I’m a Western New Yorker and proud of it
By Kathryn Ross, photo by Melanie Hunt
Earlier this week that prognosticating, pretender from Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter after being frightened by his own shadow.
Closer to home, Dunkirk Dave after not seeing his shadow in the early a.m., single digit temperatures in northern Chautauqua County proclaimed an early, Spring. Since Dave’s prediction coincides with the Woolly Bear’s coat from last Fall, and he’s not located in south central Pennsylvania, I’m going with Dave’s prediction and not Phil’s.
Even so, my years of living through Western New York winters tells me not to look for buds or birds until mid-March and not to be surprised to see snowflakes in April. Winter is winter and eventually the sun will shine longer, and the wind will blow warmer.
Right now, I’m just relishing the fact that it isn’t getting dark until nearly 5:30 p.m. and it seems, and is, later every day.
Many people when they get to my age forsake the ravages of winter and head to warmer climates in Florida or Arizona. Even though I love the ocean and could be lured to Maine, I would never move to Florida. I could not endure the physical or the political climate in the Sunshine State. As for the Grand Canyon State, I visited a friend there once. It was right after Christmas. Seeing them all bundled up in jackets when it got down to 50 degrees, I was just wearing a sweater, I laughed at them.
I’m a Western New Yorker and proud of it.
The other day I was driving on the Arterial and thought to myself, although it was a bit warmer, I like living in our little town.
I like seeing deer grazing in the wooded back lawns of North Main Street homes and in the field between the road and the river. I like the way the river, covered in snow and ice flows through the village, dividing it between downtown and the neighborhoods on the west side of the village. I like seeing the geese pausing in the pond and the long-legged herons standing in the shallows.
I like seeing the rays of the sun highlighting the golden dome of the library and the spires of the Catholic Church steeples reaching into the sky. And even though it’s now buried under more than a foot of snow, I love seeing the wooded beauty and pristine whiteness of Island Park sequestered in its winter sleeping bag.
While many like to put it down and criticize, I think the village and town are a good place to live. Just take for example the recent tragic house fires where families were left homeless. The fires weren’t even out yet before someone was putting up a Facebook or Go Fund Me page to help out the victims. I’m still seeing shopping carts put aside in stores for people to donate items to the victims. And it was just after Christmas, a time when many are strapped after the holidays, yet they have still found a way to help.
Helping is what we do in this village. How many times does a cashier in a store take time to help a customer who has found herself short a dime a quarter a dollar or more and the cashier has reached into her own pocket to make up the difference, or the person behind them in line has said, “I’ve got it.”
Many denigrate the police, call them names and denounce them for not being helpful or caring. I for one, will never do that. I’ve seen them in action at accidents, on welfare checks and risking their lives to help others whether it is pulling someone out of the river or protecting the public from a robbery.
As for myself, I cannot count the times they have come to my rescue with jumper cables to start my car or with a pry bar to open my car door after I’ve locked the keys inside.
Yeah, our little village is a pretty nice, and a safe place to live. We may have some problems with drug abuse and domestic violence, but there are people and organizations helping. We may not have all the flash and gloss of bigger towns, but new businesses are opening all the time. We may not have all the jobs we need or all the industry we would like, but people are trying.
Our village and town are a work in progress and what we have already is pretty nice.
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Kathryn Ross is a lifelong Wellsville NY, Allegany County resident, journalist, writer, and community activist. You can reach her anytime, kathr_2002@yahoo.com
