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Note: My Father My father was born in Vergennes, Vt. on April 9, 1903. I could always remember the year he was born, even when it was difficult for me to remember Historical dates, because he told me that it was the same year the Wright Brothers first flew their airplane. Thus there were two dates I could remember, the first flight and, more important to me, my fathers birthday. The records from St. Peter's Rectory in Vergennes, Vt. tell me his parents were married there on Feb. 20, 1903 by a Fr. P.T. Campeau. The "late" marriage, was a surprise to me at the time I learned of it in 1982, mostly because my Grandfather Gee had a "Pious" attitude, as I was growing up. He could be seen any morning kneeling beside the bathtub (yes I said bathtub) saying his morning prayers. He just would seem more VISIBLE in his faith than anyone else I knew. I certainly didn't think of him as a "better" person for it, and I guess, I didn't really think of him as any worse either. But I certainly didn't expect he was the type that would have a "late" marriage either. Oh well, it proves he was pretty human, too. His parents were young when they married. Both listed their ages as 19. His mothers name was Melvina Blanche LaBounty, known as Vina. She and an older sister, Lillian, had been orphaned at an early age. In the 1900 census the sisters were living in different homes. Melvina was at the home of a 'Fr. Canadian family who had 10 children, ages 17 to 6 mos. and she was listed as a "servant". It says her parents were both born in NY state and that she could read and write. [Her sister Lillie who was a year older was also a servant living with a John Ketcham and his wife Maude and one year old son. She lists her father as being born in FR. Can. and her mother as NY state.] Both girls were born in NY state. Melvina's death cetificate lists her birth place as Westport, N.Y. Both my father and his brother Wesley were born in Vergennes. My father was baptised by the name Francis Earl Guy and his brother was Hubert Guy, born Feb. 28, 1905. My father always used the name Harold Francis and his brother was known as Wesley. The "Guy" is the French for Gee and he told me as I was growing up that in Canada the name was Guy. There was a Chinese man in Burlington named Gee when I was growing up and he ran a laundry. When Dad would meet him he would call him his brother. It was always a good laugh for both of them. I don't know if the family was living with George's parents or somewhere else when my father was born. His birth certificate gives his place of birth as Water St., the same street his grandparents lived on. His father lists his occupation as a bookeeper. Sometime before l908 the family moved to Barre, Vt. That is where his 3rd brother Marean was born. I don't know how long they lived there, but once my father brought us for a ride to Barre and showed me where he went to church. Melvina died on Dec. 9, 1915 of double pnemonia. She had been ill for about four months. My father was 12, Wesley ten and Marean seven. She died at the Fanny Allen Hospital in Winooski. The family was then living in Burlington. I know because my Dad told me how he use to walk to the hospital to see his mother from school. The school was the Catheral School which was located on Cherry St.,way downtown. A long way for a young boy to walk. His memories of her must have been of a loving mother because I felt he always carried her loss. After she died, his father gave whatever jewlry she had to his sisters, some of which they sold at the time he graduated from High School to buy him a gold pocket watch. On the back of the watch they had the word "Mother" engraved. I have the watch now. When Dad died mother gave the watch to Wesley. When he was very sick he gave it back to her to give to me. About the time I was 12 or there-about, Dad's Aunt Catherine gave me a red stone ring that was Melvina's. I remember she told him she thought I should have it. It had the name "Vina LaBounty" engraved inside it. He was so pleased I had it. I wore it all the time. The gold band was quite thin by the time I stopped wearing it. I gave it to Stephanie years ago. When I first got the ring, I remember, he wanted me to show it right off to his father. I can remember doing it, but recall no reaction from my grandfather, nothing. I have no way of knowing if he was surprised, pleased, or even if he knew who's ring it was until I told him. I thought then my father might be trying to make a statement, like "See, I have something of mother's in spite of you." It was always said that Aunt Mamie Gee had diamond earrings of Melvinas and that she should have given them to Donna* or to me. I wonder now if they wouldn't have been sold for the watch. I can't believe she had too many pieces of jewlry. But maybe only a wedding ring was sold. Anyway, I know there was always a bit of "feeling" that she should have given them to either Dad or Wesley. And IF she had them I think she should have. She gave me enough TERRIBLE old hats that her girls didn't want. *(This was conversation I heard at home. I use to say why not give them to Marilyn? The answer was that she was adopted. I could not understand that thought.--still don't) When Dad's mother died, her body was brought to Vergennes to Water St. and the funeral was at St. Peter's Church in Vergennes. She is burried in the Catholic cemetary on Maple St. There never was extra money at our house when I was growing up. Everything was budgeted. (I remember the metal blue box with the six or eight boxes inside that Dad divided the money from his pay envelope each week after giving mother what she needed for groceries and putting into the church envelope.) But each Memorial Day that I can recall, Dad and Uncle Wesley would see that flowers were put on their mother's grave. Maybe when I was younger they couldn't and probably didn't, but usually Dad would ask Uncle George, who worked for a florist, Miss Fisher, to see that they got on the grave and he would pay him. We did not have a car and certainly didn't have a checkbook. The times we were together in Vergennes Dad would always walk up to the cemetary, it wasn't far away. I often would go with him. That was why I knew I could find the grave years after when I started doing family research. Mother never came with us at this time. I expect she didn't get to visit with her family too often so wanted to spend the time, understandibly, with them. But I got to take some nice walks in the woods with my Dad, down there and out behind Centenial Field in Burlington. I don't know if that is why I always liked the woods or not, but it was always fun to go with him. I remember him showing me how to pick a long, thin, green, stick put an old wild apple on the end and to see how far you could fling it. He showed me the wild flowers and knew the names. Sometimes we would bring some home. Mother said that when I was born he picked wild violets off the roadside in Shelburne and brought her a boquet of them. Dad graduated from High School in 1924, I think. Anyone doing arithmatic will see that he was 21 years old. Mother doesn't know exactly why he was so old, but did know he was determind to do so. Perhaps he missed school after his mother died or started late with Wesley or both. I do know that many of the nuns he had in school thought the world of him and I'm sure mothered him after the death of his own mother. I have a yellowed newspaper clipping from Feb. 4, 1920 saying he won a second prize in Advertisement Contest in the "lower" schools. He was then in grammar School. So it would seem he did aply himself. I know he liked History. The old nuns would wait for Dad to wait on him when he was selling shoes. Any that he knew seemed to wait for him. And old Siser Mercedes was remembered by him when I was going to St. Mary's grade school. Every Christmas mother would buy a little something, seems like it was most ALWAYS mens hankerchievies!, and I would go up to the big doors in the front of the convent, ring the bell, wait for one of the nuns to answer, ask for Sister Mercedes, be ushered into a parlor to wait for someone to get her and then to present my gift. I don't remember mother ever coming with me, or Dad either, but I know that I did it from a very early age. My father worked at the Berry-Hall Co., down near the waterfront when they were first married. He was a clerk and later a coffee roaster. The company went out of business in the early 30s. and in 1935 we was working for his father at Gee's Shoe Store. He stayed there until his death.
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