Three Finger Lakes investigators plumb the paranormal
as the wind
Corning’s Second Stories
Sip & Savor the Finger Lakes
Curtain up on Blossburg’s Victoria Theatre
Matt Connor
Mountain Home Staff
By
Joyce M. Tice
A porker of a storybook character.
Lunker By Fred Metarko
A day when everything went right.
Lynn
By Matt Connor
The Kanellis clan, a.k.a. the Ghost Hunters of the Finger Lakes, explore the world of the paranormal in the Southern Tier.
Cinema Paradiso
By Adam Mahonske
The lights are finally coming up on a Blossburg theater that has been dark for forty years.
Strupp
Top: Ghost hunters relax after a tough day of chasing phantoms in the Finger Lakes. Center: After 40 quiet years, the Victoria Theatre wakes up. Bottom: Paradise for Winnie the Pooh: A honey bear haven in Millerton, Pennsylvania.
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Take a Bow
By Angela Cannon-Crothers
A local inventor comes up with a hands-free option for archers. 22
Mrs. Rushton
By Dave Milano
A peek into the realm of an aged landlady. 30
On the Trail of Good Taste
By Angela Cannon-Crothers
In the Finger Lakes, it’s all about scenery, cheese, wine, and cuisine. 36
Fabulous Flats
By Carol Youngs
Architectural renewal comes to Corning’s smaller spaces.
46
Back of the Mountain
Orange you glad it’s autumn?
P ublisher
Michael Capuzzo
e ditor - in - C hief
Teresa Banik Capuzzo
A sso C i A te P ublisher
George Bochetto, Esq.
M A n A ging e ditor
Matt Connor
C o P y e ditors
Mary Nance, Kathleen Torpy
s t A ff W riter
Dawn Bilder
C over A rtist
Tucker Worthington
P r odu C tio n M A n A ger / g r AP hi C d esigner
Amanda Doan-Butler
C ontri buting W riters
Kay Barrett, Dawn Bilder, Sarah Bull, Angela Cannon-Crothers, Jennifer Cline, Matt Connor, Barbara Coyle, John & Lynne Diamond-Nigh, Patricia Brown Davis, Steve Hainsworth, Martha Horton, Holly Howell, David Ira Kagan, Roberta McCulloch-Dews, Cindy Davis Meixel, Suzanne Meredith, Fred Metarko, Karen Meyers, Dave Milano, Tom Murphy, Mary Myers, Jim Obleski, Cornelius O’Donnell, Audrey Patterson, Gary Ranck, Kathleen Thompson, Joyce M. Tice, Linda Williams
P hotogr AP hy
Bill, Crowell, Ann Kamzelski
A dvertising d ire C tor
Todd Hill
s A les r e P resent A tives
Christopher Banik, Michele Duffy, Richard Widmeier
i ntern
Nora Strupp
b e A gle
Cosmo
Mountain Home is published monthly by Beagle Media LLC, 39 Water St., Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901. Copyright 2010 Beagle Media LLC. All rights reserved.
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The Last Great Place Hollywood’s Last Scribe
En Route to the Booneville Campground just west of Loganton, one passes through spectacular rolling countryside, massive dairy farms, historic covered bridges and, inevitably, strolling barefoot Amish children who will pause and smile and wave at you even if they’ve never seen you before in their lives.
It was the perfect setting for the Sugar Valley Historical Society’s annual “Good Ole Days” fundraising event, in which I had been asked to participate as a speaker on the topic of “The Great Loganton Fire of 1918,” a subject about which I had written in one of my weekly “Peek at the Past” columns for the Lock Haven Express.
In addition to the dubious appeal of listening to me blather on about Loganton history, attendees to Good Ole Days were entertained by strolling minstrels and candle demonstrations and participated in pie contests and children’s games and tasted fall-off-the bone Amish-made barbecued chicken and homemade ice cream.
It was the kind of day, full of crystalline blue skies and simple honest pleasures that made this transplanted New Jerseyian fall in love with the region all over again.
Sadly, when I returned home from Sugar
Matt Connor
Valley, I had a message on my voicemail that another transplant to the region who harbored a lifelong affection for the area had passed away.
James Bacon was born in Buffalo, spent his childhood in Lycoming and Clinton Counties, and lived much of his life in the Los Angeles area, but the city of Lock Haven remained forever in his heart.
It remained forever in his heart even while he was romancing Marilyn Monroe in the early 1950s, even as he consoled a weeping Elizabeth Taylor as she grappled with the death of her husband Mike Todd in 1958, even as he toured with Bob Hope during the turbulent Vietnam era, and even as he made acquaintance with U.S. Presidents from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan during the course of a legendarily long career in journalism.
James Bacon left Lock Haven and began covering Hollywood for the Associated Press in 1948. In those days he could walk into the MGM Studios commissary, sit down with Clark Gable or Lana Turner, and twenty minutes later have a column that would be read by millions of readers the following day. At his peak he was syndicated in 480 newspapers and had a book, Hollywood is a Four Letter Town on the best seller lists.
At the time of the book’s publication, his friend Farrah Fawcett was the hottest star in the world. She helped him promote it by showing up at Bacon’s Los Angeles area bookstore signings. Bedlam, and book sales, would ensue.
I first began reading Jim Bacon’s columns at Victor Vergalito’s barber shop in Whitehouse Station, N.J., where days-old copies of the New York newspapers could be found stacked up for customers’ perusal on the cracked linoleum floor near the chrome pedestal ashtray a dozen or so feet from Vic’s barber chair.
I was so young when I got my first haircut there that Vic needed to install a booster seat before he got the clippers out.
But even at that tender age, I was interested in Hollywood, spurred on by the beloved Abbott & Costello movies I’d watch on Sunday mornings
with my six siblings. Immediately after reading the three pages of comics, I’d turn to the Bacon column. I had my priorities, after all.
And even then the often outlandish anecdotes of James Bacon’s adventures in filmland had me fascinated.
I’m proud to say Jim and his wife Doris became friends during the last three years of his life, after I interviewed him and wrote a column about him. Afterward, we spoke fairly frequently over the phone, whenever I could come up with a decent excuse to call him. He was ninety-three when I talked to him for the first time and was still writing a column for an upscale Beverly Hills glossy magazine. I was in awe of him and told him so.
“I want to be Jim Bacon when I grow up,” I told him on many occasions, which always got a laugh out of him.
In March I emailed Jim and Doris about my cancer diagnosis, about which Mountain Home readers may already be aware. A few days later they sent me a lovely email in which they offered their support and affection.
“We do consider you a very good friend and consider you the best candidate to be the next Jim Bacon ‘when you grow up,’” they wrote.
I last heard from them just a few weeks before this issue of Mountain Home went to press. Doris wrote that in June the ninety-sixyear-old Jim was finally too frail to continue writing his column for Beverly Hills(213). After well over sixty years in the business, he was finally putting down the pen.
I thought perhaps he might make one last trip to Lock Haven before his passing. Doris told me often that he would have moved back to the city years ago had it not been for the fact that most of his family lived on the West Coast.
Indeed, mentions of his “hometown” of Lock Haven frequently appeared in his columns, and the city was fodder for a long comic back-andforth he had with Bob Hope, ending with an invitation to the Jimmy Carter White House
Bacon and Cheesecake: James Bacon with onetime lover Marilyn Monroe.
MOUNTAIN Ch ATTER
Creepy! Kooky! Spooky!
It’s the Lock Haven Ghost Tour!
As Halloween approaches, many of us develop a distinct urge to spend some time with ghosties and ghoulies and longleggedy beasties.
So for the fourth consecutive year, the Clinton County (Pennsylvania) Arts Council is giving people a chance to experience the paranormal first-hand with its annual Ghost Tour of the city of Lock Haven.
On Friday, Oct. 15 and Saturday, Oct. 16, residents and visitors will journey through the city and hear allegedly true-life tales of the supernatural connected to dozens of homes and businesses in the community.
