STANLEY JOHN HUDY
Interviewer: David Neal Interviewed on: February 12, 2003
Interviewer: How old are you and what is your birth date?
Stanley Hudy: I am 78 years old and my birth date is May 30, 1924.
Interviewer: Where all have you lived in Franklin Township?
Stanley Hudy: Originally where I am now, to next door, on Eureka Rd.
Interviewer: So you have lived at this place and next door to this place?
Stanley Hudy: Yes, here and up the road.
Interviewer: How long have you lived in Franklin Township?
Stanley Hudy: 78 years
Interviewer: Can you tell me what your home was like in your early years?
Stanley Hudy: It was next door. We had a coal stove, it was very cold in the wintertime but everybody would cuddle around the stove. We would close off all of the rooms. The stove was in the center of the living room. We had a cook stove in the kitchen and both of those were wood stoves.
Interviewer: What about plumbing?
Stanley Hudy: No plumbing. We carried the water in from the well outdoors. We pumped the water with a hand pump, carried the water from the outdoors, brought it in, and hung it on a stand. Then you had your drinking water right there with a dipper.
Interviewer: How close was your well?
Stanley Hudy: Oh, the well was about 400 feet from the house.
Interviewer: Do you remember when you got inside water?
Stanley Hudy: After the Second World War and that’s when we got electricity. You can check with the company, REA, but I think they got electricity in 1937, just before the Second World War. I think electricity went through here in 1937.
Interviewer: When did you hook up?
Stanley Hudy: After the Second World War.
Interviewer: When did you get a telephone?
Stanley Hudy: There used to be telephones around here way before we even got into this part of the country. Then they took them out. The poles were still there, I can remember when I was a kid, but they didn’t use the telephones. Then the telephones came in the 50’s.
Interviewer: Do you remember which of your neighbors that had the first telephone and electricity?
Stanley Hudy: Across the road, John Janis got electricity before us.
Interviewer: What about telephone and radio?
Stanley Hudy: I don’t think so.
Interviewer: When did you get a radio?
Stanley Hudy: We got a radio after the Second World War. A little bit before the Second World War, we got battery radios. We had battery radios then.
Interviewer: What about television?
Stanley Hudy: After we got married, we got television. We were the first ones to have television in this neighborhood, and that was 1950.
Interviewer: Did you have lots of company over?
Stanley Hudy: Yes, come boxing night, all of the neighbors would come over and watch that little screen, black and white television. It was twelve-inch and it would break down every now and then.
Interviewer: What about a washing machine?
Stanley Hudy: My mother used to do it on a washboard, for many years. Then of course, after we got married, we got a used washing machine for $3.00. That took care of us for many years.
Interviewer: That wasn’t until the 50’s?
Stanley Hudy: Yes. We got married in 1947.
Interviewer: What about a refrigerator?
Stanley Hudy: Before the Second World War there were no refrigerators, icebox yes. We put a card in the window, and the iceman would come around in the summertime. In the wintertime, we didn’t need it. But, in the summertime, the iceman would come around and drop off whatever the card would say, 25 pounds, 50 pounds, 75 pounds, and he would put it in the icebox.
Interviewer: Do you remember who the iceman was?
Stanley Hudy: No way, at that time I was probably 8 or 10 years old, it goes back quite a ways.
Interviewer: What about first cars and trucks around here?
Stanley Hudy: My dad had a 1917 Chevy.
Interviewer: When did he get that?
Stanley Hudy: Oh, probably, it wasn’t brand new, I know that much. It was probably 1924-25, something like that.
Interviewer: Was it a truck?
Stanley Hudy: No, it was a car.
Interviewer: Were there other people around here that had vehicles sooner?
Stanley Hudy: There were Model T Fords; the neighbors had Model T Fords.
Interviewer: Who was that?
Stanley Hudy: Carl Krautter.
Interviewer: Family members, did you have any brothers and sisters?
Stanley Hudy: I had 5 brothers and 5 sisters.
Interviewer: Do you want to go through their names and birth dates? And with the women, please give their married names, if you know them.
Stanley Hudy: My older brother, he’s deceased now, Mathew Hudy, if he was living, he would be a couple years older than I, and he would be 80. Leonard Hudy, he’s still living, he’s probably 76. Edward Hudy, he’s dead, gone. Joseph, he’s gone. Frank is living and still working, and he’s 72. I had five sisters; four of them are deceased. Mildred Jelm, Genevieve Kimmins, Tilda, [Louise Lewandowski] and the youngest one, she’s still living, Rose Harayda.
