Q&A with Al and Dot Bell

A lifetime together

Alfred and Dorothy “Dot” Bell, of Scarborough, ages 95 and 92, respectively, have been married 72 years as of June 3. Although Dot, who has Parkinson’s disease, lives now at the Pine Point Nursing Home, Al continues to live at the home the couple built in 1948.

The couple has now been together for as long as the expected American lifespan. Recently, they took time to share the story of their lives with Current readers.

Q: When and where were you born?

Al: I was born May 21, 1916, in Anson. I was brought up in Hartland.

Dot: I was born Feb. 5, 1918, in a blizzard. My folks were living in Portland at the time and they came out to visit my grandparents. I came along very unexpectedly.

I was born right here on Route 1, across from Dunstan Cemetery. The house is still there, next to the old school house there. They didn't have any clothes for me, but I had an aunt who lived over on the Payne Road and my father walked over there to get some clothes for me.

I was four years old when my parents bought the farm, at the corner of the Beech Ridge Road and West Beech Ridge Road.

Q: So, how did the two of you meet?

Dot: We met the night before my 21st birthday. We were introduced by a mutual friend at Olive Carter's Dance Hall, over on Broadturn Road, here in Scarborough. It had the nicest floor in the state of Maine to dance on. It was big and it was a nice floor.

Al: It was a maple floor. She had it finished real good. It's not there now. The building was gone years ago.

Q: Was Olive’s the place to go for young people at the time?

Dot: It was a nice place where my cousin and I, and other girls, could go unchaperoned to meet fellows and dance with them and such.

Al: I had a friend who said it was a good place to go. I didn't know how to dance anyway. I never really learned how.

Dot: No, he had two left feet.

But that was only the first time we were formally introduced. I had seen him before. I was a maid in Cape Elizabeth, for one of the “four-dollar millionaires” out there. That's what we used to call them. And he worked for White Brother’s grocery store. It was at the last stop on the trolley line, across from where the Cookie Jar Restaurant is now.

Q: What’s a “four-dollar millionaire?”

Dot: It's somebody who doesn't really have anything, but acts like they do.

Q: What did you do on your first date?

Al: Oh, we went to Old Orchard and had a hot dog.

Dot: And we were married four months later.

Q: Really? That sounds like a whirlwind romance. How did you propose?

Dot: He took me to see this house, a brand new place in Gorham that was owned by a fella he worked with at the grocery store.

Al: I took my father and stepmother to see it first. I was trying to find them a better place. I took them over in the morning, but she said she wouldn't live in it. It was two miles from Gorham Corner and she said, “I'm not going to stay that far away from a store.” So, that afternoon I took Dot out to see it.

Dot: We got into the driveway and he said, “How'd you like to live in that?”

Al: She said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Well, I mean we'll get married and move into it.” She said, “When can you set a date?” So we went right on down to the parsonage. Today, we'd have moved in anyway. But back then you always got married if you wanted to live with a person. The rent was $15 a month, including $3 for the light bill.

Dot: Of course, we didn't have lights when we first moved in. We didn't have a big church wedding because that was in hard times, in 1939. My folks didn't have money enough to do it.

Al: No sir. I paid the minister $5 to get married and we disappeared. We went on a honeymoon, straight to Old Orchard, and had dinner.

Q: You bought a farm, but were forced to give it up after the war. What did you do then?

Dot: Well, we went to my folks and said, “Can we swap a car for a lot?”

Al: Yup, a '34 Chevy. He was in an accident and needed a car. I didn't really need the Chevy as I had two cars, so I said, “I'll give you that for a house lot.” They had 49 acres that they'd paid $1,200 for in 1922. They were just paying it off when we got married and for the car we got 12 acres.

Dot: That's where we've lived from 1947 until now, on West Beech Ridge Road. We lived in my folks’ house that first winter while they went to Florida. Then we moved into our own house while it was still being worked on.

Al: It was just the first floor when we moved in. That's what I did at night, worked on the house. I worked on it 15 years before I finally got it finished. I am proud of the fact that I never had a mortgage. But, of course, when we moved into that house, you wouldn't believe the condition it was in. They wouldn't let you do that today. Nowadays, you've got to have an occupancy permit.

Q: What did you do for work during the day?

Dot: He worked 10 years for the school department. He drove a bus and was janitor at the Dunstan School.

Al: I drove three routes a day. When I got through they couldn't find anybody to do that amount of work. They had to hire two people.

Dot: He also worked for my brother in the construction business and he was also a reserve police officer for Scarborough for 15 years.

Al: I only did that part-time in the summers, when Scarborough Downs was running, and Beech Ridge Speedway. I used to work at both of them.

I did work on the Big 20 bowling alley, when they put that in. We used a 16-foot level. There was an old-timer running that level. Us younger ones weren't allowed to touch it. We did the hard work driving nails and such.

But anyway, I left the school because I had a chance to go into Sani-Clean Distributors, a janitorial supply company, as an inside sales operator. Eventually, I got to be in charge of buying everything. I was 26 years with the company and was 71 years old and I got fired.

Q: And did you work outside the home, Dot?

Dot: My job was in the home, until the children were older. We had four of our own, and one foster daughter. Then, I worked 35 years at the Cascade Inn during the season as a waitress and hostess.

I used to come home from the Inn nights, sleep a few hours and get up to get the kids off to school, do my work, do wash in a wringer washer, get produce out of the garden and be off to work again. I don't know how I did it.

Al: Meanwhile, I'd work seven in the morning to six at night at Sani-Clean, then come home, sleep an hour, then go do police work until maybe one in the morning.

Q: That sounds like a busy life. How many children do you have?

Al: Our oldest boy, Bruce, lives in Scarborough. He was assistant superintendent of public works in Portland for about 30 years. Jack lives in Dennistown and he did well in construction. Out daughter, Linda Ryder, lives in Owens, Md., and our youngest, Jolene Conner, lives in Scarborough. Our foster daughter – we just call her our daughter – is Jacquelyn Bown, and she lives in Rangeley.

Q: And what about grandchildren, and great grandchildren?

   

Dot: We have 15 grandchildren of our own and three foster grandchildren. We have how many great-grandchildren?

Al: Oh, hell, I don't know. I think it's nine.

Q: And what’s your secret for staying married so long?

Al: I joke with people that we maybe had an argument of some kind every day of our lives, just never with any fists. I'd just walk away when she'd get so mad.

Dot: And then I'd slam the door after him. That's how we settled it.