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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1981-08-12, Page 2ES*1 .. 1872 4Brussels Post BRUSSELS. ONT. Established 1872 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community Published at BRUSSELS, ONTARIO every Wednesday morning by McLean Bros. Publishers Limited 0,. Andrew Y. McLean, Publisher Evelyn Kennedy, Editor Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and The Audit Bureau of Circulation. WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1981 Authorized as second class mail by Canada Post Office. Registration Number 0562. Box 50, Brussels, Ontario NOG 1H0 The work bees Morris - history recalls them Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston Oh to be 10 again Oh to be 10 years old again now that summer holidays are here. Seems to me we are never so free in our lives in the true north strong and free as we are when we're youngsters on summer holidays. I'm not one who would live my life over again but from the time the new-mown hay scents the air in June to the time the cicadas crack the heavy air of August with their high-pitched whine I wouldn't mind being 10 again. Ten, I think was the perfect age: old enough for parents to let you off the apron strings, young enough not to have the responsibility of carrying out an adult workload. It left long, warm days of exploring field and wood, imagining following the footsteps of Champlain or finding secret Indian burial mounds, building secret hide- , outs where adults were foreign, generally escaping from the rest of the world outside our imagination. Childhood is not a carefree time. Children at school not only hayed the feeling of captivity because they must learn to keep regular schedules, schedules drawn up by others, but they have the fear of failure and the incredible pressure of their peers. They learn the habits of their later adult life: worrying that they fit in, that they dress as well, that they have the right haircut or that their teeth don't stick out. Life in school is far from free. But for two months during the summer freedom comes. Schedules, of course become either non-existent or at least looser. Dress doesn't matter. Group sizes break down to small units, sometimes just two boys or girls, adult supervision becomes minimized and the kids have a chance to be themselves. Oh adults often still try to regulate the kids. There is this activity and that and it sometimes seems the adult are afraid to let the kids think for themselves for a while in case they plan a revolution. I guess for urban kids there is some need of this because left on their own with nothing to do they will invent trouble. But rural and small town kids have the world's biggest playpen at their back- door. There are trees to climb, rivers to fish and swim in and build rafts on and* camp beside, endless fields to wander collecting endless varieties of insect to go home and unleash on screaming mothers. And while educational technicians in their fancy offices in Clinton or Toronto may not like it, a lot of the most important education a child receives goes on out there in the freedom of field and bush. Our man-made education system, for instance, has been so busy convincing mankind of his own supreme importance in the scheme of things that he thinks the whole world can be reshaped to whatever rules he wants. So today we have a world being poi ,soned by acid rain, paved over by concrete, in danger of ending in a cloud of nuclear fall-out if someone put his finger on the wrong button. Out there in the fields kids learn that they are not superior to nature but are part of it, part of an intricate system of balances that out of whack can bring the whole system to a stop. They learn too that what others say about you, whether your shoes are the right kind or yout hair is in place, whether you get good marks or can play the piano or run the 50-yard dash faster than anyone else your age, that none of these other things really matter. They get a chance to develop as an individual, not as a pre-packaged, colour-coded product of an educational machine. (whether that machine be a school, a television set ready to turn all children into clones of some ideal child, or parents who have some perfect offspring in mind that they want to model their child after). I suppose I'm talking about a childhood some people never experienced and if so I am sorry for them. Some, I suppose never had a chance. Many more just didn't take a chance. Despite the fact we have millions of acres of field and stream and bush few people, even children in our smaller towns and villages, get out and enjoy it. It is as if there was a barbed wired fence 12 feet high around the urban boundaries cutting one off from the other. It's that way for adults too, I think. Even people lucky enough to have a second home in the country or at a lake quickly turn it into a second-hand version of the urban home they left behind. They don't leave