Snow trail

I'm going to be offering a program at the library this spring about tracking animals. The dirty secret is that for much of the year unless a wild animal is kind enough to step into mud or soft sand "tracking" is a euphemism for looking at poop. The snow yesterday actually allowed for real tracking, but would the Governor Ames Estate be accessible?

After shoveling out, I gathered up Maggie for our traditional Sunday breakfast at Back Bay Bagel and then headed over to the park. Someone had already pulled in with a car so I drove through to my usual parking spot with no problem. As I was dressing a somewhat reluctant Maggie in her coat and harness, a rumbling sound was heard and a large Trustees of Reservations pick-up came around the loop with a plow. It looks like the road in the park will remain open throughout the winter.

Maggie and I headed off through the light snow to the big beech tree near the little back pond. We saw large animal prints associated with human footprints and then found what we were looking for: a track line with no human companion track. It ran around the edge of the little pond so Maggie and I began to backtrack. The tracks had been made hours earlier and had filled in a little with blowing snow making identification difficult.

Maggie has an adaptation that makes her reach down and grab snow when she wants a drink. Whatever animal we were tracking on its nightly rounds preferred not to do that. It's tracks went to the edge of the pond and then over the edge where you could almost see it balanced precariously carefully taking a drink. The mysterious tracks led over to the bluebird nest box just where the trail leads into the beech hemlock woods.

We were beginning to have trouble. I had brought my snowshoes with me but had chosen not to use them in the shallow snow. Unfortunately even shallow snow can drift. While this was no problem for me, my canine companion was struggling to make a path through the 6 inch drifts. I was reluctant to give up the trail so Maggie was given a ride. Sadly she missed the next piece of evidence. For months we have had to stop at the bluebird nest pole while Maggie sniffed around. Clearly it was a canine signpost. Yesterday in the snow there was a small patch of dark yellow on the track line at the nestbox. The pole was a wild canid signpost. From the positioning of the spot, the animal was a female. Maggie's track line was only a little smaller than the wild one so the mystery was fairly solved: we were tracking a female fox on her nightly rounds. This was confirmed when we finally found some clear tracks on the up slope away from the human trail.

Maggie and I had found the middle of a hunting circle. If we continued to backtrack we might find where the fox denned during the early part of the storm. The yellow spot told me that this was the home territory for this fox so it was possible the den might be her permanent home. Respecting her privacy and hoping she'll be raising a family soon, Maggie and I cut back to the road. On the bare ground again, Maggie got back to doing the same thing as the fox-marking her territory as she followed her daily route.

One Cheer for the Fiscal Cliff and Other Stuff

Good news: we may be going over the fiscal cliff. While I believe you could pick 535 Americans at random and solve this problem in about half an hour, the idiots in Washington have apparently set off a rush to the Registry of Deeds which in turn will help pump up the state contribution to the CPA fund. Unfortunately, this is not going to help this year. CPA funds remain limited, but requests continue to grow. If you have a request, they are due by this coming Thursday (the date was extended) with preliminary applications available on line.

Working on the fiscal cliff with an ultraconservative friend yesterday, we readily agreed to eliminate the Bush tax cut for millionaire's and close tax loopholes that would most heavily effect those earning above $250,000. Defense cuts would be more limited than the Democrats have proposed and entitlements like Social Security and Medicare would be tweaked mostly by raising the age for full benefits. This would help keep them solvent while contributing to deficit reduction. Fuller details remained when the talk turned to gun control. Here we both agreed there is no constitutional reason for assault weapons or automatic handguns, but the discussion fell afoul of handguns for self protection. Since I've been reading a lot about the genesis of the 2nd Amendment, I had to agree that self-defense is a protected right (with all the limits of other rights). On the other hand I'm not sure the founders felt handguns were needed for a well regulated militia. The irony is that while I have been trained to shoot a pistol and actually won prizes for target shooting, I would never have a loaded gun in the house for self-defense. My friend who has never owned or fired a gun and is among the most mild-mannered people I have ever met wants the right to own one despite risks to self, spouse, and assorted grandchildren. Don't be surprised if changes to gun laws are not forthcoming.

