Sometimes we would get enough to take home to our mothers. You
understand this was not like stealing candy from a store to our way of
thinking, so we were certainly not doing anything wrong. There is a
big difference between stealing and mere survival. Besides, we had to
have something to do to keep us out of trouble.
There were many sheep pastured in the open fields around Camp
Woodcraft in the summer time. They were taken to the farm barns north
and east of town during the winter. The herders drove the flocks down
the road by our house every spring and fall. They were driven down
West Avenue and up Main Street. There were so few cars at that time
that traffic was not a problem.
The ice truck came around in the summer with ice for everyone's ice
box. Mother would put a sign in the window for 25, 50 or 100 pounds
and they would chip off a piece and weigh it. While the driver took
the ice into the house, all the kids would run up to the back of the
truck and get loose pieces of ice. The ice man would yell and chase us
away when he came out.
During the Civil War there was an arsenal built at the top of what was
thereafter called Arsenal Hill. Weapons were stored there in the event
that the city had to be defended. Of course the buildings were gone by
the time we played there as kids, but we found the old foundations by
digging down a ways. There were a lot of old red bricks. The gully
down the other side of the hill had a creek running down it.
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