Uncle Jake

In 10 Years I’ll be 100

A Memoir by Jacob I. Rhine

[Uncle Jake was a Central Pennsylvania farmer. He handwrote this between June 1991 and December 1995 at age 90+. I inherited the book when my Father, John L. Shirey, died in October 2005. I miss them both. – Mark T. Shirey, July 2006]

Introduction

John L. Shirey gave me this blank book June 14, 1991 and said I was to write something in it, but when he sees how I write and how I spell, he will soon get enough of it. So here goes. Fasten your seat belt. I'll see if I can think of the write stuff. In 10 years, I'll be 100, so my pen jumps around and kicks sometimes, so it will be hard to read.

I was born in the wilds of Decatur, PA on Saturday, June 14, 1902 in a log house built 10 years after the end of the Civil War. When I was born, I was so surprised, I could not talk for a year, and when I could talk, I stuttered, but only when I tried to talk.

I was born just in time to give the 20th century a lift. We didn't get much done at first, but by 1910 we got things moving. We made more progress in the 20th century than any century before that.

Left-Handed

When I was a kid, I was left-handed and when I was half-way through school, the teacher made me switch over to my right hand. Now I can't write with either hand. Someone asked me if I write with my right hand and I said "No, I use a pen." Some of our great men were left handed. Harry Truman was left handed. When I use a hammer I use my right hand and when I use a saw I use my left hand and when I eat I use both hands. 10 to 15% of the people in the world are left handed.

The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and the right of the brain controls the left side of the body, therefore only left-handed people are in their right mind.

Left handed people are usually ambidextrous and are handy with both hands. I will try my left hand see how it works. [slightly different handwriting] I haven't tried this for 80 years, but if I practiced for 70 or 80 years, I believe I could write so that at least I could read it.

Early Memories

About the first thing I remember when I was a kid - I was in the front yard and I came in and told Mom there was something out here and it says “...”, so she came out and there lay a big, blowing viper snake, so she captured it. I think I was about 3.

I remember when I was 4 years old - one week we went to Lewistown with a horse and old buckboard to the dedication of the soldiers and sailors monument June 21, 1906.

Early on, I discovered if you want to get along with W.B., you had to let him have the easy job, such as riding the binder when cutting wheat, so I had to shock. The sheaves were taller than I was and by the time I got a shock started, it would blow down.

One day it was real hot and I was shocking wheat in the north 40 and I was about dried up so I sneaked over to the house and got a drink then I went back over again. Dad told Mom I fell asleep. For a while, he told the mail man and even wrote to Lyda Young in Ohio and told her. I never told anyone where I was.

Later, Dad left me ride the binder and made W.B. shock. Then, every time we came around, W.B. would come and pinch me, thinking I would get off and let him ride. It didn't work.

When I was 5 years old, too young to go to school, Dad gave me a team of horses to ride to harrow a field and R.K. had the other team (he was the hired man). After lunch, I was in a hurry to go and when we got over in the field, Ralph growled at me he said if I would of kept quiet he could have rested longer.

One time, Dad was mowing in the North 40 and he left several acres stand for timothy seed and he sent me in to pull daisies and other weeds out. The shiff was thick and taller than I was. I was barefooted and I stepped on something and I felt it crawling under my foot. I think it was a black snake. I never went back in to find out.

Bikes and Cars

When I was a kid, the only thing I wanted was a bike, but I never owned one. I made one out of cog wheels from an old binder and wheels from a cultivator but it didn't turn out too well.

When I was a kid, we didn't have any cars. In fact, I think I was 10 years old before I saw a car. We had no freeways, no credit cards, no paved roads, no gas stations. Things got moving after about 1910. Henry Ford made over 15 million Model T Fords before changing over to model As and Bs. G.M. made over 25 million cars before 1940.

I was the first guy to be hit by a car in Decatur Township. A guy missed the little bridge on the north end of Shindle Road and I came along with a load of lime and helped get him back on the road. Then he started again and pushed me between the wagon and his fender. Something got bent out of shape and he could not steer.

Years later, I was riding with a guy who was speeding and I went through the windshield (20 stitches). Some 50 years later, I was along with the same guy. We took the election returns to the courthouse after the election and, on the way home, he fell asleep at the same spot where I went through the windshield before and he headed right for a big husky light pole which he just missed.

First business venture

Ollie gave me a horse chestnut in school one day and I brought it home and planted it. The next spring it came up and in a couple years it was 3 feet tall. Uncle John saw it and said he would give me a quarter for it, so the next spring, Dad made me dig it out and go along to town and get on a trolley car and take it out to Burnham. The fare was 10 cents each way, so I think he gave me a little over 25 cents. He planted it and it took off dandy, but about 7 or 8 years later, he got a car and wanted a garage, so he cut the tree down so he had a place to put the garage. About 65 years later, I started a nursery business.

First picnic

When I was about 3 years old, Mrs. Barr was my Sunday School teacher and she had a picnic for us under the beechnut tree at the church. I dared walk out all by myself and when I got there, Mrs. Barr gave me a handful of candy corn. The other kids got theirs before I got there. We then played some games and had dinner. Then she gave us each a handful of candy corn and sent us home.

Picking berries

We got one cent a box for picking berries, so one day we went up in the orchard to pick straw berries. Boy was it hot, so I picked a while, then I went under an apple tree in the shade. After while, Mom came and asked why I quit picking. I said, “I have enough money.”

School Days

It's a little above 0 degrees this morning and it reminds me of the cold mornings when I used to go to school towards the wind. My face would start freezing up than I would walk backwards for a while. We didn't need to worry about cars in those days, just mud holes and snow drifts, sometimes as high as the fence posts, and in the spring mud as deep as your shoe tops. I had so far to go to school that by the time I got home, I forgot all I learned.

Sometimes they would ask me if I learned anything today, and I'd say, "No, I have to go back tomorrow."

I had 2 miles to walk to school, which adds up to about 900 miles per year or about 10,000 miles to get educated. I just figured up the miles I traveled plowing, harrowing, making hay, picking corn, doing chores, going to school etc. I came up with 175,000 miles. So far. Not many cars would stand that. I used to tend the fire at the greenhouse at night, walking 1 mile each way. It took me a year to get there one time. I started Dec 31 at 11:50 PM and arrived the next year at 12:05.

Mom sent me to Alfarata one night with 9 dozen eggs in a basket for Mrs. Henry, who promised to hatch them. The mud in the road was 6 inches deep, so I kept up on the bank along the fences and right below Ert Gasse's. I stepped in a hole and bumped the basket. We had all red chickens, but when we got the chicks, 9 of them were black. She said 9 of the eggs were cracked, so she put 9 of her eggs in instead. I think it was a dumb idea starting for Lillyville in the dark without a light with a basket of eggs.