Interviewer: What about your parents’ names?
Stanley Hudy: My mother’s maiden name was Mary Sova and my father’s name was John Hudy.
Interviewer: Do you know their dates of birth?
Stanley Hudy: Right now I couldn’t tell you, but they come from Europe. [Editor’s note – Mary Sova 1891-1950; John Hudy – 1885-1944] When they were young, they came from Europe. They lived in the coalmining district, my dad was a coal miner for many years, and then they moved to the farm.
Interviewer: Do you know where in Europe they came from?
Stanley Hudy: They talked a lot about Warsaw, Poland.
Interviewer: Did you have any other relatives in the Township?
Stanley Hudy: Yes, this road used to be called Hudy Rd. This section (between Crane Road and Old State Road) of Eureka Rd. was Hudy Rd. After my parents died, my three brothers lived in the houses right over here and my sister lived across the road. So we had four homes here, all four of these were ours. The whole half-mile section belonged to the Hudy’s. That’s why they called it Hudy Rd.
Interviewer: No aunts or uncles or anything?
Stanley Hudy: I had an aunt and uncle that lived on Route 6N.
Interviewer: What were their names?
Stanley Hudy: Batuski, George and Katherine.
Interviewer: They were on your mother’s side?
Stanley Hudy: No, they were on my father’s side. It was my father’s sister.
Interviewer: Did they come over later or before?
Stanley Hudy: About the same time, all of those people come over. That was probably the early 20’s, oh no, probably way before that, probably the 1900’s or something like that. I can’t say for sure.
Interviewer: Were there any other siblings that came over?
Stanley Hudy: No relations, they had a lot of friends that came over, but no other family.
Interviewer: Who were some of your parents’ friends that came over?
Stanley Hudy: I could tell you a lot of them, but I couldn’t spell their names though!
Interviewer: Well as long as you can remember them, that’s fine!
Stanley Hudy: Bernosky, Batuski, Orloff, Waiters.
Interviewer: Where did they live?
Stanley Hudy: Bernosky’s lived in Crossingville, Pa. That’s where we used to go to church, St. Phillips Church. When I was a young fellow, we used to go there with a horse and buggy and in the wintertime, sleigh. Orloff’s, they lived around Waterford. They were farmers, they were all farmers. You know, living in this part of the country. All of these homes here on Eureka Rd. were working farms.
Interviewer: Who were your friends when you were younger?
Stanley Hudy: My cousins, the Batuski boys, Chester and John Batuski. The Fellows, from school, Albert Rodak and George Miniaci, he’s still living, he’s in a home in Edinboro now. He lived on Eureka Rd.
Interviewer: Where did the Rodak’s live?
Stanley Hudy: They had a store; Rodak’s had a store in Franklin Center. They had a grocery store that’s where we would get our groceries when I was young.
Interviewer: What is your fondest childhood memory?
Stanley Hudy: That’s a good question I didn’t have any. I guess playing games, playing hide-and-seek, baseball, or something like that.
Interviewer: What is your fondest Christmas memory and Christmas gift?
Stanley Hudy: For Christmas, see I’m talking during the depression. For Christmas, if we got a little bit of candy, I don’t remember any gifts. My mother used to make candy. We used to get little bit of candy or if we got an orange that would be a great gift.
Interviewer: Did you gather with your other relatives for Christmas?
Stanley Hudy: Not much, no. Transportation was pretty bad in the wintertime, so no.
Interviewer: Well, you had a houseful anyway, didn’t you?
Stanley Hudy: Pretty much, a big family yes!
Interviewer: Was the candy homemade?
Stanley Hudy: It was bought candy, somewhere they scraped up a little bit of money, hard candy. They had little boxes and they would decorate the little boxes that they were in. Then of course when we went to school, the school would give an orange and a little box of candy for Christmas. That was wonderful!
Interviewer: Whom did you marry?
Stanley Hudy: Alice McGuire.
Interviewer: How did you two meet?
Stanley Hudy: In a movie theater. We sat beside each other in a movie theater in Girard. Main St. in Girard, Pa.
Interviewer: Where did you get married?
Stanley Hudy: St. Phillips in Crossingville, Pa.
