It was an ordinary day. Same as most every other day of the year, except days when I am on vacation and have to do nothing but relax on the beach. For the husband of one of my wife's friends, today is a very special day, since today he turns 19 years old. So why would my wife have a friend whose husband is only 19 years old? Well, it's because he is really 76 years old, but being born on February 29, he is officially 19 years old today. How would you like to be born on February 29 and miss all those birthday parties and birthday gifts? Now, my guess is that most parents wouldn't allow that to happen and celebrate birthdays once a year even though their child may've been born on Leap Day. Leap Day falls every four years due to a few quirky calculations based on the length of time it takes the earth to orbit the sun. Instead of taking 365 days, it takes 365 1/4 days each year to orbit the sun. And, after 4 years time, there is one extra day in the equation which adds up to February being assigned an extra day. And, why is it always February? I have absolutely NO clue! All I know is that if we didn't have February 29 every four years, we might eventually have winter in August and summer in December, or something crazy like that. This Leap Year thing all started in 1582 when Pope Gregory XVIII introduced the Gregorian calendar. His version of the calendar helped solve the problem of the shifting days and months. The Gregorian calendar works like this:
Every year that can be evenly divided by 4 is a Leap Year EXCEPT:
Years that can be evenly divided by 100 (centuries) are not leap years, But:
Years that can be divided by 400 are Leap Years.
You understand all of this? Really doesn't matter, since it'll never change in your lifetime. I recently saw a bit of math that may help you understand what I have just written for you. It goes like this: This year is 2020. But what about 2021? 2020 ÷ 4 = ______ Therefore, 2020 is or isn't a leap year? 2021 ÷ 4 = _____ 2021 will or will not be a leap year because it isn't evenly divisible by 4. Now that we have Leap Year all figured out, how about a Century. We celebrated the last year of the century (100 years) and millennium (1,000 years) 20 years ago, in 2000. So, do you have any idea why they tack the extra day every four years onto February instead of September or maybe June? It's because it is already the shortest month and an extra day shouldn't make any difference they reasoned. Now, why do some months have 30 days and some have 31? Probably a story for another day! It was an extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
It was an ordinary day. Standing in front of the Lebanon bologna cooler at the Stauffer's of Kissel Hill store near Lititz, Pennsylvania. Today they have four varieties of bologna as well as full links of Kunzlers bologna. If you have never eaten a link or slice of bologna, you are truly missing a unique flavor that you won't find anywhere else. Lebanon bologna (pronounced "leb-nun ba-low-nuh") is different than ordinary bologna since it is not a processed, bland tasting bologna.
Bologna display at Stauffer's of Kissel Hill store in Lititz, PA.
Lebanon Bologna is all-beef and technically falls under the umbrella of semidry fermented sausage, but more resembles salami, with a distinctive red-wine hue and white specks of glistening fat freckling the surface. It has a smoky aroma to it that lingers like a meaty campfire. The first bite yields a special tang with aromatic spices and a creamy sweetness to it. It was back in the 1800s that immigrant farmers came to the local area from the Rhineland-Palatinate area of Germany. They brought with them the methods to make the slow-cured sausage of their homeland. Some believe that the Pennsylvania Dutch arrived in the New World from Holland, but the Pennsylvania Dutch are really from Germany. As they settled in south-eastern Pennsylvania, they brought with them their slow-cured sausage-making of their homeland. The Seltzer's Company, from nearby Palmyra, Pennsylvania, is about five minutes from Hershey, Pennsylvania, and is the leading producer of Lebanon Bologna since 1902. To produce the product, you need beef that is about 85%-95% lean from the forequarter cuts of a steer. It is then coarsely ground and laced with salt, sugar and a blend of spices. Seltzer's label lists paprika, but it is suspected that there may be cinnamon, clove, ginger, white pepper and allspice in the mixture. A special probiotic culture is added to aid with curing an fermentation and also to lower the pH level. The final blend then goes through an additional grind and formed into different sizes from 8 oz. "chubs" to 4-foot, 25 pound "logs." The product is placed in porous netting and transported to smokers where they will hang from the rafters. Seltzer's says that the old-fashioned part of the process is the smokehouse which is the 10 narrow, three-story buildings were the bologna is cold-smoked in a haze of hardwood smoke for up to three days. The Seltzer's plant is the only federally inspected meat plant in the United States that still uses natural smoke rather than the hours-long process using smoke generators. The company sells bologna in sticks, "chubs" and deli slices. The bologna comes in a variety of flavors such as the original, the sweet (made with white sugar), double-smoked sweet (made with brown sugar), smoke'n honey (made with brown sugar and honey) and low-salt and low-sodium. There are many ways to eat the bologna such as in a sandwich with a piece of just about any type of cheese, on a pretzel bun with mustard, with peanut butter or molasses on it in a sandwich or making bologna rolls which my wife makes which are filled with cream cheese. Personally I love a bologna sandwich with a slice of muenster cheese and mayo on it. Some say they like the sweet bologna wrapped around a banana. Every one has different taste buds and need to experiment with the many ways that you can eat one of Lancaster County's favorite products.
