The "SXM: Remembering Mr. Blue Eyes" Story

Colored wooden shacks that sold memories to tourists.
Most have been totally destroyed.

It was an ordinary day.  Driving past the row of what were at one time wooden shacks that sold trinkets, t-shirts and hats, cheap jewelry, and a variety of other collectibles.  There is very little that remains.  Across from the shacks was a wooden building that was home to Bernadette and her many bottles of rum.  

Mr. Blue Eyes.  What ever happened to him?

She was also the savior of the strays that wandered one of the highest locations near Orient Village.  Every year Carol and I would stop with a few bags of cat food that we had purchased for her at the grocery store to give to her to help feed the strays.  She had names for all her furry friends.  Our favorite was a blue-eyed Siamese with the name of Mr. Blue Eyes.

The Paradise View Creperie.  One of our favorite places
to eat.  All that remains is the shell of the wonderful
restaurant.  What ever happened to the young family
that ran the restaurant?

Wondered what ever happened to him.  Directly behind her location was a favorite restaurant, Paradise View Creperie Restaurant, that served the most delicious crepes which I have written about on a few occasions.  The building still stands, but is in need of repairs and no longer is home to the young couple and their family who ran the restaurant.  Down the road from the restaurant and brightly painted wooden shacks stood the Butterfly Farm.  

The remains of Paradise View.

A fantastic place to visit yearly to see the variety of butterflies from all over the world that called the enclosure home.  Seeing the transfor- mation from larvae to beautiful butterfly never got tiring.  What happened to all those creatures?  About 100 yards down the same road was the stable where Carol would go most every vacation to ride horses.  

The remains of the horse stable that was destroyed.

A trip to nearby Gallion Beach and a ride in the surf were always a thrill for Carol who had a horse during her high school years in southern Lancaster County.  All that remains are some concrete enclosures that were at one time stalls in a dog shelter. The stable and riding club are gone with the wind, so to speak.  Did the horses survive the incredible storm?  Did they live in fear for their lives as the humans on the island did?  

Tito showing us one of the any beautiful butterflies at the Butterfly Farm.

And this is only one very small area on the 34 square mile island that was leveled by the 250 MPH winds from Hurricane Irma.  The island's 75,000 residents went through what no one should ever have to endure.  Violence and destruction followed for a few days until law and order could be restored.  

This is the location of the Butterfly Farm.

It has been a year now, and some places on the island look great, but there are many areas that will take years to rebuild or renew.  Being at an age where I am physically unable to lend a hand, I only hope that others will give help to those in need on the island.  We have found a place to stay for our vacation this year, but many others on the island aren't as lucky as we, and will have to endure more years of rebuilding and renewing.  During our vacation we did see progress and heard the constant sound of hammers and saws as many are busy trying to bring the island back to life so others will visit once again and bring the tourist dollar back to the island.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

A view of the creperie at Paradise View taken a few years ago.

How it appears today.

The "SXM: The Pasanggrahan Royal Guest House" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Decided to take a trip to Philipsburg which is the capital of the Dutch side of Sint Maarten/St. Martin.  There were supposed to be two cruise ships in port today which means that most of the stores in downtown Philipsburg, which is located close to the cruise terminal, would be open to shoppers.  Parked in our usual spot at Bobby's Marina and found our way to Front Street, a narrow one lane street which runs from one end of the town to the other.  Our first stop was at the Guavaberry Rum Store with other stops at the Shipwreck Shop and the Tommy Bahama store.  

Entrance to the Pasanggrahan Royal Guest House.

We crossed the street and passed one of our favorite lunch stops, the Pasanggrahan Royal Guest House.  We entered the front door to see if they were serving lunch today and if we would need a reservation.  The Pasanggrahan is a charming West Indian-style guest house that at one time was the summer home of the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina.  The old town charm is evident as soon as you walk up the steps onto the front porch.  But, as soon as we entered the lobby, that at one time had beautiful peacock bamboo chairs and vintage spool tables, we saw that Hurricane Irma had taken its toll at this oldest hotel on the island.  Photos of royalty that hung in the main lobby were destroyed due to the storm.  

Entering the lobby where the paintings on the walls
were destroyed by last year's Hurricane Irma.

