Winery near Lancaster. Sue called about two months ago and told us about the show near their place, so we marked it on the calendar. The band drew huge crowds at the art show as well as the winery so we didn't know what to expect. They are playing at The Wagon Wheel Music Park on Sleepy Hollow Road right outside of Philipsburg. Nice warm day with temperatures in the low 80s so we should have a great time. Got there early for the car show they traditionally have with the concert and when we arrived we were the second car in the lot. Uh Oh! We decided to drive around 
the hills and explore and come back in an hour or so. When we arrived back there were ........ maybe 30 cars in the lot, and the show was due to start in 10 minutes. Where are the big crowds we expected? We grabbed our chairs and headed to the bandstand. The "Florence Jean Stage" might have been 30 feet across, and "The Fabulous Flashbacks" were tuning their instruments and checking the sound system. We put our chairs right in front of the stage, second row. And ..... we were in the back row. Wow, almost as many cars in the car show as people watching the concert. Looks like 
the car show was the main event. After visiting and voting for our favorite cars we took our seats. Kind of felt a little out of place. Jerry and I were two of a few males who had shorts on. Most had on jeans and quite a few sported long sleeve shirts and leather jackets. And everyone seemed to know each other. Almost like a family reunion! I suspect this traditional weekly event in the backwoods of PA is their weekly entertainment. As the band started, so did the dancing. One guy, his age undeterminable, was dancing with his girl on the blacktop dance floor in front of the the stage. He had a long-sleeved leather jacket with some logos on the back, leather brimmed hat, heavy-duty chain attached to his belt and connected to his wallet, knife in a sheath on his belt next to his cellphone, pointed black cowboy boots and black nail polish. Sounds like a description from a J. Peterman catalogue, doesn't it. Boy, was he enjoying himself, though. And, so was I, si
tting in my lawn chair. The band had lost some of it's luster from when we had heard they a few year's before. The "Fabulous Flashbacks" are from Altoona and are in their 21st year. We heard them when they had two fantastic vocalists. One male could sing the old Frankie Valli songs with his high voice while the female had a deep throaty voice that captured many of the girlie tunes of the 50s and 60s that I remember. We recognized the keyboard player, drummer, and bass guitarist from the group we had seen previously. Still enjoyed reliving our past with their performance. Then, as the sun went down, the night air got a very brisk chill to it. Rather cool. No, make that cold. And here I am with my shorts and short-sleeve shirt. So that's why most are wearing long sleeves and jeans, and many have sweaters, jackets and blankets. During the band's break th
ey held a 50/50 drawing and had a hula-hoop contest. After the break, we talked it over, and decided to head home. But, the experience, in the deep back woods of Centre County, PA was enjoyable and truly Americana. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: 1955 Ford which was the same color as my second car, being shown off by LDub and his wife, car show at the park, current members of "The Fabulous Flashbacks", Florence Jean Stage at the Wagon Wheel Music Park, and the performance of "The Fabulous Flashbacks" PPS - Thanks for the pixs, Sue
Doris, died a few years before that. They both were older than my dad. Judy was born to Aunt Lillian and her first husband while Judy's brother, and another cousin of mine, George, was born to Aunt Lillian's second husband. I think! Aunt Lillian and her second husband, uncle Bud, lived along the Conestoga Creek with Judy and George. I have many fond memories of going on vacation with Judy and her family, minus Uncle Bud. He always had to work for some strange reason. We would visit Crystal Beach along the Chesapeake Bay and have the best times. Spent some time reminiscing about our time at the beach and some of the rides and games we played in the small arcade that was located by the beach. Then, after my Aunt Doris, my dad's other sister, married into a family that had a cottage on the Elk River, we switched to this location for our family summer vacations. More
fond memories. And finally, after my Aunt Doris sold the cottage and bought a larger house along the C&D canal, we move the vacations one more time. Eventually we both married, but continued our vacations with our own children at the house along the canal. Wow, the evening was full of memories that I have documented in past stories. But finally I got to reminisce with my cousin Judy in person. The evening was fun and we said we will have to do it again soon. Hope soon doesn't mean another 4 years. We'll see. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photo at top shows Judy and me digging in the garden, riding on my tricycle, and recently on the deck behind my house.
