(Oral History Project) Raising three generations on West Street: Heidi Harring

Heidi Harring has spent nearly all of her life living in Carlisle, just a few doors down from the home her parents purchased on West Street in 1959. A woman who is not shy of challenges, whether traversing steep wintery terrain on her skis or trekking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage on her bike, Heidi returned to the rural beauty and familiarity of Carlisle to raise her three daughters, Reilly, Alden, and Piper. 

West Street legacy

With an infant in tow and another on the way, George and Jill Reichenbach needed more space to raise their family. “My parents no longer fit in their one-bedroom apartment in Cambridge,” explained Heidi, “so started looking for a house. They had to look further and further out until they finally found something they could afford.” 123 West Street fit their budget, a small Cape-style home with three rooms on the main floor and a steep staircase leading to a sleeping area in the attic. “My dad was a professor at MIT at the time, and the house cost nearly his entire year’s salary, about $6k.”

Heidi said her dad would make up for his lack of financial resources at the time with old-fashioned elbow grease. “When my brother, Fritz, came along, my dad built an addition on our house. He did all of the work himself except for the electrical.” When George became a founding member of the Carlisle Conservation Foundation (CCF) in 1960, he told Heidi he offered to serve as secretary “because I didn’t have any money to donate.”

The Reichenbachs immersed themselves in their new town and became friends with their neighbors, often visiting with Betty and Dick Hale who lived down the street at 322 West. When the Reichenbachs learned that the Hale property was going on the market, they teamed up with several abutters including Jack Valentine, Chris Hart, and Craig Burr to purchase the 29 acres so it would not be developed. The group divided the property into smaller parcels with a common goal of making sure you could not see a house from the road, and George placed the field next to 322 West under a Conservation Restriction to preserve the scenic vista.

A childhood in Carlisle

“When you think of the traffic that comes through West Street today,” said Heidi, “it’s amazing to think we used to play in the middle of the road. There were no cars.” One of her favorite childhood games was called “water skiing.” “We’d get on a skateboard and tie a rope to a bicycle. Someone would pedal and you’d fly back and forth on the board as though you were water skiing down the road.” Heidi recalled spending an afternoon trying to dam a brook with childhood friend Brooksie Neal “because what else were we supposed to do? It was too cold to go to Bates for ice cream—they were closed.” 

Summer afternoons were spent selling lemonade from the “island” in front of Heidi’s house. “There would be us, the Valentines, the Neals, the Panelles, the Carltons, the Taylors—we would sit out there all day trying to sell lemonade. We would swim at the Valentines, and go to parties there…I’ve known them my whole life.” Heidi’s group of childhood friends includes many other names still familiar to the Carlisle register, including the Sonns, Sorrows, Andereggs, and the Moseleys.

Since Carlisle did not offer kindergarten, Heidi attended one year at the Brooks School, now the Nashoba Brooks School, before entering Carlisle School. Classes were held in the former Spalding Building where the gym, cafeteria, and the stage were all in the same room. “You couldn’t have lunch during gym because they took all the tables out,” Heidi recalled. 

“Milk at school came from Bates Farm in glass bottles with cardboard covers that got delivered in a caddy,” Heidi continued. “On the last day of school, we would all take the bus to Bates to get free ice cream.” She attended 5th grade in the Highland Building with Mr. Tate and Mr. McGrath. “Mr. Tate was still teaching when Reilly entered Carlisle School.” 

Heidi said music was held in the Brick Building, where she played flute in the band under Janet Peckham. During the winter, after-school ski classes were held at the Benfield ski hill. “Behind the Benfields’ house was a steep hill cleared of trees. The school would bring busloads of students and we would side-step up to the top of the hill then ski down.”

All students took the bus to school since it was the only way to get there. “The other way to get around was by bike,” said Heidi. “My mother would give us 25¢ and that would get rid of us for the afternoon, since ice cream at Bates cost 25¢ at the time.” Heidi said she and her best friend Elizabeth McDonald (now Moseley) would walk down to a riding center where the current DPW building stands after school to shovel horse manure in exchange for free riding lessons. On other days she would go to Franks in the center of town to get cupcakes before her ballet lesson. 

The 4H Club was popular when Heidi was a child. “I took sewing in Kay Woodward’s front room in her former house on Bedford Road. Curt Meehan on Indian Hill taught me about dog training; Phyllis Hughes taught art.” Heidi said she entered competitions at the 4H fair in Chelmsford every year, but only won one award for a pair of red plaid five-pocket jeans she designed. She also proudly recalled making a presentation on dog food that went on to state level competition.

