Pauline and Richard, I'll bet when you started this Carms FHS, you had no idea what
impact it would have on your subscribers.
Not only has it aided so many in finding their ancestry but it has encouraged folk to
learn about their native countries.
The interest that is being shown on the "Rebecca Riots", "Death-Ray"
Griswold-Mathews and the renewed interest in Welsh history and literature, i.e. Mr.
Cordell's trilogy are cases in point, not to mention those inspired to photograph
their home towns before the "old" in knocked down to make way for the
"new"..
Someone's mention of a cooper got me thinking about kegs, barrels and casks.
It must take remarkable skill to make a wooden barrel, since each stave must be of the
exact length, cut so that the middle is wider that the ends, be an exact duplicate of all
others which comprise a barrel and ALL must be bent along the same arc.
Unless all these conditions are met you end up with box or a barrel whose components are
so out of line that it won't hold anything.
Barrels were as important as pallets and cartons are today. Every important store aboard a
ship was kept in a cask, flour, water, food, nails,rum, since they were the only
containers which could keep out rats. The same was true for warehouses and stores. The
"pickel and "cracker" barrels are the very essence of homey Americana.
But barrels were more than storage units they were also self-contained transportation.
Each filled keg, barrel and cask could weigh more than a strong man could lift but
because of it's shape it need not be lifted, it could be rolled. Add the skill of the
iron workers who mad the bands holding it all together and the common barrel is really a
functional work of art. When the barrel was no longer useful, the staves provided firewook
and the hoops provided a free toy which small boys would roll along the street, keeping it
rolling and determining its direction by hitting it with a stick.
South of Baltimore there is a road called "Rolling Road", so called because
somewhere up the hill, were tobacco sheds where tobacco leaves were dried. When they were
"cured" and ready for shipment, the leaves were packed into barrels, the barrels
sealed and were then rolled down the road to a wharf on a creek where the barrels were
loaded on small boats, taken to Baltimore's Harbo(u)r and loaded on seagoing vessels
for transport anywhere in the world.
Having done some carpentry and with dismay seen the results, I can't but marvel that
folk could make a barrel so well that it could hold liquids and so cheaply.
Now, the only use for barrels, I can think of, is the distilling industry which ages the
whiskey barrels for YEARS. It hardly seems possible.
All day long, these skilled artisans worked to make barrels to STAVE off starvation but on
Saturday night, I'll bet they all got together to rally HOOP it up! (I couldn't
resist :-[ )
Joe Gregory
Carpenter 4th class
Joe,
Your story about the barrel hoops, reminds me of a toy we used to play with
as kids. It dates more to my father's generation really, but just about
overlapped into mine (47).
'Cylch a Bachyn', (ring and hook). A simply made iron hoop about 18" in
diameter, with a separate straight length of iron rod , (about 18" long this
time), which had a hook on one end with which to control the hoop as it
rolled along the ground.
The more proficient user was able to push the thing along so that it behaved
more like a dog on a lead than a toy. Great speeds were also achievable, but
of course that did have a direct correlation with the speed of user!!
Inevitably breakages would occur, perhaps the weld might part on the ring,
or the hook get bent or broken on the 'bachyn'. Either way, it was always
only a short stroll (with hoop in hand this time) to the village blacksmith,
who was always more than ready to perform the necessary repair...free of
charge...we were Cardis after all!
Regards,
Steve.