York Town Square

David Kline works around his Red Lion-area Family Heir-Loom Weavers. He will demonstrate the use of old looms to OLLI Brown-Bag Lunch participants on Oct. 27, one of several such sessions that are part of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute classes this fall. Background posts: York County’s landscape, buildings, landmarks can serve as a classroom, OLLI’s theme song: ‘Don’t stop thinking about learning’ and Iron-mine-turned-into-party-spot turned into York County park.

David Kline is used to working large looms in shops near Red Lion.
That machinery has produced costumes for actors in the films “Amistad,” “Gods and Generals,” “Gettysburg” and “Cold Mountain.”
His Family Heir-Loom Weavers have produced items for nine presidential homes. That resume includes carpets at Abraham Lincoln’s home in Springfield, Ill., and George Washington’s Mount Vernon home.
But he’ll leave the big machinery behind in a Brown Bag Lunch and Learn program in October, part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute fall lineup… .
. .

This is the second semester for the OLLI program, a series of classes designed for the ongoing education of mature adults who love to learn.
The lineup of classes has doubled from the six offered in the first semester earlier this year. Class topics include studies of George Armstrong Custer, introduction to the Battle of Gettysburg and local geology.
A bus trip of York County’s Civil War sites is scheduled in October.
And a schedule of seven brown-bag lunch program, including Kline’s, will take place in October and November.
The program is already a community asset and will become even more so as York County baby boomers move deeper into their mature years.
David Kline started his company in 1983 after Springettsbury Township’s Caterpillar laid him off.
He and his family have grown a niche business in remote Adamsville.
From that bucolic vantage point, the company does work that appears on the big screen internationally. And for the enjoyment of international guests at national historical sites.
This is the work of a small company whose people love to learn.
Kline is a fitting presenter for an OLLI audience of motivated matures.
A story York Daily Record (2/19/03) on Family Heir-Loom Weavers follows:

Since he was 10 years old, Brian McClintock has played the role of a Confederate Army soldier in recreated Civil War battles in Gettysburg and at other former fields of war.
In 2001, he even had the chance to play a soldier during the filming of “Gods And Generals,” the prequel to the 1993 film “Gettysburg” that hits theaters nationwide on Friday.
On May 20, however, mere months after he will watch himself in a brief non-speaking scene in the film, he’s going to be doing it for real.
That’s because McClintock, 19, of Hanover has enlisted in the U.S. Army and will be heading to basic training at Fort Benning in Georgia.
“It’s just something I always wanted to do,” McClintock said. “Something that if I didn’t do, I’d definitely regret it.”
The threat of U.S.-led war against Iraq did not affect McClintock’s decision. He said that by the time he finishes basic training, the conflict there will likely be resolved.
But taking part in the re-enactments had a huge impact on his decision to one day become a real sol dier.
“That helped me really strengthen my decision, because I had studied people who had served in the military, and had served for a purpose,” McClintock said.
McClintock only has one small scene in “Gods And Generals,” which stars Robert Duvall and Jeff Daniels and follows the rise and fall of war hero Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, portrayed by Stephen Lang. The scene opens with a shot of McClintock’s bloody, bruised face, then moves to a shot of Daniels, who begins talking with a group of soldiers.
And it’s likely that those soldiers and others in the film will be wearing uniforms made out of fabric from a York County business.
Family Heir-Loom Weavers in Red Lion provided wool and cotton jean cloth – used to make the Confederate soldiers’ uniforms – as well as the fabric used to make homemade blankets that were common in the era.
Many of the local re-enactors who appear as soldiers in the film also had their uniforms made at Family Heir-Loom in recent years, said Patrick Kline, president of the company.
Sure, Family Heir-Loom has done more extensive work for other Hollywood films, including costumes for the upcoming films “The Alamo” and “Cold Mountain.”
For “Cold Mountain,” which stars Jude Law, Hanover native Ann Roth came into Family Heir-Looms and ordered $5,000 worth of fabric on the spot. Roth, who was in charge of designing and making the costumes for the film, ended up spending a lot more, Kline said.
Still, Kline will watch “Gods And Generals,” a Turner Pictures production, with great pride.
“A lot of our stuff is going to be represented,” said Kline, whose parents, David and Carole, own the company. “I just didn’t deal directly with Ted Turner or anything like that.”
While there are ties between York County and “Gods And Generals,” McClintock also said there are strong connections between the film, the Civil War and the current situation in Iraq.
When Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederate States of America in 1861, the North knew that the threat of war was real, McClintock said. Today, the United States knows that Saddam Hussein is a potential threat to security in the Middle East.
The lesson, McClintock said, is that leaders can’t allow a threat to go unattended.
“With Saddam Hussein, we don’t know exactly what he has,” McClintock said. “It’s exactly like the Civil War. It’s a waiting game. You don’t know what his capability is, and if he has weapons.
“A threat is as good as an action.”

Contact info:
For more on OLLI, call 771-4015 or e-mail olli@yk.psu.edu. Web site: http://olli.yk.psu.edu.
OLLI’s history:
York County residents Olive Padden, Charmaine Kissinger and the late Gussie Petron instituted OLLI earlier this year. More than 120 people attended spring classes at Penn State York, where OLLI is headquartered.