By Blanche Bowers, July 26, 2017 — I had a camp down by the Allegheny River in Tionesta, and I always took the grandchildren down with me. They would be sitting on their little front porch holding onto their little suitcases, and then I would pull up, they would get in the car and we were off. There was a little island by the camp, and the deer would come there, and they wanted to feed the deer. Well, they let the water out of the Tionesta Dam, and my little grandson was marooned on the island. I panicked because the water was coming up and he was out there. We did get him safely to shore, and that ended that — being able to feed the deer! It felt like it was forever, but it was only about 10 minutes or so. The water was going on to the other side of the dam, so I had enough time to run out there to the island and get him back. He was about 10 or 12 years old. I had a trailer for 20 years or more. That was the ritual, when I pulled up on Friday, they were sitting there waiting with their little baggage. We’d go on a Friday and come back on a Sunday night. I loved having them. I had a boy and a girl, they are both gone now. But they each had two children.