The CCAC Ghost Tour will be divided into guided walking tours and bus tours.
Ghost Tour attendees have an opportunity to participate in one or both, as the two segments feature far different tales of the eerie and unexpected.
or business and of the ghosts that lurk there.
During the bus tours, held at 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on both nights, the host will narrate tales of the paranormal connected to locations beyond walking distance of the downtown business district.
During the walking tours, beginning at 7 p.m. on both nights, a “Ghost Host” will guide groups through the city’s historic district, stopping occasionally in front of allegedly haunted locations, where attendees will hear about the history of the home
All tours begin and end at the Clinton County Arts Council offices at 9 West Main Street.
As a fund raiser for the CCAC, a non-profit organization that promotes the arts throughout Central Pennsylvania, Arts Council representatives have asked for a small donation from each Ghost Tour participant to help defray costs of the tour and provide resources for future CCAC projects.
Adults taking the walking tour or the bus are asked to donate $4. To take both tours, participants may make a combined donation of $6.
Reduced rates are offered for seniors and students. No donation is required for children under twelve, but they must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Those taking the tours are encouraged to bring flashlights and wear comfortable shoes.
For more information, call the Clinton County Arts Council at (570) 748-0949 or visit www.clintoncountyartscouncil.com
Antiquing For A Good Cause
The year was 1963. The Ronettes and the Kingsmen kept turntables spinning, The Beverly Hillbillies and Bonanza ruled the TV airwaves, Steve McQueen and Cary Grant kept female hearts aflutter in The Great Escape and Charade and in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church held its first annual Antiques Show & Sale at the Parish Hall on Walnut Street.
“It’s such a long standing event, and we’re just happy that we have just as many people coming to it as we did forty-seven years ago,” said Carla Tardieu, one of the event organizers. “It’s very popular.”
Doors open at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 2, and with a modest entry fee of $3 (or $2.50 with a fifty cent-off coupon from one of the myriad area business supporting the event) attendees can peruse the merchandise showcased by sixteen vendors, all offering genuine antiques no reproductions, please from the daintiest estate jewelry to the most elaborate walnut Victorian settees.
The proceeds not only help replenish the church’s coffers but also benefit local programs like Relay for Life and the Food Bank.
“Every year we donate a part of the proceeds to a community outreach project,” Tardieu said. “Because at St. Paul’s we feel strongly about helping our community.”
Hollywood’s continued from page 8
for Hope’s seventy-fifth birthday.
Upon meeting the President, Bacon mentioned that he was from Lock Haven, and Carter, who had lived in the city as a young missionary, replied, “Lock Haven! It’s one of my favorite places in the world!” Hope couldn’t believe Bacon would involve even the President of the United States in this tired Lock Haven gag.
It was no gag, though. Bacon adored this little city. And so did Carter.
But a final trip to the Susquehanna Valley was not to be for the old columnist. Jim died in his sleep on September 18 at his home in Northridge, California.
When Jim first arrived in Los Angeles, about 400 other columnists were writing about Hollywood, including legends like Louella Parons, Hedda Hopper, Earl Wilson, and Sheila Graham.
Bacon was the last of them, and one of the best.
Rev. Canon Gregory Hinton of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church with prizes to be raffled at the church antique show.
Ghost Story
Spirit sleuths seek out spectres in
the haunted Finger Lakes
By Matt Connor
Areporter and photographer arrive at the abundantly haunted mansion—12,000 square feet of elegant parquet floors, elaborate fireplaces, stained glass windows, gold leaf wall coverings, ornately carved beams, a glass-encased solarium where palm trees once grew to maturity, myriad “secret rooms” and a quirky bedroom lined with alligator hides with a coffin as a centerpiece—just in time for the long shadows of twilight to begin creeping across the property’s front lawn.
Welcome to the Erie Mansion Bed & Breakfast, named for the nearby Erie Canal bed but perhaps a more appropriate spelling would include an extra “e” as in the “eerie” mansion. It’s the kind of place that might give even coldhearted skeptics reasons for pause.
Neither reporter nor photographer are necessarily cold-hearted skeptics. They like to think of themselves as open-minded about the paranormal without being blind embracers of all things that go bump in the night.
Then the “dowsing rods” come out. Dowsing is a non-scientific method of determining the possibility of everything from ground water to the presence of spirit activity. A paranormal investigator would hold two narrow, L-shaped bars in his hands by the short end of the “L” and wait to see what happens. Sometimes the dowsing rods cross, indicating some type of activity—it could be magnetic, paranormal, or even radioactive— sometimes they come together and point in one specific direction.
Standing off to one side of a large room in the mansion, where the investigators have set up their electronic monitoring devices, reporter begins jotting down a few long hand notes in his spiral pad. That’s when he suddenly looks up to find the dowsing rods have taken an interest in him. They’re both pointed precisely in his direction.
“There’s some activity around you,” says Pete Kanellis, one of an “All in the Family” group of paranormal investigators who call themselves “Ghost Hunters of the Finger Lakes” (his mother, brother and sister are also part-time members of the group).
“Um, I have cancer,” the reporter informs Pete. “Could that be what’s caused the attention by the dowsing rods?”
With that, the rods instantly separate. Nope, they’re telling us. Not interested in the whole cancer thing.
“No, there seems to be a presence around you,” Pete says.
Reporter’s beloved grandfather, Tony Canon, died twenty-three years ago, and the hole he left by his absence is still painfully felt by family members to this day.
“Could it be Tony?” reporter asks.
The dowsing rods close together, a seeming affirmative. Good old Grandpa Tony might just be hanging around tonight. For reporter, it’s a lovely, comforting thought.
A few days later reporter calls Peter to talk some more about his various investigations into the macabre.
“When it comes to haunted homes, we often find that homes are haunted by deceased family members, particularly if there’s someone in the home who is very
We often find that homes are haunted by deceased family members, particularly if there’s someone in the home who is very sick.
sick,” Pete says. “A lot of time it’s family members who hang around to look after other family members.
“When you said ‘Tony,’ the dowsing rods definitely crossed, and they pointed right back at you. When there’s a spirit around somebody, dowsing rods pick that up and point right at that person. I can’t control what they do. If you had a strong connection to Tony, that’s what usually happens.”
Ghost Hunters of the Finger Lakes is a group of adult paranormal investigators that includes Peter Kanellis, his mother Jane Kanellis, brother Chris Kanellis, and an occasional assist by sister Patty Kanellis. They’ve done about twenty investigations, some of which were connected to Peter’s public access (and Web) TV program, Discovery Paranormal, airing in the Finger Lakes region on Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Channel 13.
So what, they are asked, causes a place to become haunted?
“I think if someone dies too young, or from some traumatic event, like a shooting or a suicide… We cover a lot of suicides. These people leave things behind that they’re not ready to deal with yet, and they stay behind themselves,” says Peter. “Suicides are a big one. Anything emotional. We did an investigation connected to a train wreck a few years ago where thirty
people died.
“Things like that, big events, often lead to hauntings.”
The family has been “interested in the paranormal since way back,” Peter says. “I was nine or ten and used to go and spend the night at my grandmother’s house. She had this old feather bed, and at night we all used to lay in it and she would tell us all these ghost stories, these stories about seeing ghosts. These crazy stories about people going through walls.
“What’s funny is, we talked to other people in the family and we were the only people in the family to whom she’d tell these stories. Maybe she knew we’d be interested in it.”
After the Kanellises’ grandmother passed away, Chris lived in her old home for a time, “and from downstairs I used to hear furniture being dragged around and total chaos going on,” says Chris. “Then I’d go upstairs and find that nobody was there and nothing was out of place.”
Sister Patty lives in the old homestead today, and she, too has had a lot of “weird experiences.” Lights that go on and off by themselves, that sort of thing.
“The same thing happened with my radio,” she says during an interview at the Erie B&B. “It came on, and I unplugged it, and it still played even when it wasn’t plugged in!”
