I came up here to help out my family a couple weeks ago now, and will be up here, maybe permanently….
I’m staying in the West Shore area, near Harrisburg, but of course, I am always willing to travel!

Our family trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania began bright and early at 4:30 a.m.

After waking up and heading to the airport for our 7 a.m. flight to Baltimore, I managed to sleep for most of the flight. Gotta love those pull-down tray tables. They make great headrests!

My sister Leslie packed a big bag of trail mix that served as breakfast featuring Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, macadamia nuts, chocolate chips and Craisins.

After renting a car and driving an hour and a half to Gettysburg, we were starving! I was so excited to visit our favorite lunch place in the middle of downtown Gettysburg.

Downtown Gettysburg

Sisters in Gettysburg

My mom and dad met and grew up in Gettysburg (they were childhood sweethearts) and love Ernie’s Texas Lunch. On our visits to Gettysburg, we always have to stop!  

Outside Texas Lunch

Ernie’s Texas Lunch has the best chili dogs! I’m not exactly a chili dog kinda girl, but these are unreal.

Inside View

I ordered a bowl of homemade vegetable beef soup and a chili dawg! To order the chili dog, you simply say “one with.” They know whatcha mean! I love that.

Veggie Beef Soup

Chili Dog

Everything was so tasty. We were happy campers!

My Dad and Leslie

My Mama and Me

After lunch we headed to my grandma’s house to drop off our things and enjoy homemade sugar cookies before heading out to visit our other grandmother, aunt and my cousin Jenn and her new baby girl, Sophia.

Baby Sophia was adorable and such a sweet little girl.

My Sister, My Cousin Jenn, Baby Sophia and Me

Holding Sweet Sophia

Sophia was such an adorable little baby. Lots of baby talk ensued!

At around 6 p.m. my Aunt Laurie, Uncle Drew and two cousins arrived at my grandma’s house just in time for appetizers. We enjoyed shrimp cocktail and crackers with cream cheese and jelly before digging into spaghetti with homemade pasta sauce. So delicious!

I am exhausted from a day full of travel and lots of family visits. I can’t wait for Thanksgiving tomorrow! Happy almost Turkey Day!

Giveaway

Tomorrow morning I will be randomly selecting a winner for the Trio Bar giveaway. Be sure to enter!

Away We Go is the 5th film from Director Sam Mendes. Known for American Beauty, Road to Perdition and last years Revolutionary Road which are very dark in tone and content, this is a step away from the norm from him and frankly is a breath of fresh air. Away We Go is the story of Burt, played by John Krasinski (The Office, Leatherheads) and Verona, who are a mid-thirties couple who find out they are going to have their first child. Burt’s parents played by Jeff Daniels (Gettysburg, Speed) and Catherine O’hara (Best in Show, Beetlejuice) decide to move to Belgium a month before the baby is born. Burt and Verona, having no ties to their home town any more, go exploring for the perfect place to raise a family. visiting lots of friends and family across  the country, it is a fun adventure of possibilities.

The performances in the film are all pretty good, but the one surprise performance that stands out is that of Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary). She plays Burt’s cousin and takes the idea of being close as a family to a whole new level, to the point of being creepy. Her performance is spot on as she delivers her lines with complete confidence without batting and eye as she talks about sharing a bed with her husband….and her kids! She is so good in this role, I could see her getting a Supporting Actress nomination.

Overall I don’t think this is Sam Mendes best film as the movies mentioned previously are very powerful films, but this is a very light, intelligent and delightful film. I would recommend seeing this movie, it is something fresh and not the usual rehashing of a story line you have seen twenty times already. Worth watching for sure!

I am one happy loser!

After hearing Kevin speak a few weeks ago and purchasing his book, I have been so motivated!  Not just because of the excellent information and Kevin’s motivating words, but because I am following Kevin’s advice and *it is working*!!!

Within the first few days I had lost 3 pounds, and now am up to 12!  I haven’t been able to shake this weight for years and now it is almost melting right off of me!  All I am doing is following Kevin’s good advice about diet, meal frequency and times, cutting out all types of sugars, and getting moderate exercise.  This makes losing weight actually feel easy-an attainable goal!  My husband is thrilled with what is happening, and I can hardly wait for his pleasing approval as I return to a more youthful, attractive form!  By the end of the summer I plan to have lost at least 25 more of the 50 or so that I need to lose to be back to my formerly slender figure.

Mid-life doesn’t have to be a “crisis”- it can be fantastic!

Maureen Diaz

Busy mother of nine, and tremendous fan of the Liberation Diet!

Weston Price Chapter Leader in Gettysburg, PA.

I’ve posted before about some of the online gimmicks that allow you to virtually visit historic sites, whether via aerial photos or webcams.  Lately I’ve been trying the same thing with Google Street View, which allows you to travel along roads and look around for a 360° view.  The images come from car-mounted cameras, so it only works for locations located along public thoroughfares.

Take Gettysburg, for example.  Emmitsburg Road cuts across the middle of the battlefield; the Confederates had to cross it during Pickett’s Charge.  You can plop yourself down at street level across from the High Water Mark of the Confederacy and pan around to view the entire landscape, behind you and on both sides.  It’s too bad that internal Park Service roads aren’t included, or you could tour the whole battlefield.

Urban sites work best, because public streets are more numerous around them.  Here’s Lincoln’s law office and the Old State Capitol in Springfield, here’s Independence Hall in Philadelphia, here’s Fort Moultrie in Charleston, and here’s the site of the first shot of the Revolution in Lexington, MA.  Bunker Hill appears to have an ice cream truck parked in front of it, which is just about the last thing you’d expect to see on a battlefield.  The neat part is that you can use the arrows on the steeets to “walk” around these sites and examine them from different angles.

