Local History Saved and Savored in Castile

CASTILE: Local history. We create it every day but, come evening, we sweep it out the door like so much cat fur. Luckily, some few dedicated people roll up their sleeves and hold onto that history knowing that we don't really learn without remembering where and what we've been.
            “The history of our town is in those cabinets,” a woman said nodding toward a row of drawers in the Castile Historical House. She and 8 other people were at work in and outside the museum when Rick and I just happened to find it on Tuesday. Rick and I had been on the road when plans changed so we happened down this street in Castile where local history is lives in an old, white house.

            Outside some people planted pachysandra around what was the town fountain – now a geranium planter. Inside clocks ticked and voices conversed sorting through the newest newsletter, an ongoing inventory and the filing of information that chronicles the ongoing life of Castile.

            The house was built in 1865 by Henry Cumming. It was sold only 3 times with the last sale made in 1956 to Annie Eddy. Mrs. Eddy bought it purposefully to donate it to the Castile Historical Society in memory of her husband. Currently the organization is supported by about 90 members with 10 of them active, friendly and dedicated to weekly work sessions. Jim Little guided us through the museum of local history.

            We chanced into the house after turning around in the parking lot of the unusual and interesting public library and saw, when we walked into the house, a portrait of Dr. Cordelia Greene, the library’s benefactress and one of the country’s first female physicians.

            The front door opens to an exhibition room where the collection rotates because much of what the house offers is on the second floor or in the basement and some people aren’t able to manage the stairs. Right now a newly refurbished oak case holds carved hair combs, long gloves, hats - the accoutrements of our grandmothers’ grandmothers who knew how to gussy up from lace collars to shiny buttoned shoes. 

            To the right of the front door is a Victorian parlor with musical instruments and paintings by local artists. The furniture is period correct for the clothing and the games on the small table.

            The dining room holds several more locally painted works by Annie and Jennie Myers, Carolos ‘Stebbins, Lemuel Wiles and Edward McGrath. The Myers sisters traveled the world to paint and gave away sketches to children when they were in Castile. There are also Japanese style wood block prints in gentle colors and shapes created by Jane Barry Judson.

            The kitchen cupboards stand open to show the tools of cooking in the late 1800s and the internet, used in the research room, helps to locate information on many of the things displayed.

            The basement hosts the war room with uniforms from many branches of service, ribbons, weapons and posters. There’s a trophy earned by Castile’s Boy Scout Troop 54. Each scout collected at least 1,000 pounds of newspaper and donated it to the war effort. For their service they were given a cardboard shipping tube created for a 75 MM Howitzer shell. Newspapers were used to make those tubes though the one the Boy Scouts earned was prettied up with a certificate featuring General Eisenhower.

            The second floor has a Victorian bedroom with dresses, a postage stamp quilt with thousands of tiny blocks and furniture suited to the room. Across the hall is the Indian room with beaded work as well as woven baskets and the huge camera once used by the photographer who built the neighboring house.

            There’s a medical room dedicated to Dr. Greene where a mannequin of a woman wrapped in a blanket and seated in a wheelchair sits surrounded by the tools of the medical trade (– tools now much improved in design and function by my thoughts). Dr. Greene ran Greene Sanitarium, established by her father. Alcoholic women lived in the Sanitarium and took the Castile Water Cure. They drank water and sat in the cold, fresh, country air on the porch to kick their addiction. The facility became a nursing home in 1956.

            The Castile Historical Society invites people to stop by. They offer occasional dinner meetings with speakers on various topics and open all such meetings to the public. The work they’ve accomplished in this house on Park Road is an impressive use of Tuesdays over the last 60+ years.

Castile Historical House is open Tuesdays 9-12 and 1-3 and by appointment. 17 Park Road East, Castile,   NY 14427. Phone 585-493-5370 www.castileny.com

Elaine Hardman, Tin Tinker on The Chew

NEW YORK: I don't watch much daytime TV. Daytime, for me, is for riding bikes, working in the garden and making pottery.

          Still, when I saw that The Chew was looking for people to do a segment on handcrafted work, I sent photos of my earrings upcycled from tin cans and a note telling them of my vast TV experience. I've been on AM Buffalo 3 times.

