bellafontana.blogspot.com
Bella Fontana: June 2005
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A weekly column about life in Bellefonte, PA, reprinted from the Centre Daily Times. Wednesday, June 29, 2005. Quarry is no place for spectators. On warm, summer nights, I have heard through the open bedroom windows shouts and laughter coming from the region of the quarry. This would be the abandoned Bellefonte Quarry, owned by Graymont, the lime company with operations in Pleasant Gap and Coleville. Curious about the site, I asked several people how to get there. No one said it was off-limits. An online...
bellafontana.blogspot.com
Bella Fontana: December 2005
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A weekly column about life in Bellefonte, PA, reprinted from the Centre Daily Times. Thursday, December 22, 2005. Christmas disasters often come back to charm us. The Bellefonte supplement to the Centre Daily TImes has ceased publication as of Dec. 21, 2005, so this is my final column for that venue.). For our high school Nativity play, my two best friends and I were cast as vestal virgins. We giggled our way through practice, but the night of the performance we lost it completely. I entered and ...This ...
bellafontana.blogspot.com
Bella Fontana: July 2005
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A weekly column about life in Bellefonte, PA, reprinted from the Centre Daily Times. Friday, July 22, 2005. Bikers ride past those silly labels. Spring Street, in front of Wetzler's Funeral Home, was so packed one evening lately that I could hardly work my way through the crowd. Later, scanning the obituaries, I found one with the line, "He was an avid motorcycle rider.". Most of the bikers I have known are teachers. None of them fits the scary stereotype of a tattooed menace. Anne, a fellow English teac...
bellafontana.blogspot.com
Bella Fontana: October 2005
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A weekly column about life in Bellefonte, PA, reprinted from the Centre Daily Times. Friday, October 21, 2005. Beauty of a hill town can hide danger. A driver parks on a hill and forgets to set the hand brake. The car slips out of park and rolls down the hill. A homeowner mows the steep bank in back of his house and the mower tips over on him. A 10-foot retaining wall on Stoney Batter collapses soon after it is installed. Hills have their charm, but there are hazards that go with the territory. Bellefont...
bellafontana.blogspot.com
Bella Fontana: August 2005
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A weekly column about life in Bellefonte, PA, reprinted from the Centre Daily Times. Tuesday, August 23, 2005. Auction attendees are filled with patience, passion. All I need to hear as I approach a sale site is the amplified monotone of the auctioneer and my adrenaline level goes into overdrive. Auction fever is in my blood. I bought an art deco clock that didn't work, testing the first rule of auctions: Everything is sold "as is.". Another rule of the auction: Don't get into a bidding war. Buyers are w...
bellafontana.blogspot.com
Bella Fontana: May 2005
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A weekly column about life in Bellefonte, PA, reprinted from the Centre Daily Times. Wednesday, May 25, 2005. Riff-raffing is a trash tradition. Donald Trump may think he has perfected the art of the deal, but I reserve that honor for riff-raffers, the folks who cruise the streets in their trucks and vans the night before the borough's bulk pickup. They don't just get things at a good price; they get them for free. I felt rejected. My stuff was not good enough. I discovered that riff-raffing is an honora...
bellafontana.blogspot.com
Bella Fontana: November 2005
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A weekly column about life in Bellefonte, PA, reprinted from the Centre Daily Times. Friday, November 25, 2005. Local grant helps bring the sweet sounds of Talleyrand Park to life. Thanksgiving is a good time to express gratitude, not just for turkey and trimmings, but also for some of the things we take for "granite," as my imaginative students used to spell it. Sculptor Rob Fisher, a Bellefonte resident and an original member of the committee, introduced "Village Green in Blue" by defining Talleyrand P...
bellafontana.blogspot.com
Bella Fontana: September 2005
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A weekly column about life in Bellefonte, PA, reprinted from the Centre Daily Times. Monday, September 12, 2005. Directions often filled with town history. For someone like me who gets disoriented in grocery stores, giving directions to strangers can be a challenge. Some questions, such as "Where's the courthouse? Are easy. Others, like "How do you get to Lower Coleville Road? Sometimes, though, people want recommendations. It's easy to confuse streets that have east and west versions or north and south ...
