A very quiet week this week with the Christmas holiday and all. I did not go to Frankford to watch York High play. Just a bit too far but it would have been a great excuse to visit some breweries, though whether they would be open on a Monday is debatable. I didn’t look since I wasn’t going. York wound up winning it.
I finished up with Stoneman’s Raid. Was a bit disappointed in the last part, which was supposed to detail the pursuit of Jefferson Davis as Stoneman’s men (or by that point William Palmer’s) were to be the hounds that would drive Davis to the waiting clutches of James Wilson’s men in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. This part was short on info and this part wound up just being 2 paragraphs about this and then a 20 page summary and analysis of the raid and whether it was necessary to conduct or not. I was hoping for a bit more there. On a side note I did consider making a trip to Irwinsville where Davis was captured but it was closed (and well out of the way) so I didn’t go. So, next up will be Earl Hess’ Kennesaw Mountain. I’ve been to Kennesaw twice (technically there was a third time but that was during the government shutdown during the Clinton years) so I am hoping to be able to match some of my pictures with what happened there. I have an understanding but this is the best work on the battle out there and it’s finally time to read it. It’s a short one too so I’ll have this one finished quickly.
Christmas Eve was spent with my yearly trip to church followed by watching Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (MST3K version of course) while drinking Martians Kidnap Santa Eggnog Stout from Spring House. That movie has had quite the revival recently, it was being shown on one of the channels that I get (it is public domain and so bad it’s almost good so why not?) and it has received many mentions on TV. It’s mostly because of MST3K too. Had a merry Christmas. Got to give my niece a lump of coal, which I’ve been telling her I was going to do all year. She doesn’t know what coal is but she knows she doesn’t want it. It’s candy so she wasn’t too mad at mean Uncle Kevin.
Lunch on Thursday at MexItaly, so one last brewery in York County to visit and that is Hell in a Bucket which opened its doors last week. I’ve heard Hanover is going to get a 6th brewery soon so Hell in a Bucket won’t hold that title for long. I got Hell in a Bucket out of the way that evening making the short drive to Wrightsville. One does have to wonder how many more York County can support, and considering there are several that are right across county lines like Center Square in Abbottstown and Columbia Kettleworks in Columbia I don’t think it’s too many more. Friday was the annual company holiday party. I brought beer.
Saturday brought Lower Dauphin to York High for an afternoon game. Normally they have played in the McCaskey Holiday Tournament but that has turned into a debacle over the past few years. It’s sad, it’s always nice to have York and McCaskey pair up but they’ve never been able to get 2 other quality teams in for it (and it has been a bit one sided lately in favor of York). Too bad, York High has been playing over there since at least I was in high school, so it’s been awhile. I remember us seeing North Allegheny and Parkland there back in my day and South Lakes, the high school that Grant Hill went to was there one year. Grant Hill was a much bigger name back then. Anyway Lower Dauphin is the defending district champ but they lost a lot of players to graduation just like York did. This was not a good game to watch. York stormed out of the gate but as always slowed up and allowed Lower Dauphin to hang around. Things got evened out in the 3rd quarter when they didn’t score a point for the first 7:15 of the quarter. Lower Dauphin led briefly but York retook the lead and eventually opened up a double digit lead. The tables turned as Lower Dauphin forgot how to score in the 4th quarter. York wins this 41-31. Someone had to win this one and at least it was York.
