For Sale

A few items.

Oh wow! Did you hear the news? 48 Main - the Northampton restaurant whose address is also it's name - has closed suddenly!

A friend of mine works there, and they told me that not only did the restaurant go out of business, but the eatery was robbed on its last day open! All the employees, including my friend, have been interviewed by the police in what is apparently suspected to have been an inside job. Oh well, they might as well go out in a wave of drama!

I liked 48 Main and am sorry to see it close. Over the years it had also been called Vermont Deli and then Hayfields, but the decor was always the same. I was just there a few weeks ago on a Saturday and it didn't have much business. I guess its time had passed.

The other day I was in Amherst and while passing this antiques shop something caught my eye. 

It was this old fashioned baby carriage. The tag on it said it was from the 1930's and cost forty-five dollars.

Of course I have no baby to put in a carriage, and if I did I wouldn't put it in a dirty old carriage like that. But I did pause to wonder how many brand-new people over the past 75 years got their first glimpses of the sky lying in that wicker carriage?

In Northampton L&M Furniture had some old rocking chairs for sale out on their sidewalk. 

Nearby Uncle Margaret's had a dress sale at their shop, which caters to lesbians but also welcomes straight people warmly. 

Yesterday I was wondering about the weird title of the sermon at Hamp's Unitarian Church.

 



Someone sent me an email solving the mystery.

Hello,

My name is Bob Young and I only recently discovered your interesting blog. I grew up in Northampton but have lived in the New Haven CT area for the past 20 years. I'm gay, have a partner named John, and am a librarian.

I also wanted to comment on the "odd title" of the Unitarian Church sermon. It's a reference to Emily Dickinson's poem about hope:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune - without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

All the best!
Bob

The following news about Springfield's Ecology Center for Our Schools (ECOS) where my mother worked until she died, was emailed to me recently.

Dear Teachers, Students, Parents, and Friends,

Please help by joining us on Thursday March 6, 2008 at the School Committee meeting’s speak out at 5:45 at City Hall Springfield, where we will ask the school department to start the process of bringing the Clifford A. Phaneuf Environmental Center into the 21st century.

For almost 40 years The ECOS Program has been a place for Springfield students to learn about the environment at the Clifford A. Phaneuf Environmental Center. Thousands of smiling students have come off the bus, walked past the lake, and entered the doors of the log cabin at ECOS.


Unfortunately, many future students may not have that opportunity. The building is showing signs of aging; ECOS is in danger of losing its home to a building that is outdated.

Yet we can find hope with the Massachusetts Green School Program. There are funds available for buildings to become “green.” It makes perfect sense for ECOS to be the first of Springfield’s green schools. The building faces the southern shore of Porter Lake, making it the perfect site for the use of alternative energy.

Please help by joining us on Thursday March 6, 2008 at the School Committee speak out at 5:45 at City Hall Springfield.

If you are going to attend, please RSVP YES to Katie at mco95comcast@hotmail.com or
Mo Lessard scimo42@hotmail.com

We thank you in advance for your support,

The ECOS STAFF

Burt Freedman
Katie Orellana
Edward Haley
Juanita Martinez (Retired)
Maureen Lessard
Sandy Parmentier

Finally, the York Street jail in Springfield was finally torn down. Miraculously, I was never one of its residents, although many of my friends were, including Jay Libardi, who I visited there. Blogging entrepreneur Bill Dusty recently made the following chronicle of the final remnants.