Mountain Home, July 2019

E E R F he wind

The Boy of Summer as t

Matt Burch Brings His Big League Heart Home to Elmira

By Brendan O’Meara

History Launches on the Finger Lakes Bare Knuckle Boxing in Belfast A Place to Play on Corning’s Park Avenue

JULY 20191

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Volume 14 Issue 7

16 Pyrotechnic Art

The Boy of Summer

By Beth Williams

For Lawrenceville’s Jim Farr, the sky is his canvas and fireworks are his paint.

By Brendan O’Meara

22 Creekside Country at

Matt Burch brings his big league heart home to Elmira.

Miller’s Store

By Linda Roller

Mother and daughter bring all things Pennsylvania to travelers in the Pine Creek valley.

24 A Place to Play, a Place

to Celebrate

By Karey Solomon

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Between the Center on Park Avenue and the Park Ave Sports Center, all bases are covered in Corning.

Dare to Be Bare in Belfast

28 Endless Mountain Music

By Gayle Morrow

Festival Event Schedule 34 Vacation Like It Used to Be

Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame celebrates 11th annual induction ceremony.

By Karey Solomon

For over 70 years, Seneca Lodge has been an oasis in Watkins Glen.

38 This Will Float Your Boat

By Mike Cutillo

Finger Lakes Boating Museum launches history.

18 The Artist’s Voice

42 Back of the Mountain

By Jennie Simon

By Michael Capuzzo

Horseheads painter Gary Myers and his iconic red tree charm an international audience.

One Army man, two presidents.

Cover photo courtesy Shannon Burch; cover design by Tucker Worthington; (from top) Matt Burch sending out a pitch, courtesy Shannon Burch; by Gayle Morrow; Gary Myers’ The Savored Moment, courtesy West End Gallery.

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w w w. m o u n ta i n h o m e m ag . co m Editors & Publishers Teresa Banik Capuzzo Michael Capuzzo Associate Publisher George Bochetto, Esq. D i r e c t o r o f O pe r a t i o n s Gwen Button Managing Editor Gayle Morrow S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e s Joseph Campbell, Robin Ingerick, Richard Trotta Gallery Manager/ Circulation Director Michael Banik Accounting Amy Packard D e s i g n & P h o t o g r ap h y Tucker Worthington, Cover Design

Contributing Writers Maggie Barnes, Leslie Bresee, Mike Cutillo, Ann E. Duckett, Elaine Farkas, Carrie Hagen, Paul Heimel, Lisa Howeler, Don Knaus, Nicole Landers, Janet McCue, Dave Milano, Cornelius O’Donnell, Brendan O’Meara, Peter Petokas, Peter Joffre Nye, Linda Roller, Jennie Simon, Jan Bridgeford-Smith, Karey Solomon, Beth Williams C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Bernadette Chiaramonte, Diane Cobourn, Bill Crowell, Bruce Dart, Katie Finnerty, Roger Kingsley, Emma Mead, Heather Mee, Jody Shealer, Linda Stager, Mary Sweely, Sue Vogler, Sarah Wagaman, Curt Weinhold, Ardath Wolcott, Gillian Tulk-Yartym, Deb Young D i s t r i b u t i o n T eam Layne Conrad, Grapevine Distribution, Duane Meixel, Linda Roller

Our reputation is

T h e B ea g l e Cosmo (1996-2014) • Yogi (2004-2018) ABOUT US: Mountain Home is the award-winning regional magazine of PA and NY with more than 100,000 readers. The magazine has been published monthly, since 2005, by Beagle Media, LLC, 871/2 Main Street, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901, and online at www.mountainhomemag.com. Copyright © 2019 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail story ideas to editorial@mountainhomemag. com, or call (570) 724-3838.

TO ADVERTISE: E-mail info@mountainhomemag.com, or call us at (570) 724-3838.

AWARDS: Mountain Home has won over 100 international and statewide journalism awards from the International Regional Magazine Association and the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association for excellence in writing, photography, and design.

DISTRIBUTION: Mountain Home is available “Free as the Wind” at hundreds of locations in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, Union, and Clinton counties in PA and Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, Tioga, and Ontario counties in NY. SUBSCRIPTIONS: For a one-year subscription (12 issues), send $24.95, payable to Beagle Media LLC, 871/2 Main Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901 or visit www.mountainhomemag.com.

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Gallery Spotlight

Bernadette Chiaramonte’s Photography Comes to Mountain Home Bernadette Chiaramonte’s award-winning (including four Keystone Press awards with Mountain Home), whimsical local photographs have enhanced the pages of Mountain Home many times.

This July and August we will be showcasing much of her work.

You can meet her at the gallery at 87½ Main Street in Wellsboro on July 5 beginning at 5:00 p.m. during the town’s July First Friday.

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The Boy of Summer

Matt Burch Brings His Big League Heart Home to Elmira

By Brendan O’Meara

E

very team needs a clubhouse guy.

This is often a vocal, positive player.

Sometimes a bench player. At times a star player. Clubhouse guys can spend more time in the dugout than on the field.

They are not daunted by a lack of playing time. In fact, being on the bench is a form of playing time. Clubhouse guys are happy to be there. “The clubhouse is a place like no other,” says Kevin Wilson, the hitting consultant behind KW Baseball. “The clubhouse guy keeps it loose but also keeps everyone focused. Without him, the sheep wander and get lost. He prods and reels them in. He seems to be in the middle of everything (in a good way) without even trying. It’s natural and not forced.”

Sometimes a clubhouse guy is a backup catcher. Maybe he’s a relief pitcher.

Maybe he’s a starting pitcher playing every fifth day giving him four games to be a voice and a fifth game to be the hammer.

Victoria Edel, a writer for GoodFundies. com, offers another definition: “He’s the guy in the clubhouse — or the dugout, or the bullpen, or the batting cage — who brings leadership, experience, and fun, to everything he does. ‘Clubhouse guy’-ness is intangible, unmeasurable by a batting average, ERA, WAR, or whatever new measurement presented to us this season.”

The clubhouse guy is an emotional leader, a “facilitator of energy.”

“I haven’t heard that terminology in a while since I haven’t played in a while,” says Jeremy Dodson, a former minor league baseball player with the Kansas City Royals. “When you walk in it’s, ‘Hey, man,

how was your night?’ He’s one of those guys you want to have a locker next to.

To sit back and shoot the breeze. If you’re having a bad week or month as a player, he’d be the one to try and lift you up. He’s one of those guys.”

“A clubhouse guy—there are right moments for everything,” says Jake Anthony, who played for Virginia Commonwealth University from 19961999 and Single A ball for a time. “There’s streaks, slumps, a little of everything that happens. There’s right moments where you can make a difference either in team chemistry or in performance and maybe even the individual. He was one of those guys.”

“He” is Matt Burch.

Matt Burch is a clubhouse guy.

••• Matt Burch, forty-two, of Corning, teaches English at Corning-Painted Post High School where he also coaches modified football, JV girls basketball, and is the assistant varsity baseball coach. In 2018, he returned as manager (for the second time) for the Elmira Pioneers of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League.

It’s a time where he can pass down some experience and knowledge to the next generation. Maybe impart some hard-won sagacity from the bus leagues in Spokane, Washington, to Wilmington, North Carolina.

It’s what a clubhouse guy does.

••• Matt has, in essence, been in a baseball uniform since he was four years old. He

admitted that his frenetic energy as a kid forced his parents to enroll him in tee ball a year early.

As he progressed through the various balls, it became evident that he had one talent above others. “I played with a lot of talented kids in the neighborhood, older kids,” Matt says. “I didn’t hit well. I didn’t field well, but I could throw the ball out of the park, from home plate over the fence.

I always had arm strength.”

Paul Avery, an attorney based out of Buffalo, New York, and a lifelong friend of Matt’s, played baseball with him from the time they were little kids. They’d play catch in the yard. At times, Paul had a hard time catching Matt’s ball. By the time they were playing Babe Ruth, Matt had learned how to cup and throw a curveball. That was the ticket. This curveball was a knee-buckler, a shoulder-blade pincher, a tightly spinning missile that dropped faster than a yo-yo.

Paul says he and his fellow infielders always had a laugh out there on the diamond when they saw a batter brace for impact, only to see the baseball whip into the mitt for a called strike.

••• During Matt’s sophomore year at Thomas A. Edison High School in Elmira Heights, his team had a third baseman who was generating buzz among scouts.

Matt got the ball that day. He toed the rubber. He then struck out nineteen of twenty-one batters on the backbone of that deuce. (Paul: “This is a joke! This can’t be happening! Nobody strikes out the side this many times. I may have gotten See Burch on page 8

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7

Courtesy Shannon Burch

Courtesy Peggy Dettwiler

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Burch continued from page 6

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a ground ball or a pop out hit to second base, might be the longest ball hit all day.”)

“You never know who’s watching,” Matt recalls. “All of a sudden the conversation shifted from the good player [on third base], but now: who the heck is that kid?”

