Richardson’s Tavern When the Erie Canal was being constructed, it ignited the local economy along its length first as laborers moved in and eventually as the travelers on the canal moved through the area. One such boomtown was Perinton, a canal town with a tavern located alongside the Erie Canal where travelers could get a…
Memento Mori “Do not wait for life. Do not long for it. Be aware, always and at every moment, that the miracle is in the here and now.”– Marcel Proust On the north side of 50 your perspective changes. I’m more inclined to take the side trip to see something new than I was at…
Taming the Mohawk River The Erie Canal was first proposed when Thomas Jefferson was President. The sheer expense and amount of labor that it would take were much more than Jefferson could imagine, and he described it as a “little short of madness”. However, the upside for a canal that would open up the west…
On the edge of a lawn on County Road 42 in Fishers, New York is a seven foot pyramid built in 1959 to honor a man named Pabos. Pabos was a Basque explorer who traveled deep into the wilderness of North America only to die here 400 years ago on June 10, 1618, a little…
Robins One sign of spring in the northeast is the reappearance of robins. This bird migrates back in spring, feeding on worms, grubs and berries. After a long winter they’re a welcome sight on the lawn. On this rainy Sunday they’re very active in the yard hunting worms and gathering straw for their nests. Growing…
A Sense of Place: Visiting the Neighbors The 5th of May is a big deal for distillers of tequila, brewers of Mexican beer and every Mexican restaurant in North America. To me the 5th of May, especially on a Saturday, is a day of yard work. After a typical New England winter and spring, meaning…
Moswetuset Hummock There are a couple of stories about how the Commonwealth of Massachusetts got its name. One story points to the Blue Hills, which are prominent in Eastern Massachusetts. The tribe that populated this area, “the Algonquian Indians whose name derived from mass-adchu-seuck or ‘people from the big hill’”. (answers.com) The other story, points…
In September 1775, early in the Revolutionary War, Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen hatched a plan to attack British held Quebec. Benedict Arnold met with George Washington in Boston and assembled an army of 1100 soldiers who marched from Cambridge to Newburyport, Massachusetts. From Newburyport they sailed to Maine and then up the Kennebec River…
Medford Rum For over two hundred years Medford, Massachusetts distilled molasses into rum. For decades several distilleries operated near the Mystic River. The rum was put into casks there and sent around the world on sailing ships, and gaining a reputation as a rum of distinction in a time when there were a lot of…
The Middlesex Canal New England Yankees in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s had a transportation problem. Water routes were the most efficient but rivers were often challenging to navigate. Footpaths gave way to coach paths and turnpikes as the need for more efficient transportation between Boston and points north and west developed. Three modes…