An L.V. man who's a man of few words

"They're what?"

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that's what "Tim Skudlarek, an 18-year-old freshman from Little Valley, N.Y.," had to say when asked about the "green" dorms that have been built at California University of Pennsylvania.

The digs aren't only energy efficient (thanks to the use of geothermal energy). They also sound pretty nice. Particularly this feature: "No student shares a shower or toilet with more than three other classmates; most share with only one other person."

Kudos for Hugh Duckwall

This blogger remembers Hugh Duckwall as an elementary school teacher and volleyball coach.

Jim Riggs, sports editor at The Post-Journal in Jamestown, remembers him as a football coach who did the right thing by his players. Check this column by Riggs, who says Mr. Duckwall always called to talk about LV's games -- so that the team's players would get some recognition, even when they weren't winning.

By the way, this blogger's first "professional" reporting job was calling the Post-Journal with the box scores from LVCS baseball games. The pay: 50 cents a game.

Not the kind of story you might want L.V. to be known for

Newsday thought this Associated Press story was noteworthy:

LITTLE VALLEY, N.Y. (AP) -- Two cows and a horse were killed in separate collisions with vehicles on western New York roads.

Seems to us that odder things happen on Long Island's streets and expressways all the time.

L.V. waaaaaaay down under

Here's another Little Valley that's not our Little Valley but is still a Little Valley none-the-less.

Little Valley farm in South Otago, New Zealand.

It appears they have a webcam going there. Right now, it's pointed at a bird feeder.

Coincidentally, given where your faithful blogger now lives (Fairfax County, Va.) the location was originally supposed to be called Fairfax.

Click here to see what else we've written about "Little Valley around the world."

Familiar names in Tuesday's primaries

As you'll see if you click on this link to the Salamanca Press, there appear to be at least two LVCS alumni on the ballots in Cattaraugus County's Democratic and Republican primaries this coming Tuesday: Norm Marsh, a Republican; and John Zimbardi, who the Press says is a Republican and a Democrat. The race they're in involves two seats on the county legislature.

(We must admit to being a bit confused -- and not just about which party John is hoping to represent: The Press says both Norm and John are incumbents, but the county's official website doesn't list John as being a member of the legislature right now. Could the media have made a mistake?)

Wait a minute! Akron looks more like Colorado than L.V.?

According to the Buffalo News, a Canadian film company doing a commercial decided to use Akron, N.Y., instead of Little Valley or Ellicottville as a backdrop that's supposed to look like Colorado. Go figure.

Hmm. Little Valley as a movie or TV setting. Perhaps the Buffalo Niagara Film Commission could be encouraged to keep on suggesting that.

Meanwhile, the opening game of the CLVCS football season didn't go so well from the CLVCS point of view: Maple Grove won 45-0.

Seen any Little Valley stuff out there?

With LVCS alumni spread further than we probably think, there are certainly enough eyes out there to spot interesting things that remind us all of the old home town and the old school.

Maybe it's the Little Valley Bistro in Sunol, Calif., which appears to be spinning off a Little Valley Winery (some bottles from there have already been spotted and made their way east). Or:
- The Little Valley Inn near Yosemite.
- The Little Valley Brewery in West Yorkshire, U.K.
- The Little Valley Candle Co.

Or maybe it's a license plate like this:



(OK, we cheated a bit. That license plate belongs to this blogger.)
If you spot anything LV-related, e-mail us here; memmottmark@yahoo.com.

Meanwhile, here's something interesting: The Glens Falls Post Star, in writing recently about the possibility that the Fort Edwards and Hudson Falls school districts might merge, notes that the most recent merger of two districts in New York State is the 2000 combination of Cattaraugus and Little Valley. The story (which you can read by clicking here) goes into considerable detail about the history and events since the new district was created, but seems to rely on one source -- Superintendent Louis McIntosh Jr.