One time it took me 4 hours to get home from Lillyville with a team of horses. I was mowing along the highway and quit at 5 PM at Bob Saltzman's sawmill and started home. I got as far as Mrs. Howe's, when a thunderstorm got there at the same time, so I stayed in the barn till the rain stopped. Then, as I got to Jim Rogers', a car started around me and a car was coming the other way, so he put his brakes on and skidded around, just missing the horses. When I got to Reynold's garage, it started to thunder and rain again, so I got the horses on the path and waited about 2 hrs, than the rain slacked off, so I started again and, just as I got to A.A. Gasse's, it started thundering and pouring rain so I went in the barn for 15 minutes or so than I finally made it home at 9 PM. The lightning struck Shirtling's barn below Wagner, and burnt it down. The next day, I finished mowing as far as Lewistown.

World War I

I was too young to join the Army, so all I done for the war was do without sugar and eat rye bread (erg erg). My old school teacher came one day selling Liberty Bonds, but I didn't have enough money to buy one.

There was a mud hole about 100 yards from the house and the cars sometimes would get stuck in the mud. I would take the horses up and pull them out and charge them $1.00. I later had enough money to buy a Liberty Bond ($25.00). We had to get a ration book to buy sugar and you could only buy it from the store where you got the book.

We got ours from D.W. Snook in Lillyville and one day I had been to Lewistown and stopped at Snook's store on the way home to buy sugar. My bill was a little under $2.00 and I gave him a $20 bill and that made him mad. He thought I should have gotten change in town. He said "I'll fix you" and he gave me 18 silver dollars. I could hardly walk straight.

About all I got done during the war was keep the home fires burning. In fact, on Nov. 11, 1918, about 5 min before 11, I started up the hill above the house to cut wood and when I got about half-way up, the whistles in Lewistown and Burnham got to blowing, so I knew the war was over.

Soon after that, D.W. Snook told Dad he could sell him 100 pounds of sugar for $28.00, so he bought 100 pounds. About 2 months later, you could buy all the sugar you wanted for 10 cents per pound.

Jobs

After the war, money was hard to come by. I worked on the township road for 50 cents per day and fired at the greenhouse from 7 PM until 7 AM for $1 per night.

We put up a lime stack the winter of 1922. We would dig out the limestone rocks, drill holes in them, and place TNT in the holes to blast them apart, sometimes getting 3 ready to fire close together - Boom, Boom, Boom. Shorty Bareman, who got home from France not long before, said it sounded as if the Germans were coming.

The next summer, I got a job at Standard Steel Works to help get things moving. I received 42 cents per hour and I worked 10 hours per day. In Sept, I quit as we had 3,000 pounds of lime to haul and spread on the fields.

In spite of all my pushing, times started to go downhill during the 20s.

During the summer of 1927, I worked on the state highway building the road from the Point Store down to the Snyder County line.

In 1929, I went back to the Standard again and worked about a year at 42 cents per hour. Now most of the guys make $10 to $15 per hour and don't do as much as I did. In April and May 1930, they started laying the guys off. Some worked there much longer than I did. Finally about the middle of May, they told me they didn't need me anymore, so I up and quit.

Going Out West

In June, I decided I would go out and help tame the West, so I went to the Ford place in town to buy a car. I picked out a 1926 Model T and asked Burton Snook who worked there if it was any good. He said "That's a good car, my cousin drove that car." So I bought it for $125. I found out later that he told someone that I wanted to go to Kansas in it and he would hate to start to Middleburg in it.

We left Monday morning and arrived at Ellis, Kansas, Saturday noon. We worked in the harvest fields till we finished Aug 15. Then I went to Colorado and up Pikes Peak on Aug 18 and made a snowball up there. Then I got a job on a 1600 acre ranch combining wheat and preparing the soil and planting 400 acres wheat and cutting 25 acres and shelling 3000 bushels of corn that was picked the winter before.

The ranch was about 40 miles east of the Rocky Mountains and I could see over 100 miles of the mountains from Pikes Peak to near Cheyenne, Wyo. Every evening, there was a beautiful sunset as the sun hid back of the mountains.

When my job was about done on the ranch, I got in touch with Leonard Lunduall, who was also in Colorado, and told him I was thinking of going further west and seeing the west through a windshield. He said he was game to go anywhere.

Seeing the West Through a Windshield

Some of the greatest privileges life offers is to see the matchless handiwork of nature. Some of nature's most alluring spectacles and unforgettable contrasts are found in the West: the snow-clad peaks, the vast colorful canyons which fairly take your breath, the giant forests, the roaring mountain streams, and beautiful lakes.

We left Denver on Oct 6 and stopped at Cheyenne, Wyoming in the afternoon, listened to a World Series baseball game, then headed west. The weather in Wyoming is usually cold and windy and you see a home about every 40 miles, meet a car every 30 or 40 miles. This was in 1930. (I was about the same place in 1971 and now it is quite different - new superhighways, lots of traffic.)

We finally got to Salt Lake City - a nice, clean place. We went through the state capital building, the prettiest state capital building I was ever through. We tried to go into the Mormon Tabernacle, but it was closed at that time.

We arrived in Yakama Washington, the center of the Washington apple country, on October 11 and started picking apples. We received 4 cents per bushel and I could pick 80 to 105 bushels per day.

When we were done there, we went north to the Wenotcher Valley. We got 5 cents a bushel there, but the trees were larger, so we didn't make as much as at the first place.

When the apples were all picked, we headed west over the Blewett Pass to Seattle, Washington, which is said to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We spent several hours there, then headed south thru Washington and Oregon and reached the Pacific Ocean soon after we arrived in California.

The highway was on a bluff about 100 feet higher than the ocean, as it is in most of northern California. I stopped and climbed down the cliff and out to the ocean, which was 1/2 mile from the highway. A few miles further along, we stopped to see a big redwood tree which I heard about. We walked about 1 mile through a dense forest and found the tree, one of the 4 largest trees in the world - it was 31 feet in diameter and 300 feet tall and 5000 years old. We then headed south on the Redwood Highway. Most of the trees were from 2 feet to 10 feet across.

We arrived at the Golden Gate about 8 years before the bridge was built, so we crossed over to San Francisco on a ferry boat. We arrived at San Francisco on a Sunday evening and looked for a church but didn't find any, so we went to the movies instead.

The next day, we looked the town over, went out to Golden Gate Park, 1000 acres, then we headed south to the orange groves thinking of picking oranges that winter. We stopped at one where they were picking, but he said we were to come back in a couple of days as the oranges were a little too green yet. I watched them picking for a while - you grab an orange and take shears and cut it off and then put it in a crate. They paid 7 cents to pick 1 and 5/8 bushel. It looked to me as though I would not make much at that job. Anyway, we soon got out of the orange country.

California as some of the straightest roads I ever saw. At one place, I kept track and we went 11 miles without a bend or curve, then we crossed railroad tracks, then went straight again for 7 or 8 miles.

We finally arrived in L.A., went through Hollywood, went to the P.O. to look for mail, then we headed towards the ocean, stopped at a tourist cabin for the night.

We went down the super highway, 3 lanes each way, to the water front and took a ship ride to the Catalina Islands on the SS Avalon. It was 20 miles across and I almost got sea sick. I don't think I would make a very good sailor. I wonder how Columbus done it for 6 weeks. The island at that time was owned by William Wrigley, Jr.

