IN THE NEWS: Jim Flynn of Erie writes Saturday: “Today’s Erie
Times News’ front page has a picture of Mike Blaisdell and Kaitlin
Bryant of the BAHS band playing at the McDowell HS band
competition.”

“The article accompanying the picture is lamenting the inability
of the City of Erie schools with 12,000 students to get enough to
form an all-city ‘open class’ size band while four much smaller
nearby school districts compete in the ‘open class.'”

NICKNAMES: How did the Gators become the name of Port Allegany
High Schools sports teams? And, for that matter, how did
Smethport’s teams become known as “the Hubbers”?

Tom Ewell of Montgomery, N.Y., writes: “In today’s edition, one
writer makes reference to a local scribe that may have suggested a
name for the Gators. I believe this scribe may have been the late,
great Johnny Nelson.”

“Several years ago the Era ran weekly columns by Mr. Nelson and
in one of these he made reference as to how he named (or nicknamed)
some of the local high school football teams – the Owls because
they played at night; the Smethport Hubbers because Smethport was
the ‘Hub’ of the county etc.

“Perhaps these columns are located deep in the Era’s archival
vaults and could be printed again.”

On a related subject – school colors – we heard from another
reader who had black or orange (or, if you prefer, orange and
black) in high school. Ron Digiacinto of Bradford phoned to tell us
his school colors at Pensbury High School, Bucks County, were also
orange and black. He graduated from Pensbury in 1968. For whatever
reason, these were extremely popular school colors.

IN THE WEB: Gary Barr of Monroe, N.C., writes: “The writing
spider is very prevalent in N.C. We had one in our flower garden
beside the carport, and on a spring morning, it would cover the
side of the carport with a beautiful web. Very intriguing to
watch.”

NO APPLES: Stan Babola of Port Allegany contributes to a recent
discussion we had recently about the scarcity of apples this fall:
“A possible reason that this year’s apples are small and sparse is
that they need at least two months of freezing temperatures. Last
winter, the freezing temperatures did not start until mid to late
January and there was not 60 uninterrupted days of 32 degrees or
less.”