all night or most of the night. And my mother used to get mad. It was cold, and we just had that one pot-bellied stove. And I would just sit there and listen. And then finally, I decided to put it on my bicycle, I guess I was fifteen, riding around with this radio. Bev: So you were the first, actually

Lancaster County Historical Society Oral History Project Interviewee: Joe Myers Interviewer: Barry Rauhauser Date Recorded: Transcriber: Philip L. Moyer Date Transcribed: Interviewer: Well I always like to start off with the basics, and that is to just get an idea more about you. Were you born in

there, and of course I had the duty to take them everywheres around Philadelphia. So I got to see it quite a bit…yes. Of course, being so small at the time the memory is kind of vague. But I know it was done because Mother has the itinerary and the things that came along with it that day. N: You said

new year for farmers. H: It was the end of the fiscal year for our farmers if you want to call it that. I: The new beginning the spring coming along. H: And with that the great prevalence of that, many other transactions followed in it’s train. The streets of Lancaster were full on April first of

continuation or addendum to what April firsts were like in Lancaster County. Our narrator this time is Mr. Lester H. Herr. Mr. Herr, tell us a little bit about yourself first of all. L: Well my experience with the April first goes back to 1918, being a banker. And since then things have changed considerably of

early settlers used the flail but not for long. The “groundhog thresher” came into being and it might sound strange to say a “groundhog thresher” and someone may wonder why it’s called a “groundhog.” Well the “groundhog thresher” was merely a cylinder with spikes and concaves that knock the grain out of