Trucker's Mill, Slatington, Lehigh County

July is almost over, which is jarring to realize when you consider what a weird year this has been. The summer is flying, almost like 2020 itself is in a hurry to be finished. I hope my readers all continue to be well and safe.

Tomorrow would have been my maternal grandmother's 89th birthday if she were still with us, which is also hard to imagine, and she and my grandfather would be celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary. (Pop always said they got married on her birthday so he didn't have to worry about remembering two different dates. I always said he was the smartest man I ever knew.) So in honor of the occasion, I thought that this week I'd wander back over to Nana's hometown of Slatington, to talk about some of Pop's ancestors. It always sounded a little peculiar in my head, but while it's my grandmother who grew up in the little borough, it's my grandfather whose family founded the place.

The Dorsey Brothers, Shenandoah, Schuylkill County

I admit that I've never been a particular fan of jazz or big band music. I don't ardently dislike it or anything; it just isn't a genre to which I was exposed much when growing up, and as an adult I'm really more of a soft rock kind of person. So while I knew of the existence of the Dorsey Brothers, and was aware that they were pretty big names on the circuit, the name never meant much to me beyond an occasional pop culture reference. And I definitely never knew they were from Pennsylvania.

That changed last fall, when Kevin and I went to Knoebels and I collected some markers along the way. I already told you about Victor Schertzinger, who was born in Mahanoy City; maybe twenty minutes after I photographed his marker, we were passing through the town of Shenandoah and spotted two markers standing side by side in a bank parking lot. What do you know - Shenandoah is the hometown of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.

Kinzua Viaduct, Kane and Mount Jewett, McKean County

Today's post is full of all kinds of special stuff! Not only am I about to announce the winners of the blog's first-ever giveaway, but it's also our first foray into the western side of Pennsylvania. The whole state is in the 'green phase' now, so it's a little easier to do some traveling to collect markers, but it also means I've gone back to work so finding the time to do that traveling is more of a challenge. 

More on that in a minute, however, because I'm sure that first you want to know who won the prizes! As you might recall, the prizes being offered included a copy of the Spring 2020 issue of Pennsylvania Heritage magazine, a replica of the Commonwealth's original charter, and a reproduction of a map showing the development of the counties. They were all purchased from the online store at Shop PA Heritage, and the purchase supports the continued work of the PHMC. (As noted on the giveaway page, the PHMC neither endorsed nor sponsored the giveaway.) Winners were chosen using the free spinner at Wheel of Names.

Congratulations to the following individuals: Stephanie Brown, John Robinson, and Warren Nast! I'll be contacting you directly via email to tell you about your prize and get your mailing address so I can send it to you. If you didn't win this time around, fear not; there's going to be another giveaway later this year, maybe in the fall as part of my birthday celebration.

Moving on to the focus of today's post, we're venturing west of the Susquehanna River for the first time, to the northern reaches of McKean County. I had fully intended to visit today's subject myself (and may yet), but because of all the shutdowns, a lot of plans got canceled or curtailed. You may recall that earlier this year, I did a post about Ole Bull's Colony in Potter County, courtesy of some photos provided by my sister Liza; the ones in today's quest log were provided by our other sister, Lisa. She stopped there on her way to Erie some while ago, before any of the COVID-19 stuff started happening, and was kind enough to share her photos with me so I could share them with all of you.