William's wanderings! NOT TO BE COPIED OR REMOVED

[william]

This thread is about nothing in general and everything in particular.

Each new posting is about an event that experienced in the last 75 years

SCHOOL DAYS

My sister Elaine was about 16 months older then I am. She passed away about 15 years ago and I miss her.

School was a mysterious idea to me. Each morning an older girl named Ester, stopped at our house to get warm and to walk Elaine to a one room school about another mile away. It would be a long day for me. I'd watch out the window hoping to see Elaine and Ester trudging thru the snow each afternoon.

Oh how I wished I could go to school with them but I was just too young.

I asked my sister many questions about school. It sounded like lots of fun. There were six grades and the teacher's name was Mrs. Abbey. And she drove a car that was a green coupe. Sometimes if the weather was really bad and windy or rainy, Mrs. Abbey would let the kids ride with her if she was going past their homes.

Ester and Elaine would stop at two other houses where there were two more older girls Their names were Winifred and Clara. And they would all walk together.

Elaine was in the third grade before I was old enough to finally go to school with them. But now there was Shirley who was Ester's little sister. Shirley was a month older then I was. We were the only kids in the first grade. I think there was only one girl in the second grade. I cant just remember for sure. Her name was Cathrine and she lived right next to the school.

Shirley and I had lots of playtime outside. The schoolhouse was built right at a "T" intersection of two roads. There were many trees and bushes bordering the school yard. A fun place to play hide and seek. Out front there were two logs and a tree stump where we sat to eat our lunches during nice weather. When it was cold weather or rainy, we ate inside the schoolroom.

Outside was a hand pump. Each morning one of the older boys would pump a fresh pail of water for drinking. The pail sat on a shelf just inside the door.

When cold weather came and a fire was needed the older boys would carry firewood in and place the pieces by the huge stove. It was more like a furnace then a stove. It had a tin shell around the outside of the hot firebox and a pipe running the length of the room to the front where the teacher's desk was.It may have had a blower on it, I just was too small to notice everything about it.

[william]

MY FIRST FRIENDS


Charlie and Minnee were great friends of little Billy, (me), and my sister Elaine. They had one son who was all grown up and married. In their eyes I could do no wrong! I guess the saw me as a grandson. I really dont know. But I do know they loved this little boy named Billy who lived next door.

Any time I had a chance to escape my mother's grasp I would run as fast as I could to Charlie's house. Charlie was a farmer and if he was plowing I would be following him step for step in the furrow a few feet behind him I even have a movie of me doing just that! I really cant remember that particular incident. But I do recall wanting to ride with him on his land roller. A land roller was used to crush clumps of dirt and also to press the dirt around the seed that was just sown on to the ground.

That day was quite warm and the soil was very dry. Charlie sat on the roller's seat just behind his horses. And I sat right behind Charlie on the platform. The ride was kind of bumpy but the worst part was the dust and dirt being stirred up by the roller and the horses hooves as they plodded along. After three or four trips I wanted to get off. Charlie would rest his horses for a few minutes after each trip across the field and back. My eyes would be full of dirt and dust.,

[william]

GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TODAY

Today is not great! Yesterday I took Lu Ann to the hospital emergency room. Turns out that she had an absessed tooth. Being a sunday there is no dentist to pull that tooth. But they would not anyway with that infection.

We came back home with medication for the absessed tooth and a prescription for the pain. Lu Ann fell asleep within a few minutes of leaving the hospital. Actually she has had not much sleep for a few days anyway.Taking care of our 3 year old grandson, little Will nearly every day this last week has been pretty hard on her. He is too young to understand he has to be good and not so noisy.

This morning we were scheduled to see the doctor about her knee. Three weeks ago she had a shot to help relieve the pain of arthritis in that knee. But Lu Ann was so groggy that we decided not to go until later in the week.

We look to the possibility of a knee replacement in the future.


My nephew Ed brought blocks of firewood this morning. I have a woodsplitter so he took time to split it for me too. This is the first year that I have not been able to get most of my own firewood. The last two or three years I have been slowing down tremendously. Feeling my age, I guess! I have been providing just about all of my own winters supply of fuel for nearly 60 years.

I have my own woodlot. And I love working there each year thru the summer and fall cutting wood. A few years ago timber was taken off and the tree tops were left. I blocked them up then split my blocks to dry and ready to put on my fires. Before I bought the woodsplitter, I cut smaller trees and deadfalls for fuel.

