December 28, 1978 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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SPARKS FLY as M. G. Lang trues a circular saw.
The old clays...
By M.G. LANG
From horse and busgy days
to now, the biggest advance is
enclosed cars with HEATERS! In
winter, one almost froze, even
with side curtains on the old
touring cars.
But give me honest cotton
for clothing, manmade ibers
break in my business anyway.
Nylon, orlon and polyester may
be okay for city people, but not
for the working man, even in
summer.
of sugar, two or three sacks of
flour, one or two gallons of
catsup, and two or more pails of
"larup" (syrup).
Saturday was almost an
institution - the day to go to
town for groceries, clothing or
taking the cream can into the
creamery. No creamery - ship it
on the train.
Gone is the timber of the
twenties and thirties, trees 150
years old and older. It took grub
These days one can't (food) to get the logs, poles,
purchase a and cordwood to the
bringing home. It either has to railroad siding, then a five mile
have a clock, and/or a tape or
cassette deck to it, with a tiny
three.inch speaker.
Today we buy packaged
goods in the grocery store in
varying quantities. Back in the
good old days, soda crackers
came in barrels, pickles in a big
jar. Salami, bologna, summer
sausage and worsts were
suspended from the ceiling and
cut to length, as sold or per
pound. Cheese came in wheels
varying from ten to twenty
inches in diameter, four to six
inches thick, and cut in a wedge
like a pie. Cheese, crackers and a
slice of bologna was lunch for
many up to the year 1930. When
in town, prohibition was
enforced, so no beer to wash it
down.
We are more sanitary in food
handling, but paying for the
individuals wrapping. The scoops
for sugar, flour, beans, coffee are
past history "along with the bins
that held them.
The clerk no longer wipes his
hands on a sometimes clean
towel to cut off a roast or shank
from a front or hindquarter of
beef, possibly after pumping
gasoline or putting in some
motor oil, at the country store.
The germs must not have
been so potent or deadly then.
We bought green beans, corn,
peas and tomatoes by the case,
in the fall eight to ten sacks of
haul was considered long.
Cordwood was moved by
team and wagon, logs, on those
speedy, hard-tired trucks, 15
miles per hour, on level ground.
One to three coming down out
of the hills, no fiats to worry
about, but don't spit in the
wheel track or the rear wheel
would spin going up those 15 to
20 percent grades. Trucks to the
year 1925 seldom had a
windshield or a cab top, doors,
non-existent. Brakes would stop
truck unloaded pretty good;
loaded - gangway!
Pole trailers had no brakes.
On steep grades, we used a shoe
about 20 inches long, made from
channel iron, shod on underside
with grader-blade steel, very
tough - this was put under one
trailer wheel and pulled from
rear of truck frame with a chain,
and Lord help driver if the chain
broke or the shoe slipped out
sideways.
We started to hear of vacuum
brakes on transcontinental or
long haul rigs about the year
1930. I stopped driving a
cast-steel wheeled GMC in the
fall of 1930. It had six-inch hard
robber in front, twelve inches
wide in back, called "The Little
Brute." My first truck was a
Transport in 1924, rubber four
inches wide in front, eight inches
wide on rear, four-speed
transmission, 2½-ton rating, a
I spuds, plus a quarter of beef trailer for poles, tires six inches
which froze in the screened meat wide, magneto ignition and it
house in winter, was handeranked.
We also bought fifty pounds
i
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Huckleberry Herald
Post Office Box 587, Belfair, Washington 98528
Telephone 275-6680
Belfair office open 9_a.m; to 1 p.m.
Monday thru Friday
,News and advertis.lg copy deadline 5 p.m. Fridays. For your
convenience there is a mail slot in the door for copy. Office located
across from Belfair Texaco in Belfair.
REX-ZANE, RUDEE., ......................... Editor
CAROL WENTLANDT ............. Advertising Manager
Office Telephone 275-6680
A section of the Shelton-Mason County Journal serving as
the voice of Belfair, AIi.yn, Grapeview, Tahuya, Mason
Lake, South Shore arid North Shore.
9
Page 2 - Huckleberr,, Herald section of Shelton-Mason County Journal - December 28, 1978
t
IT TAKES concentration to do the job right.