“To us, it was just deceased family members letting us know that they’re around,” says Pete. “We got used to it, so when people would call us and say, ‘The lights keep coming on and off in my house,’ my sister tells them, ‘I live in a house like that, so I know.’
The fact that the Kanellises have had their own experiences with the “spirit world” makes them particularly empathic with the clients who call them in a panic, afraid to spend the night in their own homes.
“They usually don’t want to say
Top: A ghostly image of a Victorian-era woman, photographed by Pete Kanellis at the Seneca Falls Historical Society Museum. Right: the “dungeon” of the Erie Mansion, featuring authentic Civil War period slave shackles
Page 13: Jane, Chris, and Pete Kanellis relax in the Eerie Suite of the Erie Mansion, where hundreds of alligator skins adorn the walls and an extensive skull collection decorates table tops and shelves.
anything,” about a haunting, says Pete. “They’ll say, ‘You’re not going to believe this, but…’ or ‘You’re going to think I’m crazy…’ Those are the words that come out of their mouths first, and I tell them, ‘No, no. We’re used to this stuff.’
“When my sister starts to talk to them and tell them she lives in a house like that, you can almost visably see them calm down. Because many of them are really freaked out.”
The team uses myriad electronic devices to try to monitor alleged spirit activity, or even communicate with the undead. But sometimes the best indicator that an unseen presence is in the room with one is the eerie feeling one might get on his neck and arms.
“It’s the creepy feeling of having the hair stand up on my arms, all the way up to the back of my neck, where you just know something is there, watching you,” says Pete. “Knowing something is there when you go down to the
See Ghost on page 42
Fearsome Four
The Ghost Hunters of the Finger Lakes have done investigations on over twenty private and public locations that are alleged to be haunted. Here are four particularly spooky locales that are open to the public.
The Erie Mansion B&B in Clyde: It has been the site of murders and an alleged beheading and was once reportedly home to a society serial killer who preyed on New York showgirls. It was subsequently a home for veterans and a boarding house, but few residents who survived the experience of living there (and several elderly vets spent their final days at the property) chose to reside here for very long. Current owner
Mark Wright purchased the 150-year-old, 12,000 square foot property for a deep discount, he says, “because nobody wants to live in a haunted house.” Even he won’t go into the basement or third floor alone if the lights mysteriously turn themselves on, as happens frequently.
Seneca Falls Historical Society Museum, located at 55 Cayuga Street in Seneca Falls, New York: The house in which the society now makes its home has a long and intriguing history. Originally constructed by Edward Mynderse in 1832 as a one-room wooden house, it’s believed by several museum employees that Edward—who died in 1896—is still a resident in the now-greatly expanded house. Casually referred to simply as “Edward,” the practical jokester-ghost has been known to toss about stuffed toy animals, remove thumb tacks from storm window plastic and lock out museum employees and volunteers once they’ve ventured outside. He also enjoys pulling books off of shelves. Museumgoers are frequently informed of his presence when they enter the museum, particularly during his more active periods, with a simple, “Watch out for Edward” comment.
Wayside Irish Pub in Elbridge: For decades, ghostly tales have swirled about this colorful drinking establishment, and it’s not just the alcoholic spirits stacked up behind the bar that give customers
Seneca Falls Historical Society Museum
Looking Back Freddie Lives On Joyce M. Tice
We’ve all heard of the Trekkies, devoted fans of the Star Trek television and movie series, who dress up in costume and have annual conventions. Not to be outdone, one of the literary icons of my childhood, Freddy the Pig, has his own band of loyal followers, and they, too, have an annual convention. I haven’t been to one (yet) but I believe they do not don costumes of their favorite characters. No Jinx the Cat or Simon the Rat impersonators attend.
Freddy the Pig is the creation of Walter R. Brooks who wrote twentysix illustrated novels from 1927 to his death in 1958. Freddy is the main character in all of them, and he is supported by a cast of animal and human characters on the Bean farm in upstate New York.
While these are intended for children, like Wind in the Willows, Charlotte’s Web and other socalled children’s literature, there is enough plot and subplot development, character development, suspense and humor to entertain adults as well. I enjoyed them as a child, and I am having a grand time reading them again. In fact, I think I like them even better now. The books are from 200 to 250 pages, and one can be read in an evening.
Mrs. Wiggins the Cow as his assistant.
Along the way the animals battle with a gang of destructive rats, as well as thieves, and scoundrels of all sorts, and the condescending attitudes of some of the local elite who prefer not to interact socially with pigs or other four-legged characters.
These books have been popular for four generations now but went out of print in the 1970s. Some librarians were photocopying their worn-out copies and binding them with duct tape to meet demand.
Along came the Friends of Freddy, founded in 1984, to the rescue. They worked to get all the books back in print. All are available in hardcover now and the paperback editions are either available or in process.
You can become a member of the Friends and receive the Bean Home News, an extension of the paper Freddy himself founded. Their Web page is http://www.freddythepig. org/. Synopses of all the books are here: http://www.friendsoffreddy.org/ bookstore/bookstore.html.
If you have not yet had the privilege of meeting Freddy, it’s high time you did. He’s on the Internet. He has his own Facebook page, and he is in your library or should be.
Freddy and his gang take a trip to Florida in the first book and to the North Pole in the second. He starts the First Animal Bank, a newspaper, a travel agency and anything else an enterprising pig can think of. He starts a detective agency with
Long live Freddy the Pig!
Joyce M. Tice is the creator of the Tri-Counties Genealogy and History Web site (www.joycetice. com/jmtindex.htm). She can be reached at lookingback@mountainhomemag.com.
OU T d O O RS
Getting Hooked
Inventor goes Robin Hood one better with the Bowhook Sling
By Angela Cannon-Crothers
The leaf litter is slick from the wet mesh of snow that fell before dawn. The bow hunter, walking carefully through the forest undergrowth, across the icy stream and over loose shale, spots the white wag of a buck’s tail above the gully.
He starts to hoist himself up by a tree root one-handed, already weary from carrying the heavy bow all morning. A bit of soft earth and rock begins to cave beneath his feet. Should he drop the bow possibly sending it sliding down slope and try to find a handhold for the other hand, or not?
This scenario might seem par for the sport of bow hunting, but for longtime archery enthusiast Randy McClure, the constant struggle of holding onto a seven- to eight-pound compound bow needed a better solution. Long days of target practice, hours of hiking with the arc of the modern bow in hand, and just getting into a tree stand were tiring on the hands, not to mention awkward.
“Hunting was a family tradition for me,” said McClure, who took up the activity at the age of twelve in the hills surrounding his childhood home near Mansfield, Pennsylvania. “I started archery in high school and got more serious into the sport about fifteen years ago,” he added.
An avid 3-D foam target shooter, McClure tried several bow holders, but none of them seemed to work very well. Being a natural inventor and problem solver (he’s been working at Corning Incorporated in research and development for twenty years) he got even more determined to invent something for himself after a hunting trip in the mountains of Colorado. “With all the scrambling up rugged terrain, I thought it would have been nice to have both hands free,” said McClure. “I figured there had to be a better way.”
McClure started constructing prototypes of some of his own models for a “hands free” sling over the period of two years before he was satisfied. His invention is known as the Bowhook Sling. His father and brother were some of the
Inventor Randy McClure (back to camera with a Bowhook Sling over his shoulder) with friend Danny Blodgett
first to try out the design and suggested he try selling them. “I’ve gotten great feedback from people who buy them at archery festivals,” said McClure. “Usually they go off and target shoot wearing one and then their friends come back to buy one for themselves.”
The Bowhook Sling has now become a part-time business for McClure and his wife, Kathy, who make all the slings by hand. The slings are made from two different sized webbings fitted through a center leather piece and come in an assortment of colors to match any archer’s outfit or hunting garb (even camo pink!). Two hooks easily attach onto the risers of the bow and can be used in whatever direction the archer would like to have the bow hang while keeping his or her hands free.
