Allegany County
MDGenWeb
Richard Sleeman, his Mom, & Mary Apicella
Harriet Moore & Pat Dailey
Foreground:
Mrs. & Mr. Austin Twigg
Background: Connie Beachy
Connie Beachy & Carol Askey
Betty Jane "BJ" Diggs
Jerry Miller, Carol & Connie
Working at the table: Jerry & Austin.
Facing camera: Harriet, Carol (behind post), BJ & her significant other.
Back to camera, hands on hips: Connie.
Last but not least, our very own Abe Lincoln wanna be Hillbilly Bill Miller.
For the second picnic, we decided to
meet on the same weekend Cumberland celebrated "Heritage Days." Our rendezvous
point was pavilion 3, nestled between a couple of pretty significant hills and
located near the duck pond. The setting and the weather were perfect.
Getting to the pavilion was another story. Connie & Carol (that's me) entered
the park at virtually the same time, a real feat considering Connie came from
Garrett Co, by way of Staples and I came from Prince George's Co, near DC. After
driving around for a while in our two car caravan, stopping to check the map and
see if we could find someone who knew the whereabouts of the pavilion, Connie
spotted a sign indication the general direction. After a bit more driving in
circles, we concluded that the pavilion near the pond must be ours.
A
chain stretched across the entrance to the access "road" leading down to the
pavilion 3. We removed the chain and ventured down, Connie in her SUV and I in a
borrowed van. The road was badly washed out, and not well suited for any vehicle
with less than a foot clearance from the ground. There was no chance to back up,
so after turning around, I very carefully returned the borrowed van to the
parking area off the main road. To dissuade others from taking this road, which
deserved to be "less traveled," I put the chain back across the road.
By
now, it was about 11am. Connie & I busied ourselves setting up for the arrival
of everyone else. Along came a very friendly ranger who offered to help rid the
pavilion of the wasps nesting there. We were a bit anxious, knowing how ornery
wasps can be when tampered with. Our ranger took careful aim with his trusty
wasp bomb, fired away and in each case, the wasp dropped like a log. Not a
single wasp ventured our way for the remainder of the day.
Considering
the difficulty we had locating the pavilion, we were concerned that others may
have an equally difficult time. We took turns climbing the hill to the road to
see if passers-by were looking for our gathering. None were. Connie scouted out
the facilities, which turned out to be not easily accessible from our "valley."
By noon, we were both hungry and neither of us brought anything to eat to the
picnic. I went to the store for sandwiches and drinks, while Connie remained
behind as lookout.
Amazingly, when I returned with lunch, others began to
arrive. One might conclude that until the food arrives, there is no picnic.
Among the early birds were Ken & Lynn Burdette and their grandson Curt, Nancy
Somerville from Baltimore and Donna Morton. Once again, Ken acted as the
official event photographer and is responsible for all the photos collected this
year.
Donna and Connie share family data, while scanning (in the pre-computer age sense of the word) the Preservation Society's Heritage Press collection.
Lynn is also taking a moment to page through the Heritage Press collection. While she is engrossed in the collection, Nancy smiles for the camera. Behind Lynn is the duck pond. Note the only vehicle in the picture is Connie's. At this point, everyone else parked in the lot on the "main" park road.
The other first-timers, not captured in individual pictures, were John Keyes (all the way from North Carolina), Carl Moore (on crutches and very anxious to be free to walk unassisted again), Betty Twigg (Ed's lovely wife), and Curt Burdette. All can be found in the group photo.
Standing: Ed and Betty Twigg, Austin Twigg, John Keyes, Nancy Somerville, Carl Moore, Ken Burdette, Harriet Moore, Lynn & Curt Burdette, and Mary Twigg
Front Row: Pauline Reckley Brown, Matt Butler, Susie Brown Butler and Connie Beachy
Not pictured in the group photos: Sharon & Tom Banzhoff.
Connie and I were relieved to see that others were able to locate pavilion 3 more easily than we had. We both had tired of running up the hill to see if passing cars were looking for the genealogy picnic and had resorted to shouting "pavilion 3" at passers-by from our seats at the picnic tables. To our surprise, Harriet & Carl, Austin & Mary and Sharon & Tom all ventured down the access "road." Our friendly ranger had taken the chain down. I am happy to report that all returned safely to the main road.
Gathered around the table, examining documents and chatting about various
projects in progress and being planned are Harriet Moore, Betty Twigg,
Mary Twigg, Connie Beachy and Austin Twigg.
A couple more snapshots of the happy gathering.
Thanks for joining us and hope to see you next year!!
Before the festivities concluded,
Connie presented me with a gift package containing a cute little flower
pot and an Itty Bitty Kitty to acknowledge the things I do for the
MDGenWeb Project. As I looked around the group gathered at the picnic,
what was very obvious to me was how small my contributions are compared
to the contributions of those with whom I had the privilege of sharing
this day. Thank you all!!
I offer my thanks to Harriet for
all her help with my research, her contributions to the archives, her
work on the Old Pike Post, and most of all for her sense of humor; to
Ken Burdette for all his photographs that have helped those, unable to
participate, to share in each of our adventures; to Ed Twigg for his
dedication to the restoration and recording of Allegany County
cemeteries and his efforts in compiling the Twigg family history; to
Austin Twigg for his many contributions on the mailing list and work on
the Twigg family; to John Keyes for bearing with me as I chewed his ear
off about Barton; to Sharon Banzhoff for her untiring work on our
cemetery projects and for introducing me to the canal records; to Connie
for everything she does (the list would be too long to include
here) ... .
We all are looking forward to next year and hope
that more folks can come!
Allegany County MDGenWeb Copyright
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This page was last updated
12/02/2023