The "Cutting Up A Tree In Your Underwear!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  My wife had just located a story on Facebook written by a musical acquaintance of mine named David Gelatt.  Story was titled "The One Man Nudist Colony in Lancaster City."  It was a rather humorous story that told about one hot summer day in June of 1933 when a Mr. Bechtold Kroll, 55, of 34 W. Strawberry Street in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania decided to chop up a tree that had fallen in his backyard.  He decided that wearing clothes in the day's heat would make it unbearable.  So, he stripped down to his underwear and began chopping up his tree.  Well, it seems that a nosey neighbor, Miss Angelica Smeltz, didn't care see him in his skivvies and called the local police department.  When the police arrived they found Mr. Kroll completely clothed next to a large pile of wood.  He had evidently completed his chore and had put his clothes back on.  Miss Smeltz, her mother, brother and another neighbor Linnaeus Rathvon all insisted that he was "almost in the nude."  So, the police arrested him and hauled him off to the police station.  He told them that "Maybe I did run around in my underwear, but so what if I did?  Nobody could see me if they minded their own business.  Alderman Trapnell, police court magistrate, said that police would continue to be tolerant during the summer heat waves, but announced that nudist's colonies were taboo.  He ordered Kroll to pay a fine of $2 and costs or serve five days in the county jail.  He didn't care to pay the fine so he went to jail.  But, that wasn't the end of it.  Constable William Hubert, immediately after the sentence was pronounced, proceeded to read another warrant from Alderman Spurrier, charging Kroll with surety of the peace.  The complainant was Mrs. Czepull.  In default of the original fine of $2 and costs, Kroll was committed to jail where the other warrants will be lodged as detainers against him.  As I searched a bit more in the Lancaster Online Newspaper archives I found that Bechtold Kroll, Strawberry Street, on June 13, 1933, received a fine of $10 and costs when he pleaded guilty to a charge of assault and battery upon Mrs. Clara O'Toole, Strawberry Street.  According to Mrs. O'Toole, Mr. Kroll threatened her and struck her when she was unable to pay rent for a house on Strawberry Street which he owns.  Seems this guy must be the neighborhood trouble-maker.  But then, on June 17, the local newspaper reported that the cast against Bechtold Kroll of West Strawberry Street, who was charged with surety of the peace by Mrs. Angilica Smeltz, was dismissed by Judge Atlee.  Seems the judge felt that running around in you underwear wasn't a crime, but he was held in county prison for failure to pay a $10 fine and costs on the assault and battery charge against Mrs. O'Toole.  So who is this Mr. Kroll and why is he always in trouble?  Mr. Gelatt's Facebook story told the story of Mr. Kroll.  He was born in 1878 in Prussia to Heinrich and Henrietta Kroll.  The family sailed to America on the "Brennen" in 1883 and moved to Lancaster.  They lived on St. Joseph Street.  Bechtold worked as a cigar packer for the Lewis Cigar Co.  After his parents deaths, Mr. Kroll became estranged from his siblings and shortly after the nudist colony debacle he moved to Poplar Street in the city.  On January 28, 1938 he was found in his bed, frozen to death.  His death certificate listed cause of death as "excessive cold."  Wow, a guy who was charged with being a nudist died from excessive cold!  He was buried in the Mellinger Mennonite Church Cemetery along the Lincoln Highway in Lancaster.  Seems that Mr. Bechtold Kroll was certainly a colorful man during his life.  I'm wondering if he was buried in his underwear.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Join The Tradition" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Carol and I are visiting with friends Jere and Just Sue in State College for the weekend.  Saturday, and our mission today was a trip to the 145th Annual Centre County Grange Fair in Centre Hall, Pennsylvania.  We have made several journeys from Lancaster to State College for this event, but never tire of the excitement, good times and plenty of good food during fair week.  Picked up a brochure and read that the fair takes you out of the day to day bustle, to a time when life moved at a slower pace.  And...that's exactly what it did for the four of us on this beautiful day in late August, 2019.  Sitting a short distance away are 2,500 canvas tents and RVs which seem to spring up overnight the day before the fair opened a little over a week ago.  Families and friends reunite at these homes-away-from home reunions and tend to develop lasting relationships with campsite neighbors.  The four of us are just a minuscule number of the close to a quarter million visitors to the fair every year.  Food, equine events, carnival rides, farm animals, music festivals, motorsports, 4H contests, exhibit competitions and naming of the annual Queen are all parts of the Grange Fair.  To try and take in all of that on one afternoon is impossible, so we just wandered around the 264 acres of mass confusion and humanity for the afternoon.  I enjoyed snapping a few photographs to share with you of this year's Grange Fair.  Hope you enjoy them!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

This cute little girl was interested in my camera.
Click on images to enlarge them. 

Cattle are naturally part of the farm scene at any Grange Fair.

Would love to be a judge for one of these competitions!

At first I thought these were strawberries, but found they were peppers.

Winners in the Gourds category. 

Plenty of flowers to enjoy.  Even those that didn't win were fun to view.

I'm not sure if this woman had real or artificial flowers.

16 year old Anna took second place in the painting category.

12 year old Audrey made this dish collage and won 1st place. 

My wife enjoyed this display the most!

How can anyone not pick this poor soul for first place?

Cheyanne Storm won first place with this photograph.

Jane from Spring Mills won a first place with this Amish Buggy photograph.

Joy from Centre Hall took 1st place in the Domestic Animal colored photograph category.
I, too, really enjoyed this photograph.  Good choice for 1st place!

Amish enjoy visits to the Grange Fair.

A very unique chess set made by Jean of State College which won a first place ribbon.

