Westford Recollections of Days Gone By
Recorded Interviews, 1974-1975 A Millennium Update
by
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Q. Did they have lanterns on the Common, gaslights like the old lamplighter used to light?
No, they didn’t have that there. They had lanterns framed like a box, a glass box, and it had a little door on it; you’d open the door and put in a regular oil lamp, just like a regular lamp you’d have in your house. It was big, with a big wick, about an inch and a half wide. That would burn all night. Then in the morning you’d go take the lamp out, blow out the light, take it in, and wash the chimney. You’d set it out again the next night—in your yard or at the end of the driveway. Not everybody had one. If you had some money you had one, and it took money to run those things. We never had gas up here in Westford. It was always oil. See, everybody used the oil and oil lamps . . . until electricity came [in 1911 to the Center, Graniteville, and
Q. What’s the difference between kerosene and oil? These were old kerosene lamps.
Kerosene is a little finer grade. It burnt cleaner. In other words, you didn’t have so many smoked-up chimneys. You paid a good price for it, 14 cents a gallon even way back, 6 cents, 7 cents, then up to 14 cents.
Q. Did you have candles in your home when you were a boy?
Oh, yes, when I was a boy we had them. We used to buy them. It is quite a job to make candles because you’d have to have the tallow. But we didn’t have them long, before my folks had oil, because we were living at the time when oil was on the downgrade. You see, then my folks could afford it, but earlier we didn’t have the money.
Q. How did you keep warm on a cold winter’s night?
Well, we used to take a fry pan, heat up bricks and put them inside this fry pan. You’d take and put it under your sheets and roll it over your bed and let it warm the sheets up, and then you’d climb up into bed. You’d wake up the next morning, get out of bed and boy, I’m telling you, you’d see ice sometimes in the house! Sure, you’d have to have the windows open. You didn’t keep a bedroom shut.
Q. Did your mother make your clothes or did you have just store-boughten clothes?
Well, my mother had to work outside of the home, so she didn’t get a chance to make any clothes, but they used to at that time. The mothers would make them, and the girls would make their own clothes. But the fellas, the boys, why you had a different proposition. You had to go to a tailor or something like that.
Q. How old were you before you had your first set of long trousers?
The first year of high school. I had the longest, skinniest legs you’d ever seen. I was tickled to death to get the long pants ’cause my legs were so skinny. They had these knickerbockers. They used to fold at the knees. Some would be straight, but these knickerbockers had a belt on the bottom by the knee . . . made a better effect than the others.
Q. Did you graduate from
Oh, yes, and my wife went to
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About the Book
Westford Recollections of Days Gone By offers its readers authentic tales about plain, everyday living at the turn of the 20th century in the villages of
This informal collection of interviews—tape-recorded in the mid-70s, though stretching to the millennium—echoes the voices of local folk, born in the late 1800s and early 1900s, who lived those times. It was horse-and-buggy days—the era of self-sustaining farms, one-room schoolhouses, country stores and doctors, Fourth of July pranksters, and a true sense of community. It was the era of the village blacksmith, the wainwright, the peddler, and the teamster hauling his produce to Faneuil Hall Marketplace. And it was a time when a wave of immigration added workers to the town’s woolen mills, granite, and ice-harvesting industries—and when Westford boasted eight railroad stations. Indeed, it was a period when progress came to town with the arrival of new-fangled telephones, silent movies, autos, and electric trolleys!
So journey down Westford roads into those villages of yesteryear. Yes, do come meet the folk. Westford’s way is friendly and down to earth. You will feel at home with the people who have lived its story.
Westford Recollections of Days Gone By features 49 folksy interviews prefaced by short biographies, 188 vintage photos, a selected bibliography, geographical data, and a millennium update of new occupants and the many changes that time has wrought within the Westford community.
About the Author
June W. Kennedy is a 47-year resident of the