NEW ENGLAND r5

ieweled pin in
her.nostril, wearing a floor-length skirt' sweeps
explode out of an office and'
-..,rrnd one corner Just as two dogs
i:fi"J-;;, burg through the side door toward the river. The
ir*Jr .f thump, clang, and grind fill the air with a resonance
trr
.-.

.FI
inu,
"'iurt
t""-t to belong to the Past' heap,ed on shelves' where work-
",,
"rffil;ii;;"i;;i
of gray -"tul pu'i' ut"
what thev need' andhave at them with grinding
sparkles' Down the line' a
*frJ"It tni.wing off o'utgl streams of
;;;;;;" witir a ponv lail spravs black paint at a finished as-
controls are attached' In a side
NEW ENGLAND ##ir;;. *tri.f'r
"i&el-plaied
room, artists are making wooden
m.odels of proposed new prod-
molds that
;.;r,^';hi.h will be con"verted to aluminum master
into iron'
- then be translated
will
of metal on metal' in a space, no larger
a*.V f-m the noise
th;;g;od-rit"a living room, a bank of perhaps a dozen tele-
them fash-
;;;.;L;.les has been"set up, the partitions between no attempt having
i;;"ii*r_Uv fours that aie still exposed, a large bag
been made to cosmeticize them' A box of apples and
Eesr or rnr GxBEN MouurarNs' under
a bridge that carries the
over the Third of doughnuts sit near a beat-up wood-burning stove at the.center
main street of the t"*" "r Randolph, Vermont' of the room. It is throwing oui strong heat' The conversations
of
iJ*t ft of the White River, lies a small mill'coRPoRArroN fading on
its the folk on the long-distaice lines aie of chimneys, drafts, ther-
-"tigntRouNDY
With the words sARGENT mostats, combustion efficiency, and dampers'
seem to be abandoned' There
are
smokestack, the plale of whose in- But the conversation always comes back to wood' For this is
land' much
many deserted f..t;;;tl;this b"autiful from a dis- the headquarters of one of the biggest employers in central Ver-
But even
dustry has seen hard times for a century ' mont, and certainly the fastest-growing' It's Vermont Castings'
hairpin turn that leads from the makers of arguably the finest air-tight cast-iron wood stoves in
tance, walking ao*n the steep'
bridge to the ,i""r',';i;;,;;;";; tti"tt that the place' though North Americi. In less than five years, Vermont Castings has gone
'"" from nothing but one impoverished yet curious tinkerer freezing
ramshackle, is not emPty'
fifteen-foot-long logs'
In the yard are g*.iti"tts of twelve- and of- irregularly
his butt off, trying to figure out how to stay warm, to an opera-
piles of three-foot-wid" tt""-"t"t 'ottJt' heaps ftt"y suggest tion employing hundredi, selling more than fifty thousand stoves
firewood'
shaped slabs, and cords of tarp-covered and' indeed' the
a year at prices that can approach $6oo apiece. The White House,
that the place has been made into a rn order to demonstrate iti commitment to energy independence,
'u*-ltt'
But those sounds turn
out
distant whine .ipJu*' ;;; b" heard'
bought six.
are
"f felled trees. The tools
to have nothing ,.;; Jr;iiv- *i,r"r the
In, its
ttt" ora *iii- to increase the
size ^trading, display of such Yankee virtues as ingenuity and shrewd
a"a i.t its ability to take the liabilit! of Vlrmont's cold
actually being
* "."i;;;;^"i are I1t"It and depend"n.. tn imported h"uting oil and turn it into
bui I di nc' tqe wild ows
tilh""T""til.uv i., g, shin gl e- cov eredi"t;i;;; poke's through
an lj.ltkJi"g
contradictions
asset, Vermont Casiings is a fascirating display of the
covered with plastic; pink frber-glass
that make New Enlland so distincdy on" oi North
u"telv under
occasional hot. in iit! *all; th"-
*"ti;;;l"iti"
."irll"rl. invigorating if
one
kind of purposeful chaos rhar can be swirling
g"a it maddeni";;;J itt" &o*a
is young enough toi'i" a girl with
a
through tt" ...-i"J;;;;'; i' d"fr;?;i;t"""e'
 .,Krffi
N;lil:::1*,-,-"" o*hose n""n'i
'!,iI{,'"*3,s,s,,ine
lru," o, *^*#":{:x.ff::]":

ffi
;:[::tm*nl:tm*gland is unusual ?,,, ,1,, continent in 3;*,,"' . ,, northern New Brunswick,
which' with its

H,m::*;"i:;:r*n:,,rl*H-il#'i:{Jli**i:*',m* tn-","ltti;"rt:;itit t$iffi'.''

'JH*n:'$u*-**:fi:j"il?h:::'i:31rit'a;:i:l
n;;"i d"'"*"s to be
terms of states: Maine, New Hampshire, vermont, Massachusetts, '{;""+;:
.i'ffJ;:?:*t:""J,ffiltt;*l'*#ilLlr:t'yJilil tr*il?fu5'Sil#il:ffi"Tii;4rqa""'"'ql,{ii::#'
west-
cut, for example, is not part of New England T\1t area'.like

ffi,:T-,i:'xiti-i3;H:;;"ff;:"1":i[x,fJ:.3'J,H*!
affluen.", iir.";;;,
Updike-studied commuter stu-fo'a' u"a
I ,
H:1tr;lif*?..?I*#::*iK',-ti'tFl::i*r*il'tr']'?*
them are really oi-"tt'" gosto" stutes"'
^" ";;;;
q{:'fffi}ftt::ft:Y:tr3":1T:'^8ff11""i'"u
as the Atlan-

New Engrand

)."H;3t".i:#"jff*,:g#:L:if,l::ffi?i,T:lm.*;:'#: '-'#T'1i;*ri'f*t#';"xlJ
:ffii#,li;,,."iil:,,lxl""liln'1""liii,?:il:T[T;J:Tii
ginning to look a rittle tacky. rhey,re uli,'g bought'p u,
;1"'#
o-*ll" ffi,ff:,T.f*iit""J$:]
*1"'il:;'ff""
ttt:::*"
JJ"""'"#:

:"::.:'l:",::^
"
the two regions are
who realize that they -ay have to dtop" u' riuch as another Apart from ttt"t' tttJ d"iff-"'""t"' l"ly"""
extensions to
hundred thousand dollars or so on ."rrouutiorrs and
return them to their proper status position rhis is
consistent
ovster ;HilTxh'::;l"J,ffiil;t":1,1";*iyf;:FTilti!:tri:{I"*??il
-N".,h;;l;;;i.;;;';'i;;;il;h;"1 in Nova Scotia' winter
n.f
with the now decades-ord theme "r oriiJr'i,r." i,{.;k,
"^.1*
that money doesn't comes through
t"". i.itr.r in lu," September'
Bay, and Larchmont, which is to try ,o f.olr. local
have to go hand-i.,'r,u.,a with vuigariiy, despite nagging i;;t#ii;#i;Nil;;;;-N"*s*"swick'voucanseepeo-
evidence to the contrary' That is hardly New England'
 I8 The Nine Nations of North America NEW ENGLAND r9

ple digging for potatoes with their hands. potatoes are so ch

1gaD,
anrl this
and +hi" work
r^r -L.^so hard,
I'o-.l +L.^+
that nobody
-^L^l-. L^^ ^--^- +L^---L-
has even ,
thought to sirAB the
blues about it, as they did about chopping cotton.

I::_:n., {::. iid

i*l:l
pl$ beaches of eueens county on prince
1']:11 :l:,:r.1 "', "0."1. i" ]ry,"T*": it'.' .'i'\i #*'dd'*r'iu-r**+*i[*q$lffi
;il:;;ffi toinnounct.tllt
was. m"telv the war was over'
tY "
ssoil eg vrcrory ior the Utll"-d
::Tll:1 :'l ^:"'"ll
.1,:h i':15 -1!:11 .t',to"11
r
1.."0J re a glorious- ?t:t.ii:,1ld"ll::?*
as a tvpical New Eng-
l*
are 1:!rl:l
been redtrced
.hu: plowed
too valuable to
the point that ,t ,fr"rrnlil
1

" fhuit ;;;;

ftl"i, It's no tottg been regarded
Itu,
tnt"
be into the fields as fertilizer. -oi" "tt""tti':
how plentiful they once were. solution'
of rock and clav, with iit]'lt?:::
T:ftLi;. their four-
The Maritimes are so much a part of New England that busi_ ;ii'",H:'; ?;;;"on' ..'es t^:*,
nessmen wishing to travel from Edmundston, New Brunswick, i, e-* t "t' eas ?'" 3:iTl
unbl l{ 3jl
essed. agriculfll, l:l' lv'
tural 3t T,';" it n
but ?. has
to, f, if# ffilil''N;"E;;iand ^.
thirteen
say, Montr6al, Qu6bec, 39o miles away, find the best way is to
fly ,j-]^;^,,. little raw miterial and, with approximatel)',
8oo miles via Boston.
#'#;i",^l moved ait"i"ithed population' Long ago the texile
The case of Cecille Bechard, of New Brunswick and Maine, was
,rrfacturers to ni"l., with its plentiful cotton and
celebrated recently in the Nau York Times: ,Tiiilr.^irr"'ito"-t"ut.rs moved to the Foundry' where the
cecille Bechard is a canadian who visits the united states several dozen T#;;i *"'"le"a, i" g"""'ul' i1du1.trv. *"!il?:^t: T1*
ac-en-
times a duy when she goes to the refrigerator or the back door or to TO"tt because it's e-asier to distribute goodsfrom
it New
make tea, for- instance. To read and sleep she stays in canada, and she continent than is from' say' Manchester'
i"iii."',tte
eats there too if she sits at the north ehd of the kitchen table. Mrs. Be- ilrnpshire'
chard's home sits on the united States-canada border. The frontier cuts il! -trt critical point, though, is that New- England lacks the
through the kitchen wall and across the sink, splits the salt and pepper .l-rtr"-4t"".i"u, t^h" thunde.itg cascad'es of hydro power found
shakers, just misses the stove and passes througi the other wall to sever qotU". and Ecotopia, and tf,e uranium and synthetic fuel
the Nadeau family's clothesline and cut off the candy counter in Alfred i" of in" et"ot d;;; Except for its proximitv to resource the fish-
sirois's general store. Almost anywhere else in the world, Mrs. Bechard riches of the G"otg"t Bank, New England has sparse
might need a passport to take a bath. from i'he remnants of an industrialism that de-
-frornapart
the historical accident of first settlement'
Maritimers work and vacation in New England. Maine teen- adoxically, the scenery and the surroundings have become
agers drink in the Maritimes because the age
limit is lower there. England is rapidly transform-
^Irlorth urr.t. New
England's primary
The- border checkpoints are jammed at quitting time and when itseft into America's first truly twenty-first-century'
the bars close. industrial society, and, as such, it is again a land of pioneers'
And if any more proof were needed that Maritimers and New s one Boston banker, who thinks that New England's -eco-
Englanders belong to one nation, it is provided by the ubiquitous :ally stable state is a euphemism for stagnation,-"fNe don't
cable TV connections, which allow Nova Scotians to be driven any theories about *hui yot do when you reach this state of
just as crazy by the Red Sox as the Worcester tenement-dweller' >mic maturity. The finest brains have been telling us how,to
When the boys boot another one to the Yankees, you can hear lhe . NoU"ay .""irr a t what to do when yow g3t grown'"
curses all over Halifax. "o*
t New dngland, intuitively and inexorably, is about to show
The argument has been made that if North America had been world howlo find out, for it is producing an amazing consen-
settled from west to east, instead of the other way around, New considering ii. .i.."-ttances, about the futures that it will
England would still be uninhabited, and there's something to be will not aciept.
said for this theory. It's only inertia, for example, that preserves its energy future, for example,
any commercial agriculture in New England. The standard storl e in othlr parts of North America might think that a na-
about the Vermont dairy industry is tliat it is trying to breed a this short on iurh, this cold, and up to 8o percent dependent
 71
NEW ENGLAND
20 rThe Nine Nations of North America
lle t\

