Interview with Lillian Costa Burbank

Interview with Lillian Costa Burbank

October 21, 2026

Memories of growing up at the Costa Farm 1404 Main Road, Westport MA

Her parents were Tony and Voyzie Costa.

Voyzie Costa

Tony and Voyzie Costa

Lillian Costa Burbank

LISTEN:

Interviewer: So, I’m here with Lillian Costa Burbank. And it is October 21^st, 2026.

The reason I’m talking with Lillian is she has donated these photographs of the Costa Farm stand. And I know that it was such a beloved place by the community. So, I’m  curious to learn a little bit more about the farmstand, about the family, and about your parents.

(looking at photograph of the farmstand)

Costa Farm

Lillian Costa Burbank: Well, this was on the end of the barn because we did keep cows. The most we ever kept was five. It was just for the family. Because previously, there was a little shack out here. And I guess maybe when he gave up the—I don’t know what the reasoning was—because this is where the manure went. So that’s why that’s open there, ’cause you could get the manure spreader in there. So, that was that.

Interviewer: Well, let’s just back up. For people who are not familiar with the farmstand, where was it located?

Lillian Costa Burbank: It’s at 1404 Main Road, right at the end of Cornell Road. And I think it had previously been a farm, but I’m not absolutely certain.

Interviewer: It’s quite an old house though, isn’t it?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Yes.  I think the records go back to 1805. We bought it from Joe Altonstall. It was a duplex when we got in. And we actually moved— I guess there isn’t a picture here, but there was a little garage kind of a thing in the back. And we lived there until the people moved out of the two parts of the house.

Interviewer: So, let’s talk a little bit about your parents, Tony and Voiyze. Can you tell me a little bit about them?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Tony grew up on Drift Road, lower part of Drift Road, which is now where the Howlands live now, or the How—they sold it to the Howlands. His mother sold it to the Howlands. My mother came from Detroit, Texas, and they met dur—during the war because, at that time, if you saw a soldier, you spoke to him and you took care of him, and so forth. Well, I don’t know if you knew my mother, but she was really quite beautiful. And so, of course, and so, he went off to war, and then when he came back, they moved back here.

Interviewer: And he is Azorean originally?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Yes, his parents came over in 1901 with his oldest sister was one year old.

Interviewer: What was her name?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Her name was, wait a minute, I’m going to tell you, Mary.

Interviewer: Did they come to Westport?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Yes, they came. I suspect there were people here, relatives here, and that’s why they came here. There is a story that my father was born on March 19th, which is Saint Joseph’s Day. And the auntie was supposed to take him to be baptized or whatever, and the plan was to be named Joseph, obviously. And she got there, and she named him Antone. So (laughter) so that makes me think there were people already here who were, so to speak, in charge.

Interviewer: Did they speak Portuguese?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Yes, my grandmother never learned to speak English. And my grandfather died, I’m going to say in late ’30s, 1930s. And, and I guess he never did either. And my father did not like to speak Portuguese at home. He would, occasionally teach us a few words: “Meu pai fuma cachimbo” in his accent, that meant “My father smokes a pipe,” which had nothing to do with anything (laughter), but…

Interviewer: Why do you think he didn’t want you to speak Portuguese at home?

Lillian Costa Burbank: I think there was a hint of, maybe more than a hint, of prejudice. And so, although his English was not the King’s English by any means, but he was very, very intelligent, which is kind of a shame, because he didn’t get to go to school. Which is why it wasn’t until I was a sophomore in high school that I understood that college was optional. I thought if you got decent grades and you could buy shoes, you went to college. And the teacher said, “How many people are planning to go to college?” And not every—I thought, what a stupid question, this is college prep, what do you think? Well, quite a few people did not raise their hands. And it was, but that’s why he had that “you have to have an education.”

Interviewer: So, they settled on their farm. Tell me again what year?

