The "The Sport Of Pigeon Racing" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Looking back over a few stories I have written in the past about the bird known as the pigeon.  

Cages at Root's Sale where my grandfather took me every Wednesday in the summer.

One story I wrote told about my Grandfather buying me a pigeon at a local farmer's market and auction while another story told of a man who happened to be in front of me in line at the local post office a year or two ago who was mailing a crate of fancy pigeons to Dubai.  Stories can be found by typing "pigeon" in the white box at the top left of this page.  Well, I was recently reading the "Cabbage Hill of Yesteryear" Facebook page and found a story written by Jim Gerhart titled "Pigeon Racing on Old Cabbage Hill."  The story, which was just posted a few days ago, told of the breeding, raising, training and racing of homing pigeons in the area of the city of Lancaster known as Cabbage Hill which is the South-West part of town, thus "SoWe".   Jim wrote of the first organized group of homing-pigeon owners in the city of Lancaster that was established in early 1889.  It was called the Lancaster Homing Pigeon Club and was made up of nine members who owned over 200 pigeons between them.  The following year the club had a few new members who lived in the Cabbage Hill section of town.

Three years after that, a second racing club known as the Hillside Homing Pigeon Club, which was formed on Cabbage Hill, began.  If you are not familiar with pigeon racing, it is a rather unusual sport in which club members ship their pigeons in crates to cities and towns far from Lancaster.  Most of the starting points were to the south, usually in Virginia or the Carolinas.  Each pigeon wold have a metal band around a leg which was inscribed with the owner's initials and an ID#.  At a designated time the pigeons would be released and attempt to find their way home to the "SoWe" section of Lancaster.  Homing pigeons have an acute sense of smell and an uncanny ability to use the Earth's magnetic field to find their way home to where they knew they would be fed and reunited with their mates.  Lancaster had an official judge who would record the exact time each pigeon would arrive at the door to its loft.  Amazingly, most made it back.

Winners in one of the races.

The judges would then compare the times and award valuable prizes to the owners of the pigeons.  Pigeon racing was an expensive hobby and the prize money was needed to continue with the sport.  At times, some of the pigeons wouldn't make it home during a race.  Especially if it was an extreme long distance or inclement weather.  Jim reported that during a storm in 1911, only 15 of 73 pigeons made it home to Lancaster within four days of being released in Newberry, South Carolina.  Some finally returned, but many were lost.  By 1908 there were three clubs in Lancaster, each with at least ten members and many hundred pigeons.  

1918 photo of a dispatch rider with a basket of pigeons to release.

Many members were from the Cabbage Hill area.  Jim wrote that the average age of the members was about 35 and all were tradesmen with some working in the cigar industry.  The majority of them were sons of German immigrants.  During WWI the club still competed, but the number began to dwindle.  Jim suggested that the members of German heritage wanted to avoid the spotlight during the intense anti-German sentiment directed at Cabbage Hill during the war.  In 1917 the Army asked club member Charles Schill to provide an inventory of all the homing pigeons in his clubs.  Seems there was a need for their service at the European war front.  The pigeons were expected to be "doing a bit as a patriot, to help our country in this great crisis."  Then in May of 1918, General Pershing directed 3,000 homing pigeons, perhaps some from Lancaster Cabbage Hill, and 100 trained handlers to be dispatched to the European front.  They were used to deliver messages to military headquarters miles behind the battle lines.  Their success rate was said to be about 97%.  After the war, Lancaster club members continued with their racing.  However, due to complaints of unsanitary conditions in backyard lofts, the city of Lancaster banned keeping pigeons within the city limits, thus ending more than 100 years of homing-pigeon racing in the city.  Many rural clubs still exist and a large network of racing enthusiasts still compete.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Memories Of Milton S. Hershey: Part II - Mt. Joy, PA" Story

It was an ordinary day.  I have written a few times about one of Lancaster's most prominent residents, Milton S. Hershey.  Mr. Hershey began his love affair with chocolate as a young boy when he worked at 48 1/2-52 W. King Street in downtown Lancaster.  

Lancaster Caramel Factory on Church Street.

It was in 1887 that he founded The Lancaster Caramel Company in the 300 block of Church Street in downtown Lancaster and eventually sold it in 1890 when he began the small town that bears his name; Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was in 1894 that he founded Hershey Chocolate Company and introduced the Hershey Bar the following year.  

