Jill and Ray of Lead Graffiti volunteer once a month to demonstrate letterpress printing at the Lancaster Heritage Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as part of their commitment to the .918 Club. On the 75 minute drive to Lancaster we’ve started to develop a nice ritual. We stop just up the road from Newark for lunch at the Country Cricket for soup or soup & sandwich. Great food and nice people.

We then drive through Amish country which is wonderfully slow. You’ll usually get ’stuck’ behind an Amish wagon several times (twice yesterday). Then to Strasberg, Pennsylvania where we stop at the Strasburg Country Store and Creamery. Jill always gets one scoop of ice cream in a cup and Ray always gets it in a waffle cone (thickest I’ve ever seen). We always try to have enough time to sit and enjoy each other’s company for a bit. Then check out the candy. We bought soft, chewy Christmas mints yesterday.

Then we drive into Lancaster and spend the rest of the day talking with anyone who wanders to the third floor print ship equipped as it would have been in 1920. Yesterday, we had these three printers (above) who were working with Jill on the model Franklin Common Press from about 1725. This is a model built by a Lancaster High School student. We are hoping to build a full-sized version over the next two or three years. The printers were great fun and wanted to do every little part on every press and wanted examples to take with them. It’s nice to think that they’ll remember the afternoon for a while and will have some keepsakes to pass along.

We staffed the shop yesterday with fellow club member Mike Donnelly of the .918 club from 2:30 until 8:30 pm. It was kind of a light day as it was cold and people were probably doing final holiday shopping, but we got a lot done, straightening up, putting away type and having all the time those that came in wanted to take.

Afterwards, we were hungry and stopped at Yorgo’s and had a late dinner. Food was wonderful. I think this will be the way we will end our Lancaster run rituals for a while.

Then, grab a hot chocolate and hit the road back to Newark. All in all an 11-hour day of fun, doing things we like with people we like. A nice way to spend a day.

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