Gettysburg Town: July 26

We spent the day in the town of Gettysburg. We started with the
Lincoln Square outdoor market, and chatted with a coffee merchant
and an artist. 

      

       JD and I sampled some wines from the
Adams' County Winery.
  I'm sipping a cranberry and plum Pinot Noir, "Destination".

As I stopped and took this photo, I noticed a man watching us. He was leaving a government building across the street. "Why are you taking pictures of signs?" he asked. We replied "It's an interesting sign, it's old school". Then he said "Yeah, it is old school".

We were on our way to a hardware store, so we asked our curious friend, "Are we close to the hardware store?" He answered "you are" and pointed in its' direction, then proclaimed "you'll really like it, if you like guns".

It was, indeed a gun store, with some hardware. It had neither of the two items we were seeking.

http://www.federalpointeinn.com/history.php

Some friends from the 70's we reconnected with.

Appalachian Brewing Company restaurant

We spent several hours in the David Wills House Museum . 
This is the original saddle cover for the horse Lincoln rode to the dedication of Soldiers' National Cemetery in 1863. 

I had watched "Lincoln" several months ago. The
           images from the movie were still in my mind when I
           viewed these artifacts. Lincoln as family man, lawyer, politician,
          and president exemplified qualities that remain relevant to our
 current age. It was an emotional experience to be close to
objects from Lincoln's life.

Earlier, in the day, we stopped here and met Ron Rock, a curator of Christ Lutheran Church. Ron noticed Jonathan's Hockey Night in Canada t- shirt. Ron is originally from Quebec and is a Habs fan.  Ron shared with us the history of the church and its' role as a hospital during the civil war. Ron attended Gettysburg College in the 1960's. He remembers seeing Eisenhower around town. He showed us a picture of Eisenhower with his Westpoint graduation class in front of the church in 1919. Ron invited us to the evening’s performance “Songs and Stories of a Civil War Hospital”. It began at 7:30 outside the church with musicians playing civil war music. Inside the church, the musicians gathered to the right of the church, and two women in 19th century dresses sat to the left with a minister. Ron introduced and narrated the program.  A  personal journal of a nurse and a wounded soldier were read, as well as two of Walt Whitman’s poems.  In the front pew, a grieving woman sat with a young man beside her. She was dressed in mourning clothes, all black and her face was covered in black lace.