OIL NOTES: Pat Clifford of Oconomowoc, Wisc., has a few comments
on the oilfields around Bradford:

“Back in the early ’50s my dad would take me to work with him on
the Pennzoil leases. There he would let me drop the nitro
cartridges down the well head (the nitro was delivered by Pringle
Powder). Then we would run for cover as the explosion would rain
forth rocks and debris.

“As a 13-year-old, the lease roads were also a place that my dad
would let me drive his ’52 Chevy coupe. This is how I learned to
drive.

“As an aside, the Bradford HS yearbook was called the Barker, so
called because of the loud sound made by the barker that identified
the operation of the oil wells that were attached to the pump
houses.

“A few years later, as I was in college, I worked at Halliburton
hydro-fracing wells. Well into my 60s, I still get a kick out of
discussing the oil fields and reminiscing about a great childhood
in Bradford.”

HOT NEWS: Hal Harmon phoned the other day, telling us Ma Pete’s
was located on West Washington Street between the new car wash and
the library parking lot. The other Texas hot place was a store or
two down from Ma Pete’s going toward Mechanic Street. He also
correctly pinpointed the last place Nick’s Red Hots had been
located below the bowling alley on Marilyn Horne Way.

THAT BABY: It’s been awhile now since we carried a report that a
one-time Bradford Era newspaper carrier, while making his
deliveries, had found an infant child. A caller, who was a
teen-ager at the time, remembered the story well and tells us the
baby was located on Brook Street off Interstate Parkway. We’d love
to know more of this story. If someone could even furnish us with a
date, we could explore our archives.

MORE ELK: Former Bradford resident John Lane phoned recently to
tell us the Washington Post had reported the Rocky Mountain Elk
Foundation was considered reintroducing elk in the state of
Virginia. They have been extinct in that locale since the 1800s.
That’s the same foundation which has been instrumental in getting
the elk viewing areas established in nearby Elk County.