Being band director at South Western High School was Carey Crumling's first and last job.

He began after graduating from West Chester University in 1970, and just kept going.

But, after 38 years of work, the man students and faculty members affectionately call "Coach" has retired.

"I wanted to retire basically when I was still in good health, and when I thought the music program was in good shape," Crumling said.

The 60-year-old said he was inspired to become a band director, in part, because of the band director he had from elementary school to high school.

"The guy was always very positive with kids and encouraged us to do the best we could. And he made music fun," Crumling said.

By working in one place for so long, Crumling said he was able to watch the music program grow from one band when he started to a program with a marching band, two concert groups, a jazz band and a pep band.

But the true rewards of the job were working with "great kids and great parents."

"The biggest reward was the opportunity to share part of their lives," Crumling said. "There were so many great kids. I'm going to miss the relationships we've been able to build."

Building connections with his students wasn't always easy during his time at the high school.

"The biggest challenge is trying to make sure, did you reach each student?" Crumling said. "Did you enrich their life?"

In talking with past students of Crumling's, the resounding answer is yes.

Not only did Crumling reach them, alumni say, but he helped foster a lasting interest in music for many students.

Matt Wensel, a 2001 graduate of South Western High School and alumnus of the band program, played trumpet under Crumling's direction, and went on to become a music teacher for Conewago Valley School District.

Wensel said he picked up teaching tips from "Coach."

"Especially the dedication. He had unwavering dedication to his students," Wensel said. "He would do absolutely anything for his students and it worked in reverse; his students would do anything for him."

Crumling said he likes to stay in touch with former students, to see where their lives have gone since high school.

"That's another neat feeling - so many kids have gone on to become band directors and chorus directors. One of my former students came back with a composition he wrote for the band to play," Crumling recalled.

When it comes to Crumling, you don't know a good thing until it's gone, says band booster president and 1979 South Western graduate Dan Fuhrman.

"When you're a student, you don't realize what you have in a teacher until you have kids in the program and you know what a teacher can really mean to a student," Fuhrman said. "Now we see how much he's done with, not only our own kids, but with all the kids he's taught. Teachers like him don't come along often."

On July 19, band alumni of South Western and Crumling's colleagues will have the opportunity to say thanks to Coach, at a "Roast and Toast" retirement party being held at the high school to honor him.

The event is only open to alumni of South Western's band program and their families, or by invitation. It will feature a roast of Crumling, as well as performances by an alumni jazz band, a video tribute, photo and video memories of the past 38 years and a presentation of Crumling's retirement gift.

The band director position at South Western High School was given to Ethan Clark, who, like Crumling was, is fresh out of college, according to the marching band's show designer, Duane DeWire.

"I'm sure (Crumling) will still pop around," DeWire said. "And we're going to continue what he started."

In the meantime, Crumling will be spending time with his family and traveling, this time without a group of 200 students and a long itinerary.

It may be hard to stay away from the band, Crumling said. After all, he lives near the high school.

"I can hear when the drumming is off," he joked.

Contact Heather Faulhefer at hfaulhefer@eveningsun.com.

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The mystery of the dead Rebel begins one day in 1869, when young William Gitt is tending his father's store.

A Confederate veteran stops in to enquire about an officer killed south of town near Gitt's mill shortly before the real fight in Hanover began, 145 years ago today.

According to an old newspaper account, no one else can help him, but young William speaks right up.

"A Confederate officer was killed at the blacksmith shop on Conewago Hill, near our farm, on the Westminster Road, and was buried at the barn," he tells the stranger, who proceeds to find his fallen comrade and take is body back home for burial.

The story may be apocryphal, and it's impossible to say exactly when, where and even if this officer was slain before the battle of Hanover.

But McSherrystown native and battle of Hanover expert John Krepps, a licensed Gettysburg battlefield guide, says his research convinces him the area south of town and along the Littlestown-Hanover road saw a lot more fighting than previously realized during the battle of Hanover.

Conewago Hill, where Westminster and Fairview roads intersect, was a critical crossroads for the cavalry that operated in the area June 30. And every major landowner south of Mount Pleasant filed claims for damage during the battle, Krepps notes.

That includes mill owner Jeremiah Gitt, whose mill saw real fighting as troopers of the 5th and 6th Michigan under Gen. George Custer's command probed south toward

the Confederate rear.

"If you live on a road south of town, one of the original roads, there's a pretty good chance that some of those troopers rode by," Krepps said.

