Greencastle-Antrim Craft Beer, Wine and Spirits Festival
Music by Staff Infection provided the soundtrack for the 10th anniversary Greencastle-Antrim Craft Beer, Wine and Spirits Festival Saturday, April 13.
So, you may agree that summer has come in like a lion with the roaring heat and humidity. It’s Sunday afternoon, hot and balmy. It’s the good ole summertime with some periodic porch sittin’! Usually, early morning or early evening. How about you?
The radar shows scattered popcorn storm cells in north-western Pennsylvania. We’ll see if they make it over the mountains later today.
In the community: Greencastle-Antrim Homemakers learned a lot, donated a lot and ate out a lot over 50 years
I share a story from my police days on a very cold winter morning in the mid-1980s. My friend John Frain turns 90 years of age this week. John was in the motor vehicle repair business for many decades with ELM Garage along East Leitersburg Street then moving to Buchanan Trail East for a new, larger facility.
It was a cold, cold 3 a.m. on a Sunday morning as I was patrolling through the parking lot of a new convenience store at the intersection of Baltimore Street and Antrim Way nearly 40 years ago when I observed a small car with a flat tire. Upon stopping to assist, a young couple had not one, but two flat tires on this car with three small children in the back seat. They were on their way home to New Jersey when they experienced two flat tires and had just enough cash to buy gas for the drive home. Remember … it’s Greencastle, PA, and who do you call for assistance? That’s right! I called John Frain in the middle of the night. There were no cell phones back then, so a landline sufficed.
Did I say it was cold outside? It certainly was. John drove to the convenience store parking lot and spoke with the father who had been driving the car. John removed the two flat tires and proceeded to his garage where he removed the old tires from the rim and mounted two good tires, brought them back to the little car, installed them and set the family on their way home to New Jersey. John was up until sunrise quietly doing this good deed before going home, cleaning up and going to church.
Nearly 40 years later, this story is worth sharing with you. If you see John Frain, wish him, not only a happy birthday, but thank John for a lifetime of good deeds.
How’s the North Washington Street reconstruction project going? It’s a mess that’s lookin’ good! Ganoe Paving is involved with daily logistics of helping citizens into the post office, businesses and apartments while removing the curbs and sidewalks (complete). Next will be installing curbs and sidewalks for the entire project. What will follow? Complete sub-base removal followed by new stone sub-base, compaction and base course blacktop.
During all of these processes, surveyors must set grades and stakes in accordance with engineering plans for proper storm water management and drainage. Tedious grading is warranted around the Greencastle-Antrim Veterans Memorial for proper sidewalk placement and new curb reveal. Appropriate trees will be planted at the proper time of year. Once completed, it’s going to be nice and will not require maintenance for decades to come.
I write to say thank you to all our Greencastle Police Department personnel for their dedication to service following the passing of Chief Keith Russell. We’ve been working as a team with strategic planning, assignments and tasks to assure our services continue for the citizens and visitors of Greencastle. You’ll notice additional foot patrols as pedestrians are enjoying our business services and folks just like to come to town to walk. Please do so.
The flowers in town are beautiful! Thanks to the volunteers of the Beautification Committee for your daily efforts. The “rotary traffic island” stone damage should be repaired any day now as the contracted masons have scheduled the work and the trucking company’s insurance is responsible for the costs.
Service to country and community: Franklin County World War II veteran, 103, honored on the Congressional Record
This past week, I had the distinct honor to join Congressman John Joyce (MD) and lunch with him along Sam and Bill Worley. Sam is a World War II, Army Air Corps veteran, who recently celebrated his 103rd birthday. What an honor to sit with Sam and just listen to him sharing stories as we just commemorated the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France.
My special thanks to the volunteers who braved the heat this past Saturday for the Antrim Brethren in Christ Car Show, Auction and BBQ to benefit Cayden Reasner. Cayden has an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor and is one brave young man!
Whatever happened to the purple martins that Greencastle used to be so famous for? In my next article, we’ll visit Greencastle in 1923 and learn the history of the beautiful birds that frequented Greencastle. It’ll be an interesting read.
Finally, as Sam Worley and I said goodbye last week after lunch, we embraced each other as Sam said to me, “We are blessed!” Happy birthday my friend and thank you for your many years of service to our country and to our community.
Time to make some iced tea and do some porch sittin’ as it appears the rain will bypass us today. You’re right Sam! We are certainly blessed.
