Editorial

Editorial: A Wider Audience

After almost five years, Stockbridge Updates will begin its transition to a wider audience. We live in a small town in a bigger county in a state of 351 municipalities. 

Stockbridge Updates was founded to inform and there is relevant information beyond the border of Stockbridge. Perhaps more accurate information comes from looking at the whole picture. Just as better solutions may come from sharing, cooperating, and getting to know one another better.

We wrestle with the availability of affordable housing. Maybe we cannot solve that problem if our focus is restricted to Stockbridge. Maybe we can solve it if we widen our lens and consider a three-town solution. 

Stockbridge is aging. Moving from a median age of 45 to a median age of 60 affects how many volunteers there are in the fire department, on boards, and committees. We may need shared services. 

We have models in the district school system and Tri-Town Health. As costs climb and the full-time population shrinks, we may want to follow those models. We may want to hone our skills in how to share and plan with others.

For similar reasons, SU will grow with a special section on Commonwealth Matters. It was interesting how many suggestions made at Town Meeting would counter state law. If any had passed, the Attorney General would have struck them down. It’s an unnecessary misstep easily fixed by making more information available from multiple sources.

South County has sparkling writers, retirees from all walks of life, and workers who know a thing or two. Moreover, Town Administrators in other towns can fill us in on their top-line accomplishments and problems. We can learn and admire, imitate, or lend a helping hand.

SoCo Updates will invite them all to tell us about the world around Stockbridge. If you think you are one of those people from any one of those towns, get in touch. If you want to get onboard and help us grow, get in touch. www.carole@stockbridgeupdates.com

Stockbridge Updates stands for transparency and will now aim to spread information to all of you from a wider base — standby — we’re working on it.

by Carole Owens , Executive Editor

News

Stockbridge Votes!

At the polls

All who ran were unopposed except in the Select Board race and race for Moderator. In both those races the incumbent won. Congratulations to all the winners — opposed or unopposed — go forth and do good for Stockbridge. 

At Town Meeting

All the articles were passed in an efficient 2 hours. So refreshing that our Moderator finally used the “Hold” on the group of finance articles and the Community Preservation Committee articles. It moves the meeting along and frees time for debate. There’s a bit more to it but this was a valiant first try. It’ll go smoother next time.

The debates centered around CPC grants — there was a contingent opposed to granting money to nonprofits. Nonetheless, all the CPC articles passed.

As I left Town Meeting, a couple, second homeowners, approached me. They thought I would be the next moderator, and if I was, they wanted me to allow them to sit among the regular audience. They were upset and a bit hurt to be asked to sit apart — in the bleachers. Is there any reason to hurt and exclude people? 

Once there might have been reason to physically separate the voters from the nonvoters to make sure only those authorized to vote did vote. Is that still necessary?

Reasonable change is not just necessary but inevitable. The clickers handed to voters only at the entrance by people checking names against the voters’ roll, solves the legal problem of the moderator being sure only voters vote. 

The moderator should consider including rather than excluding a population that is now greater in number than the number of locals. Post clickers, the only reason to banish non-voting second homeowners to the bleachers is if the moderator does not want to allow them to speak. That decision is a privilege left to the moderator. Please contact him and make your case for sitting among us — I will save a seat for you.

News

SU FYI

PCBs and Our River

Michael Roisman asked a question: why did Lee and Lenox receive $25,000,000 in the GE Settlement and Stockbridge receive $1,500,000 — almost 17 times less? Roisman’s follow-up question was: why did the Finance Committee go into executive session to discuss the settlement? 

Steve Shatz, Stockbridge’s only representative to the Rest of River Committee over the years, submitted an answer.

Although the Finance Committee held an executive session to discuss the awards, Shatz wrote, “…the Stockbridge Finance Committee played no role in the distribution formula…litigation with GE was outside the jurisdiction of the Finance Committee.”

Sadly, that begs the question but does not tell us why the FC held an executive session. It does not tell us what they discussed, nor does it explain their behavior subsequent to the executive session, that is, what advice, if any, they offered on this consequential financial matter.