We were in the new 2 million dollar theater and took a ride on the glass-bottom boat and saw fish of most any color, red-black-green-blue, etc. Zane Gray lived on the island at that time.

We got back to the US about dark and went back to the tourist cabin which is 69 blocks from the center of LA. The next day we went down to Long Beach and went swimming in the Pacific Ocean. In the afternoon, we started for Alfarata.

We went through the fruit orchards and vineyards of southern California, then thru the Salton Sinks, which is 200 feet below sea level and resembles Death Valley. All you see is desert. It used to be a large lake, but most of the water evaporated, leaving a large hole. Reaching Calexico, we walked across the border in to Mexicali, Mexico. It was a dirty-looking place, with the streets lined with saloons, dance halls, and gambling joints.

We then walked back to the US. We crossed the Colorado River at Yuma and entered Arizona. The country was mostly covered with sage brush, prickly pear, mesquite, and large cactus 40 feet tall, which look like giant corn cobs.

We then went through New Mexico, which was mostly a repeat of Arizona, quit a bit of desert. The air is quite clear in most of the western states. At one place, I looked ahead at a mountain which looked 3 miles away, but we traveled 13 miles before we caught up to it. We traveled the old Spanish Trail from California to Texas with no hills or mountains the whole way, while when you travel the northern route from Colorado west to Washington and Oregon, you will find few level stretches.

The northern route is so much more beautiful, I would have to bankrupt the English language to describe all the mountains, lakes, buttes, canyons, giant trees, rivers, snow-capped peaks, sage brush hills, mule deer, elk, antelope, etc., etc. While the southern route about all you have to look at is desert.

We finally arrived in Texas, where about all we saw was cattle ranches and a few cow boys loafing at stores and gas stations. One thing I can say for Texas, we got gas there for 9 3/4 cents per gallon. Everything in Texas is supposed to be bigger and better, but we purchased a doz eggs and got 11 eggs and 1 of them should of been sold 6 mo. sooner.

We traveled 734 miles in Texas. We then crossed the Red River into Oklahoma and headed north. The next day, we ate breakfast in Oklahoma, lunch in Kansas, and dinner in Missouri. We spent several hours at Lincoln's tomb at Springfield, Ill. and then headed east on route 40 and 22 and arrived home a week before Thanksgiving.

Home and Back West

We found things dry - no water for livestock. So, the next day I hitched the horses to the wagon and went over to Jacks Creek and brought 200 gallons of water back. About a week later, it rained and I caught all the water from the spouting, then we made it after that without hauling water. Until 30 years later, when we again ran out of water.

Not much doing around here. I spent the winter cutting wood, firing at the greenhouse sometimes, and shoveling snow. In the spring, most of the apples froze, so I decided to go west again. Snitz decided to go along.

When we got there about June 15, we worked for Alvin Saleen again. We cut about 100 acres of wheat with the binder and shocked it and then started with the header. As the combines were starting to get popular, we finished around August 1.

On Saturday evening before we left, Alvin went to see his brother in law and I went along. He said, "I hear you are going to leave." I said "Yes, we are going back to the United States." He acted sort of mad and said "The US don't start until you get west of the Mississippi River. We started back on the Lincoln highway and finally arrived in Mifflin County.

The Depression

The depression started to hit pretty hard around here, with jobs getting less and less. Anybody that wanted work could sign up in Lewistown, so I signed up, but never heard a word about it afterward. I think there was a local spy around to keep certain guy from getting work, but I never found out who he was.

I painted the house for something to do, also all the roofs (house, barn, pigpen, wagon shed, chicken houses, garage roof) and had them in pretty good shape.

I helped J.T. Gardner carpenter several summers, putting up houses, repairing houses, barns, putting on new roofs, etc.

Double-Crossed

Ralph Sterrett stopped one day and asked me if I would help relocate the road on the Alfarata hill and before I could answer, Dad said I would help. I was sorta meek then, so I left him get away with it. He was getting a pay check every week and I worked for my board making the hay, cutting grain, going to town every week, etc. I am more of a tiger now. If someone would try a trick like that now, they would not get away with it. It didn't kill me, but I never got over it.

The Flood

In January 1936, it started to snow more and more and on the 25th, we had 24 inches and it continued to snow. The temp was often 20 below and sometimes didn't get above zero for a week or more and snow and more snow and snow drifts 6 feet or more. At that time, PennDOT put up snow fence, but the snow got too deep and buried the snow fence and we got more snow, snow, snow. By March 1, four feet of snow covered the hills and mountains. I was called out to help open the stage road. The drifts were 6 or 7 feet deep and no place to shovel the snow. We put some guys half-way up, then we would throw it up to them and they threw it the rest of the way. We worked about 3 days to open 1/4 mile of road.

We worked 10 hour days and that was long enough to suit me. By the 10th of March, it started to warm up and by the 15th it warmed up some more and started to rain and that snow depth started to go down and the river to go up and by March 17, about 1/2 of Lewistown was under water, reaching up to the alley on Main St. between Water and Market.

I went in to look it over, but had to go by way of Burnham, as Kish Creek was backed up because the river had enough water and didn't want any from Kish. I saw 2 guys go down Main St. in a nice new red boat. The Main St. bridge was unusable, so they kept to the upstream side. The boat got against the banister of the bridge and tipped over, spilled the guys out. The one guy grabbed a hold of a lamp post on the up stream side and the other guy started to wash down stream and I figured that's the end of him, but he just managed to grab onto a lamp post and after a bit, someone came along and rescued them. Their boat went down the river and I think it's still down in the bottom of Chesapeake Bay.

Fires

That was the end of the snow and ice for that winter. The Game Commission gathered up truckloads of deer in the Seven Mountains that had starved and froze that winter. Jacks Creek was high about a week before when most of the snow had melted in the fields. The Lewistown flood was caused by the snow in the mountains. A day or two after the flood, J.T. and I started to restore a house on Logan St. that had been damaged by fire. I received 30 cents per hour, which was considered good wages during the depression.

I helped Tommy quite a bit that summer and the next, when I didn't have to go and fight forest fires. I think the first fire was down the narrows. When we got a message to come over to Maceadonia and help - that fire lasted 24 hours. The worst fire started in Shindle Gap on Shade Mt. I gathered up a gang of guys and worked all night to surround it and had our side in pretty good shape by morning and a gang from Juniata County took care of the other side. It got rather warm that day and windy and about 11:00, the fire flared up again and jumped the trail and got over the top of the mountain and past the fire tower. Dewey Wray was in the tower and he was scared - he was afraid the tower would burn down. I was out 24 hours the first day and 24 hours the next day. Then they got several truckloads of CCC guys to finish it up.

[picture of mountain gap with an arrow "Fire started here and traveled east"]

Dust storms

While we had floods in the east, the west was dry and blowing away. In Kansas, the soil would blow away and drive like snow in drifts as high as a fence post. The dust blew into the houses and their meals were fortified with free grits. Some of the dust came as far as Pennsylvania.

[photo labeled "Dust Storm, Mar 26, 35 Hays Kans]

In 1938, I worked at the CCC camp in Treaster Valley. We built an oil and grease building, a blacksmith shop, enlarged the office, put shutters on the barracks, etc. Business was improving about that time and 2 months after we finished, they closed the camp and tore the buildings down. The US started building up for the war that many could see coming as it had already started in Europe.

