Dinner time approaches

A reminder to all, though if you're reading this blog you're probably already well aware: The Alumni dinner is next Saturday.

And if you run into a parent of one of CLVCS' baseball players from this past season at the dinner or one of the reunions, say congratulations. The team was ranked No. 20 in the state.

The invitations are out

The invitations for this year's dinner have been mailed and if you're reading this blog, you've probably received one.

If you haven't gotten your invitation, click here and you can get a copy of this year's form to download and print out. Mail it with your check (and please pay your dues!) to:

Little Valley Alumni Association
P.O. Box 162
Little Valley, N.Y. 14755-0162

You can also download and read this year's Alumni invitation if you click here.

As for the important details.

The date: June 28.

The place: The corporate building at the Fair Grounds.

The time: 5 p.m. ET for the social hour. Dinner starts at 6 p.m. Good seats do go quickly, though. It pays to get there by 5:30.

On the menu: Top Sirloin Al-Forne, Chicken Pesto Cream, or Vegetable Stir-Fry. (The beef dinner is $19; the other two are $18 each.)

It was nice of the board members to mention this blog on the invitations, though they perhaps overstated a bit by calling this a website.

May we recommend that if you're coming to this blog for the first time, you might want to click on this link to see the original post? It explains what this LVCS Alumni blog is all about.

Then, when you're done reading that entry, just click on the name of the blog at the top of the page and you'll return to its main page. You can scroll down through the others posts, then.

A couple other notes:

- Thank you, Kirk Skinner and Linda Milks, for sending along some messages. Kirk's comment is now published here. Linda sent along a thank you for "moving us to the 21st Century" with this blog.

- Gretchen Taft wants everyone to know that the Village Library is open "10-4:30 and 6-8 on Monday and Tuesday now. Also, our e-mail is memliblv@atlanticbb.net."

- The Jamestown Post-Journal reports that donations are being collected at the Cattaraugus County Bank on Main Street to help Ann Howard of Dutch Hill Road. The newspaper writes that she "lost 75 years worth of possessions — her car, family heirlooms, the family bible and her cat" in a fire.

As for this blog, comments, questions, news and suggestions are more than welcome!

See you all soon.

Breaking news: McIntosh hired as superintendent for Rensselaer County school district

"Louis C. McIntosh Jr., who has spent the past 11 years working as superintendent at a western New York school district, has been named the new Superintendent of Brunswick Central School District," the Albany Times Union reports this morning.

That "western New York school district" would be Cattaraugus-Little Valley Central.

The TU adds that:

"McIntosh has been a superintendent at the Cattaraugus-Little Valley Central School District for the past 11 years. The district, about an hour south of Buffalo, is about the same size as Brunswick with 1,030 students and an $18.5 million budget."

News from President Andrew: The date is set & the trophies are back!

"This year's banquet will be held on June 28 at the Corporate building as usual," Alumni Associated President Kevin Andrew says in an e-mail he sent me this weekend.

According to Kevin: "We have been busy in the planning stages and everything is coming along pretty much on schedule."

Kevin also reports that he and other alumni officers have "some time in the Alumni room at the Village hall and we are hoping to have it open to the public sometime in May. Karen Taft and I have retrieved all of the LVCS trophies from Cattaraugus school and have them back in L.V."

For those who plan ahead: Graduation is June 27

Don't say you weren't told:

The CLVCS graduation date is June 27, which means the Alumni Dinner should be the next evening.

A postcard from the past

While wandering through a huge flea market today in Chantilly, Va., this blogger came across a couple selling vintage postcards. They had a large section devoted to New York state -- and a subsection within that for Cattaraugus County.

"You don't have any cards from Little Valley?" I asked.

"I certainly do," the woman replied.

"You don't," I cleverly sputtered.

"I do. I have a very nice twin set," she said, pulling out a binder from behind the counter.

Sure enough, she had a wonderful panoramic scene -- it appears to be two postcards connected to each other -- showing L.V. from up above on what we in the 400 block of Fair Oaks Street used to call "the hill" (the one that rises above where Bush Industries' factory has been).

She had picked it up at some other flea market or a yard sale sometime in the past.

So of course, I bought it.

I'll get it scanned in for a better look, but this camera shot will give you a rough idea of what it shows.

I can easily pick out the fair grounds and Fair Oaks Street. The Memmott homestead is obscured by those great Elm trees that used to line the street. The school building -- before the addition was put on in the '50s, I think -- is to the right.

On the back is a message, written to a Mr. & Mrs. William "Noy" or "Hoy" (I can't be sure) at 648 1/2 Roscoe, Chicago. The postmark says it left L.V. at 10 a.m. on Feb. 3, 1947. Here's what the sender writes:

Dear Bill & Marion,

We are here to visit Marjorie & Milton's (I think it says Milton) summer home. It sure is lovely and what a view. I think dad is coming tonite (sic) to spend Sunday. Will see you either Monday or Tuesday.

Mother.

A couple questions:

- Does anyone have an idea who these people were? Or who they might be, I suppose, since Bill & Marion could have been children at the time and "mother" might have been a young women in 1947.

- Does anyone have a theory on why someone would visit a summer home in February?

One other note: The postcard says it was "published by McLouth's Drug Store, Little Valley, N.Y." That's before my time. Who remembers it?

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."