Owls_Head

I it is time for me to remember and put into words Justin what I remember about my life.

I was taught by school teacher Clara T Kelsey and her classroom was a one room schoolhouse In Owl's Head Maine . In this classroom a certain amount of desks were set up and they were like double desks space. The grades were kindergarten through sixth grade and some of the grades didn't have any students . Our recesses would be outside on the property and in the woods . To call us back into class our teacher would bring a big bell and we'd have to rush back into the classroom . I have to chuckle because sometimes we were having such a good time in the woods , that we would not hear the bell. When we got back into the school room Mrs. Kelsey would scold us!

Then as you can see in some of the pictures Mrs. Kelsey always treated us special, and on calendar special days we were always given some type of present. Mrs. Kelsey always would hug us and kiss us when we would get into the school. We always knew we were truly loved.

One day walking home from school I collapsed on side of the road at the end of a driveway. As I remember when I woke up, I somehow found my way home and was crying. My mother called Dr. Brown and told him what had happened. At that time Dr. Brown still made house calls and he rushed down to our house took me to the hospital to check me out. What he found out was that my appendix burst, and he rushed me up to surgery at the hospital , I believe I was about seven years old. To this day I have about a 2 inch scar on right side of my stomach. I had to stay in the hospital about seven days. I was really scared because mom and dad were working and didn't come to visit till it was time to take me home. In about a year I was rushed to the hospital and had my tonsils out and again mom and dad didn't visit till they took me home.

My childhood was filled with many sicknesses and illnesses. Back then was scarlet fever, whooping cough, measles, mumps, pneumonia and I also had double pneumonia, and the German measles. And Dr. Brown also said I had a heart murmur, and if it didn't bother me nothing had to be done for it. I can remember that my mother got mad at my father because he was never around when I thought sick. I can even remember having some type of sores on my hands that Dr. Brown called impetigo, but cream cleared it right up.

Also I remember mom and dad when they were not working , would pile us into the back of the dump truck and drive us on a special trip to Bangor Maine and Perry's Nut House . This store had Indian statues and tepees and other artifacts. Daddy always bought us a special toy, our favorite ice cream, and some of the special homemade fudge. That was a very special trip for my brother Alfred and I.

Daddy had his own taxicab called, Bob's Taxi Service. Every day when daddy would come home from work on days he would put his hands in his pants pockets, and pull out all the change he had in them, and throw it up in the air and my brother and I would dive for it. We all would laugh and play until we were tired and go to sleep.

Daddy had a red Jeep he would use every Christmas to pick Santa Claus up at the airport and ride down through Main Street in Rockland at the end of the Christmas parade. Santa would sit in the rumpel seat in the back of the Jeep and throw candy and lollipops out to the crowd along the parade route. Then Dad Would drive., Santa Claus back to owl's head airport. Then Santa would fly off in an airplane to one of the islands to be in another parade. My brother and I would always find candy and lollipops all over the back seat of the Jeep for several months. We certainly loved this happening.

Also every Christmas my brother and I would go off into the woods to cut down our families Christmas tree. This one particular Christmas my brother cut down the prettiest and biggest tree we could find and we carried it on home. When we got to the house the Christmas tree would not fit through our front door. Mom was home from work and had a big surprised look on her face. She said to my brother that will never fit in the house, she was right. My brother cut about half the tree off, then the Christmas tree fit into our parlor. Those were such great years.

One year Owl's Head Harbor froze over out to Sheep Island in front of our house. One day I had just run out to front porch and all of a sudden I heard awful noises coming from the bushes across the street. Next thing I know this big Moose with a white beard that hung down to the road, walked out onto the road and walked up the street out of sight. He must of been trapped on Sheep Island all those years. Mom and dad and my brother Alfred come running out onto the front porch because I was screaming so loud so they could see the Moose, they could hardly believe eyes.

A lot of the summer months I would leave the house early walk across the street down onto the seashore and explore what I could find turning rocks and seaweed over. Mostly I found baby crabs, star fish, colored glass, strange pieces of driftwood. If I took the driftwood home my brother would make something out of it. Many days I would walk until it got dark and I would walk through the woods to the road and go home. So many of my days were spent in the woods and on the seashore playing alone. And I was at peace with the world.

We had three hammocks on our front porch , it was a three sided porch. My brother and I dearly loved the hammocks and spent our leisure time in relaxing. One day my brother Alfred thought he'd be funny when I was laying in one of the hammocks, he shook pepper in my eyes. Oh, mamma got so mad she chased him around with her broom till she caught him and he got a beating. But Mama broke the broom accidentally on his back, my brother laugh so hard he fell on the floor and Mama got even matter. Mama did many things that made us laugh at her, such as when the spoon got stuck in the oatmeal she was making on the oil burner stove in our kitchen.

We didn't have running water in our house so Mama had to go out to the well and bring water in in the buckets she would carry. We didn't have a toilet but we used the outhouse out behind the garage. Mom had an old ringer washing machine for doing all our clothes. One day when she was out getting water in buckets from the well she was also doing the laundry. I thought I was a big girl so I tried to help her and wring out the clothes. My arm got caught in the ringer and I started to scream and Mama come running. But when she crossed the board over the ditch she fell in and broke her leg. I believe a neighbor across the street came running and help Mama and rescued me. I remember that one time my mother tried to cook from daddy's Army mess Sargent books, when daddy came home and found out what she was doing he said what do you think you are doing. He added, there is no way to downsize those recipes. Then I also remember daddy trying to teach mom how to drive the car. Mom was on the main road in our village and tried to turn down Shell St. , but she went between two huge trees and over someone's lawn. She was so nervous daddy made her stop the car and he drove the rest of the way home. He never let her try to drive again. In the summertime Mama always used a cereal bowl on my brother's and my head and give us a haircut. The neighborhood kids would make fun of us. One Halloween grandma bought a skeleton costume. No one was home that night so I put my costume on and went up to the main road and sat in the middle of it. This car came along and screeched to a stop, thank God it was my grandma and my dad, and boy oh boy did I ever get a spanking. Then they cried because they could of killed me ! When fourth grade started Owl's Head Central new school opened to accommodate all the surrounding communities.

About in the middle of the fourth grade a celebrity visited our school called Aunt Jemima on the maple syrup bottle. Tina, Jimmy, Timmy, and I were picked to have our picture taken with her. It was in the newspapers and I cut it out and save it, but now the paper has discolored and deteriorated a lot here is the picture