Wagon Train

The National Pike Festival celebrates the nation's first federally funded interstate highway linking the East to the Western frontier. The original festival began 19 years ago in Washington County, Pa., during the nation's bicentennial.Today, the festival stretches more than 300 miles from Pennsylvania, through parts of Maryland, West Virginia and into Eastern Ohio. It is billed "the longest festival in the world," and celebrations will be held on weekends through the end of May. In Maryland the festival will take place Saturday and next Sunday.

What with Nintendo and other electronic entertainments, the age of the board game is almost at an end. Sure, there are still some Monopoly zealots out there and some 5-year-olds moving their way around Candyland, but you won't find a board game based on "Beverly Hills, 90210" or "Roseanne."Not like the good old days.By the good old days I mean the '50s and '60s when, for one thing, there was a board game based on almost every successful television show.For instance, there was the "Leave It to Beaver" Money Maker Game (share Beaver's ingenious and often disastrous attempts at earning money)

Harry Lauter, 76, a veteran cowboy actor in television westerns, died Oct. 30 of heart failure at his home in Ojai, Calif. A regular black hat in westerns, Mr. Lauter appeared in such series as "Wagon Train," "Rawhide," "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza" and "Wyatt Earp." He also had two series of his own: "Waterfront," in 1954, and "Tales of the Texas Rangers," from 1955 to 1959.