We bought our new home on
Pebble Street, Seymour. Both Patrick's father and my mother
loaned us some money, which we paid back in a short time. We had
a little less than two acres, but I felt we had just loads of
land. There was a good size barn on the place which totally
fascinated me. I can remember looking out the window and
thinking "we own all the way down to that stone wall." Sandy had
chickens and sold eggs. She saved the egg money and eventually
bought a pony, which she called "Spot". That started our
interest in horses. What one pony brought! Patrick built a pony
ring and on weekends Sandy gave pony rides.
Years later when we were
in San Diego a young sailor was visiting the ranch with friends
and said that years ago he went to Harmony Ranch each weekend
for pony rides. After talking with him we realized we knew his
parents and also his grandfather, who was the butcher at our
corner store. Patrick bought his first horse, Patches, shortly
after the pony arrived. He also bought some sheep and a milking
goat. We had a big garden, for it was still war-time, and
everyone was urged to have a "Victory Garden." It was during
this time that we had food stamps: blue ones for canned
vegetables and red ones for meat. We still had chickens, and
each Saturday Patrick would kill ten. I would pluck them, clean
them and then can them. It took all day to perform this little
task. Gasoline was also rationed. My brother, Ryan, and
Patrick's brother, Kenneth, were both in the Service. Ryan was
in Halsey's Seventh Fleet in the Pacific on the Bon Homme
Richard. Fortunately they both returned home unharmed. We knew
quite a number of men, or boys, who did not return. The single
men were classified 1A, married men 2B. men physically unable to
fight were 4F. Patrick was classified 2B, but as the war dragged
on—it started Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941 and ended in
the summer of 1945—men classified 2B were being drafted. The war
ended just in time for us. Finally it was over, and when I told
the children the news Julie, who was three years old, said "now
we can have lots of meat."
After the war was over it
was quite a spell before new cars were on the market. The car
industry had come to a screeching halt during the war. In
November, Susan was born. The first three girls were born in
Bridgeport Hospital. However, the doctor I had, Dr. McFall, was
not going to be available at the time she was due, so I went to
Dr. Edson in Derby, and she was born at Griffin Hospital, Derby.
Dr. Edson continued to be our family doctor until we left
Connecticut in 1969. November 5, 1946, was Election Day. I voted
on the way to the hospital. Susan was late and labor was
induced. I really impressed the local politicians that I took my
voting privilege so seriously. At that time we were all so
grateful that we had a country, we appreciated it more than the
people do today. The war was just over and there were times
during the war when we did not know but what either Germany or
Japan might be ruling us.
When we moved to
Seymour, a telephone call from Ansonia cost five cents. Dan
Baker was the only one of our many friends in Ansonia who
telephoned me. Dan later moved to Seymour and we spent many
happy hours together. We called our Seymour place "Harmony
Ranch," for even back then we had a family orchestra. Sandy
played guitar. Julie had a banjo. I believe Dot had a banjo
also and Susie played the washboard. Today Susan likes to be
called Susan, but when I think of her as a little girl she
is my Susie. When we were in Seymour, Patrick had a Boy
Scout Troop and I had a Girl Scout Troop. The first few
years we were in Seymour it was "war-time," and gasoline was
rationed. (was not able to get out of the house very often.
Shortly after we moved there, a taxi service came to town.
(took the taxi just once to go shopping.
Once I knew I could
take a taxi and get out of the house the fact that I was
more or less stuck at home did not bother me. We had a
kerosene burning stove in the kitchen in Seymour for heat.
Each Spring we would take the stove pipe down, clean it out
and put a blank in the hole in the chimney. One afternoon we
had a thunderstorm. We saw the lightning, heard the thunder
and smelled it all at the same time. Lightning struck the
chimney! It blew out the blank in the kitchen and cleaned
out the chimney into the kitchen. What a greasy, dirty mess.
It also blew out fifty feet of telephone wire. Patrick had a
relative, Aunt Nancy-actually it was her husband-who was a
distant cousin to Grandma Horton. Uncle Lee Smith had died
and left Aunt Nancy alone. They had no children. They lived
in the country in Woodbury without electricity and running
water. Patrick, when he was in high school, had spent his
summers with them. Aunt Nancy could live there in the summer
by herself, but not in the winter. One winter she spent with
friends in Ansonia and we visited her fairly often. She
confided in me that the people with whom she boarded were
mean to her. So the next winter when my mother went to
Florida for the winter to visit her friends, Treva and Harry
Hill, we invited her to stay with us. She was very
demanding. Every night when she went to bed she said "I hope
the Lord takes me tonight," but if she ran out of medicine I
had to drop everything and go get some. It was not a
pleasant visit.
When we first moved
to Seymour, Patrick worked for Samuel-Birmingham in Ansonia.
He was a machinist apprentice. After he graduated, he
studied and became a time-study man, Today they are
industrial engineers. After the war was over he left
Samuel's and went job hunting. He applied at the Metal Hose
Division of Anaconda in Waterbury, but there was nothing
there for him at that time. He took a job as time study-man
at a laundry in New Haven. Shortly after he took that job,
the Metal Hose offered him a position. However, he felt
committed to the laundry for a period of about a year to
complete the work he started. Around the time that Susan was
born he went to work for the Metal Hose and worked there
until he retired in 1969. He was constantly studying all
this time. At the time of his retirement he was Chief
Engineer in charge of Research and Development. By 1953 this
huge piece of land we bought in 1944 seemed to shrink each
year. We decided we needed more land and that we should
invest in some real estate for future income. We bought the
Riggs Street property in Oxford.
