The "Pictures From My Town of Lancaster" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Opened a few of my folders and discovered a treasure of historic photos I have been collecting for quite some time.  Most have come from one of two sources; The Lancastrian Facebook Page and Remember When...In Lancaster Facebook Page.  Thought I would share them with you today.  Being that Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is my home town and is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States, some of the following go back quite a few years.  Hope you enjoy them.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Logo for the Remember When In Lancaster Facebook page.  Click to enlarge photos.

Logo for the The Lancastrian Facebook page.

Lancaster's Fire truck many years ago.

Rocky Springs Amusement Park in the south end of the city.

The gang, The Paxton Boys, murdered Indians held in the Lancaster Prison in 1763

What set of photos from Lancaster wouldn't have an Amish photo?

A story in itself!

Remember the old time gas stations and the dinger hose you drove over
that rang the bell inside the garage to alert the owner that you needed gas.

Lancaster Fair Grounds, 1912.  The fairgrounds are now the Donnelly Printing Co. 

1966 protest against the Viet Nam War.

Hubley Toy Factory was about two blocks from my house as a child.
Always enjoyed looking at the toys in their display cabinet.

And who didn't take in a drive-in movie from time to time.
If you never did, you missed out on a great experience.
RCA Corp. was also located a mile from my home.

General Edward Hand lived in the southern end of Lancaster.

An aerial view of Rocky Springs Park.

This all started in 1839 when someone installed a bathtub in their house!

The "So What's The Big Deal With Halloween?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Have the bag full of candy by the front door ready for the first goblin, skeleton, witch, zombie or ghost.  Carol and I live in a rather small development near a major highway that sports shopping center after shopping center, so ... we usually don't have a pathway worn to our front door on Halloween saying "Trick or Treat".  Halloween is a contraction of All Hallows' Eve and is celebrated on October 31 the day before the feast of All Hallows' or All Saints which is observed on November 1st in most Western Christian religions.  

Actually began in the Middle Ages when Christians held a folk belief that All Hallow' Eve was the night where the veil between the material world and the afterlife was at its most transparent.  For me it was always a spooky and mysterious evening reserved for the young who can be scared easily as well as the young at heart who enjoy being scared to death.  For my readers who hail from countries that do not celebrate Halloween, I thought I would give you an idea about the traditional symbols, animals or creatures, in some cases, that we use while celebrating Halloween to scare the crap out of you.  So here goes:

• Spiders:  Spiders have always been seen as mystical creatures and symbols of fear because of their venom.  The webs that they create seem to always show up in haunted and abandoned buildings and tombs, so they are a natural to try and scare someone.  And just for your information ... all spiders have venom, which can be toxic, but its the intensity of the venom that can cause trouble.
• Bats:  At one time Halloween was celebrated by creating bonfires and this fire would attract a multitude of bugs, thus bats to consume the bugs.  Now the bat that you have to watch out for is the Vampire Bat which is bloodsucking and capable of taking human form.  Scared yet?
• Black Cats:  Carol and I had a black cat at one time that we called Midnight.  As black as can be and hard to tell where he was at nighttime when the lights went out.  Black cats are said to be scary since they would hangout with witches, or so people thought.
• Skeletons: It is said that the skeleton was the house of the soul and to ward off evil spirits people would dress to appear dead in skeleton costumes.  The Grim Reaper is said to wear a black cape over his bones.
• Jack-O'-Latern:  Jack-O'-Laterns are used to warn spirits to say away.  Many carve pumpkins with scary faces to really scare off evil spirits.
• Ghosts: It is said ghosts were roaming the earth years and years ago.  How someone decided that a white sheet was the symbol of a ghost is still a mystery to me.
• Zombies:  Ah!  Now we're getting to the creepy part of Halloween.  Zombies are said to be undead people who have reanimated bodies.  The custom came from Haitian and West African folklore.  Here-of-late they have been a popular Halloween caricature since they are really scary.
• Witches:  So now we get into religion.  The Bible condemned witches.  Just read Leviticus 20:27 where it tells you that a woman or man that hath a familiar spirit or is a wizard should be put to death by stoning them.  Still not sure why witches wore black clothes with a comical hat and rode on a broomstick.  Matter-of-fact, I've never ever seen anyone ride a broomstick, dressed in black or any other color as far as that goes.  But, I must admit, I'm scared by witches!

So, you think you have a better idea why people, mostly children, dress up as a bat, cat or witch and go knocking on doors in hopes of getting a candy bar or three.  If you really know, drop me a line and tell me about it so I might know.  Personally, I have a hard time connecting All Saint's Day to Halloween as we celebrate it today.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  

The "Clean Up Your Act" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Opened the wrong side of one of our kitchen cabinets and a few containers of pills fell to the floor.  Pain pills that I had a few years ago before I had my first back operation.  And, more pills I had before the second and third operations.  So it's save to say I should have thrown most of them out years ago.  But, I didn't.  Bet you have pills somewhere  in your cabinets or drawers that are no longer any good and should have been thrown out years ago.  Well, I found a website that told me what to do to dispose of them and also listed other items and what to do to dispose of these items.  

