Friends and Neighbors – Lower Centralville by the Merrimack
For kids, one of the really neat advantages of moving to a new neighborhood is that you, as a child, suddenly find yourself totally submerged in a different and unknown world of discoveries both in the fauna and the flora of this exciting Terra Incognita. Suddenly, you become an explorer, a young scientist, discovering the lawns, gardens, bushes, fire hydrants and trees plus the alleys, roads and even the, sometimes, broken sidewalks of these new surroundings. It is an open invitation for research on the kid level.
New Friends and Neighbors to Meet and Greet
Of course, the most exciting aspect of this world of discovery quickly jumped out at me. It was the large number of boys and girls already living on the streets and in the family tenements in these new surroundings. Did they play the same games and know the same songs? And, did they repeat the same sayings that I already knew? Could they sing “Frere Jacques“ or “Les anges de nos campagne”? And, would I fit in?
The year 1945 was big in the minds of the adults, who had experienced major losses during the war, but, on a lesser scale, it was also big and important for the young children in my extended family like my cousins, Claire, Richard and Florence Ouellette and cousins Claire, Paul, Bob, Gloria and Pearl Charbonneau and three more, plus my brother Bob and me, of course. Our sister, Michelle, was not with us, yet.
Cousins in Little Canada and Centralville
The Ouellette cousins lived in the Little Canada portion (Austin and Moody) of town in a first floor tenement, so we did not see them every day. And, although our Charbonneau cousins lived only one major street away from us on Lilley Avenue, we seldom saw them for reasons that were not clear to me.
Maybe, my aunt Mildreth and my mother did not see eye-to-eye on some issues? The rationale remained obscure, but it was so. This was a discovery, which I made early on in life regarding people. It is not always clear why people act the way they do. Sometimes, you feel that you know them, but suddenly they will surprise you. It’s never easy being young and naive.
Other Playmates
Dana Street, that familiar, cobble-stone, old New England mini-thoroughfare from the horse and buggy days housed three important families that later went down in local history as a bountiful source of ready companionship for the newly-arrived Bolduc clan.
Valois Family
The Valois family house sat at the corner of Dana and Ludlam. It sheltered Monsieur et Madame Valois plus their three girls: Céline, Angeline and Léonie. Many a shared story would develop over the years through these friendly neighbors.
Monsieur Valois, an educated man, often wore farmer’s clothing while working in his vegetable garden. He had been raised in France and, later, had served in the French army in Africa. His unusual background made him a most interesting character in my internal system of values.
Amtefornario Family
The Antefornario family – Joe and Emily, the parents, plus Joey, Carl and Sassy – lived in the second-story tenement directly located above our $6.00 per week rented space on the first floor. They always used their Dana Street entryway so I usually thought of them as Dana Street folks, but their actual address was 179 Ludlam Street just like ours. Joe senior owned a car, a Ford I seem to recall, which he parked in one of the three garages that sat adjacent to the main frame of our tenement building.
Bergeron Family
Outstanding was the Bergeron family with its small, two-story plus roomy attic, Victorian house located about half-way between Ludlam and Aiken Streets, and not far from the start of the granite mountain atop of which the famous Hildreth Street Cemetery sat.
Later, many a happy afternoon was spent going through a treasure trove of old comic books stored in the almost inaccessible nooks and crannies of that Bergeron, rustic comics museum. Donald, my elementary school classmate at the Ecole Saint-Louis de France, and his older brother, Norman, jointly played an important role in those formative years of my life. I recall that Norman drove a delivery van for the Bon Marche department store, which occasionally made a grand appearance on the cobblestone street in front of his house. He even gave me a short ride in that vehicle. My brother Bob was, probably, also treated with the same generous offer and thrill.
Beauparlant Family
I would be remiss if I did not include among my first and closest friends during those yearly years of 1945 and 1946 the happy presence of Claire Beauparlant whose house on Ludlam faced ours directly across the street and the Guilbault girls, Estelle and Béatrice, whose white, clapboard Victorian located at the corner of Ludlam and Cumberland neatly stood out among less noticeable dwellings.
Also, my friend, Sheldon Cailler, resided comfortably in an attractive house adjacent to the Guilbault residence on Cumberland Road. He and I shared an early interest in running mechanical projects – Sheldon with his Erector Set and me with my Lionel train set complete with a cross- gate for vehicular security purposes.
Other Families
Other friends were also included in this grouping of boyhood pals, but a little bit later. Here, I will mention: George Bourbeau, Roger St-Armand and Roger St-Louis, who, later, helped to highlight my days during those challenging high school years.
More on that Special Retreat – the Mountain
General Butler’s corporeal remains were and are, yet, housed there in the Hildreth Street Cemetery. Those bones reside inside an impressive, weather-beaten, wrought-iron and granite vault where a veteran’s group still holds memorial services annually. Butler was a Union general and hero during the Civil War. However, in some eyes, the general’s reputation also includes a checked political pass, which makes his acceptance into the ranks of the gifted American leaders more problematical. Nothing is clear and easy in a highly politicized career, it seems.
We, children, called this impressive prominence of cracking granite ledges and scrawny bushes, the Mountain. Many a summertime adventure and a wintertime toboggan escapade took form on this nearly holy piece of land. The Mountain was very special.
All resident kids, boys and girls alike, partook of the good times to be found on the Mountain including the use of bows and arrows, soap-box cars for racing and bicycling in the warm seasons plus skis and sleds in the cold and icy months of December through the end of April.