Capturing the Spirit of a New England Town

by Jay O'Calllahan

Reprinted from Storytelling Magazine, July/August 2008

In 1982, the town of Harvard, Massachusetts, commissioned me to create a story that would celebrate the spirit of the town for the 250th anniversary. My task was not to present a history but rather to tell a story that touched on the essence of the town. I began by sitting with a couple dozen people in their sixties, seventies and eighties who had grown up in Harvard. Notebook in hand, I listened.

One woman said, ‘I remember getting penny candy at the general store. I used to love to go there.’ Everyone started talking about the store of Kerley, Reid and Bryant, which was clearly the heart of the town. As they talked about the smell of coffee, kerosene and cheese in the store, a balding man, a selectman named Mario Barba, said, "I remember Edna Robinson. She was the clerk." They all remembered Edna Robinson, and it was clear people admired her. "She worked in the cage," another person added.

"The cage?" I asked.

"There were wire mesh walls," Mario said. "That's where Edna Robinson kept the books."

They talked about the town doctor, Dr. Royal, and his little bottle of blue medicine which he sold for a quarter; it could cure anything. They talked about the Shakers and Still River and ice cutting in winter. Then they went back to talking about the general store, and couldn't seem to get away from it. For three hours, I asked questions and made notes; then I went and sat on the town green, the Big Common, and tried to get the feel for the town. On one side of the Big Common were the large old houses you expect to see in New England, and I thought the story might be about Dr. Royal, who had owned the big brick house on the corner.

Back home in Marshfield, I poured over my notes, took crayons and circled certain words like "coffee, kerosene and cheese," "Edna's cage," and "Still River" - and I hungered for lots more information. I returned to Harvard, and knocked on Mario Barba's door. Mario became my guide; he kindly drove me down Depot Road to the railroad tracks and said, "I grew up here, on the wrong side of the tracks. My mother spoke only Italian and I was ashamed. I promised myself I'd be important in the town someday."

Mario and I went to visit Carrie Blue, who had been at the first meeting. Carrie, an Afro-American, told me stories of her roots in the town, and she too spoke of getting penny candy in the general store. After we left Carrie Blue's, Mario told stories of the ragman Bicycle Kelly, who lived in a cave in the town in the 1920s and pushed his bicycle all day gathering old clothes to sell. Then Mario told me about a well-educated hobo called Blueberry Jack who also appeared in the town in the 1920s. Blueberry Jack wore an immaculate blue shirt and trousers. He'd arrive in Harvard in the summer, pick blueberries, live in an abandoned house near the railroad tracks, and then Jack would disappear in the fall. I was intrigued when Mario said, "If you asked Jack anything about his background, that was the end of the conversation."

This was all fascinating and unexpected. I thought Dr. Royal would be the central character in the story, but all these other people were far more colorful and added real spice to the town’s story. I returned often to Harvard - talking to people, walking, and building up what I call the ëcompost pile’. The ‘compost pile’ for this story was made up of people, places, names, sounds, smells, trees, and everything else that I learned about the town. As my "compost pile" heated up, I was surprised to find that Edna Robinson, the clerk in the general store, emerged as the central character.

I’d heard that in the 1920s, Edna Robinson was red-haired, beautiful, and nothing stopped her from getting to work. She would walk, almost march, two and a half miles every day to the general store. Edna was so determined that an image flashed in my mind of her "bruising the air with her elbows."

I'm led by images, and the strongest image was Edna Robinson ‘bruising the air,’ and the next powerful image was that of Edna keeping the account books "in the cage." Here was tension, confinement, and isolation - all very much part of small town life.

When I asked more of the townspeople about Edna, I discovered they knew little about her, even though she lived there her whole life. Mystery is what the imagination loves, and mystery can lead to insight. I had two mysterious characters: Edna Robinson and Blueberry Jack - and this situation is when it is nice to have the creative freedom to follow the mystery. What if, in my imagination, they met? What would happen?

I decided to set the story in one week beginning September 19th, 1921. Fall is a time of change, and the town of Harvard is strikingly beautiful when the autumn leaves are changing color. Edna knew the apples from Harvard orchards were shipped to London and Paris, and I imagined her yearning for something bigger in her life than her small town existence.

As my story opens we meet the town plumber, Herbert Lambert Fillerbrown, getting out of bed in his plumbing shop. He's an older man, a real eccentric, and he's become like a father to Edna Robinson. As Edna walks home the night of September 19th, a falling leaf strikes her in the face, and she suddenly realizes her life is getting away from her. Edna goes to Fillerbrown and tells him she "wants someone to love her or at least care whether she lives or dies." From this moment on Edna opens her heart. At the end of the story Edna has fallen in love, but is devastated because the man she loves, Blueberry Jack, is leaving town. As Edna walks home on the last night of the story, she says to herself, "I'll go to London and Paris, but make my life right here. It's a welcoming town. Not just the Royals are here, but the lonely people and the different people are here. The Shakers, Bicycle Kelly, and even the hobos like Jack."

I had been given wide creative latitude to portray the spirit of the town. It was my task to delve into not just the surface of the town of Harvard, but also the emotions underneath. I wanted the independent and often invisible people to have a voice in the story. These people, Blueberry Jack, Bicycle Kelly, Mario Barba, Carrie Blue, Fillerbrown, and Edna Robinson herself, gave that town its special character, and allowed me to explore the universal themes of isolation and love.

July/August 2007
Reprinted from Storytelling Magazine