That’s when the phone started ringing. Matt learned to be organized from his father. The Burches kept a notepad beside the phone. Every time a college or professional scout called the Burches, he wrote it down. “It was the binder of my future,” he says.

At 6-foot-2-inches, and all of 150 pounds, the future was anything he wanted it to be: a fastball clocking in the low 90s and that curveball.

“I had a different understanding of paths,” Matt says. “I separated myself from nonsense. I wasn’t a partygoer. I had a goal. I wanted to be a Major League baseball player.”

••• Jake Anthony, a Richmond native and former teammate and roommate of Matt’s at Virginia Commonwealth University, was among a robust freshman class in the mid-90s. This group included himself, Matt, and future big leaguer Brandon Inge. Inge would go on to play thirteen seasons, primarily for the Tigers, as a catcher and third baseman.

There were six baseball players in this suite, three bedrooms, two to each room.

They were all squirreled away. They were not antisocial, but didn’t know any better since nobody knew each other yet. It’s that

Courtesy Shannon Burch

time of newness, of being away from home for the first time, the first period of uncertainty of their lives.

That’s when Jake heard the Survivor song “Eye of the Tiger” blasting from another room. He thought someone was half crazy out there, but there he was, the lanky pitcher from upstate New York bringing out the other five freshmen into the common room.

They had yet to share the dugout together, but here it was, in plain sight, a clubhouse guy.

“We had just moved in, we don’t meet and interact,” Jake says. “It’s about 9 p.m. [Burch] comes out and you have no choice but to walk out and see what’s going on. That’s a small indicator.

Here’s a moment of a group that’s not together. On Day 1, he’s thinking ‘Let me find a way to break the ice and move forward.’

I think that’s one of the things. We still joke about that night.”

One time at VCU, Matt had pitched and there was no need for him to join the team on the road. “He jumped on a road trip he wasn’t supposed to,” Jake remembers. “He couldn’t pitch, but he snuck on the bus to join us on that trip. He couldn’t throw.

He was done for five days. I think from a clubhouse perspective, the team that grows together and has strong friendships off the field, carries over onto the field.” And as freshmen expected to contribute right away, they knew they had to set the tone, even as new players to the program. Matt, who had that wicked curveball and a fastball that began ticking into the mid-90s, knew he had to find another level of skill.

That moment arrived late one night. Matt, even Jake, heard a heavy, metronomic thwap coming from the common room. It must have been 2 a.m. It was Brandon Inge. He had propped his mattress up against the cinderblock walls of the room and was hitting baseballs off an orange parking cone into his mattress.

Ball after ball after ball.

“He would hit, or he’d take his catchers mitt, and you’d hear the ball pop all night, pop, or the thud of the mattress,” Jake says.

“The dude had insomnia, I’m sure of it,” Matt says. “We would all go to bed. We’d be woken up hearing thud, thud, thud.

He would hit off that cone into that mattress all night long. I remember thinking, ‘I gotta get him out Thursday in our inner squad.’ He was the barometer. What am I going to do? I have to See Burch on page 10 9

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study what he’s doing. I have to run my poles. I gotta make sure I’m locked into my bullpen. I’m gonna watch the Orioles on TV tonight against the Yankees to see how these guys are getting out similar hitters. My peer group allowed me to do that.”

A ball player’s talents and work ethic get him to a certain point. What was once considered hard work in high school to get the player to a Division I college is no longer enough. The player must now find another ratchet or risk plateauing. So, Matt progressed through his freshman and sophomore years. Then, in 1998, his junior year, he dominated. VCU marched through the Eastern Regional in Clemson, South Carolina.

In the opening round on May 21, Matt was the losing pitcher in a 2-1, ninety-minute pitchers’ duel. VCU then beat USC, 14-4, (subsequently USC’s only loss of the playoffs as it marched through the College World Series for the title). VCU then beat the Citadel, 3-2, on May 23. Suddenly VCU found itself one game away from the Eastern Region final. On three days’ rest, Matt, the ace of the staff, and expected to be a first-round pick in the upcoming amateur draft, marched into his head coach’s office, the late Paul Keyes, after the 3-2 win. Not wanting to let his teammates down, being the leader he was, being the clubhouse guy, Matt thought, “Shit, I’m pitching tomorrow, I don’t care if the draft is next week and I just threw two days ago. I knock on Paul Keyes’ door.”

“I’m pitching tomorrow,” he told Paul Keyes, who looked at Matt and said, “Hoss, you’re not pitching tomorrow. The draft is a week away.”

“Listen, I’m pitching.”

Matt pitched.

VCU lost, 6-0, to Southern Alabama against the same pitcher from the 2-1 loss.

Nevertheless, what a run.

••• Matt knew he was a first-round pick. It was that curveball.

Jake Anthony, Matt’s roommate, describes the curveball in reverential terms. “I remember facing him and it was one of the chances—you had to take the opportunity when you had it. If he gave you a pitch to hit and you took it, you knew that when that curveball was coming, it’s over. Any guy that can throw that pitch that many times in a game—it didn’t matter if you knew it was coming or not.”

It was rated as the best curveball in the country by Baseball America, which, of course, made him a slam-dunk first-round pick.

“Phone rings, it’s the Rockies,” Matt recalls. “‘Hey, if you’re available at 28 we’re taking you at 28.’” Matt felt good. He watched the draft with a few friends.

The Rockies select…Matt Roney, right-handed pitcher from Edmond, Oklahoma…

“Now I’m pissed!” Matt says.

With the twenty-ninth pick, the San Francisco Giants took Arturo McDowell, an outfielder from Jackson, Mississippi. The final pick of the first round was coming up. Matt sure as hell thought he’d be gone by now. Only one more team remained.

And with the 30th pick, the Kansas City Royals…call a draft time out…

“I didn’t even know that was a thing!” Matt says.

Finally, with the final pick of the first round, Matt Burch

Mark Twain Country became a Kansas City Royal draft pick. His teammate and roommate, Brandon Inge, the baseball hitting, mitt poppin’ insomniac, went in the second round to the Detroit Tigers. It was a good day for VCU. ••• Jake Anthony didn’t get drafted that year with his two friends.

He stayed on for his senior year and had the best season of his career and would later play a season in the minors. As a gift to either Matt or Brandon (he can’t remember who), he framed a large photograph of the three of them with their autographed baseball cards beneath the photo. Inge, No. 7. Burch, No. 31. Anthony, No. 19. He ended up keeping it and hung it in his office. He looks at it all the time.

“Baseball, and things you go through in life—what that takes you through,” Jake muses. “That builds strong bonds. My friends are all guys I played with at some point in my career.”

••• Shortly after Matt signed, he caught a flight to Portland, Oregon. The Spokane affiliate of the Royals had a series in the Rose City. It was cold and dreary. Here was the stud, the first-round pick, reporting to save the franchise. The cab that was supposed to be at the airport for Matt never showed. When he finally arrived at the ballpark, the manager cared little for him. The clubhouse attendant handed him a uniform that wouldn’t have fit him in middle school. No belt. One stirrup.

“You could’ve painted this uniform on me,” Matt says.

Later that night a teammate rolled a Dumpster into the road and smashed a vehicle, one he might have been able to use.

“That summer was disorganized for me personally,” says Matt.

“I had no vehicle, no transportation. That was my first experience in professional baseball.” That was when he met outfielder Jeremy Dodson, from Sherman, Texas, a seventh-round pick in that 1998 draft.

“He was nasty,” Jeremy says. “There’s a reason he was a first round pick. He threw hard. He was what we baseball players call pitchers we don’t like to face: we call them nasty. He was nasty.

He had a nasty changeup, that curve, and the fastball came out free and quick.”

After Matt’s first full season in the minors, he was invited to spring training. It was the one time he got a taste of what it might be like to be a Big Leaguer. Eighteen beautiful days.

“I remember walking into the clubhouse,” Matt says. “I’m like, ‘Is this for real?’ It’s so surreal. You spend your life collecting baseball cards, being a fan of the game before you ever are a player of a game, walking through the clubhouse and finding your jersey. I was No. 70. It didn’t matter. To see your name printed, every letter, no name plate. It’s yours. Pristine white Kansas City Royals jersey. B-U-R-C-H. Holy smokes, I was baseball royalty for eighteen days.”

He’d play A ball that year and 2001. Then he won eleven games in AA Wichita. It’s that coveted level where you’re just a phone call away from the Major Leagues. So close. Then…

“Unfortunately I felt a little pain and masked it like all the great ones do with ice, Ibuprofen, and maybe a few cold beers,” Matt says. “So I pitched through it and got to Wichita. There was a time when I could barely close a dryer door. When I’d get out of the shower I’d have trouble wrapping a towel around my waist. I

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See Burch on page 12 11

Burch continued from page 11

(3) Courtesy Shannon Burch

thought ‘I gotta get this thing looked at.’”

He did. He had a frayed labrum and a torn supraspinatus: a busted shoulder.

He underwent a procedure called thermal capsular shrinkage (“Which is not something that happens in a swimming pool,” he clarifies.), where the doctor essentially shrinks the shoulder’s interior in order to stabilize it. It is a procedure that has since gone out of style.

