Barbara Wilson at her home during an oral history interview
conducted by her cousin's (James Wilson) daughter,
Nancy Wilson Latham, during the fall of 2018.
Nancy Wilson Latham image.
During the summer and fall of 2018, Nancy Wilson Latham visited her father's cousin, Barbara Wilson. During a portion of some of these visits, she collected Barbara's recollections of the goings-on in the West Falmouth area while the Portland-Lewiston Interurban (PLI) was still in operation. The PLI provided electric trolley car public transportation south to Portland and north to communities along the way to Lewiston. The PLI began electric railway operations between Portland and Lewiston in 1914 and ceased operations in 1933. Nancy was collecting recollections from when Barbara was growing up in the West Falmouth area early in the 20th century. Below are edited portions of the transcript from Barbara Wilson's interviews with Nancy Wilson Latham.
A resource for teachers
Maine Historical Society has created companion lesson plans inspired by Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride - These State-standard-based lesson plans are for classroom use in grades 6, 7, and 8. The lesson plans and companion vocabulary and reading activities are available as free downloads through the Seashore Trolley Museum's website at www.trolleymuseum.org/elegantride/ or Click Here.
The eight Social Studies/ELA units were also uploaded to the Maine Memory Network and are available with other statewide lesson plans for grades K-12.
Click Here for Teacher, Student, and Homeschooler Resources
The audiobook is available - Click HERE to go to the Audible page. The eBook is available Here
This blog post was created specifically to support the lesson plan titled:
* Then and Now: Life in Maine
Objectives:
* Students will practice the skills involved in analyzing primary sources.
* Students will be able to describe life on an early 20th-century Maine family farm and how life has changed in Maine since the early 1900s.
* Students will be able to describe the differences between attending school in the early 20th century and attending school today.
This post is to provide supplemental information, images, and descriptions in support of research using the primary source from the collection of the series of oral history interviews conducted by Nancy Wilson Latham with her father, James Wilson's cousin, Barbara Wilson (born September 9, 1923) in Cumberland County, Maine.
Barbara Wilson: BW
Nancy Wilson Latham: NWL
NWL: Your full name?
BW: Barbara Wilson. 59 Church Street. Westbrook, Maine...Date of Birth - September 9, 1923.
NWL: Do you give your permission to record and collect information that you share?
BW: Yes, I give my permission.
NWL: What are your father('s), mother's, and siblings' names?
BW: Howard Wilson. Born (on) May 31, 1887, and died on January 11, 1948. He was born in Cumberland, Maine, and died in Falmouth (Maine).
BW: Ethel Winifred Huston Wilson. Born March 22, 1893, and died on August 5, 1990. Was born in Portland (probably called Falmouth at the time), Maine. Died in Portland (Maine). She had siblings...two brothers and a sister...all three older
BW: Raymond H. Wilson 1912-1970. Elizabeth F. Wilson 1913-2002. Winfield Scott Wilson 1915-1957.
NWL: What was the form of heat and light used in your home when you were growing up?
BW: We burned coal in the furnace. Wood, I guess in the kitchen stove. Before we changed to oil.
NWL: Any homes or barns burn down that you recall?
BW: No. not at our place. There was a fire at the school when I was in third grade. The fire was in the wall. My desk was next to the wall. There was a terrible roar. It was many years before I could accept a sound like that ever again without being scared to death.
BW: The school didn't burn down. There was destruction. The fire was in the wall. They got it out. We always practiced fire drills so everybody was out of the school calm, cool, and collected. My mother ran down to the school all the way from the house up by the church. We were all in what they called the brickyard of course. The Steven G. Houston School. We lived up on West Mountain Road up-back of the church.
Miss Dorothy "Dolly" Tocher, later became
Mrs. Dorothy Gascoe, after getting married.
Kennebec Journal 2-7-1933
NWL: What were your daily chores when you were little.
BW: I set tables for supper. And we used to help when my mother was canning. We'd sit on the front porch and shell beans, snap peas, or peal tomatoes.
BW: We used to have an ice cream maker. We always made ice cream for the holidays. That and Chocolate cake. And for (the) 4th of July, Watermelon.
NWL: Dress for school?
