Audrey Mae SpencerSpencer Historical CemeteryHenry Straight / William Spencer Family Cemetery
Vaughn Historical CemeterySpencers of East Greenwich, RI
Conversations
14 August 2004

Heather: How did you feel with all the changes going on around you, since your life on the farm?

Audrey: The industry ruined everything. I was upset.

As a kid, it was all just land with beauty, green, trees. Now it is different.

But now we can’t live without all those buildings.

14 August 2004

Heather: What surprised you the most in all those years?

Audrey: Going to the moon! I wonder if something more will happen. Seems so there’s not much more to do. Everything was done by persons up until now and next (everything is done with) just push a button!

I don’t have to do work anymore. All I do is sit around now. I don’t even have to sweep. I couldn’t find anything better. Everyone is so sweet and helpful. Crissy brought a cage over and put it right outside my window. Now there are two places for the birds to eat, but those darn squirrels eat the bird food. But the squirrels are so cute. When I had my own home, I chased the squirrels away. Well, my hand is tired.

15 August 2004

Heather: Hello, Mother. What are you doing today?

15 August 2004

Heather: When you were on the farm and Grandma cooked three meals a day for the help, where did they eat?

Audrey: I carried out the food to the help. They would sit on a rock, I guess. It must have been a big pan with a handle that I carried out. There were only two or three men at the most. I was under ten years old. I must have made two or three trips if there was more than one.

These people with no folks, they knew our house had a nice mark on it. The mark was on the edge of the barn, I think. Coming the road, the mark was very showy (visible). My mother always made good meals and they all knew it. They had good meals while on the farm and grandma would pack them sandwiches to take them along. Grandpa would give them money when they stayed for a long while. They would get some money from Grandpa. He would pay them when they left.

15 August 2004

Heather: Did women work in the barn?

Audrey: Yes, my mother could do all the chores as good as a man. I guess when there were no hands, she would help.

15 August 2004

Heather: Did you work in the barn?

Audrey: No, I was under ten. I was always holding the lantern! I got up in the morning and fed the dog. Grandma had gruel for the dog.

She brought gruel in Arctic (a shopping area in West Warwick) . Anthony (a village in Coventry) had a store or two– a post office and a store. Arctic was called Jericho and before that something else. I can’t remember now.

Everything changes. Moves up. I don’t know where we are going next. We’ve been down in the sea and up in the sky. What next?

15 August 2004

Heather: Did you want one of the kids on a farm?

Audrey: No, it’s hard work. Except if you own the farm, (then it would be worth it).

15 August 2004

Heather: How would you describe your kids?

Audrey: Vaughn, he was a little fussier. He looked at everything. He looks things over inside and out. He is great for giving everything a good look before he goes into anything. His mind is going a mile a minute, but he doesn’t say much about it. He doesn’t like to write,but he studies very carefuly and he remembers everything. I do think he still does that. Anything he has to do he thinks about it very carefully. He thinks it all through!

Deardra, (She was found sound asleep up in the attic) I thought she got lost in the woods. I about had a fit! She had played all day in the attic. It got dark and the rest of the kids came down but she fell asleep in her part of the attic. You all had a part of the attic that was your own. Spencer just (climbed the ladder and) stuck his head up (through the attic opening) and looked around and came down and said not there. We were calling Deardra, and we had started to go up the road, calling Deardra. It was hours before we found her. They (a local police officer) brought her down from the attic. She has been lying down near the front window, behind the chimney and the officer went up and got her. The law enforcement officers were smiling when they brought her down. They thought they had a lost child on their hands. They were relieved. It was hours before we found her.

Deardra and Heather tagged along after Crystal. She would haul you along for mischief, like knocking on somebody’s door and then running away.

15 August 2004

Heather: What do you remember about the three of us?

Audrey: You were all about the same height. Crystal would pull you two along and do crazy things. Aunt Jeannie was like a mother to me. I would wheel Deardra over in Aunt Jeannie’s yard in that basket carriage with the top that goes back and forth. Aunt Jeannie would watch Deardra while she slept. Aunt Jeannie loved children. She helped me with Deardra and Vaughn. (They were the last two born and the only two born when we lived on East Greenwich Avenue, next to Aunt Jeannie.) Since Aunt Di didn’t like children, Aunt Jeannie kept Di away from the kids.

Doug, he was always reading and Spen, he was always on a horse, saddle or no. He didn’t have time to read.

Dawn, she was putting on shows for Aunt Jeannie and Dick. She would dance like she saw on TV.

Heather, you were always quiet. Always kind of fat, until you started to walk and on the go and didn’t have time to put on weight.

When you were all kids, I’d go back to that in a minute. To have you all screaming, no you kids didn’t do too much hollering. I enjoyed it when you were all kids.

 

15 August 2004

Heather: When I once said to Dad that he must be happy now that all the kids are gone and his financial worries are behind him, he said “no, that was the happiest time of my life when you kids were all here”.