Document text
.•11
Maine
Living Lore In New England
MIKE PELLETIER
A
MY NAME is Magloire Pelletier. Mike is a nickname that they call me for short.
My last name is 1;illetier, but sometimes I spell it Pelky. Mitchell is just
the English way of 4iing my first name.
A
My father lived on a farm in Canada. He came to Old Town from St. Herb-
ert, '.4uebec, in 1865. He and his wife and their fourteen children came down
from St. Herbert in a covered wagon something like the ones used by the old
'forty-niners.
They came down through River du Loup, Edmunston and Madawaska.
"The first place he worked was in a sawmill in Veazie that was owned by
Gen. Samuel Veazie, who built the old Veazie Railroad between Bangor and Old
Town. That Veazie road was twenty feet higher than it is now when the rail-
road ran along there. The rails in those days were known as 'strap rails,'
and they were made of wooden timbers with strips of iron nailed bn the tops.
After the rails were taken up they cut down the road bed to its present level
and used the dirt to fill in around that part of the town where South Bruns-
wick Street is. Down on Pine Street where my father lived was practically in
the woods. There used to be drifts some winters fifteen feet high, and the
only way they could get uptown was to use skiis or snowshoes.
al"
Maine
Liv7_ng Lore,
Old Town .ff
av3. machinery it-uswm4.14,114o4cam,understand all th!:TEc we
useuAir. Nowadays lo :s are fed to the geng ears by autc,matic:gad
ops, but in the old time saw mills they had to be "spud4td." azainst
he saws. *hay had to Eet their shouldcrs aLainst t400apuds and push
or all they were worth. (The "871.4" someti esASed iTa woods work
ow are probably the same as those referrec1 by Mr. ielletier. They
as.4-,,uomma--i-v-IrtaerfrI5f-aata-ianalr-etwor-1
a a-alw a
'Father couldet awak vo-y well when he landed in Old
Townt,A Ale Freesott.bstadiasis
here. Miseeehr here very a
never bad say trouble getting jobs aroundy
lot ef-Prain0h to help them but with the
A
language, and a lot Of the bows were French* *hey got 14..50 a day
in the rum hills in those days, and they bad to work fifteen hours a
Mr..*
day There werenSt say lodges or societies around her, then not
for the French. anyway. After a nail had worked Stfteen burs a day
about all be felt like Joining was a matress, Whopowmpepemmemimberwmm'
/Ye 97
mrattge4motrAmoll Twenty-five
who -work- fit te-t-rt-
0044
had blame little Urns or inclination
A
or thirty yeel,s later,
6)
when they had to
work only ten or twelve hours, they began to raise a little garden
stuff.
4"Wages were low then, but so were living. expenses. You could
:et a rent for from three to five dollars a month. $2,7ig paid for a 04
cord of fourffoot wood, or you could. go out here and cut stumpage for
35 cents a cord, You oould get a barrel of flour for three or three
and a half, and a quarter of beef Jr pork at four -and -a -half cents a
pound. he vay those fellows did wps tobly a lot of provisions to
1
Maine
Living Lore
Old Town e 3
last them through the winters Inel. If they didn't want to go to the
woods, they could sit becleand smoke their pipeseemeldfteMmdaswith
the chanbe IMM, they col_ld eick up., a few odd jobs hero and there
Adoelta
1111001111=0:1111Mainell=gair the mile ass open, in the spring.
A
-"ley
would be broke when the winter we over, but they wouldn't owe any..
thing at least not very much and they knew a job wa in the offing.
same as we
have now, but the doctors had different names for them. Appel itia
used to be pallid 'inflammation of the bowels,' and if yo ot that
there WOE slim chance for you. Doctors have mor know dge now than
they formerly had, and we don't have the severe epi mice of oh lora
and black dyptheria that used to carry away so iny. Jim #Ortier„ who
used to live over lure, lost six children a week because of black
dytheAa. Thar. was an epidemic of l pox in Old low forty years
ago. Ihey hada pest house out w the old trotting park used to be.
The lat epidemic of largo ',ortions that we had here occurred about
the time of the influe e idemic during the World War. There wasn't
a great many death hen, but it's safe to say that if it had happened
sixty years ago ten times as,Aanl,people would have died. The doctors
have a lot long names that nobody. can understand for diseases now,
but vile ou come to think of it medicine has come a long way in the
sp a lifetie. Hundreds of children couldn't die now because
Grtilteaainksimemeeee
igstsanigzsielieloffloPttedeeee.,
LIvina. L4100
Old "0102 Ai
troeto
.1 is eso sew b• uifrt koala ibis 111 111 ew Ik
a
wtve no sidewalk
and EL-Alt:Wes tbe mow was six or el deep on the level. •Sore
than ..$noe I've seen seirfather ea,* up t ot road dra -Inc a beamMade sled
on which bo bad a barrel AP lour* He hauled it all the Tay fron
upto no Tbe road war nar oo and scrub !Anslo birch, and alders that
grow close to it, made an arah ovrheado They didn't have any stre.:t
plows in Old own thew they uss,:; to h toh a
a slo'd and lot it roll &Laic to break out ths
\walks wer made of -1Ankso T,e walk z Ha.n
in thc busIlliest
I
c1-..orto heswy log behind
road* Iltle.best side.*
treet uan Cc tr3,y wide
on but rraa the 1.:wer on4 down to Oreat Works
was only two vide and they .wore sot far (mouth apart so
people eat,ld pass w tut cett.in„, Otf the plank'. Sidowel
ibe,4 4.14wegi
that weren't ;lanked were pretty bed When4411*-40esot-eene-o t in the
11.intik061‘1*41111r
!e:3rInLo The roads w ereAnsdko too1 owlasowirmemwfm,Memsjamps anpaQiu
A
n the low R.Aeon*
beetle
In the VI= or the roads wore-immfies-semw,m04 but they were
A
eysdo me lemma Cust two r throe Incbos deep.
1410. fothOr Mad in dit(ercut eaa 3.1s arourC hero. One of
them was built rijt acroiv the river between of
?ranch IsUnd and Old Towne All these rooks thAt make the current
quah thosio ar,. what is iort of the foundations Of that all. It
t burned thirty-Cour yea avp. Shad hips., on the Uilford side
of the island, zot its nmme from the shad that used to ran there.
The yople used to evctech the with vein's. The shed donut rum there
now beoauso they oanlot cot over the dams.
fthore Jordanss Mild is mlw on. Wotan'. StroDt thero used to be
a small moohlni shop run by im Chamani the f-ther of rod. When
Chapman aesod h s businosT scrov the rim to where It is now.
