area oil and gas men & women attended the Ergon catfish fry at their Marietta terminal. It was reported there that already there is being quite a bit of oil hauled from the new Utica shale wells that have been drilled. The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude fell $1.81/bbl to $82.54.
Royal Dutch Shell is among the big players that has indicated interest in building an ethylene cracker in the Appalachian Marcellus shale area to take advantage of the abundance of ethane that is/will be produced from Marcellus shale wells drilled in the western part of the shale area. It is said that this area goes from Wood County north into Pennsylvania and goes as far east as Pittsburgh and, of course, south from there. Bayer Crop Science has a 1000 acre location available in Wetzel County which would be in the heart of the producing area. Shell recently built a $4 billion facility in Singapore.
The big Creston ATV poker run is September 24; mark the calendar.
Local folks who will be out of town on election day October 4 are urged to go to the county clerk's office and get an absentee ballot or, later, vote early.
Charles Russell was attending to business in Brooksville.
Some political folks claimed they were 'offended' when someone called the social security system a Ponzi scheme. The claim had been that the taxes collected for the program (FICA) were put in a special trust fund "lock box" but, of course, for the past 40 years of so, they were spent like all other taxes collected. Back when, there were 30 workers or so for each person drawing a government check and now it is 3 workers for each "retiree". This year payouts are said to be greater than collections. With the federales borrowing 42 cents of each dollar spent it does not take an advanced accounting degree to determine that many of those now paying taxes cannot reasonably expect to "draw a check" in their old age. For a look at the future one only has to look at Greece now. The Big Eared One said at one point that he couldn't guarantee that the checks (and wire transfers) would go out.
There are lots of bushy tails and deer which is good. With the continuing economic gloom and uncertainty, canned venison and squirrel meat make for many fine meals when cash isn't available to purchase groceries.
One local fellow noted that his wife fixed ground hog the other day and it was tasty.
Route 5 is being paved between Brooksville and Purdy (on Big Root).
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