Editorial

Editorial: Truncated Tuesday

It was Tuesday. On my calendar were a Conservation Commission (ConCom) meeting and the debate between the two contenders for Berkshire 3rd District representative — affectionately truncated to “Smitty’s seat.” As I sat listening to both, I was thinking…

In one I heard about N-Rad, BBW, and something that sounded like PCP but might have been PCB or MTV. In the other we were urged not to forget Stretch; to firmly grasp the advantages of AHA, and hang on to the concept of hub and spoke. We were told something would make a great stride forward. I am all for a great stride forward, and I wish I knew what it was. However, the maker of great strides was unintelligible.

I urge everyone to vote. How is up to each of us. What I was thinking on that Tuesday is how smart and educated we must be to vote wisely. What is N-Rad or PCP or Stretch or AHA? If I knew what they were, well hey, maybe I’d know how to vote. 

It might be that the candidates at the debate and our fabulous volunteers at ConCom know all this stuff and could explain it. One reason the candidates can’t take the time to explain is a moderator who kept saying, “you have 30 seconds,” and hitting a ticking timer. I am willing to bet that none of the problems or their solutions can be explained in 30 seconds. 

Here’s the thing: Volunteers and elected officials, plus those who want to be elected officials, might take a minute and explain what they are talking about. Better if their goal were educating the voters or at least remembering we are there and listening.

I am willing to speculate that it would be way better for all of us because whichever candidate wins, and whoever is sitting on the commission, we the people have to understand the issues, face the problems, and vote on the best solutions. And, regardless of what N-Rad means (I looked it up and I don’t think it is “no risk after discharge’), we don’t want to find out the meaning and the impact on our community after the lot is clear cut, the distance to the water’s edge is paved, the coverage on the lot exceeds the allowable limit, or…

by Carole Owens , Executive Editor

News

SU FYI

1. October 16th is Ether Day. On that day in 1847, at Massachusetts Geneal Hospital, it was demonstrated that a patient could be made insensible to pain and thereby endure an operation. Could be forever shielded from screaming in agony or dying of the shock and misery of the treatment. The next years were spent perfecting the delivery system so there was not too little causing the patient to awaken during the procedure, or with too much, causing the patient to die of an overdose. Ether provides excellent pain control that can extend for several hours even into the postoperative period. The cessation of pain: the great American contribution to medical treatment. 

2. The Stockbridge Select Board will address the topic of municipal directional signs at their meeting on November 7. It was rescheduled due to the unavailability of one SB member. All residents interested in this matter are encouraged to attend.

3. Correction: The next Cemetery Commission meeting is on October 22; not October 23.

News

Events

1. Berkshire Botanical Garden presents 2024 Art/Garden series, “90 Years Young: Berkshire Botanical Garden 1934-2024,” an exhibition featuring historical photos, film and other artifacts that trace the garden’s growth and elevation. The exhibition opens on Harvest Festival weekend, Oct. 12, and continues through Dec 2, in the Leonhardt Galleries. 

Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Leonhardt Galleries are open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Oct. 31. From Nov. 1 to Dec. 2, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The address: 5 West Stockbridge Road, Stockbridge, Mass. For more information, visit BerkshireBotanical.org

2. Norman Rockwell Museum presents NEW! Vote 2024! The Unity project is an art and civics initiative of the Norman Rockwell Museum and contemporary illustrators that is dedicated to an inclusive America in which all voices are heard.