Their first sales show was at the Potter County Bow Festival in August of 2009, a little over a year ago, and business went well. “My wife is the better salesman,” said McClure, who is more soft spoken and modest about his invention. “When we go to shows and I go off to shoot and leave her at the table, she always sells more than I do!”
The McClures continue to sell at festivals and also market the Bowhook Sling at Ackley & Son in Westfield and at Barrett’s Bow Hunting in Horseheads. They have a Website where people can order a Bowhook Sling online at www. bowhookslings.com.
When asked what Robin Hood would
think of his invention, McClure simply laughed.
“Hopefully,” he said, “He would think it was a good idea.”
Angela Cannon-Crothers is a freelance writer and outdoor educator living in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
He’s hooked! McClure sells his Bowhook Sling at sporting goods retailers like Ackley & Son in Westfield and Barrett’s Bow Hunting in Horseheads.
The Lunker According to John Fred Metarko
My fishing buddy John Tomb tells a story about the Lunker that goes like this... in his words.
The call went out on Monday night. “Hi, Mrs. Metarko, can Freddie come out to play?” The answer was affirmative.
A large open bass tournament was being held on Keuka Lake, New York at the Penn Yan Boat Launch. Plans were made, strategies discussed and tactics decided. A lot of planning is needed to be successful in a large tournament. Fred and I were up for the task.
We signed in early and paid the entry fee, giving us time to check with the other anglers we knew about the water conditions. The start went off without a hitch. With more than forty boats it was exciting to say the least.
Fred and I were in a small boat with a small motor. The competition’s boats were much larger with 100- thru 250horse power motors. It took us one-half hour of hard running, hard for us that is, to get to our area.
We started in one of our best spots and immediately I caught a four-pound smallmouth bass. Four more of those and we would be in the hunt. After fishing for just a short time we had a five-fish limit. The amazing thing, they were all huge. Every fish we caught was a keeper. We kept increasing our total weight throughout the tournament. One was more than six pounds with the smallest at three and one-half pounds.
Days like this don’t happen often. We could do no wrong. Wherever we stopped we caught fish. Every bait we tried caught fish. Fred kept saying, “If we’re catching them like this, everyone
Days like this don’t happen often ... wherever we stopped we caught fish.
is catching them, too.” I had to agree and said, “But they’ll know we’re here.”
We weighed in our five fish and picked the largest one for the lunker prize. Then we just waited to see what other anglers had. Quickly we realized we had a very good lead. At the end we were victorious, taking first place and the lunker pot. Our total winnings were well over $1,200. Fred was ecstatic; he had never won a tournament this big, and could barely contain his excitement.
We left Penn Yan for the long ride home. Fred started counting the money. Now those who know Fred well realize that he is somewhat…frugal. Several miles into our return trip and after several countings, I said, “Divide it up. Fifty-fifty would do.”
After three more countings we reached Hammondsport at the south end of Keuka Lake. I said, “Come on Fred, enough already, just split it up.” Fred looked at me, placed a bill on the dash and said, “One for you; one, two for me.”
I gave up. It was a very long ride home.
The Lunker is a member of the Tioga County Bass Anglers (www.tiogacountybassanglers.com). Contact him at lunker@mountainhomemag.com.
The Mystery of Mrs. Rushton
A doorway into a bygone age opens, briefly
By Dave Milano
Mrs. Rushton lived in a magnificent, rambling old house, chock-a-block with rooms and passageways and staircases. It was a glorious house when I knew it, and had been even more so years earlier—before Mrs. Rushton’s husband died and she transformed it into five apartments. That act lowered the place’s social and architectural status (and likely undid a bit of Mrs. Rushton’s status as well).
The largest apartment essentially the front half of the building Mrs. Rushton kept for herself and her adult son, who had died in a car accident before the project was even completed, leaving Mrs. Rushton alone in the big place, except for the tenants behind her. For two of those years I was one of those tenants, Apartment C, second floor rear.
Mrs. Rushton was a good landlady, and very private. She kept the place in good repair, said little, and seldom showed herself. Few entered her realm, and she rarely ventured out. She did not drive, she paid a caretaker to keep the yard, and on the uncommon occasion of meeting a tenant or a neighbor face to face, she would be only polite, and offered the least possible conversation.
Because of her reticence, Mrs. Rushton became an object of intense curiosity. “What does she do in there?” we tenants would ask. “What would she be like,” we wondered, “if you got to know her?”
For me, Mrs. Rushton’s secret life was wrapped up somehow into the mysterious, meandering halls of the big house. My
feeling was magnified by a doorway (always locked from the other side) between my apartment and hers, which produced in me the eerily pleasant sense of being almost a party to the mysterious.
Passing through that door was forbidden, of course, except one day when my porch was being repaired, and Mrs. Rushton unlocked it, and permitted me to share her own side entrance. I stepped from my space into hers a bit apprehensively, to see a grand hallway decorated with heavy, dark wallpaper, oddly balanced by bright, broad, white trim, and a single, large, curtainless window. An open stairway emerged from the middle of the hall, with turned balusters and a delicate, curved railing.
An antique grandfather clock was the only furniture. It seemed to stand sentry, assuring that all who passed maintained proper deference.
Exiting through my newly open portal that afternoon I noticed an open door on Mrs. Rushton’s side of the hall, exposing the interior of what looked like a boy’s bedroom. There was an unmade bed, a chair with clothing tossed over the back, and a desk strewn with papers. Gentle scuffing noises came from within, and then I saw Mrs. Rushton, busily cleaning the room with an old-fashioned feather duster.
I stepped back furtively, but she did not look my way, and I did not avert my eyes. I watched as she methodically flicked the duster across walls,
windowsills, and furniture, making no attempt to tidy anything, yet meticulously dusting every surface. I watched as she whisked over the rumpled bed linens, the chair, and the desk.
I watched as she placed a careful finger on the papers, holding them still against the bustling feathers. And I watched as she accidentally knocked a pencil onto the floor, bent immediately to retrieve it, returned it to its spot, and then, after giving the pencil a quizzical look, adjusted its position.
I saw all this, then I backed into my apartment and softly, sadly, closed the door on the bygone age that Mrs. Rushton could neither rescue nor release.
Dave Milano is a former suburbanite turned part-time Tioga County farmer. You can contact him at someplacelikehome@ mountainhomemag.com.
Be certain Your “Petition” for DSL Service Counts!
1. Complete ALL information requested on the BFRR form.
2. Complete one form for EACH TELEPHONE LINE in your home.
3. The form must be submitted with your original signature.
4. Mail the completed form to: PCEC, 20 Bridge Street, Galeton, PA 16922
5. Any questions, please call the Potter County Education Council at 814 -435-9490.
6. If you would like to contact residents in your community and become a community aggregator, please contact the Potter County Education Council at 814 -435-9490.
Why am I being asked to send this form to the Potter County Education Council instead of the phone company?
The Potter County Education Council, working with the PA eCommerce Association , is providing demand aggregation services under a Broadband Outreach and Aggregation Fund grant administered through the PA Department of Community and Economic Development to assist communities in completing the BFRR process. Sending this form directly t o us allows us to:
1. Retain a copy so to assure that no BFRR forms are lost.
2. Certify the date the form was delivered to the phone company.
3. Confirm the number of BFRR forms received from any particular community.
4. Monitor phone company compliance with the terms of the BFRR program.
5. Assist in the Commonwealth’s efforts to map demand for broadband services.
Bona Fide Retail Request (BFRR) Form
20-1926
6-10
If you are within the service area of Verizon and high - speed Internet service (such as DSL) is not currently available to you, you may submit this form asking that it be made available to your Carrier Serving Area. If the threshold of 50 customers or 25% of the retail access lines, whichever is less, in your Carrier Serving Area request high- speed Internet service, then Verizon must provide this service within one year. The only exception is when the total number of BFRR deployments exceeds 40 over a 12 month period (or 20 deployments requiring significant construction work or property acquisition); then up to 12 additional months may be required to provide service. By submitting this form, you agree to purchase highspeed Internet service for one year, once it becomes available, subject to your agreement with the price and terms for the se rvice. You may subscribe to high-speed Internet service from any Internet Service Provider (ISP) serving your are a.
