3 10 74 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hobby Hill Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Phyllis Lustig Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Erica Walch Location The location of the interview Via Zoom Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <iframe width="560" height="384" src="https://archive.org/embed/lustig-phyllis-2021-01-30-audioedited" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Title A name given to the resource Interview with Phyllis Lustig Description An account of the resource Interview with Phyllis Lustig, who was a camp counselor and swim instructor at Hobby Hill Camp in 1954 and 1955. Phyllis discusses daily life at the camp, what the physical layout was like, and how the counselors would walk down to Newfane Village or drive into Brattleboro on their day off. She discusses Billy Flint, who ran the camp, and the Schenectady, NY and Newfane, VT connection. Phyllis is interviewed by Erica Walch, the current owner of Hobby Hill. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource January 31, 2021 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Erica Walch https://communitymemory.moorefreelibrary.org/files/original/cd701a4b574145729c2db786bb051456.jpeg 20a4c5565c35b3d4375456b97adc27ef Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed David Y. Parker Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Erica Walch Location The location of the interview Via Zoom Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <iframe width="500" height="30" src="https://archive.org/embed/parker-david-2021-01-21-audio" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Title A name given to the resource Interview with David Y. Parker Description An account of the resource David Y. Parker discusses his career in teaching elementary school in Newfane, VT (and a stint in Wardsboro). He talks about changes that happened in the education systems during his time as a teacher, meaningful projects he was able to do with his students, and co-teaching. He also mentions spending time as a young person in Brookline, Vermont in the 1950s through 1970s and discusses using a part-line telephone. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource January 21, 2021 Subject The topic of the resource David Y. Parker Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Erica Walch Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hearts Bend Description An account of the resource Memories related to the property known as Hearts Bend in Newfane, VT Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Priscilla Cotton and Margaret "Missy" Stearns Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Erica Walch Location The location of the interview Newfane, VT via zoom Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <iframe width="500" height="30" src="https://archive.org/embed/cotton-priscilla-and-stearns-margaret-2021-01-26-editedaudio" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Title A name given to the resource Interview with Priscilla Cotton and Margaret "Missy" Stearns Description An account of the resource Priscilla Cotton and Margaret "Missy" Stearns talk about working at Hearts Bend Camp in the 1980s and 1990s. They mention Nina Meyerhoff, the camp director, the Children of the Earth program, and working at Leland & Grey High School. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource January 2021 Subject The topic of the resource Newfane, VT Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Erica Walch Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Margot Zalkind Mayor Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Erica Walch Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Zalakind-Mayor_Margot_2021-02-18_editedaudio.wav   Margot Zalkind [00:00:00] My name is Margot Zalkind, Mayor. And today's date is the 18th, I believe, of February.   Erica Walch [00:00:10] 2021. Yes. So how did you come to live in Newfane?   Margot Zalkind [00:00:16] Well, I came here because the short answer is because of Archer Mayor, I was living in Northampton years and years ago, I'll give you a slightly longer answer than I was living in Northern Vermont. I had moved up from New York City to originally Moretown, Vermont, lived there, moved up to Worcester, Vermont, and lived there for many years and had decided that Vermont was wonderful, but was really not a place for me because I love being around people. And Worcester was very far up and very isolated where we lived. Moved from there to Boston, moved from there back to New York City for many years, moved to Connecticut, moved to Arlington, Virginia, then moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, and lived there for many years and was very happy there. It met my criteria for being near people. And I had I was doing freelance work and I was also working for United States rowing at the time remotely. So everything was great. I then met Archer Mayor, which I can elaborate on if you'd like, and started first to edit for him and then started to do publicity for him, started to get his website more contemporary, got him onto Facebook. This is some years ago and we worked together and started then to date and that led to being more serious. And he said he had lived here for like 30 years and never wanted to move and said, would you move up here? And at first I said no. So I spent some time doing like two days here, two days in Northampton, going back and forth.   Margot Zalkind [00:02:10] And eventually we got married and I moved up here.   Erica Walch [00:02:17] I want to say 2011. Yes, and what was your.   [00:02:28] That was such a bizarre weekend. I had gotten as part of what I was doing was creating events for Archer to get him more widely known. And Waitsfield, Vermont, was doing a literary and art festival that weekend. And we went up to a B&B in Warren, and they were talking about a storm coming. And I was still living in Northampton, I think I'm not sure. But I come up for the weekend and we drove up to a bar and went to this B&B like on Friday. And Archer had events that he presented all weekend and they were terrific. Nice turnout Friday sort of and Saturday. And he was talking about forensics. We had done a really enjoyable presentation about forensics and television and we called it enhanced this. And it was the truth and the not truth about what you can do. And I put together film clips of somebody holding up a spoon and saying, wait a minute, can you enhance this? And they then showed somebodies reflection and the spoon in the diner through the window. So things like that or when somebody's eye. And so it was great fun. And then Archer would talk about because of his years of experience, what really is true. And you couldn't have done that, but you could have done this. So that was fun. So that was the weekend and the weather forecasts kept getting sort of more dire, but they still were talking about a big storm. So finally, I think it was the second day. The the forecasts were getting bad and people were leaving, so we thought this is ridiculous. So we left and came back and it was so quiet, it was so weird.   Margot Zalkind [00:04:18] But the stream behind our house was so high and it was almost at that point up to our back porch. So we went in to sort of slight panic mode. We had a lot of books on the floor of the barn that were like old books and storage books and stuff.   Margot Zalkind [00:04:38] So moved a lot of cartons of books and I was more nervous. Archer's archer tends to be sort of be all right. And I'm more like, we better be ready. We better be ready. So we moved a lot of things up a whole level. And in the night there was this sound that I think I'll never forget. It was almost prehistoric. There were huge boulders tumbling down the stream. And so they were hitting each other the way they were, the rocks were. And it was quite wonderful. And the next morning we walked up to the house above ours, which had been I don't think Heidi Ballantine was in there yet. I think it was still for sale. So we walked up there and as we approached, a tree fell. So that was everything was quiet and surreal. But you were very aware of this rushing of water. And then we walked around town and we saw cars in ditches and all the result of the flooding that had had. And concurrently, Archer got called in on a case he was still a detective at that point, and there was a young man who had gone missing Andy Marble, a teenage boy.   Margot Zalkind [00:06:00] So he got called in. Was it related to Irene? Was it not? Did the boy just leave the area? And that just got that case just got reopened. So that's sort of a side story.   Erica Walch [00:06:15] So the water didn't wind up going into your house.   Margot Zalkind [00:06:17] It came within about an inch of the floor level and then it started to recede. Yes, very dramatic.   Erica Walch [00:06:26] Have you had any other weather events or natural?   Margot Zalkind [00:06:34] Just power outages and the usual snow and ice, but nothing really unusual. We had a Thanksgiving, which was somewhat dramatic a few years ago. My daughter and her whole family had come up for a few days for Thanksgiving and it snowed like crazy and we lost all power. And of course, when that happens, you can either freak out or you can go into a sort of adventure mode. And we did. And we put candles out and we had a good time. But then and we're trying to figure out how to cook Thanksgiving dinner without power, but it came back on. So that was the closest we really came to anything dramatic.   Erica Walch [00:07:19] You mentioned that you worked for US Rowing. In what capacity?   Margot Zalkind [00:07:24] I was their director of membership and marketing for many years. And as a volunteer, I was chair of their safety committee for about 20 years.   Margot Zalkind [00:07:37] Are you a rower yourself? Yes. And do you row now?   Margot Zalkind [00:07:42] I do it, but not here, I like to throw in big boats, and that's down in Holyoake or in Northampton here there are smaller boats and I'm just not used to those.   Erica Walch [00:07:54] So is your work now that you live here in Newfane.Archer Mayor-related and the marketing.  What else do you do?   Margot Zalkind [00:08:05] I well, we own the rights to the first 18 books of archers, which means that I publish them. I put them into e-books. I had them made into audio books. When you have them all and you're not part of a publishing other group, then I do all that. I get them distributed, printed everything for that. The newer books are published by St. Martin's Press down in New York. So I work with them. We work together because it's one long stream of books. And so I do handle, yes, all that stuff, a newsletter, Facebook, the website events. Now I'm doing a lot of virtual events for him. I put together a group called the Stone Cold Writer's Stone Cold Mystery Writers, and I put together four authors who are Northeast New England writers who write about this area as a way to enhance the brand of why, let's say a library in Utah may want to have an event. So it's not just one writer, it's for. And so that's been very, very successful. And we've been doing events for California and Texas, and that's been great. That's part of what I do then about three, four years ago, I started to publish other authors. And I did a book of Ed Corones cartoons, um, mostly about ex urbanites. I did that. I formed an imprint called Button Street Press. And so I do that with a friend who's up in Warren, um, Kitty, who's also had a book published. So we do that together, and I just wrote a book on farrowing, which is it called Water Ready, and it's about if you have to close your boathouse for any reason, like summer off season virus, whatever it is. Here's what you think about for your you're building your equipment, your people, your safety, your launch, your dogs, everything. So that just got put out in the last few weeks. So I did that. And I also did a manual for toxin's on how to be a cox and how to be safe. So I'm doing that and now I'm trying to figure out what to do next and. So I'm doing all those things at the same time. And then I wrote a column about safety in the sport. It's part of a group called Rowing News, which is the only rowing magazine in the US now, so he publishes that and then he's doing a catalog and he's trying to position that like the Patagonia catalog, so that its editorial and informational and helpful. And so he wants to include safety as part of that.   Margot Zalkind [00:11:11] So my first one is it should have been titled Don't Be Stupid, because a lot of people, you see what they're doing on Facebook, and so a lot of people are like, oh, yeah, I didn't know which used to wear because the duck was so icy, but I had a great row. I'm like, oh, no, no, no, you're really being stupid. I talk about hypothermia and ice and all that stuff.   Margot Zalkind [00:11:33] Zero year round, I used you foolishly and no, no, no, I have a rowing machine that I use.   Margot Zalkind [00:11:43] No, I learned some things as I got older.   Erica Walch [00:11:49] So you said that you were hesitant to move to Newfane, because you were so happy in Northampton and it was different from your experience up north in Vermont, have you come to feel comfortable?   Margot Zalkind [00:12:03] Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I love it here. I didn't know anyone here except Archer, I met Castle and Alice Freeman, and that helped a lot because they are so dear and so warm and merry. Hill became a really good friend. I used to go down to the bookstore and just sit there for hours talking with her and we did some road trips together. And as I got to know people, which for me was harder if I didn't have children here. So there wasn't a school network and I didn't have a job. So I was working in such isolation that it did take me a little while to get to know people. I had gone down to North Hampton every week for at least a couple of days. I have grandchildren down there.   