, even made you cry. Well let me tell you .... it did all of the above for me. They were fabulous. The band specialized in music of Dion as well as The Four Seasons. Vinnie, the leader of the group (sounds like someone from the Bronx, doesn't it?) was a neighbor of Dion's from Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. Vinnie Adinolfi was born to be a musician. He worked as a performer, mostly as a backup to many different groups, and a record executive with Lifesong. When he retired 10 years ago he decided to live his dream as a band singer so recruited a combo that included his sons Vinnie III (keyboard and guitar) and Nick (drums). Think they are Italian? Also included James Fracasse from the Bronx on lead guitar and John Tutino of Florida (grew up with Vinnie in the Bronx) on sax. Vinnie III was 14 and Nick was 11 at the time. And, as Vinnie says, "It worked!" They played their first gig under the name "The Wanderers" and got 10 letters threatening to sue them. So, Vinnie called the group "The Bronx Wanderers". Let me tell you, they had some of the best harmony I've ever heard. And, charisma. Vinnie's story telling had the audience laughing most of the night. The kids are 24 and 21 now and are seasoned performers. Vinnie III just graduated from college
and is one handsome guy. The energy, both in the band and in the audience, was electrifying. People dancing in the rear of the theatre. Never saw that before at Mt. Gretna. Most of the people in the audience, and I mean most, were toe-tapping, hand-clapping and singing along with the performers. The night passed fast. As they were just about to end the show, Vinnie asked about the group that has been invited back many times to Mt. Gretna (Phil Dirt and the Dozers). "I'm sure you have them back every year ..... but that's because you never heard us before. Hope to see you next year!" And with that they played Neil Diamond's song, "Coming to America." It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - pixs show tickets, the Mt. Gretna Playhouse and The Bronx Wanderers: clockwise from the top are Vinnie, James, Nick, John and Vinnie III. Check out the great YouTube clip I found of them before they added the sax player.
e legend goes that the Indian maiden, Nitanee, from whom the famous Penn State Nittany Lion is named, and her French trapper lover, Malachi Boyer were unable to marry because of Indian custom so they ran away together, but were later captured and Malachi was thrown into Penn's Cave to die. Didn't see him during our trip today. In 1885 the cavern was opened to the public and today is on the National Register of Historic places. Our tour guide t
oday was Paul who recently graduated from Penn State with an electrical engineering degree. His hobby is spelunking and after graduation he took a job giving tours of Penn's Cave. Great guy with a fantastic sense of humor. The mile long trip through the year-round 52 degree cavern showed the many rooms of the cave and was both interesting and amazin
g. Lights illuminated many of the stalactites (from the ceiling of the cave) and stalagmites (from the floor of the cave) that looked like familiar forms. Paul had names for most of the formations, and I must admit I thought he was making them up until I saw a brochure that had the same names. Water dripped on us for most of the trip from the ceiling of the cave and it was the dripping water that formed the amazing scenes that we saw throughout the tour. We exited at the other end of the cave into the man-made lake Nitanee, and returned through the cave to the cavern entrance dock which was made by forming 48 steep steps from the water filled cave below to the visitor's center above. 
