Recently the Ford Motor Co. came out with a car that had some of its operations voice controlled. If you wanted the radio on you said "Radio on," if you wanted it off you said "Radio off," and the car did as you requested.

Billy Welch's vehicle was like that in a way. He would hitch Dan and Nell to his hay wagon, pick up his hay fork, and head for the field. If he wanted the horses to go right he would say "Gee." If he wanted them to go left, he would say "Haw." They would start up when he told them and stop at the word "Whoa." Billy was like the old man in Robert Frost's account of "The Death of the Hired Man" for he put his hay up in little cockpiles, each one containing just enough hay for a comfortable fork full and each one having a specific place on the load. That was why he could go out alone and put on a pretty respectable load and when he got back to the barn he knew right where he could pick up each fork full without hunting or straining.

He used to try to teach our son Jim the things that had been instilled in his mind as a kid. When you stirred anything in a cup, you were careful not to make any noise with your spoon. When there was a block of butter on the butter dish, you never disturbed the top of it but cut a slice neatly off the end. Must be he didn't want any stale slices of bread around for he always kept the loaf (this was before sliced bread ) and a butcher knife by his plate and would ask around and cut just what was required. To make it possible for him to get his housework done as early as possible mornings, for he never stored any ice packed in sawdust as did most dairy farmers, he had his own method. At noon, he and the hired man - when he had one - ate and used fresh dishes and silverware. When they were through eating, they wiped everything clean and dry with a slice of bread. Then they placed the silverware in a certain way and slipped them between pages of the newspaper. At suppertime they used them again and cleaned and stored then away for morning. After milking and breakfast, everything was washed and scalded.

Recently, right after IBM sold their Owego plant to Loral, quite a few people found themselves out of a job due to downsizing. Chuck Hoyt, who does building and repairing, told of an amusing incident. A man he'd known for some time came and asked if Chuck couldn't give him some kind of employment. Chuck told me he really had all the help he needed at the time but thought he might be able to help a little. He said, "Well right now we're working on a good sized building. The only drawback is there's no basement, you'd have to work in a crawlspace." The man said, "A crawlspace, isn't there apt to be rats in there?" Chuck reassured him, "Oh, no, I imagine the snakes have taken care of any rats by now."