Sunday, August 28, 1994 - New Bedford, MA

Finally reached Clarence Lovelace on the telephone! And he turned out to be very nice. I had been afraid he'd be an old grump who wouldn't talk to me at all, but he was just as nice as could be. He even remembered me! As soon as I told him my name, he remembered the
little kid who used to stay in the green houses in front of his mother's house. You could have knocked me over with a feather! He said he's a little older than I am, so he must have been a teenager when I was a little kid, but I don't remember him at all.
He told me the houses were torn down, because they were beyond repair. A lot of the wood had rotted. The lumber that was salvageable was purchased by a young couple, who used it to build a house near the airport. It's good to know that part of Aunty Margarethe's houses have been recycled. The garage wasn't torn down but was moved to the old Prentice place and is still there! If Roy and I had walked a little farther down the driveway, we'd have seen it, but I was afraid of the "No Trespassing" signs. Mr. Lovelace said it was hard to see from the road, because it's covered with vines and bushes.
When Mrs. Elphinstone bought the property, she let her son Clarence and his family move into the old Prentice place. She also gave them the furniture from Aunty Margarethe's houses, and it's still there.
They found several brand new canoes in the barn. They were still in their original packing crates. Clarence's brother took them to his place in Essex, Connecticut.
I asked if they had found any personal papers or photographs, but they hadn't. However, they found a packet of twenty or more old dollar bills--the extra large ones that were in circulation a century ago. Clarence was on his way to Philadelphia, so he wrote down the serial numbers of the bills so he could check with a numismatist as to their value. He advised his mother to put the bills in her savings deposit box. Unfortunately, she misunderstood him and simply exchanged the bills for current dollar bills at face value. The numismatist said they were worth $50 each!
Mr. Lovelace even invited me to his house. The next time we're in Nantucket, we'll accept. It will be a thrill to see the old furniture that I remember so well and the garage where I used to play.
I feel a lot better after talking with him.