By Linda Ibbitson Hurd
Special to the Express
HANSON — When I was 8 years old, a new family moved to Hanson – a house at the very end of Elm Street, where it turns onto Hudson street. They were from Hingham and moved into a big two-story post and beam Colonial that had, at one time, been owned by a doctor.
I boarded the school bus one morning and noticed a new girl sitting with two of my friends. They were smiling at me when I sat in the seat behind them and I wondered why, when one of them turned to me, pointing to the new girl, and said, “Linda, meet Linda.”
I realized then why they were grinning. Linda and I exchanged grins and hellos. As time went on, we got to know each other and became not only fast friends but life-long ones.
Linda was the youngest of six. Two sisters still lived at home, the other two and her brother were married with families. Her mother, Minnie, was a registered nurse. Her father was Lou Brouillard, one of the first professional fighters to win both the welterweight and middleweight world titles and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
A lot of the local boys tried to date or make friends with the sisters so they could meet their father. I felt honored to meet him myself; he was a quiet, modest man with a good sense of humor.
The first time I was invited to Linda’s, I was impressed.
The circular driveway went from the red brick walk that led to the front door, to a two-story barn on the far right with a field beyond. There was a kennel for boarding dogs between the house and the barn with a gate that led to the backyard. Their dogs of choice were golden retrievers; I met and loved their’s right away, her name was Molly.
When Linda and her sister Judy had friends over for the first time, they held an initiation. They brought me upstairs, blindfolded me and directed me to crawl around in what felt like storage space in the eaves. I was told to keep moving and to not touch the blindfold. Suddenly I felt fur underneath me. I kept going until I felt what I thought was a head and I screamed and ripped off the blind fold.
I was on a big black bear rug and beside it was a white one, also with a head. We were laughing as I looked around at a very nice room with knotty pine walls and a long-cushioned window seat.
Before I left that first day, I met Linda’s grandfather, Joe. He was her mother’s dad and they were from England. He had a workshop on the top floor of the barn where he made beautiful things out of wrought iron. He had also helped her father in his boxing career. I remember him as a good-natured man who almost always had a smile on his face and in his eyes.
During the next few years Linda and I had many good times.
One winter during February vacation, we had gone ice skating. Joe met us as we came in the back door to hang up our coats and skates, telling us he had hotdogs, beans and cocoa warming in the Dutch oven in the living room fireplace and a fire going so we could warm ourselves. He sat in his chair entertaining us with stories about growing up in England while we sat on a warm braided rug on the floor beside him. Eventually he fell asleep. Linda’s parents weren’t home and neither were her sisters.
She looked at me and gestured for me to follow her.
She led me into one of the front rooms that was a spare bedroom and quietly shut the door. She asked me if I remembered asking her what a post and beam house was and that one day she’d show me. I nodded yes. She opened the closet door, reached for the four-foot ladder inside, climbed up and pushed a board at the top of the closet away. I realized I was looking up at the inner structure of the house.
“Be quieter than quiet”, she whispered, as up she went and I followed.
I found it hard to keep quiet as we climbed. I likened it to a huge jungle gym with it’s vertical timbers and horizontal hand hewn beams. Linda was on one side of the structure, I on the other as we kept climbing and exploring, until we heard a voice. “You both come down here, slowly!”
“Okay Gramp!” Linda shouted down.
He was waiting for us at the closet door. He didn’t raise his voice but was very stern when he looked at us, saying, “This won’t happen again and we’ll never speak of it, agreed?”In unison, we said yes. We did the climb one more time when no one else was there.
Graduation requirements after MCAS
In the wake of the commonwealth’s vote last year to remove the MCAS test as a graduation requirement, school districts have been grappling with whether to keep it as an educational tool and how it should be used if it is retained.
“We’ve always had high graduation requirements at W-H,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said during the Wednesday, Jan. 15 School Committee meeting.
Vice Chair Hillary Kniffen noted that the change is a shift to the Committee’s requirements, asked what graduation requirements have been set.
The Committee unanimously voted to accept changes to the district’s high school graduation requirements, after a lengthy discussion on the implication of the changes toward graduation requirements.
High School Principal Dr. Christopher Jones presented this year’s changes to the program of study to the School Committee.
The main changes concern a change of language due to graduation requirements following the ballot question removing it as a graduation requirement last November.
Jones said language changes are usually done merely for updating, accuracy and clarity; two new course additions – Teen Literature II and Physics: Electricity and Waves, or Magnetism – accessible via graphic. Course adjustments to keep courses fresh and provide students with different opportunities and options, are also included in the program of study.
The updated graduation policy changes from requiring the MCAS test to just mentioning “successfully passed all requirements set forth by the WHRSD School Committee, Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Department of Education.”
A schedule change to eight different blocks of class time, also means students are now required to take minimum of seven classes, instead of six – with a total of 98 credits instead of 90 to graduate, beginning with the Class of 2028 with certain number in certain classes – beginning with the Class of 2026.