Lillian Costa Burbank: I’m going to say my brother was born in ’46. So, I’m going to say it was in April 1946. The plan was he was going to go back to the family farm. And when he got home, he discovered his mother had sold it. And that’s why they wound up where they wound up.

Interviewer:  How large was the farm, approximately the acreage?

Lillian Costa Burbank: I want to say it was, I don’t really know. I was going to say 30 acres, but only 20 usable.

Interviewer: So, they were there from ’46 until…

Lillian Costa Burbank: Well, my brother’s still there.

Lillian Costa Burbank: But the farm stand was operational until I don’t know when my brother gave it up, several years ago.

Interviewer: We’ve got some lovely photos of your father. Tell me a little bit more about him as a farmer and as a father, his personality.

Lillian Costa Burbank: Well, he was very strict, very strict. Should I say very strict? And so I don’t think we ever, we didn’t have a car, I don’t think we ever went to the Head. That was a strange part of it. We never went out to eat, ever. A big deal was to go down to Gray’s store down in Little Compton and get ice cream in and we’d each have a pint of ice cream.

Interviewer: Did you ever go down to Horseneck Beach?

Lillian Costa Burbank: We would go occasionally, he had a truck, and occasionally we would go down and climb the dunes, which aren’t even there anymore. And that was another big deal.

Interviewer: So, he was very, very strict. What else can you tell me about…

Lillian Costa Burbank: He liked to read, he read a lot. He was very meticulous with his business things. He had, there were standards. The money goes here. He did all that math stuff and kept records, and so forth. So, he adored my mother, and she adored him.

Interviewer: Well, you can see that in the photo. There are some photos of them together. So, let’s talk a little bit about your mother, Voyzie. What was her role on the farm?

Lillian Costa Burbank: The older I get, the more I realize how did she do it? I do not know, because she was very bright, very pretty little girl. She was the baby of the family, she was absolutely spoiled to death. So, I don’t know how she ever came here to struggle with no money, and three kids, and hard work, and so forth. She didn’t do too much out in the fields. Once in a while, she would go out and something that had to be picked or whatever. But mostly she was and she cooked, and sewed, and cleaned, and took care of customers.

Interviewer: Right, so she did work on the farm. It seemed like she formed very nice relationships with customers.

Interviewer: So, tell me a bit more about that. Was it just her personality?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Yes! Yes, she was a social thing. She liked people, and she liked to talk, and no, she was lovely. People adored her.

Interviewer: So, let let’s talk a little bit more about the farm and what it produced.

Lillian Costa Burbank: We had strawberries. I’m trying to think what we did. It was seasonal, like strawberries, we had to pick all day. And then we picked peas pretty much all day. And then beans. And then later, when I got to be bigger, I helped pick corn. I could pick corn. And what else? And then we’d go out into the little garden out, I call it the little garden, where we kept the beets, and the carrots, and that kind of stuff that you had to pick every day to bring in, and wash, and bunch, and present. Cucumbers, squash of all kinds, tomatoes, peppers…

Interviewer: Turnips?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Turnips sometimes, not always, but sometimes. I have a funny story. I would be out in the field hoeing with my father, all right? And then one day, he looked over, and that bean patch had been ravaged. A rabbit had come and eaten most of a row of. He was hysterical! The next day, he was out cultivating, cultivated in that area, and accidentally cultivated up the rabbit nest with the baby rabbits. Well, my goodness, he brought them into the house! He was horrified, horrified! Now, the day before, he wanted to kill every rabbit that lived, but that day, he brought them in, “See if you can find a doll baby bottle so you can feed them.”

Interviewer: What about in the winter months? What did the family do?

Lillian Costa Burbank: We had chores because we kept cows, and chickens sometimes, and once in a while pigs, and stuff like that. But, otherwise, not too much, which was good. And then my mother started teaching, so…

Interviewer: Oh, what did she teach?

Lillian Costa Burbank: She, (laughter), apparently, there was a period when they were short of substitute teachers, and she knew the superintendent, who begged her to please could she just. And so she did, and that’s how she started getting into teaching.

