Each succeeding generation was
told how much harsher the winters were “way back yonder.”
We heard how much deeper and more frequent the snows were, and how
the pond would freeze over so that people could actually walk
across. Harsher or not, this scene in the mid 1920s attests
to how hard life was for most of the workers. Very few people
had autos. Imagine having to walk to work
through this weather from one of those houses way up River Street
all the way round to the mill gate. As you look beyond the mill to
those flimsy ill-heated houses perched on that frigid hillside, it
makes you wonder how hungry, cold or sick the occupants might
have been.