MARTIN STATION The train stopped to allow everyone onboard to eat at a hotel
Reminds me of the story (legend?) of how the Harvey Houses got started. The trains would stop and just a minute or two after the passengers got their beans they'd have to dash back to the train. So they just scraped the plates back in the pots and waited for the next train to show up. Travelers owe a lot to Fred Harvey! Now we just need an airline equivalent.
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
I worked part time at a Sears garage. One of my co-workers was also a part timer. His full time job was at the sewage treatment plant. I guess he didn't notice the smell.
I guess if everyone only bathed once a week, everyone for the most part smelled the same and you just didn't notice it. Growing up I went to a school in the country that was next to a hog farm and with no air conditioning the windows had to remain open most of the day, but after awhile you didn't notice the smell because you just got used to it. The same with all your sweaty classmates after recess.
I always thought about how bad the fly problem must of been in town. After all there were still a lot of horses being used then and what they left in the street or at the hitching post had to attract lots of flies. Before a/c people would have to leave their windows and doors open and even with screens you couldn't keep everything out. Even as a kid I could remember being yelled at when entering or leaving the house, "hurry up! you'll let the flies in"!
I remember reading in the Little House On The Prairie books about the time that they went to vist Pa when he was working for the railroad. The train stopped to allow everyone onboard to eat at a hotel and Laura remembered the food on the tables covered with screen cage covers to keep the flies off the food.
Maybe not so much "the good old days". But with everything moving so slow one smell they probably didn't have to deal with was the "dead skunk in the middle of the road"!
Ralph
Yeah Erik, when I retired and lost my company computer I had to start all over again, so "Firelock" went away and "Flintlock" took his place.
I don't know about the threads getting thousands of replies, but they always seem to have a lot more "Views" than "Replies." Maybe that's a good thing, who knows just how much work the software can handle?
Penny Trains Flintlock76 the Forum's gone berserk Yeah I suspect my post just vanished into the ether. I don't think it was moderated or anything, it just vanished. I did type it on the day that the forums were supposed to be "read-only". I'm just too lazy to type it over again.
Flintlock76 the Forum's gone berserk
Yeah I suspect my post just vanished into the ether. I don't think it was moderated or anything, it just vanished. I did type it on the day that the forums were supposed to be "read-only". I'm just too lazy to type it over again.
I hear you! I posted some fine examples of my usual wit and brilliance yesterday, now vanished. Trouble is I forget what I said.
Flintlock76the Forum's gone berserk
When I was in the fifth grade and my brother Tommy was in the seventh grade, we spent six weeks in the spring on a farm--kerosene lamps, draw water using a windlass, outhouse, range in the kitchen. That summer, REA was able to come through. In the fall fall, we spent three weeks on the same farm--electric lights and range, indoor plumbing, and telephone (the telephone line came through near the electric line). I was invited once to try milking a cow, but did not do well so I was not invited again (I understood the basics, even those of stripping, but just could not apply them).
Johnny
Electroliner 1935When I was there, I slept in a feather down bed with a chamber pot under the bed. And it had a lid.
Your description of the house is exactly like my grandparents' house. The cob stove in the kitchen was the heat for the whole house. The parlor heater was never used that I remember.
You were lucky to have a pot under the bed. I didn't get one of those. I had to run outside, down the path, to the outhouse.
It was spooky at night. I made sure to never drink anything after supper, and go to the outhouse right before bedtime.
There was never anything better than waking up on a freezing morning, and running downstairs to the kitchen to warm up at Grandma's stove as she cooked.
York1 John
The little morons currupted the sign-in system yesterday. But I am still signed in on the phone. Go figure!
The "official" site has a timeline of events that says the organized 'masked robbing' took place between 11:00pm and midnight, which is several hours after the accident and presumably after most of the fires had done their worst. There are reports that injured passengers were 'killed' for their money and valuables, but this raises a further question: why were victims still 'out there' wholesale?
In a form of triage, the 'early responders' seem to have been bringing up only the worst injured; the others were apparently arranged in a row down in the ravine (pending removal?) and it was there that opportunity evidently became too overwhelming to the yeggs, whoever they were, who went home, 'masked up', and raided the scene.
Becky mentioned a book on train wrecks in Ohio that recounted the story of one young man who had put valuables into various parts of his clothing. He was 'rolled' repeatedly for money and other valuables, but the thieves missed his 'heirloom watch'.
Flintlock76Well, there were chamber pots, otherwise known as "thunder mugs." You didn't have to use the outhouse all the time! The really high-grade chamber pots had lids on 'em too!
