Interviewer - This is Fred Merriam here at the North Chelmsford Hardware Store with James K. Quinn Jr. and it's April 21 on 2011. So Jim, where do you want to start?> In 1946 your dad bought this property ... Jimmy Quinn - Started this hardware store with his brother-in-law, John Cafiso. And they stayed in partnership for two years, then my father brought him out, and then he started another hardware store across the street, which was called Vinal Square Hardware Store.

That lasted until 1954. Then he moved down to Wilmington and he started the Silver Lake Hardware Store in Wilmington and stayed in there until 1971, and then sold that business out. Then my father kept running this place here, and my mother brought in a couple of other guys to help him out full-time, and then we went True Value, I think, around 1969, 1970, or maybe before that, I don't remember.

And then in the 80s or something, we got out of True Value because they wanted too much, they wanted us to buy everything from them and we weren't just going to do it. We first saw the first snowblower in 1958, which was called the Snowbird.

Interviewer - Oh, so they didn't have snowblowers before then?

Jimmy Quinn - No.

Interviewer - Oh, I didn't know that.

Jimmy Quinn - No. The first snowblower was in 1948. And in 1947, we saw the first TV television in North Chelmsford.

Right here in the hardware store? Yep. And we had them facing the window so people on Sunday could watch TV, they just didn't have any volume.

And then we saw washing machines, washers and the spin dryer, and the iron boards and yo-yos, and then we had fishing rods, guns, 22s, 16-gauge guns, then we had Marvel yo-yos, Marvel planes, Marvel cars, because you didn't have the big chains like Kmart and Stewarts and Sears and Zayre. So everybody came to these small places to get everything. We even had the Carlson airplane made out of wood.

Interviewer - So the kids could come here and get toys?

Jimmy Quinn - Yep. And we had a layaway for Christmas so you could buy things on layaway.

Interviewer - So was it a little crowded in this angular space? What's that? Was it a little crowded in this small space?

Jimmy Quinn - No, no, no. When we first started here, we had ourselves, we had Fred Jamros, we were really on...

Interviewer - Across the street where the jewelry was?

Jimmy Quinn - No, right here, right on this side. It was right here. Right where the freight door was.

There's a freight door and here. The freight door is still there. And Fred, we had like a 2x4.

We had a hole in the wall that heated his store. And he was paying like $28 a month rent for his store. Then right next to that we had a bakery, then we had a cobler shop, then we had a fish and chip.

And we found all that stuff.

Interviewer - And at the same time you were selling the appliances? Yeah. And hardware?

Jimmy Quinn - But now everything's gone apart. Everything's, you know, it's Kmart and Walmart, it's Home Depot, everything's... I mean, they're putting a zap to the hardware business completely.

It's a shame. And people in town, they go to all these places, they go to Lowe's, they go to Home Depot. They don't think of the small hardware stores that they used to come to all the time, where their parents came.

They just want one shop and that's it.

Interviewer - Unless you got some specialty piece, like stainless or brass or something that they don't stock.

Jimmy Quinn - Right, when they come for specialty screws and like brass screws or stainless or... Go to McKittrick's or somewhere. Or Galvanize.

Interviewer - Then you go to McKittrick's?

Jimmy Quinn - McKittrick's, McKay. McCarten on Congress Street.

Interviewer - I just heard you recommend that to a fellow who was looking for a longer turnbuckle.

Jimmy Quinn - Right. They sent me to McKittrick's on McCarten.

Interviewer - McCarten.

Jimmy Quinn - They're on Congress Street. But I mean, before, this whole square was everything. You had barbershops.

You had an upholstery place. Hadley Upholstery. You had a cab company.

You had a drugstore. You had the bank. You had two big merchants.

You had Balos and you had the Paramount. Then you had the Gulf station, which Freddie Fantosi owned across the street from the church. Then you always had the bowling alley downstairs and you had the Stop and Shop and the A&P and Teddy's Market.

Then you had a TV repair place across the street.

Interviewer - You said the Stop and Shop was in the old village house?

Jimmy Quinn - It was in... No, I don't know if it was in... Say it.

On the right hand... left hand. Because one was the Stop and Shop and one was the First National.

I forget which one it was where.