Obvious renovations were still being done and when we visited the main desk the clerk told us that the entire three-story hotel rooms that face Great Bay were destroyed and haven't been repaired yet.   The part of the hotel that was added in 2013 seemed to be intact, but seeing the older part of the place was heartbreaking.  And, the beautiful and inviting lunchtime restaurant was in terrible shape.  It's been over a year since Irma visited Sint Maarten, and it's hard to believe repairs haven't been started to one of Sint Maarten's most famous buildings.  

The restaurant area has been closed for over a year.

After visiting a few other shops and having lunch at another restaurant along Philipsburg's famous Boardwalk, Carol and I headed back to the car via the Boardwalk and were amazed at the damage that had been done on the boardwalk side to this gem of a hotel in downtown Philipsburg.  We were told by the clerk at the Pasanggrahan that renovations were scheduled to begin in the near future, but when is the near future?  Here's hoping the beautiful and historical Pasanggrahan Royal Guest House will once again be a big draw in Philipsburg and not be demolished as so many other historical structures.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

This view was heartbreaking.  The Pasanggrahan Royal Guest House is in shambles!

The "SXM: Joie de Vie 14A Villa" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting by the pool writing a few stories about our trip to the island of St. Martin.  It was about 18 months ago that we made our last visit to the island and before we headed home from that trip we visited a few villas with our realtor, Magali, in hopes of finding something we liked for our return trip this year.  We found a very nice one-floor villa and put a deposit on the place for this past April into May.  Then Hurricane Irma struck and the villa we had selected was under water.  Magali emailed us closer to our vacation time and told us the villa had not been repaired.  We told her that might be best for us since I was scheduled for another back surgery and may not be able to go anyway.  Then in August we got another email from Magali telling of a villa she just put on the market as a rental; place called Joie de Vie.  She told us it had a private pool, US cable, WiFi and comfortable chairs and sofa.  We looked at photos she had sent and asked if we could place our deposit from the other rental on the new villa.  Before long Carol and I sere making airline reservations and planning our schedule around our new vacation.  Well, we recently got back from a few weeks in paradise.  One bad rain shower and a few brief showers, but the remainder of the time was perfect weather.  The villa was very nice, but we did have a few problems that Magali managed to correct for us.  Check out the following photos and you will see our home for our vacation.  Not sure what we will do next year, but we have some time to prepare once again for another vacation in paradise.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Entrance to Joie de Vie 14A in Orient Village.

Living room showing TV and seating

Dining area.

Kitchen with small fridge, stove/oven with one electric burner and three gas burners, sink and microwave.

Full bath that is next to bedroom below 

Queen bed which opens to the pool area.

Pool area looking toward villa.

Another look at the pool and the entrance gate.

2nd bedroom with king bed.

Our daily friend sitting on the airconditioner.

Half-bath

3rd bedroom with king sized bed

Shared bathroom for two of the bedrooms.

The "SXM: Our Tearful Return To Our Favorite Island!" Story

Preface:  Carol and I recently took a vacation to the island known as St. Martin/Sint Maarten.  The island is part French and part Dutch.  We have been traveling to this piece of paradise for almost 20 years, but what we found on this trip brought tears to our eyes and sadness to our hearts.  Please read the next few days of stories, all beginning with the airport code of SXM, and see what we experienced when we walked down the steps of our American Airlines plane.  Some stories tell of the awful images we saw while others show the heartwarming and skin-tanning experiences we had.

This house in Grand Case is representative of what we found.

It was an ordinary day.  Until Carol and I got in our rental car and began to drive.  Brought tears to our eyes having to look at house after house missing a roof or windows or even see homes that were once beautiful, totally reduced to rubble.  Carol and I finally arrived in Orient Village, our home for the next three weeks, on the French side of the island known as Sint Maarten/St. Martin.  The island has two countries that share this beautiful piece of paradise where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean Sea.  Beautiful, that was, until September 6, 2017 when Hurricane Irma struck the island with 250+ MPH winds.  

The Mount Vernon is roofless.

It came barreling into the island close to where Carol and I have stopped to observe the damage ONE YEAR AFTER the storm struck!  After this hurricane they had to make a new category due to the strength of the winds which had never been registered that high before.  This part of the island has been our vacation destination for almost 20 years after our retirement.  Every spring Carol and I have made visits to the island and have always stayed in the Orient Village area.  A few of our favorite restaurants no longer exist.  Our favorite morning spot for croissants has disappeared.  And, Orient Beach...well it is heartbreaking!  This was one of the top 10 Beaches in the World just a few short months ago.  