Your Alumni officers

Update on Oct. 21, 2012:

Here's the current lineup of Alumni Association officers and board members:

President---- Kevin Andrew 716-628-8643
Secretary---- Nancy Paschen Shinners
Treasurer---- Susan Ellis Koch 716-938-6014
Address List------ Sherry Nichols Charlesworth 

Board members:
 Linda Bryant Milks
Karen Holtz Taft
Erin Taft
Nell Fellows

Our original post, from 2007

After a bit of a break, we've returned. Consider this the back-to-school relaunch of the LVCS Alumni Blog.

Today, we pass along the contact information for the Alumni officers:

Kevin Andrew, president,
& Annette Andrew, board member:
716-938-9725
kevina@atlanticbb.net

Susan Ellis Koch, treasurer:
716-938-6014

Diana Beckman Chinchen, secretary:
716-257-9808

Sherry Nichols Charlesworth
(contact her for the Alumni address list
and address updates):
716-938-6043

Karen Holtz Taft & Erin Taft,
board members:
716-938-6855

Nancy Paschen Shinners,
board member:
716-938-9458

Linda Bryant Milks,
board member:
716-938-6894

Share your Alumni Dinner photos

Brother Ed Memmott has posted 14 of photos from this year's Alumni Dinner and Ira Joe Fisher's poetry reading the next day.

There's one with this post. I think it was taken at one of the moments when Joey said (tongue firmly in cheek) "please, no more photos!"

Click here if you'd like to see some more.

And don't forget brother John Memmott's photo slideshow from the weekend. It's here, at his blog. Anyone else who wants to share photos can e-mail them to memmottmark@yahoo.com.

Introducing the LVCS Alumni blog

Welcome to LVCS Alumni -- a blog for Little Valley Central School District alumni, friends and family.

What is this? Well, it's a place where we hope you'll be able to read up on what's happening with the alumni association (and especially about the annual dinner).

This can be a site for linking to stories about LVCS alumni (such as this one in last week's Jamestown Post-Journal that ran before Ira Joe Fisher's much-enjoyed appearance at this year's dinner), and to what others have posted in their blogs (check out what brother John Memmott did with some of his photos). When you see words written in red, click on them and you should be connected to a related story, website or blog post. Tip: You'll have to hit your "back" button to return to this blog when you're done.

We also hope this will be a place where LVCS alumni can share tales of the good old days, begin planning reunions, look for long-lost classmates and display old photos. (I couldn't resist putting in a classic 1959 yearbook portrait of my dad right away.)

To start off, here's a guide to this blog and some suggestions on how to get the most out of it.

- First, if you've got a story to share, a question to ask, a person to look for or maybe a photo or two from days gone by at LVCS, e-mail them to me (Mark Memmott) at memmottmark@yahoo.com. It may take a few days or longer for me to get to them, but I'll try to be as timely as I can. Once I've had a chance to put them into the right format, I'll "post" them on the blog.

- As we go along, I'll create appropriate "labels" or "categories" for the entries (this entry, for instance, has been labeled "About this blog"). Any messages we post about class reunion plans might get the label "Class reunions." Messages sent to me from anyone looking for a long-lost classmate might get the label "Looking For." Notes about the annual dinner could all be labeled "Annual Dinner." You get the idea. The categories will all be listed on the "front" or "homepage" of the blog. So if you see a label that interests you, click on it to read all the entries about that topic.

- The latest news will always be right at the top of the blog's homepage. If you want to read back through previous entries, just scroll down. As the entries grow, older ones will be archived. Just click on the months that are listed along the side of the blog's homepage and you'll be able to read "back" through time.

- Each entry, or post, will have a place where you can add comments. Maybe someone has asked "whatever happened to so-and-so?" and you think you know the answer. Click on "comments" and add your thoughts. I'll look through the comments before they're "published" (to prevent annoying spam from getting through), so they won't appear right away. But hopefully within a few days -- or sooner -- they will be on the blog for all to see.

If things go well, over time this blog will surely change as folks make suggestions and as blogging technology evolves. Who knows, maybe we'll start linking to audio and video.

I expect things will be a bit slow here for a while because we really haven't spread the word about it yet. But if you like it, please tell others. As I was saying to President Andrew last week, this could be a wonderful resource for all of us. The blog really belongs to all LVCS alumni and we'd like as much input and involvement as possible.

That's it for now. Enjoy the blog. Please be in touch.