Kindergarten registration —see page 6 SUSQ Vol. 78, No. 14, April 5, 1978 Susquehanna Times & The Mount Joy Bulletin MARIETTA & MOUNT JOY, PA. Chester Wittell in his kitchen/ windy Chester Wittell still going strong at 84 Chester Wittell, of-206 West Main Street in Mount Joy, was reading a book in 1924 when he came across a statement that our world is based on ‘‘the brains of the Franks [i.e., Western peoples], the hands of the Chinese, and the tongues of the Arabs.”’ Chester was intrigued by this, for, as he puts it, ‘‘I knew about the first two, but not the last— so I got a grammar and started studying Arabic. And I damn soon found out!”’ Chester now owns a copy of the Koran in Arabic. He explains to a visitor that the symbols are read right to left and bottom to top, and that they are large because the book was designed to be read in the dim light of a mosque. ‘““Their grammar works with mathematical preci- sion,” he says admiringly. Chester likes things precise and neat. He has in his small apartment literally pounds and pounds of works on paper he has created over the last 60 calendar The Mount Joy calendar: April 10th: Borough Coun- cil, 7:30; Mount Joy Sports- men’s Association, 8:00. April 11th: Jaycees, Central Hotel, 8:00. April 12th: Community Council, 7:30. odd years, and it is all instantly available to his hands, though the room appears untidy at first glance. At second glance one sees that HH is organized by some private system of Mr. Wittell’s. 20 cases of Chester Wittell’s poems, musical compositions, and essays are stored in the Columbia Library. 10 more are in the Lancaster County Historical Society archives. He has composed well over 1000 poems of the erudite variety known to Times readers; he has written 2 symphonies (about 9 were torn up after completion for being sub-standard); he has written about compar- itive religion; his lesser musical compositions num- ber in the hundreds; and he is fluent in, besides Arabic—French, German, Italian, Hindustani, High Hindi, Greek, and Latin. He never went to. high school. “My father took me out of school in the 8th grade,” Chester explains. ‘‘But that’s no good today, because now they don’t ask you how much you've studied, they ask where you studied.” Chester was born in 1893, which makes him 84. His hearing is very weak, but his mind is as sharp as ever. He is now working on another symphony. ‘‘Poetry is only a sidelight with me,” he says. He thinks of himself as a composer, and is bothered by the fact that his poetry seems to have brought him more recogni- tion than his music. ‘‘Anyone can read a poem,’’ he notes. ‘‘But very few people can read [continued on page 4] Pam Kolp to play in All-State game Pam ‘‘Butch’’ Kolp of the Donegal girl’s basketball team has been named to the East squad for the All-State East-West game scheduled for next Saturday. That means she’s consi- dered one of the best high school athletes in the state, which is no surprise to anyone who’s seen her in action this year. Girls get banquet—page 3 DID YOU HEAR? There’s going to be a surprise birthday party for a lady in Maytown. We can say no more. DID YOU HEAR? There’s a young baseball player at Donegal who hopes to make it to the major leagues. Good Luck! 3 p——r— ; UEHANNA TIMES FIFTEEN CENTS Shireman’s Garage, on West Market Street in Marietta, will close its doors at the end of this week, after many years of serving the community. We at the Times extend our regrets that this business will no longer operate in the borough. Bob Walker coming Congressman Bob Walk- er will hold an ‘‘old fashioned town meeting”’ on April 1S in the Donegal area. Walker says that these meetings are very useful method of getting the constituents’ views on various issues. The meeting will take place in the cafeteria of W.I. Beahm Junior High School, starting at 10 AM and lasting until 11:30 AM. The school is located on South Poplar Street in Mount Joy. Walker invites all inter- ested parties to attend. April 1st; piano on Rte. Yes, the rumor was true—someone did drop a piano in the middle of Rte. 441 near Chiques Creek on the night of April Fools’ Day. The Times first learned of the piano while picking up copy at the home of Zelda Heisey in Mount Joy. (Zelda is a Times corres- pondent.) Her husband and Maytown Civic Association needs your support if it’s going to keep on The Maytown Civic Asso- ciation will meet in Execu- tive Session on Tuesday, April 4th, and launch the annual membership drive. Everyone in the area will be contacted during April and will be expected to become a member for one year at a cost of $1.00 each. This money will par- tially defray expenses for the six-week playground activity and other benefits like square decoration, tree care, etc. The pinochle parties held on the first Friday of every month also help finance MCA activity. Local sup- port of the card parties has been lacking, and the MCA hopes attendance will im- prove now that the parties are held in the comfortable municipal building. One more opportunity for 441 son (Dan and Danny re- spectively) told Times edi- tor Nick Bromer of a report of a piano in the road that had just come over their scanner. Bromer jumped the public to show support for the MCA is the public meeting scheduled for May 2nd. Public support by attendance at this meeting will to a great extent give workers in the association incentive to plan supervis- ed playground activities for] next year. into his car and raced to get a photo. When he got to Chiques Creek and didn’t see anything, he thought Zelda may have been playing an April Fool joke on him. Later, Steve Englert of the Marietta Police cleared up the question. Yes, there had been a piano in the middle of the road, but it was not, apparently, an April Fools’ Day joke. The instrument fell out of the back of a pickup truck, was quickly put back in, and was being carried up Chiques Hill as Sgt. Englert drove up.
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