Grandma's Story

It began in the late 1800’s—two couples moved to the U.S.A.

One from France—Aime and Mary Douillet. Mary was pregnant, and they had four other children with them: August, Aime, Emma, and Angela. Serafine, the baby, was born on the boat on the way over.

The other couple was from Germany—Hans Peter and Milja Hansen. They had three children: Peter, Ollie, and Maragaret (Margaret later passed away in 1918 of the flu.) 

Both families came to Connecticut. 

Paul Douillet was born in Orange, Connecticut, on April 6, 1898 and the Douillet family moved to the town of Oxford (CT) soon after that. Paul went to school in Red Oak (and later Center School) and lived in a small hour on Route 69 by the bridge (just about where Petro Plus is now). It was a toll house at one time for people going North.

Dora Milja Hansen was born on February 10, 1900 in Oxford, near the Beacon Falls town line. She later moved to Route 67 (across from where Oatleys are now). Paul and Dora where about ¼ mile apart, and they both went to Center School. Dora graduated eighth grade, while Paul only went as far as sixth grade, then began work—farm work, mostly, and cutting trees. He worked with his father, cutting and bringing the wood to factories and other places where it was needed. They traveled by sled or wagon, depending on the weather. The wood was measured by cord (four feet wide, four feet high, and eight feet long).

The teams of horses belonged to other people; I don’t know how they were paid for doing the work.

I don’t know if Dora worked after she graduated eighth grade, but she married Paul on December 23, 1916 when she was 16 and he was 18. 

Paul continued to work doing wood jobs, traveling all around the Eastern states, the family bringing their Sehaps (?) with them (four sides, a floor, and a roof), which they set up wherever the job was. Dora went with him. She told of one time they put it up right over a covert, and in the morning water was running under it. 

They lived this way for many years. Dora finally came home to his parents when the twins were due. Albert and Raymond were born on December 6, 1918, and Paul and Dora went back on the jobs and on the road, now with the boys.

It must have been very hard, what with two little ones in one room. They stayed in this work for another few years, then Dora found out she was pregnant again. They decided it was time to settle down in one place. They built a house on Oxford Road, across from where the miniature golf course is now. I (Lea) was born there on November 10, 1927. At the time, most babies were born at home, not many went to the hospital back then.

I don’t remember anything until I was about four years old, when my sister June was born. Mom went over to Uncle Peter’s and Aunt Lu’s in Beacon Falls for the birth, and was there for ten days. Dad, the boys, and I stayed home. It was before this that they tell me I drank a half a bottle of Rock+Rye Whiskey (homemade with fruit on the bottom—I guess I wanted the fruit), got very sick, and came close to dying. 

I started school in 1933, at Center School, which was a two-room schoolhouse, grades 1-4 and grades 5-8, one teacher to each classroom and five or six children in each grade (some grades had only a couple kids). A music teacher would come once a week and gave instrument lessons. The rooms were heated with wood, so the teachers would have to start the fires and the older boys would keep them going during the day. The wood was delivered by truckloads and dumped outside the school’s cellar stairs. The kids would throw it inside and others would pile it. Bathrooms were outside (one for girls, one for boys) and the back of them opened up so they could be cleaned. However, the boys thought the back opened up so they could throw rocks in and splash up on the unsuspecting girl inside. Recess fun.

There were no playgrounds, just a parking lot between the school and the grange and pasture, where there were cows. During the winter, we would go to the swamp and slide on the ice.

The school bell was in the attic, and you had to climb a latter to ring it. The boys did that job (I don’t know if the teacher ever did it). By the time I got to school, Ray and Al were attending a trade school in Bridgeport. We had a schoolbus, but we would walk on days when it was nice out. We could walk on Route 67, even in the middle of the road; there were not many cars.

The thing I remember the most about the lower grades—first or second—was an older student wrote “free” on some fudgsicle sticks (which were 5 cents then) and gave them to a few of the younger kids. If you got one of them, you would be able to go to the Stemcker (?) store across from the interstate and get a free ice-cream. When I got home, I told my mom about it, and she marched me right back to the store. I had to tell the lady who ran the store what I did and pay the 5 cents for it. It was a good lesson; I never did anything like that again. 

We always brought our lunches in metal lunch boxes. The first thing we did when we came home was change our clothes—we had to keep our better clothes for school and church and we didn’t have a lot of extras. We stayed outside a lot, in the woods and across the road, on the hill and in the caves. The caves were not very big—we could crawl in some of them. We had to do our chores before playing: bring in wood for the cooking stove and furnace, get water from the neighbor’s well for drinking and cooking, and on wash day we had to get the water from the brook across the road, using buckets, two at a time. We did have a wringer washer, and we would use the water after heating it on the wood stove. Some people did their washes right in the brook, but I don’t know what they did during the winter. We had a well drilled when I was in sixth or seventh grade, a pounding machine (it took a very long time) on the side of the hill in the very hard stone, and it went down about 100 feet. The water was very good, and we had plenty of it after that. 