the worries of their urban adult life behind at all but bring the mortgage payments and the electrical breakdowns and the worries about how their place compares with the one owned by the chartered accountant next door just like they bring their extra bedding. Would that we all could be 10 years old again for a few weeks every year, free of adult worries about keeping up with the Jones, about office politics, about troubles in Poland and chaos in Ottawa, about crab grass in our manicured lawns. Perhaps it would give us the perspective we need when we go back to our cluttered, complicated adult lives. For many months, Jeanne Kirkby of Walton has been working on a book as part of the Morris Township's cele- bration of its 125th birthday. A section from that book is 'reprinted here. Morris Township, Past to Present by Jeanne Kirkby. Publishers-Morris Township Council. Copyright 1981. WORKING TOGETHER One of the outstanding characteristics of Morris Township people was their tendency to make many tasks lighter by sharing the work in a neighbourhood "bee". Held for many purposes, these bees featured an amaz- ing amount of work accomp- lished, a spirit of competition between teams with the task divided into sections, plenty of good food available for the workers and a lively party or "jig" at the end of the evening to finish things up. Pranks and jokes were not uncommon on such occasions and served to liven up the situation even more. WOOD BEES Planning a logging bee was no small affair. Prepar- ation had to be started systematically, far ahead of the time that the gang of workers was due to arrive. The farmer would choose an area of timber - about 10 acres - and have the timber - timber that was valuable cut and sent to the mill. The rest of the timber would be cut and lie fallow on the ground, several years if necessary, until the bee was held. On the day of the bee, 20 or 30 hand spikes would be cut, trimmed and peeled, then put aside to stake out the fallow when the crew arrived. Usually a logging crew consisted of about 5 or 6 teams of oxen and horses with chains and strong har- ness, each team accompan- ied by about 5 men. When all was assembled and marked off, the teams would be in position to hear the signal that would start them into their strip. Everything had to be taken out of the area and piled up. Stumps, logs, small poplars and willows all were removed as the small boys scampered here and there supplying drinking water. Their older sisters were busy in the house, where the woman worked to prepare large meals. In the sounds of conipetit- ion between the teams, the clanking chains, the creaking timbers, he snapping whips and the ihouting men, the day moved at a hectic pace to see who could be in first for supper. SPOOF - WOOD BEE AT ROBERT LAIDLAW'S: HURON EXPOSITOR, 1889 "At 8 o'clock in the morn- ing, men armed with saws andiaxes were heading out. At 9, they are into it. At II o'clock, 29 saws are going at lightning speed. At 12 o'clock, they are summoned' to dinner served in a rude camp. At 12:35, the saws are filed, and back to work. At 2:40 the competition is keen, trees falling in all directions to the mingled sounds of 36 saws, 11 axes, and 6 pilers. Peter McFarlane who was stupefied by a falling limb, remains insensible at this point: the pilers declare not ' less than 130 cord. At 4:11, 143 cords are scored. McFar- lane shows signs of life. At 5 o'clock 1971/2 cords are piled up, the sick man is able to walk home, and the rest are ready for the dance. There will be muxic by a string band but it will be over at a respectable hour." The early Morrisites en- joyed a bit of fun and were ready to get involved in every situation, right to the fullest. This is a story told by Howard Wilkinson in conver- sation with Ross Procter in 1979.... "In those days, the young people had to make their own pleasure in the neighbour- hood.... My uncle wanted to get a joke on some of the ' others, so he thought this plan out to' cause excitement, When they butchered pigs in the fall, when it got cold weather, they had this meat put away. My uncle gathered up the blood and he put in a quart sealer... When they got a nice snowfall and the river was frozen over; there had been a wood bee at McMurray's farm. He carried this pig's blood; he went down the road and walked in across the front field for a piece and the he sprinkled a little blood around on the snow, and a long tra, .ck until he got to a place in the river. He chopped a hole in the ice, and then from there he walked along to the centre abutment of the bridge and climbed out. Then he Came back up to the road and walked in beside the other track and he toed in a little more, in order to make it look like two people and where he'd sprinkled the blood in the field, he dragged himself from there to this hole in the ice. He walked out his tracks about the centre abutment andwhen this here wood bee was held, with a dance after or some sort of enterain- ment, that was the topic there. 