The Rocking Chair Has Many Stories

Marie's rocking chair is making it's third appearance on a blog. The first was on Lu's Place. The story is a fun one. I wrote it on June 19, 2018 in response to one of my daughter's daily Facebook questions. Her question was something like "what was your greatest life lesson by a family member?" go to website Lu's Place mrsfrenchie1.blogspot.com to see what happened to me. I also used the picture of Marie's father's rocking chair in my children's blog as well.
So just a few days ago I asked Marie's brother, Charles Aubin, AKA Uncle Charlie about her rocking chair. No one was allowed to sit in it and always had an afghan on it sitting behind her chair. Evidently that was to ensure that no one sat in it... It was his and Marie's father's chair and had many stories connected to it.
The story Charlie told me was about his daughter, Karen. She was about seven years old. At school they had been taught that smoking was very bad for your health and could even kill you to put it bluntly.

Charlie had taken his family to visit his parents. His father was a smoker and of course, I have told the story about his fun ashtrays. Well, Charlie's daughter, Karen, had crawled up on her Pepe's lap and took his cigarette's out of his shirt pocket. This was not acceptable and he told her to give him back his cigarettes. She said, "No!" He again told her to give him back his cigarettes in a very stern voice. She began to cry. He asked her why she was crying. Her response was this: "Because if you smoke cigarettes you will die and I don't want you to die."
Charlie said his father was taken aback but did not quit smoking.
The other story is about Marie's son, Roger sitting in that rocking chair, rocking his son, Roger Jr., whom had the chicken pox. Roger's son can remember that. Isn't that interesting? I think there are two reasons at least about that. It seems that Marie's son caught the chicken pox from his son and he was sick! I even think I heard that he had caught them twice, but I may be mistaken about that.
 But I think that the most important memory is again the legacy that Marie has left us all; the love of family. That legacy will never die as long as the Aubin/Lizotte families continue on into the future generations. Those values were instilled into their children and their children as far as I heard the other evening for 6 generations, maybe even 7 if you count the great grandparents that came to the United States from Canada. They continued to love and cherish their children as long as they were able. In the meantime their love has carried through some really tough trials and tribulations, but has endured.
Marie will never be forgotten.

His Eulogy For His Sister By Charles Aubin

At Marie's funeral Marie's brother, Charles Aubin, her youngest brother, gave us her last story. One none of us had ever heard. In a short five minutes he summed up her life with love and emotion. We were all just spell bound listening to him.
When Charles was about 6 or 7 years old he would go with his brother, Joe, to what Charlie called, "peddling papers." Of course, papers had to be delivered no matter what the weather was. On this particular day, Charlie rode on a sled to help his brother. The weather was frightfully cold. He said it was below zero.

 Marie Rose Aubin Lizotte
Charles Aubin
July 6, 2018

He was just a little boy and contracted frost bite in his little legs. He was unable to walk for two days or more.
Marie carried her brother everywhere she went for two days. I am having a bit of a problem typing this because stories always give me a picture in my mind. Marie was little more than 5'2". She was sixteen years older than Charles if I am correct. If I am not it makes no difference because she was in fact old enough to be his mother.
Charles talked about that. He told us that Marie was another mother to him. Yes, she was his oldest sister, but she cared for him since the time of his birth. She was not allowed to bathe or change him because he was a boy, but she cared for him in all the other ways. I am sure she rocked him, fed him, played with him etc.
Charles has always loved his sister. He sent her cards, money when she needed it, and  phone calls when she could hear. When Marie was not able to hear on the phone he called us regularly to check on her and also on us. He made scheduled appointments with me so that he could Facetime with her on my IPad. Invariably she teased him about his neck. I thought that was hilarious because she had the identical neck.

 He drove and/or flew to attend as many birthdays that he was able. He was here for her hundredth birthday as well as her hundred and third. He was at her house to celebrate many other birthdays as well.
On her hundred third birthday he came in gave us all a hug and went immediately to her bedroom and visited with her. All the time wishing and hoping that she would/could visit with him again. That was not to be. However, she did act like she knew him and held his hand. Her last act of love.

