In those days we used to have a very good butcher that had a butcher cart that came around regularly... Came from Coolidge's Market in Wellesley... It was the same man for years that drove the cart.. and was the butcher. And the back [of the cart] rolled up just like a roll top desk and I was fascinated by the thing.
And of course he had a cutting block right at the back, and hanging down below the level of where it closed there was a tank and in that was the pickle where they had the corned beef..If my mother wanted to get a piece.. he would put a piece of paper on the slab to put [it] on. And he had a piece of steel like this with a hook on the end of it you know and he'd poke around in that pickle and hook onto a piece and bring it out [and put it on the paper]... In the summertime he'd have a big long switch like this from a birch tree and it would be kind of limber and would have leaves on it and every time he'd open the thing up the flies would blow in you know and then heÕd shake this thing around and drive all the flies out..before he closed it up to go to the next house. .. (Laughs) ..
I don't think she ever bought the salt pork of him because we had our own pigs...so we had our own barrel of salt pork down in the basement. But the corned beef came from the cart. Then. about the fourth of July he'd..have watermelons you know and they would be ..I'd guess in bushel boxes on the seat in front side of him where he sat to drive.. The cart..looked as if it was canvas and it was painted. The canvas was painted.
RV- Like a covered wagon?
Yes. And he sat up front and it came roofed over so he was protected if it was raining. And I suppose he must have gone around in the winter time but of course we never were here so I don't know about that. But..there was..a thing out back that lifted up and then this roll top thing too.
RV- What else might he have had in there?
He had some vegetables and he had all kinds of meat. He had very good meats. Quality meats as good quality.. better quality than you can get at the present moment...Lamb and beef.
Course we never bought the poultry cause we had our own, and if we wanted fish we went to Natick. There was a very good fish market in Natick center on the street..parallel with the railroad tracks. I think Oliver was the name...the man that ran it. It was there for many years......
RV- What do you remember about Higgins' first store?
It was a house and a store that was built on the front of it. The front part of it was a store and they lived in the back of the house. It was a two story house... Higgins had the first telephone in town.. [and] I think lightning struck the.. pole across the street and came in on the wires.. The house caught on fire and just burned... the whole thing went.. They didn't have anything but a bucket brigade in those days... It was at night... And I can remember standing on the piazza and seeing the flames. I was quite young.
And towards Whiting Road from the house, set back from the store front, he had what had been the old schoolhouse that was at the center. It [had been] in that jog between the railroad track and the Congregational Church. You know that level place that's dug into the bank. .. Well, I've been told that's where it was, that's where the schoolhouse was. And when they abandoned that [building] for a school he acquired it and he used for grain and hay and he had a platform built in front of it up the height so he could load the wagons easily.
RV- Right beside the railroad tracks?
No. Toward Whiting Road. Towards the parking place... where the parking place is now. The parking place for Higgins Store.
RV- Do you mean the Center District Schoolhouse that was across from where the Caryl school is now?
No. That was like the East Schoolhouse and the North Schoolhouse and the West Schoolhouse...
RV- That wasn't that school they moved??
No...Somebody told me that the reason that bank is dug out side of the church.. the old Congregational Church building.. down almost to the level of the railroad tracks was because the schoolhouse was there. A schoolhouse was there. .. And somewheres in the back beyond of my mind somebody told me or I read it somewhere that that building that Jedediah Higgins used for a grain room and for the hay he had converted from that building. and moved it across the tracks.
Later on I think he gave that [grain building] up but when we first came to Dover my father used to buy his grain of him. Course he didn't buy hay ..because we had animals that were on the place and we had a farmer that was there and worked..
RV- Do you remember any other stores in the center?
Well, at the time [the Frosts' house] was built there was a store a great big barn of a thing that was there on the corner lot and Mr. Frost bought that...There was a row of pines that went across... It may be the same row of pines that is there now. I'm not sure. But it was very ugly looking and of course it was the back end of the building. ..It was a grocery store right there on the corner. I can't remember who ran it..
RV- Was that store there..when the Frosts built the house or had it been taken down?
No. I think it was still there.....
RV- Do you remember Mary's Checkered Tea Room?
Oh, well, that was Dandrow's store. Dandrow built it. That was about where the driveway is between the school and Clough's house...
I can't remember whether it was after Dandrow died or not.. [Adams Brothers from Needham] took over the store and Mr. McCulloch .. I think he came to live in Dover.. used to deliver you know ....I can't remember whether they delivered once a week or twice a week. But back in those days you know they'd take an order and deliver ..kill two birds with one stone.. He'd come in and sit down and write out the next order..He'd have to know the stock pretty well to be able to do that.
RV- Dandrow built that store?
Yes... He ran a variety store.
RV- What year?
Well..it was several years before the First World War...