WILLIAM HATFIELD
COOPER STORIES

October 10, 1990

 

(Names and other words that could not be transcribed exactly are in italics. Unknown voices are referred to as “man” or “woman.” Comments, explanations, and additional names are in parentheses.)

 

Man: Alexander-Crawford Historical Society, October 10, 1990. Speaker Bill Hatfield. Bill.

She was very, very bitter about anything like that and so then Dad and I didn’t make any comment about that - it being a terrible thing to be doing and so she finally - she turned around and she said “Well, you didn’t have the gun with you this morning, did you?” And, Dad and I decided we - we better not answer, but that was - silence was enough of an answer and she turned on us something wicked. My children often say, “Granny Hatfield was such a nice pleasant little lady.” That’s the way they refer to her and, “You know, she’s so kind and easy going,” and I said “You were not around when I was a child.” Believe me on that. But, she turned on Dad and I and oh, she - she was after us something wicked and I looked at my dad and he looked at me and we decided that it was more than we could take, even though we were guilty. And so we just slid away from the table - left our dinner - grabbed our coats and hats and headed off out for work. By the time we got back for supper hour she was over the worst part of her rage, and I - she was still sputtering about it and I kidded her about it in many years, even up to the year before she passed away. We had a good laugh about it. But, we had it coming. There was no question about that. And so - and I don’t think we ever did that. I respected what she had to say. But, you get involved in some of those things, anyhow. I remember one fellow told me a story. He was up on Great Neck and he was hunting and as he was going along - it wasn’t completely day light - and as he was going along his legs ran into a strand of wire fence and so he put his hand down on the fence and stepped over and took one step and then it struck him like a bolt out of the blue - he told me this recently, he said, “I froze in my tracks. I was all alone and no one knew where I was. It was the middle of the night,” and he said, “I took - I was suspicious and I took my light and I shined it down around and looked and it was just a little circle like that of wire and it was an enclosure for a bear trap.” And, here he is standing inside of that not knowing where the trap is and so he said “I very carefully looked things over, because one mistake and,” he said, “they might not find me.” So he looked things over very carefully and stepped back out over that fence and breathed a sigh of relief and continued on. You know they used to walk with the light off most of the time and turn it on when they needed the light and that was the case with - with him. One fellow was hunting in that same area - by the way, that on Great Neck, if you want to know the location, that was called the Bobby King place at one time. And, another couple fellows, couple of neighbors - we’ll leave their names out of it - were hunting one night and the fellow that was walking ahead all of a sudden disappeared, and the fellow behind hollered and said, “Where are you? Where did you go?” And all of a sudden he heard some groans, and he said, “What’s the matter?” And, he said he could just hear, “Oh-h-h,” as if this fellow was in agony. He’d fallen into a well that had been filled up about that far from the top. And, skinned his elbows and his knees up and struck him in the head. He was hurting real bad. But, those things happened. Another situation happened down on Meddybemps Lake at an old camp that used to be called Fowler’s Cottage. Anyone remember that? I remember it when I was a small kid. And, some of these fellows had gone in there after a morning of hunting and they went in to eat their lunch. And, they decided to relax a while and while they were - a couple of them were sacked out on the bunks there and some sitting on a chair or bench or something and there was another fellow came around. He’s died and I don’t know his name but he had a fellow - an out of state hunter with him and they walked in and the guys began to talk and as they were talking, one fellow - the fellow that was the out of stater walked over and he looked at a 35 Remington semi automatic. That’s the one with the big tubular barrel and the safety was a fairly long device - about that long, and flips down on the side of the gun and the hunter that owned that gun had placed that on a hook on the wall - one of these little coat hangers that you screw into the wall with a little hook underneath and a bigger one on top, and he hung it by the trigger. He didn’t unload it by the way, but as long as the safety was left alone, everything was fine. And, the sport went over and he said, “Boy, that’s a mean looking weapon.” And, he reached out and snapped the safety off. The gun didn’t come off the hook but it jumped up and down and fired five shots into the floor. And, everyone hit for the door but it was all over before they even got to the door. And, a little bit of a close call there. It could have been very dangerous, but it never came off the hook. It just jumped up and down and unloaded itself right there and left everybody with their ears ringing. So, well that’s enough of the stories that way. I don’t know where else to go here. The makeup of the book, as I mentioned is going to be a background of fiction but the stories, I’m trying to draw those from real events. Sometimes they have to be worked in a little different - different events that may have happened weeks or months apart or maybe not that same year have been brought together in that chapter so that it makes up some reasonable reading. And so, the title is “Tales from the Down East Woods” and it’s a collection of stories about country folks in Washington County. Then we have a fictitious character. I wanted to pick a name that would not be related to anybody in the area so that - Dr. Ives said that’s a good idea - he said not to use particular names. So, we’ve given him the name of Jim Wildheart. I thought that might possibly fit a little better and - and it brings out some of the humerus - humerus events that color the lifestyles of the people in this area. Many of the people will no doubt be able to name some of the people enacted by the notorious Jim Wildheart as he moves from one event to another in his portrayal of its inhabitants. Or, at least some of them. And so, I’ll share with you - I have several chapters here. I won’t read them all, but I’ll read part of one chapter. It might give you some idea. I let my uncle - both my uncles I guess have read this one. This one here is entitled “Smoking Out the Warden,” and I have noticed that some of the games that were played when I was a child was a sort of a cat and mouse game I think that went on and here’s one thing - that there’s nothing that will frighten a poacher or make his adrenalin rise any more than when he thinks he’s about to be caught. On the other hand, if he has a very close call and he gets away with it scot free he’ll have a tendency to brag about it. Am I right? I think so. I have observed that in a lot of the stories and so I’ll read this story rather hurriedly and it’s maybe longer than I should be reading but it will give you an idea of how one of the chapters was put together. And, they will have some similarity. The first part of the book will have a lot of hunting stories and things like I’ve been telling you this morning. The latter part of the book will have some more - more history and things like that, that I will begin to share. I have some research that I want to do - and back in about 1937 - I want to research the court records on this, but one of our neighbors was caught by two (indistinct word) guys posing as out of state hunters. They were actually game wardens and they bought a deer from him. And they begged him to sell the deer and I guess he didn’t really want to sell it, and - but they kept begging him and I think the deal was made and I think he got $10.00 for the deer and he would have gotten two or three other hunters that probably had deer available but they were not home. And, fortunately for them. I think that perhaps there is somebody sitting here that saw them when they were driving along the road with that deer on their car after they purchased it. And so this was an actual thing. The Fish and Game Department published in their little booklet back here a few years ago and it shows about 15 wardens lined up and a whole bunch of deer hanging up behind them and a lot of deer parts down in front of them. They arrested 26 people, took them to court and I think they were all convicted. One of these particular individuals that I want to refer to but not by name was curious when he heard that someone else had received a warrant because they had been - said they had sold a deer and he said, “Well, I - I - probably I’m in problems, too, then.” He said, “That’s probably the same people.” So he called out to the local game warden, Lloyd Clark, and he said, “Lloyd.” He said, “I understand that my name might be on a piece of paper out there at the courthouse.” And, Lloyd Clark said, “That’s right. We’ll bring it out in a few days.” “Ok,” he said. “Thank you.” And, he knew that he was caught. And, so when he went to court they fined him $42.92. I remember I was in the living room of my grandfather’s home and I - when one of my uncles brought the word in as to what the fine was and the fellow was working for my grandfather at the time cutting cord wood, so my grandfather knew what he earned and it wasn’t all that big back in those days and so my grandfather shook his head. He said, “It’ll take him all winter to work that off.” And, I guess it did. But, he worked it off and paid the fine, but he was one out of 25 others that were caught in that particular thing. I had known quite a few game wardens and I was pastoring for four years in Moosehead Lake and we had two game wardens in the church. They were great sources of information. And, we used to enjoy getting together and talking and they had some great stories to tell. They - one of the wardens when he first went on the force, the job that he was given, he and another warden were given the very best of hunting clothes and rifles that were new and a car with Connecticut plates. They were given Connecticut drivers licenses and all the information that you would want to carry in your wallet to prove that you were from Connecticut. And, they were both from the State of Maine. And they sent them up to the Lincoln area and they would go out and they’d hunt for an hour or so and they would sit in the coffee shops around Lincoln and talk to people and tell about how they wanted to get a deer and that they guessed they were not very good at it. It wasn’t very long before some fellow came over and sat down and shot the breeze with them for a while and they began to say, “Well, we’re - we’ve got to go back on Saturday and we don’t have a deer. I don’t know. Where - where do you think we could go out and kill a deer?” And so, the fellow allowed and said, “Well, I probably could find one if you wanted one.” So, they bought one from him. And, that’s the way that fellow started in the warden service. I have good respect for wardens. They’ve been some great ones and there’s been some that I’ve questioned their actions. One was a friend of my dad’s - lived in Grand Lake Stream - his name was Alonzo Colson, if I remember. I was a small boy. Dad had a very high respect for him and he told me one time the story that a fellow was going down past the warden’s home and Dad was there at the time and this fellow had his fishing rod and he was going down to the river and go fishing. And, so the warden said when he went by, he said, “Do you suppose he’s going down to fish in the stream? That’s closed.” He said, “It closed yesterday, or last night.” He said, and he said, “Maybe he’s going down there, or maybe to go fish in the lake.. Well anyhow,” he said, “I guess I better go warn him.” So, he ran out the door and down the road behind him and hollered at him and said, “Wait up a minute.” And the fellow stopped. And, he said, “Do you