I was recently reflecting on the character of some of the “old timers” that lived in my town when I first settled here. Fifty years later, the passage of time has placed me in the same age bracket. I’ve been pondering their legacy and the example they set for us. Even back then, they were a vanishing race. Old hilltown Yankees, who had grown up in a far different time. There was a documentary filmed locally in 1973, called “Root Hog or Die.” It took its title from an interview with Louis Black, an aging farmer in Leyden who invokes the image of those that I am remembering. He is shown talking about what it was like to grow up in the hills of western Massachusetts saying, “There was no welfare business then, you had to root hog or die… you had to work for a living, you didn’t ask the town for any help, you wouldn’t git it.”

That, of course, is not completely accurate. A search of local maps will reveal “Town,” or “Poor” or “Charity” Farm, for the names of roads or locations in the area. Towns did have a fund for assistance for those who were unable to feed themselves and a means for making them useful if they lived off the proceeds. Louis Black was making a statement based upon the difference in the means by which the poor were provided for in the days of his youth and those that came after the social revolution of the New Deal and later Great Society initiatives of the 60s.

If one is allowed to speculate, based upon the character of the people interviewed in the documentary, to grow up in the hilltowns in the days of these old timers’ youth, meant to be schooled in a different ethic than what pervades our society now. There appeared to be a vast reservoir of inherited pride and it was the responsibility of each one to guard themselves and those around them in maintaining it. To be reduced in means to the point where someone had to turn to their town for survival likely produced a heavy burden of shame, both for the individual and the community. Because part of the arrangement meant being able to contribute to the operation of the town poor farm itself, it meant one wasn’t just passively accepting charity. I suspect that was Louis Black’s, “you wouldn’t git it,” if framed in the alternative sense of collecting a check from the government.

Perhaps even worse than accepting charity, without expecting to work for it in return, would be to cheat or steal. I know that teenage boys are apt to push the limits. I watched a couple ask for free, and tiny, self-serve water cups, from a local fast casual style eatery which they used to help themselves to the “not for free” self-serve soft drinks from the same fountain dispenser. They didn’t seem to care that that their frequent trips to the fountain drink machine were easily noted by one and all. It forced me to wonder how such a scene would have played out in a small New England town 100 years ago.

We have lost the sense of supervision that our elders once maintained over our behavior. The social code is different now than it would have been for my elders and even more for Louis Black’s when he was young. The communities that produced his like have become too diluted with time and the changes that our larger society has embraced.

It also makes me wonder how those old timers would view the current state of the ethics on display at the highest levels in our government. Could the term “fast casual,” itself, stand in as good description of our new standards, the older ones never to return? A description of the documentary “Root Hog or Die,” as well as a trailer for viewing, and the full video for possible rental, is available online. Once on the Vimeo website, use the search term “DER Root Hog or Die,” or use the url: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/roothogordie.

Philip Lussier is a retired educator who lives in Ashfield.