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In the 1940’s Scituate was a popular shopping spot for my parents, Mom grocery shopped at the A&P and  maintained  their  meats were the best.

Across the street was an Italian delicatessen with wheels of the best cheese. Mom would buy a wedge of Romano for grating on her pasta— Oh how good my Mom’s pasta sauce was–Oh-Yes– My wife’s sauce is good too!
Welch’s Hardware Store was toward the northerly  end of Front St. where my Dad always found everything he needed.

Welch’s, Front St. Scituate MA.
A centrally located Movie House, ”The Satuit Playhouse” provided the weekly news and memorable movies like ”Lassie Come Home”, Dumbo, Bambi, Pinocchio, Snow White——- Alice in Wonderland—- those movies have touch me to this day.

The Satuit Playhouse looking down the ally from Front St.

Not far westerly out First Parish Rd. or  Beaver Dam Rd. and off Branch St. was the Thomas Lawson Estate, a campus including a fountain within a common, a church, school, a wood tower covering the town water tank, Lawson had done to cover the ugly steel tank.

The Lawson Tower.

Driving through this immense  estate was certainly a ”Dreamwold” , as Thomas Lawson named it.  Much of the estate could be observed from the public roads surrounding the compound.
This day in the late summer of 1941, to my surprise, my Dad turned off Branch St. onto a dirt road into the Lawson compound. There were barns connected by tall wooden fences with big doors between the barns.

The home and  map of Thomas Lawson’s ”Dreamwold Estate”

The buildings within the dots contained Bill Chases Farm.
The lower dots border Branch St.  Lawson’s estate ” the nest” is on the right. The upper left is the Egypt Railroad station. Race track to the right.

Noises of all sorts were coming from behind the fences, My Dad parked the car and said ”lets go”, Mom declined, I took his hand and  we went through a doorway in the fence.  OMG! ,the monkeys were going crazy— screaming and bouncing all over their cage– there must have been 50 of them—along with monkey noises were tropical birds–parrots— way more than I can remember!
A call from my Dad– Bill!—Bill! — you around? If Mr. Chase didn’t hear — I could understand.  A turn around the corner of the barn revealed Bill Chase, wild animal keeper, then the ”Hi Bill’s” , hand shaking and ”how the hell are ya’s”!

It was evident that the Bill’s knew each other for some time– I never did find out!
As they chatted–more like screaming  at each other–over the noises,
I tried to take it all in, rubbernecking in all directions!
As I settled down,and  looking off to cages with big cats, A THUNDERING -TRUMPETING-SCREAM – louder than a train whistle- sent me many feet into the air!!  I don’t remember if I saw the Earth’s curvature—-when I landed — both Bill’s were laughing—THAT WAS NOT FUNNY!
Mr Chase told Dad he didn’t have much time, he was meeting a client looking at a big cat.  We got to see the ”Big Cat” a Leopard, a rather tame Leopard, I was about three feet from it, and long enough to get my fill of smell !  In fact, the stay was long enough to not only smell,  but burn your eyes!   Being the summer of 1941, there was never another visit to this farm.
WW ll  saw to that!

”Bill” Chase, far right.  Location of photo unknown.This article was published in the BILLBOARD NEWSPAPER,  1955.

 

Halifax, Mass., July 30. 1955

Chase Wild Animal Farm a landmark in Egypt Massachusetts for 20 years, opened recently in this new location with three times the area and a bigger operation for plant and stock.
Zoning laws and the growing need for expansion has been a problem for years for Charles P. Chase, “Bill”. Last spring he found a spot on Route 106, Plymouth St. in this town.
Since space permits, many of the animals will be allowed to roam within the confines of natural settings. In Egypt they were confined to cages due to the limited space.

The Animals included are, Elephants, Zebras, many types of Deer,Leopards, Llama’s, various spices of Monkeys, Tropical birds & Waterfowl.

Chase has set the admission at 50¢ for adults & 25¢ for muppetts.

This classified ad was placed in the Billboard newspaper, August 14, 1943.