“Students have to have a certain number of credits to graduate, and a certain number of those credits have to be in certain courses,” Jones said. “We haven’t adjusted the number courses that they need, or specific courses that they need, so we put those into electives. That doesn’t mean that they have to be a half-year course. It could be a full-year course – it really opens up options for students to explore more of what they would like to explore when they’re in high school.”
Jones said it is a requirement that is easily attainable by the time they’ve completed their four years of high school.
“Now that the MCAS is off the table, and – DESE – we’re still waiting for guidance, and maybe we’ll get it this year, probably not,” she said. “But, by the time we get it, it’ll be too late for this current class. Right? So, what is our role here?”
She said, if the language in the program of study refers to requirements set by the School Committee, “then that means we, as a School Committee, have to have a conversation about adopting MassCORE or looking at the MassCORE framework.” She noted that MassCORE is what most state universities look at, as well.
“Is that a future topic?” Kniffen asked.
Szymaniak said if the district aligns with MassCORE, which requires the increase to 98 credits, but it is a modified version, or a future topic to be discussed.
“It could be both,” Szymaniak said. “We use MassCORE, [which is why the credit total is being changed]. It’s modified MassCORE. A student in science could take biology, could take physics, and then, potentially, could take two other courses to fulfill that requirement.”
Glen DiGravio asked for confirmation that the local School Committee is subordinate to the other two, referring to DESE at the state level and the U.S, Department of Education.
“We couldn’t supersede them?” DiGravio asked.
“Yes, you could,” Szymaniak replied. “Right now, there is nothing from the Commonwealth of Mass. … Certain School Committees now, still require MCAS.”
“We could do that?” Digravio asked.
“You could,” Szymaniak said. “If you do, you’re opening up for a lawsuit from voters, saying you’re not supporting the vote of the Commonwealth.”
The vote in 2024 reset the law and abolishes the MCAS tests.
The MCAS vote is now law, “but the phrase “local requirements” have also to be factored in, Szymaniak explained.
There is no competency determination in the Commonwealth,” said Szymaniak. “The state only gave us MCAS, which is a competency, not a graduation requirement in the Commonwealth, however, a number of our students still have to take MCAS because it’s a federal assessment, for attendance – not necessarily schoolwork.
“This is where the state is doing the push-pull right now,” Szymaniak said. “The School Committee has always approved graduation requirements and the state said, ‘For a state diploma, because of the law, you need the competency determination for MCAS.’ That is now off the table, so the School Committee could do multiple things.”
W-H has always had high graduation requirements, according to the superintendent.
Kniffen noted that the district requires two units of foreign language, adding that it is important for the School Committee members to know how many courses and credits students are supposed to take at W-H.
“Currently, we don’t have foreign language at our middle schools,” she said. “If you take a foreign language in middle school, and you take it in seventh and eighth grade, that can set you up to go more than just your first two units [in high school]. I’m just saying that there are more budgetary implications to – now that we don’t have MCAS – making sure that the students have access to these things in that way.”
Member Dawn Byers argued that, when they approve the program of studies changes, they are, essentially, setting graduation policy. But, when the high school advocates for no mid-term and final exams in order to give more in-class time on learning, but when the committee supported Jones in that, MCAS was still a measure of competency and a tool.
“Now, our students are not experiencing the learning process to learn, [and prepare] for a midterm or final exam or an MCAS,” she said, adding that she has heard feedback from some students that the situation is problematic for them.
She also noted that AP Spanish is being removed because it doesn’t qualify for W-H students. Robotics is not offered until junior year.
Jones countered that AP Spanish has not been removed [but] the way it’s worded is a little tricky.
“It’s being taken out that we’re not offering it,” he said. “So, we’re taking that back, because it was put in the program of study last year that it was not going to be offered … it will be offered,” he said. “Now, whether it runs or not depends on how many students can qualify or apply for it or to enter into it.” He said the number is very low right now. “If I were a betting person, I don’t think it will run next year,” Jones said.
SST building vote is Saturday
Voters in the nine towns sending students to South Shore Technical High School —Abington, Cohasset, Hanover, Hanson, Marshfield, Norwell, Rockland, Scituate and Whitman — go to the polls on Saturday, Jan. 25 to vote on a new building proposed for the school.
Polls for voters in the nine towns are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with Whitman voters casting ballots at Whitman Town Hall Auditorium and at Hanson Middle School gymnasium in Hanson.
A simple majority of the votes cast in all nine communities will decide the issue.
The proposed building project is to construct a new, 900 student school with two new, high-demand vocational programs: Plumbing and Veterinary Science. The building would be constructed on the current athletic fields in the back of the property. Project construction would start in mid 2026 and the school would be opened for the 2028-2029 school year. SST is the second oldest vocational school in Massachusetts, opened in 1962.
Hanson absentee ballots are now available at the Hanson Town Clerk’s Office. Absentee voting is done at the Town Clerk’s office and can be done up until noon on Friday, Jan. 24. For more information, call the Town Clerk’s office at 781-293-2772.
