By Joe Bullick

As I was sitting on my porch with a gentle breeze blowing, I could not help thinking of how fast time goes by. June, July and August had so many things going on, they just flew by. There was political news, $4 a gallon gasoline, forest fires, floods and killings. Some nights I don’t even want to watch the news.

With the higher gas prices, more people are using mass transit. Americans took nearly 85 million trips on mass transit in the first three months of this year. Many states reported that traffic deaths were the lowest in years. As a young boy, I hitchhiked a lot or rode my bike. No one hauled me around. With only one car in the family, I had to find my own way around.

My mother didn’t have it too badly though. The milk man came twice a week. The butcher, the bread man and produce man and, in the early days, the ice man all delivered to our house.

We had a small store in Pine Creek. Good old Pine Creek. Gone is Sweet Licks, the old YMCA and the garages. In place is another bank and drug store. When I was a boy, we had a bank in Mars called North Side Deposit Bank.

The word “bank” comes from the Italian word “banco” meaning desk or bench, which was used during the Renaissance by Florentine bankers.

Today it seems there is a bank and drug store on every block and in every shopping center. The only drug store I remember as a boy was one in Perrysville. I can’t remember taking any pills as a boy. Today, there is a pill for everything.

Some schools started back in August. Sports are in full swing. We take the first Monday in September off to honor American workers. In 1882, 10,000 workers marched in the nation’s first Labor Day parade. My hat is off to all the people who labor to provide for their family, especially single moms. Also a salute to all the farmers who toil in the fields to provide the food we enjoy. I enjoy the local farmer’s markets. Soon we will have that big old harvest moon.

I leave you with this saying by Alphonse Karr: “Some people always are grumbling that roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses.”

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Joe welcomes any ideas, suggestions or interesting stories.
Email him at northcon@nauticom.net. Please put "Town Crier" in the subject line of your email.

To contact Joe to schedule an appointment to tour his museum at McKnight Elementary School, call the Northern Connection office at (724) 940-2444 or email northcon@nauticom.net. Please put "Museum Tour" in the subject line.

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