It’s been quite a week for the extended Hardy clan of Youngtown Road, as they’ve gathered from all over the country to honor, remember, and bury brother and sister, Swiss and Dot Hardy, who were both in their 90s when they passed away. Dot died last November, and then Swiss died, unexpectedly, last week. Their sons and daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and spouses of same, bunked all over town with the relatives who still live here. Youngtown Cemetery was beautiful on Saturday morning when Dot was laid to rest. The next day the pews of United Christian Church were filled for Swiss’ funeral, which included a Masonic service and military honors.

Last week, I told the story Swiss once related to me about his brief college career at the University of Maine prior to entering the Army and World War II. His sister, Dot, had her own military career, as a WAC, the Women’s Air Corps, stationed during the war at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. She thus becomes one of the handful of women on our town’s Honor Roll in the Center. It’s the winter of 1945:

 Private First Class Dorothy “Dot” Hardy was finding it hard to make her way across the base. A steady wind was blowing stinging pellets of icy snow against her face, collecting on her eyelashes and making it impossible to see. When she managed to brush them clear for a moment she could see only a few feet ahead. This was her second year in the WACs, the Women’s Air Corps, stationed here at Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio. The march with the rest of the girls from their barracks to the office building usually took only a few minutes, but today it looked like she’d be late.

She pictured the pile of galley pages her boss had dumped in her inbox at quitting time yesterday. Before this day was done she’d have to carefully proofread each one and deposit it in the outbox. A particularly fierce gust of wind blew snow right down her neck. They should cancel work on a day like this!

Maine certainly had its share of winter storms. Dot remembered another trek through a howling blizzard, and at the end of it, the day was canceled. She lowered her head against the wind and pictured herself on Youngtown Road again, a girl of seventeen with no bigger problem than how to get to school.

That morning, like always, Dot and her brother, Swiss were up before dawn, rushing around to get dressed, do chores and eat breakfast before facing the challenge of getting into town. They envied their younger brother, Charlie, still in the Youngtown School, next door to their farm [465 Youngtown Road]. He could stay inside by the warm kitchen stove until practically the last minute. Across the road and up the hill [504 Youngtown Road] their cousin, Doris Carver, would be trying to down the hated bowl of oatmeal that her mother insisted she eat every morning. Dot and Doris were best friends as well as cousins, and knew every detail of each other’s lives.

The summer before Dot and Swiss had kept the whole of Youngtown Cemetery mowed by themselves, earning forty dollars each for the season. Pushing their father’s reel mower around all those stones, up and down the mounds of the graves—well, they’d more than earned the money. At the end of the summer they used their earnings to buy bicycles.

Swiss headed out to start the Model A, but just as quick he was back. The roads hadn’t been plowed, not touched, he said. The way the wind was blowing it was unlikely the plow would do much good anyway; the drifts were already over the mailbox. How on earth would they get to school? Once Swiss was old enough to drive, Dot and Doris generally rode in with him, but that meant delivering milk in Camden on the way. On a morning like this it would be horribly cold too. The girls would ride outside on the running boards while Swiss handed out the bottles to them at each customer’s. They’d jump down and run up to the house or store. The one time Charlie was with them and taking the running board job he found a dollar bill! Dot and Doris were furious.

Other days they rode in with Horace Bryant, a neighbor on his way to work at a garage in Camden. But even that meant being ready at 6:30. Either way, Dot, Doris and Swiss were usually the first to arrive at their homerooms, long before any of the other students. As long as they stayed in their seats and studied, the teachers let them come in. Of course, if they’d been delivering milk, the girls had to change out of slacks into skirts in the bathroom first. That was just one more thing that made it hard to come from Lincolnville.

From the very first day at Camden High School Dot had felt at a loss. No one offered to help her pick what course of studies to pursue. With General, Commercial and Classical to choose from, she finally wrote down Classical, copying what the student sitting in front of her wrote. She had no idea how to use the library, and had never seen so many books in her life. A classmate, Nina Start, helped her through the mystery of the library’s catalog, showing her how to find a specific book. Even sports turned out to be difficult.

When Dot went to a basketball team practice, it was more of the same. She had no idea what to do, while the girls from Camden appeared so confident and knowledgeable. She never went back.

