David Elwin Dyer, interviewed by Marilyn Reuter

Series

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The collection consists of a series of interviews conducted from 1974 to 1980 by students for a course (IDL 105, Women in Maine: An Autobiographical Approach) taught by Maryann Hartman in the department of Speech and Communications at the University of Maine. Students asked a variety of informants for their opinions about the present and future roles of women in Maine. Each informant discussed this in the context of their own lives and experiences, therefore the individual interviews cover a wide range of topics.

Dates

Creation: 1974-1980

Conditions Governing Access

For digitized items free from access restrictions, we are working to upload this material (pdfs, mp3s, jpgs) for public access, but it is an ongoing project. If you don’t find what you are looking for here, contact Special Collections (um.library.spc@maine.edu).

Extent

From the Collection: 58 items

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Abstract

1018 David Elwin Dyer, interviewed by Marilyn Reuter, March 22, 1975, West Brooksville, Maine. Dyer talks about his life in Brooksville, with emphasis on events in the early twentieth century; line gales as weather predictors; playing cards; a local midwife who used whiskey to relax mothers; caring for his parents in their old age; Belfast Savings Bank failure circa 1922; child-rearing and stance against birth control; jobs he had as a boy and teenager; his interpretation of early colonialism and the Dyer family as having been in America before 1620; his education and discipline at school; snowstorms and predicting the weather; making hake sounds to sell; and a house fire and how it was fought. Text: 43 pp., incomplete transcript, plus 16 pp. catalog. Recording: T 1029 1 ¼ hours.