Interviewer - Okay, we're on. Well, this is Fred Merriam. I'm sitting here with Walter Hedlund at No. 6 Dalton Road on March 18, 2010. And Walter's not an original settler in Chelmsford. He's a blow-in.

But he's got some interesting activities with the town, and he's going to tell us a little bit about being on civil defense and emergency management, also the parade committee. No, town celebration. Town celebration committee, and a little bit about how that got started up.

So why don't we start from the beginning. You were telling me you were a funeral home operator in Lowell, and you moved to Hildreth Street in Chelmsford.

Walter Hedlund - That's correct. In 1950, I moved out here to Chelmsford onto what they call 50 Hildreth Street, which is off of Billerica Road. So that's down near the town offices.

Yeah, well, it's right opposite the center school is Hildreth Street on Billerica Road, and it runs down. It was a—I was the only house on the street outside of a farm that was further down. You said that was Zabierek Farm?

Zabierek Farm was down at the very end, and they were a small farm, but they were a large family, and they were self-sustaining. They raised their own milk, their own cattle, and had chickens and eggs, and the boys all—and the girls. As a matter of fact, there's only one boy and one girl that is still alive.

I think your family is six.

Interviewer - Now, is that the generation that Andrew was in? Pardon? Was that the generation that Andrew was in?

He was killed in the Iraq War?

Walter Hedlund - No, that's not the Zabierek family. They were no related. That's a Dracut family.

Okay. And Andrew Zabierek is another— Another branch? Another branch of the so-called family, yeah.

I know the one you're talking about, the bridge down here on Route 4, named after Andrew, or dedicated to him following his death. But they were a—I don't know. They might have been way back in generation.

I would name as uncommon as that. I would presume they might have been brothers or something. I'm not sure.

That's way back. For God's sake, that's 50-odd years ago. I can't go back that far.

Interviewer - So when you came to town, 495 wasn't built yet?

Walter Hedlund - No, it was not built. 495 was not built. It wasn't even in the talking stages, to my knowledge, back in the 50s.

Interviewer - They were talking about the new Route 110 in the early stages of planning. That's right. That's right.

And, of course, there was a lot of contention because they had to take some family farms and homes.

Walter Hedlund - Well, that was progress. And I think the reason why the 495 was placed in— I'm going way back in my time. At that time, President Eisenhower had become the president of the United States, and he was interested in forming a national network of roads across the country.

And that's when the talking stages started with 495. And Township was only a small town. When I came out here, it was less than 4,000 people in 1950.

And everybody knew everybody. Everybody worked with everybody. And you'd think volunteers were great.

That was the greatest part of this country is when the town was so small, everybody volunteered. Nobody looked for dough today. Like today, nobody will do anything unless they get paid.

That's the new generation. I think. That's my personal opinion.

Interviewer - So there was no Route 3 at that point. That came in at some point in the 50s.

Walter Hedlund - Route 3 was not there, too. There was a Route 3, yes. It used to go through North Chelmsford and come up through Princeton Street and up that way.

There was. It is now Route 3A. That was really Route 3.

So we did have a Route 3 through Chelmsford, really.

Interviewer - Came up through Highland section of Lowell. Yeah, that's right.

Walter Hedlund - It drove all the way through Lowell and that way, yeah. Route 3, oh, boy. My mind is not sharp on dates and stuff.

But I can recall when it was in the 50s when the starting of Route 3 was to be built. Now, Route 3 was built as a two-lane road originally. And I don't know how many years later it decided to go to a divided highway north and south.

That I can't answer. I don't know the dates. But I can remember it was a two-way road when they opened the main, so-called Main Route 3 highway.

Interviewer - Maybe that was a temporary measure. I don't know.

Walter Hedlund - It was a good... Back in the old 50s, there weren't that many vehicles around. People did a lot of walking, which they don't do today.

Interviewer - Well, let's see. I remember in the late 1960s, I lived in Nashua and dated my wife, drove down to Newton, and there was hardly any traffic on Route 3. That's right.

That's right. And when they opened 495 in the late 50s, there were hardly any cars on it.

Walter Hedlund - What was really the main thing that started the heavy traffic on Route 3 is when the Golden Triangle on 128 started. And that brought a lot of traffic where... Boston was getting quite crowded, so actually people come my way of looking at it.

They moved out of the cities and Chelmsford and Billerica and small community Bedford, they became bedroom communities of the city of Boston. We didn't go into any real industrial in the city at all till the Wayne buildings came about, and then that was a catalyst so that everybody else really built around that back in those days. And I don't remember the dates when Wayne constructed that tower down there on the corner of Stephens and Western Street.

Interviewer - That was the beginning of high-tech coming out of Chelmsford?

Walter Hedlund - That was it. I think that was the catalyst, and that started it, and it bloomed. At that time, and you can probably recall, Fred, the line of work and so forth, that was the start of the computer era.

Interviewer - I heard when Dr. Wayne did the first calculators, they were hooked up to a big mainframe. That I don't know. Now you can buy a 50-cent calculator that has as much power, but he also invented word processing and revolutionized the way we...

Walter Hedlund - When I look back over the years, and the kids today, they can't even add two and two. You got to do it with a calculator. How about an add machine?

You know, I can remember myself as a teenager in high school. I worked two jobs. Don't forget it.

I was a product of a depression. People don't realize, but we went through as youngsters in the depression era.

Interviewer - I know it affected my parents' generation very, very much. That's right. They tended not to throw anything away.

They saved everything they could because they might need it.

Walter Hedlund - Well, we saved... Hand-me-down clothes. Oh, no question about it.

I can recall back in the 30s, when I was in high school, my mother used to give me a quarter. She'd say, Walter, when you went home to school, win the Kresge, five and ten cents to earn a square. Get yourself a set of rubber soles.

Bring them home. We glued the rubber soles on the bottom of our shoes. So you couldn't afford them until...

Couldn't afford no shoes. So you couldn't attach soles... Well, people don't know what our generation went through.

But we did it. We did it. And to this day, I don't regret anything that I went through.

And I think I could probably survive today. I don't know. You know, money is everything.

Don't forget, Fred, we didn't have credit cards. You know, we worked with cash.

Interviewer - Think about it. Oh, we bought it. I think credit cards were a late 60s thing.

Yeah. We bought it. Bank of America started out in California and it kind of moved across the country and then some other companies came.

That's right.

Walter Hedlund - We did a lot of bartering, you know. I'll buy that off you. I'll give you this.

So this would be between business people. Oh, sure. It's the same way when I was in funeral service.

You know, back in the late 40s where everybody got out of the service and in the 50s. We worked together. We helped each other.

We weren't looking at dollars and cents. We were looking to carry on life and make a life for each one of us. Working.

But, you know, people don't stop to realize today what our generation went through. And you will find, Fred, that they never complain and people will never complain about the depression. The same way with us World War II veterans.

You will never hear us tell you what we did, what we didn't do. We did our job. That was it.

I'm back. Let's go back in life. I lost four of the greatest years of my life.

World War II. But I don't regret it. I did my job and I come home.

And that's why we're known as the greatest generation. Will Clark's book has proved that. And I refer to that book so many times.

Because I've been going into the schools talking with the students. They want to know about World War II. A new generation.

Why? I don't know. And I can recall I was in Chelsea High School, junior and senior class.

And I had two classes. And normally when I'm asked to speak, in a 40-minute period, I like to just relate how we prepared for D-Day. I don't go into any glory details about the D-Day landing and things like that.

But I explain how we prepared. They show the movie Private Ryan. And the teacher then introduced me.

I'm no ghost, I tell them. Because I was second wave on D-Day on the beach. And I just relate how we prepared for, you know, da-da-da-da.

And I talk for about 20 minutes. And then I throw it open for 20 minutes of questions. You can't imagine the questions that are asked.

I can't imagine. One of the questions that has always stuck in my mind, there's a little girl way up in the back, a little Puerto Rican girl, shows me, Mr. Hedlund, how come it took 50, 60 years for there to be a World War II memorial? You know, Fred, I cannot answer that.

Interviewer - That's true, down in Washington, D.C. Here's a question for you.

Walter Hedlund - I don't know the answer. But, you had the Korean, Vietnam. The reason why, the only reason that I can think about, I was at the dedication of the World War II memorial.

I spent three days out there. The only reason I think that we did not, the war ended and we had wasted four years. We wanted to get back to life.

And I think that had a lot to do with it. We didn't care about memorials or medals or, you know. You had the job done and you wanted to create a life.

Let's go to work. Let's go to work. And I've been written up in all kinds of history books about World War II, my outfit.

But, and I just relate to everybody. That's it. The war is over, let me go back to life.

And that's the way I have always been. I even forgot. I'm like a computer.

You think about a computer. What I did in World War II is a complete blank. A complete blank.

And I, my kids, my grandchildren, my son, they don't even know what I did in the war. They read it in the history books of me. And I never talk about it.

I should. Everybody says to me I should be sitting down. I've had, well, I don't know, six or eight different writers been here to interview me and it's in books.

Interviewer - Well, that's good. So it's...

Walter Hedlund - I'm a low-key guy. I don't look at that stuff. I do my job.

That's it. I don't want any trouble.

Interviewer - I don't know. I don't know.

Walter Hedlund - I, you know, like my son, me and my grandchildren, now my great-grandchildren is about to question me, you know.

Interviewer - Well, I suppose. Oh, well. Well, no.

Walter Hedlund - Me, I didn't have any relatives in World War I. To my knowledge. My grandparents and all.

I don't believe any of them that was in World War I. The only man that I know that was close to me was my wife's father. He was a World War I veteran.

And there again, he spent years overseas. He was gassed, must have been gassed. In fact, he died from the gas.

But he never talked about the war. He and I, he used to say, Hey, Walter, I understand you went to war. I said, well, maybe, I don't know.

Interviewer - So did you have to put your business on hold when you were in the war?

