Page 20 - SUSQUEHANNA TIMES
Letters
Dear Editor:
Lancaster County is one
of the most beautiful areas
in the State of Pennsylvan-
ia. I'd just like to let a few
people know how 1 feel:
about littering our beautiful
land. Some of the nicest
places are now ruined, by
broken bottles, beer cans,
paper, wood, garbage, junk
cars and even the kitchen
sink.
A friend and 1 were
driving down along the
river near Cargill, to a
Dear Editor:
During a recent Recogni-
tions program by the Don-
egal Neighborhood of Girl
Scouts, everyone was given
praise and awards but one
person.
Nancy Kopf is the
Neighborhood Coordinator
for this Neighborhood. She
has done a tremendous job
during her first year in this
position. Nancy spends
hours working to see that
all the troops run smoothly,
besides being leader of
Troop #32. She listens and
helps us solve any prob-
lems we as leaders may
have.
Nancy has taken on a
hard job and got things
Dear Editor:
I would like to take this
opportunity to thank each
and every one of the people
who helped ‘‘man’ the
““MYO’’ stand at the
Memorial Day celebration
in Maytown as well as
during the boy’s tourna-
ments. The money earned
from this food stand enabl-
es us to keep our team on
the field.
I also want to thank the
persons for the cash and
food donations.
It cost approximately
$32.00 for each child to
play ball. This includes
insurance, uniforms, um-
pire fees and the endless
need for baseballs, bats
and other equipment. In
addition to this, there are
league and tournament fees
to pay.
Our coaches? time is
favorite fishing spot, when
we ran into a whole truck
load of garbage and wood
dumped right in the middle
of the road. Earlier this
Spring I've spent hours of
my time cleaning up the
same spot and know that it
now looks worse than
before.
There are a lot of people
who love this land and a
few who just don’t give a
darn!!!
Lets try
beautiful!!!
Donald L. McKain, Jr.
to keep it
back in shape after we had
no leadership in this posi-
tion for some time.
This last year we found
out what ‘‘Being a
Sister to Every other
Scout’’ meant. We learned
to know each other and
worked together as we
hadn’t done in a long time.
We even had our own
Troop Camp Course in
which Nancy took charge of
getting the whole program
set up and instructors to
teach several phases of
camping.
I would like to close by
saying a very heartfelt
thank you to Nancy on
behalf of everyone in the
Donegal Neighborhood.
Sharon Marley
donated—approximately
1500 man-hours per sea-
son. Try to remember to
thank your child’s coach for
his or her efforts.
Baseball might be a
game, but the effort of the
people behind the scenes is
a full-time job. I would like
to single out Jim Shirk, our
Boy’s Commissioner, for
the many hours he has
donated getting the fields
in shape for all the games.
There are five fields to get
ready and Jim hasn’t failed
us yet.
Yes, we all have jobs, we
all are too busy or disinter-
ested at times, but remem-
ber, they are our children,
lets do all we can to keep
them playing ball instead
of running the streets.
Sincerely,
Jay L. Hoover, Treasurer
MYO Maytown, Pa.
Maytown Ambulance
meeting
The monthly meeting of
the Maytown—E. Donegal
Area Ambulance Assoc.,
Inc. was held on Monday,
June 13, at 7:00 p.m., at
the Maytown Fire Hall.
Crew chief Dennis Hall
reported that the Assoc.
Ambulance responded on
12 Emergency calls during
the month of May.
The members of the
Maytown Ambulance
Assoc. would like to thank
the students of the Beahm
Jr. High School Student
Council for their recent
donation to the Maytown
Ambulance Assoc. Our
thanks to a fine group of
young people.
Next monthly meeting of
the Ambulance Assoc. will
be Monday, July 11, at
7:00 p.m., at the Maytown
Fire Hall.
All present members, or
anyone wishing to join the
Assoc. are urged to attend.
June 22, 1977
“My father was a Vigilante and we were all sitting
in the kitchen when there was a knock on the door.
It was a man with a hood over his head.
... my father picked up his .45 and they left...”
A boyhood in the wild west;
the Ben Tracy story
(Ben Tracy, the author of
this memoir, was born
around the turn of the
century in York. He was an
employee of the Mount Joy
Bulletin until his retirement
a number of years ago. Mr.
Tracy now lives in Lancas-
ter.)
I REMEMBER WHEN...
by Ben Tracy
The names in this article
are my Mother Bertha,
Father Thrasher, Brother
George, Sister Thelma and
Grandmother Emma.
The reason my Grandma
is included is that she
always met us somewhere
in our travels. She was
married six times and
buried all of her husbands.
She married her sixth
husband when she was 85
years old, lived with him 8
years\V til he died, and then
lived alone til she died at
the ripe old age of 103.
George and 1 were born
in York, Pa. and Thelma
was born in Larned, Kan-
sas. My early recollections
seem to start in Larned.
We used to play in the
ruins of the old Fort.
From Larned we went by
wagon to Hastings, Ne-
braska, about 125 miles. It
may seem like a very short
distance now, but it took us
almost a week. While there
we saw Halley’s Comet, in
1906. The townfolks were
all out watching to see if
the Comet would pass over
or fall to earth. The Church
bells were ringing, the Fire
Co. whistles were blowing,
people were praying and
singing Hymns and alto-
gether they made quite a
lot of noise. i
Contrary to what may be
said about the Indians,
they were very friendly and
we spent many days and
nights with them. They
shared what food they had
and my father would hunt
with them. He was a very
good shot and if he did
miss with his first shot he
never took a second shot.