As I made my journey today I couldn't help but wonder, what if there was an earthquake at this very minute and I was under tons and tons of limestone. But, I'm typing right now, so I did survive for yet another story! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: entrance into Penn's Cave down 48 steps, boat about to enter into the cave, next two pixs show the interior of the cave, and exit from the cave after a journey of one mile. The YouTube video will take you on a tour similar to the tour I had.
use. I still remember Bob for all the weights and dumbells he had in his basement. He was a weight lifter. They had no children or pets, but Bob took an interest in the guinea pigs that I raised in the back yard. Mom and dad said that seemed strange, but he seemed to be a nice guy. Today you would really worry about that if you had kids living next to a guy like that. Well, he had this neatest old car. He kept it parked in his garage at the rear of his house. Looked like a gangster car. Dark brown in color, it had headlights that stood up along the side of the large chrome grill. Running boards on both side of the car, but the spare tire was housed in the trunk. One of the first models to do that. Windshield wipers hung from the top of the window, but did have a small motor inside to power the blade. It was a four door with huge doors. Rear door handle was next to the front door handle and opened opposite as cars do today. Inside was immense with a lot of leg space in the rear of the car. No space in the trunk, since the spare was in there. How do I know so much about the car? Well, Bob eventually started raising guinea pigs and kept them in his garage! Mom and dad really thought that was strange!! He and I would drive in his car to the Lancaster Stock Yards which was about a 1/4 mile from our houses. We would take large burlap bags with us and collect the hay and straw from the floors of the barns into the bags to use as feed and bedding for the guinea pigs we raised. I can still remember the trips to the get hay and straw. NO ONE today would let their child get into a car with a weird neighbor!! Back in the 40s and 50s people just trusted each other more. Bags were so big that we filled his back seat and rear compartment with bag after bag. Stuffed them in. He filled his garage with cages and eventually had to keep his car outside his garage. Often wish I would have bought his car. I can still picture gangsters hanging onto the car, standing on the running boards, shooting it out with the law. Well, mom and dad were right. Bob was strange and weird. One night mom caught him staring in the windows in our living room. He was a peeping tom! They reported him, but never had him prosecuted. Our business kind of died after that. And shortly, so did Bob. Don't remember what killed him, but it wasn't mom and dad. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
y, Carol and I headed to the park with our daughter, daughter-in-law, and our three grandkids. Wanted to hear the concert by "Beatlemania Now". Every Wednesday and Sunday evening during the summer, the Park holds free concerts. Some are well attended while others are not. Most people who attend are older, like me, so the bands are geare
d to the over 50, or maybe I should say, over 60 crowd. Knowing it would be crowded, Caden, my grandson, and I headed over to the park in the morning to place half a dozen chairs on the grassy slope in front of the bandshell. About 10 years ago we went to a concert held in Lancaster that featured "Beatlemania Now" and really enjoyed it. All songs featuring or written by John, Paul, George and Ringo, 
smash Broadway hit,"Beatlemania" which opened in 1977. As the show drew to a close, members of the cast formed their own touring companies to continue playing and performing Beatle songs. "Beatlemania Now" began its first tour in 1983 and is still going strong. We decided to take the kids and grandkids to the concert with us to expose them to the music that we grew up with. And ...... they loved it. Loved the
atmosphere probably more than the band. Dancers of all ages lined the front of the outdoor bandshell as they danced to the songs of the Beatles. Young kids played Frisbee on the grass next to the stage, one small child was running his John Deere tractor across the front of the stage, and the food vendors on the other side of the stage were busy all night. But, the band was fabulous. Didn't seem to be the same band that we had heard before, but that was quite a few years ago and I realize that people do age and change their appearance. My two granddaughters talked their mom into heading to the front area and dancing while our grandson enjoy watching with us, from a safe distance aw
ay. What a festive time everyone was having, as we joined in with the band for a few of the songs. After an hour and a half, and with a few changes of costume, the band introduced the members and played their last song (I'm sorry to say I don't remember their names, only who they were supposed to be). After that last song, everyone in the audience, led by LDub, kept yelling for "One More Song
mes that I made for them at the gallery where I now work part-time. The frames had posters for all the plays and musicals that have been held from 1987 to 2011, while Mark W. was director. Mark teaches vocal music and took over directing the plays and musicals shortly after he arrived at the school. Most of the posters are posters that I have printed in the school print shop during the years I t
aught here, as well as since I have been hired to do the in-house printing after my retirement from teaching. I actually printed the posters and programs from 1967 until 2009. In 2010 I had scheduled a vacation at the same time of the school play and I told Mark I could do them earlier in the year or that he would have to find someone else to do the program and posters. Mark chose the latter. When I returned, I asked Mark how he made out and he said th
e cost was slightly more, but they were fine and he can have them if full color. I asked him if he would mind having the same company do the printing in the future. I was ready to give up some of the jobs that I had taken on since retirement. He understood and thanked me for the effort for all the other years. Well, as I walk past all the posters I try to remember what the play was about and the amount of trouble I may have had in printing the poster and program. The posters with more than one color always gave me trouble, since the presses kept getting older (same ones I had when I started in 1967) and keeping the colors in register (lined-up) was a challenge. But, boy did they look neat! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: hallway in front of the auditorium at Manheim Township High School, a few colorful posters that I had done over the last couple of centuries, very first one I did for Mark W., and the final poster I printed which has a gold ink on the left along with green and black inks. 
