Shine On
I thought I’d share one day I had to myself when I visited a place I would visit around Christmastime to shop for gifts for my wife. I’d not visited for several years. It once was a Red & White store on Route 30 just west of Ligonier. After the store closed, it became an antique/flea market. It was a wonderful place to stroll through and take in all of the items from the past. Anything and everything gathered on the shelves. It was a marvelous building to wander through, trying to decide if it was something I wanted, needed, or could afford.
I climbed into my car and dreamed of exploring the store and browsing through the accumulated oddities. The trip through the gray drizzle did little to dampen my anticipation. When I got to the location the entire building was missing. It had been torn down. My heart fell. I turned around and drove back into Ligonier to satisfy another craving. I ate lunch at Ruthies, a small diner to the east of Ligonier on Route 30. I wasn’t disappointed. The food was great, but now Ruthies is gone too, claimed by fire.
I went home, deciding to rest and allow my food to digest. Feet up, I snapped on the television. The program Moonshiners popped up. It was a program I hadn’t seen before and watched it to the end. It did bring to my attention of an incident that happened years ago while Connellsville Senior High School. In chemistry class lab my lab partner and I were to do a distillation project. I knew that I had some elderberry juice that I concocted was still there in my parent’s basement smelling a bit yeasty. Perfect. I smuggled it into school and then into the classroom.
After setting up the Bunsen burner and the glass tubing necessry for the “distillery” I eased the lid off the jar and poured the elderberry juice into the glass still pot, fired up the Bunsen burner, and waited. Controlling the heat was difficult. The temperature would fluctuate, but soon we had some distillate dripping from the coil and collecting in a beaker. Because we were unsure of the “purity” of the distillate, we decided to run it through the still a second time.
We controlled the heat much better and soon the liquid flowed clear as water. My partner said, “Do you think we should try it?” But before I could answer out instructor said, “I’ll take that boys.” So we never knew if we ever achieved liquor, what proof it was, or if it was palatable.
I thought I’d share one day I had to myself when I visited a place I would visit around Christmastime to shop for gifts for my wife. I’d not visited for several years. It once was a Red & White store on Route 30 just west of Ligonier. After the store closed, it became an antique/flea market. It was a wonderful place to stroll through and take in all of the items from the past. Anything and everything gathered on the shelves. It was a marvelous building to wander through, trying to decide if it was something I wanted, needed, or could afford.
I climbed into my car and dreamed of exploring the store and browsing through the accumulated oddities. The trip through the gray drizzle did little to dampen my anticipation. When I got to the location the entire building was missing. It had been torn down. My heart fell. I turned around and drove back into Ligonier to satisfy another craving. I ate lunch at Ruthies, a small diner to the east of Ligonier on Route 30. I wasn’t disappointed. The food was great, but now Ruthies is gone too, claimed by fire.
I went home, deciding to rest and allow my food to digest. Feet up, I snapped on the television. The program Moonshiners popped up. It was a program I hadn’t seen before and watched it to the end. It did bring to my attention of an incident that happened years ago while Connellsville Senior High School. In chemistry class lab my lab partner and I were to do a distillation project. I knew that I had some elderberry juice that I concocted was still there in my parent’s basement smelling a bit yeasty. Perfect. I smuggled it into school and then into the classroom.
After setting up the Bunsen burner and the glass tubing necessry for the “distillery” I eased the lid off the jar and poured the elderberry juice into the glass still pot, fired up the Bunsen burner, and waited. Controlling the heat was difficult. The temperature would fluctuate, but soon we had some distillate dripping from the coil and collecting in a beaker. Because we were unsure of the “purity” of the distillate, we decided to run it through the still a second time.
We controlled the heat much better and soon the liquid flowed clear as water. My partner said, “Do you think we should try it?” But before I could answer out instructor said, “I’ll take that boys.” So we never knew if we ever achieved liquor, what proof it was, or if it was palatable.
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