LOCAL DELIVERY: Do you remember when the Buffalo Evening News
was delivered in Bradford?

That’s the query posed by reader Jim Grennan who tells us he was
once a paper carrier on their route.

He writes: “In the late ’40’s, I delivered the Buffalo Evening
News through knee-high snow on many occasions when the delivery
from Buffalo was late because of the weather. There weren’t any
plastic bags back then, so each paper was placed between the storm
door and the door, and occasionally in the mail box if there wasn’t
a storm door.

“Wouldn’t the Post Office have a fit today using the mail box
for a newspaper the newspaper boy delivered?

“And then there was the Bradford News that was around the
corner from the Moose Lodge and across from the gas station with
stairs in the grease rack pointing upwards to Zippo Manufacturing
Company.

“Bradford News also distributed magazines and, by golly, I got
to see Sunshine & Health, the magazine of the American Nudist
Society with pictures that you can see almost anywhere today!”

Jim writes that he left Bradford in 1951 upon graduation from
Bradford High and joined the U. S. Navy.

“I’ve returned for almost every high school reunion and hope to
make the 60th in 2011.”

ON PATROL: John Anderson in Kane called to add to our ongoing
remembrances of Harry Garvin whose son Ray was for so long a part
of the annual school safety patrol trips to Washington, D.C.

“Harry was one of the founders of the Seneca Highland Tourist
Association,” John said. “Besides Harry, there was R.E. Wenstram
and Hamlin Redfield, among others.

John noted that Harry was the main person who got the
organization going, and Ray took over when his father passed
away.

Another former safety patrol remembers when the patrols’ white
cloth belts were replaced with the more visible “neon orange
plastic” belts.

COMMUNITY PARK: Glen Hess called with a correction on the
closing date of the Community Park ballpark. He said the park
closed in 1950, not 1956 or 1957.

“I’m 77 years old and have lived here all my life,” Glen tells
us – so he ought to know!

Another reader called in to say he remembers all the carnivals
and circuses once held in the old ballpark area.

“The circus people gave free admission to anyone willing to
carry water from the creek for the elephants,” he said.