For your reading enjoyment, we continue to publish Rambling Vines by the late Marylea Vines as she re-calls events and names of Corning folks from many years ago. We are currently in the year 1992

Well, that old groundhog saw his shadow, Sunday, meaning that we are liable to be in for six more week of Winter. But, if what we have been having so far is Winter, who cares?

I got two seed catalogs in the mail last week. I enjoy looking at them to see what I would have fun raising if I lived on a farm… stuff like spaghetti squash, ornamental gourds, blue potatoes. Remember when the arrival of seed catalogs and the chirping of newly-shippedin baby chicks at the Post Office would herald the arrival of Spring. My neighbor’s old forsythia bush is the first sign of Spring around our places but there is one thing wrong… those delicate little yellow flowers always get encased in ice because they show up too soon! I keep watching for jonquil blooms over at the old Fred Rogers house, Fourth and Vine streets. The jonquils all along the South side of the big block house are nearly always the first in town and have been known to get snowed on.

What’s with all this static electricity? I get shocked every time I turn a light on or off, mess with the television or the furnace thermostat. The other morning while getting ready for work, there was so much electricity that I couldn’t comb my hair… every time I would get near it with the comb, all my hair went in that direction. I finally gave up, dampened my hands, sort of patted around on my head and forgot about combing it… the way the winds are blowing these days, a comb job hardly lasts five minutes anyway. After all, I’m not hired out as a model, you know. My sister used to dampen my hair while getting “prettied up” for a picture. Every year at Easter time she made pictures. First there would be a group of the three Hardesty girls, my brother and me, then one of just Sally and me sitting beside each other on the same stool, in front of the same old fire bush. That’s when she would dampen our bangs and more or less glue them to our foreheads. Back when cars didn’t have air-conditioners, it was pretty much of a chore trying to keep youngsters looking decent long enough to take them anywhere… the car windows would be lowered blowing hair every which way. If we were going somewhere like a funeral or something, I had to travel there in my underwear so I wouldn’t wrinkle my starched dress. As we neared our destination, they would start trying to make me look presentable… I hated those old wide sashes that tied in a bow at the back. My hair would be combed with a bow fastened in and here would come the part I always dreaded the most, my sister would spit on the corner of her handkerchief and give me a spit bath around the mouth. And all this time mama was reminding me, “If you ask for something to eat, I am going to set you afire, do you understand that?” I still don’t know why I did that, we always had plenty to eat at home, but invariably I would get somewhere and start whining about being hungry.

Dorothy Joyce of Peace Orchard informs that Daylight Savings Time starts April 5, 1992, and ends October 25, 1992. Thank you for clearing that up for up… I was hoping for the first weekend in April!

I was over to one of the schools the other day and couldn’t help but notice that at least two out of every five youngsters had their shoelaces untied… just a flopping all around as they walked. I don’t think it’s because they don’t know how to tie their shoes, I blame it on the materials used to make some of today’s shoelaces plus the fact that youngsters don’t really care how they look, so long as they look like everyone else.

I took in the annual Corning District Spelling Bee last Friday and, as usual, enjoyed it. We have some good spellers and the three who are going to represent the district at the County Spelling Bee need encouragement… let’s let them know that we are proud of them. Who knows, we may send someone on to Washington to the National Bee one of these days.

This following comes to us via a newspaper clipping from Arlie Taylor, life-long resident of Corning area: The Great Depression There once was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs. He was hard of hearing so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes so he read no newspapers.

But he sold good hot dogs. He was firm believer in advertising so he put up signs along the highway advertising the merits of his hot dogs, and he stood by the side of the road and cried “Buy a hot dog, mister!”

And people bought. They bought so much, in fact, that he increased his meat and bun order. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade. Finally, business being so good, he brought his sone home from the city to help him.

Then something happened. His son said, “Father haven’t you been listening to the radio? Haven’t you been reading the newspapers? There is a big depression on. The European situation is worse. Everything is going to pot.” Whereupon the father thought: “Well, my son is a college graduate. He has lived in the city with big businessmen. He reads the papers and listens to the radio. He ought to know.”

So, the father cut down on his meat and bun orders, curtailed advertising, and no longer bothered to stand by the highway and call out his wares. His sales fell off almost overnight. He said to his boy: “You were right, son… we certainly are in the middle of a great depression.”