Common Wealth, Common Wisdom

In addition to her feature piece about Ann and Roger Huntley, Jenn Sibert chose to profile local entrepreneur Maggie Wood, age 17. Jenn says: "Maggie's story and creative genius is unique and it was such a pleasure to interview her. At an early age she discovered her passion for crafting jewelry and clothes from recycled materials. She goes through great lengths to connect with her surrounding community despite living in a small town and taking online classes instead of attending the local high school." Listen as Maggie explains her sources of motivation, inspiration, and her life as a young entrepreneur.

Labels: audio features, Entrepreneurship, experience, geofeed, Jennifer, North Country

They say that behind every hard working man is an even harder working woman. Behind Roger Huntley, who just retired after four decades as an auctioneer, is the tireless and indominable Ann Huntley. The Huntleys just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. In this piece, produced by Jennifer Sibert for the Common Wealth Common Wisdom project, Roger and Ann take us back to the day they met, through a lifetime of collaboration on the farm and under the auction tent.

You can see photos of Ann and Roger Huntley and and hear the rest of the stories in this series at ncpr.org/cwcw.

Labels: auction, audio features, geofeed, Jennifer, Roger Huntley

A new audio feature from the project aired this morning on NCPR's morning news program The Eight O'Clock Hour.

Labels: Brenna, Jennifer, NCPR

Sitting on his patio in downtown Brushton, Mayor Don Barney shares some of his accumulated wisdom with the CWCW crew. The eighty year-old retired Agway representative shares his circumstances growing up on a farm in Malone during the Great Depression. Don says that although his family was poor, "we never went without."

Don pauses, considering what he's about to say. "I usually don't tell people this," Don says, "but I don't have a high school education." In a household of five children, Don explains, "If there was work to be done at home, you stayed home and you done it… Most of the time we made our own money. We might have gone out to nearby farms and we'd pick corn and pitch hay and we'd do anything to make a dollar." He grew up with a notion of hard work and independence as his family "raised everything on the farm."

Don's self-reliance has taken the place of education and I begin to understand how, in combination with education, that character trait can lead to great economic prospects. "I don't think in life I really could've done any better if I had a high school education or college. But I had the experience and the good reputation to be able to get one of the best jobs."

It was inspiring to learn that Don served on various school and town community boards despite his lack of formal education. He reminds us that education "opens doors but doesn't solve all the problems." Many youth today are choosing education as a safe-haven from the reality of living independent, but having a college degree doesn't automatically ensure success. Don Barney's emphasis on education in combination with will power is powerful advice for young people today. The current economy of may appear bleak but Don says with a grin, " I think you gotta have that positive attitude, that’s all. Yeah, and a little bit of luck of course."

Labels: Brushton, Business, Entrepreneurship, geofeed, Jennifer, positive

Sharing Canton Farmers' Market peanut butter cookies and coffee, the CWCW crew sits in a circle, as if around a campfire. We begin at the roots of our own entrepreneurial lives by sharing our first memory earning a dollar. Roger Huntley leans forward with a grin and asks, "Maybe these two elderly ladies remember a Reverend Charles McVay of Crary Mills?" At this Ruth Garner and Mickey Williams erupt into a fit of laughter. "Yea…I thought maybe," Roger says. His first job weed-whacking the Reverend’s lawn earned him ten cents, and with his money Roger walked a mile and a half to the Crary Mills grocery store to buy a candy bar. "I put my ten cents on the counter and he gave it right back to me; it was a Canadian!"

Intern Chelsea Ross remembers building her first lemonade stand with a friend. "I'm not sure if we really did make money," she begins with a laugh. After Chelsea and her friend put in the designated man-hours brewing lemonade for profit she admits, "We actually didn’t have a lot of people and then when the mailman or any sort of person working went by we gave them free lemonade because they were working - we felt bad for them."

As I wonder if any of our stories will result in actual profits, Bill Cullen tells the group about his first job as a very un-ambitious paperboy. "With my bicycle I peddled around and delivered papers every day. My job, on top of delivering more papers, was to get more customers." In Bill’s eyes I see a hint of resentment toward his long lost part-time profession. And the task of getting more customers? "I could not get one," Bill exclaims, "I was no salesman, it was terrible. So, sooner or later they sent another representative of the [Watertown] Times to get more customers. They went right at the job and got them of course so I had more people to deliver papers to."

Our stories are exchanged freely and are surprisingly similar to one another. Despite our different ages, all our stories easily could belong to any member of the group. As youth we all enjoyed working and being rewarded for that work, now the value of that labor is dwarfed by a complicated financial mess among banks, hedge funds, and financial groups. If we were to revert back to the spirit of our first work effort, and combine that simplicity with the technology of the future, would we prevent future depressions and recessions?

Labels: Crary Mills, economy, Jennifer, jobs, paperboy, Reverend Charles McVay, Watertown Daily Times

The first audio feature from the project aired this morning on NCPR's morning news program The Eight O'Clock Hour. The piece featured CWCW elder Roger Huntley, presiding over his last public auction.

Labels: audio features, Brenna, chelsea, geofeed, Jennifer, Roger Huntley

Labels: Canton, Elders, experience, geofeed, Great Depression, history, internship, interview, Jennifer, journey, Ruth Garner

Bingo numbers echo as senior citizens ranging from seventy into their late eighties gather at the Norfolk Community Center to play bingo and chat. The ice has melted from the arena to reveal a gray cement ground underneath lawn chairs and makeshift bingo stations. Even though my age and inexperience with bingo sets me apart, the atmosphere radiates a comforting sense of community between the elders and volunteers involved. Here I meet Louise Hardy, a petite woman with an enchanting smile. Her charm lies in her modest reluctance to share details of her life during the Great Depression. She prefers to give me a history lesson on FDR rather than share personal experiences. Her peers share the same modesty, refreshing compared to my teenage peers who commonly reveal the most personal of details, unprovoked. After my more persistent inquiries, she reveals details about her youth during the Great Depression.

Born in 1929 in Gouverneur, New York, Louise remembers happy times during the Great Depression. Somewhat isolated from more rural and devastated economies, she lived in town close to the Hardy's department store her father owned. She remembers the marble sidewalks (a product of a local marble quarry), hopscotch, "kick the can", rolly polly, and chalk drawings. She tells me children kept themselves occupied by spending time with each other instead of electronics.

However, Louise was not completely sheltered from the depression-impoverished farming community. "Gouverneur was the home of retired farmers...Farm people would come in on Saturday and the streets would be so crowded you couldn't hardly get through!" she says with a small laugh and a smile. The socially connected Gouverneur community during the 1930s enabled Louise to have more knowledge and compassion toward farmers. Louise says, "I felt for the farmers myself...Our system [didn't] seem to work just right economically."

Despite finding faults in the American economy, Louise speaks fondly of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, stating, "He was a wonderful president for all the programs he devised." She remembers, for example, that "many of the local boys [were] employed by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)". "During the Depression, if you made a dollar a day that was pretty good - for ordinary labor" says Louise. I find this recollection reiterated at each bingo table I visit.

Louise remembers Saturdays in Gouverneur filled with conversation and busy streets. I see her eyes lost in the memory of her childhood again, and the almost lost concept of a sociable town. The ladies around her agree that despite the Great Depression there was "less fear" between people, more interaction, and more community involvement than today. I left Louise wondering if our current recession could be resolved with a change in values. Perhaps individuality with cooperation would result in not only a healthier economy, but also a healthier society.

Labels: Civilian Conservation Corps, farming, geofeed, Great Depression, interview, Jennifer, NCPR, Norfolk, North Country, Northern New York, society