I mentioned before I was raised by my grandparents and they were the original odd couple. My grandfather was six feet two or three inches tall and weighed about two hundred pounds. Poor grandma was five feet tall and weighed ninety pounds on those days she retained water. When I was fifteen or sixteen I could hold my arm out straight to the side and grandma could walk under it.

   I want to add a few serious thoughts here and talk about how life has changed over the last seventy odd years. The house I grew up in had two floors and the upstairs area was made up of three bedrooms and a small hallway. When my grandfather had the house built it cost him one dollar a day for the carpenter---and the carpenter had to provide the nails and his helper. There was no running water in the house and we got water from a pump on one end of the sink. There was no electricity (at first) and all our light came from lamps that burned kerosene. I said we were poor and looking back now I guess that was an understatement. When my father died I was six years old and my mother died when I was ten. My grandfather was in his early seventies when he took my brother and me to live with him. He was drawing twenty one dollars a month from the state to live on and two thirds of that went to pay my grandmothers doctor bill. He was too old to fish for lobsters any more and times were really rough for us.

   I always thought my grandmother had to be one of the best housekeeper in the whole world, and she was. There was never a speck of dust anywhere and the inside of her house was always spick-and-span. Now I think maybe we we never had cobwebs in our house because we were too poor to afford them.

   I went to work when I was twelve (during the summer) for ten cents an our and I was janitor of our schoolhouse when I was eleven and twelve. The schoolhouse was a two story building with four grades on the first floor and four grades on the second floor. I had to carry all the wood the stoves burned from a shed outside, do the floors, and etc. I got paid twice a year and the first check I got was on the twenty forth of December and it was for sixteen dollars.   The school provided milk for us and we all had to bring our own lunch. My lunch was always a cold bean sandwich, a molasses sandwich, or a mustard sandwich. I always had a good dessert though for my grandmother was a great baker.

   Now that I have you feeling really sorry for me I'll continue telling you about Gramps. My grandfather left school when he was very young and worked hard all his life. He didn't have a good education but he had the wisdom of Solomon. He never owned a car and walked to work every day. It was about three miles from our house to Wallace�s Cove where he had his lobster boat and he walked it every day; except on the weekends.

   Grandpa was a teetotaler---almost. Lubec was a dry town and if anyone wanted to buy a bottle they had to travel all the way to Eastport. There was a ferry between Lubec and Eastport that ran a couple times a week and one day Gramps was on the ferry. He went to the state run liquor store and bought a pint of whiskey. When he figured he was coming down with a cold he would take a cup full of hot water, two spoonfuls of honey, and a teaspoon full of whiskey. A pint of booze would last him a year---until my brother Doug and I got old enough to steal a sip every once in awhile. The only problem was I didn�t know Doug was sipping from the bottle and he didn�t know I was. After walking back from the Grange dance, and I was sure both grandparents were fast asleep, I�d take a big sip of his whiskey and fill the bottle back to its original mark with water.I found out later Doug was doing the same thing.

  One night Gramps got out his bottle and made a cup of his special medicine. He made a face after his first swallow and figured something was wrong. He put his nose to the whiskey bottle and it was almost pure water. It didn�t take him long to figure out what had happened and to my surprise he never said a word to either my brother or me. He made a trip to Eastport and bought a new bottle of medicine and when he got home he hid his bottle so Doug and I couldn�t find it. A few months had passed and Gramps figured he was coming down with something so he heated his water, added his honey, and went for his whiskey. He was gone long enough for his water to get cool and when he did get back he was mumbling to himself. My grandmother asked what was wrong and as Gramps was a very religious man he looked at her and said, �God is punishing me."
  �Why?� Grandma asked.   �Remember that pint of whiskey I went to Eastport to get so I could make my toddy. Well,when I got back home I hid the bottle so the boys wouldn�t find it.�

  �That was a good idea,� my grandmother answered still wondering why Gramps was unhappy.

  �No, I think God is punishing me for hiding the bottle. In fact, I hid it so good I can�t find it myself.�

Halloween was special when I was growing up for I went to every house I could walk to and got good stuff I couldn�t afford the rest of the year. When trick or treaters came to our house they got one of two things; an apple from our tree, or if they were lucky and grandma was well enough to bake, some of her molasses cookies. When some of the older boys came to our house for goodies Gramps was always ready with a ghost story or at least a good scary story.

