The "A New Book Tells How To Explore Safe Harbor Petroglyphs" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Picked up my morning Sunday News and honed in on one of my favorite newspaper writers...Jack Brubaker...aka "The Scribbler."  His story for this past Sunday was titled "Book tells how to explore Safe Harbor petroglyphs."  His story began with.... Paul Nevin lives in a converted sawmill along a small tributary to the Susquehanna River at Accomac, York County, but he spent much of his free time about 15 miles downriver, just below Safe Harbor Dam.  Nevin has meticulously examined distinctive carvings on rocks in the river below the dam.  The carvings, called petroglyphs, were made by Indigenous people who were here before Europeans arrived.  "The petroglyphs are an extraordinary culture resource,"  says the 68-year-old amateur archaeologist and specialist in restoring historic structures.  "We need to protect them from future generations."  As one way of protecting the carvings, Nevin has published "A Guide to the Safe Harbor Petroglyphs," a 62-page commentary on possible meanings of this "rock art," as well as an exhortation to waterborne visitors to protect the iconographic images.  "When people become aware of the cultural significance, he explains, "they treat it with more respect."  Informing more people about petroglyph rocks that were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 is a relatively recent idea.  Four decades ago, when Nevin began studying the carvings, many archaeologists dismissed the rocks as unworthy of serious study.  They also believed that not publicizing the rocks would deter vandalism.  Nevin has taken a different approach.  People already know the rocks exist, he says.  What they need to know is how special they are and how they should be treated by boaters.  His guide tells visitors how to minimize damage to the petroglyphs by tying their boats correctly to the rocks and by walking on them in bare feet.  "Rock art etiquette," you might call it.  He suggests that he or another guide be employed to expedite visits to the rocks in a river that can be treacherous.  The guidebook also tells readers what the rocks mean to Nevin and to the people who carved them, probably 500 to 1,000 years ago.  He says images that appear to be birds, snakes, bears and other ceatures have larger implications when studied in the context of American Indian cultures and their environment.  The two major petroglyph rocks that remain visible above water levels altered by the dam are Big and Little Indian rocks.  They contain scores of carvings originally recorded in 1863.  Nevin has documented four additional rocks nearby with dozens of additional petroglyphs.  He believes all of the carvings were made by the people known as the Shenks Ferry Indians, who lived in this area before the Susquehannocks arrived.  Whatever the petroglyphs may have meant to their makers, Nevin writes, "these are sacred images in a sacred place.  Creating the petroglyphs was, in itself, likely a sacred activity."  How can this sacred but exposed site be protected?  There's a viewing scope on the Low Grade Trail's railroad trestle from which anyone can see activity on or near the rocks.  With more guided tours going out to the rocks, more eyes are watching them.  State law provides penalties for damaging an archaeological site.  Describing how he feels about his essential role in preserving and explaining the petroglyphs, Nevin marvels, "How lucky I am to be able to do this."  Nevin's guide includes color photos of the rocks and their petroglyphs, as well as maps showing their locations in the river.  It sells for $14.95 at safeharborpetroglyphs.com and soon will be available at local museums and heritage centers.  And...a big Thank-You to Mr. Jack Brubaker, aka ", for writing this story in my Sunday Newspaper.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

"My Resignation" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just sat down to read my free, weekly, "The Fishwrapper",  which I find at my local "Stauffer's Of Kissel Hill" Supermarket every week when I go to find items that you just can't find at any other food market in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  "The Fishwrapper" is a full-color, 16-page, 8 1/2" x 11" publication on white paper with a religious theme to it that is filled with plenty of stories, photographs, cartoons, and...yes.. advertisements, that take about a half-hour to work your way through on a weekly basis.  It is one of the main reasons I travel the mile to Stauffer's every week.  One of today's treats, beside the delicious ham and cheese sandwiches and home-made cookies, was the story I found on page 6 of the November 26 issue. Story was titled "My Resignation" and read like this...

I am officially tendering my resignation as an adult.  I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an eight-year-old again.

I want to go to McDonald's and think that it's a four-star restaurant.

I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks.

I want to think M&M's are better than money because you can eat them.

I want to run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer day.

I want to return to a time when life was simple; when all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know, and you didn't care.

All you knew was to be happy, because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.

I want to think the world is fair.  That everyone is honest and good.

I want to believe that anything is possible.  I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life, and be overly excited by the little things again.

I want to live "simple" again.  I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive when there are more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones.

I want to run and play with my pets all day.

I want my imagination to go on hundreds of trips and last forever.

So here is my checkbook and my car keys, my credit card bills and my bank statements.  I am officially resigning from adulthood.  And, if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, because, "TAG! YOU'RE IT!"

It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Was The Source Of Baseball "Rubbing Mud" Known In Lancaster and Nearby Philadelphia? Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sunday, and my morning paper was standing against my front door, just as it always is on an early Sunday morning.   Opened the "LOCAL" section and was greeted with an article by writer Jack Brubaker, aka "The Scribbler."  Story was titled "Was source of baseball 'rubbing mud' known here?"  Jack is my favorite Lancaster Newspaper writer whose stories always tend to bring life to his stories.  I just knew I was going to enjoy his story about baseball and mud!  His story began with..."Dale Good spotted an unusual article, "Soft matter mechanics of baseball's Rubbing Mud," in the Nov. 4 LNP.  Jack went on to tell the story that I was waiting to read when I opened my front door this morning.  Dale wondered if there is any association between contemporary baseball mud and mud that Bainbridge scientist Samuel Stehman Harman discovered in New Jersey in 1939.  Good emailed the authors of a University of Pennsylvania study that proved why Major League Baseball's mud, taken from a secret place in New Jersey, is the best substance to put on new baseballs to make then less slick and easier to grip.  Good, a member of the Haldeman Mansion Preservation Society, has not heard anything from the Penn professors, so he is left wondering.  Haldeman was a naturalist, philologist and a sometime professor at Penn who lived in a home now being slowly restored in Bainbidge.  He corresponded with many of the great scientists of his day, including Charles Darwin.  In May of 1939, Haldeman provided an analysis of marl, or mud, found in the "New Jersey greensand."  It was deposited millions of years ago when the Garden State was under water.  Haldeman described the mud as bluish-white on the surface, light chocolate when fractured, soft and easily broken.  The surface was covered with grains of green sand.  He published the findings in a brie note on the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.  The rubbing mud that the Major Leagues use to allow their pitchers to get a grip on baseballs apparently has perfect proportions of clay and sand.  It also comes from New Jersey.  A secret place in New Jersey!  "The mud spreads like face cream, but it grips like sandpaper," said a Penn geophysicist and co-author of the study.  The stuff has been applied to baseballs since 1938.  Since 2022, Major League Baseball has mandated that at least a 30-second rub with the mud within a three-hour period before each game.  "This mud works as a superfine abrasive and takes the gloss coating off without doing any type of damage to the leather or laces," said th fellow who harvests the mud from an unknown location and sells it to Major Leagues.  Many years ago my oldest son pitched for the Villanova University's baseball team and told me about the special baseballs that their coach knew about and obtained that were so much easier to grip, thus could be thrown harder and with more of a curve to them.  They certainly helped him when he pitched on days that we went to see him pitch!  I'm sure it was well-known long before he arrived at Villanova!     Baseball officials have tried other substances without success.  The Penn study shows why alternatives have struck out!!  So...there really is something to the story that the ball can be doctored to help the pitcher throw it with more curve and perhaps better velocity.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.