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Sharing Memories With George Smith Of Bristol

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Tuesday April 17, 2012

By Melissa Brown

   There is a man who lives in a modest house covered in vines in Bristol. In passing him on the street, he may not seem out of the ordinary, but that is not the case. Born on May 26, 1926, George Smith, 85, has had a life full of adventures and accomplishments. George attended Bristol Elementary School, and then went on to attend high school in Bristol as well. During this time, George worked at a local grocery store where he remembers “coffee selling for $.18 a pound” and gas was around .25¢ a gallon. “I don’t see how people can make it to work with gas prices this high when they aren’t raising the wages!” remarked George.

    George graduated from high school on June 6, 1944, a day that many know as D-Day. Fourteen days later he was in the Navy. He traveled from New York to Indianapolis for training, and then headed to Boston to board the U.S.S. Topeka as a radioman. From there the U.S.S. Topeka went to Pearl Harbor where George saw “all of the destruction.” Then the Sixth Fleet headed towards Japan, where planes took off from the carriers to make raids on Japan every day. The fleet stayed there until August 1945, after the dropping of the Atomic bomb That ended the war. On June 10, 1946, George returned to Boston to receive his discharge papers and go home.

    One night after returning home from the war in 1946, George attended a dance in New Haven, where he met his future wife, Doris D’Avignon. “I still remember the first song we danced to, ‘3 o’clock In The Morning” shared George. The two were married in February of 1947, and over the years had nine children together.

    During his life, George has gained a variety of work experience. While attending Rutland Junior College after the war, he worked as an apple picker, which he says is “the only job I ever hated.” Then, while hitch hiking to the junior college one day, he got a ride with a Vermont Railway Operator Agent. After talking about George’s experience as a radioman, he was offered a job as a telegraph operator agent. And so, in the summer of 1947 he joined the Vermont Railway. He stayed there until the early 1960s, when he got a job working at a trucking terminal called Valley Express in Brattleboro. During this time he was only able to make it home to Bristol to see his family on Wednesdays. After two years of working at the Valley Express, George got called back to the Vermont Railway to work as a dispatcher agent. Then, in 1964 a position opened up at the Post Office in Shelburne. During his time there he went from being a clerk to a mail carrier. He retired on October 31, 1990.

    Since his retirement, George Smith has done anything but lay low. He is a member of the Historical Society and the American Legion. He has been part of the Bristol Fire Department for 56 years and he works 14 hours a week at the Bristol Landfill. He has had the town reports dedicated to him and he has been the Grand Marshal in the Bristol July 4th parade, and is a Justice of the Peace. “I enjoyed about anything I ever did in life,” says George. “And there is certainly plenty of it to love.”

    When it comes to the aging process, George “thinks it’s great! You just have to keep going!” To others who may fear the aging process, George believes people should “just take it as it comes.”

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