As I look back over 80 years of Ipswich life it seems there has been more changes than in the whole 240 years that preceded them.

The present generation wonders how we survived and what we had to live for. No cars, no electric lights, no modern improvements. Sure we lived, we used kerosene lights, went out back to a Chick Sales Out House. We didn’t miss those other things because we never heard of them and everybody lived same as we did.

But we had other things that people of today don’t know about and can’t conceive of. First we lived in a free world, a peaceful world. War was something we had read about and heard about but we never expected to experience it. You could go anywhere in the world with very few restrictions. And the people supported the government and not the people seeking to be supported by government handouts. We did not have to pay any income tax either.

Ipswich in those days was a conservative town of rugged individuals.

The church was the center of most activities, religious, social and had to be considered politically. The Methodist Church was particularly active on the license question. Most people went to church more or less. Church services on Sunday at 10 a.m. with Sunday School immediately after, Christian Endeavor or Epworth League at 6 and evening service at 7 and Thursday at 7. All these would be well attended, boys went where the girls did, especially in the evening.

The great religious event was Camp Meeting Sunday. While it was primarily a Methodist Church affair everybody went. A special train went on a sidetrack from Hamilton to Asbury Grove. Barges made regular trips from surrounding towns. It was a gala day and a great opportunity for boy to meet girl.

Ipswich took its politics very seriously, especially in a presidential year. Rallies were held with the best of speakers. But the great feature was the torchlight parades. Most cities and towns had an organization with colorful costumes, often appropriate to the town. There were the Salem Witches, the Gloucester Fishermen, The Gardner Guards of Hamilton, the Ipswich Zouarves and many others. Great parades were held in most towns. Many organizations brought bands or drum corps and it was a big night. Coffee and doughnuts were served and

every marcher carried on his belt a big tin dipper for the coffee. Most organizations were Republican.

One of the hot political issues in Ipswich was License or No License. Ipswich was normally a license town, but periodically the people would have a change of heart and vote the town no license. But the town never went completely dry and there was most always some way you could get a drink. The drug stores with a sixth class license did a land office business, though most of their sales were illegal and it was strange when you saw many men coming out of the bar room wiping their lips. After a year people would get disgusted and the town would go back to license. Ipswich went license when towns and cities all around went dry and when Prohibition came Ipswich was the only place between Boston and Portsmouth where you could buy a legal drink.

While we did not have movies or television, we did not lack for entertainment. We had the real thing, live shows, and many times we had the best. Shows going from Boston to Portland would stop off at Ipswich for a fill in date.

We had shows like Maud Banks in Joan of Arc, Denman Thompson in Josh Whitcomb, Dockstaders and Hi Henrys Minstrels and many of like caliber. The prices for these shows were generally 35, 50 and 75 cents and generally capacity houses.

Then there were the Repertoire companies that came and stayed a week with a different play each night. Here you generally got some real melodrama. Several of these companies came each season. The prices for these shows were 10, 20, 30 cents.

Ipswich was a great baseball town. We always had a good team and good crowds who saw some of the best semi-pro teams. The grounds were down near the end of Newmarch Street amid the corn fields. People didn’t mind walking.

Winter sports were coasting, we called it sliding, and skating. Not only for kids but older folks as well. Every hill would have somebody sliding down it. A favorite slide was to start at the top of Spring Street and slide down East and on the river at the wharf. Many had double runners, sone quite elaborate. Evenings there would be sliding from Town Hill to Market Street, mostly grown-ups.

Winters were colder and there was almost always skating on Baker’s Pond Thanksgiving Day. But the most people skated on the river. A favorite trip was to skate to the Railroad Bridge and back. And Some would skate up Miles River and across the meadows to Wenham Lake.

Sleigh rides in a big barge on runners, holding 30 or more, to Salem or some other nearby place was one of the evenings events; generally with four horses and a driver.

Punging was another sport. Catching on to a pung and riding toll you met another pung. For the benefit of young people pf today, a pung was a double runner sleight, used for delivering groceries and other uses.

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