Winthrop's Carleton Woolen Mill Part of History: So are Jon's Stinky Feet [Audio]

Carleton Woolen Mill in Winthrop represents many years (almost 150) of textile manufacturing. It is for that reason that the downtown mill buildings have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

If you've ever been to see a doctor in the Maine General facilities in downtown Winthrop, you've been in the old mill! Pretty neat, huh? And you may not have even know it.

My memory of Carleton Woolen mill comes from the giant facility on Route 202. They would close down for a week in July and ServiceMaster, who I worked for at the time, would clean the place, top to bottom.

We'd clean the greasy walls, take the old wool from the milling machines and do all the stuff nobody else wanted to do on hot, humid summer days in an un-air condition wool mill. Talk about hard work.

The only really good memory that came from that summer was going home (I was 16) and my mom and dad would ask me how my day was.

"Hard," I'd say as I took off my shoes. Once the shoes were off, the gagging began and the windows flew open.

Sad, because I was still five days away from my weekly Saturday night bath. No wonder I had no girlfriends.

I called dad as I began writing this story. Listen to his reaction. It didn't take long to conjure up THAT awful memory for him!