Will Becker

He was truly one of those characters who made up a village.

Will was the son of Mary and Lee Becker. His mother was the last of his generation to loom carpets. The loom was kept in a ground-floor room of the church.

Will had a carpentry and paint works in Schenectady and came to his family home about a mile south of Breakabeen. No houses are left that area because it is a flood plain.

When about sixty, Will came to spend his retirement years in Breakabeen. He did work for people in Breakabeen making and remaking, typical of Will. We employed him to construct a clothes closet in our daughter’s room and he remarked “My grandfather, Dennis Becker, is supposed to have built this house—but if he built the back end I’m ashamed of him.”

Will also did work at home. He showed me a violin he had made. I don’t remember what wood he used. He played it for me and it had a wonderful tune. (The late George Spencer told your Editor he owned one of Will Becker’s violins.) A little later he built a grandfather’s clock. We asked him if we might buy it and he said if he ever sold it he had promised it to John Serrie. I guess you heard the tale of Will and the flood. Another tale of our house. As soon as we could buy soil pipe (the war intervened) we put in a sink and hired Will to do the carpenter work in the bathroom. The plumber had installed the lavatory and the toilet. The first thing he said was “Would you like to have water run out of your tub? If you do the tub has to be slanted the right way.” He came every day but only worked an hour or so each day. His neighbor told me that the work we were having done would last as long as raspberry pie did.

John Serrie told us he had hired Will to build him a new freezer room plus room and accessories to get chickens ready for the market. Kenneth saw him in the Breakabeen store and asked why he hadn’t started. He said “I wouldn’t build a pig pen out of such lumber!”

Well, after Will passed away, his niece held an auction. Our club sold refreshments. The grandfather’s clock was sold to John Serrie who had more money than I did. Will was truly one of those characters that made up a village.

Sincerely, Mildred Bouck