I Remember by David T. Moore
My grandfather, Harry C. Moore, first went up in the ’20s to hunt on Dutch Mountain
Wow! I was trying to find out some Lopez info for a young colleague
of mine who spent the Independence Day holiday on the Bradford/Tioga
Cos. line and then went to Ricketts. So I said I’d try to locate
some info about where I used to go in the 1950s and I found the site
and – lo and behold – you have my picture there! On the picture page
are photos called “Memorial Day 1955.” Actually I believe them to be
“Old Home Day” that year because we were often on Dutch Mountain in
August; I never remember being there in May. Anyway, in the photo
of kids made up as Indians, I am the one to the right (viewer’s left) of the boy with the rifle; obscured by my “feathers” is my brother Peter. In 1955 I was 10 and he was 12. I have a photo my parents took of the 2 of us that day, which is how I know – but I remember it well. Conditions at our cabin were, shall we say, primitive, so we had to have the body make-up washed
off in the back of Ortlieb’s store, in the area where they did the
butchering and there were big sinks. Clair Johnson – later
prothonotary – ran that department for the Ortliebs.
My grandfather, Harry C. Moore, first went up in the ’20s to hunt on Dutch Mountain at Bert Taylor’s place; later he bought 50 acres from Taylor and built a hunting cabin. This was at Bellasylva; I remember Clyde &
Henrietta Kester there, as well as her mother, Mrs. Cofink.
We started to go up in 1953 when Claverack brought electricity
through; we had a pump pulling water from our spring. My parents,
Clinton & Jane Moore, and my grandparents, Harry & Sue Moore, knew
Glen & Dorothy Springer well. I remember Janet Springer’s first
wedding, and knew Don pretty well; Dale was older than we were. We
often went with Don to Ann McGee’s for sodas and to play pinball; and
I remember being in the bar of her brother Andy Decker. Often went
to Mass celebrated by Father Luke Halley from Mildred or his brother
Fr. Mike when he was chaplain at Benton Air Force Base. I remember
Paul Dyer’s hardware store and the Chisonis store in the background
of the “Indian” photo.
Lots of fun memories: Lopez, BerniceMildred, Dushore, etc. Drive in
movie at Dushore; “Sweeney’s Rendezvous” restaurant across the road
there; Mr. Christini the Mildred plumber from whom we bought the
propane tanks for our stove; “Farm” Dunn’s garage; Mr. Sick at the
Ben Frankiin at the “traffic light” who always asked my parents “how
are things back on the mountain?”; the soda fountain across the
street there where my father would take us after Mass on Sunday for
an ice cream soda.
We sold our place “Maplemoore” in the 1980s. I have not been
up that way since 1972.
Thanks for bringing back some neat times!
by David Moore
davidtmoore@mail.com