Winter 2006...

Dear Ed & Carol Belote,
Thank you for publishing Cecil Soil Magazine! I truly enjoy reading (and re-reading) each issue cover to cover. Because I do not want to miss a single issue, I’m enclosing a check for a one-year subscription.

I’d also consider it an honor to advertise with you! Could you please send me your rates and publishing dates? Thanks.

Congratulations on a job well done —and then some!!
Tina Gibson
ABC Environmental Services
Elkton, Maryland

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I was very surprised and happy when a friend of mine gave me one of your magazines. The picture on page 9 of the Winter 2005 issue of CSM is the assembly line I worked on. I riveted tails on incendiary bombs. We would cluster several of them together and make a 500-pound bomb, and that is what Uncle Sam got. Those were good days and nice people.

I’m from Raysal, West Virginia, 10 miles south of War, West Virginia. My boyfriend was drafted into the Army, so a girlfriend and I came to Elkton, Maryland to Triumph Explosives on a bus. I worked from September 1942 until September 1944. I was there when the big explosion occurred, but I didn’t know what caused it or how many were killed until I found it in Cecil Soil Magazine. I worked in an area away from where the explosion was. I rode the ferry across the C&D canal before the bridge was built. I lived in Newark, Delaware on Choate Street. I’m 79 years old now and I live close by the Triumph Park.

Thanks for your magazine – it brings back old memories. If you are sending them out, please put me on your mailing list, or tell me where I can find them. I’m sending these pictures, so please send them back.

I’m wondering how many people can recognize themselves in these pictures.

Ovella Reedy Griggs
Elkton, MD

(Publisher's Note: See pages 54-55 in this issue for Ovella’s pictures.)

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Ed,
I’m sending you this e-mail to let you know how much I enjoy your magazine. I live in NJ and have a summer place here in Cecil County. I find the magazine very helpful to me in knowing what is happening via your calendar of events. I particularly like reading the columns Home-Grown Humor and the Restaurant Reviews.

I enjoyed the article on Ripples Farm Market. It was such a great addition to the area. I never miss going there on any trip down. Keep up the good work. It’s great to have a magazine that is not only interesting to read, but keeps us out-of-towners informed on where to go, dine and shop.

Thanks,
Louise Fabiano
Pitman, NJ

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Dear Ed & Carol,
In this first exciting year of the publication of Cecil Soil Magazine, various fine articles have suddenly brought other happenings to memory. This has certainly happened in the case of the Lamonicas. As I write, it may seem like a very “small thing”. Yet if memory has been stirred, it may in reality be considered something very worthwhile and important.

My four children are now approaching middle age, so this incident happened many years ago. The children were very young, with the oldest perhaps being six down to the age of one. My husband and I did not eat out a great deal. Thankfully, we were usually home gathered about our own table.

On this particular evening, we and the children were dining at a restaurant in Elkton. I believe it was the Howard House. Because of the infrequency of such outings, my children were “good as gold”. They were undoubtedly tired of Mom’s “plain fare” and welcomed this opportunity to really “chow down”!

A gentleman who had also been a diner came to our table as he left the restaurant. He was Mr. Anthony LaMonica, Vince’s father, who had started the LaMonica Realty. He praised my husband and me for the children’s exemplary behavior. I do not believe I ever had occasion to speak with Mr. LaMonica again. But such a thoughtful comment represented a real encouragement to this young mother. It reminds all of us how nice it would be to be remembered for our “encouraging words”!

So you see, Vince and Sidonia, the articles about you in Cecil Soil Magazine have provoked a very pleasant memory. May other articles do the same for our readers, and let’s share them on these pages!

Doris Twitchell
Rising Sun, MD

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Dear Mr. Belote,
I am writing this about my uncle, Wayne Hall. I thought you might like to write about his accomplishment in Cecil Soil Magazine.

Uncle Wayne Is now in Laurelwood Care Center in Elkton. He has been there for a year. He was living up until that time on Walnut Street in North East, Maryland.

In 1970 he shot the largest deer ever recorded in Maryland and as far as we know, that record still stands. When he had to leave his home in North East for the nursing home, he had no place for his trophy deer, but after discussing this with the officers at the VFW in North East, where my uncle spent a lot of time, and still does if someone will take him, they were proud to display his deer. I thought you might like to interview my uncle, as he loves to tell people about how he got this deer. He is suffering from cancer but is still able to get around fairly well. He is 76 years of age.

Thank you for considering this. He loves your magazine and always has us bring him a copy.

Thank you,
Beverly Mast
Oxford, PA

(Publisher’s Note: Thank you Beverly, we love getting story leads from our readers. Check out Wayne Hall’s big buck on page 51 of this issue.)

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Dear Belotes,
I enjoy your magazine, especially because it is about Cecil County and people I know. It is great to know that Eddie & Joyce’s parents are the publishers of CSM. I taught both of them at Calvert Elementary years ago.

Sincerely,
Alberta May
North East, MD

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Mr. Belote,
Last November 2004 Joanne Young came to our annual Cecil County Fair Board Banquet with about 10 copies of your magazine and everyone wanted a copy. They were an instant success! I try to get copies and give them to my 83 year old father who farmed in lower Cecil County for 40 some years. He reads your magazine from cover to cover and thinks the articles are very interesting. He knows some of the people mentioned in the magazine. It has been hit or miss that I find them. Can you please email a list of places I can find the magazine in the Chesapeake City and Cecilton area? Right around fair time was an excellent article about our beloved Fair Board President, Carl Stafford, his family, and their dog Daisy. As the article stated, you can’t mention the Stafford family without bringing up the Cecil County Fair. Keep up the excellent work!

Nancy Wallace
Chesapeake City

(Publishers Note: Thank you for the kind words, Nancy. Copies of Cecil Soil Magazine are snatched up quickly in our more than 400 drop-off sites, and we get many calls from folks trying to run down a copy. We tell these folks to visit our advertisers in our book and they will find them there. If you would like to help support CSM and assure yourself of getting every copy, please consider purchasing a subscription. See page 48 of this issue.)

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Mr. Belote,
Thank you for the Cecil Soil Magazines. I had an Aunt and Uncle that worked at Triumph during WWII and they kept us informed. I know it was a very sad time.

This magazine is wonderful. I have showed it to lots of my friends that have not seen it, and also two of my sons-in-law. They are on the West Coast.

Thanks again!
Norma George
Elkton, Maryland

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I love the Cecil Soil Magazines. The article on the Fire Company Chiefs was really nice. I volunteer for the North East Fire Company Ladies Auxiliary and Boy Scouts. It is nice to know the consideration that you have for the community.

Thanks Again,
Ruth Gonce
North East, Maryland

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Dear Mr. Belote,

I just want to take this time to personally “Thank You” for creating Cecil Soil Magazine. I know you had help from others but I’m sure it was your brainstorm.

I especially appreciate your support for the soldiers. You keep us close to the “goings on” in Iraq, not just thru the unit my husband is in but all the stories from the soldiers in Cecil and Harford County. You put names with faces and that makes it more personal. I can’t tell you how many people have asked me about the magazine and how much they enjoy reading the articles.

My family and I look forward to every new issue and read it from cover to cover! It’s fun to read about our local surroundings and the folks that live here.

Thanks again for following through on your dream and from the bottom of my heart...thanks for all you’ve done for the soldiers. You’re the best.

Carla J. Garzia
Frederica, DE