MORE PONDS: Bob Funk of Smethport writes, “Smethport was
well-known for two ice skating ponds as I was growing up. The first
one I can remember was a small pond called the ‘Old Brick Pond,’
which was located on the big curve on the back road to Crosby
across from Ronald German’s seed business.”

“We would also refer to it as the muskrat pond for the mounds of
grass and twigs sticking through the ice — were they muskrat
houses, who knows, but we thought so. These mounds were a great
help in stopping someone from catching you in a wild game of
‘capture the flag.’

“They definitely tripped up a skater or two as they were chasing
you as you were trying to get back across the line with their flag,
which was usually some old stick you found. I never saw a flag
used.

“This area also had a tin building to put your skates on, and
later on, a large pot belly stove was installed. We could always
find some sticks and wood to keep it going.

“The second pond was a step up from the ‘Old Brick Pond,’ which
was located where Costa’s Supermarket now sits; it really never got
a name tagged on it. When the Borough fathers installed this pond,
we thought we had all gone to heaven.

“The Borough workers then moved the tin building and the pot
belly stove to the new location. Someone would always spray a new
coating of water on the old surface nightly, and we’d always have
fresh surface to skate on.

“We lived on a farm just up the road and would walk to Potato
Creek and skate to Smethport lots of time, and today, which is hard
to believe, we would never hit open water.

“Where the present trailer court is now, next to Costa’s
Supermarket, was nothing more than an old swamp, and we’d wind our
way through the swamp until we hit the ice skating pond. This swamp
was later developed by Paul Connors into the present trailer court
today.

“Those were the days; we probably never knew how good we had
it.”

PET PEEVE: Is The Bradford Era the only business in the
civilized world where live human beings — rather than a machine —
answer the phone? Judging by our experience, we’d have to answer in
the affirmative. It’s hard to imagine a current trend in America
more annoying.