World War II

I went to market in Lewistown at that time and I could soon tell a difference in sales as more people were working and if you had nice produce, it was no trick to sell $50 worth in a half day.

I would leave here at 4:30 AM and get back at 2 PM, wore out, but as the apples were dropping, I would change clothes and rush out to pick apples. Then, about a half-hour later, Dad would hunt me up and want me to pick up the corn that they husked that day, and crib it. He was afraid of W.B. who was here all day, so I had to let the apples rot and bring in the corn.

Things kept moving along and one Sunday afternoon, I was laying on the couch with the radio on and I heard the Japanese had tore up Pearl Harbor. Things were never the same after that. We had to live on mush and milk, dried apples, snitz and knely (?) rye bread, etc.

If you had more than 5 tires for a car, you had to ship them in to the government. They were to pay $1 or $2 each for them. I had a few extra, so I took them in to the express office and shipped them. But they didn't pay me for them. I think they owed me five or six dollars, so about a year later, I wrote and told them they had not paid for them and they were to ship them back as I now needed them. I got a check real quick.

You needed pull to purchase a new tire, as they were rationed. You needed ration stamps to buy meat, sugar, butter, etc. You had to register to buy gas and when the stamps were all, you walked.

The day after Pearl Harbor, I decided to go deer hunting, so I crossed the hill and up Shade Mountain through Painter Gap and up to the top of the middle ridge and didn't see anyone till I got to the top. Then, I saw two guys coming up the other side. I said, "Is anybody hunting?" They said, "You're the first guy we saw." So, I decided to go to the top of the next mountain, as the Game Commission had put in a game reserve there. I look around a little, then come back about 200 yards and sat on a log and soon I heard something back of me and there stood a nine-point buck, so I picked him off.

[photo of dead deer with big horns]

There I was, 3 miles from home with a big buck to handle. Going up the middle ridge, I took my rifle and coat a hundred yards or so, then went back and brought the deer up, then my rifle and coat again. I finally made it to the top, then it was all downhill. When I was half-way down the gap, 6 guys from Maitland helped me get home.

While I was still in the mountain, the US declared war on Japan. So, not as much hunting was done the next 4 years, although I did get a nice 10 point in 1943.

Flag raising, War time

The people of Alfarata put up a flag pole in the square and unfurled the flag, but this was during World War I. Hulda Henry raised the flag the first time because her grandpa was a Civil War veteran. I made cider a few times and I had trouble getting the horses to go past the flag as the wind was blowing. The flag didn't last long as the wind soon had it shredded. Somebody later cut the pole down. The pole stood in what is now the center of Route 522 North. The main highway at that time went south past the Lutheran Church, then crossed the creek, then curved back in line with the highway last of the flag pole. About 1924, a bridge was build upstream from the church and the swamp filled up and the road made straight. About 1970, a new larger wider bridge was built.

During World War II, they put up a crows nest instead of a flag pole and took turns watching for airplanes. My turn was Tuesday night 10-12 PM. One night, my Ford would not start, so I walked home and the next morning I walked back and got Harold Reynolds to work on it and he found the switch was worn out, so he put a pull chain switch on it. I said, "How will I know if the switch is on or off?" He said, "If it starts, the switch is on." I soon put a regular switch on. I also had to stop all traffic during blackouts. Then I would hear the "all clear" and would turn on the porch light and away they would go.

If you needed a new tire, you had to turn in an old one and if you wanted tooth paste, you turned in the old tube and if you wanted toilet paper you... never mind.

We were on war time year-round and in the winter it got daylight about 8:30. I would like to know what happened to all that daylight they saved.

The railroads were busy during the war, hauling freight and passengers. I was in at the junction a few times and the waiting rooms were packed with people waiting on trains. One evening I saw a girl sitting across from me and I noticed a fat wallet on the floor under her seat, so I figured I would wait till her train came, then pick it up and run after her and ask if she lost anything. But after a bit, she got to looking around on her lap and on the floor. Then she picked it up, so I knew it belonged to her.

I tired to help the war effort all I could, buying bonds, growing all the food I could, walking instead of driving to save gasoline, etc. Some people were trying to undo the war effort. A case in point: before the war, we had a Democrat governor, then about 1942 a Republican was elected. Soon after that, I heard a noise out front, so I went out and there was a gang of guys digging up the highway. Every 100 yards, they dug a ditch across the blacktop and stuck a ruler down to see how deep the top was. I said to one of the guys, "I don't see how that's going to help the war effort." He got mad and said it will tell us if we need a new road.

They did that all the way from Lewistown to the Snyder County line. They never patched the ditches they dug and the bumps remained until after the war was over. We had a good road for 100 yards, then a bump, another 100 yards, bump. I broke a spring in one of their bumps. We didn't need a new road before they dug it up, but we sure needed a new one after that, but we didn't get it. And the war kept on.

Every month or so, they would ship another bunch out and I think all from right around here got back except one: John Shingler, who was in the Battle of the Bulge and didn't make it.

Sunday School

I was Treasurer of the Sunday School at the time and we had a little extra cash, so we bought a war bond and that made the preacher mad. He said, "Whoever heard of a church buying bonds?" He thought we should give the money to him. He later got a leave of absence and joined the Navy and they sent him to the Pacific to some island and he got moldy and he quit, but he never came back to Alfarata, which didn't make me feel bad. He got a job somewhere else and later died. He was what I call a dictator, thought he knew more than other people and wanted everybody to know it.

I was on the Church Council over 25 years, so I ran across quite a few preachers. We used to have over 200 attend Sunday School, and the aforementioned preacher tried to teach the people not to go to Sunday School. He thought that way more people would go to Church, but it didn't work out that way.

I was Treasurer of the Sunday School for over 20 years. Then the preacher instructed the Council to demand all Sunday School money to be turned over to the Church Council Treasurer. Our Sunday School offerings used to be over $50 per Sunday, now they seldom reach $50 per year. Years ago, we needed four men to take up the offering - now, two people do it and they are not overloaded.

We had a preacher not long ago who fought with the members and about 50 of them quit coming and many of them never will come back. They now shipped him over to Africa, but it was 10 years too late.

At one time, we were without a pastor and they got temporary pastors and one time they had a professor from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove. He stayed at our place for supper, but he would not eat much and he said he could not preach on a full stomach. On the way home from church, one of the kids said he might just as well have eaten.

One Sunday morning, the preacher didn't show up, so they called him on the phone and he said he forgot about it. They think he had been drinking Saturday night and didn't get over it in time. We soon got rid of him.

Our Sunday School class had a nice banner with our name on it to stir up interest and it disappeared and we found evidence that it was burned. We blamed the girls' class for burning it, as we nearly always had a larger offering and a larger attendance than they had. They say it takes all kinds of people to make a world, but I think we have some kinds we don't need.

And the war went on.

