Old Picture of the Day: Old Delivery Truck

Old Picture of the Day: Old Delivery Truck: Good morning to you all, and I hope each of you had a blessed Easter weekend. I had a great time, and our sunrise service was excellent. Th...

Old Picture of the Day: Old Dump Trucks

Old Picture of the Day: Old Dump Trucks: Today's picture is from about 1910. It shows three old dump trucks. The sign on the building and on the trucks reads "S. M. Frazier". I am...

Old Picture of the Day: United States Express Truck

Old Picture of the Day: United States Express Truck: Today's picture was taken in about 1910, and it shows men loading a cabinet onto a United States Express Company truck. I guess this was b...

Old Picture of the Day: Train Deopot

Old Picture of the Day: Train Deopot: I realize that this is Train Week, and that this picture does not have a train in it. This is the train depot in Maricopa, Arizona. It is t...

And here's another classic example.

Old Picture of the Day: Old Train Station

Old Picture of the Day: Old Train Station: We finish out the week with this picture of a train station in Gardiner, Montana. The picture was taken in 1905. This is a classic photogr...

Classic example of an early 20th Century rural Western train station.

The Big Crash

Today In Wyoming's History: October 29.

Today is the day, in 1929, when the legendary Wall Street Crash occurred. In spite of what we might think, we've never seen anything like it since. Up to 1/3d of the population ultimately was out of work in the United States and Canada. There was no real government established "safety net", and in that era, men were the overwhelming majority of wage earners which meant, by extension, that a huge number of families were left with no ability to support themselves. Every region, and every industry, in the country was impacted.

Today in History. October 28, 1919

The Volstead Act goes into effect. Booze, banned.

The movement to ban alcohol had really been around for a good twenty or so years, and was sort of oddly and closely wrapped up with a bunch of other social movements to which it otherwise had no obvious connection. For example, it was related in a way to the Women's Sufferance Movement, even though voting and drinking (or not drinking) are not obviously connected.

It was really World War One, however, that managed to get Prohibition enough traction to be come the law. That may sound odd, but it was the fear that American servicemen had been exposed to booze and corruption in France that caused enough Americans to want to address what they feared would be a post war drinking problem to pass it. Of course, we know the rest of the story.

On Painted Bricks: Opal, Wyoming

I recently posted a photo of a general store on Painted Bricks, as Painted Bricks: Opal, Wyoming.

This store isn't the Old West type General Store we so often imagine, but an example of a substantial business located in a small town. Indeed, this was a substantial business because it was in a small, isolated, town. This sort of general store basically doesn't exist anymore, and indeed this store doesn't exist anymore. The town hardly exists.

But not all that long ago, before the Safeway's and Albertson's became the norm, and before WalMart, small towns like this were both isolated, and viable, served by stores like this one. A fairly large, two story, brick building, selling everything, including groceries. As can also be seen, this town was serviced by rail.

As odd as it may seem to us today, this town, which the highway bypasses today, and which was always remote, once had a railhead, and no doubt a hotel, and a substantial general store. A person could easily stay there for a day or two if need be, or live there without needing to get the necessities elsewhere. No longer the case.

Holscher's Hub: Who would have guessed it?

Holscher's Hub: Who would have guessed it?: A cartoon blog by a female West Point cadet, about West Point . That's not something I would ever have expected to see.

In terms of change, sort of speaks for itself.

Electronic Communications

On Saturday I was staying in a hotel room with my family, in Rapid City. It was a quick trip, and I forgot to take a book, which is my traveling habit.

I did, however, take my Ipod, which has become my traveling habit, substituting, for the most part, for the radio.

While there, there was a moment when I found that both my son and I were on our Ipods, I actually took a photograph of him on his with mine, and it struck me how dependent we've become on modern electronics. During the time I was there, I checked email to check on a relative in the hospital, I found that an old friend had "friended" me on Facebook, and I accepted, I actually took a photograph from the hotel and posted it on Facebook, with my Ipod, and I checked for the local Mass times for Saturday and Sunday masses in Rapid City. I also checked Google Maps for various things while there.

