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STATE Massachusetts
NAME OF WORKER Robert Wilder
ADDRESS Northfield, Massachusetts
DATE June 15, 1939
SUBJECT Living Lore
NAME OF INFORMANT G. O. Dunnell
ADDRESS Northfield, Massachusetts
Name Robert Wilder
Title The Study of Living Lore
Paper 11
Assignment Northfield
Topic G. 0. Dunnelle Bay. Grain
and Feed Man
It was a warn June day with soft white clouds floating lazily
in the sky and a gentle breeze ruffling the maples. Mr. Dunnell was
lounging at ease in, front of his hay, grain and feed shack when I
dropped by to make him a present of some maple syrup.
"Thanks," was his booming acceptance, "I always like map e syrup.
This looks like the real thing too by G -d1 Guess I'll keep this for
myself. Everytime I get any good stuff like this, the whole durn
family wants to sample it and their samples ain't so small either.
Say) did I ever tell you about the feller that lived up beyant
Charlemont village lived in the big house you can see across the
river on the road that goes to West Hawley that put maple syrup
on everything he et. Used to use thirty gallons a year just for
himself alone. Never seemed to hurt him none, either. He lived to be
a good age. And only died due to an accident he had. And lots of
people will tell yer that you shouldn't eat too much sweet stuff.
'Course, I like maple syrup onbread, and on beans. But I never
tried it on my pertaters, or on my meat) by G -dl But that's what
this feller done. Everything he et just swimming in maple syrup.
He was a good-natured, jolly sort of feller) too. I don't know as
it was the effects of eating so much maple syrup, or not. But he
was always cheerful and jolly. And when I was up that way I always
managed to get to see him. He died about six months ago.
"Last time I see him, I was up that way with my boys. I happened
to think that we could use a couple of quarts of maple syrup ourselves.
Name Robert Wilder
Title The Study of Living Lore
Paper 11
Assignment Nor thf ie id
Topic G. O. Dunnellt Hays
Grain and Feed Man
And I knew he would have it Gosh I can't think of his name. And
I know it as well as I do my own Well, we drove over and rapped. He
come to the door with his face half shaved. And he acted real pleased
to see us. He had us came in and set down while he finished shaving.
And I guess it was the first time the boys had ever seen a feller shave
himself with an old fashioned razor. They didn't know anybody ever had
'em outside of barber shops.
"I told him what we wanted. And he said he guessed he could spare
a couple of quarts. That he'd been counting the jugs the other day, and
he found he had seventeen gallons left. That, if he want cautious, that
would be enough to last him until sugarint time come again.
"He told us a story that made me laugh. Tain't much of a story.
But 'twits comical the way he told it.
"Seems he claimed there warn't no one that could run a mowin'
machine like him. An' I guess they couldn't. Not outside of a circus,
to let him tell it. He found fault with the way his hired man was
running the machine didn't dast to mow along the side of a steep
hill. Went up and down the hill, 'stead of 'round and 'round as he
thought it ought ter be done. Well, he got on the machine to show how
to do it and started off along the side of the hill. He got about half
across when the upper wheel hit a rock that lifted it up, and the machine
tipped over. The long part, where the blades are, caught him in the seat
of the pants, and threw him down the hill right in the way of the machine.
Somehow the blades kept goin, and sheared him here and there, like as if
Name Robert Wilder
Title The Study of Living Lore
Paper 11
Assignment Northfield
Topic G.O.Dunnell, Hay,
Grain and Feed Man
he was a sheep. And, anyway, he had to go to the hospital.
"He didn't like it in the hospital. Mainly, because they didn't
have no maple syrup. But they understood how it was, and let Uila send
for some of his own. And then he didn't like it settin' around all day
with just his pajamas and bath robe and slippers. It was good hay
weather. And he wanted to get back and finish haying. He warn't by
no means sure that the hired man would finish his haying scientific.
"One day he heard a mowing machine at some distance from the
hospital. That was too much for him. If they was any mowing to be
done, he had to be around to see that they done it right. He watched
his chance. And he managed to get out of that hospital just as he was
in that bathrobe and no hat and on up the street looking after that
mowing machine. People looked at him kinder funny. But nobody stopped
him. He found out, though, that he was kinder weak, which surprised him.
They'd told him that he'd lost considerable blood when the machine give
him a she arm', but it hadn't meant anything to him, settin' around the
hospital, and he couldn't understand why they weuldn't let him go home.
But walking up the street in the hot sun, he bugun to surmise.