By this time, Germany was pretty well smashed up and finally gave up. Japan hung on for a while, but they finally gave up as not much was left of their islands. It took 2 or 3 years to bring the troops back to the US. Some were gone for 10 years, and we still have a lot of soldiers and sailors stationed in foreign countries, which costs millions of dollars per year. I don't know why we don't bring them home.

As the veterans came back, they all got their old jobs back if they wanted them back. But it still took several years to straighten things out and get things moving in a normal way again.

Things were starting to move again, everybody working, no rationing, buying sugar, meat, tires, gas, flour without ration stamps. No more blackouts, no more watching for airplanes. Most factories were busy making things they could not make during the war. Nearly all farm products were in demand: grain, beef, pork, chickens, etc., to help feed the world.

Then in four or five years, some things were overproduced and prices fell again.

The Big Blow

I forgot to mention the big blow of May 1938. I was in the store building in Alfarata that evening and about 9 pm, the building started to shake and crack. Several guys ran to the door to keep it from blowing in. A few minutes later, Alex Krebs, who lived in one end of the store building, came in and asked us to help move furniture as the roof was leaking.

The chimney had blown down. While we were out on the porch, someone noticed the roof of the Methodist Church had blown off. After a little, there was a flash of lightning and I saw the top of Gruner Yeater's house had blown away. Also Ammon Spigelmyer's house was twisted out of shape and had to be rebuilt.

So, I figured it was time to go home and see how things looked. I found the highway full of tree branches and apple trees. The four-car garage was pushed out to the edge of the highway, the wagon shed was flat and the roof scattered up through the field across the road, half the barn roof was gone. I found most of it later in the field and up in the woods and down in the neighbor's woods. The silo was damaged when hit by the barn roof. An apple tree that grew in the orchard west of the house was found in the garden east of the house. A winder charger on top of the house was damaged. I found the propeller down in the hay field 1/4 mile away.

The house was not damaged. I found pieces of board in the corn field that came from Gruner Yeater's house over one mile away. I didn't need to look for work for the rest of the summer. The first job was getting the remains of the wagon shed off the highway. Then, we got several guys to help straighten up the garage and get it back on the wall. That's been over 50 years ago and it's still standing OK, so I guess we done it right.

Next job was to gather up the barn roof and make all new rafters except the one at each end, then straighten out the sheets and get the roof back on. Two weeks were gone.

Below is a photo of the woods above the house after the tornado when through.

[picture of downed trees]

The tornado started at the east end of Dry Valley and I believe it downed a chicken house, then it came down in Alfarata and the Methodist Curch. Less Knepp worked the balance of the summer rebuilding the Church. Then, about a year or so later, the church disbanded and Dick Deamer bought the land and built a house on some of it.

Ammon Spigelmyer bought Sterretts Hall, which stood on the corner at Pine and Market Streets in Alfarata and changed it into a house about 1937. The Hall was built for a store building about 1880 or 1890 and the Alfarata Band used one end of it for practice, etc. Also, elections were held in the same room. About one year after Ammon Spigelmyer remodelled it, the tornado came along and smashed it, so he dismantled it and put up a new house back a little from the corner. D.W. Snook had the store in the old building during World War I and a year or two later, he moved his store to Paintersville, buying out W.G. Sigler. Rebers had the store on the west side of Market St. and Foster Henrey had a store across the street.

When the storm left Alfarata, it traveled east and touched down at Pete Ulshes, who had just bought the Eric Goss farm that spring. His silo and garage were blown down. Then the tornado came down to visit us after it done about all the damage it could around here. It went east and flattened the barns of Russel Hoffman, Roll Bauersox, Howard Goss, and Henny Erb, and then left.

I started rebuilding the wagon shed. I took a bunch of the trees that had blown down to the sawmill and got them sawed. Then I started to frame it, which is a slow job, mortising all joints, making new posts, new braces, etc., but I got it up in time to put corn in the crib, which I built in the side of the shed. That was just in time so I could help pick corn. Then that winter I built a shop out of the odds and ends of lumber that was left.

We made logs out of the trees that blew down and sold them to Harry Knepp - 10,000 feet of lumber. He gave me $100 for them. Now, the same amount of logs would be worth $2,000.

Betting

During November 1938, I worked for the PA Dept of Highways, putting up snow fence and Fat Spigelmyer was helping and one day he got to talking about hunting deer. He said he wished we would dare start hunting at 7 the first day (the last three or four years, the Game Commission opened the season at 9 AM the first day). I said, "You dare start at 7 this year," but he didn't believe me. He said, "I'll bet you a quarter." I said, "OK." Bill Yeater said, "I'll hold the money." The next morning, he told Bill to give me the money and said we could start at 7 AM. Later in the day, he said, "Let's bet my pay check against yours" that he would get his deer before I would get mine. The second morning I got mine, and met Fat. I said, "Where is that paycheck?" He said no, we didn't bet.

The New York World's Fair, 1939

I received a letter from my brother Ray requesting me to meet the Boston boat in N.Y. at 8 AM at Pier 23. Well, I didn't know a thing about N.Y. or Pier 23. When I got within 20 miles of N.Y., I stopped at an information box which they had scattered along the highway, and told him where I wanted to go. He said, "Keep going on this highway and you will see a sign for Holland Tunnel. Turn right and you will find a gas station there. He will let you park there. Then, if you want to go to the fair, go down the street two blocks and you come to a railroad which will take you to Grand Central Station." Just as I got there, a train had just pulled in, so I hopped on. Then I happened to think, "I don't know where this train is going. I might get to the World's Fair or I might land in Florida." But it happened to be going the right way, so I rented a room and got on the subway and went to the fair. I got back to the hotel about 12, then went back to the fair the next day.

The next morning, I drove down to the river and drove onto the ferry boat and he took me across the river for fifty cents. I parked there until the Boston boat arrived, then I gathered up Ray and his family and drove on the boat again and he brought me back across the river again and we started for Alfarata, arriving home about 4.

Thirty Years Hard Labor

In 1939, I started attending the Lewistown Market at the market house on 3rd street, every Saturday morning at 5 o'clock, getting things ready Friday and loading up the Ford at 4 o'clock and heading for Lewistown. A load consisted of the following: 2 bu potatoes, 4 bu apples, 1 bu plums, 30 doz eggs, 30 doz corn, 25 lbs butter, 4 gal buttermilk, 2 gal vinegar, 25 gal cider, 20 bunches rhubarb, 10 bunches flowers, etc., etc. No wonder the Ford groaned. From November to March, add one porker, which we butchered each week.

When market was over, I had to deliver a lot of stuff from one end of town to the other. Then come home and pick apples or haul hay. Erg erg. I would rather work than go to market.

Sometimes the cops would get after me. One time, I parked on N. Main St. at 5 o'clock in the morning and the street was covered with ice and snow and I could not see the white lines. When I came back a ticket was on the windshield for parking over a white line, so I went to the borough hall and there was an old cross-eyed jerk there and I argued with him, but he was too dumb to talk straight, so I gave him $1.00 and left and I don't think I put a nickel in a meter in Lewistown since.

