The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center will be lit at 8:58 p.m. tonight and I’ll be watching at home. There’s just something about lighting a gigantic tree that gets me in the mood for Christmas.

This year’s entertainment lineup includes Beyonce, the Jonas Brothers, David Cook, Faith Hill, Jamie Foxx, Tony Bennett and Harry Connick Jr. Not bad, but I don’t know if they can top Nick Lachey (a heartthrob of mine as a teenager) and Celine Dion at the 2007 ceremony.

Last year I was putting up lights in the front window when the hour long tree lighting festivities took place on TV. I kept stopping to watch and frantically called my friend Brian when I learned Celine Dion would sing after the commercial break. Brian loves Celine Dion.

I only saw the tree in person once – when I was on a school trip to New York City with the Coughlin German Club in the ninth-grade. Even at 14, I was able to appreciate how majestic it was. I remember seeing people of many races and ethnicities all enjoying the tree. A large group of Chinese people asked my friend Brian (from above) to take their photo on one of their cameras. I also snapped a photo of them which I still have. A special thanks to Herr Lloyd for taking us there.

This weekend, I’ll be returning to New York City to visit the Christmas tree at Rockefeller once again. I’m even thinking about ice skating at The Rink at Rockefeller Center below the tree. Sigh.

I also plan to visit Times Square, the Fifth Avenue Shopping District, The Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium New York, St. Peter’s Cathedral and construction on the new Freedom Tower at the site of the World Trade Center.

When I come back, I’ll work on getting my own Christmas tree up. It won’t look like the one at Rockefeller, but it will still be special.

I heard that the average American eats a Thanksgiving Day meal containing 3,000 calories. Ouch! That’s way more than the 2,000 calorie diet allowed for the day. But really, the entire holiday revolves around food.

This is what I consider to be the typical Thanksgiving Day food agenda for most people:

12 a.m. to 2 a.m. - A “snack” for those who are up preparing for the big day, whether it be cleaning or cooking. Anyone who was out drinking all night is likely at a diner or restaurant getting breakfast.

9 a.m. - A very small breakfast consisting of juice and a granola bar.

12 p.m. - Cheese and crackers, Doritos, chips and dip, pretzels and whatever else was put out before dinner.

1 p.m. - Thanksgiving Day dinner: Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, carrots and cranberry sauce.

3 p.m. - Dessert: Pumpkin pie, pumpkin role and something non-pumpkin.

7 p.m. – A second helping of dessert at another relative’s home.

11:30 p.m. – Cold turkey.

If you consider the entire day, we probably consume 4,000 calories or more. But if you ask me, it’s worth it. So eat up! (Just be sure to exercise heavily on Friday).

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Twenty-one years after over two dozen barns were intentionally set ablaze in the Back Mountain, the crimes still remain unsolved.

It all began at 5 a.m. on May 17, 1987 when Grange Hall on West Eighth Street in Kingston Township caught fire. Although the building was not a barn, Trucksville Fire Chief Bill Eck, who has been chief since 1979, says Grange Hall was the first of many arson fires that would occur in the area within the next 17 months or so.

Another notable structure affected was one of Ralph Sands’ barns located near his home at 1525 West Eighth Street in Kingston Township. The well-known farmer lost some of his prized dairy cattle in the fire.

Farmers and police officers hid in the barns hoping to find the suspect.

And then the fires stopped, but just in the local area. Eck says mysterious arson barn fires began in another region of the state soon after and later spread to other areas in Pennsylvania.

Was the same arsonist responsible for the arson barn fires throughout the state? And was he at work elsewhere before coming to the Back Mountain? I think so.

According to the Summerhill Volunteer Fire Company in Beaverdale, Pa., arson fires plagued the township over a period of 14 months beginning in June of 1982. The fires destroyed buildings and barns, including Buckhorn Grange Hall.

An article titled, “Building a Future with Pieces from the Past,” by Bob Brooke of the Antiques Almanac mentions a string of arson fires in the 1980s in York, Pa. Brooke interviewed Melinda G. Higgins, executive director of Historic York, Inc. (HYI) about her non-profit organization that rehabilitates buildings. Higgins told Brooke the organization lost many architectural items in two of the fires.