Roisman restated the information provided by GE at a public session: the estimated time it will take from transporting the PCBs from dredging locations to the PCB dump in Lee is estimated at 13 years. Final routes have NOT been established.

Shatz stated, “The phase potentially affecting Stockbridge will come at the end of the project for a period estimated to last nine months.” 

It is impressive that Shatz knows what neither GE nor the EPA know or have officially announced.

Shatz also wrote “the distribution formula approved by the Select Board was designed to recognize the disproportionate impact on Lenox and Lee…”

It does not. The dump is in Lee and Lee only. Transportation routes have not been finalized. The impact of transporting deadly material, more so if aerated, on our streets is as yet unknown.

We cannot agree with the first three points made by Shatz. We do whole-heartedly agree with his closing statement:

“Innuendo and misinformation do not help in achieving public understanding…” 

Roisman among others once again sought answers. As our only representative to ROR, “achieving public understanding” was Shatz’s job. Year after year he stated he could not share or explain because there was ongoing litigation. Whatever the explanation, now we are all paying for it.

A Mother’s Prerogative

What a joy to have both my boys together at such a wonderful event — a dinner and speech by one son about his book introduced by my other son ntroduced by his brother. 

News

Events

Stockbridge Library:

Aaron Lansky of the Yiddish Book Center 

Sunday, June 2 @ 3:00 pm — 4:00 pm

Charlar y Comer: Spanish Conversation Group

Monday, June 3 @ 5:30 pm — 6:30 pm

Slime Squad (Ages 4+, signup required)

Tuesday, June 4 @ 3:45 pm – 4:30 pm

June Cookbook Club (Featuring 5 Ingredients: Quick & Easy by Jamie Oliver)

Thursday, June 6 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Playdough Playdate (Ages 2+)

Friday, June 7 @ 10:30 am — 11:30 am

Stockbridge Library Association Golf & Racquets Challenge

Tuesday, June 11@ 8:00 am – 2:00 pm

Book Club (Featuring Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley)

Thursday, June 13 @ 4:00 pm — 5:00 pm

Edwin Barker, Principal Double Bass of BSO in conversation with John Perkel

Saturday, June 15 @ 3:00 pm — 4:00 pm

Community Television South Berkshire 

Open House, Sunday, June 9th, Noon to 2pm. At 4 Limestone Road Lee MA

Volunteers in Medicine

To mark their 20th Birthday on July 25, 2024. Higher Bar, The Swell Party (caterers) Supreme Soft Serve. Entertainment by Wanda Houston and Jun Suters.

Norman Rockell Museum 

What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine, June 8, 2024 through October 27, 2024. This exhibition explores the unforgettable art and satire of MAD, from its beginnings in 1952 as a popular humor comic book to its emergence as a beloved magazine. For more information about the exhibit, please visit, https://www.nrm.org/2023/11/mad/ For ticketing information, go to https://www.nrm.org/visit/ 

Do not forget — the NRM Mad Bash 6pm to 10:30 pm June 8th — Museum Gone Mad Bash

Art, music, comedy, festive nosh & libations, and a lot of laughs, all benefiting the Museum.

Mingle with artists, illustrators, comic creators, writers, collectors, and co-curator/satirical illustrator Steve Brodner.

Laugh with comedian Kevin Bartini, (“Billy Jones” on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; The Daily Show, The Colbert Report; comedy writer for HBO, Comedy Central, and MSNBC; and Berkshire grown!)

MAD & RAD Photo Ops with Berkshire Photo Booth, and some other cheeky surprises. MADly creative Catering by Kate Baldwin.

DANCE to the tunes of BFG ! !

Wear your MAD, festive, outrageous party attire… or not; but wear something!

First dibs on New MAD MERCH & hard-to-find collectibles !!!!!!!

For this fund raiser, tickets are from $125 to $10,000

For additional information and ticket sales information, please visit this link:

https://www.nrm.org/madbash

Construct

Construct presents 15 local and regional interior designers have each decorated a room at the Gilded Age estate, Ventfort Hall. It is a fundraiser for Construct which works to provide affordable housing in south county. Tickets are $40 and it will be open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in June. More information and tickets can be found here: https://constructberkshires.org/construct-designer-showhouse/

Berkshire Botanical Garden

Berkshire Botanical Garden announces Music Mondays weekly summer concert series.

