It's hard to believe that we have just celebrated another Independence Day, with all the festivities in Harford County.
Because the Aberdeen Room keeps files and displays of Aberdeen Proving Ground since its inception in 1917, we do window patriotic window displays as well as in the interior exhibits.
We have just received from Bettye and Mike Danish a limited edition souvenir decorative box commerating D-Day in Normandy dated 1944-1994 on its 50th anniversary. It was distributed by the Zippo Lighter Company in Bradford, Pa. Fortunately, we still have service men and women in Harford County who still remember the day!
Ed Illick brought the latest edition of "On Patrol" summer 2012. The coverage of this magazine's "At the Ready-National Guard Reserves" is the 2012 "Excel Award" winner! All of these magazines are in the museum library.
Susan Osborn brought in the "Aberdeen Centennial Commemorative Edition" by the Homestead Publishing Company 1892-1992. She also included political fliers for our political files, as well as an Aberdeen recycle sticker program from March 1, 1993 that has been very successful over the years. For the restaurant file we have added Le-Li's Southern Hospitality Restaurant. For our library she brought a book of poetry by Margaret Cronin Umbarger, "Adolescent Sentence."
The Aberdeen Room also maintains binders of current events in Aberdeen. Jim Lindsey has clipped articles worthy of mention. From the "Aegis" of May 7, 2012 "Hitting Cleanup" about Ripken Stadium and Aberdeen High School students joining forces to clean up the Aberdeen High School grounds. From the "Sun" is a photo of Lloyd Fry at the old Aberdeen Elementary School in June 1973. That year may be remembered as the last year for students in the old school.
There is also a clipping from the "APG News" May 17, 2012. The Aberdeen Proving Ground was awarded the "Historic Preservation Award" for preserving the Presbury House from the 1720s and the 1828 Gunpowder Meeting House by the Harford County Preservation Chairman, James Chrismer.
Jim Lindsey also contributed the genealogy of Nathaniel Utie for our family files.
On a less admirable note, there is also a clipping of the vandalism at the cemetery at Grove Presbyterian Church.
Always, donations include yearbooks from Aberdeen High School, and they are so welcome! May Jo Kane Romba gave us two of hers from 1955 and 1956. Those are such significant graduation years from AHS! So many of the graduates have stayed in Harford County, and have contributed so much to the community. Mary Jo graduated in 1956 with Linda Morgan Lemmon, Jon Livezey and Vi Gross Ripken, just to name a few.
Talking about AHS graduates, this September will see another AHS Alumni Dinner. We will talk more about that in following columns.
