Editor’s Note: This is part one of a two-part series on how much the world has changed in one lifetime.
Special to the Pioneer Times
I, Beverly Patterson Rand, was born May 25, 1915, on Golden Ridge in Sherman, Maine, in the same house that my father was born. The leaves were frozen on that day, so my mother has told me. At an earlier time, my mother was reading a book with the hero's name of Beverly—hence my name. 
As a boy growing up on a farm, it was horses powering the farm machinery. I remember Rex, Polly and Neater and in later years, Babe and Roudy. They were the workhorses. Then there was Bobby, our driving horse. He was a retired pacer directly from the racetrack. My junior year in high school I drove Polly, Dewey and Neater taking care of our 40 acres of potatoes while Percy Gould, a hired man, drove the other team. It was a busy summer taking care of the potato crop and 30 acres of oats to reap and stalk, as well as haying. That year, my father bought our first Fordson tractor. It was an all four wheels of iron with four-inch lugs for traction. Its main use was for harrowing or plowing not a row crop tractor. In 1932 or so after this, he purchased a John Deere row crop tractor with steel wheels but later converted the tires to rubber.
Before the buying of the tractors, the biggest change in my life was the invention of the automobile. The most popular model was the Model T Ford and a few years later, the Model A. After these old models it was a Nash car. With my brother's help, Dad took on the Nash agency. One of the smaller Nash models was called the "Ajax". This was a model that I drove to Sherman High School picking up a couple of students on the way. There were no school buses at that time.
The first car our family purchased was a Liberty and the second one was an Oakland. Tractors, automobiles and engines that needed power were the beginning of the machine age. Trucks replaced the horses and wagons. Automobiles, buses and trains were the major transportation for the pedestrians rather than the horse and buggy.
The B and A train providing both passengers and freight service was an important asset to our area. I am told that the railroad tracks reached Sherman Station in 1892 and further north a few years later. This provided passenger service locally and to the north and south. One could take the train at 7 p.m. in Sherman Station and be in Boston the next morning at 7 a.m. The railroad provided a way to ship potatoes to market. Thousands of carloads of potatoes were shipped each year. Crystal and Sherman Station were major shipping points. Trains were not only used for transportation of potatoes but for lumber and pulp also. These stations were active and contributed a great deal to the community. Crystal Station is no more and Sherman Station is not what it once was.
Along in the late '30s trucks began hauling potatoes. The first truck was a single wheel (not dual on the rear) that carried 62-100 pound bags for a load. The first major trucking was to Winterport, Maine, where the potatoes were loaded onto ships. These days, semi-trailer trucks ship all of the potatoes. In the railroad days, it would take at least three days for a carload of potatoes to get to New York City where as today, a truck will leave the Sherman region in the afternoon and be in the city the next morning. This was a major change in our area as many trucks and truck drivers were needed. Trains are not the major influence that they were.
Modern industrial changes have made a significant impact on the rural area. When Dr. Newman, our local vet, moved into the area in the '50s, he serviced 34 dairy farms. Today, there are only five dairy farms. Potato farms have declined at about the same rate. This is partly due to the development of expensive labor- saving equipment. The dairymen of the '50s would have a corn harvester that would cut five acres in a workday. Today, the dairymen have harvesters that can harvest that five acres in one hour. The early harvesters would cost one or two thousand dollars, where today it's near $200,000. Potato farmers in the "old" days harvested the crop using a one-row digger and pickers to harvest the crop. The cost of the equipment was minimal. Today, the cost of the harvest equipment including the two-row harvester, the winrower, the bulk trucks, tractors and conveyors for unloading would exceed half a million dollars.
In order to pay for all the machinery, the farmer had to increase his income. This had to be done by combining farms to get more acreage, buying farms, increasing the number of milking cows from a few to into the hundreds. The economics of this is that the farmer had to spread his cost over a greater production. Bigger is not always better, but under the circumstances, it seems to be paying off.
Percy, our hired man, moved his wife and newborn son into a farmhouse one day in March. This was done by a team of horses hauling a set of bobsleds loaded with household items. Since Bob's mother was very protective of her first born, she did not want him riding on the sled. Between she and I, we carried the six-week-old boy the mile and a half journey. Years later, Bob became one of my helpers on the farm.
Percy, Bob's father, taught me how to work. He taught me how to drive teams. He showed me how to place the breechings over my shoulder and grab each hame and throw the harness over the horse's back from the neigh side. He showed me how to drive the team, to step them over the pole when hooking them into the cultivator. Those two years were really an apprenticeship in farming for me.
Electricity—This was one of the biggest changes in our style of living. Before 1926 we had no indoor plumbing. We carried water from a well, which had a hand pump. We heated water in a tank and large kettles on the kitchen wood stove. On Saturday night, we would bring in the wash tub, place it in front of the cook stove, open up the oven door, fill the tub with warm water and take our bath. Monday was wash day for the clothes. Again, water was heated, tubs were set up with a wringer in between. All of this was set up in the kitchen. No electric washer or dryers were invented at this time. We had kerosene lamps and lanterns for light and it was almost a daily job to wash the globes as a small amount of smoke from the kerosene flame blackened the glass chimney. When electric lights came into the home along with indoor plumbing for the bathrooms, the women felt like it was a God-given gift. Another added invention to help the women with household chores was the electric washing machine made by Maytag. Maytag used a square aluminum tub and Easy with its round copper tub and three round paddles that moved up and down to swish as it washed and soaked the clothes. Our first washing machine was the Maytag, which used a small engine with a foot crank to start it. Later this was converted to electricity. Today this machine is on display at the Patten Lumberman Museum.
We had a party line telephone as long as I can remember. We had a crank telephone. Our number was 12—one long ring and two short rings. Since it was a party line it was not uncommon to "rubber" in to get the latest news. The local Katahdin Telephone Company was organized and operated by local citizens in the area. The local central girls often kept us filled in on the news. Emergency calls, such as a fire, could be carried by one long ring. The central office would ring the long ring on the other lines.
Radio and television—these were the big transition in communication. The first radio that I can remember listening to belonged to a neighbor. The first program I can recall listening to was the Jack Dempsey and Tunney boxing match. After the program, my father bought a homemade radio that was made by our local mail carrier, Ray Hamilton. The radio tubes were inside this hard wood cabinet with three large dials for tuning were placed on the outside of the cabinet. "Amos and Andy" was one of our famous programs. The reception was not very good, as the programs would fade in and out. The morning and the evening news were our most listened-to program.
Television came to our home in the '50s. I resisted buying one because I thought it would interfere with the kids getting their homework done. Often I heard the words "Other people are getting one, why can't we?" In the end, the kids won out. Television changed our social life. Before television, we visited our neighbors. We had Saturday night "63" and bridge games. Other entertainments included the town people putting on plays using local talent. Volunteerism declined. People stayed home more to watch their favorite TV program.
The computers have been a significant development in our society. The home computer has not been a part of my life directly. The computerized chess set that I have is the only computerized instrument I own. That world has not attracted me.
