FIRESTONE: Our story on Firestone’s closing prompted Paul
Anderson to bring in a few items about the company’s history in
Bradford.

Paul tells us that he worked at Firestone from 1957 until 1973
and was the store manager from 1965 to 1973.

The store, he said, originally started in Bradford in 1955 – at
9 Congress St. This had been the former location of Loblaws grocery
store, which then moved to Williams Street – where Control Chief is
now located.

The Firestone store back then sold appliances, TVs, stereos and,
of course, tires, he said.

“In 1970 or ’71,” he writes, “the store moved to its present
location (at 26 Bolivar Drive).”

Included in his folder was a photo clipping from the Bradford
Era that shows him with Robert F. Riley, then-chairman of the
Foster Township Board of Supervisors, presiding over the
ribbon-cutting ceremony for the store’s opening at the mall. Also
featured in the photo is T.A. Armstrong, then-district store
supervisor.

Another photo shows Paul standing at the brick structure right
after its completion and before its official opening. The caption
reads, “The store will replace an existing one on Congress Street …
the 135-by-52-foot building is about three times the size of the
present one in downtown Bradford.”

DOG WHISTLE: Debbie Bauer called in a story about her dog,
13-year-old “Baby Dawg,” who was bedeviled by the recent emergency
alarm testing done by the American Refining Co.

The alarms were tested recently through ARG’s steam whistle – a
familiar signal to residents that lunch time has thankfully
arrived, but, for the test, the steam whistle repeatedly sounded in
a series for 15 minutes, beginning at 10 a.m.

Debbie said, “Every day at noon, my husband John comes home for
lunch, and the ARG whistle alerts Baby Dawg to get up out of bed
and come out to greet John and eat lunch.”

The dog, conditioned to the once-a-day whistle, was “completely
thrown for a loop” by the series of whistles, Debbie said, but just
like Pavlov’s well-conditioned canines, Baby Dawg got up every time
the whistle blew and doggedly made the familiar trip.

Whether or not she was rewarded with extra lunches for each of
her efforts is something we forgot to ask.