Becky Maxwell is the great, great, great granddaughter of Conrad Heyer. She was Town Clerk for 17 years. She served as president of the Auxiliary of the Old German Meeting House for over 20 years. She is a member of the Women’s Club. She’s the mother of Bill Maxwell, president of the Waldoborough Historical Society. And sit down with Becky Maxwell and you’ll see she is even more.
I was born on Gross Neck Road, in my grandfather and grandmother’s house there. Grandpa cleaned out his bureau drawer and that was my first bed, his underwear drawer. He was a fisherman. They practically raised me.
I was the first-born out of five kids. When I would come home from school, I had to do the cleaning and get supper ready before my daddy came home. And as the oldest, I did a lot of baby-sitting. A lot.
The best part of my childhood was going to my aunt and uncle’s in Westbrook each summer. I took care of my aunt who was in a wheelchair while my uncle worked at SD Warren Paper Mill. My Aunt Doris had polio, and it left her crippled from the waist down. But boy, she could cook. She had one of those grabbers where she’d reach up in the cupboard and get her flour down, and she had her tray on her wheelchair, and she’d make up donuts and biscuits.
But I had a very rough childhood. From 9th grade on, I lived outside my home — inside the homes of the Taits taking care of Bill and Timmy, and with the Meservey’s taking care their three children. My senior year, when I worked at Stahl’s Tavern, I lived in a room over the kitchen and waited on tables in the morning and at night and on the weekends three times.
Ida Stahl was a very nice lady to work for. She always dressed to the hilt and carried herself beautifully. And Louis Boissoneault – we called him Bushy — he did all the cooking. When I had a gall bladder attack, Dr. Sampson put me on a special diet, and Bushy says, “I’ll cook all the food from now on.” And he did. I have not had a gall bladder attack since. I think it’s because Bushy took care of me. We had fun.
Sometime during high school, I joined my mother working at Holmes Packing in Rockland, then later at the Port Clyde Sardine Factory. I cut fish heads and packed fish. I met my husband Charlie at Holmes because he was working there, too. And Charlie used to give me a ride home.
I graduated high school in June, and Charlie and I got married on the fourth of July. I was eighteen. We moved down to Back Cove for seven years. Seven years in a two-room house. We had my daughter Justine there. Seven years later, Billy was born, and that’s when we moved up here. We bought this piece of land, and the trailer sat down there. Then we had another trailer, and then we bought this one.
There’s a lot of things I haven’t done, but there’s a lot I have, too.
Right out of high school, I went to work for US Senator Fred Payne, right up on the 2nd floor of the old Post Office which was the old Customs House. I worked for him about a year, and then he lost the seat.
After that, I worked the midnight shift at Sylvania for about a year. But I got rheumatic fever, and after I got back, they’d done away with my night job and put me in on days. I worked one day and quit: I couldn’t stand the bosses standing over my shoulder and looking at me.
So, I went to work in the nursing homes — Fieldcrest, Denison and Penny Haven. Well, one day, Dr. Waterman came up and offered me a job. I said, “You trust me to work in your office?” and he said, “Of course I trust you.”
I really enjoyed Dr. Richard. I told him, “Dr. Waterman, I’ve come to the conclusion that if I live long enough to go on a deserted island, I’m going to take you and Jim Rice.” And he laughed and said, “Jim Rice?” And I said, “Yes, I gotta have my baseball player.” I’ve been a Red Sox fan since I was four years old.
In his office, I’d organize a bus once a summer to take a busload of people to Fenway Park, and that bus would be packed. I always sat with Eva McLain. Billy would sit on the floor with a friend and play poker, and there would always be somebody who would fume about that. And if Charlie Young rode the bus, you could always hear him from anywhere talking about railroads. But no matter if we won or lost, everyone was jolly on the way home. We’d even stop for an ice cream.
I worked at Dr. Richard’s for over ten years. When he retired, I went to work at the locker plant for a year selling leather goods. That was when Cedric Achorn asked me to run for Town Clerk. Everyone was talking about how the Town Clerk wasn’t getting along with the Town Manager. I told him, “Well, I’ve been thinking about it,” and Cedric said, “Do it.”
So, I went up to the Town Clerk’s house for the paperwork because she kept everything at her house, and when I got there, she says, “What can I do for you?” And I says, “I want nomination papers,” and she says, “Why?” and I says, “Because I’m going to run for Town Clerk.” She went, “Ha ha, good luck.” As it turned out, I didn’t need luck. The townspeople voted for me.
My proudest moment was becoming Town Clerk. I loved the people, whether it was collecting taxes or registering vehicles. Every January I would get on the telephone and call all my dog people and remind them that dog licenses were due. No one had done that before. I used to sell hunting and fishing licenses. And I sold the clam licenses. The second year I sold those, I had to have the police because some of the guys came in with baseball bats. But they weren’t against me. They were against the licenses.
The only thing I don’t miss about that job are the elections because we didn’t have voting machines back then. I had to hire the girls and the men that come in to count, and sometimes it would be 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning before I come home.
I think, as Clerk, I became a better person. For one, I began to understand my mother more. I also think I learned more patience and kindness. Back then, I didn’t want the town giving all that money to the library. But then I realized that all that fighting against it – it didn’t do me any good. Now I donate to them when they ask. It’s a very nice library. In fact, I want all my hard-cover Danielle Steele books to go to the library when I die.
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