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Yester-Heroes: More growth – changing police terminology 

read more…: Yester-Heroes: More growth – changing police terminology 

By 1872, Nashua had seen explosive growth for 50 years! Due to the increasing rail traffic, vagrants who “rode the rails” came to Nashua causing petty crime to soar. So much so that not only was the “House of Correction” in Nashua used (this would later be the Nashua Country Club) but miscreants were also sent to the Manchester Jail and the County House of Correction in Wilton.

Caffeine

read more…: Caffeine

This morning I learned that coffee was rationed during World War II.  I wish I had known that before my mother died, so I could have asked her how she coped. But then I think,  would she have had anything to say? 

Groundhog Day

read more…: Groundhog Day

I have never seen as many rabbits in all the time I have lived in Nashua as I have in the past two years.  I mostly see them early in the morning and at dusk, which is normal for crepuscular animals.  I watch them hop around our wildly overgrown yard and think “they’re so cute.”  And they are.  

Yester-Heroes: Handling the ‘Idle and Dissolute’

read more…: Yester-Heroes: Handling the ‘Idle and Dissolute’

A growing textile industry brought more people, more attendant businesses, and a new set of social ills that Nashua Police had to contend with. Before the days of television and the internet, people, especially working people, needed a release from the grinding hours of running a textile machine in a hot factory. Some found solace at the bottom of a bottle.

Snowflake

read more…: Snowflake

I am a person who seeks to understand difference.  When someone disagrees with me, and they want to talk about it, I am usually happy to engage.  I once had a long email exchange with someone who read a column I had written about values. In the column I said something like, “If I have a choice of places to eat, and I know that one of the places treats its workers far better than the others, that’s where I am going to eat.” He wrote and asked why. He asked whether it would make my food taste better.

Wrapping my head around the phrase ‘to let yourself go’

read more…: Wrapping my head around the phrase ‘to let yourself go’

I don’t remember when I first heard it, but I do remember when the first time I heard it and understood what it meant was – I was at a high school reunion and I was in the ladies room. I was already feeling insecure and wondering if I could make an early exit when I heard one classmate say that about another. I was sure that they were talking about me, until one woman said it was “no wonder her marriage split up.”

Yester-Heroes: Revolving Doors and Open Doors 

read more…: Yester-Heroes: Revolving Doors and Open Doors 

At this time, badges were the only tangible item owned by the department carried by the marshal or watchmen. The only other property owned by the Police Department was possibly some office furniture and the holding cells in the basement of the City Hall. The Annual Report for the city does not even mention firearms owned as police department property until 1874 when “8 revolvers” were accounted for.

Rilian Now

read more…: Rilian Now

My dog Rilian is usually the sweetest, nicest, most obedient dog in the world.  In the morning, Lucy lets him out into the yard to do his business, and he usually just does it, and trots happily back to the house, where he will be fed.  Once fed, he comes to see me for morning cuddles before I go to work.

Usually.

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Header photo by Dan Splaine – www.dansplainephotography.com