In the last couple of months I included some goofy things I'd run across on the
    month pages, and here's another. Shaw's congratulated me on earning 0 points. I
    wonder how many exclamation points there'd be if I'd earned one or two.

    This is from the 2013 Hopedale street listing book. Age of birth at
    right of name. I wonder what Mr. Bartlett's secret of longevity is.

Site of the former Hopedale Garden Nursing Home on Route 140.

Looks like kind of a chilly start to the year.

    In 2001, the Hopedale Historical Commission had a study done to establish a historic district. It included a large amount of
    information on the different architectural styles of houses in Hopedale. It's called the National Register Nomination. Click here to
    go to a menu for pages with information from the NRN and pictures of the houses.

Waiting for the snow.

    January was still a few hours away when DJ and I
    took a walk out onto Hopedale Pond to see how the
    ice fishermen were doing. We found that Mark
    Francis and Hank Cyr were the guys out there. In the
    picture above, Hank is using a jigging rod that was
    carved by his grandfather many years ago.

    Here's what I heard from Hank a few days later:

    We had a good day with 11 fish, including my 20"
    pickerel, Mark's 21" pickerel and a Largemouth Bass
    I caught on my grandfather's jigging stick that was 18"
    -- longer than the stick!

Hopedale in January 2014

Hopedale history ezine for January 1 - The General and the Feud   

Mid-January ezine - Mergers That Ruin    

HOME

.

Getting a little hockey in before the snow arrives - January 1.

    Neighboring town photos for January - "The bubble"
    John Smith Sports, Sumner Street, Milford.

    Hopedale Pond - January 2. The temperature was 10 degrees,
    but a lot of skater were there. More than are shown here.
    Below you'll see an account of the pond in the 1940s.

January 2 - 11 PM

    January 3 - We got off easy this time with only about six inches of light,
    fluffy snow. Places not too far away got much more. I took this picture at
    the entrance to Draper Place at about 3:30. Elaine had walked down
    there at 7:30 this morning when the wind chill was -19. She had to get
    back for the evening shift and decided she'd like a ride this time.

The photo above and the one below were taken on January 4.

Graph shows origins of hits on this site.

    January 8 - A couple of days ago, the temperature reached 57,
    but when I took this picture this morning that shows how
    rhododendron leaves curl up when it's cold, it was 10 degrees.

    So there I was, taking a look to see where the hits on the site were coming from and I saw that someone in
    Rome had gone to Storia di Hopedale, Massachusetts. Hun? What's the deal with that? I clicked on it, and
    above you can see part of what came up. The homepage, but in Italian. I clicked on some of the links and every
    page I looked at had been translated into Italian. .I'm assuming it must have been done with one of those
    programs that automatically translates, and they certainly have their limitations, but still, surprising to find it.

    Later I took another look to see what the URL was. Evidently this is part of a Google project. Here's a link to
    Storia di Hopedale.     

    Some words change with the translation and some don't. Now and Then stays as Now and Then. White City
    stays White City, but The Pest House becomes The Pest Casa, and The Water Cure House becomes The
    Water Cure Casa. Kathleen Kelly Broomer's name was changed to Kathleen Kelly La spazzola.

My front steps, with my feet and bird feet. Well, okay, my sneakers and bird tracks.

    I think they stopped cutting pond ice around 1946. We skated near the
    procedure and the ice fishermen were in the same area at times.   The pond
    was quite an attraction in those times.  Mr. Dewar (Arthur), Susan Dewar’s
    dad, would lead a zillion kids and adults in a big whip and go from the dam
    area up around the island and back, usually falling apart about the time we
    neared the bath house.  Bob Aldridge used to sell home made popcorn
    balls at the beach area on Sunday afternoons; maybe Saturday too.  He had
    a huge wooden box that was full of them and  he sold them as fast as he
    could collect the 10 cents for each one.   There were usually two or three
    pond hockey games going on as well.  I remember John Bonin had a hockey
    goalie outfit and no one else had any equipment,. Dull skates and wooden
    hockey sticks well taped up were the average equipment. Bob Holmes   

Poster at corner of Dutcher and Freedom

    A few hours after I put the picture of the poster up, I saw this on Facebook.
    Lots more on this on Lucky Dogs Facebook page.  

    At the east end of town, at the foot of the hill
    There's a chimney so tall that says Aragon Mill.
    But there's no smoke at all coming out of the stack,
    For the mill has pulled out, and it ain't coming back.
    The only thing I hear is the sound of the wind,
    As it blows through the town, weave and spin, weave and spin.

    Aragon Mill   (Click to hear it on YouTube.)

The highway department out on a rainy day fixing a rough piece of Hopedale Street.

    A few utility poles are being replaced in the area. These guys started with the auger,
    but soon hit rocks and had to spend quite a while with shovels. To finish the job,
    wires will have to be moved by Verizon, Comcast, and National Grid. This one has a
    streetlight and a transformer, also. A lot of work for one pole.

    Water gets kind of foamy looking when
    it goes over the dam at Spindleville.

    We've had some very cold weather this month, but we've also had enough
    warm days so that Spindleville Pond still has a lot of open water.

    Snow came down most of Saturday,
    the 18th, but it didn't amount to much.

    In 2014, Time magazine considers an egg machine to
    be among the world's weirdest vending machines. Way
    back in the 1950s, the Parkside Poultry Farm at 200
    Ducher Street sold eggs from thier egg-o-mat. In that
    same era, you could buy milk at the milk-o-mat on
    Dutcher Street, across from the end of Chapel Street.

    Above - Dutcher Street from the intersection of Hopedale
    and Northrop. January 22, 7:30 AM   About four inches of
    snow fell overnight.

    Left - You can see how powdery the snow is as it comes
    out of the snow blower.

    Tired of reading this site in English and Italian? Here's
    your chance for a change. Read it in Chinese.

Saturday, January 25