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The Girl Detective Who Haunts Potter County Our Writer Unravels the Small-Town Judy Bolton Mysteries

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By Judith Sornberger

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Volume 17 Issue 7

12 Incorruptible in

The Girl Detective Who Haunts Potter County

Coudersport

By Maggie Barnes

Eliot Ness Museum and festival pay tribute to famed lawman.

By Judith Sornberger

18 Mother Earth

Our writer unravels the small-town Judy Bolton mysteries.

By Gayle Morrow Dirty little secrets.

22 Pop into POPS

By Kelly Stemcosky

Free concert in Corning features EMMF newcomer.

6 New Wheels? Nah.

By Jimmy Guignard

26 Lake Fun in the Wake of a

Bicycle Recycle takes Williamsport for a spin.

Bygone Era

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

Wine Country Classic Boat Show skis back to Hammondsport.

34 Back of the Mountain

By Deb Young Land of the brave.

16 Take a Flying Leap

By Maggie Barnes

Towanda’s Flying Taco Mexican Grill greets the heat.

Cover photo: Margaret Sutton, courtesy Lindsay Stroh; cover design by Gwen Button; (from top) by Judith Sornberger,

by Jimmy Guignard; by Maggie Barnes.

30 3

w w w. m o u n ta i n h o m e m ag . co m

LIFE’S MOMENTS US.

Editors & Publishers Teresa Banik Capuzzo Michael Capuzzo Associate Publishers Lilace Mellin Guignard George Bochetto, Esq. D i r e c t o r o f O pe r a t i o n s Gwen Button Managing Editor Gayle Morrow S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e Shelly Moore Circulation Director Michael Banik Accounting Amy Packard Cover Design Gwen Button

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Contributing Writers Maggie Barnes, Carrie Hagen, Jimmy Guignard, Roger Kingsley, Don Knaus, Dave Milano, Brendan O’Meara, David O’Reilly, Linda Roller, Karey Solomon, Judith Sornberger, Kelly Stemcosky cnbankpa.com/WealthManagement

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C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Helen Barrett, Bernadette Chiaramonte, Diane Cobourn, Bruce Dart, Michael Johnston, Mike Kissinger, Linda Stager, Sarah Wagaman, Ardath Wolcott, Deb Young

D i s t r i b u t i o n T eam Brian Button, Grapevine Distribution, Linda Roller T h e B ea g l e Nano Cosmo (1996-2014) • Yogi (2004-2018) ABOUT US: Mountain Home is the award-winning regional magazine of PA and NY with more than 100,000 readers. The magazine has been published monthly, since 2005, by Beagle Media, LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901, and online at www.mountainhomemag.com. Copyright © 2022 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail story ideas to editorial@mountainhomemag. com, or call (570) 724-3838.

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The Girl Detective Who Haunts Potter County Our Writer Unravels the Small-Town Judy Bolton Mysteries

By Judith Sornberger

S

6

ummertime, and the reading was easy (even in the steamy Nebraska heat) for a ten-year-old girl sprawled across an old armchair in the cool of her home’s unfinished basement.

I’d recently received a treasure trove of books handed down by my paternal aunts. They were mostly Nancy Drew mysteries, but also some featuring a less well-known, but equally spunky, girl detective—Judy Bolton. All summer I shadowed these adventurous girls as they solved mysteries and righted wrongs.

How thrilled I’d have been to learn that one day I’d live only an hour’s drive from where Margaret Sutton, author of the Judy Bolton books, grew up, basing the fictional town of Farringdon on her true girlhood home of Coudersport. Little did I know that one day I’d follow clues provided by her many enthusiastic fans to places, houses, and objects, hoping to further flesh out not only the girl-sleuth, but also her creator, Margaret Sutton (neé Rachel Beebe).

Nancy Drew was the privileged and glamorous only child of a well-off attorney. Her mother had passed away, and their black housekeeper Hannah filled in somewhat as a mother figure. There was affection between the two, but even as a ten-year-old, I knew what it meant that the housekeeper called the girl “Miss Nancy,” while Nancy simply called her “Hannah.” Although too young to drive myself, I envied Nancy her blue convertible sports coupe and rode along with her as she followed clues to their surprising conclusions.

But Judy Bolton seemed more like someone who could be my friend. She lived in a two-parent family like mine along with a sibling (a brother, though I had two sisters). And we shared the name Judy. Although her dad was a doctor, Judy didn’t have access to the unlimited frocks and fancy wheels that Nancy had. And there were no servants. Judy generally got from place to place by walking, riding her grandfather’s colt, or being driven by friends (or, in one case, by a kidnapper). Like her, nobody would be buying me a car of any kind once I had my driver’s license. I’d be lucky to borrow my family’s Ford station wagon.

was a carpenter, musician, and historian who wrote a History of Potter County. Her mother, Estella Andrews Beebe, loved to tell stories, so it isn’t hard to fathom where the young girl got her love of history and literature. The family moved to Coudersport when Rachel was nine. As a child, she had an imaginary playmate who later became the character of Melissa Smeed, and later yet was renamed Judy Bolton.

Dave Costano, president of the Potter County Historical Society, noted that Sutton was “way ahead of her time as far as a woman thinking independently.” In those days the area was “growing by leaps and bounds,” with lots of industry, including a clothespin factory, a silk mill, Anchor Toys, a basket factory, and furniture manufacturing. Rachel “saw a lot of single women in industrial settings working for low wages” and realized that, even with a high school diploma, “she wouldn’t be able to move up.” Becoming a teacher, like her two maiden aunts, was out of the question since, in those days, it would mean she could never marry or have a family (most school districts forbade female teachers from getting married). So, Rachel quit school at sixteen and earned a degree at Rochester Business Institute, later working as a stenographer and then in a print shop.

In 1924, Rachel married widower William Sutton, who had a six-year-old daughter named Dorothy. The Judy Bolton books were born as stories Rachel told Dorothy and later recorded in writing. (The couple would eventually have five more children.)

In 1932, when Grosset & Dunlap purchased the first four “Melissa of Dry Brook Hollow” stories (all dedicated to Dorothy), they became the Judy Bolton books. Not only did her publisher change her young heroine’s name to Judy, but they also insisted on the author taking on the name “Margaret,” since they felt that “Rachel” was unsophisticated. The author’s daughter, Lindsay Stroh, has suggested the real reason was that the name Rachel sounded Jewish, and there was a lot of anti-Semitism in those days. From then on, except to her family, she was known as Margaret.

Just the Facts, Ma’am

What’s a Nice Sleuth like You Doing in a Place like This?

Rachel Beebe was born in 1903 in Odin, Pennsylvania (about eight miles south of Coudersport), referred to as Dry Brook Hollow in the Judy Bolton books. Her father, Victor Beebe,

The Judy Bolton series (thirty-eight volumes published between 1932 and 1967) was the longest-running girls’ series See Detective on page 8

Courtesy Lindsay Stroh

Girl gumshoe: Margaret Sutton looks over a fresh page from her typewriter.

7

Courtesy Judith Sornberger Author artistry: one of Margaret Sutton’s drawings of Melissa, the character who later became Judy Bolton, and (right) another that inspired a mystery.