Interviewer: Did you go on a honeymoon?
Stanley Hudy: No, we did not go on a honeymoon.
Interviewer: Where did you live after you got married?
Stanley Hudy: Right here, just up the road. It was my mother and dad’s house. My dad was dead, we lived with my mother for a little while, and then we moved in this place where I am now.
Interviewer: Did you have any children?
Stanley Hudy: We have four children. John Hudy, his birthday is February 3, 1948. Sharon Hudy, March 18, 1951 and her married name is Schock. Renee Hoffman, her birthday is October 4, 1954 and Colleen DeBrakeleer, her birthday is May 25, 1959.
Interviewer: Do any of them still live in the Township?
Stanley Hudy: Yes, John, he lives right down the road.
Interviewer: From your earliest memory, what schools were in the Township?
Stanley Hudy: Ok let’s start with my school, Eureka School, it’s still there. There are people living in it, Eureka School. Then there was Franklin Center School, people living in that one. Then there was Silverthorn, there was a chicken farm where the school used to be and now it’s a storage place. Then Goodban School, and that isn’t there anymore, they tore it down.
Interviewer: Where was that?
Stanley Hudy: On Eureka Rd. Mohawk School, somebody is living in it, and that is on Crane [Mohawk] Rd. Townline School, that’s on Fry Rd. now, it used to be Townline Rd. There are people living in that one too. There was one more that I can’t think of now, east of us. [Editor’s note – Foy School at Crane and Silverthorn roads.]
Interviewer: Do you remember any of your teachers?
Stanley Hudy: Bernece Allen and Florence Swift, Hazel (Connell) Banko, [Margaret Porter], Marian Harned, she just died a couple of days ago. I went to school until eighth grade that’s all, no transportation. If I wanted to go past eighth grade, I would have had to go to Edinboro. We couldn’t walk that far. We walked 2 miles to get to school.
Interviewer: So you went to eighth grade?
Stanley Hudy: Eighth, grade, I missed the school but I worked on the farm.
Interviewer: Do you remember any of your classmates?
Stanley Hudy: George Miniaci, he was there, Albert Rodak and George Rodak, Walter Hayes, Catherine Straka, Andy Straka, and George Straka, the Krautter’s. When I was going to school at one time, there were 13 boys and one girl, that’s all. So there weren’t that many kids going to school.
Interviewer: Who would you say was your best friend going to school?
Stanley Hudy: I would say Bob Krautter, Robert.
Interviewer: What kind of farm did you have out there?
Stanley Hudy: My parents had a regular farm. You can’t call it a dairy farm because they sold cream at the time. Just farming it was, we had chickens and all animals. It was self-supporting.
Interviewer: How many animals did you have?
Stanley Hudy: At that time, the operation was probably two horses. Now that was when I was young, I am talking when I was about 10 years old. Maybe there would be 10 cows and the calves, offspring. About 100 or 200 chickens, or something like that. A bunch of rabbits, and it was all food. Also pigs, not a whole lot, just enough for the family and to sell one or two. We never had probably over a dozen.
Interviewer: What did you sell out of the animals? Just cream, you said?
Stanley Hudy: Cream and the meat. Just like they do now, there was always a little extra to sell for meat, maybe to pay the taxes.
Interviewer: Where did you sell the meat?
Stanley Hudy: Usually dealers came around. They would buy them.
Interviewer: Who was that?
Stanley Hudy: Max Goldsmith, he came from Europe, escaped from Germany. He lived on Route 99, he died a few years ago, but he used to go around and buy cattle from people and of course take it to the butcher shops.
Interviewer: I was going to ask you; did you butcher your own meat?
Stanley Hudy: Many, many years ago yes. When I was with my parents, they did the butchering. That was a great day that was one of the better days, when I was a child, when they were going to butcher an animal, because we would get some food. I lived during the depression days and boy it was hard.
Interviewer: How did you preserve your meat?
Stanley Hudy: We butchered in the wintertime and then freeze it. When we would get a thaw and that, my mother would get all excited and she would go to work canning. You either had to can it or salt it down.
Interviewer: Did you have a smokehouse?
Stanley Hudy: Some people had a smokehouse, but we didn’t have a smokehouse.
Interviewer: Where did you keep your frozen food?
Stanley Hudy: We kept it in the granary; we hung it up in the granary. You know, where they kept the grain. You hang it and it stays frozen.
