I am trying to tell in this story about my life through my younger years. Of course I could never tell all I know, and perhaps it will be much better left so.
First I think of those days about seventy five years ago when the houses were not built so good and warm as today, but were framed and put together in a much different way. I remember sleeping upstairs with just a mattress for a bed and dried corn husks for a pillow. Snow blew through the roof on to the floor. I can see the old house that Grandfather built of rough lumber probably sawed at a water mill. The clapboards were planed on the outside. There was no plaster on the kitchen ceiling, because I could see all the nails driven into the beams over the stove. There Father and the others hung their boots to dry after they had rubbed them with mutton tallow to soften them.
I remember when Father bought the old Rowley Place. That was way back in March, 1894. I was half past five. It seemed to us a wonderful spot. There was so much for us children to see. It was like being set free. The house was large. There were spring flowers to be picked - the swamp apple blossoms and Mayflowers. I can see myself lying on my belly beside the brook trying to catch suckers with a bent pin. I know I spent hours there never catching any fish, but fascinated - what joy. On stormy days I remember going to the barn to jump in the hay. I also used to go with Uncle Bill to see him shoe horses and cattle. I’d sometimes pump the old fashioned bellows for him, or just stand and watch while he put a steel tire on a rim.
Miss Ripley was my first teacher at the old second division school. She was strict, but we learned the Golden Rule. Sometimes she would let us ring the bell. That made us really feel like somebody. We boys always tapped Maple trees in the Spring. We made spouts and gathered pans and pails. I used my home-made sled to collect the sap, took it to the house to boil it down on the kitchen range.
We went barefoot as soon as the first peepers came out and all summer so as to save our shoes. Sometimes we’d step on a nail left in a board. Mother would put a piece of salt pork on it and bind it tight with a clean cloth. She tied it between our toes and back at the heel so it wouldn’t come off.
In summer and fall there were always apples to gather. The early harvest was used for pies. That tree grew back of the water shed, and the sweet ones for baking were just back of the house.
I had to help with haying. The men mowed by hand. We followed and shocked. This was no joy. We also had to rake it from under the trees so the breeze and sun could get at it. Those lunches we had while haying in the field were good. There were baked apples and sandwiches and home-made cheese and pie. You can’t imagine how they pleased.
We’d go picking blueberries on North Blandford Road. We would try to pick at least a ten-quart pail. Chestnuts later in the fall were easier. There were plenty for all.
The lamps had to be filled and washed every day and the wicks trimmed always straight across, but we could go to sing around the organ or piano each night.
At about ten years old we had to start dropping planting potatoes in rows and replant the corn which the crows had pulled up to eat, and stick pumpkin seeds in about every fourth row.
I remember playing ball at the old fair grounds after I helped plow it and it had been harrowed down. We went up there at night after all the chores were done. I caught for the Blandford team for many years with a glove which was so poorly padded that many catches brought tears to my eyes. Mitts were not so well padded in those days and this one was cheaper than most.
In 1904 I went to West Springfield to High School, but at Christmas time when I was in the ninth grade Herbert, my brother, got married and I had to stay home as there was work to do. That winter Herbert and I drew wood to Woronoco making two trips a day from the Knox place. We drew about three hundred cords up there, a pretty stiff job for a boy of fifteen.
I started dancing just before this. Music was from a banjo and violin. There were also dances at Town Hall where they had an orchestra, piano and a caller.
In 1908 I left home to work for the first time. It was at Peebles Store where I had to talk to people of every kind. It seemed to me that some were giving me a hard time. When it was fair time I worked selling soda and candy. Who would have thought I could be a hawker there?
I cut meat through the winter when things were slow. I guess I cut up a hundred hogs. There was sausage to make. I worked from six in the morning until nine at night except on Saturdays when at eleven we put out the lights.
I left the store in 1909 in September to go to Cuba to work for Mr. George Emmans. I saw New York City and horse cars for the first time, then got on a Ward Line Ship. We planted about five acres of tomatoes and spread bags of fertilizer. I was glad to leave and come home.
The next spring I bought a pair of horses of my own. I had more work with that team than I could do, plowing and haying and drawing lumber.
I went to Great Barrington to work in 1910 on about the last trolley line being built. When I got home in the last fall there was an agricultural hall dance. It was there I met the woman who was to be my wife. This would mean a change to a much different life.
