Dear Customers, One of the most highly anticipated events for sports lovers in any year is the start of the football season.  Whether it be high school, college or professional, Americans embrace it with more enthusiasm and anticipation than any other sport. High School football begins this Friday night with contests all over the country. …

Dear Customers, Let’s see. . . Memorial Day Parade?  Check!  Fireworks over Hamlin Lake? Check! Fourth of July celebrations? Check!  Hmmm, that leaves only one more summer-time milestone before the Labor Day weekend. . . That’s right, the McKean County Fair! This year’s edition is the 116th time the fairgrounds in East Smethport will come…

Dear Customers, When I graduated college in 1976, it took me quite a while before I stopped getting that “nervous” feeling in the pit of my stomach as the middle of August rolled around.  For nearly two decades, that time of year had always meant “back-to-school”! My wife, who recently retired from 30 plus years…

Dear Customers, When one thinks of particularly “summer-time” foods there are certain ones that always come to mind.  Among these are locally grown strawberries, homegrown sweet corn, hot dogs and, of course, ice cream! We enjoy these delights year-round thanks to the network of transportation available to us, but it remains that they are even…

Dear Customers, Back around the time when we were all concerned with “Y2K” and the havoc it would wreak on our computer systems, a movie was released called “The Perfect Storm”.  It starred George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg among others.  When I think of my own “perfect storm”, it features me sitting on a covered…

Dear Customers, As I sat down to compose this week’s column, the first thing I did, as I always do, is change the date and the week of the year at the top of the page before I write a single word.  The date at the top held special meaning for me and my family. …

Dear Customers, People around McKean County, particularly those with school-age children look at the 4th of July as about the halfway point of summer.  In reality, according to the astrologists, the midpoint of Summer isn’t until around the second week of August!  Just one more instance where the school calendar overrides the actual one! The…

Dear Customers, The week on which we are about to embark is the culmination of nearly 250 years of independence for our great nation.  We sometimes lose sight of the solemnity and the sacrifice our forefathers endured to forge the United States of America.  It’s easy to get caught up in today’s pageantry; fireworks, picnics,…

Dear Customers, The first federal holidays were created in 1870 when Congress gave paid leave to works in Washington, D.C. for New Year’s Day, the 4th of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Other holidays were added later because it was so well received and in 1875, some 15 years after that, Congress extended the benefit to…

Dear Customers, Sometime during the middle of this week, June will already be half over!  Slow down, why don’t you.  Logically, I know that every day of the year is pretty much the same length.  Why then do the days when I look out the window at ice and snow seem to last so much…