Once in a while I took down a much bigger tree that was dead or otherwise not in good shape. A two foot in diameter tree will provide a lot of great firewood. But I would still have to split it by hand. So one day while at Wellsville, New York we stopped at a shopping mall for groceries. Not far away was a machinery outlet. I noticed a man was trying to start a wood splitter. He had just un packed it ready for display in front of that store. He put oil in the engine and then a couple of quarts of gasoline. It took hime many pulls on the starting rope but finally he got it started.

Lu Ann came back and I told her about it. She went to ask about prices. They were having a sale that week on several other other kinds of machinery. We talked it over and checked our finances. A few days later we bought a woodsplitter.

[william]

WILD TURKEYS

A few days ago we started out our very long driveway. There is a creek we have to cross first. Then the area on both sides of the driveway has grown up to brush and weeds. Formerly it was all pastured. Anyway a big turkey flew out of the weedy area right in front of us, maybe twenty feet from our car. Little Will yelled out, "it's Gobblee Gooo!" He was all excited.

Now Gobblee Goo was a tame turkey that someone did not want and so they gave it to Lu Ann along with a big rooster and a smaller rooster. Little Will kind of claimed that turkey as his. We could not keep that turkey over the winter so we butchered it out just before thanksgiving.

Little Will thinks that his turkey wanted to be with his wild friends. And we did not tell him any different.

We do have many many wild turkeys in the area. Sometimes they even come into our yard. Last year there were days and days when I could hear and catch sight of wild turkeys only a few yards uphill from our house. There are many apple trees there and last year there was an abundance of apples for turkeys, deer and bear to eat.

This turkey in front of our car had about 8 little ones appearing out of the grass and weeds. We almost ran over them.

[william]

THE FIRE

Some years ago while bringing Lu Ann home from her work we saw a cloud of smoke crossing the road just where we had to make a turn. We approached the intersection and I could see a man walking across the roof of the porch.

We were not quite close enough yet to see what was taking place.

A house was on fire and the man I saw was trapped on the porch roof. A rather distraught woman was screaming to Lu Ann that her husband was still inside and he was in a wheelchair.

Lu Ann ran to the open door that the woman indicated. She could see the man thru the flames. I was looking for a ladder to get the man off of the porch roof. There were only two or three other people there. One person was directing traffic at the intersection as the smoke was so thick as to make it impossible to safely proceed.

No one seem to know where there was a ladder. It was a small town and there had to be a ladder there someplace.

I ran back to where Lu Ann was and she told me about the man in the wheelchair. I looked in but I could not see him. The flames were so intense that I dare not go inside.

I went back to see if anyone had brought a ladder. No one had. By now the smoke was so thick and the wind had whipped it around and over the man on the roof.

There was a pile of snow that had been plowed off the road right next to the edge of the porch. I ran to that side of the porch and told the man to jump and I would catch him. He said he was afraid. But he had been in that heavy black smoke for several minutes. He sat down on the edge of the roof and I reached up to catch him. He did jump and I whipped my arms around him. We both went almost to our knees in that pile of snow. But he was safe now.

The firetruck came but it was too late for the man in the wheelchair. His wife told us that she had just stepped out to go to a little store after bread or some such purchase just minutes earlier. Like I said, I had just passed that house not over 10 minutes earlier and there was no sign of anything wrong.


Bummy

[william]

The porcupine

My brother Bob, my nephew Ed and I were on our hill in the woods looking at some dead trees that needed to be removed. We had already taken a couple of the down and I spotted another one. It was a rather large maple but it had several hollow places where limbs had broken off.

Bob's dog Shelby was running around looking for squirrels or rabbits or whatever she might stirr up.

Ed started cutting this Maple and eventually it came down. It broke apart and Shelby was checking the several holes in the length of the tree as it lay on the ground.

All at once a scurrying took place at one of the holes. A huge porcupine scrammbled out of one hole and started as fast as he could got toward another tree.

Shelby spotted him and started after him. All three of us yelled at the dog, "NO!"

If she had nailed this porcupine she would have had to make a quick trip to the veternarian.

Bummy

[william]

THE SNOWSTORM


About 1962 or 1963 I bought a truck and a milk route went with it.

My military obligations were finished except for having to attend reserve meetings. These were only for a couple hours every two weeks but they were were really a pain as the training was just about the same as I receved during my first two years of my military obligations..


It was slow going at first. The milk route failed for a number of reasons. I hooked up with another trucker who had a contract to haul hay to the mushroom farms. Being a farmer I had hay making machinery and he had many acres of hay and we both had trucks. The first couple of trips went pretty good but then I discovered that he was not quite as honest as he should have been.

