Growing Up!

My parents bought their home on Wheeler Road in Ashby before I was born. I was the third child. My sister Donna was born in 1944 (June 30) and my brother Bobby was born in 1946 (March 27). I guess the expression Irish Twin explains my birth. I was born 11 months to the day after my brother Bobby's birth. I weighed in at 9 pounds 9 ounces. It has been always interesting to be the same age as my brother for one month each year. My mother told me that I was a very quiet baby and I did not seek attention. My mother was 25 years old with a 2 1/2 year old, a 11 month old a new baby. The back of my head is flat - probably a combination of Finnish heritage and my mother being very busy with two toddlers and being thankful for a quiet baby in the crib. I have very few (2) baby pictures and no picture of me alone. My sister and brother are always there. About 20 years ago I made a decision to get my own baby picture and I had a copy made with my brother and sister cropped out. I was the baby of the family for 10 years before my brother Jeffrey was born. My mother had at least 1 (maybe 2) miscarriages after my birth. I was an extremely shy child who was easily embarrassed with my face turning very red. I had a problem with bed wetting that last until I was 7 or 8 years old. I tried so hard not to wet the bed but it would happen time and time again. My Aunt Irma would take care of me and my brother when my mother was in the hospital. I remember my cousins coming into the room and asking my brother and myself to go out and play. I had wet the bed and didn't want them to know about it. My aunt was very kind and would clean me up and clean the sheets. Bed wetters have a lot of issues and I remember being very embarrassed when my mother would hang the bed sheets out on the clothesline with evidence of stains.
My elementary school years were spent at Ashby Elementary School. My first grade teacher was Mrs. Heikkala and my memories of her was she was kind except when she would enter the boy's bathroom or when she made every child eat all of their lunch. In grade 2 we had Miss Day who would twist your ear if you did something wrong. The next few years were teachers with limited memories for me. I do remember Mr. Keaveny in 7th and 8th grade. He took an interest in me and I had many future meeting and talks with him. Mr. Keaveny had very strong hands and he would crush your hand with his handshake. He also would startle a class with a slam of his hand on a desk to get your attention. I attended Notre Dame High School for my 9th, 10th and 11th grades. I never enjoyed my time there for I was not an outgoing person (still extremely shy) and made only a few friends but these friendships were only at school because we all lived in different towns. Living in Ashby isolated me from school friends and distanced me from the kids in Ashby. My brother Bobby created some difficult times for the brothers(teachers) at Notre Dame. He was asked to leave his Senior year with about 8 weeks to go before graduation. I took the opportunity to ask my dad if I could go to Ashby High (Lyman School pictured above) for my upcoming Senior year. My first day at Ashby High was interesting because the homeroom teacher Mr. Ganong was extremely stern and cross when he first met me. His behavior lasted for about two weeks until he stated that he thought he had to deal with another "Bobby". I enjoyed my Senior year and played varsity soccer (goalie), basketball (center) and baseball (pitcher and third base). I also happen to meet a special person at Ashby High School. There was a very cute junior girl who expressed an interest in me. I was soon off to college at Fitchburg State.

Initial Tree

Growing up on Wheeler Road in Ashby was very different from what kids do today. There was limited television (3 channels, black and white, 19 inch and it was not available like today) and only a few organized teams or groups (cub scouts) for kids. We were responsible for entertaining ourselves. Into the fields and woods we would go. The Ekola's owned a big farmhouse with fields and woods. There were also fields and woods on my parent's property. There was also several small ponds in our neighborhood. Broadvines was a brook that was in the woods and it was a great place to play. I will talk about all of these things in other blogs. The spot that I would like to describe was the Initial Tree. In the woods below the Ekola's farm are some rock formations with very small cavelike areas. There is an outcrop of rocks with about a 40-50 foot drop. The kids would climb this area many times. There is a tree (Popular-Beech??) that had bark with a smooth surface. The kids had carved their names and initials into this tree since the 30's or 40's. I think Walter Ekola's initials were the oldest on the tree. Walter was the oldest kid from the neighborhood and was already grown up and married when I was very young. Each neighborhood kid would eventually be old enough to use their pocket knife to put their initials into the bark. There were no low branches on this tree and it had many initials over the years. I haven't been there for 40 years but I am willing to bet the tree is still there. I am sure you could find DH on this favorite neighborhood tree.

The Dump

Today I brought our rubbish to the Norwalk Transfer Station. Going to a dump was a weekly occurance when I was young in the 50's and 60's. In Ashby there wasn't any pickup and you had to bring your rubbish to the local dump. My brother Bob and myself would often go with my father. We would load up his station wagon and off we would go. The town dump was at the end of Wheeler Road where we lived. Mr. Edwin Shepard was in charge of the dump when it was open. He would tell you where you could dump your rubbish. The neighborhood kids would visit the dump when it was closed to see if they could find anything of value. We also would throw rocks into the small pond at the base of the dump site. You might also see several rats running along in the rubbish. In the 50's they would burn the rubbish weekly to get rid of the paper waste. If you were outside our house you generally could tell when the dump was on fire. With the change in the laws about dumping waste the town had to closed the dump site. Today you would find houses built very close to the site. The town purchased land from Mr. Robbins who owned land all around the old dump site. The new dump site was within 1/2 mile of the old site but now they couldn't burn the dump and they would cover the rubbish with gravel every day. No more neighborhood play at the new site. Mr. Robbins was a farmer and his farm had a large barn and also had a slaughter house. The kids on the street always wondered what went on in the slaughter house. One day a bunch of us got the opportunity to go inside. We didn't stay long because of the site of butchered animals hanging as well as the smell!