To vote by absentee ballot in Whitman,an application has to be filed before an absentee ballot can be sent. The deadline for applications for absentee voting must be on file by noon on Friday, Jan. 24. You may vote absentee only if you are unable to vote at the polls on election day due to absence from town during the hours polls are open, physical disability or religious belief.
You may vote in person during regular office hours. Office hours are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
For more information call the Whitman Town Clerk’s office at 781-618-9710.
Some A’s to SST’s frequently asked Q’s
As South Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School (SST) approaches its district wide election on the proposed building project, the Express asked Superintendent-Director Tom Hickey to provide some information on a range of topics, including the background on the project, details about the new building and the associated costs of the project.
Q: What is the rationale for the project?
A: Opened in 1962, we are the second oldest regional vocational school in Massachusetts. The district has been applying to MSBA for several years, citing the age of the building and its systems, the lack of space, and a growing waiting list of students interested in attending. District wide we currently have 428 applications for 180 seats in next year’s grade 9 class. Both Whitman and Hanson have consistently had more applicants than allotted seats (almost 4 applicants for every seat), which is part of a strong trend with the growing interest in vocational education.
Q: What is the project being proposed? What is its timeline?
A: The construction would be for a new 900 student school built behind the current school on Webster Street in Hanover. Construction would run from mid-2026 until mid-2028 and the building would be open for the 2028-2029 school year. The current building would remain fully operational during the construction phase.
Q: Are any new vocational programs being added?
A: Yes. We would add Plumbing and Veterinary Science programs, two programs with a high level of interest. More project design information can be found at www.southshoretechproject.com.
Q: What should readers need to know about the special district election?
A: Date/Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday Jan. 25, 2025
Poll locations: Hanson votes at Hanson Middle School; Whitman votes at Whitman Town Hall
Our town clerks have information on the respective town websites about absentee ballots and other details. The ballot question will determine if the project moves forward based on a combined vote tally within the district’s nine towns.
Q: Why does the ballot question language reference the total project budget, if each town will share in the costs?
A: It is required by statute and MSBA to have the same ballot question language in all 9 towns and that the language includes the total project budget cost (the $276m). In the ballot question’s second paragraph, it states that the MSBA is committed to paying a maximum state grant up to 61.86 percent of the eligible costs of the project, which is the maximum grant of $111 million.
Q: What is the projected local share after the MSBA grant?
A: After subtracting already paid for feasibility costs and using some stabilization funds we can put back into the project, we are projecting approximately $162m between the 9 towns, financed over 30 years. The household tax impact information we are providing on our project website includes principal and interest. Please see www.southshoretechproject.com/tax-impacts.
Q: How will the local share of $162m be divided?
A: Per our regional agreement, it is based on student enrollment trends over time at the school. We anticipate Hanson’s share to be 10.28 percent and Whitman’s share to be 17.17 percent by the time the bonds roll on in FY30. Our towns recently adjusted our regional agreement to have debt share adjusted based on a rolling four-year average, so this is a projection based on enrollment trends.
Q: What is the projected tax impact at the household level? When will it roll on?
A: When: The highest amount of borrowing will take place in FY29 or delayed to FY30.
Impact: It depends on how the money is borrowed. Paying back debt can be done with (a) level debt payments which are lower initially but include more interest over the term of borrowing or (b) level principal payments cost more up front but that leads to lower total cost over the life of the borrowing.
The bottom line: At our highest borrowing in FY30:
The average assessed home in Whitman would see a $296 per year ($74 per quarter) increase using a level debt payment model. In Hanson the level debt payment amount would be $235 per year ($74 per quarter)
As an alternative, a level principal borrowing model in FY30 would be higher ($367 yr/$92 qtr for Whitman and $290 yr/$72 qtr for Hanson) but level principal borrowing declines over time.
All of these projected amounts have interest costs baked in.
Q: When will you decide the borrowing model?
A: The district won’t make borrowing decisions without first consulting with towns, and that decision won’t happen until closer to FY29. We show both borrowing models on the tax impact documents on our project website to give readers a comparison.
Q: What should people do if they need more information?
A: If readers have questions or want to double check information, the project website, www.southshoretechproject.com is a good resource. Readers are also encouraged to contact Superintendent Tom Hickey at [email protected] or 781-766-4002 with any questions or suggestions for content for the project website.
— Dr. Thomas J. Hickey
New year, a new world in 24 hours
WHITMAN – The rock group Chicago’s hit from their debut album may have asked the famous philosophical question about time as a hook for a hit song, but while anyone actually does know the precise time might be debatable, yes, people do care.
