Interesting Facts About Marie

Marie was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts on July 6, 1915. She was the oldest girl and had twelve brothers and sisters.

She made doll clothes in a factory for thirty two years. When Mary Poppins was popular, that factory made a hundred thousand dozen outfits for that doll. The outfit included the petticoats, dress, coat, hat, panties, and umbrella.
She was taken out of school at thirteen. The truant officer and a doctor arrived at her home demanding that she return to school. Her mother said that girls did not need school to be mothers and wives and that she needed her at home. The school disagreed, but came to a compromise. She could stay home in the mornings to help her mother. The school system would pay her car fare to school until she turned sixteen. The hours she attended school were one until five in the afternoon. She learned a trade which was sewing. Her graduation certificate shows that she did excellent work in home economics especially sewing and had completed three hundred twelve hours of continuation school hours.
Marie had lots of great aunts that gave her clothes and hats. She would tear them apart and remake them for clothes for herself. She told me everyone thought that she was rich because of the great creations that she made out of cast off clothes. She wanted to be a professional dress designer, but her parents would not allow it. She told me that she got “stepped on” a lot in those days. I smiled at her and told her that she would have made a great woman’s libber. She agreed.

Valuable Rubbish

Marie told me a fascinating story the other day about the last house that she lived in with her brothers and sisters. I have a picture here. It is a really big house. It had eight bedrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room, and two bathrooms. Her father framed this house, but had help with the plastering, putting in a furnace and the electricity. Electricity in those days was fairly new. Marie's brothers did a lot of the work with their father.

Her father worked for a paper mill. Her family had always lived in company houses and paid rent to the company.
The houses that they lived in were lighted by gas so the lights were dim.
They finally saved enough money to buy land to build this house, but it was on swamp land. Marie was nine years old when they got to move into this house.
It was situated with a large hole on one side of the house that needed to be filled in with dirt. Her father came up with the idea to go to city hall. He asked that the rubbish collectors fill this hole with trash and he would fill in the hole with dirt.
Marie and her siblings that were old enough would watch for trash from homes where people had died. Sometimes the trash had shoes in it that had not been checked by the deceased relatives and they often found money in the shoes. Her parents used that money for shoes for their children. Marie said they also went blueberry picking to earn money for school clothes.

A Funny Story

I asked Marie to tell me a funny story. All her stories seemed to me so serious. Those of you that know me, know how much I love to laugh. Marie said, “I don’t know if I have a funny story.” The story she ended up telling me is hilarious in my estimation.

At the time this story happened Marie had had three babies. She had gone to a Military Ball where Tommy Dorsey was going to be playing. Her second cousin’s daughter sang with his band. Marie’s cousin introduced Marie to Tommy and told him that Marie could sing. She asked him if Marie could sing with his band that night, just one song would be so nice of him. Tommy said, “Well get her up here.”
There was just one problem, as with many new mothers, the babies had taken the calcium from her teeth. She had had to have her teeth pulled, so she carried a fan with her.
In those days they had no microphones, so the audience had to be quiet as little mice. She sang a song with a fan in front of her face which made hearing her even more difficult for the audience. That night was exciting and embarrassing at the same time. However, how many of us can say we sang with the Tommy Dorsey Band?

The Wedding Party

I thought it was interesting that there were three females in the wedding party and only one male. I went to visit Marie yesterday to get my questions answered. She said that when she was sixteen she joined a Catholic club called, “Child of Mary.” Every year the dues were one dollar and those accumulated. By the time she was twenty five and wanted to get married she only had to pay the priest fourteen dollars to perform the ceremony. She chose Jeanette Lizotte for her maid of honor, her sister Theresa was a Child of Mary and Helen was a Child of Mary.