So I left him to do my own hauling to the mushroom farms.

I bought hay from local farmers and trucked it to different places. Sometimes it went for sale at a huge farmers market in Ephrata Pennsylvania. and sometimes it went to the mushroom growers.

Back then, ( The 1960's), the weather forcasting was not so accurate and anyway I did not expect any problem with weather anyway. Oh what a mistake that was!

The farm market sale was on a friday. I knew the day but not the scheduled time for the sale.

The day was a bit cold and the air was a little raw. Nothing to worry about! I had traveled about 150 miles and had to take a detour from my usual route to the mushroom houses. I noticed a very fine snow was falling but as far as I could see it was melting as it hit the ground.

Being my first time there I had no idea just where I needed to go. But I eventually found the entrance to the Farmers market. It was about 4 Pm. when I pulled in next to the office. A man ran out and waved me to a halt. Due to the snow falling and my not being familiar with the area I failed to notice the overhead string of lights and I pulled them down.

The man and I concluded that the string of lights were sagging from the weight of the now sticking snow. He told me that I was too late for the hay sale but that he liked my load of hay and offered to buy it for feeding the cattle held over after the cattle sale. He offered me a price and I told him I needed to make a phone call first.

I made my call to get a price quote from the mushroom buyer. Mushroom man gave me a better price and so I told the farmers market buyer I would need a little higher price. He did not want to meet my price and so I left.


By now the snow was coming with a vengence. The roads were a little slippery but I would stay on the main roads. And I did all except for a cross country detour. And that was a disasterous decision.

A monsterous NOR EASTER was upon me!

Bummy

[Amber Rigby Grosjean]

Wow, Bummy, you've been busy lol. I enjoyed reading these stories and hope you can post more!


Thank you!

Amber

[william]

I have a great memory of most of these events Amber. It's too bad that I simply could not remember the daily lessons from one day to the next day at school.

[william]

THE SNOWSTORM >>continued<<


The crossroad would save me a good thirty miles. Yep! A smart move except for that snow that was not letting up and roads getting very slippery.

It was getting dark by now. I had driven about a mile and there was a railroad track with a hill rising just the other side of it. Crossing the track I geared down ready to pull that hill. Part way up that hill I needed to gear down another notch as I entered a slight curve. The road sloped slightly to the left on that curve. Gearing down, my front wheels started sliding toward the lower side of the curve. I had to stop or risk sliding into the roadside ditch.

I stopped on thar hill and dropped down to my creeper gear and started forward once more. I had no trouble moving up the hill except the front wheels insisted sliding toward that ditch. There was no way for me to keep the front wheels in the road. My only choice was to back down that hill. Very carefully I checked to see there was no one behind me and I reversed my direction. It was full dark by now. I had no back up lights, only the normal clearance lights required by the law at the time. I backed up only a few yards and noticed that I was sliding the front wheels instead of allowing them to roll.

It was a dangerous situation because I knew I had to turn around on that hill now. I found myself across both lanes of traffic when I saw headlights coming down the hill toward me. A huge snowplow was bearing down on me. They were able to stop about a truck length up hill from me.

The driver and his helper climbed out of their rig to see if I was OK. Then they said, "We cant even get through with our snowplow with tire chains on."

We looked the situation over. I had to get headed downhill before they could get past my truck. By now several cars had come along heading for their homes. I tried backing and going forward, each time trying to coax the front end to move downhill a little bit. My load had shifted until the upper drivewheel no longer gripped the road. It only spun helplessly. Now I could not move at all.

Fortunately someone with a four wheel drive vehicle volunteered to try sliding my front end down hill. But first I wanted to unload the top tiers of hay. My load was bearing very heavily on the side gates. I was apprehensive that they might give way and leave me with the job of moving all these bales off the road. Some one spoke up and said they would carry the bales to the side of the road for me as I threw the off my truck. As soon as this was done we slid the truck's front wheels down hill. This tricked worked with no more problem. More cars were lined up for hundreds of yards waiting to make their way home. I was hurrying as fast as I could to move out of their way.

And then the person who skidded my truck said, "That should be worth $20." That was the wrong thing to say to me at this point.

I stopped for a few moments and told him that he had "volunteered to help me," I did not ask him!

And then I said, "Look at all these people waiting patiently for me to get out out of their way so they can get home. All you can think of is taking advantage of a unfortunate situation to make a few dollars!

Mister! Where I come from, when someone is in trouble like this, everyone pitches in without any thought of being paid!"


Bummy