realize that the stream is closed to fishing? It closed yesterday.” “No,” he said, “I didn’t know that.” And, he said, “Well, in that case I’ll go back home.” And Dad said, “Boy, that’s the kind of warden - he’s the right sort of a guy to have, you know.” He didn’t wait until he got to the stream and then arrest him. He protected our fish and game. (Indistinct words) I’ll share with you a little bit of the story called “Smoking Out the Wardens.” I’ll use the setting here but you’ve all got to feel that the people that are involved are directly related. There are several things about them. That’s the cabin I’m going to use - that cabin and that picture will appear (indistinct words) chapter. And - It was early August in Washington County, Maine and Jim Wildheart, the old poacher, was up to his old tricks again, making his own game laws and keeping an eagle eye out for the wardens. During the month of August each year the old poacher becomes a farmer. He has a plot of blueberry land back from the main highway with an old log cabin at the edge of an 11 acre field. Jim and his father built this back in the mid ‘30s. Their - those - times were hard then and they had limited tools to work with. In fact the tools consisted of a double bitted ax, a buck saw, a hammer and to take the place of a level, they used a pan of water, but in spite of the limitations, the cabin turned out about as good as any. The reason is that blueberries is a major crop in this area and Jim cashes in as do many of his neighbors. To say the least, Jim is a very small grower but the crop provides a source of income and in Jim’s case finances his fall hunting season. There is one thing common in the raising of blueberries. The white tailed deer love the delicacy. To many of the larger growers this becomes a nightmare and great financial loss. Not so in Jim’s case. He takes advantage of the situation and for this reason the old poacher is really a (indistinct word) grower. The district game warden was wise to the poacher’s tricks but could not to seem to trick the crook and - could not seem to catch the crook. If the warden’s suspicions were right, Jim had pulled a few shrewd tricks the previous year, having called the warden on seven different occasions to come inspect a deer killed in his blueberry crop. It was perfectly legal to shoot a deer when the animal is in the process of destroying your crops but if the warden’s suspicions were right, the old poacher was hunting on the side, killing a deer occasionally and transporting it into the blueberry field and reporting him killed there. The warden had his reasons. Six of the seven deer that he had examined the previous year had signs of a mouthful of blueberries. Usually the deer’s stomach will contain some of the delicacy. Then there was that cool smirk on the poacher’s face that seemed to say there was more to the story than he was about to reveal. There was one thing, Ed Meyer - this was the name of the warden - had on his mind and that was to take the poacher in a violation. It would be a feather in his cap to say the least. So, he called on a fellow warden to give him a hand. Jim was in his cabin as usual. Plenty of provisions had been packed in and the poacher intended to enjoy his stay until the crop was harvested. The berry pickers would arrive in mid August and - and so he had about a couple weeks to watch the field and hunt on the side if he felt like it which he usually did. Jim read and slept most of the day and watched the fields in the early morning and the evening; roamed the woods half the night. All had gone well for a few days. Then he - Jim fixed the - the stream that flows near the camp. Trout were in abundance and he enjoyed a number of feasts. The first night that he turned in early pandemonium broke loose. He was awakened by a rifle shot and the breaking of glass and metal. Startled and with his hair seeming to stand straight up, he was out of his bunk in a bound. Was someone trying to kill him? Would the wardens try something like this? “Hardly,” thought Jim. With an old 12 gauge in hand, he opened the camp door and stepped out into the pitch black night. There he stood silently for several seconds. Not a sound could be heard and - in the still darkness. “You’ve carried this game far enough,” called Jim in a cold determined voice. There was no reply other than the running of feet as they came to within about 50 yards of the cabin and soon faded into the distance. “Were they jack-lighters,” thought Jim, “or what?” Jim intended - Jim entered the cabin and lighted the old kerosene lamp. The bullet had come through the cabin window and hit the cast iron stove - heater in the corner of the cabin and smashed it into a dozen pieces. All was quiet for the rest of the night and the poacher lay in his bunk until the early hours of the morning trying to figure out a way to keep this event from happening again. If they were jack-lighters, they probably wouldn’t make this same mistake again. As the sky began to dawn in the east, the - Jim finally devised a scheme to frighten off any - frighten off any and give himself some forewarning at the same time. The next day about 10 o’clock he took the old 12 gauge shot gun and a 16 gauge and along with a ball of string and set out across the field. In a wooded area near the edge of the field he lashed the old 12 gauge single to a tree and with a piece of rawhide with the muzzle pointing straight up. He then ran a string across the field tied to a little tree and tied the other end to the trigger of the gun and then he went to the entrance of the field and took the 16 gauge and did the same thing with that. Anyone crossing the field would be sure to trip the string and the shotgun blast would give them something to think about besides trespassing and would warn him and give - at the same time. The 16 gauge - well (indistinct words) Jim thought this was a brilliant scheme. “Only a poacher who had been schooled in the art of self preservation and one who had matched wits with a warden on many occasions and had proved to be of superior mind,” thought Jim, “would think of a scheme like this.” The closer he got to the cabin, the prouder he became of his superior qualities. By the time he got to the cabin door, his strut was so filled with pride that he stumbled and caught his toe on the side - on the sill of the door and fell on all fours into the cabin. The rest of the day he fished the stream behind the camp, took several nice trout, arrived at the camp in late afternoon. No sign had been seen around the blueberry field. In fact he was beginning to get a little bit disturbed. After all hadn’t he come to the camp to watch and keep the deer out of his crop. He sure had and they were not cooperating very well. All was quiet that night and he slept like a log confident that he had every - had the situation under control. At two a.m. - two a.m. in the morning he was awakened by the alarm of a shotgun blast and quickly hit the floor and grabbed his 22 revolver and stepped outside. Only seconds later the second shotgun barked out and one had - the one he had placed near the entrance of the field. One thing was sure in his mind. They were headed out in the direction of the main highway and were losing no time. But who? Were they poachers? Were they wardens? Or who’d be in there at that time in the morning? He couldn’t be sure. Early the next morning he checked the road that left the field and there were tracks in the soft sand and mud where two men had - was - had run. Jim sized up the situation. Footprints were few and far between. He estimated the tracks to be nearly six feet apart. “Those characters were in a hurry,” thought the poacher as he mused to himself. They probably thought I fired that thing chasing in hot pursuit. He loaded the guns again fixed the strings in order, went back to the camp and had a fry of trout, and read a hunting story and took a nap. In mid afternoon he went fishing again in the stream behind the camp. He had taken several nice trout and as he carried - he carried them on a poplar stick through their gills and another under the legal size which he carried in his pocket. He had devised the scheme for carrying undersize fish in his pocket - rather a - rather an ingenious scheme, so he thought. He had removed the stitching from the bottom of his pocket and had replaced the string with a carefully woven - another carefully wove into it’s place and coming out through the side of his trousers, the end of which had a knot in it. The idea was to keep a sharp eye out for any warden that might show up and should he spot the warden first, he would simply pull the string for opening the bottom of his pocket allowing the undersized fish to fall down the leg of his trousers as he kept walking boldly toward the officer. Jim was sure this would work and secretly wished for the opportunity to prove it. As he made his way back to the cabin what should he come across but the fresh tracks of a rather large moose. Riley water still filled many of the tracks. He was overjoyed to say the least. He could almost smell the steak frying in the pan and he began to devise a plan to take it - to take this critter right under the warden’s nose. That would be a real sport if only he could pull it off, but having only a 22 caliber revolver tucked under his belt he knew that - that was no time to meet up with the creature. He must get his rifle from the camp, but by the time he got the rifle it would be too late to go back after the moose. Suddenly he thought of a trick - thought of a trick that - that he could use. He suddenly - he peeled the birch bark from a tree and decided that he would - instead of going after the animal he would have the animal come to him. And so, the old poacher got the piece of birch bark and rolled it into the shape of a megaphone. It would be a cinch to call the old bull - buck in. His usual thing was to cup his hands around his mouth and make a bellow like a cow moose. Two long roars followed by two short more desperate ones usually did the trick. As he arrived at camp it was nearly dusk. He loaded his rifle, leaned it up against the front of the cabin, went to the spring and got a bucket of water which he set near where he intended to stand. With the birch bark trumpet raised to his lips, he let out a call, the call of a cow moose looking for a mate. After a few moments he repeated the call and this time the old bull answered from the direction of the meadow nearly half a mile away. The old poacher continued to tantalize the old bull and repeatedly received answers. His heart was now beating faster and now - but - but he remained reasonably calm. As the replies to his calls got closer, he got the rifle ready. The old bull had now advanced to within about a couple hundred yards from the cabin but now it was so dark he could not see the sights on his rifle. The animal had become somewhat skeptical of the poacher’s calls and would advance no farther. He continued to plague the beast without success until the old poacher finally used his last trick. Putting his finger over the small end of the birch bark trumpet, he dipped it in the bucket of water and held it about four feet from the ground and removed his finger. As the water poured to the ground, the old bull could stand the suspense no longer. He came crashing through the brush at a desperate pace. Jim could see his huge shadowy figure but decided to clear the path and he beat a hasty retreat to the door of the cabin. The animal went walking past the camp and Jim decided, “Well, I can’t shoot him here because the shot might call the wardens and this is no place to do that.” So, he continued - the old poacher stood just inside the door as the lumbering creature went by the cabin and stopped and turned and then went back by the cabin. Jim did not see the animal any more. After all hadn’t he lost the window by someone shooting through it two nights before? The thought of the moose putting his head through the window just did not appeal to him. The old poacher listened as the moose - the animal made a thump, thump, thump around the cabin and then headed out across the field. “Oh no,” he thought to himself, “it will surely run into the strings and