BEDTIME GENEALOGY 15

I spent part of the afternoon on the Great July Organize Your
Genealogy Files project. I’d been so wrapped up first in the John
Ames file and then Aunt Dot’s Memories transcriptions that I
hadn’t made very much headway. But I had bought a denim sort
of material expandable file case a week ago to move some of my
files into and today was the day I got that done. These are the
original family sheets Aunt Dot sent us years ago that have been
kept in several manila file folders for years now. While they were
in order most of the time, they frequently would get shuffled
around when I was going through them looking for something.
They certainly look better in the case filed alphabetically by
family name.


I was also looking for some links to some of the places Dot
mentioned in her memories and found one for Gould Academy. I
glanced at the history page and I think either Mr. Hanscom or
Mr. Ireland was the headmaster who finally asked her about my
Dad. I couldn’t find any suitable sites for Wilson’s Mills or the
Azicohos(or Aziscoos) Dam so I’ll have to wait until later for that.


I’ll get back to the John Ames files again in the next few posts.

AUNT DOT'S MEMORIES4

This is the fourth installment of my transcription of my Aunt
Dot's memories of her and my father Bud growing up in Oxford
County, Maine in the 1920's and `30's.

I knew Dad had shot himself in the foot in his early teens but he
never gave us the real story of how it happened. I do recall seeing
a small round scar on his foot when he happened to be barefoot.



Bud loved to fly fish. We would go down to the river where there
was a great fishing spot at the foot of the old sluice that used to
be used to shoot logs over the dam and down the river. This was
about a mile down river from the dam. The water ran so swift
that it made a roaring noise not unlike the ocean waves coming
onto a rocky shoreline. We really enjoyed those trout.



Bud never left me out when his friends came to play ball. I could
neither catch a ball nor throw it where I wanted it to go. As for
batting, I always swung at the ball but never hit it. Never-the-
less I was never left out of his games and his friends knew better
than to make anything other than encouraging comments.



"The 22 rifle that Bud had was one he bought from a friend-Pop
paid half on it and said that half was mine. We were never
allowed to take the gun out except to target shoot at the corner
of the house. We had set some traps on the mountain behind
the house and wanted to take the 22 when we went to tend to
them. We were told NO! So I went in a back room and stood the
gun out the window. When we left we sort of passed that way
and took it along. When we got to the first trap there was a
skunk in it, Bud loaded the rifle and shot it, then he loaded it
again and stood the barrel on the toe of his sneaker to wait and
see if he needed a second shot. I told him he shouldn’t hold it
that way & he said it was OK because the safety was on. A few
minutes later some chips flew up and hit me and he had shot
himself in thru the foot. He said we needed to hurry home.
The ground was rough and I was winded and lagged behind.
I told him to hurry on as I knew the way. He wouldn’t leave me
behind so I just had to hurry faster. When we got home I ran to
the nearest neighbor to phone for Pop to come home. He got
the gunshot dressed and the doctor came every day and pushed
a swab with iodine on it all the way throu his foot. Bet that felt
good."

AUNT DOT'S MEMORIES

This the first in a series of posts which are my transcriptions
of 13 handwritten pages. They were written by my Aunt Dot
 (Dorothy West Bargar) and given to me yesterday when we attended
my nephew Paul's wedding.

Some explanations of the names mentioned: Phillip was
Phllip Jonathan West, Dot's grandfather and my great
grandfather. Hazel was her older sister and Flossie(Florence)
the youngest.

"Dingle" is a new term to me and sounds like a shed.


"Our family lived on Back Street in Upton from about 1830 to
1927. I have a picture of Bud and Hazel, taken Aug., 1926 that
was given me by Pop’s cousin Louie West (his dad was great
uncle Paul -Philip’s brother). This was the first I heard that I
ever lived in Upton. My birthday was in April of that year.


From conversations, I think I remember we probably moved
to Magalloway for a short time, then to Wilsons Mills. Phillip
stayed in Magalloway.