on imported fuel oil for home heating, would be racing headlong

toward any promise of relief. r,,,ud9f "li,':'1"-t'.::"'l'*ut?';J:iil';Ti{;uilt"':*"'".: for a sight
-^]] iJ"utidl3l.l'i'"i^ns
"- will be able to g; t" Iio'tott
But that is not the case. tOrt ^^. F{OUS[url
ii"it t"nt"t'.i],",1*irir"a city looks like'
The Pittstown Company, of New York, has been trying for al-
most a decade to put an oil refinery in Eastport' Maine, the east- ll i'^":llfr'J :'J','ff
fhe prou'""' ,- -'rt
\;;
this
;;&" *:
argument ln, i
"#:;
l::,ilili: *?lgrounds
ernmost point of land in the United States' In ry79, Eastport fiqd
,"ll'"nJ;"tt"?^lLl,ta.,lling ior oit in *rI i"rtif"
Eshing
an unemployment rate of zo percent. Four hundred families in
?illi ;;t;"'r1i3'ii:" state thc u'g"'n"'"-in
i"'*' or one natural
."'loljll
this town of two thousand were getting food stamps. The sardine spill
canneries that used to be the major industry had closed down lii?;U-3*i.l;Llh;. rhey conte"a ,r,"i'u" oil
r€source ^vsr'll,-,-. one of God's great gi[ts.t"
*^t Tllt^:
long ago. At u5o,ooo barrels a day, this proposed refinery could ;""1i *"'" to disap pear tomorrow'
meet r9 percent of New England's gasoline and home heating oil
u- tot
or
l:n ;l'll'i'i""i;";;;
tainly tru'' '-l.".r'tr increase in beet ptodt"tiot"t in
the Breadbas-
needs. t to the De-
u 1"" thutt q-"i::: for any loss in protein' according
But will it ever be built? Don't bet on it. Half of the waters in Let could ma_Ke yP
which the tankers would have to travel belong to Canada, which
says that an oil spill would endanger its fisheries. (The more cyn-
;t*r"",1-i{11"S":,':j:il:t"Jill$[:;::f 3il*lr",t:l:
ical think that the Canadians really see it as a threat to their own not th"'threat l: itJd*: the'flanet screwed up'
Take
underutilized refineries.) The summer home of Franklin D. Roo- caretullY c o"ttt"" "r Engineers has
tidv and
ol the;;'t;;J;h;t tn" e"ni cotp' of
sevelt, an international park, is a mile downwind of the refinery the example
site, and that outrages a select constituency. But more important, ttl,i: ch p r' te th e corp s w an t s
beyond the blueberry-covered hills, in Cobscook Bay, dance ;';l[::l i:'J"t#:*"J' n qnhigh' a
1I "'iwo mile-long Dickev-Lin-
humpback whales. And of crowning significance, through the lo- to build the twentvls;;";-t;t;t rn"-p'opotal' grander than
cal spruce glide more bald eagles, making more baby bald eagles, coln dam across tli";i'';;;-niu"i 267 miles o[ river and streams
Egypt's Aswan D";';;i;
flood
than any olher place in the Northeast. Both the whales and the of timb"t in order to create
a
United Stut"r nitional symbol are endangered species, and jt has and eighty-"ignt t't.'ot";;J";;"t
lt tot'tJpt"duce would replace
been made abundantly clear that as long as oil refineries issue reservoir 57 miles long' The power
mercury, sulfur dioxide, and other pollutants, there is no way
that one is going to be built anywhere near those eagles. "'H'i'il'"ifff fi ;i?i,:::*:ipt;';::J:Til3:"1':l:
Does the local population buy these priorities? In a recent jeopard.
Fourth of July p^.ud", the Little League's vastly popular Red Sox ,vi'Xil:TlT:'::".iil:",Jo"lil,li:X;';;;;;u,d
*""at' The louseworts' habitat'
float was defeated for first place honors by the Youth Conserva- ize the existence'li'if;l' tilt""ti
are under detailed
tion Corps' entry, with the theme "Don't Let Eastport Become a propagation, and microciimatic t"oJ;;;;ts
and the corps
Pits Town." study to determine if they can be grown elsewhere' But mean-
This, in fact, represents a general New England belief in the is now looking into buying lousewort sanctuaries' it was
sinc-e
while, the dam's cost estimates have quadrupled
equation that eneigy development in its backyard equals an in- million is
originally authorized in 1965' 'q p'oj"ltJJ cost of $zr8
evitable decline in the quality of its civilization.
now pushing a billion, and at ,h"t- orl;' to-" of its
drawbacks
The subliminal part of this is an a priori assumption that New is so little
England sets a standard of civilized behavior that is far more rare
are becoming glaring such ., ,tr"^ i"., that there
the dam
New water in the St. John- River during tilt-t"**"t.llut
thaln kllowatts, and is thus more valuable. That is the reason would operate, on the average, ,rntv t*J il ; half hours
out of
conti-
Englanders see no contradiction in asking the rest-of the every twentv_four.
.,.rit to subsidize the price of their home heating oil at the same il,',h"li;.."t rt economic arguments thrown upthe Dickey-
iime that they frantically resist efforts to drif for it off their r*..rir r".r.."ffi;pl1;,i."iJa oppo"""tt is not 'byreal rea-
coast.
 L5
22 The Nine Nations of North America NEW ENGLAND
son this dam probably will never be built. The real reason is that
northern Maine has some of the prettiest wilderness in the North-
east. You can dip into a river and safely drink its waters. And in
a land as crowded as this continent's Northeast, that's a rare, ancl
thus valuable, commodity. If politics allocate resources, then it
would seem that in this case, New England politics are again
based on the premise that recreational wilderness is more scarce
than Middle Eastern oil, and that, of course, is in fact a defensible
position.
Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, is by no means wilderness.
The North Atlantic surf curls in the same gray-green, foam-
flecked fashion there as it has for millennia, but behind the white
sandy beach, the Hampton Beach Casino ("Jewelry, Ice Cream,
ear mov ement'
Food, Snack Bar, Rides, Golf, Gifts, Doughnuts, Fashions, ;::,1";; ;r"t ri" e-"tican antinucl people were arrested
Leather, Boutiques, Jewelry") is jammed. So are the taco parlors, one thousa"o' rot'if"tt'lI*a' of Mav 2' e;7' and charged with
""a'[ot"t""'t
fried dough stands, sweet shops, T-shirt emporiums, discos, and at Seabrook o''' thJ'ui';;;;;""
motels that make up the resort. criminal trespass"' -
- i-t; chief public relations nerson zat Seabrook is enamored
-^l^+innc person
The competition for a few linear feet of New Hampshire coast-
Foundation account of the pro-
line is fierce because there is so little of it only seventeen miles enough of the 'igt't-*i"g-H"titugt
between Massachusetts and Maine. Hampton - Beach State Park .""Ji""gt to press it on visiting reporters'
marks the spot where the Atlantic breaks through the dunes to Abrilged, it goes like this:
form a pleasant harbor, where meandering creeks with grand constmction permits in July
names such as Browns River, Blackwater River, and Hampton with the issuance of the original seabrook took place' Most of the
of ry76,a new t"d ;;-;;t"; turn of events
River create salt marshes. The salt marshes, in whose sensitive assumed that winning
planners engaged i.t ih" *t't'-'ction at Seabrook
meant an end to
and fecund ecology the marine food chain begins, boast reeds and the battle in court and before the regulatory agencies
cattails that, rippling like wheat in a breeze, are hypnotic. The A group of jndivid-
opposition to the facility. In this they-were -ittlut"tt' had
small harbor guards from the riptides both the wide, high- uals unhappy with ,ir"-'r"Jrt of the legal pr.oc.ess felt that.thelime
come to go outside th" lu*. Towards ttrls ena they formed
the.Clamshell
prowed, low-gunwaled commercial fishing and lobster boats, and opposed
the sleek cabin cruisers with names like Shenanigans and An- Alliance, a group which is by its own declaration "unalterably
to the construction ;i;ha (Seabrook) and all other nuclear plants"'
strice. Bright-colored lobster buoys line a wall by a small store
Certainly, in ry76 no one would have been prepared to,believe that
where you can buy bait, tackle, and cold drinks. over May Day Weekend, ,977,the Clamshell Allianie would return with
If you're careful not to let your eyes wander a few hundred a thoroughly trained, coordinated group of some 2ooo persons ' -'
yards inland, it's possible to forget that the town just across the fh" allowed the demonstrators to enter the site and occupy
inlet from Hampton Beach is Seabrook. The motel operators of an area "olttpu.ry
.rr"a ft. parking, and to set up their tents and camping equip-
l