Margot Zalkind [00:12:53] And, um, and that helped you and Archer is a very.   Margot Zalkind [00:12:59] He's he is a writer, is a classic writer, and he loves to just go whole up and I I'm not I'm very outgoing and love to be with people and love to hear about them.   Margot Zalkind [00:13:13] And so it took a little while, but with Mary and with Alice and Castle, it gradually grew. And then I realized, too, I formed something called the Vermont Author's Project, and I tried more and more to create things that would get me into networks of people. And so that was good. I got started trying to get involved in that. And a guy named Bill Schubert, who's a writer up in, um, Burlington area, a couple of bookstore owners, one Mike DeSanto who has Phenix books and the one who is beer pond, just as a way to try again to expand who was being marketed outside of the state. And so I would go to Montpelier almost every month to meet with them. So that was good. So I was trying to really. Beat essentially build my own network of people that I could interact with because I love to collaborate on things.   Margot Zalkind [00:14:17] So that helped.   Margot Zalkind [00:14:23] Sir, they are, they are I stepped back from it just because I am trying to actually be smart and focused and not get too so even slightly before the virus, I step back from that.   Erica Walch [00:14:40] So you mentioned the virus, how has that?   Margot Zalkind [00:14:47] Well, I  don't go to Northampton every week, and so I, I miss seeing family and friends and it was a lot of my social life.   Margot Zalkind [00:15:00] And I do get to see Alice distanced, um, and every September, Archer's new book comes out and I arrange anywhere from twenty to thirty, thirty five events and we can't do those.   Margot Zalkind [00:15:19] So some places. Yeah, we did virtually.   Margot Zalkind [00:15:22] But again, this has become part of my network of people that I care about, that I enjoy seeing.   Margot Zalkind [00:15:30] So we would go up to Bellows Falls and have dinner with the owners and catch up with them. And then we'd go to Montpelier and spend some hours there and catch up with old friends of mine and then also go out with the bookstore owner. And so all that's gone and no more meetings and things.   Margot Zalkind [00:15:49] And so it's very isolating. And Zoom is all right, but not the same. And so for me, I mean, Archer's fine with it. I'll tell you when you interview. Yeah, I don't have to travel.   Margot Zalkind [00:16:04] The good news is, though, like I was saying earlier, if I want to get an event with Bookpeople in Austin, Texas, it's not like we have to spend money and fly and take three days. He just gets on the Zoome call at seven and he's done by eight thirty and they reach now hundreds more people then asking people to come out at night in Austin. When you go to an event, you get 40 people, maybe 50, maybe 60, but now you get three hundred or more. And so that's a good advantage in terms of works death.   Erica Walch [00:16:41] Do you think you will keep any of those remote options once the pandemic is over?   Margot Zalkind [00:16:48] I hope so. I'm trying to build up a lot more like in the the northwest. And yeah, I am trying to to get a lot more. So no, we wouldn't go to those, but yeah, I'd love to build those up.   Erica Walch [00:17:04] And you said you represent four Northeastern authors and try to get them to events in the rest of the country. Yeah, thinking of the Northeast in general and Vermont in particular. How do you think how do you think we in our area are seen by the rest of the US?   Margot Zalkind [00:17:26] Yeah, that's a that's a good question. It's a it's one that I grapple with a lot because did you see the movie Baby Boom years ago now? Oh, you should watch it because it struck me. I saw it years after I had lived up in Worcester in the middle of nowhere.   Margot Zalkind [00:17:44] And it was one of the more authentic representations of the good and the bad. You know, there's this great scene. She's selling baby food and a little store, which is like every classic Vermont country store. And this guy walks in with his wife and and she says, oh, should we get this? And he says, it's cute. It's really cute. Vermont is cute. The whole state is cute. And it was sort of that New York perception of, oh, they have gardens and they have cows. And and in Archer talks about how when he writes about the things he writes about, people are sometimes surprised.   Erica Walch [00:18:28] They're surprised, like there's crime in Vermont?.   Margot Zalkind [00:18:30] Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Because they don't they don't see it. They don't hear about it.   Margot Zalkind [00:18:36] To me, when you mention Vermont outside of New England, people love it. They just oh, I love Vermont. And it does represent an integrity and a caring and a a real honest way of life in general, a very healthy way of life.   Margot Zalkind [00:18:59] And so, yeah, they think we we make cheese and we make maple sirup and and it's we only eat healthy food. There is a wonderful perception.   Margot Zalkind [00:19:11] And so these writers that I put together, well, three of them write about Vermont, the other one is Maine, and one of them is sort of writing Ireland a little bit. But I'm bringing her back. So when I position those two bookstores, they love the idea because people want to know about Vermont. So it is a good I jokingly call it the brand, and it is.   Erica Walch [00:19:39] And do you think that the writers represent that image or that they push up against it a little bit? Are they all crime writers?   Margot Zalkind [00:19:51] Yeah, they're all mystery writers. Yeah, they do both. Yeah, they do. But because. Yeah, they were writing about something bad that somebody did to somebody up here. Yes. And to a lesser or greater degree. Archer wrote a book years ago that I think was called The Dark Root, and it was about the home invasion. And it's the only book of his that I don't like. And he gets that a lot. And after I read it, I it was very early on in the series and I said, you know, it seemed like such a reach. And he said this was based on things that had happened here. And I was sort of horrified by it. So he does sometimes peel back. Sometimes it's one on one. There's jerk. Hate somebody else. OK, I'm going to kill you. But sometimes it's it's more widespread and that's when it gets sort of appeal back factor.   Margot Zalkind [00:20:56] Have you yourself experienced any crime firsthand here in Newfane?   Margot Zalkind [00:21:03] No, not anywhere in the state, actually. No, not at all. And Archer does you know, he's medical examiner and he goes out on cases and he'll tell me some of them. But oral tell me some of the stories of when he was a detective and. But not no, not myself at all. Fortunately, no. It's been it is wonderful to live here.   Margot Zalkind [00:21:29] And that's the thing. You know, I talk to Winnie and she just talks about how comfortable she is here and especially now.   Margot Zalkind [00:21:38] It's better for me because I'm in the village now in Worcester. I was six miles up a dirt road. And it was it was hard, you know, to mayonaise.   Margot Zalkind [00:21:51] You said, you know, I don't need the mayonaise.   Erica Walch [00:21:57] What would you say to any sort of budding author who is interested in writing about Vermont?   Margot Zalkind [00:22:11] I think there's so many ways to approach what that means, that it's it's a multi-faceted question.   Margot Zalkind [00:22:24] I just read a book, I think it's called Up The Country or Going up the Country or something. It's about back to the landers coming to Vermont. And that was during. She writes about the time that I lived here. And so I was up by Goddard College and I worked with bread and puppet theater and I experienced all that that she writes about. And and yet it was one prism, one facet of what Vermont was like, because concurrently other things were happening. But I didn't know a lot about them because I was up there and I had to see this universe and so one could write if one wanted to. I'm thinking, too, about the book Hometown by Tracy Kidder. Did you read that? It's an interesting book. I read it before I decided on Northampton and it's nonfiction. And he writes about the police chief and the police force. And there's one police officer who's being accused of some things. And then there's a woman who's coming to Northampton to be a Ada Comstock's scholar, which is their program for older students. And so it's he's writing about this town through these different perspectives. And it was fascinating to me. It made me really mostly like the town. And so I think about telling a writer, I think about writers I know, like Cassol wrote about sort of the gather around the woodstove, kind of Vermont and the real characters here. And then I think about Galway Kinnell, who came here. Galway had been a neighbor of mine in New York, and we used my then young son and I used to come up to the Northeast Kingdom to visit with Galway and his family. And Galway's perspective of Vermont was so sort of sheltered beyond sheltered. He had a cabin half the size of this room and he would go up there and he'd write about whatever it was, but it was just very myopic. And then Bill Schubert writes a lot about Vermont and he writes about coming here as a child from New York City and moving here and and his are much more realistic presentations at the state. So if someone wanted to come here, I guess well, I guess the first question would be how will you make a living? And my second question would be, what aspect do you want to write about? Because somebody has been talking to me about a project they want me to publish about business in Vermont. And I think. All right, again, like in the back to the country, you know, back to the land book, they talk about Ginny Kallon, who was a friend in Montpelier, a Goddard graduate, and she started this of the Moon Cafe. And it was so charming and personal. And all of us who were her friends toddle down the street, Montpelier, and had her wonderful foods that were so healthy. Well, it became a big deal. And then she did a cookbook and then she did another cookbook. And yet if I were a writer new to Vermont, I wouldn't have a clue where to start. And then when you think about Vermont business, it's anywhere from IBM and GE making Gatling guns down to socks or Ginny Callan's Little Horn to the Moon Cafe. And and so Vermont is interesting that way, but yet Vermont does not imply Google and an urban high rise and anything else. So, yeah, I think it would be part of our research at the Vermont author's project was to try to identify every writer of any ilk in the state. So there's cookbook writers and crafts writers and garden writers and we found over two hundred people. But of course, they're in varying degrees of intensity or professionalism. But there's a lot. And then there's Chris Bohjilian, who's some of his. Books have nothing to do with Vermont is just here.   Margot Zalkind [00:27:13] And so that happens to just happens to be here.   Erica Walch [00:27:21] Those are all the questions that I have for you is there, anything that I didn't ask that you wished I'd asked you or that you were sure I would ask you and I did.   Margot Zalkind [00:27:34] Oh, no. I, um.   Margot Zalkind [00:27:38] I guess since this is about Newfane, um, I've been thinking a lot about what you might ask me. And one of the things that has been a slight source of frustration for me is when I first came here, Marilyn just Tilburg ran the store in town and she asked me to get involved in this business association that was sort of ebbing. And I think she had said they were going to have their last meeting quite soon after she spoke to me and Maryhill and I decided we were going to take this on. And so we went to the last meeting of the then Newfane Business Association. And it was in a way, it pointed out, um, the two sides of any place in a way in Vermont except maybe Burlington, which is that Mary and I came in and said, all right, here's what we can do.   Margot Zalkind [00:28:48] And we then quickly got Asher involved, who was running four columns in who was totally gung ho, what can we do? And so I tend to jump into things, maybe to the fear of others. I don't know. But I do I like to sort of grab things and do them. And so I started to meet with people up in tourism. Yeah. And talk to them about the Byways project and what we could do. And at first Marilyn was very gung ho about this too. But then they had decided to really leave the store and so her interest went down. But Mary and I tried to really energize with Asher. And so I got a welcome center designation here through the state for four columns in because I thought people stop and they want to get information. It's a way to broaden interest in the town. But the town has had a struggle. You know, the deli is certainly gone through iterations since I've lived here. One, two, three, four owners, I think at least that I can think of. And they're having a hard time, I imagine. And so here I am saying let's promote Newfane. But concurrently, you know, Marilyn left the deli struggling. The creamery burned down. So a lot has made it a different kind of town. So do I see the potential and I got the greenhouse involved, too. But again, he was struggling. And here I am saying we can do this and they're like, I don't know that I want to. So part of my involvement with Newfane has been wanting to do that. But then I've stepped back because I'm not sure what other people want. And Asher left four columns. And so all that has evolved. So it will be interesting to me to see, OK, where do we go after this? What happens?   