Interviewer - Okay, I think the First National then was in the village house.

Jimmy Quinn - Oh, all right. The A&P and Stop and Shop were where the dry cleaners is right now.

Interviewer - Gotcha. The middle building of the three.

Jimmy Quinn - Right. And next to that where the travel agency is, that was the Paramount Lounge. And people getting married, they'd have to reserve it for a year in advance because that's how backed up they were.

Interviewer - Wow, at the lounge.

Jimmy Quinn - It was a restaurant and a banquet hall.

Interviewer - Oh, okay, the banquet hall was the reservations.

Jimmy Quinn - Right.

Interviewer - And then there was the bar in the...

Jimmy Quinn - The bar was in the back. And like Tony and Ann started down near the Princeton Lounge in 1953. Tony and Ann.

They moved up here in 1961. Then Tony died and now they relocated over to Dracut on 113.

Interviewer - Yeah, they started up again.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah.

Interviewer - Same recipe.

Jimmy Quinn - Same recipe. She never sold it. She never sold the recipe.

But it's a shame how much of Noth Chelmsford has gone because there's nothing here to bring the people in. You know, it's a shame.

Interviewer - You got the travel agency now.

Jimmy Quinn - Right, and they're doing pretty good.

Interviewer - There's a public parking space. Do you remember what was in that public parking space between the travel agency and the bowling alley building?

Jimmy Quinn - Nothing.

Interviewer - It was always empty?

Jimmy Quinn - Across the street. That's where everything was that they ripped down. Wasn't it above the top?

That's where Hadley and Postry was.

Interviewer - He was on the far end of the village house.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, the village house ain't there.

Interviewer - No. It was 79 I found out.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, they ripped it down. Because the guy that owned the auto building, he's the one who owned the bike lot.

Interviewer - Towers now? Towers Auto?

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah. I forget now what his name is because it used to be World Auto. Now it's Towers.

Interviewer - So do you see Paul McGovern at all? No. No.

He lives not too far over?

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, he lives up on Dupras Drive. We know where he lives, but he don't come around. Then the markets, Teddy's Market, they used to make deliveries.

They used to make deliveries to the houses. People would call up and put their order in over the phone because years ago when families lived around here, they only had one car in the family, and their husband had the car to go to work. So they used to deliver the groceries to the houses around here.

Interviewer - Now who did that? Would kids like yourself, you were growing up here in the 50s, would you work for the grocery store?

Jimmy Quinn - No. They had other people that they could drive. But you're right.

Maybe kids 16, 17 years old used to make the deliveries to them.

Interviewer - So it was kind of like pizza delivery today? Yeah, right.

Jimmy Quinn - More like the pizza deliveries today. The guy next door that has a variety store, he used to deliver around Teddy's Market.

Interviewer - Now Teddy's was in the village? Teddy's was right there in the corner. In the village?

Right at the corner, right there, that empty building. The empty store right now.

Jimmy Quinn - Because he used to grind meat, cut meat, and everything else there. He had it with his father. Then when his father died, he closed it and started a taxi in a horse bridle shop up in Pelham.

I'm sorry, Pelham. He started a bridle shop for horses and stuff. And western boots and western outfits.

But everything, like I said, everything went. Where the hairdresser's was, that used to be the post office until they moved it down where it is on Kennedy Drive in 1960-something. But for the longest time it was right there where the hairdresser's place was, the post office.

That's when they used to stand for seven cents apiece.

Interviewer - That was first-class mail.

Jimmy Quinn - Right. And the postcards were three cents.

Interviewer - When you were growing up, your dad worked at the store. Did you work here or say when you were in school?

Jimmy Quinn - I started working here when I was a senior in high school in 1964. Never looked back. But he had the chief of police.

I came and worked here in 1953-54. [a policeman enters the back door and says "this is a stickup"] And there he is. What are you doing?

Getting interviewed. Getting interviewed? For what?

Interviewer - I guess you're part of it now, too.

Jimmy Quinn - I guess so.

Interviewer - We got your stick up on tape.

Jimmy Quinn - There you go. Have you been beeavin'? I am.

That's where I'm working. I worked my first detail today and I did in like seven years. Longest day of my life.