Detective continued from page 6

written by a single author, earning over $5 million. Steve Green, the affable CEO and president of the Eliot Ness Museum in Coudersport, was generous and enthusiastic about introducing me to many sites and sources related to Margaret’s life and writing career. He met me at the museum.

Why, you might ask, would I find Judy Bolton clues at the Eliot Ness Museum?

Steve explained that they were “two detectives of yesteryear,” which is why he found the pairing appropriate, albeit “one real and one fictional.” Like Ness, Judy “brought gritty determination to her work, while reflecting concern about social issues and sensitivity to members of differing socioeconomic classes and cultures.”

Steve’s mother, the late Marjorie Green, created the museum exhibit consisting of early editions of the novels, with drawings Margaret had made to help give her ideas for her books, and several photos of the author. In a charming one from The Potter Enterprise in 1962, Margaret signed a book for an adoring young fan, Jane Heimel (Metzger), as her mother Barb Heimel looked on. In the article accompanying the photo, elevenyear-old Jane is quoted as saying, “It was so exciting… She isn’t at all what I expected. I thought authors were, oh, I don’t know—

8

stuck up, I guess. She was so nice!” The Society of Phantom Friends, a group of Judy Bolton fans, added to the exhibit with the publication of the detailed and informative book A Guide to Judy Bolton Country.

The Case of the Vanishing Girl I followed Steve’s car from the museum to 202 Mill Street, the enormous brick, turreted, and towered structure locals call the Judge Lewis Mansion. The mansion, built in 1889 and remodeled in 1900 by Judge Lewis for his bride, is set on 2.8 acres and boasts six bedrooms, six fireplaces, a ballroom, and a guest house.

In the Judy Bolton series, it’s known as the Farringdon-Pett house.

We initially hear of the FarringdonPett house in that first book, The Vanishing Shadow, when fifteen-year-old Judy makes friends with Arthur and Lois, whose family lives there. Unlike characters in other series, the protagonist and her friends in the Judy Bolton mysteries age throughout books. We see Judy grow from a young teenager to a married woman of twentyone. The mansion is the setting for the double wedding ceremony for Judy and Peter and their friends Arthur and Lorraine in The Rainbow Riddle (1946).

As I stopped to take a photo, I met a young woman and her daughter. She

and her husband had recently bought the property and are planning to run an Airbnb there.

The Mystery of the Missing Headstone Our next stop was the Homer Cemetery where the author was buried in 2001. It was a sunny spring afternoon, and our drive to Inez was on roads curving through mountains budding bright green.

I’d heard the grave could be found at the top of the steep hill near a stone bench. I began feeling like a true detective when, after climbing to the top and discovering several Beebe monuments, I found no marker for the author. Hmmm. Then I spotted some writing etched into the base holding up the stone bench and got down on my knees to read: “In Loving Memory of Margaret Sutton Hunting, Born Rachel Beebe.” Margaret’s husband, William Sutton, had died in 1965, and ten years later she married Everett Hunting, thus the name on the marker. Her daughter Lindsay remembered walking up to the Beebe graves one day with her mother, who later left a note, reading: “This is such a steep walk. There should be a bench where people can rest.” That was how the bench, carved with “Come Rest Yourself ” became her monument.

It was a lovely spot overlooking the valley, and I would have enjoyed spending

the rest of the afternoon there, reading—what else—a Judy Bolton mystery. But Steve promised more adventure ahead at the Southwoods Farm Nature Preserve, also in Inez.

Killing Three Clues with One Stop As a girl, the author frequently visited her schoolteacher aunts Gladys and Marjorie at their home in Inez. We stopped at the beaver pond across the road from their house, the inspiration for The Puzzle in the Pond. While the original beaver dam is long gone, Steve pointed out an active dam, assuring me there have been many generations of beavers building dams there since Margaret’s visits.

Today Steve makes his home in the schoolteachers’ house and, with the air of one unveiling valuable clues, showed me around. A variety of treasures and artifacts were on display, museum-like, including drawings by his artist-mother and framed pressed flowers original to the house. Right off the living room and an enormous stack of firewood was the staircase believed to be the one in The Black Cat’s Clue, featuring Judy’s cat Blackberry (the cat’s fourth appearance in the series). Steve’s long-haired gray cat Smoky obligingly posed for us there. After climbing the famous staircase, Steve showed me his late mother’s room, kept just as if she still slept there, and at the foot of the bed, a trunk that “might have been” the one in The Forbidden Chest. It is certainly of the same vintage.

Judy and the Austin Dam Tragedy No trip to Judy Bolton country would be complete without a visit to the ruins of the Austin Dam, the site at the heart of her first mystery. The largest of its kind in Pennsylvania at the time, the dam was built across the Freeman Run Valley in 1909 to provide a steady stream of water for the Bayless Pulp and Paper Mill. Designed to be thirty feet thick, with an underground concrete slab to prevent water seepage, the finished dam was only twenty feet thick and, because it was deemed too expensive by the paper mill, didn’t include an underground slab.

The dam burst in 1911, killing seventy-eight people and destroying the paper mill, as well as much of Austin. It is said that the madam of the town brothel saw the water coming and was able to send out a warning that saved many lives.

In The Vanishing Shadow, Judy discovers the construction flaws of the dam (called the Roulsville Dam in the novel).

She overhears some men who are working on the dam—one threatening another to keep his mouth shut “about the dam…and about the pit.” Being a girl with a strong sense of responsibility, she realizes: “Some sinister plot was undoubtedly hinged on those words.” Since Judy and her friend Edna are the only ones who hear them, it is their duty to see that the plot is foiled. But how? After the threatening man realizes she has overheard, he tries to bribe her with a string of pearls, but Judy scoffs at him, saying, “I don’t accept bribes from you or anyone.” As the dam begins to fail, her brother, Horace, rides a colt through the town of Roulsville, Paul Revere-style, warning the citizens, and there is only one death—that of the paper mill owner. Later, “Judy seated herself beside the tree and turned the pages absently. Her own adventures that day had been as exceptional as any of her book heroine’s and she wondered, with an apprehensive shudder,

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See Detective on page 10 9

Detective continued from page 9

what might happen next.”

As I looked down from the highway over the dam’s ruins— like an ancient, half-toppled castle—it occurred to me that it must have been tremendously satisfying for Margaret to posthumously “save” the town of Austin. Today, the town’s historical society contains artifacts pertaining to the fictional girl, including a bow tie quilt that appeared in The Clue in the Patchwork Quilt.

The Austin Dam area is now a park memorializing the disaster with a marker naming the flood’s victims. There are hiking trails, and the lushly forested park offers eco-friendly camping, picnicking, fishing, and in August the return of a music festival. (Find out more about the park and its offerings at austindam.mailchimpsites.com.)