Mose Jordan eta ted to slim whomdincas in the former *c re shop
Aoros,t,hs street.
Strickland and Pierson
had a mouldL.ne m1,10 411 ?See MA the torian. Jordan Itot ins
ortwin the pis° of his ;A.ont until it Inoll..ded a saw =ail, box
over the s toro where Morin had his pool
a casket fa
a
and a ttotadinc
4111117".1001111rrterd"1,111111±f,t,"7""
wutth treot9 but do you 1naw h ,w it osas to be call
worth is not a Freadh name. Old Cha,, liebo
romeWbc- Cho lisi the fellow thh.t had
make ea* eta over an that strest they
you
n usiod to
it a
'hti.
The
°Allots he made weronat fine sr:sires they 'ere nev7.0 of soft
wood a -d toy so or six or etbt dollen). If you wanted n nethinc
ilt'ae :t would cost 7oy a 111Ale more. Oeori:e
Maine
Liv
Old Temn
4
wWatar 5trst ws a pr t 11d •lsce after the drives eame ir.
rhos° elvers uied to rase does trol the head of Indlan Island. The
redtkins had a over them and *her. that wedidkcang tot in sitht
the Indians used to five it off for a stoma to the whites. A lot of
people %wed to gatLer on the shore to watch the land. There were
el bt in a boat and when those bo*t bit the landing eon* of this
taut: d co nivr y all their Asn.th uen the &home The drivcrt, made
for Water Strovt the first thing, but thilr had to et by tome people,
li 'Mope Visehou first, that we.. -c tryinz to drag them in to sell
thou suits of clothes. lithes:44.samsimodmOsomiteedmIMMMormsmidwilow,s
culto a charector,
'I've seen f -all-flOata colk; *n n Watc,r Street al.. the
wa :ro,z the bridge down to -.1.14 last saloon. ;ihose fell:ms would
get drinks and they'd start to remember words that bad passed in the
woods
Bv-r word %pie ee ame-v f Wow
could do +ma
*an:der
About all the ;olio*
and let the_ f4,ht it out.
a few of test old river cis the Sweet
boys, 416 Nichols, John Latno he wu Alex, the ezemayorta father.
IA 0106
1144 ,Or M 5
mwmo arewd City years so illaawsimiler of them cold do th7mcs
4, A
on llgs 3V.1.1 wouldn't belieAo could be done. I've peen JO Ulobols
take a 'clapboard cut, and spin it In the r. 444440.
4impitt-livrictit A clapboard out wet jwit Liok .ent:, as a clap.
boardp‘sy usod to cut clapboards from* The lo z rolled in
the ordinary way,ip..-sadeoeisseae they usel to ain then end tar
end. Owac they at it stcAed, they'd keep it
Maine
Livieg tor*
Old 'Own•
*There usAl to be a si&
where the company power house is now.I've soon more than one
driving boat 0 Uhrouch that sluice and strike the white eater at
the other end. PeOple used to o down them to watch the rafts co
throuch; it war quite a eight. They used to think it was great
*pert to ride the rafts i-rel Old Town down the ri er to Bangers
People webertbeniesfrtherweisiimbeliaLth plenty or
money/used to bring lunches down in boxes and board rafts tor the
sail down r ver•
where
Oeing over
i.ot their bigost thrli. The raf terosfhi.•
rommes, (17-dbit co >vor the fulls; they Would have boon broken up
that ways The boats wen, down throuGh the elutes1 but the rats
vent by var at the apron. The main part of the dam drop ed tf
shavply and the current ran pretty teat throu,t the oluloo but
the apron sloped down very gradually. It wws, quite a SiCht to see
the parts of shlpwasts so thronh•1hoy wove about seventy feet
long. and semeemommeiabey bad to be roCted Atnthwiees used
birch poles in ra:-ting the thipmarts becuuse they had to b il eareful
they didnot break apart. There watt a 1:4 or aney tied up in one
of those rafts.
'r-- etilor
'It wacet only loi,s and shinatta thit vvro float‘d down.
The sawmills used to make u rafts of di-Aension. an4 on those they
evuid pile boan!,* and smaller stur:' sueb as clapboards, laths and
Waal=QfthliaL,14,o, hey w floated down to the docks in Dancer
who e they were broken up and loaded or to vessel'. When the water
Vita
st,r i4 the year th4y could make the rafts tig,or and
heavier, I've seen than 1,b0 feet on and 30 feet vide, 46-1m4.06-01"*"
.411simmryleprePTIMmrirTh46.8•ama0,„
Maine
Living Lorexi
Old Town
'On the dimension raoar ed the
used to bore two holes at the front end an? drive ir. postr- that
kept an 33E5 from slip.ine of;. This piece of ti!bor ran alonc the
grant end and the boards w, As Aled with one end of thom resting
on that. It bad thc erroot of tivi the front end. The runs
were steered with sweeps o rteen ,eet lone an tapered u
point at one end.
*rou used to sec a lot of logs thedifthoggeds alonz the shore
In the fall. So..ettles tiler would be er- meth ar 10,000,000 feet
abeaC. Those I el stayed thews all winter, an in the sp-inr the
malls used tklart be run on until theeprint drive etarted to ce
in. The oeIy drives we see around hero now ar 1,114 w-!L'd drives.
They used to dry *11 the wood they used here 4-eemwomisoormispes "but
now they use the wet st_rt, too.
of the apron on the dam resindei -ne of a quecr s,.cht
A
4mgemmineemmemdmimmilka down neer the Veasie tn. Those so :u]is EMIL
alht on the sp,t,.r a -out fifty foot a ova the dais and let the cur—
rent ear -y that down the runway. Jest before they Est to the r.A.I.Ja
water th.ytllco up in the air and fly back to where they started
frau hey are like a bunch
to a
&OmmmiehmeMemme
'It's funny that I've lived here all life, but :27 boys are
seat'ored all ov-r tho oitaltry. 2hat loture o the wel. there is
on or Rudolph, my olde-t boy. Se is in 21e our now workI in a
va, eh Aant. wL.s on a torpedo boat in the navy lurtne the
Wend War. Lie ovkr there rho- the German :lect surrendered to
the British. That photoct on the piano is one of my youw:est thy
he 6raduated from the hi:_h school last yeie-r. This 'sr he is at a
ccc Coop Whou the bajrzet ti*117
lo cgo---Adh tO tvey
01 balm beim,:
4, end ay anC I hove been
yowait %hen the InliTbte of Colbnbus
too old to be anyttamr but a charter
Icined Lt.
