THE GLOBAL CITIZEN - Wilbraham & Monson Academy

John V. Colleton Jr. ’35M
A remembrance by his grandson, Bicentennial Scholar Ian
Carlin ’08, from an essay written when he was in the 9th grade
In the waning days of the summer of 2004 I was given an
opportunity that would change my life, although I did not
know it then. I was asked to work at my grandparents’ house
every morning for two weeks to rebuild a stone wall. My
grandfather had been meaning to fix a part of the wall that had
collapsed, due to erosion and human use, but he was not able
to do it by himself, so he needed my help. I would be paid five
dollars an hour; however, by the end of the job the money did
not matter to me. It was a great experience, and I learned many
things about myself.
My grandfather is an eighty-six-year-old cancer survivor. He
is tall and athletic. I always picture him dressed in his pants,
button-down long-sleeve shirt, and suspenders. He likes crosscountry
skiing, bike riding, painting, and doing carpentry
between his many doctors’ appointments. I always remember
him as one of the most hardworking people I have ever met.
When I would get to his house at six thirty every morning,
he would always be outside waiting for me. If one word
were to describe my grandfather’s life, it would be dedication.
Everything he starts, he finishes. My grandfather is also
a Homeresque story-teller. Whenever I am with him, I always
hear a new and interesting story about life at Monson Academy,
a war story, or an amazing sports story.
It took the whole first day to remove a couple of tree stumps
that would prevent the wall from being built. At the end of the
day, I exclaimed, “We did it!”
Passages John Colleton, here with his grandson Ian. The photo was
taken at about the same time that they built the wall together.
WMA 30 · FALL 2006 · THE ACADEMY WORLD
“Thanks, son,” my grandfather responded.
“It felt good to take down those stumps.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you.”
The next day we began to work on the wall. First he showed
me how to mix cement. I went over to the sand pile and took
enough sand to start the base. Then my grandfather showed
me how much dry cement to put in. After the cement was put
in I began to mix it with water. Little did I know that mixing
cement was no easy feat! I had no idea how to mix the
cement or how much water to put in. Luckily, my grandfather
was an expert at mixing cement. He showed me the proper
techniques and how to fix mistakes. Mixing cement was boring
and time consuming but it was essential to building the
stonewall. In the process of mixing the cement, my hands
would get very dirty and I would have to make numerous
trips over to the sandpit. However, in the long run, I realized
that the cement made our job much easier and it kept the wall
together.
When the first batch of cement was mixed we started working
on the wall. Most of the rocks we had did not fit into the
spaces that we needed them to work into. That meant that we
had to dig up other rocks and carve them to fit. The easiest
part of building the stone wall was putting the large bottom
rocks into place. The most overlooked part of a stonewall is
the work that is put into the inside of the wall.
My grandfather showed me how to fill in large holes in the
wall that are unseen from the outside. My first choice would
have been to fill it full of cement and wait for it to dry.
However, my grandfather showed me the proper way to do it.
Finally, the hardest job was finding the rocks to finish off the
wall. Smooth, flat rocks need to be on the top. They have to
be able to withstand the elements as well as people walking
on the wall. These rocks had to fit together like a puzzle so as
little cement as possible was used for it to be appealing to the
eye. Although it took a long time, by the end of the process, I
was making the top of the wall look just like my grandfather’s
sections.
My grandfather built the house that he still lives in and all the
stonework around it. Four generations have worked on the
walls – my great-grandfather, my grandfather, my uncle, and
me. The wall supports his house and adds to the beauty of the
land. After working on the wall for two weeks and completing
seventy-five feet of wall, I gained a sense of pride that I had
worked on the same wall that my grandfather worked on, and
I had worked just as hard.