Walter Hedlund - No, I didn't own any funeral home at that time. I was only working. I come right out of high school in 1939.

And while I was working in the A&P store on Couple Square, that's when supermarkets just started to come in. And Mr. Saunders, who owned a funeral home, he used to come in shopping, he and his wife. And I used to carry the bundles out to the cars.

Years ago, they didn't have parking lots, you know, around the corner. So we always just made it a point to help people bring bags out and put them in the cars, you know. And he always said to me, Young brother, you ever think about that?

I said, nah, I don't know. I said, I don't know what I want to do. I was trying to raise some money to go to college.

I had no idea what I wanted to be. You know, what the heck, I was only, what, 18, 17, 18. I was from the Depression.

All I wanted to do was do some work and get some money. And my father and mother, they were struggling. So I worked two or three jobs at the A&P store, delivered papers, and my brother and I, we had a Sunday paper route of over 75 Sunday papers.

Boston Globe, Boston Herald, The Low Telegraph, The Low Sun. I mean, we only made nickels and dimes, but it was a lot of money. The heck, I was working at the A&P store.

I was only making 31 cents an hour. And I left there to go to work in the funeral business at $10 a week. But don't forget, $10 went a long way.

$10 went a long way. And when I look back, people say to me, gee, how long ago did you go into Social Security? I says, when Social Security started in 1936, that's when I signed up for it.

I started paying into Social Security in 1936. That goes way back, right?

Interviewer - Yes.

Walter Hedlund - Is that when it was created? That's right, 1936. So you were one of the first ones who signed up for Social Security.

It used to take a penny, two pennies, you know, at that time. Well, you're only making $10 a week. You know, you probably had in your hand $8 between the tax, you know, the free taxes and Social Security.

But $10 went a long way.

Interviewer - I thought it was interesting, when I retired, the Social Security Administration had a record of my salary from when I... When you first passed?

Walter Hedlund - When you first started? Oh, yeah. That's a lot of records for a lot of people.

Oh, good, yeah. Way, way, way back. But, hey, I had a good life.

But I tell you, I come out here, and I did a lot of volunteering. I was always very active in various organizations. And we didn't have TV.

You had radio, and that's about all, you know. So then I was very active. I became a coal firefighter.

We didn't have a fire station at that time.

Interviewer - Which town is this now? Is this in Chelsmford?

Walter Hedlund - Chelsmford, yeah. Is this after you moved to Hilda Street? Yeah, I became a coal firefighter.

And with the history of town, this might be very interesting. Which station? Engine 1 in the center.

See, we had five engine companies in Chelsmford. It was West Chelsmford, which was engine 3. North Chelsmford was engine 2.

East Chelsmford was engine 4. South Chelsmford was engine 5. And the Westlands was engine 6.

Now, we had 10 men to each company. When we had a fire, Brad, it was in the evening. We had manpower coming out of our ears.

Think about it.

Interviewer - So they blow the whistle, and it converges on the location. You don't go to the firehouse. You go straight to the location.

You go right to the fire.

Walter Hedlund - Right to the fire. And of course, I was close to the firehouse.

Interviewer - So you had no problem hearing that whistle? Oh, come on.

Walter Hedlund - That whistle was a great thing. We enjoyed ourselves. We had training sessions on a Monday night.

Everybody come out. And then once a month, we had a dinner meeting where we did our own cooking and chickens and roast beef. Don't forget the old firehouse was behind the old town hall on North Road.

And it was in conjunction with the highway department. That's where the highway department originally was, behind the old town hall.

Interviewer - Was it a separate building? No, it was tied together. Was it inside the main town hall?

Walter Hedlund - No, behind town hall where the parking lot is.

Interviewer - In a separate building? That's right.

Walter Hedlund - It was a separate building. That building was the highway department, and the firehouse had two doors right there. Two doors, okay.

Interviewer - I think that foundation was just recently dug up. That's right.

Walter Hedlund - That's where the firehouse was.

Interviewer - Yeah, they just paved that road.

Walter Hedlund - That's right.

Interviewer - And that's where the highway department was next door. I've actually seen a picture where the highway department had all their plows and all their equipment parked all the way down along the tracks to the end of the property.

Walter Hedlund - That's right. Don't forget, we had two trains. That was a big thing in Chelmsford.

Big time. Had a lot of freight. A lot of freight.

That was quite a thing for a lot of us kids, young kids. My son, you know, when he was born, he used to like to go up and watch the trains. They'd take him up to the center, and we watched.

They had a little shanty there, and there was a, I don't know what you used to call them.

Interviewer - Crossing guard or whatever.

Walter Hedlund - And he'd go out in the middle of the road with the sign, just drop the track and let the freight train get through. And a lot of people don't know this, but there was a depot at one time there in Chelmsford Center, and the engineers used to tow us. They would come down through Westwood and Acton and all through there.

When they hit Chelmsford Center, they coasted all the way into Lowell. All downhill. That was the old fire, the old steam engine.

They used to shut the steam up, and they coasted from Chelmsford Center all the way to the old radiance. Because don't forget, they had all the way pushing them.

Interviewer - So I guess people that take their bikes on the rail trail would know that.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, that's a great state when I think about it, you know. That was a big thing for us. Great state, because I don't see the trains get through.

We didn't have the cars on the road.

Interviewer - When we moved to Chelmsford in 1971, I remember there was still running freights for Harvey Lumber or the lumber company.

Walter Hedlund - Well, don't forget, we had grain places. We had lumber companies. So Chelmsford had a big grain area, and they had a side track where they dumped the cars off to be unloaded.

A lot of high school kids made money down there unloading grain cars. I think it was Eastern States Farmers Exchange first.

I mean, Chelmsford had a lot of farms right back over the years. A lot of farms and orchards, dairy farms. We had quite a few dairy farms in town.

Loess farms, Emerson farms, Loess farms. And, geez, when I stop and think, hey, you have to laugh. It's an awful thing to say.

But we had more bonfires than you could shake a stick at. Once a barn went down, there was no replacement. Take a look.

The very, very few barns left in town.

Interviewer - Yeah, the Emerson barn burned, but didn't they build something back after?

Walter Hedlund - Oh, that was an awful fire.

Interviewer - That was a big one because they lost some cows in there.

Walter Hedlund - You know, I don't know where you can follow them, but they're going to build a new building down about there. Oh, yes. They'll lay out those things.

Wait till they start digging down to go for a foundation.

Interviewer - Oh, you think there's some... I know. I was there.

Walter Hedlund - We buried 50 cows down there. That's the only place we could do it. We took a bulldozer and dug it out and rolled the cows in there, covered them over.

Oh, geez, I fret. I have to laugh when some of the stuff comes up today. Honestly, God, when I look back over some of the things.

But, see, that was a good time. My way of looking at it personally, that, you know, we were around 4,000 people. You get down to the square, you knew everybody, you know.

It was a thriving little community down in the square. We had an automobile, two automobile dealerships right there in the center. It was Ford, Roger Ford.

Interviewer - Studebaker.

Walter Hedlund - And there was a Ford agency on the right.

Interviewer - This is right in the center now? Yeah. So you remember that Ford agency.

Ah, yeah. And where was the Studebaker? Studebaker was where Ray Osborn's garage is.

Walter Hedlund - Okay, across, well, near Town Hall, right next door to Town Hall. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, right now, that was a big, long garage.

Then we moved the firehouse from down there, back of Town Hall, into the center.

Interviewer - Into what used to be the Chelmsford garage. We get a picture of the fire engine in front of it. That's right, that was the garage.

I think the tallest bay was the one that housed it. Yeah, it had one fire engine.

Walter Hedlund - Well, it was a tight squeeze, so. Well, don't forget the apparatus went through it. A little small.

Big in those days, you know. And when I look back, they were good days. I enjoyed Chelmsford, really.

I still do, but, I mean, they were pleasant days, and everybody was sociable, and it was always a, well, almost every week you could go to one of the churches for supper at night. The only tradition that is still being carried on North Chelmsford? Is the North Chelmsford Bean Supper.

Yeah, I try to hit that.

Interviewer - Saturday once a month?

Walter Hedlund - The second Saturday of every month. I trip them or something, and they knock it off. Well, that's nothing.

But I was over there last Saturday, and the attendance was down, and not like it used to be. Not like it used to be. I looked forward to it.

Get a piece of ham. Yeah, I like New England baked beans myself. Oh, yeah.

They do a nice job over there, you know. Is that still running? You get to check.

Interviewer - Sometimes, you know, in my mind, I wonder if it is running, so I go check myself.

Walter Hedlund - No, they were good days, Fred. I don't know, you know. I don't know how far extensive in their Hindu history you guys are getting involved with.

But I don't know on the historical group.

Interviewer - Pretty deep. Pretty deep, yeah. I'm involved in the historic commission.

We're trying to preserve the historic character of the town. We have the demolition delay, so when a house application for demolition comes up, we see it first. We quickly do some research to find out if it's historical.

Walter Hedlund - Any historical. Yeah, I can understand that.

Interviewer - We have a pretty well-defined process now. It's a demolition delay by-law. So far, the end result.

Walter Hedlund - Is that a by-law or a town?

Interviewer - It's actually a by-law, Chapter 16. It used to be 14 days, and now it's one year. So you still have 14 days to do research.

Oh, okay. So that was basically just a minor inconvenience of a couple of weeks. Now there's a couple of months to do research.

They can continue that for a whole year. If at a public hearing, once that gets closed out and it's determined to be historically significant, okay, then we can invoke the one-year delay. Oh, yeah, yeah.

And in some cases, we try to find a resolution. The house could be purchased and moved. The house could be practically given away and moved.

It could be restored as part of the project, which has happened. For instance, the Pink House was moved over to Ann's Way, and the Hill Jock House was moved over to Garrison House. Another one, actually before we had the delay, the one-year delay was the barn over at Fisk House.

