Pete,
I'm 25 years old and I knew what the metal doors were for. . .anyway, the first
house I lived in had a concrete sidewalk that ran down the block. At our
driveway there were two iron strips that were imbedded in the edge of the
sidewalk. My father told me that they were there to protect the concrete from
having the edges torn up (it was originally a gravel driveway) from the weight
of the heavy trucks that were used to deliver ice and coal. Many other
driveways in the neighborhood had them also. My father was born in the 30s so
he remembered a lot of that stuff. He also talked about the cardboard signs
that you used to place in the front window of your house indicating if you
needed coal and how much. May have been a local thing. This is off the railroad
subject, but guys like me love to read the stories and information from the
older guys.
R.W. Brown, Jr.
Galesburg, IL
WEll Listers and John M.
To pharaphrase Mark Twain...I continue to be amazed at the amount of
information that can be obtained with such a small investment of fact.
I've appreciated all of the discussion regarding coal and "green marked coal"
in particular, but, John,,,,and you're the only one who would know I'm
sure"...What is the opening line of the little advertising jingle sung to
"The Wearin O' the Green" that ends...Upon my soul, this Green Marked Coal
beats any coal I've seen"?????
I have always had an inordinate...many folks say obsessive...interest in
fires and playing with them...especially coal fires.....I always felt
deprived since we had a coal fired furnace at home with an IRON FIREMAN bin
feed stoker....So I didn't get to do any coal handling...only get in the bin
once in a while with a rake and pull down the coal that didn't run down into
the augar by gravity...My dad went into the furnace business after the RPL&N
quit, so he put us in an oil furnace, so I was deprived of any coal matters
at all after that...Also in my growing up years many folks in our town still
had coal ranges in their kitchen for cooking and some of my boyhood pals had
the after school job of bringing in cobs and coal for these ranges...I never
got to do this at home...but it didn't take much "Tom Sawyer" persuasion for
them to get me to do this for them at their house...They thought it was a
chore, but I loved it....
Also thinking about handling of coal in the 1940's and there abouts...We had
two lumber yards in town and each of them handled coal...Each lumber yard had
outside bins for the various kinds and grades of coal...Anybody remember what
Spadra coal was....I'm sure John that you do...Anyhow...The coal would come
in by rail on the Rock Port Langdon and Northern, in flat bottom gons...The
"coal heaver"...this was the guy hired by the lumber yards to haul the coal
and what I was threatened by my mother that I would become if I didn't shape
up with my schoolwork, would shovel the coal out of the flat bottom gon into
his truck...He would then haul the truckload to the lumber yard, and shovel
it out of his truck into the bin at the lumber yard...
When a customer would order coal, the same CH would shovel a load from the
lumber yard bin into his truck, drive it out to the customer's home, again
shovel it out of his truck into the coal bin at the house...Talk about labor
intensive...It hardly seems possible now days, but that was how it was
done....
Sand and gravel were handled in the same way.
If you drive through any old neighborhood in any town and look at the houses
built pre 1940 you would see a metal door built into the foundation of the
house...This was the door to the coal bin and was always placed where truck
access could be had. .. I've asked my own kids and other younger folks, when
I would see a house with one of these doors if they knew what they are...of
course they never do.
Well, come on John....how about that first line.
Pete
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
|