If you’ve got a particular site you want to visit, just head over to Google Map, type in the address or name, and then zoom in as far as you can.  Near the top left side of the map is a small, yellow icon shaped like a human figure.  Grab that icon with your mouse and set it down on the nearest street.  It’s not exactly being there, but for those of us who like history, it’s a fine way to make our workdays even less productive than they already are.

“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here,” worded Lincoln, ironically enough at the dedication ceremony for the Fallen at the Gettysburg. The line and the entire Gettysburg Address, indeed passed unnoticed on that November day 1863.

The main speaker of the day was not Lincoln but the orator Edward Everett, who droned on for two hours in a 1,500-sentence speech full of what Bill Bryson called, “literary allusions, Ciceronian pomp and obscure historical references that bore only the scantest significance to the occasion”.  Abraham Lincoln was the second speaker and his speech contained only 268 words, two thirds of them of only one syllable, in ten short sentences. He barely took his eyes of his written speech–which didn’t mentioned Gettysburg or slavery or the Union. His talk of a little over 2 minutes was too short for the official photographer to take the president delivering the iconic speech.

Abraham Lincoln photos are rare — from the day of the Gettysburg Address, only one verified photo exist the one above. One is currently being verified here.

The photos were even rarer than the manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address. Of five known copies, the Library of Congress has two (those of Lincoln’s private secretaries), and other three copies of the Address were written by Lincoln for charitable purposes. (Everett, to whom Lincoln confided that he thought the speech was a failure, got a copy).

Each time I return to Gettysburg, I seem to find myself at Little Round Top, shooting from the top of the castle-like monument there.  It offers a good view of Devil’s Den and the fields beyond, all the way to the PA Memorial and Pickett’s Charge to the north.  So I know that I already have this particular shot (I think I even posted it here last year), but no matter, here’s this year’s rendition:

Panorama from Little Round Top

Panoramic shots are something that I keep saying I’m going to do more work with, although it seems that I rarely manage to.  In part I blame this on the locations I often end up at, which many times are cluttered and offer little in the way of wide-open angles.  I also blame it on my own lackluster memory, which often fails to remember to try out new tricks.

I’ve read some articles on panoramas and worked with a couple of different software sets, and I’ve pretty much condensed it down to two options – either shell out big bucks for special pano equipment, or settle of the down and dirty approach.  I go for the second option.

Down and dirty works like this: shoot in manual mode, with the same settings in each scene.  Do not adjust focal length between shots, and lock the focus at the hyperfocal distance, then switch it to manual so the focus point remains the same throughout.  Most importantly, be sure to overlap each shot by at least 33%, otherwise you’ll get faulty match ups.

Canon’s included pano software works okay, but I see it as another workflow step that can be avoided by just using the Photomerge feature in Photoshop, which works just as well, if not better.  It will take a while to process, especially if you computer has weaker guts.  But once it’s done, you’ll almost always see that the middle is fatter than the ends, so you have to crop in somewhat to square it off (this is why I always shoot panos wider than appears necessary).  Then it’s adjustment layers as normal.

The pano above came out really well this time around – if you zoom into the full-sized version, you can even count the troops in a column near the intersection by Devil’s Den.  I really need to remember this technique and pull it out of my bag more often.

We had Phantom just over two weeks when we had learned from a friend about GIG, Greyhounds in Gettysburg.  This annual event held at the Outlets in Gettysburg sounded like fun.  Check out www.greyhoundsingettysburg.com for more information.  We went, not really knowing what to expect, but found out there are a lot of greyhound folks out there!   We shopped, we talked, we learned so much that day.  We finally met Peggy (PG group founder) and Phantom got to visit with his foster family.  Since this was a greyhound event, Phantom was spoiled so much that day.  He got new toys, a coat and treats!  We enjoyed our day and I think he did too becuase after we got home Phantom slept and slept and slept some more.

Gettysburg is one of those rare towns that I can return to again and again and continue to enjoy with each visit.  It seems there is always something new to explore and something old to revisit, and even though this made the third visit in 12 months, when I left I was glad for the time I’d had there, short though it was.

The draw of this particular weekend in November, which is making this an annual pilgrimage, is the Remembrance Day Parade.  Although reenactors can nearly always be found somewhere in Gettysburg, this is one of the two weeks each year when the town is full of them (the other time being the anniversary of the battle itself).

Union troops

The parade itself would be best shot with a full DSLR and a long lens; in fact, I spied one gentleman at the end of the parade route setup with just that gear, tripod mounted for ease of use over the hour or so that the parade lasts.  From my own experience, 200mm is probably the shortest length you want on the long end.  Unfortunately, this year I opted for ease of movement over quality of equipment and came armed with just the G10.  Let me blunt; great little camera that it is, the G10 is not suitable for this kind of work.

First off, the focus speed is far too slow and it is nearly impossible to pick a focus point on-the-fly.  Second, the max zoom is too short.  And third, the burst speed is far too slow.  I was able to get a handful of images that were good enough to bother posting on here, and a couple I’m even pleased with.  But the simple fact is, a full SLR and telephoto lens would have worked much, much better.

The trick, as I finally figured it out, is to more or less forget about the masses of men marching down the street and instead use a long lens to focus in on an individual at a time.  In each group there is at least one character, a reenactor who stands out from the others for his expression, costume, or attitude.  For the best images, I think I’d need to isolate that character, which was nearly impossible with the setup I had with me, although these start to come close:

A Confederate soldier

Confederate troops

The other tip I have to remember for next year is to stand on the other side of the street.  For the last two years, the group I’ve gone down with have insisted on standing so that we face the side of the street facing the McDonald’s and Chinese buffet, which make terrible backgrounds that I am constantly fighting to keep out of my shots.  Which is stupid, since I could have crossed the street and shot back the other way, where my backdrop would have been an empty field with some trees – a much more natural setting altogether.