Marie's Memories Include Cleghorn

Marie Aubin was born in Fitchburg, Ma. in 1915 at her parents' home.
 By 1914 Cleghorn a neighborhood of Fitchburg, boasted that this area furnished a quarter of all the tax revenue for the city of Fitchburg, and that it sustained over 100 places of business, the majority of the businessmen being young and vigorous.' Quotes from Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise.
Our Marie, I always call her, is a woman of strength and substance. She is opinionated and warm hearted. Marie has sustained, hard times and enjoyed fun and fulfilling times. She is talented, but always willing to learn new things. Marie traveled the streets of Cleghorn for many years as a child as well as an adult.

1889

Marie's husband played cribbage here

Cost $38K

 This post is a little bit about that neighborhood and the people in Marie's lives that were a part of it. I am not an Aubin, but a Lizotte only by marriage to Marie's son.  So, if I make mistakes, it is inevitable. Please be kind.
This post was generated by a saved newspaper that I found of Marie's that sparked some memories of her sons, Roger and Francis (Fran). The date of the newspaper was February 20, 2000. Headlines, Cleghorn: Fitchburg's French-flavored former 'capital'. This "strip" was built by Andrew Cleghorn from the river to the now Cleghorn Street, and extended from Oak Hill Road to Daniels Street. There was some noise that it should not have been named Cleghorn because he split after about four years. The Mill gave this area a huge start. It was a cow pasture, timber, and apple orchard that ended up with Cleghorn and other manufacturers like Parkhill into a thriving self-sustaining community. There you have just a bit of history of the neighborhood that Marie Aubin and her family and later her married life was part of. There were woolen mills, grist mills, paper mills, hat factories, scythe factories, harness makers, shoe factories, brickyards, 12 sawmills and a quarry. The Scotsmen's ginghams really put Fitchburg or rather, Cleghorn, on the map. The fabric was touted to be the best in quality and color.

Top=$200+K
Bottom=$1,200K=

Roger and Fran remember their father going to the cafe's on Cleghorn and Daniels Street. I smirk to myself that the owners called them cafe's not bars. I'm sure in those days it was not mannerly to "go to a bar." A cafe' was alright because you could eat there. One cafe that Fran mentioned was the Rendezvous. Roger didn't remember that, but it's difficult to say how many times that the names of those places were changed. I laugh at that name because Rendezvous means to meet, gather, and assemble which they all did; funny.
Another change was education. At one point, education cost the city $26.00 a year for a child. This artlicle was also in the Sentinel in December 1938.
In 1938 education cost one quarter of municipal dollar. It looks like to me that Fitchburg now has 17 different schools of all different age and learning capabilities including a State University.
Along with all the different businesses that I mentioned there were theaters also. The original theater was called the Rambeau Theater which opened in 1914, just a year before Marie was born. It was renamed the Strand in 1922 and was still open in 1950. One of Marie's nieces also mentioned that there was an Estre Theater in Fitchburg that she might have gone to also. I cannot find any archived pictures. She also said that from Marie's family home it was about three or four miles. There were 2 theaters in Fitchburg at that time. Note how much the movie cost when Marie was almost twenty years old. One time she wanted to go to the movie and she was short a nickel. Her father said that instead of being able to keep a dollar out of her paycheck as usual she would only get 95 cents because money did not grow on trees. Going to the "show" as she called it was a passion for her. I found a picture of her and her girlfriends (several) sometime ago. I bet they all went to the show and had a grand time. There is a picture of Marie by herself that is in fact a button. The reason she had it was lost until she was over 102 years old. She said that she and her girlfriends had gone to a carnival and had this made.

