W. Bruce Ruby was Born in 1922, lived his childhood in Emigsville and was a graduate of North York High School in 1939 (now known as Central), married Mary Mundis in 1945 and raised four children, He attended Virginia-Tech and Penn State University, was a WWII (1942-1945) and Korean War (1950-51) veteran. Retired in 1983, Ruby was executive vice president of the Rishel Furniture Company, in Williamsport, PA — These stories were recorded during Story Night April 24, 2007
I see a couple old friends out there… (looking at the audience)
I’ll start out in the beginning of our family. In 1738, three young men decided to come to America. So they left, …Switzerland…. They immigrated to the United States in 1739. They were here approximately a year and they settled in Lower Windsor Township, bought 1,200 acres of land which became Lauxmont Farm. On Lauxmont Farm there are three cemeteries, three Ruby cemeteries… my sister and I found one of those cemeteries.
I was born in Newberry Township along the old Susquehanna Trail about a mile south of Newberrytown in my father’s, father’s house. When I was six weeks old, we moved to Emigsville (1922) with my dad’s mother and father.
I don’t remember much until about 1925 when my first sister was born and then along 1928, my other
sister was born, Jean. We lived in a home with no facilities, the only thing we had was electricity. In the little row of houses we lived in we were the only one to have electricity we felt pretty proud about that; didn’t have to use a kerosene lamp.
In 1928, I started school (teacher) Mamie? Lecrone? was in first, second and third grades. Alverta? Fink? was in fourth and fifth, and ? ? was in seventh and eighth. Mamie? Lecrone? was a disciplinarian, she didn’t take any guff from anyone, but she taught us the basics of how to get along in school and what to do and what not to do. I think most of the kids that went to that school enjoyed it.
We didn’t have any busses to ride on, we used the shoe leather express. School started the second week of August and about the third week of April school was over. So we headed for the swimming pool if it was
warm enough other than that we would start playing baseball and do things that kids do in the summertime.
The town of Emigsville was somewhat different then what we see today. We were surrounded by farms not houses. We had Hinkles? Farm at the south end of the town, Henry Rishel? was up over the Emigsville hill, first farm on the left, and Bill Schreiver? was turn back at Mundis’ store first farm over at the corner with Bill Schreiver? Charlie Schriver? was the next farm down Billy Bruaw? was back Creamery road. That’s where we used to get milk for 5 cents a quart. And Sam Shue?, Charlie’s grandpap was north of town and Jess’s? brothers farmed the farm that Louie Appel owned., Sinking Springs Farm.
Now the main road going through town was paved. Most of the roads coming into town were dirt roads. They didn’t get paved until governor Pinchot went in. I think it was about 1935-38. Now the traffic through town was pretty minimal in the 20’s and not every family owned an automobile most of them road the street car. (read about the York Street Railway) One of the things us kids would do is sit along the road and identify cars that went through town… Auburn. We had a player in the Central league by the name of Ed Dellinger and Ed Dellinger had an Auburn roadster with a rumble seat and I was one of the bat boys on the team so I would have a ride to the game in Ed’s rumble seat which I pretty much enjoyed. We had Buicks, Chevy’s, Dodges, Durants, Essex, Model-T Fords, Franklin, which was an air-cooled engine, a Gardner, which my dad had a Gardner. Hudson, Hupmobile, LaSalle, Lincoln, Overland, Oldsmobile, Packard, Peirce-Arrow, Plymouth, Oland?-Star, Studebaker, Willys-Knight, the Whippet, Pontiac, and the Crowsley.
Charlie, (yells to the audience) can you remember any others? Charlie says, “the Moon” That’s right! the Moon had disc wheels.
Predominant color was black. You can have any color you want, as long as it’s black. Colors didn’t come until about 1930.
Cars didn’t have heaters in them like they have today. My grandmother had a sister that lived in Baltimore, so in the wintertime we had this Gardner, which was a touring car. My dad would put curtains all around it and my grandpap would get a lantern and light the lantern, put it between his feet and a blanket in the back; and that’s how we kept warm. How he never burned his pants I don’t know but it was always pretty comfortable.
There were no credit cards in those days, they didn’t come along until the 50’s and the grocery stores were Milt? Shoemyers? Manchester Grange managed? by Ed Fink, Mundis’ store came about around 1936. All stores sold groceries on credit. I don’t know how many people in town used credit; we were one of the ones who did. Go to the store anytime of the week and buy something, get home put it on the tab, then when my dad get paid we would go down the store and pay off the bill.
Gas was 5-6 gallons for a buck, a market basket of groceries cost you about $2, loaf of bread was 9 cents. Haines has a shoe store in York which sold shoes for $1.98 and you could hear them a half mile away, they screeched like the devil - blue jeans at Penny’s was 69 cents, bib overalls were 89 cents.
Everyone was poor as church mouse during the depression. I don’t ever remember going hungry. Everyone had a garden in the summertime; the women didn’t have any boxed items, when they baked a cake they made it from scratch. My Grammy made her own noodles when she made pot pie, she made her own dough and people canned after the crops came in, vegetables were picked and that’s how we got along.
NEXT: Emigsville home brew
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