Therein lies the problem with taking a trip and trying to play tourist and photographer at the same time; divided attentions and purpose result in weaker images.  I was luck with a few, but it frustrates me to know that I could have done better if I had been able to focus just on the images.  That’s why there’s next year.

On a final note, I stuck with B&W for all the parade images; it helps hide the backgrounds, and it appeals to my historical aesthetics.

General Lee at the head of the Confederate troops.

(Above: a light tower at the end of a peer in Manistee, Michigan – photographer unknown)

The Immutable Kingdom – Part 74

By Scott A. Klaft

In Time Of War… continued:   In The South

On the opposite side of many of Garfield’s skirmishes was a young scout who would eventually become one of the more effective preachers of Restoration principles. T. B. Larimore reported for duty to the Confederate Army in the first year of the war under the command of Colonel McClellan at Knoxville, Kentucky. Much of his involvement is well documented. He was part of the retreat to Corinth, Mississippi, and he was on scout duty in the Sequatchie valley when captured by the Union forces.

At Franklin College, W.D. Carnes frantically struggled to keep the discussion of war out of the classroom. Unfortunately, it was when President Lincoln first issued the call for volunteers to invade the south that almost the whole student body left to join the Confederate forces. Carnes was forced to close the school.

The brethren, in what was considered “the west” (Arkansas and Missouri), were severely conflicted over the war. Missouri first held the southern point of view, but the Governor was dismissed and the state legislature voted pro-Union. Arkansas was not thus persuaded. Nevertheless, the general population of these states thought they were so far to the west and out of reach from the North that warfare would never reach them. In this, they were sadly and badly mistaken. When the war came, it came with its full fury as it did in every other place it touched.

William Baxter was the president of the school in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He tried, to the best of his ability, to keep the war discussions to a minimum. The school, at its opening, had high hopes of prosperity. Nearly all of the students were of the brotherhood practicing Restoration principles, but the student body was now divided in political sentiment. Fort Sumter fell, Lincoln called for volunteers, and many of the young men announced their intentions to enlist – some to the Union armies, some to the Confederacy. Most of them would never hear the echoing sound of the last gun firing at the end of the war. Most of them were left silent on the grounds of battle all the way from Prairie Grove to Gettysburg.

The college at Fayetteville was taken over frequently by both armies, but after the long battle at Prairie Grove, the entire city became a makeshift hospital for Union and Confederate forces alike. Baxter remained, witnessing the cries of agony from the young men, riddled with led from opposing muskets. Doctors were forced to amputate limbs without the use of anesthesia or antiseptic, and the terrifying screams of pain shook Baxter to his foundations. The dead bodies of soldiers lined the streets, waiting for workers to have time to bury them all. The bodies of young men known to be members of the church were brought to the church building. It was heart wrenching to see grieving mothers cry and kiss the cold, lifeless faces of their sons.

Many members of the church fought and died in both Northern and Southern Armies. Each tragic loss for either side was an even greater loss for the cause of Christianity. The Lord only knows what good might have come from their lives spent, not in futile bloodshed against their own countrymen, but rather preaching the soul-saving Gospel, insisting on the principles of restoring the ancient order.

Nothing would be gained by listing all the dead whose names once graced the membership rosters of the churches of Christ and who gave their influence for the advance of His kingdom. Most of their names would remain unrecognized by us. There were some, however, whose names we may indeed recognize. For instance, at the battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas, none other than the son of one of the earliest of restoration initiators, Barton Stone, named after his father, Barton W. Stone, lead a regiment of Texas Rangers.

This regiment had a Chaplain among them, B. F. Hall. Once a highly respected preacher, after moving to Texas, Hall would never again hold the influence he once wielded, and for good reason. As Baxter had opportunity to observe for himself, Hall had changed greatly, and in a way wholly unexpected.

(Continued Next Week)

And, here’s a photo taken at the 2009 Gettysburg Remembrance Day showing what might have been happening in one of the miniature tents shown above…

For more photos of Remembrance Day 2009 in Gettysburg, please see Part 1 of my Cannonball blog, sponsored and hosted by the York Daily Record newspaper.

For more of my 15mm Monocacy photos, please see part 1 of my series on Monocacy.

Bev Grazulewicz (center) enjoys a night at the Cabaret, with her daughter and friends, June 2009

By Beverly Grazulewicz, Festival Office Manager

My daughter called me recently from college and told me her professor asked her to start a blog about her experience in graduate school.  She asked me for my advice (not sure why) but I hope I gave her some thoughts on what a blog was intended to do which is basically to share information and start conversations.  Apparently her blog is off and running and hopefully she will enjoy the process. 

Well just imagine my surprise a few days later when my co-worker Karen Hendricks, the most masterful wordsmith I know, asked me if I would write a blog for our Festival website.  My first thought was to call my daughter for advice.  But then I decided I could handle this on my own.  After all, the topic she asked me to write about was one I was very familiar with – Friends!  More specifically, Friends of the Festival.   What a delightful topic. 

Friends of the Festival, Bob and Kim Krummerich, May 2009

Well, here you go.  My thoughts on the Gettysburg Festival and what our “Friends” mean to us. 

I began my career at the Gettysburg Festival quite innocently.  A good friend, Donna Nicholson, knew I was looking for something new to become involved with.  She suggested I come with her to volunteer at the office of the Gettysburg Festival.  While I had heard about the plans for this Festival, I wasn’t quite sure what it was all about but it certainly intrigued me.  What couldn’t be fun about a Festival?  So in I went to volunteer my services a few hours a week.  And what fun it was – crazy fun.  People coming and going in every direction and a schedule of events that I couldn’t believe.  Before I knew it I was “employed” by the Gettysburg Festival and the craziness became a part of my life. 