Interviewer: What about you as children? It sounds like you were put to work on the farm. So you would go to school during the day, then tell me a bit about your daily chores that you had to do.

Lillian Costa Burbank: Well, whatever needed to be picked, or weeded, or whatever. And then I, of course, as I got older, spent time in the stand, too. My little sister was little, she was little, so she didn’t do quite as much. But, of course, my brother and I both did whatever needed to be done, and go do it, and do it now.

Interviewer: How did you feel about that?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Oh, I can’t say I enjoyed it. I know people say they grew up on a farm and it was always just wonderful, but it was work. It was just work. And then we still had to wash dishes, and so forth. We had, until we got indoor plumbing, we had a galvanized tub in the back of the wood stove. And my mother would get the water out of the well, or my father, or me, when I got older. And she would heat the water on the wood stove, and put it in the galvanized tub. I think I was first, and then my brother, and then my sister.

Interviewer: When did you get indoor plumbing then?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Oh, I think I was about 14. We had an outhouse.

Lillian Costa Burbank: We had—we didn’t have toilet paper. We had the Sears catalog.

Interviewer: Yes, I’ve heard that that was the preferred paper, wasn’t it?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Yes, yes (laughter)! Some—once in a while, we’d have a newspaper, but mostly, no.

Interviewer: Well, at the Handy House, we have an outhouse with three holes, we call it a three-holer. What did you have?

Lillian Costa Burbank: That’s what we had, a three-holer.

Interviewer: Did you have your own location?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Well, oh no, no, no, we just whatever, you know.

Interviewer: So, you’d have to use that in the middle of winter?

Lillian Costa Burbank: I think if I recall, my mother had a pot, so that if it was in the middle of the night, we could, you know, do that instead. But she still had to get up and go with us.

Interviewer: So, it sounds like you lived what we would consider to be a primitive lifestyle.

Lillian Costa Burbank: Yes, I guess. We did have a pump in the kitchen, a hand pump, but the water came from the well in buckets and then we had to bring in wood. That was the other thing we did in the winter, yes. He would chop the wood, and we each had to bring in three armloads of wood.

Interviewer: What did you do for fun?

Lillian Costa Burbank: What?

(Laughter)

Lillian Costa Burbank: We read a lot. In spite of not having any money, when my mother had to go to Fall River on the bus, to Fall River to the bank or something, she would go to, I’m going to say it was Woolworths maybe, and she would come home with books. And we read all those Tom Sawyer and Five Little Peppers and all that stuff like that. And we would sit around in the winter, we’d sit around the stove, she’d have the oven door open, and we would sit in our chairs, and we’d put our feet on the railing of the oven. We’d sit and read.

Interviewer: It’s sounding like we’re going back two centuries.

Lillian Costa Burbank: Yes, I know, we were in the wrong century.

Interviewer: Did you feel like you were different from others in Westport, or not?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Yes, because so-and-so’s father would drive them to whatever, and we didn’t do that. We didn’t go any place. No, interesting.

Interviewer: So let’s talk a little bit more about you and your schooling life. Tell me about where you went to school, the various locations.

Lillian Costa Burbank: Sure. We started at the Point School because we didn’t have kindergarten in my day. That didn’t start until my children, my children were one of the first kindergartners. And down to the Point School, first and second grade in one room, third and fourth in the other room. And in the middle of second grade was when they opened the new high school. So, we all moved up to the Earle School, where we stayed for the rest of second grade and third grade. And then in fourth grade, they reopened the Point School (laughter)! So, we were at the Point School in fourth grade, fourth and third, with Mrs. Pilkington. And there were five third graders. Only five third graders. And then we moved up for fifth grade,  back up to the Earle. And did fifth and sixth there. And then seventh and eighth was at the new high school. And then high school there, seventh and eighth grade was downstairs, and the high school was upstairs.

