1940s when I was going to the Park Street School. Some of the girls would come dressed for the occasion and we'd go over to the town park where the Maypole would be waiting. You can see a good many version of this on YouTube. Here's one in England. Here's another . Here's an elaborate one done in a gym. Then there's Maibaum-Tanz zum 1. Mai auf dem Altmarkt DD Adults in costume and a big pole.
would "hang" May-baskets on friends. 'Baskets' were usually small boxes decorated with crepe paper. Once my friend's brother left me a frog. "Hanging baskets" meant leaving them in front of the door, ringing the bell, and then running off to hide." |
Adin Ballou on May Day. |
Hopedale in May 2015 May 1 Ezine - Electricity May 15 Ezine - Drapers in the Dutcher Years Hopedale in April Recent Pictures Menu HOME . |
This pile of dirty snow near the Outback Steakhouse in Bellingham was piled high enough to survive into May. |
It won't be shown at the town hall this week, but you can see Little Annie Rooney on YouTube. Here below is Annie and kids throwing rocks and bricks at her. Here's a Pathe newsreel from 1926. |
Rug hooking at the Community House - May 6 |
Pear flowers. If all goes well, I'll be picking loads of pears in a couple of months. |
Every now and then I like to try the invert image feature on the photo program. This one should look good to those of you who miss winter. |
Salt being unloaded at Chelsea Creek. If we happen to get any snow or ice here in Hopedale next winter, some of it could end up on our streets. |
Gasoline at $2.60 a gallon. Water, 99 cents for 20 ounces. That comes out to more than $6 a gallon for the water. Good thing gas is cheaper than bottled water. |
Under the Mass Pike, Quinsigamond River, North Grafton. |
bridge, North Grafton. |
We saw five or six muskrat lodges along the Quinsigamond River. As we got to the point where the river widens to become Lake Ripple, we saw one that looked different from the others. When we got closer, we noticed that there was a Canada goose sitting on top of it. She wasn't going anywhere even when we got rather near to her, so we figured she was nesting and we moved along. When we got home, I took a look and found that Canada geese often nest on top of muskrat lodges. They aren't available for the geese around Hopedale Pond, but they've been finding someplace that works for them. |
At this time (1889), 300 men and 75 teams of horses were working in three separate work gangs. One group was at Milford, one in Hopedale and one was at Upton. The crews worked for 13 months hewing through massive rocky barriers along the crooked roadbeds between each town. No power equipment was available and the work was done the difficult way - by man and animal. Early in January 1890, construction of the road had reached the Milford-Hopedale town line with 150 men and a dozen or more teams still engaged in the work. Gordon E. Hopper, History of the Grafton and Upton Railroad Click here to go to a short version of Hopper's G&U history. The complete book (c 150 pages) can be seen at the Bancroft Library. |
"Ditch" between Draper shop and Freedom Street. |
Council on Aging thank you to volunteers breakfast. Breakfast provided by Atria-Draper Place. May 12 |
Hill Street blues |
Above - Hill Street (White City) in 1923. Below - Hill Street in 2015 Click here for more about White City. |
Redwing near Rustic Bridge, Hopedale Pond. Claims have been made that it is the most abundant living land bird in North America, as bird-counting censuses of wintering red-winged blackbirds sometimes show that loose flocks can number in an excess of a million birds per flock and the full number of breeding pairs across North and Central America may exceed 250 million in peak years. It also ranks among the best-studied wild bird species in the world. The red-winged blackbird is sexually dimorphic; the male is all black with a red shoulder and yellow wing bar, while the female is a nondescript dark brown. Seeds and insects make up the bulk of the red- winged blackbird's diet. Wikipedia |
Lady's slipper, blooming near the beginning of its short season. May 16, the Parklands.
labellums) of the flowers – the pouch traps insects so they are forced to climb up past the staminode, behind which they collect or deposit pollinia, thus fertilizing the flower. Unlike other orchids, Cypripedioideae have two fertile anthers — they are "diandrous". Wikipedia |
Above - Tthe area along Route 140 near the Upton line where was a large pile of crushed stone for the past few years. That disappeared rather quickly during the last couple of weeks. According to the Milford News, solar panels will be going in there.
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One little corner of the Grafton flea market. |
The cupola stood on the roof of the high school for eighty years - from 1927 to 2007. Now it rests on its side at the sewage plant grounds. Click here to see more. |
Wild geranium, alongside the Dutcher Street entrance road to the Parklands. |
The plaques shown above were recently placed on the Community House lawn near Draper Street by the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor and the Hopedale Historical Commission. |
in Blackstone on the SNETT - The Southern New England Trunkline Trail. A large amount of work has been done on bridges and the roadbed in the area in the past couple of years, and a good deal more is going on now. The photo shows where the SNETT crosses the Blackstone River at the triad bridge location. |
Memorial Day in Hopedale. Click here for more. |
Here I am (Dough Boy shirt, Hopedale hat) with my classmate from the Hopedale High Class of 1959, Lynn Lutz. While Lynn was here from California he wanted to accomplish an item from his bucket list. One more walk around the Parklands. We (five of us, actually) started at the town park and went up to the Rustic Bridge. When we got to the other side, we decided the trip wouldn't really be complete without going to the Lookout. That's where we are in the picture. Lynn was using two knees he wasn't born with, but managed the hill without a problem. |
Celebrating the life of Bill Wright - May 29. |