What did you have to wear? Well, I was on heavy lifting. I was all the way out on Kensington.

Kensington at Harold. So now you're working your regular shift now? No, I'm off tonight.

Oh, then I know where you'll be. I might have a cold Pepsi and watch the Bruins game tonight. That time you go to the gym and work out?

Yeah. Twelve ounces at a time. That's all the lift.

You didn't rent out my roller, did you?

Interviewer - No, it's still for you. You're taking it tonight instead? Yeah.

I was taking my truck tomorrow, so I won't be able to get it tomorrow.

Jimmy Quinn - You're taking it now? Yeah, where is it? Downstairs.

Downstairs? Do you want me to drive it around back? Let me see where the plug is.

Yeah, I was hoping to get the plug. The last time you told me to stick a cork in it.

Interviewer - Is the cork old? No, it isn't. I had to keep a hose handy.

Jimmy Quinn - Hey, there it is. Right next to the sign that says plug? Yeah, right here.

Here we go.

Interviewer - Okay, we're back running.

Jimmy Quinn - All right, now the chief of police, when he was in high school, his name was Armand Caron. He worked here. There was more people that worked here growing up in high school.

There was another guy, Whitmore. Ron Wetmore worked here. Ron Whitmore, did you say?

Yeah, Ron Whitmore. He graduated in 1957 or 1956 or something. I forget what Ron Whitmore did.

He ran the store down in South Chelmsford.

Interviewer - Is that the same one? No, it wasn't.

Jimmy Quinn - Different one? Different Ron Whitmore.

Interviewer - Oh, okay.

Jimmy Quinn - Then there was another guy who was a building inspector, but that was spelled different too. But we had a lot of people. We had one guy.

He worked here. He was a cook in the Olympics. He went over to Germany and Greece with the Olympics cooking over there.

We had a guy. His name was Warren Henderson. He worked here.

Then he bought a tractor-trailer. He was a cook up at Bobby's old summer camp up in Canada. We had some big people that turned out good that worked at the hardware store here.

Then we put the offices up in 1958 or something. I forget when we put the offices up.

Interviewer - So you raised the roof? Yeah, we put our offices up top. I see a poster here for office space.

For rent. So what kind of stories do you have from those high school times? Pardon me?

We were on high school times back in the late 50s, early 60s. You said you graduated about 63 or 64.

Jimmy Quinn - I graduated in 65. 65, okay.

Interviewer - I started working in 64. Okay, at the end of high school.

Jimmy Quinn - Right. I told you the other people worked here before. Like Armand Caron, the chief, and Ron Whitmore.

All different people that worked here in high school. Right now, we still have a high school kid once, twice a week. Because business is slow, so you have to wait until the economy changes before you hire somebody full-time again to pay them.

I mean, when we were working, when we were kids, I mean, you got 75, 85 cents an hour. Now they're getting $9 an hour. You can't pay them.

Interviewer - What were the best years? That's right.

Jimmy Quinn - That's when the loaf of bread was 99 cents, 75 cents. Gas was 20 cents a gallon.

Interviewer - So if there was enough business right here to support two stores, back in the 50s, times must have been pretty good there. Two stores right across the street from each other.

Jimmy Quinn - But we did most of the business. They had one employee, and we had three full-time employees and one part-time employee.

Interviewer - So was there any friendly competition since he was a brother-in-law and former partner?

Jimmy Quinn - Right.

Interviewer - But you guys were bigger, stronger.

Jimmy Quinn - Well, yeah, because we were here since 1946, and people were established more than he was.

Interviewer - So what were the worst years here?

Jimmy Quinn - The worst years are now.

Interviewer - It keeps getting worse, a little worse every year?

Jimmy Quinn - Right. It's lousy. It's hard times.

Interviewer - Was the Home Depot a big impact?

Jimmy Quinn - The Home Depot was affecting us and Lowe's.

Interviewer - And Lowe's came in after. Now we've got Ace down the street here, too.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, and she owns two other stores besides that one. And she's an Ace, so they do a lot of advertising on television. And you don't see many True Value advertising on TV anymore, either.

I mean, True Value used to advertise a lot. You don't see many advertising on TV.