Milton Hershey can be seen with his town of Hershey, PA.

His town of Hershey was situated close to the Dauphin-Reading Turnpike, thus making it easy for receiving his shipments of sugar and cocoa beans from the ports of New York and Philadelphia.  All of his plans were developed according to his master plan for success.  Wasn't long before he had constructed homes for workers as well as a new mansion near the plant for he and his wife.  

Hershey Chocolate Factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

He was a visionary that wanted the best for himself as well as his employees.  But, for as many times as I have read stories about him and his master plan, I never once knew that he had opened a plant in Lancaster County in an old brick building at East Donegal and South Jacob Streets in nearby Mount Joy, Pennsylvania.  I recently read an article in The Lancaster newspaper with a headline that read "Milton Hershey's local connections found in Mount Joy."  The story was written by "The Scribbler" aka Jack Brubaker.  

The plaque located in Mount Joy.  Click to enlarge.

He said that Harold and Hellen Keller recently showed him a plaque, high on a wall of an old brick building that houses an auxiliary Donsco operation next to the company's headquarters in Mt. Joy.  The tiny plaque read: "On this site and in this building Milton S. Hershey operated a caramel factory from about 1892 to 1898.  Seems the Mount Joy Chamber of Commerce placed the plaque on the building in 1972, putting it high enough so no one would vandalize it.  

Hershey's caramel factory in Mount Joy, PA

Perhaps that's why very few knew that Mr. Hershey every had a candy operation in a place other than Lancaster and Hershey.  Mr. Keller thought it was about time that the world knew about Mr. Hershey's factory in Mount Joy, so he notified Mr. Brubaker who in turn wrote his story for The Lancaster Newspaper.  So, how come the city of Lancaster doesn't have any neat plaques just like Mt. Joy does?  Mr. Hershey lived at 222 S. Queen Street in Lancaster when he had his factory in the 300 block of Church Street.  Why not a plaque on one of those locations.  One good reason might be that his home on Queen Street was torn down years ago to make way for a grocery store, but I'm not sure about the Church Street location.  Perhaps a plaque could tell of Hershey's factory in Lancaster as it does in Mt. Joy and in the town of Hershey, PA.  Who want's to be in charge of this idea?  Maybe me?  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Memories Of Milton S. Hershey: Part I - Cuba" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just printed out a story I found online telling about chocolatier Milton S. Hershey and his coconnecton to the Cuban town now known as Camilo Cienfuegos.  I recently read about his connection to the little town of Mount Joy in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but had no idea he had connections in Cuba.  It was in the little town, on the northern coast of Cuba, that Mr. Hershey built a sugar refinery to supply sugar for his growing chocolate empire in Hershey, Pennsylvania.  The town dates back to 1916 when Mr. Hershey first visited Cuba for the first time and decided to buy a sugar plantation and mill on the island to supply his growing chocolate empire in Pennsylvania.  

Hershey's Sugar Refinery in Hershey, Cuba

It was on land east of Havana that he built a large sugar refinery and an adjoining village and named it Hershey, Cuba.  The village was modeled after the town he was in the process of building in Hershey, PA.  The houses were for his workers and their families.  The Cuban village would eventually have about 160 homes made of wooden planks and built along a grid of streets, each with a small yard and front porches just as the homes he had built in Hershey, PA for his workers at his chocolate factory.  

Some of the homes in Hershey Village, Cuba

The small Cuban town also had it's own rail line, a public school, a medical clinic, shops, a movie theatre, a golf course, social clubs and a baseball stadium where the local Hershey-sponsored team played their home games.  The factory was one of the most productive refineries in all of Cuba as well as one of the best in Latin America.  It was the envy of all who lived in Cuba.  Mr. Hershey wanted the best for his workers so they would give him the best work performance they could.  His company owned all the properties in the village and made all the home repairs and maintained the public utilities.  

The train line that was built to get the sugar to ports.

