The following narrative was written and contributed by Ron Wiley, via email (circa 2009)

EARLY MEMORIES

The new boy in town became a lifelong friend. Fred Lindley moved to the farm just south of Darrtown when I was entering the second grade at Collinsville school. One doesn’t plan to become friends with another. It happens when you find you have similar likes and dislikes, sense of humor, goals in life, and tastes – like popcorn and root beer. Fred has written in his "recollections" of Darrtown many of the things we recall and enjoyed about growing up there. I encourage you to read his writing (see Recollections of Fred Lindley) as much of it reflects my early years there as well.

I remember a lot of hard work and a lot of fun times as well. Dad worked as a milk driver in Hamilton and Oxford. We always had a huge garden and raised a lot of chickens. Our family (see the Wiley Family page) worked together in most everything. We prepared produce, chicken and eggs for sale. Dad would run his milk route early by going to Hamilton at 1:30 or so in the morning (before unions put a stop to that) so he could be home to work in the garden, yard, chicken lot and help prepare the produce, eggs and chickens. He would take orders from milk customers and we would load up the goods in the car and deliver them to the customers. Two uncles and aunts and our grandparents lived on farms along Route 40 north of us. We would often go up after working at our chores to help out on the farms, especially at planting and harvest times.

My earliest “job” involved my brother, Roger. We learned to mow our own lawn with a push reel mower with him pushing and me pulling with a rope tied to the front bar. I was too short to reach the handle and apply enough push to move it. We were allowed to go to some of the neighbors and mow lawns for pay. Later, when big enough, for several years I mowed lawns in Darrtown on my own.

WWII

Many of my early years were during World War II. In Darrtown, as all over the country, we had “air raid warning” practice. Ringing of the church bell at night signaled a practice. All(!) lights had to be turned out. Nothing – not even candles could be illuminated. Harry Teckman was the person to check the village. He could drive with parking lights on to see where he was going and would tour the town to make sure every citizen had turned off all lights. The next ringing of the church bell signaled “all clear” and lights could come back on. I don’t remember what he was supposed to do, if someone violated the lights off rule.

There was a lookout tower near the Dees grocery and the K of P lodge hall. I have asked several people and no one so far has found a picture of it . Would be an interesting addition to the website for historic purposes if anyone comes up with one. (Webmaster Note: A photo of the "lookout tower" has been located, since Ron shared this memory; see "Ground Observer Corps.")

I remember that, the few times we went to movies then, usually the Paramount or Rialto theaters in Hamilton, that newsreels about the war were shown. I was fascinated with the war effort. Kids and families contributed to the war effort with scrap (steel) drives and paper drives. We would gather and it would be hauled to Hamilton.

Many items were rationed (see "war rations"). You had to have tokens for butter and meat. We had people come out from nearby cities and towns and see our chickens in the lot and stop to buy them, since they didn’t have to use their tokens. Gasoline was rationed and, depending on your job and necessary travel, you had a gasoline sticker on your windshield limiting how much you could buy – and A, B, or C sticker. I learned only recently that even with the requirements of the war effort, gasoline was not in short supply. That rationing was to save on rubber for tires which was in short supply, and other parts and supplies that could wear out on cars. I remember the end of the war, the huge newspaper headlines. The war news had been such a part of my life that I asked my mother if they would stop printing newspapers because the war was over.

READING

I credit my desire to learn to events in my early life related to reading. My mother taught us to read before we went to school – no kindergarten then. I had a library card when I was four years old and went up in front of Glardon’s grocery where the Bookmobile parked and selected books to read. Our parents bought the Worldbook Encyclopedias, which arrived one volume at a time. I read the entire set, often at night; by flashlight, sometimes even under the bed covers, because it was past “lights out”.

Recollections of Ron Wiley

Ron Wiley contributed the following in 2009.