Senior Voices

Article and photo by Darlene Dunbar

Anita Ballek’s 82 year taproot goes deep into the earth of . In July, the family celebrated . She remembers a time when one townsman earned all his income for the year using his four team oxen to transport people, horses & wagons across the mud quagmire that was known as Town Street. Originally, with only two trees on the entire farm, her father convinced the State to move the new road eighteen feet to save a hickory tree.  That tree still stands at the end of the pasture on what is now called Rt. 151.

Anita planned to be a dairy farmer, earning a BS in Dairy Husbandry with a minor in Genetics. Between 1951 & the early 1960’s the herd was developed to the point of earning bonus income from the high percentage of butterfat & all was moving in the direction she worked toward & anticipated. Then came the 60’s, no one wanted butterfat & the Balleks, with many others, lost their herds.

The Garden Center began serendipitously from a 1960 4-H project with one 4’ by 8’ plant cold frame created & tended by 13 boys including her oldest son, who met Saturdays in her kitchen for four years. The project grew to four cold frames & the club only ended when the boys turned 13 yrs old. Then cars started stopping by the farm to buy those plants & the family decided to earn “a little pin money” while figuring out next steps.

The theme for the 350 year celebration was Stewards of the Land & the land & Garden Center still support the Ballek family.

Q: Most significant time in history that you lived?
A: The Depression, although everyone was poor so nobody felt poor. Kids came to school hungry & maybe half of the first graders didn’t have indoor plumbing. But it was all just accepted, as a part of life. Kids had to use their own minds, think of something to do, like go outside & follow bugs around; lie in the grass & watch things move; this was the fun of life. You didn’t have every minute scheduled like today with moms having to jump in the car & use gas to run their children everywhere. It was just, go out & play!

Q: A particular person who influenced your life?
A: My father. At a young age I can remember a night when he wrapped me in a blanket & took me out into this field to see the most fantastic aurora borealis. The huge colors draping down are still etched in my memory & my mother screaming from the front porch to “Get in here, George Gelston, you’re going to kill her. The night air is poison!”
He’s the one who planted all the maple trees here, which at that time took an entire day’s work between chores to get & plant each  tree. My earliest goal was to be a good farmer like my dad.

Q: How do these years of your life differ from other times?
A: Well, I’m still going! The Land Trust is one of my passions, 30 years now, & we still have more projects to complete like establishing Green Belts to keep our wild places & not fragment the habitat.
Now I can just walk an easy path & I’m getting more restricted. I can’t just put on the waders & go out & walk in Succor Brook.

Q: Supports/services in town you think are valuable? Missing ones?
A: We have so much land that seniors can walk. We even have a preserve in Hadlyme that’s wheelchair accessible. Some of the activities at the (Senior) Center are sitting but we also need to encourage seniors to go out & play!

Q: What’s still on your “bucket list?”
A: To have a business that can support several families & offer meaningful employment to all our progeny who want to stay & keep the tradition going.
To keep this town a place people want to be. People say they come across the bridge from the rush of their job & the city & start wending their way through our crooked streets with the trees hanging over & just say, “Ah, this is wonderful.” By straightening roads you make them dangerous; trees in bends jutting out in the road say “Slow down.”