          Maria, the production assistant called and asked if I could teach Clinton how to make a simple pair of earrings in 5 to 8 minutes. "Sure," I said, "I was an elementary teacher for 35 years."

          She laughed and said she’d send a booking sheet. "Great!" I told her, though I’d no idea what a booking sheet was.

          Later the show’s producer called to give me details on time and address – building 24. She said to walk up to the side door like I belonged there and my name would be on a list. I should wear my regular makeup and be ready for a touch up. I didn’t mention that I don’t own any make up.

          What to wear? Kymberli said to wear bling. I keep my bling with my makeup. Eileen, Allison and Meredith said to wear a solid color. My new striped silk blouse was out but Allison lent me the blouse we got at a thrift store.

            Rick said I needed a new belt so we went shopping for belts the day before I left - right after I had quality time with the dental surgeon dealing with my root canal.

          My mouth was hardly swollen and I thought Clinton Kelly would like my newest shoes so I worked on my lesson plan, chose my materials and selected a platoon from my army of pliers and cutting tools. Time for a tiny television career.

        I drove to my friend’s house in New Jersey. Norma always welcomes me and gives me a place to leave the car and a place to stay in the city. We took the train in. (Honestly, I love when they shout all aboard and blow the whistle.)

         New York is hectic with people moving head down into time as if pushing into a strong wind. Helping someone pick something up earns a person a threatening glare that softens into disbelief and then a crinkle-eyed grin.

        My daughter Emilie met me for dinner and a very short visit and came to the show with me for support.  

        The ABC Studios are in a massive building. I never got a booking sheet and my name wasn’t on the list but nobody asked me for identification. Rather, Emilie and I followed one person who handed us off to another threading through narrow halls with uncountable arrays of electric wires.   

          We passed the ABC nightly news desk. It’s inside of glass room so that it looks almost like a museum exhibit. Then we entered the part of the building that is The Chew.

          The while building teems with people. For someone not aware of the big picture, it feels chaotic. It takes 142 people to put together The Chew and on Thursday they tape both the Thursday and Friday shows so it’s really busy.  

          We had to wait for the first audience to leave before we went to the green room. (These are NEVER green.) Maria offered us water, coffee, tea and snacks - the food prepared during the first taping.  

          Here’s some of the behind-the-scenes scoop on creating a daily cooking show like The Chew. There’s a rehearsal. A comedian comes out with a hand held microphone and whips the audience to a frenzy of shouting, singing and clapping.

          They record a 30 second segment of clapping and hooting (some people really get into this). The comedian says that it’s a warm up but the production people told me that if the actual applause isn’t good they splice the best whatever seconds on the clapping rehearsal into the show.

          Ditto for 30 seconds of laughing on demand. It’s a back up recording just in case they need it.

          Emilie was in the midst of the hooting audience when the makeup artist arrived. She said that half the guests she works on have no makeup. She applied lip gloss and called me done.

          In the rehearsal the cooks chop and stir the air saving the actual food to use during the taping. They use a teleprompter. Every word of their natural conversation and banter is scripted and marches past in all capital letters, 2 or 3 words on a line matching their reading speed. How can they read so naturally? The comedian uses has hand signals to encourage the audience to applaud or laugh.

          My part was short. I introduced myself to Clinton Kelly and talked briefly about making tin can folk art earrings. If I may brag, half the audience laughed at my joke without being told to.  

          Then Clinton talked with the other 3 guests and their projects. Diane stamps floor tiles with permanent ink and uses them as trivets. Susan staples chicken wire on picture frames to make an earring hanger and Sue ties plastic six pack rings together to make flower-like decorations.

          Clinton chose to stamp on the floor tiles saying it looked the easiest and I applaud his choice. They were all able to do this project in the very short time period allotted. I couldn’t have worked with 5 people.

          The main focus of The Chew is to help people make fast and easy meals. That’s reasonable. We all need the occasional fast meal. But I can’t work fast whether I’m making pottery, tin can folk art sculpture or jewelry, my mind is says slow. (My cooking is slow too and often starts with the growing part.)