Interviewer: What kind of crops did you have on the farm?
Stanley Hudy: Corn, oats, potatoes, cabbage and wheat.
Interviewer: How much of that was sold and how much was used by your family?
Stanley Hudy: It was used by the animals. The wheat, we would eat and of course, at that time we didn’t have Wheaties and Corn Flakes and that. They would take the wheat, wash it and cook it and with cream, it is very nourishing. Of course, today people say that cream is no good for you; they take it out of the milk. Cream, you know, it’s a part of the milk, the fat part of the milk.
Interviewer: What kind of equipment did you have back in those days?
Stanley Hudy: A team of horses and a walking plow and a wagon and two buggies (a buggy for Sunday and a work buggy…just like the Amish have).
Interviewer: Who got the first tractor around here?
Stanley Hudy: There were tractors when I was young, maybe a Fordson and that. But, in our family, I got the first tractor, a John Deere A. That was after the Second World War.
Interviewer: What about thrashers and planters?
Stanley Hudy: We rented those. Neighbors had a drill, if you couldn’t afford a drill; maybe your neighbors had one. Some of the neighbors had a little bit more money, so they would have drill and you rent it. You rent it from your neighbors, you paid so much an acre, and you put your crops in. You needed it for your oats and for planting corn.
Interviewer: What about thrashers?
Stanley Hudy: Thrashers, that’s the way they worked with them, they thrashed and somebody would own a thrash machine and go down the road thrashing people’s grain. A bunch of men, the neighbors all helped out, everybody worked together. That’s when the big dinners would come, you know, because they would have 15-20 people eating and when they got working.
Interviewer: Do you remember who thrashed your farm?
Stanley Hudy: Oh, we had a lot of them. Joe Nason, Don Vogt, and a few other ones there.
Interviewer: How big was your garden?
Stanley Hudy: We would plant a pretty good garden. We had a lot of stuff, maybe a 1/4 of an acre.
Interviewer: What did you grow in the garden?
Stanley Hudy: Everything you can grow in a garden now! Of course, we had potatoes that had to be grown in the field. We had beans, tomatoes, sweet corn, squash, and pumpkins and so on.
Interviewer: So, you did a lot of canning?
Stanley Hudy: Very much so canning. We had big orchards at that time; everyplace would have an orchard at least an acre or two. A lot of apples! Of course, the apples would go in storage and we would sell some. We would can the plums and the pears, whatever you could can, you would can. Apples you would put in storage, then you sort them, and if they start decaying, you would cut off the decayed part, peel it and use it for sauce or what ever.
Interviewer: Where did you sell the apples that you sold?
Stanley Hudy: Dad had a 1917 Chevy and he would take some produce into Erie. Now one day, he loaded up his 1917 Chevy with potatoes. My mother said, “You got too many potatoes.” He said, “Oh, no it will be alright!” He didn’t even get out of the yard and he broke an axle. Chevy’s had a habit of braking axles. When the first snowplows came out they would put a load in the back end so that it wouldn’t spin and they would break an axle and then they are done. When my mother died, we had to walk to Franklin Center to get to the funeral home because they couldn’t get down our road. The snowplow truck broke an axle and the snow was about 5 feet.
Interviewer: When was that?
Stanley Hudy: In 1950 [November].
Interviewer: When did your father die?
Stanley Hudy: In 1944.
Interviewer: I have a list of many different businesses here; tell me if you remember any of them in the Township: Blacksmiths?
Stanley Hudy: Salchak and he lived on Crane Rd. and then he moved into Edinboro. Where the post office is in Edinboro that used to be a blacksmith shop, not the new post office, the old post office I am talking about. A little shop on Crane Rd., everybody had horses then.
Interviewer: How about sawmills?
Stanley Hudy: Everywhere there were sawmills, about every corner. Clay Hough had a sawmill in Franklin Center. That’s the most important one way back. [Editor’s note, not on video– Clay had a cider mill too.]
Interviewer: Cheese factories?
Stanley Hudy: Ivoray Cheese Factory on Ivoray Rd. I was very young then; I am going back to when I was about 7 or 8 years old. That’s the only cheese factory that I remember. They tell me that there are more, but that’s the only one I remember.
Interviewer: mechanics?
Stanley Hudy: What did we need mechanics for?
