Childhood Friends - Dad in the 1940 Census

In 1940, my father was living at 81 Pine Street in South Portland, Maine, in what is known as Ferry Village, and attending Hutchins School.

The newly released 1940 U.S. Census shows the entire family:

Seavey, Howard C, age 43, with 1 year of high school completed, working as a laborer at the U.S. Post Office (my grandfather)

Seavey, Mattie L, age 34, with 2 years of high school completed (my grandmother)

Seavey, Richard P, age 9, with 2 years of school completed (my father)

Seavey, Pauline L, age 6, with 1 year of school completed (my aunt)

and

Lovell, Pauline M, age 59, with 8 years of school completed, working as a maid in a private home (my grandmother’s aunt, who raised her, a who lived with the family for as long as my dad remembered)

On the same page of the 1940 Census, at 75 Pine Street, appear some familiar names:

Thompson, Elizabeth K, age 73 (known as “Grammy” Thompson)

Griffin, Elizabeth, age 33 (her divorced daughter)

Griffin, Donald L, age 6 (her grandson)

and

Griffin, Beverly J, age 2 (her granddaughter)

Elizabeth Griffin, fondly known as “Lib,” was my grandmother’s closest friend. While she was going through her divorce, she would often send Don to stay with my father’s family.  It was during these childhood days, Dick at 9 and Donny at 6, that a friendship bloomed, a friendship that lasted until both were grandfathers themselves.

Come On In ... The Water's Fine !

 

When you talk about getting in the water, you're talking about my father's side of the family. Naturally, growing up in Maine, we have access both to "the beach," by which we mean the ocean, but also the lovely lakes all around us. My love for being near the water comes directly through my dad, who came by it honestly, from his own upbringing.

His mother, my grandmother Mattie Seavey, who grew up in the East Deering neighborhood of Portland, Maine, and, who remembered swimming as a child in the tranquil waters of Casco Bay, loved to swim and always had her suit and bathing cap ready to go at a moment's notice.

As a young woman, she worked at the Poland Spring House, and probably took off with her girlfriends for a quick dip in the nearby lake when she got off the switchboard. Here are a couple of her scrapbook pictures taken from around that time, in the swimsuit styles of the 1920s:

 

Grammy Seavey (Mattie Leighton) on the left 

 

Grammy Seavey (Mattie Leighton) on the right

Later, she and my grandfather, Howard Seavey, spent a lot of time at Woods Pond, in Bridgton, Maine, where he had grown up. Here they are, drying off before heading back home, probably in the 1940s:

 

Howard and Mattie Seavey

My dad loved the water and was a strong swimmer, both in the frigid waters of Casco Bay, and in the many lakes he fished and swam in. Here he and my Aunt Polly, his younger sister, are, probably at Willard Beach in South Portland, around 1935 or so:

My dad, Dick Seavey, at Willard Beach, circa 1935

My aunt, Polly Seavey, at Willard Beach, circa 1935

Memorial Weekend marks the beginning of summer for many families.

Time to get out that suit!

((Written for the 4th Annual Swimsuit Edition of Carnival of Genealogy))