Interviewer - This is Bonnie Rankin with Fred Jamros at the Jamros Jewelers on 14 Dunstable Road, the afternoon of September 14, 2010. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Mr. Jamros.

Fred Jamros - My pleasure.

I thought maybe we could start out by talking a bit about the jewelry shop. Fine. Can you tell me a little history?

Well, I opened up here about 60 years ago, and I've been here ever since. And I did mostly wholesale jewelry repair because the town was not big enough to really support me. So I went from here to Nashville, Manchester, and more at different jewelry stores, picked up their repairs, and then delivered them the following week.

Interesting. Yes. But now, of course, jewelry is a lot different because everything is battery driven, so there's not so much repair.

Okay? Interesting. Yeah.

Very interesting. So you traveled a lot. Yes.

Now, how did you get into the jewelry business? Well, I always worked in the mill, and I was coming home from Japan for my tour of duty, and I became friendly with a fellow. We became very good friends.

He said, what are you going to do? He said, don't go back to the mill. He says, go.

I'm going to achieve the eye bill and learn how to fix watches. So I did, and here I am 60 years later. That's wonderful.

Right? Yeah. And I remember the fellow's name.

His name was Joe Ryan, and the last two words he says to me is, go to watch school. And you did. Yes, I did.

Interesting. So when you worked in the mill prior to the war, what did you do in the mill? I was a forehand.

In other words, it was a wool mill, and we processed wool, which about everybody did around here. They either worked in the quarry or the mill. And I got into the mill, and I think I started off at 68 cents an hour, which was pretty good pay then.

I stayed there until I went to watch school, and then I continued this business since then. Wonderful. Now, where was the mill located?

Was it right here? Right on Princeton Street. Princeton Boulevard.

Very nice. Yeah, it's still there. Oh.

Yeah. Very nice. Did most of the folks in this North Chelmsford area work in that mill?

Yes, they did. The mill or the quarry was the two most popular jobs. And my dad worked in the quarry, and all my brothers worked in the mill.

Quarry was tough work, yeah. Now, did your family always live here in North Chelmsford? That I know of, yes, but they were—originally, they came from Poland, and they moved to Lowell, and then they got a house up here.

Now, did you grow up in—so you grew up in the neighborhood. Yes. Did you grow up down by the lake?

Yes. And what schools did you attend? I attended Princeton Street School and the regular high school.

Very good. And I didn't graduate from that. I went to the third year, and then I had to go to work to help support the family.

But then I finished my education under that plan that they had, and I do have my diploma. Wonderful. Yeah, I do have my diploma.

Wonderful. I'm cleaning up a lot of the stuff, and I used to have a plaque saying what had happened, you know. I imagine that happened with many— Many.

Many. Yes. Because there was a lot of people in the Army, a lot of them.

So— I ended up with the Army of Occupation of Japan. Wow. Yeah, big trip. But I was a noncombatant, you know. I was unloading ships, which was an interesting job. I bet.

Yep, it was. I bet. Either work hard to tackle you, waited around for the ship to come in, you know.

How long were you in the service? I'd say approximately a couple years. And four of my brothers were also in—we were five in the service.

Yeah. Wow. Can you tell me anything more about your family or growing up here in North Chelmsford?

Well, we were five boys and one girl. And as I say, we all worked mostly in the mill. And my dad was a quarry man until he got injured.

I think that's about it, you know. Yeah. Now, did you grow up in the same neighborhood that you're living now, over by the lake?

Yes, I did. And I lived right next door to my original house. I built the house on my own.

Oh, wonderful. And my daughter lives there with her family. Very nice.

Yeah. Now, as a boy, you probably have fond memories of the lake. Yes, I do.

Roy Harold died yesterday. Huh? Roy died yesterday.

Oh. Oh, boy. I'm sorry, Roy. I need something to hold on to.

Oh, he used to come to the library all the time.

Well, he was a first-class human being.

Oh, I'm so sorry. Great guy. Yep.

