You know that old saying, right? About what you do when life hands you lemons? Well, I've been chugging lemonade for a few months now. Actually since January. We're in April, approaching May and by now I'm being forced to drink more lemonade than I care to drink. But I digress. I'll have the podcast up and running before May closes. It takes time to record all those episodes but we'll get it done. See everyone soon! PS: I still like lemonade.
From Wikipedia: Concord is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. The area which became the town of Concord was originally known as "Musketaquid", situated at the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers. The name was an Algonquian word for "grassy plain", fitting the area's low-lying marshes and kettle holes. Native Americans had cultivated corn crops there; the rivers were rich with fish and the land was lush and arable. The area was largely depopulated by the smallpox plague that swept across the Americas after Europeans arrived. In 1635, a group of settlers from England led by Rev. Peter Bulkeley and Major Simon Willard received a land grant from the General Court and negotiated a land purchase with the remnants of the local tribe. Bulkeley was an influential religious leader who "carried a good number of planters with him into the woods"; Willard was a canny trader who spoke the Algonquian language and had gained the trust of Native Americans. They exchanged wampum, hatchets, knives, cloth, and other useful items for the six-square-mile purchase from Squaw Sachem of Mistick, which formed the basis of the new town, called "Concord" in appreciation of the peaceful acquisition.
From Wikipedia: North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. North Adams was first settled in 1745 during King George's War. During the war, Canadian and Native American forces laid siege to Fort Massachusetts (The Fort's chimney, a stone replica constructed in the 20th century, is located at the rear of the former Price Chopper Supermarket, behind the former Friendly's). 30 prisoners were taken to Quebec; half died in captivity. The town was incorporated separately from Adams in 1878, and reincorporated as a city in 1895. The city is named in honor of Samuel Adams, a leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and governor of Massachusetts. For much of its history, North Adams was a mill town. Manufacturing began in the city before the Revolutionary War, largely because the confluence of the Hoosic River's two branches provided water power for small-scale industry. By the late 1700s and early 1800s, businesses included wholesale shoe manufacturers; a brick yard; a saw mill; cabinet-makers; hat manufacturers; machine shops for the construction of mill machines; marble works; wagon and sleigh-makers; and an ironworks, which provided the pig iron for armor plates on the Civil War ship, the Monitor.
From Wikipedia: Harvard is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts. The town is located 25 miles west-northwest of Boston, in eastern Massachusetts. A farming community settled in 1658 and incorporated in 1732, it has been home to several non-traditional communities, such as Harvard Shaker Village and the utopian transcendentalist center Fruitlands. It is also home to St. Benedict Abbey, a traditional Catholic monastery. The official seal of the town depicts the old town public library on The Common prior to renovations that removed the front steps. Europeans first settled in what later became Harvard in the 17th century, along a road connecting Lancaster with Groton that was formally laid out in 1658. There were few inhabitants until after King Philip's War, in which Groton and Lancaster were attacked and substantially destroyed. Over the next 50 years the population grew until it had reached a point adequate to support a church. A new town including parts of Lancaster, Groton, and Stow was incorporated in 1732, subject to the proviso that the inhabitants "Settle a learned and Orthodox Minister among them within the space of two years and also erect an House for the publick Worship of God." It is uncertain how the town obtained its name, though the Willard family, among the first settlers and the largest proprietors in the new town, had several connections to Harvard College. The first minister was Rev. John Seccombe, serving from 1733 to 1757. In 1734, the town was considered to have five districts or villages. These were Oak Hill, Bare Hill, Still River, Old Mill, and Shabikin, present day Devens.
From Wikipedia: Erving is located along the Mohawk Trail. The area was part of the Pocomtuc Indian Nation, whose villages included Squawkeag in what is now Northfield, and Peskeompscut in what is now Turners Falls. Eventually, most of the native population was displaced and/or sold into slavery as a result of King Philip's War and a series of massacres of local Indian villages. Subsequently, Erving was first settled in 1801 and officially incorporated—it being the last unincorporated land in Massachusetts—in 1838. What is now Erving was once the farm of John Erving, the first colonial in the area. Noted in the 19th century for timber and grazing, the town had seven sawmills, two chair factories, one pail factory, one children's carriage factory, and one bit-brace factory. Large numbers of railroad ties and telegraph poles were cut in the abundant forests here, as many as 1,495,000 in one year. The Millers River, a tributary of the Connecticut River, passes through the town. The terrain of Erving is hilly and rugged; most of the developed area of the town is located along the river. Northfield Mountain and its peaks occupy much of the northern two-thirds of the town. Erving is situated along Route 2, a heavily traveled state highway.