'be ae 0,
Voi*jd at /am vban the
now it it vemitt so
uzvelty au the
uto nbov or. an:,
to
P
la70
I ui teed Val*
take after
for tbe lat-t thLrty
for tvontro Iv*
bar or bore I Iota
that so 2 neviT
the
ad an :zaybe 'wood be
Accordion =rid
liked it. wo
the Orange bee
1,-.1140 1 w ttran't there
%loose vo ,:,,ayied the accordion Car fifty yo.rea. IC I
we ;IMO, list 0 this 'once -e loyed. it v-vad be a Ikaz ma* wo
emlld ple7 al- n bt aitbout havinG to opect
oya 0.7- o.i.:411c of tie, ity* Aboo...-ireseer
aglagagattetamerwoomingelisesemodinitoemere% Any Milide IS rod if
It's -layed az:LA at the I3Pertie. I like al. 0:"
Mrs. Pellotier stepped out or the room for a moment to
return with a hoz or prints sad salargasentsmadowhospow
QV
oew-gyoda*,aoemosesp.hoteire.-4bc-staibteogimewaireeppmstiow.40asmeed,
.didleamesemeeneedodirmeMPoda Amoeg the prints was
Tbvett!tAtit,several token at *hogs,
sad ono taken on Indian Island.
elan edinaltla
Mr. Flpatieril tram to the pleture taken oa Oar Wiwi0
A
It was very fanny. Mrs Wows asked one or the Indigene if the
natives ever got wild. She sweat, or coarse, if they war wont as
the warpath or soalped people. The Indies said, 'A flow of ue de,
modes, but only on Sotarday nights.**
"kile thaws elemmlas trips we always brsus little something
to set along with the °lams. It miiht be bread, greeters, take,
ploggenything that say 008 wanted to brief: along areSS 00M, OS
tt:gt cob, is pretty good wookod aloag with the clone. You just cook
it right under the seaweed. You always have to take somothina along
to drink for,thores no fresh ator down %hero et the whore, lot
of pooplo oak* tee or noffoo when they've ooOkins the °Isms. You
don't lave to pay anything, to di 5h elamv■-just flad a ;cod piece
end go to it.
"They have elms Woe to Albirthe *isms with, bit I always *sea
garden sped,. Ova of those, vu blow, with fear primes es It.
Ths way we baked the glans was to find e fiat rook *ad build s
fire on it of driftwood to heat it up. Ass the rook is pretty bat
yea Takao the ashes off and Just lay the sines on the rook wit SOSO
SOOMOod over them. I oup000 Lao eismo ore rataliv AreSSIOd SOOSUSO
there* a lot of water la th,40 -ed the steam forces the *halls opoew
?kw trater OrOVO down on th hot rook and makes s lot of stems toew
JO
_Lne
LivInj, Lore
Old 2own
it
1/4
"If that convent had been there. when I started to .7.10 to school
my parents would 1-:robably bavc sent me there, but that place wa rut
po ly fifty.four 7e rs a o. I was one of the first scholars there,
1 14at (j
\but I attended it only two yes 2, By that time I had graduated from
A A
the Er,mAar •grades.
Allir"Uben T stertA ;Tole' to eoboolntherc were just
A
°els tbs MeNitley School up there next to the city hell, and
that littlo ono down on in Areet that Mitchell Erie over into a
house.
where Istarted in, "tie s lot bigger. They had four b
two up and two downp.and the hallways sn.. oost roo big. Mere
two web
were two grades is every room except one
there were the.s.
Those were vast they ulled the late ;.T.eces...... 3. 4, and 5*
!biter* were tee $000410.ett'thet room one Wee Irannia Vorldt7.• ?Mk
Averill'e aertle, taught in one of tho rooms upstairs for
ley jobool use a two story, wooden building with a brisk entl 47reve.,
it. basemenSe They used Goal 4iraithsrarmstee to heat the schools
There vas fairly modern plumbing in the beeemant, but there ussenot
many houses is town them even the best ones that bed seeter eons
actions., Ibere ace no drinkle water piped inalde, but there we.
a 9004 well in tbe yard.
1
OM* Tbst 11011nley School htumed flat soon after they built that
big Halos. ant School on Brunswick Areet• That wee named for a
Maine
Living Lore
Old Toes.mm.011r
11411-
4:44.9xlmuger,
--403..41•••,444.40.601,-iteireeenorZtt-tow•04114..bakaitiaborama.,,,.,.....
411041146.1011MIS
WWI the oldest boy at boss* and I elped quits a lot with
chores e7ound the house* I shove -10i paths in the winter aro hal,-
ed some in th marden in th swami. arr7load in wood, and brouht
is eater SommempilirliMOSONFINNI, rather always raised some tobasee
every year. 3otas of the leave* on thou plants wotUd be 16 !echos
Lou:. 4* used to out the tope off so the pleats mould spread out
mare.
;le
started them in a hot bed so they'd have a little longer
grovle 6004014o
'Awn I WM ten years olt I used to go out in the weods,Fwith
father to help eat the rum :wood* 4e took our-luach aad stayed
all da.* ,e'd build a fire at noon end heat up whatever we had*
It wes usually meat or egg sIndatnhes and some hind of pie or cake.
ed to carry a bottle of tee that seed host up out in the woods
is a big tin eat that We "kept for that* We out ten cords every
'Ter that's what we tus,ed is ttv:t house* "iAtat we cut one sinter,
we'd use the next*
Aetna
Livin4 Lore
014 i44,111
this they stirred Is some soda to sake it team up. Thee they'd
take it out end pull it until it etarted to harden up. Jona peo-
ple used butter on their heads dulls" that pullini and some need
flour.
longtime*
at those parties we bad lee amino and es always made that at hams
le 4 tremor; it wouldn't have seemed like e party moles* wo die.
nhey used to make maple sugar around here, too, flsore
leer Us sugar house now ont near his cottage on the road to Push..
am Pond. They bed big pans to put the sap in, n4 tbord build e
flre under them to boll the sap down. nape they started sugar mokins
they kept it up dey and night until ttley let throuAht. There were
thrfte stage* in that prowess. They got maple Wm!) from
the first- timeorIBIWIWOrgemihrrlimemeihmaammeshisp..eoft ample
sugar windy la the 'mooed, and maple sugar in the third. They
bed moulds in the shape of banks, ekurohes, dolls, and so forth
that they used is mate maple sugar sandy.
vammgeomembviee About seventy years ego there used to be a brisk
house dove seer the river below hin; mall. That was t 'had'
house, sad there wets a ledge along side of it that ran right dolga
to tho wd,ter. 3ome people maned Vile* llved there. rV father
said somebody told his they looked in through a window ose ni,tht
sad they Arlw old Nilsg, tith bleat mioves on hie hands, &nein'
around tho rooms The queerest part of that plea* Ales the tracks
is the ledT that led from the doer dews to the edge of the eater.
