Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois (c) Bill Oliver 17 August 2003 Vol 2 Issue: #29 ISBN: pending Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, The Summer ended this afternoon ... we returned the last grandchildren to the authority of their parents. Some of them start back to school this week. We used to start after Labor Day ... ummmm ... times do change. However, with returning the grands signals life returning to "normal", whatever that is. Our summer has been extremely busy [as usual] developing "apperceptive" education for these grandchildren as we did for our children, Before returning them today, we visited a "ghost" town which teaches what our pioneer 18th and 19th centuries were like. We even met the ghost of "Ol BlackSwamp Bob" who was a northwestern local history buff and story teller. We took the small grandchildren to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan last week end. Things have changed a lot since we first took our children there some "few" years ago. I was fascinated looking at the Presidential Limousines. I stood by the one that transported FDR for a long time. I tried to tell the Grands that I had touched that car back in the first half of the 1940s when FDR toured the Military Base where I was attending school and we school children lined up along the roadside to wave. Vivacious granddaughter was off somewhere else and grandson wasn't too impressed either. <sigh> There were kitchen stoves of different energy sources [wood/coal ... gas ... electricity]. An earlier electric "ice-box" ... can you remember that big round glob on top?? And, all those old farm implements ... and, not forgetting the development of the "horse-less" carriage ... there was an original VW "Bug". Now that got the attention of the grandson. While in the rooms of time "pieces" my mind raced back a-ways and way-far-back. The phrase that started it all was "railroad time"! Setting on a book shelf in my study is my Grandpa Oliver's old Illinois pocket watch. He used this time piece when he worked on the railroad back in southern Illinois. It still works, keeping excellent time. When Grandma first gave it to me it had a habit of stopping exactly on Christmas Day each year. I would have it cleaned and it would run again for a year, stopping again on Christmas Day. Grandpa died on Christmas Day. I'm not sure that I should have listened to the old watch repairer for he said I should not just wind it and hang it back under its display dome ... he said place it in different positions because it was made to be carried. But, now it doesn't stop on Christmas Day. In the beginning of human time man said I'm hungry ... it's time to eat. He [yep, I said "he" ;)] This wasn't good enough for meeting schedules, I guess, cause someone found it necessary to achieve the marking of the passage of time, so someone developed the sundial. [Did you know that the "pointer" or indicator on a sundial is called a gnomon?] The Egyptians used sundials. The dial of Ahaz mentioned in Isaiah existed about 730 B.C. And, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, were famous as astronomers, thus, their superior expertise on sundials lasted for over a millennium. Scholars the world over, from all civilizations, were familiar with sundials. In the 15th century the Nocturnal dial was developed by navigators who needed to tell time by the position of the stars. By the 17th century mechanical pocket watches were developed, but they were expensive and very unreliable, so portable or pocket sundials were still used. There is a story that Charles the First of England was given a silver pocket sundial by Eleanor of Aquitaine because he was always late for his meetings with her. During the 18th century clocks and watches began to take the place of sundials, however, they were still quite unreliable, and sundials were used to set the "true" time. As we all know, due to the rotation of the earth, the town 20 or 30 miles east or west of me would set their clocks slightly different from mine. However, by the end of the 19th century, time discrepancies began to matter a whole lot to everyone. The reason? The railroads demanded schedules. Trains demanded schedules, and schedules demanded standardization of time to accommodate clients and to avoid serious accidents. In 1884, a conference was held and four time zones for the United States [Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific] were agreed upon. All stations within each zone would carry the same time. Thus, train time, which was quite rigorously held to by the railroads, became the time that all citizens and the towns they lived in set their clocks by. When I was a boy, the noon train whistle became the signal for setting or checking clocks. Well, Grandpa, your pocket watch is still ticking telling me that it is time to post another week's article. Thank you for giving me your time piece. Lynn, do as your doctor says ... we want your time to be there for you. Oh, me Father will turn over in he grave with this one ... do you know what an Irishman misses most? An Irish meadow with its forty shades of green! e-la-di-e-das-di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- Other sites worth visiting: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html