Person Sheet
Notes for Delmar CRANDALL
Ashaway, RI -At 95, Delmar Crandall still tills and maintains a good-sized garden, sharing his produce with relatives, friends and neighbors. He grew up on a farm in the Tomaquag section of Ashaway. His father had a retail milk route in Alton and also sold vegetables. “We had a big apple orchard. In the fall, we took five or six bushels in an old Model T and, with a four quart measure of apples under our arms, sold it for 25 cents. We went the length of Bowling Lane and seven or eight bushels were gone in an hour.''
Before they lived on the farm, Crandall, his three sisters and a brother. lived on the Hopkinton side of the Westerly border near what is now the junction of Routes 91 and 216 and attended Ashaway School. In 1916 that meant being transported from their home by a horse drawn wagon. “There was a seat up each side of the wagon and two horses,'' Crandall recalled. In the spring of 1917, the family moved to the Tomaquag farm where the children attended classes in a one-room country school at the corner of Collins and Tomaquag Roads.
In 1925, Crandall graduated from the two-year Ashaway High School, decided he had had enough of education, and sought employment. He found several jobs, but it was in the construction business where he found his niche. He spent 32 years with his buddy, builder Walter Eccleston. When he left the job in 1970, he went to work at the Westerly Hospital. “1 had a friend in maintenance that needed a man, so I worked there for three years.”
Crandall and his late wife, Eleanor, had one son, Kenndhv who, with his family, lives in Clinton, CT. In his trim home on Egypt Street, Delmar displays a myriad of photographs of grandson Roger, granddaughter Lori, friends and relatives across the fireplace mantle and on the refrigerator. Before her death in 1995, Crandall and his wife went to Florida for 14 winters and traveled across the country twice. “I've been in 44 states'' he quipped, crediting Eleanor with making all their travel plans.
A member of the Seventh Day Baptist Church, Crandall drives, shops, and cooks for himself. Presently, he's turning his hand to furniture refinishing. A novice, he confesses he's not very good at it. “But'' he says with a smile, “I'm trying.''
(The above story is an excerpt from an article by Gloria Russell that appeared in the Westerly Sun newspaper on December l6, 2004.)
Before they lived on the farm, Crandall, his three sisters and a brother. lived on the Hopkinton side of the Westerly border near what is now the junction of Routes 91 and 216 and attended Ashaway School. In 1916 that meant being transported from their home by a horse drawn wagon. “There was a seat up each side of the wagon and two horses,'' Crandall recalled. In the spring of 1917, the family moved to the Tomaquag farm where the children attended classes in a one-room country school at the corner of Collins and Tomaquag Roads.
In 1925, Crandall graduated from the two-year Ashaway High School, decided he had had enough of education, and sought employment. He found several jobs, but it was in the construction business where he found his niche. He spent 32 years with his buddy, builder Walter Eccleston. When he left the job in 1970, he went to work at the Westerly Hospital. “1 had a friend in maintenance that needed a man, so I worked there for three years.”
Crandall and his late wife, Eleanor, had one son, Kenndhv who, with his family, lives in Clinton, CT. In his trim home on Egypt Street, Delmar displays a myriad of photographs of grandson Roger, granddaughter Lori, friends and relatives across the fireplace mantle and on the refrigerator. Before her death in 1995, Crandall and his wife went to Florida for 14 winters and traveled across the country twice. “I've been in 44 states'' he quipped, crediting Eleanor with making all their travel plans.
A member of the Seventh Day Baptist Church, Crandall drives, shops, and cooks for himself. Presently, he's turning his hand to furniture refinishing. A novice, he confesses he's not very good at it. “But'' he says with a smile, “I'm trying.''
(The above story is an excerpt from an article by Gloria Russell that appeared in the Westerly Sun newspaper on December l6, 2004.)