Snow
Bird is an adult domesticated pigeon that
is available for adoption through the Chester County SPCA. Snow Bird came to the
shelter as a stray on April 13. Snow Bird is a very sweet bird that enjoys
hanging out on the perched in its cage. Snow Bird is looking for a responsible care giver who has had some experience
with pigeons and will give the bird the love and attention it deserves. If you
are able to provide that home, visit the Chester County SPCA at 1212
Phoenixville Pike in West Goshen or call 610-692-6113. Snow Bird’s registration
number is 96798991. To look at some of the other animals available for
adoption, visit the shelter or log onto www.ccspca.org
• The SIW produce stand on Creek Road in Pennsbury Township
is scheduled to open for business this year the second Monday in June,
according to H.G. Haskell. Haskell owns the farm that operates the stand.
• Chadds Ford Township will hold a public hearing on the new
Comprehensive Plan at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 5. The plan hasn’t been changed
since the early 1970s. The monthly Board of Supervisors meeting for May will
follow.
• The Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board will hold a public
hearing on the proposed 2010-2011 school budget 7 p.m., May 4 at Unionville
High School. During the April 19 board meeting, seven members of the community
asked the board during a public comment period to increase school taxes. Only
one resident spoke against an increase. The board will vote on the budget in
June.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
Budget Travel magazine nominated Kennett Square as of
America’s coolest towns and a couple of resident business owners are thrilled.
Olen Grimes, owner of Artworks and Metalworks on S. Union
Street said he has no idea how Kennett Square came to be nominated for the cool
town vote, but he jumped on the bandwagon as soon as he heard.
“My involvement, basically, is trying to get people to vote.
Once I found out we had been nominated for it I’ve been trying to do everything
in my power to spread the word to get people to vote.”
One of his computer-based ideas, he said, is something he
calls “KIC’ed.”
“That’s ‘Kennett is Cool,’” Grimes said. “Along with the
link [to vote] you e-mail it to somebody. They get ‘KIC’ed’ and they’re
supposed to vote then ‘KIC’ somebody else.”
He said he got involved because he loves Kennett Square.
“It’s a great town.”
He thinks having the borough voted as being the best cool
town would mean more tourism, which would mean more business for local
merchants, as well as more pride in the town.
Grimes said he’s “tickled to death” over the prospect.
Kathi Laferty, owner of the Mushroom Cap on E. State Street and
the coordinator for the annual Mushroom Festival, isn’t sure how the borough
was nominated either, but she, like Grimes, is pleased with the idea.
“When I saw that we were nominated I immediately went to the
Web site, checked it out and said, ‘Yeah, we are cool,’ so why not try to get
us up to the top?” she said.
People can vote more than once and Laferty herself votes on
a daily basis.
“We were below the top 10 and quickly moved up to the top
10. So now we’re in fifth place,” she said.
Her goal, however, is to see Kennett Square come out on top.
She went to a state Web site, she said, and asked people there to vote for
Kennett saying it’s better for a Pennsylvania town to win than some town from
any other state. She’s also posted the contest to Facebook to request votes.
“It’s working out. We’ve got more than 15,000 votes now,”
Laferty said.
To be nominated, a town must have fewer than 10,000
residents, but attracting new ones because of quality
of life, arts, nature and a restaurant scene.
The top 10 towns will get a write up in the Budget Travel
magazine.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
Birmingham Township police are continuing an investigation
into a March 14 assault at Sandy Hollow Heritage Park. Police Chief Thomas
Nelling said an 18-year-old woman was jogging at the park when she was jumped
from behind. The only description police have of the assailant is that of a
white male, Nelling said.
• A 26-year-old woman, reportedly from Chadds Ford was
charged with simple assault following an incident at the Target store in
Concord Township on April 19. A Pennsylvania State Police report said Rachael
Louise Trent assaulted a 24-year-old woman from Greenwich, N.J. about 3:45 p.m.
following a verbal argument inside the store. The accused allegedly punched the
victim in the head and pulled out some hair. Trent was taken into custody at
her home, the report said.
• State police report a wallet was stolen from the dash of a
Chevrolet Silverado 2500 that was parked at the Home Depot in Concord Township
sometime between 10:23 and 11 a.m. on April 19. The owner of the vehicle told police
he left the doors unlocked. About $25 was taken, the report said.
• A car stolen from the parking lot of the AMC Theater at
Painters Crossing on April 17 was found about an hour later in the city of
Chester. The car was found burned. A state police report said a 2005 BMW 3
Series/3-30 CI was stolen from the lot in Chadds Ford despite the fact the
doors were locked and that the owners had taken the keys.
