"I see Tom in shades of tan. His hair was medium brown, he invariably wore two-tone brown-tan jacket and pants outfits, and he drove a tan Chevy coupe."
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Last Hosses on Mills Road:
A Memoir 1925 - 1945 by Georgie Stetson Trafford Publishing
book review by Jenny Luper
Last Hosses on Mills Road is a snapshot of a Maine community and its euphemisms as seen by one woman, looking back on her younger years. The author portrays her memories of the Mills Road landscape in its entirety from pre-tarred and packed gravel beginnings to post-tarred, with neighbors, drugstores, friends, enemies and acquaintances, and everything in-between. Geographic areas of interest are held up as a fixed point from which many adventures occurred. A ditch was one such area, a point of contention for the owner of said ditch and the children who clamored to play there. The author's strength in voice shines through by making such small geographic details into a fully realized topography.
Stetson's skill at tone is apparent when she relates the story of when her Gramper took her to the movies. "He would always stop at Smithwick's Drugstore for clove Lifesavers. They had much more tang and flavor then, than now. People weren’t such sissies about a little bite."
Stetson certainly understands flavor; her memoir is filled with a strong voice of a young girl learning from her passion about horses and the numerous adventures that began on the street where she lived. The robust voice of this woman in recollection gives a sense of multi-dimensionality to the framework of Mills Road and its inhabitants. The colloquialisms and matter of fact attitude of the narration give a depth of not only voice, but of landscape. Stetson's skill for setting and tone make Last Hosses on Mills Road feel authentic and real.