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From Fresh Mown Hay To Sweet Maple Syrup: Sharing 71.5 Years Of Family Memories

photo provided Beginning a life together on April 18, 1942, Louie and Margaret Phelps are still celebrating life, family and are counting at 71.5 years of married life and memories.

photo provided With a motto of " Don't swear the small stuff," Louie and Margaret Phelps continue to celebrate a relationship that started with a square dance and to this day are grounded in love, faith and family. Give a little and take a little, but do it with love is their advice to those looking for longevity in marriage.

photo provided Life on the farm was always about work, but celebrated family and fun as well.

photo provided Making music was always a part of the family's time together on the farm. Here father Louie and son Louie II join in together on the harmonica at Louie's 90th birthday celebration.

photo provided Mother and daughter have much in common and to smile about. Margaret Phelps and her daughter Becky share a smile for the camera and make more memories as the family moves forward together to embrace Margaret and Louie's six children, 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Tuesday November 19, 2013

By Cookie Steponaitis

Becky (Phelps) Longley thanked her mom and dad in a college paper she dedicated to her parents for, “instilling in me the importance of honesty and integrity and the importance of putting in an honest day’s work. Thank you for the wonderful memories that came from growing up on a farm and working and playing together as a family. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
The seasons of their youth for Becky and her five siblings, Louie III, Bob, Linda, Randy and Eric were marked by the smell of freshly mown hay, sweet maple syrup, squishy ripe red berries and locusts singing their messages in the long hot lazy days of summer. The siblings learned about the values of honesty, integrity and a full day’s work and much more on the farm at the end of a long dirt road in Bridgewater, Vermont where they grew up with their parents Louie and Margaret Phelps. Their stories speak to family dinners, chores, music and laughter. Their writings tell of dreams, work and events like dream camps and magic castles. When their parents Louis and Margaret Phelps shared memories recently with this Valley Voice reporter, the pair spoke not only of their incredible 71.5 years of married life but of their family, the land they loved and the traditions they passed on to their children about both.
Louie Phelps was the third of eight children born to a farm family in Springfield, Vermont in 1920. He was raised feeding and milking the family’s six-eight cows and worked the draft team. Louie recalls his two room school in Chittenden, Vermont where he learned not only to read and write but the place where he developed a passion for history and recitation. Whether it was reciting the Gettysburg Address, poems by Longfellow or others, to this day Louie recalls them all and will cite chapter and verse with ease. Moving when he was quite young in a horse and wagon, Louie’s family like those in Vermont was greatly impacted by the Great Depression years of 1929-1939. “Being on a farm,” shared Louie, “we had enough to eat but there was certainly no money. Products were rationed and you made do with what you had. I distinctly remember my mother making dresses for my sisters out of grain sacks. But we were no different from any other family at the time. The Depression impacted us all.” Louie took some classes in the machine trade and found himself employed in Springfield starting in January 1941. It was there that he would meet Margaret Mandigo. It was one of those things where a friend said ‘I know this girl you might like.’ “I had no idea,” recalls Louie. “It was a Sunday and we picked her up and I will tell you she was really riled. She had not been told about the square dance and she let us know in no uncertain terms that she was not amused.” Grinning for a moment and watching his wife shift on the couch across from him Louie was about to conclude the story when Margaret provided the punch line herself. “The guy said,” Margaret declared, “you would really have to love that girl a lot to marry her!”
Margaret Mandigo was born in Rutland in 1924 and was the second of five children. Her father was the chauffeur for the owner of Proctor Marble and Margaret shared that her Great Depression years were not as harsh as other people’s because of her father’s job. She attended Rutland High School where she was motivated by English teacher Madeleine Flynn. Margaret had a passion for English and bookkeeping which would both come into play in her life. She moved to Mendon at the age of thirteen and her path crossed with Louie Phelps at that Grange Square Dance in Mendon in 1941 and into a dance that continues to this day. The couple was married in 1942 and raised six children in Bridgewater, Vermont on an isolated family farm at the end of a steep hill and dirt road. When speaking of those years both Margaret and Louie tear up at the mention of selling the farm, equipment and other items in 1987.
There was never a dull moment or down time on the farm and Louie and Margaret were a family unit with their six children. “The best part of all of it,” shared Margaret, “was just being together. We ate three meals a day together, worked together, played together and learned how to be a family together. We instilled in the children the moral values of speaking the truth and earning a day’s pay for a day’s work.” Whether it was haying an all hands on deck family experience, or cooking, canning, cleaning, milking or any of the hundreds of tasks on a self-sufficient farm, the family worked together.
“We raised and slaughtered our own ham and bacon,” commented Louie. “Most of what we lived on came off of the farm. Once a month or so we might go into town but you should have seen Margaret’s farm cellar. She would put up between 600-700 quarts of product for the winter.” The couple stopped milking in 1968 but did not sell the farm until 1987 when they moved to Pittsford. Memories flowed quite freely as the couple related times of great joy and great strife. “The hurricane of 1938 was a time when everyone who could work did. All men worked on restoring the roads and the families took over the farms while the men worked.” Whether it was churning butter or her beloved knitting, Margaret speaks of those years of family and farm with a joy that is tangible and evident in her voice.
Although the farm years ended adventures for the couple did not. Louie went to work for the state as an appraiser and also served on the town list or for seventeen years. Margaret became the Town Clerk of Bridgewater and served there for nineteen years until her retirement in 1987. “One of the nicest compliments anyone every paid me,” shared Margaret, “was when I retired. The people were talking about who they wanted to hire and one shook his head and said, ‘We need another Margaret Phelps.”
With seventy plus years of marriage behind them the couple still moves as a one unit to this day and often finishes each other’s thoughts. When Louis was asked to share some wisdom for the generations coming up whom sometimes find marriage often a difficult task he sat forward in his chair and remarked, “Don’t think the world revolves around you. Everything can’t go your way. Give a little and take a little.” Margaret quickly chimed in, “Go ahead and say it.” Turning to this reporter she grinned and remarked, “He always says don’t sweat the little things. I tell him he never ever sweats the big things.”
Since the family has presented them with parties for their 25th, 35th, 50th, 65th and 69th anniversaries and Louie’s 90th birthday just recently, the couple has decided that for their 72nd anniversary in April 2014 there will be no party. Whether it is the fun of showing photos of four feet of snow on the farm to friends in Florida or simply sharing a story with a curious reporter the pair takes delight in the same things that brought them together all those years ago. Perhaps their daughter Becky puts it best as she writes in her college paper, “I headed toward home picking wild daisies and I flushed a newborn spotted fawn from its hiding place. All my seasons were announced by living the change through tasks and activities and family.” The Valley Voice salutes Louie and Margaret Phelps for finding love, joy, and lessons of life on the family farm for so long and passing that joy on to their children. Their dance of 71.5 years is truly a lesson in love for all generations and one they proudly share the stories of family, faith, and farm the three words that built this state and in part this nation.

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