Mr. Hershey knew how to keep his workers happy and productive.  Recently, a Mr. Pedro Gonzalez Bernal, a life-long resident of the village and a radio journalist, whose father worked as a conductor on the rail line that Mr. Hershey had built to connect the refinery with the port of Matanzas, said that the town was a world apart from the rest of Cuba.  But, at the time there was also racial segregation throughout the small town with black workers assigned the smallest homes on the farthest edge of town.  Three years after  Mr. Hershey died in 1945, Hershey Company sold the Cuban plant and village along with Hershey's other Cuban holdings.  When Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, the refinery was nationalized and the town was renamed Camilo Cienfuegos after one of Castro's commanders.  

Remains of the baseball stadium.

With Hershey's death and Castro coming to power came changes and all home owners in the town were now responsible for their own homes and the baseball stadium was demolished.  But the sugar refinery remained among the backbones of the economy of Cuba.  But the Cuban sugar industry declined after the collapse of the Soviet Union, its principal sponsor.  Eventually Mr. Hershey's sugar refinery was closed in the early 2000s when many of the sugar plants were closed by the government.  Cuba did find jobs for the workers and even sent some to school to train for jobs with many going into the tourism industry.  Recently, most of the sugar factory's buildings have been demolished, but the homes still remain with residents trying to keep them up even though they have very little help doing so.  Mr. Hershey would be rolling over in his grave if he knew what had happened to his grand experiment he had instituted in Cuba.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  

The "My Favorite Collectibles: Part III - A Calendar For Mother" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sometime in the early 2000's and I had just returned from a trip to a few of the antique stores near Adamstown, Pennsylvania known as Renninger's Antique and Collectors Market and Stoudt's Black Angus Antique Mall.  This area of Pennsylvania is known for their high quality antiques and it is so interesting to see what others have decided to discard over the years.  My "big" find today was a 1922 calendar that I gave to my mother since it was the year of her birth.  Only problem was that it carried drawings of automobiles from that era.  When she and my father died, I sort of inherited just about everything that my brother didn't have an interest in at the time.  The calendar was special to me since I had bought it for her years before her death.  As I leafed through the pages of cars it amazed me that there were several that I hadn't even heard of before.  The first page from the calendar will show you the design of the calendar, but the photographs that follow will show you all the automobiles that were featured in the calendar.  See how many you can remember that were in production in 1922. It was a another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Click on images to enlarge them.

The car featured on this month is the Auburn.   It was  produced in Auburn, Indiana and this car was a four-passenger sport model, selling fully-equipped at $2,195, f.o.b. the factory.  Offered as standard equipment are shock absorbers, a nickel-plated radiator shell, bar filler cap with Motometer, cowl ventilator, individual fenders, polished aluminum steps, trunks with nickeled trimmings on each side of the car, barrel-type headlamps and a parking light on the left rear fender.

FEBRUARY
The Rauch & Lang was an electric vehicle made by Each & Lang, Inc. of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts.  It claims to be an electric sedan that is a radically different electric automobile.  The company also claims more interest on the part of the  public this year than ever before inter history.

MARCH
This new and improved Haynes 75 two-passenger Speedster is equipped with a six cylinder, 75 horsepower engine of Haynes' own design.  Individual steps and fenders and two extra wire wheels are standard equipment.  Wind deflectors, rear vision mirrors, windshield cleaners, exterior side cowl lights and searchlight-type head lamps are also furnished at no additional cost.  Tests show the car is capable of an 80 miles per hour top speed.

APRIL
The Essex coach is a product of the Hudson Motor Company of Detroit, Michigan and is expected to be a trend-setter, offering a popularly-price car to the motoring public.  This is the first coach offered under the Essex banner and it is offered at a selling price of $1,345, just $250 more than the touring car model.

MAY
Although there is good reasons for buying a car from the more popular, established manufacturers, there are many of these buyers who would aldodlike their off-the-showroom-floor models to have a little extra flair.  For these buyers, the Automotive Body Company of Chicago, Illinois offers this racing body to transform their Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, Maxwell, Saxon or overland into a lightweight racing model ready to do battle on the track. 

JUNE
Now in its second year of manufacture, Earl Motors, Inc., of Jackson Michigan offers this Earl touring model for $1,285.  Its low graceful lines are, in the words of its builders, designed to appeal to those who take an honest pride in their belongings, who seek to rise above the commonplace in their homes their dress and their cars. 

