HEADLIGHTS: Bob Yancosek of Hazel Hurst passes along a timely
reminder: The law has changed in Pennsylvania, and motorists are
now required to turn on their headlights every time they turn on
their windshield wipers. Don’t forget!
DAMN DAM: Janet Holsinger Burch writes to comment on a column we
ran about the “old days,” specifically the time when the Kinzua Dam
was conceived and constructed.
“I, too, grew up in one of the towns that was inundated because
of the Allegheny Reservoir,” she writes us. “I went to school in
Corydon for the first six grades and then went by bus to Bradford
Junior and Senior High, graduating in 1955.”
“Although we lived in Warren County and should have gone to
Warren High School, the many railroad crossings from Corydon to
Kinzua were considered an unsafe trip along with the winding,
up-and-down road that we would have had to travel.
“My dad, Pete Holsinger, worked in the oil fields for years and
I remember visiting him in Sugar Run at a rig where he was
working.
“We had relatives in Kinzua so we spent many weekends with them
either at their home or ours.
“My grandfather drowned in the Allegheny River in Sugar Run
trying to cross in a row boat to his cabin in Hoag (Not sure of
spelling). It was two months later that his body was found by some
fisherman.
“My parents moved from Corydon in the 1960s after the government
took their property and I also at the time lived in Onoville, N.Y.,
and my husband and myself were part of the buyout and had to
move.
“It was an easier move for the younger people but for my parents
it was a move they hated. My dad was born, schooled, and raised in
Corydon and I will always believe it was the cause of his early
death at age 56.
“I know it has served the purpose for which the Kinzua Dam was
built but I guess I will always think of it as the ‘Damn Dam.’
Janet continues, “I am in the process of writing down a lot
about our childhoods so our sons and our grandchildren have a
reminder of what our little towns were like.”
We think making a written account is a very good idea. Better
yet, add a videotape to your legacy.
