Parents Without Partners

Two people - one of them an employee were arrested in separate incidents Saturday on charges of stealing from Dick's Sporting Goods in Glen Burnie.Keith Vernon Ryer, 20, of the 300 block of Reynolds St. in Baltimore, and employee Candace Lynn Davies, 29, of the 3800 block of Elmcroft Road, were charged with theft. Mr. Ryer was released on $1,000 bond Saturday. District Court had no record on Ms. Davies.In the first incident, Roland Cabey, an employee, saw a man enter the store in the 6700 block of Ritchie Highway just after noon, take a $300 golf club from a display, put it down his pants to hide it and walk out without paying, police said.

Leroy "Pat" Hauenstein, a retired letter carrier and longtime Towson resident, died of complications from dementia and diverticulitis May 27 at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. He was 95. Mr. Hauenstein was born in his parents' Smallwood Street rowhouse. He spent his early years growing up on Fulton Avenue before moving with his family to Hamilton in 1924. After graduating from Polytechnic Institute in 1931, he worked at a Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. grocery store. "During the Depression, he used to bring dented cans of food home for his family to eat and worked cleaning movie houses to make extra money," said his daughter, Donna L. Bradshaw of Severna Park.

Firefighter exhibit to be part of county birthday celebration The Historical Society of Carroll County will celebrate the county's 165th birthday with an exhibit on the history of Carroll's volunteer fire service. The program will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Best Western Catering and Conference Center on Route 140 in Westminster. "Celebrating the History of Carroll's Volunteer Fire Service" will showcase the county's 14 fire companies. Several fire companies will present displays.

Today Eagles meet: Fraternal Order of Eagles Chapter 4378 will meet at 7:30 p.m. at 55 E. Main St., Westminster. 410-876-1743. PWP: Parents Without Partners will hold a new-member discussion on being single at 7:30 p.m. at a member's home. 410-876-6504. Tomorrow Bridge club: Cedarhurst Duplicate Bridge Club will meet at 7:30 p.m. at Cedarhurst Unitarian Universalist Church, 2912 Club House Road, Finksburg. The cost is $5. 410-833-0318. Saturday Train garden: Pleasant Valley Community Fire Company will open its train garden from noon to 4 p.m. at the firehouse, 2030 S. Pleasant Valley Road.

Today Eagles meet: Fraternal Order of Eagles Chapter 4378 will meet at 7:30 p.m. at 55 E. Main St., Westminster. 410-876-1743. PWP: Parents Without Partners will hold a new-member discussion on being single at 7:30 p.m. at a member's home. 410-876-6504. Tomorrow Bridge club: Cedarhurst Duplicate Bridge Club will meet at 7:30 p.m. at Cedarhurst Unitarian Universalist Church, 2912 Club House Road, Finksburg. The cost is $5. 410-833-0318. Saturday Train garden: Pleasant Valley Community Fire Company will open its train garden from noon to 4 p.m. at the firehouse, 2030 S. Pleasant Valley Road.

A Glen Burnie man was beaten and robbed of $80 Sunday on the parking lot of a convenience store on Quarterfield Road, county police said.Charles Davis Crook Jr., 37, told police he was at the Dash-In in the 7800 block of Quarterfield Road about 9 p.m. when four men approached and demanded money.As Crook reached for his wallet, the tallest of the assailants punched him in the face five or six times before taking $80 from Crook's wallet, police said.The men fled to nearby woods. Police did not have a detailed description of the robbers.

If you've ever wondered what it takes to be one of the Beautiful People, consider how Patricia Grimes became one:For more than five years she has talked to dozens of newly divorced, separated and widowed Carroll Countians, encouraging them into the fold of the local chapter of Parents Without Partners.Every month during those years she has organized and moderated a three-session series of orientation talks for new members.And there was the time last Thanksgiving when she hobbled around on crutches to supervise dinner for 120 despite a badly sprained knee.

Commissioners set public hearing on waste management The Carroll County commissioners will conduct a public hearing at 2 p.m. Wednesday in Room 300A of the Carroll County office building. The purpose of the hearing is to hear residents' comments regarding the 10-year solid-waste management plan. The plan is the official document that governs the county's landfills and recycling efforts. Anyone wishing to file written comments for the public hearing record may do so before or during the hearing.

Leroy "Pat" Hauenstein, a retired letter carrier and longtime Towson resident, died of complications from dementia and diverticulitis May 27 at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. He was 95. Mr. Hauenstein was born in his parents' Smallwood Street rowhouse. He spent his early years growing up on Fulton Avenue before moving with his family to Hamilton in 1924. After graduating from Polytechnic Institute in 1931, he worked at a Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. grocery store. "During the Depression, he used to bring dented cans of food home for his family to eat and worked cleaning movie houses to make extra money," said his daughter, Donna L. Bradshaw of Severna Park.