That went over to Garrison House and sat in a container for one year, and then they built it up. So that's one option. And then another option is to have the owner restore the house, selling it because it's a historic structure.

It has value to the tenants and the pride of being a part of the history of the town. For instance, over on Dalton Road and North Road, the Simeon Spaulding House was up for demolition last year. Oh, really?

Yeah, and it's hard to believe. That's one of our most historic homes.

Walter Hedlund - Is that right? I didn't want to demolish it. What did you want to do, build an apartment complex?

Interviewer - Well, originally he wanted some condos. Then he decided apartments, because of the market turnaround, that condos weren't the value that was down. So we worked with him, and he worked with Joe Shanahan, who's into supporting developments now because he's not in law anymore.

But he worked with a designer. They came up with a plan where they had three units in the house.

Walter Hedlund - I'm not saying he has two or three units.

Interviewer - Yeah, he does. He has units, plus there's a cottage in the back. And we authorized demolition of the cottage, because then it's not historic.

But we were going to invoke the delay on the house. And there was a barn. We approved the demolition on that.

Oh, the barn was a big barn. It was a big barn, right. We got nice pictures of that.

But what ended up, they came up with a plan to put four units in a barn-like structure, roughly where the original barn was. So you've got the character, the look and feel.

Walter Hedlund - Is that what he's going to build?

Interviewer - He's got his seven units. Is that what he's going to build? That's what the plan was.

Walter Hedlund - I see he's got some equipment in there.

Interviewer - That's what the plan was. Well, the equipment's been there quite a while. Yeah.

So I think it's a slow, ongoing project. Is that what his intent was? Well, after he came through with the plan, Duplicate the barn, per se, and make condos?

It's not quite duplicated, but actually by having the house and the barn and a driveway going between the buildings and the parking in back, he actually improves the look, you know, the farm look, and it gets the parking area out of the way.

Walter Hedlund - Does he have room in the back?

Interviewer - In the back, yeah.

Walter Hedlund - Has he got room in the back? Around the back side.

Interviewer - Will he build the barn and whatever? Yes.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, he does, huh?

Interviewer - He did a real nice plan. He had an entryway onto North Road, which is blocks that grass grows up through. Yeah.

And a breakable chain, so if the fire department had to do a loop through, they could go right through without any hindrance. Oh, all right, yeah. But it's not open for residents to go in and out right onto North Road on the other side of the lake.

Oh, okay. So we supported the plan, and he still had the demolition application in, so at the meeting, Bill came in with Joe and so we said, you know, we support your plan. Why do you want to have a one-year demolition delay hanging over your head if you've got our support and the town's support to go ahead with this project?

And he agreed to withdraw. Oh, God. So, so far, everybody has either withdrawn or decided to restore the house and withdraw.

So I think the one-year delay is actually accomplishing the purpose.

Walter Hedlund - He bought the house across the street there, you know. He picked that up nice where he's living. I got to give Billy credit.

He's a good kid. And sometimes he's doing the best he can. Well, hey, you know, after how money's trade, you know, he probably got, he got, all he's got to do now is apply for permits when he's ready to go.

Interviewer - Right, yeah. Some bad tenants did him some damage.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, that, right?

Interviewer - Yeah, yeah. One tenant really did some damage.

Walter Hedlund - I didn't know that.

Interviewer - So he had to recover. You know, you hate to hear things like that.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, God, yeah. Jesus. Today, boy, I'll tell you, tenants today, anybody doing property today.

Interviewer - And we had an owner down on Boston Road with a duplex that's historic. That was our most recent. He came a week ago Tuesday.

Originally, he wanted to demolish and build another two-family. He had a bad tenant that wasn't paying, hadn't paid rent for over half a year. Oh, thank you.

And he wanted to tear it down, I think, in part to get rid of that tenant. But he had a very good tenant on the other side. So we talked to him about the delay in the process and the possibility of getting grants through the CPC because it's historic.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, it is historic?

Interviewer - And he actually agreed just last, our last meeting to... It is a historical building? It is, right.

Sweetser, Sweetser Family House.

Walter Hedlund - Whereabouts?

Interviewer - 198 Boston Road. 197, 199, I think. It's on the right side as you head south.

Walter Hedlund - That's before you get to Boston Road and the other side of town.

Interviewer - Right where the wires go across, just before the wires.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, all right. Just the other side of Concord Road.

Interviewer - Right.

Walter Hedlund - Next to the Lumbee Yard. Before the Lumbee Yard. That's right.

Interviewer - Before the wires.

Walter Hedlund - Is that a historical house?

Interviewer - Well, we researched it. Really? The Sweetser Family House.

Walter Hedlund - I didn't know that.

Interviewer - They were involved in town politics and business.

Walter Hedlund - Well, the old Sweetsers, don't forget that block on Chelmsford Street. It was a Sweetser then. And they lived in the house that the dentists just fixed up now.

The Sweetsers lived in there. What we call the Emerson House?

Interviewer - Yeah. Was there an Emerson real estate office? Yeah, he had a real estate office.

I think it's called actually Emerson Sweetser House.

Walter Hedlund - That's right. That's right. Because she was quite a doll, I'll tell you.

I got one. All right, whatever. She was quite a doll.

Was the Sweetser on it? Oh, she was something, I'll tell you. And her husband was a hell of a guy because they were on a market there, you know, where the...

In the Sweetser building. That's right, where the... Well, the post office used to be where the beauty salon is.

That one time, yes. That's right. When I first come out here, that was where the post office was.

Then Sweetser's Market was there, right next door, which would be a little restaurant, I think. I don't know what the name of the restaurant is. And I forget what the hell was where the Chinese restaurant was now.

I don't remember. It's the Tango Grill. Was it?

Now it's the Tango Grill. But that used to be the Sweetser Market. Right.

And they built that building. And then, of course, and then when Roger Boyd had the automobile thing down the street there, and that was a busy little place on Chelmsford Street at one time.

Interviewer - One of our pictures shows a Hadley's Market being in that building, too, one time.

Walter Hedlund - There was a Hadley Market. That's right. That's right.

Interviewer - And then... Of course, when I was here in the 70s, Wilson's Hardware Store.

Walter Hedlund -

Wilson was in there. That's right. He had the hardware. At the Sweetser Market gone. He died. And she lived next door.

And you're right. Wilson had a hardware. Was it Harry Wilson?

He was a nice guy. Harry. Harry was a nice guy.

Interviewer - We used to buy everything there before the... Well, it was either that or he drove up to Grossman's. And then, of course, Home Depot came and...

Well, yeah. Walter Hedlund - I mean, Grossman was the only thing that was still around at that time. It was as far as the house. The same way the one down on Summer Street.

You know, it's crazy to run all the way to Nashua. Well, now you've got Lowe's. So, if I get down here, if I need something, I just go down here and get it.

Interviewer - You know, we have an Ace on Route 40. I can almost see it from my house. Oh, really?

Yeah. But I have to drive quite a bit longer to get to it. Oh, is that right?

But if I just need one or two things, it's true.

Walter Hedlund - Is that in Westford?

Interviewer - It's in Westford. It's right next to the Fletcher's Railroad tracks where they cross.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, all right.

Interviewer - Yeah, okay. I know what you're talking about.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, that's right. There is a... It's a good store.

They have a lot of stuff. Yeah. And once in a while, if I'm over North, I mean, I'll run in the hardware store there and grab something.

Interviewer - Yeah, I used to go over there to see Jimmy Quinn when we moved to North Chelmsford. Oh, geez, the old Quinn family. And his dad was there still.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, God, geez. His dad had Alzheimer's. And his mother.

And Jimmy had to kind of keep her out. In fact, I was just with his sister and young Jimmy at the Bean Supper last Saturday night. And, oh, yeah, I go way back with them.

In fact, a lot of my stuff, the 4th of July stuff, I go over and buy it over there. I like to keep the business around. That's what it's for, you know.

Oh, they're taxpayers like all of us. So what else are you interested in right now?

Interviewer - Well, I'm kind of interested in the story about how we got the Celebrations Committee revived. I mean, we had some 4th of July parades in the past year. It was 1924, I think was a big year.

Yeah, that was way back. And it kind of petered out there for a while?

Walter Hedlund - Yeah, I guess a lot had to do with it. I don't know. I can't put a handle on why 4th of July stuff was dropped.

But the only thing that I can recall, and this is the 43rd year of the Celebration Committee. Now, they're all started that I can recall. There was a Memorial Day parade in the center.

Of course, it goes around and comes into the center, and they have a little ceremony on the corn. And then there was a George Parkhurst's and Parkhurst George. Parkhurst George at that time was a part-time reporter for the Chelmsford Newsweekly, which is an old-time newspaper in town.

And George Parkhurst was quite a historian, and I'm almost sure a lot of your records will reflect that.

Interviewer - Well, George was on the Historical Commission that I'm on. Was he really? He was also in the Historical Society.

Yeah, he was on both, come to think of it. I'm working with a lot of his old files and photos. In the 70s, he took a lot of photos around town.

Walter Hedlund - George knew the town left and right. Of course, he was born and brought up in the town, and that's how I got involved with it. And George said, What do you think, Walter?

I said, Ah, gee, I don't know. I was very active with Red Cross at the time, and he said to me, he said, Do you think we could get a first-aid team to come out if we decide to have a parade? And I said, Well, wait a minute, what do you mean?

Well, it's hot weather, you know. Maybe you have a lot of people pass out with their heat and all that. I said, All right.

So I was involved with Red Cross, and I remember the first year I set up a first-aid station followed by the name of Eddie Hoyt, who was on the fire department, and we put together a little first-aid station on the common. And that was the first stop,

and that's when the Chelmsford Colonial Minutemen, they were very, very active in town. So we got in contact, George did, Parkhurst George, and I sat down a couple of meetings with them, and they said, Yeah, we'd be happy to put together this.

