Massachussets Two - Text
Subject is a white female, born 1953, a life-long resident of Andover, Massachusetts. In a very typical country dialect she recalls her childhood in Andover, painting a very vivid picture of small-town American life. Saturday night polka and square dancing, winter sledding, the penny candy store "Chicki's", run by an Armenian couple. Recorded 8.19.99 by Janet Rodgers, edited 9.08.99 by Paul Meier. Running time: 04:40.
TRANSCRIPTION
I would like to talk about where I grew up. Probably-- from-- up until age, say, 12, I grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, which is approximately 24 miles north of Boston, and about less than 10 miles from the New Hampshire border, and not that far from Maine. And we grew up in this little town of Andover, and we lived in my grandfather’s home, because, whe-- The day my mom got married, her mom passed away, so my mom was left to care for her father. And it was during World War II, and her sisters and brothers had all gone off to war and what not, so that’s how it transpired that we stayed in my grandfather’s home, which is in Baker’s Lane in little old downtown Andover.
It was a wonderful place to grow up. We had a lot of kids, and it was a little dead-end lane. And in our home in particular, we had-- or my grandfather grew -- cottage roses, along the side fence. We had our own apple tree. We had a pear tree. We had our own sliding hill, that went down into this swampy area which was a feed-off from the Shawsheen River. And, the older kids -- They had some trees that were downed, and they would tie this huge rope around the downed trees, so that it would hang into the water. So in the winter, when it froze, we could ice-skate. And the younger kids could hold onto the rope, so they wouldn’t fall. It would help them to work into their balance, of ice-skating. It was really neat, and kind of nice of them to think of, for little kids.
So we -- without even leaving our street, we could sled, we could ice-skate. We had a pear tree, which we ate the pears; (um) the apple tree. We had wild berries. We had this great big, huge crate, that was like a -- a -- a huge box, but it was more made of wood, and I had (um) bunny cages in there, and (um) -- It just was a neat place to grow up.
My best friend growing up was (um) Michael O’Hagen. And his mom had died right after he was born, so… he wa-- he came to live with his grandmother who lived at the en -- the beginning of the lane. We lived at the end of the lane. So, Michael was my -- my childhood friend. We played in this huge sandbox, that we had in our backyard, every single day. We played in our sandbox, and then we would go up the hill to the Indian Ridge playground, and all the kids would be there at the playground doing -- you know, arts and crafts, you know, ball games, card games, whatever was happening.
And then, up the street from where we lived were -- was a variety store called Chicki’s. And Chicki and Lou, they ran it. They were Armenian. And they had this glass case with all this penny candy. And you would go there every day, with your penny. And you would just peer into that glass case and think, “What will I buy today?” It was the biggest adventure every day. (Laughs) It was so inexpensive, but you thought it was this grand -- I don’t know, this grand escape. And you never had to cross a street. It was just a delight.
And we were just, maybe, a bit shy of the railroad tracks, with -- You know, the train would come and take people into Boston and what not. And the other side of the tracks was another store, called Ricky’s. So there was Ricky’s and Chicki’s on either side of the tracks. (Squawk of laughter) But Ricky’s had (um) more of a sandwich bar, and on Friday’s people would go there for their (um) -- their fish, their fried fish dinners. Because two stores up was St. Augustin’s Church, which dominated the area. Although I was a Protestant. (Laughs) The Catholic church was very -- you know, it -- you were very aware of it.