Dear Customers, Professional sports are huge in this country.  The majority of Americans follow at least one of the major sports and some – all of them!  Baseball claims to be America’s game, but in reality, football comes in first with baseball right behind in second place.  Pro basketball is third followed closely by hockey.…

Dear Customers, Many’s the time I’ve bemoaned the fact that due to printing deadlines, I have to write this column 3 or 4 weeks before you read it.  That’s usually not a problem but it becomes so when it pertains to time-sensitive information.  I often completely forget that there’s going to be a certain holiday…

WEEK #35 August 30th, 2021    Dear Customers, According to the Gregorian Calendar, the one most widely used in the world today since the year 1582, Summer begins on or about June 21st and concludes some three months later on September 21st or 22nd.  It is a solar calendar based upon the Earth’s revolution around…

Dear Customers, Those long, lazy nights of summer are drawing to a close.  No longer are bedtimes optional, they’re suddenly mandatory. Schools around the Commonwealth get back into full swing this week, many this Wednesday.  The rattle of big yellow buses climbing the Mechanic St. hill in the morning necessitates that I leave the house…

  Dear Customers, August means so many things to residents of the Northwestern corner of Pennsylvania.  You can count on hot days and cool nights.  You can expect to find the Allegheny foothills shrouded in fog till at least mid-morning on most days.  Locally grown sweet corn is one of the area’s epicurean delicacies, partly…

Dear Customers, As we leisurely meander down the lazy river of August, summer vacation wanders closer to its inevitable end.  After a year-long hiatus, the McKean County Fair resumes this Sunday for its 115th edition.  Blackberries are ripening all throughout the Pennsylvania Wilds, while the spots on this year’s fawns are fading, while our lawns…

Dear Customers, Over the course of the summer, we get a lot of people in the store who don’t live in the area; tourists enjoying the Pennsylvania Wilds, visitors to families living in Smethport or the surrounding towns and people just out enjoying a beautiful ride through our gorgeous countryside.  Often, these visitors are moved…

Dear Customers, In the “Paul Costa” calendar, not to be confused with the Gregorian calendar used by the rest of the world, summer is 2/3’rds over at the end of July.  As a school-aged kid living each summer day as if it were my last, August meant “the end is near!”  August also meant those…