Finding Inspiration in Every Turn

In 1934,  My family Lived on Station Street in Stockton Springs, Maine, My father Nathaniel Kingsbury, who everyone called Nat. My Mother Cora Cunningham Kingsbury and my 5 older siblings, Grover Bradbury, Natalie Ruby, Donald Drake, Lane and Barbara Devereaux. On May 10th My father drove my mother 12 miles to Frankfort, where I was born in his mother, Grammy Georgie’s Jenny Lind bed.

In 1935, My brother Laurence was Born on June 3rd.
 

In 1936, when I was two years old, I Started Going to Elmira Savory's house, a neighbor across the street from my family's house, to hang out every day. Her nickname was Mydie. Her husbands name was Hervey, but everyone called him Howe, which was his middle name. Mydie was 43 and Howe was 47.

In 1938, My family Moved to our New House in Frankfort that my father had just built 200 feet from his parents house. Their names were Lewis P. Kingsbury, who we called Grandpa Lew, and Georgia A. Lane, who we called Grammy Georgie.

In 1939, I was five years old and started school at the Lane school, but I only went for one day because I didn't like sitting between two Harveys on the bench.

In 1940, I Started school with my brother Laurence at the Lane School.

In 1941 I was seven years old. I was spending the summer at Mydie and Howe's house in Stockton Springs. There was a camp right next to Mydie and Howe’s house that I used as a playhouse. It had a bed, a wind up Victrola, a Shirley Temple dish set with a Shirley Temple Doll. My cousin Roberta Beam who was a teenager and lived across the street, used to bring her guitar over to the playhouse. She would play and we would sing the old song “Frankie And Johnny”. Mydie and Howe had a saw mill and a machine shop. I remember Mydie standing in a hole up to her waist in the saw mill floor packing cedar shingles, using the floor as a work bench. I used to love playing in the huge pile of wood shavings that smelled so good. Edgar Colcord had a long gray ice house down behind Mydie and Howe’s mill. It was filled with fresh ice packed in mill shavings. Howe made me a stainless steel ring in the machine shop and I wore it for many years. My brother Bob was born on August 27th. I walked uptown to Walt Trundy’s store and the post office to write and mail two letters to Frankfort, one to my father and one to my mother. The Letter to my father said "You better come down here soon and see what they are doing at the railroad station". The letter to my mother was a greeting card I had bought for a penny right there at the store. It was meant to be a congratulations card for giving birth to my new baby brother, The one I chose had a picture of a baby on the cover and on the inside it said "Thanks for the baby gift". At the end of August when Mydie and Howe drove me home to Frankfort, I can remember my Mother showing Mydie the card that I had sent and them having a good laugh. Later that year I remember hearing of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. My mother asked me why I was crying. I told her it was because they bombed the harbor. I thought It was Searsport harbor, because that’s what everyone I knew called “The Harbor”.

In 1942 I was 8 years old. On March 26th as I waited for Mydie and Howe to pick me up at our house in Frankfort so I could stay with them for the weekend, I made Howe a chocolate birthday cake from scratch. It was the first cake I had ever tried to make. It had a lots of white lumps all through it, but he said it was the best he ever had. One day I saw an advertisement in the back of magazine for a Vacutex blackhead remover that cost one dollar. I showed it to Howe and told him we needed to order one for him. I remember that Howe always drank his coffee the same way. He had a big tall coffee mug, but he always dumped his coffee into his saucer, picked it up and drink it from that. Howe always had breathing problems from stone cutters consumption from working at the stone shed in Frankfort when he was younger. This is also the year that Leroy Bean Shot me in the head with an arrow in Mydie's driveway

In 1945, I had my first Period at Mydie's house.

In 1944 I was 10 years old and became the janitor of the Lane School, our one room school in Frankfort, a family school that was named after my Grandmother Georgia Lane Kingsbury’s family. The school was located on the edge of our property about a quarter mile downhill from our farm. Margie Grant was our teacher. Her son Keith Grant was also a student, one year younger than me. He used to chase me around the school at recess until one day the teacher, his Mother, grabbed him and paddled his ass with a wooden paddle and told him to leave me alone. But then at a later date, while my father was helping me with my janitor job, Mrs. Grant told dad that her son Kieth has been saying he’s going to marry Margaret some day. My Father thought that was funny. 
One day my nine year old brother Laurence was sitting at his school desk doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing, so the teacher smacked him in the head with a book. When I saw this happen, I jumped up and opened the front door so he could run away. And he did, he ran all the way up the hill to home. Mrs. Grant gave me a note to take home to my father about the incident, but Laurence and I decided to throw it away. The next day my father Nat came to help me with building a fire in the schools cast iron wood stove, part of my janitorial duties. Mrs. Grant asked my father if he had read the note. He said he never saw any note. That night my father had a hold of Laurence by collar and kicked his ass all around the kitchen table. 

In 1946, I Stopped Hanging out at Mydie's house.

In 1947, On Valentines day at Frankfort Elementary School, Paul McCusker walked into class and put a heart shaped box of chocolates on my desk without saying a word. The whole classroom laughed. In June graduated as Valedictorian from the 8th grade.

In 1948, I Started Winterport High school, We had a Freshman Reception at the Winterport High school and I Sang a song while sitting on Roy Nelsons lap. I Met Dick Curless when he played at a dance at the Grange Hall in North Searsport. I Met Frank Knowles at the Stockton Springs Roller Rink and we Double dated with Roy Nelson & my sister Barbara. This is also the year that our family had our first Italian Sandwiches that my Uncle Arthur Lewis Kingsbury bought for us in Bangor. Two years later in 1950 he was electrocuted to death at Dow Air Force Base while working as a lineman for Bangor Hydro Electric.

In 1949, Frank and I started Going Steady.

In 1950, My First son Mike was conceived in September.

In 1951, Frank and I got Married at the Winterport Congregational Church on February 25th. Our First Son Mike was born on May 1st. We Moved to Winterport and lived in Pa and Nannys house upstairs. I Became a patient at the childrens Arthritis clinic in Bangor. In the fall Nanny called me a spoiled brat so we moved out and rented an apartment on Dean street in Winterport. I Breast fed Mike for 8 months. Frank got jobs at Atwood motor, Dakin sporting goods and Dayson bedding in Bangor.

In 1952, We Moved to an apartment at the Intersection of French and Broadway in Bangor.

In 1953, In February I was Pregnant with a prolapsed uterus so we Moved to my Mothers house in Frankfort, On April 30th my second son Patrick was born. In September Frank, Mike, Pat & I Moved to Winterport and rented an apartment from Arthur Nelson.

In 1954, We Moved and rented an apartment from George Ritchie in Winterport in the Summer. I Had all my teeth pulled out but they hemorrhaged and I had to have my gums sewed up. Maggots fell in the window into a cup of coffee from the upstairs apartment, so we moved back to my mother's house in Frankfort.

In 1955, We Lived at my mother's while building our house. I Became a patient at the Bangor arthritic clinic for adults and started taking Meticorten for arthritis, which now I'm finding out, 67 years later, is just a brand name of Prednisone.

In 1956, We Moved into our new house