Through An 'Old Timer's' Eyes
By Howard 'Mac' McDonald

The other night as I sat on the back porch sipping a glass of iced tea, I was thinking about the things in my life that have disappeared forever.

Both my father's family and my mother's families have completely died off; that is except for my brother, sister and I. I have often commented to my wife that we could have a family reunion in a phone booth. As I sat pondering the situation even my ice cubes disappeared.

When I came here in 1971, this was a very active community. As I drove by the old Market Basket today, I was jolted by the fact that it is another object that is going to vanish. I don't think the "tree huggers" and all the different watch dog organizations that the government has forced on us is one bit concerned.

Today is Wednesday and believe it or not there is still a few places that close at noon. I remember when Wednesday was camp day and everything came to a halt. The afternoon was a very relaxing respite from the every day humdrum. Even this Cameron County tradition has disappeared. The people at AST can't go to the Rotary Picnic because they have some people coming in for an audit. When I was the manager at the Emporium Arms and if the HUD auditors arrived on Rotary Picnic Day, I took them to the Picnic.

There are a lot of things that would make this a better world if they would disappear. That terrible war that this administration created in Iraq would be one. Think what a wonderful place this would be if cancer was wiped out.

Our hotels have vanished. I am referring to hotels, not motels. The Best Hotel By A Dam Site is the Lake Side across the road from the entrance to Sinnemahoning State Park. To the best of my knowledge, it is the only hotel left in the county.

There use to be a trip that alot of guys use to take and it was called going Around the Horn. You started out in Emporium and went east touching all the watering holes till you got to Sinnemahoning. At the intersection of 872 and 120 you turned left and went to Warton, Costello, Austin, Keating Summit and on to Sizerville and then Emporium.

Sometimes the route was reversed but no matter which way you went, you had to be a tough Jose. On the reverse route in times gone by, after you left the Lake, the next hotel you came to was the Wycoff Hotel. The wycoff set some where near where the Willows is now. I don't know the year that it met its demise.

In Driftwood, next to Calahan's Store was the ever famous Commercial Hotel. I had been there a couple of times and the main attraction in the bar was the trough that had a constant flow of water running in it. This trough was supposed to be for the tobacco chewing customer to use instead of the old nasty spittoon. Some of the bar flies who didn't want to get up to get rid of the beer they had drank would relieve them selves in the trough.

Next port of call was Sterling Run. According to my friend Ted Whiting, who spent his young life in this hamlet, he says there were three hotels located there. Several other people remember the building that housed the Post Office and they claim that it was also a hotel. Must of been a prosperous town in its hay day.

Just up the road a short distance we can stop at the Cameron Hotel. This sturdy old building is still standing and the ghost of many a hunter probably still wanders its bar room. A land mark of years gone by, it stands like a giant grave marker.

Emporium is described in Webster's New Seventh Collegiate Dictionary as a business hub that carries on trade and traffic. There is alot of people who know more of Emporium's history than I do. Maybe the mention of the hotels here will jog their memories.

Starting on the East end of town the first hotel we would have encountered was the Ponderosa. Who could forget the good breakfast and lunch meals put out by Annie Guisto and her girls at the Cresent Hotel?

Before Charlie and Pearl took over the building that is now Charlie's Friendly Tavern, it was a Hotel that took in rail road workers. In fact Pearl and Barb both told me that the old bunk beds are still there on the third floor.

If you stop there for supper some night, sent in the round booth in the bar room. This booth is an original booth from the Warner Hotel. On the wall in the bar room is a menu from the Warner Hotel that gives the bill of fare for Mother's day 1933 and the special Mother's day dinner cost a whopping $1.35. This building was built in 1842 and is probably the oldest in town.

Charlie Boswell and ALbert T. were the owners and keepers of The American Hotel. You could get a tale of hunting or a cold beer there. I remember the cold windy day that it caught fire and I thought that under these conditions it would burn to the ground. The ever present fire company put it out in record time. I believe Mick Gennocro was the owner.

Across the street from the American was the St. Charles Hotel. It was located some where in the vicinity of the Dollar General or Olivett's Market. I do not know who owned it or who ran it. I just know that it disappeared.

The Dolan Hotel was the place to go after a CCHS basketball game. One of their supersized hamburgers and fries was just what you needed to calm you down. The beer was good too. I can still see Mr. Minor cutting hair in the front window. Butch, Laura ad their establishment are gone, but not forgotten.

Bea Behr's (not sure of the spelling) Commercial Hotel was not the largest of hotels but it was a good one. Twenty four hours a day she was a lady but could handle a rowdy bar room crowd with ease. Like the others, it is just a memory.

The grandest of the grandest, The Warner Hotel, boasted a fine dining room and a first class bar and was known far and wide for its steaks and prime rib. After Charlie Vogt's mother and dad gave it up it had several owners. It was demolished to make room for a service station. An era that has passed into oblivion.

The village of Truman was graced with a hotel. Gratty's hotel burned to the ground and was never rebuilt. On the back road in Sizerville stood the Portage Hotel. It suffered the same fate as Gratty's.

How long will it be before Cameron County becomes extinct? Our airport is gone and the rail line from Emporium to Erie has been abolished. Whole civilizations have disappeared and if we don't get things settled down, don't be too sure that we won't show up among the missing.