Helen's Interview
By Jack

Helen was born in Connecticut on May 24th 1913. There was a naval base near their house, and her father didn't think that this was a place for girls to grow up. So Helen moved to Great Meadows, New Jersey and stayed at her aunt's, who was also called Helen.

Helen went to the Free Union Schoolhouse when she was 13. Her teacher was Miss Fish. She remembers sitting on the big rock out front to have her lunch.

Two things that she didn't like were the two Hopkins boys, who stole Miss Fish's shoes. One of them used to swear a lot, so the teacher dragged him away and washed his mouth out with soap.

Helen said she was a good speller, and went to all the the spelling bees. Unfortunately, they were all in Hope, so every time she wanted to go to one, Helen had to cross Jenny Jump mountain.

Helen also went to the Marble Hill Schoolhouse, and switched around a lot between the two schools.

Helen remembers walking to school in snow that was higher than her head! “The road was cleared, but nothing else!” Helen told us. “It was like walking in a tunnel.”

Helen's mother made clothes for all of her ten children. Helen said that she was fussy and didn't want to wear the homemade clothes, but she did because she had to.

Helen remembers that she and a friend made fudge, but it didn't get hard. So they spread it all over the rock in front of Helen's house, hoping it would get hard in the cold.

Helen's family were share croppers, which means they grew crops on land owned by someone else.

During the depression, Helen (now grown up) became a nanny at a game farm on Rockport Road, Mansfield. She remembers taking their little boy on a wild sled ride across the frozen lake.

In New York, she was a nanny to a little 3-year-old boy. She said she used to take him to the park along with a bunch of other children.

Helen is our oldest former student at the age of 93. She now lives in Belvidere.