My friends - I had planned on posting another item in our series on attorneys in the JP region today, but it has been sometime since I last posted an item from the delightful little book by Professor Gordon Wilson, entitled, "Fidelity Folks". So, today, we have another excerpt from that work. The subject of this essay is "Horse, Bridle and Saddle". For those not familiar with Professor Wilson or Fidelity, he was raised in what we call now New Concord, in Calloway County. New Concord was also known as Fidelity at one time. Indeed, my late grandmother often referred to New Concord, or the northern most edge of it, as "Fidelity". Gordon Wilson went on to become a leading educator in Kentucky, and his animated style of writing is delightful to read. As is now customary, there will be no data posts per se tomorrow or on the weekend. However, if time permits, I will drop by with a miscellaneous file offering. -B +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Gordon Wilson: HORSE, BRIDLE, AND SADDLE From: "Fidelity Folks" "We have so changed our standards of value that only the middle-aged can catch the full significance of this essay. There was a time, a rather long one, when every boy of respectable parents was given a horse, a bridle, and a saddle on his twenty-first birthday. This was, his start in the world; he could saddle his steed and ride forth to conquer the world, like a knight of old. Society regarded this as a handsome start for a young man, and it was. With his strong arms and his horse he could make his way in the world. Land was abundant; and practically free. The frontier was calling to all the restless younger generation. Given this start, almost any boy might hope to add to his meager capital until he would own a farm and be able to give each of his boys a horse, a bridle, and a saddle. Very few families of this social class could not afford this initial contribution to the success of its sons. Many fathers that I knew as a boy at Fidelity would talk with pride in their older days of how meagerly they had started life: 'Me and Mary was purty pore when we started out, but I had my horse, and she had her cow and the chickens that her folks had give her. We started house-keeping in a log cabin, with practically nothing but a bed, two or three cheers, and a few cook things. But we worked hard and raised our ten children and were able to give ever' one of 'em a horse, bridle, and saddle; that is, all the boys. And we give a cow and some chickens and some household truck to the girls.' A familiar formula this was to old-timers, a strange rigmarole to youngsters. How can you and I make our children understand the value of a buggy when they are used to the family car? What would they think if they had heard Grandpa bragging about buying a new surrey? The horse-bridle-and-saddle custom was almost passing before I grew up. I did manage to get my steed, but it was a small red mule named Jenny. I raised onions and bought the saddle and bridle. Unlike the older generation, I did not mount my steed and ride forth adventuring. Instead, I sold Jenny and went to school for a long time on the ninety dollars that she brought. I do not remember what happened to the saddle, for I left it on the farm when I went away. Human affection for offspring has in no way changed; we have only changed the way of showing it. My children have seldom seen a horse and could count on one hand the number of times they have ridden one. But both early learned to drive the family car, and both have gone to college, that modern method of equipping people for life comparable with the horse, bridle, and saddle that used to mean so much to a youngster starting out on his own." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++