BW: Either little dresses or skirts with blouses. Buster Brown shoes...chuckle. One pair for going to school. Barefooted mostly, myself. For Chuch, we'd put on a clean dress.
Sun Journal 11-21-1930
NWL: Did you use McGuffy Readers in school?
BW: I don't know what we used for readers. We used to sit in a circle. And there were big cards with words on them I know. I ate bananas for my breakfast. We'd be sitting in the circle and the teacher would ask me, "Barbara, are you feeling alright?" And I answered yes, and when I said yes, my whole breakfast came all up. I found out much later in life, that when my mother was pregnant with me, all she ate was bananas.
NWL: How far of a walk was it to the school you attended when you were young?
BW: There were always a bunch of us that would get together and walk down the street. Every once and a while one of the teachers used to stay overnight at one of the houses over on Brook Road and usually we would wait and walk to school with her. And it would always be a morning that the Merrill boy up to Cumberland would fly his plane around and do loop-the-loops and stuff like that. (Paul Merrill's brother was the pilot).
BW: School wasn't that far. West Falmouth across the Gray Road. And up to the Huston School. Always gravel on the road...I was always falling down and skinning my knees.
I went to school at the S. G. Huston School from sub-primary through third grade. My teacher was Dorothy Dolly Tocher. She married Carl Garsoe. We walked from the church (Baptist Church in West Falmouth) down to the Gray Road, then we crossed the road and went down the hill and up the hill. Fourth, fifth, and sixth-graders went to school on Middle Road. The teacher was Florence Kelleher. She was a good teacher. When they combined seventh and eighth grade, we were the only ones that could do long division. The first high school was in the town hall. I graduated in 1942 from Falmouth High School. After returning home from school, I would listen to Jack Armstong on the radio with a bunch of neighborhood kids. Mother caught me on the Guiding Light.
BW: On April Fools Day we used to put a sign on Miss Kelleher's coat that would say "Kick Me". She always got a kick out of that.
End of Tape one... (close)
BW: Orville Leighton used to eat his lunch and then he'd go out into the field and gather some field mice and put the live mice in his lunch box and take them home to his mother.
BW: One day I was the only one going home for lunch. It was dark and dreary. It was about the time of the Lindbergh baby (kidnapping). I got down as far as the bridge, there was a car stopped and another car stopped up nearer the school. And I was petrified and I ran into the house right there by the bridge, the woman's name was Peggy Osgood, she was a nurse. I was scared to death, so she walked me up to the store.
Kennebec Journal 5-7-1932
BW: I remember in the winter, somebody would be running a bobsled up the hill to cut lumber, timber for firewood. We used to be able to get a ride on it.
NWL: What were some of the common phrases used while you were growing up that might not be used much today?
BW: Well one of the girls would call me Barbwire. I didn't like that. One of the boys that was looking out for the little kids told me, "Barbara if you want to call her something, call her Junebug."
BW: There was a big field where the kids used to play baseball. "Pop ball" is what we used to call it. They used cow flaps for bases. A little "ditty" that was popular was... "Do you want to have fun? Pick up a horse bun and run!"
NWL: I found these expressions in 1922, 1923, 1924, and 1925 Gray High School yearbooks - under senior's favorite expressions:
1922: I'll see; for the love of Mike; Hustle up; Get out; Lend me your horse; Jimminy; Oh, ya dumbbell.
1923: In a few minutes; For the love of Pete; Don't bother me, I'm busy; Don't worry; Of, for crying out loud.
1924: Oh, Fudge; Hold the line you poor fish; Oh, Boy; I'll say not; Oh, you dumbbell.
1925: Daw-gone it; Oh, you prune; Is that so?; That's a peach; What ails you?
NWL: What are some of your recollections of the Portland-Lewiston Interurban (PLI) from when you were young?
Click on the dates below to see posts on the history of the PLI
BW: Down by the trolley station (West Falmouth) was a waiting room. All the men used to gather there after supper. Talking about all the scandals of the day. People used to walk down Blackstrap Road to get the trolley in West Falmouth. The ladies used to get dressed up. I was just a little girl but I remember I was impressed with the brass when you got in. (Went to) Portland near Allen Avenue. All nice and shiny. I remember brass and pathways. My older siblings, Betty, Raymond, and Winfield, and all their friends took the trolley from West Falmouth to Deering High School. Betty graduated in 1931 and Winfield graduated in 1933.
