~ The Advocate Asks ~ Maddie (Gould) Armstrong, the last of 11 children, reflects on the Gould Family Farm that once thrived on Walnut Street

Editor’s Note: For this week’s column, we sat down with 101-year-old Saugus native Madeline Grace Gould Armstrong, who grew up and lived on the Gould Family Farm at 196 Walnut St. She is the last survivor of 11 children of James and Nellie Gould, who ran a popular family farmstand that sold vegetables on Walnut Street. They also had a successful dairy business. And, in later years, the family got into the flower business, which later evolved into Gould’s Florist of Lynnfield. More commonly known to relatives as “Aunt Maddie,” she was born on May 8, 1922, on the farm where her family lived and worked – the eighth oldest in a family of 11 children to James Joseph and Ellen T. (Nellie) Gould, Irish immigrants who moved to Saugus and began the farm around 1920. Maddie now spends half of the year in Palm Bay, Florida, and half of the year in Limerick, Maine. She went to Saugus High School when it was located on Winter Street and is a member of the Saugus High Class of 1940. She studied at Malden Business School and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Nazareth College in Bardstown, Kentucky. She lived on the farm for the first 20 years of her life. Then she left to become a nun, where she spent the next 16 years attached to the convent at Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky. She returned to Saugus to help her mother when her dad’s health began declining. Maddie excelled as a teacher while a nun. She used that experience to carve out a career for herself in public education. She taught different levels of grade school for 29 years for the town of Danvers. Maddie was married to Martin V. Armstrong of Melrose for 46 years. He died in 2008 at the age of 81. Maddie has lived in Florida for 38 years. She lives with her nephew, Shawn Buckless, splitting time between their home in Palm Bay, Fla., and the cottage in Limerick, Maine.

  Buckless credits “brains and determination” for his aunt’s longevity. “You don’t live to be 101 unless you are darn determined,” he said in a recent interview.

  “Maddie is really like her mother. They were both women ahead of their time – women’s libbers before there were women’s libbers. They were both free-thinking women. They were no slaves to fashion. They didn’t care about the frivolous. They were very strong women in their day,” he said.

  Maddie is the aunt of Saugus School Committee Member Joseph “Dennis” Gould, who suggested that The Saugus Advocate interview her about being 101 and her reflections of what life was like on the Gould Family Farm. Here are some highlights from this week’s interview.

 

  Q: When you look back at 101 years of life, what do you consider to be your most fondest memory?

  A: The wonderful times I had living on the farm. My mother and father were so kind and we had such a wonderful family. Even though we had all of those children, we got along so well. My father had a milk route before I was born.

  Q: Please tell me how it was living on the farm on Walnut Street.

  A: They were wonderful days. I couldn’t have had a better childhood. We had a large house – two separate staircases to upstairs – girls on one side and boys on the other.

  Q: How many people lived on the farm?

  A: Thirteen – 11 kids and two parents. My mother had 15 babies and 11 made it. I am the last one left of the 11. I was born on the farm. Nine of us were born on the farm and two others were born in Saugus Hospital.

  Q: How big was the farm?

  A: About five and a half acres. We had cows, the horse, pigs, chickens, geese, donkeys, ponies and all kinds of farm animals.

  Q: So, how was the garden?

  A: We grew a lot of vegetables. I think almost every vegetable you can think of, but I don’t remember pumpkins. We had corn, squash, beets, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes and beans. We had a big field of potatoes. Potatoes was our most popular crop

Dad had a vegetable stand on Walnut Street. He sold all kinds of vegetables: fresh tomatoes, string beans, corn, squash, cucumbers. If I felt like eating something, I would clean it on my dress. I imagine that everybody in town knew about the Gould Family Farm. I’m sure everybody knew the Goulds. My father was very generous and kind to the customers, especially people who were struggling. My father would say “If they buy a dozen, give them a dozen for free if they look like they need it.”

  Q: I understand your family had a milk business.