Hampton make a point, for example, of quickly correcting guests
who think they've come to Seabrook.
But although the map of Seabrook put out by Preston Real Es-
tate does not choose to take note of the town's most famous land-
mark, it's impossible to ignore forever the concrete forms of the
largest construction project ever attempted in New England.
They're easily visible over the roofs of the shore cottages. For that
matter, looming over the forms are dozens of red and white
ment ' . as long as th; were peaceful and agreed to lear e [belore con-
struction worker-s arrived Monday morningJ. iarly Sunday afternoon' it
was decided that the time had come
. Th" lCtu*shell] leadership, after conferring with the demonstrators'
indicated that they would not be willing to llave, and that they would
also insist on being arrested
. . and ,4i4 *"...
As-they refusedlo post bail, they were temporarily incarcerated in a
number of National Guard Armories u.o,mi the state' Their stand
24 The Nine Nations of North America
against posting bail was maintained for two.full weeks during which
time they continued to be housed in the armories.
one result of this incarceration [and these are the Heritage Founda-
tion's words] was that it gave them time to organize. In aieal
those two weeks amounteJ to the period of incribatio" r". tr-," iiiiiltji
the national anti-nuclear movement
The cost of renting the National Guard Armories, along with cerrain
services required from the Guard during the period of incarceration,
such as feeding the prisoners and caring for the sanitation taciliti"s,
came to $3ro,863.9o. Public health services came to gr3,ogz.z6. State po_
lice (including those borrowed from other states) cost g5r,169.75. Local
police, $5,o9o.84. Finally, the initial cost estimate for the r"rui..s of
th.
Attorney General's staff as a result of the arraignments associated with
the arrests of the demonstrators came to $ ro,ooo. This cost, of course,
has been mentioned, will escalate severely with time, as a consequence
as
of the appeals process. Thus, the total for the demonstration whicir took
place over May Day Weekend, r977, comes to g3g9,zo6.g5.
Further, those figures-do-not reflect any increased costs which might
-have been incurred by Public Service company of New Hampshire
lthe
utility whose idea Seabrook isl in preparing for the demonstiation, and
which would be reflected eventually in the customer's electric bill.
of course, since all this, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident
has occurred. Antinuclear demonstrations have brought out
hundreds of thousands of people. Meldrim Thomson, then gover-
nor of New Hampshire, who backed a surcharge on the electric
bills of the state's residents to help pay for Seabrook's construc-
tion, has been ignominiously defeated at the polls twice. A plan
to build reactors of the Seabrook design on Narragansett Bay in
Rhode Island has been rejected. (The 6o4-acre site considered for
that power plant will, in classic New England fashion, instead be
made into a wildlife refuge.) Public Service of New Hampshire is
in deep trouble with its financiers. By tg7g, delays had increased
Seabrook's total price tag by an estimate d $ r,gq7,+gz,zoo. It's per-
fectly possible that if arguments in Congress over nuclear tech-
nology's safety don't get Seabrook, arguments on Wall Street over
its affordability will.
So I asked Norman Cullerot, the public relations man at Sea-
brook, about the problems. I had lusi taken the tour of this mind-
numbing, you've-never-seen-so-much-steel-and-cement, makes-
the-Pyramids-look-like-sandcastles construction project. I was
sitting among the natural wood surroundings of the $r.Z million
"education center," and I said, Look, I know you've already spent
NEW ENGLAND 25
,,,:l:lf,':1#fl ,l'ffi?,1'*T,fl ll'ff :,;1"'1ii"o;:'"Tl;,i13
iffiitllfi-:;"pi":a;f'fr",ffi '[iplif#t$;1
an-d the tourists and sav, hev, if we build this thing
il;ri#;;;;s going to be trouble? Did it ever occur to anybody
i."#,-it "r",s
reactor here is emotionally impossible for New
I'fr"i'"'"".tea-r
Englanders? r -r -) :,---
-'roo,,.., he responded to my question' He launched into ,--
praise
fo. ?t" planr's cooling system. Remember those tall,
curved
for Three Mile Is-
riur".-.ootlng towers that became the symbol
iurrdl S"uUrook Station doesn't have any of those, he explained.
intt"ua, a little east of the reactors there are two holes, 375feet
deep and wide enough to swallow a small house' On a platform
275 feet down have been pieced together a couple of 34oton ma-
chines called moles. These moles bore through rock with fifty-two
cutter blades, pressed up against the stuff by hydraulic rams that
produce a thrust of 9gS tons. The moles' average speed is about
four feet an hour. The granite here is referred to as "stubborn."
These moles are drilling two tunnels straight out to sea, one 16,-
483 feet long, the other r7,4ro feet long. These tunnels pass di-
rectly under Hampton Beach State Park and the harbor on their
way a mile or so out into the ocean. When completed, they'll be
more than big enough to drive a trailer truck through, although
that's not what they'll carry. One of the tunnels will carry 85o,ooo
gallons of the North Atlaniic every minute into the powlr plant,
where it will cool and condense the steam generati. The other
pipe will take this water, instantly made
39- degrees hotter, and
dt}o- it back into the ocean. Much to the *.pri-r" of the fish.
that, he explained, is why Seabrook was built here. It's as
^,Atdto this
close
big beautiful body of cooling fluid as possible while
ut. far away from the ciiy of portsmouth as it can be with-
::lnC
out leaving New
Hampshire.
waited for
tnt* that meansmy
Sd.h." next question.
that the answer to my original question is
not
I*l::.,":. occurred to the planners at public Service of New
uamPshire
that their ideas would be viewed as controversial,
G';:'.'#il'il::.Jfil'"::n:iH#f '3ii;::;:::T,fi
 27
NEW ENGLAND
26 The Nine Ndtions of'North America
an expensive
come the classic and enduring example of technology gone bg1- r^r^.rec
blauc> travel
";;; at ry8 miles per hour' Butthat birds can
,,-tmill's ,il" tentative decision
h1l than the
and most normallv flv higher
serk.
This is not, however, to say that management is unaware that it
Htji?"i-t*av a wrncr: -tl-ill,
Y-)"a hear
5e- -, .|r ^rrr\U2v.
has a public relations problem. And that's why, outside the na-
ture trail with the carefully labeled plants, just down the wqy *
windmrtr, ":::.::: fhere's the TV reception' It's been discovered
otq'. d
'-f,li?i;t;;t";; tlud" television signals to
from the redwood picnic tables, across from the entrance to th; 'u"'"
*at bi| whirrtnB,.a chinson, the septuagenarian Yankee who
education center with its diagonal wood siding, has been built companv"' was quoted as saving'
il"it1t"' ll":H",T"ttju.Jto*"t
tlt-"1::i
Seabrook Unit Three.
rt"tat yq in u*frt lot parttcula'lv to the people who
One and Two, of course, are the 23ocmegawatt reactors. Three i;i"r"ulil-o^1.ll^,1t "*tntertime' -The movie theater is closed'' and
is a windmill. Very futuristic-looking, it's shaped something like are out I:l: lij:: ,t"tt" entertainment"' So the flederal
gov-
the head of an eggbeater, with three bowed, fifteen-foot blades ir's the :ltt
tj;?,::,i"u" "i unoth". $7oo,ooo to push an un-
revolving around a vertical axis, allowing it to accept wind from *^6+ hAq Of)ItH'r! ,"*alng wire the
ernmen'ii:;:^: er"tt Island and to
every direction. It will supply Iz kilowatts of electricity. ';";fii;''a"to
A6rcP2. CabI€ lI-urrr r'
On Block Island, twelve miles off the coast of Rhode Island, Tii-"- for cable television'
entlrc'"1'l*,^]t,^-';
'"L"a ,h" t*""ty-fittt century built in New Eng-
looming r6o feet tall, is another windmill. It's rated at u oo kilo- In such a rASIrru'
watts, but has a completely different story. t"tl" parts t1'^:^t:'lJ:'il1 saga is
The U.S. government in ry7g spent over $6o million on wind- of the more instructive -", money' The way one re-
by federal
mill development, and this island, on which 459 people were re- that the project *ut n"u"t"d
ceives federar -oni'i;l-hi,
*ortd is to be poriiical, and from the
corded at a recent Ground Hog's Day census (an annual event shooting at Redcoats from be-
that takes place at a local bar) has, quixotically, managed to first days that the ilt"ft't'^"ed New England
snare $2.3 million of that in the form of its new monster. hind the trees of B;#;;ii iotl,i.ut ii slomething
one of New England's leading
Block Island was thought to be a dandy place for this wind has always b."n. t" iutt, politics-is
poJitical novel of this cen-
machine, which has a rz5-foot wing span and sits on a Ioofoot- industries. terhaps tliJ-itt t"t"Utated
on the career of James
tall tower. The islanders claim they pay the highest electricity firy,The tos tlunoi,-tf ""f solidly baied
Michael curley, ,h;";;t;;;'*uvoiwho ran
for re-election from
rates in the country twice as high as the mainland because
jail and won' The K""""Jt i";;ty alone marks New England
as
- by inefficient diesels, the fuel-for which
their power is generated much govern-
mustiome from the mainland on barges. Fortunately, the wind being overe.ta"*.i-*Jirt-poliiitiuttt' There is so
ment that N"* n.ifu"J'r'"i"ptt""e has a separate section for its
gales up to a hundred miles an hour over the island in the winter'
The average breeze is a stiff seventeen miles per hour, which is
telephone numbers
-
the BIue Pages' , - r- r r
just a hair under small-craft-warning strength. But this hu, ,roi b""r .r unmiied blessing for New-England'
b..urrr" the flip side of government is taxes, and with those New
Equally important, the island g"it hntd.eds of thousands of England also abounds. The property taxes in New England are
tourists in the summer, so the slJek orange and white National among the highesfi"itt" urriit recently, houses evaluated
Aeronautic and Space Administration-built turbine is good p'r' "",i.rr.
at no more than $4o,ooo in Boston could be taxed so heavily that
for the government's energy program. the assessed of the structure was handed over to the
govern-
There are a few hitches, but they're being worked on. One ts ".fr"
ment in cash once every four years. ln r98o, a statewide-tax revolt
that the wind turbine is calculated to rurr. o.tly $3o,ooo worth of changed this, U"ipr"U"bly ai the cost of oth"t taxes' Meanwhile'
diesel oil a year, and so, in order to become independent of OPEC' every single New'England state is in the top 3o percent, nation-
the island will need a platoon of these things to be self-suf{icient' wide,in per capita pioperty taxes. And the burden is more oner-
At several million dollars apiece, of course, this is no small thing' ous when yon,"rn"-ber how low the adjusted per capita income
There is the question of what the Department of Energy calls here is. \dr;; . rtiff sales tax, like Maine'r, urr^d a nongraduated
"airborne fauna." Block Island is in the migration path of every- income tu*, iik" "Mu.ru.h.rr"tts',
are rig,-.t"d in, clearly the bite
of
thing with wings that calls the coast home, and th. tips of the
 28 The Nine Nations of
North America
local gover"-"1., NEW ENGLAND 29
of New England,s causes of
since the money ofren
l?.orr. pov
being poor, wha'l yo., t.,uu" "", gl.T to ameliorate the li?^.anq
as
i-'"*tol ,r nor the governmencrrecrs of asixth-eenera:'"T,11""1'#"ffi :;TiJ?,t?:li,i^,tJl;L,T*
ffi"l'l Ji ::i:i,':":i1;: T,T"jilertv, a t r
"i., ir'
"'
g.i":i::"1?

