Boyhood Memories of Uncle Albert
Part of my life story is about my Uncle Albert (Jensen) who inherited his father’s farm (Andreas Jensen)…Albert was always very good to me and my brother Philip. My grandfather left him the farm and all the equipment including a new l932 Durant 4 door….at the time that my grandpa died I was 8 years old, Philip about 6-l/2 years old.
Albert used to deliver milk to people at the Davis Mill (this is O. B. Davis Lumber Company) where my dad worked, and he’d take Philip and I along ..a treat in this 1932 Durant car; we’d pick up the empty bottles and deliver the full ones. Albert also did a lot of driving to different meetings, as he was Secretary for the United Farmers of New Denmark.
But, what we remember best is that he used to take us fishing in Foley Brook: we were really quite excited as this brook was only about three miles from our home. In the wintertime, he had to thrash oats and we had to help catch the oats and dump it into bins to feed the cows and the horses.
He paid us 25cents for this every week. (we’re talking l932)…it was a dusty and dirty job…my mother had to wash our clothes and give us a bath to remove the dust….Once or twice a year, he would take us to Fort Fairfield, in Maine to see his cousins, and on Saturday nights, he would take us to a movie in Grand Falls, which we always looked forward to.
When winter set in, he would drain the water from the car radiator, because we had no antifreeze, which was a bit of a sad thing for us as we didn’t get to the movies then. There were times when snow prevented the use of vehicles which were finished for the winter. Snow plowing was done with horses by pulling a plow which had two blades that were set at a distance apart, and it made 2 ruts that allowed a team of horses to walk and pull a sled. This plow had a wing which would push the snow away to each side of the plow.
Then, I had to pick potatoes in the fall for Albert and help Thorvald Jensen, his and mom’s first cousin, who had his farm up the hill on Cemetery Road . In boyhood time, I also help my grandpa Andreas Jensen do chores when I was a youngster.
