Blast from the Past

August 18, 1999

Week of Aug. 15, 1949

Northern sections of Washington County and adjacent Franklin County, Pa., are having grasshopper problems.

Hancock orchardists were the first to report the invasion by millions of grasshoppers about three weeks ago. Poison spray, under the supervision of the University of Maryland laboratory at Hancock, brought the grasshopper situation under control in that orchard section.

Fourteen-year-old John Churchey has added a twist to the shoe-shine business. Instead of waiting for customers to come to him, he travels with his portable shoe-shine kit from one building to another in the downtown section offering to shine a customer's shoes "on the spot." He says half of the money he earns goes to his mother, while he will use the other half to buy school clothes this fall.

Members of the local Civilian Air Patrol squadron are dismantling the old one-room Fountaindale schoolhouse, along Middleburg Pike, preparatory to setting it up as their headquarters near the Municipal Airport.

Week of Aug. 15, 1974

Every morning an employee hired just for the task changes the black plastic letters on car-dealer Paul Yost's billboard on Main Street in Hancock. The acknowledged advertising gimmick has become a sort of community bulletin board, says Yost. The board, which voices everything from religious to economic philosophy, includes birthday, get-well and anniversary greetings to local residents.

There's no doubt that the Valley Mall shopping complex which opened this week with a great deal of fanfare will be an economic asset to this community. As for patronage, shoppers are coming from all over. On opening day there were customers from as far away as Moorefield, W.Va., and those who ventured from distant communities expressed amazement at the $22 million complex.

The county school board's adoption of the new federally funded Reduced Price Lunch Program will make it possible for a number of students whose families qualify financially to pay only 10 cents for a school lunch beginning this September.

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