“He eliminated the elasticity in my shoulder, so I basically had the shoulder of a twelve-year-old,” he says. “Prior to the surgery I was throwing 92-95. Coming out when I finally rehabbed, I was competitive, but I was Big league living: Pitching for 85-88, maybe touching the Wilmington (Delaware) 90-91.”

Blue Rocks; Matt with his wife So that was the of sixteen years, Shannon; beginning of the end.

Matt proudly displays the By 2003, he was released 2003 National League West championship trophy won by from the Kansas City his team, the Fargo-Moorhead Royals organization, was Redhawks. picked up by a team out in Fargo, North Dakota, and helped that independent team win a championship. Then, in 2004, he pitched and coached in the Northeast League for a little team called the Elmira Pioneers.

Matt Burch had come home.

••• Matt’s pal from his days in the Royals organization, Jeremy Dodson, drove twenty-four hours with his wife to live with Burch and his wife, Shannon, so Dodson could play in Elmira.

“Toward the end of my career, he was also the [pitching] coach, and he invited me and my wife to live with him,” Jeremy recalls. “We lived in his house in 2004. He invited me and my wife, all the way from Texas. That should tell you what kind of guy he is to have two people living in a house for five months.”

Even toward the end of Matt’s pitching career, he could see the writing on the wall.

His shoulder wasn’t what it used to be. He was in his late twenties. He knew the dream was over. His shoulder had too many miles on it. His arm would never be the same.

He would never have that coveted cup of coffee in the Big Leagues. So he started sliding closer to the coaches. He started to learn the nuances of game management, of pitch count. He started applying that trade with his first stint with the Pioneers.

When the Pioneers moved to the New York 12

Collegiate Baseball League, Matt managed them to four straight playoff appearances, including the NYCBL title in 2007. He took a brief break from 2009 to 2012, then managed the club again from 2013-2016, all the while teaching English at CorningPainted Post High School.

“His perspective on things is interesting,” says Mark Armstrong, chair of the school’s English department. “He’s excellent. He teaches senior year kids, teaches the honors program, Regents level kids, teaches Old Man and the Sea, loves hunting, loves Hemingway. He took a circuitous route to English teaching.

Sometimes you go out into the work force, and then you figure out what you need.”

That workforce just happened to be professional baseball.

In 2018, Matt returned to the bench for the Pioneers after taking a couple years away to spend more time with his wife and two boys. Now the team enters its 130th season, a team that has changed affiliations and leagues several times, but has, by and large, remained in Elmira, the boys of over one hundred summers.

Matt’s life has, along the way, become more literary, or maybe it’s safer to assume the literary nature of his life has been given ample room to bloom. He sees himself in Hemingway’s work, particularly The Nick Adams Stories, where, Matt muses, “He’s trying to figure out what we’re all trying to figure out: What is my purpose? What is the meaning of what I’m doing? Why did I endure that tribulation? In the end he’s fishing the Big Two-Hearted River. He’s struggling with the trout. It’s a symbol.

He’s the mirror image of the trout. I guess I’m always searching for that as a human, as a male, a father. What is my purpose?

It’s constantly changing. Each piece of literature I pick up, I can see myself in the text.

“The closeness to reality helps.”

It comes in many forms—this notion of a “clubhouse guy,” that enduring symbol of what it means to be Matt Burch, then as it is now.

Award-winning writer Brendan O’Meara is the author of Six Weeks in Saratoga: How Three-Year-Old Filly Rachel Alexandra Beat the Boys and Became Horse of the Year.

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Linda Stager

Pyrotechnic Art

For Lawrenceville’s Jim Farr, the Sky Is His Canvas and Fireworks His Paint

By Beth Williams

P

erched high on a hill with a breathtaking view of Cowanesque Lake and the valley below is a barn that houses two very different businesses.

Jim Farr of Lawrenceville is the proprietor of both—a butchering operation for farm animals and a fireworks/pyrotechnics assembly lab.

“I’ve been doing fireworks legally for twenty-two years,” Jim says. “And illegally for many more years than that, which was more fun!” There are plenty of rules and regulations that go along with doing fireworks legally. Jim gets his insurance for shows through Lloyds of London and has to be certified as a display fireworks technician every three years. Every show he does is fully insured.

And then there are the regular visits from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents. Jim has an explosives storage magazine onsite that he says “holds all the high octane” fireworks material.

His magazine is surrounded by chain-link fencing and electric wire fencing with a stern “No Trespassing” sign that warns: “Violators will be shot. Survivors will be

16

prosecuted.” And, in fine print, “If you can read this sign you are trespassing.”

“Two or three times a year, and you never know when, ATF agents will show up to make sure everything is properly secured and legal,” Jim says. “If there are weeds or an empty box in the magazine they’ll give you a warning notice for bad housekeeping.”

Jim attributes his immersion and interest in fireworks to Bob Blake. Blake owned Northeast Fireworks in Tioga, Pennsylvania, until his death last March.

The duo put on many fireworks shows together at Ives Run at Tioga-Hammond Lakes and at Cowanesque Lake. Jim and his six assistants are still putting on those displays, as well as shows at other area venues and events, including the Arnot Sportsmen’s Club, the Blossburg Coal Festival, Woodhull Raceway, and the Morris Rattlesnake Roundup. In fact, at the Morris a few years back, Jim got a great reminder about how, well, explosive fireworks can be.

“Fireworks are dangerous, don’t ever forget that,” he recalls. “I was telling my assistants what to do and what not to do when I did one of those ‘what not to dos’

and ended up losing my thumb.” Luckily for him, doctors were able to surgically reattach it.

And while Farr didn’t have any run-ins with rattlesnakes in Morris, he has had an encounter or two with rattlers while setting up and setting off fireworks at Ives Run. “I was setting up the show at the edge of the lake and I heard this rattling sound, not the kind of sound you want to hear!” he remembers. Jim and the snake maintained an uneasy peace, and the show went on with no rattlesnake bites.

So with all the inherent dangers of the fireworks themselves, and the unknown dangers like rattlesnakes, why does Jim Farr spend so much of his time and money on pyrotechnics?

It’s a joy thing. “I like to hear the response from the spectators when it is done. I always give people more than they pay for. I enjoy it and I want them happy,” Jim says simply. And it appears people are very happy. Friends call him up all the time wanting him to do shows for various events.

“I pick up the phone and they say ‘Hey, See Farr on page 31

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Gayle Morrow Blue-ribbon belt: Scott Burt holds the Police Gazette Diamond Belt that is given to the winner of a sanctioned bout.

Dare to Be Bare in Belfast

Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame Celebrates 11th Annual Induction Ceremony

By Gayle Morrow

W

hat do you know about John L. Sullivan? Not much, you say? Up until recently, I knew only that he was mentioned in passing in one of my favorite novels as a kind of washed-up fighter who liked his liquor and who would reappear semi-regularly at a particular boarding house, each time with one less diamond in his diamond-studded pocket watch.

He did like his liquor, and he did run through most of the substantial amount of prize money he earned during his lifetime from fighting, but there is way more to the John L. Sullivan and the bare-knuckle boxing story. And the most exciting part of that way more is that it happened just up the road in Belfast, New York.

Scott R. Burt, president of the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame and owner of the Bare Knuckle Boxing Museum, explains.

A long time ago, over 100 years, a man named William Muldoon (1852-1933) lived in the Belfast area. He was a pretty tough guy—the undefeated Greco-Roman wrestling champion of the day, and also, as Scott describes him, the “original fitness guru.” He was quite a renowned trainer,

one who eventually whipped some fairly famous people into shape—Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Harry Houdini among them. In 1920 he was named the first chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission.

But his fame, for purposes of this story, is related to his training of the afore-mentioned John L. Sullivan (1858-1918) for a July 8, 1889, fight with Jake Kilrain. Sullivan, AKA the “Boston Strong Boy,” began fighting professionally in 1878, and, by all accounts, was a fearsome opponent. Boxing matches and boxing titles then were not like boxing matches and titles now. There were things like London Prize Rules and Marquess of Queensbury Rules which governed how fighters could properly pummel one another, and the legality of bare-knuckle boxing was, to put it mildly, a matter of dispute in most locales.

Nevertheless, there was money to be made, egos to be assuaged, and fame to be had. A fight was arranged between Sullivan and Kilrain; there remained the job of making sure the Boston Strong Boy was in the best shape of his life. Muldoon accepted the

challenge, turning his farm and his newish horse barn (some say he was fibbing just a little when he told his wife, “Yes, honey, of course I’m building this barn just for the horses…”) into a bare-knuckle boxing training facility.

And, for about six months, train they did. The outcome was victory for Sullivan, after seventy-five rounds—yes, that’s seventyfive—and over two hours of fighting in the heat and humidity of a July day 130 years ago in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Fast forward to 2009, when the fate of a couple of old buildings that William Muldoon had left to a local church in Belfast was more than precarious—the church was considering demolition. Scott Burt, now retired from teaching at the nearby Fillmore School District, and who had graduated from Belfast High School, remembers his mom taking him through those buildings when he was about nine. He knew their history, what had gone on in them, and he also knew he “wanted to do something for Belfast.”