So we decided at the meeting that, well, we ought to have some booths around the common. I didn't get involved too much, but the Minutemen said they'd get a few ethnic booths, probably put on the common. But at that time, there was a fire commission, and believe it or not, Fred, back in the 70s, whatever, I can't remember the dates, that was sacred ground.

You didn't put anything on that common. You could walk on it. You mean the grass part or the parking lot by the cemetery?

Well, the sad part was that the parking lot was owned by the church. It's not town property. That's true.

So George Parkhurst was quite active in the Unitarian Church. So he talked with some of the people in there, and they said, George, you know, go ahead, use this parking lot, put some booths up there. Well, they started out with like six or eight booths, I don't recall.

And the colonial Minutemen, they brought Minutemen, boy, from all over Connecticut and Massachusetts, New Hampshire. And back in those days, the old colonial Minutemen were very, very active. And I guess they're starting to come back again.

I don't know. But, boy, I didn't really get involved until, oh, I don't know, it must have been three or four years after they got the start. They had a parade every Fourth of July, and we had one Fourth of July, I remember, we had some fireworks over at the Honey Playground.

I don't remember the year. So then George says he was very active in historical stuff. He said, gee, Walter, I can't do all this.

So I said, well, I'll work it, George. I don't want the responsibility of it. But I don't know, maybe four or five years later, he said to me, will you take over the thing?

I had some good volunteers. So I took it over. I had some great volunteers, and we worked like heck to put the things together.

And we became very successful. As a matter of fact, last year was one of the most successful Fourth of July that I can recall, although they were all very good over the years. But I think what has happened, the town is too small for us right now.

We can't afford to expand anywhere. When you stop and think, you're on boots up and down all of Academy Street and all in the parking areas and so forth. There just isn't room.

And when you bring in 5,000 to 8,000 people on the night before, in a little small town of Chelmsford, there's only 35,000 population. And I ended up dealing with different people. They're not just Chelmsford residents.

They are from all over. Great old whatever.

Interviewer - And we have family friends that come up from Ohio a couple of times.

Walter Hedlund - I've met more people that come up. One very good close friend of mine, they come up from Florida. Just people just for, well, they have relatives up here.

So they come up, and they always look me up. Gee, what are you still doing? Yeah, I still do it.

I still do it. People have family gatherings. Oh, this was a philosophy, I will say that.

The original group, Parkhurst George and John Parkhurst, myself, and I'm trying to think of a few other names, Charlie Polly, we've gotten him involved. And our philosophy was a family thing. We didn't want any commercialism, number one.

And this is what we have tried, tried, and tried, not make it commercial. Ethnic group, churches, and not like all St. Jerry's. They were one of the original, to my knowledge, and that is one of the yearly money makers for them.

And they always had the fried dough. They had a lot of their doughnuts. And, you know, you talk about a parade, Fred.

You know, I've never seen a full parade because when I make it a point I have for the last many, many years to have the selectmen just give a brief welcome to the town and then nothing drawn, no political speech, just only the chairman make a speech,

welcome the people of the town to that. People are there to watch a parade. They're not listening to a lot of people talking.

And I always made it a point also to greet the parade marshal. And then I go into Unitarian Church to get my practice. So I really don't see that much as a parade.

There are things that I want to make sure everything is, you know, moving along and everybody's enjoying themselves.

Interviewer - I hear there was a pretty big event before the runners arrived. That was the singing trooper.

Walter Hedlund - The big thing is to coordinate everything. You're on a tight schedule, Fred, number one. To run, especially the night before, because you've got a dance group, you've got, you know, want to make sure they're on time, run the show, and, you know, we don't want them to carry over any length of time so that each one will have her own opportunity to perform.

That's what people come down to see. And then, of course, the day of the parade, you know, it's getting the runners started right on 930. I insist, and I've always insisted on the parade start at 10 o'clock.

No dwelling, make damn sure that you step off that parade at 10 o'clock. That's it. People come down there.

At the McCarthy, they start at McCarthy at 10? Yeah, right. I want to make sure that everybody pulls out of there at 10 o'clock.

I tell them, line your first units up right by the Veteran's Park.

Interviewer - Oh, okay. Just get the first group out there.

Walter Hedlund - Yeah, on the street. Get them out there. And then when 10 o'clock goes, bring them out.

In other words, you got all your people lined up, bring them out, bring them out. Because people are down there. Some of them are there at 9, 9, 930.

Get a good spot with their chairs. Well, they come down to see the runners. Plus, we shut the roads down at 9 o'clock.

I got to insist on that, right? Because it takes a while to get traffic caught. And you got to remember last year, and this year is even going to be harder, right?

Because the police department does not have the manpower. We cannot patrol the streets 100%. We're just hoping that people coming down the side streets will not drive out on the night road.

We used to be able to have a man on every street. You can't do it anymore. So the people, I will say, the residents have been very good.

The vast majority of the people from Lowell, they will come out, and if they can get in to Hannaford's, the parking lot up there, or in some of the side streets. Because I don't want any parking on Parkhurst's Road, so you get those runners down there. Hey, when you bring in 2,000 runners, you got to get them rung.

You know? These are all teams. I'm like a mechanic when it comes to, I know what's going to take place, and I can look forward and just plan ahead.

That's all. And I do have a great rapport with the different organizations and everything, you know? And I think that's half the battle.

You got to go with their ideas and tell them you like the idea or you don't like the idea. Because when you're dealing with the public, you're dealing with a lot of people, believe me. Everybody has their own ideas.

But you've got the master plan in your head. Well, it's all right here, Fred, you know. Jesus, you know.

But I get a great committee, you know. Everybody does their job. I know what their capabilities are.

I know where they are and, you know, that type of thing. That's what makes it easy, you know. And I've been trying to wean out the other people, but they don't want to take it on.

They don't have the time. They have families or, you know, I mean, unfortunately, I'm a widow. I'm by myself, you know, and my family is all out of town, actually, although they do come here for the Fourth.

But I have a little time for myself now. It gives me something to do. I've been retired now for 20 years, so it gives me something to do.

But my mind's working all the time. Right now I'm getting ideas. I have one real organization meeting.

So we're ready to roll. I've talked with the Lions Club. They're ready to roll.

The application will be going out next week for the booths. In fact, you've been getting phone calls. I've been getting phone calls.

I just referred them to the Lions Club because that's their baby.

Interviewer - Okay. They're the official organization? That's their baby.

Walter Hedlund - I don't have nothing to do with booths.

Interviewer - That's strictly the Lions Club. I gotcha.

Walter Hedlund - Okay. The same with the parade. That's strictly the businessmen, the business association.

I just coordinate. The balloon activity, the little choo-choo trains, that's the Rotary Club. That's their baby.

The REMAX balloon. I just try to see. The runners, that's all.

Interviewer - If Bill builds his building, they'll have to find a new launch site for the balloon, I guess.

Walter Hedlund - I'm going to lose it now. I don't know where he's going to go yet.

Interviewer - I don't know where the money's at. He did everything by the book, crossed all the Ts, died with all the Is. There's really no reason why he shouldn't.

I don't know money-wise. Walter Hedlund - He's still got that empty place up front. The Emerson hole, the old Emerson house.

Interviewer - That's still empty. That's true. I think he's going to be using it temporarily for himself while they're building that.

Oh, is that right? Yeah, that was the plan.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, really?

Interviewer - Yeah. And that whole thing across the street is vacant.

Walter Hedlund - The old Mrs. Emerson's old house on the corner of Academy Street, that was Mrs. Emerson lived there. They were all related. They were both Emerson houses, really.

Interviewer - Of course, the Winn sisters were pretty famous, and they lived there many years ago. Were you around when they were gone? No, no.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, God, you're going back way before the war, I think. Yeah. He got back in the late 30s, late 20s and 30s, you know.

Interviewer - There was a fellow that lived in that house, or two guys, actually, that lived in that house in the 60s and 70s. Oh, really? Yeah, and I actually have two taped interviews with them.

Oh, is that right? Yeah, yeah.

Walter Hedlund - Well, I don't know, you know. There's still a lot of empty buildings around. I don't know whether they're still going to progress.

Interviewer - Well, see, his point is that this isn't another building speculation that's going to be another vacancy. It's his family's businesses all housed in one location. No, it doesn't put him in a position.

It's all four units are going to be.

Walter Hedlund - Yeah, I can tell. Maybe that's what his intent's on.

Interviewer - I think some people are under the misimpression that that land is public open space, and it's not really. We've got a lot of really good open space in town. Oh, yeah.

By the pond, that's been private land all along, but people have been allowed to use it. His intention is to landscape it so that it will be user-friendly.

Walter Hedlund - Well, of course, I remember in those days that the town didn't blow it when they should have bought the goddamn thing. This was all part of his plan. You don't have to tell me anything different.

He wants to be a Charlie Polly, and he never will be a Charlie Polly.

Interviewer - Well, I think he's really a little less ambitious. He's trying to create his own. Oh, yeah.

He knew what he was doing. Why do you think he didn't run for select?

Walter Hedlund - I know. I know the answer. He's a cutie.

I've known him for a long, long time. There certainly is a lot of controversy flying around. There certainly is a lot of controversy.

Oh, yeah. I don't get involved in it. At my age, I could care less.

Interviewer - But, you know, he came before every board and everything. Oh, I know he did. And boards he didn't have to, just to get everybody up to speed.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, yeah. But, see, the thing that Roger Curry, he was going to build a building. He told me right off, he said, Walter, the town's not ready for another building.

That's quite out of land. It's sitting empty down there. Well, that was before the demolition of the late bar law.

Interviewer - Oh, really? We weren't allowed to do that. Oh, did I?

He tore down those two houses. I know he did. There were some bad things going on during that time.

That, I knew that. I knew that.

Walter Hedlund - Those houses shouldn't have been taken down. But he told me right off, he says, I'm not going to build on there, not this time. He says, I could never build.

I could never build. See, what killed him, when they developed Fletcher Street?

Interviewer - The Emerson Plaza there? Well, both left and right. Village Square.