Pedros Beach Bar stood at the top of the steps at one
time.  It was the oldest beach bar on Orient Beach. All
that remains of it is the restroom in the rear of the photo.

And now...well, it's a bit over- whelming!!  The very first beach bar on Orient Beach, Pedros, no longer exists.  The five beach bars known as the "Five Stars Of Orient" were wiped off the face of this earth.  The dozen or so new beach bars and restaurants that had just been finished on the south end of Orient Beach in 2017 were totally blown away.  On the north end of the 2-mile long beach which is known as the "St. Tropez" of the Caribbean" was the Mount Vernon, an old, but renewed, hotel which had most of the roof on the three-tiered resort blown off.  

In the town of Philipsburg stood the beautiful old hotel
known as the Pasanggrahan Hotel.  This is what it looks
like one year after Hurricane Irma struck the island.

And, on the far south end of the white-sand beach was the World-renowned Club Orient, the clothing optional beach and village that had everyone of it's quaint cottages destroyed as well as it's famous Papagayo Restaurant.  This end of the beach had the most gorgeous water color and calm waves which luckily is one thing that was not destroyed.  The ambiance of the yellow umbrellas and orange lounge chairs that welcomed visitors to the beach still remain, due in part to beach entrepreneur Cedric, though some umbrellas are now blue or red, but it is so heartbreaking to turn toward land and see the shells of the concrete cottages or concrete platforms where the wooden cottages once stood.  

This sofa sits on Orient Beach where Coco Beach once stood.

Insurance money was supposed to come, but never did and now the manage- ment company, who had ever intent to rebuild the resort has called it quits.  The owners of the property must now search for a new management company, rebuild the infrastructure and then try and get its clientele back again.  Some cottages were personally owned by people from all over the world while others were the property of the land owners who rented them.  

The remnants of Club Orient are shown in this photograph.

Carol and I never stayed at the resort, but did enjoy a few days on their beach and a couple of lunchtime meals in their beach side restaurant.  As I walked the edges of the property during our vacation I took a few photos to share to give you an idea what 250 MPH winds can do to concrete buildings.  Heaven knows how long it will take the island to get totally back to normal once again...yet maybe that will never happen! The stories I have included during the next few weeks will tell the story of what at one time was our favorite vacation destination, and now...well, it still is and will continue to always be!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "A Hero Named Lale" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading online about a young man by he name of Lale Labuko.  I'm sure most of you have never heard the name before.  If I hadn't been searching for the term "mingi" I probably would have never come across the young man's name.  Mingi is the traditional belief among the Omotic-speaking Karo and Hamar tribes in southern Ethiopia that children with physical abnormalities, those born out of wedlock, those whose top teeth come in before their bottom teeth and those whose married parents have not received the necessary three blessings by elders are ritually impure and ancient traditions dictate that grievous harm will come to the village unless the mingi dies.  Thus, they are murdered by pushing them off high cliffs, thrown in the river to drown or eaten by crocodiles.  It is estimated that these tribes kill almost 300 children a year.  As for the young man with the interesting name of Lale Labuko.....he came from the Kara tribe and grew up in the village of Dus which is by the Omo River in Ethiopia, Africa.  At the age of nine his father sent him to a boarding school run by Swedish missionaries.  His father was highly criticized for doing so, but it changed his life.  When he was 15 he witnessed the practice of Mingi.  Back in his village he saw elders grab a baby from her mother and take her to the river to drown her.  From that point forward he began working to save the Mingi children.  He currently runs a shelter for the so-called cursed children.  Three years ago he was featured in the movie "Omo Child: The River and the Bush" which followed him as he tries to end the practice of Mingi.  Together with film maker John Rowe, he founded the Omo Child Shelter whose mission is to provide a safe, nurturing home and quality education for rescued Mingi children living in the remote Omo Valley.  The hope of the shelter is that these children will become future leaders in their tribes and communities as well as raise awareness about the practice of Mingi and see its elimination in the tribes of the Omo Valley by the year 2030.  

Lale Labuko with natives from the Omo Valley.

