Benedicta throws 175-year birthday bash

There was definitely some history being talked abut last weekend as Benedicta celebrated its 175th birthday. With booths of hot dogs and hamburgers, pie a la mode, snow cones, popcorn and cold drinks, it was definitely a “family affair”. The local names, Rush, McAvoy, Perry, Qualey, Duffy, Albert, Cunningham and Robinson are long steeped in the fabric that makes up Benedicta.
    The party got started with a parade. Everyone agreed it was one of the longest parades on record. First place was won by the descendants of Irene and Irving McAvoy featuring a one-row digger. Second place went to the group from Vacation Bible School, and third place went to the Quilting Guild. There were 13 floats in the parade.
Lana Marston Robinson was so familiar with the parishioners, that she finally listened to her mother as she grew up hearing, “Everyone has a story”. So she set out to talk to 17 of the older townsfolk who were willing to talk about their lives and times. Thus came the book, “Deep Roots, The Life And Times Of The People Who Live Here”. Robinson taught English at Katahdin High School for 30-plus years, and can be reached at lanarobi@fairpoint.net for a copy of her book.
In a classroom inside the old school, three of the five graduating seniors from the Class of 1942 came together to talk about being back in the school that kept them busy for 12 years of their lives. Patricia Robinson Guiggey was valedictorian of that class, and she remembers walking half a mile to school each day. “The nuns were nice to us,” she said with a smile. “We didn’t give them any trouble.”
Faye Gantnier Mitchell remembers graduating and not having any jobs around the area. She went to stay in Connecticut with her sister Modeste Gantnier Deskas, where she met her husband, Phil, at a local dance.
“He told me if I came back to the dance the next week, he would take me back home,” laughed Mitchell. “Well, I went to that dance, and he gave me a ride home, but I had a friend with me the whole time. We went together for two years, then got married. We had three children who all live in Connecticut.”
Guiggey remembers all five Benedicta seniors going to Bangor in one car to have their formal graduation portraits done. They came back and ended the evening going to the movies in Patten. She also talked about walking four miles back and forth to school. Those who had to walk six or more miles from Herseytown (T-2, R-6) got to ride in a “pung” or “hack”, driven by a horse, in the wintertime. It was an enclosed box with a woodstove inside. Yet even with the heat, you had to wrap up in blankets for warmth.
Both women remembered getting up to go to school. “There was no ‘primping’ before leaving,” stated Guiggey. “We didn’t even have showers back then,” laughed Mitchell.
“We used to bring lunch in a paper bag,” related Guiggey. “It was either PB and J, tuna, or egg salad. We drank the water at school. There wasn’t any soda or fruit, and very little desserts like today’s kids have. They have so much today.”
“We would make up lunch in shoeboxes to be auctioned off to the boyfriends after a get-together,” said Mitchell. “We played a lot of ‘63’, a card game that was very familiar back then.”
Richard Rush graduated in that same class. “I wasn’t book smart,” he lamented, “But I would go over and over something, and once it was in my head, it stayed there. I can still recite the Gettysburg Address. We all learned the states and all their capitals.”
“Moms stayed home and worked back then,” Rush said. “School was much better back then. I walked 1.5 miles to school, or I rode my horse and tote sled. There were 11 kids in my family and we each were disciplined and had respect. If you acted out in school, Mom and Dad knew it and were waiting for you when you got home. One thing about the big families, we all graduated. Some of us might not of wanted to, but we all did. Our parents believed in going to church and graduating. We had school clothes that came off when we got home. We changed into play clothes and headed out to do chores. There wasn’t any bickering about them, we just did them. Our work ethic today comes from our parents.”
“We picked potatoes to get school clothes, and my children all picked potatoes too,” smiled Rush. “The WWII soldiers that were POWs in Houlton would come over to help us get our crops in. They were on one side of the field with a soldier carrying a rifle, and we were all on the other side. They came over in the winter to help us with logging. We weren’t afraid of them because the soldier was there with them.”
Guiggey related that the chalkboards in the classroom were the ones that were there when she was in school. “We were as well prepared if not more so for the world and college as the kids are today,” she said. “We didn’t have basketball courts, no field trips and no physical education. Our recess saw the boys out behind the school and the girls out front. It sure wasn’t like it is today.”
When this class graduated, the nuns gave them each a sterling silver rosary with their names and the year they graduated. They never gave another class before or since this special gift.
The historic display inside the classroom had folks wandering in and out all day, reminiscing about the past. There were hugs, smiles and even tears as families came together to celebrate a historic time.
Outside, music from Kerry Birmingham and his group kept things in high spirits as Margaret Sullivan Baker, a self taught painter, showed off her wares, and Linda McGee manned a booth that sold everything from cookbooks to T-shirts with the 175th birthday logo printed on them, to pictorial history books that were done when Benedicta celebrated its 150th birthday. Kylee Holman kept the kids entertained with face paint, and laughter and screams could be heard from inside the jumbo bounce house.
On the back field, horseshoes were thrown, while beano was played under the tent behind the school. Over at St. Benedict’s Church, the Quilting Guild showed pride in their art, as every pew was draped from side to side and the walls were lined with beautiful, handmade quilts of all sizes, shapes and stories intertwined into their fabrics. Something like the town itself.
The day capped off with a bean and ham or hotdog supper with hot, homemade rolls, potato salad and coleslaw, topped off with brownie sundaes. If anyone left hungry, it was their own fault!
The 50/50 raffle of $350 was won by Mark and Lorraine Filanowski, and those that stayed got to hear a presentation on the history of Benedicta delivered by Harry Rush.
After Sunday church service, a dedication of the bell from St. Joseph’s Church in Sherman Station, was made to John “Buck” McAvoy. The Knights of Columbus from Millinocket were present, and the bell was rung for the first time outside St. Benedict’s Church. A potluck dinner and music from local groups made for a wonderful afternoon as a steady breeze blew, making sitting outside and “visiting” the thing to do.