Both left and right. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Walter Hedlund - He saw that. That's what he said.

Interviewer - Well, Charlie did Meeting House, didn't he? The Meeting House building.

Walter Hedlund - Yeah, Charlie did Meeting House. Oh, yeah. So that did him.

And Roger saw that, and he says, no, I ain't going to put the money into the building. I ain't going to put the money into the building.

Interviewer - I grew up with Roger, so I'd know Roger if he is. Yeah, Larry Fadjo was kind of taken over. He's my dentist.

Walter Hedlund - Well, Roger puts it down at the Cape, and he goes to Florida. I haven't seen Roger good. I bet it's been insane.

But he brought up with me in the Highlands. He was a poor boy just like me, and he did very well. He became a war hero, and he did well.

Same with myself. I got a college education I probably never would have. Neither would he.

He told me right off. On the GI Bill. That's right.

He says, Walter, I'm like you, Walter. You know, you'd never own a funeral home. You'd be nice and all.

I probably never would have. I probably never would have. I got a college education thanks to the federal government.

Same way with Roger. He went to dental school. And then he married into some money who his wife, his father, was one of the top Plymouth Chrysler dealership in the city alone.

Top man. Big time. Dan O'Day.

She was an O'Day girl. I grew up with her. My wife went to school with her.

What was the name of the dealership they had? O'Day. Daniel O'Day Motors.

Got a Plymouth and Chrysler right down by the city library. Big time. They were big operators.

Nice family. I knew the family all over. I grew up with all these kids, you know, when I look back.

What were some of the others that you remember? Oh, good. I go way back with big families.

Many guys. We were all struggling. Every one of us was struggling when I look back.

We all did very well. At least we made a living. We made a decent and honest living.

And I still often think I used to go up to Highland Park back in the city during the Depression, you know, and play baseball. We didn't have any gloves. We were lucky we had a bat, for Christ's sake.

You know, go out there and play in center field. When I come in, I drop my gloves so the other guy can use it. You know, that's the way we played.

We all shared each and everything. And kids, they'd come up with a brand-new bat. Gee, he was a hero.

We'd bring him right in. You know, he had a bat. We were lucky.

And then we used to, when I stop and think, some of the things that we used to, we were an ingenious group of people. We always come up with some ideas or do something. And we didn't know what today the kids, they don't know what to have.

They've got to have this today, that. Think about it.

Interviewer - Well, back to the parades for a second. There were some big ones. Oh, yeah, we've had some good parades.

The 76 was a big one. I remember that one. It was extra long.

Walter Hedlund - Well, see, what happened, the Colonial Minutemen, they ran it, I don't know how many years, but they come up to us one year, and they said, this is our last year. Charlie Marderosian and I got to thinking, Charlie, who are we going to get to run the parade? We can't do it.

The town won't appropriate the money. But anyway, for one year, I think it was one or two years, they gave us a few hundred dollars for us to run the parade. And finally, I said to Charlie, we can't keep doing this.

So anyway, to make a long story short, the Elks were just starting to get involved. And they were looking for a project. And we approached them.

We sat down with them, because we spent at least four or five sessions with them, explaining to them what they'd have to do and all this and that, how they'd have to raise money. And if they were doing bingo at that time, they would make a big money. So they felt that they were getting involved.

So anyway, they took it over. I don't know how many years they had it. And the only thing that killed them was when they had the fire, and they wanted to build them.

And... Yeah, they used to rent the hall. I remember going to many functions.

Oh, well, I had some good times. I've been... I was a charter member with them up there.

We had some great times up that old building. The new building's nice. I've been in there three or four times.

They did a nice job putting a nice little building up. Not as large as what the hall used to be, but it's very adequate. I think that they seem to be starting back again.

And... But they ran the parade. Oh, God, I don't know how many years.

Of course, then the fire come. And then the celebration was coming up for the 350th. And...

The outs said that they would run the parade. But Bernie Lynch had different ideas. And that's when they backed out.

Bernie wouldn't let them do it because he had a new committee he wanted to run, the parade. Oh, that's when that started, and they did the celebration. And I said to Bernie, I said, What the hell are you going to do after the celebration?

He said, Oh, there'll be another organization. I'm going to tell you, Bernie, there's nobody going to take that over again. That's a big project.

And lo and behold, that's what happened. It fell apart. So then a few members decided to put the thing together, and they did it for two years.

And finally, the business association approached me, and they said, Martha, I'd like to do a parade. Good. Sat down with them, gave them all what had to be done, how you should go about it.

The big thing, as I said, is you've got to have manpower. You've got to have... The only way to run a parade, you've got to have a lot of manpower.

That's why you've got to have an organization that's got a lot of people. You need people up at the school to start. You need people down here to expand.

People don't realize this. There just isn't one person that can run a parade. You've got to have somebody take care of the booth, somebody take care of the band, somebody take care of the band, and your military group.

There's different zones that you've got to... Look around for them. There's another one.

You've got to get somebody to look after the firetruck. You've got to figure out where you're going to line them all up. They didn't know anything about it.

And I said, well, I'll guide you along. At least I know about the thing, because I'm not up there when they start a parade, because I've never had a shot in the spray when I'm going up there. But anyway, we worked it out.

The committee had two guys, and we put them right up there and explained to them how to do it, how to put this together. So they did a good job. The first year they did all right.

The second year, this year, they're in good shape. They're in real good shape. But there again, and I'm a little leery on it.

It's coming too commercial. I don't like that. I don't like it.

That's my personal opinion. Banks are putting up money to buy a band.

Interviewer - I know my wife's bank, Enterprise Bank, has had Float in there in the last couple of years.

Walter Hedlund - Well, Float, that's a different story. But when you give $3,000 or $4,000 to buy a band, they're marching a parade. That's business.

I don't buy that. That's commercial. It's getting commercial.

I can see it all the way.

Interviewer - Marching bands. They're all commercial. Minnesota has been coming in for the longest.

That's right.

Walter Hedlund - They got, I think, Well, there's four banks right now that already put up $2,000 to buy a band. Now that's commercial.

Interviewer - I don't buy that. Does that mean they get to fly their advertising banner?

Walter Hedlund - That's right.

Interviewer - That's right.

Walter Hedlund - See, that to me is commercial. And I, it is not. I could see them getting a band, raising funds to pay for the band.

Not have an organization pay for the band. Because what happens? Commercial, Enterprise Bank, they're going to have a sign out in front of their band.

Well, we supported this band. That, to me, is commercial. How about the booths?

Do you think they've stayed reasonably? Very, very few. Still insist that they be a volunteer or once in a while an organization might hire somebody commercial.

But the organization is running. Not the person they hire.

Interviewer - Yeah, you got the fried dough guy and a couple of sausage guys Well, the organizations hire them, but they get a percentage.

Walter Hedlund - In other words, there's still a non-profit organization. That's what we want. Non-profit.

So everybody's sponsored by a non-profit. Well, we'd like to have, I would say, God, it won't be a hundred percent. But it's, we're getting a lot of high school different clubs getting involved.

That's another good thing. We love that. Young people should get involved.

But, you know, and Bob's pretty stringent on that. He definitely does not want a commercial. Which Bob is this?

Bob Kelly, who's a, he's the chairman on the This is from the CBA? With the Lions Club. Lions Club.

So he's on the booths. Huh? He's managing the booth operations.

Yeah, that's his baby. He's been doing that now, God, almost eight years, eight or ten years. And a good man.

He does a whole, people don't realize the amount of work that's put into that. Who else in the Lions is working with him? Well, he's got his regular committee.

But it's the Lions Club, you know. And then he, I just coordinate, I give him the equipment. You know, we set up a time schedule when we can pick up all the electrical equipment, which is in a trailer up behind Engine 3 that I purchased.

And we keep all the equipment up there. Because we had nowhere else to keep it. You know?

And I got all my bunking and toilet signs and all the other jobs scattered all over the town. I got some in the old town hall. The Lions, the businessmen, two years ago, business association, said to me, Walter, we got some money we want to build and we want to buy a new rebuilding stand.

Okay, go ahead, buy it. So they bought a new rebuilding stand. They store that somewhere, right?

Oh, the highway takes care of that. They erect it, take it down, and they store it. One of their...

I had to put that together. Richardson Road? Yeah, yeah.

That's all the highway. They store it up there. And they erect it, take it down, and everything else.

So I got some equipment there, some down in the old town hall, some up on the trail, scattered all over the place. But it's been very successful years, I will say that.

Interviewer -

Who on the CBA are you working with the last couple of years? The... On the parade itself, the Chelmsford Business Association?

Who were your contacts on that? Lynn Marsala.

Walter Hedlund - Lynn Marsala? Mm-hmm. She...

I think she's president. And Jerry... Jeff Hardy.

Okay. They're my two main people. I just talk with them.

I don't talk with the association. They're my two people. You know.

People don't realize they got to get a parade permit, have to have a permit to go over the bridge with 495 from the state. Really? Oh, yeah.

They almost stopped my parade one year. I didn't know this. Give me a tough time on it.

I'll tell you. I had to get a permit. I got to get a letter from the town manager, the fire department, and myself with a permit.

Interviewer - Why is that? Federal highway bridge? State highway.

It's a state highway?

Walter Hedlund - That's right.

Interviewer - Is it because it goes over federal?

Walter Hedlund - It goes over 495.

Interviewer - Okay.

Walter Hedlund - I had to have a permit to go over the 495. Unbelievable. A lot of paperwork to get that done.

Interviewer - More paperwork than money, huh?

Walter Hedlund - It's just... They hit me one year with it. I said, come on.

I said, I've been doing this for 29 years. Now you guys want a permit? He said, you should have had a permit years ago.

I said, well, nobody told me. How would you know? No reason.

Even the chief of police, Tom McCown, was the chief at the time. He said, I don't believe them donkeys. I said, well, they told me they'd bring the state police in and stop the parade.

