Primitive Baptist

Leroy went to Maryland yesterday to check a job and took the camera along. In Fulton Township, near the Maryland line, he saw this little old church and cemetery along Route 222 and stopped to check it out. I'm proud of him! He has caught the disease!
It turns out this is the Rock Springs Old School Baptist Church (also known as Primitive Baptist) built in 1808. He took pictures of some of the gravestones with names of Griest, Jenkins, and Lowe, which were prominent. We have no connection to these people, but give him a gold star for trying!

I had looked into the Primitive Baptist church when I thought my Powells might have been members of the church in the 1700s. I finally determined they were not, but what I learned about the church was interesting. They were influenced by the Mennonites and maintain some of the same practices such as believer's baptism, feet washing, and acapella singing. There are also some significant differences in theology, especially as it relates to predestination.

You can read the history of the Primitive Baptists here:

http://www.pb.org/pbdocs/chhist5.html

Snow Geese

The geese have been flying the last couple weeks but today they arrived en masse. The field behind the house is literally covered with them. I heard the racket before I saw them. When the geese are here, can spring be far behind? Play the video and you can hear them too.

Hol dit !!

Yesterday I went to a fabulous antique book & document sale at Lebanon. Mr. A.L. Hanford (of Ladd Hanford, auto dealer) had amassed quite a collection in his lifetime. He passed away and now his collection was being disbursed. (What does that tell you about life?)

Anyway, after looking at the catalog of items to be sold, I knew I wouldn't be able to afford much but I wanted to at least see it. I went early enough to look at the stuff before the sale started at noon and was there all afternoon. There were no bargains and I only bought one small item.

To give you an idea of the kind of things that were being sold, here is a 1695 Land Deed between William Penn and the Indians. It sold for $5,750.

This is a Quaker marriage certificate from 1750, signed by American botanist John Bartram and many others, which sold for $400.

I have never in my life seen so many sheepskin deeds and Patents from the 1700s in one place. There were many signed by John, Thomas, and Richard Penn, who were the sons of William Penn. There were also some signed by Conrad Weiser, James Logan, James Hamilton, and Ben Franklin which brought big bucks. Others without the signatures of famous people were sold in box lots.

Many old and rare books were also sold. This is the family record of David and Mary (Overholser) Weaver on the back page of a 1776 Bible printed in Germantown by Christoph Sauer. Selling price--$2800.

Also sold was a Martyrs Mirror printed at the Ephrata Cloister in 1748 which contained the manuscript genealogy of John Rudolph. It sold for $2400. Other big ticket prices were a 1739 Christoph Saur Zionitischer Weyrauchs Hugel (songbook) for $2600, 1871 German song book with color fraktur bookplate signed by Barbara Ebersol for $850, book printed by Ben Franklin in 1744 for $6500, 1731 land document between James Logan and George Graff of Lancaster signed by Benjamin Franklin and James Logan for $5000, and a portfolio collection of the autographs (and other documents, engravings, deeds, portraits, & ephemera) of the Governors of Pennsylvania beginning with William Penn until 1970 for $2600.

Although I could not afford to buy these things, I could afford to admire and inhale the historical atmosphere. I hope the most valuable things wound up in the hands of museums which will preserve them so they are not scattered again and potentially lost. It was a fun day which I am not likely to repeat soon, if ever.

Taste of Spring

On Saturday we went with Gene and Amy to the Garden Show at Harrisburg. Held at the Farm Show building, the only thing that is lacking at the indoor show is fresh air and the sound of birds. Gene and Amy were looking for ideas for backyard landscaping. I mostly just enjoyed the sight of spring flowers and green grass. It was a picker-upper for winter-weary spirits. Sunday morning I saw a flock of robins, which are a positive sign that in another month the outdoors will look like what we saw at the Garden Show. Feast your eyes!