• The Remax parking lot at Route 1 and Creek Road in Chadds
Ford Township was the scene of a theft from vehicle sometime between 6 an 9
p.m. on April 14. The victim was a 43-year-old man from Aston, according to
police report. The report said someone broke the driver’s window of a 2010
Toyota and removed a black laptop bag containing a digital camera, a USB had
drive and an iPod charger.
It was nice to see the Civic Association of Chadds Ford get
involved with preserving the operation of the Brandywine Battlefield Park.
As reported, the Civic Association kicked off a four-part
fund-raising effort for the site on Saturday, April 17 with a $50 per person
luncheon at the Outback Steakhouse in Glen Eagle Square. With the restaurant
donating the food and service, the association raised $3,000 that day.
That figure may pale in comparison to the total $300,000 the
site needs to operate on a fulltime basis but, according to an officer of the
Friends of the Brandywine Battlefield, it still helps.
Rich Bowers, a past president of the friends group and the
current treasurer said the park needs about another $100,000 on top of what
money has come in so far.
Some of the $200,000 already came from the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania that opted out of running the site, but money also came in from
Delaware County and several Delaware County townships.
Those local and regional funds came through the efforts of
Chadds Ford Township Supervisor George Thorpe who’s been asking for money from
two counties and all the neighboring townships.
With the Civic Association’s fund-raising program, Mr.
Thorpe now has some additional help in raising the needed money.
However, a question remains. Who should operate the park?
The state pulled out last summer and it’s unlikely it will
return as a player. Read that, “It won’t.”
There’s also some chatter buzzing about that the National
Park Service will take it over and run the site in conjunction with Valley
Forge. But, there’s nothing official with that, yet.
When the state pulled out, it was thought that Chadds Ford
Township would take over, but the township does not have the resources to
operate the facility.
And whether it’s the state, federal or township government
that runs the site, the money to operate will be coming from tax dollars.
Ideally, a deep-pocketed philanthropic trust dedicated to
the preservation of historic sites would be the best choice. Such an entity
would be able to operate the Chadds Ford park, keeping it open to the public
for historical education and interpretation without placing an extra burden on
taxpayers. Such would be fitting to commemorate a battle in a war that was fought,
at least partly, as a reaction to taxation.
That, however, seems unlikely. Perhaps the best that can
happen is that there will be some sort of private/public partnership that will
keep the park operating. Those who believe in volunteerism—in action or
finances— and want to maintain the park should consider helping the efforts of
the Civic Association and take part in any of the remaining three events.
Those events include a golf outing, a canoe trip down the
Brandywine and a Wilmington Blue Rocks game.
Had Longfellow lived in Chadds Ford many years ago, he might
have finished the introduction to his classic poem with the words…
“…and only one leg!”
Willard Sharpless was Chadds Ford’s blacksmith in the early
20th century. He rented a two–floor, five-room apartment in the front half of
the house, now 1755 Creek Road, from Lottie Brittingham Eachus.
His blacksmith shop bordered on what is now the far end of
Brandywine Prime’s parking lot.
Recently I came across several volumes of Sharpless’s job
books stored in a large second floor cabinet of the old house.
Here I found a rich glimpse of Chadds Ford life in the 1920s
and ‘30s with clients like L.H. Brittingham, Dr. Cleveland, Irénée DuPont and
Granogue Farm; H.G. Haskell and Hill Girt Farm; Peter Hurd, William and Sellers
Hoffman as well as N.C. Wyeth. Many of the job orders for his ironwork included small hand-drawn
sketches with measurements.
February 1929, invoices to N.C. Wyeth were as follows:
1 old shoe, Black Horse.40
3 shoes, “Cabbage” 1.90
2 shoes, Black Horse1.25
2 bolts in sleigh.20
In the 1920s Sharpless advertised “Horse Shoeing, General
Blacksmithing and Wheelwrighting.” By the 1930s, he added, “Artistic Wrought
Iron Work a Specialty.”
But life changed for Sharpless in 1944 when he had to have a
leg amputated.
Chris Sanderson wrote in his memories of that day:
“Friday, Nov.
17, 1944. Today, they took off Willard Sharpless’ leg above the knee. Poor old
blacksmith. Gruff but kind.”
It was Sanderson himself who mounted a campaign to buy
Sharpless an artificial leg. Chris kept an account book of the donations, also
found in the Sharpless file.
N.C. Wyeth donated $25, a small fortune for that time, less
than a year before he was killed in the accident with the train. The Chadds
Ford Hotel (now Brandywine Prime) donated $10, as did William Hoffman Sr.,
Gregg Danby and the Atwaters.
