Diaper Services, Milk Boxes, and Other Bygone Things

re. saturday afternoon movies .
when we came to canada in the mid-fifties , we went to some matinees .
it took us a while to figure out why almost all paople were leaving the movie-house in a hurry while the credits were still rolling ?
it was almost as if someone had yelled "fire" .

the answer : as soon as the credits finished ... "god save the queen ... " would start blaring from the speakers and those poor souls that had not made it to the exit were expected to stand at attention ... we did figure out the scheme after a few shows .
hbg

hamburger, when we lived in Kingston in the late '90's the theatre on Princess Street still played O Canada before the movie. Since I rarely (well, never) attend sporting events it was one of the few chances I had to stand at attention for the national anthem (even if I didn't sing along) so I looked forward to it. Wonder if they still play O Canada?

tai chi = kingston = wow
no , i don't think any anthem is played any more in the movie houses ,
but you may stand at attention any time
btw the movie house is still there but the "grand theatre" is undergoing major renovations and won't re-open for another year .
queen's university is getting a new monster sport's complex and the old jock harty arena will be torn down .
other than that , not much has changed in kingston in the last 50 years :wink: .
hbg

There's a smaller version on the market today, for individuals who want to take their small dogs for an outdoors ride.

Many mothers used to chew up food to give their babies. They didn't have Gerbers Baby Food.

Before refrigeration became the norm, many people dropped silver dollars into milk to help preserve freshness. This I never witnessed, but only heard about it.

to keep eggs for periods when our chickens were not laying eggs , she kept some large stone jare in an outside cellar where the eggs were kept in a solution of water and isinglass .
i believe the isinglass coated the eggs to keep them from spoiling .
not quite the same taste as fresh eggs but acceptable for frying , cooking and baking .

green beans were "salted" away for the winter in large stoneccrocks - much like sauerkraut . since sauerkraut was cheap enough to buy , my mother never bothered to make up any .
hbg

Trains belching smoke, sqealing brakes with clouds of steam, driving wheels - A stirring sight compared to today's box-like diesels.

And at the very end of every freight train there was, Edgar, the caboose. Typically red in color. I never understood what purpose the caboose had. But every freight train had one. Caboose. When was the last time that word rolled out of your mouth? Say it out loud. Say it out loud: Caboose.

Usually, in relation to a woman.


The colorful caboose
Once a fixture at the end of freight trains, the caboose played a critical role in railroad operations, until technology caught upJohn Kelly Print | Email | Contact Us May 1, 2006
A Conrail crewman with a hand-held radio rides the rear platform of a bay window caboose near Toledo, Ohio, in 1985. The 1980s were the last decade of mainline caboose operations, although they continue to be used in specialized switching jobs. (George Kleiber) For more than a century the caboose was a fixture at the end of every freight train in America. Like the red schoolhouse and the red barn, the red caboose became an American icon. Along with its vanished cousin the steam locomotive, the caboose evokes memories of the golden age of railroading.

There are conflicting versions of how the caboose got its name and where the word was first used. One popular story points to a Dutch derivation of the word "kabuis," meaning a little room or hut. The English word "caboose" was first used as a nautical term for a ship's galley.

More certain is the origin of the first railroad caboose, which can be traced to the 1840s. A conductor named Nat Williams on the Auburn & Syracuse, a short line in upstate New York, decided to use the empty wooden boxcar at the end of his train as his "rolling office." Williams sat on a wood box and used a barrel as his desk. He stored flags, lanterns, chains, and other work tools in this first caboose.

The genesis of the unique cupola located atop the caboose is credited to T. B. Watson, a Chicago & North Western conductor. In 1863, when Watson's regular caboose was reassigned, he used a wooden boxcar at the end of the train for a caboose. The boxcar had a hole in the roof, which prompted Watson to sit on a stack of boxes with his head and shoulders protruding through the hole, giving him an excellent view of his train as it journeyed from Cedar Rapids to Clinton, Iowa. Back at the home terminal, Watson relayed his positive experience to a master mechanic at the railroad's Clinton shops. He suggested that a "crows nest" be added to the new waycars the North Western was building there. Thus, C&NW may have been the first railroad to have cabooses with cupolas.

A train crew's home away from home
In February 1957, brakeman Orville M. Baptist and conductor Edward J. Kearney share a meal inside a Wabash caboose while working a freight train from Bluffs, Ill., to Keokuk, Iowa. Baptist grilled a steak on the caboose's propane stove. (Wayne Leeman) The primary purpose of the cupola was to give the rear train crew - which consisted of a conductor, brakeman, and flagman - a place to observe their train in motion. They would look for overheated wheel journals (hotboxes), dragging equipment, and shifted freight loads.

As the crew member in charge of the train, the conductor needed space to check car waybills, wheel reports, and switchlists, and manage the train's operation.

Before George Westinghouse invented the automatic air brake in 1869, it was the rear brakeman's job to walk forward and turn a wheel that applied the handbrakes on each freight car, on cue from the engineer's whistle to stop the train. The head brakeman, who rode in the engine, walked toward the rear of the train performing the same task.

After the widespread introduction of air brakes, brakemen still had the responsibility of throwing switches and coupling cars, as well as keeping an eye on the train's consist while it was in motion.

Prior to the introduction of automatic block signals, invented by Westinghouse in 1881, it was the flagman's job to walk a safe distance behind the stopped caboose carrying a lantern, flags, and fusees, used to signal approaching trains that his train had stopped on the main line.
Frisco brakeman Earl Gibson balances the springs that will become part of a bed similar to the one in front of him, used by his conductor. The crew was working Frisco train No. 437 from Tulsa, Okla., to Floyada, Texas, in April 1954. (Wayne Leeman) In addition to the conductor's work area, cabooses often had bunks for sleeping, stoves for cooking, and toilets (initially, the straight-dump kind, then later, chemical toilets).