"He kept on, though. And he found the hayfield. It was part of a
big farm that fronted on the street. And I guess the owner was holding
on to part of it for building lots. They was a sidewalk. But they
warn't no fence. And the field run away up over a swell clear to some
woods. It was a big field. The feller I wish I could think of his
Name Robert Wilder
Title The Study of Living Lore
Paper 11
Assignment Northfield
Topic G.O.Dunnell, Hay,
Grain and Feed Man
name 't warn't Billington don't see nobody around. And the
machine was workin' on the other side of the swell. So he starts off
over there, bath robe and all, right under the hot sun. Et got 'bout
out into the middle of the field when he begun to think that, p'raps
he was a dum fool. He was faint. And they warn't no shade nor nothin'.
But a little further on the field had been raked into wintrows. And
they was a little shade he could get by lying down. So he lay dawn
right close to the wintrow to wait 'til things got quieted down sols
they didn't spin no more. Well, sir. That's the last thing he remem-
bers until he woke up in his hospital bed all covered up with new
scrapes and plasters. Seems if he mist a -fainted, or gone to sleep
or sunthin'.
"Well, there he was a-layia' out in the middle of a hay field
under a win'row. Know what a wintrow is? Thought you didn't. Well,
you see first they rake the field into win'rows, you know long lines
of hay that sometimes looks sunthin' like ocean waves. Then they take
the hoss rake or power rake) if they have one, like these people did
and roll up the wintrow lengthwise and 'cock it up'. Roll it 'til they
got enough for a cock, lift the rake, then scrape up enoug1i for the next
cock and so on. Maybe, that's what they was (loin', when this feller
goes out to the field. Or maybe they had a hay loader. That's a rig
they push down a wintrow behind a truck. It's geared sunthin' like a
lawn mower; when you push it, a row of spikes go under the hay, pick
it up and over a pulley where the hay falls off into the truck. 'Course
Name Robert Wilder
Title The Study of Living Lore
Paper 11
Assignment Northfield
Topic G.O.Dunnelll
Grain and Feed
they's row after row of spikes. And the thing is as broad as atruck.
Heht heht It may have been a tedder that hit the old guy for all I
know. That's a kind of kickin, machine made of pitchforks that they
toss grass around with to dry it. And what they drive over wintrows
if they get wet$ sots to spread the hay and dry it thorough. Well,
anyway, it don't make no difference what kind of a machine it was, the
feller that was runnin, it didn't see old what's his name, laid out
under a win'row in a bathrobe. You really wouldn't expect to find a
feller under a win'row out in the middle of a hayfield on a good hay day,
so he run his machine over him and raked him and cocked him, or he loaded
him or tried to Though perhaps he give him a good teddin' and
picked his bath robe to pieces. Anyway, he noticed sun'thin' was wrong
when old what's his name went into the machinery. An', o' course, they
warn't no place for him then but the hospital, so they took him back.
"Well, I heard he was able to walk around. Then I heard he was back
in bed wasn't gettin' over his hayin, accident as well as had been
expected. I knew about the time he'd got sheared by the mowint machine.
But I hadn't beard about his being tedded. So I went to see him. He
was gettin' along all right then. But, a course this last visit to the
hay field had set him back some. The nurse told me about it. But
Worthington don't seem as that was his name, either didn't want
to talkabout it. He said he'd taken a walk, and he guessed he'd overdid.
I says, 'When you get out, the hayint season will be over. But don't
Name Robert Wilder
Title The Study of Living Lore
Paper 11
Assignment Northfield
Topic G.O.Dunnellw Hay,
Grain and Feed Man
you go monkeyin' around no corn cutter), I says, 'and get yourself cut
up into ensilage,' I says. But he didn't laugh none. He kinder changed
the subject. He said that the nurses had been having fun with him about
breakin, the rules and goin' welkin'. That they said it was a wonder
that he warn't arrested for goinl out inthe street with nothin' on but
a bathrobe. They was nuns, you know, the nurses was. He told gam,
'Well,' he says he said, 'Don't know what anybody'would arrest me for)
'cause I did have on a bathrobe. And) if anyone had stopped and examined
me,' he says, 'I guess they'd a found out that I had on as much clothes
as some women wear around herell, he says. And he was problly right
about it at that.
"Well, as I was tellint yer, he died finally, after he'd been back
home sometime. But it didn't have nothin' to do with his eatin, maple
syrup. Seems to me it was the effects of gettin' the slack of his
pants caught in a saw rig. Or) maybe) he never quite recovered from
the hayin' operations he underwent. Don't know as the story proves
anythiu'l but it's a good story and I don't know as stories have to
prove anything if they're good."