The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1905-08-18
Tho Boys and Girls of Fifty-ons.


Tho Boys and Girls of Fift-ons.
Extracts from paper read by Mrs. Caroline
| Teed-Hi at the home coming entertainment given
| by the home corners.
would not come to you this time
With laughing jokes and merry rhyme,
| For since we met two more have gone
OF those dear girls of fifty-one.
Home coming week has brought me
to review those years that have pass
ed since 1851 when / began my ac-
quaintance with the young people in
and around Paw Paw. My heart has
again beaten with the hopes, joys and
aspirations of youth. Once more
see that bright young company, filled
with mirth, gayety, sedateness and
wit, looking forward to the great
future when in some way each one
had achieved success and fancied our
selves sitting on the pinnacle of fame
satisfied with the glory we had won.
Again I see those boys and girls
without the opportunities of the pre-
sent pressing forward to reach the
goal which stands far distant.
One sees in his imagination broad
acres with their beautiful buildings,
and feels that when he can call them
his own his JOY will be complete.
Another dreams of the law and still
another fancies himself treading the
halls of our national capitol about to
make speech which he believes will
reward him for long years of toll.
Another looks forward to the time
when, speeding behind team of
swiftest feet, he hopes to reach the
bedside of some sufferer and stay the
hand of death ere it be too late.
And our girls! How proud we were
when first we received paper signed
by the official board which certified
that we were considered competent to
teach our country schools, which
meant that we were to spend six hours
a day for five and one-half days each
week in the school room, and then
walk two miles or less for our food
and lodging, to receive in compensa-
ton the sum of two dollars or less per
week. Those were the days
When we read at night by tallow dips
Which did not Illuminate the sky,
But we were satisfied with that.
What will our light be bye and bye?
Canning factories were unknown,
To make preserves was quite an art,
And apples dried upon string
Were sent in barrels to the mart.
We did not freeze our ears in hats,
But covered them with quilted hoods.
Children were brought up in the house
And kids were left to roamthe woods
Our young men took their girls
III buggies to the county fair,
But young men now, think, will soon
Go sailing through the air.
No poles were standing in line
With wires stretched across the top
To phone into distant town
And learn that wheat had had drop.
Our cooking stoves with scorching heat
Have given place to gas and oil,
And other things have made complete
Much saving of those days of toll.
In lumber wagons oft we rode,
But spin around on wheels to-day,
And if dissatisfied with that,
The automobiles come to stay.
But then our lives were just as full
OF happiness from year to year
AS these that you are living now,
And Christ and Heaven just as near.
Our spelling schools and singing
schools, picnics, weddings and other
social gatherings were our amuse-
ments and an evenings entertainment
was seldom complete without few
songs with which everyone was fam
liar, needing no books or piano &C
compartment.