It Was the Best of Times; It Was the Best of Times

In previous “Hindsight” columns, I may have mentioned once or twice (or thrice even) that my mother, the late Barbara Liscomb, used to write for the Danvers Herald in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her weekly column was entitled, “Getting Personal.”

During the last year of Mom’s life, I put together some scrapbooks for her to help her remember good things about her past. I devoted one scrapbook to copies of her “Getting Personal” columns. She’d long since disposed of almost all of her writing-life mementos, but I sat by the micro-fiche machine at the on many afternoons and printed copies of her work for this special collection.

I recently had occasion to skim through her columns and came to the realization that although the passage of time does make some memories seem fonder, in this case, in my humble opinion, those years really were the best of times in Danvers.

Mom wrote about seemingly simple things that were, in fact, very important to the people she wrote about. She would dedicate a few lines of type to informing her readers about the birthday parties of many a five-, six- or seven-year-old, including a guest list. How exciting it must have been for the children to see their names in the paper! She also wrote about milestone birthdays for several of Danvers’ Golden Age Club members. Most of them were also excited to see their names in the paper and some even shared their actual ages!

An item that caught my attention from 1970 was the “bad word” box reported to be located at the on the front desk. Evidently the “boys” filled it twice and then gave up on the idea because they were going broke. Mom also indicated that the proceeds had been donated to the Jimmy Fund.

One week a whole paragraph was devoted to the resolution of a tie between two women who had entered guesses as to the mileage on a used car at Danvers Cadillac (now the home of ). The winner with the closest guess would win the car. Of course, Mom entered, but she wasn’t amongst the final two. It was decided that an “impartial person” would draw one of the two tickets from a box. I will give you one guess as to who that impartial person was. Here’s a hint: she was age six and closely related to the Danvers Herald columnist.

The car was won by a woman who had spent considerable time looking for a used car for her 16-year-old son. By the way, do they have contests like that anymore I’m rather tired of being without wheels of my own, and a used car would be fine in my book!

One week, Mom wrote about a young couple who had just moved to Danvers from Revere. They told her that Danvers people seemed just like those seen on Mayberry RFD — a spin-off of the “Andy Griffith Show” that ran from 1968-1971. The new Danvers couple was living on a dark street as streetlights had not even been installed yet on Whipple Hill. The street would later be officially named “Bayberry Road” and eventually they would get a street sign and mail delivery.

Another fun old-timey Danvers tale was about the former owner of the Kirby’s Shoe Store on Maple Street. It seems that when Mr. John Kirby was the victim (in 1932) of auto theft, he wasn’t able to provide the police with his own registration number. It irked him so much that he taught himself to memorize license plate numbers and as of May 1970, he could recite plate numbers for almost everyone in town. He knew the plate numbers and the names! Can you imagine trying to do that today? He certainly must have had a marvelous memory.

Mom sure got around town and talked to a lot of people. It’s interesting now for me to look back and see names of people I knew later in life and hadn’t realized she wrote about during my youth, and to see names of those long passed and remember their faces and smiles. She made friends wherever she went. People told her their stories. She often said she had a “Dear Abby” face. I’m reminded of a quote written about Mom in her Salem High School Class of 1942 yearbook:  “She has a smile for every friend, and a friend for every smile.”

This week I’ve touched on several little stories of interest from Danvers in the 1970s. I have many more at my fingertips. If Patch readers do like these, please let me know and I’ll be glad to share them now and then in future columns. They touch my heart, make me smile and I hope they do the same for you! Who knows, you might even find that I have a story with your name in it from back-in-the day!