It was an ordinary day. Just finished our evening meal of crab cakes and garlic buttered potatoes. The crab cakes were purchased this morning at a local supermarket as was the bag of garlic butter potatoes. We usually have a main dish, vegetable and starch, but the crab cakes we bought are very large and the bag of potatoes looks as if it was meant for 4 people, so we chose just the crab cake and potatoes which tonight acted as both the vegetable and starch. Great meal and after we finished I asked what was for dessert. Carol replied, "You can have some of the tapioca pudding you bought yesterday or we can have a pack or two of the Tastykake treats we purchased a few days ago at another store. Love 'em both, so I decided to have a small helping of tapioca and a pack of creme-filled chocolate tasty cakes. To me, a meal is not complete unless you have a dessert at the end of it. Actually some days I make my entire meal my dessert; such as when we have home-made apple dumplings. But, I recently read an article published by The NPD Group which said that Americans appear to be losing interest in dessert. The NPD Group is a leasing global information company. So, who is this NPD and what do they know. When we travel to the Jersey Shore for vacation during the summer or a bit further away to the Caribbean, we always are asked what we will have for dessert after our main meal is devoured. I know they make more money when serving a dessert, but the meal wouldn't seem complete if I didn't have dessert. The study by The NPD Group found that for the past 30 years, those having dessert after their meal has declined 24% in that 30 year period. So, they surmise that by February 27, 2054, the last dessert will have been served. Yeah, right! Not if I'm still alive (which probably won't happen)! So, what can I do to change that? I decided to start my own Group and do my own study checking on how many of my friends eat dessert with every meal. I checked with my three children, brother, sister-in-law and a few close friends and all but one of them said they eat dessert with every meal, except perhaps breakfast. The NPD Group didn't say how many people they surveyed, so I'm assuming a dozen people is enough for my survey. One of the main reasons for not having a dessert in the study was that it made the meal too complicated. Now, how complicated is it to open a pack of Tastycakes? I don't have to have some fancy-schmancy dessert all the time, just so it is sweet and I can dunk it in milk. Even a cupcake with icing and a snicker's bar on top would work for me. Then, I read that the top three desserts in the survey were fruit, cake and ice cream. How complicated is it to scoop ice cream into a bowl or slice a peach in half? Now, the cake...that can take a bit more time to make, but once it is made it can supply me with desert for at least two days. Last part of the report said that older Americans, adults over 65, are the heaviest dessert eaters. I sort of agree with that, but remember it didn't say heaviest adults. This group tends to eat dessert twice as often as any other age group the report said. Boy, they never saw my 14-year-old grandson eat dessert at my house after the main meal was complete. He can devour half of a nine-square inch pan of his Amah's banana-split dessert in less than 10 minutes. The report claimed that those over 65 ate 76 desserts per person per year at home. The same report taken four years ago said that number to be 104, so by doing some weird calculations, they were able to come up with that date in 2054 as the final meal with dessert. Now that's 34 years from now and I'll be 109, so maybe they'll allow me to eat that final dessert for everyone. I'm laying claim to that final dessert right now! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
It was an ordinary day. My son, Derek, just called telling me about a phone call he had just received from his college baseball coach, George Bennett. George was the coach at Villanova University. Villanova University is a private Catholic research University in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania. It has a variety of sports teams, with baseball being one of those sports. The school is considered a Division I school, thus participating in the top-level of competition. Coach Bennett had placed the call to Derek to tell him he had just written a book about his years at Villanova and wanted to give him a copy of the book.
