Ask Joan: Summer’s almost over edition
Summer, while not “officially” over until later this month, seems to be on its way out. It’s cooler and damper in the mornings, fall decorations abound, and I can buy Spiced Wafers at the grocery store, which I basically anticipate for something like 9 months of the year.
So, happy almost-Fall!
What’s inside
1. What was bar in Shiloh?
2. Where’s the “Butter” in Dover?
3. Fourth-grade class reunion set
4. Where’s the beef (or hamburg)?
5. Do you remember wrestling events?
1. There was a bar on 74 north, I think it was in Shiloh. It was next to a State Farm Insurance office. I was hoping you might know the name of it. It would help so much because my boyfriend and I can’t remember.
– Bambino Flores
I know I’ve heard about this location before, but I couldn’t find anywhere we’d associated a name with it. Any ideas, anyone?
2. Dear family friend, lifelong Yorker and devoted reader Ken Stoppard and some friends got together a few weeks ago and wondered, “Why is it called Butter Road?”
So, I thought I’d see what I could find out about this Dover-area street. It spans both Dover Borough and Dover Township, and is documented well back into the mid-1800s, but so far I haven’t found a good reference to what led to the “butter” name, though my best guess is that it was related to a local dairy.
I’m going to dig deeper into my copy of “A History of Dover Township” and see what I can find, but so far, the only references I’ve found are to businesses like a general store that operated in the area that is now the intersection of Route 74 and Butter Road, not to the origin of the name, so any insight is appreciated!
3. I received a nice note from Shirley Wilt, who wrote to let me know that at 11 a.m. on Sept. 16, at the Old Country Buffer in York, there will be a students who were in fourth grade at Newberrytown Elementary when it opened for the 1955-56 school year. “Lots of us haven’t seen them since Graduation 1964,” Shirley noted. “This was our first year of a new school… leaving the one-room school. Not having our older brothers or sisters. Only one grade in a room.”
Classmates who are interested are invited to attend, and for details you can contact Shirley at shirleyscountrymusic@gmail.com or 717-645-5695.
I told her that I hope they take a photo and share it with us!
4. Is it a York thing to call hamburgers “hamburgs” … and hamburg barbecue, etc.?
– Michele Yost
Michele, that’s one of my FAVORITE Yorkisms. We’ve been talking about that since a 2008 post on this blog, in fact!
One of my favorite YDR stories was when one of my former copy editors, Caryn Shaffer, asked me the same question about “hamburgs.” So, Michele, you’re not alone in wondering, and yes, we like our burgers a little short on the “ers” around here!
4. I remember… the then-WWF coming to the Hannah Penn Middle School! (Rowdy Roddy) Piper headlined an event there against Salvatore Bellomo! Other schools that hosted the WWF: York Suburban High School, Wolf Gym, and South Western! It would be nice to see if other York Countians remember these events from the early ’80s.
– Todd Miller
Todd had written to me after wrestling legend Rowdy Roddy Piper passed away earlier this summer, talking about how professional wrestling had intersected with York County. I admit to being a wrestling fan since high school, but not as far back as the ’80s, unfortunately, so I never got to see these events. Does anyone remember them? I’d love to hear stories and see photos!
Have questions or memories to share? Ask (or Tell) Joan using the form at right. I’ll attempt to answer or share them in a future “Ask Joan” column on this blog. I get a large volume, but I will feature three each week and answer as many as possible!
