VIII
A brief glimpse of the Cape Cod Village in the 1800’s and its everyday life in those days would be interesting and would also throw some light on the fascination of the mill.
This mill and many others like it played a most important role in our small towns, as did the country store, the blacksmith shop and, of course, the church.
On the Cape at about that time, there were between thirty and forty mills, either powered by wind or water, and these mills supplied flour and corn in its various stages to the villages. Corn then was more important than gold. The meal, of course, was used for corn meal muffins and corn bread, and the cracked corn for the chickens and pigs.
Every family was practically self-sufficient, growing their vegetables, and if they did not have a cow, trading eggs or other produce for milk or cream with their neighbors. Almost everyone would supplement their food supply with shellfish from the shores and flats and fish from the various boats that plied the sound and bays. There were many orchards, most of which have now disappeared. One can hardly find a grape arbor left, but in those days apples and other tree-grown fruit were found in every other home or homestead. Cranberries played no small part, but they were just about developing in the 1880’s, and I can remember distinctly, while growing up in Brewster, of earning small amounts of money from time to time helping the farmers harvest their cranberry crop, together with asparagus, turnips and strawberries.
I cannot remember any people being on Old Age Assistance, and I recall distinctly there was no Social Security program. There was always something for everyone to dowhether they were young, middle-aged, or old. For us young children there were ordinary chores in and about the house to be done morning and evening, cutting the kindling, getting wood ready for the fires, and generally being handy boys around the house and barn. I can definitely say there were no gangs of teenagers with switchblades. “Mac the Knife” was wholly unknown. The only knives we had were pocket jackknives used for whittling and playing mumbley-peg.
I can remember that there were many things to do the night before the Fourth, but I can remember no destruction of property. Perhaps a few privies might be displaced, and on Halloween fences might disappear, but they were always found somewhere, and the culprits made to replace them.
In the Fall almost everyone would gather seaweed from the beaches and bank it around the house, because only the very rich could afford full basements and what we call central heating. The small, round Cape Cod cellars were used to keep fruits and vegetables.
I can also distinctly remember working on the town roads, helping to get in ice for the ice houses, and I can also remember that almost every boy knew how to handle a hammer, a saw, screw driver, or chisel, which did not seem work to us at the time.
The mill was not exactly a gathering place for the country folk; that was left to the country store. In Brewster, the mail would come in about 6:00 P. M., and it was a great thing for us younger boys to gather at the Knowles’ store at about the time the mail was due and listen to some of the older men around the stove discuss the events of the day and the nation.
I do not recall many critical periods of wars and threats of war, but I do recall the fusion of the wonderful odors ofthe country store, the far off cry of the lonely whistle of the mail train, the hard candy, and the attractive chocolate-colored tobacco. I can also recall vividly the old time “drummer” with his fancy, gay, colored straw hat, the horse drawn carts that would bring groceries, meat and fish once or twice a week.
All around the towns, almost everyone had a horse and some more well-to-do people had two or three. It was not necessary to turn in the horse every year, because the model never changed. The horses sometimes died, but only after twelve or fourteen years of good service. Almost everyone owned a so-called Cape Cod truck wagon, painted a faded blue color.
I can remember the May baskets, the sleigh rides, and sliding down the hill in High Brewster in the winter-time.
All this is in sharp contrast to the children on the present day and the problems of juvenile delinquency. Undoubtedly lack of parental care and instruction, to say nothing of planned obsolescence, time payments, and lack of individual initiative, can be blamed for the conditions. Being fortunate to have been born at about the turn of the century, when the era of the horse was just about departing and the automobile beginning, I think I am in a fairly good position to compare conditions of that day with today.
I might say that I do recall when I was about ten years of age, my mother and grandmother sadly declaring that things at that time were different when they were children, and that they did not know where we then were going. I put this in to show that there may be an answer to all this through the process of evolution. I do not know.
I do know that the flour and the meal coming from these old and ancient mills produced much better food than the present day processed flour and meal.
I can remember many of the older figures of that time. Seth Rogers, a typical country gentleman, and many other well-known men about that time, who were not looking for something for nothing. They all did work of one form or another, either on their farms or their cranberry bogs, or in some business or trade. They did not have much time, but the time they had was put to great use in production. They did not have too much money because they did not need it. A man that died leaving an estate of $5,000.00 or $6,000.00 was considered reasonably wealthy. These men would do something for their town without expecting great pay in return; they were not constantly looking to the town, state, or government for handouts. They produced and developed a way of life totally different from the way we have today.
decorative swirl