Beyond Somers Mountain: World War II and Life in Suburbia

Merritt Talcott ("Bud") Davis

Merritt Talcott Davis (1924-1985) was the first son of Merritt and Doris Davis. He was born in Stafford Springs, Connecticut in February 1924. Known by the nickname "Bud," little Merritt didn't have a lot of stability in his early life. Although he was born in Stafford and lived on the farm until he was two years old, Bud's childhood memories were of life in Seattle. One of his most memorable adventures as a youth was when at the age of eight years, he and pal Glen Sperry skipped school, "borrowed" a rowboat, and decided to sail across Lake Washington. They were almost run down by a ferry, which never saw the two children in the little boat. Merritt made sure Bud couldn't sit for at least a month after the ordeal ended. We don't know what punishment befell the other boy, but he did grow up to be a real-life bank robber, and was shot and killed by police during a hold-up.

By the age of thirteen, Bud was the product of a broken marriage, and he and his little brother Neil were taken to the farm on Somers Mountain to live with Merritt. Here, his father's temper was offset by Horatio's gentle manner. Bud was not much interested in school, but he loved the outdoors. Somers Mountain was the ideal place to grow up for a young nature-lover. Bud learned to hunt squirrel and deer, and acquired a lifelong taste for eating the game that he snared.

Bud's pet crows

Bud also raised pet crows on the farm and named one "Blacky." Bud learned that crows are good imitators, and the bird learned to speak many words. From Horatio, Blacky learned, "Wake up, Bud," and used to greet him every morning at his bedroom window with these words, giving grandpa a break from his morning chore of rousing the boys. Bud also helped out his aunts Emma and Josie (Bertha had died in 1930) by mowing their lawn. Every Saturday, Bud would ride his bicycle down the mountain to the Davis Sisters' house in Somers and cut their grass. For this, he would receive the princely sum of 5 cents, which he would promptly spend on ice cream before starting the laborious bicycle journey back up the mountain to the farm.

With the approach of the Second World War, Merritt was determined to make Bud a man. He used his influence in the National Guard to get 14 year old Bud into the Guard. However, before long, it was discovered that Bud was underage, and he was told to go back home and wait a few years. Finally, in 1941, Bud was old enough for military service and war was raging in Europe. Bud dropped out of school and joined the Navy that year. After basic training at Great Lakes, Illinois, Bud was stationed in Boston and Portland, Maine where he received additional training as a signalman. In November 1943, he received orders to head for the European theater of operations. Although he didn't know it at the time, Bud was part of the Allied Forces that were massing for the invasion of France. Bud traveled to England aboard the Queen Mary luxury liner which had been converted to troop carrier service. Here, Bud found himself in the thick of war with Germany, learning to cope with air raids and bombings almost every night.

Bud ended up at the Royal Naval College (recommissioned as the U.S. Advanced Amphibious Base) in Dartmouth, England, where preparations for the invasion were made throughout the winter and spring. He also made several trips to Murmansk, USSR, to supply Soviet troops with provisions. His convoy was attacked by a German E-Boat, but Bud's ship was unharmed. By April 1944, Bud and his compatriots were in full training for the coming invasion. Assigned to Assault Group Task Force 127.3 and LCI(H)492 (landing craft, infantry), he practiced beaching and landing procedures at Blackpool Sands, along the coast of southern England. On June 5, 1944, the convoy set sail for Normandy.

LCIs at Omaha Beach on D-Day

Bud recorded the events of D-Day, June 6, 1944, in his war diary. On that day, Bud witnessed first hand the greatest invasion in military history. Within a few weeks, Bud and his unit were mopping up the beach, as Allied troops pushed inland toward the fleeing German Army.

Bud's war diary
Click to read
D-Day entry

When not on duty, Bud would hitchhike to the front lines to see the action there. This almost got him killed; on June 30th, he found himself trapped behind enemy lines near St. Lô. Bud was trapped in a foxhole under fire for nine hours before the Allied troops secured the area. At first, Army personnel refused to believe that Bud and his pals were sailors...what on earth were Navy men doing so far inland in foxholes? Bud had to show them his dog-tags to prove who he was, and the doughboys told the adventurous sailors just how lucky they had been.

Bud had many exciting adventures during the war. Those he told most often dealt with the English and French women he met who were eager to shower their affections on young American GIs. He told of dating a young woman in England, and while out on the town, an air raid ensued. He rushed the woman back home following the raid, only to find her home in rubble. All that remained was the front steps with an intact and upright milk bottle sitting upon the top step, untouched. He escorted her to an air raid shelter to look for her parents, but had to leave, and he never saw the woman again. In France after the invasion, things were less tense, leaving for more time for fun and frolic. Bud often spoke of the belle jeune fille he encountered in a Normandy apple orchard. Bud tried to practice his newly acquired French vocabulary of several key phrases, but struggled to communicate. However, Bud soon learned that the woman didn't need words to express her appreciation to her gallant liberator. She quickly made her gratitude apparent in other ways.

