WITNESSED ( Seen and Heard )
Caitlin Royer has been named Grand Champion of the Donegal High School Science Fair held in December. Her display, one of ninety projects entered, was on “Utilizing Freezing Point Depression to Purify Water.”
Her display included her hypothesis and the procedure used to prove that freezing water does purify it. Caitlin is a senior and the daughter of Jim and Denise Royer. Our sincere congratulations!
One of our Donegal families now includes three operatic stars who will be performing in “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” They are Phil Landis and sons John and James. The Lancaster Opera Company, January 19 and 20 are staging the one-act opera at Millersville University. John will have the title role as Amahl, at the Sunday afternoon performance only. He plays a crippled boy at whose house the Three Kings stop on their way to see the Christ Child. Phil and James are shepherds. You may have noticed they have been letting their hair grow longer, and Phil has grown a beard. Best wishes to them all in this very meaningful production
The Lancaster Chapter of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association has singled out Donegal’s very famous restauranteur and cookbook author for a Lifetime Achievement Award. Betty Groff will be the first person to receive this award to be presented at a dinner, Monday, January 28 at the Host Resort and Conference Center. Our hearty congratulations to Betty (and Abe) whom we have always considered to be modest celebrities in our congregation.
What good things have you seen or heard recently?
Women Face Busy Spring Schedule
The Donegal women are being called upon to plan, provide food, and serve a number of functions in the following months, as was noted at a recent PW Coordinating Team meeting chaired by Moderator Kristi Elkner.
A tea for all women will be held Sunday, February 10, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. On Tuesday, March 25, the church will host Donegal Presbytery with dinner to be served to a possible 130 to 160 persons, while Saturday, April 19 the women of Donegal Presbytery will convene here for their Spring Gathering, a luncheon event And, of course, June 21 brings the annual reunion of the Donegal Society, with a meal also to be served. Some of these events could yield much-needed funds.
This all sounds very daunting and will definitely call upon every able-bodied person to help. In past years the larger events were aided by a number of men, and also teen girls and boys. It is hoped that this again will be the case. However, we are reminded that in earlier years such functions were hosted with almost none of the time and work saving conveniences we enjoy today.
Memoirs have been recorded stating that for the first Donegal Reunion, there were no food facilities at all. Normally people would have to bring picnic lunches, but the record states that in 1909, the Schrolls, who probably then lived in the caretaker’s house, set up a stand and sold sandwiches and bananas over the backyard fence. By 1912, a Ladies’ Aid group had been organized with people in the community being called upon to assist. It was probably then that dishes, glasses, cutlery, and table linens were bought. Some of our members will recall the long white tablecloths, which only in recent years have disappeared, and the many pieces of white enamelware, such as pitchers, dishpans, and coffeepots, which were disposed of some years back. One of each had been saved and they are now on display in a study house cabinet.
However, there was no storage place except the attic above the church, reached by tall ladders, where all items were stored, and then brought down in June for use. Washing everything in preparation involved tables at the front of the church with large dishpans and trays where on a nice day women gathered for this purpose. We have a picture of one such occasion. And that was the easy wash. After the meal (and early reunions often had as many as 200 attending) there were all the dishes to be washed and again stored up in the attic. Not to mention that there was no running water at the church, so we read that water was pumped and big iron kettles filled and heated over an open fire in the furnace at the Zook home, the nearest farm house (on Colebrook Road). The water was then taken to the church in milk cans by spring wagon. The coffee was made in the sexton’s house and carried to the meal in a milk can with a bottom spigot.
As to the food, preparations were being made all year long, with cherries and berries for pies being picked and canned. No such things as freezers then. Chow-chow had been made with the summer’s garden vegetables and then canned, as were pickles, in all, as many as 30 or 40 quarts. Ham was always the meat of choice in summer and it was baked and sliced at a local bakery and delivered. From the beginning Montgomery pies were a staple in addition to the berry pies and a huge assortment of cakes. At the earlier occasions, instead of potato salad, which began by the fifties when members had refrigeration, eggs were hard-cooked and put on the tables in their shells. And, incredibly, for many years a supper was also served.
So where was this meal served if the weather was not good? As you know there was no indoor space until 1960 when the Christian Education building was built. The memoir tells of a time when it was served in our vestibule (now called narthex). Later, the schoolhouse was used at least once. After the Cameron mansion was reopened after a 10-year period (1918 to 1928, following the death of James Cameron), the Cameron women would lend the “dining room girls” to assist in the serving, if they did not have too much company at the mansion.
Records tell us that the reunion had become a “big affair” attended by many people who came from a distance, at first by trolleys that were met at Rheems, Mount Joy, and Marietta, with passengers conveyed to the church by horsepower for 25 cents each. Horses were fed for 25 cents a head. Later when most people owned cars, many who came were driven by their chauffeurs, who then were seated at a special table for their meals.
How fortunate we are to have our modern conveniences and new facilities! We do not laboriously can and cook and carry, as they had to do. We also realize that unlike then, most women work fulltime, so time is a big factor. But if there are many volunteer helpers, those in charge will be delighted and everyone will enjoy making these occasions a pleasant time for our Donegal visitors.
Mary Karnes
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Last Edited on
04/24/2009