Although, the Hershey Orphanage still is running with an endowment pushin' a billion dollars .. mebbe more ... it's nothing like the old Hershey Orphanage of Lee's day.

In those days, it was all boys, and they were kept on working farms ... mainly dairy, but beef, cattle, chicken and "pheasant" (yup, Mongolian Ringneck Pheasants) farms. I believe it was rows of beds and each dorm house had an Amish couple to oversee both the dorms, meals, and farms. Interesting story about one of Lee's classmates and the Amish "mother". I had no idea that Amish did those things.

But, the boys (all white and Christian) were given a weekly allowance and twice a year they were given clothes ... Play clothes, work clothes, school clothes ... and since Sunday church services were required ... a suit.

They were allowed to go home and visit on major holidays and during a summer break. However, some of them had no parents or family ... and some, such as Lee and his brothers, went home to visit their mother, but food and shelter were in short supply.

On these breaks, when they'd visit they'd go home, the children couldn't understand them playing in their "good clothes" ... which were their "play clothes" furnished by Hershey.

I remember talking to Lee and figuring out what they received (the orphans) and it put them on par with what a fairly well off banker's children would receive. Their allowance was, for those days, quite substantial. Their food plentiful and good. Their clothing made others envious. It must have been quite the life.

As far as ground hogs go, the only thing that I know is that the wreak havoc on my wife's garden. So, I sit out on a nice day, .22 rim fire in my lap ... and reduce their surplus population. They are one butt-ugly critter. Raccoons, opossums, and ground hogs ... plentiful supply and all legal to shoot. I wish the same was true for deer ... those filthy vermin are forkin' EVERYWHERE. My poaching doesn't even dent the population. What we have, in abundance, are raccoons and white tails. Both are filthy vermin, but the deer are edible.