Bovine trampolines: structural integrity unknown

Some of Bud's wartime adventures were rather comical. A few weeks after the invasion, Bud and his pals found a playful use for the dead cows that littered the Norman countryside following the fighting. Bud discovered that they made great trampolines. Yes, you could jump up and down on a dead cow and bounce surprisingly high. He invited one of his friends to join him in this new found pastime using an adjacent carcass. But Bud hadn't considered all aspects of dead cow trampolining; his friend was heavier than he and the cow was a bit less structurally sound. After just one bounce, his buddy found himself mid-thigh deep in decomposing entrails while Bud found himself rolling on the ground in laughter. Luckily for Bud, his pal's predicament probably hindered his ability to render expeditious pursuit.

In the spring of 1945, Bud returned home to the States, again aboard the Queen Mary. Packed in like sardines, the troops endured scabies and head lice infestations, but it didn't matter, they were going home! Bud left the service later that year and spent most of 1946 in Spokane, Washington, living with his mother who he had not seen since 1938. In Spokane, he also got reacquainted with his little brother Mark, who no doubt looked up to his war-hero brother with much admiration. In Spokane, Bud decided to use his GI Bill benefits to learn to fly. He got his private pilot's license in April, taking his test at Felts Field in a 65 hp Luscombe. Later that year, Bud and brother Mark returned home to the farm on Somers Mountain.

Mark didn't stay long before he was on his way back to Washington, but Bud settled back in at the farm with Horatio, Merritt, Genevieve, Sue, and Danny. Bud did odd jobs around the area and hung out with the rowdy Clark boys of Somers. Later that year, Richie Clark dragged Bud along with him to drop in on a young woman he knew, Clara Sperry, who was babysitting at a neighbor's home. Clara had a friend with her, Margaret Slanetz of Hazardville, Connecticut. Margaret's father's family members were relative newcomers to America, having emigrated from Bohemia around the turn of the century. Margaret's mother, Mildred Millay, came from an old Maine family with roots there and in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Mildred was third cousin to the Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay.

The new Davis homestead in Hazardville

Bud and Margaret hit it off right away and began dating. The relationship was off and on for a few years while Margaret was in school in Storrs, Connecticut, and Rochester, New York. But Margaret came back to the area in 1949 and took a job as a dental hygienist in Springfield, Mass. The romance blossomed, and Bud and Margaret were married in August 1952. Bud built a small home in Hazardville and settled in with Margaret, where he raised a family. There were three children: Mark, born in 1956, Diane born in 1958, and Robert born in 1963. When Bud's house was built in 1952, it represented the first new Davis homestead for his ancestral line in 123 years.

The rest of Bud's life never matched the excitement of his wartime exploits. Not having finished high school, he took a rather mundane job as a stock clerk for Package Machinery Co. in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Here, the daily tedium was often blunted a bit by after-work sojourns at the Country Corners pub across the street from his workplace. Here, Bud and his pals would hoist pitchers of beer while they waited for their kids to call the bartender to remind them to get home for dinner. Apparently, a lot of productivity was lost to this pub's beer taps. When its lease expired in 1991, the landholder, American Saw Corporation, another adjacent company, saw fit to demolish the establishment. Away from work, Bud spent his leisure time hunting, fishing, and trying his best to recreate the ambiance of the farm in his suburban backyard in Hazardville.

Bud irrigating the crops on the "new farm"

To the chagrin of his neighbors, Bud at various times kept raccoons, chickens, rabbits, opossums, cats, dogs, snakes, ducks, snapping turtles, and, yes, more crows, at his home. He still loved to stalk wild game, but his hunting patterns became rather bizarre as he got older. Once, he brought home and ate a dead porcupine he had found on the road. Bud told his incredulous family not to worry that "it was still warm" when he retrieved it. Bud also got excited about tree farming in the 1960's and planted over 500 spruce trees on his 3/4 acre in suburbia. They made for a great Holiday business in the 1970's and also kept the neighbors from seeing the mess that was slowly accumulating in the backyard over the years.

In the 1960's, Bud made several trips with his family to visit his parents and siblings who had spread out across the country after 1960, when his father sold the farm in Somers. He traveled to Washington in 1962; this was the last time he would see his mother, who died in 1977. He also traveled to Utah in 1966, 1967, and 1968 to visit his father who was dying of cancer. Of all the children, Bud was closest to his father, and when Merritt died in 1968, Bud was deeply saddened. In 1978, Bud himself was diagnosed with cancer, the same type that killed his father. After a very long and painful struggle, Bud Davis died in July 1985 of the disease. He was buried alongside his grandpa Horatio Davis, the man responsible for Bud's happiest youthful memories.

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