Bi-Weekly Newsletter

​Update and A Look Back at Summer Days


A quick update on the last newsletter. This is a great photo showing the wooden screen and librarian’s desk as they originally looked. They provided a barrier to the stacks and only the librarian could retrieve books. Borrowers would approach the desk and ask for what they wanted. Notice the drapes on either side.

​This week, a reminiscence by Tom Wooster about summer days in Easton, 1970’s-‘80’s. Enjoy!
"Growing up in Easton in the 70’s and 80’s was a great time to be a kid as we had much more freedom than kids nowadays. Planning our day wasn’t done by parents, but by meeting my friends on summer mornings at the bench by Day Street at Frothingham Park. We would meet most summer days and figure out what sports or adventures we wanted to do on that particular day. Most days involved playing baseball or basketball or going to someone’s house to listen to
records and eat whatever snacks were in the house. Sometimes we would go on bike rides around town and my favorite was going to Borderland. We would go through the Town Forest and cross Bay Road and down the dirt road to Borderland and ride the trails there and then usually head to the Corner Store to get soda and candy. Some of my favorite candy bars were the Marathon Bar, Rally Bar, and the Waleeco Bar (which was actually produced by the FB Washburn Candy company in Brockton and they are known today for making Ribbon Candy). If I remember correctly candy bars were around $.15 and cans of Coke or Pepsi $.20 and still could get some penny candy as well. Sometimes we would ride to the fire station and get Simpson Spring soda from a machine where they parked the fire trucks. I don’t remember how much they cost, but I’m thinking it was more than Coke or Pepsi or we would have gone there more often

​Frothingham Park, bench near Day Street gate, today.

We would go home for lunch and then get our chores/jobs done in the afternoon. My jobs were picking up any trash on the ground at the park which took about an hour each day for which I was paid $.25 a day, if I remember correctly. I also had jobs mowing lawns once a week and for that I was paid $5.00 by the homeowner and that price never changed over the years. While I was always eager to run to the store to buy junk food my parents made sure I deposited most of it in the bank. I had my account at Easton Co-operative Bank, which then was located at the corner of Center and Main Street, and ironically is my current employer just at a different location.

After dinner on most nights I would play croquet or hide and seek with my siblings until either the mosquitoes drove us inside or our parents called us in for the night. As I look back I realize how good I had it growing up in Easton as I had a great group of friends to hang around with and a very loving family with six siblings. We had much more freedom in those days, but we also were responsible and were where we were supposed to be when we were supposed to be there.

I hope you enjoyed my short summary of what I remember most about how I spent my summers during my childhood in Easton. Of course growing up with a beautiful park across the street and having six siblings also allowed us to do many things together and for that I will always be grateful to my parents who raised us to enjoy life, but also to be responsible for our own actions."

...playing games in the park
til way after dark….back
through the crooked bar again,

where only children fit.


Anne Wooster Drury

[email protected]
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