This is RTS for Monday, Feb. 11, 2008

BRIDGE SHOT: Ron Baughman of Lakewood, Colo., also saw the
Kinzua Bridge in that TV program, “Life After People.”

“It was the best shot of the bridge I have seen in any media
form. The Knox and Kane passenger train was passing over it in
early fall with the shot taken from the air, before showing the
bridge after the tornado, from the air and then from the valley.
They also showed a piece of the bridge and how its demise was
caused in part by corrosion,” he writes.

“I grew up in Mount Jewett and the bridge was my stomping
grounds for many years from the ending years of normal rail service
through the service that was restored.”

MORE STORES: Lola Norris of Columbus, Ohio, writes us with old
stores she remembers and also passes along some Bradford
stories:

“My friend, Peggy, and I worked one Christmas at McCrory’s 5
& 10 Cent Store during our Junior year at Bradford High.

“I ate breakfast and usually lunch every working day at the
Congress Street Diner after graduation while I worked at Hanley and
Bird Oil and Gas Producers on Kennedy Street. I got to go out every
day at 2 p.m. to make their deposit at the Bradford National Bank
even if all I had to deposit was a quarter, and go to the post
office.

“After work, at 4 p.m., I strolled up Main Street to be sure to
pass the Option House, where the guys held up the building (not
with guns, with their bodies) even though I met my father at the
little news store on West Washington Street for a ride home.

“At that time, it was worth the detour. We lived across from the
Farrell Dairy on Interstate Parkway and frequented Bolin’s Dairy
Bar during the summer until it closed.

“On the weekends, my best friend, Martha and I would take in a
movie at either Dipson’s or Shea’s Theater and then usually hit the
diner again. While we were still in high school, however, we could
be found at the ballpark watching the Bradford Phillies for every
home game. But that is a whole new ballgame (pardon the pun).”