Interviewer: Well who fixed those busted axles?
Stanley Hudy: Oh, busted axles! The blacksmiths did that. Mechanics, I can’t tell you of any.
Interviewer: Merchants?
Stanley Hudy: We only had Franklin Center Rodak’s store. You could get anything there. You could get kerosene; you could get nails, clothes, and anything you wanted. If you went a little further to Cranesville, that store is still there, on the corner, Kennedy’s.
Interviewer: What about quarries?
Stanley Hudy: I don’t remember anything about those.
Interviewer: Do you remember any oil or gas drilling around here?
Stanley Hudy: Only in my time. I have a gas well now. About 22 years ago they drilled over here, Cardinal drilled it. That’s where that transmission station is [across the road].
Interviewer: You don’t remember an earlier on?
Stanley Hudy: I am sure there was gas wells drilled, but I don’t remember any in Franklin Township.
Interviewer: How about wagon makers?
Stanley Hudy: Wagon makers that I don’t know.
Interviewer: Shoemakers?
Stanley Hudy: I don’t know.
Interviewer: Doctors or dentists?
Stanley Hudy: The doctors and dentists lived in Edinboro but they came out here. If you wanted a doctor, they came to the house at that time. Doctor Ghering, your college [Edinboro University of PA] is sitting on their land, you are aware of that right?
Interviewer: What about feed mills or gristmills?
Stanley Hudy: There was a feed mill in Franklin Center and of course in Edinboro.
Interviewer: Who ran the feed mill in Franklin Center?
Stanley Hudy: Sumner Wells at the time.
Interviewer: Leather goods?
Stanley Hudy: I don’t know of any.
Interviewer: Tinkers?
Stanley Hudy: No, I don’t remember any.
Interviewer: Horse and cattle dealers?
Stanley Hudy: I forgot the horse dealer, but Max Goldsmith of course was the cattle dealer. Horse dealers there were plenty of them, there were a lot of them, but that was before my time. I shouldn’t say before my time, I just don’t remember because in my time, there were plenty of horses. I worked with horses; I plowed. When we first got married, we still had horses here.
Interviewer: I have a list of some things, if you could tell me the prices of some of them as far back as you remember: milk.
Stanley Hudy: We didn’t buy milk, but it was probably 2 or 3 cents a quart. I know a loaf of bread was 2 or 3 cents.
Interviewer: What about cheese?
Stanley Hudy: I don’t know. We made our own cheese, so we didn’t buy it.
Interviewer: Butter?
Stanley Hudy: We made our own butter; see all of our products came from the farm. Farms are self-supporting. You had just about all of the things that you needed come from the farm.
Interviewer: What about flour?
Stanley Hudy: I can’t tell you the price of it, but flour we did buy.
Interviewer: Clothing?
Stanley Hudy: I can’t tell you the exact price, but it was probably just a few cents.
Interviewer: How about candy?
Stanley Hudy: A penny for a lollipop. You could get a lollipop for a penny, so candy was quite expensive compared to other things.
Interviewer: What about toys?
Stanley Hudy: There were toys, but we didn’t have a whole lot of them.
Interviewer: Do you remember seed prices at all?
Stanley Hudy: No, I can’t tell you that.
Interviewer: How about farm or land values?
Stanley Hudy: Well, my parents paid $5,000 for a 54-acre farm with the house.
Interviewer: How about furniture?
Stanley Hudy: No, I don’t remember.
Interviewer: Do you remember the prices of any other household goods?
Stanley Hudy: No.
Interviewer: Did you have any other jobs besides farming during your life?
Stanley Hudy: Oh yes, I worked General Electric, after we got married I worked General Electric and farmed, I farmed all of my life. I worked General Electric and farmed and then I got laid off after about 17 years and we went to full-time dairy farming. We did that until I retired from dairy farming, in 1970. Then I went to work for General McLane, maintenance and I worked there for 15 years and I retired from there.
Interviewer: When did you work for General Electric?
Stanley Hudy: I started working there in 1947. I had cancer; I am a survivor of cancer. I had prostate cancer surgery 16 years ago and I am still here.
Stanley Hudy: Automobile.
Interviewer: Were the roads clear by then?
Stanley Hudy: For the most part, yes. After the Second World War, we had pretty decent equipment.
Interviewer: How much did you get paid there at General Electric?
