THE STONE WHISTLE

[Music] [Music] bye so [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] what are you doing oh hello there who are you who are you is there an echo around here what are you doing doing or making a rubbing of this old gravestone now that i've answered your question how about answering mine what's your name melissa now why oh i just thought if we were going to carry on a conversation together that uh might as well know who it is we're talking to my name is john no i mean why are you doing that oh well it's a hobby of mine i like to collect and preserve all monuments and gravestones i even framed some of them that's a funny hobby oh well i think it's funny that you're all dressed up way out here in the middle of nowhere what are you all dressed up for anyway i'm on my way home from church why aren't you i'm on vacation god doesn't take vacations melissa you sure do know how to put a fella in this place that's my great-great-grandfather's stone you're robin oh well i hope you don't mind i don't mind i never knew him what do you collect those rubbings for anyhow well i guess because i hate to see what's on these old stones lost forever see the weathering pretty badly pretty soon nobody be able to read them no one will even know that this is your great great grandfather's monument monument uh-huh this is a monument a monument to your great-great-grandfather's life i always thought monuments were like the statues in front of the town hall oh yeah well they're monuments too but these are monuments like the soldiers the monument can tell a lot about a person's life i take this great-great-grandfather's stone shame it's weathering so badly because someone put a lot of work a lot of love into that a long time ago now take this right here for example i can't quite make this out oh i know what that is that's a whistle my grandfather told me so a whistle uh-huh grandpa says his granddaddy was the best whistle carver in the whole county he'd make one for any kid who'd sit down with him while he carved it ah that's beautiful see what i mean about a monument telling about a person now what this tells me is that he was a man who loved children a patient man man who would take time to make other people happy beautiful no wonder his family wanted a special monument to his life i'm glad you're saving it but why is it fading away well long time ago when they made these stones stone carvers couldn't cut the harder stone very easily so they put the soft materials in and uh as you can see they didn't last very long what did they make monuments out of now all the best ones are made out of granite right here in barry have you seen how they do it uh-huh last time i was here i'll tell you what let me finish this rubbing and then i'll drop by your house and show it to you and then while i'm there i can ask your mother whether i can take you over to barry and show you how they do it would you like to do that oh super good where do you live melissa first house up the road hurry up john okay [Music] [Music] john huh have you been there where you know barry a couple of years ago you know i bet some of those old monuments around my great great grandpas are about the oldest ones in the world well i sort of doubt that in fact stone monuments have been found that date back even to prehistoric times i guess man has always had the will to be remembered melissa why in stone well because it's the most lasting of all materials i suppose like the great pyramids of egypt and the tomb of mausalis it was so magnificent that it became one of the seven wonders of the world that's where the word mausoleum came from is it still standing no unfortunately but i thought you said it was made of stone so it would be permanent but it was a building and buildings are very perishable whether they're made of stone or steel or whatever there aren't any buildings built today that'll last anywhere near as long as a good solid granite memorial john does all the granite come from here in vermont oh no but barry has about the finest granite in fact there are famous monuments all over the country made of barry granite famous monuments sure the peace memorial at valley forge is barry granite in fact about all the granite valley forges barry lots of monuments to famous people are of barry stone from presidents to great religious leaders actually barry monuments are found everywhere representing all faiths there are monuments to heroes like the one in west virginia to coal miners who've lost their lives in the mines and you know something when john wayne had the monument to the green berets put up at fort bragg north carolina he insisted it be of stone from barry even though there's great granite to be found very nearby [Music] so you see there is a difference wow is that the granite they're going to use in the monuments no no that's the granite they're throwing away that's not good enough to go into a barry monument but there are mountains of it well that's part of the difference that i spoke about melissa the people in barrie are pretty fussy about the quality of the stone they use in fact only about 15 percent of all the granite taken out of the quarries meets their standards the rest of it well there it is come on let's see where it all comes from [Music] first of all i'd like to welcome all of you here today on behalf of the entire rock of ages corporation we are now leaving the tourist center which was built in 1962 and since that time has had over a million visitors [Music] many of you are probably wondering how all this granite