Vol. 120 No.7 THE BACK MOUNTAIN'S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1889 February 15 - 21, 2009 POST Serving the communities of the Dallas and Lake-Lehman School Districts . www.mydallaspost.com CHARLOTTE BARTIZCH/F FOR THE DALLAS POST Having recnetly celebrated his 80th birthday, Norm Darling can still be found most days in the greenhouse on his Dallas farm. He's been a farmer all his life By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com Most 10-year-olds don’t know how to drive a truck and not many sixth-graders can say they've milked a cow. But for Norman Darling Sr., those accomplishments were ex- pected at a young age so he could contribute to the family farm. The Dallas resident and co-owner of Norman Darling & Sons Farms & Greenhouses turned 80 on Jan. 14 and looked back with The Dallas Post on his life as a farmer. Darling grew up on a farm own- ed by his father, Samuel, in the Plainsville section of Plains Township. His father, an English immigrant with only a fourth- grade education, purchased a sec- ond farm in Dallas in 1930, but the family continued to reside in Plains. Beginning at about 12 years of age, Darling was expected to wake up very early to milk and clean up after the farm’s two cows and tend to the horses, mules, chickens and two hogs. He then walked over a mile to the former Maffett Street School for classes and came home only to perform the same chores again. There were no tractors and very little machinery on the farm when Darling was young so he was forced to use horses and mules to } do his work. Unfortunately, the animals didn’t always cooperate. Darling remembers a time when he was cultivating a carrot field with an old mule named May. The mule didn’t want to move, so he took an old tomato basket and built a fire in it under- neath her. May quickly moved away from the fire. A 1946 graduate of the former Plains High School, Darling spent his mornings before high school selling crops at a wholesale mar- ket at the present site of Holy Re- deemer High School on South Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes- Barre. After school he helped work on the farm and there was no time for the after-school activities that many students took part in, including basketball. “Ever since I can remember, I had to work,” Darling said. “I love basketball, but I couldn’t play bas- ketball in high school because I had to work.” Standing 6 feet 8 inches tall, Darling likely could have made a contribution to his high school basketball team. Instead, he played in a church basketball league at night when his daily du- ties on the farm had been com- pleted. Darling decided to stay on the family farm after graduation be- cause he was the only sibling who could help. His brother, Walter, had purchased his own farm in Back Mountain Men's Ecumenical Breakfast Group meets weekly at Pickett's Charge Restaurant in Dallas Over 80 men gather at Pickett's Charge Restaurant in Dallas for a weekly ecumenical men's breakfast group. Breakfast unites men By REBECCA BRIA CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/ FOR THE DALLAS POST “I think a common denominator is we all believe rbria@timesleader.com 5 resident Dave Golias first learned of the Back Mountain Men’s Ec- umenical Breakfast Group from his neighbor, the Reverend Chuck Gommer. A retired United Methodist minister, Gommer invited Golias to attend one of the weekly 8 a.m. breakfasts on Tuesday mornings at Pickett’s Charge. “I didn’t know anybody when I first came,” Go- lias said. “Now I have a lot of new friends.” Founded by Gene Kelleher and Robert Deeble, the group was created because the two felt there were few social opportunities exclusively for men available in the Back Mountain. There were just seven men, all members of Sha- vertown United Methodist Church, at the group’s first breakfast in September 2005. In December 2008, they hit an all-time high of 84. “Gene said, ‘You know, there’s nothing in the Back Mountain for men,” Deeble said. “We thought it would be nice if we started this break- fast and invited men from other churches and oth- er men have invited other men from their church- es. Just by word of mouth, it has grown.” Numbers are slightly down in the winter months due to a few members who head south during the cold weather, but the group still averag- es 70 to 80 men each week. in Christ,” Kelleher said. “We’re all different fla- vors and we respect each other’s faith.” Every week the men begin their meeting at 8 a.m. and Kelleher makes announcements on birth- days, anniversaries and church news. On Jan. 20, Wayne Long revealed that the following day, Jan. 21, was his brother Bill’s birthday and the group sang, “Happy Birthday.” “It’s something to look forward to,” Wayne Long said of the breakfast group. After announcements, grace is said and break- fast is served. On Jan. 20, The Reverend Bill Le- wis, retired pastor of Dallas United Methodist Church, offered grace. For $5 per person, the men are treated to a hot buffet of eggs, bacon, oatmeal, potatoes, French toast and toast, along with coffee and orange juice. During breakfast, a charitable collection is tak- See BREAKFAST, Page 10 “We thought it would be nice if we started this breakfast and invited men from other churches and other men have invited other men from their churches. Just by word of mouth, it has grown.” Robert Deeble Co-founder of the Back Mountain Men's Ecumenical Breakfast Group Sumansky teaches in Macedonia; students join him By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com See FARMER, Page 10 0981512007 9%!9 =o Students in John Sumansky’s classes at Mi- sericordia University don’t think twice about asking a question or sharing a thought. But when Sumansky, a Ph.D., taught at the State University of Tetova in the Republic of Macedonia last fall, students remained quiet. “Most of the professors would take offense at a student challenging an idea in front of the class,” Sumansky said. Sumansky, of Dallas, was awarded a Ful- bright Scholarship to teach economics and en- trepreneurship at the State University of Teto- va during the fall 2008 semester. At the same time, Sumansky led a Misericor- dia senior undergraduate and graduate class on the economy of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Four of Sumansky’s Misericordia students, in- cluding Dallas resident Eric Williams, joined Su- dy} in Macedonia os; Oct 41. SUBMITTED PHOTOS Misericordia University business stu- dents, from left, Eric Williams, Emilie Pearson, Frank Yamrick, Maki McCann, Center for Adult and Continuing Educa- tion at Misericordia; and Bill Desrosiers, pose on Mt. Vodno, which overlooks Ma- cedonia’s capital city of Skopje. “If we're going to graduate students from here, it’s not enough that they hang out in Dal- las, Wilkes-Barre or the beach in the summer,” Sumansky said. “All universities have to do more of this.” The Misericordia students also met with Sumansky three times before he left, complet- ed reading assignments, met with local lead- erswho have critical roles in entrepreneurship and wrote a public police paper. While in Ma- cedonia, the students studied Macedonian ec- onomic policies, took tours of economics pro- grams in Macedonian universities and, along with Sumansky’s Macedonian students, lis- tened tobusiness leaders speak on economics. Williams, 35, who is working toward his MBA at Misericordia, values studying busi- ness overseas because he is a pharmaceutical sales professional for Sanofi-Aventis. One stark difference Williams noticed be- tween the American and Macedonian econo- mies was that the Macedonian unemploy- ment rate is about 33 percent, versus a seven percent rate in the United States. The Mace- See SUMANSKY, Page 7 Do you have a personalized license plate on your car? Do you share your name with a famous person? If so, The Dallas Post staff would like to talk to you. We think it would be fun to find out why people choose personalized license plates and how those plates reflect their personality. We also think it would be fun to talk to people who share their names with famous people and find out what kinds of problems, or advantages, they have because of their name. If you fit into either of these categories, call us at The Dal- las Post at 675-5211 and share your story with us.
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