The popular outdoor concert series runs from July 1 through Aug. 5, and will feature some of the region’s most talented performers. Attendees are invited to find the perfect spot to picnic amidst the Garden’s beauty. Barefoot dancing on the lawn is always encouraged. This year, BBG is introducing food trucks in the Garden every Monday night. Performances run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The schedule is as follows:

July 1 — Misty Blues: Classic rock and folk tunes infused with a healthy dose of the blues.

July 8 — Wanda Houston: An impeccable blend of 1940s through 1960s R&B and jazz.

July 15 — The Lucky Five: A hard-charging, foot-stomping blend of swing and jazz.

July 22 — Boston University Students of Tanglewood: Showcasing talented instrumentalists, singers and composers.

July 29 — Brother Sal Blues Band: Straight from the heart of old Chicago!

August 5 — Zikinna: East African folk music with flavors of reggae, rock and Caribbean beats.

Tickets are $15 each for BBG members, $20 each for non-members. For more info, go to: www.BerkshireBotanical.org/MusicMondays

News

Notes from the Select Board, May 16, 2024

On the agenda were two matters of wider interest:

“Repair or replacement of suspension bridge at the waterfall (spillway) of the Stockbridge Bowl.”

Comment from an abutter, Anita Schwerner: This is a central part of Bowl Outlet Park: Important for access to the sluice gate, maintenance of the berm and a much used place for fishing and wooded lakeside walks. Any encouragement of the Board at that meeting would undoubtedly be helpful.

Those of you who enjoy walking around the lake or up Interlaken CrossRoad know that with this bridge closed in addition to the Curtisville Bridge being closed to pedestrians, there is no way to get from the Outlet Park off South Lake Drive to the other side of the lake. Please attend the meeting and let your comments and concerns be heard.

I hope you will attend the meeting in person or on Zoom and encourage the board to expedite a solution to repair or replace the bridge. Thank you for your support.

Public Comments removed from the SB agenda: What is your opinion about having Public Comment on the SB agenda?

News

Notes from the Affordable Housing Trust, May 20, 2024

The gift of 13+ acres on Glendale Middle Road has been surveyed. It is buildable and the AHT has accepted the gift.

News

More from Becket — The Dark Sky Ordinance

An enthusiastic group in Becket want to ensure the night is dark. They have collected signatures and added an article to the Town Meeting Warrant. Light pollution negatively impacts the character of our communities but also the health of the residents, according to the petitioners. 

Nonetheless light pollution increases at a rate of 10% per year. The petitioners mean to put a stop to it. For the health of animals, birds, plants, and us, the intension is to restore the darkness.

Did you know? Light pollution has an impact on sleeplessness, anxiety, and physical health as well. We may feel safer and feel better if we light it up, but evidently, that is not the case.

News

Once Again, the Stockbridge Chimes Ring Out

By Andrea Goodman

All is going well at the chime tower. Thank you for this opportunity to play. I think everyone has been enjoying it. I am there from 530 to 6 every day. Please come and enjoy the new tower. I will let you in and invite you up, if you let me know that you’re coming. I’d love to have you come and see the chimes in action.

Editor’s note: There was concern about noise. On Memorial Day, I was inside getting a hot dog and heard nothing until I stepped back outside. A big thank you to Terry, Andrea, Bruce, Patrick, Michael and all who returned this delight to Stockbridge.

