Mountain Home, November 2020

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Soldiers of War and Peace From the Great War to Good Lives, Bruce Dart Tells Their Stories

By Karey Solomon

At Miller’s Gun Shop, 56 Years and Counting A Natural Call of the Wild 100 Years of Pennsylvania Game Lands

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Volume 15 Issue 11

14 Miss Lace’s Boys

Soldiers of War and Peace

By Bruce P. Schoch

The long road home for the fallen soldiers of WWII.

By Karey Solomon From the great war to good lives, Bruce Dart tells their stories.

16 Mother Earth

By Gayle Morrow Hügel what?

20 The Peace of Wild

Places

6

By Lilace Guignard

All in the Family

100 years of Pennsylvania Game Lands.

By David O’Reilly Miller’s Gun Shop in Mill Hall marks 56 years and counting.

26 Talking Turkey

By Kerry Gyekis

A natural call of the wild.

34 Back of the Mountain

By Bernadette Chiaramonte Faded glory.

18 Penny Wise Party Perfect Dinners

By Cornelius O’Donnell The skinny on a thin but treasured book.

Cover by Gwen Button. Cover photo of Bruce Dart by Lonny Frost This page (top) Gerald N. Austin, namesake of Mansfield's American Legion, courtesy Bruce Dart, (middle) A 1967 newspaper advertisement for Miller's gun shop, by David O'Reilly; (bottom) tomato consommé.

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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, Beverly Kline, Richard Trotta Circulation Director Michael Banik Accounting Amy Packard Cover Design Gwen Button

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Contributing Writers Maggie Barnes, Mike Cutillo, Dave DeGolyer, Lilace Guignard, Kerry Gyekis, Carrie Hagen, Don Knaus, Janet McCue, Dave Milano, Cornelius O’Donnell, Brendan O’Meara, David O’Reilly, Linda Roller, Bruce P. Schoch, Karey Solomon C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Don Biresch, Bernadette Chiaramonte, Diane Cobourn, Lonny Frost, Roger Kingsley, Christy Lamb, Beate Mumper, Jerame Reinhold, Peter Rutt, Jody Shealer, Travis Snyder, Linda Stager, Sherri Stager, Travis Snyder, Mary Sweely, Sarah Wagaman, Curt Weinhold, Deb Young

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Soldiers of War

Bruce Dart

Knock on wood: John Hummel, with wife Jean Dewitz, holds a wooden scale model of the plane he once flew.

6

and Peace

From the Great War to Good Lives, Bruce Dart Tells Their Stories

By Karey Solomon

If you’ve seen the Wall of Honor at the corner of Routes 6 and 15 in Mansfield, you might wonder about its long list of names—204 men and one woman.

All veterans of the first World War, none of them by now still walking the earth.

Does anyone know anymore who they were?

Does anyone care? Does it matter?

Yes to all three.

See Call on page 8

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Call continued from page 7

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T

he wall was first painted in 1924. It’s been refurbished at least twice since then. And several Mansfield residents have made it their mission to make sure those veterans will not be forgotten.

In 1918, as World War I ended, an influenza pandemic was gathering speed. It contributed to the stranding of many American soldiers in Europe as they waited for their ride back to the United States. When the war-weary veterans returned home, they brought to the U.S. Congress an idea they’d been incubating in France. These patriotic Americans saw that their time of service didn’t finish with the end of the war.

They wanted to share the maturity they’d gained. They felt a kinship with those who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them at war. Some of their compatriots had permanent injuries and needed help.

Thus the American Legion was established in September of 1919. Regional veterans lost no time in organizing, and American Legion Post #478 in Mansfield received its charter before the end of the year. It was named the Austin-Cox post in honor of two fallen native sons—Private Gerald Austin, who was killed in action in June of 1918, and Sergeant John Cox, who died from complications of influenza shortly after his return home. It was important for area veterans to be able to spend time with others who understood their experiences, their traumas, and the challenge of re-entering their lives. It was also essential to remember those who’d gone to war, whether they’d returned or fallen in battle.

Founding member Harold Strait, the proprietor of Strait’s Hardware at the junction of Routes 6 and 15 (now Night and Day Café), served in Russia during the war. Lifelong Mansfield resident Bruce Dart describes him as a “low-profile, Mr. Rogers kind of guy.” In the time he held the dual offices of post commander and district commander in 1924, Harold Strait decided the village needed a “Wall of Honor” as a visible commemoration of native sons who’d served in the war. Having a good-sized wall at his disposal—the long side of his own brick store facing Route 6—he arranged to have painted on it the names of 204 soldiers who left the area to go to war, and paid to maintain the wall through his lifetime.

Just Kids Many of those who joined up to head overseas were still in their teens. Back in 1920, according to the U.S. census, 85 percent of males over the age of fourteen were part of the labor force. While still very young by today’s standards, they considered themselves men. That’s not so much the case today, but some things don’t change. Then, as now, the steppingstones on the path to success for most young men included hard work and education. Some were fortunate enough to be able to anticipate the inheritance of land or a farm, a family business, or familial wealth. No matter.

Despite already working on plans for their own futures, a generation of young (sometimes really young) men interrupted those plans to answer the national call to arms. Still, at this distance, it’s easy to look at the long list of names on the wall See Call on page 10

8

(4) Courtesy Bruce Dart

Commanding creators: American Legion Post #478 founders include (clockwise from top left) Dr. John Doane, John Cox (namesake of the post), William (Fay) Kilgore, and Wade Judge.