Then I said, well, wait a minute now. You guys, give me a permit. But I said, I've got to knock off one ramp coming up.

Oh, we've got a police officer. I said, well, wait a minute. Wait a minute now.

Wait. You mean to tell me I've got to pay for a state trooper to get down there and shut that ramp off? I said, hey, wait a minute.

We're a non-profit organization in the state. We're struggling. We're doing this.

We're doing that. Well, how do you shut the road off? I said, I'd take an auxiliary police officer with a cruiser and I'd put him down there.

The union won't go for that. A different union?

Interviewer - What's the rule there? The union, the state police union. Oh, is it different than the local police?

Oh, sure. That's a state highway. So that's state police.

So is it because they're state employees? Oh, you fight unions all the time.

Walter Hedlund - I've got the same goddamn thing going on right now with the emergency going on. I've got four unions I've got to fight with. The highway union, I had these guys in all day Sunday double time.

I brought the highway, these sewer guys in only time and a half. They're not double time. Another one is double time.

Police department is double time. Fire department is double time. I said, hey, will you a minute?

For Christ's sake. And I said, here I am like a goddamn fool running around doing all this and I get nothing. That's why they have respect for me.

You know? And I don't. I've been doing this too long and I'm not about to get involved.

Interviewer - Well, let's go back to the civil defense story and how you got into the... Oh boy, how I got involved with civilian.

Walter Hedlund - I, at one time, I don't know, back in 19, I don't know, 70, 71, 72, I don't know when it went. Under Chapter 639 of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, every 351 communities in the Commonwealth must have a civil defense director. That is a state law.

But it does not state there's no funding for it. There's no whatever. There must be an appointed civil defense person.

And that's the way the law reads. Crazy. You know, nothing more than this and that.

But anyway, I was a call firefighter. I was on the firefighter. And there was a three-man committee.

Bill Edge, Charlie... Why am I up here? What was his name?

Jaroulis. Jaroulis. And Burt Needham.

They were three men that were civil defense committee in the town. So, Burt Needham died. And I served his family.

I had served his family for years. So, during the visitation, Bill Edge, who was on the committee, he grabbed me at the funeral home and he says, Hey, Walter, we're looking to put somebody on. You want to do it?

He says, They would like to have you come on the committee, Charlie. I said, Let me think about it. He said, Make a long story short.

I said, Yeah, okay. So, we used to meet once every week. It was more of a social thing than anything.

We'd meet once a week and make a couple of plans and all that. And that's how I got involved in civil defense at that time. And then as it progressed over the period of time, it became what they call today as an emergency management.

I don't know when the year was that this started. And there again, now this is all changing because we're also known as Homeland Security. Was that a state law change that changed it to emergency management?

Interviewer - Yeah, they did that in the state. That was the state.

Walter Hedlund - So, now the federal is the one that's changing.

Interviewer - So, that only formed MEMA, Massachusetts Emergency Management?

Walter Hedlund - Yeah, that was moved up. It used to be Massachusetts Civil Defense. And then they changed it over to Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

And that's when we changed ours over to the Trump Emergency Management Agency. SEMA, you know. And now the federal government is coming in, and emergency managers are taking a back seat.

Now Homeland Security is in charge of everything, although emergency management is under Homeland Security. It's another agency under Homeland Security. So, you report to Homeland Security now?

That's right. We have two directors in the state of Massachusetts, the Homeland Security Director and the Emergency Management Director. So, we're in between.

And I think a lot of it has to do with the way the emergency management handles the situation in New Orleans. That's where they throw it all out. That's why Homeland Security...

Number one, all the money is coming out of Homeland Security, not emergency management. So, I'm in the middle between the two. I'm director of Homeland Security and emergency management.

Impressive title. Big deal. Big deal, yeah.

I put a lot of money in my apartment, you know. About one cent, huh? So, anyway, that's the way things have changed.

And I've just gone along with the scoop of it. And then, I don't know, Bernie Lynch said to me one day, we had an emergency, I kind of think, when it was. And he said, you know, Walter, we were rectal fitting the old, which is now the town offices, which was a high school at one time on Borica Road.

And I was the first one to set an office up in that building. And the reason why they even wanted me in there was to oversee the building for security and whatever while they were constructing it. So, I had one of the first rooms downstairs on the left.

And then, all of a sudden, if you recall, they got talking about atomic bombs and energy. And I had to set up a bomb-proof area in that building. I had to bring the federal in to give me the bomb blast effect.

And those walls were so thick, I got a high rating on that building. As it was built? Yeah, well, the old high school was built in 1922.

17, I thought. I think the high school was built in 22. Or was it 17?

I don't remember the date it was built. It was in the 1900s. I think it was 17.

Is that right? That's one of his first. I'm not sure.

But the walls are so thick, they gave me a great bomb blast area.

Interviewer - They gave you a good rating. Without having to put in extra layers?

Walter Hedlund - Oh, yeah. They said, no, you're all set. We didn't have to have anything.

But they went along, and then they started to fill the offices. They started to shut down the old town hall. Originally, we were in the old town hall.

Upstairs, next to the stage, we had a little office up there, and we had a little radio area. My ham radio operator had antennas on the boat. And that's when we moved.

That's when Bernie said, I want you guys over here first. So we were the first ones to be moved over there.

Interviewer - It made good sense to have somebody in the building. Well, this is what he wanted.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, it was dirty, dusty. Oh, jeez, I used to go in there, and there was goddamn dust and dirt. Well, they were still working on that.

You know? Jesus, when I looked at it, that building was so empty. Now, for Christ's sake, we're running out of room in the damn place.

And I moved around. Well, listen, this last two months, this is my fourth move. I'm down back where I originally was in the start of the thing.

Which, boy, you were in there. That's where originally I was, first of all. That whole area was mine.

That whole room. And I started Thursday classes. I brought in and did different things.

People were very interested, especially when the atomic bomb was coming up. They wanted to know about shelters and building underground shelters in their backyards. This was a big thing for them.

I don't know whether you can recall it or not. I do. That was eerie, you know?

People were really uptight.

Interviewer - People were buying fiberglass... Oh, God. ...and paste shelters for their yards.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, God, tell me. And we had a few of them built then, believe it or not. We had a few of them built.

But that... So I used to have classes in there, you know, a couple times a month. And people would come in.

They wanted to know information about it. And, of course, that all faded away, you know. And I think a lot, Fred, has to do with a new generation coming in.

They don't believe that these things are going to happen. They don't believe a hurricane's coming. They don't believe a tornado's coming.

They don't believe we have floods. Think about this. They don't believe these things are going to happen.

But look at them. They've been happening.

Interviewer - Yeah, it's hard to believe that the power would go out...

Walter Hedlund - That's right. ...in today's world...

Interviewer - Nobody's talking about that. ...but when you see the size of the tree, the Fallon-Westford tree... That's right.

...there's no wire on Earth that's going to protect it from that.

Walter Hedlund - You know, I try to recommend... See that stove up there?

Interviewer - Yep.

Walter Hedlund - For three days, that was my heat, the oven. The oven. Gas.

Yeah, so it's good to have gas... I have recommended that to everybody. Everybody said, What do you think?

I said, Don't have one thing. Have both. Have electric and gas.

Because gas can be piped in if you've got a gas line or not.

Interviewer - We used to have a wood stove, but we get tired of the smoke.

Walter Hedlund - Wood stoves are dangerous.

Interviewer - So what we're looking at now is a gas insert with manual start capability. They all come with remote controls so you can adjust the diameter.

Walter Hedlund - That's right. Now, it's going to three days. The Western Street ovens were all powered for three days.

I had my... I had that room and this room. I had a curtain.

I still got it. I closed that off. I had a 50-51 here all the time I was in.

But I was in and out. Don't forget, I wasn't sitting here every day. I was on the road or running here and there, but when I'd come in, I'd open the oven, turn it up to 350, and it kept me nice and warm.

Yeah, a little dangerous because the gas is venting in the house. Well, I didn't keep it on all the time. I'd run a little bit and then shut it down, you know?

Interviewer - The nice thing about the new gas inserts is they bring in and exhaust to the outside air.

Walter Hedlund - Yeah, well, they've got new things that come out all the time. But I've always recommended every... And I learned that back in 1955.

I was living on Hilda Street. I had a gas stove. I had a gas refrigerator.

Oh, not many people have those nowadays. You bet your life. That's why I planned, when I moved out here, I said, that's it.

So that was an option? That's all I could get. A servo gas refrigerator.

It was the greatest thing in the world. All the neighbors brought all their stuff over. Milk.

Don't forget, we went 10 days, 2 weeks without power. People don't realize. We lived that.

Interviewer - That was a big hurricane in 55.

Walter Hedlund - That's right. That was in Carolina. That's right.

That's right. And I had the gas refrigerator and the gas stove and the gas hot water here. Same over here.

I got a gas hot water here and I got a gas stove.

Interviewer - Yeah, we got the gas stove, we got the gas water heater. Now we just have to get the gas fireplace inserted.

Walter Hedlund - Well, I've been thinking about it, but I hardly use it. I've been, over my years, when I was a coal firefighter, I went to too many fireplace fires. I'm through with petitions.

I'm leery of this. Not only that, but I hate, like Hilda, you've got to sit in front of the damn thing to really have the good heat. You know what I mean?

Well, if you have the stove and the stove. Well, of course, again, my son lives up on Hollis.

Interviewer - You've got plenty of heat there.

Walter Hedlund - And, of course, up there, they have power outage once a month, for crying sake. He's got a generator he has to take and start it up and run. But he just put a gas log in his fireplace.

Geez, that works out pretty good. He's got a good gas. But it's bottled gas, because they don't have gas up there.

So he went with the bottled gas. But when he moved out there, he says, Gee, Dad, I wish I had some gas like you did. He says, you know, I've got electricity.