trip off my firing - warning device.” And fire, it did as the moose hit the string and Jim heard the 12 gauge roar and only seconds after the second blast from the 16 gauge shotgun near the entrance of the field. “Well, this takes the cake,” muttered Jim to himself. “If it doesn’t call the wardens, nothing else will.” Meantime, Warden Martin was sitting in his car near the mouth of the road that led to Jim’s camp. There was little mistake in his mind where the shots came from. “Two well spaced shots couldn’t be any - couldn’t be anyone but Jim Wildheart,” thought Martin to himself. “This is the break I’ve been waiting for.” He drove to the top of the west ridge hill where a fellow warden was stopping an occasional car and checking for a suspected poacher who might have guns or lights in the car, an offense that could cost them a small fine and would certainly cause the wardens to keep an eye on them. After all, Jim Wildheart was only one of a number of illegal hunters. The only thing different about Jim was that he had managed to evade the long arm of the law year after year and now was beginning to boast about it and this didn’t set well with the game department. Ed told the story to his fellow wardens all the while Jim lay comfortably stretched out in his cabin. He couldn’t help being amused when he thought how the old bull moose had messed up his plans and even left him defenseless by tripping the strings and firing off the poacher’s warning mechanism. The more - the more Jim thought about it, the more he chuckled and then decided he would go early in the morning before daylight to the meadow behind the camp and watch for the moose and perhaps he could get a deer. If things worked out right, he could take an average size deer on his back and carry it into the field and the wardens could be called and inspect everything all nice and legal. Jim could hardly - Jim could cart the deer home after the wardens had checked it and the family would have meat supplied for their needs. The next morning daylight found the old poacher in the meadow sitting with his back against the pine tree slapping an occasional mosquito. Shortly after six o’clock a small buck came creeping along the edge of the meadow. Jim sat quietly. No movements now. By the time the deer was within gun range the mosquitos were biting him fiercely and - but he refused to move. He continued to sit very quietly and eventually the deer got in range and he thought to himself, “Why use the big rifle? I’ll simply use the 22 that I carry under my belt.” And, so he shot the deer, put it up on his shoulders and headed for the field a half mile away. An hour later he arrived at the edge of the field which was rimmed with thick fir trees and stood just inside of the fir trees where he would not be seen and studied the field very carefully. We find that as he watched the field for some period of time looking from one side to the other very carefully, about 20 minutes later he saw something that caused - drew his attention. A puff of smoke came up out of the grass over on the other side of the field. He watched very carefully and after about five more minutes, the head of the Warden Martin came up out of the grass and looked toward the cabin to see where Jim was. And Jim continued to watch and then he noticed that there was another warden with him and he could see the brim of his hat and he realized that they were watching his cabin and looking for him. The deer had been dropped by his feet inside the fir thicket. Everything was well out of sight there so he made his way around the edge of the field in the woods out of sight until he got directly behind the cabin from where the wardens could see him. Jim’s crafty mind began to scheme again. “If only I could get rid of the wardens, I could put the deer in the field and pull this off in spite of them.” Without a sound, the poacher slipped into the dense woods and then broke off another fir boughs. He removed his revolver from his belt and carefully covered that with leaves and then opened the back window of the cabin, crawled in through and put some kindling in the fire, put the birch - put the fir boughs on top of the kindling, poured a little kerosene on it as he usually did and dropped a match in. When the white smoke began to billow from the cabin - you can look at the picture. They have a picture of the white smoke billowing from the cabin. As the white smoke billowed from the cabin, Jim watched from the corner of the window where the bullet had gone through and saw two wardens crawling on their hands and knees trying to avoid being seen by Jim. They - as they went out of sight, Jim was about - went about the task of getting breakfast. After eating the poacher went to the road and left - then left the field and found that the tracks of the - found the tracks of the wardens went to the left headed toward the main highway. Jim followed the footprints for some distance to make sure that they had returned - had left the area - the area and as he returned, he took a piece of brush and brushed out the tracks so any new ones could easily be detected. “All would be safe now,” he thought as he carried the deer into the field. He picked the deer up - he put the deer exactly in the spot where the wardens had been in the grass about three hours before. And so - he then took a handful of blueberries - ripe blueberries, crushed them in his hand and stuck them in the animal’s mouth and throat to appear as though the deer was destroying his crop and then he walked the mile to the main highway to the home of a neighbor and telephoned the warden to report the kill. As the warden arrived and expect - and examined the kill, there were blueberries in the deer’s windpipe as well and the warden was a little bit skeptical about this. He asked Jim how he accounted for this, to which he cooly replied, “Well, he just must have choked.” Ed was no - had no answer to give him but he - the look that he gave Jim made Jim feel rather uncomfortable. The warden was disgusted as he signed the paper making it a legal right for Jim to keep the deer as remuneration for crop damage. He was really disgusted but he couldn’t help admiring a shrewd character like the poacher who could pull a caper like this off and get away with it and make the caper - to make the more - the caper more humerus, the deer had been placed in the exact place where Martin and his fellow warden had laid in the grass about three or four hours before and watched the poacher. As Ed handed the paper to Jim, their eyes met for a moment and both men knew that neither one was fooling the other. Jim took the deer home to his family and headed back to the cabin to keep an eye out for his crop until gathering time. And, we’ll stop that one right there. As you can see it’s fiction and I’ve tried to leave in some of these events and some of those events happened very close to the way it’s been written. And, so there isn’t a book, I guess, that anyone could write unless it was larger than a Sears and Roebuck catalog that would contain half of the stories that I’ve heard around this area and I’m sure that somebody here today could add some good stories. I said to my uncle, I said, “Would you like to come up and tell a couple of hunting stories,” and he said no, he - he’d rather not. But, I’m sure he could share some with you and some of the others could as well. But, this is the way things were when I was growing up and so there were good times and there were hard times. And, I’m not sure whether you are familiar with this, but one of the saddest stories I think ever to come out of Washington County was a story about a lost child. Anyone ever hear that? (Indistinct name) and Viney. I think it’s a little longer than I can read here this morning. It’s very fine print and a little bit hard to read in places but I will leave it up here for a few minutes. If you want to scan this - this was given to me by Harold Varney about a year ago. We were visiting and talking about the various events and so he gave me this. This was Harold’s brother, Wilfred Varney and I’ll just read a verse or two - a couple verses and you’ll get the gist of it. This (indistinct word) event the heart strings shocks. ‘Tis little Wilfred Varney’s face among the ragged rocks. You’ll see for - you’ll seek for sadder things in vain, and the more - than what I now relate in chronicles of Eastern Maine, of any day or date but Friday, April 29^th, a day we all bewail, that Wyman Varney left his home to get the daily mail. His little son of four short years trotted by his blithe - him blithe - as - as May until they passed the men who cleared brush from the country way. Being well acquainted with the men, young Wilfred stopped to play. His father thinking all was well went on his - on and let him stay. And when he returned from the post, inquiring for his child, he found he had started home alone across a lonely mile. I’ll just relate a little bit from that. Some of you perhaps have read that, but I intend to add in the book some of these particular things. This was written by Will Day. Many of you remember him, know where he lived. He’d be the father to Philip. I can remember him when I was a small child. And so, he wrote this poem. My mother told me in relation to this that during the days - I think it was about seven or eight days that they searched for the child and those - they searched night and day and those people that were at home, they said the wives kept a window open in hopes that they might possibly hear a little child - maybe the cry of a child and would be able to rescue him. That did not occur. The little fellow had made his way much farther than they could imagine he had gone. He had passed somewhere around the end of Varney Lake. He was discovered way out on those rocky barrens beyond Varney Lake. He had (indistinct word) crossed the big and died of exposure. A terrible tragedy and so Will Day put this into print - to verse. And, if you want to look at it, I’ll be glad to share that with you. I think that perhaps takes enough of your time this morning. I trust that it might have touched on some of the things that would be of interest to you. There was always some jokes being played. I heard of one particular joke where a couple of fellows were working in the woods and they said to my uncle, Jim King, that - asked him if he wanted to hear an Indian whistle and he didn’t know what that was and they said, “Well, what you do,” and they was peeling the bark from a tree - peeling pulp as we refer to it and they took two pieces of bark and laid them face together that way on the ground and said, “Well, to make the Indian whistle, you run and you jump on that with both feet.” Well, if you’ve ever stepped on a piece of bark, you know what goes on, and he landed on his back and then they said, “Well, did you hear him whistle? Did you hear him whistle?” And, of course he was in agony at the time. Little tricks like that went on and sometimes they laughed about them then. They were not very funny perhaps at the time that they happened, but made reason for a lot of chuckling later on. I’m trying to put some of these things together in a book and the second part of it will be more historical events other than telling a lot of funny stories and so on. It’s been a pleasure talking with you this morning and I guess that’s about all I have to say. It’s a different type of message than I usually bring. I (indistinct words) and boy, I’d love to get (indistinct words) this morning. I really would. But, this is a different type of thing. It’s memories of things that happened to me before I was 23 years old and I haven’t been involved in those since I was 23. I’ve traveled a different route and I’ve been preaching for about 35 years now and enjoying it. Held churches at Wellington, Belfast and O’Connor and Moosehead Lake and now in Searsmont. Working with small churches, churches that can not afford a full time pastor, so I work and support myself full time and work at the church (indistinct words) enough to call a full time man. That’s what I’m doing now and trying to write a book at the same time. Work full time at a full time job. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Appreciate it.

