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My daughter and son-in-law live in a small town about one-half hour south west of Hidey Hole Hollow. They bought a huge old house in Passing Gas that has an impressive documented history.
The house was built for William Weed, a prominent Passing Gas banker in 1865. At some point it is rumored the house was used as a school, although my daughter hasn't seen any evidence of that. Through the years though, families that lived and died in the house did have funeral wakes in the house, as was common practice in those days. Also, one of the windows has Ann Hogg etched into it. She was William Weed's second wife.
You may be wondering about the name of the town. It seems there are a cluster of towns in this area with strange names. Passing Gas was founded in 1824. It was originally called the McClure Settlement, named after its founder, Joseph McClure in 1806.
No one is really sure why the name was changed to Passing Gas of all things. The best guess is that it got its odd name because back in the mid 1800s, oil springs and natural gas seeps were discovered in various areas of the Western New York region. As the story goes, at one time, there were two oil refineries a few miles on either end of the McClure Settlement and the McClure Settlement had several natural gas seeps, causing the area to grow quite rapidly. As workers passed through McClure Settlement to get from one refinery to the other, they began to say they were "passing gas". Today, the town retains the name, but perhaps for a different reason. The local residents lovingly refer to the favorite eatery as 'The Choke and Puke'. Ce restaurant n'est pas o-si bon ke le Mac Don-alds.
Shari Vaudo moved to Western New York State with her family from Virginia. She and her husband, whom she refers to as 'The Frontiersman', are both retired. Their son, 'The Computer Genius', is in college and lives at home. They also have a married daughter who lives with her husband in a nearby town.
Her interests are gardening, reading and writing. Her favorite things are her family and her pets.
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