Massachusetts Meltdown

People tell me of their adventures:

Aw, just a thought at the moment, I got a ticket for improperly changing lanes, first one in years, then a few months ago got one for expired inspection sticker. I heard that if you appeal an expired inspection ticket in court, as long as you get it inspected by the court date and show up with it in court, they write it off, so that's what I decided to do, thinking I have to get it inspected by the court date.

Then, while waiting for the court date, I got pulled over again, and the cop said "I see you already got a ticket and haven't learned your lesson, here's another one." There's a stupid rule that if you get 3 tickets in two years - basically 3 tickets within 8 months of each other - which really isn't that many, if you think about it (esp if they foolishly include things like expired inspection or registration, which has nothing to do with actual driving) - you have to take a "drivers safety class." They actually looked at my history and saw that my first improper lane ticket actually contained two violations - which makes technically four violations in two years, so they are making me take the exact same class twice, at $150 a pop.

The woman at the registry still tried to defend it when I told her how obvious it was that it was all about money, which contributed to her being able to sit on her fat ass all day and answer these stupid questions about all these stupid rules.But whatever. Then, after sending in my first ticket to appeal it and realizing that they now add court surcharges to just appeal a ticket, and seeing that it was taking forever, I just went ahead and paid both inspections tickets online.

Next, I got a letter from Northampton court with my appeal date and had to call them up and say "I paid this" and was told "Okay, we'll have to take your word for it, because the registry doesn't let us know when people end up paying their tickets instead." (Oh really? And why the hell not? Kind of seems like they should, doesn't it?)

Then, a few weeks later, I get a letter from the registry about the second ticket, saying "Pay this ticket and all of these extra charges by this date or your license will be suspended etc." so I had to call them up and be put on hold forever to finally tell them that yes, i already paid that one, too. You see how it is? Their attention is all devoted to squeezing more money out of the populace, but not into taking responsibility once they get that money (i.e., making sure that everyone involved knows that something has been paid - that should be easy enough to do).

They can screw up as much as they want, but if you make any kind of mistake - with anything - you're fucked. I hate this state with a passion and all of its droves of stupid people and all of its silly ridiculous rules. All it takes is a little time somewhere else to realize how much this state sucks. Makes me want to move to New Mexico and take my stupid driver safety classes there and give them my money instead of the crappy state of Ass-o'-two-shits.

I really don't like it here. The land - yes. The people - no....except for a few.

- An Anonymous Soon to be Former Massachusetts Resident.



The antique shop under the old Augie's sometimes has things of interest to local historians.

Here is a 1958 poster from the American Bosch, once a major employer in these parts. It also lists an after-party at St. Ciro's at 274 Main Street in the Orchard.

I didn't stop in to check the price, but as of this morning it was still for sale.

The Bosch