CHINESE CUKES: Yep, that’s what those strange
looking cucumbers were.

Marion Lee of Eldred recognized the Chinese cucumbers
immediately after we put a picture in a recent RTS. In fact, that’s
the only kind of cucumbers she raised some 30-35 years
ago.

Then, she tells us, “they disappeared from the catalogs.” She,
too, recalls they were good eating and with only a fraction of
seeds you get in the “normal” cukes.

Marion remembers her husband taking them over to the truck
drivers at Georgia-Pacific by the bagful because they were such
novelties.

IN THE GAME: Quite a few Era readers graduated
from St. Vincent College in Latrobe. So we thought we’d pass along
this information from John Cummiskey of Bradford about the college
reviving its football team after a hiatus of many years. There’s
also a connection to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Bearcats had a football team from 1923 until it was dropped
after 1962, John tells us.

The school has been preparing for a resumption of
football for awhile now. A coach, Bob Colbert, was picked up after
years of association with Bridgewater College in Virginia and he
arrived in January 2006 and was allowed to recruit a number of men.
The return to actual games has started this autumn.

Home games for the Bearcats will be played at Chuck Noll Field,
certainly a reflection of the Steelers’ influence on this decision
to return to the gridiron.

“As many of you know, the Pittsburgh Steelers, since they left
the St. Bonaventure practice field in the late 1940s, have been
practicing at Latrobe-St. Vincent,” John tells us.

And the Steelers hierarchy has helped and encouraged the
Bearcats to get back into college football.

St. Vincent is playing in the Presidents NCAA Division III
Athletic Conference against teams like Westminster, and Washington
& Jefferson.

“A number of fans will remember St. Bona’s and St. Vincent
battling it out in various towns,” John notes.

“In years gone by, two Bradford men played for St.
Vincent. They were Gene Prestera of the well-known Prestera family
of Elm Street, and Jimmy Colosimo, son of Ray ‘Two Points’
Colosimo, a fine basketball player, a very good left-hand first
baseman.

“Latrobe is remembered as the home of Arnold Palmer, top golfer,
and former home of Rolling Rock, a great beer.”

John credits some of this background information to USA Today
sportswriter Gary Mihoces.