Latest Posts
Vanishing Village
Nestled between Hanover and McSherrystown is a small village with a vanishing name.
Entering Adams County from the York County Line, Pennsylvania
There was a time when drivers traveling between Hanover and McSherrytown on Route 116 would pass small signs noting the village name of Midway. Businesses noted the name. Today, visual remnants of the name are seldom found.
Midway, located in Conewago Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, borders Hanover (in York County) and McSherrystown. It is considered an unincorporated census-designated place, or a CDP. The United States Census Bureau considers CDPs to be a concentration of population for statistical purposes only. This areas have boundaries that tend to be softly defined and have no legal status. The 2010 census determined that Midway has a population of 2,125, which includes members of my family.
The signs noting your entrance to the area have been removed, and very few signs noting the name can still be spotted. As time goes on, explaining the location of your house as being "in Midway" has become less helpful. Midway, it seems, is a bit of a vanishing village.
Image by Ruhrfisch, used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
Midway Tavern, Hanover/Midway, Pennsylvania
360 Photos on Visual Realia
Visual Realia is capturing area photographs with a 360 degree view.
An interactive 360 photo as shown in a Facebook post.
Google's 360 Photos are a new way to immerse the viewer into any location. A sphere-shaped image is created and shared in a way where the audience can move around the scene in all directions via a movement of a smartphone, a finer swipe, or mouse movement. On some devices, the user can soon in and out of the scene.
Facebook has now utilized the same technology on Facebook 360 Photos, and the two work together.
Visual Realia (Andrew T. Smith) is now sharing numerous Hanover-area 360 photographs on its associated Inside Hanover Facebook page, and even more are linked from his site's 360s page, which can be found at the top of each page or via a click here.
A 360 photo as it appears in "flattened" form.
It's not possible to view this 360 photo of the Electric Map directly in this web page, but you can view it in interactive form in the Facebook post linked here. They may also be viewed in a web browser visiting Google Maps or in the Google Street View app for iPhone or Android.
Have a Google Cardboard viewer? (If not, you should get one! Quite fun.) Using the viewer in conjunction with the Street View app fields a three dimensional experience that puts the viewer right into the scene.
Check out the Visual Realia 360 photos now!
New Gallery: A Pennsylvania Farm
Pennsylvania Farm Gallery
A gallery of photographs captured in 2009 has been added to the photography page. Visit the scenes from a Pennsylvania farm by clicking here.
"Textures" Gallery Posted
A new gallery of photographs featuring textures has been posted.
"Tritone Roadster"
Textures can add an extra element of interest to a photograph, if used with care. A gallery of eleven photographs utilizing textures can be found by clicking here.
Century in the Making: Devil's Den Photographs
Family photographs are important keepsakes. Here's a hundred year effort.
Curvin and Cora Smith (back row) and friends at Devil's Den, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
This is an updated version of posts first shared in 2012 and 2013. I hope you enjoy this family history quest.
July of 1863 saw heavy fighting and death in Pennsylvania's small town of Gettysburg, and the Devil's Den and Little Round Top areas of the Gettysburg National Military Park were attracting visitors 50 years later when my grandparents, Cora and Curvin, had their photograph taken (seated in the back row) along with friends by a professional photographer from York. The photo was taken in July, four months before their wedding.
The photograph was always a favorite family treasure for me, and I always intended to get a similar photograph from the same vantage point. Living less than 30 minutes away, I visited often but always failed to remember to bring along the family photo for reference. Early on a February 2012 morning, I headed out to get the shot, and I was quite pleased to spend 40 minutes alone in the Devil's Den and Little Round Top area.
Lining up the 1913 photograph with the current site...
Little had changed, except for the loss of some trees in the background.
Devil's Den , 2012
The following year, having reached the century mark for the original photograph, I journeyed out again with my daughters and granddaughter, once again recreating the original, but this time with new family members.
At the 100 year anniversary of the original, current family members visit the original location.
It's quite unusual to find oneself in these spots without tourists and history buffs, and the calmness of the morning made it a peaceful one and perfect for photographing a few extra shots.
My photography interests usually do not lend themselves to making major alterations to the content of images, although the serenity of the day made me think of what the location might have been like for the local residents and the first soldiers to arrive. I removed the tourist path, road signs and the street from the area as I imagined the original view, shown below.
"Before War" - battlefield site as imagined before the historic battle
Before the war, at the fiftieth anniversary, and yet again a century later, Devil's Den is an imposing site. Perhaps relatives will visit yet again one hundred years from now to see similar imagery.
Bruschetta
Bruschetta! Grab a recipe for this summertime treat.
Bruschetta? Salsa? Always a tough decision when I come away from the farmers' market with fresh tomatoes, peppers and onions. Our family loves them both, and they are very similar in flavor. In some cases, the decision is based upon the availability of a great bread.
Whenever possible, I like to use a mix of tomatoes for both salsa and bruschetta. Not only will the variety of colors be appetizing, but each tomato will have a unique taste and texture which makes the end result more interesting.
After an "x" cut in one or both ends of the tomatoes, they are quickly parboiled and cooled to be able to remove the peels. The tomatoes are cleaned and diced along with the peppers, garlic and onion. (Use the peppers that grab your attention at the market and adjust for your own heat taste.) Olive oil and balsamic vinegar are added, as well as salt and pepper.
Slice your bread into appropriately-sized wedges. While baguettes make this an easy step, it's not difficult to cut other shapes; the last time I made bruschetta I used a sourdough loaf that woked wonderfully. Olive oil is added to one side of the bread wedges and toasted for several minutes in the oven. Serve on the warm toast or place the bread in a plastic bag after cooling if serving at a later time.
Our favorite recipe is adapted from the Simply Recipes web site. My version is available to download by clicking here.