A Stroll Down Memory Lane in 1940s Medfield

World War II photos and memorabilia covered the walls and tables, piano music filled the air, flags were hung from the rafters, and a panel of six long-time residents sat at the front of the room telling stories of what it was like to grow up in Medfield in the 1940s.

This was the scene at the latest in the Medfield Historical Society’s “Growing Up in Medfield” series held at the where more than 100 people gathered to listen to residents Edie O’Toole, Blanchard Warren, Charlotte Reineman, Joe Ryan, Joy Iafolla and Peter Vasaturo reflect fondly on a time when there was a population of about 2,000 in Medfield and wages averaged about $30 a week.

“I never left Medfield, that should tell you something,” said O’Toole, quickly recalling her 1940s phone number only had two digits (98). 

“What I remember about my childhood was it was a pleasant town to be in, it was a friendly area,” said Warren.  “School was nice, it was small, you knew everyone; it was a nice place to live.”

“I remember going to the Clement’s Drug Store and I’d get coffee there and take it over to my mother was the librarian,” recalled Reineman.

“We used to go to the [Medfield State] Hospital to the movies,” said Ryan, recalling playing outside all day then returning home when the street lights went on, and recalling telephones were party lines and the telephone operators knew everyone’s business.  “You’d ask, ‘Where’s Mable?’ and she’d say “Oh, she’s talking to Julie.”

“It was an easier time,” said Iafolla, with which the others agreed.

“I remember milk being delivered by horse-drawn wagon,” said Peter Vasaturo who lived on Main Street as a child.  “I remember troop movements through the town of Medfield.”

Town Historian Richard DeSorgher started the evening by describing the world’s atmosphere at the time.

DeSorgher said, “The 1940s was a decade that will live in infamy and was dominated by World War II.  It was the decade where the Greatest Generation rose to the occasion and saved the world from tyranny.  It was the decade of the Great Depression came to an end and American became the mightiest economic power the world has ever seen.  It was the decade of FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) and Harry Truman; Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Lewis and Jackie Robinson.  It witnessed the birth of the atomic bomb and the Cold War.  It saw racial segregation and Japanese internment. It produced Bing Crosby and Kate Smith, Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Duke Ellington.  It saw the Jitterbug, penicillin, the beginning of the Baby Boom and Rosie the Riveter.”

The panelists’ Medfield 1940s memories included:

• Businesses – Adolfi, Clement Drug Store, Medfield Cooperative Bank, Walter Taylor’s mink farm.
• Churches – The Lollipop Priest who gave sweets “even to Protestants.”  
• Phones – The phone company on the second floor of the Monk Building, phones were crank powered, phone numbers were two and three digits long.
• Politics – Frank McCarthy was a Medfield political influence, and a young John F. Kennedy spoke at the high school and visited Warren’s house.
• Public safety – A volunteer fire department of 18 hand-chosen firefighters, one police officer on the night shift, a 1946 Ford police car, no crime (“We all knew each other”), a 9 p.m. curfew was obeyed, and the sidewalks were plowed with a horse.
• Schools – The Hannah Adams Pfaff high school was replaced with a new high school in 1942 (now the Dale Street School), memorable teachers included Dot Brown who “used the strap” and Miss Buck a “legendary” fourth grade teacher, Goody Newall was the bus driver (there were only two buses in town), and senior graduating classes ranged from 18 to 22 students.
• Social activities -- Rocky Woods skating rink, movies at the Medfield State Hospital, Halloween pranks, Medfield Community Orchestra, minstrel shows with blackface, being home at 5 p.m. to listen to the Lone Ranger,  obeying a 9 p.m. curfew.
• Transportation – Two bus lines, a taxi service, passenger train to Dover and Needham.

World War II defined the 1940s.

“I was seven years old when it started, and 12 when it ended,” said Reineman.  “The ads were pretty awful, scary ads.”

“We took a hit, a Japanese Betty got us with a torpedo,” recalled Ryan who left high school in 1943 to join the Service.  He detailed his wartime experience, noting he was rescued in the Battle of Famosa.

Wartime memories included ration books and saving tin foil and string for the WWII effort, air raid wardens, the blackout drill every night at the sound of the fire whistle, buying war bonds for $17.50, buying war stamps at the high school on Fridays, military mail being monitored, and all war information shared with the public (by radio) was censored.

They clearly remembered where they were that Sunday in 1941 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced over the radio that Pearl Harbor had been attacked, they remembered the party at the end of the war, and the day FDR died.

War-time memorabilia displayed at the event included items belonging to the families of Vincent Bravo, Reginald Carr, Albert Clark, Clint Clark, Roland Clark, Mr. Iafolla, Allen Kingsbury, Robert McCarthy, John Mezzanotte, Cecil Mick, Charles Mills, Mr. Park, Lawrence Rossi, Robert Sproul, Robert Toubeau, and Richard Werner. 

The next lecture in the Historical Society’s series will be held on April 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the First Parish Church will be entitled “Digging Deeper: Unearthing the Mysteries of Medfield’s 360-year old Vine Lake Cemetery.” 

For more information about the Medfield Historical Society or the lecture series, visit 6 Pleasant St. on the first and third Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon (other times by appointment), call (508) 359-4773 or contact medfieldhistoricalsociety@gmail.com.