Famed Girl Athlete Now a Milkman: The Biography of Beatrice Arbour Parrott

By Jenny Parrott

Famed Girl Athlete Now a Milkman is the life story of Beatrice Arbour Parrott, a Canadian immigrant who grew up in Catholic French-speaking Massachusetts during the Great Depression. Her story is one of self discovery, survival, and living her life despite cultural hurdles of patriarchy and poverty. Bea’s legacy is huge. She started the first girls’ sports programs in Somerset, was the first woman in town to earn a man’s wage, and she played for the Racine Bells in the All American Girls’ Professional Baseball League during WW2. This history was written over 18 months of interviews, meals, and fun times with her Grandchild, Jenny Parrott.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jenny Parrott
• Release date: Nov 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005522247

Book preview

Famed Girl Athlete Now A Milkman

The Biography of Beatrice Arbour Parrott

Copyright 2012 by Jenny Parrott

Second Edition 2022

All Rights Reserved

Published by Jenny Parrott at Smashwords

Cover Photo on loan from Bea

Cover and Book Design: Charles ‘Catfish’ Clark

Squishy Aquarium Press Austin TX

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold

or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,

please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did

not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to

Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

1. Biography 2. Gender Studies 3. Baseball

Dedicated to Juno Newcomb, Arbour Parrott, Oliver and Apollo Howell, Chloe and Abigail Cunningham,

Stella Martins, Jared Depina, Taylah and Aiden Pelote, and Jackson Dailey- stay woke kids!

Contents

Chapter 1: Wearing Pants in America

Chapter 2: Clovis Arbour or The Gypsies* are coming!

Chapter 3: Roland’s Birthday or The Great New England Hurricane of 1938

Chapter 4: Schooling

Chapter 5: Childhood & Poverty During the Depression, or Put It in the Bank & Creampuffs

Chapter 6: The GasPEE Peninsula and Boring Old Mrs. Roy

Chapter 7: Grandma becomes an adult!

Chapter 8: Grandma in the Even Bigger City!

Chapter 9: WWII, Politics, Naturalization, and Earning a Man’s Wage

Chapter 10: We found out we could do something or Making History by Just Being Herself

Chapter 11: Beatrice Meets Don

Chapter 12: The Parrott Kids: Sue, Mike, Donnie and Billy or It was Hamburg to her

Epilogue

Obituary

Acknowledgements

About the Author

*Author does not condone use of word gypsy.

Chapter One: Wearing Pants in America

Grandma was born Marie Beatrice Arbour on December 2, 1920 in Bonaventure, Quebec, the year women got voting rights in America. My great grandmother, Zelia Arbour, immigrated to America with Beatrice and her three other children, Concord, Roland, Louis in 1922. After selling their possessions and leaving a note for her husband Clovis to meet them in Massachusetts when- ever his seasonal work as a lumberjack was over, they made the trek to America. They spoke mostly French.

The family immigrated to Massachusetts under the sponsorship of the Forrest family in Pottersville, Massachusetts, a neighborhood in Somerset named for the amount of potters living and working there. Mr. Forrest had grown up across the street from Zelia and they remained in touch after he moved to Somerset to start Forrest Music, a music retail store. Grandma's very first memory is of a harp the Forrests' kept in their living room. She remembers looking at the harp while her mother did the Forrests' housework. Zelia was the only woman Gram knew growing up who had a job. The Forrests had a son who was a great violinist. Gram specifies that he didn't play honky tonk, but real violin. He lost his arm in an accident and could no longer play. While Zelia worked, little Bea had to sit in a chair while mom cleaned house so "I wouldn't do anything wrong. The only reason I remember is because this BIG HARP was there. It would go pling! One day when the Forrests were out my mother was dusting. I asked my mother if I could touch it and she said yes. I got a turn. One turn! That's all I remember about that house."

Life in Depression-era Pottersville was something! Grandma is fond of reminding me how they had no extras, like ''us kids have nowadays. Grandma doesn't know the exact birth dates of most of her three older siblings. Because they had no money, birthdays came and went like every other day. Grandma describes her mother as strict, nice and hardworking, someone who didn't take any bologna." I, in accordance with my generation, try to attach meaning to everything and as I ask Grandma questions, she often doesn't know or care about the meaning! So knowing that Zelia worked her whole life and that life for women was so different back then, I ask Gram what was expected of her from her parents.

Nothing I guess. I never heard any complaints and I never heard any goals, so God knows what they expected, and then, Maybe they gave up on me! Hahaha!

To me, Gram has always been famous for NEVER wearing dresses and skirts. It's always slacks. But back in the 1920's, Grandma had to wear dresses and "ankle socks'' to Pottersville Public School. Zelia was a talented seamstress and made clothes for her husband, kids and other families. When Gram was a little older, she asked her mother to make her some pants. Zelia said no. Gram thought about it some