WENDELL — “I’ve been blessed to have found my spot,” said Wendell resident Rick Drohen, who shared his experiences in the town over the past several decades Saturday.
That sentiment was echoed Saturday by the several other seniors who recognized their small town as a place that puts community first.
It was the first-ever presentation of the Wendell Oral History Project, a program from the Wendell Cultural Council, organized by locals Mez Ziemba and Ruth Flohr and featuring local youth who have interviewed Wendell seniors at the Wendell Senior Center.
Dozens crowded a small room at the Wendell Free Library to hear the stories of the old told by the young.
Matthew Regnier, interviewed Annie Diemand Bucci, who grew up in Wendell with her 14-person family, and has early memories of working at Diemand Farm on Mormon Hollow Road.
Diemand Bucci, Regnier said, is a role model who has been a member of the Wendell Fire Department, reaching the rank of lieutenant, and organizing Old Home Days and holiday parties for Wendell residents.
“She put a lot into the town,” Regnier said, Diemand Bucci seated to his right. “My favorite quote from her is, ‘Attitude, that is gratitude.’”
Diemand Bucci shared her experience of going to Ralph C. Mahar Regional School in Orange, where there was a “Oh, you’re from Wendell” attitude among the students. She said she learned to except her identity as a resident of the small, woodsy, quirky town.
Luke Chiou, an eighth-grade student at Mahar, interviewed Jonathan von Ranson, who moved to Wendell in 1973 “to be a homesteader,” and lives an environmentally conscious, simple lifestyle by the Wendell State Forest.
“The project really impressed me as a way to connect generations,” Jonathan von Ranson said.
Luke Chiou’s younger sister, Ava Chiou, also took part in the project, interviewing Jim Slavas and Phyllis Lawrence.
“I found out they were just like normal people,” said Ava Chiou of the seniors, laughter erupting from the room. “I’ll be 13 next week and I’ve never done a project like this.”
“I thought it was weird trying to get stories out of people even though I’ve never met them,” she added. “I feel like I brought a little bit of Wendell out of the depths.”
Hannah Dziedzic, a welding freshman at Franklin County Technical School, had similar feelings about interviewing Nancy Spittle and Boo Pearson, who moved to Wendell as a musician with the Outer Space Band, spent time as an R & B singer and once shared a stage with reggae musician Bob Marley.
Pearson said he enjoyed the interview, as it gave him a chance to reflect on what makes the Wendell community special.
“(There are) great people who were all lucky to find other great people,” Pearson said.
Pearson said hr and his fellow musicians were somewhat outcasts in town at first, but that “within a couple years’ time we were playing at Old Home Day and kind of got adopted by the town.”
“This is the kind of place where that organic creative energy is nurtured,” he said. “The power of music, it’s big. There’s something in it for everybody… The entire five college community is now trained in dancing and drumming by drummers who came here first.”
Spittle, also interviewed by Dziedzic, who helped organize the Council on Aging and was a nurse at Swift River School for six years, Dziedzic said.
Spittle was also involved with Village Neighbors, which provides services to people aged 60 and up in Wendell, New Salem, Shutesbury and Leverett so that they may age in place. She said she has no regrets about living in the small town of around 900 people.
“I love living in the same place for 40 years, getting to see what happens for decades to the land around you and the people around you,” Spittle said, adding that she grew up moving a lot as a child.
Zach Serrell, a freshman carpentry student at Franklin County Technical School, interviewed Rick Drohen and Christine Heard.
Heard, Serrell said, has lived in the town for 41 years and is a member of the Selectboard, and was a secretary at Swift River while Serrell attended the school.
Drohen, Serrell said, bought his plot of land for a few hundred dollars from a friend, purchased a cabin and transported it attached to the back of his truck — possibly illegally — to his “spot” in Wendell, a place where neighbors will always help one another.
“People are connected here more than most places,” Drohen said. “It truly takes a village to raise a village.”
Susan von Ranson, interviewed by Sally Houle, said she moved to the town in 1980 to live on the land adjacent to Bear Mountain. She has been involved at organizations like the Friends of Wendell, the Wendell Free Library and Village Neighbors, all while trying to live off as little as possible, which she calls, “both a challenge and a joy.”
Ted Lewis, also interviewed by Houle, recalled moving to Wendell in 1933, at age 3, with his 10 brothers and sisters. He grew up on West Street where his parents raised chickens and cows, and kept a vegetable garden to feed the family.
“Ted is a wealth of information about the town,” Ziemba said.
Things were simpler when he was growing up, Lewis said, and electricity didn’t come to Wendell until 1945 — and no fire station until 1954. He raised his three children in Wendell with his wife, and was, over the years, a “road boss,” assessor, police officer and Selectboard member.
Lewis remembered the neighborly spirit that would appear whenever someone’s house burned down, a spirit that still exists today.
“Everyone would just pitch in and help out,” he said. “After the work was completed, we would all gather at the grange and eat together, with meals, of course, made by everyone.”
“It’s always been ‘help your neighbors.’ We were all brought up that way and Wendell still is that way,” Lewis added. “There’s good neighbors everywhere… You don’t have to agree with them all the time!”
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.