A very nice note written to Derek from Coach George Bennett.
Click to enlarge.
Derek gave him his address and shortly the book arrived in the mail. He has been busy reading the close to 600 page book and gave it to me a few days ago so I too could take a look at it. Inside the front cover was a very nice note that the coach had written to Derek. As a senior in high school, Derek was one of the top pitchers in the Lancaster-Lebanon, Pennsylvania area. He led his team to the Regional playoffs when he was a senior. He still is in the top 5 in many of the pitching categories in school history. As a senior he decided to go to a State College and decided upon Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) which is a Division II school. That was until he pitched in the first round of Regional Playoffs and pitched a shut-out against the best team in the Philadelphia area. Happened to be a game that Coach Bennett had attended, and was so impressed with his performance and that evening he called asking if Derek would like a scholarship to Villanova University to play Div. I baseball. Didn't take long to say yes, and the rest is history, as they say. Carol and I spent many a day driving to Philadelphia to watch him pitch over the next four years. He received a call his senior year from the San Fransisco Giants organization telling him they were going to draft him high in the draft. His call home was filled with the news and excitement of the upcoming draft. But, a week or two later he injured his pitching arm and all that was lost. Wasn't the first time something like has happened to a great athlete, and won't be the last, but it was hard to take for quite a few years. Then Derek got involved in his son's baseball career and his passion for the game returned. As far as the book that he just received from Coach Bennett, well it is filled with page after page of pasted articles and stories of Bennett's years at Villanova. He got to coach several players who were drafted, but missed out on one of the best he may have had. It was fun reading the stories and looking at all the scoresheets from the 15 years that Coach Bennett was at Villanova. Their baseball team has dropped in performance in the past few years and is usually not a contender in the Big East anymore. But, Derek's time at Villanova (1989-1992) is recorded in history and part of the book which will give him many happy memories in the future. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
It was an ordinary day. Having a snack of Jif peanut butter and Kraft marshmallow creme on top of a Ritz cracker. Actually I'm having about a dozen of the small treats, since as the saying goes...you can't have just one! And, Ritz crackers are the only cracker that tastes good enough to be part of my tri-layer snack. I'm not quite sure when Jif started making their peanut butter or when Kraft began to make their marshmallow, but I found out all about the Ritz cracker in my latest edition of The Saturday Evening Post.
"Puttin' On The Ritz" was a song written by Irving Berlin that told about rich people and their life styles, thus the name for the buttery rich cracker. It was a known fact that most of the shopping during the Depression was done by women so buying a cracker known as a Ritz cracker would promise a "bite of the good life." A box of the crackers in 1934 cost 19 cents. Within a year over five billion boxes of the crackers had been sold, which worked out to 40 crackers for every man, woman and child in America. Took all but three years before it was the best selling cracker in the world. The logo for the cracker was designed by Sydney Stern who created the blue circle/yellow lettering logo design which was inspired by the circular label inside his hat. About 10 years ago Ritz was said to be the "best perceived snack brand" among American consumers in a YouGov poll. The cracker now comes in Low Sodium, Reduced Fat, Whole Wheat, Honey Wheat, Roasted Vegetable, Bacon, Garlic Butter, Honey Butter, Hint of Salt and Original Ritz. You know that the only one that would taste good with peanut butter and marshmallow on it has to be the Original Ritz. If you have never tried the snack, buy the ingredients and make a box full for yourself. I guarantee you will love the taste of them. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
It was an ordinary day. Looking at a photograph of the Silk Cotton or Ceiba Tree. The tree is a rapidly growing deciduous tree that can reach heights of 80 feet or more with a diameter of five to eight feet above its buttresses. The buttresses themselves can be up to ten feet from the main trunk. The tree has a broad, flat crown of horizontal branches. The compound leaves have five to eight lance-shaped leaflets that are three to eight inches long.
The bloom of the Silk Cotton tree.