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Call continued from page 8

Linda Stager

and see just that—a long list of names rather than the people they were.

But Bruce, himself a veteran, a long-time member of the American Legion, and commander of Harold Strait’s Post #478 (since his father, Doug Dart, with whom he served as vice-commander for fourteen years, died in early 2014), sees more there.

“Years ago, Mansfield University brought in Alex Haley, author of Roots, as a speaker for Black Awareness Week,” Bruce recalls. “One of the things he talked about was his research for his heritage. He said everyone needed to do this so they knew where they came from.” Partly sparked by the author’s thoughts on history, Bruce, in turn, found his own thoughts turning to those represented on that Wall of Honor.

(2) Courtesy Bruce Dart

After the Homecoming

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“They [the names on the wall] were very modest about their accomplishments,” Bruce muses.

“How many times do Chief roles: Herb Peterson we come face to face was one of the earliest post before we realize their commanders; Harold Strait legacy is significant to (below), another early post the area and we really commander, was responsible need to tell their stories?” for getting the WWI Memorial established on the side of his Some were people he’d building, and donated paint known for many years— from his hardware store—more friends and neighbors, than once—to repaint it. people who had lived their lives in longterm service to the community or a cause. For instance, Myron Webster, a political science professor at what was then known as Mansfield State College, was “an amazing guy,” Bruce says. A professional photographer himself, he remembers Myron Webster in his retirement as someone who photographed and catalogued all the local bird species. Webster was also a graduate of Cornell University Law School. There were others, less wellremembered today. What had become of those young men after they came home?

Bruce enlisted others to help him find out. Local historian Joyce Tice, founder and executive director of the History Center on Main Street, in Mansfield, did most of the research,

welcome to Bruce says. He added information when he had it, and turned the facts into a narrative. The project began with the ninetieth anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, and was completed for the American Legion’s centennial in 2019. It was made harder because many of the returning soldiers were originally not allowed to talk about their war experiences, and kept that habit of silence.

Still, much was learned, and the results became a small book, Legacy and Vision: The American Legion Centennial Celebration, published in 2019.

Some of the stories they discovered are entertaining now, though certainly hair-raising then. Another charter member of the Legion, John Nye Hatfield, of Rutland Township, saw only about a week of service, but earned the Croix de Guerre (the French medal of honor awarded for distinguished service in battle) on November 9, two days before the armistice. Hatfield was one of fifteen soldiers walking through a quiet area to scout out a resting place for the night. They were ambushed by a nest of enemy soldiers with machine guns, who killed or wounded all but Hatfield and one other man. Hatfield ran forward, still firing. At the end, two enemy gunners had been killed and five more surrendered to Hatfield. He discovered later he had run out of ammunition and captured the five with bravado and an empty gun.

Glenn Smith, also from Rutland, was an aviator who fell out of his open-cockpit plane without a parachute and lived, plummeting about a thousand feet into the water. Ernest “Shorty” McConnell of Mansfield had a very brief army career as a sharp-shooter and motorcycle orderly. He began training in early October and went overseas a few weeks later. He soon broke his ankle colliding with a shell-hole and was invalided out, returning to his old job as a barber in little more than three months.

But, “This is not about World War I, it’s about the contributions people made to the community after they came back from the war,” Joyce Tice says. “Some of them saw service overseas, many did not. Some returned to college. Not all of them stayed in the area.

“There was a Student Army Training Corps [the precursor of the ROTC, or Reserve Officer Training Corps] at what was then the Mansfield Normal School [now Mansfield University].

That was a two-year teacher training school, like a trade school for teachers.” Many of the soldiers from Mansfield were students there, she says.

There were those whose education was paused while they went to war, and who returned to Mansfield to complete their studies. Some, like Fred Jupenlaz, became educators and later professors at the college. Warren Miller became a beloved teacher, coach, principal, and later Mansfield’s Superintendent of Schools; the elementary school was named for him. He also attended the same church as the Dart family.

Some held ordinary jobs, a few achieved a bit of fame in the bigger scheme of things. Leigh Allen of Mansfield, who graduated from Princeton University before going off to war, went to Hollywood when he returned, acting in a film with Myrna Loy. After a short stint on Broadway, he took up his life’s work as an architect. Fred “Joe” Bedenk played football, See Call on page 12

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Call continued from page 11

baseball, and competed in track and field events while at Mansfield. He was a professor of physical education and athletics at the university of Florida and later at Penn State.

Many became leading lights in local businesses. Quite a few became physicians.

The only woman whose name appears on the wall is Sylvene Nye, daughter of Roseville physician Orrin Nye. She studied nursing and served as a battlefield nurse, earning the Croix de Guerre for her bravery. She died in 1924 from the accumulated illness and overwork suffered during the war.

But apart from careers and family life, many made other lasting contributions to the area. Reading Bruce’s book, it’s hard not to be struck by the myriad ways these veterans worked in their communities beyond their day jobs. Many volunteered for a variety of civic organizations, mentoring young people, providing community services as firefighters or ambulance drivers, and adding to the cultural life of their community.

