25 years ago
By July 21, 1999, the efforts to bring the Rocky Springs carousel back to Lancaster had seen some success.
The newly formed Rocky Springs Carousel Association had recently secured a lease/purchase agreement to bring the carousel back to Lancaster from its most recent home at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Next, they had to figure out how to pay for it.
About $1.3 million needed to be raised, and at a public meeting of the carousel association, several strategies were discussed.
Among them were some fairly obvious items, such as hiring a professional fund-raiser to orchestrate the efforts, and some more unusual options, like raffling off a full-size carousel horse, or selling a series of collectible miniature carousel figurines.
Also needing the group’s attention was the matter of where to store the carousel — which, when disassembled, filled three tractor-trailers — and ultimately, where to install it in Lancaster.
Neither of those questions had immediate answers.
50 years ago
On July 20, 1974, a speeding driver did quite a bit of damage in a high-speed run along Fruitville Pike.
A 36-year-old Lancaster city man was speeding north on Fruitville Pike when he tried to pass a pickup truck in a no-passing zone. He ended up sideswiping the truck, then veering off into a field.
He traveled for about 900 feet in the field, then smashed through two wooden fences, bounced across lawns — destroying lawn furniture along the way — and finally smashing through the brick wall of a garage, completely destroying his own car and the garage building in the process.
Total damage for the high-speed caper was estimated at more than $6,000 — or about $40,000 today.
75 years ago
Washington Boro was the site of an archaeological dig in July 1949, as a team under the supervision of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission was digging for Native American artifacts.
It was the state’s first inquiry into the history of Pennsylvania’s indigenous populations in nearly two decades, and the dig was yielding numerous artifacts.
Archaeologists were excavating a “midden,” or refuse pit, where the native Susquehannock people discarded everything from broken pots to old tools.
In the first week of the project, they had unearthed hundreds of pieces — mostly pottery, but also stone and iron axes, pieces of fabricated copper, arrowheads, beads and other jewelry.
The dig was expected to last another one to two weeks.
100 years ago
In the summer of 1924, a group of Lancaster boys were trying out the soldier’s life at Camp Meade near Middletown, as part of the Citizen’s Military Training Camp.
The boys were subject to an intense regimen of military-style life, including a 4:45 a.m. reveille call, followed by breakfast and inspection, then a full day of drills and training — from formation maneuvers to target practice with rifles.
In the afternoon, the boys got a two-hour break, during which they could go swimming, play baseball, write letters home or just relax in the barracks.
The would-be soldiers got to experience the less-appealing aspects of military life as well, including the dreaded K.P., or kitchen duty, in which they waged war against unpeeled potatoes and dirty pots and pans.
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