When we had plenty of water, a bathroom was put in the house. Until then, we had outside toilets. At night or in really bad weather, we had cornmade (?) and ceramic pots under our beds that had to be emptied every day into the outside toilet.

As long as I can remember, we had a truck or car, as well as electricity, but no phone until I was in high school (1941-42). It was a party line, so you heard everyone’s ring and if you picked up and someone was talking, you had to hang up and wait before you could make your call. 

I graduated from Oxford Center School in 1941. There were six kids in my class, twenty-one in the whole town. Graduation was held in the Grange Hall, there were flowers from people’s gardens and we made a daisy chain for decoration.  

There were three other schools: Quaker Farms, Riverside, and Church School. We had the largest class (two girls and four boys), and we went to Seymour High School after graduation. So did the graduates from Quaker Farms and Church School, but Riverside kids went to Derby High School. 

It was at this time that Bob’s family moved back to Oxford (they had lived there before they moved to Southbury for a few years). They lived on Governor’s Hill Road, and Bob started working on a farm in Beacon Falls (The Carrington’s). The farmer owned the house on Governor’s Hill and the rent was part of Bob’s pay.

After the war started, my mom went to work at Wincester’s in New Haven, the night shift, so when I got home from school, I had to do some chores and make supper for Dad, Junie, and myself. The boys were both already in the Army. Some of the time mom would start supper or leave me things to make. I had to do my homework, too. Some afternoons, I would go hunting with dad. We hunted for rabbits, squirrels, and pheasants—they were all pretty tasty. A couple winters we trapped muskrats in the brook that runs into the pond, and we caught quite a few. Dad would skin them and dry them to be sold. He also did mason jobs and was very good at it (By this time, trucks were being used for the wood jobs). I did mason jobs with him a few times (very hard work—lifting stone, carting cement and water). I was now his boy and I loved the outdoors.

During the war, gas and some food were rationed. Sugar was missed the most; we used it mostly for baking, we used rock candy for our coffee (a white candy, mostly sugar).

The town gave surplus foods to people who needed it: cheese, flour, sugar, and sometimes meats. We never got any because we had a cow for milk, chickens for eggs, and raised a steer and pigs. We were never hungry.

When we butchered, always in late fall, we just hung the meat in a tree and would cut what we needed. The winters were cold and stayed that way. Later on there was a freezer company down where the hardware store is now and they rented out Rocker space, so we used that.

I started high school in September of 1941. I was not a very outgoing person, I didn’t belong to any clubs, although I did go to a few dances (girls on one side, boys on the other). It was hard to do many things because it was hard getting there; we had only one car and it wasn’t in very good shape. Remember, it had a canvas top that leaked, not much fun if it rained. We went once in awhile to the movies, there were some that were usually played on Fridays, some going for five or six weeks. Treemont was the name of the movie house on lower Main Street in Ansonia. There was another by the name of Capital on Upper Main Street. We went as a family.

When I was a Freshman, a boy asked me to go to a movie. I told him my dad and mom wouldn’t let me. It was a good excuse if I didn’t want to do something, although I don’t think they would have let me anyways—I was just 14.

In the middle of our Junior year, Bob and I started going together, which meant we ate lunch together. After school and on weekends, he worked at the farm. Once in awhile, he would get Friday night off. We met then at the dances at Grange Hall. I would walk up with the boys from next door (Ed and Ted) and some girls that met us at my house.  Bob was always later, and he would walk me home. He didn’t have a car to use until Senior year, but it didn’t work all the time—lots of flat tires, and it was hard to get new tires, just retreats. He would get some time off on weekends, so we would go to the movies and the dances, and he spent a lot of time at our house. 

There were always a lot of kids hanging out at our house. During the winter, a lot of ice-skating, sliding, daytime and night. One night, Mr. O came looking for Ed and Ted; he wasn’t happy. There were eight or ten of us, everyone going in a different direction, and we all ended up at my house for chocolate milk and cookies. Mom and dad liked having kids around.

We went to all the graduation affairs at school, all the awards nights, and all the dinner dances. On graduation night, Bob and I, Keith, and a friend went to Saview (?) Rock (it was really nice then) where there were all kinds of rides and games. On the way home, we had a flat tire and had to call Bob’s father to come get us. It was in Seymour, around 2 o’clock, and he was not very happy. 