Jupenlaz was chairman of the Board of Trustees at Mansfield State and director of the Tioga County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Roy Nash of Sullivan Township was active in the Troy Fair. Harold Strait was president of the Appalachian Thruway Commission for more than two decades, and instrumental in the completion of Route 15. Herbert Peterson, a founding member of the Mansfield American Legion and its first commander, served on several hospital boards and the Armory board.

Many others belonged to fraternal benevolent associations and were active in their churches. Manderville Bartle of Mansfield conducted both a band and an orchestra.

“They came back and wanted to be productive citizens,” Bruce says. “Often, they didn’t want a lot of fanfare. They wanted to live their lives and make a contribution to the country for which they had wanted to preserve their freedom.

“People have a certain mindset and attitude from being in the military, See Call on page 24

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W W W. T H E S T E A K H O U S E . C O M 13

Courtesy Bruce P. Schoch

G.I. Generation: SSGT Stewart Welton Schoch, one of eight airmen from the Miss Lace, killed in action during WWII.

Miss Lace’s Boys

The Long Road Home for the Fallen Soldiers of WWII

By Bruce P. Schoch

T

here was a full moon, a bomber’s moon, though that did not matter for daylight bombing missions. But the folk wisdom of craziness and strange behavior during the lunar cycle did prevail.

It was also Saint Andrew’s Day, for the patron saint of Scotland, among others, celebrated by launching the largest and last battleship for the Royal Navy, the HMS Vanguard, at Clydesbank. Nazi Germany celebrated by striking Shadow Hill in southeast London with a V-2 rocket, killing twenty-three; in their tradition, it was the beginning of vampire season.

It was on this day, November 30, 1944, that the 8th U.S. Air Force launched 1,281 B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers and 972 escorting P-47 and P-51 fighters in a continuation of the Oil Campaign and the Transportation Campaign against industrial targets in the Third Reich. Mission 731 would involve thirty-eight bomber groups in three air divisions against the remaining functioning synthetic oil plants, rail yards, and terminals, largely in eastern Germany.

14

These massive raids, begun in 1943 against armaments factories, had shifted to logistics targets by 1944. Twenty-nine bombers would be lost that day, and ten more would be scrapped as non-repairable. About a third of the aircraft involved would suffer battle damage.

Eleven squadrons from four or perhaps five bomber groups (mission logs are inconsistent about targets) attacked the Bereinbohle-Benin synthetic oil plant just north of Zeitz. One hundred thirty-two bombers attacked it as their primary target, nineteen more as a secondary. A third of the total losses (ten) would be at this one target, leading to thirty-eight killed in action and fifty-two as prisoners of war. Six of these aircraft came from a single squadron—the 527th of the 379th Bomb Group. Eight of the KIA were from the Miss Lace (Miss Lace was a cartoon figure in the Army’s Male Call newspaper during WW II), including the uncle I never knew, SSGT Stewart Welton Schoch.

Stewart was drafted in 1943. His brother,

my dad, had enlisted in 1942. Stewart became a waist gunner on a B-17, and was wounded on his first mission, a strike on an aircraft engine plant in Sindelfingen, but returned to the air. Stewart’s parents—my grandparents— in Troutville, Pennsylvania, were notified by telegram on February 13, 1945, of his death.

They and my parents were celebrating my birth, just three days earlier.

During 1944, Germany had moved a large number of anti-aircraft units (flakabwehrkanone) into the Zeitz region.

The 14th Flak Division (Luftwaffe), based in the city of Leipzig, had 540 large caliber guns covering the area. Its 120th Flak Regiment was based in Zeitz; that November, it apparently had four battalions and two separate batteries with over 100 anti-aircraft guns of all calibers.

Unit organizations had become more robust; the four-gun batteries of 88 mm had morphed to batteries of six to eight, and had been grouped in gross-batterein of sixteen to twentyfour guns. This arrangement allowed gunners to put more fire on individual aircraft, typically those in the lower-flying squadrons.

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Mother Earth

Hügel What?

By Gayle Morrow

H

ave you heard of hügelkultur? While it sounds like a cake you might bake for your family’s holiday brunch, it’s actually a kind of gardening. If you hurry, you can get started on your own hügelkultur project now, before the ground freezes and the snow flies, putting you well on your way toward a more productive 2021 garden.

If you’ve guessed that hügelkultur (HOO-gul-culture) is a German word, you’ve guessed right. It means hill culture, or hill mound, and it made its first appearance in the early 1960s in a German gardening book.

It’s similar to “lasagna gardening”—layers and layers of biomass that you periodically add to and that you don’t have to till, but with hügelkultur you end up with a hill or a mound instead of a traditional flat growing surface. It’s a helpful technique where soil is poor or sparse.

Here’s how it works.

You can start with an existing raised bed or you can build up your hügelkultur garden on a flat section of lawn or other bare ground.

16

First, make a mound of logs, branches, or sticks. If you already have a brush pile you can use that. If you’re lucky enough to have topsoil, you can dig down several inches to recess your bottom layer. Be sure to save that topsoil—you’ll need it later. In the raised bed I used as a hügelkultur experiment this past growing season, I moved the dirt to one side, then filled in the space with sticks and branches.

On top of the wood, which decays over time and provides nutrients for your plants, you need lots of nitrogen-rich stuff. Think compost, manure, grass clippings, even seaweed if ya got it. Don’t be stingy here—just pile it all on.