          Clinton Kelly and Carla Hall came to the green room after the show and both seemed warm and interesting. They invited me to come back to the show with them for a longer segment this summer. I don’t know if anything more will happen. I’ve had my 15 seconds of fame on national TV.

 photos: Elaine on the set of The Chew

A sheet that blocks out the segments of Episode 153 of The Chew

Carla Hall peeking out and then Clinton Kelley and me in the blouse I got for Allison at the Goodwill store but she lent it to me.

Rail Car Cuties

SCIO: They looked like a row of Tonka trucks on the railroad tracks along Route 19 in Scio on Saturday afternoon. Clean and shiny in the afternoon sun, these little yellow, orange, green and red cars were surrounded by men and women in glowing yellow safety vests. What were these machines that look like fun on metal wheels?

            Gary Gadziala was watching some people putting one back together but he took a few minutes to talk with me. He identified these nifty vehicles as rail cars. They were used by the railroads until the 60s when they were cast aside in favor of trucks that could run on the rails or drive on roads.

            “Easier,” he said, “for the crews to get around and not have to schedule clear tracks for them. This way the trucks could get off the tracks and the trains could run.”

            When the railroads solved one of their problems, they also created a recreational opportunity for train enthusiasts. All the people mulling about were members of the North American Rail Car Operators Association - rail car owners out for a weekend spin. They’d stopped for lunch at the Mahogany Ridge in Scio when I found them.

            They were on one of the hundreds of excursions organized by NARCOA. This particular excursion was named “Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad” and involved a round trip from Olean to Hornell on Saturday and then on Sunday another circuit from Olean to Emporium. Gadziala drove from his home is Ellicott City, Maryland to join the group of 37 rail cars.

            Most of the cars in this outing were made in the 1950s or 60s but some were older, rounder, louder and even cuter. NARCOA sponsors excursions like this all over the country and people register for the rides that interest them.

            Gadziala has been part of the group since he bought his rail car in 1980. He said it’s a fairly expensive hobby with the acquisition and maintenance of the rail car and then the cost of participating in excursions.

            The rail cars have 2 cylinder gasoline engines and some of the nicer cars have heaters, no small matter for some of these winter excursions. The organizers work out the trip with the railroad and arrange for a representative to lead the run in one of the modern road/railroad trucks.

            Later that afternoon I was behind our house clearing some branches downed by last week’s snow and heard a clanking noise. Sure enough, there were bits of yellow, orange, green and red zipping over the railroad tracks behind the trees – rail cars headed back to Olean.

             

           

Valerie Bobinger

                Say a word. Show an idea. Raise a child in a space shaped by an engineer and a classically trained oil painter and let the child grow toward her interests.

                Valerie Boebinger’s childhood was guided by her artist-mother and her mechanical engineer -father– two parents dedicated to different, inviting careers. When it was time for Valerie to choose a college and an area of study she was still tossing art and engineering in her mind. She began college tours from her home in Florida with a zigzag trip that brought her eventually to beautiful downtown Alfred.

                A parent of Valerie’s best friend in high school attended Alfred University and he encouraged Valerie to visit. When she saw the program in neon glass, she was “completely blown away.”                 The art program and facilities in Alfred were superior to all others on her college tour and she just had to come to school here. Her path was settled for 4 years.
                Now Valerie is graduating with a BFA in Art and a minor in music. This is your invitation to hear her as a member of the Alfred University Symphonic Band on April 27 and see her thesis show on May 5.

                Valerie came to music early in life when she toddled off to piano lessons at age 4. She developed a love for the majestic cello but her school had no string program. When Valerie heard Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue when she was in 4^th grade she decided on the clarinet, started lessons in 5^th grade and now hopes to continue to play in community groups after she graduates.

                At AU, Valerie has played with the Symphonic Band every semester and sometimes has also been a member of Orchestra and/or Chorus. Symphonic Band is conducted by Dr. Christopher Foster, a man of sound effects and an all-knowing ear.  Regarding her conductor, Valerie said, “Dr. Foster is a great conductor. People really respect him. If a conductor is uncharismatic the band suffers but with Dr. Foster we don’t worry about that. Everyone appreciates his attention to detail.”

                Valerie’s favorite pieces for this concert are Vesuvius by Frank Ticheli and Symphony Number 1, “The Lord of the Rings”, V “Hobbits” by Johan de Meij.

