Thursday, September 20, 2012
The not nice ... the baffling ... and the borderline hilarious in Easton.
Is it possible for a white male like myself, of “fairly” sound mind and body, to know prejudice and discrimination? Well, in comparison to people of color in this nation, I would say that I have the charmed existence, with all the benefits of this country at my beckoning. I mean, really, I am a white guy who grew up in comfortable circumstances with parents who loved me — and by genetic accident I even had some biological advantage which I worked on to earn myself an athletic scholarship to a prestigious university. (Believe me, it was the athletics that weighed far more heavily than the academics in gaining me acceptance to Boston College.) Yet, even among white people there is prejudice held against one another — even if in the broader…
Monday, June 25, 2012
None of this is Good
There is that column in the Boston Herald; it is called, “Inside Track.” It is written by Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa. It is sort of a gossip column. Occasionally, the column includes a segment titled, “Tales From The Naked City.” It is fun reading – all tawdry and tightly packed and sexy and scintillating and relating all sorts of conduct in Boston, and by Boston area people, that is variously bad, amusing, and shocking. Most of the players in the dramas are fairly well known and powerful. Ms. Fee and Ms. Raposa don’t name names though. They keep the not so innocent anonymous. The columnists do, however, provide just enough of a description to get many thinking that they might have it figured out who is being described. Just …
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Some things to do in and around Furnace Village in days past.
The clay marbles were not much valued. Ten of that variety might be worth one of the glass agates. We played for keeps. This came as close to gambling as we got. Of course, it was ultimately a game of skill and I recall myself as only able to about break even. One thing I knew was that you did not play against Teeny Freitas. He was the school yard’s best marble player. My friend, Richard L Anderson and I were matched pretty evenly and played often. We did not play standard rules of making a circle and trying to knock your opponent’s marbles out of that ring. Our objective was to toss and place your agate into the small hole in the ground. Those that did not make it on the original throw were then pushed in by one’s curled index finger. …
42.02347
-71.12017
Depot St & Foundry St, North Easton, MA
/articles/marbles-for-keeps-and-other-pastimes
/locations/5387669
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Back-in-the-day sports in Furnace Village
Sometimes we played touch football, but the old fashioned tackle variety was more popular. Equipment was unheard of. Some games were played in the field behind the Furnace Village Grammar School. Players in the line were matched off by size; we never had enough to fill anywhere near the eleven man complement. There were no referees, of course, and bloody noses and serious bruises were common to say the least. One day Billy Moreshead broke his right arm. Small of stature, Billy was as tough a nut as one could find anywhere. It was a compound fracture with his forearm bone protruding through the flesh with nary a drop of blood to be seen. Bill at 12 years of ago or so, refused to cry. Someone ran across the street to use the Hanscom’s phone…
42.02347
-71.12017
Depot St & Foundry St, North Easton, MA
/articles/we-were-tough-in-the-village
/locations/5266767
Sunday, August 7, 2011
A typical day in Furnace Village
My old man was quite the horse trader, but he never limited himself to the equine breeds. I’m about twelve years old and it’s a chilly fall morning. “Get up, Pete”, says Avery, Sr. He always called me Pete because my mom wanted to name me Peter, but dad insisted I be named after him. In exchange for her acquiescing, he proceeded to call me Pete all my life. Into the broken down “car of the day” we stumble, but only after putting the large white rabbit dad had acquired for small money in a cage in the area of the jalopy that in another’s vehicle would be the space for the back seat. Dad was a used car dealer among other trades and his cars were frequently used as trucks to haul animals and other fine goods he’d acquire in a day. To the …
42.02374
-71.11995
Depot St & Bay Rd, North Easton, MA
/articles/start-with-a-cricket-come-home-with-a-cow
/locations/5035791
Sunday, July 10, 2011
A look back at food in Furnace Village
Ever tried sour milk pancakes? We thought they were the very best. Mom would put a container of Gracie Farm raw milk in the full sun on top of the well cover just outside the back entry. Once curdled the milk was put in the fridge for use the next morn. My siblings and I were raised on nothing but raw milk. If mom forgot to do the aforementioned task, she just added a little vinegar to fresh milk and put all the ingredients together “from scratch”. She used only King Arthur unbleached flour, I recall. Blueberries, canned fruit or other fruit in season was added to the pancake when she cooked it. The cakes were fried in the ubiquitous bacon fat or oleo margarine. At that time the dairy industry’s political pull was strong and oleo came in …
42.02347
-71.12017
Bay Rd & Foundry St, South Easton, MA
/articles/furnace-food-in-the-forties
/locations/4808782
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Memories of fast cars and fast times.
It could be that people as far away as North Easton Village never knew of the wonderful years in the late forties and early fifties that the Furnace was host to some of the most colorful race drivers in the area. Bobbie Barboza, Eddie Smith and Hilt Nordbeck come to mind. This was a time when “stock car” meant just that. One took his vehicle as it came off the highway and put the old crate on a race track and tried to outrun and outwit other locals doing the same. Our venue was Lonsdale, Rhode Island. Lonsdale was at first a dirt track and later with asphalt. No sooner than the rules of the track were set than drivers and their mechanics tried to doctor up their galopies to get an edge on the competition. Race “officials” had a tough job …
42.02347
-71.12017
Bay Rd & Foundry St, South Easton, MA
/articles/stock-car-racing-in-the-village
/locations/4704688
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Taking care of ponies on a Furnace Village farm.
Well, we had them, but we did not own them. The deal went this way: In the off-season from fair and carnival time, the Doyle family down Route 106 a couple of miles from us would let families take a pony for their use in exchange for housing and feeding the animal(s). The Doyles lived at what is now the location of the Maplewood Country Day Camp at 150 Foundry Street. At the time the property was profiled above the level of the street in contrast to the great depression we now see in the earth there. The Doyles sold their property to the construction cause of building Route 24. The new buyers stripped off the rich surface loam and went deep into the fine source of sandy gravel beneath. The first year we took only Midnight, a Shetland pony…
42.02347
-71.12017
Foundry St & Bay Rd, South Easton, MA
/articles/we-had-ponies
/locations/4585758
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Avery Lee Williams reminisces about the Easton house his father built by hand.
Not everyone built his house as my dad did, but there were several in the Furnace Village area that were put together this way. Married in 1932, Avery and Margaret (Adams) Williams started life in a rented apartment at the Warren and Ethyl Blood house on Route 138. The house burned down last year and has been replaced. It was located next to the old Pickle Barrel pub, which later was the Blackthorne Tavern. My folks had to elope as my Irish Catholic grandmother was not going to let her daughter marry a Congregationalist Protestant. This left me and my siblings to be raised in the Episcopalian religion as a compromise. My brother Francis C (Buddy) Williams and I were born on the second floor bedroom on the left rear of the two story house. …
42.022388
-71.116329
455 Foundry St, North Easton, MA
/articles/the-house-that-dad-built
/locations/4462270
Dick Burrell
11:47 am on Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Just great more ›