Finally, add a layer of soil (in my raised bed, I topped it with the dirt I’d scooped off to the side), followed by some sort of mulch—hay, straw, leaves, newspaper—to help with keeping the weeds down, keeping dirt in place until things get established, and keeping moisture in the mound. Then start planting.

It’s hard to mess this up.

You can make your mound just a few feet high, or you can make it six or seven feet. Try surrounding it with straw bales; pallets could provide support for a really, really tall mound. As for dos and don’ts, just know that certain woods aren’t ideal for your bottom layer. Black locust and cedar don’t rot very well; black walnut has toxins that plants don’t like. Of course you wouldn’t want to use wood that has been treated with chemicals.

I grew delicata squash in my hügelkultur experiment and, given the lack of rainfall, it did pretty well—better than some other sections of the raised beds where the basil withered and the tomatoes drooped.

If we get a ton of snow or the ground freezes before you get the chance to move any soil, you can still make your layer of logs or sticks, then add compost/kitchen scraps and other nitrogen rich material throughout the winter. In the spring, top it off with soil and get to gardening.

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David O'Reilly Courtesy Burt Cleveland

Staying on target: Beth Bason, current owner of Miller's Gun Shop, stands with her mother, Janet.

All in the Family

Miller’s Gun Shop in Mill Hall Marks 56 Years and Counting

By David O’Reilly

T

his particular Saturday was supposed to be a quiet day at Miller’s Gun Shop.

It was opening day of Pennsylvania bear season for muzzleloaders: one of those autumn blue-sky days when the maples glow gold and the outdoors beckon. So maybe, just maybe, all of Miller’s devoted patrons would be up in the hills, far removed from this hunter’s mecca in Clinton County.

But no. At noon, the parking lot is packed. You park on the grass, make your way past that tall, wood moose draped in patriotic colors and into a crowded, brightly lit showroom. A customer in a camo jacket is yelling into his cellphone. “This place is packed here right now,” he’s saying, with a finger in his ear.

He’s standing amidst floor racks bearing hundreds of rifles and shotguns. Against a far wall are targets and holsters and optics. Over there, behind a glass-enclosed counter, are the ammo and handguns, with the archery section beyond that stone wall.

All areas are crowded with patrons,

18

many of them regulars whom the staff greet by name. When a white-bearded regular explains he’s “looking for targets,” salesclerk Shannon Barner grasps him by the hand, joking that he must be blind, and leads him to the target wall. The man roars with laughter.

At the eye of this cheerful storm is Beth Bason, whose parents, Philip and Janet Miller, started the business on the back porch of their Mill Hall farmhouse outside Lock Haven fifty-six years ago. They still work here every day.

“What kind of pistol are you looking for?” Beth asks a woman in her mid-fifties, here for the first time. The woman, Krystal, is uncertain, but says she wants something for “self-protection.” Moments later she and her husband are on one side of the handgun counter with Beth on the other. Neither has ever owned a handgun.

Beth lays several pistols on the counter and turns her attention to Krystal, recently retired from the Air Force. Some handguns are “noticeably different in recoil,” she

explains, “and as ladies, our age and strength affect how we handle a sidearm…Not everyone has the strength to pull back” on the slide. She demonstrates how it’s done.

Krystal picks up a pistol and immediately lays her forefinger on the trigger. Beth raises a hand. “As a new shooter you always want to lay your finger this way,” she says, gripping another pistol, and demonstrating the safe way by laying her forefinger straight, outside the trigger guard. “There’s a tendency to want put your finger inside,” she says, “but if you jerk hard on the slide and your finger’s in there, well…all kinds of things can happen.”

Krystal nods, wide-eyed. She repositions her finger.

White-haired Janet is waiting on customers behind the main counter, too busy to chat. When she finally gets a moment she recalls with a laugh how hectic things got in spring when they had to bar customers from the store because of COVID-19. “So we did curbside for six weeks, running back and forth with an umbrella in the rain—whatever

David O’Reilly was a writer and editor for thirty-five years at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he covered religion for two decades. He and his wife, Birnie, moved to Wellsboro last fall.

(2) David O'Reilly

it took to keep the doors open and clients happy.” The store has 6,300 “likes” on Facebook, with customers frequently citing staff as “friendly,” “helpful” and “knowledgeable.”

Behind another counter sits the eponymous Philip, eighty-five, surrounded by an array of vintage and modern gunsmithing tools.

Some days you might find him here checkering a walnut gunstock.

Today, as he recalls how they started the business, he’s installing a battery into a pistol’s laser sight.

He was a twenty-nine-year-old high school chemistry teacher, he explains, newly married, still helping on his parents’ dairy farm and repairing guns for several Lock Haven department stores. “Then I got to thinking: ‘Why don’t I do that on my own instead of for someone else?’” And so, in 1964, he and Janet—an elementary school teacher—launched the gun business.

“We started with the back porch of the house. Then we went to the basement, then moved to the end of the driveway and built a building. Then we chased the cows out of the barn and added to the end of the barn with this place,” he says, and waves a hand to indicate the main showroom where he’s sitting.

In 1984, at the encouragement of friend and neighbor Rick Noll, the Millers added archery and fishing equipment to their product line, even though Janet fretted that they “wouldn’t sell nine bows.” The fishing side did not last, but the archery line “just grew and expanded,” says Philip, and now represents about half their business. “I think we do it as well as anybody,” he says, noting that their grandson, Bryce Bason—a champion archer—is poised to manage the department when the invaluable Rick retires.

