| Notes |
- by Helene "Lar" Cousins Stephens 1986
Looking back on growing up in Stonington, Maine I wouldn't change it for the world! Seems I remember so many people that were kind and interested in everyone.
As a child I could always drop in on "Ga-Ga" Crockett for a "piece of Jewish rye bread with butter" or if at lunch time, she made "luckies" for all covering in a sauce of fresh raspberries. I was always with Dotty. Dotty's attic was a great place to play They had a wooden rocking horse. The Crockett family went to Boston for the winter for the Jewish schools.
One summer our shed was empty of wood and the house was having the roof tarred. Dotty and I were playing and inspected the tar buckets. Looked like paint to us, so we took a doll of Bar's (my sister Rebecca Cousins Knight) and painted her! Then, we saw Sammy, a boy with blond hair, coming up the hill. We called to Sammy and said we had something to show him. When he came inside we grabbed a tar ladle and put in on his head! He ran out screaming headed toward his home! I think my father asked who did it--Dotty said, "Lar", and I said, "Dotty" and it went on neither of us owning up to it. Needless to say, we were talked to for that!
At Cora Robbins', one was always given a doughnut, or a freshly baked cookie. Cora Robbins always came to the house on wash days, set tubs with wringer between them. On the stove a big boiler for white sheets--piece of Octagon soap cut up and tablespoon of kerosene for "whitening".
At Sara Spofford's likewise something to eat was always offered to me. Her mother's room over the kitchen was fascinating to me. Walking up the narrow back stairs, I used to wonder what she was sewing. Sometimes, it was a quilt patch, mending, aprons, pillow cases and my best doll clothes were made by her.
When Sara and Arthur was "courting"--they took walks Sunday afternoons and I was taken along too. Was I the chaperone?
Barbara Clarke's grandmother was usually in the yard feeding her chickens. I remember on Saturdays a hen or chicken was killed by her and we used to hide to watch her with her axe. We hid because she'd always say, "Run along, children", as she didn't want us to see her.
Mrs Gavitt's little house had many flowers in the windows, especially red geraniums.
The Tom Williams' house had many small rooms and there we were given cookies too.
In Flossie Snow's house was the sound of music lessons being given. The children doing chores and in the yard were chickens. In the back by the kitchen door after a rain, was a water hole and that was always a good place to look in and play around.
Across from the Snow house was an old grout pile where we crawled over the granite pieces and hid under them when playing hide and seek. Further back in the woods we could always find berries in the summer time.
The other house next to Clark's (the Conley's) the couple had no children, so we never visited them.
Across from our house was a big tree and I used to be tied to it to keep from wandering away. It worked until I learned how to untie the knot, then, I took off down the street!
I can't remember whose house it was--(Chas' Knowlton's, Ed's father) but seemed it was rented a lot. Bar's friend Justina Harding lived there. Her father had 2 hunting dogs. Then, Eleanor Hardy's family lived there. Like Justina's family, the kitchen was on the front and a rocking chair by the window. Eleanor was my best friend in high school. Eleanor Hardy could draw well. In an old shed in our yard I posed for her once with only a scarf on. We also had a "pulley" box between our houses and often exchanged notes and bobby pins, until one Sunday morning early I sent a note to Eleanor and the box bumped against her mother's and father's bedroom. the pulley went over the road to our bedroom windows.
Another friend was Bonk McGuire. Her mother made the best tea in a big enamel tea pot! If she gave Bonk a teaspoon of Atwood's Bitters in the spring I had one too. Bonk's attic was a great play room. We made May baskets, the umbrella ones of tissue papers and the box kind covered with left over wall paper. We had matching doll carriages and hand sewing machines.
The cupola at the top of the attic stairs was a great place for seeing everything around. It was from there that Bonk and I watched the Torrey boy's funeral. He died from pulling hair from his nostril that became infected.
Mrs. McGuire took us in the afternoons to Crockett's store, Freedman's store and to the grocery stores as her husband and boys usualy needed overalls to wear at the quarry, or yard goods to sew things.