Margot Zalkind [00:30:57] Mary's bookstores now shuttered at least, and the Enfield's Jonathan is gone. So, so much has really made us more just of a residential place. I guess not business there. OK, sure. But different.   Margot Zalkind [00:31:17] So in terms of what you would ask me, but part of that answers your question, too, about my networking here, who who am I working with or in contact with and why and how? And so I grapple with that sometimes because it's an isolated life for me, not others. I see people, you know, they get together and they do stuff or they have jobs elsewhere.   Margot Zalkind [00:31:49] But for me, I don't. And so I'm almost always looking at, OK, what can I do to collaborate or help or do so that I have people in my life? Archer's wonderful, but he's an isolated writer.   Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Margot Zalkind Mayor Description An account of the resource Margot Zalkind Mayor discusses her career in publishing, publicity, and rowing. She discusses how the COVID pandemic has changed publishing and author events. She talks about hno She mentions her experience during Hurricane Irene and a memorable Thanksgiving when power was lost. She talks about how the Vermont "brand" is represented in contemporary literature, and shares her enthusiasm for the goodness of living in Newfane, even as the commercial sector of the village has diminished in the years she has lived here. The interviewer's puppy makes some noises in the background. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource February 18, 2021 Subject The topic of the resource Margot Zalkind Mayor Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Erica Walch Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <iframe width="560" height="384" src="https://archive.org/embed/zalakind-mayor-margot-2021-02-18-editedaudio" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> https://communitymemory.moorefreelibrary.org/files/original/37a9cdc58637b86c94cb1595563ff492.jpg b403acc53a744b04f332a7a2b45967cd Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Tracy Berchi Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Erica Walch Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <iframe width="560" height="384" src="https://archive.org/embed/berchi-tracy-2020-03-25-editedaudio" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Title A name given to the resource Interview with Tracy Berchi Description An account of the resource Tracy Berchi discusses how she became a massage therapist, what she loves about living in Newfane, Vermont, how she was impacted by Hurricane Irene, and how the coronavirus has impacted her business. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 25, 2021 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Erica Walch https://communitymemory.moorefreelibrary.org/files/original/52d54d5c50c4c6b8bc79dfa09940c15f.jpg 9ddf7a4a3bb3ac71d3f62e86739e740e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hobby Hill Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Beverly Kingsley Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Erica Walch Location The location of the interview Over zoom Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Kingsley_Beverly-2021-03-21_editedaudio.wav Erica Walch [00:00:02] This is Erica Walch and I'm interviewing Bev Kingsley and we're talking over zoom. Today is March 24, 2021. Bev Kingsley [00:00:12] OK, thank you. Erica Walch [00:00:13] So I understand from your friend Phylli that you were a camp counselor at Camp Hobby HIll. Bev Kingsley [00:00:22] Yes. Erica Walch [00:00:23] What year was. Bev Kingsley [00:00:24] Hobby Hill is about four miles up a dirt road from the town of Newfane. Erica Walch [00:00:30] And what led you to be a camp counselor there? Bev Kingsley [00:00:35] Well, I had been to camp there before, and Miss Flint was very charming and very charismatic and a lot of people enjoyed her and she also taught dancing in Schenectady. So that's where she recruited most of her campers from at that time. Bev Kingsley [00:00:53] I was there probably in the early 50s. Erica Walch [00:00:58] How many years were you there as a camper before you became a counselor? Bev Kingsley [00:01:03] I was there, I think, two years before I became a counselor and..over the winter, when I was not there, they dug that pond next to the big house. So that the kids would have a place to go swimming. Bev Kingsley [00:01:21] It's kind of a muddy pond. Erica Walch [00:01:24] Did you swim in it? Bev Kingsley [00:01:26] Yes, I did. Bev Kingsley [00:01:29] And so did all the kids. Now, the only place other than Grout's - , which was about a half a mile down the dirt road from Hobby Hill, and that's where we went to have our more advanced water safety instructors courses. Erica Walch [00:01:46] How deep was the little pond? Bev Kingsley [00:01:49] Well, it was probably about six feet deep at the deepest part, but it was really nominally only four or five feet deep. So you could wade in and you could swim around in it, but it wasn't too dangerous. Erica Walch [00:02:05] That's good to know that answers a big question for me. I've never gone in it. Bev Kingsley [00:02:10] Oh, well, it was kind of muddy, unfortunately, and Grout's Pond wasn't very clear either. I think it had a lot of dirt from the Vermont hillside in it. Erica Walch [00:02:22] So what were your days like when you were here as a camper before you became a counselor? Bev Kingsley [00:02:28] Well, in the morning we had breakfast and then there was an extension that had been put on the big house and we would all go in there and have breakfast. And it was so cold in the morning that you got your underwear in bed with you to get it warmed up before you put it on.The cabins had wood up about four feet, three or four feet. And then it was screened from there. And then there were shutters on the outside, but they were never closed. Erica Walch [00:03:02] What time of year was this that it was so cold? Bev Kingsley [00:03:04] July and August. Erica Walch [00:03:08] And would it warm up during the day? Bev Kingsley [00:03:11] Yes, it did. Erica Walch [00:03:13] One time a woman stopped by here and she was in her nineties and she said that she had gone to camp here for many years ago. And one of the things that she remembered was how cold it was. And she would wear all of her clothes to bed just like layer upon layer of all of her clothing just to stay warm at night. Bev Kingsley [00:03:37] Oh, I didn't feel that it was that cold, but we got used to it after a while and it was a communal bathroom that was partway down the hill. It was up the hill from from the big house. The big house must have had electricity because the cook was able to cook on the stove there. Erica Walch [00:04:00] Was there electricity in the cabins when you were a camper here? Bev Kingsley [00:04:06] No. In the morning, when we all went t o the same thing, we had like creative writing or sketching in the morning, and then we had lunch in the big house and Virginia Wentz was the cook and she was majoring in large scale cooking at Cornell. Erica Walch [00:04:29] And did the the cook live here? Bev Kingsley [00:04:32] Yes. Yes. Erica Walch [00:04:35] And was she in the big house?,. Bev Kingsley [00:04:37] Yes. Bev Kingsley [00:04:38] No, she doesn't live in the big house that I remember, but Miss Flint lived in the l ittle stone house off to the right as you're facing the front of the big house. Well, Miss Flint had a friend who came up and lived there, too, and her name was Buelah Haggedorn. And in the evening after dinner in the big house and sing songs and take turns performing, you know, little skits and things like that. And I did not like riding, so I learned to teach archery and I taught swimming. Erica Walch [00:05:13] Where did the archery take place? Bev Kingsley [00:05:16] Down in the moin -- m-o-i-n. And I didn't know of anybody else who had gone to hear to Hobby Hill until one day I was at Lake George and we were down on the dock in the afternoon and I said something about the moin had just been mowed. And she said the moin. And I said, yes. And she said, You must have gone to Hobby Hill. And I said, yes. And she said, So did I. And she was a little older than I was. Bev Kingsley [00:05:47] The big farmhouse had a big dining room across the back. It probably wasn't one single room while you looked at it, but when we were there, it was one single room. I know a couple of horses and one of the horses was Calumet Direct, I think that means that's the farm that it came from. I think it came from the Direct farm and its name was Calumet. I didn't like horses very much, so I taught archery. Erica Walch [00:06:20] There were two horses here when you were here? Bev Kingsley [00:06:22] Yes. How many horses are there now? Erica Walch [00:06:27] Zero. Bev Kingsley [00:06:29] Oh, there was no barn there, I think the horses came during the day and they went back some place at night. Erica Walch [00:06:38] Interesting. Which cabin did you stay in? Bev Kingsley [00:06:44] Well, when I first went there as a camper, I stayed way up on the hill behind. If you're looking if you're standing, looking at the front of the house, it's behind the big house. Oh, a good ways up the hill. And it was a little bit to the left. And on the way up the hill was there was an outhouse where we all went to the bathroom and washed our faces and brush our teeth. Bev Kingsley [00:07:08] But I don't think we had showers. Erica Walch [00:07:12] There's a shower house here, but I don't know when it was built. Erica Walch [00:07:21] It was definitely for the camp. Erica Walch [00:07:22] It's got the camp, it had about seven seven holes to go to the bathroom. It was really an outhouse. Erica Walch [00:07:31] Yeah, there's the outhouse and separately the shower house. Bev Kingsley [00:07:35] Yeah, OK. All right. Then there was a path down to the big house. Bev Kingsley [00:07:42] We had a lot of fun learning songs and singing hymns and things like that. Erica Walch [00:07:49] How many girls were here as campers when you were here? I think they were probably 50 girls. What did Phyllis say? Erica Walch [00:07:58] She said about that. Bev Kingsley [00:08:01] Yeah, and then right after I became a counselor, Phyllis, I think I think we were in the same cabin and we were across the road toward the stone wall and down toward the moine , but just barely across the road. We were only about 20 feet off the road. And that was a dirt road, and I never went down that road all the way, but if you went all the way down to following that dirt road, you would come to another Vermont road that was paved and.. um.. I think that was Dover. Bev Kingsley [00:08:42] I went back there many years later and I bought a book at the used bookstore that was called Picturesque America, edited by William Cullen Bryant. Erica Walch [00:08:51] So what would you do on your days off? Bev Kingsley [00:08:55] Well, Phyllis and I had a boyfriend that came home from Schenectady, and partway up there was a there was a big reservoir, I think it was a wonderful reservoir or something, and it was a bridge that went across it and we would wash our hair and get ready, and that night we would go out to a square dance at some local bar and I don't remember where it was. It probably wasn't very far away because we couldn't all fit, we couldn't all fit in the car. So some of us had to lie in the trunk. Erica Walch [00:09:33] Whose car was that? Bev Kingsley [00:09:35] I don't know who it was, gray, and it had a great big trunk. I think it was like a business coupe. Erica Walch [00:09:44] And was that the camp or was that one of the girls cars? Bev Kingsley [00:09:48] No, it was the boyfriend's car. Erica Walch [00:09:51] So when you were here as as a counselor and you had a day off, would you walk into the village? Bev Kingsley [00:10:02] No, seems to me.. I don't know what we did. It was the big highlight of the week to go to the auction in front of the church. They the y auction it off all sorts of things. Erica Walch [00:10:14] Like what? Bev Kingsley [00:10:16] Oh, of material, vases, you know, the stuff that you have around your house. Erica Walch [00:10:23] Who would buy it? Bev Kingsley [00:10:25] All the people that were the summer residents that were staying around their. There will be a sizable crowd, probably 35 or 40 people at the auction. I don't think we ever went to that Inn, the Newfane Inn with a big porch all the way around. We probably were considered kind of lowly people who didn't have enough money to go to the city, and because we didn't have very much money with us and I think we also were pretty expensive. I think they were mostly for the tourists going for. Yeah, and then just up the road a little ways, oh ..three hundred yards, the Gardners from Schenectady. Their name was Gardner. And Mr. Gardner has been the head the wrestling champion of the world. And he would require that the boys could stay at the house, but they had to work for him for a half of a day. Bev Kingsley [00:11:28] Before they could, you know, stay overnight at his house, it was a beautiful log house with and it was a nice stream going by, but I don't remember that it wasn't dammed up. We didn't go swimming in that stream, it wasn't deep enough, there were a lot of beautiful trees up there and I bet it is beautiful in the fall. You just writing about the history of the town of Newfane? Erica Walch [00:11:59] Well, we're not writing anything. We're just doing these interviews and getting the audio files together. Erica Walch [00:12:07] How many children do you have? Bev Kingsley [00:12:09] I have three boys, Larry, B&B and Andy. And he has been my caregiver here in western Colorado after I was at Harvard, hell, I graduated from Not Terrors High School in Schenectady, and then I went to the University of Rochester and graduated from there in 1959. Erica Walch [00:12:30] And is the reason that you stopped being a counselor at Hobby Hill because you just aged out and you were going to college? Bev Kingsley [00:12:39] Yes, just about kind of you know, I was, too, because you feel a great responsibility for taking care of all those kids, you know, and the Freihofers who were from Schenectady were there. You know the Freihofer's Bakery? Erica Walch [00:12:59] Yes, yeah, did you ever come up to Hobby Hill in the winter to go skiing or anything when you were a kid? Bev Kingsley [00:13:08] No, because I didn't know how to ski then, but I have since learned. Erica Walch [00:13:13] And did you ever come up to Hobby Hill in the winter just to see what it was all about? Bev Kingsley [00:13:17] No, but I came here afterward in the summer to my oldest son. Bev Kingsley [00:13:22] Larry brought me back there so that I could see Hickory orHobby Hill. And there was some a man was living in the house, we were walking around the outside of the house and he said, well, there's a big envelope with some things from from Hobby Hill. And he gave me a couple of stickers and something else. I can't remember what. And I had those on my trunk that I brought up with me. I had all my clothes in it. Erica Walch [00:13:53] Oh, that's so nice. Bev Kingsley [00:13:56] Yes. Bev Kingsley [00:13:58] Are there many people living around there now? Speaker [00:14:01] No. Bev Kingsley [00:14:04] I have a feeling that when the Kingsley's first came to this country from England, they came up to Vermont, but I don't know if it was so that the area or not. Erica Walch [00:14:16] So when you were camp campers here, did you have to wear uniforms or anything? Bev Kingsley [00:14:21] No,. Erica Walch [00:14:23] Because I've seen some little HH patches. Would you get a patch or a badge? Bev Kingsley [00:14:31] Yes, we had patches sticky wax on them. You put those on your trunk usually. And then I had a little thing that said, this is Hobbyville. And I had a little plastic horse that rock like a.. like a... It was made of plastic? It was just a little nick nack and I, I still have that in my house in Grand Junction, Colorado. Erica Walch [00:15:01] Oh, that's so nice. Bev Kingsley [00:15:04] I have very fond memories of the time at Hobby Hill. Erica Walch [00:15:09] It sounds like it was such a special time for so many girls. Bev Kingsley [00:15:13] It was it was very nice. Erica Walch [00:15:17] I've seen that the motto that Billy Billy had for the camp at one point was "every girl a leader". Bev Kingsley [00:15:28] I think they tried to develop that theme to make every girl a leader,. Erica Walch [00:15:34] Did you feel like you were made to be a leader when you were here? Bev Kingsley [00:15:37] Yes, I did. Erica Walch [00:15:40] In what ways? Bev Kingsley [00:15:41] Well, in leading songs are doing little skits are doing something like that for evening programs, and I think all the girls there felt like that, that each girl was made to feel that she was worthwhile. Bev Kingsley [00:15:55] There were no real minorities representative represented. Erica Walch [00:16:01] What do you mean by that? Bev Kingsley [00:16:03] There weren't any Blacks and Hispanics and there weren't any Chinese that I remember. Erica Walch [00:16:09] And the girls mostly came from Schenectady. Bev Kingsley [00:16:12] Yes, that's correct. Erica Walch [00:16:15] And were the and the people that worked here to, as you said, that the cook was. Not not a local person, did any local people work here when you were here? Bev Kingsley [00:16:27] Well, the cook who was from Cornell, where she she worked there and I don't know whether she lived in the big house or what. And there was a man who came in over to mow the moin, and I think it was called that because Miss Flint was.... Bev Kingsley [00:16:52] she namee it the moin and I think that where she came from, I think she came from Sweden. Erica Walch [00:16:58] Do you remember the name of the man who did the mowing? Bev Kingsley [00:17:01] No, I do not. I don't think I got mowed very often, maybe once a month. Bev Kingsley [00:17:08] Miss Flint had a station wagon that had wood on the sides. Erica Walch [00:17:14] Did she she still had that in the 1950s. Bev Kingsley [00:17:18] Yes. Erica Walch [00:17:20] Somebody just gave me a photo of that of her in the car, handing out mail from the post office to give it to the girls. Bev Kingsley [00:17:29] Yeah, I know that sounds right. I don't think we didn't have mail every day, but we had mail, you know, maybe twice a week. Erica Walch [00:17:40] So would she drive the girls down to the to the auction in her station wagon or would you walk? Bev Kingsley [00:17:49] She would drive a station wagon. I think. Erica Walch [00:17:53] And what day was the action on? Bev Kingsley [00:17:56] Saturday? Erica Walch [00:17:57] Did she ever take, like a horse and buggy? Bev Kingsley [00:18:02] No, there were no buggies there at that time, When she started the camp, there may have been buggies there, but I don't know where they kept the buggies. Erica Walch [00:18:15] Do you remember in the big house upstairs from the big dining area, what that room was used for? Bev Kingsley [00:18:26] No, it was only a one story addition on the side, it was the dining room. Erica Walch [00:18:33] Upstairs from the kitchen. Bev Kingsley [00:18:36] I think in the cook may have lived up there someplace,. Erica Walch [00:18:40] OK Erica Walch [00:18:43] And did you guys ever go to the to the attic of the camp, of the attic, of the big house? Bev Kingsley [00:18:50] No, we did not. That was kind of considered, you know, not very, very gracious. Not very um... We were not invited up there. Erica Walch [00:19:02] There were a bunch of beds up there when I moved in. So I wondered if some of the campers stayed up there. Bev Kingsley [00:19:11] Not that I know of. Not that Iremember. I don't remember anyone saying up there. Maybe it was kind of a place, if you were, you know, not well for some, you went there and stayed, but I don't remember it. Erica Walch [00:19:25] Yeah. Erica Walch [00:19:28] Did any of the girls ever get homesick being here as campers? Bev Kingsley [00:19:33] Oh, yes, everybody tried to make them feel better. Erica Walch [00:19:37] It seems like such a supportive, special, wonderful place. Bev Kingsley [00:19:42] It was it was very nice. Everybody was very cheerful and try to support everybody else. I mean, from from teaching swimming to teaching archery, and we used to have a tennis court and I know tennis court there now,. Erica Walch [00:19:58] Where was the tennis court? Bev Kingsley [00:20:00] No, we didn't have a tennis court. Erica Walch [00:20:02] Oh, no. Erica Walch [00:20:04] And I don't remember where they were riding. I only rode once or twice, and they had English saddles. Erica Walch [00:20:13] Did your folks ever come and visit you when you were here? Bev Kingsley [00:20:18] They came up, they brought me up, and then I came to get me. And I think it was probably a pretty long time, pretty long time, and probably took them most of the day to get up there. Now, it probably takes only two or three hours when it probably took you down. I think they came in the afternoon and I don't remember that they stayed for a meal,. Erica Walch [00:20:41] Did anyone's parents ever come to visit them during the course of being here? Bev Kingsley [00:20:47] Not that I remember, I think that the. I think that there was ..oh you could stay for one month or two was the idea was if you stayed for two months, you've got over you've got over being homesick. And because the girls were a lot of fun and, you know, we all played together. Erica Walch [00:21:08] And so you're still in touch with Phyllis? Bev Kingsley [00:21:11] Yes, there was a paper book that was published and I think it had hymns in it and had maybe some poetry and other songs. At the end of. At the end of a month or two months, I can't remember which it was, I got an award. It was called the Joyce King Award. And it was always such a long time ago, and I believe that she died, I think she was handicapped, but I don't remember how and I think she died after she had been to camp there. But everybody would think they would not discriminate against her just because she was handicapped is so bad that there was never a better place to swim there. Bev Kingsley [00:22:05] I think we got special permission to use Grout's Pond for the life saving and water safety instructors course. Erica Walch [00:22:13] Grouts.. did you did you meet any of the Grouts when you were here? Bev Kingsley [00:22:17] No, I did not know the girls. And I have a feeling that they only came there for a little bit of the summer. I wonder if they didn't come up from New York or something like that. You know, in those days, it was a long, long trip, was probably a five or six hour trip, at least from New York, from New York City. I never met any of the Grouts.I think they had quite a fancy boathouse, as I remember, with a deck on top of it. Erica Walch [00:22:47] Do you have any other memories of Hobby Hill that you want to share? Bev Kingsley [00:22:52] Well. oh, I wish I had liked horses better at the time, but I just didn't. Yeah, it seemed like you either liked horses or you didn't. You know, I mean. Little girls were very fond of horses or else they didn't like them at all. Media Player Player for media hosted at Internet Archive <iframe width="560" height="384" src="https://archive.org/embed/kingsley-beverly-2021-03-21-editedaudio" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Bev Kingsley Description An account of the resource Bev Kingsley remembers her time as both a camper and a camp counselor at Hobby Hill Camp. She talks about how charming Billy Flint was, describes the support and friendship the girls shared, and mentions trips to the auction in Newfane village, the Grouts' pond and boathouse, and driving from Schenedtady to Vermont. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 25, 2021 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Erica Walch https://communitymemory.moorefreelibrary.org/files/original/d85f305cc40874f51d44f082e1113eed.jpg 8b686bb213e58966ebea9016bec18773 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Media Player Player for media hosted at Internet Archive <iframe width="560" height="384" src="https://archive.org/embed/albee-roger-2021-01-26-audio-edited_202105" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Jean Allbee Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Erica Walch Location The location of the interview Newfane, VT Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Jean Allbee Description An account of the resource Interview with Jean Allbee, who describes growing up on West Street (when it was a dirt road), playing commando on the Common with other kids, going to the big square dance, and other aspects of days gone by. She also discusses her 30 year career teaching first and second grade, including the board game she made that was a big hit with her students. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 18, 2021 Subject The topic of the resource Newfane, VT Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Erica Walch https://communitymemory.moorefreelibrary.org/files/original/52dc5c8e2f9065bb64f55e3306761367.jpg d7f91f736001faea47578265815c6796 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed David Palmer Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Erica Walch Location The location of the interview Newfane, VT Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <iframe width="560" height="384" src="https://archive.org/embed/palmer-david-2021-08-01-editedaudio" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Title A name given to the resource Interview with David Palmer Description An account of the resource The Palmer Family started visiting Newfane Hill in the 1930s and inherited and then bought property on Newfane Hill and around Kenny Pond (also known as Grout Pond). He discusses electricity coming in 1946, Louise Haight and Miss Burlingham, Able and Guy Grout, the various properties acquired by the Palmers, local figures such as Harold Whitaker, Mert Coleman, Red and Marion Chaffee and Ed Druke. He mentions an old logging railroad that used to run through Williamsville. He talks about the Kenny family that originally settled the area in the 1700s and the two mills they built using the water dammed from the pond. He mentions a fire in their original house on top of Newfane Hill in 1967, which the volunteer firefighters tamed by pumping water from Kenny Pond and bringing it up the hill. He also discusses how his parents were able to be the last people buried in the old Newfane Hill Cemetery. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 1, 2021 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Erica Walch https://communitymemory.moorefreelibrary.org/files/original/cebb81b4de0b2e86f07f7a0bc6e110bb.jpg 495e58715df33b935071d2e53a7359d5 https://communitymemory.moorefreelibrary.org/files/original/34f925c935b8c8e6f7372b0b36fcaa83.JPG 4cb59cb01c145cd4ceb3a3404663b958 https://communitymemory.moorefreelibrary.org/files/original/8f0bda233f17accfa934d579d4f95b05.JPG db5f407a22f8f635e324ca2ab0b08966 https://communitymemory.moorefreelibrary.org/files/original/f8ef62e33971e082a451c676b65dee79.JPG d6163fdeb07928158eea0164cbf9a5e9 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Media Player Player for media hosted at Internet Archive <iframe width="500" height="30" src="https://archive.org/embed/white-cris-2021-08-21-editedaudio" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Cristine (Cris) White Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Erica Walch Location The location of the interview Newfane, VT Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Cris White Description An account of the resource Cris White speaks of growing up in Williamsville as a member of the Williams family. She describes the perfect childhood she had in the village of Williamsville and the importance of the swimming hole and both hard work and fun. She discusses the former Williamsville store that was run by her grandfather, a quiet and noble man who drove very slowly. She talks about her husband, Wayne White, who was a builder and founded WW Building Supplies to ensure his company had enough materials to meet demand. She mentions an old family tale about sharing clothes for a funeral and her childhood jobs as a carhop at the Buckeye on Route 30 and a helper at an early bed & breakfast for skiiers. Cris relates attending the two-room schoolhouse with students from grade 1-8 and helping out younger or struggling students and putting on schoolwide programs for holidays, including Memorial Day. She mentions the Observation Tower that used to exist on Depot Road, where community members would spend days and nights watching out for possible enemy attacks during WW2. Cris also discusses her love of antique objects and how she loves to learn about the history of objects and her goal to pass them along to people who will appreciate them. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 21, 2021 Subject The topic of the resource Williamsville, VT Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Erica Walch https://communitymemory.moorefreelibrary.org/files/original/d42d4cb4557656f9db471a5f76bf679d.jpg dfeed90afe2f003e2a36f21efca206ca Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Ruth Hamilton Daigneault Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Erica Walch Location The location of the interview Brookline, VT Media Player Player for media hosted at Internet Archive <iframe width="560" height="384" src="https://archive.org/embed/final-edited-ruth-d" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Interview with Ruth Hamilton Daigneault, September 29, 2021 Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:00:00] This is Erica Walch with the Community Memory Project, and I am interviewing Ruth Hamilton Daigneault. Today is September 29, 2021. So Ruth, my first question is where are you from? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:00:16] I am from Newfane. When I was born, my family lived on West Street, where Marion Dowling now lives, and we moved to Rockport, Mass. Briefly when I was one and then back to Newfane and lived in the house across from the British clockmaker that was then owned by Hazen and Stella Stockwell. I always called him Uncle Hazen, and he always would sing, Hinky Dinky Parlez Vous to me. Hazen had a car with suicide doors and had a business in Flat Street and Brattleboro. I think they made toilet seats, but I'm not sure. We moved many times to different houses and often because my parents never owned property. We lived twice in the house owned by Christine Schaff that has the turret and that didn't have running water or a bathroom. It was chilly in the winter. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:01:14] About what year are you talking about here? What years are you talking about? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:01:18] Well, I was born in 1941 and we lived in the house on West Street, where Marion Dowling lives in 1941. And then like forty-three, forty-four or forty-five, forty-six or 45, 46, maybe we lived in the house across from the British clockmaker. My sister was born when we lived there, and one time she was fussy and Dorothy Davis was babysitting and Dorothy couldn't deal with it. So she went home and left me there, all by myself with the baby, and I wasn't allowed to cross the road, so I stood on the corner and kept hollering Aunt Stella and Stella, which was Mrs. Stockwell across the street where the British clockmaker lives, and she finally came over and took care of the baby. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:02:08] Then, let's see. We also lived where the Merrick's live now. Lived there twice, once upstairs and one downstairs. My mother always had to put no living room windows in because the kids played baseball out there and always went through her window at least once a season. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:02:26] Was that her own kids knocking in the window, or no? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:02:29] It was neighborhood kids playing baseball that was, you know, the school used to play baseball there. That was a very busy, busy place because the school didn't have a baseball field. It was just the two room school down where the town clerk's office is now, had two rooms, had two potbelly stoves in the middle, had no running water and no bathroom had a privy out back. It was a wood shed in the middle, girls privy on one side, boys privy on the other side. The superintendent came once a day with a jug of water so we could have something to drink. And on the way home from school, the boys would snowball us something terrible. So we would run up to Lucius Martin's house, which is where the brown house is now beside Litchfield. That's where my friend Donna McGough's grandparents lived, and we would hide there till the boys got sick of waiting for us. And then we continue on home because we had to walk back and forth to school. There were no snow days you went to school, no matter what. There was a school bus that Earl Davis ran that was like an old, oh...wood paneled vehicle that you had to live a mile away to ride with her on; I didn't live a mile away, so we had to walk. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:03:43] Would you go home for school? Oh, I'm sorry. Would you go home for lunch in those days? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:03:48] No, because it was a little too far to. I mean, I think you probably could if you live closer. But I lived up on West Street across from the British clockmaker. And so to get back and forth in time for whatever lunch time you had wouldn't have worked very well. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:04:06] So did kids bring their own lunch to school? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:04:09] Yes, they brought their own lunch. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:04:11] How many grades were there in that? Two room schoolhouse? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:04:13] There were eight. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:04:15] 1st through 4th in one and five through eight in the other. The teachers were, we thought, old ladies. They probably weren't. But when you're young, people seem old, but they never went outdoors. You fought your own battles. You didn't want to tattle because you'd get in a lot of trouble, if you tattled. And back in those days, if you got in trouble at school, you got a lot more trouble when you got home. So that was interesting. School was fun. Enjoyed it. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:04:41] Did you ever get in trouble in school? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:04:43] Oh yeah. I remember standing in the corner once and I remember getting my finger paddled once. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:04:51] When did you do? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:04:52] Oh, I think one thing I did, that the teacher didn't like - the girl in front of me... it was getting near lunchtime and she put her books away, and I put my books away in exactly the same manner that she did. So the teacher said I was being a copycat, so I had to stand in the corner. I don't remember what I got my fingers paddled for, but it wasn't unusual for the teachers to hit you back in those days. I remember one of the boys in the big room, which was five through eight, got in an actual fistfight with a teacher named Mr. Thompson. And that wasn't unusual. Teachers were allowed to, you know, they weren't abusive. But back then, I mean, times have changed. What's considered abuse now probably wasn't then. But we behaved and we were respectful and there weren't many problems. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:05:46] When you got in trouble, like for the copycat incident, would you go home and tell your folks or would the teacher tell your folks, how would your folks find out about that? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:05:57] Well, I think you would go home and tell them because, you know, if you didn't, somebody was going to tell them it was a small town. And it's true. It takes a small town to raise a kid and we ran all over town. We'd leave in the morning and come home for supper, and nobody ever worried about you. But if a neighbor saw you misbehaving, they weren't afraid to get after you. Nobody was mean. They were kind and generous and friendly and welcoming. It was a very nice time to grow up, and when I was very young, it was World War Two and where the sheriff's office is now, it was half jail, half hotel. The hotel was run by the witness, Charlie and Mabel Whitney, and they also were keepers of the jail and they would make food for the prisoners and the prisoners weren't dangerous, so you could rent them out to like, wash windows and things. And I remember during the war, my mother had to go to the jail with other women and they sewed parachutes and made bandages. And my father had to go down to what they call Tarballs Hill, which is across from the Newfane school. It's now just a brown house. I think it was a gift shop at one time and go to this thing that looked like a tree stand with binoculars and watch for enemy airplanes. And we had blackout shades on our windows and on our cars because you waited, you worry about enemies trying to bomb you or something. And I remember when the war got over, they had a big celebration in town. Everybody was driving around town, honking their horns, and it was quite a time. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:07:38] When we went to high school, we always waited for the bus, Ruby's bus in the post office, which is now an antique shop, I think it's right across from the bank. And they were very welcoming in there. Doug Tibbetts was a postmaster. And Mr. Higgins owned it. This was like a little store, too. And every morning when we'd get there, he would walk around the woodstove in the middle of the building and sprinkle kerosene on the floor so that he could sweep without dust. And the kerosene has actually been verified by his granddaughter, Margaret Bills from Townsend. We talk about that a lot. And every morning, this lady named Olive Eagar used to come in to the post office. She boarded at the hotel and she had black rubber, high heels on with no shoes inside and a black coat. She had kind of grayish hair cut right off short in the back, and she chewed her fingernails down to the quick. And she would come in every single morning and ask us all kinds of questions like, What are you folks doing? How are you and all this stuff? And it's just, I don't know, that was just part of growing up. And the old Carr Boys used to come off of Newfane Hill. They were really nice old men, and they probably weren't as old as I say they were, but seemed like they were old. One had a hook for an arm because it had some kind of an accident, and they used to have a dog that ran along beside the wagon and they would get their groceries once a week. And to us, that was totally normal. But the tourists sure did do a lot of goggin. There were some great old characters. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:09:29] So you had said earlier that your folks moved around, moved from house to house lot. Do you know why that was? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:09:37] Well, they rented. And I don't know really why they did one time. Well, twice, actually. We lived on the hill, where Pedro Sabater lives across from Polly Casanova's place. We lived there. We lived it. They Davidsons, which is beside the sheriff's office, twice. We lived at Christine Schaff's twice. And when my mother died, she lived where we call Grace Rhodes House. But it's beside Bea McFarlane's house on Cross Street. I just I don't really know why they moved a lot just because they never owned anything. They once they were going to buy the Eagar house on West Street, but that fell through. I don't know why. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:10:24] For summers, we used to swim behind Archer Mayor's house. The Gardner family from New York owned the Fieldstone Lodge, and they had a beach and a rope swing and a slide, and it was welcomed the kids to play there. Um, let's see... in the winter when we'd go Christmas caroling, Mabel Whitney from the jail hotel would make cocoa and play the piano, and we would sing Christmas carols and then we'd walk all over town and we got to Bea McFarlane's. She always would come out with cookies. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:11:00] About how many kids would go Christmas carol? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:11:03] Oh, probably 20. There was lots of fun and Halloween was interesting in Newfane. Halloween is very calm now compared to what Halloween was when I was a child. I remember. Miss Ames, who owned the white house, where the yoga studio is beside the bank one morning after Halloween woke up to a sleigh on her porch roof. They were very devilish. The police, the sheriff's department was around and they would wax windows. I know Scott Robinson, one of my friends, was an altar boy and one Halloween, we were all throwing tomatoes at people, and Tom Taylor lived in a house across from Litchfields. And he was, I think he passed the collection or something at the Catholic Church. And Scott said he had a terrible time on Sunday morning when Tom was passing the collection plate and Scott looked down and saw tomato seeds on his shoes. He knew where they had come from, but as much deviltry as we did, we had a great time and nobody ever got hurt. So I guess that's a good thing. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:12:16] I don't think the children of today have as much fun as we did, that's for sure. Oh, when we were in school, we got out of school a half hour early on Friday and cleaned the chalkboard, emptied the trash and swept because we didn't have a janitor. Rodney Davis used to come down every single morning and start the fires and fill the wood box. And in the winter bread wrappers on over our shoes and our boots, and fastened our skis with dry rivers and crossed the brook in ski and rolling mellows. There were no houses. There was no bridge. At Christmas, the town held a pageant at the church and it was fun and beautiful and the boys would sing "We three kings of Orient are", Butch {unclear} had a beautiful voice. I was an angel Gabriel once and I can still recite "Fear not for behold I.."and so on. There was a beautiful tree and they gave out oranges and candy. Let's see..... Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:13:21] Do you remember the Newfane Fairground? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:13:25] The one down behind the school? Yes. That was run by the fire department and it was quite an affair. They had all kinds of rides and horse pulling and food and helicopter rides and stuff. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:13:39] Do you know what year that was active? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:13:43] Oh, probably......Because they had a they used to have a fair and Townshend, and then they started having a fair in Newfane, and I don't remember what year that was active. I think one of the last years might have been up into the 80s. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:14:02] Was it going on when you were little? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:14:05] Not when I was real little. No, no, no. We used to slide on Fairbanks Hill, which is now owned by the Mantels. There was a cement bridge. I think it's still there at the bottom. So you had to really make that corner. You could have gotten hurt. Nobody ever got hurt that I know of. But back then, if you got hurt, you didn't run to the doctors. Anyway, I remember Patrick Robinson was sliding on cardboard one time, wrapped his ribs around a tree, and they never took him to the doctors. We didn't call the doctors much, just patched you up with whatever they had. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:14:43] Do you ever remember a time when you did see a doctor? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:14:47] I had my tonsils out when I was 12. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:14:50] Where did that happen? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:14:51] Brattleboro Hospital Yeah, we didn't go to the doctor as much. Dr. Otis got me in trouble once I was really upset with him. He used to make house calls. And I remember he came to see my mother for some reason, and she said to him, How are you today, Carlos? And he said, Rotten, thank you. Well, I thought that was really cute. And my mother was kind of strict in the morning. She came in and she raised my shades and she said, You may get out of bed now. And she said, How are you? And I said, Rotten, thank you. Well, the shades went down and I went back to bed. Another person I remember well is in front of the Newfane church...there used to be a great big maple tree, kind of where the cars park now and the Crapo family and Robinson family live. Where Winnie Dolan lives, Crapos lived upstairs Robinsons lived downstairs. Robinson's had seven kids, Crapos I think had five or six, and Fayette was the oldest boy. And he used to go to Wheeling West Virginia on weekends because he liked country music and he played a guitar and he would play and sing at minstrel shows that they had at the town hall. Well, also, he was a mechanic in that big maple tree, he had big chains and there was always a car engine hanging in there because that's where he did all his mechanics. And I often look at Newfane today and think, Boy, has it changed because there was a huge path in the common, too, that went from like the corner of the Newfane Inn kind of at an angle. I can remember it so well because it was so deep and there were roots in it and it went across the road and then across that other little common to like the Robinson Crapo House. But yeah, that was that was very interesting. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:16:37] Was that a path that was only people on foot traveling? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:16:41] Yeah, no, no, no. It's just a footpath. It was very well embedded. I'm surprised they got rid of it. It's a lot of nostalgic things because the fountain was there. Then the Davis family lived where Leibler's own is an apartment house now, but that used to be the telephone office. And Mary Dugan lived there, Mary and Ed and then different high school girls would be hired to come and answer during the day and on weekends and in the evening and stuff. And back then, when you made a phone call, all you did was pick up the receiver and say, Mary, I want to call Susie, and that's all there was to it. And then you just hang it up and Mary knew you were through. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:17:29] Was that building only the telephone exchange? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:17:32] No, upstairs or there was a Rebecca Lodge and there was an apartment at the Davis family lived in on the Newfane Inn side it was Earl Davis, his wife, his daughter Dorothy, and their son, Rodney. And Dorothy's daughter, Bernice. Rodney did odd jobs for people like janitor the school, shoveling, walks, roofs, that kind of stuff. Earl drove the school bus, got work as a dishwasher at the Newfane Inn and she was the most generous person in the world at Christmas time. I swear she gave everybody in town a gift. She made them usually like hats and mittens and stuff. And if anybody was sick or there was a death in the family, she was the first one there with pies and chowder. And she just didn't have much tolerance for babysitting because my sister's crying sent her home. But there were some great, great people in town is just like, Oh my gosh, you know, I think I miss that so much. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:18:30] When you say the Rebecca Lodge was upstairs from the telephone exchange, what what? What was the Rebecca Lodge? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:18:37] Well, it was an organization I'm not sure was kind of like the Grange or the Eastern Star or something like that. They used to have sugar suppers up there. I remember going to some sugar suppers up there, and the Grange was very active too. They had a lot going on. There used to be a kitchen downstairs in the Grange and dining room and a privy. I remember going to hunter suppers down there or working on them. The ladies of the town would cook and as young people would serve the food. It was just such a great community. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:19:15] Speaking of work, did you ever work in the village? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:19:19] I worked at the Newfane Inn and the Four Columns for 10 years, like in the 70s and 80s. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:19:25] What did you do there? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:19:27] I was a waitress and I made what I thought was good money back then. Wouldn't be probably considered today, but you could go home on a Saturday night with $100 in tips, and that was really good. Oh, I remember when I was a little girl and I was living in the house across from the British clockmaker, Charles K Field hung himself in the theater in the back of that building. I don't know who lives there now. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:20:05] So did you know him as Cheerio? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:20:12] I don't know. My father knew him, but I don't know him... I saw him. I was just a little kid. I was just very little. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:20:18] So you didn't listen to his radio program or anything? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:20:21] Oh, I probably did, because my father always had the radio on. I probably did. But I just remember when he hung himself back then, they tried to keep things like that from children. And I remember my father said, Dr. Otis came, and I don't know too much about it because it was hush hush. I just remember that he hung himself, and that was very shocking. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:20:46] Did you find out about it years later? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:20:48] No, at the time, at the time, because my father was talking about it or being there or whatever or seeing it or what? I don't. I don't even know the total details. Kids were more protected from things back then. And you didn't ask questions, you were told. Children don't ask questions. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:21:06] And it was after that that the Gardner family from New York bought the property. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:21:11] No, they had the property out back. The house I'm talking about is right beside the British clockmaker. The driveway to the fieldstone lodge goes right beside it, Fieldstone Lodge is out back and goes behind the British clockmaker there and behind Archer Mayor's, where this is white house that actually sits across from what used to be Eddie Wiles. I don't know who owns that house now. Mrs. The last person that lived there that I knew was Mrs. McCracken. You know, I don't know. There were some great characters in town, oh my gosh, just wonderful people. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:21:47] Why do you think that is? Why do you think they were? What do you think gave the community its character at that time? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:21:53] Well, at that time, there were very few people from away, so to speak. You know, the the ones that did come like Elvie Beech. I remember Elvie Beech. She lived up on Wiswall Hill somewhere, and she was very flamboyant like the Galbraith's and people like that they were to us. They were we were in awe of them. But as a rule, it was just the plain old down-home folks that live there year round. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:22:23] Were your parents born ain Newfane? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:22:25] No. My father was born in Kennebunkport, Maine, and my mother was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He worked for City Organ, and she worked at the Retreat as an interpreter. And that's how they met Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:22:38] A language interpreter? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:22:39] Yes, she spoke eight languages and he was an industrial engineer and ah...It was just very just lots of fun. Like the across the street from us was Mrs. Pratt, Robert Pratt, Helen Pratt. That's the old Spencer house. It's the Litchfield house now. She was grandmother to the Litchfields. And then beside that was L.P. Martin's house in that burned in a fire in like 1960 something. And such great people. They were just friendly and warm and no nonsense, and nobody ever went anywhere. I mean, going grocery shopping was a phenomenal thing because you just didn't do that Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:23:30] Well so how would you get your groceries? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:23:31] Well, your folks canned a lot of stuff. The Ice Man used to come to the house with big tongs along these great big chunks of ice on top of your refrigerator Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:23:43] Horse or motor? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:23:43] Motor. And the milkman would come in the winter when the milk froze. The cream would stand like two inches, two inches up out of the bottle cap on top. Yeah, we didn't have much. You had two sets of clothing. You had what you were at a school and what you played in. You'd changed. And when you came home, you didn't take a bath every day didn't wash every day. And was just very different in lots of the houses, didn't have central heat, many of them didn't have bathrooms and running water didn't seem to be a problem. This, I guess what you're used to, is normal for you. So. I don't know. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:24:29] And so what do you see that's different in the character of the village now from when you were a child growing up there? