Historical Society learns about trolleys

President Rob Smith opened the meeting, and Donna Conley, of the board of directors, introduced the speaker, Donald Curry, at the Dec. 7 meeting of the Westbrook Historical Society. Mr. Curry is lead restoration technician at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport. He donned a conductor’s cap and jacket before speaking to the group.

He had received a degree in music education at Boston University, and played bassoon for 25 years in the Portland Symphony, as well as playing for 15 years with the Casco Bay Concert Band. He also sings in the choir of the South Congregational Church of Kennebunkport.

He was interested in trolleys when he was enrolled at Northeastern University in Boston, to study engineering, and since then he has taken classes and seminars and done extensive research in the art of trolley restoration.

He was director of the Seashore Trolley Museum from 1989 through 1997. He gives frequent presentations at schools, clubs and service organizations.

He spoke to and showed our Society many slides, about the Riverton Trolley Park, trolleys in Westbrook and many nearby areas, as well as the Seashore Trolley Museum. The park opened in 1896.

A few of us recall the extensive area of Riverton Park, with its handsome, big casino building designed by Portland architect John Calvin Stevens. That building also included a reading room. All that remains of that building today is a rock that was on the grounds there.

The park now contains 14 acres, with no buildings. The area is being preserved by the Friends of Riverton Park. That group wants to keep it as open space, and not to be rebuilt. There are walking paths along the river. We saw pictures of people in canoes and rowboats, which could be rented there.

There was also an extensive amusement section with a merry-go-round, shooting galleries, etc., and there was also an animal park, with deer and elk.

Trolleys ran from Monument Square, Portland, to the park, and a steamer left Cumberland Mills, going up the Presumpscot River, to the area.

We saw many trolleys from several locations, which are now at the Seashore Museum – from Montreal, Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans, Kennebunk, and Manchester, N.H., as well as many other locations.

Mr. Curry was assisted in showing the films by Denise, of the Trolley Museum, who also passed out brochures to those in the audience.

At the refreshment time following the meeting, we were treated to a variety of cookies, bars, and cakes. I enjoyed talking with Shirley Lowell. We both spoke of Kay Sullivan, a former member of the Society, who we both miss. She has moved to Pennsylvania to be near her sister there.

Phil Curran, during the question period after Mr. Curry’s talk, amused us all with his recollection of a sign on the Portland trolley he rode in, in his youth. It was the first big word he learned as he read that sign – “Do not expectorate on the floor.”

Nancy Curran had a nice comment for me, about the birds in their yard, this late in the season. She returned from a two-week vacation, looked out in her backyard, and there was a pair of bluebirds, and at least three or four young bluebirds, late in November. She also saw three robins, still here in Maine in December. That is a surprise, that none of them had joined the flights to the South.

Another Potter in the field

The Nov. 29 New York Times art section wrote the above line in the article, which included a picture, in color, of Mrs. Rabbit tucking little Peter Rabbit into his bed, after his bad experience at Farmer McGregor’s. She was giving him a tablespoon of camomile tea.

The other Potter, beside Harry, is the English children’s book author, Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) whose Tale of Peter Rabbit, first published in 1902, is still picking up new readers today.

Harry Potter, also picking up new readers, is the hero of J. K. Rowling’s many popular books. We have a copy of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The American edition of it was printed in July 2003. It is a big volume, of 820 pages. I have not found time to read it yet.

I checked with Pat Larrabee, children’s librarian at Westbrook’s Walker Memorial Library, and found that her room has copies of all the Beatrix Potter books, 4-inches-by-5-inches, printed by F. Warne & Co. She also has two large, hard-cover Potter volumes, one with Beatrix Potter’s original illustrations, the other illustrated by another artist. Eight of the delightful animal stories are included. I borrowed the “Peter Rabbit Giant Treasury,” illustrated by Potter.

Last weekend I reread “The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin,” a Warne edition I keep on my bedside table, along with Wordsworth’s poetry, Hezlitt’s Essays, and a small Book of Psalms. The Nutkin riddles are fun to read, and each page has the text on one side and an illustration on the opposite page. On one page the text said, “They made little rafts out of twigs, and they paddled away over the water to Owl Island to gather nuts” (and visit Old Brown, the Owl). The picture showed each squirrel with a little sack and a large oar, spreading out their tails for a sail.

Many in my generation know the story of Peter Rabbit, who went into Mr. McGregor’s garden, against his mother’s warning. He was eating lettuce, French beans, and radishes when Mr. McGregor appeared. He chased Peter, who lost his shoes and jacket in the pursuit, and Peter finally escaped out a window of the tool shed. He was quite ill when he reached home, minus his clothes.

In “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny,” we read of Peter’s cousin Benjamin, going to Mr. McGregor’s garden again, with Peter, and retrieving Peter’s coat and shoes, which Mr. McGregor had rigged up in the garden as a scarecrow.

The encyclopedia Britannica article about Beatrix Potter was interesting. She was born in London in 1866. Her father was a barrister but never practiced. Both parents came from Lancashire stock and had inherited cotton fortunes. Beatrix was their only daughter, and had a repressed childhood. However, on annual holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, she explored the countryside and developed her artist-naturalist talent for drawing hedgerow animals, which she kept as pets and used for her watercolor drawings.

When she was 27, still living at home, she began sending illustrated letters to the sick child of a former governess, telling him stories about Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, and her tame hedgehog, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. These letters gave such pleasure that she decided to make Peter Rabbit into a book. “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” (1900) was privately published.

She eventually found a publisher, Frederick Warne & Co., who in the next 30 years brought out 23 of the little books that made her famous.

On a trip to England, Scotland and Wales in 1981, with an AMC hiking group, I was staying in an English inn nearby, I was pleased that I could visit the Potter home in nearby Sawrey, where she raised sheep for many years. Her land was bequeathed to the National Trust, and her farmhouse is open to the public.

Heavy snow

We had 11 inches of snow here in our Portland area last Friday, and the TV announcers were urging people to stay in their homes. Most of the schools were closed, of course, and meetings cancelled.

I spent most of the day intermittently napping and reading. I stepped up a bit in my reading, after reviewing my Beatrix Potter library book, with the New York Times and the Washington Times for my entertainment.

Cheering me up was a lovely Hungarian Rhapsody, played on W-Bach, and a Christmas medley, led by John Williams, with the Boston Pops. Later I heard and saw Mark Rosenthal, weatherman on Channel 13 TV. He is always exuberant, no matter what the weather!

I also spent a few minutes in the kitchen. The cupboard was mostly bare, as I did not venture out, to shop. But I managed to have all the ingredients on hand to put together Evangeline Lee’s dessert we all enjoy. These Marshmallow Squares are so easy to make – no baking.

Recipe

Marshmallow Squares

Evangeline Lee, of Granite Grange, Pownal, who gave me the recipe, says she often doubles it, as it is a popular dessert wherever she takes it.

1 stick of oleo (I use butter)

One 6-oz. Pkg. of Peanut butter bits

Melt in a double boiler, and let cool.

In a separate bowl, beat 1 egg, add 1-3/4 cups of confectioner’s sugar. Mix well. Add to the oleo mixture, then add 2-1/2 cups of colored miniature marshmallows.

Cover your baking pan with aluminum foil. Line it with graham crackers (whole), and pour the mix over them (No baking).

Cut in squares.

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