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Henry Dallimore found true love in Pottsville, Pennsylvania and emigrated there last year.

These are his messages back to Shorelink Community Writers.

Henry's First Message

I am quite elderly really I suppose (72 to be exact) and have recently emigrated to Pennsylvania and got married in June this year. I shall be sending "Letters from America" from time to time (in memory of Alistair Cooke), but we have been having a nice summer and fall and I have not got into the rhythm of sitting at the computer and writing. I joined Shorelink in the summer of '03 and write both prose and poetry, I started on my first novel in January 2000 but all I have written is the prologue and first paragraph of chapter one! So I doubt if it will ever get completed. My interests are railways together with most forms of transportation, digital photography and video making (no not that sort Missus!!). Since coming to America I have become a volunteer at our local library giving lessons in computer basics, digital photography and video.

Henry's "LETTER FROM AMERICA"

#25

MARCH 5th 2010
Pottsville High School won the County Basketball League this evening and now go on to compete in the State Championships. When the team arrived back home they went on a tour of the City accompanied of course by the full compliment of fire trucks, about a dozen, all with lights and sirens at maximum volume. This was about 9.45pm and if any parents had just got the little ones off to sleep - tough!! This is America after all!!!

Talking of sleep, daylight saving starts next Sunday, 14th, and will continue until November 7th. This is considerably longer than in Europe but seems to work OK with everyone. Personally it usually takes me about a fortnight to get used to the new time!

MARCH 12th 2010
It’s tax time again. Now you may find this hard to believe but this is more of a ritual than anything else. Most employees are on a similar system to the UK’s PAYE but in addition there are always further claims which may be made. For example, Washington states that there will be a tax refund if you purchase a specific item, usually some energy saving heater, double glazing, insulation etc. This seems to be of the order of $1500. In addition there are the claims for children, charitable donations and so forth. In effect everybody pays income tax at the same rate during the year and collects the refunds in the period January - April each year. Not quite the same system as in the UK; the strange thing, from my viewpoint as a resident Brit, is that it appears that everyone looks upon the refund cheque as a windfall and not simply their own money which in practice it is! Even seniors like Joanie have to go through this procedure every year. This year she has decided to do her own submission instead of paying her usual accountant $90 to do it for her. It has just been sent off the IRS, we wait with baited breath!!

Weatherwise it has got a lot warmer this past week, yesterday it got into the 60’s. The snow has all but gone but now we have rain promised until next Tuesday but at least this will wash away all the debris left after the piles have vanished. As I look out of the window there are two patches of ice left on the lawn, Sharp Mountain has disappeared into the clouds and it’s raining. Tomorrow (Sat) all the St Patricks Day parades are due. Heavy rain is forecast, this is such a pity as the celebrations are taken very seriously. Most towns have a parade and everyone is Irish for the day whether they actually are or not.

Until next time.

BFN
H

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