got here to begin with millions of years ago it was a molten mass in the center of the earth's surface geologists are not yet sure what but some force caused it to start rising towards the earth's surface under tremendous temperature and pressure the granite deposit here runs about 10 miles down and in a 5 mile radius so you can see we have really only scratched the surface of our supply and shall have plenty of granite for many years to come you may now get up and look around and take pictures if you wish to do so while i explain some of the quarrying operations to you the derricks are used to lift the granite blocks from the quarry to lower down all of the heavier equipment and machinery and to lower the men to their workstations in the glory there are two methods used to extract the granite from the forage the first is the jet piercing method for this cutting method they pump fuel and oxygen through a nozzle and the third pipe pumps in water which is used as a cooling agent this produces a flame or torch approximately 4 000 degrees fahrenheit the second drilling method used to cut the granite are the channel bar drills or liner drills for this drilling method they take drills a progressively longer length and drill a hole about 15 feet deep and two inches in diameter they do this until they have a series of holes drilled in a row they then use wedges hammers and small pneumatic drills to cut the core between the holes thus completing the channel it takes about six weeks to cut a 60 ton block of granite it is cut into smaller blocks weighing approximately 20 tons each which i then lifted out of the quarry by the derrick the granite blocks when they are taken out of the quarry are stored for a short time at the base of the derrick which lifted them out they are then loaded onto heavy duty mac and euclid trucks and brought to either the storage yard or the saw plant depending on the use for which they are intended the largest size block ever taken from the quarry weighed approximately 85 tons and was taken out by one of the steel derricks that looks like awfully hard work to me well i guess it is hard work but the people who are doing it are experts but the grant is so hard i don't see how they're able to make things out of it it must take an awful long time it takes an awful lot of talent and experience too in fact right here in barrie there are more stone carvers and sculptors and craftsmen and probably anywhere else in the whole world really in fact some of the best sculptors have come here from italy come on i want you to meet a couple of friends i met when i was here before i wanted you to meet melissa i brought her here to show how the granite industry works in bahrain this is joe this is franco i'm one of these two very good sculptors familiar with lessons yes what are you fellas doing michelangelo oh marvel yeah there's a diamond i have for big yeah this is twice as big as the original statue that's it's in saint peter's church in rome what are you doing frank holy family blessing oh you're very nice childish in jaws beautiful well look we don't mean to interfere with your work you go right ahead and we'll watch for a while [Music] are all sculptors like this sort of regular religious figures no no no barry sculptors do all kinds of work some it's pretty modern too then they do big carved murals and all that sort of thing is that the way all monuments are made by hand i mean regular monuments for people i mean yes i know what you mean well some regular monuments as you call them are sculptured but most often they're carved by using air and an abrasive but it's all hand work just the same and it's done with just as much care of course come on let's take a look okay now here's a block of granite you saw come out of the quarries and uh from here we had to cut it down to slabs this block weighs about 30 tons it solved about 18 inches an hour and a block this size will probably take four hours it seems as if everything you as hard as sapphire and lasts just about forever some kinds of cuts are done with diamond saws some monuments have almost a velvet finish some are polished like glass [Music] everything begins in the design department here's a standard design that we make available to our customers in this case here is the corner carving over here we have a more personalized design who originates the designs well all the families we learned that a monument often originates from a simple sketch or even a few notes from the family about the person and from these a skilled barry artist creates a monument which is the most meaningful remembrance of an individual life and over here we have our standard design we found also that personalization could be accomplished by simply adding a bit of special carving or a significant symbol to a monument of existing design like seth carter's whistle just a touch of something very personal can add great meaning to the simplest monument and speak volumes about a person for generations to come john can we see how they carved these designs in the plant we watch skilled craftsmen cut intricate designs into a rubber stencil [Music] what's this hey this is the first cut for the sandblast you've seen the full size being made up what it's done now is transferred on this rubber that knife is very sharp that rubber is very soft from there the stone goes through the first cutting operation skill this seemed to sum it up how deep to cut how to move the powerful tool to shape the petal of a flower [Music] time patience the stone is made ready for a second carving the