                “Vesuvius just sounds amazing,” said Valerie. “I love the dynamic and meter changes and the building, swelling sound that dies to nothing and then builds again. Then there is “Hobbits” bouncing with happiness and I have this insanely high part that is fun to wail on.”

                Regarding the concert, Dr. Foster said, "The Symphonic Band is more incredible than ever. I have a lot of talented players, including several seniors that I'll be sad to see leave. We're doing some tough yet exciting pieces like Ticheli's Vesuvius, Holst's First Suite in E-flat for Military Band, and 'Hobbits,' from De Meij's First Symphony, The Lord of the Rings and the band is doing a fantastic job with them."

                 Valerie actually came to Alfred to study art. She sees art as a self expression. It’s about a process, not a product. She expresses herself visually. For her senior thesis she has been working on a series of Zen paintings to show the images of some of her favorite music.

                Just before she started this series she was feeling stressed so she painted straight lines in a meditative activity working up to 9 consecutive hours on a piece and really getting lost in the work.

                She liked these geometric pieces, liked the sharp lines in them. One has a sense of piano keys and others relate to her feelings for musical compositions the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. She shows how the pieces would look as paintings. She also painted Rhapsody in Blue, still one of her favorite pieces.

                These paintings will be included in her senior show. They are all painted in the same size and shape – orderly – contemplative - serene. Valerie’s show will be in Binns hall, in the Painting classroom #134.

               The concert is on Friday, April 27 in the Miller Theater, Miller Performing Arts Center at 8 PM. The Symphonic Band will also perform Jungle Dance by Brain Balmages, Russian Sailors’ Dance by Reinhold Gliere, Ammerland by Jacob de Han, and Dusk by Steven Bryant.

**For community members unfamiliar with the Alfred University Campus: Enter the campus at the traffic light on Main Street. Drive uphill past the old gym on the left and turn left just after the large boulder. Miller is the building just before the road turns right. Notice the tall glass doors before you turn left again for parking. No tickets are needed.

**Community members are also welcome at Senior Thesis Shows on Saturday May 5, opening from 4 to 7 PM. Shows are in Harder Hall. Binns Hall, the Cohen Center and the Brick. Again, there are no tickets but much of the work is for sale. You’ll find maps on campus or just follow the crowds. Carpool if possible.

Fairview Scenic Drive

We started the Fairview tour in Caneadea where the Coffee Plus Cafe offers coffee with at attitude. Had it been summer we might have found ice cream at the outdoor stand but since it was well into fall, hours there are shorter, only 7-11 am Tuesday through Friday - a little later on the weekend.

            We continued north on 19 then detoured to the Houghton campus. Houghton has some wonderful stone buildings but the only one we went into was the Stevens Art Center. Normally they have a show but we happened along between shows. When up, shows are open to the public with details listed on the Houghton website.

            Some people aren’t aware that the colleges in Houghton and Alfred open many of their performances and shows to the general public for free. Some concerts or plays might require a ticket but fees are low and quality is high. Check online events calendars to see what’s going on.

            At Houghton, we found Kaylan Butgen, a post grad art student, using a letter press patented in 1882. This wonderful machine, The Pearl, flowed silently to move color over paper as Kaylan made personalized stationary with rubber ink.

            We wandered through classrooms and work areas at the Stevens Center and then moved from Houghton to Fillmore turning left on County Route 27 to see Wiscoy Falls. Seeing the falls requires a short detour from the driving route to cross the creek to park your car near the old saw mill, a large, wooden, creek-side structure that must have been impressive when it gathered up logs and made them into planks.

            Both our brochure and the man we found on the road at his mail box said that there is a trail from the sawmill to the dam. We hiked far enough to get mud up to our knees but only made it to the 4th of the 5 falls which is a fair distance from the dam. Sometimes it seemed as if we were on a trail but we didn’t find markers. We took a short cut through someone’s yard to make it down stream without having to go through the water again. It’s a pretty place alive with the sound of rushing water.

            We made our way back to 27 and, at the time, we found a considerable enthusiasm for Halloween decorations. We also sighted a house ready for Christmas. At least they won’t freeze their fingers getting out the decorations.

            We turned right at the end of Wiscoy and Mills Mills Road and found the Roger Mills Memorial Bridge and the dam and came back to the tour to head out County Route 3.