Courtesy Marisa Gunzenhauser

Visiting an Old Friend

(3) Judith Sornberger

EMMF continued from page 9

The Coudersport Library, founded in 1850, prides itself on being one of the oldest public libraries in the nation. Inside, it’s redolent of the scents of old pages and bookbinding paste. As I entered, those familiar fragrances plummeted me back into my youth, visiting our public library with my mother and sisters. The Benson Library in Omaha was situated in an old church, and in the summertime the lights were kept low to preserve the coolness provided by a rattling window air conditioner. I Preserving plots: (from top) always left with girls’ series books—more Nancy Dave Costano, president of Drew and Judy Bolton, and the Campfire Girls the Potter County Historical books. I also snagged a few Cherry Ames books.

Society; CEO and president The series was about a nurse, and later inspired of the Eliot Ness Museum in me to become a candy striper the summer I was Coudersport, Steve Green fourteen. points at the beaver ponds Library Director Teri McDowell greeted me, that inspired The Puzzle in the handing me a packet of photocopied articles about Pond; and the Judge Lewis the author and her protagonist. A former journalist Mansion on Mill Street, which appears in the books and may herself, she knew what I might find most helpful. I soon be an Airbnb. wondered how many times Margaret herself (still Rachel in those days) visited the library and felt the same anticipation I did carting home an armful of books that promised hours of delicious reading.

Although the Coudersport Library has a large collection of Judy Bolton books in early editions, they are not left out in general circulation, and patrons need to ask for them. Otherwise, the books are so valuable they might “just walk out the door.”

Teri discovered the series as a journalist covering Margaret Sutton events, and now she is hooked. Recently, her son called from a large book sale and asked if she wanted a complete set of the books offered at a remarkably low price for her personal library.

Did she?! When asked why she thinks adults still enjoy the books, she said, “People like to go back to them, like visiting an old friend.”

Teri pulled out some of the older editions with original book jackets illustrated by Pelagie Doane. She also showed me photographs of Victor Beebe, Margaret’s grandmother, two aunts, and one of the young Margaret as a flapper in a largeformat book titled Moments in Time: A Pictorial History of Potter County. The author? Teri McDowell.

10

The Plots Widen When I interviewed Margaret’s daughter Lindsay, her pride See Detective on page 32

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Maggie Barnes Chicago to Cleveland to Coudersport: uncover the story of the Treasury Department’s most famous agent.

Incorruptible in Coudersport

Eliot Ness Museum and Festival Pay Tribute to Famed Lawman

By Maggie Barnes

Y

ou can be forgiven for the double take in the center of Coudersport, Pennsylvania.

The Eliot Ness Museum? Here?

Nothing against Coudersport, which is the quintessential American small town, with a lively business district, unique shopping and dining, vintage housing stock, and a stately courthouse flanked by mature trees. But it seems an odd choice for a museum devoted to “America’s most famous lawman.”

Explaining it all is the mission of Steve Green, the museum’s president and CEO. “A lot of people think they know the story of Eliot Ness,” Steve says. “But some of what they know is myth, or just factually inaccurate.”

Steve has a crop of wavy white hair and the sparkling eyes of a man on a mission.

The museum is his creation—he’s assisted by a band of volunteers and donors. It’s a storefront on a corner in the heart of 12

downtown. You can spot it by the cutouts of flapper girls in the windows.

“Ness had three distinct phases of his career,” says Steve, in the happy cadence of a tour guide. “Chicago and Cleveland are the spots a lot of people know. And in those cities he was charged with fighting corruption and cleaning the bad guys out.”

Ness was not an FBI agent, as is popularly believed. It was his aspiration, according to Steve, but he was actually an agent of the Treasury Department’s Prohibition Division. This agency would eventually morph into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives that we know now as the ATF. Treasury doesn’t sound nearly as glamorous, but that money angle was what nabbed Ness’s most famous collar—gangster Al Capone who, despite being a murderer, went to prison for tax evasion rather than for shooting people.

Both men feature prominently in the

museum, which displays memorabilia and vehicles from the time and places their lives intersected. It features a 1925 Stutz touring car representative of Al Capone’s car, a 1929 Chrysler sedan similar to Ness’s car, a 1928 Ford Model AA bootleg boozerunning truck like Capone used, and a 1950 Hudson Commodore convertible reflective of what would have been driven during Ness’s time in Coudersport. The open concept museum even has a replica of the Al Capone Soup Kitchen—the gangster’s futile effort to redeem his criminal name.

Vintage furniture makes it look like Ness just walked out of the room, maybe to “let this jamoke [thug] get his stories straight!” Photographs, police and court documents, clothing, and firearms are laid out in a comfortable space that encourages you to linger. The more you read, the more you say, “I didn’t know that!”

Case in point—there is a connection See Incorruptable on page 14

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Incorruptible continued from page 12

(3)Maggie Barnes

between Ness and Stouffer’s frozen food.

But back to Coudersport. The final phase of Ness’s life saw him leave the public eye and make a foray into the business world, although he did not stray far from law enforcement. He was recruited by the North Guaranty Paper Corporation as the company was developing a watermark to secure legal documents and protect against forgery. The invitation brought Ness to Coudersport. The business did not succeed, and that might have been the end of his story.

Luckily for history, Ness spent a lot of time in Coudersport meeting with a writer named Oscar Fraley at the Crittenden Hotel (which is still standing across the street from the museum).

Fraley interviewed Ness about his career; the meetings resulted in the book The Untouchables. That, in turn, became a hit television series and a 1987 movie starring Kevin Costner as the lawman.

After only about a year in the community (as best the museum can determine), Ness perished Touchables: pose in the paddy wagon and tragically at age fifty-four, and in a relatively enjoy other handsordinary way, in a house in Coudersport that you on exhibits at the can see from the museum. He collapsed and died world’s only Eliot Ness at the kitchen sink while getting a glass of water.

Museum (open by He would never know that his work, his approach appointment). to law enforcement, his very name would become synonymous with integrity.

“He was incorruptible,” Steve says. “Honest as the day is long. He was the perfect lawman.”

Current ATF agents even make the pilgrimage to the museum to learn more about Ness, and the agency participates in the festival.

Ah, the festival! Ness is celebrated in the annual gathering that bears his name. The third weekend of July sees downtown Coudersport transported back to the roaring twenties. Costumes abound, the businesses decorate, and, in less than three days, the essence of the relationship between Ness and nemesis Al Capone comes to life in the streets. Capone and his band of baddies take over the town on Friday complete with shootouts. Ness rides to the rescue on Saturday, and Capone is tried in the courthouse on Sunday. The music and cars are historically accurate. There is even a speakeasy to illegally quench your thirst.

The museum also includes a lot of local history that may even surprise the locals. Steve manages to combine entertainment and education in such a way that you learn some history and are utterly delighted at the same time. Sometimes, a wedding party pops in to have their pictures taken amongst the collection of vehicles, which includes a police paddy wagon. Above all, the museum salutes a man who could not be bought, bribed, or bullied.

The Eliot Ness Museum is located at 1014 Southwoods Road, right in the center of the borough. It is a 501(c)(3) charity and doesn’t charge admission, but donations are gratefully accepted.

It is open by appointment and for special events like the festival.

Call (814) 647-8508 to make arrangements. Check it out on Facebook and eliotnessmuseum.org.

14

Maggie Barnes has won several IRMAs and Keystone Press Awards.

