Ditch talk, cheese curd, the Ides of March
By Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels.
I decided to make the trip west again today with The Cuba Cheese Shop my destination. My mission there was to pick up another full, one pound container of their excellent, tasty, Cheese Curd. I told the counter lady who had already waited on me a couple of times recently that the curd keeps evaporating. Undaunted, she replied that: “we hear that a lot.” I’ve been a fan of it for years but recently it has tasted especially inviting. A one-pound plastic container will last me a week, if I control my urges. One plus, as far as I am concerned, is its lack of any significant effects on my digestive system or bodily functions. I am not bound to any binding problems with the Curd.
I had Andrew and the Sun insert a special “weekendish” edition primarily to relate my experiences with a local ditch. Oddly, and ironically, I was already planning today’s Wrambling to be focused on my own private ditch, which will be introduced also herein.
Despite having collected all visible balls the other day, and, despite my earlier “fight with the ditch,” when I stopped to take a picture of the ditch today there was another golf ball calling to me. I do now own that one.
The North-South right of way west of Scio, NY, that was converted into a filler trench near the Boanga Club on Back River Road was owned by the Wellsville, Addison & Galeton Railroad (WAG), often referred to as “The Sole Leather Line”. This line was previously part of the Buffalo & Susquehanna Railroad (B&S) before being acquired by the WAG.
The ditch formed a channel that was used to fill and maintain a significant water level in the Pond/Lake at what later became identified as the Millstone. By that time the Genesee River bank erosion had destroyed the northern end of the “birm,” and thus the waterflow source.
In the 1972 flood the eastern bank of the ditch was severely eroded and overflow of the water from Knights Creek, which entered the Genesee a little further east and north, washed out. Despite an attempt to rebuild the trench wall on the river side, it did not last and flow was diminished and disrupted. It then became a convenient dumping ground for guy, who will remain nameless, and who had started a small car repair business and who discarded his “throw away” tires into the ditch.
Ok, enough with the “show and tell” which I hope will all be “publishable in this issue of my Wramblings. At this point something triggered a display of a “Header” and “Footer” notation and not knowing how to control them I finally found a menu option to delete them. I do not at all like the changes that Microsoft and CI have embedded in my Microsoft Word writing and editing efforts. I detest Artificial Intelligence (AI), and whatever Zoom is doing in my writing tools.
The saga of my broken “ring finger” should peak out tomorrow when I go under the surgical knife. Dr. Ali Mansour will be doing a severed and displaced Metacarpal bone re-attachment and screw implant on Friday. (tomorrow March 13 if I get this finished and in Andrews hands in time to publish today, March 12)
One thing that I’m seeing all too often these days is the reaction of talk show hosts working a certain Shopping network show. They sample all the food items and without exception, they take a bite, close their eyes and turn their head side to side showing us the extent of their satisfaction and enjoyment. My unscientific notion as to the psychological effect of this action, is that it shuts down the eye’s visibility sensation so as to enhance the taste bud’s sensation. I Guess that makes about as much sense as any other reason or explanation, that I can think of, for their doing that.
We are now in the active stage of the Olean Times Herald’s next phase on their journey to reach a one day a week delivery, which in all likelihood will also result in the eventual complete shutdown. If that happens, a very long-standing enjoyment in my life starting as a 12 year old will have finally died. This once daily paper will now only be published on a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday schedule. Yes, there will be a daily “on-line” publication, but I don’t care to read my news on my computer or “device.” That is not relaxing to me. I used to also enjoy the readings of what was locally referred to as the Wellsville Daily Disappointment, but when that regressed to just the publication of The Spectator, it took that publication out of my reading experiences.
Of course, even though the Times Herald’s frequency was diminished, their price was not lowered. We are now hard pressed to justify the “quarterly” payment, which of course, in and of itself, is quite a bargain to what would be a daily “over the counter” price of $2.50 for each issue.
We are three days away from The Ides of March and to which I was going to rename and use in my stories about the “Sides if March” defining the recent ditch sides that I have encountered.
We are soon to be blessed by a couple of performances by The Genesee Valley Chorus when they perform the Lenten Season performance on the 22nd of this month. When I publish my next week’s Wramblings I will provide additional information as will be detailed in our poster, hopefully which will be displayed in, or at, several Wellsville area store windows or bulletin boards. Save the afternoon of the 22nd so you will be able to attend and enjoy this beautiful Lenten Season performance of several thought-provoking and heart filling musical pieces.
Having likely overloaded my publication “space” I guess I’ll cut this a little short despite not having covered all of my planned topics. One last thought was mentioning a common phrase heard earlier in the day. The phrase was “Give me one second” when asking someone to hold off a bit before saying or doing something to, or for. them. Obviously, it means “give me a little time to finish what I’m doing, and I can then turn my attention to you.” The phrase “In a minute” at least expands the timeline for what is intended but the time lapse is so short, when you stop to think about it. At least for me, that is puzzling.
I will end this with a “shout out” to Michelle who works in the JMH Medical Imaging office and who gave me a big hug yesterday after I finished my pre-op meetings prior to tomorrow’s surgery.
You can reach Chuck Wiser anytime to talk about ditch fights, cheese curd, or the old days in Nile NY, im.wiserdad@gmail.com