          Three things were very common on throughout this tour – laundry hung to dry, firewood for sale and small produce stands. These may all relate to the fact that many of the people living along this route are Amish or Mennonite.

It was Monday when we drove and apparently a lot of families hold that as laundry day. I remember that my Grandmother and Mother did. Since modern machines aren’t on these farms, the families presumably do considerably more to clean clothes than to toss them in the washer and push a button so they may commonly set aside a day to do that.

In keeping with the neighborhood was the Pine Grove Country Store on County Route 3. They had things for sale that we hadn’t thought about shopping for. There were 50 pound sacks of flour or oats (rolled or cut). They had a few different sugars, several flours and 3 kinds of popcorn. There were bulk spices at prices worth the drive, grains, crayons, dinnerware and calf blankets.

The hardware section had parts and pieces to build or repair a buggy and the children’s section offered boy’s straw hats in various sizes and styles. There were buttons, boot laces and bolts of fabric in somber blue, black, brown and white. One shelf had the largest stainless steel bowl I’ve ever seen – a bowl for canning huge amounts of fruits or vegetables for large families.

One shelf sported a butane clothes iron. It seemed awkward and heavy but maybe easier than other irons might be.

We bought gingersnaps (spicy and crisp), sesame sticks (salty and crisp), spelt flour and rolled oats– but not 50 pounds of anything. The Pine Grove Country Store was as far as our schedule allowed us to drive that day. We had to scoot back to Wellsville for a meeting. Our total drive was just over 100 miles.

My favorite part was the scenery. The sheets blowing in the wind on porches or across yards really gave a sense of country as did the women in their long dresses raking leaves while men in straw hats worked in fields. All of them would have made wonderful photos but none made it into my camera. Better to just remember.

Sky High Scenic Drive - Allegany County

                 Second in our series of scenic drives, Sky High, was tackled in the rain. Sky High passes through the Village of Wellsville, just down the road from our house, so that’s where we started the drive. Of course, like all the tours, it’s possible to start at any point and go in either direction.

                We stopped at the Bradley Medical Arts building and peeked through the iron gates into the Bradley Gardens to get a glimpse of the pond, the plants, the lawns and the statues. In the past, a person could walk through the gardens but now it’s posted and private. Still, it’s one of the prettiest bits of Wellsville.

                Wellsville’s Main Street with stately homes, well-established trees and wide road all invite people into the business district where a few new stores are popping up. Two of them, Serendipities and Delinquent, are side by side at 175 N Main. Delinquent is Wellsville’s edgy, punk clothing store with band T-Shirts and bullet belts (sizes child through adult) while Serendipities calms the eye with work from several area craftspeople and Allegany Artisans with a few antiques tossed in.

                Worthy of note and holding vigil on Main Street for over a hundred years is the David A Howe Public Library currently hidden behind construction equipment as the entry undergoes a reconstruction. Fairly new to the community is the Wellsville Creative Arts Center with several food and drink choices, live music and clay instruction inside the reconstructed building of the much-missed Carter Hardware Store.

                Other eateries are Modern Diner, Pizza King and the Texas Hot. Our favorite choice for lunch is Better Days Pub serving local foods and weekly vegetarian meals along with seasonally changing decorations and a constant parade of benefit programs for community organizations and members. There’s also the Beef Haus, scene of weekly Rotary meetings.  

                Main Street is a shopping district. Buy antiques, get shoes at Hamilton’s, rock through the Music Alley, choose flooring, try on clothing, get your hydroponic growing supplies, order posters at Ink, or get the bugs out of your computer with help at Computer Clinic – Wellsville’s small business of the year.

                Passing through Wellsville we turned east on Route 417. Castaways is just outside of Wellsville and we looked inside to learn that they are having their first ever Halloween Costume Party with Bloody Mary’s for $2.50 and draft beer for $1.00 starting at 8 pm on October 29. The decorations are up and there will be prizes for costumes. Dress scary. Eat hearty.

                The next stop was Brown’s Marsh. Local birders love this place but when we stopped and waited all we found were ripples and water rings made by creatures hiding underwater. The reflection of the hillside was perfect though.