High school wasn’t all bad, though. Thanks to their old Youngtown School teacher Lena Rankin, Dot, Doris and Swiss could each play an instrument. Mrs. Rankin had decided the Lincolnville students ought to have a school band, so she had organized the parents to donate a number of musical instruments. Each student who wanted to play picked one, and Mrs. Rankin saw that they learned to play it. Dot and Doris both picked the mellophone; Swiss took up the clarinet. With that experience behind them they were able to join the Camden High School Band. They marched in parades and played for special events. In the end it made high school fun.

Sgt. Hardy stopped in her tracks and tried to figure out how much further it was to the office.

She peered through the driving snow, but couldn’t make out any buildings. Still, this must be the sidewalk for somebody’s blurred footprints marked the way. The morning of that other blizzard seemed as far away from today as the farm on Youngtown Road was from Dayton, Ohio, but she could remember every detail.

“Let’s ski to school!” Dot was excited at the prospect of the unplowed roads. Swiss agreed that was the only thing to do. Their mother, Lillie, urged them to keep their faces covered. Charlie looked a little envious as they set out from the dooryard on their homemade wooden skis. The road took a dip down to Hardy Brook before climbing the hill to Russ and Jennie Carver’s farm where Doris was watching for them out the window. As soon as they came into sight she whooped and ran for her own skis.

The hill that started at the Carvers’ took them in a single glorious swoosh down to and around Youngtown Corner, and from there all the way to Sunset Cove on Megunticook. Since the road hadn’t been plowed they didn’t even need to watch for cars. Once past the Cove the road flattened out, and with the open expanse of the lake on one side and the mountain close up against the other, huge drifts were piling up. The skiers plodded now, sliding their skis along where the going was smooth, sidestepping up and over where drifts blocked the way. By the time they crested Turnpike Hill they were pretty tired. At the intersection with Molyneaux Road a single lane was plowed, and they gratefully slid down onto the smooth surface.

Finally, they arrived at the high school on Knowlton Street. The place was unusually quiet for a school morning; very few students or teachers had made it in. Dot, Doris and Swiss were the only ones from Lincolnville. Not an hour after they got there the principal came around and announced school was closing for the rest of the day. There was nothing to do but strap on their skis and retrace their trail over the drifts to home.

Dot looked up to see she’d reached the building that housed her office. The lights were on and people were moving around inside. There’d be no day off for Private Hardy. She put her face up to the snow for a minute more, thinking about that other blizzard, about how young they’d been, and that Lincolnville had been their whole world. Now Doris was a wife and mother, living on an Army base in Texas; Swiss was an Army cook somewhere in Germany with the war raging around him. And she herself was wearing a uniform, working and living far from home. Youngtown Road seemed very far away.

Read more stories about the Hardys and other Lincolnville families in Staying Put in Lincolnville, Maine 1900-1950, available at Western Auto, Lincolnville Fine Art Gallery, Sleepy Hollow Rag Rugs, and at the Schoolhouse Museum.

Rob Pfeiffer will present a free illustrated talk on his experiences volunteering in Malawi on Wednesday, July 6 at 7 p.m. at the Lincolnville Community Library. Rob recently returned home to Lincolnville after spending six months working with the nonprofit organization Go! Malawi in the district of Ntchisi, helping with a reforestation project in an area that had been devastated by fires, logging and cattle grazing.

Rob, who has worked for many years as a counselor and teacher here in the Midcoast, has also sponsored students in Malawi, which ultimately inspired him to volunteer there. Go! Malawi is a Maine nonprofit organization founded by Midcoast native Janet Littlefield that supports community and education programs in the district of Ntchisi.     

 The Library is also offering this summer the popular Midcoast Music Together programs with Jessica Day on Friday, July 8 at 11 a.m. 

 All families with children newborn to age five are invited to come enjoy singing, dancing and exploring musical instruments together. Jessica said she believes music can create a strong foundation for all learning and is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give a child. 

This summer’s series is sponsored by the Ethel and W. George Kennedy Family Foundation. The third program will be held Friday, August 5. For more information on any of the Library’s programs, call 763-4343 or email 

Strawberry Festival Saturday

Made my favorite rhubarb dessert the other night and we ate every speck. Here it is (again!):

Rhubarb Bread Pudding

3 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2 “ pieces

2 cups buttered toast cubes

3/4 – 1 cup sugar

2 tsp corn starch

1 tbl orange zest

Mix it all together in a casserole dish, dot with butter, cover and bake at 375º for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake another 15-20 minutes. Serve warm with cream.