On Creek Road, Paul Miller gave $5; the Beard’s gave $5,
while the Plebani’s gave $2.At a
time when our country was still emerging from the Great Depression, you come to
realize how much the village valued this man.
By Oct. 26, 1945, Sanderson had collected $279 and Sharpless
had his leg.
But here’s the rest of the story…
When Sharpless died in 1959, the 5-room apartment he had
rented stood empty. It was then that Andy Wyeth, Thomas R. Thompson and other
friends of Chris Sanderson’s, who rented the smaller 3-room apartment in the
back wing of the house, asked Lottie Eachus if Chris could move his collection
of historic artifacts into the front rooms. She agreed.
When Chris Sanderson died in late 1966, Andy Wyeth became
the founding president of the Sanderson Museum and on July 21, 1975 the board
bought the house from the estate of Lottie Eachus. The crumbling old blacksmith
shop was torn down around 1970. Part of the foundation is still visible in back
of the Sanderson Museum.
And in another year or so, as part of the Sanderson Museum’s
plans for a formal walk-through garden, a quiet memorial to the craft of
Willard Sharpless will grace the back corner.
Sally Denk Hoey, is a Gemini - one part music and one part history. She holds a masters degree cum laude from the School of Music at West Chester University. She taught 14 years in both public and private school. Her CD "Bard of the Brandywine" was critically received during her almost 30 years as a folk singer. She currently cantors masses at St Agnes Church in West Chester where she also performs with the select Motet Choir. A recognized historian, Sally serves as a judge-captain for the south-east Pennsylvania regionals of the National History Day Competition. She has served as president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates as well as the Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford where she now curates the violin collection. Sally re-enacted with the 43rd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment for 19 years where she interpreted the role of a campfollower at encampments in Valley Forge, Williamsburg, Va., Monmouth, N.J. and Lexington and Concord, Mass. Sally is married to her college classmate, Thomas Hoey, otherwise known as "Mr. Sousa.”
Jack loves to shove things under his bed. As a young boy that was his version of “cleaning his room,” and now, as an adult, Jack sees this as a perfectly good catch-all for “stuff” he doesn’t know what to do with. Besides, as he learned as a boy, all the items shoved under Jack’s bed insure no free space for a monster to move in.
Jack’s wife, Jill, grew up with the rule that nothing should be kept under the bed. Ever. Jill is concerned about all the dust that is building up under there that cannot be effectively cleaned. Jill would prefer room for a friendly monster or two.
Either you’re an under-bed storage person or you’re not. If you’re not, although you may have stuff everywhere else, under the bed is off-limits. You expect to be able to glide a vacuum under each bed without encountering so much as a stray sock. For those who ascribe to the empty space theory, here are some pros and cons to consider:
Pros: No Place for Dust Bunnies to hide… or breed! Higher beds are more attractive when they showcase a bare floor below
Cons: You may be disregarding some valuable storage space The clutter crowding your closets might be better utilized to fight the monsters hiding in the empty space under your bed.
On the other hand, you may be someone who likes to maximize storage and find the privacy that the under-bed space provides an added bonus. For those of you who revel in the camouflage of a bed skirts, let’s take a moment to weigh your options:
Pros: Bonus Storage Space Privacy Easy Access Versatility
Cons: Breeding ground for dust bunnies and their progeny Black hole effect
To fully appreciate the fringe benefits of under-bed storage, consider for a moment how yours is or can be used. Do you have bins designed to slide easily under the bed or are things put under separately i.e., a pile of magazines, several pairs of shoes, books, old cameras, dirty clothes…?
The bottom line is that, when effectively used and managed, the storage underneath a bed can be priceless. Conversely, the misuse of this space is often the stuff that nightmares are made of!
How to take full advantage of under-bed storage: Decide what you’d like to store Choose items you’d like easy access to (extra blankets, shoes, toys that are current, seasonal clothing – not old or broken electronics!) Buy 2 – 4 storage containers Appropriately sized to items you wish to store Easy-glide (will they need to roll on carpet or slide on hardwood?) Long enough to utilize max space & the correctly sized for the height and depth of the bed Keep it clean Make sure to slide bins out to vacuum and avoid bunny build-up!
If you have plenty of storage in your home without the need of this extra “secret” space, by all means, keep it clear. But, if clutter or bursting closets is an issue, you may consider this a convenient alternative. Just remember, the right containers will keep monsters away and the bunnies at bay.
• To contact Annette Reyman for organizing work or speaking engagements in the Greater Philadelphia area call (908) 361-7105 or email her at annettereyman@gmail.com. She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and its Philadelphia Chapter. View her Web site at www.allrightorganizing.com.
