Today's Features

Some lessons are never forgotten

Barely out of his teens, Mickey Perry was proud as a peacock.

He had just sold a set of new tires to a customer at his dad’s, the late Herman Perry’s North Main Gulf Station.

But a second look at the tire guide showed something else. Mickey had a problem and needed Herman Perry’s sage advice.

There’s some good news and some bad news.

The good news? Fresh blackberries are in abundance right now in thickets growing along fences, roadways and in pastures.

The bad news comes with the territory. As good as they taste, picking plump, sweet blackberries has always been, and will always be, a rather thorny subject.

You have to fight through layers of thorns that hold on for dear life as you try to pull the dark blue, purple fruit from its hiding place.    

Ouch!

There’s a piece of fluorescent orange poster paper taped on the office wall inside the Lancaster County Parks and Recreation Department swimming pool on Wylie Street.

Listed below the contact information for a welder and two swimming pool supply companies is David Taylor’s name and phone number.

That’s pretty amazing, since Taylor isn’t on the county payroll. You would think that pool manager Midenna Anderson’s name would be listed first.

Legend has it that enlisted soldiers came up with a phrase after noticing how their mess hall portions of pork always contained shoulder and leg cuts, while officers got top loin, pork chops and ham.

They called it “livin’ high off the hog.”

Given that, you wouldn’t think bacon – meat taken from the sides, belly or back of a pig that’s been cured, smoked or both – would be so sought-after by foodies, chefs in five-star eateries and TV cooking shows.