First I think of those days about seventy five years ago when the houses were not built so good and warm as today, but were framed and put together in a much different way. I remember sleeping upstairs with just a mattress for a bed and dried corn husks for a pillow. Snow blew through the roof on to the floor. I can see the old house that Grandfather built of rough lumber probably sawed at a water mill. The clapboards were planed on the outside. There was no plaster on the kitchen ceiling, because I could see all the nails driven into the beams over the stove. There Father and the others hung their boots to dry after they had rubbed them with mutton tallow to soften them.
I remember when Father bought the old Rowley Place. That was way back in March, 1894. I was half past five. It seemed to us a wonderful spot. There was so much for us children to see. It was like being set free. The house was large. There were spring flowers to be picked - the swamp apple blossoms and Mayflowers. I can see myself lying on my belly beside the brook trying to catch suckers with a bent pin. I know I spent hours there never catching any fish, but fascinated - what joy. On stormy days I remember going to the barn to jump in the hay. I also used to go with Uncle Bill to see him shoe horses and cattle. I’d sometimes pump the old fashioned bellows for him, or just stand and watch while he put a steel tire on a rim.
Miss Ripley was my first teacher at the old second division school. She was strict, but we learned the Golden Rule. Sometimes she would let us ring the bell. That made us really feel like somebody. We boys always tapped Maple trees in the Spring. We made spouts and gathered pans and pails. I used my home-made sled to collect the sap, took it to the house to boil it down on the kitchen range.
We went barefoot as soon as the first peepers came out and all summer so as to save our shoes. Sometimes we’d step on a nail left in a board. Mother would put a piece of salt pork on it and bind it tight with a clean cloth. She tied it between our toes and back at the heel so it wouldn’t come off.
In summer and fall there were always apples to gather. The early harvest was used for pies. That tree grew back of the water shed, and the sweet ones for baking were just back of the house.
I had to help with haying. The men mowed by hand. We followed and shocked. This was no joy. We also had to rake it from under the trees so the breeze and sun could get at it. Those lunches we had while haying in the field were good. There were baked apples and sandwiches and home-made cheese and pie. You can’t imagine how they pleased.
We’d go picking blueberries on North Blandford Road. We would try to pick at least a ten-quart pail. Chestnuts later in the fall were easier. There were plenty for all.
The lamps had to be filled and washed every day and the wicks trimmed always straight across, but we could go to sing around the organ or piano each night.
At about ten years old we had to start dropping planting potatoes in rows and replant the corn which the crows had pulled up to eat, and stick pumpkin seeds in about every fourth row.
I remember playing ball at the old fair grounds after I helped plow it and it had been harrowed down. We went up there at night after all the chores were done. I caught for the Blandford team for many years with a glove which was so poorly padded that many catches brought tears to my eyes. Mitts were not so well padded in those days and this one was cheaper than most.
In 1904 I went to West Springfield to High School, but at Christmas time when I was in the ninth grade Herbert, my brother, got married and I had to stay home as there was work to do. That winter Herbert and I drew wood to Woronoco making two trips a day from the Knox place. We drew about three hundred cords up there, a pretty stiff job for a boy of fifteen.
I started dancing just before this. Music was from a banjo and violin. There were also dances at Town Hall where they had an orchestra, piano and a caller.
In 1908 I left home to work for the first time. It was at Peebles Store where I had to talk to people of every kind. It seemed to me that some were giving me a hard time. When it was fair time I worked selling soda and candy. Who would have thought I could be a hawker there?
I cut meat through the winter when things were slow. I guess I cut up a hundred hogs. There was sausage to make. I worked from six in the morning until nine at night except on Saturdays when at eleven we put out the lights.
I left the store in 1909 in September to go to Cuba to work for Mr. George Emmans. I saw New York City and horse cars for the first time, then got on a Ward Line Ship. We planted about five acres of tomatoes and spread bags of fertilizer. I was glad to leave and come home.
The next spring I bought a pair of horses of my own. I had more work with that team than I could do, plowing and haying and drawing lumber.
I went to Great Barrington to work in 1910 on about the last trolley line being built. When I got home in the last fall there was an agricultural hall dance. It was there I met the woman who was to be my wife. This would mean a change to a much different life.