For a while, it seemed as if absolutely everyone were getting a divorce. Nowadays it seems as if absolutely no one can understand why anyone else would do such a thing.The same neighbor or co-worker who just a few years ago would have shaken her head in sympathy is more likely to shake her finger today, and say something like: "Why would anyone get a divorce with an AIDS epidemic and a recession going on? Why can't these people just, you know, get along?"A young divorced mother named Diane wrote from Seattle this week because she's experiencing first-hand the kind of loneliness that this attitude exacerbates.

Commissioners set public hearing on waste management The Carroll County commissioners will conduct a public hearing at 2 p.m. Wednesday in Room 300A of the Carroll County office building. The purpose of the hearing is to hear residents' comments regarding the 10-year solid-waste management plan. The plan is the official document that governs the county's landfills and recycling efforts. Anyone wishing to file written comments for the public hearing record may do so before or during the hearing.

Firefighter exhibit to be part of county birthday celebration The Historical Society of Carroll County will celebrate the county's 165th birthday with an exhibit on the history of Carroll's volunteer fire service. The program will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Best Western Catering and Conference Center on Route 140 in Westminster. "Celebrating the History of Carroll's Volunteer Fire Service" will showcase the county's 14 fire companies. Several fire companies will present displays.

A Glen Burnie man was beaten and robbed of $80 Sunday on the parking lot of a convenience store on Quarterfield Road, county police said.Charles Davis Crook Jr., 37, told police he was at the Dash-In in the 7800 block of Quarterfield Road about 9 p.m. when four men approached and demanded money.As Crook reached for his wallet, the tallest of the assailants punched him in the face five or six times before taking $80 from Crook's wallet, police said.The men fled to nearby woods. Police did not have a detailed description of the robbers.

A GREAT MANY social ills have been laid like kindling at the feet of the single parent. Her hands are tied (it is most often a mother) to the stake of public opinion as she waits for someone to strike a match.Poverty, difficulty at school, early experimentation with sex, drugs and alcohol, petty crime and delinquency. Social scientists confidently predict these things for the children of the woman who tries to raise them without a man around the house. She is blamed for every blemish on society from the disintegration of the family dinner hour to the epidemic of coldhearted teen-age criminals.

Two people - one of them an employee were arrested in separate incidents Saturday on charges of stealing from Dick's Sporting Goods in Glen Burnie.Keith Vernon Ryer, 20, of the 300 block of Reynolds St. in Baltimore, and employee Candace Lynn Davies, 29, of the 3800 block of Elmcroft Road, were charged with theft. Mr. Ryer was released on $1,000 bond Saturday. District Court had no record on Ms. Davies.In the first incident, Roland Cabey, an employee, saw a man enter the store in the 6700 block of Ritchie Highway just after noon, take a $300 golf club from a display, put it down his pants to hide it and walk out without paying, police said.

I used to hear my parents' friends bemoan the perception that time speeds up in direct ratio to increased age.Piffle, I thought, as a child. Time is time. It's constant: a second is a second and a minute is a minute.Boy, was I wrong! Forty-five years later I can attest that time is indeed relative, and often it's one of those relatives you wish was someone else's.Surely it was only a week and a half ago that I changed the images of my many wall calendars from June to July. Surely it wasn't more than a month ago that I was contemplating Memorial Day weekend in New Orleans, or writing about June's events as if summer were forever.

Sleek, swift, a portent of tomorrow's transportation. light rail has come to Glen Burnie. For the $2.50 round trip fare, we're the Jetsons, rocketing off to work or play.Born and bred in the suburbs, I have had little practical experience with public transportation. Fear of exact change and paper transfer slips kept me off buses for the first three decades of my life.With this in mind, I approached the new light rail system with a certain amount of trepidation, curiosity and a roll of quarters.

Last week I listed a few of the things that weren't around when I was in school, and I must today add another: electronic access to the world in general, and the print media in particular.Used to be when researching a term paper or writing a report, one spent hours in the library with periodicals that couldn't be underlined, cut up, or taken home. If you weren't finished at 9 o'clock when the library closed, you were out of luck -- particularly the procrastinators, whose papers were due the next morning.

Last week I listed a few of the things that weren't around when I was in school, and I must today add another: electronic access to the world in general, and the print media in particular.Used to be when researching a term paper or writing a report, one spent hours in the library with periodicals that couldn't be underlined, cut up, or taken home. If you weren't finished at 9 o'clock when the library closed, you were out of luck -- particularly the procrastinators, whose papers were due the next morning.

Sleek, swift, a portent of tomorrow's transportation. light rail has come to Glen Burnie. For the $2.50 round trip fare, we're the Jetsons, rocketing off to work or play.Born and bred in the suburbs, I have had little practical experience with public transportation. Fear of exact change and paper transfer slips kept me off buses for the first three decades of my life.With this in mind, I approached the new light rail system with a certain amount of trepidation, curiosity and a roll of quarters.