Ic
Motu)
Livth Lure
Olt
There wr,,s an awful &psi? hole in the rir bed thera. /ive
seen those tracks veal? awl I've sulked barefoot in ttan6 They
were the trecXx of e man and you con1;1 sea shore a dug had wolked
alonmsi4e of him. ALkht near the .de of tho waver tare was
pis°. **coped out of the lodo se t* ,t looltad like ft seat in the
rolak4 I don't know arm that got :Lora. It couldn't have been
worn by th water beoeuee it is too igh up for tLet. I'te
pretty hard to account Dor those tracks in tas ledge, too. They
were all of three ime:ess deep, Wad /*Ire seen than nowelf. bet
11160 ell or sixty yuars aa. :tat ledge is ell overe p now with
dirt and sew dust. Peopla used to szy. tLat it was the devil tat
walkod aoross there. Back in the old days they said things like that
were the work of banshees.
I've heart tether tell stories about
ti.,ou were facts.
and eome of
people ond-tr tua Chord* until a cemetery less wed. ready.
wae.e 41r1 tied up there, end Ler folks noticed !,h,At uer flesh
list -eyed soft. 'the wen buried tmder ,te c1t1, end when it 47
her up to put her in tte coaletery, er it er
/acid she'd like to halwittm eoff in °poled so ohe could see her
daughter sgsiTh.ay opanod that coffin and they foand that the
t girl 4a4titirsso over ea her taws, sod that most of her hair had bass
/40
when they
Kohissegeosagerrellie
Llrity° Lore
014 Town -m -51e
up
ft, the air held out she struggled to get out
There as another story about a women that
were heels' a funeral service la she ant up la the
-Ammeket, and then got lked hone, The undertaters never
then. and I suppose thy lootOrd didn't
°There ens story about two brothers Vet Itval some dia-
tom** from the villege store. One of the brothers wes down at the
store one eight, and etas he woe there the other one told hie
mother he was vole does the road a we to scare him when to is
combs' beak. Ea wee a kind of wild actor, as4 he got an old cows.
bide with the horse on it sad pulled it on over his head end welt-
ed behind tree near the rood until to sew hit, brother Gamin' home*
The other brother ems this figure wits the horns semis' to meet
him gad be misted up s ranee rail to defend himself, do hit his
other brother right between the horns sad laid him out on the road
an then he ran 'sone and told hie folks that he had killed the devil*
The old folk* had an ides of *bat had happened and they ran dews the
road to leek. They found their eon laying there wita hie head meshed
weeeeefteOweemehmussOmmeithey weren't able to got trio horns off
the boys* hoed, and they had to bury bin that way. He'd played
the devil so such that he finally turned into one.
"After T. loft chol I orked on thc. untl. it closed in the I
fall. That waf, in 1667. I rafted loa all suaner for fifty cents a
day. A bo-m•Is a long line of logs tied or chained securely together
end to end. The ends of such a bDom ,:rlay be tied to piers or to some
point on the shore. A boom like this miht have fifty different uses.
It could bt used to ':ide loos t=ard a mil ..:11d, or to keep them from
driftin JLt aft they got there. Howevc:r when people used to talk
of working on the bo-rn they didn't mean a line of logs like that.ogibp
tiaammar a 'main boom,' or double boom, was made to two lines of logs
IMP
wedged together so that a .an wouldn't have to be an expert to be able
to walk along it. A baam that run along the shore was called a 'shore
boom' or siiorci lugs, ailftwl li -Ai tillinfrideeamithe boom at Pea
Cove was operatcd by the Penobscot Log. Driving Association. Logs were
floated down stream from the woods during the spring drives and trapped
in a lam at Pea Cove, Those logs were all marked with the owners
special marks, and the job at the boom was to sort out those togs and
raft the different marks together. The small 'joints' were combined
n long rats and floated down from the boom to the mills of the v rious
owners.. You might start down river to Bangor with a long raft, but if
Asome of the logs were for mills in Old To or Orono, all you. had to d
wts lack out the wedges while the rart w:c lGatIr al=g iand
the iroper joints ovr to where the m 11 boom would 0.1de them to
where they iee supposeed to -47:1). The ,:ape in the main reft would
be pulling the sections 60
rufd elvr taken horta to the dingle and left them
a night, the boss wou;d have e.:,plained what it ws the ne,,t, mornino.
A d1ngle is a storehouse for mer)ts *qv provisions, aweftwomemielembenew
_
The wangan 'af a 1-zind of little store where to..
bacco„ socks, nittens thread, and stuff like that wts sold. The
timIkeeper,
11V. 0
also the clerk of he wings% slept there, and there
8
'kiss
ileing Lore
014 Twom-101"
.4sepoOmer
never saw any trouble or fights In the woods, but I saw a
souple of bad aooldente. They have nea workin" around the blaehe*
ilth shop *akin' sled*, sad see of these follows had a sle4 runner
betweea his lag. and be was bowie swey at It with an ex when the
as slipped sad out bls knee sap right in two. i'esu another fell..
as get his leg erushed with a log on the UMW. That was up at
brandy Peed, about IS saes above °ostler:vile They had U. haul thew*
follows out to the railroad station at 0ostigsmi and from there they
took them to the hospital In Bangor. There wasn't sush they could
de for those fellows in the woods sweep4 to do a rough job at sett..
in" the bone and it ornate on the leg, but I supose that had to
be done aver again when they qot the fellow to the beepital..with
that split knee sap ,,11 they amid do woo to bind it up to stop
the bleediag, and set the fellow to %agar as quick as tkw mould.
°There was seventy five men la that ere, where I was. On rainy
days the'd sit around owAsminpoiter, for Betakes or beams,
or higirelae.jsek, 3onetImes they'd he some elotheo to darn or
mead, sad sometime therd grind &zee or make ex handles. I've seen
an mob an a barrel of ex handles *head. They made some pretty iieed
handles just with an a* and a .Nreic knife and maybe a pleas of broil!.
en glee,.
Sweden but some of them didatt bother.
in.
Living Lore
Old Town
°To play poker if you didn't have any aosey you could go to
the eangsa and get can of cookie° or a plug of ohowt-11 tobacco.
