Fearless Females Blog Post: March 16 ~ Chicken Croquettes with Grammy Bustin

It’s been an fun-filled overnight stay at Grammy and Grandpa Bustin’s, on Mayfield Street in Morrill’s Corner. Maybe it was by request (both ours and theirs), or maybe Mom and Dad just needed a break.

We’ve probably played Solitaire, worked a jigsaw puzzle, or played “Store,” with pictures of groceries cut out from magazines and coins made out of cardboard disks.

But the real treat is yet to come. Grandpa has gone off to work, leaving Grammy bus fare for us to go downtown, do a little shopping at the “5 and 10,” and eat lunch in a real restaurant!

We walk up to the Corner to catch the bus, making sure we push the walk light before we cross, and always remembering to hold hands with Grammy as we venture across the busy intersection. It doesn’t take long for the Portland Coach bus to convey us down Forest Avenue, then up to Congress Street, for our big outing downtown.

After picking out some special treat, maybe a pretty necklace, or a set of barrettes for our hair, it’s off to lunch at The Puritan! And the counter just won’t do; it will be a booth for us, with water, and a waitress!
.

Grammy is always so friendly to the waitress, chatting with her about how long she’s worked there, and whom she might know. It doesn’t take me long to decide. It’s always Chicken Croquettes.

There’s probably some red or green Jello on the side, along with the standard green vegetable, and usually mashed potatoes (no French Fries back then). We’re always complimented for how nice we look, and how well behaved we’ve been, and Grammy is so proud to show us off.

The meal is presented to each of us in turn, the croquettes crunchy on the outside, but moist and delicious inside, and dripping with gravy. I gobble mine up, thinking this is the best meal ever.

And, we still have that thrill of a bus ride back to Mayfield Street, and the excitement of telling Grandpa all about our Big Day!

Lisa Alzo of  The Accidental Genealogist blog is presenting her Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month series in honor of National Women’s History Month.

Fearless Females Blog Post: March 4 ~ Harriet and Ross Get Married

I am fortunate to have the marriage records, and some newspaper publicity, of both sets of grandparents. I have written about my paternal grandparents’ Depression wedding in a prior post.

So here are Harriet Cheney Smith (1906-1985) and S. Ross Bustin (1908-1990), my maternal grandparents, married in the late summer of 1930.

I have never heard any stories of how the couple met. From these and other pictures I have of my grandfather, I think he was quite a catch looks-wise. My grandmother, however much “in fashion” she was with her Marcel waves, was cursed with a bad set of teeth, which only dentures would improve in later years.

Although the wedding announcement below says “The wedding will take place in September,” they were married on August 30th. Harriet’s mother had passed away earlier that year, and the couple waited till late summer to marry.

Many of the guests at the above mentioned "card party" remained close friends and bridge partners of my grandmother all her life, and I met several of them in my youth. She was an enthusiastic bridge player, and I still have the finger sandwich bread cutters in the shape of the four card suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades.

The above clipping probably appeared in the afternoon Portland Evening Express for August 30, 1930. My copy was pasted into a scrapbook kept by my great grandmother (Ross' mother), and thus had to scanned with my smartphone. The same is true of the first clipping.

The following is a typical marriage record available from the Office of Vital Records of the State of Maine. They have marriage records back to 1892. Last summer, I visited their offices in Augusta, and paid for a Researcher Card. It's good for a year, and I just send a SASE to them with up to 3 requests (birth, death, or marriage) per week.  Anyone with Maine ancestors should do this.

Lisa Alzo of  The Accidental Genealogist blog is presenting her Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month series in honor of National Women’s History Month.

“Children Are the Hands” -- Wordless Wednesday

Flora Vesta, Suther Ross (my grandfather),

and Marvin Howard Bustin,

ca.1911

Portland, Maine

"Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven"

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Morrill’s Corner in the 1940 Census

My grandfather (S. Ross Bustin) was fond of saying that he could stand in the middle of Morrill’s Corner in Portland, Maine, and see every place he ever lived.

When the 1940 census was taken he was 31, living at 1158 Forest Avenue, working as a truck driver for a food manufacturer (undoubtedly Cushman’s Bakery), right in the Corner, with my grandmother and my mother, age 8 (my grandmother, Harriet, and my mother (Marilyn Louise Bustin) are on the following page).

The apartment building now has a store front attached and is barely recognizable as a residence.

My great grandparents, Fred and Melvina Bustin, also lived at Morrill’s Corner in 1940, with their youngest son Marvin, at 827 Stevens Avenue. They appear on the same page of the Census, with my great grandfather working as a laborer for the steam railroad (He worked for the Maine Central Railroad for over 50 years).

In this fantastic picture, I believe that is my mother standing on the front porch,

 probably about 8 years old.

Wedding Wednesday - Ross and Harriet Bustin

Married August 31, 1930

at the home of

Rev. Edward R. Nelson

Minister of Emmanuel Baptist Church

Portland, Maine

My Maternal Grandparents
Remembered With Love