4th of July - America at 250

Fourth of July is usually a surprisingly personal holiday for most Americans.  We  get the three day weekend off - ER docs being the exception - and are expected to go do summer things that please us.  If you have a lake cabin, go there.  If there are jobs to do, keep them at a minimum.  Grill stuff.  Have a cold beer.  That's the Midwest paradigm at least.  As for other parts of the country, well, YMMV.

250 years seems like a less impressive feat than the Bicentennial was.  It's kind of like one's 40th anniversary.  A big number but less substantive than say 25 or 50.  That's not really fair of course.  With longer life spans lots of people reach their 50th anniversary.  Very few countries on earth last for centuries.  I mean, obviously the land does, the form of government not so much.  

There is a tendency of late to be very downcast about America and the future.  I don't share this pessimism.  

1976.  The bicentennial.  I was in college.  My waistline was thin.  My hair was not.  We'd just waded through the apparent defeat of Vietnam and the difficulty of Watergate.  Gas for our horrid 1970's cars was expensive.  Interest rates were ridiculously high.  Current home seekers despair over 6.3% mortgage rates.  Hey, try 18% on for size.  (ok, that was a couple of years earlier, but still....).

And for all that I don't remember people being nearly as disturbed as some are today.  

Times are different.  We are different.  Which changes which?

Fifty years ago there were still certainties.  Our parents were of durable stock, having endured the Great Depression and the Second World War.  There were even plenty of "doughboys" around whose lives started in an agrarian, isolationist country.  These were not stupid people, they'd seen a great deal come to pass.  But they kept their focus on making their lives and that of their families better.

Odd times for America on its 250th.  We are now exposed to continuous outrage on our electronic marvels.  But at the same time we have as a culture been sleep walking.  So many important questions just kicked down the road like an old tin can...a can that contains the accumulated debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay off. You can be supportive, neutral or antagonistic to this administration but at least difficult questions are being asked.  Hopefully the right answers will be forthcoming.  If not, we'll elect a different bunch.   

So Happy Birthday.  Life is not perfect.  It is in fact always going to be a mixture.  That phone that brings you Tiktok slop and panicky dispair...it also contains more information that we could have imagined 25 years ago.  We are smarter than we used to be: the percentage of Americans with college degrees is up markedly.  Wiser is another matter.....

Well enough of this.  Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness means, get out there and enjoy the day.  Burgers and beer optional.

Upstairs, Downstairs

Our house was built in 1908.  Not old from the standpoint of our community, which got going in the 1840's, but it does represent an interesting moment in time.  The Lumber Baron era was just over.  The modern age - indoor plumbing, electricity, telephone lines - had arrived.

It was also a time of class distinctions.  Oh, not so much as in England, but there was a definite expectation that people of quality lived on the top of the hill, while smaller houses full of working class folks were further down the slope.  

I should really know the story better, but evidently our house was built by a guy who worked in a bank during the lumbering era.  His daughter lived there after he passed.

It's a nice enough house.  But today's focus is on the Upstairs-Downstairs world of early 20th century servants.

They were mostly women, mostly recent immigrants.  Usually from Scandinavia or perhaps Germany.  They were probably some combination of maid, cook, nanny.  I don't know a lot about the woman who lived here as a servant.  I've seen her name on a census.  My "office" a small room where I am allowed to set up computer, files, random junk, used to be her bedroom.  When we were new in the house it still had a sink.  This was pretty handy when we made it the nursery for our three kids.

Downstairs there is one room that was a bit fancy.  A dining room with decent woodwork.  On the floor there is a metal plate that used to have a button.  When the Man of the House, or perhaps the Woman of same, pushed a button with a toe there'd be a buzzer or bell that would sound.  I think we found a few remnants of this system's wiring during an early remodel.

And going from the kitchen to the Dining Room there was a swinging door.  You certainly would not expect people of quality to see pots, pans and dishes!  The door swung on a hinge.  Specifically, here:

I did say it was not all that Grand.  But lets focus on a little area down at the bottom of the doorway.....

There is a little square of wood there that does not quite fit with the rest of the flooring.  There used to be something else there, something that could be removed. leaving a gap between first floor and basement.  Small people used to like to yell things and drop messages down from above.

What used to be there was a very fancy hinge, the sort of thing that would articulate a nice door.  I could see the Servant Girl gently pushing it open while carrying in platters full of whatever upper middle class folks dined on back in the day.

And as it happens, I still have that hinge.  It's more interesting than most bits of 126 year old hardware...

OK, that's only mildly interesting.  Let's flip it over to read:

BOMMER FLOOR HINGE  PAT. DEC 25 1900

I've seen other things patented on Christmas Day.  It must have been a thing back then.  Certainly the Patent Office would not have been open on December 25th, so they must have had some sort of paperwork gimmick to make this the patent date.*

The Bommer Company is, remarkably still around.  HERE'S their story.

Alas, on a closer read of their website it appears that in the summer of 2025 they decided to wrap up the business, no doubt in the face of overseas competition, and it looks as if they are selling off remaining stock.  😔

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* The most famous patent date of this sort is on the "Christmas Coke" bottles that are the classic shape for CocaCola when it came in glass.

Lumberjacks (and Jills)

Timber Sports.  Now there's a phrase you probably have never heard.  It's basically modern people competing in lumberjack activities.  To some extent using modern tools like chain saws.  And there are Lumber Jills as well as Lumber Jacks.

Hayward Wisconsin, near where our up north cabin is, has quite the center of Timber Sportsdom.  In fact they have the Lumberjack World Championship competition there.  Really talented people chopping, sawing, log rolling, climbing poles, that sort of thing.  

There is also a regular "show" for entertaining tourists.  Not quite World Champs level stuff but with lots of banter, and still many amazing things to be seen.  We had some out of town visitors with us recently and they went to see the show.

Afterwards I got them to split a season's worth of kindling.  Happily with no mishaps.