Robert Davis interviewed by Richard Ade - February 20, 2001

• Davis, Robert L. (Robert Leslie), 1925-2010

Richard Ade Interviews

WHAT IS YOUR FULL NAME?

My name is Robert Wesley Davis.

AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

I was born in West Bethel in 1925.

HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE IN YOUR FAMILY?

In my folks family, there was six children and a mother and father. But, my family, I had four..three boys and a girl and my wife Pauley.

WHAT WAS YOUR MOTHER’S OCCUPATION?

She was a housewife and a mother.

WHAT WAS YOUR FATHER’S OCCUPATION?

He was a farmer.

WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE AT HOME?

How was life on the farm? Oh, it was a good life. We had to work hard and get up early in the morning and went to bed pretty early at night. I was always tired. We had 100 head of cattle to take care of and a pair of horses and a driving horse. I remember when I was smaller, there were milk cows and we used to milk about 50 milk cows by hand. I didn’t do it…we had some hired help that helped milk the cows. Then we used to ship the milk on the train down to Auburn and they’d peddle the milk around to different places down there. And, then it was too much work so we sold all the milk cattle and put in beef cattle. That weren’t so bad. All you had to do was feed them, pasture them.

WHAT WERE YOUR GRANDPARENTS LIKE?

My grandparents on my mother’s side came from Nova Scotia and my grandfather was a teamster..a very good man with horses. In fact, he drove a stage coach up on Mt. Washington years and years ago. My grandmother, she was just a housewife and mother. It was a large family and they lived up in West Bethel out on the Flat Road. They lived where my folks lived when my father died at the farm where he worked for many years. I don’t remember just how many there were in the family, but back then, they had big families, you know. I guess that’s about it for that.

WHAT ARE YOUR EARLIEST MEMORIES?

I guess my earliest memories were when I first went to school. I was a couple years older than my sister and then sent me to school without her and I think I walked home because I didn’t want to go to school unless she went. So, I stayed home until she was five and then went to school. That made me seven and she was five…that was my first memory that I remember. I guess we used to have to go two miles to go to school and in the spring we used to have to go in the horse and wagon and the road would be muddy and we couldn’t get through it. And, in the winter time, my father would have to come out to West Bethel with a team of horses and pick us up because he couldn’t get through. My mother used to carry us sometimes in the wagon and we’d pick up some other people down the road and they’d ride with us to.

WHAT WERE YOUR MOST IMPORTANT EARLY INFLUENCES?

Well, I don’t know. I don’t know if I had any. What do you mean by that?

WELL, WHO INFLUENCED YOU MOST IN YOUNGER YEARS..YOUR BROTHERS, SISTERS, PARENTS, UNCLES OR GRANDPARENTS OR MAYBE TEACHERS?

No. I don’t remember any. I guess I didn’t have any.

WHERE DID YOU FIRST GO TO SCHOOL?

West Bethel. It was a two room school house with a first, second, third and fourth grade in one room and fifth, sixth and seventh in the other. We didn’t have any sub-primary like they have today. I was there for eight years when I graduated from the eighth grade.

WHERE DID YOU GO TO SCHOOL AFTER THAT?

I went to Gould Academy for two years. I had a driver’s license. I had a ’29 Model A Ford Station Wagon and I used to pick up some of the kids who lived in West Bethel and then bring them into Gould.

DESCRIBE YOUR SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS.

In the first grade up to the fourth grade I had a lady by the name of Iva Hutchinson. She was born in East Bethel, Maine. She was a good teacher. She was a pretty busy woman with all of the children that were in the school…I don’t remember the number of children who were in the school….or the room that I was in. And then in the other room there was a lady by the name of Mrs. Irving. She was from Bethel and she taught up through the 8th grade. She was a very good teacher but she had a temper. You behaved yourself or you got punished. She had a strap in the drawer about that long and about that wide and about that thick….

DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL MEMORIES ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL DAYS?

