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Stories of Island Times Past Bobbi Anne Wheaton CONTRIBUTOR
Many people claim that coming to the Deer Isle-Stonington area is like stepping into the past. But what would it be like if they really did step into the past? Let’s take a journey through time and catch a glimpse of the way things used to be. The year is 1920, and Flossie Powers is hard at work in her dress shop. This is a small shop run out of the shed attached to her home where women would come to buy the dresses they needed or to have a dress repaired. Flossie believed in making what she needed with her own two hands. She even tied strips of cloth around her body in place of undergarments. After her work was done, she would retire to home, add a few sticks of wood to the fire and peel herself an orange. The orange peels were always thrown into the wood stove to give the house a pleasant smell. Times were hard in those days. Flossie lost a child to influenza when a strain went through her entire family. Still, she carried on, living to meet her grandchildren, great grand-
children and great-greatgrandchildren before passing in 1995 with the record of oldest person on the island at the age of 105.
many times people who were racing the tides would get stuck on the wrong side. The sandbar was finally built up and paved so that it could be crossed at any
It’s 1930 now, and the only way to get from Little Deer Isle to Deer Isle is by crossing a sandbar that stretched between the two. The sandbar can only be crossed on the low tide, and
time. This project was completed in 1937. Let’s move forward into the 1950s and ‘60s. Big families are living under almost every roof. Dale Robbins is a mem-
ber of one of these families. She also happens to be the granddaughter of Flossie Powers. As a child from a family of 11, there was never much money. “Us kids always had to help out tending gardens and canning food. We helped cut and split 10 cords of wood every year for winter.” The family members ate what they grew, having potatoes with every meal to make sure that all had something to fill their bellies. Barbara Hutchinson, another child of this big family, tells about the fun times that broke up the work. “We had a big hill by our house and we would go sledding down the middle of the road. We didn’t have to worry about cars much back then. We went sledding on car hoods. In the summer, Daddy would hook the trailer to the truck and bring us on hay rides.” With that many siblings, there were also a lot of work, a lot of fun and a lot of sibling bickering. Down in Stonington, Robert Wheaton is walking the roads, picking up cans and bottles. Back in the ‘50s, they were worth 2 or 3 cents apiece. He said, “I would walk around Sand
Beach, about four miles, picking up enough bottles to get myself 50 cents to go to the movies. It was 25 cents to get in and the other 25 cents got me a bag of popcorn, a drink and a candy bar.” To get what he needed, he would need to pick up an average of 17 bottles or cans. In comparison, today we pay an average of 20 dollars and 50 cents for those same items. If people were to pick up bottles, which are now worth 5 cents apiece, to pay their way, they would need to find 410 bottles. That may take a while. 1970 came along. Things were not as hard as in the past, but they were not as expensive as they are now. The average rent was $40 a month and KoolAid was the drink of choice. Times were still simple. Things progressed at a steady rate after that, with the introduction of bigger grocery stores, better roads, cable television, Internet and so on to the present. So next time people say that they are stepping into the past as they cross over onto the island, kindly remind them that although it is not as advanced as the bigger towns and cities, it has indeed advanced.
Upcountry Launch Party for Winter 2014 Issue Thursday, May 1, 2014 7 p.m. Normal Hall Faculty Lounge
This issue includes the works of 15 writers, poets, photographers and artists. To view the latest issue of upcountry visit: www.upcountryjournal.wordpress.com For more information, contact Dr. Melissa Crowe at upcountry@maine.edu