When you look at the picture of Hopedale Pond above, you could easily imagine something
    strange living there. Here's a description of the menobranchuse

    A genus of tailed amphibians (also called Necturus), having permanent external gills. b. An
    animal of this genus; in this sense also in anglicized form menobranch (ˈmɛnəʊbræŋk).

    Here are a couple of recipes for you from
    the Hopedale Centennial cookbook.

    The mud puppy probably looked
    something like this.

    Neighboring town photos - Northbridge (Rockdale) - Route 122 at
    Sutton Street. The mill above is now known around here mainly for
    several stores there, including the Curtain Factory Outlet and a
    braided rug store. Below, on the same corner, an old boarding house.

Hopedale in November 2014

Hopedale in October   

Hopedale history ezine for November 1 -
Homes with Names   

November 15 ezine -
Burned in Boston   

December 1 ezine -
The Community   

Ezine Menu                  HOME

    .

    The present Union Church opened in 1963, replacing
    the church that burned the year before.As you see on
    the right, there was also a fire there in 1912.

    I dug up this tree in the woods and planted it about eight
    or ten years ago, after the original maple on our front lawn
    was taken down. This one has pretty good color every fall.
    Picture taken on cold, wet and windy November 2.

    When taking pictures of a colorful sky, I usually try to avoid
    things like the pole,transformer, and light, but this time I
    decided to put them right in the middle. November 2,
    between 5:47 and 5:51 - the first day back to standard time.

November 3. The price of gas was down another four cents by the next day.

    I planted some everbearing raspberries last fall. It would probably be
    more accurate to call them two-season raspberries. Here they are on
    November 3. Much later than I expected. I'm wondering if the second
    crop will be earlier next year, after they're a bit more established.

    Election Day - November 4 - Looks like it
    will be a busy day there. We were in line a
    minute or two before seven,and when I put
    my ballot into the box, it was number 25.

Above and below - Hopedale Pond, November 5.

    Left - Draper ad, 1925

    Above - Draper shop, 2014

    Yes, raspberries again. This little bit wouldn't
    be worth mentioning, except that picking them
    in November makes it about three months later
    than when I've picked them in the past.

And a gift basket raffle, too.

    It's been there for nearly 200 years, but with the recent zoning change, and
    the For Sale signs, probably not much longer. Information on the house
    above and the one below is from the National Register Nomination.

    Fitzgerald Drive blocked.  As you can see in
    the picture on the right, trying to cut through
    the cemetery isn't going to work, either.

    Passenger cars for the Polar Express
    arriving in Hopedale. Thanks for letting
    me know, Howsie, and thanks for the lift.
    Click here for more pictures.

    Click here to go to Hopedale Polar
    Express on Facebook.

    Thanks to my son, DJ, for this photo from Boston's South End,
    of the building used at the opening of St. Elsewhere. The good
    old tv days of St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues and LA Law.
    Here's a link to the opening credits, with a view of the building
    and a glimpse of the Orange Line El going by. And while I'm at
    it, here's a bit of Hill Street Blues, and L.A  Law.   

A few of the folks at the Atria-Draper Place Veterans' Day program.

Main Street, Milford - An interesting piece of auto art.

Demolition underway - the Coal & Ice garages - November 12

Above and below - November 14

    DJ and I visited the Elder Ballou Cemetery in Adin Ballou's
    home town of Cumberland, Rhode Island today. (November
    16) Right next to it is the site where Rhode Island's state
    rock, cumberlandite, is found. Very interesting stuff. Its iron
    content is high enough so that a magnet will attract it. In the
    picture below, a speaker magnet that we brought along with
    us is sticking to the near vertical face of a boulder.

    Here's what Wikipedia says about it: Cumberlandite is the
    U.S. state of Rhode Island's state rock.[1] It is only found in
    large concentrations on a 4-acre (16,000 m2) lot in
    Blackstone Valley, Cumberland, and in traces scattered
    throughout the Narragansett Bay watershed. Due to its high
    amounts of iron, it is slightly magnetic.


    A bit of ice on the pond - November 19. The quote is from Adin
    Ballou,writing in History of the Hopedale Community, about the Mill
    River in this area, before the dam was built.

    Work is underway at Oakledge on Adin
    Street, including widening the entrance.

Geese on ice - November 21

November 20

Hopedale Coal & Ice office

Right - November 14

Below - November 22

    November 22 - Some switching was going on with three locomotives,
    four cars carrying wallboard, two empties, five passenger cars (for
    the Polar Express), one boxcar and one flatbed. The flatbed is
    carrying a generator for heat and lights on the Polar Express cars

    Even when the train isn't in the way, there's a chain
    blocking the route through the parking lot.

    I was driving through Main Street Milford at 4:30 (November 25) in the
    usual heavy traffic for that time of day. There was a particularly colorful
    sky, so I took some pictures. You can see the town hall in this one.

    The Larches and the water tank - November 26. Yesterday the
    temperature was about 60.Today, obviously, it's a bit lower. A foot of
    snow predicted. We got a few inches. Very wet. If it had been about a
    degree colder all day, maybe it would have been a foot.

    Above - Hopedale Coal & Ice garages - November 28.

    Below - No ordinary shed. This was part of the Hopedale Coal &
    Ice coal trestle. The beams will be salvaged. Thanks for letting
    me know it was a good time for pictures, Howsie.

    A bit of the Coal & Ice area can be seen in
    this c. 1910 postcard view. The garages and
    coal trestle can be seen at the middle-left in
    the 1964 aerial view below. Click here for
    more photos of the demolition in the area.

    First trip of the G&U Polar Express - November 28.  In the picture below, you can see the
    green generator on the flatbed car. Here's what Don Howes sent on that:

    The "T" cars for the Polar Express are heated and lit by electricity. The engines the G&U
    uses don't produce that kind of electricity. The green box is a "portable" large capacity
    generator (with its own fuel tank) that is hooked up to the "T" cars with large cables. 480
    volts, I think. If you go down there, it is often running to keep the cars up to temperature.