Traditional accounts of the battle of Hanover focus on the morning fight on the streets of town. But the mobility of mounted men makes cavalry combat a far more fluid and confusing situation than infantry combat, and many of the small scale actions that day 145 years ago will likely never be fully understood.

Still, cavalry re-eneactors will focus on those small scale actions - including Gitt's Mill - Thursday when they recreate Stuart's ride to Hanover from Maryland and gather at the Sheppard property on the high ground south of town for a 6 p.m. battle re-enactment.

As a guide, Krepps said, he meets many people who believe Stuart was on a "joyride" behind Union lines. But by looking at the big picture of the operations in the Hanover-Westminster-Littlestown triangle, historians can get a better appreciation of the challenges faced by J.E.B. Stuart and his Confederate horsemen.

The night of June 29-30 found Stuart's men camped in Maryland from Westminster northward to Union Mills along the Baltimore-Littlestown Pike with advanced elements also along the Hanover-Westminster Road.

With information having been received during that night of the presence of Union cavalry at Littlestown, about seven miles to the northwest, Stuart decided to move east toward Hanover.

Stuart hoped to communicate with Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's infantry corps, which Stuart expected would be nearing the Susquehanna River from York. What Stuart did not know was that Gen. Judson Kilpatrick's Union cavalry division was also headed toward Hanover.

Kilpatrick's main body moved along the Littlestown-Hanover Road (modern-day Route 194) and traveled about seven miles over relatively flat terrain to reach Hanover. Meanwhile, Stuart's main column negotiated an approximately 10-mile route along the Hanover-Westminster Road (modern-day Westminster Road) on what could be described as virtual roller coaster road of several steep hills.

As Stuart's men moved toward north, small-scale encounters began to occur, particularly along the axis of the Littlestown-Hanover Road and intersecting side-roads.

The battle begins:

The Battle of Hanover started at about 10 a.m. as the 13th Virginia and then 2nd North Carolina struck the rear of the Union column, now stretched between Hanover and Abbottstown. The Confederate charge pushed the Union soldiers through Hanover's Center Square and gained control of the center of town.

Union soldiers regrouped, counterattacked and recaptured the town, and as those closer to Abbottstown returned to the sound of the guns, the afternoon fighting bogged down to a series of inconclusive firefights.

It was then that Kilpatrick ordered Custer to attack the Confederates from the west side of town. Dismounted, Custer's men twice attacked the rebel positions south of Frederick Street using seven-shot repeating rifles, the first time such rifles were used during the Civil War, according to several sources.

But the damage Gitt claimed suggests Custer's troopers may have pushed much further south than previously realized, threatening Stuart's wagon train to the rear.

Around 2 p.m., Stuart gave up the fight and directed his troops down Baltimore Street to what is now Fuhrman Mill Road before turning toward Jefferson.

By the end of the fighting, about 300 men were killed, wounded or captured.

Townspeople cared for some in their homes. Eventually, four hospitals were set up in town for the wounded.

The engagement in Hanover kept Stuart busy for a day, delaying his arrival in Gettysburg until the second day of that battle. His mounted troops could have been used by Gen. Robert E. Lee to scout the battlefield, giving the Rebels better knowledge of the strength of the Union forces gathered around Gettysburg.

James McPherson, noted Civil War historian, said it seems possible the battle in Hanover could have affected the outcome of the larger battle.

IF YOU GO:

A re-enactment of the Battle of Hanover will begin rain or shine at the Sheppard farm at 6 p.m. Thursday. Gates open at 11 a.m.

Tickets cost $10 for adults, $5 for students 12 to 18 and are free for children younger than 12. Proceeds benefit the Land Conservancy of Adams County.

For more information or tickets, call the Land Conservancy at (717) 334-2828 or visit www.lcacnet.org.

0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } WASHINGTON - Is everything spinning out of control?

Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.

Horatio Alger, twist in your grave.

The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance.

The sense of helplessness is even reflected in this year's presidential election. Each contender offers a sense of order - and hope. Republican John McCain promises an experienced hand in a frightening time. Democrat Barack Obama promises bright and shiny change, and his large crowds believe his exhortation, "Yes, we can."

Even so, a battered public seems discouraged by the onslaught of dispiriting things. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll says a barrel-scraping 17 percent of people surveyed believe the country is moving in the right direction. That is the lowest reading since the survey began in 2003.

An ABC News-Washington Post survey put that figure at 14 percent, tying the low in more than three decades of taking soundings on the national mood.

"It is pretty scary," said Charles Truxal, 64, a retired corporate manager in Rochester, Minn. "People are thinking things are going to get better, and they haven't been. And then you go hide in your basement because tornadoes are coming through. If you think about things, you have very little power to make it change."