Maine Lidar map shows the PLI right-of-way
as it exits the West Falmouth
sub-station/passenger station and heads
a little southwest between Gray Road and
I-95 towards Portland.
Click on the dates below to see other posts related to the PLI's buildings and other Wilson Family Contacts
12-7-2022 - Newspaper Clippings, Reunion Scrapbook, and Family Journals Provide Details of PLI
12-19-2022 - Substations and Terminals of the Portland-Lewiston Interurban
No. 16, Clematis, at the West Falmouth substation.
Former POTUS, Theodore Roosevelt was a passenger
on the Clematis from Portland to Lewiston on
August 31, 1916.
Photo from the PLI reunion scrapbook in
the O. R. Cummings Collection
BW: The substation (waiting station in West Falmouth) was filled with the dynamo - the power plant.
This is the Danville Sub-station.
The West Falmouth Sub-station was set up the same way.
The large rotary converter wheel is on the left with other
electrical transformer-related equipment on the right in this
photo of the inside of the substation in Danville. The double
doors to the outside are to the left of the rotary converter.
PLI reunion scrapbook in the O. R. Cummings Collection
BW: You went into the station to the side of the track. Just a room probably not bigger than this room. The men congregated on the steps of the building and watched the cars go by. The station was on the corner (Corner of Mountain Road and Gray Road). The station building had great big steps that covered the front of the building. There was a little platform and then all the sand beside the track. There were horseshoe pits behind the building. they used to pitch horseshoes. The girls played horseshoes in the garden.
Photo from the PLI reunion scrapbook in
the O. R. Cummings Collection
Photo from the PLI reunion scrapbook in
the O. R. Cummings Collection
The former substation in West Falmouth is a private
residence. T. Blake photo 2020
Deering Junction is the stop Barbara mentions as being near
Allen Avenue in Portland. From here the PLI cars would leave
the PLI right-of-way and enter Forest Avenue and head to
Monument Square. Above is No. 18 Azalea is pictured here at
Deering Junction with Walter E. Pinkham, left, one of
the first motormen with the PLI. Conductor Clarence J. Cobb,
right, became the PLI's first freight agent in 1915.
BW: On November 11, 1917, there was a big celebration in Portland. Grammie Wilson (Sarah Morrison Wilson) got all dressed up and went into Portland on the trolley. This was before my time, but Grammie told me this story many times. My Uncle Bill was in World War I, so there were lots to celebrate. (Uncle Bill was Sarah's son, William Wilson).
BW: I never rode the trolley by myself. My mother would be going into town shopping.
(End of tape 2)
My brothers and sister took the trolley every day to high school. One brother and sister graduated in '31 and my other brother graduated in '33. They took the trolley to Morrill's Corner, then they would walk up to Deering High School. They come home the same way. My mother would go shopping (at) J. R. Libby where got shoes and where I got my haircut. That was on Congress Street and Oak Street. We'd usually meet my grandmother and sometimes we'd go down to my aunt's on Sherman Street.
Evening Express 11-13-1933
(End of tape 3)
BW: In that year my mother started to drive a car. I remember mostly driving to town by car more than... trolley. I did use the bus. I didn't ride on the bus until I started working. I got on the bus at Morrison Hill in the late '40s. We went to Gammies for dinner one Sunday. We went up by trolley. (Grandmother Sarah Wilson on Mill Road at Morrison Hill, West Cumberland)
(End of tape 4)
NWL: What do you remember about your first telephone?
BW: It hung on the wall. It was like a box and it had a crank (a small, short handle) on the side. (There also was a bell inside the phone "box" that would ring when the crank handle was turned). You would call someone by turning the crank in a certain way. If you were going to call 5 - 4, you would crank the handle around a few times quickly and that would be a long ring (meaning the bell inside the box would ring as long as the crank was being turned). Since the first number was five, you would turn the crank handle like that, five times (5 long rings). The next number was four, so you cranked the handle around quickly, making about one complete turn, that would be a short ring. You would do that four times. Usually, the first number in the phone number you would call would be a long ring and the second number in the phone number would be a short ring. You knew when to pick up the phone for your calls because of knowing your phone number, and, how many rings, and the sequence of long and short rings.