The first place I remember living was in a little square cabin on
the shore of Azichoos lake back a trail from the dam house.
There was a wagon trail past an old stone quarry and a foot
path along the lake shore. The quarry was home of the bear
that we always looked out for. The cabin was partitioned off in
one corner-a room big enough for a white iron double bed and a
built in double bed with a bunk (half size) up under the eaves.
There was a path between the beds wide enough for a dresser.
The remainder of the cabin was one L shaped room (except the
L was upside down & backwards) (end p.1)


The back door opened to a covered walk that led to a dingle
where we kept outdoor tools and dry wood for the fire. The
space from the door to the dingle was about the width of a
standard sidewalk. I have always remembered the dingle
because that is where the bag of toys that Santa brought was
kept. I only remember one Christmas that we received presents
and must have been when I was three because Flossie was not
yet in the family.


Don’t remember what Hazel& Mother got. Pop got a necktie,
Bud got pocket knife. (he would have been 5 years old) and I got
a pull toy -it was a green platform with red wheels & a red pull
string and had a white celluloid lamb on the platform. We also
got a tiddle wink game, which at my age was a great failure at,
but liked it anyway. That was probably 1929.


In years later we always decorated the house and had fun
making our decorations from newspapers and magazines. For
many years we had carefully saved the few fold out paper
Christmas bells and a few pieces of red & green rope that had
come with the family before any time that I recall."(end p 2)

THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS...

I’ve been reading some of the other genealogy blogger’s picks for
their favorite things they’ve posted this year so I thought I’d
mention mine.


The first is something I didn’t even write. That would be my
Aunt Dot’s Memories that I posted back in August. My Dad
never talked with us much about his childhood so getting this
memoir from my Aunt is easily my favorite thing on my blog
this past year.


From my own stuff, I enjoyed writing the posts on Orpha
Reynolds and on my maternal grandmother, Agnes “Aggie”
McFarland. I also enjoyed researching the Ames Murder
although I don’t think I did a very good job writing it up.

The one thing I can say with surety is that I can do better and
I have plenty of good examples to follow among other genealogy
bloggers to follow!

MORE ON SCRAPING, CACHING, AND BLOGGING

Another thought on A*******.com and the scraping/caching topic.

I’ve seen a few people who say they’ll not post any more of their
research to their blogs so that A*******.com can’t harvest it.
That’s their right of course but it seems to me that does nothing
really to The Corporation That Shall NOT Be Named but does
harm the genealogy blogging community.


I hope I can put this coherently.


The reason there is a genealogy blogging community is the way
we share our families with each other. We set out facts, show
pictures, and tell stories about our ancestors. Yes, posts about
the actual research processing and tips about archives and
sources are a vital part of this as well, but it’s the personal side of
our individual searches that makes it a community.


I’ve gained a lot since I started this blog. I’ve met distant relatives
I didn’t know about. I’ve learned things I didn’t know about
history and new ways to do my research. I’ve shared things like
my Aunt Dot’s memories and read about the families of other
bloggers.


None of it would have happened without the openness of this
blogging community.



So. I’ll continue posting my research and photos and family
stories here.


I urge others who are thinking of not posting research to their
own blog because of A*******.com’s actions to reconsider and
continue to keep this genealogy blog community the lively thing
it is.

ANCESTOR APPROVED AWARD

This past week I was honored with the Ancestor Approved Award
by Susan Petersen of  Long Lost Relatives.net and Debbie of
Mascot Manor Genealogy . Thank you both!

I was also given this award back in April by six other folks but at
that time I was recovering from my last hospital adventure and in
the midst of the move from the old hobbit hole to my present
apartment so other than expressing my thanks to them I wasn't
able to fulfill the conditions of the award but now I can do so.


As a recipient of this award, I am to list 10 things I have learned about
my ancestors that have surprised, humbled or enlightened me and
then pass the award on to 10 other genealogy bloggers who I feel
are doing their ancestors proud.  So here is my list of 10 things and
my list of 10 other bloggers.

