Just a dashboard decoration

Thought this group of six Amish youngsters was bringing home a tree to plant when spotted along the highway near Strasburg, Lancaster County.

Nope, they were out for a Sunday ride and wanted to decorate their buggy with a bamboo shoot. Certainly turned some heads.

They wanted to see the pictures when they stopped at my car and all had a good laugh.

Mother's Day Truck Convoy

More than 400 trucks of all shapes and sizes wailed their way up and down Lancaster County's route 222 Sunday for the 23rd annual Make-A-Wish Mother's Day Truck Convoy.  

From the website-- Since 1980, the Make-A-Wish Foundation has enriched the lives of children with life-threatening medical conditions through its wish-granting work. The Make-A-Wish Foundation was founded in 1980 after a little boy named Chris Greicius realized his heartfelt wish to become a police officer. Since its humble beginnings, the organization has blossomed into a worldwide phenomenon, reaching more than 250,000 children around the world.

 While the big rig 18-wheelers were the stars of the show, ambulances, fire trucks, and commercial trucks belonging to plumbers, lawn maintenance companies, bakers and home remodelers made as much noise as possible, to the delight of most of the crowd.

Parade fans were strung along the route, some bringing lawn chairs to watch in the high grass, while others stayed in their cars and out of the hot sun.

A large Amish crowd gathered at the Oregon Pike exit, with their buggies parallel-parked along the road.

Kayaking the Conestoga River/Creek

 Took on the mighty Conestoga River, with the help of some friends, many of whom play Pickle Ball in the Lititz Rec Center.

Pickle Ball? That's another story for a later time.

Eleven of us maneuvered down the creek to the Lancaster County Park, and even those who had never sat in a kayak before finished safely.  There were a few rapids, more like wrinkles, and we scraped the bottom with our paddles most of the three-hour trip. The water was very low.

To contact the Lancaster Canoe Club, click here. For information about a York club, the Conewago Canoe Club, click here.

Even if we had dumped, it wouldn't have been much of a problem. Rocks were more of a hazard than the water, and Bob, our fearless leader and scout, had his kayak jammed against a rock. As shown in the top photo, the water wasn't knee-deep, so he got out and dragged it away from the rock.

It's a good bit of water on which to test out whether you want to take up kayaking or canoeing. And there is plenty in York County as well, including the Codorus Creek, Conewago Creek, Muddy Creek and of course, the Susquehanna River and the lakes at Pinchot and Codorus State Parks.

By the way, some of our group didn't wear personal floatation devices (safety vests). But they all had them in the boat, and I'd suggest wearing them ALL the time, no matter how deep or fast the water.

Grazing the fields

"The house was tired, and it went away"

Edwin Miller looks over the ground at the back of his old home. The door frame was left standing when someone drove past and asked excavator Grant Deller to leave it for him. The next day, only the frame remained.

The old house stood along side Lititz Pike for 200 years and now Edwin Miller looks over a pile of red bricks and a door frame. He remembers growing up here.

But the two-story brick home, built around 1810, was showing its age, and was torn down last week after decades of unuse and misuse. J. Joseph Deller and Sons Inc., of Red Lion tore down the home before it could collapse. Just north of  Neffsville,  it's a bare square of dirt where the house once stood.


Now 84, Miller and his wife of 62 years, Phyllis, wandered over what was once a 40-acre farm in Manheim Township, Lancaster County. His father bought the land in 1917, with the house, the pig barn and a beautiful Victorian style barn on it.  WILMAC of York owns the property now, part of Lancashire Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.

 Movie actress Daryl Hannah (Splash, Blade Runner, Kill Bill) had apparently made an offer to dismantle the gingerbread-covered barn and have it rebuilt elsewhere, but those plans fell through, says Miller. This barn shows a building date of 1861, but an earlier barn built on the site may have burned down, although Miller says he never found evidence of that.


Miller's father lost some of his 40 acre farm to the Manheim Township school district through eminent domain. A developer offered to buy the remainder of the property, and then build a nursing home, which couldn't be 'eminent domained', Miller says.


The house was rented for a few years, but renters didn't take care of it, and then it stood vacant. Vandals stripped the house of everything, including  wire and pipe. Some of the 200-year old bricks were crumbling and turning to chalk.