A wall mounter "crank" phone of the
early twentieth century.
BW: When I was about three years old I tried to call my cousin Ann (Sawyer) (who) we would visit every once and a while in White Rock. I got in trouble and knew that I was not to touch the telephone. The telephone and (my) mother's sewing machine were in my play area.
BW: In those days we would have party lines. There were three or four families on a party line. Ned Bragg worked for the telephone company and installed the phones. He would come over whenever there was a problem.
BW: Since we were on a party line we were taught to be very polite on the phone and didn't call unless we had to. The most devilry thing we would do would be to call someone and say, "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" You would then say, "Well, let him out."
BW: You never got solicited on the phone in those days like you do today.
BW: If there was a fire in the community, the telephone would ring constantly. My father and everyone else was a volunteer fireman in those days. When I was a child, we all learned how to prevent a fire. You burned everything then. Everyone would be taught how to contain a grass fire.
BW: My mother got accused of listening in on other people's conversations but it was really the lady across the street. They used to joke that you could tell who listened in to other people's conversation because they would have a mark indented into their forehead from leaning on that piece on the front of the telephone.
BW: I lived on Falmouth Road and we were on the Cumberland exchange. Our operator was in Cumberland. I think she was Halvor and Wayne Merrill's mother (Bertha Pottle according to Ancestry).
BW: If you lived on the other side of the road, you were on the Portland exchange. My friend Audrey Osgood lived across the street from me on Falmouth Road. That side of the street was on the Portland...exchange (side). If Audrey was going to call someone on my side of the road, she would have to come over to my house to call. Otherwise, it would cost ten cents for a long-distance call. The mail system was the same way and would be the route depending on what side of the road you lived on.
BW: The Portland operator station was on the corner of High Street and Cumberland Avenue. They had a big building. everyone looked for a job there.
BW: My sister and I slept in one bed in one room. My two brothers slept in one bed in a different room. My parents had their own bedroom.
Tape 5
NWL: What was your battle room like at home?
NWL: What was your bedroom like when you were a kid?
NWL: Did you have your own bed? Did you sleep with your sisters?
BW: My sister and I slept in one bed and my two brothers slept in another bed and they had a different room. And then my mother and father had a bedroom.
BW: Before I slept with my sister, I was in a crib beside my mother's bed.
NWL: Tell me about that Halloween you remembered...
BW: Oh, yes. I remember a Halloween when my mother...
Tape 6
BW: There was a window by the sink. And I was in...having a bath and all the Halloween people came around to the window. And I remember Martha Brackett had a mask that she'd pull a string and it would blink her eyes...chuckle...that's the only thing I remember.
NWL: You said you were only about two or three then right...because you were...
BW: I couldn't have been more than three anyway...all the older kids used to be around...you know...friends of my sisters and brothers....they were always around here playing something on the kitchen table...or ahh...my mother was one of these people that would let em all come in the house if they wanted to...
NWL: What games did you play? What board games...
BW: We used to play...I think what they called Battleship. They used to play Gin Rummy and um...and all kinds of games.
NWL: Do you remember when you got electricity?
BW: We had electricity when I was born.
NWL: You always did...how about heat...what kind of heat did you have?
BW: Uh...coal...we burned coal
NWL: How about the bathroom...Did you have...a hand water pump or...you had...a regular sink?
BW: Regular sink, yeah...regular bathroom
NWL: What did you eat for breakfast
BW: Well, usually, Oakmeal. Cereal sometimes and always toast.
NWL: Did you eat eggs very often.
BW: Oh, yeah, we had eggs and sometimes bacon.
NWL: Any special suppers or sinners?
BW: Meat and potatoes...dessert.
NWL: Did you eat dessert a lot?
BW: Oh, yeah..always had dessert...eat a piece of cake or a piece of pie...turnover...pudding...
NWL: Do remember any fires or floods or hurricanes?
BW: One time there was a hurricane the night before Cumberland Fair
NWL: Oh, what happened?
BW: I just know there was a lot of wind and...
NWL: Did they close down the Cumberland Fair
BW: I think it took down a lot of trees...
NWL: How old were you then?
BW: I was still in high school...