They care enough that there are at least 40 calendar systems in use around the world today – two in the Christian world alone – and the small nation of Kiribati spread out over 1,800 miles of islands and atolls in the Pacific Ocean began a process in 1994 to successfully petition to have the International Dateline moved by 2000. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Retired Plymouth teacher Nancy A. Franks, who has built an enthusiastic audience for her monthly lecture visits to Whitman Council on Aging’s senior center, appeared there Monday, Jan. 6 with Moon Pies, gummy bears, New Year’s greetings and a talk on New Year’s celebrations and traditions around the world and closer to home, including ball drops – and twists on that theme.
Whitman briefly joined in the latter category with a Toll House cookie drop in 2015 and 2016, but a trend of frigid temperatures both years cut the tradition off before it could take root and the larger-than-life cookie – crafted by SST students for the town is now in storage.
So, why the hoopla over Jan. 1 anyway?
“I really do two different kinds of presentations,” Frank said, “I do the historical ones, or I pick a topic like this and just jump around to anything that comes to mind.”
Julius Ceasar introduced the months of January (for Janus, the god of beginnings, endings and time) and February (for Februus, the god of purification), creating a 12-month calendar in 45 BC. Pope GregoryVIII then introduced in 1582, the calendar we still use today, replacing the Julian calendar.
The difference?
The Julian calendar was not entirely accurate, but Franks argued it was close enough. His inaccuracy is about 11 minutes short of the 365 ¼ days per year in the Gregorian calendar.
“I think it’s amazing that anyone was even thinking or figuring that out that long ago as a reform of the Roman calendar,” Franks said, putting words in Julius Caesar’s thought bubble.
“Eleven minutes? What’s the big deal?” Franks said. “Well, it’s because we would have gained eight days every 1,000 years. Does that really matter? I’m not sure it does.”
But the Julian calendar is still used in astronomy.
“When they started the Julian calendar on Jan. 1, 45 BC, and they recorded events in the stars and the planets, they began counting on that day … and they still use it,” she said. “They didn’t bother to change it over to a new calendar.”
It’s also used and as a religious calendar by the Greek and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches and by the Amazigh people of North Africa.
Ball droppage – and other things
New York City began its ball drop at midnight tradition in 1908 and it was last updated in 2008.
The ball, is 12 feet in diameter, and is now made of 2,688 Waterford crystal triangles imported from Ireland and 32,256 LED lights, weighs 11,875 pounds – mostly electronic hardware.
The ball is able to create 16 million vibrant colors in billions of patterns, the theme of which changes each year.
Around the United States, New Year’s celebrations include the midnight drop of, among others:
The Mobile, Ala., 12-foot in diameter electrified Moon Pie; The Cherry T. Ball in the “Cherry Capital of the U.S.,” Traverse City, Mich., saluting the charitable fundraising purpose in the name; Mt. Olive, N.C.’s three-foot long pickle drops into a giant pickle jar; the Boise, Idaho potato drop; Port Clinton, and Ohio’s Walleye drop on the Lake Erie shoreline. Miami raises an orange in homage to the state’s big cash crop as well as the Orange Bowl Festival parade and football game.
Points of pride
Kiribati, in the central Pacific Ocean, includes a largely uninhabited Caroline Island, renamed Millenium Island thanks to the nation’s effort to move the International Dateline so the island with the rest of the island and atolls on the same side of the line.
It was, you guessed it, a publicity stunt to draw tourists to be the first nation on earth to celebrate the new millennium in 2000.
“It would [also] eliminate the confusion caused by having a part of the country cn a different day,” she said.
The United Arab Emirates also spared no expense this year in its annual quest to keep their record for the largest drone display this New Year’s Eve.
Traditions
underneath it all
Countries around the world have some interesting – and a few strange – New Year’s traditions. Here are a few:
Philippines – Round objects mean good luck so Filipinos wear polka dots, carry coins in their pockets and eat 12 to 13 round fruits, which also symbolize a sweet and happy new year.
Romania – where brown bears are revered symbols which their mythology indicates the animals have the power to protect and heal, the people don bear costumes – often real full bear skins – to dance the death and rebirth of the bear’s spirit. While some of the costumes are now made of faux fur, and many of the real bearskin costumes have been carefully preserved and handed down in families, the brown bear is now endangered in Romania.
Brazil – revelers jump seven waves head on, while making a wish at the beach, often while wearing white, the color of good luck. The color of underwear one puts on for the occasion also symbolizes your hope for the new year – White is for peace and harmony; blue is for tranquility and friendship; red is for passion; yellow is for money and luck; pink is for love; green is for health; orange is for professional success and purple is for inspiration. Brazilians also carry a bay leaf, also called a priest’s leaf, in their pocket as a spiritual token that sharpens intuition and extra good luck.
Denmark – Danes throw plates and glasses on their neighbor’s door to leave all the ill will from the previous year behind. When one awakens in the morning, lots of smashed dishes outside your door mean you will have better luck in the new year – not that it’s a stellar commentary on your previous year. Germany and the Netherlands also practice this tradition.
Famous birthdays
Dec. 31
Anthony Hopkins, 1937, John Denver, 1943, Donna Summer, 1948
Jan.1
Paul Revere, 1735; J. Edgar Hoover, 1895, J.D. Salinger, 1919.