1f i,"1i"",*tt"iifl
ni.: 0...: thought
l.riryf
sition to be know" ro.alifJr" ::*H;?TT:1.f,.1?:"'"0"
i;;ri,'."T:'T:^y:l:,not
roraunus€tts' seabroot rn_ a po.
*o"ra iit
#tf:*fi#**r:**l**'u*w
New Hampshire is a renelade ";;;.;.
in New England in that
only srare wirh no ,ut",
vide as much state.incom"
o,^ iLr.o_l'il,1 The philosoph;i,ir is the
;.;;."r,ble lo pro_
lotteries, and barg.air,_uur._..,i;;;; through aog-,L.i.r, .rur.
liquor stores. _"
F*ftffi ll*xl#:#$:l**'i:i:':#
i:#;,;;;-un ublol,rt" glut of educational institutions originally
by pre_income tax entrepreneurs. In the Boston area
#iiru'J; !;"il::::n*?*J*.
Bosron lu-o'r"t, i',.knamed ,,th.
tr," .",i ;rN"* Eng,and
jr. ,l^*d.l,ro be.as .lor* iJ ""?"*"a
;ffi, And, as one
itr"." ur" sixty-five colleges and universities.just
are trying to be like Har-
g,rb, ;;;;.; put it, sixtv-four of those
ing heavy ru*uiion. rhi,
...ui", jil:I;ff:.""'"*lr:]jl; nTa ;;;J- ro-" to the point of caricature' Then
among
you
the
begin to grasp
educated'
fro* ro-" cultural values are diffused
,:ii*1,",fri:i;;::aTj*i:i1it;;;;i.;;;;."ff11:which
'Jf But that still doesn't explain how elsewhere uncommon ideas,
When Governor rlornron
such as respect for the furbish lousewort or reading or public tele-
abour all rhe srowrh, nri.f,u"f "b..,i;il,r,Hampshirc was gloaring
vision broidcasting, are so widely accepted in New England' It
chuse*s, sniffJd ,n",, ,rrr"gr.'*l; ^il rhen governo, ofl_Murru_
;o,l:"rue might be righr abour certainly doesn't explain the north star of New England moral
New Hampshire being
u niE";iliH talenred young r.iorkers certitudes: Houston-based oil companies are always lying.
rrve, rts services were.so It's true that polls have shown that the non-college-educated
which to be otd
,tr"bU' 1f,", i, *urr,,, u ,,,." place into are increasingly taking on a lot of the attitudinal and sociological
":^:,.k ";;;;;1.;;;'.d o. u.,"ducared or down
and out' It is selfless-concern characteristics of the college-educated. It's also true that New Eng-
that is the core fo. th" ress fortunat", tr" impri.d,
land is overburdened with people who do sport degrees. ("Over-
sachusetts was the"f onlv
"ld;;r;i;;#;;:"".husetts
,r.i"^i"!;;;;b""rre McGovernliberalism. (Mas- qualified is the name of New England's game," said one teacher
the w"1"-,e"ii for pres_ who has been out of work ever since he fell off a roof in the course
;];;:,#.,'if
,#fce br_p"r sticker ".u nor,r,r of trying to make it as a carpenter.)
. w9,,'n'';* o:iiii:X!1'#:)s more than a chance
But try this idea:
a,
* r r-r"rr, i"".a i" r"irthatr,.,ur
-t "The roots of the [average] people's disbelief in anything that
Ii blra is m r'.' r'' .""i J
:*'ri:S:"e I

".
comes from the private r"itoi gois back to that old heritage of
There is no settir tne sweatshop and the textiie mill. It really shouldn't be rooted
tn that area, but it goes back to their woiries about being ex-
:,"k"*,,i#,:';"J.?,il":,1,1,1i".ffi":r,i:ffi ;1.;,ff.,ilfi :,J
England." What,s ploited.,,
l?rrl, i. .'a?r..iUJ no* ir is rhar
population even ,nJro*". .r".."r'iit, an entire man who said this (he asked to remain anonymous) has
- can aspire ro a rittle ,-Th"
tnvested a lot
moral arrogance, and by ,fr" ."_" - describe precisely on of money in New England's booming computer
whom they ----^- ,"fi".r,
'"""'' ,o bus-iness. He went on:
are looking do*.r.
When it comes t" al!."rri"g a great antipathy between the owner and the worker
obvious place to start. New England elitism, there is one ,*^fh"tu':back
rr mal"r"#'i,n"rence a Bosron llll^qt"t peopleto the Industrial Revolution. The people generally
banker asserrs that ,,you
;;"ldJ;;iulytni'g anyrhar
dumbe r than
i::tf
tards' Don't in business as being those old-line-Yankee bas-
believe a goddamn thin! they say. Don't believe the
 3I
jo The Nine Nations of North America NEW ENGLAND
facts. that they come up with, because they're their facts, ayr4
they're not the tr-uthl"
This is a singular phenomenon. A postindustrial phenomenol.
What you have here is the privileged members of an educate4
elite the "best and the brightest" coughing out warnings
about- our dire future should we continue - to depend on nonrenew_
able resources and massive corporate solutions to our problems.
At the same time, descendants of Italians, Irish, Qu6becois, por_
'*+m""'r+:,il:;,:$'+,r*:ru
:r.rj{iijl'Til1iill1r,i::il::
j.:Ti jr::f, :::f rll,lTu
tuguese, and Jewish mill laborers are listening to these alarrrms
and buying them or at least giving them careful consideration.
So what you have -is the progeny of the oppressed identifying with
rnthewinte..l-T:T,1r",t;H;1illy.ti":t#:"Hi:;:#ffi ilJ,"f;in
of any community
the progeny of the oppressors. T.lt,ib::,i^:::it flf:;';;,ii""i, ,"'^*hitects
two censed' practi cin g ar-
Ht"t;*rtd:ffi:Ji; ;;";;i"
g lrk' thi rtv- I i
In Detroit, it wouldn't work like this. In Detroit, the ideology of
the United Auto Workers is so ingrained jobs, more jobs, more :i;;;'f" a population o[ five hundred' ' orp was
so there *aq some buildins going
.ome building
- the UAW It was a big ski "'";-:il;;tU11n -
jobs with more money, more money that has literally
come around to the old capitalist -slogan that what's good for ; d; r1f iie so11rs i:n
starving. If a guy l* *;il"#::i:Iff: ;[:
Dorn tt' o Po'.":-:]i:':::";:::;
:: i:ff"-^"i;
jn Essex' Connecticut'
cnnnecric't. which
General Motors is good for the U.S.A. Only there's a minor twist. r tp""t most of mv lile
The twist is that it's Chrysler in whose interest the UAW labors ;;t;;""ti;;t?t'" on Long Island Sound a little west of
is a little sailing, o"iioo- town
in Washington. Bail out Chrysler, whose products have always New l.ondon'
and I were living in a building
been associated with fat-cat consumption, the union pleads. Anyway, at the time, Dindy fhis wife]
The deal was that if I
By contrast, in New England a different kind of philosophical I'd designed to. u gtty'ut u *ood*orking shop' we were living in this
union, cutting across traditional class lines, is being formed. And built it, I got to llv. iri iiiot u y"ut fot ''toi-hlttg' So
of heat ' we
this new sense of everybody being in it together is reinforced by wood shop, freezing. Freezing io death' our only source out' It
went
the aforementioned tax structure, which affects the trappings of had this old wood stove, *hich was horrendoers' The thing
stuff' and it wouldn't
was kind of an old t*"' u"J it was real leaky and
the class structure. This is to say that a New Englander making to fill
hold a fire overnight. I had to get up at two o'clock every morning
$z5,ooo a year doesn't live in terribly different circumstances this damn thing up, to keep it going so it would make it through the
from a New Englander making $rz,ooo. Neither is starving; nei- night. One -otttittg in Marih, I said screw it, I'm not going to get up'
ther frequently dines on steak. Both inhabit modest houses or And so I reached over and turned on the electric blanket and I went back
apartments. In the summer, they swim off the same public to sleep. The next morning we woke up, and our inside air temperature
beaches. was eleven.
So I ended up doodling around on a piece of paper about it what
In Houston, the contrast would be much more marked. The dif- -
would a good wood stovele like. My eleven degree experience became a
ference is that in New England poverty has become rather chic. catalyst for becoming interested in stoves per se. Not totally as a mar-
I have a theory that the entire history of twentieth-century New ketable entity, but juit because I've always been a curious kind of guy in
England has something to do with the sad surplus of Harvard terms of mechanical gizmos and stuff . A couple of us went and talked to
architects. Here are these fellows, superbly trained and motivated a whole bunch of people, did some ,"r"u..h, began to get some papers
to modify man's habitat. They find New England so stimulatin9 on studies that had been done during the war, state-of-the-art papers
intellectually that they don't want to leave. Yet New England is from Europe, and stutT like that.
so poor that nobody can afford to put up new buildings. So I came up with the stove I wanted. I didn't know whether you would
want one, or anybody
they're broke. But clever. And so they get into mischief. else, but it seemed like a pretty nice stove.It had
fea-tures that combustion-technology ,"r"u..h said was impor-
Take Duncan Syme. He's not a Harvard architect; he's a Yale ljt-}tt".
t"Tt'uld it had all the
architect-but close enough. Syme is the man who designedthe features I wanted frJm a kind of user number.
r hadn't even heard
of half of the major activities which are required
Vermont Castings wood stoves mentioned in the beginning of this
 NEW ENGLAND t5
The Nine Nations of North America
because the snow's inside their
in order to build a wood-burning stove five years ago. I didn't even kns\,v rd they're whining
what the names meant, or what the jobs were, or anything.
I had this stove all designed. Murray [Syme's partner] and I built ong
out of steel, welded it all up. And it took two days. And we said this is
hopeless. The thing is so labor-intensive that there's no way we're goine
to make any money out of this. And to put all those goddamn air chanl
nels and stuff in them . . much too much time is involved. So at that
point I said to myself, well, lookit. We got twenty-seven parts to this
stove, but the old wood cookstoves-beautiful, magnificent things.--
must have had eighty billion parts, and I'll bet that a guy assembled
one of those things in three or four hours, bolting them together. So I
said, it must be that, because you have the ability to kind of cast all
these little things in place . . cast iron must be the solution.
So we started calling up foundries. The first foundry we called up, we
said, "Listen, do you guys cast iron?" And the guy said, "Yeah, we're a
class thirty gray shop, what do you need done?"
ffi
$frjll]5k:i
dp""n't
t"".'"1".* *;T F_ j1*},
Iike it, u"o t' to"ti"g
u'ottttd iot tom"
: "'X':ll
ll
alternative'
lil'', ", " ""0

