Tag Archives: Saugus(MA)

The Hana Chronicles: Month 8, Day 17

0
Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Family, Hiking and Nature, Historical, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

September 7, 2026- Neither Hana or I are working paid jobs, but we did our share around the house. Hana likes to put her own tray on the high chair-and she knows how to do it. Of course, some adult dexterity is needed to fasten it securely, but she likes to start the process. She also wants, very badly, to climb up and out of the playpen. There are no footholds, though, and we’re not providing her with any.

Labor Day, for the family, was very productive. We finally got a foundation and drywall specialist who was a straight talker and was not interested in selling us his services, on the spot. He recommended a holistic course of action, which addressed the matter of water-sucking shrubs and small trees. We had three of them removed, this afternoon.

HANA’S NOTE- I am so glad that my grownups listen to me, when I need my diaper changed. I also like getting bits of cut fruit, when they have their lunch or dinner-after I’ve had my big meal. I like being part of their gathering.

YEAR IN REMEMBRANCE-2021 Year Two of the Pandemic saw more in-person classes resume, as the danger of infection abated, somewhat. Masks and physical distancing were still big things, as were virtual meetings. Our Baha’i gatherings were still largely on Zoom, as there were too many people with compromised immune systems, and we lost one elder in the summer of 2020.

This was the year that my mother moved out of our childhood home- a place in which she had lived for 66 years. I made two journeys across country this year- first, to ascertain Mom’s state of mind, at her new place of residence and to help clean out the old house, once it had been sold. So, in May, I went back to Saugus, and spent five days helping to with the process. The road east was still COVID protocol-led, from New Mexico to Connecticut. Once in Massachusetts, things had abated somewhat, though for obvious reasons, I went into Mom’s residence masked up and wearing gloves. She made me remove my mask and gloves, when I entered her room. The place was taking care of her, to the extent she let anyone do so.

I went back to Prescott, stopping in Carmel, NY; Oley (for a home-style dinner); Bedford, PA; Terre Haute; Jefferson City, Wheatland and Lamar, MO; and Grants, NM. The COVID protocol was less stringent already.

July brought me eastward again, through Grapevine, TX, so that I could celebrate Aram’s birthday with him and Yunhee. The route then took me to the Greenwood section of Tulsa, where a mob massacred large numbers of Black people, a hundred years ago; then came Memphis, and a visit to the Museum of Civil Rights and Beale Street. In Crossville, TN, I visited with friends and hiked to Fall Creek Falls, in the rain. Harrisonburg did not have Artful Cafe, any longer, but it had Duke’s, a similar place of welcome, in the same location. I made a stopover at Oley, on the way up to Saugus. I had a fine visit with maternal cousin, John and his wife, as well as spending time with Mom and my MA siblings. In Maine, I paid respects to paternal cousin John, and his parents, now all interred in a National Cemetery in Augusta.

Going back was a northern route: Concord, NH; Albany; Du Bois, PA; Mishawaka; Wilmette; Madison and Hudson, WI; Minneapolis-St.Paul, (where I met up with a first cousin, once removed and her family; Fairmont, MN and Sioux Falls (where I made a boo-boo and needed some radiator repair, as a result). Nebraska and Colorado saw me safely back into Home Base.

Late September brought the end of Elantra. As I was headed to work, on a country road, I stopped for 5 seconds and proceeded, A landscape vehicle, going twenty miles over the speed limit, came over the hill and hit the Hyundai exactly between me and the gas tank. I was cited for not having waited 10 seconds at the stop sign. The landscaper was taken into custody. The Hyundai was replaced by a 2007 Saturn Vue, for which I paid cash. While I waited to take possession of the Saturn, whose owner was getting ready to move and just needed the vehicle until her moving date, I had a rental car, paid by the landscape company’s insurance. With that rental car, I made a trip to Chaco Culture National Historic Park and to Ghost Ranch, spending a day in each place.

In December, the Vue and I drove to Santa Fe and Taos. A Christmas visit to Santa Fe had become my self-indulgence for two years, before COVID and it seemed like a good time to jump start things. I visited the Georgia O’Keefffe Museum, having been inspired by the October visit to Ghost Ranch.

Life was becoming normal, and full, again.

Worlds Within A World, Part I

0
Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Education, Family, Hiking and Nature, impediments, Inner Struggles, Personal Values, Social, Striving, Travel

May 14, 2026- When I was serving in VietNam, my mates referred to the United States as “The World”. It was obvious that this was a euphemism, that the consensus was our homeland was, in effect, the place that mattered above all else. Our world was where family, closest friends and, for many, their sweethearts were waiting.

I have always been a globalist, seeing the people of other nations as having equal importance to me and mine, in the bigger picture. Yet, as I look at my life thus far, periods of time can be centered on a particular place, for a given number of years. Thus these 75 years have seen the following worlds.

