Conway Town Column Janet Hounsell janethounsell@peoplepc.com [12/07/2005]

By Janet Hounsell

First off, I hope a Geezer or two has missed the Conway columns for several weeks. I apologize for the news items and tidbits that have not made it into print.The wheels keep turning and good folk like our fire and rescue personnel are ever at the ready. Dispatcher Kenneth Mosher tells me October was a relatively light month, with rescue and ambulance runs each numbering 22 and 26 fire calls. Do use caution with wood burning stoves and see that your chimneys are safe to use, along with smoke alarms!Newly slippery roads also call for less tailgating and careless driving, come to think about it!Geezers, there's hardly anything that has hung on like the Lazy-Boy recliner. Many a male Geezer even as I type is probably comfortably asleep in one his wife threatens to send to the dump shop. But you might be as surprised as I was to learn that the Lazy-Boy was manufactured by the makers of the old Morris chair in the late 1920s, at the same time that Mickey Mouse made his debut. Both Mickey and the chair (couch, loveseat) were to undergo many changes over the decades.Reading that D'angelos has added a lunch box to its menu fare gave stirred a memory about lunch pails. Weve all heard of ancestors who carried their lunch to school in clean, empty lard pails. Poor people might tote sugar sandwich (lard and sugar on homemade bread) or some such unappetizing but nourishing fare. Times changed and along came the long era in which vied for the most up-to-date a snazzy lunch pail, first made of tin and maybe later of plastic. More time passed and along came school hot lunch programs. Today, snacks no doubt find portability in back packs. Whats next? Mini micro-heaters, possibly? Incidentally there are many collectors addicted to amassing old graphic lunch pails. Elvis, Roy Rogers, Batman and heaven knows who else were featured over the years and, of course, last year's pail was considered out of date by the time school opened again!Catherine Allard died recently, after a long and productive life. In early years, she was active socially, especially as an office holder with the now defunct Elmwood Grange. She also operated her Vogue Beauty Parlor, much to the satisfaction of many devoted women. It was first "uptown" and later in an "ell" of her beloved Elmwood Farm on the West Side.Janet can be reached at janethounsell@peoplepc.com.