BSO: ECOS at Fifty?

The funny thing about the 50th anniversary of the Environmental Center for Our Schools (ECOS) is that it really isn't its 50th year.

That anniversary party should have been held three years ago, but got cancelled by the so-called pandemic. Hey, better late than never! Unfortunately the weather totally sucked, with all the planned outdoor activities being cancelled due to the rain coming down on Porter Lake in sheets.

Everybody calls the ECOS headquarters "the skate-house" because for the first century of its existence it was the shelter where Porter Lake ice skaters changed from their shoes into skates and back. However, the skate-house is not its official name.

Come on in!

The downpour did put a damper on the attendance, but some braved the weather, such as Dom Sarno, the Mayor of Springfield, proudly wearing his High School of Commerce jacket, and Burt Freedman, one of the last surviving original founders.

I was happy to see City Councilor Kateri Walsh in attendance.

Kateri hasn't had an easy time lately, with her beloved husband Dan having died in October. We laughed recalling the time he caused me to get practically in the front row when Bill Clinton came to Springfield in 1996.

At one point someone came up and asked Kateri how her son Bennett was holding up under the terrible news this week that the bullshit politicized charges against him have been reinstated. "He's holding up better than I am!" she exclaimed. I hope something good happens to Kateri and her family soon.

City Councilor Victor Davilla read the Governor's proclamation honoring the occasion. On the right is the former number two guy at the Springfield Newspapers Wayne Phaneuf.

I was impressed when Phaneuf told me that he has published, with former Libraries & Museums chief Joe Carvalho, 28 books on local history. They are currently working on the 29th, to be about the history of Springfield's parks.

A shrine was set up to remember those who couldn't make it, featuring this photo of Clifford A. Phaneuf and my mom.

It is a real challenge for a big Irish family like mine to get all the siblings together in one place. We didn't succeed today, but four of us made it - Tom, Dick, Bev and Donna.

Jay Regan was the present day ambassador from ol' Pine Point.

My parents, who were both raised in Pine Point, got married while my dad was in the service. When he got out, we lived for a bit in Hungry Hill until my folks saved enough to move back to their beloved Point. That year my mother gave my sister Bev a cactus that was only a few inches tall, which remained in my sister's bedroom until she grew up and moved away. At that point my mom brought the plant to ECOS, where it remains to this day. My sister was seven years old when she received the cactus. Here she is posing with it today.