                Moving on toward Andover we stopped at Kelly Jackson’s stand for some squash.  In other years Jackson’s stand has overflowed with produce but this year just wasn’t good for their garden. A few bright pumpkins and squash are out there and Kelly walks down the drive when she hears a car. She’s thinking of putting out an honor system pay bucket since the crop isn’t worthy of regular hours.

          We struck out in Andover because both the Emporium and Paradise Café were closed that afternoon so we read the blurb in Sky High and splashed through the rain.

                Sky High offers a choice between Route 22 or 417 calling 22 a washboard road. “Washboard” sounded like a warning for a rutted dirt road. Not so. Route 22 is a roller coaster with high peaks that give a view of a ribbon of road plunging down and then racing up the next hill between fields of corn. On a clear day the view must be wonderful because even in the drizzle the sky felt high and wide. We guessed this road is what gave the tour its name.

                Here’s the treasure of this drive for us – Hill Top Deli. With apologies to Independence, this place is the essence of out-of-the-way, in the middle of nowhere, on County Road 22. The deli offers sandwiches on breads baked in the store but the grocery is what caught our eyes. We found: Organic Blue Agave, Organic Honey, Shoo Fly Pie Mix, Uncle Henry’s Handmade Pretzels, a 10 pound milk chocolate bar, Garlic Mustard Pickled eggs and dozens and dozens of spices – many hard to find. 

                 As a result of that stop I may have developed an Uncle Henry pretzel habit and a desire to say Sarsaparilla at odd moments.    

           

                Moving along through Hallsport we found an ATV trail and lots of evidence of the Penn York Energy Company.  After moving over roads we’d never see we ended up at the intersection of 29 and 19 at Yorks Corners where the old store is now a cute house and the Mennonite Church stands guard over the cemetery.

                Alma Pond is out there and if you are like us you want to know why Alma Pond is a “pond.”  This is not some little round puddle but a long, narrow body of water that seems to deserve a name fitting its size. There are parking areas for the public and there’s the Alma Rod and Gun Club which is for members.

                We watched the rain fall on the water and again found the hillside and clouds reflected in the water while tendrils of mist curled up from the water. I very much wanted a canoe and paddle.

 

                We came back through Petrolia, home of the Triangle #1, the first successful, commercial oil well in Allegany County. With those modifiers it does sound as if there were a few messy, failed attempts before Triangle #1.

                 With our side trips and the occasional wrong turn Sky High Tour took us over 65 drizzly and rainy miles.

See www.DiscoverAlleganyCounty.com or call 1-800-836-1869 or 585-268-5500 for events, restaurants, brochures and local tourism. Find brochures Libraries, restaurants and banks. Brochure choices are Scenic Drives, Spring Summer Fall, Artisans & Galleries, Historic Trails, Hunting & Fishing, Fall Winter Spring and Festivals & Events. This driving tour is listed in Scenic Drives.

Elaine Hardman is a member of the Allegany County Office of Tourism Advisory Board. 

Scenic Drive: Oil Country

      If you like to ride on a twisty, curvy road or if you’re the sort who gets to the top of a hill and drinks in the gorgeous view, Allegany County is for you. The Allegany County Office of Tourism worked with motorists who trundled on back roads just for fun, bicyclists with strong thighs and lots of gears and leather-clad motorcyclist who enjoyed leaning into a curve then put together maps of 6 suggested tours.                   Enter the tour at any point from either direction though the brochure gives written directions for the favored route.  While you can jump on anywhere or turn 2 loops into a custom drive, we aimed to stay close to the trail with the occasional detour.

                We drove through Friendship to start South on Route 34 on “Oil Country.”  Before we got to cruising speed, we stopped at an old cemetery.  We didn’t see a sign for the cemetery but found it freshly mowed, clad with a flag surrounded by flowers. We searched out Babcocks, Coons, Wrights and Steenrods buried as long ago as 1822.

                We tried to read through the faded letters on stories for Anne and Tolcut. Anne’s stone read, “In Memory of Anne, consort of Tolcut Gold who departed this life February 15, 1827 aged 63 years four months.”

                It was the word “consort” that attracted attention. Was Anne his wife or his companion? Did the word favor one meaning over another in 1827? Anne didn’t have a last name on the stone.

