Martha and Harry Kierstead’s long life together began with a blind date. They were married June 20, 1943, after a two-year courtship.
“I was with a friend of mine that was going with a girl from up the street a ways,” Harry said July 1. “I was going to go out with his sister, but at the last minute she decided to go to a basketball game. Then we went over to her [Martha’s] house”
Neither remembers that first date but Martha remembers that Harry, “couldn’t keep away” after it.
“He came down every weekend and took me to the movies,” she said. He said Route 218 had not yet been paved.
“We were married during the war,” she said. “I lived in Newcastle. He lived in Whitefield.” Due to a medical condition, Harry was exempt from military service during World War II.
The wedding was a simple ceremony at the Congregational Parsonage with Pastor Cecil Whitham officiating. Martha’s sister, Vera Dodge, stood up with her and Harry’s friend John Graffam was the best man.
“Afterward, we went to Moody’s diner,” Martha said. “That was the big celebration.”
There was no honeymoon, due to gas rationing. After the war the newlyweds took a trip to visit Martha’s relatives in Quincy, Mass.
I’ve lived my whole life in Lincoln County,” Harry said.
Martha was born in Newcastle. She was 18 years old and Harry was 20 when they married.
“It was almost impossible to find an apartment in town,” Martha said. In the tight WWII housing market, they eventually found a sublet on Elm Street in Damariscotta.
“Other than one winter, I’ve lived 70 years in Damariscotta,” she said. That winter was spent in a cold water flat in Newcastle. The rent was $25 a month for five rooms. There was a flush toilet “and that was all,” Martha said.
Then they got a place on Church Street, where they lived for 10 years, until Harry bought the land for the house in School Street, where they still live. Martha said the land was on a steep hill.
“I looked at it and said, ‘I don’t want to live here,'” she said.
“I said, ‘I don’t care where you live, but I’m living here,” Harry said. He started building the house in 1953.
“The first night we were here was the first time we were ever warm in the winter,” Harry said.
Martha’s father was a carpenter and helped with the finish work. Friends came to help with the shingling and electrical work. Harry did everything else, including shoveling all the gravel for the cellar into a truck, bringing it to the home site and shoveling it all into the cellar hole.
Starting with a 25×37-foot building, Harry added an ell that is now the room in which they spend most of their time.
“If you had $5 in your pocket you put it into building,” he said.
The couple never had children, and a 16-year-old dog that has been their companion in recent years died earlier this week.
“It took a lot of courage,” she said.
In 1951 Martha took a job at the Sylvania plant in Waldoboro. She worked there for 30 years and retired at age 55. She said she knew the only way they would be able to afford a house was if she took a steady job.
During the war, Harry worked at a lumber yard in Newcastle and at Bath Iron Works. Later he worked for the Weeks and Waltz Ford dealership. Neither of them ever missed a day of work.
Martha started at Sylvania at an hourly wage of $0.80 and was earning $8.60 an hour when she retired in 1981. Harry’s wage was $8 when he stopped working on cars in 1988, at the age of 65.
In the meanwhile, he established an upholstery business that he still operates. “In between, I had a snowmobile business,” he said.
“I used to do household furniture but it was an awful pain in the butt,” Harry said. He said boat and truck upholstery always has one side “you can hide.”
“He was so fussy,” Martha said.”
Once, when he turned down a request to cover a chair, the potential customer asked him what he actually did. “I said, ‘Not a … thing if I don’t feel like it.'” Harry said, adding that is still his attitude.
“She always said I had the brains and she had the money,” he said.
“I was brought up poor,” Martha said, “We were poor as church mice, both of us. We were thrifty.” She said money can cause a lot of friction in a marriage and both said it was a good policy to avoid borrowing.
“A credit card is the worst thing you can have,” Harry said.
The Kiersteads stay busy. Both have served with a number of town committees and charitable groups. Harry was a volunteer firefighter and served as chief for three years. He has been a Mason since 1949.
“If you don’t do anything you get in trouble,” he said. “I’ve been busy all my life and so has she.”
“I work two mornings a week down at the Miles Memorial Thrift Shop,” she said. Martha has been volunteering at the thrift shop since she retired. She said they have separate interests and “stay out of each other’s hair. That’s how we created a good relationship.”
“When we were married, the only thing we owned was the clothes on our backs,” Harry said. Harry had a used car, bought on time payments. Together, for a price of $1284, they purchased a maroon 1946 Ford that had no heat or radio.
The couple has done some traveling, once to Bermuda when Harry won a prize at work. Another trip was to Niagara Falls.
“That was something to see,” Harry said. “That was one of the best trips of my life.”
“They were all fun trips,” Martha said. The only time they retraced their steps was crossing the Canadian border near Sherbrooke.
In addition to travel, the couple has spent time boating and enjoying the company of friends. Harry used to take trips to a cabin near Baxter State Park and recently sold his share to the son of a fellow owner.
“Now we don’t do a heck of a lot,” Martha said. She said they are both awake at 4 a.m. most days, and in bed by 9 p.m.
“We didn’t even celebrate our 70th,” she said. “We had cards and flowers sent to us, but there was no big shindig.”
“So few people now get married,” Martha said of the cultural change that has led to many couples living together without benefit of a marriage license. “When we were married, if you did that you were frowned upon. It’s your life, but I wouldn’t do it.”
Harry said living together before getting married might help a couple know if they were suited for life together.
“It would save the price of a divorce,” Martha said. “It’s touchy situation.” She said she sees couples spending large sums on a wedding at the start of a marriage that ends in divorce.
“Maybe it’s better to try it out first,” she said.
