Sheldon's Siren

 Sheldon’s Siren

Those evenings when the wind was still I could hear the shrill sound of the siren in Sheldon at 6:00 coming from over two miles distance to our farm. As I remember it, before the bar could sell on and off sale liquor, the city operated a little liquor store. Augie Litzau ran it and also was entrusted with the job of ringing the siren. I can still see him pulling a pocket watch from his bib overalls and waiting for the hands to tell him it was time  to unlock the siren’s red control box and flip the switch. How important this was I’m not sure, but it set every dog in town to howling. Of course, the siren called the local volunteer firemen to action when they were needed. Will anyone remember this?