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Archiver > ILMASSAC > 2003-08 > 1061167141
From: Bill <>
Subject: [ILMASSAC] Little Egypt Heritage, 17 August 2003, Vol 2 #29
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 20:39:01 -0400
Little Egypt Heritage Articles
Stories of Southern Illinois
(c) Bill Oliver
17 August 2003
Vol 2 Issue: #29
ISBN: pending
Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt,
The Summer ended this afternoon ... we returned the last
grandchildren to the authority of their parents. Some of
them start back to school this week. We used to start after
Labor Day ... ummmm ... times do change. However, with
returning the grands signals life returning to "normal",
whatever that is. Our summer has been extremely busy [as
usual] developing "apperceptive" education for these
grandchildren as we did for our children,
Before returning them today, we visited a "ghost" town which
teaches what our pioneer 18th and 19th centuries were like.
We even met the ghost of "Ol BlackSwamp Bob" who was a
northwestern local history buff and story teller.
We took the small grandchildren to the Henry Ford Museum in
Dearborn, Michigan last week end. Things have changed a lot
since we first took our children there some "few" years
ago. I was fascinated looking at the Presidential
Limousines. I stood by the one that transported FDR for a
long time. I tried to tell the Grands that I had touched
that car back in the first half of the 1940s when FDR toured
the Military Base where I was attending school and we school
children lined up along the roadside to wave. Vivacious
granddaughter was off somewhere else and grandson wasn't too
impressed either. <sigh>
There were kitchen stoves of different energy sources
[wood/coal ... gas ... electricity]. An earlier electric
"ice-box" ... can you remember that big round glob on top??
And, all those old farm implements ... and, not forgetting
the development of the "horse-less" carriage ... there was
an original VW "Bug". Now that got the attention of the
grandson.
While in the rooms of time "pieces" my mind raced back
a-ways and way-far-back. The phrase that started it all was
"railroad time"! Setting on a book shelf in my study is my
Grandpa Oliver's old Illinois pocket watch. He used this
time piece when he worked on the railroad back in southern
Illinois. It still works, keeping excellent time. When
Grandma first gave it to me it had a habit of stopping
exactly on Christmas Day each year. I would have it cleaned
and it would run again for a year, stopping again on
Christmas Day. Grandpa died on Christmas Day. I'm not sure
that I should have listened to the old watch repairer for he
said I should not just wind it and hang it back under its
display dome ... he said place it in different positions
because it was made to be carried. But, now it doesn't stop
on Christmas Day.
In the beginning of human time man said I'm hungry ... it's
time to eat. He [yep, I said "he" ;)] This wasn't good
enough for meeting schedules, I guess, cause someone found
it necessary to achieve the marking of the passage of time,
so someone developed the sundial. [Did you know that the
"pointer" or indicator on a sundial is called a gnomon?]
The Egyptians used sundials. The dial of Ahaz mentioned in
Isaiah existed about 730 B.C. And, the Babylonians, the
Chaldeans, were famous as astronomers, thus, their superior
expertise on sundials lasted for over a millennium.
Scholars the world over, from all civilizations, were
familiar with sundials. In the 15th century the Nocturnal
dial was developed by navigators who needed to tell time by
the position of the stars.
By the 17th century mechanical pocket watches were
developed, but they were expensive and very unreliable, so
portable or pocket sundials were still used. There is a
story that Charles the First of England was given a silver
pocket sundial by Eleanor of Aquitaine because he was always
late for his meetings with her.
During the 18th century clocks and watches began to take the
place of sundials, however, they were still quite
unreliable, and sundials were used to set the "true" time.
As we all know, due to the rotation of the earth, the town
20 or 30 miles east or west of me would set their clocks
slightly different from mine. However, by the end of the
19th century, time discrepancies began to matter a whole lot
to everyone. The reason? The railroads demanded
schedules. Trains demanded schedules, and schedules
demanded standardization of time to accommodate clients and
to avoid serious accidents.
In 1884, a conference was held and four time zones for the
United States [Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific] were
agreed upon. All stations within each zone would carry the
same time. Thus, train time, which was quite rigorously
held to by the railroads, became the time that all citizens
and the towns they lived in set their clocks by. When I was
a boy, the noon train whistle became the signal for setting
or checking clocks.
Well, Grandpa, your pocket watch is still ticking telling me
that it is time to post another week's article. Thank you
for giving me your time piece.
Lynn, do as your doctor says ... we want your time to be
there for you.
Oh, me Father will turn over in he grave with this one ...
do you know what an Irishman misses most? An Irish meadow
with its forty shades of green!
e-la-di-e-das-di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da.
(May you walk in peace and harmony)
Wado,
Bill
-=-
Other sites worth visiting:
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html
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