AUGUST SNOW: A reader can vouch for snow in another summer month
in Bradford, this time, August.

He was born Aug. 26 and, on his first birthday in 1934, it had
snowed. “My mother told me about that a number of times,” he said.
The amount of snow apparently was noticeable.

We recently had a report of snow in July a few decades ago so,
with today’s report, we appear to have the entire calendar covered
for snowfall in the Bradford area. “Many a picnic has been ruined
by cold,” our caller noted. We agree and can remember donning
gloves at a Labor Day picnic and having extremely chilly weather on
the 4th of July.

Why do we live here? That was our question to our caller.

“I like it. It gets in your blood.”

Meanwhile, we were perusing the Erie newspaper and saw a report
that predicts this winter could be milder than normal. The reason
is the so-called El Nino, the warming of central and eastern
tropical Pacific waters that influences weather worldwide.

The phenomenon has already begun but forecasters have said they
don’t know how mild the winter might be as it depends on how strong
El Nino will become. And anything with the weather, of course, is a
crapshoot that can shift with many variables.

Still, it’s nice to dream, isn’t it?

TV TIME: Harry Erskine of Emporium was watching a rebroadcast
of, “The Sopranos,” recently when he caught a local angle. He
writes, “A lady on the show mentioned they were in Bradford and
they saw a beautiful large bridge with trusses. Would that be the
Kinzua Bridge they were talking about on the show?”

We can’t answer Harry’s question for certain but it does seem
likely – especially if it was an older show which predates the
collapse of the bridge into the valley below.

OH, ZIPPO: Russell Lombardo of Santa Barbara, Calif., writes:
“Though I moved away from Bradford many years ago, I still keep an
eye out for Zippo lighters when I travel. My wife Pam and I were
recently vacationing in Switzerland and on a side trip to the
little country of Liechtenstein, I was pleased to see our beloved
Zippos for sale in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.”

Russell also enclosed a couple photos of the lighters in their
display case in this tiniest of European countries.