Recently, while in Tulsa for business, I used Facetime on my Ipod to connect with my daughter's Ipod and visit with my family. It's free, as long as you have a WiFi connection, and while the video quality isn't good, the audio is, and you can see your family.

I started to think about this, and the dependency we have developed on this in short order. It's temping to bemoan it, and indeed there is a lot to bemoan about how technological and electronic we have become. On the other hand, however, I'm not so sure that in some ways all of this doesn't take us back a bit to one of the more warmly remembered aspects of our past, which is who people were in close association all the time. To a degree, this lets us do that, although the element of distance and separation is still there. Still, at any rate, for the traveler, things aren't as lonely as they used to be.

Holscher Packing Company Refrigerator Car

Holscher Packing Company refrigerator car for a model railroad.

Neat! That's my family's old packing company.

Pay the last penny

Gospel according to Luke: 12:54-59

Jesus said to the crowds,
"When you see a cloud rising in the west
you say immediately that it is going to rain--and so it does;
and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south
you say that it is going to be hot--and so it is.
You hypocrites!
You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky;
why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

"Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate,
make an effort to settle the matter on the way;
otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge,
and the judge hand you over to the constable,
and the constable throw you into prison.
I say to you, you will not be released
until you have paid the last penny."

I've seen this passage from Luke distinguished by commentators by era, ours to the period in which it was spoken. That is, some people will attempt to say that this quote is unique to its period, and not a commentary on modern law:  " If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way; otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable,and the constable throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny."

I don't know why this comment would be just as applicable today, as then.  It seem to me to be a perfect comment on the average legal proceeding.

Branding

Cattle being branded by an electric iron at a ranch in the United States.

I don't see any electric iron in this. This is a scene that has remained remarkably consistent over the years, and it still goes pretty much this way. Film taken in 1918.

Farm families gather in an open space at a ranch in United States.

Farm families gather in an open space at a ranch in United States.

A scene from 1937.

Food for thought

Recently I saw this quote on another website, and then verified that it is, in fact, genuine:

Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.

G.K. Chesterton.

American army personnel try to pull a truck out of a hole in Wyoming

American army personnel try to pull a truck out of a hole in Wyoming

Trucks of Transcontinental Motor Convoy cross The Continental Divide in Wyoming and Full track pulls out stuck trucks

Trucks of Transcontinental Motor Convoy cross The Continental Divide in Wyoming and Full track pulls out stuck trucks

Steve Jobs to the Graduates

Cigarette in the mouth, no hard hat or safety glasses. This photo was clearly taken before the invention of safety.

This audio clip is of Steve Jobs delivering a commencement address.  It's been on the radio a lot, although usually only in snippets, since his recent premature death.

The part of it that gets played is that part about finding something you "love" to do.  Basically, the advice is to do something you love for a career.

But how realistic is that for most Americans now days?  I really wonder. Certainly it isn't realistic for the great mass of people who simply enter the workforce after high school. Does anyone even care what they "love" career wise.  Men who would have been machinist or worked in factories, and liked it, are working at Wal Mart now.  I doubt they love it.

And is it even true for college graduates?  Most college grads don't go on to found a major computer company.  Most cannot.  Do they love their careers?

And assuming they do not, is this a change in the nature of the world?

Casper's "neighborhood schools"