The tree blooms from December to February with five-part whitish to pink flowers which occur in dense clusters and bloom before the leaves appear. Now that, my friends, is a BIG tree. The fruit it produces is about three to six inches long with an elliptical shape to them. The fruit contain many seeds surrounded by a dense mat of cottony fibers. The tree gets its name from the fibers which rain from the tree when the fruits ripen. The tree fibers do not lend themselves to spinning, but can be used for insulation, padding in sleeping bags and life preservers and for stuffing mattresses and pillows.
This tree has grown over top of a building.
It's a great shade tree. But, its also considered by some to be the most feared and notorious symbols of the spirit world in the West Indies. You are warned to avoid the tree if you happen to be in the vicinity of it during Halloween. Tales of people refusing to cut down the silk cotton trees for fear of releasing the spirits inside are not uncommon across the Caribbean. A few years ago the Guyana East Coast Highway was scheduled to run right through where a rather large silk cotton tree was located. The highway planners needed it to be cut down.
The tree dwarfs this young man.
It is said that the engineers who dared to try remove it were struck dead! The highway was completed, but it ran around both sides of the tree. The other name for the tree, the "Ceiba tree", is a Taino or Arawak tribe word. It is said that Christopher Columbus and Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo were both impressed by the size of the the canoes that the Indians in the West Indies and coastal Central and South America made from the Ceiba tree. The canoes were hollowed out of tree trunks all in one piece. Some were eight to nine feet wide and could carry more than 100 men. They are still used today to make dugout canoes. That's provided you have the nerve to cut one of them down. Many of these beliefs about supernatural spirits of the silk cotton tree came to the West Indies from African enslaved peoples in the 16th century. And, I'm sure many still believe in the spirits that surround the Silk Cotton Tree. And, who's going to challenge a gigantic tree? Not most people! Certainly not me! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
Trail we followed to view the snow geese and Tundra swans. Click on images to enlarge them.
It was an ordinary day. Cool February day with tempera- tures in the low 50s when my wife said we ought to go see the Snow Geese, Tundra Swans and Canadian Geese at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area between Lebanon and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area is a special tract set aside for the protection, propagation, management, preservation and controlled harvest of wildlife.
Signs telling you to stay on the trails.
It is a 400+ acre shallow lake and 70 acres of man-made potholes, ponds and dikes which have been constructed as a marshy habitat for waterfowl. The lands that surround the preserved area are farmed to provide pasture for waterfowl and other wildlife. An adjacent ridge is comprised of oak and hickory woodlands. Beautiful drive as you wind your way from major highways to the Wildlife area. Every year over a quarter of a million people visit Middle Creek to try and make sightings of water fowl. Middle Creek was designated a Globally Significant important Bird Area, based on hosting a large percentage of the world's population of Tundra Swans and Snow Geese.
One of a few Bald Eagles Carol and I spotted.
Carol and I arrived about 4:00 PM and the roads around the area were packed with cars pulled off the road hoping to catch a glimpse of the wildlife. We pulled into a nearby parking lot to try and find a spot to park so we could walk the Willow Point Trail to a picnic area to view the birds on the water. Was our lucky day and we found a spot in the front row as someone was leaving. As we walked the trail toward the picnic area Carol pointed up and there was our first sighting of a Bald Eagle for the day. Shortly a second Bald Eagle arrived, giving me a few neat photos.
The only hawk we sighted.
Off in the distance we could see a Heron standing along water's edge, but too far away to take a photo. We arrived at the picnic area just in time to view a couple of thousand snow geese rise from the water in unison, going left, right and up, all in large synchronated dance movements. A remarkable sight to see! My Nikon was clicking as fast as it could. As I looked skyward I saw a hawk surveying the entire dance. To one side of me were close to 50 photographers with equipment far greater and more expensive than I, sitting on equally valuable trips-pods that would rotate upon command.
Serious equipment to document the migration.
The show was just beginning. We were told to head to see the sights in early morning or late afternoon, since the birds would be in the surrounding fields foraging for grain during the rest of the day. A half hour after we had arrived, the water area in front of us was covered with birds. The sound was amazing! All birds corresponding with one another at the same time. It was a moment that you can only visualize if you were there.
A few of the bird houses along the path. Made by
my friend Hal who donates his time to the wildlife area.
Telling the difference between the snow geese and the Tundra Swan is fairly easy, since the snow geese have black wing tips. As soon as they take flight you can see the black on the tips of the wings. As for the swans, they tend to have a longer neck and are white all over. The majority of the snow geese are migratory and will be leaving in a few days, while the swans are partially migratory with some remaining at Middle Creek year round.
