Mud Roads and Gravel
Probably the greatest problem that my granndparents had when traveling in the early 1900's , was mud roads. They were an ever present problem during the summer's rainy weather, the snow in winter and Spring thaws when the frost left the ground.
My mother mentioned her folks had a horse that provided transportation and was mainly used for farming. When in school. she and her siblings would walk 2 miles from their farm across fields, to School at Sandy Bluff in Sandwich Il. .Mom said, "growing up with three lively brothers, made me a pretty tough kid" . It was at this school that mom and others would see their very first red Model T Ford being ( having a bumper seat) driven by some men politicking near the school house one day. While announcing the Democratic candidates for their area over a speaker phone...the kids all yelled " Spiced cats and pickled rats are good enough for Democrats"...a saying I would one day "tease her about putting it on her gravestone", .as she became an avid Democrat.( [ol,, not on her stone now)
She said once a week, grandpa would hitch up the horse to a buggy for grandma to go into Sandwich to trade eggs for groceries. It was also their mode of transportation for visiting family and friends, going to church in Sandwich, and attending social affairs, including the Sandwich Fair each September. One can vision their old faithful horse trudging through the mud roads when the wheels were buried deep. Plus also see the hitching posts used , and the covered shelters used at churches for keeping horses under cover. .I once saw a photo of such a building near our church in Lee Center.
After their marriage and move to Lee Center in 1926, mom and dad bought their first car, mom said it had a crank they would wind , located in front of the car to start, ( glad for progress ~ we now use a key ) A car was a welcome change as she missed her family in Sandwich and would have dad drive her to see them once a month. Mud roads meant no visit. What a great deal it was when good gravel roads were to be built. A few years later came more gravel roads and then hard roads came to Lee Center. (WPA), also called (1939–43) Work Projects Administration, work program for the unemployed that was created in 1935 under U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The road was well built and remains today in Lee Center.
We can be grateful...Today we arrive to a destination in warm or air conditioned vehicle, and within a fraction of time than our forefathers.. #FeelingBlessed
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