NWL: Where did you go swimming in the summer...where was your swimming hole
BW: There was a place up by Bachelders...on the river....then there was another place down ..on the river before you get to the end of Winns(?) Road...and then there was one nearer the end of od Winn's Road...
Tape 7
BW: We lived on the Thaxter Farm
NWL: Your ages of 5-15...you lived on the Thaxter Farm...okay
BW: Bill and his wife and his four daughters...used to have a camp near a pond...right down at the end...down back of the house....and uh..we didn't swim in that pond...but we used to have a raft and ah fishing dory...chuckle...and uh we used to have to take that to the raft....it would sink if it had more than one on it...we used to play around there. We used to go swimming down on the Cumberland Foreside one...used to go bout every day....if it were swimmable.
HWL: Did you know the names of any of the motormen on the interurban...any of the motormen or conductors?
Photo from the PLI reunion scrapbook in
the O. R. Cummings Collection
BW: The only one I remember the name was uh...is uh...now I've forgotten it...I can't remember...If I heard it...I might...
HWL: Did anybody shoot tobacco on the trolley...
BW: We used to call the store and ask 'em if they had Prince Albert in a can....chuckles....Let him out....laughter
HWL: Let him out...that's a good one...chuckle.
BW: And Dorothy Clough slid down the Mountain Road...what's Mountain Road now....and went right under the car...
NWL: Goodness. Under the interurban car?
BW: I think that was in the paper too...
NWL: Oh what was her name. I'll have to look for it. I'll see if I can find that story.
Did you hang out at the sub-station or meet friends there or can you tell me about who...who hung out at the substation in West Falmouth.
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Portland Evening Express - 3-12-1920
BW: Who was there? I can't remember. It must have been one of the Merriphins(?) I can't remember who was the station manager there...
HWL: You said that people used to hang out...the guys used to hang out at night there and tell the gossip. Do you remember saying that? The guys used to hang out there and talk and talk to gossip? All right we're going to head out now okay I'm going to close this up...
Tape 8 - dictated to Blog 4-8-2023
NWL: Can you tell me about the Grange
BW: Not too much because it was all ritualistic
NWL: Oh, there were secrets...secrets you can't tell...oh...what you can tell me
BW: Of course, they had a sewing circle...they used to...uh...ladies used have a sewing circle and they used to meet every week.....practically....making quilts and stuff and having fairs and stuff like that. They earned money that way. And they'd always have a raffle at every meeting...and uh...raffle off a quilt if they had one...or whatever. They had a table that they...sold items, you know, at the meetings and stuff.
NWL: Where did they meet?
BW: We met at the K of P Hall
NWL: Okay, in West Falmouth?
BW: That was the Falmouth Grange. Falmouth had another Grange down at...the independent Grange...was down on Route 9. They had their own building too.
NWL: Were the men and the women separated?
BW: No...no.
NWL: You all met together
BW: They had a woman that planned the entertainment.....I got to put my leg up.
[END]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We continue the restoration work on the 1912, Narcissus, the only surviving high-speed, luxury interurban coach of the Portland-Lewiston Interurban.
Click Here: Narcissus Restoration-Related Posts
Being more than a century old, the stately, "Elegant Ride," Narcissus, is a gem. This shimmering precious stone of Maine transportation history is brilliantly resplendent as it emanates so many elements of history, including; time, places, people, and events, that it was coupled to, that when just a smattering of its seemingly innumerable stories are shared, the contents captivates, fascinates, then generates, interest to learn more 🙋. The majestic Narcissus is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
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The restoration of this majestic icon of Maine's electric railway history is but one in a series of captivating stories containing an abundance of incredible coalition of narratives.
Click Here: History-Related Posts - Narcissus and Portland-Lewiston Interurban
The Narcissus is featured in the national Gold Award-winning novel, Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride. The "Elegant Ride" is the Narcissus. Theodore Roosevelt was a passenger on the Narcissus on August 18, 1914, between Lewiston and Portland, Maine, while campaigning for the Progressive Party candidates.
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Independent book publisher, Phil Morse, holding
the Gold Book Award Winner plaque for
the Middle Reader category for The Eric
Hoffer Book Award. Congratulations to
award-winning Maine author,
Jean M. Flahive