1. I was surprised by learning about my Grandfather West’s part in caring
for soldiers stricken with the Spanish Influenza at Fort Devens during
WWI.

2. I was surprised by how much I've been able to find about
many of my ancestors on GoogleBooks, especially through the Essex
County Court Records. As I've noted before, some of them were
 a contentious lot! 

3. I was humbled to realize my ancestors faced so many obstacles and
tragedies and still endured.

4. I'm constantly enlightened on New England history by my research
into my family history.

5. I've been surprised and frustrated at how elusive some ancestors can
be.

6. I was surprised to find that so many of my ancestors were involved in
 the conflicts with the Native Americans in the earliest days of Maine and
Massachusetts.

7. I was surprised to find distant relatives buried so close to my parents.

8. I was enlightened by Aunt Dot's memories of growing up in MaIne
with my Dad in the 1930's.

9. I was surprised to learn of my ancestor Jonathan Barker's family
problems and burial in an unmarked grave.

10. I am constantly humbled by how much more there is to discover
about my family's history.
 

Cheryl at Have You Seen My Roots?
Caroline at Family Tree Gal 
Becky at My Genealogy Pondering
Kristin at My Cleages And Reeds
Will at Will's Genealogy Blog
Janine at Genealogy: Our Astounding Past
Heather at Nutfield Genealogy
Harriet at Genealogy Fun
Alanna at Confessions of a Gene-a-holic
Marian at Roots and Rambles

AUNT DOT'S MEMORIES5

This is the final installment of my transcription of my Aunt
Dot's thirteen handwritten pages of memories of her and my
Dad's childhood growing up in Oxford County, Maine during
the Depression years. This one shows ..well..a bit of a rebel
strain in them both. Man, if I'd known about this when I was
growing up, I'd have never let Dad live it down!


Up until now I've transcribed everything as written but for
this blog post I've edited two words(the reason should be
self explanatory when you see them) and the left out the
first and middle name of Dad's grade school teacher. My
transcribed copy in my records is unedited.


Our social life was rather sparce. We always looked forward to
the Young Peoples Meetings. It was a group that got together
once a week at a different home each time. We had a short
prayer meeting, played games and had refreshments. Our
minister, Rev. John G. Mantor picked us up and brought us
home each time.

Bud was in the Boy Scouts for several years. Rev. Mantor was
the Scout Master. Bud learned to swim really well during that
time.


Fun at School--


Our grade school was only 2 rooms and all twelve grades were
taught by two teachers. The state changed the requirements
for high school graduates when Bud was in the eighth grade so
he was off to Gould Academy in the fall. Hazel had quit school
during the fall of her junior year but thought it would be great to
go to boarding school so she enrolled as a junior. Guess it wasn’t
that great for her because she quit GA in December and never
went back.


Bud gave folks at Gould a hard time. He wasn’t in to rules and
regulations and did some fancy bending of the rules. He was
caught smoking and was punished. He went into the pool hall
and was suspended for two weeks. Did another stint at home
but I don’t remember what for. After all that-in his junior year-
he came down with the mumps and was sent home again. When
he applied in the fall he was turned down so he didn’t graduate.
-The next year he joined the Army Air Force. During my senior
year I roomed in the headmaster’s home. During the whole 4
years he had never once mentioned Bud to me. It did my heart
good when he asked me one day- that last Spring- what had
happened to my brother. I was so proud I got real brave, for me,
and said, “Oh, he is attending Iowa State Teacher’s College". I
didn‘t bother to mention that the Air Force sent him there to
train for some sort of radio communication.


Back to Grade School


Basically we had some very nice teachers. Only remember one
that none of us liked and of course she was the one who stayed
for three years. Her name was * * Ritchie. One time the boys in
Bud’s class (there were 5 of them) each had to sing a solo -same
song- but each one had to stand in front of the room and sing-
The song went-

In the prison cell I sit
Thinking Mother dear of you-

When it was Bud’s turn he sang- (he was in the 6th or 7th grade)

In the prison cell I sit
With my britches all be sh*t

Miss Ritchie grabbed him -threw him down in his seat and
grabbing him by the ears- slam, slam, slam, his head kept
hitting the desk. Guess she was unhappy with him!


