For those of you that missed part one of this two
part article, it is reprinted below
Pictured
left: (left to right) Francis Hayes, Lois Hayes, Alma Hayes, and Logay
Hayes
This week we continue with the interview of Lois Hayes and Tom
Lindberg and what they remember about growing up in what some Saugusonians
referred to as “The Blackberry Patch”. What follows is in their own words
and appears here with their kind permission.
Tom Lindberg I remember when Martin Luther King was killed. I was in the
eighth grade-actually in your class, Mr. Provenzano. I didn’t understand
about racial hatred in our neighborhood-our houses were all unlocked and
Black and white kids played together. One of my best friends who was Black
liked the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and I liked the Supremes and the Motown
sound. I had a picture of the Supremes in my tenth grade locker and the
kids would yell out “Nigger Lover!” but it really didn’t bother me much.
Pictured
left: The Hayes home and business site on the Bennett Highway,
Saugus
Lois Hayes My family didn’t go to the Baptist Church in the
neighborhood because we were Methodists. We went to the church on Main
Street across from Vine-it was a Methodists Church at the time. Sometimes
we went to Boston so we could experience a Black Methodist Church as
well-there was a big difference, believe me! They’d preach and sing with
lots of emotion and excitement “in the Holy Spirit”.
As far as I know, there was only one Black family in Saugus at the time
that didn’t live in our neighborhood and that was the Robinson Family who
lived in East Saugus. We had perhaps twenty-five Black families that lived
near us and we had a great time playing with all the kids. There were the
Thomases, the Hobarts, the Meters, the Doucettes, the Moranis, the
Messinas and Dave, Paul, and Harrison. I remember the Alves family and the
Hortons. I have lots of good memories of those days!
Pictured
left: The Flea Market on Massachusetts Avenue in Boston
Mrs. Griffin lived near us also and I think she was the only Black
school teacher in Saugus at the time. I think she taught first or second
grade.
My father worked hard his whole life. When he had his flea market in
Boston and later in Saugus, he tried hard to encourage unknown Black
artists, help them with their commissions and draw attention to their art
works.
My father was also the first chef at the Hilltop restaurant on Route One
and made the original menu. His idea was to “give them a big salad!” That
was when it was a small place. My father told them to only serve one thing
and to do it ell so at first they only sold steaks and large salads.
My mother was a perfectionist-everything had to be perfect. I never saw
her in jeans-she always looked dressed up. She was from a Yankee New
England Black family-a really good family. From what my mother taught us,
you don’t do certain things. You had to have proper manners and you had to
know china and nice dresses and fine linens and you had to know how to
make a bed correctly, how to set a table and do everything the proper way.
Between 1972 asnd 1974 the State of Massachusetts came through with
eminent domain and took all of the area we owned. They also whiped out
much of the neighborhood-about thirteen families. This really broke my
father’s heart because his business was doing well and they only offered a
small part of what my father thought the land was worth. He owned our
house, the store and the house next to us as well as a good sized piece of
land. It really did kill my father when they took our property-that’s not
an exaggeration-he had his first heart attack two weeks after they told
him. They assessed the property at $44,000. I really think that they
thought that since we were Black, they were offering enough. After they
told us the amount they were offering, my father had his second attack.
The funny thing was that a gas station company was interested in the land
and offered my father $250,000 for the land but he lost it to the state
for the amount they offered.
When we were forced out, my parents bought a house in Wakefield and I had
to go to public school there. I found out that it was much easier for a
Black girl to be accepted in Saugus than it was to be accepted in
Wakefield, at least in those days.
I really didn’t like the idea of moving out of Saugus and I still have
many nice memories of the town and its schools. The friends I made and the
neighborhood where I grew up are still in my mind. I live in Lynn now, but
still like to look back to my years in Saugus.
Part One
Pictured
left: An example of "Lost Saugus." Chickland on the Pike from a postcard
published by E.B. Thomas of Cambridge (From the author's collection)
Some time ago I visited Lois Hayes in Lynn who once lived in the
predominately Black area of Saugus between the Bennett Highway and
Broadway. A few weeks later, I visited her again with her friend Tom
Lindberg who grew up in the same area. What follows is a discussion in
their own words of their childhood memories and appears here with their
kind permission.
Pictured
left: Eating appes in Tom Lindberg's back yard. Left to right: Louis
G. Hayes, Daniel J. Lindberg, Gale E. Lindberg, Tom H. Lindberg, Logay F.
Hayes (Courtesy of Lois Hayes)
LOIS…My father was born in New Orleans in 19003 but sailed to Europe
when he was seventeen or eighteen and lived there for about twenty years.
There was this place in Paris called “The Flea Market” which took up a
whole block. You could buy anything there from sheets to hay-but the hay
had fleas-hence the name!
My father had the first flea market in the United
States. My mother had him copyright the name “Flea Market” but he let it
run out. My mother was very upset when shops were opening up all over the
place and calling themselves flea markets!
My father opened an antique store in Boston and he
called it “The Flea Market”. (According to a 11946 article by Edgar J.
Driscoll, Jr. in the Boston Globe, Francis Hayes ran the Boston Flea
Market at 361 Massachusetts Avenue. “In addition to the old decanters,
lace and china, Mr. Hayes promoted Negro art and was able to make his shop
a focal point on the national map for Negro artists”. R.G. P.)
Later my father moved his business to the Bennett
Highway in Saugus where he had bought a large piece of land around 1947
for about $4,000. He built the house and store himself. It took about two
years to get the store finished so it must have been there from about 1949
to 1973. It was usually opened on weekends.
The neighborhood then was really a wonderful place but
just about the only place in Saugus where Black people could live,
although there were some white people there as well, like Tom Lindberg’s
family.
Pictured
left: Alma Hayes, Lois' mother on the front lawn at 7 Bennett
Highway. Note the Chickland sign in the background. (Courtesy of
Lois Hayes)
TOM…I’d like to describe the neighborhood. There were lots of rocks
and outcrops of ledge and a brook which ran by our property. Lois’ brother
Logay and I were close to the same age and we played together. There was a
wetlands between our property and we used to get laundry bins from
Chickland when the water was frozen over and we’d push each other over the
ice. Lois’ brother Logay and other kids used to play hockey on the ice. I
remember the winters very well. We called this place the Icea Skating
Place”.
There was a hill up near the Melrose line, near Mt.
Hood-just across from where Chickland was. We built a fort up there and it
was awesome. There was a path near Lois’ house where you could find
blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. It was a good neighborhood for
a kid to grow up in except for the fact that when we wanted to take part
in after school activities or stay after school for some reason, we really
couldn’t because it was dangerous for us to cross Route One and as fare as
the school bus was concerned, we were always the last kids to be picked up
and dropped off so if you stayed after school, you wouldn’t get home until
4:30. I was often sick from the long bus ride.
Lois’ parents were more mature and much more
established than mine were. My mother was eighteen and my father was
twenty-one when I was born and we didn’t have much money.
I remember when I was in high school and there was a
student government day in the auditorium and I asked why our neighborhood
was so ignored by the rest of Saugus. The town manager was there and he
really stumbled over the issue-he really didn’t know much about the area
and its safety issues and problems. My teacher thought it was very brave
of me to bring up the issue because I was a pretty shy kid from a white
family living in a Black neighborhood.
To be continued……………..
