Plymouth to South Hadley, Massachusestts

Friday, October 30, 2009

In the breakfast room I had the first nasty encounter on this trip while making my version of waffles (psyllium and walnuts added to the commercial batter). The owner came flying out from the kitchen full of anger telling me that I could not put sugar in the waffle. I explained what I was doing but he was fuming saying that I was ruining his waffle iron. I told him that I had been doing this across the whole country and it had not caused any problems. It was not what he said but the anger that got to me.

Before leaving we had to find the post office to send a Thanksgiving book to Dylan. Then we checked out a health food store for this Yerba Mate tea which I had outside Yellowstone. They had many kinds and the one I bought did not taste at all like the one I had before. But we found Kefir which we had not seen since Pam brought some from Trader Joe's before we left. This store and the bakery around the corner was run by Twelve Tribes - Brand New Culture - The commonwealth of Israel. They lived together and worked together and closed all business on Friday evening through Saturday. I asked if they were Jewish but she denied that. Have never heard of them. But they bake wonderful bread.

One more thing - the huge National Monument to the Forefathers built in 1889 by Hammatt Billings - the largest granite monument (81 ft high) in the US. The woman on top is Faith. She is standing with one foot on Plymouth Rock and her finger points heavenwards. Lightening has hit her finger. The woman in the Visitor Center said that she is standing in the same position as the Statue of Liberty. So she was a copy of Faith. Who knows?

Now we were on our way to Worcester to see Carl Milles' statues. In the Art Museum, the young man found out where the one statue was - called Man Riding Fish. The other one was in storage. We found it. Click on the picture of the description of the statue. According to my Swedish American book there was supposed to be one more statue outside a factory where a lot of Swedes used to work. It was called Norton and manufactured abrasives, etc. In 1914 75% of the workers were of Swedish extraction. The company built single-family houses for its employees, which it sold for $l,500. President Theodore Roosevelt was present at the dedication of the first houses.

We set Luna to the address the nice young man in the museum had found for me. Somehow, we ended up in a hardware store! I was surprised and asked the man, if there used to be a factory making abrasives there. "No, not for the last 45 years", he answered. But he knew what I was talking about. He said the hills around there were full of Swedes and they had their club meeting just over the hill there. He gave us directions to the statue and we found it. It was an eagle as a Veterans Memorial and the platform was falling apart. The whole area was quite run down. I got my picture and we were on our way to South Hadley.

It was so nice to see Bettina again. We did meet in Stockholm last year for an evening but we do not see each other often. I have know her since she was 12, when her mother Betty Bergmann helped me get a visa and let me stay with them for a month. We really did not know Michael much before. They were very gracious to invite us to their wonderful, historic house. The original house was built in the 1700's. The stairs going upstairs were very narrow and the hallway upstairs. We had a lovely bedroom full of books.

Bettina and Michael cooked us a nice dinner and we had a good time together. Bettina
had arrived from teaching on a cruise visiting Greece, Turkey, Syria, and Egypt just a few days earlier. She had then taught at Harvard for a couple of days before driving to S. Hadley and cooking for us! She is a tough cookie!