FIRE TRUCK: Bradford native Mike McCoy dropped us a line
recently to let us know our city is definitely on the move:

“Imagine my surprise when I was on my way to work June 10,
waiting to pull out of an intersection on the back road between
Mayville, N.Y., and Westfield, N.Y., when a fire truck approached,
heading north.

“As it went by, I read ‘City of Bradford’ on the side! I
followed it to Westfield, but there we turned in different
directions, so I never did learn where it was headed.

“It was a nice piece of apparatus, a pumper, very modern. Nice
to see Bradford is keeping its fire-fighting equipment up to
date.”

ON PATROL: One thing we’re sure of, being a safety patrol in the
area was an unforgettable experience based on the number of
responses we’ve received.

Vickie Bickford, who graduated from Smethport High School in
1968, writes, “I, too, went to Washington as a patrol girl in 1962.
Not being one of the town (Smethport) kids, I was patrol on one of
the East Smethport School buses.

“My first bus driver was Don Nelson. Some of the others were Mr.
Norman, Jim Freer, Annie Foringer and Jim Stuck. On the last day of
every school year, these drivers would treat us to ice cream at the
Smethport Tastee Freeze.”

As the only girl from the Smethport area on the trip, she said
she felt fairly intimated, but roomed with girls from Bradford.

Among the highlights were marching in the parade down
Pennsylvania Avenue, she said. “The girls wore white skirts, and
everyone wore a red zippered sweatshirt and a Navy blue Civil
War-style Bucktail hat.”

They visited the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian
Institution, she recalls.

“We had our picture taken on the steps of the Capitol Building,
and the picture was huge.”

Speaking of patrol photos, our thanks to Alex Caruso who brought
in his 1959 patrol photo, which showed him amongst other patrols
from Bradford, Kane, Smethport, along with the state police and
chaperones.

The photo was indeed “huge” and would have lost too much detail
by being shrunk down to fit into our RTS column. But now we can say
we’ve seen an authentic patrol photo!

TREE BOXES: We’ll have the explanation tomorrow.