She lives in Waverly, New York.

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Jimmy Guignard May the circle be unbroken: Bicycle Recycle gets old and broken bicycles back in circulation.

New Wheels? Nah.

Bicycle Recycle Takes Williamsport for a Spin

By Jimmy Guignard

“Y

ou can come by Tuesday,” says Louisa Stone, who, along with husband David Stone, co-founded Williamsport Bicycle Recycle in 2012. “But we’ll probably have to talk another time. We’re usually pretty busy.”

She was right. On Tuesday, the place is jumping. Around fifteen people of various ages are milling about, looking at bicycles or working on one. David is finishing up a sale to a red-haired child of maybe seven who mentions that the brake doesn’t work.

David, who walks with a cane, rolls his office chair over to the bike, tests the brake himself, agrees, and says, “We can fix that.” He does.

“That feel better?” David asks. The kid nods, starts out the door straddling his bike, then stops: “I need a helmet!”

“You’re right,” David says, pulling one off the rack. “How’s that?” Helmet fitted, the boy and his mom say thanks and head

16

outside as another family—two adults and three kids—walk in. David welcomes them.

The kids, understandably, zero in on the kid bikes.

“I like that one!” a boy exclaims as he starts to pull it from the others.

“Hold on a second,” his dad says. “Let me help.”

The kid needs the assistance. Bicycle Recycle, at 1307 Park Avenue, is a big space, and it is jammed with bikes, bike parts, bike stands, bikes for sale, and bikes waiting to be “recycled” for sale. The main work space includes a desk, a table for checking donated parts, rows of bins holding spare parts, a work bench, and three repair stands. A framed Sports Illustrated signed by none other than three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond hangs on the wall. Past the work space is another room packed with more than sixty bikes waiting for new life. A mezzanine

running the length of the lower rooms and looking out on the parking lot through five storefront windows completes the shop and holds over forty bikes for sale, ranging from kid-size to cruisers to road bikes to mountain bikes. Art created from old bike wheels hangs in the center window. New bike parts acquired from local bike shops collect in one corner. Nearby is a table covered with a map of Williamsport cycling routes.

As Louisa recalls, Bicycle Recycle started over a glass of wine with David back in 2012 as they discussed a bike shop they had visited in Harrisburg. They wanted a bike vibe in Williamsport, and they needed to get people on bikes to make it happen.

To hear Louisa tell it, people on bikes build community and experience freedom, but not everyone can go out and buy the latest carbon fiber gravel bike (the cost of a highend bike can be ten grand). With assistance

from the Williamsport YMCA, David and Louisa started collecting bikes and parts, then asking volunteers to help repair landfill-bound bikes, which they then distributed to people in the community.

After moving the operation several times, they rolled their bikes into rooms in the Pajama Factory, itself a building recycled from being the world’s largest pajama factory in the 1950s into an artsand-community-based space with over 130 tenants. Bicycle Recycle has since grown and sells bikes—typically from forty to a hundred bucks. In addition to sales, Bicycle Recycle offers the Build-a-Bike program and the Earn-a-Bike program. Both programs teach people to work on brakes, wheels, gears, etc.

Like the young woman with black hair wearing a burnt-orange jersey and bike shorts who clamps a bronze-colored Trek mountain bike from the donated bikes section onto a bike stand. It’s her “project bike” and her goal is to repair it and take it home. Earn-aBike in action. She works on the rear wheel while Mike, a volunteer mechanic, guides her. He shows her how the wheel is not spinning smoothly and suggests she remove it from the rear triangle and check the bearings. Wheel removed, she and Mike look at it, and Mike realizes the rear axle is broken. He recommends a course of action and scoots away to help somebody else.

Another professorial-looking volunteer, clad in a white Bicycle Recycle T-shirt and apron-covered jeans, checks a donated bike’s tires and tubes. An incurable tinkerer, Steve volunteers his time in trade for parts for the semi-recumbent tricycle he is building at home out of car exhaust pipes and old bike frames. “I’ve been doing this for two years,” he says. “Louisa talked me into it. And I like to help.”

For over an hour, a steady stream of people make their way into Bicycle Recycle. Given the pandemic, this is not surprising. In 2019, Americans spent $6.1 billion on bicycles. After gyms closed and public transportation slowed, Americans spent close to $8 billion on bikes in 2021. Throw in supply chain disruptions, and bike shops couldn’t keep up. The Stones’ shop provided an option for people wanting bikes. And even though spending on bikes has slowed, the desire for them—as the stream of people showed—has not. Nor did the pandemic slow down Bicycle Recycle. Following Williamsport guidelines, the owners and volunteers masked and moved their work outside for a day each week so they could get and keep people on two wheels.

For Louisa and David, riding bikes comes down to freedom, self-sufficiency, and affordability. Louisa defined the two as “discovery cyclists”—people who ride to explore and meet others. This kind of mobility opens up the community in many ways. Since 2012, “more people know about us and more people are on bikes,” Louisa notes. It would be nice, she admits, if it was a bit easier to navigate Williamsport on bikes, but those changes take time. “We feel it’s worth it, so we keep at it,” she adds.

Like the woman earning her Trek mountain bike, riders know the independence of pedaling is well-worth the elbow grease.

Contact Bicycle Recycle at (570) 916-2940 or visit williamsportbicyclerecycle.org.

Born in North Carolina, Jimmy Guignard teaches at Mansfield University and tries to keep up with his family. Northcentral Pennsylvania reminds him of the North Carolina mountains, though with more bears and bald eagles and fewer barbecue joints.

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Mother Earth

Dirty Little Secrets

By Gayle Morrow

I

’m the first to admit I’m not the housekeeper my mother was, and to also acknowledge that her housekeeping efforts were sometimes hampered by my propensity for getting dirty. I’d come inside after making mud pies or climbing trees or riding a horse, trailing the remains of those activities and channeling Charlie Brown’s pal Pigpen. Pigpen suggested once that his own grubby exterior may actually have been the dust of ancient civilizations, but Mom never fell for that one when it came to me and my grime.

Some things have changed, but I still find it very satisfying to be filthy dirty at the end of a long day of working and playing outside. And somehow that dirt still finds its way inside.

Dirt, soil if you will, is a living mix of

18

minerals, water, air, and organic materials that miraculously combine in myriad ways to become something that supports other living things (us included). It is classified in profiles, series, and phases, with entire sciences devoted to it and its nuances. Soil scientists are pedologists, with pedology (from the Greek, naturally) being the study of soil’s physical and chemical properties.

There are lots of other “ologies” involved with soil science—geology, biology, meteorology, morphology, ecology, climatology, to name a few—anything that has to do with the Earth has to do with soil, and vice-versa.

A dirt profile is, the USDA’s Soil Survey explains, the sequence of natural layers extending from the surface down into the “parent” material—that’s the

stuff that hasn’t been changed much by leaching or root disturbances. Soils with similar profiles make up a series, and they’re typically named for a town or geographic feature where they’re first observed or mapped. Some of our local soil series names are Pope, Oquaga, Morris, Wellsboro, Lackawanna, Mardin, and Lordstown.