We had a baseball field out behind the school building where we used to go out and play ball at recess time. I was left handed and I’d have to put the mitt on the wrong hand because I didn’t have a left handed mitt. Well, I tipped the mitt upside down and put it on my right hand. One time we found this old horse rig and we ran it around the building. We did something to the wheels and when it was found out we all had to pay to have it fixed. I remember. That didn’t go over too big with our parents. Back then it was quite a bit of money. We bent the wheel somehow on it and they had to have it straightened.

OTHER THAN BASEBALL, DID YOU PLAY ANY SPORTS?

I played basketball. I skied a lot. That was it, I guess.

DID YOU HAVE ANY HOBBIES BACK THEN?

No, not really because I always had chores to do which had to be done when I got home from school. Help tend to the cows and feed the horses.

WHEN WERE YOUR FAVORITE TIMES?

Oh, I guess going out to Somerville Pond swimming in the summertime was quite a treat because we used to swim in the river..Pleasant River.

DO YOU HAVE ANY UNPLEASANT MEMORIES?

Yeah. I had one. I had a dog and the neighbor shot it. That was a sad memory.

WHAT DID YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT GROWING UP?

Oh, gee, I don’t know. I guess hanging May baskets was one of the favorite things we used to do. They don’t do that today.

WELL, I’VE DONE IT ONCE.

You did?

WHAT WAS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT GROWING UP?

Going to Sunday School. I didn’t like to put on a necktie to go to Sunday School.

WHERE DID YOU WORK FIRST?

I worked right on the farm, first and then I went into the service.

HOW MUCH DID YOU EARN THEN?

About two dollars a day, when I first started.

WHERE ELSE DID YOU WORK?

I worked in the woods and I worked on the road. I worked on the farm up until I went into the service. When I came out of the service I worked on the farm in the fall and then I went to work on the road in 1947 and I worked on the road until I retired in 1987. I was a fire chief and a fire warden and a road man.

WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR WORST WORK EXPERIENCES?

Oh. I had quite a few. I guess some of the experiences were when I was in the Fire Department and I remember there was a house…a barn that burned down in East Bethel and there was a four year old boy in it and he burned to death. We had to pull around the hay to find him…to find the body. It was one of my worst experiences. Then, there was an accident up on Route 2. It was a truck and a car involved and there were three people who got killed and they burned…the car caught on fire and the truck did too. That was another sad experience I had. I didn’t sleep much but a couple of nights after that accident.

WHAT DO YOU REMBER ABOUT SOME OF THE GREAT EVENTS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY?

I guess the death of President Roosevelt would be one of them. Then, the shooting of President Kennedy. I guess also when Dr. King was shot.

WHAT ABOUT WORLD WAR II?

I was in the paratroopers…11th Airborn. I was in the Phillipines…Okononowa and Japan.

WHAT ABOUT THE GREAT DEPRESSION?

I don’t really remember too much about that.

WHAT ABOUT THE 1950’S?

I don’t recall too much about that.

WHAT US PRESIDENT DID YOU LIKE THE BEST?

Oh, I’m going to say Eisenhower.

WHY?

Well, he was an army guy.

WHO DID YOU LIKE THE LEAST? (PRESIDENT)

Well, I don’t know. Probably…who was the one that they had to acquit…Nixon. I didn’t care for him.

HOW COME?

Well, I don’t know why. I just didn’t like him.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT CHANGES YOU HAVE NOTED IN YOUR LIFETIME?

I guess it was when I found out that my son had to have a bone marrow transplant. We had to change our ways a little.

WHAT WAS MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU?

I guess the welfare of my family.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WERE THE BEST CHANGES?

Oh, I don’t know. Really. We all have to change. If we didn’t, it wouldn’t be a very good place to live.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST UNFORTUNATE?

Well, I don’t know.

DID YOU MARRY?

I’ve been married for 53 years.

HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR WIFE?

I guess I went to the restaurant where she was working. I got to flirting with her and that’s how I met her.

DESCRIBE WHERE YOU LIVED AFTER YOU GOT MARRIED.