The beaker in the game would give you tea or fifteen beans for that,
end if you still bad the beans at toe end of the game, you could
get your Lobate. bask. A, bean repreeented one cleat in merchandise.
_
The mica were euppoeed to boil thøit tl.oth.. every week_or
$.dto build s boa fire
does by the _brook* sad pat the underwear la boiler full of water
.tbar-fiveir
"There was elegy, acme one 411111% that collected 9prues gum that
they kept in a sloth bag. They4d make a dollar or two walla.' the
gum to some drug store when they mot dawn river in the spring.
"Deana were cooked in beau boles aostly as the drives, but on.
times they cooked them that wey la the weed*. YOu *se on the drAeole
the as were always an the move, sad they couldn't very well cam
a stove with them bad keep takin' it dam end settle' it up all
all the time. They know where tose bean holes were along the More,
4
end all the eel* had to do when the rear went by was to hop late
a boot with his pots and peas sad provisions cid row down to the
!WM been bole.
°de used to cook about ten quarts of dried boons a day for
thee. eeventy five neat, sad that would he twenty quarts of cloaked
hese.. The beam kola was about two feet deep and three feet square,
but I've sees the. four foot square. Ve lin0d the bole with reeks
to bold the hest, anti this we threw la some used aad Me a good
firs going. Alla there woe plenty of hot ashes rad *sale in the
bole we raked them awry from the middle sad set is the bean 1104.
Then we raked the coals and mohair back over the iron pot.
ao 1 wortRro.JV a- nw 1 atttin:
itlr' la mil
7 to
th-t hi sttff the
hes- copper woad saot the tr ss ..;11e,0 or the snis7ers 1.)). euttin a
little spot of torit: aff an thi2 side tDrt troes were to fnlls
:hen the gamy -ors woulti eau tits& down. -Ammatines they'd ..et tymo or
three logs out of one tree. The head swamper planned the direction of
the roads, and swampers would out the trees down as near the ground as
they could. They'd throw the brush to one side and fill in holes in
the road with short logs. The logs that the sawyers out were hauled
to yards and piled up there. One sled tender always worked with every
teamster. After the lots were yarded they were hauled on sleds to
landings near the brook or river that would ear,'y them down to the boom
in the spring. Woodsmen and log drivers worked from daylight 'till dark.
The drivers had a longer day because the days were longer in the spring
and ausimer. They slept in tents, and sometimes they rolled up in the
blankets with their clothes wet. It was a hard life and men had to by
plenty tough. 41saymmorpormitemblvelikrer lessweirvereirmbeigaseirei•
wese-seneveve...*he.iemememmemmemeNvw*
'On those brook landings sometimes they'd pile logs right on the
and sometimes they'd pile them along the shore. I've seen logs
piled fifteen feet high against two trees. In the spring they'd out
those trees down and lot the logs roll into the water.
abbilbs• At was dangerous work. In the spring those logs were floated
down to the boom and the work of rafting began. TWO or three hundred men
and boys worked there when I did, but the number kept dwindlin' down every
year unti: finally the work stopped altogether. There was a lot of logs
piled up in a jam back of the gap, and a lot of different oompanies awned
them. All the omananies had +..ha4r ^wa _ _So oa e•
Elaine
Living Lore
Old Tom ro,
2-i
kind of nark for every kind of log; that is, pine, cedar, hemlock, and so
forth. Those marks were out on the locs up in the woods, and the logs
were suppossed to be rafted with the marks up. Those marks were something
k,
like the brands they put on settle out west. 'Diamond, rabbit trao4;
flying goose; eross;two notohes, and so forth.
"There was an openin* in a boom in front of the jam that they called
the "gap,/ and the logs were pushed down through that gap and rafted along
a &Able boom they called the *galore logs* that reached down the river half
a mile or more. All the rafters had to do was to raft the lors together
with wedges and a rope. The checkers stood out on little jiggers made of
three or felr short logs wedged together and hooked with a short rope to
a line that stretohed from one end of the boom to the other. Every Checker
had his own *beat* and every beat was mode up of *joints,* or rafts. The
oheoker rolled the logs while they were floatin* by him and pushed out the
ones that were auppossed to be ra.rted on his beat. The logs they missed
were rafted in a *stray raft* at the end of the boost, and pulled beak up
stream when the raft got largo enough. Men the rafts on the different
beats got large enough they were Idrepped off* in a 'swing.* The men who
handled the swings didn't do anything else.
nothing like the old ones. The pulp wood is cut four feat long and pneitia'.
in the woods. The boom is a thing of the past. Last_year4bout 40,000
cords of nulp wood cam& down the river.tswergii4orks, and 93,000 came by
train. They haul it 3431tVyear around in trucks.
L;1/44,
cordsleet--. Iiii—• You see they have 50,000 cords in just one yard, and they
_.----
.1Ltentrosioruilisrettheres-,
They used about 500,000k
'meeting of the Penobscot Log
:trol matters on the boom
talkomserryfter menPik
AttgazghbAtteitifirieit log rafting stopped
lotion it out of business, and I was
2.s7
—J=210==ftbsireevlh (till have a little to do. There's no
A
long stuff comes down noe and there's no log rafting, but there's
still pulp wood comln, down. They don't bold that up at the boom:
they let it go right throngh. Pulp wood that's apt to get mimed is
marked with paint on the end. A red cross is the mark of pulp intend..
ed for the Great Works mill. If pulp wood for some other concern got
mixed up with that, them muld be a job at the boom sorting it out.
rI hear those people down at Ducksport have brought the Cassidy
interests up river. They tell me their pap wood is comint damn the
back way to Gilman False 4Amiiiiindiess+46 There they'll take it out
of the water, load it on to trucks, and haul it down to Bucksport.
The Great Works pulp wood oomes down by my of Milford*
that•riilkt-tlitt-twttetr door- IMISkitexort—Ireatibtk.
Amitestsasd-htraties..**...
Ai at Ae 0,4 44-v/b- r
MINser "They'd probably like to, but they couldn't do it. That's
A
tide !muter bolow Sone of the wood wovld float down a gays,
but a lot of it would bo loft high and dry on the shore. They'd have
to have men all along the chore on both sides to *hove it back in.ww-
lathe
Livine Leavy/
Old Town
aSagetrem.
-MOW That river is pretty broad down below and there's a lot
of coves and in/ets. nether there's any islands between here and
Buokaport I don't Iola%
vtiMeliqr-IMmaririmmildhAmp. They couldn't use booms on ameount of the
shipping, and probably the rise an fall of the tide would ruin them
sprialr•srk-.
