Ray Berube was born in Danville and grew up in New Auburn, sharing his experiences growing up in the French community of Auburn. Around the time he was 12 or 13 he started working in the brickyard, where he would cover the bricks in sand so they wouldn’t dry out too...
John Allard started in the shoe industry at the age of 15, swapping locations here and there. He then worked at Falcon Shoe for about four times, coming back several times after either being fired or quitting. He was a shoe cutter and also a leather assessor. He...
Ralph Metayer started work at 15 for the Dennis Brickyard that was a five minute walk away from his home. He jumps right into explaining the brickmaking process, detailing the kiln process specifically. He goes into a lot of detail about the kilns such as the way they...
Richard Vallee was born in Lewiston, 1935. He worked for the Morin Brickyard for a summer at the age of 16, sharing stories about the work he did there tossing scoldings around the bricks as they heated up to keep the heat in. After that, he went into the navy,...
Lorraine Brown has been making shoes for a long time. She was born and raised in Lewiston/Auburn, getting started in shoe-making at the age of 15 when she wanted to raise money for roller skates at the Beacon. She worked at the Bleachery and Libby Mill for a time, but...