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:24:37] Oh, huge difference. Like, for example, we would just all meet on the Common at night Saturday night and play this game we called Commando Hunt, which was like hide and seek over the whole village. Now people wouldn't tolerate you running into their yards. We used to run to their yards and up on the hill and go from what's now on the LaMorias over to Luke Chris and down 30 and all over the place. And you couldn't do that now. We would just play on the Common, play baseball or whatever. People are just very different now. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:25:12] Different in what way? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:25:14] They're not as welcoming. They're I think they just wouldn't allow children to run through their yard, and it wasn't disrespectfully running to the yard. We never owned anything. But, you know, they would come out with some cookies or talk to you or something, but they would. I think the people that have moved here have changed it a lot because they didn't grow up that way. They grew up where you stayed on your own property, and I guess they just didn't understand. And so it's just kind of all evolved. You just always welcome everywhere like nobody ever called and said, Can I come by at 2:30? You just dropped in. Now I think it's considered disrespectful if you just drop in on somebody. I can remember going down to Nora Robinson's House. She had seven kids. Always welcome. You're always welcome to always had another place at the table for you. You don't see that much anymore. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:26:21] I've heard a little bit about this Commando Hunt game. Do you remember the rules? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:26:26] I don't think there were too many rules. There would be one person that would be it and you would disperse. They would count and disperse and then they would the first person they could catch, they would tag and then. So now you got two people after you and so on till they tagged the whole lot of you or couldn't find you. And then they just gave up because, you know, you must have run miles every night when you would run from the Common up to LaMoria;s and over to Luke Chris through the woods and down West Street. You know, we got a lot of exercise because he either rode your bicycle or you walked everywhere in Commando Hunt you couldn't ride a bicycle. It was after dark and we had to run. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:27:06] Did you have to wear a special outfit for Commando? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:27:09] Oh, no, we didn't have special outfits. Like I said, we had two sets of clothes. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:27:12] I've heard about a trench coat from Jean Allbee. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:27:15] I don't know anything about a trench coat. I know Jean though because they moved to the where Stockwells lived. That was then the West Valley Inn and was Mr Graham, who was a brigadier general or something, and his wife, Izzy, who was a doll and their three daughters, and they moved. I think Jeannie is the youngest one. She probably was second grade or something. And then they had a cousin of Jeannie's Johnny Meyer, who lived with them. And they were a very nice family. Lots of fun. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:27:46] Is she younger than you? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:27:47] No, Jeannie's older than me. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:27:49] Okay, so maybe in her round of playing it, there was this trench coat Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:27:52] Yeah, there could have been. I don't remember a trench coat, but I don't think any of us had a trench coat, to be perfectly honest. I don't think. But yeah, I remember Jeannie. Well, great girl. She doesn't live far from me now. She just lives over the hill here. We there weren't many people in my from first grade on. There weren't many people in my class and there were only three girls Donna McGough, Nancy Robinson and myself. And so we were best friends all through school. When we went to high school, Nancy went to St Michael's and Donna and I went to Leland & Gray Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:28:25] So why did you move away from Newfane village? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:28:29] Well, we bought a house in Townsend after I got married. I didn't move till after I got married, bought a house in Townsend, and then we sold that and built a house down near Riverbend Farm. And we sold that and moved over here to Brookline four years ago. But if you live in the valley, it's kind of all one in the same. We've we've known each other in the valley because like I used to play baseball with kids from other towns and they all go to the same hospital and bank. And so if you live in the valley, it's pretty much like one big, huge town. Anyway, you pretty much know if you've lived here a long time, you kind of know the families and who they are and where they live and what they do. And we always knew what each person was doing and what was going on, but it wasn't a gossipy kind of thing. It was just kind of a friendly type of thing. You don't see that much anymore, either. People don't talk like they used to, I don't I don't think cell phones have helped us a whole lot. Everybody's on their cell phone. They don't visit with each other, like living here in Brookline. I've lived here four years, so I know the people that have lived here for a long time, but I don't know any of the newcomers. People beside me here, I've never even seen them. I've lived for four years. That's not the way it would have been years ago. Your mother would have taken over cookies or something, or you would have been playing commando on their yard or something. You'd have known who they were. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:30:09] Have you knocked on their door? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:30:11] I have not. I have not. And I don't.... I don't even know what they look like. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:30:17] And this just because times are different. You don't know if you'd be welcome if you were before you knew you'd be welcome. Or they tell you that you weren't. It's just very different. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:30:30] Do you know anything about the Camp Hobby Hill? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:30:34] I did. Billy Flint was kind of friendly with my mother. And the thing I remember about Billy Fliint is she had what they call a beach wagon and it was a car that had wood on the side, and they were very pretty to look at there were people were quite happy when they saw one of those and Billy Flint was lots of fun. But I don't know. I never actually in her camp or anything, I just remember her coming down all the time off of Hobby Hill. Old Guy Grout lived up there, too. Used to come down to the village on the Fourth of July and on Halloween and let off his cannon, that used to wake people up pretty good. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:31:16] What cannon was that? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:31:18] Well, he had a big old cannon and the the men used to participate in like the 4th of July and stuff, and they would all come down and party and I think imbibe in some friendly juice and let off this cannon that would just shake the whole village and they'd do it right in front of the Grange Hall. And they'd do that every year. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:31:40] Was it some kind of like civil war artifact or something? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:31:44] I have no idea. I don't know if he built it or what, but it made a lot of noise. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:31:49] And then he would just haul it back to his house afterwards? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:31:50] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Old Guy Grout. We'd look forward to it. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:31:56] And why do you call... Why did you call him Old Guy Groot? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:31:59] Like I said back then to us, everybody seemed old. And I think it's Grout's Pond now that's up where he used to live. I think he was old, but back then everybody looked old to me and I was so naive I didn't know anything about gay people or affairs or people living together, and I didn't really care. And I remember one old man used to come to the store. They used to shop just once a week to come down to the store, and he had his housekeeper with him. He built a little stool so she could get in the car because she was so little and short.And I honestly, my whole life believe she was just his housekeeper. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:32:46] Is this Guy Grout that you're talking about? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:32:48] No, this is somebody else, and I won't mention any names because I don't think it's right to mention names with something like that, but it's just how naive we were as kids we didn't realize there were. Such things going on that, you know, a woman would live with you and not be married with your made perfect sense that she was his housekeeper was a man alone and men alone weren't good at keeping house and cooking. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:33:11] How did you come to find out that was not the case? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:33:14] Oh, I think, you know, I was really naive for a long time, so I was well into my teens before I realized that there was some other capers around town where people would visit each other, and I just honest and truly believe that they were being helpful because a woman alone couldn't shovel her own roof for she couldn't.... She had to have a man about to do the work, and I believed that my whole life. It's too bad that things changed, and we didn't know much about race, either. Not that it mattered to us. The first time we saw black people were the Newfane Innemployed some black people. And I think we treated them OK, but they kind of kept them away from us. We were very naive, very. I don't know, sheltered, I guess, because we didn't know anything about race or any kinds of things like that, just like we didn't really care. Didn't matter to us. I remember when kids got head lice, though, it was had to be very embarrassing for the kids because they would put kerosene on their head and wrap them in brown paper. And that was like a red flag telling everybody that you had head lice. But I think we were kind. I don't I don't remember kids picking on each other or being mean to each other. They probably were, but I don't remember. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:34:47] So back to Billy Flint and Hobby Hill, how do you think your mom came to know Billy? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:34:55] I know I don't really know how she got to know Billy. Maybe. So we lived on West Street, so it wasn't through her job or anything. I don't know. I think people were just friendly and Billy was very friendly, and I think Billy might have seen her out there and just stopped by. Like Stella Stockwell that ran the place where the British clockmaker is now. They were way too friendly and. She had a lot of friends, and they just all chit chatting, and I think. People stop in the store and visit and... Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:35:30] I heard that there were umm. so Billy was from Schenectady, New York, and that the Gardner family, they were from Schnectady. Yeah. And that some of the girls who are camp counselors at Hobby Hill were friends with some of the boys that were at the Gardner Fieldstone. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:35:47] Well, the Gardners had some very good looking boys, so that could be they were older than me, but they had some very good looking boys, so that could possibly be the truth. But the Gardners were wonderful. They were very welcoming. So that's that's a good possibility that would make sense, and that would be how my mother would have probably met them. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:36:07] Did you ever go up to see the camp? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:36:09] I think I did. But I don't remember a whole lot about it, really. You know, I was pretty young. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:36:17] And do you know what Billy was up to when she come into town with.. In her car? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:36:23] Well, sometimes she''d take the kids swimming, and that's probably where they went, to the Gardners and she go shopping and library and. I remember the library I was I think it was Irene Higgins was the librarian, her husband's name was Ira. They were a great old couple. And I can I can remember racist books and stuff back then. I can remember my mother would take me to the library a lot and I would get books and, now when I think of what was in those books, I'm horrified. But back then that was just normal. That's another thing. I I feel bad that some people now are getting into huge trouble for things that they said years ago, because those things years ago were acceptable. That was the norm. And you didn't know any better, especially a kid like me growing up. He didn't know there was anything wrong with those books. Now I see they're horrible. But I don't think you should always be punished for something you said. Years ago, when that was the norm and that was acceptable, it's it's not saying that you approve of it. No, I don't approve of it. But that's what we were taught, and that was normal. How were you going to how are you going to know the difference, really? Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:37:47] So you were mentioning that you moved to Townshend after you got married, where did you meet your husband? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:37:55] He was just around. It's like back then you didn't have any profound meeting place. It was just like he was around one of the one of the gangs used to hang out going to Robinsons and used to camp out a lot. Back then, I don't think kids would do this now, but we might be down at Scotty Robinsons and say, Well, let's just all spend the night up on the hill. So we'd all go up and we didn't..we didn't have tents or sleeping bags or anything. We just spend night up there and there was never anything. There wasn't drinking or anything. Wasn't any sexual activity. It was just we were all just really, really good friends and just all hung out together. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:38:38] About how many kids would go camp outside? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:38:41] Oh, gosh. Eight or ten, probably sometimes four. It didn't just mattered who, you know, who was all there. And then there were the McGough girls, there was Lucy Hale lived up. I don't even know who owns the house now. It's the white house has a big porch on it. It's one to four places before Polly Casanova's camping area there and Lucy Howe lived there. It was Lucy McGough. She had three kids. She had Conrad, Marie and Ada. Marie just died last week, and then she had Clara and Donna. And Donna is also passed, but Clara's still alive. She lives in Jamaica. She was great friends with Jeannie Allbee. And it was just fun to go there. Lucy finally married this man named Henry Howe, and he had never been married, never had kids, but he sure was a good stepdad. He didn't have a clue what he got himself into, but he was having fun. He taught Donna and I had to drive up at Mantel's. He was caretaker up at Mantel's had this old old pickup truck, so he would let us go out in the field and drive it I don't why we didn't get killed, but we didn't. And back then, you know, we rode a bikes with no helmets. We didn't have seatbelts. We jumped out of trees. We all lived. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:40:20] Were you here during Hurricane Irene? Speaker 4 [00:40:23] Mm hmm. Hurricane Irene, I was living in Townsend, I believe. And it didn't bother me a lot. We lived on the river, but I wasn't too worried about it until I saw Rescue Inc go by with boats and stuff. And that kind of freaked me out a little bit. But Vermont's known for surviving just about anything. So whether we survived that too. I think back years ago, we didn't make a big to do about anything. It's just like you accepted it, you got over it and went on with your life. And now everything's a big deal, even if it isn't. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:41:07] Did you work outside the home as an adult? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:41:11] Oh yeah, I I've been a nurse for 38 years. I worked at Grace Cottage for 38 years. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:41:18] And what was that like all that time? You must have seen a lot of things. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:41:22] I did. I think it was a great place to work. They treated me really well. I think the hardest part of working there was anything that was bad. Health wise, accident wise was either a friend or relative or neighbor. That was hard. But you just like I said, you move on and that's about all you can do. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:41:48] What year did you retire? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:41:51] Well, I just retired last year, I actually live in Maine in the summer, and I worked for the Kennebunkport Police Department in a parking lot till last year, and I didn't work there last year because of the COVID. I might do it again when things resolve a little bit. I like to work. I've worked ever since I was 14. I used to... At the West Valley Inn when the Paines owned it I used to clean the bar at night, I would go over on Saturday night at midnight when it closed and spend the whole night cleaning the place and then walk home to the Dodge House, which is on Route 30 and Cross Street across from Polly Casanova's, all by myself, four or five o'clock in the morning. That's how safe Newfane was back then. It's probably just as safe now, but I don't know as I'd want to walk there all by myself anymore. So, yeah, I've seen a lot of change. [00:42:52] Maude Radway used to live where Emersons live on the hill. And she was a great lady. She worked in Brattleboro. I don't know what she did, but she was a Sunday school teacher and superintendent of the Sunday school. And you'd go every Sunday, and she really was regimented. You go in and you'd sit first and you'd recite the books of the Bible and then you'd put your money in a thing that looked like a birthday cake. If you had a birthday.. it was a benefit or something and then you'd disperse to your classrooms and she was in charge of the Grange and she was a great lady. It's a lot of great, ladies and gentlemen, too, a lot of characters. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:43:42] This being 2021, and we started the project last year, in 2020, I've been asking everyone how the pandemic impacted their lives, if at all. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:43:53] Well, it did mine in that I didn't do my summer job, but otherwise it.... Well, yes, it impacted me some. I didn't see a lot of my great grandchildren as much as I would like to have. I got the vaccinations as soon as I could. I'm very upset with the people that don't get vaccines. I believe you have a right to believe what you want to believe and do what you want to do. But I believe the people that aren't getting the vaccines, like I have a family member that has a very serious kidney disease and needs to have a kidney removed. And she's not been able to because the hospital beds haven't been available for her because they're being filled by people who haven't had their shots and having a bad time with COVID. And I think as belligerent as some of them are and they are, they're only thinking of themself or I don't know what they're thinking of. I guess because I worked in the health field all my life, I realized how important vaccines can be. But I think when people could die because you're using their hospital bed when you didn't need to, I think that's very selfish. But it's just my opinion. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:45:13] So those are the only questions that I have. Was there anything else that you wanted to talk about or anything that you thought I would ask you that I haven't asked you? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:45:20] Well, let me just look at my notes, here really quick and see if there's anything that I wrote down that I...... Elsie Brown lived next Emmersons on the hill, the house has just been sold, I believe she used to do laundry for people, and every single inch of that property had a clothesline on it because back then there weren't dryers and she did everybody's laundry and then hung it all out to dry. And then she had an old wringer washer. She had a mangle as an iron, which is a big roll that you run with your knee and it irons like sheets and towels because back then, people ironed sheets and towels and napkins and whatnot. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:46:09] So would she come around and pick up the laundry? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:46:12] No, you had to take it to her. I don't think she drove. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:46:15] And was that.. It sounds like that was pretty common and she was pretty busy? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:46:19] Oh, she was wicked busy. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:46:22] And is that because individual people didn't have the facilities to do their own laundry? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:46:27] Well, the people, the people, people had wringer washers and I don't know. I don't know if she did my mother's laundry because my mother didn't have a washing machine for a while and then she got a wringer and we did her own wash. My father used to do the laundry. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:46:46] How many of there were your siblings in your family? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:46:48] I don't have much family. My mother and father were orphans, so I had no aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and my father was married before and had three children, a boy and two girls. The boy and one girl passed, but they didn't come around much because they were raised. His first wife died when the youngest one was five, and so they were raised by an aunt who didn't like my father, so they didn't come around at all. So I had one sister, Bernice, who's also passed, and that was the only relatives I have. So at Christmas, I did miss the fact that, you know, we didn't have family get togethers and we didn't go anywhere, but it was fine. I had a good. I had a really good childhood. I cannot complain a bit about the childhood, I had a blast. just wish every kid could have as much fun as I did. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:47:37] Did your mom teach you any other languages? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:47:40] A little bit of French. And my father lived in Spain for a while and we were all supposed to go to Spain in the 50s. But then they had the Franco uprising. We were moving to Spain because of an engineer, and they had to cancel our move, so I didn't get to go there. And no, she she didn't. She was an unusual woman. She was a lovely woman, but she was adopted and she was raised in a convent in Paris. And they were very strict. And I think the nuns, some of them were mean. And so she had some strange child raising ideas. But she was very kind and gentle, and she.... Life was hard for her because she was used to a very wealthy life. And then when we moved, when she married my father, we, you know, didn't have running water and didn't have a bathroom, and she actually had to get a job. So it was very hard for her to try to work and keep a house and have children. And fortunately, latchkey kids were fine. Back then, it was just fine to be a latchkey kid. And my father traveled a lot. He wasn't home a lot, so she did the best that she knew how she didn't know anything about children. And I think by the time my sister, she was really strict with me about, by the time my sister came along, the poor woman was worn out, and I think she just said, Oh hell, let her do whatever. And that's kind of what she did. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:49:12] So and my mother worked at the Newfane store for a long time for the Morse's. And, uh.. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:49:19] Did she stop working at the Retreat after she got married or after after she moved to Newfane? Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:49:24] After she moved to Newfane she didn't work there anymore. I don't think she she..... Her first job that I remember she got a job at Montgomery Wards in Brattleboro, maybe when I was in eighth grade or something. And then from then on she worked and the poor thing. She didn't have a clue how to do housework our house was a wreck. It was like laundry on the couches and stuff, and she she could cook. But she was a little tiny thing and she didn't have an idea of portions. And like, if we were going to have Sunday dinner, she might cook a roast and two potatoes for four of us or something. It was almost comical and my father was just the opposite. He would cook macaroni until it came out of his ears. I remember Sybil Martin lived where that little brown house is behind, beside Litchfields, and she had a lot of kids. So he made this souffle one time, and it was just like boiling up out of the pan. It was just increasing dramatically. We all got really silly, said, what do we do with all this? So he said, well, takes him over to Sib's she's got a lot of kids. So we took it over to Sibs. And remember, Sib was trying to dish it out into a pan. It kept growing and growing and growing. Sib got to laughing and it was the funniest thing, but he always cooked tremendous volumes of stuff. So they overcompensated for each other. It was kind of comical. Anyway, that's the way it was. Erica Walch, Interviewer [00:50:56] Sounds like a lot of fun. Ruth Hamilton Daigneault [00:50:57] Yeah, it really was, it was a blast. I wish all kids could have a life like that. That's it, I believe that's it. Yeah, that was good. It's probably all. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview withi Ruth Hamilton Daigneault Description An account of the resource Interview with Ruth Hamilton Daigneault. She discusses the good old days of growing up in Newfane village and compares what life was like then with what it's like in the 21st century. She touches on living through WW2 with blackout curtains on the windows, Guy Grout bringing a cannon to the village on the 4th of July, the woman who took in the washing for everyone on the village, the Carr Boys (including the one with the hook for an arm), and various personalities who lived in Newfane. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September 29, 2021 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Erica Walch