Happy Holidays: Route 31/Friendship Hill to reopen at 5pm on December 22
By Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
Just a quick Wrecap or Wreminder about County Rte. 31 between Scio and Friendship before moving on with my normally warped Wramblings.
Construction is finally wrapping up (again) and the road is expected be open Monday December 22 by 5pm. Through-traffic will once again be allowed on County Route 31.
This has been a major inconvenience to many, many, people as became apparent to me having been dubbed “The Rte. 31 Gatekeeper,” and having been contacted by numerous people. To those traveling as a convenience, as I do with my frequent trips to Olean, it isn’t a significant inconvenience as our driving interruption is just extended by a few miles and a little more time. For those who work in Friendship, or further west, it has been a major impediment and deterrence.
As a memory re-awakener I travel what was once County Route 408, and in my mind still is. It is now assigned a different route number and its short history is as follows:
New York State Route 446 (NY 446) is a state highway in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. The highway extends for 6.76 miles (10.88 km) on a northeast–southwest alignment from an intersection with NY 16 north of the hamlet of Hinsdale to a junction with NY 305 in the village of Cuba. It parallels the Southern Tier Expressway (NY 17 and Interstate 86 or I-86) very closely for its entire length. NY 446 was originally designated as part of Route 4, an unsigned legislative route, in 1908. The Hinsdale–Cuba highway received its first posted designation in 1924 when it was included as part of NY 17. It was renumbered twice, becoming part of NY 63 in 1930 and NY 408 in the 1940s, before gaining its current designation on July 1, 1974.
I have written many times of its nostalgic significance, especially it’s western-most branch.
My recent shopping, or retired off time boredom pleasureful weekly routine extravagance, I am reminded that it is The primary Holiday time. Whether you celebrate the religious birth of Christ, which has become the main component of the word Christmas, or the commercial gift purchasing and distribution time, the stores are filled with shoppers.
Slipping back into a moment of reverie, my mother would bundle us up and we would drive the local roads looking at the splendor of the Christmas lights and designations. We didn’t have any humongous 10 foot blow up lawn decorations in those days. My mom would give us $5 each with which to purchase Christmas presents for our family members. In 1955 that would go a long way and allow the purchase of many gifts, albeit fairly small, or inexpensive, gifts.
That last sentence includes a two word compound which I call “conversational grammar.” Autocorrect (or as I call it Autodefect) points out that “fairly small” should be just “small.”
As I was ready to begin my next topic, it brought to mind another topic. The other topic is actually a component, or at least used to be, of the following topic. Confused yet?
My next topic gets into the nuts and bolts region and that isn’t mechanical speak.
I’m not 100% sure of its history for us but it may very well have been an offshoot of our late 60’s participation of the Wellsville “Welcome Wagon” group that invited fairly new couples into a social group dedicated to introducing young couples into the social atmosphere of the town.
The picture that accompanies this Wrambling is a mix of cereal and snack items that we call Nuts-N-Bolts and which the cereal manufacturers call Chex Mix. There is often a copy of “their” recipe on the cereal box. We have added to, modified, eliminated the base recipe many times to get to what we now use. The most important modification that we made involves the liquid used to season the mix. The original recipe calls for the use of melted butter. Melted butter does not stay melted, so we now use our own “seasoned” cooking (vegetable) oil with some of the ingredients added to it before “drizzling” the oil onto the mix while continuously stirring and mixing. Note: Stir gently, more like a “fold,” to avoid the breaking up of the larger ingredients.
I won’t drag all readers into reading the actual recipe but will provide it with a request that accompanies my standard “sign off” comments of how to contact me. I am also available on Facebook.
If you’re out and about and in the Main Street area of Wellsville this Saturday early afternoon you may see, or hopefully hear, the members of the Genesee Valley Chorus as we travel Main Street singing Christmas (or Seasonal) Carols. We will make our presence known as we start from the Grace United Church, on North Main Street.
As I sit here writing this my wife has the TV on in the bedroom down the hall. One of the QVC hosts or representatives was blathering along and mentioned Co-Pilot. That is somewhat tied to the larger blooming entity known as Artificial Intelligence (AI). I have “bitched” about both all too often for most I imagine, but I greatly detest the intrusion into my formerly useful, and easily used Word” programs. There has been a migration from the first basic “platforms” mostly all Microsoft innovations, that are now so intrusive you cannot work “with them,” “around them,” or delete them. My laptop has not yet been “infected” by them but my office “Desktop” computer is. If I should happen to pass away any time soon they will have to “Wrest” this Laptop from my hands.
Also as I write this, I keep looking at the picture of the Nuts-N-Bolts and it’s making me hungry.
My Wramblings continue to interest and motivate people to reach out to me. The most recent to do so is the son of one of my “bosses” from another era and almost life.
I recently received a communication from a reader who saw a previous Wrambling post in the Wellsville Sun. I will not specifically mention the reader but there are noted ties to a former “boss” of mine dating back into the late 60’s. Here is his message:
“I stumbled across your wrambling blog in the Wellsville Sun while researching my grandfather Noel Hazzard and I saw you had quoted him.
I was wondering if you had any more stories, quotes or even photos back then working with you. The two quotes were classic Noel, as a young boy growing up he was a hardass but I didnt really get to know him as he died when i was a kid after not being himself for awhile. I understand if you dont want to share but I was just curious if you had more you could. Happy Holidays.”
Here you go Henry. I started my “Engineering Career” in 1967 working at The Air Preheater Co. (APCo) in Wellsville, NY. At some point in my career I had performed sufficiently as an “Uneducated, or Untrained” Draftsman, to be transferred to the “New Products Development Department” in the Lab building, somewhat dislocated from the main office buildings on Truax Road. Greg Theocletus was the overall Lab Supervisor and Noel Hazzard was a group leader under him. As I toiled at my “Drafting” position, assigned to Noel’s department, I was already thrown into a little design work on a new product line for APCo, named the “Combustall.” Safe and non-pollutant waste disposal systems and methods using not yet developed equipment were in the developmental stages and I got to work on several of them throughout the early years of my employment at APCo. Note: As I’ve mentioned before, my only exposure to engineering or design was having taken three years of Mechanical Drawing from Nancy McDermott at Friendship Central School. I was literally already way over head in my career.
One day I was called into Noel’s office for a sit down conversation over something or the other, of which I have no recall. As the conversation continued, Noel said to me, paraphrasing now…
“Chuck, you are already way over your head, and you will never be a deep thinker.”
That motivated me and still motivates me to this day. A short time later in my career, already working my way up through the mechanical career positions as a designer, and un-officially to design engineer. During my employment I designed and received a patent for a “Removable, Top Loading Door” for the Combustall. This allowed the Waste Incinerator to be loaded at the side of the top directly by a tractor “front end loader.” Later, I joined a cohort of other APCo employees for night school advanced training targeting a degree in “Product and Machine Design,” at Alfred State College. This led to an educational bachelor’s program at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).
I have done a considerable amount of “deep thinking,” all motivated by Noel’s comment. For that I thank him and am indebted to him for that motivation. His grandson Henry has every right to be proud of his grandfather, and I hope he too was motivated as was I. His curiosity that led him to me, is also a credit and sign of “deep thinking” as he researches his family history.
I leave you now with my latest poetic efforts. A poem is built in the heart and does not require “seep thinking,” but deep emotion and affection for the words that can be thought, written and shared with others. This poem was just meant as the beginning of a longer one, but I may keep it this way in its brevity, but soul sharing.
If you have any comments, questions or concerns, for this Wrambling, or, are desirous of the “Mix” recipe, feel free to email me at IM.Wiserdad@gmail.com
