Sep 18
Here is a collection of historical trivia, collected as Volume XI Number 5 of The General Daniel Davidson Bidwell Memorial Association, dated October 1, 1935. At the end of page 4 (of 4) in the images below there is an explanation of the Association. There is also a pdf version filed here. I am a …
Aug 10
I found this page floating around. I think I must have pulled it from a file to share a copy with someone about my time in Japan. Now I don’t remember if the “2” at the bottom of the page is really an indication of this being the second page of a letter from my …
Nov 24
Romances of Old Berkshire I own a book, written by Willard Douglas Coxey, from which the title of this post was taken, published in 1931 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts by the Berkshire Courier. The author, according to the Find A Grave website, was born (1861) and died (1943) in Egremont, Mass. My brother Rick tells …
Nov 05
My grandmother (Grace Josephine Bidwell) Wilcox was one of the seminal figures of my youth. She was a wonderful story-teller, and she would enthrall me with tales of Stockbridge history, as well as stories of her younger days. Some of those stories involved her grandfather, Edwin Curtis Bidwell. I sensed that she had the same …
Sep 06
Part Two in a Series on Laura’s Tower and Ice Glen This post is my first follow-up to the preliminary announcement of my planned 90-minute lecture and discussion, to be given sometime in April or May of 2019. In subsequent posts I will share more background material on some of the illustrious characters in the …
Aug 01
My mother had folk wisdom for every occasion. I’ll try to add to this list as I recall more of her sayings. Many of these are well-known, and she inserted them into the conversation with some regularity. Many others I know only from hearing her repeat them, and I assume she got them from her …
Jul 26
I’m hoping, as is my wont, to get off the road to hell. Nearly five years ago, I placed this genealogy chart on my website, with the intention of following up with more information and commentary. So the paving had begun some time ago. Recently, a friend in town reminded me that he had discovered …
Jul 02
The Backstory Behind any account of the indigenous peoples in my part of the world lies a tragic tale of the end of a civilization that had flourished for thousands of years, and the near-extirpation of a population and its culture. My plan (at least hope) is to publish several future posts on specific topics, …
Feb 11
A piece of local (New England) history. Did you know? I had never heard this term, although I was familiar with some of the boundary problems that had existed between Connecticut and Massachusetts. In the 1970s, I lived in Southwick Mass, which has a block of land that juts into Connecticut, and disrupts the otherwise …
Dec 11
Advance publicity for my OLLI course on autism is in full swing. Last week (on December 6), I attended an Open House in Pittsfield and gave a short pitch, and then (on December 7) I appeared on local public access TV in a half-hour interview, available here. The interview was a lot of fun, giving …