Barn Dance

Strap on your dancing shoes (no sneakers or rubber soled shoes, please) and visit Hancock Town Hall and Community Center, 126 W. High St., Friday night for a Ballroom at the Barn dance. Here is a chance for you to enjoy your skills from the dance class or just learn some new steps. The dance features ballroom, Latin, country/western, and some round and line dances. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. with dancing from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Admission costs $10 with free refreshments. Proceeds benefit the Hancock Arts Council.

CLEAR SPRING - A barn dance sponsored by the Clear Spring American Legion Auxiliary will be Friday, Sept. 30, from 7 to 11 p.m., at the Clear Spring American Legion Picnic Grounds. Admission costs $5 for adults and $3 for ages 12 and younger. Food and drink stands will be available.

Wakichipi Pow-wow and Show Twenty American Indian dancers are expected, as well as Aztec dancers from Mexico City. Also, craft demonstrations and sale of crafts, food, storytelling, pony rides, face painting and a tepee. Today, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Berkeley County Youth Fairgrounds, Golf Course Road, Martinsburg, W.Va. Today, $7; Saturday and Sunday, $8 for adults and $5 for children. Insulator show The Chesapeake Bay Insulator Club will sponsor a regional show.

katec@herald-mail.com WILLIAMSPORT - Last April, the C&O Canal Association sponsored a hike to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a 1954 walk along the canal. That hike a half a century ago was the result of U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas' challenge to the writer of a Washington Post editorial that supported the creation of a parkway along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal or its towpath. Douglas invited the editors to join him and experience the natural beauty of the wilderness path.

Barn dance to benefit Williamsport Blue Band Williamsport's C&O Canal Days committee will host a community barn dance at the historic Springfield Farm barn from 8-11 p.m. Friday. The dance will feature live music with a square dance caller, hay rides, door prizes, games and refreshments. All proceeds from food sales benefit the Williamsport Blue Band. "Spring Fling 2002" buttons, which will serve as tickets, are available through committee members and at Town Hall and Mr. 3T's Market (formerly Byers' Market)

Ruritan pancake breakfast planned The Maugansville Ruritan Club will host its first pancake breakfast of the new year Saturday, Jan. 26, from 6:30 to 11 a.m. at its blue building at 18007 Maugans Ave. The all-you-can-eat breakfast includes pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, sausage gravy, juice, coffee and tea. The breakfast costs $5.50 for adults, $3 for those ages 6 to 12, and are free for ages 5 and younger. There is plenty of free parking and the lines move quickly.

erinc@herald-mail.com WILLIAMSPORT Large piles of bat droppings scattered throughout the Springfield Farm Barn caused foul-ups for Williamsport officials and the cancellation of the annual C&O Canal Days barn dance Friday. In years past, town employees have been sent to clean out the barn, on Springfield Lane adjacent to Byron Memorial Park, whenever an event was scheduled there, but Mayor James G. McCleaf II said employees no longer were going to be asked to take on that task.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com KEARNEYSVILLE, W.VA. "Folk music," said Maureen Harrigan, owner of Almost Heaven Farm, site of her annual Country Roads Folk Festival, "bridges the gap between lifestyles and age groups. " Harrigan, who moved into the 18th-century farmhouse seven years ago, held the folk festival on her 101/2-acre farm Saturday for the sixth year. "It's real important to bring the community together with a nice, wholesome event," she said. Festival-goers, in addition to hearing traditional and contemporary folk, Celtic, bluegrass and Israeli folk music, enjoyed a barn dance, camping, hayrides and a cool dip in Opequon Creek, which runs along the property.

We've always suspected Williamsport had bats in the belfry - but bats in the dance hall? Apparently, because the big annual C&O Canal Days hootenanny was canceled last week because the barn where the dance was traditionally held was full of bat droppings. Nice. What was the first dance going to be, the Guano del Fuego? As usual, when I am writing about Williamsport, I can't 100 percent guarantee that I have the facts correct, because no one there ever seems to know if they have the facts correct.

Club meetings and groups Ladies of the Elks The Ladies of the Elks and Associates will hold a pie and cake night today, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Hagerstown Elks Lodge, 11063 Robinwood Drive. Chances costs 25 cents each. Proceeds go to local charities. Call 301-739-0844. Hancock Historical Society HANCOCK - Sunday, April 25, 2 p.m. Town Hall & Community Center, 126 W. High St. Guest speaker Ernest Shives Jr.'s topic will be memories of growing up in a canal family.