Bonk's house was a large one, 3 stories (the bathroom was enormous to me). thus it was here that the priest from the mainland came to say Mass monthly, if the roads were passable. The activity in the house excited me on these occasions and I'd go home and report "that a priest was coming", having no knowledge of what it meant at the time. One St. Patrick's Day going to school I knew Bonk would be wearing a green ribbon, I asked for one and Papa pinned an orange ribbon on me. I didn't know why, but wore it to school.
Bonk's cousins, Cute and Gin came for the summer from N.Y. We'd have swimming afternoons, Greenhead, Clam City and all around though the water was like ice. Our ankles often were scratched from the barnacles on the rocks when swimming. When the tennis court was built across from the school we played tennis or watched others.
Herbert Warren's house was pleasant--seems they had a daughter, but I remember his store at the Wharf more. The smells of tar, rope, paint and tools, hardware. Plus the pot bellied stove and glass case with penny candy.
Eva Gross was a friend too. I remember I had my first peanut butter on bread at her house. Eva had a new doll and we were playing on our porch and I must have been jealous of the new dall and either pulled the doll's hair off, or her head and my father came around the corner and saw it, as Eva started crying, so he told Eva to pick out one of my dolls which she did. Later, Eva and I had some sort of a fight, and I scratched her eye which had us all worried for some time.
Speaking of scratching, a Banks family rented half of our house. Their son about my age, I was always scratching his face and he'd cry. I was told in no mean words if I scratched his face any more I'd have my face scratched. They soon moved to Clam City.
Arlie Gross' Aunt Susie rented rooms--that house was so busy. They had so many bedrooms and at one Arlie's room, or a bed for her, was in the back hall, like a bunk bed as I remember.
Esther Knowlton's kitchen was real familiar to me on Thurlow's Hill. Mary Wood was my teacher and seems I was always taking her something, (apple or May basket). Her father mended shoes.
Leonora Webb was a friend of Bar's and I remember snapping beans on the porch. The house next door was where Harry Colby, the janitor at school, lived. Bar and I were invited to birthday parties there. Such fun as string was strung all around the chairs and tables and each one was given an end to unwind around the furniture and at the end was a small prize.
Likewise, Ada Collins was a friend of Bar's and where ever Bar was invited I had to go! Now, Bar was something else, being 6 years older! I can hear her say to Papa, "but you don't know how she acts", meaning me! Papa would say, "I'd think you'd be proud to have a sister to take with you!"
Sunday mornings were special--a "bath" in a "face" big china bowl behind the stove in the parlor and to put on long drawers and shirt that were clean. For a long time, I could stand in the water and do my feet and legs, but all else was a spit bath in the real sense.
After bath, off we went to Sunday School at the Congregational Church to listen to Herbert Warren who often conducted the service. Bar at one time taught a class and I was in it, but acted badly and heard about my actions after we went home.
Later, a minister served the Congregational church and the Methodist church. The idea was to use both churches to keep them maintained. The ministers may have changed, but the same people went to both churches. In the Methodist church basement we heard of a stone-wall box filled with water for baptizing one and that frightening so we never went near the basement.
When Net Spofford was our housekeeper, Bar said I was her "pet". Net was special and an excellent cook. I can still see her reaching into the cupboard for a pinch of this and that. When I was small she'd say "go outside to play, I have work to do". Net fried tripe and neither Bar or I liked that! Thus, I never actually saw how she put things cooking together, but remember how things smelled and tasted. To this day I still can't cook!
Uncle Cal Davis from Rockport, Maine came yearly in the cold spring to hunt "coots". Net, after over night soaking in soda water, cooked them in the wood stove oven. They were delicious all dark gamey meat!
Bert Stinson and Lois were at the house too. Bert worked as housekeeper, but her love was the sardine factory. Lois came to see us in Atlanta with Bar.
It delighted me to catch "millers" "bugs" and put them in Bar's bedroom and close the doors--when she came to the room she'd scream for me to come catch them and take them out!
Bar was always doing "freight bills" with Papa on Friday nites on the kitchen table. On Saturdays she went to the stores and collected the money and paid any of our house bills. She used to say, "I'll be glad when Lar is old enough to do this."
