LEEK TIME?: This has definitely been a see-saw winter in
Bradford, one in which snow has piled up to the window sill but
then melted enough to reveal leeks growing in the woods.
That’s how Dick Robertson of Bradford sees it. He called New
Year’s Eve to tell us he’d read about a woman who’d dug leeks
earlier in the week, and added, “I dug some yesterday. … I’m like a
mountaineer, when I see a window (in the weather) I take advantage
of it.”
Dick tells of another unusual winter sighting. When he was
taking out the garbage, he saw a garter snake in the snow. “I took
it to the house and Elsie took a picture of it,” Dick said,
promising to show us if he ever gets his film developed. Elsie is
Dick’s wife.
“I measured it. I put it on the steps and gently stretched him
out.” The snake measured 14 1/2 inches long. “He was lively.”
After the photo shoot, Dick took the snake back to its place of
origin. “I put him out in the sun,” and there he stayed. “He kind
of looked up at me.” The critter was gone upon later investigation,
he reports.
“I’ve lived here 50 years and it’s the first snake I’ve seen at
the end of December. And the earliest I’ve dug leeks.”
“Every time it has snowed, I piled it up against the base of the
house. Five times I’ve done that this winter so far. Once it was
even with the bottoms of the windows.” Although he thought the snow
was here for the duration our late December weather took care of
it.
“But when you have the high winds and warm temperatures –
Chinook winds, it’s called – it takes everything.”
POST SCRIPT: We heard from Sue Vigliotti of Frederick, Md., on
our recent coverage of the twin plane crashes in the Bradford area
some 40 years ago:
“After reading the article with regard to the plane crash, I
remembered the evening quite well. My dad, Jay Wesmiller was called
to the hospital to donate blood. He had a very rare blood type for
which there was an urgent need that night. When he arrived home I
told him that he was a ‘hero’ for which he replied the real ‘hero’
was the baby born in a manger.”
