Richard Perley Brewster, 94, of Cilleyville Road, Andover, died Wednesday, December 7.
He was born on March 4, 1928 in Concord to Elwood W. and Gertrude E. Brewster. I am writing my own obit! Who better?
Dad was taken sick during the great depression of 1929. Dad, Mom, and my younger sister, Jean, and I moved around for five years between Dad’s folks and Mom’s. They weren’t much better off, but on a farm, you still have something to eat, firewood, and second-hand clothes.
During this time, Grampa Willie Tucker committed suicide. I was four. I remember that day!
At six, I went to a one-room schoolhouse. Eight grades, teacher’s first year. I learned to write with the wrong hand (left). I was so busy listening to the other grades, I passed provisionally.
After five years, Dad got better. He bought a country store in 1935. Over the years it changed into the second largest gun store in New Hampshire. In 1939 I was 11, stood 5′ 11″! Those three summers, 1939, 1940, 1941, I worked opposite men in a number of farms haying. I got 20 cents, 25 cents, and 35 cents opposite men getting 60 cents an hour. When I was 14 years old, in the summer of 1942, I worked for Arch Bent building chimneys.
In 1944, at 16 years old, bought a ’32 Ford Coupe with a rumble seat. First V8 Ford made. Terrible motor. Worked 1943 and ’44 on section crew on Boston and Maine Railroad. In 1944 I worked in a 110-foot deep open pit at Ruggles Mine. Sledgehammer and pick.
In between times, I dug ditches and cut cordwood (sold it for $10 a cord!). Square dances Friday and Saturday nights. One year in UNH. One year in a meat market in Vermont. Enlisted 21 months in the Army. Called back for one year during Korean War (sent to Germany). Taught history in Nuremberg.
I went to work for a wholesaler in Franklin in 1952 as a salesman on the road. In 1965 I went inside as a manager. Over the years we changed to a retailer, along the lines of Walmart. We had 300 stores in 29 states. You wrote what you wanted when seeing it on display, and we got it from the warehouse. Walmart puts out a dozen, and you bring it to the checkout counter. We were wrong!
I retired after 42 years, having worked in 21 of their stores for three different owners. Three years later, all 300 Service Merchandise units closed.
I married my second wife, Carol Perry Brewster, in 1965. The next year we bought her mother’s house. I considered that my residence from then on, although I worked all over New England and upstate New York. Carol had a big heart, but it gave out eight days before I retired in 1993!
In the 1950s I served six years on the school board in Hill. During that time, we reduced the in-town grades from seven to six, added a room to the school building, increasing the teachers from two to three, added hot lunch, and more than doubled the school budget. Then I went on the water committee. Doubled the water bill; it hadn’t been changed since the town moved out of the valley and many hadn’t ever paid.
In Andover I ran for State Rep and served two terms. Started at Republican, ended at Democrat. After that I was Independent. Was not afraid to speak in front of the rest of the four hundred!
I am an agnostic! In 1933 my mother would have me kneel by my bed and pray God would make my father well. I was about six. I thought if there is something that can do that, why doesn’t it do it! And did it cause it? Have not prayed since.
In most religions, including Christians and Muslims, “revelations” originate from individuals who also told us the world was flat and that the sun went around the earth. We spend trillions of dollars on bombs and machines to kill each other while kids in a rich country like ours go hungry! We have spoiled this earth we live on.
The only service will be at the North Branch Cemetery in Antrim. The next time you go by a red Salvation Army kettle, drop in some folding money. (Ask any service veteran about them!)