Remembrances: Julia Genevieve Healey

Julia Genevieve Healey Stone

 Aunt Julia's Remembrances were among those Debra, Danielle and I discovered with other archives at the farm.  This transcription is from  a version originally transcribed by my father in January of 1990.  Note, "Editors Notes" Below are my Dad's.  As is my custom throughout this blog, any notes or commentary of my own are in bold. 

On September 18, 1921,  I was born in the Griffin Hospital in Derby, Connecticut and named Julia Genevieve Healey, the last of the six children born to Harry and Amelia (Gressot) Healey, and brought home to live on Balance Rock Farm.

I do not remember too much of my preschool days except how lonesome I was when everyone went off to school.  I spent many happy hours with my dad was was a very patient, soft-spoken, and gentle man.  I can remember riding with him in the horse-drawn wagon, standing between his legs and holding on to each leg over very rough terrain in the fields and thinking how great the day would be that I could stand up alone without holding on.

“Daddy”

Christmas was a very special time.  We never saw any signs of Christmas until Christmas morning.  We were told that Santa Claus brought the Christmas tree which meant as much to us as the gifts.  My dad would cut down a cedar tree and hide it until Christmas Eve.  After we were in bed, the trimmed it.  We went to bed early after hanging our stockings on the fireplace.  About midnight, Mother would have Daddy run around the house ringing a cowbell.  In case we were awake, we would think it was Santa Claus's bells.

The bedrooms were very cold most of the time.  We didn't have any fuel for the furnace.  Mother would take us upstairs to bed with a kerosene lamp or by candle light.  When it was real cold, we would heat a flat iron on the stove, wrap it in wrapping paper and cloth to warm the bed.  If we had a bad northeastern snow storm, we would wake up in the morning to see my mother sweeping up the piles of snow with a whisk broom and dust pan.  We didn't have any storm windows in those days, and the snow would blow in around the windows.

In the morning, we would come downstairs to the tree lighted with candles because we didn't have electricity.  The candles were soon put out to prevent fire.  We each received a couple gifts and our stockings filled with candy, nuts, popcorn, and an orange which was a real treat.  Then there was the delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  Gingerbread men, nut cake and nut bread were always baked at Christmas time  (Editor's note: I guess we'll have to have a chapter on Grandma's favorite recipes too--but on this stuff, not the salt codfish!).

At age six, I started school at Bungay School, located on the corner of Bungay and Chatfield Roads.  There were two students in the first grade.  It was a one room school with six grades and one teacher.  The coal shed, behind it, contained coal for the pot-bellied stove, and there were three outdoor toilets behind that--one for the boys, one for the girls, and one for the teacher (which we threw stones at whenever she used it).  We went to the neighbor's each day for a pail of water for drinking.  If a car approached, which wasn't the milkman, we all automatically ran to the window to see who it was.  And, if an airplane flew over, which was rare, we all ran outside to watch it fly.

The Healey and Mead families were the only ones that were not of Russian or Polish descent.  We all lived on farm.  We had a great time playing at recess.  In the Spring, we would go down to the brook and fish for trout with a stick, string from the feed bags, and if we didn't have a fishing hook, we used a safety pin.  We all had hoops or old tires we propelled with a stick to and from school and at recess.  In the late thirties, Bungay School and Great Hill School, which was a two-room schoolhouse, were both closed, sold, and were converted into homes.  Great Hill school still stands at the original site.  Arthur Krajnik bought Bungay School in 1939, and moved it to 22 Botsford Road, added on to it, and made it into a home.

In seventh grade, we moved down town to Center School, located on Bank and Martha Streets.  It was originally the High School, built in 1884 when my grandfather, Robert Healey, was First Selectman of Seymour.  It is now on the historical register.  The school was closed in the 1970's.  In the 1980's, the Town sold it: and it has been converted into offices and apartments.

Aunt Julia in Eighth Grade: 1935

It was a treat to be downtown to walk on cement sidewalks.  At home, we had dirt roads;, and, in the spring, when we had a thaw, the roads were full of deep ruts and would freeze overnight.  In 1934, Bungay Road was widened and paved past our house.  We still had dirt roads which were great fun for horseback riding.  On hot summer afternoons, Elizabeth, Katherine, Sonny and I rode one horse five miles to the Housatonic River to go swimming.  I sat on the neck, and Katherine on the rump--Sonny and Elizabeth had the best seats.  We could have walked faster.

We had one and a half hours for lunch because the students who did not ride a bus had to go home for lunch.  In the winter, we ate our lunch in the basement next to the furnace, and in the summer we ate outside.  There were not any cafeterias or lunch programs.  We walked over to the center of town every day after lunch.  I enjoyed walking over the Naugatuck River on the covered bridge on Bank Street.  If a car happened to be on the bridge, the boards would all shake.  Then, we would climb the green steps over the railroad tracks and wait for a train to pass under us and wave to the conductors.  When we went downtown to school, all the boys called us farmers.  In eight grade, we all went to Maple Street School, on the corner of Maple and Pearl, now called the Anna LoPresti School, and the down to the High School, on the corner of Pine and Bridge Streets, which is now called the middle school.  A new high school was built on Bottsford Road in 1960.  I graduated from high school in 1939.

