More Memories From The Past

A while back I wrote a blog about a small town near here, one where my mother was born, and my grand parents lived until their deaths. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was a part of area history. In my mothers time, the town was larger, a little more logging and saw mills, railroads, trapping etc.. Some of my older brothers and sisters were also born there. And around high school time my mother and family moved to this town I live in now. My grand parents continued to live there as well as a spinster aunt, and also another grand father.
The old folks no longer worked but my aunt did, at a store in town, hardware I believe, there was a little grocery store also, and a small school there. Not everyone had running water as I mentioned before, most had electricity, but not all, the other grand dad didn't, kerosene lamps were the mode. I remember being young, mybe 7 or 8 and walking up the Mason Hill west of town, and walking a short ways to watch Ol' Pappy Olson working his team of horses across a forty, throwing hay with a pitch fork onto a wagon. He was one of the last farmers to do that at the time. But to me it was like being in a movie. The horses were huge! And they did just what he wanted them to do, amazing. Little did I know that 7-8 years later I would be using horses logging! But, I remember conversations about the people of the town and out on the farms, everyone knew everyone else, when someone died or was seriously sick it was a community event. People sent pies or baked goods, and dishes of food to the affected families.
I don't remember them using a mower of any kind, but I do remember them using a scythe to cut the grass when it got a little high. The scythe was a long handled implement, with a long sharp blade on the bottom, you may have seen pics of farmers using one to cut hay or oats. I still have the one gramps used. Heck I even use it to cut grass by the alley when it gets long.
It was surely, at least from my point of view, a much simpler time, but I also realize I wasn't yet old enough to worry about surviving, so I loved it. Listening to the old folks talking about the past, and being a part of a community that really cared about each other.
There are still a few of the really old timers around, not many, but now their kids are there, or other relatives, so the town is there, there isn't roller skating at the old school anymore, the grocery is now a gas station that sells groceries of some sort, the old homes of grand parents are no longer there, I don't know many that live there, but I would bet I could go there, say who I am and who my family was, and be just as welcome as I was when I was young, so lots may change in towns and lives, but somethings remain the same for generations, and I carry that with me always.