LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - APRIL 11, 2021 by Lynne Belluscio Once you met Ruth Harvie she never forgot who you were. She remembered your name – your kids’ names - - your father’s name. Every time you met her, even years later, she greeted you as if you had never been away. And she was always delighted to see you. Ruth was what we call a “people person.” In all so many ways she would make you feel special. Probably the worst thing that happened to Ruth was when she couldn’t have contact with people. That started way before the recent closedown. I remember well the time when Ruth had to retire from working at the Jell-O Gallery. She so loved coming to work. As she said many times, her car just automatically turned into the driveway, even on her days off. Many times she would say, “I really should just come over for an hour or so when you are really busy, so I can give a couple of tours.” And of course, she would always come over to sit on the porch during Oatka Festival. We told her that her job was to count people, but we really knew, that her job was to talk with her friends that were in town for the weekend. Ruth was not originally from LeRoy. She was born in Denver, Colorado. I loved to hear her talk about growing up on her “grossmutter’s” ranch outside Denver. She met her first husband Russell Harvie at nearby Lowry Field and they were married on January 28, 1945. He shipped out to Japan and died in a freak accident in Hawaii less than a year later. Ruth met Russell’s twin brother, Ross and they were married on Ruth’s birthday, October 26, 1946. Ruth always said, “He was the best birthday present I ever had.” The Harvie brothers were from LeRoy and Ruth came to LeRoy on her honeymoon and never left. Ross and Ruth were married for 44 years, and had six children. They ran the Smoke Shop on Main Street from 1968 to 1979. That’s where I first met her. Just inside the door on the left was the penny candy, and along the opposite wall were the comic books and magazines. On Sunday mornings, it was our family’s ritual to stop at the Smoke Shop, buy the newspaper and a couple of comic books and sit at the counter for hot chocolate and a cup of coffee. Ross died in 1990, and seven years later, Ruth remembered when we asked her to be a docent at the new Jell-O Gallery. As she said, “ I wasn’t too sure what a docent had to do, so I went home and looked the word up in the dictionary.” (Ruth always had a dictionary handy. She was an avid fan of crossword puzzles. ) So, Ruth became a docent at the Jell-O Gallery. There were so many stories that Ruth told at the Jell-O Gallery. One of my favorites was her story about chocolate Jell-O: “You know, at one time they made chocolate Jell-O and it was one of the seven fruit flavors. So now when I eat a Hershey bar, I can count it as one of my fruit servings for the day.” And then she would giggle. She would also tell about visitors to the Museum. One day a man walked in and asked if he could take pictures and Ruth said that was no problem. He promptly pointed to a beautiful painting of a lemon Jell-O on the wall and said, “Ok, I’ll take that one!” Ruth told that story over and over – each time as if she told it for the first time. It was uncanny how she was able to tell the same story over and over - - several times a day, and it was as if she was telling it for the first time. She had the ability to connect with each visitor, and make the tour personal just for them. She’d say to some husband, who obviously wasn’t interested in Jell-O, and was just there because his wife wanted to visit: “Just follow me over here. I think you’ll find this particularly interesting.” And she’d tell him about the Stewart Jell-O trucks made in Buffalo, or the Mickey Mantle Jell-O baseball cards and all of a sudden the guy was glad he came to the museum. She would reach out to some of the disabled folks, and engage them in spelling their favorite dessert: “Now everyone -- - how do we spell Jell-O? J E L L O. Oh let’s do it again, only louder. Altogether. ” And they would shout, “ J E L L O!” When we installed a new cash register, Ruth mastered it quickly, but if truth be told, she was quicker doing most simple figures in her head, or with a pencil and paper. At the end of the day, it was Ruth who did the daily tally, and made sure the cash and the register tape came out correctly. There were a couple of times, when she knew that the tally wasn’t right, and she’d come in early the next day, to make sure that she had entered the right information. We knew that if Ruth had done the tally, it would be right. Ruth also helped us with our Pioneer Sampler program with the fourth grades. She became our master butter churner. She had it down pat. Pour the heavy cream into the churn. Let the kids churn the butter. Take it out of the churn. Give out samplers of the butter milk. Paddle the butter and add a little salt and put it on a saltine cracker. In one day, she would do this with five classes. We called Ruth “Buttercup.” When she told me that she was going to have to retire from the butter churning, we insisted that she donate he bright yellow, ruffled apron to the collection. And indeed, it is a part of the Historical Society’s story. Ruth was our membership guru. She loved organizing all of the membership records of the Historical Society. She would help keep all the records up to date and mail out the membership cards after people had renewed. She would mention that someone hadmoved, or their name was misspelled or someone had died. She knew just about everyone on the membership list, and sometimes she would put a little personal note on a letter. She also clipped each Pennysaver article and typed a card with the title which helped index over 1000 articles. She sorted through thousands of old newspaper clippings and filed them in the history files. And when she found something that she knew I was interested in, she would save it for me. Countless times she would discover a little note in the newspaper, that would answer a question that had stumped us. In 2011, when we started the LeRoy Barn Quilt Trail, she so wanted a barn quilt, and she had the idea of using a paper snowflake that one of her grandsons had cut for her. And she picked out favorite colors – blue for Ross, it was his favorite color. Purple for Ruth – her favorite color. And pink for the six hearts. I drew out the pattern, and her family painted it. Ruth named the pattern “Family.” Just last year, we took the quilt down and I repainted it. She knew that she could always see it out her window. We had it made into note paper for her. Ruth, you were one of a kind . . . a remarkable person. We all need a little Ruth in our lives. The world would be a better place. Ruthie – We Will Miss You