The population of Fitchburg in 1913 was approximately 10,000. The French-Canadian folks were about 2500. They were eager to work at the mills and better themselves. A large amount of these immigrants were farmers, and even though the work was not easy, mill work was easier. Many of those men also fought in our Civil War in place of the American men were of the first to find work in the mills.

Housing, however, was not easy to come by. Daniels, ( a member of the board of directors at the Cleghorn Mill, rolled up his sleeves, cleared land, laid out roads and built what they called in those days, "deckers." They were three and four stories high. They later were called tenements and folks were charged $2.00 a room to rent. The article did not say if by the week or month. It would be more interesting if we knew that for sure. I am assuming by the month.
These articles refer to many times that Cleghorn was characterized by "on the hill" "and at the bottom of the hill." The bottom was where the "deckers" were built. If a family built a house and left a "decker" they were referred to as "moving up the hill." Interesting.
There is a reference to Canadian signs above stores stating, "Ici on parle Francais." Those of you that speak French please put in the comment window what that sign said.
I could go on and on with this post, but sometimes shorter is better. Please let me know if you would like more stories out of these two old newspapers. One paper has ink that is almost gone (1938) but I salvaged enough for some very interesting reading I think. Of course, I am a history buff. I just love this kind of thing.

Smokey, Charlie's Dog

Marie's youngest brother, Charles, was in the Navy for over twenty years. They got to live all over the world. They have such fabulous memories of their travels and various homes. One of their most fond memories is of Smokey, a Wire Hair Terrier. I do not at this time have a picture of him or of Charlie and Nancy's kids when they were young, but when I get them I will add them to these posts. Charlie alluded to the fact that this is just Part 1 of the Smokey Series. This kind of thing I just love.
As I told the Closed Group of Charlie's oldest sister, I really messed up by not recording Charlie as he told us Smokey's story in person. He was here for Marie's 103rd birthday this month.
This story begins in our living room after a hot day of visiting and helping repair Marie's granddaughter's car. She lives over 700 miles away from home so that project was big and important. It was now time to relax and visit.
This is the beginning of Charlie's story called, "Our Dog Smokey."
"Smokey was a dog we added to our family when we were stationed in Spain. He was a wire haired terrier. He was the runt of the litter, but that's what the kids wanted so that was that.
Nan and I started teaching him easy tricks such as sit up, roll over, and turn around. Then we started to try more difficult tricks such as speak on command and progressed to counting by barking to hand signals and voice commands. One finger is One bark, Two finger for two barks, etc. He could count to three and subtract from three to one at first with voice commands then to just hand commands.
Nan taught him to close doors because the kids would run in the house and fail to close the door. One day I came home from shopping and I had my arms full. I told Smokey to close the car door. Little did I know that our neighbor was in the front yard watching this. Smokey had jumped up and pushed the door, but it did not close, so I told Smokey to go back and close the door which he did.
My neighbor came over and said that if he had not seen this with his own eyes that he would not believe it. He said, "I wish I could train my children to what he just did!"
Smokey did not like to be penned up in the back yard and would dig his way out of the fenced yard. I finally took two pickets off the fence at the bottom so that he had a way out. When I did that he stayed in the back yard until one of us came home and then he would greet us in the FRONT YARD!!" I capitalized front yard, Charlie did not. I still cannot get over how smart Smokey was.
"We were moving to Dallas from Austin and put the house up for sale and put it in a real estate dealer's hand.  We told the Realtor to leave the dog in the back yard when they left the house. They put him in the back yard and proceeded to lock the house and put the key in their lock box on the door handle. She looked down there was Smokey. She was sure that she had left him in the back yard, but she unlocked the door and went in the house. She opened the sliding door and put Smokey in the back yard. She left the house, locked the door, put the key in the lock box and lo and behold there was Smokey. She proceeded to call me and swore that she had left him in the back yard! I told her that it was okay because he had his own key. (Can you imagine the poor lady's state of mind?)
We used to play hide and seek with him and the kids would go hide and he would go find them. He sometimes would cheat by peeking to see where they were going so I would have him cover his eyes with his paws 'til they were hidden. Then I told him to go find them. He would always go to the last place he found them and then would search the rest of the house and as always found them all.
All the things we taught him were done without treats after each trick. He would do them for anyone as long as they spoke clearly.