Norman Rockwell: Illustrating Humor

FINAL WEEKS! What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine

Virtual Exhibition:

Norman Rockwell: Imagining Freedom

Rockwell Re-Interpreted: Highlights from the Permanent Collection

Norman Rockwell’s 323 “Saturday Evening Post” Covers

3. Chesterwood presents Metamorphosis — Three Ways through Fire

Works in clay by Anne Ferrill, Ingrid Raab, and Nina Ryan. Works. Gallery hours: Thursday — Sunday noon to 5pm. For appointments, call 917-597-3569 

4. Stockbridge Library is now accepting books for its annual book sale fund raiser.

Stockbridge Library, supported by a grant from the Stockbridge Cultural Council, welcomes the work of Terri OConnor and Rebecca Burr in their October art exhibit Honor and Hope: Two Mohican Artists. The exhibit is open to the public from October 1 — 31 during regular library hours,

Artist Terri OConnor grew up on the Stockbridge Indian Reservation, inspired by the celebratory gatherings of Native Powwows and a generation wrapped in their passion of honor and hope. Terri OConnor is also a participant of the United States Department of Interior Indian Arts and Crafts Board where she assists with the promotion of authentic Native American arts and crafts. 

Rebecca Burr is a self-taught artist who began painting in oil at age twelve. Growing up on the Red River in Wisconsin, which is where she lives today, she developed a personal connection with Mother Earth that resonates throughout her work. Both artists are enrolled members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Band, located in Bowler, Wisconsin.

Voices of Poetry with Mary Buchinger, Lee Desrosiers, Howie Faerstein, Adam Grabowski 

Saturday, October 19 @ 3:00 pm — 4:30 pm

Stitching Seams Gallery Talk with Collection Steward Andrea Caluori

Sunday, October 20 @ 2:00 pm — 4:00 pm

Film Screening and Discussion of Left Bank: The Women Who Rescued James Joyce’s Ulysses

Thursday, October 24 @ 6:30 pm — 9:00 pm

Annual Pumpkin Walk with Storytime and Craft

Friday, October 25 @ 6:00 pm — 7:30 pm

Metabolic Syndrome During Menopause presented by Willows Wellness Corner

Saturday, October 26 @ 10:00 am — 11:00 am

Crafting a Spending Plan for Retirement with Luke Delorme

Friday, November 1 @ 2:00 pm– 3:00pm

News

Notes from the Board of Assessors, September 24, 2024 and October 7, 2024.

During the September meeting Assessor Michael Blay noted that people are curious about when the Tax Classification Hearing will occur. Blay explained that the valuation of real property including analysis of sales, must be completed by Stockbridge and certified by the Commonwealth before the tax rate can be established. Any analysis and certification must also include all the property exempt from taxes such as forest land and farmland. Only when the work is complete, submitted, reviewed and certified by the Department of Revenue (DOR) can the Tax Classification Hearing be scheduled.

As of October 9, 2024, Stockbridge’s valuations were certified by the Commonwealth. That information was sent to the SB Chair Jamie Minacci, and she will set the date.

Editor’s note: Real property is the land, everything permanently attached to the land , and the rights inherent in ownership of real estate.

News

Notes from the Agricultural and Forestry Commission, October 7, 2024, Hybrid meeting

It was a working session organizing and finalizing details for October 19 “Town Forest” Event. It will begin at 9am and continue in locations around the village. This event is sponsored by the Mass Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). This a salute and an honor to Stockbridge for its exemplary preservation work. Sites visited by attendees will include Ice Glen Old Growth Forest, Berkshire Botanical Garden, and Gould Meadows. A post-event will be tour of Laurel Hill Association in-town walking trails. Referenced will be Fenn Farm (351 acres at the northern tip of Monument Mountain). 

DCR promotes the event throughout New England, therefore, the event is at capacity and registration is closed. However, a handful of tickets have been reserved. Call Patrick White if you would like to attend; the small number of tickets will be given out on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Notes from the Berkshire Hills Regional School District — Monument Mountain Regional High School Building Committee, October 1, 2024

This was a community information session presented by the Building Committee and the architects working on plans for the new building or possible alterations to the extant building. This will represent the largest capital item in each of the three towns’ budgets (Great Barrington, West Stockbridge, and Stockbridge). SU urges everyone to follow these information sessions, ask questions, maybe take notes. We will be asked to vote on any proposal. Apparently either of the two being discussed now will be over $100,000,000 dollars. Are there other possibilities? Will we borrow the money, at what interest rate and therefore what cost per annum? How many students will it serve? And more…

In Memoriam

In Memoriam – Steffi Fletcher

Steffi Fletcher died in late September 2024 at the age of 96. She was a long-time and beloved member of the Tuesday Club of Stockbridge. She will be missed. SU offers condolences to her daughter, Kate, and the family.