Julia with Daddy and the Bull

Our home was always a busy place.  we always had someone to play with, and we all worked on the farm and in the house.  At age eleven, I learned to milk a cow by hand which became a permanent job for me.  I don't know how Daddy put up with us!  Some times Katherine, Sonny, and I would fool around and squirt milk at each other while we were milking.  Milk was flying all over the barn, and the cows would start kicking.  We drove a team of horses; and, when we got the tractors, I drove them and the bulldozer.  I also drove a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with a friend of ours which I loved driving.

In the Depression, money was scarce.  We were paid about two cents a quart for milk so Mother took in four County Home children.  They were state wards who were taken away from their parents because they were undesirable or could not afford to keep them.  Mother was paid five dollars per week for each child which was profitable because we raised most of our food, and the State allotted each child fifty dollars per year for clothing and also took care of their doctor and dentist needs.  So we had a full house for about five years.

"State Children"

In 1939, there were not many jobs available.  I did housework for a few hours per week for a neighbor, for twenty-five cents per hour, when I was in high school.  After graduating from high school, I took a job as a waitress in a restaurant in Ansonia.  I worked six days per week for nine dollars and whatever I wanted to eat, and I also received a few tips.  In those days, the average tip for a meal was ten cents.  I was saving money to go to hairdressing school.  But Sonny and I put our money together and, in 1940, bought a 1936 Plymouth for 250 dollars.

Harriette, Sonny, Julia, Mother & Dad, Bob & Bill in 1944 posing with the Plymouth

After the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, I got a job at the H.A. Matthies Manufacturing Company in Seymour where my sister Alice was already working.  We started at 36 cents per hour.  I worked on drill presses and eventually did spot-welding, working on gun sights.  The women had to take over men's jobs as they were being drafted.  We worked 48 hours per week, and at that time we didn't get any over time for over 40 hours.  I decided I had enough of that so I enlisted in the WACs.

I was inducted at Fort Devens, Massachussetts, February 13th, 1943.  At that time, we were paid 21 dollars per month, but we were soon raised to 50 dollars per month.  I went by troop train to Fort Des Moines, Iowa, for basic training and motor transport school.  My MOS was chauffeur.  I drove everything from garbage trucks to generals.  After completing my basic training, I was sent out in the field to Camp Campbell, Kentucky.  In August, 1943, the WACs became a permanent part of the military, and I enlisted into the WAC.  When the war was over, I was separated at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in January, 1946 with the rank of T-4.  At that time a T-4 was paid 78 dollars per month.

When I arrived home after the service, I decided to go to Elm City Beauty Academy in new Haven, and become a hairdresser.  I went to school under the G.I. Bill.  The government paid my tuition and paid me 66 dollars per month for my living expenses.  I lived at home and got up every morning at five-thirty A.M. and helped with milking the cows and other chores for my room and board plus I paid 5 dollars per week.  I graduated in 1947 with one of the two honor diplomas that were given out.  I worked in three different shops in Seymour and two years in North Conway, New Hampshire.  Eventually, I opened my own shop in 1967 in Seymour which was successful.  I am now semi-retired and have a shop in my home.  I live in the house that was built in 1776 by my ancestor which mother deeded over to me.  I lived with her and took care of her in her older years.

Randy trying out the hairdryers at the new salon 1967

After Aunt Julia gave up her beauty shop on Main Street she continued to see clients in the front parlor of the farm house where she had a chair and sink installed.

After the cows were sold in 1966, Mother sold all of the land to General Development of Milford, Connecticut for apartments in 1967.  They are now being converted into condos.  We kept two acres around the house which I have landscaped with flowers and shrubbery. Several improvements were made to the house.  In December , 1948, at 1:00 P.M., (Editor's note: something's wrong here--day of the month?  1978?)  3 teenage boys forced their way into our barn, and accidentally set the hay on fire while smoking pot.  There were 1200 bales of hay in the barn, and it smoldered for six weeks.  The 60 by 30 foot barn was completely demolished.  The adjacent barn was damaged so I had it torn down.  Both fire departments (Editor's note: which?) fought the fire.  Some stayed until 2:00 the next morning because the hay kept burning.* The barn burned on December 14th, 1980 according to court records and news clippings from Aunt Julia's files that Debra, Danielle and I found during our research at the farm 11/18/19.  One day I'll make a whole post out of that information.  The fire departments in question were the Great Hill Hose Company and the Citizen Engine company.

Cattle and the barn 1943

Land being cleared for construction of Balance Rock Apartments

In June, (Editor's note: day?--us genealogists are nit-pickers) 1949, I married Francis "Frank" Stone who I later divorced.  We had one child, Randy, born March 4th, 1950.  I have two grandchildren, Benjamin and Danielle.* And a third, Alex,  who was born after Aunt Julia wrote this.

Julia and Randy 1954

Julia being silly in 1947