ON PROWL: Despite the relative lateness of the season, we
continue to get reports of bears all over town.

Last week, we had a report of a large bear at 22 Boser Road in
Derrick City at the home of Richard and Marge Gilbert. According to
Mr. Gilbert, Marge was going out onto the back deck to let their
dog out when she saw the bear, which was eating bird seed.

“He had hands full of bird seed,” Richard tells us. This was the
third time they had seen the bear on their property.

It’s been a little while now but we also had a bear report from
Sandra McClintick who lives on West Washington Street, almost as
far out as Gilbert. Sandra tells us her husband John had gotten out
of bed in the middle of the night, walked into the kitchen and
looked out the window – directly into the face of a bear standing
in the garbage bin!

HAPPY PIGS: Ronald S. Worden of Shinglehouse writes: “During the
Prohibition days, the late 1920s and early 1930s, my family lived
on a small farm near Shinglehouse in the beautiful valley of Horse
Run. My father, Ross Worden, worked on our farm, plus he worked for
a couple of brothers that had bought a backwoods farm with a large
barn and a few oil wells. “

“They had a nice team of red roan horses and a moonshine still
in the barn. My father took care of the horses and pumped the oil
wells. Another one of his jobs was to haul away the corn mash after
it had the moonshine cooked out of it.

“The natural gas from the wells was used to cook the mash. My
dad hauled most of the corn residue home as it made great pig feed.
The pigs loved it. We always had lots of smoked hams and bacon. One
morning when dad went to work, the still had been moved, and the
barn was empty. Of course, the brothers didn’t mention where it
went. They owed my father some back wages, so gave him the team of
horses instead. That was a long time ago, but I’ll always remember
the happy pigs.”