The only photograph I have that shows the Tundra Swans. The
two all white birds are the swans while the others are snow geese.
After an hour of constant noise, Carol and I found our way back to the car. Along the trail were a few wooden birdhouses for a variety of different types of birds. Many of these birdhouses are constructed by my friend Hal who taught school with me and now volunteers making the birdhouses for the wildlife area. My photographs will give you an idea as to what it was like to view the wonder of migrating birds. Truly amazing and one of God's wonders. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
Thousands take flight at one time. The light area at the bottom are birds on the top of the water.
Two are out of formation.
The leader is calling out directions for landing.
This trees appears to have white flowers, but they are geese in the distance.
Some come very close to you while feeding.
Geese in flight.
Some are more clear and close to me in this photo.
The "Art Bridge" in York, Pennsylvania. Click to enlarge.
It was an ordinary day. Just returned from the "Art Bridge" which crosses the Pennsyl- vania Railroad siding in York, PA that connects the 200 block of N. Penn St. with Gay Ave. I just had to visit the site after reading about the special paint job that was completed as a memorial to the five-time National Basketball Association champion, Kobe Bryant, and his daughter, Gianna as well as seven others who were recently killed in a helicopter crash.
The other end of the artwork.
A York-based tattoo artist Jaysin Jefferson along with Roger Myers and three other local artists trans- formed one side of the bridge into a touching tribute to Kobe et al. Every detail on that one side of the bridge honors Kobe's life and legacy. Jefferson, Myers and their friends did the painting to help people heal and remember one of basketball's greatest players.
Locations throughout the United Sates saw memorials
such as this one place in honor of Kobe Bryant.
Kobe graduated from nearby Lower Merion High School in Philadel- phia in 1996 where he led his team to the State Champion- ship. But, the artwork that I took photos of today was only one part of the remembrances that were shared a week or so ago in the Lancaster Newspaper. The other was an interview that appeared in USA Today Newspaper written by Mark Medina.
Kobe Bryant #24.
Mark is a York county native and a 2004 graduate of York Suburban High School who now covers the NBA for USA Today. He had been responsible for covering Kobe's career extensively when he worked for The Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Daily News. Ten days before the horrible accident in Calabasas, California, Mark sat down with Kobe for an inteview which happened to be Kobe's final interview he would ever have. Mark reported that he still struggles accepting that reality with Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others who were heading to an AAU basketball game that his daughter was scheduled to be a part of that day.
One of many tributes was held in Los Angeles.
Kobe's surviving family includes his wife Vanessa and three other daughters (17-year-old Natalia, three-year-old Bianka and newborn Capri). Kobe judged those who interviewed him by the quality of the questions asked and work ethic. Mark said Kobe appreciated that he confronted Kobe with tough questions. Kobe told Mark that "I love telling stories. I love inspiring kids and providing them with tools that are going to help them." Mark also felt that Kobe no longer seemed as consumed as he once was with the NBA world. Bryant considered any season that didn't end in a championship parade to be a failure. He now sounded secure with his five NBA rings, his two Finals MVPs and his one regular-season MVP. He admitted that it meant more to him that he won an Oscar, Sports Emmy and Annie Award for his short film. And, he was encouraged that his production company will release its fourth sports fantasy book on March 31. Mark said that Kobe will not be able to see how well the book sells to the public. By now both the Lakers and Lower Merion High School have held numerous ceremonies in Kobe's honor. He will be missed by his fans as well as his remaining family, but will be remembered for many years to come by those that view the "Art Bridge" in York, Pennsylvania. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
It was an ordinary day. Walking through the exhibit of relics from St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster which are on display at the Lancaster Historical Society which is located at 230 North President Ave. in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. My story yesterday told about a beautiful painting of "Madonna and Child" which I had a chance to visit. Today will give you a look at four more pieces of artwork and the history behind each of them. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
This marble font was presented to St. James Church in 1825 by Sarah Yeates. Sarah was the daughter of James Burd and his wife Sarah Shippen and the granddaughter of Edward Shippen and Sarah Plumley. Sarah married Jasper Years on December 30, 1767. They lived on South Queen Street in the city of Lancaster. The house still stands today. They had ten children, five of whom died in infancy. Jasper Yeates was a prominent lawyer in Lancaster before the Revolutionary War. He was an ardent patriot who eventually served as a delegate to the 1787 convention which ratified the Federal Constitution. He was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1791 to his death in 1817. The Yeates family was active in St. James with Jasper serving as church warden before and after the Revolution. This marble font was given to the church by Sarah after the death of her husband.
