Back in the '20s my father used to meet his friend, Fred Bresciani, at the trolley stop at Patrick's Corner (the intersection of Hopedale Street and Route 16).  My father would walk down there from his house across from the shop on Freedom Street and Fred would come down from White City.  They'd get on the trolley (for a nickel, I think) with their guns and get off in Mendon, near where the Myriad Ballroom is now, to go hunting.  They 'd hunt for partridge, woodcock and rabbits.  Deer were rare around here in those days.  My father would give any rabbits he'd get to Fred and Fred's mother would cook them.  Arnold Nealley, November 2002.      On June 18th, [1948] the first night game ever scheduled was played between Hopedale and Milford at Draper Field before a capacity crowd, with the locals winning out 11-6.  The lighting system was rented for the occasion and consisted of 8 towers placed around the field in such a way as to insure the greatest coverage.  Each tower supported 8 - 1500 watt light bulbs, and the candle-power delivered was sufficient to permit maximum vision in all sections of the field.  Cotton Chats, November 1948. Permanent lights were later erected at Draper Field. See also Blackstone Valley Baseball..      We children shared the feeling of our parents that we were a chosen band, safely sheltered from the wicked world.  Milford, our nearest point of contact, was as remote as Boston seems today, and was perhaps more seldom visited.  It was a long way off around by the road, and the short cut lay through woods and over rocky pastures.  Mr. Bailey brought the mail over every evening by the latter route.  I lived where I could see him emerge from the woods, on what is now Dutcher Street, and when the night was wild, he seemed to my fancy a veritable hero. Sarah E. Bradbury, Hopedale Reminiscences, p. 15.     Now, is Hopedale a "workingman's paradise," or a despotism, more or less benevolent, varying with the circumstances? The answer depends on what the workingman desires.  If he is content with an unusually good tenement, good schools, good streets, and good public conveniences generally, together with the common, or in some cases, low, wages, it is a more than ordinarily good location for him. If he desires to assert himself, rather than to accept what is given him, either in wages, conditions of labor or the local government, he will be happier elsewhere. Lewis R. Hovey, Hopedale and the Drapers, 1909, p 7.      Hopedale, Dec. 18, 1919-This town led all New England cities and towns in per capita sales of thrift stamps, war savings stamps and Treasury saving certificates for the month of November, according to the latest reports received by Mrs. C. R. Burlingame, statistical director of the savings division, First Federal Reserve District, it was announced yesterday.  Hopedale maintained per capita sales of $1.02 during this period.  Milford Daily News, December 19, 1919.                             Short Stories Menu                HOME                    Back                    Next