Hitting their mark: original The gun business has changed a lot, Philip says, since owners Jane and Phill those early days when he was selling double-barreled Miller started Miller's Gun shotguns for $69, rifles for $99, and revolvers for $35.

Shop 56 years ago and “In the last few years there’s been a real big interest still come to work every in what I would call tactical weapons, like the AR-15s. day.

And we have been somewhat reluctantly selling more of them…I personally own a couple, but they’re not my favorite. I’m a rifle guy. I prefer the classics: pretty wood and nice blue metal and things of that sort. But they [tactical weapons] are what people are asking for these days. And if you don’t have what they’re asking for, you won’t be in business.”

By now Beth has sold Krystal a small Keltec 9mm pistol and her husband, Alan, a larger 9mm Smith & Wesson. Krystal says this year’s violent street demonstrations in some U.S. cities had alarmed her. “Now, if someone comes up my driveway,” she says with a grin, “they can expect to get more than a slap in the face.” (Handgun sales at the shop have tripled since this year’s riots, says Philip.)

As they prepare to leave, Krystal and Alan voice appreciation for the time and expertise Beth gave them.

Beth receives the compliment graciously, but with a small shrug.

“Well, we’re not selling candy,” she says. “We’re selling something that’s a big responsibility…We owe our clients the time to make a good decision.”

Find Miller’s Gun Shop at 6945 Nittany Valley Drive, Mill Hall, on Facebook, and at millersgunshopinc.com, or call (570) 726-3030.

19

Lilace Guignard

Gayle Morrow

The Peace of Wild Places 100 Years of Pennsylvania Game Lands

By Lilace Guignard

W

hen I moved to Tioga County with my husband and fifteenmonth old son in 2005, I knew nothing of state game lands. I just knew there was all this public land around the university he’d come to teach at, most of which had very little signage. I couldn’t find a trail map. It felt like I wasn’t wanted there, walking with my dog and child. Everywhere else I’d lived the signs practically begged me to walk or bike.

At first I assumed this was because I wasn’t from around here, and locals liked to keep things word-of-mouth. Then someone explained that the land off Carpenter and Firetower roads, the places with the gates that had yellow keystone-shaped notices of “Closed to All Motorized Vehicles,” were state game lands. Their use by hunters was prioritized. Now I felt excluded for other reasons.

We were given some deer meat that first year, which was much appreciated by our wallets and our taste buds. We talked to our new friends who did hunt. And every now 20

and then we’d talk about how we’d like to go hunting with our friend Thad, but where would we even start?

Then my toddler became a teen who wanted to hunt.

Tioga County Game Warden Rob Minnich grew up in Berks County, and his father would bring him north to hunt.

Learning to hunt is one thing, but finding a place to go can make it seem impossible to start if you haven’t been raised doing it.

Without public land, townies like me or city folks wouldn’t have a place to hunt. But, as I came to find out, the story of how game lands came to be is really a story of conservation.

Back when the Pennsylvania Game Commission was established in 1895, it was because the Pennsylvania Sportsmen’s Association pressed for better protection of dwindling wildlife populations. In 1890 our deer had been close to gone, and many other species were scarce. First came game protection agents—not particularly wellreceived by most hunters. Fourteen were

shot at and three killed in one year. Then, in 1905, game preserves were set aside in state forest land.

Next, the commission requested a law requiring hunters to purchase licenses (for one dollar). In 1920, the resident hunter license fees paid for 6,288 acres in Elk County, the first land purchased for a game preserve. Over the next five years the Game Commission acquired 86,000 acres.

By 1927 hunters paid a two-dollar fee, and Pennsylvania was nationally recognized for conservation efforts that included restocking beaver from Canada, quail from Mexico, and cottontails from Kansas and Missouri. (Can you imagine needing to import rabbits?)

Now, one hundred years later, there are almost one-and-a-half million acres of state game lands. Without them we wouldn’t have been able to restore the whitetail population or grow the elk population, reintroduced from the Rocky Mountains, as quickly and fully as we have. Our extensive state forest See Game Lands on page 23

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welcome to Game Lands continued from page 20

and park systems have certainly helped, as have the federal public lands.

But Rob reminds me there’s a distinction. “DCNR and the Game Commission are different agencies, managed and paid for very differently.” He explains that game lands are almost entirely supported by hunters and trappers through license fees and a federal tax on arms and ammunition. No money from the state general fund goes toward them. So (unlike, say, state colleges) the state legislature can’t decide one year to underfund game lands.

Game lands have a single-use management mandate. According to the Game Commission, “The primary purpose of these lands is the management of habitat for wildlife and provide opportunities for lawful hunting and trapping.” So, since hunting pays for them, hunting gets priority—but within regulations created with the health of wildlife populations and safety of humans in mind.

Now I understand why I felt less welcome on game lands than I did in the Hills Creek State Park. Their swim beach and playground clearly catered to my type of use. But not being given priority is not the same as being unwanted. Only about thirty-five percent of game land use is by hunters, and most game lands are open for general use year round. (No ATVs, though.) But wildlife takes precedence there, and the lack of signs, easy access, and crowds makes it a great place for those who want to walk in the woods and look for wildlife and signs of their activity, with or without a bow or firearm. Wearing orange isn’t much to ask when about seven million is spent each year to improve wildlife habitat.

