The subject of this week’s article came about when we both went out to visit my cousin Geraldine Atkinson Hanley. We were remembering about our high school days and what jobs we did to earn money for our clothes and spending money for the events going on in our high schools.
I recalled Geraldine came down to stay with my mother and father for the summer. My cousin Geraldine was going to Bridge Academy, a small private high school which was located in Dresden.
Geraldine and a couple of other girls stayed with Mrs. Gould who boarded high school students attending Bridge Academy. Mrs. Gould’s home was just a small distance from the high school and on the same street.
My father was a close friend of Mr. Cliff Cate, who at that time was the manager of the First National Grocery Store, which was located in the so-called Henry Mellus Block on Main Street. This is now the location of the Chapman & Chapman Insurance office.
My father went on to tell Mr. Cate that his niece was very good in figures and was very good at working around other people and that she was attending Bridge Academy. When Mr. Cate heard Geraldine was going to school at Bridge Academy, he replied, ‘I also grew up in Dresden and I still own land there and I always love to help school children who need a summer job for school money.’
So when school closed for the summer, Geraldine came down to stay with my folks and went to work at the First National Store here in Damariscotta.
Now for the rest of the story:
Geraldine asked me if we could find out if anyone here in the Twin Villages still remembers some of the help that worked in the old First National Store.
During the World War II era, the manager of the First National Store was Cliff Cate. His wife was named Mildred and they had one daughter named Marilyn who graduated in the Lincoln Academy class of 1951.
The meat manager was Mr. Thomas Merrill who lived on High Street with his wife and a son, Thomas Jr., and a daughter, Dorothy, who both went to Lincoln Academy and were in the classes of 1953 and 1955.
The produce manager was Everett Morse. His wife was Violet Bryant Morse who graduated from Lincoln Academy in the class of 1938. They had no children.
Robert Williams, who lived on High Street, also worked on produce and fruits. He was in the LA class of 1942 and served in WWII.
Burnham Ripley was a stock boy at the store and was in the LA class of 1943 and also served in WWII.
Some of the women clerks were Mrs. Margaret Hall King, who lived here in Damariscotta, and Mrs. Norma A. Lincoln Leeman who graduated from LA in 1943.
They had two children, a son, Paul Jr., and a daughter, Fay, who both graduated from LA in the classes of 1970 and 1972.
Mrs. Georgianna Stetson Sandstrom was a store clerk who lived on the Mills Road in Newcastle and graduated from LA in 1942. Mrs. Eleanor M. Lincoln Dow was a clerk. She also graduated from LA in the class of 1940.
Mrs. Geraldine Atkinson Hanley was a store clerk and she told us she started working at the First National Store for $19 a week. Geraldine graduated from Bridge Academy in Dresden. Mr. Cliff Cate was also a graduate of Bridge Academy. Geraldine married Oscar Hanley. They lived in Newcastle and had three children, a daughter Deborah (LA, 1969), daughter Dale (LA, 1970), and a son, Timothy (LA, 1976).
Mr. Sherman Page worked in the meat department and graduated from LA. He later had his own grocery and meat store on the street level of the old Masonic building.
We remember as young children seeing all the grocery store ads in the front windows of the store and the fresh smell and aroma and fragrance of fresh ground coffee beans as you came into the store. My father would always get a call from Mr. Everett Morse when he would get a fresh shipment of bananas, they were some scarce in WWII.
My father and Thomas Merrill always went deer hunting together and they would cut up the deer in the evening at old First National Store. I recall going into the store with my parents and they would give the clerk a grocery list and she would go around the store and take the items off the shelves and place each on the counter and add all the items up on the back of the large paper bags. I always remember these store clerks were very good with figures.
In those days, meat was not prepackaged and everything was freshly cut. So many of the canned goods were canned right here in Maine factories. We always remember about a week before the Fourth of July, watermelon would arrive in the store, what a big deal this was to us children back in our childhood days.
Please call us at 563-3714 (or email info@lincolncountynewsonline.com) if you have any memories of the old First National Store and all the local people who worked there.
We look forward to hearing from our readers. It is so nice to recall memories of the past which are brought about by someone asking do you remember this store or the people who worked there?
We both can tell you that some of these women store clerks are living right here in the area. Please respond if you have any stories to tell us.
