NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW . . .

BY DON DOUCETTE

I think of all the old wagons during the late 1940s my father burned to gather scrap iron and now realize the skilled work invested to construct those vintage horse-drawn  vehicles. During those years, local farm fields were littered with antique and abandoned farm equipment – most salvageable to museum quality.

For a short period of time, my brother, Gene, hooked my Dads favorite Belgian horse, Molly, to an abandoned yellow milk wagon to do his ATTLEBORO SUN newspaper route in Dodgeville including Locust and Tyler Streets, South Main, Bayberry Hill Road and Thacher Street.

Some kids with sheets over their heads spooked the horse on Thacher Street, The horse bolted and galloped with the wagon and newspaper inventory solo back to its Brennan’s Barn stall – the old barn formerly employed by the Dodgeville Mill (at Dodgeville Pond on the Ten Mile River) to house their stable of draft horses.

Gene walked back to Brennan’s Barn, retrieved the errant resting hitch and finished doing his SUN newspaper route.

Neither sleet, nor rain, nor runaway hitch…

Don Doucette

“Ten Mile River Rambles”

Friends of the Ten Mile and Bucklin Brook

Citizens of the Narragansett Basin

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