Charlie and Nancy Aubin

He loved to play games that the kids played and tried to do everything that that did, We lived across the street from a playground and there was a slide that the kids were using. He would climb the slide ladder and slide down with them just like it was a natural thing that dogs did.
When it was bedtime the family would say prayers before going to bed. We taught Smokey to lay his head in my lap and cover his eyes while we prayed. Every once in a while, he would uncover his eyes to see what was going on. I would scold him and tell him to pray and he would cover his eyes until we were done."
Part 2 of Smokey's story will arrive soon, I presume. When It does, I will print it up and put it on line for all of you to read. Hope you enjoyed Part 1. This story is definitely part of the Aubin Family History.

The Healer

Today Marie made me so happy. She had told me this story years ago and of course, I didn't write it down. She was very bright and happy this morning. After breakfast I took a chance and asked her about the time she burned herself. This is how the story goes:

Marie's grandfather Joeseph H. Aubin and his wife.
This picture was in an album of Marie's.
Note the paper clip holding the photo.

Marie was home alone. She said that her husband had gone to his parents' house to play cards with his brothers. She added, "cards, cards, cards. Never got tired of playing cards."
She was "carrying" her first child, Marie, and was in her first trimester. She and Ray lived on the fourth floor of a cold water flat. She had decided that she wanted a cup of tea and heated water for it on the stove in a pot. She did not say tea pot. She just said, pot. When the water was boiling, she was going to pour it in a cup for either tea or coffee. She did not specify what she was going to make. In the process of pouring the scalding water, she hit the sink with the pot of water. It slopped the terribly hot water all over her pregnant belly. Of course, soaking her clothes in the process. She said that she had called her mother. She told Marie to call her pep'e. or pe'p'ere or grandfather in Canadian French.
She did that because he was known as a healer. He told her to mix soda and bluing (laundry bluing) and smear on her stomach. The lady from the floor below brought some ice. The healing began immediately. I have never heard of such a thing. Marie called her work and told them she "wouldn't be there for a couple of days." Missing work was almost a disaster at that time in her life.
Marie went to the doctor and the doctor told her that if she had been further along she would have lost the baby. I question that because generally the first three months are often the times when ladies lose their babies. However, when she told me that this morning, I do remember her telling me that before.

Photo of bluing.
Still selling.

Since Marie is disabled, I do her personal cares. She has always said that the only thing she has to show for the horrible burn is a "cauliflower" scar. There is no scar, there is however, an almost indiscernible naval. I'm thinking she was burned so badly that her naval was scarred over and now is no longer seen.
Since Google is my best friend now days, I asked it what the ingredients of laundry bluing was. "Laundry bluing is made of a very fine blue iron powder suspended in water (a colloidal suspension.)"
Another site said that it contains a pH balancer and a biocide to prevent the buildup of algae and bacteria. There you go! How did he know this? Probably was something handed down for generations in his family. It may have in fact saved Marie's child that she was carrying.
What do you have in your house for burns?

Squirrels, Dogs, Cats And Marie

When I thought that I had heard all of the Marie Stories, I found out that I was completely wrong. This morning her son, Roger and his wife, Virgie stopped to say good-bye to Marie before they left to go home to Texas. Marie has been very very ill these last few weeks, but a couple of days were wonderful gifts to us all. She was verbal for the first time in a very long time and also was alert and aware of her surroundings and knew her boys.

Marie Rose Aubin Lizotte
Age 96 

This morning the four of us were sitting out on her deck and the reminiscing started. Then a new story popped up that I had never heard before. Of course, I couldn't wait to share it with you all.