Franks returns to Whitman Senior Center on Feb. 3 to speak about Valentine’s Day. She will give a talk on them there “Eyes” in Kingston on Feb. 7 and the California Gold Rush in Kingston on March 7.
So, just how cold was it?
It sounds like the set-up line for a comedian – how cold was it?
It’s the coldest we’ve been in some time – and winter’s just getting started, but far from hostoric. And, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) continues forecasting a warmer than normal winter season overall for 2024-25.
Also, while the recent cold snap had the ice looking more enticing with each passing day for winter weather enthusiasts, public safety officials caution the public to be cautious on outdoor ice, particularly on lakes and ponds.
“All ice should be considered unsafe,” said Hanson Fire Chief Robert O’Brien said of the area’s ponds and lakes, adding that there hasn’t been a long enough period of freezing weather to ensure that ice is thick enough. That is true of Wampatuck Pond behind Hanson Town Hall and Maquan Pond, which is spring-fed.
Both ponds have been the sites of rescues after people have gone through the ice, accoring to O’ Brien, adding the department has also been summoned for deer and dogs that have been trapped on or fallen through the ice.
O’Brien pointed out that, as risky as ice rescues are, water rescues are more difficult because of the limited equippment for them.
“All our people are trained for ice rescues, but only a few are trained in underwater ice rescues,” O’Brien said. Those underwater rescue operations also involve longer response times – as much as 20 minutes or more – mainly because a mutual aid call is reqired.
The public’s best option is one that prevents an emergency – is to avoid one by checking ice depth, which is something public safety personnel are not able to do due to liability concerns.
“You can’t tell the strength of ice just by its appearance, the daily temperature, thickness, or whether the ice is or isn’t covered with snow,” stated information posted by the Marshfield Police Department on their website. “Strength of ice, in fact, is based upon all four factors plus the depth of water under the ice, size of water body, water chemistry, distribution of the of the ice, and local climatic factors.
Because of a dominant high-pressure area, forcasters warned of continuing cold, after the frigid morning temperature of 8 with wind chills such as -1 degrees on Dec, 23, according to a report by WBZ meteorologist Jason Mikell.
“When you think about yesterday, it’s hard to believe we’re actually colder, but we are,” Mikell said on his Monday morning forecast. “The next seven days … will be around the freezing mark in the daytime as well as the evening hours,” with a warm-up in view by the last weekend of the year.
The New York Times reported on Dec. 24 that 50 percent of the population in the United States – that’s 166 million people – “live in the areas expected to see freezing cold over the next seven days.”
That becomes a real problem as accompanying wind chills will present dangerous conditions.
“With prolonged exposure to very cold temperatures, another danger is frostbite,” The Times reported. “Your body’s survival mechanism in response to extreme cold is to protect the vital inner organs by cutting circulation to your extremities and allowing them to freeze.”
As South Shore residents woke up on Monday, Dec. 23, that caution was relatable.
Meanwhile, NOAA cautioned that its data showed no reason to panic about the cold just yet.
“Those recent trends show among the strongest warm trends across New England,” NOAA Head of Forecast Operations Scott Handel, who authored the outlook, told Boston.com. “New England has a lot of the strongest warm trends as compared to most places in the country.”
There is a 33- to 40-percent chance of above normal precipitation for the state of New Hampshire and for northern and western Massachusetts, he added.
Still, Handel said there is a lot of “variability.”
“Boston, oftentimes, gets decent snow, regardless of the year,” he said. “Be prepared for winter weather all through the season.”
NOAA’s 2024-25 winter outlook, highlighting a “slowly-developing” La Niña that could shape weather throughout the country from December through February.
“This winter, an emerging La Niña is anticipated to influence the upcoming winter patterns, especially our precipitation predictions,” said Jon Gottschalck, chief of the Operational Prediction Branch of the NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
Closer look at the Green Book
WHITMAN – If not for the controversies and the 2018 Academy Award for Best Picture, won by “Green Book,” many white Americans might not have heard of the annual guide (1936 to 1967) by that name, offering travel advice, lists of safe and welcoming hotels for African-American travelers across the United States and ads for businesses – especially car sales.
Dr. Gloria Greis, the executive director of the Needham History Center and Museum, spoke at the Whitman Public Library on Saturday, Dec. 14 to add some informational meat on that skeletal knowledge in her talk, “Driving While Black.”
And area towns like Hanson and Kingston have earned listings in the guide over the years – for South Hanson, 1948, to be precise. More on that in a bit.
The Green Book got its name, in part, from the color featured in its cover designs, but also for its founder, Victor Hugo Green, who founded the guide in 1936, aided by his wife Alma, who took over briefly after his 1960 death.
A postal employee and travel agent in Harlem, Green was perfectly situated to make his guidebook the one people immediately thought of – despite the existence of at east six others – he could depend on a national network of postal employees to bolster the word-of-mouth campaign and, more importantly advertising, by his fellow postal employees.