Rob tells me the sale of hunting licenses is up from last year, probably due to the virus. I have a feeling the game lands are going to help a lot of folks this year find the “peace of wild things,” like the poet Wendell Berry says. The poem describes how I was feeling last April when COVID-19 made me “…wake in the night at the least sound / in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be…”

My son, who’d been looking forward to spring turkey season, was bummed. The previous April, one of his mentors had taken him hunting on youth turkey day, staying overnight at a camp. But with the social distancing restrictions, Gabe was going to miss it.

Just in time, I realized that because I’d completed my huntertrapper education certification and gotten a license, I could take him. “I may be the adult,” I told him, “but you’re the mentor.” I pulled up a map of Game Land 37 and said, “You tell me where to go and when we’re leaving.” I drove and carried the shotgun (as the rules dictate), but otherwise did as I was told.

He led us in along a creek and then up the hillside. On a bench most of the way up a ridge, where several white oaks had dropped their acorns, I sat shoulder-to-shoulder with my son while he had conversations with gobblers. He even got one to come into view and fan, all the while a hen was crying, “Jolene, don’t take my man.”

Toggling between the hand-held call and his shotgun is probably what gave us away.

Thanks to state game lands, for five hours we felt small in a big world, instead of big in a small house. Thanks to state game lands, my son and I, to paraphrase Wendell Berry, rested in the grace of the world and were free.

Lilace Guignard raises her kids in Wellsboro, teaches at Mansfield University, writes about women outdoors, gets wild with community theatre, and shakes things up at Sunday school.

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Call continued from page 12

a sense of patriotism that never leaves you. What was drummed into our heads being in the Navy, you never forget those things.

It’s about making your time count.”

Several of those whose names are on the wall re-enlisted to serve in World War II; some had previously seen combat in the Spanish American War. “Those who confronted a wartime reality came face to face with the impermanence of life,” Bruce continues. “Some felt guilt that they were spared while other people were killed—now they call it PTSD—any veteran could tell you about it. Generally we don’t talk about those things but they’re always there. They never leave us.”

Not all the names listed on the wall are accompanied by a biography. Some families moved away and couldn’t be found, others, when contacted, did not respond to queries for information. Bruce suspects many of those who came back were requested to not discuss their wartime experiences for reasons of national security, and maintained that discretion for their entire lives. “They served and did what they had to do,” he says.

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The Wall of Honor is something of a community treasure.

When Bruce spearheaded an effort to refurbish the memorial a dozen years ago, he is proud to say, “we had no problem raising the money. People around this area have been extremely good to veterans.”

Many return time and again to the memorial, pointing out a father, a grandfather, an uncle to family members who might not have met their ancestor.

“The goal [of the book] was to make people real,” Bruce says.

“I felt they deserved it. I knew some of them as my neighbors.

The thing is, they made significant impacts on life in this area.

The more I looked into these things, the more there were these details that kept coming forward.”

And now, when someone notices a place or activity named after a man they can’t personally remember, Bruce’s book might fill that gap. Knowing who they were, looking at the hopeful and serious young faces in the old-fashioned photographs illustrating the book, tells us all a little more about how we got to where—and who—we are today.

There are more than eighty names about whom little is currently known. For some there’s a photo, for others a line or two that gives their dates of service and a succinct summation of their post-war occupation. These are gaps Bruce is still hoping to fill in. He says he’d be happy for any additional information anyone is able to provide. He can be contacted at Dart Photography in Mansfield, at photosbydart.com, or at (570) 662-3919. Copies of Legacy and Vision: The American Legion Centennial Celebration are available at the Mansfield and Wellsboro Chambers of Commerce as well as at From My Shelf Books and Gifts in Wellsboro.

Karey Solomon is the daughter of a veteran wounded in combat in World War II.

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Is that you?

Talking Turkey A Natural Call of the Wild

By Kerry Gyekis

I

slipped outside in the dark in the early a.m. and took it in. The moon early this morning was full, or damn close to it. The temperature was around twentyfour degrees and dry snow covered the ground. The sky was crystal clear.

This was one of those times when I knew what I must do. I had done it before, many times, especially when I was growing up and running a trapline. I had avoided church innumerable times on Sunday mornings like this. This time, no Sunday

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and no trapline. But it was clear. I must go into the back country under the guise of hunting, and find the most isolated place I could walk to. It was the only sensible thing to do.

I climbed a trail up out of a gorgeous mountain valley with a fast flowing stream and into the high country swamps on top.

Fresh snow fell off every branch I touched.

Beech leaves still clinging to brushy branches dumped dry snow on my head.

Humans had forsaken this trail for

many years, and beech brush littered the trail today. My thoughts went back to my kids. This trail was not as easy to travel now as it had been with two little boys in tow many years ago. We had hunted on this ridge once, before they were old enough to carry guns. We had climbed this trail early in the morning and hunted those bear swamps until dark, coming down as dusk settled into the valley. There were no deer shot, but it had been a beautiful, See Talking on page 28

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Talking continued from page 26

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snowy day. We had seen no one and, what was even better, we had heard no one. Lots of memories.

Once on top, I found the first swamp opening and settled in to wait and listen, calling turkey several times to no avail. After a bit, I started a dried hemlock twig fire and just sat there drinking coffee, remembering the times we had done that, cooking our lunch while we hunted. Then I began moving again, very slowly, along the dark, hemlock rim of the lowest swamp. Every step was measured, balanced. The dry snow cushion had given me an almost completely noiseless ability, at least to my ears.