35 Years

On March 5, 1973, he started working for Shank Door Company. It's hard to believe that was 35 years ago. One thing we learned is that the garage door business goes up and down---literally, and in more ways than one. When the economy was down, business was down; and when the economy is booming, business is brisk.

We went through several swings during the 22 years Leroy was an installer. During some of the worst times he had only one or two days of work a week. Try feeding a family on those earnings! Since 1995 he has been in the warehouse, so his work is steady regardless of the economy. We are thankful for that now when the economy is in a downturn again.

I thought we should recognize Leroy's achievement somehow, so I took lunch in to the office yesterday and surprised him. Having a son in the office who was willing to be my "partner in crime" helped make it possible to pull off the surprise. After I had lunch on the counter, Gene paged Leroy to come to the office. He never expected to see me there! He had to think a little to figure out what the occasion was.

I don't know how many more years Leroy will be with the company, but we know it won't be as many as he has been there already. I have been so blessed to have a husband who is a good provider and stuck with it even when he did not feel like going to work. Give him a round of applause!

In The Air

Spring is in the air! That's good news to winter-weary souls. Yesterday the temperature soared to 63 and it will come close to that again today before heavy rain moves in and drives the mercury down. It is too early for spring to come to stay, but the signs that we are moving in that direction are unmistakable. The Snowdrops and miniature crocus are blooming. Canadian and Snow Geese are flying north. This morning Gerald saw the first robin.
As usual, I had a long list of things I wanted to do this winter. I have gotten some of my goals accomplished but other things are still unfinished. If I don't get on the ball, I will have to paraphrase Jeremiah 8:20 to say, "The time has passed, the winter is ended, and my work is not done."
This month is a race with the calendar to get a little more done before the spring rush is upon us. To that end, I have invited a bunch of cousins to come for a quilting on March 19. That is the last "big" project I had on my list. I didn't expect to finish the other things I have been working on this winter. After all, if I got everything done, what would I do next winter? I have to (as Mom used to say) "save some for seed."

Election

So far, this Presidential election has been one of the most entertaining we've ever had. I usually yawn through the primaries and don't pay much attention until the conventions are over and the real campaign begins. But there has never been an election in which a woman and a black man were pitted against each other for their party's nomination.

I've been following the primaries this year and am waiting to see if the results of the voting in Texas and Ohio next week will determine the Democratic candidate or if it will drag on into Pennsylvania's primary on April 22. Usually by the time Pennsylvania gets around to voting, the choice is apparent and our state merely adds a nod to what other states have already done.

Since the Republican candidate is already apparent, the show has now boiled down to watching the two Democrats slug it out. Both of them have some liberal ideas I do not agree with, but if I had to choose between Clinton or Obama, I would take Obama. We've had enough years of Clintons in the White House, for one thing. And for another, women do not belong in leadership. God designed men to be the leaders and women to be their helpers. We create problems when we mess with that order. Yes, England has had a Queen for 50 years, but she is mostly a figurehead and the (male) Prime Minister is actually the leader.

I'm not an educated person or a political analyst, but I am going to stick my neck out and make a few predictions. Time will tell if my gut feelings are right or wrong.

1. If Clinton loses her bid for her party's nomination, she will whine that she was treated unfairly because of her gender. If that happens, I will say "hogwash." If she was running against a white man, that complaint might hold more water. But she is running against a man who is also setting a precedent. The Democratic playing field is level. There are no "traditional" players in the game.

2. The Democratic candidate (whoever that is) will win the election in November. The economic situation is being blamed on the Republican administration---never mind the fact that the government has operated on deficit spending for decades. And don't tell people their personal financial mess is their own fault because of improper credit card spending. If you spend more than you earn year after year, eventually you will go broke. The same is true for the government---which has no money of its own but only what the citizens give it. Nevertheless, people want things to change and will look to a Democrat to solve their problems.

Now I'm going to sit back and see what happens. I won't lose my job or my reputation if I am wrong on either of these predictions.