Series are divided into phases based on surface texture, stoniness, or other characteristics that may affect that particular soil’s use. Soils are also characterized by their drainage capabilities.

You’d prefer “well drained,” but a lot of us get stuck with “poorly drained” or the dreaded “very poorly drained.” Here in Tioga County we have some good soils— good in the sense that a nice variety of

things are inclined to grow in them and there aren’t too many rocks. Think the wide swaths of the Cowanesque Valley and the Route 15 corridor and the fields in Ansonia (unfortunately, those fertile river valley areas are also prone to development because they’re flat and easy to dig). We are also blessed with dirt that is not so good—side hill soils that support grazing but not much in the way of crops, and mountaintops with so little topsoil that you are obliged to marvel at the ability of trees, ferns, huckleberries, blackberries, laurel, and the like to eke out a living there.

Dirt is alive, and soil health is critical for continued existence on the planet—ours and every other living thing. But dirt is also the land, the place, and, in that regard, represents a host of other things. For all of my growing up years, my family made regular treks from our home in western New York to here—here being Tioga County, where all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins lived. “We’ll go down home Sunday,” my parents would say. It usually was a one-day visit, and for a kid who couldn’t read in the car (motion sickness), the drive, while just under three hours, sometimes seemed interminable. It helped to mark the trip with landmarks—there was Rushford Lake; the allegedly haunted house on the corner in Belfast; Wellsville with its gracious Victorian homes (and sometimes breakfast at the Texas Hot); the border sign in Genesee; Gold; Deer Park; Galeton’s narrow, winding Main Street (and sometimes breakfast at the Ox Yoke). Finally we were in Ansonia (and sometimes breakfast at the Great Valley Restaurant), where Mount Tom’s welcoming visage meant we were almost there!

If we went to Grandma Morrow’s first, we’d turn down into Darling Run. The dirt on this road was—still is—dark, often damp, and the foliage on both sides seemed like a cool, green embrace. The smell was of earthy, growing things.

If we were going to Grandma West’s, we’d pass by Darling Run, turn a little further up the mountain onto the Airport Road, go through Thumptown, and take a right onto what is now called the Kennedyville Road. It seemed always to be dusty, and the dirt was red (maybe Lackawanna soil, which the USDA describes as mixed red and brown sandstone, siltstone, and shale). It was distinctive to me, even as a kid. We didn’t have dirt this color at our home in Holland, New York, so driving up this dusty red hill meant we were at our other home. We were “down home.”

Early on in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, Gerald O’Hara is trying to explain the notion of love of the land to Scarlett, his spoiled, broken-hearted, sixteen-year-old daughter.

“To anyone with a drop of Irish blood in them the land they live on is like their mother,” he yells. She’s not convinced at the time. Some years later, after Appomattox and after Ashley Wilkes says thanks but no thanks to her suggestion that the two of them run away together, she realizes her father was right, that “how very dear” is the dirt of her Tara. “I’ve still got this,” she says, clutching a handful of that dirt and preparing herself to do whatever is necessary to keep it.

The love of the land, of a particular land, is not necessarily the love of dirt, but there’s a connection. I loved the dirt of Tioga County as a child, and still do. And the dirt on my floors? I can sweep it up with gratitude, since I do have a drop or two of Irish blood.

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! r i A e th n i s i Magic JULY 22 THROUGH

AUGUST 7

Friday, July 22

“Celebrate the Children” at Mansfield University— Movie Night!—Narrated by Todd Ranney 7:00 p.m.—Steadman Theatre, Mansfield University Sponsored by C&N Benjamin Britten .. “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” Luis Engelke ........ “Voces Lucis et Tenebrae (Voice of ............................ Light and Darkness)”(World Premiere) Florence Price...... “Ethiopia’s Shadow in America” Sergei Prokofiev .. “Peter and the Wolf Op. 67”

Saturday, July 23

“Dvořák Meets the Blues” Featuring pianist Wael Farouk 7:00 p.m.—Corning Museum of Glass Sponsored by Corning Incorporated Foundation Liszt .................... “1st Piano Concerto” Dvořák ................. Symphony #4

Sunday, July 24

“Bravo for America” “Airport POPS!” In Memory of Robert N. Dunham 2:30 p.m.—PA Grand Canyon Regional Airport, Wellsboro, PA—FREE Sponsored by Dunham Family Trust, BHE GT&S, Seneca Resources & Wellsboro Electric Company

Monday, July 25

“The Elegant Flute & The Beautiful Harp” Featuring Morgann Davis, flute and Melanie Mashner, harp 7:00 p.m. —Knoxville Yoked Church, Knoxville, PA FREE CONCERT Sponsored by Deerfield Charitable Trust

Tuesday, July 26

“The Royalty of the EMMF Brass Quintet” 7:00 p.m.—Williamson High School, Tioga, PA Sponsored by Deerfield Charitable Trust

Wednesday, July 27 7:00 p.m.—Deane Center Grand Community Room, Wellsboro, PA Sponsored by UPMC Susquehanna Ludwig Thuille ..... Sextet for Woodwinds and Piano ............................ featuring Greg Martin, piano Alfred Uhl............. “Kleines Konzert (Little Concerto)” ............................ for clarinet, viola, and piano

Thursday, July 28

“A Tribute to Count Basie” featuring the EMMF Little Big Band—A BYOB Event 7:00 p.m.—Deane Center, Coolidge Theatre, Wellsboro, PA Sponsored by Spencer, Gleason, Hebe & Rague, P.C.

Friday, July 29 7:00 p.m.—Steadman Theatre, Mansfield University Sponsored by Mansfield University, Guthrie, and Visit Potter-Tioga Balakirev ............. “Overture on Three Russian Themes” Mozart ................. “Concerto with Flute and Harp” A tribute to Irving Berlin—Conducted by Peggy Dettwiler with chorus and orchestra

Saturday, July 30

“Tribute to German Romantic Music” 7:00 p.m.—Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY Sponsored by Corning Incorporated Foundation Mozart ................. “Overture to Titus” Beethoven ........... Symphony #5 Brahms................ Double Concerto featuring Siwoo Kim, violin and Daniel Kaler, cello

Sunday, July 31

EMMF Brass Quintet “Through a Looking Glass” 7:00 p.m.—Cherry Springs State Park, Coudersport, PA —FREE Sponsored by William & L.R. Gale Community Foundation, The David G. Patterson Foundation, and SWN (For Park reservations, call 814-435-1037)

Visit www.endlessmountain.net for updates/changes.

Orchestra Concerts Fri. & Sat. • Chamber Recitals Sun. through Thurs.

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CLASSICAL/JAZZ CELTIC/BLUES CHORAL/PIANO TANGO/BRASS/POPS Wellsboro • tioga MansFifield • elmira Cherry springs state park knoxville Monday, August 1

Bram Wijnands, stride jazz piano and Jackie Gillett, clarinet 7:00 p.m.—Penn Wells Hotel, Wellsboro, PA Sponsored by the Penn Wells Hotel Dinner 5:00 to 6:45 p.m.

