Tag Archives: 1 room school house

Interview with Gerald Heffernan

[middtube envs0350a-f08 mp3: gieschebakerwoodard_gheffernan_100708]

Gerald Heffernan Interview
October 7th, 2008

Gerald Heffernan is the oldest Heffernan out of nine children. He describes being a father figure to many of his siblings, as his father was often not home. Throughout the interview, Gerald opened up more and more about his family, giving us very personal and open information about his family. He was not afraid to be critical, which is something that I really appreciated in our interview. (I won’t go into many examples of Gerald’s honesty here, but I can truly say that it was humbling to hear him tell us some of these probably painful memories). Among many other topics in the interview, Gerald talked about growing up in Little Ireland, going to the one room schoolhouse, being inspired to become a teacher, serving in the navy, and flatlanders in Vermont. One of the most striking things that Gerald told us was that there are two ways to appreciate something: you lose it, or you earn it.

2:08 Mother was called Zita, a name that Americans could never pronounce it
2:20 Born August 13th, 1927
2:40 Father came from Ireland
3:30 Parents met at a St. Patrick’s day Dance in Albany 17th of March, married July 26
4:05 Father’s work on the railroad
4:41 Father got hurt, so his father-in-law hired him on the farm (even though he knew nothing about farming, and wasn’t particularly liked by him)
5:05 Father begins to work for Robert Young’s farm
5:30 Eight siblings’ birthdays
5:40 The stock market crash
5:50 “Punk” (brother) was born- seems to have a great relationship with him
6:22 Life during the Great Depression; great poverty
6:52 Little Ireland schoolhouse, school started in ’33 (the chimes ring)
7:25 “They say there are two reasons why parents had many children: “Catholic and careless”. Mine were probably both”..
7:38 FDR as president during his entire childhood; a wonderful role model for him
11:10 Mother had first stages of TB and went to a hospital in Albany where another baby was born
11:50 The siblings live with various families during the hard times
13:00 Timmy was born without a doctor because the kids didn’t know which doctor to call
13:32 Describing life in the 1 room school house
17:20 Learning to write with the Palmer Method
20:41 The house burned down in the middle of the winter because the chimney caught on fire
21:47 “Fire down the road!” (the chimes ring)
22:35 Losing the Christmas presents; the cardboard barn
23:25 Always wanted a bicycle; the dirt roads made it hard
25:45 “There are two best ways to appreciate anything- earn it or lose it”
26:24 His mother’s first child was out of wedlock (shameful, so she went to Albany to have the child)
27:30 First child/oldest brother lived with grandparents; was a Lafayette but didn’t know it until he got his driver’s license
28:18 Acting as the father figure for his younger siblings
28:55 His father was often gone and not kind to the family
30:38 First of his family to graduate from high school
31:20 Enlisted in the Navy for WWII, got money to go to college
32:25 WWII – would have likely died if the bombs on Japan hadn’t been dropped
33:25 Went to St. Michaels; mentions that he is agnostic
33:45 Catholic household traditions- holy water sprinkled over house during storms
34:15 The “bingo parlor”; the new Catholic church in Bristol after the beautiful old church was torn down
35:00 About Little Ireland and the Catholic Church
36:44 St. Michael’s; graduated 1952 (the chimes ring)
37:36 Why he wanted to become a history teacher; teaching experiences
39:30 Felt he was better as a guidance counselor; didn’t like correcting papers or teaching students
40:05 House in Starksboro left to him and his brother John; sold it last month to a young couple
—interruption with John Elder’s phone call…—
42:10 Showing pictures and albums and descriptions (great dialogue)
51:21 He feels nostalgic about seeing forests where there used to be open fields and farms (again at 52:15)
51:45 “I feel like I’ve lived in two different worlds… at least two” (chimes again)
52:35 Wishes he’d been called Kevin rather than Gerald (father’s father’s name)
53:55 Living in two worlds again- VT and Connecticut. Feels like he has to adjust conversation for many of his less-educated relatives. Feels like he fits better outside of Starksboro
55:15 “I don’t mean to be a snob… but some people think that I am”
55:35 Talking politics- seeing what the democratic party has done for the US
56:45 “I have an education that I wouldn’t exchange for anything”
57:05 “Starksboro is very progressive, I’m very impressed with them”
57:22 When they were “on the town” of Starksboro during the poor times
58:25 The prejudice of Protestants against Catholics- Bill Conway’s teacher
59:05 Didn’t feel like Starksboro fostered a sense of community
1:00:15 The only time he ever met his father’s mother- when she came over from Ireland after her husband died
1:03:05 The town in 20 years- many flatlanders coming in and changing things
1:04:03 Bill Moyers in Bristol- controversial stance on the open gravel pit
1:06:47 More on flatlanders in Bristol (chimes again)
1:07:30 What is wrong with flatlanders- when they buy up a lot of land and “hog all of the beautiful views”
1:08:07 The “Notch”- passageway to go from Little Ireland to his grandparents’ house that is now posted property. (becomes agitated at this point)
1:09:15 “I don’t like exclusion… that’s why I don’t like organized religion- because it excludes people”
1:10:25 Brother, John, studied priesthood and then become a VT police chief; his closest brother
1:11:28 Didn’t get married because he didn’t want to go through some of the things his parents went through, and didn’t want to become like his father. Of his father “He was also much brighter than my mother, intellectually, and he used to put her down all the time” Didn’t want to “be in the position of being like him”.
1:18:30 Little Ireland- “It looks nothing like it used to”; farms that came and gone through the generations; three times of forest, field transition
1:20:30 More politics, email exchange, Ireland, religion…