The Saugus world (1950-1969)- Although I was born, and lived my first six months, in nearby Melrose, most of my growing up years were spent living in two houses in Saugus, Massachusetts. My wanderlust primarily saw me going around different neighbourhoods of the town, or to neighbouring Lynn. Mashpee, on Cape Cod, and the area between North Conway and Franconia, NH were part of the Saugus World, as they were our family vacation haunts. Other places in eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire and southern Maine were gradually added to my world-with Boston only entering the list in 1964, when I went with my father on the Freedom Trail. Camping, hiking and body surfing became my idea of fun during the Saugus years. I connected with a small group of neighbourhood kids, was in my share of scraps, had crushes on girls and attempted to attend college, then dabbled in factory work-neither of which my unfocused mind met with success.

The Army world (1969-72)- Training for, and working in, postal work took me away from Saugus. Home was, successively, in Fort Jackson, SC; Fort Benjamin Harrison, IN; Fort Myer, VA; Long Binh and Cholon, VN. I was happiest when on the job, then. I had a few close buddies, but mostly kept to myself. During training, I stayed put, save for a “Most Improved Trainee” weekend pass to Myrtle Beach, SC and a few weekend nights in Columbia and Indianapolis. While in Fort Myer, I became well-acquainted with Washington, DC and learned the train and air shuttle routes between Washington and Boston. Viet Nam obviously was a constricted period, though I took R&R in Sydney for a few days and enjoyed a day in Vung Tau, a beach town near Saigon.

The College World (1972-76)- Once out of the Army, I was more focused and completed Associates and Baccalaureate work, living the first two years again mostly in Saugus, save a brief residence in Beverly, near the campus of North Shore Community College. During this time, I went on a week’s road trip to Prince Edward Island, went to Montreal and Quebec Ville, three or four times, worked several part-time jobs and hit the club scene way too often. I lived in and around the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, for the last two years of this period. Northampton and South Deerfield replaced the Orchard Hill dorms as home, during my last 1 1/2 years of school.

The Maine world (1976-78)- Not all of my life decisions have been good ones. After graduating college and substitute teaching in Saugus and North Reading, with limited success, I went back to a resort in Maine, where I had worked two years earlier. Life at Quisisana was maudlin at best, but I made busing tables a focus and the summer passed nicely. At summer’s end, with no job prospects in eastern Massachusetts and no real attachment to the Amherst area, I went north, to Bangor, as it was near Orono, where I had paternal relatives,and an ancestral connection in Old Town. There was a young lady to whom I was drawn, but it fizzled quickly. I got a small tutoring gig, then a job teaching Emotionally Disabled middle schoolers, followed, the next year by a stint as Title I Tutor. Bangor, Brewer and Dexter were my anchor towns, Etna-Dixmont School paid the bills and the mountains near Kingfield were my solace. I explored all parts of Maine and a good chunk of New Brusnwick, during this time.

After my second year of treading water, it was time to move along. Arizona beckoned, and thus came another world.

The Road to Diamond, Day 161: The Long Repair Job

0
Posted by on in children, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, Inspiration, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

May 8, 2025, Williamsport, PA- From the time I got onto I-80, in Mishawaka to the time I left the road, at the junction with U.S. 15, fifteen miles south of this headquarters city for Little League Baseball, there was virtually nonstop road construction. It resulted in closed lanes, almost every 15-20 miles or so, for a length of 2-3 miles for each segment.

I am told this is one of the major projects that is being funded by Build Back Better, the program that some say is a “left-wing, Green New Deal” boondoggle. Note that this work is focused on shoring up the concrete median, between eastbound and westbound lanes of the Interstate Highway, and fixing guardrails. While it was initiated by Progressives, a better roadway system is in the best interests of anyone who drives, both commercial and recreational. Stopping the work now, or even soon, would not save much, if anything, and would leave remaining fixes undone. While it is inconvenient for those of us driving now, it is best to get the work done before schools let out and families hit the road.

Most of the day was highway-bound. I came upon Ridgeway Inn, just south of downtown Williamsport, around 8 :30 pm. This lovely little motel is managed remotely, but apparently by someone who is close enough that major issues could be addressed readily. Williamsport itself is a clean and, in places, somewhat upscale community, with a strong tourist base that derives from its association with Little League Baseball. Several years ago, one of my nephews was on Saugus, MA’s Little League championship team, which faced against a team from Japan, in the Little League World Series. The Japanese boys won, but Saugus has named a public athletic field as World Series Field. It’s right across a lea from my boyhood home.

For this, and the general ambiance of the city, Willliamsport is another Pennsylvania city that has a place in my heart-along with Bedford, Wilkes-Barre, Exton, Oley and Clarion, to say nothing of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and York.