My generation, as much as we hate to admit it, is now the “oldest generation” of our families. At this point in our lives we delight in looking back on our youthful experiences. Our folks are gone and it’s important to us to keep in touch with our remaining family members and especially old friends.
I was able to experience two delightful experiences last week in regards to old friends.
A letter came from our 1959 class president at Rockland High School, Todd McIntosh. He admitted to finally getting around to reading my book, The South End, and how much he had enjoyed it. In that letter, he also added some of his own family history which was very interesting. Look for his guest blog in this month’s blogspot.
I also heard from an old friend I’ve been trying to get in touch with for some time now. One of the fifteen letters I sent out to different addresses found online, finally reached her. She called me on the phone last week. We couldn’t talk long as she had a church meeting to go to, but it sure was nice hearing her voice. It was an “older voice” than I remember, but she was still my Lucy.
Her name is Lucille Valiant Currier and our history goes back to our college days at Washington State Teachers College, now a part of the University of Maine, located downeast in Machias, Maine.
We graduated in 1964 and roomed together in southern Maine as we both got teaching jobs in York County. The first place I lived in on my own was with Lucy in an attic apartment in Kittery, Maine previously checked out and approved of by my mother.
The apartment was a one-room affair with a slanted ceiling and a “closed in chimney” with a seat formed around it. There was a pull-out couch tucked under one eave and a twin bed in another corner of the room. We took turns using the bed and couch to sleep in.
We had a galley kitchen but had to share a bathroom in the hall with the two guys who lived across from us. We reached it from our apartment, using a hook to shut the boys out when we were in there. They did the same thing. Surprisingly, we worked out an agreeable system with the boys so that things worked smoothly in that regard.
This “apartment” was in the top of a house owned by an older couple. They would not allow us to have a phone line run. Instead there was a bell system at the bottom of our stairs to the attic. She rang once for us and twice for the boys and we came down and talked on her phone.
Kittery was located very near several military posts. I remember Pease Air Force Base and the marines located at the shipyard. We used to go to affairs at the Officer’s Club at Pease. We also had the beaches in Southern Maine, Hampton Beach, and the beaches in Massachusetts close by. We took advantage of them too.
As teachers living in a small town in the 1960s, we had to be careful not to draw any adverse attention to ourselves. Teachers in those days lived in a vacuum and weren’t supposed to have any private life. Therefore, when we wanted to party we generally went to Massachusetts to a club called “The Clover Club.”
I remember some happy times at that club. The crowd usually ended up all table hopping and pushing tables together. Many nights included conga line dancing throughout the place.
During all this time from college on, Lucy visited my family in Maine many times. My mother adopted her as one of her own and when I occasionally came home without her she’d want to know where she was. When her first baby, Michael, was born, she made a point of visiting my mother and me while she was visiting in Maine.
Lucy and I moved to Connecticut the following year to find greener pastures and bigger opportunities. I stayed with her family in Norwalk all that summer while I was interviewing for teaching jobs. They accepted me into their family the same way mine had accepted Lucy.
I visited Norwalk many times with Lucy and it was my first introduction to the way a large Italian-American family operates. The first big dinner I went to one Easter was at her grandmother’s house. It was quite an experience. We never left the dining room table all day. We had pasta and sauce, fish, antipasto salad, chicken and still later pizza was ordered for everyone along with Italian canolis
Lucy was also an excellent Italian cook and I enjoyed many a lasagna meal she made for us.
We both got teaching jobs in the Hartford area and moved in with another Maine girl we knew in a back apartment on Farmington Avenue. We eventually moved into a larger apartment in the same building. Also in that building was three other Maine girls our other roommate, Anne, knew. Two of them were also teachers in the area. They had already been there for some time. There were also a couple of guys in another apartment they knew and we became friendly with them also.
That building was party central. When we hosted a party, all the doors remained open as we drifted from one apartment to another. One night "a guest" walked away with our TV. That place was located on one of the busiest streets in Hartford. We were six Maine girls let loose in the city of Hartford. Talk about “Jersey Shore,” we were the Hartford version with more sense of course.
We all eventually moved into a house together that belonged to a widow who had just lost her husband. I was not teaching at that time, but was working at The Hartford Courant. I worked at night, therefore, our schedules were very different.
As things happen in life, two of the girls married, to the two guys on Farmington Avenue believe or not. We were all attending weddings for a while there. We of course split up soon after that. I had my very own apartment for the first time down on Fern Street in Hartford.
Lucy, looking for more opportunities, accepted a teaching job with the U.S. government, teaching American children in Japan. We corresponded for several years after that. I still have the beautiful letters she sent me from Japan on beautiful decorated rice paper. See samples of that paper here with this story.
Ironically, she met her husband in Japan. Halfway around the world she meets a Navy officer who hails from where…Calais, Maine, a mere stone’s throw from where we went to school in Machias.
She told me on the phone that Richard has passed away. I cried. I was in their wedding party in Newport, Rhode Island, at the chapel where President Kennedy and Jackie were married. They did the crossed swords and it was a truly beautiful experience for me. They were married for 40 years
During all the time they were bouncing around with the Navy, Lucy hoped they would eventually settle in Maine. After all, she loves the state and her husband hailed from there. It was never to be, however. I hope to get Lucy back up to Maine sometime so we can visit our old haunts.
I have many more “Lucy” stories to share at some point. Many include the excursions we took in her red VW convertible bug, running back and forth from Connecticut to Maine and places in between.
I also have all those letters which come from Japan, a place near to many wartime conflicts, most importantly, the Vietnam War, which wasn’t really a war so they say. She has stories in those letters about the young men involved in wartime activities.
She also tells of her experiences with local Japanese and her travels in the area during that time. I think there’s a book there somewhere. I would title it “Letters from Lucy or the Making of an American Geisha.” What do you think?
The story would take place during that volatile era of the 60s and I think it would make a good story. Is it a story you would be interested in? Let me know your opinion. Email me or post me a note on my The South End Facebook page or my regular Facebook page.
Lucy now lives in Florida; and as I live in Georgia, we hope to get together in person at some point. (See April Update in that regard.)
Keeping in touch is important. Try looking up an old friend yourself. You’ll be surprised what you might discover.
Thanks for listening.