I lived down over the hill on Route 5…it’s the first house after the intersection.

WHERE HAVE YOU LIVED SINCE THEN?

I still live in the same house. I’ve lived in the same house ever since I was married. I bought the place.

DO YOU HAVE ANY HOBBIES NOW?

I do a little wood craft. I like to snowmobile. I don’t care much about travelling, but I do travel some.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE?

You mean for food….

ANYTHING.

I like lobster. I like steak. I like deer meat. I like to go hunting. I guess I like to eat, period. Yeah, I guess that’s it.

WHAT DO YOU DISLIKE?

Well, I don’t like broccoli (laughs)..I don’t like broccoli. I don’t like cod liver oil. Sometimes, I don’t like the weather. It’s miserable. Other than that I guess I get along pretty well with most everything else.

DO YOU HAVE ANY CHILDREN?

Yes, I have four. Three boys and a girl. They are all grown up.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THEM?

I have one…my oldest boy Wayne is in Wyoming. He’s a miner. He mines solder ash. He’s been out there for 21 or 22 years. My second son, Craig, is recovering from a bone marrow transplant. He’s, well, a trouble shooter for air conditioning and refrigeration. Keith, my youngest son, is a welder. He lives up in Massachusetts during the week and comes home. He’s a jobber they call it…a subcontractor. He welds, cuts, pipe fits or whatever. My daughter, Becky Sue, she lives up in Dennysville which is way downeast. She lives at Hobbs Brook State Park. That’s about 26 miles north of Machias. It’s a nice little park…right on the ocean. They have a lot of tent sites and they have places for trailers and mobile homes and that’s it.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN THE BETHEL AREA?

75 years.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS AREA?

I like the people. And it’s quiet and peaceful. The winter’s aren’t as bad as they used to be and the summer’s are beautiful. We have lakes and things that are around here. I guess that’s it.

WHAT ARE THE DISADVANTAGES?

Well, we don’t have any big stores. We only have one grocery store. We don’t really have a place where you can go to buy men’s clothing. You have to go into the city…

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE CHANGED?

The only thing I’d like to see changed is more things on Main Street. There’s not much there anymore. We used to have three grocery stores on Main Street and we used to have two hardware stores. Now we’ve got one hardware store and one grocery store.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO REMAIN THE SAME?

Oh. I don’t know. It should…that’s a hard one. I really don’t know.

WHO WAS THE MOST UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTER YOU EVER MET?

Oh. I guess I would have to say Fred McMillan.

WHY?

Well, he really wasn’t a character but he knew a lot of history and things that went on around the town.

WHAT COMMUNITY SERVICE ACTIVITIES ARE YOU INVOLVED IN?

I’m not in any right now.

ARE YOU INVOLVED WITH THE BETHEL HISTORIC SOCIETY?

I’m a member.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER SOME OF YOUR MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS?

Well, I don’t know. I haven’t made too many (laughs)…I guess the most important one was what to do about my son when he had his bone marrow transplant.

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU THINK IS MOST IMPORTANT TO PROVIDE A YOUNG PERSON BASED ON YOUR EXPERIENCES?

I guess being a good Samaritan. Keep your nose clean.

WHAT DO YO THINK THE 21ST CENTURY WILL BE LIKE?

I don’t know. I’m glad I’m pretty near through the 20th! I don’t know. I don’t think it’s going to be so good.

DO YOU THINK BETHEL WILL HAVE A BRIGHT FUTURE?

Well, I don’t know. That would be hard to say.

DO YOU HAVE ANY HUMOROUS STORIES?

No.

WHAT WAS YOUR FUNNIEST EXPERIENCE?

I really can’t think of one right now.

WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE?

Most memorable one….I really can’t think of one.

WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST SNOW FALL YOU HAVE EVER SEEN?

Oh. Three feet.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE HERE BEFORE SUNDAY RIVER?