But he did go and get a generator. So he takes enough for runs his boiler, runs his refrigerator, two or three lights, you know, just enough to maintain a livelihood so that he can live with, you know. And he's out in the woods.

He's really up in the country. And they have a lot of power outages all the time. It's the same way when he called me.

He says, Dad, if that power still keeps out, I'll bring the generator in and we'll run the water down out of your pump. I should buy one. I got access to them.

But I'm a funny guy. I'm not going to.

Interviewer - They sell battery-backed up pumps, too. So that's another option rather than a generator. Yeah.

Walter Hedlund - I said that.

Interviewer - I've lived with it all these years. I'm not going to get involved. Well, I got my garage door open as replaced.

I got the battery back up. Oh, did you? Yeah, so when power was out a couple of weeks ago, I was going in and out, no problem.

Walter Hedlund - You can't imagine when I had that ice storm and all that stuff two years ago, people couldn't get their cars out of their garage. They didn't know what to do. I was like, God, they're smart as a son of a gun, but they don't have any common sense.

Yeah, you got to pull the latch and lock the door.

Interviewer - Oh, geez.

Walter Hedlund - I had two or three calls. I said, how am I going to? I said, look, there's a switcher.

There's a cord in there. You can open the doors. Oh, there is?

I said, yeah. Well, they never thought about it. This young generation, they were getting goddang computers.

They know how to run them things, but they don't know how to run a house. Think about it. Think about it.

But that's how I got involved with emergency management and civil defense, you know, and it built up. And I just enjoyed it. It became part of my life.

And I have had some great people working with me on my committee. Right now I've been very, very active with my international association, American Emergency Management. In fact, I've got a convention out in Sturbridge next month.

And when I get involved with something, I feel study it and try to bring your mind up to run. Things are changing so fast that everything today is grants, you know. You've got to know how to write a grant, how to put money together.

And that's the only reason we can operate, is you've got to have money. And believe me, Fred, money is drying up very rapidly. Think about it.

Very rapidly. They might make it, but they can run money off of it. Who's going to suffer when it's all over?

Think about it. So that's why I'm very happy that I hung on to these things and I did these things. Because when I retired, I just made up my mind that I wanted to have something to do.

I'm not one to hang around and watch TV. I just didn't want to. I made up my mind that I saw too much in my 60-odd years in the funeral service where men retired and all they did was sit home and watch a ball game or didn't do much, didn't do any exercise, nothing.

They were probably dead before they were 60, 65.

Interviewer - Yeah, you know, back when I started working, it seemed like 18 months was the average age after a person retired. That's right.

Walter Hedlund - At least if they didn't do anything or didn't have any motivations. That's right. It's the same way when my wife passed away.

She's been dead going on over eight years now. And my grandchildren and my son sat them down here after we had funeral service and everything. And they said, Papa, what are you going to do?

I said, kids, I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to stay right here. I love my yard.

I love working out in the yard. And I have plenty of things to keep me active. And I said, I'm very fortunate I only got two bedrooms.

You can see the size of the house. It's a nice little place. Compact.

And it's compact. And I have enough of what I want. And I'm very happy and pleased with what I can do.

And I just said, I can cook. I can make beds. I can iron.

You name it. If I don't know how to do it, I'll find out. So that's why I just stay right here.

And thank God I got this emergency manager and stuff to keep me active. Do you go down to the office every day? I go on many occasions, depending on what I got to do, Fred.

I might drop in every day or I might wait a couple of days. All of them. Certainly if there's a big storm kicking up.

I keep ahead of it. It's the same way we're in a state of emergency now. And so when I go into a state of emergency, I just call the manager.

He's the one that has to make that determination. But he takes my advice, and I say, well, look, we should go into a state of emergency. And the reason why we go into a state of emergency, Fred, is if there is funding available, we can grasp it.

If you're not in a state of emergency, they're going to say, well, why do you need the money? You know what I mean? Well, the state did go into a state of emergency.

The governor declared that at 2.30. And I went in at noontime before I talked to the manager. He said, yeah, I'll go. So then we just bring all the department heads in.

And I have a great rapport with every one of them. I mean, it makes it so much easier for me. So who do you have for departments?

Well, you have a fire department, a police department, DPW director, the public health director, the town manager. And depending on what the situation is, I can bring in the maintenance people. I can bring in the sewer departments and different departments, school departments, bring them in and just give them what our situation is.

What is your situation? What do you need? How can we work it out?

In other words, I just coordinate, Fred, what they need.

Interviewer - So if the street drains are clogged and you need the drains unclogged?

Walter Hedlund - Well, you know, like the highway department, you know, DPW director said, gee, boss, I need some sandbags. I said, okay, I'll get them for you. How many do you want?

Maybe a couple hundred. Well, the last big call we had, I called the region headquarters, and I said, hey, I'm looking for some sandbags. About five minutes later, he called me back.

He says, you can send a truck down to Beverly? I said, yeah, where abouts in Beverly? Well, I know where the depot is down there.

Sure. I sent the highway guy down in a truck. Two guys, I said, it's pouring rain, and, you know, I said, I don't want a guy on the road by himself.

He comes back with over 500 bags.

Interviewer - Wow. So you've got a network of soldiers.

Walter Hedlund - Well, this is what the idea of emergency management is. You know, you report to the headquarters, and then they have access to all this equipment, depending on what I need. I can remember when we had the blizzard.

78? Yeah. And I...

The city shut down for what, three, four days, four days? Oh, we were shut down four days. The governor shut down all roads.

And that was a great experience for me. I learned a lot from that. South Johnson was a complete disaster.

We couldn't even get a road over down to South Johnson. So I called the regional, and I said, Look, I need some big bucket loaders. All right, how many do you want?

I said, Give me whatever you can. Well, I make a long story short, I had a call from Manchester, New Hampshire, contractor, one from Melrose, I'm wrong, and I can't remember. And the other one came out of Gary, New Hampshire.

Now, I had to run these guys 24 hours around the clock. They had no break. The governor says, the regional says to me, They're here, you've got to run them.

So the state's paying for them? Oh, the state was paying for them. But they had to run them 24 hours.

In other words, you didn't work quick.

Interviewer - Just one driver doing the whole thing? Well, that's up to the contractor.

Walter Hedlund - When he come in, he was told, Hey, look, that vehicle, you're running 24 hours. Safety is probably better to rotate the drivers. Well, I guess, I don't know how, I put a foreman on each one from the highways, and they stayed with them.

And that's how we cleared out South Johnson. We could not get down in there. At least for three days, Fred, it was a disaster down there.

The only thing that saved me, I had a bunch of young guys, but Ray McKean was the police chief. He called me up and he says, Hey, Walter, my kids got an e-mobile. Could you use them?

I said, yeah. And I said, You got a bunch of friends that I could use? I could use about a half a dozen.

Let me find them. So his kids called me. They just lived down the street.

He said, Mr. Hanlon, I said, you looking for some e-mobiles? He says, would you kids be willing to volunteer? I got a lot of work for you guys.

Would you be willing to hang in there for a couple days with me? Yeah, all right. They were great kids. They were like 18, 19. So down in South Johnson, sent one down there, put a hose on there, and a hydrant wrench and some hose. I couldn't move the apparatus to a pipe, but I could run a ski mobile.

As long as he had a hose, he could hook to a hydrant and tie it in, and at least he'd get water on the damn pipe. Took the ladder truck off the road. We knew we couldn't make turns with it, leave it in the barn. We don't need it. Unless we had a straw structure in the center of town, we could get to it.

Interviewer - So what'd you do? Dig out the hydrants?

Walter Hedlund - Oh, as best they could. I had these kids. They were great.

So then I started getting calls in the office. People were running out of milk. They were running out of bread.

And they can't get out of the house? Can't get out of the house, and the roads aren't open. I had one woman call me.

She was desperate. I could hear the baby crying in the background. She said, I'm running out of milk.

What can you do? I said, let me figure something out for you. So I finally said, it's just a kid.

I said, would you guys start delivering groceries for me? Oh, yeah. What else do you want us to have?

I said, look, I went down to Purity, and I said to the guy down at Purity, I said, will you do me a favor? I says, if I have people give you an order, now just, not just a bunch of junk, but milk, bread, enough survival provision, will you put those in a box for me, put a slip in there with a cart, and I'll have these kids pick them up and deliver them? Oh, sure, whatever you, back in those days, things were different in the mine, but they went along with you, you know?

I said, jeez, you guys are great. So I called this one woman up, and I said, look, get a hold of your neighbors. Find out what they want.

Like, milk for the kids, or bread, enough to carry on for three or four days, before you can get out. Oh, I'd be more than happy. She'd come back with a list.

This went on for two days, right? And those kids delivered all that stuff. And you know, they wouldn't even take a tip when the people gave them the money.

They were honest kids. I'll never forget those days. They were happy doing something for people?

And I was so proud of them, right? They got the money from the people, and they went right down to the store and gave it to the store guy. That went on for two days, right?

That was one of my greatest feats that I can ever think about. That was great. I'll tell you, I just...

Steamrollers were a great asset at that time. Of course, back in those days, the roads were closed anyway. Then you get the other side of the story.

Guy called me up. He said, hey, Mr. Evans, I want to get my car out. I said, wait a minute.

My road's plowed. Why can't I go out? I said, the governor says you can't go out.

Well, he shouted on me. I said, hey, wait a minute. I know you're a taxpayer, but I'm a volunteer too.

I said, I'll tell you what I'll do for you. I said, I'll give you permission to take your car out of the garage if you want to come up here to the old town hall and answer some telephones for me. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

See? Wanted to get that car out. Hey?

Oh, I could write a book about all that. Think about it. But you learn how to take that and let it roll off your throat.

And then if somebody down on out, you bend over backwards and they're so thankful. And I'm pleased that they're thankful. It's the only satisfaction I get out of that friend.

At least people are nice enough to say thank you. It only takes two words, thank you. Think about it.

