Audrey Mae Spencer

Audrey: There is snow on the ground. It’s not very deep, only about two inches and it is starting to melt. There are squirrels running around. Today is Spencer’s birthday. I’ll be 91 years, (my life span has covered) from the horse and buggy to the moon!

Audrey’s Great, Great Nephew

Spencer Evarone O’Keefe

Born January 17, 2003
Gallup, New Mexico
Proud Parents are MaryAnn (née Evarone) and Denny O’Keefe

Audrey: I’m sitting by the window looking out. The sun isn’t shining. Vaughn generally gets me over there to see his kids. It looks like it’s trying to snow.

William J.B. Spencer and Audrey Mae Spencer

Audrey: The weather is really changing. Winters were much worse then. As a little child, I always walked to the barn and the snow was up to my waist. The snow was up to the windows, all winter, the snow kept getting bigger and bigger. I would wait for spring and the green grass. Haven’t seen one of those storms since I grew up. There used to be banging outside, wind blowing snow into the house, big waves of snow come slamming at the house. Can’t ever remember snow going over the door. We always got out to shovel. Now (2003) there is just enough snow to cover the ground.

My mother’s bedroom went out to a deck of wood platform. There were a couple of steps. House settled there. Front went out to the road. My mother’s room faced the barn. There was a rock fence… The path to the barn was quite a ways, fifteen to twenty feet from the house. We had around ten cows. My brother, Eddy (John Edward Spencer), hitched up a horse and took a can of milk to a man in Crompton. This man, Mr. Louis, sold milk.

Audrey’ s father, William J.B. Spencer

Every summer a family came to Daisy Farm from Auburn or Providence. The family had two or three teens and that family came daily and bought a quart of milk. I’ve lived and seen everything change. I know it! Everything changed in my time. Oh, I got a whole batch of books that Crystal gave me!

Mr. an Mrs. Williams Mitchell

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Audrey: I loved the Mitchell Maternity home. She was so friendly. She was a nurse. It was her own home. She only had one woman at a time, but sometimes, more than one woman. The doctor came. I think his name was Dr. Farrell. They (the nurse and the doctor) were all there right together in Crompton. One time they had to make me wait for the doctor. I was so mad.

Audrey: Crystal and the older ones were born at Lying-In Hospital in Providence. The cost was $65.00 a delivery. It was a baby place. Whether or not it was hitched to the hospital, I can’t remember.

It’s a nice day today. The sun is shining! I just rest. Get up and read. I eat very good! I wasn’t a big eater. I’d eat what was put before me! I loved red beets. I was a pretty good eater. Mother made good slumps. I loved her blueberry slump. She made vegetable soups with slumps. The rest of my life, I tried to make them like she did.

Unknown Friend on left with Audrey Mae Spencer on the right

Audrey: I can’t remember working in the kitchen with mother. I was the only one there. I was a child. I liked raw potatoes dipped in vinegar. I would just sit around coloring. Every Christmas I got a new batch of crayons and a coloring book. I had to make it last a whole year.

I had a nice childhood on the farm. I had to entertain myself. I would play with Elsie Miller. Every once in a while, my Mother would visit her Mother. Elsie and I would run around the stonewall of historical cemetery No. 9. We had sticks that we pretended were guns. We’d shoot the cow flops and pretend they were soldiers.

Audrey: I went to Spencer’s place. I rode around doing everything. Brenda’s doing better.

Audrey’s mother MaryJane Vaughn Spencer and Audrey’s brother John Edward Spencer

Audrey: I’m going along fine. I’m tired and weak all the time. My legs hate to move. I’d rather be in bed than anywhere else. I’m tired all the time. I can’t do too much. It is just a relief to sit down. I can’t do much of anything anymore. Uncle Ed, (John Edward Spencer) he used a walker (when he was older) and then at the end (of his life) sat in a wheelchair. Edith sent him the wheelchair. Uncle Ed (at the end of his life) did a lot of crying every time anybody went near him, he would cry. My father lived with us at (420 East Greenwich Avenue) and he couldn’t get around too good. He didn’t walk too much. He got up and dressed up every day!