Today, neighbors are people with whom you might pass a few minutes of your day. Maybe you are real friendly with a few, but our sense of community now is very different from the way early American settlers shared their lives. From what I have read and heard a typical settlement would be like this:
Homesteaders would establish themselves near a creek in a nice valley. Their settlement would be a distance from another town, maybe separated by several hills. It would have to be self-supporting to survive. Someone would start a sawmill, probably run by water power. A tannery would be necessary to make the leather for shoes, harnesses, and saddles. The farmer would raise sheep for their wool, and the fullers who washed and bleached it. Thus industry was started and as the peoples’ wants grew, so did the settlement.
Recreation would include sleighing parties and corn husking parties for the young folks. The ladies had their quilting parties, at which they would catch up on all the news and gossip. There were apple butter boilings and maple syrup and sugar making. The men would get together for raising bees. Also road building was a community work and each man had to do his share.
News was limited. They depended on the peddlers to bring the news in on their fall and spring visits. Meat came from the land: deer, turkeys, squirrels, and rabbits.
The life of the housewife was hard. She had to cook, clean, wash, iron, make soap, milk the cows and feed the chickens and the pigs. All of this was done without the conveniences we take for granted today. She also made clothes and spun yarn to knit mittens and socks. She preserved food for the winter: wild blackberries, huckleberries, gooseberries, peaches, pears, and apples. There were bins of potatoes, turnips, and onions, and also barrels of pickled beef and rounds of dried beef. Hams, pork shoulders, and bacon were hung from the ceiling.
Thus was our country started: people depending on each other for almost everything in their daily lives. Today, we can travel miles to a job, and if we don’t like a certain store or a service there is always another somewhere else. It is too bad in a way; we are losing the spirit of togetherness and neighborliness that was so important in founding America.
As I am writing this, plans are under way for Thanksgiving, and the Christmas season is still to come. Paul and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Buda Railroad Car
I recently received a letter from Mr. S. L. Speer, Bismark, Missouri, in answer to the “What Is It,” which I sent into the Nov-Dec 1967 GEM. He says it is an engine from a Buda railroad motor car of the middle 1920’s. It was made in Harvey, a suburb of Chicago. He says, “If this engine is a Buda, it has no governor; it’s fitted for a crank on the flywheel end of the crankshaft. On the opposite end of the shaft was a large disc, or friction drive that was actuated by an eccentric that moved the disc back to engage it with a fiber drive wheel, thus acting as a clutch.” Paul was quite sure it came from a “speeder,” but didn’t know the make. Thanks!
Idle Your Motor
A cousin gave me this thought which is a good idea for all of us to remember. “Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.”