African Lion, $ 40,000.
African Leopard, $ 100,000.
Lima, $200.,Emu, $200., Paca, $20., Coopers Hawk, $75.
Wildcat, $25., Blue Fox, $25.
Hampster, $1., Parakeets, $ 5. @ pr.
Tame Ringtail Monkey, $500., Boa Constrictor, $4.00 @ foot.
Black Raccoons,$ 10., De-scented Skunks, $7.50.,
Otter, $50.
Chase Wild Animal Farm.

A pendant available from the new farm in Halifax.

More reading;
https://cranberrycountymagazine.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-chase-wild-animal-farm-mystery.html

As I look back on my visits to Bill Chase’s Wild Animal Farm I was one lucky youngster, in spite of that Thundering Trumpeting Scream that scared me into space!

“WILD ANIMALS are less WILD and more human than many humans of this world” — Munia Khan.

 

A note from a Farm neighbor;

Andrea ,

 

W. Ray Freden
Seaview, Marshfield MA, 70 years.
Pembroke, Maine, 15 years.

Hello to my friends and followers;
Digging around in my nearly lost collection of “everything I’ll never use”, I came across the below, a tongue-in-cheek bit of literature describing the history of clam hunting.
This was the work of Timothy Jumper of Hingham MA. A very talented wood carver, and a man that wears many different hats.

I met Tim on the craft show circuit many years ago. I had a number of years behind me as a decoy artist carving shorebird, waterfowl & fish decoys. When I spotted a “clam decoy” on his counter, I was just blown away! I had heard of many different birds & animals being decoyed — but never a CLAM!
With a few questions to Tim about his clam decoys for sale, his answers led me to believe that I was being gulled — he then handed me a description note that he included with a sale of his hand carved clam decoys. Upon my first scan of this, I had a great laugh, and rereading many more times along with many more laughs.

Tim has graciously given me permission to use his wonderful work — I added a few photos & sketches — Enjoy.

Tim is now retired and,

 

The Cape Cod Clam Decoy 

The native peoples of North America were using decoys on their clam flats many hundreds of years before the coming of the first Europeans.
The Wampanoags of Cape Cod would set out empty shells, or clam-shaped stones painted white, to entice the wary mollusks out of the mud and onto the shore where they can be captured by camouflaged hunters concealed in blinds and wielding clam clubs.

Sketch by W. Ray Freden

In 1628 Miles Standish noted in his diary: “Ye Natives doe delite to pursue Clammes withe clubbes & Dequoyies.”
The colonists imitated this practice, but improved upon the decoys by carving them out of wood — typically white pine or cedar. This enabled them to more accurately imitate the features of this species being hunted, as well as to depict secondary sex characteristics — often exaggerated — which led to much higher bag numbers during the rutting season (January through December). They also began the practice of placing the decoys on sticks to make them visible from a greater distance.
Clams have almost no sense of smell and very poor hearing, thus clam calls, though sometimes tried, have never proven effective, but their eyesight is keen: A decoy on a six inch stick can be seen by an adult male clam on a clear day at sea-level from a distance of 40 rods ( one Furlong), provided , of course, that he is looking.
Although clamming with decoys is highly efficient it is an occupation fraught with danger, and it is owing to its perilous nature that it came to be replaced by the safer but more arduous method method of digging.
Clams have a great deal of pride, and though usually docile they become irate and wrathful when they realize they have been gulled and made to look foolish.
From 1680 to 1889, over 2500 Cape Cod clam hunters were killed outright or permanently maimed by clams enraged to discover that they had been lured out of the comfort of their mud by a bit of painted wood.

Sketch by W. Ray Freden

In May of 1756 two Chatham men were victims of an especially vicious clam attack: Their hideously mutilated corpses were found stuffed headfirst, inside their hip boots. The ever-increasing risk of such attacks—- called ”shellings” —- served to scare off all but the greediest and most foolhardy clam hunters, and by the end of the end of the 19th century even those few had abandoned their decoys, or died using them.

N.B.
The clam decoy you have purchased is an authentic reproduction, intended for decorative purposes only. Wooden Images disclaims any responsibility for death or bodily injury resulting from the use of this product for the hunting of clams.

