Everyday people top the memories in Trenton over the years

DAY 1 / Trace your finger along Trenton’s timeline and you’ll find the history of its industry, the birthplace of steel, a visit from the queen and prime minister, new construction, mayor and town employees.

Trenton has a rich history. It has seen days of prosperity and periods where its people struggled to make ends meet.

But the people of Trenton remember their town in another way. They remember Trenton as their families, their friends… they remember the people.

To the citizens of Trenton, the people are the town’s substance. Memories of neighbours, co-workers and friends run in tandem with the town’s timeline.

Mary Dunn will turn 99 on Sept. 29. For Dunn, the memories of her adopted town are filled with her children and her husband. She says she focused all her attention on them. Her son Barry can attest, “She was a wonderful mother.”

She does remember the kids who played on her street and the people.

“I like the people here,” she said.

Newlyweds Joan and David Fraser moved to Steeltown in the mid-1950s. They weren’t from Trenton, nor did they work in town, or go to church there, so making friends took some time. But they did.

They made them at the firemen’s lobster banquet held every June. Each year Joan would buy a new summer dress and John, like most of the volunteer firemen, would present his wife with a corsage before they headed down to the hall.

“It was a big event, as big as the New Year’s Eve ball,” she said, adding there was music, dancing, socializing and, of course, lobsters.

Fred Charlton was a navy man. He joined when he was 18 and travelled on the high seas visiting ports in North America, Russia, Europe and the Caribbean. He travelled far but always returned to his home in Trenton.

“You saw the rest of the world and what they lived in in those years,” he said. “You realized you had heaven, you really did.”  

Adele (MacNaughton) MacKay thought she had arrived when she finally turned old enough to attend the town’s teen dances.

“You were the cat’s meow then,” said MacKay. “You were part of the older crowd.”

The dances were held upstairs in the fire hall regularly in the 1960s and ’70s and all the kids from the town would go. Since everybody knew each other’s dads, no trouble was ever started at these dances.

For the next 100 days, The News will print 100 stories to commemorate 100 years of Trenton, stories that cover the history of the town and stories of the people that lived it.