OCTOBER ODE: “The woolly bears go cross the road,

their backs of orange and black a sign

of winter’s length and strength to come.

They inch across the lanes in fur

fit for a monarch, fox, or star,

as crows descend and yellow leaves

fly out against the twilight breeze.

However accurate the widths

of colors on their prophet backs,

or knowledge of their fate as moths,

they seem intent on crossing this

hard Styx or Jordan to the ditch,

oblivious to the tires’ high pitch.”

Our poem today by Robert Morgan, printed in the November edition
of Atlantic, was forwarded to us by Robert Jarrett of Bradford.

It’s called, “October Crossing.” As an eyewitness to quite a few
flat woolly bears this season, we couldn’t resist.

SAME PLACE: Carol Cucuzza of Mahopac, N.Y., found an odd
coincidence in a recent item from a Birmingham, Mich., man looking
for information on an old aviator’s helmet containing the name
“Mac” McDowell, Bradford, Pa. “Interesting,” she writes. “Maybe he
could ask my brother, Bradford native, Tom Cucuzza – who also lives
in Birmingham, Mich.!”

OLD FLOOD: Ned Scott writes by email: “I am researching some
home movies and have found a film identified as Bradford, and the
film shows a terrible flood with many homes, churches and
businesses destroyed. Is this your Bradford?” His subject line was,
“1942-1943 flood?” but we wonder if maybe it wasn’t the devastating
flood of 1947.

THOSE COLORS: We’ve made much ado about Smethport and Port
Allegany high school both having the same school colors, orange and
black (or, black and orange, if you prefer). A reader points out,
however, that when the original Allegheny Mountain League began
play in 1931, two of the charter members, Bradford and Eldred,
sported red and black. This was before Eldred merged with Otto
Township.

THE HILLS: An “older” Bradford native now residing not far from
Baltimore, Md., tells us the weather there is pretty near perfect –
all year long. A little too hot in the summer perhaps. His only
longing? For the hills of Pennsylvania. Oh, how we take such things
for granted!