Our Little Village And Its Sections

I remember asking Mom how many people lived in Lordship when we first moved “out there,” as people referred to the village somewhat removed from South Stratford, supposedly the end of the line except for this little squiggly road and another one coming out from Bridgeport, both of which were subject to flooding at high water.

“About 500,” she said. I could believe it. The volunteer fire department issued the telephone book, maybe 5x7 with a hole in the corner so you could hang it by the phone. There was lots of stuff in it, in addition to the listings (alphabetically and by street), which made it look fairly impressive.

If laid out in standard phone book format, even at the greatest population we ever had, it would have been one side of one page. Small we were, but proud. Not only proud, but we had our sections, as well. You’d think anything this size would be fairly uniform, but it just never worked out that way.

There was “The Bricks,” an area of maybe twenty built of brick, including one road that never was paved and dipped down – appropriately called Valley Road.

The “Old Section,” where we lived, perhaps ten blocks wide, not to be confused with the “New Section,” which came later on both sides of us. Also, the place, about ten houses wide, where the rich people lived; Long Beach and its cottages; Short Beach and its cottages. “The Corner,” two small buildings with smaller stores in them.