Marge (Fettig) Clinton
I was born in 1936, and grew up at 19 Cemetery Street in Hopedale. When I was 16, I went to the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. We went to the Episcopal Church in Milford, and I belonged to the Girls’ Friendly Society. The Society in England had invited the Society in the United States to send delegates to the Coronation. My church decided to send me. I was the only one from the Milford group to go, but there were girls from other Girls’ Friendly groups around the state who went also. I had never traveled anywhere before, and I’m off to London. The first few days on the ship was kind of stressful, meeting lots of people and such. It was both stressful and exciting. I was 16, going on 12. It was quite an experience. I can remember the Queen waving to the crowd.
My father had let me take his camera. It was a big, fancy camera, and I took lots of slides with it. When I got home, I was asked to show the slides and talk about the trip to many different Girls’ Friendly Society groups. I spoke in places all over New England. My parents would drive me to the locations and operate the projector, and I would do the speaking. The first few times I did that, I was rather nervous, but eventually I became very comfortable doing it. I became more confident in myself, and also surprised at how well I was doing. It was kind of fun.
My mother had come here from Newfoundland. She had two brothers that had come here before she did. Her parents wouldn’t have let her come if her brothers weren’t already here. My father was born in Germany. He came here with his brothers and a sister.
I can tell you of a few memories of my early years. I remember that we did the May pole dance at school on May Day. I remember that we’d get deliveries of different things to the house. There was a bread man, and there would be somebody who would deliver egg. Ice would be delivered for the ice box. The high school classes would put on plays at the town hall to raise money for the Washington trip. The trip was one of the exciting things back in those days.
There were movies for kids on Saturdays at the Community House. I also liked to bowl there.
It was so exciting to me when I heard that my parents were going to get a tv. I couldn’t believe it. It was a big deal. I don’t think we had the first tv in the neighborhood. I remember going to somebody else’s house to watch before we had one.
We had a cottage at Matunuck in Rhode Island. We’d go there every weekend. We’d swim in the ocean, and there was a body of water nearby that we called Crab Pond. We’d catch some crabs there, and have them for dinner. I took swimming lessons at Hopedale Pond, but I wasn’t very good at it. One time at Matunuck I went too far into the ocean, and was afraid that I wasn’t going to get back in, but I managed.
When I was married we lived on Overdale Parkway. During the early years, there weren’t many other people up there. I knew the Cox family. I was up to their house many times. I never called Betty Cox by her first name. I called her Coxie. I remember that one of the houses on Overdale had originally been a caboose. The family living there then was Naylor.