SMALL WORLD: When reporter Marcie Schellhammer was on a recent
vacation at Disney World, she and her family had an experience that
falls into our “small world” category.

She tells us, “We were eating at a restaurant called Coral Reef
at Epcot. The man who seated us asked where we were from. We
responded near Bradford, Pa., and he started to laugh. He said
there was an elderly gentleman who worked there, I believe his name
was Jim, who was originally from Bradford and told his co-workers
all the time about what a wonderful place it is.”

“Unfortunately, the man was off the day we were there,” Marcie
tells us.

PEACE TO ALL: This political season and all its novelty makes us
think about some of our most ardent letter writers, including Helen
Johns-Richardson who died this summer – and would probably be mad
she passed away before getting a chance to vote.

One of her children, Brooke Richardson of Seattle, wrote to us
recently and revealed some information about how Helen came to
develop her ideals. She grew up in a conservative Bradford family
where her father was an auto mechanic and co-owner of the Hammond
Johns garage on Chestnut Street, and her mother was an elementary
school teacher and homemaker.

Brooke writes:

“At teachers college she met and then married a man who educated
her and enlightened her in politics and many truths of the world.
Although they later divorced she thanked him many times after for
the education he gave her. Many things about our country were
revealed to her in her life in Buffalo and New York City.

“Hoping to improve our country and undo the wrongs of racism,
sexism, and as an advocate for every day working people’s rights
she became a liberal. After being a sickly, delicate child, when
she started her own household beginning in the late 1950s, she
became a pioneer in nutritional medicine and food supplements and
promoted them shamelessly.

“After working at a man’s job in N.Y. City and receiving a
fraction of the salary for the same work she won a law suit for
retroactive compensation. Her letter writing was born of the
conviction of her discoveries. She wanted Bradford to know and see
all that she had seen. It was her desire to bring peace to all
creatures on earth.”