Another View of Worcester's Winter Hill Farm

Update December 9, 2019

-- Views of Winter Hill Farm

My memoir, "Worcester's Winter Hill Farm," tells the story of growing up in Worcester in the late 1950s and early 1960s on a farm property that featured horses, sheep, chickens, hayfields and a fun place to grow up.

This photograph is a composite of two pictures taken directly in front of the house at 92 West Chester Street. As of today, the house is still there, but the giant tree and the barn are gone. A house replaced the barn many years after we moved away.

-- Book Cover Photograph

Lily, Marna, and Paige

View from the "lower" driveway

The cover photograph on the memoir is a different angle, which features the side of the house and the prominent "back" staircase. It was this door that we used to go in and out of the house. The front door was only a place to let the mail carrier drop off letters. My sister, Eljay, is the custodian of these photos. She has others as well. 

In this photo, Lily, Marna, and Paige pose with a copy of the book. I dedicated the book to Lily, Paige, and my other niece, Jean Nicole. The three of them are the children of my siblings that grew up on the farm. Some of the stories told in the book may help them understand their parents as well as me. 

You can read more about the memoir on my other blog. Visit:

The Books of Richard F. Wright

You can buy the book on Barnes & Noble or on Amazon.com. 

Babysitting, Book Buying, Leaf Peeping, Shopping, and Lunch Out

Update - October 21 – October 27

-- Paige Visits to Help with Baby Olive

Paige Wright

My niece Paige has no college classes on Tuesday, so she asked if she could come over to the house each Tuesday to help care for Lucy and Olive. Patti and I agreed that it was a good idea and have encouraged her to come any time she wants. This Tuesday, Paige stopped by and immediately began helping with feeding, bathing, and rocking Olive to sleep. She also spent some quality time with Lucy including some effort guiding Lucy with coloring within the lines.

As Patti has spent over 40 years in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at UMass Memorial Hospital, she has the ideal technique for instructing anyone who wants to know how to care for an infant. In a mere moment, she can make any fussing or squirming by Olive turn into smiles and gurgles. Changing diapers, preparing formula for the bottle, and proper cradling for feeding are made easy for all. Paige has a light college schedule right now, so she has the time to visit and spend time with Lucy and Baby Olive. I know she enjoys it and it's always helpful to have additional hands around when one baby wants to sleep and the other wants to be outside trying out the bicycle. 

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READ my Blog "The Books of Richard F Wright" (Books, Bookstores, Writing)
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-- A Visit to Gale Library Book Cellar Yields New Treasures

Anything Named Olive Must be Great

Lucy has a large appetite for books, as I do, so I try to add one or more to her collection each week. At the public library bookshop, I can buy children’s books for 50 cents apiece; sometimes less. So, I keep my eye open for anything I think Lucy will like. This trip found two books; one was the Bunny Rabbit’s Assistant and the other was Olive and the Embarrassing Gift. I could not resist a book with “Olive” in the title. I read it and decided it was a fun story with a good life lesson, so I picked it up.

I also bought several other books for my own reading: Bridge of Spies by Giles Whittell; The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick; Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky; The New Russians by Hedrick Smith; The Yom Kippur War, edited by Moshe Davis; and Jerusalem by Karen Armstrong. My total investment, including the children’s books, was $12.

-- Learning About the Wachusett Reservoir

Patti and Old Stone Church

Patti had Friday off, so we decided to make a run to BJ’s Wholesale Club where we could find things in boxes and bags big enough for someone running a restaurant, or for our household lately. Why buy 10 rolls of paper towels when you can buy 24? I guess I’m still low on the learning curve as far as the value in bulk buying for a mostly retired couple.

As part of the run to the wholesale club, we included a stop for some further leaf-peeping and photo-taking. We stopped at the Wachusett Reservoir near the Old Stone Church to get some shots. I also took the time to read about the newly completed irrigation and run-off system installed around the reservoir to cut down on pollutants draining off into the reservoir. The whole concept and design were impressive and I’m glad to see that it was done in a manner that allows it to be instructional for visitors to better understand how the reservoir is being protected.

-- Lunch in Shrewsbury at Burton’s Grill and Bar

Lunch at Burton's

I was in the mood for fish tacos and Patti was hungry but didn’t know what she wanted. So, Burton’s Grill and Bar was a good choice. They have a big menu, so I knew Patti would find something she liked. It turned out to be the Mediterranean Chicken Risotto and I got the “street” tacos. Very good. She got some exotic drink and I got a glass of wine. We agreed we liked the service, the atmosphere, and the food, so it was a good visit. Burton's is in the complex of residences, businesses and retail services that took over space where Spag's used to be. It's sad that Spag's is gone, but I'm happy to see the area upgraded this way. 

-- Bonus Visit from Olive and Lucy on the Weekend

Lucy and Paige; Artists

Olive Helen Perras

Corinne had an appointment for Saturday afternoon, so, even though Patti had to work, I agreed to take both granddaughters for the afternoon. Paige volunteered to help, so she came over in the afternoon. It was a fun day for everyone. When Baby Olive arrived, she was at the peak of interest in being fed. So, I took charge of giving her a bottle feeding while simultaneously pulling out the potty seat for Lucy to take into the privacy of the guest bathroom. I literally had my hands full; first with a squirming, hungry infant, and second with a squirming, desperate, four-year-old looking for some relief.

Paige, Lucy, Lilly, Marna, Olive

Things settled down when Paige arrived so that between us we could keep everyone occupied. Lucy really enjoyed the attention she got from Paige when it was time to draw. Together, they worked at the table creating various bits of artwork to share with everyone.