Soon it was July of 2008 and the inaugural ten-day festival was over.  The small staff was all relieved but this relief was short lived, because we knew that almost immediately we had to start planning for 2009.  One of the big things in the back of our mind was how to sustain a quality festival of this magnitude.  Many of our events are free and we wanted to maintain that.  During one of our brainstorming sessions about this, everyone started to mention that we recognized a lot of people at multiple events, some staying all day at the brass day, others at multiple theater events, many at both a dance event and also a children’s event.  These were obviously people who believed in what we were doing.  From this came the idea that they could become our “Friends” and the first Friend of the Festival campaign was launched in the fall of 2008.

Fun Times with Friends: "An American Culinary Adventure," May 2009

We were pleasantly surprised by the reaction to our first Friends of the Festival Campaign.  The financial support AND the very personal, supportive comments many people sent encouraged us that this Festival was indeed appreciated and wanted in our community. 

The 2009 Festival again surpassed our expectations, with over 100 events and a majority of them free thanks to the support of our generous sponsors and our “Friends.”  We enjoyed meeting many of our “Friends” at a special event held at the beginning of our Festival just for them and then seeing them throughout the Festival.  Each time we see them, we enjoy hearing what they like (and even what they don’t like) about the Festival.  After all, without these loyal attendees there would be no Festival. 

So now we are planning the 2010 Festival and again we are seeking the support of  Friends,” both new and “old.”  As a Friend of the Festival you are not only letting us know you enjoy the arts, you are also letting the community know you are aware of the benefits the arts play in our community’s economic structure.  I encourage you to take a look at the names on our 2009 Friends List (on our website).  You are sure to recognize many of them.  As we are now seeking our Friends for the 2010 Festival, we’d love to count you among our “Friends.”

It’s Friday, which means, outside of three Hanover area football teams vying for postseason supremacy, it’s the start of the winter sports calendar.

Boys and Girls’ basketball practice begins tonight. As does wrestling and swimming.

Quick storylines:

* How good will the Delone Cathlic boys’ basketball team be this year? The Squires were impailed by Trinity in the semifinals of districts and reached states, but they lost Chris Hartmann — last season’s Evening Sun Player of the Year — Cody Smith, Noah Landi and Corey Kauffman. Austin Brady is really the only big-minute player returning for the club — and he’s on hiatus until the Squires are eliminated from double-A football.

* Can Hanover repeat last year’s success? The Hawks (15-9) qualified for districts last season in double-A, where they beat Annville-Cleona dramatically to secure their first postseason win in over a decade. Gone from that team are 6-foot-4 Grant Mummert — now playing at McDaniel — and guards Jordan Martz and Nate Trish. But there’s a good amount of experience returning, including Pete Yingst,Shea Staub, Matt Bossalina, Brandon Wentz and John Perdue. Yingst, Bossalina and Wentz all started last year. Staub could be ready for a breakout role. Perdue, depending on how his summer went, could step in where Mummert left on.

* Boys’ teams that could be surprisingly good: Littlestown, South Western, and never discount New Oxford.

* As for the girls, you always have to be aware of Delone Catholic, who has third team All-State Sierra Moore back for her sophomore campaign. Yet, she’s the easy target. I’d be more interested to see how varsity newbies like Sierra Schmizzi (I believe that’s how you spell it) and Stormy Hibshman (I’m certain that’s NOT how you spell it) do in their first run of significant minutes. History lesson: The Squirettes were ousted in the semifinals of districts to York Catholic (43-32), but reached states, where they fell early as well.

* New Oxford should go through a down year, but South Western could pick up the scraps. The Lady Mustangs have an experienced crop returning, featuring Natalie Greenholt, Kera Hill and a couple others. They could be one of the Division I favorites.

* Section 2 Spring Grove went 18-10 last year and could expect a similar return to success in 09-10.

Wrestling:

* The biggest story here is how Hanover will respond off the turbulent offseason, when head coach Tyke Conover resigned. The Hawks will compete for the first time without a Conover (Tyke or Terry) leading the way.

* Team that should win Division 2: Delone Catholic. Close second and third? Bermudian Springs and Biglerville.

Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address…

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, concieved in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

One of my favorite pieces by one of my favorite conductors, Aaron Copland, is his Lincoln Portrait. My mother used to listen to this on a record often, so I have many of the words committed to memory.

I think of it because Thursday, Nov. 19, is the date in 1863 that Lincoln uttered his famous Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was invited to speak at this ceremony, along with others. Lincoln followed a man named Edward Everett, a famous orator who spoke for 2 hours at this dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Lincoln, on the other hand, uttered just 10 sentences.

Both the narration and the music are beautiful and moving. I invite you to listen to it.

Imagen de Lincoln pronunciando su famoso discurso

En un extraor-dinario libro titulado ¿Qué es la democracia?, Giovanni Sartori distingue la libertad de como condición para la libertad para. Esta distinción, para los amantes de la democracia, debería tenerse siempre presente, dado que ser libre de un poder opresivo y absolutista, nos dará la posibilidad de ser libres para construir sociedades más justas, más iguales, menos pobres y menos opresivas. No quiero vivir en una condocracia, cuya única libertad de sea la libertad de obedecer. Y tampoco quiero vivir regida por la ley de la granja de los animales de Orwell, que llegó a dictaminar que todos son iguales, aunque algunos son más iguales que otros. Por el contrario, quiero ser parte de un país republicano, de una región más justa y libre, y de un mundo más democrático.

La democracia, como cualquier sistema político, es susceptible de ser mejorada, y de todos depende que así suceda. Pero la vida en democracia debería trascender fronteras, historias y pueblos, porque el hombre no conoce mejor remedio contra la tiranía que la democracia, o mecanismo más efectivo que el voto universal para acercarse al ideal de igualdad.