Tim’s Clam Decoy’s, two hen’s and a Drake
Photo by Tim Jumper
Story by  © Tim Jumper
Hingham MA

 

Revived and added to by W. Ray Freden
Down East Maine
“The way life should be”

 

 

It is said that ”Good fences make good neighbors”, and  I think there is a lot of room here for discussion .
I grew up without fences on our property or the abutter’s  property.  We had good neighbors……..did they?
Some of the fences I remember served another purpose.
A fence near my back yard ran from Seaview to the South River in South Marshfield.  It was installed by the Railroad c. 1870….. not to keep the Locomotives in, but to keep livestock out!  They were Red Cedar posts with three to four strands of barbed wire. I bet there still are remains between Pinehurst Drive & Ferry St.

Barbed wire fence.

Post and split rail fence

Post and split rail gates and fences could be found all over the town.
The posts were  logs with two or three oval holes drilled through them.  The holes were wide enough for two tapered ends of the split rail to slide into the hole from opposite directions.  The rails could be slid out easily for passing through if it was a gate. They are still widely used.

The guard rails on Summer St. along Keene’s pond and across the street were quite different.  The top rail was set on steel posts, rather unique, and a 4×4 was set into a “v” topped post so the edge, not the flat, was up.
This is the only place I noticed this application……. I expect it was built and installed by the Town of Marshfield Highway Dept.

An unusual corner- edge-up rail fence.

A well built plank-top with a skirt fence.

This next fence I had always admired.  It first caught my attention because of it’s barn red paint job.
This ran from near the intersection of Summer & Elm St., then along Ferry Hill Rd. to Grandview Ave.
I suspect it was installed by Victor Belanger, along his Belangerville property to hold his valuable livestock.  The remains of that fence could be seen into the 1970’s.

The Sea Street bridge guardrail .
Railing  sketch  is not the original guardrail .

This fence, guard rail had to be tough, salt air, sun, ice & snow were its enemy year around. The original wood fencing was replaced by this wood &  pipe guard rail. A 2×6 afixed to the bridge foundation and three galvanized pipes were run through holes in the 2×6’s.

This fence was found along Ferry St. from Sea St. to Ireland Rd.

The below railing ran along Ferry St. from Ridge Rd. , north to the Sea St. Bridge.

The most beautiful fences were the hardest to build, made to last the longest, and unique in every way.  Hundreds of thousand’s of miles of them were built all over the world.  And they are not called fences, but referred to as ”walls”, ”stone walls”, and “field-stone walls”.

A beautiful wall with a  split rail gate.

This wall is on Summer St. ….now obscured by growth.


This wall boarders Ferry Hill Rd.

 No care needed, cannot be destroyed by storms, fire, ice, hurricanes, or whatever Mother Nature throws at them.  Damage, maybe, but they cannot be destroyed!

Another fence of field-stone was around the animal pound on Elm St. opposite Ferry Hill Rd., on the N.E. corner of  Holly Hill.

These Pounds could have had most any kind of fencing around them. Escaped and lost livestock would be rounded up by a good neighbor and locked in a pound to await it’s rightful owner.

 New England stone walls have been built from the beginning of the New World by the Early Settlers.  Many were lost to development, neglect, re-purposed, or stolen to be used to build fireplaces, decorative walls, and entrance-way pillars.

One doesn’t destroy a stone wall…..one just relocates it.  If you start at Summer &  Main St., and travel south, stone walls line both sides. Where stone walls are missing, look close at the foundation of a nearby home.
A good example is from Summer St. and Station St., north,   then traveling south on Summer St., to Station St., south. The wall is missing.  However,  the homes at 189 & 207 Summer St., have field-stone foundations!
No,  not stolen……the walls were part of the  property and simply re-purposed.

189 Summer St.’s  Foundation

”The walls around us bear witness to lives past and present”
Jose Parla

A favorite photo of mine is this view of the Sea View  Village from Hatch’s Hill , ( Holly Hill). Stone walls everywhere— and  they still exist!

 

W. Ray Freden.
Seaview/ Marshfield,  70 years.