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The Cattail Forum / History and Personal Memories (closed) / The "Corn King"

Lori A. Ellis
User ID: 0603144 Aug 3rd 8:40 PM
I remember when I was little ,(did I say "little"? I probably played this game till I was 14yrs old because it was soooooo much fun!!!!), and would visit Grammy and Grampy, (Linnie and Laurence Parker),in the summers. Grampy would always play "hide and seek", with my younger sister, Lisa and I. Lisa and I would go out into my Uncle Harold Parkers sodder corn field and hide, then after a few minutes, Grammpy had to come and find us and tag us befor we got to the fence and touched grammys bird house poll.
One year I even remember Uncle Harold got put in the Waterville news or Bangor news as being voted the "Corn King" of Maine (or at least the county?) as his corn was growing over 12 feet in height!! That was truly the BEST corn field to hide in!!!!

Brian Knowles
User ID: 9593383 Aug 6th 2:12 PM
I don't remember the "Corn King", but I do remember Harold Parker. Harold was one of my first employers. I worked several summers for him before I was old enough to work in the mill. I respected him for the things he taught me. Not just the hands on, but how he dealt with me and other people and the way he managed his business. Because of this style, I had a full time job for several weeks in the summer when most summer farming jobs were 4 or 5 hours a day a few days a week for a couple weeks. Harold owned quite a lot of acreage(no corn then); he leased even more and because of his techniques there was time to harvest hay for other farms. One of his innovations was to attach a sledge or drag behind the baler, this allowed all the bales to be left in one area, to be loaded and then taken to the barn. My job was to ride on the drag, stack 50 to 55 bales on it and then unload, using a crow bar, in one area without having the tractor stop. When I first started on the drag I doubted it would ever work. Loads tipped over, an occassional stray rock automatically unloaded it in the wrong place and the crow bar unloaded me instead of the hay. After several tries the system was perfected. As you may guess, this was not an easy job, nor very pleasant. For doing this job I was paid an extra 25 cents per hour(a lot of money back then)plus I did the racking in the morning. My days started at 5 a.m. delivering papers, 9 a.m. raking, 1 p.m. baling, 6 to 8 p.m. putting the hay in the barn and then off to the swing front to get rid of the first few layers of hay chafe. There were also side benefits; driving tractors and trucks and driving Harold's herdman's car around the newly mowed fields before going to the swimfront and home in the car. I don't remember the herdman's name, but I remember the car; a late 50's DeSoto hardtop with a big V-8, an automatic transmission and the "Fins" of the era. You couldn't be much cooler than riding around in a hardtop, wearing a white tee shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve. There were a few guys who were professionals at this, remeber who they are? I never understood why they didn't take turns driving so they could get a tan on both of their arms. Another benefit, I got 2 meals a day; Mrs. Parker was a great cook and a wonderful person. Harold and several other people I worked for growing up had a big influence on my own professional career. To name a few others, Jessie Davis, a neighbor and someone who always steered me to various jobs in the mill; haying and cleaning looms for Bernard Davis; haying for Hubert Hatfield; loading cloth for Ed Bulger(sorry if I missed the spelling), and of course my Father, especially peeling hemlock for him for my room and board. After a couple of summers of peeling hemlock, all the rest of my jobs have been easy, even riding the drag.
Thank you Harold and others.

Marilyn Conway
User ID: 1843114 Aug 6th 8:46 PM
Brian: Just got done writing to you on the other topic, and found you again here. Harold doesn't have a computer, so I am printing this for him and will mail it tomorrow. It was a very nice letter. You told me some things about my brother that I didn't know (his inventing)
FYI Lori Ellis is my daughter and she lives in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The "Corn King" title came about because of an article which was written by my mother Linnie Parker.

Sharon Towle
User ID: 7817463 Jan 12th 9:25 AM
Reading about Linnie and Lawrence Parker brought back so many memories. I was a Veazie and lived just over the hill from them. My grandparents, Harold and Christine Veazie, were very good friends of Linnie and Lawrence and they used to take camping trips together. One such trip was to Black Woods Camp Ground in Bar Harbor and Nana and Gramp took my sister, Patty, and I with them. My cousin, Terri Veazie (Keith's daughter), was also there. One afternoon, we girls were bored, so Lawrence decided to play Hide and Seek with us (he must have really liked this game!). We went into the camper to count and Lawrence hid. It took us forever to find him and I don't think we would have except that he made noises so we'd find him. The reason it was so hard was because he'd climbed up in a tree to hide! He had promised a prize for the one who found him, which was my sister Patty, and she was presented with a rock for her prize! We loved having Lawrence around - he always kept us laughing - and can remember spending many nights around the camp fire laughing our heads off.

