vividreports: Trip to Shutesbury

Here we are at Katie and Savanna's, with Brendon. K&S are in the Bershires enjoying a little time for themselves. We left home at about 12:30p.m. and went to Grandma Miller's Bakery for Morning-glory Muffins, and then came to Shutesbury from there; but we came a different way. We came down Rte. 100 through Wardsboro, past Mount Snow Ski Area, West Dover, Wilmington, Jacksonville, down into Colrain, MA and on to Greenfield, and from there down our usual way I-91 to Deerfield and on to Shutesbury. We got here about 15 minutes before Brendon got off the school bus! Whew! It was a lovely fall day (again!) for a drive. Here are some shots (in no particular order):

Colrain, Massachusetts

Jacksoville, VT

Stopped for road work

Looking out the window while we were stopped - nice!

Back home- view from our deck

Ferns on the hill beside our house

Looking down our deck

Mount Snow

Near Mount Snow

Betsey's Dots of Dover (where we ate last Wednesday with Mary Anderson-Nissen and Anne Janeway) After we arrived I got onto WiFi and somehow I found myself looking at archival materials I had never seen before about where I used to live in Minneapolis, MN. There is an amazing directory of all the people in my "Como" neighborhood from 1936 - I can find the name, address and occupation of everyone who lived on our street, kids i went to school with, people in my dad's church. It's incredible. I learned that the Como Congregational Church building is now empty - it had ceased to be a CongregationalChurch in 1985. It became an Evangelical Free Church, and they incorporated a Museum of Armor (!!) and that's what was there when Ellen and I visited in 2008 on a trip with Brendon and Rachael Costello, but that's all gone. A neighborhood group applied for Historic Site status for the building (to preserve it), but it was denied. The building didn't satisfy any of the seven criteria. So now it is at risk to be torn down or radically modified for condos or something like that. Sad. Here is a list of ministers at Como Church: Rev. Americus Fuller …………….1882 – 1884 Rev. E.L. Morse ……………………………1885 Rev. H.W. Gleason ………………1885 – 1888 Rev. George W. Paddock ……….1888 – 1892 Rev. John Stemen ………………..1892 – 1898 Rev. Jay M. Hulbert ………………1899 – 1905 Dr. Hobart K. Painter ……………..1905 – 1914 Rev. Bertram Willoughby ………...1914 – 1917 Dr. Earnest Peatfield ……………..1918 – 1922 Rev. John Samuel ………………...1922 – 1925 Rev. W. Miller ………………………………1926 Rev. C.J. Schaufuss ………………1927 – 1931 Dr. Conger ………………………………….1931 Dr. George Drew …………………..1932 – 1936* Rev. Barney Crockett …………….1935 – 1941 **** Dr. John Powell ……………………1941 – 1944 Rev. Neil Swanson ………………..1945 – 1946 Rev. Ralph Askew ……………...…1946 – 1948 Rev. Clayton Stowe ……………….1948 – 1951 Rev. Russell Dierdorff …………….1951 – 1961 Rev. Einar Martinson ……………...1961 – 1965 Rev. E.R. Spalding ………………...1966 – 1969 Rev. Gregor Kutz …………………..1969 – 1972 Rev. Ralph Jackman ………………1972 – Dad is 1935-1941. George Drew (before Dad) was a seminary clasmate of dad's and I think he brought the church to dad's attention. John Powell, who followed dad, was (I think), the husband of one of my Junior High teachers at Marshall High. Neil Swanson is a familiar name. but I'm not sure why. None of the other names are familiar. Here is what the church looks like today:

Former Como Avenue Congregational Church. Now empty. We lived for a time in the house next to the church. But then we bought a house on 13th Ave. - the George Ioset house, and this is what it looks like today: