On July 20, Mike Stevens, whose "On the Road" pieces have been features on WNEP-TV 16 for over thirty years, was the guest of the Troy Summer Speaker Series. His presentation was given in the Troy Memorial Auditorium. Sam Antes of the Summer Speaker Series Committee said he was "the crazy college kid who thought it would be a good idea to have a Summer Speaker Series." |
He welcomed the audience and thanked the sponsors of the Summer Speaker Series: Chesapeake Energy, 1110 West Main Street; Troy Rotary, Bradford County Regional Arts Council, Morse's Orchard, First Citizens Community Bank, and Anthony's Bar & Grill. He also thanked the other committee members, Mindy Davison, Haley Fitzwater, Matt Geer, Linda Nickerson, Pat Rogers, Garry Zuber and Sandi Jones.
Mr. Stevens was seated on the stage as Mr. Antes gave the introduction, and when Mr. Antes announced, "We have a great speaker tonight,", Mr. Stevens set the tone for tonight's event by pawing through the curtains, playfully looking for the "great speaker."
Mr. Antes also told the audience about last week's event, which honored four people for their service to the Troy community, and again said the reason for community involvement was, as in the Garth Brooks song title, "People Lovin' People." Mr. Antes said, "If we love people and accept people, it would be a wonderful thing for our community and the world."
He also invited the audience to the next event in the Summer Speaker Series, author Tom Baker, a member of the Allegheny County council and President of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Pennsylvania State Association, who will speak on August 20.
Noting that Mr. Stevens had signed some autographs prior to tonight's event, Mr. Antes said, "Mike has trumped me as the most popular person in the room!" Mr. Stevens was introduced to a nice round of applause, and began by saying, "I couldn't find the really neat guest speaker, so I will fill in until we find him."
He said that his trip up Route 6 to Troy was "a great ride." "I wanted my wife to come up, but when I told her what the topic would be, she said, "Nah!" Mrs. Stevens is a nurse, and a few years back had one particularly busy and trying day, working long hours with no breaks. She had to wolf down her lunch and was busy all day, then came home and did chores there as well. When Mr. Stevens arrived she asked him how his day was. "I was so busy. I went to Sheldon's but the sticky buns weren't ready so I sat around there for a while, then went to the place where they were making donuts. On the way home I stopped at Sheldon's again and the pies were just cool enough to cut…how was your day?" With Mr. Stevens' dead-pan delivery and his laid back style, the audience was laughing all through this story. His entire program was very lighthearted, humorous and entertaining, and the audience loved it.
He said he began working for Channel 16 in 1975 and for a few years had the "murder, mayhem and mishap" beat. "Every bad thing, I went to. About 1978 the News Director called me to his office and said he wanted me to do a series "On The Pennsylvania Road." I asked, "What do I do?" The news director replied, "We're not sure, but we want you to do it three times a week."
"I had no idea what we were going to do," Mr. Stevens told the audience. "We got a van and started driving around the countryside. You could see the van a mile away. I went door-to-door trying to find someone to do a story on."
"I wound up at a gas station in a little town and was having a coke. The lady there said, "You should go across the street and see George. He is the weather forecasting farmer."
So across the street Mr. Stevens went and met George, who told him, "I have this weather forecasting down to a science." So they arranged to meet three days later for the story.
Here Mr. Stevens interjected that in those days, before digital or video tape, the program was filmed, and film cost 33¢ per foot to buy and process. The reporter learned to hear the "click" of each foot of film and could thus gauge the timing of the interview.
"We began the segment sitting on his porch and I asked him, "How about telling me a little about this weather forecasting thing?" George began, and slowly related his story, and Mr. Stevens could detect the "click" between every word. Then George stopped and said, "Do you hear that cricket? That cricket chirped fourteen times," - he counted it." "Then it chirped again, and he counted fourteen times." In an aside to the audience, Mr. Stevens said, "There were hundreds of crickets under the porch. How he could hear only that one…anyway, George said, "He chirped fourteen times. That means it will rain tomorrow." Mr. Stevens was both amazed and skeptical, and asked George if he was sure. "Don't know for sure, But it's happened enough there ought to be some truth in it." Then George said, "See those blackbirds on that wire? That means it will be clear tomorrow night." Mr. Stevens asked, "are you sure," and George replied, "Don't know for sure, But it's happened enough there ought to be some truth in it."
Over the years George and Mr. Stevens became very strong friends.
"It's been my very good fortune to travel the Pennsylvania Road," Mr. Stevens told the audience, "And to have people tell us their stories; to be kind enough and good enough to tell us. Some have been outrageously funny, some very sad."