Call for reservations 570-724-2111

Sheng Cai- Piano Recital 7:00 p.m.—Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA Sponsored by Quality Inn of Mansfield

Tuesday, August 2

Friday, August 5

String Trio, featuring Hua Jin, violin, Philip Palermo, violin, and Greg Martin, piano 7:00 p.m.—Deane Center Grand Community Room, Wellsboro, PA Sponsored by the EMMF Board of Directors and Xtreme Internet

Wednesday, August 3

“Queen of the Slide Guitar” featuring Abbie Gardner 8:00 p.m.—The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY Sponsored by the Corning Incorporated Foundation (For the latest Health and Safety Guidelines, please visit https://rockwellmuseum.org/health/)

Thursday, August 4

7:00 p.m.—Steadman Theatre, Mansfield University Sponsored by Ward Manufacturing Camille Saint-Saens ......Piano Concerto #2 featuring Sheng Cai, piano Tchaikovsky...................“Francesca da Rimini”

Saturday, August 6 7:00 p.m.—Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY Sponsored by Corning Incorporated and Mountain Home Magazine Premiere performance featuring eight emerging Hollywood film composers, with accompanying video.

Sunday, August 7

Thursday, August 4

A Taste of EMMF in Concert 7:00 p.m.—171 Cedar Arts Center, Corning, NY Sponsored by the Corning Incorporated Foundation

“Two for the Road” “Corning POPS!” Featturing Anthony Nunziata, direct from Nashville and Broadway, with orchestra In Memory of Cornelius W. (Neal) O’Donnell, Jr. 2:30 p.m.—Nasser Ice Rink, Corning Civic Center Plaza, Corning, NY—FREE Sponsored by Corning Incorporated Foundation, C&N, Guthrie, The Rotary Club of Corning, Tyoga Container, and X-Gen Pharmaceuticals

To recognize the courage and plight of the Ukrainian people, Endless Mountain Music Festival will donate a portion of our 2022 festival season proceeds to their cause.

This page brought to you in part by:

21

Courtesy Anthony Nunziata Brooklyn-born, Nashvillebased, and Corning-bound: world-class pop singer Anthony Nunziata slides into this EMMF season with a free concert August 7 at the Corning Ice Rink.

Pop into POPS

Free Concert in Corning Features EMMF Newcomer

By Kelly Stemcosky

A

singer and an orchestra walk onto an ice rink…It may sound like the beginning of a joke, but it’s what audiences will be treated to during a free pops concert offered by Endless Mountain Music Festival on Sunday, August 7, at 2:30 p.m. Two for the Road—Corning POPS!—at the Corning Civic Center Plaza Ice Rink features a newcomer to EMMF, Anthony Nunziata. The critically acclaimed singer and songwriter is a recent winner of Album of the Year from Broadwayworld, which calls him “an explosion of love and entertainment.”

Stephen Gunzenhauser, EMMF’s founder and artistic director since the festival’s inception in 2006 (seven concerts in eight days for the inaugural season), also sings Anthony’s praises. “Anthony, every eight months or so, is coming out with new CDs, and they sell like hotcakes. He’s a wonderful singer and is somehow able to connect with any audience,” says Stephen, 22

adding with a laugh, “He’s doing this as a favor to me.”

Stephen is always scouting new talent to bring to EMMF, and has been known to tap old friends in the process. As Anthony explains it: “I did a private concert this past Christmas in Lancaster and he [Stephen] was there. It was actually an event honoring him and I was brought in as sort of a surprise performance. And immediately, he said, ‘Oh, Anthony, you know, I really want to have you in the festival this summer.’ So since then, we’ve been talking about putting together a program.”

Stephen’s friend’s performance is part of a dedication to another friend of more than thirty years. Cornelius O’Donnell, a beloved chef and fixture in the Corning area, as well as a long-time Mountain Home contributor, passed away last September.

“This will be a wonderful dedication. I hope everyone comes and celebrates the wonderful life he led, a man who always

had a smile on his face,” says Stephen.

Anthony’s goal for the performance, and his work overall, is simple: write great music and tell great stories. “I went to school for journalism, and I also trained in improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade for many years in New York City. I’ve found that’s just who I am, like how I’m talking to you right now, is how I’m going to be on stage. In between songs, I just sort of dive into moments from my life, or talk about things that happen during the show, so even if people are familiar with my songs, they’ll always get a different show from me.

And that’s exciting for me because we’re all there to just experience it in the moment.

I’ve always been someone who just loves to connect with people. If I can do that through my music, that’s doing part of what my mission is for being here.”

That clear mission has helped Anthony build up quite a résumé: two sold-out See POPS on page 24

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POPS continued from page 22

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concerts at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops symphony orchestra, a part in the Netflix film The Last Laugh starring Chevy Chase and Richard Dreyfuss, and original songs featured on MTV, Comedy Central, CBS News, NBC News, and Good Day NY. The Susan G. Komen Foundation is currently using Anthony’s “The Gift Is You” as an anthem. Anthony wrote the song in honor of his mother’s battle with breast cancer; she’s now cancer free.

The singer/songwriter/actor/storyteller is coming to the area by way of Nashville, a move he made during the covid pandemic.

“I was living in Manhattan for quite some time and I had been looking to do a move for a bit. When the pandemic hit, I think it made a lot of people sort of reassess where we need to be. I just asked myself ‘Where do I need to be to further fulfill my deepest desires and passions?’ I made the move to Nashville at the end of October 2020 and just sort of dove right in.”

The pandemic also inspired the album that earned Anthony Album of the Year from Broadwayworld. “I had written so many original Christmas songs during the pandemic, because that’s what you do to make yourself feel better, so I released a Christmas album in December of 2021 of all original songs.”

Anthony has several new singles coming out this summer, which will be available on Spotify and Apple Music. As for what audiences can expect from his live performances, Broadwayworld says, “Nunziata captures the authentic songwriting passion of a young Billy Joel combined with the soulfulness of Ed Sheeran,” and “It’s like somebody took James Ingram and Celine Dion and this man, Anthony Nunziata, was born.” The Chicago Tribune calls him “a winning combo of a beautiful tenor voice and comedic flair” and the Huffington Post dubs him “a nearly impossible combination of talent, stage presence, and charisma.”

His EMMF performance in Corning, accompanied by a horn section, drummers, and flutists, will be no exception. “My performance there is going to entail a mix of Broadway, classic pop songs, and some of my original songs as well, so it’s going to be sort of a representative of the crossover music that I do. I know Steve has some amazing orchestral pieces planned as well. We’re just going to give folks a great eclectic mix of music for music lovers of all ages.”

This is the first POPS concert in Corning, but, if attendance at past concerts at the Wellsboro Johnston Airport are any indication, to say they are very popular is an understatement. So, pre-registration for both events (the Wellsboro Johnston Airport concert is Sunday, July 24, at 2:30 p.m.) at endlessmountain.net/ program-schedule is requested.

“Pops concerts are basically music that is newer,” says Cynthia Long, EMMF’s executive director. “We get maybe 500 to 600 people who come to these. People get the opportunity to meet the musicians after the concert, so the festival is all about the experience. I think the audience appreciates getting to be up close and personal to the musicians who come from all over the world.”