You meet all kinds of people at market, some nice, some otherwise. I could never get along with Noah Smith, who had the stand next to me. One time, I killed a beef and asked Noah if he would sell some of it. He had pork and had better scales than I had. He said he would and when market was over, he kept 1/2 the money. I never asked him to sell anything for me again. He was a Mason and thought he was a bigshot. Later, I took pork to market and sometimes I would sell more than he would. One lady told me that nobody in the market house make better scrapple than we did.

Mary Smith thought her goods were better than other people's. One day I got a pie from her and you could tell she used fryings to make the crust. One day market was about over and I needed a carton and Noah had a pile there, so I asked if I could borrow one until next week. He said, "I brought them in for myself." About 10 minutes later, Mary needed a paper bag, so she grabbed one of mine. She said, "I'll use one of yours. Mine are all out in the truck." I should have said, "I brought them for my own use."

When they moved the market from 3rd Street down to Market Street, they gave me the first table inside the door and moved Noah back near the back of the building, which suited me fine. The market disbanded in 1971.

Reward $300

I went deer hunting one afternoon and I put out after a big buck, but he eluded me, so I detoured to try to get ahead of him and intercept him and in so doing I discovered some loot which was the same as that which was announced on the radio that was stolen from a warehouse. A reward of $300 was offered for information about some of the goods, which were valued at $4,000.

I never did see the buck, but I did receive the $300. I was hunting about 3 hours, so I averaged $100 per hour. If I could collect $100 per hour every hour I ever hunted, I could bring the national debt down quite a bit. I'll never forget that afternoon's hunt, even if I live to be an old man [he says, at age 90+].

If you want to capture a big buck, you have to be smarter than the deer. I have captured 28 or 30 deer and some were easy to get. One, I got 15 minutes after I left the house and some an hour or two after I started and some it was 10 years until I caught up to them.

One time I was helping P. Gilbert and he said one day, "If we get this roof done today, we will go deer hunting tomorrow." Well, we finished the roof that day, but he didn't say anything about deer hunting in the evening. So, the next day, I decided to go alone, so I went up the mountain and 10 minutes after I started hunting, I had a 5 point buck.

The 20th Century

The 20th Century will soon be over - let's see how we're doing. Ford and GM are still making cars bigger but not better. But the price is way up there. In 1920, you could buy a new car for $400 to $1,000. Now they cost from $15,000 to $40,000. You get a larger car and also a debt and by the time you get it paid for, it's wore out. In the 20s and 30s you could get a guy to work on your car for about 50 cents per hour. Now they want $50 per hour.

I never had a Japanese car, but I hear they are better than those made in the USA.

Tires cost about eight or nine times what they did in 1930 and gas is about $1.00 per gallon more. So I think I will have to get a bicycle, but they cost $125, up to $2,500 or more.

Republicans and Democrats

California is in a bad fix. Ronald Reagan got the state in so much trouble that they had to raise taxes so high that factories either had to close up or move out. One fourth of all small companies are moving out. Income taxes are higher there than 49 of the other states in the US. Sales tax is 8 1/2 %. The only auto manufacturing plant left is a Japanese plant - the rest all moved out.

It wouldn't be so bad if he would have stayed in California, but now the whole USA is messed up. Just the interest on the national debt that he created costs every person in the US $2,400 per year, and that's just the interest. To pay the national debt, every man, woman and child in the USA will have to pay over $4,000. Some people actually think he was a good president. erg-erg.

It made me mad every time I saw Air Force One fly past with a banner on the side "California bound" and on the other side "Your tax dollars at work". He would take a month off several times a year to go to California to clean his horse stables. He was a lot worse President than Nixon, who knew enough to resign when he could not handle the job. George Washington could not tell a lie, but Ron was good at it.

This is the way he operated: Question: Did you send arms to Iraq, etc.? Answer: I don't remember. Question 2: " " " "? Answer 2: " " " ". Question 3: " " " ". Erg erg. Fiddle faddle. I hope he does nothing during the rest of his life except clean horse stables.

On a scale from 1 to 10, thorn Bush would be at the bottom, but he is a lot better than that windjammer. Ron was an actor. They told him what to do and when he was President, Nancy told him what to do if the Big Dipper was pointed right.

Some people lived near the church and one Sunday, they sent their six year old boy alone to church and he came back. They asked him what the preacher preached about and he said Republicans and sinners.

I went to Church one day and had a donkey pin on which had 7 or 8 inserts that looked like diamonds and the preacher asked me if they were genuine. I said, “If they are not, then I got cheated out of a dime.”

The Democrats had a rally one time. They pulled up a manure spreader for the speaker to stand on. He said, "This is the first time I ever made a Democrat speech from a Republican platform."

Church jokes

There was a girl who found a billfold in front of the church one Sunday morning. She told the preacher to announce it in church. Her name was Helen Hunt. So, the preacher said, "If anyone lost a billfold, they are to go to Helen Hunt for it."

A preacher taught a Sunday School class of teenage girls. One day they went on a picnic. The preacher marched ahead, followed by the girls. They went down along the river looking for a shady place to have their picnic. There was an old native there, fishing, and he asked the preacher, "Are you going fishing?" The preacher said, "No, I am a fisher of men." "Well," the native said, "I reckon you have the right kind of bait."

The Grange

Decatur Grange was organized in May 1922 and I am the only charter member left. Soon after it was organized, some people from Fort Granville came to visit and Mrs. Dan Brought brought a box of home-made candy along. She said whoever told the best story got the candy. So I told about a young guy who got a job in a hardware store. One day the boss had to leave for a while and told the kid that if anyone came in and wanted something the store didn't have, he was to try and sell them something else. Soon someone came in and asked for toilet paper. He said "We don't have any, but we have a very good grade of sandpaper." So I got the candy. Somebody said I might need sandpaper after eating the candy.

One time I took a box of plums to a meeting and said they would go to whoever told the best story. Then they wanted me to start. I said I don't know any and Carl Knepp said I was to tell about the big fish that got away. I said I will tell about a big one I caught one time - I took a picture of it and the picture weighed 4 lbs. I got the plums back.

We had debates sometimes and the first one I helped was resolved that the auto is of more use than the horse. One guy on the horse side said that you can travel cheaper with a horse than with a car. I said if he would drive his horse as fast as he drives his car, he would soon find out different. We won.

We had a debate at a Pomona meeting one time. Resolved that a tractor is more important to a farmer than his horses. At that time, there were only a few tractors around. I was the first speaker and said I would try and prove that tractor was the most important, "If I don't run out of gas." I said "Dan Webster says anything that moves under its own power is either a car or a tractor." So that is about the biggest business we have in the U.S., unless it would be the bootleg business. I said, "I know a farmer who farms 80 acres and doesn't have a horse on the place" (he had 4 mules). We won. I think that was the last time I tried to debate.

Politics Again

This is a presidential election year and a lot of candidates are at large. The Republicans are bragging how good times are, how Ron put taxes down, and left the national debt get so high it will take 60 years to get the U.S. on solid footing again. The Democrats claimed it's time for a change. When the smoke cleared away, the Republicans were snowed under and George was put on the shelf. George was not a bad scout, but he could not undo the damage Ron had done.