Lay of the land

Heidi said Carlisle was a much simpler and quieter town when she was young. “Heald Road didn’t exist,” she recalled. “When it went in, it was the biggest development in town, but it didn’t go in all at once.” The first section to be built went from Acton Street to Judy Farm Road, where all of the houses are in a colonial style, then eventually built out the road to South Street with Deck houses. “That was the best place to go trick or treating,” she said. “We would get dropped off at one end and get picked up at the other in a few hours. I don’t know how they knew when we finished since there were no cell phones back then, but somehow they kept track of us.” 

The network of trails Carlisle now enjoys didn’t exist when Heidi was a child, so she and her friends bushwhacked their way through the woods to get to each other’s houses. She could ride horses on trails off Judy Farm Road to Benfield so the horses could swim in the pond. Heidi also recalled that the town would flood the area to the right of the Cranberry Bog house so residents could skate there. There were cows in Towle Field and the house across the street was a working dairy accessible through the tunnel under Westford Street.

Leaving town 

Heidi went to Concord Academy for high school, in part because Dick Shohet encouraged her to attend. “My older brother, John, was already at boarding school,” she said, “so my choices were CCHS, Concord Academy, or Middlesex since my parents said there was no way they could send two of us to boarding school.”

“I took the bus for CCHS to get to Concord Academy. They were not on the same schedule, so I would get picked up early and get dropped off at the Concord Library. I would go in and watch the boarders have their breakfast. At the end of the day after sports, I would walk over to where the buses were parked behind Hunt Gym, get on my bus, and wait until they were ready to go. The bus would go up to the high school for pick up before heading back to Carlisle. It was a long day! Occasionally I would go down to the Colonial Inn and hitchhike so I didn’t have to wait for the late bus, or I might catch a ride with Phyllis Hughes who taught art at CA and lived on Acton Street.”

Heidi attended Middlebury College—a choice that two of her three daughters would also make many years later. After graduation, she worked in New York City for seven years, earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, then returned to New York. Soon after Heidi took a job with Gillette and moved to Boston. 

An avid skier since she was five, Heidi met her husband, Vaughn, while racing in the beer league at Nashoba Valley. “I would see him there a few times a week. We got to chatting and I found out he lived in Acton. His big pickup line was, ‘Hey, want to play golf sometime? I’m a member of a club.’” 

As it turned out, Heidi was also a member of Concord Country Club (CCC), and had played in a golf tournament with her dad and Vaughn’s parents before she ever met Vaughn, who is two years her junior. “We have trophies from the same swim meet, but his are from the 12-and-under division 

and mine are from 14-and-under. Honestly, I was looking at 17-year-old Will Reynolds at the time, not the 12-year-old! ” 

When the couple married, Heidi reluctantly gave up her membership number at CCC to take Vaughn’s. Initially, the newlyweds lived in Acton, but while Vaughn was happy to stay put, Heidi wanted to live in Carlisle. In 1997, the couple compromised and purchased the old Hale homestead at 322 West Street along with two acres of land from the group who conserved the parcel, very close to the Acton line and  just a few doors down from her parents.

“I was VERY pregnant at the closing, and we didn’t move in for another six or seven months since nothing had been done in this house since the 1960s,” she explained. “We had to upgrade the electrical, remove radiators, cut through five layers of wallpaper—it needed a little work!” Heidi said the original saltbox-style house was built in 1721, then the roof was raised and a walk-through added on the second floor in 1770. Two more sections were added in the 1800s with the barn completed in 1841. “Larry Sorli knew the property well so he was the source  for all of my questions,” said Heidi.

Passing the torch

Heidi and Vaughn took advantage of having her parents close by, enjoying family time and some free babysitting after the girls were born. The Harrings knew their neighbors well, and were often the first call when issues arose. “I remember Jack Valentine once called Vaughn and told him to come over—and wear something really grubby,” she chuckled. “Turns out he had to reach in and grab the feet of a calf and pull it right out of its mother!”

When Heidi’s mother passed away prematurely in 2003, the small house became a burden for her father. “Dad stayed a few more years, then finally moved to Newbury Court for the last five or six years of his life.” 

