See what I mean about food?

A month ago, I wrote an article that mentioned a couple of former hired hands and that I was going to travel to New York to see one of them, so this is my travelogue. 

If you travel to the eastern U.S., you will find that food plays an important part in people’s lives there, and mine is no exception, so I wanted to revisit a joint in Wellsboro, N.Y., that sold Texas Red Hots. They are like a Coney Dog but with a lot of cinnamon in the sauce, which is like a chili sauce with finely ground meat and no beans.

Filling up at a gas station in a small town in northern Pennsylvania the guy at the next pump says. “Looks like you’re goin’ on a road trip.”

“Yep,” I said, “We are going to Wellsboro for a Coney Dog.”

His eyes brightened and he said, “Man, they’ve got good Coney Dogs in Pottsville, too!”

See what I mean about food?

After two Texas Red Hots with onion and a piece or two of pie in an old tall-backed wooden booth (the place had just celebrated 100 years) we made it to Dave’s place. We told him about the saga of the Texas Hots, and he countered by offering us White Hots, apparently a specialty of the New York Finger Lakes. They are like skinny bratwursts and delicious.

See what I mean about food?

Dave was raised in a foster home next door to where he now lives. He was made a ward of the court early on and was 4 when he was fostered out to the family who became Mom and Dad. He was placed there along with a 5-year-old who turned out to be his full brother. That’s where they met for the first time.

His brother, Jason, lives in Idaho. He and I have been friends for over 50 years.

After he left my employ, Dave was hired off the streets of Denver by an act with the Ringling Brothers’ Circus. For two years he lived and travelled on the circus train. The act consisted of horses prancing around the center ring of the Big Top with tigers that ran beside them and jumped on and off their backs. Dave was “cat wrangler”.

When the boss’s contract with Ringling expired he took his act (and Dave) by ship to South America for a year. Back in the States, Dave worked as a roustabout on the Texas oil rigs and then made his way back to New York to his foster parents’ place.

There was a pine grove on the property and his dad suggested he build a log cabin out of the trees, which he did, all very cozy and pleasant with wood heat and lots of books. The place is just magical whimsey.

He lives there with his lady-love of 30 years, a kind and beautiful Mohawk woman. From his living room window, he can look into the window of the eight-by-eight-foot bedroom next door where he and his brother grew up.

His dad gave him a seven-acre parcel and Dave has turned it into a park, with lots of Hosta plants. His only complaint is that since he is taking chemo for leukemia he is too tired to weed it.

On the way home I visited the family burial plot near Canadaigua, N.Y. All my male forbears in America are buried there, all named James, my father, grandfather, great-grandfather and their wives. I will stick with Trout Creek.

The last night out we stayed at a house that had been converted to a hotel along the upper reaches of the Delaware River, another wide, shallow river with the mist rising off it in the morning and the tendrils flowing in columns with the current.

Next to the hotel was an aqueduct that carried the Delaware and Hudson Canal over the river. It was built by the man who built the Brooklyn Bridge and carried canal boats loaded with coal from the Pennsylvania mines to New York City. It is now a one-lane road bridge.

The country was beautiful and the people outgoing and more than friendly.

Before I left Montana I got a call from Patrick Riley, the other hired hand I mentioned. He had been trying to get in touch with me and when looking me up on the internet came across the story I wrote about him and Dave. Serendipity.

That’s another road trip.

Montana Viewpoint has appeared in weekly and online newspapers across Montana for more than 30 years. Jim Elliott served 16 years in the Montana Legislature as a state representative and state senator. He lives on his ranch in Trout Creek.