Clinton can't expect to set things right in one term. It took the Republicans 12 years to drag down the US and it will take more than that to restore the damage. Last fall, it took every cent the IRS collected west of the Mississippi to pay the interest on the national debt. Now they moved the line to West of Kishacoquillis Creek.

We are having a snow storm. Clinton promised to do a lot in the first 100 days, but so far he is just messing around and 20 days are gone already. I could give him some advice. Quit messing with gays and the army. Put people to work and forget unemployment. Do away with welfare and make them work. Put taxes down and cuts spending in half, including salaries of all congress members, all judges, lawyers, doctors, school teachers, etc. Maybe you can figure out what I mean. It's difficult to describe, but impossible to forget. The snow is still coming down.

The Bay

I went to see the Chesapeake Bay last fall. It was close to moon-down on the west side near the Park River. We crossed three more rivers to get there Potomac - Rappohanock - Putuxent. The bay was 200 feet from the house and the house was two feet above sea level.

It was 81 degrees one day and the mosquitoes were biting. They have big ones down there they climb up the trees and bark. The land is level and when it rains, it takes 3 or 4 days for the water to disappear. The kids can't sled ride, because there are no hills and also it seldom snows there. The tide looks like 3' or 4' except when there is a storm from the east, when it can be 6' or 7'.

One afternoon, we went down to Williamsburg to William and Mary college, about 75 miles. I didn't see William, but I saw Mary. She smiled at me. It was in a church that has been in use since 1613. The street approaching the college is closed to cars until 5 PM. We didn't make it to campus as it got late too early.

The country around there is rich in lore of early settlers and revolutionary war times. Yorktown, where the redcoats surrendered, is nearby. William and Mary is the second oldest college in the US (1693). Jamestown (1607) is the first settlement that kept going. Most of them were scattered by the Indians or disappeared.

Don't read this page - I have the same thing on page 33 - I overdone it

Hello book. I didn't look at you for quite a while, but you didn't miss much. Nothing much happened.

In March (1993), we had a blizzard that some people called the Blizzard of the Century, bunk bunk, fiddle faddle, erg erg. They never saw a real blizzard.

The blizzards we had in January 1936 and February could be the blizzards of the century and a half. There were three or four feet of snow in the mountains, also in the roads. The temperature didn't get above zero for a week or more for several weeks. When the snow melted, it produced the flood of 36 or 38 feet of water in Lewistown.

I saw two guys trying to go down Main St. and the boat tipped over and the guys grabbed hold of light poles and the boat, a nice new red one, went down the river and I think it landed in the Chesapeake Bay.

Water

I think this is an important subject - you can get along without eating for 3 or 4 weeks, but 2 days is about the limit without water. That drink you had a while ago, Pocahontas probably washed her feet in it.

The world has about the amount of water now that it had when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. We just keep using it over and over. We have been polluting it, then recycling it. 97% of the water in the world is salt water and 2/3 of the fresh water is ice and snow at the poles and we get the rest to use over and over. It's been figured that the US uses 1300 gallons of water per day for each person. That includes what you use to brush your teeth, wash your feet, etc., and also what is used in agriculture.

We use 3 times as much water as European countries. The factories and farms use a lot of the water. It takes 1,000 gallons of water to produce 1/2 pound of steak.

Some parts of the USA have underground aquifers that are pumped out and one place in California, the ground has dropped 4 feet after they pumped the water out.

A lot of water falls on the US every day and what doesn't soak into the soil drains into creeks and then into lakes, rivers, and the oceans. Then the sun evaporates a lot of it into the clouds and it comes back down again. But as the wind and weather usually travels from west to east, the water the sun picks up may not come down before the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Then the sun picks it up again and it might come down in Germany. It may take 40 or 50 years, but there is a good chance that it will arrive back in PA. That also holds good for snow. We had a blizzard the past 2 weeks and the snow drifts look like the same snow that almost froze me in 1936. The last 25 days, just 3 or 4 that it got above freezing. It is 10 above today and trying to snow, rain, sleet.

Someone figured out if all the ice and snow that is stored at the north and south poles were to melt, the water in all the oceans would be 20 feet deeper. ERG. Someone else figured out that if the USA were flat and level, you would empty all the water out of Lake Superior, it would cover the USA 1 foot deep. Oh, well, who cares.

I will take that back about the ice and snow being at the North and South poles. I think most of it is around here now. I have 5 feet piled up by the mail box and 5 feet besides the garage door and the ground pig says it is to last 6 more weeks. But that don't apply here, as the snow had his hole covered and he could not get out.

Two below this morning and more snow on the way. Another 8 inches of snow, so I got the old shovel out again. No place to put any more. The side of the porch roof had about three feet on it, so I shoveled about a ton off, then when I came down, some of it covered the cellar door, so I had to handle it again.

Flash: It's snowing again, 5-12 inches expected. Too cold to go out - I am getting to be a couch tomato. I also have cabin fever. Yesterday, the sun shone nice and the snow melted a little. If it keeps it up for the next 100 days, we will only have about 12 inches left. Flash number 2: We got another foot of snow this week.

Another blizzard, 24 inches of snow - I can't even give it away.

I cleaned off the porch roof again. Several large barns caved in from the weight of the snow. I was out most of the day yesterday shoveling snow. I stopped at a place today, but there was no place to park. I looked at his driveway and I figured it would take about an hour to shovel a parking place, so I parked at his neighbor's. I was afraid of getting a ticket, but nobody said anything. I moved 10 times as much snow than what is in his driveway, but he didn't remove one shovel full. He said he didn't think he would be in church on Sunday, his car was snowed in. Snow storm number 17 is raging outside, but it don't have as much pep as some of the previous storms. About 4 inches so far.

Spring is to start 3 days from now, but it don't look much like spring. There is still 2 or 3 feet of snow on the ground and it's heavy, wet snow (I found that out when I was shoveling). That makes 1500 tons per acre. That's a lot of weight and that tilts the earth north and it takes the sun longer to melt the snow.

Last year, not much snow, so the earth didn't slip out of balance and we had an early spring.

When it rains, the surplus water goes down the river, but when it snows, the weight piles up and the world spins off course. The snow is now pretty well melted so maybe the earth will tilt back to normal, but if it tilts too far, the other way and South America gets a lot of snow, the sun will push down harder here, and then look for a hot summer. I feel it coming already (after a while).

Now the snow is all gone and the birds are birding, the bugs are bugging, and we almost have a hot spell. I don't expect to have any peaches this year as the temperature got below 20 below zero in the winter and peaches will not stand that. The snakes are out, but as yet I didn't find any rattle heads.

The way it feels, I think the snow is now piling up at the south pole as it is too hot to go outside. Also, a lot of rain, but not much growing except weeds. Not a peach on the place and just a few apples.

Fall is almost here, still hot, plenty of rainy days. Two moons later. Fall came and went. Also hunting season, nothing to hunt. I didn't see one deer. The Game Commission wants to kill all the does off so the bucks have more to eat. I have been trying the last 20 years to get them to stock deer.