Chris from Pleasant Gap made this beautiful leather gun belt and holster.

Sue taking a selfie of her and Jere while my wife looks on.  We are sitting in
a tractor-pulled wagon which serves as transportation around the fairgrounds.

A sea of automobiles, campers and tents at the Grange Fair in Centre Hall, Pennsylvania.

There were commercial stands where you could buy items.  These are small angels
with a few flags that would glow after hit by the sun.

Not sure what this chicken is doing in this photograph.  Perhaps the chicken dance.

One of the many aisles with tent homes along both sides.  Vacation for many!

The "What's Funny Is That It Worked" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Doing some web surfing when I came upon a website titled "upgruv".  How I ever found it, or should I say how it found me, is still a mystery, but as soon as I saw the lead story I had to yell to my wife to take a look at it with me.  

Original sketch the police published on Facebook.

There was the headline that read: "Lancaster cops' 'sketchy' suspect drawing mocked hard."  The description of what was pictured had been posted on my local police Facebook Page and somehow was passed around the world in no time at all.  The Lancaster, Pennsylvania police said they were serious when they released a very crudely drawn illustration of a suspect in a theft from a local market.  

The actual suspect that the police are now searching for.

The drawing was done by a witness to the crime which took place on January 30th at Lancaster's Central Market.  Sure enough, the Lancaster Newspaper published the story about how the police sketch and story had gone viral after someone saw the witness' hand-drawn sketch of the suspect on Facebook.  Police said it wasn't meant to be a joke, but it seems to have turned out that way.  Someone at the market had robbed one of the market booths of $300.  Someone happened to see the suspect and drew a sketch of the criminal.  As soon as it was placed on the police Facebook page, an off-duty policeman saw the sketch and knew exactly who it was.  So, the funny sketch was just what was needed.  The suspect is now in police custody, just as they should be.  In the meantime everyone is having a good time with the sketch.  Some of the comments I read online were:

• I thought it looked like Waldo without his glasses
• Only in Lancaster would this sketch actually result in the guy being caught.....and I thought someone was trying to frame an aging Waldo.
• I'm loving this!  See, nothing is impossible.
• This was on HLN last evening!!!
• That guy does look pretty sketchy.

So, you see that at times even what appears funny to some, still works just the way it is supposed to.  The police finally caught the criminal and arrested him.  Wonder what he said when they showed him how he was caught.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Family Vacation 2017 Style" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just returned from a week with my family at Ocean City, New Jersey.  We have been taking a week down at the shore for over ten years and enjoy it more every year.  Not sure if it's because I'm getting older and the time with the family is more precious or if I need an extra dose of laughter once in a while.  My family consists of these characters (mean this in a nice way): wife Carol who just celebrated 50 years of wedded bliss with me a month ago; son Derek who coaches little league baseball and runs a printing press for a major printing company and drives a big truck which I would love to have; his wife and my daughter-in-law Barbara who is the sweetest person as well as a saint and has to be to be married to my son and also is the administrative assistant at her church; grandson Caden who is truly a respectful and nice kid (I should know since I taught school for 35 years) who enjoys all sports and is friends with everyone he knows; daughter Brynn who has two teenaged daughters so she is kept busy, but who also is the administrator for a large apartment complex and makes/designs signs to hang on your front door for decoration; son-in-law Dave who spent a year with us while engaged to our daughter and who now is the Administrator of Student Athletes for the football team at the University of Maryland; granddaughter Courtney who is a fabulous student in high school as well as my technology instructor; granddaughter Camille who has so many friends she can't count them all as well as being and athlete in just about any sport; and Paul (known to all as Tad) who is my youngest son and also works in the printing trade as a pressman for the local newspaper company as well as a great ice/rollerblade hockey player and his dad's go-to person when I need assistance of any kind.  The week saw lots of action on the beach, fun in the evening on the boardwalk, visits to all our favorite restaurants, but most of all, just plain family time.  We laughed and laughed and just when the laughter subsided, we laughed again.  My face was awash with tears so many times from laughing that I don't remember when it wasn't.  Sure, we had a few moments when we all didn't see eye to eye, but they were few and far between.  My three favorite moments were of vacation were: (1) participating in an extremely tough word search game, titled Beach time, which my wife found in the local newspaper; we laughed so much my paper was soaked; we had to set a time limit for the game since it would have taken all day to complete and as it was the winner only found half the words, but was rewarded with a framed box I made years ago which featured sand, shells and a beach scene; (2) our first morning's breakfast at Brown's Restaurant where we stuff ourselves with fresh-made cake donuts; (3) and my annual ride witt my granddaughter on the huge ferris wheel on the boardwalk with this year my daughter making her first attempt at it.  The look on her face when we reached the top was priceless.  Well, I naturally have a few photos to share with you so without further adieu ... a few photos.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Grandson Caden

By the time I picked up my camera, this is all that was left of the donuts at Brown's

LDub's family at Brown's

Son Derek getting ready for a day on the beach

My favorite!

Daughter Brynn's first time on the ferris wheel.  Courtney is getting ready for a few photos of her.

View from the sky.

Granddaughter Courtney

Daughter-in-law Barbara working on a puzzle

Family portraiture taken for our 50th wedding Anniversary at Ocean City

Son Tad, daughter-in-law Barb and grandson Caden working on another puzzle

We celebrated a late July 4th birthday for daughter Brynn.  Sorry, we forgot the candles.

Caden and Derek with our evening meal.

Barb captured this shot while walking on the boardwalk.

Son-in-law Dave declares Caden champ at air hockey.  Dave was the winner last year.

Grandchildren on the beach  

Granddaughter Camille and I enjoy our ride on the ferris wheel