Audrey Mae SpencerSpencer Historical CemeteryHenry Straight / William Spencer Family Cemetery
Vaughn Historical CemeterySpencers of East Greenwich, RI
5 June 2004

Heather: Love you, Mother.

Audrey: Love you, Heather.

6 June 2004

How are you today?

Audrey: Everything is going fine. We just finished breakfast.

6 June 2004

Heather: How is Ruth (another Yankee resident at Alpine Nursing home) doing?

Audrey: “Oh, she’s awful old now. She walks slowly with the walker. She is 102!  There is also someone in here who is 103 years!”

6 June 2004

Heather: Yes, Mother, 92 seems pretty young. Doesn’t it? [Laughter]

Audrey: Children are just getting out of a white van. Children come here on special days. We talk with the older children.

I have the best window.  It has pretty woods and stones outside. I have birds here as Spencer put the bird feeder right behind my window. I sit here and look out at squirrels, birds and butterflies. It looks wet so it will kind of be a wet day.

6 June 2004

Heather: How did the early settlers in New England keep the food and milk cold in the summer?

Audrey: Gramma would open the cellar door and would go down a few steps and sit on the stair and reach into an area (like a shelf) where food was kept in dishes with tight covers.  In this cold area, she would reach in and get food out.

6 June 2004

Heather: What did they do with trash when you were on the farm?

Audrey: We didn’t have any trash to throw away.

6 June 2004

H: Really? Well, I never stopped to realize that, but that goes with that old New England saying, “Use it up. Wear it out. Or do without.” What was it like to move to West Warwick in that big house?

Audrey: Oh, all the houses I lived in were big. Now I live in a mansion (Alpine Nursing Home) but I only have one room, but it is enough. [Laughter] I’m reading –oh I can’t remember–wait a minute. I’ve got to back-up in my chair and go over and get it. The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. Do you know Tom Brokaw? That Tom Brokaw’s book is cute. I like the picture on the front cover. I guess it is a couple who are saying “good-bye”. The Greatest Generation, that’s the book you sent me. The only thing that is sad is people getting killed. That drives me crazy.

I lived through all that war.

6 June 2004

Heather: What were your thoughts during the war?

Audrey: I didn’t have any fear of them coming over here. I never had a newspaper. I hated to read about it. I was so busy with kids.

Crystal was born the day before Pearl Harbor and I was in the hospital. They closed all the curtains at night. We never got bombed. It was funny hearing the planes go over the hospital. Seems so I counted sixteen planes the first day. So I said to myself, I wonder if sixteen planes will go over tomorrow. However, after that day only a few planes went over. I was glad to be home because a hospital is where they want to bomb.

6 June 2004

Heather: Who took care of the other kids when you were in the hospital?

6 June 2004

Heather: I’ve heard that about the Indian, the Native American, women.

Audrey: Early settlers went to the Indians for advice. That was before. Indians owned everything. Settlers kept fencing off land!

Dick Campbell, he had an Indian friend, lived down in the orchard across from us. There were good friends.