Yester-Heroes: Nashua Fire Department – The Early Days
read more…: Yester-Heroes: Nashua Fire Department – The Early Dayssome tidbits of information focusing on the early days of Nashua’s fire department.
Point of View
Local voices chime in on a variety of topics.
Puzzles
read more…: PuzzlesAnd one of the things that I was firmly convinced of was that the ability to figure out a mystery and the ability to complete a crossword were somehow entwined. It did not really matter, though, because I was hooked on both, forever.
The Soapbox: New Hampshire, it’s time to acknowledge the YDC stories of suffering
read more…: The Soapbox: New Hampshire, it’s time to acknowledge the YDC stories of sufferingI was a child protection service worker (CPSW) at the Division of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) back in the 1990s. I’m now a farmer at the Manchester Food Bank’s one-acre garden located on the grounds of the Youth Development Center, colloquially known as the Youth Detention Center.
Yester-Heroes: A job of many hats
read more…: Yester-Heroes: A job of many hatsThe city charter gave the mayor and aldermen full and exclusive power to appoint a city marshal and assistants, constables, and all other police officers. As first organized, the city had police officers, constables and watchmen. All had the power to arrest. Constables had additional powers to serve civil processes and to collect taxes. It was not unusual for one man to serve in all three positions. None of them was a full-time job, and appointments were often politically driven.
Why handwritten letters are golden and communication is key
read more…: Why handwritten letters are golden and communication is keyI’ve been writing a lot of letters lately, probably in reaction to all the reading of old letters I’ve been
Yester-Heroes: The Crown Hill Conflagration
read more…: Yester-Heroes: The Crown Hill ConflagrationThe Nashua Telegraph of the previous day predicted fair and cooler weather for Sunday. A fire started on one of the lower wooden timbers of a railroad bridge over the Nashua River near Temple Street. It is unknown what started the fire. It might have been sparks from a passing train. It might have come from a group of young men who were known to congregate in the area to while away the time with games of chance and cigarette smoking.
Swedish death cleaning
read more…: Swedish death cleaningI have spent every free moment I’ve had in the past week reading old letters and sorting through jewelry. You can call it downsizing, or decluttering, or Swedish Death Cleaning — or anything you want to call it — I am sorting through my possessions and deciding what to do with them.
Those old Barbie clothes? They’ll pay your way through college! (Not!)
read more…: Those old Barbie clothes? They’ll pay your way through college! (Not!)When I was in my early 30s, my father handed me a baggie with perhaps a dozen original (used and wrinkled) Barbie clothes that somehow remained 30 years after I stowed them away somewhere in a house we no longer lived in and said, “Save these. They will pay for college.”
Don’t miss ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ at The Palace Theatre through May 12
read more…: Don’t miss ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ at The Palace Theatre through May 12If you’re like me, you had the album Tapestry vertically lined up on a shelf, perhaps arranged alphabetically if you were a bit OCD and maybe even on a shelf created with several cement blocks. Maybe your parents even had a copy. Some considered it a ground-breaking generational crossover album.
Yester-Heroes: Midnight Marauders and the Night Watch
read more…: Yester-Heroes: Midnight Marauders and the Night WatchOn November 8, 1828, the town voted to purchase a farm and on November 24th appointed a committee of five to look at area farms and select one and “run the town into debt for it” if need be. On March 10, 1829, the committee unanimously chose the Benjamin Cutler Farm and purchased it for $2,649.14. For years, this facility would be the poor farm and house of correction for the town. Persons could be (and were) committed to the House of Corrections for up to six months of hard labor. Today, this property is known as … the Nashua Country Club.