And there'd be a long pause from Murray, and he'd say, "I'll get back 'lhirissomethrns';;?;,'1Ji:1::1,",:*,"ii;'liin'.',";t""i'i;"1
t'i^,-;:fftfiT;r*;J,.ii i" it himselr andhe made that
to you." And he literally went and got a book out of the library to find 'nopp"a
gala*v r tY:tl,:
out what a class thirty gray shop was. That's why we have our own It isn't a fire that 'u*;;;; lfi::i li:::::t"f:
foundry today, because it turns out that making stove plate is such a fiffii'}.i ii.fit'#;;;;;
on the wall'
e"iti"e a hell or a lot closer to the
specialized thing. *"" ,ttu" the dial
the subtletl::-"t^tl:,1t:i::^::
And it turns out that the stove I drew up . . It just turns out that I think we must b"""*;;;iugged in to relaxing thing and it allows
quite a few other guys on the continent have my kind of leanings. : St[ X fiH;.'J"fr;"j t"i':*t I' a. '
see the wood-stove boom
guy to get plugged b""[;;;""d ini't *tty I
intimatelv involved with
ra real hope. It i. u uu.i' il;;;pilt""o-i"g
Yeah, I said, but how many of those guys are sitting in New Uu"i" source. And energy is everything'
""".gV
England farmhouses where they've got a couple of two-by-fours
propping up the chimney and a pie pan over the flue hole, just :twohundredmilessoutheastofRandolph'inLowell'
usetts, amid the narrow, twisted streets that were
taro
waiting for your stove to be installed? Wood burning in New Eng- of
land is now becoming attractive to the middle class. If that's not along patterns literally-.r,uttittt"d by the meanderings
rdead cows, there's a small monument to a single'
basic
what it amounted to, you wouldn't have designed your latest se of radiant energy that has nothing to do with poverty chic'
model so that it slips comfortably into the opening of a suburban a less-than-.o*uriti. reminder of what is behind New Eng-
fireplace.
And this is how he got launched on a discussion of poverty chic:
t p;;J;; ;;;d#";1. it'i. i' a faithful re-creation aofbig' an
Ctihen of a textile-mill worker, and its centerpiece is
"I would not give up wood heat now, even if I could afford to coal stove.
have a nuclear fower-plant of my own. I would not do that be- stove was called a Glenwood C, and in this model room' it
cause I like the type of heat you get out of wood." :fully dated;ai;.; ,9oo." Note is taken that "thousands of
What do you mean? I asked. Heat's heat. Either you're warrn nt buildings were erected to accommodate" the immi-
or you're not. I was greeted by a chorus of dissent from the stove- who flocki to the rnills of Lowell in the nineteenth cen-
makers. Syme went on:

1gh lhe neighborhoods were separated by nationalities, the houses

A single source of radiant energy that ultimately heats the entire habit- uuPvr Lc'!
'r L[c most part, similar in style.
-t:T,h." krtcnen prayeq
styie. The kitchen an-important
played alr
able invelope is incredibly diflerent from having this whole envelope the lives ofihe tenants, in that it was generally the onlyroom in
amazingly uniform in temperature. rnment with heat. All of the rooms *"." b,tilt off the kitchen as a
You're busting your butt, trying to get the car out of the ditch, or help
34 The Nine Nations of'North America
F NEW ENGLAND
l5

lif'e, the
result. The kitchen thus became a vital part of tenement c:enter

of all the family's activities'

Everything in the re-creation of "a typical tenement apartment"

during the depr"ssion of the r93os is brightly labeled and noted:

Thc furnishings include pressed tin ceilings, and printed

linoleum lloors.
refrigerators
":*'+$$#6fff5pffi
ih" i." box iJroughly dated at r9I5. Although electric rvere

#:#rfi ':Tt#J{i'ffi
in use by I93o, \ue can assume that a tenant of this apartmcnt
have been uit" to afford one. Of particular interest is the
rvouldn't
coal fclothes] jrrT,,3#}t#
iron, circa I895, r.vhich r'veighs seven pounds without the coal Thc soap-
stone sink has a clothes r,r,ringer attached tci it. clothes
were normall,v
ot clothes lines across the kitchcn in il'"i
r,.,ashed on a vu,ashboard and h.,ttg
l*: :! i:] "*J;'l fi:;?: ilH::* i.: ;;' t'll1'; i i i"?l I I
rvinter "The rest.of this
The lunch pail on top of the ice box is dated at r9ro. It had three com- tunctioni.ng
^11."-";i;ili, explain-s.
*".; "' she using these old looms
partments. The bottom of the pail held a drink' The second lavcr *'a5 lowell' "We ;ust rt
vegetables' bread or lmit' whole complex '' ';':;';;;;il-"'a 1n-1v're
used for either soup or ste$'' The top for meat'
ift" p"lf *u, g".r"iully carried do''u'n to the mill by one .f the 1'ounger # ;;.; i' n.''" ?+J{';:X" iH# :h-*" ;}:1't ":T:il; T:l:
? :
children at lunchtime
# i::f fl J : J,l,? :, l'" ii :: t ii;! l:, l,: i"':, x ;, H : : \:,.
ican

It's
s
tough
and then it was J;;;i;"''
rhJn it was Colombians' it close
The cheerful singsong of the plaque ends: u"i""ttvuodv's reluctant to let
for the mill to k.;;i;;;' go over there' it's
left' You should
Try asking your parents or grandparents about the kitchens in
their down because it's .li";;i;;;e
homes. It should prove quite interesting' like the Tower of Babel'"
As it has ul*uy'-b""" in the mills
of Lowell'
"It's like th. *hlit-'i"*" It one big museum"' she continues'
Yes, indeed, I thought to myself, ask your parents and grand- in the best of
"There's an antique on every corner' il;" are not
pu."ni, about the yea"rs of the bepres-sion, when the textile indus- have been restored
condition, but theyire all there' They may not
if *u, in full flight from New ingland to places like.theCalhoutt'
rickety to their former toi.;;;t;i,l"t irtit't -h^t th" federal-monev is
C"o.giu. ask therriabout the staineJ oilcloth covering going to do, and that's *hut th" tourists' we hope'
will come to
"separated by
kitchen table. Ask them about the neighborhoods
luncrr
nationalily." And about how much they loved carrying the
see.
"What they're hoping for in the long run is a Sturbridge Village
pail down to the mills. kind of thing, or Williamsburg."
Ask them if they remember the Sunday Advertis-e-r' the
paper . ,
England' Lee Cott,; y"";;;;;i"-*i5" architect whose office is haltwav
that once boasted in" tu.g"r, Sunday circr-ilation in New between Harvard and MIT in Cambridge, is one of the people who
A yellowed promo recalls its glories: came up with the iJ"u, utt.rly mad Jn the face of it, of making
grinding toil' one of New England's grittiesi cities into a theme park to misery'
r,xposr.o! Starvation wages, unhealthy surroundings' after the fashiin of Colonial re-creations the tour guide men-
it't Massachu-
crooked shop or'r'ners, revealed in actual 'iotl"t of 'Ltk and de- tioned.
Stories of shocking abuses, cr-uel t.eatment,
setts. swEAr suopsl evil
plorable conditions. The tr-uth about srveat shops' that cancerous
Exclusively
eating out the fiu", ui '"'ta"rpaid worke" i'-t Uut'uthusetts' of the reasons the Lowell project was so relevant to us lCott ex-
O,n9
in tomorrow's SundaY Advertiserl glainedl' was that it really brought together a',vhole lot^o{ things for us
tn this office. General
Motors grir orriof the tradition of Lowell'
And while you're at it, ask them what they
think of the federal As an architect
or a designei- or a visionary, in your best moments -
memories' but
government ,p"nai,'g tax dollars not to bury these
 NEW ENGLAND
36 The Nine Nations of North America
you have images of what you want the world to be like' Lowell conforry15
i" ih" image."It has the kind of thing you push for. The ideayou of doing q
large build"ing, then a couple of buildings together-until end up
doirg u whoi-e city. This was the ideal situation for a gr-oup of young,
creative architects and planners who wanted to get it all out of their
,yrr"rn.Here'sacity.Whatdoyouwanttodotoit?Redoacity'
'Eight years ago, when we first started we were among the first to do
"kin; - ion of e ct ri c
S#""J;:'^:l::"J*i#l*'il'J* ;;'i;
people had e th
of lar-ge-scale adaptive reuse of older buildings n v en t er e
this - b efore rh i