He said that if he missed,
the game was free to go
and I am sure this im-
pressed the Indians.
1 was only 7 when I
experienced my first sight
at what was then, ‘The
Law’. We were living in
Los Animos, Colorado. My
father was a Vigliante and
we were all sitting in the
kitchen when there was a
knock at the door. My
mother answered. It was a
man with a hood over his
head. He called to my
father who picked up his 45
from the table and they
left. My mother took us
children and we went to a
hill in back of the railroad
station to watch Vigliantes,
one of whom was my
father, deal with a murder-
er. They put him on a
horse, tied his hands in
back of him, put a noose
around his neck and put
the other end over a rafter
of the R.R. station. They
hit the murderers horse,
and while -the man was
swinging they all shot him
several times.
Soon after the lynching
we heard that Grandma
was married to a horse
rancher in Eads, Colorado.
We loaded up the wagon
and left for Eads, about S0
miles away. Grandma was
surprised to see us and
could not believe we were
living 30 near her. She and
our new grandpa Gray
insisted that we move in
with them. I walked to
3rd grade in a school
nearly 4 miles away. Every
other Friday, after school,
George and 1 saddled up
and rode 20 miles to town
for the mail. We stayed in
town overnight and came
home Saturday morning.
Grandma and Mrs. McCor-
mack, from the next ranch,
liked to ride part way with
us on Friday. They would
have quite a time shooting
at jack rabbits and prairie
chickens.
Eventually we moved
into a large house in
Denver near the top of
White City Park hill. Here I
saw my first street car. It
was not one like the ones
you see now. It was horse
drawn, and it had a stall at
each end. The horse would
pull the car up the hill and
then get into the back stall
and ride down the hill. We
could hardly wait to go anc
ride up and down the hill.
My father had electricity
put in our new house. It
was the first house in that
part of Denver to have this
and the people came from
miles around to see this
new lighting. Thelma and I
would unscrew a bulb and
stick our finger in the
socket to feel the electri-
city. Fortunately there was
not much current in the
line or we would have
gotten more than just a
little tingle. Once we took
our horses and wagon and
tried to reach the tops of
Mt. Evans and Mt. Estes,
just a few miles above
Denver. There were no
roads out there then and
we had to find our own
way. In fact, in all of our
travels we had to make our
own way. There were dirt
roads in and near the
towns, but when you left
town, it was up to you to
find the trails. We got to
the top of Mt. Evans but
only part way up Mt.
Estes. Our new grandpa
said he would show us how
to live off the land, so we
hitched up our wagon, and,
with Grandpa in the lead,
we headed south. We went
to Pikes Peak and rode
donkeys to the top. Then
we went to the Garden of
the Gods near Colorado
Springs. We crawled into
the hole in a mountain and
came to a small stream full
of fish with no eyes. They
never saw any daylight and
so evolution worked its
wonder. (This cave is now
The Cave of the Winds).
From there we went
through Trout Creek Pass,
Monarch Pass, Wolf Creek
Pass, saw the Aztec Ruins,
went through Ship Rock
and Marsh Pass and came
to the south rim of the
Grand Canyon. Here we
rode donkeys down to the
bottom of the canyon. We
went to the Sunset Crator
Volcano (above Flagstaff),
to the Petrified Forest, in
the Gila Cliff dwellings,
and Rosewell.
On this journey there
was plenty of game and we
learned to eat everything
that flew, crawled or walk-
ed. Grandpa showed us
how to get water from cacti
‘“‘apples” on the desert.
When ripe, these purple
apples were very sweet
tasting and juicy. Cactus
patches always had apples.
One way to tell north and
south was that all the
apples never died off at the
same time, they died from
South to North. In other
words, as the one died, the
next patch north had ap-
ples and so on till you
reached fertile land. By the
time the northern-most ap-
ples were all dead, the
southern apples were ripe.
We settled down in Trini-
dad, Colorado. One day my
mother, an experienced
wilderness cook, said that
if the boys from my 4th
grade class would bring her
birds, she would make us
all pot-pie. She did not say
what kind of birds, so the
boys brought pigeons,
doves, sparrows, crows and
even a few hawks. There
was a pile of birds almost
waist high. The boys pick-
ed the feathers off and my
mother cleaned them and
made the pot-pie in a large
iron pot in the back yard.
When the boys told thier
parents what they had
eaten, several parents
came to complain. Mother
explained to them about
our living off the land, they
tasted the pot-pie, and all
was forgiven.
We found Trinidad more
civilized than Las Animas
in its treatment of murder-
ers. One condemned man
had such a large neck and
small head that when they
sprung the trap, the rope
justslipped up over his
head.
When school was over,
my family took the train to
Phoenix, Arizona, to see
my father’s sister. My aunt
had a lion farm, enclosed
in a 12 ft. wire fence,
where she raised the lions
for circuses and side
shows.
My father was a tailor
and he decided to settle
down in San Luis Obispo,
California, for a while, to
open a shop before starting
back to the east coast.Dur-
ing school vacation my
parents bought horses and
a wagon and took us to
Billings, Montana, Yellow-
stone and Grand Teton
parks, we traveled down
through Idaho Falls, and
Salt Lake City, Utah. We
visited Yosemite Park, and
Devils Postpile, Kings
Canyon park, the Sequoia
Forest, and the Redwood
forest. The streams were
full of trout. Bear and deer
were plentiful. Finally my
father opened his shop and
we became ‘‘city folks’.
School was not a one room
building, as the other
schools were, but each
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