/14M4R107.1
4.
-4fignffirfwiaakadVesofftiremPIalak I stew if they could get wood down
that way they' find it was costing a lot more then it would to haul
it 1.e truck*. They used to float loge down to a sawmill in Brewer,
but they bad a sheer boom to clltde the loge over there. The logs
they usvad to float down to Banror were lomded on to ships down there
at the wharves. A log drive in tide waters would emetainlIrtime reined
the diekene with the old stde wheelers that used to cone up the river.
It me funry to lautCh those th!Ales turn around. They'd reverse one
wheel and rua the other alload. It's been a long tine since one of
those *Lowed ui; on the rivor.12".
Maine
Liv-,.ng Lore
Old Town Ar
of us standing around down ther one day when C,Lapp was There
lire
else. But But 1 kl w quite a lot ab„)ut it :iust the same.
the owner of the mill and a -111 ionarTe sevral tl:les ver. 4 WEIS 2
on
look! nt c (-1,,NrPr nY-al
some
He was
"When I quit work on the boom or rather when it closed I got a
job in the pulp mill in Great Works. That was fifty-two years ago and I've
been there ever since. When I was a kid I was too busy to have any ambit-
ions. I had to help support my younger brothers and sisters. When I got
that job in Great Works the only ambition I had was to stay right there as
1
long as I could. I worked in the yard for five years and on the chipper
for one year before I went inside. That mill was a pretty small place then
compared to what it is now.
VikAUtlaet.vt+,04-
"There Was a News poter I there last sum.: r. _smittvretri41%
A
howirw, him .;.hreugh the rn1. and they stopped in the ew.,.pora tinc m
wne Pt-) I. w at ork You WM" reraozibt: mosesiiiets, that intrvi w in the
:News. That Is::-Izzled voterent that the reporter spoke about was me.
°Whet waft le a lot easlarimm6 Whom T started la there I
het to weft tie or twelve h, a day ear 0017 $1,4116 11611
work ets hours aim I got three 110 as seek pays .ilyheildlemieseis
1[.
hhine
Urine, tors
O ld Toste-sqdr
Asmoo—feeb—yeseedandha''
..,1„,gspaissisiopoewg/Wolistiffaseerseheediessuagmagibipmo I get a Dehwe eer
in 1928 and last year my wife swappod it for a sow Plymouth. She
male the duel end I didn't know thieg about it. 4e took trip
up to Umnsis %bet year to see a *muds of mins who runs s versTe
*hero, and about s week sfler we got beak this fellow drove into
the yard with s now Plymouth. °Is that vur oar," I aye, when we
were sittiss bore la the kitebele. '140', he says, 'that's yoursl
and obee s swot runnin' baby.' 'Mn.?' I asys, and be says, "Sure,
sad he told as hew nor wife had arranged to turn In the i7)odge when we
were up in Grand isle.
ol:, but ell it needod to step that ems now rises, be ha loft
here to go how* in the Dodge he says, "Do you suppose i',i4, it,"
*o got a postal from him that he welled the sex!efirtif ne loft !mere
at nine in the morning, and be got to 3 Isle et 5 eolook
that nigh, so th.e old Jedge hews trait -oiled elang. I
like this Ply Geo :at that ep to sixty wiles mu
hexer en 4f rides smoother thee thi vodA4 tmei to et Vlirty. I
"lawilawariestoshwellien"P
Os
2,1
bins
Living Lore
Old Town
Mike: /Pres they do at moat of tl
in Hampden that night
e suppers, but down
oyster stew. Besides that there was
beans, cold meet sandwiches, pickles, and pie
'Thou stories about burled treasure on the river have boon
banded down from Captain Kidd's time. In those days there were no
dame on the river, and ships could sail pretty well up Above Bangor.
There were all aorta of stories about how pirates sailed up this way
and buried gold and treasure on the banks. I've heard that sometimes
they shot a man and buried him on top of the gold, thinkinl that if
the body was disturbed, the treasure would disappear* I've seen those
holes myself, 'there people dug, right down near Webster. I've seen
the smirks on the rocks that they say were cut by the pirates givint
directions on how and where to dig. Those Barks wouldn't help any
one now, of course, because they're all in cipher.
L wee out Meath' once with a failow nal we foot to briag
enY halt with us, e didn't know just w: t to do about it, hut
lieu; a snake witha frog in his routh, an I wIre to my pertner,
If we only had that frog it leght do.' 'watch as get thct,, he
Bayne aad he pulled a bottle at uhlekey out of his pocket and pour-
ed nom into the enakes Qouthe anaige dro ped VI)* fro, end we
used that for belt, aU, after wo caught a few fish we 'started
to look around foz- ion
;a
t !AG *a ze,ee IAA our
friend tte snake wit two no hla rout't, it et he we
bring us,
-I t(J1d tha story to Va7or une t Traae etins ed
$vZVik.. I d-d-dldn't thot -evu He'z Ttn
"Moro was another abott a fellow that 1,nvitod a couple of
friomeis of )113 from New York to cove up and learn sonsthing about
bear huntin,* The three of them got out in the moods and this fellow
to 1,1a friends that he'd go ahead and do a little scouting* By and
b7 they saw their guide eemin" tearinl through the woods with a beer
after 'Oet out of the way, boys,' the follow hollered. 'I'm
takin, this one beck to the camp alive.'
"'Mere was a fourteen year old boy shot a deer over hero in
Vilford a few years ago* Now this story is really true: I know my-
self, it's a feet. This boy's father taught him to always tag a deer
ho *hot so that no one else could claim it. Well, when the boy shot
this deer he elipirie his tag o- to the deer's horn*, bat shen he MS
turned the other say for a minute the deer jumped up and made off*
Sometime*, ;fou Irow, then a deer is hit it'll drop, but it's apt
to got up and run away if it's able to. That deer got out of eight
before the boy got over his surprise, but the boy started to follow
along the tracks in the hope of catcall& up** By and by he heard a
shot ahead and Shen he got up there he found two man skinflint his
deer.
told the men that the deer belonged to his, and to prove
it be showed them the tag on the deer's horns. One of the men looked
at the tag and sayer 'All right, boy, the deer is yours. Anybody
that can tag a deer that yes 7oint as fast as that one was vhan we
saw it certainly descrves the srolasiese
or it's Shot, That hePpened to Sam Lasky out hews* /NI shot a
g buck When he was out huntint .amd when he Iasi lookin0 around for I
doe, the bode not um and beat it. RA 'AA+ fthe deer thatioww-" I
Maine
Living Lore
Old Town id
i ve
and huntin They aro my two favorite sports. That deer bead
saw mounted in the hall was one I *hot lest year. That as
point btu*. I go out every year and I generally get o One year
my wife and I each got one. You went to tell that Ican get
nto my ear here and in five minutee be outpAg a rood bunting region.
h il ll
t
Ilat' sow them that you don't bayieto travel very far around bore
to hunt. bunt. I used to like sw skating, baeeball„ and of (toupee
ihunting and fishin' whear"(was a kid.