When I went to my grandparents house on a farm in Indiana (near lebanon) in the late 40's, they did not have runing water or indoor facilities. Baths were done weekly in a galvanized tub filled with well water heated on the coal/corn cob fueled kitchen stove. There was no other heat in the house though it did have a stove in the parlor (which they did not use very often). When I was there, I slept in a feather down bed with a chamber pot under the bed. And it had a lid. There was a privey (outhouse) down a path from the house. They worked the farm but did not notice any bad smells. Hard working people. Today's people don't know how well off most of us are by comparison to our forebearers.
Penny Trains Yes. I was. But what I typed isn't here today.
Yes. I was. But what I typed isn't here today.
Gone indeed! Becky left a very detailed post, and it WAS the "Ashtabula Horror."
Briefly, while the rescue operations were going on masked thugs came out of the darkness indulging in corpse (and not-so-corpse) robbing. Disgusting.
And by the way, the Forum's gone berserk today, posts disappearing and users not being able to log in. I just managed to log in through Microsoft where I usually do it with no problem through Bing/Google. Consideing the lack of posts today I suspect others are having the same problem.
Penny TrainsYes. I was. But what I typed isn't here today.
I saw what you submitted yesterday - it sure isn't here today.
Kalmbach IT strikes again.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Yes, I read your post. It was on page two. Page two? There was a page two, but it's not there anymore!
Flintlock76The thugs who descended on the train wreck had no excuse at all.
I think Penny's talking about Ashtabula. The kind of damage and rapid spread of the fire might have contributed to reports of opportunistic 'thuggery', but there was also very little to be done for survivors trapped even incidentally in the wreckage. See the Angola Horror by comparison.
"Today's world isn't neccessarily better or worse than the old days, we just hear about things faster."
Quite true, and add to the mix a 24 hour news cycle on so many news networks that has to be filled one way or another it's no wonder we get so many bad news stories (If it bleeds, it leads!) that it's enough to make us think the whole world's coming apart at the seams! Bad stuff happens all the time and always has, we just never used to hear about it.
That Ohio wreck story reminds me of the aftermath of the battle of Waterloo when Belgian civilians descended on the battlefield looting the dead and wounded, even killed some of the wounded who made too much noise. In an odd way I can understand, these were tough country folk who didn't ask for two armies to show up and devastate their fields and crops, but jeez, don't take it out on the poor guys who had to do the fighting!
The thugs who descended on the train wreck had no excuse at all.
OvermodGraduated from Kent State. which will forever be associated with those four words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX95QSKBODo
which will forever be associated with those four words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX95QSKBODo
May 4, 1970 was my last day in class. Was in a Business Communications class at the time things went down. Walked on campus that morning past a armored personnel carrier parked at the main gate - National Guardsmen, younger than many of the students going on campus, cleaning the rifles etc. Guardsmen were lead by incompetent 'weekend warrior' leadership that had no training in crowd control and paniced at the first sign of confrontation. I might add that the Guardsmen were fatigued as they had been on duty for the prior two months or so account of at Teamsters strike against the steel haulers in the Northeast Ohio area (it was not yet the Rust Belt).
In the video of '4 Dead in Ohio' the images displayed from about 2:10 on are not from Kent.
Paul Milenkovic BaltACD York1 BaltACD 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making. You went to a high class university. We had to provide our own sheets and wash them. That's why I spent 1½ years sleeping on a mattress with no pad or sheets. Purdue is a 'high class' university. I'd sleep with 2 clean sheets one week, one used sheet for one week and repeat the cycle. Blankets worked too. Too high class for my intellect in higher mathematics required for a Engineering curriculum. Subsequently attended Vincennes University where I found out I was not the dummy the Purdue had made me out to be. Graduated from Kent State. id your professors at Purdue treat you like this? "What's this, then? People called 'Romanes' they go to the house?" https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+life+of+brian+romans+go+home&view=detail&mid=1829168E1885014FB5571829168E1885014FB557&FORM=VIRE
BaltACD York1 BaltACD 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making. You went to a high class university. We had to provide our own sheets and wash them. That's why I spent 1½ years sleeping on a mattress with no pad or sheets. Purdue is a 'high class' university. I'd sleep with 2 clean sheets one week, one used sheet for one week and repeat the cycle. Blankets worked too. Too high class for my intellect in higher mathematics required for a Engineering curriculum. Subsequently attended Vincennes University where I found out I was not the dummy the Purdue had made me out to be. Graduated from Kent State. id your professors at Purdue treat you like this?
York1 BaltACD 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making. You went to a high class university. We had to provide our own sheets and wash them. That's why I spent 1½ years sleeping on a mattress with no pad or sheets.
BaltACD 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making.
You went to a high class university. We had to provide our own sheets and wash them. That's why I spent 1½ years sleeping on a mattress with no pad or sheets.
