The village of Spry in York Township, Pa., is the home of Goodwill Fire Company, which supplied the ladder truck so that Almar the Professional Idiot could demonstrate his escape from a straight jacket. Almar kicked off the Dallastown Halloween Parade about a decade ago and was captured in this York Daily Record file photo. (See additional photos below.) Background posts: 19th-century mines gave Ore Valley its name and York County one-room schools: 'That's when things were good' and Forgotten York Valley Inn may be rediscovered.
Bonnie Stiles has provided family information that confirms details in a previous York Town Square post about the toll gate that operated at Leader Heights Road and South Queen Street in Spry.
The gate pivoted up and down on the west side of Queen Street, across the street from present-day Tollgate Village.
"When my paternal great-grandmother (Estella Mae Markey Sechrist) was alive she told me she used to run the 'toll gate' on S. Queen Street," Bonnie Stiles wrote.
"Apparently her husband, my great-grandfather (Norman Sechrist) ran a wagon from Red Lion to York every day. They claim he had something to do with tobacco."
Those were the days, less than 100 years ago, when toll roads still radiated from York... .