                Then there was Tolcut Gold’s stone.  Tolcut died in September 1836 but his stone also gives details. “Tolcot lived 77 years. He served his country during the revolution. He was a good citizen and an honest man and departed this life…” The rest of it was buried in dirt and lichen. 

(NOTE: Tolcott's great, great, great, great grandson called me to say that his family was pleased to read that I'd found their stones and that they were, very surely, married. Consort meant wife.)

                Continuing south on Route 34 through Wirt, we passed a stone railroad support, fields, houses, cabins, fences, wildflowers, sheds, barns, an old wooden cistern, logging roads and then a pond. I asked Rick to go back to the pond so he stopped and turned around and parked about 2 feet from a very surprised blue heron.

                The bird accepted the car, the engine noise and our faces but when the camera came up for a shot that was over the line. The heron took a leap forward for a second and then pushed hard with huge wings.

                We also detoured onto Route 5B to the Hilltop Lodge. In the early 1800s William A. Dusenbury built Hilltop as his private retreat using part of the fortune he accrued by establishing the First National Bank of Olean and by investing, like many others in the area, in lumber and oil.

                Hilltop Lodge now offers glamping – glamorous camping. The owner/chef is Richard Fontana who retired from law enforcement in Erie County and bought the Hilltop Lodge in the 1980s. Driving the long, narrow private road into the area prepares glampers for the wooded quiet of the cabins and lodge.

                Glampers can find all meals at the Lodge but the restaurant is open to the public Wednesday through Saturday nights with private parties any time. Richard calls the menu "upscale with my home cooked Italian meals." 

                Leaving Hilltop Lodge we turned right and passed variety - elegant houses and rudimentary cabins, polished and proud homes and abandoned dwellings, boats and trucks, small bridges and miles of open fields alternating with extensive mowed lawns.

                Main Street in Bolivar hosts the Pioneer Oil Museum, closed when we passed. We found a variety of cemeteries and million dollar views. The overlook at the top of the hill on Route 5 between Little Genesee and Obi had a chain across the path so we respected that.

                Sloppy Joe’s Deli in West Clarksville caught our eye. Well, more honestly the barn sale next to Sloppy Joe’s caught my eye but since we were in the parking lot, we went into Sloppy Joe’s. It’s a take-off-your-coat-and-put-on-your-slippers sort of place. The sign inside invites people to “Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often.

                Joree Tavano, who runs Sloppy Joe’s with her husband Joe, said that their lives changed the day they hung that sign. The café is comfy with plastic tablecloths and filled chairs. That’s where we learned that the overlook on Route 5 is on private property mostly open by chance but always open on Easter Sunday for prayer services around the cross on the hill.

                Sloppy Joe’s (open from 7 am till 8 pm) serves pizza, subs, wings and friendship. Fridays are for fish fries but Tuesdays are reserved for spaghetti, wings and - for the last 14 years - an open mic so head over with your guitar.

                It’s such a special place that after one of the regulars, Jim Holcomb, died his wife Debbie brought his farm boots in and put them among the collectibles on display.

                Ray Baker studied his coffee mug and said he’d been in the place so many times he couldn’t count that high. He said they all missed Jim and then said, “I buried my wife yesterday but I’m right back here again. It’s a big family here, you know. You get attached. You feel camaraderie and solace.”

                That makes Sloppy Joe’s an Allegany County gem. 

                By this time, Rick and I were near the end of Oil Country but we detoured again when we saw some odd signs labeled Mt. Irenaeus. Following the arrows up some dirt "roads" we discovered a retreat and home to Franciscan Monks, loosely tied to St. Bonaventure. Mt. Irenaeus occasionally welcomes guests for Sunday Eucharist (followed by a dish to pass meal). The area is not handicapped accessible and it’s best to call 716-375-2096 before venturing up the mountain.

The website for local tourism is www.DiscoverAlleganyCounty.com. Call 1-800-836-1869 or 585-268-5500 to request brochures or look for them in local Libraries and banks. Brochure choices are Scenic Drives, Spring Summer Fall, Artisans & Galleries, Historic Trails, Hunting & Fishing, Fall Winter Spring and Festivals & Events. This driving tour is listed in Scenic Drives.

Elaine Hardman is a member of the Allegany County Office of Tourism Advisory