The Griffin-Dennett apartments in 2014. The Griffins, lower photo, named in honor of Richard
    Griffin, killed in the Korean War, have now been there on Hopedale Street for fifty years.


    For the neighboring town photos for February, here
    are a couple from Milford. Left, the Barney Coal (now
    Medway Oil according to a sign on the side door) with
    the nice, old Reading anthracite sign. Below, the Irish
    tower at St. Mary's Cemetery. I didn't break the lock on
    the door, but since someone did, I decided I might as
    well go in for a picture.


    In the picture above, the house that was the Durgin home in
    1936 is the one on the left. The houses in the picture below were
    built later, so that area might have been "Durgin's grounds"
    where the "circus" was held.  Click here for more on the circus.

Hopedale in February 2014

Ezine for February 1 - A Kid's Paradise   

Ezine for February 15 -
The Drapers in Uxbridge   

Ezine Menu                       HOME   

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    Here are some Hopedale statistics from a website called homeactions.
    net    Some of it is a bit hard to believe. I'd say the air and water are a lot
    better than it says. I looked at some other ZIPs and most of the
    numbers seem right, but water and air can be goofy. I tried 02134
    (Remember ZOOM?) Quabbin Reservoir MWRA water, and it gets a 1.

    Last month I showed a couple of examples of pages on this site that had been translated; one into Italian
    and another into Chinese. i knew it had been done by a Google Translate program, but I didn't know that
    you could just put the URL to a page in, pick a language and click for the translation until my son, DJ, told
    me about it. I gave it a try, and what you have above is part of the town hall page in Icelandic.

    A little snow fell on Monday, the third, with more
    predicted for Wednesday and Saturday.

    "The foundry department of the Hopedale Machine Co., by their Superintendent, Mr. Frank J.
    Dutcher, has presented two bronze tablets to be placed at the outside entrance. They bear in
    raised letters the words, 'Public Library and Reading Room - Free to All.' The Dutcher Temple
    Co. has finished them and firmly secured them to the building. The material, aluminum bronze,
    is imperishable and the invitation will never grow old. We have never heard questioned the
    absolute freedom of Public Libraries from sectarian or political influences, except perhaps in
    the composition of boards of management, and whatever these may be, the searcher for
    knowledge in a free public library is given the book he asks for and may read what he
    pleases." For the Library Trustees, William N. Goddard, secretary, February 1, 1889.

    The plaque was on the town hall where the library was located, until the opening of the
    Bancroft Library in 1899. About fifteen years ago it was retrieved from the town hall and can
    now be seen above the inner front door at the Bancroft Library.

    Wednesday, February 5 - Not a good day for a bird to take a bath. The snow
    was expected to fall for about another five hours after I took this picture.
    Meanwhile, I've been hearing from Peter Metzke in Melfourne that the
    temperature has been around 43 to 44. Since that's pretty well over 100
    Fahrenheit, I'd just as soon have the snow.

Hopedale Pond - February 4

Spindleville Pond - February 4

    Yes, there are still a few things manufactured in Hopedale.
    Here's the M.C. Machine Company in Spindleville. You can take
    a look at their website if you'd like to see what's made in there.

Spring is just around the corner.

    But for now, winter activities
    continue on Hopedale Pond

    If you'd like to see it in warmer
    weather, click here to see it all
    through 2013 on YouTube.

    I found that the site is in Cyrillic (I guess that's what this is, anyway) when I
    noticed someone in the Ukraine was looking at the Gilbert Thompson page. For
    anyone who might be interested in Gilbert, but would prefer English, here he is.
    Okay, okay, enough. Time to stop putting all these translations on here.

A fairly impressive icicle hanging from my back porch - February 11.

    I wonder if there's anyone left in town who still calls this
    intersection Patrick's Corner. This picture was taken a little
    before 8 AM on February 13. Usually the traffic is backed up as
    far as you can see at that time, but evidently the weather
    prediction was keeping people home. A little snow was falling
    at the time, and it picked up quite a bit over the next half hour.

Getting ready for the storm at the Highway Department.

    I took this picture looking out past the icicles and apple trees into my backyard and beyond at !2:30 on
    the 13th. The snow has been really coming down for a few hours now. I took a little walk around town
    between 7:45 and 8:30 this morning, and the four pictures above this one were taken then.

    Looking out the front window at one
    on the afternoon of the 13th.

    ChingChing doesn't come downstairs
    much, but here she is, thinking about it.

    Inman Street, February 17. I put these pictures on mainly for you people in
    Florida and other warmer locations who seem to enjoy seeing them. I even got
    down low when I took the picture to exaggerate the look of the snowbank a bit.

February 18, 6:30 am.

    Okay, Florida folks, here are a few more
    for you. These were taken just hours
    after the "Red sky in the morning,
    drivers take warning" picture. I took the
    one with the glove at 10 and the other
    two at noon. It hadn't snowed in two or
    three days, so we were due.

    February 19 - Rain is such a change from the usual weather this
    winter, I thought I'd try some pictures through the car windshield.