Carol and I are staying, along with our friends Jerry and Just Sue, told us to head out the entrance and wait along the street for a taxi. The taxis are minivans which were made to hold maybe 8 or 9 people, but if you squeeze a little, will hold a dozen plus the driver and the conductor. The conductor sits by the sliding door and when the driver stops, no make that slows down, he slams open the door to discharge or take on customers. As soon as he is sure people will not get caught in the door, he slams it shut, takes your money and starts up a conversation. You may be able to hear it ov
er the noise of the radio which is blasting out either rap or reggae music. With in 15 minutes we see a taxi. It slows down, we hop in and the door slams shut. "Where're you going?" the conductor asks. "Oistens!" And off we go. Another occasion we decided to go into Bridgetown, the capital of the island. Another short ride. It was a Sunday and Carol is seated between the driver, who never talks, and a customer who has his Bible open and is reading it for anyone who wants to listen. Arrive a short time later to the slamming of the door and the conductor yelling, Bridgetown. Funny, some of the experiences you will never forget, and can never forget! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: wondering how we will all fit into this tiny space, Just Sue and Jerry with back row friends, and Carol on our Sunday taxi ride.
which is located right on the waterfront in town. And what's funny, Carol or I always seem to get ill from eating there. Why do we return? Because the food is so good. I know it makes no sense, but we like the place. A couple of years ago we ate there for the first time. Had the cream of crab soup and a sandwich. The soup was fantastic and the sandwich OK. After the meal we walked through one of the many antique shops in the town and all of a sudden it hit me. Asked the owner if they had a restroom and lucky they did. The runs hit me all of a sudden. On another occasion I thought that maybe it was the water so I had a soda with the cream of crab and sandwich. An hour later the same results, only in a different antique shop. Maybe once out of half a dozen lunches have I been lucky enough to avoid the restroom. Well, today I had my usual, avoiding the water again. And, I was fine. But, this time it hit Carol. She had the soup, sandwich and
iced tea. Later, as we were visiting some of the shops along the main street she asked where the nearest restroom was located. Found it at the end of the block in another restaurant. Same result. She then said to me, "I think it's the crab soup. It is so rich that it upsets the stomach." Oh no! It can't be. One of the best cream of crab soups! Now the decision will be whether to avoid the soup and see what happens or to stay close to the stores we know have public restrooms when we eat at the Tidewater Grill. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
t we thought we could make it with our front wheel drive Corolla. After reaching the top we parked the rental along the road and walked along a short trail to an overlook. Fantastic views of the island and most of the neighboring islands. Could see Anguilla, St. Barts, Saba and many smaller islands and outcroppings which don't have any special names. It is a beautiful day and the water is filled with beautiful colors. The green vegetation is filled with a variety of colors from the many types of flowering bushes and trees that grow in the tropics. Breathtaking would be an appr
opriate word. The camera was snapping shot after shot. I had just purchased my first digital camera and was having a ball snapping the photos. Carol and I were the only people at the top of the island. After a short stay, we hopped back in the car and headed down. A day or two later I was reading the St. Martin issue of the Miami Herald and saw an article about a couple that were robbed and assaulted at the top of Pic Paradis. People were warned not to travel to the top unless yo
u were with a tour guide. Wow, did that scare us after reading that. We were lucky! This story took place 7 years ago. Since then we have been back the same road that takes you to Pic Paradis, but only to go to the Loterie Farm which is home to the islands only zip line adventure as well as a 150 acre nature preserve. The zip line is one of the longest journe
ys through the forest in the Western Hemisphere. The Hidden Forest Cafe is also part of the Loterie Farm and a great place to have lunch after your trip through the trees. I have posted a story about our adventures on the zip line. We have never again ventured to the top of the mountain. And, never will. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: road sign leading to Pic Paradis, photo I took by resting the camera on a rock and setting to 10 second timer, looking toward the east side of the island and St. Barts and Saba, photo looking toward Marigot, the road you travel to reach Pic Paradis at 1,492 feet.