The roads were plugged up half the time. Couldn’t get out…used to have to shovel in front of the snow plow. I had a big tractor that broke down half the time. Out there on the Flat Road the winds came out off Mt. Washington and that road would be drifted over for two or three weeks at a time. The only way to get out was to ski out to West Bethel where there was a store. It was about two miles. A lot of the way they didn’t plow in the road. Instead, they would plow in the field because when they were plowing the roads there would be bends and that would catch the snow and pile up. It would be so hard you could walk right on it. But, you don’t have that kind of weather like you used to. Of course, out there on the Flat Road, a lot of the fields were groomed out and they planted a load of trees in places so the snow doesn’t drift like it used to. But, we would have, I know, a lot of weeks, we would have three and four feet of snow. Not all at once…although I know one storm we had three feet of snow. But, the rest of the time it would be a foot or a foot and half or so. One week I remember I worked a 100 hours and got a 100 dollars driving my snow plow/tractor. But, then the cars would have to go …they couldn’t make room . When you met somebody on the road, the road could be so narrow you couldn’t very well pass each other. They used to put up a snow fence. But, after a few storms the snow fence would be buried and it didn’t do any good. Way back, they used to roll the roads. They had a six horse team pulling the big roller. Well, that roller would be that big. In fact, they’ve got one over in the barn somewhere…a big roller that they used to roll the roads with. Well, where do you live?

I LIVE IN BETHEL…ON HALL ROAD. IT’S A CROSS ROAD FROM GROVER HILL.

I live right near there. I live on the corner there in the big white house. You live out beyond there?

YES. ABOUT THREE MILES UP GROVER HILL.

Down over hillside?

YES.

Do you live beside a Donna Remington?

NO.

She lives up that way. You live down over the hill?

DO YOU KNOW MELL HILL ROAD…GO UP THE HILL FOR ABOUT THREE MILES AND THEN THERE’S A SMALL DIRT ROAD. I’M THE ONLY ONE WHO LIVES UP THERE.

I used to live up on the Flat Road. Have you been out on the Flat Road?

YES.

You know, where there’s a farm way over under the mountain? There’s a nice house a guy just moved into on the main road, right there on the corner where you turn to go down to that farm. I used to live in that house. But you live up on Grover Hill…on a dirt road?

YES. THERE’S ONLY TWO HOUSES ON THE ROAD.

Is that the Mill’s Road?

NO. THE HALL ROAD.

Oh yeah. Go up to the sharp turn and take a little dirt road there. Oh. Just down there a little ways?

HALF A MILE.

You have a house in there?

YES.

How long have you been there?

THIS WILL BE OUR FOURTH YEAR.

Who plows your road?

WE DO.

You do…? What’s your father do?

UM. HE WORKS A CM BROWN AND READS CONFECTIONARY COMPANY.

Oh. I guess you’re supposed to be asking the questions. I’m not.

LAUGHTER.

I’m sorry I can’t hear too good.

WHAT WAS SKIING LIKE BEFORE THERE WERE LIFTS?

We used to use harnesses, you know. We used to take an old inner tubes and cut pieces about that wide and put them on and take and put them down over your toe. It was just a strap in the front…You’ve probably seen them. But, it was a lot of hard work because you had to tromp through the snow to make a trail. You know, you’d sink in maybe that much into snow and you’d turn around side ways and go up the hill to trim it down so you could get a good start to go. We didn’t get many rides. We were too busy climbing most of the time. You probably heard they had a rope toe on Vernon Street. Well, I’m telling you that was some nice. We’d stop in and ski at night. They’d have it all lit up and for men, Sunday River started up. All we had was t-bars then. Ever ride on a t-bar? It was good. But, we used to like Gould Academy. They had a good ski team and they used to have a jump up here in what we called the steam mill…You know where Bethel Hall is up here..where they sell second-hand cars? Well, up in back they used to have a ski jump before they had the one over on Swans Corner toward Sunday River. But, it was all, you know, there was no way to get up a hill unless you walked or skied.

Well, I hope I helped you.