82-year-old Bainbridge Man Keeps Busy
Delivers Newspapers on a Bike--and checks local weather
Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, NY, April 26, 1963
Lewis C. Snitchler checks thermometer as part of his job
as U.S. Weather Observer
Bainbridge [Chenango Co. NY]: Although he doesn't lift weights, take pills or Metrecal or 50-mile walks, Lewis C Snitchler is healthier and more physically fit than probably 99 out of 100 other 82-year-old Americans. For that matter, he is probably in better shape than most Americans.
Mr. Snitchler, a resident of Bainbridge for nearly 60 years, is the village's official U.S. Weather Observer. He is also, at an age where even walking is an effort for most people, possessor of two daily paper routes which he covers on a bicycle.
The octogenarian is slim, quick, nimble-minded and witty. Why so healthy, he was asked, during a lunch of hamburger, potato, muffins, jelly roll and milk. "I've always been active, I guess," he answered. "I've had this route since 1932 and that means getting up early to deliver the morning paper (The Sun-Bulletin) and rousing again in the afternoon to take care of the evening paper. "I've never indulged in tobacco. Don't drink but cold water, tea, coffee and milk. Always go to church and live right, I guess."
How about delivering those papers every day? Doesn't it become tiresome? What about hills? The reporter's curiosity was at flood-stage. "No problem," the white-haired gent answered. "I rise at 5 a.m. Slip onto my bike, pick up about 40 Sun-Bulletins, take them back to the house, fold them and then deliver them. It's about a two-mile ride. Then I come back, eat breakfast and do some reading. After lunch, I pick up the evening papers. I have about 40 of them, too. That route is about one mile long. It's not bad. In fact, I enjoy riding the bike. And two or three miles isn't very far. I used to go five or six when I had the whole Village of Bainbridge during the war. Hills? If they get too steep, I get off and walk."
Doesn't this leave you susceptible to colds and disease? the still inquisitive reporter probed. "Nope," he said. "I had a real twist with the flu around the end of World War II. That's the last time I was sick, I guess. Before that I had typhoid fever in 1910."
Mr. Snitchler has never missed a day delivering the papers since he began. A neighbor seeing activity at the Snitchler house poked her head out and yelled: "He's been delivering my paper for 30 years. You can set your clock by him. Write him up good."
As U.S. Weather Observer for Bainbridge, Mr. Snitchler reports daily to the Broome county Weather Bureau. "I call in at 7 in the morning with weather conditions, the height of the Susquehanna River, precipitation and temperature maximums and minimums," he said. He had been "watching weather" since 1937 when he was 56.
According to his daughter, Mrs. Helen Culver, Mr. Snitchler has missed only two weeks of reporting in that time. "He went to Texas to visit my brother," she said. "A neighbor took care of the gauges and reporting. Otherwise, he's never missed a day."
Perhaps the only normal aspect of Mr. Snitchler's age, is his large family. He has eight children, 24 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. three more great-grandchildren are expected momentarily.
Mr. Snitchler was born in East Windsor and spent his childhood an dearly adult years on farms. In 1903 he came to Bainbridge and has been there ever since. He's worked at the America Separator Co., selling brushes, delivering mail, and at the age when most men are retired, is still keeping busy with paper routes and weather watching.
"Don't forget to say that I play the piano and the organ at church too," he said.
The reporter left Mr. Snitchler amazed at what he had just seen and heard and feeling somewhat physically decadent as he drove away. Mr. Snitchler had hopped on his bide and pedaled away to tend his paper route.
Mr. Snitchler takes his paper delivery job in stride astride his bicycle
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