By Dianne Graham
 

Loraine Juliette Theriault 

By the time Loraine Juliette (Juliette for July ) Theriault was born on July 17,1928, her mother, Caroline Marin Theriault had already given birth to thirteen of what would be seventeen children. Four of the first five had died very young. The first baby was premature surviving only twenty days, the second baby lived one day, the third a girl survived and lived a long life, the fourth child died of a fever at age two the fifth child died the same week at six months also of a fever. Eleven of the seventeen  survived childhood. As the new millennium settles into it's third year Loraine has celebrated her seventy-fifth birthday and seven other siblings are still living.
 
 

Loraine's ancestors were Acadian. There is an Acadian Festival once a year in Madawaska

Every year one Acadian family is honored. In 1993 the Theriault family was honored and a book was published on the Theriault Family. Loraine opens the book and proudly shares pictures of her family farm and several of her relatives. One is of her parents on their 50th wedding anniversary. They are smiling , one can sense joy and laughter in their faces. "My parents were hard workers, very hard workers. My mother always said ëhard work won't never killed anyone' she was living proof, because she lived to be 97 years old and my father lived 85 years." 

Her grandparents bought the farm where she grew up. It became her father's and then her brother's and soon a nephew will be tending the homestead. The property is much the same as when she grew up . The house is not far from the side of the road, the barn rises just behind, it is very large, dwarfing the house. There are a couple of smaller outer buildings, one which housed the chicken the other the potato house. There are many fond memories from the big farmhouse she grew up in Wallagrass, Maine. 

The house had a large living room in which the family occupied quite regularly. The parlor adjacent to the living room was always kept in perfect order, immaculate . The children were not allowed in the parlor, it was for the grownups and for company. When the priest came to visit , which he did at least once or twice a year to bless the house, the children would be allowed to come in an sit with their parents and listen to the priest. All the house was clean, of course, in fact every Saturday was cleaning  day and everyone had choirs. Loraine's chore was to scrub the floors and shake the rugs. Twice a year everything was scrubbed , including the walls, ceilings, floors, cupboards everything, top to bottom, the house had a thorough cleaning.

On the first floor along with the living room and the parlor there was a huge kitchen and a dining room that could seat twenty. . The second floor had four bedrooms and the attic was finished off, that is where the boys all slept . A section of the attic was set up as a play area for the children. Loraine remembers the day they got running water in the house, she also remembers the outhouse and the "inside pots" that were used at night time when "mother nature" called. There was a huge basement where the p otatoes for the family and the salt pork were kept for winter.

Loraine was always a tom boy and her fondest memories are of running and playing outside around the big house, and especially playing softball, she loved to play softball.

Freshman year of high school she went to live with an older brother and his wife in Connecticut 

to help them out as they had small children and borders to keep . It was difficult for Loraine to go to a new school but the family was always close and they helped one another whenever they could. Before Loraine left home her mother told her "NO BATS and NO BALLS" One day her brother and his wife went grocery shopping they decided to take the children, Loraine found herself with a rare free afternoon. The weather was nice, the neighbors were playing ..softball. Ah.. why not? She had no duties. She went to  play. Her first time at bat she a had a hit, she began to run, she tripped, fell and broke her leg. She had to stay in the hospital six weeks. She should never have played softball. Her mother had told her "no softball". Poor Loraine she ended up a burden to her brother and his family and not so much help.. 

Loraine's family was not wealthy, they were potato farmers they worked hard , but they had a good life. Loraine would say they were poor farmers. They owned their land, their home, and that was important. They always had enough food . Always, they had potatoes, chickens, pigs, cows, and they raised other vegetables. She is still in awe of her parents who worked hard, very hard. The family never had a vacation . With eleven children just going the five miles to church on Sundays was an challenge. In the win ter there was "slide" (sleigh) with benches lined up along each side and in the summer a wagon . One of her older sisters had a car after she was married and she would come and make a few trips to the church and back. It may have been difficult but they all went to church, every Sunday. Someone would stay behind to watch the dinner that was cooking. The family never took trips or vacations. Loraine went to Bangor for the first time after she was married.
 