To help bring high-speed Internet service to your area, you must complete, sign and date this form and return it to Verizon. Verizon will provi de written confirmation within 30 days of receiving your BFRR form. Within 30 days of meeting the threshol d in your service area, Verizon will provide notification of the expected date of high- speed Internet service availability. See the “Frequently Asked Questions” on our website for more information.
Yes, I would like to participate in the BFRR program.
Service Address
I am a: Residence Business
Customer/ Business Name:
Contact person:
Service Telephone Number: - -
Phone:
Email:
*Account Number:
*Your account number can be located on the first page of your bill. It is a thirteen digit number consisting of your billing telephone number plus a three digit code.
Street Address Line 1 : (No PO Boxes)
Street Address Line 2 : (No PO Boxes)
Unit:
City:
PA
Email Address (if available, include for prompt response):
Mailing Address:
Same as Service Address
Street Address Line 1:
Street Address Line 2:
Commitment to Purchase
If Verizon makes high-speed Internet service available in my community as a result of the BFRR program, I agree to purchase it from an ISP in my area for one year. My commitment is based on an understanding that where high -speed Internet service is currently available, ISPs offer packages with varying speeds and prices. Currently, prices for high-speed Internet service start at under $20 per month.
I understand that I will not begin to be billed unless and until the service is actually provided to me.
Signature:
Contact Number:
Date:
I am interested in being an aggregator and would like to receive information on how I c an sign-up others in my Carrier Serving Area for this program.
Aggregator ID# (if available):
Please return this form to:
IMAGING CENTER – BFRR
P.O. Box 33078
St. Petersburg, FL 33733-8078
If you have questions about this program, please go to https://www22.verizon.com/ForYourHome/BFRR or call the Toll free contact number shown on your telephone bill.
BFRR Frequently Asked Questions & How to Submit Your Request
Q: What is the Bona Fide Retail Request Program?
A: The Pennsylvania legislature recently enacted a new law instructing Verizon and other telephone c ompanies to give their Pennsylvania customers an opportunity to complete a Bona Fide Retail Request (BFRR) for highspeed Internet service. This program may speed high-speed Internet service deployment to your immediate area, but it also requires that you commit to purchase high-speed Internet service for a year. Under this program, if 50 customers or 25% of the retail access lines in your Carrier Serving Area , whichever is less, commit to purchase high-speed Internet service for a minimum of one year, Verizon will provide high-speed Internet service in that area within 12 months. Through the BFRR program, Verizon will make high-speed Internet service available in up to 40 Carrier Serving Areas each year.
Q: What is my ”Carrier Serving Area” as referred to on the BFRR form?
A: Verizon service areas are divided into specific geographic areas by Verizon engineers. These areas are where a remote terminal (called remote because it is located some distance from the central switching office) would be placed to serve high-speed Internet service to all lines in that specific area. Typically, a Carrier Serving Area will be all the homes and businesses within approximately 2 miles of one of these terminals.
Q: What is sufficient demand for high-speed Internet service?
A: Sufficient demand is achieved when at least 50 customers (business and residence) in a Carrier Serving Area, or 25% of the retail access lines there, whichever is less, make a commitment to purchase high-speed Internet service for at least one year.
Q: What if there isn’t sufficient demand for high-speed Internet service ?
A: Verizon may still provide high-speed Internet service to your Carrier Serving Area according to its normal plan to provide this service. The BFRR program allows custome rs in a Carrier Serving Area with sufficient demand for high-speed Internet service to accelerate Verizon’s plans so that high-speed Internet service is made available to that Carrier Serving Area sooner than Verizon may have planned.
Q: When will I get high-speed Internet service after submitting a BFRR form?
A: Once 50 customers or 25% of the retail access lines in your Carrier Serving Area submit BFRR forms, Verizon will begin plans to provide high-speed Internet service to you r area so that it is available within one year. The only exception would be where the total number of BFRR deployments exceeds 40 over a 12 month period (or 20 deployments requiring significant construction work or property acquisition ).
Q: How long will Verizon keep my BFRR form on file?
A: Verizon will keep your BFRR form on file until Verizon makes high-speed Internet service available in your Carrier Serving Area
Q: What happens if I move or change my mind afte r I have submitted a BFRR form?
A: If you change your mind after you submit a BFRR form, contact Verizon and the company will remove your request from file You will be under no further obligation to purchase high -speed Internet service.
Q: Is there a number I can call to check on the progress in my area?
A: Verizon will provide written acknowledgement that it has received you request . Once sufficient demand is achieved in your Carrier Serving Area , Verizon will notify you and provide information on what the next steps are. You may call the toll-free contact number shown on your telephone bill for more information.
Q: What if I want to solicit other customers in my Carrier Serving Area to create sufficient demand?
A: In most cases, the best way to do this is to encourage your neighbors to visit Verizon’s BFRR website, https://www22.verizon.com/ForYourHome/BFRR , and complete a BFRR form If you would like to officially promote the BFRR program, check the appropriate box on the BFRR form indicating your interest in serving as an aggregator in your Carrier Serving Area .
Q: What are the next steps to become a BFRR aggregator?
A: After Verizon receive s your completed BFRR form, it will send you detailed instructions on the process to follow in soliciting others in your Carrier Serving Area as an aggregator . Potential aggregators must also execute a written agreement releasing Verizon from liability as they per form aggregator activities. Once the potential aggregator completes and returns this document, Verizon will provide him or her with the relevant Carrier Serving Area boundaries and a BFRR Official Aggregator ID#.
Q: Can I submit a BFRR form to get Verizon Fios Internet Service?
A: No, services utilizing fiber optics are specifically exempt from the BFRR program.
Q: Can I submit more than one BFRR form under the same telephone number?
A: No, duplicate forms will be discarded. However, you can place a separate request for more than one highspeed Internet service in the same business or residence.
Q: Can I submit a BFRR request to get high-speed Internet at my out-of-state property?
A: The BFRR program is only available to current Verizon customers at locations within the state of Pennsylvania.
Q: How do I submit a BFRR form?
A: Complete the preceding form and mail it to Verizon at Verizon Imag ing Center – BFRR, P.O. Box 33078, St. Petersburg, FL 33733 -8078
The Better World Barbarians at bay John & Lynne diamond-Nigh
Vapor trails like pink crepe streamers crossed an aqua sky what every baseball evening should be. As if I knew. This was my first major league game. Not so for Lynne, who had tripped along as a blossom-cheeked kid to numberless games with her Yankees-loving uncle. Still, it would be a thrill for us both. Blue Jays against the Yankees. Jeter, Teixeira, Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay in the flesh.
As the Yankees took the field, a low thunder of boos pealed out of the stands. Behind us, then, eight or ten drunken ruffians started braying their smutty, partisan psalms. Yankees suck. Go home, you #@^&* Yankees. We hate you. Jeeeetarr sucks. A prim lady beside us clapped for an impossible, angel-aided catch by Teixeira. The psalmists got personal. We hate evvvv-ree bud-eeee from New York.
ten or so years ago, met us as we were wrapping up business at a gallery on Queen Street. He had just returned home to Toronto after living in Japan for eight years. As chivalrous, bright, and boyishly buoyant as ever, he asked what we’d like to eat for lunch. Dim sum, I proposed.
When tea arrived, Rob poured us each a cup. After that, our cups were never empty. Rob asked what Lynne would like, then set about constructing from the complex Chinese menu a sequence of delicacies that suited her taste to a T. When chopsticks failed to deliver an elusive noodle to our lips, Rob was on his feet to get us forks.
About manners: “more people live in Tokyo than live in all of Canada. They have to get along. There’s just no room for clutter, either of things or disrespectful manners.” I mention the
Time to summon the cops and then find other seats. This was flat-out depravity. Junk humanity.
