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The Roads

Until the early 1970s, the roads had clay surfaces with a heavy coating of gravel. There were usually mixed feelings about the arrival of spring. It meant the end of a long, cold winter, but also an extended period of muddy, and at times impassable, roads. The withdrawal of the winter’s frost left the roadbed soft, wet and spongy. For the next few weeks, travel became difficult for walkers as well as for horse and wagon. As the season progressed, the warm spring breezes and sunshine dried the roads, and the dust began to fly. Government grading machines, operated by Phil Murphy or Lorne Keefe, dressed the