This week the life of long time Greenwich resident James M. MacKay (January 19, 1921- December 4, 2019) was celebrated with full military honors at Christ Church Greenwich. MacKay’s oral history, “Life on Riversville Road.” is featured in the current blog on the Greenwich Library Oral History Project (OHP) website. Following are excerpts from that blog.
“Greenwich resident James M. MacKay was interviewed for the Oral History Project on September 8, 2008 by volunteer Harriet Feldman. His interview offers a fascinating glimpse into his life growing up and living in Greenwich, amid the hardships of the depression, foreclosures, and then life on a working farm. He describes it as a “self-sustaining” farm where the family “grew corn, potatoes, raised chickens, rabbits, cows, horses, pigs.” They also had a root cellar for carrots and potatoes. Mr. MacKay says it was “a great life. Oh, it was just a fabulous life when I think back on it now.”
His idyllic boyhood would be cut short not long after graduating from Greenwich High School. He notes that there was no money for college, and World War II would begin shortly after his graduation. Mr. MacKay worked briefly at a local bank before being drafted into the Army in 1942…
And thus, James M. MacKay became part of the historic Normandy invasion. Just prior to the invasion, he was transferred from the Eighth Division to Army Signal Corps and placed in an intelligence unit. Mr. MacKay describes his job as locating where the enemy tanks and units were. He was assigned to General Patton’s Third Army. He fought across Normandy and past Paris, eventually crossing into Germany and meeting up with the Russians at Salzburg. As if the horrors of warfare itself were not enough, Mr. MacKay also tells of the liberation of Dachau, the infamous German concentration camp. He relays what it was like to enter the camp and see the horrors of the German “Final Solution” and to live with the impact of that experience…
That we have James M. MacKay’s story to read and to absorb and to use as a teaching tool is something that should not be overlooked. There are powerful and amazing stories of Greenwich citizens that are waiting to be discovered at the Greenwich Oral History Project. It is an admirable source of information for teaching our current generation of the everyday life, livelihood, and sacrifices made by those who came before us.”
This Oral History Blog was contributed by guest blogger Joseph Campbell. The Oral History Project is a homegrown endeavor of volunteers with a love of history of our town.
The James M. MacKay’s interview, #2794, Life on Riversville Road, can be read in the reference section of the Greenwich Library, first floor, or by contacting the Greenwich Library Oral History Project office, 203-622-7495.