Interviewer - They used to be sort of equivalent with Ace, I think. It seems like they were about even with Ace Hardware at the time.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, at one time they were, but now you don't know. The only big True Value around here is the one in Billerica, Jerry O'Connor. And McKay in Westford, on 110.

He's a True Value. But, I mean, this was a booming place because Route 3 wasn't there. So they had to go by this hardware store to go to New Hampshire to go to Wyman's Beach.

They had to go by here. So every Friday and Saturday night we were open until 9 o'clock. And every Friday and Saturday night we'd make a booming business until 9.

We'd take my car until 9.30 to get out of here.

Interviewer - Was Wyman's Beach popular with the kids? Huh? Was Wyman's Beach a popular place to go?

Jimmy Quinn - Oh yeah, Wyman's Beach. And they were always down here repairing their trailers. Because people used to go up there with trailers for the summer.

Yeah, yeah, Wyman's Beach and Edwards Beach. Edwards Beach was on Plain Street, up in Nabnasset. It was Plain Street right up near the Four Corners, right near our school.

But that's where Edwards Beach was, right up there.

Interviewer - How about Varney Playground? Did kids use that beach much at the time?

Jimmy Quinn - Oh, used to when we were kids. I don't know if they're using it now. But when we were kids, they even used to have circuses.

They had carnivals up there and everything else in the fifties. We had our own fireworks. Charlie Kemp used to light the fireworks off in the fifties.

And he had a junk yard behind where Tony and Ian's was. He had a junk yard where it's... ...junk yard or something, but I forget what it was called in the fifties. When Charlie Kemp had it. But we used to have a lot of carnivals and circuses up at Varney Playground. That's why you don't have any lights at the Varney Playground.

Because you know, they said they could never have lights at Varney. Because Dr. Varney donated that back to the town. Stipulation, no nightlights at Varney Playground.

So let's hope that they stick to it and they never put lights up there. Because you have to figure out about that.

Interviewer - So they had Pony League there too, right? Yeah. They had baseball...

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, yeah.

Interviewer - ...series going?

Jimmy Quinn - We played baseball, Little League. I forget what it was before. Babe Ruth League, Little League.

Like you said, Pony League, Babe Ruth. I forget all the others. But we always had baseball games up there.

Then the high school had theirs. I don't know where they play, if they play up here or the high school. But before they used to play all their home games up here at Varney.

Interviewer - This is McCarthy you're talking about? McCarthy was high school until...

Jimmy Quinn - I'm talking about the new high school.

Interviewer - McCarthy was built in 59, I'm sorry.

Jimmy Quinn - Right, and they had their own baseball.

Interviewer - So you graduated from McCarthy? I graduated from McCarthy. And they played up here in Varney Playground?

Jimmy Quinn - No, they didn't. They played in the back of my club. It was the other high school that played back there. Interviewer - Previous high school.

Jimmy Quinn - Where the high school is now. On Richardson Road. That's where they played.

I don't know if they have their own baseball field yet or if they're still playing up there. But McCarthy, when that was Chelmsford high, they had their own baseball field in the back of the school. Because Howie Neal, Bruce Robinson, Tom Colbury, they all played baseball.

We played right there in the back of the high school. They didn't play up here then. But now I don't know where the team plays.

I don't know if they have their own baseball field down there or if they're still playing up here. I don't know. I couldn't tell you.

Interviewer - Yeah, I know they have a football field because it's lighted up on Friday nights.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, you can see it from the highway.

Interviewer - So McCarthy was fairly new when you started there.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, my sister, her first year, she went to the old one on Billerica Road. And for her second, third, and fourth, she went to the new high school, which is now the McCarthy Middle School. So the class of 1963 was the first class that went through that old high school from the 9th grade to the 12th grade.

Interviewer - So did your family always live on Princeton Street?

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, we moved from Mattapan, but we lived here. We lived 148 Princeton right across the street from Tony Ann's Pizza, and it was the Princeton Lounge when Joe Geffrida had it. Joe Geffrida had the Princeton Lounge, and his brother Frank Geffrida had the Hilltop Steakhouse.

And so Frank Geffrida had the Princeton Lounge, and Dracut had the Princeton Inn. The Princeton Inn was for weddings and banquets and parties and stuff like that. That's what the Princeton Inn was for.