   I remember one night the two Scoville boys had come to the door, rather late for a Halloween evening, and Gramps invited them in to have some Postum with their cookies. The Scoville boys owned a beautiful collie that followed one of them wherever they went and he was there waiting outside for the boys to come out.

   This Halloween was one of those beautiful nights when the moon was shining so brightly it was almost daylight. Gramps got in a talking mood and he was telling about some of the hazards of Maine on Halloween night. A couple things he told the boys stuck in my mind and I didn�t dare go outside for the next two or three nights. He told of the hundreds of Maine people that had been witness to the terrible Tree Squeaks on this most scary of all nights. The night when Saman, the lord of the dead, called forth hosts of evil spirits. The Tree Squeaks were worse on nights when the wind howled, but even then they weren�t half as bad as the Side Hill Gouges. These miserable things could maim a person in fractions of a second and leave them hurting for years. The Scoville boys were older than I was and it seemed to me they didn�t believe much what Gramps was saying. After they had finished their treat they left and when I looked out the window I saw them both picking up their feet and putting them down as fast as they could. I might be wrong but I swear to this day they both out ran their dog.

   My grandmother died in her sixties and Gramps died when he was ninety one. He was living alone in a big house and quite unhappy. He sold the hay from his farm, skimped all summer long so he could save his money, and took a bus ride down to Saint Petersburg each winter. He lived at an old folks home there and returned to his own house during the summer. Gramps was a creature of habit and an early riser. Every morning before breakfast, even when he was ninety, he would he would take his morning stroll of from five to seven miles, return for breakfast, and then go to his room for a little rest.

I believe he was quite a ladies man in his latter years; at least he was according to the stories he told me. For three years in a row he won a dancing contest at �the home� in St. Pete. All of the widows there chased after him and he was careful to be slow enough for several of them catch him. One quite wealthy widow took him for a ride one day and just happened to pass by a little house.

   �How much is that house worth, Les?� she asked my grandfather.

   �I don�t know what it would run for down here but in South Lubec it would probably cost about twelve thousand dollars,� he answered giving it his best appraisal. Remember this was many years ago.

   �It goes for twenty thousand dollars and if you will spend your winters down here with me I�ll buy it for you. Gramps looked at her with the same look a puppy gets when he wets on the carpet and knows he is going to be scolded. You know; real sad.

   �It looks like a wonderful house but I�m sorry I can�t accept your kind offer.�

   �Why not, Les,� she said, �I�ll put your name on the deed.�

   �I just can�t do it,� he said.

   Another widow of means said to him one day, �Les, if you�ll spend all your time here in St. Pete with me I�ll buy you a new convertible, whatever kind you want, every year so you can drive back and forth.�

   �Can�t do it,� Gramps told her. �I�ve never driven a car in my life and I�m too old to learn now.� I learned later that the widow bought a new car each year and drove to Maine to spend part of the summer days there with him.

   Several other widows made offers of the same type and Gramps turned them all down. After I heard of all his proposals I asked him why he didn�t accept one of the offers.

   �It wouldn�t be fair to the woman that got me,� he said. �I loved your grandmother so much I could never love another woman like I loved her.� His true love story really touched my heart until I stopped and thought it over for a little while. As I said before he was wise but he didn�t pull the wool over my eyes this time. I knew the reason he didn�t accept any proposal was because then he would have to stay with, and be faithful to, one woman. The way it was now he was in heaven with a dozen or so of them. I also recall he told me many times that variety is the spice of life. He did seriously tell me one day that he had a problem with women.

   �I�m ninety years old and I have to go out with these young kids sixty five or seventy. I just can't find anyone my own age.� In my own heart I was sure he didn�t want to.

  I remember the last words he said to me when I got drafted into the Army in the early forties and was getting on the bus that would take me from Lubec to Machias. �Obbie,� he said, �God takes care of infants and idiots and you should be well protected the rest of your life.�

   It�s funny now looking back over the years just how well protected I have been.