Codorus Street Reunion packed with history, meaning: Linked in with neat York County history stuff, July 24, 2012
More neat stuff below: Maker of Olympic uniforms/Chamberburns
A noteworthy picnic this weekend (July 2012) in York, the Codorus Street reunion. The family of Walter and Minnie Kirkland, pictured here circa 1925, will reunite at Martin Luther King Park. Walter Kirkland moved to York from Bamberg, S.C., the ancestral home for many in York County’s black community today. “My grandfather’s father was a slave,” Eric Kirkland said of Walter Kirkland recently. Want to read more? Check out: Codorus Street reunion plans to give people a look back — and ahead. Also of interest: York’s West Princess Street in 1950s: ‘I knew there was something special about that area’ and York’s old Codorus Street neighborhood: ‘I didn’t know one family that didn’t get along with another’ – York Town Square (yorkblog.com) and Their York, Pa., neighborhoods long gone, former Freys Avenue and Codorus Street residents plan for joint reunion – York Town Square (yorkblog.com)
Neat stuff from all over … .
Motorists driving along I-83 see the Perform Group building as they move by North York. The highway skirts the large building, formerly known as Tighe Industries.
That’s the headquarters for the company that makes uniforms for the Olympics, as a recent ydr.com story (7/20/12) reports (excerpted here):
“The U.S. Olympic team’s opening ceremony outfits might be made in China, but a York County sportswear manufacturer is catching the Olympic spirit and making the uniforms for the Russian gymnastics team.
“A division of the Perform Group will be outfitting the Russian Olympic men’s and women’s gymnastics teams, as well as the men’s trampoline and tumbling teams, during the 2012 London Olympics, said Wendy Martin, sales manager for Alpha Factor, the gymnastic-wear branch of North York’s Perform Group, formerly Tighe Industries.
“Alpha Factor worked closely with Russian apparel brand Bosco to design and develop custom garments emblazoned with the Russian coat of arms and various patriotic red and white patterns, Martin said. The women’s team will sport eight different styles, and the men’s team will wear two separate custom designed uniforms.
“The first time Perform Group made uniforms for an Olympic team was in 1992, Martin said. The company made the uniforms for the U.S. gymnastics team members in 1996, when they won the team gold medal, Martin said.
“Perform Group is excited to see the Russian uniforms, made at the company’s Lower Windsor Township plant, ‘on the big screen,'” Martin said.
” ‘We are so proud — the manufacturing plant is so proud of their work,’ ” she said.
Once again, we see that all roads lead to York County.
The O-Zone blog – It has an interesting article about Doug and Gloria Winemiller serving as Olympic officials in 1996. Doug is well-known on this blog as a proponent for preservation of the Stewartstown Railroad and is a supplier of great stories for yorktownsquare.com.
Chambersburns: The weekend reenactment, via lasers, of the burning of Chambersburg in 1864, came off without problems. Publicopiniononline.com reported on the event (with video): Burning of Chambersburg re-enactment draws crowd, stirs pride
More about Preserving York picnic’s Shady Lane site: George Hay Kain interviewed Anna Koval in 2008. Anna Koval talked, in this audio clip, about her long life at Shady Lane, the former distillery site in East Manchester Township.
Forum of the day: North York’s Perform Group (see above) is making sportswear for the Russian gymnastics team in the Olympics. So York County remains stitched to the Olympics. But what do you think about the controversy surrounding the fact that the U.S. Olympic team’s opening ceremony outfits, made by Ralph Lauren, come from China? Please comment below. Background about York County’s long association with sewing: Singer sewing machine founder lived and worked in York County.
