SPOTLIGHT ON: MYRON H. RIDLON – Kezar Falls Druggist

 Myron Ridlon played an important role in the community as the local pharmacist and was known by everyone.  His soda fountain provided a popular spot for socializing by young and old alike. 

Myron H. Ridlon was born in Porter on August 14, 1883, a son of Herbert L. and Ella (Davis) Ridlon.  He was one of six children.  He attended local schools and in 1908 graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in pharmacy.  He worked in Portland, Presque Isle and North Conway to gain practical experience and passed the exam to become a registered pharmacist in February 1910.  

In April of 1910 he purchased the E. P. Ham drugstore located next to Norton Hardware on the Parsonsfield side of Kezar Falls Village.  After only a few weeks he sold the building and moved the business across the bridge to River Street, Porter on the ground floor of what later became the Garner Gym and Kezar Falls Fire Department building.  He remained there for 13 years.

In 1922 he bought property on Bridge Street next to the river and erected a two-story building with an apartment above, where he relocated in 1923. He continually upgraded the store many times over the years as he not only dispensed prescriptions and over the counter medicines, but had a soda fountain, sold ice cream and had a few tables for the comfort of his patrons.  As drugstores do today, he also sold magazines, funny books, personal items, etc. to his many customers so it was a popular drop-in spot for local residents not just for medicines.  He carried on his business; open from 6:00 am to 9:00 p.m. daily and 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm on Sunday for 43 years. He also had a side business as an insurance agent for 43 years.

He married Grace Ethel Davis on Sept. 11, 1906 and they had a son, M. George Ridlon, a daughter Eleanor (Ridlon) Ortlieb, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. 

Myron was an active member of the local community.  He was a charter member of the Kezar Falls-Cornish Kiwanis Club; a member of the Ossipee Lodge, Knights of Pythias; a member of the Riverside Methodist Church; a member of the Costello Tribe, IORM; and the Greenleaf Masonic Lodge.  He also was a member of the old Kezar Falls band, playing the cornet and baritone horn.  He was the founder of the “Colcord Bears”, a local men’s group who spent the first weekend in November deer hunting and the first weekend in February ice fishing every year for 26 years. 

Mr. Ridlon became ill and passed away at the age of 83, November 29, 1966 and is buried in the Kezar Falls Burial Grounds.  The drugstore closed at the time of his death and never reopened as a pharmacy.  His nephew, Myron Locke opened it as a variety store with the soda fountain and snack bar in January 1967.

MARCH HAS ARRIVED. WELCOME SPRING!

 In spite of the rollercoaster temperatures and weekly snowstorms, March heralds the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.  Here in Maine, we await with anticipation the appearance of green leaves, spring flowers, mild weather and longer days. We start planning our gardens and think summer can’t be far behind.

Daylight Savings Time begins on March 13th this year.  By setting clocks ahead one hour we take advantage of the daylight hours.  Germany was the first to establish Daylight Savings Time in 1916 during WWI as a way to save electricity and Great Britain soon followed.  The U.S. Congress passed its first Daylight Savings law in 1918 but it was repealed a year later.  It became a local option until WWII when President Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Savings Time, called “War Time” from 1941 to 1945 to save energy.  There was no federal law then until 1966 and a hodgepodge of time observances based on local laws and customs caused a great deal of confusion and controversy. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 finally established a system of uniform Daylight Savings Time throughout the U.S. and its possessions, exempting only those states in which the legislatures voted to keep the entire state on standard time.  There have been revisions since, the last being in 2007 which set the start date at 2:00 am on the second Sunday of March and end date at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of November.  Although it is still controversial today, all but a few states follow it to be consistent for interstate commerce and travel.

Let’s turn to the Farmer’s Almanac for more information about spring.

Astronomically speaking the first day of spring is marked by the spring equinox which falls on March 19, 20 or 21 depending on the time zone. Day and Night are close to being equal on the equinox. This year it falls on March 20.  (In the Southern Hemisphere it announces the arrival of fall.)  Interestingly, there isn’t a March 21 equinox in the mainland U.S. again this century. 