Another time- (I’m in 3rd or 4th grade) I was given an English
paper to write. I was to copy it from a book on the desk behind
me. I kept writing and not looking at the book. She finally
asked what I was doing. I told her doing my lesson. When she
came to look at it I crumpled the paper-ran down front and put
the paper in the bottom of the waste basket. She dumped
everything oh her desk and smoothed out my paper. It said
(about 5 times)

Miss Ritchie is an old b*tchie.


Bud worked several places during the summers-
He worked at road construction when the road below the dam
that went across the river was built.

He worked in the woods with Pop- cutting logs for lumber at
the mill and cutting, loading, and hauling pulp to be pushed into
the river to go to the Berlin paper mills.

There was farming to do for a neighbor so we would have use
of his pasture and hay for our cows.

Also worked at the saw mill.

Guess that is all I remember for now. Sorry this is so messy.

Love to you,
Aunt Dot.

AUNT DOT'S MEMORIES2

This is the second segment of my transcription of the 13 page
handwritten memories of my Aunt Dot on her and my Dad's
childhood.



"Pop" is my grandfather Floyd Earl West Sr. and "Mother"
is my grandmother Cora Berthella Barker. Hazel was my
Dad's older sister, and Flossie the youungest. "Uncle
Clarence" and "Aunt Mable" were my grand uncle Clarence
West and his wife. Uncle Clarence was the caretaker for over
fifty years at the Aziscoos Dam.


I'd heard the story about the geese from Dad when I was a kid
but I never knew the story of how he came to be called Bud nor
that he had been called "Pudge" in high school.



And I am quite certain he'd never have told us about setting the
bed on fire!



"My brother, Floyd Earl West, Jr. was probably never called by
his sir name. Hazel was taught to call him brother and it came
out budda- hence the nickname Bud. In high school at Gould
Academy, he was known as Pudge and when his class mates
ask about him to this day- -he is still Pudge!


Bud always took good care of me---



When we lived on the lake shore Hazel was in grade school and
had walk out to the dam to get on the bus. Mother often went
to meet the bus and walk Hazel home. If she got to talking with
Aunt Mable it was sometimes awhile before they returned. Bud
was left in charge and most of the time we would be taking a
nap when she left. One time we got to playing with a box of
matches on Pop’s bed and set it on fire. When mother got home
the wall and bed were pretty well in flames. Bud and I were in
the doorway. He was buttoning my coat.(We were in the
neighborhood of being 3 & 5 years old as Flossie hadn’t been
born yet.) She got water from the lake and put the fire out. We
had a constant reminder as there was a large wood clock on a
shelf above the bed and one end of the clock was charred.



We always had lots of snow and loved to pile it up and make
tunnels and snow houses. One winter Hazel, Bud, & I made a
snow cave and Bud crawled inside and was cleaning it out
when the whole thing caved in on him. We were frantic trying
to uncover him. Yelled for Mother and she came down the hill
and dug him out. Was I scared!!



One of our favorite things to do was to battle with Uncle
Clarence’s geese. That goose and gander came up the lake
every day and always got out of the water at our place. We
were told to stay up the steps where they couldn’t reach us but
we just knew we could get the best of them. We made plans to
stand back to back-one of us had a broom and the other a
clothes stick to beat these geese back to the lake. They went
back all right-each carrying a screaming kid by the seat of our
pants. Mother always rescued us before they got in the water.
Our back “cheeks” had an awful lot of big black spots but we
were already planning how we would get the upper hand and
win tomorrow. "

LIGHTS! GEDCOMS! ACTION!

I was going to play a number on my flutaphone, but let’s just
get to the awards instead!


