A boa constrictor spending the cold Bradford County winter in woolen blankets, wagons to paint, acts to rehearse, and horses to train. One performer in the entourage was a cartwheeling youngster who later rose to national acclaim. All of them were part of Charles Lee's Great London Shows, which wintered in Canton. During the traveling season, the wagon train of performers wheeled into such places as Troy, Towanda, LeRaysville and Montrose before continuing into New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
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Without people like John Franklin Meginness, much of what we know about life along the Susquehanna River might have been lost to the passage of generations. The histories he painstakingly assembled remain an invaluable record of Pennsylvania's past.
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During much of the nineteenth century, water came from a backyard well, a spring, a cistern, or a community pump. It was carried into the house one bucket at a time. Bathing usually meant a basin or a portable tub placed near the kitchen stove. And when nature called, there was the familiar path to the privy, sometimes through rain, snow, and bitter winter cold. Change came gradually to the valley’s growing industrial towns.
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The corn husking bee brought together people who often spent long days working in relative isolation. Conversation was as much a part of the gathering as the corn itself. Older farmers could exchange stories about earlier harvests, difficult winters, unusual weather, and the peculiar habits of their neighbors. Younger people had their own conversations, including a good deal of teasing and romantic interest.
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