Bugs

Somebody figured out if all the bugs, insects, worms, caterpillars, mosquitoes, etc. in the world were gathered up and weighed, they would weigh as much as all the people. And if all bugs and insects, etc., were destroyed, the earth would turn into a desert. All trees, plants, etc., would die. He claims they help dig in the soil to help keep it loose and help pollinate the plants and trees, etc., and help feed the birds and fishes, coons, skunks, etc. But it seems to me it would be quite a job to catch them all and weigh them. I would not mind helping to catch the gypsy moths.

Status Quo

That's Latin for "the fix we're in". This is still the 20th Century, but is it better than the 19th? Some ways yes, some ways no. We don't know how to make matches anymore that work. Some time ago, I went out in the orchard to burn brush and I used 19 matches and could not get one of them to burn. They were large kitchen matches. The EPA made a law that matches would have to be made that would only ignite on special sand paper. It's still legal to use flint and punk or a piece of wood, Indian fashion. It's unlawful to have an underground fuel tank unless it's registered with the EPA. Bunk. Fiddle Faddle.

Computers

The country is going wild over computers and kids in school have to learn how to operate them. If you ask them simple questions, they are unable to solve them without a computer.

I was instructed to come to a hospital to be admitted, but they sent me home as the computer was broke down. One day I went to a drug store for a bottle of eye drops and I waited and waited a half-hour or more. The computer was broke down. I have not been in that store since.

The cars they make today, you almost have to have a computer to change a spark plug. A while back, I needed a new belt for my car, but he had to take this apart, remove that, adjust this, etc. The belt cost $12 and it cost $22 to install it. I was driving in a western state 60 years ago and I needed a belt for the water pump, so I stopped at a store. He said, "I don't have any that will fit, so I'll make one." So, he installed it and it lasted over 2,000 miles and the bill was 40 cents. He did not even have a computer.

Stress

I heard a preacher say stress is the main trouble in the US. It causes cancer, TB, heart trouble. Most anything that ails you is caused or made worse by stress. Most factory workers do piece work and are always on edge trying to get more done. One guy going down the road at 40 mph is followed by a guy that wants to go 70 mph if he can pass the first guy. The guy going 40 mph will likely live 30 years longer than the other guy. That's what the preacher said. They say stress is made worse in the winter because people stay indoors out of the sunshine, but I don't think I want to sit out on a snow drift when it's 10 below.

1995

Well, Christmas came and went and we have a new year to dispose of. No snow so far, nice warm days. Two moons later. February is almost gone, but we did get some snow, 3 inches and 2 days left in Feb and we got 2 more inches of snow and freezing rain and sleet.

Another snow and sleet storm, not much snow up north, so the earth around is starting to rise up, and the sun is hitting harder, so spring is about ready to dump a lot of warm days on us, so we will have to hunt up the lawn mower, garden tools, weed killer, also the crow and groundpig rifle.

A good crop of peaches should be on the way as it didn't get colder than 5 above all winter.

The wild geese are going north. I asked Bill if he knew why the one side of the V was always longer... answer on page 79 [which says "more geese on one side"]. I asked Audrey's man Walt why wild geese fly north in the spring and fly south in the fall... answer on page 33 [which says "because it's too far to walk"].

Well, I guess the geese are all north by this time and the world keeps rolling along. Spring has left and summer around with a long 3 weeks of up to 100 in the shade and no shade around.

I also had another birthday. A lady said she could not live that long. She said, "How do you do it?" I said, "A day at a time." If you want to live long, just add a lot of years to your life without growing old.

I feel a quote coming on so I will wait a few minutes so you can get a paper and pen. OK, are you ready? A lot of people are fussing about getting sick and worrying about this and that. I think it would be better not to think “when” they are going, but “where”.

Well, I think my pen quit. That makes 8 pens I wore out writing this. Think some of them would last about 2 pages. Some 1 page. The best one was a free advertising pen which lasted about 30 pages. The ink they make now will fade and disappear in 70 years and as there is nothing to write about but the Republicans, I had better stop. The Republicans say the Democrats don't know how to run the country and the Democrats say the GOPs are crooks and I think they are both about right.

My pens all died, so I think I should bring this to a close. Most of the books I read closed with a period, so here goes .

J.I. Rhine

Dec 25, 1995

[Jake died Jan 31, 2000 at age 97.]

[The rest of the book is aphorisms and quotations.]

It's not what you earn, but what you save that counts.

Being right half the time is better than being half-right all the time.

It's not how many hours you put in, but what you put in the hours.

Have a warm heart, but not a hot head.

A dog has a lot of friends, because he wags his tail instead of his tongue.

Some of my best friends are people.

The more a man thinks of himself, the less he will make of himself.

The national flower is now the highway cloverleaf.

I wish I knew as much as I thought I knew when I was 18.

Square meals make round people.

Nutty advice: Don't worry if your lot is hard / And your rewards are few; / Remember that the mighty oak / Was once a nut like you.

In cemetery: Contented here lies Henry Clark / At last he's found a place to park.

You can't make footprints in the sands of time by sitting down.

Tis better to have loved and lost than to have won and then be bossed.

On tombstone: Here lies my wife Samantha Proctor, she had a cold and not a doctor.

She could not stay, she had to go; praise God from whom all blessings flow.

No weather is bad if you're suitably clad.

Two can live cheaper than one, but it costs more.

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.

After all is said and done, sit down.

He who gets too big for his britches will be exposed in the end.

Never marry for money, it's cheaper to borrow.

There is no right way to do a wrong thing.

The first half of your life, you know it all. The second half you forget it all.

Old Noah must have been an easy mark if he let 2 bedbugs in that ark.

It takes less time to do a thing right than explain why you did it wrong.

It takes a woman longer than a man to dress; she has to slow down for the curves.

A man should work 8 hrs and sleep 8 hrs, but not the same 8 hrs.

Let us try to add life to our years and not years to our life.

Be yourself, but don't overdo it.

A pessimist is one who looks at things as they are.

A recession is when you have to tighten your belt. Depression is when you don't have a belt to tighten. A panic is when you ain't got no pants to hold up.

Ignorance is when you don't know something and someone finds it out.

Wisdom is knowing when to speak your mind and when to mind your speech.

Some people are like a wheelbarrow - they have to be pushed.

The darkest day in winter may produce the whitest snow.

Good character, like good soup, is usually home-made.

Horse sense is stable thinking.

The go-getter goes till he gets what he goes for. The go-getter works till he reaps what he sows for. He sets a goal and resolves when he sets it the way to win out is to go till he gets it.

"Will you marry me?" said he. "No," said she. And they lived happily ever after.

"Honey will you marry me?" "OK," said she. Ten minutes later she said, "Tom, why don't you say something?" He said, "I said too much already."

Lives of farmers oft remind us: honest toil don't stand a chance. The more they work, they leave behind them larger patches on their pants.

Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to get a drink of gin. But when she got there, the cupboard was bare and the old man was licking his chin.

If you wish to have a short winter, have your note come due in the spring.

By the time most folk get to greener pastures, they are too old to climb the fence.

Mr. Potts was so well-known in Pennsylvania that they named three towns after him: Pottstown, Pottsville, and Chambersburg.