BEST COMEDY: would have to be the ongoing and seemingly
never ending quest for 49 GENEALOGICAL USES FOR A
FLUTAPHONE, the most recently updated list being this one.
Of course, I couldn’t have done it without contributions from
some other writers: Janice, Terry, Apple, and Schelly


BEST SCREEN PLAY: I’m torn, so I’m cheating. For best
screenplay, I think ORPHA would make a great movie. I’d
choose Daniel Day Lewis for Jonathan Phelps West, Scarlet
Johansen for the doomed Orpha, and Hillary Swank for
Louisa Almata Richardson.


BEST SCREEN PLAY MINISERIES is presented to the
AMES MURDER posts. Emil Hirsch and Glenn Close would
play the roles of Jonathan Eames and his mother Elizabeth
Eames. Paul Giammati who is playing John Adams in the
upcoming HBO special would reprise that role with perhaps
Viggo Mortenson as the prosecutor and Sam Waterson
for the strangely silent Jonathan Eames, Sr. (we’d have to
write him some dialogue since there’s no testimony on record
from him).


BEST PICTURE: The winnerof this is the picture of my
grandmother Agnes McFarland that accompanies the post
AGGIE. It’s the oldest photograph in the family album and
shows her as a young beautiful girl. I only knew her for a
short while before she died and by then she’d had a difficult
life but in this picture she’s happy and looks ready for a bright
future. Everyone should have that feeling in their lives and I'd
like to think Aggie did.


BEST BIOGRAPHY is actually an autobiography: AUNT
DOT'S MEMORIES, written by my Aunt Dorothy. I learned
things I never knew about my Dad’s childhood as well as
Dot’s. Also it was the beginning of many new discoveries in
my family history.


That concludes the First Annual West in New England IGene
Blog Awards. Thank you for coming, and drive safely!


This was written for the 42nd Carnival of Genealogy for which
Jasia asked us to choose winners for the awards in the above
categories!

AUNT DOT'S MEMORIES3

This is the third in a series of posts that are word for word
transcriptions of 13 hand written pages given to me by my
Dad's sister Dorothy. They are her memories of their childhood
growing up in the Depression era in Oxford County, Maine.


This section deals mostly with Pop...my grandfather Floyd E.
West, Sr. and what jobs he worked at.







"Pop was always afraid of the water-afraid of drowning or of
some of us lost to it.

He had a tiny hut at Beaver Brook- across the lake from where
we were living. He tended traps there all winter crossing the
lake on snowshoes and carrying a pick-pole. When ice started
breaking up in the spring it was pretty scary watching him
leave with his heavy pack sack strapped to his back. He would
step onto a large chunk of ice and shove with his pick-pole until
he got to another chunk big enough to hold him-then step onto
it-or push the chunk out of the way and stay on the one he was
floating on. I always wondered if and when he would come back.
He was gone several days and I used to be afraid the ice would
be all gone when he was ready to return.



When Flossie was born Mother went to Bethel and stayed for
two weeks. She had made new dresses for Hazel and me and I
can still rember those dresses hanging up high on the wall. They
were orange with white daisies with bright blue centers.



While Mother was gone Pop took us out to the dam every day.
Bud & Hazel were allowed to go to the house to play with
cousins Lee and Leita but since Aunt Mabel had a girl (Ruth),
younger than me, he thought she shouldn’t have to watch two
little ones. He always took me to the longshop where he was
building a motorboat for Clarence. I took my naps in the boat
he was working on. The finished boat was named the Kiko.
The last time I saw the Kiko was about 1959/60. It was no
longer the beauty it had been.



Pop had a 9 passenger green buick, convertible, touring car.
The only time I remember riding in it was when we went to
Bethel to get mother. in the late 1930’s Pop cut that car in half
and made a farm tractor out of it. The jitter-bug was all the
rage at that time. There wasn’t money for tractors and many
people were converting old cars to use in the fields. The back
tires were big truck tires.


