Document text
ORIGINAL 1198. OR MU ROM (Cho* ono)
PUB.
TITLE Irish .904 Ippowisid 4' 1
IT _ditouise G. 0411,4141..
1/30/59 MR. P.P.
CRECIONI X
somas GIVEN (1) rzkorviiir
COMOINIMS
Mary Anne Meehan Irish Cook
STATE Massachusetts
NAME OF WORKER Lodise G. Bassett
ADDRESS Brookfield
DATE January 20, 1939
SUBJECT Living Lore
1:-.AldE OF INFORMANT Wry Anne Meehan•
ADDRESS Brookfield,
Mary Anne Meehan is Irish with all the wit,
independence and pride characteristic of her
racial heritage. She is in her seventies
just where, she won't tell, and you had better
not ask. All her life she has been active,
working hard, helping her brothers and sisters
to rear families, never stinting her friends
or families when she had it to give. A great
part of her life she worked as a cook and
there's none any better.
Cooks are traditionally supposed to have
bad tempers. Mary Anne's isn't bad just
hot and furious while it lasts. Her pet
aversion is to be treated like a servant.
"I'm a cook and a good one, and I'm as good
as any of youh be and don't forget it."
Name: Louise G. Bassett Assignment: Brookfield
Title: Living Lore Topic: Mary Anne Meehan
The radio was on, a symphony orchestra was playing softly and
beautifully, but we were chatting because two of the group "just
love music" but evidentally didn't care to "listen."
An argument was on and a lively young woman was telling her
aunt how "she" felt about it, This was the argument.
"She wouldn't do it if I was her mother, I'd positively forbid
it," said the older woman.
"Wise parents don't 'positively' forbid their children nowadays,"
said the niece.
"Well, no wonder children are no good these days. When I was a
girl my parents told me what I could do an' what I couldn't do ant I
obeyed 'em," was the aunts dignified reply.
"Oh, go along with you Lil," said Mary Anne Meehan, who had been
listening quietly to the argument, "Y(4 didn't obey nobody. YolAI'd
pretend to, but don't try to tell in my hearin' that you)ever obeyed
nobody, I know you I know youhfrom way back. Besides kids is smarter
nowadays then we was, lots smarter."
"thildren was as bright them days as they are today brighter,
if th' truth be told," retorted Lil.
"Oh, phooey, how could we be, look what children have nowadays
take th' radio take what we're hearin' now only we ain't hearin' it.
But jes' look at th' fine music alone. When we was kids we'd hear a
couple o' sour noted souppranos in church an' maybe some lad who could
play th' mouth organ or th' jews'harp. Did we ever hear any good
(2)
,ame: A.,ouise L. oassett
iitle: nivin nore
Assignment: 3rookfiela
lopic: ryAnne LLeehan
4.1.1bieri ‘ie uiu not.
kius ken hear all kind of lectures an' th' little devils
listen, too ,r1' ken tell youh 'bout 'em. Imine 1.16 listenin' to a
lecture. An' th' movies is grand for 'em too. Ih-y learn all kinus
of things lo kin' at movies, an' they're as interested in th' news
reels as we ue.n
"Weil, I can't agree with you," 6y'S
"I wouldn't expect you to. You're still hurrahin' for the'
good ola horse an' ouggy days but youh'd stick up youh're nose if some
one at youh to riae in one.°
The look the twO laaies exchanged might be c,lled a "gl,re."
niouh know I'm right, youhlre jest stubborn," said mary Anne,
"Talk about th' old days: .*hat did w.e have that was so fine, I ask
you now what aiu we have? An that we haa a darn sight more 'n
th poor devils before us hau.
"hose hoocskirts my mother used -to wear when I was a little
kia, I cen see her now. II she forgot to reach on ant grab th' h up
at th' oack a little when went in to sit uown in th' pews at
church .noopee up it lAould go in front an' show her white panties
with hanu maue lace on 'em an' would th' uarlin' olush She'd get so
red you'd think she'd set afire to something. Ant the' yards an' yasas
of cloth thore'd be in a dress th-t we'd h,ve to carry round. Lord,
how'd we ever uo it. It took anywhere from eleven to twelve yards
to mane uress in them uays."
"Ii you ast me 1 think it was nearer fourteen," offers
Aame: Louise 6. iissett
litle: Living Lore
(3)
Assignment: 3rookfieid
lopic: ..ry Anne iveehan
'Yeo, may -e youh're right our skirts nau to come to th'
grouna, you wan't fit for any-Oway to speak to if youh're ankle showed
th' least little speck.
"aemelLber now we used to aress when we went in oathin'? Long
stockin's, long sleeves, a full skirt that come half We.L.ili UOV41-1 youn're
legs full uloom_l's an' a waist that coverea every speck of youh that
was iert to see."