Purdue is a 'high class' university. I'd sleep with 2 clean sheets one week, one used sheet for one week and repeat the cycle. Blankets worked too. Too high class for my intellect in higher mathematics required for a Engineering curriculum. Subsequently attended Vincennes University where I found out I was not the dummy the Purdue had made me out to be. Graduated from Kent State.
id your professors at Purdue treat you like this?
"What's this, then? People called 'Romanes' they go to the house?"
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+life+of+brian+romans+go+home&view=detail&mid=1829168E1885014FB5571829168E1885014FB557&FORM=VIRE
Took a French class - Ms. Yamamoto was the insturctor.
In 2002 I attended the ICCCR, an international meeting of Citroen enthusiasts held at the University at Amherst, Massachusetts. People were there from all over the world and many brought their vintage Citroens. I stayed in a dorm room and the toilet and shower were down the hall. It was hotter than hell that weekend; both days it was over 100 degrees. No air conditioning, no fan, no breeze, no nothing. Well, that was the closest I ever got to an ivy league education.
Do you recall a movie called "The Freshman" from about 1987 with Matthew Broderick and Marlon Brando? Brando plays a character who Matthew thinks is a Mafia don just like you-know-who. Brando is in his prison-like dorm room and says, "So this is college? I didn't miss much."
UGA 1969-1972. All facilities at end of hall. No one provided sheets. In each symmetrical room 2 sofas that pulled out laterally to make single beds, and two small desks. When in beds mode, less than 3 ft. between them. Cozy. Fortunately I had two great roommates in the three years in that dorm. Senior year I shared an off-campus apt; seemed palatial.
Paul MilenkovicDid your professors at Purdue treat you like this?
"Romani eunt domus" -- sounds about right for Purdue professors. Boilermakers not big on the classics ...
The analogue at Purdue would be professors finding a student putting an M-80 under a trashcan and making them work to synthesize RDX and package it properly instead...
BaltACD Flintlock76 Interestingly, many college dormitorys were set up the same way until fairly recently. Sink in the room, maybe, full facilities down the hall. My dorm at Purdue in 1964-66 had a single bath/shower/toilet area for each floor of the building. Just a desk, book case, closet and bed in the rooms - two persons to a room, with each having the same set up. 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making.
Flintlock76 Interestingly, many college dormitorys were set up the same way until fairly recently. Sink in the room, maybe, full facilities down the hall.
My dorm at Purdue in 1964-66 had a single bath/shower/toilet area for each floor of the building. Just a desk, book case, closet and bed in the rooms - two persons to a room, with each having the same set up. 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making.
I'm not sure if my son's dorm at Purdue has a single bath/shower/toilet area per floor, but the facilities are shared by everyone on the floor. My first dorm at Cal was set up the same way, though the second one had varying numbers of bathrooms per floor as there were varying numbers of rooms on each floor (only room 101 had an attached bahroom as it was the only room on the first floor).
Romans? Somebody bring up Romans?
I should mention this, a little ethnic pride you know...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7tvauOJMHo
BaltACDToo high class for my intellect in higher mathematics required for a Engineering curriculum. Subsequently attended Vincennes University where I found out I was not the dummy the Purdue had made me out to be.
Was it not Thorstein Veblen who went so off the rails as to castigate Purdue as a social drinking school instead of a mid-American MIT by the time of the Higher Learning in America? He had some choice language regarding the situation...
Contrast that with Sylvia Preston's Vassar, where she made a 90 average in seven courses (some of them technical) ... those that couldn't hack the math got tutors.
Got me thinking about Astor, and Charles Hays, and the rest who left too soon. Read Bearwarden's speech and think what might have been. And that brings me to
Graduated from Kent State.
BaltACD York1 BaltACD 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making. You went to a high class university. We had to provide our own sheets and wash them. That's why I spent 1½ years sleeping on a mattress with no pad or sheets. Purdue is a 'high class' university. I'd sleep with 2 clean sheets one week, one used sheet for one week and repeat the cycle. Blankets worked too. Too high class for my intellect in higher mathematics required for a Engineering curriculum. Subsequently attended Vincennes University where I found out I was not the dummy the Purdue had made me out to be. Graduated from Kent State.
Did your professors at Purdue treat you like this?
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Oh yeah, what about Monty Python's Four Men from Yorkshire?
"Huh? We used to live in an old water tank on top of a rubbish tip. We woke up every morning to a load of rotten fish, dumped all over us!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE
Housekeeping? We did it ourselves, though the janitor (who tended the furnace) carried the trash out from the GI cans that stood at the ends of the halls and swept the hall floors. We did have two shower room with washbasins and toilets on each floor (each served 15-16 boys), but we supplied our own sheets and blankets--and did our own laundry.
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