Notes |
- I was born and grew up in an old farm house in Greene, Maine. I lived there until my marriage, with my parents Wallace and Dell Reed, my maternal grandparents, Seward and Laura Mower and my aunt Doris Mower. That house was destroyed by fire in December 1998.
In my early years, the house had no indoor plumbing. We had a hand pump in the kitchen and an outhouse in the barn. We heated the house with two wood stoves, one in the kitchen which also served as the cook stove and another stove in the living room. There was a small wood stove in the "front room" but it was rarely used. There was no heat in the other rooms on the first floor or in the upstairs bedrooms. In the coldest days of winter we had to "run down" the pump each night to keep the water pipe from freezing. My father would pump two or three pails of water before doing this each night so that in case the pipe did freeze, we would have some water for drinking, cooking, etc. There was electricity in most rooms but no telephone. We did not get a phone until I was in high school also we had no central heat until about the same time. We never did have an indoor bathroom while I lived there. There was an outdoor structure in the barnyard which was used to store ice which we used in an "icebox" (James Reed now has it in his kitchen) to keep food from spoiling. I can't remember the exact time that we got our first electric refrigerator but I was probably 8-10 years old. As a small child I can remember having my bath in a galvanized metal wash tub. In summer it would be put outside on the piazza (our name for a front porch) and in winter it would be in the middle of the kitchen floor.
We had several cows, two work horses, chickens, ducks and pigs from time to time. I also had a dog, a Collie whose name was Trixie. She was a very even tempered dog and I used to dress her up in various costumes and pretend that she was cartoon or radio characters. The horses were used in the fields for farming purposes and to haul firewood that my grandfather would spend most of the summer cutting. It would be stacked in three or four long piles in the "dooryard" and in the fall someone with a portable "sawrig" would come and cut the wood into stove sized pieces. These would then be thrown by hand into the "shed" where they would be stored for use when it became cold. We had quite a lot of garden space which was "worked" by horse drawn equipment. Plowing, harrowing and planting as well has mowing, raking and bringing the hay were all done by the horses for years. Corn, beans, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, carrots, beets, tomatoes, peppers and lettuce were always grown and sometimes my mom and dad would experiment with things like brussel sprouts, broccoli and other vegetables. We had a few apple trees and some pear trees as well. All of the produce was for our own use. Mom would can fruit and veggies, make jams and pickles while the potatoes, squash, pumpkins and such were stored in the cellar of the house. In the cellar was a brick arch which was the structure that held up the chimneys. We stored the vegetables in there and there were numerous niches in the sides that were used to keep the canned (actually they were in jars) items. We got eggs from the chickens as well as an occasional Sunday dinner. We milked the cows for our own use and I can remember "helping" my mother or dad use a device called a separator which you cranked by hand it would divide the cream from the milk. We also churned (again by hand power) our own butter at least some of the time.
One of my less pleasant early memories is centered around my uncle Jeff and the fact that under the barn was where the waste from the cows and horses was stored during the winter for spreading on the fields in the spring as fertilizer. In the spring when the hauling out of the fertilizer started, the space under the barn near the doors became a pool of liquid waste material churned up by the wheels of the manure spreader being backed in to collect the waste for spreading. My uncle Jeff used to take great delight in taking me in my short pants and dunking me up to the pants level in this unsavory pool and then taking me to my mother for clean up.
When I was a little older I was allowed to go "down in the woods" with my grandfather to watch him cut firewood. He did this all by hand with an axe and hand saw. Once a tree was felled, he would "limb it out" and then, using a mark cut on the handle of his axe, he would cut it into four foot lengths. Once a sufficient amount of wood had been cut, he would hitch up the horses to a "scoot", load the wood and haul it up to the house for storage and drying until fall. My grandfather Mower always wore a felt hat, blue cotton work shirt, bib overalls and long underwear, no matter the weather, winter or summer.
Memories:
1. School days in one room school houses.
2. Coming to school in the city, Auburn.
3. Going to first and second Red Sox games.
4. Playing baseball with father, after supper.
5. Playing baseball with town team.
6. Fishing stories as a child. Greene and Turner
7. Going to Sabattus Pond with mother.
8. Arrival of Greg.
9. Movies with Doris.
10. Playing sax with band on weekends.
11. What else?
- Family Memories
I never knew my grandfather Reed, he died from pneumonia after having an accident at the sawmill where he worked. That left my grandmother Reed with three children and no income. I remember my father saying that they were “on the Town” which meant that the only income they had was whatever meager welfare the town of Turner could provide. He told me stories about a local store that had a raised deck and that he and my Aunt Wilma used to crawl under there to see if anyone had dropped any change there.
