The Hitchhiker

I’ve heard my dad tell this story probably 20 times. No two times alike. Over the years, I’ve heard him add sections, delete others, and seen the story develop into what is now lodged in my mind.

It was a dark and stormy night in a small town in upstate New York. Betsy Johnson was at her boyfriend’s place, down on the corner of Mulberry and 2nd street. She was leaving the next day to go back to school and she and Tommy spent the night talking about how much they were going to miss each other.

She had promised her parents that she would be home by 10:00 p.m. The digital clock above Tommy’s bed now read 10:30 p.m.

“I gotta go,” she said and started gathering her things.

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What municipalities can do about flooding

By JUDY HARLAN

The area around the Upper Delaware River just barely missed another flood this past week. Municipalities south and west of the river valley received heavy rains. Luckily, it didn’t amount to much for us this time. But who knows what might happen? How long can our luck hold out?

Recently, this area experienced three 100-year, record-breaking floods in 18 months. That many floods of this magnitude in such a short period of time have been a rarity—up to now. Many people have lost their homes, and in two instances local campgrounds along the river lost so much that they went out of business.

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