The Baker Homestead: Part 4

In this episode Joe discusses the next generation of Baker to live in the Homestead, about his childhood, and how war can change people. 

Transcript

Welcome to episode four of the Baker homestead bonus series, spooky season is in full swing with Halloween on the horizon, and next week were going to get into some of the spooky Halloween stories I have, but for now, let’s dive into t a little more history about the family. now I’m sure that everyone has their own version of growing up, and everyone knows that there are portions of it that make it different from most people’s childhood, but here’s mine. My parents were never married, and they weren’t together long after I showed up so I don’t remember life with both my parents. In my early years I saw my dad on weekends and when we did scouts. So when he was first refurbishing the homestead I only saw it in bits and pieces. But I do remember when I did see it, my father gushed about the work he had done, and as his son I always thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. 

I moved to Minnesota with my mother and our family when I was ten, and a year later ended up moving back to the Cape to stay full time with my dad in the Homestead. I didn’t know it until recently but it seems my former stepmother had a hand in making that happen. None of that is really the different part, the different part was the house, because this was an old family home. At some point oil heat had been installed, but in its neglect, it stopped working. And though my father put all this sweat equity into refurbishing the house, he didn’t have the money, or the skillset to repair the oil heat. But what he did have was the experience of growing up in that house, heating it through cold New England Winters using firewood alone, and with the bog property at his disposal, an almost limitless supply of wood, as long as you were willing to work for it. 

All throughout the 90’s, a fair portion of my weekends over the fall and winter were spent cutting and chopping firewood. And although I know many people today who have a woodstove in their home, and cut their own firewood, they do that as a means to cut down on heating costs, we did it as the sole source of heat for the house. I can remember on certain winter nights the temperature would be expected to drop very low, and in order to keep everyone in the house comfortable, and also to keep the fire from dying, my father would sleep shirtless on the couch for the night. When he got too cold he would wake up, restock the woodstove, then be able to fall back asleep when it was warm enough. Allowing the rest of his family to sleep comfortably through the night. 

Although we all have unique experiences in our childhoods that make us who we are, I have been hard pressed to find other people my age, especially in the area I grew up in, who had wood fired heat in their home, but this episode isn’t about my childhood, this little story is just to highlight the differences of a couple generations of a family, that grew up in the same home.

In the dark forest lies a secret, told in broken stories by those who have borne witness, a monster, a murder, a long forgotten homestead. We’re on the search for the ghosts who haunt these places, and we want you to come along. 

Welcome to tales trails and taverns, here we take an active approach to finding places that people might warn you not to go. Haunted trails, abandoned towns, old taverns where you might catch a glimpse of a long deceased patron.

So, lace up your boots, grab a working flashlight, and join us as we tell the tales, hike the trails, and grab a cold pint at the local tavern.

In 1930 Avis baker, now 43, gave birth to Ralph Mailman Baker, my grandfather. This was her second child. Her first son Percy had stayed in Nova Scotia with her parents when she moved to Boston in 1922. Percy was born out of wedlock, the boy’s father had offered to marry Avis if she would convert to Catholicism, Avis was Lutheran, refused to convert, to marry him and kept her son. In 1926 Avis married Royce after meeting him in Maine and moved to the house in Santuit. 

It didn’t take very long for Avis to realize that living with Nelly in that home wasn’t going to work, so she found a job at the air force base, and cleaning clothes on the side she bought the house across the street from the homestead and moved herself and Ralph to their new home. Once there Avis sent for her older son in Canada to come and live with her. At first she told the people in town that Percy was Ralphs cousin, but bad gas travels fast in a small town and it wasn’t long before everyone knew the truth. Avis wanted Royce to leave the home as well, he decided to stay, asking for a divorce instead and offering child support in exchange for signing. Its at this point my aunt believes Avis cursed the homestead, saying that no one living in the home would ever be happy. 

Avis was able to raise both her boys, and later, when her sister passed, her two nephews and niece in that house by her own hard work. Royce may or may not have ever made any child support payments, but for the most part Avis didn’t seem to care until he decided to give his girlfriend’s child money to go see a movie, in front of Ralph, and didn’t give Ralph money to also go see a movie. Avis was rightfully pissed off and Royce found himself locked up for non-payment for a bit. 