Interviewer - Where was the Princeton Inn?

Jimmy Quinn - Right on Nashua Road in Dracut, right up the street from the old... Does that have a different name now? Yeah, it's a funeral home or something, I don't know what it's called.

But it was right where, if anybody remembers, Shooter's, Stinger's, OJ's, the Dracut Inn, Dracut Lounge, the Esquire, and there used to be the Pompeii in the 40s and 50s. It was the Pompeii.

Interviewer - So that was the Nashua Road, right?

Jimmy Quinn - That's Nashua Road, right. Now they ripped it down and put on condos. When we went to school, me and my sister, we went to the Highland Avenue School.

That's up there on... You go up Highland Avenue, cross the street from Mahoney's, and take your second right. I think that's John Street.

They used to bring you right up to the end. The Highland Avenue School, it was a four-room schoolhouse, and every grade had two grades in it. First and second grade was together, third and fourth, fifth and sixth, seventh and eighth.

They were all together. And if you lived close by, you went home for dinner, and if not, you brought your lunch. And I forget how the cafeteria was set up, but that's when they had to shovel coal into the boilers.

And that was in 1955, 54.

Interviewer - So they had a custodian that would...

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, they had a guy named Eddie Brick. And we used to bring him brownies, because my mother made brownies for him. Yeah, he used to shovel coal into the boilers, the furnace.

Interviewer - And that school's affordable housing today?

Jimmy Quinn - No, that school is in apartments. Some apartment for elderly or something. But they used to play a lot of baseball up there, too.

In fact, they played more baseball up there than they did at Mahoney at one time.

Interviewer - Now, was that school teams or leagues, after-school leagues? Huh? Was that like after-school?

Jimmy Quinn - After-school leagues, yeah, because we only had eighth graders there. But like I say, it was Babe Ruth and stuff like that.

Interviewer - So when you graduated from McCarthy, you were working here? That was your full-time job at that point? Did you go into the service?

Jimmy Quinn - No, then I went on to college. I went down to college down in Lawrence. And then after that, I was getting drafted, so I joined the Navy, and I went in the Navy for four years.

I commissioned in Puget Sound and Burlington, Washington. That was 1968, and then I decommissioned to Boston in 1970. We could finish tomorrow, if you're around tomorrow.

Interviewer - Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. We'll wrap it up. You know, because your wife's getting home at about five.

We can wrap it up at five and pick it up another day.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, sounds good to me.

Interviewer - All right, so we're still on a roll until five.

Jimmy Quinn - Oh, all right. We're going ten minutes to five so I can bring the stuff in.

Interviewer - Oh, okay, so ten minutes. Yeah, I've seen some pictures.

Jimmy Quinn - But see what the church, now St. John's Church, that used to be on the corner of Middlesex and Church Street, and the rectory was behind it. It had garages with three stalls. That used to be the rectory.

And when they built the new church in 1963, I served the first mass in that church. I served the last mass in the old church. And it was November 7, 1963.

And Conrad Christian wouldn't let them build a rectory because they already had a rectory on Church Street. They told the priests in the past to either walk down to the church or drive down to the church. He refused them to build a rectory behind the new church in where the rectory is today.

And then when we were growing up, where Dolan funeral home is there used to be Proctor Lumber. It was a lumberyard.

Then they sold out to Grossman's. Then Grossman's had a fire. Do you remember what year that fire was?

The fire had to be around 1968. I think it was around 1968, the fire.

Interviewer - When did Proctor, do you know when Proctor sold out?

Jimmy Quinn - Around 1960.

Interviewer - So Grossman's didn't rebuild after that fire?

Jimmy Quinn - No, they couldn't.

Interviewer - Lost everything?

Jimmy Quinn - Lost everything.

Interviewer - Except the house, the business office survived.

Jimmy Quinn - Right, right. That for years was the business office for Proctor Lumber. But then I forget what year Dolan started.

Interviewer - Yeah, that's a good question.

Jimmy Quinn - Maybe you may have it on your record.

Interviewer - Well, I could probably ask Jim Dolan. Yeah. Do you remember that fire?

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, I do. I was taking pictures of it.