UjjCh wan't much, th' Lora knows," added Lil.
you girls ever wear hoopekirts?" I askea.
they was ,iest ablout goin' out when I come along," said
':..iut what we wore was 'bout as bad maybe worse. Th'
skirts was lined all through with iinin' an' they was faced up from tki
uottom about eight inches with th' stiffest kine of crinoline to make
'em stick out. ilen we walked along- th' streetwe had to hold. up our
skirts on both siLies to keep 'em irom gettin' wet or rull of dust.
"6-olly, if we hau haa th' kind of shoes we're wearih' now we
would -have peen in terriule trcuule. We wore high buttoned shoes, th'
highest was the styliest. -4ihen I was a kiu we used to have our measure
t,,,ken in our stockin' feet. stand on a rule layin' flat on thl
iloor'tney were shaped on a last Made cutin wood an' cut irom a big
olece or calf skin. 1h1 soles was fastehed on with woo-len pegs th'
_Lees wds icather an' they was always comin' untied. huh, so youh think
th °la times was uest.
n'Mayue youh think th' hobule skirt was somethin' to run a fever
over. Jidn't we look funny waaalin, along an' when we tried to get up in
a buggy. we needed to ue acrouats. An' then th' terry Widow hats brims
(4)
Name: Louise G. Bassett Assignment: Brookfield
Title: Living Lore Topic: Mary Anne Meehan
like an umbrella an, a million hat pins to keep 'em on."
Tne room was quiet as the ladies no doubt went back over the
years.
"Did you go to school here, Mary Anne?" I asked.
"Well, some, though 'twant much schoolin' I got. You see, my
mother was a widow with five children three girls an' two boys.
I come along first, then was Gussie, then Jane, Henry, an' Bill, so I
had to scramble out an' help bring in th' pennies. Gussie was smart
an' so was Jane she married George Chapin, here in Brookfield. I
did everything an' anything ran errands took care of babies when
I was just a kid. And I made bread an' pies an' cakes and didn't have
much of a task sellin' 'em neither, only there wan' much profit in 'em.
"Here's a funny thing I did an' I kine of liked to do it, too.
Everybody used steel knives an' forks, that is most everybody did, th'
rich folks had silver ones, of course. But I got a lot of regular
places where I went an' cleaned th' knives an' forks so many times
a week. Youtlgot to hand it to some women th' way they can get out of
doin' work. I know some of 'em told their husbands they wanted to help
my mother but I knew it was because they was lazy.
"Then, another thing I did was to make soap. I made awful good
home-made soap an' could sell all I made."
"Was it hard work?" I asked.
"Lord no, all us kids made or fixed a hollow log on a sort of
big flat stone an' th' stone was set up on a kine of a tale like, an'
(5)
Name: Louise G. Bassett Assignment: Brookfield
Title: Living Lore Topic: Mary Anne Meehan
•then we 'put a kettle under to catch th' lye. We put little pieces
of wobd in th' log to make a drain -like an, then put ashes an' lime
in 'till th' kettle was full. Then we'd pour watei, in, a little at a
time until th' kettle was full."
"Did you make this soap or did th' family make it, You keep
,sayin"we?" inquired Lil.
"I made it," with indignation. "They just helped get things
ready. We had neighbors who saved all their fats for me all kines
of fat I could use. Then, after th' kettle was full I'd put th' fat
an' lye in a big boiler an' then I'd light a fire an' cook it till it
was right. An' that's where I come in, Mrs. Lil. 'Cause if you don't
know jest th' right time to take th' soap off, th' whole thing's a
mess, an' all th' work is up th' spout. When it was jest right I'd put
it in a big wooden tub an' it was so good I had regular customers.
"Another thing I did was to make butter youllknow churn it
for women who hated to do it an' I earned every darn cent I got, I can
tell the Western Hemisphere. Most everybody had what was called a
'dash churn'. It was 'bout three feet high th' cover was fastened down
tight it had a round hole in th' middle of th' lid an' a stick like a
broom stick went down in th' churn an' on th' bottom of this stick a lot
of flat paddles was fastened.
"Th' cream was put in an' then I'd flop th' handle up an' down
an' round an' round till th' butter come. I was always a wreck when I
got through churnini. We used to put th' milk in big tin pans an' let
(6)
Name: Louise G. Bassett
Title: Living Lore
Assignment: Brookfield
Topic: Mary Anne Meehan
th' cream raise. We didn't know nothing about milk in bottles those
days."
"Did you know anything about gardenini, anything about vegetables?"
I asked.
"Did I know anything about raisin' vegetables. I ask you, did
I know anything about raising vegetables?" Mary Anne was indignant.
"I wish I had a dollar for every hour I bothered about our garden or
vegetable patch, as we always called it. We had a pretty good sized
lot all made into a vegetable patch.
dropped by hand. We made a furrow an'
we'd put in about five kernels of corn
two pieces. Potatoe bugs an'
then thank th' Lord.
"I tell you what I used to sell a lot of an' made,a right smart
lot of change an' I liked to do it, too, which helped. I made candles.
My mother knew how to make candles an' I learned how. I made good ones.
