Remembering The Beach
Here are some excerpts of a communiqué received August 2, 2006 via Mutant Mail from a former Bradfordian. His account of historical facts is suspect however.
PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author alone, and do not represent the official positions of the Mutant Beach Preservation Society. These articles have been included for archival purposes.
Howdy there folks!
I grew up in Bradford and was around when the beach was being built.
There was supposed to be a monorail from South Center out to the Beach and there was to be a continual concert on the banks by Earl Scruggs and the Poindexter Review. There also was to be a figure eight shopping cart race track in the field over thar' but Sal's took all their carts back. I guess Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" began to have money problems and the master project was shelved about then.
Goddamned political correctness! I suppose some do-gooder at Pitt had a class field trip down to the Beach and made them erase "the shark". Now our cultural icon is never the same as it was.
[MBPS NOTE: We had forgotten about the shark! If anyone has a photo PLEASE send it to us]
I can't laugh too hard. I taught my son how to swim there a bit and race his "big wheel" down the slope into the water. (I'm guilty as hell.) He still says, "Thanks Dad, for all the wonderful times we spent at the Beach. You're an awfully nice Dad".
If the place stays intact, it should make the National Historic Register in about twenty years, heh? (Not without the big fish though). Someone should contact the Mutant Beach Society Activities Director and see if the big fish can't be put back up where it belongs for all the world to see. Christ, it's like the Pennsylvania Riviera! Can you see it?...Valley Forge, Liberty Hall, The Juniata Canal, Fort Pitt, Hannahstown, Fort LeBoef, Presque Isle, and then down to Mutant Beach to wrap it all up. What a Pennsylvania's Wonderland vacation! Somebody tell Rendell he has a goldmine and he doesn't know it.
Former Bradfordian and an original true Mutant Beach aficionado.
SL
SL also provided an interesting look a Segoyewatha (Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha ), a Seneca chief known as Red Jacket (1750-1830) because he wore a red coat supplied to him by the British during the American Revolution. He was known as an intelligent man that had great public speaking skills.
Hundreds of years before Mutant Beach was built by the Corps of Engineers, Red Jacket (Sagoyewatha) had this column erected near the Mutant Beach site where he made his famous speech........................"When I am gone and my warnings are no longer heeded, the craft and avarice of the white man will prevail, and we will lose our Mutant Beach. My heart fails me when I think of my bathing people, so soon to be scattered and forgotten........", and Cornplanter said, "to hell with this, I'm headed to Oriskany for a fight....".
The column was bulldozed to make way for the Bennett Brook Mini-Mutant Beach, just downstream on the North side, where it joins the Tunagawant via a similar spillway. It too, has seen swimmers and bathers, although to a much lesser degree. It was mainly used as a sacrificial site for Brookline Court toy Tonka trucks prior to the coming of the white man. (hence the name "Minitonka Beach") It is a far more "sacred" site than the big spillway; having seen much ritual sacrifice.
SL, make sure that you visit Mutant Beach on your next trip to Bradford and get your photo taken for inclusion in the Mutant Beach Surf Club
© 2006 MBPS