by Andrea Goodman

Video

Meet Captain Ken 

A video by Lionel Delevingne

Perspective

Chesterwood Presents Isadora Duncan program in the Studio Garden

Chesterwood, the historic home, studio and gardens of sculptor Daniel Chester French, presents a special program with Ian Spencer Bell to kick off the fourth season of the Arts Alive! performance series on June 8th at 5:30 p.m. Dancer, poet and choreographer Ian Spencer Bell will reconstruct Isadora Duncan’s famous solo “The Many Faces of Love” with live music by classical pianist Lauren Aloia, set in the historic gardens. Bell opens with “Duncan-Giselle Loop” in which Bell combines an encore that Duncan performed in Paris in 1908 with the Mad Scene from the 1841 ballet “Giselle.” Then he performs “Six Chelsea Love Poems,” named for his neighborhood in New York City. Bell closes the program with his re-creation of “The Many Faces of Love,” solos that are rarely performed by a male dancer, set to 16 Waltzes, Op. 39 by the late 19th c. German composer Johannes Brahms. Duncan was a pioneer of modern dance and her celebration of classical ideals combined with her natural, athletic movement revolutionized dance and theater. Bell studied Duncan from third-generation Duncan dancers Lori Belilove, founder of Isadora Duncan Dance Company, and Catherine Gallant, founder of Dances by Isadora, in New York City. The performance will take place outdoors with seating. A talk and a reception follow. General admission to the event is $25, Chesterwood members $20, and free for all under 18. The rain date is Sunday, June 9th at 5:30 p.m. Advance reservations are highly recommended at www.chesterwood.org/arts-alive-2024

Bell began working on the project two years ago a Dancer-in-Residence at Chesterwood, when he learned that the sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850-1931) and Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) not only knew each other but also that Duncan had danced for French in his Studio Garden during the summer of 1898. French’s wife, Mary, wrote in her memoirs “she danced on the upper terrace of the garden, with her long fragile figures, poppies in her hair, her fleeting motions, she seemed like a Greek figure come to life she was most beautiful.” Bell states that “Like Isadora Duncan, I often dance in silence and make the very personal public.”

Bell has danced his solos at Boston Center for the Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, Poetry Foundation, and Queens Museum. Lauren Aloia has performed with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and the Newtown Chamber Orchestra.

by Margaret Cherin

Perspective

Be A Better Gardener: A Historic Resource Still Provides the Best Guidance

Native plants were a relatively uncommon enthusiasm back in 1965 when Lady Bird Johnson publicly endorsed the planting of indigenous wildflowers alongside American highways. As she freely acknowledged, she was not the first to do so. She gave ample credit to the Texas Department of Transportation, which in 1934 began to pause every year the mowing of highway shoulders until the spring wildflowers had gone to seed to promote their spread. Still, when the First Lady included wildflowers in her highway beautification program, it helped to move native plants from botanical gardens and nature preserves into the gardens of the rest of us.

Lady Bird’s support didn’t stop with just (metaphorically) planting the seed. In 1982 she joined with actress Helen Hayes in establishing a “National Wildflower Research Center” on a 60-acre site in the East Austin neighborhood of Texas’ state capital. The new Center’s focus was national rather than regional, a reflection of Lady Bird’s many years in Washington D.C., and the scope of her duties during her White House years. This broad focus is unusual even today in a field that more typically celebrates local vegetation.

As the original name of this institution indicates, it has always supported an active program of research into such fields as the impact of prescribed burning on Central Texas ecosystems and the development of a climatically adapted, drought-tolerant turfgrass mix of native species. Moving to a site that now comprises 284 acres farther from downtown Austin in 1995, this native plant botanical garden adopted a new name in 1997, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (@wildflowercenter). This name better reflects the diversity of the Center’s current mission as a division of the University of Texas at Austin. This includes not only research in plant conservation and ecological research and design, but also display gardens, an arboretum, and natural areas with a total collection of 900 species native to Texas, and a vigorous program of public education.

Resources: “Plant Finder” database search by common name of a plant, by plant family, or use filters to identify plants that suit your needs by an array of filters which can sort plants by region, flower color, flowering season, foliage characteristics, the type of conditions in your garden, and plant lifespan: annual, biennial, or perennial. 

“Native Plant Information Network Resources” guide as well as a searchable list of 950 native plant organizations. 

by Thomas Christopher

Perspective

Uncle John

Editor’s note: Born and raised in Stockbridge, Wilcox is a current resident and former Moderator of Alford. Wilcox touches on an important topic in this excerpt from a longer article. 