  A: Yes. The milk business got started because the U.S. milk was terrible. We had about 50 cows. Hood wanted our milk because the customers were leaving them and coming over to my father. When they tested my father’s milk, they said it was the best milk around. My dad had a very successful dairy business; everybody wanted the milk, but Hood put them out of business. They were taking our bottles and breaking them.

  Q: So your mom was pretty active with the dairy business?

  A: Yes. Dad never milked the cows. He was out on the milk route. When my mom milked the cows, I went out and held the tail, so it wouldn’t hit her. Most of the children helped out. We all took turns. And when my dad worked for Lynn Gas & Electric, my mother was doing a lot of the work on the farm.

Later on, the farm turned into growing flowers. Gould’s Florist started on Route 1 before it moved to Lynnfield.

  Q: 196 Walnut Street. Guess you lived pretty close to Route 1?

  A: I lived 500 yards from Route 1. My mother used to tell me that Route 1 was just a dirt road, that cars would get stuck in the mud and Dad would take the horse and pull them out – probably the same horse that he ran the milk route with and used to sell butter and eggs.

  Q: Life sounds like it was nice on the farm. But as the years passed, it couldn’t have been fun watching Route 1 develop.

  A: Yes. The traffic was terrible, and it got dangerous on Walnut Street; the traffic would come down Walnut Street so fast. And the pollution was terrible in the air, I think mostly from the traffic we have.

  Q: Do you have a few stories you would like to share during those wonderful years living on the farm? Please tell me a few.

  A: There was a canal under Route 1 and we would skate from the farmhouse to North Saugus School. It was a seven- to eight-minute skate, and we’d leave the skates on the bank and then walk to school. When school was out, we put on the skates and went back home.

  Q: Any more stories you can share?

  A: Yes. I have some great childhood memories. I was a tomboy. I used to sit on the horse when my dad was plowing.

When I was five years old, I was out playing in the yard. I remember getting kidnapped by two gypsies, who were holding my hands and walking me up Route 1. I was rescued by my Uncle Tim, who caught up with them and brought me home.

  Q: Anything else?

  A: A gentleman begged my mother to help him. He told her he had children and that his wife was in the hospital and he needed a place to stay. None of it was probably true. My mother felt sorry for him. He was in an upstairs bedroom making moonshine and started a fire. And he left with the house on fire. The police later arrested him.

  Q: So, I understand you were a nun for part of your life. Please tell me about it.

  A: In September of 1941, after I went into the business school, I went into the convent and it was Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky. When we first went in, they gave us tests and I ended up being a teacher. I taught in Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and Massachusetts. I wanted to work with orphans, but they wanted me to be a teacher.

  Q: So, what attracted you to the convent?

  A: My older sister Ellie was already a nun, and dad thought it would be a good idea for me to join her. Growing up Irish Catholic, religion was an important part of family life. Cardinal Cushing [who served 26 years as Archbishop of Boston] was a relative.

  Q: So, I guess while you were down south as a nun during that time, you got exposed to prejudice, segregation and racism for the first time in your life after not seeing it when you were growing up on the farm.

  A: Yes. When I was growing up in Saugus, one of my best friends at school was black – Ida Clark. She was the only black kid in school. When I was down south, I didn’t like the way they treated the blacks. It was terrible. They had to sit in the back of the bus. Blacks could not use the restrooms and the water fountains. I thought it was terrible the way they treated them. It broke my heart. Even to this day, I think we’re still prejudiced and it bothers me.

  Q: When you saw the way blacks were treated, did you let people know how you felt?

  A: I did. I let everyone know

  Q: How long were you a nun?

  A: I was a nun for 16 years. I would have stayed a nun, but when my father was 75 years old and my mom was alone, I decided to come home and help. When I came home, I went to Eastern Airlines and decided I was going to get into public education. I applied to Lynn, Wakefield and Danvers. Danvers called and I taught 29 years as a grade school teacher in Danvers.

  Q: And you wound up getting married?

  A: Yes. I was married for 46 years to Martin V. Armstrong, from Melrose, Mass. I was proud of him. Martin worked for AT&T. He was 81 years old when he passed away in 2008.

