Recorded in Lewiston, Maine
This snapshot was collected in conjunction with the Museum on Main Street program at the Smithsonian Institution. It is part of the "Be Here: Main Street" collection, intended to capture Americans' stories about their neighborhoods, waterways, towns, traditions, and personal experiences.
What's your favorite memory of living in a small town?
"One of my favorite memories of living in a small town was the fact that we were able to make life-long friends, and also the fact that family was very important. And every Sunday it was understood that ... There weren't many cars in those days and we were able to, we'd walk over to grandma and grandpa's house, Mommay and Poppay's house, with all our picnic lunches and so forth, and our musical instruments.
And we would just spend the whole day enjoying family and being able to share stories, listen to what the grandparents had to say and also learn from them their traditions of playing la jambette, which was actually, for example, leg wrestling and so forth. This was truly something that kept us close because the children in those days did not necessarily leave to go out of state to college, and so the nuclear family remained, which to me is truly important."
Asset ID: 7097