Among other jobs -Pop was a guide for the fishermen who
came from the big city’s and didn’t know where to catch
anything. Most of the men in town were guides. Besides
knowing where to fish - the guides did the cooking and
entertaining of these guests. Story telling was a great asset.
These men could string out some pretty outlandish yarns.


We moved into the Will Hart place when Flossie was a year
old- 1931. There was a big old barn in the field close by. The
owner had a fishing lodge where he floated his 2 cows to
every summer. In winter we kept the cows in his barn- so had
milk & butter from June to Labor Day. Bud & I loved to climb
in the loft and pitch hay onto the barn floor then jump down
into it."

A FINE WEDDING

My nephew Paul was married today and it was a nice wedding.
He was handsome and his bride Jen was radiant and they are
both such good young people.


Man, does that ever make me feel old, looking at that.


I rode down to the reception with my brother and his two sons
and along the way I explained about the family tree. By the
time I was done, my youngest nephew Matt complained his head
hurt!


There was a little mixup with the table seatings but we ended up
where we were supposed to be with a table with my two aunts.
Aunt Emily from my mother’s side came with her daughter
Winnie and Winnie’s husband David. From my father’s side there
was his sister, my Aunt Dorothy, and cousin Louise her daughter.
My mom’s friend Joe B. who was as close as a grandfather to
Cheryl’s kids was also there with us along with the minister who
had performed the ceremony.




I’d brought along photocopies of my Grandfather West’s WWI
draft card and John Ames’ Revolutionary War pension files for
Aunt Dot. I also brought copies of great Grandfather White’s
WWI draft card, the cards for the McFarland brothers, some
census pages and other information on that side of the family
for Emily and Winnie.



And it turned out Aunt Dot had the same idea. She brought a
folder with pictures of Grandfather and Great Grandfather West
and pictures of Great Grandmother Lottie Barker and her four
sisters. There was also a copy of Grandfather West’s WWI
discharge papers from the Army and a copy of a certified abstract
of the marriage of Arvilla Ames' and John C (Cutter) West’s
marriage record.


But the best of all are the thirteen handwritten pages entitled
“Memories” that are Dot’s reminisces of her and Dad’s childhood
in Maine. I will be posting most of it here over the course of the
next week or so.



We had a good time talking about family history and genealogy.
I even learned a few new things about Grandfather White that I
hadn’t known concerning the reason Aggie divorced him.

I guess the minister learned more about our family than he
expected!

All in all, a beautiful day.

The sun shone on us all.

JOHN AMES, SCHOOLMASTER?

Way back here in my series of posts about John Ames’
Revolutionary War pension file, I listed several questions I had.
One of them was this: One of the witnesses, William Spaulding,
testifies that he knewJohn Ames from childhood and that when
he “was a boy I went to school with him at his fathers house in
Groton.” If John’s father,who was also named John Ames, was
a school master, this is the first I’d seen mention of that. Was
this true?

I have known the answer for a few weeks now but pushed the
topic to a back burner while transcribing my Aunt Dot’s
memories.

A search at Google Books brought me to “History of the Town of
Groton: Including Pepperell and Shirley, from the First Grant
of Groton Plantation in 1655” by Caleb Butler. It seems that the
town hadn’t a school house but instead held classes in several
different locations. In 1741 it was voted to hold school “in five
places, six weeks a place.” In 1742 seven places were chosen, and
in 1745 only four. Eventually there was a school house built in
the middle of the town but those living more than two miles away
could have classes held closer to their homes.


As I said, I’d not seen any records to indicate any of the Ames of
colonial Groton were schoolmasters or teachers. But in 1717 the
town was charged as being in violation of the law by the General
Court of Massachusetts for not having a school master. A petition
was sent to the General Court which pointed out that Groton was
at that time a small town with fewer than a hundred families and
many were not able to contribute funds for a school. But it also
explained that the town had hired a school master the previous
December. In light of that fact the town hoped that the charge
against it would be dropped, and it was.


