The petty politics that plague any small town erupted here as well. The intense rivalry between one town's two bands for a time spilled over to split both church congregations and families. Community life takes many faces, yet its sustenance remained an unquestioned given for these people. For the most part, we hear one theme repeatedly in these accounts. This is not just an exercise in nostalgia.
Every generation laments the passing of cherished traditions.
Even these voices, from over eighty years ago, bemoan the changes besetting their society. This book is a time machine of sorts. Some accounts are delivered at a tedious pace, dressed in bombast, but with a wealth of detail rarely heard today. Reading them requires a well- honed patience modern ears at first find alien and frustrating, yet oddly reassuring. The reputation of one's home community, after all, was at stake.