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WARE TO
WARE – SEPTEMBER 2011
Tuesday 30th August
saw Carole and I meet up with the Newman's and Meischke's at
Heathrow for an uneventful trip to Boston’s Logan airport.
Carole and I picked up a taxi for the 15 minute drive to our
hotel in central Boston and met up with the Watton four for a
late dinner before our first night’s sleep on American soil.
Wednesday 31st August
was a beautiful sunny day and saw the Watton contingent set off
for a tour of Cape Cod. Carole and I spent the day sightseeing
in Boston following the freedom trail, enjoying the public
gardens and Boston Common and especially Quincy Market which is
a vibrant regenerated former vegetable market which now houses
stalls and shops of every kind and variety and in particular an
indoor arcade approximately 100yds long lined on either side by
every variety of take‑out food that you can imagine from
chocolates to sushi.
Wednesday was transfer day to our
hotel at Sturbridge which is about 30 minutes from Ware,
Massachusetts. We duly picked up our hire car and after an
uneventful journey met up with the Watton four for an
exploratory recce around Ware. For the evening we were
expecting to be met by the Ware, Mass, Rotarians at the hotel
but unbeknown to us our esteemed president had agreed to a
change in the arrangements after we had left for America! We
therefore spent the evening trying to contact the local
Rotarians completely without success and in true Rotarian
fashion had not exchanged any phone numbers with anyone on
either side – which goes to emphasise something that I often say
‘things happen despite Rotarians and not because of them’.
Returning to our hotel after a very pleasant but late dinner, we
had messages from Lew and Co saying that they would be picking
us up the following morning, Friday 2nd, for our trip
and tour of the State House in Boston.
Having met up the customary half
to one hour late and ironed out any difficulties that could have
arisen from the previous evening’s mix-up, we quickly made
friends and set off for the hour or so journey into Boston.
We were met at the State House by Todd Smola who is one of the
two Ware representatives who took us on a two hour tour of the
building including the legislative chambers and kept us very
well informed about the history and current goings on of that
building and its residents. He was an extremely friendly and
informative young man and could not have made us feel more
welcome. A short walk on part of the Boston Freedom Trail led
us to the Quincy Market area where lunch was enjoyed by all in
its various forms from hot dogs to chicken teriyaki. There was
an intention to ride on a ‘duck’ – the amphibious vehicles that
throng Boston’s streets, but it was realised by some of our
American friends that it was the start of a bank holiday weekend
and if we were to arrive for the lobster bake on time we needed
to get away from Boston pretty sharply.
Lake Wickaboag Boat Club was the
venue for the evening lobster bake where Butch Moran, the
current Ware President (in his third term) is a member. Joe
Ferrantino had stepped into the breach as cook together with
Kathy, Gail and other Rotary helpers. Most of us enjoyed the
challenge of attacking a whole lobster but I will never forget
Denise’s face when she was confronted by hers! I am not sure
who was more alarmed. As always the beer and wine ran freely and
it was a wonderful location overlooking the ‘pond’ watching the
sun go down with such delightful company.
Saturday was a meeting at Joe
Ferrantino’s lakeside home for a local tour of the Quabbin
Reservoir which supplies Boston some 60 miles away purely on a
gravity feed. The tour was followed by a visit to a trout
hatchery and a short DVD at the visitor centre explaining how
the area had been flooded and what had happened to the
inhabitants. The highlight of Sue Meischke’s visit followed
with a visit to Yankee Candle (she had talked about nothing else
since landing!). This is a massive store devoted almost
exclusively to the Yankee candle and derivatives thereof, even
set up with a Christmas room with fake snow falling from the
ceiling. As often happens with these trips, we ran out of time
and dropped the idea of a trip to the Three County Fair and
instead went straight to dinner at Zoe’s, a fish restaurant in
Hadley where all 19 of us enjoyed dinner together.
