Monday, March 7

7:30 pm

Via Zoom

On Monday, March 7, at 7:30 pm David Kruh, an entertaining speaker with a wry sense of humor, will be back. Via Zoom, he’ll be speaking about the biggest public works project in American history: The $20-billion Big Dig, in which he was directly involved as a principal public relations spokesman.

Kruh has had an exceptionally interesting and diverse career. With degrees in American history and broadcast engineering, he’s been a freelance lecturer, author, and playwright, with over 60 publications to his credit…broadcast writer-producer-director-engineer- on-air talent…PR spokesman for the Big Dig …programmer and high-tech marketing director.

Mark your calendar and please join us!

Medfield was a center for hat making for over a century, until June 8, 1956. It reached a peak under the ownership of “Col.” Edwin V. Mitchell, who came on the scene about 1877 and retired in 1910. At one point Mitchell’s was the second-largest straw hat factory in the United States, employing upwards of 1,000 people at certain points in the season. The factory was located on North Street at the site of the Montrose School.

After the deaths of Mitchell and his son Granville in 1918, the business went into decline. While that was happening in Medfield, Julius Tofias (1890-1981), a Latvian immigrant, was building a large and successful hat factory in Boston, and he hired some laid-off Medfield employees. Needing space to expand, Tofias bought the 50,000 square-foot Medfield factory in 1928 and relocated his business.

From the 1930s until the mid-1970s about half the cities and towns in Massachusetts required residents to get license plates for their bicycles. According to Jack Murphy of Charlton, the idea was for police or fire departments to conduct an annual safety inspection of each bike and talk bike safety to young riders.

The largely unenforceable law was repealed a few decades ago, though since 1998 the state has required licenses for commercial bike messengers.

Murphy has largely abandoned his space-consuming hobby of collecting older bikes. But he is one of 10-12 serious bicycle license plate collectors in Massachusetts, and he has a Facebook page which attracts readers worldwide. Since he shifted his focus to plates a few years ago, he’s acquired plates from about 130 municipalities – and he’s always looking for more, especially rare ones from small towns that issued few plates.

Murphy says he’s willing to pay for a plate, including a Medfield plate. Anyone interested is invited to email a photo of the plate to him or give him a call at 508-380-2498.

The Frary Family Associati0n is one of at least three Medfield-related family associations, the others being Morse and Babson. The family has a biennial gathering in Deerfield, and preparations are underway for the one in July 2022. Attached is a photo of some of the participants from 2018.

John Frairy was a shoemaker by trade, as well as a farmer. As if he and the other 12 original Medfield settlers didn’t already have their hands full with their own families – they also laid out the town’s streets, apportioned land, helped with clearing land and putting up houses and other buildings, and created a municipal government.

Frairy lived on the street that now bears his name. He served as a selectman in 1651, 1653, 1654, and 1661. He died in 1675 a few months before the town was burned in King Philip’s War. His son Samson and his wife Mary became the first white settlers settled in Deerfield not long afterwards, and as Tilden writes, “they were slain by Indians in 1704.”

Frairy’s descendants all spell their name without the “i.” There are many famous and accomplished members of the extended Frary family: the Bush family; Nelson Rockefeller and Levi P. Morton, U.S. vice presidents; Kate Upton, actress and model; George Eastman, Kodak founder; Frederick Upton, founder of Whirlpool.

Every February 14, across the United States and in many places around the world, loved ones exchange candy, flowers and gifts, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint, and where did our present-day traditions come from?

The history of Valentine's Day—and the story of its patron saint—is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? The legends are numerous.

The most commonly accepted story begins in Rome, during the third century, at a time when persecution of Christians was running rampant. Emperor Claudius II declared young men could not marry because single men made better soldiers.

A priest named Valentine thought this was unfair and married young lovers in secret. This did not go unnoticed by Claudius, who ordered the priest to be imprisoned and executed. While in prison, Valentine helped his jailer’s daughter with her sickness. Before his execution, he sent her a note signed “From your Valentine,” an expression still in use today. It is said his sentence was carried out on February 14, 270 AD. Father Valentine, the friend of sweethearts, became a martyr to love and the sanctity of marriage.

Another legend is that Valentine, whose ministry was to help Christians escape persecution, was killed for helping Christians escape from Roman prisons. To "remind them of God's love and to encourage them to remain faithful Christians," Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment, giving them to soldiers and persecuted Christians, a possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on Saint Valentine's Day.

Continuing from last month, here’s some nostalgia for some of the great fads from the 1950s and 60s. Clothes, hairstyles, toys, and television shows all have their fifteen minutes of fame.

The faddish 1960s turned out to be very productive years for the clothing and fashion industry.

At Medfield High School in the early to mid-60s, madras shirts, white Levis, corduroy slacks, penny loafers, and for every occasion, white socks. Madras shirts were imported from India. The colors were bright red, orange, yellow, and light blue, all combined beautifully in a pattern equal to the pallet of a skilled painter. Students shopped at Swenson’s in Walpole or at Jordan Marsh at Shoppers’ World in Framingham, and at other local stores for madras, white Levis, and corduroy slacks.

 Many people in Medfield remember the drive-in theaters that were a smash hit with families and with young couples out on a date. Finds a space, hang the sound box from the window, and enjoy. The snack bars at the drive-ins had a wide variety of food, candy, popcorn, soda, coffee, and hot cocoa. What was not to love? (Maybe the mosquitoes and the dim pictures?)

In the 1950s there were some 5,000 drive-ins across the country in that pre-home theater decade. Fewer than 500 remain. There are only five in Massachusetts: Wellfleet, Mendon, Leicester, Northfield, and West Springfield.

Photo by Anthony Duran on Unsplash