LUCKY US: “Each year at this time I begin to miss fall. The
perfect days and the crisp nights. I miss the leaves with their
riotous color. I miss the way they rustle at dusk when the woods
are hushed and the crisp air is tinged with woodsmoke. Leaves
scuttle before and behind as I walk home.”
Kristie Bentley of Virginia Beach, Va., sent us this email the
other day and, honestly, did she not describe our autumn days to a
T?
She continues, “I miss the sound of geese calling to all that
winter is coming, best make for warmer waters. I miss apples,
pumpkins and Indian corn at the South Bradford Fruit Market. And
though I can get scuppernongs down here in Virginia, nothing beats
Concord grapes.”
“Though I can still smell those apples on my desk in my dorm at
Mansfield University the day my mother picked me up to come home
that first time after six weeks at college.
“That was the most perfect fall foliage I have ever been lucky
enough to experience. The fall of 1984, to be exact. I can’t recall
a prettier autumn, at least not in my meager 40 years. That was the
most beautiful drive.
“While spring is glorious down here in the Mid-Atlantic, the
north takes fall hands down. Oh, how I miss the true change of
seasons.”
THAT DOCTOR: The Era recently carried an article about Dr.
Anthony Caputy, the neurosurgeon who led the team that operated on
First Lady Laura Bush.
We have another of the doctor’s patients: Mrs. Jacob Farrell
called to say he had also operated on another Bush, Marian Farrell
Bush of Smethport. Dr. Caputy is married to Tina Putnam, formerly
of Smethport.
BIG ONE: Fred Robinson stopped by to show us a very large tomato
he grew in his garden in Bradford, measuring 4 1/2 inches in
diameter and weighting 1.12 pounds.
Fred says the tomato plants had been advertised as producing the
biggest tomato every recorded, and this year’s crop made him a
believer. He had one larger than the one he showed us but it got
wiped out in that bad August storm.
Not only were the tomatoes big but they were delicious, Fred
tells us. The one he showed us would have been enough for BLTs for
a small country!
