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CSM believes the most important editorial in our magazine are the great letters we get from you.
It is your voices that make the most interesting stories and capture the heart of Cecil County.
We encourage you to share your thoughts and memories with us all, before they are lost.
Thank you — ETB

For more letters, visit our website: www.cecilsoilmagazine.com
and possibly win a free Cecil Soil t-shirt.

Sincerely yours,
Ed Belote Sr, Publisher

P.S.— We've provided a simple and convenient form that you may use, if you wish.

September / October 2007...

Dear Ed, Apryl and Dave; all the fine folks at Cecil Soil Magazine!
Life this summer has been kind of hectic, but I really wanted to thank you all for the wonderful story about our community (Red Point Patriots) in your July/August issue. We were glad that you were able to come out and spend the afternoon with us as we sent off my husband Platoon Sgt.Terry Forrester and his two buddies, Sgt. Mark Rodalunas and Sgt. Stephen Roberts (All from North East Md.). We know Memorial Day is a big day for family, so we extend our thanks to yours for letting you all spend it with us.

So many friends and family members have asked for more copies of your magazine to share and we have received so many comments about the positive tone of your stories! What a change in our somewhat cynical world to see the qualities of friendship, patriotism and pride in our community celebrated. Hopefully with unprecedented numbers of soldiers from Cecil County being deployed to Iraq, your story will encourage people to reach out to support these families who are affected. While having to see my husband go off to war again is difficult and some days unbearably lonely and long, I am so blessed to have the support of neighbors I can really count on.

Please thank Dave Mullins for the wonderful pictures. We enjoyed visiting his website (www.mlmproductions.com) to see all of the photos he took that day… many of them will be part of our family scrapbook. My daughter Jordan gets a big kick out of seeing herself with her Daddy in the magazine and we have the cover hanging up in her room.
Again, thanks for the great story and for being part of this time in our lives. We will keep you updated as the deployment gets underway. The guys are still at Ft. Dix in the hot weather, working 20+ hour days in 70 pounds of gear. We are expecting that they will be home for a 4-day pass in early Sept prior to their departure for the “sandbox.”

We plan to pamper them a little after three intense months of training! Terry passes along his greetings and says he will try to drop you a line once he gets settled over there. I sent him a big stack of Cecil Soils and the guys in his troop really enjoyed reading it.
Take Care and we will be in touch. Keep up the good work!
Wen Forester
North East, MD

Dear CSM,
On Memorial Day I had the privilege of shooting some photos at a gathering for three of our soldiers being deployed to Iraq. This shoot was for Cecil Soil Magazine. It was a pleasure to meet Publisher Ed Belote and Features Editor Apryl Parcher. I would like to personally thank them for their confidence in my photographic ability. I simply hope that some of the photos I shot will be presentable enough for use by Cecil Soil Magazine. The greatest honor for me, however was meeting the three Maryland Guardsmen being deployed. I was also honored to meet their wives and children. These guardsmen are stationed in the Annapolis armory as part of the 58th Infantry Brigade. I must admit that I am a bit prejudiced in favor of the Maryland National Guard, having completed my enlistment in the 1729th Maintenance Company for twelve years; one year of that enlistment was in the 58th Brigade, Hagerstown, unit.

National Guardsmen are a special breed of citizen soldier. These men and women are willing to put their lives on hold for their state and their country. National Guard wives are also special people. Their lives too get put in a hold pattern when their husbands are deployed to foreign lands, never knowing if they’ll come home a whole person, or at all. We as citizens of The United States of America should not only thank those serving in the military for their service to our country, but also to those spouses and significant others that have that same dedication to duty honor and country.

God bless our troops and our nation as it struggles once again to prevent evil from ruling the world. For it is said, and appears to be true, that “evil will triumph when good men do nothing”. The digital images I shot at the Forester Party on 5/28/07 are available for you to look at the following web site: http://www.mlmproductions.com/CSM. The unedited pictures are in the primary folder as you open the page. Edited pictures are in the folder labeled CS edited; hope there is something in them you can use. Thanks for the opportunity to serve Cecil Soil Magazine, and for the honor of meeting our brave men.
Sincerely,
Dave Mullins
Aberdeen, Maryland

Dear Carol and Ed,
Thank you for the “Mom’s Names Puzzle” and for the winners sweatshirt. I’m sending you a picture of me wearing it.