Marie said that the dresses for the bridesmaids and maid of honor were pink.
Marie said that her mother-in-law made the cake; it was a white cake.
Marie did buy her dress from a store called Rogers and borrowed her veil from a friend that had just got married a week or so before she did.
Marie wore pearls that her mother gave her and still has them. Her bouquet was roses with an orchid in the middle. The orchid was worn for traveling on their honeymoon. She wore a suit for going away.
Marie said that there was a lot of drinking at the house, but absolutely no drinking at the dance hall, per her mother’s orders. Her mother said that there had been enough drinking that day. The guests drank only soda at the hall
It took two days of steady cooking to get ready for the wedding dinner. It consisted of sandwiches and salads. All the meat had to be ground for the sandwiches, and then of course, the mayonnaise and pickles, eggs and whatever else they decided to mix in with the meat. I silently wondered how they prevented people from getting sick, but kept that to myself. It just seemed a long time for mayonnaise and eggs to go not chilled. I am sure they had it figured out. They may have borrowed refrigerator space so that nothing would spoil.
I hope you have enjoyed the stories about Marie and Raymond’s wedding as much as I have. The pictures above are the wedding party and their wedding cake. The cake was absolutely beautiful, wasn’t it?
I did double check on her grandchildren, she has twenty six and and thirty four great grandchildren and one great great grandchild. With the multitude of children that will survive her, Marie has left quite an inheritance of lives that will grow up to be maybe the President of the United States, or the best mom in town. Whatever they grow up to be Marie is and will be proud of them.

How She Met The "One"

Marie worked as a sewing machine operator in a factory that made men’s trousers. Marie made ten cents an hour until President Roosevelt said that was not enough money to sustain oneself, and the minimum wage was raised to twenty five cents an hour. Her future husband did heavy work there carrying bundles of trousers that had been made, inspected and bundled probably for shipping.

I asked her today where they went on their first date. She smiled and said, "To a park. We were chaperoned by my sister."
They had no car, so where they went they had to walk. The car that Raymond is leaning against is not his, but it makes a wonderful backdrop for this picture. Is he handsome or what?
Marie worked in this factory for eleven years. Her husband changed jobs and worked in a gun factory during the war, and later retired from a Key and Lock business where he worked for twenty five years. During the war Raymond worked the night shift from six at night until six in the morning and made twenty five cents an hour.
I asked Marie where they lived after they got married. She said that they lived in a cold water flat and paid five dollars a month. They paid their rent on a weekly basis. When she told me that, it made me feel so guilty about wasting money. If I lost a five dollar bill it would not mean that I could not pay my mortgage or rent. What a difference less than seventy years makes.

The Wedding

I am an incurable romantic so of course, I wanted to know all about Marie’s wedding; out came the pictures. Each picture had a story. I was enthralled. I will, however, go back and get more stories to embellish the ones I have. Marie is like me and has a tendency to ramble because one story reminds her of another. See, I just did it!
The picture that you see is Marie in her wedding dress. The picture that I put here does not do it justice. The dress has a long train that is swirled about her feet.
Marie Rose Dora was married to Raymond Arthur on August 17, 1940 at the St. Joseph Church in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. She said that approximately two hundred people attended their wedding. The wedding started at seven in the morning and the festivities did not end until eleven at night. The reception was held in a dance hall from seven until eleven. She said that more than one musical group performed. Her cousin’s band was one group that she could remember.
Her husband’s family was from Michigan and they were also French. So I guess I have to believe my husband when he says that he is French.
Marie has a picture which I will put on the blog some day of the wedding party. I do not believe that there were any relatives of her husband’s in the wedding party. (I later found out that his sister, Jeannette was a bridesmaid.) They had two bridesmaids and a matron of honor and a best man whom was Marie's brother George. It was a very large wedding.
After the wedding they went to Canada for their honeymoon. Marie did not want to go there, but there was some family members that insisted so that is where they went.
Marie and Raymond were married for forty seven years before Raymond succumbed to cancer.
Marie and her husband had four children. I will get the latest count of grandchildren and great grandchildren. I think there might be a great great grandchild, but I need to check on that. What a legacy!

Waylom Park

Marie has a French and East Coast accent which sometimes makes it difficult for me to understand some of the proper names she is using. I got on the computer today to see if I could find any of these old theaters she was talking about. I hit the mother load. I asked Fran why all of these actors and actresses came to this area. Fran said that it was close to Boston and these famous people would go on tour. These theaters, Cumings Theater for one, held eight hundred people. Waylom Park was one of the most interesting things I read about. It had an oval shaped ceiling or roof which was enormous and only had two poles that supported it and they were eighty two feet apart. The huge area had a wonderful lake and amusement park that surrounded it. I thought for today’s article I would just put some pictures in for you to see. When you go to the computer if you would like to see the complete list of programs and newspaper clippings they play old player piano music for you while you slip into yesteryear.
One interesting little quote from Marie was that she did not like Ronald Regan at all. When I asked her why, she said that he was arrogant and conceited and did not like fans to come up to him for autographs. She said he used his hands in a “shoo away” type manner that really put people off. Interesting.