Editor’s note: Donald Orne, 84, is a lifelong Marblehead resident whose family has been part of the town for generations. His father, Bud Orne, owned the barber shop at 120 Pleasant St., where the family also lived. Bud Orne also started Marblehead Youth Hockey and served as Rec & Parks commissioner.
This series shares Don’s memories of growing up in Marblehead during the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.
I was born at 4:40 a.m. on Aug. 8, 1942, at the old Mary Alley Hospital to Muriel and Bud Orne in Marblehead. My mother’s friend, nurse Betty Goodwin, delivered me.
It was 1945 and World War II, and my father was serving in the Navy. My mother was my sole caretaker at our home on Sewall Street. We lit a candle every night until my dad came home.
On my third birthday, my appendix burst. My mother had no car and took me by bus to Salem Hospital. The doctor said she got me there just in time and absolutely saved my young life.
My father, Bud Orne, came home from the war and returned to his barber shop, originally located where Starbucks is today. My father, along with the other returning men, realized it was the women who were the glue that held everything together, keeping things safe at home during the war. In Bud’s case, Muriel kept his barber shop operating so he would have a business when he returned from World War II.
Our first home was at 9 Sewall St., purchased with a $3,000 GI loan. The house needed a lot of work, but Bud had six friends who had learned building trades during the war and were willing to lend a hand. They agreed to help each other renovate their homes, saving thousands of dollars in the process. Those savings allowed each family to own a home that would grow in value for years to come.
Meanwhile, Muriel and her women friends encouraged the men with daily lunches, snacks and beverages while they tackled the hard manual labor, day after day and month after month, until each home was finished. When the work was done, the men were ready to begin full- or part-time jobs in the public sector. They all agreed that working as a team, with fun, love and pride, was the way to begin the next part of their lives.
Marblehead was a small town growing by leaps and bounds in the late 1940s and needed more than a two-man barber shop to serve the many men who needed regular haircuts.
My father started looking around Pleasant Street. It was a busy downtown with a movie theater, grocery stores, bars, doctors’ offices, dry cleaners and other businesses. When he saw a large three-story Victorian building with a big backyard, he saw his future before him.
He walked inside and found only one person: an elderly woman named Mrs. Reed.
To be continued…
