Guilford’s oldest resident turns 100

By Lisa Rowe Fraustino

GUILFORD – Over 100 friends and relatives gathered at the Riverbend Community Room on Saturday, May 3 to celebrate the 100^th birthday of Guilford’s oldest resident, Barbara Reardon. Guests ranged from her newest great-great grandchild Hazel Stapp (two weeks) to her oldest remaining first cousin Richard Ladd (92).

Barbara Evangeline Ladd was born on May 2, 1925 in Dover, “before Dover and Foxcroft got married,” she quipped. Barbara and her two younger sisters grew up in Guilford Center on a large dairy farm.

When asked about her childhood memories, Barbara recalled walking over a mile to school. She enjoyed learning, seeing other children and going to her grandmother’s house for lunch.

“I loved spending weekends with Grammy Noyes, too,” Barbara said. “No-yes, isn’t that a funny name?” 

Barbara helped out on the farm, milking cows by hand until her father became one of the first farmers in the area to install milking machines. There wasn’t electricity in town yet, but the Ladds powered the farm with their own generator. 

By age 13 Barbara was driving around the farm in an old jitterbug. “And sometimes I probably drove out on the road when I wasn’t supposed to.”

On hot summer days Barbara enjoyed drinking cool spring water that was piped straight to their kitchen sink. Refrigerators as we know them hadn’t been invented yet. Blocks of ice were cut from the lake in the winter and stored in sawdust all year for use in the chilling tank out in the milk room. For cooling, they would lower items down on ropes.

“We didn’t have an icebox inside the house, but Grammy Noyes did. She kept it out in the hall so it wouldn’t leak all over the kitchen.”

On Sept. 6, 1941 Barbara married her childhood friend Dana Reardon. “We went to Goodwin’s Dance Hall every Saturday night. We would waltz and foxtrot, contra dance and four-hands-around. They had a great big wash boiler where they served up the most delicious hot dogs and rolls with a Coke for a treat. Boy was that fun!”

The young couple were just starting their family when Dana was drafted into the military near the start of World War II. Barbara returned to the farm with their baby Carole Linda to wait for Dana’s return.

“At the farm we had a battery radio. We had our heads right in that radio listening for what was going to happen in that war. It was a very scary war and traumatic,” Barbara recalled. “Dana was in the 7^th fleet with Admiral Halsey in Tokyo Bay when the war ended.”

Barbara and Dana went on to have three more children: Lorraine, Parker and Mary. The family eventually settled down in an old farmhouse on High Street in Guilford, where they had electricity and soon got their first television. “We bought it from P.E. Ward’s store and paid $2 per week on installment.”

The house on High Street was also where the Reardons got their first telephone, which had an old-fashioned handle and ringer, just like in the movies. “Dana didn’t want to pay for it, but I told him I wouldn’t move unless we got a phone!” Back then they had to call the central operator to make a connection for them. 

In 1965 Barbara and Dana started building a camp on Manhannock Pond in Sangerville. Over the years the family made a compound of camps. Barbara’s nine grandchildren grew up spending happy summers there.

Barbara worked at Hardwood Products for over 40 years, retiring in 1994 to relax at camp. She also spent many years devoted to the American Legion and the Guilford Memorial Library. “The library was always my pet,” she said. “I was on the library board for decades and am still an honorary member. I worked a lot on the library and helped raise money to build the new addition. That’s a lovely library now.”

When asked what she would like to be remembered for, Barbara said with no hesitation, “Being a mother and grandmother and loving my family!” 

Barbara and Dana had four children, nine grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and 15 great-great grandchildren — with one more due any day now. 

Happy first century, Barbara!