So he bought them, and he moved them a few blocks—he describes having to “slice them sideways,” and having to use a bus axle and the legs of a water tower to make that See Belfast on page 20

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happen successfully. They were reborn as the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame and the Bare Knuckle Boxing Museum, and, for the past ten years, Scott has been working to restore the sport, and the buildings.

Regarding the legality of bare-knuckle boxing, in March 2018, Wyoming became the first jurisdiction to legalize fighting at the state level, and formal bare-knuckle events have been happening since June 2018.

As for the buildings, parts of them were, structurally, in need of repair, and some of that work is ongoing. As for the contents, restoration there has not been as difficult as you might think. The insides are like time capsules. There are gloves, shoes, and barbells that Sullivan used, along with all kinds of other interesting-looking exercise equipment that had been virtually unused and untouched for well over 100 years. There is a tool chest that belonged to Jake Kilrain, donated by a distant relative. There is a wooden barrel suspended from the rafters, positioned over slats on the floor, which served as Sullivan’s shower area. There is the “Sequestered Room,” complete with a bed and a chamber pot, where Muldoon, at times, confined his charge so he wouldn’t sneak out and get drunk.

That room also has, by the way, a secret little

compartment under a floorboard where it is rumored Sullivan hid a little brown jug.

Upstairs, Scott uncovered an area Muldoon used for his own wrestling practice.

Scott has a story to go with just about every board, photograph, and artifact in the place, and it’s clear the restoration and the subsequent establishment of everything associated with the museum and the Hall of Fame have been a labor of love for the sport and for the town (and not cheap—he estimates he’s spent well over $100,000 of his own money making this all happen).

That includes the eleventh annual Hall of Fame’s Induction Ceremony, scheduled this year for July 12-14. The weekend begins Friday night at the Belfast Hotel with a viewing of the 1970 World Welterweight Title fight between Billy Backus and José Nápoles, followed by a nighttime “ghost tour” of the Muldoon/Sullivan training barns.

Saturday’s events include the official ribbon cutting for the new Police Gazette Boxing Corporation offices. The National Police Gazette magazine, established in 1881, was the original sanctioning organization for bare-knuckle boxing. The induction ceremony, which honors “pioneer inductees” from the 1880s as well as modern proponents

of the sport, is set for noon at the town’s Family Center on Merton Street, followed by a Hall of Fame tour with Scott.

For those still in the area on Sunday, Scott says to join the fun, food, and music at nearby Pollywogg Hollër (check it out at pollywoggholler.com).

It all amounts to a major investment in Belfast and the surrounding area, concurs Joe Cursio, a Navy veteran who grew up in Belfast, was the mayor here, and who now oversees a number of nuclear facilities as well as serving as vice president of development for the Police Gazette Boxing Corporation. He says that from a business perspective there is a growing interest in rural places like Belfast, places that are clearly not “cookie cutter” communities.

“I have to give credit to Scott and the Hall of Fame,” he says. “Belfast has such history—it was a railroad town, and a canal town.”

And a boxing town.

For the latest on the Induction Ceremony celebration, visit bareknuckleboxinghalloffame.com, where you can also read intrepid girl reporter Nellie Bly’s account of her meeting with Muldoon and Sullivan.

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(2) Courtesy Miller’s Store Pennsylvania proud: Anne Sutley Miller (left) and her mother Ruth Anne stock a wide range of Pennsylvania products at their Blackwell store.

Creekside Country at Miller’s Store

Mother and Daughter Bring all Things Pennsylvania to Travelers in the Pine Creek Valley

By Linda Roller

T

he Irish have a term for it: “Down in the Country.” They mean off the beaten path, at the end of the road.

By that definition, Miller’s Store, in the center of Blackwell, would certainly qualify.

It’s on a state highway, but the kind of state highway that until this century was a gravel road in spots, has one-lane bridges, narrows down to less than two lanes, and has hairpin turns. The Narrows, a section just south of Blackwell, is frequently closed with rock slides. That makes Blackwell just a little more remote—a little more down in the country.

For Ruth Anne Miller and her daughter, Anne Miller, this location made for a problem, and also made for a delightful solution. For their store, open since 2011, is too far for delivery trucks. Tractor trailers cannot navigate Route 414 west beyond Morris. And there are not enough businesses for smaller delivery trucks to drive to Miller’s. The only delivery is the Genna Ice Truck. Even the ice cream is picked up in Slate Run from the Hershey Ice Cream truck in the Miller’s vehicle and raced back to their

22

freezers. The temptation, with these kinds of challenges, might be to just get basic supplies that hikers and bikers on the Pine Creek Rail Trail needed and call it “good enough.” But Ruth Anne and Anne decided if they had to travel to stock the shop, they would purchase more unusual, better quality products.

And, they decided to support Pennsylvania products, and support Pennsylvania jobs.

So, it’s candy from places like Blaine’s Boring Chocolates, or Sarah’s Candies, the business that bought out Gardners and still makes the beloved peanut butter meltaways. It’s the cheese and the cream cheese dips from Penn State—and Rip Rap crackers to make the dipping and spreading even better. It’s Catawissa soda pop, which anthracite country travelers are delighted to see. It’s Zimmerman’s roasted nuts. It’s fresh roasted coffee from Way Cool Beans in Williamsport. And it’s Pardoe’s Perky Peanuts.

That doesn’t mean that larger companies are left out. The pink refrigerator in the back

of the store, door wide open as a display, is filled with Heinz products (the more unusual ones, like Heinz original recipe ketchup). Hershey candy is there, as are Herr’s potato chips and pretzels. But there are some products they can’t stock, because “sometimes the factory won’t sell to us,” Ruth Anne grumbles.

They often discover new products through the people who stop in from the trail. On seeing the variety of Pennsylvania products, someone will mention one that Ruth Anne and Anne don’t know, and from there the procurement process—sometimes a lengthy one—begins. But it’s worth it for the pleasure of hearing folks comment, “I have never seen that”—and then buying it.

Perhaps one of the most unusual Pennsylvania products available graces their antique glass front counter. Big Bang Conestoga Company Carbide Cannons look like they have been transported from fifty or more years ago, when toys were cast in real metals. They have been in production since 1912 in Allentown. These gorgeous

welcome to cast cannons create a loud bang and a flash using calcium carbide and water, all courtesy of a patented process. It works on the same theory as the carbide gas lights in the old Gillespie house, also in Blackwell, and later called the Blackwell Hotel (Ruth Anne has an old photo of the place, with the carbide gas lamps lit). They were marketed from the beginning as a safe alternative to fireworks, as there is no fire, so it’s not only safer for people, but safer for the forest that surrounds Pine Creek. The store carries both the regular cast and the brass cannons in many sizes, earning the admiration and delight of children of all ages.

Every year, Ruth Anne and Anne set a goal for new products.

Last year, it was looking for Pennsylvania products that were “no sugar added.” That’s a tall order for a state that has a serious sweet tooth, but the quest turned up Byler’s Relish House, which produces all sorts of no-sugar-added relish, pickles, and preserves.

Every small company has a story, and the Bylers, an Old Order family, founded their company as a business for the daughters, who do all the production and have made the business grow by leaps and bounds. They’re located in western Pennsylvania, which would be quite a drive for the Millers. But the Bylers will deliver to Bloomsburg when they visit family there, so when they’re ready to travel, the Bylers call Ruth Anne or Anne and ask if they need anything. It ends up being both a business and a personal relationship, giving the entire stocking process a small-town feeling.

What to have with your snacks? Maybe a good read. The store carries many books (it’s a “fiercely independent” bookstore), both used and new, with a strong emphasis on the books that bring back memories. From children’s series books to the Little Golden Books, people stop, look, and often tell a story about when they were young. Two special new books are sold here, both Old Order Mennonite cookbooks. The Daniel and Grace Stauffer family had a cookbook, and, as a Pennsylvania product, it was sold at Miller’s Store. The arrangements to handle the book resulted in a friendship between the Millers and the Stauffers, who vacation in the Pine Creek Valley. Then the Wengers, who also visit Pine Creek and are related to the Stauffers, thought it would be a nice idea to have their family cookbook there as well. Anne, while trying to photograph horses outside an Old Order service, ended up taking a photo of an amazing wisteria vine covering a porch. Later, she found out that porch was attached to the Wenger’s home. That photo graces the front cover of the Wenger cookbook.

Anne herself has a small industry creating postcards. It began when she was fourteen, taking pictures up and down Pine Creek.

People were delighted with these photos of the sights they had encountered while hiking or biking. When they travel to stock the shop, Anne brings the cameras, and is currently working on photographing every covered bridge in the state.

Supporting Pennsylvania products and jobs, and photographing the journey for the goods—you could call that the Millers’ mission statement, but travelers from all over call it a destination point filled with the things that make spending time in the Pine Creek valley extra special.