'Who had been murdered? It must be somebody.' So the next day, Bob Armstrong, he was our police magistrate - lived up on the 6th line - he was wondering what he should do and he was going to hitch up and go to Clinton and find out from a higher authority what he should do about it. There was 'nobody missing in the community that they knew of. But then, my uncle thought this had gone far enough, so when he told him, he said, "Don't you go to Clinton." "Well," Mr. Armstrong says, "Why didn't you tell me sooner.." There were a couple of fellows in the communilty that didn't get along well, and they thought that they had gotten into a fight. Garner Nicholson, who wore a beard, was remembered down on his knees looking in the hole on the ice, and his beard was hanging in big icicles from being in the water when he'd been look- ing to see if he could see the body. Howard Wilkinson's uncle, who was the originator of this prank was George Washington Wilkinson, com- monlyknow to his friends as "Wash" Wilkinson. BARN RAISING Early barns were usually built with a barn raising bee. Again they had to be care- fully prepared far ahead of time. The farmer would draw loads of stone, pile up a huge amount of sand and bring wagon loads of lime. There was no cement then, and so the mortar had to be mixed on the job. The timber for the building would have already been collected as part of the winter's logging. With ade- quate provisions laid by to feed the workers, the farmer was ready for the framer to arrive. First, the fanner Would lay Out the timbers and raise the frame. Scittie farme'r's that built many of the barns in Morris Township would in- clude R. Armstrong, "Big George" Procter and "Little George" Procter. Little George was an average-sized man with a beard, but by comparison, Big George was very big. On raising day, the people were invited. First the men would "raise all the bents', and then it was every men down from the frame Two captains were chosen to call sides for the race to put on the main plates, the high plates, the purloin posts and the rafters. The head framer would give the word and the race was on. Besides wood bees and barn raisings, the most popu- lar types of bees in early Morris. Township were the Manure Bees. In 1901, Rob- ert Young of the 6th Line held his regular one and 125 loads were hauled and spread on the fields. In the late 1800's paring bees became popular as the bags of apples from the prolific orachards of the township were dried for the winter. In 1884, at Mr. Mellon's paring bee,8 bags of apples were pared, cored and strung to dry in one hour. Again the evening was wound up with a big meal and some entertainment. When the threshing naacla. Ines started to be used extensively to harvest the crops, the neighbourhood bees were an essential part of the operation. A large crew of harvesters was need- ed to feed the machine and every farmer that took part knew that his neighbour would be at his place when the machine moved into his barn. In the same manner, the women banded together in the kitchens, working co- operatively to prepare the mountains of food that would be consumed by the hungry workers. It really wasn't a bad way to get the work done. People worked together and had some fun while doing so. Neighbours were close then and depended on each other to supply, in manpower, what today we try to do with ' machinery. THE DAILY ROUTINE John Barnhill, S1/2 Lot 21, Concession 9, Morris lived with his wife Rachel, his children Charles and Meg- gie, and brother James on his homestead in 1874. From his dila:y this is a look at the lifestyle of the time: - Teamed spring wheat to Seaforth on the gravel road. The trip took from 7;00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m, Met many teams with cordwood on the way. - For tea we had fresh meat, stewed; syrup andsteamed apples. Conimimion Sabbath, Heard Mr. Mann of Eph. 5, "Walk in Love." Mr. Ren- nell preached 'a striking ser- mon from "We are the Circumcision." Were out about 3. Deep snow.. many sleighs at Walton. Interest- ing communion service. Just one table in area, only 2 elders required. Mothers with infants came and sat all the while. - James made a rake and teeth from a stick of new firewood from McArthur's. - Took woollen and cotton yarns to Stewart's to weave. - Johnny Man came about the proposed bee tomorrow. Brought 3 Weekly Mails. Ordered a Farmer's paper for six months. Paid 1/2 dollar. - Mr. Stewart came in the evening with 1 web, 151/2 yards cotton and wool for man's shirts. At night, Mrs. John Doug- las and her infant daughter came to stay a night. Heard 4 of Mr. McFie's have died of diptheria. Much sympathy felt for them. - A busy day. Sheep put in and clipped 20 fleeces. Mark- ing with black paint. I clip- ped 7 and James 13. Many a struggle before all is done. 4 pigs going on the road and thriving, getting no feed at all. Marriage train passed in Walton, horses with flags and ribbons and racing at full speed.