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John Hetrick's Strawberry Surprise

Ice cream and oysters have each enjoyed a long popularity in York County eateries. A recent post quoted an 1845 ad announcing the grand opening of Gray's ice cream parlor, and ads for oysters abound. Click here for the ice cream post.

York folk artist Lewis Miller illustrated nineteenth century York County in detail. His drawing above catches a local citizen about to make a culinary mistake at Gray's restaurant. Miller accompanies the illustration with the following explanation:

I guess it is human nature to want to have the biggest and the best. We are always impressed by the tallest buildings and the most gigantic pumpkins.

Our forebears were no different, as we can see by the Lewis Miller drawing above of a huge pumpkin. Miller captioned it: “1809. Christian Leaman, big and large pumpkin grown in his garden. It was as large as a barrel and more in circumference around. Old Dr. John Fisher bought it and sent it to Baltimore to let them see what old York can raise and examine it. No man could lift it from the ground.”

The citizens often made sure the local newspapers knew about their accomplishments. Short items from all over the county in the York Gazette in the autumn of 1877 list several examples:

We know York Countians have had a long love affair with the oyster. Start digging near the site of any old tavern, such as the Golden Plough, and you are likely to turn up remnants of long-ago oyster shells. Crushed oyster shells might be far under the streets you travel daily, since they were used as an early paving material.

With its proximity and trade orientation to Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay, oysters have always been popular here, especially in the months with an “R” in them. Why are oysters still mostly consumed in those months, September through April? There seems to be several reasons: Oysters reproduce during the summer months, keeping up a good supply of oysters; in the old days refrigeration wasn’t available, leading to spoilage in hot weather; and the quality is said to not be as good in the summer.

We just wish the prices were the same as those in the following Gazette ad for Bozman’s Oyster House on South George Street 110 years ago, in the fall of 1897:

One hundred fifty years ago Yorkers were just as eager to spend their money on snack and drinks as they are today, as shown in a sampling of ads from the Gazette:

Christian Pfahler caught your eye with the large letters “L. I. P.” You had to read further to find it referred to his “Liquor, Ice and Pop business, at the old stand of Charles Hay, No. 44 South George Street, York, Pa. His stock of Liquors are of the CHOICEST BRANDS, AND VARIETY.”

The favorable character of the last season has enabled him to secure a full supply of Ice of the very best quality, which can be had at his residence or will be delivered as heretofore.

The ad continues:

That’s what the York County Shopping Center (now York Marketplace) on East Market Street was offering in celebration of its Second Anniversary fifty years ago.

Does anyone know who won the brand new 1958 rear-engine Renault Dauphine automobile? It was a 4-door, 4-passenger sedan and you could enter the giveaway every time you visited the shopping center that October. It was a reasonably priced car (around $1,650) and reportedly got over 39 mpg. But, who cared in those cheap-gas days?

You can get a good idea of the cost of living in 1957 by comparing the following specials offered by other York County Shopping Center merchants:

50 years ago, you could buy a three, five, seven, or nine-piece chrome or wrought-iron dinette set at York Supply Company, 43-45 West Market Street, starting at $39 to $50 for the set.

While you were there, you might as well equip your laundry with a Speed Queen wringer washer. It came with a laundry cabinet, double laundry tubs, 100 ft. of clothes line, clothes pins, and 20 boxes of Tide, all for $100. Thus equipped, the happy housewife could turn out seven full loads per hour.

King’s Factory Showroom, just down the street at 113 West Market, had men’s zipper-fly dungarees, size 28 to 42 on sale for two for $3. They were probably fun to put through that wringer on the washer.

Across the street

50 years ago this week, Judith Brown, a 17-year-old senior at Kennard-Dale High School, was declared the winner of York County’s apple baking dessert contest. She competed against five other county high school students: Nancy Jones, Spring Grove, runner-up; Pauline Landis, Susquehannock; Harriett Shelley, Northeastern; Georgia Weigle, Central; and (remember--this is 1957) Donald Stambaugh, Northern. Even though he didn’t win, Donald should be commended for entering a cooking contest in those more gender-rigid times.