~ THOSE WERE THE DAYS ~ By VIRGINIA McNEIL SLEP 

Published in the July 26, 2018 edition

From the Flint Memorial Hall back to the Grange Hall isn’t far at all. Just a two minute walk, and we’ve completed our tour around the Common as it was back when I was growing up in North Reading in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

I can’t say much about the Weeks Memorial Library… now known as the Damon Tavern… because the library didn’t move from the Flint building to that building until after I started college. My use of the library during those years was limited to summer reading… and then I moved away. When I was a child, I just saw the building as another big white house, and I sometimes used to wonder if anybody lived there… but I never knew it had been a tavern.

That leaves the Putnam House, now the home of the North Reading Historical and Antiquarian Society… and the traffic island with the plaque dedicated to Sgt. Eugene R. Moreau. Neither of those places existed in their current form back when I was a kid, but we had something a whole lot better.

We had Mr. Putnam and we had Eugene Moreau.

When I was a kid, I never knew that Mr. Putnam, owner of the Putnam House, had a first name. Everybody in town called him “Put,” and if you mentioned Put, everybody knew immediately who you were talking about. During all my years in North Reading schools, Put was the custodian of the Batchelder School. I remember him as a quiet man… a quintessential New England man of few words… but he kept the Batchelder School spotless, and kept all its operating systems in perfect condition. Many times a teacher would send a student to the principal’s office with a note asking for Put’s help with something. Years later, when a PA system was installed, the school secretary would have to call him many times every day. (My mother, Tess McNeil, served as Batchelder School secretary for many years, and she refused to call him “Put.” She said it was disrespectful, and she would always make the announcement: “Mr. Putnam, please call the office.”)

Everybody knew Put’s house. It was impressive even then… clearly very old, very big, and rather worn looking… but a wonderful New England house nonetheless. Put certainly didn’t have to travel far to get to work… just across in front of the Grange Hall to the school. I recall seeing him driving an old black car sometimes… but my most vivid memory is of him driving around the center of town in his old red tractor. That red tractor was sort of his trademark… and I remember seeing him driving it in the town’s Centennial Parade in June, 1953. The parade wouldn’t have been complete without Put and his old tractor.

And then there was Eugene Moreau.

SGT. EUGENE R. MOREAU, Class of 1960
(NRHS 1960 Yearbook Photo)

I first met Eugene when we were in Miss Pearson’s second grade class at the Batchelder School… the class that started in the Campbell House and moved to the brand new addition in January. Eugene went all through school with us, and graduated with the Class of 1960. I have his autograph in my yearbook.  

Eugene played football at NRHS, was elected Class Treasurer, and was elected to the Student Council. Everybody liked and respected him. And everyone – students and teachers – knew about his legendary ability to draw.

Each year, when we were issued textbooks in September, the teachers would tell us to cover our books… and that meant using brown paper grocery bags because that was all we had. I recall that by the end of the first week, Eugene’s book covers would be completely decorated with his artwork… pencil drawings of what today would be called “superheroes.” His notebooks had intricate drawings all along the margins; his homework was always elaborately decorated… and if he finished a test early… or had to stop for a minute to think of the answer… there would be more intricate drawings along the sides of the test or on the back of the pages.

One day, our English teacher, Mrs. Stephanie Delaney, told me that Eugene’s drawings often were of a path that was blocked by a huge black boulder, and she wondered what that meant. Little did she know.

In the yearbook, Eugene wrote of his plans to join the military. Most of us went our separate ways after graduation and lost touch with our classmates… so we were all shocked and saddened to learn of his death in Viet Nam on August 27, 1966. According to the Transcript article, Eugene’s Special Forces Group had come under attack, and when he discovered that one of his team members was missing, he went back to look for him… and was killed. He left his wife, Bette, and two little boys, Troy and Keith.

 

ACCEPT MEDALS FOR DAD — Keith, 3, left, and Troy Moreau, 4, with their mother, Mrs. Bette Moreau of North Reading, after they were presented medals last Sunday at the Army Base awarded their father, Sgt. Eugene Moreau, killed in Viet Nam. (NR Transcript, March 23, 1967)

 

A photo in the March 23, 1967 issue of the Transcript showed his two little sons, ages 4 and 3, being presented with their dad’s medals: the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star with a “V” device for Valor, the Air Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal.

 

“Sons Accept Medals For Hero Dad” was most deserving of its prominent front page placement in the North Reading Transcript edition of March 23, 1967.

 

The Transcript reported that he received letters of commendation from the White House, from General Westmoreland and from U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson. His commanding officer, Colonel Francis J. Kelly, wrote to his wife: “…It is through the efforts of men like Eugene, who possess the highest degree of integrity and devotion to duty, that the free people of the world remain free. You may be justly proud of him, as we all are.” Mr. Al Sylvia, Editor of the Transcript, devoted the whole editorial that week to Eugene’s sacrifice.

 

“Posthumously,” an editorial published March 23, 1967 by Albert E. Sylvia Sr., Founder, Publisher & Editor of North Reading Transcript, poignantly expressed the depth of the loss of Eugene Moreau to his little boys.

 

The whole town was saddened to lose Eugene, but everybody in the Class of 1960 agreed that disregarding his own safety and going back to look for a missing teammate was exactly the sort of thing Eugene would do. We all knew that. That didn’t surprise anyone who knew him.

So the tour around the Common isn’t just about the buildings that existed… or didn’t exist … in the 1950s. It’s also about the people who made the town what it is, who are North Reading’s heroes… sung and unsung… whether they sold penny candy, or kept the school floors polished, whether they donated a wonderful building, or gave their life to save someone else.

North Reading’s history is as full of heroes as it is of wonderful buildings.

SGT. EUGENE RAYMOND MOREAU is laid to rest in Riverside Cemetery on Elm Street. (Maureen Doherty Photo)

POSTHUMOUSLY

How do you tell two little boys, ages 3 and 4, who hardly remember him at all, that their daddy won’t be coming home?

That they and their mommy are here because daddy isn’t.

That mommy isn’t wearing sunglasses because the light hurts her eyes.

That those soldiers holding the flags and guns look like daddy, but it’s just the same uniform.

That daddy’s a hero and to stand up straight when the “man” gives you the medals.

That four medals, shiny in their velvet-lined cases, are to be cherished because this is their father’s heritage.

That their father gave up his life worrying about the life of another soldier.

That because of men like their father others here at home can stand up and object to the war which killed their father.

That maybe their daddy didn’t see too much sense in the Viet Nam War either, but was proud to serve his country.

That because of men like daddy they would grow up in a country where people are free and a knock on the door was not a signal to run and hide.

That people would soon forget — but that they would always remember that their father paid the high price of Freedom.

Two little boys, Keith and Troy Moreau, bewilderingly accepted, in four little boxes, the only memory that they will have of their hero father Sgt. Eugene Moreau, killed in action  in the swamps of Viet Nam on August 27, 1966 — Posthumously awarded The Bronze Star with “V” device for valor, Purple Heart, Air Medal, and Commendation Medal at ceremonies held at The Boston Army Base Sunday, March 19, 1967.

~ By Albert E. Sylvia Sr., Founder, Publisher & Editor of North Reading Transcript (Editorial published March 23, 1967)