Casper's "neighborhood schools" Here's another link in from the hub blog, a rare editorial on my part. Shifting away from that, here's a change that's occurred locally that's very much within my own lifetime and observation. This is, of course, a local story, but I'd guess that similar things have occurred in many locations. When I was a kid, I went to Garfield Elementary School. The school had been built in the 30s, I think. Originally it was called the "Harding School", named after President Warren G. Harding, and it was a school for developmentally challenged students. Some time in the 50s, or maybe earlier, it was added on to and became Garfield Elementary School, a regular grade school for students living in that portion of the Standard Addition to the City of Casper. Basically, the school took in those students who did not go to Park, which was downtown (named for the nearby park) or Grant, which wasn't really far away either. Garfield was pretty much the only grade school on that side of town until Crest Hill was built in the 1960s. Starting about 1990, and really getting ramped up in the late 1990s, the local school district went to a new system that abolished boundaries, and created a competitive system between the schools. Some old schools died, Garfield included. New schools were built, but without any consideration for local population considerations. They usually were built with land availability in mind. Now the school district wants to shift back. But I doubt it really can. Too many things have changed, most locally. But some things have changed everywhere in the US. Whereas we walked to school, hardly any kid does that anymore. Vehicle transportation is the norm for everyone now. I routinely find that various people I'm working with, no matter where they are located, will have to stop work early to pick up children from school. That just didn't happen with us, when we were young. We walked to school, and walked back. And competition between schools seems to be the norm all over now. Lots of kids go to "charter schools", etc. Our district may be unusual in that all the schools are competing with each other, but an element of competition seems to have come in everywhere. This makes public schools a bit more like private schools, in some locations. Generally, I think that's a good thing. On one more thing, it is simply the case that a lot more students, no matter how we might imagine things to be, complete school, or more grades of school, than they used to. Even as late as mid 20th Century a very high percentage of Americans did not complete high school. Probably around 40%, on average, of Americans left school in their mid to late teens at that time. It wasn't regarded as that big of deal. Arguably school was harder to get through then, but it was also the case that a high school degree was less valued then. It wasn't regarded as necessary for those going to work on farms or ranches (although many farmers and ranchers completed their schooling, and in some regions of the country, by that time, many were going on to college educations). And it wasn't necessary for those going on to many types of industrial, or even office, employments. Now it is not only necessary, but for many some degree of college is as well.

Holscher's Hub: Flying back from Tulsa

Holscher's Hub: Flying back from Tulsa: Sunrise over Colorado, Kansas, or Oklahoma. Wyoming.

This is another one of those topics which relate to the massive change in transportation we've witnessed over the past century. As followers of this blog know (okay, there are not followers, it's just me) this blog is attempting to focus on the first part of the 20th Century, and look at that era, but we do occasionally stray into more recent ones for comparison purposes as well.

This topic nicely illustrates these changes.

On Sunday I flew down to Tulsa, which is the second time in the past three months I've visited Tulsa (very nice town, by the way, in my view). This time, I left Casper around noon and flew via United Airlines to Denver Colorado. I had a three hour lay over in Denver, and then flew on to Tulsa, arriving about 8:00 p.m. their time. I worked in Tulsa the next day, and then I flew back yesterday morning, leaving Tulsa about 6:30 am. I was back in my office about 10:00 am, local time.

Okay no big deal, right?

Well, take this back a century and lets do the same trip, for the same purpose.

Now, granted, a person in Casper Wyoming would be pretty unlikely to make such a business trip to Tulsa in 1911. That's illustrative of the change right there. Hardly anyone would do that unless there was a very significant reason to do so. Given the region, I don't doubt that this did sometimes occur, but it would be infrequent. By the 1930s, however, such a trip would have been much more likely.

In either event, such a trip would have been by train, not plane (plane is a theoretical possibility for the 30s, but mostly theoretical). What would that have entailed. Well, it would have started with boarding the train downtown here in Casper, probably early Sunday morning, and then making a series of train transfers all day long. You'd probably sleep in the train at night. Maybe you'd have to leave on Saturday, particularly if you intended to start work on Monday.

You'd still stay over Monday night, as I did, but you'd re-board a train on Tuesday morning, and spend all day traveling back.

Perhaps all this doesn't seem as dramatic of change to you, as to me, but it is significant. What we now do in a matter of hours was then done in terms of days. I still had time to myself Sunday morning, and worked most of Monday here in my office. That, at least, would have been different.

What about plane travel, when that became possible? I'm not sure when Casper received regular air traffic, but I believe it would have been some point in the 1930s. I have no idea what the travel patterns were like, but it sure would have been a lot slower. Could you fly from Casper to Tulsa in a day? Perhaps, but I'd guess it would have been pretty much an all day type of deal.