You suck. We hate you. Ma-duuuum lyebrarian, go back to your *^#!-ing books. We hate you. Time to summon the cops and then find other seats. This was flatout depravity. Junk humanity.
Leaving the game, we wonder aloud about a subject that is often wondered about these days is our world getting more and more infantile? Have the slow growth rings of character given way to the sleepless heat of gratification? We drink it. We watch it. We rave it. We text it. We screw it. We smoke it. We shoot it up. The barbarians at the gate may be our own waxing immaturities.
Next morning, Rob, our student from
many Japanese designers I admire simple, modern, clutterless uncluttered. Good design and good behavior just go hand in hand. My creed.
About baseball: “do they boo opposing teams?” “Never; they would never do that.”
Rob walks with us to our car, hugs us warmly. “Every mother’s dream of a sonin-law,” Lynne murmurs.
Perhaps the barbarians aren’t quite as close to the gate.
John writes about art and design at serialboxx. blogspot.com. Lynne’s website, aciviltongue. com, is dedicated to civility studies.
A RTS & L EISURE
Matinee Makeover
A second act for a historic Blossburg movie theater
By Dr. Adam Mahonske
Americans have a deep and century-long affection for movies and the theaters that show them. Great films like Cinema Paradiso and The Majestic paint a beautiful and compelling picture about life at the movie house and celebrate the movie culture.
And it is not just about what happens on the screen. It’s also about what happens in front of the screen in the darkened house.
The dramas playing out in screen fantasies may be paralleled in real time in the audience: having a rousing time with brothers, sisters, and friends as some action hero does the impossible; holding a hand, kissing, and falling in love for the first time; taking your own children and watching the delight on their faces that sweetly reminds you of your own childhood; sharing common, big emotions with a room full of people. For many, the movie theater is the nexus of fantasy and reality.
So when an old and venerable theater
comes back to life, it’s reason for celebration, and, perhaps, a story like this one could only happen today in small-town America.
The affable Pete Gorda of Wellsboro, said he “just liked the building” when asked why he took on the purchase and resurrection of this long dark movie theater in Blossburg called the Victoria. Pete loves to bring old homes and buildings back to life and hates to see good things go to waste. Pete, his charming wife, Pat, family, friends, and contractors have breathed new life into this space, dark and silent for about forty years, but with a long, rich history in the community.
The Victoria opened in 1920, and in 1929, brothers Jack and Martin Meyer of Lock Haven acquired the building. Martin grew up with the industry traveling the region with a tent and truck, an old projector, and a bed sheet for a screen, showing silent films.
He became the sole owner of the Victoria in 1935 and ran the theater until his death in 1948. His widow, Mrs. Rose
Peeling-Meyer, assumed the operation of the theater until her death in 1963.
Always helping and growing up in the theater were their three daughters, Audrey, Mary, and Barbara, teachers of music, English, and dance respectively.
The sisters oversaw a major renovation in 1965, but sadly, television, the changing fortunes of small theaters in small towns, and, perhaps as importantly, civility led to the closing of the Victoria a few years later in 1968.
The refined and educated sisters felt that people had lost their sense of occasion and insisted that their audience dress for the theater; the audience failed to respond and the sisters closed the venue.
And while the resurrection excites Pete Gorda, operating a movie theater does not. That responsibility will fall to his daughter and son-in-law, Tonya and Tom McNamara of Blossburg. By day, Tonya is in charge of cardiac rehabilitation at Soldiers and Sailors Hospital and Tom is a retired teacher
from the Liberty schools.
Shoulder to shoulder with Pete and Pat, they removed debris, cleaned the screen, painted walls, ceilings and trim, learned how to operate a popcorn machine, how to thread/operate a turntable projector and splice film that comes on many reels, how to work with film distributors, and on and on.
With Tonya selling tickets and projecting while Tom runs concessions and greets, they will offer a personal, connected experience that has long since disappeared in larger urban and suburban theaters.
They also plan to offer the space for non-cinematic functions.
They view it as a community space for meetings, events and concerts on nights not scheduled for films. They hope the Victoria’s reopening will mark one more step in the revival of the larger Blossburg community.
Adam Mahonske is a classical pianist/college professor living in Baltimore, but his roots and heart are in Tioga County. He is a firsttime contributor to Mountain Home.
Above left: The Victoria Theatre’s center aisle and stage Top right: The theatre’s Art Deco concession stand Above right and below left: memorabilia from the glory days of the Victoria, which entertained Blossburg residents from 1920 until its closing in 1968. Facing page L to R: Pat and Pete Gorda, Tonya and Tom McNamara.
F OO d & dRINK
The Trail to Bountiful
The terroir of the Finger Lakes yields its culinary treatures
By Angela Cannon-Crothers
Imagine hundreds of family-owned farms and small businesses joined together to promote their artisanal products originating from the same soils, climate, and region. It’s what the French call, terroir; a perfect blend of food and drink with a geographical “sense of place.”
Add crystalline waters and scenic views to these fresh cheeses, gourmet meals, and fine wines, and you have the Finger Lakes wine, cuisine and cheese trails of New York state.
“The beauty is in pooling resources in one message,” says Christina Chely, a marketing and public relations manager for Finger Lakes Wine Country. “All the trails started at different times and have a long history.”
So long in fact, that the Finger Lakes wine trails include one of the first wine trails in the United States. And recently, new trails promoting the abundance of farm fresh produce—along with tourism and viticulture have been adding new flavors to the region.
“In 2001 the price of milk dropped and many of our dairy farms in the county were suffering,” says Kelsey Jones, executive director of the Schuyler County Partnership for Economic Development. “So in ’01-’02 we got funding and did a Cheeses and Other Value-Added Dairy Products Market and Feasibility Analysis with Cornell Cooperative Extension and got several dairies involved. From there we began having more meetings and get-togethers and started the Finger Lakes Cheese Trail.” Two of the original study farms are still part of the trail – Sunset
October 9-10 & December 11
(Most shops open weekends only)
Sunset View Creamery
4970 County Road 14, Odessa, NY 607-594-2095
Finger Lakes Farmstead Cheese 5491 Bergen Road, Trumansburg, NY 607-387-3108
Hillcrest Dairy 66 Aurora Street, Moravia, NY 315-497-0659
Keeley’s Cheese Co King Ferry, NY 13081 315-730-6872
Finger Lakes Dexter Cheese Creamery 1853 Black Rock Road, King Ferry, NY 315-364-3591
Muranda Cheese Company 3075 Route 96, Waterloo, NY 315-539-1103
Lively Run Goat Dairy 8978 County Road 142, Interlaken, NY 607-532-4647
Engelbert Farms 182 Sunnyside Road, Nichols, NY 607-699-3775
Wake Robin Farm 125 Brutus Road, Jordan, NY 315-689-0034
Side Hill Acres Dairy Goat Farm & Cheese Processing Plant Route 96, Candor, NY 607-659-4121
For more information on the Seneca Lake Cuisine Trail visit www. fingerlakeswinecountry.com/cuisinetrail. Further information on the Finger Lakes Wine Trails can be found at www. fingerlakeswinecountry.com or by calling 800-813-2958
Cheese Trail Open Houses
Happy Trails
Seneca Lake is locavore heaven, and much of the credit goes to a local couple who have made Seneca Lake their food and wine mission. Dave and Debra Whiting (pictured below), of Red Newt Cellars and Bistro, have managed to reign in an entire microclimate for their customers’ drinking and dining pleasure.
Red Newt Wine Cellars (www.rednewt.com) is located in Hector, on the eastern shores of Seneca Lake. Dave makes the wine and Debra cooks the food. But that hardly does the couple justice. Dave is a wizard who allows the regional grapes to express their full sentiment in single vineyard wines like Curry Creek Gewurztraminer, Glacier Ridge Cabernet Franc, and Red Newt Circle Riesling.