As far as the pills, don't flush them down the drain and contaminate the drinking water.  Take them to an official collection site to discard them.  In my area the police department has a drop-off site for medicines that are no longer needed.  Some other items that should be discarding are plastic or glass containers that have a recycle code 3 or 7, since these may contain BPA, a hormone-disrupting chemical that gets into food as the container ages or during heating in a microwave.  Always check to see if containers do not have the codes 3 or 7.  Same goes for expired food cans.  If you have had canned tomatoes or fruit for more than 18 months, pitch them.  Canned meat and vegetables have a five year shelf life.  And remember, if you shouldn't be using them, don't donate them to a food bank somewhere.  Another website I visited told me about discarding old containers of spices.  Most blended spices last from one to two years while whole spices are good for up to four years.  

The spice rack in our pantry probably has many outdated spices which while they won't make you sick, won't add any flavor to your food.  Check your garage for cans of paint that have dried up or no longer match the colors in your house.  Dispose of these at a recycling hazardous material site.  In our town we have a landfill site that will take paint, batteries, antifreeze, aerosol cans, motor oil and even old TVs, computers and phones and dispose of them as hazardous waste.  You must have some of these items sitting around that you should have disposed of years ago.  Two items you will find in your bathroom that should be disposed of properly are makeup and contact lens cases.  Most eye makeup has a shelf life of a couple of months once opened.  Lip gloss can last 6 months and foundation can last up to a year, but get rid of it to prevent infection from bacteria.  A contact lens case should be replaced every one to three months as well as being cleaned and air-dried daily.  Make sure you throw out the soaking solution daily and use new.  Can't imagine what could happen to your eyes if you don't follow these precautions.   Another thing that should be tossed is your pillow you use to sleep.  Can't imagine how much spit and drool is on my pillow.  Doesn't matter if you have a pillow case on it or not.  The stuff will still soak through and give you some kind of disease.  The rule of thumb is if your pillow is older than 18 months, it should go.  Probably has dead skin, fungi and dust mites throughout the pillow.  Now that's one thing I must do soon since my pillow has to be ten years old.  Finally, the germiest item in your house is the kitchen sponge.  Bacteria thrives on it!  You should microwave your sponge DAILY in an inch of water for a minute on high heat.  Every time we run the dishwasher we place the sponge in with the dishes.  If it smells, it should go.  Well, have you seen a few items you have that should be discarded?  We've cleaned up our act after learning what I just posted and here's hoping you might do the same.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary day.

The "'The Box Of Stuff" Story

Some if the shredding "Stuff"

It was an ordinary day.  The floor in my office is a mess.  Just about finished shredding the last box of "stuff" that I had stored in the basement that belonged to my mom and dad.  My father, Paul, died in 2007 while my mother, Dorothea, died in 2012.  They had been married 64 years when dad died.  During those years the two of them had accumulated a tremendous amount of "stuff".  After dad died my mother remained at the nursing facility where the two of them had been for a few months together while mom tried to recover from a hernia she suffered while trying to be the caregiver for dad at home.  After dad's death it became apparent that mom couldn't stay alone in their home so we decided to sell her house.  

Photo I found that features my grandfather's football team.
My grandfather, on my father's side, is seated in front row, second
from the right. My grandfather was killed in 1926 when a bin
 of mail fell on him when he worked at the post office.

I single-handedly took care of distributing the furniture that mom couldn't take with her to her room at the nursing home.  Mom and dad had made a list of which pieces of furniture should be given to each relative and after that was done I began to sort through all the "stuff" they had in the house.  Day after day I brought box after box of "stuff" to my house to put out for the trash man.  

Photo of my father's brother Clair.  He
died in an automobile accident when
he was in high school.

All of their records I placed in boxes and brought to my house to sort through and shred what was no longer needed.  Well, the last box has just been gone through and shredded.  Did find some real old photos from my dad's side of the family, the original list of who gets what, letters my parents had saved that my brother and I sent to them when we were young, cemetery plot deeds, original deeds from houses where we lived, and .... the list goes on and on.  I'm just too sentimental to get rid of everything so I still have a rather large file folder with some of the "stuff."  What will I do with it?  I HAVE NO IDEA!  But, at least the real big box is now a real big file folder and will fit in my filing cabinet with all my other "stuff."  My guess is that I'm not the only one who has had to deal with tons of paperwork from their parents.  

My father was awarded this medal November 11, 2005.
The local government decided all living veterans of WWII
would be given medals for their service to their country.
I am passing this on to my son who bears his grandfather's name.
This, along with the above photos was some of the "stuff" I found.

But, because of this, I have begun to shred many of the files I no longer need to keep.  Do you know that you only need to keep three years of records to satisfy the Internal Revenue Service in the United States.  Also only need to keep three years of old checks.  I did read online that if you may have under-reported income by 25% or more, you'll need to keep tax returns and all related information for six years.  So if you need to keep six years of files, you have more of a problem than files of "stuff."  I'm hoping that some day my wife and children won't have to go through what I did in the past nine years.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.