Joe Denning has been an active resident of the town of Bristol for decades, both as a teacher and community volunteer, as well as a father of three. He spoke with his niece, Cynthia Westfall, about how the rural town took him in as young boy and shaped the man he came to be.
Joe Denning: Everything that's good in my life happened right here in Bristol, New Hampshire. Can't beat that.
Cynthia Westfall: How long have you lived in the area?
Denning: Most of my life. I'm 80 years old. I was born in Boston, moved up here the first time when I was 8.
My parents had split up early in my life when I was about 4. My father had remarried, and although he still worked in Boston, he thought this was a place to come and live.
So he and my stepmother and my two brothers decided they wanted to go back to Boston. So back we went. I was there for about a week and didn't want to stay. Missed Bristol, even at that age — spoke with my father about it. My stepmother objected. He basically said, you know, 'Go where you want to go.'
I had saved some money working at this place called Cardigan Sports Store. So I bought a train ticket and took a train to the Franklin Station there in Franklin, New Hampshire, and took a cab from there to 19 South Main St., which was my father's house, still was open. I had a key, so there I was.
Yeah, well, it was interesting.
Westfall: Couldn't do that these days, could you?
Denning: You wouldn't want to know.
Westfall: So were you on your own? Did you stay on your own?
Denning: Well, for a while I did. That summer? Yeah, that summer I stayed by myself. Well, if you want to call it that... we had a few card games there.
Westfall: So Cardigan Sports sounds like it was a very important part of your early life. Why did it make such an impact?
Denning: Cardigan Sports is where life really began for me, and that was that was the place where I met two big forces in my life.
And I got to know Luther and Chet, and they'd let me sweep out the place. And they both did their best at everything they did. I swear I was 25 before I found out you did not have to work 70 hours a week to make a living. I thought everybody did that. I never asked...
Just as I say, Luther and Chet became really my mentors. And Chet became a parent to me. At the end of that first summer, my father had sold the house and I needed a place. Chet hunted me out. I'd gone somewhere for lunch and [he] asked me if I wanted to come and live with him and [his wife] Ruth. Those two people changed my life totally.
Westfall: So how do you think Bristol has changed over the years?
Denning: I mean, there's a physical change. Yes, definitely.
But the way it hasn't is I think the people are still really good people who will give you a hand or a handshake — rather than a hand to the head, which is what's happening in most of the world.
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This conversation was recorded as a partnership between Minute Sleeper Library in Bristol, New Hampshire, and StoryCorps, and will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
