00:07I would like to return on time's long lane to the dear old home and be a boy again.
00:13The impressions made were so deep they'll stay, and intervening years can't chase them
00:18away.
00:19Through visions of time, I look back and see the family group so dear to me.
00:26No space on Earth can be quite the same.
00:30Oh, I wish I were a boy.
00:32I just wish I could enjoy those days again.
00:36What have I learned during all the years I have lived?
00:40It's a question I've often asked myself.
00:45My mother was a descendant of a Puritan family whose home was in the line of battle in the
00:52Revolutionary War.
00:53The walls of that cabin were pitted with musket balls.
00:59My father's family traces directly back to the colonists.
01:05He was born in Virginia, but in early life he went to Tennessee.
01:12When he grew to Manor, he made flat boats, loaded them with farm produce, and then floated them
01:20down the river, onto New Orleans, where he sold the cargo and boat, and then walked back 500 miles.
01:33In the spring of 1842, my father organized and led a colony to move north.
01:43Their covered wagons were loaded with bare essentials, and they moved out along the trail for three long, hard months.
01:58Their plan was to locate at Fort Durban, now Chicago, but they found it to be too low and wet,
02:06so they moved north.
02:09On to the new purchase the government had made from the Indians, just west of the Mississippi River.
02:19Here they found their promised land in the beautiful forest melt that bordered the Skunk River in Iowa.
02:27The rapid creeks and little rills gashed the heart of those woodland hills, and flooding forces it would rally, etching
02:37furrows down in the valley.
02:39At each turn and each winding, it cast a sandbar, white and shining.
02:46It all sounds peaceful enough, but all through my boyhood, the American Civil War was raging.
02:54However, the isolation in the colony where we lived, was no great hardship, for they had faith, courage, and energy.
03:04My father and his family, they were part of the Quaker religion, and they lived their religion.
03:13Sometimes, sometimes we sheltered runaway slaves from the south.
03:20I still remember the Quaker meetings held in the summertime, and in the winter, in our home.
03:28One of my first memories as a boy was of playing in the dust of an Iowa homestead,
03:36when a horseman galloped in, shouting,
03:38Abe Lincoln's been shot! Abe Lincoln's been shot!
03:42War was over, alright, but that didn't mean our troubles were.
03:46Oh, sir, I...
03:49I wanted to be a...
03:52doctor, but...
03:53My brothers told me, get to work.
03:56Oh, I got to work, but...
03:58I never missed a chance to go on rounds with Doc Swayze,
04:01who taught me everything he could about curing the sick.
04:05And you know,
04:06those four years of schooling was...
04:08was the extent of my training.
04:13I learned a little of many things, but I'm not enough of any one thing to be useful.
04:19Well, suppose I did...
04:23suppose I didn't learn one thing.
04:25One's attitude in life can make all the difference.
04:28That's why I wrote this poem one day.
04:31Two friends called this afternoon.
04:34One brought sunshine,
04:36the other gloom.
04:37They followed different roads in life,
04:39one seeking beauty,
04:41the other strife.
04:42One faced worries that came every day,
04:45one turned tail and ran away.
04:48He dodged into the shadows.
04:49I heard him shout,
04:50I'm caught in the thorns!
04:52Come help me out!
04:53I ran to his rescue as he was tattered and torn.
04:56When his friend came running,
04:57I heard him shout,
04:58Give me a horn and I'll blow you out!
05:01I believed he could do it.
05:03I knew he was game.
05:04He gave a great blow on that horn
05:06and out of the thorns that man came.
05:08Oh boy, was he mad.
05:10This is exactly what he said.
05:12When you blew me out with that horn,
05:13your breath was bad.
05:16Yeah, I suppose for some people,
05:20no matter what they get,
05:21it's good enough for them.
05:24What does all that gripe
05:25and get them, I ask you?
05:27You know,
05:27one day I invented a smokeless gunpowder
05:30and blew up my powder house doing it.
05:33Boom!
05:34Just like that,
05:35and I blown up my,
05:37blown off my eyebrows
05:38and killed my favorite dog.
05:40Was that any reason to have a bad attitude?
05:42No, no, no.
05:44It was a learning experience.
05:46Yeah, that's where I looked at it.
05:50You know, so was love.
05:53I didn't know much about love
05:55until I met her.
05:56We met at a glee club in 1890
05:59and, you know,
06:00when I saw her there,
06:01I thought she was the most beautiful woman
06:04I had ever seen.
06:06She was the school teacher
06:07who taught me a lesson about love.
06:11Well, anyways,
06:12we married Ida Mae Millick
06:14and we began our life together
06:16and over the next few years
06:18we were blessed with six children.
06:22One day I wrote these words
06:25about my daughter.
06:27When I met her,
06:29I loved your mother.
