Date: Wed 05-Aug-1981

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

May-Platt-Mitchell

Full Text:

May Platt Mitchell profile

(never published - MPM withdrew her consent just before publication)

B Y A NDREA Z IMMERMANN

When families gather for holidays, stories of years gone by are spun out like

a ribbon that ties generations together. It is a gift of the past to the

present.

May Platt Mitchell, born in 1904, remembers a time when real sleighbells were

heard throughout Newtown because horse drawn sleighs were the common form of

winter transportation. "We had real candles on the tree [in little brass cups]

and we'd light them only when we had guests. And then you had to sit and watch

them every minute," she said. "We made our decorations for the tree, although

we did have some beautiful decorations my mother had from her family."

After a big meal featuring turkey, the family opened presents. "They were

practical gifts we had knit or crocheted. We bought things for the men -

clothing or heavy work gloves," Mrs Mitchell said. "And you certainly didn't

give a house full like you do now!"

Mrs Mitchell, a shy and unassuming woman, grew up on the 350-acre family farm

on Poverty Hollow Road. Her father, Francis Wilbur Platt, was born on the

dairy farm and eventually made it home to his bride, May Belle Swezey Platt.

The couple also had four sons, whom Mrs Mitchell often envied because "the

boys had a lot more fun - they got to be in the barn with the animals."

But she did have her own pet calf, which followed her around. "Then she grew

and got to be a cow and scared me!" laughed Mrs Mitchell.

Being the only girl, she had to help her mother with the housekeeping, meal

preparation, and gardening. The two did a lot of canning - of garden

vegetables and fresh fruit. "I remember Newt Curtiss' was the place we always

got peaches. As a family we'd go over to Sandy Hook - that was so far - and

get six or eight baskets of peaches," said Mrs Mitchell. "We canned them, made

them into jam, and ate them fresh on peach shortcake."

As a youngster, Mrs Mitchell played with paper dolls which "you'd get all

stood up and a breeze would come up and - over they'd go." She loved flower

gardening and reading. There was a huge rock with a natural "seat" located in

the field in back of her house; this was her favorite place to read. Beyond

was a woods filled with paths she would roam in search of wild flowers in the

spring.

Mrs Mitchell attended a one room school house on Hopewell Road near the

Redding line. "At that time, land owners loaned the land, and the district

built a school. When it was no longer used as a school, it reverted to the

property owners," she said. "Very few are standing, but that one still is."

When it ceased being a school, neighborhood ladies would gather there for a

sewing circle, she added.

Her two oldest brothers attended the private Sanford School in Redding Ridge.

But when the younger siblings came of age, they all attended public schools.

"Father built a special kind of bus - it was drawn by horse. It had seats

along the side of a big box body...and had a cover of waterproof material,"

said Mrs Mitchell. "He'd pick up all the children in the district. One time

the snow was so deep we tipped over. We were all in the top instead of the

bottom!

"Later, my brothers drove us to school. And when they graduated, I drove

myself," she said. "They had to find a place for me to board my horse. I'd

take grain [with me each day] for noon lunch for the horse, as well as a bag

of hay."

Mrs Mitchell and her brothers attended Newtown High School on Church Hill

Road, until it burned down. Some of the students then went to public schools

in Danbury and Bridgeport, but many, like the Platt children, attended a

private school held in a residence on Currituck Road. The following year, she

attended a private school on Platt's Hill Road. During those two years, "we

had to furnish our own chair," she said.

Her senior year began in the basement of Trinity Church, but ended in the

newly built Hawley School. She was salutatorian of the Class of 1922, the

first to be graduated from the high school.

"We always had a school picnic in the spring. We'd go to Putnam Park; that was

a special place for gatherings," said Mrs Mitchell.

During her youth, they didn't have electricity at the farm. Wood heated the

house during the winter, and ice was harvested from the pond on the property

and stored in saw dust for the summer. Most of the farm equipment was powered

by horse or oxen, with the exception of gasoline-engine saw and washing

machine in the woodshed and a corn chopper shared among the neighbors. "My

father thought these Vermont horses - Morgan horses - were the only horses

anybody would have," Mrs Mitchell recalled.

Mrs Mitchell and three friends - Carolyn Waterbury, Helen Joy, and Alta May

Bassett - formed a group called the Secret Sewing Society and met as often as

possible, sometimes as much as once a week. They even had election of

officers. "And you know right now we didn't do a stitch of sewing!" said Mrs

Mitchell. "We'd dress up in costumes; go into the attic and get some old

clothes that were not in fashion at that time."