 

Man: The pictures are here. You may want to look at them. It’s 20 minutes to12.

 

 

Jane Dudley: I see. I see.

 

Grace Taylor: And, so of course when people is writing up all these things like Pembroke was wrote up in the (indistinct words) you know, in the Centennial, why of course they didn’t mention these things, but it’s in the book that Mr. Leighton - one of the Leightons let me have. And, so I know whether it was true.

 

Jane Dudley: Do you remember the name of the book?

 

(Telephone rings. Tape stops and then starts again.)

 

Grace Taylor: That was my - that one was my great - I think the fifth continuation of - of course he had brothers and Bill Mahar, they called him, they owned just about all of Charlotte. Land and everything, you know. Blueberry land and everything.

 

Jane Dudley: That must have been before the Ayers - Ayers were in Charlotte.

 

Grace Taylor: Well.

 

Jane Dudley: Will Ayers?

 

Grace Taylor: Well it was a long time ago. I know that. But still it was in my day because we used to come through to Calais, Papa did, you know, and get the groceries and things from Salva. And - and, I think it was always awful cold.

 

Jane Dudley: In the - in the punt or the wagon?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and so they’d call in someplace - so and - and a pit over that - there was a - a - you can see it when you come by. It’s right by the railroad. There was a house in there - a white house and she used to take the men that worked in the pit - in the gravel pit, see.

 

Jane Dudley: She boarded them?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, she boarded them. And so, we’d go in there and I’ll never forget. She had made bread and oh-h she buttered bread for me and I’ll never forget it, and of course I was just a baby.

 

Jane Dudley: What was her name?

 

Grace Taylor: I don’t know.

 

Jane Dudley: Do you know the last name?

 

Grace Taylor: No.

 

Jane Dudley: No.

 

Grace Taylor: No, I don’t know, and - but Grandpa and my other great grandpa, and my great - my grandfather’s father owned all of that. There was a road that went in on The Lookup. Do you know where The Lookup is? You see it when you come through the roads.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: There’s a Lookup and he owned all of that in there and the farm, and I remember that because I was - - -

 

Jane Dudley: What - what great grandfather was that?

 

Grace Taylor: That was a - a brother to Edmund.

 

Jane Dudley: Do - a brother to Edmund. Do you remember his name?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, we called him Bill but his name was William.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, he owned all that and his - Grammy died a long time and I don’t remember Grammy at all, but he married a Dailey from over there and I remember her, you know. And, when we first - where Norman Day lives now, they bought it - among the children - (indistinct word) children. They just had - Uncle Lute lived there and that was Grandpa’s son by his last wife, Amy.

 

Jane Dudley: Uh huh.

 

Grace Taylor: And - and of course he had a lot of children. I mean from his - from the first wife, you see. And, I knew them all of course - know their names and everything. There’s just a lot of them, but - that isn’t taking down that, is it?

 

Jane Dudley: Yes

 

Grace Taylor: It is?

 

Jane Dudley: You want me - you tell me when you want me to turn it off. Shall I turn it off?

 

Grace Taylor: Well now, I ain’t going to tell you only teaching.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes, I’d love to hear about the teaching.

 

Grace Taylor: I taught in Charlotte. That was the last.

 

Jane Dudley: Um hum.

 

Grace Taylor: Shall I tell about - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: (Indistinct words) And, walked all that distance clean a-way down to that - - -

 

Jane Dudley: How many miles do you think that was?

 

Grace Taylor: Well I - I don’t know. I’ve got no idea.

 

Jane Dudley: About two or three?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, but I imagine it was three.

 

Jane Dudley: And, in the winter that was rough.

 

Grace Taylor: Well, I couldn’t take it in the winter. I tried to get a - a boarding place right handy to school but I couldn’t so I broke the contract and I went home and of course they kept coming after me to teach school somewhere else so I went to Williston to teach, and then I taught over there and I - and in the wintertime, I was, you know, with this throat and everything, I wasn’t too well. I am not now. And, so, I wanted a school at home. So, I just got a school at home, and I went down to the cove to teach and of course I had to board.

 

Jane Dudley: You said down to the cove.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes.

 

Jane Dudley: What cove?

 

Grace Taylor: Well, Art’s Cove.

 

Jane Dudley: Art’s?

 

Grace Taylor: Art’s (indistinct word).

 

Jane Dudley: How do you spell it?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and that was called Art’s Cove

 

Jane Dudley: Can you - can you spell it for me?

 

Grace Taylor: O-x C-o-v-e.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh. Ok. O-x C-o-v-e.

 

Grace Taylor: And, I taught down there and boarded quite a ways away - had to walk, but I - when they was consolidating the schools, see - and so the super - the superintendent was Mrs Andrews and she said she wanted to get me nearer home, you know, nearer the farm where Mama and Papa were, you know. So, they began to fix up at that time the Western School House and that’s right on the main highway. It was called the Western School House in Pembroke. So, they were fixing it up, consolidating, you know, the schools.

 

Jane Dudley: When you first started teaching, it was a one room school house.

 

Grace Taylor: Right.

 

Jane Dudley: And, how many students did you have?

 

Grace Taylor: Well, I don’t know as I - I - at this one I must have had probably with all the boys and girls together down there, and I must have had probably 12 or 14 or something like that, you know, as they did at a lot of schools.

 

Jane Dudley: How old were you on your first job?

 

Grace Taylor: When I first went teaching? Well, it was in 1912.

 

Jane Dudley: 1912.

 

Grace Taylor: I went to normal school and I came back and - and in my - I went to teaching.

 

Jane Dudley: What was the date of your birth?

 

Grace Taylor: Date of my birth was August the 21st in 1894.

 

Jane Dudley: 1894.

 

Grace Taylor: That would make me 91 in August.

 

Jane Dudley: August 21, 1894.

 

Grace Taylor: And, I - as I say, I went to Charlotte. My father, he always paid my board because I only got $6.00 a week in those days. And, you was janitor, you was everything. You had to open the schoolhouse up yourself and do all the work in there.

 

Jane Dudley: And, keep it warm?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and keep it warm.

 

Jane Dudley: Where did the firewood come - you didn’t go out and chop firewood, did you?

 

Grace Taylor: Pardon?

 

Jane Dudley: You didn’t have to chop the firewood, did you?

 

Grace Taylor: No.

 

Jane Dudley: That was supplied?

 

Grace Taylor: They would have the wood, but

 

Jane Dudley: The - the town?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, but you had to keep the stove with wood, you know. Keep it warm, and you - of course, you had to sweep the floors and dust and everything like that.

 

Jane Dudley: And, when you went there in the morning it was cold in the building, wasn’t it?

 

Grace Taylor: Right. Right.

 

Jane Dudley: And, you had to warm it up for them.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and - in that - in the Western District, they were fixing up the school, see, and in those days they used plaster, you know - not this board, because they didn’t have it. And, I went in the school when it was wet - you know, it wasn’t dry..

 

Jane Dudley: Oh.

 

Grace Taylor: I got asthma.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, boy.

 

Grace Taylor: I couldn’t walk from the schoolhouse down to my boarding place the last of it, and so when the school closed - vacation - I was taken with “bronichal” (bronchial) pneumonia. And -

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, Grace, that’s terrible.

 

Grace Taylor: And, I was up there with Mama and Papa of course on that farm that I gave you the picture of, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, from there on, they waited two weeks for me because she wanted me to teach so bad because I was a good teacher because of my conclusion of normal school - there was Snell girl - Hattie Snell - I don’t know whether you knew Hattie Snell or not.

 

Jane Dudley: The name is very familiar.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes. She was Doc Snell’s daughter. And, she came through and she picked out my school as being was the best school in all those schools.

 

Jane Dudley: Isn’t that great.

 

Grace Taylor: You know. Out for reading and everything.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, so she - so as I say, they waited two weeks because they wanted me to teach and they were going to put me over to the Crossroads, and that was right across from my home - from Mama’s home - the farm - where I could come (indistinct word) - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Very easily.

 

Grace Taylor: Across, you know. I just couldn’t do it. I was sick. So, I had to go to the doctor’s of course and he said that I had tubercular of the throat.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh.

 

Grace Taylor: Well, that of course ended my career - my teacher’s career, which I intended to make it a career.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: I - I - and - and I was going to have that home, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And during my teaching I - I got everything ready. My - the farm had a great big ell (indistinct word). And, Mama made sheets for me and pillow cases. I was going to have that home regardless. I didn’t care anything about getting married.

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: You know, I wanted the - I wanted the - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Independence?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes. I wanted to be independent.

 

Jane Dudley: You’re a modern woman.

 

Grace Taylor: And, I wanted to be to myself, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: Because I wanted that home, and so anyway I had the - I had furniture and everything for a five room house. And, so of course we - with nurse’s care - Mama was a practical nurse, and we lived on the farm and we had (indistinct word) - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Good food.

 

Grace Taylor: Cream and everything, you know. They nursed me back to pretty good health, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, then of course I went to dances, you know, and I met this - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Uh-huh

 

Grace Taylor: Melvin Taylor. Well, he was lots older than I was and - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Grace, you must have been an awful cute little girl. You’re so tiny. You’re so - how tall are you?

 

Grace Taylor: That’s what everybody says.

 

Jane Dudley: How tall are you, Grace?

 

Grace Taylor: I’m - I’m - and so I - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Grace, how tall are you?

 

Grace Taylor: I don’t know. I think five feet and something.

Jane Dudley: Yes, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: You know - - -

 

Jane Dudley: How tall was he?

 

Grace Taylor: Well, he was taller than I was. He was about as tall as George.

 

Jane Dudley: Um hum. George is tall.

 

Grace Taylor: And, so I - I didn’t have any idea of getting married, you know. This was the farthest from my mind. I wanted that home and I wanted it furnished just as I wanted it and I - - -

 

Jane Dudley: You wanted to be the boss of it?

 

Grace Taylor: I wanted to be the boss of it.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: But, anyway I got married in 1915.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh.

 

Grace Taylor: And, we stayed up home here.

 

Jane Dudley: With your parents.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: (indistinguishable words) thirteenth and that (indistinguishable words) and so we stayed there (indistinguishable words) all those - furniture, you know, and things I wanted to get up for home. But, I couldn’t get that one because people were in it. And, so - even - somebody comes along the railroad down there and so he took a job on the railroad. And - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Did the railroad go in then, or was it - had it been there? Was it new? Was the railroad new then?

 

Grace Taylor: Well, no, it wasn’t new. But, it- you know, it - - -

 

Jane Dudley: At Ayers’ Junction.