Ruritan pancake breakfast planned The Maugansville Ruritan Club will host its first pancake breakfast of the new year Saturday, Jan. 26, from 6:30 to 11 a.m. at its blue building at 18007 Maugans Ave. The all-you-can-eat breakfast includes pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, sausage gravy, juice, coffee and tea. The breakfast costs $5.50 for adults, $3 for those ages 6 to 12, and are free for ages 5 and younger. There is plenty of free parking and the lines move quickly.

Strap on your dancing shoes (no sneakers or rubber soled shoes, please) and visit Hancock Town Hall and Community Center, 126 W. High St., Friday night for a Ballroom at the Barn dance. Here is a chance for you to enjoy your skills from the dance class or just learn some new steps. The dance features ballroom, Latin, country/western, and some round and line dances. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. with dancing from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Admission costs $10 with free refreshments. Proceeds benefit the Hancock Arts Council.

Club meetings and groups Ladies of the Elks The Ladies of the Elks and Associates will hold a pie and cake night today, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Hagerstown Elks Lodge, 11063 Robinwood Drive. Chances costs 25 cents each. Proceeds go to local charities. Call 301-739-0844. Hancock Historical Society HANCOCK - Sunday, April 25, 2 p.m. Town Hall & Community Center, 126 W. High St. Guest speaker Ernest Shives Jr.'s topic will be memories of growing up in a canal family.

Wakichipi Pow-wow and Show Twenty American Indian dancers are expected, as well as Aztec dancers from Mexico City. Also, craft demonstrations and sale of crafts, food, storytelling, pony rides, face painting and a tepee. Today, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Berkeley County Youth Fairgrounds, Golf Course Road, Martinsburg, W.Va. Today, $7; Saturday and Sunday, $8 for adults and $5 for children. Insulator show The Chesapeake Bay Insulator Club will sponsor a regional show.

CLEAR SPRING - A barn dance sponsored by the Clear Spring American Legion Auxiliary will be Friday, Sept. 30, from 7 to 11 p.m., at the Clear Spring American Legion Picnic Grounds. Admission costs $5 for adults and $3 for ages 12 and younger. Food and drink stands will be available.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com KEARNEYSVILLE, W.VA. "Folk music," said Maureen Harrigan, owner of Almost Heaven Farm, site of her annual Country Roads Folk Festival, "bridges the gap between lifestyles and age groups. " Harrigan, who moved into the 18th-century farmhouse seven years ago, held the folk festival on her 101/2-acre farm Saturday for the sixth year. "It's real important to bring the community together with a nice, wholesome event," she said. Festival-goers, in addition to hearing traditional and contemporary folk, Celtic, bluegrass and Israeli folk music, enjoyed a barn dance, camping, hayrides and a cool dip in Opequon Creek, which runs along the property.

We've always suspected Williamsport had bats in the belfry - but bats in the dance hall? Apparently, because the big annual C&O Canal Days hootenanny was canceled last week because the barn where the dance was traditionally held was full of bat droppings. Nice. What was the first dance going to be, the Guano del Fuego? As usual, when I am writing about Williamsport, I can't 100 percent guarantee that I have the facts correct, because no one there ever seems to know if they have the facts correct.

julieg@herald-mail.com Summer's end is less than a month away, but the festival season goes on and on. This Saturday, people can enjoy folk music, hayrides, children's activities, camping, a campfire singalong and a folk gospel pancake breakfast at the sixth annual Country Roads Folk Festival at Almost Heaven Farm in Kearneysville, W.Va. The free music festival features The Martin Family Stringband; the Ripoff Con Artists (the Martin children); Stoneybrook; Aca-Perco (Jennie Avila & Stephen Wright)

erinc@herald-mail.com WILLIAMSPORT Large piles of bat droppings scattered throughout the Springfield Farm Barn caused foul-ups for Williamsport officials and the cancellation of the annual C&O Canal Days barn dance Friday. In years past, town employees have been sent to clean out the barn, on Springfield Lane adjacent to Byron Memorial Park, whenever an event was scheduled there, but Mayor James G. McCleaf II said employees no longer were going to be asked to take on that task.

katec@herald-mail.com WILLIAMSPORT - Last April, the C&O Canal Association sponsored a hike to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a 1954 walk along the canal. That hike a half a century ago was the result of U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas' challenge to the writer of a Washington Post editorial that supported the creation of a parkway along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal or its towpath. Douglas invited the editors to join him and experience the natural beauty of the wilderness path.