It is a provocative thought to wonder how things were before the advent of electricity, radio, television. The Twentieth Century saw so many inventions and improvements to life. My Meme' Potvin used to wash her clothes in Coy Brook at Wine Village before moving to town with her six kids.
Dad related listening to KDKA Pittsburg on his brother's car radio with headphones about 1922. Twenty years later Joseph E. Potvin listened to WACE radio on Sunday mornings and even danced a jig to the French-Canadian music played! I was a boy growing up in a culture that was being mixed from French-Canadian to English.
Little Canada was a stronghold in North Brookfield. Morrison's Café and Still Harts Café s posed a problem to my younger years. My crib was directly next door at 44 Forest Street. Dad called it Barroom Junction!
The controversy over foreigners persists. I being a "purebred frog" was imbued in a WASP world when we moved to South Main Street, NB. Many of the neighbors were Yankees with traditions inherited from ages past. The acculturation took 4 generations to perfect. I am the first college graduate in the Potvin Klan.
Language then was the same as Spanish is now. My forebears, too, had to cross the Border and most did by train! Today it is an incredible transformation with becoming "Americanized."
I don't agree with Trump's trumpet. He implies all immigrants are crazy, crooked and deal in drugs. Yes, Donald Trump is a politician who constantly seeks the approval of others. I don't like the way he's feathering his own neck! It is good the Congress is at odds with The Donald! So I ask WHAT IF THE PRESIDENT IS WRONG?
His going to HANOI, Vietnam IS AN INSULT!
So, my friends, life goes on. Aren't we so lucky to live in a Country that takes care of the downtrodden and underprivileged? "Hate your neighbor & don't be afraid to say Grace!
Robert L. Potvin
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| THE COLONEL |
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