Newsletter
Walton Historical Society members receive a newsletter to keep up-to-date with what is going on.
The following article is from a past newsletter:
PAUL'S PAST
When a nonagenarian shares memories with us, it is a wonderful treat. Paul Miller, a Walton resident and society member, has chronicled his memoirs, and we are happy to bring them to life in installments, beginning with the following excerpt:
I think I have lived the 90-year period that has seen the most progress of any such periods past or to come.
Somewhere I had a picture of me at about six months old sitting on the hood of my father's first car – a black Model T Ford. All Ford cars were black and sold new for four hundred and some dollars. You had to wear heavy clothing if it was chilly out.
When I was about age four or five and my brother Glenn was 16 or 17, we both had pneumonia at the same time. Dr. Gladstone drove a horse and buggy eight miles from Walton to our Mundale home in the morning and again in the evening to doctor us. Pneumonia was often fatal back then.
At about five and a half years old, I started school at Stoodley Hollow district school, Town of Hamden. (The schoolhouse now is someone’s vacation home.) It was about a 1.2 mile walk each end of the day for about eight years. Our district's school had no running water and had a little wood stove like Mike and Becky have in their dining room. Usually some boy in the 7th or 8th grade would go an hour early and build a fire.
I remember in February 1934 Dad and three Mundale farmers went to Syracuse to a Dairymen's League meeting. They had my Uncle's brand new 1934 Ford with no heater in it. When they got to the meeting it was 50 below 0 there. The same day I was on early duty to walk the 1.2 miles to Stoodley Hollow and build the fire. It was 40 below here.
Sometime in the early 1930s, my mother entered a home beautification contest sponsored by Delaware County Cooperative Extension office. She won first prize. I forgot how much it was, but I know with the money she bought our first flush toilet. I think I was about 12 or 13 years old. Dad dug an 8 ft. square cesspool with pick and shovel. We had no electricity so we had no running hot water for a bathtub.
I apologize for the order in which these incidences pop into my head, but around 1929 the Board of Health ordered all cattle to be tested for TB. And reactors were to be sold to whatever agency it was. There were 25 or more dairy farmers on East Brook. All of which had five or more reactors. There were no cattle trucks then, so we drove them to the railroad stockyards on West end, Walton. We probably had 100 head or more by the time we reached the last farm. Us kids job was to run ahead and keep them from taking a side street. Can you imagine driving 100 loose cattle through Walton streets today?
I remember the Depression of the late 30's and early 40's. Dad couldn't pay the interest on his mortgage for three or four years. They were scared they were going to lose the farm. They traded eggs, beef, pork, dressed chickens, sweet corn, potatoes, and firewood for flour, sugar and other staples that we didn't have. You couldn't do that today. We never went hungry. Mother had racks of canned goods in the cellar that would feed an army. They talk about today's recession, but look at the cars we drive, the television, cell phones, automatic washers and dryers and automatic heat, garage door openers, computers, Ipods, text messaging and e-mail.
George Tacey, Bernice Lyons' father, was a farmer on West Brook. He held the mortgage on Dad's farm and quite a few other farms around, and I can remember him coming to Dad. Dad was almost crying, afraid he was going to lose the farm... Mr. Tacey said, "Floyd, hang on, I know you're good for it – things are gonna get better." I remember I was old enough to feel what Dad was feeling.
Holidays and Hobbies as a Kid:
I'm not sure if it was Memorial Day or Labor Day, but Dad liked to go for a ride to Mt. Utsayantha, the highest point in Delaware County. The car we had was a 1924 Buick, and instead of a fuel pump it had a vacuum pump that supplied the motor with gasoline, it worked good on the level but not on hill climbs, so we'd get half way up the mountain and the car would quit so we'd have to turn around and back up. There was a fire tower, we'd have a picnic and look at all of Delaware County and clear across the Hudson.
Another ride we did maybe once a year was the Rip Van Winkle trail. It was cut right into the side of the mountain, and you could look right down hundreds of feet.
As a kid in the country, our summer vacations gave us time to spend with cousins. I had cousins in Syracuse that would come and spend time on the farm with us. When asked what we did – the first thing I remembered was catching bumblebees in the hollyhocks and chasing each other with them. We'd go swimming over in the brook, they'd help me with my chores – gathering eggs and barn work.
Please enjoy the recollections of Paul in future issues.