Tuesday
09Mar2010

Manchester, NH: City of the Dead?

As I am reminded nearly daily these days, the Census is being held this year. But my problem with the Census is that it will only collect data on a portion of the Manchester, NH, population. The Census will pay no heed to one quite populous set of folks who have called Manchester, NH, home for decades, and in some cases, centuries, including these subterranean South Willow Street residents:

I speak, of course, of the city's dead, who number, conservatively, in the tens of thousands.

"As we don't have accurate records in some of the smaller satellite cemeteries, it's hard to say how many people are buried in all of them but Pine Grove Cemetery has 40,055," said Chuck DePrima, Director of the City of Manchester Parks, Recreation and Cemetery Department.

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Tuesday
02Mar2010

The rotaries, roundabouts and traffic circles of Manchester, NH

When people ask me, as they often do this time of year, why I left my native South for New England, I'm tempted to tell them I did it for the region's abundance of roundabouts and rotaries.

Okay, maybe that wasn't the main reason, but that's not to say I don't love me some circular intersections. And with the exception of the roundabout near Mississippi's Jackson-Evers International Airport, such intersections are sadly lacking in Dixie.

But here in New England they are quite plentiful. Manchester, NH, has two of these intersections, my favorite being the Massabesic Traffic Circle, around which I can't resist making at least two laps each time I have the excuse to go anywhere near the eastern edge of the city.

My wife just rolls her eyes whenever she's with me, but it's just too much fun:

 

The city's other circular intersection, of course, is the much larger Amoskeag Rotary, only a small portion of which will fit in a picture:

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Tuesday
23Feb2010

Practicing the Scout Law in Manchester, NH

Across the country this year, scouts past and present will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.

After being in existence nationally for a mere two years, Scouting came to Manchester, NH, in 1912, when the local YMCA chartered two troops. By 1920, when the Manchester Council was formally presented with its charter, the city boasted 10 troops containing 256 scouts.

And 90 years later, Scouting in Manchester, NH, is still going strong. According to Greg Osborn, Massabesic District Director for the Daniel Webster Council (which covers most of New Hampshire, including Manchester), the local Scout program currently serves 757 city youth with the assistance of nearly 300 adult volunteers. The breakdown is as follows:

After a 15-year absence from the Boy Scouts of America, I was brought back into the scouting fold myself several months ago when I organized Manchester, NH’s newest Cub Scout pack to serve the elementary school-age boys living in the affordable apartments owned by the local nonprofit for which I work.

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Tuesday
16Feb2010

Beware the snows of Manchester, NH

On snowy Manchester, NH, days like this one, I always feel bad for the late Edmund Muskie.

A U.S. Senator from Maine, Muskie was the front runner for the 1972 Democratic Presidential nomination. He was also hated by William Loeb, the über-conservative former owner of what was then known as the Manchester Union Leader.

Loeb, whom Hunter S. Thompson referred to as a “neo-Nazi” in his tome Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 — which is perhaps the best political campaign reporting, ever — is alleged to have had a hand in forging and then publishing what is known as the “Canuck letter” during the 1972 Primary. Printed on the paper’s op-ed page, this letter to the editor “claimed that Muskie had made disparaging remarks about French-Canadians” — a group that at the time made up about 40 percent of the population of Manchester, NH.

After the publication of this letter, the paper then attacked the character of Muskie’s wife Jane, alleging that she drank, used off-color language and told dirty jokes on the campaign. It was this latter incident that really set Muskie off.

In what is charitably referred to as an “emotional” speech, Muskie laid into Loeb on Saturday, Feb. 27, 1972, calling him a “gutless coward,” while standing atop a flatbed trailer parked in front of the Union Leader’s former Amherst Street location. Today, the building is home to Manchester District Court:

 

Writing in the Washington Post, David Broder reported that during the speech Muskie “broke down three times in as many minutes,” while the Boston Globe’s reporter noted that the candidate wept “silently.” For his part, Muskie said he did not, in fact, cry. What appeared to be tears, he said, were snowflakes melting on his cheeks, which were flush with anger:

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Friday
05Feb2010

Renting cupcake carrying cases in Manchester, NH

Ever winter, without fail, the end of my driveway becomes a sheet of ice. Thanks to a slight dip where the driveway meets the road, the ice here sometimes gets to be a couple of inches thick.

To break up this ice, I usually hit up my boss – a Mainer – once a season for use of his ice chisel:

 

After borrowing the chisel a couple of times now, I feel guilty asking for it again. I don’t want to be a freeloader. But I also have no interest in buying something I only use once a year, even if I could get one for $35 or so. It just seems wasteful.

That’s why I’m intrigued about new web platforms like Rentalic that enable neighbors to rent seldom-used items from another, items ranging from ice chisels to cupcake carrying cases. I would love to see such a service here in Manchester, N.H.

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