The petition was presented to the General Court for Groton by
John Ames. Given the year was 1717/8 that would have to be
either the first John Ames, son of Robert Ames and Rebecca
Blake, or his son John Ames, Jr. John Ames 3rd would have
owned the house where William Spaulding went to school with
the fourth John Ames.


Too many Johns there! Almost the genealogy equivalent of
"Who's on First?"


So, while there were no schoolteachers in the Ames of Groton of
that period, they seem to have been one of the families active in
seeing the town’s children were getting an education.

AUNT DOT REMEMBERS CHRISTMAS

 This was originally posted back on 25Jul 2007. I thought I'd repost
 it again because of the Christmas memories:

This was the first in a series of posts which are my transcriptions
of 13 handwritten pages. They were written by my Aunt Dot
(Dorothy West Bargar) and given to me yesterday when we attended
my nephew Paul's wedding.

Some explanations of the names mentioned: Phillip was
Phillip Jonathan West, Dot's grandfather and my great
grandfather. Bud is my Dad, Hazel was her older sister
and Flossie(Florence) the youngest.

"Dingle" is a new term to me and sounds like a shed.


"Our family lived on Back Street in Upton from about 1830 to
1927. I have a picture of Bud and Hazel, taken Aug., 1926 that
was given me by Pop’s cousin Louie West (his dad was great
uncle Paul -Philip’s brother). This was the first I heard that I
ever lived in Upton. My birthday was in April of that year.

From conversations, I think I remember we probably moved
to Magalloway for a short time, then to Wilsons Mills. Phillip
stayed in Magalloway.

The first place I remember living was in a little square cabin on
the shore of Azichoos lake back a trail from the dam house.
There was a wagon trail past an old stone quarry and a foot
path along the lake shore. The quarry was home of the bear
that we always looked out for. The cabin was partitioned off in
one corner-a room big enough for a white iron double bed and a
built in double bed with a bunk (half size) up under the eaves.
There was a path between the beds wide enough for a dresser.
The remainder of the cabin was one L shaped room (except the
L was upside down & backwards) (end p.1)


The back door opened to a covered walk that led to a dingle
where we kept outdoor tools and dry wood for the fire. The
space from the door to the dingle was about the width of a
standard sidewalk. I have always remembered the dingle
because that is where the bag of toys that Santa brought was
kept. I only remember one Christmas that we received presents
and must have been when I was three because Flossie was not
yet in the family.

Don’t remember what Hazel & Mother got. Pop got a necktie,
Bud got pocket knife. (he would have been 5 years old) and I got
a pull toy -it was a green platform with red wheels & a red pull
string and had a white celluloid lamb on the platform. We also
got a tiddle wink game, which at my age was a great failure at,
but liked it anyway. That was probably 1929.

In years later we always decorated the house and had fun
making our decorations from newspapers and magazines. For
many years we had carefully saved the few fold out paper
Christmas bells and a few pieces of red & green rope that had
come with the family before any time that I recall."(end p 2)

AUNT DOT REMEMBERS CHRISTMAS

This was originally posted back on 25Jul 2007. I thought I'd repost
 it again because of the Christmas memories:

This the first in a series of posts which are my transcriptions
of 13 handwritten pages. They were written by my Aunt Dot
(Dorothy West Bargar) and given to me yesterday when we attended
my nephew Paul's wedding.

Some explanations of the names mentioned: Phillip was
Phillip Jonathan West, Dot's grandfather and my great
grandfather. Bud is my Dad, Hazel was her older sister
and Flossie(Florence) the youngest.

"Dingle" is a new term to me and sounds like a shed.


"Our family lived on Back Street in Upton from about 1830 to
1927. I have a picture of Bud and Hazel, taken Aug., 1926 that
was given me by Pop’s cousin Louie West (his dad was great
uncle Paul -Philip’s brother). This was the first I heard that I
ever lived in Upton. My birthday was in April of that year.