El 19 de noviembre de 1863, meses después de la Batalla de Gettysburg durante la Guerra Civil norteamericana, Abraham Lincoln pronunció un discurso en homenaje a los soldados fallecidos en la contienda. Ese día, el discurso principal no debía ser el del entonces Presidente, sino el que fue pronunciado por Everett, un académico y diplomático muy conocido en la época por su brillante oratoria. Lo cierto es que, después del discurso de Everett que duró cerca de dos horas, Lincoln habló tres minutos. Pero después de esos tres minutos, el Presidente descendió del estrado algo sorprendido: no había recibido aplausos. Entonces, uno de sus colaboradores le pidió que mirara al público, y pudo ver que todos estaban muy emocionados. Ese día, las palabras del presidente norteamericano se inmortalizaron en lo que hoy conocemos como el Discurso de Gettysburg, uno de los más famosos en la historia de la oratoria, y aquél que definió a la democracia como el gobierno del pueblo, por el pueblo y para el pueblo.

By CHUCK CURLEY
Evening Sun Sports Editor

As busy as South Western High senior Natalie Greenholt is, it seems she even has to fit her health between seasons.
Greenholt recently underwent surgery to remove wisdom teeth, but she will be fine when girls’ basketball practice begins.

In the meantime, her tennis game also is healthy, good enough in fact that she is the All-Area Girls’ Tennis Player of the Year selection for the second straight season.

With a 19-4 singles record while playing out of the No. 1 position and posting an 8-4 doubles record with fellow All-Area first-team player Alli Meyer, Greenholt saved her best performance for her final season at the Tri-Township Park courts.

“I wanted to make it to districts and have the really good season I could have,” Greenholt, who also participates in girls’ track at South Western, said. “I wanted to work hard and put all I had into my last year.”

South Western coach Kristen Meyer never had any doubt that her leading singles player would deliver.

“I wasn’t surprised. She’s just a high achiever,” Meyer said.

The achievement included a third-place finish in the YAIAA Class AAA Championships and, with Meyer, the same place in the league doubles tournament.

Evening Sun Coach of the Year: Ryan Cleary, Littlestown

Littlestown came away with an 11-5 record, its first winning mark in more than 15 years. That revival of the Lady Bolts gives the first-year head coach his first All-Area Coach of the Year honor and his school’s first such honor in tennis.

Clearly, Cleary was more than a physical trainer for a team with had veteran players but little tradition. However, learning of his team’s court experience entering the 2009 season, he said he increased his expectations, starting with those workouts.

“I said, ‘You know what, guys? I think we can really do some damage this season. Make some noise and fly under the radar, which is a good thing.’” Cleary said.

It didn’t take long for the radar to find Littlestown, though. The Lady Bolts won their five of their first six matches, eventually beat five of six YAIAA Division I rivals and went 4-4 against difficult YAIAA Division II opposition. Three players — Katie Perez, Clarissa Nichols and Molly Plank — had 10 or more singles wins. Plank and Kaila Hess went 12-2 in doubles.

Evening Sun First Team:
1. Nichole DePaulis, Delone Catholic, jr.
2. Natalie Greenholt, South Western, sr.
3. Alli Meyer, South Western, sr.
4. Sarah Rudasill, New Oxford, fr.
5. Samantha Wright, Gettysburg, so.

Second Team:
1. Christine Belinko, Littlestown, jr.
2. Ale Heller, Biglerville, sr.
3. Samantha Markey, Gettysburg, so.
4. Katie Perez, Littlestown, sr.
5. Chelsea Small, South Western, sr.

Rebel Cry, LIve @ The Apocalypse

This is a series of natural wonders and ominous beauty from the making of a photographic and prophetic expo called Rebel Cry. These apparitions, super natural signs, and phenomena are a part of an odyssey over a year and thousands of miles long.
There is a little group of Confederate monuments like ghosts of a cause and country in memory and dream. Phantom faces and dark expressions overlook from West Texas thunderstorms; prophetic illustrations of apocalypse in dark clouds over dark and wild land.
A lot of these are from my home in West Texas; Twin Sisters Peaks, Pisano Pass, like fairy tale wilderness. Some are from the spirit land of Cheyenne, Wyoming where seven year old pilot, Jessica Dubroff died in a state of joy. In 1996 her life ended while in the process of being the youngest pilot to fly cross country. The images from Cheyenne and her gravestone at Mount Hope Cemetery in California express her spirit of freedom and courage as they mean to me.
And of all the other places and passion fatigued moments of solitude, these portraits are manefested from a poet enchanted by the poetry of a world and time around. They are moments of solitude with creation and the Creator.
I never imagined I could express a dramatic theme like this lest through word and verse. Someday Rebel Cry will form and be a life triumph, an expo of a world and time, a tale of real life in dreams.

Note: After reading, check out my film at http://bit.ly/3H9GIv 

The early autumn evening sun defended against the chill,

When I left the struggle on the soccer field and climbed the amber hill.

I made my way past the parking lot, the picnic table and then,

The white picket gate swung open and reverently I stepped in.

Gray tombstones at crazy angles stabbed at retreating light,

The earth was soft and spongy, the weeds had conquered height.

I scarce could know that evening, to another century I was bound,

When at first I did encounter, the Soldier by the Playground.

“Samuel C., son of Daniel and Isabella …, who fell at …Gettysburg … July 2, 1863,

In the twenty-second year of his age, striking for home and liberty.”

Gettysburg! Long ago, far off, brought home for me to find!

Now sounds of the soccer field, trailing off, merged with battle sounds in my mind.