Interviewer - Oh, really? Do you have any pictures still?

Jimmy Quinn - I don't know where that thing would be. I don't know where the pictures would be. I'd have to look in here.

I don't know. I'd have to see if I can find them.

Interviewer - Would they be slides or prints?

Jimmy Quinn - They were prints. They didn't have slides then. And if they were, they weren't that popular.

Interviewer - Yeah, I think they took off in the 70s, just after that.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, the slides. I was in the service in 68 and I was taking slides then.

Interviewer - I think I bought my first slide camera about that same time.

Jimmy Quinn - I was taking a Kodak Instamatic 104 camera. And I just sent them and made them slides.

Interviewer - Is that right?

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah. Do you have any photos? Then we had, down near the railroad tracks, you had two markets down there.

You had McEnaney's Market, and right over the railroad tracks, you had Secor's Market. Secor Market, the guy who was in a wheelchair, he had no legs, and then across the street from McEnaney's Market, they had ABC Oil Company, Abaco Oil Company.

Interviewer - Abaco, yes. So, A-B-A-C-O.

Jimmy Quinn - Oh, all right.

Interviewer - So, McEnaney's is the brick building by the tracks?

Jimmy Quinn - McEnaney's was where that, he had a market and a barbershop right next door in the same building.

Interviewer - The building, there was a laundromat just beyond that?

Jimmy Quinn - The laundromat is still there.

Interviewer - Is that the other market?

Jimmy Quinn - No, right next door, that other building was a market.

Interviewer - Two markets right next door?

Jimmy Quinn - There was, McEnaney's, there's a railroad track.

Interviewer - Oh, on the side of the track.

Jimmy Quinn - There was a laundromat, and right next door was a market.

Interviewer - Oh, the other side of the laundromat, I gotcha.

Jimmy Quinn - Right. And there's a little alleyway right there between them. But that was, that was Secor's market, and then we had...

And then we had our own nuns. Where the young women nuns are now, that used to be a convent for St. John's nuns. We had 10 nuns there. We had 10 nuns there because my father used to have to bring them down to the Cape once a month. So every once a month we'd all go take a ride to the Cape and bring the nuns down to the Cape.

Interviewer - They have a meeting?

Jimmy Quinn - I don't know what they did down there, don't forget I was only... 7 years old and I don't know what they did down there.

Interviewer - Maybe it was something the diocese did. Huh? Maybe it was a conference that the diocese had down there or something.

Jimmy Quinn - I don't know, I got no idea. But my mother worked here, and she worked at Met State at the same time. She'd send the bills out from here, and she'd have to work at night at Metropolitan State.

She worked three days a week. So I lived from 3 to 11.

Interviewer - Now, what's that insurance? Metropolitan?

Jimmy Quinn - It was a psych hospital.

Interviewer - Oh, okay.

Jimmy Quinn - Metropolitan Hospital down on Trapella Road, across the street from the Fernald school. Now it's not there anymore because in 1963 they made apartments and condos out of it. Oh.

Beep, beep, beep, beep. Because when she first started working there, it used to take her 2 hours to get to work. Because Route 3 wasn't there and Route 128 wasn't there.

So she used to have to go to Route 4 and Route 2 to get to work, so it would take her two hours to get to work. Then she was the last graduating class of our end from Tewksbury State in 1939. So I mean, we have a whole lot of history in my family too.

My father helped build a lot of places around here. In the 53, 54, 55, we had our own Santa Claus suit here in the store. So my father would bring Santa Claus because in the 50s we only had about five or six schools around here.

So my father would bring Santa Claus to visit the kids on the 23rd of December.

Interviewer - So he'd dress up and go visit the kids while they were still on the last day of school for the holiday.

Jimmy Quinn - He didn't have school the 24th. I don't even know if the kids have school tomorrow, Good Friday. I don't even know if they have school on Good Friday or not.

Interviewer - Good question. Huh? Good question.

I think some businesses are off. Like the stock market is closed. I don't know about the local stores.

Jimmy Quinn - Years ago, you had it closed from 1 to 3 on Good Friday so people could go to church. You don't have that anymore. Church is a thing of the past.

