Originally published in the 1985 Framingham Historical & Natural History Society Newsletter by Phyllis Waite Watkins (1909-2005)
There weren’t many stores. I remember two grocery stores, the needle and thread shop, Strong’s Market on High Street (later moved to its present location on Edgell Road as the Shawmut Bank), Travis Drug Store, the blacksmith shop, post office and the Home for the Aged, (later to move into the Esty House and become Vernon House.
Downtown there was Fitts Market, Kerwin’s Shoe Store, the Hat Shop, the Five and Ten Cent Store, and above it a Chinese Restaurant. Across the railroad track was an excellent fruit store. But I am sure there were many more places of business, but Travis Drug Store was very important for it meant ice-cream cones in summer; and in winter, after dark, a walk through the snow with my Father for delicious hot chocolate.
Edgell Library was the “treasure house.” When the apples were ripe it was a fine thing to get a new volume of the “Little Colonel” books, return to the orchard where there was one special tree comfortable and big enough for two, climb it, sit in it and read with apple juice running down one’s chin.
There was no ROUTE 9! It was Worcester Road, long and straight as it ran between lines of poplars for all the world like a road in Belgium. The aroma from the sewage beds could not take away the excitement of reaching the gypsies’ house. It was on the left going toward Natick. During part of the year their bright caravans would be parked in the yard.
There was a formal opening of Jonathan Maynard School and a little girl named Eleanor Davies took part in the ceremonies as she was a direct descendent of Jonathan.
The day Lincoln Junior High opened was exciting. The children marched from the old, wooden structure where the new library is now situated and, carrying their books and pencil boxes, sang as they went to that wonderful new brick school.
Sometimes they would have an out-of-doors “sing” at the High School, now Danforth Art Museum. The words would appear on the façade of the building (a screen, I suppose) and whole families would burst into “A Bicycle Built for Two” and all the old favorites still sung at Pops.
At first there was the Gorman Theatre. It showed black and white films and the music was provided by a lady who sat in the pit and set the mood with her playing. She must have had more than one tune in her repertoire but one definitely was her favorite. What a versatile piece! It did for the thief tip-toeing through the house, for cavalry charging, for love scenes and, played adagio with judicious use of the soft pedal, for the death of a child.
Then the Saint George Theatre was built. It had a foyer and what was more, the first few rows of the balcony were reserved. That meant one sat with one’s friends although it wasn’t too pleasing if one went with one’s beau only to find MOTHER and FATHER beaming from too close a vantage point.
There was little problem with discipline. Too much noise and the usher warned you – once. The next time, OUT YOU WENT, and it took a personal apology from the culprit and a visit from parents to the manager to be allowed into the theatre again!
Local thespians appeared at the Village Hall, Dennison Memorial, and the Gorman Theatre. Anything could and did happen as when during love scene in “Ermine” one of our best known school teachers was pushed onto the stage before her time and, trying to shrink into herself, dressed in a long nightgown and cap and carrying a lighted candle, she crept across the stage in back of the startled lovers.
Chautauqua came each year and erected a large tent off Lincoln Street. They stayed one week providing concerts, plays and lectures – good ones, too. Roland Hayes and Carl Sandburg were among the artists. The scent of citronella wafted on the breezes of dozens of palm leaf fans. Children went to class every morning that week. They learned little songs, dances, and recitations. There were costumes for each little elf, or mouse, or fairy.
As that exciting week drew to a close, they had children’s day and all the parents came to watch awkward little darlings making mistakes while feeling like primadonnas. They learned a lot including the theme song:
I am proud of my Town.
Is my town proud of me?
All she needs is citizens
Trained in loyalty.
In our work, in our play
With our fellow-men,
Good citizens we will be.
So – I’ll be proud, be proud
Of my Home Town
AND I’LL MAKE HER PROUD OF ME!
Words from a more innocent time, last heard many years ago by not a bad idea at that!
Phyllis Waite Watkins