THE FINAL YEARS by Eugene Hutchinson Mallory (EHM 2)
These remembrances were all written in the 1980's after the death of my wife and my retirement from active work. They were written in no particular order and for no particular purpose. I had no reason to think that my life had accomplishments or significances that made it worthwhile to spoil paper to record it. Now that the paper is spoiled and the work is done I can believe that perhaps my good fortune to be both a survivor and a spectator of this turbulent century has given me the chance to record some highlights not visible on the larger screens of the media or properly recorded by the scholars. I have written fact as far as facts would reach where they would not reach I had recourse to must have been, should have been, and many I do not knows. Some may feel the theme is too sad, too much a lament, but if anything in history is certain, it is few people that have an easy life. Some episodes may seem impossible. I began my life as a scientific materialist, but after the mighty gurus of physics took away such comforting and convenient ideas as absolute time, space, matter and energy and after they found 9/10 of the material universe missing and unaccounted for, I have foresworn such words as never and impossible. So readers must deal with things like Pancho's train, the death of the first William Sidel, and the doom cannon as best they can. "You too can hear the doom cannon if you will." Those of you who seek fact and evidence may go to Iowa and try to track down the very farm where the lady named her cows and led her hungry children into the land of legend. I don't think you will track her down. She has led them into a land of legend where we mortals cannot go. Those who seek understanding of such things must look within themselves as far as I am concerned. Perhaps the loons might help. It seems fair to begin the 20th century in 1914 when the battle of the frontiers cleared the stage of the musty curtains and the dusty scenery of the 19th century. Born in 1913, I might with a little luck still be in a spectators seat when the house lights go up for the 3rd millennium, but these are memories from the final years of the second. Editorial Comments by EHM 3 These stories are my fathers, written as part of a life writing course. He intended to tie these together into an autobiography of sorts. Like many things for him, "The good things go away." He has not finished this work and I think that this is how it will stand. Some of these stories are of little interest outside the family tradition, others are a very interesting description of life at a time when things were changing rapidly. My father saw the advent of personal transportation (the automobile), personal entertainment (the phonograph and the radio), and the sexual revolution (the pill), as well as the end of the railroad and the income tax. I think that these stories are unique and will remain as a memory of a different life and time. My father was born when horses were the main transportation and later in life, worked directly on the first successful moon landers, the SR-71 and many other advanced aerospace components. He worked in a aerospace machine shop that was among the first to learn to machine Titanium and other intractible metals. My mother, Dorathy Hoffman, is mentioned several times in these stories. Curiously, I am not. I have no recollection of my father speaking to me before the age of 10 or 11, and little later. In my teens, I hung out with him and learned to fix cars and houses and such, but he never shared much of his life with me. I knew of some of the events from my mother. In "Rain Crows", my father says, "I would love to tell such a child some tales of the wonder and the magic of the world." Why he did not try to share these things with me I do not know. These stores were hand written and transcribed by a lady who shared the life writing class with him. Fortunately, I was able to rescue these from oblivion from her. Houses Christmas Music Nails Pancho's Train Bye Bye Birdy - The Last Passenger Pigeons Railroad - Railroading in Winter Rain Crows Rendezvous Silo Filling With Steam Power The Stiff in the Cadillac Small Towns, Small Cities Were Two Sons Not Enough Walking In Another Man's Shoes My Land of Winter The Man in the Strangers Grave The Banks Bailey's Barbershop Preface to These Documents. (Brief) Family History Ben Franklin Ferris - Memoir Henry Ferris Genealogy Edna Clair Ferris - Diary. Mallory Home Page Eugene Hutchinson Mallory Genealogy My Father's Stories