Bucksaws, plastic toilet paper and gun drilling

Photo: Jackie Rybeck

Ernie Clifford

Photo:

Ernie Clifford at 23.

NORWAY – Eighty-one-year-old Ernie Clifford was born in Grafton Plantation and moved to Albany at an early age. He spent his childhood there and now lives in Norway.

He recently took time to tell us about his life.

Q: When were you born and where were you brought up?

A: I was born on November 10, 1930 and it was in Grafton Plantation, which is now Newry. It was a home birth.

I lived there until I was around six and then my mother and father moved down to Albany about 3,000 feet from the Waterford line.

Q: Did you have many siblings?

A: I have a younger sister and a younger brother. Elaine lives in Milton Plantation and John lives in Milton Plantation too.

Q: What did your parents do?

A: My dad worked in the woods until he died. I was around seven or eight and it was just before World War II when he passed away from a heart attack.

My mom was a housewife.

Q: What was it like growing up?

A: In those days there were very few people that had the conveniences we do now. We had an outhouse and we got water from a pump and I carried the water regardless of the weather. We had two big woodstoves; the kitchen stove and another one was in the living room. Everything was all on one floor.

A few times we would roll up bricks in a blanket, but I got tired of doing that and the woodstoves actually did a pretty good job.

When Dad died it was during the Depression years and we were lucky that the state was able to help and take over for a period of time. There was no money involved, but we were able to get some surplus food and some aid.

At that point I took over the duties of cutting the wood. We had a bucksaw and an ax and I learned how to use them real quick.

After I was 10 or so, I worked in the area helping different farmers and we would make skis and go skiing a lot. We had trails from the top of the hill and come all the way to the bottom of town. We probably shouldn't have been doing it as it was pretty treacherous, looking back.

When I was around 14, my mother remarried and he more-or-less took over a lot of the duties, but I still had to help out a lot.

There were around a dozen kids or so in the neighborhood. One family lived down below with nine children and one next to me had a pair of twins. We would get together in front of the house where there was a mud pond and it was probably about an acre big, so we did a lot of skating in the winter…back then, once it froze, it stayed froze. The pond area had a little island in the middle of it so we would build fires on that.

Q: Was there anything you wanted to be when you grew up?

A: I spent the biggest part of my life in the woods. I didn't have dreams of doing anything different and I really enjoyed being in the woods back then and still do.

Q: Where did you go to school?

A: We walked to school and it was about a mile away in the North Waterford Village. I went there for four years ... rain or shine.

Where it was an unorganized territory the state told us where we were going to school and so I went to Stoneham after Waterford. There were not many automobiles then, so they hired a man to haul us there in his car.

For the seventh and eighth grade, we had to go to Bethel and we were hauled by a bus to go up there every day.

I started at Bridgton Academy in 1944 and I decided one day that school wasn’t for me. I went to work for a short time in the woods and then when I turned 15, I went to work for WH Brown Co. It was a saw mill and I started out on a truck, helping the driver and one day they decided I was to work in the mill. Child labor laws weren’t as strict, but I still probably shouldn’t have been in the mill. When the company let go, Grover took over and moved part of another mill (Toms and King Mill) and moved part of Brown to South Paris and they transferred me over there when they found out I knew how to run the ager machine. The ager was an adjustable saw going from four to twelve. Once a board was dropped off there was still bark on the edges and it went through the ager to take that off. I had a pretty good eye and put it through the ager to get the widest piece we could get.

Q: Did you get into mischief or play pranks?

A: Pretty much things like aggravating the teacher. Back then, they didn’t talk to you much; they used brute force. One time in Waterford, a teacher had been brought in by the state and we learned real quick not to defy her. She had a huge yardstick and she was not afraid to use it.

One time a couple of us boys played a trick on the girl in front of me. We had seats that had the slats and the desks were separate. There was just enough room between the slats to put pins in and during recess we pushed pins up her seat from the bottom. She was a pretty good-sized girl and when she jumped up the desk almost tipped over. Needless to say, I was sent to the teacher from the state.

Q: What have you had for jobs?

In 1949-50, I worked pulped truck and then went back to the mill.

In 1952 I had bought stumpage off a guy and bought my own logging outfit.

Q: Did you go in the service?