At a point where I could see ahead north some distance, I stopped and scanned ahead of me. At the same time I felt pressure building, I mean real pressure. I was going to expel gas. Well, I thought, why not utilize it?

An aside here: Some years ago I had begun walking a property—I was doing a Stewardship Plan for the owner—with Bose, my big German shepherd of that time. It had been a Saturday in May. I had realized too late that it was also the last day of spring gobbler season and here I was walking a 300-acre property of an absentee landowner. There would probably be someone hunting the property. That was a given. As I walked, I expelled gas. Immediately I got an answer from a guy who didn’t sound very much like a turkey, but he thought I was a turkey!

Aside from being embarrassing, that could be dangerous. It happened again (involuntarily) and he answered again! By this time, Bose had located our human turkey and was standing next to him wagging his tail. I walked up and asked him how things were going. He told me that he had been calling a turkey in prior to my arrival.

Well, I set him straight. Anyway, he was quite embarrassed and got up and left. After he was gone, I thought about it. I wondered if anyone had ever called a turkey hunter in this manner? I thought not. Anyway, I contacted Arnie Haden, the Pennsylvania Game Commission turkey biologist at that time.

Arnie was a good guy and a friend. I thought maybe he would put it in Pennsylvania Game News. I figured it would liven that magazine up a little bit. He thought not.

So, back to the present, I’m standing there with the shotgun at ready and thought “why not?” I let out a controlled yelp (I have certain ability here) and then several more. I immediately saw movement. It was a coyote! He was coming toward me, hiding as he came. He had not seen me yet. I stood with the gun up, waiting for his head to appear. Several times I caught glimpses of him as he came closer. At last there was no more cover. He would need to dash in the open towards me. Nothing happened.

Then, without any warning he was sprinting away to the east and into the swamp. Perhaps he had smelled me (a disadvantage of using an organic call). In a way, I was glad. It had been a fantastic experience, just having the coyote approach me. How many times can you do that?

In the end, I was out-foxed by a coyote or maybe it was outcoyoted by a coyote. In any case, I wonder if the Game News will take this one? I bet it’s another first.

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Penny Wise Party Perfect Dinners The Skinny on a Thin but Treasured Book

By Cornelius O’Donnell

T

his is not a column about diet cookbooks, but I had a ball reminiscing about a recipe collection that is sadly out of print (years ago) but still resonates with me. This little book has almost 200 pages under its attractive hard cover. Penny Wise Party Perfect Dinners was the first publication (perhaps the only one) put together by a group of food pros, chefs, cooking teachers, and gifted food writers.

Their cause was to give a wider audience the benefit of their knowledge, not only providing recipes but gadgets that make cooking easier or more precise. (And they made a buck as well.)

The whole scheme was the idea of a marketing group, and they managed to snare James Beard, no less, as their point man. They even negotiated with some department stores to create a “Good Cooks” shop within their housewares departments.

These were handsomely designed, as I recall (Bloomingdales had one), with a demonstration area plus the products:

30

spatulas, wooden and metal utensils, bowls, pots, temperature gauges…well, you get the idea. Now back to this little book.

I rediscovered it during a redo of my bookshelves where it was hiding in the shadows amongst bigger Beard books. The scheme was dubbed the Good Cooking School, and it aimed to educate aspiring American cooks.

Sadly, so many of the contributors are now making heavenly food in cloudland.

But to ignore their good work seems a shame. I consider these folks artists, yet, unless you hunt out the good old books they wrote, their classic ideas fade—unlike other artists whose output hangs on museum walls. So, there was this slim volume that became so familiar to me during my “I-know-Beard and some-of-the-otherwriters” days. That would be circa 1975, the year Party Perfect was published.

all about that great American standard— especially for lunch: tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich.”

“Yes,” I stammered and quoted Ina Garten, “but with a twist.”

So, here are a couple of dishes I made over and over back then, as my faint pencil marks in the book with “made date” will attest.

Up first is the tomato soup cooked up by one of the contributors, Maurice MooreBetty. Forgive me, I can’t resist this pun: you might remember that last time I wrote about Betty Crocker, this time it’s “MooreBetty.” Is that a laugh or a boo I hear? The late Mr. Moore-Betty had a cooking school in his elegant New York City townhouse.

He was British, with a posh accent that was a joy to hear, and a good sense of humor.

Here’s his excellent first course or, as he would call it, a starter.

So, I Asked a Friend…

Indian River Tomato Consommé

…to proofread this story. After reading it he turned to me and said “Heck, this is

This was part of an Indian-inspired meal, although I think the title refers to

the fruit land of Florida, and you can see how nicely this light dish might precede vegetable curry. By the way, chefs in the book were asked to calculate the cost of the meal. You’ll be shocked. The total cost of the meal for six was $8.50. Again, this was 1975.

1 (1-pound) can Italian plum tomatoes with basil (I like Muir Glenn or Cento’s San Marzano) 1 carrot, shredded ½ medium onion, peeled and chopped 1 bay leaf Rind of one lemon, grated (I use a MicroPlane) 6 peppercorns 3 c. clear chicken consommé 2 Tbsp. sugar ½ cup dry white vermouth Salt to taste and freshly ground pepper (pref. white) Rind of 1 orange Juice of 1 orange 2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian (best) parsley Crush tomatoes with your hands and add, with juices, the carrot, the onion, bay leaf, lemon rind, and peppercorns to a heavy 2-3-quart pan. Bring to a boil. Simmer very gently for 8 minutes.

