Papa Stories: 3. Many Places

My dad liked to remind me that he was a Korean War veteran with an honorable discharge. Have you seen the American flag in my office? It was given to me by the United States for my Dad’s service to his country. While he was in the Army Air Force we lived in Illinois, Florida, New York and Texas. After his discharged we would live in numerous places in Massachusetts and Maine. By the time I was twelve and my parents had divorced we would settle in and around Brunswick, Maine.

Our family roots are deep in the coastal area of Bath and Brunswick. At least four generations of our family have worked at the Bath Iron Works located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine. This extensive shipyard includes a plant a few miles south in East Brunswick. It is here “behind the Harding Plant” where I have my first significant memories of growing up in Maine. It was this formerly rural two square mile area between Old Route One and present day Route One that housed my universe. It was a place with many magical adventures and where a few things that were not so fun, happened. Today Route One cuts across my memories.

Between this four-lane freeway there is still a small pond depression that we used to skate on, about a half mile before you cross the New Meadows River. On one side of the pond driving in one direction and on the other side of the pond driving in the other direction, are the two places where I lived “behind the Harding Plant.” One home was newer but both were primitive by today’s standards.

What would you like to hear about now: blueberries, pancakes, pine groves, neighbors, bicycles, dogs, bullets, coats, hornets or adventures at the reservoir? Do you have memories of the when you were younger?

Papa Stories: 2. I Am Papa

There are grandfathers, granddads, grandpas, and some are called gramps, but I am Papa.

I like my name, Richard Earl Crocker. Richard is my father’s middle name and Earl is his first name. My grandfather’s name was Everett Crocker but I called him "GranPAH." He liked to tease, loved my Grammy (Velma) and lived in Maine. His first son was my “dad.”[1] His family lived along the North Atlantic coast for many generations. [2]

GranPAH Crocker worked hard and had a store called the "Trading Post" in West Bath, Maine. He sold old things called antiques. Once my GranPAH took me to an auction and bought me a "red hot dog." In Maine when I was little hot dogs where red! GranPAH also gave me some change and I bid on an old coffee tin. When I opened it there many little things like rubber bands and paper clips inside that I played with for a long time.

My GranPAH’s father’s name was Gardner [3] and his grandfather was called David. Most Crockers from New England are descendents from William Crocker who came to England four hundred years ago from a place called Devon, England. He attended the Anglican Church but after just two years in the New World he became a “Puritan” and joined Rev. John Lathrop's church on Christmas day in 1636. When Pastor Lathrop left his home to plant a new church and found a new town called Barnstable, William went with him. This famous colonial pastor is your ancestor through Nana. Isn’t that fun to know that before America was a country that Papa and Nana’s family members were friends in the same church!

Do you remember two special trunks at our house? Downstairs there is a brown trunk from my grandpa and upstairs there is a little larger one with leather straps called a “steamer trunk” that belonged to Nana’s grandfather. Both are special because they come from a grandfather and because they both contain very special family memories. I hope that these stories are like those trunks in that they will let you share in some very special memories.

I liked spending time with my grandfather and now it is my turn to be Papa! I like being called Papa by six very special grandkids [4] and even by some of their friends! What are special names that people call you that you like?

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[1] This is the earliest picture I have of my dad with his parents, taken about 1928.
[2] In our family tree, my children were the first in 13 generations not to be raised along the North Atlantic Coast
[3] Our ancestry through Gardner’s wife Lena Pero goes back to the first settlers of Canada
[4] Taken in 2005

Papa Stories: 1. First Memories

Grandparents love sayings. Do you ever think, “Where do these sayings come from?” Some of mine are: It’s always right to do right; The best thing about doing right is you don’t have to like doing it; A thing can’t be stupid, but a person who calls it stupid can be; and, It’s ok to feel tired, do it anyway.

Other sayings I liked to use with my children (your parents), were “I am funned out” or “I am peopled out,” particularity at the end of a family vacation, or a week at camp. These sayings come from the combination of our unique experiences and our special personalities that God has given each of us. We are always creating memories which become our “growing up stories.” Do you have a growing up story from when you were younger?
“Sayings” are just short cuts for those stories, and grown-ups are fond of repeating them as they get older. I have many stories and memories that make me who I am as a grandfather and I am excited to share them with my grandkids!

Actually my first memories are not mine, but stories that I have had told to me many times by my parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents. I was born at Scotts Air Force base [1] in Belleville, Illinois and according to my parents I cost them one roll of dimes, one roll of nickels and four rolls of pennies [2]. My aunts and uncles still remind me that some of my first words were, “Yes sir, Sarge.” At that time my dad was in the Army Air Force [3]. Once dad built a model plane for me and I got super excited. As I waddled towards it, I stumbled and it was smashed beyond repair. I was told I didn’t walk until I was 18 months old and even then I would “slip over a cigarette paper [4]” as a toddler. My mom said I liked to sit in the middle of the floor and look around. I had no interest in taking those first steps. When did you learn to walk?

My first personal memory is about a home we lived in on a military base. I remember a room and a screen door that I wanted to go through to reach a court yard that was surrounded with other homes and had a wide drainage ditch running through it. I also remember my mom and dad talking and my dad was standing in his military uniform [5]. But to be honest I am never sure if it is a real memory or a created memory. Maybe it has been constructed from other people’s stories that I overheard. That is the problem with memories; they can seem so real but not always accurate. When I tell my stories, just remember they are my memories as I remember them and I think that they are true memories. Do you have a memory from when you were very young? Do you remember some saying your parents are always telling you? Have you ever asked them the story behind the saying?

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[1] Scotts AFB is located about 25 miles east of St Louis, Missouri along I-64
[2] There are 50 coins in a roll of dimes; 40 coins in a roll of nickels and 50 coins in a roll of pennies; can you solve this math problem? How much did my birth cost my parents?
[3] We would move a lot because ten months after I was born my brother was born in Jacksonville, FL, and less than eleven months later my sister was born in New York.
[4] My folks rolled their own cigarettes using a special rolling machine and “Bugler” tobacco; cigarette paper is a very thin piece of paper about thickness of a tissue paper and is about 2” wide by about 3” long. Growing up I rolled lots of cigarettes.
[5] The only picture I have of dad in the military is a “unit picture” from 1948 that is in very bad condition. He was a volunteer chaplain’s assistant while he was briefly stationed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base at Cheyenne, Wyoming.