Stanley Hudy: When I started at General Electric, I think we probably got around 38 cents an hour. Then we worked our way up and we were getting about 78 cents an hour (that was good bucks!). It kept going up to where it is today, and everybody knows that. At General Electric, I worked in refrigeration so in the wintertime they laid off. When we got laid off, we got $20.00 a week unemployment. We lived on $20.00 a week. With that $20.00 a week, we bought a new refrigerator, that $3.00 washing machine (a used one), and we got along. The refrigerator lasted us 50 years. A General Electric refrigerator. The payments for the refrigerator we paid it off in 3 years. The refrigerator was somewhere around $100.00 and it lasted for 50 years with no repairs.
Interviewer: Do you remember any Civil War or World War I Veterans living when you were young?
Stanley Hudy: Not really, no.
Interviewer: Let’s talk about churches in the Township.
Stanley Hudy: Eureka Church was on the corner of the road that you made that turn on. [Eureka and Crane Road]
Interviewer: What kind of a church was that?
Stanley Hudy: Horns went to that church, what was it Methodist? I can’t tell you, it was many years ago.
Interviewer: Any other churches in the Township that you remember?
Stanley Hudy: No, Catholics went to Crossingville. Oh, well Franklin Center has a Methodist Church that has been there for many years. We went to Crossingville.
Interviewer: What did you do for fun, entertainment and recreation?
Stanley Hudy: Dances, up on 6N, on Saturday nights, there were always dances. Franklin Center has the hall still standing there. It must be well over 100 years old, maybe 200 years old, still standing there. It used to be a dance hall that we would go to. Mostly dancing or roller-skating.
Interviewer: Where did you roller-skate?
Stanley Hudy: Shadeland.
Interviewer: Where’s that?
Stanley Hudy: That was far, far away. It was south of Albion, it was. It probably isn’t there anymore.
Interviewer: Do you remember the Township, churches or the schools having any special gatherings?
Stanley Hudy: The schools would have a “box social”. People put the goodies in the box, then they wrap it real pretty, and then they would sell them. The person that bought the box would sit and eat with the person.
Interviewer: Do you remember any of the girls’ boxes that you got?
Stanley Hudy: No I was too young for the “box socials”. I was probably in first grade when they had them.
Interviewer: Were there any other church or school gatherings?
Stanley Hudy: They had programs at school and plays at Christmas time.
Interviewer: Did you participate in any of those?
Stanley Hudy: Yes, I played Santa Claus; they still tease me about it. There is a fellow still living now and if he sees me, he will call me “Santa Claus”! They dressed me up as Santa Claus; I was maybe 10 years old or something like that!
Interviewer: Do you remember anything about politics and government, when you were young?
Stanley Hudy: Oh, they complained about Hoover!
Interviewer: Do you remember any of the road supervisors?
Stanley Hudy: I should remember some of the road supervisors. Cy Ley was one of the road supervisors.
Interviewer: When was he the supervisor?
Stanley Hudy: Oh, I remember it was when the garage burned [1978]. Herb Netzler was supervisor for many years.
Interviewer: When was that do you remember?
Stanley Hudy: No.
Interviewer: Let’s talk about what the roads were like in the 1940’s.
Stanley Hudy: The roads, when I was young, in the spring of the year they were mud. Even during the wintertime, when the snow would get deep (we had no snowplows) the snow would get deep. They would fill right over there. The cars would go off of the road because of the big snow bank up above. They would go around the buildings, up the hill and way off the road, then back on the road again. I had seen that many times. If you wanted to open up the roads, they had to be shoveled by hand. Everybody got together, the neighbors got together; you took a shovel and shoveled by hand. Well you know how the roads are today, it drifts in spots and some places not. So, you take out the drifts and you drive over what you can. Those old cars had high wheels, they put chains on those wheels, and you could go through quite a bit of snow with that. So, when the cars wouldn’t go, you would get out and shovel. I spent many hours shoveling snow on the roads. That’s how the roads got open!
Interviewer: When did they start plowing the roads around here?
Stanley Hudy: After the Second World War probably. Maybe a little bit before that, but not much.
Interviewer: Do you remember any of the assessors or constables?
Stanley Hudy: Albert Huyck was a constable.
Interviewer: When was that?
Stanley Hudy: It was probably somewhere in the late 1930’s.
Interviewer: Did you ever get in any trouble with him?
