Born in Portland, Maine, on February 9, 1931, Edwina Foster moved to Auburn as a baby. She began working in the mills in 1947 at the age of 16 after she quit school. She worked in the Continental Mill and the Bates Mill, as well as other various textile mills in...
Jerry Roussaeu was born in Auburn in 1930 to a French Canadian family. After receiving his Social Security card when he was thirteen, he began working in the brickyard to contribute to his family. He discusses what daily life was like growing up in the 1930s and 40s...
Laurette Boulay was born in Lewiston in 1920, and she and her family returned to Canada soon after. When she was just shy of 16 years old, Boulay returned to Lewiston on her own to work and live with her aunt and uncle. From when she was 18 to in her early fifties,...
When she was eleven years old, Emma Pelletier’s family left their home in St. Ludger, Canada for Lewiston. She began working in Bates Mill as a battery hand as soon as she was big enough to work, eventually becoming a room girl. Pelletier describes her roles at the...
Born about six months before Pearl Harbor in 1941, Jack Tetrault grew up in the period right at the start and after World War Two. He grew up in Auburn, recalling a lot of the things that they used to do for fun back then before car traffic picked up like riding down...
