Beyond the South End: ...and one to grow on

Virginia Dare Winchenbaugh Poletti in 2008

Remember when we were spanked on our birthday? It was one spank for each year we were old. When the spanker was finished they added one more and said…”one more to grow on.” Well I’m here to tell you there is one person I’m happy to have in my life who would be standing there a long time if I spanked her on her birthday this December 7. Her name is Virginia Dare Winchenbaugh Poletti and she is my aunt. (Yes she was named for the historical character Virginia Dare, who reportedly was the first white child born in America.)

Born on Dutch Neck at the family’s homestead, the family moved to West Meadow Road in Rockland when she was a small girl. The family would eventually number five boys and three girls. My grandfather, Herman Winchenbaugh, held several jobs in the community. He was a lay preacher and also studied for the law via the mail and became a Justice of the Peace. He eventually acquired a lot of real estate in Rockland and Spruce Head and did quite well renting out some of the properties, including several cottages in Spruce Head. He and his wife, Carrie, once owned and lived in the Berry House, now the Berry Manor Inn.

In the early years on the West Meadow Road, however, the family had to struggle at times. Virginia went to school at the Benner Hill School, a one-room schoolhouse on the Mountain Road, above West Meadow Road. She went to high school at Rockland High School on Lincoln Street. She and my mother had to walk to school from way up on the West Meadow Road.

One day when she was in high school they let school out early because of a blizzard. Virginia, instead of going home, took the dime she happened to have and went to the movies. When she got out the storm was worse and by the time she got to Kiln Hill she was in trouble. At one point she had to crawl on hands and knees. She almost didn’t make it home. Her father was getting ready to hitch up the horse and wagon to go look for her by the time she finally made it home.

She has fond memories, however, of going to church with the family on Sunday, then spending the day down at the cottages in Spruce Head, arriving there via their horse and buggy. The problem was that when they returned home the kids all had to trudge up Kiln Hill to the house because their horse, Molly, was tired. Kiln Hill is the nickname for Shearer’s Lane. I imagine it was called Kiln Hill because of the many limestone quarries up that way.

She met her husband, Constantine Poletti, lovingly called “Uncle Mac,” when he was serving in the Navy and came to Rockland. I don’t know where the name “Mac” came from. She used to call him “Con” and he called her “Gin or Ginny.” When war broke out on her 31^st birthday, December 7, 1941, Mac was deployed to several posts in the U.S. Aunt Virginia followed him wherever he went and met many friends along the way.

After the war, Mac worked for the Post Office in Boston until he retired. He and Virginia lived in Quincy, Massachusetts. They had no children, but we have always considered her to be our second mother in the family.

Virginia and Mac spent many summers at a cottage owned by my grandfather in Spruce Head and eventually bought it when my grandfather died. My mother and father bought the one next door. When the foursome retired they both spent the entire summer in Spruce Head. The Polettis spent the winter in Florida for many years. They went on a cruise every winter also, which totaled up to 21 cruises over the years.

After Uncle Mac passed away, Virginia continued to make the trek back and forth to Maine and Florida in the spring and fall with the help of a driver. Not long after she went through a bad hurricane season in Florida in which her mobile home was severely damaged, she decided to move back up to Maine permanently to be nearer her family. She is now a permanent resident of Bartlett Woods. The Spruce Head cottage is still used by family on occasion and Virginia gets to go down and sit on the front porch once in a while in the summer so she can watch the activity on the water and watch the tide come in and out.

We were happy to welcome her back to her home state of Maine; and we are happy to celebrate her 100^th birthday this December 7. Still as witty as ever, she is well loved by us and by all the folks up at Bartlett Woods. Here’s to you, Aunt Virginia. I now will commence the spanking: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-23-24-oh well you get the idea. Here’s the 100^th spank…and one to grow on. Happy Birthday, Aunt Virginia.

Thanks for listening.

(See the related stories, “What Was Virginia’s Landscape Like in 1910?” and “Front Page Stories for December 10, 1910.”)