JULY
From Teledo, Ohio, the Willys-Overland Company offers this four-door sedan at a price of $895 for the 1922 model year.  The company claims this to be the easiest riding, longest-serving, most economical and most popular of the 800,000 Overlands produced since its beginning in 1903.  Equipment included electric starter, lights, horn, speedometer, and demountable wire wheels.  The economy claim is based on owner's records showing 25 miles per gallon.

AUGUST
This touring car, offered for $885, on one of four models offered for 1922 by the Maxwell Motor Company ofDetroit, Michigan.  The car boasts unusually long springs which it maker claims accounts for a degree of road comfort unusual for a car of its weight and size.  Standard equipment included disc steel wheels which are demountable at the rim and hub, leather upholstery, a new watertight windshield, electric horn and drum type head lamps. 

SEPTEMBER
A newcomer on the automotive scene for 1922 is this new Jewett, designed and built by the Paige-Detroit Morot Car Company.  This four=door sedan boasts all-metal coach work claimed to be free of rattles and squeaks.  Power is supplied by aa 50 horsepower six-cylinder engine.  Available through allPaige dealers, the sedan sells for $1,395.  

OCTOBER
The Stewart Motor Corporation is seeking to expand its list of dealers in 1922, offering franchises to established dealers of other vehicles.  Leading their line is the stake-bodied "Utility Wagon" which falls in the same capacity range as more than 60% of all the trucks being sold today to they growing commercial market.   

NOVEMBER
The Impressively-named Southern Motor manufacturing Association, Limited, of Houston, Texas, announces for 1922 this roadster model, latest in the line of Ranger automobiles.  Powered by the four-cylinder Ranger-Supreme engine which features a 3 3/8" bore and a 5" stroke, this model offers ample seating room and luggage storage.  The roadster bodies mounted on the same 116 inch wheelbase chases as their touring model and sells for $1,595.

DECEMBER
Last year, W.C. Durant left General Motors, having been replaced as president by Pierre S. DuPont in 1920, to form his own company in Flint Michigan.  In this, the Durant Motor Company's first year of production, the firm is making a bid for the low-price market, offering this Star touring car for the reasonable price of $348.  

The "The Three Octave Phenom: Roy Orbison" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Working at the gallery where I help a former high school student of mine do matting and framing of just about anything that comes in the door at Greginger Gallery.  And...I have been known to work much better when I am listening to music.  Today, the songs on the old portable CD player that was my mom's at one time, are some of my favorites from a guy known as Roy Orbison.  

Roy Orbison

Roy died over 30 years ago, but his voice and song lyrics still have meaning and inspiration for me as I work.  Songs such as "Only the Lonely" from 1960, "Running Scared" from 1961, "Crying" from 1961, "In Dreams" from 1963 and "Oh, Pretty Woman" from 1964 are some of my all-time favorites.  Not just from Roy, but from any artist living or deceased.  Roy was eight years my senior, but I just loved his singing style, song structures and dark, emotional Ballards.  He and his music has been described as operatic and gaining the nickname of "the Caruso of Rock" and "The Big O".  He didn't dance around the stage, wear flashy clothes and shout instead of sing; he performed standing still, wearing black clothes and dyed hair as well as dark sunglasses.  I often tried to sing along with him, knowing the lyrics to just about every song he ever performed, but just when I was at the top of my vocal range, Roy would top me with a note I could never hope to hit.  

Roy when he sang for Sun Records.

He began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band in high school, and was given a record contract with Sun Records in 1956.  A few years later he was signed by Monument Records where he enjoyed much of his success.  From 1960 to 1966 he had 22 singles reach the Billboard Top 40; most of those having been written or co-written by Roy himself.  Many of his records reflected on his personal life.  His distinctive three-octave voice and unorthodox songwriting technique was his unglamorous style which has been called "geek chic."  

Roy begins to wear his distinctive dark glasses.

As a child he had poor eyesight which was why he wore those thick corrective eyewear.  In 1963, while touring with the Beatles, he left his glasses on the plane which forced him to wear his unsightly prescription sunglasses for that night's show.  It later became his trademark.  From the mid-1960s he suffered a number of personal tragedies and his career faltered.  His wife was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1966 and two years later his two oldest sons died in a house fire. Roy entered a dark period in both his personal and musical life.  

Roy in 1965

In the 1980s he experienced a resurgence in popularity following the success of several cover versions of his songs.  It was in 1988 that he co-founded the Traveling Wilburys, a rock group that featured George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.  What a group it was, but Roy only got to sing with the superstars for a few months before he died of a heart attack on December 6th of that year at the age of 52.  A month later his song, "You Got It" was released as a solo single and became his first hit to reach the U.S. Top 10 in nearly 25 years.  Roy is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987), the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1987), The Songwriters Hall of Fame (1989) and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum (2014).  Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on their list of the "Greatest Artist of All Time" and number 13 on their list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time."  In 2002, Billboard Magazine listed him at number 74 in the Top 600 recording artists.  Pretty impressive credentials!  But, what has impressed me the most about Roy is his falsetto voice which seems to come from within him.  He told Rolling Stone Magazine that he likes the sound of his voice, I like making it sing, making the voice ring, and I just keep doing it.  It was said that when Elvis Presley heard "Only the Lonely" for the first time, he bought a box of copies to pass along to his friends.  

Roy in 1987, a year before he died.

One of my all-time favorites of Roy Orbison is "Running Scared" when he hits the final high note.  Just gives me the chills.  The song was about an emotionally vulnerable man facing loss or grief, with a crescendo culminating in a surprise climax that employed Orbison's dynamic voice.  I have also read that what separates Orbison from so many other multi-octave-spanning power singers is the he can hit the biggest notes imaginable and still sound unspeakably sad at the same time.  All his vocal gymnastics were just a means to a powerful end, not a mission unto themselves.  Roy Orbison didn't just sing beautifully...he sang brokenheartedly.  Roy's voice will live on forever.  It was once said that, "When you were trying to make a girl fall in love with you, it took roses, the Ferris wheel and Roy Orbison. Amen!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.




  

The "My Favorite Collectibles: Part II - Metal Models Etc." Story

It was an ordinary day.  Have reached the bottom of the final box I had found in the basement and what I discovered were more of my 1/18" scale metal cars as well as a few special items I had placed in the box years ago when we moved to the "Beach House" and had forgotten about until now.  One special item was a metal box that was shaped like an automobile with the word "Speedster" on both sides.  When I picked it out the box I had no idea what I had placed in the car years ago.  As it was, I found four really neat pocket watches, each a different brand.  Wound one of them and the movement began to operate.  Placed them back in the can for safe keeping, as I did over 20 years ago.  Another item I found was in a cardboard box that read: ELEGANT AND BEAUTIFUL DELUXE SEDAN...Heavy Gauge Sedan.  Had a photo of what appeared to be a Corvette with the rather crude word Chevrolet on the side of the car.  It, too, was made to 1/18" scale as were the Corvettes that I featured recently.  Two other items were bright yellow Matchbox products that were made in China.   One was a tractor-trailer with "Kodak Film Racing screen printed on the side and a small car, with the  same Matchbox scale that had the number 4 and Kodak printed on it.  For years I had collected Kodak items, and still have a few of them remaining, but the majority of that collection I had sold years ago, except for these few items.  I also found two yellow H2 Hummers that were a perfect match except for the size of them.  One was Matchbox size and the other 1/18" size.  And the final item in the box of collectibles was a "Woodie" Ford Wagon  with a surfboard on the top.  It too was 1/18" scale.  I had collected them years ago and put them away for safe keeping.  At least that's what I tried to tell myself when I found them in the cardboard box.  One final collection I had I recently asked my brother to try and sell online for me.  My collection of license plates I had been collecting for over 20 years.  Had plates from every one of the Caribbean islands we had visited as well as just about every state in the United States that we had visited.  For years they were fastened to the base of our Tiki Bar on our back deck.  Many were beginning to fall off and I thought it best to give someone else the chance to enjoy them.  He recently gave me a check for the sale of them, minus those island plates that didn't have a sticker with the expired date on them.  He said they had been removed from the site since they had no idea if they had been stolen or not.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The metal "Speedster"

Inside the "Speedster" were several pocket watches.

The box and what was inside of it.

This reads Chevrolet..I think! 

Two Kodak Matchbox products.

A Matchbox Hummer and the 1/18 scale Hummer. 

The Ford "Woodie" with surfboard.

The "Oh! For The Good Old Times - Like 6 Months Ago!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Asked my wife if she wanted to head down to Chesapeake City, Maryland for lunch.  She gave me a quick response..."Where would we eat?"  Oh yeah, I forgot about the fact that we couldn't eat at our favorite restaurant since they only have take out.  "Well, how about we drive down to Chestertown for some shopping and eat down there."  Same answer for Chestertown as well as North East, Maryland and Rock Hall, Maryland.  All these locations are an easy and relaxing drive to shop and have lunch.  But...that's just not going to happen for two old-timers who fear the worst if we gather in a crowded store or eat in a busy restaurant.  Oh, for the good old times!  Not years ago...but, months ago.  They were the good old times!  In a recent publication known as Frontiers, I read that researchers found that nostalgia can help to combat feelings of loneliness.  Boy, do we need help right now to combat loneliness.  Sure, visits with our family are a big help, but we miss so many of the traditional things that we usually do during the summer months such as going to the Jersey Shore with our family for a week.  Our traditional location has been Ocean City, New Jersey but we have also headed to Stone Harbor a few years for vacation.  We also miss the two nights a week little league baseball games that featured our grandson on the team.  I have loved baseball since I was a small boy and played baseball throughout high school and then softball until I found it too hard to run out a hit while batting.  But, what we missed the most during the past few months has been our traditional trip to the island of St. Martin for three weeks during April into May.  We tried to combat boredom by reading, but I can only read so much before my eye lids become too heavy and...well you know.  My wife was unable to go to her hairdresser as well as have her nails done every few weeks.  She has become a pretty good nail stylist in the meantime, but the hair thing...well, she just doesn't trust me.  Sometimes the quiet times are welcome, but it does get rather boring.  For years my friend Mike and I did most of the in-house printing for the school district where we both taught and retired from, but we were confined to one morning a week and found we had to take over half the work to an outside source to get it done.  And, my part-time job working at a framing shop was stopped for almost two months since the owner, a former student of mine, wasn't allowed to open.  At times loneliness sets in, even with my wife by my side.  I find I make quite a few phone calls which I never did, in order to just talk to someone and see how they are holding up.  Carol and I haven't been able to visit with friends as much as usual, since many of our friends are too scared to accept visitors, even while wearing a mask.  I can't imagine the boredom we would have experienced had we been in a retirement community and not allowed to have visitors and were discouraged from traveling outside of the grounds of the community.  We were able to shop at our local grocery store, but we were encouraged to come at 7:00 AM when the store was open for those over 65 for an hour.  One thing I will certainly not miss is heading back to school to teach high school children.  Wearing a mask and staying a safe distance from the students would be tough in a course where you teach the visual arts.  I hope that today's teachers, as well as students, can have a safe and healthy start to school, but I'm sorry to say I doubt that is possible.  Retired teachers are being asked if they could substitute for those teachers who become ill.  How many do you think will volunteer for that job?  Sometime this will all be over!  It can't be soon enough for my wife and myself.  We are bored to death...but at least that is better than death itself.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Dead Letter Office Really Means Just That!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Headed down the driveway to the mailbox to check what my mailman dropped off today.  Always one of the favorite parts of the day...especially if I'm expecting a check in the mail.  Did you ever think about how that letter got to your house from miles away.  It was close to two years ago that our travel agent, Magali, on the Caribbean island of St. Martin, mailed my car key fob to me after I realized I had left it in the safe of our rental, but not until we were in Baltimore, Maryland.  The day I opened the mailbox and found that small package made me realize just how lucky we are to have a postal system such as we do in the United States.  It was back in 1775 that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) was established by the Second Continental Congress.  It did take years to get the regular, reliable mail system we have today, but it had to start somewhere.  One item they struggled with at first was mail that had no address on it or no return address. It wasn't until 1825 that the Postal Service opened a "dead letter office".  

One days collection at the Dead Letter Office.

