Talk:Lampson School

I lived in the Lampson School in the 1960s

My family, my dad, mom, my older brother, and myself, moved into the second floor of the Lampson School circa 1962 as renters. I was only 2-3 years-old at the time so what I write is part vague memory and part second-hand anecdotes. I'm now 65. I cannot quite remember names, however, might recognize them.

At that time, the owners, a couple with no children in the home, owned the building and lived on the first floor. The first floor was heated by an oil furnace while the second floor was heated by a coal furnace. Apparently, several times each day of the heating season, my mother had to go to the basement and shake the grate in the coal furnace to knock-off the coal ash. This was necessary as unlike wood ash, coal ash will smother the fire. She also loaded more coal in the furnace.

Circa 1964, my parents bought the building and moved us to the first floor; the sellers moved to Bristol. The second floor became rental property.

My father "improvements", including: • Modified the coal furnace with a system which automatically fed new coal into the furnace from a bin, shook the grate, and removed coal ash to a bin. I believe coal needed to be loaded into the feed hopper daily. • Reduced the ceiling on the first floor from 15' to 12'. This was done to improve the heating given heat rises.

Random memories:

One summer, my father painted the building; it apparently took the entire summer. I think it was not painted again for perhaps 30 years. I can no longer remember how many gallons were required.

The foyer of the staircase was 30' tall. My father said it would take an entire double-roll of wallpaper to go from ceiling to floor.

We would get a 12' Christmas tree. We had enough decorations to cover it pretty well. When we moved and got the usual 8' tree, my mom still used ALL the decorations, making it pretty gaudy.

There was a concrete patio at the entrance, which I think is gone. It had a small fish pond and was surrounded by cemetery fence. We kept goldfish in the pond during warmer weather. We had to give the fish to friends during the winter because the house was so cold.

Speaking of which, the room which we called the "North Room" was so cold in winter, it was unusable. In warmer weather, it was a kid's bedroom. I don't remember where we slept in winter.

The attic had two things: bats, and school desks. My father got rid of the bats. He also sold-off the old desks.

When the northeast was hit by the great blackout of 1965, we were able to cook because our stove used bottled gas. I was told all the neighbors, who had electric stoves, cooked at our house.

We never had a telephone. I was told it was because the service was unreliable but the truth may have been the expense.

Because we and many other people lived a distance from stores and one car was the norm at the time, getting to a store between weekly trip was not possible. There was a guy who would drive and stop at country "neighborhoods" with a large van filled was a wide assortment of sundries. I cannot remember much, however, I think it had items like a few loaves of bread, light bulbs, toilet paper, and other things which could not wait for the next shopping trip. He parked on the dirt road between the house and the Saunders farm immediately to the west. What I do remember clearly is he sold candy for 1, 2, or 5¢. I think Sugar Daddy and Sugar Baby were my favorites.

The Saunders family had boys, Hal and Todd, who are about our ages and we played together a lot. I particularly remember trying to ride their few sheep as if they were horses. In summer, we fed the sheep watermelon rinds.

We had a garden off the NW corner of the building. The father Saunders would come over with his full-size plow every spring to till that heavy Addison county clay.

My father built us a new house in Weybridge circa 1966 and we moved out.

At age 92, my father is still alive. 73.25.150.12 (talk) 02:33, 29 April 2024 (UTC)

I wrote the above and now have an account. Rickspies (talk) 02:40, 29 April 2024 (UTC)