The Spechtacle

Times were tough on 9 mile road in the thirties. The amenities we take for granted now were non-existant or rare. One of the things that we take for granted now is electricity. Our whole lives are ruled by it, and when is disappears for a few days, we are in trouble.

Art Specht and his family had electricity on 9 mile, but were loath or unable to pay for it. It was hard times during the depression. One trick the locals used was bypassing the electric meter with pennies. At times this had the unfortunate side effect of burning down the building the meter was attached too. This was how Mr. Arnold lost his chicken house. (and chickens.)

The electric company periodically sent someone down the road at night to see who was using electricity, but the neighbors were usually on their guard. A car coming down 9 mile road at night was a rare event, and the word spread fast that he was coming. Grandma would kill the lights, and take Marcy and Boot to hide in the closet and say a few ‘Our Fathers’. That was Ma’s answer for all disasters. Few people were caught.

Well in the end, Pa’s chickens survived, but only till it was their turn for Sunday dinner, which was always chicken and noodles.

marcy and greg

Art Specht was a man of many dimensions. He was the Go To Guy. He knew a lot about things, including human nature. Not many things got past him.

When I was in my ‘teens, Pa was building a house up the street. We lived on Cole Road in Amelia, Ohio, at the time. Pa had built our house and eventually the next three up the street. He always moved into the one he just finished and started on the next one, usually next door.

One day some kids broke into his house that was under construction and stole a few boxes of roofing nails. These were big boxes, not the little things you got at Home Depot. They spread the nails into the driveways of at least 7 of our neighbors, including us. During the next couple of days, everyone in the neighborhood had flat tires. It was an epidemic. We had at least 3.

So Pa spotted these 2 local kids walking down the street and somehow he knew they were the guy, as Monk would say it. He asked them to come in and help him with something, He had the shoeprints of the perps on the dusty floor. He asked them to go over to the other side of the room and get something for him, and he compared their footprints. It was them alright.

In the end, they cleaned up all the nails they could find in all those driveways, and their father paid for all the tires. (You can bet those kids paid for them in the end, though.)

Those kids life of crime continued for a short while though. They stole of bunch of concrete garden statues from a local gardening place, but proudly displayed their catch on their front porch, easily seen from the road. They didn’t get away with that either. However those kids did turn out alright, and lucky for them as a life of crime for them would have brought them disaster…. They couldn’t get away with anything. Anyway, another case solved… not much got past Art Specht.

Also:
Footprint Intelligence Technology system

greg and marcy