It's been fun watching the work at the shovel shops over the last few months. They have been racing to get exterior work done before winter so it will be interesting to see what happens after today's first snow storm. Speaking of which, this is my first chance to try out my NOAA snow forecasting app. Our national weather service is working hard to improve snow forecasting. Snow doesn't show up on weather radar the way rain does making forecasting difficult. NOAA has developed a weather model for snow. It says that at 7 am this morning the leading edge of light snow will reach southwestern New York. Snow for us should start around noon time since the whole state is covered in light snow by 1 pm. Moderate snow will be switching to heavy snow here after 7 pm. The heaviest snow of the storm will fall on Easton and surrounding towns. The height of the storm will be around 1 am although light snow will still be falling at 7 am. The Pats will have to squish the fish on their own since the weather should be clear by game time tomorrow. Let's see if the new model actually works!

A Christmas Wish

When I was little, setting up the Christmas manger was even more fun than setting up the tree. I was not a big fan of the people except for the Three Wish Men because they brought the camels! It was all the animals that surrounded the little stable that I enjoyed so much. An ox and cow, sheep, a horse, chickens, a duck and a goose all joined the camels around Baby Jesus. Legend has it that the faithful animals were given the power of speech for one hour at midnight on Christmas morning. What did they say about us this year?

Did they talk about how poorly we are doing in protecting the planet we all share? Did they talk about the millions of pets who are abandoned each year, or those factory farm animals that live their lives in terrible conditions? Hopefully, the birds spoke up for the folks that provide feeders and nest boxes and the shelter animals for the people who care for and support them. Perhaps Easton's animals talked about all the land we have chosen to share with them including the beautiful Governor Ames Estate that have bird's nests, fox runs, and chipmunk holes instead of McMansions.

In these terrible days of planet degradation, animals need a voice for more than an hour a year and only we can be that voice. My Christmas wish is that many of us put aside our human desires and speak for our animal friends. Feed the birds and don't begrudge the squirrels. Talk about the wildlife you see on daily walks. Support national and regional environmental groups like the Trustees of Reservations, and groups that provide quality animal care like the Blue Dog Shelter, the Animal Protection Center in Brockton, or Winslow Farm in Norton. Politically, we should speak up constantly that something must be done about climate change. Here in Easton we can speak out in the new master plan creation process to remind our development minded friends that we share the land with animals and plants that have a right to flourish as well. Merry Christmas!

Irish Workers Part II

My first blog on early shovel workers was a snapshot of people who were shovel workers in the U. S. census of 1850. I used other census and tax records that reached back to 1840 and swept forward to 1870, and I also looked at death and burial records that stretched into the beginning of the 20^th century. Today, we will be looking at the state census of 1855 for people who became shovel workers from 1851 to 1855. We need to remember that we are pulling this group out from those of the earlier group who were still working at the shovel shop. These new workers saw the building of the shovel shops we know today, and many were probably hired to fill the increased capacity of those new shops.

Prejudice was also growing in Easton. It’s a mistake to think that all the Irish immigrants to Massachusetts poured in at the height of the potato famine in the mid-1840s. Immigration from Ireland continued strong for decades. In the 1850s a political party, the American Party, sprang up to fight the growing influence of Irish and German immigrants. This party’s membership was supposed to be secret, and members when asked a question about membership were supposed to respond with “I Know Nothing.” The Sergeant Schultz response gave the party the nickname it is best known by today “The Know Nothing Party.” I would be factually inaccurate not to note that most Massachusetts “Know-Nothings” ultimately joined the Republican Party (both parties were anti-slavery) as did a majority of the German immigrants in the Mid-West! The Republicans bought bigger tents in those early days.

There were 131 new men listed in the census of 1855 as shovel makers including three “engineers” who ran the brand new steam engines at the rebuilt shovel factory. Thirty-three men were born in New England and six men came from Scotland. Ninety-two men came from Ireland. OK, 91 men said they were born in the Emerald Isle and a man named Gallagher claimed he was Dutch, but I’m just not going to believe it. While all these men were new to the shovel business, there were many who had come of age in Easton in families where a father or older brother was already a shovel maker.

In 1855 the shovel shop was becoming decidedly more Irish. In 1850 only 54% of the workers were Irish, but among the new workers in 1855 70% were Irish. This new group was a much less stable work force as well. In the 1855 group only one in four of the Irish workers were still on the job in 1860. This is a dramatic change from the earlier Irish immigrants of which 41% were still on the job five years later.

Something was either pushing or pulling Irish workers out of the shovel shops. Taking a closer look we find that in 1850 three of every five Irish shovel workers were unmarried exactly the opposite of the American born workers. These unmarried Irishmen were the most transient members of the shovel shop’s work force. Even back in 1850 three quarters of the single Irish were not at the shovel shop five years later. These numbers did not change dramatically among the new men of 1855. With them 80% would be gone by 1860.

