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Jim Bell Away Back When A common saying some years ago was “Away back when Collie was a pup.” There have been many generations of collies since the days of which a I am writing. When driving through the coun- try these days, one cannot help but be impressed with the num- ber of barns that are falling into ruins, roofs sagging, boards weather beaten and warped. Neglected and dejected looking, they give one the feeling regret and sadness. Just so are the old things passing, old custom, old ways of life, yes, even old stand-. ards of living. On! On! shout the swarms of humanity. Hurry! Hurry! we have so little time to stay here and once departed shall return no more, as old Omar Khayyam said. To get back to what I really started to write about. There is a reason for most changes. It was quite a common sight, sixty to seventy years ago, to see a new barn being built as you went about the country. Science has given a new deal to the farmer as to most everything else. New harvesting methods do not need a big storage barn, hay-forks, slings or any such paraphernalia as that. Hay is cut and baled right in the field. Threshing also is done right on the spot. It is only the dairy farmers who need big buildings in which to house their cattle and they are very dif- ferent buildings from the old- time barns, like the houses of to- day compared to those of our boyhood, they are equipped with every convenience, electric lights, milkers, manure carriers and likely many more things that I know nothing about. In writing about these things, it takes me back to my young days when dad would let me use the boring machine and bore holes in the timbers. These holes were then chiseled out to take the tenons on other pieces of timber and the whole barn frame would be fastened together with wooden pins. These boring ma- chines were small sturdy frames I REMEMBER | about two feet high, fitted with handles on each side that worked like bicycle pedals. A small cog wheel, that was turned by the handles, turned another that turned the auger. The barns built about seventy or more years ago were, IT might safely say, all heavy timber eon- struction. The trees would be selected and cut in the winter, drawn to the building site and then the framer would square them with a broad axe, lay out his frame and with saw, chisel and mallet and auger proceed to so cut each piece that when all was done and the frame put to- gether, there stood a work of construction that would last — a hundred years. It was not till about 1900 that a lighter type of construction be- came popular. They called this baloon or plank framing. These barns were built with a double pitch roof, the first one very steep, the upper one with very little pitch. This type of roof gave a much more commodious space for the storage of grain or hay. The ends of the rafters,' where the two pitches of the roof joined was carried by a purline plate which was supported by, lank trusses. These barns were a! big improvement on the old heavy timber barn but they real-! ly took as much, if not more, skill to build. These too seem to be! headed for the discard except sd storage for tobacco. So it goes. What is new to- day. is old to-morrow. What is thought | to be the height of utility to-day. is obsolete to-morrow. People are the same. One day we are in! our prime, the next we are head-' ed down the hill. So is life. HAPPY SENIOR CITIZENS CLUB The regular weekly meeting of the Happy Senior Citizens Ciub was held on Wednesday afternoon in the club room at the Com- munity Hall with . twenty-two present. President, Mrs. ter, opened the meeting M. Drinkwa- in the