LOOK UP: If you’re driving past the Kinzua Dam, you might want
to scan the landscape for American bald eagles.

A woman reader tells us she saw three this week flying in the
vicinity of the dam itself, two apparently in the act of mating!
(They only missed Valentine’s Day by few days, darn it.)

She saw the pair which swooped down and out of sight – but then
returned flying separately over the landscape. We don’t know much
about eagle mating but seems like this is about the right time of
the year.

No doubt, the proprietors of the Allegheny National Forest and
the Kinzua Dam are happy with the prospect of becoming
“step-parents.”

MORE STORES: When Penelec crews were working underground on the
Main Street side of what was once the former Olsen building
department store in the 1970s, they found a couple relics.

One was a shiny new 1888 Indian head penny.

The penny was between old hemlock boards which had been set in
sand on the lot which was very swampy at one time. Our informant
surmised that the sand was used to sop up some of the water where
the hemlock foundation was placed. In any case, it apparently
worked and the boards were so pristine that some of the crew took
them home to re-use them. “They looked brand new,” he said.

We are assuming but (obviously) don’t know if the early workmen
who laid the foundation had also placed the 1888 penny between the
boards.

For Bradford newbies, the Olsen building was in the general
vicinity where Tops is now located at Main and Davis.

Mr. and Mrs. Al Jennings of Rixford stopped by to tell us about
42 Main St. which was once the Home Dairy Cafeteria owned by Al’s
parents, Albert and Hazel Jennings. They also owned one in Olean,
N.Y.

After the war, Al wanted to take over the cafeteria but couldn’t
get a new lease because Levy’s which was next door wanted to (and
did) expand into that location. The cafeteria closed in 1948. Al
names other places on Congress – Paris dry cleaners, a pool hall,
Joe Tito’s barber shop, McAllister’s Funeral Home, and Rizutto’s
shoe repair.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Jennings remembers walking to the cafeteria
eight months pregnant one winter day when it was 32 degrees below
zero!