JOE PASCARELLA: We’ve been remiss not to comment on the recent
death of Joe Pascarella at the age of 84. We knew Joe when he was a
member of the Bradford Redevelopment Authority and, later, when he
was one of the people working out at Upbeat, the hospital’s cardiac
rehab program. Sweet, cheerful guy. If you’d run into Joe
somewhere, you’d feel better about yourself and life in general for
having seen him. Quite a knack he had.

SCHOOL STUFF: A little post-script today to our recent columns
on the development of the Bradford school system over the
years:

The Rev. Paul Woodrum writes, “In your fascinating series on
Bradford public schools you appropriate the appellation ‘Little Red
School House’ for the BHS of 1965. Prior to that, the ‘Little Red
School House’ was the theme of the award-winning ’56 Barker. I
still have mine from my sophomore year. Floyd Fretz was
superintendent of schools and the ever-dapper George A. Bell was
principal.”

GAS PAIN: Even our neighbors are starting to feel sorry for
us.

Sometimes the discrepancy between Bradford’s gas prices and the
rest of the world (well, at least our world) is so egregious that
it’s impossible to ignore.

George Petrisek, our curmudgeonly but capable correspondent from
Port Allegany, was driving through the Bradford area earlier this
week, and phoned to express his amazement that our prices were in
the $2.50 range while those in Port were down to $2.25 by that
afternoon.

Bill Carl of Mount Jewett yesterday observed that three
Uni-Marts in Bradford were selling gas at $2.50 – at the exact same
time the Uni-Mart in Kane was at $2.34.

“You tell me why,” he said. It’s one thing to compare prices
between brands but how do you justify the discrepancy between
prices at two of the same stations, he wondered.

Other reports coming in:

Linda Troutman of Bradford writes, “Friday, Oct. 28, B, C and B
from Lewis Run were in Brookville at my husband’s aunt’s for
dinner. Gas was $2.09 a gallon at the Flying J and with his aunt’s
discount card it was $2.06 a gallon. Makes one wonder why.”

On Thursday, Kenneth Borneman of Bradford called to report $2.19
at the Kwik Fill in Johnsonburg.

We also had this e-mail from Doug Sanders on Thursday: “Gas in
SF Ca. $2.65. So don’t complain too much. Many refiners here,
too.”