real trepidations.
"I'm going to live in a factory?" they'd say' "Soon' I grew up there l
worked in ihat building. I don't want to live who wants to live
there?,, They don't see ii as part of their life that is worthy of recall. We ffi#:.Tl',::l;ffi lilq',gm****-i*il*i
lffi*'iJi:T;;;"-il;;tbulb are the best ones for
renovatlon'
did have a l-ot of that attitude about Lowell, among the local people.
The people's attitudes about themselves had deteriorated. The city had
gone t; n"ll. tn fact, the city was so far behind the times, they never even
act together to apply for federal urban renewal money in the
il,:*ssNerynne!1j.r;ffi il'#f :h??:l:*?l''}i:l?:trii1?i:
"#'.1ffi
iot their what saved the city' None of the old fffi '*?f
Boston' HJ':H$i:
lor exa'rPN;;;'f.;g g::l;
*:^1:"":nH ;i transit
frfties u.rd sixtie-s. Which is exactly rcs. ,
peoole onto rapid
buildings was torn down. The old buildings, too big, too monstrous to
tear down, are now the city's great hope for the future' HrTr"T:I:?lf, :J'l:;J:ilii:j+i:,*;*:m,*':t,f
close l:
scale' with everything to
T:T""tio,i';';;;";;il;; ;^t ihe onlv kind of-scat::1."::
-*"re
ns else, back when
Cott says that he's lost interest in the project on a- day-to-day ftt1f,"1';r;-"uii" disappear tomorrow' Boston
to
basis, now that it's off the ground, "mainly because I never saw t hardly find it as crushing as
would H:",tlt-1:l^lf.
*,,,,""
the Lowellians having confidence in the project.I think, like most ffil;'J#;;;;;""i *ua" that New England's tuture
things, the people *io ur" closest to it have the least confidence n its being tully deprl"ci"t"J' u"fifte newer
t"g;"n.1);:,,::?:
in it." :'#;ilili'J;;'ftri: ;;;;";' ror examp-r e' the' tuture is
But that doesn't mean he's lost confidence in restoring old New
is ;;;;;; T.r the presenJ. Growth.F":" t' *Y:*1?, H:
England structures, making do with the fact that New England ;"#"1"*t,;# L* pollution controls' new fire-
toopoor to generate extensive new building' olicemen
'";;;r,
services Denver were paying' for
of all sorts' If
-
., it *"rr, along, tn" tu""t on each newcomer would be
Ten years ago, when I first got going in this business, we could do a new ns. What would h.;;;;, i" the classic checks-and-bal-
apariment rinit for the eldeiy I u typitul HUD fDepartment-of Housing fasf,ion, would u" trtul'tft.'loo- would slow' becausethe
und U.bu.t Developmentl unit, sii hundred and twenty-five. square I doing business i., ;;";;. would suddenly soar' The last
feet for well ,r.ra".i*".tty-five thousa.td doilut'' Now you can't touch Denvei, or anyplace else in the South and West, wants to
-
it for under thirty-five thousand. slow the bo"m. So Los Angeles, for example, went into
Now, in Central Falls [Rhode Island], we're doing an old mill bujlding to build freeways. In Houstori, the plan was to avoid finan-
proJ-
right on Main Street horr.i.g for the elderly. And it's a beautiful
- there' [ligations by ttot building any new i.""*uy for y-ears.' Buf in
ect because what we're going"to do is have hydroelectric power ases, citizens of the futurie wiil pay the price.In Los Angeles'
When we got going on ttie LJwell job, ue gotieally intereited in alter- at last have caught up with financial realities, ut th:::
'about t::?
native sources of g,r".ybody talks solar' but ibecame due. In nJ"", frouston, the evening rush hour, now
"""tgy- ol
pan oi century'
strrrrury' The
rrrs solar
svrar power
P"""
'1"{
indus#
"-.
oll base, at least Ior
off tnls part
fo. tfri, the
LIrs
' forrr hours long, will continue to lengthen until new trans-
LOtarly embryonic 4L
totally cllluryurrrr LrrrJ point.
at thi; However, there
Pvrrr!' rrvr!v'-^, are two hundreo *'and
'-_-.;^-.:;^*--.,^r--
p?Ill we ion facilities ire built, or the population becomes so out-
England that are appropriate for *ul"t
n^wer.
,"v"niy
SsvcIlLJ >rlss in l\Lw
sites rrr New lrrSrsrr , ,,o,
just aJ the inconvenience of getting around the place that peo-
looKlllB for
out looking
went ouT
went one' We
lul urrs' rvurrq our own developers' A."9 *"tj-.,r.n
YYL found
:
a hltjt"
'--.Aro to leave.
ubor'rt.o-plet""*ith the housing, and we're going to be doing wi"
;:n: ;H:::l":ffi # ;^'''fi";;; ill be
;G;;f; r.L"" r""' i,
he
 J9
NEW ENGLAND
38 The Nine Nations of North America

By contrast, New England sports almost four centuries of

ital expenditures, built-to lasi, as the restoration archit".,.tll" :$$ff',-lri'ililiitii'*:t""'*:ril*"*ri#
plants' ut'd th" onlv
ffir'"o'nput:fi-T"?;'no uj;i'it'"se difrer-
discovering. Blessed with great seographic diversity in a very
."-p".t u!.u - Massachusetts is three and a half hours wide and
forty-five minutes deep - New England's transportation needs are ft H*:il:'ttrH"tilr""ri::,11:;,'til{'#.tih:d'J:r'i
less formidable than, say, those of Texas. And many of the solu- Tffi :rT'H""L"#
tions are in place; public transportation has been a tradition #:'*"#*i*:iTgx,""^\:::f
since well before the automobile was developed. Unlike most of ""#ffi
the West, New England has a wealth of water, and though munic-
ipal sewer systems may be falling into disrepair' at least they al- Hi* 5"*",1":l ;# il,, 1l,ffi rltrd^f ?#}Ti??*
ready exist, which is more than you can say for the new, high-
growth areas. Housing, education, recreation, and cultural facili-
ties are all there right now. our'vsD' o ^""iHlfrt"1i'+$}lidru;l]til#
lffir,iiif,','.ffi
sed ";;"
And almost everything that it was possible for New England to era fiom right here' commercial spin-
c
is already gone. This area
!
post-Sputnik
t'iet' tlchloloey, *til^.::"t:tir":l::t;
jobs, industry, money, power the advances
lose
-
went- through the agonies of decline decades ago. Survival was
of '"
jttll"rit]#i";il;''ili"s Boston' No*' N"* England is a
ter of one of the hotte-sT tt"ut-i"
electronics
hardly a picnic, but what's left is a paid-for asset. -:P:t:lTlltr:i
Thus, even Jim Howell, senior vice-president of the First Na- ;;. ih" bigg"r, employer in the Lowell area nor'r" for
tional Bank of Boston, who readily concedes he prefers the go-go is Wang Laboratone.' tutuk"tt of small
ttTp^L'^:Tr"t
,
word:processing systems, it employs three
thousand' is
business methods of Kansas City to some of the tight economic
is,buyi"g ttp-.17
. ftign-tise irithe heart of Lowell'.andand
circumspection he sees among Yankees, discerns some advan-
warehousing'
tages to New England's position. ;;;;tff;;;;n"
" for manufacturing
X.E. w."g, who got his Ph.D' from Harvard in
"ttlls ry46 in ap-
really saw-his
The difference between us, now, and the Great Lakes is that the Great physics, f,u, b".i in business since 1952, and
Lakes region has got a wage structure that is probably thirty, forty, or t tut. off when he made a major breakthrough in the elec-
fifty percent above ours. Wage structure levels get set by the dominant 'calculator field in 1964. In part of the valley of the M:fi-
industry, and the dominant industry in the Great Lakes has been auto-
- the river that originally powered the mills of Lowell -
mobiles. The dominant industry here has been low-wage industries- big employer is Raytheon.
textiles, apparel, Ieather. So our wage structure right now is highly com- , ut- orr. poirrt, if somebody came to the First National
petitive even with the South, because in the South, wages have risen' pf Boston to ask for money, and he had a government-con-
The difference that may help us is that the decade of the eighties is associated with a high-technology scheme, the loan offi.cers
going to be one of critical labor shortages. Skilled labor' Blue collar' ing orders: No matter how crazy either this person or
Because everybody wanted to be a white-collar worker in the fifties and seemed to be, neither could be turned down without au-
sixties. All you have to do is look in the working-class bars, and the peo- ttion from a senior vice-president.
ple are all old. tnan credited with convincing the appalled banking com-
that such aggressive support of high technology was
Howell points to the considerable tradition in the ethnic corn- to pay off big was Peter Brooke. Now an independent ven-
munities of New England of working with your hands as preci- pitalist, he sees New England's future this way:
sion instruments, .iih". in the 1"*"t.y U"rin"rr, or the texrile
business. is still an area that smart people like to go to. I think it's
$letand
illmate of intellectual ferment.
To me, Boston is the best of the
That's why we're building on a strength. It's unusual to have a policy rn We've got a first-class symphony, first-class art mu-
option thai actually addre*sses a major problem . . that builds on
sorne- and,cities.
the places oiinterest u.".*uil, attainable, well run. For a
thing you're Pretty good at.
 +r
NEW ENGLAND
40 The Nine Nations of North America
certain kind of person, is a nice place to be. You're easily mobile, an4
it
mountains' the seas[e1.-
;;\'; got all these interesting things ' .'but' the
I think it may be mature econ-omically' I think it may be even more
of meaningless pace. [r##"];$.iffi$"1:'i$$3t*;:iffil
v"" a""', find people rushing toward
the
*"-." pfr*r"rophically. It doesn't some goal wrthoyt
have