This is the place
ScJssors, sows, an
hatchets get new
edge on life
By HANNAH DEHLER
Unless you are watching for
the place, you may miss the
small shop in the rear. Driving en
route to the South Shore, you
can read the sign "M G Lang's
Sharp.All Shop." Marlin George
Lang can usually handle any
bladed tool that comes into the
shop.
Knives, scissors, pruning
shears, wood chisels, rotary
lawnmower, electric hedge and
grass trimmers, hatchets and drag
saw blades return home with
each customer practically good
as new.
It was not a chosen
profession, but a familiar chore
while working on a farm years
ago near Malden, Washington.
As a young boy he watched
with interest as his father, a
carpenter, used the old
grindstone to keep his
professional tools razor sharp.
Self-pride in a job well done has
kept Marlin very busy for eleven
years on Hood Canal.
A widower for twenty years,
he maintains a small home near
the shop, doing his own cooking
and sewing.
"Well, clothes have to be
mended sometimes, and if 1 can
work all of the' machines in the
shop, I certainly can work this
one," Lang.said nodding his head
toward the foot control sewing
machine.
Part of the home atmosphere
includes two young cats of
dubious heritage, who keep their
personal attire in immaculate
condition, probably as thanks for
the milk and food they promptly
receive each day. They come
into the shop when he is
working occasionally if they
think dinner is going to be
delayed. The two vocally remind
their friend and benefactor that
he is working overtime. Spot, the
black and white feline, fascinates
visitors with his intricate coat.
His face holds the pattern of a
crooked pretzel that would be
the envy of the expressionism
crowd. "Grey" is "what you see
is what you gets!"
The shop is small and
crowded with dozens of items
left for Lang's attention. You
can find almost anything that
comes with a blade - from
kitchen shears to a seven-foot
logging saw. This means more
than one machine must be on
hand to handle each individual
need.
The Belsaw is for gumming
and trueing the chain saw blades.
An inexperienced person would
seek the dictionary for help in
defining these unfamiliar words
- gumming: to enlarge gullets of
a saw; trueing: to make level,
square, balanced or concentric.
This interviewer was given an
actual demonstration, and I truly
appreciated watching the precise
eye and sensitive touch of the
operator's technique. Each tooth
in the saw receives singular
attention as to slant and need,
and there can be as many as 300
teeth to one saw. Trueing of
course, would ascertain that the
circle is true.
Lang uses squares to check
the balance. If a defect is found,
then the shoemaker hammer
(with the rounded top) is held
by the very end of the handle,
and his wrist movement allows
the hammer to set its own
rhythm It reminds one of the
long years practicing the scales
on the piano, and only long
repetition brings the even trill of
sound. An art form in Lang's
profession that perhaps is
disalpearig. ...........
"Tle old-time indstone,
which was wet to keep it from
burning, can still be used today,"
says Mr. Lang, puffing
thoughtfully on his ever present
pipe. "There are special grinding
stones that are still used on
automobile crank shafts."
Asked why he thought this
small type of business and art
was disappearing, he said, "Our
technological methods eliminate
manual ope rations of course
• possibly the younger
would find it tedious and
This articulate and interes
man was asked where he
progress has faulted?
"That's easy;" he said.
we must wear clothes of
manmade chemical fiber,
consider it one of the
changes of all. They have a
look in spite of any
grooming and are cold or
warm to the body. The
fabrics wear away like wall
falling away from a wall.
"l always have to shorten
shirt sleeves, because I a
short man, and I find I
usually reface the button
with a piece of overall
so that it will wear better.
good cottons and wools now
quite expensive, and I find
overalls the best for my
Remember the really
percales and cottons we
wore? With countless wear
washings they become
better. The wools we wore
our body warm in the
weather, and the cottons
excellent ventilation in the
summers. This can add to
health of each person."
Lang is a World WaJ
veteran who was attached to
ETO Anti-Aircraft
he served in North
Sardina, France and Germany.
"A couple of 88 shells
too close for comfort when:
enemy was just over the
trying their best to knock us
of commission, but my
. w.asn't 9n either one of
he recalls. ........
Returning, he spent
years with the Kaiser
in their rolling mill.
Born in Debeque,
Lang, as a small lad, came
Malden, Washington with
parents. In 1924 he was
poles into Newport,
"Gypoing," he explains,
we had contracted to haul
saw logs or poles."
:"i ¸ ,
M. G. LANG in his crowded w0rksll