The Neighbors

The neighborhood in the late 1940's was agricultural with open fields and widely-spaced homes. Most were small...but some were very large estates. In the just over two miles from Orono Orchard Road to Old Crystal Bay Road, houses were limited to the north side, with the exception of one near Brown Road and one near Old Crystal Bay Road. The land was comprised of gently rolling hills interspersed with low, swampy areas. I knew almost every person who lived along that road from both helping Steve deliver newspapers and selling the occasional Cub Scout raffle tickets.

Beginning at Orono Orchard, the William Hamm estate, (the William Hamm who was the subject of the infamous kidnap case of the 1930's, and...where I lived for a couple of years), occupied the entire northwest corner and the small area just south where the estate's back driveway exited through two stone gates. West from Hamm's and back from the road was Mrs. MacMillan's home. Continuing westward, from the top of the hill to the corner with Brown Road, a small home sat on the south side...the only people I didn't know...with the north side filled completely with the Ruxton Strong estate.

The Kaster family, (my friend Steve), owned the land on the northwest of the Brown Road/Fox Street intersection. Half way between Steve's house and mine, bordered on the west by our field and the south by the creek and half way up the hill was the Helms family and my friend, Merillee, and her baby sister, Connie. Connie suffered from cerebral palsy. Merillee's mom used to read us stories on the lawn on summer evenings. There were no other homes between ours and Mr. Redpath's which was just on the western side of what is now called Willow Drive. In those years it was a gravel road that we considered the back road to Long Lake and was completely devoid of homes along its entire length.

A funny little memory of another, relatively unknown resident of the area comes back to me. Just west of Redpath's farm, around the corner and surrounded by trees which had grown between the fields and the road, sat a tiny little unpainted, weathered grey wooden house. It may be generous calling it a house for it could not have contained more than a single room. A few paces away was an equally unpainted outhouse. They just sat there, almost hidden by the tall weeds and drooping tree branches...and, if you had been driving a car along the road during the day, you certainly would not have seen it. In the evening, though, the dim orange glow of a kerosene lamp could be seen shining from the one window on the road side of the little house. For some reason, and I can't remember what that might be, all of the kids called the resident "Batch"...short for bachelor. The story was that he was a very old man who lived there all alone. I remember walking along that road on a dark night...I must have been 8 or 9 years old, and taking some comfort from the sight of that lantern shining from the little window. There was nothing frightening about it at all...but kids in those days hadn't been spooked by the television monsters of today.

From Batch's place to the corner of Old Crystal Bay Road, were two houses and the Presbyterian Church. Russ Ferrin, "Rusty" we called him because of his red hair, another friend of mine, lived in the only other house on the south side, and next to the church, on the north side lived Scott St. John. Scottie's mom always gave us chocolate covered graham crackers which were delicious. West of the intersection was the Velie estate...John Velie was our friend also. His parents hired a swimming instructor to give lessons to all of us at their pool one summer. His name was John Hartmann and he scared the dickens out of me.

South of the church on Old Crystal Bay Road lived Don Short, a year older than the rest of us, but a good friend nonetheless, whose dad owned a Culligan water softener company...and a little further on lived Ron Meyer, of Meyers Brothers dairy...also a year older and a buddy.

That was it...that was the gang. We went to Hill School together, belonged to Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts together, and rode our bikes together.