Our Annual Corning Visit

Corning, N.Y. always is a special place for Mary and I to visit.

She was born here in 19.. ... uhm ... many years ago! She has fond memories of her first 30 years in upstate New York including her collegiate career at Syracuse University. I first came to this town in 1988 as an eager news editor of a family owned, six-day, mostly P.M. newspaper. I left four years later as a hardened managing editor of a fully paginated, seven-day A.M. newspaper staffed by an incredible crew which took on an invading Gannett newspaper and stared the empire down.

The Leader is still the Corning newspaper though it has changed hands a few times and is now a corporate-owned product bereft of much personality - as well as staff-written news. The Star-Gazette of Elmira may have lost the battle way back then, but they appear to be winning the war now. That kinda hurts...

Mary's mom, Grace, is as delightful as always. We have a running battle about which channel is worst: QVC vs. Home Shopping Club. I maintain HSN is the best and we flip back and forth between channels extolling the virtues of whatever crap is on the screen to ridiculous heights. She is an extraordinary cook - it is clear where Mary gets her skills and love of cooking - and she is continually following us about with tantalizing food. I caught something of a cold earlier this week and on Friday night she made the most wonderful tortellini soup with leftover turkey.

I was told it was a turkey. It may have been a 11.5-pound rooster.

When not eating or coughing, we have been visiting. On Tuesday night, we visited the home of Mary's best friend from Corning Darcy, her husband Dave and their three great kids Rob, Mike and Jonathon. They are always great to visit and the reunion of Mary's mom with Darcy's dog Spot always sparks a funny memory.

When Spot was just a puppy, some nine years ago, Darcy and family visited Mary's mom. Knowing the dog would not be allowed inside the house, Dave had attached its leash to the first thing that caught his eye.

After a short visit, they all headed outside and Grace decided to open the garage door with the remote from inside the house. Arriving outside, they discovered the poor puppy swinging from its leash with Dave desperately trying to hold him higher and higher as the door raised so that Spot wouldn't choke!

Dave had attached poor, unsuspecting Spot to the garage door handle.

Spot was uninjured, but we always theorize he's just waiting for his chance to get even...

Wednesday we walked the length of downtown Market Street, now marketed as the Gaffer District. It always amazes us how you can tell the current state of this company town by the relative health of Market Street during our annual visits. Alas, there were about a dozen empty storefronts and a couple of stores en route to closing. Still, we love the street and the local atmosphere and I rank the Market Street Brewing Co. as one of my all-time favorite brew pubs - and I've been to a few from coast to coast.

Wednesday night we spent with our old friends Neil and Linda Hopp at the home of their daughter, Kelly, and husband, Todd. Neil first hired me in 1988 and I returned the favor and hired him to help take the Northwest Herald to new levels of greatness in 1996. Today, Neil is student media director at Central Michigan University hence we probably spent far too much time boring everyone discussing the current state of the media. He brings a great perspective in his role of challenging young minds.

Neil is just one of my all-time favorite people; one of those people you meet and instantly know he's authentic and classy and intelligent. He's that odd combination of mentor and friend. It was so good to see all of them again.

We gobbled down way too much turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc. on Thursday. Of course, dinner was followed by three - THREE! - pies. Yes, we each got our own pie... Our annual trip to see wonderful relatives in Pennsylvania was postponed by some freakishly ugly winter weather, Grace's ending and my emerging colds and the fact that three people each had his/her own pie.

This was also the first year that I didn't coerce everyone to head out to the stores before 5 a.m. mostly because of the above reasons, but also because Mary and I are already done with our Christmas shopping. We've made our lists and checked them twice, so be good for goodness sakes! You know who you are!

Saturday will feature another check on Market Street and a visit to Mary's godmother's house for dinner. It is an annual post-Thanksgiving feast of uber-gigantic proportions...

Sunday's stop: Canton, Ohio.

More later,


Mark