And then I wondered, pondered, questioned which flag he would prefer,

If he could return to join us and with history confer.

Did he fight to save the Union or for the South his life forego?

Here, in the border state of Maryland, I’d possibly never know.

On a cool November morning citizens and visitors of a small town in Pennsylvania remembers those who fell in one of the bloodiest three-day battles in the American Civil War. The year is 1863 and the place is Gettysburg Pennsylvania.  The Confederate army numbering of 75,000 men is being followed by the Union army of 95,000 men.  Lee decides to divide his army and has one brigade head out towards the east but they are met with General Meads army.  This is just the beginning of what Lee and Mead faced and continued for another 2 days until finally within the last fatal day Lee suffered too many fatalities and retreats.    

On November 21st hundred’s of spectators line the streets of Gettysburg to watch thousands of uniformed Civil War reenactors march through the town to remember those who never came home.  This happens each year at the Annual Remembrance Day Parade which begins at 1:00 p.m. Be sure to be there ahead of time because it does get very crowded.

From sunset to 9 pm there will be a Remembrance Illumination held at the Soldiers’ National Museum. Luminary candles will be placed on each Civil War grave as a testament to the sacrifices made here in 1863.  It’s an event that can’t be missed.  If you are in the Battlefield after dusk you will be caught and given a $75 dollar ticket.  Due to the day light hours the time when the battlefield officially closes from their summer hours of 10 pm to their winter hours of dusk on October 31st.

Reenactors portraying the Union army march @ the Annual Gettysburg Remembrance Day Parade.

The Trostle Farm circa July 6, 1863 — Alexander Gardner photo

As many of you already know, I live in the Gettysburg area. My house sits about five miles south of the official battlefield park, scene of the famous July 1-3, 1863 fight that saw the high-water mark of the Confederacy, and the much-ballyhooed turning point of the American Civil War.

It was also a portent of great wealth for the Asian manufacturers of little toy rifles and swords with which the darling children and grandchildren of tourists pretend jolly mayhem on one another.

Of course, the battle took up a lot more space than just the 6,000-acre park. The road on which I live, for example, was the site of an encampment of troops serving under Union Gen. Abner Doubleday, who did not, legends to the contrary, invent baseball.

I am not enough of a student of history to know what Abner did in the battle, but according to a neighbor who pokes around the area with a metal detector, his troops apparently gave up sleep for the evening, preferring rather to spend their time peppering the ground with bullets, buckles, and buttons for the benefit of future relic hunters.

We get between 1.5 and 2 million tourists every year. It makes us really cagey about finding ways around town via alleys and back roads so we have a lower risk of getting behind one of our famous double-decker tour buses or some septuagenarian operating a 40-foot motor home while trying to read battlefield markers without actually stopping.

The great thing about all those tourists is that they bring their wallets with them, and when they leave, said wallets are usually a good bit lighter.

This is a good thing.

The bad thing is that we have to deal with tourists for all but the coldest months of the year. There has been, I believe, some intense research into finding a way for the tourists to simply mail their money to us, or transmit it through PayPal, but all the details haven’t been ironed out yet.

I’ll keep you posted.

These thoughts reasserted themselves recently as I sat in one of the restaurants on the tourist strip, writing in my journal and enjoying some ice cream and coffee.

Well, trying to.

Tourist season was already past its peak. Halloween was behind us, so the legions of live people looking for dead people on the battlefield were pretty well gone off to haunt other places.

Still, and mysteriously, one end of the restaurant was filled with a platoon of Confederate re-enactors in full regalia. Fortunately, they weren’t hard-core, that segment of the re-enactor universe who never wash their uniforms, out of deference to historical and olfactory exactitude, and who as a result smell like road-kill.

No, this was generally speaking a bunch of good-ole boys having a grand time with their lady friends over a hearty meal of chicken strips and bluish-ice cream sundaes. Better than hard-tack, you betcha.

They were a rowdy lot, but none more so than one fellow at the nearest table, who spoke with great animation and volume about his latest adventures in the sphere of medicine.

He sat facing me at an angle. Directly across from him, and facing away from me, was the woman who seemed to be with him. She was a substantial lass, with long, lustrous black hair and a deep and abiding passion for fried food, judging from her plate and by her, um, beamishness.

Now, I am the last person to pronounce judgment on a person’s girth, being horizontally gifted in my own right, or their choices in how they garb themselves. My favorite leisure time clothing is a sturdy set of bib overalls and bare feet, so who am I to talk?

Even so, I like to think that if I had the sort of back porch possessed by that young lady, hip-huggers might very well be the very last thing on my list of things to wear out in public.

“Hip-huggers” is perhaps not an accurate description, as these seemed more to be holding on by their fingernails.

The problem was exacerbated by a T-shirt whose reach was far from adequate.

Sometimes, it’s hard to remember just how white some white people can be.

I do believe my corner of the room was a lot brighter than it otherwise might be, for all the light being reflected my way. I felt that I had suddenly found myself in the spotlight. I would have risen and given an acceptance speech if I could have gotten a word in edgewise.

He never stopped talking. He was too loud to ignore. And the subject seemed to change every other sentence or two.

It wasn’t so bad, merely annoying, until he started talking about his colonoscopy, his dramatic re-telling of the preparatory arrangements involved, the methodologies employed in achieving the exam, and the results discovered in the process.

By the time he got to the end of the recitation and confessed that his doctor had also discovered a mother lode of hemorrhoids, (“Which I already knew,” he added), I don’t believe anyone on the north side of the Steinwehr Ave. Friendly’s had the least bit of sympathy for him.

His friends either ignored him, or pored over the brochures and notices on the bulletin board by the register…

I, fuming that my chance to concentrate on my journal-writing had been thoroughly smashed, also admitted that if I hadn’t chosen a large serving of super-chocolate fudge ice-cream, I might have gotten through the ordeal with a bit less discomfort.