I like that. I want the best mechanic, Roy. Hmm.

Roy. So, back to Freeman Lake. Huh?

Back to Freeman Lake. Okay. Do you have any fond memories?

Crystal Lake. Oh, it's Crystal Lake. It was Crystal Lake.

And, to me, it'll always be Crystal Lake. And if Bruce was alive, he wouldn't want it to be changed, because I knew Bruce quite well. Bruce Freeman, right?

I don't know. He would never have wanted that. Because I go by it every day, and I look at the sign.

Now, do you remember the bait shop? I'm sure you do. Oh, I guess I do.

Marty's Bait. Mm-hmm. Because it was in my family all these years.

Oh, really? Sure. Marty was my brother.

Oh.

Oh, yeah.

I remember running that. I used to catch all the bait for him. Was Marty your older brother?

Yes. Not too much older, because we were five, one right after another. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, Marty was quite a guy. You're late. That was his phrase.

Oh. I'm sure you had lots of visitors come down in the morning to make their morning stop at Marty's Bait. Oh, good, yeah.

That was a very popular place, because it was always open at 6 o'clock in the morning. Mm-hmm. And people would stop there for their bait, or just stop and chat.

Do you have any other memories of changes that happened at the lake? At the lake? Mm-hmm, or to the lake.

Well, unfortunately, my memories are leaving me. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Some of those are leaving me. So other than Freeman Lake, do you have any other memories of places in North Chelmsford here? Possibly the North Library from when it was on Gay Street? I remember going to it when it was on Gay Street, and it was a quaint little library. Of course, there was just certain people that went there often, and some that never went.

I doubt if I was in there very much, but I do remember, you know. Do you remember when it changed to the McKay Library and moved up onto Newfield Street? That I don't remember, but I do remember Mr. McKay a little bit. I think he donated the library.

That's correct. Do you have any more details on that?

No. No. I'm afraid not.

Let's see. How about the Old Town Hall? Do you have any memories of what used to go on up there?

Yes. In the back room of the Old Town Hall, there was a room that went out to the veterans. Interesting.

They had their meetings there. But first they started at the, on Church Street there was like a hall there. They started there first and then they went, and then the land was donated to build the veterans' quarters.

Oh, down where the Legion is today? Yes. Interesting.

Interesting. A long, long time ago. Let's see.

Anything else you can remember about the Old Town Hall? I heard that North Chelmsford used to have quite a wonderful Memorial Day. I remember they used to hold Halloween parties for the kids.

Oh. Every year. And the Christmas party where each kid was given a little box of, remember those little boxes of candy?

Every kid got one of those. I wasn't much involved in it, but my brother for the American Legion, he was involved. He was like the clerk.

So unfortunately he's not here to tell you anything. Now, you said you had five brothers and a sister. There was five, yes, and one sister.

Can you tell me what their names were? Yeah. Adam, Lola, John, Henry, and Fred.

That's five. And you're Fred. Yes.

And your sister's name? Helen. Helen.

She's still alive. Was in Drake. Wonderful.

Yeah. Is there anything more that you would like to tell me about either your family or North Chelmsfordor any history that you can think of that might be interesting? Well, of course my mind is kind of old now, you know.

Not kind of old, but old. It's pretty hard. There's probably a lot of stuff there, but it's hard to bring it up, you know what I mean?

Uh-huh. Yeah. I was just over voting, and the fellow that picks me up, Francis Miskell, I've known him all my life, and every voting day he'll come down and he'll pick me up and we'll go vote together.

That's wonderful. Yeah. Now, what did the storefronts look like along North, right here along the main street in North Chelmsford?

What did it look like? Yeah, do you remember any other shops that were here when you first opened up? Any other businesses?

Uh-huh. At one time, there was a bakery here. Right in this spot?

Right in here. Oh. Yeah.

She baked her own food. And then there was a hairdresser here. Oh.

Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.

But I forget their names now. They used to be here, since you were on the other side of the building here. Uh-huh.

