I trip into the Recent Past while visiting the Deep Past Pt 2

Life was hard back then, no doubt about it. The amenities we are accustomed to weren't even a twinkle in someones dreams.

Central heat, a comfy bed, running water in the house (maybe), an inside toilet and bath...

Forget the usual (21st century media toys). A monthly perhaps weekly newspaper, kept them up on news outside the village. Books, perhaps a few, highly regarded and cherished. Oh to have a Kindle!

Tools were of the manual kind. Nothing electric yet. Hand saws, hammers, kitchen and household utensils. Hey there was the iron to make one's closes sharp as a tack.



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But of the work that was the daily routine, lumbering, there was a multitude. Steam was the power driver, not only for the railroad but also the mill, and power take-off's, huge leather belts attached transported the power to large saws and other cutting machines. THis was the modern age!




Thanks to a fire, peering into the past of a sawmill, is now almost impossible. But it lays as it was, a memory to the once large industrial operation that was Cass, W. Virginia. Here and there amongst the deep grass you can see leftovers of of bustling operation. Someday maybe this can be dugout and reinacted as a useful manufacturing facility. But alas, it stands in a rusting decay
waiting for eager souls to discover her past.

Tough as life was, it was harder during the war years. Rationing came to every house... material was needed for the war effort.
Limits on all kinds of goods, milk, butter, even clothing. Make things last 3, 4 times over... and then find another use for it after that. Waste nothing.

To get around town there was the side walks.... not the concrete or slate kind. The natural resource here, was wood and plenty of it. Steep hills and muddy lanes during the spring, the wooden sidewalks fit the bill.... And the waist line! Just walk some of those steps! TO and from school, work or just to go to the store was an equivalent visit to the trendy workout centers of today.



At the end of the day you were a number. For some the surnames and given names were a distant memory. They now had a home, a good job, a thriving growing community, a paycheck and even a store to buy all the latest goods to make a home. And in the end a number.



Who were these immigrants from Ireland, Poland, and other distant lands....? Are the families still around today? What part did they play in the growth of America? Only if the numbers could talk.....