Award-winning York County artist: ‘If you’re going to do it, do it right’: Linked in to history, 1/15/13
More neat stuff below: Jimmy Stewart’s York Fair visit/Lincoln Highway
They say people in their 90s today can do as much as people in their 80s in the past. Dallastown’s Leonard Giknis is proof of this. He entered this painting of a covered bridge over the Susquehanna River in Northern Maryland into York Art Association’s annual juried exhibit. And he won best of show. The artist passed down his talent to his daughter. Lorann Jacobs is York County’s most prominent sculpter. Her father gave her a piece of good advice years ago: ‘If you’re going to do it, do it right.’ That must have stuck. Jacobs’ work is common along the streetscapes of York City and the county. See this ydr.com story about Leonard: 91-year-old York County man’s painting that won best-in-show helped him grieve loss of his wife. Also of interest: Artist Lorann Jacobs: ‘The woman in that sculpture kept starting to look like me and I kept trying to change her’.
Neat stuff from all over … .
The Lincoln Highway – Route 462 and Route 30 through York County – is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
We’ve written about that and a big Lincoln Highway birthday event that’s coming to York County this year.
I wanted to get in here a bit of history about America’s first coast-to-coast highway, courtesy of the Lincoln Highway Association:
“The Lincoln Highway, begun in 1913, was the first transcontinental highway in the United States. It was the idea of Indianapolis Motor Speedway founder Carl Fisher, who, with help from industrialists Frank Seiberling (Goodyear) and Henry Joy (Packard), envisioned an improved road stretching 3380 miles from New York City to San Francisco. Fisher established the Lincoln Highway Association on July 1, 1913 to both promote the road and fund the project.
“Before the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1925 established a system of numbered routes in 1925, roads carried names like the Lincoln Highway, the Dixie Highway, the Yellowstone Trail or the Old Spanish Trail. Colorful roadside signs and painted telephone poles marked the routes of these roads.
“Henry Joy came up with the idea of naming the highway to honor Abraham Lincoln. As far as Joy was concerned, directness was the most important factor. Using existing roads, the route deliberately avoided the larger cities when practicable in order to maintain as straight a course as possible. The highway started in Times Square in New York City and passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California, ending in Lincoln Park in San Francisco. Other alignments included Colorado in 1915 and West Virginia in 1927. Today, parts of U.S. Routes 30, 40, 50 and I-80 follow portions of the Lincoln Highway route across the country.” OK, to find how the old highway links up with sardines, check out: Littered sardine cans attest to the Lincoln Highway motorist and his appetite .
Blog post of the day: Universal York’s June Lloyd handles all kinds of topics in her popular blog. Here’s one example: Popular actor Jimmy Stewart came to the York Fair. Her blog centers on the good-natured idea that York really does seem to be the center of the universe. Hey, Jimmy Stewart certainly found us.
Forum of the day: – On the York Daily Record’s FB page, people are discussing the idea that some districts are discussing starting their school year in mid-August. For those who went to one-room schools – and there are many in York County – that wouldn’t have worked. The school year started later and ended earlier to accommodate work on the farm. Thoughts about this mid-August start date or the school years of old? Comment below.
