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Silent Generation member turns 80

On June 29 I turned 80, one of those milestone years in a life should we be around that long. Family lore has it that I was born at approximately 9:30 p.m. Central War Time, the name given to year round daylight savings time in effect from Feb. 9, 1942, to Sept. 30, 1945. My place of birth was St. Mary’s Hospital in my mother’s hometown of Milwaukee, Wis. At the time my father, a Marine Corps officer, was on Okinawa preparing for the invasion of Japan, the invasion that fortunately never was. Turning 80 is nothing like turning 90 or 100,I suppose. But you realize that you have ...

Oriskany battle took many young lives

I imagine that when his father George awakened him that sunny, hot early August morn, 13 year-old John Snell was beside himself with excitement. The day was finally here. He probably dressed quickly, gobbled down breakfast, grabbed his fife*, kissed his mother, joined his dad and set off to hook up with some 800 others who comprised the Tryon County Militia. They were mustering to march west up the Mohawk to relieve the British and Indian siege at Fort Stanwix (near present-day Rome). The trek seemed long and tedious given the weather, especially for one so young. John must have ...

Lessons from the world of sport

A recent weekend was highlighted by the 153rd occasion of a golf tournament — the British Open or, more correctly, if you live in the U.K., “The Open.” If you were an American, you had to be proud as the top four finishers were Americans, the winner being the current number one golfer in the world, Scottie Sheffler. But, golf is not just an American sport—it is a world sport. And, guess who was in the final pairing on Sunday? Yes, a player by the name of Haotong Li, from China. The lesson here was obvious: competitors don’t have to be enemies. The world of sport teaches ...

Don’t drink in what water ‘experts’ say

At a recent village board meeting there was much talk about listening to experts. The public has been listening to experts with regard to Fredonia’s water for quite some time. Here is a recap of what the experts have done and said. In 2016, village taxpayers paid for an expert study by O’Brien and Gere under the Landis administration. The experts presenting this study determined that upgrading the village’s reservoir, dam and water treatment plant was the least expensive option for Fredonia water. Had Landis been re-elected as Fredonia’s mayor, it is likely that grants would ...

Coming up …

MONDAY, JULY 28 Cattaraugus County Fair 501 Erie St., Little Valley. Gates open at 8 a.m., vendors usually at 11 a.m., midway 1 p.m. Grandstand event Demolition Derby at 7 p.m. For details, see www.carrarauguscofair.com Kaleida, Brooks-TLC Hospital annual golf outing Shorewood Country Club, 4958 W. Lake Road, Dunkirk, sign-in, registration at 9:30 a.m., shotgun start at noon. Foursome receives round of golf, cart, lunch, prizes, cocktail hour, dinner, opportunity to meet, interact, golf, dine with legendary former Buffalo Bills, Sabres, Hall of Fame inductees. Tickets available ...

Carnivals of the past: Showcase of strange loses luster

“Freaks,” produced in 1932 by Tod Browning, is a movie about a traveling circus. It is a work of fiction, but features real people with various disabilities, malformities, and other abnormal conditions. They were misfits, aberrations, even abominations by some standards of the time. But they were also actors, playing characters in a story of greed and duplicity, a theme not confined to any specific group of people. Maybe it was a kind of between-World Wars-decadence – a period of social numbness and cynicism in which existentialism displaced faith and gave birth to grotesque art ...