Sunday 4th September
was the big day. The day of the Parade to commemorate Ware
Massachusetts 250 years of existence. Their town has a
population of approx, half of Ware UK but covers a considerably
larger area as they include all of the rural bits as part of
Ware town. Not unusually, the timed start of the parade varied
between 11.30 and 1.00 o’clock depending on who was providing
the information but having assembled at Lew’s house we were at
the collection point in very good time to inspect the
wonderfully created Ware Rotary float with its bridge spanning
the continents and several others that were to take part in the
parade. There were over 100 contributors from floats to pipe
bands to college cheerleaders to motorcycle display teams, etc.
etc. Seeing that we had a long wait before the start of the
procession, a local resident quickly realised that we were
visitors from afar and invited us to his house for
refreshments. A very pleasant hour or so was spent in their
company. A terrific example of the hospitality that we received
everywhere we went. In very hot and humid conditions the parade
finally started at about 1.15 and lasted approximately an hour
and a half walking or two and a half hours for the entire
precession to cover the route. Once under way Mike Tucker
approached the event as an election campaign and must have
shaken every hand and kissed every baby on his side of the
route. There were very few left wondering who these strange
people were carrying union flags and supporting their local
Rotary club.
Having been put to shame by Mike,
Reg Newman and I soon joined in with the hand‑shaking telling
everyone that we were from Ware, England, simply visiting their
local Rotary club to support the town’s 250th
birthday. Reg targeted the little kids and it is to be hoped
that he didn’t leave too many traumatised with his accent! We
were welcomed by all and thanked for attending and a number of
people in the audience stated that their youngsters had
benefited from an exchange to our club in the past.
It was an exhausting yet very
rewarding event. It was a real privilege to support Ware, Mass,
Rotary Club and their town on such a prestigious occasion
although it was pointed out to them that 250 years was mere
chicken feed.
Once the parade was over people
returned to their hosts for some R&R and the Sturbridge six
together with Kathy, Gail, etc, went off to the town barbecue to
celebrate the end of the event with a country and western band
playing, hot dogs, burgers and cakes available together with
plenty of beer and a very good time was had by all and
especially by John Meischke with his new friend DiDi. The
photograph gives a hint of the fun that occurred and DiDi’s
boyfriend summed it up by shrugging his shoulders and simply
saying “she’s from Oklahoma”. Apparently as an American that
explains everything! It later transpired that DiDi is the local
stripper.
Monday was golf day at the
Orchards for Molly, Mike, the Versey's and myself together with
Lew and the Ferrantino's and Sturbridge village for everyone else
– Sturbridge being comparable to our own Beamish and other
villages set approximately 100 years ago. Pizza and beer ended
the day with massive pizzas served up at a restaurant named
after Joe Ferrantino where white wine came out pink and great
fun was had by all.
Tuesday was the day of the Rotary
meeting. Unfortunately the remainder of the Sturbridge six had
commitments elsewhere as they were on their way to New Orleans
to visit the GSE team. Carole and I had some free time in the
morning before arriving at Ware for the TV interview in the
afternoon. Needless to say this was running approximately an
hour late! However, the interview finally took place with Lew
firing the questions at President Jenny, Mike Tucker and myself
for approximately 45 minutes both about our town of Ware and
also our impressions of Ware, Mass. By all accounts from the
critical audience of Carole and local Rotarians Phil and Joe we
did pretty well although we are yet to see the DVD.
The Rotary meeting itself was
timed for 6.30 at the Salem Cross Restaurant. Several of us
assembled at Lew’s following the TV interview where as usual the
hospitality was lavish and Nina’s margueritas went down a treat.
About half an hour before the meeting was due to start Lew
remembered that he was going to help Carole and I book a hotel
in Cape Cod on line but despite computers going in two rooms and
various phone calls this did not prove possible and we were only
20 minutes or so ‘late’ for the meeting.
Ware, Mass, Rotary is much less
formal in its gatherings than we are and unfortunately only
seven of their twelve members were able to attend. However,
their happy dollar and sad dollar news is great fun and the
formal presentation of a plaque from their SelectMen Chairman
Nancy Talbot to President Jenny was a highlight of the evening.
We could not have been made more welcome. It was a terrific
experience and it is to be hoped that we have the opportunity of
returning the hospitality very soon.
Wednesday morning saw us all move
on to various destinations with wonderful memories of the
hospitality received, the friendships made and renewed and a
sense of pride in being part of their history.
Alan T.
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