The area of Froggy Hollow in Howard County was a happening place this week in 1908, according the social columns of The Ellicott City Times. These columns documented who did what and who went where; a kind of predecessor to MySpace pages today, only just a tad slower!

"June 11 -- Miss Emma Smith is the guest of her brother, Mr. Frank E. Smith.

Mrs. John Patrick, of York, Penn. is visiting her daughter and son, Mrs. A.B. Carran and Mr. B.D. Patrick.

Miss Emma Speake after visiting her cousin, Miss Margaret K. Speake, returned to her home in Hagerstown.

Mr. and Mrs. George Pearre entertained on Sunday night at their home Park Place, Mrs. Pearee's sister, Miss Margaret Speake and her friends. ....

Another mad dog was seen on Locust Avenue in the Hollow last Friday.

A rubber tire runabout can be seen passing through the Hollow every Sunday, the occupants must like the croaking frog not the froggies."

Froggy Hollow sounds like it's right out of the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" I envision an isolated, but lush area rich in eccentric characters and perhaps some weird wildlife thrown in for good measure. I inquired about the Hollow and Phil Stackhouse, director of the Howard County Historical Society, said he's keeping a look out for any other references to the Hollow, which may have been in the Dorsey area. Readers, any ideas?

And nonchalantly sandwiched between the list of social calls was that "mad dog" line. Before the advent of routine vaccinations for animals, I assume rabies was not such an unusual problem, and I immediately thought of the mad dog in "To Kill a Mockingbird" as he walked down the dusty street of Maycomb toward Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck). Great scene, great movie and great book. No special effects in that flick, or bazillion dollar budget, just a good story. It's amazing what that will do for a movie.

75 Years Ago -- Paper delayed, bank delayed

"Times purposely delayed awaiting bank news" was the headlined of the boxed information on the right hand corner of the paper's front page that week.

"Because of the imminence of receiving information from Washington relative to the reorganization plans of the Patapsco National Bank publication of the Times was witheld until Friday of this week. We trust that the day's delay has not seriously inconvenienced any of our readers or advertisers, but felt impelled to take this course in the interest of the many thousands of people directly interested in the Patapsco Bank. There has been no new developments during the current week."

50 Years Ago -- "Friday, Friday, Friday"

It's stock car racing at its best at Dorsey Speedway on Friday night, or so relates the ad in the paper that week. There were several stock car racing venues in the area and one of the most well known was in Dorsey, off U.S. 1, near Elkridge. The large ad for those races noted the race time was at 8:30 p.m. at their "completed remodeled" race track.

Remodeled? That got me to wondering just how long Dorsey had been around. I learned that the racetrack opened in 1951. It's been a long time since that racetrack closed, but I still remember how the thunderous roar rode out from Dorsey on the summer air, reminding everyone that the weekend had indeed arrived.

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