 

Grace Taylor: At Pembroke, yes.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, the -well, the station was just up a ways from this dream home of mine and also the place that I went in. Well, we put down to a place way down on - it was called Eastport Hill, and - Oh, I was homesick, you know. And, I wouldn’t unpack a thing. Not anything at all.

 

Jane Dudley: You were a little mommy’s girl.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes. And, so - and I couldn’t walk up home because they lived on their farm, you know, way up there in the end. They bought that place in 1909 and I had two years in high school, you see. And, (indistinguishable words) I really was sick, you know, with homesickness. And, I’d walk up one day, you know, and the other day. I’d stay - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Overnight, and you would - - -

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and so a - a - a great friend of mine, the Wilders - Mr. Wilder and I think - and what - I always - when I was home - I was sort of baby like, you know. And so, he came out one day when I was walking up home and he said, “Now, Grace, I know that you’re awful homesick.” He says, “If I turn out these people in this little home,” he said, and it was - it was rented, too.

 

Jane Dudley: It was what?

 

Grace Taylor: It was rented, you know. And, it was a little red house, I remember. And - - -

 

Jane Dudley: That’s not your dream house? Is that your dream house?

 

Grace Taylor: No.

 

Jane Dudley: No. Ok.

 

Grace Taylor: And, so - “Oh,” I said, “Mr. Wilder, I don’t think it’s big enough for the furniture I got.” “Oh,” he says, “You come down.” He says, “We’ll make it.” And, of course I knew the place because I had played there, too with the children that lived there. So I went down and you know there was a little bedroom and a pantry. They made them funny those days, you know. Right then I said, “Well, if you take out that partition - partition,” I said - - -

 

Jane Dudley: You could get your furniture in.

 

Grace Taylor: (Speaking the same time as Jane Dudley so some words impossible to transcribe.) - - - my dining room set. And, so he fixed it all up for me, and I rented that off him and I was really happy. And, it was right side of the railroad. He didn’t have to work very far.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: Right up there.

 

Jane Dudley: And wasn’t he a lovely man?

 

Grace Taylor: And, so I walked - I - then I stayed there a couple years, but I was longing to get to that place down there. It was down below me. And - no, down below this little red house. So, our station agent had moved then, Mr. Miner. He’d come from the other side of - of the river, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: In New Brunswick.

 

Grace Taylor: The Pennamaquan River went right up hill from town.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh.

 

Grace Taylor: And, this happened to be Lincoln Avenue that the guy was living on, and so people that lived in the other side of that house had bought a place. They wanted a place. He was the foreman on the railroad and he wanted a place, you know, so he bought a place. So, just the minute he moved out I went down to Mr. Miner and I said to Mr. Miner. I said, “You know when you sell this place, I want you go give me the first refusal.” Well, he was station agent. I never, never thought he would ever go, you know. But anyway, he said, “Why don’t you move down on the other side of that house.”

 

Jane Dudley: Were there two apartments in the house? Were there two family house or what?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, yes. It was a double house.

 

Jane Dudley: I see.

 

Grace Taylor: Seventeen rooms.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, my lord.

 

Grace Taylor: And, it’s all furnished down there.

 

Jane Dudley: You still have it.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes. I brought up what I (Indistinct words). And, I brought up all the dishes and things, you know, and George brought some of the furniture up. It’s all furnished down home. (Indistinct words.)

 

Jane Dudley: Seventeen rooms.

 

Grace Taylor: (Speaking the same time as Jane Dudley so some words impossible to transcribe.) - - - bedroom and so I still (indistinct word) that. So, my father and his truck wagon and his horse moved me down there. And, I knew I was right handy to their place. I loved it.

 

Jane Dudley: And always happy.

 

Grace Taylor: George says well how can you love something like that, but that - I - I - - -

 

Jane Dudley: And was George brought up in that house?

 

Grace Taylor: George, yes.

 

Jane Dudley: But he doesn’t have the same feeling you have?

 

Grace Taylor: I think he does.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, that’s good.

 

Grace Taylor: I - I don’t know, but I’ll - I’ll go down and I’ll say “Well, I guess I’ll take this up here. I guess I’ll take that up home. (Indistinct words) room for it, George. Stay right there. And, so I think he does. You know. And, so Mr. Miner came in one day and he said to me, he said, “Grace, I’m moving away.” He says, and he says, “You’ve got first refusal on the place.” And, (indistinct words) And, he says, “Well, I’ll tell you when I’m going.” He says, “In two - two weeks. You know (indistinct words). And, that house was all to pieces. (Indistinct words) one thing, you know, nobody fixed it up. I started - I bought double windows and I fixed it - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, when you bought the house it was in (indistinct words). You had to do a lot of work.

 

Grace Taylor: (Indistinct words) Oh, you know there was a - there were doors - there were doors that were pink and one of them was blue, and some (indistinct words) there wasn’t any, and there was some - they kept a cow and they had shelves all along the windows, you know, for the pans. And, they had - there was an archway went - right in the middle of the place where they built on - at least somebody had - on to it. It wasn’t them because they didn’t fix it up. And, they had pans you know all along that. And, that - (indistinct words) I took my new training at Machias.

 

Jane Dudley: You did?

 

Grace Taylor: I bought - I came to Mother (indistinct words) I did everything.

Jane Dudley: Oh, my!

 

Grace Taylor: And, cook. I was a great cook. I made wedding cakes from here to Massachusetts. My mother was a beautiful cook. We had - we had hotels, you know, and - - -

 

Jane Dudley: I want to be sure that we’re getting all this. This is good. Oh, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, and, I went out in the shed and I got the ax and I come in and I gave that one hit, you know, and it dropped right down in the middle of the floor. And, I went down and got a -a carpenter to come up and he fixed my kitchen like (indistinct word). And, there wasn’t a - there wasn’t a whole pane of glass in that whole place, and there’s windows galore into it. There’s four windows all across the front.

 

Jane Dudley: Weren’t there people living in there?

 

Grace Taylor: Well, the kids, you know, break the windows and everything - that lived there., and of course it was rented.

 

Jane Dudley: And, they didn’t - and, they didn’t bother to replace them.

 

Grace Taylor: Oh, no. I put all those windows in, and the doors that didn’t have any doorknobs on them - I put on new doorknobs and in nine - in - in 1926 I went - I went to the town and got a permit to take boarders.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh Lord. I guess you did.

 

Grace Taylor: And - and, I’d take teachers you know from the high school that was there, and I’d take transients that came, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: And, that’s when Mr. Gereau came.

 

Grace Taylor: Hum?

 

Jane Dudley: Mr. Gereau came. Mr. Gereau came from - came from (indistinct word) that you told me about and he stayed with you.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and - and - so I - no that was (indistinct words) I did that work all myself. And, I wanted to fix up that home. Now, you know people that has one track minds, but I have every track I guess because I could do everything. I could - when I was home and up on the farm, of course, I made butter, and I - and I would go out in the hayfield and help my father hay and help get the gardens in, and that place was rocky, you know, and we - Papa and Mama and I picked all those rocks out of that place. All clear land - that was 65 acres. And, piled them up in a rock pile, you know. Oh, I just - I loved the home, you know. And, so, Melvin - Melvin and me, well, we had a good home and when he - and when he retired that’s all he had to do was cut in the chair. You know, of course he paid the electric light bill and he paid, you know, (indistinct words) and you know, and some groceries, you know - - -

 

Jane Dudley: The taxes.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, but I - he didn’t seem to care too much for fixing up a home, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: Good thing you could.

 

Grace Taylor: Wouldn’t - some people are like that, you know. And, so anyway, I in ‘42. The jobs was done in ‘31, and I had - I know that I had ten men there, and you know they were all - they were Hydro, and they were telephone men, too, even in those days because I used to more - and so first I got (mumbled words) night with George the boarders went. You know, they were through their work. They - they worked down at the iron works there. Of course it wasn’t the iron works then, but they was putting in those big boilers, you know, and things. And so, of course I had to have a cesarian. I was so small, you know, and then I - well, just say that I couldn’t have no children. I was married 16 years, but during this time to get well, Dr.Webber was my doctor - old Dr. Webber.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, he wrote prescriptions for me, and then I had to have Dr. House because he was sick. And, of course when I was 12 years old I was operated on. My ear, I had a growth in it. And - sinus, and I had my throat burned out. They called it burned out. I had - I had two doctors. They was Dr. Cranston and Dr. Rabba I remember (indistinct words) And, those days Dr. Rabba was a (indistinct word) doctor. He did everything, you know. He even fitted me with glasses. I had to put glasses on when I wrote (indistinct words) You see, we didn’t have electric lights. They didn’t have them in Pembroke then. You know, just lamps.

 

Jane Dudley: It was dark, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: When I got over to school, they had the lamps and they were giving me a headache. I had a headache all the time so Dr. Rabba fitted me with glasses - nose glasses. I have them, yet. I let Jody have them, though - - -

 

Jane Dudley: You do?

 

Grace Taylor: - - - because Jody is a doctor. George’s boy.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, is he?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes.

Jane Dudley: He must love to hear you talk about this.

 

Grace Taylor: He - he - why Jean told me the other day, “Why don’t you write this all down?” I said “Well - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Take forever.

 

Grace Taylor: (indistinct words) I said and - but, (indistinct word) went to Bowdoin College and of course I couldn’t go and I told him about getting (indistinct words) this is one of my relatives, Gerald. His name was Gerald and we called him Geddy. He went to Bowdoin and he has a library in his name over there, and he come to see grandpa, and the genealogy is over there in Bowdoin College.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, is it.

 

Grace Taylor: In the college.

 

Jane Dudley: Well, that’s great.