 

They were a happy family and on Sunday afternoons the neighbors would arrive and the grownups would set up small square tables where they would play a cards. They played a game called Charlemanque . A four person game. The children would be permitted to sit at the table corners and watch, while the adults played . This is how the children learned the game, by watching . But they must sit quietly, until it was their bedtime. Loraine would go to bed and then sneak out, lie on her stomach and watch from the b alcony until she would get caught and sent back to bed , many of her brothers and sisters joined her in this escapade. Tody when the grown children get together there is always a game of Charlemanque. Often one of the neighbors would bring along a cake and they would have coffee and cake.

The children never fought, they did what was asked of them. Her childhood was pleasant and she respected and loved her parents with tremendous devotion. Although there was a piano in the house no one played it. Her mother had played the accordion when she was a young girl, but something had broke on the accordion and it was never repaired. Her mother did not mind she said, as with so many children there was no time for playing the accordion. But Loraine's mother would sing. She sang all the time in French  of course for that was the language spoken in the household and in all the households in Wallagrass. Loraine reminisces and sings a lovely tune her mother sang to often her as a child, one which Loraine also sang to her children.

Loraine spoke French at home , the community in Wallagrass was completely French. French spoken everywhere, except in school. School was taught in English, except for a small French reader. Loraine can still picture the little blue book in which she began to learn to read in French. The teachers were French and the children would eventually have to go to high school in Fort Kent, five miles in the other direction from the church she attended on Sundays. In the High School only English was spoken and so the  children must learn in English. As a child she could converse in French but reading and writing in French was something she had to learn later on in her life . Today she listens to French music and reads french books. When she visits her granddaughter in Halifax, who is fourteen, they converses in French. The granddaughter ha been in French immersion courses and speaks the language well. 

All of the children graduated from High School except for one older sister who was needed at home, She did get her GED later on and in fact went to beauty school and opened a beauty salon which ran until she had to retire. Loraine's parents moved off the farm for a few years and went to work in Connecticut so that they could ear some Social Security so they could retire. There was no retirement in farming. After a few years they moved back to the farm living in a smaller house they had built for a brother  who at that time moved into the bigger house. Two pf he brothers went to college and one sister went to teachers college , however that sister dropped out after the second year so her parents decided not to send any more of the girls as they might do the same. Loraine took "commercial" courses in High school which seen to be similar to accounting and secretarial course. She graduated and moved to Fort Kent after landing a job win the Superintendent's office. She earned $15 dollars a week room and board was  $10 a week left very little for anything extra . After six months she received a $2 raise. This was how she met her first husband who was a teacher. He was French also and he was from Saint Frances. They were married on November 25th 1947 during a big snowstorm. The wedding was two hours late.

Her father thought they should wait until the next day but Loraine would have nothing to do with that , she said she was getting married that day and she did , storm or no storm. 
 
 

Loraine and her husband moved to Calais where he worked at the High School as a guidance counselor and she worked in the office at the Georgia Pacific in Woodland . They had five children, four boys and one girl. One son died premature another son died when he was 25 . After they moved to Calais in 1961 she spoke only English and tried to fit in. Her children would not respond to her speaking in French, they only wanted to speak English. Her husband died five years after they moved to Calais. Six years lat er she met her second husband, they were married on October 23, 1972. 

Loraine is now a widow for the second time, she is retired now for ten years and enjoys her life. She is very active at her church and she travels to visit her children and grand children and her grown brothers and sisters. She is an avid bridge player. Today she is very proud of her French heritage and does not feel any need to suppress who she is or her roots.  One of her favorite French foods is a meat pie she makes at Christmas time called Tourchere which she promises to give me the recipe for. Her heroine is her Mother, who never, never complained about anything , she was always pleasant and kind and was never afraid of anything. 
 
 

It was a joy to meet Loraine and interview her. I hope this is the beginning of a long friendship! Merci Loraine!