The Wilmot Historical Society interviewed 90-year-old Jack McAuliffe in mid-September, learning more about what life was like in our area in the 1930s and 1940s than the Society’s members knew beforehand, thanks to Jack’s sharp memory and keen storytelling skills​.

Jack received his early education in country schoolhouses and high school in Andover with Walter Walker of Wilmot and Perley Ordway of East Andover, two friends with whom he still keeps in touch.

The recorded session and luncheon turned into a love-fest as details of growing up in the area emerged, starting with Jack’s 1930 move cross-country in a 1926 Nash ​when he was 6 years old. ​The family left Owensmouth, California, to settle ​on​ a Stearns Road farm in North Wilmot ​that his dad bought out of foreclosure.

After the purposely drawn-out trip of sightseeing and camping along the way, ​Jack was happy to begin his schooling at the White Pond School (North Wilmot School) at which nine students were enrolled, three of which were in his first grade class. ​Liz Kirby, Jackie and Chuck Thompson, and I listened intently as Jack talked of his teacher, Annie Whittemore, Liz Kirby and Chuck Thompson’s mother. She was only 20 years old at the time and fresh out of teaching school in Keene​.

Younger kids “learned up” from the older kids, according to Jack, while Miss Whittemore traveled between kids, giving assignments in numerous subjects including general science, civics, geography, and penmanship. Games played at school included Blind Man’s Bluff and Drop the Handkerchief.

He also talked of using crank telephones operating on shared lines that allowed everyone to hear conversations. Gossip was thrilling entertainment. Callers were easily identified by their combination of short and long cranks, the equivalent of our modern telephone numbers.​

You, too, will be able to enjoy Jack’s reminiscences later this fall when the Wilmot Historical Society hosts its annual meeting on Sunday, November 2, at the Wilmot Community Association’s Red Barn.