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6) I nearly stepped on a large green snake in the grass when out looking for relief. The fireman laughed - "We had one up on the tank the other day, trainin' it. Had a bull frog up there with it too." Having found a black snake in one of the cups at Edinboro last week and now running on to this one, I was in for some kidding about the DT's.

7.) The job works the "Little Island" out in the Niagara River - lumber yards and International Paper Co. where we hauled out 10 cars of incipient Colliers - and Goose Island which is across the Barge Canal and isn't an island any more. On Goose Island are paper mills, a sewage disposal plant, etc but it is most famed as having once been the greatest bawdy house district around. It is full of boarded up houses but two still operate - one white with red trim, the other gray with green trim, and both having little lookout houses in front where the incoming patrons are examined as they come along. As we went by a house adjacent to one of them, the fireman pointed out a fat old woman hanging out clothes. "That's big tit Annie," he said. "She's an old timer around here - used to pinch hit for them Saturday nights when business was heavy." One of the houses is operated by "Snaperon Nellie."

8.) The bridge across the entrance to the Barge Canal to Goose Island is an old timer that rotates by man power. The two operators march around a sort of capstan in the middle of the bridge, which operates a pinon around a gear in the base. They have a rowboat always anchored to the central pier so if the bridge gets stuck open, the operators won't have to swim ashore.