When Paige was dropped off, her sister Lily and her Mother, Marna, stopped in for a while to visit with Olive. Lucy requested that everyone pose for a photo - with her in the middle (naturally). So the photo is included here so that she knows her Papa will comply with reasonable requests.

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Reading Update: I picked up "A Safe Haven" by Allis and Ronal Radosh quite a while back at Yes Books, a used bookshop, in Portland, Maine, but only just got around to reading it. I have always been struck by the fact Harry Truman was President when I was born and as the years have gone by I have come to realize he was actually a very good President. This book deals with the issue of how Truman coped with the pressures on him, the country, and the world as the Jews tried to establish a homeland in what has become Israel.

Despite a lot of promises made by many over the years, it was to finally land on Truman's desk to make the final push that allowed Israel to join the family of nations. The book reads like a fast-paced novel with intrigue, deception, bitter conflict, and recriminations that if it wasn't all true would seem like preposterous myth-making. It's no myth, Truman made the choices at the time that went against political expediency and international trauma, to finally help Jews around the world find a "safe haven."

Life in Jefferson - Grads and Appalachian Trail

UPDATE - August 5, to August 11, 2018

Paige - Starring in Guy and Dolls

My brother's twin daughter's, Lily and Paige, have graduated from high school and are beginning their college days. There have been a few celebrations so far, and a final one was held at their home on Sunday. I arrived early and got a few minutes to chat with the girls, which is a good thing because as the day went along and the crowd swelled, there wasn't much luck in getting face time with the girls. Between family and lots of friends, the house was overrun. It's a good thing they had a large backyard and a deck to accommodate the overflow.

Paige has been accepted to Anna Maria College and has asked for and received permission to delay entry for a year. She will take some college courses in the meantime, but didn't feel up to starting just yet on a full-time basis. Lily was accepted at several schools but elected to go to my Alma Mater, UMass-Amherst, where she will enter as a Commonwealth Honors Program participant. She's majoring in music appreciation and perhaps has intentions to teach music some day.

Lily ready for Prom

Both of these young women seem content with their choices for schools and plans for the future. I recall as a high school graduate that I wasn't sure going to college would be right for me, so I joined the Air Force instead. As it turned out, going into the military for four years was a benefit to me when I elected to go to college after my hitch. I was able to focus on the academics and it turned out just fine. Because the schools are both close to the family home in Worcester, it means I will be able to see them more frequently than if they accepted enrollment at far-away schools.

On Monday, Patti wanted to do some shopping in anticipation of the new granddaughter arriving next week. We went from shop to shop and apparently just looking at the baby items was enough for Patti as we didn't really buy anything. When we found ourselves near Corrinne's office in Westborough, we called and convinced her to let us buy her lunch at  Not Your Average Joe's. We like the restaurant and we know she likes it too. She met us there and we had a good time talking about plans for the new arrival. The name hadn't been settled on yet, but Olive was a front-runner from what I could determine. I like the name Olive and I hope it's the one everyone settles on. We'll see.

-- If it's Tuesday - It's Lucy Day

Tuesday rolled in hot and heavy. The humidity was high and it looked like a difficult day to try any outdoor activities with Lucy. She arrived and was immediately ready to have fun. We spent the day building "castles" out of pillows on the couch in the playroom downstairs; playing hide and seek, with a suitable amount of screaming and laughing when one of us was "caught"; and a balance of reading books and watching Peppa Pig on TV.

-- If it's Wednesday - Let's do what we planned for Thursday

Closed on Wednesdays

On Wednesday, about mid-morning, I got a call from my brother, who was hiking along the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut. We had planned that on "Thursday," I would meet him in Falls Village, Connecticut, to pick him up from his current trail hike. But, as he moved more quickly along the trail, he was going to hit Falls Village a day early. He called to see if I could come today, instead of tomorrow? That was no problem, as I had cleared both days in case it was necessary to make the pickup.

So, off I went down the Mass Pike all the way to Exit 2 and then down Route 7 into Connecticut. Falls Village is off the beaten path, but it was easier to find than Mt. Washington, Mass., (the town in Mass., not the mountain in NH), which is the most recent place I picked up Steve from the trail. Unfortunately, the little rest stop, Toymaker Cafe, in Falls Village was closed on Wednesday, so we didn't get to sip some tea or get a sandwich. We just hustled back past Sheffield into Great Barrington where we stopped to get a Big Mac and a Fish Sandwich at you know where.

-- Tacos and Margheritas in Auburn

The Jeep is towed behind the bus.

I was able to devote Thursday to working on my film project and my editing. Patti worked and it gave me some free time to make some progress on my various projects. On Friday, we visited with Jim and Joyce in their motor home in Auburn. This large rolling homestead is brand new. They had it built, with custom features after having lived with a previous unit for a few years. This bus is enormous and when I sit inside of it, it's hard to imagine that it can just roll out the driveway and down the street. But, to listen to both of them, it's quite easy to drive and to maneuver.

Patti was in the pool before we got to the Motor Home.

Joyce had prepared a taco lunch for us and Jim made his famous Margueritas, which complemented the tacos perfectly. Joyce shared her recipe, so we will try it ourselves when I get a chance. It was a very hot day and the pool was a real treat. Patti spent quite a bit of time floating around, keeping cool, while I hid in the shade.

Reading Update: Keeping up with the recent theme of books that I have been reading by

and about Charles Lindbergh, I enjoyed Anne Lindbergh's autobiographical book, Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead, which consisted of the diary and letters she wrote between 1929 and 1931. This was the period when she met, married, and suffered the murder of her first child, with Charles Lindbergh. She was a true companion with Lindbergh, becoming a pilot, a radio operator, an explorer, and a supporter of his evolving role in aviation and in issues affecting the country and the world. She was a remarkable woman.