Although fewer married Irishmen worked at the shovel factory in 1850, they were much more likely to stay there for five years. In fact, almost 60% of the married Irish remained for five years a much better rate of stability than the less than half of the married native-born Americans who stayed. Anecdotal evidence suggests that older American born workers, the ones most likely to be married, may have left for opportunities in other local businesses or to start local businesses of their own.

Persistence rates for unmarried American-born workers remained about the same in 1850 and 1855 with around 40% lasting at least five years. This higher rate compared to the single Irish can probably be explained by hometown family connections. The present generation was not the first to have an unmarried son living in a basement or attic!

In 1855 once again 61% of the Irish were unmarried. As we have seen, these unmarried men were slightly less likely to remain here than their counterparts in 1850. More surprising we discover that less than 40% of the married Irish remained for at least five years compared to the nearly 60% in the 1850 group. This is a remarkable difference.

In summary, nothing much changed for the single shovel worker. An American born single man was not quite twice as likely to stay for five years as an Irishman just about the same as in 1850. Family connections and a greater availability of Protestant brides (“mixed” marriages were rare) probably account for this difference. In a growing economy, unattached men could move where they thought the financial opportunity was best. However, given the relatively good pay at the shovel shops it is doubtful that money alone accounts for the difficulty the Ames family had in holding onto their single Irish workers. Our exciting downtown was about as stimulating in 1855 as it is today, but imagine not having a car to visit someplace else! Add Yankee prejudice, and the turnover rate is not that surprising.

On the other hand something made working at the shovel shop much less attractive for married Irish men and much more attractive for married Americans in 1855. Good wages, a decent school system, an equitable company store, and available rental housing would seem to have been very attractive to a family coming from poverty in Ireland. The shovel shop was indeed an “American Dream Factory” for the Irish families that were here in 1850.

By 1855 changes in working conditions related to the new factory may have reduced the attractiveness of shovel work, but the other difference between 1850 and 1855 is the presence of an organized anti-immigrant party. This may have provided a less than welcoming atmosphere in North Easton Village. Oliver Ames II and his brother Oakes favored the employment of the Irish. There are several anecdotes of warm relations between Oakes and individual Irishmen. On the other hand Old Oliver Ames, now officially retired from the shovel company, was a leading Know Nothing. We don’t know how Yankee shovel workers, overseers, or local shop keepers reacted to the Irish, but we can assume from human nature that many joined the “hot” new political party while others kept silent in the face of prejudice. Dr. Caleb Swan, a friend of the younger Ames men, was an exception and a thorn in the side of the Know Nothings.

How likely were the new men in the 1855 census who continued to work at the shovel shops for at least five years to achieve homeownership? Interestingly, as fewer Irish families chose to remain at the shovel shops, more married Americans did so. However, among those Americans of 1855 only 39% eventually owned a home here compared to 64% of those Americans from the 1850 census. It seems as the shovel shops became more Irish, it became less likely that an American would buy a home in Easton. Opportunity elsewhere or prejudice? As always more research needs to be done.

Remember the vast majority of Irishmen left the shovel shops and most moved away from Easton, but for Irish immigrants who stayed at least five years there was no difference between homeownership in the 1850 and 1855 groups. About one third of the men in each group eventually owned a house here. Many more continued to rent housing. Among the 27 Irish who were in the 1850 census and continued at the shovel company at least five years two-thirds lived the remainder of their life here. For the persistent members of the class of 1855 nearly 80% eventually died in town. By 1855 the Irish had strong roots in Easton that eventually wore away the prejudice although it would take many more decades to fully end.

A Return to Blogs after a Tragic Week

This is the twelfth time I have started a blog since the terrible events in Connecticut last Friday. Anything I could say about Easton and its history seems so trivial while anything I could contribute to the new national debate has already been said a thousand times. Let me say three things. First, since Columbine the Easton Public Schools have worked hard to make sure our schools are safe. This includes many of the safety methods you have been reading about, but also a heightened effort to make sure that our students know that somebody on our staff cares about them and can help them. At the high school where I work these efforts may be the most important thing that Principal Wes Paul has done in his time in Easton. We should all know, however, that no measure guarantees absolute safety in our gun crazed society these days.

The reason is too many guns. My second point is that although we will probably never know what the Founding Fathers really meant when they wrote the Second Amendment, I find it hard to believe they could have conceived of anything as deadly as the assault weapon used at Newtown. Let’s ban those weapons and the large clip magazines that make them so deadly.

