Good old days were at least old
Nostalgia points us to those days when life seemed sweeter or simpler, even though it wasn't always.
So I noted in a recent post.
With all its wonderful community-building tendencies, nostalgia at times can mask memories of a sometimes gritty, less-than-perfect place and time.
Such lapses can make county life today seem worse in comparison.
Here's just one example of our checkered past, an attraction at the York Fair that Dave Gulden described in the book, "America’s First Fair From Then Until Now.”
“Hit the Coon” was a popular throwing game in the 1930s. Drawing from another book, Gulden states that the game involved a canvas scene with a hole cut in it. A black man stuck his head through the hole and tried to dodge the ball.... .
This game was a "brutal cousin" to African Dip, Gulden wrote. "African Dip" involved a black man seated above a vat of water as fairgoers aimed at a bullseye, akin to today's dunking machines.
"Hit the Coon" was a favorite game of York’s best-known shoe salesman, Mahlon Haines, who liked to show off his baseball-throwing skills. The black man would fall when a target was hit by “one of Col. Haines' well-directed throws,” Gulden wrote, quoting a newspaper.
Gulden might have mixed up the two games because the original newspaper report refers to Haines unseating the black man, better fitting the dunking machine.
Still, this is a clear account of a prominent York citizen participating in a patently racist game without pause or revulsion.
And this was just 70 years ago. And this occurred at the venerable icon, the York Fair.
The good old days were good but not always that good.
Dave Gulden · November 15, 2007 10:00 PM
Hi there Jim,
I enjoy reading your postings and was tickled to see you reference one of my accounts about the fair.
It was only recently that I saw it as I have been busy for the past year. I just finished what may be my best effort yet.
The York County Dept. of Parks and Recreation asked me to put together a history of the parks for their 40th anniversary.
After a year of effort it was delivered this week.
Writing has been an increasingly exhilarating experience since I started in 1994. Never thought I'd end up with two pretty neat little books.And it all started with Sunday News features.
To have writers such as yourself, and others, reference my work is an honor I'll always appreciate.
Now I can get back to projects dropped for the past year. More coming.
In closing, here is a question I'd be interested in reading your thoughts on--or your readers--Where do you think the first "strip mall" in the area was located?
Dave Gulden