There used to be two or three stores there. And then there was a dry-cleaning place. And it was run by an old high school girl whose brother just took me to vote.

Wonderful. Francis High School. I'm sure there's a lot of other stuff up there, but it's pretty hard to tell you, you know.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Do you have memories of what a day might have been like when you worked in the mills?

Yes, I do. Of course, I didn't have a car then, and I used to walk to the mill, carry a lunch pail, and I used to be the gopher boy. At 9 o'clock, we had a break.

There was a little lunch cart down there, Joe Donovan's lunch cart. I used to go over there and get soup or a different snack, you know. Now, would you just get yourself a snack, or would you be getting snacks for everyone?

Oh, I'd get some. I'd have my snack there, though. Oh, okay.

Yeah, I'd have my snack there. Then I'd bring it back, and some guys would get a bowl of soup, which you made good soup. It's funny.

I've been thinking about that lately, you know, what I did then, going out at 9 o'clock, and this guy wanted that. I'd have a big trade when I got back. Of course, everything was cheap then.

I mean, like 25 cents for this and 10 cents for something else. You can't buy nothing for that. How old were you when you worked there?

I would say I was under 20. Wow. Under 20.

Very good. And what did the rest of your day look like at the mill? Well, what we were handling, we were handling bales of wool from South America, Australia, New Zealand, Texas.

They all came in different type bags, you know, different type bags. Sulphur mill wool was a very coarse wool, and it was used mostly for making carpets. They came out raw.

Just they sheared the sheep, and then they baled it, and that was a very coarse wool. So you just received the bales of raw wool? Yeah.

Interesting. A thousand pounds. Did they come by river?

No. They came mostly by train, and if they came across the ocean, they had to come by ship. Of course, from Texas they came by railroad.

New Zealand was all ship. Do you remember the name of the company? No, I don't.

We really didn't know, because it was just a big bale, and there was no names on it. Oh, not where it came from, but what was the name of the mill? Oh, I worked for Bentley and Company.

Bentley and Company. Yeah, Bentley and Company, yes. And we had rented offices down in this, we had a warehouse of space.

We had like three floors extending from Middlesex Street right across to Princes Street. And that's the building that's still existing down there? Yes, it is.

Wonderful. Yeah. Bentley and Company.

It was a walk to work, it was not that far, and nobody had cars on it. Nobody had cars on it. Well, there was cars around, but we considered you wealthy if you had one.

But then we finally got a car. One car, five boys driving. How did that work out?

There were times. Be your turn to take the car, your brother would have it, and he'd be out drinking, and he wouldn't bring it back. So there was a little problem with that.

A lot of years have gone by, though, and I remember they were good. They're hard, but good. Hard, but good.

How old are you now, Mr. Jamros? What year was it? 2010.

2010. 87. Wow.

Yeah. And when's your birthday? When's your birthday?

4-11-23. Oh, April 11th. 4-11.

Mm-hmm. Is there anything else that you would like to share? Offhand, there's probably a lot, but...

I'd say mostly it's been nothing exciting, just a routine of going to work, getting up every day, and enjoying my day. Wonderful. Who is that handsome young man in the picture right behind you?

That is Frankie Greska. He was... Him and I went to school together, and we were best friends.

And when he died, his brother-in-law brought me that picture because he knew that I was... and him were good friends. Nice fellow.

Died young, though. Oh, that's a shame. Not young, young, young, but, you know...

Frankie Greska. Now, you married, am I correct? Yes, I am.

Yeah? My wife is still living. And how many children did you have?

Two. Two children. Very nice.

My son works for the Parks Department in town. Wonderful. Yeah.

And my daughter works as a... that elderly home over there in Chelmsford Center. Chelmsford Crossing?

Not the crossing. She works in that area there. Oh, over there.

Very nice. Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you today. My pleasure.

My pleasure. And if you need any more information, I'll see if I can scrape it up. Wonderful.

Thank you very much. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you.