Pamphlet

By STEVEN T. DENNIS Staff Writer INDIAN SPRINGS - Fred Cornett remembers heading out to the Indian Springs Fishing Pond with his wife Margaret and his newborn baby 35 years ago. They would carry their daughter, Cathy, in a cardboard box. "We would sit her out in the box here and fish," Cornett said. Cornett, 62, got to know Ronald F. Shank, the man who lived in the house by the pond. Sometimes, "he would baby-sit the baby while my wife and I fished," he said. Thirty-five years later, Cornett is helping to head up an effort by the Washington County Forestry Board, the Clear Spring FFA and the Maryland Forest Service to upgrade the Ronald F. Shank nature trail at the fishing pond on Mooresville Road, about eight miles northwest of Clear Spring.

The Hagerstown Branch of AAUW will host its spring Used Book Sale on Wednesday through Sunday at the Washington County Ag Center on Sharpsburg Pike. Wednesday through Friday, the sale will be held from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday will be half-price day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday will be Bag Day from noon to 3 p.m. Bags will be $5 per bag or six bags for $20. The sale has been ongoing for more than 40 years. Books of all categories are collected throughout the year. They are processed, sorted, priced and boxed by AAUW members.

HAGERSTOWN -- As Michael Holland walked the outdoor Cretan labyrinth at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Hagerstown Sunday afternoon, he paused to read the plaque affixed to a large flat stone at its center. That plaque expresses in words the impact the late Sharon Rucker made on the growth and health of the church she loved so dearly. She died in May 2008 at the age 58. Even the stone that holds the plaque is a tribute to Rucker and her beloved congregation. It was the bottom step of the church's former location on North Potomac Street, saved 12 years ago during the move to 13245 Cearfoss Pike.

andrews@herald-mail.com A year after beginning its quest, the Washington County Commission for Women has some answers, but wants more. In the spring of 2002, the commission put out a call for "famous firsts" - accomplishments by pioneering local women. The list is to be published under the name "Working Women of Washington County: First in Their Fields," probably as a book or a pamphlet. Catherine Cushwa Schoen, the president of the commission, said she wasn't just seeking history that would give girls role models.

andrews@herald-mail.com Heating oil usage in the Northeast this winter is projected to drop slightly from last winter, but prices are expected to jump, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted that heating oil consumption in the region, on average, will drop by 0.3 percent, while prices will go up 28.8 percent. Steffey & Findlay of Hagerstown was charging $1.40 per gallon for oil at the same time last year, President Phil Adams said.

It used to be that if William "Mike" Kronk were attending a lecture or concert, he'd appear to be digging in his ears. This is what would happen before he got his new hearing aids. When the noise would get too loud or too soft, he had to poke his finger in his ear to turn the volume up or down on the clunky old hearing aids resting in his ears. "Those things were so uncomfortable," said Kronk, 60, of Martinsburg, W.Va. "I just stopped wearing them altogether. " His new hearing aids can discern between background and conversational noise levels.

To the editor: I have been following with great interest the articles on the growing rate of teen pregnancy in this county. Unlike most counties in the state, Washington County seems to have outdone itself on the sexual education program. For some reason, the powers that be think that younger is better. Well, I for one, don't agree. They start introducing our children to sexual education before they leave elementary school. They think they have to run competition with television, music, etc. Again, I don't agree.

Military must improve its screening procedures for young recruits To the editor: It's time to do some psyche testing before we send young recruits into battle overseas. Two things to be assessed: (1) Do they know the difference between right and wrong and (2) Are they able to conform their conduct to the requirements of right? I don't want to get into specific cases or comment on the merits of any issue that might currently be in the military justice system.

I never look at the mail except about once a month when I go through a big pile of it and I have fun filling out the credit card offers in the name of Nevil Chamberlain or M. Goose. Call me a "techie" if you must, but I pay bills online so there's never anything important in the mailbox that needs immediate attention. So it was startling the other day when I was going through a bale of mail and came across a thick, manila envelope addressed to me from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com MERCERSBURG, Pa. - From a close-up of a butterfly and a bee perched on a thistle to a colorful array of autumn leaves reflected in a lake, the entries in the first Tuscarora Wildlife Education Project photo contest exposed varying views of nature. The 57 entries were displayed at the Charles Brightbill Environmental Center in Mercersburg Sunday, amid dozens of stuffed deer, beavers and other wildlife that fill the center. St. Thomas, Pa., resident Jeni Keefer, 26, said when she heard about the contest from her sister, she knew it was right up her alley.