Oct. 31, 2001 - 19:33 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Stuff Of Dreams

I remember when the main component of most everything was wood. Wooden boxcars, wooden coal gondolas and the everliving flatcars and at the end of it all was the wooden caboose. Linked to each other by iron,having iron hardware and pulled by an iron horse, the rest was mostly wood.

Sheds were wood, barns also. Many houses were frame (wood) houses with wood shingle roofs. When I was little I had no idea what a cyclone fence was, they might have existed then but I didn't see any in our town until later on. Fences, fence posts, gates were wood, wood, wood.

Most every house had a stack of wood stored. Most of it was chopped into kindling for starting fires.

Funny thing, it just occurred to me that our flagpole at school was iron or steel because I remember the metal attachments for the flag rattling against the pole.

Containers, there were the apple boxes, orange boxes, lemon boxes, Calavo Avacado boxes, even salted cod came in little wooden boxes with tops that slid in a groove.

The skids which held merchandise and shipments were wooden, and some are yet today. I never heard of a cardboard cigar box as a kid. The cheaper the cigar the cheaper made wooden box. The more expensive the cigar the nicer the wood was. Those fine boxes of aromatic wood, precisely joined, a wonderful bit of cabinet making and a beauty to behold for a small kid. A treasure chest beyond compare. It used to be that when I spotted one of those fine boxes about half full, I would tell the druggist that I wanted it when it was empty and that I would do odd jobs to earn it. If I was the first bidder I would be allowed to do cleanup or odd jobs around the store for a while and then walk home with the prize.

Back then the floors were mostly hardwood surfaced with pine underneath. I remember seeing floors of beautiful parquetry occasionally when out visiting with a grownup.

When Mom and Dad would take a short trip I would see the wooden water tanks in small towns.

As kids we saw many examples of what could be made of wood and tried our hands at woodwork. Every spare wooden box was scrounged by one of us, the nails carefully pulled and straightened out, the wood sorted and stored for the next project. Those and the occasional pieces of one by's and two by fours enabled us to do most of what we wanted to do.

Of course the beauty of a full grown tree itself would hold a person's attention, and a grove was an arena for most any boyish adventure, that is when the lollygaggers were noised and driven on their romantic way to another private place.

I remember as a young lad being taken up to Inspiration Point, near Lakeside Amusement Park. Out on the point looking west was a vast sea of green trees. I am not sure, but I think that those were apple orchards. But the mass was almost overwhelming. It stirred my imagination which would conjure up stories of the Swiss Family Robinson and others of that ilk.

Then in the spring the bare branches begin to show a mist of green which soon becomes a fuzz and later light green tender leaves showing us that once again that the earth has slept and awakened for another glorious spring.

I think that trees in any form are the Stuff Of Dreams . . . . . . .

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