Ray Croteau grew up in a very different Lewiston then today. Born in 1933, his parents worked through the Great Depression with his father as a post-man, the weekly check making sure they didn’t suffer. His mother worked in the Bates Mill from a young age,...
Aime Foisy shares his background in the military, having served in World War Two as an engineer and being captured as a Prisoner-of-War. Aurore was born in Canada as one of 14 children, working in the mills in Lewiston. Both share their history together, and all the...
The youngest of ten, Anthony Shostak talks about growing up here in Lewiston. He remembers going down to the library, and to the Bates Pond to go find crayfish and frogs. The alderman or the police would come by whenever they got too reckless. The summer after...
Neil Hanley was an engineer at Falcon Shoe, his father and Ted Johanson’s company. He talks about his perspective on the industry as the son of a shoe factory owner and his family’s jobs in the company. He also discusses the changes in Lewiston and how...
Leo Levesque was a weaver in the textile mills. He discusses worker discontent and community events. He also talks about his family’s work in the mills.