This is a portrait of the Rev. Samuel Bowman who was rector of St. James from 1827 to 1861. It is an oil on canvas. Samuel was a man of vision who oversaw the successful establishment of many institutions in Lancaster including: Bishop Bowman Church House, Franklin and Marshall College, St. James Orphan Asylum, St. John's Episcopal Church and the Yeates School. In 1858 he was made assistant bishop of the diocese of Pennsylvania, but continued to be rector of St. James. His grave is in the churchyard near those of his two wives.
The Rev. Samuel Bowman's linen preaching bands and velvet sermon case are pictured here. In photo above he is wearing a type of formal neckwear worn by the clergy called preaching bands or preaching tabs. The bands consist of two rectangular pieces of cloth which are usually white and tied at the neck.
St. James on the Camino de Santiago which is an oil on canvas by Freiman Stoltzfus was painted in 2019. This painting of St. James is an intentionally anachronistic rendering of the early Christian saint and martyr. James was one of the first disciples of Jesus and his presence with Jesus is spoken about in many places in the gospels. Here James is imagined by the Artis as walking the famous Camino, or Pilgrim's Way along the northern coast of Spain to Santiago de Compostela, the cathedral shrine and city dedicated to him in the Middle Ages. James was known as the patron saint of pilgrims. The painting merges the angels in the apse of St. James Church with the sun and stars as a mystical evocation of the figure. Evident are the emblems of the saint; his staff and the scallop shell are universal signs of pilgrims.
This is a photograph I took a few years ago which you can compare with the above photograph to see the apse of St. James Church as it appears today.
This final painting is from the exhibit at the Historical Society. I was not able to determine the artist of this beautiful painting. It also shows the beautiful apse of St. James Episcopal Church.
It was an ordinary day. Just returned home from the Lancaster Historical Society where I made a visit to their display titled "Lancaster In The '60s; 1660, 1760, 1860 and 1960. Interesting display which I shared with you a short time ago. But, as I wandered around the building, I found another smaller display dealing with my church, St. James Episcopal, in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Many relics dealing with church life throughout the history of St. James were on display. One item that caught my eye was a painting titled "Madonna and Child" which was painted by Master of Marradi. I remember the painting from when I was a young child growing up in the church. It hung in the minister's office which was directly inside the front door of the parish house, to the left. Rev. Batchelder had his desk in front of the painting just as the following few minister after him.
Madonna and Child
The painting was given to the church on February 8, 1908 by Alice and Blanche Nevin, whose brother, Robert J. Nevin was at one time a minister at the church. They presented the painting in memory of their brother. Rev. Nevin was the son of John Williamson Nevin, the second president of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. He had left St. James and Lancaster to go to Rome in 1869 to be pastor of what would eventually become known as "St. Paul's Within the Walls" which was the first Protestant church to be built in Rome. Rev. Nevin had purchased "Madonna and Child" while serving in Rome. Well, in January of 2018 Christopher Daly, an art historian located in Baltimore, Maryland, called the office of St. James to inquire about "Madonna and Child." Mr. Daly had read that the painting by Master of Marradi was at the church. He made a visit to St. James to see if it was indeed the same painting. He examined the tempera and gold painting, but still wasn't sure. Eventually St. James, realizing the history the painting, decided to restore the painting. A grant from the Richard C. von Hess Foundation placed the painting in the hands of conservator Gillian Quinn of Baltimore. She is known well in the art world for her restorations of Old Masters. Ms. Quinn and her staff at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore spent close to a year restoring the painting. They found that someone else had "cleaned" the painting and had overpainted it during a previous try at restoration.
One small section of the painting reveals layers, upon layers of paint.
