SUN DOGS: Our item Tuesday about “sun dogs” – rainbows in the
sky in the winter – hit home with five workers from ARG packaging
plant who saw a pair of them about 8:45 a.m. Joel Campbell stopped
by to tell us about these two rainbows at the horizon.

This winter phenomenon apparently is common in Alaska and seems
to be getting increasingly common in McKean County, too.

On a related subject, RTS readers know we’ve been trying to
devise names for the many varieties of snow – something we had
heard that Eskimo populations have done for years. Driving home
from work the other night, we witnessed a distinctive variety of
snow. Sparkly snow, maybe? When lights hit it just right, it
sparkles like diamonds.

IKE AGE: Dick Marcott of Bradford writes, “Watching all the
in-depth coverage of the inauguration on TV brought back memories
of my participation in the second inauguration of President
Eisenhower.”

“As a cadet at the Coast Guard Academy, I marched in the parade
on a clear cool, but not freezing, Jan 20, 1957. Later, we cadets
served as escorts at the various balls. There were nine, I believe,
at different locations. I was at the DC Armory.”

“As VIP attendees’ arrivals were announced, we would step up,
offer our right arm to the lady, and as instructed, walk very
slightly ahead, slanted toward her with our left elbow out to poke
the crowd out of the way, if necessary, lest the lady be
jostled.

“Then we returned to the line-up to escort the next one. While I
escorted a number of them, I can’t recall any names except Prince
Romanoff!

“I do remember the arrival of President and Vice President for
their short appearance as they were making the rounds of Balls.
Contrary to the coverage I see today – people were in fact able to
dance.”

COLD COMFORT: Louise Pier Bement of Lansing, N.Y., drops a line
about a happening more than 60 years ago: “I was one of the
students picking up stones from the runways of the Bradford-McKean
Airport on that cold miserable day in the spring of 1946, when all
of the eighth graders in the county went to work for the good of
the county. I often remember that day – but not with fondness.”