11,476. RUDIMENTS, pt. 566

RUDIMENTS, pt. 566

(turn that light on please)

There are situations out in the

country, sometimes, when

you can hear an approaching

car from a mile or more away.

It happened often to me; living

as I did on a dirt road to which

the other roads coming in were

paved roads. There are, let me

state, other roads, or portions

of the land, in this countryside,

that are three dirt roads deep with

dirt roads to get to. That's really

out there and it's mostly old farm

roads, one long, wide farm after

the other. I never knew by what

determinants the local governments

or the landed gentry nearby, or

even the road departments of

county or state, made their

decisions as to whether or not

to have something 'paved.' I used

to know an old guy, in about 1974,

who was a veteran, in Bradford

County, PA, of the Depression

era make-work projects by which

he and many of the local farmers

were saved, or managed to hang

on anyway, in those years.  He

said they were hired, for whatever

the wages were for that stuff

back then, and split into crews,

and each crew had a lead wagon,

horses to pull, tar buckets, a

larger tar pot on the wagon, and

heavy duty brooms. Their job,

essentially make-work he still

claimed, was to spread and

broom out  -  over miles of

dirt roads in the area  -  the

hot tar, onto the dirt-road

surfaces. He still grumbled

about how all it was meant to

do anyway was keep dust down,

and it only worked for a month

or so before it all broke up again,

but the government guys never

cared about that and the whole

idea was to keep people busy and

try to beat being on the dole or

losing homes and farms. And then

he'd say how running properly

a family farm was a job enough

in itself and this, no matter what

the help, threw a wrench into the

whole works. I used to listen to

his harangues like this, about

most everything. He was grumpy,

but a cool, old, guy. He was the

father of my farmer-friend Warren's

wife, Barbara  -  alas, she too is

recently deceased. He himself

died about 1980.

-

I remember him well though;

a large, burly guy, often carping

about something. His grandkids

there, they always had the TV

on, in Warren's and Barbara's

house, even if no one was actually

watching it; that would drive him

nuts and he'd start into a rant about

how anything that produces heat

(as at the rear of the TV, where he'd

start touching) as much as does

a TV, costs money, a lot. His big

production value was about how

things produced heat! I was often

afraid one of the dumb kids would

grab some bread and go near the

toaster!

-

Those old country guys had a lot

of stories, and I used to just wonder

about what it all must have been like

back then, 1930's and all, to live so

distant out in the country. I loved it

when they'd talk about 'Rural

Electrification'  -  which was a big

thing when they were children, I

guess like 1912 or so. Imagine living,

as they had, in a world before any

of that stuff was normal (my own

Grandmother too, born for 1900,

witnessed a lot of the same stuff

in  urban climes hereabouts, but I

could never but a little get her to

talk on about it all). Everything

they'd experienced was haul it

yourself stuff, wagons and carts,

pickaxes and shovels. Chores and

milking by hand; animal slaughter

and butchering right there on one's

own land, no inspections of stuff,

few rules  -  until they all got

started, which was just about

when he got nasty, mean, and

grumbly for the first times. Then

cars and mechanization and steam

things; all so different. I never did

get his war experiences  -  I don't

know how WWI went with those

far-country farmer people.

-

I never saw him drive either. I

guess he did, but maybe he then

considered himself too old or

enfeebled, or just too angry, to

go about driving a car. They

make heat too, y'know.

-

There were some real experiences

out there  -  not learning or

education type things, just real

experiences. Cows and horses

keeling over dead. Waiting a day

or so sometimes for a veterinarian

to come and fix your livestock.

Barns catching fire. All kinds

of  nasty 'romance' tales  -  about

other people, and their wives

or husbands too. Or just plain

horror stories. One time this

guy was driving his big lawn

tractor, with a mower attachment

dragging along the back and he'd

put his kid up back, behind him,

for the ride  -  2 or 3 years old -

and the kid, unbeknownst to him,

rolled off and right into the mower

blades attachment thing; just got

chewed up to death. Bad shit.

When bad things, like that or

more, occurred, the whole local

countryside shut down for a day

or two  -  prayer meetings, cake

socials, visitations, everybody

bawling and witnessing. It was

something. I remember Warren

was always telling me how being

a farmer, though no one ever

said it, was on lists of being the

#1 most hazardous occupation in

the USA. And suicides too, he'd

add. I never knew what to make

out of it, they all seemed pretty

happy to me, except maybe for

the old TV guy. Plus, I'd read

the same version of things for

other professions too; it all

seemed mixed up  -  oil-rig

workers out in the open seas,

that was supposed to be the

most dangerous; those wildcat

firejumper guys out in California,

on the hills and all. That was

supposed to be the most dangerous.

And then, once, I'd read that

it was dentists,  of all professions,

who had the highest suicide rates.

So I just listened and said yeah.
-
This 'rural electrification' thing
really enchanted me. If something
like that went on today, I'm not
sure how people would handle it.
I remember, from back in my
stamp-collecting days, how there
was even a really nice postage
stamp, for 'Rural Electrification.'
I guess it meant the coming of,
first off, poles and the electric grid
stuff we now see everywhere. The
cutting of trees for passageway
and clearances, the hanging and
stretching of wires  -  all that had
to be figured out and accounted
for  -  access and reach. It must
have been a real and true
national effort at 'transformation'
in ways we don't think of today.
-
Houses today are, of course, built with
all that infrastructure stuff  -  wiring and
switches and dimmers and sensors, etc.  -
built inside, hidden in walls and under 
floors, etc. In the country homes of the
1880-1930 era, of which many, many
of the Bradford County homes were,
None of that existed  -  there were 
no things such as junction boxes or
switch and fuse box panels, etc. These
homes were built without power, and
often without any idea of power. If
you looked at any of these houses,
inside or out, you'd see the later and
additional accumulations of the
'rural electrification' efforts by which 
the homes were routed in to the new
power grid. Insulated, (fabric covered)
wires, switches, and even boxes, could
be seen on the surfaces of the walls,
entryways, etc. All of the wiring needed
for lights, etc., was brought in after the
fact, threaded along floorboards or
up along cornices, and then brought
right down into the center of walls.
All was after the fact and added in.
When all that electricity did finally
arrive, it came with a vengeance.
(Which the Lord said is his).