When Ralph was in high school his aging mother was no longer able to work, so he decided to drop out in order to take care of her. The principal caught wind of this and wanted Ralph to stay in school, so on his way out the principal tried to stop him, confronting him in the hall near the top of a stairwell. Ralph, determined to do right by his family would not be so easily swayed, so much like his mother with the divorce lawyer, Ralph threw the principal down a full flight of stairs on the way out. 

At 59 Avis probably knew she was near the end, Percy was living in California and she wanted to see her oldest son before she became too ill to travel, so at sixteen Ralph, took his mother across country in a 1934 ford. Avis passed in California at the age of 61, leaving Ralph to drive himself back to the Cape at 18.

Unlike his father Royce, who was too young for World War one and too old for World War two, Ralph was just the right age to get drafted for Korea. And although Ralph was patriotic enough to step up when asked, he didn’t want to see front line action. Ralph had learned to hunt at a young age, not only that but he was a good shot, often taking deer with one shot, when others couldn’t even see the deer. So, in Army bootcamp Ralph realized that if he aimed straight, he was liable to find himself where he didn’t want to be. To avoid this Ralph shot at targets that weren’t his, helping the soldiers to his left and right to get better marks on the range. 

Unfortunately, Ralph was smart, and good with machines, those skills landed him as a tank mechanic, right where he didn’t want to be, near the front line, repairing tanks and other equipment knocked out of commission in the thick of it. Now what’s interesting to me, is that both my grandfathers served in Korea, my mothers father stayed on base most of the time, enlisted, jokingly claimed that he returned a hero, and would tell stories of Korea all the time. Ralph on the other hand was drafted, served near the front line, is said to have been awarded three bronze stars in 18 months, and never talked about it. I only really know about one thing he did while in country.

In Korea there was a hill, Ralphs company had taken it from the Korean army but took some pretty severe losses in gaining the foothold, so command was keen on keeping it. One of the weapons in their arsenal was a truck mounted quad fifty, it’s an anti-aircraft weapon that uses four fifty caliber machine guns. That machine can send a lot of hate and discontent into the air in a very short span. In the name of safety, this weapon is designed not to be able to be fired below a certain degree, great if you’re shooting at aircraft, but sitting atop a hill while the opposition charges up it, its useless. So, Ralph Is tasked with modifying the quad fifty, bypassing any safety functions and allowing it to shoot in all directions, even downhill. The Koreans advanced up the slope, making ground against the troops on the hilltop, the men probably believed they had nothing to fear from the truck mounted guns pointing directly at them. But as the first wave were within range of the Americans 9mm pistols the signal was given and the anti-aircraft gun, became an anti-personnel gun. 

I’m of the understanding that this, and everything else Ralph experienced in Korea affected him deeply. Knowing what war can do to people I cant imagine the guilt he must have carried from this. I can only speculate on how this defined his personality, moved him away from being known as the mean one in town like his father and grandmother, how it moved him to update the homestead as much as he did to accompany his growing family, to go against his fathers wishes and install the indoor plumbing, add a basement, enclose the side porch. The house I grew up in was built as much by Ralphs hands as it was by Oziels. Ralph who raised 7 kids in a four bedroom house that he shared with his father. Who was known for smoking a cigar dipped in bourbon. And even though my dad would talk about how they had powdered milk and molasses for their cereal in lieu of real milk and sugar, he never said he went hungry, or without shelter. 

Unfortunately, like his father, Ralph had a heart condition, one that he took medication for daily. One day he was in the machine shop next door to the homestead, it’s in the basement of the old screenhouse, it’s maybe a hundred foot walk up a small hill from one to the other. I’ve walked it countless times in my life. On this particular day Ralph had left his heart medication in the house while in the shop. He didn’t make it out of the shop. At least two of my uncles know the exact spot their father died that day. He was 55. 

I was two, I don’t remember Ralph, but he knew me, his third grandchild. When I was about sixteen I had a very vivid dream, I was walking down one of the dirt roads behind the homestead, along the edge of the second field, my grandfather was there, walking with me. He talked, I listened, I don’t remember what was said, but I had the feeling that he wanted to see me, see who I was, how I was, how I had turned out. Even though I knew it was Ralph, it wasn’t scary, it was comforting.

It was so much different than the terrifying experience my father had in the six months following Ralphs death.

Thanks for listening, I hope you’ve been enjoying these forays into my familys history, join us next Monday for the final episode of the Baker Homestead and Friday for our regular Friday episode, we have a good episode planned and, we just might have a way for you to come out and experience one of our creepy adventures with us. Until next time, get out in those dark woods, and find your spirits.