On Saturdays, I used to go with Tonic Banks in the sled and horse, Dan, to deliver coal. Chauncey was his real name but heard he drank so much tonic that, "Tonic", stuck. (Jewett Noyes nicknamed him.)
Papa's barn was great--the harness, Dan and a span of horses and loft filled with hay. I remember a picture on the wall of the horse Man of War in Papa's office. In the springtime, "piglets" were in a stall undeneath to sell. One time when I was in the stall playing with them, a man said to Papa that he'd take "the 2 legged one!"
We had "Delco" for lights later on. Kerosene lamp chimneys, I had to clean and refill on Saturdays. When Delco ran, no one could use radios on the hill. Lights were strung to the barn too. Fire destroyed the barn due to damp hay being put in the loft that day. Fortunately, the horses had been all sold years before as Ford and Reo trucks were used by Papa for trucking.
I remember the blacksmith's shop--I loved going in there and Mr. Judkins would say, "Don't stand too close". I thought he was hurting the horses to shoe them until he explained.
The barber shop where we were dragged weekly for a trim of our hair! Mine was always so short and finally Bar rebelled about the weekly hair cut. I remember a board was put across the arms of the chair for me to climb up on and sit. A lot of pigeon holes on a wall had shaving cups for the men. Think the barber was Mr. Brimigion.
In elementary school, I remember Mrs. Dunton, 1st grade teacher told Papa to have my eyes tested. From then on I wore glasses!
Second grade punishment was being put in the teacher's day closet with the door closed or in the closet between the rooms with doors closed. I was in both!
Fourth grade, Miss Maybee, reported to Papa that I misbehaved--whatever he said seemed to straighten me out until 7th grade when a lot of us skipped school. Mrs Barbour was our teacher. Some of the 8th graders came along too. We all went to the water tank, standpipe and "weed" field. We were back in school on Monday morning with our heads down.
High school was basketball with Grace Faulkingham as coach, Eleanor, Bonk, Gert Snowden, Arlene Hendricks, Emily Shepad and so many others, Helen Scarci, (Glenice Noyes, Lucia Leali, I think) Wallace girls and Natalie Billings, but what fun playing in the Opera House and the overnight trips by boat or trucks. I've been told our team pictures now hang in the Sunset Historical Society house. Yes, we're all older. I've forgotten some names on the team, but not meant intentionally.
All my grandfathers had died before I was born. I remember vaguely Grammie Cousins (Melissa)--going to her home on Russ' Hill with Bar and Papa shortly before she died. She seemed average height but stout dressed in long dress but I remember no facial features.
Aunt Susie Cousins' house with her boarding the teachers. She made rice potatoes and would smooth out my potatoes and cut in squares and call them "fudge" when I was a child.
My grandmother, Emma Grindle, lived in Camden, Me. with Aunt Nora and Uncle Fred Simpson. There I went as a child to spend the summers. Aunt Nora worked at Acorn's and Uncle Fred ran a grocery store. All the relatives came to Aunt Nora's in the summertime--the Hoopers, Edie, John, Langdon and John plus Selma Stinson and Helen Wiley. Seems everyone slept any place suitable, downstairs, upstairs and on the porch. Aunt Nora's daughter, Virginia, ("Did" as we all called her) took me all around with her, when she dressed to go out on a date, it was something else watching her curl her hair and put on make up!
My grandmother's cousins, Ida Young and Addison (he built boats in shed) lived in Camden too. We often visited her in the afternoons, and Nana and Ida sewed. They had a cottage at Spruce Head, and Bar and I went there several times. We picked blueberries for breakfast with bran muffins. Aunt Ida "put up" root beer in jars for Addison under the porch, and we soon found it and drank some.
Aunt Nora had a cottage at Lincolnville on a lake. We went there often. The Hoopers had a house in Castine and we were there, also. The boys took us in a canoe on the bay.
Nana had a feather mattress on her bed and a delight to sleep on. Nana was a great story teller and every night had a new one for me.