"I can't
any sceidents or anything unusual that ever
of my hunting trips, but I've beard some unusual
t happened to other people. Now eon believe this or
live out back here in the woods,
und every winter be set a lot of trap's. Le had a tier eat that used
to follow him around and that cat got to be such a good hunter that
be was able to got all his food out in the woods. The trapper didn't
Lave to feed him at all, in fact the oat got so that it wouldn't eat
anything unless it killed it himself. One day the oat vas out huntin'
all alone and he got one of is front paw caught in trap. When
the trapper foluid him the paw was half obeyed off and be got the eat
out of the trap and took it home. That pow wee so bad that the man
had to cut it off. It healed all right, but the oat kept gettin"
Lb.:Inn:ex because it colAdn't enjoy the food the trapper gave it.
30
Nei
LLing Wire
Cid tom fie
By and by the ran net, 'Ilia have to do comething or loae that
eat sores' so he got a little piece of cedar and thittled out a wooden
Ier for the cat and he tacked some leather on the little pleas of mood
to make a socket to fit on the stump of the cat's leg lie made leather
straps to po around the cat's body to hold the leg in place. lisaim.
*ten the eat first mot that wooden leg on it used to shake its pm
tryint to get the thing off, but by and by it got used to itiand the
(wit 7ot no it could prance around in groat style. dmo goon me it get
no tteleelidemmeelesdamilimilt started gain' out into the woods again
to look for game. The trapper knew the cat was gettinf it, too/be-
muse it started to fatten up. That fellow got kind of intersted 00
one r1Jry ho followed the eat out to see how it managedesfrekiaillifiNiti~
ane: he saw the cat *reap ep on souething and grab it elth one
paw coV hit- it over the head with that Wooden
A -trapper thatamisitatibassisadesAegeoielimbelasseidraiamiatilo pass over a
A
*Was brook on the way to his traps. Every time he went acres* that
little plank bridge he noticed a big trout down in the water, and he
tossot.'
got in the habit of eamilleAa few crumbs 1111111Mmeedssem down to the
flab when he went by. That fish got so fond of him that one day be
-Foflowed
jumped out of the water and fihmistawagagmlkikail him eiksemesinfammo
ammo, back to Lis cabin. The cat and the fish got to be good pals,
and sometiMes the cat would even carry the fish out to the woods when
he went huntini. At night the fish would sleep on a little bed of
MOSS. One day when the eat was cemin' back from a buntin, trip the
fish slippee out of his mouth and down between the planks of the bridge
into the water. Before the oat could help it out the trout was drowned.'
MeAne
UbdmigXe
Old Town .Ale
saris'
leweNelLiAlbaseasitswiesso
-10,61
'John La Roche was a good bunter. Theresa. a pond back
of Lis house and one day he eav, a lot of ducks regain' on the slater
in a circle. Be had only one bullet and he wanted to get all those
ducks, so be bent the barrel of his gun, and when be fired, the bullet
rent around in a circle and killed every one of them.
"There we a farmer up in Aroostook County Who used to raise
pumpkins big mewl's% One year he raised a lot of them and
he harvested them all except one big one that be had no room for
left it right in the field. One day in the late fall when he vas
drivin, hie bogs back under the barn durine a snowstorm, be saw that
one of them we missinl. He couldn't locate it anywhere, and a couple
of days later the snow vas drifted eight feet deep, The next spans
when that farmer we plowint be found that hie lost sow was inside
that big pumpkin with litter of twelve little pigs.'
Maine
Living Lore 4
Cad Tessa For
pay no or co to jail yourselvi Applebas paid him and so did Belay
rest. It goes to show you oen at alap-ed into jail for a bill don't owe."
11.40.4 'Isn't a bill outlawed in a certain length of
Alberts/ *No. they ohanged that law. They osilsot a bil no mottos*
hcw old it Is.'
Custs 'Bills for perbonal se:Is are no er oAlawsd. If ye v see a
oss reatertv he pan oolleot suatoti* (Cult
doe -or. l'or Inatome*, for
Alb Am' "Say, dad, you nt to toll Bob auout Jo Fountain's statism.°
1.61101001191011.46.4wisamitoftwitidoweikaWn. know Assei Jots wife. She was
tellint us none stories mbout Jots hiater tiut died u n COILMOOW Ship died two
yemrs nos but they never cot a chance to by her booausl, *he diaaplearei from
the room Oho was laid out in. They resod that body two weeks ace 0114 her flash
we just the sem as it lers right aft- r she died. The. body turned u: in
!Wilts house, a-6 nobody kn-ws how it rot there. Now this be not somethug
that happemid seveuty-f1;e years arc. The body turned to woAs ago. Anna
set ri7ht in that choir last night and bald us about it:e
to put out a book iwout the birl, and ohms thtt book is
.have something to readi Wasn't
U S. that town is half wav uetweA% Montreal and ,Zuipbsc.
Mina
Living Lore
Old Taws woe-
.411Mhmehes "This WOMIL124roaremmergibearmiatrairhad he42 tempted by the
devil ever since she was a child. Ker mother died alma the girl was young.
end when they toot her up to bury her over, they found thet her/le-eh hadn't
clhanged iartiole. The girl pulled some flesh out of the side of her abtherve
elok and they itlt the piow of flesh in a cover, jar on Aintlepisee, thee*
ever hey take off that cover a sweet pert*ume rills the room. usememeembdeensmeseed
Amm1444:r 761atfw,Aftwairlterta-tiiiirS347-sair iiitrergivionwiletringiror-
ijajikiLAAweor.aio-npr-bsrtotr-ttrar-ttvirr-tm—maa---
That
4.6641,„,,,,a00.4,ekeierkmituari ateadoujumealuagjimtatior
girl used to fil.tsvec-r, Cape they fount her in the woods, and ono* they famed
her frosen in ice and smiling up at them. VAsy used to find he looked la her
r,am wit the doer tumked on the otaide. Ones the was in a ron.that had a
erotic twor the door. The door sien't locked but they couldn't get it open -until
they t ok down the crow end th n the door opens itself. Onoe when she 11104 in
-41e-
her badraaaand mattress of her bad disa-,:-verCd and they finally 'petted it up
A
in the attic; There mot only a small hole to get in that attic, and it was too
small for the mattreaz. to go though. The door of her recta detached itself and
went ui the stain:, end /Alan the mattreez Gem down ad appeared back on the bed.