While she admitted her presentation is “a little Needham-centric,” Greis, said that a few years ago, a local resident send her a note asking is she knew Needham had an entry in the Green Book, sending her on a seearch for information on several other South Shore communities, as well.
But, initially, Greis, herself, hadn’t known what the Green Book was.
“I daresay, I was not alone in my ignorance and I daresay that my ignorance says something about the way we approach local history,” she told her audience at Whitman Public Library. “Despite general sense that modern history is comprehensive and everything is known, the historical record is surprisingly incomplete. Records get lost, or not recorded in the first place.”
She added that even towns like Needham, where today an ABC-affiliate television network is located, and has a well-regarded educational system today, was in Colonial times, considered literate, but not literary.
People could read and write, “but they didn’t spend a lot of time putting their thoughts down on paper.”
Therefore, recorded history is usually found in official documents – tax rolls. Town clerks’ records, church registers, town reports and the like.
“This is the history of the town’s leaders,” she said. “While this information is incredibly important, it’s very incomplete as a town history. It leaves out large segments of community experience.”
That is largely the experience of the working class, Greis said – “the routine rhythms of work and leisure, the accommodations of neighborhood, the attitudes, opinions and relationships that governed everybody’s everyday life.”
Often who gets to tell that history adds another layer of controversy, which is why the dramatic film “Green Book,” ran into trouble by literally putting a white character in the driver’s seat, not only of a car, but also of a Black character’s story.
“Piecing together historical information about the non-establishment groups in a town takes a number of different strategies,” Greis said. The Green Book is one of those.
In Hanson, for example was among the 36 communities in Massachusetts with a listing – a small house at 26 Reed St., once owned by a woman named Mary Pina, was listed in the 1948 Green Book as an accommodation for African-American travelers and tourists both in a guest room in her home, and for campers in her spacious back yard.
“The [accommodations] tend to follow the highways and areas we still think of as vacation spots,” Greis said. “But not all. Some of them are on byways, like Needham.” And Hanson.
Hanson Health Board Chair Arlene Dias was amazed at that bit of historical news.
“There were a lot of Pinas on South Street, but I don’t remember somebody living that far up on Reed Street,” Dias said in a phone interview Friday, Dec. 20. “I’ve never heard of [the Green Book listing]. It is interesting.”
She said she would be calling family members who were more knowledgeable of the Cape Verdean population’s history in Hanson for more information.
“I had relatives that were Pinas, but they were on Pleasant Street,” Dias said.
Greis said that, as much as the Green Book offered guidance for the safety of travelers, it also offered economic safety for small businesses.
“It is a compendium of some of the most important people, successful businesses and important political milestones of the 20th Century,” she said. “It’s a who’s who of a rising class of African-American middle-class entrepreneurs.”
Before the advent of the Green Book and similar travel guide, Black travelers had to prepare ahead, packing food and enough gasoline for the journey, because there was no certainty that they’d find a safe place to eat, lodge, fuel their cars or even use the bathrooms, Greis said.
Green had written in the forward to the Green Book that it served as a way to ensure safety and dignity in travel until African-Americans were afforded equal opportunities and privileges in the United States.
“It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication,” he wrote.
The Jim Crow South was not the only area where travel problems might be encountered.
“These limits were imposed on African-Americans all over the country – even in the North,” Greis said. “We might not have had the actual signs, but we certainly had the signals.”
Even in Harlem during it’s “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920s and ’30s, the more famous nightclubs like The Cotton Club, did not allow Black customers in the audience for performances of the biggest African-Americas entertainers of the day.
As Black workers found job opportunities in the North, especially in Detroit, their economic condition improved, but that was only one reason car ownership by Black Americans grew.
“Sometimes, it was the only way of getting easily from place to place,” she said The Green Book and other guides also advised Black people to buy a car as soon as they were able to for that reason. “The Green Book guided them to services where they were welcome, reducing what Green kindly called ‘aggravation.’”
That aggravation could range from out-and-out violence to Sundown Towns, where the threat was thinly veiled.
Getting one’s kicks on Route 66, was evidently meant for whites only as there were no welcoming business along the route musically extolled from Chicago as one “motors West.”
The first Green Book in 1936 covered only New York and Westchester County in 16 pages, but shortly grew to more than 9,500 businesses in 100 pages covering the entire United States, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean.
“Esso Oil, which was notable for its progressive hiring, including African-American executives, scientists and franchisees, distributed the book throughout its station network,” Greis said.
It was also aimed at the African-American Middle Class and was relatively unknown among people of color in lower economic strata.
Once the Interstate Highway system helped spell the end of the Green Book, both by presenting a more homogeneous appearance for travel – and bypassing many of the businesses that advertised in it.
Jingles the cat vs the Christmas tree
By Linda Ibbitson Hurd
Special to the Express
H ANSON — Our dad was very particular about Christmas trees and the right way to put them up.