 

Grace Taylor: I - I - I never seen it, but I - I know because Geddy come - because he come up home when Grandpa was there and George was born then when I took care of Grandpa. And, so George went to Bowdoin and graduated from Bowdoin - four years and then he went to the New England School of Optometrists and he graduated from there in March. And, then they gave him a - you know to go practice, they put him in a veteran’s hospital in Roxbury - West Roxbury - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Oh.

 

Grace Taylor: - - - to practice. Now he’s got waiting for him in Augusta patients to - He’s decided he’s going to set up in Augusta.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh.

 

Grace Taylor: And, he graduated from there in March. He married Jeannie Wood. Jack and Jean Wood’s daughter.

 

Jane Dudley: Un, huh.

 

Grace Taylor: And, I have his picture there. And, I have all my pictures around.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes, I see you have. Oh, isn’t he handsome, and she’s pretty.

 

Grace Taylor: He’s just wonderful, and so now his name is Doctor George M. Taylor.

 

Jane Dudley: Isn’t that lovely!

 

Grace Taylor: Junior.

 

Jane Dudley: That’s lovely.

 

Grace Taylor: And - and, George named him George M. Taylor, Sr. And, my name is Grace M. Taylor. And, I said to - - -

 

Jane Dudley: The same initials.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and, I said to - I said to George, I said, “That’s a lucky name.” I said, “It’s lucky.” It’s true. I’ve been blessed all through my life. But - I - I - I’ve loved my name. I’ve loved my hair. I’ve loved all the clothes. My mother was a dressmaker, too, and made my clothes. And, I’ve had - - -

 

Jane Dudley: You appreciated everything.

 

Grace Taylor: I have.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: God made me just as I wanted to be.

 

Jane Dudley: Isn’t that beautiful.

 

Grace Taylor: I - I - you know, I - lots of people don’t like their name. I heard a woman say the other day she didn’t like her name. And, I - I - I can’t go along with it.

 

Jane Dudley: What was your middle name?

 

Grace Taylor: Gertrude.

 

Jane Dudley: Gertrude.

 

Grace Taylor: Grace Gertrude.

 

Jane Dudley: G. G.

 

Grace Taylor: And - and my father’s sister, Aunt Maudie Mahar, named me. And - and, I love every bit of myself.

 

Jane Dudley: That’s beautiful.

Grace Taylor: And, of course, I didn’t want to be sick, but I just thought, “Well, that’s the way it must be.” That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: If it wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have been that way. But, I’ve done very well being sick all the time You know, I’ve done very well to hang out, because there’s been times when (indistinct words) After Dr. Webber went, I had his son. He gave me a caesarian and you know, I - the doctors all told me I’d have to have a caesarian. But, you know, when (indistinct words) I thought it was something. I didn’t know much about it and I thought it was something that, you know, that was just a money game. And so, I just thought to myself, “Well, I’ll just tell the nurse and might get sick right at home here.”

 

Jane Dudley: So be it.

 

Grace Taylor: Well, that wasn’t right for me to do that because I was sick from a Thursday on to Sunday. And, Dr. Best come over and saw me - - -

 

Jane Dudley: (Indistinct words)

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, he come over and he said, “Grace, (indistinct words) to do.” He come over every day. He’d call up and say, “I’m coming over, and talk with you.” Everyone was so good to me. I don’t know. And, so I think funny - well, I think people’s kind of funny when they’re caring for each other. Well, anyway, they - their mind is somewhere else. And, I said, “Well, I’m going to stay home.” He says, “Well,” he says, “you know, the doctors.” And, I was going to a chiropractor doctor you see after Dr. Webber went. I had - I was so (indistinct word) after doctors. It was (indistinct words) And so my father had been awful sick and he had been in the hospital twice and when he came home he was sick, you know, and I - I moved to Calais. Uncle Ralph and Uncle Hubbard and all of them was up here, you know, his brothers. And, they sent him down tracts with this chiropractor had come into town from Sweden - him and his wife. And, he was - well, he was (iindistinct words) and he was doing an awful lot of good work. And, so Papa wasn’t well and so I - I went to see him at that farm, you know. He had cows and small stock and hens, you know, and horses and everything. And, so I pleaded with him. I said, “There might be a bone which is hidden somewhere that’s making you ill like this.” And he says, “Well, I can’t go, Grace,” he says, “because I’ve got all these cows, you know, and everything.” I says, “Well, I’ll come right up here and stay and do everything,” I said. So, he - he went to the chiropractor. He had to stay up here all winter and - and he had to go every day, but they guaranteed him a cure and he never was sick after that. Died of old age, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, everything. And, so I started in because I had this bone up in my back. I got it hanging May baskets.

Jane Dudley: Now, how did that happen?

 

Grace Taylor: To a little boy, and there was some kids around there. That was when we lived down town. And, there was some kids around there and they were playing hide and go seek and everything and they run right into me when I was going across the street and knocked me - knocked me down. Oh-h, my ear bled and my nose was broken and - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Your nose was broken.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and they picked me up and took me in the house and this big bone in my back was out, and of course that was disturbing everything, you know, as I grew older. And, so we had the doctor, old Dr. Rogers. And, old Dr. Rogers was a relative of mine because he had been a Mahar. You see our ancestors came - - -

 

TAPE TURNED OVER. SOME CONVERSATION LOST

 

Grace Taylor: And, you know, one of the - one of the Mahars was one of the first settlers with the Leighton, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And well, of course, they, you know, multiplied and - and - and married - intermarried - intermarriage, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And that. And, so Dr. Rogers married a Mahar and he was a relative. I don’t think there’s - there’s hardly a single person in those days that wasn’t a relative.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, so - as I said I went to that chiropractor, and do you know, he knocked me right out. And - putting this bone back. And, he - when I - he carried me out and put me on - laid me - carried me and laid me on the couch. He carried me out and laid me on the couch and he went to get some water. When he come back I was right up on my feet.

 

Jane Dudley: Now, were you pregnant then?

 

Grace Taylor: No.

 

Jane Dudley: No. That’s good.

 

Grace Taylor: And so - no, those were the early days, you know. And - - -

Jane Dudley: How old were you when this happened? About?

 

Grace Taylor: About then? I wasn’t any more than seven.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, you were little then. Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And as time would go on, you see, I got sick, too. And, of course my ear was bad anyway. And - and so, then he said, “I was awful sorry.” Oh, I was married when I went to him. I guess I was 22 or 23 years old before I got married. And, so - because I wanted my father to go, you know, and so we come up on the train in them days. In 1921 my father and mother and I - myself bought a car.

 

Jane Dudley: 1921 your first car. Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, that’s right. It was a Ford. And, so - then I - of course I could bring - and from there on - that doctor went away and Dr. Manson came in.

 

Jane Dudley: The Swedish doctor went away.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes. And, Dr. Belvin came on, the first doctor.

 

Jane Dudley: He was the one who fixed your back, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, so then I went to - went to Dr. Manson. We had to go three times a week, I guess, and - to him. (Indistinct words) and everything else, you know. And so then, of course he - he wanted to retire and he brought in some others from Africa. They were the Thompsons. And - - -

 

Jane Dudley: From where?

 

Grace Taylor: From Africa. They came from Africa.

 

Jane Dudley: All the way from Africa.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, but they were all citizenry. What I mean, they were white people.

 

Jane Dudley: They were white Africans.

 

Grace Taylor: They came and their names were Thompsons. They were two brothers. And of course, I had to have them, you know. And, I know, that they - come down home. I don’t know how many times Dr. Manson come down home. I had three - I had pneumonia three times under Dr. Manson. In this dream home of mine.

 

Jane Dudley: In your dream home.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes. And he would come right down home. And George had all these kids’ diseases, of course and - and - and Dr. Manson would come down to him. And, so we went to Dr. Manson and I would take - he’d come up every Saturday after we got down to once a week. He’d come - when I had the car I would drive winter and summer and through ice and everything. And, I - I - I wouldn’t do it now.

 

Jane Dudley: I don’t like to drive on ice, either.

 

Grace Taylor: And so then Dr. Manson, he retired and I continued with these Thompsons and they come down. Dr. Thompson came down. I was taken sick. George was married then, too, lived down by the bridge in that green house. And, I was taken sick and George says, “You’re always taken sick on a holiday.” You know, and - you better get that down. You can take things out of that, can’t you?

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, well, I - I - I don’t know quite what you mean by taking them out. You mean, leave it out some way? Perhaps. It would be hard to find.

 

Grace Taylor: Hum?

 

Jane Dudley: It would be hard to find in there.

 

Grace Taylor: Oh, I see. Well, anyway, and I - seems to me I was taken sick anyway and they were up here and he expected me up for Christmas, see?

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, so, of course they always came down home.

 

Jane Dudley: I didn’t realize I had my glasses - black glasses on.

 

Grace Taylor: And, so Thompsons come down. Mr. Thompson come down home. George went after him - went after him and told him to come down home. I was taken with the asthma.

 

Jane Dudley: Uh-huh.

 

Grace Taylor: And, I couldn’t speak out loud. And so they brought the doctor down and he come down. And he said to me, “You going up to George’s tomorrow?” I said, “Oh no, I’ll never be able to go up there tomorrow.” He said, “Well, you’re going.” And, I was over it in the morning. He took (indistinct words).

 

Jane Dudley: For heaven’s sake.