After graduation, Bob didn’t work as much because now he could work fulltime, so we were really going steady. We went for rides on Sunday and the movies now and then. We went to the dances every week, and he would stop by my house after work a lot of times. The Christmas of ’46, he gave me a hope chest to put things for when you were married. The next year, he gave me a diamond. He didn’t propose, we both just knew (neither one of us ever went with anyone else). I did go on one and only one blind date that the girl across the street (Helen) set up. It was terrible. 

In 1947, a friend of my dad’s offered us a rent-free cottage on Lake Zoar (what is now Kettletown), but Bob’s dad wouldn’t sign for him so it didn’t happen. You had to have parents’ consent until you were 21, my mom and dad would have signed for me. I think Bob’s dad thought he could change Bob’s mind about going to college, but he couldn’t. Bob became 21 on the 10^th of April, and we were married on the 17^th of April, 1948, just a week after he turned 21. I was 21 in November of that year. We were married in St. Peter’s Church at 2 pm, and had a reception at the Fish & Game Club. I wore a blue dress and Bob wore a suit. Smitty and Junie stood up for us, we had plenty of food and drinks. The food was all homemade and there was a western band, Ruby Rambero (?) Bob played base fiddle and sand (he joined shortly after we were married). I went with him until Wayne was born and a few times after that.

We went through the New England states on our honeymoon. While we were in Maine, it was pretty cold. The cottage we stayed in had an outside toilet, and we had to keep the wood stove going at night. We had two weeks off, but we came home after eight or nine days. The rooms over the garage were just about finished, so we moved in. There was a bedroom, a small bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen. We both went back to work the next week.

We helped finish up the rooms and we lived there for four or five years, then built the cellar for our house and lived in it until the house was finished. We moved in December of 1960. We lived in the basement, which had an outside toilet and a lot of leaks, until the outside of the house was up. 

Wayne (1950) and Ellen (1952) lived in the three rooms for a short time, but when David (1955) came along, we were in the basement. When Warren (1964) came, we were in the house already for four years. A lot of people lived in their basements while making their house, it was a way to get started. There wasn’t much money and after the kids were born, I stayed home. When I quit work, I was making about 40 cents an hour. Bob was making a little more, but not a lot (I can’t remember how much exactly). We spent a lot of time working on the cellar so we could get the house started. We didn’t go out very often, once in awhile for ice-cream when the kids were small. When they started school, we went shopping for school clothes and shoes, then to Mcdonalds for 15 cent hamburgers and drinks (a big treat). The kids always had to change their clothes after school.

In the 50s and 60s, things got better. Wages were better and we did alright and always ate well (nothing fancy—vegetables from the garden). During summer, I put the little ones in a playpen so I could work in the garden. As they got bigger, they helped or just played where I could see them. I canned tomatoes and green beans, 100 quarts each year, and made a lot of jelly. We had a cow after we were married, but it was a lot of work. We had a milkman until they didn’t deliver anymore. We made bread some, but not much; we made lots of cookies, cakes, pies, and special cakes for birthdays: Angel Food (Wayne), Jewish Coffee Cake (Ellen), Marble for David, but Warren wanted strawberry jello. Wayne always traded homemade cookies for store-bought ones. For their birthdays, we had their favorite foods: Spaghetti and meatballs (Wayne), Macaroni tuna casserole (Ellen), Steak (David), hotdogs and French fries (Warren).

I was room mother for all of them at least once, I belonged to the P.S.O, and worked on most events. I was cub scout leader for 12 or so years, where I had meetings at home for six to ten boys. I was Brownie leader only one year, those meetings were held at the school. I went to mostly everything they were in throughout grammar school and high school, and all sporting events that I could make it to. 

Wayne and Ellen went to Southbury High, David did one year in Southbury and the other three years in Seymour, and Warren attended Nanawaug in Woodbury.

Wayne married Janey Petyian, with whom he had a son Kevin (7-19-78). He divorced her, then married Robin Henderson.

Ellen married Bill Fritz. They have two children, Kristina (3-29-78) and Michael (12-13-80).

David married Joan Olexinous (???) and they have three girls, Meagan (12-29-82), Cara (9-1-86), and Abbey (6-5-88).

Warren married Marnie Gilbert and they had four girls, Rebekah (3-15-84), Jennifer (4-23-87), Kaitlyn (10-7-89), and Brianna (3-16-92). He divorced her, then married Connie Anderson.

I now have seven great grandchildren. Ava and Will from Jennie and Dave Shepard. LeaAnne and Wyatt Wambolt from Krissy. Joey and Lily from Mike and Kristen Fritz. Patrick from Kevin and Tina Seabury. 

I have had a good and long life. I am very proud of our four, and all the grandchildren. They have all done very well, I like to think I might have had a little to do with that. I love them all very much.