SNAKE TALES: You think your Monday morning work
routine is bad, get this:

Kristie Bentley of Virginia Beach, Va., writes: “While
giving my husband a tour of the area a few years ago, my father
told us that during the construction of the dam area the heavy
equipment operators would find nasty surprises each morning when
they started up their rigs.”

“The rattlesnakes would curl up in the warm engine of the
machines and come slithering out when disturbed in the morning. Not
the way I would want to start my job on a Monday morning. Or any
morning, for that matter!”

Kristie also passed along a bit of nostalgia about Bradford,
vowing she’ll be home next year for the Festa Italiana.

“Thinking of the peppers and onions cooking on the grill reminds
me of a trip to the lake one year that I lived in Wisconsin. I
decided I had eaten one too many brats that year, so I started
cooking peppers and onions at home, wrapped them in foil and packed
them in the cooler with the hot and sweet Italian sausage I
purchased.

“Our usual large group of friends had gathered at the lake and
when those peppers and onions started to finish off on the grill
everyone gathered around saying, ‘What smells so good?’

“I told them, ‘This is what summer smells like where I grew up,’
as I handed out sausages smothered in peppers and onions. Some
people loved them, others preferred their bratwurst, but they all
got to taste and smell a little part of my childhood.”

Hal Harmon of Bradford contacted us about that
rattlesnake man we’d told you about in the Bolivar Drive area. The
man had a “keep out” sign at this house with a sketch of a
rattlesnake. We suspect it was more effective than signs warning of
guard dogs.

Hal tells us that there have always been stories of rattlesnakes
in Sugar Run and Willow Run – although he’d never seen one despite
fishing in those regions.

GAS PAINS: Pamela Eschrich of Mount Jewett
drops us a line, “Hagerstown, Md., ,2.79; Fredericksburg, Md.,
,2.67; Rockland, Md., ,2.99; Washington, D.C., ,3.06, over the
weekend, Sunday through Tuesday, Aug. 19 through 21.”

Rocco Camas of Bradford called to tell us gas on Aug. 21
to the west of Erie was ,2.52; and to the east of Erie,
,2.69.