Trees had been added behind Madonna and baby Jesus and additional layers of paint were used to highlight certain areas of the painting. Solvents were used to remove those layers of "new" paint. One part of the painting that was not able to be fully restored was the feet of the Christ child. Over years and years of touching the child's feet by visitors during times of reverence, layers of paint were destroyed. She decided not to add more paint to the feet, but preserve what was left, since the painting is over 500 years old now. The wearing of the paint tells the tale of how it was worshipped by visitors in the past. The worn paint is part of its history. The frame was restored by Lauren Ross who is a restorer at the Baltimore Museum of Art. But, by the time the painting had been restored, it was determined that Master of Marradi was not the artist, but Giovanni Graffione who had also painted "Virgin Adoring the Child". Both paintings are very similar in style and technique to Giovanni from Sant' Ambrogio, Florence, that it must be his work. To stand in front of this beautiful painting today gave me a few chills and a tear or two as I imagined someone 500 years ago painting this magnificent piece of art. I tried to picture in my mind his studio and materials which he must have used. And...to have it last for over five centuries is amazing. So many things could have happened to it during that time, but today it looks as if it had been finished a short time ago. St. James is very lucky to have such a beautiful piece of art to place on the grounds of the church. And...did I touch it while standing in front of it? Nah! Just wouldn't be right! All that would have had to happen was to see some of the restoration come off on my finger and I would have croaked. But, at least I would have been laying in front of perhaps the most impressive piece of art I had ever viewed. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
It was an ordinary day. Reading a few online stories about President James Buchanan who was the 15th President of the United States. He was a resident of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and was the only President who never married. But, he wasn't without a woman in the White House, since his niece acted as the First Lady for the four years he was the President. Miss Harriet Lane was from Mercersberg which is a little over 100 miles west of Lancaster County where James lived. Harriet was born May 9, 1830 and was the youngest child of Elliott Tole Lane and Jane Ann Buchanan Lane. Her mother died when she was nine years old and her father died two years later.
A young Harriet Lane
Her favorite uncle, her mother's brother James, who was an unmarried Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania, agreed to be her legal guardian as well as her sister's guardian. He eventually enrolled them in boarding schools in Charleston, Virginia (which later became West Virginia) and later at The Academy of the Visitation Convent in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. James was appointed Minister to Great Britain in 1853 and took the 23 year-old Harriet with him to London where she received considerable attention for her beauty and vivaciousness.
Harriet Lane as "First Lady".
She was given the rank of Ambassador's Wife by Queen Victoria, but returned two years later to the USA, unmarried. Back in the states she became known as the "Democratic Queen." Then in 1957 her uncle James was voted President of the United States and she became a popular hostess in the White House. Women copied her hair style as well as dressed as she did. Parents named their daughters after her and the popular song "Listen to the Mockingbird" was dedicated to her. She used her position in the White House to promote one of her favorite social causes; the living conditions of Native Americans in reservations. She also enjoyed inviting musicians and artists to the White House. After four years as President, James was voted out so he and his niece returned to Lancaster where they resided at Wheatland which is one of my favorite places to visit, being that it is only a few miles from my home.
Wheatland on President Ave. in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
She fell in love with a young banker named Henry Elliott Johnston four years later and after receiving her uncle's approval, married Henry on January 11, 1866. Her married life was marred by the deaths of her two sons to rheumatic fever at the ages of fifteen and twelve. She and her husband chose to fund a pediatric medical facility as a comforting place to provide treatment for children requiring lengthy care. But, two years later her husband died of pneumonia.
Her bedroom at Wheatland.
When Harriet died of cancer in 1903, her estate provided a sum of over $400,000 to establish the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children as a memorial to the Johnstons' two sons. In 1906 the home, known as the Harriet Lane Clinic was built at The John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland and was the first children's clinic in the United States associated with a medical school. After she died her remains were buried in the Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore. She will always be remembered for being the First Lady of the Whitehouse as well as a champion of fighting children's diseases. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
An 1869 drawing of Wheatland.
This was Harriet's traveling case showing stamps indicating places she had visited.
It was an ordinary day. Searching YouTube for a copy of "A Study in Brown" which was a marimba-based musical group from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s. Now...I realize that many of you probably have no idea what a marimba might be, or might not even have been alive during the dates I just listed, so, I need to give you some background information.
Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens.