And Debra doesn’t just cook. She is an integral part of the Finger Lakes Culinary Bounty which helps to connect all of the local producers. On her menu, you will find a listing of the small farms whose products are interwoven throughout the creative dishes. Every vegetable grower, creamery, coffee roaster, and buckwheat mill gets the credit it is due.
The bistro serves not only Red Newt wines, but a superb selection of wines and microbrews from around the Finger Lakes.
The spacious bistro has a spectacular view of the lake, and it is a great place from which to watch a Finger Lakes sunset. While nibbling on a platter of artisanal cheeses and sipping on a glass of wine, you be hard pressed to decide which “trail” you are actually on!
One thing is sure though: it’s a happy trail.
~By Holly Howell
View Creamery in Odessa and Finger Lakes Farmstead Cheese in Trumansburg. “We also have farmers making sheep cheese and goat cheese,” says Jones. “All the cheese makers are craftsmen and artisans in their own right, producing the freshest quality cheeses anywhere.” And since wine and cheese go hand-in-hand so well, “it helps our dairy farmers stay in business.”
If you drive south on Route 14 outside of Montour Falls, Sunset View Creamery is just 3.2 miles from the main road, with easy-tofollow Cheese Trail signage along the way. This is a real working farm; holstein cows are out back, tractors are being worked on in the driveway and a border collie herding dog greats a visitor at their car.
“The Cheese Trail is the best thing that could have happened,” says Bethany Hoffman, the daughter-in-law of “head cheese” Carmella Hoffman, who specializes in marketing. “It’s very educational. Visitors see how we raise animals, how the cheese is made, and all
See Trail on page 34
the efforts we make to Go Green.”
The Sunset View Creamery retail shop sells a variety of cheddar cheeses, monterey jacks, and curd. Their flavors—from Razor Sharp Cheddar to JackRadish and Buffalo Curd are all made with their own milk and carefully selected to pair with local wines and even regional beers. Tyson’s Zatar is one of their most unusual flavors, filled with delicate hints of zatar, a mideast spice blend, and named for a friend whom Jeremy Hoffman served with in the Iraq War. The shop also sells other regionally made food products from cheddar to gouda, and from Muranda Farm’s hard-aged cheese to Lively Run Goat Dairy’s French chevre, farms on the Cheese Trail produce an exquisite variety of homemade cheeses. Because many of the farms invite the public to tour their farms the experience is truly unique, although the distances between farms would make it tough to visit them all in a day. Lively Run Goat Dairy, in Interlaken, is one of the first commercial goat dairies in the state, producing over 8,000 pounds of goat milk
per week and supplying visitors with not just fresh cheese, but the opportunity to share the antics and pet their goats. Farm enthusiast visitors along the trail can taste test rich or delicate cheese at tasting bars and farmstead cheese houses—some set up similarly to wine tasting rooms.
The Seneca Lake Wine Trail is the largest wine trail in the state and one of the oldest, having begun twenty-five years ago. In 2009, Schuyler County added another distinctive tourism trail to its list The Seneca Lake Cuisine Trail. This culinary and picturesque journey in and out along Route 414, includes seven owner-operated or chef-operated restaurants utilizing local agricultural products, seasonal harvests, and pairings with regional wines. Such famous chefs include Deborah Whiting of the Red Newt Winery Bistro who worked at the Finger Lakes Culinary Center and has cooked for Senator Hillary Clinton. “You can sample wines, buy cheese and have a gourmet dinner,” says Jones. “it’s a win-win for everybody.”
The Cayuga Wine Trail is the first and longest running wine trail in the country
and hosts a variety of events and local produce-related weekends with some of the most premier wines in the Finger Lakes. The idea for the trail was the brainchild of Mary Plane of Plane’s Cayuga Vineyards back in 1981. What began as a few small family run wineries today includes a whopping fifteen wineries, one cidery, and four distilleries running from the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge to the north, southward to the Ithaca area’s beautiful gorges, parks and waterfalls.
“First in Wine, First in Beauty” is the tag line for the Keuka Wine Trail, a spectacular area credited with being the birthplace of wine in America with the first bonded winery appearing on the scene in 1860. The Keuka region is also where the first Vinifera vines from Europe were planted. This trail celebrates eight wineries including Hunt Country, who has won over thirty medals in the past three years, and Heron Hill Winery, named one of the most spectacular tasting rooms by Travel & Leisure magazine in 2009.
Smaller in winery numbers but big on views, cuisine, and activities, the Canandaigua Wine Trail hosts seven
Cowlick Farm
The New York Finger Lakes Cheese Trail was organized to promote small farmstead products and educate the public to the great diversity and excellence in the area. There are dozens of facilities listed on the trail and many are examples of true rural American ingenuity.
Among them is Cowlick Farm (www. cowlick_farms@yahoo.com), a Finger Lakes micro-creamery located in Lodi. Owner/cheese maker Andrew Cabot often has a Jersey calf comfortably tethered in front of his creamery store to welcome visitors. He believes Creamline Jersey cows produce the richest cheesemaking milk.
His own herd now lives on an Amish farm two miles down the road and he buys the milk back to make the cheese.
“I visit the cows twice a week and the arrangement is good for all of us. I am a proponent of sustainable agriculture,” says Cabot. He creates Camembert that takes two hours to make and sixty days to age and a variety of other aged cheeses, some with herbs and/or garlic, including colby, blue cheese, feta, and gouda. All are made with nothing added and nothing taken out of the freshest milk possible.
As an added incentive to travel to Cowlick, Andrew creates a homemade gelato: “My kids may love this treat more than they do me.”
~By Suzanne Meredith
wineries. Arbor Hill Grapery and Winery was the first to produce Traminette (a spicy, semi-sweet white) in the Finger Lakes region. The New York Wine and Culinary Center is located in the city of Canandaigua and the trail’s newest and hippest winery, Imagine Moore, opened in the artsy small town of Naples (home of the World’s Greatest Grape Pie Contest) in 2008.
The Finger Lakes wine, cuisine and cheese trails promote some of the finest wines and foods in the East, and also share in some of the richest beauty, bountiful harvests, and inspired artisanal food and drink. Even better, it supports small farmers, family businesses and the character of its rural landscape.
Angela Cannon-Crothers is a freelance writer and outdoor educator living in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
hOME & REAL ESTATE
A Walk-through To Remember
Artsy apartment tour raises rubles for Corning’s Gaffer district
By Carol Youngs
Charming brick façade, ten-foot ceilings, original woodwork, bay window opened to catch a morning breeze and the hum of city traffic is this Baltimore, San Francisco, maybe Brooklyn? Nope. Corning, New York.
Corning’s Gaffer District at the tip of the Finger Lakes wine country is experiencing an enviable renewal of Victorian era storefronts along a half mile stretch that incorporates Market and Bridge streets.
Part of this shining revival effort was Pam and Rick Weachock’s update to 61 East Market Street in the fall of 2005. Today, their first floor Market Street Coffee & Tea shop and a 1,000-square-foot second floor apartment feature the original brick walls. The apartment, set against the modern conveniences of a maple and stainless kitchen and bamboo flooring, retains an old-world charm.
“So many customers wanted to see our renovation efforts that we came up with the idea for an apartment tour to benefit local charities,” Pam says.
Pam’s annual fundraiser, entitled “apARTment Tour,” started with seven apartments just four years ago, and has today grown to include upwards of fifteen apartments as more and more vintage Gaffer District buildings get a second chance at service.
The decorating efforts of tenant
Colorful, open living spaces characterize
Janet Howie’s Corning apartment
Janet Howie, whose apartment above Market Street Coffee & Tea inspired the tour, offers an intriguing glimpse into decorating possibilities for others renovating similar spaces.
“It’s fun to see all the new apartments being added to the tour as more people move onto the street bringing their creativity and vitality,” says Janet, a retired elementary school teacher and artist.
Janet and Greg, a retired accountant,
residents are looking to centrally live, work, and play; and business owners are reaping the benefits of increased downtown traffic (while) Corning’s Historic District is being revitalized and preserved,” states Kristen Stewart, the Gaffer District’s director of preservation and design.
