Now a blog is not a book but it is a way to get started on the massive amount of information I have collected in almost three years of doing family history. One way of structuring this blog is to use the same format of questioning that I used when I interviewed Jack and Pauline. In this regard, the contributions of other family members will make a completed family history more rich. Thus we begin with earliest memories.
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Jack's earliest memory is one from nursery school . He attended
Catherine Morrill Day Nursery on Danforth Street in Portland. The nursery has been in operation there since 1922. Apparently, how to eat crackers without getting crumbs all over the place was an important skill to learn in those days. Jack tells us how to do it:
"The teacher showed you how to eat graham crackers without getting crumbs all over the place. I remember that because I still do it today. When you're taking a bite out of a cookie or a cracker like that you suck in so that the crumbs don't go all over the place, they go in your mouth."
After hearing Dad's story, I am surprised that the nickname of 'Cracker Jack' did not come to be!
He also remembers being served curdled Macaroni and Cheese at school and not ever liking it again. It's interesting how experiences with food can stay with you so long.
An earliest memory of Pauline regards a custom no longer practiced. Wakes used to occur in the home of the deceased. She tells about it here:
"On the front door they used to have a wreath and you knew then that somebody had died. That’s the first time I had seen a dead body and she was laid out in the living room and my two sisters said, “Come on, let’s go see Aunt Marie.” Her name was Aunt Marie. So they brought me in and I knelt down at the casket and I'm looking down and I didn't like it. Then my sister Lorraine said, “Touch her, she’s cold.” I said, “No, I don't want to touch her!” Aunt Marie was Memere's oldest sister who married an Irishman, John King. They lived on a farm in Limerick."
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One of my own earliest memories is darting around Westwood Road in Augusta in my little metal car shown below. By this time, my oldest three siblings had begun school which left the youngest three to terrorize the neighborhood but it was much fun. In Augusta and Westbrook alike, our family was fortunate to have playable streets and friendly neighbors with lots of kids.
So what is an earliest memory of yours?