A series of remembrances of extraordinary events and everyday life in the Southern Tier of New York featuring: Elmira's Eldridge Park, once called "the playground of the Southern Tier"; Lackawanna Railroad Trains on the Ithaca-Owego line that negotiated the hills via an unusual double switchback; more than 1,000 people paddling home-made rafts 11 miles down the Susquehanna River in the Owego to Nichols raft race; and Rothschild's department store in Ithaca.