Marc Chardon
Listen Now
I grew up in the summers, in a house in Westport, Massachusetts, that belonged to my grandparents, Clifford Warren Ashley, who's a local painter, and his wife, Sarah. They both have been here in the Bedford area for 400 years. 400 years now, not then. I'm a little older than that.
One of the things that you really look forward to other than the beach, of course, which all kids love going to, was to come and see the Lagoda. Because somehow, hearing all the stories and seeing all the memorabilia from whaling in my grandparents house, it was marvelous and interesting, but it became everyday stuff because it was just all around. But when you could go and walk around, and imagine yourself being on that marvelous ship in that space and walk up those spiral stairs to all those wonderful little cabins and areas that showed what a whaling factors office looked like, and all of that, it somehow managed to bring the stories of Bedford's past to life…
