In Dot Stanas's memories of life in Hopedale she wrote, "On May Day, kids
    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."

I don't have the time for this. Maybe you do. Start here..

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   

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    This pile of dirty snow near the Outback Steakhouse in
    Bellingham was piled high enough to survive into May.

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.

    Beaver dam and G&U Railroad
    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.

    They are characterised by the slipper-shaped pouches (modified
    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.

    Below - A Google Earth view of the same site in 2013.

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.


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.