Hours vary, but Miller’s Store is open year round. Call (570) 353-2258 or visit millersblackwell.com.

Mountain Home contributor Linda Roller is a bookseller, appraiser, and writer in Avis, Pennsylvania.

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By Karey Solomon

T

hirteen years ago, Janice and Jim Sullivan, proprietors of what was then Sullivan Kitchen and Bath on Park Avenue in Corning, started thinking ahead to retirement. They had a beautiful showroom filled with high-end model kitchens and luxurious bathroom layouts and acres of wooded land behind it, but they thought something was missing.

So they cleared land, moved a creek, brought in sixty tons of fill, hired a designer of interesting mini golf courses, and added their own hard work and creativity. The result was an exceptionally beautiful eighteen-hole miniature golf course set off with fountains and a waterfall spilling blue water, a stream, and unique landscaping that includes specimen bushes, flowering trees, and irises once grown by Janice’s father. Walking the course, everything beyond fades away except the scent of the flowers and the sound of the water.

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24

from banked courses and boulders to sand and water traps. The golf balls float, so they’re easily retrieved. The final hole is a fifty-foot shot—those who get it on the first try win a free soft-serve ice cream in the clubhouse, where a menu of 100 flavors, plus other snack foods, tempts everyone.

The golf course was fun, but it seemed lonely. So they added a driving range, batting cages, “water wars” (where participants can launch water balloons so they’ll burst over opponents’ heads), a bungee, trampoline, and rock-climbing wall, and a military-style laser tag arena. “The idea was a retirement thing, but it ended up as a little bit more,” Jim says with humorous understatement.

“We’re both detail people,” Janice says.

“But Jim’s a very good contractor, he can do anything. So any work that has to be done, he’s doing it or planning it.”

The active entertainment venue—the Park Ave Sports Center—caught on as a good way for large corporate and business groups

to relax and enjoy a team-building excursion and an enjoyable way for folks of all ages to celebrate birthdays. “It just sort of evolved,” Janice says.

For some occasions, the Sullivans would put up a few tents and hire a caterer, so a gathering could begin with a nice meal, then progress to outdoor activities.

“Then we thought, we can do this!”

Janice says. So she got licensed by the state and began doing the catering in-house with her sister, good friends, and family recipes for comfort food like pulled pork, beef brisket, and her mother’s mac-and-cheese.

It works well and smoothly for this family business, with each member contributing their strengths.

For instance, Maureen Herrington, Janice’s sister, is the genius behind the banquet decorations and also likes styling food platters. “She always says you eat with your eyes,” Janice says. Their mother, Pat See The Center on page 26

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THECENTERONPARKAVE.COM 400 Park Avenue • Corning, NY (607) 962-7485

janice@thecenteronparkave.com

ON PARK AVENUE

Mini Golf ~ Driving Range ~ Batting Cages ~ BANQUET & EVENT CENTER Birthday Party ~ The Combat Zone ~ A beautiful facility for your (Laser Tag) ~ Weddings Rock Climbing ~ ~ Receptions Bungee Jumping ~ ~ Corporate Meetings Water Wars ~ ~ Meetings Corporate Event ~ ~ Christmas Parties Loyalty program available! ~ Birthdays ~ Bridal Showers ~ Baby Showers ~ Reunions offering in-house professional catering janice@thecenteronparkave.com

(607) 962-4820 412 Park Avenue • Corning, NY PARKAVESPORTSCENTER.COM 26

PARK AVENUE SPORTS CENTER

Herrington, enthusiastically keeps the books, because she’s always worked and doesn’t like not working.

Almost-like-family Kyle Neilson is a key employee who runs the laser tag feature, bartends for events, and helps Janice with management. “Those loose ends that I just can’t get to—well, Kyle takes care of them for me,” Janice says.

Longtime family friend Diane O’Brien also does a little of everything, frequently behind the scenes in the kitchen; as does Janice, who works with customers to plan events, greets people, then works alongside the others to keep the party going. “I’ll pick up dishes, do whatever it takes,” she says. Unable to simply walk past things that have to be done, “I’ll work just like everybody else does.

“We are very blessed with employees,” she adds.

Jim built the large commercial kitchen attached to what was the kitchen and bath showroom—which he also built. With the decision to close down that part of the business, he remodeled it into a banquet hall—The Center on Park Avenue—currently large enough for more than 120 people. It’s about to more than double in capacity, as they’ve just sold their last custom kitchen and last bathroom set. When these go to their new homes, Jim is prepared for more remodeling to extend the banquet facilities into the rest of the space.

The laser-tag feature is one of the jewels of the operation. Up to thirty-two people can organize themselves into two opposing teams and play at once. “It’s like a live action video game,” Jim explains.

“The equipment is high tech and keeps track of every ‘kill.’ You can go online and see how you’re doing and compare it with anyone else in the world doing this.” Speakers in the field provide sound effects when combatants call in air strikes or helicopter support. There are hiding points and sniper towers. And, just as in a video game, if a combatant is, uh, exterminated, that person can get another life and start over. “It’s kind of a rush to see thirty-two people playing,” Jim says.

There’s enough to do, and enough variety, that a couple or a family looking for spur-of-the-moment entertainment can come in and play mini golf, water wars, or enjoy the other attractions, but it’s also possible for a group of up to 400 people to eat lunch together, then go on to have an active afternoon where just about everyone can try just about everything. And it’s not just corporate groups—it’s also anniversary parties, wedding rehearsal dinners, weddings, family reunions, baby and wedding showers, retirement celebrations, and recently, an adoption party and a funeral. Not everyone wants to pause these events for a rousing game of laser tag, but if they do, rates and packages are listed at parkavesportscenter.com, where you can also find that water wars video. Or reach them at (607) 936-4820.

Customers return. One couple who had their wedding shower here said they had such a good time they hoped to come back soon— and they did, this past winter, for their baby shower. “I didn’t think we’d be back this soon!” the wife remarked. You can find information on The Center at thecenteronparkave.com or (607) 962-7485.

The best part? Janice says it’s this: “We’re involved with people— some of them we’ve just met—in the important parts of their lives.

Some of those are the biggest days of their lives, whether those are beginnings or endings.

Karey Solomon is a freelance writer and admirer of waterfalls and the natural scenery of the Finger Lakes.

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Endless Mountain Music Festival J U LY 1 9 - A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 1 9

Orchestra Concerts Fri. & Sat. / Chamber Recitals Sun. through Thurs.

Friday July 19 - Mansfield University, Steadman Theatre – 7:30 pm Sponsored by Citizens & Northern Bank Movie Night! Cartoons & Fantasy featuring “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King,” “Muppet Medley,” “Frozen” and more!

Saturday, July 20 - Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY – 7:30 pm Sponsored by Corning Incorporated Foundation All the Glory!

Navarro ........................................Paconchita Overture Russell Peck .................................. Glory and Grandeur for Percussion and Orchestra TchaikovskySymphony # 1 “Winter Dreams” Sunday, July 21 - Deane Center, Wellsboro, PA – 7:30 pm Sponsored by Robert M. Sides Family Music Centers Cross Cultural Experience in Music - Featuring Maria Corley, piano.

Monday, July 22 - Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY - 7:30 pm Sponsored by the Corning Incorporated Foundation Emperor’s Dinner Music, Mozart to Beethoven: step back in time with the EMMF String Trio. Featuring Diana Seitz, violin; Ignacio Cuello, viola; Gita Ladd, cello. Call 570-787-7800 for pre-concert wine tasting 6:45 pm. Reservations required.

Tuesday, July 23 - Deane Center, Wellsboro, PA – 7:30 pm Sponsored by Spencer, Gleason, Hebe & Rague, P.C. On stage with humor, virtuosity, and the unexpected! – Featuring Vance Gilbert, guitar. BYO

Wednesday, July 24 - Yoked Church, Knoxville, PA – 7:30 pm Sponsored by the Deerfield Charitable Trust Groovin’ with Kansas City’s finest! - Featuring Bram Wijnands & daughter.

Thursday, July 25 - Williamson High School, Tioga, PA – 7:30 pm Sponsored by Ward Manufacturing Featuring the Endless Mountain Big Brass!

Friday, July 26 - Mansfield University, Steadman Theatre – 7:30 pm Sponsored by UPMC Susquehanna & Mansfield University Timeless Serenade & Dance to the Music!

Vaughan Williams ........................... Serenade to Music Peggy Dettwiler, conductor RaffCello Concerto # 2 (American premiere) Gita Ladd, cello; Stephen Gunzenhauser, conductor Sibelius ..............................................A Song of Peace Peggy Dettwiler, conductor Kodaly .............................................Dances of Galanta Stephen Gunzenhauser, conductor Saturday, July 27 - Corning Museum of Glass Corning, NY – 7:30 pm Sponsored by Corning Incorporated Foundation & Mountain Home Magazine All American!