“Higgins sadly recalls that during a series of arson fires in area barns in the 1980s, HYI lost a great number of items in two of the barns,” Brooke said in his article.

I’m not a police investigator, but to me, these cases sure sound as if they could be tied. And there are probably so many other arson barn fires that occurred in Pennsylvania in the 1980s that I couldn’t find in a Google search.

An article in The Times Leader in 1992 says a volunteer firefighter was arrested on the Back Mountain arson charges and was found not guilty. Hopefully one day the person or persons responsible for the arsons will come forward.

P.S. To learn about what the Grange in Kingston Township is up to now, read my story in this Sunday’s edition of The Dallas Post.

I love the smell of coffee.

For years I would never touch the stuff. I discovered cappuccino by age 12 and fell in love, but I have a touch of lactose intolerance, so I can’t always consume it. It was college that forced me to become a coffee drinker.

In the first semester of my sophomore year of college, I was stuck in 8 a.m. classes every day, Monday through Friday. I had a 30 minute commute, so I usually left my house by about 7:20. That’s pretty early for a 19-year-old. Heck, it’s early for anyone. After nearly driving my car off the road one morning when I fell asleep momentarily at the wheel, I decided it was time to start a relationship with coffee.

Since then, the relationship has blossomed and grown. I especially love coffee with hot chocolate mix thrown in. That’s something my co-workers at a restaurant I used to work at did. Hello mocha.

At Marcos Grill and Pasta House in Tusket, Nova Scotia, you can get a Marcos Mocha, half hot chocolate and half coffee topped with whipped cream, for $2.59. Too bad I’ve never been to Nova Scotia.

I’ve yet to try the McCafe at McDonald’s, but I’m pretty excited by the thought of fancy caffeinated beverages at low prices. The McCafe commercial with the two hip guys is also comical. If you haven’t seen it, the commercial basically picks on the stereotypical coffee shop ambiance.

“We can talk about football!” says the first guy as the men prepare to leave a fancy coffee shop and go to McCafe.
“I like football. I like sitting and watching football,” says the other.

One thing I can’t manage to do anymore is drink coffee past dinnertime. My friends will get some while we’re out late in the evening and I have to decline. Otherwise, I lie in bed wide awake with the jitters. I also can’t drink it within an hour before eating or I’ll be too full.

Here in the newsroom, just about everyone drinks coffee which has fed my addiction. Maybe it comes with the job. Or perhaps it comes with the sometimes long and odd hours of journalism.

No matter what, I’ll always like coffee and chocolate.

Trick-or-Treat! It’s Halloween and when the sun goes down, hundreds of children will scour the neighborhoods of the Back Mountain in search of candy and other treats.

Sadly, my Trick-or-Treat days are over. I didn’t give the tradition up until age 17 because I loved it so much.

We don’t get many Trick-or-Treaters in my quiet neighborhood, but my sister Alyssa filled a candy dish on Sunday for any who do show up. I already ate most of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Alyssa’s going shopping this afternoon to replenish our supply.

Alyssa was talking about our candy supply when she mentioned that she opted not to buy a mixed bag of “junky” candy such as Tootsie Rolls, Sweet Tarts and Jujubes. We reminisced about how we hated getting that junk from people when we went Trick-or-Treating.

Don’t get me wrong, we were thankful people were kind enough to open their doors and hand us free candy. But we skipped right over the Smarties and lollipops for Milky Ways, Kit Kats, M&Ms and Three Musketeers. Most of the junk was left over from each of our candy bags weeks after Halloween and was eventually transferred into a communal family candy bowl.

When I was a teenager, my friends and I purposely targeted high-end housing developments for Trick-or-Treating. Word quickly spread among the older children as to which houses were distributing full-size candy bars or $1 bills.

While we won’t be giving out any full-size candy bars tonight (I would if I had the money to do so), all ghosts or goblins who visit can pick out several fun-size chocolate bars or Reese’s Cups, if there are any left by then.

I’ll be heading to the gym tomorrow to burn off the few pieces of chocolate I do eat tonight. Whatever happened to being 10 years old, eating half a Trick-or-Treat bag of candy and not gaining an ounce?

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

About the Author

Rebecca has been reporting for The Dallas Post since June 2007.

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