Gordon Webster grew up in Sanford and summered in Waldoboro as a boy. But after serving in the Army for three years, he made Waldoboro his home because in the years he was away, Sanford had changed, and Waldoboro hadn’t. He came intending find work making movies, his first love. But with the emergence of video, film opportunities vanished. So Gordon began to work for his father-in-law at Sulo’s Texaco station, delivering bottled gas and cleaning range burners and heating systems. This led him to starting his own business which evolved into heating and plumbing. As Gordon says, “There probably isn’t a house in Waldoboro I haven’t been in.” These days he’s left the business to his daughter and son-in-law, and has returned to film, scanning 8mm and 16mm reels and remembering how it was back then.
When I was a kid, I think Waldoboro had only one policeman. But we had a zillion volunteers. My wife’s stepfather was a temporary fireman and policeman. And lots of people were like him. That’s because we were a small, close-knit community and that’s what people did.
I’ll tell you a story. When I first bought the building on Route 1, the plumbing business there I didn’t have any money, which is always the problem with a new guy starting. And I had a dirt driveway. Well, we started doing a lot of work for Percy Moody because Weston’s decided they didn’t have enough of a crew to keep up with the cabins and the diner. And Percy would stop in and say, “I need plumbing or heating at the diner.” Well, one day he looked out the in the driveway and say, “Jeez, looks pretty icy out there, doesn’t it,” and I said, “Yeah, it is, it is pretty icy. But we put down some salt and sand.” Well, an hour later his men were there, sanding my driveway and shoveling. And he did that many times in those first years when I was struggling for survival. In fact, one time, he says, “Can you get a pump? Because I need one right now. We don’t have any water at the diner.” And I say, “That’s no problem, we’ll go do that.” So he says, “We’ll take my car.” And I say, “Okay, I’ll drive.” We go up to Augusta where this guy had the pump and we get back at 10 or 11 o’clock at night and put in the pump right in, and bingo, they’re back in business. I was in the learning phase, seeing all the ways people take care of other people.
When I started out on my own, people and businesses rallied around me. They gave me all kinds of help. And most of them were members of the Lions Club. So, when they asked me to join, I said yes and went in. That must have been around 1973. I’ve never left.
A Lion is a person who likes to help people in the community. Republicans and Democrats, it doesn’t matter. You don’t talk about religion either. It’s all about, what are we going to do for the community? What are we going to build this year? Are we going to rebuild the dam for the fishway on Elm Street for the alewives? Maybe the Historical Society needs something done. Lions do all sorts of things.
We used to meet the first and third Wednesday of the month. But with that Covid, we stopped meeting, and now we’re getting together once a month. It starts with the Pledge of Allegiance, the Lions Toast and the prayer. Then we get down to business. What are we going to do? The meeting ends singing the Waldoboro Lions song.
But it’s less formal than it used to be. In the old days, you couldn’t talk about business, or you’d be fined. In fact, at my first meeting Fred House introduced me saying I’d recently purchased Jameson’s Plumbing and Heating. And boom! “Fine him!” they said. And they did. They fined Fred for mentioning my business. That’s how disciplined we were in those days.
And back then, we were all involved with the community, so we knew where the needs were. I’d be cleaning range burners at the original Sproul Block, and I’d meet retired ladies, ladies whose husbands had passed away, so they didn’t have a hell of lot to live on, and they’d never worked either, so they didn’t have any kind of Social Security to speak of, just the absolute minimum. Fortunately, they didn’t have to pay for their house, but the taxes were killing them. So, what we would do is take them food baskets just to say, hey, we know you’re here and we’re not going to forget you.
But it helps also to have programs like the fire chief to come in and tell us what’s going on with the fire department. Or the Chief of Police. Or other people in the area. You learn more.
We still sponsor things. Like Waldoboro Day. And scholarships which now include trade schools. And getting glasses to people who need them. We even bought a machine that analyzes people’s eyes in almost a split second — great for young children because it’s so quick – you put your head here, look at the dot, and done! And then we take it with the towns that don’t have one so they can use it.
But when we get through this Covid, I’d like us to look around for other sorts of projects. And bring in younger members! That’s important. You know? There was a time when I was the youngest member. I guess I was in my 30s. And right now? I’m just about the oldest, right behind Bill Blodgett.
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