Leonard Bernstein ............................ Candide Overture Gershwin ....................................... Piano Concerto in F Featuring, Maria Corley, piano Boyer ................................................. New Beginnings Copland......................................... Appalachian Spring

Classical / Jazz / Celtic / Choral Percussion / Piano / Klezmer Orchestra of “the big screen” / Brass under the stars

www.endlessmountain.net 28

Schedule of Events e! n o y r e v E r o f Music

Sunday, July 28 - Cherry Springs State Park – 7:30 pm Sponsored by William and L.R. Gale Community Foundation & Dominion Charitable Foundation “Starring” the Endless Mountain Brass Quintet.

Call 814-435-1037 for reservations. Concert until dark followed by viewing the dark skies through telescopes guided by Park Rangers.

Monday, July 29 - Deane Center, Wellsboro, PA – 7:30 pm Sponsored by Simmons-Rockwell Auto Group Back by popular demand, Blues Dobro guitarist, Abbie Gardner.

BYOB Tuesday, July 30 - Penn Wells Hotel, Wellsboro, PA - 7:30 pm Sponsored by the Penn Wells Hotel “A visit to Kansas City cabaret style,” Featuring Bram Wijnands. Call Penn Wells Hotel for dinner reservations - 570-724-2111, 5:007:15pm Wednesday, July 31 - Clemens Center, Powers Theatre, Elmira, NY – 7:30 pm Sponsored by Chemung Canal Trust & Elm Chevrolet Israeli Duo Featuring - Asi Matathias, violin & Yevgeny Yontov, piano.

Thursday, August 1 - Deane Center, Wellsboro, PA – 7:30 pm Sponsored by Quality Inn Enjoy an evening of Mozart & Brahms! Featuring, 2019 Grammy Winner: Doris Hall-Gulati, clarinet; Ken Bell, French horn; Hua Jin & Karen Banos, violin; Yaniv Cohen, viola; Xinya Zhou, cello.

Friday, August 2 - Mansfield University, Steadman Theatre – 7:30 pm Sponsored by Guthrie Classical World!

Ippolitov-Ivanov ...Procession of the Sadar Borodin .............................Symphony # 2 Brahms ............................ Violin Concerto Featuring, Asi Matathias, violin Saturday, August 3 - Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY – 7:30 pm Sponsored by Corning Incorporated Foundation & Indigo Wireless & Xtreme Internet Celebrate the Music!

Liszt ....................................................Festival Sounds Chopin............................................Piano Concerto # 2 Featuring, Yevgeny Yontov, piano Borodin .................................................Symphony # 2 Sunday, August 4 - Wellsboro Johnston Airport – 2:00 pm Sponsored by Southwestern Energy, Earl W. & Ina G. Tabor Foundation, Tree House Foundation, First Citizens Community Bank, Wellsboro Electric Co & Tri-Co REC, Science & Discovery Center “Pops” Concert 2:00 pm beginning with Sousa’s “Semper Fidelis March,” “Les Mis,” “Evita,” “Rocky,” ending with the 1812 Overture & “Stars & Stripes Forever. Rain or shine. Tailgating encouraged & animal friendly. Bring a chair to sit. STEM program for children 12:30 pm before concert. Children must be preregistered: call 570-787-7800.

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WELLSBORO • MANSFIELD • TIOGA • CHERRY SPRINGS STATE PARK • KNOXVILLE • ELMIRA • CORNING

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GAFFER

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2019 SUMMER

SCHEDULE CORNING FARMERS MARKET

THURSDAYS, JUNE 6 – OCTOBER 24, 10AM–3PM Keep it fresh and support local farmers and craftspeople! Riverfront Park.

MUSIC IN THE SQUARE FREE EVENT

JUNE 27, JULY 11, AUGUST 1 & 22, SEPTEMBER 5, 6–8PM JULY 6 & AUGUST 10, 12–1:30PM

Enjoy free summer concerts featuring local and regional performers. Centerway Square.

STORYTIME IN CENTERWAY SQUARE FREE EVENT

TUESDAYS, JUNE 11 & 25, JULY 9 & 23, AUGUST 6 & 20 AT 10AM

Storytime is presented by Southeast Steuben County Library & Pip’s Squeak. Fun-filled adventures brought to life by wonderful guest readers. Centerway Square.

MOVIE NIGHT IN RIVERFRONT PARK FREE EVENT

JULY 18 & AUGUST 8, 8:30PM/DUSK

Join us in Riverfront Park with your chairs or blankets to watch family movies under the stars. In partnership with Palace Theatre. Riverfront Park.

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GAFFER

Painting the sky: Jim Farr explains the differences in fireworks—size, powder, and power.

Only now. Only at The Corning Museum of Glass.

Farr continued from page 16

Farrzarelli’s, can you do a show?’ I have no idea where Farrzarelli’s came from, but that’s what they call me,” Jim says. “Word of mouth will either make you or break you.”

In addition to the annual events for which Jim creates sky magic, he also does things like weddings, graduations, and birthdays, even pre-birthdays. “One time I was doing a show for a couple that were going to have a baby, and no one knew what the sex was. But they wanted fireworks, and so the doctor told me so I knew what color powder to use in the fireworks,” he says.

While Jim purchases many of his fireworks from Northeast Fireworks, he also makes them himself, which requires him to have a manufacturer’s license as well as the storage magazine.

“I work mostly with 1.3G fireworks (high octane display fireworks),” Jim says, bringing out a sixteen-inch diameter fireworks shell that he made, and a commercial four-inch diameter shell for comparison. “Most shells used in displays are this size, so this sixteen-inch one is a whole other thing. It weighs over forty-three pounds when it is full of powder and stars.”

The diameter of the shell is directly proportional to the diameter of the firework burst in the sky when the shell is launched. The general principle is that there is a forty-five-foot diameter burst for every inch of shell diameter. So that means Jim’s sixteen-inch-diameter shell will create a display with a whopping 720-foot diameter when launched.

“Grand finales can have 500 shells strung together with one fuse,” Jim notes. “I always put tails on my shells so you can track the firework as it goes up into the sky.”

Jim sums it all up succinctly. “I love God, guns, and fireworks.

I am an artist. The sky is my canvas. The fireworks are my paint.”

There will be plenty of opportunities to see this particular artist’s works this summer. Jim’s fireworks will be at Ives Run at Tioga-Hammond Lakes on July 5, and on July 6 you can watch the skies over the Arnot Sportsmen’s Club in Arnot. On August 30, Jim’s pyrotechnics will paint the canvas at Cowanesque Lake for the Friends of Tioga-Hammond and Cowanesque Lakes.

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Open Daily, 9am-8pm newglassnow.cmog.org

THE

ROCKWELL MUSEUM

Smithsonian Affiliate

EX PE RI EN CE AR T

36 E. Market Street

FR OM TH E IN SID E OU T D O W N TO W N CORNING, NY THROUGH M AY 5 , 2 0 1 9 Created by the Mi

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This summer at the KIDS ROCKWELL Art Lab, step inside the framework of famous paintings and experience art like never before!

Thank you to local media sponsor Mountain Home Magazine for supporting this exhibition.

Beth Williams lives in the wilds of Steuben County, New York, works in the wonders of the library at Mansfield University, and is perpetually writing a novel.

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Summer Hours, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Kids/Teens 17 & Under FREE Local resident rate: $5.50 31

(2) Courtesy West End Gallery Vibrant voice: Gary Myers shares his voice in this piece; In the Garden of Splendors.

The Artist’s Voice

Horseheads Painter Gary Myers and His Iconic Red Tree Charm an International Audience

By Jennie Simon

H

is unique style has gained admirers around the world. True to his form, tested by a subjective audience, the artist remains inspired and unchanged by convention. Often his work sells out at shows, and he returns to the blank canvas to express more. The process, for painter Gary Myers of Horseheads, is challenging, rewarding, and a risk worth taking.

Popular with collectors on six continents, American embassies in Nepal, Kuwait, and Uganda have also shown his work. And that work is not just selfexpression.

“I’m trying to find answers to questions, not knowing the questions,” Gary says, reflecting on his two decades as a full-time painter. “Every painting is a new inquiry.

Artists are people with emotional responses, hoping to get the same connection from others.”

Growing up in rural Pine City, creating art wasn’t a popular vocation. He tried

32

writing after his parents gave him a typewriter, and experimented creatively throughout his twenties, working various jobs, including waiting tables, and operating a successful pool installation business. In September 1993, at age thirty-four, a fall from a ladder was fateful. During recovery, he placed a brush in his cast and began stroking the blank paper. It clicked.

“I was in sync and immediately poured myself into it. Painting with acrylic inks, I was attracted to the intense, bold colors.”

An admirer of stained glass, the ink matched his thoughts. “I used excessive ink on canvas, then shaved it off, creating texture.

The luminous and transparent colors were similar to glass.” Gesso—a white paint mixture of various types of binders— became the texturing process for acrylic on canvas in later work.

Corning and Corning Inc. have also influenced Gary and his work. He and wife, Cheri, have long been supporters of the

Crystal City’s venues and artistic endeavors.