Every December, when it was time to get our tree, the four of us kids would bundle up and follow him through the snow across our back yard and field, past the brook and blueberry patch and up into the pine grove to pick one out.
We all had a say in which tree we liked the best. Dad always seemed more patient, relaxed and happy in the woods, taking his time and even smiling. When we all agreed on which tree we wanted, he’d chop it down.
He pulled it behind him as we plowed back through the snow, following the path we had made on the way to the woods to make the going easier. When we got back home, dad propped the tree up beside a bucket of dirt near the kitchen door as it was closer to the living room. He told us to go in through the back door shed and take off our boots and hang up our coats.
Once inside, Jingles our cat would meow and walk in front of us as if to tell us to follow her. Mom called to my younger brother and sister from the living room, saying she needed help laying an old sheet on the hardwood living room floor, then asking my sister, Penny, and I to carry the big box of ornaments in from the storage shed.
We could hear dad outside moving the dirt in the bucket around with his shovel. He opened the kitchen door and stuck his head in, asking mom if she was ready yet. When she was, Mom, Davey and Barb stepped off the sheet and Penny and I put the big box down on the hearth in front of the fireplace while dad wiped his feet on the mat and brought in the bucket of dirt. He placed it in the middle of the sheet and told us all to stand back while he brought the tree in. Jingles was perched on the arm of the couch and as the tree came in the door, she dove under the coffee table, her eyes as big as saucers.
When dad would step down the two steps into the living room with the tree, Jingles usually took off like a shot, running into the other room. It made us laugh and we figured she was hiding under the dining room table or one of the beds. Every year it was ceremonious occasion as dad carefully carried the tree across the room, placing it snugly into the bucket of dirt he so carefully prepared. He watered it and packed it in some more until he was satisfied. He told mom to let it set while we had supper and then we could decorate it.
Our favorie Saturday night and our favorite supper was hotdogs and beans. While mom was getting it ready and after Penny and I set the table, the four of us watched our favorite program, “Roy Rogers,” with dad. While we watched, Penny and I finished stringing popcorn and cranberries to put on the tree and trying not to eat it. Jingles quietly came out to have some of her supper and disappeared again.
When supper was over, all of us were excited about trimming the tree.
Dad always went first, placing the star at the top and then adding the tree lights. The garlands of popcorn and cranberries were next and then came the ornaments. Each of us had a favorite one and some survived the test of time; I still have several. Mom and dad would lift Barbie and Davey up so they could hang their ornaments on the branches they chose. Mom preferred to string the tinsel herself as she used it sparingly which always made a beautiful final touch.
We were almost finished decorating the tree when Jingles generally showed up on the two steps that came down into the living room, perched on the top one, her tail switching wildly. Dad stamped his foot and clapped his hands and away she ran.
Mom reached for the box of tinsel and dad plugged in the tree lights. I heard something and looked up. One year, before any of us could do anything, Jingles leaped off the step and was flying through the air like a crazed jet at top speed landing head first high into the tree. Dad let loose with a stream of expletives that were more colorful than the Christmas decorations. Jingles got her bearings and soared back into the air, landing on the kitchen floor, clawing the linoleum as she raced to get away and almost crashing into the wall turning the corner to get into the dining room. Mom and us kids were laughing so hard we couldn’t stop. Dad disappeared down into the cellar, slamming the door behind him. We went with mom to find Jingles to see if she was okay, which she was. She sat washing herself as if she was very proud.
When dad came back he had a hammer and screw driver in one hand and a metal object in the other. He went into the living room behind the tree where there were two windows. He screwed the metal piece into one of the window frames behind the curtains. He informed us that from now on there would be a rope tied to the inside of the tree attached to the metal holder that would keep it in place and withstand any mishap. It may still be there to this day. Like Jingles, dad seemed very proud of his solution. We helped mom and dad fix the tree and interestingly enough, had no more problems with Jingles.
Pedestrian dies after crash in Hanson
A pedestrian was struck and killed by a motor vehicle in Hanson, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz and Hanson Police Chief Michael Miksch have announced.
At approximately 6:08 p.m. Tuesday, Dec, 3, Hanson Police received a 911 call for a report of a car versus pedestrian crash in the area of 22 Main St. Hanson Police and emergency personnel responded and located the female victim lying on the roadway with obvious trauma to her lower extremities. Hanson EMS was in the process of transporting the victim to a designated landing zone to meet a Medflight helicopter when the victim’s condition changed. She was then taken by ambulance to South Shore Hospital where she was pronounced deceased. She has been identified as 76-year-old Donna Mark of Pembroke.
Hanson Police contacted the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office, and an investigation commenced.
Preliminarily, it appears that Mark was attempting to cross the roadway, when a motorist driving east stopped to allow her to pass.
Mark traveled north across the eastbound lane and walked in front of a white Honda CRV which then struck Mark. The female operator of the white Honda CRV stopped at the scene.