Regional News

New Berkshire News

Many of our neighboring towns are adopting “The Three R’s.”

The three R’s stand for important words. They are part of sustainable living. They help cut down on the amount of waste we have to throw away. What are they? Reduce, reuse, and recycle. 

1. Reduce the amount of waste you produce.

2. Reuse items as much as you can before replacing them.

3. Recycle items wherever possible.

Using the 3 ‘R’s and help minimize the amount of space needed for landfill sites because we reduce the amount of waste material. 

Learn more in the next issue of SU.

Commentary

A Book and A Garden

A glance back: In 1934, Bernard and Irene Botsford Hoffmann donated 8� acres to establish the Berkshire Garden Center called the Berkshire Botanical Garden today. Mrs. Hoffmann was president from 1934 – 1941. In 1950, Irene wrote The Book of Herb Cookery and donated the proceeds of her book to the Garden Center. The Center was dedicated to Bernard and Irene Hoffmann in September 1950, one year after Bernard’s death. 

Bernard died in the summer of 1949 at Brookside while dressing for a concert at Tanglewood. Irene died in 1960. When her will was probated, there were endowments for the Garden Center and the Jackson Library, now the Stockbridge Library, Museum and Archives.

Called the Berkshire Botanical Garden (BBG) today, the Garden and the Library were and still remain two of Stockbridge’s greatest treasures. BBG has inspired generations of gardeners and garden lovers. And over the decades, BBG’s buildings and grounds have changed to meet the changing needs. 

The exhibit, “90 Years Young: Berkshire Botanical Garden 1934-2024,” honors its long history and the people who made BBG what it is today.

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” Cicero.

by Carole Owens

Perspective

Memories of Stockbridge

I was asked by the editor of Stockbridge Updates to write my memories of growing up and living in Stockbridge. During most of my teen years, I was at boarding school. My college years were spent at a tri-semester college in Iowa. It was in Iowa at a drive-up burger place when I changed my mind about never returning to Stockbridge. 

My roommate, Charlie Allen, asked me, “Did you hear what that guy just said on the radio?” I said I had not and he said, “This guy said, ‘Let me tell you about the town of Stockbridge Massachusetts’.”

I told him he must be mistaken. Stockbridge was nothing more than a run-down hotel only operated in the summers and a bunch of entitled grandchildren of old rich people.

I did eventually hear Arlo Guthie’s “Alice’s Restaurant.” Curious, I returned to my hometown in February 1969. I ended up working at the newly re-opening Red Lion Inn. Stockbridge was much different town from what it is today.

There are thousands of memories I have of Stockbridge during the late sixties, early seventies and eighties. As I think back, one rises to the surface first.

I was reluctantly bartending in the Lion’s Den. One evening before it became busy, off-duty Police Chief Bill Obanheim and his fellow officer Eddie Iacobucci (sp) bellied up at the bar. They ordered their standard favorite Seagram’s Crowne Royal and Seagram’s 7. 

After a while they were ready for their third drink. The phone behind the bar rang. I picked it up and assured the caller they had reached the “Lion’s Den.” 

I listened and told the caller, “Hold on.” I stretched the cord down to where Obie was sitting and handed it to him. 

He said, “This is Bill.” After a silence, he yelled, “They did what?!” He said to Eddie, “We need to go!” They downed their new drinks and left.