live
hazard

on
thinking about
less. We're like the British
,ffii{it#t'-:#+:'"t,fr l1:j;**:jt=1*}t#
''l:il'?':*t'tr;:lt:
uJhi"'". We
$ffi *t'"*H"ffix,t*i:"T*ryff
what it is they,ie trying to
in that regard.
^--A;;
ideas.
,fu;t people have a way of lasting. They always generate new ;'ffi u';:";dli{;ffi+,:t'i"."i';f"Tfi #;liie;,}'{i+i
If that is true, Peterborough, New Hampshire' in turn' has dis-
covered that new ideas have a way of making
money' and that
."-" .f New England's underdevelopment can be its greatest
: ffiti*;*;li::.#
j
;:?:Hr +*#g*r*{*'*
l;lll
strength.
--
#.;:"rr- i3't'r!lt *til **,i"f*
F"tZrUorough, near the ski areas of Mount Monadnock, is ach-
fr ffiHJ,m:d:'ru:n;tf*:1";:m":*ql{}$
ingly quaint.lust up the road from the requisite-' perfectly pro- ;;;"; l" " :l=t:i decrarative sentence
po"riio.r"d Congregaiional church, with the delicate' graceful f-t";X3lil:ir:; iaxi driver was asked for directions to a
*hit" spire, is . qult. large, s-tately, red-brick building' complete hsn a Massachusetts
the *ibv museullr' !vrr------ *as "Gee'th*:Ii*;:r,rcrance
hrs ,"rpl"t"
museum, rur to
;ith f;. white pillars it the entrance' labeled American
r"#;#il;"i"r"" is matched onlY bY tl:Ieir reluctance
at all. one man tro*'ii*i"-*n',y^
Headquarters'
-;;;;;"y Club
Guernsey
cows, like all aspects of New England agriculture'
not
;;i.*- Y,"ll1lg-f:::'T3i:i
Js cons idered
New Hampshire' i ii;iii#T.#ffi r,i, coueasu
;+ii;?;l
being the irot it"m1h"y onie were-in southern
theclubrentsout-".t'ofitsbuilding.Anditisherethat,tothe
;er, mi les to't'"i'l"'
forty l -^1:, :::r:*r"1,?:
but barelv
f;i:?t:"i:il"'#fi ;h"h *u''"ott'i"gtiaveling explored un-
scream of circular t.*t.*-t"t'
partitions out of
u'"-building t":-l.i
to expand Conversely,-i*
$antness. i:t:::;
"ttitat"n;;;"porl, mothers pack
natural wood, ..r, ui tft" olligatory diagonal' in-order t$"il1";J,ilft;'i;';h";;;;-
- offices
the of BYte. rs and ask ;u" make it
if they think-,f;t att the.,Y1)ito!1c,1
Bi;, or, to b. -o." precise, -a byte (pronounced like.^Ylat you only pfu."'*iifi u t""t" of space similar
this
Le day. The
in computer babble' the,excut-:{Pl:
do to a hamburgeri i, i-rr"it of iniormation mag-
Virginia, and West Vitgi"i. at le-ast hai
It is also the name of the first, largest, and fastest-growing
Every
tuntain roads with tn"E atop-offs that make automobile
azine directed to the home-computer owner in America' a genuinely ,.uty .*f..i.tt.". rft. one thing equally
frtght:
binding' way a
month, it contains-r;";t *ott ilo"y pages' in perfect Many' out New Engtncl-is its insane drivers' The only
cover' through a proc:s:
with a full-color, gr#hically intriguing, heavy-stock ever finds an-ything in New England is
from the giants the native tries lor several strangled minutes to grve
many of those 250 pages are high-rent advertising
is pushing on the phone and then says: "Oh Lell. Get as far as the
and would-u. giu.rl. Zi *ri, fo"o*irrg fi"1d. circtilation outstrip'
two hundred thousand as of this writing and is regularly Johnsont and call, and t'il come and get you'" It was
ping the ur.rait ,"porir. A second ^uglin"' callJd oncomputing' this process which led me to be following the young em-
has been
aimed at less technical-minded to"'p"1"' dilettantes' from Byre.)
started up so u, t" b.u.["ithe markelzuffv' r'
is expected that ters, it-turned out, lives off a dirt road, in a comfortable'
oiCo*p"ii"g will soon dwarf Byte in circulation' into the whole new, if rather conventional home set among ever-
Publishing eiu'i tut.c.aw-niil h"' #;;*;;;; and tall birches. In it, he had just installed a Vermont
tnililf;nrs s wood stove. He considers both the house and the stove
in
out of the American Guernsev club Headquarters measures.
going to build my own house sooner or later," said the
Peterborough'
- r. - r:r^- n^-l rrolme".. but he
l'd comeio talk to Byte's founding editor' Carl Helmers'
 43
The Nine Nations of North America NEW ENGLAND
42
bearded, mildly rotund bachelor, who, in his early thirties, lqsl$
like the semi-grown-up version of the kid in your high school 116o
always went around with a slide rule dangling from his belt ]
;1,iil',rx,,"ir{it*i*yi$:n:m::ft:Ki"H:i"":i;
Hui ;;;o"nsates
ror other costs'

the one who called it a "slip stick." l;xitll"'f"i:"

This is a temporary measure. I have fifty acres on the other side of Han-
eiswrittenurrllll'.:ii:l::l['.:"ft.:14?I1i]','};:::;
cock. It's a very nice fifty acres, covered with pine. If I w_ere to log it flai,
I probably could pay for it out of the wood va^lue.But I'm not going to
do that. It's where I'ru going to get firewood for the next year. I know
enough people who want free firewood who'll cut it down for me. The rm"*ir-*i*fint*.Hffu#'nfi
main reason for the Vigilant [the wood stove] is not to be noble and save
energy. It's a fine stop-gap in case the power fails. But then I'm going to
get rid of that. I'm hoping to get installqd, before the winter comes, a
ffi"lr'*lF$:ft i"1:l;*q**rti*l*'r*
il'Jl^1,',,';,ihilil;l*:,T;-?:"':i::"fi ::
j:li:
propane-fired five-kilowatt generator for my standby electricity, in which
case I don't really need the Vigilant.
My land has a nice stream flowing across it that, in the driest part of
ff ';fi*fi*"',"mx$;:r'*tffii;Ly";;::;l:[
onlv as far as Boston'
wltn rne Pr'sr P

this year- like two months without significant rain still flowing ,i' ri"lm"rs o.lll:1
t:::l:?:l:"1if:"t:l
i,H"l,o"r, pointed o.ri, "if ,ht gti.ne
- wasmeters
at fifteen kilograms per second, and it flows down fifteen fiLr\ffij'rfi.X], u"od" way camera-
my property. That works out to about fifteen hundred watts, which
across
'#i' :#$: ilfi"ooil:? ;F;:Tlll'i""'t i: """"','"T:;
to be edited in Peterbor-
would charge a lot of batteries. And that's just at leanest flow, and that's fft;:'::;; d;;;;*-t'u"" of t1" *"eu'11; -:lt::t^t":ryltl?-
if I intercept the whole stream. A week ago, when we'd had five inches of A very senior "aito', o""
rain in fifteen days, it was flowing as much as when the snow run-off was fri"'i""r"ilTli;;;;, he is going to go off on the road," Hel-
happening. I said. "He and hit ;if; u;""U'ylttg a tractor-tr"it:.tillil::
be hauling things
That I can roughly estimate at three hundred or four hundred kilo- to have a contract with Mayflori"., and
grams a second, which works out to be about fifty kilowatts. That's a lot md forth. Look at fri*.-g"'t tn top of the world' he's.in his
of power. The technology involved is getting an impulse wheel and put- make the monev he's making lat
ting an automobile alternator on it and running it to some batteries, and
:il;;;;;;tr"-.utt
charge them up and have semiconductor inverters on them. The semi- to
conductors are the same technology as is involved in my computers. The
! it turns out, his wife has always had a burning desire
! tractor-trailer.
whole system will not save money. It's done primarily as a neat thing
to do. he's quitting in January or so. And he has thi.s vilion.3f
riti;,ippi" ih. .ab of the truck while his wife
"i-p",.t-i"
hg. H;b got an i.rrr"ti., io, it to power it off the truck and
Was forming a serious, high-technology-related publishing em-
. He has visions of doing fifty pages a month as a quota
pire in Peterborough also primarily a neat thing to. do? lcopy preparation, *hilh is what he's been doing' Th.e
wif be used for more than just word processing' He'll
You can publish a magazine anywhere. It's an idea industry' I camped in programming ideas in the articles tob. And then he'll
out in Boston [workirig fo, a d.- called Intermetrics, which designs
live a disc [computeimemory device], and I'll print it out on
space-ship brainsl for fJur years, looking for an economic excuse to
computer. I'll show you the computer. Come upstarrs'
in New Hampshire. That was my explicit philosophy when I Ttt,"g..:: are two computers upstairs, as it turns out each about
I
Boston. I had friends who lived in New Hampshire, and I liked it' ius' - is about to
of a generous wastebasket. The computer that
thought it was a neat place to live.
There are a number of advantages right around here' First ".f,^l:!* America is hardly the more fascinating.
;-;;;;;;;;%;ff;;tdil ;; i" the hlrs- sfi
r;; New England oiiital Able/6o attachedlo what appears
;ffi :ffi i.'i "?
;;;;;;'4";6 i"
r""";;;';"i^ JUlrullra Luurrty [r b"rir"'nru
Oe SalO OI L-EcoIOpraItJ
tnrng COUIO u"'
these people anct
varrr"---
LIls errcJ
find,the
and nncr
-:ea11!
ones wn:'j-;na
'""- t, gnd
organ keyboard, two speakers, a television set, and a
that's the real eye-catiher.
have to pick and choose among tnese
will work. But because of the fact that you're the only jobs arounu
 NEw ENGLAND :'
44 Nine Nations of'North America
The
aiso made
The musical keyboard is a Synclavier synthesizer' by
keyboard'
Xew England Oigital' Helmers steps up to
the switche's

i;;"1;? lights-flash, and he tinkles awav at a little Bach' The

computer sorts out rvhat he's doing at
the keyboard' o"a oui
ifrr"itgft the speakers comes a little Bach '
Far out.
lOtt ,-to, you haven't heard the far-out part yet'".
red lights come on,
H#ffiffffiff
Helmers makes some adjustments' different
like an-organ is
uJ,fr" ai,ty he's just played on what sounded
this time sounding as if
con-rputer' but
;;;.t"gn"a o,rttyonthea harpsichord'
iiwer* being played
,;;;-.,
ing"*like piPes.
"or ."
back at us, memorized by the computer, sound-

Now it,s chimes, and with the twist of a dial

it,s been slorved
dt*rnurru***#w
college-educat"o^:: .*;;i","ri'g."t v\'ry \\ cll read'
do*n ro 645lroooths of its original speed' ;in: :ru i"J;;" ;;', "' a,. * :"""'ii,:Hi : : l.liil L ;l : "X';:
L o'"?,