From conversations, I think I remember we probably moved
to Magalloway for a short time, then to Wilsons Mills. Phillip
stayed in Magalloway.

The first place I remember living was in a little square cabin on
the shore of Azichoos lake back a trail from the dam house.
There was a wagon trail past an old stone quarry and a foot
path along the lake shore. The quarry was home of the bear
that we always looked out for. The cabin was partitioned off in
one corner-a room big enough for a white iron double bed and a
built in double bed with a bunk (half size) up under the eaves.
There was a path between the beds wide enough for a dresser.
The remainder of the cabin was one L shaped room (except the
L was upside down & backwards) (end p.1)


The back door opened to a covered walk that led to a dingle
where we kept outdoor tools and dry wood for the fire. The
space from the door to the dingle was about the width of a
standard sidewalk. I have always remembered the dingle
because that is where the bag of toys that Santa brought was
kept. I only remember one Christmas that we received presents
and must have been when I was three because Flossie was not
yet in the family.

Don’t remember what Hazel & Mother got. Pop got a necktie,
Bud got pocket knife. (he would have been 5 years old) and I got
a pull toy -it was a green platform with red wheels & a red pull
string and had a white celluloid lamb on the platform. We also
got a tiddle wink game, which at my age was a great failure at,
but liked it anyway. That was probably 1929.

In years later we always decorated the house and had fun
making our decorations from newspapers and magazines. For
many years we had carefully saved the few fold out paper
Christmas bells and a few pieces of red & green rope that had
come with the family before any time that I recall."(end p 2)

AUNT DOT REMEMBERS

This was originally posted back on 25Jul 2007. I thought I'd repost
 it again because of the Christmas memories:

This the first in a series of posts which are my transcriptions
of 13 handwritten pages. They were written by my Aunt Dot
(Dorothy West Bargar) and given to me yesterday when we attended
my nephew Paul's wedding.

Some explanations of the names mentioned: Phillip was
Phillip Jonathan West, Dot's grandfather and my great
grandfather. Bud is my Dad, Hazel was her older sister
and Flossie(Florence) the youngest.

"Dingle" is a new term to me and sounds like a shed.


"Our family lived on Back Street in Upton from about 1830 to
1927. I have a picture of Bud and Hazel, taken Aug., 1926 that
was given me by Pop’s cousin Louie West (his dad was great
uncle Paul -Philip’s brother). This was the first I heard that I
ever lived in Upton. My birthday was in April of that year.

From conversations, I think I remember we probably moved
to Magalloway for a short time, then to Wilsons Mills. Phillip
stayed in Magalloway.

The first place I remember living was in a little square cabin on
the shore of Azichoos lake back a trail from the dam house.
There was a wagon trail past an old stone quarry and a foot
path along the lake shore. The quarry was home of the bear
that we always looked out for. The cabin was partitioned off in
one corner-a room big enough for a white iron double bed and a
built in double bed with a bunk (half size) up under the eaves.
There was a path between the beds wide enough for a dresser.
The remainder of the cabin was one L shaped room (except the
L was upside down & backwards) (end p.1)


The back door opened to a covered walk that led to a dingle
where we kept outdoor tools and dry wood for the fire. The
space from the door to the dingle was about the width of a
standard sidewalk. I have always remembered the dingle
because that is where the bag of toys that Santa brought was
kept. I only remember one Christmas that we received presents
and must have been when I was three because Flossie was not
yet in the family.

Don’t remember what Hazel & Mother got. Pop got a necktie,
Bud got pocket knife. (he would have been 5 years old) and I got
a pull toy -it was a green platform with red wheels & a red pull
string and had a white celluloid lamb on the platform. We also
got a tiddle wink game, which at my age was a great failure at,
but liked it anyway. That was probably 1929.

In years later we always decorated the house and had fun
making our decorations from newspapers and magazines. For
many years we had carefully saved the few fold out paper
Christmas bells and a few pieces of red & green rope that had
come with the family before any time that I recall."(end p 2)