Aunt Gussie and Uncle Clayton Gilley lived in Rockland. She always said "go it while young!" We visited them and the always met Bodwell boat when we were going to Camden and put us on the trolley car to Camden.
My Nana Grindle (maiden name Lymburner) had a truck in her closet. Yearly in the summer when in Camden, I looked into it. Nana told me this story. It was the custom before marrying that all girls had to completely read the Bible. Also, they had to make their own SHROUD! A long white thing tied in the back, or a whole long dress of white cotton. A pair of white long stockings included. Also, underwear, long pants to the ankles with a draw string at the waist and a shirt of the same material. They were enormous, in case after years they (women) put on weight. So many women died in childbirth that these were at hand and ready for burial. Though Nana never wore short skirted dresses, Aunt Nora instead of burying her in her shroud which Nana took out once a year, washed and ironed faithfully, I think she was buried in a dress at the cemetery in Stonington beside her husband Elwood.
So many I remember that were and still are good friends. Mildred Wood, Fulton Weed, Paul Billings. One I've forgotten is Aldo Ciomei; I'd never made Trig and 3rd year Algebra without Aldo's help.
Going to Bert Ames' place to have "pictures", size of postal cards, taken periodically to send to Nana and Aunt Nora. Aunt Nora's sewing for us, Bar and me, dresses alike with displeased Bar for a long time.
Going to Aunt Phoebe Thurston's for the weekly butter--we were scared to go to her barn toilet as the cows were in their stall near the toilet and their eyes seemed to follow us. Aunt Phoebe always had caraway sugar cookies for us. She lived in her kitchen! I can see the stove, rocker, hooked rugs, desk, cot, lamps and all her patch work. She slept in the winter time on the cot to keep the wood fire going. She had a pump in her pantry sink from the well outside. We were scared of the Ames' cows too, walking around the pond in the summer. In the winter we walked across the ice.
The water front was a place where we spent hours--watching the Bodwell and J.T. Morse coming into the wharf--fishing with a line and hook from the wharf and catching only "horn dogs".
The little island (Peggy's Island) where Papa kept dynamite to sell, there was a little camp. Water had to be taken over to drink. We rowed over and we took Nana one summer in a row boat. Bar had her friends mostly.
Whenever anyone at Swans' Island needed dynamite clearing a field, or a foundation of a house, I was sent with the 1 or 2 boxes at supper time to walk to meet the Bodwell and give it to the Captain to take on to Swan's Island. Instructions from Papa were specific--"I was not to run, nor stop to talk, and carry the boxes level, give them to captain and he'd be looking for me, then return home--directly home with no stopping." I presume to know I'd delivered the boxes.
We always "borrowed" a rowboat tied to the "slip" to go rowing. Later, they charged to rent them. Bar one summer had an outboard motor on a rowboat to go to the island.
I haven't mentioned Jewett Noyes' drug store--penny candies, the ice cream fountain, daily papers sold, etc.
Dr. Noyes examined my eyes first, then I'd go to Rockland when visiting Aunt Nora for glasses.
At a smallpox scare classes were innoculated at night. I was in line waiting and fainted, knocking down several other in line like dominoes falling.
Bar hermorrhaged from tonsils being removed one summer, and I sat on the stairs holding my head. Dr. Noyes stayed all night. When I went for a physical to go nursing, Dr. Noyes said I'd only last 6 months(because I got so queasy). I graduated from Mass.General Hospital in 1938.
George Stephens, Sr. and I were married Jan. 8, 1945 in Honiton, England during WWII. He was a Captain and Adjutant of our medical hospital group. As civilian he was an optometrist. We came to Atlanta Dec. 1947 (or '46) being discharged form the army. He came with a family of 10. His mother was wonderful to me and his father. The sister-in-laws all accepted me tho' I was the only "yankee" in the family.
Housing was acute in Atlanta then, so we lived with his mother for 6 months, then moved into her garage apartment for 5-6 years. She cried the day when we moved into our home, as Little George (our son) would not be as near to her and would miss us all. Granpa Stephens died at 75 years and Momma Stephens lived until 83 years plus.
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1916 - 1986 (70 years)
