Part II: On Eisenhower’s York County golf round: He turned in a ‘commendable score’
Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower poses with a group of young people at the York, Pa., Country Club in June 1961. That’s Matt Pettigrew with the putter, as Ike, back row, left, looks on. Matt Pettigrew identified the lineup of young people: ‘On the far left is Jim Bergdoll, then his brother George, then Basil Shorb, then Dave Ryan, then John Bergdoll, then John Flinchbaugh (I’m pretty sure), then me.’ He then gave this piece of sports commentary: ‘Flinchbaugh’s expression is because I just sunk a 30-foot putt. Or is it because I just missed a 4-foot putt by 10 feet? I forget which.’ Background posts: Presidential visits listed and LBJ’s, Lady Bird’s visit a high point in Dallastown’s history and Crowd to Truman on second York visit: ‘Give ’em h—, Harry’.
I’ve written here many times about using this blog blog to create or build a sense of discovery in viewers.
Well, mission accomplished in one case, received via e-mail from Matt Pettigrew:
‘While playing around on your blog this morning I followed a link to an article on January 9, 2009, where there’s a photo of President Eisenhower watching George Bergdoll putt at the Country Club. (See: Part I: On Eisenhower’s York County golf round: He turned in a ‘commendable score’ ) It was weird seeing that because I have a similar photo (see above) taken that same day of Eisenhower watching me putt. In my photo, George and his brothers Jim and John (and some other guys) are in the background watching me.’
…
I love this stuff. That wonderful sense of discovery.
Here’s how Matt articulated it:
‘The memory’s a funny thing: until I saw your photo I would have sworn that I was the only one who putted for the president that day. And I’ve always told people that my photo was taken in 1960, while Eisenhower was still president. I guess I’ll have to revise my story.’
Also of interest:
George Washington slept in York.
Archives
– All York Town Square posts from the start. Then use “find” function on browser to search for keywords.
– Of course, you can always search for York Town Square posts on Google. For example, when you search for yorktownsquare and U.S. presidents, you get this.