"And if you get tired of that' you can always '" ..,1. *"'d g" ':i in Pror idencc we
what's .ro* .o*irg out of the machine is the beginnirrgs
of an
*il ";; g"l u tlli
pitl A::fi:".|,'iilln'l.:,;;;;;iof coursc it took us
.,i"*"trtt'
instmments' all of which have ro it -- every couple
orchestra. fU" sorrnd! of different used to look fonvarc j,
been given their voice by the computer' blend and pour over each
; i'"oj" "t -'"-'':l*i j,'il,.ij j3;i H Jx m:;"'l :;'Til,l'''il
are short You start ih. rhird fl,or o[ a tcnenrcnt
;
other.
"Here, let me play it back'" - TL.- ;i'r"tli?5-^,*i' ) ::'\:"J: : l'l'lu o "'"i," lu "d'l o'l h e seeo n d
,;;T;:;':,'u",r1".,o- each insrrument isand different.
r-;^L
The high ii":r,
the part that had floor, so now I'm paving t\\enl)-n\-e' .r rht ughtful, and ht'rt. h.' is.
part, which hua U""rt".ulfitp" It now violin' ni.r. d,resn'r in.
been chimes is Piano. _.6.ff.;t,i[.*lli,,',',J,i.1::lillil:, ;;i,,:'i';:';.u'* samt wav' l'm
his art' his tt'it'ng' t"'m thc
What the hell, I saY, what is this? terfere with f,,, On"i'*'^phS
ktd' i';;;;ap\'r ,.oute' I'm a nc'er-
computer to a tele- thirty years.,o',,11'"?"""i1"'""i^
He explains that h'is tt^t step is to rig the from a B'A'
onl-v will'l1,tontt do-weil. I admit it.I don't care' l'm a year ar'vay
vision screen so that when he plays a turie' not
come out of the speakers, but the t""t;;;"; wili automatically
grew- up on Dick-
Paul is from a family of fourteen children who
only ttat' but each- instrument
write the score on tt-t"-r.t"""' Not the screen - eduiated' and
its olt'n color on ens Street. He and five of his brothers"^t" Uttgn"t'
stored in the computer will have with
ttl9led
entire symphonv can enormously talented musically. Th;it:;;tn,,t:
the tuba .tot., -uy*b" p"tpf" - so that an to describe the
playing each instt-tl- phrases like "soothing, low-freq.t"tto rumble"
be r,r,ritten on one score by one person srmply boys to sleep at
sound. the freighi i;;fi; made as ttt"y trtt"a the
ment's part on the keYboard'
"This is definitely not a toy'This is going t<-r y" u.'.'-'l,comrner- night, passing right by the back doo.. e".ttupt because of their
on the sroe' humor unaln"it chronic.inability ttr
cial product. I'm siarting a little company -,' finish
you "u-".ai.lr"n'r" or absurdist
ttut ever been htppy
And let me ,"t it I;ve got this 'straisht -- when cont- lee money as an end in itself , ,tot-t" lf ilt"*
- yo.'. horr."r;;; ii"'-i"a"ili-ononv-wriling ln a conventional job.
building apartment
p"i"t *-rriue fired up by your w.ater wheel? fun?" . R.b B;;;;;;, in his mid-thirties, the man wh<.ne
'-litrr-t't doing .l"ctrot'it mt'si<: in the woods thisis,has left his job as a puppeteer because ol what one ol nrs
brothers J"...lu"r
as "a persorrurity iruJ *i,h ,h" puppets'"
f il'i*,T.fl' : Ri'5? i jil"o"j *
he
yit * *lt:J n rv a s'i
"n
 +7
46 The Nine Nations of North America NEW ENGLAND
Now, he says, "I'm just working. Working in a mill. Weaving _
like chain mail for watch bands. It's just work. Let's no1 1q1tr
about it." - ff: iT:, il;'iff * lT?l'lr" *fi$:+';#Jd*
Nights, he plays guitar in smoky clubs, and rrv he'su good
6vvq cttoug\
en,
to make up to $ roo a gig.
Aime, also in his mid-thirties, with a degree in music, is
working for the city government, counseling the long-term un-
employed. "Lord knows I'rn qualifi.ed for this job." He laughs.
"Experienced. Nobody wanted to hire me because I had a five-
ffigff*#*$ff""*"lii*
,'#H
year gap in my work record." The gap occurred when he ripped
up his back, working as a manual laborer because there were nq
h+il#,#j'$ii*:+*ili:;J*:tfr:f;
England'
jobs for music instructors. #*,0, -'l l|,i-' ll}', Tiil i *1,:X:
Ma s sachus ettf :
;i';;;*'::11-:::u.^f 1
Charlie, in his twenties, has abandoned his paper route to at- f,ff 1ll;ffiffi
.i:",il"'#ilt, l"J "';idering where material
"::",,:llliii
tend the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. nffj"i;li,
Buzz has left for Los Angeles. He'd had it with playing rhythm ii,,ir Jttion intersected' for,
are familiar with his thoughts,
guitar in trashy Woonsocket clubs for $25 a night. No matter l#fi;";i:[""'-s!""
g"gf""ders' theY read'
how many songs he wrote, he figured, that's no way to become a fi"*
star. So now he's delivering papers for the Los Angeles Herald-Ex- life but from the
aminer. But he says that he's about to turn the corner in his mu- ; can be an impartial or wise observer-of human poverty [he agreedl
*" ti-t""fa call voluntary
sical career, and he keeps sending copies of his demonstration fge ground of what well emplov"Ulll:l"l:"1::t:11;
I do not speak to trrose who are
records back east.
:;T :ffiH;;;;;'-;i"v u'" we[-emploved or not;'- but
Buzz's going-away party was held in the tired old Knights of and idly.coTlg:11.:
to the mass of men *no ut" iiscontented'
l

Columbus hall on Japonica Street. The music came from man- rhirjr*.r'"iil;l;, or of the times, when they might improve
high speakers wired to a maze of microphones, amplifiers, gui- ; . .I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy'b:tfl?t'ljll,
tais, and keyboards, accompanied by a thicket of dr-ums, all roverished class of alt, wtro ha"e accumulated dross'
but know
their own golden
bought on time from the Ray Mullins Music Company. The fact tL rr." it, or get rid of it, u"ti thus have forged
thar all their equipment is acquired in a dollar-down, dollar-a- fetters
'er mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call
week fashiott, uttd is rar"ly paid off, amuses the brothers. Off the Love
.*names . . . The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise.
crooked ceiling tiles of the l,ow, dark, crowded room bounced the pleasant' thlillne,
h, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some
Ioud Rolling Stones question: "What can a poor boy do, save to hours, even in u poor-horr.". ihe setting sun is reflected from
^ in a rock and roll band?"
play ows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode;
ih"up, fresh, exquisite-tasting local clams were steamed'
bJ
melts before its door u, in the spring. I do not see but a
dipped in melted butter, and their nutty sweetness chased rl may live as contentedly"uily
there, and have as cheering thoughts'
;ri" r;;;;;, which, ir palace. The town's poo. ,""* to me often to live the most inde-
not'r exactly
!Aq! Michelob:'was at least cold.
rrJ MicheloU:'was I
t lives of any. May be they are simply great enough to receive
Li.t i"gt"tter off ih"i. fing"rs, and keeping an eye,on tl:,l1i
, n
misgiving. tuto.t ihlrrt that they u." uUL*'" being supported.by
not r; but it oftener happens that they are not above supporting
Sox game on the television ,.t orr". the bir, ih" ,"lo.l"ts did
by dishonest *"u.rr, which should be more disreputable' Cul-
talk about a California where there are * l"rr"*"tts demandin8 :ty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much
rnote
expensive heating oil. It wasn't a day of pining for a better ' things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to
middle-class life. The talk was of old schemes and new songs' iles-a" not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your
Said one of the brothers of a plan *itn ,o-t.rt,,,'ut econornic ' God will see tha"t you do nol want society
und
ramifiiations: "We were going to have ,ntt U""i..tf!a-ni"ty
 48 The Nine Nations of North America
409 Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in
410 desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his ."*Oiiu.h
411
412
p".irup, it is because he hears a different dr-ummer. Let him
music which he hears, however measured f;a;;uy-
-' st",-,
"'i' ,xols,
ro the
fr.
Jt
4t3 ".
On a warm summer day, when children ride in 1|re swan_shaps4
414 paddle boats in Boston's Public Garden, and, in the ever .

415 irundreds gather on the Esplanade to hear a free Brr;;'ltffJ

4r6 symphony concert, this New Englander's words echo across
the
417
418
decades. This is also tme next to a salt marsh near Brunswick,
Maine, as a man shows off the house he built himself, cheaplv
THE FOUNDRY
419 and with great beauty, out of planks salvaged from an u".i;;l
420 barn. And, of course, even in the high-decible world of the Japon-
42t ica Street Knights of Columbus Hall, thoughts turn to him.
422 For New England is c-ontinuing to learn his lesson, especially
423 a-s it was stated by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was talkini
424 about his friend Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau wrote the wordi
425 quoted above on the banks of Walden Pond, out beyond what is
y.ou see ' '"
'
426 now Route ru 8.
"He chose," said Emerson, "to be rich, by making his wants
"ilii;;; say can
"Oh-ho
theheftv cranes up on towers c lus-
*iitt v"tto* tips'gethlehem.steel'
427 Amid them' incon-
428 few." ,.;tffi;i; th" -utkittgs of
;;"1;,-;;" nestled t-hJwhite-tipped.black vardarms of a three-
ilastediailing ship, the U'S'S' Constellation'
"By the dawn's earlY light - . '" -
rrom the top of u ilt.'i" the lush park, the eye slowly pans the
horizon. The park is on a sharp poini of land guarding the. harbor'
which surrounds'it on all sides. The view is of brick smokestacks
and white and black water towers. Across the harbor over to the
left, a tall, blocky gray tower with the look of a grain elevator is
actually a storage place for concrete. LEHIGH cEMENr, it says on
the side. e real grain elevator, its tall cylinders bound together
like a monstrous"six-pack, looms in the other direction, dwarfing
the-crab apple trees of port McHenry.
'What so proudly we hailed
Actually, dozeni of cranes spike the horizon, a closer examina-
^.
tron reveals. The Maryland
Shipbuilding and Drydock yard over
!.th: right has its collection, as does ihe lundalk Marine Ter-
lt::I, and many more belong to industries even lifelong resi-
lll}:"'t_teadily identify frim this perspective. The Francis
il?ll K"v Beltway
Bridge, a businesslike crisscross of steel, carries the
;,Ht|:t" over the wid.e water. The smoky black, coal-
ilff .;.J;i,mn::","T"Hn.lii:Hff !,Tl?t?,r$3ii?il;