Mary Jane Vaughn Spencer and daughter Edith Anna

Audrey: Grandma (MaryJane Vaughn Spencer) would go out to the field and call “Come, Prince” and Prince would come right away. Grandma would put the harness on the horse and hitch him to the wagon. Grandma and I would ride to Arctic, where the Bedard sisters owned a store. Grandma would always have long talks with the Bedard sisters as they must have been good friends.

Grandma was very brave. When we would hear all the cows bellowing out in the barn, she would light the lantern for me to carry, and Grandma would take her cudgel, a big stick as she called it and go out to the barn. The dog, Ned, always went with us. There was never anyone there. It was just a cow stepping on another cow that caused the ruckus.

A tramp or beggar could come along and go into the barn and sleep in the hay. Each beggar had his own nick (mark) on the gate, so the farmer would know who was in there. They would go along unless the farmer needed help and then the farmer would hire him.

If hired, Grandma cooked three meals a day for the hired hands. Grandma was always there for anyone that needed (help). If people were on the farm, they could eat at Grandma’s. Grandma was sharp enough to know who deserved a meal. It was only those men who were workers who deserved a meal. Grandma was so sweet and gentle, but yet so strong and brave! She’d light the lantern. Ned was barking. She was strong and brave!

(There was a student that graduated [1960 from J. F. Deering High School] with Heather whose last name was Bedard.  Mother and I met his brother at Alpine Nursing Home when the brother was visiting his parent at Alpine. Mother told him that she knew the Bedard sisters in Arctic when she was a child.  Bedard said that there used to be a street in Arctic that was called Bedard, but they did not know how that name originated and he did not know anything about the Bedard sisters who mother had met.  The street most likely was named after the Bedard sisters (family) that owned the store in Arctic.)

Audrey: I liked it better. I had a church, Knotty Oak Church, to go to.  Mr. Buecker, the minister, had twin sons who went to Africa as missionaries. The twins were both handsome

Beatrice and I were baptized at the same time.  We were dunked in the water. The minister told me to close eyes and hold breath. Grandma and Mrs. Shippee and Beatrice and I were always in Church.

Beatrice Shippee

Audrey: Beatrice Shippee and I were best friends from the third grade to high school. Beatrice went in the commercial and I went into the college bound. Beatrice worked after high school. She worked near the Thornton Theatre in Arctic. Beatrice moved and I never got to see her again. She died when she was younger, around 60 years old.

Audrey: When we moved to Anthony, Ed gave up school and went to work. He worked for Standard Oil Company of New York. He drove a big truck and loaded it up with gas. He went to gas stations and loaded the little tanks with gas.

Audrey: Oh, they didn’t think about education the way we think today. They thought about getting a job and making money. Working was more important and making money.

Audrey Mae MacDonald and sister Edith Anna Evarone in Hawthorne, California

Audrey: Spencer was a little boy in the playyard in Grandma’s kitchen in front of the stove. Ed would come home and eat and then get in the playyard with Spencer. Ed would fall asleep and Spen would crawl all over him. Spencer was the first grandson there as Aunt Edith’s children were all raised in California.

Audrey: Oh, I loved going to school! I went to school when I went to Anthony. I was in the fourth grade when I started there, and there I met Beatrice. We were in thc same grade, and we were friends and always together until we went to high school when they would not let us have classes together, because I was in the classical course and she was in the commercial.

They would not even let us sing together. Beatrice and I sang together (a duet) at church. I could hit high C and I had a beautiful voice. If I had been trained, I bet I could have been in opera. We sang, The Lord is my Shepherd, No want shall I know... which was a very pretty song. I would sing the tenor part and Beatrice would sing the tune. When the minister’s twin sons who were missionaries were going to Africa, they requested that Beatrice and I sing that song at the last Church service before they left. They went to Africa where there was much danger, but they returned home with no difficulty.

Mary Jane Vaughn Spencer sketched by Audrey Mae Spencer

Audrey: I think I called her mom. Or, I think I would have called her mama. If I said mother, she would have looked at me as if I were crazy. I do not know if anyone was calling her mother. I know my own mother when she spoke of her mother and father always said mother said this or father said that.

Grandma’s father always wore high boots. They (the Vaughns) had land. They were rich in land, but not in money. They had nothing but land. Grandpa Vaughn chopped wood and planted corn. Grandma and Grandpa Vaughn had five daughters and two sons. The daughters were MaryJane, Martha, Susan, Rachel and Margaret.

Martha married Harry Kirby and they had two sons, Harry Jr. and Ray. Harry, Jr., the first son worked on the trolley as did his father, Harry Sr. I gave Vaughn the middle name of Ray after Martha’s second son who was a big strong man who was always making everyone laugh (with his jokes and quick wit) just like his father, Harry, Sr.

One of the other sisters had to go be a housekeeper for a poor man who lived alone. None of them starved to death, but they were only rich in land.

Audrey: Well, Grandpa wore overalls on the farm and all the farmers wore overalls (because of their cloth endurance during all that strenuous farm work). Now anyone with overalls on is stylish. Then it was only the farmers.