stencil removed is very replaced how do they know how deep to go in the shaping all right that man in there just has a natural touch second and third cuts develop shape and form delicate curves and deep relief a lifetime of experience guides the carver's hand can i do one sure go ahead thanks i think you can do anything with that rubbing the stall yeah sure i'll bring it down thank you great beautiful isn't it yeah well it's all finished now this is the final step but we found our stamp of approval was hardly adequate barry has its own independent inspectors of the barry guild examine monuments produced by member plants rigid standards must be met before the seal of the barry guild is applied this seal we found is a hallmark which carries with it a guarantee of quality a guarantee registered with a barry guild and universally backed by every guild member for all time before we head home melissa there's one more place i want you to see i think you'll be interested after what you've seen today oh all the stones are the same color barry stone also has a very close grain this gives it a kind of an even look it also means it's non-porous so it won't stain over the years it keeps its beauty another thing about barry granite is that its color makes the carving show up well particularly when it's polished [Music] why aren't more of these polished well most of these are monuments to people who have worked with this stone all their lives in the industry maybe they just like it to look as natural as possible i like the velvet finish too but it's really a matter of what people prefer [Music] but there are so many different kinds of monuments how could you ever decide what kind to have ah now that's the big question it's one that most people have to face at one time or another i guess like we saw back there in the plant the best memorial is one that says something about a person or a family it's planned for like a like a hobby like whistle carving or even somebody's job all right here now what's that oh that's one of those things you see on drugstore signs sometimes right it's a mortar and pestle the mills are pharmacists [Music] oh here's one i like see it's simple but it's personal because the name is the signature of the person look here's someone who's an artist and her husband's an american legion member why aren't there two dates on here because those people are still living very often people have their own monuments made in place before it's needed look here's another [Music] here's a man who was a mason that's what that symbol means and here's someone who belonged to the elks and the catholic daughters of america the shrine the salvation army the fact that they belong to these organizations meant a lot and they wanted remembered and it doesn't cost that much to have this sort of thing done look at this one that must have cost a lot not necessarily see that's all flat carving there's no heavy sculpturing in that but it certainly does tell a lot about that man's life i see what you mean [Music] now here's one which is shape carved it's very deeply cut as you can see that's beautiful the roses look almost real you know melissa there's a lot of symbolism in monument making what's symbolism that means certain things have certain meanings such as the rose so the rose means love and appears very often on monuments look at this oh it's completely covered with flowers well there are lots of symbols that are used and if people are aware of it they can use that to add meaning to a stone the lily stands for purity oak for strength ivy for friendship willow for sorrow or morning just about endless look here's a celtic cross see how the design is all woven together uh-huh well that's symbolic too that interlacing stands for immortality the whole thing is that a little thought put into the choosing of a monument can make it more than just a stone to mark a grave but really a memorial to a person's life it may be a real work of art or it may be small and simple doesn't really matter so long as it has a as a special meaning for every person is an individual and something unique about every life something which should be remembered [Music] you know i saw a cemetery once but there weren't any monuments did you like it i don't think so why well i guess because i wasn't able to tell anything about the people who were there [Applause] oh mother we saw the quarry we saw the monuments how they were made so how they put the design in and how they carve it and we melissa why don't you stay for dinner thanks but i better not i've got some traveling to do before dark i tell you what i'm going to be back this way all week from saturday now would you and melissa like to stroll over and meet me at the old burial plot say about noon time yes john oh yes mother yes okay yes john oh okay good good bye i'll see you then thank you [Music] hi hello mr paulstein how are you i have a little something special i want you to see what is it it's a surprise oh come on lana you'll find out here we are and there but i i mother you knew about this didn't you mr farsight called me from barry the day you were there and he asked me if i'd mind if he had it done but how by the day we went to barry i took my rubbing of the old stone and asked him to make a new one exactly like it only this time of barry granite yesterday they came up and put it in but why i guess i felt that any man who deserved to have a whistle carved on his headstone deserved to have a monument made out of barry granite so that he'd always be remembered it's beautiful [Music] you