We liked it when we used to be closed on Sunday because of the blue law. Then they did away with the blue law, which they shouldn't have done. I don't think they should have done because nobody has a day off anymore.

Interviewer - If they were going to keep it, they had to keep it all in neighboring states together. Otherwise it wouldn't work because everybody would go to the next state.

Jimmy Quinn - States didn't have anything to do with it before.

Interviewer - Wasn't Massachusetts one of the last holdouts on blue lines? Huh? New Hampshire eliminated blue lines first.

Jimmy Quinn - New Hampshire never closed. New Hampshire was always open. We were the only state around.

Interviewer - To make it work, all the states would have to agree to have Sunday off. No, they wouldn't.

Jimmy Quinn - No, they don't. States are states. They do whatever they want.

Interviewer - They saw an opportunity to get more business by opening Sunday off.

Jimmy Quinn - That's why they screwed up and they opened up on Sunday. Like the liquor stores because John Harrington, he doesn't care because he has all employees so he doesn't work on Sunday. But here we are.

We have to suffer and work on Sunday.

Interviewer - Do you have to work? Do you open?

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah. Really?

Interviewer - So you're seven days a week.

Jimmy Quinn - Seven days a week. So I don't know what the story is going to be. But then I forget what year the fire was at the North School.

Interviewer - Right.

Jimmy Quinn - Because everybody went there and they were still using the Quessy School too.

Interviewer - Didn't they close Quessy when they opened North in the 50s? No.

Jimmy Quinn - No, Quessy was still there.

Interviewer - It was still there, I remember, but they tore that down about the 80s, I think.

Jimmy Quinn - I don't think so. I don't think they ever closed. I don't know.

I forget. But the Quessy was still going because there was more people, more population. That's why the Quessy still took care of the people up in West Chelmsford.

Interviewer - Yeah, I think at some point though they closed. I think that was vacant for a couple of decades before they closed it. My son was in, we lived in West Chelmsford and everybody we knew went to North School at that time.

I think that was in the late 70s, early 80s. And then when the fire hit and they got distributed, they time shifted and some kids went to Harrington. I think our son went to Harrington temporarily after that.

Jimmy Quinn - You could be right. I don't remember, man.

Interviewer - So anything happen here at the center that's memorable over the years? You spent a lot of time right here with a window on the square. Huh?

You spent a lot of time with a window on the square.

Jimmy Quinn - A lot of accidents, a lot of car accidents when people were making new turns. But we don't have time to watch out the window.

Interviewer - Too busy working.

Jimmy Quinn - Right, I never look out the window. And that's like years ago when we used to buy windows, you used to buy second hand windows. And now you can't anymore.

Like all our offices, they all have second hand windows. But to build anything nowadays, you can't buy second hand windows.

Interviewer - They have to be energy efficient.

Jimmy Quinn - They got to be making windows now. But years ago, I mean, we even had a guy, Don Scissors, used to reset pins for the mill. Because the mills used to do lambs and stuff.

Used to bring the lambs in. They used to shave the lamb so they could make the wool from the lamb. And the guy used to be downstairs and make the pins for the mill.

But I don't know how they ever did making the pins. I don't know what kind of job it was. Then in the fences, we had pinball machines downstairs.

A guy named Berty Miner had pinball machines.

Interviewer - Here in this building? Yep. And these were for bowling?

Huh? Bowling or for mills? Pinball machines.

Oh, pinball machines. Okay, so this was like an amusement.

Jimmy Quinn - Downstairs.

Interviewer - Right here, huh?

Jimmy Quinn - Downstairs.

Interviewer - It was a regular office. So he ran a little business for the kids?

Jimmy Quinn - I don't know. I was too small to come out.

Interviewer - Oh, that was for older kids? They didn't let you get out here?

Jimmy Quinn - I couldn't tell you. I don't know. I was too small.

I don't know. Because then we had all our stovepipes. We had our lawnmowers and everything else downstairs too.

And then we used to have to dig out all the dirt out of the cellar to make downstairs exist. Because when we first bought this place, it was all dirt and everything.

Interviewer - Well, I remember when you first moved out here, I needed a ladder. So I came over here. I asked you if you had a 24-foot ladder.

And you said, yep. We went downstairs.

