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Smackdab To Perform 15th Anniversary Celebration Show Saturday

One of the most enduring original projects in Jamestown will celebrate a new milestone in a community performance this weekend.Smackdab will celebrate 15 years of "funky soul music" with an anniversary concert at Jamestown's Spire Theater this Saturday from 7-10 p.m.Since forming the band, the members of Smackdab have been pioneers of the Western New York progressive funk and soul sound. Currently consisting of Jon Marc Johnson on vocals and auxiliary percussion, Matthew Baxter on guitar and vocals, Mark Cooper on keyboards and vocals, Ryan Ecklund on bass, and Daniel Witherspoon on ...

Pure Prairie League To Play Struthers Library Theatre Saturday

One of the pioneers of the country-rock movement of the late 1960s will be in Warren, Pa., this weekend to celebrate their long and impactful career in the music industry.Pure Prairie League is set to perform at Warren's Struthers Library Theatre on Saturday beginning at 8 p.m. According to longtime bassist and de facto bandleader Mike Reilly, the band will feel right at home in such a setting."We've done good business in the sense that we do theaters rather than stadiums," Reilly said. "One of the main things that has kept us going this long is the fact that people love us. We started ...

Childhood Slavery Freed By New Tools

I was an enslaved child. We all were, back in the 1940s. At Grandma's house, we wee ones picked rocks, tugged at weeds, held stuff and moved stuff when the older folks harvested crops. At our own house, Dad made a mid-career switch from welding to college student. To get through more quickly, he stayed in Erie through most of three summers as well. That left you-know-who to do the weeding and tilling.Here is an "old math" question for you.Q: If one hour's worth of garden work needs to be done, and Denny is the only child available to do it, how long will it take?No, you don't get "one ...

The History Of The Lutheran Bethlehem Church

In 1893, construction workers were hired to put in a foundation for a building on Lister Avenue in Worksburg, now known as Falconer. Brick layers were hired to lay the brick walls. Woodworkers were hired to make long wooden pews, an altar, pulpit, lectern and a Communion rail. This new building was not for a business or a store. Businesses and stores are needed to provide people with clothes and tools and furniture and bedding. But back then in 1891, when the average life expectancy was 50 years (no anesthesia, no penicillin, no anti-bacteria drugs and smallpox could be fatal), people ...

Trick Or Treat: Halloween Doesn’t Have To Be Scary

In the spirit of the season, I recently introduced my daughter to the Harry Potter Trivia game my dad got me for Christmas many moons ago. We recently watched the first Harry Potter movie, and even though we had to skip over some parts as they were a little much for my kiddo, she enjoyed it just the same. This weekend, we pulled out the trivia game to see what we all remembered from one of our favorite movies.As it turns out, I didn't remember as much as I thought I did; my husband remembered a fair amount but my kiddo ended up winning the game. (She might have had a bit of help from her ...

Writer Gets Her Kicks On Route 66: Part Eight

Editor's Note: This is the eighth column in a series featuring the author's travels along Route 66.If you are just hitching a ride on my Route 66 venture, welcome aboard! If you have been traveling with us for the last seven weeks, wow! I'm sorry I didn't tell you we had peppermint for motion sickness. Now back on the road.We started seeing mesas west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. If you haven't already resorted to Google, a mesa is a flat-top mountain. You know the kind you saw in westerns when you were a kid. (I'm assuming the only ones that stayed with me this long are old enough to ...