Meteorologically speaking, the official first day of spring is March 1st. Weather scientists divide the year into quarters to make it easier to compare seasonal and monthly statistics from one year to the next. Meteorological seasons are based on annual temperature cycles rather than the position of Earth in relation to the sun.

Either way, we will be looking for signs of spring in nature all around us. And with the advent of spring, the Parsonsfield-Porter Historical Society becomes active again planning this year's meetings, events and the new exhibit at History House.

We are excited to begin our 2022 season. Watch for our spring newsletter, this blog and the shopping guide ads for the upcoming calendar of events as we begin the new season. We hope to see you soon.

Spotlight on Dr. Paul C. Marston

 

Paul C. Marston was born in Brownfield, ME April 16, 1900 to Dr. Clarence H. and Lula (Richardson) Marston.

He graduated from Fryeburg Academy in 1917 and Bowdoin College in 1921.

He taught for a few years at Franklin High School, Bean Memorial High School in Brownfield, Potter Academy at Sebago and Kennett High School in Conway, NH. 

It was during this period in 1924 he married Sylvia H. Brooks.  They had two daughters, Sylvia (Marston) Garner and Mary (Marston) Waye.  

In 1928 he decided to become a doctor and enrolled at the medical college of the University of Vermont graduating cum laude in 1932.  He interned at the Maine General Hospital in Portland, ME and set up practice at Freedom, NH for four years.  In 1937 he came to Kezar Falls where he practiced for the remainder of his career.

During WWII Dr. Marston joined the 67th Maine Medical Unit and served for three years in a Taunton, England hospital.  He left active duty as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Medical Corps and resumed his practice.  His offices were upstairs from the living quarters of his modest white house in Kezar Falls, a small village of some 2,500 people.  His wife, Sylvia, answered the phone when he was out and helped in his office.

Dr. Marston was an old-fashioned country doctor, one of the few left by the 1970’s and ‘80s.  Several articles were written about him at that time.  One written in 1981 had the following to say about him. -----

“Paul Marston is an 81-year-old doctor who still goes out in the dead of night to make house calls.  This feisty great grandfather is the only doctor in a rural area to thousands of patients who have come to depend on the kindhearted man as a lifeline to health.

Despite blizzards and freezing winter nights, despite knee deep snow, they know when somebody’s sick the Doc will always show up.  ‘I always go when I’m called’, said the kindly country doctor who has been looking after folks around Kezar Falls, Me for more than 40 years.

‘Medicine should be practiced the way I practice it’, he said. ‘The public wants a little tender loving care and I give it to them.  When people are sick and call at night I’ve got to go see them.  What else are they going to do?’….. ‘A doctor works for the benefit of his patients and you can’t do it without making house calls.’

So, half a dozen times a day or more, Dr. Marston grabs his weathered black bag and hops into one of his 3 cars – all equipped with 2-way radios, so he can keep in touch with his office in case of an emergency.

He winds his way up and down mountain roads until he arrives at the home of a woman too ill or too old to drive to his office or at the bedside of a little boy two feverish to leave the house.  And even if the drive is 20 miles long and the freezing wintery New England wind howls outside, he still only charges $20 for a house call.  ‘I’ll never get rich, but I have a lot of fun and I was able to educate my daughters’, says the man who has 2 daughters, 8 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.

Dr. Marston has delivered thousands of babies and treated three generations of the same families.  Patients never forget the incredibly caring man.  He gets many letters a year from grateful patients who have long since moved from the hills Maine.

Doctor Marston was active in local affairs, was a past president of the Cumberland County Medical Association, the American Academy of General Practitioners and he was on the staff of the Maine Medical Center.

When time permitted, he enjoyed fishing, hunting and gardening and his camp in West Baldwin.

He died Oct. 4, 1985.  His wife died in 2004.  Both are buried in the Kezar Falls Burial Grounds.