Society

A mass of people holding cat carriers waited in line Saturday at the Antietam Humane Society for a spay and neuter clinic. Debbie DeWees, executive director of the humane society, said feral and homeless cats are such a huge part of the growing pet overpopulation problem that the clinic is held every other month. “It's a humongous problem,” DeWees said. From 8 to 9 a.m., 83 cats were dropped off in their cat carriers, which were stacked three high in the shelter waiting for Dr. Matthew Murphy of Keystone Mobile Veterinary Services in Chambersburg, Pa., to perform the procedures.

Ever since the great British historian Edward Gibbon wrote “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” (1776), writers have adapted a portion of this title to describe “The Decline and Fall” of everything from a regime to a prominent family or person. So there should no alarm when it is applied to a political party. The Republican Party, now 159 years of age, shows all of the signs of decline and possible death. A party that began with a vision of free men and free territories has declined to an aggregate of naysayers dominated by a cadre of political absolutists who continue to bring the nation to the edge of financial chaos if they don't get their way. When their demise is final, I suggest this limerick be on the gravestone: Here lies the party of “no.” They knoweth not which way to row. There's no doubt about it, Their record doth shout it, 'Twas truly their time to go. It might turn out that this ailing party might not be pronounced dead.

It has taken 18 years of being misdiagnosed, but local resident and business-owner Marsha Knicley, 64, of Hagerstown, can finally say she has Lyme disease. Those who know Knicley they would describe her as a smart and savvy businesswoman with a big personality and a big heart. Knicley has owned Sagittarius Salon & Spa in Hagerstown for 40 years. Yet behind the hairspray and glamor is a woman fighting to survive a debilitating disease. Lyme disease was first discovered in Lyme, Conn., in 1975, and it was there it found its name.

The Humane Society of Washington County will hold five rabies, microchip and dog license clinics in 2011. Clinics will be held on: April 30 — Boonsboro High School, (small back parking lot), 10 Campus Ave., Boonsboro, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 21 — Hancock Middle/Senior High School, 289 W. Main St., Hancock, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 23 — Smithsburg High School, 66 N. Main St., Smithsburg, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 20 — Humane Society of Washington County, 13011 Maugansville Road, Hagerstown, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept.

Living history interpreter Raleigh Boaze will speak to the Sharpsburg Historical Society at Sharpsburg Town Hall Tuesday, March 12. Boaze will appear in the persona of a backwoodsman dressed in period clothing and carrying the weapons and accouterments a hunter of the time would have carried. Boaze will discuss the events surrounding Joseph Chapline's 1763 chartering of Sharpsburg, the oldest town in what is now Washington County. Boaze will describe the frontier settlers' strife at the hands of the Native Americans aligned with the French, the French and Indian War, and the period leading up to the American Revolution.

A fight filmed on the steps of the historic Berkeley County Courthouse played out on televisions across the country Sunday night as part of TLC's “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding.” Two young Romanichal gypsy women shoved and punched each other following a wedding in the reality series that depicts the everyday lives of families like Mellie Stanley's. She was charged with disorderly conduct after the brawl. Cameras caught Mellie and the maid of honor, Diamond, in what Mellie called “a huge argument.” It centered around comments allegedly made about the bride's mother-in-law.

APRIL 25, 1924-FEB. 2, 2009 QUINCY, Pa. - Marjorie J. "Margie" Crawford, 84, of Marshview Drive, and a patient at Colestock Nursing Center, Quincy Village, for the past three months, died Monday, Feb. 2, 2009, at Waynesboro (Pa.) Hospital. Born April 25, 1924, in Pittsburgh, she was the daughter of the late Earl and Frances Polen. She earned her bachelor's degree in home economics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and took classes toward her master's degree at Penn State University.

Jane (Baker) Long, 90, of Hagerstown, Md., died Sunday, May 26, 2013. Born in 1923 in Hagerstown, she was the daughter of the late Clinton Baker and Blanche (Conrad) Baker Rouzer. Mrs. Long was a 1940 graduate of Hagerstown High School, and attended Hagerstown Business College. She was employed as a secretary by Pangborn Corp., and later as an executive secretary to the president of Jamison Door Co. In the 1980s, she taught English as a second language at Trinity Lutheran Church.

Mrs. Anna Louise (Schroyer) Harris, 82, a resident of Providence Place Chambersburg, Pa., and formerly of 10952 Buchanan Trail East, Waynesboro, Pa., passed away at 10:40 p.m. Tuesday, June 26, 2012, at the nursing home. Born Jan. 6, 1930, in Waynesboro, she was the daughter of the late Cyril H. and Anna (DeLawter) Schroyer. She spent most of her life in the Waynesboro area. Mrs. Harris was a graduate of Washington Township High School with the Class of 1947. She then received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in music from Wilson College, Chambersburg, her Bachelor of Science Degree in education from Tyson University and her master's degree in education from Western Maryland University.

Who can say why it might have happened - when a kindergarten student at a public school in Washington County was accused of sexual harassment? The 5-year-old student allegedly pinched the buttocks of a female classmate in a hallway at Lincolnshire Elementary School on Dec. 8. The incident, however, raises a broader question: What do children at that young of an age really know about sex? They might know more than you think, researchers say. Sexual development begins well before children reach their teenage years, experts say. Kids draw on influences from every direction - from family, media and their peers, and personal experience as they get older.