Al Boyson––

The Steady Hand Behind The Plow

By Dottie Evans

Upon entering Al Boyson’s home on South Main Street, the first thing one notices is how clean and tidy everything is. At 85 years old and living alone, Mr Boyson is glad to be on one floor.

Clearly, he does not suffer clutter. A place for everything and everything in its place, might be his motto.

Another indication of Mr Boyson’s attention to detail is the big red plow blade that sits snugly and perfectly aligned against a closed garage door. One imagines that the tools and machinery inside are arranged just as neatly.

Now that Mr Boyson has retired, plowing his neighbors’ driveways during snowstorms is no longer a concern. But for years and years –– perhaps 30 or more ––plowing has provided a steady source of income for Mr Boyson who has lived in Newtown all his life.

He graduated from the town’s Hawley School with the Class of 1937 (before the Queen Street high school, now the middle school, was built).

“I grew up on my parents’ dairy farm off Sugar Street, called Boyson’s Dairy,” he said during an interview at his home February 27.

Before automatic milking machines were invented, Mr Boyson sat on a stool and milked the long rows of his father’s cows by hand. He remembers “peddling” or delivering milk and then picking up the empty milk bottles from his customers for reuse. Most likely he got into the plow business around the same time his family got out of the dairy business.

When he was old enough to drive, his family bought a Model A Ford. His father had once been a driver for Coach Bus in Waterbury.

“We used a tractor for the plowing, then I got a Chevy pickup truck just before my wife and I got married,” he said.

Catherine Ragaini Boyson, once a Danbury resident, had been head pediatric nurse at Danbury Hospital and worked several years at St Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport. She died in July 2002 after a brief illness.

“She was a great cook and she loved flowers. Those shelves used to be full of plants,” Mr Boyson said as he pointed to a large, empty greenhouse off the dining area.

Al and Catherine Boyson had two daughters. Judy Boyson Emch lives in Poland Springs, Me., and visits her father every weekend to cook and help out. Diane Boyson lives in Winterville, N.C., which is “12 hours away –– too far to drive,” he said. So he does not see her as often.

Although Newtown has changed radically from the town he once knew, some of his old friends are still around. Every morning, he walks along Queen Street to My Place Restaurant, where he and a few buddies, including Charlie Allen and Ed “Stretch” Forbell, get together for coffee.

Looking out his front window, Mr Boyson can see the ducks on Hawley Pond, though there is much more traffic on South Main now. Since he no longer has a driver’s license, he must walk everywhere and he wishes more residents would keep their sidewalks shoveled.

“This has been a bad winter and it’s tough getting around,” he commented.

Longtime Customers Say ‘Thank You’

Alan and Linda Shepard of 1 Glover Avenue can hardly remember the first time Mr Boyson began plowing their driveway. When they heard from his daughter this Christmas that he would no longer be driving due to medical reasons, they wrote him a letter thanking him for being their faithful plow person all those years.

They also sent him a colorful Newtown blanket as a token of their affection.

“He plowed us up until two snowstorms ago,” Mrs Shepard said.

“He was like part of the family. He plowed for Rodney Shepard and for my great-aunt Evelyn Shepard. I think he’s been plowing this house for nearly three generations now.”

“Al always waved to the children ––now grown –– and he methodically got out of his truck and picked up the morning newspaper instead of running over it,” Mrs Shepard said.

“He gave us handwritten bills and I never thought he charged enough.”

“My husband went to high school with his daughter in Maine,” she added.

Mr Boyson has kept the Shepard family’s letter and displays the blanket in his living room. An account book on his desk includes careful, handwritten records kept for all his “regular customers.”

Many longtime Main Street and Elm Drive area residents are on the list –– Tim Holian, Al Parrella, Edmond Farrell, Alan Shepard, Bruce Walczak, Dorothy Thompson, Chris Miller, Boyd Hanauer, Margaret Greenman, Ron DeSimone, Stephen Stolfi. Then there is the Newtown Cemetery, Newtown Upholstery and, at the top of the list, The Newtown Bee.

“I used to get up at 5 in the morning, start at The Bee and work on down the list,” he recalled.

Mr Boyson usually had a helper, Frank Thompson, who also waved to the children, Mrs Shepard recalled.

“Nowadays, nobody even knows who the plow people are,” Mr Boyson had commented during his interview with The Bee.

Certainly this was not the case for Linda Shepard or for other longtime customers on his list of “regulars.”

“You don’t forget Al Boyson’s name,” she said.