A: Yes. It was in 1953 and I did two years in the Army. I was in the heavy weapons infantry. I went to Fort Devon and we were there for 33 days because they had just signed the peace treaty with Korea and they didn’t know what to do with us.

I went to Indiana for basic training, came home on leave and when I went back they told me to pack my goods because I'd be gone the next day. We went to Camp Carson in Colorado and went for advanced cold weather training. I ended up in the motor pool and worked in dispatch and driving truck.

Q: What did you do when you got back?

A: I went back to work for Brown.

Q: When and how did you meet your spouse?

A: One fellow and I decided to go to the West Minot Grange Hall to a dance. I met Joyce and I asked her to dance. After that it was the end of my single life. We were married in 1962 and in September we will have been married for 50 wonderful years.

Q: What was the wedding like?

A: We had a church wedding at the Congregational Church in New Gloucester because that's where she was from.

Q: After marriage, where did you work?

A: I worked for AC Lawrence for 28 years. I worked right up through the plant, doing all different jobs as a laborer. It was round 1983 when they went out of business and I worked for a short while as a carpenter doing small jobs.

I was doing a job for Rupert Grover and one day he came out and said he'd like me to come work for him doing gun drilling. I told him I didn’t know what to do, but he told me he wanted to teach me to do it his way. Eventually I ended up in shipping and receiving, plus I subbed if anyone that had to go somewhere for an hour or two. I was actually the first man to ever retire out of that company.

After I retired, I cut a woodlot in Dixfield. It was beautiful 35-acre lot and cut 100,000 board feet or better of excellent wood.

Q: Any children?

A: We have two daughters. Carol lives in St Mary's, Georgia and it’s on the border of Florida near Jacksonville and she is the manager of a dental office. Karen lives in Towson, Maryland and she is a homemaker.

We have two grandchildren.

Q: Anyone said you look like someone famous?

A: I have a fella in Waterford that claims I look like him ... but he wasn’t famous.

Q: Did you do much traveling?

A: So far I’ve been across the U.S. quite a few times and made numerous trips to Florida for the winter. So it’s pretty much been the top half of the country and down the east coast. We went to London once.

One time we were coming back from Florida and we were in Kentucky on our way to our daughter’s in Ohio. I got to following this big logging truck and we followed it and we followed it. We got on top of this mountain and I saw my chance ... . As luck would have it there was a state trooper at the bottom. He said ‘do you know what you did young fella?’ I knew not to argue with a trooper, but he saw a sticker on the back of my truck that said if you don’t like logging, try plastic toilet paper and he laughed and told me not to do that again.

Q: Which place was the most fascinating and why?

A: Charleston, South Carolina. That was so nice there and we loved it so much we always said if we had to live out-of-state, we would go there. There was a museum and it was a Navy ship. It was just such a nice place.

Q: Did anyone influence you to the point of changing your direction in life?

A: Probably Joyce. She made me really want to settle down and have a family.

Q: Do you collect anything or have a hobby?

A: I have all kinds of hobbies, my favorite being wood. I did the whole inside of the house and I like building things like furniture and bookshelves and I made a family cradle for the grandbabies.

I belong to the Stone-Smart #82 American Legion and have for 29 years.

Q: What is the last book you read?

A: I used to enjoy the Reader's Digest. I don't so much now that there is more advertising than stories.

Q: What is the one thing you could not give up?

A: I would hate to think that I would have to give up my woodwork. It's just so relaxing and I enjoy it. There are times when it's hectic, but overall it is relaxing. It’s a great thing to do now that I’m retired; I had to do something.

Q: What is the one thing you would happily do over again?

A: I suppose it would be my wedding day with Joyce and if I could do it over again I would probably make it a little bit more elaborate.

Q: What was the best memory that this interview brought back?

A: Being little and back in Stoneham and Waterford. Being a kid back then was pretty fun.

Q: What would you like people to know about you?

A: I like to help people and make wooden things for people that I like and know. Sometimes they will mention that they would like to have something and I will make it.

Q: If anyone could walk in right now, who would you most want to see?

A: I'd like to see my father. I was standing in the room when he died and I saw him pass away. I don’t think I'd have much to say, but I’d just like to know that he knew I turned out OK.