Strain carefully into a mixing bowl. Rinse the pot and return the tomato and liquid to it, then add the chicken consommé. Put over moderate heat and add the sugar and vermouth. Continue heating almost to the boiling point, then season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Proceed carefully as the soup can suddenly become very hot.

Meanwhile, peel the orange very carefully, avoiding the white pith. Cut the peel into very thin strips half an inch long. Put the peel aside to be used as a garnish. Squeeze the orange, adding the juice to the soup and reheat very gently.

Ladle the soup into bowls or soup plates and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and the orange rind.

This soup may be served hot or cold. The recipe serves 6 to 8, but it is always a hit, so I often doubled it and used the leftovers (if any) chilled next day in a Bloody Mary. Wow! Two-Cheese Soufflé Here’s another recipe from the book. This was a menu devised by my old friend the late Barbara Kafka. And, as this book was devised to teach, the directions are clear, so you’ll be a serious soufflé maker in no time. You can try one out on your family before you present one to guests. And, though you won’t find this tip in the book, I’ll let you know what to do if your soufflé falls. There, my secret is no longer.

1 tsp. plus 4 Tbsps. unsalted butter, room temp.

5-ounce wedge imported (preferably) or domestic Parmesan cheese (I’d try for Parmigiana-Reggiano) 5 ounces Tillamook, Jarlsberg, or Gruyere ½ c. flour 1 c. whole milk Small pinch cayenne pepper (or dash of Tabasco) 7 eggs, separated (try breaking eggs in your hand, let the whites drip through your fingers, and don’t let any yolk sully the whites) This recipe is for a 3-quart glass souffle dish. The book advises that if you are using porcelain, add 7 minutes to the cooking time.

Prepare it just before your guests arrive, at room temperature, and See Skinny on page 32

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Skinny continued from page 31

pop it into the center of your oven preheated to 375 degrees as you sit down for the soup course. Note that to diffuse the heat put a heavy baking sheet pan on the shelf that will hold the souffle dish.

To put a collar around the soufflé dish, cut a 30-inch length of regular wax paper. Double it over its length to make a long narrow strip. Wrap it tightly around the dish allowing half of it to stick up over the rim of the dish. Tape it in place; then tie a piece of cotton kitchen string one inch down from the top. (The tape won’t hold in the oven, but it will hold the wax paper and let you knot the string without a fight! This is a brilliant Kafkaesque touch.)

With 1 teaspoon of the butter, grease the inside and the wax paper. Grate the cheeses and mix them together.

In the top insert of a double boiler, put 4 tablespoons butter.

(As for this double whatchamacallit pan, check grannie’s stash, beg, borrow, or…) Place water in the bottom pan to a level so the insert remains just above the simmering (never boiling) water.

Add the top portion of the pan and melt the butter, then add the flour, stirring with a rubber spatula to make a smooth paste. Cook for 5 minutes, adjusting the heat if necessary.

I found it’s a clever trick to preheat the milk in a measuring cup (Pyrex, of course, in a microwave just to take the chill off.) Slowly add the milk to the butter/flour mixture, stirring constantly. If you have any trouble with lumps (in the pan, silly) remove the top portion and, as Mr. Moore-Betty says, “beat like crazy with a whisk.” Put the dish back on the base and continue to cook, stirring all the while, until smooth and thick. Add cayenne pepper. Remove from heat.

While cooling, beat the egg yolks until very thick (the color will pale). Mix yolks and cheese with the milk/flour mixture. Wash beaters with soap and water; rinse and dry well. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until they are stiff but not dry. Fold the whites into the cheese mixture one-third at a time. Each addition of egg whites can be a little less well mixed in than the one before. Pour mixture into the prepared soufflé dish. A short wait needn’t be a problem. When ready (see above) place the dish on top of the flat, heated baking pan. Bake for 40 minutes. Serve immediately.

Remember the line: “you wait for the soufflé, the soufflé waits for no one.”

Okay, you got me. I did have a failure once when the inflated dish I took from the oven fell down on the job. Who knows why?

If that should happen to you, quickly grab 6-10 slices of whatever bread you have on hand. Remove the crusts, cut in half on the diagonal, place on that already heated baking dish/cookie sheet, and run into the oven (still warm I hope). Bake until you have lightly toasted “points.” It won’t take very long.

Place on plates and spoon some of the fallen masterpiece in the center. Say not a word. It’s your very own dish. Strew chopped parsley over the top and perhaps serve with halved cherry tomatoes sautéed earlier in olive oil. Or maybe pitted and sliced black olives. It always helps to have lots of chopped parsley on hand when you cook. It’s got great flavor and really covers up most non-dessert mistakes.

Chef, teacher, author, and award-winning columnist Cornelius O’Donnell lives in Horseheads, New York.

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B A C K O F T H E M O U N TA I N

Faded Glory

By Bernadette Chiaramonte

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ovember is known for the calm before December’s storm. I found this scene at the connecting channel between Ives Run and Hammond Lake to be alive with contrasts and the colors of a lingering fall.

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