Trivia, teachers and Tayamentasachta are part of Old Home Week
Shawn HardyFrank Mowen was president of the 33rd triennial Greencastle-Antrim Old Home Week in 1998.
Tuesday morning, the 93-year-old sat in the lobby at the OHW flower show and chatted with his 85-year-old brother Ray Mowen, who wore his 1954 graduation hat. Both sported OHW T-shirts.
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A little bit later, the young Crider boys, Huck, Crowe and Flint, got some history lessons during an open house at Tayamentasachta, the Greencastle-Antrim School District’s center for environmental studies.
A day earlier, kids of all ages headed to Jerome R. King Playground to make their artistic mark on a community mural at Paint in the Park.
There’s something to interest everyone as the 41st triennial Old Home Week, Greencastle-Antrim’s 120-year tradition, continues.
So, you think you know Greencastle?
If you know Jerome R. King Playground opened in 1923 and Greencastle Livestock Market opened in 1940, you’re off to a good start on the first two questions in “Greencastle-Antrim Trivia.”
The fun facts were part of “Good Morning Greencastle” on Monday at Otterbein United Brethren Church.
Some of the other community trivia:
Q: When was the land now known as the School Farm, “Tayamentasachta,” purchased by the Greencastle-Antrim School District?
A: 1966
Q: What was the first fast-food restaurant in Greencastle?
A: Hardee’s, which opened in June 1986, followed by McDonald’s in September of the same year.
Q: How many parking meters are there in the Borough of Greencastle?
A: 131
Q: According to Marty Boscolo at Mikie’s Ice Cream, what is the most popular “hand-dipped” ice cream?
A: Cotton Candy
The morning of laughs also featured the skit “Super Pastor,” played by Barry Stottlemyer with Dot Robinson as a woman full of compliments for the pastor and Bryce Michalsky as a man full of criticisms. Moral of the story: show pastors a love, appreciation and understanding.
A knock-off of the old TV game show “Match Game” found some not-so-good matches among community celebrities. Mayor Ben Thomas Jr. and former borough council president Steve Miller took the top spot by “matching” on just three of the 10 questions. The pairs Bill Gour and Vernon McCauley, and Mike Bock and Greg Hoover, tied for second with two matches each.
An intra-community mural
Many hands — young, old and in between — put brush strokes on a paint-by-numbers canvas at the OHW Paint in the Park create a mural that will be displayed at a yet-to-be determined location.
The three pieces of the mural featured the letters OHW and the fourth, an image of the town clock, was where all the artists could put their names in black Sharpie.
Jodi (Shockey) Plum, who created the design, and Amy (Stine) Beard, who selected the colors, were on hand to answer questions and straighten up rough edges Monday at Jerome R. King Playground.
Both are graduates of Greencastle-Antrim High School and now teach art in the district, so they were excited that one of the nearly 230 people adding color to the mural was their old art teacher, John Gamble.
Teachers earn all A’s
Call it a vocabulary list of words to describe teaching:
- Fantastic
- Love
- Rewarding
- Relationships
- Adventures
Those were some of the answers given by members of a panel of retired and current Greencastle-Antrim School District teachers provided at the Loyal Daughters Old Home Week meeting with the theme “Teach Love Inspire.”
President Dotti Zimmerman “played Oprah” as she quizzed retirees including Dean Gearhart, 82 ½, who taught fifth grade for 36 years, retired in 1997 and has substituted ever since; Nancy Henry, who taught kindergarten for 36 years and continues to volunteer; Ann Schnabel, who started 41 years ago teaching fourth grade at the former Brown’s Mill School; and Greg Hoover, who began his career as a phys ed teacher and retired as superintendent 38 years later.
“If you go into the classroom, put children first and love them, it’s going to be OK,” Hoover said.
Current educators on the panel, all G-AHS alumni, were Kerri Barnes, K-12 at Tayamentasachta; Sallianne Bowman, kindergarten; Jennifer Everetts, high school guidance; and Ben Herrmann, sixth grade.
“Hola, Señora Marks,” Herrmann shouted out to Penny Marks, his high school Spanish teacher, who was in the audience. She taught Spanish for more than half a century, including 34 years in Greencastle.
A number of retired and current teachers, a handful of males and hundreds of females — from infants to Alma Hoffman, who just turned 100 — attended the meeting of the Loyal Daughters. The group, now 102 years old, meets triennially during Old Home Week with dues going to donations in the community.
They also heard from Dr. Lura Hanks, G-A School District superintendent, who talked about education “yesterday, today and tomorrow” to how a thriving community can only happen with a thriving school system.
What’s the story of the log cabin at Tayamentasachta?
Before she joined the afternoon panel at the Loyal Daughters, Barnes hosted “Roots of Tayamentasachta: Exploring the History of the School Farm.”
Visitors could follow the environmental center’s journey from the days of Native Americans to today’s environmental education by watching a DVD based on research by high school students.
The students, members of the Greencastle-Antrim High School chapter of Rho Kappa, the national social studies honor society, also curated a number of displays of artifacts, documents and other memorabilia from the school district’s past.
“We come here often to walk around, but we’ve never been in the buildings,” said Darcie Crider, who was on hand with her sons, Huck, Crowe and Flint.
They were all-eyes inside the log cabin, speculating on what it might have been used for.
Barnes explained it was built over a 10-year period by eighth-graders participating in the annual Cumberland Life Festival to simulate early American life.
“Each year, on the day of the festival, different groups of students worked on this project,” says a plaque outside the cabin. “After a decade of construction, the log cabin and fireplace were complete.”
Don’t eat your Brussels sprouts, arrange them
The fellowship hall of First United Methodist Church was “Back in Bloom” as tables of flowers lined the room for the Old Home Week flower show.
Judges Bonnie Shockey, Melissa Ball and Holly Shearer awarded best of show to Jennifer Showalter for her entry in the “Farmers Market” category.
Showalter’s arrangement of lime green hydrangea, strawflowers, lisianthus, ammi green mist and golden rod, was accented with Brussels sprouts and carrots.
Best of show in the youth division was won by Corinna Ruela for her “Growing Green” entry. Youngsters 12 and younger were to use recycled materials, and Corinna selected rubber boots to hold her arrangement.
There was a total of 60 total exhibits, and the winners were:
Division I
My Favorite Things
- 1st - Sue Hartman
- 2nd - Diana Doyle
- 3rd - Carly Statler
Hats Off
- 1st - Jennifer Showalter
- 2nd - Karen Statler
- 3rd - Reagan Doyle
Farmers Market
- 1st - Jennifer Showalter
- 2nd - Reagan Doyle
- 3rd - Beth Mummert
Trendsetter
- 1st - Karen Statler
- 2nd - Diana Doyle
- 3rd - LeeAnn Huber
Small Wonders
- 1st - Rhonda Fuller
- 2nd - Nikki Ghezzi
- 3rd - Beth Mummert
Division II - Youth
Going Green
- 1st - Corinna Ruelas
- 2nd - Lily Kaiser
- 3rd - Inga Smith
Fairy Gardens
- 1st - Garrett Wingert
- 2nd - Chandler Doyle
- 3rd - Nash Doyle
Shawn Hardy is a reporter with Gannett's Franklin County newspapers in south-central Pennsylvania — the Echo Pilot in Greencastle, The Record Herald in Waynesboro and the Public Opinion in Chambersburg. She has more than 35 years of journalism experience. Reach her at shardy@gannett.com