Effie Gott and the 109 Wreaths in Southwest Harbor
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: JACK RAYMOND
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Andy’s Home Improvement Inc.
This post was contributed by Jack Raymond.
Jack’s parents owned M.A. Clark in Ellsworth, which had been owned and established by Mary Ann Clark (1860–1943). According to the Ellsworth Historical Society, “Neal A. Raymond inherited Mary Ann Clark’s share of the business and continued to run it profitably for decades, opening a second location in Orono, ME. His son John continued the business after Neal’s death in 1956.”
ELLSWORTH AND SOUTHWEST HARBOR—Back in the late 60s, on a Saturday like this with new fallen snow, I was 17 or so, and pulled the short straw on an oddball delivery of arrangements from the greenhouse: a summer lady who owned some horse racing stables in Kentucky. Janet Brown, I think, had ordered 109 fir tip centerpieces to go to folk in Southwest Harbor and Manset. Each was beautifully decorated with cones and acorns, horse chestnuts, and reindeer moss. M.A Clark's put out a pretty nice product.
I'd arranged the load the night before in a Volvo wagon with about six long box tops of the centerpieces, another couple full of red bows, and a stack of boxes of candles. In the passenger seat were a box of cards for the recipients, a rash of card caddies, and a clipboard of the names and addresses.
I'd delivered everywhere after school for a year or more, from the day I got my license, but M.A. Clark's served from Cherryfield to Stonington, and all over MDI, but it was just spot deliveries to individual homes here and there. Sometimes a dozen to a funeral home but nothing like this.
All I knew of Southwest Harbor was Main Street, Clark Point Road, and Sawyers Market. I'd maybe been to Southwest Harbor a half dozen times on single arrangement deliveries.
THE IMPOSSIBLE TASK BEGINS
So at 7 in the morning, Dad gave me a $50 bill with instructions, "Don't come back til they're gone."
Mom walked me to the car and whispered, "Do what you can. You can always go back tomorrow."
By 8 a.m., I'm first in line at the Southwest Harbor post office getting directions for the first seven or so on my list. The line had built behind me, and I went to the back to wait and get directions for some more.
While I'm waiting, the postmaster spoke up and said, "Hey, Jack! I think I saw Effie Gott here is on your list."
He pointed to a woman in her sixties at the counter.
We walked out to the car, and she held my clipboard while I went through the process of putting a bow in a centerpiece, stuck a candle in it, went to the front seat and found her card, put it in a caddie, and then presented it to her with a "Merry Christmas."
She looked up from the clipboard and smiled. "You got room in there for me?"
"Do you need a ride home?"
"No, but it seems you need a little help."
She got in the passenger seat and said, "You know where the Manset store is?"
"Yes, ma'am?"
"I'm Effie. Head down there and we'll unload a dozen or so and have them call round. They'll love it. Then we'll head back this way because eight on your list don't start their bridge game until ten. Six or eight we can drop at the fire house and there's a rash we can get rid of at Sawyer's"
And this beautiful, laugh-filled, Christmas miracle kept up this lesson in Downeast get-er-done efficiency for three hours.
She'd spot an extra car in someone's driveway and laugh. "Bingo! Another four off the list!"
I dropped her home with my undying thanks, passed on an offer of lunch, and pulled back in the greenhouse loading bay a little after two.
THE MAIL ORDER WREATH AND GET-ER-DONE ATTITUDES
At Christmas there were normally 30-some employees at M.A Clark and it was a madhouse of activity. By the week before Christmas, this incredible crew were already exhausted. We'd just wrapped up the mail order wreath season.
Mom and Dad had kind of "invented" the mail order Christmas Wreath. By that time, we were number two for holiday shipments out of Maine behind L.L. Bean.
UPS would park an empty semi behind the loading bay and we'd fill it up by the end of the first week in December. I think we topped out in the mid-seventies with 6,500 boxes a year going all over the planet.
When I walked in the design room where a dozen folks were bustling about the Saturday before Christmas, the whole room went silent.
I'd decided on the ride home to put a dour, hang-dawg look on my face.
They all knew about the 109-piece impossible task I'd been handed. My older brother, Jeff, immediately ran out back to look in the Volvo.
I stuck my head in the business office window, and said sadly, "Mom, I'm tired and going over to the house and make some lunch."
She looked up with a flabbergasted, open mouth stare. I don't think she expected me back until Tuesday.
About five minutes later. Mom walked in the house while I'm making a sandwich. "Your father wants to know if you threw them off the bridge?"
"Nope, all delivered,” I said and pulled out the $50 and gave it to her. "And could you have them make up something really spectacular for Effie Gott, Main Street, in Southwest?"
Anyway, I rejoice in where I live, communities that help each other, strangers that step up and help a lost kid in need without hesitation.
And that's my wish for all of you this season. Whether you're on the lost side or the giving end, I hope you find each other.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
There is a great piece about M.A. Clark and her business via the Ellsworth Historical Society here.
There is a tribute for Jack’s brother, Joel, this January at the Grand.
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What a beautiful story ! She was a wonderful lady
Great reembrance, thanks Jack!