Polly Gardner of Adamsville is no armchair adventurer. When she puts her mind to it, whether a new job, music, interior decorative painting, canoeing, or a dozen other interests, she dives right in. Headfirst…with vigor. Gales of hearty laughter punctuate stories she tells about her childhood in Westport and the succession of jobs that she trailed behind her over the years. Nearly 40 years ago, when she volunteered to switch from the mortgage department to the new drive up window at Rhode Island Hospital Trust, a customer with three kids in a beige VW drove up. Several visits later, the customer deposited a humorously addressed invitation to dinner. In time, Polly married Lee Gardner, the fellow who had the offbeat style she appreciated. They have one daughter and those three now grown-up girls who were in the VW. Ms. Gardner and her husband worked together for years when Mr. Gardner was director of the Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown, RI. When they decided to leave Middletown in 1980, the first house they saw in Adamsville was the one Ms. Gardner used to visit when she and her pals the Barker brothers would go snake hunting as thirteen-year-olds. They bought the place and have lived at 68 Stone Church Road ever since. In every card her late father wrote to her, he closed by writing, “Have fun.” Dad would be proud to know that his daughter took his advice to heart.Working with your husband?
“We set up mist nets all over the salt marsh. We’d be in the mud banding all these tree swallows, warblers, and other incredible species. The Norman Bird Sanctuary is a 450 acre wild life refuge in Middletown, RI.”
Lee Gardner?
“Lee has great sense of humor. He’s a real character - one of a kind. That’s why it’s worked for us for 38 years.”
Home in Adamsville?
“It’s only a couple miles from where I grew up on Cornell Road. The river was my back yard. I remember going berry picking and fishing with my dad. My brother Dick and his family still live there.”
Childhood in Westport?
"My dad had a sword fishing boat. I remember tautoging off Cutty Hunk and spending nights on an old Matthews boat my dad called ‘The Bender’. It had an A frame and a pulpit - we loved that boat."
Childhood in Westport?
"The Barker brothers and I used to go on snake hunts when we were about 14. They had a 500 gallon barrel sitting on well in back of their house. We put all our water snakes from the Mill Pond in Adamsville in there. One day were invited to come to The Grange to do talk about snakes. We passed them around the audience and to end the program we sang ‘I know an old lady who swallowed a fly, perhaps she’ll die, perhaps she’ll die.’”
Love of the water?
“I’ve had this life-long love of being on the water. I crew for Lanny Goff on his J-35 on Mt Hope Bay on Wednesday nights. I race for the Opera House Cup every year in Nantucket with Woody Underwood and my two dear friends Carol Long and Josie Woollham.”
Favorite boat?
“Woody Underwood’s Buzzard’s Bay 25, a Herreshoff design. I love the boat because it’s a beautiful gaffe rigged sloop and it doesn’t have a motor. When you’re sailing this boat, you know you’re having the sail of your life.”
Day job?
“A small business called The Wallnuts. Pam Walters, myself and a gal who just joined us do
decorative painting, interior painting, and wallpapering. We consult and help people choose wallpaper and colors. We’ve been doing it for 20 years.”
Benefits of this job?
“I’ve worked for an engineering company, designed septic systems, and worked for a vineyard, a bank, and a retailer. I’ve done a thousand things but there’s nothing like working for yourself.”
Monday night jams?
“Several friends, some I’ve known since childhood, come here Monday nights with guitars, fiddles, banjos. We play bluegrass and folk music. Lee and I wanted some music at our daughter’s wedding ceremony in the church in 1999. When it was over, we said we’re having too much fun, let’s keep these instruments out of the closet and keep playing.”
Your instruments?
“I play fluke (type of ukelele) and tin whistle. My latest acquisition is Virginia, a standup bass I’m learning to play now.”
Music to go?
“We’ve played for the Council on Aging, nursing homes, weddings, churches, everything from bluegrass to waltzes.”
Travel group?
“For the past ten years, a group of us we call the Ya Ya’s pick an area in Europe to explore. We’ve had fabulous excursions to Italy, France, England, and Croatia.”
New Bedford Sea Chanteys chorus?
“We’re a group of about 30 volunteers. We sing sea chanteys (work songs from the age of sail) to benefit the ‘Ernestina’. We’ve played at Waterfront Festivals, coffee houses, libraries, the New Bedford Whaling Museum and other places.”
Mornings on the river?
“I love to get up at 4:30, throw my canoe on my car and head for the river. There’s nothing like catching a fat bluefish in a 17-pound canoe at 6 in the morning while you’re watching the sun come up.”
Hot air balloon meets canoe?
“One morning on the river, thinking I was all alone in the world, two hot air balloons descended to few feet over me. I actually had a conversation with half dozen people in the basket of a hot air balloon.”
Away from it all?
“My little Kevlar canoe is 17 pounds of freedom.”
Ms. Polly, a wonderful pleasure running across this story.
My fund memories of Mr. Gardner is when he excepted the challenge to work with the CETA Program in 1979. The goal was to grow vegetables and hand them out to the Seniors Citizens, restore 100 year old Oriental garden, and create a blind trail around the Ocean Drive. This job was more then one could ever imagine. So many details about Mr. Gardner's stamina that left a lasting affect on my life.
God Bless you both!
Posted by: Robin Brockman | June 15, 2015 at 09:28 PM