Now this was a time before marijuana was legal. Earlier that day Officer Obie’s son Billy had been arrested for growing weed behind a Select Woman’s house in town. What happened next is a friend of Billy’s got into the Police Station, took a shotgun, and blasted open the locked door to the one cell in the Town Jail. They both escaped and have never, to this day, been apprehended. That is the story of the one and only Stockbridge jail break.

I also urge others who grew up here to contact Carole Owens at Stockbridge Updates. I am sure their perspectives are different from mine, and their memories and stories deserve telling, if for no other reason than to give current day residents some perspective on what came before their time here.

Editor’s note: As the village grows and changes, SU is asking all of you to submit a Stockbridge story. We had something special here. It was, indeed, Stockbridge exceptionalism. While we may not be able to hold on to it, we can record it for posterity — as the saying goes.

by John Hart 

Perspective

My Pet Peeve

I arrive at Red Lion corner on my way to everywhere else twice a day every day of my life and sometimes more than twice. I have been doing it for 50 years. That’s a minimum of 36,500 times. I consider myself very familiar with that corner.

I know folks have concerns about accidents at that corner. The state does not consider it a dangerous intersection, and in 50 years, I never witnessed so much as a fender bender in that location. My observation is not scientific, but I am happy about it.

Traffic has increased and it makes it a bit tricky but there is a cure. It is painted on the pavement. Notice it? It is an egg or oval shape. It has a dual purpose. My pet peeve: stop driving over it. 

If you drive around it, its dual purpose is satisfied. One, it slows you down, and two it makes an accident far less likely. 

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line so everyone puts on their left turn signal (or not) and turns left by maintaining speed and cutting across the egg. 

Think about it: if everyone is cutting across the egg that creates multiple points of impact. If on the other hand, we never go across the egg, always go around it, keeping the egg on the driver’s left at all times, there are fewer, if any, points of impact.

Gosh, why do you think someone got down and carefully painted an egg in the middle of Red Lion corner? For us to drive over? Nope. To reduce points of impact by driving around it, and therefore, reduce the possibility of accidents. Yup.

The history of drawing lines on pavement is more than a century old. In 1917, Dr. June McCarroll came up with the idea of putting white lines in the center of roads as a safety measure. The expression, “stay in your lane” was born.

Called pavement markings, lines painted on pavement are messages to drivers. They indicate which part of the road to use, where to park or pull over, where passing is allowed and more. Yellow lines separate traffic flowing in opposite directions.

Drivers should always stay to the right of yellow lines; drivers should always stay to the left of the lines that form our Red Lion corner egg.

by Carole Owens

The Last Word

Reader to Reader

Hi Carole,

I discovered The Updates was going to my spam folder — eek!

Thank you, Terry Wise

Terry,

Thanks, I am posting your letter of discovery in the next issue so folks will get in the habit of checking spam. SU has so many subscribers now that some servers do relegate it to that folder.

Carole

Dear Dr. Owens,

All of us at Berkshire Natural Resources Council (BNRC) are deeply saddened about the passing of its founder and champion, George Wislocki. 

I’m so glad to have had the chance to get to know and learn from him in the last six years. George had an incalculably important role in creating the Berkshires we know and love. It’s impossible to imagine what our hills, forests, and fields would look like if he hadn’t been such a determined (stubborn) visionary, willing to “fight the good fight,” as past president of BNRC Tad Ames said.

Tad worked closely with George and knew him as well as anyone. He describes Geore’s legacy in a lovely essay:

On a sunny spring morning in 1991, tooling up Alford’s West Road in his red Chevy Blazer after a visit with a farmer in Egremont, George Wislocki spotted a man on a ladder, repairing the track of a fading barn’s sliding door, and slammed on the brakes.

“Ray, you SOB,” he yelled through the open passenger window.

The man grinned in recognition, dismounted slowly and sauntered around to George’s window, lighting a cigarette on the way. His eyes crinkled with intelligence and amusement above a bushy mustache.

