To History and Beyond!: Cropass?

About

This blog is mainly taken from my Great Grandfather's diary. In 2012 we are in the year 1915, after completing 1916 in 2010 and 1927 in 2011. 1915 is the year that my Great Uncle Norman was born. 1927 is the year that my Great Uncle Roger, was born. 1916 was the year that my grandmother, Annah Lee was born.

My Great-Grandfather's name was Bonnie Elmore and he worked as a clerk or secretary for the old Norfolk & Western Railroad, based in Roanoke, VA. Mary is his wife. Norman is their first born son. The Raines are Mary's parents. Skin is Bonnie's brother along with Jake.

Bonnie's work associates and friends are also mentioned quite a bit. Bonnie does a great job of blending everyday life in 1915 with the mention of some world and USA history as well. I do know from a quick glance ahead that 1915 is going to be quite different as Bonnie did not write quite as much.

After Bonnie's diary entry, I will occasionally make comments, maybe tell a little about life in 2012, possibly some current events, and some musing about the Christian faith.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Cropass?

On Friday, December 8, 1916, Bonnie Elmore wrote: Warm - Sultry. Arose at 7:20. Mary made fire. Got to work at 8:35. Mr. Schick came in from West Va. Wrote letters for Mr. F. P. Turner. Mary feeling badly. Re-bound agreements. My c&0 pass arrived. Sprinkled rain at night. I rolled Norman up to see Grand-pa at 7 p.m. Also shaved. Aunt Annah came down and stayed with Mary until 8:30 Pretty moonlight night. As I have mentioned before, handwriting is different in 1916 than it is today. Probably it was better in 1916 and we have fallen out of practice of reading it because so many things are done on a computer these days like this blog. What's funny is trying to make out some of Bonnie's words and also the context they are used in. In today's entry, in his handwriting, it sure did look like Grand-daddy was saying his cropass had arrived. I had no idea what a cropass was...even did a Google search and still came up with nothing. Then I figured out that Bonnie was talking about his C & O pass. C & O being a railroad that traveled this area in those days, C & O stood for Chesapeake and Ohio. So his train pass arrived, not his cropass or his compass, but his c&0pass. Also it took me a minute to figure out Re-bound Agreements. I wasn't aware that Bonnie played basketball and even if he had what kind of agreements are there about rebounds in basketball? Then I figured out that he probably had put back into book form or Re-bound some railroad agreements at work that day. Language, and how it's usage changes over the years is sure a funny thing. Hope Mary starts to feeling better soon, remember she is pregnant with "Baby" Jane. Also, just a little heads up for the future. When we start with January, we will be going back to January 1916 and not January 1917 as I do not have that diary in my possession. So, we will be going backwards a little bit for a while. We will not get to hear about "Baby Jane's" birth in February of 1917 but we will get to hear about the birth of Annah Lee, my grand-mother, on January 10, 1916. I'll remind you again when we get there.