I don't recall what I was searching for at the time I came upon the name Lale Labuko, but I will never forget finding his name.  Lale is now 30 and the heart behind OMO Child.  One thing that influenced him was the fact that he had two older sisters, both deemed Mingi, who were killed before he ever knew them.  Outlawing and stopping Mingi has become his life's mission.  His main objective now is to create Southwest Ethiopia's future leaders and help to end the practice of Mingi.  To be 30 and leading the fight to save his tribe is remarkable.  A true patriot and hero in my eyes.  In a country where we seem to have a daily national crisis created by members of all parties, wouldn't it be nice to find someone like Lale Labuko to lead the way?  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Travel Through The Ages" Story

A favorite TV show of mine.

It was an ordinary day.  Talking with my wife about the TV show that we enjoyed that only lasted for a few short months, Pan Am.  Show was based on Pan American Airlines as it operated in the early 1960s at the beginning of the commercial Jet Age.  We never had the chance to fly anywhere until the mid-1980s when our children were old enough to travel to Disney World in Florida.  We never thought we would be able to afford to fly, but by that time in history, flying was more affordable to the America family than ever before.  I recently read a summary of travel throughout history beginning in the 1900's.  120 years ago about the only means of transportation was the horse and buggy.  In the 1910's travel was possible across the oceans on ocean liners and when Henry Ford began mass producing his automobile, land transportation soon became easier for those that could afford the luxury of an automobile.  In the 1920's travel became affordable on the rails.  In the 1930s the airplane became accessible to the masses, but was still expensive.  The 40's found that most families could afford to purchase a family car for the first time.  The 1950's ushered in an era when the car was still the preferred and most inexpensive way of travel, but flying became cheaper.  In the 60's, even with plane tickets costing on the average of 40% more than they are today, it was still a neat way to travel.  The 70's saw a slight shift away from flying due to the thought that flying was a luxurious method of transportation.  That, plus the airlines began moving their seats closer together so they could get more people on the plane.  Oh for the 70's and the amount of leg space they had back then, even with the reduced amount.  Affordable flying came about in the 1980's when the average American family, such as mine, could afford airline tickets to go to Disney World.  Once again the leg space was reduced to make up for the cheaper prices.  

You just knew they weren't going to make less money, right!  The economy seat frenzy began in the 1990's and smoking was no longer allowed on planes, even in the restroom.  Flying became almost a normal thing to do for the average American.  Airport security changed after 9/11/01 with long lines at check-in as they searched both the suitcases as well as the body.  Economy seating exploded making it harder and harder to enjoy a luxurious experience unless you could afford the more than double-the-price 1st class tickets.  We are now in the Modern Age of flying with in-flight connectivity offered along with satellite entertainment options; naturally with an additional cost.  The older airplanes are now being put to rest and newer ones are in the air.  The modern renaissance of flying has begun.  But, you know, Carol and I still loved the Pan Am TV show and seeing how it used to be.  Made us realize how good we have it today even if you did have more leg room and a finer meal back in the late 50's and early 60's.  It was a more simpler way of life.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "The Krow's Nest" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just got off the phone with my son Tad.  Told him about a great article that was in a recent Sunday newspaper telling about the guy that was influential in his early street hockey career.  Guy with the scraggly beard and hair that looked like he had stuck his finger in an electric socket.  Don Krow was a street hockey...well, add to that inline, roller or any type of outdoor hockey, coach when Tad first got interested in the sport.

Tad's High School senior photograph

 It was about the same time that he took up ice hockey which would have been when he was in Middle School or a very early teenager.  Tad was a natural from the moment he put anything on his feet.  Gliding across the crease and taking a quick slap shot was something easy to miss if you weren't watching him closely.  One day he asked if he could play street hockey on a team with a couple of fiends at the outdoor Lancaster rink near our county prison.  Street hockey is slightly different than roller in that you wear only sneakers on your feet.  His coach was a strange looking man by the name of Don Krow.  Tad introduced me to Don on my first visit to the rink.  

Don Krow

A friendly and genuinely nice guy.  He loved athletics as well as coaching.  For a few years we traveled to the rink in Lancaster for games, but in the early 2000s Tad began playing on a roller-hockey team at the East Petersburg rink which was just about the same distance from our home in Lancaster.  When Carol and I showed up for his first game, there he was; the guy with the scraggly long hair.  Only difference was it was showing signs of gray.  Tad has been out of school for almost 25 years now and still plays roller-hockey every week-end with a bunch of guys who love the sport and are looking for a good week-end workout.  Many of the guys were classmates and teammates when Tad played ice hockey in Middle School.  But the rink they now use is near Tad's house on the far west side of Lancaster; thus no Don Krow anymore.  

