Turning back the clock

I just recently found a new website - well, I found the link for it in a friend's newspaper column. It is based on the general area around which I grew up. It's kind-of a "do you remember?" site. It caters to memories and old pictures. There isn't a lot from the immediate area where I grew up, as there aren't too many contributors from that area. The site is called www.richardsvilleroad.com. The idea of the creator of the site is that it will be about all of Warsaw township (Hazen and Richardsville) and part of Polk township (Munderf). These are in Jefferson County in Pennsylvania. There are already quite a few memories posted there, also some pictures, which they are trying to get identification for. Some of the pictures are very large, and it would take forever to download them with my slow dial-up internet. I have submitted a few pictures myself, and have a few more to submit. Because of the size of some of them, combined with my slow dial-up, I am sending the rest on CD by snail mail. I may send more later if I find that there are others that would be of interest to the site. They have a long history of the Richardsville school, divided by years - except that the first entry includes years from 1879 through 1888 (it says '85, but I know there are records for 1887, because I have a specific comment concerning that year).

These old records contain various items - pictures, lists of students, even minutes of school board meetings. I found on the earliest entry another link to lists of students of various schools in the area (before consolidation). They show dates for when the records are, as well as students' names and ages (if available). On one of the schools' student records, I found 4 names I recognized. These were all dated 1887 (as I mentioned above). The names were Robert, George, Frank and Henry Harriff. They had Frank's age listed as 14, but they did not have ages for the other 3. I was able to give them George's age (he turned 10 that year) - as he was my father, and Robert's - 9 - as I knew that Uncle Bob was exactly one year to the day younger than Daddy.

Most of the pictures posted so far are directly from Richardsville, as there has not been much activity from the people of Munderf or Hazen as of yet. Even so, I recognize a number of people in some of the later pictures.

They are planning a reunion in July. Since I live close enough to the area, I will probably attend, and my sister Mildred who also lives nearby may attend also.

Blogger's note: Changed back to original - Middy said Uncle Bob was 2 years younger than Daddy, but Tommy is in agreement with me that it was only one year. Anyway, that's how I reported it to the site.

Ossian's Serenade

This is an ancient one that sister Middy was asking me about. I think this one came from Daddy. I looked it up on the internet, found bits and pieces here and there, and pulled another piece out of my memory. The "bits and pieces" don't all agree with each other, and some of them I am certain are outright mistaken, so I'll present it here as close to possible from my memory, jogged by the "bits and pieces." Incidentally, one of the locations treated it as anonymous, but another gave credit to one Ossian E. Dodge, thus the name, Ossian's Serenade. Another title it's known by is "The Burman's Serenade."

1. O come with me in my little canoe,
While the sea is calm and the sky is blue;
O come with me, for I long to go
To the land where the mango apples grow.

Chorus:
I'll chase the antelope over the plain
The tiger's cub I'll bind with a chain,
The wild gazelle with its silvery feet
I'll give to thee as a playmate sweet.

2.O come with me and be my love,
For thee the jungle depths I’ll rove,
I’ll gather honeycomb bright as gold
And chase the elk to its secret hold.

3. I’ll climb way up to the cuckoo’s nest,
Bright leaves I will gather for to deck thy crest;
I'll pierce the coconut for its wine
And haste to thee if thou'lt be mine!

4. Then come with me in my little canoe,
While the sea is calm and the sky is blue,
For if we linger another day
Storms may rise and love decay.