The Sidney herald., 1956-09-27

gust column and the one l il
tend to write in Dallas
things go as they should. Their
fore I am afraid that today
Light Touch will be in the n;
ture of filler, as it is called
the trade. (You know, thing
like About nine-tenths of II
fish caught in Alaskan waters al
salmon; "SauSages will shrin
less if you boil them for eigf
minutes before frying" or eve
classified Want Ads Get Re
sultsl")
Anyhow my filler is going t
be about cities. Nothing as We
about Dallas, because as yet
know nothing about Dallas, bu
a little informal chitchat concern
ing a few cities with which | an
fairly familiar.
The first city that l lived in
and the one l lived in longest -
was Oil City, Pa. Oil City has
population of 10000, give or TAKE
a little, so technically it should
Mt be termed a city; however,
didn't name it and it is called
Oil City, so let's not bubble
Oil City is an old town, founded
l imagine (I'm using no refer
ence and this is anything but d
factual report) about a hundred
years ago. The first oil well was
drilled by E. L. Drake at Titus
vile in 1859; Oil City, a scant
fifteen miles away, lost no time
getting on the oil band wagon
and for many years it was a
boom town. The wells r still
pumping, but in that region to-
day they are what is known as
astripper'' wells - meaning they
are pumped for only a few hours
a week to save power and to give
the oil time to flow back into
the sand. This is common prac-
tice in the older oil fields and Is
very important now that the
world is trying to save its shrink
ing petroleum reserves. (That Is
a fact).
However, when / lived in Oil
City all the oil wells meant to
me was a certain familiar odor
and a nice regular squeak. ! was
far more interested IN the people,
the schools, and the movies. The
people are on the whole nice
people: there are many, many
old families from the time of the
boom; there are lots of newer
industrial families - of a more
transient nature - many of whom
work for such companies as j..
and L. or Oil Well Supply; and
there is quite a stable Polish
section on the North side. (Con-
trary to what most Texans think,
the people here r not Pennsyl-
vania Dutch, o do they eat ap-
pie strudel and do folk dancing
all day long. The Pennsylvania
Dutch are found in the middle
and eastern portions of the state;
Oil City is in the northwest).
When l was growing up, there
were five or six elementary
schools and at least two parochial
schools in Oil City. l attended
the elementary one in the West
End known as "Innis Street.,
and years later Dell enrolled as
first grader in the same school.
This pleased me enormously, but
it didn't seem to make much i'm
preston on Dell.
When i was small, there were
the Vanango and the Lyric the L
aires Con the North side of the
later a big movie house
called the Drake Tin honor of
was built on
the north side. Still later the
Latonia manned after the Lay
family was built on the south
side. They ran continuously -
except Sundays - and the ad-
mission was twenty cents a head, :
so everybody was happy.
In the summer there was a
lot of swimming and boating on
he river; in the winter there i
was plenty of shedding, ice skat- i
ng, and skiing. The YMCA had :
4 first rate cafeteria and there :
we're several good restaurants and
/ comfortable old fashioned hotel i
,alled the Arlington. They are :
Ill still there as a matter of fact.
The town is like most others; +
pretty in places and not-so-pretty =
n others. II is built Gas was /
on seven hills and the c
River divides it neatly ,
two. Taken all in all, it's a c
Iarn nice town for a kid to grow S
Ip In. !.
l see that I've exceeded my y
Vordage on merely one town, L
0 Cleveland, o., Syracuse, N. Y, d
nd Barranca-Bermeja, Colorado, /
viii have to wait their turn. v
l hope l never have to get Sam : =
eady for camp and me ready Il
a trip to Dallas simultaneously Is
gain. 1t will be a mercy if he a
oesn't wind up at Ceta Glen c
nth a suitcase full of mystery n
tories and ladies' underwear! "
It's a good thing we like Zin- t
las and petunias, since that's "
Il | can grow. Actually petunias &
engaging little flowers and "
lake pretty cut-flower bouquets;
ley keep pert and fresh twice ~
long as roses.