Dear Customers, When January’s chill winds blow and February’s icicles hang heavy from the eaves, we’ve grown accustomed to the vagaries of the fresh produce market.  Temperatures plummet in Florida and the orange crop suffers, both in quality and quantity.  Too much rain in the Salinas Valley in California and lettuce, tomatoes, spinach and strawberries…

Dear Customers, I can still remember sitting in my Marketing 101 class in Plassman Hall on the campus of St. Bonaventure.  It was the first week of September in 1973 and the consensus, at least among the undergraduates, was that class most certainly would be cancelled as soon as the professor arrived.  After all, it…

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,…