Hartford
Maybe it’s his memory. He recalls the first weekly newspaper he worked at fresh out of high school in 1937 as an apprentice setting type — initially making $6 a week, then getting a raise to $8.
Maybe it’s his longevity: At 97, he is Hartford’s oldest resident, and last week he was presented with an honorary cane, certificate and plaque to acknowledge his status.
Or maybe it’s his service to the country as part of the “Greatest Generation.”
A Cambridge, Mass., native, DesMeules was born on March 20, 1920 — “St. Joseph’s Day,” he said proudly. As a young man, he was playing hockey with a group of friends in Springfield, Mass., when he heard about Pearl Harbor.
“The newsboys were yelling ‘Pearl Harbor!’ We had no idea where Pearl Harbor was,” he recalled during an interview last week.
Six months later, he joined the Navy as an air crew member. DesMeules can recall every base he was stationed at and every responsibility he had. He remembers going to Pearl Harbor.
“When we got there I saw the results of the bombing,” he recalled. He saw some of the ships being righted in the water and fixed up. “It was quite the opportunity to watch.”
Soon, he was on an escort carrier (which he called a jeep carrier), that brought supplies to others stationed in the Pacific. “We lacked for nothing onboard,” he said. “We kept moving, always zigzagging.” The carrier never stopped. Enemy submarines were a threat. Sometimes the carrier would pull up alongside another ship and those aboard the carrier would throw treats such as chewing gum and chocolate — DesMeules remembers the exact brands — to troops on the deck of the neighboring ship.
When on various Pacific islands, troops were given rations for beer and chocolate. DesMeules didn’t have a taste for the beer.
“I used to swap my beer chits for tropical chocolate,” he said with a smile. He recalled another time when he climbed into a foxhole searching for souvenirs only to come across an empty Bayer aspirin bottle.
Returning to Massachusetts after the war, he began working at another weekly newspaper.
“I worked there for a while and then I met Irene,” he said. The couple were married 68 years before her death in 2015. Throughout the interview, he spoke of her often: “If she hadn’t passed away of course, she’d be receiving this attention,” he said, noting that Irene was a year older than he was. “She was a great seamstress. She made this,” he said, indicating the vest he was wearing.
They met after the war, introduced by a friend, and DesMeules knew right away he would marry her.
“We did everything together,” he said.
The couple moved to Quechee about 32 years ago from Winchester, Mass., after DesMeules retired at from The Boston Globe, where he worked for 31 years setting lines of type and proofreading. The details he recalled from his career, the newspapers along “Newspaper Row” in Boston that started and folded, the evening editions that changed, the condition of the copy that he had to read — “My god, you wouldn’t believe the abbreviations,” he said. “It was like hieroglyphics” — and, what he seemed to recall the most fondly, the technological changes his newspaper went through.
“There were three different transitions I experienced,” he said. One of his favorites was the shift to electric typewriters. “Oh, they were a pleasure to work on.”
The family was always active and DesMeules skied and played ice hockey into his 80s.
The couple moved to Quechee to be closer to their sons, Mark, who lives in Maine, and Peter, who lives in the Upper Valley and was present during the interview. DesMeules built pieces of furniture for the home. His wife made the drapes, among other items.
And then there’s his art: DesMeules makes carvings of birds, snakes and other wildlife. Some he attaches to plaques, others hang on the walls. Tiny birds perch in a window. Recently, he’s really been into making walking sticks.
“I’m going crazy with it,” he said.
When visitors, including Martha Knapp, president of the Hartford Historical Society, and Mary Nadeau, recording secretary for the society, remarked on his skill, DesMeules brushed it off, describing his creations as “simple to make.”
Much of what he makes he gives away. And, while DesMeules enjoyed talking about his military service and his career, the topic he kept coming back to was one every person can relate to: his family.
“The grandchildren mean everything to us,” he said. He has two granddaughters and two grandsons.
Knapp presented DesMeules with a certificate and showed him where his name had been added to a plaque that will hang at Garipay House, the historical society’s museum.
“The phone’s going to start ringing I’m sure,” he said. “I’m going to prize this.”
“Well, we prize you,” Knapp replied. She was speaking for the entire community.
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