Corn an' potatoes had to be
put in th' fertilizer, then
an'.for th' potatoes usually
corn borers had not begun callin'
too, especially my bayberry ones. When you
you knew it was a bayberry candle."
"Wonderful," murmured Lil, "didn't
else made 'em?"
"Nope, most of 'em don't have any of
I used to make 'em so youk jest liked to be
burnt up."
"Wasn't it hard to do?" I asked.
on us
had one of my bayberry candles,
you know it when anybody
th' smell of th' berry,
near 'em until they was all
(7)
Name: Louise G. Bassett Assignment: Brookfield
Title: Living Lore To)ic: Mary Anne Meehan
"No -o, kine of fussy but not hard after you6nce get th' hang
of it. My mother had some molds made of tin an' they'd all be put in
a line together, so's there'd be a dozen of 'em, two rows of six on
each side. Across th' top an' th' larger end we put two wires, one for
each six candles. Then over these wires we put th' wicks that we'd
double then we pushed th' ends dawn through each mold to th' openin'
at th' bottom an' then we drew 'em tight. When th' wicks was all in
place th' melted tallow was poured in an' I'd let it get cold an' hard,
Then I'd cut th' small end an' pull th' wires an' they'd pull th' candles
from th' molds an' want hard at tall to slip out.
"People used candles those days most all th' time, for their
bed rooms an' to find their way round an' I sold as many as I could make.
"I must tell you about a business my brother Hen (Henry) thought
he'd go in. He had a sign painted 'Henry Meehan, Tailor' an' he
wanted me to go in with him. I thought it was grand of him to want me
to be with him an' I was all fluttery.
limy mother could darn so's you couldn't tell it was done, so,
I dalahed from house to house an' got things to mend an' people thought
we was pretty good an' we could see ourselves gettin' rich fast.
"But a lad named Bernard Butler, we always called him 'Butch',
had an uncle die an' his aunt give Butch one of his uncles' suits an'
he brung it to Hen to make over. He wanted it smaller."
"Oh, Lord," said Lil in a faint tone.
"Great goodness," I said, "how did he dare take such a chance."
"Oh, Butch Butler never had no sense," piped Lil.
"Butch wan't but a little runt an' I guess his uncle weighed
(8)
Name: Louise G. Bassett Assignment: Brookfield
Title: Living Lore Topic: Mary Anne Meehan
two hundred pounds. Well, we cut it down for him an' he was th' funniest
lookin' creature when he got it on, you ever see. The coat hung on him
like a bag. We had out an' cut but itwan't no use. He looked like a
match in a fifty acre lot, but Hen did what some cheap little tailors
do some times. dhen Butch was lookin' at hisself, in front, Hen would
grab the back an' sort of gather it together, an' then when Butch would
look at the back, lien would do like that in front. An' till pants
Mary Anne was laughing so heartily she could scarcely speak.
"Mary Anne Meehan, you're making this up," cried.
"-Pm tellin' you th' hpd's truth, but wait till I tell you
about the pants, they took th' cake. One leg was shorter then th'
tother one. One dragged fully three four itches an' tother one
was nearly half up to his knee an' th' front pockets met in th' back.
We was scared to cut out all th' goods, so we made a big box pleat in
thy back. An' will you believe me Butch was mad, didn't like till
suit aitall. Well, that job sort of discouraged us, our trade fell
off some thing terrible an' so we decided to give up th' tailorin'
business, for good and all.
"But we got along somehow though it wasn't easy for any of us.
It wan't nickels an' dimes those days. Some times one of us kids got
hold of a penny but that wan't often.
"One of th' horrors of my life was th' underwear with long legs,
Ay legs were fat an' I used to try so hard to lap th' legs over smooth
but I never could. They was always bunchy lookin'ith' boys used to
yell 'piano legs' at me. That broke my heart.
Louise u. ,4ssett
Title: Living Lore
AS 81.611111Ilt. ii*Ookfiela
Topic: Aary Anne ILeehan
"3ut we had our little thrills. I can remember how tickled I
was when 1 coulu have
tial
a at trimmeu at th' milliners,. irociacily with
had hau before only put on different. I can see
th' milliner now coll.,e out of the trifilmint
room witri my
'new' ht in
her hanu. it woula make me feel 60 proud, an' on-ly cost thirty -live
cents, to have uone, cause there as three of us girls. A wholesale
price."
"You
were happy
ufe we tere.
filuen of anythin' an
--)ut \Ne was young an.
in those days, weren't you -Lary Anne."
I aon't kflOW wny though 'cause we never Lad too
any's the time we uiun't nave enough of anythin'.
reauy to lick th' woriu and make th' world like
it. And my mother was no slouch. he never gave in no matter now
tough it got."
"You see, what uid i tell youl4 .oil' s voice was tiumphant,
"L,hiluren them uays was smarter, loads smarter than the kids today.
dnat chiluren today would a° the things you Ulu?"
"Oh, forget it," saiu Lary Anne, "I'll get you
I've talKL so LLuen my tnroatts ary."
all some
coffee.