I was watching some boats on the river that flows by my apartment today and the flat bottom party boats made me think of the canal boats that used to travel on the Wabash and Erie canal in this area. I grew up near Woodburn, Indiana and Highway 24 ran along the route of the old canal. You could still see the deep ditch that ran along one side of the road, all that remained of the canal. Once, when we were on a family drive my father commented that the entire canal had been dug by hand. After a little pause my five year old brother said "Weren't they allowed to used shovels?"
When I was in high school I had a summer job (1960 & 61) as live-in housekeeper for an 85 year-old widow who had lived on the same farm since she and her husband married some 60+ years earlier. When they were married, at the very end of the life of the canal, she remembered that much of their first furniture and farm equipment was delivered on canal boats which stopped right at their farm to unload. Shortly before I worked for her, she sold most of her farm land to BF Goodrich for the construction of their new Woodburn plant. I estimate that she was born about 1875 and I find it fascinating to think of all the history she lived through. I wonder if, ten years from now, my grandchildren will think that I have lived through some interesting times in history?
No comments:
Post a Comment