The marimba is a percussion instrument consisting of a set of wooden bars that are struck with yarn or rubber mallets to produce musical tones. Resonators or pipes suspended underneath each bar amplifies their sound. The bars are arranged much like the keys of a piano. This instrument is a type of idiophone, or vibrating instrument, but with a more resonant and lower-pitched sound than a xylophone. A person who plays a marimba is known as a marimbas or a marimba player. A group in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, known as Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens, was a marimba-based musical group that played from about 1938 to 1955. "A Study in Brown" was a two-minute black and white film made in the early 1940s that was shown in movie houses as a bonus before the main feature. Reg and his Queens toured the country by starting and ending their tour with an appearance at Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Their tour included making the rounds of the major dance halls as they traveled by bus. The main attraction was a "hep-cat" bass player, Frank DiNunzio, from Hershey who played his stand-up slap bass almost until his death in February of 2005.
In the video that follows you can see the other musicians in the group who were: marimba player Fern Marie, Reg's wife; next to the her was the maraca player, Grace Bailey; on the back marimba is Joyce Shaw; on the upper octave, Ruth Hauser; on the middle octave was Janet Yonde; Madee Greer is on the upper and Polly Weiser on the lower. "A Study in Brown" is known as a "Soundie" and when making Sounds, the artist, or in this case artists, first record an acceptable copy of the audio, then various camera takes are made using different camera angles and closeups as the performers lip-synched the lyrics and acted as though playing the instruments. The results were edited to create the appearance of several cameras doing the filming, when in most cases one camera was used. "A Study in Brown" was showed at many Army Camps. Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens played their last engagement at the Bedford Springs Hotel in Bedford, Pennsylvania in 1962. I hope you enjoy the video, or at least understand what a marimba may be. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
It was an ordinary day. Reading entries on the "Lancastrian" Facebook page when I came across something I had nearly forgotten about from my youth. Something called the Hambone, or Pattin' Juba, which is an African American style dance that involves stomping as well as slapping and patting the arms, legs, chest and cheeks. The Juba was originally brought by Congo slaves to Charleston, South Carolina and became an African-American plantation dance that was performed by slaves during their gatherings when no rhythm instruments were allowed due to fear of secret codes in the drumming. Later in the mid-19th century, music and lyrics were added, and there were public performances of the dance. Hambone was famously adopted and adapted in the 1950's by the legendary Rhythm & Blues singer Bo Diddley, in creating the distinctive "Bo Diddley beat", which was copied by a host of top rock singers. As I continued to read more entries on the Lancastrian I came across a very familiar name. Chip Seiple and I both went to Manheim Township High School and both graduated in the early 1960's. Chip evidently helped Lancaster Newspaper's Jack Brubaker, known to all readers of the newspaper as "The Scribbler", with a story on a local group known as the Hamboners. At the age of 9, Chip enjoyed watching the local group as they sang original lyrics to old songs, slapping their thighs, hips and chests and clapping their hands. They were known as the Hamboners and entered a competition on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour, a TV show. Chip told Jack that he thought about the Hamboners one Saturday afternoon as he and other Vietnam War veterans gathered to rededicate the Vietnam Veteran Memorial in nearby Greenwood Cemetery on South Queen Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The program included a reading of the names of 78 Lancastrians who were killed or were missing in action in Vietnam. One of those names was Joseph E. Jackson. Jackson died January 17, 1966, a dozen years after he appeared on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour. The 27-year-old Marine sergeant was one of the first Lancastrians killed in Vietnam. Chip never met Jackson, but felt a kinship with him because they both served in Vietnam and Chip will never forget watching the Hamboners perform in 1954.
The Hamboners of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The group went on the nationally televised Amateur Hour and grabbed the whole country's attention, winning first place three weeks in a row. That qualified them for a spot in the finals at Madison Square Garden, where they placed fifth among a field of forty-four acts. The other members of the group were Warren Hyson, Charles Simms and Lewis Wilson. All have died since that time. I can remember trying to duplicate their moves and antics after watching them, but I was too "white" to have the rhythm and savvy to be anywhere as good as they were. The Hamboners brought ultra-conservative Lancaster County pride for putting our town on the map! Watch the following video and give it a try as you sing along to the verses listed below. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an oridnary guy.
