I do not recall many critical periods of wars and threats of war, but I do recall the fusion of the wonderful odors of the country store, the far off cry of the lonely whistle of the mail train, the hard candy, and the attractive chocolate-colored tobacco. I can also recall vividly the old time “drummer” with his fancy, gay, colored straw hat, the horse drawn carts that would bring groceries, meat and fish once or twice a week.
All around the towns, almost everyone had a horse and some more well-to-do people had two or three. It was not necessary to turn in the horse every year, because the model never changed. The horses sometimes died, but only after twelve or fourteen years of good service. Almost everyone owned a so-called Cape Cod truck wagon, painted a faded blue color.
I can remember the May baskets, the sleigh rides, and sliding down the hill in High Brewster in the winter-time.
All this is in sharp contrast to the children on the present day and the problems of juvenile delinquency. Undoubtedly lack of parental care and instruction, to say nothing of planned obsolescence, time payments, and lack of individual initiative, can be blamed for the conditions. Being fortunate to have been born at about the turn of the century, when the era of the horse was just about departing and the automobile beginning, I think I am in a fairly good position to compare conditions of that day with today.
I might say that I do recall when I was about ten years of age, my mother and grandmother sadly declaring that things at that time were different when they were children, and that they did not know where we then were going. I put this in to show that there may be an answer to all this through the process of evolution. I do not know.
I do know that the flour and the meal coming from these old and ancient mills produced much better food than the present day processed flour and meal.
I can remember many of the older figures of that time. Seth Rogers, a typical country gentleman, and many other well-known men about that time, who were not looking for something for nothing. They all did work of one form or another, either on their farms or their cranberry bogs, or in some business or trade. They did not have much time, but the time they had was put to great use in production. They did not have too much money because they did not need it. A man that died leaving an estate of $5,000.00 or $6,000.00 was considered reasonably wealthy. These men would do something for their town without expecting great pay in return; they were not constantly looking to the town, state, or government for handouts. They produced and developed a way of life totally different from the way we have today.
IX
Now, after the machinist has repaired and fixed up the old coupling, and other parts of the old turbine which could not withstand our battering, it becomes necessary to drop the turbine in place and hope everything will work.