Waltham Street resident Arthur Bragdon has seen two world wars, the coming of electricity and the automobile to Maine, as well as the advent of television and the computer.
Bragdon, who turned 100 on Jan. 9, has a little more trouble getting around on his own these days. He can’t hear or see as well as he used to, but his mind is still sharp.
Born in 1906, Bragdon has been a lifelong resident of Westbrook. As a boy, he lived on Locust Street in a house that had no electricity or telephone. The only heat in the home came from coal stoves in the living room and kitchen.
Bragdon’s family lived on one side of a duplex. Everyone in the duplex shared an outhouse in the backyard.
As a boy, he had to go down to the railroad line with other Westbrook folks to scavenge for pieces of coal that shifted and fell off the cars, littering the tracks. Sometimes the engineers helped them out by kicking off coal from the piles on the cars.
In cold weather, Bragdon’s mother had to thaw out the water pipes in the house before they could get any to drink. “She had to put kerosene on a rag, light it, and hold it under the pipes to thaw the water out,” he said.
When they first got electricity, Bragdon played with the light to the cellar, flipping the switch repeatedly to see the light go on and off.
They had a milkman, a garbage man, and a fruit man – the “banana man.” They bought their clothes from the local shops that used to line Main Street.
They got around mostly on foot or on the trolley cars that used to come down Main Street through the people on horseback, the horse-drawn carts, and the few cars around at that time.
“Things were different then,” said Bragdon.
Bragdon is the only one of his family to live such a long life. His mother died at 58; his father at 63. Of his three sisters and two brothers, only one other sibling lived past 70.
“And here I am, 100. What the hell am I living for?” he said with a laugh.
He’s still funny and sharp. He likes to tell stories. And he likes to make jokes and laugh.
In 1924, he graduated from high school, the only one of his siblings to do so. At his 50th high school reunion, the only one the class ever held, Bragdon was elected chairman for the next reunion. He is the only one of his classmates still alive.
“I’m thinking of holding another one next summer,” he said slyly. “I think I’ll have it at my house. I’m not sure yet if I’ll have an orchestra.”
After high school, Bragdon spent 47 years in the engineering department at S.D. Warren, where he designed buildings and machinery and surveyed a great deal of the city.
In 1971, after retiring in keeping with a federal law requiring workers to retire when they reached the age of 65, he kept himself busy gardening and maintaining his lawn.
These days Bragdon no longer gardens or mows his lawn, but he keeps himself occupied. Almost every day he eats breakfast at the McDonald’s down the street, where they threw a little party for him last week. If his niece Shirley doesn’t take him out again for lunch – mostly at Dunkin’ Donuts for a maple-frosted donut and a small cup of coffee – he eats by himself at his home on Waltham Street.
He still drives, although not as often as he used to. “I still drive, but not far. I don’t drive anymore than I have to, and I know that I shouldn’t be driving,” he admitted, with a cackle.
He spends most of his remaining time sitting in a weathered old armchair by the front window in his living room, in front of a circa 1970s TV, and surrounded by a great number of elephant statuettes that he has collected over the years.
“Don’t ask me if I collect elephants, though,” he said. “It’s so no one thinks I’m a Democrat.”
Bragdon said his main hobby now is to “come in and sit down and go to sleep.” Although his eyes and ears aren’t what they used to be, he still reads the papers some and watches a little TV. He’s an Oprah fan.
His most favorite hobby, however, is his daily phone conversation with “lady friend” Dorothy “Dot” Lopez, 93, of Searsmont. According to Arthur’s niece Shirley, who, along with her husband Norman, tends to his household and takes him to McDonald’s every day, Bragdon is officially unavailable every day at 5 p.m. sharp, when he speaks to Lopez.
“He won’t answer the door,” said Shirley. “Don’t even try.”
The pair used to eat out together every meal, but health concerns have limited their time together mainly to their daily phone call.
Although married twice, both of Bragdon’s wives are deceased, and he has no children from the marriages. He said he chose not to have children because he didn’t want them to grow up poor like him.
“That’s my biggest regret, that I didn’t have children,” he said of the decision.
Other than that, though, he is perfectly content with the long life he has led.
Last Thursday on NBC’s Today Show, Willard Scott wished him a happy 100th birthday.
Arthur Bragdon, who recently turned 100, celebrates his birthday with a friend at McDonald’s in Westbrook.Send questions/comments to the editors.