After graduating from Leavitt Instiute, in the middle of the depression, my father, my Uncle Sherman and a friend named Clayton Anderson went to Florida where they worked as caddies at the West Palm Beach country club, they met several well to do persons among them the Duponts, Rockefeller’s and others. During WWII he worked at the shipyard in South Portland building Liberty ships After that, he worked at various odd jobs until he worked at W H Gammon in Lewiston and progressed to the position of manager of the plant’s milling section. When that company went out of business, he ran a Getty gas station in Lewiston.
I grew up on the Mower family homestead in Greene with my Father, Mother and my brother Gregory along with my Grandfather and Grandmother Laura and my Aunt Doris. Both my Uncles, Dwight and Dwinald served in the US Army during WW Il. I remember that we had a banner that hung in the living room window with two stars on it.
My grandmother Reed worked at the Priscilla Turner rug factory. She died from burns that she sustained while fueling a stove.
My grandmother Mower worked for a time at a furniture business in Greene.
My grandfather Mower was a farmer and spent the summer cutting wood the for use in the winter.
My Mother became an Avon Lady at one time and that made her proud of the fact that she was earning her own money.
- Gary W. Reed (82) passed away Monday, March 21, at Maine Medical Center after a short illness. He was born November 6, 1939, in Greene, Maine, the son of Wallace and Dell Mower Reed. He attended one- and two-room elementary schools in Greene and graduated from Edward Little High School in Auburn in 1957. While at Edward Little, he was a member of the concert and marching bands and a member of the school dance band, the Rhythm Kings. Most importantly at Edward Little, he met Marian Hodgkins, the woman who would be his wife for nearly 47 years and was the love of his life.
He played in several private bands over a period of several years, mostly in the Lewiston-Auburn area. He was employed by the S.D. Warren Paper Mill and later Scott Paper Mill in Westbrook. During his time at Westbrook, he held various positions including laboratory technician, assistant payroll supervisor computer programmer, systems analyst, systems programmer and assistant manager of data processing, his last position before he retired in 1995 after 35 years.
He attended Bates College, and after eight years of evening classes, earned a Bachelor of Science degree with High Distinction from the University of Maine in 1969. He was a member of the Falmouth chapter of the Maine Jaycees for several years, holding various local chapter offices including chapter president. In the year of his presidency, Falmouth was named the Outstanding Chapter in its population class, and he was named Outstanding Local President by the Maine Jaycees. He served as a district vice president of the Maine Jaycees and was named Outstanding District VP 1973-1974. He won the Speak Up Jaycee state competition 1971-1972. He and Marian traveled to Atlanta to represent Maine in the National Convention competition. They also attended National Conventions in Miami and Minneapolis. He was honored to be awarded a JCI Senatorship by the Falmouth chapter members.
Mr. Reed believed that public service should be an important part of being a citizen. He was a member of the Falmouth Volunteer Fire Department for many years. He served for seven years on the Falmouth Board of Zoning Appeals, four years as chairman. He was elected to and served as chairman of a Falmouth Charter Review Commission and served five terms as a State Representative in the Maine Legislature representing Falmouth, and at various times, parts of Cumberland and Portland. During his final year in the Legislature, he was honored to serve as Speaker Pro Tempore on two occasions. In his final year he held the position of House Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Taxation.
After leaving the Legislature, he held the position of state office representative in the Portland office of U.S. Senator Susan Collins for some time before severe illness caused him to the leave that position.
He held an associate judge’s license from the Maine State Harness Racing Commission for many years and served as a commissioner of that body for several years. He was a member of the Dirigo Health Agency Board of Trustees.
He and Marian enjoyed travel. They visited Bermuda, Alaska, Germany, Austria, The United Kingdom, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France and Italy.
He was predeceased by Marian, who passed away in 2007. He is survived by a son Jeffrey, his wife Cheryl, and daughter Alison of Indianapolis; a daughter, Jennifer and her husband Peter Chase of New Gloucester; and a son, James and his husband David Cowan of Lisbon Falls; his brother, Gregory and his companion Christine DuBois of Lincoln; and five nieces and nephews.
Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 26, followed by a service at noon at the Fortin Group, 217 Turner Street in Auburn.
In lieu of flowers, Mr. Reed requested contributions to VNA Home Health Hospice, 50 Foden Road South Portland, Maine 04106; the Falmouth Memorial Library, 5 Lunt Road Falmouth, Maine 04105; or the Falmouth Food Pantry, 271 Falmouth Road, Falmouth 04105.
|