Among those who attend the tour are those considering renovating a storefront themselves or coming from other cities and neighborhoods looking to revitalize.
In 2008 the Henkel building across
It’s fun to see all the new apartments being added to the tour …
and their goldendoodle, Tucker, moved to Corning seeking an art- inspired community with loft living spaces on Market Street.
Pleased to find a bit of old-world charm in the Southern Tier, they set about making the newly renovated apartment space their own with Janet’s artwork and a workstation/computer corner set against a bank of tall, inviting windows overlooking the street below. Janet’s artist studio captures the northern light and seasonally distant views of the Chemung River. A dream space with cubbies for art and craft supplies, an easel with a work in progress and canning jars filled with bits of nature taken from beach and woods walks, the studio was the bedroom in the original floor plan.
“When my art supplies and projects began to take over the apartment, we decided to move the bedroom out into the living space nearer to the closets, bath, and laundry. Giving myself a studio forced me to organize a bit, but I’ve really been enjoying the studio,” Janet says.
Modern updates to complete the space, such as the new forced air heating system, ceramic tile on the bath floor and corner shower with architectural glass block surround, provide creature comforts in an open, inviting setting warmed by quilts, painted wooden furnishings, and chubby electric space heaters echoing the era in which the building was built.
“Today (Gaffer District) apartment
the street had four apartments under renovation and they were all rented very quickly.
“Gaffer District renovation efforts offer a good model for other communities. The pace of new renovation on Market Street has taken on a life of its own,” says Janet.
The proceeds from this year’s tour will benefit Corning’s Nonnie Hood Parent and Family Resource Center and the Fund for Women at the Community Foundation of Elmira- Corning and the Finger Lakes. The previous apARTment Tours have raised over $18,000 for a Local Capacity Building re-grant program through the ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes.
What: Fifth Annual Corning apARTment Tour
Where: Corning Historic Gaffer District
When: October, 24 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Phone: 607-936-3351
Admission: $15 in advance, $18 if purchased on the day of the event. Tickets are available at Market Street Coffee & Tea (61 East Market Street) and Imagine That! (86 West Market Street).
Parking: Free during the event in the parking garage, city lots and on Market Street
Carol Youngs, a central New York feature writer specializing in architecture, interior design, historical, and travel stories, is a first-time contributor to Mountain Home
M ARKET P LACE
Shop Around the Corner A Taste of Honey
By Nora Strupp
It’s that time of year when the days get shorter, the nights get longer, the temperatures drop and we’d rather having a nice cup of hot tea perhaps with a spoonful of delicious honey than an ice-cold soda.
But few give a thought to the kind of honey they use, or where it comes from, or how it’s produced. That’s why a sunny autumn drive to Millerton, Pennsylvania’s Draper’s Super Bee Apiaries is such a revelation.
The owner, Bill Draper, welcomes you in a building that looks like a barn from the outside but turns out to be a sales showroom once the visitor ventures inside.
“It was a cow barn back then but it got converted,” says Draper.
The Draper family has always been admirably self-sufficient. In 1974 Bill’s father, Bernie Draper, established a honey handling and bee supply business.
“It was the time of the hippies, when everybody had long hair and wanted to be independent,” says Bill. “And to have a beehive and produce your own stuff was part of that.”
It all began with a swarm of bees in the backyard and one hive, but then Bill and his son Royal increased the beehive colony, eventually producing 60,000 to 110,000 pounds of honey a year.
“We had seventy-five hives after the first year, then dad backed up by selling honey and supplies and then we had 1,200 hives. But right now we
only have 240,” Bill says.
It’s a pretty big job to take care of 240 beehives, but Bill says that’s not the main focus of a typical day.
“Everybody emphasizes the bee thing, but I only spend a tenth of my time with actual beekeeping,” he says. “Very little is about the bees. The job as a beekeeper is like any other farming activity. You just do what you have to do and do it when you have to do it.
“In summer it’s less intense because we’re waiting for the bees to fill up the hive with honey. In fall there is a lot to do with a peak of 80,000 bees. So there is a sticky mess only once a year,” he says.
Draper’s Super Bee Apiaries produces a substantial variety of honeys including acacia, alfalfa, basswood, buckwheat, clover, goldenrod, orange blossom, sourwood, tulip poplar, tupelo, wildflower, blueberry, and raspberry.
“We also sell beekeeper supplies, other products, and honeybees for beekeepers over the Internet,” Bill says. “But also bee pollen, propolis, royal jelly, bee wax, comb honey, chunk honey, and crystallized creamy honey.”
Most of us can appreciate a sticky lick of bee-derived deliciousness, but at the same time the typical person on the street is likely to note the myriad Draper varieties with a hint of
Busy bees: Draper’s Super Bee Apiaries is literally a hive of activity for owner Bill Draper.
skepticism. Is there really that much to differentiate buckwheat from clover honey?
“The difference is there in color, taste, and the time of the year when it’s produced. When you open the barrel, the buckwheat honey is very dark and can’t be mistaken. You just know what it is. There is no doubt. Every kind of honey is different.”
Draper’s honey products are shipped and delivered everywhere in the United States from Portland, Maine, to Clearwater, Florida, to Indianapolis, Indiana by Draper’s Super Bee Apiary company vans.
“And we have shipped as far as Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Sweden. We reached these customers through the Internet and our bee Web cam,” says Bill.
“We have people from all over the world that come here.”
But you only have to travel to Millerton for a jar of Draper’s liquid gold.
And that’s a sweet thought.
Shop: Draper’s Super Bee Apiaries
Owner: Bill Draper
Address: 32 Avonlea Ln, Millerton PA 16936
Phone: 800-233-4273 or 570-537-2381
Website: www.draperbee.com
Hours: Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and closed on Sundays
Top: A bee smoker is one of the tools of the Apiary trade. Center: A sticky sweet Draper’s product. Above: A raw honey comb.
Ghost continued from page 16
basement by yourself or setting up the equipment in an empty room. These have been personal experiences, but they’ve been pretty weird.”
Chris says his most bizarre experience took place in a barn in Canandaigua, which the family says “was really haunted.”
“I could actually hear footsteps coming up behind me,” says Chris, “and then I got shoved in the back. Then I turned around and there was nothing there.”
One has to wonder, given the long list of grand old historic homes in the region—places to which unsettled spirits seem to be drawn—are there any more or less hauntings in the region than elsewhere?
“From what we’ve seen there is,” says Pete. “There are a lot of traumatic events in the past of the Finger Lakes. You’ve got Willard [Asylum for the Chronic Insane, near Seneca Lake], you’ve got the slave underground, civil war events. The Finger Lakes seems to have a lot of history, and we’re finding it has a lot of haunted places.
“And we are just beginning to dig into it.”
It’s the creepy feeling of having the hair stand up on my arms, all the way up to the back of my neck, where you just know something is there, watching you …
Fearsome Four cont.
the shivers. Embracing the spectral aura of the tavern, owner Margo Spain has invited at least two teams of paranormal investigators to her property, including the Finger Lakes Ghost Hunters. Some believe the ghosts of former bar patrons keep the place humming after hours, when the lights are out and everyone living has gone home for the night. The Ghost Hunters have seen and heard about such phenomenon as floating cases of beer and glasses that fly off the bar under their own power and pictures that fling themselves from their position on the walls.
The former Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane outside Seneca Lake: Not surprisingly, unconfirmed tragic tales involving shock therapy, patient mistreatment and suicides have clung to the Gothic old series of buildings at the Willard complex for decades, no doubt contributing to its reputation as a haunted location. Today the campus is operated by the New York State Department of Corrections as a drug treatment center, correctional facility, and training academy. It is said that there are over 5,000 unmarked graves surrounding the property and that recently-discovered patient journals included tales of neglect, abuse, and—more disturbingly—demonic possession and sudden disappearances.
