. Cranberries; : the national cranberry magazine. Cranberries. place in picking time â Septem- ber 12, 1900. We still picked by hand in those days, and most of the pickers were Cape Codders ânot yet Cape Verde Islanders. The Cape Codders came with their whole fami- lies, and camped out in the ' shanties which every bog pro- ' vided for its help before the days of the automobile trans- portation. The fire swept down on us with a sudden change of near-hurricane wind. My fa- ther, with the fire wagon and all the men who had any fire-fighting experience \\'ere already out fighting it. The shift of
. Cranberries; : the national cranberry magazine. Cranberries. place in picking time â Septem- ber 12, 1900. We still picked by hand in those days, and most of the pickers were Cape Codders ânot yet Cape Verde Islanders. The Cape Codders came with their whole fami- lies, and camped out in the ' shanties which every bog pro- ' vided for its help before the days of the automobile trans- portation. The fire swept down on us with a sudden change of near-hurricane wind. My fa- ther, with the fire wagon and all the men who had any fire-fighting experience \\'ere already out fighting it. The shift of wind put the main fire between them and home. Of the people on the place, some took refuge in a sand hole; the rest, including my mother and five-year old brother, in one of the flumes. The fire swept over the place, and finally into the sea at Ship Pond. No one was hurt, but when my father and the men got back, nothing was standing but the hen house and the cow barn. For- tunately the pickers' shanties were in a little hollow, and the-fire skipped aver them. The people left on the place that night ate half-baked apples off the scorched apple trees. There was nothing else. We had other excitements beside the fire. There was an elopement. The young people stole the girl's father's horse and buggy, and made off. down the road, vvdth the father pant- ing and swearing after them. Some wild young men stole green com at Ship Pond. The owner sat up for them with a shot gim. One of them got peppered with bird shot, and had to be driven to Plymouth to the doctor in the middle of the night. Fortunately he was more scared than hurt. Chil- dren fell into ditches, and were hauled out before they drowned in the mud. Babies were put to sleep in cranberry crates and got stung by hornets. Some- where about that time, the Sy- rians came, one of the most colorful groups we ever had. They used to put on a sort of fire-dance at night, dancing around, and finally over, a small fire, hand in hand,
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