Kelly Stemcosky is an award-winning writer who works as a newspaper page editor/designer. A Tioga County native, she spends most of her free time volunteering for animal-related causes and hanging out with her family and cats.

24

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Courtesy the Gordon Family

Double the fun: (top row, l to r) Lori Gordon and Gabby Doyle; (bottom row, l to r) Rick Gordon, Matt Doyle, Brooke Gordon, and Jen Gordon.

Lake Fun in the Wake of a Bygone Era Wine Country Classic Boat Show Skis Back to Hammondsport

By Lilace Mellin Guignard

A

hundred years ago, on July 2, 1922, Ralph Samuelson at Lake Pepin, Minnesota, finally—after several days of experimenting with a pair of boards and a clothesline—became the first waterskier. It’s hard to imagine what made him think strapping barrel staves to his feet and dragging behind his brother’s boat at twenty miles per hour would be worth it, fun, or even possible, but it started a wave that crested in 1972 when waterskiing was included in the Olympics as an exhibition sport.

Many folks associate waterskiing with Florida, especially Cypress Gardens. The 1953 movie Easy to Love, “MGM’s spectacular outdoor musical,” introduced millions who lived nowhere near a lake to the “sensational water-ski ballet” (the trailer is still available online). Mixed into the clichéd romantic plot were multiple boats pulling glamourous men and women through a slalom course of buoys, water geysers, and ramps, all the while dodging cypress trees. Sometimes the women were on the men’s shoulders. Always, Esther Williams, MGM’s “million dollar mermaid,” was dead center in her coral-colored classic 26

sheath suit, doing all but one of her own stunts though she’d only recently learned to water-ski for this role—and was pregnant.

Now that Cypress Gardens, once the “water ski capital of the world,” has become LEGOLAND Florida Resort, where can you go to watch water-skiers and feel the glamour and thrill of those MGM-era days? Well, Keuka Lake is a good place to start.

“This is a hand-me-down sport,” Rick Gordon says. “You learn from your parents, and you teach your kids.” Rick grew up on Keuka Lake, moved away, met his wife, Kim, came back in 1987, and had a family. When his daughters were four or five, he started teaching them how to water-ski. It wasn’t long before they were acing slalom skiing, carving back and forth across the boat’s wake. They learned handle doubles—when two people are on one set of skis—and ballet skiing—when multiple skiers synchronize choreographed moves. Rick worked from home, a home that was the epicenter of waterskiing for his daughters Jen, Brooke, and Lori, and the neighbor sisters, Illyana and Samantha Tallo.

“It was thrilling. These kids would stay over at our house Friday nights, and we’d go out at 6:30 a.m. It was the time of my life,” recalls Rick. Saturday evenings the other parents would sit on the dock drinking cocktails, and he’d drive the boat past while the kids showed off what they’d learned that day.

Ah, lake life.

Looking for more challenge, one February Rick, Lou Tallo, and the girls went to a think tank at the Wisconsin Water Ski Federation to learn how to do pyramids. They came home, bought the right equipment—the proper skis, ropes, and trick releases—and started practicing on land.

They’d tie ropes to a tree—three men with three girls on their shoulders—and worked on the climbing technique. Then they moved to the water, using a dock start. The men sat on the edge, skis in the water and girls on their shoulders, and Kim would tow them at 20–24 mph.

Speeds are faster for slalom skiing and barefooting (exactly what it sounds like See Lake on page 28

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HAMMONDSPORT Lake continued from page 26

and as hard as you imagine), reaching 60–70 mph. One reason Nick Xidis, who works at Keuka Watersports, thinks waterskiing has declined in popularity is because it’s harder to learn and hurts a lot more when you wipe out than if you’re wakeboarding or wake surfing—the newest trend. With wake surfing, you’re towed at 10– 12 mph till you’re up on the boat’s wave. You drop the rope and carve a wave that doesn’t end till the boat slows down. Boat rentals, some of which include skis, are available at 7 Water Street in Hammondsport.

You can also rent just the skis.

Or you can watch.

The Wine Country Classic Boat Show, back July 16 to 17 after a covid hiatus, gives you an opportunity to bring your lawn chairs or blankets to Depot Park in Hammondsport to watch water-skiers that Sunday morning starting at 9 a.m. The weekend will include boat rides, a boat parade, vendors, food, raffles, and other activities. What better place to watch novelty wooden boats and water-skiers than this no-stoplight town?

“Hammondsport is so Norman Rockwellish it’s ridiculous,” says Nick fondly.

Chris Galusha, who has a cottage on Keuka Lake and who can be seen towing as many as seven family members behind his boat, gets nostalgic when describing the early days of waterskiing and the gorgeous wooden boats that “were the cutting edge of engineering technology.”

“What a great time to be in post-war America, when people were building houses on the GI bill, making suburbs, taking to the open road,” he says. “A time of real possibility.”

Chris grew up going to Keuka Lake with buddies, and accepted pulls from anyone who had “a boat and a rope.” He proposed to his wife Beth on a ski raft wearing black shorts, a tuxedo top, and black bowtie. She thought they were doing a TV interview (they competed), but he went down on a knee. After she accepted, they did a celebratory ski. For lake communities, waterskiing can have the feel of old-fashioned promenades, where people go to see and be seen by those on the shore. They raised three daughters on water sports, and middle daughter, Emma, is ranked number two in the world as a semi-pro wake surfer.

Chris will captain the towboat in the show Sunday morning, pulling a party ski—the term for multiple people and ropes behind the boat. But you can often find him on a rope himself. “There’s really nothing quite like it—a great run on smooth water, cutting and leaning, carving and rocketing across the wake,” he explains, “because you have to be absolutely 100 percent clear-focused and in the moment. Going 30–50 mph, wipeouts have real consequences.”

These days, folks seem more interested in riding a tube behind a boat than learning a skill. But Chris thinks waterskiing will always have a place on Keuka Lake. With families like the Galushas and Gordons living there, waterskiing will be part of the lake way of life for generations to come. Maybe because, as Rick (whose kids still build pyramids when they get together) says, “You’re not going to grow up and tell your grandchildren about tubing.”

The Wine Country Classic Boat Show is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 16, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, July 17. For more information or to register go to winecountryclassicboats.com or email winecountryclassicboats@gmail.com. You don’t need to register to enjoy the vendors, activities, and waterskiing exhibition.

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Maggie Barnes

A chip off the old block: Ann Smith (left) and Shelby Burgess spice up a former bakery that is now a restaurant, bar, and game room.

Take a Flying Leap

Towanda’s Flying Taco Mexican Grill Greets the Heat

By Maggie Barnes

“H

ow spicy do you want it?”

It is a sultry summer night with a driving rain puddling the streets in Towanda. Two overhead doors are rolled up, offering reprieve from both the rain and the heat. Customers chat and dine while watching the Susquehanna receive fresh water.

At Flying Taco Mexican Grill, the question of spiciness is taken very seriously.

There are seven kinds of salsa, all made fresh on the premises. You get three varieties with your tortilla chips—you can pick, or entrust that matter to your server. There is an impressive list of available margaritas— try enough flavors and the tacos will take wing. Can you get guac and queso? What kind of question is that?