Finally, I think me should make automatic handguns and all concealed handguns illegal. Given the prevalence of handguns in our society, this will take much more thinking than simply banning assault weapons or semiautomatic rifles that can easily be made automatic. The evidence is clear, however, that you are much more likely to get shot if you own a handgun for self-protection than if you don’t own one. People who are responsible hunters and target shooters need to band together with non-gun owners to form an interest group stronger than the radicals in the NRA.

OK, enough said and not enough. Tomorrow we return to looking at what was happening to the shovel workers in the 1850s.

A Quick Look at the Shovel Worker of 1850 and the American Dream

When did the American Dream of home ownership actually became the American Dream? City planners today seem to be pushing the idea that this is some aberrant impulse that struck our country after World War II. The evidence in Easton seems to suggest otherwise with entrepreneurs creating subdivisions as early as the 1890s. I recently set out to discover if the typical shovel worker of the mid-nineteenth century could achieve home ownership.

Almost immediately complications arose. There were hundreds of shovel workers throughout the century-too many to examine every one. That led me to the 1850 U. S. census, the first one to list all household members and occupations. I thought it would provide a simple snapshot of one set of shovel makers. It quickly became apparent that the complications  weren’t over.  In North Easton there were people listed as shovel workers and people listed as laborers, lots of laborers. Checking other data like the 1855 state census it was clear that many, perhaps almost all laborers in North Easton worked for the shovel company. Inevitably, some farm laborer or day laborer would sneak into my calculations unless I undertook a time consuming search of the shovel company archives. A further complication was that all the census takers and tax collectors of the era were Yankees who couldn’t spell an Irish name the same way twice to save their lives! Was Patric Conlin the same person as Patrick Conlan? You would think Patric age 20 in 1850 would be Patrick age 25 in 1855. You’d think that until you actually looked at the records and discovered that Paddy, a young man displaced by famine, may only have had the roughest idea of when he was born! So lets say until I get a chance to look at those payroll records we are looking at “shovel workers” which are not exactly the same thing as real shovel workers. In other words add an “ish” to any hard numbers you read below.

In 1850 I identified 123 shovel workers. Three were English immigrants, 66 were Irish immigrants and the remaining 54 were born in New England. Once the workers were identified I developed some research questions: Who had been a family head in Easton a decade earlier in 1840? Of the “class” of 1850 who remained in Easton for five years? For ten years? Who stayed in Easton until they died? And how many ever achieved home ownership?

There was a clear difference between the Americans and the Irish immigrants. In 1850 only ten of the 54 Americans were listed as laborers instead of shovel workers while 30 of 66 Irish immigrants were laborers. Many of the Americans were clearly remnants of the original work force that Old Oliver Ames drew from his Easton neighbors. Ten of the 54 were already head of a household in 1840. Only two Irishmen can be identified in the 1840 census as a household head and a shovel company employee in 1850. Thirty of the Americans stayed in Easton until they died compared to only 19 of the Irish.

There was apparently a high turnover in shovel company employees. Of the 54 Americans only 25  (46%) were still working at the Ames Company five years later and only 20 (37%) remained a decade later. Among the Irish, 27 (41%) remained five years and 19 (29%) lasted the entire decade. In our mound of numbers today, the turnover rates between the Americans and the Irish are the most similar. The ongoing Industrial Revolution provided many opportunities for workers and they clearly took advantage of them. It would be interesting to know how many men who started the decade at the shovel works moved on to different factory work and how many became small time entrepreneurs in their own right.

Only one Irishman owned his own home in 1850 compared to ten Americans. This is perhaps a reflection of a number of older American workers in the study group who we would consider to be “townies.” A researcher could look at the amount of property owned in 1860 and make an educated guess as to whether it was a house or simply land, but I chose to look at tax records for 1861 and 1870. Remember we are now looking at shovel workers in 1850 who owned houses in 1861 and/or 1870 not necessarily shovel workers in 1861 or 1870 who owned houses. The homeowners were those men who “made it” in Easton whether they remained in the shovel works or not.

Of the original 54 Americans in the study, 14 (26%) owned a home here in 1870 down from 16 in 1861. Among the original 66 Irishmen only nine (14%) had become homeowners by 1870 up from seven in 1861. Not a terribly high percentage for either group, but let’s look more closely.