After more than 40 years residing in Carlisle, the Reichenbachs left a deep impression on the culture of the town. Jill and George worked tirelessly to promote conservation and build respect for the natural beauty of Carlisle. Jill volunteered in the schools and library, for the Mosquito, at sports and civic events, and for numerous political causes. George was a founding member of CCF, represented Carlisle on a regionalization committee that recommended Carlisle Elementary Schools not regionalize with Concord, was on the building committee for the Robbins Building, chaired the Concord-Carlisle Community Chest, and volunteered with the Cub Scouts and youth baseball. George also earned the distinction of being named both 2001 Conservationist of the Year and Carlisle’s Outstanding Citizen in 2011.

The Harring family has continued the Reichenbach legacy, volunteering in the schools and for their church, collectively serving on numerous boards including CCF, running the annual Turkey Trot, earning the Carlisle Trekker Award, hosting psych dinners for various sports teams, donating platelets at Dana Farber, and riding in the PMC Challenge for 20 years to support cancer research. Heidi’s social media posts are full of family pictures skiing, biking, hiking, rowing, reveling, and enjoying family time together.

Some things change,  some stay the same

Alden and Piper Harring were home for the holidays and helped Heidi reflect on some things that have changed in Carlisle—and some that have stayed the same:

Memorial Day Parade: The Carlisle School band was featured annually in the Memorial Day parade, a tradition that continues today. Piper was surprised that the band used to wear uniforms. “We wore ugly capes that were shiny gold on the inside and black on the outside, and a black skirt,” said Heidi. “It was not pretty.” 

Transfer Station: “The Transfer Station was just ‘the dump’ when I was a kid,” Heidi recalled. “You would burn what you could at home and back up to a trough at the dump to unload the rest. I just remember the heap smoldering.” Both girls agreed that would never fly today, and Piper admitted she still peeks in the Swap Shed for treasures when she has the opportunity.

Old Home Day: “Old Home Day used to be on July 4,” Heidi recalled, “and everything was held on the Green—the cakewalk, the dog show.” Alden and Piper both miss some of their childhood favorite events, including the long line of booths along School Street and the frog jumping contest. “Vaughn would be up at 6 a.m. trying to find three frogs before the road race,” Heidi recalled, “and sometimes there would only be two in the bucket when we were finished.” Alden proudly remembered that her frog “Spotty” took the prize one year. 

Tree Lighting: “Heidi was an elf for a long time…maybe a little longer than she should have been,” said Alden. “We were well into high school and she was still an elf. I finally said, ‘I think you need to pass it off to someone who has little kids!” 

Playing in the street: Piper said, “Mom used to tell us stories about playing games out in the street. While, of course, we didn’t do that, I would often wander through the fields and the woods to my friends’ houses. We played outside and would tear about with no worries.”

“You could tell when Westford started growing,” said Heidi, “because that’s when the traffic started flying through here that never was here. We now have to back our cars in the driveway to pull out safely.”

The girls both vividly recalled their favorite Carlisle moments, including running down the hill to Kimball’s on the last day of school, the mitten play, Carlisle Explorations, the 7th grade play, reading the weekly Police Blotter, Reuben Klickstein working the crosswalk, the Strawberry Festival, Spaghetti Supper, and pumpkin carving at the Gleason. 

“Carlisle is still the butt of small-town jokes,” said Piper. Alden recalled having to call in late for softball practice one afternoon because she was stuck behind a tractor traveling five MPH on West Street on her way to CCHS. “I had to text a picture to prove it!” Piper added, “People would get so annoyed when we’d host a psych dinner in Carlisle—none of the Concord families wanted to come here!”

Some newer traditions have already changed since the girls were young. Alden is disappointed that the school addition takes up so much space on the old red plaza, and fondly misses the Spalding Building where “the roof leaked and the fire alarms would always go off.” Alden and Reilly built leprechaun traps, but that project changed before Piper entered school. Neither girl was sad to see the old castle playground replaced, and Alden said she remembers many friends coming to school in casts after breaking an arm falling off the monkey bars.

Future Carlisleans

Heidi said she could have chosen to live anywhere, but she always liked Carlisle and still does. “If you look at the towns around us, it has changed less than the others.” Alden added, “I think growing up here made me less of a city person, so if I don’t live here, I will want to live somewhere like Carlisle.” Piper agreed. “Going to school in Middlebury was very similar to living in Carlisle. I like the small tight-knit feeling of going to places in town knowing there’s a good chance I will run into someone I know.”

While the nest at 322 West Street is currently empty, it may not be for long. All three Harring girls admit they would be happy to call Carlisle home again in the future.

Published January 17, 2024 in The Carlisle Mosquito.