Ms. Fawcett was born in Boston in 1898 and brought to the Cape as young child in 1900.  Her grandfather with a business partner had purchased 100 acres of land called Seaside Park which later became West Hyannisport.  Her father’s occupation was as a painter/decorator and later the postmaster of the local post office.  She attended Barnstable schools and the Hyannis Normal School.  She taught school in South Dennis for two years.  She worked in the post office part-time for 12 years during the summers and then became the full time postmistress.  She retired after 28 years. She describes her early school years.  The grade school had nine grades and was in a building with 6 rooms.  There were six teachers and two special teachers for sewing and cooking.   She would walk 3 miles each way to attend Barnstable High School.  She describes Main Street, Hyannis in 1907 and includes the P. Wilson magazine store, meat market, Liggett Drugstore, Federated Church, restaurant, 2 clothing stores, two grocery stores, the Baptist Church, a bank and the library. 

Notes: The Tales of Cape Cod Oral History Collection is housed at the William Brewster Nickerson Archives in the Wilkens Library at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable, Massachusetts. For more information about the collection, please contact the Nickerson Archives, http://www.nickersonarchives.org/.