DUDY FRISINA: Ray Austin sets the record straight about a recent
RTS item:

“A recent column carried a story furnished by Fred Holly (fellow
classmate) who lives in Cleveland. The story was about a Dr. Robert
Frisina who was involved in a research study about hormone
replacement for post-menopausal women.

“A week or two later, Benny Pessia e-mailed from California that
Dr. Robert Frisina could not be the ‘Dudy’ Frisina that Fred Holly
elaborated on (the ‘star’ basketball player from Harold Brace’s
’42-’43 team). Benny said that ‘Dudy’ was Dominic Frisina from his
’42 Barker yearbook.

“I thought it would be of interest to resolve this conflict of
‘facts.’

“Yesterday afternoon, I placed a phone call to Dr. Robert
Frisina who is in the Rochester, N.Y., area. Dr. Frisina answered
the phone, and we had a nice chat. Dr. Frisina told me that his
given name is Dominic Robert Frisina. Fred Holly’s contribution to
‘Round the Square was forwarded to him, and he assured me that he
is ‘Dudy’ Frisina and graduated in 1943. He also told me that he
sometimes goes by D. Robert Frisina.

“Dr. Frisina also mentioned his teammates – Eddie Moffett, Jim
Barry, Fred Fling and Harold Witchen. Dr. Frisina is the sole
survivor.”

RAIL 2007: The Salamanca (N.Y.) Rail Museum’s annual calendar
includes a cornucopia of photographs sure to please train buffs out
there.

The September photo, taken in 1958, shows hopper cars as they
await loading at the Kramer (Pa.) Mine on the Erie Railroad’s
Bradford division which left the Erie Main at Carrollton, N.Y., and
ran south to Brockway.

The December photograph was particularly interesting. The 1960
photo shows a train carrying patients from the Gowanda, N.Y.,
mental health center to a facility downstate due to a strike at the
institution.

The picture was snapped by Doug Smith of the Buffalo Evening
News from the South Park Avenue overpass of the old Erie Railroad’s
Buffalo & Southwestern Division.

It shows an Erie Railroad business car trailing 13
Erie-Lackawanna maroon and grey coaches in an “after” view of a
train load of patients from the Gowanda center.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “To give to any set of officials – legislative,
executive or judicial – the power of censoring, controlling, or
suppressing the opinions of the people would be to place the
servants above the masters,” said historian Charles Beard,
1926.