How many of our class of 1850 who were still here in 1860 achieved homeownership? These are the people one would assume were putting down roots here. Among Americans nine (64%) of the 14 Massachusetts born workers had achieved homeownership by 1860. Most of these homeowners had “Easton” names like Andrews, Packard, Willis, and Randall. John Bisbee had been working in the shovel shops since the War of 1812 and Lucius Seaver became enough of an Easton institution to get a street named after him. These homeowners were already townies.

Interestingly, the story is different when we look at the out-of-staters. None of the seven workers from Maine and New Hampshire had achieved homeownership by 1861 (two would by 1870). This is even a poorer record than that of the Irish immigrants. Conceivably, this group made their money and then went home to their native states.

Among the immigrants, all three Englishmen came to Easton to stay. They all eventually died in town. One had achieved homeownership by 1861 and a second did so by 1870. The third Englishman, John Reed, died in 1869. Among the nineteen Irish who stayed a decade five (26%) had bought a house by 1861. Three more had bought homes by 1870. Thus, within 20 years 42% of the Irish who “toughed it out” at the shovel works had become homeowners. Whether they bought a home or not, these men became Eastoners; fifteen of the nineteen died in town. Further study is needed in later censuses and valuations to see if others became homeowners in later years.

The employees who were here in 1850 worked at the original shop on the Island. In fact, it was a member of our study group, Patrick Quinn, who was probably responsible for the fire that led to the construction of the shovel plant we now know. Did the new workers in the 1855 census have a different experience from the older workers? The study of this group is a little more complicated than the original 1850 workers, but I’ll try to present some information in the coming days.

What can we conclude about the class of 1850? First, the distinction made between laborers and shovel men especially when so many of the laborers of 1850 became shovel workers in the 1855 state census seems to indicate a pattern of discrimination against the Irish. Evidence from the Ames family and political history have made it clear this prejudice existed and our data further supports this view. Whether this was discrimination on the part of the census taker or the company, awaits further research.

Second, persistence at shovel making among both Americans and immigrants was not particularly high. The relatively small differences between the groups can easily be explained by the higher percentage of Americans with long standing ties to the community. These roots also explain the high percentage of homeownership among the Massachusetts born workers who stayed at the shovel works throughout the decade of the 1850s. Other Americans persisted at shovel making, but did not put down roots.

Finally, 79% of the nineteen Irish who worked at the shovel company during the decade beginning in 1850 remained to die in Easton. Only 42% achieved homeownership in their first twenty years in town. For the Irish was the shovel company an “American Dream Factory?” Would more of this persistent group have become homeowners by 1880 or 1890? Or was this generation of Irish founding fathers content to put down roots here without desiring to or being able to afford a home of their own? My guess, always pending further research, is that this generation through hard work achieved whatever dream of life in America they had back in the old country. In one way or another, the Ames shovel company enabled the achievement of the American Dream.

GIS and History

When I was a kid, I ruined my baseball card collection by writing in additional years of statistics on their back. As an occasionally serious historian, my real love has been data driven research rather than traditional historical story-telling. You'll be hearing more of this in future blogs as we look at data about whether early Irish immigrants were achieving the "American Dream" of home ownership.

I'm also working on a project that should show whether the start of the North Easton Village District Water Department reduced the number of deaths from intestinal diseases. This research has a long history starting with a man named John Snow. Snow mapped deaths from a cholera outbreak in London in 1854 and traced the disease back to a contaminated water pump.

Today we would use a computer assisted system called GIS to create such a map. GIS stands for Geographic Information System. It allows experts to create data layers that can be overlain on street maps or photos. You can actually use GIS yourself by going to the new MassGIS website. It's a little daunting and sometimes frustrating, but it can do some amazing things. I used to use it often to map information for the NRT (not that anyone ever used it).  Now I say "we would use GIS" although while I use GIS information all the time, I have to have the data entered by an expert. Luckily, Easton has such an expert in Adrienne Edwards of the DPW. Unfortunately, use of GIS and other mapping has become so important in planning that Ms Edwards is no longer available for historical projects. Tim Harrigan from the Planning Department is working hard to get up to speed with GIS and has recently updated Adrienne's data layer on historic homes in North Easton.

Building on GIS data and new historical surveys funded by Town Meeting and state funds, I've created a photoshop map that shows the pattern of development and land use in 19th century North Easton. While North Easton was not a designed community like Pullman, Illinois, its organic growth was not random. Seeing the pattern of development raised the question about the Irish workers mentioned in the first paragraph. The "real world" application of this data, of course, is providing information that can be used to convince developers to save historic properties rather than tear things down.