06:31I knew it at the time
06:32we were wed
06:33and then together
06:34we climbed the hill of time.
06:36Hope was an inspiration
06:37calling softly from above,
06:40praising our efforts
06:41in the springtime of our love.
06:44Yes,
06:45in the springtime of our love,
06:47time went swiftly onward.
06:48No power its hand could stay.
06:51Hours were fleeting moments.
06:54And years were but a day.
06:59Well, you know,
07:00the day came
07:02when I made a trip
07:03to Manitoba
07:04to sell some
07:05top-quality racehorses
07:07to Lieutenant Governor
07:08Dick Willis.
07:10And, you know,
07:11I was so impressed
07:12with this countryside of Manitoba,
07:15I decided to come back here
07:18and organize a settler's train.
07:20I organized a settler's train
07:21up to Winnipeg in 1904.
07:24And this was so successful
07:26I made many more trips
07:29and sold land
07:30in the Langroth,
07:32Plumas,
07:33and Gladstone areas
07:34to my neighbors in Iowa.
07:37Things were going great
07:39for everybody
07:41except,
07:42well,
07:43until the Great Depression
07:45came along.
07:48You know,
07:49I was so invested in land
07:51I couldn't pay the taxes
07:53when all those settlers left
07:56and turned that land back to me.
07:59Oh,
08:00and if that wasn't enough,
08:041931,
08:05but the Holy Wife Ida
08:07passed away.
08:10When I,
08:11when I met her,
08:13she taught me a lesson
08:14about love.
08:16And as she passed,
08:17she taught me a lesson
08:19about sorrow.
08:22Our home,
08:22our home here in Gladstone
08:24was known as
08:25Crescent Gardens
08:26and was filled with
08:27some of the most beautiful
08:28flowers in the area.
08:30Without,
08:31without Ida,
08:33without Ida,
08:34it just wasn't the same.
08:39I was desolate
08:40and I threw myself
08:42into my work.
08:43I went into beekeeping.
08:45I became the first
08:47to use sulfur drugs
08:48to cure fowl brood.
08:49I invented the
08:50Singleton Bee Feeder
08:52still in use today.
08:54Yes,
08:54yes,
08:55I loved my bees.
08:57I became a
08:58recognized authority
09:00on them.
09:01I won prizes
09:02at world fairs
09:03for my honey.
09:07Yes,
09:07I love,
09:08I love
09:09the music of the bees.
09:11I love to watch them there
09:13working together
09:15in harmony.
09:16Yes,
09:17me,
09:18human being,
09:19could you
09:19learn a thing or two
09:21from the bees.
09:23and then
09:23the second world war
09:24came along
09:25and the Canadian
09:26government came along
09:27and they
09:28wanted to buy
09:29that smokeless
09:30gunpowder I had invented
09:31and blew up
09:32my powder house with.
09:34And you know
09:34what I told them?
09:35I told them,
09:36no.
09:39You know,
09:40ever since I was a boy
09:41I've taken the side
09:42of the poor,
09:43the helpless,
09:44and the weak.
09:45Why in the world
09:46would I take
09:47money to
09:49cause the destruction
09:50of them?
09:53Yes,
09:54yes,
09:55I started out
09:56with four years
09:57of schooling
09:58and I guess
10:00you could say
10:00I learned
10:02many, many things
10:03along the way.
10:06Youth
10:06is impetuous
10:08and often
10:09impatient grows
10:10with old man
10:11tying
10:12because he is so
10:13very slow.
10:14For youth
10:15is in a hurry
10:16and does not
10:16like to wait
10:17although it really
10:19knows that
10:20time
10:20is never late.
10:22The world
10:23is filled
10:23with beauty.
10:24Man
10:25has made
10:25the strife.
10:27Let us
10:27pass the petty
10:29troubles
10:29and seek
10:30a fuller life.
10:31Time
10:32is truly
10:33fleeting.
10:34It is up
10:35to us
10:35to try
10:36to give
10:36and take
10:37some pleasure
10:37as it is
10:38passing by.
10:39I owe it
10:40to the future
10:41the best
10:42I have
10:42to give
10:43for the half
10:44of my life
10:45who's squandered
10:46in learning
10:46how to live.
10:48I hope
10:49to profit
10:49by the pages
10:50of the past.
10:52The finer
10:52things of life
10:54are the treasures
10:56that will last.
10:59Ashbery Singleton,
11:01the man
11:02who wrote
11:03these words,
11:05was a man
11:05of warmth,
11:06charm,
11:07and character
11:07who people loved.
11:09He died
11:09in 1956
11:10in Rochester,
11:11Minnesota
11:12of pneumonia
11:12following a gallbladder operation.
11:15His operation
11:16was filmed
11:17to be used
11:18as a lesson
11:19for medical students.
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