==============================.

© 2009 Marsh Creek Media, Gettysburg, Pa.
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With the District 3 playoffs heading our way over the weekend, you can find all of the information on matchups, times and locations here. South Western, Spring Grove, New Oxford, Delone Catholic and Littlestown all made the playoffs.

Spring Grove and New Oxford — which probably has the toughest matchup out of anyone having to face an explosive Susquehanna Township team — will hit the road while the other three will host home games.

But first, let’s start with what happened in Week 10…An upset of state ranked West York by Littlestown.

York Daily Record reporter Steve Navaroli covered the game and this was his lede:

There were many people who believed that Littlestown could upset West York and earn a share of the YAIAA Division II championship.

Those believers were the Thunderbolt players, coaches and fans.

Ah hemmm, Steve? I believe you forgot to mention Evening Sun reporters Cory Mull and Travis Johnson, who both predicted an upset on Friday in their “Road to Paydirt” video.

I’ll let it slide.

The upset came as a surprise to most, mainly because West York looked untouchable heading into the final game of the regular season. But you can never guess out Littlestown (8-2, 5-1 YAIAA II), who’s passing style has more reward than risk most of the times, especially with Zuber behind center and with Matt Koontz and Mitch Deaner out wide.

With the win, the Bolts clinched a share of the Division II title with West York.

“Did I think we could score 47 points and leave 14 on the table? No,” Lippy said Saturday. “I thought we could move the ball and compete against them. It’s nice to put it all together one night and in a meaningful game.”

South Western in full gear in win over New Oxford: Over at The Mustang Corral, South Western finished off their season impressively with a result over the Colonials, earning a share of the Division I title and the Hanover Area Division I Cup in the process.

Maybe the biggest accomplishment was the fact that with the co-league title, it made it 15 championships in 50 years for South Western. Averaged out, that’s a title every full class to come in the school over the last 50 years.

“When you average that out, you claim a title every full class,” Seidenstricker said Saturday. “That was big for us. We weren’t sure going in. Every team wants to be undefeated. Every team wants to win a title. Every team wants to go to districts and states. But the reality is that you have to stay in that week-to-week grind.”

Quarterback:
Matt Zuber, Littlestown — 7 for 14, 202 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 1 rushing touchdown
Neil Grudi, Spring Grove — 3 for 7 for 126 yards, 2 TDs
Ian Smith, South Western — 10 for 17 for 132 yards, 2 TDs
Chase Whiteman, Gettysburg — 7 for 12 for 102 yards, 2 TDs
Jake Goodfellow, Hanover — 4 for 11, 88 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Austin Brady, Delone Catholic — 3 for 5 for 75 yards, 2 TDs

Running back:
Jeisson Lloret, Bermudian Springs — 22 carries for 135 yards, 1 TD
Sean Doherty, Littlestown — 26 carries for 132 yards, 1 TD
Austin Keller, Bermudian Springs — 24 carries for 108 yards
J.R. Mummert, South Western — 24 carries for 107 yards, 1 TD
Dustin Reed, Delone Catholic — 12 carries, 107 yards, 4 TDs
Mike Bivens, New Oxford — 11 carries for 95 yards, 2 TDs
Bobby Bailey, Spring Grove — 11 carries for 93 yards, 2 TDs
Austin Re, Gettysburg — 2 carries, 82 yards
Wes Smith, Delone Catholic — 5 carries, 80 yards
Levi Sager, South Western — 11 carries, 75 yards, 1 TD
Zuber, Lit — 10 carries for 70 yards, 1 TD
Kyle King, South Western — 9 carries for 66 yards, 1 TD

Wide receiver:
Matt Koontz, Littlestown — 5 catches for 132 yards, 1 TD
Matthew Haines, Delone Catholic — 2 catches for 64 yards, 1 TD
Mitch Deaner, Littlestown — 2 catches for 70 yards, 2 TDs
Keith Stambaugh, Spring Grove – 2 catches, 68 yards, 1 TD
Benttion Hendricks, Gettysburg — 2 catches, 59 yards
Tom Kranias, Biglerville — 2 catches for 28 yards
Levi Sager, South Western — 2 catches for 27 yards

The traveling continues.  This time our travels were within the state of Pennsylvania.  We’ve been practicing with the seminary football team for a few months getting ready for the football tournament.  Many seminaries come together for the Luther Bowl each year.  It was even on the front page of  the newspaper in Hanover and Gettysburg areas.  Last year our team, the Kneelers, were the champions.  On Friday night, we caravanned with Mandy, Brian and Stephen and Camala to Hanover, PA.  We stayed with Brian’s grandma.  She was such a sweet lady.  She had poured out her hospitality and sweets upon us the whole time we were there.  She made us cookies, coffee cake and pancakes.  We really enjoyed our time with her. 

After a good night’s sleep, we awoke early to the anticipation of the big game.  We ate a delicious breakfast, bundled up and headed to the battlefield at the Lutheran Seminary of Gettysburg.  The weather was cold.  The air was brisk and the grass was slushy.  After stretching and warming up, our team practiced as we awaited our first game.  We played three games, winning the second.  We played hard in every game.  Some of the teams were pretty rough.  I’ve got battle wounds to prove it – 4 bruises on my thigh, 1 on my arm, a large bruise and two scrapes on my ankles and sore muscles everywhere.  I can’t remember the last time I hurt this bad.  After the tournament the teams came together for eucharist and shared a meal.  We headed back to Brian’s grandma’s house to have dinner with her instead. 