Starting in 1922 the USPS began to sell off the contents of the dead letters and packages that were never claimed.  But, the postal system as we know it today actually began almost 40 years before it was started by the Second Continental Congress.  Benjamin Franklin became the postmaster of Philadelphia while it was under British rule in 1737.  Four years later he printed a list of almost 800 names, in the Pennsylvania Gazette, of people who'd not picked up their mail and paid the necessary penny for it.  At that time in history, the recipient of the mail had to pay the postage.  "Mr. Franklin warned that if they were not redeemed before March 25 of that year, they would be sent away as dead Letters to the General Post Office.  When the postal service was established in 1775, Franklin was appointed Postmaster General, since he had the most experience.  In 1825 the first Dead Letter Office opened and by the 1860s, with most men in the United States fighting in the Civil War, women mail workers outnumbered the men 38-7.  These mostly female clerks acted as "skilled dead letter detectives inspecting the mail for potential clues about who sent it or where it was going.  At the time, dead letter clerks handled three types of mystery mail:  "Misdirected letters" which for some reason were sidetracked, "Blind Readings" so called because the address would appear as though it was read blindfolded, and "Prank mail."  By 1893 over 20,000 items passes through the Dead Letter Office.  But, by the 1990s the USPS opted to change it to better reflect the ultimate goal of returning mail.  Today the Dead Letter Office is based in Atlanta and known as the Mail Recovery Center.  

Items other than letters that have never been claimed.
These items will be sold at auction.  If not sold they will
be discarded.

When a letter, package, etc. is mailed, it is meant to be delivered.  But, illegible hand- writing, scant infor- mation, wrappings with nearly illegible handwriting and missing addresses sends it to Atlanta.  Only clerks in the Dead Letter Office have the permission to open those items and regulations allow them only to read the bare minimum to discover names and locations of the sender or intended recipient.  In addidion to ethics and reasoning skills, the work required knowledge of languages and geography.  Items that are never claimed or that could never be delivered, postal workers oversaw their disposal.  Clerks have to tally enclosed money and turn the funds over to the Treasury Department.  Contents of packages are held for a period of time and then sold at public auction.  Items that remain are destroyed or sent to the Dead Letter Office Museum.  So, when you send a package or letter in the mail, make sure you have the correct address on the package, place your return address on the package or letter and make sure it can be easily read.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an oridnary guy.

The "A Visual Story From LDub's 'Neat Photos' Folder" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Cleaning my desktop and came across my folder labeled "Neat Photos."  Thought it was time to share a few with you and make your day a bit brighter as well as easier on your reading for the day.  A few of these have been in other stories over the past 10 years, but the majority of them have been visiting in my "Neat Photos" folder forever.  Hope you enjoy a few of them!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Click images to enlarge them.

The  Brookside Swimming Pools twin pools in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  My mother took my brother and I swimming here in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  Notice the miniature golf course in the foreground.

Martin's Drive-In was a favorite of mine in the early 1960's.

A winter day with a banner to warm you.

A mother Robin feeding her family outside our family room window.

"The Gray Lady" trying to make herself invisible while watching a squirrel.

A visitor to our back deck...an American Woodcock!

One of many large fish in the aquarium at Cabella's

A very small feeder on one of my wife's flowers.

The softness of a few raindrops.

Shadows can also speak to you.

The largest framing job I ever accomplished at Grebinger Gallery where I work part-time. 

The automobile bridge stands next to the railroad bridge that connects the towns of Columbia and  Wrightsville , Pennsylvania.  The original wooden bridge across the Susquehanna was set ablaze during the Civil War to keep the South from reaching Philadelphia.

Lancaster's town square.  One of the first photos I have ever found of the town square.

Another photograph from about the same spot in the center of Lancaster, PA 

Across the bottom of this old photograph reads: C. and P.O. Railroad Bridge over Conestoga Creek at Safe Harbor that was destroyed.

Aerial photograph of the island of Sint Maarten/St. Martin taken from the window of an airplane while landing.  

Planes arriving must fly low since the runway at the airport begins where the beach ends.

One of our earliest visits to St. Martin during the Ebola crisis.

A early black and white photograph of the Courthouse in the center of Sint Maarten.

Another photo taken in perhaps the 1960s of the Courthouse.

This device was for crushing salt and can be found, even today, in the town of Grand Case on the island of St. Martin.

An aerial photo showing the beach known as "Club O" on Orient Beach in St, Martin.

A photograph taken a few years ago after Hurricane Irma struck St. Martin. 

Jesus Loves The Little Children...All The Children Of The World"