r and her mother's adopted son and almost killed Carol when he planted 2 pipe bombs in his Chevy Suburban and as his family entered the car he triggered the bombs from the house. This all happened in Naples, Florida where the family moved years after we all graduated from high school. The story goes like this. Carol's grandfather, Harry Hitchcock, was a wealthy business man in Lancaster. Owned Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Company and imported tobacco when smoking was at it's height. Very wealthy! His daughter, Carol's mom, married her dad who worked at the company. The dad traveled quite a bit and I never got to know him. I suspect that Carol and her brother Steven, who came along 8 years later, never knew him that well either. Her father died young and left over 10 million to Carol's mom. Both Carol and Steven always had everything they ever wanted. At age 10, Steven was given a power boat and when he turned 16 was given an MG which he drove every day to high school. And Carol had the best clothes you ever saw. That's why we called her Money Bags. Well, it seems that Carol did more than dress nice. She had an illegitamate child when she was 21. Barry and I had heard about her extracurricular activities, even 
in high school, but we were never part of that. Honest! I think she went to college in Florida after high school and it was at this time that she entered the Miss Florida contest and came in as 1st runner-up. Her family kept Carol's child a secret (easier since she was living in Florida at the time) and her mom eventually adopted him as her son. He was the second person killed in the car bombing, along with Carol's mom. Lost yet? It continues ....... Steven in the meantime had gotten married, divorced, and re-married. Carol married a guy whose last
name was Kendall. Don't remember his first name. What a family! In 1980, shortly after her father (who she barely knew) died, Carol's mom sold her house in Lancaster and moved to Naples, Florida with her adopted son and bought a house. Shortly after, Steven and his wife defaulted on a home in Columbia, since his mother stopped paying the mortgage, and moved to Fort Myers. Shortly after that Carol moved, also! Don't remember if she was still married at the time or not. They all were following the money! Carol's mom stated to realize that her real son, Steven, was draining
her of all her money and stopped giving him any and made arrangements to cut him out of her will. And ...... Steven found out. So, wanting to be the sole heir of all the money, he planned to kill the whole batch of them; mom, sister, and adopted brother. The car blast killed the mom and adopted brother, but Carol was blown away from the car and received severe burns, mostly to her face. Almost worked, but shortly after the blast, the police found a receipt for the pipe, end caps and explosives in the house with Steven's palm print on it. A year later he was convicted of the double homicide, attempted murder, arson, and a slew of other charges. Steven recently turned 60 and will be eligible for parole when he reaches 85. As for Carol, she ran unsuccessfully in 1996 and again in 2000 for a Naples City Council seat while living in Port Royal. Last I heard, she was living in Norfolk, Va. Does money bring happiness? Evidently not for Money Bags Benson and her family. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are Steven after his arrest in Naples, Steven at trial in Florida taken by Lancaster Newspaper photographer Dan Marschka, Steven in 2008 while in prison and his 2011 prison photo. Couldn't find a photo of Carol to share with you.