Interviewer: Okay. Any memories that sort of stand out about your school life, whether it was teachers or some classes

Lillian Costa Burbank: Well, no, I just went along with whatever I was supposed to do, what I was told to do. I was the good girl, I did what I was supposed to do. We did have to, when we went up to the high school, the bus picked us up at our house. Now, mind you, the high school is, what, two, three, four miles from my It took one hour to get there (laughter) because they went, you know, all back roads and everything.

Interviewer: Who were some of your classmates?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Oh, let me see. There was Phoebe Paul, Gladys Shorey, Cathy Davis, I’m trying to think of the ones that went to the Point, Sue Lepreau, Peggy Macy, Ronnie Manchester. And then when we went up to the high school, I mean, that was really quite thrilling because those people came from the north end of town (gasp)! It was exciting (laughter)!

Interviewer: So, you got through your school years, and what happened next in your life?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Then I went to college. We went to University of Massachusetts, because I suspect, although I did have some scholarships, I suspect that was the cheapest. And I did get early enrollment. So, I knew in December of my senior year that  I had been accepted. So, but that didn’t deter me, I still did my senior work. And then, that’s where I met my husband, middle of freshman year, and we have been together ever since.

Interviewer: What did you study?

Lillian Costa Burbank: I started out as an English major because what, I didn’t have any, I didn’t know. So, but then I got there, and I switched to elementary education. One of the things that you had to take, you know, English, and math, and science, and whatever, and everybody was taking zoology for science. Well, they filled up the class and they couldn’t fit me in for my science, so they gave me entomology. And I said, “What’s entomology?” And so I went, going, “Oh, my heavens! Oh, my goodness, it’s bugs! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” And by the time I finished the class, I wanted to switch majors and become an entomologist! And my father said, “No, you will be a teacher, or a secretary, or a nurse. You can be some feminine thing.” So, I didn’t pursue that, but I still remember details from that class (laughter)! I loved it.

Interviewer: And so after that, did you have a profession, or did you stay in the house?

Lillian Costa Burbank: No, I worked, I taught. We started out in we lived in Plymouth, ’cause my husband was in the military, and he took some time to get going. And I taught in Carver. And then he went to wherever, Kentucky or Texas, or wherever he went, and I followed him and had a baby. I was never able to figure out—I know this is going to sound stupid—how you take your child to someone to care for, and then you go and get a job to pay that person to care for your child. I never figured that out. So, I did do some substitute teaching, and I worked as record keeping for the conservation commission and stuff like that. And then, when my son was in high school, I thought, “Oh, dear, I guess I can’t stay home with that anymore.” (laughter) So, I got a part-time job, and continued. I did teach English as a Second Language briefly at a factory in New Bedford.

Interviewer: At what point did you return to Westport?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Oh, that would have been prior to 19—that must have been the baby was born in 1970, the second baby, and so we must have come back in February of that year, 1970.

Interviewer: Okay. So, you have a very long association with Westport

Interviewer: Your birth year is…

Lillian Costa Burbank: 1944, but I was in Texas.

Interviewer: So, here’s more of a general question: what are the changes that you feel you’ve seen during your life here in Westport? What are the things that jump out at you?

Lillian Costa Burbank: Well, oh dear, that’s a hard question. I guess recently I went to the store, and I was going to buy lettuce, and I looked at it, and I thought, “We used to sell lettuce for 10 cents a head, and I couldn’t buy it!” (laughter) So, it’s that that’s the main thing, it’s just kind of, you know, more it’s less primitive, less primitive in general. And, but I, you know, I like it here. It’s a nice place. And when we have company, we pile them in the car and drag them all around town, and, you know, “My best friend used to live there.” (Laughter) I’m sure that we then give a test when they get back (laughter).

Interviewer: It’s a beautiful place. I think we’ve probably gone through most of what I was curious to talk about. So, thank you for talking to me.

Lillian Costa Burbank: Alrighty!