Recent natural disasters around the world dwarf anything afflicting the U.S. Consider that more than 69,000 people died in the China earthquake, and that 78,000 were killed and 56,000 missing from the Myanmar cyclone.

Americans need do no more than check the weather, look in their wallets or turn on the news for their daily reality check on a world gone haywire.

Floods engulf Midwestern river towns. Is it global warming, the gradual degradation of a planet's weather that man seems powerless to stop or just a freakish late-spring deluge?

It hardly matters to those in the path. Just ask the people of New Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina. They are living in a city where, 1,000 days after the storm, entire neighborhoods remain abandoned, a national embarrassment that evokes disbelief from visitors.

Food is becoming scarcer and more expensive on a worldwide scale, due to increased consumption in growing countries such as China and India and rising fuel costs. That can-do solution to energy needs - turning corn into fuel - is sapping fields of plenty once devoted to crops that people need to eat. Shortages have sparked riots. In the U.S., rice prices tripled and some stores rationed the staple.

Residents of the nation's capital and its suburbs repeatedly lose power for extended periods as mere thunderstorms rumble through. In California, leaders warn people to use less water in the unrelenting drought.

Want to get away from it all? The weak U.S. dollar makes travel abroad forbiddingly expensive. To add insult to injury, some airlines now charge to check luggage.

Want to escape on the couch? A writers strike halted favorite TV shows for half a season. The newspaper on the table may soon be a relic of the Internet age. Just as video stores are falling by the wayside as people get their movies online or in the mail.

But there's always sports, right?

The moorings seem to be coming loose here, too.

Baseball stars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens stand accused of enhancing their heroics with drugs. Basketball referees are suspected of cheating.

Stay tuned for less than pristine tales from the drug-addled Tour de France and who knows what from the Summer Olympics.

It's not the first time Americans have felt a loss of control.

Alger, the dime-novel author whose heroes overcame adversity to gain riches and fame, played to similar anxieties when the U.S. was becoming an industrial society in the late 1800s.

American University historian Allan J. Lichtman notes that the U.S. has endured comparable periods and worse, including the economic stagflation (stagnant growth combined with inflation) and Iran hostage crisis of 1980; the dawn of the Cold War, the Korean War and the hysterical hunts for domestic Communists in the late 1940s and early 1950s; and the Depression of the 1930s.

"All those periods were followed by much more optimistic periods in which the American people had their confidence restored," he said. "Of course, that doesn't mean it will happen again."

Each period also was followed by a change in the party controlling the White House.

This period has seen intense interest in the presidential primaries, especially the Democrats' five-month duel between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Records were shattered by voters showing up at polling places, yearning for a voice in who will next guide the country as it confronts the uncontrollable.

Never mind that their views of their current leaders are near rock bottom, reflecting a frustration with Washington's inability to solve anything. President Bush barely gets the approval of three in 10 people, and it's even worse for the Democratic-led Congress.

Why the vulnerability? After all, this is the 21st century, not a more primitive past when little in life was assured. Surely people know how to fix problems now.

Maybe. And maybe this is what the 21st century will be about - a great unraveling of some things long taken for granted.

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By some criteria, sprawling, freeway-scarred, SUV- worshiping, coal-dependent Los Angeles emits less planet-warming carbon per capita than any big city except Honolulu, according to a report being released today.

"We are not at all surprised," Nancy Sutley, L.A.'s deputy mayor for energy and environment, told the Los Angeles Times in reacting to the report by the Brookings Institution, a prestigious Washington think thank.

She cited the city's "moderate climate, with fewer heating and air- conditioning days, and its relatively newer, less drafty housing stock" than in many parts of the nation. Moreover, she added, "sprawl is a lot worse in other parts of the U.S."

But according to The Times, the Brookings report on energy use in residential buildings and highway transportation does not account for the fact that half the city's electricity comes from coal-fired power plants. Instead, Brookings used a state-wide average that included the hydroelectric and nuclear plants in Northern California.

Omitted from the data are emissions from industries and commercial buildings, and from local roads apart from federal highways, The Times reported.

The 83-page report gives much of the credit to California's overall carbon-saving plans, including a stringent state building code and strict utility pricing rules for energy conservation.

Three other Golden State cities -- San Jose, San Francisco and San Diego -- rank among Brookings' top

10 in small per-capita footprints, The Times reported. By contrast, the report highlights the heavy carbon footprints of Southern, Midwestern and Northeastern regions of the country.