Picnic ...

“Life needs a few more polka dots and picnics.”

             ~ author unknown

I just loved the nostalgic and warm feeling of an image of the Henry family picnic ware – circa the late 1800s and early 1900s – from the Jacobsburg Historical Society collections that was displayed in Henry’s Woods at Jacobsburg State Park, which spans between Wind Gap and Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

So I snapped a photo of the picture I saw on an  October day and processed it with a nostalgic feel … because life does indeed need a few more polka dots and picnics!

Once the site where the famous Henry Rifle was made, the Jacobsburg National Historic District lies almost entirely within the park. Henry’s Woods offers very scenic hikes and the rest of the center grounds have multi-use trails.

Henry family picnics were elaborate affairs compared to today. Picnicking utensils included white enamelware and plates, cutlery and Victorian folding chairs with carpeted seats.

The Henry family loved to picnic in a secluded forest of old growth hemlocks about one-half-mile above a dam in what is now the park. In the spring of the year, a boat was launched onto Henry’s Dam and a wooden table and benches were rowed up to the picnic place. Some family members used a rather narrow, treacherous path through the woods along the Bushkill Creek to reach the picnic, while most got to the picnic by boat or canoe.

Jacobsburg offers environmental education programs from the preschool environmental awareness programs to high school level environmental problem solving programs, historical programs, teacher workshops and public interpretive programs.

The park surrounds the Bushkill Creek.

The original land for the center was purchased by the Department of Forests and Waters from the City of Easton in 1959. In 1969, additional land was purchased using funds from Project 70. This brought the total land area of the center to its present size of 1,168 acres.

For more information on the Henry family visit the Jacobsburg Historical Society’s website at http://www.jacobsburghistory.com/.

Just Clint ...

“There’s a rebel lying deep in my soul.”

       ~ Clint Eastwood

            ~ Born May 31, 1930

Ruggedly handsome and immensely talented, Clint Eastwood – actor, director, producer, composer, businessman and politician – is an American icon, born May 31, 1930.

After achieving success in the Western TV series “Rawhide” (1959-1965), Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the Man with No Name in Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy” of spaghetti Westerns during the 1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five “Dirty Harry” films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity.

Eastwood has starred in such films as “The Beguiled” (1971), “Play Misty for Me” (1971), “Every Which Way But Loose” (1978), and “The Bridges Of Madison County” (1995), and directed films including “American Sniper” (2014).

Clint Eastwood strikes a pose in this image, likely from the late 1960s or early 1970s, in which his eyes seem to be a window to his quote, “There’s a rebel lying deep in my soul.” It’s Clint being just Clint … and he indeed gives this girl the vapors!

I processed this photo in sepia and added background texture by Jai Johnson for artistic effect.