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Q. What was your family like?
A. We had a great family with a bunch of kids, 8 sisters and brothers.
Q. What part of Berlin
did you live in?
A. I live on Farmington Ave. I've been there since 1913.
Q. How far back does your
family history go in Berlin?
A. Maybe about 1875 or so.
My mom and dad came from Northern Italy, close to the Alps.
Q. As a child, what games did you play and what chores did you have to do?
A. We played Hopscotch, but you play with your shoes on. I played barefoot and we went swimming in a babbling brook. Chores We had to dry the dishes, feed the chickens, gather the eggs, a lot of things.
Q. What was the first school
you went to and when?
A. You'll never guess! I went there 2 days. They called it a Bandbox School on Christian Lane. Then we moved to a new school called Kensington Grammar in 1910.
Q. How many other schools were in the town?
A. Oh, there were quite a few. I can't remember them all but, there were quite a few. Then they all came back in 1910 to the new school they built called Kensington Grammar.
Q. How many children did you have in a class?
A. Maybe 38-40 children. One class only. Couple of grades in one room.
Q. What did your classroom and school look like when you were
there?
A. It was a plain classroom.
Q. What were the teachers like in the early 1900's?
A. I remember her name. Miss Dudley. When the school closed, she came to the grammar school. She always carried a watch inside a skirt, and a blouse. The ruler was a means of discipline. I was scared.
Q. What did you do for lunch?
A. We had a sandwich. We brought it to school. If we had anything else it would be apples. No hot lunches.
Q. What did you do at recess?
A. We played jump rope, hopscotch, anything. Not many toys.
Q. What subjects did you
learn in school?
A. One thing I liked reading and stories. If we were good the teacher would read us a story. If we were bad, we wouldn't get a story.
Q. What did you used to wear to school and other occasions? What
was the clothing of the time?
A. We wore dresses.
Q. Last year you opened the time capsule from 1911 and saw the
penny you put in. What did that feel like?
A. It was good. There was one penny only and the penny that they gave me they took back. No-I gave it back. They put it in the Historical Museum.
Q. Did you actually put the penny in the time-capsule?
A. NO. They did tell us all to bring a penny. I thought I was going to see a box full of pennies all I saw was one little penny. You didn't even get to keep it. You can't buy anything with a penny anyway.
Q. We studied that in 1912
the Titanic sank. Do you remember anything about that when you
were little?
A. I didn't hear about that. I don't think we had papers. I don't remember that.
Q. What kind of stores
were in Berlin when you were a child?
A. Oh, you'd be surprised! We had one store on Farmington Ave. that had groceries, goodies and a whole lot more. One store.
Q. What kinds of things
did they have there?
A. They had candy and groceries. On one side therewere things like rubber boots and mops and shovels.
Q. How much was the candy?
A. Oh, it was cheap! I used to buy licorice this long and it would be 2 for a penny.
Q. Are you surprised at how much candy has goneup since then?
A. No I'm still buying candy. My favorite candy is Mounds.
Q. What did you do for entertainment back then?
A. Mostly in the kitchen. We had a Victrola and we played that.
Q. What is a Victrola?
A. You put a record on and it plays-a record player. We pushed the tables back and we danced with the sisters and brothers. We also had books. Not like today.
Q. Was there a movie theater?
A. Not in Berlin. You had to go to New Britain. New Britain had nice movie theaters. The Strand was beautiful and they tore it down.
Q. How did you get to school?
A. We walked. Snow, rain, sunshine- we walked.
Q. We learned about goods and services in Social Studies. What
were some goods and services provided in the early 1900's.
A. No Fire Dept. in early 1900's.
Police Department were the Constables. A Barber Shop.
In 1913 the teacher took us down to the Depot (The Whistle Stop)
to meet the president. Guess who he was? It starts with a "T".
It was Taft. He was a big, big guy. He shook hands with a couple
of the girls. He had a great big watch from a chain and glasses
and a black ribbon.
Q. What change from the
past do you think was good or bad?
A. Better education today. Today is a little too fast. Too much money today. We had very little, but we had a real good time. We had the love in our family. We made our own fun.
Q. Were your clothes usually
black and white?
A. No, we had all colors. I don't wear purple, that's for old people.
Q. What inventions do we
have now that you didn't have back then, or what inventions did
you have back then that we don't have now?
A. People are looking for potato mashers that we had back then. We didn't have breadmakers like now.
Q. Did they have the Berlin Fair somewhere else besides where
it is today?
A. Yes, it used to be on Farmington Ave. and it was The State Fair, from the Victory Market to Lower Lane. It was beautiful. That's where all animals came from the Depot. They would come up the road, the sheep, the cattle, whatever. The animals would come on the train, walk down Farmington Ave. to the State Fair. 1922 or 1923 was the last fair there.
Q. If you had a choice, would you like to go back to the past
or are you happy with the present?
A. I'm quite happy right here. It was nice then, but much easier now.
Q. After all this do you still feel young?
A. You bet I do! How old do you think I am? (96) I'll be 97 come Sept. 8, 2001.