Her mother bought flour by the barrel because each day she would make a pie,

and Mrs Mitchell would make a cake. Ice cream made with a custard was a real

treat for the family. But thick ginger cookies were favorites year-round.

"Snow storms were dreadful [in those days] - much deeper than they are now,"

said Mrs Mitchell. "There were no snowplows. The men had to do most of the

shovelling by hand and had to get those roads open because the milk had to be

delivered."

Sunday was a family day, although there were always farm chores to do. Her

father would play the fiddle. And, when the siblings were older, tobagonning,

horseshoes, and croquet were favorite games. "Mother was good at croquet so

the fellows would gang up on her," said Mrs Mitchell. "We'd play after supper.

It would go on and on and get dark. So my brothers would go get the car...and

turn on the headlights so we could finish the game."

Some of the interesting people in town at that time were Allison Smith, editor

of the Newtown Bee . "He travelled around for The Bee a lot - to find news and

get people to pay up, I suppose," she said. "My brother drove [a car] for him

for awhile."

Pop Morris and Rodney Shepherd were partners in Morris and Shepherd Hall on

Main Street near the flag pole. "Young people would gather after school on the

porch for a snack, and go over to town hall for a game of basketball. Rodney

Shepherd was coach of the basketball team," said Mrs Mitchell.

"There were many outstanding people in town," she added. "Ezra Johnson was

interested in the history of the town and wrote a book on it."

After graduating from high school, Mrs Mitchell completed the two-year program

at the Normal School teaching college in Danbury. She then secured her first

job teaching at the one room Halfway River school house in the Stevenson

section of Newtown. "I was twelve miles from home, so I had to board," she

said. "I was fortunate to get a room right across from the school with some

theater people."

Because of the distance to her home, Mrs Mitchell spent vacations with friends

or relatives in Bridgeport, travelling by train from the Stevenson Station.

Each school day, one of the students would go to a neighbor's house and bring

back an "open bucket" of water. Using a dipper, the children would fill cups

they had brought from home.

A wood burning stove stood in the center of the room. At noon during colder

months, the children dropped bottles of cocoa, coffee, or soup in a kettle of

water heated on the stove. That would be the hot part of their lunch, said Mrs

Mitchell.

"I taught the students ABCs on up - everything," she said. "Once a year we had

an open house demonstration. Parents and friends were invited in the evening

and were shown the work the children were doing."

Someone would come to the little school house and check on supplies. The

teacher and students were responsible for cleaning the windows and floors, she

said.

"There was no playground. The children made up their own games," said Mrs

Mitchell. "Duck On The Rock was a game where they took a big rock and placed a

small rock on top. Then they'd throw little rocks at it to try and knock the

'duck' off the rock."

In the middle of the year, the teacher was asked if she would move over to

Hawley School where she very much wanted to work. "But I said, 'No.' I believe

in finishing a job I started," she said. At the end of that school year, she

did accept the position of second grade teacher at Hawley.

Two years later, she was recommended to the Normal School as a

teacher/supervisor for student teachers and was assigned to Balmforth School.

Mrs Mitchell smiled when she related she was there for two years and one month

. That is when she and her fiancee, Robert Mitchell, were married.

The couple moved into one-half of a huge colonial home on a parcel leased by

the Mitchell family to increase the size of its 500-acre dairy farm in

Southbury. She had met her betrothed in the Newtown school system.

Mrs Mitchell raised a son, Kim Mitchell, who eventually took over the farm

operation and insurance company, and a daughter, Linda Lawson of Watertown.

She was a helpmeet to her husband who, besides being a farmer, was elected

state representative as well as area probate judge. And she was very active in

the Grange, garden clubs, church, and school where she served as PTA

president.

"I wasn't just a joiner - I was very active," said Mrs Mitchell. "Doing things

with others brings you close - they gain more and you do too."

A tradition with her own family was to bake Fill Cookies the day before

Christmas. "They were sugar cookies that you rolled out, cut into fancy

shapes, and then I put a raisin filling [between two] and pressed the edges

together and baked them," said Mrs Mitchell.

But her own roots remained important. "If you didn't appear [at my parent's

home for dinner] on the weekend, there was something wrong," she said.

"I remember one Christmas when we were all married, my father said he had a

surprise for the fellows , not the women. They each had to draw slips of paper

from a bowl," recalled Mrs Mitchell with a sparkle in her eye. "They were all

excited. One pulled out a paper that read, 'Carve the turkey.' Another said,

'Serve the potatoes,' or 'Wash the dishes.'"