Gary credits Tom and Lin Gardner, founders of West End Gallery in Corning, with the first honest look at his work; he was ultimately invited to the gallery’s annual Little Gems show in February 1995, about a year and a half after the accident. Jesse Gardner, West End’s executive director, says GC Myers, as Gary’s body of work is known, is one of the Gallery’s best sellers.

“At his home gallery, it’s been incredible to watch the evolution of his work. It’s hard for an artist to break through barriers and create a style all their own,” Jesse says. “Gary has done this.”

The painter remembers bystanding during that first exhibit. There were nice comments and there were those who dismissed his work. He was not dissuaded.

“They fueled my passion. That raw emotion motivated me.” He resolved to bring people to his work—to make them stop! As he developed portfolios, he

GAFFER established relationships with collectors.

“I don’t couch the work in art terms,” Gary says, “I speak about the work as a person. My responsibility is to create something of personal value to share.” He muses over a talk given to third grade students who recently studied his Archaeology Series. The students expressed their feelings about adults not listening to them. They wanted a voice. “‘Yes, I understand,’ I told them. That is what painting does for me. It is my voice.”

A year after his first reveal at the West End, a youngster spoke to him over a crowded restaurant table. “Are you a painter?” she asked. “My mommy [artist Suzi Druley] says you are.” Suzi, on her way to a show at the Kada Gallery in Erie, Pennsylvania, introduced Gary to owners Kathy and Joe DeAngelo.

“There was no question if we would show GC Myers, but when,” says Kathy. “Twenty-three years later, Gary’s paintings sell out before the show.” The Kada currently exhibits numerous GC Myers, and the so-called “stylized internal landscapes” —with winding roads, waterways, and patterned farmlands—attract like a magnet. An isolated image or the exacting placement of light surrounded by intense warm hues draws the viewer in.

In 2000, the painter hung his first solo show at the prestigious Principle Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia.

Challenged by fear and self-doubt prior to this show, Gary admits, “I painted out of pure emotion, wondering if I could carry a whole gallery. Creatively, I wanted to keep moving up the hill.

New shows force new elements and techniques. As I was painting and preparing, a red tree appeared on the canvas. It became the focal point that I built the show around.” Again, something clicked. On June 7, the Principle celebrated two decades of GC Myers with “Red Tree 20: New Growth.”

That iconic red tree has persisted, sometimes accompanied by red chairs and simple windowless houses with red roofs, all with universal appeal. Gary refers to the tree as the heart of the painting. The chair may be the smallest memory. The rooftops optimistically direct, as in arrows to the sun. To his paintings’ viewer, movement is felt between an isolated memory, a present moment, and a hopeful destination. The art is alive, through color, texture, organic lines, light, and yes, red characters. The GC Myers niche is a unique cross between modern and folk art.

Self taught, Gary credits early twentieth century American painter Grant Wood as a major influence. At the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown in 2012, Gary’s work was placed in the gallery down the hall from an American Impressionists exhibit.

“I remember asking myself if I belong here,” he reflects.

“I determined unequivocally, yes. Not that I can compare to the time-tested Masters. But having spent 70,000 hours in my studio, immersed in solitary work, I know my voice is no less than any other painter. That moment of realization was the greatest validation to being self taught.”

The West End Gallery opens the GC Myers exhibit, “Moments and Color,” with about fifty new paintings, July 12 to August 30. A free gallery talk with the artist is scheduled for August 17 from 1 to 2 p.m. Call (607) 936-2011 or visit westendgallery. net for updates.

The art of writing has provided Jennie Simon many outlets of expression in this Bradford County native’s career. Links to her work are found at authorjenniesimon.com.

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114 PINE STREET • CORNING, NY 14831 33

Courtesy Seneca Lodge Quaint calm: Jack (left) and nephew Brett Brubaker co-own simple, sprawling Seneca Lodge; offering an uncomplicated restful stay.

Vacation Like It Used to Be

For Over 70 Years, Seneca Lodge Has Been an Oasis in Watkins Glen

By Karey Solomon

“I

like to say we keep it simple,” says Brett Brubaker, who, along with his siblings, parents, and uncle, Jack Brubaker, is one of the owners of Seneca Lodge in Watkins Glen. The rustic, rambling log cabin on Walnut Road opposite the south (upper) entrance to Watkins Glen State Park evokes simple, solid, relaxation. But behind the scenes, it houses a hive of activity including the business office, bar, dining rooms with enough space to seat about 200, kitchen, and brewery. Built in 1947—then rebuilt in 1948 after a devastating fire—it has the feel of a comfortable, earlier time.

Brett’s grandfather, lawyer Donald Brubaker, (a.k.a. “Mr. B”), had heard about and researched the Watkins Glen area in the early 1940s. His ideas became plans after his wife died in childbirth with their fifth child.

He bought what was then known as “White City Tourist Camp” and moved here from Altoona, Pennsylvania, with four of his five children and two cousins. For a time, the infant stayed with her grandmother.

Jack Brubaker shows a photo of what

34

they saw when they arrived—a bustling encampment of more than sixty tiny cabins and tipis. Plumbing was confined to a central bathhouse; the camp store offered access to daily necessities. Campers could walk to the state park across the road, as they still do today. The boxy, old-fashioned cars seen in the photo could easily bring quantities of people in search of more amusement down the hill to Watkins Glen for shopping, sightseeing, and dining out. But back then, many summer visitors wanted to simply rusticate. Many came from the city by train and bus, and were chauffeured from Elmira or Ithaca by one of the Brubaker sons. Back then, when the main goal was getting away from urban living for the hottest weeks of the summer, many guests stayed for a week or longer.

These days everything has become faster-paced. Brett says many first-timers stay at the Lodge after having located it online as a place to stay for a few nights during a nearby event. Later they’ll return for a longer vacation, using it as a base for exploring the

surrounding areas. Ideally, they’ll take some time to “vacation like it used to be—put their feet up and not try to cram everything into a few days,” he says. The last handful of years, he notes, many guests are adding an extra night.

“Maybe we’re re-learning how to relax,” he says.

From the beginning, Mr. B consulted his children before making major decisions. Jack recalls his father asking whether calling it a “Lodge” would make it sound too exclusive, like a private club. “We didn’t know one way or the other,” he says. Seneca Lodge it became.

The children went to school in Watkins Glen, and spent a lot of their free time replacing old cabins with newer ones and with modern motel buildings.

“I carried a lot of shingles and mixed a lot of concrete,” he says. Seasonal employees stayed in some of the cabins, the rest were rented to tourists. The re-building and maintenance remains constant, but Brett says See Lodge on page 36

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Come experience Watkins Glen and Schuyler County, New York Rainbow Falls, Watkins Glen State Park Photo: Marie Frei

Plan your trip today! Visit: www.watkinsglenchamber.com or call: (800) 607-4552 35

Lodge continued from page 34

412 N. Franklin St. • Watkins Glen, NY 14891

Open Year ‘round www.famousbrandsoutlet.com

607-535-4952

Famous Brands began in 1983, offering “famous brand” clothing and footwear at below retail prices. Since that humble beginning in a tiny storefront, we have grown to 30,000 sq. ft. covering 3 floors and half a city block, becoming a destination store for millions of visitors and locals alike.

36

the Lodge’s eighty-unit capacity remains unchanged. There are still a few original cabins left—one serving as the lawn-mower depot—and it has not yet been decided whether these will be replaced by one larger motel unit or more of the popular A-frame cabins constructed in the ’60s.

Mr. B opened a restaurant in the log building with a forwardlooking emphasis on natural foods. His farm raised the organic beef and produce served there; bread and pies were whole wheat-based and baked by his cousin Mary Cobean. In fact, Mr. B served as president of the Natural Foods Society of New York. He became active in Watkins Glen life, serving as president of the Chamber of Commerce. During his tenure there, he was instrumental in bringing sports car racing to the Glen—the original road course runs past Seneca Lodge. Archery was important, too—Mr. B brought the annual National Field Archery Association tournaments to the area. The last of these was held nine years ago, but it’s still visibly remembered, as tournament winners were invited to shoot an arrow into one of the logs in the bar. Over time, those areas came to bristle with imbedded arrows. He was also one of the founders of a summer theatre in Corning, but that’s another story.

And its proximity to Watkins Glen International is only one reason NASCAR folks and other sports car enthusiasts return year after year. “It’s like a family reunion,” Brett says. “For the most part, the same rooms are rented to the same people year after year.”

The restaurant is still a breakfast-and-dinner staple in Watkins Glen enjoyed by visitors and a loyal following of locals. Look up— look around—there are features seen only after a second (or third) perusal. A huge bear lurks on the rafters of a room off the bar—shot in Alaska by a family friend who presented it to the Brubakers. The bar’s ceiling sports a colorful riot of college pennants, a tradition that began when Mary Cobean hired college students as summer workers.

Ever since, guests who don’t see a flag from their alma mater often bring one to add to the collection on a subsequent visit.

