OIL NOTES: With the ARG anniversary quickly approaching, we’ve
been getting interesting reminiscences about the old oil
patch.[neWLine]

Neil Hoffmier writes, “”Early recollections from Bells Camp in
the late ’30s consisted of the hiss of steam-driven ‘airheads,’ the
creek running green with oil, the clang of a tool dresser
sharpening a drill bit (in the middle of the night), the squeak of
rodline posts (day and night), the Kendall noon whistle echoing up
the valleys, following Otto Torpedo to the next ‘well shot,’
smelling fuse burning when they dropped the squid, and hunting for
the iron go-devil when the squid didn’t set the nitro off and it
was necessary to use white nitro to finish the job…[neWLine]

“”Tag along with the pumpers/tractor drivers/roustabouts/rig
builders etc. Being able to listen to the power houses and tell
when most of the wells were ‘pumped off’ by the sound of the
engines, planning on breaking ice the first day of trout season
(April 15) and to this day could find the location of many of Sloan
& Zook’s powerhouses.[neWLine]

If you wanted to go somewhere, you walked. … Thanks Bradford,
those memories are priceless.””[neWLine]

[neWLine]

EXPLANATION: A reader had posed a question about why, years ago,
kids living on Interstate Parkway were bussed all the way across
town to attend the Lee Driver Elementary School on South Kendall
Avenue.[neWLine]

Tom Vickery explains: Before the days of the consolidation of
local schools into the Bradford area school district, each
municipality had its own elementary school. And since the part of
Interstate Parkway in question was in Foster Township, students
there went to the township’s only elementary school – Lee
Driver.[neWLine]

To fully understand, look at a map.[neWLine]

Foster Township is generally north of the city (which would
explain why the northern-most parts of Interstate are in Foster
Township) but parts of the township dip to the southeast of the
city to include South Kendall Avenue.[neWLine]

And that explains the long and circuitous bus ride from one end
of Foster Township to the other.[neWLine]

As an aside, we can’t help but wonder who drew up the boundaries
in the Bradford area but, perhaps, that person should be drawn and
quartered – just like the map.