The Momaneys, most from Dummerston and Brattleboro, were and are house painters. Moe’s father was, his Dad’s cousin, his uncle Walter, his Uncle Ed, his brother Mitch….. Moe’s son Terran works with him now and his daughter Ambria even got into the business for awhile.
He’s 68 but to look at him you would NEVER think he’s that age. He’s thin, bright-eyed, quick off the mark with a ready sense of humor. He works a five-day, eight-hour a day right along with his son and guys half his age.
Moe was born at Brattleboro Hospital in 1957. He was born Francis Momaney but on the playground at Dummerston Elementary his brother Mitch always called him Moe. The name stuck. After all, his father was Moe too. The Momaneys are all around SE Vermont: confidence in place and family is a very rich tradition around here.
“I grew up on Rice Farm Road, just downhill from Dummerston Center and right along the West River. We swam in the abandoned quarry that was right across from the Irving Gas Station on Rte 30 now. We had a rope hanging from the Green Iron Bridge that we’d swing off and jump into the river. We hiked Black Mountain. We explored the Old Jelly Mill that burned down when I was in seventh grade. We fished in Stickney Brook and those beautiful waterfalls just above Rte 30.
“ My Mom had five kids – me and my brother were the eldest and then she had three daughters. That meant me and my brother Mitch were out the door rather than in. I went to BUHS, graduated in 1975 but even as a junior at BUHS, I was working with my Dad’s cousin Harry Monmaney.
“After graduating, I’d meet up with him and his crew and we’d drive – on and off for four years - to work at Dartmouth College. We’d work on sash windows on four-story buildings all over the campus. I always got the 3rd and 4th floor windows, up there 60’ above the lawn on 60’ ladders (3 – 20’ sections that took three of us to erect.) In the winters we worked on the inside dormitories all over campus.
“In 1979 I met Deb Jarvis who graduated from BUHS in 1980. (Deb was one of this writer’s students in an English class at BUHS.) In 1988 Deb and I married. We now live in that house I mentioned earlier, just up the road from the Stickney Brook waterfalls.
“In 1979 I started painting for my uncle Walter Momaney and stayed with him for two years. By my Dad had a painting business up and running which he started with my Uncle Ed. They formed Momaney Painters. My brother Mitch and I joined them. We painted in a 20 mile radius of Dummerston – we even travelled to Troy, NY, and Keene, NH but rarely further. By the mid 1980’s, there were seven Momaneys on the payroll.
“Before I married Deb, I rented rooms in a house then owned by the the daughters of Robert Flaherty, the great silent filmmaker in the 1920’s and 30’s. I got to know his daughter, Monica, who lived there. One time she introduced me to Moses, the grandson of Nanook, the main character in Flaherty’s 1922 silent film “Nanook of the North” (a film many experts consider the first documentary film ever made.) His grandson Moses was visiting Monica. She asked me if I could show him a bit of Vermont. I told them I was going deep-sea fishing off Wells on the coast of Maine in a couple days. Moses went with me. We became friends and when Deb and I married 1988 he remained friends with us both. That was also the year when we bought an unfinished house on Stickney Brook Road.
“ We now have three children. Aisha is 35 and a high-end pastry chef in DC and Newport, RI; Ambria is 32 and living in Dummerston and has painted with me on and off; Terran is 27 and lives in the area and also paints with me and my crew on and off. Ambria has painted with my crew on and off, but only in the most refined of jobs. Women are so focused on detail.
“Around 2000, my Dad passed the reins to his sons. My brother Mitch decided to start his own business: Southern Vermont Painters and Restoration. I took over Momaney Painters and have been doing that ever since – residential and commercial work – interior in the winter, exterior in the warmer months - and churches when I can get them. I love being up high.”
And that’s when the subject of our interview about Moe’s life changed to painting itself. “The changes in the business began in the late 1970’s. Lead paint had not been a big deal but then it was becoming clear that lead paint was debilitating to the brains of kids under the age of six. It tastes sweet and kids were nibbling on widow sills and the like. I remember that sweet taste in my mouth when we were scraping houses. In the 1980’s The Environmental Protection Agency, OSHA and the Vermont Occupational and Safety Administration began to set standards that affected us painters for the better.
“From that point on, when we were going to scrape a house built before 1978 – when lead was still in paints – we had to wear Tyvek suits, booties, gloves, a respirator….. We had to hang signs around the perimeter of the house lot that read “Lead Hazard.” We had to apply for licenses; take an 8 hour EPA class on home inspection; gain certification and as an owner of a painting business, apply for a supervisor’s license. If any painted structure was built before 1978, lead was assumed to be present – even in the Windham and Windsor Housing Trust building on Birge Street, that my crew worked on.
“Even with respirators, tyvek suits and all the precautions, I get tested for lead every year. One year my lead count went from 7 to 14. It’s the dust from scraping. We treat old houses and buildings very carefully. And I have to say, Europe has been ahead of the US with laws related to safety and lead paint.
“I tell everyone: “The more you pay for paint, the better off you’ll be.” That is, expensive paints have been produced with safety for the consumer in mind. Most paints used to be oil-based. Now acrylics (water-based paints) are the rule . Acrylics also expand and contract with the wood metal whereas oil-based paints crack, always on a vertical line.
‘We painted the Next Stage Building in Putney that had been The Federated Church since the 1800’s. We set up for what we call a ‘lead job.’ We got clothed properly, we scraped with great care, then washed the building, put on a coat of oil primer and then two coats of high-end acrylic paint at $110/gallon. I always go to Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams for my paints. The same with the church on Townshend Common, The Westminster Church, The Governor Hunt House in Vernon….”
And who works with Moe? “An eclectic mix of characters. We try to make the work fun. When we have a contract job where we get paid the same amount no matter how long it takes us, I love to take advantage of that for the guys. We take along a gas burner stove and have a cookout for lunch: burgers and steaks, deer meat and ribs, lots of coconut water and iced tea.
‘But I have to say to your readers, the cheapest way to get a good paint job is to pay hourly. You’ll get more attention to detail and you’ll also be getting a home inspection. And don’t skimp on paint costs. Buy good reliable paint that will last and last and be safe. And if you’re doing the work yourself, use old-fashioned scrapers with 1 ½’, not 3” blades, Those narrower scrapers are way more effective though they take a bit longer. And use oil-based primers that soak into the wood; acrylic primers sit on the surface. And know that proper preparation is the entire basis of a good paint job.”
This is one of a series of some 30 profiles of working people from southern Vermont and adjacent New Hampshire that I wrote and then published in the Brattleboro Reformer newspaper every Friday from Jan 1 - May 30. Do the same with your local newspaper.