Under the flat-screen TV is a 1920s-vintage nickelodeon jukebox, complete with bellows and player-piano innards that still operate with the insertion of a nickel. Brought up with Mr. B, it somehow escaped the fire and was re-installed in the Lodge, where it remained until a local resident offered to repair it, a lengthy but eventually successful endeavor. There are also mementos of race events, hunting trips, and an eclectic collection of baseball caps forgotten by patrons and hung on arrows until they’re reclaimed. Or, if you happen to be sipping a cocktail in the upper bar, look outside—an attached bird feeder attracts a variety of feathered diners when there are no humans having a meal or a drink on the porch. And on tap, by the way, is their own Seneca Lodge beer. Six varieties of it are brewed in the spacious cellar, where it’s also bottled—a good souvenir for those who love small-batch brew. Brett began the brewery but passed responsibilities to current brewmaster Jason Curran. Last year they produced 5,000 gallons, and every year they increase production.

It’s all a good reminder to slow down and appreciate the moment.

“Even though we’re fast-paced, we try to be old-school and treat people the way they should be treated,” Brett says.

Find more information at senecalodge.com or call (607) 5352014.

Karey Solomon is a freelance writer and admirer of waterfalls and the natural scenery of the Finger Lakes.

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CAPTAIN BILL’S SENECA LAKE CRUISES Put some fun back in your life!

MONDAYS

Craft Beer Cruise

A scenic 1.5 hour cruise pairing local craft beer with artisan cheese selections— hosted by a local brewer.

TUESDAY, FRIDAY & SUNDAY

Our 2.5-hour traditional full-service seated dinner cruise. Join us for the best prime rib on land or sea. This is a cruise for relaxing and embracing summer. Dinner Menu: Fresh garden salad and bread basket. Entrée Choices: Prime rib of Beef au jus, Surf & Turf, Chicken French, Salmon Piccata, or Eggplant Parmesan. Dessert: New York Style Cheesecake.

WEDNESDAYS Blues Cruise

2 hours of Live Blues and Classic Rock-n-roll on the top deck. Enjoy a casual American picnic buffet with build-your-own steak sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, summer salads, and assorted sweets.

THURSDAYS

Country Music Dinner Cruise

This two-hour cruise features live country music on the top deck with our picnic buffet.

SATURDAYS

Endless Summer Dinner Cocktail Cruise

A fun and entertaining 3-hour cruise fitting for a Saturday night out. Live entertainment on the top deck featuring the best of classic summer beach music. All of this and our great full service seated dinner menu.

SUNDAYS

Afternoon Lunch Buffet Cruise

Sails Sunday afternoons 12:00-2:00 p.m.

Spend a lazy summer Sunday afternoon with us and your family aboard this fun and relaxing cruise. Lunch buffet menu: Fresh Garden Salad, Dinner Rolls, Carved Roast Beef, and Ham, Penne Pasta with Vodka Sauce, New Potatoes, Sautéed Vegetables Soft Drinks, Coffee and Hot Tea. Assorted Sweets for Dessert.

WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY Lunch Cruise

Sailing from 12 Noon to 2:00 p.m.

Lunch Menu: Fresh Garden Salad and Bread Basket. Entrée choices: Apple & Brie stuffed Chicken Breast, Slow Roast Beef Round with Gravy, Crab-stuffed Sole, or Eggplant Parmesan.

All entreés served with New Potatoes, Vegetable, Brownie & Soft Drink.

Book online at www.senecaharborstation.com

Reserve your table aboard the 270 passenger Seneca Legacy—Sailing from Watkins Glen

For reservations call 607-535-4541 - Book online at senecaharborstation.com

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(5) Courtesy Finger Lakes Boating Museum Drifting duo: visitors to the Finger Lakes Boating Museum can view the restored works of George M. Comstock’s mail and tour boat, the Pat II (top) and a runabout named Heigh-Ho.

This Will Float Your Boat Finger Lakes Boating Museum Launches History

By Mike Cutillo

I

n addition to educational opportunities, an important mission of the Finger Lakes Boating Museum is to preserve and share the rich history of the boating industry in upstate New York. Two fascinating projects currently underway at the museum are right in line with that philosophy: a rebuild of a historic mail and tour boat named the Pat II, and a refurbishing of a sixty-five-year-old

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Morehouse Boat Company runabout named the Heigh-Ho. “Both the Pat II and the Heigh-Ho have created a lot of buzz around the museum,” notes FLBM Executive Director Andrew Tompkins. “They are both unique boats with interesting histories and are easy to talk about—the Pat II because of her size and postal delivery and touring history, and the

Heigh-Ho because she is the only twentytwo-foot, triple cockpit the Morehouse Boat Company ever built. Both boats are slated to play big roles as ambassadors for the museum in the coming years.”

Thanks to these projects and more—including the fact that its membership just climbed over the 500 mark—it’s an exciting time for this museum on the southern tip of Keuka Lake.

“It’s really fun, it’s exciting,” says Ed Wightman, a former president of the museum board and one of the driving forces behind its very creation. “It just feels like there’s a lot of momentum and a lot of traction.”

The Pat II, a thirty-nine-foot wooden Comstock-built boat, is a project that’s been in the works for about five years, so an argument could be made that it helped jump-start the current positive vibes.

It was originally built in 1924 to succeed the Pat I, which serviced the St. Lawrence River in the Alexandria Bay area of New York but burned in about 1920. Both Pats were built by George M. “Pat” Comstock and his boat company.

“As far as I know, these were the only two tour boats he built,” says Ed, a treasure trove of information who is in charge of collections at the FLBM these days. “She served on the river until 1950-’51 and was put out of service because she was replaced by steel-hulled boats. Wooden boats are a bit to maintain.”

She was sold to the Stinson Boat Line and operated as a mail boat on Skaneateles Lake—Star Route 13, to be exact—until 1991, and later as a tour boat on the same lake under the ownership of Mid-Lakes Navigation.

As the tour business grew, though, she was replaced by a larger boat that could handle more passengers, and then eventually ended up in storage in Geneva at the north end of Seneca Lake.

“She was brought to our attention back in the days when we were trying to built the museum in Geneva,” Ed recalls.

“So, another fellow and I went over and took a look at her and said, ‘This could really be great for us.’ We proposed it to the museum’s board and they were all for See Float on page 40

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Float continued from page 38

it, so we went over and got it, dragged it down here, and took it to our physical plant.”

That was the fall of 2013, and, by then, the FLBM was established in Hammondsport and had a building and fourteen acres there that had been donated by Mercury Aircraft. Work commenced on the Pat II in the summer of 2014—primarily by a team of volunteers who work on Tuesdays and Thursdays under the guidance of renowned Boatwright Geoff Heath, with inspections by the U.S. Coast Guard out of Buffalo.

Since then the Pat II has undergone a barrage of rebuilding.

The short list includes: new planking on the hull, reinforcing the original keel, constructing a new passenger compartment with newly upholstered seat bottoms and backs, replacing the twentyfoot propeller shaft, installing new windows, and replacing the diesel engine with an electric one.

“This is a rebuild,” Ed emphasizes. “In the boat world we make distinctions between restorations and rebuilds. Restorations, you take it back to what it was; rebuilds you do what you have to do to make it serviceable and safe while trying to maintain the character as best you can because it does have history.” Passenger comfort has been a major consideration in the process, Ed notes.

“We’re trying to decide the most optimum seating,” he says. “We’re leaning toward creature comfort rather than sardines. It’s going to be a luxurious ride, not a meat Optimal rebuild: The FLBM wagon.” rebuilt the Pat II to provide luxurious comfort for There had been no real schedule to get the Pat II ready passengers. From top: in for the water until recently when—because some major 1933 near Boldt Castle; project donors wanted to witness the launch before leaving the Pat II arrives at the to travel later this year—a launch date of August 24 was museum in 2014; Boatwright established. She’ll be put into commercial use as a tour boat Geoff Heath works on the hull; next season and will also be available for private charter.

Heath and others continue The Heigh-Ho—“Like heigh-ho, it’s off to work the work on the Pat II in 2018. seven dwarfs go,” as Ed says merrily—was not nearly as extensive a project. Though it needed some tender loving care and some upgrades, it basically was turnkey (or maybe turnwheel?), and was given to the museum last spring as part of an estate from the family of a Seneca Falls man. Built by the Morehouse Boat Company on Cayuga Lake in 1953, it features the bead-and-cove planking for which Morehouse was known.

“We’re using that boat as a museum VIP kind of boat, an opportunity to take real supporters of the museum out on the lake, to try to do something special for them,” Ed says.

Both the Pat II and the Heigh-Ho will have trailers so that they can be transported to various antique boat shows around the area.

“Once the Pat II and the Heigh-Ho are spotted out on the lakes, that should help with the momentum as well,” Andrew Tompkins says, noting the FLBM also runs workshops that teach building skills, and offer free monthly lectures and a host of other programs to help “educate the community on a variety of topics.

“And our restoration projects build camaraderie among the volunteers who take ownership of the boats they are working on on behalf of the museum. Everyone wins.”

Mike Cutillo has been a journalist covering the Finger Lakes for 35 years. He doesn’t own a boat, but he has a lot of friends who do, and he takes advantage of those friendships.

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