Jimmy Quinn - Yep. We had all kinds of 20, 24, 28, and 30-foot ladders. I still use that.

Now you got a Home Depot. And so you came? Yeah.

Nobody comes in looking for a ladder.

Interviewer - So did the dentist?

Jimmy Quinn - Up here, the dentist doctor was upstairs over the bank and over the hardware store.

Interviewer - In the brick building.

Jimmy Quinn - In the brick building, right. And a girl named Lorraine LeChute used to own that. And she sold it to Teddy Balos.

And then over here, this place here used to be a variety store. And underneath in the basement was the liquor store by Billy Powers. And her sister Ruth Powers owned the variety store.

And she married a person named Adam Jamros.

Interviewer - Related to Freddie?

Jimmy Quinn - Huh?

Interviewer - Related to Freddie Jamros.

Jimmy Quinn - That was Freddie's brother. Don't forget, Freddie started in this building here.

Interviewer - 1948. In that small space. Right.

A little closet over there on your side door. Freight door.

Jimmy Quinn - And his brother had the bait shop. Marty's bait shot. Up at Crystal Lake.

People say, how did he get the name Marty? Marty was Freddie's father. Freddie's father started the bait shop.

Because the three guys, they all went into the service during World War II. So they had the sister go in and get the bait and all the stuff for their father, Marty.

Interviewer - So that wasn't Marty that ran the shot then?

Jimmy Quinn - No, his name was Louie.

Interviewer - Louie Jamros. I never knew that.

Jimmy Quinn - Everybody went in and called him Marty. His name wasn't Marty.

Interviewer - His father's name was Marty. He was cranky, old guy. I remember my kids used to go in and buy worms once in a while.

Jimmy Quinn - And he'd say, you're late. And he was, now that he's passed away, he was a bookie too.

Interviewer - Oh, was he?

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah. Used to make all kinds of bets on the horses. Then we used to let his boat free.

And he'd pay us to go get his boat. After we let them free.

Interviewer - A little. Oh, you can see.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah. [Sister calls] I don't know, 5 or something, but I'll meet you right there. It's 5:30. All right, I can call at quarter past. Oh, all right. All right. Oh, all right.

All right. All right, what'd you call it? Picked up his roller.

Tony. Tony Spinazola. He picked up the roller today.

Because I said, go ahead. I said, just say we're not charging you. Take it.

Morter Sand and concrete. Yep. No, the concrete, because we don't have any concrete.

So I have 12 of them and 6 of each. Yeah. She's making sure I'm going to be for the spaghetti supper.

Oh, yes.

Interviewer - Is that your wife?

Jimmy Quinn - No, I don't have a wife. She died. My sister.

Interviewer - So you go over to her place.

Jimmy Quinn - Then over here where the consignment shop is, there used to be Maranel buses. He had four buses. Because that's all they needed at the time was four buses.

And P.T. Robinson, he had two buses behind the drugstore. Used to park them out in back of the drugstore. And Robinson owned the whole square.

They owned all the buildings.

Interviewer - And his wife is still alive?

Jimmy Quinn - His wife died, she'd be about 120 years old if she were still alive. Who were you thinking of?

Interviewer - I was thinking there was still a Robinson. Huh? I was thinking there was still a Robinson alive.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah, there's Jimmy Robinson, but that's his grandson.

Interviewer - Grandson, okay.

Jimmy Quinn - P.T. sold everything before he died. Robinsons around here don't own nothing.

Interviewer - Okay, and Jimmy lives up, what is it, Adams?

Jimmy Quinn - On Mansur Street, in his grandmother's house.

Interviewer - Mansur Street, okay. Gotcha.

Jimmy Quinn - But they all have a plot in the old cemetery to the corner from St. John's Church. So that's where they'll all be buried, right there.

Interviewer - That's a closed cemetery now, for new families.

Jimmy Quinn - That's why everybody goes to the Fairview, whatever.

Interviewer - That's where we're going.

Jimmy Quinn - Fairview.

Interviewer - Fairview.

Jimmy Quinn - Yeah. That's where we are going, too.

Interviewer - Well, you know, I said I'd let you go at 10 of 5:00, so we'll close up shop here.