Mr. Stevens' next story also was a funny one, about the Tobacco-Spitting Contest at the Lumbermen's Museum in Galeton. "This is why my wife didn't come tonight," he joked. He said, "It seems that the guys sitting around in lumber camps dreamed up contests and one of them was tobacco spitting. They set up a stove in the middle of a field, got it going really hot, and spit at it. In order to score, you had to make the spit sizzle. One lady made it eleven feet until she dropped out. The guy who won hit it from eighteen feet away. I interviewed the guy and asked him "How do you practice?'" He said, "I get a sack of peanuts and throw them around and spit at the squirrels that come to get the peanuts!" This provoked loud laughter from the audience.
His next story was about the "Chicken Flying Competition" which was held at a small airport. Mr. Stevens described the stacks of cages, with a judge who weighed, numbered and tagged each chicken, and returned it to its cage until it was time to fly. When it came time for the contest, the "flight attendant" would place a chicken under his arm and scale a ten foot ladder, then place the chicken in the "lift-off chamber," which was a rural mailbox with no door or back end, and then would use a "launching device," ( a plunger) - "ka-pow! The chicken would go out, flapping its wings." He said the winner was a Plymouth Rock - "fittingly" for the way it flew.
Next Mr. Stevens related, "If something is made, someone collects it. Salt & Pepper shakers, Walt Disney items, Keychains, etc. This guy in Mansfield collected bird cages."
I asked him, "Birdcages are unusual. How did you become interested in them?" The man replied, "My wife passed on and I had nothing to do. Thought I would go crazy. It occurred to me that there are bird cages at almost every yard sale, so I started in buying them."
At this point, Mr. Stevens related his own yard sale experience, when his wife set up a yard sale and then went to work. "Some item was marked 50¢. A guy said, "I'll give you a quarter for it." So I sold it. This went on all day, Items that cost us $7 sold for a quarter. My wife asked, "How much money did you make?" I answered, "Almost nothing. I gave almost all of it away."
"Back to the story. This man had filled two floors with bird cages. Some were painted others decorated. I was ready to wrap up the story and the man said, "Would you like to see what I have in the attic?" So we went up there, and he had 200 casserole holders, hanging in the attic like silver bats." "Years later, we started doing a few "Wonder What Happened To?" stories. I got in touch with the man, and he told me, "I have more birdcages than you can shake a stick at." He had more cages, and more casserole holders, and now also had added casserole dishes and rolling pins. He decided that no one used rolling pins any more and said he said he was going to corner the market on rolling pins. He has passed on but he stays in my memory."
He said that "nowadays it is not as easy to find a character. Also people don't want to say anything unless it is politically correct; they are afraid to be sued or afraid to offend someone." He said if the On The Road" series began today, "You won't find enough characters. In those days it fed on itself. Someone would see a story and call us with another one."
One of Mr. Stevens' most hilarious stories involved another call. "This man called and said he had a special ground-breaking story that will rock the country." I tried to steer him to one of our reporters, but he told me "You are the only guy who could proper justice to the story."
Mr. Stevens then revealed the man's story. "He had invented and manufactured "The Gypsy Moth Killing Machine." For $29.95 plus shipping and handling and sales tax, Mr. Stevens bought one and brought it to tonight's event.
"This will eliminate the gypsy moth where it exists," the man said. Mr. Stevens removed the item from its sack and demonstrated how it worked. He turned the handle of the wooden contraption, which moved a piston against a piece of wood. The man said, "What you do, is get a gypsy moth, drop it in the hole, then crank it - see how this is going - the gypsy moth is done for. It can't escape." Mr. Stevens had the audience roaring with laughter as he told this story and demonstrated how the machine functioned.
"The man also told me that if I had one and my neighbor didn't I could offer to kill his gypsy moths for a penny a piece. "You'll make money hand over fist," he told me. "It didn't work." The audience thought this was a hilarious story, made even more entertaining by the way Mr. Stevens delivered it.
In closing, Mr. Stevens said, "The Pennsylvania Road has been a fun experience. I've done hundreds of stories and traveled thousands of miles, meeting interesting people doing interesting things." He said there is not much better you can do than sit on the porch, shooting the breeze on a hot day. We are all too much in a hurry. A front porch is a great place to sit, holding a glass of iced tea."
Mr. Stevens thanked the audience, and Mr. Antes noted that. as a landscaper who gets paid by the hour, the gypsy moth killing machine " looks cool."
Mr. Stevens mingled with the audience after his talk concluded.