Remembrance Day at Gettysburg will be held Nov. 19 and 20. For the last two years Bob and Connie Reinhart and friend Don Bonett have visited the event. The Reinharts brought a PowerPoint presentation with pictures of the event narrated by themselves to the Nov. 8 meeting of the Palmerton Area Historical Society. It featured fife and drum music recorded on site or from CDs they bought from the groups that gathered on street corners to play.

For the weekend the soldiers and women and children who accompany them try to find the history of a real person and portray that person speaking in the first person.Remembrance Day has been held since 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln gave his speech, the Gettysburg Address, at the dedication of the cemetery. Fifty thousand soldiers had died in the short battle. They could not be buried quickly enough and many people moved out of town until it could be cleaned up."There is a mood there that you have to experience to understand. People speak as though it was that time," said Connie.The shadows of war are gone, but it is a shadow of a soldier that introduces the monuments. Reinharts followed a group of Pennsylvania reservists as they visited several Pennsylvania monuments. There is a parade that stretches for blocks ending at the cemetery.Remembrance Day is a day for quiet and respect, said Bob. There are no mock battles on this day regardless of how many soldiers walk around in uniform.Connie has a page of a newspaper from The Pittsburgh Evening Chronicle of April 15, 1865, that tells about the assassination of Lincoln and a bayonet that was once owned by Uncle James McCoy of the Hatfield and McCoy feud.The business meeting provided a reminder that the Little White Church ecumenical service will be Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m., following singing in the park and refreshments at the Lighthouse Church.The Christmas party will be Dec. 13, 6 p.m. with dinner at 6:30 pm., at Berts Restaurant.Pages of school records were received from a person in Phoenixville from the time that Palmerton was still part of Lower Towamensing.As part of his building and grounds report Jim Burnhauser said they had been raking leaves at the church. Jane Borbe called the borough to have them picked up and 10 minutes later someone was there.The Royal Flutterbutter Red Hats Club toured the church. Betsy Burnhauser, acting as tour guide, said the rain stopped long enough for them to go outside to see the cemetery.Paula Zielienka donated a painting, "The Inn of William Stoddart," which is in Stemlersville. It will be raffled with only 100 tickets available at $5 each.