LOCAL ANGLE: Famed World War II war correspondent Ernie Pyle has
special meaning to another Bradford vet.
Norm Wolcott Jr., now a resident of Chapel Ridge, tells us he
was interviewed by Ernie while a patient in the 67th Evacuation
Hospital in Normandy.
The interview information subsequently made it into one of
Ernie’s books although Norm isn’t mentioned by name.
Norm tells us he had been in the hospital on June 22, 23 and 24
after being hit by a concussion hand grenade.
“I was completely blind. They didn’t know for sure if I’d get my
sight back,” Norm says, adding, “I came out OK.”
Norm, a former long-time Derrick City resident, is 89 years old.
He so clearly remembers the date of his injury because June 22 was
his wife’s birthday.
As we were typing up our notes, we had written down – “potato
masher.” Could that have been the slang Norm used to describe that
concussion grenade? Perhaps one of our World War II buddies could
enlighten us.
THAT STORE: When Tony Falconi gave us a detailed list of some of
the stores in Bradford, there was one he couldn’t identify. Rose
Cuiffini of Bradford stopped by to fill us in.
It was Angelina Fiori’s store. Rose tells us her family moved to
Bradford from Geneva, N.Y., in 1936. “My dad needed a broom, and
went to that store to get one,” she remembers.
In fact, her brothers Joe and Fred Tascone worked for the store
at one time. Angelina Fiori’s daughter was Audrey Stidd, according
to Rose.
MORE STORES: (To anyone out there getting bored with our
listings of stores in Bradford – yes, we’ve had a couple complaints
– you might ask well look elsewhere for awhile because we still
have tons of material.)
Lorraine Blair of Sanford, Fla., tells us about “Taft’s News
Stand on West Washington. Virginia Taft was one of the nursing
instructors of the old hospital RN school and worked many years as
the night nurse in pediatrics doing a number of special things for
the kids. Also there was the Dairy Bar and Matt’s Drive-In out on
South Ave. And what about Grant’s drug store where they had a
sub-station for the Post Office?”
“Ruth Brothers out in Foster Brook that became Tool ‘n’ Toy
after a contest to rename it.”