What sparked today's praise for GIS is an interesting article from the most recent Smithsonian. It tells the story of a geographical historian who uses GIS data to explore the battle of Gettysburg. The results are very significant and worth a read.

A Great Day in Easton

Saturday, December 1-Up and out by 7 to help Historical Society Curator with the Garden Club Green Sale at the old railroad station. Helping consisted mostly of staying out of the way of the Garden Club members and waiting for the chance to buy some Christmas wreaths. This show has been going on for years, and its hard to beat this example of "enlightened self-interest." Club members cut their greens just days before the sale guaranteeing a long lasting wreath at the best price around. That's the self-interest part, the enlightened part is supporting the Garden Club which is one the most active and effective community organizations around. Most of the money we donate goes back to beautifying the town. The Green Sale is over but you can help out the Garden Club by visiting the Festival of Trees at Queset House this week. This is the second annual event with more than fifty decorated trees on display and available for you to buy a chance on. The Festival of Trees is open from noon until 8 today as part of the Lions Holiday Festival and from 4-8 pm during the week before extended hours next Saturday.

Aristotle recognized three kinds of friendship. His most interesting category was "friendship of utility." This was the friendship that is based on a mutual business interest-like that between a shopkeeper and his "regulars." In our Walmart society it's hard to get people to understand this kind of friendship-who gets to build a relationship with a salesperson these days? Well, you can find out at the indoor Farmers Market at Simpson Springs every Saturday from 10-2 where a real community is building between shoppers and sales people. Frankly, I'm doing most of my food shopping at the market where I can buy from people I know I can trust to give me great quality fish, meat, cheese, vegetables, eggs, pickles, chocolate, coffee, and baked goods. Farmer's Market is becoming a misnomer as the market adds cosmetics, jewelers, painted scarfs, and chocolate to go along with the best food around. Yesterday Selectman Colleen Corona turned photographer and shot a lot of pictures that will be on the town's Facebook page. That's the Facebook page that brought me back to social media--an definitely worth a look.

Hopefully, uploading photos kept Ms. Corona occupied long enough for me to beat her to Easton's newest restaurant. This is an ongoing competition that usually involves me walking into a new spot in the area to find the Corona family sitting at a table. Not Just Thaboule opened yesterday in the Center Street location formerly occupied by the late lamented Soups on Center. The new food spot is the idea of the owners of The Pub in Brockton which has been serving Lebanese food for thirty years. The Easton menu mixes Lebanese specialties with typically American sandwiches like grilled cheese, tuna melt, and turkey at reasonable prices. I stopped by last night and went with two Middle Eastern dishes. The first was stuffed grape leaves, something I don't usually like. It's too easy to get overly lemony or sour tasting grape leaves stuffed with rice and very little meat. I figured this would be a good test of the new restaurant. I ordered an appetizer size portion-6 leaves for $6.95 and they heated they up for me to take home. They were amazing-lots of flavorful ground beef mixed in with the rice in fresh tasting and tender leaves. Each stuffed roll was about twice as big as normally seen in things like the Mazza Plate in other Easton restaurants. Four made a filling supper for me and I finished the other two, heated in the microwave, for breakfast this morning. I also bought a pint of Baba Ganooze to take home. I first tasted this smoked eggplant dip at The Pub thirty years ago and wondered if it still tasted as good. In recent years I've been getting my fix from Athena International Foods just down the street from Gerry's Farm in Brockton, but I find their Baba to be overly smoky. Not Just Taboule does it right-a delicious healthy spread or dip for parties or a wonderful change for a quick sandwich-the taste has just the right amount of smoke to liven the taste and surprisingly it is not overly pureed to a mush like consistency. We all know the track record for restaurants in this spot-parking for this strictly take out place is sometimes a hassle (hint-park on the side), but if the whole menu is as good as what I tasted it should be worth a momentary delay in getting back on Center Street. Give it a try-Eastoners can't lament the lack of restaurants in town and then not support the ones we have!

Back to the Historical Society today for more sales of our new Christmas ornament that celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Town Offices with a full color ornament of Wayside. Over the years I have done a lot for the Historical Society-tours, writing, etc.. Chances are, though, I'll be remembered as the guy that donated the antenna that allows our big screen TV to play the Patriot's games. Yup, you can visit our museum, Christmas shop, and not miss a single play of the game. It sure beats a DVD of a burning Yule log!