Grace Taylor: And, he come down once again. Then I had to have another doctor. He was called Mr. Randall. The Thompsons went home. He - one of them married a girl over there and they went home. And, Dr. Randall came in his place. And, Dr. Randall wanted to come to St. Stephen, you know, to practice and Dr. Manson was going to help him, you know, and well, he come over. And, I had to change him. I didn’t like that, you know. But, however, I was - I was taking care of my mother then at the vegetable farm. Her age, you know. And so - - -

 

Jane Dudley: She lived in your dream house.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and so I - I was - I was up cleaning the cobwebs and oh, I took awful sick. I didn’t know what was the trouble. It just seemed so my head was big as two heads and - and everything. And, I got down from there. And, I said to Mama - (indistinct words) I said, “I don’t feel well.” I said, “I guess I’ll have to go to Calais.” And so I called up to see if Randall was in, you know, and he had a place down on Main Street there, and oh, icy and a storm - terrible. And, the man said - that was there - the man that had a little store there and he was upstairs you know. And I said - he said that Dr. Randall wasn’t coming in today . He said it was so icy he can’t get in. Well, as I said to somebody, “You know me.” So, I called Clint Jones, and he said “What’s the trouble?” I said “Well.” He said “How do you feel?” I told him. He said, “You go right to bed.” That was on Thursday. And so, Mama was able to see about things, you know, and - and I went to bed. He said, “Well, I’ll come (indistinct words) just as quick as I can.” So, he didn’t get down there until Saturday and I was still in bed. And, he - five o’clock he drove in and he gave me an adjustment. And, I said, “What was the matter with me?” He said, “You had high blood pressure and I was afraid of a shock.”

 

Jane Dudley: Oh my goodness.

 

Grace Taylor: And, I haven’t had high blood pressure since.

 

Jane Dudley: Wonderful.

 

Grace Taylor: That’s what they can do for you. And, I don’t take any medicine.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, that’s great.

 

Grace Taylor: Nothing. I couldn’t take aspirin. I’m allergic to all those things. And, so - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Tell me - - -

 

Grace Taylor: He - he died, too. And, then Dr. Beckman come in that I’m going to now.

 

Jane Dudley: Tell me about when the first telephones went in or when the lights first went in. (Indistinct words)

 

Grace Taylor: Well they didn’t go until about maybe 1920 around there. A man came in there, that is up on our - up on the farm.

 

Jane Dudley: Um-hum. Your father’s farm.

 

Grace Taylor: But, I had - my place. I had lights before they did up there - - -

 

Jane Dudley: I see.

 

Grace Taylor: because they - - -

 

Jane Dudley: They were so far in.

 

Grace Taylor: - - - decided they’d have lights, you know. But, they of course were way up by the - by the railroad station and I had wired my place.- and I hired a - - -

 

Jane Dudley: 17 rooms.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes. We hired a - a - a - electric light man, you know, to come and of course he had to have another man because, oh well they grumbled about you know because the - - -

 

Jane Dudley: So, you were the other man.

 

Grace Taylor: And, it was all done with the - with those porcelain things, too. Every beam and - the man told me - of course I knew this fellow. Nice boy he was. (Indistinct words) And, I - he come over and he says, you don’t - you didn’t have to hire another man because she took the place, and I - and that was when I first went into that place. My place was the second place that was wired. Carol Fisher’s was the first place.

 

Jane Dudley: The Fisher house?

 

Grace Taylor: And, my place was the next.

 

Jane Dudley: Was that the same Fisher house that was in the - - -

 

Grace Taylor: My dream home.

 

Jane Dudley: Hum?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes it was my - - -

 

Jane Dudley: It was your dream home.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes.

 

Jane Dudley: The Fisher house you were talking about was the first one, you said.

 

Grace Taylor: Well - the - the - the farm, there, they didn’t get that until afterwards.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, I’m - I’m speaking of the picture I had in the - the stereo - - -

 

Grace Taylor: That - that was the farm.

 

Jane Dudley: That was the farm.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes.

 

Jane Dudley: And, they got it later. They didn’t - - -

 

Grace Taylor: They got - no. They didn’t - -

 

Jane Dudley: That wasn’t the first one.

 

Grace Taylor: No, they wouldn’t go up by there, see.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, so there was a man - - -

 

Jane Dudley: There wasn’t a road like now.

 

Grace Taylor: A man - a man came and he lived in one of the places up there and he was thunderstruck because they didn’t have lights, you know. So, they said well, there wasn’t enough up there to do it. But, he got up and paid for it. And, they decided they would have lights. But, Mama and Papa was too old then. They didn’t want things disturbed. I would have had it wired for them, you know. But, they didn’t want to get into it - so it went. That way. I -I- I can see that little shelf with ten lights on it. One from a little one. I’ve got the little one myself. It was mine that I used to take to bed with me, you know. And, I told some of them - some of them I have, you know, here. And, but you know older people - I’m not like that. I’d just as soon have things (indistinct words) you know, but they were, you know - - -

 

Jane Dudley: They were different, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: They were old.

 

Jane Dudley: They were accustomed to that.

Grace Taylor: Yes, and so that was it. Well, and I go to Dr. Beckland, now. He comes over here.

 

Jane Dudley: Good.

 

Grace Taylor: Because I haven’t my car. I sold it.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes. Well, what about when the telephone went in? Did the telephone go in after the lights or before?

 

Grace Taylor: Before.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes, and one of the doctors had the first telephone line, didn’t he? Was it Dr. Bunker who had the first one?

 

Grace Taylor: I don’t know.

 

Jane Dudley: It seems to me I heard a story about that.

 

Grace Taylor: Probably.

 

Jane Dudley: That he had the telephone poles put up.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes.

 

Jane Dudley: And, that the last one was taken down a couple of years ago.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes. Well, I know Mama and Papa had the telephone. It was one of those old brass ones that was on the - on the wall.

 

Jane Dudley: On the wall, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and - they had that and of course and then I got it. Of course the man had the telephone right there so - in my place, that I bought. Well, as I was going to tell you, in - in ‘42, I was put in - from the - oh, the State of Maine as a nutritionist - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Oh.

 

Grace Taylor: - - - to go around to put dinners on and do things for people.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: Well, of course that was after George was born and I got kind of rested over the cesarian and all, and things - and my - I guess that you’ll have to take a - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Oh. This is State of Maine - “This is to certify that Mrs. Grace Taylor has successfully completed the course for and is qualified as nutrition leader. Course conducted at Pembroke, Maine. Date July 25, 1942.” Signed by the Director and State Coordinator and the Governor.

 

Grace Taylor: And I went - I went - oh, I went to Princeton. I went to Crawford and I went all around everywhere putting on dinners and most always had them in the best, you know - in the churches in those times. Or in their own home. And, I went to Dennysville and I put on - I’d make, you know, orange marmalade and jellies for them, and also tomatoes, you know, steam them and all. Of course George was a little fellow and - and

 

Jane Dudley: Did he go along with you?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, I took him along with me. And - and - and then of course when I opened my home to boarders - my home down there was “The Maples.”

 

Jane Dudley: Was what?

 

Grace Taylor: The Maples.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, it was called The Maples.

 

Grace Taylor: And, I took - and after I got through with boarders, I had a tourist home. Oh, it was beautiful.

 

Jane Dudley: And, you did the cooking for them?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes.

 

Jane Dudley: And you kept the house up?

 

Grace Taylor: Yes.

 

Jane Dudley: And, you did it all yourself.

 

Grace Taylor: I wish you could see my home. It’s a dream house all right.

 

Jane Dudley: Maybe sometime when you’re going down there, I could come down and visit.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, Gladys Bridges said she’d love for you to see my home, you know. You know Gladys? She’s a great friend of mine.

Jane Dudley: Oh, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, I - I (indistinct words) And - and - and when George was growing up. Of course I bought antiques, you know, from an antique dealer.

 

Jane Dudley: Went right into your house beautifully.

 

Grace Taylor: I’d take George right along with me. All these things that I have now is my mother’s and my aunt’s. The antiques I sold, you know, to get money you know to do things.

 

Jane Dudley: What was the year that you bought your house?

 

Grace Taylor: It was in 1920.

 

Jane Dudley: 1920. Now, I’m looking around your room and you have so many beautiful things, pictures and glassware. All kinds of things.

 

Grace Taylor: I have those cupboards full of dishes?

 

Jane Dudley: How do you keep them so clean.

 

Grace Taylor: Well, I practically did the house cleaning all myself this year. My girl, that I have, she was taken sick with the flu and I washed all these dishes around - - -

 

Jane Dudley: How could you, Grace? It would take - - -

 

Grace Taylor: And I - - -

 

Jane Dudley: It would take months to do all this.

 

Grace Taylor: George - George said the other day, he said, “What - what do you do - try to do them in one day for?” (Indistinct words.)

 

Jane Dudley: And it all sparkles so. There’s not a speck of dust in here.

 

Grace Taylor: This week she couldn’t come on Tuesday at all. She come one day last week and she vacuumed for me and she washed the - the - this picture and that picture up there and that picture.

 

Jane Dudley: And, you have a chandelier that - - -

 

Grace Taylor: And, she - and she took those plates that were up high and passed them to me and I washed them, see, and she put them back. And all, you see because they won’t let me get up on a step-ladder.

 

Jane Dudley: I would hope not.

 

Grace Taylor: I had to take that and put it away and hide it or I’d run out (indistinct word)

 

Jane Dudley: (Laughter)

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, I took it away. If I hadn’t have I’d been up onto it.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and so - - -

 

Jane Dudley: It’s lovely in here. It must look so different from any other place, that - - -

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, yes.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes, it shows you - - -

 

Grace Taylor: I’ve had people come from Ohio and all (indistinct words) and they wanted to come in and see things.

 

Jane Dudley: It’s a real show place.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and I said - they said - I said, “I don’t mind. I like to have you come in and look them over.” I said, “I don’t mind it at all.”

 

Jane Dudley: That’s nice.

 

Grace Taylor: And - and, somebody said, “Well, isn’t it a wonder then that you’ve got the best place up here.” They said, “With the things you have.” Well - - -

 

Jane Dudley: It’s interesting.

 

Grace Taylor: I have an awful time trying to - trying to get the place. I - I didn’t want to come. All the time that Mr. Pike was here and built this place - that was the minister - and he sent me papers and I was staying down to George and Olympia’s because I was going home in the summer - opening up my place. And George said, “You spend a lot of money, Mama,” he said,”when you’re down here.” “Yes,” I said, “I want to keep my home up.” And, that’s what’s bothering me now. I - I - I have things I want to do. I want to work out doors, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: What do you want to do?