“Be a good boy and give me one of those, would you, my friend?” George asked. Ray cackled, tapped a Marlboro out, and lit it for George.

“What’s new with you, George?” he asked.

“Fighting the good fight, babes,” George said.

People come to the Berkshires for culture and nature, and it is thanks in large part to George that we are surrounded by nature — our green forests, fields, and wetlands — which provide a home for our wildlife and a sanctuary for us humans. The Berkshires wouldn’t be the Berkshires without his great gifts and tireless work. 

Jenny Hansell, President, BNRC

To the Readers

To the Readers: A Permanent Flag in the Cemetery — A Summary

In the last two weeks, by phone, email, at events, and of course, this is Stockbridge! at the post office, folks have brought up this issue of a permanent flag in the cemetery. SU takes no position on the issue. However, we do strongly support open discussion — every person stating his or her preference in an open meeting. The meeting is October 22, 2024, in the Town Offices and via Zoom; it is generally a morning meeting; the exact time will be listed under Cemetery Commission on the Stockbridge web site. To aid the discussion, here is a summary of the ideas and opinions we heard. 

Background

Some folks like to base their decisions on history and tradition. So here is some background. In Europe, the French do tend to fly permanent flags in their cemeteries, but it is rarely done in England. Originally, ours was a British cemetery and Stockbridge was a British colony. There was no permanent flag in our cemetery. 

After the Revolutionary War, when patriotism to the new country presumably ran high, our cemetery was 50 years old. It held graves of men who fought and died in the Revolutionary war. Presumably that would be the moment to raise the new flag, but still no permanent flag was placed.

Here and Now

Others feel that regardless of what was done before, the question has been raised here and now. They ask, “do we want a permanent flag in our cemetery today?”

So, if we look around the country, what is happening now with respect to permanent flags? How many cemeteries have permanent American flags in them — very few. Predominantly, permanent flags are in national cemeteries. There are 155 national cemeteries in the USA. All routinely display miniature American flags on special days such as Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day, but few of the 155 have a permanently installed flag. Why is that? 

Summary of Different Points of View

For some there is only one right decision, and it is obvious. For others, it is more complex. There are variables ripe for discussion. 

Those who support the installation of a permanent flag in Stockbridge cemetery feel it is respectful to our veterans. Supporters want to honor the veterans and those who gave their lives for this country. They tell us there are hundreds of veterans’ graves in Stockbridge cemetery. They want to make the respect they feel for those men and women manifest.

Most cemeteries place miniature flags at grave sites on special days such as Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day. There are those who prefer that. They feel it is a more festive display made more important by being restricted to special days. The act of placing all those flags becomes a community event that binds the living and greatly honors the dead.

Folks who support the permanent flag believe it signals our village’s allegiance to the flag and all it represents. 

Those who oppose it fear a permanent flag could be “place and forget.” Moreover, they are very concerned about the condition of a permanent flag over time. Everyone wants our flag to fly proudly and appear to be an object of respect and that means always to be in good condition. A flag flying outdoors all the time requires constant replacement.

Those who support the placement of the permanent flag say it is an act of patriotism. 

The largest number of miniature flags placed in a single cemetery is 250,000 – placed at Riverside National Cemetery in California. It was heralded as a great community event. Similar events occurred across the country creating a chain of solemn events that were moving and patriotic. 

Those who support the permanent flag believe their arguments are strong. For them, it is the “obvious choice” and represents the “right thing to do.” 

Others remember when the flag of the Mohican nation was installed at the Mission House, many thought both the Mohican and the American flags should fly there. Similarly, there are those who feel if the American flag is installed at the cemetery, there are other flags that should fly alongside. They suggest the MIA flag, Gay Pride, and the Mohican nation. They do not see a simple question but one that will open the door to ongoing conflict.

These are all good guys with good arguments. The important thing is that we openly and respectfully discuss it. That we give all points of view the mike. In that way we work toward the best decision.