Lee Harps

When I was asked to work today, I responded by saying, “No, I had planned to have breakfast at the fire house, then I will be attending Jubilee Day.” I was given the day off. Following the sign below, I enjoyed a fine 7 AM breakfast of pancakes with butter and syrup, sausage, OJ and coffee. I happened upon a man from church, Fred, and enjoyed the chat during breakfast.

Let me tell you about Mechanicsburg’s Jubilee Day. Originally it began as a farmer’s fair, with farmers bringing in animals, produce and the like to town to display for the local citizenry. Over the years, this area has become more and more populated, less and less agricultural, so, even though Jubilee Day continues every June just after school is out, it no longer is a place to find prize pumpkins or well groomed sheep. It is currently booked as “the largest one-day block party in Pennsylvania”. Block party it is. On Jubilee Day, our little town of 9,000 becomes overrun by an estimated 60,000 visitors! Main Street is barricaded against traffic. Electric cords and portable generators power numerous french fry, sausage and crab cake vendors and others who set up shop. It’s Jubilee Day!

The weather today in Mechanicsburg was GORGEOUS! It was probably the finest weather we have had for Jubilee Day in my memory! My house is within easy walking distance from the main event, so let me first share with you some sights I was able to enjoy on the way downtown. Just about a block from our home is a vision I’ve been wanting to photograph for some time.

Knowing how heavy clay pots are, I’m amazed that the chair will support this character. House decoratives have always been of interest to me, and I found the color coordination of this door wreath and the blue door and shutters most appealing.

Friends of ours used to live in this house and I think the current owners have done a very tasteful job of maintaining it and detailing it.

Todays builders do not have the time nor the resources to incorporate some of the fine detail that was used in building a century ago. Here is a somewhat worn roof detail that, in spite of its condition, still demonstrates just such detailing.

Another pointed detail that I happened upon as I walked downtown that I thought was pretty neat was this chimney.

They just don’t do things like that any more! Along Main Street are two nearly identical Victorian homes, side by side, one of which is in the photo below. I’ve always found their architecture to be most appealing.

The old Washington Fire House also shows some of the typical building styles of years past.

Here is a home that I’ve admired ever since having moved to Mechanicsburg in 1970. I like the home, but have always felt that it really belongs in some quaint, New England coastal setting.

(The orange barriers are located around a paint warehouse that went up in flames a couple of months ago which is just being rebuilt.)

Jubilee Day can best be described as a place where many people go who are willing to rub shoulder to shoulder with total strangers and find the eating of poorly nourishing, greasy food a delight. Before I show you the “sights” of Jubilee Day, let me show you some of the food offerings. Admittedly, this looks pretty appealing: It is a deep-fried HUGE onion.

For those with an Asian taste, here is the rice, noodle and egg roll offering.

If, on the other hand, you prefer fried foods, this is available too!

Some sort of kabobs:

Kettle Corn is a big item in these parts, it seems. There was a Kettle Corn popcorn vender at each end of town.

A very popular item at local events like this is fresh-squeezed lemonade. You can watch then squeeze it fresh on the spot.

This vender took his lemonade even more seriously and squeezes his lemons INSIDE A LEMON!

Then, there’s sausage….

and MORE sausage….

This offering looked pretty tasty, but I was unable to bring myself to try even that: London Broil.

I didn’t avail myself of it this year, but a very good bet if one is hungry is to have homemade soup at the Washie’s Fire House.

When I arrived at Main Street, here is what greeted me:

This was around noon time and the crowds were already quite large. The evening “shift” becomes even more crowded as folks pour into town after getting off work.

Here, then, is a random series of photos I took while downtown. Among the numerous craft venders, there was this Amish lady and, I presume her son, selling yummy looking baked goods and very beautiful quilts.

I’m always attracted to things musical. This year we were blessed with music from the Andes — South American music.

Later on, I encountered their competition.

As part of this display, there was a very nice set of pan pipes. One doesn’t see them often. Unfortunately, I did not get to hear them being played, but to play them one simply blows over the top of the bamboo tubes like blowing over bottles. The longer the tube, the lower the note.

At the U. S. Marine recruiting table, they had set up a chinup bar and many of the young men in the crowd tried their stuff doing chinups.

Shoulder to shoulder was the order of the day….

so I decided to retreat to the sidewalk rather than walking down the center of Main Street; less pedestrian traffic and, to my surprise, many more photo ops! Here was an interesting clandestine burger option that I should have checked out. Clearly a backyard entrepreneur who did not pay a vender fee….

I also learned of a couple of downtown businesses that, had I not been walking down the street, I would still not know existed. While I have no need of their services, I thought this sounded interesting: Princess for a day party?!

The G-Man has been downtown for years. I thought, except for the missing “N”, they had it looking rather spiffy for the occasion.

We have a ceramics dealer downtown and, each year, they set up tables where both kids and adults can paint their ceramic of choice. I thought this young lady was doing a particularly good job of concentrating on her art.

The tongue always helps.

As I walked by the bank, I noticed this young lady and her HUGE Great Dane standing in the shade beside the ATM machine. I asked her permission to take their photo. What a beautiful (and LARGE) dog!

Up Market St. I could not help but notice a pedal harp! It was Lewis Lynch’s harp; he’s one of the more active harpists of the area. He must have answered the call and was visibly absent from the booth. I’ll catch you next time Lewis.

Here were two boys doing the ice delivery thing with their coaster wagon.

Not all the kids were working, however. Here were a bunch of friends just “hanging out” on a porch that is located on Main St. They seemed to be having a good time.

Just beside the barber shop that I use is a relatively new “Hard Bean” coffee shop. These young guys were local talent doing a bit of ad lib for the coffee shop at amplified volumes that were deafening! Is it possible that they were using volume to compensate for talent or the lack thereof? I had to applaud them for their enthusiasm!

Seeing this sign, suddenly I knew that I was welcome to be walking the streets of OUR TOWN!

This guy was selling the top-like device he is playing with here. He was actually pretty good at it!

As I was going past the G-Man, who did I see walking up the alley beside it, but our esteemed mayor, Mayor Jack Ritter! He willingly tilted his top hat for my camera.

Over behind the bank, in the parking lot, the “midway” had been set up by the fly-by-night ride venders. I always advised our children that these rides could be dangerous….

I’m not sure why, but this photo seemed to earn being included. Perhaps because the porta johns were so very convenient to the lemonade stand. Whatever….

Nearby, in typical block party fashion, was the ring toss.

I don’t know if she won anything or not.

A retired gentleman from upstate apparently fashions interesting play houses at no cost which are raffled off for various fund-raising events. I was particularly impressed with the detail he put into this one. A man who was “manning” this stand was the husband of a lady who, years ago, purchased one of my harps.

People watching is always fun. Here is a “people” who seems to have washed his T-shirt in water that was too hot (I guess….) Just emulating the teenage girls, I suppose….

In the parking lot behind the laundromat, there was some sort of organized skateboarding competition going on.

Then, around the corner, my attention was drawn to another apparent ongoing “business” downtown that I was unaware was there. I didn’t go in, but perhaps I should check it out.

Here is whom I encountered outside of the Subway.

In front of the gas station, there was trout fishing.

I don’t know what he was selling, but I couldn’t help but wonder when I’d see Harry Potter….

I’m always a sucker for things made of wood — rarely buy, just like to look….

…and I often said that, in my next life, I’ll come back as a well-financed female who would have the time and the means to be a quilter.

It was such a beautiful day in Mechanicsburg.

Seeing the sign for helicopter rides, I decided to take advantage of the great weather and walk to Memorial Park to see them take off.

I had been watching them fly sideways over Main Street and was curious to see them up close.

Here is one just landing. Helicopters are another thing that fascinates me, but I was too cheap to pay the $25 fee for a ten-minute ride.

The rides originated in a ball field on Memorial Park, a part of town that I’ve not really visited since the kids were small and we would take them there to occupy their time when they got bored at home. I think this may still be the same dome climber they climbed on over 20 years ago; the pavillion appears to be the same as well.

Here’s the old cannon still guarding the stone entranceways to the park.

Some new play equipment has been added that was not there when we used the park.

This picnic pavillion is still there; I’ve never seen it used very much for some reason.

Further down the same road is the stadium where the high school football games are held.

Right next door is the town swimming pool. I guess not everyone in town was at Jubilee Day.

Here, some of the local boys decided to shoot some hoops.

It was a great day to become reacquainted with “our town”. The walk was healthy, it was fun catching the event with my camera, and it demonstrated to me, once again, that LIFE IS GOOD!

Yes, the French harp reproduction project continues, although I’ve been otherwise occupied and have not had a lot of time to work on it. The garden has been nearly completed with plantings, and I also helped a friend from North Carolina get started on the building of a harp using purpleheart lumber. We spent a busy and fun three days in my workshop doing so!

For those of you unfamiliar with harps and their “parts”, this is what is known as the “neck” or the “harmonic curve” of a harp. With the soundboard being a straight line from which the strings exit, it is necessary to build the neck with the characteristic curve in order to achieve the optimum range of string lengths appropriate for the instrument to play properly. Here is the neck as it appears on the bronze statue:

Notice how very thin it is on the left, just before the fancy carvings. On my reproduction of this harp, it will be necessary for me to make this entire structure a bit wider in order to make the instrument playable. Even in today’s conventional harps, the sharp curve at the left (above) represents one of the greater structural challenges for a harp builder. I have had breaks occur here even when built with flat, vertical laminations; this area must withstand the full 1200 pounds or so of string tension.

For the neck of my French harp, I have decided to make my own curved, horizontal laminations under the lower aspect of the neck. It will be like taking a 1-1/2 inch walnut board and bending it to the shape of the curve of the neck.

First, it was necessary that I glue two pieces of walnut together to get the width of the board necessary.

Next, using the drawing as a guide, I cut the board to the shape of the under side of the harmonic curve.

Next, I needed thin strips of walnut that could be bent to the shape (above) and glued together to that shape. Doing so makes an extremely strong structure as the grain of the wood follows the line of the curve. These strips were cut on the bandsaw and kept in the order of their being sawn (white lines, below) so that, once glued together, the glue lines become less obvious.

Here are the thin strips, all cut and planed smooth, awaiting being glued into shape.

Using powerful clamps and correspondingly shaped pieces of wood and tiny wedges, the epoxy spread strips were then bent to shape against the solid-wood blank and left to dry.

Removal of the clamps left it looking a bit messy,

but when run through the planer, it cleaned up so that it looks like this:

I then glued a photocopy of the neck to a thin piece of plywood and cut it out as a template. Here is the template above and the laminated assembly below it.

Marking the neck with the template, the upper edge of the neck was cut to look like this:

Blocks of wood were added to the underside of both ends to provide the wood necessary at these places to complete its final shape.