The caboose was also used as a storehouse for tools and supplies, including spare coupler knuckles and pins, chains, jacks and re-railing frogs, fusees, flags, lanterns, and first-aid kits. Beginning in the 1950s, axle-driven generators that supplied lighting and electricity were added, which led to the installation of electric heaters, refrigerators, and two-way radios.

Despite its charm, the caboose's location at the end of a train made it a dangerous place to work. The inevitable slack, incurred whenever a train started, stopped, or changed speed, rippled back to the caboose. The ensuing jolt could be so severe that it would send crew members falling to the floor, pitching into a wall, stove, or desk corner, or even tumbling from the cupola, any of which could cause serious injury.

A toppled lantern could start a fire. Derailments, picked switches, break-aparts, or emergency brake applications could also injure an unknowing crew member. A rear-end collision could be fatal to the occupants of a wooden caboose.

Conductor Glenn Voyles grabs holds of a monkey bar while talking to the head-end crew on the radio telephone. This modern caboose sports vertical safety bars and an oil-burning stove. At the right is an air pressure gauge, and below it, a conductor's valve that can be used to stop the train. (Wayne Leeman) Crews instinctively learned to grasp the metal handrail running the length of the car near the ceiling at the slightest indication of trouble.

Safety was a shared concern among railroad employees, particularly brakemen, so much so that the first rail labor union, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, was formed inside a caboose, Delaware & Hudson Canal Co. No. 10, on September 13, 1883. That caboose is on display in Oneonta, N.Y.

Edgar, that was awesome.

But what did you mean with the reference: "Usually, in relation to a woman."

It's like empenage, realjohnboy. Usually used in relation to a woman. Same anatomical region, too.

Right-o.

Edgar, my dad was a trainmaster for the Reading Railroad back in the post Korean War years . When they got rid of a lot of equipment in the 70's there were yards full of cabooses and he got one for a garden party cabana. He also bought a surplus stationhouse for a garden equipment and garage for his tractor. The caboose was fixed up by repainting an lettering . As a kid we enjoyed going up to the cupola and sitting on the back bench. The bars were removed on ours to make more room and the caboose coal stove, I still have. Its an interesting piece of art and function. It ws an egg timer shape with a large rim around the flat top (kept pans from sliding off when the train "humped"

Humping accidents were one of the most common work related injuries and the last cabooses actually had safety netting in hallway areas and bars were covered with a foam rubber padding.

I loved the old trains. We lived near a switch yard in Fresno. It was always a thrill to have anyone riding give us a wave as one rolled by.

We spent many a late summer day canning. We canned Tomatos (there is no spaghetti sauce like spaghetti sauce made in mid-winter from summer tomatos) Peaches (natch, peach pie) Green beans, squash, carrots, beets and pickles..... we made sweet pickles and sour pickles and picallilly, we made apple jam and strawberry jam and watermelon pickles (which are just as sweet as any jam in the land.)

Of course, corn. Creamed corn and plain, corn with limas (succotash) and corn relish.

We picked all of the vegatables ourselves, my father and whichever of the kids he could nab would go out to the nearby farms and pay to pick whatever was fresh.

One afternoon my mother was so tried of canning tomatos she told the girls to take the last two bushels and toss them in the woods. It wasn't but about an hour later that the brother Brian came rushing to the house all excited about all the tomatos he had found.

Joe(apple jelly with a little cold butter on a thick slice of bread fresh from the oven---that's a memory that can feed a mind forever)Nation

My mother's canned beets had a flavor I've not tasted elsewhere. She made a green tomato thing called chow chow and canned it, too, but I didn't eat much of it.

sunday morning at the fish-market
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a sunday morning ritual was a visit to the fish-market in hamburg with my dad and my brother - dad's father would often meet us there .
there were always two or three dozen fishing boats lined up selling their fresh catch from the boat .
many fish , such as plaice , were kept alive in the water-well of the boat and only gutted after they had been weighed and purchased .
the market would open at 5 a.m. and close no later than 10 a.m.
when we came home , the cats we had in the yard eagerly awaited us !
preparing the sunday fish dinner was always dad's job -and when the weather was nice , was done in the garden .

during the week a "fish-woman" would come with a pushcart and offer her wares . their husbands were usually fishermen and it was the women's job to sell the fish while their husbands were fishing in the north-sea - both jobs were pretty tough jobs and they certainly didn't get rich from their work !

fresh fish right off the boat - nothing could be better - and the cats would agree !
hbg

Hamburger, Your Sunday morning fish market reminded me of fish stores when they had live fish swimming around. Haven't seen that in ages.

I also haven't been to a buther's in ages. I know they still exist. I remember going to a butcher who would show you the ground beef before it was ground. You'd nod or say, "Let me see something else." Then he'd grind it right in front of your eyes and wrap it in brown paper.

The butchers in my neighborhood are too expensive. Fact is, there's only one that I know of. Not exactly a neighborhoody kinda thing anymore.

roberta :
from a toronto newspaper - last saturday :
there a now two butchers in toronto where yyou go in to order your meat by-the-side or quarter from a specified animal .
if you wish , you can actually go in and do the meatcutting yourself , have the butcher help you or have the butcher do it to specs .
i imagine it'll cost you extra , but a/t the article the two stores are doing a lot of business !
there was even a picture of a woman cuting up a carcass with the butchers help !

in many chinese stores in toronto , there are still tanks full of live fish - the fish are deliverd in a big tanker truck !
hbg

(what is old becomes new again)