John J. Weiss (1880-1971) was married to our Aunt Belle (Isabella Jane Bidwell) on November 27, 1934. He was a widower with one daughter. It was her first marriage. After they were married, Uncle John and Aunt Belle purchased a hillside plot of land on the south side of Main Road (Route 23) in Monterey and built a small white house above the highway. 

I told [a cousin}, “I’m going to add in stories about ice cream, chickens, and the colored chemicals we used to play with.”

Before telling about Uncle John’s chickens, I will pick up on his Jewishness and his violin playing. My Wilcox/Bidwell heritage was a strange combination of extreme tolerance and inclusion combined with a sense of exclusivity. My grandmother was very vocal (to me, at least) about her support of equal treatment of African American people. Her daughter (my Aunt Jane) once told me “we were always told that we were no better than anyone else.”

I came to suspect that Aunt Belle marrying a Jew was probably pretty scandalous. By the time I came to this conclusion, most of my relatives who had been alive at the time (1934) were gone. Only one remained: our Aunt Jane (born March 10, 1923) my father’s youngest sibling.

In 2013, to honor her 90th birthday, my two brothers (and their wives) and I went to visit Aunt Jane. We had a wonderful visit (and well-timed, since she would not live to see her 91st birthday). When our conversation turned to family connections, I said to Jane, “It must have been a family scandal when Aunt Belle married a Jew.” She replied, “Oh, no — he was not Jewish, ‘Weiss’ is a German name.” I didn’t argue with her, though I was surprised that she clung to what was (to me) an obvious denial.

[After being a lawyer and a violinist, John told Belle] “I’m going to be a chicken farmer.”

It was 1941…suddenly the US Army had a need for vast quantities of food to provision the troops headed for Europe and North Africa. By supplying chickens to the Army, Uncle John’s modest business soon became a huge commercial success.

Uncle John was, at one time, the designated keeper of the Monterey silver cane, entrusted to the care of the oldest living person in Monterey. He was very proud of that. Not long after he received that honor, he had a completely disabling stroke.

by Michael Forbes Wilcox

Perspective

Expanding the SU Beat — The Treasures Found Elsewhere

Stockbridge is full of treasures: the Norman Rockwell Museum, The Bowl, Main Street and so much more. Other towns have other treasures. Did you know Becket has a bell cast by the Paul Revere & Sons Foundry in 1812? Mount Washington has a piece — a really, really, big piece — of the Berlin Wall? Egremont has just one of three extant one-room schoolhouses circa 1880? And never forget Mr. Big lives in Great Barrington.

The Congregational Church of Becket is 172 years old. Completed in 1850, its belfry atop the church houses an even older treasure: the Paul Revere bell — the only one of its kind in Berkshire County. It is a thrill to see it and marvel at its age and provenance, however, perhaps the greatest thrill is hearing the clear beautiful sound of the bell. PATRICK, CAN YOU PLACE YOUR VIDEO WITH SOUND HERE? THANK YOU

The bell has rung throughout our history — marking historic events such as the 176th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride: Patriot’s Day April 19, 1951. It rang for the last time on Christmas 2021. After that it was stored to allow repairs to begin to the belfry and the structure that supports the bell. For the last two years, progress has been made. It is the pride of the village and well it should be. If you want to be part of finishing the job and hearing the bell ring our again, contact the First Congregational Church of Becket.https://www.youtube.com/embed/FGG6z-anvkQ?si=BWkrTYXuOrOc0yvQ

Perspective

Coming Home to Stockbridge

There is a lovely mini brochure put out by the Arvid E. Miller Historical Library Museum, Bowler, Wisconsin. Hopefully read by all of us as they come back home.

It opens, “Like our ancestors. we light the flame within, to illuminate pathways for all to see.”

Ask at our library for a copy to read and keep.

Let’s get to know our new neighbors.

The booklet closes with the words, “We are teachers — we teach our youth to be the future we want to see in the world.”

What lovely words with which to close this issue.

The Last Word

Yet More Photos