Stanley Hudy: No, we were the good boys. We worked hard on the farm. We were considered the “good boys”. That doesn’t mean we didn’t do bad things. It just means that the people thought we were angels!
Interviewer: What kinds of things did you do that they didn’t know about?
Stanley Hudy: (Laughing) Until holy time, I’m not telling! Anyway, we worked hard on the farm. When the neighbor kids would be playing, we worked hard on the farm. From the time we were old enough to carry a hoe, we would be out there hoeing corn. Ten acres of cornfields and not a weed in them! Us boys would be out there, maybe three of us would be big enough to hoe or maybe some of my sisters. We always kept the farm going good. We got along on the farm because we worked hard at it.
Interviewer: Let’s go back to those Halloween pranks!
Stanley Hudy: People used to do different things, now I didn’t do these things! I can tell you some that people did; I wouldn’t do something like that. Tip over an outhouse and things like that. Take somebody’s wagon apart and put it on a barn roof. For me that would be too much work! I was too tired from working on the farm, I didn’t do that!
Interviewer: Do you remember any of the school directors from when you were a kid?
Stanley Hudy: I can picture their faces, but I can’t remember their names.
Interviewer: How about justices?
Stanley Hudy: No.
Interviewer: Do you remember anyone from the Township that went on to higher political office?
Stanley Hudy: No, I don’t.
Interviewer: Let’s talk about previous names of Township roads.
Stanley Hudy: Just this section of this road was called Hudy Rd. but that rest of it was Eureka Rd. It has been Eureka Rd. all of my life. Townline is the only one that changed.
Interviewer: Do you remember any major natural disasters?
Stanley Hudy: No, not really.
Interviewer: You talked some about immigrant groups that were here, do you remember any other ones?
Stanley Hudy: No.
Interviewer: Do you remember any diseases being around during your childhood?
Stanley Hudy: Yes, chickenpox, mumps, measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and plague. My parents talked about that. Let’s see the one that they are vaccinating for now...small pox.
Interviewer: Do you remember any young people dying from any diseases when you were younger?
Stanley Hudy: I remember people dying from them, but to tell you their names no. I couldn’t tell you their names.
Interviewer: What did they die from?
Stanley Hudy: Sugar, at that time when you had diabetes, nobody knew what it was. They would go into a coma and die.
Interviewer: What about older folks, what did they generally die from?
Stanley Hudy: Same things we die from now. I can remember my mother talking about cancer and heart disease. The same things we have now. Cancer was here then, because when I was growing up, I heard cancer way back in those years. So it isn’t something new that they are spreading around causing cancer. We didn’t have all of the automobiles and factories like we do today.
Interviewer: Is there anything that might have missed that you would like to talk about?
Stanley Hudy: The way the roads were, we got off of the subject. The roads used to be come spring, then it would thaw. The roads would be so bad that the cars would get stuck in the roads. I don’t know how many times I put harnesses on the horses and pulled people out that were stuck in a mud hole. We didn’t charge. People didn’t charge then, they helped neighbors out and nobody charged anyone. Everybody helped each other in those days. You know today, right away when you help somebody, you might damage their equipment and they want to sue. When my son John was getting baptized, that was in March 1948. We had a car on one side of the mud hole and we would drive to the other side of the mud hole and get in the other car and drive it to Crossingville Church, to get the kid baptized. Because of the mud!
Interviewer: When did they pave the roads?
Stanley Hudy: This road is not paved, it is still mud. They are going to do something with it. The roads were bad for many years. After the Second World War, things started getting a little better.
Interviewer: Is there anything else?
Stanley Hudy: Another thing I will tell you is that when I was young all of the roads were dirt roads. Route 98 was a dirt road, Old State Rd. was a dirt road, and all of the roads were dirt roads. Route 98 was so bad, that when we went to Crossingville, I’ll tell you another story. When my dad had his 1917 Chevy, we were going to Crossingville and we got stuck in the mud hole. About that time, everyone had rail fences, so you would go and get a rail and pry it up, you would put another rail in the mud hole and you would go on. Then nice people would put the rails back. Some of them weren’t so nice and they would leave them there and that would create a problem later. Another thing about the old automobiles is that they had the batteries underneath. When you would get in a rut, a mud hole, the first thing that gets wiped out is the battery. Then, everything quits. That’s the way they were set up.
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Revised: 02/02/11.