A few good bricks will be taken to New Jersey, where Miller's son lives. Maybe, too, a few of the old bottles they found.  Behind the summer kitchen, Phyllis spots half of a mill stone, something she thinks should be taken to Jersey too. With help from Deller's backhoe, the stone is dropped into a pickup truck and now sits in the Miller's Rohrstown backyard. Edwin thinks it will probably stay there.


Edwin recalls memories of New Year's Eve parties, shelling peas on the front porch and their wedding rehearsal dinner at the house; farm chores with the pigs, cattle, chickens, turkeys, quails, dogs and cats. Since Ed was an only child, his Dad, Sandy,  hired extra farm hands and 22 people crowded around the dinner table. The house had two cold water spigots, one for the cistern and the other for the well. When the work was done, Ed's mother would play her peddle organ.

Ed's father was one of six children, and bath day was quite an ordeal, as Ed was told. The family took baths in the attic, he says, and the children would haul water upstairs. Once full, the kids would take baths in descending order of 'dirtiness', Edwin says. The boys, he admitted, would always go last.


"The house served several families well, but it was tired, and went away," says Edwin. "It wasn't a good feeling, seeing the house you grew up in being demolished. But we had 20 years to get used to it happening. We were happy it was still there for Dad."


Edwin went off to graduate from Lafayette College and returned to work for 36 years at Lancaster's RCA -- the first mass produced color TV tube was built there. He retired in 1986, and now he's a guide for  historic downtown Lancaster. He'll tell you stories about two of the town's most famous residents, president James Buchanan and abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens.  The pair owned offices a couple blocks apart before and after the Civil War, and their verbal and political battles are famous. And that is just one story he'll tell. He's living history.

"They've already planted grass where the old house was," Edwin said Wednesday. "It's not growing yet, but it will."

Shenk's Ferry is a wildflower explosion

Shenks Ferry Wildflower Preserve in Lancaster County is in peak color now, with trilliums, Virginia bluebells, phlox and 70 other species decorating the hillside. Located just north of Pequea along the Susquehanna River in southern Lancaster County, the 50-acre glen surrounds Grubb Run off of Green Hill Road and is part of PPL. For more information, check http://www.pplweb.com/holtwood/things+to+do/shenks+ferry+wildflower+preserve.htm

Three Dog Night still singing

 
Listening to the band Three Dog Night last night at Lancaster's American Music Theater was exhilarating, just remembering the love and life of the times. And depressing.  Music sent all of us gray-hairs (or no-hairs) back a few years to the days of  late 1960s.
   Young people then were vigorously protesting the Vietnam War, fighting racism and sexism, watching the Space Race and the Cold War and preaching love-- sometimes simultaneously.  All the time wearing tie-dye, bell bottoms and long, long hair that we all wish we could regrow.  
   It would be satisfying to think we made a difference, but I'm not so sure we did. Today, we're spread throughout the world fighting more questionable wars, women still don't have the Equal Rights Amendment, the Cold War has become mighty warm and racism?  Well, what happened to Trayvon Martin in Florida should convince you that things aren't where they should be.

   Was thinking about all this while TDN sang away for an hour or so. They 'finished' the show, waited for the obligatory standing ovation and returned to the stage to sing the band's biggest song that we all knew was coming. But first, they sang acappella Prayers of the Children. Listen from YouTube here, or read the lyrics here. The words are reminiscent of the type of song that went big in the 1960s and early 70s, all about love and life. It was beautifully done, with tender words that should bring at least one tear.

    They finished with the upbeat "Joy to the World". We all sang along as one, huge chorus. We remembered the days of  love, grass and rock 'n roll.

"If I were the king of the world
Tell you what I'd do
I'd throw away the cars and the bars and the war
 Make sweet love to you

Joy to the world
All the boys and girls now
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me" 

   There was at least one person in the crowd below voting age, and probably dragged to the event by his grandmother. He knew the words too.

Eddie's Cat Cooper

Meet Eddie. He's a feline friend of mine in Lancaster who apparently owns his own car, a Mini Cooper.

"Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow."