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.