It was Paul’s birthday, so she treated us to a steak dinner at The Texas Roadhouse Grill.  It was delicious.  There were peanut shells on the ground, line dancing by the servers and good bbq with all the fixin’s.  It was mmm mmm good.  Paul got steak and a potato - everything he could want for a birthday dinner and they even came to our table with a birthday saddle for Paul to sit on while they hollered all over the restaurant that it was his birthday.  It was a good way to end his 30th birthday.  After playing hard and a big meal, we all slept really well that night. 

The next morning, we had bacon and eggs before heading out to explore the Battlefield.  We had our own personal tour guide as we made stops along the Confederate and Union lines.  Brian is a Civil War Whiz.  He was able to give us a lot of insight into where we were standing and the events that took place there.  We began on the Confederate side as we looked over to where the Union soldiers would have been located.  We visited monuments from different states, climbed an observation deck, stopped at Little Round Top where the Union held out above Devil’s Den.  We ended our tour at The Watermark and even stood at The Angle which is the furthest point that Confederate Army got towards the Union Line. 

Following our tour of the Battlefield, we began our trip home via Maryland.  We were able to check another state off our list.  YIPEE!!!  We stopped for a picnic along a lake in Maryland.  We ate sandwiches at a picnic table surrounded by fallen leaves and the sun shone on the still water.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  The sun was shining and I was happy.  We made a few quick stops in Maryland and West Virginia before arriving back in Pittsburgh.  Now it’s back to the daily grind.  Paul has Hebrew to study and papers to write.  I have a Praxis Test to study.  Thanksgiving will be here soon enough and we’ll get to enjoy a few days in Wisconsin.    WOW!  I am so blessed by all the opportunities that God has given us.  God is good.

Not Many Photos Exist From Gettysburg

Close up of above photo with only known image of Lincoln at Gettysburg

On This Date in History: I have a few words concerning the events of November 19. 1863 but anything that I could say would pale in comparison to the speech reprinted below. It is the the Gettysburg Address and it was delivered 145 years ago today. The president was not invited until about two weeks prior to the ceremony. He was not the main speaker. Edward Everett, a noted statesman from Boston and Harvard President, was given two months notice to work on his speech, which took about two hours to deliver. Mr. Lincoln’s speech was but 270 words. It has been accepted that Lincoln wrote the address on a scrap of paper while on the train to Pennsylvania because it was reported that way in a novel. However, historian Stephen B. Oates points out in his biography, With Malice Toward None, A Life of Abraham Lincoln that the train was too crowded and noisy for him to work on it. Instead, Oates says that he wrote part of it on White House stationery before he left and finished the rest on the morning of the event in Gettysburg.

Verbiage in Invitation to Lincoln Very Interesting

It has been reported that the president was sick. While I find nothing to confirm that he was ill during the proceedings, I suspect that people have made the assumption, perhaps accurate, because after he returned to the White House, he was diagnosed with varioloid, which has been described as a mild for of smallpox. I’m not sure about that one because it seems to me that a “mild form of smallpox” is akin to being “a little pregnant.” Also, it is widely reported that his speech was panned in newspapers across the land. The Chicago Times and paper from Harrisburg, PA certainly show that there were some. However, not all papers were non-plussed by his remarks. In fact, the Chicago Tribune was sharply in contrast to its rival and even Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune recognized the greatness of the speech. I believe I recall a quote from Edward Everett who remarked afterward, “Mr President, you were able to say in a few minutes what I could not in two hours.” This is probably not a direct quote but something reasonably close.

Words of Nov 19, 1863 Long Remembered

Harrisburg Patriot and Union: “We pass over the silly remarks of the President; for the credit of the Nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall no more be repeated or thought of.”

Chicago Times: “The cheeks of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat, and dishwatery utterances.”

Chicago Tribune: “The dedicatory remarks by President Lincoln will live among the annals of man.”

Horace Greeley: “I doubt that our national literature contains a finer gem than that little speech at the Gettysburg celebration, November 19, 1863… after the close of Mr. Everett’s classic but frigid oration.”

Leaving Gettysburg For the Cemetery

I think what may be lost regarding the speech is what it shows. It is an early indication of where Mr. Lincoln was heading in terms of after the war. Even on a battlefield well north of Washington, Lincoln was confident of victory. What often gets overlooked is that on the same day, US Grant had forced the capitulation of Vicksburg which essentially gave the Union full control of the Mississippi River and effective cut the Confederacy in two. The victory at Vicksburg arguably sealed the deal for the outcome of the war. Mr. Lincoln was aware of that that and if you read carefully, you can see the hints of what his notions were regarding his intentions. He does not give a rah-rah victory speech with talk of retribution. He does not discriminate between the allegiances of the soldiers and speaks of the “unfinished business” and a “new birth of freedom.”  Clearly he is talking about concluding the war but he is also referencing a nation of freedom for all. This speech is not just one of honor but also one of reconciliation.  It has always eluded me of how differently our nation’s history might have been had the 16th president been allowed to conclude the “unfinished business.”  How would he have handled Reconstruction and the reconciliation of the former enemies.  John Wilkes Booth lives in infamy as the man who deprived the nation of “what might have been.”  There are 5 known drafts of the Gettysburg Address. Each seems to have some variance.  Here is a version of the Gettysburg Address:

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion–that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Weather Bottom Line:  The bottom line is that the crappy weather is coming to an end.  That dry slot I had mentioned for Wednesday ended up being pretty decent because we ended up with some nice afternoon sunshine but the gloom returns all day today. Friday through Sunday though, as the pesky cut off low finally gets booted, look for a lot of sunshine seasonally cool conditions with lows in the upper 30’s and low 40’s and highs in the 50’s.

On this day 146 years ago, one of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, delivered one of the most recognizable speeches of all time, the Gettysburg Address.

The text:

The only known picture of President Lincoln at Gettysburg: