ZOOM0002 5:01 HOWARD NORTHRUP
(Recorded at discussion of film "Indian Summer" on June 14, 2018)
0:00:00 Howard
Ok. Probably most of you people know me, I'm Howard Neal Arthur. I'm an antique collectible dealer and I knew Grant Rogers personally for a number of years. [. . .] One time I remember I went up to Roxbury. I was out collecting for the antique collectible business; I bought and sold lots of antiques. [. . .] I ran into Grant Rogers up there, and he says to me, "You're the only one I know here!" [. . .] He was there playing fiddle and his guitar [. . .] I knew him, and I also knew that he worked at S.J. Bailey and Sons nights. I know he was a quarryman, and different things that he had done, and he was a good friend of mine. [. . .] We moved to Walton here in August of 1942 from the headwaters of the Pepacton Reservoir. I was 12 years old. [. . .] I went to school here and I quit school in [. . .] my second year and went to work for S.J. Bailey, and then went to work for the Walton Reporter. So, I worked 30 years for the Walton Reporter and 20 for Bailey's. [. . .] I did know Grant Rogers, if anybody has a lot of things to ask, come and ask me.
0:01:24 Howard
I know people in the antiques store down here, they come in and they want to know something about the railroads and different things. [. . .] They say go up to Neal's house and ask him. [. . .] They give them my phone number and they come up, and I [have] taken people around [to] show them where the railroad tracks used to run here in Walton. [. . .] I remember when we first moved here in 1942 we could hear--we lived on East Brook Road--we could hear the train [. . .] tracks down here. We could hear the pushers when, [. . .] in the wintertime, [. . .] they would start for Sidney pushing the cart out [. . .] towards Sidney. [. . .] If anybody wants to know anything, they say come and ask Neal, and I've had a lot of them do that. [. . .] I think one of the worst things that happened to Walton [. . .] was the tearing up of the Ontario and Western railroad. I'm a [. . .] person who was very sorry about that. [. . .] I remember seeing the trains when we'd go to work at Bailey's in the morning. We'd have to stop and wait for the trains to move because they were across the valley, there, you know, and we'd have to wait for them to move. Some we'd have to wait five, 10 minutes [. . .] and they'd make us late for [. . .] work.
0:02:39 Howard
[. . .] I could just talk here probably for two hours, [. . .] but I I'll make it short. [. . .] One of the things that hurt me most was my Aunt Ginny Jackson who had a farm down in [. . .] Beerston. She had a beautiful farm down there. [. . .] I went there after they moved out and went in the house, and it was a beautiful farm. [. . .] I remember the building of both reservoirs. One of the best farms that we lost over there was the Jacob Bower farm. It was at the foot of Coles Clove and Route 30, right in that junction, and it was a beautiful farm. [. . .] I remember Jake telling me about it, that they sold all their cattle and then they come back and told them they could farm for two more years, so they bought a herd, [and] farmed for two more years. [. . .] Back here about eight or 10 years ago, I met Jacob Bower, [who] sits right here. [. . .] This is Jacob Bower, Junior. I went to the Philippine islands with him [. . .]and his wife, Suzette.
0:03:57 Howard
[. . .] I remember so many of the buildings in Walton. They've come and ask me, where this went, where that went, what happened to the buildings? I can tell them all the buildings that burned and different things. [. . .] If you want to know more, I think I probably know as much history about this area as anybody. I'm 88 years old, and if you want to come and see me I live up on 34 Birch Street. Feel free to drive up there. I live alone and I'm always want[ing] to have company. So, come on up if you have any questions. Okay. Thank you so very much.
0:04:37
applause/closing
0:05:01
END