Don standing behind the plaque that will be displayed at the rink.

Don still coaches boys and men at East Petersburg.  Well, after coaching 20 years in Lancaster, with 17 of those at East Petersburg, the East Petersburg Inline Hockey organization named their rink "The Krow's Nest" in honor of Don.  They have also named their championship trophy "Lord Don's Chalice."  Quite fitting for a man who has given his entire life to coaching boys, young men and adults in the sport of hockey.  Now, if you have been wondering about sexism, I'm sure there were a few girls that he coached during his career.  Tad and I would see Don from time to time at other sporting events and he always found time to stop to talk with us.  I'm sure he really appreciated the recent accolades, but I truly believe he coached year after year since hockey, of any sort, was his passion and his life.  I'm sure when Tad reads the article it will bring back many fond memories.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. 

The "So What Are You Addicted To" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Snacking on a bag of potato chips that are made a few miles away in Lancaster County.  Chips seem to go with just about any lunchtime meal as well as a snack when you're watching TV in the evening.  It's such a fantastic snack that it made the list of 7 most addictive snacks or foods in a recent online survey.  Follow along and check out all the snack food that tends to be addictive.

1. Potato Chips - This snack is best known for two things: salt and fat.  Studies have shown that eating salt triggers the release of dopamine which is a chemical messenger that controls your brain's pleasure center.  Once your brain gets a signal from that first chip, you and your brain are hooked.  Herr's Potato Chips are made in southern Lancaster County.  Carol and I made a trip to the factory and we ate chips the entire way through the tour.  Then, when we were ready to depart, there was a big display of their chips for sale.  Just had to buy one.  So did most other people.  When we travel to the Caribbean we sometimes find Herr's products on the shelves of stores on a variety of islands.
   
2. Cookies - The "pleasure center" of your brain responds to cookies just as it responds to medicine.  The brain's nucleus accumbens reacts to a chocolate chip or snickerdoodle cookie the same way it would if you had just taken cocaine or morphine.  Actually, that could cause some major health implications if not held in check.  Maybe if drug counselors told people to eat cookies instead of shooting drugs into their system they might be doing their patients a favor.  I have so many varieties of cookies I love that my list would be too large to place here.  My one prerequisite for a cookie is that you can dunk it in milk.  If the cookie can't absorb milk, pitch it!
   
3. Sodas - Some call them sodas, I call then soft drinks.  Call then anything you want, but I drink way to many of them.  When I go on the weekly shopping trip to the grocery store with my wife, I stand in front of the entire aisle of soft drinks, trying to decide which one I will buy.  Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Rootbeer, etc., etc., all are part of my diet which I know isn't good, but it's a simple pleasure I can't stop.  It's addictive!  And the reason it is so addictive...caffeine.  Soft drinks are nothing more than carbonated water, flavoring and caffeine.  Caffeine is the world's most popular psychoactive drug and it's said to be a part of 80% of humans diet every day.  And, sometimes multiple times a day in my household.
   
4. Pizza - It's a party food, a lunchtime or supper meal and a snack.  You can buy then in the box, at the store or make them yourself.  And...it's addictive!  Great when you're in front of the TV, at the beach, on the boardwalk, at a party, etc.  And...it's addictive!
   
5. Chocolate - We have a store a short walk from our house that makes chocolate treats.  That's not fair!  That's why it is addictive in our household.  The sea salt, chocolate covered caramels...oh my are they good.  And, expensive!  I also live close to the Hershey plant so that's another reason I eat so much of the stuff that contains both sugar and fat and is often used in studies of food addiction.  It is very similar to taking drugs as far as the brain is concerned.
   
6. Ice Cream - I should have put this on the top of my list, since I crave ice cream more than any other item on this list of 7.  The No. 1 driver of my ice cream craving is its sweetness, naturally.  Good ice cream tends to max out at about 18% milk fat which can come from milk, cream or butter.  Ice cream cones, ice cream sandwiches, ice cream soda, ice cream this and ice cream that.  I love them all.  My favorite flavor...I guess vanilla since I can mix it with anything, including scoops of another flavor of ice cream.
   