This has always been my philosophy. Think about it. And it's the same way I'm very active in the funeral service.

President, national president, traveled all over the country. I learned a lot. People are...

You know who to look forward to or who not to look forward to. There's a lot of fakers out there, Fred. Big time.

Big time. More so now than when I'm in my day. Believe me.

And I think the policy more than anything, Fred, is now that I'm going to too many funerals with friends of mine. Never mind about it. Think about it.

Interviewer - Yeah, I've even got to the point where I start checking the obituary pages once in a while. I don't see my name on the paper, so I guess I'm...

Walter Hedlund - But that bothers me and too many friends of mine are coming up with Alzheimer's disease. I don't want that. I don't want that.

I have one more friend up at the nursing home here now. I try to visit him once a week or a couple of times a month maybe. He doesn't know me, but I just feel, hey, he's a person that I grew up with.

Interviewer - It looks like you're not in danger of... I hope not, Fred.

Walter Hedlund - I don't want that. You're keeping your mind pretty active. That's why I keep myself going.

I've got myself all booked up all the time, Fred. I wake up in the morning, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. You've got parades planned and...

I plan ahead. I just don't want to do it. Get ready for the next disaster.

Now all... My last usher in my wedding party, all the men in my wedding party were all deceased. And if Edna was alive, I'd been married 53 years this month.

And the last guy, he spent almost two years up here at the Palm Manor Alzheimer's. Didn't know a soul. Even though he didn't know his wife, didn't know his children, and I just made it a point to go up and see him at least once a week.

Interviewer - My mother-in-law went through that for three years. Is that right? Yeah, at the DeYouville Manor.

At DeYouville? Yeah. My poor wife visited her faithfully, but it was heartbreaking.

Oh, yeah.

Walter Hedlund - I used to go in and I almost cried. Now I just got a call. One of my colleagues, he and I were in the penal service for years and years.

He retired, oh, maybe 22, 20 years. About two, three years before I retired. He opened a penal home in Tewksbury.

His sons had taken it over. And he went to Florida to live. They used to call me every once in a while.

I hadn't heard from them for quite a while. I didn't think anything of it. I got a call last week.

He just lost his leg. Diabetes. Oh, yes.

He's moved up. His son and daughters built an apartment over the garage where they keep their funeral vehicles. And his wife, she has attempted suicide about three or four times.

And it's a pathetic thing. He called me and I said, Walter, I'd like to talk to you. I said, Walter, I'm going to get out to see you.

I got hit with this damn flood and I'd rather have been out there to see him. But he and I and another guy who's now deceased, we worked together for so good, 50-odd years. We used to go out and eat once a month in every restaurant we'd go into.

We used to say to waiters, we're the three musketeers. We've got over 150 years of funeral service. He and I have embalmed at least 5,000 bodies over the years.

And I like that. I got to get out and see him. His mind is going to it.

So the third musketeer is already gone? There's two of us left. I'm two months older than he is right now.

I said, Walter, I'm not going. He had cancer. He had cancer of the rectum.

He got over that. Now he's got cancer of the stomach. And diabetes.

He's lost his, I don't know, it's the right or left leg, he told me, just above the ankle. They built an elevator so he could go up and down the apartment. So I got to get out and see him.

And I know I'm going to cry all the way home when I see this guy. Because he and I went through hell over there. And we were poor people.

We struggled. Believe us, both of us. We're so-called, if you want to call ourselves, made men.

Nobody gave us anything.

Interviewer - Do you have connections with Blake? Oh, yeah, I know them. Tell me a little bit about the local funeral homes.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, they were good. Now, Richard Burkinshaw, who now is running them, and his father started that business. That Blake's?

This is the Blake one? No, his father bought the Blake business back. Well, his father, when I first went in funeral service, I worked with his father.

Cortland Burkinshaw was his father. And I worked with him, Dora Norton, in 1939 when I started. In fact, he was basically responsible for me staying in funeral service because he taught me a lot of stuff.

And the war came on, and, of course, I was gone for four years. So when I came back, they held my job for me. Well, I had an opportunity to go to two or three other funeral homes, and I debated what to do.

But anyway, I finally went back to the old outfit, and I told him, I said, Look, I'm going to go to college. I got four years. But I said, I'm going to commute back and forth every day to Boston to take a trainer.

He said, Okay. He said, Would you do this for us? I said, What's that?

Well, he says, Would you come in at night and work nights? You know, make removals and buy bodies and do whatever. I said, Yeah, geez, I'd love that.

Days off, I mean, if I don't go to school. So I had a working agreement in the college that if they had two or three funerals, I'd stay home. I wouldn't go to school.

I'd pick it up the next day or whatever. So it was a good working arrangement for me. I mean, I was single, and, you know, I could do this.

So anyway, I was taking the train in every day or whenever I decided. Of course, I was available weekends, Saturdays and Sundays. And 80% of all the deaths in the Great Ole Area when I got involved, you know, were in bounties at home.

We didn't take them, you know. People don't know this. 80% of all the deaths were all in bounties at home.

Interviewer - Oh, yeah. I didn't know that. Like a lot of births were done at home.

That's right. Well, that's right.

Walter Hedlund - And then what changed all that? Because I didn't see it all changed because I was gone during the war. It just all changed during the war, where they started to bring him into funeral homes, you know, and a morgue, and they did him.

They started buying up the big old mansions on the corner. Yeah. And this is what changed.

But, of course, I saw that transformation when I got back out of the service in 1946, you know. And we still did a lot of them so-called homeland bombings, you know. And don't forget, we went out night and day.

In other words, if a death occurred at 3 o'clock in the morning, you were there to bomb that body at 3 o'clock in the morning. You didn't wait and say, Hey, I'll be over at 8 o'clock in the morning.

Interviewer - So you had all the tools of the trade in your car?

Walter Hedlund - In a bag. In a bag. That's right.

And a table, what they call a bombing table, a board, you know. We'd fold it up and we'd bomb the body right there at the home. And then following the bombing, we placed the remains in the bed, right on the pillow, and put the blankets over so the family could, you know, pay respect for them.

So this is like a wake? Well, it would be a wake. Then maybe the next day we'd go back with the casket, bring the person wherever in the bedroom, put it in the casket for the visitation house and the field service.

That was all that people don't realize that we used to go through. We never used to have all that chairs, flower stands to set up flowers. Then you'd always have to go back to the house at 9, 9, 10 o'clock at night to sit down and make a car list out.

People don't realize the hours we used to put in. You know, today, hey, kids, hey, if you ever just 11, 12 o'clock, I'll see you tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock. A house that they've got to go because they've got to remove it.

A hospital, a nursing home, every one of them has to have a holding room, especially nursing homes. They have to have a holding room. The remains are removed by the personnel and put in a holding room.

Interviewer - And then we would go over at 9, whatever it is in the morning, and pick up the remains. But those are changes that took place over the years. So Dolan's took over the Russell Mill business office, I guess, for their home.

Walter Hedlund - No, that was a Procter & Lumber company.

Interviewer - A Procter, I mean. Yeah, that was a Procter & Lumber company. And converted it for their funeral.

Now, were they in business in town before that?

Walter Hedlund - No, Jimmy Dolan was working for the McDonald's funeral home in Lowell. Okay. In fact, he did a lot of work.

If I got busy, because we used to bring our cow back and forth. I did a lot of work. He did a lot of work with me over the years.

And I did a lot of work with him. When he got started, I gave him equipment and everything else. You'd be surprised how many funeral homes I've helped out to start it out of coal.

So now it's the son of Jim that's in the business, right? Yeah, Jimmy's starting to retire. He's starting to retire.

So his son is also in the business. Yeah, his son is taking over. He was a schoolteacher.

Okay. And he decided that he'd like to take the funeral business over. So he switched over to the high schools.

I was always very active in the association. I was past president. I was past national president.

I was on the state board for 10 years. I used to give all the exams in funeral service. Unbinding and funeral directing.

These are two licenses. Unbinding and funeral directing. You've got to have your balance license before you get your funeral directing license.

I would really wrap up my funeral service over the years in my lifetime. I was very, very active. And it's the same way I've been active in Red Cross Salvation Army.

30-some odd years.

Interviewer - Carrying on the tradition of public service and long hours. That's why I keep my mind clean.

Walter Hedlund - I've got something going on all the time. And I give myself that. My wife used to go crazy.

You know, it's the same way. Back over the years in funeral service, to me it was always a personal thing. It was a personal thing for me to be with a family, you know.

And I made sure that I tried to do the best I possibly can for that family. Help them over those period of times and so forth. And I just dedicated myself to that, you know.

And that's why I became active in a lot of travel. And I did a lot of speeches about funeral service. And I taught, I don't know how many kids were in my parties. I loved to work with students. I loved to work with students. I used to come out to school and just explain to them, you know, how we used to do home and mines.

They didn't understand, you know. They were all affirmed. And, of course, the new laws that come in.

I'm glad I'm out of jail. Jesus, I'm glad. Too many rules, regulations.

Oh, the rules. And I'll be honest with you, Fred, I wrote a couple of those rules. Believe me, they were technical things, really.

But today, everything is set up.

Interviewer - Well, you know, I think everybody's in that state. I think my wife at the bank and myself at work. Well, you're in the bank, aren't you?

No, I'm at Raytheon. My wife's at Enterprise.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, one of yours are in- Oh, is your wife in the works for the union? Oh, she works at Enterprise?

Interviewer - Yes.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, does she?

Interviewer - Yeah.

Walter Hedlund - I knew one of them was in the bank.

Interviewer - Yeah, she was in the Chelmsford office. Now she's over in Westford.

Walter Hedlund - Oh, good. Oh, good.

Interviewer - Part-time.

Walter Hedlund - Well, what Raytheon plant were you at?

Interviewer - Andover and Tewksbury. Oh, you would? Yeah, Tewksbury and Andover.

Well, you know what? I'm going to turn this off because- I don't know what good it will do you.