In business less than a year, Flying Taco opened during the pandemic and 30

under the ownership of people who knew nothing about the restaurant business. But the place has thrived in a way that beat all expectations. Even a rainy Wednesday sees nearly every seat taken.

“We were busy right away,” says Ann Smith, beaming at the crowd and the fullto-capacity bar. The place has an immediate feel of a neighborhood hangout. Customers run the gamut from date nights to families to folks catching some of the game on the bar TV. Ann and partner Shelby Burgess bought the building at an auction, sweating it out until the gavel fell. “My husband said if you don’t get this one, we will find another,” Ann says. “I said, nope, it has to be this building.” Formerly the Flying Cow Bakery, the restaurant sits on a corner one block back from North Main Street, near

the historic Bradford County courthouse (Towanda is the county seat). It has that river view, and also boasts upper deck seating with tables and games. Ann and Shelby have added a patio area for the good weather and plan to offer food-truck-type self service for munchies.

“That deck is so nice for lunch,” a diner relates. “We come over from the county building and it’s a wonderful break from work.”

Despite the complete lack of food service experience, the opportunity to open Flying Taco was too good to pass up. “I don’t want to have a lot of wouldas, couldas, shouldas in life,” Ann says. “This was our chance.”

Here, those chips that are ubiquitous to all Mexican eateries are light and crisp and just the right kind of salty. Tacos are made

welcome to the traditional way with corn or flour tortillas. Ask for a hard shell taco and you’ll get a sideways look. The Salsa Macha has a spice blend that sneaks up on you a minute later. But the touch is more of a kiss than a slap. Marinated chicken, blackened mahi-mahi, arrachera (skirt steak), and spicy pork are the offered proteins.

There is even an homage to the building’s former identity. The Flying Cow street taco is smoked brisket, diced onion, cilantro, and queso fresco, topped with pineapple salsa.

Portions are reasonable without going overboard, and there are many sides and extras if you manage to find more room in your belly.

“Custom made Mexican food—all fresh ingredients with a chef who knows true Mexican cuisine,” Ann says. The staff has the pedigree to pull it off. Shelby’s parents were raised in Mexico.

The chefs hail from San Salvador and Puerto Rico. The menu is in Spanish on one side, just to make things more accessible for all visitors.

The galley kitchen explodes with brilliant colors of fresh produce and fragrant spice. There is not a jar or bottle to be seen. As much product as possible is gathered from local sources, including the meat. The staff works in organized chaos, with a healthy dose of smiles and laughter. The happiness comes through in the food.

“You build your own meal by selecting the chips, the salsa, the sides,” Shelby says. “We use legitimate Mexican proteins, pork, chorizo, fish like mahi-mahi, and shrimp.”

Reference a popular American-Mexican fast food joint, and Shelby laughs. “My mother saw that they use ground beef. She was like, what is that? I’ve never used ground beef in my life.”

The Flying Taco strives to be more than just another restaurant, and the proprietors have given a lot of thought to the actual experience of dining out. A vintage shuffleboard game and pool table invite folks to make an evening of their meal and not just eat and run. Hand-mixed margaritas and cold beer make an ordinary night a party.

Ann is a constant presence among the tables, working the room like she’s running for office, taking pictures of customers and listening. She seems to know everyone.

“We get some great ideas from our customers,” she says. “The staff will often gather after closing and brainstorm new menu items, new types of services to add.” That includes an open mic night on Wednesdays, which is attracting a talented group of local musicians and singers.

“We want our guests to gather here, have fun, and enjoy the flavor explosion our menu offers,” Shelby says.

The Flying Taco Mexican Grill is located at 7 State Street in Towanda. There is a municipal parking garage next door, which alleviates a lot of the parking issues common to businesses that sit riverfront. Parking is free on weekends and after 5 p.m. on weekdays, and it is less than a minute’s walk to the door. The restaurant is closed Mondays, open 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. all other days. Call (570) 637-0348 and find them on Facebook, where there’s information on tacos, tunes, and tequila.

Maggie Barnes has won several IRMAs and Keystone Press Awards.

She lives in Waverly, New York.

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in her mother, not only as an author, but also as a proponent of social justice, was obvious. Her mother marched along with Martin Luther King Jr. in the March on Washington in 1963, she said, and she remembered her mother going to a reservation to do research for her 1951 novel The Spirit of Fog Island. Margaret had come home and cried and cried. The conditions under which the people lived on the reservation “broke her heart.” In the novel, the first to take place entirely outside Pennsylvania, Judy befriends a Native American girl and works with her to protect her people’s land. Judy’s compassion and activism came long before concern for Native Americans was widespread.

The same could be said of Margaret’s 1966 novel, The Search for the Glowing Hand, in which Judy tries to help Muslims who are facing prejudicial treatment and threats. I was fourteen that year and considered myself too old for girls’ mysteries, but if I had known that Judy was moving in this direction, I would’ve been intrigued.

I also would have been proud of Judy’s behavior toward girls who were less well-off than she was. In her newsletter/blogpost “The Case of the Neglected Girl Sleuth: Margaret Sutton’s Judy Bolton,” Sally E. Perry writes about Judy’s befriending the seventeen-year-old Irene in Seven Strange Clues. Because she must work by day in a silk mill to support herself and her disabled father, Irene attends an industrial school at night. Judy is sensitive to the ways working in a mill, studying at night, and worry for her father make Irene look and feel older than her years. Parry writes: “As Judy becomes more sensitive to the concerns of her millworker friends, she solves several mysteries related to their problems. Poor housing, unsafe conditions at work, and fear of unemployment seem to haunt them.”

Now that I know Judy better, I wish that when I taught “Women of Mystery” for the Women’s Studies Program at Mansfield University I had assigned one of the Sutton books as a text, rather than Nancy Drew. Or perhaps in addition to her.

Judy definitely espoused all the virtues of a feminist—one who believes in equal rights for everyone. And what fun it would have been for us to take a road trip to visit some of the sites where Margaret Sutton set her stories.

The last Judy Bolton novel was published in 1967, but Applegate books has reprinted them, and all thirty-eight are available in paperback. The stories don’t end there, though. Check out judybolton.com, where you can learn all about the upcoming Judy Bolton Weekend (October 6 to 8) in Coudersport, featuring a tour for Judy Bolton fans, a book signing with Lindsay Stroh of Letters to Live By (a children’s book co-written by Margaret and two of her daughters), visits to the Eliot Ness Museum and the Potter County Historical Society, and an awards ceremony for winners of the 2022 Margaret Sutton Writing Contest for Potter County.

Judith Sornberger is the author of nine collections of poetry and a book-length memoir. She is a professor emerita of Mansfield University where she created the Women’s Studies Program. She lives outside Wellsboro.

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B A C K O F T H E M O U N TA I N

Land of the Brave

By Deb Young

W

hen out driving the backroads of Bradford County, we were greeted by this patriotic display.

It was as if, after a long day in the fields, these tractors gathered to salute the land they worked—a reminder to us all to stop in our busyness and give thanks for our freedom.

34

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