7. Fries - I tend to call them French Fries, but were they really invented in France?  I'm not sure and I guess it depends whom you are talking with when you want to know the answer.  They contain MSG which increases appetite by inhibiting your brain from registering that you're satiated.  In one study on rats, MSG increased their food intake by 40%.  I used to eat fries quite often, but I put it on the bottom of my list today because I could live without them more than any of the above items.
   

So, what's on your addictive list.  Perhaps everything listed above plus more?  And, can you control yourself when eating these addictive food items.  I can't!!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "New Era Printing House With A Twist" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Posting a story today that deals with both the printing trade as well as weather prognosticating in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. If you have been reading my blog on a regular basis you probably know that I taught high school graphic arts and photography, so my story is about something that I should know a little bit about.  

The printing house was on the left, under the flag to the left.

Lancaster’s rich printing history dates back to 1751 when Benjamin Franklin opened a printing business in Lancaster with a Quaker printer by the name of James Chattin running the shop for him.  The following year Mr. Chattin left for Philadelphia while Heinrich Miller and Samuel Holland moved to Lancaster to take over for him.  It was late in 1752 that they printed Lancaster’s first newspaper, The Lancaster Gazette. 

The stories and articles were in both German and English.  Eventually printer William Dunlap took over the shop and became one of the great printers of Lancaster and the first to print the Declaration of Independence. When Franklin moved to England in 1757, Dunlap moved to Philadelphia to take over for him and the Lancaster printing office closed.  Sixteen years later Francis Bailey, a printer at the Ephrata Cloisters, relocated to downtown Lancaster in the first block of West King Street, where the newspaper office resides today.  He also moved to Philadelphia in 1780.  In 1794 the site on West King Street became home to The Lancaster Journal which was published and edited by by William Hamilton and Henry Wilcocks.  Then in 1799 the Intelligencer Journal began in the same office and is the same paper that today is the thirteenth oldest newspaper in the United States.  In 1877 the Lancaster New Era was added with the Sunday News beginning in 1923.  All these paper shared the same building on West King Street. The following story and drawing depicts the Lancaster newspaper office in Lancaster. Click on it to enlarge it.

Now, if you notice, on the top of the building you will see a series of flags.  These flags were used to predict and broadcast the weather in Lancaster.  The following chart tells what each flag means.

I must admit that until I recently saw these two items posted on a Lancaster Facebook page, I had no idea that there were flags on the top of the building.  And, I didn’t realize that the building looked as it did in this photo.  I have added the photographs that had been published before as to how it appeared.  Perhaps they are both one and the same building.  But, I must say that I’m not absolutely sure.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The printing office as it looks today.

The "Memorializing St. James" Story

St. James Episcopal Church was founded in 1744 with
services held in the Court House, as shown here.

It was an ordinary day.  Reading the weekly newsletter sent by email to me from St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster, PA.  News of the parish such as important celebrations as well as a short story about one of the saints is always included.  Although the newsletter is short, it still gives you something to think about which I'm sure was the intent of the newsletter.  Being that Lancaster is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States, it is rich in religious history.  

St. James ca. 1820.

If you travel around the city and county you will find churches and meeting places for Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, Roman Catholics, Jewish... and the list goes on and on.  Churches with names memorial- izing St. Luke, St. Benedict, St. Anne and any number or other saints line the streets and roads of Lancaster.  So why were they given their name?  St. James Episcopal began in 1744, but closed during the Revolutionary War due to having an English minister at the time.  

St. James Episcopal as seen today.

After the Revolution, peace was restored and the boards covering the windows of the church were removed.  It still retained St. James as its patron saint.  So, who is this guy we named our church after?  Seems that James was one of the sons of Zebedee and was sometimes referred to as James the Greater since his cousin was known as James the Less.  He was a fisherman by trade and was called by Jesus as a fisher of men.  After the Ascension, James traveled to Spain to preach the Gospel and then returned to Jerusalem.  

St. James the Greater.

In 44 AD he was beheaded and the site of his martyrdom has become a destination for pilgrims in what is now the Cathedral of Saint James in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.  James the Greater is the patron saint of several countries including Spain and its city Santiago (Spanish for Saint James) and the Philippines.  James is also the patron saint of veterinarians, equestrians, furriers, tanners and pharmacists.  On special days when we celebrate St. James in our church, the church is adorned in red as a symbol of the blood of the martyrs that was shed for Christ.  A truly beautiful sight.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.