  Q: How did you meet Martin?

  A: At a wedding; my nephew got married to his sister. Martin was the brother of the bride, who married my nephew Jimmy Gould, 90, of Palm Bay, Fla. Teresa Gould just recently passed.

  Q: Why did you leave Saugus?

  A: I retired from school teaching and I was out on disability. My husband said he wanted to go to Florida, so we moved in 1985. I have been living down there for 38 years.

  Q: You are 101 years old. What’s the secret of your longevity? What do you credit to living so long?

  A: I have good health habits. I never drank and I never smoked. My mother’s father lived to be 103 in Ireland and my mother’s mother lived to be 96. And my mother lived to be 94.  Dad was only 75 when he died.

  Q: You never drank?

  A: No. When I was about five, I got sick drinking my dad’s beer. I thought it was tonic and dad let me taste it. It made me very sick. At the time, he said to my mother, “Nell, that’s one we don’t have to worry about.”

  Q: Are you still politically active?

  A: Yes. I have voted in every presidential election since I was of age, and I have never missed a vote. I was brought up as a Democrat, but I used to vote Republican sometimes if I liked the man and thought he was a decent person. I voted for Sen. Brooke [Edward Brooke, the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate, was a Republican who won in a predominantly Democratic Massachusetts]. And I voted for Saltonstall (Leverett Saltonstall, a Massachusetts Republican who was elected governor and later served more than 20 years as a U.S. senator].

  Q: What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

  A: I would say the Bible.

  Q: Do you still watch the news at night?

A: Yes. But lately, I’m getting fed up with everything about Trump – Trump – Trump; I’m getting sick of it. I’m so sick of it. He ought to be in jail. He’s not a good man. It makes me angry – all of the people who are sticking with him.

  Q: What is your diet these days?

  A: I like Italian food, as long as it’s not spicy. I drink three cups of tea – black decaf tea – with no sugar. Just milk. Decaf doesn’t taste good. I was told to drink it by my doctor, so I do it. I have A-fib – first bad illness since arthritis. I was 79 in North Carolina when I had a heart attack.

  Q: Do you exercise?

  A: I don’t exercise anymore. My exercise is walking around the house, doing a little house work.

  Q: Do you drive anymore? I interviewed two Saugus ladies this year who still had their driver’s licenses and still drive.

  A: I stopped at 95. They gave me a license that lasted to 100, but I didn’t think it was fair for me to be on the road anymore. I miss it terribly. I didn’t think I should be driving anymore. I figured if I got in an accident, I’d be the one blamed. But I never got in an accident in all of the years that I drove, and I never got a speeding ticket.

  Q: Sounds like you had a perfect driving record.

  A: I never got a ticket of any kind.

  Q: Anything else that you would like to share?

A: I do like Florida, but I do miss Saugus.

  Q: What do you miss most about Saugus?

  A: I miss the farm and the family. We had such good neighbors. People were so good to each other back then. These days, you don’t get to know your neighbors very well. I imagine that most of my school friends have all passed away.

  Q: Anything special that you are looking ahead to in your life?

  A: I would love to go to Ireland after Labor Day when the plane rates are lower. I’d love to spend two to three weeks with some relatives in Limerick, Ireland. My mother came from the county of Limerick. My father was from the county of Kerry. They met in America, in Lynn, Mass. My husband and I used to go to Ireland every summer. I haven’t been there for 10 years.

I will be going with my nephew, Shawn Buckless, who I live with now. If I am able to make the trip, we will be staying with relatives on the same farm where my mom was born: not the same building, but on the same land.

  Q: So, you have a little symmetry in your life. You vacation here in Limerick, Maine during the warmer months of the year.

  A: Yes. We stay in a cottage in Limerick, Maine, overlooking Lake Sokokis. Shawn is the son of Kenneth and Janet Buckless. Kenneth was a former register of voters in Saugus. My sister, Janet, died two years ago.

I have had a wonderful family and I enjoy life. But I really loved life on the farm.