The Town, Times, & Tunes

Front Level:
#1 #2	Scene - Hutchison Blacksmith Shop, old tools lying around, two old timers sitting on wooden blocks. (Old timers drop in at different intervals) (picks up an old buggy hoop) Russell sure did a great job on this one, eh? (absently at first) Yeah, oh wow! Remember how these buggy hoops used to make such great runners for our sleighs? Boy, we sure could go fast.
#1	(suddenly remembering) Yeah, they were logging up Canyon Road at the time, and the roads were kept icy for sleighs. We used to hitch onto an empty vehicle going up, took about an hour. Then we'd speed all the way back down to City Hall. There were eight of us on the sleigh, and we'd all drag our feet around the corners. It seemed like we were going thirty miles per hour. You could go all the way from Canyon Road to City Hall in those days before your sleigh lost momentum.
#3 & 4	(wander in and take a seat)
#2	Remember how we'd hit those frozen horse turds and they'd fly back in your face. Did they ever hurt!
#1	(shaking his head, laughing) Frozen horse turds.... some of us used to pile them into the grocery boxes in the back of the cutters, when the ladies weren't watching.
#2	(laughs) We sure were little devils in those days. Do you remember that day we put a big boulder in a sack of hay in the old horse tie shed?
#1	Which day?
#2	(ignoring his friends crack) Remember that horse? No one could go near it, real ornery critter - kicked everyone who passed anywhere near its hind end.
#1	Oh, oh, and we decided to teach it a lesson, and we strung up the sack from the rafters (he stands, gestures) and we placed that sack with the boulder just behind the horse's rear just close enough to get him to kick!
#2	And did that horse kick - only every time he kicked that sack the heavy boulder swung right back down and whacked him in the rear.
#1	The next morning that horse was too tired to bother anybody. (pause, then..) Did they tear down the watertrough by the bridge?
#2	Yeah, wasn't it made from an old dug out canoe?
#3	Sure was. One day Gordie and George, they were just boys then, they decided to take that canoe, when it belonged to Old Felix, and go for a trip down the river. Well Old Felix, he caught them at it and, man, he waved that horsewhip and those boys learned a lesson. He even made them paddle the canoe back up river, through all the side channels.... that was rough work.
#4	But if Bob Bailey had caught 'em he would've put them in the slammer
#2	Nah, he never put anybody in the slammer
#4	Yeah, he did! There was one guy he caught stealing down at Fulton's Hardware, he threw him in the old city jail. Well, you know it's made of local brick, and the thief pulled a block out, one at a time, until he had a hole big enough to crawl through. He was never seen again
#1	That reminds me of the time old Bob found a dead horse right out there (gestures to the road) on Belvedere Street.
#2	Bob Bailey was a witty guy but his spelling left a lot to be desired!
Middle Level:
Bob:	There's a dead horse on Belvedere Street, an' Rule 10 says I have to report it in writing. (He sniffed and sneezed and chewed the penholder. Then blurted...) How do you spell it, anyway!
Jack:	(Bailey's brother) Spell what?
Bob:	Belvedere!
Jack:	(sleepily) Well, I guess the same old way
Bob:	(Pretty soon Constable Bailey threw down the pen, stood up and reached for his coat. Dressed for duty he bolted for the door)
Jack:	Where are y'going, Bob?
Bob:	I'm going to drag that damn horse around the corner to Mill Street
#1	So he actually dragged that horse around to Cliff St. to fill out the report?
#3	So they say, remember the deer that used to roam Cliff Street?
#2	Didn't we call him Sandy?
#3	Sure we did, and it was old Fred Abbot that brought that fawn in from Mable Lake.
#2	Boy, he sure was a nuisance, did you know that sometimes he would steal my candy right out of my hand? He would steal candy from any kid who wasn't quick.
#3	(laughs) Yeah, he would knock a small kid down and take his candy away. He even took the pies off of old Hong's baking racks.
#4	Old Hong, he was the old Chinese cook who ran the restaurant at the Enderby Hotel, wasn't he?
#1	Sure, as kids we even swiped the pies that were cooling on the racks. He would always look the other way.
	(Old timers #5 & 6 wander in and lean on the frames)
#2	Remember the trouble that we got into in grade school?
#3	(laughing) Remember when the grade nines found out a way to make gun powder.........
Upper Level:
Boy1:	This recipe works, I'm telling you - my uncle almost blew off his hand when he was a kid with this old recipe book. Mom doesn't know I found the book in the attic.
Boy2:	Well, this'll be a good test - old Hong's chicken house door looks sturdy to me - this'll be great if it works, let's light the fuse. (lights match)
	(Flash pot, sound effects, Hong's voice, rubber chicken flying through air) (Boys run off yelling - it worked, let's get out of here, etc.)
#6	Yeah, poor old Hong, singed chickens running everywhere, chicken house on fire, but he was a kind person wasn't he?
#2	Yeah, Hong was real good to us kids. Remember how he made ice cream and gave us the paddles to lick?
#5	So was Bang, the laundry man. He would sell us candy, firecrackers and roasted peanuts for only 10 cents. And he even gave us Lily bulbs at Christmas.
#3	Speaking of all those Chinese guys, what about Charlie and his mare, Dolly.....?
Upper Level:
	(Charlie Chong enters with cart and 2 kids)
Girl 1:	Tell us the days of the week again, Charlie
Charlie:	My way or your way little one?
Girl 2:	Your way, your way!
Charlie:	(obligingly to amuse, exaggerates) Sunguy, Monguy, Chuk a muka, Hungy, ooligay, haligay, aaahhh! Come on kids, vegetables to deliver, come on.
Girl 1	Then we can dive in the river again, can we? Charlie: Sunguy, Monguy........ (exits)
#6	I'll always remember them, Charlie would deliver vegetables to us and whenever a new baby was born on his route he always gave it a silver dollar.
#2	He used to throw coins in the river for us kids to dive in and find. He sure did spend quite a bit of money on us.
#5	Polly was one of the best horses around....
#3	Yeah, we would always get carrots from Charlie and hold one near the ground for Polly. And when she leaned down we would climb on her back and head down the road for the next kid.
#1	We sure did have a lot of fun back then. (sighs)
	(Lights fade in the silence)

NOTE: The musical The Town, the Times, the Tunes was written and performed by A.L. Fortune Secondary students in 1990, following the two-year project in which students interviewed oldtimers and wrote essays for the IBM project "Links Through Times". This sample section was written for the musical, but not included in the final version.