Then they hissed the door omme dowa and it attached itself to the frame without
any form's. You oan see that door up there n w. It Narks 11*. any door except
that ti•rels nothiac holding it on.
Maine
Living Lore
faA Town jgr.
ie
a t:ifle flab must d. I knew that Albert ws a rreet practieal joker,
but I knew, too, that nobody could think u sue 1.4credible Uhler, on the.
slur of the moment. He had no idea th.t I wte going to cal that ni- at
is father'suse, I knew that my ausOttione we e etrtirel wi t fm.,nda
tion„ but nobody could listen to otorie like tivise without retvi.ing ine
credulity. I asked hin and Mike if they were telling *torte, in ,a
joking wsy to sea how nmeis I mould swellow. Mike bort both ass red
no that they were merely repftting the otter' a they had heard from
Ape the nicht before. *The stories arc eveable,* Amid Mike, *but
nottddy Anna Fotivtein„ ne, or any one could thing up swath yarns,*
Mr_. ielletior and Lill Rims also gáed no that Am. had to1d the tare
that lake and Albert were re ng. *Well,* I _eld, 'Whatstbot the kountains?
Why ern they' Budd n1/ tel thout thip girl? It seems tui though they should
have said something her long before this.*)
Alberts cr‘ co around telAnf sorb e like those to everybodyt
they .1.ght you w re *may. But he often told me aboat that girl when
work in the mill: The reason Ann* brought lt n# lait night was
be se she had just same down from there and eke was telling us avut how
ow.
*The devil used to slap that girl n the ft_ets and burn parts of her
body. She had hearts burned on her wrists, and the Slesetvl Saereuent buried
on her breLat. Onee Vlore tes a se:t aplered on the *ill of a small window.
They couldn't got that eat off frol. there so they sent for the -viest. Bo
seed sass .14117erts and sprinkled some holy wat3r around and that oat went dlwn
through a rgistr in the flocuemething.iiimeashela--a
Mains
Living L.,re
Old Town
*The devil did all sort:L of Wage an oy her, If she eat down to
do some crochet work, when she got it nearly !finished, the work would all
unravel. She had a canary that diaapearod from it oFT,s. By and by it
reappeared. It was vary tame and when who tack it ;n hr fatal to pet
it,the devil crushed it.
--elbaft-ata-ii-iiitUee of her'siother on the well and the used to
before that and pray. Sorictimec tears lern/d roll doom fron the eyes in the
fpicturo. They colleoted some of those tears and tack tiv-im to a chemist to
halm hhom analysed. ao said it'v.:- the purest wa.-,,r,„74,1,11.1014WIENNeririrmal
Tfiffeee`
"Ethe used to fill up with orma, end they'd COMO out of her body,
her mouth, eyes, anywhere thousands amd thousands of thew.. Foms of those
worms ht:d bleek betdue Scars used to 41.-;-etr n her body, a, woe trio of
her fingers dropped off. Aftr her folks died the 1-44111, to live with Aa uncle.
They loaded sons of the household ?pods on a trunk and Cho got into the *mat
it the driven'. On the way to her uncle's house all kinds of thinrc hap *r,
The wheals tie of: ard the moods kept tiling out of the truck and they had
a hard time to kosp the truck a the road. Thee wat a galvanised rof ou
her uncle's house, and as soon as she got inside the house t -ay thou,ht that
hoof we coming off. All kinds of ra71,Ing and ponding cams from up there.
Omoatieu she'd oomp:ain that mos one av h choking he or squeezing hr, and
Ache she complained of being choked, white malcs use, to apeur on *1'• throat.
They found the marks of t! -e devil's claws on her
"Anna said said she and Jo were up there after they found the body. She
said there were two hundred people in the house, and for lunch they had
a ham. Anna said she sliced the ham herself to make sandwiches for those
two hundred people, but the ham didn't get any smaller. She cut off slice
after slice and it still remained the same size.
Old Toon ;„,e
slept all night after bearint those stories, bat
talk about dreamst I'd carry in a lot of wood and when I got
through I'd find it all outside *gain. The clapboards started to
fall off my house and they kept fellin, off as fast as I could
nail them beak an. It was like that all night. I was all in in
the morning.
of a spiritualistic seance a *hale ago. Bells rang, the table
:umped arounds balls or light floated around the roomy and sp te
drew their hands across people's face.. I often thought /1. lik*
to attend a seance. The trouble is, of *writs, it's done in
the dark: you ain't see what's going an.°
Albert: 'They could see vhat wee goin' on there in Canada*
all right. I went to a spiritualist 1otinftfe, but they didn't
tarn off the lights and they didn't pull any of that stuff you
mentioned. There was some two. :ark thatch, Just the same.
I went to see *hat they would do, I told marvife if be could
name me I'd think: he had s
wShe was afraid we were in' to be late. She had a whole
dish pan full of dishes says, 'Dear as, I've got to wash
those dishes, and if &well be late for that meeting.' I Just
took that pan full Mabee and shoved it under the sink. 'Bother
the dishes,' I,s, 'we'll do them after we gat beck. I don't in-
tend to bC,d2e for that shindig.' There were about sixty Peololi
there by and by he called out my name Albert Pelletier. He
to as was a happy-go-lueky guy and a lot of stuff like that, and
"You pick up a lot of stories running around the country. We travel a
lot in our car. Every summer we go out berry picking. Last year we got slat/
quarts of raspberries up at the Jordan cuttings. They used to be thick a few
years ago over at the radio line in Bradley, but that place is all growed up
now. It's pretty well growed up too out at Pushaw Pond. Those places last
only about three years. We always take out a few sandwiches for a lunch and
a little drinking water. We could have got along without a lunch last summer,
though, out at the Jordan cuttings. I never saw such big berries. We filled
our pails in no time.
"We go to card parties once in a while, but I don't believe we've been to
the movies twice in the last year. Those 'love pictures' are no good, but I
like a good western. I don't read much now, but I used to like western maga-
zines and stories. When I was a kid I never got enough of those Wild West yarns.
I guess I've settled down."