Story telling is as old as language. And with each telling, over days or generations, the details are inevitably, inadvertently (or advertently) more vividly recalled. The fish that got away became larger and larger in the retelling of the tale.
In Fair Haven, George Adams and Alex Campbell were among the many veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic with Civil War tales to tell around the potbelly stove at Ben Hill’s barbershop or Mendel’s shoe store.
As a boy born in 1900, Ray Sant greatly enjoyed listening to these storytellers. He also enjoyed sharing what he’d heard with others, as he did in his books, Fair Haven Folks and Folklore and Trails, Sails and Rails where he tells us, “The veterans were in time succeeded about the stove by George Chappel, Bill Corkery and Ed Mendel.”
The Fair Haven Garage on Main Street was purchased by W. Roy Maynard in 1927. Over the following years the bench in front of the garage became a favorite place where one might pass away an afternoon listening to a colorful yarn or the recounting of a true story. This became known as the Liars and Loafers Bench. Continue reading “Loyal Order of Liars and Loafers”
