Remembering the good old days at the Grove

SALISBURY — There was a major controversy at the town Grove in the mid-1970s.

Jim Rutledge had taken over as manager from the legendary Frank Markey in 1976.

Markey started as Grove manager after its first year of operations, in 1951. During Markey’s 26-year tenure, the cash receipts from sales of candy and soda pop, boat rentals and odds and ends were kept in a cigar box.

Rutledge was under some pressure from the town to update the accounting.

“We heard they had invented this thing called a cash register,” said Rutledge to a full house in the Wardell Room of the Scoville Memorial Library on Saturday, Nov. 12, during a program about the history of the Grove, sponsored by the Salisbury Association Historical Society and the library.

The cash register was introduced. People didn’t like it.

“I blamed it on Town Hall,” said Rutledge.

Another change was made — from bottled soda to fountain drinks.

“So the kids couldn’t return the bottle for two pretzels” or 5 cents.

Markey had assembled a fleet of 34 wooden boats. (Rutledge said Markey built most of them, out of redwood, which was not an expensive material at the time.)

The boats had a live well under the center seat, which made them popular with fishermen, who could swap a smaller fish for a bigger one and stay within their bag limit.

The boats were cleaned every night, without fail, and maintained over the winter.

But eventually they had to be replaced, with aluminum boats that were less popular.

Rutledge said that fishermen used to call and ask to reserve the wooden boats.

One of Rutledge’s innovations was popular: the creation of a children’s area.

At the time, nobody was supposed to go on the grass at the Grove, especially youngsters.

Rutledge was reluctant to make any major changes in his first year, but he did designate a small area.

“I told them, I don’t care if you tear this grass up.”

Which they promptly did.

The only caveat was that the children were expected to clean their area up every evening.

“They did it all together.”

Rutledge also weathered the Great Petunia Controversy, in which a bed of petunias were replaced in favor of marigolds.

About three years after taking over the Grove management, Rutledge ran into Markey at the post office.

Markey said, “You know, Jim, you’ve done a good job.”

John Pogue remembered when a small airplane crashed into Lake Wononscopomuc in the fall of 1970.

He said two young men took off from the Westchester County airport in New York, had a mechanical failure that resulted in smoke in the cockpit, and tried an emergency landing in the lake.

At the last minute, the pilots spotted a boat and tried to adjust.

The plane cartwheeled into the water, and the pilots were killed.

The swimming raft was brought out to the crash site, with a winch attached, to pull out the wreckage.

Pogue said that during his time as Grove director, the opening day of trout season (until just recently the third Saturday in April) was a major event, with anglers arriving mid-afternoon the previous day to get in line.

The Boy Scouts stayed overnight in the Grove building in order to put on an early morning breakfast.

“The 1980s were a tumultuous time,” Pogue said. “Lakeville was supposed to be the new Hamptons.”

The Grove changed with the times, introducing floating fishing platforms and an enlarged children’s swimming area that became known as “The Yellow Sea.”

And the first weed control efforts began. They tried sterile carp, insects and draw-downs, with mixed results.

“We haven’t come up with a solution yet,” said Pogue.

Fred Romeo, in the audience, recalled the time in 1967 when a 26-pound, 13-ounce brown trout was found dead on the shore.

“If that had been caught with rod and reel, it would have been the fourth biggest in the world.”

For vintage photos and more memories of the Grove through the years, get the Nov. 24 Lakeville Journal.