The investigation is ongoing at this time.
Hanson Police officials said the State Police are the investigative lead agency. A call for an update to DA Cruz’s office had not been returned as of press time.
Whitman board mulls meal tax change
WHITMAN – The Select Board on Tuesday, Nov. 12, heard updates on the school assessment and town budget from board member Shawn Kain, who sought feedback on his proposal to use a portion of the meals tax revenue to help fund that assessment.
“I don’t think it’’s the ideal situation, obviously, but the hold-harmless situation makes things less ideal,” Kain said. “It’s a better situation and more predictable and controlled. That is where I’m leaning.
The town’s budget projections – and formal budget process – begin in December.
“It’s important to emphasize that the School Committee has the authority to set the assessment, I don’t want to send the wrong message about that,” Kain said at the meeting, which was attended by Superintendent of Schools Szymaniak, noting the board should work to improve communication and improve the budget process with the school district. “We should inform the committee about what we can afford and show them the details about that decision, so they can make an informed decision during the budget cycle.”
Transparency and directness are also important to foster budgetary cooperation, Kain said in his budget presentation.
Kain then presented his suggestion for a compromise.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I still believe in using the revenue-based formula so that, if the School District currently makes up 44 percent of the budget, then it seems fair that they should receive 44 percent of any new revenue.”
That would make it easier to compute and understand budget decisions. The bottom line is that, while fair, it still doesn’t give the district what it needs to maintain level services, which they would not support.
“We could dig our heels in and move forward in a negative way, or we can try to find a compromise,” he said. “So that’s what I’ve been working on.”
While the district remains in the hold-harmless situation, they need additional funds to retain level services, but the town also cannot afford to take funds from other departments in order to do that.
The town currently uses the local meals tax in a negative way, using it to contribute to the OPEB (other post-employment benefits) liability, instead of funding the operating budget.
OPEB liability is a key factor in the calculations of town’s financial rating, but, while being careful, Kain suggested something the town can do is use the revenue formula to calculate what Whitman can afford to pay the district. While the district is still in the hold-harmless Whitman should designate the meals tax as an additional revenue source for them.
“The OPEB liability, in turn, would go into the queue with the capital items and such, to be funded by free cash,” he said. “We would likely make the argument that the OPEB contribution should be at the top of the list, but, ultimately, the decision will be up to Town Meeting.”
Last year’s school assessment increased by 5 percent, with the meals tax revenue bringing in about 6 percent. He asked for the board’s feedback on his proposal.
Board member Justin Evans expressed concern over deviating on the meals tax/OPEB payment arrangement.
“My thought had always been, once we fully fund our pension obligations to Plymouth County, maybe we can kick some of that effort over to the OPEB liabilities, thinking that even half of what we contribute in a year would be huge burden off of us, and that might be a time to consider breaking away from our pattern of $140,000 a year of the meals tax to OPEB,” he said. “Before that, it risks getting to the point where, maybe Town Meeting doesn’t go for it, and it risks our bond rating.”
He said there is still a place to enter the conversation, looking at the proportional Chapter 70 that would have gone to either town had Whitman and Hanson not become a region and consider that such revenue would probably mean 65 percent-range of what revenue would go to the district.
“I like where you’re going, I just don’t like that approach,” he said.
“It’s definitely something I’m not thrilled about,” Kain said, noting he had discussed it with Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter. “It kind of hurts, it’s part of the compromise that I think we’re making.”
He said he agreed the town’s financial rating should not be risked
“Shawn and I have been very honest in both sides of this,” Carter said. “I understand that this would be until [the schools] were out of hold-harmless.” But she referred to a recent phone call with rating services, who were “thrilled” with seeing the town make a dedicated source of funds to secure a solid bond rating.
“I would not want to see that $140,000 not going in,” she said, indicating she would want to reach out and get more information about whether free cash would be an accepted source of funds.
“I do worry about our Moody’s ratings,” she said. “Yet I understand that we’re looking at anything and everything for a creative way [to meet the financial obligations]. It’s if we knew, for sure that free cash could go to this and replace the funding source.”
The Plymouth County liability had been scheduled to be paid by 2029, but was pushed out another year, she said in response to a question from Vice Chair Dan Salvucci.
“They may be looking to push it out another year,” Carter said. “We though we saw light at the end of the tunnel, but, already, that has changed … it’s not freeing up as fast as we thought it was.”
Salvucci said he looks at free cash as one-time money.
“You never know how much free cash you’re going to have,” he said.
Carter had indicated an initial wish to boost Plymouth County payments as the revenue from the meals tax began to rise, but it was decided that, at $140,000, the town is at least getting the difference.
Salvucci urged using that revenue for capital costs instead of the assessment.
“The alternative is we go into Town Meeting or the budget process at odds,” Kain said. “This is just a way for us to compute what we can afford early in the budget season and communicate that openly to the school district and the School Committee so they can make a more informed decision.”
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