Grace Taylor: Well, one thing I told him the other day. I want the trimmings painted.

 

Jane Dudley: On the outside.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes. It’s all - you see it has siding all over. And, I have, you know, and I said, “There’s one of those lights I want fixed. You see I had it wired under ground and I’ve got two of those lights outdoors on posts - - -

Jane Dudley: Oh, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: - - - - one after the other. Inside I have all kinds of (indistinct word) in my archways and things and all my furniture down there. Every night I go to bed, I go through that house. I know everything that is there.

 

Jane Dudley: You know just where it is.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, and I - and I didn’t want to come here. But, after I - I - you see, I couldn’t stay alone at night in that big house, you know, and there was things going on now that there wasn’t, you know. And, I could have stayed once because I always stayed up on the farm. I stayed alone up there many times. But, things are different now. And so, George - - -

 

Jane Dudley: George was worried like anything.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes. And so, he said - every time he come, he wanted me to come up. He said, “Mama come up.” I said, “No, I’m not coming up because I’m not going to (indistinct words) twice like that.” So, this one was up. This is a beautiful - - -

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: - - - place, but I - I - I - it hurts me to say that, but because I’m not, you know. He - he says, “That’s your home, Mother.” I said, “I never knew.” I said, “No, it ain’t my home.” I said, “My home is down to Pembroke.” And I said, “I never knew of a rented home being a home to anybody.” You see, that’s the way I figure it. You rent when you pay somebody else for their home, but it isn’t yours. And, the -the (indistinct word) people, you know. Of course, George isn’t young. He’ll be 54 years old in July, but, you know, he - - - this is, well (indistinct words). I’m staying here. You know, I’m just staying. Stopping. And, so he picked it out anyway, and I come up. He said, “You come up.” So, I took the car and I came up and I didn’t sell the car until I come up here. He said I didn’t need it. He was afraid of me going out and (indistinct words) a deer or something.

 

Jane Dudley: How long did you - how long have you stopped driving?

 

Grace Taylor: Oh-h-h, about two years after I was up here, and I - they say - I -I don’t know - they - they (indistinct words) me nothing about what year I come or how long I’ve been here.

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: Somebody said, “Well, you’ve been here long enough to have it painted.” Well, I said, “It’s never going to be painted - not in here.” I said, “While I’m here.”

 

Jane Dudley: It looks perfect. It’s so clean.

 

Grace Taylor: Well, every little spot that gets on it, I clean it, you know. And so, the manager that was here, then. She died recently, Carmen Henderson, she came over with him, and I stood there by the door - of course it was empty. There wasn’t anything in here.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes. And, it didn’t look anything like this.

 

Grace Taylor: No. And I said - and I stood right there and I didn’t say a word. Nothing.

 

Jane Dudley: You didn’t want it.

 

Grace Taylor: And, she - she said to George, she said, “Your mother isn’t a bit interested.” I looked at her and kind of smiled, and I thought I wasn’t (indistinct words - Jane Dudley speaking at the same time so that neither can be understood.) George goes right down and he brings up everything he wants. And - my dishes - of course I wouldn’t leave them down there, you know, because I’d be afraid, but I have police protection and I have genealogy. Everything is ma - - you know, genealogy or - what do I want to say. I know what it is, but I don’t know the name. Inventoried.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: Everything marked.

 

Jane Dudley: Marked so that if it - - -

 

Grace Taylor: And, I have - - -

 

Jane Dudley: - - - can be identified.

 

Grace Taylor: And I have - I have things on my windows - windows - printed right on the windows. This house is full of antiques. And, I’ve been very lucky. Of course I have - I have neighbors, you know, right on side of me - on one side and across the street. And, I’ve been very fortunate, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: Now, what - what do you do now? You don’t spend the summer down there any more, do you.

 

Grace Taylor: Pardon?

 

Jane Dudley: You don’t go down there for the summer any more.

 

Grace Taylor: No.

 

Jane Dudley: But, you go visit.

 

Grace Taylor: I’d love to. I’d love to.

 

Jane Dudley: You go down to visit.

 

Grace Taylor: No. I’d give anything. If I went down there and I’d work myself to death. I wanted to get things cleared up, don’t you know.

 

Jane Dudley: Sure.

 

Grace Taylor: Get the junk out.

 

Jane Dudley: They don’t want you to do that.

 

Grace Taylor: And, everything. And, I did. And, I got all the cupboards - everything out of them And everything. He carted away a lot of stuff. And - and - and (indistinct words) I said to George, “I didn’t get the kitchen scrubbed.” “Well,” he says, “that’s all right.” And I said, “No, it needs to be scrubbed.” I said, “I’ve got to get a woman to come in to see about it, you know.” Because I’ve got - every floor is carpeted in the house. It’s got linoleums on them, you know. And my kitchen has, you know, inlaid linoleum. And, my - other places has - of course the house has hardwood floors (indistinct words) you know, and I - I scraped them with a safety razor blade and them things come up. In a big place like - - -

 

Jane Dudley: That is a labor of love.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes. And, so it’s really my dream home and I - I - it’s still my dream home.

 

Jane Dudley: Sure it is.

 

Grace Taylor: And - and I - I - I think I’ll have to sell it but - but I’ll (indistinct words) and - and so George goes down every once in a while and goes in and then if the boys go down from the store they go in and see if everything is all right. And so, he says - I said, “Well there’s things I want to do.” He said, “What do you want to do?” I said, “Well, I want the trimmings painted.” I said, “Will you see about it for me?” And I keep the lawn all mowed, you know, and everything so it’s just perfect. I - I - I had lamps out on the front of my house. (Indistinct word)

 

Jane Dudley: At the doorway?

 

Grace Taylor: Well, no. They were on the lawn, on the front part. And, then I had these iron flower pots, you know.

 

Jane Dudley: Iron flower pots. Oh, yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, those were an heirloom. They were given to me by my people that owned that big place there in Pembroke. I had a cart and plow (indistinct words due to other noises in the room) He lives up there to (indistinct words due to other noises in the room) and then his mother when the place was sold - his mother gave me those. And, those are up to George’s now. I gave them to him because I didn’t want them left there on the lawn because I knew someone would take them, and I’ve got a great big flower pot. Oh, it’s enormous. It was up here on the place on Heaton Hill and I - three blind men, I think, owned that place. They tore it down and built the parsonage, you know. And then - and I bought this big urn. And, had it brought - had it brought down home. And, you know. A truck backed up into that and broke it and I left it there and then I fixed it. I put it all together with cement and fixed it.

 

Jane Dudley: You did it yourself?

 

Grace Taylor: And, last year - of course the police calls George when they - when anything happens and they knocked that over and I guess they broke it all to pieces and George said - he called me up and told me and I said “When you’re down with the truck,” I said, “pick it up and (indistinct word)” He said, “No, I’m not going to do that.” So, it’s laying right there, but if I can get down and see about it, I’m going to have it mended and put back again, because it is - and people wanted to buy it, you see, and probably they were prejudiced and, you know. And, just broke to pieces, but he can’t - it - was made of - not cement, but that brick stuff, you know, that was put together (indistinct words)

 

Jane Dudley: Mortar?

 

Grace Taylor: And of course it was (indistinct words) But, it’s still there, I guess. But, maybe some day I can get somebody. I know that I sent one of the neighbors and she said - because I haven’t the lawn (indistinct words) you know.

 

Jane Dudley: You mean taken care of?

 

Grace Taylor: You know and everything.

 

Jane Dudley: Yes.

 

Grace Taylor: And, I - I had a garden came from the road clean way back, and, you know, every known plant (indistinct words) I had in it. And I - and, you know being a house that was built in (indistinct words) you see it was on the sunburst and those sunbursts, you know, was put in the iron works, you know, and they made nails of them and - and you know, and then big boats would come in at the wharf and take those away, you know. Made with iron ore (indistinct words) you know. And I have - I have some old nails and I have - I have hinges, you know. I don’t know if I gave the hinges or not or if they’re down home. But, I, you know, I - I - I hired a truck and I had those cinders all taken out because they’d be too hot for my garden, see. And, I had loam brought in and I had a wonderful garden. It was - it was so wonderful that it was wrote up - put in the paper and George has got it in a scrap book because Jody said he read it.

 

Jane Dudley: That must be some scrap book he has.

 

Grace Taylor: I have five or six scrap books, you know, down home and I was going to bring them up and kind of look them over, you know, myself and I said to Jean, “You know I can’t find the scrap books.” “Oh,” she said, “George has them.” So - - -

 

Jane Dudley: I guess he cares.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes, he cares about things. Of course I didn’t know, you know, that he was - that he was interested in antiques, but he brought some people up here that was from Bangor that I knew too and the first thing he said when he come in - he wanted the keys to the china closet. I did happen to get that up here, but I have two china closets that I have in the other side of the house. It’s all furnished besides that I have my mother’s furniture all there.

 

Jane Dudley: Grace, may I take your picture. You don’t have to get up.

 

Grace Taylor: I don’t know.

 

Jane Dudley: You don’t have to get up at all. I can take your picture. Would that be all right.

 

Grace Taylor: Yes.

 

Jane Dudley: Could you hold something? Someone gave you a cabbage patch doll, didn’t they?

 

Grace Taylor: Jody. Jody and Medina gave me that.

 

Jane Dudley: Isn’t that cute?

 

Grace Taylor: And, every time she comes in, you know, she gets it and - and she takes its shoes off and she takes the dress of and she - she does it up. I’ve got a picture that I was going to give you.

 

Jane Dudley: Oh. Well, maybe it’s better - probably better than the one I could take