I am Marguerite Moreau Melanson and I was born on November 30, 1909 in Ashburnham, MA. My mother was born in Quebec and her name was Elodie Beauville. My father was born in St. Auberge, Quebec, which is about sixty miles north of Quebec City, and his name was Maglorie Moreau.
My mother's stepfather and mother came to Hooksett, NH, as far as I know when she was a girl. My father had two brothers in Winchendon and I don't know how old he was when he came here. They were married in Hooksett.
My father worked for a chair factory in Ashburnham, and then moved to Concord and worked in the Allen Chair Factory, which I think moved also to Concord from Ashburnham. As far as I know, that's why he came to Concord. That was in June, 1911, and he died in July, 1911 of a gastric problem but also possibly typhoid fever but that was never definite. On the death certificate it was listed as possible.
At that time my older sister, Freda, was married and had a little girl, and my brothers, Fred, Phil, Bill and sisters, Sylvia, Madeline, and Eva lived at home and I was a baby. My mother was pregnant when my father died and Arthur was born in February, 1912. But my three brothers together were not making the money my father made alone, so it was very hard for my mother because she didn't speak English very well and she was in a strange town.
My father would not allow English to be spoken in the house so the family spoke in French at home. But we all went to school to learn English. I was a baby then, but I later learned to read and understand French a little.
My father did just about everything at the chair factory. I was supposed to be the last child I think, the ninth one, because my father made me a little rocking chair, which I just gave to my godchild's little son. It's a beautiful oak chair and I have had it all these years. My father also made a double runner sled. I can remember using it on Cottage Street.]
But my father was going to go into the photography business. This was his last stand. He moved around, he had wandering feet. We were all born in separate towns except two of us. He practiced on my older brothers and sisters. He had the tripod and all the equipment but he didn't have the chance because he died. My brother, Fred, took all the equipment.
My brothers, Fred and Phil, were in World War I in France. And the baby Arthur, was in World War II in the Pacific.
... What kind of work did your three older brothers do after your father died?
My brother, Phil before the war worked at Vanderhoofs. My brothers had to take what they could get because we needed money and we were in a strange town. My brother, Fred went to Wentworth and became an engineer but for years he worked for the Middlesex Laundry.
... Do you remember when your brothers went off to war?
No, I don't. All I remember is when the two of them went off to war, they locked the door of the room they shared because they didn't want the rest of us kids to pick over their things and get in there. But my mother eventually got it open, and she laughed about that years later, but it wasn't funny at the time.
Fred and Phil were always together in life and they went off to war together and both were stationed in France. Fred was badly shellshocked but Phil wasn't hurt.
...Did any of your brothers and sisters go through high school here in Concord?
Sylvia started because she was the one that wanted to go to school the most, but being the oldest she had to go to work instead. Arthur and I graduated and my sister, Madeline almost completed the four years but got married in her last year.
...Did your mother work after your father died?
No, because she was going to have Arthur and then after he was born, she got pneumonia. But many years later she went to work housecleaning for wealthy families in Concord.
She was strict with us but she never laid a hand on us. We had our chores to do and every Saturday we had to clean the house. We lived on the corner of Cottage Street and Main Street. We rented the house from the Rileys. Later, my sister and I bought the house for my mother so she would have some security and not have to worry about rent.
... Tell me about your marriage?
I was married in 1946 in Santa Barbara, California at my brother's house. I always said I wouldn't get married if I had to live at home and there was no way that I could marry and not live at home. So I prolonged it quite a while. My future husband and I were going together here but we married in California.
My husband was born and brought up in Waltham. His mother and father came from Nova Scotia. When we were first married, he worked for Swenson's milk company in Lexington, and when he died, he was working at the state police barracks. My husband was a very friendly man and made friends easily.
We lived in my mother's house to take care of her and my sister's children, as my sister Madeline and her four children had moved back home.
...Tell me about your French-Canadian background, were there any organizations of French-Canadians to preserve that background?
No, there weren't enough French here.
...Were there any other French families that you remember from the days when you were growing up in Concord?
There really weren't very many French families. I do remember the Bouchards because sometimes my mother would buy bread from Mrs. Bouchard if my mother didn't have time to make her own. Another family was Martell.
I associated with some Irish because they lived on the hill but more so with the Italians. We got along with the Italians but we didn't get along with the Irish. It was because we were always fighting about religion.
My mother was a very strict catholic. She didn't even believe in eating fish on Friday, you fasted. And when Lent came in, you did nothing but pray and be a good catholic, but St. Patrick's Day would arrive and the Irish would be partying from the night before and all the next day. My mother didn't like that. It was the overwhelmingness of the Irish that was hard to accept. We were country people.
When my mother came here and saw the statue of St. Patrick in the church bigger than I, she couldn't get over that. Seeing that statue told you the church was Irish. We did not fit in at all. Everything that went on was the Irish. When you get into your teens, you begin to resent that.
I started to school at the old West Concord School, which was a wooden building where the Harvey Wheeler building is now. Then in the fifth grade the Harvey Wheeler building was built and I went to school there.
...How did the depression affect you here in Concord?
Well, I did have a hard time getting a job after graduating from high school in 1928. Some friends and I went into Boston and answered ads but they would always ask what experience we would have. Well, we didn't have any since we just got out of school.
I was finally able to get a job at Waltham Watch, which was a beautifully kept place then, and I put together the heart of the watch. I worked 48 hours a week and earned 25 cents an hour or $12 a week. That was good money then.
But then I got laid off during the depression because there was no business. When they would call us back, we had to take a cut. We would work for a while and then be laid off for a while until about 1938 when the war broke out and things began to pick up. I worked there 55 years.
We never skimped on food, we might on other things but we always managed to have food.