Lori A. Ellis User ID: 0603144	Aug 3rd 8:40 PM I remember when I was little ,(did I say "little"? I probably played this game till I was 14yrs old because it was soooooo much fun!!!!), and would visit Grammy and Grampy, (Linnie and Laurence Parker),in the summers. Grampy would always play "hide and seek", with my younger sister, Lisa and I. Lisa and I would go out into my Uncle Harold Parkers sodder corn field and hide, then after a few minutes, Grammpy had to come and find us and tag us befor we got to the fence and touched grammys bird house poll. One year I even remember Uncle Harold got put in the Waterville news or Bangor news as being voted the "Corn King" of Maine (or at least the county?) as his corn was growing over 12 feet in height!! That was truly the BEST corn field to hide in!!!!
Brian Knowles User ID: 9593383	Aug 6th 2:12 PM I don't remember the "Corn King", but I do remember Harold Parker. Harold was one of my first employers. I worked several summers for him before I was old enough to work in the mill. I respected him for the things he taught me. Not just the hands on, but how he dealt with me and other people and the way he managed his business. Because of this style, I had a full time job for several weeks in the summer when most summer farming jobs were 4 or 5 hours a day a few days a week for a couple weeks. Harold owned quite a lot of acreage(no corn then); he leased even more and because of his techniques there was time to harvest hay for other farms. One of his innovations was to attach a sledge or drag behind the baler, this allowed all the bales to be left in one area, to be loaded and then taken to the barn. My job was to ride on the drag, stack 50 to 55 bales on it and then unload, using a crow bar, in one area without having the tractor stop. When I first started on the drag I doubted it would ever work. Loads tipped over, an occassional stray rock automatically unloaded it in the wrong place and the crow bar unloaded me instead of the hay. After several tries the system was perfected. As you may guess, this was not an easy job, nor very pleasant. For doing this job I was paid an extra 25 cents per hour(a lot of money back then)plus I did the racking in the morning. My days started at 5 a.m. delivering papers, 9 a.m. raking, 1 p.m. baling, 6 to 8 p.m. putting the hay in the barn and then off to the swing front to get rid of the first few layers of hay chafe. There were also side benefits; driving tractors and trucks and driving Harold's herdman's car around the newly mowed fields before going to the swimfront and home in the car. I don't remember the herdman's name, but I remember the car; a late 50's DeSoto hardtop with a big V-8, an automatic transmission and the "Fins" of the era. You couldn't be much cooler than riding around in a hardtop, wearing a white tee shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve. There were a few guys who were professionals at this, remeber who they are? I never understood why they didn't take turns driving so they could get a tan on both of their arms. Another benefit, I got 2 meals a day; Mrs. Parker was a great cook and a wonderful person. Harold and several other people I worked for growing up had a big influence on my own professional career. To name a few others, Jessie Davis, a neighbor and someone who always steered me to various jobs in the mill; haying and cleaning looms for Bernard Davis; haying for Hubert Hatfield; loading cloth for Ed Bulger(sorry if I missed the spelling), and of course my Father, especially peeling hemlock for him for my room and board. After a couple of summers of peeling hemlock, all the rest of my jobs have been easy, even riding the drag. Thank you Harold and others.
Marilyn Conway User ID: 1843114	Aug 6th 8:46 PM Brian: Just got done writing to you on the other topic, and found you again here. Harold doesn't have a computer, so I am printing this for him and will mail it tomorrow. It was a very nice letter. You told me some things about my brother that I didn't know (his inventing) FYI Lori Ellis is my daughter and she lives in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The "Corn King" title came about because of an article which was written by my mother Linnie Parker.
Sharon Towle User ID: 7817463	Jan 12th 9:25 AM Reading about Linnie and Lawrence Parker brought back so many memories. I was a Veazie and lived just over the hill from them. My grandparents, Harold and Christine Veazie, were very good friends of Linnie and Lawrence and they used to take camping trips together. One such trip was to Black Woods Camp Ground in Bar Harbor and Nana and Gramp took my sister, Patty, and I with them. My cousin, Terri Veazie (Keith's daughter), was also there. One afternoon, we girls were bored, so Lawrence decided to play Hide and Seek with us (he must have really liked this game!). We went into the camper to count and Lawrence hid. It took us forever to find him and I don't think we would have except that he made noises so we'd find him. The reason it was so hard was because he'd climbed up in a tree to hide! He had promised a prize for the one who found him, which was my sister Patty, and she was presented with a rock for her prize! We loved having Lawrence around - he always kept us laughing - and can remember spending many nights around the camp fire laughing our heads off.