Ye Olden Days
Resuming his narrative of early day reminiscences. William E. {"Billy") Blote, says:
"After the Pavilion burned down on the present court house block which was early in the '60's, that block became the circus lot."
"The town had no city water. So we got all our water from private wells. Ice was only obtainable from San Francisco. at about 50 cents per pound. For the circus, we boys used to haul water by the pailfull all day in the hope of getting in free in the evening. It always seemed to me that the horses and elephants got away with more water than my mother did in her weekly washing. On wash days. I conveniently tried to have a lame back or a sore arm. but mother used to say, 'You get busy with the pump and pail, and you will forget all about your back or arm.' Well, once we boys hauled water for the circus all day and when night came, 'nothing doing.' and we didn't get in. Next time the circus came to town my chum, Billy Hawkett (afterwards a well known citizen here), and I got pails of water went to the entrance of the circus and told the ticket collector that the lemonade man inside told us to bring the water to him. When he told us to go the back way, we said the lemonade man told us to come in the front door, so he let us in. Setting our pails aside, we selected the best seats we could find and of course enjoyed the performance. Maybe some of the other boy's can tell about roasting 'spuds' and how we got them."
The next meeting of the Oakland Pioneers will be held at the city hall next Friday evening.