Also, thank you for the “Dog Breeds Puzzle.” The message was a little harder to find than the one in the “Mom’s Names” which stuck out like a sore thumb.
Again, I thank you both for the Cecil Soil Magazine and the puzzles — it makes good reading.
Thank you,
George W. Miller
Elkton, Maryland

I continue to be amazed at the people from long ago that I keep finding and the childhood memories that come to mind.

In the Spring 2006 issue I loved the pencil sketch of the “Car Wash” by Duane Borden. My dad used to wash his 1920 something Essex there at Plum Creek and we attended the country church he mentioned, Wesley Chapel. I remember when we rented the house from the Bordens, “Buddy” Duane liked to draw. Also got another surprise. The picture of his family with the barn in the background. Isn’t that a hoot!

I enjoyed the story on the LaMonicas in an earlier issue. I remember Tony, the shoemaker and his wife and sister-in-law Rose Ricuppero. Miss Ricuppero was one of my favorite teachers at the North East School. I remember the hard times back then and like Tony, people would pick wild plants for food. I wish all the younger folks of today would read that article. It would give them a better appreciation for what we have today.

I recall the war times and the rationing during WWII and the horrific Triumph explosion. My mother and I had moved back from Texas after my dad died and were living in North East at the time.

On page 57 of your 2006 spring issue there is another picture of interest to me. That of the Civil War soldier who lost his leg, James D. Alexander. I knew he was related some how so I checked some records to be sure. The woman, the soldier’s wife was my grand father’s sister, mother’s Aunt Maria.

So, you can see I’ve been simply devouring the information in your magazine and eagerly look forward to future issues. Keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Catherine Barrington Beal
North East, Maryland

Dear Cecil Soil Magazine,
This is a little history about my parent’s families early years in Cecil County, Maryland. My mother, Gladys Edmunson, was born at the Edmunson homestead near the Greenhurst area of Rising Sun. She‘s from a family of five, with Roy being born first. He married Jessie Baxter in the mid-1920’s and had two children, Bill and Mary. Next was Mother, then Alice, who married Willard Bryson of Elkton. They had three children named William, Ruth, and Allen. Sister Idalie was next, with John being born last. He married Blanch Matthews, sister to Rayner. Three children were born to them — Edna, Eleanor, and Joan. They lived in the Earleville area.

Mother (Gladys) was born in 1904 and married my father, Rayner Matthews, in 1926. They had six of us, with Kathryn being born first, Dorothy next, then me, followed by Charlotte, Germaine, and then George. We were all born at the Mt. Harmon plantation, with the exception of George. He was born at the farm we moved to that is now owned by Fred and Margaret Schrader. (See the March/April 2007 issue for more on the Schrader family and Wil-O-Mar farm.) I am sending a picture of our family that was taken there in the front yard when I was 12 years old. A lot has changed since that picture was taken back in the 40’s.

I got married in 1953 and after that my wife, Mary, and I built a house on the farm. We had four children, Bill, Jr., Ruth, Shirley, and Bob. We worked the farm with my dad until we sold it in 1969. That’s when I had surgery on my back. After that, we moved to Delaware and reared the family.

Our son, Billy, and wife, Sandy, live in the Elkton area with their three children. Ruth got married, has two children, and lives in Pa. Shirley married and has three children, while Bob married and has one child. Our family has grown to nine grandchildren, and 21 great-grandchildren. My wife, Mary, retired from Dupont in 1994, and that’s when we moved to Chipley, Florida — up in the panhandle.

We really enjoy Cecil Soil Magazine and look forward to reading each new issue. Thanks for a great magazine.
Yours Truly,
William and Mary Matthews

Dear Where in the County,
The tank, pictured in the July/August ‘07 issue of Cecil Soil Magazine, is the one
located in the VFW parking lot on Rt. 222, heading into Port Deposit, MD.

I live in southern Lancaster County, PA, and I picked up CSM at the Maplehoff Dairy Store, in Peach Bottom, PA. I find the articles interesting, and sometimes I even know some of the people profiled!
Thank you for a quality publication.
Kim McCauley
1162 Fishing Creek Road
Drumore, PA 17518

Please send your letters to: Cecil Soil Magazine, P.O. Box 645, Rising Sun, MD 21911. You may also fax them to 410-658-3242 or use this handy form. All letters become the property of Cecil Soil Magazine and Back Porch Publications, LLC, and may be edited for clarity or space. All letters received are given due consideration for publishing. Beginning in January 2010, writers of letters selected for publication in future issues will receive a free one-year subscriptions to CSM, or extensions to their existing subscriptions, when applicable.
IMPORTANT: YOU must call 410-658-3286 to claim and arrange for receipt of your free subscription!!

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