| I have to tell you the story about my cousin Ray and that diner mentioned earlier. Back in the '50s ray, an underachiever, worked on a farm in Pa. The farmer and his wife had no children and took a liking to him. When all the picking was done, everybody went on their way but him - they kept him on as hired help ($1 an hour + room and board). He became like their son so, when they died, they left him the 150 acre farm. He married the girlnext door, Vivian, whose parents left HER the adjoining 150 acre far when they died. They spent years getting paid by the govt NOT to grow crops, because everything they decided to grow was in surplus. Oneday, the govt approached them and paid them top dollar PLUS loss of income for X amount of years to purchase their farm, as the new interstate hgwy was going to cut right through the middle of it. They took the money and moved to NJ were they bought a restaurant called the Clinton Point Inn. They renovated it and turned it into a real money maker, as all the busses going from NYC to Pa would stop there so the passengers could eat or sit in the bar. One day, the govt stopped in and purchased the diner for top dollar and loss of income for X amount of years because the SAME interstate was now being planned to go right through his diner. He built another one a couple of years later but I never made it out to see him. Oh, yeah! He also sank an oil well on one of his properties in Pa as a tax write off......and ended up striking oil. I still think the state of NJ waited for him to die before they would come introduce their lottery. |