I was aware for many years that Marie loved animals. I also knew that Fran had to put a stop to her feeding the neighborhood cats as well as the wildlife that lives in the timber next to her home. She didn't realize how much it was costing to feed the o'possums, squirrels, cats as well as dogs.

Roger started telling about Marie years ago when she lived in Massachusetts feeding critters IN her home! 

Marie allowed two families of squirrels to come into her home. She fed them table scraps until one of them bit her. She immediately stopped the "squirrel soup line" and told them to get out. Her boys knew not to hunt squirrels unless they were deep in the woods, because the ones close by were hers.

Then the story started to get more and more detailed. It seemed she had countless numbers of cats and dogs that lived in her house. They had designated closets that each cat knew which one was theirs.

One day a Husky dog decided to come into her home uninvited seemingly because he had heard the "free food rumor" started by the squirrels. Roger said that the Husky left with two cats on his back. The owner of the dog tried to get Marie to pay her vet bill. Evidently the cats were very territorial and their attack caused the dog to have 142 stitches. True to form, Marie held her ground and did not pay the vet bill!

This was a new story for me and of course, I told Roger he was making it up. Since Fran was there and verified it I am putting it on line for posterity.
Another Marie story is probably still waiting to be written. When I hear it, I will post it.

Marie's New Old Specialty

Years ago Marie felt that it was her duty to teach her new daughter-in-law new tricks of the trade (about being a good housewife) albeit I was in my sixties. She told me tricks about gardening. She also attempted to teach me how to cook for Fran. She also did NOT try to teach me to crochet because I told her at the onset that was not my forte. She, of course, was amazed that any man or woman did not only crochet or knit, but did not want to!
She used to love to talk. She would talk non stop even when we needed to leave she would continue talking. When we would come back in the room she was still telling the same story. That is how I have been fortunate enough to write many of her life stories. One of her favorite things to do was shop through Publishers Clearing House, and many of the various catalogs that she received in the mail. She would buy See On TV Only things that were pieces of junk in our opinion but it was her money and I told Fran just never mind that is her only way of shopping. She was not able to go to the Dollar General or Wal-Mart very often. As she got older she was not able to go at all.
Marie was a lady that always wanted to do her part for others. She knitted and crocheted hats and mittens for the needy children for years and years. She also baked for bake sales for various charities. This is all leading up to the day that Fran's brother-in-law's family gathering took place after his funeral. I considered him my brother-in-law also because we liked each other and fought about politics and community goings on like brothers and sisters do and laughed about it. Marie liked him also and depended on him and his wife if by chance she needed something while Fran and I were gone.
Marie said that she was going to bake a cake for him; we were a bit apprehensive about it because of her poor eyesight. We told her that was very nice of her. We took the cake to his home. We watched people eat her cake with smiles on their faces. I couldn't take it, I had to have a piece of her cake. It was delicious!  So of course, afterwords we stopped at her house to visit. I told her how people enjoyed her cake. Then the teaching of LuAnne began by explaining about her purchase of a microwave Bundt pan for "baking" microwave cakes. She would order one and get two for the same price without realizing that she had to often pay extra shipping costs for the second one.
I wasn't the only one that got the lecture, her son's wife, Virgie, also got the lecture as well as her "free" pan.
One day I thought why do you have to have a special pan for the microwave, so I made one in a regular Pyrex pan. It was fine, except not like Marie's.
I'm an Amazon shopper and one day I realized that I had enough points I could get a microwave Bundt pan free with my points. Then Marie got sick. Then I was here more than at home. Then I didn't want to bake any more. I was busy and I was sad.
One day she asked me if I had found her microwave Bundt pan. I told her that I had not, but I would look for it. No Bundt pan. So today I brought my unused Amazon free microwaveable Bundt pan and made a cake. I watched YouTube and the lady with her husband telling her what to say (reminded me of home) showed a trick she used for even baking. I did it. This is a very short video and the prize cake that turned out. I hope she will taste it.