M arty’s first job was for Mr. Eddy at Eddy’s Market on Main Street in Castleton. They had a set up in the garage out back and Marty’s job was to mix and bag up sweeping compound that they sold to the local stores for cleaning their wood floors. Marty would put sawdust, slate dust (green or red) into a cement mixer, churn it up and then bag it.
When it came time to go to high school, Marty was sent to the Catholic school, Mount St. Joseph Academy in Rutland. This fit the bill because Mr. Eddy needed the garage for something else and moved the mixing operation to a barn behind his house in Rutland.
Over the years, Marty and I had contact in several different places. He’d stop into Smith’s Hardware to give me some heat quite often. He’d even travel Route 30 south now and then to talk about some article in the paper or just to swap notes and ideas on the disease we shared, diabetes.
You know, we’ve all got to die, but I think it was a fitting way for the end of the life of this devout Catholic man! He went to church at St. John’s in Castleton, came out and got behind the wheel of his car and passed on.
God bless you, Marty Kelly
Twig Canfield
