BERRY NOTES: Is it our imagination or is there a total lack of a
blackberry crop this year? Come to think of it, we haven’t seen any
huckleberries, either.

By now, we should be knee deep in berries but not only are there
no ripe berries there aren’t even any green ones on the bushes. On
the other hand, it seems like we had more than the usual amount of
red raspberries this year.

If you can shed some light on this phenomenon, give us a call.
We’ve been told that the exceptionally dry growing season is
responsible for the dearth of these two favorites.

We’re actually hoping that maybe this is just in our
neighborhood and perhaps they are plentiful elsewhere.

HOT TIMES: Fred Richter of Lewis Run contributes to our dialogue
about the temperature hitting the 100-degree mark in Bradford:

“I do not know how accurate the time-temperature clock is at
Memorial Square but it registered 102 F degrees at 3:10 p.m. on
July (?) 1988 or 1989.

“If you check your archive files, it was the summer that David
Lechiara started Valley Taxi Service. For the exact date, I want to
say July 7 but with the passing of years, I may be wrong.

“How can I remember the temperature and the time? As a taxi
driver helping new residents to Bradford, I carried 29 food items
up three flights of stairs to their new apartment.

“The lady had two healthy teen-age sons that managed to carry
their individual bags of potato chips to their new home.”

We also heard from Tom Ewell of Montgomery, N.Y.: “Regarding
‘official weather information’ before the airport system was in
place – You might want to ask some ‘old time’ city firemen as I
believe there was a weather station on top of Central Station at
Chestnut and East Corydon Streets.”

We remember that, at one time, firefighters’ “official” snow
measurement was done with a sophisticated instrument known as a
ruler. They would stick the instrument into the accumulation and –
voila! – an official measurement of snowfall.

TUNE IN: Era columnist Mychal Massie is scheduled to appear on
C-Span with Brian Lamb at 8 a.m. today with topics focusing on
comments he made in his column about Michael Vick, race and
preference issues, Washington politics, and a documentary he appear
in “What Black Men Think.”